A/N: Hello my fellow witches and wizards. I hope you enjoy your stay! Also, a special thanks to Maria for rectifying my countless mistakes!

Oliver Wood was one of the few students who loved going back to school after the holidays. He loved coming back for the feasts, his friends and, most importantly, Quidditch - the most beautiful game in the world. He was appointed the captain of Gryffindor quidditch team last year, and it was one of the happiest moments of his life.

This year, however, Wood didn't want to come back. He didn't want to ravish the feasts, didn't want to hangout with his friends, didn't want to do anything. Because this year, in fact today, he was going to say goodbye to his one and only love.

"Please take my resignation professor." Wood said with determined eyes.

"But what's wrong Wood, where is this coming from? Don't you still want to win the Quidditch trophy with Gryffindor?" McGonagall panned.

"I do professor, believe me. But myO.W.L.s didn't go very well and my dad wants me to devote all my focus on studies now, for N.E.W.T.s," he explained.

McGonagall knew Wood wanted to win the Cup as much as she did, perhaps even more, but his parents had a point. Wood usually concentrated all of his energy on Quidditch which made his studies suffer. She had to come up with a solution, she couldn't just let her captain quit. She had to think of something that would both let Wood play and devote some energy towards studies.

And then the brilliant notion struck.

"Wood, will you please go and fetch Ms. Sharma for me? And please be back as soon as you can!" She exclaimed, with a weird sort of twinkle in her eye.

It didn't take a long time for Wood to put the two and two together.

"Professor is there really nobody else? Does it have to be her? It's just that... we don't really see eye to eye." Wood pleaded, but deep down he knew the answer.

"Do you really want me to answer that Wood?"

Samridhi Sharma was a transfer student in Wood's class, who had joined Hogwarts last year from Nalanda School of Sorcery in India and in a short period of time she had become the top student here at Hogwarts and Oliver Wood's arch enemy.

...

It all started one afternoon when Wood was telling off Alicia Spinnet for being late at the practice.

"But Oliver, Snape held me off-"

"I don't want to hear excuses, you could've told him you were getting late for quidditch practice."

"Then he would've held me back ev-"

"Look you came late, just apologize and mo-"

"Hey! She has nothing to apologize for Wood. She told you it was Snape's fault." The new girl, who was standing by the pitch spoke up.

"This doesn't concern you Sharma." Wood dismissed, without even looking at her.

"It concerns me when you're treating a team member unfairly and imposing your authority just for the sake of getting the last word!" she snapped.

Everyone was now looking at her. No one ever spoke Wood like that, especially not criticising his captaincy. All the students knew how passionate and devoted Wood was regarding Quidditch and his captaincy, it was almost all that he cared about at school frankly.

Wood finally faced her defiant dark eyes, his own blue ones mimicking the same expression.

"I'm sorry, do you have a problem?"

"Yes, I do in fact have a problem. I don't like you belittling my friend for something that wasn't her fault. At least let her finish her damn sentences!" she roared.

"I told you it's none of your business. You've barely been here for three months and you're acting like you know everything. Just go to the library, or somewhere you actually have a clue what you're talking about."

"I'll go to the library when you take that stick out of your ass." She sassed.

But before it could turn uglier, Fred brought to everyone's notice that McGonagall was now watching them from the stands. The fight was dissolved for now, but it led to the start of a very long war between the Gryffindor's Quidditch captain and the smartest girl in the year.

...

Oliver reached the Gryffindor common room in about 15 minutes, taking his time, gathering his thoughts on how he was going to talk to the girl whom he had not spoken to for almost a year. Should he say hi? Should he just deliver the message? Should he just go back to McGonagall's office and make an excuse that he couldn't find her? Hmm… option three was looking really good right now.

"Wattlebird," he muttered the password.

There she was, with that git Percy Weasley in all her holier than thou glory. Both of them were probably discussing something from that day's paper, judging by the looks of it.

"I don't know Percy, this Rita Skeeter lady, I just can't seem to trust her."

"But she's one of the most celebrated journalists of the Prophet!" Percy defended.

Oliver walked up to them and hesitantly spoke,"Yeah I think I agree with Sharma on this one. Her article about Viktor Krum last weak was full of mistakes. Wonky Faint she called it!"

Sharma's face was a mixture of shock, confusion and a little bit of intrigue whereas Percy had annoyance written all over his.

"Sharma, McGonagall wants to see you in her office."

"Oh, alright…umm..thanks for informing me Wood. See you later Percy." She waved and set out for the door.

Wood followed behind her.

"It's alright Wood, I know where her office is."

"Oh no, she wants to see me as well."

Samridhi narrowed her eyes. Why would Professor McGonagall want to see both of them together?

Nobody spoke as they went down the stairs. It was awkward, to say the least. Two students of the same year, same house, both walking in the same direction, step by step without even looking at each other, like soldiers marching (but with a much worse posture).

"Good, you two are here! Please take a seat, both of you, I just have to finish writing these letters to Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter's families."

Everyone had heard about what happened with the two second years. Weasley had flown his father's enchanted car to Hogwarts since they'd missed their train, and they were spotted by muggles, to add even more trouble, they had crashed into Whomping Willow.

McGonagall finally finished her letter after a few minutes and then spoke,"Ms. Sharma, I know you're new to our school but I'm sure you must know by now that Wood here is the captain of our Quidditch team." Sharma nodded as McGonagall continued,"So he has to spend a lot of time developing techniques and formations which leaves little time for his studies. Now, since you'll be giving N.E.W.T.s next year, Wood wants to resign to focus more on his studies."

Sharma was astounded. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of Wood, she knew how much Quidditch meant to him. That's all he talked about from what she'd heard. She turned towards him in shock but Wood didn't even flinch, he really had made up his mind.

"Now, I want to convince Wood to stay and for that I require your help. Would you tutor him so that his grades improve and he continues to play Quidditch?" McGonagall asked, with no hint of request in her voice.

All colour drained from Samridhi's face. Tutor Wood? For whole two years? Until the N.E.W.T.s? Tutor the insufferable git whom she had a beef with? Which involved devoting time each day in exclusive company of each other? She'd rather battle a dragon thank you very much.

"Professor, I personally think that Percy would be a better fit for Wood. You see Wood and I aren't particularly fond of each other." Samridhi replied.

"Oh no, you're on the top of the class and you excel in every subject that Wood has. Weasley, besides being a prefect, hasn't got two of the subjects that Wood is particularly weak in. Charms and Arithmancy. You'd be the perfect fit. And coming to your second point, Wood has already mentioned that. But I think both of you are mature enough to put aside your differences for the sake of Gryffindor and your personal interests as well. Or is it no longer your ambition to teach one day Ms. Sharma? It'll be really beneficial for you too."

Wood was looking at Sharma from the corner of his eye. She seemed to be considering McGonagall's proposal. He wondered if she'd reject it because of what happened between them in the past, then he'd have to quit. He was sure his parents would be convinced if they knew that McGonagall had personally assigned him a tutor, who was at the top of the class and not bother him about playing Quidditch anymore.

"Alright, I'll do it Professor. But I have couple of terms I'd like Wood to accept first."

...

A/N: A few things I'd like all of you to know:

a) Samridhi Sharma is Indian, so you'll hardly ever see her using common phrases that Britishers use although she might have picked up a few words in the past year (see 'git').

b) Nalanda School of Sorcery is more commonly known as Nalanda University by the Muggles. It was founded by the great philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature by the Muggle community (it's sort of a muggle equivalent of an Order of Merlin First Class)

c) There may not be enough British/Scottish lingo in this story, simply because whenever I hear them talk, I forget to make notes because of the beautiful accents they have.

And last, as the Muggles say, 'Please Rate and Review!'