Chapter 2:NOOOOOOOO!
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A/n: Thankyou so much reviewer! I felt pretty darn good about myself with the awesome review you wrote! More yayness!
I sat down at breakfast, along with the other groggy players sitting around the table. Except for Gred and Forge. I wasn't quite sure where they were.
"Eat up!" I said cheerfully.
The table responded with grunts and yawns, generally the usual at six o'clock in the morning.
"Oh, shove it Oliver. Its too early for this," Alicia complained. Eeh, some one forgot their special meds this morning.
I smiled at her, because I knew it would only piss her off even more Theres only a couple of things you need for a successful quidditch practice this early in the morning. One of them was to get your players more riled up, or at least energetic, and have a clear mind. The way I figure, if they all get mad at me, then they'll concentrate more on being tougher on me and therefore concentrate on the game more. Sounds good? Good. Because I wasn't really sure if it would work or not.
I chewed on some scrambled eggs. The texture feels really funny in your mouth when you really think about it...
"The eggs, Oliver," came an annoyed voice.
"Huh?" I said, snapping out of my egg reverie.
"Pass the eggs."
"Oh right. Sorry Katie." I passed her the eggs. And in doing so, classically, her hand brushed against the back of mine. I smiled, then realized that they were supposed to be getting madder at me. So I said the first thing that came to my mind, and in my most obnoxious voice I could muster.
"Eggs are... really fattening, you know," I said, after I swallowed down my food.
I received a menacing death glare from her, as several of the other students dropped their forks on their plates.
"What the hell Wood?" Angelina asked skeptically.
Katie abruptly stood up, carrying her plate with her. On her way out of the Great Hall, she dumped her plate in the trash with an echoeing crash. I felt a pang of guilt. Its not what I had said, its what I had implied. Girls don't like doubting their weight, and that comment had certainly not helped my friendship with her.
Angelina and Alicia stood up as well, putting their hands on their hips.
"You know, quidditch has made you a real ass," Alicia spat. They both stalked off, leaving Harry with me.
"Bloody pms," I muttered. "Have you seen Fred or George?"
"Nope."
I grunted, angry at my own insolence. They just didn't understand that it was all for the good of the team.
"I gotta go."
I was traveling down the lonely halls back to the Common Room. The mostly likely place that the twins would be is in the Common Room sleeping. It was the only logical explanation.
"Ahhh!" Some one grabbed hold of my wrist, some one who knew how to cackle.
I was thrust into a room that was lit with hundred of aromatic candles lining the walls. There were two chairs, more like cushions actually, where the cackler led me. I was rushed to one of them where I sat down, forced by the hand.
Across from me, a woman sat down. But she was unlike any woman I had ever seen. She was the true essence of... ugliness.
There were so many wrinkles covering her small, hunched figure, that her eyes were like beads pressed into a lump of cookie dough, barely visible. Her skin was a mottled gray color, and her hands were bonier than my last name. She cackled yet again, I winced.
"Ahh. Oliver Wood," she drew out my name like a drunkard slurs. "The inner eye is watching you. I have a message. You see, your entire future is at stake."
I rolled my eyes, and slapped my forehead. "Haha. Not yet another prank-"
"This is no prank!" She hissed, saliva spilling from her mouth. "It has to do with... quidditch."
I perked up at the mere mentioning of the one and only thing in my life that mattered. "What of quidditch?" I asked, leaning forward.
"I think you will not believe me if I tell you," she said in a scratchy voice. "So first I will make you believe in the Inner Eye."
I nodded in consent. This person looked like the Professor Trewlany type, maybe she could tell me my future in quidditch.
"You are a strict boy. Loosen up!" she snapped. Startled, I jumped. She exhaled deeply, peering at me. "Hm... I see some one in your life, a possibility. Ooh, but that's really sad. You hurt her today. Already, and its only six in the morning. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
I nodded. Was it Katie? Did I really hurt her with that one, single, solitary comment? Impossible. Not her, she's strong... I think. I can't really claim that.
"So now do you believe in this?" she asked, gesturing to the room around her.
I nodded slower.
"Good. Because no matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, you will never play quidditch professionally outside of Hogwarts. Ever."
There was a deep pain in my chest. Was this how muggles felt before a heart attack?
"No-"
"You must redeem yourself. Lead a normal life. Quidditch free. And then maybe someday, your path will change, and it will come back to you. Until then, quidditch free."
"NO!" I shouted. Yet there was a strange part of me that was believing this. I stood up and ran down the hallway, screaming 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'
It just couldn't be true, no, it couldn't. Quidditch was all I had, I spread my life around quidditch. I couldn't lose it. Not now. This is my dream, my past, my present, my future. This was my one gift! I can't be a normal teenager, cheering behind the lines! I don't know how. No, no, I can't lose this, not now. Its only my last year, its supposed to be my greatest.
Angrily I ran to the locker rooms. The entire team, minus me, was already there and changed.
"Listen up," I said, anger seething from my voice. "We're not having a bloody practice today. If anyone chooses to question this decision, they can sod off because we're not having a BLOODY PRACTICE TODAY!" My shoulders rose and fell heavily and quickly as I breathed.
The five other players stared at me with their mouths hanging open.
"Argh!" I growled, and shoved past Fred and George to the showers to cool off.
I stripped down once I stepped into the showers, throwing my clothes who knows where. I heard the door leading into the locker room open and close several times. The rest of the team probably left. Hopefully.
I turned on the taps to the coldest possible setting, it felt like a million sharp knives were barred into my skin. But after a while I went numb, and couldn't feel anything anyway. I drowned away my anger, and my fear.
After about an hour, yes an hour, I decided that if I stayed in the shower any longer, my skin would start to deteriorate. I found a towel laying on the racks and tied it around my waist after a quick towel- dry down the bod (A/n: niiiice mental image...). I walked out of the showers holding the towel around my waist with one hand.
I left a trail of water behind me as I walked back out into the main locker area. I hadn't spotted my clothes yet.
"Shit," I said, my voice echoeing around the room. I searched frantically in the boys section of the locker room. There was a slight chance that I had thrown my clothes over onto the girls' side. "Bloody Hell," I said in exasperation, throwing my unoccupied hand up.
Stealthily, with the grace of a cat, I tip toed over to the girls' locker room. I walked over to the door, constantly glancing over my shoulder, and locked so as to reassure that no girl just came barging in on me. I heard it lock with a satisfactory click.
I smiled genuinely. Complete privacy.
"Oliver?"
"Ahhhhhhh!" I spun around, barely managing to keep my towel up.
"I'm so sorry," she said, attempting to look away from my half naked self. My hand was clutching my chest where my heart was.
"You scared me half to death!" I clutched the towel tighter. The one thing that could make this situation worse was me exposing myself in front of Katie Bell of all people. "What are you doing here?"
"I… er... stayed because you looked… upset," she said, shuffling her feet nervously. "And I have your clothes," she added quickly.
Needless to say, I felt myself go all teary- eyed inside. I insult her during breakfast, and she comes to help me? Alicia was right, I am an ass.
"Oh." That was my great line? 'Oh?' I changed my mind. I'm not an ass. I'm a dumbass. "Uh... I'm really sorry about breakfast, this morning."
She wouldn't meet my gaze. Obviously I had struck a nerve earlier.
"Its okay," she toyed. "I'm used to your dumbass- in- in- the- morning attitude by now."
"I guess I deserved that." I scratched the back of my head with my hand, then realized that I was wearing a towel. I lowered my hand back to the side of me to hang onto the towel.
"Now that that little apology is over," she put on a concerned face, "Are you okay?"
"Uhh… no, actually." I leaned back against the stone wall and let a small sigh escape my mouth.
"What is it?" She put her hand on my elbow. I'd never known her to be so compassionate.
"Do you ever... doubt yourself? On the quidditch field, I mean?"
She nodded.
"You could say that that's kind of what I'm going through."
"Why?" She snorted.
"What do you mean 'Why?'" I asked with my eyebrows raised.
"Your practically the best quidditch player on the field, you've been offered tons of different positions for teams all over the world! How could you doubt yourself?"
"I just... do." I seriously did not want to tell her about that creepy old woman. She was, well... creepy! And Katie would probably just laugh at me anyway.
"Oh. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"My clothes would actually be really helpful," I said, nodding to the clothes in her hand.
"The towel- look looks really good on you, though. It would be a shame to destroy it with these." She tossed me the clothes, and I stepped back as I caught them with one hand. She smiled and then brushed past me to get to the door. "And by the way, those are some nice knickers you got there," she said as she opened the door. "See you."
I hoped to Merlin that my face wasn't as red as it felt. She'd seen my underwear. I think that a part of my manhood had suddenly been stripped.
Crap.
