Okz, I'm not going to ramble for the first time in ages and I'm going to get straight to the point…aka disclaimer and story.
Disclaimer: you know, it just dawned on me the other day that I am not in fact a prize winning author who is richer than the queen of England. And it just dawned on me that I am not infact a middle aged woman with a husband and tow children. The revelations I have are titanic-sized.
Katie Bell was a gifted girl. She was naturally bright and did decent in classes without much work. She had a great aptitude in Quidditch and performed marvelously with adequate practice. She was pleasant to look at even though she rarely brushed her hair in the morning and really didn't take as much time as she should to look decent. She was sarcastic and stubborn and this always got a laugh out of her friends. But she also had a gift for getting on Snape's bad side.
Now the said professor already hated every Griffindor but since she was on the house Quidditch team, this only made her more susceptible to punishment. And on top of this, potions was the one class she could not grasp. Katie was also a loyalist to her house and especially her team. So when Snape would mouth off about how they couldn't play; she couldn't help adding a snide and/or sarcastic remark about his own house team. And this of course landed her in detention every time without fail.
So on Friday night she bid goodbye to her friends and headed down to the dungeons. She let out a long sigh as she straightened out her shirt and skirt of her uniform once she reached the oak door. She pushed her bangs off her face even though they bounced right back and tucked a lock of her collar-bone-length, golden blonde hair behind her ear. She took a deep breath and put on her stone-cold face, opened the door and stalked in with a defiant attitude she reserved only for her favorite professor and her dearest captain when they had a dawn practice.
"Well now that Miss Bell has decided to grace us with her presence," Snape drawled as she took her usual seat in the middle of the room-not to close to the front but not to close to the back; classic seating-her whole demeanor was shattered.
Not because of the potions master, of course (they had gone through this routine several times), or because she was late or because everyone else turned to look at her, but because her captain turned to look at her. She just stared at the Scotsman confused as he tuned back around in his seat right to her left with a sheepish smile.
"I suppose we could continue seeing if she can keep her snide comments to herself," Katie did her best to recompose her emotionless face and not glower at him as he continued. "Now I believe this detention will be fairly simple. You are all to write me a two foot essay on student conduct and hand it in at the end of our little…get together."
There was a shuffle of noise as the students began to scramble for parchment, quills and ink. Katie found as she was digging through her bag her brow was furrowed.
what the hell is Wood doing in here? What happened to 'no more detentions!'
She let out a long sigh as she realized she had no parchment and turned to her seventh year captain.
"Hey, cap'n," she said in a hushed whisper, "can you spare me a bit of parchment?"
Oliver smirked as he handed her a two foot and one foot piece, "I thought I told you no more detentions, Bell."
"Oh so that was what you said?" she said softly as she took it from him, trying not to blush as her hand brushed over his, "I couldn't make it out you were screaming so loud," she smiled faintly as he let out a small chuckle, "3 feet-what kind of overachiever do you think I am, cap'n?"
"The second one is-"
"If you don't mind, I believe the rest of these shining students are trying to do their work," Snape interrupted from his desk in the front of the room, "So if you could shut your dribbling mouths Mr. Wood and Miss Bell, I'm sure it would be much appreciated."
Oliver rolled his eyes as Katie glared at the top of the potions master's head once he looked down at the paper in front of him. After a few calculated moments Katie turned back to her captain but found he was working on his paper.
A faint smile played over her lips as she watched him work. He was slightly hunched over his paper and it seemed like his quill was flying over his paper. She thought he looked marvelously disheveled with his perpetually messy brown hair, his wrinkled oxford with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his tie hanging loosely around his neck. She watched him run a hand through his hair and her smile grew larger as her eyes traveled down his profile. From his furrowed brow, his chocolate brow eyes that were glaring at his paper, the strong and slightly-crooked-nose-from-a-bludger-incident, his lips which were drawn in a straight and tense line to his square jaw line.
Then she realized she was staring at her captain with a goofy smile on her face in the middle of detention. She quickly shook her head and started writing on the one foot parchment-praying that she could BS it the whole way through.
Hogwarts; a History expresses that a school cannot function properly with out good student conduct. Student conduct can be outlined by both written and moral law-
Oh c'mon Bell, we all know you never read Hogwarts; a History.
Katie looked at her paper startled. She certainly didn't write that.
Why would you even start your paper on the smaller piece? I don't think that's good strategy and you better not carry that over onto the pitch.
She looked over to her captain wide-eyed, her quill still suspended in mid-air above her unfinished sentence. He looked over at her, amusement written across his face before looking back to his own paper but not without sending her a quick wink before hand.
So are you just going to sit there?
She stared at the parchment apprehensively before scribbling her own message.
Cap'n?
Who else?
Well isn't this nice. It's about time we spent some quality time together-I mean besides on the pitch where you're screaming your head off at me. But I'm sure that's fun for you, right cap'n?
I have a name, Bell.
And I have a first one.
Katie heard a small chuckle coming from her left as the next message wrote out in front of her.
Good point.
So what first year did you swipe this off of?
Actually our starling beaters gave it to me.
So then what were you thinking? Taking something from those two…it's borderline insanity.
I suppose you're right.
I know I'm right.
I'm sure Snape doesn't agree.
Why do you think I'm sitting here writing an essay on student conduct?
I wouldn't exactly call this writing an essay.
Well I don't know about you, buddy, but I've got a whole sentence in a half.
It's sad that I can actually read the pride in your voice
Never knew we were this close, hu?
No, it's just sad that you would be proud of that. It's not even that good.
"Ugh!" Katie scoffed and she heard another small laugh from next to her.
"Are you finished, Miss Bell?" Snape drawled
"Nearly professor," she said as sweetly as she could manage with a fake smile plastered across her face and the second he looked down she stuck her tongue out at him.
Smooth save. I'm sure that smile brightened up his day.
You know, I could've sworn YOU were the keeper-you should be making saves.
Touche.
Katie smiled down at the paper before folding it in half closed. Whether she liked it not she had to get that essay done.
…and that is why a school so fine as Hogwarts, the educational system, and all of England would fail without proper student conduct from star pupils such as myself.
Katie nearly laughed out loud at that last line as she handed her paper to Snape two hours later. She knew she was far from a 'star pupil' but it was still fun to write it and think so for just a second or two. In fact, her whole essay was completely BS-ed over, she mused as she picked up her bag and Oliver's parchment. Now that she thought about it as she left the dungeons alone, for Oliver had finished earlier, half of her school career was BS-ed over. Merlin knew she was good at taking tests but she was horrendous at essay writing so it was a mystery to her how she managed to scrape decent grades.
The next Monday in Transfiguration she was musing the same thing over and paying Professor McGonagall close-to-nothing attention.
"Miss Bell?"
At the moment her mind had wandered into uncharted territory. At first she was cursing off Snape in her head, then she was reminded of all her potions homework, and then she thought she could ask Oliver to help her with it because he was brilliant at it since he got an O on his OWLS in it. She realized she had a stupid grin on her face and her eyes were probably clouded because thinking of that sent her brain into a card catalog of his infatuating features.
"Miss Bell."
She shook her head. She had practice that night and she could not afford to wind up staring at the keeper she had to shoot on. It would throw her aim off effortlessly.
"Miss Bell!"
"Yes professor?" she asked innocently, blissfully unaware that she had been calling her name for the past two minutes. But then she saw how the strict professor's lips were pursed beyond belief and standing right next to her desk in the middle of the classroom. She gulped-she knew it would be bad.
"Thank you for checking back in," she said the tension in her voice almost as tight as her hair was tied back. "Now could you please tell us the importance of being registered as an Animagus?"
"Err…" Katie bit her bottom lip. She couldn't not answer and since she was paying attention she had to rely on common sense. Praying Godric Griffindor was watching over her she answered as best she could, "because you could be heavily fined and possibly imprisoned if your not registered…?" she said meekly.
McGonagall let out a sigh, "That's right, Miss Bell." Katie smiled broadly, silently praising Godric. "But unfortunately it took you nearly an hour to recognize your name. Perhaps you forgot what it was, so on Wednesday you can write it 200 hundred times in hopes it will help jog your memory next time."
Katie wasn't sure what to do first; pick her jaw up from the floor or bang her head several times. As McGonagall walked back up to the front of the classroom Katie let out a near-silent groan and let her head fall onto the books on her desk. She heard her fellow fifth year Alicia Spinnet let out a little snicker along with most of the class and Katie lightly slapped her on the shoulder as she sat back up.
So you managed to get detention again?
Katie stared at the parchment sitting on her nightstand. It was later that day and she had decided that she wanted to finish her homework in her dorm room rather than the noisy common room. She reached over, placed it over her homework and scribbled a message back.
What's it to you, Woodsie-kinns?
I think I said name and not 'horrible-nickname' the other day. But correct me if I'm wrong.
Ok…you're wrong.
Well remind me to correct you at practice.
I really don't think you need me to remind you to yell at me. You're smart enough, you'll remember.
I don't yell at you that much
….Is it safe to assume you're staring at this with an eyebrow cocked and a skeptic look on your face?
Katie let her eyebrow fall back to it's normal position and glowered at the parchment.
Well it would've been safe a second or two ago.
So I was right?
I thought we just established that you were smart enough
Well if I'm so bloody smart then why is this Herbology homework killing me?
Because you refuse to give the subject a chance. I'm sure if you paid attention it wouldn't be murder.
I'm sure if you paid attention you wouldn't get detention again.
I thought you were my captain and not my stalker.
Calm down, Bell. Spinnet told me.
Did ALICIA tell you that we have first names too?
So what homework am I tearing you away from?
Now that was a smooth save that you keepers should be pulling off.
Funny.
Oh sod off. Potions-by the way. I don't understand why I don't understand it.
I'm sure if you gave the subject a chance it wouldn't be murder.
…………Well that's no need to mock me…..
Don't make it so easy
Oh touche, Oliver Alban Wood. Touche.
The twins told you my middle name?
Oh yeah.
Remind me-oh wait, I'm smart enough to remember on my own, aren't I?
…didn't I tell you to sod off?
Well have fun with your potions homework then.
I will.
I'm sure.
I'm sure you're sure.
Whatever you say Kat.
Katie folded the parchment into half twice before putting it in her Defense Against the Dark Arks notebook defiantly. She had a ton of homework and she was sure she wouldn't be able to concentrate now anyway with her brain tattooing his name on her frontal lobe. But somehow she managed to trudge through most of her homework by the time Alicia and Angelina had come up.
"So what's the smile for?"
Katie looked up from her astronomy chart to Angelina who was leaning on the right bed post at the foot of her bed.
"Hu?"
"You've got this goofy grin on," she pointed out, a smirk starting to appear.
"Oh," Katie said, letting it fall and bite her bottom lip. "Really?"
"Yup. Hey you know that Roger Davies?" Alicia nodded but Katie wasn't really listening how he had asked Angelina to the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. Instead her eyes traveled to her Defense notebook where a corner of parchment was sticking out of the edge. Her smile returned as she remembered how he said her first name-or rather how it sounded in his Scottish accent seeing as he really couldn't manage 'ie'.
"What is up, Katie? How is this funny?"
Two days later she had Defense. Sitting in the third corridor classroom she mused how the words Professor Lupin was were suddenly going in one ear and out the other. Defense was normally ranked in her favorite classes so she was wondering how she suddenly checking out. Resting her head in her left hand as her right hand doodled on the folded piece of parchment in front of her, she let out a long sigh. She hadn't talked to him since last time-seeing as him yelling at her on the pitch didn't count
That's not supposed to be me, is it?
She was suddenly wide awake as familiar handwriting appeared beneath her doodle. She looked up to the front of the class where Professor Lupin was writing on the blackboard. Suppressing yet another goofy grin, she unfolded the parchment and started writing in their normal spot.
Nah, your head would be much bigger.
Good job
On what?
Now Flitwick thinks Roger has overdone his cheering charm on me again because I was laughing rather loudly.
She smiled broadly-she had made him laugh. Actually, in her mind's eye she could see him laughing. There he was, sitting in charms, his chocolate brown eyes dancing with mirth as his broad shoulders and toned torso heaved with laughter.
Hey cap'n?
Yes Bell?
Why don't we ever talk?
So what would you call this?
Advanced note passing
There you go again, getting Davies in trouble yet a second time.
Really though. I would've never guessed that you could manage to talk about something other than Quidditch for this long
Don't get me started, I'm about to break my record.
This time it was Katie who burst out laughing. Except in Lupin's class they weren't practicing Cheering Charms, they were actually going over why you don't mess around with Red Caps.
"Thank you, Miss Bell," Professor Lupin smiled faintly at her once she clamped a hand over her mouth, shocked at herself at what she had done. "But I didn't know Red Caps were that funny. Perhaps you could tell them that when your cleaning their cages after classes during lunch tomorrow?"
Once his back was towards her she let out a low groan, rolled her eyes and let her head fall back into a very uncomfortable position.
Kat?
Good job, I got detention during lunch plus the one today for McGonagall.
Well then I'll just have to push practice back so you can grace us with your presence.
Oh good, god forbid my bones get the rest they need.
That and now I might have detention too
Good job
Davies is trying to frame me.
Please don't make me get another detention for disturbing Lupin's black-board-writing with my loud laugh.
Would rather me talk about Quidditch?
I'd rather get back to class and not get caught for advanced note passing too.
That's one way to be blunt
Or brutally honest
Or which ever one prefers.
Bye Oliver
See you at practice later, Katie-my-Bella
GOOD BYE OLIVER!
What, I don't get a pe-
Katie quickly folded up the parchment as she felt all the blood in her body travel up to her cheeks. She thanked Godric that he couldn't see that her cheeks could, in fact, get as red as a quaffle. But unfortunately Angelina and Alicia could.
"So Katieeeeeeeee," Angelina smirked as they walked out of class, her and Alicia placing herself securely at Katie's sides. "Interesting lesson, huuuuuuuumm?"
"Uh, sure," Katie said, her brow furrowed, "So is there any reason why you're dragging your words out?"
"I have noooooooo idea what you're talking aboooooooooooout."
Katie sighed. "Don't think that I don't know that sing-song voice, Angelina Leanne Johnson."
"So exactly what was so funny?" Alicia asked.
Katie looked from her slightly-darker skinned friend to her dark-haired, dark-eyed friend, "Noooooooothing."
"So that means something," Angelina summed up and Alicia nodded as they headed to charms.
"I'm telling you, it was nothing," Katie persisted. "Now will you two get off my case?"
"No."
"Nu-hu."
Katie groaned and pushed her bangs off her face as they came to the staircase. First she had to deal with this whole Katie-my-Bella thing which was both a pun on words seeing as her last name was Bell and possibly a slight hint. But to what she wasn't exactly sure. Her captain could just be messing with her head and if that was his objective he was doing a damn good job of it. As she was pondering over this her over stuffed bag ripped at the seams.
"Oh great," she moaned as she got on her knees to pick up the spilled contents of her bag in the crowded hall.
"Here, we'll help," Angelina offered as they went to bend down.
"Don't worry about it," Katie said, grabbing things, "I've got it, go to charms and save me a seat somewhere I can slink in unnoticed. Ok?"
"Ok," Alicia said, "You sure though?"
"Positive."
"See you then," Angelina said as they hurried to class.
Katie tried to pick up her things as fast as she could because being on ones hands and knees in a skirt in the middle of a crowded hallway is not something a person would like to endure for more than they would have to. But people kept stepping on her stuff and/or kicking them farther away. And even though Katie was gifted in many things, organization was not one of them and so she had spare bits of parchment scattering the marble floor.
"Need some help?"
Katie looked up to see her captain kneeling down to help her.
"Oliver?" she said startled.
"Were you expecting Santa Claus?" he asked, smiling at her sweetly as he handed her a rather large stack of parchment.
"Thanks-but you should probably get to class and-"
"Nonsense," he said, shaking his head as he used his long arms to their full extent to grab a quill or two. "It would take you ages longer."
"Thanks," she said sincerely as they stood up just as the bell rang a minute later. She winced as it sounded, "Sorry," she smiled apologetically
"Don't worry about it," he waved it off with his hand before taking out his wand and magically stitching her old leather messenger bag up, a smile on his face as he handed it back to her.
"Thanks," she said for what felt like the thousandth time as she loaded her stuff back in and as he picked his bag up off the floor. "So did you get that detention?"
"No," he laughed lightly, "But you seem to be getting me in a lot of trouble lately."
"Yeah, well I could say the same?"
"Now you're blaming me because you forgot your name in McGonagall's class?"
"Well-pfft-ugh…sod off..."
He laughed as they turned opposite ways to go to classes, "Practice is pushed until 7:30."
"Got it!" she called over her shoulder as she hurried to charms which she was already dreadfully late for.
Luckily she was able to slink into Charms without getting caught by Professor Flitwick, seeing as he wasn't tall enough to see over the many student's heads to the back where she ahd snuck in.
"About time," Alicia whispered as Katie slid in between her and Angelina.
"We thought you would never make it," Angelina said, "what happened?"
"Nothing," Katie shrugged her shoulders with a small smile.
"It's something," the other two chorused.
Katie rolled her eyes but couldn't help reminiscing how their hands had brushed over each other just minutes before. But she nearly slapped herself silly five minutes later as she realized she was stroking her own hand. That was not crossing the line, that was skipping over the line and then shaking your butt about it.
She didn't see Oliver for the rest of the day and didn't get a massage from him either. So, she let it be that way. The last thing she needed to do was to send her stomach back into a flurry of butterflies before practice.
At lunch she went to go see Professor Lupin for her detention. But to her surprise he dismissed her. He said that he normally wouldn't have given her detention but seeing as students have been giving him a bit of trouble he had chosen to make an example out of her. She was even more startled when he sincerely apologized and gave her a bar of Honeydukes chocolate-hoping that he hadn't dampened her day too much. She never thought she would ever walk out of a detention smiling.
An hour after classes she said good bye to Angelina and Alicia who made fun of her forgetting yet another detention-the second of the day actually. She went through her usual routine before walking in. straightening out her shirt and skirt, she figured she didn't need the stone-cold face seeing as this was McGonagall's first offense. Seeing as she walked in with a very faint smile on-nothing more than the corners of her lips twitching. But once again she lost her whole demeanor when she saw her captain smiling sheepishly at her.
"Well it seems as if my team is ganging up on me," Professor McGonagall said with the smallest inkling of a smile as she sat down in the only other desk in her office on Oliver's right. "Now, I believe Mr. Wood is writing the class time table and Miss. Bell is writing her name. I'll tell you when you can stop."
Katie began to scramble through her bag for a quill and parchment but was only able to come up with a quill. "Oh damn…" she muttered. "Uh, pro-"
"Here Kat."
She snapped her head to her left to see Oliver holding out two pieces of parchment to her. She took them as he sent her a quick wink and she noticed that one was a two foot and the other a one foot. Smiling to herself as she started writing her name time and time again, she hoped that he would get some more seeing as they were now writing in the margins.
Your hand cramping yet?
No, what about you cap'n?
I could write these timetables for ages. And uh, would you like to hike your skirt up a little more?
Katie sat shocked at the parchment. Then she realized the itch on her thigh was rather high up. Sending him a half hearted glare, he shrugged his shoulders.
Sure Wood, how high?
Katie smirked as she heard a small chocking sound coming from her right.
"Mr. Wood…?" Professor McGonagall asked, slightly concerned.
"God bless you, Oliver," Katie covered for him.
McGonagall turned back to her work as Oliver sent her a grateful smile.
Thanks Kat.
It's what I'm here for-Too bad you had to go and schedule another practice
Hey, I had to push it back for YOU.
Well your team would crumble without me around.
Who has the big head now?
……….Percival J. Weasley.
Funny
Yeah, I try.
maybe you should try harder. Than you would finally run that team play right.
Don't even go there Wood.
Oh, back to the last names now, Bell?
What? Would you rather go back to meaningless-pet-names, Ollie-ollie-oxen-free?
Ugh-pfft-meaningless? And where the hell do you get off calling me THAT?
Where do you get off calling me Katie-my-Bella?
You're my chaser
And apparently I'm property of Oliver A. Wood.
Sod off Bell
You sod off-I got detention first!
So now we're bickering over this?
You started it!
Don't make me laugh, Bell. besides the only reason I'm in here is because of you. Remind me not to do you any favors anytime soon.
I won't bother since you're such a big-egotistical-Quidditch-Nazi-who-apparently-knows-EVERYTHING! So remember yourself!
AT LEAST I CAN REMEMBER MY NAME!
WELL I KNOW THE TIMETABLES TO GET TO CLASSES!
THEN YOU WOULD KNOW I WAS LATE TO McGONAGALL'S CLASS TO HELP YOU!
GO SOAK YOUR HEAD IN THE LAKE!
THAT'S BETTER THAN SITTING HERE WITH YOU!
Katie turned and glared at him through her long bangs only to see the same thing coming from him. And even though he did look particularly adorable she crumpled up the parchment into a ball without breaking eye contact with him. He glared at her with even more vengeance before turning back to his detention paper. When his head was turned away from her she stuck her tongue out at him and then turned back to her own paper.
An hour later McGonagall had them hand in their papers. Oliver thrust his into her hands and stormed out the door.
"Is something wrong with him?" McGonagall asked Katie as she packed up her stuff.
She looked to the door that was recently slammed shut, "Not a clue," she shook her head as she picked up the paper ball on her desk, flattened it out, folded it up and put it back into her bag, "Thank you Professor," she said as she left for practice, knowing that she certainly just turned it into a living hell.
For the next three weeks Katie managed to avoid getting any detentions and any disciplinary action apart from her captain during his insane practices. Maybe he was the reason she was staying out of trouble. When she was raging mad at him, his picture stayed out of her mind and she could manage to concentrate in class.
But school work was barely half of her life. The rest belonged to Quidditch-something she felt like her aptitude in was regularly deteriorating. Everytime she went for a shot in practice she caught his eye. And every time without fail; she would stagger because all she could see was malice and anger.
After a practice one Wednesday she collapsed on her bed, almost convinced that he had achieved that. Like she suspected, every practice was a living hell. Every practice she would shout at her for every little thing; five times more than anyone else. And even though this would happen at close proximity, she no longer felt the color rising in her cheeks but instead her anger was rising. So every practice she pushed herself harder than she ever had and no her body was punishing her for it. She flew faster, threw harder, aimed more precisely, and attacked with everything in her.
She groaned into her pillow as every limb in her body pounded with soreness. Looking at her nightstand to read the clock, she also saw her advanced note passing parchment. She let a small whimper-of what she didn't know.
"I know," Angelina said, sitting on her own bed, "He's running us way late."
"6-10," Alicia moaned, "hex me ten times over, please Merlin, please."
Burying her head in her pillow, she was convinced that she only had herself to blame for all this.
As her weariness grew, Katie knew her grades were slipping. Now she couldn't concentrate in class either because her anger had been replaced by withdrawal. Now she couldn't play or write an essay to save her life.
"Miss. Bell?"
"I DON'T KNOW DAMN IT!" she shouted at the ghost-professor, "Ok, Binns? Nobody knows because this class is so damn boring! Can't you see we're all falling asleep and drooling on our books?" she was standing up now, and having no idea what she was doing, she threw her books in her bag and started to walk out of the classroom, "I GIVE UP!"
Stalking out of the class, fuming for no particular reason, she was unaware of the looks she was getting from Griffindors and Ravenclaws alike.
Collapsing on the ground a hall away, Katie felt worse than she did when she accidentally lost one of Alicia's favorite earrings. She let out a sigh. She had been able to fix that though, a duplication charm wasn't as hard as this. Splaying her long legs out in front of her in a V she stared up at the ceiling, knowing that somehow that it was all her fault.
Running a hand through her hair she let out a long sigh before reaching into her bag and pulling out her advanced-note and was shocked to see something being written in all too familiar handwriting.
Kat? Kat. I know you're there.
………no I'm not
I noticed. Look Kat, I didn't mean for this too happen. I didn't want to be so hard on you. It's just that…that…well-where are you?
I'm in class
No you're not
I thought you were my captain and not my stalker
I saw Fred in the bathroom.
And this is relevant how?
I'm going to try and ignore the frost coming off your handwriting-he told me about you storming out and all.
What are you getting at?
Johnson told me how you're cracking up.
No I'm not!
Spinnet told me how you're practically putting yourself six feet under.
Did either of them tell you we have first names?
Kat-
Oh don't 'Kat' me in that tone
It's a note
It's an ADAVANCED note, Wood.
You know that has nothing to do with it?
Katie let out a tearless sob and hated herself for it. She had always seen herself as independent and strong and now after a written fight, many rows on the field, and glares across table she was losing it. Things never seemed to get to her but not talking to the Scotsman for nearly a month was deteriorating her.
Is it a safe guess to assume your sitting in some empty hallway, wallowing in self pity?
No
How about some empty corridor off the fourth floor corridor across from the knight of armor and under a picture of some English landscape with a ghost floating through, wallowing in self pity?
Her brow furrowed as she looked across from her. Sure enough there was a knight of armor and a painting above her head. But she didn't see the ghost until it gave her a curt nod as it headed down.
"Now don't tell me that I was wrong."
Katie's head snapped to her left to she her captain sitting down shoulder-to-shoulder with her, his own long legs splayed out like hers.
"What do you want?" she asked in a low voice, trying to keep the coldness in her voice steady. "And I never said anything about self-pity."
"What do you think, Bell?" he said, barely above a whisper, ignoring the last part.
She looked at him. Really looked at him. In simplest terms, he looked as bad as she felt. He looked even more disheveled than normal; his hair was practically standing up on end (no doubt from running his hand through it so much), he was in desperate need of a shave and his shirt never looked more wrinkled as his tie hung loosely from around his neck. He had bags under his chocolate brown eyes which were now the size of saucers and giving her a pleading look.
"I wouldn't know, cap'n, I'm not as nearly as smart as yourself," she somehow managed to keep the ice frosty.
"You're putting me six feet under…" he murmured as he stared up at the ceiling. When he looked over at her and saw that she was confused, he continued, "You're ruining me. I can't concentrate in anything; classes-I'm there but I'm not, Quidditch- I've lost my reflexes. I can't eat because I'm doing terribly in every aspect of everything. I'm doing terribly because I can't get a wink of sleep. I can't get a wink of sleep because of you. It's like I suddenly have Katherine Ann Bell tattooed to the inside of my eyelids."
"Just blame the chaser then," she said, a curve playing at the corners of her mouth.
She watched as his broad shoulders bounced for a moment as he let out a small laugh, "You see? I've missed you Bell. Even though we never really hung out, I still missed you."
She watched as his broad shoulders bounced for a moment as he let out a small laugh, "You see? I've missed you Bell. Even though we never hung out, I still missed you.""I really don't see why…I bit-well, wrote-your head off for no reason," she sighed, "Which I am…sorry for…I suppose"
"Well admittance is the first step," he sighed, placing an arm around her shoulders. Katie let a small laugh as she rested against his side and let her head fall on his shoulder. "but really. I did. It's not that I can't take people being mad at me but I was sure that you hated me with every fiber in your being."
"Why would think that?" she asked, craning her neck to look at him.
"If you could only see yourself at practice," he sighed. "I swear, if I could get everyone to glare at me triumphantly after doing everything I said perfectly every time, I would die a happy man." Katie laughed, "But I am sorry. You know that, right?"
She turned to look at him. He still looked the same as he did minutes before but suddenly he was even more infatuating. Maybe it was the goofy smile tugging on his lips, the cock in his head, or the way his chocolate brown eyes were bearing into her.
"Yeah, I know."
"Good," he sighed, "Do you know how hard it is to eat a decent meal when someone is glaring at you every time you pick up your fork? Completely ruined any appetite I had at all, thank you very much."
Katie laughed again as the bell rang.
Oliver got up and gave her a hand. "I guess I'll be seeing you in detention?" he asked as they reached the main corridor; packed with students.
Katie nodded, "Not even Binns would let me get away with that."
"Hmm," Oliver said before bending over and planting a kiss on her cheek, "You you then, Katie-my-Bella." and then took off in hopes of actually getting to class on time.
"O-o-OK!" she called after him, in hopes that he heard her.
As she walked to Potions she became aware of the goofy smile plastered securely on her face. She opened the oak door, knowing any composure she would've wished to have was shattered, so instead she walked into the dungeons with a smile on her face for the first time since she was a first year.
"Good afternoon, my dear potions professor, how are ya' doing?"
"Er…good…are you alright Miss Bell?"
"I am dandy."
"I can see…"
I know, I know, these one shots-when I come up with a cure for this disease you;'ll be the first to know. Their like a freaking disease. I was going to make this into two chapters and then I decided I was just too lazy even though I am a review whore. And seeing as such and that it took me ages to get the italics right because all i have is works: I expect a nice long review from all of ya's.
Lots o love