A/n: This chapter borrows a scene directly from POA to lend some canon-a-bility and feel to this here story. It will eventually grow to not lean quite as heavily on it, you'll see. Thank for feedback!
Chapter 7 - Dangerous Combinations
Finally, October came and with it, Oliver's first love: Quidditch. He'd already spent many early mornings on the pitch just riding and exercising, clearing his head, but he was very eager to get back to playing and working with his team.
He headed to the pitch immediately following supper that Thursday. The sky grew rapidly darker compared to a June evening and the October air continued to become chillier. Not surprisingly, he was the first to reach the change rooms. He unlocked it with his Captain's key and headed inside to wait for the rest of his team.
As he stretched and warmed up, specific thoughts of this being his last Quidditch year at Hogwarts swamped his mind like a miserable flood. Seven years at Hogwarts, and he had never been a part of winning the Quidditch Cup. What was wrong with him? Was it his captaining skills, or lack thereof? Was it his team? He couldn't believe that – he had the best team available, in his opinion. Somehow the fault must lay with him, he decided.
He knew he was supposed to be cheerful in order to instil some motivation in his team, but by the time his team started trickling in, he wasn't feeling particularly cheerful anymore. Angelina, Alicia and Katie, his Chasers, Fred and George, his Beaters, and Harry, his Seeker, all settled on the bench before him and waited for him to begin his usual pep talk.
Oliver sighed and began, unintentionally pacing. "This is our last chance - my last chance - to win the Quidditch Cup. I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at this. Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world - injuries - then the tournament getting called off last year… but we also know we've got the best - ruddy - team - in - the - school." He punched his fist into his other hand, feeling some his old Quidditch fire and energy well up inside him.
"We've got three superb Chasers," he gestured to Alicia, Katie and Angelina, all of whom smiled.
"We've got two unbeatable Beaters," he waved his hand at the twins.
"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," said Fred and George together, pretending to blush.
"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match." he stared right at Harry for a moment. "And me." he added quietly and none too happily.
"We think you're good, too, Oliver." George said encouragingly.
"Cracking Keeper." Fred agreed.
He smiled a bit in thanks at his team as they tried to help him feel better and plowed on. "The point is, the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..."
He exhaled heavily. My last chance. He thought glumly.
Following encouragement from his team, he sent them out to begin practice. Just as he was heading out behind them, Fred and George stopped him.
"What is it?" asked Oliver.
"Dirt," Fred replied.
"You wanted some, we got some." George grinned.
Oliver regarded them blankly. "Uh, dirt?"
They each dug in their pockets and produced a small plastic baggie of brown dirt and proceeded to plop them into Oliver's hands. He stared at them for a moment in complete and utter confusion, trying to remember when he had ever asked them for tiny bags of earth, when they burst out laughing and he was quite certain he was missing something.
"We couldn't resist," George leaned on Fred for support.
"Oh, your face," Fred wiped his eyes.
When they had collected themselves, they explained.
"You asked us to dig up 'dirt' on that Slytherin girl, right? So we dug."
Oliver couldn't help a chuckle, their silly introduction now making sense. "Alright, well, let's make it quick, we've got a practice to get to."
"Oh, it'll be quick alright," said George. "We couldn't get anything. No specific scandals, no deep, dirty secrets."
"Surprisingly clean for a Slytherin." Fred shrugged.
"Really?" Oliver raised his eyebrow.
"Her parents are your typical all-hail-the-pure-bloods, honor and fortune types – "
"I imagine her family and the Malfoys must be great mates," George snorted.
"And she has an older brother who lives in America. He's the prize jewel of the family and our informer informs me your little friend is rather resentful of this fact but won't say a word against mummy and daddy - who're separated, by the way."
"She was very nearly sorted into Ravenclaw, but for fear of getting the wrath from her dear pure-blood family, she insisted on being in Slytherin." George finished.
Oliver stared at them. "How in the world did you find all of this out?"
"Ah," Fred waved his finger. "That'll have to be our little secret."
"But when you're as popular with the ladies as we are, mate," George puffed out of his chest. "Let's just leave it at that."
Oliver shook his head. "I don't even want to know."
The three of them headed outside to join the others. Practice went very smoothly in Oliver's opinion, everyone seeming fired up to be back on the pitch. It was a fairly simple practice, being the first of the new season, where they mostly just refreshed old moves and recaptured their team spirit. By the end of it, they were all panting and sweating but seemed as happy with how things had gone as Oliver had.
On the way out after showers and dressing, Oliver reminded them that practices would be three days a week starting on Monday.
"Oh, slave driver, cracking the whip already," Alicia teased on her way out the door.
"At least he's not making us do five," said Angelina.
"Just wait ladies, it'll come, don't you worry." Oliver chuckled and locked up their change room behind him.
The following week, Oliver endured his miserable Potions classes as usual, and as usual, they were fraught with issues. This time, however, became the worst thus far.
In his first Potions class of the week, after writing down the assignment, Oliver headed over to the cupboards to gather some ingredients.
"Careful Wood," he heard her unmistakable voice behind him.
He turned sharply.
"Be nasty to get that all over you," she gestured to the packages of Sprouting Dust and Firecracker Powder in his arms. She offered him a mischievous smile.
"Don't even think about, Audrey. Don't even – "
She extended her hand, in fact to reach past him, but he thought she was reaching for the ingredients in his arms and he tried to hastily dodge out of her way. He zigged when he should have zagged, and she was so startled by his sudden reaction that she moved abruptly too. The open package of Sprouting Dust toppled out of his arms and all over Audrey.
"Oops – "
She screeched as grass began appearing and growing at an alarming rate from her arm, hair and neck. Without hesitation, she angrily whipped out her wand, hexing him backwards into the shelves. He went flying and landed with a mighty crash. The package of Firecracker Powder went flying.
Snape, who had already begun striding over at the sound of the commotion caused by the Dust spill, hissed, "Lewis!"
BOOM!
The Firecracker Powder landed on the far side of room, sending students scattering and smoke filling the room. Loud snaps continued to sound and students dove for cover.
Ignoring the throbbing in his back and what certainly felt like a nasty welt forming on his face from where her spell had hit, Oliver was on his feet, drawing his own wand. He sent a spell after her that doused her (and half the class) with icy cold water.
"Wood!" Snape fairly shouted, not wanting to stand between them for fear of being hit with a spell. "Wands down, this instant!"
Audrey's face was bright red and Oliver's mind was whirling as they fired off a couple more spells at each other. She was certain he'd thrown the Sprouting Powder on purpose and he was smarting from her retaliating hex. The smoke from the Firecracker Powder was drifting thickly and he didn't even realize when the Powder finally stopped bouncing and snapping. He didn't even hear Snape as she tried to curse him again. He dodged and sent one right back at her.
"Enough!" Snape thundered.
It was with a horrible shock of surprise that he found himself frozen in place just as he was sending a Body-Bind curse at Audrey, his ears ringing with the echo of Snape's anger. Across the room, somewhere through the haze of purplish colored smoke hanging in the air, Audrey appeared to be frozen as well. Her wand poised and ready to strike, and the grass from the Sprouting Dust had finally stopped growing on her.
Snape's nostrils were flared and Oliver was certain he'd never seen him so angry before. With a rush of guilt and shame, he realized what he'd just done. Audrey even looked a bit shamed-faced as well.
"I've had more than enough of your antics – both of you! Twenty points from Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Still glaring, he released them from the spell holding them frozen. His tone was furious and cold. "You will take your seats and not move from them without my permission and you will stay after class. MOVE."
Oliver and Audrey mumbled out their "Yes sirs" and slunk to their desks, burning with guilt and embarrassment. Snape waved his wand and the remaining smoke in the room was sucked into a vial on his desk.
After a few more seconds of horrible, deadly silence, in which the rest of the class seemed as though they'd all been frozen too, finally Snape took his infuriated gaze away from the pair of trouble makers, barking at everyone to get back to work, and class resumed. Oliver spent the rest of it with his head down, not bothering to complete the assigned Potion.
He couldn't believe how hot-headedly he'd just reacted. Granted, she had started it, because dumping the Dust on her had been an accident and she'd hexed him. But that didn't excuse the way he'd so easily jumped up and started cursing her back. The only person he'd ever done to that too – and only once, when he was younger and less "wise" – was Flint, after a particularly heated (and in his opinion, underhandedly played) match in his fourth year. He'd lost fifteen points for Gryffindor then, and been in the Hospital Wing for a week. Flint had been there for two.
The point, however, was that it wasn't him – this abrupt retaliation and temper. He was generally easy-going and collected, slow to anger and all that. He didn't understand why he seemed to be able to lose control of his anger so easily around Audrey and silently vowed to try harder to be more cool-headed.
Potions for him was already such a ridiculous disaster, with or without Audrey, he certainly didn't need to make it any worse by earning himself injuries and detentions and losing House points.
When class finally ended, Snape had Audrey and Oliver clean up in silence. He avoided her gaze at all costs and was quite fine with the silence. Following their clean-up, Snape informed them that he would be dealing with Audrey and would be sending a note along to Professor McGonagall to deal with Oliver. They were to proceed to the Hospital Wing at their earliest convenience: Oliver for the welts on his face and back, and Audrey for the grass still sticking out of her hair and arm.
"I have not failed to notice the undercurrent of animosity between the pair you the past several weeks." Snape informed them, his fingers steepled before him on his dark colored desk. "It ends now. And if you ever dare raise your wands and cause such a commotion in my classroom again, the consequences will be immensely more severe."
Oliver swallowed uneasily, his face still hot. "Yes sir." He replied in barely more than a frightened whisper and Audrey followed suit.
"Dismissed." He snapped and waved them out of his room with an air of disgust.
"You started a fight?" Katie stared at him in shock.
"I said I didn't start it," Oliver shot back peevishly. He had just come from his meeting with McGonagall which had been preceded by his trip to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey had given him a salve for his large red welts but it stung almost worse than the wound itself and smelled like overripe bananas.
"It's for the swelling, dear," she'd told him shortly when he'd complained of the smell. "It'll take it right down, and the pain will go away too in a couple days. You'll need to apply it a few times a day. And don't fuss about the smell!"
"And you lost us a pile of points," Alicia shook her head.
Oliver winced. He already felt guilty about the points Snape had taken away, but it'd hurt worse when McGonagall had taken away an additional ten. She'd yelled a bit and then been coldly disappointed (which felt worse than the yelling, in his opinion).
"I had thought you were above starting a scrap during class, Mr. Wood," she'd chastised.
"I am, Professor, it was just an accident and – and a misunderstanding – "
"Nevertheless, you should not have fired back. The pair of you damaged quite a bit of Professor Snape's Potions ingredients. Your spat was entirely uncalled for. Not to mention the fact that Professor Snape informs me that you and Miss Lewis have been having several problems since the beginning of term in his class, which is even worse, and I must say quite unexpected from you."
He'd wanted to argue then – But Professor, you don't know what she's like, how she is, how she makes me feel… - but had wisely held his tongue. He'd done enough damage for one day.
McGonagall had sighed heavily and told him that what she really should be doing is banning him from the pitch for a certain amount of time (he'd sat up, heart racing in a panic) but couldn't bring herself to do it, not when the season had only just begun (he'd relaxed slightly).
"Consider this your only warning, however, Oliver." She said. "Any more issues between you and Miss Lewis, and I will be forced to be stricter with you, regardless of how dearly I don't want to be." She shook her head disappointedly at him and dismissed him. He'd slumped out, feeling even more horrible and headed to Gryffindor Tower, where he recounted his terrible day to his friends.
"Look, I don't know how many times I have to say it – it was an accident. I accidentally spilled the Dust – "
"Oh don't worry about it, mate," Fred waved his hand casually at his friend. "George and I have lost loads of points before."
Alicia glared briefly at him. "Yeah, thanks for that. We'd actually have a significant upper hand in the points if weren't for you two, I think."
"Maybe so," the red-head shrugged. "But what fun would that be? I always loved a close race." His eyes twinkled and he laughed as Katie playfully punched him in the shoulder.
"Well, you'll just have to learn to ignore her," she then offered matter-of-factly. "Everyone knows it's no fun to tease someone who doesn't react. She clearly likes getting you all fired up, so if you don't, the fun will go out of it."
Oliver sighed. It sounded so easy when she said it. He just hoped he could now follow her advice.
A/n: Thanks for reading! Reviews are like… rainbows!