Author's Note: New Years Resolution: Finish stories I start. That means I am going to do my very best to finish writing the story everyone is requesting… "Hermerella". I re-read it last night and vaguely got myself into the mood so I endeavour to finish it once I have finished this one here. If you want to be notified whenever I update one of my stories please go here: http://outtatune.diaryland.com/notifylist.html and type in your e-mail. Besides that, I uploaded 5 freakin chapters to the story "Changing" last night so after you have read this chapter, off you go and read that for me (I didn't write like 25 pages for nothing people). Thanks for the great reviews dudes, keep rockin.
Chapter Five…
The hotel was certainly luxurious. Oliver made his way through the crowds of people to the bubble elevator (he had heard about these at the Quidditch World Cup) and in he hopped, trying to fit in with the other twenty people.
He pushed his way to the back, hoping there was more room back there and found himself being shoved very hard into a wall.
Oliver turned around wondering whether that shove was deliberate. Then he saw Kali and her friend Christina.
His face fell. Why oh why did he keep running into her like this? There were sixty students here and the only one he seemed to constantly see over and over again was Kali. The one he wished least to see.
"Did you just push me?" he demanded.
Kali looked up in surprise. She obviously hadn't seen him there. "No," she spat out. "I'm not that low."
"Right," he said suspiciously. He noticed the glance Christina gave him. She looked like she would murder him if he stuck around any longer. Luckily, the elevator went 'pop' and they arrived on the twenty ninth floor, the floor Hogwarts had booked.
A little funny elf creature dressed in a formal suit was standing there ready for the first group of students.
"Hello," he greeted. "My name is DW Wokly. I will be assisting you to your respective rooms."
The students looked at this strange little creature in awe and puzzlement. Nobody quite knew what to make of him so they just didn't say anything at all. DW pulled a little string on his black top hat and a parchment appeared out of nowhere. Oliver leaned forward as much as he could to try and see what was written on it.
"K Ravenell and C Armstrong, room 29!" he barked, looking around for them. "Your luggage is in there already, here's your keys!" he threw a little brass key at them as they hesitantly made their way down the corridor looking at the numbers on each door.
Oliver waited patiently as each pair of students were sent off to a different room until finally it was just him and Percy.
"So you must be O Wood and P Weasley?" DW said.
Oliver nodded. Duh.
"Here are your keys then, have a nice stay!" DW continued, throwing the keys in Oliver's face and snapping his fingers. Just like that, he was gone.
Percy looked at Oliver and shrugged. "Let's go see what our room looks like then…"
They walked straight to the end of the corridor where the last room was. Struggling to get the tiny brass key in the door the creaky door finally gave way and let the two boys in.
"Nice…" breathed Oliver.
His family had never been poor so they'd been on a few nice holidays and he'd stayed in at least half a dozen various hotels before but none compared to this one. When Dumbledore had said he liked to travel in style he wasn't kidding. It was just as formal as the outside and for a second Oliver feared how the room would look after he and Percy had stayed there. Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a photograph of the place now before the Hurricane Oliver hit.
"It's nice," said Percy, repeating just what Oliver had said.
"Sure is," he replied. "Should we unpack?" he asked gesturing towards the suitcases sitting neatly in the corner of the room.
The room was painted a nice cream colour with maroon furnishings. Reminded Percy immediately of a softer coloured Gryffindor room. There were two double beds, one against each wall and plenty of storage space for their belongings. On the beds were comfortable looking blankets and doonas and even complimentary sherbet lemons. Oliver and Percy next inspected their ensuite which was big and pristine, fluffy white towels piled up on a chair, huge spa bath with multiple streams of bubbles… they began to wonder whether they could just stay in their rooms all day and lap up the luxury.
After they had 'unpacked' which for Percy and Oliver required dumping the contents of their bags on the bottom of the wardrobe floor, they decided to go and say hello to their neighbours.
To their left was a room with Margaret and another Gryffindor Sandy. After saying a quick hello and being promptly kicked out, they decided to sneak a look to see who was to their right.
Percy knocked politely and a familiar sounding 'who is it?' responded.
"It's Percy Weasley, just wanted to say hi!"
The door opened slowly. There stood Kali and Christina, giving him and Oliver dubious looks.
"Oh… you're next door to us," Oliver choked out, hardly believing the coincidence.
"You're kidding me aren't you?" replied Kali.
Oliver shook his head.
"Right then, see you later!" Christina went to slam the door in their faces.
"Wait!" Oliver put his hand against the door and being so strong, Christina had no chance of pushing it closed.
Oliver surprised himself. What was he doing? Suddenly it was like he had no control over his mouth. Before he knew it he was asking to talk to Kali alone and leading her back to his room.
Percy and Christina both tried to protest but realised that Kali actually wanted to talk to Oliver too so they let it slip giving each other confused glances.
Once in the privacy of the other room they took a seat, one on each bed and looked at each other not knowing quite what to say.
For the first time since they had ever actually spoken Oliver noticed how pretty Kali looked. He was still mad at her and he still wanted to know why she'd gone off her tree about Katie Bell but his anger at her had slightly lessened.
He tried to concentrate on anything but her looks so he looked straight at her eyes not wanting to take in the rest of her.
Kali's eyes were dark green and the most amazing sight he'd ever seen. They were just so deep. But unlike anyone else he looked at who's whole character seemed to shine from their eyes, Kali was different. From looking at her he couldn't tell anything from her eyes because they seemed just so closed off. Like they'd stopped feeling anything.
Kali sat there staring back at Oliver, feeling nervous and tugging at the end of her sweater. She hated it when people looked you right in the eye, it always made her feel uncomfortable as if they were expecting something she just couldn't provide them. Emotion.
"Well Kali… I just wanted to apologise," began Oliver. She raised an eyebrow. "I have said a lot of things out of line and I just wanted to get the air clean you know, while we're here and all, living right next to each other so we better not try and murder each other during the night. I figured we better try and get along, not as friends or anything, but not as arch enemies either."
Oliver hoped his reverse psychology would work. He hoped she'd explode with a 'Oh I'm so sorry too Oliver!' and tell him exactly what it was Katie had said.
Unfortunately Kali could see right through this. "It's not working," she said with a slightly amused smile on her face.
Oliver laughed. "I guess not. But come on, I think I'll have nightmares of you coming to kill me if we don't at least try to work it out."
For a split second he saw fear in Kali's eyes. He'd struck something inside her but what?
"Okay," she replied smiling. Oliver noticed how perfect and petite her smile was. He went to comment on it but realised that would definitely be moving too fast.
"You know," she continued. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have hit Katie. It was wrong, no matter what someone does to you, you shouldn't be violent. I understand that now because believe me, I have felt regret."
Oliver's expression of determination softened. "What did she say to you then? It must have been pretty harsh…"
Kali opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Maybe if she told him she'd feel better herself. Maybe Oliver might understand. She just had to reach inside and pull out some courage, if there was any left inside of her that was. No, she had to do this. She had to take a chance.
And so Kali decided she'd tell him…
Author's Note: Ahaha, I love cliffhangers. I've sort of worked this up a lot, "what did Katie say?" and it's really not all that worthy of this sort of drama, hehe. So I'm kind of scared the next chapter will be a bit of a let down. Oh well, you'll find out all in good time. Oh and if you have read 'Three Little Words' you would have noticed my 'Bubble Elevator' and 'DW Wokly' tribute, hehe. Just thought I'd throw in something more offbeat.
So anyway, off you go, sign up for my notify list!