A/N: Hello all! I don't know what prompted me to write this story. It started out as wanting to dig into the lives of background HP characters and their lives separate from the golden trio…then it sort of took on a life of its own. I've planned for this story to cover a lot of ground – from the start of CoS through the end of the war and is going to be more than a slow burn but rather a look at a relationship through all phases. Also, aside from Hannah Abbott having an older sister, I'm sticking as close to canon as possible but there may be some inconsistencies that I miss etc. so apologies in advance!
The rating is set to T for mild themes and language but I expect that will eventually change. All the chapters will also be titled after songs!
So, anyway, without further ado here's the prologue and first chapter!
Disclaimer – I don't own HP. I own everything you don't recognize as canon!
Playing the Long Game
Prologue and Chapter 1 - Change of Seasons
A gust of wind blew across the lawn that sloped away from the castle towards the quidditch pitch. The gust blew at Caroline Abbott's face as she jogged across the lawn, her champagne blonde hair streaming behind her in a banner of wild curls. She stumbled along the slippery grass, destined for the pitch and the lone person she knew would be there. Caroline huffed slightly as she reached the bottom of the hill and then started in on the stairs that would take her to the stands. Higher and higher she climbed until at last she came out at one end of the pitch, closest to one set of the goal posts.
A boy hovered in the air on a broomstick, flitting between the three hoops. He moved in a series of coordinated movements that made little sense to Caroline, but made perfect sense to him. Already he'd been out longer than he told her, a full hour and a half of unnecessary training but Caroline hadn't been able to talk him out of it. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she shouted his name.
"Oliver!" He didn't acknowledge her call and she drew up her chest and yelled again, louder than before. "Oliver Wood!"
Oliver halted midway through his exercise. Caroline waved for him to come down. He soared in a neat loop around the goalposts, descending to land lightly on his feet. At thirteen years old Oliver was already one of the tallest boys in their year and was on the verge of hitting another growth spurt. Caroline disliked that she had to look up to talk to him.
"What's up?" He asked, bringing his broomstick to his side.
"Exam scores are out."
Oliver rolled his eyes. "You ran all the way out here for that?"
Caroline bristled at his nonchalant behavior. Ever the perfect Ravenclaw, Caroline obsessed over her grades almost as much as her best friend obsessed over quidditch. Crossing her arms grumpily over her chest she raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to know how you did or not?"
He sighed. "I get the feeling you're going to tell me anyway."
"You'll be happy to know that you passed and in the top twenty percent." Oliver made a surprised face before he grinned at her.
"Must be all those notes I borrowed from you."
Caroline scowled and sat down next to him on one of the benches. "You mean stole."
"Same difference," he replied waggling his eyebrows humorously at her. "Best friends share notes."
"Then why haven't you ever shared before?" Caroline wondered.
Oliver shrugged. "Why bother when yours are always better?"
"You'd fail out of school without me," she cautioned.
Chuckling, Oliver bumped her shoulder with his. "Nah, if all else fails I'll beg Percy for his stuff."
Caroline made a face at the mention of Oliver's rule-abiding and incredibly pompous roommate. While she looked out over the school's pitch, a new thought came to her. "Did Charlie talk to you?" She asked of Gryffindor's quidditch captain, Charlie Weasley.
Fresh excitement shone on Oliver's face. "Yeah, he said if I continue training through the summer that the starting slot is mine. Can you believe it! A third year, starting as keeper for Gryffindor."
"Ollie that's so exciting!" She squealed.
Almost immediately, Oliver's genuine veneer of excitement dropped only to be replaced by his recently acquired too-cool look. Caroline chalked up the sudden change in his behavior to his other three roommates aside from Percy. More than once Jacob Farrat, Ravi Delsham, and Peter Quimbly had teased Oliver about having a girl for a best friend. Despite Oliver and Caroline's protests that they'd been friends since they were seven, the three boys continued to rag Oliver about spending all of his time doing her hair or taking the quizzes out of Witch Weekly. Although Oliver swore up and down he wasn't affected in the slightest by their taunts Caroline had noticed that lately he seemed to be unusually quick to shut down any kind of friendly affection from her.
"Please don't call me Ollie anymore. We're thirteen now, not eight."
Raising her hands in mock defense, Caroline fell back on her normal defense mechanism. "Well excuse me Mr. Starting Line Player too cool for his best friend."
"I didn't mean it like that." His annoyed groan only prickled her irritation more.
"What are you moronic roommates saying this time?"
Oliver eyed her cautiously, as though afraid of what she might say or do next. It was a reasonable fear, thought Caroline. Just because she and Oliver had been nearly inseparable since the age of seven didn't mean she wasn't above retaliation for his occasionally bad behavior. Once, when they were ten, Caroline pushed him in the pond behind their neighborhood after he laughed at her little sister Hannah for playing with her dolls. Now at the end of their second year, Oliver had been on the receiving end of multiple minor hexes and jinxes whenever he got on Caroline's bad side.
When Caroline prodded him again for information he caved. "Jake and Pete started asking me whether or not I'd kissed you and when I said no they started laughing. Now every time they see me they make these stupid kissing noises."
Caroline's face scrunched up in mild disgust. "Me? Kiss you?"
"I know!" Exclaimed Oliver in agreement with her sarcasm. "I guess Holly Grisham kissed Jake last week or something and now that's all he wants to talk about it but its stupid. I don't see what the big deal is."
"Me either. But everyone always makes it a whole thing."
Oliver wrapped his hands around his broomstick handle and leaned forward, deep in thought. Caroline observed the way his dark brown eyes scanned the horizon. The sun started to sink over the forest in a blaze of beautiful color. In only two weeks she and Oliver would be back on the school train, bound for the small all-wizarding neighborhood where they'd grown up three houses apart. Already they'd talked excitedly about their plans to while away the summer days flying in the field behind their neighborhood and swimming in the pond there. Caroline liked to lay out on the deck of the small boathouse and let the sun dry her hair while Oliver tried to list off every quidditch foul he knew from memory.
He broke the silence and her reverie. "You know, other than Percy I'm the last guy in my dorm that hasn't been kissed? Jake told me that even Pete got Annabeth to kiss him on a dare."
"I think we do things differently in Ravenclaw. Nobody goes around talking about that stuff," she observed. "There seems to be a lot of pressure on that first one though."
"Maybe it'd be better to just get the first one out of the way," he joked.
Caroline sat up a little straighter, an idea coming to her. "That way when we do find someone we actually want to kiss the pressure's off!"
Oliver scooted away from her a little bit. A knowing light came to his eyes. Having been the victim of Caroline's absent-minded ideas before, he knew when she was coming onto something she thought was brilliant. "You don't mean, kiss each other? No. No way. You're like my sister."
"Don't be ridiculous, we're not related in the slightest and you yourself said it'd be nice to take the pressure off. It's not like I'm a hag or anything."
Tilting his head to the side, Oliver considered her for a long moment. The wheels in his brain continually turned over the idea until at last he frowned. "It would just be this once."
"Absolutely," Caroline agreed. "Just to get it over with."
"Well, when you put it like that I guess it makes sense."
He moved back to where he'd been sitting. Leaning his broomstick on the bench next to him, Oliver rotated his body to face Caroline. Their knees bumped together and she felt her cheeks heat up in anticipation of what they were about to do. Their eyes locked, Oliver's brown reflecting the anxiety in Caroline's stormy grey eyes. "So, okay, here we go."
At the same time they inched towards each other. Caroline closed her eyes at the last possible second when they smashed their mouths together in a close-lipped kiss, the first for both of them. She'd read enough in magazines to know that she should be a little softer and so she tried to relax under the uncertain pressure of Oliver's mouth against hers. Kissing, it turned out, was not all that it was cracked up to be in her estimation. They pulled back hastily, both of them red in the face.
"There. Now we can both say we've kissed someone and don't have to worry about it anymore. And let's never, ever do it again."
Oliver nodded fervently. Bells chimed in the castle, signaling dinner. They stood at the same time bumping into each other. "C'mon, let's go down to dinner."
He marched ahead, already spinning off down a new avenue of conversation, their kiss completely forgotten. Caroline paused and touched her fingers to her lips to hide her tiny smile. When he stopped and called out for her to hurry up, she jogged to reach him all while thinking that Oliver Wood would probably turn out to be a good kisser.
Some day.
Very far in the future.
While kissing someone else.
X X X
Three Years Later…
The sun was just barely rising over the tops of the trees that lined the small garden of a cozy house. Comprised of one story with a cozy upstairs room, the house contained several oddities common to all wizarding houses. The grandfather clock in the hallway accounted for the whereabouts of five people each with their own hand. At the moment two hands bearing the names 'Hiram' and 'Charlene' pointed to London, where three other names 'Helena, 'Caroline,' and 'Hannah' pointed to home. The main hallway split off once, going down to an addition to the house where a corner bedroom jutted out into the garden.
Most of the room's floral wallpaper had been covered by posters and large collages of pictures taken through the years. A star chart took up a chunk of one of the walls, marking the movement of the planets while a royal blue and bronze banner hung over the corner of the dresser mirror. Textbooks, pieces of jewelry, makeup, and several half-finished sketches littered the top of the dresser along with a stack of folded laundry. More clothing scattered across the floor, spilling out of a steamer trunk, the top of which had been painted blue with a bronze eagle.
A teenage girl slept in bed, most of the floral covers thrown away from her upper body as she slumbered peacefully, curled around her pillow. The bottom hem of her tank top rode up on her narrow waist and a stack of knotted bracelets, all traded around with her friends, lined her wrist. Her abundant pale blonde hair was a tangle of slightly greasy curls, splayed across the pillow behind her. Sometime during the night she kicked her feet free of the blankets, revealing toenails painted dark purple to match her fingernail polish. Caroline Abbott slept peacefully, completely unaware that someone was watching her through her window.
She blinked blearily into the sunlight the second time her watcher tapped. Raising her head she barely swallowed her shout of surprise. Clutching her chest as though it would calm her pounding heart, she sat up with a groan. Caroline's fingers caught in her tangled hair, trying to bring some order to it while she got out of bed. Shuffling over to the window she fumbled with the latch and seriously considered punching the person who stood on the other side of it.
"Oliver Patrick Wood what the hell are you doing? It's daybreak!"
Oliver Wood glanced back to the trees where the sun was still rising. "Its way past daybreak, move out of the way."
Caroline Abbott didn't have much of a choice but to move back as he grasped the edge of her window sill. In a surprising show of grace and agility for being six feet tall, he lifted himself up and inside her bedroom. It wasn't until he was actually inside her room did Caroline think with horror at what she was wearing. Oliver glanced down at the pajama pants she wore, pale purple adorned with little cartoon rabbits and stars.
"Cute," he said with a teasing grin.
Caroline dropped her head back, staring at the ceiling while she wondered what she'd done to deserve the world's most annoying friend. She marched back to her bed and flopped face first into her pillows. "Oliver, go away."
The weight distribution changed as he came to sit on her bed, propping his back up against her headboard. "Nope! Earlier this week you promised me you'd help with training exercises if I helped you finish painting the garden shed, which we did. So it's time for you to pay up, Abbott."
Caroline raised her head to glance at the clock and she let out a pathetic moan. "But it's not even six-thirty! Why can't you be like a normal teenager and sleep till noon?"
"Because that's valuable training time wasted?"
She rolled over onto her back and glanced up at him. An entire list of jinxes and curses rolled through her brain and more than ever she wished she was seventeen. Oliver was already dressed for training and if she had to guess he'd already been awake for an hour, reviewing the pieces of his new program he'd already put together. Folding her hands over her stomach she wiggled her body deeper into her covers, trying to get comfortable. Oliver was practically vibrating with energy, ready to get going. When Caroline realized he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon she sat up and glared at him.
"If you don't make it onto a pro team it won't be because you didn't try hard enough, I'll give you that," she conceded and earned his manic grin in the process.
"That's the spirit!"
Caroline paused in the middle of her room and crossed her arms over her chest. Oliver blinked at her. "Oliver," she said, voice dripping with irritation. "If I'm going to spend all day being a traitor to my own house for the sake of your ruddy quidditch team I should probably not do it in bunny pajama pants."
Understanding dawned on him and he shot up from the bed. "Right, of course, getting out now. I'll see you in the kitchen in five."
Caroline glanced at her reflection to see her hair and sighed. "Make it ten."
Oliver squeezed her upper arm as he passed. "You're the best!"
Rather than go back out the window, he opened her bedroom door and started for the kitchen. Caroline rolled her eyes. Oliver spent almost as much time in the Abbott kitchen as she did. "Yeah, yeah you broomstick obsessed quaffle-head."
"I heard that!"
Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose. "I meant for you to!"
X X X
Out of childish spite, Caroline took an extra ten minutes so that by the time she waltzed into the kitchen she found Oliver sitting at the table looking very cross. "You said ten minutes, not twenty," he groused.
"And you believed a sixteen year old girl so that's your own fault. Do you want any coffee? I think there's enough for two cups," she said checking the coffee maker her mother left on before she went to work. Oliver shook his head, making a face and she grinned. "More for me then," and she fished a muggle travel mug out of a cabinet. "Oh would you stop looking at me like that? Just let me leave a note for Hannah to join us when she wakes up. At a reasonable hour," she muttered under her breath.
Oliver remained restless until at last Caroline finished her note and grabbed her coffee and an apple. They stopped by the garden shed so she could grab her broomstick and then set off for the field behind their neighborhood. While they walked towards the pond and the little boat house there, Oliver filled her in on the basics of what he wanted to do that day, which included all of the things Caroline despised the most, including defensive drills. But, a promise was a promise and so she let him continue to talk her ear off until at last they reached the boat house where they sat on the dock where the summer sun cast warm rays over her shoulders. She ate her apple and thought about other things while he droned on and on.
"So? Thoughts?" He asked when he finally finished.
Caroline rest her chin in her hand. "I think you should probably shorten the speech by a solid five to ten minutes 'cause right now you're just asking for the Weasley twins to give you hell."
Oliver glowered at her. "You're not being helpful."
"That was not part of the agreement."
He clambered to his feet and gave her hand up. "Just get in the air, Abbott."
Caroline did as asked, mounting her broomstick and kicking off the ground. The still cool air whipped across her face, finally waking her all the way up. Flying was not a natural skill for Caroline, not the way it was for Oliver but over the years she'd gotten quite adept at it. Growing up, Oliver needed a training partner and there were no other kids in their neighborhood close enough in age. So, Caroline stepped up to the plate and often found herself the target of his well-meaning, if annoying criticism. Oliver said helping her helped him be a better captain. He also said she improved every summer but she didn't believe him.
"You're too tense," he called, soaring around her with ease. Caroline rolled her eyes. She hadn't been on a broomstick since Easter holidays and even then she'd only flown once. "Loosen up your shoulders and grip, remember—"
"A tight grip equals jerky flying," she repeated along with him, knowing all of his favorite little phrases by heart. "It is amazing to me that none of your teammates haven't tried to kill you during practice."
Oliver laughed, hovering in the air a few feet away from her. "Probably 'cause they know they couldn't get away with it."
Caroline arched an eyebrow, reading a challenge between the lines. "It wouldn't be that hard to make it look like an accident."
"Yeah it would," he said, showing a streak of arrogance before he took a sharp dive, pulling up just in time to snatch his scarlet practice quaffle off the ground and tuck it under his arm. "Now come on, I want to try some of this stuff out!"
Carline let Oliver bully her into all manner of exercises and drills, using her as the benchmark for the rest of the team. She knew he didn't mean his comments as insults, comparing her rather lackluster attempts to the likes of Angelina Johnson or Alicia Spinnet, girls with actual talent on the pitch. Oliver got tunnel vision when it came to quidditch and that sometimes included accidentally insulting her abilities. For the most part Caroline didn't care; quidditch wasn't her thing and never had been. Oliver tried to convince her to go out for the Ravenclaw team more than once, saying that with some consistent training she could be really good but Caroline was certain their friendship wouldn't survive playing for rival teams.
The sun climbed ever higher in the sky. It was nearing nine-thirty when Caroline noticed a girl running towards the field. Her straw blonde hair was drawn into curly pigtails that bounced over her shoulders.
"Hannah's in an awfully big hurry," Oliver remarked, skimming to a halt next to her.
Caroline's little sister, Hannah, came sprinting down the hill, nearly tripping and tumbling once. "Whatever it is it can't be good."
"Cara! Mum's home, she wants you to come back to the house!" Hannah yelled through her cupped hands. "Oliver, you're supposed to go home too!"
Caroline and Oliver exchanged confused glances. It was unusual for her mother to be home on a week day. "Both our mums want us at home? That's odd. What d'you think it's about?" He asked her, while they slowly descended back down to earth.
"No clue, I didn't do anything stupid. Did you?"
"Unless climbing in your bedroom window this morning counts," he mused, rubbing his chin. "But they've never gotten mad about that before."
"Well, we weren't sixteen the last time you did it," she offered and he shrugged, as if their ages weren't even remotely important when it came to climbing through her bedroom window. Then a thought occurred to Caroline and she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp. "It's O.W.L. results. It's been about a month, it has to be!"
Oliver's coloring took a slightly green turn. "The moment of reckoning."
Caroline's feet hit the ground, she started towards Hannah and he reluctantly followed. "Come off it, Ollie. I'm sure you did fine."
"How could you possibly know that?"
Shrugging, she offered him a cocky grin over her shoulder. "Easy, you studied with me."
This was of little comfort to Oliver but they parted ways to head to their own houses to either receive their scores or learn what they'd done so wrong. When Caroline walked into the kitchen it turned out she was right. An owl bearing a white square envelope stood on the perch in the kitchen. Caroline's mother, Helena, dressed in her work robes, hovered close by. Caroline took the envelope with slightly trembling hands. Making sure nobody else could see her scores she opened the envelope, took a deep breath and pulled out the letter containing her score. Carefully she reviewed each line. Her heart rising with each little 'O' or 'E' printed next to nine of her ten subjects, including the grade she'd been worried about the most.
"I did it," she breathed, looking at the bold 'O' on the same line as Potions. "I got an Outstanding in Potions," she whispered, double checking that she hadn't read it wrong.
The bubble of fear she'd carried around all summer burst, releasing a wave of euphoria. Caroline's whole world remained upright and on track with just that simple grade. She couldn't believe it. "I can take the N.E.W.T. level class! That's step one for the International Potions Institute," she cried happily as her mother hugged her, exclaiming her congratulations.
"Let's see the rest of your scores then," Helena said and Caroline happily showed her mother who let out a low whistle. "Seven 'O's and nine OWLs overall! Caroline I am so proud of you, sweetheart! Wait till you tell your father he'll be over the moon!"
"I think mum might actually be more excited than you are," said Hannah under her breath, peering around Caroline's shoulder. "Though I can't believe you're going to willingly take another two years with Snape."
"The only downside, but I figure if I can put up with his sour face for another two years then I can handle any of the masters at the IPI." Helena was still spinning off in raptures over Caroline's performance when a knock on the back kitchen door cut her off. It was Oliver, clutching his own letter.
"You're not gonna believe it," he said, his own shock at his performance echoing in his voice.
"Swap?" Caroline asked and he held his out in exchange for hers.
Oliver hadn't done as well as she had, receiving no Outstanding's but that hardly mattered. He'd gotten 'E's on all of his subjects except History of Magic and Potions where he'd gotten an 'A' and a 'P' respectively. The important part was he'd done well enough to stay in most of the same classes that she had moving forward.
His snort of laughter filled the kitchen. "A 'P' in History of Magic? Really?"
Caroline shrugged, perfectly unmoved by her single failing grade. "Who cares what a whole bunch of old, prejudiced, dead wizards did back in ye olden days of yore? Besides, how did you get a 'P' in potions? You had my notes!"
Oliver rolled his eyes but handed her results back to her. "Did it ever occur to you that I was trying to fail that one? If I'd actually gotten an 'O' you'dve made me take it with and that wasn't gonna happen."
"Still! I'm so proud of you!" She exclaimed forgetting their separate failures and threw her arms around his neck. Oliver wrapped her in a brotherly hug.
"Who cares about me? You aced it! Although I can't believe you're willingly taking two more years of Snape."
"That's what I said! He's such a git!" Hannah echoed, taking advantage of both Caroline and Oliver's distractedness to snatch their results and compare the two.
"Too right," Oliver agreed before he perked right back up. "Don't be shocked if my mum writes you a thank you note. She knows I'dve never passed everything without your notes. She's gone mental by the way, I think she's telling the whole family now."
Caroline was beginning to come back down to earth and she shook her head. "I don't know why she's so surprised. I never doubted you for a second."
"Well this is just too exciting for words. Oliver, I'm going to see your mother. I think this merits celebration." Helena disappeared with a crack, leaving the three kids alone in the kitchen.
The bubbly feeling rushed up through Caroline's chest and she felt as though she could take on anything in that moment. Smacking Hannah's shoulder with the back of her hand she grinned at her sister. "Hey, want to try and take on Oliver? Two on one?"
X X X
A few days after her OWL results arrived, Caroline stood in front of her open closet, staring at the mess of muggle clothes that hung there. As a half-blood child, she was used to existing in two worlds and had the receipts to prove it. Her suitcase sat open on the floor at the foot of her bed, already half-packed with the clothing she would need for two weeks at her father's house in Cambridge. Everything she owned that indicated she was a witch would be left behind, right down to her wand which would be stowed in the top drawer of her dresser. The bracelets she liked to wear with charms that moved or changed colors depending on her mood or the weather were all sitting on her dresser along with the bottle of nail polish remover she used to take off the polish that flashed different colors whenever she wiggled her fingers.
Oliver sat on her bed, inspecting the application she'd been forced to fill out to receive her provisional driver's license. "You're really going to learn how to drive?"
"Yeah, my dad's insisting on it. He made Charlene learn and I'm sure he'll force Hannah to do it. I've told him like fifty times that if all goes well I'll be able to apparate by the end of the year but you can't tell him anything. He says that being part of both the muggle and magical worlds is a privilege and I should learn to respect both."
Oliver, who was as sheltered as pureblood wizards came, made a face. "Isn't driving really dangerous?"
To this, even Caroline couldn't help but smirk. "Isn't flying around fifty feet in the air on a broomstick trying to avoid two speeding bludgers really dangerous?"
"Well, yeah, but at least that's exciting," reasoned Oliver. Caroline laughed and fished a blue dress out of her closet. She held it up to her figure in the reflection of the full length mirror next to her closet. Satisfied that the dress still went with her coloring, she slipped it off the hanger and packed it with the rest of her things.
"So, what are you going to do while I'm gone?"
"Finish up my new training program. I've got some more tactics to refine for the chasers before I tackle Fred and George's stuff before I'm ready. Plus, I've got to start thinking about some new strengths for Harry to develop. His two catches last year were spectacular and I need to keep that trend going, he's our best hope at winning the cup."
Caroline rolled her eyes. Ever since Harry Potter started at Hogwarts last year he'd been one of Oliver's favorite subjects and a point of particular pride. One of the worst fights they'd ever had was over the rather inherent unfairness that Professor McGonagall bent the school rules to allow a first year to not only have a broomstick at school but to play quidditch on a house team on top of that. Oliver, who had already gone through a misery-laden tryout session, was bordering on desperate until Harry dropped out of nowhere. He didn't care in the slightest that Harry was likely being given special treatment simply because he was the famous Harry Potter. Talent was talent in Oliver's book and Harry Potter possessed that in spades.
"You know you're pretty integral to the team's success too," she reminded him gently. Oliver also had a particularly bad habit of downplaying his own importance to the team. Caroline typically appreciated his humble attitude but every so often his willingness to elevate his teammates' efforts above his drove her crazy. Nobody worked as hard as Oliver did. Of that she was absolutely certain.
"I mean, I'm decent but stopping goals only matters so much in the game."
"Rubbish," said Caroline as she dumped another two shirts into her suitcase. "You're just as important as all the other players and one of these days the points system is going to shine a light on that, Ollie. Besides, without your coaching Harry wouldn't be nearly as good as he is now and the team wouldn't have Alicia if you hadn't noticed her talent and pulled her up from reserves."
Oliver's cheeks flushed a pleasant shade of red. He had always been terrible at taking compliments. "It's nothing."
Caroline sat on the edge of her bed. Their eyes met and she gave him an encouraging smile. "It's not nothing and deep down you know that. Teams are only as strong as their leaders. You said that to me,"
"Yeah, well, I've said a lot of things," he grumbled under his breath, now genuinely embarrassed. Caroline smiled, patting his knee affectionately. There were times when Oliver did things that drove her mad like wake her up at dawn to play quidditch but then he gently reminded her of all the reasons he was such a good friend and person in the first place.
"I hate these two weeks every year," he groused. "It's quiet and my mum drives me mad."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm going to be bored out of my mind at Cambridge. What's the point of having Hannah and I come stay if my dad's still going to be teaching a summer class? When we were kids he used to actually take us places but I guess he can't be bothered now that he got my mum to agree to partial custody."
Oliver frowned from his perch atop her messily made bed. "So, why go at all?"
Caroline sighed miserably. "Because that's what their agreement says. Dad gets us two weeks every summer." The subject of her parents' contentious and protracted divorce was still a sensitive one for Caroline and it came as a relief when Oliver picked up on her reticence and changed the subject.
"So, did you read the book list for this year?"
"Yeah, my mum's about to have a meltdown. Two full sets of Lockhart books is asking a lot. Plus Hannah's already grown from last year and needs new school robes."
"Who do you think the new Defense professor is that they assigned the whole collection?"
"It's got to be a witch, right?" Caroline mused. "Even my mum got all pink and flustered at the mention of Lockhart's name. She uses his guide to household spells and pests all the time. I think she's even ordered one of his cookbooks."
"My mum got all giggly too, it was downright painful to watch." He flopped back onto her bed, his head landing on one of her pillows. "I do not want to go a whole year listening to some witch talk about how great he is."
"Looks like you won't get much of a choice," said Caroline as she returned to her closet to go back through her clothes again. They fell into silence for a while until Oliver brought the conversation back around to tactics and training sessions. Caroline let him prattle on about his latest ideas to rein in the Weasley twins, each one as unlikely to work as the last until a shadow fell across her doorway. Helena Abbott was within two inches of her daughter's height and at one time possessed the same flowing blonde hair that all three of her daughters had. Now she kept it cropped short in a vain attempt to hide the silver that now shot through the strands. But she had a kind face and was equally kind to match.
However, that particular night, she stood in Caroline's doorway with her arms loosely crossed over her chest. There must have been something about the sight of sixteen year old Oliver Wood on Caroline's bed that turned her the wrong way. "Oliver, dear, it's starting to get late."
Oliver sat up and glanced at the clock. "It's only nine-thirty," he mused and started to say he didn't have to be home until ten but Caroline cut him off with a raised eyebrow.
"Ollie, I think my mum is trying to kick you out in the politest way possible."
"Ah, gotcha. Sorry Ms. Abbott. I'll be on my way. Caroline, have fun at your dad's, I'll see you in two weeks?"
"I'll drop by your house when I get back," she promised and waved him out of her room.
Helena didn't immediately leave which piqued Caroline's curiosity, but not enough to outright ask. Usually when her mother had something to say she got around to it on her own time and without any poking or prodding. Sure enough, as Helena waved her wand to refold the clothes in Caroline's suitcase she got to the point.
"Caroline, love, I'm not sure how I feel about Oliver being in your room these days."
"What? Why?" She spluttered more out of surprise than anything else.
Helena shifted her weight guiltily, losing her concentration on her wand work. The clothes she'd been magically folding drooped back into the suitcase even worse off than they were before. "Well, for one thing the two of you aren't twelve years old anymore. And for another, I can't help but notice that Oliver's turning out to be a very handsome young man."
Caroline prayed for some hereto unknown monster in her closet to reach out and drag her into the shadowy depths of her clothes. That surely had to be preferable to having this conversation with her mother. Putting her hands on her hips, Caroline raised her eyebrows, unamused. "Mum, are you serious? Are we really going to have this conversation?"
"Well, you had to know it was coming eventually! You two aren't children anymore."
"We also aren't doing whatever it is I think you're accusing us of doing," Caroline reasoned.
Helena turned a telltale shade of pink. "Would it be so surprising if you did? Like I said, he's gotten quite handsome in the last year and you two spend so much time together. Are you really telling me you've never considered it before?"
Caroline snorted in laughter. "No," she said flatly. "I mean, Oliver's cute but I don't go around dating guys just because they're good-looking. Plus it's Oliver, I used to throw water balloons at him from the guest room upstairs."
"You don't go around dating anyone," Helena noted under her breath. Caroline threw her a sharp glare.
"So? Aren't parents of teenage girls supposed to be relieved that their daughters aren't sneaking under the stands with the captain of the quidditch team?"
The pregnant pause that followed told Caroline she'd struck a nerve. She shuddered to think what her father, a muggle physics professor, would think if she came home on the arm of an athlete. Both Helena and Hiram were in rare unanimous agreement about Caroline's potential and the trajectory of her future. Every step of the way was already laid out according to Caroline's dreams. Get top grades. Work for a year to fulfill the prerequisites of the International Potions Institute. Spend three years at the Institute in Seattle working her arse off and then get a job doing medicinal potions research. Change the world by discovering ways to reverse previously incurable diseases. There were only a handful of things that her parents knew could throw a wrench into the works. A handsome boy was one of them.
Helena sighed and took Caroline's shoulders, turning her about face. "I just want you to be aware that things are changing. You say you feel this way now and maybe that'll stay the same but Oliver isn't the only boy on the planet. Someone else will come along and I just want you to be careful with your heart."
"I will," said Caroline emphatically. "This may come as a shock but I have been listening this whole time to your lectures about boys and respect and my choices are my own."
"Well, good," said Helena in a pleased sort of way.
"Now will you please drop the whole Oliver in my room business? Because we both know you can try to put your foot down but I'm pretty sure he doesn't even remember that our front door works in both directions."
Even Helena cracked a smile at this and she nodded. From the depths of Caroline's closet she pulled out a floral party dress. "You should probably take this. Your gran wants to have tea while you and Hannah are in Cambridge."
X X X
The air was cool and crisp when Oliver left Caroline's house, going out of the back door to hop the garden wall. A well-worn track cut through the thick grass behind the gardens of the two houses that sat between his home and Caroline's. As Oliver rounded the shallow corner, he shoved his hands in his pockets, contemplating the coming two weeks. He'd meant his remark to Caroline; the two weeks she spent at her father's every summer were his least favorite two weeks of the year. Caroline was a constant presence in his life and his world always seemed a little less in every respect whenever she went away. That he was facing the business end of two weeks helping his mother out with an endless to-do list didn't really improve the situation. At least when Caroline was around she helped him and made chores like cleaning out the attic or trimming the hedges fun. A small smile came to him when he thought about how only the week before she'd attacked him with the garden hose while he cleaned out the gutters.
Oliver let himself into his house only to find his father helping himself to leftovers from dinner. More than once Caroline noted that looking at Patrick Wood was like getting a glimpse into Oliver's future. Oliver didn't see quite the same resemblance in his father that Caroline did but he took heart in the fact that his father still had all of his thick brown hair in his late forties.
"Helena kick you out?" Patrick asked while he heaped a spoonful of roast potatoes onto a plate.
"Yeah, Caroline's not nearly finished packing and she leaves at seven tomorrow morning."
Patrick summoned a fork from the drawer across the kitchen. "She excited about seeing her dad?"
Oliver snorted in poorly concealed, sarcastic laughter. "Doubtful. Her dad's teaching a summer class and won't be around during the days at all."
Patrick just shook his head in silent disapproval. The contentious divorce between Helena and Hiram Abbott provided a constant source of neighborhood gossip but for Oliver's parents, who had been friends with both of Caroline's parents, it had been particularly vexing because of the toll it took on Caroline and Hannah. More than once Oliver's mother opened the front door to find Caroline standing there, clutching Hannah's hand and asking if it was alright if they stayed for a while, just to escape the yelling. Marianne Wood always invited them in with a motherly smile and the sincere promise that they were welcome any time. Sometimes Helena came by the Wood house the same night to collect her children with a thousand mortified apologies. Sometimes Marianne would send an owl to the Abbott house assuring her that Caroline and Hannah were fine and had already fallen asleep on the large sofas in the sitting room. Oliver could still remember coming downstairs one night to find Caroline with her arms around Hannah, promising that things would get better. Hiram Abbott moved out of the house at the end of that summer though the battle continued to rage for a full year after. Oliver's parents never quite forgave Caroline's parents for the hell they put their daughters through.
Oliver retreated to the heavily charmed, ancient refrigerator. He produced the milk bottle and went about pouring himself a glass. Patrick ate his leftovers in thoughtful silence, glancing every so often at his son. More than once Oliver thought his dad was going to say something only for him to shut his mouth again. Eventually, Oliver grew irritated of the false starts. "Something on your mind?"
Patrick hesitated. "I was just wondering, has Caroline been dating anyone?"
Of the litany of things his father could have said, Oliver never expected that particular question. The answer was still leapt easily to the tip of his tongue. "Nope."
"And you two aren't-that is, well, you're not." Patrick broke off awkwardly, his voice winding down in the face of his failure to string a sentence together.
Oliver's eyebrows flew up and he nearly spit out his milk. "No," he said so firmly it almost sounded rude. "Dad, no. Caroline and I are just friends. We've always only ever been friends. Where is this coming from?"
Patrick turned a funny shade of red. "Surely you've noticed," he started to say and then scrubbed his face with his hands, trying to reorder his thoughts. "Caroline is turning out to be quite a beautiful young woman."
Oliver frowned. His mind strayed to Caroline's slender figure and long blonde hair. "Well of course she's pretty, so are a lot of girls. What has that got to do with anything?"
The expression of thinly concealed exasperation that crossed his father's face told Oliver that this particular conversation as only going to get worse. He started eyeing the swinging door that would take him out of the kitchen and away from this subject. But Patrick remained undeterred. "I only wonder if you've considered the possibility of your friendship being something more and whether Caroline's thought the same thing. It wouldn't surprising for one or both of you to develop feelings and to want to experiment with the boundaries of your friendship."
"Boundaries?" Oliver spluttered, truly stunned. "You're not suggesting what I think you are."
"Why wouldn't I? Caroline is beautiful and you two spend all of your time together, adding hormones into the mix can change the dynamic of any friendship. I just want to ensure that if you do develop an interest in her you understand that sex is a two way road and no matter how much you think you know what she wants that's no replacement for her consent."
Oliver really did choke on his milk now. A series of fuzzy, distorted images were trying to form in his mind, of being intertwined with Caroline. Nothing came out right, it was simply impossible for Oliver to imagine Caroline in any capacity other than his best friend. Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose and held up a hand. "Dad, stop. Please, stop. This is Caroline we're talking about. Caroline. The girl who used to push me in the pond when we were eight. It's never going to happen."
Patrick looked thoroughly unconvinced but he changed course. "Well, if it's not Caroline then it's going to be someone else, which doesn't change the basics of this conversation. Regardless of what your mother says I know we can't stop you from dating and having physical relationships but I can impress upon you the importance of being respectful and safe."
Oliver had to cough to cover up the worst of his shocked laughter. When he regained himself he raised his eyebrows. "Dad, I'm sixteen. Don't you think it's a little late for the birds and the bees?"
The scowl that crossed his father's face reminded Oliver strongly of the few times in life he'd gotten in real trouble. "It's never too late to ensure that you won't be an idiot when it comes to girls. Right now it's easy for you to stand here and tell me you understand all of the potential consequences but when you're in that situation it's completely different! There are things you haven't thought about, things that haven't been an issue until now."
Another wave of amusement washed over Oliver. He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. "Like what?"
"Like Caroline-don't roll your eyes at me. Just because you don't see her that way doesn't mean other boys won't. What are you going to do when she starts to date someone else?" Oliver's responding silence was answer enough. A look of triumph crossed his father's face. "She's not going to go unnoticed forever, Oliver. You're used to having her undivided attention and I'm not sure you're ready to lose part of her to someone else."
Oliver's insides squirmed uncomfortably. The previously comfortable air in the kitchen now felt unbearably hot and close. Nerves in his muscles twitched, urging him to get out of the situation as fast as possible. Where was his broomstick when he needed it? The thought of Caroline with someone else had crossed his mind a handful of times, usually when she was nursing a crush but those had never been serious. Oliver knew he'd never really given much thought to her actually dating anyone because he always just assumed she would be there.
"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," he said at last, not quite meeting his father's eyes. "There's no point in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet." Oliver drained the last of his milk. "Can I go upstairs now?"
Patrick could recognize when he was pursuing a lost cause. He waved his hand dismissively. "Go on."
Oliver trudged upstairs, trying his hardest to push an unpleasant thought out of his head. He'd never cared about Caroline's crushes before. But as he shut the door to his bedroom and flopped back on his bed, he started to imagine something new. Caroline's arms wrapped around a nondescript man, smiling up into his face as though he were the only person in her world. Unbidden to him, Oliver's fingers curled into fists at the thought. He didn't know why and he knew it was perfectly irrational, but he hated that generic nonexistent man.
A/N: So there it is. I hope you like Caroline! She's fun to write, a little opposing force against Oliver's mildly neurotic personality.
Next chapter picks up at school and features some first lessons!
Like all authors, I love and live for your feedback! Let me know what you think! Much love - Chinchilla
