Authors Note: Hey, sorry if there awas any confusion about the twins! I get confused myself sometimes...haha. Fred is dating Angelina and George is dating Alicia, and Katie and Oliver is the theme for this story, but Katie isn't an option when you go to say which characters the story is about, so I couldn't put her.
Anyway, I was so excited to have gotted all those reviews! Thanks
shortiibabi
hik
lilyqueen777
wheresthespacekey
AnnieShan
Miss Court-A-Doo ....
Oh, I read Lilyqueen77's story, and it's amazing, and I read hik's story, and it's also amazing. Oh, and also, to wheresthespacekey, thanks so much for emailing me! I love talking to you! haha. If anyone else has anything they want to say (put please be gentel...I have a very fragile ego and harsh critizism with no constructivness is rough...haha) then feel free to email or im me! Oh, and Miss Court-A-Doo's story is also amazing. All of you should read them! Ok, well here's another update with hopefully more coming soon!!
Chapter 2
Homework Session
The next morning Katie woke up early, stretching and yawning widely. She realized that there was a Quiddich practice, quickly got out of bed, and splashed some water on her face. She pulled on her robes and glanced at her watch. There was half an hour until practice, and she still had to have breakfast.
She grabbed her broom and went down to the common room. There was no one in it, as it was too early on a Saturday for everyone else to be up, and too late in the morning for any of the Quiddich players to be there. She ran her fingers through her hair, wondering somewhat angrily why Angelina and Alicia hadn't woken her when they had left.
She pulled her hair into a ponytail without even caring whether or not there were lumps. She entered the great hall slightly out of breath and piled her plate with pancakes. There was no one else at her table. Could she have gotten the time wrong? Why was everyone at practice so early? She thought that there would at least be people still eating.
She looked at her watch again and saw that she had ten minutes left. She shoveled the pancakes lathered in syrup and butter into her mouth even faster, and chugged a glass of orange juice. In three minutes flat she had her broom over her shoulder and was on her way towards the door.
She still had to change into her Quiddich robes too. She thought nervously as she half walked half jogged across the grounds to the pitch. When she reached the pitch the team was already practicing.
"Katie, where have you been? You're 30 minutes late!" Oliver shouted from the air.
"I'm not! I've got thirty seconds before I'm even on time! I'm early!" Katie said self righteously.
"No one told you? I told everyone yesterday that practice was starting a half hour earlier!" Oliver told her, positioning himself in front of the center hoop to block a pass of Angelina's. He was not even looking at her, he was so focused on the game.
"Way to keep me posted guys! You've really got my back." Katie said sarcastically, more than a little irritated with Oliver for yelling at her, and with Alicia and Angelina for failing to wake her up.
"We thought you had already left! Your curtains weren't open or anything, how were we to know you had overslept? You're always the first out!" Angelina shot back, narrowing in on Oliver to score a goal.
"I'm going to go change, I'll be right out." Katie said.
There was no response. The twins were pelting each other with bludgers, and Alicia was hovering underneath Angelina in case she dropped the quaffle.
She quickly pulled her black robes over her head and pulled her red Gryfindor robes on. She ran back to the pitch and mounted her broom. She slammed her feet down a little harder than she normally would have, and shot into the air fast. Her stomach dropped. She gulped a little nervously, and slowed down.
No sooner was she in the air than a bludger flew at her arm. She rocketed into the air again, looking around for the twin who had hit it at her.
"Sorry about that Katie, won't happen again!" Said George, winking roguishly. "I'll make sure of that." He said, zeroing in on Fred and pelting the bludger back to the opposite end of the court. Fred was forced to to perform a complicated barrel role to avoid it.
"Alicia, over here!" Katie called. Alicia had apparently taken the quaffle when Oliver blocked Angelina's shot. Alicia turned, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling.
She threw the quaffle at Katie with perfect precision. Katie caught it and sped towards Oliver. The wind whipped at her hair, taking it out of the pony tail. The elastic hit her on the back on its way down to the ground. She didn't even look to see where it landed. She was focused intently on the center hoop.
She dodged another bludger, glanced down to see Angelina covering her. She went up and then left, her attention going at last to Oliver.
"Come on Katie!" She heard Angelina call from below. She kept her eyes locked on Oliver's. He flew a little closer to her, his eyes locked on hers. She looked to the center hoop. He was blocking it completely. She looked to the left, then right.
His natural lean would be to go right, and it would take him a few seconds longer to block that hoop. But then, he would be expecting her to go that way. But, knowing Oliver, he would be anticipating a fake. Katie made her decision in a spilt second. She flew right, Oliver, a slight smile of triumph pulling at his lips, flew right. Katie forgot about him and threw the quaffle through the left hoop.
Alicia and Angelina cheered, Oliver scowled.
"Good shot Katie!" He said, recovering. He seemed to have realized that if she could score on him, that was a good thing for the Gryfindor team. Harry Potter, the Gryfindor seeker, swooped down and snatched the snitch from the bottom of the right hoop. The team cheered.
They continued practice for a while, and at the end Oliver was thoroughly content. That was good, if Oliver was in a good mood and well satisfied with practice, then they would not have a long lecture on strategy.
"Is everyone ready for our match on Slytherin tomorrow?" He asked as they changed out of their red robs and into their black Hogwarts robes.
"Yes." The team chorused dully, chomping at the bit to get back to the castle in time for lunch.
"All right, all right, you can all go." Oliver said. "Katie, wait for a minute will you?" He asked as she passed him for the door.
"Sure Oliver, what is it?" She asked, stopping. The rest of the team filtered out of the dressing room. Katie and Oliver were standing alone. Her heart began to pound in her chest, her breath quickened slightly, she felt hot.
"I just wanted to apologize for yelling at you earlier, I should have told you personally about the change in time." He said, shuffling his feet sheepishly. Katie laughed.
"I really don't care Oliver. I'm sorry for being late."
"So, you don't care?" He asked confused.
"I'll only care if you hold me back making sure I don't care so long that I miss lunch. Then I would care. Let's go." She said, taking Oliver's hand and dragging him out of the locker room. As soon as they were out in the sunlight she came back to her senses. She dropped his hand as if it had burned her. She mentally slapped herself for having grabbed him like that. That was a stupid thing to do. What could have come over her? Fortunately, however, Oliver didn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.
They walked up to the castle discussing the summers Quiddich World Cup. Oliver had already walked Katie through every play, but he loved talking about it, so Katie humored him. She gasped and asked questions in all the right places.
The reached the great hall and sat down next to each other continuing to debate whether or not the Cannons would go all the way this year or not. Oliver thought not, he argued that their keeper was no good, and that he couldn't block a bright red barn, let alone a bright red quaffle.
Katie laughed at the vehemence with which Oliver argued his point, and then proceeded to point out that they had the best chasers, and if they could score more points than the keeper let in, or keep the quaffle away from his end of the field, then what did the keeper matter anyway? Oliver grunted and huffed and then accepted defeat.
"So, Oliver, have you started the runes translation yet?" Katie asked, steering the subject away from the emotional topic of Quiddich.
"No, I have to do that this afternoon I guess. You?"
"Yeah, I started last night. It's impossible. I do not understand it at all. She never explained it! How can she give us homework on something we've never worked on before?" Katie asked angrily.
"She always has. What did you expect? That she would give us a test and then we would have a night off homework? Heaven forbid." Oliver said sarcastically.
"That's what normal teachers do." Katie huffed. "Did you hear her say she's grading it as a quiz too? We've never even gone over it!"
"That's not fair. Good thing I don't have high and lofty career aspirations, eh?"
"You do to. You want ot be a keeper, that's lofty if ever I heard it before. Just because it has nothing to do with school work doesn't mean it's not a career aspiration." Katie told him.
"Yeah, well, less lofty than yours I should say." Oliver said modestly.
"Not at all. Quiddich is very important." She said grandly, waving her fork in the air for emphasis and accidentally getting some carrots on Fred's sleeve.
"You've never told me what you wanted to be, anyway. What's your plan for your life?" Oliver asked. Katie could have kicked herself. He had tricked her into admitting that she did have career goals.
"Oh, I don't know. Whatever they are though, they'll never compare to your lofty ambitions." She said, recovering slightly. She smiled. He did not look convinced, but seemed willing enough to let it pass.
"Well, that's a long ways away from now, so let's not think of it. Want to do that chart with me this afternoon?" Oliver asked.
"Sure. I'll run get my stuff after lunch." Katie replied, her cheeks flushing a little. She hoped Oliver wouldn't notice.
"All right. Yeah. Good plan." Oliver said, scooping up a forkful of his shepherds pie.
"Where do you want to work? Library?" Katie asked.
"Nah. Too stuffy. It's such a nice day, why don't we work outside?" Oliver asked, shoveling some more pie into his mouth.
"Okay, sounds like a party." Katie said.
"Oy, Ange, you done runes yet?" Oliver asked. Katie's heart sank yet again. It was not going to be just her and Oliver after all. It was going to be everyone in their runes class.
"No, why? You doing it?" Angelina asked turning away from Fred for a minute.
"Yeah, after lunch. Alicia, you done it?" Oliver asked, turning. Alicia turned away from a conversation with Lee and George about the pros and cons of waterproff fireworks to reply.
"Yeah, I finished. I'm that good. I need to work on potions this afternoon." Alicia told him.
"Okay, Lee?" Oliver asked.
"I'm with Alicia on this one, I did it last night." Lee told him.
"Fine, so Katie and Ange, after lunch, runes." Oliver said.
"It's a date." Angelina said winking and turning back to Fred.
How was Angelina so confident? Maybe that was Katie's problem. Maybe she should try to be more upfront about everything. Angelina was perfectly comfortable saying things like 'it's a date' to guys, whereas Katie would read way too much into it and spend the next day freaking out, asking herself if she had been too obvious.
They finished eating and started up to the Gryfindor common room to get their homeowork. Katie ran quickly up to the girls dorm and grabbed her bag.
"Ready?" Oliver asked, waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. "Ange says she needs to go talk to Magonagal quickly, but that she'll be out in a few. So shall we?" He asked, offering his arm.
Katie giggled and blushed. This was Oliver, her knight in shining armor. Oliver helped her out of the portrait hole, and then they walked arm in arm down the corridor to the grand staircase. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Oliver got on one knee and offered her his hand to help her down.
"May I offer you my services, fair maiden?" He said, laughing merrily.
"I would be honored, bold sir knight. How chivalrous of you." Katie answered, giggling again at the idea of needing his help to walk down a stair. She played along with his game, secretly thinking that it was quite amusing how the day after she had written a story comparing him to a knight, he decided to play his mideval times games with her. For a moment Katie began to panick Could he have read it? What did I do with it? Think Katie! Where's the story now? It took her a moment to return to her senses and rememebr that she had thrown the story in the fire after first ripping it to shreds. It was just a coincedence.
She took his hand and curtsied, stepping down daintily. They walked across the main entrance way and he opened the door for her.
They made their way across the grounds to the base of their favorite tree. Oliver conjured a blanket and spread it on the ground with Katie's help. They spread out their books and lay n their stomachs, scribling a few notes. Katie turned the page of the book they were sharing lazily.
"Ergh. I do not understand this." Oliver moaned. "She's awful, she goes so fast! I never understand anything!"
"Here, look, this one means sun, and this one means flower, right?" Katie explained, pointing into the book with her quill.
"Yeah." Oliver replied grumpily.
"So when you put sun and flower together, what do you get?" Katie asked patiently.
"A sunflower?" Oliver suggested.
"Exactly. See, it's really easy. It's just about two different types of pictures relating to eachother." Katie told him.
"Yeah, maybe it's easy for you, but not all of us are geniuses." Oliver said sulkily.
"Oliver, I'm not a genius, firstly, and secondly, it is easy, I know you can do it. Maybe if you paid a little more attention in class rather than making eyes at a certain red head who sits in the front row." Katie said, trailing off at the end of her sentence. Why had she had to bring up Margret now? Why did she always do that?
"Do you think she likes me?" Oliver asked dreamily.
"Maybe, why don't you ask her out?" Katie suggested.
"Because, she's dating Roger Davies." Oliver said, scowling.
"Well then she obviously doesn't like you." Katie said cruelly. Oliver sighed, rolling onto his side.
"So what's going on with you Katie? I feel like I hardly ever see you lately." Oliver said, looking at the patterns made by the sun shining through the leaves on the tree onto the blnket.
"And when you do see me you're yelling at me for being late." Katie added.
"Yeah, sorry about that, totally my fault." Oliver said quickly and appologetically.
"It's okay." Katie assured him. He was so sweet. She felt herself melting on the inside, no matter how hard she tried to make herself. "So, runes" Katie said after a long and silent pause in during which she found herself staring into Oliver's hazel eyes. She noticed that there were little flecks of gold in them, and he had unnaturally long eyelashes.
"Right, runes." Oliver repeated. He appeared to be shaking himself and then he quickly looked back to the book.
"I wonder where Angelina is." Katie said, feeling that the silence was akward.
"Right here." Angelina announced walking up in front of them and plopping down on the blanket next to Katie. "Sorry it took me so long guys, I got a little caught up with Magonagal." Angelina explained.
"Oh? What'd she want?" Oliver asked.
"She wants me to take over as Quiddich captain Oliver. She feels that you are incompetent." Angelina told him. He froze, staring at her with an expression of complete horror on his face. "I'm kidding! Honestly! You need to loosen up, you take Quiddich way too seriously. She wanted to talk to me about my career aspirations." Angelina told him, gafawing loudy.
"You're worse than Fred. Quiddich happens to be my career aspiration, Ange, it's no joke to me." Muttered Oliver, angrily.
"And you need a girlfriend." Angelina toldhim, nudging Katie a little as she said it. Katie looked at her, a question written in her eyes. Angelina did not look back, perhaps she had just been shuffling. Or did she know something? Katie mentally shook herself for being so paranoid and returned to earth and the converstaion unfolding in front of her.
"Yeah, don't I wish." oliver siged.
"Oh? Got your eye on anyone special?" Angelina asked, curious asalways for a good scandal.
"Yeah." Oliver said slowly, hesitating a little. Angelina would tell Fred, who would tell George, who would tell Alicia. Then everyone would know. He was sure the twins would tease him. But then again, if he started dating her they would find out, so better sooner than later.
"Well, who is she?" Angelina asked.
"Margret." Had he just looked at Katie as he said it? If he had it was only for a split second, but still, Katie felt sure he had looked at her. What did that mean? Was he telling her something? Or was she just over analyzing and reading too much into nothing?
"Margret?" Angelina asked, waiting for him to embelish. "Adjectives would help."
"Margret, cute, smart red head from our runes class. Dating Roger Davies." Oliver told her.
"I see." Angelina said slowly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Oliver asked quickly, rearing for a fight.
"Nothing!" Angelina said, leaning back and throwing up her hands. "I only just thought that...well, it doesn't matter." Oliver snorted and dropped it, knowing that arguing now would do nothing, she wouldn't tell him either way.
They settled down and completed two nights of runes homework, began reviewing for the test, and studied for the inevidable quix that was bound to take place the next day.
"Katie, I don't understand this." Oliver burst out a few minutes later.
"Okay, see this line that they added diegonally here? See, just there? What does that mean to you?" Katie asked him.
"Absolutely nothing." Oliver replied stubbornly.
"Okay, because it's thick and right underneath the adjective, that means that it represents the verb To Have, right?" Katie asked.
"I suppose so." Oliver said, shaking his head.
"Do you even vaguely remember talking about this in class?" Katie said, slightly exasperated.
"I guess. Ever so vaguely." Oliver said, shrugging. "Runes isn't my strong suit, you know that Katie. She starts talking and it all feels like a different language."
"That might be due in part to the fact that it is, Oliver." Angelina reminded him.
"Right. It's all making sense now. No wonder I never understand anything she says. I thought her accent was even thicker than most of yours." Oliver said, acting as if he had just experienced a great epiphamy.
Katie and Angelina sighed, going back to their own work. He was hopeless.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, so high in fact that it was sinking, Katie began to get cold.
"Are you cold Katie?" Oliver asked. "You're covered in goosebumps! You're shivering!" He declared, putting his hand on her arm.
"Just a little cold." She chattered at him.
"Come on, let's go back to Gryfindor tower, we've done studying anyway." Oliver suggested, helping Katie and then Angelina up off the blanket. He then picked up the blanket and wrapped it around Katie's shoulders.
They walked up to the castle and made it to Gryfindor tower. they sat down in front of the fire and stuck their feet in front of the flames.
"Ahh." Sighed Katie with pleasure as she warmed up.
"It's really starting to be winter then, I suppose." Oliver said sadly.
"Yes, all the leaves are gone and it's getting cold already." Katie said, also sadly.
"Soon there wil be snow though!" Said Angelina enthusiastically. She loved the winter.
"Well yes, but right now we're in the in between phase when you can't play in the snow, but you can't play outside either. We're all stuck indoors. That or outside in parkas." Katie said, looking out the window.
"Practice will be hell in this cold. Oh well, once we start flying we'll warm up." Oliver said, cheering up at the thought of Quiddich.
"I hadn't even thought of the tortures of throwing a quaffle in this weather!" Angelina howled, rubbing her knuckles in anticipation of the torture to come.
"Oh, come on, it's not so bad. Besides, we need to be ready for our first match of the season!" Oliver exclaimed excitedly.
The girls rolled their eyes at eachother as Oliver started talking about the Quiddich Cup and the importance of this match.
Authors Note: Okay, that was a reaaally long chapter, like, 12 or 13 pages I'm pretty sure. So I hope it was worth the wait! Haha, thanks again for everyones reviews, and I hope you keep giving me feedback and imput, I really appreciate it! Was it any good? It was a little fluffier right? I'm on the way to the really good stuff though, like when people actually start dating and stuff...haha I can't wait to write that! If any of you have any ideas for improvements, I would be really grateful!