A/n; Ok, well – I've been thinking a lot about different ships since the OoP came out and I decided that I'm going to do something totally different: write an Oliver/Angelina fluff piece! This takes place when Oliver is in his 7th year and Angelina is in her 6th – correct me if that information is wrong!
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Unexpected snow dusted the castle grounds and more puffy flakes continued to fall from the metallic-colored sky. Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was hoping to drill his somewhat jaded players a few times before Christmas break. A little snow wouldn't hurt them, after all; they'd flown in much worse conditions – and that surprise hail storm they'd had last week (with hail as big as Quaffles) had just further dampened his team's spirits of ever getting back into the winning team state of mind. Of course, this wasn't even a real Quidditch practice but rather more of an evaluation: he wanted to see who was going to take his place next year as Captain. And it needed to be somebody good – not to mention someone he trusted and considered a good friend.
He watched his team fly around with as much cheer as they could muster. George Weasley whacked an oncoming Bludger back to his brother Fred and watched the ongoing beatings of the Bludger turn into a sort of frenzied mimic of a Muggle tennis match.
"Hey! Watch out, you're going to kill someone!" Wood shouted, feeling the little game the Weasley twins were playing was bound to get out of hand. And he was right because not two seconds later the other Bludger, which they'd apparently forgotten about, hurtled towards their Seeker, Harry Potter (who seemed to be off in his own world). The Seeker was quickly snapped back to reality as he saw the Bludger come at him and quickly flipped himself upside down and hanging on by his ankles, as his glasses had slipped off his nose and were in danger of falling thirty feet.
"Wake up, Potter!" Wood yelled towards Harry, who was clambering back to his upright position on his broom.
"Sorry!" Harry yelled back and quite red in the face.
"Hey, Oliver! When are we going to be done with this impromptu practice?" Katie Bell called, as she passed the Quaffle in a graceful arc over her shoulder.
Wood's eyebrows rose in mild interest and he wondered if could Katie be a good replacement. For all he knew, anybody on the team could be a good replacement. Actually, he could just call off the whole thing and just choose someone – it was freezing outside… no! He had to find someone worthy to replace him, and if he was sounding egotistical maybe he was, but he had to ensure he left the team in good hands.
"Until I say so, now keep running your drills!" Wood barked, writing down 'dislike of authority' on his clipboard as he saw her stick her tongue out at him. He watched Angelina Johnson, who was in 6th year (a year younger than him) catch the Quaffle Katie had thrown so beautifully and tear down the field. Alicia Spinnet, who was also in 6th year with Katie and Angelina, doggedly followed Angelina (who was streaking like a rocket down the field, Wood noticed, impressed) and Katie down to the hoops at the other end. Angelina was in the middle, obviously because she was the fastest and most athletic of the three girls, Katie on her right and Alicia on her left. Alicia barely skimmed the sides of the stands on the left and Katie on the right. This was a tactic set up by Wood himself, one that he was proud of, so that at any time, there would always be a Gryffindor Chaser on hand and one of the girls would always have room to evade someone from the other team and throw it to one of the open Chasers.
Wood had known Angelina since she joined the team in her second year and punched Fred Weasley in the nose for calling her a wimpy girl. She was full of spunk and attitude and a certain streak of competitiveness that he admired and seemed to harbor inside him as well. She'd always been a valuable asset to the team and extremely flexible to his grueling schedules he put out, almost never complaining. She played to her full ability and never failed to disappoint him – and suddenly it dawned on him that he'd found his replacement. And she was quite an attractive replacement – she had long, straight deep brown hair that could often be mistaken as black, which today was braided and in the spirit of the holidays, had Christmas colored ribbon woven into it. She was rather petite but had a strong throwing arm (he should know – she was infamous for punching people; he was punched square in the nose after he refused to let her play with the flu). She had the same sort of build as Katie and Alicia, pixie-like and petite but still strong enough to play Quidditch.
"Hello! OLIVER! WAKE UP!" Angelina said, snapping her fingers in his face. He'd apparently drifted off himself and the whole team was gathered around him, shivering.
"Can we please go in? My nose feels like it's going to fall off!" Alicia demanded impatiently, rubbing her hands together furiously to get them warm.
"Yeah, practice or whatever you want to call it, has ended! I'll just er – hang back for a bit, you'll probably find out who got Captain tomorrow," Oliver said distractedly.
They all landed and ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the warm locker rooms, all except Angelina who lagged behind to help him catch the Bludgers and the Snitch. He appreciated her help although he couldn't ignore this funny feeling in the pit in his stomach that he dismissed as either hunger or the cold.
"There you go," Angelina said brightly and caught the Snitch with amazing reflexes.
Oliver's jaw dropped slightly as she plopped it nonchalantly into his outstretched gloved hand. This girl was too amazing for words!
"Are you all right, Oliver? You seem a bit – spacey tonight," Angelina asked worriedly.
"I'm fine – just nervous for Potter," Oliver fibbed as they started walking back up towards the locker rooms. He dragged the trunk of Quidditch balls along beside them and silence fell over the two of them, the snow falling thickly and making it seem like the world was soundproof minus the crunch of the two pairs of feet crunching in their Quidditch boots.
"Oh yeah, me too," Angelina said blankly.
What possessed her to hang back? She should've just run ahead with the rest of them and not have to face the horrible awkwardness of the moment. For her own selfish gain, she stayed back to help him gather all the equipment and hoping to score some extra points from him for the evaluation – she really wanted that position as Captain. She'd also realized, just then and there, that maybe the reason she'd been doing extra flourishes on simple game plans to make her stand out more to him and doing complicated things with the Quaffle while trying to pass to her teammates (just the other day she'd fallen off her broom into a huge mud puddle) and doing loop-de-loops right in front of him to show off, was because maybe she didn't want him to notice her as just another one of the Quidditch players on his team but as Angelina Johnson – a woman in her own right. Her stomach slightly plummeted at this thought; she snuck a quick glance and then looked back down, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. He was truly beautiful – not like half the pigs at Hogwarts; high cheekbones, sparkling brown eyes that seemed to be completely illuminated and showed true joy when he was playing Quidditch, a killer body (as much as she'd seen – and she'd seen quite a bit, as she walked into the boy's locker room on a dare), and the hottest accent she'd ever heard. His thick eyelashes were coated with snow and his brown hair was dotted with the snow as well, making it look like he had a terrible case of dandruff.
"Uh – well – here's where I go in," Oliver said glumly and set down the heavy trunk.
"I guess I'll er – see you around," Angelina said blankly and started to go in the girl's locker room.
"Wait Angelina!" Wood said, grabbing her arm.
She looked at him with a hopeful look on her face. "Yes?"
"Meet me after you're done – changing and whatnot, say, the Gryffindor Common Room?" Oliver asked, his breath coming up in a puff of smoke.
"That is where we live, isn't it?" Angelina asked dryly but nodded all the same, "I'll be up there as soon as possible."
"Right," Oliver said breathlessly and they both parted ways.
"Bloody hell," Angelina said, throwing her heavy cloak and her scarlet Quidditch robes on the bench, sat down and proceeded to pull off her boots, (caked with ice and mud) and her shin guards. Katie and Alicia were nowhere to be found so she guessed they'd already changed and were up in Gryffindor. She removed the breeches and pulled on her skirt, knee socks and Mary Jane's and left her spotless red and yellow sweater on. She gathered her two robes and put her shin guards and boots in her locker, misted some perfume on and slammed her locker door shut in record time.
She actually caught Wood on his way out and biting her lip, hung back behind a suit of armor until he was out of sight. Her heart was hammering like crazy, like it did before a big game. Walking again, she noticed how silent and cozy the castle seemed to be and wondered what Wood had to talk to her about. She was sure it could wait – but he seemed like it was urgent he talk to her. Shrugging, she sprinted all the way back to Gryffindor, panted the password to the Fat Lady and threw herself through the portrait hole.
"Hey Angelina," Wood said, sitting quite calmly on the stuffed couch near the firelight.
"Hey," Angelina panted, dropping her stuff near the portrait hole. Wisps of hair were sticking out of her braid and she was slightly out of breath; she plopped down next to him and stretched out her legs.
"You had something to talk to me about?" Angelina said, trying to calm her nerves and will the butterflies in her stomach to go away and to stop her pulse from hammering so loudly in her ears.
"Oh – that," Wood said looking a bit flushed himself. He turned slightly to face her so that one leg was underneath him and one was on the ground, "look Angelina, I've known you practically my whole life here and I consider you to be like family to me – like a sister…"
Angelina closed her eyes; a pained expression flitted across her face. Please Oliver, I don't want to be your sister…
"And I know that I can trust you the most, so that's why I've decided –"
"I'm in love with you, Oliver," Angelina blurted out.
And she immediately regretted that she had, clapping both hands over her mouth with a horrified expression on her face. Oliver looked at her blankly, praying that he'd heard her correctly with a leap of his heart.
"W – what did you just say?" Oliver asked with a dazed expression on his face.
"Oh, Oliver, I didn't mean to – it just slipped out!" Angelina said, horrified.
"No it's good that you said that – because I think I'm in love with you too," Oliver said with a sheepish smile.
"What? The brave Quidditch Captain, who feels only the pain of his enemy's Bludger?" Angelina said dramatically.
"Hey now, that's not fair – I think I've liked you ever since you socked Fred," Oliver said with a grin.
"Yes you have a thing for aggressive women, don't you?" Angelina asked sarcastically but grinning all the same.
Wood seized her hands and looked her square in the eye, mere inches from her face. She gulped loudly and tried to fight the Keeper's hot gaze and his hold on her tiny hands.
"No," Wood breathed as his face inched closer to hers, "you're perfect."
"Well actually no, I just got an Unsatisfactory mark in Potions –"
"Shut up Angelina, I'm trying to kiss you," Wood said impatiently and finally claimed her lips.
He dropped her hands from his grasp and it was a good thing because she was just about to faint from sheer joy. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist as though he were afraid she'd melt as soon as he touched her (which, figuratively speaking, was already happening.) Angelina's heart soared with joy – finally, finally he acknowledged her as being more than just a Quidditch buddy and seeing her for her! And then she finally realized why she'd spent time doing all those things to make him notice her and spending hours in front of her mirror poking herself in the eye with a Muggle mascara brush and misting perfume all over herself for – it had worked and she was absolutely, totally, fully in love with him. And it felt so good.
They finally broke apart – red in the face, tousled hair, and gleaming eyes.
"You know, actually I wanted to tell you that you got the position as Captain," Wood said quietly with a smile.
"Oh Oliver! REALLY?" Angelina said beside herself with joy, tackling him into a hug.
"Yeah and you know you didn't have to do all the stuff you did," Oliver said tweaking her nose.
"What're you talking about?" Angelina said, truly mystified.
"Oh, I think you know what I'm talking about – lagging behind to help me, doing those fancy Quidditch moves, putting on makeup… I've noticed you for the longest time, even if you didn't realize it," Oliver said seriously.
Angelina blushed again. "Well you know, you could've been a bit more – obvious that you recognized me! Poking yourself with makeup applicators hurts!"
Oliver ruffled her hair affectionately. "I love you, Angelina Johnson."
"Don't tell me that you've never tried anything to get me to notice you, Mr. Wood!"
He smiled roguishly at her and pulled her in for another sound, passionate kiss.
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Ahahaha… that was so fluffy. And cute! I think Oliver and Angelina are cute! Awww… cuteness galore! =) R/R!