Hello peoples...sorry this took forever to update and i'm sorry it's crap. I'm home sick from school so i actually had time between theater, marching band and breaking bones. woot. anyhoo...enjoy (please please please) and review. loves
ps: title of chapter is from a song called "Girl From Mars" that i've been listening to a ton in the past 2 days...so its stuck in my head.
Chapter 6: Electricity in the Air
Practice was scheduled from eleven to three the next day, but Oliver and Katie arrived shortly before noon due to some complications with the bathroom. They glided into the stadium too see the rest of the team playing catch lazily with the quaffle.
"Get up there, Bell," Oliver commanded gruffly as he let loose the bludgers without warning and launched himself into the air. Katie had to dodge on her ascent to the circle of players to avoid the hard black ball.
She gave Oliver a withering glance and grabbed Leo's bat hanging from his belt. He opened his mouth to protest but shut it when she said tersely, "No." The next time a bludger came whooshing near her, she gave it a hearty whack at Oliver's head, even though by this time he was giving out instructions for the team.
"Bell!" he hollered at her. She stared at him innocently and said, "Yes, Ollie?" He gave her a rude gesture and continued on with the plan for the rest of practice. "It's going to be short today," he was saying. "Ten high-speed air laps – I want them completed in under a minute thirty seconds—" the team groaned and Oliver ignored them. "Then when that's
done, chasers: eight shots in under five minutes past me, while working on your passing. I want at least three passes before every shot."
"Oliver!" Katie reprimanded. "Three passes before each shot and eight shots in under five? For each of us? That's physically impossible! We'll be here all day!"
"Well, then, maybe you will. Leo and Amelia, you're working on aiming today, so aim for the right foot." Leo rolled his eyes at Amelia who puffed out her cheeks and crossed her eyes. "Stop that. Matt, just work on your feints."
"What? That's easy! Feints are his specialty and you know that!" Daniel exclaimed. Matt nodded in agreement.
Oliver held up a hand, "After the chasers have finished their shots, we're going to do some sprints. Okay? Okay." He glanced up but seemed not to see their mutinous glares. "Great, let's get started then."
Katie caught the quaffle that Daniel passed to her and flew towards the posts. Justin anticipated this and fell back fifty yards behind and to her right, landing him right next to the right goal hoop. Daniel hovered below her and as she aimed to throw at Justin, the
ball fell purposefully from her grip into Daniel's waiting hands and he lobbed it easily past Oliver.
"Eight!" he yelled and wiped a hand across his forehead. He had been the last one to complete his eight and as Katie and Justin sagged in relief that it was finally over, Oliver shouted at them to repeat it. Justin and Daniel gripped their brooms in silent anger, but Katie went ballistic.
"Oliver!" she screamed at him, causing everyone on the field to pause in their practice. In the silence, they heard a sickening crack as a bludger hit Matt's foot. He paled considerably and wavered on his broom. "You can't keep doing this!" Katie continued to scream. "Just because you're pissed at me doesn't mean you are allowed to take it out on the rest of the team! Matt's foot is probably broken, judging by that last crack! Leo's having to lift Amelia's arm for her! Justin and Daniel have performed better than I could possibly imagine today and you don't even tell them 'wow guys, that was great teamwork!' You can be an asshole to me, but stop taking it out on the rest of the team! They're not the ones who 'hogged the bathroom' this morning, okay? It's two hours after we were supposed to stop, and we're stopping now!"
"You don't have the authority to call that!" Oliver yelled.
"Fuck you!" she responded and flew towards Matt who was swaying dangerously on his broom. She grabbed him just as he would have fallen and flew him down to the ground where he sprawled on the ground almost blind with pain. "It's amazing he's held out this long," she remarked to Amelia who was the first to land next to them.
"I didn't mean to hit him! I normally hit what I am for, and I was aiming for two inches off his foot, but I guess a wind came up or Matt moved unexpectedly and I'm really, really sorry, Mattie…" her voice trailed off and she watched Leo wrestle one of the beastly little balls into the crate, locking it into place. Katie nodded and placed a numbing spell on Matt's foot, and then conjured a splint. Amelia knew that Katie planned on fixing the bone here on the field, and with an apology to Matt, sent a spell to knock him unconscious for a bit. She held the foot in place as Katie wrapped the splint around it, and then looked away as Katie said the spell and the skin started to move from the bones sliding underneath it.
By this time, the rest of the team except Oliver had landed, and Justin knelt down next to Amelia. She rested against him and he sighed into her hair. "Can we go home now?" Katie heard her murmur, and he nodded. Without even moving from their position, they
apparated to their house, preferring to get away from Ghengis Wood as soon as possible. Katie moved to Matt's head and placed it in her lap as Daniel and Leo settled in beside her.
"He's gonna be okay, right?" Leo asked.
Katie nodded and then looked skywards to Oliver's silhouette against the setting sun. He was sitting on one of the hoops with his feet resting on his hovering broom and his back slouched in defeat.
"Hey, Pup, thank you," Daniel said.
Katie turned to him and gave a watery smile. "I'm so sorry he did that, you guys," she said as she choked on a sob. Leo moved to cradle her against himself, as the tears began to fall. Daniel rubbed her back, and the four teammates sat like that for a few minutes.
Katie lost in guilt that Oliver had taken his anger at her out on the team, Leo staring at his best friend on the team who lay unconscious on the ground and Daniel, who despite his anger, felt sorry for his captain up on the posts. He knew that Oliver's compassion, although buried deep down, would be surfacing right about now, and that Oliver was going to feel incredibly horrible in a few minutes.
Just then, four people marched across the field from the locker rooms. Two tall red-heads, a person Daniel recognized as Angelina from a few nights ago, and another blonde who he had never seen before.
"Aim for the right foot?" one of the men, who Daniel realized now were twins, asked.
Katie glanced up and through her watery vision, she saw four of her best friends standing in front of her. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked. She would've gotten up to hug them, but Matt's head still rested in her lap, and Leo's shoulder felt so good to
lean into right now, that she didn't move.
Angelina crouched down at stared at Matt's healing foot. "Good job on the mending, Kates," she said and then looked around for Oliver. When she spotted him, she pointed him out to the twins and the shorter one growled.
"Katie, dearest, can Freddie and I possibly borrow some brooms? We want to have a little chat with our caring mate, Oliver Wood." George's voice was filled with promised pain for the Scottish tyrant.
"Yea, take mine and Matt's. He won't be needing his anytime soon."
Fred and George smiled their thanks and went to yell some sense into Mr. Wood. Alicia sat down with a sigh and put her chin in her hands. "Amelia stopped by Angie's on her way home, and said we all needed to come quick. George and I were over watching the Muggle football game on the tellie, so with a quick pop, here we are." She gripped the hand that Katie held out for her.
"Leo, Daniel, these are my two best friends, Angelina and Alicia. We were chasers together in school," Katie introduced them.
Angelina laughed and moved closer to Matt's head. "We were more than chasers together," she said. "We were sisters."
"Pup, here would make a good sister," Daniel said, giving her a final pat on the back and standing up. "I'm sorry to rush out after just meeting you, Alicia, and nice seeing you again, Angelina. I figure now that you're all here and Puppy has stopped crying, I can go home. People tell me that there are over two-hundred muscles in your body, but what with the way I'm feeling now, I'd swear there were over four. I want a shot of firewhiskey, a kiss from my wife and my bed," he announced, with a wistful look in his eyes.
"Than what are you still doing here?" Alicia asked him, and he shrugged. He returned her smile and disappeared.
The small pop finally woke Matt. He started and then groaned when the pain in his foot registered in his head. Katie stroked his forehead and grinned down at him. "How you feeling?" she asked quietly.
"Like I want to kill Wood," he answered and then noticed Angelina and Alicia. "Hey, Angie…and I don't know you."
"Alicia," she supplied, grinning.
He gave her a slight wave and then looked up at Katie again. "Why is my head in your lap?"
"So that you wouldn't kill me when you found out that I was the one who cast the spell to regrow your bones." She smiled hopefully and he glowered.
"I'm not opposed to killing pillows," he announced.
"Yea, but if you kill that one, you're going to have to deal with us," Angelina interrupted.
Matt raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "I think I could take you!"
"Yea, but we come with the legendary Weasley twins," Alicia added. Matt blanched reached up to give Katie a loving pat on her cheek.
"I love my little puppy. Don't worry, I'll protect her no matter what. Just don't sic the Weasley's on me!"
"I see our reputation proceeds us!" George said suddenly, landing quietly behind Alicia. Fred landed beside him, and proceeded to scream at Oliver to get his 'guilty arse down here and apologize!' Oliver's shape huffed and leapt from the post to his broom. When he landed, he stared at Katie and Matt, the only two of his team left in the stadium.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. Katie was still petting Matt's head as the bones in his foot gave one final groan and settled. He winced as they did so, and it made Oliver's guilty face even sadder. "I'm really stupid," he added.
"Gee, you think so?" Alicia asked brightly.
Matt sat up and Katie stood. She stared at Oliver with a look that portrayed anger and exhaustion. "Never again," she said simply. He nodded and held a hand to help Matt limp to his feet. Matt gave him a manly hug as he said, "Next time, they're aiming at your foot, okay? Enough of this 'Matt's just the seeker. Let's hit very hard and scarily intelligent balls at him'."
Oliver laughed and nodded. "Next time, it won't even be the foot. I'll just stand still, and they can hit them at me. I won't even dodge, I promise."
"We're holding you to that!" George said before Oliver could realize what he had said.
"You're not even on the team!" Oliver exclaimed.
"Never stopped us before," Fred reminded the frowning Oliver.
"Fine."
Matt gave Katie a hug and whispered his thanks. Katie blushed at the feel of his breath on her ear, and returned the embrace.
Oliver had sent Katie home at the same time as the twins, Matt, Angelina and Alicia. He stayed to put the balls away and perform a cleaning spell on the locker room. He looked around the room and sighed, preparing himself for Katie's anger when he appeared in the
kitchen. Oliver apparated into their apartment – or, rather, tried to. When he opened his eyes, he was still standing in the locker room. He tried again, and again, he failed. He walked to the fireplace in the locker room that was mainly used for flooing and tried
to go home that way. Again, he was blocked.
"She can't seriously be this angry!" he exclaimed in frustration. With that, he decided to risk apparating into the neighborhood – even though it was muggle – because there was no way that he was walking the twenty miles to home.
Oliver landed with a small pop behind the dumpster in the back of his apartment complex. He hoisted his pack higher onto his shoulder and set out to his door. As he ascended the stairs he noticed a group of two or three men sitting outside his neighbor's door. "That's odd," he murmured to himself until he realized that the men were not in front of his neighbor's door, but rather, his own.
"What's going on here?" he asked in a rather bewildered voice.
One of the men looked up and said with a grin, "she's so hot, isn't she?"
"Uh, sure. Who are you talking about, though?" his responded.
"Katie Bell!" another man said in a tone that seemed to convey that Oliver must be stupid.
"Get off my stoop," Oliver growled, realizing why Katie had put protection spells around the apartment.
"What?" the last man asked. "This is where Katie Bell lives. Not you, you Scot."
"Excuse me? This is my apartment. I'm Oliver Wood. Go away now. And if I see any of you here again, I will put you in Mungo's, got it?" Oliver's tone was cheery, but his gaze was as hard as steel. The three men leapt to their feet and sidled past the angry Quidditch
player. He watched as the retreated down the steps and then stepped to the door and gave a slight knock.
Righto...so, you've already read it, but have you reviewed it yet? Chances are no...so you know what that means right? It means its time to review. do it do it do it peer pressure! loves