Later that night Oliver lay on a poster bed that was made up in a guest room for him. Dumbledore said that all he was responsible was for the first years flying lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays and the first Quidditch match in November. Other than that he was free to roam the halls and catch up with old friends. He even gave Wood the password for the Gryffindor common room but Oliver didn't really care about that. Ever sense he got there he had only one thing on his mind, Katie Bell and her lips. He wanted to apologize for not talking to her about it, for not keeping in touch. He wanted to talk about that day in general and let her know he had always liked her. Most of all he wanted to kiss her again.
"God has she ever changed." Just like him, she had grown a little bit in the past year and a half sense they last saw each other and his desire for her grew even more as he saw how much more gorgeous she had become. She had cut her long, light brown hair up to her shoulder blades and put in blonde highlights. To his disappointment she still tended to tie her hair back. As said before, she grew a few inches but grew into her body more as well. He could tell she filled out her cloths nicely and tried to keep his thoughts from wondering to what was underneath them. Her eyes, still the green embers he adored, seem to stand out more maybe it was the way her eyebrows were shaped, and her lips more luscious than before. How he craved those lips. They were probably his favorite feature apart from her soft hair that drove him nuts. He never planed to kiss her that day. He couldn't help himself. She tended to enchant him when they were alone together but before his emotions could go ballistic he left. Not this time though. Angelina told him that Katie was still in the compartment cause her trunk popped open. When he got there she was standing over her trunk so seductively cursing at it. Instead of leaving he offered to help her and before he knew it his lips were on hers. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he quickly pulled apart and left as fast as he could.
"Damn Wood! You're such an idiot!" he said out loud.
"Don't need to tell us twice," he looked up to see Fred coming in with George and Lee Jordan in tow.
"Welcome back!" Lee said as he flopped down on the brown leather armchair in the room. Meanwhile George sat on one side of Wood while Fred sat on the other side.
"So what's the reason you're an idiot, huh?" George asked with a grin. Oliver just gave them a knowing look and all three said in unison,
"Ah! Katie Bell."
"Look Oliver. We all know you liked the girl ever sense the day she came to school. Did you ever do anything about it though? No! The only thing you did was give her that short kiss on the train after your last year and didn't even bother to talk to her afterwards. Real smooth," Fred said.
"I know. I was stupid but I'm gonna try to make it up to her while I'm here," Lee shook his head.
"That's all she needs Oliver. A silly rumor that a "teacher" fancies her. God forbid if anyone sees you trying to kiss her,"
" I know Lee but I'm only here for three months before I have to go back to practice. I'm getting tested for a starting position on the team in December. Frankwell's retiring you know. This is my only chance to talk to her face to face for a while,"
Katie didn't want the next day to come. In fact, she didn't want the next three months to come. Unfortunately that wasn't an option. She rolled out of her four-poster bed with a grumble. Angelina was already up and wearing to go. She smiled and commented to Katie,
"Wow Katie… looking good. If Wood could see you know," Katie's hair was all over the place sticking out on end. She just gave Angelina a look and headed to the girls bathroom to clean up. Ten minutes later she was heading down to breakfast with Angelina. At the table she sat in her normal spot in the dead center of the table, Lee Jordan on her right and Angelina to her left. The twins usually sat right across from her with Alicia Spinnet but not this morning. Spinnet was no longer there, George sat in his normal spot right across from Lee, and Fred decided to sit next to his girlfriend, Angelina. After they sat down Harry and Ron came down a few minutes later to join them, Harry sitting right in front her. She looked at the two and felt something didn't seem right. Fred hit the nail on the head,
"Oi you two, where's Hermione?" Harry just looked at the grumpy face Ron had and answered,
"She and Ron got into a fight. She went strait to her class." Everyone sniggered as George made a sly comment,
"You two been fighting like a couple lately. What's going on with you two?"
"Nothing!" Ron bellowed, "Nothing is up," and then he turned to his food ignoring any other taunting comments. Curious, Katie leaned over the table and quietly asked Harry,
"What was the fight about?" Harry only said one word,
"Krum!" Kate had to suppress a fit of giggles as she turned back to her breakfast. She didn't even notice a certain somebody head towards the table till he spoke.
"Hey Harry," Katie held back a choke as she drank some juice.
"Hey Wood. Wanna sit down?" he asked moving over so Wood could sit in his spot.
"Sure. Thanks Harry,"
"What's this?" Fred asked Wood.
"What's what?"
"You sitting with us?" Lee asked, "you're a high and almighty teacher now. Shouldn't you be sitting at the head table?" Wood grinned,
"Nah! That's' no place for me. Besides I wanna catch up with you guys. It's been too long." He looked at Katie as dead silence filled the air. Wood didn't know how to break the awkward silence so he turned to Fred and Angelina giving them a smirk,
"So what is going on with you two?" Angelina turned red while Fred just grinned from ear to ear,
"Been going out sense last winter," Oliver solemnly shook his head at Angelina,
"I'm so sorry," Angelina roared with laughter, as Fred turned red.
"What's that supposed to mean eh?" he said insulted.
"Nothing really Fred. Just hope you two aren't using her as a Ginny pig for your jokes,"
"Nah," George spoke up, "I wanted to but he refused to. Likes her too much," he winked at Angelina making her blush, "So I guess we'll just have to keep using Ron,"
"Oh no you won't! You got plenty of new bait this year. Use them! I'm sick and tired of those bloody canary creams as it is!" Ron bellowed making the whole table shake with laughter.
"What about you George?" Wood asked moving on, "seeing anyone special?"
"No. I might snag someone later in the year but for right now one of us has to keep a clear mind. If I didn't then we would get nowhere with our shop,"
"Lee? What's up with you?"
"Still seeing Spinnet. It's hard sense she's gone this year but I guess I like her too much to break it off. She feels the same way." Wood nodded his head. Sooner or later he was going to have to ask Katie something and he really didn't want to be stuck on this topic and he was sure that she would feel the same way. He looked around then asked,
"Oi Ron? Where's Hermione?" all he got was a grumble so Harry leaned over to Wood and whispered,
"They got into a huge fight. It's a bit complicated so I'll explain it to you later," Wood nodded and then turned to Harry,
"So are you interested in girls yet Potter?" Harry turned a deep shade of red,
"A little bit," Wood grinned then asked him another question to get off the topic of relationships,
"How is living with those muggles? Still as ornery as ever?"
"Horrible! Luckily I got to stay with the Weasleys' half of this summer."
"Keeping up on your Quidditch skills?"
"Trying too,"
"Well you better. We don't want those Slytherins to get that cup back."
"So Katie?" she jumped at the sound of her name and prayed he would keep the topic on Quidditch, "Find a new captain yet?" she sighed in relief and answered,
"No, not yet. We did manage to find a replacement for you as keeper though,"
"Oh? Who's that?"
"Dean Thomas," she said hoping not to sound nervous.
"Oh he's the football freak. What about Spinnet? Any idea on who's gonna replace her?"
"Well at the moment Ron is trying out for the part this Friday but that's it for now," Fred grumbled a little bit then spoke up,
"Damn we got double potions first thing this morning,"
"With who?" George asked not even bothering to look at his own schedule.
"Huffelpuff so it wont be that bad," Fred answered. He pulled Angelina out of her seat with him and headed off. George and Lee followed suit noticing Katie was looking for her favorite hair band. Snickering Lee yelled to her,
"Don't let tradition make you late!" she glared at him as he vanished through the doors. Katie always wore her hair up. No one ever saw her with it down and she planed to keep the tradition alive as long as possible. Wood watched as she franticly rummaged through her bag. Finally he spoke up,
"Don't bother," she looked at him a little shock, " you're gonna be late if you keep this up. I don't think you wanna be late for potions. Besides," he added leaning over to the table to brush part of her hair out, " you have beautiful hair," a little shocked Katie just stood up and began to leave when Wood suddenly shouted,
"Katie wait!" she turned around to see what else he had to say but all he did was fidget then add, "Have a nice day," shocked beyond belief she headed down to the potions class room and went to the back where Angelina was saving her a seat. She didn't even notice the shocked looks Lee and George gave her as she passed them with her hair down. She sat in her seat contemplating over what had just happened.
'What the hell was that eh? Have a nice day?' she asked her self. 'I don't know! Maybe he was trying to be nice?' ' Humph! Did you see the way he panicked when you turned around? He was madly fidgeting? Looks like he didn't expect you to turn around.' 'I did turn around quite fast though.' ' Who would blame you after that complement he gave you?' It wasn't until the middle of Potions when she came around. Angelina looked at her friend and nudged her in the side. She mouthed,
"What's up with you?" Katie gave her a side nod then quickly pulled out a piece a parchment. Quickly she scribbled on it then slid it over to her friend making sure Snape wasn't looking,
~ Wood. He did something odd after you guys left. ~
Angelina looked her friend over then noticed her friends' hair was down. She quickly wrote back,
~ Oh my, this has to be a first! You're hair isn't pulled back. What happen! ~
So Katie scribbled everything down that happened and waited for Angelina to reply. Katie looked to see Angelina get a smile on her face then wrote back,
~ I think he still likes you and doesn't know what to do about it! ~
Shocked Katie answered back,
~ What do you mean by still? ~
~ It was quite obvious he liked you during his school years here. It wasn't as obvious later on cause he became so obsessed with winning the cup but we think it was a way to hide his feelings for you. ~
~ You knew he liked me and you never told me? ~
~ Well I wasn't sure. I mean I thought you might have had a clue your third year with all that flirting you two did but I guess not. ~
~ Angelina! ~ Katie was furious that her friend never told her this. Digging into her backpack she found her rubber band and immediately pulled up her hair vowing to avoid Oliver the rest of the week and Angelina for the next two hours. She was so confused and hadn't any idea what to do.