CatB: Hey, I'm sorry I haven't posted in forever, it's just that this past year I started at a school with an EXTREMELY intense writing program, and I can barely meet the deadlines there, much less write on the side, for pleasure and whatnot. I will try as hard as I can to update, though, and finish my stories instead of leaving people hanging. I really will. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter. I don't. End of story.

Katie Bell was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, trying to do her homework. The reason she couldn't concentrate was sitting on the opposite side of the room, studying a diagram of the Quidditch pitch. Katie had harbored feelings for her captain for a few months now, but she knew it was hopeless. The boy was always thinking about Quidditch…That was how they had met, too; when she had made the team, he was, of course, already on it. She remembered the times when he told her to hold her head high whenever other kids teased her and the rest of the team.

At one point, while she was taking a break (which essentially meant she stopped working to stare at Oliver), the boy in question happened to look up and find her staring at him. She blushed and looked back at her history work quickly, trying to look interested in it even though she didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do. She debated asking Oliver, but ultimately decided not to, considering she would probably make an idiot of herself and never be able to talk to him again. With her luck, that's exactly what would happen. She would have to settle with just looking at him.


The next day, Katie walked to class with a group of her girlfriends, as usual. She stopped suddenly when she saw Oliver, and the whole group halted, too.

"You guys go ahead," she said, trying not to let her voice quiver or sound anything other than normal. They obliged while Katie lingered, watching her crush, who had paused to talk to another girl in his year. He was smiling and laughing with the girl, who was very pretty, and, Katie couldn't help but notice, all over him. She couldn't stop grinning and smacking his arm and, before she turned to walk away, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Katie turned away, too, blood boiling, running into a short, brown-haired boy who was obviously in a hurry to get to class, in turn causing her to drop her bag.

"Shit," she said quietly, bending down to pick up her books, swinging her hair in front of her face in the hope that Oliver wouldn't see her, even though she knew he had.

Sure enough, she heard his voice ask, "Need any help down there?"

She looked up, her cheeks red. "Um, sure, that would be great, thanks."

He smiled. "Of course. No problem." He walked with her to the door of the dungeon after she informed him that she had Potions. Her new, klutzy state did not improve throughout the course of the day, becoming especially bad, she noted, when she thought about Oliver and that girl and their gag-worthy conversation. She swore loudly when she realized she had practice that evening, cursing her horrible memory for not reminding her sooner.


Practice came quickly; a little too quickly for Katie's liking. After dinner, she trudged down to the pitch, trying her hardest not to think about a certain captain and stupid girl hitting it off. It just pissed her off so much that Oliver, her Oliver, she liked to think, had proved to be just as dumb as every other boy she knew by going for one of those vapid, flirty types. Suddenly infuriated, she stomped her way into the changed rooms, where she changed at an extremely slow pace, slowly enough that, though she had arrived early, she walked onto the pitch, broom in hand, just as Oliver signaled the start of practice.

Needless to say, Katie's performance at practice was nowhere near as stellar as is usually was. She was so flustered that she actually dropped the Quaffle, several times, something no one could remember her doing even once. After Oliver declared practice over, she landed hastily, eyes watering.

Again she changed at a snail's pace, waiting for the rest of the team to leave, so she could be alone. It hadn't been more than a minute since Angelina had left, however, when she heard a knock on the door.

"I know you're in there, Katie. Are you, um, decent?" Oliver's voice asked.

She stifled a groan and replied that she was. He walked into the room, letting the door fall shut behind him, still looking cautious.

"Hey," he said softly, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Katie said hotly, cursing the tears that returned to her eyes. She should have known she would be having this conversation with him. "It's just…" He struggled for the right words. "You, um, weren't exactly in, uh, top form today…"

"Really," she insisted, wanting this one-on-one interrogation to end, "I'm fine."

He put a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. "Look, uh, if you ever need to, you know, talk to someone…" He trailed off again, his eyes locked on hers. "Um, I'm here," he finished lamely.

She shrugged his hand off. " Oliver, I'm sorry, but that sounded like something out of a cheesy movie. You should really just focus on your duties as Captain, because, no offense or anything, but you're actually good at that."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm really bad at comforting people." He laughed uncomfortably, shoving his hands in the pockets of his robes. Katie wondered why he couldn't let himself go with her when he obviously could with that other girl, then pushed the thought from her head.

"Well, don't worry about me," she said cheerfully, "It's just been a bad day. You know how it is," she added, hoping that he did indeed know "how it was."

"Um, okay, Katie, you sure?" he said.

"Yeah, although I'm not really sure why you care in the first place," she said, unable to believe her thoughts had slipped into her sentence.

"You don't-" Oliver looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you don't seem to care about anything besides Quidditch." Katie was mortified. "I mean," she tried to explain again, "the Oliver I know-"

"Cares about a lot more than just Quidditch, Katie!" His face was red as he looked at her incredulously. "Do you honestly think that's all there is to me?"

Katie was red by this time, too. "No!" she cried. " I just meant that, you know, you're always preoccupied with Quidditch stuff, so-"

"So what? I can't care about other things too? Like, I don't know, girls, or something?" he shouted, apparently not caring if he was heard.

"Well, yeah, you did seem to be having a lot of fun with that girl this morning," Katie snapped, picturing again the scene she had witnessed earlier.

He looked bewildered again. "What girl?"

"Um, the girl I saw you with while I was on my way to Potions," she said as if he was slow. She was sure he knew exactly who she was talking about. "You know, you helped me pick up my bag after talking to her."

Oliver laughed again, genuinely this time. "Katie," he said gently, "That was just Maud."

She narrowed her eyes. "Just Maud?" she echoed suspiciously. "What do you mean, just Maud?"

"I mean, we're just friends. We're helping each other study for our N.E.W.T.S." Oliver said patiently.

"Oh," Katie said faintly, looking at her feet. "So, you're not-"

"Dating her?" Oliver shook his head. "She's nice and all, but I've kind of got my eye on someone else."

"You do? Really?" Katie asked. "Who?"

It was his turn to redden. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?" she demanded, unable though she was to believe that she was talking about this, and with Oliver Wood, of all people. "Do I know them?"

He nodded, avoiding her eyes. "Oooh, I think I know," she said, enjoying the look of panic he shot her. "Is it Angelina?"

He looked relieved. "No, although I admit I used to kind of like her. She's pretty and plays a mean game of Quidditch, but it soon became apparent she didn't like me that way." He shrugged, still not looking at her.

"Well, I guess it could be Alicia, but somehow I doubt it."

"Why do I have to do all the talking, anyway?" he said suddenly. "What about you, missy? You got someone special?"

Katie shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe," she said, but her tiny smirk was not lost on Oliver.

"Okay, come on, tell me." He nudged her playfully.

"It's none of your business," she said, grinning.

"Well, now you can't say I only care about Quidditch," he pointed out. "Anyway, at least tell me if I know him. Fair's fair."

"True," she sighed. "Okay, yes, you know him." A lot better than he thought.

"Aha!" he said, a wicked gleam in his eye, "Is it one of the Weasley twins?"

Katie giggled. "No, it is not, though to be fair, they are both extremely funny and absolutely adorable."

Oliver shuddered. "It is so weird when girls call guys 'adorable'."

"It is just as weird when guys call girls 'hot', you know," she said.

"Well, that's just unfortunate then, because the girl I like is pretty hot," Oliver teased. "And I plan to tell her so. I mean, if we ever go out," he amended quickly.

Jealousy clawed at Katie's heart. She needed to end this conversation, fast, before she did or said something reckless. "That's nice," she said casually. "I hope, um, things work out between you two."

Oliver's eyes searched hers, almost desperately, but he was still able to flash her a smile that made her heart pound. "I hope so, too."

Katie looked away, tongue-tied, yet somehow managed to mutter an excuse about unfinished homework she had to complete. She walked out of the room briskly without looking back and didn't stop to talk to anyone until she had reached the Gryffindor common room.


"Wow," Angelina Johnson said. "You've liked him all this time?" This was her response to Katie's changing room story and confession about liking their captain, which she had felt compelled to mention. Otherwise, she just didn't think the story would make all that much sense. "Not that I blame you," the older girl, now in her final year at Hogwarts, continued, " because he's totally hot. And of course, completely dedicated to Quidditch. In addition, he's smart, and-"

"Okay, Angie, I know all that," Katie said, laughing. "That, in essence, is why I like him."

"This mystery girl he likes," Angelina said thoughtfully, " He didn't give any clues as to her identity?"

"That's the whole point, Angie, he wouldn't tell me. He was way too embarrassed, because, apparently, I know her."

"Well, that narrows it down a bit, doesn't it?" Angelina rolled her eyes.

"I know," Katie said, sighing. "It could be almost anyone."

"If only you knew what year she's in," said Angelina. "That would definitely help."

"Right," said Katie. "Now, how do I get that information out of him?"

Angelina smiled. "I think I have an idea." She leaned over and whispered in Katie's ear. When she finished, Katie stared at her in shock.

"Angie! I'm not doing that!" she cried.

"Not doing what?" Fred Weasley had wandered over.

"Yeah, what aren't you doing, Katie?" his twin wanted to know.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"I don't believe her, George," Fred said. "Do you?"

"No, I don't. Just like I can't believe she called us, what was it again, Fred?"

"Hmmm, I believe the words were 'absolutely adorable.'" Fred nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I can't believe Oliver told you that!" Katie shrieked.

"Well, you better believe it." George grinned.

"'Cause he did," Fred added unnecessarily.

Angelina shook her head, but she, too, was smiling. "Personally, Katie, I think it's cute that he relayed your, erm, compliment to them."

"Oh, that's not all he told us." Fred waggled his eyebrows in a most suggestive manner.

"Yeah, he told us the whole thing," George put in.

"The whole-" Katie began.

"Your cozy little changing room conversation," Fred elaborated.

"Which lead us to believe that, while you evidently pine for us-"

"From afar-" Fred jumped in.

"-You and Oliver are meant to be," George finished. There was silence for a moment, then Katie burst out laughing. She had to-the twins could be absolutely hysterical sometimes.

Fred pasted a look of mock hurt on his face. "What, no, 'Fred, George, thank you so much for your generosity'?" He said this in a high-pitched voice that Katie assumed was supposed to be hers.

"Yeah, we're being quite generous, bestowing our approval upon the two of you," George pouted.

Katie shook her head. "Thanks, guys, but I'm not planning to go out with Oliver. I mean, you both heard our conversation-we don't even like each other."

"Hey, it's possible, 'cause neither of you mentioned names," Fred pointed out.

"That is so true," Angelina agreed, smirking slightly.

"Angie, you're supposed to be on my side!" Katie cried. ""You're supposed to say, 'Oh, Katie, you're right, that's so not going to happen.'"

"Oh, am I?" Angelina widened her eyes in an attempt to look innocent.

Katie glared at her. "Yes!"

"Hey, Katie, can you go over there for a second, please?" Angelina smiled sweetly and pointed to an empty corner of the common room. Katie looked at her warily. That was certainly an odd request.

"Can you just go, please?" Angelina sighed as though Katie was giving her a headache.

"Fine." She clomped over to the designated corner, and plopped onto a chair, crossing her arms as she did so. She realized how foolish and immature that had probably looked but it didn't matter because Oliver was nowhere to be seen. She watched Angelina say something and gesture towards her, then punch George in the arm with a smile. She then motioned for Katie to come back over. She was still beaming, which was starting to freak Katie out.

She groaned. "Oh, Angie, what did you do?"

"Nothing," Angelina replied breezily, waving her hands around, obviously trying to make it seem unimportant. "Just told them the plan."

"What plan?" Katie was getting a little frustrated now. "Could you be a bit more specific?"

"The plan, you know, the one I whispered to you before the boys walked up."

Katie gasped. "Angie, I already told you, I'm not-"

"And why not?" Angelina put her hands on her hips and made an impatient noise. "Katie, you need to make him jealous!"

"Like there's anything for him to be jealous of," Katie scoffed. "He doesn't like me, remember?"

"Like you should let that stop you." Angie countered, then raised an eyebrow. "Or will you?"

"Katie," George interrupted, "it doesn't have to be a big deal. Just go on a few dates with me, okay?"

"Why are you two agreeing with her? This is so wrong!" Katie wanted to shout, but instead kept her voice to a low hiss.

"It's not wrong," Angelina whispered, "to play the field a little, you know? Maybe you'll forget about Oliver this way. Besides, you like the twins, don't you?"

"Of course she does," Fred and George said in unison.

"Yeah," Katie said slowly. She realized she might be more comfortable around Oliver if she had a boyfriend, and she definitely didn't want a repeat of that day's practice. "Okay, all right, I'll do it."

"So, do you wanna go to Hogsmeade together this Saturday?" George asked.

Angelina clapped. "That's perfect!"

"I'll be there, too, of course," Fred informed Katie with a huge wink.

"Um, sure."

CatB: Review? :)