CHAPTER FIVE

A/N: OK, you guys may have noticed that Oliver Wood is getting to be a little out of character these last few chapters. But in order to achieve the full-intended impact of this story, I had to twist some of what was already given to get the result I needed. I hope you'll bear with me. Thanks, and I present to you, chapter five. Oh, and I suggest a little parental guidance with this chapter (like anyone still remembers what parental guidance means) since it will get somewhat violent. Thanks, and enjoy!

The next day, Oliver was sitting at his usual place at the breakfast table when a whoosh of owls came in with the mail. A large screech owl landed in front of him, a piece of parchment in its mouth. He could make out the words Addressed to: Oliver Wood, Gryffindor House. "What you got there mate?" Lee asked. "No idea." Oliver replied, taking the letter out of the owl's beak. He studied it a bit before opening it. He had looked at it for just a minute when he let out a groan. "I don't believe this!" he groaned. "What's wrong?" Lee asked. Oliver tossed the letter to Lee, who read it:

Dear Mr. Wood,

For your misbehavior during Potions class, you have been sentenced to clean the telescopes in the Astronomy classroom and to polish the models there, along with Miss Hargrove, at eight o'clock in the evening for the rest of the week.

Thank you,

Professor Minerva McGonagall

"That's a nasty job mate. You'll be up all night having a go at those telescopes." Lee sympathized. Oliver shot a quick glance at the Ravenclaw table and saw that Mae had just gotten her detention note. Her face was frowning at the letter, and he quickly turned his gaze to his plate of breakfast before she got it into her mind to frown at him. "Well, I can't say you didn't deserve it mate. But then again, you did get her attention. Well, sort of anyway." Lee grinned at him. Oliver blushed profusely, and tried to return to his breakfast, without thinking of what lay ahead for the evening.

The whole day, Oliver tried not to think about his detention, trying also to finish all his schoolwork and not leave anything to be done for the evening. But somewhere, deep in him, he was secretly glad that they would be together in the same detention, because at least he got to spend some time with Mae, even if he knew he would probably get the cold shoulder for the whole duration of the detention.

That evening after dinner, Oliver walked up with heavy feet to the Astronomy tower where he saw Professor McGonagall looking down at him. "Mr. Wood, I hope this will serve as a reminder to keep your thoughts to yourself. There is a bucket of polish and a few rags, and you are only allowed to leave once all the telescopes and the models have been polished." Professor McGonagall said to him. He nodded slightly, seeing Mae come up the stairs. She greeted Professor McGonagall good evening before snatching up a rag. "The sooner we get this finished, the better." She growled at Oliver.

The telescopes had several lenses that had to be taken out and polished individually, and there were several telescopes in the classroom. Mae and Oliver split the work, not talking to each other for about an hour. Oliver desperately wanted to melt the tension between them, but one look at Mae's face told him not to mess with her. But he needed to do this, if only to ease the pressure on his mind. "These things are a pain." He said to nobody in particular. "Not as much as you are. And I don't see why you're complaining in the first place, since you're the one who got us here!" she snapped at him. "Look Mae, I thought you'd be at least grateful that I didn't give you a hard time about it." He shot back. "Why would I be grateful? You got me into this mess, and now you think I'm HAPPY about it?" she asked.

"Well, at least I didn't give you any more trouble now that I already had. You're too tense, did anyone ever tell you that?" he blasted back at her. "Just mind your own business!" she snapped. Oliver let out a growl and tossed the rag at her. "For once, I'd want you to stop giving me orders. You're not the one who runs my life!" "Well, I'd like to see you try," she said, standing up and crossing her arms. "You're crazy to crack that one by me. But since you wanted it, fine." He said, standing up as well and stalking towards her until he was directly in front of her, looming over her.  "So, what are you going to do? Stand there until I die of boredom?" she said, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. "Why don't you just lay off?" he said, shoving her shoulders, making her step over backwards. "You're so pathetic, picking on a girl." She said, shoving him back. "Likewise, you are the most tense person I have ever met, not to mention the bossiest one too. So just get that through your head." He answered, pushing her shoulder. She gave a low growl and leapt at him, sending them wrestling on the floor. Mae pulled at his shirt collar and tried to punch at his face while he tried to get a hand around her throat. Right now, he was too angry to remember that he had a crush on her. For someone as mild-mannered as he was, he had quickly gotten mad at her. Her arm swung backwards to punch his face, and it did. Her closed fist connected with his eye and he let out a grunt.

He saw her arm swing backwards again to go for another punch when he grabbed her arm, and in a quick move, he turned over and pinned her arm behind her back, while she was on the floor struggling beneath him. "Cor, I give! I give, just let me up!" she panted, going limp on the floor. He let go, but she quickly turned on her back and tried to punch the side of his face, but he caught her arm. "Nice try. And I'll have the other hand too, just to make sure." He said to her, grabbing her other arm. "Now can you say I won?" he grinned. Mae closed her eyes and nodded her head. "I can't believe I just let a boy beat me." She groaned. "Not that I'm overtly proud of it, but I'm sure that it told you something about my ego." He cheekily answered. "All it told me is that you're somebody who's violent and who'd gladly pick a fight with a boy or a girl. If you let me up, and I don't try to knock your eyeballs out, can't we just call a truce? Frankly, I'm getting sick of all this fighting. It's driving me nuts," she tiredly asked. Oliver could see that all the fighting spirit had gone out of her. He pulled on her arms and helped her to a sitting position. "You're quite a scrapper." He observed. "Well, it kind of follows after having three brothers and no mother. You learn to fight." She replied.

"It must be a riot, having to deal with all those boys." He said, shaking his head. "Well, it is. I just hate having to get into trouble for what a boy would do." She said, eyeing him carefully. "And for that I apologize. Really Mae, I didn't mean to insult you or anything. I just wanted to help." He explained. "I suppose I should forgive you. But I just want you to remember that I don't need defending. I had enough of that from you." She said, making move to stand up. "Thanks Mae. And I will remember that." He said, getting up as well. She didn't reply because she was looking around at the classroom. "You know, this will take all evening, and I know a convenient scrubbing charm that'll get all these telescopes polished and nobody will notice that we've used magic."

Oliver gave sigh of relief. "You have just saved my evening Mae. Go for it." He said, slumping into a chair. "OK, just stand next to me, and I'll have this place cleaned out in no time." She said, wiggling her wand and saying, "Freshio!"  Instantly, a cloud of purple began drifting over each telescope and when it moved onto the next one, it left the telescope it just cleaned spotless. Five minutes in, and the whole place was sparkling, and so were the models of the planets.

"Unbelievable Mae. Thanks a lot." He smiled at her. Mae gave a goofy sort of curtsy then looked at her watch. "And look at that, it's only nine thirty. We can definitely make it back to our common rooms and do homework." She said, turning to leave the room. Oliver followed her out the room and out into the corridor where she was whistling between her teeth. They walked together until the stairs where Mae had to take a left staircase and he had to take a right. "Right. Well, goodnight Mae. That was a lark." He devilishly grinned, winking. "Wasn't it?" she smiled back, before yawning widely. "I'll go sleep now. Goodnight Oliver, and I'll see you tomorrow night. Same time, same place." She sleepily grinned, waving goodbye to him before going up.

Oliver didn't recall exactly how he got to his common room, but his mind was in a fuzzy cloud. "Password?" the Fat Lady asked. "Candy corn." He mumbled, before climbing through the portrait wall and sinking into a chair. This had turned out to be a good evening. A very good evening indeed. And this was the way they would be for the rest of the week. Oh, life was great, even if it was detention.

A/N: School has started again for me, so it will be a while before you can get chapter six. I'm surprised actually that I've gone through five chapters and only one review, because I thought loads of people liked Oliver Wood. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe they just don't want to review. Please review, I need some constructive help here. I'm not a very good writer, and I need to know how I'm doing so far. Thank you! Oh, and if you want to add me on your Friendster or Yahoo Messenger, my email address is : megbloom77yahoo.com