-3-

Nosy twins

"Oliver, hey Oliver, wait up!" His heart started to beat erratically upon hearing Katie Bell's lovely voice calling him.

He turned around, all smiling. "Hey, Katie. What's up?"

"I wanted to ask you if you could help me with my homework for History of Magic. We have to write an essay about witches in the fifteenth century and I remembered you did this talk about it in fifth year or something." She smiled pleadingly at him and her eyes got this unbelievable cerulean tone and he was a goner.

"Uh…yeah…of course, Katie. I'm glad to help."

Joyfully smiling she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you so much. You're the best. See you later." Happily she ran off and left him standing there, smiling blessedly and absolutely amazed.

"Captain, oh captain!", someone said with a sing-sang-voice behind him. "I can already see the little hearts in your eyes."

Oliver turned around to look right into the face of one Weasley twin. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah right."

George grinned. "Nice taste, Wood."

"Yeah, I appreciate that!", Fred said, who came up on Oliver's other side. "Really nice one." They both wrapped their arms around his shoulders and grinned at him.

Oliver rolled his eyes again, tried to hide his blush and got out of their middle. "Guys? Could you please stop that?"

They grinned their grin. "You know…!", George started.

"We could always-"

"Ask her out ourselves."

"She'd probably glad-"

"To go out with-"

"Such gorgeous twins-"

"Like us!", George finished.

Oliver rolled his eyes at their starting and finishing each other's sentences. "Well, she's all yours then," he said and went away.

It was one thing to admit it to himself and maybe to Harry that he was in love with Katie Bell. But it was not safe to tell that those nosy twins. And besides that, they'd probably try to convince him to make a move on her and he definitely wouldn't do that. After all, Katie was a fourteen year old cute girl and she shouldn't date a Quidditch obsessed, way too old boy who'd leave school in a few months and would probably never see her again, right? She should date a guy of her age, who was nice and available for at least more than a year.

"Hey, Wood! Wait up!", he heard those annoying voices again and couldn't help but roll his eyes for the hundredth time that day.

He sighed when Fred and George reached him. "I'll just eat with you if you stop with that junk, alright?", he asked in his Scottish accent and tried to ignore their smirk.

"Alright, captain. Wouldn't want you mad at us. You could always kick our asses at practice after all." And for a second they looked even a little terrified.

Oliver grinned into himself. It was funny how scared of his practice they all were. Right, he was indeed obsessed with Quidditch, but he wasn't that bad, was he?

"Hey hey, beautiful!", Fred said as they sat down at the Gryffindor table. He scooted over to Angelina, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"You won't believe what my dearest brother and I just witnessed."

She looked at him quizzically, then at George who wore an identical smirk. "We just saw our-"

"oh-so-uninterested-in-girls captain-"

"Checking out-"

"Our dearest Miss Bell."

Oliver knew that he instantly turned scarlet, especially because Katie was just sitting down with them.

"What about me?", she asked, smiling winningly at them with her oh-so-beautiful smile.

"Well, lil' Woody here just-"

"You know what? I'm not hungry anymore!", Oliver growled before he put his fork on the desk, probably a little louder than necessary, and stood up.

Those stupid twins. He would kill them at practice, definitely. Angry he left the Great Hall. Why did they have to make him look like a fool? Wasn't this already hard enough? Seeing her every day, having to act like nothing was any different? Seeing her smile at other boys, being all nervous about the upcoming Halloween ball and which guy was going to ask her out?

No, he couldn't take this anymore.

Mad like hell, he nearly ran out of the castle, kicking some stones which were lying around. "Shit!", he shouted, his whole body tensed.

"Oliver?" The soft voice made him instantly standing still. He didn't even dare to breathe. Please, Merlin, no.
She couldn't be here, shouldn't be right now.

He took a few deep breathes before he turned around to look at Katie's worried face.

"Hey!" He forced a smile and tried really hard to stop his body from shaking. What should he answer if she asked what was wrong? Why he was acting like he had lost his mind?

To his luck she didn't ask. Maybe because she knew he didn't want to talk about it, or maybe he had just scared the hell out of her and she was afraid to ask, but whatever the reason was, she didn't ask. Instead she reminded him gently of her History of Magic essay.

His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, but he nodded. "Uh…yeah…that. I…uh…right," he stammered. Well, what could he say?

She just smiled and took his hand. "Let's go then."

He was hardly able to walk. Her small, soft hand in his felt just so right. Like it belonged there. How could this be any wrong if it felt so right?

She squeezed his hand affectionately and dragged him towards the Gryffindor common room.

"Just sit down. I'm going to get my stuff down!", she called over her shoulder and ran quickly up to the girls dormitory.

Oliver sat down on the couch, trying to get his breath under control. Alright, he could do this. Just talking about boring historical events, not looking into Katie's beautiful cerulean eyes and avoiding letting his gaze fell on her oh-so-kissable lips. If he could do just that, he was going to be fine. And then was practice time and he could cool down.

He was taken out of thoughts when Katie appeared again and smilingly sat down next to him- way too close. Their legs were touching while she put parchment on their knees and took her quill between her fingers. "I'm all yours!", she said, smiling so adorably that he could hardly control himself.

Swallowing he smiled hesitantly back. "Well…"

"Bell, seriously," he growled, "what kind of throw was that? More concentration and aggressiveness, please."
"And, Johnson, Quidditch is a fast game. You don't have time to sleep. Go to bed if you're tired."

Being mad at Katie, or pretending to me mad at her was easier for him. Because she always got angry as well and he could always better handle an angry Katie instead of a sweet one.

"Oliver, it's enough, alright. We're practicing for freaking three hours now!", she hissed angrily.

He rolled his eyes, and wasn't fast enough to reach the Quaffel Alicia had thrown. "Good job, Alicia!", he praised and gave her thumps up.

The blonde girl grinned back and nudged Angelina, who was looking quite pissed as well.

"After she did such a good job, Oliver, don't you think it's time to finish this?", Katie asked with an acid tone in her voice. "I don't know if you can imagine, but there're quite a few things I need to get done before it's after midnight!" Sarcasm was dripping out of her voice.

Oliver grimaced. Alright, maybe he got her a little too pissed. An angry Katie would just ignore him, but a really pissed one was…well, she would make his life a living hell until she cooled down again.
So it was probably wiser to agree.
"Uh, yeah, I guess you're right. Practice's over, guys."

Like every time for the last few weeks he was the last one who came out of the lockers. He always showered longer, trying to stay focused on Quidditch for a little longer, so he wouldn't have to let his mind go back to his blonde, cute chaser again.

It'd become a routine that he started to think about Quidditch much lesser than about the girl. And that wasn't a very good thing.

Sighing he walked out of the locker room, just to meet Katie in the hall. He gulped. This was never good.

"Hey, Katie. Thought you were already up doing homework." It was a lame start for small talk and he knew it.

She shrugged slightly and shook her head. "No, I…well I guess I wanted to thank you for your help today, even if I'm still mad at you."

He couldn't help but smile slightly. "You're welcome."

She grinned as well and rolled her eyes. "You really are some of a kind, Oliver," she said.

Slightly embarrassed, he rubbed his neck. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Katie laughed softly and pointed towards the castle. "Shall we?"

He nodded, slowly starting to walk.

They were quiet for a moment and Oliver wasn't sure if he liked the silence between them. It wasn't uncomfortable yet, but it wasn't pleasant either.

"Can I ask you a question?", she suddenly broke the silence.

He nodded hastily. "Yeah."

"When we recently talked about it, you weren't honest, were you?"

Quizzically he lifted an eye brow. "About what?"

"You were telling the truth, you aren't gay. You're in love with a girl from the team, right?"

He swallowed hard and his heart nearly crushed his chest. What now?

"Uh…I…uh…how…Katie…you…what?"

His stuttering was obviously confirmation enough, because Katie nodded slightly. "I figured. But you probably should do something about that before she starts dating George."

He stared at her wide-eyed, could feel his heart pounding in his throat. "Why would you date George?"

Not it was Katie's turn to look stunned. "Why me? Oliver, we are talking about Alicia here, aren't we?"