Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I own the plot. Ok, and I own any characters you have never heard of or don't recognize.
A/N: Hey everyone. This is my first Katie/Oliver fic so bear with me.If it's really bad let me know. If it's not, let me know. It is set during Harry's first year and if it is successful may continue further. Anyways, on with the chapter...
Chapter 1
Katie sighed and leaned back into the seat. She was stuck in a carriage with only the Weasley twins for company. Fred and George were lucky enough to be in their third year at Hogwarts, which meant that they had already tried out and successfully gained positions on the Hogwarts quidditch team as beaters.
Coming from a pure blood wizard family Katie was naturally totally in love with quidditch. Her parents joked that she had learned to fly before learning to walk. Katie was secretly hoping to try out for the position of chaser as it had been vacated since one of the previous chasers had finished the year before. The two other chaser positions were filled by Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet. Despite the fact that they were a year older then her, Angelina and Alicia were her best friends. They had taken her under their wing, the year before when she first started and didn't know anyone. The other girls in Katie's year just seemed so giggly and silly so she stuck to hanging out with Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George. When they had all tried out for and received places on the quidditch team the year before Katie was extremely jealous. Which is how she ended up watching each practice and each game from the stands, every time wishing she was out there with them.
So as they made our way towards Hogwarts on the train she sat in silence watching Fred and George play exploding snap, wondering where Angelina and Alicia were. They didn't turn up until almost halfway through the journey. By this time Katie had dozed off, purely out of boredom. She woke as the door slid open.
"Where have you been?" she asked, stretching.
"Hello to you," Angelina said, looking a little annoyed. "My summer was great, thanks for asking. How was yours?" She glared at her.
"Point taken," Katie said, shrugging.
"We ran into Wood at King's Cross and we've only just managed to escape," Alicia explained.
"What did Wood want?"
Oliver Wood was the Gryffindor quidditch team captain. He was in 5th year and apart from the odd conversation about quidditch with Katie she didn't really talk to him and hardly knew him.
"What do you think he wanted?" Angelina said, flopping down next to me with her arms crossed, "he only ever has one thing on his mind."
"Quidditch," the twins said dully.
"Exactly," Angelina clarified. "He came up with some new game plans over the summer."
There was a collective groan throughout the carriage from everyone except Katie, who looked interested.
"We do have some interesting news though," Alicia piped up, "we heard it when we were leaving Oliver's carriage. It was everywhere. Harry Potter is on the train!"
"Well that's no surprise," Katie replied. "Where else would he go? Hogwarts is the only school for wizards in Britain."
Alicia shrugged in reply.
"We knew about Harry already," one of the twins mentioned, as the pile of cards in front of him exploded with a loud bang.
"We met him earlier. He's sitting with our little brother Ronniekins," the other explained.
"And you didn't mention this… why?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow. The only reply she got was a shrug.
The compartment door opened again as Lee entered, a big box held tightly in one hand. They looked at it curiously.
"Tarantula," he explained.
Angelina, Alicia and Katie squealed and jumped up, heading for the door. Behind them they could hear the twins asking Lee if they could see it. The three girls had never moved so fast in their lives. They ran down the train, looking for another empty compartment, slowing down and looking into a compartment containing a black haired boy (obviously Harry Potter), a red haired boy (Ronniekins), and a bushy haired girl they didn't know. Katie pushed the other two forward as they stop and whispered to each other.
"Come on," she urged at them. "I'm sure he doesn't appreciate being stared at,"
They ended up back in Oliver's compartment, which also contained two of his friends they hadn't met. As Oliver tried to strike up a conversation with Angelina and Alicia (about quidditch… what else?) Katie sat looking out the window dully.
"You ok there?" she heard a voice ask her. She looked up to see one of Oliver's friends looking down at her.
"Yeah I'm fine," she replied with a little smile. "Just a little…"
"Bored?" he asked, his face breaking into a grin.
"You could say that," she replied, laughing a little.
"Roger Davies," he said, putting out a hand.
"Katie Bell," she replied shaking it.
"Nice to meet you Katie," Roger said, still grinning.
"Likewise."
"Can I interest you in a game of chess?"
She found herself shrugging. "Why not."
Three games of chess later (Katie won two), they were almost at Hogwarts. The girls said goodbye to Oliver, Roger and Oliver's other friend (Josh), then made their way back to their own compartment, relieved to find that Lee and his tarantula were gone. After kicking the twins out the girls changed into their robes then waited rather impatiently until the train slowed to a halt at the platform.
They made their way past Hagrid, the groundskeeper who was calling for the first years to follow him. Katie patted one of the thestrals pulling the carriage they were about to pile into with the twins. Angelina gave her a weird look.
"What are you doing?" she asked Katie.
"Patting the… uhh… thing pulling our carriage… what did you think I was doing?"
"I didn't know… it just looked a little weird… you know, seeing as how there's nothing there and all."
Katie looked at the thestral and back to Angelina.
"Of course there's something pulling it," she told her.
"I can see it too," Alicia pointed out.
"Thestral," Roger pointed out as he got into our carriage. "You can only see them if you've seen someone die."
Angelina shuddered. "Then I'm kinda glad I can't see them."
They piled into the carriage. No one spoke for the entire journey to the castle, as they all watched for the first sight of the grounds. Katie felt like she was returning home. From the looks on the faces of some of the others, she knew they felt the same.
"There he is," someone whispered in her ear. Katie didn't bother to see who it was, she was too busy watching the black haired boy walk up to the sorting hat. He looked quite nervous. She crossed her fingers, hoping Harry Potter would be sorted into her house. The hat took longer then usual to decide. Katie cheered with the rest as it loudly declared "Gryffindor!"
After the last few first years were sorted, she waited impatiently for the feast to begin. Her empty stomach was complaining loudly.
"I wonder if he takes after his father," a voice said in her ear, the same that had whispered to her when Harry was about to be sorted. Realizing she hadn't bothered to figure out whose it was, she turned to her right to see Oliver Wood looking at her.
"Why is that?" Katie asked him.
"Because if he does, we might actually be able to win the cup this year," Oliver replied, a soft smile on his face.
Katie rolled her eyes, resisting the sudden urge to hit her forehead on the table.
"Whatever you say, Wood," she told him, helping herself to the chicken that had just appeared on the table. "When are tryouts going to be, anyway?"
"Probably next week."
She nodded her head thoughtfully. "I see." She was, of course, planning what days to get out her broom and practice.
"Are you trying out?" Oliver asked, his mouth half full of potatoes.
"Swallow," she commanded him. "Yeah I am. Chaser."
Oliver swallowed his potatoes. "Well good luck. I'll post a notice in the common with the exact dates soon."
Katie nodded again. "I'll be looking out for it."
After the feast they made their way to the common room, where they immediately took over the comfy chairs, watching with smirks as Percy led the first years in, his chest thrust out to emphasis the prefect badge he wore.
"His head's going to over-inflate," Katie commented.
"We can help him out with that," Fred said, grinning evilly. He looked at George, who wore an identical grin.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you will. But anyway, I'm off to bed. Need my beauty sleep."
George snickered. "You definitely do."
Katie kicked him, giving him an evil glare, then made her way up to the second year girls' dorms, cursing George under her breath.
The next morning found Katie glaring into a bowl of cornflakes, yawning as she pushed the food around the bowl. Despite her attempts to get a good night's sleep she had been kept awake until the early hours of the morning by the girls in her year who were chatting about some famous muggle guy… Orlando Broom or something like that. She had been tempted to cast a silencing charm around her bed, but after realizing she couldn't remember the counter spell she decided against it. Finally, after putting up with a few hours of their giggling, Katie grabbed her blanket and pillow and made her way to the third year girls' dorm, where she woke Alicia and ordered her to move over.
As she drained her second cup of coffee (black, one sugar), Oliver sat down next to her and reached for the toast.
"Quidditch tryouts are next Tuesday on the pitch at 6.30."
"Thanks."
There was silence as he munched on his toast and Katie poured herself another cup of coffee. As Angelina vacated the seat on her left Roger Davies sat down next to her, watching as Katie finished that cup of coffee too.
"Is that your… third?" he asked in wonder.
Katie nodded. "Rough night in the dorms. You know how second year girls can be. Had to take over Alicia's bed for the night."
Roger gave a short laugh. "I see."
McGonagall arrived, handing out timetables.
Katie groaned, looking at her first class, then dropped her head forward onto the table.
"That bad, huh?" Roger asked, pulling her timetable out of her hand. "Yup, that bad," he confirmed, reading it and putting it back into her hand. "Double potions with the Slytherins first… looks like you got the short end of the stick.
Katie groaned again, wishing the timetable would magically rearrange itself.
A/N: Hmm. Well I couldn't think of anything else to add to this chapter. I'm trying to write a minimum of 2000 words per chapter to keep them from getting too short, but I wanted to move things forward so 1773 words (not including A/N, disclaimer etc) will have to do for now.
R/R.