The next day, there was another dueling club meeting. It was really going
well so far. Fleur had taught the students several hexes, as well as the
Shield Charm to block unfriendly spells. Today the students were going to
have a real treat. Fleur felt that the students should have training in
fighting the imperius curse, and Dumbledore agreed with her. Oliver had
agreed to allow Fleur to cast the imperius curse on him as a demonstration
to the students. With about a half hour left, Fleur got the students to
stop dueling and addressed them.
"Th0ere are 3 curses zat you may one day face. Ze penalty of using these curses on a person is a sentence in Azkaban. Zey are ze imperius curse, ze cruciatus curse and ze killing curse. I cannot demonstrate ze cruciatus curse or ze killing curse on a person for obvious reasons, but I can show you zeir effects using these spiders. Please gather around."
The students gathered close around her. She sat a large spider on the stage and tapped it with her wand.
"Crucio."
The spider jerked violently, as if it were in unimaginable pain. She ended the curse and the spider began crawling around again. She took out a different spider and tapped it.
"Avada kedavra."
The spider was suddenly very still. In fact, it was dead.
"Now for ze imperius curse, I will demonstrate using my assistant, Mr. Wood."
Oliver walked over to where Fleur was standing, suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Ready?" she whispered.
Oliver nodded.
"Imperio!"
Oliver's mind was blissfully blank. He didn't have a care in the world. He heard Fleur saying something, but she sounded far away. Then he heard her saying something directly to him.
"Take off your shoes."
He had no objections. He took off his shoes without bothering to question why he was doing it.
"Jump off of ze stage."
He blindly obeyed her command and leapt from the stage into the crowd of students.
"Shake 'ands with Severus Snape and tell 'im your name."
Some of the students laughed, but Oliver did this too without wondering why he was doing it. He was unaware that anything else was happening. All he had to do was do whatever the voice told him to do.
"Come back up on stage."
Oliver did this, and then Fleur lifted the curse. Then she broke the students into smaller groups with herself, Oliver, Adrianna, McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick. Each professor cast the spell on students so that they could practice trying to fight it. Most of the students were unsuccessful in fighting it, just as Oliver had been. But then again, it was a very difficult curse to fight. Finally, the dueling club ended. Fleur handed a brick of chocolate to Adrianna and to Oliver.
"Stand at ze door and 'and zis out to ze students," she instructed.
Each student got a large piece of chocolate as they left. It was an antidote so that the students felt less exhausted after trying to fight the imperius curse. Oliver also took a large chunk of chocolate, since he too had tried to fight the curse. Besides, he needed his energy for the party that would be starting in just a few minutes.
While he was handing out the chocolate, Oliver noticed Fleur sneaking out of the Great Hall with the students so that she could go upstairs for the party. After all of the students left the hall, Oliver walked over to Adrianna.
"Adrianna, I found something upstairs earlier that I wanted to show you."
"What is it?"
"I can't really describe it to you, it's just something that you have to see."
Adrianna gave Oliver a suspicious look, but curiosity got the better of her and she left the hall with him.
"Smooth one," Oliver thought sarcastically.
"You did a great job fighting that curse," Adrianna teased.
"I couldn't help it. I was never under the imperius curse before. It felt like a dream, and all I had to do was listen to the voice."
"I know what it feels like. You have to question what you're doing, and then you have to try to disobey the person controlling you."
They arrived at the History of Magic classroom. Oliver slowed his steps and put his hand on Adrianna's arm to stop her.
"In here," he said.
He stood back and waited for Adrianna to open the door, but she wouldn't.
"You open it. There is something going on, I can tell. You're acting very... weird."
"I couldn't possibly. Ladies first."
"I'm not opening that door. It's a trick."
"I swear there's no trick, just open the door!"
She rolled her eyes and walked up to the door, then pushed it open cautiously. She took a few steps into the room. Oliver entered behind her and stood right beside her.
"SURPRISE!" Adrianna shrieked and grabbed Oliver's arm tightly as her friends emerged from various hiding places around the room.
"What's going on? It's not my birthday," she said, releasing his arm from her grip.
"I know that. I knew that you were upset after what happened earlier this week, so I threw this party and asked your friends to come to try to cheer you up."
Adrianna smiled at him "Thank you," she said softly.
She turned to all of the people who were looking at them. "I can't believe you guys are all here! I haven't seen some of you in forever and a day! I guess some of you might not know each other. This is Oliver, as you might have guessed."
She went around the room and motioned to each person as she said their name. "Fleur, Nikki, Sonia, Flynnie, Kilch, Brenda, Daphne, Steph."
Oliver couldn't help noticing that he was the only guy in the room. Flynnie and Kilch had turned out to be witches, and very beautiful witches at that. In fact, all of the witches in the room were very beautiful.
But the lack of wizards made him feel a little uncomfortable. He wondered why there weren't any other wizards there. Adrianna had been pretty good friends with at least one wizard since his name was in her address book, but she had crossed his name out... there had to be a reason.
Oliver looked at the table full of snack foods which the house-elves had been kind enough to make. There were chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin juice, pitchers of water, little cream-filled pastries, and a tray of assorted fruits and vegetables. Dumbledore had been kind enough to bring Adrianna's CD player downstairs, figuring that she would like to have music at her party. Adrianna put in a CD of mixed muggle hits and began to talk to her friends.
Oliver poured himself a cup of pumpkin juice and sat in a chair. He saw Flynnie walk over to the table and place a bottle of a dark liquid there. It was the same thing that the students had been drinking in the Muggle Studies classroom the day that he's asked Rob Jordan to announce the quidditch game.
"Excuse me," Oliver said to Flynnie, "What is that?"
"Soda. Coke to be exact."
"What's it taste like?"
"I dunno. It has its own taste. Try some."
Oliver poured a little bit of Coke into a cup and tasted it.
"It's different, but good."
Flynnie poured herself part of a glass of water, then took out her wand. "It's even better if you do this. Eye of rabbit, heartstring hum, turn this water into rum!"
The water turned into rum, and she filled the glass the rest of the way with Coke.
"Try a sip," she said, handing it to Oliver.
He took a long sip. "This is really good," he said, handing the glass back. "So Flynnie, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm the nurse for the Salem Witches' Institute."
"How do you know Adrianna?"
"We went to school together. The Salem Witches' Institute, actually. Don't let the name fool you, it's not an all-girls school. It was founded by the real Salem witches. You've heard of the Salem witch trials, right?"
Oliver nodded.
"Well, they only caught one real witch. Her name was Tituba. It was her own fault really, performing magic right in front of muggles like she did. But she confessed, and made up a story about muggles helping her, so then the trials turned to muggles. Well, the real witches of Salem thought it would be funny to start a school right there where so many innocent muggles were accused of being witches. The school is in a wooded area near Salem. It's unplotable and has tons of muggle-repelling charms on it."
"Did all of these people go to the same school as you?"
"Yeah."
Then Adrianna came over to then. She saw Flynnie's glass of rum and coke.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is, Flynnie."
"I would... but then I'd be lying!" Flynnie replied with a laugh.
Adrianna laughed too, and then left to get a glass of pumpkin juice.
"Well, it was nice meeting you Flynnie," said Oliver.
"I think I'm going to talk to some other people now."
Oliver talked Sonia for a little while. He remembered her from the quidditch game they had played against each other, and she remembered him as well. They talked about quidditch since it was something that they had in common.
"I was really sad when Adrianna told me that she's not playing quidditch anymore," said Sonia. "I'm losing one of my best players. But her contract's up, and I can't make her stay if it's not what she wants to do."
"I can understand why she would want to quit," said Oliver. "I am so busy here. I can't even imagine how tired I am going to be when I have practice on top of classes and things. Her schedule is even crazier than mine. I don't know how she would find the time for quidditch. I have another year left on my contract, so I don't have a choice right now. I don't know if I would actually quit even if I could, though. I love the game too much."
"Yeah I definitely agree with you about loving the game. I think I'm going to get something to eat now, but it was nice seeing you again Oliver!"
As Sonia left, Kilch approached Oliver. "Hey Oliver, it's good to see you again! Remember me?"
Oliver really didn't recognize her from anywhere.
"Sorry, no. How do we know each other?"
"Well, we were never actually introduced until tonight. I'm the seeker for the American quidditch team."
Oliver looked at her for a moment. She had just the right build for a seeker. Now that he thought about it, he did kind of recognize her. "What's your full name?"
"Amy Kilchenstein."
"You were hit with a bludger in the game that I played against you. Adrianna was the one who caught the Snitch in that game," Oliver recalled.
"Yep, that would be me."
Adrianna cut into their conversation. "Come on peeps, let's dance!"
She grabbed them both by one of their wrists and pulled them toward the middle of the room, where Sonia and Fleur were already dancing. She left the group and came back a minute later with Nikki in tow. She left yet again and tried to get Flynnie to dance.
"It's going to take a few more rum and cokes before I'll be ready to dance," Oliver heard Flynnie saying.
Next Adrianna tried to get Daphne and Brenda to come to the dance floor, but both adamantly refused. Adrianna finally gave up on them and came back to the group that was dancing. Oliver stood in the group, but felt really awkward. He didn't know how to dance. He agreed with Flynnie. It would take several rum and cokes before he would be able to dance without feeling self- conscious.
He left the group and asked Flynnie about the incantation for turning water into rum. Three or four glasses later, both Oliver and Flynnie decided to hit the dance floor. Flynnie jumped right in and started dancing with the rest of the girls. Oliver stayed on the outer edge of the group and watched the girls dance. Adrianna was a really good dancer. She seemed to be having a blast. Oliver was really glad that he'd throw this party for her. Adrianna spotted him standing outside of the group stepped out of the group to talk to him.
"Why did you leave earlier?"
"I needed something to drink. Besides, I can't dance."
"Sure you can. Would you like me to teach you?"
Had he not been under the influence he probably would have said no, but given his current condition, "Alright."
She placed one of his hands on her hip and put one of her hands on his shoulder. She kept a comfortable distance between them and started to dance. He moved with her and followed what she did.
"This isn't so hard after all," he thought. "It's actually kind of fun." He pulled her just a little closer, and she didn't protest. They danced like that for a couple of songs before Sonia tapped Adrianna on the shoulder.
"May I cut in?"
"Absolutely," said Adrianna and backed away from Oliver.
Sonia began to dance with him. He was a little disappointed that Adrianna had let her cut in, but she was a good dancer so he didn't mind that much.
Oliver noticed Adrianna leave the group to say something to Daphne and Brenda. The looked like they were saying goodbye. She handed each of them their portkey and they left. One by one, the other guests said goodbye to Adrianna and left with their portkeys. Finally just Oliver, Adrianna and Fleur were left.
"Well, I think I will be off to bed. Goodnight," said Fleur and left.
"Did you have fun tonight?" Oliver asked Adrianna.
"Yes, it was wonderful! Thank you so much," she said and gave him a big hug. They walked upstairs together and stopped in front of the door to Adrianna's office.
"Good night," he said softly.
"Thanks again. Sweet dreams," she said and slipped into her office, closing the door behind her.
The next day was the first quidditch practice of the season with the Scottish team. Oliver woke up with a headache and had to force himself to get out of bed and get dressed in his quidditch robes. He grabbed his broomstick and was ready to set off for Hogsmeade so that he could apparate to the quidditch pitch, but before he left he decided that he needed something for his headache. He went to the hospital wing and asked Madam Pomfrey for a potion. She gave him a disapproving look.
"Were you drinking last night, young man?"
"A little. Please Poppy, just help me out. I have quidditch practice and I can't play feeling like this."
She shook her head and still looked disapproving, but took a large bottle from a shelf in her office and poured a thick blue liquid into a glass. Oliver gulped it down but wanted to spit it back out. It tasted awful. Madam Pomfrey laughed at him.
"You have to pay for your mistake one way or another. If it's not a headache, it's a bad-tasting potion," she said with a wink.
Oliver left the castle and walked briskly toward Hogsmeade. As soon as he was off of Hogwarts grounds, he apparated to the quidditch pitch. All of his teammates from last season were back, and he received some good- natured teasing from them about not being at practice yesterday. He heard various comments such as "good of you to show up today" and "it's nice to have the WHOLE team here for practice". He laughed them off and concentrated on doing his best in practice.
That evening after practice, Oliver took a hot bath in his jacuzzi tub to sooth his aching muscles. He had done some stuff in the off-season to stay in shape, but he had forgotten how rigorous Leslie's practices could be.
"Th0ere are 3 curses zat you may one day face. Ze penalty of using these curses on a person is a sentence in Azkaban. Zey are ze imperius curse, ze cruciatus curse and ze killing curse. I cannot demonstrate ze cruciatus curse or ze killing curse on a person for obvious reasons, but I can show you zeir effects using these spiders. Please gather around."
The students gathered close around her. She sat a large spider on the stage and tapped it with her wand.
"Crucio."
The spider jerked violently, as if it were in unimaginable pain. She ended the curse and the spider began crawling around again. She took out a different spider and tapped it.
"Avada kedavra."
The spider was suddenly very still. In fact, it was dead.
"Now for ze imperius curse, I will demonstrate using my assistant, Mr. Wood."
Oliver walked over to where Fleur was standing, suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Ready?" she whispered.
Oliver nodded.
"Imperio!"
Oliver's mind was blissfully blank. He didn't have a care in the world. He heard Fleur saying something, but she sounded far away. Then he heard her saying something directly to him.
"Take off your shoes."
He had no objections. He took off his shoes without bothering to question why he was doing it.
"Jump off of ze stage."
He blindly obeyed her command and leapt from the stage into the crowd of students.
"Shake 'ands with Severus Snape and tell 'im your name."
Some of the students laughed, but Oliver did this too without wondering why he was doing it. He was unaware that anything else was happening. All he had to do was do whatever the voice told him to do.
"Come back up on stage."
Oliver did this, and then Fleur lifted the curse. Then she broke the students into smaller groups with herself, Oliver, Adrianna, McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick. Each professor cast the spell on students so that they could practice trying to fight it. Most of the students were unsuccessful in fighting it, just as Oliver had been. But then again, it was a very difficult curse to fight. Finally, the dueling club ended. Fleur handed a brick of chocolate to Adrianna and to Oliver.
"Stand at ze door and 'and zis out to ze students," she instructed.
Each student got a large piece of chocolate as they left. It was an antidote so that the students felt less exhausted after trying to fight the imperius curse. Oliver also took a large chunk of chocolate, since he too had tried to fight the curse. Besides, he needed his energy for the party that would be starting in just a few minutes.
While he was handing out the chocolate, Oliver noticed Fleur sneaking out of the Great Hall with the students so that she could go upstairs for the party. After all of the students left the hall, Oliver walked over to Adrianna.
"Adrianna, I found something upstairs earlier that I wanted to show you."
"What is it?"
"I can't really describe it to you, it's just something that you have to see."
Adrianna gave Oliver a suspicious look, but curiosity got the better of her and she left the hall with him.
"Smooth one," Oliver thought sarcastically.
"You did a great job fighting that curse," Adrianna teased.
"I couldn't help it. I was never under the imperius curse before. It felt like a dream, and all I had to do was listen to the voice."
"I know what it feels like. You have to question what you're doing, and then you have to try to disobey the person controlling you."
They arrived at the History of Magic classroom. Oliver slowed his steps and put his hand on Adrianna's arm to stop her.
"In here," he said.
He stood back and waited for Adrianna to open the door, but she wouldn't.
"You open it. There is something going on, I can tell. You're acting very... weird."
"I couldn't possibly. Ladies first."
"I'm not opening that door. It's a trick."
"I swear there's no trick, just open the door!"
She rolled her eyes and walked up to the door, then pushed it open cautiously. She took a few steps into the room. Oliver entered behind her and stood right beside her.
"SURPRISE!" Adrianna shrieked and grabbed Oliver's arm tightly as her friends emerged from various hiding places around the room.
"What's going on? It's not my birthday," she said, releasing his arm from her grip.
"I know that. I knew that you were upset after what happened earlier this week, so I threw this party and asked your friends to come to try to cheer you up."
Adrianna smiled at him "Thank you," she said softly.
She turned to all of the people who were looking at them. "I can't believe you guys are all here! I haven't seen some of you in forever and a day! I guess some of you might not know each other. This is Oliver, as you might have guessed."
She went around the room and motioned to each person as she said their name. "Fleur, Nikki, Sonia, Flynnie, Kilch, Brenda, Daphne, Steph."
Oliver couldn't help noticing that he was the only guy in the room. Flynnie and Kilch had turned out to be witches, and very beautiful witches at that. In fact, all of the witches in the room were very beautiful.
But the lack of wizards made him feel a little uncomfortable. He wondered why there weren't any other wizards there. Adrianna had been pretty good friends with at least one wizard since his name was in her address book, but she had crossed his name out... there had to be a reason.
Oliver looked at the table full of snack foods which the house-elves had been kind enough to make. There were chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin juice, pitchers of water, little cream-filled pastries, and a tray of assorted fruits and vegetables. Dumbledore had been kind enough to bring Adrianna's CD player downstairs, figuring that she would like to have music at her party. Adrianna put in a CD of mixed muggle hits and began to talk to her friends.
Oliver poured himself a cup of pumpkin juice and sat in a chair. He saw Flynnie walk over to the table and place a bottle of a dark liquid there. It was the same thing that the students had been drinking in the Muggle Studies classroom the day that he's asked Rob Jordan to announce the quidditch game.
"Excuse me," Oliver said to Flynnie, "What is that?"
"Soda. Coke to be exact."
"What's it taste like?"
"I dunno. It has its own taste. Try some."
Oliver poured a little bit of Coke into a cup and tasted it.
"It's different, but good."
Flynnie poured herself part of a glass of water, then took out her wand. "It's even better if you do this. Eye of rabbit, heartstring hum, turn this water into rum!"
The water turned into rum, and she filled the glass the rest of the way with Coke.
"Try a sip," she said, handing it to Oliver.
He took a long sip. "This is really good," he said, handing the glass back. "So Flynnie, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm the nurse for the Salem Witches' Institute."
"How do you know Adrianna?"
"We went to school together. The Salem Witches' Institute, actually. Don't let the name fool you, it's not an all-girls school. It was founded by the real Salem witches. You've heard of the Salem witch trials, right?"
Oliver nodded.
"Well, they only caught one real witch. Her name was Tituba. It was her own fault really, performing magic right in front of muggles like she did. But she confessed, and made up a story about muggles helping her, so then the trials turned to muggles. Well, the real witches of Salem thought it would be funny to start a school right there where so many innocent muggles were accused of being witches. The school is in a wooded area near Salem. It's unplotable and has tons of muggle-repelling charms on it."
"Did all of these people go to the same school as you?"
"Yeah."
Then Adrianna came over to then. She saw Flynnie's glass of rum and coke.
"Tell me that's not what I think it is, Flynnie."
"I would... but then I'd be lying!" Flynnie replied with a laugh.
Adrianna laughed too, and then left to get a glass of pumpkin juice.
"Well, it was nice meeting you Flynnie," said Oliver.
"I think I'm going to talk to some other people now."
Oliver talked Sonia for a little while. He remembered her from the quidditch game they had played against each other, and she remembered him as well. They talked about quidditch since it was something that they had in common.
"I was really sad when Adrianna told me that she's not playing quidditch anymore," said Sonia. "I'm losing one of my best players. But her contract's up, and I can't make her stay if it's not what she wants to do."
"I can understand why she would want to quit," said Oliver. "I am so busy here. I can't even imagine how tired I am going to be when I have practice on top of classes and things. Her schedule is even crazier than mine. I don't know how she would find the time for quidditch. I have another year left on my contract, so I don't have a choice right now. I don't know if I would actually quit even if I could, though. I love the game too much."
"Yeah I definitely agree with you about loving the game. I think I'm going to get something to eat now, but it was nice seeing you again Oliver!"
As Sonia left, Kilch approached Oliver. "Hey Oliver, it's good to see you again! Remember me?"
Oliver really didn't recognize her from anywhere.
"Sorry, no. How do we know each other?"
"Well, we were never actually introduced until tonight. I'm the seeker for the American quidditch team."
Oliver looked at her for a moment. She had just the right build for a seeker. Now that he thought about it, he did kind of recognize her. "What's your full name?"
"Amy Kilchenstein."
"You were hit with a bludger in the game that I played against you. Adrianna was the one who caught the Snitch in that game," Oliver recalled.
"Yep, that would be me."
Adrianna cut into their conversation. "Come on peeps, let's dance!"
She grabbed them both by one of their wrists and pulled them toward the middle of the room, where Sonia and Fleur were already dancing. She left the group and came back a minute later with Nikki in tow. She left yet again and tried to get Flynnie to dance.
"It's going to take a few more rum and cokes before I'll be ready to dance," Oliver heard Flynnie saying.
Next Adrianna tried to get Daphne and Brenda to come to the dance floor, but both adamantly refused. Adrianna finally gave up on them and came back to the group that was dancing. Oliver stood in the group, but felt really awkward. He didn't know how to dance. He agreed with Flynnie. It would take several rum and cokes before he would be able to dance without feeling self- conscious.
He left the group and asked Flynnie about the incantation for turning water into rum. Three or four glasses later, both Oliver and Flynnie decided to hit the dance floor. Flynnie jumped right in and started dancing with the rest of the girls. Oliver stayed on the outer edge of the group and watched the girls dance. Adrianna was a really good dancer. She seemed to be having a blast. Oliver was really glad that he'd throw this party for her. Adrianna spotted him standing outside of the group stepped out of the group to talk to him.
"Why did you leave earlier?"
"I needed something to drink. Besides, I can't dance."
"Sure you can. Would you like me to teach you?"
Had he not been under the influence he probably would have said no, but given his current condition, "Alright."
She placed one of his hands on her hip and put one of her hands on his shoulder. She kept a comfortable distance between them and started to dance. He moved with her and followed what she did.
"This isn't so hard after all," he thought. "It's actually kind of fun." He pulled her just a little closer, and she didn't protest. They danced like that for a couple of songs before Sonia tapped Adrianna on the shoulder.
"May I cut in?"
"Absolutely," said Adrianna and backed away from Oliver.
Sonia began to dance with him. He was a little disappointed that Adrianna had let her cut in, but she was a good dancer so he didn't mind that much.
Oliver noticed Adrianna leave the group to say something to Daphne and Brenda. The looked like they were saying goodbye. She handed each of them their portkey and they left. One by one, the other guests said goodbye to Adrianna and left with their portkeys. Finally just Oliver, Adrianna and Fleur were left.
"Well, I think I will be off to bed. Goodnight," said Fleur and left.
"Did you have fun tonight?" Oliver asked Adrianna.
"Yes, it was wonderful! Thank you so much," she said and gave him a big hug. They walked upstairs together and stopped in front of the door to Adrianna's office.
"Good night," he said softly.
"Thanks again. Sweet dreams," she said and slipped into her office, closing the door behind her.
The next day was the first quidditch practice of the season with the Scottish team. Oliver woke up with a headache and had to force himself to get out of bed and get dressed in his quidditch robes. He grabbed his broomstick and was ready to set off for Hogsmeade so that he could apparate to the quidditch pitch, but before he left he decided that he needed something for his headache. He went to the hospital wing and asked Madam Pomfrey for a potion. She gave him a disapproving look.
"Were you drinking last night, young man?"
"A little. Please Poppy, just help me out. I have quidditch practice and I can't play feeling like this."
She shook her head and still looked disapproving, but took a large bottle from a shelf in her office and poured a thick blue liquid into a glass. Oliver gulped it down but wanted to spit it back out. It tasted awful. Madam Pomfrey laughed at him.
"You have to pay for your mistake one way or another. If it's not a headache, it's a bad-tasting potion," she said with a wink.
Oliver left the castle and walked briskly toward Hogsmeade. As soon as he was off of Hogwarts grounds, he apparated to the quidditch pitch. All of his teammates from last season were back, and he received some good- natured teasing from them about not being at practice yesterday. He heard various comments such as "good of you to show up today" and "it's nice to have the WHOLE team here for practice". He laughed them off and concentrated on doing his best in practice.
That evening after practice, Oliver took a hot bath in his jacuzzi tub to sooth his aching muscles. He had done some stuff in the off-season to stay in shape, but he had forgotten how rigorous Leslie's practices could be.