A brown scops owl fluttered over to me while we ate breakfast one morning and happily delivered it's letter.
Should be there soon. All I know is that you better win after dragging my pregnant ass across the world. I'm really wishing I was an owl right now so I could get to you when this little guy does. The guys just got back from their meetings with a joke shop in Tokyo. Can't wait to see your face! We've got some exciting news! Cheers, Alicia
"What more exciting news could they have?" Oliver chuckled having read the letter over my shoulder.
"Snoop, and who knows with them. Maybe they saw a really cute dog" I laughed and whacked him on the shoulder with the now rolled up letter.
"You two all cutesy in love are almost more uncomfortable to be around than it was when it was just the constant will they, won't they sexual tension and turmoil" Mica said, sipping his coffee from across the table.
"We aren't even doing anything" I protested.
"It's just your general aura" He shrugged. I balled up the letter and threw it at him.
Oliver and I were really doing well together finally. It was like everything had finally fallen into place and our relationship was where it was supposed to be. After breakfast Oliver and I decided to hike over to where people could apparate into the campgrounds to meet up with the crew when they got in.
"Are we going to tell them?" Oliver said after we had been walking for a bit.
"Tell them what?" I played dumb.
"About us…" He said and impulsively ran his hand through his hair.
"What about us?" I laughed.
"Ya know.." He said.
"Of course" I giggled and turned around to give him a kiss. For some reason he didn't seem all that relieved.
"Unless you think that we should hold off for now?" I asked.
"I don't know. I just don't want them to make a big deal about it" he shrugged.
"Are you ashamed you've finally succumbed to my womanly ways Oliver Wood?' I teased and went to walk away.
"Of course not" He said, grabbing me around the waist. "I just don't want them to put any added pressure on us right now. We've got enough with the final coming up" He said, kissing the crook of my neck from behind.
"Alright, I will do my best to not announce my love and affection for you until after the final match, how about that?" I laughed, spinning in his arms to face him.
"You love me?" He smiled.
"I'm glad that's your take away here" I smirked. He continued smiling down at me expectantly.
"Of course I love you, you big eejit. I probably always have, was just too lost and stupid to really understand it. You've always been the most important thing in my life and I'm sorry it took me so long and so much suffering for me to figure out what that meant." I said.
"Kates you're such a romantic" he laughed and pulled me into a kiss.
"I love you too, obvs" He smirked..
"We are so good at this romancing thing" I laughed.
"Stuffed spiders and calling each other idiots, what more is there to it?" He smiled and held my hand as we continued walking.
We got to the apparition checkpoint and there were people appearing in marked off squares every few minutes. We heard Alicia before we saw her.
"This is just great. I haven't had to travel by ride along apparition since I was a child" I could hear her saying to a tall man.
"Leesh! Over here!" I shouted. She looked like she was already six month pregnant. We could hardly see a bump when we left and there was no doubting she was pregnant now.
"Katie! We are finally here!" She said waddling over. George came up behind her by the time she got to us.
"Look at you!" I said hugging her.
"Tell me about it. I look like a right bleeding whale er somethin'" She laughed and put her hands on her back to support her bump.
"No! Of course not. You look beautiful! Especially after traveling for so long, you've just gotten so big since we've seen you is all" I said and George gave me a thumbs up from behind her. Angeline and Fred appeared and walked up the small hill to where we all gathered.
"They wouldn't let me travel by portkey, what with me being pregnant and all, then we get to where they are showing us the grounds to apparate here and this kiwi bloke gets all concerned that my pregnancy brain is going to act up and I'm going to splinch myself or something and insists he brings me himself!" Alicia rants.
"He was probably right, love," George said, kissing the top of her head.
"Really rocking the whole cranky pregnant lady angle, yeah?" I laughed.
"I have my right to! Oh news! That's right I have to tell you the news! Turns out I got myself the ol' two for one special!" She said pointing at George and Fred smiling.
"You're having twins!?" I screamed.
"Yeah, fraternal though, thank god. One boy and one girl. Turns out they run in my family." Alicia said.
"You have to stop saying it like that, it's getting a bit offensive" George laughed.
"What? That I'm thankful that my life won't be surrounded by freaky little duplicates?" Alicia laughed
"Exactly" George laughed back as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and we all walked back to the main campsite.
I smiled at Oliver in response to their loving bickering and caught Alicia out of the corner of my eye take notice.
We walked back as the four of them talked about their travels and the business that the guys had done along the way.
"Never thought we'd be at another quidditch world cup final" Fred said looking around at tents, witches, and wizards all over.
"I know, right? Let's hope this one doesn't end quite the same" George said.
"With the biggest signs of the oncoming war?" I snorted.
"Yeah. That" George laughed.
"I'd be keen for that not to happen as well." I laughed.
There was a sort of pop-up restaurant set up where the spectators were set up to camp. We decided to all dress up and go out the night before the final. It was a nice spot that served all types of traditional polynesian cuisine. We hadn't accounted for the fact that there would be members of the press there trying to interview us, and yet the familiar sound of a flashbulb breaking greeted us the moment we walked through the door. A few more flashes and I was pretty sure Alicia was going to turn into some sort of pregnant Godzilla and go smashing through everyone breaking everything in sight. Thankfully the owners of the restaurant got them to leave before we were even sitting at our table.
"Guess that's what we get for going to dinner with 'the two star players of the team to beat'" George said laughing at a magazine that could be seen in the waiting area of the restaurant that had a photo of Oliver and I on it with that exact headline on it.
"Or not to beat" I shrugged and Oliver laughed.
We ordered our meals and conversation was pretty basic, what we were thinking about the upcoming match, my hip and recovery, the everlasting Canadian match and so forth. A bit into us all eating quietly Alicia threw her fork down.
"Alright, what is it with you two?" she shouted.
"What do you mean?" I laughed and I could see Oliver starting to blush a bit.
"You two have been barely speaking to any of us unless forced and I have caught a few stolen glances between you two. What's happened now?" She said as though she was already exhausted.
"Alright, yeah. We are back together." I said quietly and heard Oliver sigh.
"WHAT!?" Alicia shouted. A number of customers sat beside us turned to look at her. She clutched her stomach and started breathing through her mouth.
"Keep it down" I shushed her, hoping people would stop paying attention to us.
"You can't just drop news like that on me. I think that I nearly went into early labour." Alicia said, still a bit too loudly.
"What, are you okay?" George said in a panic.
"Yeah, yeah, we're fine." She said, patting his hands.
"So much for them not adding any pressure to us" Oliver chuckled and took a sip of his water.
"What were you expecting me to say if that took you by such surprise?" I laughed.
"That you had a row or something again" Alicia laughed.
"She makes a fair point, but congrats you too! About time!" Angelina said with a smile.
"I thought it was pretty clear," Fred said plainly.
"You thought it was clear they were back together?" George laughed.
"Yeah, as soon as we saw them when we apparated here they both had that "we're shagging each other" look all over their faces" Fred chuckled and Angelina smacked his arm.
"Cheers for that, mate," I said. Oliver just smiled and put his hand to the bridge of his nose.
"And you weren't going to tell us?" Alicia cried.
"Well, it's just with the big match coming up. Wanted to focus on that is all. Not make a big thing of it." I shrugged.
"Oh of course not. Why would we make a big deal out of something we've all had to sit back and watch struggle like some sort of sad three legged puppy now that it is running around and playing like a happy dog" George said stumbling over his words.
"People have really come up with some weird analogies for our relationship" I laughed looking at Oliver.
"I try not to think it reflects on us personally" Oliver laughed.
We paid our tab and all headed out of the restaurant together.
"On that note ladies and gents, I think we better get some shut eye to be prepared for tomorrow." I said hugging Alicia and Angelinia.
"We all know what that means, wink wink nudge nudge." George said elbowing Alicia.
"There are a lot of fighters who said that sex before a fight was the key to their success" Fred said.
"Actually, they abstain from sex for weeks before so they don't lose testosterone or some bullshit. Nevertheless I wonder why we didn't want to tell you nobs" I said, giving them a nasty hand gesture before walking our separate ways.
"Sorry I told them" I said to Oliver after they were out of earshot.
"It's for the best. Apparently we weren't very covert" He smiled.
"I told you it was going to be hard to hide it" I smiled. He kissed my forehead and we went back to our team tent.
"This is the shit I'm talking about," Mica said, waking us up the next morning.
"What?" Oliver asked and I groaned and slunk below the blankets.
"Some of us are lonely, you know. And it's a bit harsh to wake up alone, and look over at this beautiful picture." He said, gesturing to us laying there while brushing his teeth.
"Whatever" Oliver groaned, stretching.
"Presumably this is exactly the reasoning behind the girls' room" Mica said, whipping the lump of covers that was clearly my bum with his towel, causing me to yip a bit and poke my head back up above the duvet.
"Oi, watch it now!" Oliver reprimanded. Mica threw the towel over his shoulders, gave us a cheeky smile with his toothbrush still in his mouth, and walked out towards the bathrooms.
"Well that's one way to wake up" Oliver chuckled, wiping his face with his hands.
"He probably has a point," I giggled.
"Oh who gives a shit what he thinks" Oliver smiled wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in close for a kiss.
"We're playing in the final of the quidditch world cup today," I said to him, our faces centimeters apart.
"Picked out a wedding venue for when we win?" He smiled.
"Oh, are we still doing that?" I smirked.
"I thought that was sort of the deal, or did you actually falling in love with me negate that contract?" He laughed.
"Oh it totally did, you have to choose, do you want to marry me, or want me to love you? Can't possibly have both. That's just nonsense" I joked.
"Oh. That's a fair point" He said kissing me.
"But wait, which do you choose?" I giggled, pulling away from the kiss.
"Hmm...am I allowed to choose love with the possibility of marriage in the future?" He brought a finger up to his mouth to seem like he was thinking.
"That seems fair and possible," I giggled.
"Then I choose love," he said, kissing me.
"Not in a rush to get married anymore?" I asked.
"Well, there's no guarantee that we are going to win today. Let's just say I'm hedging my bets" He smiled his famous cocky grin.
"That's horrible you cheeky bastard" I said and yet kissed him anyway.
"How is this worse than it was before I left to shower? Get up! Go take a cold shower! The lot of you!" Mica said coming back into the room and jumping onto our bed.
"Come on now! Get up! Before I go get a bucket! Or better yet, aguamenti!" He said still standing over us. A stream of cold water came pouring out of the tip of his wand drenching Oliver and I and we jumped out of the bed, our bed clothes sticking to us.
"Owens you're dead" I said as I chased him, tackling him and hitting him with a bat-bogey hex.
"What in Merlin's beard is going on in here?" Greg said walking in. We all shot up to attention, I waved my wand and undid all of the magic non-verbally so now Oliver and I were dry and Mica no longer had bogey bats.
"Nothing" the three of us all said in unison.
"We are playing in the final match of the world cup tonight, do try to act professionally instead of like a bunch of bumbling teenagers!" He yelled.
"Sorry, sir" we again said in unison.
"Good" He said and walked out of the room. Mica walked to the door and the moment he was out of sight burst into laughter.
"That was brilliant! Katie, what in bleeding hell was that hex?" He said, wiping his eyes. Oliver and I were cracking up too.
"Bat-bogey, it's a speciality of my friend Ginny Weasley" I shrugged.
"Blimey, you cleaned up our act swiftly, is that what it was like in Gryffindor every night or something?" He was still laughing.
Oliver and I looked at each other and shrugged.
"I mean...basically" I laughed.
The three of us walked outside and it was eerie really. There was a thick fog hugging most of the ground giving people the illusion of floating as they walked through it. Maybe because of it, or just because of the hype of the upcoming match everyone was talking in muted or hushed tones. Gave everything the atmosphere of the calm before a storm, or the eve of a battle.
"Half expect to see a dementor or something out here" Oliver sniffed.
"Ack, fuck those things. That was my first year at Hogwarts that they were floating about. Really welcoming bunch. Should have taken that as a sign that it was only going to get crazier as the years went on" Mica said.
"At least you had time for things to get a little better before you left then. By that math the battle was what, your 5th year? Were you even there for it?" I asked.
"No, me and a couple of other hufflepuffs tried to hang back to fight but Sprout saw us and made sure we went through the tunnel." He said.
"So you had two more years of a sort of normalcy. Better than missing most of your seventh year nearly being assassinated by a necklace" I laughed.
"Touche" Mica chuckled awkwardly.
"Let's talk about something else" Oliver said, grabbing my hand as if to hold it while we walked, but I could feel his thumb move across the scar where the necklace had touched me.
We met up with the rest of the team to grab some food at the canteen.
"All I know is that I hope this match isn't nearly as long as the Canada one," Hermit said at the table with the rest of the team.
"Don't say that! Now you've jinxed it! Now it will be the fastest final in international quidditch history when Egypt catches the snitch in the first ten minutes!" Edwards yelled.
"There's no way I would let that happen" Andrews laughed.
"Still!" Edwards shouted.
"Edwards, how on earth are you a superstitious wizard? That's not a thing, mate" Mica laughed.
"Hermit, throw salt over your shoulder or something just to get him to chill out, will ya?" I said.
"NO! He has to knock on wood" Edwards said.
"I think Bell's already doing that, love" Mica smirked.
"That doesn't even work as a euphemism!" I fought but everyone laughed anyway.
"Fine," Hermit said, knocking once on the table.
"It's got to be three times, I think," Edwards said.
"Jesus, so do I go twice more or start over and do it three times?" Hermit laughed.
"Three times" Edwards said and Hermit proceeded to knock three times on the table.
"Alright, now that's been settled should we head down to the pitch for some warm ups, or are there any other superstitions we should be aware of Edwards?" Oliver chuckled.
"I'm good," Edwards said, looking a bit guilty for having lost it there.
The stadium for the final was larger than anything I've ever seen let alone played in. I'm fairly certain that all of Hogwarts and it's grounds could fit in this stadium. It was daunting to say the least. We did a few warm up drills near the ground in the shadows of the looming stands before heading into the changing rooms while the fans and spectators began to flood in.
Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister of Magic, stopped into the changing rooms and gave Oliver and I a warm greeting and hugs when he saw us. He was really excited to see how well we were representing our nation relatively soon after the second wizarding war.
"You guys seem really chummy with the Minister" Mica laughed when he laughed.
"Yeah Kingsley's always been a good guy." I shrugged.
"Kingsley? Wait I was mostly joking, are you friends with the Minister of Magic?" He said, more stunned.
"No, I wouldn't say friends. Just crossed paths a few times back during the war efforts" I shrugged again.
"The war efforts? Are you guys like secretly war heros or something? You're pals with Harry and crossed paths with the Minister enough to be on a first name basis with him?" he gawked.
"No. I mean, I was in Dumbledore's Army. But that was more just being a rebel than anything. I was out of school when they were doing most of the heavy shit" I chuckled.
"Holy shit, most of the heavy shit? Any of it was heavy shit. You said earlier today you guys were there for the battle. It's like I don't even know you two! And you just walk around like it's nothing. Is this what all Gryffindors are like? You're mental!" He laughed and I shrugged.
"I thought earlier I said to stop talking about this stuff" Oliver said. He was sitting on a bench and one of his knees was bouncing up and down with nerves.
"You okay, Olles?" I walked over and sat down next to him.
"I think I'm getting a bit nervous." He smirked.
"Oliver Wood, nervous before a quidditch match? Oh I wish I could take a photo to show the twins." I laughed.
"Didn't we just get done establishing that you Gryffindors are insane people who have no fear?" Mica laughed.
"We all see boggarts like the rest of you" Oliver said now ringing his hands as well as shaking his leg.
"I've never asked, what is your boggart?" I chuckled, asking Oliver.
"Oh it's been you dead for a decade now" he said deadpan without even looking at me. I snorted.
"Courage is not the absence of fear" waving my arms in front of Oliver as if to showcase him.
"Still, you both fought wars and death eaters and survived, this should be nothing" Mica laughed.
"Not really the same thing, plus, no one was watching us then really" I chuckled.
"But he's right, we've got this. Just get out of your head" I said and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
"Well there you go, if you two can scrap this relationship up off the bottom of the tabloids and pull it back together, playing an international sport should be like flying through a light cloud" He chuckled.
"Well now he has a point" I laughed and squeezed the knee of Oliver's shaking leg.
"Alright team. Let's go get this cup" Greg said.
"I love you no matter what" I said quietly to Oliver as we walked out.
England still had their boring griffin mascots on the field cawing and stamping about. As a few of them let out a roar-like caw a number of people cheered so I guess some people got into it. Egypt of course easily out did us with a number of beautiful sphinxes sitting in a manner that made it seem like they were protecting their goal hoops. I don't think I'd be very good at riddles under pressure if I have to solve one in order to shoot. So let's hope it doesn't come to that.
There were so many people in the stands you could feel the cheering shaking your robes as you flew by. It was one of the most intense experiences in my life. I could tell that it was exactly what Oliver needed to fight back the anxiety, the color was back in his face and he looked like he was ready to take on one of the sphinxes themselves if it came to it. And I have no doubt he would win with the furry currently etched across his face. I took a lap around the whole stadium and a top box housed Kingsley, Harry and Ginny, as well as Alicia, Angelina, Fred, and George. Amazingly I was able to hear them cheer me on as I passed above all of the other screams and cheers.
The match started and it was fast. Hermit got his wish, this was nothing like the Canada match. Everyone was flying by in a flash of colour. I was zigging and zagging in and out so quickly it was hard to tell what was player, what was quaffle, and what was bludger. Nearly found a bludger before I found the quaffle but thankfully Wilson got to it before it got to me. Edwards got the quaffle finally, but only after the other team had scored, it turned out. I couldn't even hear the commentator over the commotion of the crowd, and unless I saw it happening it was indistinguishable if the cheers or the boos were in my teams' favor. Edwards scored and the Egyptian keeper threw the ball back into play, I rushed out and was able to quickly tackle the quaffle back away from their chaser. I passed the ball to Mica who rounded it back and into the right hoop. Everything was moving so quickly no one could even think of using a play. It was just grab ball, shoot ball tactics, and this seemed to be effecting both teams drastically. It seemed like we both came out of the game hot, and neither could slow down without the other slowing down first, so we were just spinning out of control. But points were being scored left and right. I hope Isla came to this game, there is so much action she probably doesn't even know where to look. Hell I don't know where to look.
A while into the game Egypt called a timeout. Greg was thinking that they did it to hope it would jump start the game so that everyone would slow down and get some actual plays in. But told us to come back out like a swarm of bees just in case they did too. Sure enough they must have had the same pep talk and the swarm tactics continued for both teams. Oliver was trying his hardest but each keeper was looking at nearly ten shots on goal a minute, so they would be lucky if only one of those went in. Things were starting to slow down around the hour and a half mark of the game if for no other reason than because no one possibly has the stamina to maintain that level of manic play. I took a big swoop around the outside of the pitch to meet Edwards on the outside of the chasers currently pursuing him up the middle. I got there and he passed the quaffle to me, I spun around quickly lobbing the quaffle to Mica who sped by and tossed it through the left hoop while the Egyptian keeper hovered looking at Edwards and me between the center and left.
I flew back and happened to be able to catch the commentator in that moment announcing the score of 490 to 350. We had the lead for the moment, but if Egypt caught the snitch they'd win it all. As that thought crossed my mind it was as if the impediment jinx had been placed on the entire pitch. Across the pitch from me I happened to see something shiny and gold, but I wasn't the only one who had caught a glimpse of it. Almost exactly eye level with me but a bit of a way farther back was the Egyptian seeker and he was heading directly for the snitch. Andrews was nowhere in sight. If their seeker caught it right now we would lose, if we got one more goal before he caught it we could tie….I think. I don't know what ties even are in quidditch, but I couldn't just sit here and lose. I saw the quaffle in the arm of an Egyptian chaser in the direct line between where I currently sat and their goal hoops. I shot like a bullet out of hell directly at the chaser with my arm out, I scooped the quaffle and the chaser was so shocked she let it go to grab her broom with both arms instead of putting up a fight for it. I flew directly at the hoops as fast as I could and I could hear the crowd getting louder and louder the closer I got. I chucked the quaffle with all of my might into the corner of the middle hoop where Oliver always struggled to guard properly and it went through perfectly. I threw on my breaks and swung round to see the egyptian seeker holding up the snitch.
"Well folks this is unbelievable. Never seen anything quite like this, that's a goal for England and the snitch has been caught by Egypt making our score 500 all! Going to have to go to the officials for that call" The commentator announced. There were all sorts of cries of shock and awe from the crowd as well as pockets of murmuring while the referee flew up to the main box to discuss with the ICWQC officials.
"Has anything like this ever happened?" I asked, panting as I flew over to Oliver, Mica, Edwards, and Andrews.
"I don't think so," Oliver said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Did you see that he saw the snitch?" Andrews asked.
"Yeah…" I said awkwardly.
"Damn Kates, maybe you should be a seeker" He laughed.
After the longest twenty minutes of my life, the referee reappeared and held his wand to his throat to magnify his voice. The stands went silent at the sight of him.
"The ICWQC, as well both representing teams' government officials, have come to the agreement that the best way to decide the outcome of this tie is to have a penalty shootout, almost like that of a non-magical football match" the referee said to a mixed response from the crowd.
"Interesting," I said.
"We have also decided, in consideration of due fairness to the team that did catch the golden snitch, that Egypt shall be allowed an additional player to shoot on goal. This means, England will have their current three chasers, and Egypt will have their three. plus one from their reserve. Most goals after one rotation wins." The ref continued.
"Well fuck me, I guess then" Oliver snorted.
"Oh come on, you were basically born for a penalty shot. You've got this" I said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Getting a bit bold there, that's going to be the cover of the papers tomorrow with the headline kiss of death or dementor's kiss or something now" He chuckled.
"Block all the shots and I'll give them a better kiss to put on their papers" I winked and waggled my eyebrows.
"No pressure though" He laughed.
"Oh of course, no pressure" I said.
"I don't know what makes me feel like I'm going to be sick more, how cute you two are or that the happiness of my country relies on my ability to make a goal right now" Mica said clutching his stomach.
"Both?" I laughed
"Yeah..probably both" He laughed.
Everyone got settled again as Edwards, Mica, and I flew down to the Egyptian goal posts. They wanted us to go first, and then Egypt would try down against Oliver. Edwards went first. He lined up for the shot, the ref gave him the quaffle, and the entire stadium went silent.
"No big deal. Just the dead silence of the entire world staring down at us" Mica said quietly to me. We were off to the side watching him.
Edwards took a deep breath in and out and held the quaffle up to his face like an American muggle in a movie with a bowling ball.
"Think that's some sort of superstition?" I asked Mica and he nearly laughed.
Edwards rocketed towards the right goal but just as he was about to get there he did a backflip on his broom letting go of the quaffle which let his broom whack it into the left hoop while the keeper was in front of him at the right hoop. It was genius. I whooped so hard and loud I nearly fell off the front of my broom.
"I don't know what that was but it was brilliant!" Mica screamed over the thunderous cheering.
We both nearly knocked Edwards over patting him so hard when he flew over to us.
Now it was Mica's turn. The stadium went silent again and Mica was as still as a statue staring at the keeper as if he was trying to perform legilimens on him. He took the quaffle from the ref, gave it a good spin in his hands and sped forward, he sped left, then pivoted right, then left, then up, then spun down, then looped up, then did a sort of back flip and lobbed the ball through the hoop and the keeper couldn't catch it. The crowd erupted again.
Now it was down to me. I couldn't even celebrate Mica's goal that much because I was too petrified of mine. I've done this a hundred times before, if not more. I could shoot penalties in my sleep. In fact I probably have at some of Oliver's crack of dawn practices back at Hogwarts. Those practices seemed a million years ago right now. I felt like the impediment jinx was back again as I slowly flew to set up my shot. I looked down the pitch to see Oliver still hovering all alone in the dark by the hoops on the other side. I felt everything he and I had been through in our lives flash before me. All the struggles and all the pain, the happy moments so fleeting and few between. And yet here we were, finally, as they all kept saying. Finally figuring it out. Finally in love. Finally in the final. The grand finale, coming together just in time to be here right now stealing glances across the largest stadium I've ever even imagined. I want to be able to retake that photo that probably even right now is in his back pocket, with a bigger win twice over. The world cup, and my heart. I wanted to shout that I loved him from here, but I guess I should shoot this goal first. So a smile will have to for now. He'll know.
I took the quaffle from the ref, looked down at it, looked up at the Egyptian keeper. He looked tired. I laughed out loud looking at the crowd, the keeper still wasn't protecting the hole I had just scored on. I don't understand what it was about this spot that made it so hard for every keeper in the literal world to cover. I sped up, I zigged, I zagged, and I chucked it into the hoop without the littlest bit of struggle and the crowd cheered so loudly one of the bristles of my broom fell loose.
Edwards, Mica, and I flew up to our couches box to watch Egypt on their attempt. Everyone gave us a pat or a hug as we entered the box. The second the crowd went silent I screamed. "You've got this Ollie!" from the box and heard familiar woos of Alicia, Angelina, and the Twins somewhere in the distance. I could see a smirk crack on Oliver's war face.
The first chaser flew up and took a shot but Oliver caught it easily. We all went crazy for a second but quickly recovered remembering they still had three more chasers to go. The second came up with a few twirls and spins and slipped the quaffle into the right hoop. The crowd cheered and you could feel the entire team in the couches box collectively holding our breath.
"Only one in, he's got this" I said, digging my fingernails into Mica's arm, but he didn't even seem to notice.
The third chaser flung forward and then doubled back and to the side, faking Oliver out and sending him to cover the wrong hoop so he was easily able to score. Even from far away it was clear this one bothered him.
"So what happens if they score again and tie us again here?" I heard someone ask.
"I don't know, I think I heard some say they rerelease the snitch and go for a sort of golden goal type situation" Greg shrugged.
"That would be dreadful," I said to Mica.
"He's going to save this one," He said with certainty.
The last chaser up was a player who was by far their strongest player. He probably scored 50% of the points from the regular game and assisted in the rest. I don't know that I had the same confidence that Mica did.
The chaser got the quaffle and was basically dancing on his broom there was so much flourish as he approached the hoops. Finally ,he threw the ball and Oliver launched himself from his broom catching the quaffle and swinging down hanging from his broom by his foot. The ball was saved. They only scored two points. We scored three. We won. We won the final. We won the world cup. England won the world cup!
The commentator was screaming, the stands were shaking so badly you'd think they were about to collapse, and Oliver was still swinging from his broom like a strange bat with a large quaffle shaped grape. I scooped up my broom and flew out to him. I pulled him onto my broom, grabbed his face with my hands and pulled him into a deep kiss right there in front of the hoops. He just raised his arm above us,quaffle still in his hand, in a gesture of victory. The stands erupted into even more cheers and shouts.
"How's that for your picture" I asked when I pulled back.
"It's decent, but I think we could give them a few more shots" He smirked and wrapped his arms around my waste. He pretended to dip me on the broom and held the quaffle slightly in front of my face like that famous photo of the navy officer and nurse on D day in New York. I couldn't stop giggling.
"You have to try to outdo us winning the mother fucking world cup?!" Mica said, throwing confetti as he flew by us.
"Sorry mate, but this is so much better" Oliver chuckled.
"Fred and George are never going to believe me when I tell them you just said that." I smiled.
The stands were shaking so much around us from everyone celebrating it ended up registering as a small earthquake on some of the muggle machines in Christchurch. Fireworks and confetti were in every inch of the sky.
The team flew up to the top box and received the cup from the New Zealand Minister of Magic. I kept thinking that this was it, there was no way I could ever possibly be more happy than I was right now. My cheeks ached from smiling so hard for so long. We hoisted the cup up to cheers and screams of the hundreds of thousands of spectators below. The entire time Oliver had his arm around my back keeping me close. I looked up at him smiling.
"You're right, this is somehow better" I said looking up to him, leaning in for a kiss, and shutting out everything else around us.