Oliver felt very apprehensive as he walked up the stairs toward Professor
Dumbledore's office. He couldn't imagine what he might have done wrong.
Then again, maybe he hadn't done anything wrong at all. He would just have
to wait until he got to Dumbledore's office to find out. He walked up to
the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.
"Canary Cremes," he said clearly and the stone gargoyle came to life and jumped aside to let Oliver through. Dumbledore was obviously a fan of Fred and George's new candies. Oliver stepped onto the first step of the spiral staircase, and it revolved until he reached the top. When he reached the top, he saw Angelina Johnson sitting across from Dumbledore at his desk.
"Hello Oliver," said Dumbledore. "I'm sure you are curious as to why I asked you to see you. Please have a seat."
Oliver sat in the chair next to Angelina.
"Oliver, do you know where Angelina works?" asked Dumbledore. Oliver thought for a moment, and then it dawned on him. "Yeah, she works for the Ministry of Magic. She's working on Madam Hooch's case."
"That's right. She has some news which may have a big impact on your future, and I wanted you to be able to hear it first hand." Oliver looked at Angelina.
"Oliver, we've found Madam Hooch. She was in the Sahara desert. We think that someone in the crowd turned her broomstick into a portkey while she was refereeing because they didn't agree with how she called a play," Angelina explained.
"Is she alright?" Oliver asked.
"She's not in very good shape right now, but luckily she had her wand with her so she survived. We expect her to recover thought, so she will be alright eventually."
"I guess I should start looking for another job then?" Oliver asked Dumbledore.
"That is not a bad idea, however, it is too soon to know anything for sure," Dumbledore replied. "It is ultimately up to Madam Hooch, and she is in no condition to decide anything right now."
The next day, Oliver started looking through the classified ads in the Daily Prophet for another job. Nothing appealed to him. Of course he could still play quidditch for Scotland, but he wouldn't be able to do that forever. The truth was that he really enjoyed teaching at Hogwarts. In just a few short weeks, he had grown rather attached to the students and had nearly forgotten that he was just a temporary replacement. And then there were the friends that he had made. Even though Fleur was still not as open with him as she had been, she was starting to warm up to him again. She was still an awesome friend. Adrianna was amazing as well. He had never met anyone else who seemed to understand him so completely. Oliver knew that it was going to be very hard for him to go when the time came.
He also realized that he should probably start packing up some of his belongings, whatever he wouldn't need for everyday use. Once Madam Hooch was ready to come back, he wouldn't have much time to get his things together. Oliver waited anxiously for nearly two weeks for some word from Dumbledore, yet at the same time dreaded what Dumbledore would have to say to him. Finally in the first week of October, Dumbledore came up Oliver after dinner.
"Oliver, would you please accompany me to my office? There is someone there who would like to talk to you."
Oliver suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He didn't want to leave Hogwarts, but he knew that by the end of the night his trunk would probably be packed and he would probably be saying farewell after breakfast tomorrow. He followed Dumbledore down several corridors, past the gargoyle and up the spiral staircase. There, waiting for him, were Angelina Johnson and a very frail Madam Hooch.
"Hello Oliver, it's good to see you again," said Madam Hooch. "I understand that you've been filling in for me while I was missing in action." Oliver nodded. "Professor Dumbledore said that I was welcome to have my position back whenever I felt ready to return, and I have put a lot of thought into my decision. At first I thought that I would wait until next year to return, but I have decided that that is not what I want to do," she said. Oliver's heart sank.
"Instead," she continued, "I have decided that I will not be returning at all."
It took a few minutes for the words to sink into Oliver's head. "Wh-what? You're not coming back?" he managed to ask with disbelief.
"No, I have decided to take an early retirement from anything and everything related to quidditch. Being stuck in the Sahara desert is not something that I wish to experience more than once in my lifetime. In fact, it was not something I wanted to go through the first time around. Perhaps I'll take up gardening or something."
"Then I don't need to find another job?"
Angelina, Professor Dumbledore, and Madam Hooch all laughed.
"No Oliver, you are welcome to stay," said Dumbledore with an amused smile.
"Well, that should do it," said Angelina as she and Madam Hooch stood up to leave.
"Oh, here's something for you, Oliver." She handed him a small white envelope addressed to him in very fancy script. "Fred and I wanted to give this to you in person rather than sending it by owl post." She was beaming. "It was nice seeing you again," she said. She threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and helped Madam Hooch step inside.
"Thanks, you too," said Oliver and tucked the envelope into his chest pocket.
He walked quickly back to his office. He couldn't wait to find out what was in the envelope. On the way past Adrianna's office he ran right into Juan Castillo, nearly knocking the poor first-year over. The boy was probably going to get homework help or English lessons or something. Oliver quickly apologized to Juan, then hurried into his office and shut the door behind him. He carefully broke the seal on the envelope, opened it, and pulled out a small card. On the front were silver bells and fluttering lavender ribbons. Inside in silver script was written:
You are invited to attend the wedding of Frederick Weasley and Angelina Johnson on Saturday, the nineteenth day of April at two o'clock pm at the home of Edward and Danielle Johnson.
"Wow, I can't believe they're getting married already," thought Oliver. "They just got engaged not too long ago." He looked at the invitation again. "And I never knew that Fred's full name was Frederick."
Later that week, several posters appeared around the castle announcing that a dueling club would have its first meeting that Saturday after lunch. The students were really excited about it. Oliver heard them talking about it every time he walked down the corridors. He was a little disappointed that Fleur hadn't asked him to help her, but maybe she was still too mad at him to ask. He needn't have worried. The next day, Friday, Fleur came to see him in his office.
"Oliver, I was wondering if you would like to help me with somezing," she said.
"Hmm, let me guess. You're starting a dueling club and you want me to help you out tomorrow?"
"Yes, you can read ze posters. I am impressed." "What exactly were you planning to do with the students?"
"Well, for ze first class I just want to teach zem to disarm each ozzer. Zen eventually we will move on to 'exes and counter curses. And near ze end, if Dumbledore will permit it, I would like to teach zem to fight ze imperious curse."
"You sound really ambitious. I think that the disarming spell is good for the first class. I think that the hardest thing to do will be to make sure that the students are only disarming each other and not hexing each other like when Lockhart ran the dueling club."
"I will 'ave Adrianna, Severus, Minerva and Filius patrolling ze students to make sure zat does not 'appen. You will be my on-stage opponent."
"It seems like you've got everything figured out then."
"I want my dueling club to be successful. Zank you for 'elping me, Oliver."
"Wait a minute, I never said I was helping you." Fleur looked hurt.
"Only joking, I would love to help you."
Her frown turned into a grin. She gave him a quick hug and ran out of his office. The dueling club the next day wasn't nearly as exciting as Oliver had hoped. He just stood on stage while Fleur disarmed him a few times. The only interesting thing that happened was that one time when Fleur tried to disarm him, he yelled "Expelliarmus" at the same time as she did. Both of their wands flew into the air and clattered to the ground near the middle of the stage, and both he and Fleur were knocked backwards several feet. Fleur managed to stay on her feet but Oliver fell on his butt in front of the students. Everyone laughed at the scene, including the other teachers that were present.
The students practiced disarming each other for the majority of the hour that the club was meeting that day. However, with about 10 minutes left, the class suddenly got very interesting when Fleur announced that the students would now have a chance to see a real duel.
"Ready Mr. Wood?" she asked from the opposite end of the stage.
Oliver nodded. They walked briskly to the center of the stage, bowed to each other, and took 5 steps in opposite directions. Oliver raised one hand above his head in a fist and held his wand out in front of him with the other.
"Rictusempra!" he shouted at almost the same time as Fleur yelled "densaugeo!" Their spells hit each other at the same time. Fleur fell to the floor in fits of hysterical laughter gasping for air, while Oliver's upper front teeth suddenly grew very long and protruded from his mouth.
He wasted no time in using his next spell. He tried to yell "locomotor mortis", and though it sounded funny because of his teeth, it still worked. Fleur legs were now locked together, so even if she weren't convulsing with laughter she wouldn't be able to get back up very easily. She caught her breath for a second, which was just long enough to shout "tarantallegra!" Oliver's legs began to jerk around uncontrollably in a sort of dance. Oliver held his wand arm steady with his left hand for his next spell.
"Furnunculus!" he shouted, though he could hardly be understood with his massive front teeth. Fleur's body was now covered with boils. Oliver was definitely winning now. Fleur was in a lot of pain, but couldn't stop laughing from the tickling charm. She couldn't utter another word between the laughter and the pain. Professor McGonagall stepped in at this point.
"Finite incantatum!" she yelled loudly, and suddenly both Fleur and Oliver were back to normal. Fleur got to her feet and turned to the students.
"Well, there you 'ave it. I 'ope to see you all next week."
A couple of weeks passed, and then it was the start of the quidditch season. Oliver found that most of his time was now occupied with overseeing quidditch practices. The quidditch coach hadn't had to oversee practices when Oliver was a student, except in his seventh year when everyone thought that Sirius Black was after Harry. However, after Oliver graduated one of the students had been seriously injured in quidditch practice. The parents were furious that there were no adults supervising practices for such a dangerous sport as quidditch, so now the coach had to be at all practices.
It was a grueling schedule. Sofie had the Ravenclaw team up at dawn to practice every other day. She was determined to win the House Cup for Ravenclaw this year no matter what. She was so much like Oliver used to be that it scared him a little bit. Malcolm, however, preferred night practices for the Slytherin team starting at 7pm and ending at 10:30 so that the team could be back inside the castle by curfew at 11:00. Lauren didn't seem to have a set schedule. She just called practices at random times, stopping at Oliver's office to get him on the way out to the pitch. Natalie seemed to prefer to alternate times, sometimes having early morning practices, sometime mid-afternoon practices and sometimes night practices. Unlike Lauren, there was some method to Natalie's madness. Oliver thought it was interesting to see the different tactics that each team was using. Once in a while Adrianna came with him to keep him company, and it was nice to have someone to talk to.
Oliver had a bit of a surprise at one of the Gryffindor practices. As the team came out of the locker room for practice, a tall, sandy-haired boy climbed the stairs into the stands and sat down not too far from Oliver. He had a camera around his neck. Oliver walked up to the boy.
"What do you think you're doing? You can't take pictures here. These are secret maneuvers devised by each individual team."
"Hiya Oliver!" said the boy in a very enthusiastic voice. "I take pictures for Gryffindor every season, and then I make a scrapbook and give it to the team every year. If you don't believe me, ask Natalie."
The boy looked up, and Oliver recognized him at once.
"Colin Creevey! How are you?"
"I'm great!"
"What have you been up to lately?"
"I've been putting together a portfolio. I want to get a job taking photos for some sort of publication, probably either the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly."
The players on the field mounted their brooms.
"Oh, practice is starting! I'll talk to you later, Oliver!" Soon Colin's camera was clicking away, and he was running all over the stadium taking pictures.
"Canary Cremes," he said clearly and the stone gargoyle came to life and jumped aside to let Oliver through. Dumbledore was obviously a fan of Fred and George's new candies. Oliver stepped onto the first step of the spiral staircase, and it revolved until he reached the top. When he reached the top, he saw Angelina Johnson sitting across from Dumbledore at his desk.
"Hello Oliver," said Dumbledore. "I'm sure you are curious as to why I asked you to see you. Please have a seat."
Oliver sat in the chair next to Angelina.
"Oliver, do you know where Angelina works?" asked Dumbledore. Oliver thought for a moment, and then it dawned on him. "Yeah, she works for the Ministry of Magic. She's working on Madam Hooch's case."
"That's right. She has some news which may have a big impact on your future, and I wanted you to be able to hear it first hand." Oliver looked at Angelina.
"Oliver, we've found Madam Hooch. She was in the Sahara desert. We think that someone in the crowd turned her broomstick into a portkey while she was refereeing because they didn't agree with how she called a play," Angelina explained.
"Is she alright?" Oliver asked.
"She's not in very good shape right now, but luckily she had her wand with her so she survived. We expect her to recover thought, so she will be alright eventually."
"I guess I should start looking for another job then?" Oliver asked Dumbledore.
"That is not a bad idea, however, it is too soon to know anything for sure," Dumbledore replied. "It is ultimately up to Madam Hooch, and she is in no condition to decide anything right now."
The next day, Oliver started looking through the classified ads in the Daily Prophet for another job. Nothing appealed to him. Of course he could still play quidditch for Scotland, but he wouldn't be able to do that forever. The truth was that he really enjoyed teaching at Hogwarts. In just a few short weeks, he had grown rather attached to the students and had nearly forgotten that he was just a temporary replacement. And then there were the friends that he had made. Even though Fleur was still not as open with him as she had been, she was starting to warm up to him again. She was still an awesome friend. Adrianna was amazing as well. He had never met anyone else who seemed to understand him so completely. Oliver knew that it was going to be very hard for him to go when the time came.
He also realized that he should probably start packing up some of his belongings, whatever he wouldn't need for everyday use. Once Madam Hooch was ready to come back, he wouldn't have much time to get his things together. Oliver waited anxiously for nearly two weeks for some word from Dumbledore, yet at the same time dreaded what Dumbledore would have to say to him. Finally in the first week of October, Dumbledore came up Oliver after dinner.
"Oliver, would you please accompany me to my office? There is someone there who would like to talk to you."
Oliver suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He didn't want to leave Hogwarts, but he knew that by the end of the night his trunk would probably be packed and he would probably be saying farewell after breakfast tomorrow. He followed Dumbledore down several corridors, past the gargoyle and up the spiral staircase. There, waiting for him, were Angelina Johnson and a very frail Madam Hooch.
"Hello Oliver, it's good to see you again," said Madam Hooch. "I understand that you've been filling in for me while I was missing in action." Oliver nodded. "Professor Dumbledore said that I was welcome to have my position back whenever I felt ready to return, and I have put a lot of thought into my decision. At first I thought that I would wait until next year to return, but I have decided that that is not what I want to do," she said. Oliver's heart sank.
"Instead," she continued, "I have decided that I will not be returning at all."
It took a few minutes for the words to sink into Oliver's head. "Wh-what? You're not coming back?" he managed to ask with disbelief.
"No, I have decided to take an early retirement from anything and everything related to quidditch. Being stuck in the Sahara desert is not something that I wish to experience more than once in my lifetime. In fact, it was not something I wanted to go through the first time around. Perhaps I'll take up gardening or something."
"Then I don't need to find another job?"
Angelina, Professor Dumbledore, and Madam Hooch all laughed.
"No Oliver, you are welcome to stay," said Dumbledore with an amused smile.
"Well, that should do it," said Angelina as she and Madam Hooch stood up to leave.
"Oh, here's something for you, Oliver." She handed him a small white envelope addressed to him in very fancy script. "Fred and I wanted to give this to you in person rather than sending it by owl post." She was beaming. "It was nice seeing you again," she said. She threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and helped Madam Hooch step inside.
"Thanks, you too," said Oliver and tucked the envelope into his chest pocket.
He walked quickly back to his office. He couldn't wait to find out what was in the envelope. On the way past Adrianna's office he ran right into Juan Castillo, nearly knocking the poor first-year over. The boy was probably going to get homework help or English lessons or something. Oliver quickly apologized to Juan, then hurried into his office and shut the door behind him. He carefully broke the seal on the envelope, opened it, and pulled out a small card. On the front were silver bells and fluttering lavender ribbons. Inside in silver script was written:
You are invited to attend the wedding of Frederick Weasley and Angelina Johnson on Saturday, the nineteenth day of April at two o'clock pm at the home of Edward and Danielle Johnson.
"Wow, I can't believe they're getting married already," thought Oliver. "They just got engaged not too long ago." He looked at the invitation again. "And I never knew that Fred's full name was Frederick."
Later that week, several posters appeared around the castle announcing that a dueling club would have its first meeting that Saturday after lunch. The students were really excited about it. Oliver heard them talking about it every time he walked down the corridors. He was a little disappointed that Fleur hadn't asked him to help her, but maybe she was still too mad at him to ask. He needn't have worried. The next day, Friday, Fleur came to see him in his office.
"Oliver, I was wondering if you would like to help me with somezing," she said.
"Hmm, let me guess. You're starting a dueling club and you want me to help you out tomorrow?"
"Yes, you can read ze posters. I am impressed." "What exactly were you planning to do with the students?"
"Well, for ze first class I just want to teach zem to disarm each ozzer. Zen eventually we will move on to 'exes and counter curses. And near ze end, if Dumbledore will permit it, I would like to teach zem to fight ze imperious curse."
"You sound really ambitious. I think that the disarming spell is good for the first class. I think that the hardest thing to do will be to make sure that the students are only disarming each other and not hexing each other like when Lockhart ran the dueling club."
"I will 'ave Adrianna, Severus, Minerva and Filius patrolling ze students to make sure zat does not 'appen. You will be my on-stage opponent."
"It seems like you've got everything figured out then."
"I want my dueling club to be successful. Zank you for 'elping me, Oliver."
"Wait a minute, I never said I was helping you." Fleur looked hurt.
"Only joking, I would love to help you."
Her frown turned into a grin. She gave him a quick hug and ran out of his office. The dueling club the next day wasn't nearly as exciting as Oliver had hoped. He just stood on stage while Fleur disarmed him a few times. The only interesting thing that happened was that one time when Fleur tried to disarm him, he yelled "Expelliarmus" at the same time as she did. Both of their wands flew into the air and clattered to the ground near the middle of the stage, and both he and Fleur were knocked backwards several feet. Fleur managed to stay on her feet but Oliver fell on his butt in front of the students. Everyone laughed at the scene, including the other teachers that were present.
The students practiced disarming each other for the majority of the hour that the club was meeting that day. However, with about 10 minutes left, the class suddenly got very interesting when Fleur announced that the students would now have a chance to see a real duel.
"Ready Mr. Wood?" she asked from the opposite end of the stage.
Oliver nodded. They walked briskly to the center of the stage, bowed to each other, and took 5 steps in opposite directions. Oliver raised one hand above his head in a fist and held his wand out in front of him with the other.
"Rictusempra!" he shouted at almost the same time as Fleur yelled "densaugeo!" Their spells hit each other at the same time. Fleur fell to the floor in fits of hysterical laughter gasping for air, while Oliver's upper front teeth suddenly grew very long and protruded from his mouth.
He wasted no time in using his next spell. He tried to yell "locomotor mortis", and though it sounded funny because of his teeth, it still worked. Fleur legs were now locked together, so even if she weren't convulsing with laughter she wouldn't be able to get back up very easily. She caught her breath for a second, which was just long enough to shout "tarantallegra!" Oliver's legs began to jerk around uncontrollably in a sort of dance. Oliver held his wand arm steady with his left hand for his next spell.
"Furnunculus!" he shouted, though he could hardly be understood with his massive front teeth. Fleur's body was now covered with boils. Oliver was definitely winning now. Fleur was in a lot of pain, but couldn't stop laughing from the tickling charm. She couldn't utter another word between the laughter and the pain. Professor McGonagall stepped in at this point.
"Finite incantatum!" she yelled loudly, and suddenly both Fleur and Oliver were back to normal. Fleur got to her feet and turned to the students.
"Well, there you 'ave it. I 'ope to see you all next week."
A couple of weeks passed, and then it was the start of the quidditch season. Oliver found that most of his time was now occupied with overseeing quidditch practices. The quidditch coach hadn't had to oversee practices when Oliver was a student, except in his seventh year when everyone thought that Sirius Black was after Harry. However, after Oliver graduated one of the students had been seriously injured in quidditch practice. The parents were furious that there were no adults supervising practices for such a dangerous sport as quidditch, so now the coach had to be at all practices.
It was a grueling schedule. Sofie had the Ravenclaw team up at dawn to practice every other day. She was determined to win the House Cup for Ravenclaw this year no matter what. She was so much like Oliver used to be that it scared him a little bit. Malcolm, however, preferred night practices for the Slytherin team starting at 7pm and ending at 10:30 so that the team could be back inside the castle by curfew at 11:00. Lauren didn't seem to have a set schedule. She just called practices at random times, stopping at Oliver's office to get him on the way out to the pitch. Natalie seemed to prefer to alternate times, sometimes having early morning practices, sometime mid-afternoon practices and sometimes night practices. Unlike Lauren, there was some method to Natalie's madness. Oliver thought it was interesting to see the different tactics that each team was using. Once in a while Adrianna came with him to keep him company, and it was nice to have someone to talk to.
Oliver had a bit of a surprise at one of the Gryffindor practices. As the team came out of the locker room for practice, a tall, sandy-haired boy climbed the stairs into the stands and sat down not too far from Oliver. He had a camera around his neck. Oliver walked up to the boy.
"What do you think you're doing? You can't take pictures here. These are secret maneuvers devised by each individual team."
"Hiya Oliver!" said the boy in a very enthusiastic voice. "I take pictures for Gryffindor every season, and then I make a scrapbook and give it to the team every year. If you don't believe me, ask Natalie."
The boy looked up, and Oliver recognized him at once.
"Colin Creevey! How are you?"
"I'm great!"
"What have you been up to lately?"
"I've been putting together a portfolio. I want to get a job taking photos for some sort of publication, probably either the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly."
The players on the field mounted their brooms.
"Oh, practice is starting! I'll talk to you later, Oliver!" Soon Colin's camera was clicking away, and he was running all over the stadium taking pictures.