Before I knew it we were preparing for our first game against Puddlemore. I had called practice to start earlier and last longer because there was no way I was going to lose. Even if it means I would start sounding like Oliver in Hogwarts.
We practiced everyday from dusk to noon. That way we were done before the heat hit us and we still got a good six or so hours of practice in.
"Bell, you're going to kill us!" Jake yelled from the defensive hoops.
"Well, will you play better when you're dead?" I barked back.
"Most likely not" he panted.
"Then take a five minute break…then when he's done Josh you take one, and then after him Brandon and so forth that way we can continue doing one on one drills." I compromised.
"Bell, you've gone mad!" Brandon panted.
"No idea what you mean." I chirped.
"You're just working us hard so that you win and boast about it to your ex" Justin jeered.
"Chilton, two laps around the pitch, on foot!" I barked. He landed and began to run after rolling his eyes.
"Anyone else care to speak their opinions about my personal life?" I asked and no one answered, they all just looked at me in fear.
"Didn't think so, now get back to practice" I barked and flew circles around to check progress.
"You're starting to sound like Oliver" Angelina said after I got done ranting about wanting so badly to win against Puddlemore. We got together after practice and we went to a football game.
"I AM NOT! THE ONLY REASON I'M ACTING LIKE THIS IS BECAUSE HE HAD TO GO AROUND BEING AN ARSE AND TRADING ME SO THAT I WOULD SEE HOW MUCH I NEED HIM! WELL GUESS WHAT? HE'S GONNA SEE THAT IT'S HIM THAT NEEDS ME! NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!" I yelled and the muggles around us looked at me like I had broken out of the nearest loony bin.
"Oh. I think I see it now" I said, realizing what had just come out of my mouth.
"I just want to prove to him that my life goes on fine without him, so he knows that the next time he gets a girlfriend and they get in a fight that sending them off against their will isn't going to solve anything. OHHH Merlin, did you see that guy he just played leapfrog over number eight" I said now tuning back into the match in front of us.
"Just as long as you're still having fun….OH SO CLOSE! And your teammates aren't going to be hexing you behind your back" Angelina said. It's amazing really how the two of us can have civilized conversations and still pay full attention to the game.
"Oh I OH COME ON THAT WAS A YELLOW. All will be fine if we win" I stated.
"Well even if you don't win. That is not a good enough reason to go into a deep depression again." she said seriously, turning to look directly at me at much as she could in our small seats.
"Well not a deep depression, but I'm going to be extremely upset." I shrugged.
"Just promise you won't take it out on the team." she shook her head.
"I won't…unless it's their fault" I smirked.
"Katie" she said sharply.
"I was kidding!" I said hitting her.
"Good now watch the game and shut up" she said, turning back to the pitch.
I laughed then did as told and watched the rest of the game in peace...well minus the yelling at the plays and refs of course.
The morning of the game I had the team meeting up at the pitch two hours before the other team was supposed to show up.
"Alright Katie why are we here so early?" Jake asked in a yawn when he entered the locker room.
"Mainly to be awake by the time the game starts because none of us are morning people and the game starts at ten. This way everyone will be awake and ready to play." I said, barely awake enough to hold up my head.
"There is coffee in the lounge area Jake" Josh said coming from behind me with a cup of coffee that Alicia was handing out.
"If you haven't noticed by my intense practices, and I am sorry about those, but it means a lot to me to win this game." I said seriously to the team.
"Just one thing Kates..." Jake stopped me.
"Don't call me that" I spit at him.
"Alright." He paused, looking like I was about to bite him. "Just one thing, ...Katie, do you want to win to prove that you're a good captain to the league or to Oliver?" Josh asked in an accusing way.
"Honestly both…but mainly Oliver" I yawned.
"Then, I guess we are willing to help you there," Jake finished with a big almost Weasley-like smile.
"I'm in, I hate the guy," Josh said.
"Why hate?" I laughed.
"Because my whole life people would tell me that I was good at quidditch…oh but not as good as that Oliver Wood." he shrugged.
"Yeah most of my life I had to deal with him as my captain. Let's just say that my two best friends always referred to him as the quidditch Nazi" I laughed.
I have to admit I would give anything to go back to the days where all we did was hang out at quidditch practice. With Angelina and Alicia and I joking around about everything and seeing who could annoy Oliver the most. I started to think about this one time in particular where Fred and George were excited because they had made it so that every time we hit one of the goal hoops it would spit out red and gold paint. I was shooting on goal and missed so the Quaffle bounced off of the hoop causing the paint to come pouring out. I got away in enough time to not get any on me but Oliver was covered in it. Fred, George, Alicia, Angelina, and Harry were all on the other side of the pitch cracking up at the sight of the paint monster that was now flying in the spot that Oliver Wood once was. He was just floating there not really sure what happened but laughing just the same.
"He finds it funny?" Fred said in astonishment.
"I guess so" George answered.
"You guys lose" I yelled back to them.
"What are they losing?" the paint monster asked as he floated over, dripping paint in his wake .
"Just a little competition that we've been holding" I answered with a small giggle.
"Oh really, how does one go about being in said competition?" the paint thing asked.
"Oh you wouldn't be qualified for this competition Wood" Fred answered.
"Why is that?" He said, doing what one can only assume was to raise an eyebrow but it just shifted the gold paint into some of the red on his face.
"It has nothing to do with Quidditch" George nodded.
Suddenly I could see the eyes of the paint thing extremely clearly. He has really pretty eyes. They were the only thing that wasn't red or gold or a colour somewhat in between. They were staring right at me like he was thinking that if he stared at me for long enough I would crack and tell him what was going on. He just sat there and stared at me with this big goofy smile on.
"So no one is going to tell me why I'm covered in paint and how that make's Fred and George lose…" the thing said, still staring directly at me as it started to drift closer to me.
"Oliver what are you doing…" I said, backing away.
"Oh come on Katie, I just want to give you a hug" He grinned. A mischievous smile until this day I never thought was possible to have.
"OLIVER DON'T YOU DARE!" I said and started to fly away. Of course he was fast to fly after me. The rest of the team was roaring in laugher as Oliver was chasing me everywhere. He grabbed the back of my broom and we both went falling to the ground. I got up quickly and started running because he still had my broom.
"Oliver if you get any of that paint on me I swear I will curse you so bad!" I was too nice to say I would kill him.
The team was still above us laughing at the sight as Oliver was chasing after me dripping with paint yelling "But Katie I just want to give you a hug". There was a trail all throughout the pitch of where we had run because of his paint, it was hard to believe he still had any left on him. Sure enough he started catching up to me because I don't run eighty miles everyday and quidditch Nazi over here probably runs more.
"Oliver you better not get any paint on me!" I shouted back at him laughing.
"I won't if you tell me what the competition is about" he chuckled.
"Don't give into it Katie!" George started yelling
"It's the only fun we have in practice! Just imagine life without it!" Fred continued yelling.
"Are you going to tell me?" the paint thing said as he caught up level to me.
I smiled and looked right into his eyes and yelled "Never" and took off running as fast as I could. Not fast enough though because he was right back on my heels.
"This is your last chance Kates, tell me what is going on or I'm going to tackle you and this paint is still nice and wet" The paint thing said trying to wipe some off of his arm to show that it was still wet.
I just laughed evilly and before I knew it I was on the ground in pain and feeling wet and sticky.
"Can't say I didn't warn you" He chuckled from on top of me looking down into my eyes again.
"I don't know Ollie, I think this look suits you…it really brings out your eyes" I laughed and he picked me up to get more paint all over me. I looked and Oliver, the pitch, and I were all covered in paint.
"KATIE!" Jake was screaming at me. I hadn't noticed because I was stuck in my flash back.
"Oh sorry" I said, rubbing the back of my back.
"Good memories?" He laughed. Clearly I had been staring into space with a dumb grin on my face.
"Yeah…" I nodded.
"About Oliver" he questioned.
"Yeah…" I nodded again.
"Still want to win?" he said, trying to make eye contact with me.
"Of course" I said and stood up to get my broom as he smiled.
The game was about to start and the pitch was packed. The announcers called us and we flew into the pitch like a bunch of bees and then landed on the ground for the national anthem. I looked over to the other team. I used to stand there with them. Now here I was against them. I noticed that Mica was staring at me so I looked at him and mouthed the word what. "You okay" he mouthed back "Yeah why" I mouthed. "Just making sure" he said and then looked at Oliver who was staring at us out of the corner of his eye. "Captains come forward" the Ref said.
"Oh crap I forgot about this part" I whispered under my breath but Jake heard me.
"You've got this" Jake said and patted me on the shoulder as I walked around him to get to where the ref was standing. The ref just went over some quick rules and who was on what side and then it was time we shook hands. When it came to having to shake hands with Oliver I made the mistake of looking him in the eyes. I was suddenly brought back to the memory I had just recently relived and I saw him covered in paint. He even had the same look in his eye. But I read it differently this time. Back then I just thought his eyes looked sad because he wanted me to tell him what the competition was about, but now it was the same exact look, and he knew what this competition was about. This time it felt like he was missing something. It took my everything to stand tall and not show that I still missed him, and that I was winning this game no matter what.
I turned around, walked back to my team and we mounted our brooms.
"Are you surviving?" Jake asked while we were flying up to our starting positions.
"Yeah I'll make it…do I seem like I'm struggling?" I asked, worried that Oliver would be able to tell that I missed him.
"Well not until you asked that….you're not going to quit on me" Jake said.
"Nope, we're winning this thing." I said and went to the middle of the pitch. The ref threw up the quaffle and released the other three balls.
I caught the quaffle, I threw it quickly to Jake who swerved in and out of Mica and John while I flew straight through and next to him. He threw the quaffle at me and before anyone on defense figured out where the quaffle went I was throwing it at Oliver. Luckily I know his weak spots and it went right in. Jake cheered and I smiled at him and looked back at Oliver. He was looking at me and our eyes locked once more. Then when I was trying to look away it flashed as though he was once again the pain thing floating there alone.
We went back to the middle of the field and I caught the ball and took off, scoring with no trouble at all. I was starting to enjoy it. At this point I do believe I lost a bit of control. I was scoring goal after goal and loving every minute of it. The more I scored the more obscure the goals became. My favorite goal was this one time I had the quaffle and I got thrown off of my broom. I fell and still had the quaffle until another chaser fell next to me knocking it out of my arms. I was so determined to keep the quaffle that I ran after it, when the other guy was next to me chasing after it as well I started to kick it…yep you guessed it…I was playing football with the quaffle. I don't really know that it's legal but they never called anything for it. So I kicked the ball fast enough to get to the other side of the pitch where Jake was flying low to the ground watching me. I kicked the ball up and head butted it to him. He caught it and I ran back to get on my broom. I got up and on my broom caughting up with Jake who was running away from a bludger and the chaser that was chasing me before. I'm assuming that this chaser is that Thad guy they replaced me with. I got over to Jake in just enough time for him to pass me the ball before Thad was all over him. I got to the hoops and threw the quaffle in before Oliver had a chance to figure out what had just happened in the minute that had just passed.
We won the game 300 to 0. I had ten of the fifteen goals and the game was finished off when Ben caught the snitch. The team was so excited that we were jumping around like little kids that were just told that they were going to an amusement park.
"Kate we won! We actually won!" Jake kept yelling at the party at his house after the game.
"Jake I know!" I laughed.
"Oh and bravo on your football skills" he gave a small golf clap.
"Yeah I'm surprised they didn't call something on that, like I thought quaffles weren't allowed to hit the ground" I shrugged.
"Yeah well the ref was talking about that to Henry and said that he only would have called something if you picked it up and passed it to me because that wouldn't be fair but the quaffle never left your possession and you kicked it up to me so he found nothing wrong with it." he said.
"Hmm…football and quidditch in one sport….now that would be the greatest sport in the world." I laughed.
"Katie that game was amazing!" Angelina yelled as soon as she saw me. Alicia showed up behind her nodding in agreement.
"Thanks guys" I said, giving them a hug.
"This party's pretty lame…" Jake said, looking at everyone sitting in the living room drinking beers and either talking to their girlfriends or watching a football game on TV.
"Isn't there a park right outside?" Angelina asked.
"Yeah why?" Jake asked.
"Well there are enough of us and the people watching the football game that we could go down and have a game ourselves…unless you guys are too tired." Angelina said.
"Ha yeah right…I'm not tired and Kate doesn't look tired, other than Ben, we were really the only ones who did anything. So they better not be tired." Jake said.
"Anyone who wants to play a game of football meet us down in the park." Jake said as he walked over to his coat closet to get a ball.
Alicia, Angelina and I headed down to the park while he rounded up whoever wanted to play. We got stuck at the bottom floor of his building because we couldn't get through the door.
"Push it," Jake said when he saw us stuck in the door.
"We did," Alicia said.
"Push it good," Jake said. Normally I would yell at him because that's horrible English but it got that song by salt n peppa stuck in my head and I started to sing it.
"Oh great we're going to be stuck hearing that all night." Angelina said.
"Do da do do do do da do do do" I sang and danced jumping in a circle to the beat of the song.
"Does she do this often?" Jake laughed in astonishment.
"You don't even realize…" Angelina said
"Something will remind her of a song and she'll sing and dance to it all night long" Alicia said.
I stopped, gave a big smile and remembered a new song.
"Oh great what did I do?" Alicia said laughing at my evil grin of a smile.
"We're going to party karamu, fiesta, forever come on and sing along all night long all night all night long all night All night long all night!" I sang horribly on purpose at the top of my lungs marching towards the field we were going to play.
"Oh goodness" Jake said and shook his head
"I can be much worse at times though" I said proudly
"Especially when Alicia is helping" Angelina added
"How so?" Alicia and I said in unison.
"Well first of all that's freaky when you guys do that Fred and George thing" Angelina said.
"We don't talk like Fred and George…"Alicia said.
"They complete each other's sentences," I continued.
"Not say things in unison" Alicia finished.
Jake and Angelina just looked at us like lunatics.
"I was speaking though, about that time in school before the Yule ball when you two sang that stupid Hellogoodbye song every time someone referred to it as the prom." Angelina said a couple minutes later
"Oh the WILL YOU GO TO THE PROM WITH ME!" Alicia and I sang.
"Yep that one" Angelina said regretting that she ever brought it up.
"And dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance" Alicia and I continued doing this little dance thing we did every time we sang that song.
No one ended up coming down to play football so the four of us played a quick game that ended in all of us tackling each other. Well me tackling Angelina and we were somewhat wrestling then Alicia jumped on top of us and feeling left out Jake joined the top of the pile.
"Do you remember that time during practice when Fred and George made it so paint came flying out all over Oliver when I missed the hoop?" I asked Alicia later that night after we got home and were now sitting on the couch watching some sitcom on the BBC.
"Yeah, and then Oliver chased you all over the pitch so that he could get paint on you too. That was a good practice" she smiled fondly.
"Yeah, I had a random flashback to it today before the game and then whenever I looked Oliver in the eyes during the game I saw him all covered in paint." I sighed and hugged a pillow.
"Do you think things will ever go back to being like that?" I asked after a couple minutes of silence.
"Well being that we all graduated from Hogwarts, Fred and George are off somewhere in the world with no contact to any of us, and you and Oliver aren't talking to each other I highly doubt it." Alicia said with this very sad look on her face.
We both sat there staring at the TV in silence.
"I'm going to go to bed." Alicia said.
"It's only ten thirty," I said.
"Yeah well I just feel like going to bed." She said then got up and went to bed.
Once she closed the door to her room I turned the TV off and went into mine. I pulled a box out of my closet of old pictures from Hogwarts. Life seemed so simple back then. There was a picture of the quidditch team and when Oliver was looking at us we all posed nicely but then as soon as he would turn his back we would all put a goofy face on. Another one of Fred and George smiling in an area that was covered completely in pink paint except the outline of Snape on the wall behind them. There was a picture of Alicia, Angelina, and I all in our dresses for the ball. Angelina's was midnight blue with silver sparkles across the front, Alicia's was pink and had a fitted top but the bottom was as foofy as foofy could be, and then mine was a dark teal colour with an emerald fabric underneath it that showed at the bottom. We were all standing very pretty until Oliver came and swept me off my feet and immediately fell causing both of us to go crashing to the floor and all of us to burst out into laughter. Then there was a reel of film in the box. It was a slideshow that we had made my last year of school for my graduation party. I dug through my closet and found a projector that I had saved to watch this slideshow on and went out into the main room and set it up.
"'Leesh are you asleep yet?" I asked at a whisper into Alicia's room.
"No why?" Alicia groaned.
"Well I found that old slideshow from my last year of school and wondered if you wanted to watch it with me." I asked, still whispering.
"Yeah I guess" Alicia said rolling out of bed.
We sat down on the couch and I started the film.
The first picture was the quidditch picture I had talked about before, then came a picture of us all dancing on the pitch to the 'jump on it' song and Oliver yelling that we need to start practice, Then there was a film of Alicia, Angelina, and I making snow angels at Hogsmeade and suddenly a snowball hit me in the face. I got up and looked at Fred who was cracking up leading me to believe that he threw the ball so I started chasing after him yelling "FREDRICKWEASLEY!" Finally I caught him and tackled him causing him to fall with his face in the snow.
The next picture was of all of us doing this dumb little dance at the first challenge of the Tri-wizard tournament, then one of us doing the same dance at the second task, and then at the third. Then was a picture of us all dancing at the Yule ball, Fred with Angelina, George with Alicia, and Oliver with me. We looked all elegant and normal. This is until the next picture came of us all dancing to the Weird sisters.
Next was a picture of us all celebrating after we won the house cup in my fourth year. "So Katherine Bell, what are YOU planning on doing after school is over?" Oliver's voice said from behind the camera while I was looking into it from one side of a compartment in the train to school. "I'm going to be a professional bum" I said with a confident smile. "And how do you figure that will work?" Oliver asked. "Well with You being a professional quidditch player, Fred and George owning a joke shop, Alicia owning a coffee house, and Angelina designing quidditch equipment then I figure that you all will have so much money you wouldn't mind giving me enough to live off of. So then there is no need to find my own job." I said almost laughing. "What about when you get right out of school and we all don't have any money yet?" Oliver asked. "I graduate a year after you all so you will all have enough money by then to lend some to me" I finished and everyone laughed. "What ARE you going to do without us next year Kates?" Fred asked like my world revolved around them. "I seriously think I'll die without you guys next year." I said and then the movie switched to a hospital room and me in the hospital bed. "Now when Kates said that she would die without us, we didn't think she would seriously almost die without us there" Alicia said from behind the camera while Fred, George, Oliver, and Angelina were sitting in chairs around my bed.
There was a picture of Umbridge yelling at us after we all got caught sneaking back into the common room after quidditch practice. Then there was a picture of Fred, George, and Harry beating the shit out of Malfoy. And then a movie showed of Fred and George's ultimate prank and then their grand goodbye. And there were pictures of us all minus Oliver at their shop for its grand opening. Alicia was playing with the pygmy puffs yelling that she wanted one until Fred offered to give her one and she turned it down.
"So here we are at Dumbledore's Funeral…you would think we are sad because one of the world's greatest wizards is dead but instead we are all depressed because we just realized that this is the last and final time and we will all be together at Hogwarts ever again." Fred said in a movie of Angelina, Alicia, George, Oliver, and I all standing in black robes (my school robes) with these really depressed looks on our face. "Is it bad that we aren't more upset that Dumbledore is dead?" Oliver asked. "Yeah it's pretty bad…but later on we can be depressed about Dumbledore…as for now this is our only time to be depressed that this is our last time at school together" I said. Fred put a floating spell on the camera and joined the picture. Then we all bunched together in some form of a group hug and started to cry. Well the crying started with Alicia and then I started and then came Angelina and then the boys all started and to this day refuse to admit that they were crying. Then a black screen came up saying friends forever and it showed a picture of Fred then one of George then one of Angelina then one of Alicia then Oliver then me.
The film stopped and Alicia and I were bawling.
"I'd give anything to be back there!" I sobbed.
"I know me too" Alicia sobbed and we continued to cry. I couldn't get to sleep that night because I kept thinking about Hogwarts. What happened to us that made it so that all that was left was Angelina, Alicia, and I? Was this just a sign that I missed Oliver…but I missed Fred and George too…