Author's Note: Okay guys, I hate putting author's notes at the start of chapters however from my reviews, I think it's important that this is stated before you continue reading. This story is not 'A Walk to Remember'. I said at the very start that it would loosely follow the plot but stress less, calm down and don't forget to breathe, I think I have enough imagination to be able to write my own plot and though I have got ideas from Nicholas Sparks' most amazing creation, 'At Second Sight' will, I promise you, turn out different and the ending has been in my head from the moment I started writing the first chapter. And now you all have piece of mind, I shall continue where we left off...
Chapter Five...
Yes, I bet you're all thinking, 'Figures- he is going to ask Hermione' because after what I've told you so far, that's what I would be thinking too. But no. I'm sorry to have disillusioned you but for the purpose of the ball, Hermione was far from what was on my mind.
If you really want to know who I was thinking of asking, it was actually Katherine, got you there didn't I? You see, after looking through my memory box, I remembered a very special person. Her name was (obviously) Katherine, and during the time of my father's passing, she was always there to help me and comfort me especially when I didn't want to face my family.
Now Katherine had been a gorgeous little girl. But after we were both accepted at Hogwarts, we'd been sorted into different houses. I was a Gryffindor and she was a Hufflepuff. I didn't have anything against Hufflepuffs, really I didn't, but it was hard for us to stay really close friends because well, firstly we didn't have any classes together and secondly, let's just say that since Katherine had reached age about nine, she wasn't as good looking as she used to be. I imagine you are thinking I'm a very image conscience and selfish kind of guy but I promise you, I really don't mean to be. Sometimes it just turns out that way...
So there's the story of Kat and I for you. I decided that I needed to regain Kat's friendship because after seeing the terrible way in which Noel and Charlotte had treated Hermione, I had finally woken up to what absolute losers those two were. Naturally, I didn't intend on telling them what I thought straight to their faces but it was time I found some new friends. Or, made up with the old.
After a bit of hunting around and asking a couple of second year Hufflepuffs, I managed to find the entrance to the Hufflepuff Tower. It had a great big painting of an old fashioned jester guarding the way and I stood there meekly, hoping it would let me in even though I knew right from the start that I had no chance.
"Hi," I began.
The jester laughed at me. "A Gryffindor eh? And a seventh year one too, looking at how big and tall you are."
"Correct," I answered, feeling slightly humiliated at the way he laughed at me.
"Well what do you want?" he asked.
"Uhh, I was hoping you might let me get through to the Hufflepuff Tower?"
I was then interrupted by a couple of Hufflepuffs who were coming out of their tower and as the Jester swung to the left, I tried to get a peek inside but 'swwooosh', he was back in place before I could actually tell what anything looked like.
"No Hufflepuff Tower in there," the Jester laughed.
I was beginning to get very irritated. "Look, I don't have any weapons or plans to hurt anybody, I'm just looking for a Hufflepuff girl and I need to get inside to find her. Please can you let me in?"
The Jester just laughed even harder. "Oohh, la la," he chuckled. "Is she your girlfriend?" he taunted, putting plenty of childish emphasis on the word 'girlfriend'.
"No," I retorted. "She's just a friend!" I didn't even understand why this Jester was getting to me so badly.
"Her name?"
"Katherine James."
"Oh, well, she left about fifteen minutes ago, went to the library or something," the Jester answered quite casually. "You're boring, I'm going to visit some friends. Ciao!"
As I watched him leap into another painting, causing a young lady having a cup of tea to nearly have a heart attack, I threw my arms up in the air. Grrrr! Instead of getting myself worked up even further however, I just headed off in the direction of where I hoped the library was, seeing as I wasn't exactly familiar with this part of the castle.
* * * * *
After about ten minutes of aimlessly wandering around, I stumbled my way across the big entrance to the library. Sighing with relief, I pushed the doors open and walked in, not quite believing that I was back in the library again and so soon.
"Good afternoon Mr Wood," said Madam Pince. I shuddered. I really was becoming a regular.
To the right, I spotted Hermione with her head burrowed into some gigantic book. Behind her however, was a large mound of familiar dark brown hair.
Nervously, I walked over to the mound of hair and tapped it's owner on the shoulder.
Startled, she turned around. "Oliver!"
"Hi Kat," I smiled, trying not to grimace at the huge, long scar across her cheek. Everytime I saw that scar I couldn't help but feel guilty as I'm sure you would too if you had given it to her.
The scar wasn't anything magical and mystical like Harry Potter's, Kat's was merely from a nasty Quidditch accident. When we had been about nine years of age, I had persuaded Kat to come out flying with me as I had no one else to throw the Quaffle to. Kat hated flying and I knew it but being the awfully persuasive fellow I am, I somehow managed to get her in the air. Anyway, all was going well except for a few near falls on Kat's behalf until she missed one of my throws and the Quaffle went flying smack bang right in her face. The Quaffle had been a bit old, it had been my father's and because it was his, it was my favourite. Because it was a bit old, some of the leather had torn away leaving a nasty piece of wire stitching sticking out.
"OUCH!" she had cried, as blood came running out of her cheek in thick red oozes.
I completely freaked out then and tried to get her safely down onto firm ground. She had never once blamed me for the scar saying 'it was an accident Oliver, an accident!' however I had never quite gotten over it. Especially seeing as she had been so pretty!
Nowadays though, Kat liked being in the library, away from the terrible and cruel people who called her 'Harry Wannabe' or 'Scar Face the second'. Though I had never actually teased her myself, knowing I was to blame, I hadn't really stuck up for her in front of other people either.
I began to wonder what had come over me. I was suddenly waking up to how nasty and horrible I could be.
"Oliver, what a surprise!" Kat smiled back.
I sat down in an empty chair opposite her. "How have you been?" I asked.
"Oh, uh, quite good thank you, and yourself?" she still seemed very surprised.
"Oh yeah, not bad," I replied, grinning and nodding my head up and down.
"And Quidditch? Still quite involved with that eh? Are you going to apply for the English School of Quidditch?" asked Kat, closing the cover of her rather large book. In the background I could see Hermione was no longer studying but paying a lot of attention to what Kat and I were saying.
"Yes, yes," I said, my voice slightly wavering. It wasn't like I had to tell her everything, after all, I didn't want to bore her with the details of how I was too dumb to get in. And especially not with Hermione eavesdropping on us.
"So..." Kat tried to be casual. "Any reason you decided to come for a visit?"
"Well actually," I said. "Now that you mention it, yes."
"Well?" she asked.
I tried not to stare at the scar. "I was wondering if you were going to the ball with anyone?"
"No, not yet, why?"
"I was also wondering if you'd like to go with me then." Pheww, I'd said it. I could practically see Hermione's ears perk up even more.
"Really?" Kat seemed gobsmacked. "Gee Oliver, why are you asking me?"
"Uhh..." I tried to answer but to be truthful, I didn't know the answer to that one myself. "Cos I thought we needed to catch up and the ball was the perfect opportunity."
"Hmm..." Kat thought for a moment.
My God, I thought. Is it really that difficult to decide? I could feel my cheeks burning up and I was beginning to dread what she was going to say next. To think I was going to be rejected by someone with a massive scar on their face and also within earshot of Hermione aka bookworm.
I tried not to think such radical thoughts.
"Yes," Kat finally decided. "I'd love to Oliver, thank you for asking."
* * * * *
After she'd accepted, we'd arranged all the meeting details and before I knew it, it was time for the ball. In the weeks to follow that afternoon, I had been having regular study sessions with Hermione and although none stood out for being particularly rivoting, none were particularly ugly either. All in all, the study thing was beginning to work out and I liked that fact. Not once though, did the topic of the ball come up.
It was finally the evening of the ball and Percy, Noel and I were in our shared bathroom looking at our reflections in the mirror. We had had to physically drag Percy out of the Prefects' bathroom because neither Noel nor I liked to think that Percy could ever out do us in looks and after hearing about all the beauty products in the Prefects' bathroom, anything was possible.
We all stared at ourselves and shook our heads solemnly.
"I officially declare," began Noel.
"That was look really, really stupid," finished Percy and I together.
Stupid was definitely one of many words I would have used to describe our appearances. Not only were all our dress robes far too short for us but somehow, each and every one of us had managed to have an outbreak of pimples over the previous night. Whether that had anything to do with the massive pig out we'd also had on the previous night was debatable but either way, we weren't a pretty sight.
"Maybe it's the hair," remarked Noel, reaching for another glob of 'Magic Matilda's All Night Sticky Gel'.
"I doubt it," said Percy, leaning in closer to the mirror to further examine the nasty specimen on the end of his nose.
"Maybe it's the dress robes," I said, pulling a stray cotton off the sleeve of mine.
"I doubt it," remarked Percy again, going in for the squeeze.
"NO!" yelped Noel and I uniting as one as we forcefully pulled Percy's arms.
"What?" he asked, innocently.
"Don't squeeze it," we commanded.
"Why not?" he looked thoroughly disappointed.
"Because my mum always told me that it will look ten times worse if you squeeze it instead of letting it burst naturally," I stated, so confidently it was almost like a scientific fact.
I suppose you're feeling rather grossed out trying to imagine the three of us goofy looking guys standing in front of a mirror discussing personal hygeine, however I'm trying to give you a bit of build up to the ball. I mean, if you thought that only girls care about their appearances then you were sadly misinformed. Guys, especially men of our status, also care how they look and thus, the reason for this particular circumstance.
I glanced down at my watch and was alarmed at what time it was. "Yikes!" I cried, we have to meet the girls very soon!" I yelped.
"Huh? What?" Percy and Noel were looking around in all directions.
After checking his own watch for confirmation, Percy shook his head. "I can't believe we let it get so late. I am rather disappointed in you two," he added, pompously.
I couldn't be bothered getting mad at him and neither could Noel so instead, we just took one more look at ourselves in the mirror before racing out of the bathroom with our reflections calling us from behind with 'Go get em tiger!' and 'Who's that sexy fella?'
* * * * *
I had arranged with Kat to meet in the entrance at half past six and as it was, it was already thirty five past. I hated being late, especially for important occasions like balls (or Quidditch training) and usually I was the one yelling at my team for being ten seconds late.
I rushed down the stairs at about fifty miles an hour and arrived panting for air in front of Kat. After regaining a normal heart rate, I looked up from my bent-over-hands-on-knees position and took a good look at her.
"Wow," I remarked and truly meant it too. I didn't know what did it but her usually hideous scar didn't seem so 'in your face' this evening, she must have really patted on the make up. Either way, I didn't care because it was hardly noticable. Her long dark hair was loose instead of being in a high pony tail and she was wearing some really great eye stuff. Her dress robes were not too short for her like mine, instead they fitted her well and I put it down to girls not growing as much as boys.
"You look great Oliver," Kat told me.
"Thanks," I smiled. "You do too." I then took her arm and led her inside the Great Hall and as usual, Professor Dumbledore had really outdone himself in the decoration department. As we entered, the heavenly aroma of mixed foods wafted around and a selection of great music was playing loudly. Everywhere I looked, people were having fun and I could tell from that moment that I was going to have a whole lot of fun that night too.
Author's Note: Sorry there wasn't any Hermione/Oliver action or argument in that chapter and don't worry if you don't want Kat featuring too much in Oliver's life. The story needed more dimension that's all. I hope you like where it's going and please keep reading and reviewing! Thanks heaps!