Puddlemere::

Everyone's gathered in the Common Room, celebrating our win of the Quidditch Cup. Oliver and I are a bit preoccupied, however…

"So, what does this mean?" I ask, gently pushing Oliver off of me. We've been having some fun on the Common Room couch for about an hour now. I'm so glad Quidditch is over.

"What do you mean?" he asks, bending down to kiss my neck.

"Well, you graduate in less than a month."

"Shh," he says, silencing me with his lips. I know that I shouldn't have let him—we need to work this out—but right now I just want to be carefree for a while.

"Hey, Katie?" A voice asks, sitting down next to me and scaring me so bad that I accidentally bite Oliver's lip.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry," I apologize, sending Fred a death glare. "What the hell do you want?"

"To talk," he says simply.

"Talk to him, Katie. I'll be right back," Oliver says, getting up and walking away sucking on his rapidly swelling lip. Yeah, that's embarrassing.

"What do you want, Fred?" I ask, agitated.

"So are you two going back out?"

"Yeah, sure," I answer. "Can you please get to the point?" He doesn't answer, just stares out across the common room. I follow his gaze and quickly spot Angelina and Lee making out in a corner. A sudden rush of pity for Fred engulfs me. The one girl that he's ever really wanted and his best friend gets her.

"Listen, I know that you really like her but there's nothing that I can do for you right now. I just really want to be kissing Oliver like Angelina and Lee are, so can you please go find George or something?" Fred frowns at me for a second and then uses his hand to turn my head in a different direction. Oh, look at that. Alicia and George are snogging in the other corner.

"Aw, Fred, are you lonely?" I joke.

"Yes," he answers with a pout.

"Come on! Just let me kiss Oliver before he changes his mind."

"Do you really think that you two will be able to date after this year? He'll be at Puddlemere and you'll be back here." Way to ruin the mood. I just stare across the room at Oliver who's getting a butterbeer, unwilling to admit that I'm worried about that very thing.

"We can make it work," I say confidently.

"Ok, you can. But do you want to? Think about it, Katie. You come back to school in September—four months away—and Oliver heads off to play at Puddlemere. Say that there's a Hogsmeade weekend maybe once a month. And that's a lot considering that we only had two before Christmas this year. That's only four days that you will see him before Christmas. I won't even mention that Puddlemere normally plays on Saturdays, making the chances of Oliver being able to show up for a Hogsmeade visit rare indeed. And then Christmas comes. Great, but only two weeks later you're back here and he's there. And then you repeat the whole process. Over and over again until you graduate. Does that really sound appealing to you?"

"Well, no—but we can make it work—"

"Katie, I'm not trying to tell you that you can't be together—I think it's great that you are. I'm just saying that it's going to be hard." I sit there in silence. "Just think about it. I don't want to see you get hurt."

He then gets up and walks away. How is it that I can go from feeling enormously happy to feeling confused beyond belief in a space of minutes?

Oliver immediately takes Fred's place, his lip magically healed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I say once he's sat down, referring to his lip that had just moments before been swelling massively.

"No; it's fine. Turned me on a little bit," he jokes.

"Shut up," I say, pushing him gently. He just laughs. "So, did you talk to the scout from Puddlemere?" I continue, just now realizing that we hadn't discussed that particular matter yet.

"Oh yeah," Oliver says excitedly. "He said that he really enjoyed my performance and would let me know about an opening on the team by the end of June."

"Great—that's great," I say. And is it horrible that I only half mean it? Honestly, it doesn't matter what he does for living; we're going to be separated anyway. And there's nothing that I can do about it.

OoO

A few days later, Oliver and I sit out on the lawns during break. He's leaning against a tree and I'm trying not to fall asleep in his lap. "Katie?" he whispers into my ear.

"What?" I whisper back, my eyes remaining firmly shut.

"We have class in five minutes," he says, kissing the top of my head.

"I don't feel like going," I groan.

"Well, I've got to go—"

"Why?" I ask, opening one eye. He laughs at me.

"Because I start my NEWTs next week. And McGonagall would kill me."

"Don't go, Oliver," I plead, snuggling closer to him.

"Katie," he groans back. Good, I've almost got him. I give him a nice puppy dog pout for good measure. "Fine, we can skip one class—wait, what are you missing?"

"Potions," I say with a smirk.

"Not fair," he complains.

"Well, you have Potions when I have Transfiguration and we both know I can't miss that." I gaze out across the lake towards the remaining students who haven't yet gone to their next class. Slowly, they begin filtering back into the building until only two remain—Fred and Lee.

"Katie, are you listening to me?" Oliver interrupts my thoughts.

"Yeah, sure."

"What are you looking at?" he asks and I point across the lake at the two boys.

"Don't worry. I'm sure this isn't the first time they've skived off of a class." Well, duh. Is Oliver blind? Does he not see the tension between those two? Does he not know that they're practically ready to kill each other over Angelina?

"I know that," I say, frustrated. "But they're not talking."

"Yes, they are," he says, pointing at the boys who are, in fact, talking.

"No," I say rolling my eyes. "I mean they haven't been talking lately. They've been mad at each other."

"Why?"

"Angelina."

"I don't understand."

"Lee's dating Angelina," I explain.

"Yeah…" He's obviously not used to drama.

"Fred wants to."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So that's why Fred and Angelina have been fighting so much during practice?" I nod and look back at the two boys. I can faintly hear Oliver still trying to get my attention, but I ignore him, watching Fred and Lee intently. Realizing he's not going to be able to get my attention, Oliver settles for just pulling me closer to him.

"Can you hear what they're saying?" I ask, straining my own ears.

"Yeah, Katie. I have super sonic hearing now," he jokes and I hit his arm, turning around to face him and giving up on trying to hear Fred's conversation. "Are you going to pay attention to me?" he asks, taking my face in his hands.

"Yeah, sorry. I just get easily distracted."

"I realized." I smile at him and lean up to place a quick kiss on his lips. When I pull away, he just sits there smiling at me for a few seconds.

"What?" I ask.

"I love you, Katie," he says with a small laugh. And it hits me then that it's the first time he's ever said that without breaking up with me immediately afterwards.

"I love you, too." He leans in and kisses me deeply and I forget all about Fred and Lee.

OoO

As the June heat arrived, so did Oliver's NEWTs and spending time alone with him became almost impossible. According to him, if he didn't get at least two NEWTs, he wasn't allowed into the Professional Quidditch League. According to me, he's guaranteed one in Transfiguration, but whatever.

The point is that I can't be in the same room with him while he's studying or he gets "distracted." Likewise, Angelina and Alicia are preparing for their OWLs, so I've also been kicked out of their dorm. So who does that leave to entertain me?

The only two fifth years not studying, of course. Fred, George, and I sit on the sofas in the Common Room playing Exploding Snap for almost a week straight, sometimes joined by Lee. It seems like Fred and Lee are getting on well again. He and Angelina have been keeping the public displays of affection to a minimum, anyway.

"So, have you and Oliver worked things out yet?" Fred asks late one night while he and I are once again playing Exploding Snap. George has fallen asleep on the couch next to us.

"Worked what out?"

"Katie, it's been almost a month. Are you and Oliver really going to stay together while you're still at school?"

"Fred, please don't," I groan.

"Sorry," he mumbles. He's trying to help me, I know it. I'm just not ready for this conversation yet.

"What do you want me to do, Fred? I love him!"

"Pray he doesn't make Puddlemere?" he suggests with a shrug.

"What difference does it make whether he gets on the team or not? And I'm not going to make him choose between me and his happiness," I argue.

"Katie, no matter how much he loves you—"

"Can we just drop it, please?"

"Okay, fine."

OoO

Once OWLs and NEWTs were over, things shifted back to a relative normalcy. Except, of course, for the fact that Oliver was more uptight than ever—Puddlemere had promised to reply by the end of the month.

And then it happened.

I was asleep, when all of a sudden I was awoken by a large owl landing on my head. I let out a scream, which no one seems to have heard. It's good to know that if someone was ever really attacking me, my roommates wouldn't notice.

I push the owl off of my face and quickly grab the letter tied to his claw, as he prepares to take off once again through the open window. I light the tip of my wand and read the note:

Katie,

Meet me out on the pitch—now.

Love,

Oliver

Slightly dazed, I climb out of bed and stumble out of the portrait hole without even putting slippers on. The security trolls grunt at me on my way out and I throw them a rude hand gesture, along with a nice "oh, go fuck yourself." Have I ever mentioned that I'm not a morning person?

Aside from the trolls, I didn't meet anyone else, and exited the building without any problems. In hindsight, I probably should have been a bit worried about Dementors, but they guard Hogsmeade, not Hogwarts, so I guess I was safe.

I silently make my way onto the pitch, and at the very center of it is Oliver. He's sitting on a blanket and looking all suave, still in his school uniform.

"Hey," I greet, not questioning the venue or the hour, but just laying down with my head in Oliver's lap, ready to go back to sleep.

"Guess what, Katie?" he asks, softly stroking my hair.

"Mm?" I groan, slowly drifting back to sleep.

"I got a letter a few minutes ago. I wanted to tell you first." My eyes pop open.

"The letter from Puddlemere United," I say.

"Yeah, and do you know what it says?" I do know, because no Quidditch team is dumb enough to turn down Oliver.

"They said yes," I say, sitting up. Oliver just nods vigorously and I can't help but smile. He's just so damn happy; I've never seen him like this before.

"I'm happy for you," I say, and it's the truth. No matter what this means for us as a couple, at least he's happy.

"Katie, you don't understand how awesome I feel! This is perfect—by far the best day of my life! I'll be on the reserve team next year, but after that I'll probably be playing. Their Keeper's not that good and—"

I press my lips to his, just wanting to silence his talking because for some strange reason, he's making me extremely sad. It doesn't take long for Oliver to deepen the kiss, and it takes even less time for his hands to begin roaming my body—something that he'd never allowed himself to do before. It was a welcome change to the safe, cautious Oliver that I am used to.

He pulls me closer and slips his tongue into my mouth so that my whole body tingles with desire. And as he slips his hand under my shirt it hits me.

"Oh my God! You want to have sex," I say, pushing him away from me. He just stares at me dumbfounded for a few seconds and I see the answer in his eyes. And now I feel horrible—like I've led him on or something. It's not that I don't want to it's just—damn you, Fred Weasley for putting all of these doubts in my head! "Oliver, I can't—we can't. I'm just really confused. We—I—you," I stutter, unable to form coherent thoughts because I honestly don't know what I'm trying to say.

I want this so bad and yet...

"No, no, Katie. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. We don't have to do anything. I'm just so damn happy—I lost my mind there for a second."

"It's fine," I assure him.

"Katie, what's wrong?" he asks after a few seconds, forcing me to look into his eyes. "And don't tell me it's nothing because you've been acting a bit odd for weeks." I just sit there in silence, trying to figure out whether to bring up the topic that I've been so desperately avoiding.

"After graduation, you leave," I say simply.

"Is that all that's bothering you?" he asks with a smile.

"Yes, Oliver, it is," I say rather rudely, angry that he's not taking me seriously. "When I go back to school, what do we do? I won't see you until Christmas and even then I'm still living with my dad."

"Katie, relax. We can make it work."

"How? Are you really willing to have a girlfriend that you can't even kiss for months at a time?"

"Yes, I am," he says without even pausing and I can tell that he's thought long and hard about this. "I love you, Katie." My heart melts as he says that, but I have to figure this out.

"But how, Oliver? I need a plan!"

"Well, we could…" he trails off.

"See! It's not that easy, is it?" I accuse.

"Well, what do you suggest we do then?!"

"I have no clue. That's why I can't just go around shagging you right now. Not if we're just going to end up breaking up at the end of the summer," I say, raising my voice slightly. He thinks about that for a second.

"I don't want to break up," he says and my heart swells.

"Well, I don't want to break up either."

"Then we won't," he says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Can it really be that simple? "I love you, Katie. I'm not willing to give that up just yet."

"I love you, too."

"Okay then, what's the problem?" When I can't come up with anything, he pulls me into a big hug. "You worry too much, Katie," he says with a laugh.

"Congratulations on Puddlemere by the way," I say, still wrapped in his arms. Maybe things are going to work out after all.

OoO

Next Chapter: Graduation. And then the epilouge after that. It's sad that we're almost to the end, but I do plan on writing a sequel dealing with Katie after Hogwarts. Feel free to give me suggestions, although you might want to wait until after the Epilouge. Sorry if this chapter was a little slow on action, but I felt that it was necessary. Please review, people.