Kaelyn Finnigan and Molly Weasley Shopping Together in Muggle London
Supposed enemies, Kaelyn and Molly, both 23, were seen shopping together in high-end Muggle London shops, a source confides. "They were talking and laughing together like old friends. I hadn't seen them say a word to each other since their blow up a few years ago."
Another source confirms they spent the whole of Wednesday together, stopping for coffee in mid-afternoon and going to a chipper for dinner (see photo spread, page 4). "They seemed old chums," says another source. "I didn't know them in school, but you could knock me over with a poke of a lame wand to say they hadn't spoken in years."
"I overheard them complaining about Lysander. I wouldn't be surprised if the wedding's off." Certain sources are suspecting a romantic relationship between Kaelyn and Molly will be the undoing of Kaesander. Regardless, the perfect high-profile romance looks like it's about to get messy.
- Rita Skeeter, freelance journalist for Witch Weekly
Oliver Wood made his way into the changing room before practice and was greeted by the seething voice of Roxanne Weasley. "I swear that woman is trying to get herself in trouble. Does she not want good things to happen to her? Every time things start going right again, she goes off and does something stupid. Of course, it doesn't help with the press documenting every time she sneezes, but still. She should know better than to spend her time with Kaelyn!"
Oliver paused at the door. It was time to start his pre-warm-up motivation speech, but he couldn't help but be interested in what Roxanne had to say. Her rant about Molly had everything to do with Daniel, after all, and therefore to do with him. He stayed quiet.
"Better Kaelyn than Lysander, though. I was afraid they were going to get all chummy. I guess there's still a chance she's using her to get to Lysander. I wouldn't put it past her sometimes, even though it's obvious she loves Daniel. She tries to play it like Lucy is the manipulative one, but they aren't as dissimilar as she sometimes pretends. And all this right after she gets Daniel, too. She's twenty-three for Merlin's sake. I wish she'd act like it!"
Roxanne turned around and saw Oliver standing there and she averted her eyes as quickly as they met. "Oh, um, hi."
He gave her one long stare, but said nothing except, "Time for practice."
As they flew laps around the field, then met in the middle for a quick round of Pass the Quaffle complete with various requirements barked out at random - "Upside down, next time, Zeller! With your left hand, Weasley!" - Oliver's heart wasn't in it.
He was still going over Roxanne's angry words to her teammate in the changing room earlier. Oliver knew his son was an adult, and he trusted him to make his own decisions. But having him get involved with a Weasley made him nervous. He loved the Weasleys, of course. The lot of them. He and Percy had even once been close, a lifetime ago at Hogwarts. But their fame was disconcerting, and recently, it was proving dangerous.
Getting involved with Molly Weasley meant getting his life plastered onto the front pages. It meant background searches and stories about long-forgotten misadventures. Percy and Oliver hadn't spoken, not really, since Percy chose the Ministry over his family. Eventually, if Molly and Daniel stayed together, they would be in-laws. And a small part of Oliver wasn't yet ready to confront it, wasn't yet ready to deal with some of the hateful things he said when Percy left - or when Percy came back.
So for now, Oliver threw himself into his work. His players had never pushed harder, and at the end of their training, they drug their broomsticks to the changing room like they were making their way toward hell.
He had worked them hard; he understood this and felt for them. But it was for their own good. They had lost the last two games they played and needed the training to do win.
"Coach Wood?" Daisy asked, trading her Quidditch shoes for trainers.
"Yeah, Zeller?"
"Could you please stop taking your personal life out on us?"
"This has nothing to do with my personal life," he barked defensively. "It has to do with your losing streak. We're Puddlemere! We're better than this!"
"It's not just you that's having problems off the field," she said, ignoring him. "We all are. Quidditch is supposed to be the place where we forget ourselves for awhile and have fun. You aren't letting us do that."
"What do you want me to do, then? Have some kind of therapy session where we pass the Quaffle and talk about our feelings?"
"It wouldn't hurt," Roxanne said, and there was a murmur of agreement.
"Fine. Thursday's practice we'll talk about our feelings or whatnot. But don't think it won't be hard work!" he added over the cheering. "We won't be talking about our feelings. We'll be conquering them. Now go home and get some rest."
Rest. It was exactly what he needed, but Oliver hadn't been sleeping well. Not for weeks, or months, even. Katie had been worried. Just last night she had woken up sometime after midnight and found him in the sitting room, hand on his heads.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes," he said curtly. "I mean no. I'm worried about Daniel."
"So am I," she said, "but I've talked to him about her, Oliver. He really loves her." She climbed behind him and began massaging his shoulders.
"That's what worries me."
"What about him being in love with her worries you? The fame? The tabloids? He would still get some of that because of you anyway."
"It isn't the fame," he admitted, but hadn't fully realized it until the words were out of his mouth. "I know, despite everything Rita has to say about her, that Molly is a good girl." Looking back now, after Roxanne's comments this afternoon, Oliver wasn't so sure. But fifteen hours earlier, he had been.
Katie leaned around and kissed his cheek. "Then what is it?"
"It's Percy, Katie."
She moved from behind him and sat beside him on the couch, perplexed. "Percy? You were friends at school."
"We were," he said. "But the row we got in when Percy decided to stay with the Ministry instead of with his family... we haven't spoken since."
"What does that have to do with Daniel and Molly?"
"If they marry, well, Percy and I will practically be related. I don't know if I could handle that yet. There were things said- regrets I have..."
"Can't we just cross that bridge when we get to it?" Katie asked.
"I don't know, Kate. I just don't know."
After Quidditch practice, he didn't go straight home. Instead, he went to the Gringotts offices where Daniel worked and found him there.
"Dad? What are you doing here? And just after practice?"
"It was quicker than sending an owl. You'll be off soon, right?"
Daniel glanced about the piles of paperwork cluttering his desk. "I should be. Why?"
"I want you to come over for dinner."
"I was supposed to meet Molly-"
"Send an owl. I'm sure she'll understand."
He sighed. "Okay. I'll finish up here and meet you at your house in thirty minutes or so?"
"See you then, Daniel. It will be nice to have the table full again."
He smiled. "It will."
The dinner conversation went remarkably well at first. Oliver was determined to save the subject of Molly for as long as he could, and they discussed work instead. "I'm hoping for a promotion soon," Daniel said. "I've been doing the same damn desk job for five years and it doesn't pay enough to, well, to support a family."
Katie looked at Oliver meaningfully before returning her attention to her son. "Support a family?"
He blushed under the weight of his mother's stare. "You know, one day. In the future."
"You're honestly thinking about a family with Molly Weasley?" Oliver said. It was not how he intended to broach the subject, but it would have to do. "You haven't been together more than a few months - and most of them Molly's been in the papers gallivanting with that rock star and his slutty girlfriend!"
"That slutty girlfriend is my ex, Dad. And you would know that if you ever gave me the time of day in the last ten years. Why are you so interested in my personal life all of a sudden? You didn't care when I moved out, or got a job, or when Bailee and I started dating. Or when we broke up." He slammed his fork against the table. "That was Mum, Dad. It was always Mum who cared. You paid enough interest in me until you realized I was never going to be good at Quidditch and I was never going to enjoy it. Then you may as well have abandoned me altogether for how much you cared."
Oliver could feel the veins bursting out of his neck. The words stung - and deep. His heart and stomach felt their veracity, but his boiling blood was already shouting. "How dare you speak to me that way? I am your father, Daniel. Your father! Have you forgotten that? You have no right-"
"Oliver! Daniel!" Katie was standing now, too, dwarfed between the heights of her husband and her son. "Stop it! Sit down already and have this discussion like adults, or don't have it at all."
"Fine by me," Daniel said. "We don't have to have it at all." He got up from the table, dinner only half-eaten, and made his way toward the door.
With a reach that proved his time as a top-form Keeper, Oliver reached out and took Daniel's arm. His voice had calmed when he spoke. "Wait. Please. I want to warn you about Molly."
"I saw the article about her and Kaelyn. She went with my blessing."
"This isn't about that."
Daniel, who had been straining against Oliver's grasp, went slack and stopped fighting. "Then what's it about?"
"Can we go to the sitting room and chat civilly for once?"
"I could manage."
They walked together, and Oliver turned one look back to the dining room, where Katie still sat picking at her food, looking tense. She gave him a look that said be careful and he nodded.
"I, well, I overheard Roxanne in the changing room today before practice. I know it was wrong to listen, but she was ranting and hadn't noticed me. It took a minute before I realized who she was talking about, but when I had, it worried me."
"Roxanne has a temper on her sometimes," Daniel said. "Surely you can understand that."
"She seemed like she meant it, though. Said that Molly needed to grow up and start acting like an adult. That she didn't realize what she had with you. She said - she said Molly's only using you to make Lysander jealous."
"That's a lie," Daniel said, and his confidence shot Oliver's. Because it was. Or, at the very best, it was stretching the truth so thin it was translucent. But there were bigger things at stake than truth and falsehood.
"I heard her, Daniel! Roxanne said Molly is using you. She doesn't love you. She just wants a date to bring to the wedding to make Lysander jealous." This lie made his stomach turn, but Oliver did his best to ignore it. From the way Roxanne was ranting - and Molly was Roxanne's best friend - Daniel deserved far better.
His son's face was flaring with an anger Oliver recognized. Oliver didn't pass down his love for Quidditch; he passed on his temper. Oliver and Daniel hadn't fought since he was a kid. Probably, Oliver realized, because of how little they spoke during Daniel's adolescence. Nonetheless, the last time they squared off was as father and son. This time felt like man to man. But despite the anger in his face, Daniel's breathing was long and steady. Maybe Daniel was the better person, able to control his temper. It seemed to pain him to speak. "Are you sure, Dad? Absolutely positive?"
Oliver didn't trust himself with words. He nodded.
Daniel paused, too. He and Oliver were the same height, and too close for Oliver's comfort. His son stared him in the eyes, searching them. Remorse crept its way into Oliver's countenance, but not enough to change his mind, and not enough for his son to notice. If Daniel really loved that woman, it was all the more important for Oliver to step in. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Daniel simply said, "Okay. Thanks for telling me. I should really be getting home."
Katie rushed into the room with a pile of leftovers and things for Daniel to take with him. "Please try to come by more," she said, as if the confrontation hadn't happened at all. "I've missed you."
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I missed you too, Mum. Thanks for the food. It was delicious."
"Any time, dear. Any time."
Daniel Disapparated without ceremony and without acknowledging his father. Katie moved to her husband's side and stroked his arms, then wrapped her own around his neck. "Are you sure you did the right thing, dear?"
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I hope so."
A/N: Thanks everyone for putting up with sporadic updates. I've entered this in a competition where I must upload weekly, so we should have the end of the story before September!
Thanks to teddylupin-snape for the word war and to ktoo for the Beta help!
