Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Writers block. You all know how it goes. Now reeeeeeeead!
Alicia appeared on the step just in front of the door to Oliver Wood's flat. She rose her hand and gently knocked on the door. Within seconds the door swung open revealing the tall Scottish man.
"Oh, Alicia. Hey." He said confusion etched on his face. "Uh, what are you doing here?"
"We had an appointment Oliver." Alicia reminded him, smiling. "You know, for the article on the hottest Bachelor in England?" She said in a teasing voice. Alicia worked for the gossip collum on the Profit.
"Oh," Oliver laughed. "Yeah. Now I remember. Uh, come on in."
She stepped into Oliver's apartment. Just as she had expected, it was a mess. There were socks and other articles of clothing laying around the room. An old pizza box. His broom was in a corner, along with his uniform bundled in a ball on the ground.
"Sorry about the mess." He said clearing 2 spots on the couch. She sat down in her just cleared spot.
"It's fine. I've seen worse. I live with George, remember?"
"Oh yeah. That must be a sight." They both laughed, and Alicia nodded in agreement.
Oliver sighed and sat back on the couch. "It's good to see you Leesh." He said. She smiled warmly and nodded.
"It's good to see you too. We've missed you, you know."
"Yeah, I've really missed you guys too." They were both acting as if they hadn't ever seen each other in years. The old group had seen each other sometimes, but rarely.
"So, the article. Now, I know it's kind of lame. But my editor suggested me, because I know you. So, I'm just going to ask you questions, and answer them like you were just talking to me." He nodded.
"Okay, first question. You're not dating anybody are you?"
"Nope, not dating anyone." Alicia scribbled that down on her note pad.
"Okay, next question. What do you look for in a girl?"
"Uh, you know. Nice, sweet, funny, athletic." He answered.
"Of course into Quidditch?" Alicia joked. He smiled and nodded.
"Of course."
Alicia looked down at her watch, as planned, she exclaimed, "Oh dear! I'm sorry Oliver but I have to go!"
"Oh, uh." Oliver said, obviously taken aback by Alicia's sudden need to leave, she had only just gotten there.
"But, uh listen. I'm going out to dinner tonight with George and Angelina. You want to join us? You know, catch up?"
"Yeah, sounds fun." Oliver agreed.
"Great!" Alicia said jumping up and walking to the door. Oliver followed.
She opened the door, revealing a flustered looking Roger.
"Alicia?" He asked.
"Oh yes, hello Roger." She said cheerfully.
"What, what are you doing here?"
"Just an article, you know. I was interviewing Oliver. Well Oliver, I will see you tonight at 7:00 at Elquet." Elquet was a nice little restraunt that they had all found. Hopefully it would bring back the memories of romantic evenings that Oliver and Katie had spent together.
"Good talking to you Roger."
"Wait!" He said. Alicia rose her eyebrows at him, as if daring him to contradict her.
"What Roger?" She asked a little coolly.
"Oliver you have practice tonight at 6:00 'till 8:00."
"No we don't Davies. It's Sunday. You never hold practice on Sunday."
"Okay, then, I guess I'll see you at 7:00 then Oliver. Again, nice seeing you Davies."
"Alicia." Roger stopped her again. His voice was stern, and rather frightening. "Can I talk to you? In private?" She sighed and followed him out to the stairs, leaving a confused looking Oliver.
Once they were far enough away so that Oliver couldn't hear, he stopped.
"Alicia, I know you're working with Angelina."
"And if I am?" Alicia's voice became just as hard as Roger's.
"Please, I'm asking you, as a friend. Don't do this."
"Roger, you're not asking me as a friend. You're asking me as a coach. If you were asking me as a friend, then you would be helping us. Think about it, what is more important. Your friendship with Oliver and his happiness? Or Quidditch? Think about it, and when you've made your decision be sure to let me know." She finished angrily.
Alicia swiftly turned her back on Davies, her long black hair slightly hitting Roger's face before it settled back into its place. She quickly rushed down the stairs, her shoes making slight clicking sounds as she went.
"Do I have to?" Katie whined to Angelina as she continued to stare in disgust at the thing that barely passed as a dress.
"Yeah, you will look extremely hot in this Katie." She said assuringly. Katie snorted. "Oh just go put it on!" Angelina threw the black dress at Katie and she caught it and stepped into the bathroom.
When she had managed to get the dress on and zipped up she stepped out of the bathroom.
"Oh. My. God." Was all that Angelina could say. "You look amazing! Come on come on, come sit down and I'll do your hair."
Angelina curled Katie's hair and put it in a sort of half up half down. Then did her makeup. And made her put on a pair of high heels.
"Do you want me to kill myself?" she asked looking down at her feet.
"Oh please, you won't kill yourself." Angelina said from the bathroom where she was getting ready.
"You know how clumsy I am!"
"But don't you understand? That's the point! We want you to be as clumsy as possible, because that will trigger his memory, hopefully."
"What if this doesn't work?" Katie asked weakly. "What if all this effort it just a waste of time?"
"Well honey, you at least have to try. Now stand up and look at yourself in the mirror."
She did as she was told. And it was surprising what was looking back at her. She hadn't looked this good in a year. She was wearing a strapless short black dress, that hugged tight to her curves. The heels she was wearing made her legs look longer than they were. And just for extra support, she wore the pearl necklace that he gave her on her birthday 2 years ago.
The sound of the front door opening and closing made Katie look away from her reflection.
"Good news!" Alicia called, Katie could hear her heels clicking down the tiled hallway, accompanied by the sound of George's hard shoes following. "Oliver is meeting us. And I got to yell at Roger. It was quite fun really."
Alicia entered the room, and stopped dead at the sight of Katie, a smile creeping onto her face. "Holy crap Katie. You look amazing."
"Whoa!" George said stopping in the door way just as Alicia had. He gave a wolf whistle.
Katie smiled and blushed. "Thanks guys."
Alicia was wearing a pretty green satin cocktail dress with her hair up in a bun. George was wearing a pair of dress pants a blue shirt with a black jacket over it. Angelina stepped out of the bathroom while putting on a pair of earrings. She was wearing a black halter dress with her hair curly and down.
"Good you guys are here. We ready?" How Angelina got ready that quickly was a mystery to Katie.
Katie grabbed her purse and the 4 of them apparated to the ally behind the cute little restraunt.
They stepped out into the open and saw Oliver standing there. Katie immediately turned around back into the alley.
"Katie, Katie get back here!" Alicia said following her.
"No, no I can't do it!"
"No, listen to me. You need to be yourself. That is the most important thing here. You can't be shy. You have to be exactly how he remembers you!" Katie nodded.
She desperately hoped that this worked.
"Hey Oliver!" Angelina greeted as they walked toward him.
"Hi Ange." They gave a friendly hug.
"George, how you doing man?" George and Oliver shook hands.
"Pretty good. What about you man?"
"Good, good."
"Glad you could make it Oliver." Alicia said, hugging him like Angelina did.
"Yeah, thanks for inviting me."
His eyes drifted along the line of his old friends, he took a double take when he spotted Katie.
Alicia noticed this. "Oh, right. Oliver, this is Katie. Katie, this is Oliver." Oliver continued to stare in utter disbelief.
Katie smiled awkwardly, and thrust her hand forward. "Uh, hi. Katie Bell."
Oliver was snapped out of his trance after George smacked him on the back.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. Nice to meet you." Oliver couldn't believe it. Here she was. The mystery girl was standing right in front of him.
"Come on, let's go inside." They all filed into the restraunt and the waitress found them a table.
Angelina, Alicia and George filled the three spots, leaving two next to each other. Oliver and Katie took the last two.
"So, Oliver?" Alicia said as she unfolded her napkin and put it in her lap. "How's Quidditch? Davies seems to be working you hard huh?"
"Oh, yeah. His practices are ruthless."
"Kind of like yours?" Angelina laughed.
"Well, I always heard that Davies was pretty hard on his team back at school too." Katie said. That caught Oliver's attention.
"Oh, you went to Hogwarts?" Oliver asked.
"Oh, uh yeah. Gryffindor. That's how we all know each other."
"No wonder you seem so familiar!" He exclaimed.
"I'm going to go to the girl's room." Alicia said. "Angelina, care to come?" Angelina nodded and got up from her seat.
Alicia gave a meaningful look to George, and jerked her head a little bit.
"Uh," George stuttered, struggling for an excuse. "My pants, are uh… buzzing?"
George got up like the rest, and ran to the bathroom.
"God, that guy is weird." Oliver said shaking his head.
"Oh, tell me about it." Katie said. "He was testing one of his new products, and turned himself and Fred blue. Took 'em three days to get it out." She smiled at the memory.
"You knew Fred too?" Katie smiled sadly.
"One of my best friends."
"Yeah, same here. So that's weird that you were in Gryffindor and we've never met before." Katie nodded. "So, have you ever been into Quidditch? I mean, I'm pretty sure I saw you at a game." Katie bit her lip.
He still didn't remember who she was. Not a clue. She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't bare it.
"I'm sorry." She said, scooting out of her chair and standing up. "I can't do this anymore." Her voice came out choky and barely audible.
"What?" Oliver said, taken aback by her sudden emotion. "Wait, did I do something wrong?"
He stood there in the restaurant shocked, as he watched her walk out the door.
Katie walked swiftly down the street. Her heels were killing her feet, but she didn't stop. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she did not try to stop them, there was no point. She knew that she was too upset to apparate, and if she attempted she was more than likely to splinch herself.
The sound of running footsteps grew louder behind her.
"Listen," his voice said close to her now. She had slowed to a stop, and now stood in the middle of the street, wiping her wet face with the palm of her hand. "I'm sorry if I said anything to, offend you."
She turned to face him. He looked troubled, and confused.
"God Oliver! Sometimes you are so thick, you know that?" He took a slight step back, startled by her sudden outburst. "It's just the fact, the fact that you're here! The fact, that you remember them so easily. Angelina, Alicia and George. You never had a problem remembering them! The fact, that you don't know me, at all! I just look 'familiar' to you. The fact that it doesn't hurt you! But every day I have to live with your memory stained, in my heart forever! Everywhere I go you're there!" She gave a small sobbing noise.
"I tried you know. I tried, so hard to forget. Just forget as easily as you did. But I couldn't. Every day I can feel my heart ripping further and further apart, but yet there is nothing that I can do about it!"
"Davies was right. I shouldn't have come to see you that day. I thought I could handle it, being just another fan girl, but I couldn't. I couldn't do it."
"You. You're her. The girl, the girl with the jersey!" She gave a defeated sigh.
"Yes, I was the one with the jersey. The girl who you don't know, and probably never will. Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be getting mad at you. It wasn't your fault."
"The jersey. That jersey. I've been wondering for weeks. Where did you get it?"
"I should have moved on you know." She told him, not answering his question. "Right when I saw you that day. Saw that you didn't know, saw it was a lost cause. I should have moved on when the doctor told me. I'm so stupid! It's like I ask myself for pain!" She continued to stare at the ground, tears still flowing rapidly, and he still continued to stare at her. Dumbfounded.
"And you," she said after the moment of silence. "must think I'm bloody insane!"
"Wait," he said. "What doctor? And what does Roger have to do with any of this?"
"Don't be mad at him Oliver, he was just thinking of you. Sorry I wrecked your evening."
She apparated away from there before he could stop her. She didn't go back to her apartment.
Instead, she went a place she knew well. She sat there, and cried. And this place where she had been happy, this place where she had always been comfortable, just made her cry harder, because the memory of him, was everywhere. Would she never be free?
Okay, one more chapter I'm thinking. What do you say? Then maybe MAYBE if I can think of one, an epilogue. But no promises on the epilogue.
