Welcome home
Chapter 1: Welcome back.
Disclaimer: I do not own the HP characters. The end.
Authors Note:
So! New story.Completely different from The Obvious Story.Obviously. No, I didn't give up on that one. I just haven't had the time to think over the plot completely and… well… its proving to be more difficult to write than I thought. Oh well. I thought I'd do one of KB/OW. It should be fun. Review please!
RIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG.
Bloody hell. Squinting her eyes, the morning victim awoke with the sunlight shining directly towards her eyes. Most people would be happy to find the sky blue and the sun shining so brightly on mornings, especially Monday mornings, for Monday mornings meant work, and work meant labor.
RIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG. RIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGG.
"Alright, alright!" She cried out as her arm flung toward her bedside table and tapped down the switch on her alarm clock. She grunted as her petite body rolled around the bed and eventually landed onto her carpet floor with a tump. "Ughh," she reached and grabbed the clock to see that the time was
"7:51?!!!" Katie Bell jumped up from the floor in frenzy and ran toward the bathroom. She had to be a work in less than ten minutes. Her blonde hair sticking out toward several directions, she jumped into the shower, turned on the water, squeezed her shampoo content hovering over her head and brushed her teeth in super speed. And this all happened at the same time. Believe it or not, this was her usual everyday mornings before Katie had to go work like the rest of the society.
Once Katie graduated from Hogwarts, she had struggled to choose her future career. Katie was surely quite gifted at the said sport quidditch ever since she got accepted to join the Gryffindor quidditch team back in school and eventually became better. But there was one other thing that Katie enjoyed immensely that most people did not know about. She loved to write. She liked how she could describe and express the world and everything revolving around her with words. She didn't really know if she was a good writer, for that matter. But she knew she wasn't that bad. Or so she thought.
Three years had already passed and Katie Bell now worked for the Witch Weekly, much to her distaste. It wasn't an easy job; in fact it was the only job she could get after she had chosen her career as a writer. The reason for her struggle to find a decent job, the Daily Prophet for example, was that, apparently, Katie tended to diverge from the main point of the story or perhaps she just lacked the creative and sparkling ideas that most writers required, especially nowadays. In other words, she was still an amateur. The only problem was Katie was damned to be oblivious. Yet she was a hard worker.
Hence was her current state, a grown woman at a young age, with a small income. She couldn't say her life was perfect. Yet there was one thing she could rely on. Her house. More like, her huge three-story house on the outskirts of London, which was handed down by her parents before they passed away after her graduation. At that point, the war had been at its climax and many witches and wizards, including her parents, had gathered to fight the dark forces. The good won, of course. Once the war was over, Katie's life had never been the same without them. Ever since their tragic death, Katie lived by herself in this huge house, surrounded by elaborate walls, tall windows twice the size of Katie's height, pearl white furniture, and marble stairs. She knew the house was worth a fortune yet she never had the slightest intention to sell it. This house was basically her everything.
The house was fairly large for just one person and living by herself in such a spacious place tended to make her lazy and carefree of cleaning. Hence the house was a messy state. Bottles, wrappers, and pieces of paper lying all over the floor and most of her everyday clothing would be hung on random places, such as door frames, stair cases, and marble statues. Katie hastily grabbed her coat and bag and clumsily put on her heels as she ran toward the door, kicking a plastic bottle out of her way. It was just one of her normal Mondays.
&.&.&.&.&
"KATIE BELL!!"
Katie winced as she heard her boss call, or more like, scream her name for the entire world to hear. For obvious reasons, Katie was once again late. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she poke her head over her work station and grimaced at a not-very-happy boss stomping her feet down the hall. The plump middle-aged lady who had a unique exotic sense of style now stood in front of Katie with a cross look.
"H-hello Melinda."
"What have I told you last week?" she asked crossly as she folded her arms across her chest.
"Oh I'm so sorry. It won't happen again," Katie replied, her eyes begging for forgiveness. The woman obviously wasn't much tolerant.
"I was working on the article about last week's world cup match and…"
"How many times have I told you that I do NOT care what you are up to?! I…" She paused. "Well… actually… unless it concerns about those men. Now could they, or any one of them in fact, be seeing or dating anyone well-know? Huhhhh. Must research on that. Must research on that. Katie, find out more about those hunky quidditch boys and report straight back to me. Hmmm," the short lady quickly forgot why she had come to Bell's workstation and headed back to her office, murmuring to herself.
Katie sighed in relief and dropped down onto her chair. One positive thing about Melinda was that she was an easy person to get away with, especially with her infamous ADD, which the said person is not aware of.
"Psst. Hey. Wow, that was close, innit?" whispered her friend Candice, a slim brunette with a bright, optimistic personality and had the habit of clinging on to Katie wherever they went. In fact, Candice was the only person whom Katie could call friend, since she rarely talked to anybody. But the girl had proven to be annoying more often and constantly asked Katie for money. Candice was an only-child from a rich wizarding family (hence the spoiled character) but after she had run off to get married with her muggle boyfriend, she was cut off from her family and financial support. They were a positively happy couple; the muggle husband was a banker somewhere in London from what Katie knew. The couple tended to keep their low financial struggle to a minimum.
Katie looked up and nodded. "Yeah. it was," she sighed again as she took off her coat and opened her bag. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm doing good! I just finished my article about Ginny Weasley from last week."
"Ginny Weasley?" Katie looked up in surprise. She hadn't heard or seen Ginny for so long, it was nice to hear about her.
"Yes! Oh, you know, the one who's dating that gorgeous Harry Potter? Well, I don't think they are that good of a couple anyway. I personally think he's up for brunettes. But of course, I interviewed him myself. Oh remember that one time.."You're bloody married for heavens. She thought and rolled her eyes. But soon enough, Katie's mind had already drifted off as Candice went on with her gossipy rambles. So they're finally dating now are they? She smiled at the thought. Ginny had fancied him quite a lot if I remember.
"Isn't that right?" Katie shook her head from reminiscing at Candice's interruption.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Why not," she said assertively as she rumbled through her papers.
"Oh! And guess what?!" Candice asked, her eyes engulfed in excitement.
Katie smirked and rolled her eyes, "what?"
"I'm pregnant!" She squealed animatedly as she stood up from her chair to receive her hug as if expected.
"Wow! Candice, congrats!" Although it wasn't very noticeable, Katie could definitely see the stomach bulging slightly from her shirt.
Candice giggled, "so Katie. Wanna buy me lunch? I'm craving some marinara pasta! Just think about the baby…"
Ohh boy.
&.&.&.&.&
"Alright. Now where is he?" A sharp looking reporter strained her neck over the crowd with her quill and notepad in her arms, tapping her foot impatiently along with tens of other reporters. Then, as if it were a miracle, there was a loud sound of someone apparating on the platform of International Apparition Port, side along with another wizard. At the welcomed arrival, the crowd of reporters swarmed toward the platform with their quills ready.
Oliver Wood took a step back, overwhelmed by such a sudden attack of anonymous questions.
"Oliver! Is it true that you'll be replaced by William Hancok?"
"How is your leg Oliver?"
"Welcome back Mr. Wood!"
"How do you feel after winning the world cup?"
"Do you think the Puddlemere United Reserve Team will keep up the victories in the future?
"Oliver, is it true that you threw a punch at the Bulgarian seeker?"
"Did you expect the bludger before you saved the last goal?"
"Mr. Wood!"
Oliver most definitely wasn't ready for so much publicity. He was blinded by flashes and pushed from every direction by interrogating reporters. His temporary assistant, gratefully, had successfully blocked enough reporters from harassing him. Oliver held up his hands and announced, "thank you. Thank you. I am very glad and honored to be back in England. Last week's world cup in Spain was somewhat miraculous and an astonishing night for all of us, the Puddlemere United."
"Mr. Wood has been taken off training temporarily due to his injury from the victory game last Friday. He has received permission to arrive in England before the rest of the team for extra medical treatment. It is definitive that the team will be back in England for few years but I do insist that if you have any more questions, please wait until the press conference next week. Thank you."
Having said, the build guard helped Oliver step down from the platform and opened car door, sent by the ministry. Oliver quickly bent down to step into the car, maintaining his composure once set on the leather seat. As the door finally clapped shut, he closed his eyes and hung his head back over the seat, sighing in relief.
The driver looked at him through his mirror and smiled, "welcome back Mr. Wood."