Disclaimer: These          characters         are       not       owned              by        me. Was that simple enough for everyone?

A/N: Well I'm back again, I characteristically haven't updated for a couple of months but realising that it is exactly one year since I started this story, I pulled myself together and wrote another chapter. I don't think that excuse will go down too well in my history class tomorrow, but anyway, I hope you enjoy it

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It was the Annual Quidditch Awards held in the incredibly posh conference room of the London Wizarding Emporium, it was a very large room and everyone there saw it as the perfect opportunity to dress up. Every professional team had a large table with 20 seats round it which they were meant to fill with players and players partners, but many teams squished more chairs round and brought family members and even people willing to pay them a lot of money to get in.

The Chudley Cannon's were placed near the front of the room, while Harry's team the Wasps were right in the middle of the room so everybody could see them, which probably wouldn't please Harry when he arrived.

At the moment Paddy and his new girlfriend were sat with Derek and two reserve players who Izzy had tagged along with as well waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. The entire hall was about half full with the tables at the back, which were reserved for press, competition winners, award presenters and very rich businessmen already making a lot of noise.

Ginny arrived with Oliver both looking extremely glamorous although Oliver also looked rather uncomfortable, they were about to enter the room when Ginny spotted a journalist friend of hers and excused herself to go and talk to her. Oliver was going to go in alone and wait for Ginny but just at that moment Ron and Seamus almost walked into him, Ron greeted him warmly and Oliver who was much more forgiving than Ginny who had vowed never to speak to any of her brothers ever again grinned at him.

Suddenly Oliver remembered that Seamus didn't even play Quidditch, in fact Ron didn't either but the Weasley's did manage to get everywhere

'Why is Seamus here?' Oliver asked in confusion

'Well thanks very much mate, Paddy invited me considering he's dating my cousin and all, he's practically family' Seamus said indignantly but grinning at the same time, apparently there was nothing in this world that Seamus didn't find amusing

'Hey I'm delighted to see you, I just don't think Jared will share the sentiment' Oliver defended himself as he realised that Seamus would be sitting at the Cannon's table

'Aww and I thought we got on so well' Seamus said with mock upset

'I always said you were deluded' Ron shook his head sadly and Seamus glared at the red head

'So who have you brought?' Oliver asked quickly not wanting to get caught in the middle of yet another Weasley feud

'Lavender obviously' Ron said motioning to a pair of girls walking towards them, one Oliver recognised as Ron's girlfriend but he couldn't quite make out the other shorter girl possibly because of her blinding silver robes

'Oh yeah, what about you Seamus?' 

'Cho' Seamus said puffing out his chest proudly

'You must be joking' Oliver said in horror

'Nope, my jokes are the funny ones' Seamus reminded him

'You're bringing Jared's ex-girlfriend to a high-profile event that you know he'll be at' Oliver was still incredulous

'Correct, and you're bringing the girl he fancies' Seamus said seriously

'He doesn't anymore' Oliver said a bit too quickly

'Now who's deluded?' Seamus asked raising an eyebrow and leaving Oliver speechless, just at the moment Lavender came to drag Ron off to the Wasp's table to meet Harry and Hermione and Cho came back to Seamus

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A few minutes later Ginny and Oliver were sat at the Cannon's table and the entire hall was almost full

'Does anyone know who Jared's bringing?' Derek asked everybody as he ordered another beer

'No, I did hear that all his previous girlfriends had turned him down' Paddy said barely holding in a grin

'And there can't be that many left he hasn't dated' Izzy reasoned

'I think Cho had something to do with the many refusals' Ginny remarked lightly and everybody turned to look at Cho

'What? Me? I didn't say anything that wasn't true' Cho said with a slight smirk as she defended herself looking innocent

'Well maybe he'll just come stag' Sam said with a shrug as he tried to concentrate on enjoying his night out with his wife and without the kids, which considering he had 4 boys all under 10 years old was a rare occurrence

'You do realise we're talking about Jared here?' Paddy asked incredulously, the thought of Jared going anywhere alone was unheard of

'Good point, well maybe he'll bring his mother' Sam guessed earning even more looks of astonishment

The same mother who keeps nagging him to settle down with some nice girl?' Derek pointed out

'Oh yeah, well I'm stumped' Sam gave up

'No need to guess, he's over there' Oliver said as he saw Jared come through the doors

'But there's no-one with him' Paddy said in confusion

'What about that girl?' Seamus asked noticing a female next to Jared

'Nah, that's just Christa' Derek said dismissively going back to scanning the room for Jared's date when he'd realised who Seamus was referring to

'Christa, who you play with? Wow never realised she was so hot' Seamus gave a low whistle and craned his head slightly to get a better glimpse of Christa, which Ginny noticed Cho seemed rather upset about

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'Hi Jared' Oliver greeted as Jared reached the table

'Hi' Jared replied, he was dressed in very bright red robes that wouldn't have looked out of place guiding cars on the motorway at night

'Hey Jamieson where's your date? Heard you couldn't find one' Seamus called over the table, looking to pick up his feud with Jared where he'd left it

'She's right here' Jared smiled pompously

'What, where?' Ginny asked looking very confused as she voiced what everyone else was wondering

'Thanks Ginny, I didn't realise I was invisible' Christa spoke up, she'd come over with Jared but nobody had taken much notice as they'd been too busy looking for Jared's date. But at Christa's words Oliver, Paddy and Derek who had all been taking a drink almost choked, as they had been so surprised that they had swallowed their beers completely the wrong way

'WHAT? You two are… you two… you're dating' Oliver spluttered in complete shock as his glass hit the table with a loud bang, of all the possible couples on the Cannons team he couldn't have been more surprised if Sam had announced he was leaving his wife to set up home with Paddy

'Hell no, we were just both going to go alone but Jared said that as he was giving being a bachelor a try for a while so he's unattached, we might as well go together, keep each other company and all that' Christa seemed appalled by the idea of dating Jared and Jared seemed annoyed that she had the nerve to look appalled, in his opinion the entire wizarding world should be grateful that he was nice enough to grace them with his presence

'Darling, you should hear the real story about your wonderful date's bachelorism; it's so much more amusing. Seamus Finnegan by the way, at your service' Seamus stood up speaking in his Irish drawl and offering his hand to Christa

'Christa Windsor, it's a pleasure to meet you' Christa gave Seamus a very wide grin as she sized him up quickly and took his hand

'The pleasure's all mine, here sit next to me' Seamus pulled out the empty chair next to him

'Thank you very much' Christa said taking the seat happily

'But Christa, I don't want to…' Jared began to say but he was interrupted

'Shut up Jared, you're getting far too whiney nowadays, no wonder your last girlfriend dumped you' Christa snapped yanking Jared down into his seat before turning back to Seamus

'She didn't, I dumped her' Jared said automatically

'Erm hello, I'm sitting right here and I most definitely dumped you' Cho said indignantly crossing her arms and glaring at him

'Oh so you're Cho, it's very nice to finally meet you, did you come with Seamus?' Christa asked with interest, she hadn't spent much time with the rest of the team outside of training recently and as a result hadn't met all the various new girlfriends and boyfriends that people had acquired

'Yes' Cho said smiling

'Huh? Are you two dating?' Izzy looked up in interest for the first time that night, she had been looking more and more restless recently and Oliver was beginning to worry that she might be considering leaving the team

'Well…' Cho began but then trailed off looking unsure but Seamus was never short of a word or twenty

'Ha, nah course we're not, we're both free, single and looking, isn't that right?' he said confidently

'Yeah, free and single, that's us' Cho repeated looking rather downcast

'In that case we should form our own little singletons group' Christa suggested jokingly

'Great idea, only that prat can't be in it' Seamus said sticking his tongue out at Jared who scowled in reply

'Why?' Christa asked, not that she really cared it was just the next obvious thing to say

'Cos you have to have more brains than a frog and be mightily good looking, like you and me' Seamus grinned and Christa grinned back, the rest of the table watched in interest except Jared and Cho who looked disgusted

'Finnegan I'll get you' Jared promised through clenched teeth standing up with his fists clenched

'Jared what did I tell you? Shut up and sit down, so I can talk to Seamus here, now where were we?' Christa turned round to Jared looking very annoyed who promptly sat down, before she turned once again back to Seamus

'I believe you about to proclaim me as King of the universe' the Irishman said very smoothly

'Only if I get to be Queen' Christa said smiling

'Christa dear, I wouldn't have it any other way'

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 'I'm Fred Weasley, joint manager of Weasley's wizarding world emporium, which recently broke new records when we managed to sell two thousand canary creams in a day. My partner in crime is sat down there, after all seeing both of us might give some of you lovely ladies a heart attack from such dashing good looks. So without further ado, the nominations for the best manager are  from the Wimbourne Wasps, Walter Morican from the Chudley Cannons, Bertie Cramble from the Ballycastle Bats and Sophia Goodram from the Falmouth Falcons'………….'And the winner is Walter Morican from the Chudley Cannons'

Tumultuous applause broke out throughout the hall and many wolf-whistles came from the Cannons where Ginny gave her boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek and shoved him towards the stage

'Hi' Oliver gave a rather embarrassed grin as he reached where Fred stood

'Oliver, you're secretly the manager of the team as well as the captain?' Fred enquired looking very amused, the rest of the hall laughed as well and Oliver waited for it to die down before he spoke

'No, Walt unfortunately got delayed on his second honeymoon with some sort of foreign disease so he asked me to collect this for him and to thank everybody on his behalf and to say that the Wasps better watch out, this year that title's coming back to us' Oliver shook Fred's hand as the Wasps started yelling out in good-natured protest

'As controversial as ever' Fred laughed as many members of the Cannons team shouted back, getting other teams involved as well

'Where's Percy?' Oliver asked quietly as everyone continued shouting out

'He's running late, so we swapped, he'll present the chaser award later' Fred explained handing Oliver the trophy and allowing him to leave the stage. As the shouting and catcalling finally died down, Fred made a move to follow Oliver off the stage

'Oh I've just remembered one last thing apart from the obvious congratulations for Walt Morican' Fred came to a sudden halt at the edge of the stage and peered down at one of the tables looking for somebody, when he saw them a grin spread across his face and he yelled 'Hey Angelina you fancy marrying me?'

Everyone's heads whipped round to try and find the woman in question, Ginny could just make out Angelina at the back of the room sat with George and saw her give Fred an appraising sort of look

'Yeah ok, I could do worse I suppose' she said with a small smile playing on her lips as she accepted one of the strangest marriage proposals anyone had ever heard

'Great, you better catch this then' Fred grinned in relief as he threw a small box across the room which Angelina caught with ease. 'Well that was it from me' Fred said as though this was extremely usual. And with that he jumped off the stage and sauntered cockily across the room apparently very pleased with himself, paused to give the very stunned Ginny a wink and then pulled his future wife into a very passionate kiss to the cheers and catcalls of the rest of the room who had just about recovered from the shock.

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'Wasn't that your brother?' Sam asked leaning across the table looking rather amused

'I do make a point of reminding myself of that on occasions like these' Ginny said wryly, wondering how her mother was going to react when she found out that one of her children was finally settling down

'Is he a bit crazy?' Christa asked as delicately as possible

'No, he's very crazy' Ginny corrected her

'So we've forgiven him now for the whole Woodwatch thing' Oliver asked. He had forgiven them a long time ago, but he wasn't quite as sure about Ginny

'I think he's going to have enough to worry about with Angelina, so long as you forgive him'

'Anyone you love, I love too' Oliver said grinning, he could see Izzy rolling her eyes out of the corner of his eye; but didn't much care

'I love Celestine Warbeck' Ginny said hopefully returning Oliver's grin; for weeks she'd been trying to convince Oliver as to the merits of Celestine's singing

'And not her either' Oliver added quickly

'I'm going to win you over on that' Ginny promised with a rather sly smile

'I look forward to you trying' Oliver said truthfully with a satisfied grin; Ginny merely raised one eyebrow in return before turning back to see who the next presenter was for the award that Oliver was nominated for

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As the presenter took the stage a deafening mix of excited cheers (mainly from elder women) and hilarious laughter rang out. For the presenter was none other than that forever self-publicising Gilderoy Lockhart. He had recovered from losing his memory by reading his own books and unfortunately was now even more bigheaded than ever due to literally believing his own press.  

'Hello everybody, I'm delighted to be here this evening and I know you're delighted to have me, after all I am currently the top of the Best-selling Books list for the tenth week running, if you don't already own a copy then go out and buy one tomorrow, after all a house without 'How I recovered from a curse from the dark lord' is an unhappy house. I'm here to present the award for the best keeper and luckily for all of you, my nephew Jared only displays his talents at the chaser position otherwise he'd win this award as well. And the contenders are: Oliver Wood of the Chudley Cannons, Merlin Richardson of the Appleby Arrows, Morag McDougal of the Falmouth Falcons and Ambrose Merchant of the Wimbourne Wasps'

Lockahrt now paused for what some people might have thought of as a dramatic pause but Ginny could tell that he was checking his hair in the trophy. Oliver couldn't decide whether to be incredibly nervous or incredibly sick, it wasn't as though he'd never won an award before, but he couldn't help but want to win more. Pushing a few loose strands behind his ear, Lockhart finally ended the suspense

'And the winner is Morag McDougal of the Newcastle Falcons, come along dear no need to be shy, obviously a fan she is' Lockhart had obviously mistaken Morag stopping to receive congratulations from her team-mates for some kind of shyness, quite how he'd managed that was a mystery to all but himself and possibly Jared.

'I'd just like to thank -' Morag managed to pry the award from Lockhart's hands but then found herself been drowned out by another voice

'No no, no need to thank me, making the world a better place is reward enough' Lockhart said with fake modesty, he'd obviously missed the part of his presentation which said he was meant to stand back after the winner had received the award. Morag stared at him open-mouthed, never in her twelve years of professional playing had she encountered anything like this man

'Erm, right, Well I hope that next year -' she tried to carry on and thank her teammates

'I'll be able to watch you play, well I'll try but I do have so many fans to visit' Lockhart finished for her, even though she'd had no intention of saying anything of the sort. Oliver felt deeply sorry for her having to put up with this on what should be a very proud day

'Look I'm trying to thank -' Morag snapped glaring at Lockhart who merely smiled back,

'Me for been such an inspiration, I know, but so much praise juts makes me blush, I'm a very modest man after all' Lockhart interrupted again, it was such an obvious lie that Harry could be heard giving a large snort of derision from his table. The evening's organiser at the back of the room was a very pale colour and cursing the day he'd been talked into hiring such a self-obsessed maniac

'Cheers' Morag had finally had enough and with a curt nod to the crowd who all felt very sympathetic towards her she took her award and left to celebrate with her own team. At the Cannon's table, Jared was beaming proudly at his uncle while the rest of the team stared in silence at Lockhart who was now been forcibly removed from the stage

'I never thought I'd say this, but I'm suddenly incredibly happy that I didn't win' Oliver said with a short laugh, which led to much more laughter from everyone else at the table, gaining them some weird looks from nearby tables. Ginny smiled at her boyfriend, wondering if there was anyway she could possibly love him more than she did at that moment, and gave his hand a squeeze under the table, which meant more to him than any award ever could.

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'The nominations for best chaser are Roger Davies of the Holyhead Harpies, Jared Jamieson of the Chudley Cannons, Christa Windsor also of the Chudley Cannons and Sarah Flatterly of Pride of Portree. The winner is Jared Jamieson from the Chudley Cannon's' Percy announced later in the evening managing not to look too annoyed although he had a deep personal dislike for the winner

'Well done Jared, I guess the best player won' Christa smiled at Jared who was playing it very cool and waving to his collective fan club who seemed to have appeared at the back of the room

'Yes, I guess they did' Jared gave a distracted half-grin as he moved towards the stage

'Why you little… Get back here' Seamus leapt up in anger looking more than ready to punch Jared for his remark

'Sit down' Oliver said quietly

'Did you not hear what he said?' Seamus demanded angrily, at Oliver's words he'd stopped in his tracks but still hadn't sat back down and was attracting some very strange looks from nearby players who had been distracted from Jared's speech

'I said sit down Seamus' Oliver ordered, never raising his voice but leaving nobody in any doubt that he expected to be obeyed. Ginny was surprised, this was Oliver the captain that she'd heard about but never really seen. Oliver waited for Seamus to sit down, which to none of the players surprise, he did. The Cannons were used to the fact that Oliver was generally an easy-going guy, but when he was serious, nobody dared to disobey him. Seeing that Seamus had calmed down Oliver continued, 'Jared shouldn't have said that, but I am this team's captain, not you. I will deal with this later; this is neither the time nor the place. Now let's all calm down and carry on enjoying the evening'

And everybody did as Oliver said, Izzy looking anxiously around the room as though she was expecting something, Derek telling some rude jokes and Ginny looking at Oliver with a new respect for him at how he'd handled the situation.

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The evening's organiser who had gone through months of hard work to organise this event, took to the stage to give the final award a special announcement as the hall stilled in anticipation

'Congratulations to all the winners and I hope everybody has had a nice evening. Now the evening's special guest of honour will present our final award, twice a world cup winner with Bulgaria, currently playing in his native country with Sofia Slazenger's, Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mr Victor Krum'

'It is a pleasure to be asked here tonight to give this award, I have alvays considered the English league to be one of the strongest in the world and so the vinner of the league's most valuable player should be a very proud man or woman indeed. The nominees are: Troy Bailey of the Ballycastle Bats, Nadine Ellis of Vimbourne Vasps, Jared Jamieson of the Chudley Cannons, Morag McDougal of the Falmouth Falcons and Harry Potter of the Vimbourne Vasps'

Victor paused to allow everyone time to quiet in anticipation, they had all been whispering since he first appeared on stage, such a major international star who played in a different country was a rare occasion at these event's.

'And the vinner is Harry Potter, who I hope to have an opportunity to play against very shortly' Victor announced with a smile, and it was hard to tell which was loudest, the clicking of cameras as Harry kissed his girlfriend and went towards the stage for his award, the loud cheers of Harry's appreciative team-mates, or the gasp of shock at what Victor had just said. And as Harry received his award and said a few words of thanks, everyone wondered if it could be true that Victor Krum could possibly be coming to England. Oliver wasn't wondering that, he was thinking that if Victor was coming to play seeker in England, then which team had signed him; for any team with Victor Krum in it, was a serious challenger for the league title. 

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A/N: Happy one year anniversary for this story, I realise this is been written very slowly, but I treasure every single review I receive and please stick with me, because I won't abandon this story, not ever