Disclaimer: I own nothing that is the Harry Potter canon. J.K. Rowling is an excellent woman to give myself the characters to play with, and will return when done. I only own the plot, and nothing else.
It was an intense game, one of the most jaw dropping, on the edge of your seat spectacles that Hogwarts Academy had seen. This match up was between that of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. When taking their seats, many of the spectators expected an instant victory for the lions. But the Hufflepuff team, lead with their Captain & Seeker Cedric Diggory had other plans for this game.
Diggory worked and trained his team relentlessly for this day. For the rigorous training he had planned for his team, many of them thought they had been playing for that of Captain and Keeper of Gryffindor, Oliver Wood. He was notorious for working his players to the brink of exhaustion, wanting nothing more than the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup before he graduated. Apparently, Diggory took a page from Wood's book, reaching for the cup just as much.
The score was tied 140-140. The Seekers of each team, Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory were relentlessly soaring through the air, trying to catch the Golden Snitch that had been eluding their grasps for the entire match. Those watching in the stands numerously had to duck or jump to another section of the stands due to how close the Seekers were to striking one of them. As frustrating as this was for the crowd, all knew it was a brutal game, even for the viewers.
Both teams were becoming extremely tired; they had been playing for three hours. Neither expecting this sort of game that they had read about in Quidditch Through the Ages. Wood thinking of this game landing a spot in the next edition of the book sent excitement throughout him, but he wanted more so for the exert of the game to mention the Gryffindor victory with Mr. Oliver Wood as Captain of the team. He was kicking himself for letting the Quaffle go through so many times, but he was relying on his Seeker to end it at this point. He knew his team was exhausted, and hoped Potter could pull off another victory for the team.
He was ever vigilant watching the Chasers of each team handle the Quaffle, and with it on the other side of the pitch, Wood looked to where the two Seekers were flying, and before he could move, the Chaser of the opposing team flew straight into him, as the Golden Snitch whizzed by.
Both boys went hurdling towards the ground of the pitch. Wood and Diggory were tangled as they fell, but luckily right before they landed upon the ground, Wood grabbed his wand and used Wingardium Leviosa to levitate both the boys safely to the ground. Even though their speed slowed, neither one moved from their questionable embrace, Cedric's arms wrapped Wood's waist and head ducked under Wood's neck, while Wood had one arm protectively around Cedric's shoulders and their legs were entwined.
When they landed safely, they laid on the grass, catching their breath and coming down from the shock of falling. Wood looked down to the boy still grasping him, and felt his breath wouldn't calm down. He felt his skin tingle where Diggory's fingers had come across under his robes, and felt the sudden urge to run his fingers through his hair to calm him as well. Though this seemed to last for an eternity, it had only been 30 seconds since their fall. Eventually Cedric looked up to Oliver, still panting, and eventually broke a genuine smile, gazing into the boy's eyes. "Thanks Wood, and I'm sorry for knocking you down. You know, going for the Snitch and all." Wood gazed back into Diggory's grey eyes, melting a bit and unable to speak for a moment. Finally he registered he needed to speak instead of staring at the boy on top of him, "You're welcome Diggory, no worries mate."
They both got up and began to move to find their brooms, but they heard a roar from the crowd. Both looked up to see Harry flying around the pitch thrusting his fist victoriously in the air. A wide grin spread across Wood's face, "Of course Potter came through, I should really thank Diggory for not knowing his surroundings." He looked over to Cedric and saw his frown, and his shoulders slump while he began to walk off towards his broom. For the first time in Wood's career, he actually felt bad for his team's victory. He noticed the improvement of the Hufflepuff team and their strategies, he could only imagine it had a lot to do with their Captain.
He caught up with the boy and grabbed his shoulder. Diggory turned around to face him. "Hey…don't beat yourself up Diggory, you obviously have done an excellent job training your team. This was an incredible match and you should be proud of yourself." "Thanks Wood, I appreciate it, but I let my team down, but I need to go and talk to them, see ya around." Cedric replied quietly and politely. He took a moment to give Oliver a slight smirk, and turned away, Oliver's hand falling away from his shoulder.
Oliver watched Cedric sulk away, and walked towards his broom to join his team. They walked towards the locker room, all-talking excitedly from their win. Oliver took the team by the benches of the locker room to congratulate them on their win, and to touch base on what they would need to work on next practice and for the next match against Slytherin. He dismissed all except for Harry, to give him a pat on the back for a job well down, earning another victory for their house. "Well, it didn't look too promising. Thankfully for me Diggory took due course straight into you; hope it didn't rough you up too bad. Thanks for taking the blow!" Harry responded to Oliver's praise.
Oliver chuckled softly, but still felt sore not for his collision with Cedric, but how horrible he felt after watching Cedric's glum look. Oliver had been there before, feeling absolutely guilty for letting his team down. He decided he would talk to Cedric the next time he saw him about it. But now was time to hit the showers, he was still extremely worn out from the game. He walked towards his locker, grabbed his essentials, and headed towards the showers. By the time he made his way in, there were only a couple of figures in, but seemed to be wrapping up. Oliver walked up to a showerhead, tapped the showerhead with his wand, and felt the warm water hit his skin.