Title: When We Were Little
Author name: Allie-Marina
Category: Romance
Sub Category: Humor/Angst
Keywords: Oliver Katie friendship
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: First three books
Summary: It's Valentine's Day and it is either very rewarding or it just stinks, depending on if you are Oliver or if you are Katie. Katie turns sixteen and is taken out of school. Some important things are said. Meanwhile, it's the duo's third summer together, and they come across the first bump in the road.
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. May included lines and ideas from Friends, Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Smallville, As Told by Ginger, the Great Gatsby, The Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, to name just a few.
Author notes: This chapter may be a little slow moving, but bear with it, alright???? It's important! Thanks to Laura and Christina for the BETA's! I heart you all!

Gryffindor first year Ryan Bell sped down the Grand Staircase the next day, Friday, being chased by a boy who was easily recognized as Dennis Creevey.

"You can't catch me!" Ryan declared, setting out down another staircase closer to the ground floor. He had been laughing maniacally the whole way.

"Give me back my camera!" Dennis demanded a few steps behind Ryan.

Ryan was almost to the ground level when he heard, in a distinctly familiar female voice, "Locomoto mortis!" Suddenly, his legs wouldn't budge from the spot he was standing at. A leg-locker. Dennis stood in front of Ryan and put his hands on his waist.

"Give it back, now!" Dennis demanded, grinning smugly.

"Fine," Ryan relented as he handed the camera to Dennis.

Dennis grinned at something over Ryan's shoulder. "Thank you," he said to it.

"No problem," said the voice. Ryan craned his neck and turned at his torso to see his sister, Katie, standing behind him with her boyfriend.

"You!" Ryan glared at her.

"Me," Katie snapped. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was in the process of stealing Dennis's camera for Fred and George's purposes," Ryan drawled, grinning mischievously.

"Figures," Rhys put in, grinning. "A little joke or two?"

"And how," Ryan admitted.

Dennis had already left Ryan there, in a leg locking curse set on him by his sister. "Next time you get pigeoned into doing something for those twins, I swear, you'd better get paid," Katie told him.

"Paid?" Ryan repeated incredulously.

"Absolutely," Katie replied, "'cause then I'm going to have to write home to Mum and tell her what a bad little boy you have been. And in order to stop me, you'll have to pay me off."

Rhys sniggered. "Isn't that blackmail?"

Katie turned to look at Rhys, raising an eyebrow. "What's your point?"

"Can you please let me out of this curse?" Ryan called. Rhys raised his wand, but Katie put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"No," she warned, "don't. I want him to learn a lesson and think really hard before following the Weasleys."

"Oh, come on!" Ryan wailed at Rhys.

Rhys smiled sympathetically at the boy in front of him. Ryan looked a lot like Katie, except that his hair was sandy brown and not nearly black like his sisters. "Sorry, sport," Rhys told him.

Rhys followed Katie as she climbed the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower. Ryan called out after Rhys, "You aren't her slave! You're a free man! FREE ME!"

"Don't," Katie warned Rhys.

"Oddsbodikins" Rhys said to Sir Cadogan, ignoring the wailing boy. Sir Cadogan had been the portrait for Gryffindor Tower ever since Halloween, when the Fat Lady's portrait had been ruined by Sirius Black when he'd tried to get into the common room. Sir Cadogan's face fell because he couldn't torment Katie and Rhys about not knowing the password. Reluctantly, he swung the entrance open and they crawled through.

"So," Katie started, when she found a couch in a secluded area of the common room.

"So," Rhys replied, sitting next to her.

"It's Valentine's Day," she said.

"I know," he said. He pulled out a pink colored paper from one of his many pockets. "I made you a card."

Katie took the card from him. She read out loud, "'Happy Valentine's Day...to someone who has everything: good looks, charm, intelligence, personality, and best of all...me! Love, Rhys.'" She crooned, "Oh, the cat on it is so cute!"

He'd charmed it so it had an image of a kitten rolling across the page. "I thought you'd like it," Rhys grinned.

Of course Katie liked it, but it wasn't exactly what she was expecting. "Oh yeah, and since your birthday is in two days, I also have a gift for you." He pulled out a box-looking thing wrapped in silver paper.

He put it in front of Katie on the table. She grinned up at him. "Are you sure you don't want to wait and give it to me two days from now?" she asked.

"I'm positive! Hurry up and open it!" he smiled, pleading impatiently.

She put the gift on her lap and tore through the wrapping to see a sleek black leather case, with silver words stamped across it, reading Broomstick Servicing Kit.

"Wow!" Katie exclaimed, unzipping the case to look inside. It had everything, handle polish, silver tail-twig clippers, a Handbook of Do-it-yourself Broom care, and even a compass for long trips. "Thank you!" she said, closing the case and set it aside. She opened her arms to hug Rhys and he responded with the same motion. "You are the best!" she told him while in his arms. She looked up to him, waiting for him to finally give her a real kiss. But, it didn't happen.

***
In the first place, Valentine's Day sucks. It sucks more when you're sitting across the way from a happy couple giving and receiving Valentine's Day cards. Especially when one of those people happens to be the person for whom you've been harboring secret, unidentified feelings for several years, and the other is your best friend.

Wood had tried not to watch them, but curiosity did him in.

It wasn't that Wood hadn't gotten any cards that February fourteenth, because he had. In fact, he had probably gotten the most out of anybody in the school, with the exception of Cedric Diggory. The same Cedric Diggory that had beaten Gryffindor in the first match of the year.

He just didn't want to have to deal with all the cards. He'd accepted them all in acquiescence, with a smile and a thank you. He'd gotten some "invitations" to do some "things" with some girls, also. That wasn't new or anything, especially since he had accepted a few of those "invitations" in the past.

However, he just couldn't watch the fluff and mush that was being displayed in front of his eyes. So, he rose to his feet and left the common room through the portrait hole. He was slowly making his way down the Grand Staircase when he'd heard someone call out, "Free me, please."

Wood turned around to see Ryan Bell, kin to the girl who was the cause of Wood's seemingly-permanent cranky state, standing on a stair. "What?" Wood asked, confused.

"Free me, please," Ryan repeated.

"Like I said," Wood clarified. "What?"

Ryan groaned. "I'm in a leg-locker curse! Get me out of it!"

Wood walked the last few steps to where the young boy was standing. Wood has known Ryan since the boy had been two, and now he was going to school with him. "How did that happen?" Wood asked him, smirking at the fact that no matter how hard Ryan tried to break out the curse, it was useless.

"My bloody sister," Ryan ground out, "and then she left me here!"

Wood nodded, trying to imagine Katie setting curses on her little brother, and let Ryan out of the curse. Ryan straightened himself out, stretching his sore legs. "Now I see why you can't stand her," Ryan muttered.

"Yeah," Wood replied, while scratching the back of his head. He idly wondered how Ryan would know anything about how he felt about his sister.

"Anyway," Ryan continued. "Thanks for letting me out. I'm going to go kill Kathryn now. Have a jolly Valentine's Day, and use protection!"

Ryan started up to Gryffindor tower again, leaving Wood wondering where little Ryan Bell had learned such things. Ryan crawled through the portrait hole, but didn't find Katie anywhere.

Giving up his search very easily, Ryan climbed the stairs to his first year dormitory. On his bed, his and Katie's owl Grigori sat waiting patiently. Ryan reached out to the bird and patted him on the back of his head.

He recognized his mother's handwriting very easily and opened the letter.

Dear Ryan and Katie,

I hope you are staying out of trouble, Ryan, and that you are training hard in Quidditch, Katie. You've both been slacking in writing letters home, so I can only assume that you are being kept busy with your school work and that life is going well for you. Before I forget, Happy Valentine's Day. Katie, your birthday gift is enclosed in the box accompanied with this letter.
However, this letter is sent to you with a heart of sadness. Gram Bell's condition is deteriorating quickly. She doesn't have much time left, the medi-Wizards have told us. I'm going to pull you both out of school on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Katie, yes, I understand that you have a match next Saturday, but it is very important that you spend time with your Grandmother. I'm sure if you explain to Oliver the importance of this absence, he won't be too cross.

I will see you on Sunday.

Love,
Mum


Ryan stared at the paper. His Grandmum was dying. He stood up from his bed, determined to find his sister and left the dormitory.

He ran down to the Quidditch pitch and waited in the stands for the practice to end. When it did, Katie was arguing with Wood about the unlikeliness of a certain play.

"We'll never need to use that play!" Katie insisted.

"Of course you will," he retorted, off handedly, preparing himself for another bickering session that he'd gotten so accustomed to having with her.

Katie would have argued further, however, Ryan tugged impatiently at Katie's arm. She stopped glaring at Wood and looked down at her brother. "What is it?" she asked.

"Important - need - talk - now," Ryan pleaded. Katie immediately followed Ryan off the pitch, as Wood stared after her. "Read this," Ryan ordered, holding out the letter.

Katie took it from him and her eyes quickly scanned over it. When she was done, she folded it up again, and looked at her brother, not knowing what to say. Her grandmother…

Ryan had grabbed her side and hugged her. He started sobbing into her shoulder, and she patted his head protectively.

He backed away and wiped at his eyes. "I'm going to have to change out of these Quidditch robes now," she told him softly. "Are you going to be all right?"

Ryan nodded slightly. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked cautiously.

"Yeah," he croaked. "Fine."

"All right...but if you need me," she said, "I'll be up soon."

He nodded and slowly started up the dirt path to the school. Katie sauntered into the team room and locked her broomstick into her locker.  Sighing deeply, she turned around to see Wood, Alicia and Angelina staring at her. "What are you looking at?" she asked them.

"You've got a tear rolling down your cheek," Angelina told Katie in a soft voice.

"Oh, do I?" Katie asked and wiped the tear away.

"Something wrong?" Alicia asked.

Katie thought of telling them, but Wood was standing there and she was more then ninety-nine percent sure that he would not care. "It's nothing," Katie lied. "It's just a bit of dust."

"Oh, okay," the girls chorused, none of the three believing a word of it.

***

It was Sunday, and Katie's birthday. Fred and George sang her their special rendition of the Happy Birthday song, and they had both given her all the wizarding trading cards that she had not yet collected. Alicia and Angelina invested in an engraved bracelet that said Friends Always and Forever, Katie + Angelina + Alicia, Chasers for Life.

Sunday was also the day that Katie and Ryan were to be taken out of school to see their grandmother. This meant that Katie would be missing two very important practices, just a week before a match. Wood, she was convinced, was going to kill her.

When Katie had her necessities packed, she slung the bag over her shoulder and went looking for Wood to tell him that she wouldn't be around that week. She'd found him in the first place that she looked, the Quidditch pitch.

She walked out on to the pitch and looked up and indeed saw Wood flying. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she called to him, "Wood!"

He looked down to see Katie below him. He wondered why she had a bag slung over her shoulder on the weekend. "What?" he called from the air.

"Could you come down here?" she asked, in an agitated voice. Then she added, "Please?"

He flew down and landed next to her. "What is it?"

"I'm leaving school until Wednesday night, I won't be here for tomorrow's or Wednesday's practices," she told him.

He'd immediately started feeling angry. No one misses practice, especially not two in a row. And especially not the week before a match!! Especially not Katie. "What??" he roared.

"I already told you."

"But we've got a match on Saturday! We need to train!"

"Wood, it isn't like I'm going to forget how to play Quidditch over three days!" she said, feeling rather irritated.

"You are so greedy and selfish!" he said to her, pointing a finger. "You have a commitment to a team, Bell. If you can't remember that, then maybe you should quit!"

That last remark felt like a slap in the face. She was selfish? She was giving herself, giving her time to spend it with her grandmother. He couldn't be more wrong.

Wasn't he the one who put everything behind Quidditch in his manic obsession to win the Cup? Wasn't that selfish? "Man, I hate you," she bit out, backing away from him.

He watched her run away. Had he made her cry? He couldn't tell, but Katie never cried, unless something was very wrong.

That outward declaration of hatred hit Wood hard. She'd never said that to him before, and he's always had a feeling that she resented him, but the declaration confirmed it. As for him, he's told himself that he hated Bell at least once a day, but he'd never actually said it out loud, much less to her face. Nor did he ever really mean it.

***

That horrible remark that Wood had made to Katie offset everything good about her birthday. It was supposed to be a special birthday, now that she was sixteen. But Wood had easily ruined it with reckless abandon, his words cut deep. Selfish, greedy, you should quit.

She got up to the Entrance Hall where Ryan was waiting for her. He saw the tears rolling down his sister's cheek. He was about to ask her what had made her cry, but thought better of it. He already knew. He knew how Wood could be, especially when it came to his sister.

He smiled weakly at her. "Happy Birthday," he said lightly. He pulled out the box that he hid beneath his pillow earlier.

Katie smiled back, wiping away the wetness from her cheeks. She took the box from him and read the card. "From, Mum and Dad," it said. Then, in red ink that did not match the black ink, it said "From Ryan, too." She opened the box and smiled at the eccentric gift. It was a Galilean thermometer. She'd wanted one ever since she saw them in the Apothecary at Diagon Alley.

"Thank you," she smiled at Ryan. "It's wonderful."

"Happy Birthday, Miss Bell," said a gruff, familiar voice behind her. She turned around to see Headmaster Dumbledore standing there with a twinkle in his eye.

"Thank you, sir," Katie replied with a nod.

"Sixteen, is it? Yes, the age where you feel like you don't know anything at all, but you do know more than you give yourself credit for. It's an age that comes with great wisdom and emotion. I suggest you use it wisely," Dumbledore told her.

Ryan looked confusedly up at his sister, but she'd looked if possible, even more confused than Ryan did. Katie nodded as if she understood which she didn't.

They'd followed Dumbledore to the horseless carriages. Dumbledore had been speaking to Katie most of the way, congratulating her for being top of her class, and about how she should consider taking muggle classes, because Dumbledore felt that she would make a very good ambassador to the Muggle World.

They'd passed Wood who was just coming off the Quidditch pitch. He'd caught Katie's eye and she glared at him. As they past, Wood watched them walk off, Dumbledore leading the way.

Before they crawled into the carriage Dumbledore advised them both to be strong for Gram, and they'd both nodded their heads obediently.

*************
In the two summers that had passed since Katie had literally fallen into Oliver's life, they'd been punished for their excessive mischief at least once a week for those first two summers.

However, this summer, the third, was quite different for Oliver. He was now eleven and would be boarding the Hogwarts Express the coming September first.

"When I get to Hogwarts, It's going to be great, really," Oliver had told Katie one day during that summer.

"Uh-huh," Katie nodded, lying back on the grass while gazing up at the clouds.

He lied down on his side to face her. "Really, it is," he'd insisted, grinning. "I'm so excited."

Katie brought her hands up to support her head. "I know," she muttered. "You've told me a million times."

"I'm getting my own wand this week, you know," he went on excitedly.

"I know," she said. He'd told her all of this before. Once, or twice, everyday, all summer. She was getting sick of it. "D'you want to do something?" she asked, hopefully.

"Like what?" Oliver asked.

Katie sat up and hugged her knees. "I don't know. We could play a game."

"What game?"

"I don't know," she said thoughtfully.

"We could play Hogwarts!" Oliver suggested. Katie tried not to groan. She didn't want to talk about how Oliver was going to leave her and go to Hogwarts.

She shook her head, "Actually, I think my Dad's calling me," she said standing up.

Oliver frowned. "I didn't hear anything."

"I did, I swear," Katie lied, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, getting to his feet.

"Oh, yes. I'm sure," she lied again. "I don't want him to get cross, so I should go."

It was an awkward moment for both of them. He couldn't think of a time that she had been so eager to leave. Of, course there was that one time that she kissed him and ran, but he ran, too. Probably for the same reason.

"Well...okay then," Oliver said hesitantly. "Will you come by tomorrow?"

The nine and (almost) a-half-year-old girl nodded. "Bye," she said, and turned to walk off.

***
The next day, Katie was sitting atop Oliver's lookout with him. He had been talking about Hogwarts again. It was the constant reminder of what she would be missing out on for the next two years.

Katie groaned out loud. "This is boring," she said, plainly.

"What's boring?" Oliver asked.

"You are. Hogwarts. Blah, blah, blah!" she spat. Oliver stared at her, thoroughly confused.

"I don't want to hear about it!" she continued. Oliver didn't know what to say. Were he and Katie having a fight?

"Why not?" he asked. "Aren't you happy for me?"

"No!" Katie said, her eyes narrowing. "I'm not happy that you're leaving and going to the best place in the world without me!"

Oliver frowned. "Well, I'm sorry I was born before you!"

"No! That isn't it!" Katie blinked wildly. "Everything is changing now," she said.

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked.

"You're going off to do magic and all, and we aren't equal anymore," she said, turning away.

"Are you afraid we aren't going to be friends anymore?" Oliver asked her, trying to get her to look at him.

It took Katie a while to answer. She bit her lip. "Maybe," she muttered. "You're going to meet all those new people who can do magic, too, who are your age, and you'll forget about me."

"Forget about you?" Oliver asked, standing there, almost shocked. "None of those people are ever going to climb up to my window every summer."

Through her anger, Katie actually grinned. "So, you won't forget me?"

"Of course not," he said, reassuringly. "Let's shake on it."

"No, let's pinky swear."

"Okay."

And they did. After that, Katie didn't mind so much about hearing Oliver talk about Hogwarts and she was excited for the letter that he had promised to write to her on his first day.