Thank you all so much for the reviews. Some of you are so genuinely nice and considerate, and I am really touched by the things you say. This is especially why I'm so sorry I can't do review replies all the time. Please know that I really do appreciate your reviews, even though I don't have the time to respond to them. Thanks again!

Summary for those who need it: So Katie totally gives up the campaign & turns up in Zacharias' room, thinking she's ready for sex, but it turns out he's drinking with a bunch of his buddies. She shows up at one o'clock at Oliver's room, totally drunk, waking Percy up with her loud singing and shouting. Oliver has to convince Percy it's the armed penguins from Scotland Yard. Then Katie and Oliver do some talking, Katie suddenly gets seductive, some serious snogging gets done, but then Oliver (being the gentleman he is) comes to his senses. Then he starts professing his love for her, but Katie has already conked out. Typical.

And here is the next installment of the ridiculously dramatic relationship between Oliver Wood and Katie Bell!

Chapter 21

It's a blessed moment when the first thing you see when you open your eyes is a the girl you love in bed beside you. It doesn't matter that her mouth is half-open and she's snoring softly, or that you've lost all feeling in your arm because it is trapped underneath her, or that you're still sore from the time she kicked you between the legs in her sleep. The only thing that matters is how peaceful she looks, with her hair all tousled on your pillow like that, and how much you find yourself falling more in love with her. And then, her eyelids flicker open, and her eyes look into yours, and...

...she screams bloody murder.

"WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING IN YOUR BED?"

Bloody hell! Talk about screaming banshees! Sheesh.

"I dunno, you tell me," I said, as she sat up fast. "You're the one who strolled in at one o'clock in the morning."

"I did not!" Katie gasped. "Who do you think you are?"

"The person whose bed you invaded?"

"Ohmigosh. You abducted me!" She stabbed a finger at my chest. "You... you tried to take advantage of me!"

"WHAT?" I shouted, furious. "Funny how you say that, considering it was you who was all over me last night! I was the one who had to push you away!"

"Ooh, you did NOT just say that!" she seethed, her fists pounding my pillow. "You filthy lying git, I could just...bloody hell, what am I doing in this ridiculous lingerie? Did you... dress me in this?... You DID, didn't you?"

"Okay, that's it!" I fumed. "I take you in for the night and I tuck you in after you get totally trashed in the Ravenclaw tower around eight boys and you're rambling about being a depressed homosexual living in a cardboard box in Timbuktu, and this is the thanks I get?"

Blank stare.

"Bloody hell, how do you come up with this stuff?" she demanded furiously.

"Ask your own twisted mind!" I raged. "Because I certainly don't have the answer!"

"This makes no sense! I was in my room last night, and I..." Katie thought aloud frantically. "Dear Merlin. I think I put on the lingerie under my robes!"

Duh.

"Then I went to the Ravenclaw dormitories...Zach's roommate opened the door...I walked in...everyone was getting really, really drunk..." She stopped, her mouth open. "Bloody hell," she whispered. "What happened after that?"

"Dear Zacharias passed out, someone tried to feel you up, you hit him with a bottle, and then you ran to me for some reason."

"Ew, why would I run to you? Wait, someone tried to feel me up?... It was that wanker John! How dare he? I'm going to KILL him! Ow!" Katie toppled backwards onto a pillow.

"What is it?" I asked, immediately concerned.

"Dear Merlin, I'm feeling the king of all hangovers," she moaned, clutching her head.

"Foolish girl," I muttered, starting to climb over her so I could grab her a glass of water or something. But it was just like Katie to misinterpret my intentions.

"Get off me! You pervert! Were you all over me last night, too, huh?" she shrieked.

"I was going to get you a glass of water!" I snapped.

"Does that mean something sexual?"

"NO!"

She slapped me. Hard.

"That's it!" I fumed, grabbing her arms. "If you think you can just make assumptions when it was you who barged in here so drunk you couldn't walk straight..."

"Let go of me!" Katie shrieked, trying to get out from under me.

"No. You're staying put until you listen to what really happened!"

Suddenly (I don't know how she did it), Katie flipped me over. "Think you're so high-and-mighty, Mr. Wood?" she sneered. Her smirk disappeared, however, as I pushed her off and pinned her down once more.

"Yes, I do!" I said triumphantly. And so began our wrestling match. Pillows went flying, my sheets clung to my bed for dear life until at last they fell to the floor, and all the while Katie and I were exchanging insults and yelling at each other.

It all ended, suddenly, when Katie's head crashed into the headboard.

"OW!" she screamed in pain for the second time. What a way to cure a hangover, I was thinking wryly as she moaned in pain, when suddenly the bedcurtains flew open.

"AHA!"

"BLOODY HELL!"

Dear Merlin. I was lying on top of Katie, Katie was wearing naught but a very revealing piece of lingerie, I was panting heavily, and Katie was moaning. How to explain this?

HOW?

"It's not at all what it looks like!" I said frantically.

Percy raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. "I knew it wasn't the penguins last night," he said smugly. "Breaking a few rules around here, Wood?"

"There's no rule banning girls from staying the night in the boys' dormitories!" I argued.

"Aha!" he said again, triumphantly. "So you admit that this girl stayed the night with you?"

"Her name is Katie," I said through gritted teeth. "And I took her in because of very...unusual...circumstances."

"Oh, I bet they were unusual," Percy smirked. "Well, I'll just have you know that I'll pardon this offense once. But this better not become a habit, bringing girls into your room late at night..."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" I shouted, exasperated. "Can you just let me explain?"

"Nothing to explain, mate," he said pompously. "I just hope you know about the consequences of unprotected sex. Don't want your future going down the drain because of one foolish mistake, you know." And he left the room before I could say anything else.

I gaped at the door Percy had just closed. I couldn't believe it. What a pompous prat he was!

"Can you believe what he was implying?" I fumed, turning to Katie. I'd been surprised she hadn't said anything in her defense during the interrogation, but in an instant, I realized why.

She had found her diary.

Dear Diary,

OLIVER WOOD HAD IT THE ENTIRE TIME!

I can't believe it. I found it under his pillow and I stared at it for the longest time. I didn't even hear what Percy said (what had he been saying?). My hand is shaking as I write this, because I still can't believe this diary had been missing and I hadn't even had the sense to realize it...

xxx

"Bloody hell," Oliver muttered under his breath. "Katie, I can explain..."

"What are you doing with my diary?"

"I found it in the locker room! I was planning to give it back, I swear, but you've been avoiding me..."

"You read it, didn't you? ADMIT IT!"

"I didn't!" There was a look of horror on his face. "Katie, I swear I didn't, you have to believe me-"

"Well, I don't!" I snapped. "I know you read it!"

"Are you questioning my morals?" Oliver narrowed his eyes. "Do you think I'm the kind of person to just read other people's personal stuff? You think I'm that low, Katie?"

"Shut up! I hate you!" I screamed, throwing my robes around me and storming toward the door. "Oh bollocks," I muttered angrily as I entered the hallway; I realized that in my haste to leave the room, I had forgotten to bring my wand. But there was no way in hell I was going back to get it and face HIM.

I stormed through the hallway, stomping my feet, and it was no wonder that I collided into none other than the Weasley twins.

"Oi, Katie!" George exclaimed in surprise as my nose crashed into his shoulder. "What're you doing up here at this hour?"

"Funny..." Fred said slowly, examining my tousled hair and wrinkled robes. "It rather looks like you spent the night up here!"

"I did not!" I retorted hotly, feeling my cheeks burn up.

"She DID!" George crowed. "Who were you with? Tell us!" He sounded like an eager child.

"Stop implying that I slept with someone, would you?" I cried, furious.

"Bloody hell! You were SO in flagrante delicto with Wood!" Fred shouted gleefully. "Congratulations!"

"WHAT?" I shrieked. "You just assume that I slept with Oliver Wood?"

"Um... yes."

"Git! Wanker! Prat!"

"Ow, stop hitting me!"

I pushed past them. "And if I hear you're spreading rumors around school, I'll..."

"...have to think up more clever ways to sneak around with Wood?" George grinned.

"Or else I'll hex you to oblivion!" I screamed, storming away. I could still hear them laughing as I stomped down the stairs.

xxx

Now that I'm in my room, safely wrapped up in my bathrobe (and still being stabbed brutally in the head by my massive hangover), I am obsessing over that fact that Oliver probably read everything. I mean, no on can resist the temptation of reading another person's diary. Dear Merlin, does that mean he now knows about that dream I had two months ago about him and a can of whipped cream?...

BLOODY HELL!

Christmas is just around the corner. After only one more day, I'll be going home.

And I can't wait.

"You'll need to get plenty of rest and drink lots of freshly squeezed orange juice," Luna advised on how I should spend my Christmas. "I would recommend a strong draught of Wendelwuss Potion, with extra flobberworm mucus and extract of blood from a decapitated African Goliath beetle. But it would probably set your intestines on fire because of your body type, so I wouldn't try it."

"Uh... thanks? I'll keep that in mind," I said uncertainly.

But as weird as Luna was, I felt I was getting used to her after all our therapy sessions. I mean, how else can I explain how, after time, her eccentricity had become soothing, and a source of a relief?

"I assume you're going away for Christmas?" she asked.

"Yeah, my mum's been promising that we can go to Germany so we can watch the Quidditch tournament being held there next week," I said excitedly. "I really hope we go."

"Funny, I'd expected you to be vacationing on an island of some sort," Luna said calmly, adjusting her lens-free glasses.

"Why?" I laughed.

"You give off that aura," she said simply.

"Oh."

"Well, I think we're done for the day," Luna chirped cheerfully. "But one more thing..." She pulled out the lion hat.

"Luna, how many times have I told-"

"Roar with me!"

"No, it's all right. I'm leaving," I said hastily. "There's something I need to do."

And I was actually telling the truth.

Dear Diary,

My life is SO fucked up!

1) I am still not speaking my stepbrother, who, by the way, is acting very peculiarly and has grown awfully pale. But I don't care.

2) Oliver Wood and I hate each other. This afternoon, he approached me, stone-faced. Wordlessly, he handed me my wand, and I took it silently. If we had spoken, we probably would have ended up killing each other.

3) Zach and I are on a break from our relationship!

xxx

"Hello, John."

"Katie!" He smirked. "You ran off last night."

"Pity, isn't it, considering we were having so much fun?" I smiled. "Well, I believe there's something I owe you."

He grinned. "What?"

"This." I slapped him hard across the face. Then again. Then again.

"Bloody hell!" he spat. "What was that for?"

"For trying to feel me up last night, genius!" I shouted. (Boy, I was doing a lot of shouting today.) "Only I wish I'd gotten to you first before whoever gave you that." I pointed to the ugly bruise on his eye. "Who did it?"

"None of your business," he snarled, pushing me aside. "Get out of my way."

"Stupid git!" I shouted after him.

"Katie!" Someone was calling my name. I turned around.

"Oh. Zach."

We stood staring at each other in the middle of the hallway. I crossed my arms, expecting him to apologize for not taking proper care of me last night.

"About last night..."

"Fine, I'll forgive you," I said, sighing. "I mean, it was your fault that you passed out and I was nearly molested afterwards - I just gave John a beating, by the way, even though it looks like someone else got to him first - but you're forgiven."

Zach narrowed his eyes. "I wasn't going to apologize."

"You weren't?" I asked skeptically.

"I can't believe you, Katie!" he shouted, his voice rising. "After all that talk of not being ready for sex, after all that... you go and sleep with Oliver Wood! What the hell is up with that?"

"Excuse me?" I wasn't sure I'd heard it correctly. "What did you just say?"

"You know exactly what I just said," he said angrily. "You came out of Wood's room this morning for all the world looking like you'd spent the night with him!"

"But I didn't, dammit!" I said hotly. "Who told you this?" I suddenly thought of the twins. I was going to KILL them!

"Doesn't matter," he said impatiently. "But someone overheard you screaming at the Weasleys up in the boys' dormitory."

"And apparently that 'someone' is telling the whole school?" I demanded furiously.

"What were you doing in Oliver Wood's room?" Zach shouted.

"Must I repeat myself? Have we hit another cul-de-sac?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Why, Katie?" His voice suddenly became very quiet. "Why would you go and sleep with him?"

"I DIDN'T!" I shouted. "How can you accuse me of doing something like that? You're my boyfriend!"

"Sometimes I don't feel like I am."

"WHAT?" I cried, my heart hammering in my chest. This was the last thing I'd expected to hear from him.

"You haven't been the best girlfriend, Katie," he said coldly.

I felt heat surging through me. "Oh, yeah? Maybe we need a break, then!" I said hotly.

"Good idea," he agreed, narrowing his eyes.

"I am so detesting you right now!" I spat.

"And I you." The look in his eyes was unfeeling and hard. "Have a very merry Christmas, Katie," he snarled, and walked away.

xxx

Oh, Diary! I have a feeling this isn't going to be a very merry Christmas at all!

"Mum, you cannot believe how relieved I am to be home right now," I said, pouring myself a glass of water.

"Missed me that much, huh?" Mum smiled as she chopped carrots.

"Well there's that, yes. But I dunno...all I want is to be as far away from Hogwarts as possible." I shook my head, trying to forget all about Katie, the bet, school, and all the stupid drama. And what's worse, I have the lovely prospect of detention to look forward to once I return to Hogwarts. Turns out that git John ratted on me for punching him in the eye for Katie, but I'd felt it was the least I could do.

Even though I want nothing more than to smack her right now.

"Oh, good!" Mum smiled happily. "I was hoping you'd say that!"

"So we are going away this Christmas!" Finally, a chance to get away from everything once and for all!

"And you'll never guess where!" she cried excitedly.

"To the tournament in Germany, like you promised?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope, even better!" Mum beamed.

"What could possibly be better?" I protested, crestfallen.

"We're going to spend vacation with Roger and Katie's family! Isn't that wonderful?"