CHAPTER TWO – And they all lived 'Happily Ever After'?

To say the least, it was refreshing to be back at school. I must say, when you're there you don't really appreciate the castle walls and breathtaking grounds, is but while you're away from it, it feels like you've left home. Upon returning to school we were faced with many surprises – both good and bad. One astounding surprise was that Professor Lupin's vacant position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had been filled by none other than Ministry Auror Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody. I had heard of Moody before, but actually seeing him in the flesh was a complete shock. There wasn't an inch of visible flesh that wasn't scarred and one of his eyes was home to a revolving glass eye that was more than a little creepy. Upon seeing him, I was already beginning to dread my DADA lessons. Moody was definitely one creepy individual and I had a feeling he would take no crap. His class was going to be one tough act.

Moody's introduction had been during the Welcoming Feast. He showed up unfashionably late and in the middle of Dumbledore's spiel on the Tri-Wizard tournament. From the time it took Moody to enter the Great Hall and take his position at the teacher's table, all eyes were wearily fixed on him. The only sound in the room had been the quiet clunking of his wooden leg. The charged silence was more than likely due to the vivid images that were playing through everyone's minds on just how Moody had managed to loose a leg, half his nose, one eye and still walk away with all those scars.

A further surprise that night had been the announcement of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, which I briefly mentioned before. The Tournament would include the participation of three students from the three major schools in the Wizarding World. Students from would be arriving in October and the Tournament would continue though the rest of the year until a winner was established in the final task. It seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was excited to try my hand at entering. That was until the age restriction came up. I had turned 16 in July meaning that I wouldn't be able to enter until July the following year. Obviously that didn't work, so my desires of the 1000 Galleons had been in vein. To tell the truth I wasn't all that upset. I was going to witness the reinstatement of the Tournament that hadn't been held in over 100 years. I was excited enough to be sitting in the grandstands and watching the poor bugger who would have to participate in one of the most dangerous tournaments ever.

Apart from those moments of excitement during the first night back at Hogwarts, the first two weeks went off without a hitch or any extra excitement. I settled back into school life and found myself being immersed in the load of schoolwork that was thrown at me. It was a distraction that for once in my life, I was grateful for. Monday, on the third week back, I found myself having a nice quite breakfast with Angelina until...

THAT DAY

Angie looked up at me from her porridge. "Did you read the Daily Prophet this morning?" she asked coyly, pushing her food around the bowl.

I finished chewing on the end of my toast. "No," I replied, shaking my head. "Why?" I could tell by the look on her face that the news was big. I sighed. "What?"

Angie grinned. "You're going to die when you hear."

I frowned. "How about you skip the 'hearing' part and just kill me now," I said gloomily.

She looked at me concerned. "Is everything okay? I mean, you're been as happy as ever over the past couple of weeks and since Friday afternoon you've been in a strop."

I shot her a dirty look. "I'm not in a strop," I said irked. "Anyway, don't start Angie. You were the one out all weekend enjoying yourself with Fred. Do you know what I did last weekend? My potions assignment. Potions. Who except for Hermione Granger spends her weekends doing potions?"

Sighing, she flicked her chocolate brown hair out of her eyes and frowned. "Katie, if you don't get yourself a lad soon, I think I'm going to have to kill myself."

"Whatever," was my admittedly stroppy reply. We fought about my love life for a further 20 minutes until we were interrupted. By that time the subject of Oliver was on the cards and I was thankful for the interruption. I never did find out about what was in the Daily Prophet but I had guessed by that time it had something to do with Puddlemere's last game. I didn't care.

The interrupter had been McGonagall and she wanted to see us immediately. We both grabbed another couple of slices of toast and followed her to her office. When we got there the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team was in attendance. The look on McGonagall face was enough to rattle us. Bad news was coming. She smiled gravely.

"I don't know exactly how to tell you all this," she began slowly, "that's why I have left it so long."

We all studied her in a confused manner. "Is this about the Quidditch season?" I asked boldly.

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, Miss Bell. It is. We've decided that the Tri-Wizard Tournament will draw too much of the teacher's attention away from the Interhouse Quidditch Cup. Regrettably it looks like we will have to cancel the Cup for this year."

As the last words left her mouth there was almightly uproar from the six of us.

"You've got to be kidding!" One of the Weasley twins, I couldn't tell if it was Fred or George, exclaimed.

The rest of us had the dignity to stay quiet but I could read the expression on the faces of the others and guessed that mine was around the same. McGonagall nodded sadly.

"I'm afraid Mister Weasley, I am being quite honestly serious."

I watched as Angelina's moved forward. "Is there anyway that it can be run? Can we organize it ourselves? What about a teacher who's not involved with Tournament. Madam Hooch?"

McGonagall frowned. "I'm sorry, Miss Johnston. If there was someone to take the reigns of the Quidditch Cup then they would. Madam Hooch will only be with us for the next two weeks and then she has decided to take Long Service leave for the rest of the year," she looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. I've done the best that I can."

"Not even Professor Snape?" Harry offered. He loathed Snape more that the rest of us combined.

"No, Mister Potter. Professor Snape has duties with the Tri-Wizard Tournament as well. As I have said there is no-one."

We all mumbled a polite thankful for informing us and them gloomily moved away from her office and back towards the Great Hall. It had been concluded that there was no reason to appoint new Quidditch Captains as the Cup would not be running. Suddenly everything fell in place and I wasn't so happy to be witnessing the Tournament after all. Quidditch was my venting event and without it – who knows what would happen. Maybe I would grow two heads or they'd have to check me into St. Mungo's. Either way, I was utterly and dramatically doomed.

Hearing about Quidditch brought my spirits to an all time low. Being a hormonal teenager was not as fun as adults liked to think and emphasized. I wouldn't swap being a teenager for the world, but the hormone and emotion part was something that I could live without. Later that day, when faced with a double Transfiguration lesson, I ran into Michelle. From that moment on, the day got worse.

Michelle sniggered at me as I bent down to pick up the books I had dropped from the force of our collision. "Making it you're business now to walk around with your eyes closed are you?" she asked snidely, as I had straightened and stood up again.

I shrugged it off with a small smile and continued onto class. I wasn't going to stoop to her level. I had been there before and it almost killed all self respect I had. I wasn't going to go through that trauma again. And even thinking about that trauma meant Oliver.....arhhhh.

The lesson was long and boring and before long my mind had wandered. I spent the lesson taking down the occasional note but not really listening to the information and advice exchange between McGonagall and the others in the class.

For lunch, Angie, Fred, George, Alicia and I opted to eat outside in the courtyard. The autumn weather lifted my spirits and before long I was once again the happy go lucky teenager I enjoyed being. As I sunk my teeth into my second sandwich, Alicia dropped casually into the conversation the Quidditch scores from the last weekend. I was only partly listening, the autumn weather held my attention, until the results of Puddlemere's game were dropped.

"Puddlemere lost by 100 points," Fred divulged. "I heard that Wood fell from his broom in the last 15 minutes. He landed himself in St.Mungo's with massive injuries."

"Rather unlike him," George added. "How many times has Wood toppled off during a game before and had worse for wear injuries? He wanted to keep playing apparently. The coach wouldn't let him."

I listened, not intently, just listened. No matter how much I insisted that I didn't love him anymore I was lying not only to myself but those who I told that to. It was pathetic, I know but what can you do? You don't just stop loving someone immediately. It takes time. Time to heal and time to get over. My way of dealing with that was with anger and moodiness. Other's went for rebounds.

I looked up. "Do you know how hurt he was?" I asked quietly, continuing to nibble on my sandwich. I didn't want to show too much interest but I knew they had all suspected I would take part. They were funny friends, but they were good. Oliver had become more than a Quidditch Captain to them too. It was selfish to think that the Gang wouldn't mention or talk about him on my account.

Angie nodded. "Yeah," she said, "That's what was in the Daily Prophet this morning. Made page two, which was quite good for a sports story. I mean usually-"

"Angelina," I groaned. "Get to the point."

"I don't know much, but going from just the article it said that he would be out for the rest of the pre-season and maybe even the real season. There was something about his leg muscles being torn during the fall. You know the stunts that Oliver likes to pull. Crazy things."

"And the healers at St. Mungo's," Fred went on, "have said that they think it would be better for Oliver to try a combination of Wizarding and Muggle medicine." He looked at everyone seriously. "They don't usually tell you that unless it's really bad. I'm afraid our Quidditch hero will be watching Puddlemere play from the stands."

"Pity really," Alicia offered, joining the conversation.

We all nodded in unison. Fred and George continued to the conversation for a while longer breeching the subject on how reliable Muggle medicine was. That made me laugh. The closest thing Fred and George had come to knowing anything about the Muggle world was taking Muggle Studies in their third year for 3 weeks before dropping out.
That night, Angelina shook me awake. "Katie? Kates? You awake?"

I opened my eyes to see Angelina pouring over me. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. "What?" I asked groggily.

She offered me an excited and at the same time an apologetic grin. "I've just had a fantastic idea!" she cried excitedly.

"Shhhhh," I said quickly, sitting up and knocking the blankets off me. "Other people live in this dorm too," I added sleepily, combing my hand through my blonde ponytail. Angelina pouted at me. I gave in. "Okay tell me your brilliant idea that somehow gave you the audacity to wake me up at 2 in the morning."

"You really wanna know?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, just tell me."

"It's about Quidditch. I know how we are going to get to play this season as well as have the Tri-wizard Tournament."

"Yes but Madam Hooch-"

Angelina smiled and nodded. "Is going on long service."

I didn't get it. "And there is on one else," I added.

"That," Angelina said happily, "is where you are so very wrong."

I groaned and flopped back onto my pillow. Everything was beginning to make sense. Angelina hadn't just thought of her brilliant idea, she's been thinking about it all day. I knew what her next statement would hold and I was not entirely happy with that feeling. "Tell me," I whispered.

She tried to give me a comforting smile. "I can just completely forget about it if you want. I mean I know how-"

"Tell me," I instructed every so carefully.

She nodded. "We need someone who knows what they are doing right? It's all well and good to have someone who knows the game from the sidelines but you need a referee with knowledge of the sort of stunts that someone like the Slytherins play." She paused for a moment, looking at her truthfully. "Katie, we need Oliver back if we want Quidditch to go ahead this year, and I think that he might just be in a position to take that on."

I spent the remainder of the week trying to convince myself that I had to put everything going around my mind about Ange's suggestion to rest and take her proposition with a grain of salt. She was right, if we wanted to play Quidditch we needed someone who knew what they were doing to get the competition running and keep it running for the year that Madam Hooch was away. It made sense to suggest Oliver. He was out injured (as far as we knew), and the coaching and referring side of the job could give him experience.

The only problem with out plan was that it was too corny, very corny, and in that respect none of the teachers would go for it. A student who had graduated the year before comes back to take on the responsibility of organizing the Interhouse Quidditch Cup and being responsible for 28 Quidditch students? It was going to be a long shot if we wanted Dumbledore's approval but I had a glimmer of hope that he might see it from our point of view. After all, Hagrid was teaching Care Of Magical Creatures and he wasn't a teacher. Maybe the Oliver plan stood a chance.

A FEW DAYS LATER

I waited patiently in the Common Room for Angelina to return from her meeting with Dumbledore. She had draw up a proposal for him outlining all the reasons we needed to have to Cup this year (it was the only sport the school offered! What would the student body do for entertainment?), Why Oliver would be the best choice (he already knows all the students and the workings of the Interhouse Cup) and most of all, why he should agree to it (coaching would give him experience and help him to refresh during the season he was going to be having off). Like I had declared before, it was going to be a long shot, but it was worth it.

At half past six, Angelina quietly entered the Common Room as calm but confident smile on her face. I meet her at the tables.

"So?" I asked excitedly. "Are we playing Quidditch this year?"

Angelina grinned. "Dumbledore is going to send a letter to Oliver and offer him a position to join the staff for the year. If Oliver agrees, we're set. If he doesn't, we have to live with the fact that Quidditch won't be running."

I nodded. "So, that's it then? It's up to him?"

Ange nodded. "Let's just hope he doesn't have a grudge with you for breaking his nose," she said cocking her eyebrow at me, "cause that could prove to be a small problem."

I swatted her on the arm and grabbed my books from the table, preparing to visit the library for research. "Trust me, it won't be a problem and if it is, it won't be yours."

TO BE CONTINUED –
AN: Thanks to Kelly for her encouraging email to get me back on track and thanks to swimgirl, Merlin's Flamethrower, AlyD, SOBs 4 Sirius 223, Colorado-chick, AngelicYuki, socrazyluv2party, IhopeforAnarchy, midnightashes, Fallingstar6, Amadeus, AzkabanCanuck, silverstar0011, Spikey the Neon blowfish, VoicezWithin, Risquer, pokElilpupE and IEatGlue17 for reviewing. This chapter will be posted in two parts because I haven't finished it yet. Ignore the mistakes but please review.