Ok, well here it is, the next chapter. Unfortunately it's about two and a half months late and I feel absolutely horrible about that. This is not the last chapter, previous to what you may have thought, I don't know exactly what I was talking about last chapter...haha...that was my evil self. Anyways, thank you so much to all of last chapter's reviewers, and all those who have even taken precious time out of their day to give a shout. You guys are the best!
Disclaimer: I do not own any legal rights to Harry Potter and that stuff. Trust me.
I had never seen so many people gathered in one particular area before. There were faces everywhere, most of them turning to congratulate the nearest person, and most of the faces I did not recognize. Of course, it could have been the stream of tears that blocked my vison, but I'm not going to think about that. I walked quickly towards the dormitories, but Unfortunately, fate had some other cruel fate in mind and I found myself shaking hands with people from all directions.
"Great game, Katie!" it was George, and he shoved a glass of punch in my open hands and smiled devilishly at me. Gods. What new kind of torture is this?
"Thanks! Great game to you too!" I choked out, and sudden concern seeped into George's eyes, but I quickly turned away to avoid his persistent questions. I brought my sleeve up to my eyes and wiped them dry, to the best of my ability, and figured I might as well have a good time while it was being offered. I plastered a smile on my face, and glanced around for the nearest chair to sit on. Unfortunately, all of the 'good' chairs were taken so I just sat on the floor. I looked quickly at the drink, then I sniffed it. Well, it doesn't smell like some hazardous chemicals, so it cant be that bad, can it?
I jerked my head back and emptied the cup quickly. Damn. This tastes a lot like that throw-up potion the twins created last year, and if that wasn't just fun. I hand suddenly touched my shoulder, and I turned to find Harry smiling at me.
"Don't worry, they didn't drug it. At least, they didn't drug mine." he smiled, revealing his brown teeth. Oh my god! How sick can you be! Ah well, it's not my job to tell him.
"Great game Harry!" I said for the fifth time, patting him gently on the back. He nodded swiftly, then scuttled off to a corner where the rest of his trio was seated.
I felt my smile quickly drifting as the reality of what Oliver had told me really sunk in. So much for happily ever after. Well, I guess the selfish part of the evening has started.
A hoot went up around the entrance, as Oliver entered looking sweaty and tired. The crowd surged toward him, everyone wanting to touch Oliver. It's a good thing he doesn't have the social disorder any more, this sort of thing would probably drive him insane.
Oliver was slowly escorted to a chair by none other than the instigator twins themselves, and there he sat basking in all of the attention. He'll fit in just fine with those celebrities. He suddenly sat up and began to glance around, as if searching for something or someone. I took this opportunity to sink further into my corner, just in case he had finally thought through what I had said.
I began to just watch people, and what they were doing, while completely losing track of time. Of course, the weekend was ahead so why was I worried about getting to bed early? I don't have a damn clue. I suddenly caught sight of Angelina's smiling face, and I quickly got up from my spot on the floor to pursue her.
"Angelina?" I said rather loudly, and Angelina turned quickly with a puzzled expression upon her face. "I think I'm going to go to bed."
"This early?" I nodded my head slowly, trying to appear tired, but she didn't fall for it. "I don't think so, it's not even nine o'clock!" She quickly grabbed my arm, and pulled me into a slew of people who once again congratulated me on a 'quite splendid game'. I smiled, once again and thanked them. Angelina pulled incessantly at my robe, and I decided I might as well follow her instead of losing an arm. Dread instantly crossed my face, as I saw where she was pulling me towards. Right to Oliver. What the hell is she thinking? Oh, yes, she has no idea of our current situation.
I was just about to explain my problem to her, but she made a quick beeline right to Oliver, and before I knew it, I found myself standing next to wonder boy. Joy. Utter joy.
"Hey Oliver, look who I found over in the corner!" Angelina said, her face beaming with pride. Idiot. I'm not a piece of furniture. I scowled at her, and she looked as perplexed as ever.
"Katie! I haven't s-s-s-seen you all night, where have you been?" Oliver said, sounding a little topsy. Apparently the allure of Fred and George's drinks had not failed to attract Oliver. What a bloody surprise.
"Oh you know, sitting somewhere." I said glancing around at the people surrounding Oliver. They looked just as bad as him. Wait, even worse. Where the hell were Fred and George? Probably upstairs laughing at the stupidity of mankind. Gee, that actually sounds fun right now. Without notice, Oliver pulled me down to sit next to him, and he put his giant arm around my shoulder.
"I was just t-t-telling all of these people here about how ingenious our victory was today." Oliver said slurring. If I wasn't in fact, pissed off at Oliver right now, I might actually find this extremely amusing. Unfortunately, I am selfish, so the pissed off Katie reigns.
"How extremely exciting, considering they were there watching the whole game." I said frowning, as all of the people around him began to laugh at the joke that was directed at them. Ha.
"Yeah, I know." Oliver said giggling. After a few moments of deep breathing, he continued the story, to the delight of the bystanders. I would have of course left, except for the fact that Oliver's giant arm was still squeezing my shoulders. Damn. I guess after he left Hogwarts, this would be some other girl's problem, not mine. Why am I mad? Where's some of that punch, I'm obviously not in my right mind, so maybe I should just drink some punch and relax a little. Slowly, time drifted away, and I began to get cozier, and cozier in the embrace of Oliver. I soon found myself drifting off to sleep, my head leaning on his shoulder.
"Party's over! Everyone up!" the loud voice surged me out of my dreams, as I awoke to find Percy's judging gaze upon me. Where the hell am I? Oh, right. I found Oliver sitting where he was the last time I gazed upon him, but his head was back, and his mouth was open snoring. His group of listeners were surrounding us on the floor, in the same condition. Gods, I hope I wasn't snoring, that's so embarrassing! I pushed Oliver's arm off me roughly, and stood up to stretch. I pestered Percy until he gave me the time, and I found that we had slept right through breakfast. Dammit! We missed the pancake feed!
I found myself in a considerably better mood, after a somewhat enjoyable night's rest, and I contented myself by thinking that at least I'd have Oliver for a few more weeks to myself. And then he would just go off. Wait, I'm not supposed to think about that.
"My head feels like a hammer." Angelina said, her head resting in her upturned palm. I stared at her for a moment
"That doesn't even make any sense." I said glancing to Alicia. Brilliant Alicia had decided to become dehydrated last night, so I'd have to say she had the most punch of all of us. Heh, I'm going to have fun with this one.
"So, Alicia, have fun last night?" I said smirking. I probably shouldn't have said that because she looked absolutely murderous right then, and her fingers slowly gripped the nearest knife. Whoa.
I glanced around the breakfast hall, which was only filled with the Gryffindors because all of the other houses, responsibly, had eaten at the regular time. Luckily, Dumbledore agreed that missing the pancake feed was punishable by death, so he delayed the breakfast a little for the Gryffindors. Another golden star for him in my book.
Unfortunately, without the Qudditch match to look forward to, all I could see in the future was the exams. Days were filled with blank sheets of parchment, and by the end of the day, I had filled it full with scribbles that probably had no importance. Of course, I was probably overreacting about the exams, and totally blowing them out of proportion, but by the time they were a week away, there were several students who had begun to study just as fervently as myself. Of course, Oliver decided not to join in on the enrichment of studying, so instead he tried to find ways to distract me. First he used an invisible force to blow all of my papers off the desk, and after hours of passionate screaming, I allowed him to apologize to me. Then, in order to further piss me off, he switched one of my ink bottles with Fred and George's disappearing ink, and after a whole day of writing with the imposter, I forced Oliver to write all my notes all over again. I don't think he enjoyed this very much, so he quit playing the jokes and instead took a turn at studying for himself. I of course praised this behavior, so currently, he was sitting in a corner by himself, reading a potions book. I smiled at him every time he caught my eye, and once again things between me and Oliver seemed perfect. Of course, in the back of my mind, that voice kept on telling me that Oliver would leave soon enough. I blocked the voice out by continuing to study without end. By the time the week of the exams had come, I was practically ready to jump out of the nearest window. Fred and George, continued to offer me pre-exam relaxers, and I continued to turn them down until I couldn't take their nagging anymore, so I took one. This of course was probably the worst decision I had ever made, I soon found out, because for some reason I was relaxed, but I had developed an extreme sweating problem.
"Really? It won't stop?" George said his eyebrows raised in splendor. Obviously he hadn't worked out all of the complications.
"You piece of crap!" I said hitting George with some of my parchments, sweat dripping in every direction, "I'm not a monkey to test your experiments on!" I found that after this quite violent outburst, the sweating problem went away, probably from some relief of my tension. I'll have to start paying George a visit every night.
It was the night before the first exam, and my nerves had driven me out of the common room, and I let my feet carry me to the Quidditch pitch. I found myself saddened, knowing that I would never be participating in the sport again, so I went into the broom closet, and pulled out the least gruesome looking broom. I kicked off the ground, and let myself feel the cool breeze across my face, and the familiar rush of being up in the air. I lost track of time (once again) and apparently I wasn't exactly conscious because while I had been flying, Oliver had somehow snuck up onto the pitch, broom in hand. I stopped dead in midair, and stared at him, wondering what was going on. He motioned something to me, I think he was trying to say stay put, so I moved closer towards him in complete ignorance to his unclear hand signs.
"Good evening." he said, partially bowing to me, grinning madly. I at first thought he must be drunk, but his eyes were still focused, so I ruled that out.
"Yes. Fine evening." we sat on a broom sticks for what could be described as hours in desolate silence, and the only movement was Oliver's hand to relieve his ear of an itch.
"Something I can help you with?" I said expectantly, eyebrows almost touching my hairline.
"No–er–I just came out her to relax a little." he said, staring at me, waiting for some type of reaction.
"Oh. Oh, me too." I said dumbly, hurling insults at myself inside of my head. That's great Katie, go ahead and prove his suspicions that you're an idiot.
"You want to...um...fly?" Oliver said, his eyes reaping of tiredness.
"Sure." I said, urging my broom to go forward. Oliver instantly followed, and we were off, soaring into the sunset. Get a grip, Katie. It's not like a freaking romance novel here.
"So, are you ready for the tests?" I asked tentatively, not sure about whether or not he would want to talk.
"Yeah, I guess. But I don't want to take the tests, because after that, Hogwarts will be a part of my past." Oliver said with emotion, his lips looking chapped from the oncoming wind gusts. Gods, I hope he doesn't want me to say anything. "Are you?"
"Yeah, I suppose. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get out. Maybe I'll join a band, and we'll travel throughout the magical world, singing our bloody hearts out." I croaked, trying to make the conversation seem lighter, but by the serious look on Oliver's face, he wasn't impressed by my idiotic remark.
"What the hell does that mean?" Oliver said, almost looking angry.
"I was just kidding, Oliver," I said defensively, red creeping into my cheeks.
"I'm not so sure you were!" he exploded. What in bloody hell? Where is he coming from?
"Do you bloody think I'm going to make a mess of my life? Do you seriously believe that I would do something so idiotic?" I cried, stopping my broom in midair to face him.
"I don't know what you're going to do with you're life! You don't talk to me anymore, so how am I supposed to know?" Oliver said, his face flushed with anger. He did have a point there, I hadn't really had a significant conversation with him since the night he told me of his decision to join Puddlemere United.
"Ever since I told you what I was going to do, you've gone all cold on me!" Oliver said shaking.
"That's because I know that I can never amount to you!" my voice echoed against the Quidditch stands, and Oliver appeared to have suddenly gone mute. "I can never amount to your expectations!" there were tears pouring down my face, but quite frankly, I didn't give a damn.
"You can't tell me that in your new life, that you w-w-won't find someone that fascinates you! And then, where does that leave me? With a settlement telling me that you no longer want to s-s-see me?" I sobbed loudly, pulling my sleeve up to my face in order to wipe my nose. Grotesque? I believe so. Somewhere in-between my irrational sobs, and his persistence to stay in the air, he returned to the world of language.
"I can't believe you think that I would do that!" he screamed, his face screwing up in anger. I glided a few feet back and stared at him astounded.
"I think it, because I've already seen it." now it was his turn to look shocked. "I see you and your girlfriends–friends...whatever the hell you call them. Yes, when I'm not around you find flirting quite enjoyable!" I spat, as he opened his mouth to respond to this.
"Well, what else was I supposed to do, I thought you didn't love me anymore." Oliver said, his voice softening.
"Oh, yeah, great excuse. Since I'm not feeling well, let's just go out and find someone to replace me. That's logic for you!" I shouted, obviously not ready for calm conversation.
"I can't believe you don't trust me..." Oliver said, his face dropping. For the first time, in all the years I had watched Oliver, fear or no fear, real pain was spread plainly across his face. And for the first time in my life, I actually hated myself.
"I'm sorry..." I sobbed, tears springing back to life, "I'm so selfish....I t-t-twist things around, and turn them into daggers to hurt others. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve anyone." I sobbed, and flew quickly towards the ground, threw my broomstick down, and sprinted across the fields back to the castle, listening for words of comfort that would never come.
Arg! No more depressing endings! No more! Haha, anyways, I hope you liked the chapter, it took me about four months to write it, and that is extremely sad...I hope to get the last chapter up, sometime before the end of May, and if I don't, then I will have reached a whole new level of sadness. There is happiness in the future...I think...haha...Thanks for reading!