Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. I own some of the plot. Don't sue me.
A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed for chapter 1.
Chapter 2
Katie breathed in deeply, and released the breath slowly. Oliver threw the quaffle to her then got into position. She gave herself a little grin. The days until tryouts seemed to have flown by, but she was ready. She had spent at least three nights a week practicing, as well as a good deal of Saturday. Angelina and Alicia thought she was crazy.
Three people had tried out before her for the position of chaser. Two of them, third years, had both tried out the year before and it was quite obvious as to why they had not been placed on the team. Out of five attempts at getting the quaffle past Oliver through the hoop, the first had managed to score twice and the second had scored only once. A second year boy, Adrian, had also tried out. Katie had to admit that he wasn't too bad, getting the quaffle through the hoops four times.
Finally it was Katie's. On her first try she managed to feint to the right, confusing Oliver long enough to get the quaffle through the hoop. Katie knew he wouldn't fall for another feint, so she took a backed up a little, allowing herself plenty of room. Flying as fast as she could, she spiralled tightly straight towards Oliver, faster and faster until everything around her was a blur. Twenty feet… ten feet… five feet… she made no sign of slowing down or stopping, and she could see Oliver grab hold of his broom tighter… three feet… two feet… one foot…
At the last second she pulled the broom up, just missing Oliver, the force of her speed pushing him backwards. She threw the quaffle through the ring easily, then without looking at Oliver, turned and made her way back to the starting point. The move was too easy, he should've been able to block the second one. Katie wondered to herself if he was purposely letting her get the quaffle through the hoops.
After her third attempt Katie reconsidered. She tried swerving to avoid Oliver, and they ended up doing a little dance-type-thing in front of the hoops. Katie finally saw an opening and threw the quaffle, but he was too quick, grabbing it just before it flew into the hoop. Her stomach did a flip flop. She only had two attempts left and she wanted this so badly.
"Four out of five isn't so bad," Angelina told Katie, as the girls made their way up to the castle.
"But my moves were weak," Katie whined, "I didn't use enough imagination coming up with them, and they were predictable."
"They were fine," Angelina reassured me, "you did the best you could, considering Oliver's awful idea of tryouts."
Katie shrugged. "I still don't know… that other second year did better then I did."
Alicia gave a little snort of laughter. "He was terrible… it was pure luck that he got the quaffle through the hoop as many times as he did."
Katie wasn't reassured.
By Thursday the list still hadn't been posted. Katie checked about three times throughout the day, but to no avail. She ate her steak and kidney pie rather gloomily at dinner, stabbing each piece a few million times before eating it.
"What'd your pie ever do to you?" Fred commented.
"Existed," she snapped in reply.
Fred didn't have time to reply as Oliver arrived at the table, a huge grin spread across his face.
"I've found us a seeker!" he almost shouted to Fred and George. A few people nearby turned to look and he hurriedly lowered his voice.
"Harry Potter," he told the twins quietly. "The boy's a natural."
The twins immediately stood to go congratulate him. Oliver sat down in Fred's empty seat, opposite Katie.
"What about a chaser?" she asked him quietly, mutilating the piece of pie remaining on her plate.
"We have a chaser too," he told her happily, helping himself to some potatoes. She waited but he didn't say anything else.
"Well?" she finally asked.
"Well what?"
"Who is it?"
"You'll have to wait until I post the notice to find out," he replied, a smirk on his face.
"Oliver!" Katie said in exasperation, "that's not fair!"
"Of course it's fair," he replied, popping a potato into his mouth.
"No it's not," she whined. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.
He grinned and swallowed. "You're right. It isn't."
Katie sighed, realizing he wasn't going to continue. "You're impossible, Wood."
"So are you," he told her. "Welcome aboard."
Her jaw dropped and he laughed at the expression on her face.
"I'll let you know when practices will start."
After a lot of screaming (on Angelina and Alicia's part) and a lot of eye-rolling from Katie, they calmed down and sat in silence, watching the flames flicker in the fireplace. It wasn't long before Katie retired to bed, the excitement of the day taking its toll.
Practices started soon after. Before long, Katie knew why the others complained so much about quidditch practice. Several early morning practices before classes had her almost permanently bleary-eyed and on edge. She was getting used to being woken at 5am by Angelina (Oliver tried but couldn't climb the stairs).
Fred and George of course did everything they could to disrupt the early morning practices, insulting Oliver, hitting every bludger they could towards him, "accidentally" leaving zonko's products in his locker and robes. It became an unusually common sight to see Oliver with purple skin.
Over the next little while Katie found herself in the hospital wing twice, both times the result of bludgers she hadn't seen coming. The first time she was carried in by Oliver, unconscious with a fractured arm. The second incident left her with little more then bruises, luckily, as the bludger had only just grazed her, but Madame Pomfrey insisted she spent a night in the hospital wing. Both times she had received visits from her teammates and Roger Davies and boxes of chocolates from Oliver and Davies. Half of them were tucked into her trunk for later as she resisted the urge not to turn herself into a hippopotamus by gorging herself.
So time went on and the days flew by, one after another, all seeming the same as the last. Her weekends were spent playing quidditch (of course), but also relaxing by the lake with Angelina and Katie or her Ravenclaw friend Leanne, soaking up the sun. They were sometimes joined by Oliver or Roger, but not always. Katie found Roger Davies behaviour quite puzzling… the acknowledgement in the hallways, walking her to classes, sitting with her at meals… she didn't know what to think of it.
"He likes you," Angelina stated in a matter-of-fact voice.
Katie looked at her in disbelief. "He's too old for me. He's in the same year as Wood."
"So?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. "It's only three years difference."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Ange."
Rogers strange behaviour continued, but she tried to ignore it.
The first Hogsmeade weekend rolled around, and Katie found herself looking forward to it for the simple reason that she knew the others would bring something back for her. She was right. That Saturday evening she was in the common room reading (Quidditch Through the Ages), when Angelina and Katie arrived back, bringing back bags of purchases they had made. Before long they were sitting around the fire with the twins, drinking butterbeer, eating Honeydukes' products and joking around. Katie wished she could've frozen that night and lived in it forever… she loved just being with her friends, no cares in the world, nowhere to be, nothing to do, just having fun.
Oliver, meanwhile, was back in the Three Broomsticks enjoying a butterbeer with his best friend Davies… well, enjoying wasn't really the word to be using in that situation. Something was on his mind. Something that he thought was going to drive him insane and he had no idea. It was the fact that Davies had earlier confessed that he liked no other then Katie Bell, chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team. Oliver had just sat and stared at Davies for a moment when he finally admitted it… he didn't know what to think. Davies was the captain of an opposing team… being friends, sure, but getting romantically involved with a player of his own team just couldn't happen… it would be like sleeping with the enemy, although without the sleeping part. At least Oliver hoped so. But what he knew for sure was that Davies and Bell couldn't be romantically involved. As a friend to both of them and Katie's Captain he told himself he would make sure that it wouldn't happen.
Halloween arrived and the Great Hall looked wonderful. Katie found herself seated between Oliver and Roger who had left his house table to join them. She was finishing off her piece of pumpkin pie, listening to Oliver and Roger talk over her about quidditch (of course), when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall. Even Oliver and Rogers conversation ground to a halt as they watched along with the rest of the hall.
Professor Quirrell stopped in front of the staff table.
"Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know," he gasped before fainting.
Katie gasped, and the hall flew into an uproar. Professor Dumbledore shot up sparks from his wand and ordered the prefects to take their houses to their common rooms. Percy immediately took charge. As Katie stood to go to her common room she felt a hand on her waist and Roger pulled her closer to him.
"Just stick near me… your common room is on the way to mine, I'll go with you," he whispered into her ear.
"My common room isn't on the way to yours," she told him as they made their way into the entrance hall, avoiding groups of people who were pushing and shoving past them. Oliver stuck close to her other side. Roger kept one hand on her arm, holding tight so they didn't get separated.
"It doesn't matter," he shouted over the noise, "as long as you get there safely."
"I can take her," Oliver shouted in reply. Roger reluctantly let go of Katie's arm, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and left in a different direction. It was Oliver's turn to take hold of her arm. He practically dragged her the whole way to the common room and in through the portrait hole.
"You can let go now, Oliver" Katie told him, when they were safely inside the common room. His face wore an expression of annoyance.
"What?" Katie asked him as he let go.
"You shouldn't be getting involved with Davies," he told her quietly. "He's the captain of the Ravenclaw quidditch team and he's too old for you."
Katie could feel her temper rising. "First of all Wood, I'm not getting involved with him. Second of all, it's none of your business. Third, he's your best friend so why should the fact that he's from the Ravenclaw quidditch team have anything to do with it and fourth, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO," she told him, yelling by the end.
"I'm your captain, I'm supposed to tell you what to do!" he yelled back. Everyone in the common room was staring at them by now.
"On the quidditch pitch, yeah, but you have no right to be telling me what to do when we're off the pitch. You can't tell me who to be 'involved' with – it's none of your business."
"Just stay away from him," he told her quieter, stepping closer to her and grabbing one of her arms. "I don't want you being distracted when we have a game coming up."
Katie stared at him for a moment, furious and at a loss for words. She wrenched her arm out of his grasp, turned on her heel and stormed up to her dorm. As she passed the Weasley twins she heard George give a low whistle. She slammed the door to her dorm and threw herself down onto her bed, screaming into a pillow and beating it with her fists. She knew she was acting like a little kid but she didn't care.
There was a soft knocking at the door and Alicia entered. She sat next to Katie on her bed. Katie rolled over to look at her.
"I'm not getting involved with him," Katie told Alicia quietly.
"I know," Alicia said softly, "you don't have to defend yourself to me. Wood was out of line."
"Who does he think he is?" Katie said grumpily, crossing her arms over her chest. "He has no right to be talking like that to me."
"No, he doesn't," Alicia agreed. "He will realize sooner or later that he was wrong."
"He better," Katie muttered.
A/N: 2176 words. Not bad. Bit more content then the first chapter. Review and I might put up a third chapter. This one skipped ahead a little fast… will slow down a bit in the next chapter.