Of Picnics and Quidditch
By Stop and Go
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Outside the Girl's Locker Room. June. Morning.
Oliver Wood was a rather strong individual. He was quidditch captain and coached the best team Hogwarts had ever seen. He was burly with thick muscles and had a determination that most people couldn't comprehend. (The only other person with as much determination as him, as much as he hated to say it, was Marcus Flint. That boy was very determined to break his hand.) He was really rather good; Puddlemere United had offered him a spot after graduation.
Oliver Wood was a rather bright individual. He achieved relatively high marks in his classes, especially Transfiguration. (He always thought that McGonagall may have been biased towards the Quidditch Captain, but everyone told him that was nonsense; McGonagall didn't play favorites). He remained the only one in his year able to completely transfigure one animal into another. He was no Hermione Granger, of course, but at least he wasn't a Vincent Crabbe.
Oliver Wood was a rather intuitive individual. He always sensed conflict before it came. He was proud to say that he single handedly diffused a rather nasty situation between two Ravenclaw first years a few weeks ago. (Of course, they'll mention that Snape was standing behind him, but really without his mediating skills, those first years would be long gone). He wasn't a seer, Divinitation was never his style, but he wasn't completely oblivious either.
But even with all the strong-will, brightness and intuition in the world, Oliver could not for the life of him figure out what was going on inside the girl's locker room. The girls were taking ages to change into their uniforms.
Practice started in two minutes for Merlin's sake!
"Girls," Percy Weasley had once told him, "are impossible to understand. Penelope can be one way today and completely different tomorrow! It's quite frustrating but I still adore her. You know, Penelope plans to join the ministry with me as a – (At this point, Oliver had backed slowly out of the common room, leaving Percy to continue his rambles alone.) "
Giggling erupted from behind the locker room door.
Suddenly, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet appeared from behind the door. They grinned wildly at Oliver before falling into laughter again.
"What the hell is so funny?" He asked impatiently.
They responded by running onto the quidditch pitch and flying up into the air.
One minute until practice.
Oliver knocked on the door. "C'mon Bell. We haven't got all day."
There was rustling and a loud crash.
45 seconds.
"Bell! Let's go! How long does it take to change?"
Silence.
30 seconds.
He knocked again and decided that maybe something was wrong. "Katie," he said in a softer voice, "are you alright?"
No answer.
Oliver opened the door apprehensively. "Katie, I'm coming in."
The first thing that he noticed about the girl's locker room was that it smelled a hell of a lot better than the boy's did. It smelled something like mint and vanilla. It was light and airy, clearly a place where women had spent large quantities of time preparing themselves.
Suddenly, a small figure burst from the back of the room and ran straight into Oliver. He fell backwards onto the grass. The figure fell beside him, with a noticeably quieter crash.
"Merlin, Katie! What the hell is going on?"
Katie stirred from beside him and turned over onto her stomach. She propped her head up onto her hands and looked at Oliver with an unidentifiable expression on her face.
"It's a really lovely day out."
He had to control the urge to scream at her. That's all she had to say to him after nearly causing him a heart attack? It's a lovely day!?
Katie took his silence as a cue to keep on talking. "I mean, the sky has never really been this blue before and it's absolutely the perfect temperature out for a nice picnic, don't you think?" She paused and looked away. "Maybe we should skip practice today."
"ARE YOU INSANE!? YOU MUST BE MENTAL IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO CANCEL PRACTICE WHEN THERE ARE PERFECT CONDITIONS TO TEST OUT NEW PLAYS. NOW LET'S GO."
Oliver roughly pulled Katie to her feet and dragged her out onto the field.
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Gryffindor Common Room. June. Before Dinner.
Angelina took Oliver aside and punched him in the arm.
"What was that for!?"
"Are you really that daft Oliver? I can't believe you didn't cancel practice!" She hissed at him while throwing him another punch in the same arm.
"OW! I can't believe you'd think that I'd cancel practice! There was no reason."
"Katie gave you plenty of reasons."
"She told me that I should cancel practice because it was a lovely day."
"Yes, a lovely day for a picnic."
"There's food in the castle. Why go on a picnic?"
"Because it's romantic!"
"Katie should ask someone to have a picnic then instead of babbling on about how lovely it is and asking me to cancel practice."
At this point, Angelina blew up. "YOU ARE THE MOST OBLIVIOUS, IGNORANT AND STUPID BOY I HAVE EVER MET. I CANNOT BELIEVE HOGWARTS IS LETTING YOU GRADUATE THIS YEAR! I JUST… ARGH!"
As Oliver watched her storm away from him, he couldn't help but feel that maybe Percy Weasley wasn't kidding when he said girls were impossible.
Really, what was so special about picnics anyways?
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A/N: First attempt at KBOW. Written for 7spells and now completely regretting my pairing choice. I don't know the first thing about this ship!
But, please, do review!