Chapter Five... 'Lasting the Distance'
A month at Hogwarts went by and shortly it was Christmas- a time of the year to be spent with loved ones and family. Most of the students at Hogwarts were going to be spending Christmas at home and therefore were busily packing their belongings ready to board the train home the next morning.
For the students staying at Hogwarts, there was nothing much to do except wander around aimlessly, wishing that the next morning would come so they could give and recieve their presents to and from their classmates.
Percy was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas along with the rest of his family because their parents were going to Romania to visit Charlie, one of their brothers who worked with dragons. Though slightly disappointed that he didn't get to go travelling, Percy didn't mind too much as it meant he could have more time focussing on his prefect duties. He would miss Penelope however as she was returning home and they would have to be apart for three whole long weeks.
Luke was going home too, and he confided to Michala that it was because his mum didn't have much longer left and it was going to be their last Christmas together. Michala on the other hand was very much looking forward to going home as it meant that she could see her family again and she missed them all terribly.
Oliver was staying at school by choice as he figured he could use the time to work out some new Quidditch tactics for the coming months, undisturbed. He wasn't looking forward to spending so much one-on-one time with Percy though as being the only two of the group remaining, something was bound to accidently slip out.
He had a new found streak of luck however when bounding down the corridor came Michala, not looking too pleased at all.
"Hi Mic," Oliver greeted uncertainly. He had been standing at the Quidditch Supplies Cupboard for about half an hour, just staring at the contents, hoping for a wave of inspiration.
"Hi," she snapped back. "I can't believe it," she waved a piece of parchment in his face.
He caught her wrist easily and gently pulled the parchment out.
"Hmm..." he mumbled and read it out loud. "Dearest Michala, we're terribly sorry but our Christmas plans have been changed due to some events out of our control. Your father's work is sending him to India for the holidays to photograph some things for the Wizardry Beyond magazine and I'm heading to Devon to visit with Aunt Maria. Terribly sorry, darling, hope you have great time anyway with all your friends at school. With love and hugs, Mum. PS. Your Christmas presents will arrive via owl. Merry Christmas!"
Oliver shrugged. "At least you get the presents," he tried.
"Grrr..." Michala grunted through gritted teeth. "It's not fair."
"Why were you looking forward to going home so much anyway?"
"Because I miss my family or isn't that a good enough reason for you?" she retorted, snatching back the parchment and promptly ripping it into tiny shreds.
"It's a good enough reason," replied Oliver, trying to ignore her bad mood. Infact, her bad luck had increased his. At least now he wouldn't have to stick with Percy all the time.
"I'm so angry!" stated Michala, looking around at all of the students who were drifting past, all looking forward to returning to wherever they had originally come from.
"I noticed," Oliver said, closing the cupboard door. "Come on, let's go back to the common room and see if anybody needs help packing," he added, taking her by the arm.
She wriggled out of his grip. "I should be the one packing!" she exclaimed but went with him anyway.
* * * * *
Back in the Gryffindor Tower, Percy and Penelope were trying their best to close an exploding suitcase. Penelope was pushing down on the old grey thing as hard as she possibly could while Percy was standing about a metre away, waving his wand around and trying to remember all the 'closing' charms they'd ever been taught.
Oliver and Michala burst into giggles when they saw this sight but neither could blame them. The suitcase was about the size of a baby elephant and looked kind of like one too.
After another five minutes went past, Michala finally offered her assistance. "Need help?" she asked from the doorway.
Percy and Penelope spun around and for the first time noticed they had an audience.
"Why aren't you packing?" Penelope asked.
"Change of plans, I'm staying here for Christmas," Michala said simply.
Penelope gave her a sympathetic look but Percy couldn't contain his excitement. "Excellent!" he exclaimed happily, as he carelessly waved his wand around. Penelope grabbed it off him so he couldn't do any damage. "A slumber party for three then eh?"
"Can't wait," muttered Oliver sarcastically. Michala nudged him, "what is your problem?" she snapped in a low whisper.
"Nothing," he said. "Sorry."
Changing the subject quickly, as Penelope and Percy were watching them with great interest, Michala snapped her head up. "Want to see how the professionals do it?" she asked.
Grateful for any assistance at all, Percy and Penelope moved out of the way. With a quick glance at each other Oliver and Michala, in synchronisation, ran towards the elephant suitcase, jumped off the ground with a big creak and landed on either end of the suitcase at exactly the same time. Within a split second of their landing, they both swiftly clipped the suitcase buckles together and sat there, mission accomplished.
They recieved a round of applause from Penelope and a disgruntled nod of appreciation from Percy.
"Bravo!" clapped Penelope.
Oliver and Michala looked smug and stood up, knowing they'd beaten any old magical trick. The four of them stood around the suitcase and stared at it, hoping and praying that it wouldn't happen...
...creak...
...creak, creak...
Michala gasped.
Percy gave a faint whimper.
Oliver took a few steps back.
Penelope held a hand over her mouth and looked on in devastation.
With one last big 'creak' the buckles of the grey suitcase gave way and exploded, sending the contents of the suitcase and all of Penelope's belongings flying! They all ducked and covered their heads as clothes, make- up, christmas presents, shoes and... packets of apple-flavoured lollies, covered the room.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" they all yelled in unison, more frustrated than ever before.
The room went silent. Nobody knew what else to say. They glanced at each other before a head popped down from the top of the Boys' Dormitory stairs.
"Uhh... hi," said Luke, looking around at the chaotic common room. "That would have to have been the best show I've seen in years!"
And with that last line, all five of them burst out laughing and didn't stop for a very long time.
* * * * *
The next morning, Percy woke up at five o' clock. He glanced out of the window and saw the white fluffy snow tumbling down on their school and leaped out bed, like a five-year on Christmas morning.
"Merry Christmas!" he yelled, running down the stairs, still in his pyjamas.
Nobody else had been awake three seconds ago but they all were now. Normally, they would have yelled out their disapproval to Percy but seeing as it was indeed Christmas, nobody was too upset.
"Merry Christmas Percy!" called Oliver from his bed, where he lay for a minute, trying to physically wake himself up.
"Merry Christmas everyone!" said somebody else and a few seconds later they heard a shower start running.
Not giving a damn about rules, Oliver sprinted up to the Girls' Dormitory and knocked furiously on the door. "Merry Christmas!" he shouted. "Hope you're all decent because I'm coming in!" Without giving them any other warning, he pushed the door open and greeted them all again with another 'Merry Christmas'.
"Oliver!" called Percy from the common room. "Get out of the Girls' Dorms- you know that's against the rules! Even on Christmas," he added.
"Ah come on Percy, give me a break!" Oliver replied, still cheery, though he did leave the girls alone knowing they were all wide awake now.
Percy and Oliver went back up to their beds and found Luke was just getting ready. "Morning guys," he greeted them and handed them each a bright red box with green ribbon. "Merry Christmas."
Eagerly tearing the wrapping paper off, Percy and Oliver oohed and ahhed like little girls at the new Quidditch scarves Luke had bought them. Percy's was bright orange with a big black C on each end, supporting the Chudley Cannons, while Oliver's was navy blue with golden bullrushes, a symbol of his pride for Puddlemere United.
"Awesome!" they both exclaimed. "Thanks!" The trio of boys proceeded to then grab their bundles of presents and head down into the common room where groups of excited Gryffindors were all laughing, talking and unwrapping presents. At the same time, they saw Michala and Penelope heading down their stairs, also carrying large bundles.
They squished themselves into an unoccupied corner of the room and exchanged hugs and presents, all feeling very excited.
"Wow, thanks Perce!" Michala said, holding out a pink fluffy quill. "It's wicked!"
"Awesome, thanks Michala!" Percy replied, as he held up a 'Badge Shining Kit' for his Prefect badge.
"This is fantastic, thanks so much Oliver," remarked Luke as he showed the rest of them his new colour changing hat.
"Thanks Mic," said Oliver, promptly putting on the wrist watch.
"Thanks Pen," said Michala, as she cuddled the white stuffed cat.
"Thanks Perce," said Penelope as he put the gold chain around her neck.
The 'thank you's continued for quite awhile until they were all exhausted and it was only 7 o' clock.
After the present giving (and recieving) was over, they all had to shuffle off into the respective rooms to get ready. The students travelling home would be leaving at close to 9 o' clock but the others had the next few weeks to themselves pretty much, to do whatever they please with.
* * * * *
The farewell was short but sweet. Nobody felt like making a scene and after all, they'd be seeing each other again in three weeks. After a few quick hugs (and a bit of a snog between Percy and Penelope) everyone was on their way.
Michala, Percy and Oliver, all looking a bit glum (for different reasons) turned around and headed back inside the doors of Hogwarts, their home for the holidays.
"Well this officially sucks," Michala stated, her feet dragging and her head hung low in misery.
"Aw cheer up," said Percy, always the optimist.
"It could have been worse, you could have been stuck here with Luke," added Oliver.
"Hey," yelped Michala, defending Luke. If only they knew what she knew. "Luke isn't a bad guy you know? He has every reason to be a little upset right now all right?"
"What?" asked Percy as they reached the familiar common room for about the seventieth time that day. "Do you know something we don't?"
Michala glanced nervously at them. "Maybe," she said sheepishly. "But don't ask any questions because you'll be wasting your time." She stared at Oliver who had opened his mouth to say something. "No really," she continued in a hurry. "I won't say anything at all."
Oliver crossed his arms in defeat. "Yeah all right, well I'm going to... uh... the library."
Percy laughed.
"No really, I am," said Oliver. "I'm not kidding."
Percy stopped laughing. "What? You in the library? In the holidays?"
"Yes," answered Oliver. "Me in the library in the holidays. Got a problem with that?" he stormed off.
That left Michala and Percy standing there in front of the Fat Lady who was looking quite amused.
"Ah who needs soap-operas when you can observe the lives of adolescent wizards and witches," she chuckled before letting Michala and Percy enter.
* * * * *
Some time later Oliver was still nowhere to be seen so being the good little girl Michala was, she headed off in search of him.
First stop was the library obviously as that was where he had said he would be however after a quick look in there it was evident that was no longer where he was.
"Figures," Michala said to herself and shrugged. The next place to look would be the Quidditch pitch so off she trundled, slightly self-consciously because she thought everyone around her thought she was a loner.
The decrease in students was very obvious now that the holidays had begun and it was especially noticable now that it was turning dark and all the students were heading back to their respective house areas. She shivered as she stepped out onto the pitch and sighed with relief as she saw Oliver standing in the middle of it, staring up at the night sky.
"Bit late for training isn't it?" she greeted him.
A bit startled, he turned around but smiled at the company. "Never too late for Quidditch, Mic," was his response. "However, surprisingly, that wasn't what I was thinking about."
"Yeah?" she took up a spot next to him and looked up at the sky too. "It's awfully pretty," she added, talking about the stars. There were no clouds or dark mist in the sky that night either which made the millions of scattered stars look even brighter. Not even the chill in the air could make this moment unpleasant.
"Yeah, it is. I like stars," stated Oliver.
"Me too," replied Michala. "Why do you like them?"
"Because I want to be up there with them. Do you ever just want to fly away Michala?"
Oliver's sudden seriousness shocked Michala. Though she hadn't expected him to be in a zany, joking mood she hadn't really counted on a deep and meaningful either. She didn't mind in the least but she and Oliver had never previously connected like that and she wasn't sure how to handle it all.
"Sure," she nodded. "All the time."
"Yeah, well I do right now," he said.
"Really? Any particular reason?"
"Nah," he shook his head but feeling brave he nodded. "Yeah."
"Huh?" Michala smiled.
"Yeah, there is a reason."
"Does it begin with P?" she guessed.
"How did you know?" Oliver asked, diverting his eyes from the stars to glance at Michala for the first time.
"It was pretty obvious," she replied. "I mean, you always look jealous whenever she's with Percy and just today when they were snogging goodbye... let me just tell you, if looks could kill, Percy would currently be nothing but a butchered corpse and you... well you'd be in Azkaban."
"Oh," was all Oliver could muster. "You must thing I'm a horrible person," he added after a pause.
"No I don't actually," Michala said. "Believe it or not, I understand why you're feeling that way."
"Elaborate," commanded Oliver, wanting to hear what Michala thought of the situation.
"Well," she began. "The way I see it, you and Penelope have been best friends since what, the beginning of time and you thought your friendship would last forever. Then all of a sudden, another one of your best friends starts dating her and all of a sudden, whoosh, there she goes. Suddenly it's no longer 'Penelope and Oliver - best friends forever' but 'Penelope and Percy - lovers until the end of time'. She's not around for you any more, you don't get to see her often and she doesn't talk to you the way she used to. You miss her terribly and though she seems to be able to cope without you, you can't cope without her. But what can you do? You love her with all your heart and want her to be happy so you must put your own feelings aside for the sake of hers. Not to mention Percy. He's a great guy which makes it even worse. If it had been someone terrible like... Marcus Flint then you could break them up and everything would be fine. Seeing as you like Percy so much too, you can't bring yourself to even attempt to break them up. So in the end, you end up miserable and unhappy as you realise you're in love with Penelope but can't do anything about it for fear of hurting not only her but your friendship."
Oliver stared at her. There was more to Michala than he'd first realised. She definitely had brains. "Amazing," he said. "Truly, completely, utterly amazing."
"I'm good aren't I?" she looked smug.
He laughed and nodded in agreement. "Never thought I'd say this Michala Byrne but yes, yes you are good. That was a pretty impressive evaluation you know?" he looked at her, admiringly.
"Yes I know," she added giggling.
Suddenly, loud footsteps and panting was heard. Michala and Oliver spun around to see Percy running towards them faster than he'd ever run in his life.
"Ron..." he gasped. "...in danger... Voldemort... third floor..." he didn't have to say anything else. Alarmed, Michala and Oliver glanced at each other panickingly and followed Percy back inside the castle.
Author's Note: Yes, it was bound to happen. The whole Oliver/Penelope thing but alas, there's more to come so keep reading! Thanks for your reviews, please keep sending them, I love them so much and they really do motivate one to write more. Phewww... that was one long chapter to write, glad that one's done!
A month at Hogwarts went by and shortly it was Christmas- a time of the year to be spent with loved ones and family. Most of the students at Hogwarts were going to be spending Christmas at home and therefore were busily packing their belongings ready to board the train home the next morning.
For the students staying at Hogwarts, there was nothing much to do except wander around aimlessly, wishing that the next morning would come so they could give and recieve their presents to and from their classmates.
Percy was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas along with the rest of his family because their parents were going to Romania to visit Charlie, one of their brothers who worked with dragons. Though slightly disappointed that he didn't get to go travelling, Percy didn't mind too much as it meant he could have more time focussing on his prefect duties. He would miss Penelope however as she was returning home and they would have to be apart for three whole long weeks.
Luke was going home too, and he confided to Michala that it was because his mum didn't have much longer left and it was going to be their last Christmas together. Michala on the other hand was very much looking forward to going home as it meant that she could see her family again and she missed them all terribly.
Oliver was staying at school by choice as he figured he could use the time to work out some new Quidditch tactics for the coming months, undisturbed. He wasn't looking forward to spending so much one-on-one time with Percy though as being the only two of the group remaining, something was bound to accidently slip out.
He had a new found streak of luck however when bounding down the corridor came Michala, not looking too pleased at all.
"Hi Mic," Oliver greeted uncertainly. He had been standing at the Quidditch Supplies Cupboard for about half an hour, just staring at the contents, hoping for a wave of inspiration.
"Hi," she snapped back. "I can't believe it," she waved a piece of parchment in his face.
He caught her wrist easily and gently pulled the parchment out.
"Hmm..." he mumbled and read it out loud. "Dearest Michala, we're terribly sorry but our Christmas plans have been changed due to some events out of our control. Your father's work is sending him to India for the holidays to photograph some things for the Wizardry Beyond magazine and I'm heading to Devon to visit with Aunt Maria. Terribly sorry, darling, hope you have great time anyway with all your friends at school. With love and hugs, Mum. PS. Your Christmas presents will arrive via owl. Merry Christmas!"
Oliver shrugged. "At least you get the presents," he tried.
"Grrr..." Michala grunted through gritted teeth. "It's not fair."
"Why were you looking forward to going home so much anyway?"
"Because I miss my family or isn't that a good enough reason for you?" she retorted, snatching back the parchment and promptly ripping it into tiny shreds.
"It's a good enough reason," replied Oliver, trying to ignore her bad mood. Infact, her bad luck had increased his. At least now he wouldn't have to stick with Percy all the time.
"I'm so angry!" stated Michala, looking around at all of the students who were drifting past, all looking forward to returning to wherever they had originally come from.
"I noticed," Oliver said, closing the cupboard door. "Come on, let's go back to the common room and see if anybody needs help packing," he added, taking her by the arm.
She wriggled out of his grip. "I should be the one packing!" she exclaimed but went with him anyway.
* * * * *
Back in the Gryffindor Tower, Percy and Penelope were trying their best to close an exploding suitcase. Penelope was pushing down on the old grey thing as hard as she possibly could while Percy was standing about a metre away, waving his wand around and trying to remember all the 'closing' charms they'd ever been taught.
Oliver and Michala burst into giggles when they saw this sight but neither could blame them. The suitcase was about the size of a baby elephant and looked kind of like one too.
After another five minutes went past, Michala finally offered her assistance. "Need help?" she asked from the doorway.
Percy and Penelope spun around and for the first time noticed they had an audience.
"Why aren't you packing?" Penelope asked.
"Change of plans, I'm staying here for Christmas," Michala said simply.
Penelope gave her a sympathetic look but Percy couldn't contain his excitement. "Excellent!" he exclaimed happily, as he carelessly waved his wand around. Penelope grabbed it off him so he couldn't do any damage. "A slumber party for three then eh?"
"Can't wait," muttered Oliver sarcastically. Michala nudged him, "what is your problem?" she snapped in a low whisper.
"Nothing," he said. "Sorry."
Changing the subject quickly, as Penelope and Percy were watching them with great interest, Michala snapped her head up. "Want to see how the professionals do it?" she asked.
Grateful for any assistance at all, Percy and Penelope moved out of the way. With a quick glance at each other Oliver and Michala, in synchronisation, ran towards the elephant suitcase, jumped off the ground with a big creak and landed on either end of the suitcase at exactly the same time. Within a split second of their landing, they both swiftly clipped the suitcase buckles together and sat there, mission accomplished.
They recieved a round of applause from Penelope and a disgruntled nod of appreciation from Percy.
"Bravo!" clapped Penelope.
Oliver and Michala looked smug and stood up, knowing they'd beaten any old magical trick. The four of them stood around the suitcase and stared at it, hoping and praying that it wouldn't happen...
...creak...
...creak, creak...
Michala gasped.
Percy gave a faint whimper.
Oliver took a few steps back.
Penelope held a hand over her mouth and looked on in devastation.
With one last big 'creak' the buckles of the grey suitcase gave way and exploded, sending the contents of the suitcase and all of Penelope's belongings flying! They all ducked and covered their heads as clothes, make- up, christmas presents, shoes and... packets of apple-flavoured lollies, covered the room.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" they all yelled in unison, more frustrated than ever before.
The room went silent. Nobody knew what else to say. They glanced at each other before a head popped down from the top of the Boys' Dormitory stairs.
"Uhh... hi," said Luke, looking around at the chaotic common room. "That would have to have been the best show I've seen in years!"
And with that last line, all five of them burst out laughing and didn't stop for a very long time.
* * * * *
The next morning, Percy woke up at five o' clock. He glanced out of the window and saw the white fluffy snow tumbling down on their school and leaped out bed, like a five-year on Christmas morning.
"Merry Christmas!" he yelled, running down the stairs, still in his pyjamas.
Nobody else had been awake three seconds ago but they all were now. Normally, they would have yelled out their disapproval to Percy but seeing as it was indeed Christmas, nobody was too upset.
"Merry Christmas Percy!" called Oliver from his bed, where he lay for a minute, trying to physically wake himself up.
"Merry Christmas everyone!" said somebody else and a few seconds later they heard a shower start running.
Not giving a damn about rules, Oliver sprinted up to the Girls' Dormitory and knocked furiously on the door. "Merry Christmas!" he shouted. "Hope you're all decent because I'm coming in!" Without giving them any other warning, he pushed the door open and greeted them all again with another 'Merry Christmas'.
"Oliver!" called Percy from the common room. "Get out of the Girls' Dorms- you know that's against the rules! Even on Christmas," he added.
"Ah come on Percy, give me a break!" Oliver replied, still cheery, though he did leave the girls alone knowing they were all wide awake now.
Percy and Oliver went back up to their beds and found Luke was just getting ready. "Morning guys," he greeted them and handed them each a bright red box with green ribbon. "Merry Christmas."
Eagerly tearing the wrapping paper off, Percy and Oliver oohed and ahhed like little girls at the new Quidditch scarves Luke had bought them. Percy's was bright orange with a big black C on each end, supporting the Chudley Cannons, while Oliver's was navy blue with golden bullrushes, a symbol of his pride for Puddlemere United.
"Awesome!" they both exclaimed. "Thanks!" The trio of boys proceeded to then grab their bundles of presents and head down into the common room where groups of excited Gryffindors were all laughing, talking and unwrapping presents. At the same time, they saw Michala and Penelope heading down their stairs, also carrying large bundles.
They squished themselves into an unoccupied corner of the room and exchanged hugs and presents, all feeling very excited.
"Wow, thanks Perce!" Michala said, holding out a pink fluffy quill. "It's wicked!"
"Awesome, thanks Michala!" Percy replied, as he held up a 'Badge Shining Kit' for his Prefect badge.
"This is fantastic, thanks so much Oliver," remarked Luke as he showed the rest of them his new colour changing hat.
"Thanks Mic," said Oliver, promptly putting on the wrist watch.
"Thanks Pen," said Michala, as she cuddled the white stuffed cat.
"Thanks Perce," said Penelope as he put the gold chain around her neck.
The 'thank you's continued for quite awhile until they were all exhausted and it was only 7 o' clock.
After the present giving (and recieving) was over, they all had to shuffle off into the respective rooms to get ready. The students travelling home would be leaving at close to 9 o' clock but the others had the next few weeks to themselves pretty much, to do whatever they please with.
* * * * *
The farewell was short but sweet. Nobody felt like making a scene and after all, they'd be seeing each other again in three weeks. After a few quick hugs (and a bit of a snog between Percy and Penelope) everyone was on their way.
Michala, Percy and Oliver, all looking a bit glum (for different reasons) turned around and headed back inside the doors of Hogwarts, their home for the holidays.
"Well this officially sucks," Michala stated, her feet dragging and her head hung low in misery.
"Aw cheer up," said Percy, always the optimist.
"It could have been worse, you could have been stuck here with Luke," added Oliver.
"Hey," yelped Michala, defending Luke. If only they knew what she knew. "Luke isn't a bad guy you know? He has every reason to be a little upset right now all right?"
"What?" asked Percy as they reached the familiar common room for about the seventieth time that day. "Do you know something we don't?"
Michala glanced nervously at them. "Maybe," she said sheepishly. "But don't ask any questions because you'll be wasting your time." She stared at Oliver who had opened his mouth to say something. "No really," she continued in a hurry. "I won't say anything at all."
Oliver crossed his arms in defeat. "Yeah all right, well I'm going to... uh... the library."
Percy laughed.
"No really, I am," said Oliver. "I'm not kidding."
Percy stopped laughing. "What? You in the library? In the holidays?"
"Yes," answered Oliver. "Me in the library in the holidays. Got a problem with that?" he stormed off.
That left Michala and Percy standing there in front of the Fat Lady who was looking quite amused.
"Ah who needs soap-operas when you can observe the lives of adolescent wizards and witches," she chuckled before letting Michala and Percy enter.
* * * * *
Some time later Oliver was still nowhere to be seen so being the good little girl Michala was, she headed off in search of him.
First stop was the library obviously as that was where he had said he would be however after a quick look in there it was evident that was no longer where he was.
"Figures," Michala said to herself and shrugged. The next place to look would be the Quidditch pitch so off she trundled, slightly self-consciously because she thought everyone around her thought she was a loner.
The decrease in students was very obvious now that the holidays had begun and it was especially noticable now that it was turning dark and all the students were heading back to their respective house areas. She shivered as she stepped out onto the pitch and sighed with relief as she saw Oliver standing in the middle of it, staring up at the night sky.
"Bit late for training isn't it?" she greeted him.
A bit startled, he turned around but smiled at the company. "Never too late for Quidditch, Mic," was his response. "However, surprisingly, that wasn't what I was thinking about."
"Yeah?" she took up a spot next to him and looked up at the sky too. "It's awfully pretty," she added, talking about the stars. There were no clouds or dark mist in the sky that night either which made the millions of scattered stars look even brighter. Not even the chill in the air could make this moment unpleasant.
"Yeah, it is. I like stars," stated Oliver.
"Me too," replied Michala. "Why do you like them?"
"Because I want to be up there with them. Do you ever just want to fly away Michala?"
Oliver's sudden seriousness shocked Michala. Though she hadn't expected him to be in a zany, joking mood she hadn't really counted on a deep and meaningful either. She didn't mind in the least but she and Oliver had never previously connected like that and she wasn't sure how to handle it all.
"Sure," she nodded. "All the time."
"Yeah, well I do right now," he said.
"Really? Any particular reason?"
"Nah," he shook his head but feeling brave he nodded. "Yeah."
"Huh?" Michala smiled.
"Yeah, there is a reason."
"Does it begin with P?" she guessed.
"How did you know?" Oliver asked, diverting his eyes from the stars to glance at Michala for the first time.
"It was pretty obvious," she replied. "I mean, you always look jealous whenever she's with Percy and just today when they were snogging goodbye... let me just tell you, if looks could kill, Percy would currently be nothing but a butchered corpse and you... well you'd be in Azkaban."
"Oh," was all Oliver could muster. "You must thing I'm a horrible person," he added after a pause.
"No I don't actually," Michala said. "Believe it or not, I understand why you're feeling that way."
"Elaborate," commanded Oliver, wanting to hear what Michala thought of the situation.
"Well," she began. "The way I see it, you and Penelope have been best friends since what, the beginning of time and you thought your friendship would last forever. Then all of a sudden, another one of your best friends starts dating her and all of a sudden, whoosh, there she goes. Suddenly it's no longer 'Penelope and Oliver - best friends forever' but 'Penelope and Percy - lovers until the end of time'. She's not around for you any more, you don't get to see her often and she doesn't talk to you the way she used to. You miss her terribly and though she seems to be able to cope without you, you can't cope without her. But what can you do? You love her with all your heart and want her to be happy so you must put your own feelings aside for the sake of hers. Not to mention Percy. He's a great guy which makes it even worse. If it had been someone terrible like... Marcus Flint then you could break them up and everything would be fine. Seeing as you like Percy so much too, you can't bring yourself to even attempt to break them up. So in the end, you end up miserable and unhappy as you realise you're in love with Penelope but can't do anything about it for fear of hurting not only her but your friendship."
Oliver stared at her. There was more to Michala than he'd first realised. She definitely had brains. "Amazing," he said. "Truly, completely, utterly amazing."
"I'm good aren't I?" she looked smug.
He laughed and nodded in agreement. "Never thought I'd say this Michala Byrne but yes, yes you are good. That was a pretty impressive evaluation you know?" he looked at her, admiringly.
"Yes I know," she added giggling.
Suddenly, loud footsteps and panting was heard. Michala and Oliver spun around to see Percy running towards them faster than he'd ever run in his life.
"Ron..." he gasped. "...in danger... Voldemort... third floor..." he didn't have to say anything else. Alarmed, Michala and Oliver glanced at each other panickingly and followed Percy back inside the castle.
Author's Note: Yes, it was bound to happen. The whole Oliver/Penelope thing but alas, there's more to come so keep reading! Thanks for your reviews, please keep sending them, I love them so much and they really do motivate one to write more. Phewww... that was one long chapter to write, glad that one's done!