Chapter Twenty

"Wood, you have to hold your tongue."

"McGonagall... if you were there for the whole thing, you would have understood why I said what I did."

"I understand that you gave a student a broken nose."

"He's an asshole, forgive my use of words."

"Forgiven. Wood, we told you before. You are part of the Order and a wonderful asset to the Hogwarts staff. We cannot afford to fire you, but we will if we must. Muggle-fighting with students is crossing the line. You are a professor now, Wood. You are no longer Oliver A. Wood, Quidditch Captain and Keeper of Gryffindor. You are now Oliver A. Wood, Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher at Hogwarts. Act the part. You are dismissed."

"Ma'am." I stood up and walked out of her office, where Marcus was waiting for me.

"You sacked?" he asked with his hands in his pockets. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"No," I replied and we walked down the corridors together.

"What made you tell her?"

"She pissed me off. It just slipped. Why don't you go to your ex-girlfriend's house and dodge a chair, ink bottle, books, book bags and everything in her living room and see what it does to you?"

"She threw shit at you?"

"Yeah, she threw shit at me. Jesus Christ, here she comes... ...Well, that wasn't too bad."

"Wasn't too bad? She didn't even say anything to you."

"Yeah, so it wasn't that bad. If she were to talk to me it would be like 'I hate you, Oliver Anthony Wood.' and I don't know if I want the whole school to know my middle name..."

"Why not? At least yours is normal. What kind of person gives their kid a middle name like 'Sangre'?"

"Blood in Spanish. Nice. Marcus Sangre Flint."

"Oh, shut the hell up."

"Marcus Blood Flint."

"Shut up, Wood."

"Marcus Bloody Flint."

"Can it."

"Marcus Red-Shit Flint."

"Okay, seriously."

"Marcus Icky-Red-Shit Flint. Fine, I'll stop."

"Damn, I can't make fun of your middle name."

"Ha-ha. Come on, everyone's staring at us. Let's stop acting like five year olds."

"You started it," Marcus said.

"Whatever," I replied with a wave of my hand.

"Fag."

"Shut up. My sister's hand gestures are rubbing off on me."

"I'm sure."

"No, but seriously. Why would she throw shit at you?"

"Are we still having this conversation?"

"Yes."

"She wanted me to apologize for something I didn't do and she wouldn't apologize for something she actually did."

"What'd she do?"

"She got kissed by Zambini."

"She got kissed by Zambini?"

"What, is there an echo here or something?"

"Well, she didn't do anything wrong. He was the one who kissed her."

"So? She liked the kiss."

"...This seems like your relationship with Clearwater all over again, mate. Remember third year? Weasley kissed her and she liked it?"

"Well, I knew she really liked Perce too. I have no clue why she said yes when I asked her out. This is different, though, and how the hell'd you know about that?"

"Circulating through the whole school, Wood, and how's it different?"

"Well, Zambini and Chris were actually dating once. Perce and Penelope started dating fourth year, seven months after the whole best-friend-wants-my-girlfriend incident."

"Ah, I see. And now you two are ignoring each other?"

"Well, she's ignoring me. I just choose not to converse with her but if I have to talk to her, I will."

"What's her status right now?"

"Right now? Single and hating both me and Zambini. Soon to be you if you keep hanging with me."

"Great.

"Oh, by the way, over Christmas Holidays, did you get your teeth done or something?"

"Actually, it was Ella's gift to me. Quite funny if you ask me."

"Yeah, you look less scary. In other words, you look better."

"Gee, thanks." Just then, an owl swooped over our heads (we were outside) and dropped a box on me. A big, crate-thing. Something told me it wasn't a gift... I opened the crate-box-thing and stared silently at its contents.

"Well, at least she didn't have to face me," I muttered. Inside the box was every single picture of me and Christina she owned, the CD I gave her for Christmas that said 'I JUST KNIFED IT' in permanent felt, the dress I bought her for the dance and one last thing that made my heart sink. The half-of-a-heart necklace that I gave her for their one month. Marcus was speechless. I closed my eyes tightly and closed the box but not before taking out the necklace and putting it around my own neck.

"Marcus, I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life," I whispered as I gingerly let it drop to my shirt.

"She made the mistake, mate."

"No, I dumped her, Marcus. I have to bring all this stuff to my room." Marcus nodded his head and left me alone. I trudged back to the Gryffindor Tower with this big-ass box of a crate, swearing under my breath.

"Get out of here, Riddle," some girl in Fifth year said.

"You can't kick me out of my own room for being who I am, Ariel." Christina.

"Yes I can and yes I will. Rumor has it that Professor Wood was snogging someone behind your back."

"That's not true," I said and stepped up behind Christina. She sent me a look that clearly said 'I don't need your help' but, me being me, I ignored it completely. Ariel appeared to be speechless.

"Profess... professor... I didn't see..."

"That's quite all right, and I just happen to know that you started that rumor. Don't let it happen again. Garner, if you'd like, you may sleep in the Prefect's dorm with Ginny. Good night, girls." I walked away and laughed softly as I heard Christina yelling various swear words at Ariel, then I heard her follow me up to my room.

"Go to bed, Christina." Once in my room, she closed the door and stood with her arms crossed. I threw the crate onto the floor and dropped onto my bed. "What do you want from me, Chris?"

"...Oliver, I miss you."

"It's been a week, Christina." I closed my eyes for a bit, then felt the bed sink and heard her crying. I sighed and opened my eyes. "Don't cry, Christina, over something as little as this."

"Little? Oliver, you don't understand."

"Look, what do you want me to do? We're drifting apart, Chris."

"You shouldn't keep secrets from me!"

"Okay, look, what do you want to know?"

"Everything!"

"Can't you be more specific?"

"No, just tell me everything that you know I want to know."

"Jesus Christ, Christina! I can't tell you everything, there are things that you just aren't ready for yet."

"Why didn't you tell me I wasn't Muggle-Born?"

"Dumbledore didn't want me to. Anything else you wish to know?"

"Yes. How did you know I'm a Riddle?" I sat up.

"That is one of the confidentials."

"Screw the rules, Oliver! If you don't want to lose me, just tell me!"

"Christina, if I don't want to lose my job, I CAN'T!"

"Oliver, your job or me."

"That's the problem with everyone I date. I ALWAYS HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE FUCKING THING! You want to know? Fine. I'm in some secret organization against Voldemort, okay? There you go. Keeping secrets has been my life for the past year or so, Chris. You have no idea how hard it has been for me to be with you, Christina. Every class I don't have you, I'm always worried for you. Wondering what you're doing, wondering if Voldemort has you already or not. And it hurts me to not be able to hold you, Chris, but... damnit everything is so complicated!"

"Oliver?"

"What?"

"It has been hard for me, too. Do you know how many times I have been called a slut or a whore, just because I was dating you?"

"Chrsitina, you are so many things and a slut or a whore is not one of them." Christina gave me a sad smile and I had this extreme urge to kiss her. Guess what I did? I gave in. She leaned back with me following her. What could I do? I was head-over-heels for this girl.

"Oliver, you in there?" Christina and I broke away from each other in a flash.

"Yeah, Jake," I replied while flattening my hair and re-buttoning my shirt. He opened the door and raised an eyebrow when he saw both of us sitting on the bed looking quite cozy.

"Did... did I interrupt something?" he asked with an amused smile forming on his face. I looked at Christina for some excuse.

"Er, uh, I was actually just dropping off some stuff." God, she's a genius. She stood up and walked past Jake. "Good night, Wood."

"Night, Garner," I called after her. She poked her head back in.

"I was talking to Jake. I'm sleeping in Ginny's room, if you wanted to know," she said then gave me a small wink. I rolled my eyes as she walked away.

"So... what..."

"Nothing. We broke up," I interrupted with a shrug.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Pretty sure, yeah," I replied. "Anyway, I gotta go... um, talk to Ginny. Yeah. In her room." Wow, am I a bad liar or what? I slipped past Jake and ran down to the Prefect's dorm. Sure enough, Christina grabbed me and pulled me into Ginny's room to... you know.

"So," Christina said and laid back against my chest. "Does this mean we're together again?"

"I don't think we'd be normal if we weren't. Do you want to be back together?" I asked and played with her hair. Christina laughed quietly and sleepily.

"More than you know." I smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"Let's just try to keep it quiet this time, yeah?"

"And make sure no one around us has a camera."

"Or a camcorder."

"Or a voice recorder." We both laughed and drifted off to sleep just as Ginny came into the room.