Due to a reviewer claiming she/he will explode if I don't start spelling Blaise's last name right, I'm going to start spelling to Zabini. Woo hoo!
Chapter Twenty-Five
"The quaffle is released... and the game begins!" Oliver threw up the red quaffle and flew off as his cousin got ahold of it. "Wood passes to Weasley! Ooh, nasty bludger from Zabini. Slytherin in possesion. OH, WHAT WAS THAT? YOU DON'T HIT A BLUDGER AT A REFEREE, ZABINI, YOU FU-"
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, ma'am. Oliver is back on his broom. Augh, Pansy Parkinson scores, ten points to Slytherin..."
"Chris!" Ron called and threw the quaffle to her. Christina zig-zagged in and out of the stands with Ginny and Pansy close behind her.
"Aah! Zabini, if I see one more bludger headed my way..." Oliver started, pointing a finger at him.
"Won't happen again, Professor, I promise," Zambini said sarcastically... yet sincerely.
"Weasley scores! Ten points to Gryffindor! Slyther - Gryffindor in possesion! Garner scores! Gryffindor leads, twenty to ten! CHRIS, WATCH OUT!"
"That was out of line, Malfoy!" Oliver yelled at Draco, who was holding a Beater's bat. "Come on, Malfoy, it's five minutes into the game! Garner, step up for the penalty shot. FLINT, WATCH FOR ROUGH HOUSING!"
Christina scored another ten points for Gryffindor, taking them up farther into lead. Oliver noticed her arm was limp and blew the whistle. Marcus looked at him from the other side of the stadium in question.
"Garner, your arm," Oliver said as he flew closer to her.
"I'm fine, Wood," she said quietly. Oliver reached out. "I'm FINE!" she hissed. He took his hand back, afraid she would bite it or something. He nodded his head and flew back down to the quaffle. The game raged on.
"Chris! Are you busy? Are you okay? Good." Oliver slung a shocked Christina over his shoulder and made his way to his office. "Now sit. Don't interrupt. Let me talk."
"Oliv-"
"Shh!"
"Bu-"
"Mm."
"Ol-"
"Zip!"
"But-"
"Ah, ah, no. No talkie. Look, okay?Wait a minute. Did you go to the library like Marcus told you to?"
"He didn't give me a pass to the restricted section." Oliver slapped his forehead and grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill.
"I... PROFESSOR... Wood... hereby... give Christina Garner... permission... no, wait... access... to the restricted secion... of the library... for a three-thousand word essay... on polyjuice potions... Oliver Wood. Here you are. Enjoy!" He shoved the letter in Christina's left hand and pushed her out of the office.
"But your subject isn't poti-" Christina started, but was immediately cut off by Oliver's blasted rock music. She stuck her tongue out at the door and walked to the library, reading over the note.
Meet me by the lake
fifteen minutes to seven.
I have the books already.
-Oliver Wood.
Christina stared at the letter, re-reading it over and over again. With a yell of frustration, she marched back to the Common Room.
"OLIVER ANTH-"
"So you'll meet me?"
"Argh, you're right here! Why can't we just do it now?" A couple of Gryffindor fourth years started snickering.
"Oh, get your bloody minds out of your arses!" Oliver barked at them, then turned back to Christina with a genuwine and surprisingly arrogant smile on his face. "Because too many students are here." Again, the two fourth years sniggered. With a death glance from Oliver, they shut up and ran off to their rooms. There was a sudden thud and both of their eyes darted to the fireplace, where a pale man had landed. Oliver swore and ushered Christina into Ginny's dorm while locking the door from the ouside.
"LUPIN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? Garner just saw you!" Oliver raged while crazilly pointing to the closed door on which Christina was pounding on.
"OLIVER-FUCKING-WOOD GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"See?" Oliver asked with his arms crossed.
"Sorry - urgent message from Shacklebolt and Tonks," Remus Lupin apologized. "He's been spotted."
"Who? Voldemort?" Lupin shook his head.
"His brother and a couple D.E's."
"So you've chosen to use the slang of today, young grasshopper."
"You watch too many Muggle shows."
"So I've been told. Where've they been spotted?"
"OLIVER GET ME OUT!"
"Hold on." Oliver walked back to where he had locked Christina up and brought her out of the room over his shoulders. "Chris, this is Remus Lupin, you may call him Moony if you wish, he's the guy that just dropped out of no where. There you go, you've met him, run along to Dumbledore and tell him your father's been spotted."
"WHAT?"
"Good job, Wood," Lupin muttered. Oliver put Christina on the ground and pushed her out of the portrait hole and waved to her before shutting it closed again.
"Only thing that would get rid of her. We shouldn't talk about this here, though. D'you remember Jaime Kriton?"
"Mm. How could I forget?"
"Yeah, his daughter's in Gryffindor."
"What? How?"
"Married a Gryffindor. Slytherin and Gryffindor, not a very nice mix, especially when their off-spring have more Slytherin in them. Come on. JAKE, RON, GINNY, HARRY, NEVILLE, HERMIONE!" Three of the four boys came tumbling down the stairs in a cloud of dust and Jacob came out of his room.
"Where's Ginny and Hermione?" Lupin asked as he looked around.
"Why's he here?" Ron asked stupidly. Oliver and Lupin chose to ignore him.
"They're in the library, I believe," Harry replied. Oliver nodded and sent Neville to go look for them and Luna if he could. The rest went off to Dumbledore's office, where Christina was pacing back and forth.
"Where is he?" Oliver asked her. Christina shrugged and continued pacing. "Sit down, you're making me dizzy."
"I can't. I do this when I'm nervous."
"I know, but sit down!" Oliver pushed down on her shoulders and plunged her into the couch before sitting beside her. He began shaking his leg up and down.
"Stop doing that."
"Why?"
"Because."
"You need a better reason."
"Because, you're shaking the couch."
"So?"
"OLIVER!"
"Fine." Neville came into the office with Ginny, Hermione, Luna and Dumbledore behind him.
"All of you, sit down. Good evening, Remus." Lupin nodded his ehad in acknowledgement. "What brings you here, old friend?"
"DUMBLEDORE!" Marcus came running in and stopped at the sight of members from the Order in the office. "How come no one tells me anything?"
"Sorry," Oliver apologized.
"Philias," Dumbledore said to a picture. The ancestor of Sirius Black awoke from his slumber. "I need you to go to your other portrait. The Weasley Twins, Percy, Charlie and Bill should be there." The man in the portrait nodded and dissapeared. "Now, what has happened?" THUD! Percy came out of the fireplace. THUD! THUD! Bill and Percy. THUD! George. SQUEAK! Fred.
"What happened to him?" Ginny asked, exasperated.
"Experiment went wrong," George explained as he helped Fred up. He looked normal, but his voice was high-pitched and resembled Delores Umbridge.
"What, did his balls go 'poof'?" Oliver asked, unamused. Bill and Charlie laughed uproarously. Percy just sunk into a couch without a sound.
"All right, what brings you here?" Dumbledore asked as he stroked Fawkes the Pheonix's feathers.
"Lucifer Riddle," Lupin replied. Oliver, Bill, Charlie and Jacob burst out laughing at his name.
"That's his name?" Christina asked. "What a loser."
"Wait, can't we get Skyler?" Oliver asked as soon as he stopped. "I mean, he's as close to Christina as anyone. He knows what's been going on." Dumbledore nodded his head and Oliver took off after him.
"Skyler?" Oliver called as he ran down the hallway. "SKYLER!" He ran down into the dungeons. Something pulled him into Snape's supply closet. "Skyler, what the hell are you doing?" Skyler's face was embossed with pain and fear. "What's wrong?" Skyler couldn't answer. Oliver noticed his hand was covered in blood and looked over the fifteen-year-old's shoulder. Blood was running down from his forearm. "Crap." Oliver picked up Skyler and burst out of the closet.
"What the hell! Where are you going? Not Pomfrey, DUMBLEDORE!" Skyler yelled out. Oliver turned ways and sprinted into Dumbledore's office.
"Oh my God!" Christina cried and knelt down beside Skyler when Oliver laid him down on the floor. Skyler sat up.
"Jeeze, you did all that? I'm not severly wounded, you know, except... dammit, I can't move my arm. Oliver, can you pull up my shirt?" Oliver gaped at him.
"Hell no!" Christina sighed and pushed Oliver off balance. She pulled Skyler's shirt over his head and screamed.
"Yeah," Skyler said. "Dark Mark."
"When'd this happen?" Ron asked. harry stared intently at it.
"About seven?"
"What time is it right now?" Hermione asked. Skyler checked his watch.
"Seven fory-five."
"So you've been bleeding like this for half an hour?" Lupin asked. Skyler nodded his head.
"How and where?" Dumbledore asked. Skyler looked out the window.
"The Dark Forest on the other side of the Forbidden Forest."
"Why were you there?" Ginny asked, speaking for the first time. Skyler looked up at her.
"I'm a Dark Defender. It's what I do."
"Knew it," Oliver said and stood up.
"What's a Dark Defender?" Luna asked.
"A person obliged to protect people from the Dark Arts. Kind of like the Order," Marcus explained. Skyler nodded his head.
"That's right. My whole family're Dark Defenders. I wasn't just transferred here as a student; I was transferred here to work."
"Looks like you're a retired Dark Defender now, Mr. Diggory," said a cool voice. Severus Snape strided into the room. "You can't be a Dark Defender with the Dark Mark." Skyler nodded his head again, then his eyes widened.
"Something's running outside," he said quietly. CRASH! The window broke and a green beam ricocheted off of everything metal inside the room and went back outside.
"Chris, hide," Oliver said and pushed her into a closet.
"That's the second time you've done that, Wood," Lupin said with an amused look on his face.
"Yeah, I know. If I let her out, she'll kill me." Oliver helped Skyler up. "Jesus Christ, how much do you bench? You're fricken' ripped."
"Not the time to ask, Oliver," Percy scolded. His voice, too, was high-pitched like Fred's. Oliver's eyes darted to the entrance of the office, where a bunch of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were.
"We want to help," Seamus Finnigan, who was at the front, said.
"Potter," Oliver sighed. "Harry, get over here. Your little defense group's here."
"How..."
"Followed Marcus," Seamus interrupted. "Come on, we've been together as a group for over a year."
"It's dangerous," Skyler said darkly.
"You guys are here, aren't you? If all those fifth and sixth years in there get to, so do we," Dean Thomas said defiantly. Harry sighed and looked at Dumbledore. He nodded his head and Harry motioned for the dozen of them to come inside: Seamus Finnigan, Colin Creevey, Dean Thomas, Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Zacharias Smith, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstein, Susan Bones and Wayne Hopkins. Three Gryffindors, six Hufflepuffs and two Ravenclaws made a total of eleven students taking part in the battle, aged fourteen to seventeen.
"I don't know about this, Harry," Oliver said quietly in his ear. "They could die."
"They know that, Oliver," Harry said.
"Wood!" Oliver turned around to look at Dumbledore. "You, Marcus, Charlie, Bill and Potter can organize the students." Oliver just relalized that Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks, both Aurors, had appeared out of the fire as well as Amos Diggory.
"When did he join?" Ron asked.
"Shortly after Cedric's death," Amos replied roughly.
"OLIVER LET ME OUT OF HERE!" Oliver rolled his eyes and took Christina out of the closet.
"What now?"
"What now? What now? You lock me up in some small ass closet and you say what now?" Oliver flushed red. She was angry.
"Do you want to die or not?" he whispered in her ear.
"I'd rather die fighting than die defenseless on a Hospital bed."
"Wish granted. Dumbledore, she's pissed at me." Dumbledore chuckled and gestured to the clump of students. Christina walked away from Oliver to the group of the D.A with Skyler, Ginny, Neville, Hermione, Ron and Luna.
"This is the rain before the storm," Oliver whispered. "The pre-war."
"Firenze predicted it would happen in my seventh year," Harry said quietly. He and Oliver shared a worried look. If Harry died, everything would be lost.
"Divination is a bunch of horse shit," Bill commented beside Oliver. He took off his fang earring and placed it on Dumbledore's desk. "Wouldn't want that to get blasted off of my ear, now would we." Charlie laughed deeply.
"That's all you care about, Bill." Bill smirked.
"But of course."
"Look outside," Skyler said. All the students looked out the window. Flourecent lanterns were hanging outside, which indicated that the Death Eaters were there. Hannah Abbot clutched a cross around her neck. Bill and Charlie did the sign of the cross. Marcus scratched his head. Oliver made an Italian gesture by running the tips of his fingernails across his chin.
"That's Italian," Skyler said bluntly.
"So?" Oliver asked as he continued doing it.
"You're not Italian."
"Once again, I ask, so?"
"Once again, I say, you're not Italian."
"They're moving!" Susan Bones exclaimed, pointing out the window. Oliver rubbed his hands together.
"All right, boys and girls. After the old farts behind me go, we leave five minutes after them. Don't hold back. Use everything you know; break the rules. We can't win this without using the unforgivables."