A/N: Hey, please don't read this unless you've read my replacement for chapter 26. I swear I lost my book. Christiana Aisling can vouch for that. She is lending me her copy to use for now. Anyway, I'f you have read it, enjoy this one!
Really. What was I supposed to get my ex-boyfriend-who-I-still-kinda-like-and-might-like-me-as-well? Nothing!
That might be a little low, but really. At least I am going to this stupid party.
It should be a present enough that I am risking my school career and my Witches
License to be with Oliver on his birthday! Geeze!
If I got caught and got Oliver a present, I would be expelled and, on top of
that, broke! He should appreciate that I'm risking my life as we know it. I
mean, we aren't all Fred and George Weasely who seem
to cause trouble a lot, but never actually are reprimanded.
The day before Oliver's birthday, Fred and George called Angelina, Alicia and I
over to talk to him. Dave (David), Jimmy (James) and Tom (Thomas) were there as
well.
"Where are Harry and Percy?" I asked.
Fred grimaced at me. "Well that's obvious, isn't it? Harry can't come 'cause
he might die, and Percy would ruin our plans before you could say Bubbotoober (sp?) pus!"
"So," continued George. "We're staging a kidnap."
"A kidnap?" asked Jimmy.
"Cool!" said Dave.
"Yes. We are going to have you steal Oliver's wand, and perform a
leg-locker on him, tie him up, Spell-o tape his mouth shut, and stuff him in a
bag," explained George.
"A bag??" asked Alicia, looking doubtful.
"Oh yes, and I almost forgot. Blindfold him," added Fred.
"And who is going to do all of this?" asked Tom.
"His roommates of course!"
All the Seventh year boys shifted forward in there seats. "I'm in!"
said Jimmy.
After the boys received their assignment, Angelina asked, "And what about
us girls?"
"You get to meet us at Honeydukes," said
George.
"Honeydukes? I thought we were going to the Three Broomsticks?"
Angelina asked.
"It's just easier this way. The passage leads right into the Honeydukes basement," said George.
"Passage way?" Alicia asked.
"You know that scary looking Gargoyle around the corridor a bit?"
asked Fred.
"Yes..."
"Well, meet me there. George will help with the kidnapping."
"OK..."I said doubtful.
"Trust me."
"Fine, but my future livelihood is in your hands."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oliver really had no idea what he was in for. He didn't know that there would
be no Friday evening practice because we were kidnapping him. Fred and George
had Angelina tell Madam Hooch that Oliver decided to cancel practice on Friday.
Which of course was not true, but it would be very bad if Madam Hooch showed up
to over see practice and we were not there. They had Angelina tell her because
she was the most "trust worthy" of the group.
All through Thursday's practice, George kept saying things like, "Fred,
don't you think we should work extra hard on this tomorrow?"
"Yes," Fred would say. "Tomorrows
practice will be a good one."
"It's nice to hear that out of you two. Great Birthday present for
me," Oliver said.
Fred and George had twin evil smirks on and winked at me, Alicia and Angelina.
"I don't know about this kidnapping business..." Alicia muttered.
"I think it should be very entertaining," mused Angelina.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So the next day, Alicia and I were getting ready to go to the Three
Broomsticks. I waved my hair and wore jeans and a black tank criss-crossed the front.
"OK, I'm ready," I said, stepping out of the bathroom.
Alicia's jaw dropped. "I see the girls have come out to play." She
was not looking at my eyes.
"What?" I shrieked, and crisscrossed my arms over my chest.
"A little more provocative than usual, huh, Katie?" she asked smiling.
"Too sexy?" I asked.
"Just remember to ask for two extra seats for your friends," she said,
one eyebrow raised.
"That's it! I'm changing!" I said, starting to stomp off. But Alicia
grabbed my arm.
"No, Kitty! I was so kidding! You look great."
"Not trashy?" I asked quietly.
"No," said Alicia. She sighed. "Actually, I'm jealous that I'm
not as well endowed as you are."
I started laughing uncomfortably. "Maybe we should stop talking about
my..."
"Yeah."
"Are you positive I look OK?"
"Yes, Katie, geeze. Better
than OK."
"OK."
So, instead of going to practice as usual, Angelina, Alicia and I waited for
Fred by that horrible gargoyle.
"First look around to see if anyone's looking. All clear?" said Fred.
"All clear," said Angelina.
"Ok," said Fred. Then he lowered his voice and muttered, while
tapping the Gargoyle with his wand. "Dissendium."
The gargoyle moved so that a large man-hole appeared. "Down you go, Alicia...yup...you
next Katie. Katie?!"
"Yes?"
"Wow."
I groaned. "Oh no! You too?
I'm going to go change..."
"Are you kidding me? You look fantastic!" Fred was smiling.
"Thanks," I said and decided to climb through the hole.
It was dark in the tunnel. We all muttered 'lumos'
and we could see through the darkness. Soon enough, Alicia, Fred, Angelina and
I were standing in the basement of Honeydukes.
"Fred, are you sure you've done this before?" Angelina whispered
hiding behind a box.
"Yes, of course we have, it's easy. Just follow me and keep low,"
Fred whispered back.
Following Fred the whole way, we maneuvered ourselves so that we were standing
in the center of Honeydukes. It was surprising to see
just how empty it was. It wasn't filled to the brim with Hogwarts students as I
had always seen it before.
"Nice," Alicia smiled, looking around.
The lady at the counter left for a moment and up popped George Weasleys head. He was looking around mischievously.
"Coast is clear. Let's bring him in."
The appeared Jimmy, Dave and Tom carrying what must have been Oliver in a large
burlap sack. They sat the sack down in the chair and pulled it off of Oliver's
head.
"Happy Birthday, Oliver!" we all said as Jimmy took his blindfold
off, and Dave stripped the spell-o tape of off his mouth.
Oliver was all pink in the face and smiling. "I don't believe you guys did
this for me!"
"And girls!" said Angelina.
Oliver jerked his head around. "It's you three!" He said, seeing
Angelina, Alicia and I sitting on a table to his left.
"Hi, Oliver," I said sitting on the table, leaning back and
supporting myself by my hands. I was trying to look like that mermaid painting
in the prefects bathroom. Penelope let me have a go in
there once.
His eyebrows shot up. "Wha - Katie..."
he said. He was smirking that smirk.
He stopped staring at me and turned back to Jimmy. "You haven't finished
untying me!"
"Oh right," said Jimmy.
"And do the counter-curse so I can move my legs!" Oliver ordered.
"Fine!" said Dave and did the counter curse with his wand.
Oliver stood up and turned to Tom. "My wand,
please?"
Tom, smirking gave him the wand back. Oliver looked around. He was smiling.
"You were all in on this?"
"Everyone," said George smuggly.
"What about practice?" Oliver asked. The boy has a one track mind.
Alicia groaned. "Don't tell me you'd rather be there?"
Oliver smiled. "No, but is Madam Hooch waiting for us?"
"It's been taken care of," said Angelina.
"I'm frikin' speechless," he said.
"Speechless."
We sat around eating all our favorite candies, and some that weren't. Alicia
slipped cockroach clusters into Fred's Every flavor
beans. I knew she would get him back.
Some other escapades with Acid Pops and Chocolate Frogs caused us to laugh so
hard, we had tears in our eyes. Jimmy set a frog loose and although they
supposedly only have one good jump in them to begin with, he couldn't catch it.
He chased it and wasn't looking were he was going and slammed into a wall.
"How does it feel to be eighteen?" I asked Oliver.
He turned to me and smiled mischievously. "How should it feel?"
"Well, I wouldn't know. Now, would I?" I said smartly.
He nodded. "Feels pretty good."
Well that's good to know, huh. "Happy Birthday..." I said and wrapped
my arms around his neck. I just had to! You don't understand. I missed that.
When I pulled away from him he had on an expression like he was totally
surprised that I would hug him on his birthday. It was just so seriously out of
place that it was funny. And it was so funny I started laughing. And as soon as
I did I had to turn away. When I looked back at him he still had that look on
his face. I started laughing all over again.
He stepped behind me. "Well, what's so funny?" he asked. The funny
expression was gone, but I had to bite my lip really hard to stop myself
laughing at the memory.
"Ha! Nothing, Oliver," and I shook my head furiously, still pink from
laughing. "Don't worry about it."
"You crazy lady," he muttered, smirking.
"You psychotic man..." I said sitting down.
He plopped into a seat right next to me. I smirked. "Don't you have a
party to take part in?"
"This is part of my party!" he said smiling. "Besides..."
he lowered his voice, "You look beautiful. Thought you
should know."
I felt a smile creeping onto my lips, and was smiling widely.
He smiled, stood up and went over to talk to Jimmy. What the?! He just called
me beautiful! What it that supposed to mean?
I was nearly hyper ventilating.
I heard George moan. "OOoooh, crud! Practice would be almost over by now and that's where Percy thinks we all are. We better get back."
"How not cool!" said Dave.
So we all snuck through the passageway back into the school. The common room was more than half empty.
I had been settling into an arm chair in front of the fire when Oliver tapped me on the shoulder. Oh dear… "Hey, what's up?"
"Er, can I talk to you?" he asked.
Anything, I thought. "Yeah, sure," I said getting up.
I followed him to stand by a window by the boys' dormitory stairs. "That was fun, huh?" I asked him.
He nodded. "Yeah, I've never been kidnapped before."
"Yes, very devious," I said.
"Yeah…" he said softly, taking a step closer to me. He was staring me straight into my eyes.
What happened next was a blur. He put a hand on my hip and pushed me back, so I was up against the wall, putting his other hand on the wall behind me, still staring into my eyes.
"Oliver, what are you doing?" I asked innocently, my eyes widening.
He smirked. "I don't know..." He just leaned in, temptingly. In those few seconds his eyes travel in a circle all over my face, landing on my lips. "Katie…," he said, breathily, before covering my lips with his.
I don't know why I was so surprised, but I was. I clenched my already shut eyes tighter when Oliver drew in one shuddering breath. This was one intense kiss. I had to lean my head back as he kissed me with more intensity…When I felt his tongue brush against my lips, I gasped at the sudden tingling sensation, giving the opportunity for a full-frontal kiss.
I put my hand on his shoulder, weakly pushing at him to stop. Of course, I didn't really want him to stop. But, his lips separated with mine and he pulled his head back just far enough to look me in the eyes.
"I'm - I'm sorry," he stammered. "I shouldn't have done that." He stepped back and turned his back to me, his head bowed.
I also turned away, my cheeks burning, looking out the window at the night sky. The stars seems brighter and twinkled more tonight, it seemed. I picked my hand up and drew my fore-finger along my bottom lip, still tingling delightfully. The moon looked like a smile up in the sky like that.
Behind me, Oliver sighed. "You and Cedric…" he said quietly, with his back still turned.
A meteor streaked the sky. I answered him just as quietly. "He's not my boyfriend."
I heard Oliver turn and face me. "He's not?"
I slowly turned around to face him, too. I shook my head, "No."
"Oh," he said catching my eyes, and taking one swift step up to me, he wrapped and arm around my waist and the other one supporting my neck and kissed me again. And I kissed him back. I felt as he pushed the palm of his hand into the small of my back. As I kissed him and he kissed me, I became flooded with emotion. Passion, anger, lust, hate, love. And due to my little bout of anger I pulled away, and my stomach gave a lurch. I could feel my cheeks burning up, and the room was suddenly very hot.
"Why are you doing this to me?" I demanded.
Oliver bowed his head again, but didn't let go of my waist. He was breathing so shallowly. "I had to."
I ripped out of hold. I might have been on the verge of tears. How can he dump me for Quidditch and then kiss me like that TWICE? Was playing with my emotions a game?
I didn't care how good of a kisser he was. "You had to?" I asked acidly.
"Katie, I can explain…" he said with a sad look in his eyes.
"Well, you had better!" I said.
He took a breath before starting. "OK…do you remember winning against Ravenclaw?" he asked.
"God, Oliver! Does everything have to revolve around Quidditch?"
"Hear me out, OK?" he demanded. "Well, I lied when I told you I was happy that day. I should have been a lot happier. Seeing you so happy… I tried finding out why I wasn't happy… I figured it out. We broke up because…I thought you were going to be a distraction from Quidditch… Was I ever wrong, Katie! Not being able to talk to you like we had been, not being able to hold you, not being able to kiss you, not being with you…that was the real distraction, Katie. Not being with you! You gave me the necklace back…Then all I could think of was how stupid I was to let you get away. That's all I could think of! Quidditch is just a front. Who really cares about Quidditch? It just not as important to me anymore. Sure I love it. But you're more important. So much more important." He paused and took a breath. He said, almost laughing, "Katie, I love you…"
Stunned silence.
That's all. Just silence. And Oliver.
Was I really here? Did I just hear correctly? I felt myself freefalling. I had to lean up against the wall to support myself. I closed my eyes, processing what I had just heard.
He loves me. Oliver Wood loves me.
I opened my eyes to see him standing there before me. God, he was so gorgeous.
Oliver took another step up to me, and I stepped back. I don't know why, but I shied away. Then I finally found my voice. It was dry and when I spoke it came out scratchy. "Did you mean that, Oliver?"
"Everything. Katie, I'm sorry I hurt you. I was going insane. I had to. Had to kiss you…"
"Uh!" escaped me in a high little squeak. Quickly, I put my hands over my burning cheeks and looked out the window again.
"Kates? Are you OK?" he said and came up behind me.
"I'll be fine…" I said, as another meteor streaked the sky.
He breathed heavily. "I know…" he said staring out the window as well.
My thoughts were all fogged up! He just told me that he loved me, what now?
"Oliver," I said, suddenly.
"Yes?" he turned to face me
I bit my lip hesitantly before wrapping my arms around his neck. "Thanks," I whispered, losing my nerve at the last second. "For being honest."
He smiled. "No problem. Night, Kates. We'll talk more tomorrow." and he kissed me on the cheek.
I swallowed hard. "Yeah, tomorrow," I said weakly.
He squeezed my hand once and smiled again.
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Long! Review! God this chapter was a lot of work! Bye!
