Disclaimer: I don't own the characters created by the great wonderful sometimes sarcastic Joanne K. Rowling. You know which characters those are, and if you don't you really need to read the books before getting into the fanfic world of Harry Potter. A lot of the plot idea also came from the book 'The Devil's Arithmetic', another great read.
Chapter 1- The Assignment
"Mr. Wood, this is simply unacceptable," Professor McGonagall, a stern looking woman and head of Oliver's house, said.
"I did the assignment," Oliver pointed out as McGonagall handed him the paper that Professor Kilburn (the Muggle studies teacher) had shown her.
"You didn't do the assignment, Mr. Wood. You turned in this nonsense. Completely unprepared and if you can't get a better grade when you redo this, you'll have to forgo the last match of this season," Professor McGonagall said, having spent a good hour talking Kilburn in allowing Oliver to repeat the assignment instead of failing him in the class. McGonagall knew that without Oliver they were doomed to failure in getting the Quidditch cup again, not that they had much of a chance anyway. They had to win by at least sixty points this year, and the slight hope of that happening would slip away with no Keeper and not even two weeks to train another one.
"You can't do that Professor," Oliver pleaded. "A scout from Pudlemere is coming and he wanted to see me in action!"
"I'm sorry Oliver, but those are the school's rules, and Professor Kilburn is being kind enough to allow you to redo the assignment. I suggest you do actual research this time," she said, handing a pile of books over to Oliver.
"But I have to run practice tonight."
"If you don't do this, there will be nothing to practice for."
Oliver was getting upset, and didn't want to make McGonagall angry, knowing he had been wanting to ask her to get extra time on the field for the team, said, "when does he want it by?"
"Friday," McGonagall stated, turning back to the papers on her desk. It was Wednesday, so that gave him only two days. Oliver was about to open his mouth when McGonagall read his mind, "no there will not be an extension. Have it complete, or don't play."
"Yes Professor," Oliver said, before turning around sulkily and leaving McGonagall's office. He walked down the hallway muttering about how unfair some teachers could be, while trying to balance the pile of books in his arms. Not paying attention, he knocked into a young Hufflepuff girl with red hair. They both fell, and all the books scattered around him. She hadn't been holding anything large, but her glitter of sorts was spread all over the place. "Hey! Watch it!"
"Sorry," the girl said kindly, helping Oliver gather his things.
"It's all right I guess, what's with all this?" Oliver asked, referring to the glitter.
"It was my wish powder," she said, a little disappointed. This girl looked no older than a third year.
"Don't worry, it was probably just a hoax," he said, now feeling a bit sorry that he had snapped at the girl.
The girl shrugged, "I suppose," she said and wandered off.
Oliver made the final distance to the common room and provided the Fat Lady with the password (flibbertigibbet) and walked through the entrance and set his pile of books on the table closest to him. "What you get yelled at for this time?" Katie said, jokingly.
"I can't play at the game unless this gets done," he said. Katie and Alicia, who had been giggling over some pictures in a magazine stopped, jaws dropped, and looked at Oliver incredulously.
"You're joking," Alicia said.
"I wish," Oliver said, extracting a quill from his book bag. "I have to get a good grade on this or McGonagall won't let me play. Oh yeah, and practice is cancelled tonight," he added bitterly.
"Okay, well can we do anything to help?" Katie asked.
"Just keep everyone from bothering me," he said.
"All right," Katie said, and the girls held to their word. They informed the rest of the team, that hadn't overheard Oliver already, that practice was cancelled until further notice and made sure everyone stayed clear of the table the entire evening. Night was coming on quickly, but there was no rest for the weary, so Oliver would put it.
Around 9:30 people were just starting to go up to their rooms, but Angelina came to Oliver's table, where there were about six books strewn across the table, open to various incoherent pages. Angelina handed him a cup of tea and sat next to him. "How are things going?" she asked politely.
"Not good, you don't happen to know anything about the Underground Railroad in America do you?"
"No," Angelina said, after trying to rack her brain for any amount of information she knew. "What is this assignment anyway?"
"Muggle studies," he stated as if that answered everything. "Professor Kilburn wanted us to research a historical event of Muggle society in another country. I thought the Underground Railroad would be easy enough. I rode on the one in London once."
"It's not the same thing, though, is it?" Angelina said, catching onto the frustration.
"No," Oliver said. "I just wish there was an easier way to figure it all out, you know? All I'm finding is about people that helped with it, but I don't think I really understand what it is. I read something in one of these about how they didn't keep records incase anyone found them, but why would they be worried about that?"
"Did you think of trying to read any of them from the beginning?" Angelina pointed out, seeing that most of them were open to random pages in the middle.
"No," Oliver admitted lamely. "I just needed the gist of it, but this isn't helping."
"How about this, I'll kick those second years off the couch in front of the fireplace and you start from page one in just one of these books, and you can go from there," she suggested zealously.
Oliver sighed and looked at the many books he had to choose from. "Thanks," he said distracted in the latest task. He picked up one of the books, the one with a faded red cover, and flipped through it, deciding that wasn't the one he wanted. He put it down deciding it wasn't the right one, and picked up a thicker looking one with stiff new pages. As he picked that one up, however, he noticed something in the blue covered book just below it. The pages had become yellow with age, and there were tears in the fabric of the cover. That wasn't what had caught his attention, however. It was the picture on the page that had his eyes glued to the page.
Oliver Sutton (1841-1859)
Conductor in South Carolina; caught in the act and put on trial.
He read on about this young man, who died at the same age that Oliver was now. He had come from Scotland, and had a brooding look about him. His parents had died when he was fifteen and he left to live with an Uncle in South Carolina, in the Americas. After the journey he had found that his Uncle had passed away before his arrival and left him everything.
What shocked Oliver (Wood that is) the most was how much this young man looked like him. It was almost like looking in a mirror. "Hey look at this Angelina," he said.
Angelina had just shooed off the occupants of the couch, but turned to see what Oliver wanted to show her. "Wicked, he looks just like you. Has your name too," she said.
"Weird though, isn't it," Oliver said.
"Yeah, maybe a bit, but he did come from Scotland. Maybe he's just a distant relative."
"Yeah, maybe," Oliver said. He set that book aside and cleared all the others away, knowing which one to read first. Oliver placed his cup of tea on one the small table to his right and opened to the forward of the book, not wanting to miss anything. His only problem with text books was they automatically seemed to put him to sleep. He wasn't past the first page this time before feeling drowsy, though he had had a long day either way. "Just for a minute," he said, then closed his eyes, spreading his feet across the couch.
A/N: In case any of you didn't get the 'winning by sixty' inference to year, this is Oliver's seventh and final year, and the trio's third.
Funny story: I was sitting at a DCI (Drum Corps International) competition in Sacramento this weekend when this idea started nagging at me. It was during my little brother's performance with Vanguard band that the idea sprung up and I just thought it throughout the rest of the night, between that and reading 'Lovely Bones', which is a great book, but you must have a strong constitution if you read it. So with all of this chaos going on around me I couldn't think of who to do this with. You'll see later that this is somewhat similar to 'The Devil's Arithmetic' and it had to be just the right character with this particular event.
My roommates suggested many different people, from Crabbe to Susan Bones, to Colin (which I decided against because I already am working with him in one right now), and so on. As I thought about it my mind finally settled between two choices: Ginny or Oliver… I couldn't decide which would be better so I brought JamieBell into the picture. So if you don't like the choice she made, flame her. Just kidding JamieBell, thanks for your help. So there you have it… how this idea was born, and will hopefully be enjoyed like every newborn….thing….should be.