A few weeks passed, and it was the day before my quidditch tryout. So where was I? Why sitting on my couch watching football, of course. I was cursing to myself that I was going to be too fat and out of shape to play quidditch again. In reality I was freakishly skinny because I never really ate anything but ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and popcorn, and never all on the same day. Still, I was way too out of shape to be playing quidditch at all again, let alone professionally.
"What are you doing home?" Alicia asked as she entered the door.
"Um…this is what I do every day… am I supposed to be somewhere?" I asked curiously, holding a spoonful of ice cream midway to my mouth like I just got caught doing something I wasn't supposed to be.
"Yeah well, I figured you would be out practicing for your tryout tomorrow" She said.
I groaned, finished eating my ice cream then put the lid back on the container and on the counter.
"Oliver was at the shop looking for you." She said putting a bag of groceries down on the counter.
"Oh…that's strange..." I said, pausing as I was about to resume my stay on the couch.
"I told him that you were probably off practicing someplace, but gave him our address just in case he couldn't find you anywhere else. So I imagine he could be here any minute now." She said, finishing to put away her produce before grabbing the keys and headed towards the door.
"Oh, and I'm going to a meeting so I won't be home until late" She said then laughed at my stance because I was standing frozen in the same form that I was when she told me that Oliver was probably on his way over.
"I would probably get changed before he gets here." She laughed and then left the flat.
I ran into my room and grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of shorts that made it look like I had been outside running or something so he didn't think I was some lame fat kid… By the time I had my hair up in a ponytail I heard someone knocking at the door.
I opened the door and sure enough Oliver was standing there.
"I thought that you'd be out getting ready for tomorrow…come on, didn't I teach you any better than this?" He said laughing at my flat and how it was just a large TV with a big fluffy couch, a small kitchen with my ice cream melting on the counter, and a potted plant in the corner because I thought that part of the flat was lonely.
"See the thing is that you did teach me better, but then you graduated and I've had over four years to break the habit" I said with the most innocent smile I could possibly make.
"And now I'm going to get you back into the habit." He said with his little smirk thing that he does right before he would make us practice some unnecessary play over and over again back in Hogwarts.
"Ugh…I remember that smile…and I never liked what came after it!" I said
"Do you own a broom?" He asked looking around the flat for one as he asked.
"No…I broke the one that I had in Hogwarts last year and never got around to buying a new one." I said, still trying to put on a cute and innocent smile.
"Well then first things first we need to go buy you one." he shook his head.
He locked my door, said some spell, and grabbed my arm, next thing I know I'm standing in Diagon Alley.
We walked into a quidditch supplies store that I have never seen before and he walked right to the counter.
"Well you seem to know exactly what you're doing." I said trying to sound bratty.
Before I knew it he's handing me a Firebolt and paying the lady at the desk for it.
"Wait! You don't have to pay!" I said in protest but then realized that I didn't even have my wallet.
"Yeah well I'm going to" He said as we walked outside and once again he grabbed my arm and we were on a pitch.
"So let's see what Miss 'doesn't need to practice' can still manage" Oliver said, throwing a quaffle at me.
"How do you keep pulling things out of nowhere?" I asked looking at the quaffle strangely.
"I'm not, I walked over and got it out of the box" he pointed to a box containing all of the quidditch balls, except it was now missing a quaffle.
"You must just be distracted by something," he said with a cocky smile.
"Whatever, get up to the hoops so I can show you that you don't have to worry about me tomorrow!" I said wondering if I had been getting distracted by him before mounting my broom and flying up to the center of the pitch.
"Alright, give me your best!" Oliver yelled from the hoops.
So I flew towards him as fast as I could, which was much faster then I had expected now that I was on a firebolt, and threw the quaffle through the hoop.. He tried to block it but he missed it magnificently.
"Well, I guess you didn't need much practice after all." He said rushing to catch the quaffle.
"Yeah well, that and I also remembered everything that you do to guard, so I just hit your weak spot." I said all intelligently
"Yeah that seems to be the case with everyone." He said, looking at the spot that it had gone in.
"Well just don't go to hit it away so fast there." I said and then took the quaffle to the center of the pitch. I did the same thing and he hit it this time. I flew over and caught the quaffle before it got too far away.
"See" I yelled back and he looked at me strangely.
Before we knew it we had been practicing until 1 in the morning.. So we packed up our stuff and Oliver walked me home.
The next morning I was awoken by Alicia screaming and jumping on my bed.
"That's just pay back for doing it so much back in Hogwarts" She said with an evil grin and then went back into her room
"No because I actually had a reason for waking you up, this was just unnecessary" I groaned.
"It has a purpose. You have to be at your tryouts in half an hour" Alicia said.
I shot upright in my bed and stared at my wall waiting to wake up for real and have that not be the case. But it didn't happen so I charmed myself clean, threw on some clothes, grabbed my broom charming it to fit in a sports bag, and then ran out the door.
When I got to the pitch Oliver was waiting out front for me.
"What took so long?" He asked once, seeing me running to get there.
"Sorry, I must have slept through my alarm and Alicia just woke me up" I said panting by the time I got to him.
"Alright well go get changed" He said handing me a practice kit.
So out of the twenty or so people I was the only person who could get the quaffle past Oliver, and I was the only girl who tried out, actually I was the only girl on the pitch.
All of the things they were making me do to see my skill level seemed easy compared to the things that Oliver put me through during our house practices.
So at the end of the trial Henry called us all down the center of the pitch to announce who made the team.
"Pretty much by process of elimination the team has come to one final easy decision…" Henry began to say and I looked over at Oliver who gave me an overly obvious wink.
"And our decision is that Katherine…" Oliver jabbed him in the side for me. "Alright KATIE Bell" He corrected himself " is our new Puddlemore United chaser!"
Everyone around me was clapping and then it hit me…I Katie Bell was a professional quidditch player….I had a job….a REAL job…. Suddenly I was knocked out of my trance by a sudden weight on my body. It was Oliver he had jumped and hugged me, soon followed by the rest of the team.
"Katie, come here I would like you to meet the team." Henry said and the boys all got into a line with big goofy smiles on their faces.
"This, I'm sure you know, is our Captain Oliver Wood who plays keeper" He said with an emphasis on the word captain.
"These are the beaters John Berry and Gary Smith" He said directing me towards a tall tan man with short brown hair and green eyes and a somewhat shorter man with a bit longer and darker brown hair and brown eyes.
"These are your other two chasers David Barker and Mica Owen." There was a medium height man with blonde hair and blue eyes and a man who was the same height with medium length brown hair and brown eyes.
"And this is the seeker Nigel Wayne" A tall bald man with blue eyes reached down to shake my hand.
"That's pretty much the team Bell. They will be your close family for the next however many years that you're on the team. We have practice tomorrow morning at five AM and it should be over by eleven, but then I need you back at noon for the press announcement" Henry said while shaking my hand.
I galloped to the locker rooms to get changed, grabbed my stuff and then apparated to Angelina's house. I didn't care about being rude so I just apparated directly into her living room.
"HELLO?" I heard Angelina yell from her kitchen.
"I MADE THE TEAM!" I yelled in all my sweaty glory because I didn't take a shower before I left for her house.
"WHAT! THAT'S BRILLIANT!" Angelina yelled back and we hugged each other and started jumping up and down in glee.
"DOES ALICIA KNOW YET?" She asked, still yelling because that's how the two of us are… we get excited about something and then yell about it for like three hours afterwards.
"NO I FIGURED I WOULD TELL HER NEXT!" I yelled back.
"WELL GO THEN AND TELL HER!" and I did as she said and apparated directly into the wizard side of her shop.
"Girl, didn't anyone ever tell you it was rude to apparate into a building that wasn't your house!" some creepy man yelled at me.
"Well it's a good thing I live here then" I said sarcastically and ran to find Alicia.
"Carol, do you know where Alicia is!" I asked one of the workers.
"Yeah hold on let me get her..." Carol said as she went to find Alicia.
Alicia came out of the back room and I pulled her into the magical side.
"I MADE THE TEAM!" I yelled.
"REALLY THAT'S FANTASTIC!" she yelled pulling me into a hug.
"Do we really need to be yelling?" The same old creepy guy that yelled at me before said.
"Yes!" We both yelled back.
Then the two of us squealed and did a little jumpy dance.
"I'm so proud of you!" Alicia said, stopping our dance and fake crying.
"Ha thanks mum!" I said sarcastically.
"Now you can move out of my flat" Alicia said sarcastically and stuck out her tongue.
"Yeah, not yet" I said and stuck my tongue out too. Only mine was more bratty looking.
"But I need to be up and gone by five am tomorrow, so if I don't wake up right as my alarm goes off I give you permission to wake me up." I said in a calmed down more serious tone.
"Who says I'm going to be up at that hour?" Alicia asked, laughing at the drastic change in demeanor.
"You open the shop at five thirty, so I assume you'll be up" I yelled back
"Yeah sure I'll get you up" she said in a fake 'not caring I was still in the room' kind of voice.
Sure enough, the next morning I woke up to an earthquake and Alicia scream/singing the words "wake up" over and over. I rolled over to look at my clock and it was only four in the morning.
"What the heck!?" I groaned.
"Oh good, you're up…now I'm going back to bed" Alicia said and threw one of my many stuffed animals at me.
"Why did you wake me up so early!" I yell/groaned.
"This way I'm sure you won't be late and by the time you get to practice you'll be wide awake and ready to practice for six hours" She laughed as she wandered back into her room.
So I got out of bed, gathered my practice kit and got in the shower…why I was showering just to go get all gross and sweaty I may never know, but it was early and that's what I felt like doing. I got dressed and grabbed my sports sack when I heard this loud noise start hitting the windows. I looked out and it was down pouring rain. Upon my realization a loud evil cackle came out of Alicia's room as she clearly was realizing the same thing.
"Yeah shut up! At least I'm going to have more fun playing quidditch in the rain then you are at your little coffee house!" I yelled, grabbing a large grey mackintosh.
"Well, I'll just think about how dry and warm I am and that will keep me happy!" Alicia said, still laughing. So I threw a football at her that was in the coat closet.
I wrapped the coat around me and prepared myself to go outside. Then as soon as I opened the front door of the building I started to run as fast as I could…I don't dislike the rain…it just seemed like fun.
I saw Alicia's coffee shop and remembered that I had a key to it on my key ring. I went inside, locked the door behind me and went into the magical entrance and apparated to the pitch.
I ran into the locker rooms where the boys were all standing around in their boxers talking about something.
"'Ello boys," I said and tipped a hat that I wasn't wearing.
"Wow I'm proud…you are actually here on time…early at that." Oliver said putting me in a headlock kind of thing and the rest of the boys clapped as if they were at a golf match.
"So may I ask what it is that you lot are doing?" I asked while slipping out of Oliver's head lock.
"Oh! Well ya see! Before every practice that lasts six hours, we stand here and talk about what we are probably going to have to do and just over the days it has turned into us always being in our pants. It's a beautiful thing." Owen in a poor australian/croc hunter accent.
"Hmm interesting…" I said laughing.
"Feel free to join" Smith joked waggling his eyebrows.
"Well now that you had to make a big deal about it I shall." I said as a matter of factly as Oliver looked at me with an almost worried expression.
So me being the not shy girl that I am, I quickly stripped down to my underwear and bra.
"Sooo what da ya think we'd be doing today lads" I said putting my hands on my hips and joining their circle.
We all burst out laughing and then went to continue getting changed. Well, more or less we all went to put clothes on.
"Bell ya gonna fit in just fine" Wayne yelled from down the way.
"Cheers! I wasn't worried about whether I would," I said pulling my robes on.
We went out and practice began, it wasn't all that different from practice back at Hogwarts. Some basic drills and practicing plays. Someone would say something, I would make a smart remark and the boys would all laugh about it. Oliver seemed to find my humour the funniest thing because he would even laugh when the remarks were at his expense. Before we even knew it practice was over and I had to rush home to get ready for the press conference at noon.
Back at my flat, I hopped into the shower, did my hair and make up, and put on the navy blue sun dress that I had picked out in the morning along with a pair of scarlet and gold pumps. I grabbed my mackintosh and ran back out the door all totaled getting ready in less than an hour. I still had some time to spare so I stopped in at Alicia's coffee shop for a bit.
"Oh look at you! I haven't seen you this dressed up since….well, in a very long time!" Alicia said smiling at me like a proud mother hen.
"Well said. well said" I said making fun of her.
"I think I'm going to go to the pitch through the back door. I'm meeting Oliver there and then we're heading over to the conference thing together since he's part of it too" I said in my code language for I'm gonna go apparate there.
I walked into the backroom, put my coat on a shelf near the back because it was hard to apparate with the weight of it all wet, and apparated to the pitch where Oliver was waiting out front in a limo…why we needed to go in a limo I'll never know but I wasn't going to argue.
"You look nice," Oliver said, opening the door for me. He was dressed in a suit..
"You too." I said, scooting to sit on the other side of the limo.
We went to the conference room and it was pretty much sit there and answer pointless questions like "Miss Bell do you want to play well for your team" it's like No I want to play horribly and lose every game twice. I struggled to feign interest and have a smile through it all but it was over before long.
About half way home I got this sudden urge to walk home in the rain…even though I was dressed up and all.
"Driver…you can stop here…I feel like walking home…" I said randomly…it had pretty much been quiet in the car the whole way anyway.
"What? It's pouring out." Oliver said in shock, looking at me like I was mad.
"I don't know, I just feel like I want to walk home." I said as the car came to a stop.
"You can be done then because I am going to walk her home" Oliver said to the driver getting out of the car after me.
"You don't have to." I said, looking at him like he was the crazy one.
"I don't know, I just feel like I want to walk you home." He said, mocking me. So the two of us started towards my house.
"So, you're captain of Puddlemore United…it seems all of your dreams have come true, yeah?" I said to start a conversation.
"Yeah…I guess so…well not all of them. I still want to be captain of the English National Team." He said looking off into the night sky like he forgot he was even getting wet.
"Somehow I just don't see you playing football very well" I said jokingly, of course I realized that he was talking about the English National Quidditch Team but I felt like being annoying.
He punched me in the shoulder lightly because he knew me well enough to know that I was just being dumb.
"I've missed you Katie Bell." He said with a smirk.
"Yeah I didn't miss you all that much" I joked.
"Nah I'm just kidding, of course I missed you" I said, and I really did. I had all of these pictures of all of us the year we won the house cup and whenever I would see them I would miss old Ollie. I mean Fred and George disowned us so I wasn't too fond of them at the moment, and I saw Alicia and Angelina nearly every day. So I kept finding myself wondering what had ever happened to the good old cap.
"Really?" He asked, it's times like these that I wish people could read my mind because I had just gotten done explaining that to myself.
"Yeah, I mean I really only got along with the team in school and I see Alicia and Angelina every day, so I don't know. I missed you." I shrugged. I've always been so good at explaining things.
"So no boyfriend, eh?" he asked a while later. The press had asked me that question a hundred times over; I guess he was just making sure I didn't have one that I didn't want the press to know about.
"Nope" I said with a sigh.
"Strange," he said.
"Why?" I asked, slightly offended.
"Well how often is it that a pretty and funny girl doesn't have a boyfriend?" he asked.
"Well I don't know but it's very common for fat, lazy, sarcastic girls like me to not have a boyfriend" I laughed.
"You're not fat," He said with a smile.
"Why are you smiling while saying that?" I laughed.
"Because I'm not going to say that you're not lazy or sarcastic" he said laughing.
"Well what about you?" I asked, ignoring his comment.
"I don't have a boyfriend, nor will I ever if that's what you mean" he chuckled.
"No I mean do you have a girlfriend" I said, punching him lightly.
"Nope" he answered quickly.
"Well I can perfectly understand that…most girls won't appreciate a guy who likes quidditch more than her" I said and he made a joking mad face then punched me in the shoulder lightly. It was like we were teenagers again.
We had been a lot farther from my house than I had thought because we had to have been walking for a half hour or so before we finally got to my building.
"Well good night I guess…even though it's only like what eight thirty?" I said as we got to the door.
"Is your house far away?" I asked.
"No not at all. I'll be fine." Oliver said.
"Do we have practice tomorrow?" I asked, realizing no one had said anything about it earlier.
"Nope," Oliver said and began to walk away as I grabbed the handle to the front door.
"Wait, I have to know something first" Oliver said as he turned around back towards me.
"Do you think I have a chance with you?" Oliver asked with this look on his face like he felt ridiculous asking.
Something came over me when he asked though, and so I guess he does because I leaned over and kissed him.