Disclaimer: Ok, this is FANfiction! You shouldn't even need to write one of these…right? Anyway…I don't own Harry Potter or any Harry Potter Characters…I'm just borrowing them.
Summary- I don't want to write one right now.
Rating: PG-ish-ness
Note: The character's thoughts will appear in Italics. Sorry if it's confusing. Also review replies are at the bottom!
The part of the story within the asterisks is mostly taken from the POA – pages 168 and 169 of the American Paperback version. I thought I'd add that just in case anyone feels like looking it up to see what changes I made) I left most of the dialogue the same, but just changed some little things to make sure that the whole "plot" worked out.
End of Chapter 9:
"Alright, well, you'd better get to bed." Cedric leaned in, giving her a peck on the cheek. "I'm still waiting for someone."
"M'kay. Goodnight."
"'Night Angie." Angelina turned and walked away slowly, wondering why, even though the cutest most popular boy in school had just kissed her cheek, her mind was still dwelling on the fact that Fred Weasley had called her Johnson.
………….
Closest Thing to Heaven
© Angelface04
April 3, 2005
…………..
The weather turned sour over the next few days as heavy winds and rains struck the Hogwarts grounds. But even so, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was practicing every spare minute. Apparently, nothing could stop the undaunted captain Oliver Wood.
It's not like he had anything else to do anyway.
He had been pouring over plays, going over new ideas, reading and re-reading notes that he had taken of Slytherin's moves and formations last year, and he was still thinking about her.
Let her go.
He wondered how many times he'd told himself that.
Too many times, Oliver. Get over it. She doesn't feel that way about you.
But how could he stop feeling that way about her?
He hadn't gone to breakfast that morning. Instead, he had gone down to the Captain's office, sorting plays and notes. The rap on the door startled him, and he felt a jerk in his stomach. Could it be…?
No – no she wouldn't come back. Not after the other night, not after…
He gripped the doorknob, swinging the door open with his breath caught in his windpipe.
"Wood." It was Marcus Flint. He exhaled, but his eyes narrowed.
"Flint." Oliver replied cooly. "What can I do for you?"
"I just came to talk with you about the match tomorrow." Flint examined his nails carefully, a smug smile lifting the edges of his lips.
"What about it?" Oliver snapped, opening the door a little wider so that he could see Flint's whole face. He wasn't on good terms with Flint normally, especially when it came to Quidditch. Plus, he was stuck in the middle of a pretty depressing rut at the moment.
"Malfoy's arm is still injured." He quipped, looking up from his nails. "We won't be able to compete Saturday." Wood's mouth fell open out of complete shock.
"Excuse me?" Marcus whipped out a folded piece of parchment and shoved it at the Gryffindor. Oliver snatched it up, tearing it open and skimming over the contents.
Due to the injuries of Draco Malfoy, the seeker of the Slytherin Quidditch team, I, Professor Snape, request that they receive permission to pull out of the match against Gryffindor Saturday evening.
Professor S. Snape
Madam Hooch had signed it at the bottom.
"You are kidding me." Oliver growled, tossing the letter onto his desk. "That's bollocks and you know it!" Marcus grinned smugly.
"Have fun playing Hufflepuff on Saturday, Wood." Marcus sneered, and then slid away.
………………………….
Oliver wasn't at breakfast when Angelina entered the Great Hall. She uttered a sigh of relief as she sat down. At least she wouldn't have to feel guilty every time that she looked across the table. The truth was…she hadn't known that she'd felt that strongly about Fred until she'd said it. And now, as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye she realized that she really did care about him.
A lot.
But he was angry – and he had hurt her. So when Cedric caught her eye and gave a small smile and quick wave, she returned it. She expected the glare that Fred shot her way to make her want to grin in satisfaction, but when he looked at her she realized that it wasn't jealously that she was seeing in his eyes…
It was pain.
The realization of that made her catch her breath, but she didn't look away. He shook his head disgustedly, turning his ocean-blue eyes down to his plate, because apparently whatever was there was less despicable than she was.
Could she really blame him? She had just been playing his emotions since day one. She had just wanted to feel important because she had two guys fawning over her. Well, this whole thing was a mess now, and she was so deep under that she couldn't fight her way back to the top again to catch a breath. She was exhausted and sick of feeling like she was about to lose it.
Getting up slowly she took a deep breath, and slid next to Fred. He ignored her.
"Fred, listen…"
"You're a bloody slut Johnson." The words were out of his mouth before he could bite them back. She gaped at him, the tears welling in her eyes.
"You don't mean that." She hissed, her head shaking slowly.
"Don't I?" He snarled
She stood up from the table abruptly, knocking over a glass of milk and rattling the silverware. Five pairs of eyes followed her out of the Great Hall and this time it was Fred's turn to fight back the feeling of a heavy burden on his shoulders.
"This is ridiculous." Katie snapped, slamming her fork down. "Bloody ridiculous. Get over yourself Fred! She's been through enough, alright?" He didn't have time to reply before she was gone after her friend. George sighed, and Lee looked away. Alicia was staring at her plate.
"Come on guys!" Fred said, exasperated. "Like you don't agree with me! Can you look me in the face and tell me that she's not?" Alicia's head shot up angrily.
"She's not." She murmured almost under her breath. "And if she's a slut then what does that make you?" The table was silent.
…………………..
It was the final training session before Saturday's match. Oliver took a deep breath before entering the locker room, where he found his team sitting, a little more silent and sullen than usual. His news wasn't going to help their spirits any.
"We're not playing Slytherin." He told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."
"Why?" Six voices shot back at him impudently.
"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured." Said Wood, grinding his teeth "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances…"
"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously. "He's faking it!"
"I know that, but we can't prove it," Said Oliver bitterly. "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new Captian and Seeker, Cedric Diggory - "
Katie smiled at Angelina nudging her in the ribs. Angelina cracked a smirk as well, shushing her giggling friend.
"What?" said Wood, frowning.
"He's the tall good looking one isn't he?" asked Alicia, staring straight at Angelina, and although she knew quite well.
"Strong and silent." Said Katie. Angelina ducked her head, her cheeks gathering a light pink color.
"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently. "I don't know why you're so worried Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover. Last time we played them Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"
"But we're playing in completely different conditions!" Wood shouted. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I'm was afraid that you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"
"Oliver! Calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed. "We're talking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."
………………………
She ran into him on the Grounds when she was running back to the castle from Herbology. She'd been so out of it that she hadn't even noticed where she was going. It was raining furiously and she had had to stay after a few moments to double-check her marks.
"Woah!" He said when she slammed into him and stumbled backwards, almost falling onto the soaking grass. His eyes squinted through the rain. "Angelina?"
"Cedric?" He smiled at her, offering her his hand.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah." She took a deep breath picking up a loose sheet of parchment. "Sorry."
"It's okay." He stared at her for a minute. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Um-hmm." She looked away quickly and then back, making up her mind.
It's now or never.
"Cedric, I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay. Well, maybe later, it's kinda wet – if you know what I mean." She hadn't even noticed that they had been standing in the rain.
"Right. Well, later then?" She attempted, lamely, to lift the corner of her mouth into a smile. He nodded, smiling at her and then waving goodbye as she walked away.
…………………………………..
George eyed his brother from a distance, lying on his bed. They hadn't been talking much lately. George had been rather mad at his twin since the day that he'd called Angelina a slut. That's not how you treated a girl, whether you were angry with her or not. He picked up a book instead, something that Lee had been reading and began reading on a random page.
"George?" He peeked over the edge of his book. It was Fred who sat on the end of George's bed gingerly.
"What?"
"I saw Diggory just a few minutes ago."
"Okay…?" He lifted the book back up.
"He was with someone. But, it wasn't Angelina."
"What do you mean, 'with'?" George asked from behind his book. Fred sighed, closing his eyes.
"I mean, kissing with."
"Angelina?" George set the book down, finally interested.
"No…it was a Ravenclaw girl…Cho or something." Fred was picking at a loose thread on the comforter.
"So you're admitting that maybe Angelina was telling the truth, and Cedric really is just a friend?" Silence again.
"I feel so stupid."
"You've been stupid." Lying wasn't high on their "Things To Do" List.
"So what do I do?" George sighed, picking the book back up.
"I have no idea."
"Thanks for all of your help." Fred stood up, sarcastically muttering things under his breath.
"Well if you would've just given her some time in the first place you wouldn't have had to go through all of this! Or, if you had listened to moi when I told you that they were just family friends…or if you hadn't called her a slut…"
"I can't believe I said that."
"Me neither."
"I guess I just have to go apologize…"
"Yeah, that's going to work. Have fun with that." George watched almost genuinely as Fred slid his feet into his slippers and stole down the stairs. He shook his head slowly, tossing the book aside.
It's rubbish anyway…
………………………………
Probably just one more chapter guys! (PROBABLY, that's no promise.) I might as well apologize that I took so long updating, although I expect that all of you are probably very upset with me. I'm sorry! I tried! This one just took a long time. Didn't the end of this chapter seem a little forced? Is it just me? Anyway…here are the Review Replies….Enjoy. Oh yeah, and don't forget to review again!
Review Replies:
anaaid08: Nina's not dying. End of story. :o)
Chocolatebrowneyes: Don't worry, though I guess you found out, there's no way that I would have Nina with Cedric. That's just wrong! Then it would be, like, a love hexagon and I don't think that I could do it!
DOJ: Hmmm…what does DOJ stand for:oD Just curious. I'm glad that you like my story! It is dramatic, huh? Yeah, I know, one of these days I'm going to get a plot! I like Maroon 5 too! (I mean, obviously, since I used the song.) I hope that you keep reading!
dremekatcher: You're welcome for the comment – I like "What I Like About You" a lot too…did you read my story though? smiles.Just curious!
Duckie: Hi! I'm glad that you like it! I hope that you stuck around long enough to read this chapter too!
Elsewhere405: I'm sorry about Oliver! It was a tough decision for me to make between the two of them, but it was something that had to be done. :o) I hope that you'll keep reading, though!
Evilevergreen: I always love re-reading your reviews! Let's see….Yeah…sorry about that whole Oliver thing…I really did want him to win. I guess I have a knack for making Angelina sound evil, huh? ;o) Yeah, I feel bad for Nina too! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with her yet…I'll be thinking about it. Got any ideas? LOL about the "Update Soon" comment. Yeah right. It's only like 2 and a half months later! Not that bad!
eyesdyedblack: Where are you? Where have you been! Where is my story! I mean, yeah, I'm not one to be picky about updating, but COME ON WOMAN! I WANT MORE SECRET'S UNKNOWN, NOW! Okay, anyway, enough of that ranting. Thanks for your vote…(cough WIERDO cough:D you know I love you. How about I don't update until you do! EVERYONE GET EYESDYEDBLACK!
mandidanielleasbury: You are a dork. That's all I'm going to say, although I really do like reading your reviews there is NO WAY that I am going to try and write a review reply as long as your review. (FORGET IT!) I'm sleepy. (yawn) I'm gonna go to sleep as soon as I get done writing these replies…why am I telling you this? Next chappie will probably be the last (YES!) then maybe I can finally not feel guilty for not updating!
Mercurian Orchid: Sorry about Ollie! I've gotten more votes for Oliver since she turned him down then ever before. Lol. I hope that you keep on reading anyway? Well, I hope that this helps you figure out the Cedric thing, although the next chapter will probably answer the majority of that for you. They're just good friends – if that helps any. :S Sorry if I just confused you more. :op Hope to hear from you soon!
PropertyofFredWeasley: I'm glad that you like it! Here's more! I hope you like this chapter just as much as the last one!
Quidde15: Cross-wires…I like it…yeah, what can I say. I'm a sucker for drama and I have no sense of plot.Sorry that I had to make you do that Native American Tribal Update Dance for so long! That must have been rough on your legs! I hope it'll be sooner next time. I'm glad that you love my story. Blushes It makes me feel all happy inside. I hope you like this chapter too!
Shea LaRoc: Here's an update, though it's not soon! I hope that this chapter is as suspensful and exciting as the last!
Silver Scribes: DING DING DING! You were right! Aren't you proud? Not that that was very mysterious or anything, but I'm glad that you caught it! You and Evilevergreen were the only two to guess that it was Cho that he was on about…Congrats! Well, I'm hesitant to give you Ollie because I love him so much! (hugs Oliver) It broke my heart to have Angelina turn him down. Sorry the update took so long. I hope that you like this Chapter as well!
SuckerforGrint: Hola! Nice to hear from you again! It's good to know that you're not dead or anything. Yeah, Fred's an idiot. Most boys are! I hope that you read this chapter too – talk to you later…
Thanks everyone for reviewing – I hope the next one comes a little quicker!