Chapter Six (Oliver's PoV)

Dream/Flashback

"Alright, Wood, we're playing the Appleby Arrows today. I know you are the newest addition to the team and you're only nineteen, but you have to play hard. I want you to last the whole game," my team captain, Lily Roscoe, said.
"Don't I always, Lil?" I asked.
"Yes, but I don't want you picking fights with Zambini this time."
"That man is plotting to kill me! I can't just do nothing about that!"
"Focus on the game, Wood. Your fault you kissed his girlfriend."
"...That was a long time ago, and I didn't even know she was his bloody girlfriend! I can't focus on the game when a Chaser is aiming for my head every time."
"You have fast reflexes. You'll come through."
"AND PUDDLEMERE UNITED!"
"That's us. Let's fly!" Lily exclaimed as the doors opened.
"Roscoe! Onik! Sent! Stork! Throver! Parker! Annnnddd... Wood!"
I sighed as I heard the screams in the crowd and when I swooped over one of the stands, about five girls and two guys fainted. Always the same every time.

An hour later, I was still circiling around the hoops. I let in five goals, two from Zambini.
"AND PARKER CATCHES THE SNITCH! PUDDLEMERE WINS!"
"OLIVER LOOK OUT!" Spencer Parker yelled at me. I barely had enough time to turn around and see two Bludgers coming right at me. One I dodged, but the other hit my temple.
I sat up, breathing heavily. I needed to fly. I needed to go to the pitch.

Five Thirty. I had exactly two hours to go out to the pitch, fly around for a bit, take a shower and get back to the school before going to the Great Hall to eat breakfast and set up the classroom. I had to make the most of it. After putting on some sweat pants, I grabbed my Firebolt and raced down the stairs, knocking into someone. What the - who would be up at this hour?

"Oliver?" Jesus Christ, it was Christina.

"What are you doing up?" I asked.

"I was going down to the pitch," she replied.

"Me too," I said and pushed her off of me - not that I didn't mind. I didn't mind at all. "I never met anyone before who woke up as early as I did just to fly around." Christina smiled and sat back against the wall (we fell in the staircase, remember?)

"Flying is a part of me now. I can't get enough of it."

"I remember that feeling. I still have it. You're well on your way of being obsessed."

"I will never become one of you, Oliver," Christina said with a laugh.

"You can't escape it," I replied with a smirk. "Come on, I never got to teach you how to bend the ball. Let's go." We raced out to the pitch once we got into the Grounds. Obviously, I won. Duh. I'm the great Oliver Wood.

"Alright, alright, you WON! Stop gloating, you cocky son of a-"

"Would you like me to deduct points?" I interrupted, smiling widely when Christina shut up.

"Just teach me how to bend the ball," Christina sighed. I rolled my eyes and flew forward to her.

"You want to get the right amount of spin on the Quaffle."

"And how, Professor Wood, do I do that?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Let it roll right off of your index, middle finger and other index finger," I said as I played with her fingers. "It should come off to the side a bit, then curve towards me."

"Get to the hoops, then," Christina said with a smile. I flew towards the three hoops and positioned myself. Christina came flying at me first, then hurled the ball. I dove and caught it, then passed it back to her.

"It curved a bit, but you want it to completely be-" Christina smirked at me. "You did it! I could have blocked that, though, but I was talking."

An hour and a half came by rather quickly and we headed to the change rooms to take our showers.

"So what's the stupidest thing you've ever done?" Christina asked me. I laughed out loud, remembering a stupid contest I had made with Rodger Davies, Cedric Diggory and Marcus Flint.

"It was here, actually. How many girls could you snog in two hours... it was so stupid, I swear to Merlin."

"Oh? And how many did you make out with?"

"Me? One."

"Only one?"

"Hey, I had a girlfriend, and she was the only one I kissed. This was in my sixth year, Marcus' seventh, Rodger's sixth and Diggory's fifth. God bless his soul."

"He died?" I nodded my head.

"Ever hear of the Tri-Wizard Tournament?" Christina shook her head slowly. "The Tri-Wizard Tournament is this thing that takes place between three schools: Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beuxbatons. There was some incident involving V... V... Volde...mort... and there was an extra name placed in the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter. Only seventh years were allowed to take part in the Tournament, and Harry was in his fourth. Turns out one of the Dark Lord's followers was using a polyjuice potion to take on one of the teachers. He made a portal called a portkey out of the trophy. Both Harry and Cedric touched it and were transported to a graveyard. Diggory died there." I remembered that Christina was new to the Wizarding World, so I made sure not to leave out anything that needed description.

"I've heard of Voldemort before. Why aren't you scared to use his name? Whenever Ron hears it, he whimpers and sometimes starts to tear up." I laughed softly as I placed the Ball Chest back into the cupboard.

"I quote from the beautiful Hermione Granger. Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. I still have some trouble saying Volde...mort... but that's only because I grew up in fear of him."

"Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like for me if I grew up here," she said softly. I sighed and stood up straight.

"Why do you think that?" I asked and sat down on the bench while pulling off my sweatshirt. Christina looked at me for a second, as if she was trying to find something. She was searching my face, and I saw something in her eyes. Perhaps fear, sadness, anger... it could have been many things.

"Can I trust you?" she asked quietly. I motioned for her to sit down next to me.

"Of course you can. Did something happen?" She nodded her head without looking at me. She found something interesting on the floor to look at.

"I was two when my parents got divorced. I was forced to stay with my dad. He abused me until I was thirteen, when one of my friends noticed cuts and bruises on me. She reported to the school counsellor and the counsellor had a talk with me. My dad was sent to jail and I went to live with my mom. If I grew up here, maybe I could have done something about it." She was crying quietly now. "It was two years ago... but thinking about it still hurts and my father gets out of jail this year." I pulled her into a hug and that's when McGonagall came in.

"Wood, there's an incident at Gryf - what's going on here?"

"She needed someone to talk to, ma'am," I said quickly, pulling my sweatshirt back on. McGonagall looked at me with that look of hers that said 'I-know-what-your-were-doing', and she usually DID know what I was doing. This time she didn't. I was just trying to comfort a bloody friend, for crying out loud. She opened her mouth to talk again, but I interrupted. "I'll be at Gryffindor Tower as soon as possible." McGonagall nodded her head and briskly walked away. I stood up, but was pulled back down by Christina. She looked deep into my eyes. "I won't tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me, Chris." Christina hugged me one more time before I stood up, said bye and went up to the Gryffindor Tower.