Author's Note: How embarrassing…. I found a discrepancy in my own story. In chapter 1, I said that Mark was Tara's boyfriend and Adam was Joan's boyfriend. That wasn't right. Adam and Tara have been dating for years. Mark and Joan date on and off. I just wanted to make that clear before this chapter starts because this is the first time where it actually matters. I'm sorry for the mistake, but I am going back to change it.
Chapter 5: A New Year
Several days passed. I spent most of my time before Christmas vacation studying for all of the exams the teachers were giving. In the evenings, I would sit with the Seventh Years. Wood and I were getting along fine. Of course… he was practicing Quidditch as much as I was studying. There weren't many opportunities to fight. The rest of the Seventh Years still couldn't act like this wasn't weird.
One night, Adam quit trying to act. "Were you two abducted and switched bodies with some aliens?" Adam liked Muggle science fiction studies. Too much.
"What are you talking about, Adam?" Tara asked.
"Laura and Wood. I'm confused."
Wood laughed.
"Maybe it's a spell," Cedar said.
"Or even weirder than that," Rose said.
"You mean, like they just… decided to get along?" Cedar asked.
"Yeah. Something like that," Rose said.
"Or aliens!"
"It wasn't aliens, Adam," Rose said.
"How do you know?" he asked.
"We could just ask them, as they're sitting right here, listening," Tara said.
"Right," Cedar said, looking at me. "Well? Who's right?"
"You," I said.
"It's a spell?" she asked, looking surprised.
"No. We just decided to get along. Or try to get along," I said.
"Oh. Well… that's less fun."
"Sorry," Wood said. He stood up. "I've got Quidditch practice. Have a nice evening."
"Take it easy on them," Cedar said.
"I would never do that," he answered, seriously but smiling.
He picked his cloak up off of the floor and walked out of the common room.
I easily passed the tests I studied so much for, and before I knew it, I was on the train, heading back to London. Mum and Dad were meeting me there, and I would spend a little time as a Muggle. I was looking forward to seeing some of my Muggle friends again.
"Laura?"
I looked up. I had been the only person in my compartment and had been liking it that way. "Hey, Wood."
"Uh, I know we haven't been getting along very long or anything, but my parents always have this big New Year's party. A whole bunch of people will be there… all of the Seventh Years. And—"
"Except Percy," I interrupted.
"What? Oh, yes… not Percy."
"Keep going."
"If you want to come, you're welcome to."
I looked out of the window.
After a minute, Wood asked if I'd heard him or not.
"I heard you. I don't know where you live."
"Oh. Just say 'Frank and Linda Wood residence' when you use Floo Powder," he said.
"Our fireplace isn't connected to that," I said simply.
"Why—oh, Laura, I'm sorry. I forgot your parents are Muggles."
I shrugged a little and looked back out the window.
"But you live Northeast of London, right?"
"Yes."
"My aunt does, too. If you could get to her house—"
"Go to a person's house that I've never met?"
"Do you want to go?" he asked, not rudely.
"Yes."
"Then we'll figure out a—"
"But I don't know anything about wizards and witches, really. Is it a formal party?"
"No, not really."
"I don't even know what a not really formal party is for wizards."
"Wear your cloak over some Muggle clothes. Come with a dish or dessert. Just have fun," he said, smiling.
"And I'll only know a few people there."
"That's not true. You'll know several people from Hogwarts."
"And—" I started.
"You have to be around wizards to understand them. You'll have to join our world after Hogwarts or abandon magic."
I thought about this and nodded. "You're right."
"Of course I am."
"Where does your aunt live?"
We went on to plan how I could get to Wood's house. I felt guilty, like I was betraying Percy. But I did have a right to make my own friends.
Wood ended up staying in my car for about half an hour, talking about what to expect at the party. He said there would be a lot of people, but mainly adults, so I wouldn't have to worry about being around everyone. There would also be food and fireworks, music and dancing (but not much, and it wasn't obligatory, he assured me), and staying up into the twilight hours. I never would have admitted it to him at the time, but it sounded fun.
"How will I get home?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Maybe you can stay with Joan or something."
I nodded. "Maybe. I don't really know Joan very well either."
He laughed. "You've lived with Joan for seven years. What you mean is that you've pretended that you didn't know her until recently."
"Pretty much, yes," I admitted.
"I'm sure she'd gladly let you stay with her for a few hours. So you'll definitely come, then?"
"I'll run it by my parents first, but I will if I can."
"You need a date."
"What?"
"Just kidding," he said, grinning.
"Oh. You scared me for a minute."
"Scared myself for a minute. Come with me. We'll talk to Joan."
And Joan enthusiastically agreed to let me stay with her until I had enough sleep to be able to drive home from Wood's aunt's house, which was only about half an hour away from my house. If I was still angry at her at all (and it was hard to be angry at Joan for anything) for butting into my life earlier in the school year, I was completely over it then. I spent the rest of the trip to London in the girls' compartment.
My parents were waiting outside of Platform 9 ¾ . I hugged them and we walked out of King's Cross together, talking about what had happened at school since I'd last written to them. They loved hearing about all of the crazy things that seemed to happen there.
In the car, I brought up Wood's parents' party, and my parents were glad that I was making more friends and said that they didn't care if I went or not. I got a little nervous, then, because the one excuse I had left was gone.
Christmas was wonderful. I got nice presents, and my parents liked my gifts for them, which I'd gotten at a Muggle store during the summer. I even got to spend a little time with some of my Muggle friends from primary school, who thought I was going to a boarding school in America.
I did homework off and on and finished a few days before New Year's. I watched a lot of television. I didn't really miss it while at Hogwarts, but I still enjoyed watching a few shows while at home.
New Year's Eve came faster than I would have liked. I was nervous about being around a bunch of people I didn't know well at all, and then spending the night in an environment I was clueless about with a girl I was just becoming friends with.
I put on some nicer casual Muggle clothes, folded up my cloak, and put it under the seat in my car. I kissed Mum and Dad goodbye and started on the half an hour drive to Wood's aunt's house. He'd written to her, and I had called her to make sure it was all OK. She seemed like a nice woman on the phone, and Wood assured me in a short letter that she was harmless.
I pulled into her driveway, off to the side of the garage, so people could still pull out and into it. I grabbed my cloak and plate of a couple dozen homemade cookies and walked up to the front door.
A middle-aged woman opened the door before I got a chance to knock or ring the doorbell. She ushered me in quickly and shut the door.
"Sorry. I didn't want the neighbors to get a glimpse of the house." She laughed merrily.
I looked around me. There was nothing particularly unusual about the small hallway I was in. I could see a small living room at the end of it. The only magical thing I noticed was a painting waving at me.
I heard a clicking noise and was shocked to see a bedside table walk out of a door leading into the hallway. It hobbled into the living room and out of sight. I watched it in shock. After attending Hogwarts for seven years, I was used to weird things happening, but this was leaving my comfort range.
Oliver's aunt laughed again. "Pets. Living furniture makes things more interesting."
I nodded slowly, looking back at her. I remembered my manners and extended my hand, a little slowly. "I'm Laura Debman. Thank you for letting me use your fireplace."
"It's my pleasure, Laura. I'm Harriet Lanolin, Oliver's favorite aunt. He's a good kid. Pride of the family. We were all so disappointed when we heard Gryffindor had lost that match against Hufflepuff, but he's still got hope that Gryffindor can still win. I suppose it's possible."
"It's possible. He's very… motivated," I said, trying to be polite.
"Of course. His father, my brother, was Quidditch captain for Gryffindor when he was in school. And our father before that was as well. We were afraid he wasn't going to make the team, but he surprised us all by making it his second year. Of course, we were hoping for a better position than Keeper."
I was frowning now. I couldn't help it. I was shocked at how quickly Quidditch had come up and how Wood's "favorite aunt" was talking about him.
"It's a good position. Important," I said.
"Yes. It's better than Beater, I guess. Anyway, we should leave for Frank's house now. Just let me grab my cloak out of the bedroom. The fireplace is in the living room, at the end of this hall," she said, pointing. "You can wait for me in there, dear."
I forced a smile and nodded. "OK." The last thing I wanted to do at the moment was wait in a room with living furniture, whether the furniture was just charmed or… alive.
I walked down there as slowly as I could without looking reluctant. The fireplace was at the other side of the room from the door. Once at the doorway, I watched a chair move halfway across the room to sit right in front of the hearth.
"Figures," I muttered.
"Excuse me?"
I spun around to see a man standing behind me. He was frowning and had his arms crossed.
"Who are you?" I asked, startled.
"Who are YOU?" he countered. "This is my house."
I let a small sigh of relief escape before extending my hand. "I'm sorry. You startled me. My name is Laura Debman. I'm going to Mr. Wood's party with Mrs. Lanolin."
"Oh. OK. I'm Mr. Lanolin," he said, reluctantly taking my hand.
"You're Wo—Oliver's uncle?" I said.
"By marriage," he responded, looking over my head. "Don't get that close to the fireplace! You'll catch the whole house on fire!" he shouted.
He pushed past me, stalked across the room and kicked the chain in one of its short, wooden legs. The chair practically flew to the center of the room.
I was watching, my mouth open slightly.
"Ready to go?" Mrs. Lanolin asked, walking past me, farther into the room.
I didn't answer, thinking she was talking to her husband, as she was walking in his direction and looking at him. After about thirty second of standing at the hearth, holding a pot of Floo Powder, she raised her eyebrows.
"Laura?" she asked.
"Oh. Yes, I'm ready," I said, hurrying across the room, avoiding furniture the best that I could. It wasn't easy, as the furniture seemed to be crowding into this room. There were about five chairs, three tables and a china cabinet.
"Good. I'll be back late. Don't wait up," Mrs. Lanolin said, definitely to her husband this time.
He snorted softly and left the room quickly.
I must have looked confused because Mrs. Lanolin explained quickly.
"He's a Muggle. Doesn't like my family much. Says they're too unpredictable. They think he's boring. Can't say I don't completely disagree with them sometimes. He's a good man, though. You go first," she said, pushing the Floo Powder at me.
I'd used Floo Powder only once, but I'd read plenty of stories where it was used. I took a pinch and stepped into the fireplace, a little nervously. Floo Powder was definitely not a science.
"Frank and Linda Wood residence," I said, clearly.
Fireplaces started flying by. I closed my eyes to stop from getting too dizzy. The swirling motion stopped quickly. I opened my eyes to see a small room with a couch along one wall and a chair in the corner. A woman around Mrs. Lanolin's age was sitting in the chair. She stood quickly.
"You'd better get out of the way before someone else comes," she said kindly.
"Oh, right," I said, quickly leaving the fireplace.
About two seconds later, there was a small pop and Mrs. Lanolin appeared. She stumbled out of the fireplace, recovered quickly, and laughed.
"Hello, Harriet," the woman in the room said.
"Hello, Linda," Mrs. Lanolin said. The two women hugged, awkwardly. Afterwards, they both stepped back, still smiling.
"How are you?" Wood's mother asked.
"Fine. And yourself?"
"Fine." Mrs. Wood turned to me. "I don't recognize you," she said politely.
"This is Laura Debman. Laura, this is Oliver's mother, Linda," Mrs. Lanolin said.
I smiled and shook Mrs. Wood's hand. She was looking at me rather oddly.
"Oh, yes. Oliver told us you were coming. He's told us about you," Mrs. Wood said, still kindly.
I tried to smile and succeeded a little bit. "Oh. Um… well, don't hear everything you believe."
"What?" Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Lanolin asked in unison.
"What?" I asked.
The two women laughed.
"She's a little nervous. I think my furniture may be partially to blame."
"Oh. I don't know why you keep that stuff. It's quite a fright when the chair you're sitting on decides to talk a walk to another room altogether," Mrs. Wood said, laughing.
"I like it."
"I've no idea why. You two are a little dirty. Isn't your cloak supposed to keep the ashes off of you, Laura?" Mrs. Wood asked, smiling.
I looked down at the cloak and cookies in my hand. "I forgot to put it on before I left." I bent down, placed the items on the floor and dusted myself off quickly.
"The doorway would have done that for you, dear," Mrs. Wood said.
I looked at the open door and then back at the two women. "How?"
The two women laughed, exchanging a look I didn't understand.
"Magic," Mrs. Lanolin said, smirking only a little.
"Oh. Right. Well… um…." I picked my cloak off of the ground, put it on hastily and then retrieved my tray of cookies, as well.
"Oliver is answering the front door with his father. He'll tell you where you can put the cookies and where the other children are," Mrs. Wood said. She motioned towards the only door in the room.
"Thank you, Mrs. Wood," I said. I walked out of the small room and into the entrance hall.
Oliver and his dad were leaning against the wall, laughing about something. They looked a lot alike. They both looked over at me and nodded.
"You came after all," Wood said.
"I said I would."
"Yes, but I still wasn't sure you'd come."
"Who's your friend?" Mr. Wood asked.
"This is Laura Debman. And this is my dad, Frank."
"Nice to meet you," I said, walking over to shake his hand.
"You as well. I've heard a lot about you."
"Recently?" I asked.
Mr. Wood laughed heartily. "Yes."
"Good," I said, a little relieved.
"You brought cookies," Wood said, looking at what I was holding.
"Is that OK? They're the only thing I can make decently. They're not fancy or anything, but—"
"They're more than fine. Chocolate chip?" Mr. Wood asked.
"Yes."
"My favorite. Why don't you show her to the kitchen, Oliver?"
"OK. Come with me," he said, starting to walk towards the inside of the house.
"Nice house," I said after I'd seen enough of it to say that. And it was a nice house. It was large, but not so large that the Woods couldn't furnish it well. Of course, wizarding families usually inherited their houses, so they had more time to pay for the things to go inside of an impressive house.
"Thanks. It's not a castle, but who really needs one, right?"
"Right," I agreed.
"Right."
"So… your father was a Quidditch captain, too," I said after several seconds of silence.
"Did Aunt Harriet already bring that up?"
"Yeah. Your family takes Quidditch quite seriously."
"Of course we do," Oliver said defensively.
"Explains a lot," I said simply.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just that you're starting to make more sense."
He looked over at me, shook his head slightly and pushed a door open.
"The kitchen," he said, waiting for me to walk in. He followed closely behind.
"Nice."
"Thank you. You can put the cookies on the table with the rest of the desserts," Oliver said, taking them from me and doing it himself.
I walked over and looked at all of the things on the table. There were fancy cakes, pies and puddings. My cookies looked out of place, and I said so.
"Don't worry about that. Magic made these other desserts. I have to get back to the door. All of the people our age are outside in the backyard. Right outside of that door by the stove. I'll see you later," he said, leaving quickly.
I walked out of the kitchen into a well-lit backyard. About twenty teenagers were hanging around near a couple of tables with drinks and appetizers on them. Younger kids were running around farther away from the house. I joined the Gryffindor Seventh Years girls.
"You came," Joan said.
"I said I would come."
"We didn't think you would," Cedar said.
"Where's Rose?" I asked.
"Oh, she's got to be fashionably late," Cedar said, shaking her head. "You know Rose. Just like her mother, and since her parents were invited, they'll have to be twice as late to keep up appearances."
The four of us laughed. We joined Adam and Mark, who were talking to some Ravenclaws. Some Hufflepuffs joined us and soon all of us were in one big group, having about ten different conversations.
Oliver joined us all after about an hour, Rose right behind him with Flint. All of the Gryffindor Seventh Years exchanged looks. We laughed when Flint walked away from her to go to a different part of the group.
"We thought you'd come with him for a moment," Adam said, smiling.
"I wish," Rose said, smirking back.
Adam wrapped his arm around Tara's waist. The two of them never really flirted at Hogwarts. Not around the rest of us, at any rate. They'd been boyfriend and girlfriend before the rest of us had even thought about dating.
"Oh, stop rubbing it in," Rose said, turning away from them.
Wood had been standing behind her.
"Hey, you're a Quidditch captain," she said, slyly.
"Watch out, Wood. She may decide to stalk you next," Mark said, laughing.
"Maybe Flint would get jealous if—"
"Rose!" Joan said.
Rose laughed. "I was only kidding."
"Sure, you were," Cedar said.
"I'm going to say hello to everyone once more," Wood said, smiling. He started making his way through the crowd.
"He's not bad looking," Joan said, blushing a little.
"Hey," Mark said. The two of them had been dating off an on for a few months.
"She was only stating a fact," Cedar said. "She didn't mean anything by it."
"I know."
"Then why are you hey-ing?" Cedar asked.
"I was only kidding," Mark answered.
"Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?"
The rest of us laughed.
"He's not that cute," Adam said.
"Yes, he is," I said without thinking.
They all looked at me, surprised.
"Just forget I said it," I said, blushing.
"Said what?" Dave Grather, Cedar's boyfriend, asked, walking up behind her.
"Nothing," I said.
"She just said that Wood is cute, which is true, so it's not a big deal," Joan said.
"Laura said that?" Dave asked.
"I'm going to get a butterbeer. When everyone stops making something out of nothing, I'll be back," I said, leaving to let them get the whole thing out of their systems.
I pushed my way through the crowd around the closest table. There were probably about forty people there now, ranging in ages from thirteen to almost twenty. Most of them were children of Oliver's parents' friends.
"Laura?"
I looked up. Fred and George were looking at me. I smiled kindly.
"Hi. How are you?"
"What are you doing here?" one of them asked.
"Is Percy here?" the other asked.
The first looked at the other and slapped him in the back of the head playfully.
"You're right," the second said.
"Of course I'm right. Percy wouldn't be caught dead within a mile of this place."
"Neither would she."
The two of them looked at me again.
"I can't make friends?" I snapped. "Oh, forget it." I walked back to the Gryffindors slowly. After a few minutes, I could join in the conversation again without feeling guilty. Oliver joined us again after several minutes.
Music started playing somewhere inside of the Woods' house. From the outside, the house looked a lot smaller than it clearly was inside. That didn't surprise me that much. Many houses were enchanted to look smaller than they were. It made the houses, and therefore the wizards living there, less conspicuous to Muggles.
"Well, the adults must be getting drunk enough to make fools out of themselves," Cedar said, still laughing a little from the conversation we had just finished.
"It's classical music," I said.
"They should still be sober enough to realize that," Wood said, laughing and checking a Muggle watch.
"What happens when they're not?" I asked.
"Nothing that makes sense," Rose said.
"How do you know?"
"We'll go in there soon, for dinner," Wood said.
"Oh."
"Something wrong?" Dave asked.
"No, I just said 'Oh,'" I said.
"But it sounded like there was something wrong," Dave said.
"Nothing."
"You don't have to dance," Wood said.
"Good."
Joan laughed. "That's what was wrong?"
I shrugged. "I don't like dancing."
"No one in there will remember—" Dave said.
"Well, that's not entirely true," Cedar interrupted. "The people under eighteen will remember."
"Twenty-one. My parents won't serve alcohol to anyone under twenty-one."
"We know," Adam muttered
"When Wood turns twenty-one, the age limit will go up again," Dave said, grinning at him.
"Probably," Wood admitted.
"Let's go inside and get some food," Rose said. "I'm starving."
There was a lot of good food there. I couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted, so I tried to randomly choose things that didn't contain the same foods, which was taking the random part out of it. When we reached the desserts, I was shocked to see about eight people huddled around my cookies.
"These taste… homemade," a woman around fifty said with her mouth full.
"They're different," another middle-aged woman said, not in a bad way.
"Someone cooked these."
"They're only chocolate chip cookies," I muttered to myself.
"Who made these?" an elderly lady asked.
"Laura did," Oliver said, from behind me.
I turned to see him pointing and turned back, blushing, to the people around the cookies.
"You did?" the elderly lady asked me, kindly.
"Yeah."
"Where'd you learn to make them?"
"There's a recipe on the back of the chocolate chips bag, but I—"
"A recipe! See, they're homemade!" one of the other ladies interrupted, speaking to the other women.
"Told you not to worry," Wood said, laughing a little under his breath.
I turned around but he was walking towards the table the rest of the Gryffindors were sitting at.
"You're a Muggle," a middle-aged man said.
"What?" I asked, facing him.
"No, she isn't, Hank. Her parents must be," the elderly woman said.
I didn't know how to respond. I wasn't sure whether homemade cookies were a good thing or not.
"Your cooking is good, Laura," one of the younger women said. "Go off with your friends."
I forgot about getting a dessert for myself. I just walked back to the table, confused. I sat down in between Joan and Tara.
"I know there's something wrong, now," Dave said from his glass.
"She made cookies," Wood said, simply.
The others all nodded, understandingly. I cursed being the only Muggle-born in the group.
"Any sort of manual effort is… different," Joan said.
"Different bad?"
"No. Different good," Dave said, holding up part of one of my cookies.
"Oh. Well, then… whatever."
They all laughed but didn't talk about baking cookies anymore. After about an hour, we'd all had more than enough to eat and had digested enough to start getting bored.
"Let's dance," Cedar said, standing and holding her hand out to Dave.
Dave was a big guy, but he wasn't dominant by any means. Still, he just looked up at her.
"Someone spiked the punch," Rose said.
Cedar laughed. "We can't dance sober?"
"We dance every year," Joan said, shrugging.
"Outside," Dave added.
"Well… we're practically adults now," Cedar said.
There was a short silence while the rest of them thought about this. I was confused again.
"I'm confused again," I said.
"We've just never really thought about staying in here," Joan explained, like she was explaining why two plus two equals four.
"Dance with me," Tara said, also standing, and looking at Adam.
Adam shrugged and stood up. "OK." The two of them walked out to the center of the dance floor, which was positioned in between most of the tables in the upper center of the room. There were only a few couples on the dance floor, and they smiled at the young couple that had joined them.
"Huh," Wood said.
"'Huh', what?" I asked. I still wasn't quite following what the big deal was.
"We really are almost adults," Joan said, a little sadly.
"Because you're dancing inside?" I asked.
"Because we want to dance inside, in front of everyone. Because the older people seem to be expecting it," she said, looking at me.
I'd heard that age hits people hard every once in a while. I always thought they were talking about midlife crises. Not growing up.
"Huh," I said, looking back at Tara and Adam. "I thought you were all just crazy."
"Maybe a little," Joan said.
"Are you going to embarrass me, making me stand here with my hand out, asking you to dance all night?" Cedar asked.
Dave sighed deeply before standing up and walking very reluctantly to the dance floor. Other Seventh Years from other houses had taken Tara and Adam's lead and were also heading out to the floor. Joan and Mark joined them all, leaving Wood, Rose and me.
"I'm missing my chance," Rose said, standing. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck," I said. "Why?"
"Let him try to turn me down," she said, flashing a sly smile.
Wood and I watched and clapped when Rose finally succeeded in dragging Marcus Flint out onto the dance floor. The few other Slytherins there just laughed.
"Wonder what she threatened him with," Wood said.
I shrugged. "Probably nothing he hasn't been threatened with before."
"Probably not."
"Nope."
We watched our friends for a few minutes.
"Maybe we should have brought dates, huh?" Wood asked.
"The people I'd have asked wouldn't have been able to come, anyway," I said.
"Percy?"
"No. Friends back home. Muggles."
"Oh. Yeah, the magic may have been a little hard to explain," Wood said.
"Just a little."
"Probably," he said.
"Yeah."
One song ended and another song started up. The music seemed to be coming from no where.
"Where is the music coming from?" I asked.
"A radio with the volume up pretty high," Wood said.
"Oh. Good idea."
"It works. We just turn the radio down when commercials come on."
"Another good idea."
"You don't know how to dance, do you?"
"What?" I asked, looking at him.
"That's why you don't want to dance. You don't know how."
"I know how," I said, indignantly.
"Then let's dance."
"With you?" I asked.
He laughed. "Two friends can't dance?"
"I don't like dancing in front of people."
"You don't know how."
"I do."
"Prove it," he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.
"Why?"
"You wouldn't like to prove me wrong?"
I didn't respond.
"You can't prove me wrong."
"I just don't want to," I said, fully realizing that he knew I never didn't want to prove him wrong.
"I'll bet you that you can't dance," Wood said.
"Why would I make a stupid—"
"I'll bet you a Knut that you can't dance."
I didn't answer again.
"I knew I was right."
"Well, it's not like I couldn't figure it out," I said, looking at the dance floor. I recognized the steps. It was just the one where the couple did the box-type steps.
Wood stood up and motioned.
"I don't want to figure it out here!" I whispered harshly.
"Why not? Everyone has to learn eventually."
"Not in front of everyone."
"All of us learned in front of everyone. There were just less everyones out in the backyard," Wood said. He smiled. "I'll teach you how to dance. You'll catch on immediately."
I looked up at him with a pained expression. "I'm going to regret this."
"You won't. I promise," Wood said, stepping back a little and motioning to the group of dancers again.
I walked to the edge of the group with him, making sure we were closest to empty tables. Most of the people in the room had gone to the center of the room to dance or had gone back outside.
"Right. Take my hand. Good. Now put your other hand—"
"On the back of your shoulder. I can see everyone else," I snapped.
"Do you want to learn?"
"I clearly remember saying no to that quite a few times," I muttered, barely touching his shoulder.
He laughed and put his hand on my back. "Now, step backwards a little with your left foot. No, that's your right."
"Right."
"No, left."
I laughed and stepped backwards a little. He followed with his opposite foot.
"Now back with the right foot."
I did. He continued to tell me exactly what to do. I followed his directions, but things still weren't going very well. Everything was choppy instead of flowing, and I was a little unsteady, which didn't help at all.
"Ouch," Wood said, after I stepped on his foot for the first time.
"Sorry," I said.
"Don't look down. It's throwing you off. Don't look anywhere below my shoulders," he said, letting go of my hand and lifting my chin up. "Don't look down," he repeated, taking my hand again.
"OK."
"I'm just going to say which foot to move and not where to move it, OK? You know we're drawing a square with our steps."
"OK."
"Left. Right. Right. Left. Don't look down at your feet!"
"I forgot," I said, looking up quickly.
He laughed. "You're doing fine."
"Liar."
"You are. You're doing the steps, and I'm not even telling you what to do," he said.
"I am? I am!" I said, looking down at my feet. I looked up again quickly. "Don't look down. OK."
"Now, keep dancing, but look over at the other people. Do you see how they're forming a box with their steps but are moving in more of a circle?"
"Yes."
"OK. Keep looking away from your feet but follow my lead. I'll make it so we do that."
"OK."
After a few rounds, I was letting him lead, and like he said, we were dancing like everyone else. I laughed happily. Joan clapped from a meters away.
"Told you I could figure it out," I said, smiling to show that I was kidding.
"That will be five Knuts for your lesson," Wood said, smiling back.
I laughed. "I'll get it to you as soon as I can."
I looked him in the eyes for the first time since we'd started dancing and when he returned my gaze, it scared me a little. I looked away slowly.
"So," Wood said after a few seconds. "How has your first wizard party been going?"
I laughed. "Let's see. First I met your aunt, who almost immediately started talking about Quidditch, which wasn't that bad. Then she sends me to the fireplace being guarded by furniture that moves. Your uncle by marriage walks up behind me, almost giving me heart failure, to suddenly turn on a chair that gets too close to the fire—"
"Sparky," Oliver interrupted.
"Sparky?"
"That's its name."
"Sparky. Well, Sparky got kicked. Your aunt comes back and we leave. Then I make a fool out of myself in front of your mum and Mrs. Lanolin. My cookies pointed out to everyone that I'm not like them, and then someone I hated for almost five years for no reason taught me how to dance."
"Are you having fun?" he asked.
I laughed. "I'm having a great time," I said seriously.
"I thought you would."
"I could have used a warning about the furniture, though."
"And what fun would that be?"
"For you or for me?" I asked.
He laughed. "Sorry. My aunt's furniture moves, so don't be too surprised when you see it, OK?"
"Your aunt's furniture moves?"
"She's allergic to animal dander."
"Oh. OK."
"And I have a Muggle uncle who hates the whole rest of my family. And my family is… obsessed with Quidditch. And you may have to dance with me, just to save your pride."
"I may have to stay home."
He smiled a little.
"I'm kidding."
"I know," he said, half-heartedly.
"Oliver, all of the things you just warned me about are OK."
"I know," he said with a little more confidence.
"You're a good teacher."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Laura?" a voice asked, from behind me.
I let go of Wood's hand so I could turn around. A flash went off, and Mr. Wood lowered a camera.
"That should turn out well," he said, nodding and walking away.
I laughed and turned back to Oliver, who was blushing a little.
"My parents are the same way. Are you thirsty?"
"No, but go on and get yourself something to drink," he said, taking his hand off of my waist.
"I was planning on it." I took my hand off of his shoulder.
I got some punch at the main table. Fred and George were standing there, looking a little suspicious.
"Spiking it?" I asked.
"No. Dying it blood red," one said, simply.
"Oh. And adding...?"
"Fake fingers," he confirmed.
I laughed. "I'll remember that."
"Well, you catch on quickly," the other said, nodding behind me at Wood and an older woman dancing.
"You're here, too," I said.
"Does Percy know—"
"Who cares?" I interrupted. "He doesn't."
"He broke up with Penelope," the first said, quickly.
I looked at him skeptically.
"Well… she broke up with him," he added.
"How is he?" I asked.
"Who cares?" asked one.
"You don't," said the other.
"That's not fair," I said. "You two don't even like Percy."
"No," one said, dumping a bag of fake fingers in the punch, "but we love him."
The two boys nodded and walked away. I wasn't used to getting guilt trips from them, not that they talked to me unless I was at the Burrow.
"He's handsome," a woman around twenty-five to thirty said, walking up next to me. She reached for the ladle to the punch and changed her mind quickly.
"It's just food dye," I said a little coldly.
"Sorry," the woman said defensively.
"No." I smiled at her. "I'm sorry. Just a bit of bad news. Which one is handsome?"
"Which one?"
"I mean, I can't tell them apart to save my life, but—"
"Oh! You thought I was referring to the Weasley twins. No, although they'll be handsome as well in a few years if they're anything like their older brothers."
"Probably," I agreed. "I'm Laura, by the way."
"I'm Janet."
"Nice to meet you."
"You as well. Are your parents here?"
"No," I said nonchalantly.
"Neither are mine. I'm in the same department as Frank Wood at the Ministry."
"Oh. What department?"
"Quidditch."
I laughed. "The same as five years ago."
"What was five years ago?"
I shook my head. "Long story."
"You go to school with their son?"
"Yeah. We're in the same house and year."
"I've never seen you here before," she said, deciding to drink the punch even if it did look like blood.
"Oh. Um… this was the first year I could make it."
"I see."
"I doubt it," I said, partially to myself. "Who were you saying was handsome?"
"Frank's son."
I had been looking over the crowd. I stopped and laughed.
"You don't agree?"
"I agree. I was just expecting you to say someone else."
"Who?" Janet asked, scanning the crowd like I had been.
"No one in particular. Anyone."
"I guess it's hard to see your friends that way," she said.
I thought for a second. "Something like that."
She looked at me, raising an eyebrow.
"Long story," I repeated.
"Sounds interesting. I'll have to ask Frank about it."
"What?"
"Oliver tells him everything. Within reason, of course."
"Oh." I winced a little without meaning to.
"It was nice meeting you," she said. She was looking towards a man around her age walking over.
"You, too."
"We enjoyed watching you learn how to dance," she said without looking away from the man. She walked away to meet him partway.
"'More everyones than the rest of us,'" I mumbled to myself, walking back to the table we'd eaten at. The rest of the Seventh Year Gryffindors were there. Dave was with some of his Ravenclaw friends.
"How many drinks did you get?" Wood asked jokingly.
"Oh. I was talking to one of your dad's coworkers."
"Why?" Cedar asked.
"She got my attention right away," I said.
"How?"
"Oh… just heard her talking to herself," I said before taking a sip of the pre-dyed punch.
"You caught on quickly to the dance. It took Adam hours," Tara said, smiling at him.
"She had a better teacher," Adam said, grinning back.
"He's had more practice," Tara countered.
"You've taught a lot of people to dance?" I asked.
"A few," Wood said, shrugging.
"He taught all of us girls to dance," Joan said. "The three of us only took about an hour in total to learn. Now, Mark and Adam were a different story."
"You taught Mark and Adam how to slow dance?" I asked, laughing.
"It would have gone a lot faster if he had," Joan said, also laughing.
"We had to learn how to lead. That's harder," Mark said.
"You learned. That's what's important," Tara said.
"How many other people have you taught?" I asked Wood.
"A few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. A few cousins."
"A year," Cedar said, smiling. "He's good at it."
I nodded. "Were you serious about he five Knuts—"
"No," Wood interrupted.
"OK. I thought you were kidding, but it seems like you're running a business, so… has anyone ever owed you a Knut for that bet?" I asked.
"A Knut?" Cedar asked. "He bet me a Sickle."
"I was positive that you didn't know how to dance," Wood said, smirking.
"And you weren't positive I couldn't? You only bet me a Knut," Adam said, laughing.
"You made that bet with Adam, too?" I asked.
"Don't take it personally," Wood said.
"I wasn't."
"I was only kidding," Adam said.
"Oh. I knew that. Um… who taught you how to dance?"
"Mum," Wood said simply. "When I was twelve."
"He taught us when we were thirteen. Wood and I would be stuck dancing together because Adam and Tara and Joan and Mark would choose each other," Cedar said, laughing.
I shrugged. "You could have danced with other people."
"We did. Oliver taught lots of girls how to dance. Probably most of the Seventh Years and a fair amount of the Sixth Years."
"Ah." I forced a little laugh, hoping that it sounded natural enough. "Well, I was a little late, but I got my lesson, hum?"
No one said anything. I was wondering if I had sounded offended when I realized why they weren't talking. No one was. Then I wondered how many people had heard what I said. Was everyone waiting to see how Wood reacted? I hadn't seemed that hurt. I wasn't that hurt.
"What?" I whispered as quietly as I could.
Wood put a finger to his lips, then pointed to his watch.
I pulled his arm across the table so I could see the time. There was a little less than a minute until midnight. I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
Wood just put his finger to his mouth again.
I sat in silence, more confused than any time that night. About twenty seconds later, a bang went off. I jumped and almost screamed. Not that it would have mattered if I would have screamed. Everyone in the room had started cheering. Another bang went off and everyone looked up.
At the top of the room, miniature fireworks were going off. I watched the five minute show with awe for the designs the fireworks were making. They spelled things. They formed pictures. They stayed lit longer than any Muggle fireworks. They were magnificent.
"There's a minute of silence at the end of the year, to signify the year's passing and those that passed with it," Wood explained after the short show.
"Oh. Another thing that I could have been warned about," I said, much more coldly than I planned on.
"Are you OK?" Cedar asked.
I looked over at her. "Yes."
"You seem… upset," she said.
"No. I'm still just a little confused. Most things tonight have been different than I'm used to."
"We understand," Joan said.
"Time for my favorite time of the night!" Adam said.
"What?" I asked.
"Games," they all said, standing up.
I stood up with them. "Games? What sort of games?"
"Wizards and Warlocks!" Adam said, almost jumping up and down he was so happy.
"Adam's team always wins," Tara said, smiling at him.
"How's it work?" I asked.
"Wait and listen to the directions," Wood said. We were gathering in the middle of the room with most of the other people there who were under fifty years old.
Mr. Wood was in the middle of the room with two flags. One was black with fire coming out from around a dark figure. The other was blue with two wands crossing, forming an X, with sparks surrounding them.
"All right. For those of you who have never played Wizards and Warlocks, or for those of you who have forgotten, here are the rules:
"First: the two teams may only have two people guarding the flag. An unlimited number of others may guard the territory, but may not come within twenty feet of the flag itself.
"Second: at any time you may cross into the other team's side, but when you do, they may capture you, and you must walk back to the jail, which is this house, at the front door. A teammate must come to the door, which is considered neutral territory, to retrieve you. You may leave only after you've spent five minutes at the door. You are obligated to come immediately here once being tagged by a member of the opposing team. A person can free as many teammates from the jail as they wish simply by touching them.
"Third: once a team has gotten possession of the flag, they must get it onto their side before they have won.
"And last of all… any strategy may be used as long as you remain on the ground. Magic may be used if you have graduated from Hogwarts or another wizarding school. Magic may not be used on a person, only objects. These objects may be anything as long as they will not harm a person. Also, the flags themselves cannot be tampered with in any way and must be within plain sight.
"That's it. First team to get the other team's flag on their side of the field wins," Mr. Wood concluded.
"Are there any boundaries?" someone asked.
"Oh, yes. I almost forgot, thank you. The field is a square mile, the center of which is the front door. The house is out of bounds. You have to go around it. The boundaries are marked by a red light. You can't mistake them if you come across them. A team's flag may be anywhere on their team's side. One team, the Wizards, will have the south side… towards town. The division between the two sides is marked by a yellow line along the ground that won't interfere with running."
"This is Capture the Flag," I said, relieved.
"Except there's magic," Joan said, quietly. "Don't underestimate that fact."
"OK. Chosing teams," Mr. Wood said. "Each side will have an even amount of students and people who can use magic."
Mr. Wood chose two men to choose teams. The adults were chosen first, then the students. Adam was the first student chosen. I ended up on his team, with Joan and Wood. Tara, Mark, Cedar and Dave were on the Wizards' team.
"OK. Go outside. Hide your flag and strategize. The game will begin in fifteen minutes. Wherever your flag is at that time, it will stay until a member of the other team touches it. And, yes, the flag will know.
"Ready… set… GO!" Mr. Wood yelled.
All of us ran out of the house from different exits. I followed the people on my team to the north side of the house. We were all wearing black armbands that were charmed to make sure we didn't cheat. We all stopped about halfway into our area, according to other Warlocks. They decided to hang our flag out of a tree. It was visible, but not horribly so.
"OK, Adam. What's the plan?" I asked as all of us gathered together.
"Hey, I don't plan. I just always win," he said, shrugging.
"We've got to find the other team's flag, first. We should split up into small groups and look around, leaving about a third of us over here to watch our own flag and set traps," Wood said.
Everyone nodded. There were about forty of us.
"OK. How about half of the adults stay here, since you can use magic. You can set a few traps or decoys. You guys figure out who's going to watch the flag. The rest of us should sneak over. Once someone sees it, they should come back quickly and clear the jail out. Then we can strategize more," Wood continued.
"What if the other team finds our flag and doesn't delay an attempt at getting it?" I asked.
"They won't get very far," a young man said. "Strategy and teamwork is the only way to win this game. The games usually last at least an hour. You'll catch on quickly, especially if you stick with Wood, here."
"OK," I said. I was only asking. I didn't really know what I was talking about.
"OK. Let's split up," Adam said, clapping his hands once.
We all cheered, although not too loudly, since we didn't want to tip the other team off to our position.
"Remember, we can't cross the yellow line until the siren sounds," Wood said loudly, as we all started jogging in different directions.
Adam, Joan, Wood and I all went together. Wood decided we should head towards one of the boundaries first. While we didn't want to follow one of them, we also didn't want to go straight down the middle of the field.
"Any ideas where they'll hid it?" I asked.
"Nope. That's what makes this game fun," Adam said.
"What makes this game fun for you is that you always win," Joan said, laughing.
"That doesn't hurt."
We kept walking. The siren went off before we even could see the yellow line, so that wasn't an issue anymore. When we did get within sight of it, we could hear some people coming.
The four of us hid behind trees, quietly, and waited until the people were passing before jumping out and tagging all of them quickly. They all muttered their disappointment, but they were only about twelve or thirteen, and no one really expected anything different from them.
"Maybe we're in too big of a group," Wood said. "We'll be heard just as easily as they were."
"Not if we don't talk. I'd rather stick together," Joan said.
"I agree," I said.
"Scared of the dark?" Adam asked us.
"A little," I admitted.
The guys laughed. Joan pointed to herself and nodded, mouthing, "Me, too."
"We'll just have to rely on you men, then, won't we?" she said aloud, sarcastically.
"Damn straight," Adam said, hiking up his pants.
We kept walking and about fifteen minutes later, we were tagged by people on the other team. We walked back to the front door as quickly as we could, laughing and not worrying about making noise or not. We figured it would only help our teammates who were trying to go quietly.
We found the front door not liberated, which was good. We'd get to learn where the flag was with everyone else. About ten minutes later, the man who'd explained about the game lasting a long time came with whom I assumed was his wife. They tagged all of the people who'd been there five minutes, and we followed the pair into our territory a little farther.
"The flag is about halfway into their area, on the west side, almost right on the boundary. I'd say it's probably about twenty feet from it, in fact," the man said. "So, the best strategy would probably be to split into pairs and half of the pairs go around and come in from the back, and the others take their time and come in from our direction. Hopefully, we'll all come in at around the same time."
"Sounds good to me," Adam said. "I'll go with you, Wood."
"Let the girl go with him. Then she'll be able to participate in the next two games, if it comes down to that," the man's partner said.
"Next two games?" I asked.
"We play best two out of three. If one team wins in two games, we'll play another game instead of this one again," Wood said.
"And each of these games last at least an hour?" I asked.
"That's why you're coming home with me," Joan said, laughing.
Wood and I ended up in the half that was going to come in from the front. We had no problems not talking, so that ended up being a plus for us. Of course, that was about the only plus.
We were doing pretty well until Wood led us into a trap. One moment we're walking carefully and pretty quietly towards the other side's flag. The next thing I know, we're up in the air in a net.
I screamed a little late. It was a delayed reaction, I guess. Anyway, I screamed after the net was done ensnaring the two of us. It wasn't a small net but was still intended for only one person. I ended up sitting on Wood's legs, with my back up against part of the net.
"You were following way too close," Wood snapped.
"Obviously. You led me right into this."
"You think I did on purpose, or something?"
"No. Can they do this? This has got to be breaking some rule," I said, trying to find a more comfortable position.
"Stop moving," Oliver said. "We're lucky we ended up in a halfway reasonable position. I don't think you have to use your imagination to understand what I mean."
I blushed, which didn't really matter because it was so dark. I could barely see his silhouette.
"How far up are we?" I asked.
"You're in a better position to judge that," he said. He was angled so that he was looking more up than anything.
"I'll have to move, then," I said, leaning to see the ground better. "I'd say we're about five feet up."
"Five feet? Well, it wouldn't kill us to fall that distance."
"No, but it'd hurt," I answered. I sighed and leaned up against the netting the best that I could in my position. "So we just wait for someone to magic us out of this thing?"
"Yes. They'll come check the trap sometime. That's an unwritten rule to this game, luckily. Traps, however, are perfectly legal."
"You weren't looking for them?"
"It's hard to see them in the dark. A light would be a dead giveaway, though, so people get caught in these things every year."
"So much for learning from you," I muttered.
"I did teach you how to dance."
"You know what I meant."
He didn't answer right away. "Well, at least you learned what it's like to get trapped."
I laughed. What else could I do?
"You're sitting on my legs," he said.
"I'll try to slide down so I'm only leaning against them, then," I said, and, surprisingly, I succeeded.
"So…."
"I guess there's no point in being quiet now, huh?" I asked.
"It'd probably serve us better to talk."
I nodded, pointlessly. "Have a nice Christmas?"
"Yes. You?"
"Yes."
"Get your homework done?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Yeah, me too."
There was a pause.
"How's Percy?" he asked.
"Not funny, Wood."
"Why? I meant it." He sounded serious.
"Fred and George said that he broke up with Penelope. Can't say I'm heartbroken over that, but… I don't know."
"Well, you won't have to hang around me anymore, then," he said.
"What if I wanted to?" I asked, looking in his approximate direction.
"You want to?"
"Yes, all of you. I've had a good time around you all. Seems stupid to give it up just because I don't need it anymore. Unless you would object to that," I said, getting a little defensive.
"No. Do whatever you like."
"I will, then." I paused. "Thank you."
"For saying that you could hang around us? You never needed my permission for that, even when you wouldn't have gotten it. There's nothing I could have done about you being there."
"I meant thank you for making me feel welcome with you in the first place."
"Oh." There were a few seconds before he said, "You're welcome, Laura."
"Thanks, Wood."
"Why do you call me Wood and not Oliver?"
I looked over at him. "Everyone calls you Wood."
"Not girls."
I laughed. "That's not true. Anyway, what does it matter?"
"You called me Oliver when we were younger."
"I'm still missing the point. And I still call you Oliver, sometimes."
"When you mean something."
"Yes. Isn't that good? You know when I mean something."
"I'd rather think you always meant what you said."
"I do. I just mean some things more. And you haven't always called me Laura."
"Yes, I have."
"No, you haven't. In our second year after that whole fight, you didn't call me anything at all. In our third and fourth years, you called me You. In our fifth year, I was promoted to Hey You, and then in our sixth year, you didn't call me anything at all, again."
Wood laughed. "How do you remember that?"
"I just do. I remember a lot about people. Things that don't matter."
"Why do you call me Wood instead of Oliver?" he asked again.
I sighed. "You aren't going to drop this, are you?"
"No."
"If you tell me why it matters, then maybe I'll think of why I don't call you Oliver."
"Fair enough," he said. "It matters because how you address someone tells a little about what you think about them, and I want to know why you only call me Wood."
I looked down (well, down a little bit) into my lap. "I never really thought about it. Not really. I guess, Oliver is just a more personal way of addressing you, and I still… being civil with each other still seems strange sometimes."
"OK."
"I didn't mean that in a mean way or—"
"I know."
"OK. Oliver?"
"Call me Wood or Oliver. It doesn't really matter."
I started to roll my eyes but stopped myself. "There's no reason why I shouldn't call you Oliver. Even if I'm not used to you being my friend, you are, and if calling you Oliver is important to you, then Oliver you are."
"It's not important."
"If it weren't then I don't think you would have asked."
"Or I could have just been trying to get a rise out of you."
"You've had enough practice with that to find better ways of doing it."
"True," he said, seriously. "By Merlin's beard, it is taking a long time for someone to come to our rescue." That's funny because I, my friends, am ByMerlinsBeard. Shameless…. I know.
"Someone should have come by now, right?" The readers probably think so. Too bad. I have to establish some character traits to make the story more believable later. ;)
"Not necessarily. If the game is going strong, then the other team'll probably purposely stay clear of here because we're two people they don't have to worry about. Even if they think we're only one person."
"But what about our team?"
"It's a square mile of land. Chance would be the only to bring them here."
"Unless we yell."
"Which would bring both sides here."
"Good. They'll get us down."
"But our side would get tagged, and that would do more harm than good. There are two more games. We'll play then."
"If we get down by then," I muttered.
"Right," he said, seriously.
"It's too bad you didn't go with Adam," I said.
"You still may have ended up in this trap, just with Joan. They'd have sent Adam and I the long way, just to keep Adam out of the way. His team always wins, but not thanks to him."
I laughed. "That wasn't very nice."
"Hey, I'm a Quidditch captain. Strategy matters more than people's feelings to me."
"Maybe in Quidditch it does, but I don't believe that applies in every day life."
"No?"
"No."
"Then you may end up unpleasantly surprised one day," Oliver said.
I shook my head. "I don't think you've changed that much since we started Hogwarts."
"I've changed a lot. So have you."
"I've had to, I guess. To keep up with everything."
"I have too."
"To the point where you don't care about others' feelings?"
"That isn't what I said. I don't care to the point where others' feelings will get in the way."
"In the way of what?"
"What I want," he said simply and unapologetically.
"You sound like a Slytherin," I said.
"I don't not care that much," he said.
"Is there much of a difference between how much you don't care and that much?"
"What are you lecturing me? How many times have you put your wants or needs on hold for others' feelings?"
"More than you'll ever know."
"Oh? Name one."
"Every time Percy needed me!"
"Every time Percy needed you?"
I took a deep breath. "Look. We've been doing well. We're stuck in a net together and we haven't fought yet, but we're right on the brink of doing so."
"I want to know how you've helped Percy—"
"But it isn't any of your business, is it?" I interrupted, a little more harsly than I'd wanted to. I took another breath. "I'm sorry."
"No. You're right. It isn't any of my business."
I smiled into the darkness. "I think we just solved a… disagreement without many harsh words."
"God help us, we're actually learning to get along," Oliver said, laughing.
A horn sounded a little ways off.
"We won," he said.
"How can you tell?"
"The tone was the Warlocks' tone. It's lower than the Wizards'. Someone should be coming along soon."
And he was right. About five minutes later, without any conversations, a member of the other side did come to check her trap.
"Oliver?" she asked.
"Hey, Aunt Celeste."
She laughed in a sort of sing-song laugh. "Well, I certainly didn't expect to catch you here, Oliver. And it's even more of a shock to find another person with you. Mind introducing me?"
"Mind getting us down first?" Oliver asked, although good-naturedly.
The woman magicked us out of her trap, and the two of us painfully straightened our backs. She looked kind of young to be Oliver's aunt. She was maybe thirty.
"I'm Laura Debman," I said, offering the woman my hand.
"Nice to meet you, Laura. I'm Celeste Wood," she said, shaking my hand firmly. "How do you know Oliver?"
"Hogwarts," he said. "We're both in Gryffindor. Seventh Years."
"Are you a Seventh Year, now? Why, I can't believe it. It seems like you were just a First Year days ago."
"No, it doesn't," Wood said, laughing.
"It doesn't now, but as you get older, the faster the years will seem to go for you. We watched you teach Laura how to dance. It was more interesting to watch than most years," Celeste said, looking at me and smiling kindly.
Oliver laughed. "You all still watch me dance?"
"It's why your mother still has these parties."
"I thought you danced outside," I said.
"He did."
"And my family would come out and try to look inconspicuous."
"And failed miserably, obviously," Celeste said, laughing.
I couldn't help smiling when she laughed. She was just that kind of person. She could spread cheer easily. I easily got over the fact that I had just hung out of a tree in a net for the past half an hour.
"I think you're getting better at dancing, Oliver," Celeste said, looking him in the eyes. They were almost exactly the same height.
"Thank you," he said.
"My lack of coordination must make you look good," I said.
"No, that wasn't it," she said. She laughed. "We should get back to the house for the next round. Broomsticks are allowed in the next match."
The two Woods started for the house with me close behind, although with more of a distance than the last time I'd followed Oliver.
Our team lost the next game, but won the last one, further proving Adam to be a good luck charm. I had fun acting as a decoy with Joan, so others could sneak in and take the flag while the Wizards' attention was diverted.
We went back into the main room to find the older couples dancing. All of us watched them for a few songs. Mr. Wood came up on my left near the end of the second song.
"When I was a boy, this is how all of the dancing was. The dances were more complex, and there were more dances than just the one you learned tonight."
I nodded, still watching the people on the floor. It wasn't only individual couples moving along to the beat of their own drums. Everything was synchronized. The man nearest to me was dancing just as much with the woman on the farthest side of the floor as he was with his dancing partner.
"Children don't learn the old dances anymore. I only know one or two," Mr. Wood continued.
"Have Oliver learn them so he can teach them to all of us," I said, smiling and looking at Mr. Wood briefly.
"He has no desire to learn them. And I don't blame him. It's a new time. It's not these people's age anymore," he said, motioning towards the older couples.
"I always think of the wizarding world as having no ages. It seems old-fashioned to me, although we can do things I only dreamed were possible when I was little. Some things magic can do I couldn't even dream of now."
"No. Things change just as quickly in the magical world as they do in the Muggle one." He paused. "But that isn't what I wanted to speak with you about."
I stopped smiling and looked over at the man standing beside me. It took less than the tone of this voice to know that I wouldn't enjoy what was coming.
"All right," I said, "but if you're going to talk about what happened five years ago—"
"No," Mr. Wood interrupted. "Just one thing."
"OK," I said, cautiously.
"Leave him alone," Mr. Wood said. He walked away without even looking at me.
My mouth was hanging open a little as I watched him leave. I was confused. I continued to look in the same direction even a few minutes after Mr. Wood's retreating back had disappeared in the crowd.
"Something wrong?"
I turned to see Oliver and shook my head, more to say I didn't know than to say no, but Wood took it as a no.
"Well, then… it's kind of an off year as far as teaching people to dance goes—"
"Thanks, a lot," I said.
"No, I mean, there's no one to teach."
"I'm going to assume that didn't come out right, either," I said, laughing.
"It didn't," Oliver said. He laughed. "The party will end soon, now that Wizards and Warlocks is over. The rest of the time people will just spend dancing and talking, and, well… we both need someone to dance with."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me to dance?"
"Yes."
"Did hell freeze over? Because I told Percy to notify me immediately if it did."
Oliver laughed a little under his breath. "You danced with me before and it wasn't a big deal."
"You made me."
"Oh, I see. I just have to guilt you into it again, then, right?"
I laughed. "No, I don't think my pride can take that twice in one night."
"Good," Wood said, motioning towards the dance floor.
"Well… I was going to ask that cute Ravenclaw over there if he'd like to dance, but then what kind of friend would I be?"
"Who? Maybe I can introduce you to him," Oliver said, turning towards where the Ravenclaws were sitting.
"I was kidding," I said, walking onto the floor.
"Oh," Wood said, following.
I had fun dancing with him. We didn't argue, even when I stepped on his foot after about thirty minutes.
"See? How could you not look like a good dancer in comparison to me?" I asked, smiling.
"Don't look down at the floor. You looked down."
"Yeah. Sorry."
"You admit it?"
"Admit it? What? Looking down at the floor? Sure, I admit it. I did it."
"But there was a time when you'd have never admitted it."
"And during that time, I never would've been dancing with you," I said, laughing.
"You're right."
"See? I never thought you'd say that to me, either."
Oliver only nodded, looking over my shoulder.
"Should I dare to turn around and see what you're looking at?"
"No. There's nothing to see. My dad was looking strangely over here for a minute."
"Oh," I said, forgetting to dance for a few beats, causing Wood to step on my foot.
"Sorry," he said, getting us back on the beat. "Why'd you stop?"
"Your dad doesn't like me."
"He knows about you," Wood said, seriously.
I laughed because it was the first reaction to come to me. "Ouch."
"I only told him the truth."
"Including recently?"
"I tell him everything."
"Even that you don't hate me anymore," I asked, carefully.
"And how do you know I don't?"
"I'm serious, Oliver."
"Yes, I told him that I don't hate you."
"And he doesn't believe you?"
"He believes me. He just doesn't… agree with me."
I nodded, trying to keep myself from getting angry. "I can understand. I guess."
Joan tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around, away from Wood. She was smiling to herself.
"Ready to go?" I asked, putting my hands down at my sides.
"Yes," she said, still smiling. "Thank you for inviting us, Oliver."
He nodded. "I'm glad you could come. I'll walk you to the fireplace."
We thanked Oliver's parents. Mr. Wood didn't show any signs of not trusting me. Mrs. Wood hugged Joan and then me. I smiled broadly back at her after she let go.
"You kids keep growing up so quickly," she said, looking at us. "I have pictures of you all when you were eleven. It's amazing how much you change in those seven years at Hogwarts, isn't it?"
I agreed, trying to remember any pictures being taken of me when I was eleven. It was possible, but I didn't remember ever meeting Oliver's parents until that night.
We thanks Mr. and Mrs. Wood again before following Oliver into the hallway.
"There will always be these parties, won't there?" Joan asked.
"What do you mean?" Wood asked.
"I mean… after we graduate, we'll always be able to see each other on New Year's?"
"For many years, yes," he said, smiling kindly at Joan.
"How long have there been New Year's parties here?" I asked.
"Since my grandfather was young."
"Wow," I said.
"It's tradition. That's why Dad keeps having these parties."
"Will you?" Joan asked.
Wood looked at her questioningly.
"I mean, if you inherit the house, years from now, will there still be New Year's parties here?"
Oliver shrugged. "I've never really thought about it. I guess, as long as people keep coming, there will be parties here."
"Good," Joan said, as we reached the room we would leave from. "Thanks for inviting us, Oliver," she said, reaching up to hug him.
He returned her hug without seeming uncomfortable at all. Was there ever someone I could hug like that, that I wasn't related to? Percy? Yes. I used to be able to hug Percy like that. Just a friendly hug that didn't mean anything except everything.
"Something wrong?" Oliver asked.
I snapped back into the real world and forced myself to smile quickly. "No," I lied. "I was just thinking about Percy."
"Oh," Wood said, plainly.
Joan slapped him playfully.
"If you two could only be friends again…." I said.
He looked a little irritated but forced himself to smile, too. "We would both have to give up too much," he said.
"Too much what?" Joan asked.
"Pride," Oliver said. He laughed a little under his breath. "Thanks for coming, girls. See you in a couple of days."
I spent a few hours at Joan's house, sleeping, before getting ready to go back to Oliver's aunt's house to get my car and drive home. After saying goodbye to Joan's family, who treated me like an honored guest during breakfast, I walked with Joan into the living room, where their fireplace was.
"You're glad you came, aren't you?" Joan asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. Thank you very much for letting me stay here until after curfew was over."
"It was no problem. Our pleasure."
"The pleasure was mine."
Joan laughed. "Now that the necessary polite comments are over…."
"I meant it."
"I know you did. But you had fun last night?"
"Of course."
"You looked like you were but… I wasn't sure."
"Why not?"
"Because it looked like you were having fun with Oliver Wood."
It was my turn to laugh.
"It was kind of reassuring. Like when we were younger. We've all tried to be his friends and we succeeded, Laura, don't get me wrong. We've just never been able to be his best friends."
I shrugged. "Quidditch it Oliver's best friend," I said, plainly.
"Now it is. Anyways, it's nice to see you two as friends again."
"Yes," I agreed. "Why didn't he invite Percy and I to the party when we were first years?"
"Percy was there. His parents invited people when Oliver was younger. His parents didn't know your parents, so they didn't invite them."
"Oh." I looked at the clock. "I'm late. Thanks again for letting me stay."
"Anytime. I'll see you tomorrow."
I groaned. "Ugh. Back to school work."
She smiled. "And Hogwarts."
I took a small amount of Floo Powder and went to Mrs. Lanolin's house.
She was sitting in one of the chairs, which I thought was rather brave of her. When she saw me, she stood up, smiling broadly.
"Hello," she said, loudly.
"Hello. Sorry I'm late."
"It's OK. It was a late night. You probably overslept by a few minute, right?"
I smiled. Let her assume what she wanted.
"Have a nice time?"
"Yes," I said, kindly, following her through the living room, still making an attempt to stay away from the furniture.
"Good."
"Thank you for letting me keep the car here overnight and use your fireplace, Mrs. Lanolin," I said once we'd reached the front door.
"Oh, anything for Oliver's friends." She opened the door slightly. "Let me know if you ever need to borrow the fireplace again, OK?" she asked.
I nodded. "Thank you. Happy New Year," I said, placing a hand on the door.
"You, too."
I left the house quickly, knowing this time what it was that the neighbors weren't supposed to see. I drove home and slept most of the day. That evening I got my stuff together for school.
Author's Note: Yes, that was a long chapter. Almost 50 pages. I didn't want to cut the Christmas vacation into pieces. I hope you liked the chapter despite its length. In the next chapter: many secrets revealed! What enigma is the Quidditch stadium holding? What is up with that Ford Anglia? And what happened to Daniel Weasley? How exciting!