Pairing: Oliver Wood/Harry Potter
Rating: R (I think it's PG-13, but just to be safe I'm saying R.)
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the world and the characters, I just came up with the plot. I make no profit from these writings.
Author's Note: Thank you so much to those of you that reviewed. All four of you. And I apologize that you had to wait two weeks for the update, it will be finished very soon, I promise you.
Vindication
After the incident with McGonagall and Sirius Black's break-in, Oliver keeps his distance from Harry. Oliver absorbs himself in studying for his N.E.W.T.'s and of course, Quidditch. He was more determined now than ever before that they should win the cup.
Practice is easier than Oliver expects. He finds it easy to give out directions and orders and advice without looking Harry in the eye. He focuses on the other players, saying that Harry knows what he has to do and that the rest of the players need to focus on getting as many points as they can in a short amount of time before Harry catches the snitch.
The only time he really thinks about Harry is at night: he likes to dream about Harry coming to him in tears, telling him how much he loves Oliver and how scared he is of Sirius Black and how Oliver is the only one that can protect him.
Harry's speech is usually followed by a hot and heavy make-out session that usually has Oliver panting in his bed as he comes on his hand.
Other than his nightly fantasies, he does not think about how Harry hasn't come to him and tell Oliver that he, Harry, wants to continue the relationship with Oliver or that he wasn't upset with what happened with McGonagall.
However, Harry avoids him and even though Oliver tries to understand, it hurts like hell. He knows that with time he will learn how to get over Harry but at the moment seeing Harry everyday, and smiling so that no one knows, is the hardest thing he's ever done.
Oliver stays at Hogwarts during Easter break so that the team can get extra practices and on Wednesday he runs into Harry as he's leaving the Great Hall from dinner.
Harry is flanked, as he always is, by Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who both cheerfully greet Oliver and Harry looks briefly at him and musters his best "hello" before leading his friends to the Gryffindor table.
For the rest of the week, Oliver avoids the great hall at mealtimes and instead, ventures to the kitchens for food.
The hurt doesn't steer him from practice. It is all just extra motivation and with the final match so close, Oliver doesn't see any reason not to remind Harry how important the game is and how he should wait until they have at least fifty points before catching the snitch.
But as the first week of term winds down and the Quidditch final draws closer and closer, Oliver finds himself seeking Harry at mealtimes and in the common room and when Harry finally yells, "I KNOW, OLIVER!" after Oliver reminds him about the Quidditch match for the millionth time, Oliver realizes what he is doing and once again ceases any and all contact with Harry. This also seems to suit Harry just fine, as far as Oliver could tell.
Oliver is a wreck by the day of the Quidditch game against Slytherin. He doesn't sleep at all that night and in the morning, he tries his best to muster a cheerful smile and pretend that he has all the confidence in his team.
He doesn't. He doesn't have an ounce of confidence in anything -- most definitely including himself. So what if Harry was on a Firebolt? So what if Malfoy had never beaten Harry to the snitch? What did all that matter if Oliver just sat on his broom and failed to stop Slytherin from scoring hundreds of points?
As Oliver begins to laugh at himself for his absurd thoughts, the oddest thing happens. Harry Potter takes the seat beside him at the table.
"You look terrible, Oliver," the vision says.
Oliver rubs at his eyes and laughs, even though he now feels like crying, "I'm hallucinating."
"No, you're not," Harry says without the slightest hint of amusement in his voice, "I just wanted to apologize for snapping at you the other day..."
There's a pause and Oliver waits, Harry looks around at the table but no one is paying attention to them so he continues, "And for everything, Oliver. After... After that night, we should have talked... McGonagall, she didn't see anything, she just wanted to ask how I've been, and you know everyone's been so worried about me lately with Black and everything. They don't think I can take care of myself. Well, anyway, she didn't see..." Harry's voice drops from low to lower, "she didn't see anything and if she did, she didn't say anything but I don't think she did but after what happened with Black I didn't want... I didn't know..."
Oliver stops him, "I know what you mean, Harry. You've got so much weight on your shoulders already, you don't need me and my problems."
"That's not it, Oliver. I told you I liked you, I meant it... it's just, people get hurt around me. Black is after me and he almost got Ron and I didn't want anything to happen to you. It just seemed easier but I've seen how tired you've looked lately and I know it's my fault."
"No!" Oliver exclaims, loud enough to get a few people's heads to turn. He waits until they turn away before continuing, "It's not you fault, it's N.E.W.T.'s and the Quidditch Final, it's not you Harry... don't think that, please."
There's silence while they both attempt to eat their breakfast. After a few minutes, Harry whispers to Oliver, "I still want to win this game for you."
Olivers heart leaps and with the butterflies already working overtime, he can't seem to force another peice of food down. Instead, he waits while everyone else eats so that they can go out onto the pitch and win a Quidditch match.
During the game, Oliver takes two bludgers to the stomach, but that pain deminishes completely the moment he sees Harry wrap his beautiful fingers around that beautiful golden snitch.
He's on the ground in record time and he seizes harry around the neck and sobs unrestrainedly into his shoulder and he can feel Harry laughing, still holding the snitch in his hands and Oliver wants nothing else than to hold onto Harry forever. He barely registered the other bodies that had joined them, all he noticed, all he cared about, was that they had won.
In his final year at Hogwarts, he has gotten to kiss the one boy that he has wanted since he sat eyes on him and he had won the Quidditch Cup. Even if he never kissed Harry again, life was good.
Oliver thinks that the party that night might just go down in Gryffindor history as one of the best parties ever thrown. Fred and George Weasley acquire a mountain of sweets and liters upon liters of butterbeer. Oliver is in a euphoric state.
Early in the evening, Harry corners Oliver who has no idea what to expect from a second incounter in one day with the younger boy.
"I felt something today when we won that I had never felt before," Harry says simply.
Oliver raises an inquisitive eyebrow but says nothing.
"I never wanted to kiss anyone before you, Oliver. And today, the only thing I wanted was to kiss you. I..." Harry starts to say something else, but Oliver presses a finger to his lips to stop him.
"We can't talk here. It's too loud. My room OK?" Harry nods and Oliver leads him up the stairs to his dorm room. He doesn't think anyone will notice if they're gone anyway, and even if they do, he knows a pretty good locking spell.
Once they're in the room, Harry takes a seat on the bed across from Oliver's and Oliver sits on his own. Harry smiles shyly and moves to sit next to Oliver.
They both start talking at once and then they both stop and apologize. The tension builds as they both have so much to say but don't know where to start and it would be so much better if one of them had the nerve to break the ice.
Oliver takes a deep breath and looks to his left, at Harry, "So... you said you wanted to kiss me, does that mean that...?"
Harry blushes so beautifully, "I think so."
Oliver doesn't know what else to say. There's nothing else to say, is there? The only logical thing to do is to kiss Harry and so he does.
For two seconds, Oliver remembers that Harry is only thirteen and that there are a lot of people that want Harry dead and that he will leave in just a few weeks and pursuing this relationship would probably cause more heartache than anything but those two seconds are over quickly and he pushes Harry gently and they both fall back onto the bed and Oliver really likes this angle and he wonders if anyone in the world has ever felt as good as he did.
He honestly doesn't think so.