Chapter 7

"Well?!" Katie smirked as she sat down between Angelina and Alicia, who were giving her expectant faces.

"What?" she asked as innocently as she could.

"Oh don't give us that! We want the juicy details!" Angelina wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Katie laughed.

"Yeah, come on! How did it go?" The twins chuckled but didn't make any comments about Alicia's question. Oliver, on the other hand, looked like he was about to give himself a hernia.

"He was really sweet and everything—" Oliver stood up suddenly and started for the Boys' Dormitory. "Oliver!" But he either did not hear or ignored Katie's call. "What's wrong with him?!"

"Don't worry about it Katie." Fred and George were no longer smiling at Angelina and Alicia's questions; they looked uncharacteristically somber and serious.

"We'll see you in the morning." George leaned over and gave Alicia a quick kiss on the cheek before departing. Fred smiled, kissed Angelina on the head, and then followed his twin.

Katie sighed and buried her head in her hands. "I wish I could say I had a horrible time and avoid all this fighting. But ... I can't, it would be a lie." Angelina rubbed Katie's back comfortingly.

"Come on, let's forget Oliver. We'll go upstairs, have a cup of tea, and you can tell us all about your date." Katie managed at weak smile for Alicia and the three of them started upstairs. Once upstairs alone, Katie seemed to regain some of the warm fuzzy feeling she had lost when Oliver stormed out.

"So, how did it go?" Angelina sat down on her bed and motioned for Katie and Alicia to do the same.

"Oh my god! He is the sweetest guy ever! We talked the whole time, he said he wanted to get to know me." Katie grinned and spun around in a circle. It wasn't like Katie had never had a boyfriend before, but it had definitely been a while. With school and Quidditch taking up most of her time and the twins and Oliver hounding any prospective boyfriends, the chances weren't good. "And then I told him I was sorry about whatever the twins and Oliver did, and you know what he said?"

"What?!" Angelina and Alicia's eyes widened.

"He said I was worth it!" The girls shrieked and Katie smiled through her blushing. Katie sat down on the bed and starting telling them all about her fairy tale date with Cedric.

The Great Hall

"Oliver I just ran into the Hufflepuff captain in the hallway. He said they've got two players sick and since Harry's sick and the weather's so bad, he'd be willing to postpone." Katie sat down and started to fill her plate. Harry had come down with some kind of flu over the weekend. "I'm assuming we will, but I told him I'd talk to you anyways. I mean Harry looked pretty bad and the weather's absolutely horrid."

"No. Harry's getting fixed up as we speak and we've played in worse." Katie choked on her bacon and she, Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia stared at Oliver in shock. They looked out the window; it was hailing tennis-ball sized hail and practically pitch black, despite the fact that it was 9 AM.

"You can't be serious?!"

"Oh yes, Alicia. I'm quite serious." Oliver calmly chewed on a piece of toast, not meeting his friends' eyes.

"We'll all die!"

"We'll get struck by lightning!" Fred finished his brother's thought.

"You won't die. We don't have anything metal that would conduct the lightning. But, you're right there probably will be lighting." Oliver glanced over a copy of the Daily Prophet as he continued to calmly eat his breakfast.

"It's got to be 20 below with the wind chill!"

"We'll all get frostbite and never be able to play again!" Angelina and Alicia glared at their captain.

"No, it's probably only about 15 below, if you factor in wind chill and water. But you know that Medi-Wizards have ways to fix frostbite, you won't get any limbs hacked off." Oliver raised his eyebrows at the particularly good texture of the scrambled eggs.

"We won't be able to see anything!" George slapped his forehead in frustration as Oliver continued to eat serenely.

"We'll all get pelted to death by hail and Bludgers!" Fred gave Oliver a wide-eyed expression, which went unnoticed.

"Stop being so dramatic. We're playing Hufflepuff today and that's the final decision. We'll have better chances to win, besides, because, like Katie said, they've got two players out. We've trained in this weather, they haven't. That assures us the win and puts us ahead in points." Oliver looked up from his paper and gave them all a 'don't test me' expression, before turning the page and continuing to read.

"Oliver Wood! How dare you! You ... you're ... arg! Harry's sick! You ... you don't care about anything but your own fucking pride and winning the damn cup!" Oliver looked up from his paper, quite startled; it was the first thing Katie had said in a while.

"Kate, you know that's not true." He turned back to his paper.

"Don't you dare ignore me you asshole!" Oliver's eyes shot up from his paper, his shocked expression soon melted away into a glare. "You don't care about anything at all! All you want is to win the damn cup!" Katie turned to storm off, but stopped suddenly and turned around. "And don't call me Kate!" Everyone's eyes got very, very wide. Oliver was the only person in the entire world that called Katie 'Kate'. It signified to the whole world just how close they really were; now she was taking that away from him.

"Katie?" Oliver called after her, but she was gone.

"Does that mean you're postponing the game?" Fred asked in a hopeful tone.

"No."

Gryffindor Locker Rooms

"Katie, we need to talk." Katie flipped her hair out of her face and looked around the door of her locker to find Oliver standing there, fully dressed in his Quidditch uniform, looking sullen.

"Well I can't expect you to call off the game now that we're all here and dressed. But do you want to apologize?"

"What? No!" Katie's neutral expression turned to a glare filled with almost as much anger as the one she used on Slytherins. Oliver unconsciously took a step backwards.

"Then we have nothing to talk about." Katie drew her hair up into a tight ponytail, slammed her locker shut, and then stormed away. Oliver turned around and gave Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia a helpless look, but they just glared at him. Oliver sighed and threw his arms in the air, storming off in the opposite direction as Kaite.

Fred glanced at Harry; he definitely wasn't looking too good. He was well enough to fly, in regular circumstances, but this was taking it a little bit far. Harry attempted a smile when he noticed that Fred was looking at him, but Fred just shook his head and, closing his locker, walked away.

The Quidditch Field

Oliver squinted, trying to make out what was happening at the other end of the field. Bloody rain, he thought. The speaker was droned out by the wind and thunder, but he did hear the distinct bell that told him Gryffindor had scored. He glanced up at Harry, who was hovering a few yards above him scanning the field.

On the other side of the field, Katie had the Quaffle ... again. Hufflepuff was bad, no they were horrible, but in this weather they had no chance against her. It was becoming increasingly hard to pass, so Katie did most of the scoring on her own. She tucked the Quaffle securely under her arm and started flying towards the rings. The Hufflepuff keeper didn't see her until she was almost in scoring range.

He turned his broom and shot straight for her, attempting to block the shot she had just threw. Katie didn't realize he was about to collide with her until it was too late. He was almost on top of her when an arm shot out and pushed her out of the way. She reeled for a moment, before regaining control of her broom.

She looked around frantically; hovering above her was George Weasley. He bowed his head slightly as she gave him a grateful look.

"Be more careful, Katie." George yelled, or at least that's what Katie was supposed to hear. She say his mouth move, but couldn't hear was he was saying. Dismissing it, she flew down to the ground below the hoops were the Quaffle was lying idle. She picked it up and started to go for another shot.

Two Hours Later

It took a good 10 minutes to get the signal to all of the players that a time-out had been called. Oliver touched down and waited for his team; he shivered involuntarily against the cold. Everyone finally landed and walked over to him. Katie looked as if she was about to collapse, and no one else was in a much better state.

"She's scored about 10 times, but we can't go on forever," Fred explained. He cast Katie a comforting look but she just shivered and stared at the ground. She didn't really know what she was supposed to do; she couldn't see anything well enough to pass to Angelina or Alicia. The Hufflepuff Chasers were only vaguely aware of who possessed the Quaffle, but she didn't want to risk them getting possession and then scoring. She couldn't just sit there holding the Quaffle; she had to do something with it. So scoring as many times as possible was really her only option. But all this was for naught if Harry didn't catch the snitch.

They all shivered constantly as they stood there; every inch of their bodies was drenched to the bone. Their clothes were completely soaked; you could have bathed in all the water that would later be squeezed out of them. Oliver sighed as he looked at the pale faces, made slightly red by the cold and wind.

"You've got to catch that Snitch really bloody soon." Angelina stared intently at Harry, who nodded.

"Its too hard to see anything!" Alicia wailed.

"Don't get yourself into hysterics. Harry, catch that Snitch! The rest of you will just have to continue what you were doing. Weasleys, watch out for the girls and try and make sure they don't get hit with anything. Ladies, keep the Quaffle out of Hufflepuff hands!" Oliver nodded and swung a leg over his broom. The rest did the same and in seconds they were back up in the air.

One Hour Later

It was quickly becoming hopeless; the weather had gotten steadily worse as the game dragged on and on. Oliver could no longer even hear the bell to signal a Gryffindor goal, so he just sat there, flying back and forth in front of the hoops to keep him warm. The constant thunder and the drumming of the rain was deafening. He suddenly wished he were inside, with all his friends, in front of a roaring fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. Pushing such thoughts out of his head, he concentrated at the task at hand; winning the Quidditch Game.

By some extraordinary stroke of luck, Harry saw the Snitch shimmer a few feet in front of him when lightning struck. He was off within seconds; he reached out his hand and closed his fist around the tiny, golden ball. He raised it in the air and sighed heavily. But this was all a little bit too late.

Near the Hufflepuff rings, Katie was scoring yet again. The Hufflepuff Keeper looked like he was about to give up; Katie was near that point as well, but her Gryffindor pride would never allow her to admit that. Just as she raised her arm, holding the Quaffle, to throw it into the center ring, a Bludger shot out of the darkness. Katie didn't even realize it was a Bludger until an intense pain in her side told her it had connected with her ... and it had connected with her very hard indeed. Katie blacked out from the pain, rolled off her broom and fell thirty feet to the ground below.

"Oh my god! Katie!" George, who had been attempting to watch and help Katie and Alicia, flew directly down to the ground. Oliver and the rest of the team touched down near him, smiling triumphantly as Harry waved the Snitch in the air. The crowd was cheering, or what was left of it, but whatever noise they were making was drowned out.

"Is Katie alright George?" Oliver asked in a calm tone as Madame Hooch and the Hufflepuff team came over and shook his hand.

"Bloody hell she's not! She just fell thirty feet!" Everyone's eyes widened; Fred, Angelina, and Alicia were suddenly hit with a wave of realization. They had heard a faint cry and seen something fall to the ground, but the fact that it was Katie had never entered their mind.

Oliver was at her side in seconds, he knelt down next to her and rolled her over onto her back. He put his face close to hers, trying to hear her breathing. He watched her chest, praying that he would see it moving slowly up and down ... but he didn't. He heard nothing and saw no movement. He leaned over the limp body of Katherine Anne Bell and let out a cry of frustration as tears pricked his eyes.

A/N: Mwahahahaha! I'm such an evil person! If I was really mean, I wouldn't update for like weeks ... but I'm not. I've already started the next chapter. But come on people, what do you honestly think is going to happen? Anyways, please review! This chapter was bloody hard to write for some reason. I hate writing about games ... sigh. What did you think?!

MasterHarperMenolly: Sorry about the bust on the date ... there will be lots more fluff between them soon. (That is ... if Katie lives of course, mwaha!) How did you like this chapter?!

Disclaimer: As often as I like to think that I do own Harry Potter ... sadly, I don't. So don't sue!