Chapter 2 - Deny, Deny, Deny
"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Katie repeated aloud to herself as she zoomed away from where Oliver, Angelina and Alicia were watching, and probably laughing at her. Katie's face expressed sheer panic.
"What must he be thinking now? Oliver can't possibly think... But I just made a run for it… When I just sat there grinning like an utter idiot… Just because he smelled gorgeous doesn't mean… I better start praying to Merlin… Oh, bloody hell, I cannot believe he thinks I fancy him!" Katie paused to absorb this. For good measure she added, "I DO NOT FANCY HIM!"
Of course, she did not consider that Oliver may have come to any other conclusion. She was too wrapped up in her own embarrassing behavior: she deemed it a dead giveaway to emotions she didn't want to admit she harbored.
Katie flew between the poles, going through the motions of the Chasers' regular warm-up exercise. At the same time, she frantically racked her brain for a plan, or an excuse at the very least. If one were to listen closely, one might hear her calling herself colourful variants of the word "idiot".
In the midst of insulting her own intelligence, Katie cursed the day she ever smelled Oliver Wood.
"He just had to be there and smell… so… like that, didn't he? Well, he can't smell that great…Now he must think I fancy him. Which I don't. Definitely don't. What does he even smell like anyway? It can't be anything special…"
Subconsciously slowing her broom's flight, Katie attempted to dissect the wonderful scent that was Oliver Wood's.
Certainly Oliver smelled clean. Even when he was sweaty, Katie never smelled a trace of sourness or of body odour. He always smelled pleasantly neutral.
Katie wanted to think that all Gryffindor players smelled terrific, but she couldn't say so quite that accurately: the Twins smelled a bit… strong sometimes, especially if they'd been working on those mysterious little experiments of theirs before practice. On their worst days they smelled like burnt rubber, gunpowder and sugar. Lots of it.
On the other hand, the girls felt that all Harry's worries really left him with a bit less time to shower than the rest of them. But they were boys, and Katie and the girls were used to how they smelled. It was actually quite comforting sometimes.
But Oliver… Oliver was something else. To Katie, he smelled so mild it was almost odorless. Not like laundry, or like talc; he just smelled clean. It was a sort of clean that smelled like… Well, there wasn't a smell, really. Was that even possible?
Katie examined the logic out loud. "Oliver smells good because he smells clean, which smells like something but at the same time smells like nothing. Oliver," she sighed dejectedly, "Smells like he's my best friend. Oliver smells like… I shouldn't even be sniffing him in the first place. Oliver smells like… Oliver smells like –"
THUNK!
"OH!" Katie yelped as her head collided with the sturdy wooden post of the centre hoop. Her scatter-brained thinking had distracted her to the point that she'd forgotten to watch where she was flying. She managed to swerve away at the last second but she wasn't so lucky. Already the poor girl felt a lump beginning to swell on her forehead. She nearly fell off her broom, too, but she was able to steady herself in the nick of time.
"Nice one, Bell," Katie scolded herself as she massaged it with her free hand.
She surreptitiously scanned the pitch to see if anyone had seen her little incident. Nope, Harry was busy brooding, and the others were…
Okay, the others were attached to Oliver's chest. No big deal.
"What!" Katie did a double-take, positively shocked. Her eyes weren't fooling her: her fellow Chasers really did have their noses buried in Oliver's uniform. Katie couldn't help but feel more than slightly jealous. And irritated.
"Those two!" she huffed, disgruntled. Gritting her teeth, she swiftly turned her broom around and began flying up and down the height of each hoop, concentration etched on her features as she did each aerial climb and dive.
It wasn't long before she was joined by Alicia and Angelina, who were sporting grins matching in smugness.
"What?" demanded Katie when they wouldn't speak up. "WHAT!"
"Easy there, Katie. You were right after all," said Alicia.
"He smells gorgeous," said Angelina.
"Yeah, doesn't he?" asked Katie, forgetting completely that she was supposed to be irritated. The cheesy grin was slowly creeping its way back onto her face.
"I know. He smells so clean!" exclaimed Alicia, echoing Katie's previous thoughts exactly.
"And so masculine," added Angelina.
"But not musky," Katie interjected. "I hate musk."
"No, no," agreed the other two. "Definitely not."
"But isn't there something about how he smells?" shared Katie. It really was beginning to bother her. "It's like, he smells so neutral, yet at the same time so fresh –"
"And delicious – "
"And intoxicating –"
"And so… Oliver," the three finished dreamily, sighing.
"I know what you mean," said Angelina.
"But it really isn't that fair, you know. He did just shower…" said Alicia skeptically. Still, the three were caught up in their little fantasy.
Katie was the first to snap out of her reverie, and the irritation was clear in her voice when she uttered, "Hey! He's off-limits! You two have got perfectly good blokes of your own! What are you doing fantasizing about Oliver? Fred and George won't be too happy about this…"
"Oh, is that what you call what you've been doing? 'Licia, I think you're right after all! Katie here does fancy the Captain!" Angelina was grinning manically.
"Yeah, Katie, and just because we're taken doesn't mean we can't like how a guy smells. I so knew you fancied him, don't deny it!"
Katie felt herself blushing to the roots of her hair. "I do not!" she cried defensively.
"Is that all you've got for us, Bell?" Angelina taunted.
"I don't!"
They weren't buying it. In fact, they both had their arms across their chests, eyebrows raised and doubtful. Katie groaned. "I only like the way he smells. Promise!"
Nothing.
Katie suddenly had a bright idea. "Look, I'll prove it to you. But you two have got to help me out. If we can make Oliver's weird smell-lessness go away, as in really make him sweat, then this weird fixation I've got with his odour will go away.
"This will involve near-torture, of course," Katie dangled the extra bait before them. She knew they wouldn't miss the opportunity to turn the tables on the Quidditch Nazi.
After a short moment, as well as an exchange of glances between the girls, Angelina replied, "All right, I'm in."
Alicia added, "Me too. But I still don't think making Oliver smell is going to make you fancy him any less."
"I don't fancy him!" Katie very nearly shouted in frustration.
"All right, if you say so," said Angelina with a roll of the eyes. "Sheesh."
To that, Katie made no reply. Angelina and Alicia peered at her with curiosity, but they didn't make a sound.
"Augh, why must you guys torture me like this!"
"We didn't say a thing!" one of them laughed.
Katie groaned and tugged on her ponytail. "Okay. Fine. Fine! Maybe I do fancy Oliver. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"I knew it!" Alicia punched the air triumphantly.
"Just… please don't tell him? I don't want him to know. I just want to shake off this weird little crush and sweep it under the rug."
"Why would you wanna do that, Katie? This could be something good. You guys have been, like, the best of friends since you joined this team," lamented Angelina.
Shrugging, Katie replied, "Stuff, you know? He's my best friend, and he's leaving soon. I can't really afford to like him that way."
"Not that you don't," Angelina rocked on her broom. "I mean, you're even obsessed with his scent."
"It's pathetic," Katie agreed. "So, wanna help me stink him up?"
"So what's the plan, Katie Loveless?" asked Alicia.
"Shut up. And leave it to me."
"You hurt me, honey. But okay, if you say so, Katie, we'll just play along," replied Alicia with an overdramatic sigh.
Katie rolled her eyes, and joined the other two as they began their agility drills.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver approaching with a shiny red Quaffle in his hand. He had an extremely good-natured expression on his face.
"Good," Katie thought. "Easy kill."
"Hey Ollie," she shouted, a bit too loud to sound natural. She cringed.
"Hello, Kates," replied Oliver pleasantly. "I was thinking we should go easy today. I figured we all needed some time to rest."
Katie groaned inwardly. She had to pick today of all days to torture him, didn't she? Oliver rarely went easy on them. But she was on a mission.
"No, Captain! Absolutely not!" she feigned her horror at the concept of a light practice.
"Am I rubbing off on you, Bell?" asked Oliver in half-jest. He couldn't follow. Katie loved light practice. "What's going on?"
"Well, er," Katie began, fumbling for an excuse. "Ange and Alicia say they really need the extra shooting. When's the last time we've worked on our, er, our fast shots?"
Katie could feel two pairs of eyes burning a hole into the back of her head. Fast shots tired everyone out.
Oliver nodded his head, pondering Katie's proposition. "All right, if you think that's what you've got to work on. I really admire your initiative, Kates," he said sincerely, reaching out to put an arm around her shoulders.
Katie felt her heartbeat stagger as she inhaled Oliver's captivating smell yet again. She shook herself. "No, no no!"
"Well, uh, we'd better get the Quaffle basket, then," she laughed nervously. She would have to stink him up real good for this to work.
Oliver looked confused as he watched her edge away. In the back of his mind, he felt disappointed at her distant attitude. She wasn't normally that jittery around him…
"Perhaps she doesn't fancy me after all," he thought gloomily. He ran his fingers through his hair then waited by the hoops for his Chasers to return. He had the strangest feeling they were up to something.
A/N: Yup, this is the edited second chapter. You may notice a whole new interlude in the middle – that's to provide some ground for believability :) Plus I like it when Katie allows herself to be a little vulnerable. Please do review if you enjoyed this!