Disclaimer:
I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters plots etcetera from the franchise though I wish I did! I do own the Stockley family and any of the OCs included in this story (may include Caris Crombie and Willow Martins from the joint story Falling In Love with Quidditch Captains, and other minor characters here and there.)
Flying High
Chapter 1: If Only Summer Was Longer.
2 Days before
"Arggh!" I groaned into the pillow, it was nine in the morning and my little brat of a brother had rushed into the room, and was now bouncing on my bed. "Why?!" I mumbled, as he energetically bounced up and down. You'd think he was a five year old the way he acts, but in reality he's nearly twelve. And why in the name of Merlin and his amazing hat, was he waking me up at nine in the morning, when we were on vacation, has he ever heard of the fact that everyone in the entire world sleeps in when there is a holiday? Obviously not, however his energy in the morning would probably wake our gracious hosts: the Wood family and I didn't want to end up on bad terms with my friend and captain Oliver.
For part of the last week of summer, we had gone up to Scotland for a 'mini' vacation. Generally we'd go somewhere more…extravagant; for example last year we vacationed in New Zealand, such a stunning place. But I absolutely love Scotland, which is also a striking place; just New Zealand has much better weather when it comes to sunshine. Mum's thinking of moving us up here, and I don't have any objection to that, however the only problem would be; that we'd have to travel back down to London to get the train to Hogwarts, which is located, I'm sure, somewhere in Scotland anyway! What's the point in making students travel from near the school down to the south just to travel back up again? It makes no sense! Who came up with the idea? The least the school could do is make another station for the northern students to get the train, so they don't have to travel back on themselves. I was mercilessly brought out of my little inner monologue.
"Hannah! Wake Up!" Charlie shouted in a sing-song voice, taking away the duvet. I groaned and chucked a pillow at him. "Come on, get up! So we can play some Quidditch."
I removed myself from the bed and groggily opened the curtains, the sun was shining over the open grass fields surrounding the Wood's house, and even the small forest across the way looked lighter. Oliver was so lucky to grow up in such a lovely place, the view from my room at home…well let's just say there's generally traffic or at least one bin lorry and a few hoodies running around the place. Today I believed was going to be a good day, something just screamed it. You know when you get that, 'Yes today is my day' feeling, well I had that today, actually I felt rather good about the entire year, something was definitely in the works this year.
"Oi! Stop daydreaming and get ready!" Charlie exclaimed I turned round sending him evils, so that he'd get the picture and leave the room before anything, unfortunate happened. I gathered my outfit before heading towards the bathroom. After another twenty five minutes I emerged from the bathroom more cheerful and relaxed, considerably looking better than when I awoke. I went back to the bedroom and tidied it up, as the Woods were a pureblood family there wasn't any modern technology, no landline, no television and no video player. But with all the space they had out here, Oliver must have hardly been bored. I headed down the stairs, hoping that the house-elf, ironically named Woody, had hopefully been kind enough to leave out some tasty breakfast items. At home we had no house-elf, since mum was a muggle she did all the cooking and cleaning herself unless Charlie and I wanted to help her. As I entered the kitchen I only found Oliver…thinking about it there were no signs of my parents or Mr and Mrs Wood, how very odd…
"Morning." he greeted smiling at me as he lowered the copy of the Daily Prophet he was reading, knowing him he would be reading the sports section. In front of him on the table was an array of edibles ranging from some form of cornflakes to some toast with melted chocolate.
"Morning, where is everyone?" I asked, sitting down at the table, grabbing a plate and putting several pieces of toast onto the plate. What confused me about the Wood's sort of kitchen and dining room was the lack of a fridge, sure they had a form of pantry where they used a cooling charm to keep the food fresh and cold, but wouldn't it be a lot simpler just to acquire a refrigerator? Then again the Weasleys didn't have a fridge either, so maybe it was easier for pureblood families to do away with all modern technology.
"Well I think Charlie is in the front room, and my mother decided to try and show your parents something or another, I was half asleep when she told me, I think she dragged my dad along too." he explained, momentarily shoving some cereal into his mouth before returning his full attention back to the paper.
"Anything of interest?" I asked nodding towards the paper while taking a bite out a slice of toast. He shook his head as he skipped through the everyday news, before he got to the sport, which he was soon engrossed in. Same 'ole Oliver. His smile grew bigger, obviously Puddlemere had won again or maybe the Canons had lost.
"Puddlemere crushed the Cannons last night." he replied, drinking some of his water, well I guess I guessed right in both cases and just as I finished my first slice of toast Charlie burst into the kitchen, could I not catch a break from him, I wanted to enjoy my breakfast not rush it down and end up with indigestion.
"Will you two hurry up!" he yelled, looking quite irritated, my brother always hated to be kept waiting, especially when it came to Quidditch. He reminded me sometimes of a very young Oliver, but more annoying. He was in some ways a spoilt brat, but then when I thought about what my life would be without him, I realised he could be quite the cool younger brother I'd wanted when I was young.
"Don't be so impatient!" I shouted, pointing at him with my last slice of toast, he lunged forward trying to steal a bite, but I quickly shoved it into my mouth, making me look like a pig. Oliver chuckled, I quickly chewed and swallowed the toast before picking up the butter knife and pointed it accusingly at him. "And don't start him laughing, you."
"It's impolite to point at people." he stated snootily, wagging his finger at me as if I was a small child and he the parent, this was a time when he was at his peak in annoying me.
"Well it's also impolite to run into a room and yell at people." I said in return to which he stuck out his tongue, I shook my head at his antics, and there was just no reasoning with him. I felt rather full after shovelling the piece of toast down so I moved the plate further into the middle of the table, while Oliver returned to reading his newspaper and Charlie well he stormed off somewhere.
"What is he so impatient about?" Oliver asked, as he folded down the newspaper, as Woody had made the breakfast and had been doing so for the week, I decided at least one time I would help him out and do the dishes manually since we were still unable to use magic outside of the school premises.
"I think he wants to play a game of Quidditch before we have to go back to London." I answered, throwing some bubbles at him. To which he threw the dishcloth at me so I dodged it. By this time Charlie had walked back it and the cloth hit him in the face. We tried to stop laughing as the cloth now slowly sliding down his face, but it was just too funny not to. Charlie then grabbed the cloth and chucked it at us, it hit me square in the face which sent Oliver into all out hysterics. After an all-out water fight the kitchen was looking…well it looked completely destroyed.
"Hey, you guys." I said as I slumped onto one of the less soaked chairs, Charlie was sat on one of the counters and Oliver was stretched out on the floor. "Maybe we should tidy this place up before our parents get back and totally ground us."
"Aye, you have a point there." Oliver said as he got up of the floor. During the fight everyone had gotten soaked, however since Oliver was wearing a white t-shirt, it had now gone see-through, not that I minded since I could see his extremely well-toned abs…ahem well anyway I averted my gaze so as not to be caught staring and got up off of the chair. After a couple of minutes cleaning up all the mess and changing out of our soaking clothes we headed for the garden or to be more correct field where Oliver and his father had set up a Quidditch pitch…well a smaller version anyway.
Oliver taught Charlie some goalkeeping tricks, he then put what he was taught to the test as Oliver and I proceeded to try and score. He saved five out of ten shots, he was improving steadily. Charlie was hoping to be the future goalkeeper for the Gryffindor team, at the moment he was a reserve, but he didn't want to take Oliver's position he always looked up to Oliver, it was kind of cute in a way. After that we went over a few of the plays that he had thought up of over the summer, I really do think that this year, once we have a seeker, we will win the Quidditch cup.
After about an hour of playing the wonderful sport of Quidditch we headed back inside of the house to get changed…really didn't want to spend the rest of the day in clothes that I had been doing some hard exercise in…eugh! It was when I was coming out of the bathroom, that I spotted those gorgeous abs…stop staring! Damn it get it right we're mates, best mates and I don't want to ruin that. I shook my head which only drew the attention of said best mate as he looked at me, confusion present in those soft chocolate brown eyes.
"You alright?" he asked, I looked up at him. I could feel the blush burning across my cheeks. Make up excuse and run back to your room before you do anything stupid!
"Y-yeah, just remembered, I err left my…something important in my room. I'll see you downstairs." I explained nervously, he nodded though something told me he didn't believe a word I had just told him. I have got to work on lying to get out of awkward situations!
"Alright." he said as he entered the bathroom closing the door behind him. Why, oh why was he A. extremely handsome and B. why did he have to have one of the sexiest accents the world has ever known? Damn it sometimes I could just run up to him and snog his face off…stop thinking of kissing him Hannah, get a grip. I sighed and trudged over to my room, flopping down onto the bed and glaring holes up into the ceiling; I then leaned over and grabbed a pillow before I screamed into it in frustration. After a good scream to relieve all my stress I stood up, walking towards the quaint little mirror on the lovely oak desk. I fixed my messy brown hair and exited the room, ready to hopefully face an Oliver who was not naked…get out of my damn thoughts!
I entered the Wood's lounge, where Charlie and Oliver were playing a game of wizard's chess. Although it is quite the fun game to watch from time to time, I cannot for the life of me play any form of chess including the wizard variety. So instead of spending probably a good couple of minutes of the day watching the two of them play the game over and over again, I picked up the copy of the Daily Prophet that Oliver had read previously that morning and sat down in probably the most comfortable arm chairs I had ever sat in, in my life. If I could, I would probably become the Wood's own chair gremlin, just living on their lovely green armchair that was directly opposite their front windows and either side were two grand old oak bookcases, that housed a variety of interesting works. I sighed getting comfy in my seat, before I unfurled the newspaper and got myself lost in some of the interesting columns and stories they had. It was only until a loud cough that I was pulled out of my own little world; I folded the paper and placed it down on the table. I looked over to where the boys were supposed to be only to find Oliver sitting on the sofa near the armchair I was in.
"Err… when did you finish your game of chess?" I asked, blinking rapidly, time always whizzed when I would get engrossed in some form of literature.
"A couple of minutes ago, Charlie went upstairs for something or another, I think." he answered, as he pulled a book off the glass coffee table that was situated in front of the sofa he was sat on. I instantly recognized it as his Quidditch play book.
"Hey, do you want to play a game of cards. You remember I taught you how to play blackjack right?" I asked, pulling out a generic packet of muggle playing cards, even though I loved Quidditch a morning of playing it was enough today, and a card game was a way of distracting him from his beloved play book.
"Yeah, sure I do." he replied, putting the book down on the sofa. I began shuffling the cards before I dealt each of us seven cards. After a couple of minutes I had thoroughly thrashed Oliver several times over, though he seemed to be fine, I'm sure he was frustrated underneath that cool surface, Oliver Wood does not like to lose at anything ever!
Around about twelve in the afternoon our parents came back from wherever they had gone and we all had lunch out in the gardens, kind of like a picnic with blanket and basket included. The spot we ate at was totally magnificent, there was no rain or cloud and you could see for miles, since we were sat on one of the many hills that surrounded the Wood's family home. There was a small stream at the very bottom of the hill, where Oliver and I used to spend holidays, when we were younger, trying to catch frogs or toads or any sort of living thing that we found down there. I'd known Oliver since I was born, even though our parents didn't work together; our fathers had been best friends since they started Hogwarts. They'd both been sorted into Gryffindor together, both got onto the Quidditch team together. My father even set up Mr and Mrs Wood's first date. Basically I had my dad to thank for my hot best friend, I should never tell my dad that otherwise it will always be used to get me to do chores. And I should never tell him that I think Oliver is quite hot, as he would probably also use that against me or he would just tell Oliver himself. Anyway back to the present, it was the nicest way to end the holiday, I felt so sad that we'd be leaving this wonderful place in what would be a couple of hours. The area of Scotland the Wood's lived in was extremely beautiful; their house was surrounded by lots of forests and little streams and rivers.
After a good half an hour eating lovely home-made cakes, sandwiches, salad and sausage rolls, with Mrs Wood's own lemonade, everyone made their way back inside leaving Oliver and I alone. Charlie wanted to stay out longer, but mum pulled him inside to finish packing his things away, lucky for me I had already done so.
"Shame you couldn't stay longer." Oliver mused; he and I were sat alone on the picnic blanket admiring the scenery.
"Yeah, it's so lovely here." I said, looking around the place, it was definitely prettier than London. All the flowers seemed to shimmer in the sunlight and the sun made patterns within the little stream at the bottom of the hill.
"Aye, it is." he murmured, I looked round back at him who didn't seem to be looking at the scenery at all, but me.
"Something on my face?" I asked, as I rubbed my cheek with my left hand. He chuckled shaking his head and pulling my hand away from my face.
"No. Now come on, let's go down to the stream for old time's sake." he answered as he pulled me up and ran down the hill, we'd generally roll down the hill, but this time there was no way he was getting me to roll down a hill just before I went home.
"You dare throw water at me Mr Wood; I will make your life a living hell!" I warned as his hands came dangerously close to cupping the water. He looked over his shoulder smirking.
"You already do." he replied cheekily, I made a shocked face before pouting and lightly hitting him on the arm. I crouched down next to him looking around the stream, before I put my hands in the water…a mistake; my god was that water cold!
"So cold!" I exclaimed, removing my hands quickly, flicking water in both mine and Oliver's faces. With that another water fight broke out…though it was considerably smaller than that of the one earlier in the day.
"Why do we always end up having water fights?" Ollie asked, we'd sprawled out on the grass by the stream watching the small wisps of clouds cross the sky slowly. I leaned on my elbows looking down at him, and tried to shrug my shoulders though it must have looked rather weird, it was rather awkward to shrug with my elbows firmly planted on the ground.
"'Cause we are epic." I replied simply, he smiled before throwing some grass in my direction. It seems whenever I sit on grass, I must proceed to pluck the blades from the ground. "Do we have to resort to a grass fight now?"
"Your call." he answered, smirking and yet again throwing more grass at me. I shook my head, giving him a friendly glare, before grabbing some grass and chucking it at his face. I picked some more grass, as did he and we sprinkled it over each other's hair.
After a couple of minutes of pouring grass on each other we stopped and decided it would be best if we returned back to the house. I shook my hair trying to get out all of the grass, before I began brushing myself off of any remaining grass.
"Is there anymore grass?" I asked, turning round. Oliver came closer.
"Still a bit in your hair, I'll get It." he answered as he began brushing his fingers through my hair. To be honest it was quite an awkward moment once more. "There we go, all gone." Thank god! I looked up at him smiling.
"Right let's get back." I said, as I began climbing up the hill. "Knowing my mother she'll be ranting by now."
"Aye, so we'll mine." he chuckled; it only took us a couple of minutes to walk back up. And to our surprise neither of our mothers were ranting, they were actually making sandwiches for our long journey back.
"Hannah, be a dear and help your father." she asked, before returning to chatting with Mrs Wood. Oliver accompanied me to the front room where dad and Mr Wood were charming the luggage so that it became tiny, we'd be flying back to London and well that wasn't practical with large suitcases.
"Need any help?" I asked, dad looked thoughtfully before nodding.
"Yeah, find your brother and get his luggage off of him." he replied, I nodded before Oliver and I headed back into the house. We reached the guest room that Charlie was staying in, where we found him dashing round the room like a mad rabbit.
"Jeez…didn't you pack at all last night?" I asked, grabbing some of his stuff off of the cabinet and putting it in his case, which was very empty. He momentarily glared at me before he returned to running round his room. "I'll take that as a no then." I shook my head and began to fold his clothes neatly into his case.
"Arggh!" Charlie groaned in frustration, I shook my head as I found another pair of socks on top of the cupboard, however because the wardrobe decided to be taller than myself, it was a task to get them down.
"What now?" I asked, trying to jump to get the socks, earning a chuckle from Ollie. I sharply turned and glared at him. "The least you could do is to help me out." He then walked over, and reached up easily grabbing the pair before placing them on my head.
"How's that for help?" he asked jokingly, I shook the socks off my head before chucking them into the case.
"Not helpful! Either of you for that matter!" I said frustrated, both of them looked at me weirdly before they both flopped down onto the bed and left the packing to me.
10 minutes later
"Right I think that's everything." I said happily looking round the room, before looking back at the lazy boys, who were playing a game of Exploding Snap. Their attention came back to me as they realised what I had just said. "Oliver, take the case downstairs please, Charlie check the room in case there are things still lying round the place please."
"Gotcha captain!" they both said saluting me and then going about the tasks I had just set them. While they were being busy bees I went back to my guest room, just to double check that I hadn't left anything. While I was checking underneath the bed, I didn't see Charlie creeping in, before it was too late and I had feathers flung all over me.
"Charlie!" I screamed in shock, banging my head on the wood of the bed, as I turned to look at him. As I tried to scramble after him, he ran down the stairs out of my grasp, leaving me to nurse my sore head. "Tch…that really hurt!"
I sighed, rubbing my head, looking at the mess Charlie had just caused. Why did he have to be troublesome?! I began cleaning up the mass of feathers that was now scattered across the floor; I scooped them up before placing them in the bin. I then started to pull out the feathers that had got stuck in my hair, before placing them in the bin as well. In the commotion beforehand, my head had knocked the bed towards the right of the room, in the left corner of the floor underneath the bed; a shiny object caught my eye. It was a small metallic looking box, only about the size of your standard sized jewellery box, although the metallic look to the box made it seem as though it was definitely new rather than old, something told me this little trinket had a history…whether or not that history was old or not, I would only find out by looking inside.
I reached underneath the bed and grasped the box, pulling it out towards myself. Even though it was quite small, it was heavy for its size. What would make it so heavy? On closer inspection of the box, there was a small engraving…as if a child had carved pictures into the metal work. On the bottom of the box it read:
Property of Oliver Wood (age 7)
Aw! How adorable, seven year old Oliver kept a memory box…well I think it is a memory box anyway. I unclasped the lock on the front of the box before opening it, to find sheets of paper that had drawings on of; his family, Quidditch (even back then he was obsessed about the game), his house, and the final drawing was of Ollie, Charlie and I, when Oliver and I were at least six or seven and Charlie was three. Next to the drawing of me there was a label that read:
My bestest friend: Hannah
It brought a big smile to my face, it was so cute! Underneath Oliver's drawings was a photo that was taken when we were seven, probably the day Oliver drew the pictures I had just found. In the photo young Oliver, Charlie and I were down at the small stream at the bottom of the hill. The sun was shining and everyone was happy, smiling and laughing. Charlie had a frog in his hand, while Oliver was trying to tickle me. The photo brought back so many happy memories of that day; we stayed with the Wood family for two weeks during the summer of that year…I'm not so good with dates really. Oliver, Charlie and I spent most of the time running round the edges of the small forest near the house, making a den and playing hide and seek. Or we would roll down the hill to the stream where we would try and catch frogs.
As I was reminiscing, Oliver had entered the room and was leaning casually against the cupboard which was opposite the end of the bed. Since I was so caught up in my thoughts I hadn't noticed at all that he had entered the room or that he was closely watching me. Until he coughed was I brought out of my mind.
"What have you got there?" he asked, as he pushed himself off of the cupboard and crouched down beside me. He took the box from the floor and began to flip through the drawings, which caused a smile to grow on his face.
"You were adorable at seven years old." I said, handing him the photo. He took it and his smile grew.
"Fun times." he said as he put them back in the box, before he stood back up, offering me his hand so that he could help me up. "Missed a feather there Hannah."
He removed it from its entangled place in my hair, before he threw it with the rest of the feathers in the bin.
"Oh yeah! Why the hell did Charlie run in here with feathers?" I asked, as we began to walk out of the room and down the stairs.
"Oh. Yeah. About that…you see…I suggested It." he replied innocently, rubbing the back of his head. He began to walk faster too.
"OLIVER WOOD!" I yelled as he jumped down the stairs before he ran out of the front door. I pelted after him, luckily the Wood family didn't have any neighbours otherwise they would be rather annoyed at all the antics that happen in the Wood household, especially when our family come round for a visit. After running after him for a couple of minutes our mothers called us over.
"I think that's everything." my dad said, as he shrunk the last of the luggage and handing my broom over to me, as mother was a muggle she couldn't fly so dad was taking her and trusting me with Charlie. My mother traded recipes with Mrs Wood and then handed her one of her lovely paintings, she then said her goodbyes to the rest of the Wood family. Dad then also said his goodbyes sharing a friendly hug with his best friend Mr Wood.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." I said, giving Oliver a hug.
"Aye and we can all hang out at the Quidditch shop." he mused, smiling. I shook my head.
"Obsessive." I murmured, he then mocked a shocked or more offended look. I hit him on the arm. "I wouldn't be your friend, if you were any other way."
The day before
"You know I think this year is going to be a good year." I said, as Angelina, Caris and I walked down the street of Diagon Alley towards Flourish and Blotts. Charlie, Oliver, Fred, and George were going to meet us there however I'm sure they would be caught up at the Quidditch shop.
"Actually so do I, I don't know what it is but I feel like something is definitely going to change this year." Angie said, Caris nodded her head in agreement. Some Slytherin girls walked by snarling us, I know our houses are rivals and all, but is there a real need to snarl us every time they see us? Some of the Slytherins are quite nice like take for example Willow's brother Romulus and his friends, they're really nice people but they are extremely cunning, if you got on their bad-side…man I wouldn't want to be you.
"What's their problem?" Caris asked, I shook my head looking over my shoulder to see the fleeting backs of the obnoxious gang of Slytherin girls.
"They always have a problem Caris." I stated as we entered Flourish and Blotts, we scoured the shelves to find all our textbooks, parchment and quills, after a good twenty minutes we exited the shop victorious.
"So where to next?" Angie asked, as we looked around the street.
"Well knowing the lads, I'm sure they're still dawdling round the Quidditch shop, which gives us time to do whatever we want!" I answered, smiling as I pointed towards one of the cafes, knowing they wouldn't say no to a piece of cake.
"Ooo and I can get my skinny decaf latte!" Caris exclaimed, making us all giggle as we walked into the small café.
"That's basically milk with a hint of coffee." I stated giggling; receiving a lot of weird looks from people sat drinking what I assumed to be tea or coffee.
"But it tastes so good!" she retaliated giggling also. Angie by this time had already ordered her herbal tea and a scone (that should always be pronounced in a very posh accent!) and then found us some seats by the window. Caris then ordered her skinny decaf latte and a piece of chocolate cake and finally I ordered a hot chocolate and a big slice of scrumptious pumpkin pie, my absolute favourite. After a couple of minutes chatting and savouring the delicious flavours of my pumpkin pie, one of the sleaziest Gryffindors you will probably ever meet entered the shop. I actually have no clue how in the world Gerald was sorted into Gryffindor I'd certainly pin him as a Slytherin.
"Shit…" I mumbled, grabbing a menu and doing the cliché thing everyone would do at that moment and hide behind it. "It's that goddamn Gerald!"
"Who?" Caris asked quietly, despite my best efforts and even Angie's of avoiding all eye contact with the boy, but he'd obviously spotted us and was walking over with a very creepy smile on his face.
"Damn it all to hell!" Angie hissed, Caris still looked confused as she looked between Angie and I. "It's Gerald, a right slime ball."
Just as he was a couple of inches away from our table, there was terrible screeching caused by the lads grabbing chairs and dragging them towards our table. Oliver appeared to my right smiling with a knowing look in his eyes as he looked behind him towards Gerald, who scowled before exiting the café. Fred and George were sat either side of Angie, Charlie sat the other side of Oliver and Cedric was sat next to Caris…such an adorable couple!
"Thanks" I whispered to Oliver, he smiled shrugging his shoulders.
"Was nothing really, I have no idea how he was sorted into our house." he replied, the others were chatting among themselves.
"Neither do I." I said returning to my forgotten pie, but before I could pick up the fork Oliver had already grabbed it and shovelled a considerable amount of pie into his mouth. "Hey!"
I playfully hit him on the arm and smacked him upside the head, which he retaliated by tickling me. My one weakness: I'm extremely ticklish, that and deals that surround pumpkin pie…oh and not forgetting the odd cheeky bet on Quidditch.
"S…stop…I...It!" I exclaimed, drawing more weird looks from around the café, seriously why hadn't the owner just chucked us out to begin with, I would of. He finally stopped his tickle assault, before he took my mug of hot chocolate and proceeded to drink it. "What's with you and taking my food and drink?"
"Think of it as payment for helping you out with Gerald." he mused chuckling to himself, I pouted and hit him again.
"You're a friend; you don't expect payment from friends when you help them out." I explained as I tried to get my mug back from the man, he conceded and handed back the mug, though he'd basically drank more than half the contents already. I sighed shaking my head. "We make such a pair."
"Aye, the best of friends." he said clapping a hand on my shoulder and bringing me into one of his one-armed hugs. "Forgive me?" I looked up into his chocolate brown eyes that made the most incredible and non-negotiable puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, but you owe me some pumpkin pie." I sighed in defeat, he smiled once again, by this time the others were ready to leave and so we also stood up and began walking towards the door.
"I always owe you pumpkin pie." he chuckled, I shook my head. It was a regular occurrence that Mr Wood would steal my food and generally it would some delicious pumpkin pie.
"Then stop taking my pie!" I stated, poking him in the arm, "By the way anything interesting in the Quidditch store?"
"Aye, always is, the Nimbus 2000." he said, the twinkle in his that he gets when he talks about Quidditch appeared. I smiled same old Ollie.
"If you're asking me to get it you for Christmas, you're on a planet of your own mister." I said, shaking my head and laughing. He chuckled pulling me into a hug as we walked down the street.
"Oi! You two hurry it up!" Fred called; we both shook our heads and began to walk faster to catch up with the group.
"You didn't get into any fights did you?" I asked seriously, he shook his head.
"I haven't, I swear. Haven't seen the git." he replied. Even though I absolutely despise Marcus Flint, I hated Oliver getting into fights with him or any of the Slytherin team. Not only could the fights possibly injury Oliver, they could also get him banned from Quidditch for the whole year, or his whole life at Hogwarts!
"Good. We can't risk losing you." I mused, his smile grew, to which he received a hit to the back of the head.
"Stop abusing me!" he complained as he rubbed the back of his head. Passers-by looked at the two of us as if we were the strangest things they had ever seen, which in the wizarding community is quite a feat to do. The rest of the group pretended they didn't know us…so mean of them, they are just as weird as we are!
After we had gotten all of the necessary items we needed for the year, everyone parted ways; we were all to meet up on Platform nine and three quarters tomorrow. Since it was pointless for Oliver to go back up to Scotland only to come back again tomorrow, he was staying as he usually did in our house.
"Has everyone definitely got everything they need?" I asked, as we walked down one of the many busy streets of London, it was kind of late now to turn back around and go back to Diagon Alley as my mother was expecting us to be back by 6:00pm and it was already five thirty.
"Yes, mother." Charlie answered mockingly; Oliver began chuckling before I stopped him with one of my signature death glares. Maybe I should lay off glaring at people, especially when the new first years are introduced to the school, they'd be absolutely petrified if I accidentally turned round and glared at them, and then they'd probably tell their head of house and get me into trouble…and I really don't want to get detention, 'cause knowing my luck it would more than likely be Professor Snape who'd oversee my detention…and no one wants a detention with Snape.
"Cheeky!" I exclaimed, playfully punching Charlie in the arm, he made a shocked/hurt face and began rubbing the arm I'd just hit, as if I'd hurt him badly. He then ran down the road, making Oliver and I briskly walk after him, to make sure nothing happened to him. After a couple of minutes we arrived back at our house, where not to my surprise, no one was home. Taped to the fridge on bright orange paper was a letter from mum:
Hannah/Charlie/Oliver
I'm sorry I'm not home, but the gallery called and there have been several problems with the set up for tomorrow. I'll be home late and your father has Ministry business to attend to, I don't think he'll be back until the early hours of tomorrow. So there's pasta in the fridge, chicken and chips in the freezer or if you cannot be bothered making any of that there's money in the take-out menu drawer. Oh and the guest room is still needing some set up, Hannah, there are sheets in the airing cupboard. Oh and Oliver make yourself at home deary.
Love
Mum.
"Wouldn't you know it?!" I sighed as I gave Oliver the note, "Hey Charlie ring the pizza place for me!"
"Yay! Pizza!" he exclaimed as he ran through the kitchen and into the living room. I turned round to Oliver who had now read the letter.
"Right I'm off to make your bed." I stated as I walked out of the kitchen and began to climb the stairs, he followed.
"I'll help you." he said, I looked at him sceptically. He smiled as I nodded approvingly. "Least I can do really since you are being kind and housing me for the evening."
We trudged up the stairs, he went straight to the guest room, he knew his way round this house, like I knew my way round his. After all we'd stayed at each other's houses countless times. I walked over to the airing cupboard and retrieved the sheets, before making my way to the bedroom. I placed the sheets onto the desk and threw one of the pillows and a pillow case at Oliver. He caught them with reasonable ease; after all he was an excellent keeper. We each then put the cover on the pillow we had in hand, once they were adequately snug in their Gryffindor red cases, you'd swear my dad had a kind of obsession with the colour red…one living room and two bedrooms with the same colour scheme…never ask my dad for interior design work. We placed them down onto the desk and moved onto the next task for making the bed.
"Right, duvet next?" I asked, as I dragged the big fluffy, comfy duvet from the cupboard. Handing him part of it as I picked up the red duvet cover, Oliver had already picked up on my dad's obsession with the colour red, after all he'd stayed over quite a few times.
"Aye, sounds like a plan." he agreed, unfurling the duvet so that it made it easier for me to pull the cover on. Once that was done, I set about putting the under sheet on the bed, resulting in me doing an extremely awkward looking crab on the bed to keep the corners of the damn sheet down. "You alright there?"
"Yeah, could you tuck the sheet in at your end please." I replied as I tuck the edges in at the top of the bed. "There we go."
He then threw over the pillows which I caught and placed neatly on the top of the mattress. I grabbed one side of the duvet, pulling it up and down for a bit, which ruffled Oliver's hair a bit before dragging it and him to the bed to place it down.
"Should be comfy." I said flopping down onto it, it was extremely comfortable. Oliver sat down on the bed also, hopefully by now Charlie had phoned the pizza place, 'cause I was absolutely starving, because someone had nicked most of my pumpkin pie.
"Ah! This is one comfy bed; I could go to sleep right now." Oliver sighed, as he fell back onto the bed, closing his eyes and making snoring sounds…God I'd feel sorry for Percy if Oliver actually snored in his sleep like he was doing right now…He then mimicked turning over in his sleep, which meant his legs ended up nearly kicking me in the face. He then did the cliché thing that happens in nearly all the gushy, mushy romance films, were he pulled me towards him like I was his teddy-bear, he then nestled his face into my hair as he began chuckling.
"Such a comfy teddy-bear you make." he said laughing as he sat up, bringing me up also as we began laughing hysterically. After a good couple of minutes laughing our socks off, we ventured downstairs, where Charlie was sat in the living room, watching the sports channel.
"Did you ring them?" I asked, as I walked into the kitchen, grabbing two glasses out of the cupboard and handing them to Oliver, before venturing into the fridge to find some form of drink, finally settling on some average orange juice.
"Yes, should be here right about now." he replied, just as the doorbell rang. Oliver placed both the drinks down onto the table, as I went to answer the door. Charlie rushed into the kitchen sitting down in his usual spot, Oliver sat next to him and I placed the pizza in the middle of the table. I brought over some plates, before sitting down across from Oliver. After eating the delicious pizza, and chatting about everything and anything under the sun that was appropriate to say in front of a twelve year old and to say at the dinner table.
Mum rang a little later while we were watching some film about a couple…the general romance comedy film. She explained that she wasn't going to be home until very late, another crisis at the gallery had happened. Mother then also sent Charlie to bed, leaving Oliver and I to watch whatever we wanted, after some riffling around the cupboard for some videos I found some old family movies.
"This should be good." I said, as I put the video into the player, before taking my seat next to Oliver on the couch. Footage of various memories came on screen, my parents wedding…what was my mother thinking when she got a perm? My dad looked handsome in his suit and his best man was none other than Mr Wood who was very handsome indeed…what's that saying again? The apple doesn't fall from the tree…I now know were Oliver got his looks from. There was also footage of Oliver's parents wedding; obviously my mother felt the need to bring a video camera to the wedding. Being a muggle, mother didn't see why many of the people at the wedding had a problem with her use of a video camera. Oliver's dad had decided to wear a kilt for his wedding…and if Mr Wood looked smashing in a kilt then I'm a hundred per cent sure that Oliver would look gorgeous! Then it skipped a few years to toddler Oliver and I and baby Charlie.
"Awww!" I said hugging the pillow that had found its way into my arms. Oliver smiled or rather smirked shaking his head and looked over at me. I raised an eyebrow in question.
"Such a girlie reaction." he stated, before defending himself from the pillow I was hitting him with. "Hey! Stop!"
"Only if you apologise for your sexist remark." I replied, holding the pillow up in a kind of warning to him. He nodded, returning to his normal sitting position on the couch.
"Ok, I'm sorry." he apologised, giving me puppy dog eyes and holding his arms open wide for a hug. Those eyes get me all the time, I just couldn't say no, so we shared a hug for a couple of minutes before returning to watching the films. After a couple of minutes, I looked over at the clock which read: twelve o'clock. I yawned a bit as I stretched my arms and legs, Oliver also looked rather tired.
"Call it a day?" I asked, he nodded. I turned the television off and then trudged up the stairs along with Oliver. "Night, night."
"Night, see you in the morning." he replied as he walked towards his room. I walked to mine and closed the door as I got changed into my baby blue pyjamas which read 'Ducks are cool' with a cute rubber duck underneath the white writing. I then switched off the lights and got underneath the duvet and slipped into a dreamless sleep.
Author's notes:
Hello! Thank you very much for reading! I really love my duck pyjamas they're so fabulous! I have never actually eaten pumpkin pie, last Halloween I was walking round ASDA with my mother and I found the pumpkins and I asked her could we buy one carve it and use the inside we've taken out to make some pumpkin pie…however she didn't let me and we didn't even buy a pumpkin! I was so gutted it was so unbelievable! I didn't do anything on Halloween except stay in and enjoy watching The Nightmare Before Christmas…I love Tim Burton's films! I love autumn! Even if the weather is absolute crap here in good old England, always raining, then again I love the smell of rain I don't know what it is but it just has a distinct smell that I can never describe. My birthday is also in autumn and is actually on the 6th of October which is why I love October! My friends and I generally result in poking each other and say stop abusing me nearly every day too! Err…what else can I say…any questions, suggestions criticisms please feel free to message or review. I think that's all…I will hopefully be writing this to the last book ^_^ well I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter ^_^ hope to be updating soon! Ciao! ^_^