"Kat…kat?...KAT!" Dotty was chucking things to wake me up.
"WHAT?!" I shouted, not pleased with the idea of being awake yet.
"You sleep way too much at work" She laughed.
"Yeah well I'd like to see you have my job and then you can complain" I said straightening up my desk.
"It's not that much different from mine" She said.
"Yeah I know but at least yours lets you sleep in after big nights out. Mine is a big party that last until midnight or later and then up at four the next morning to get to talk to one of the boys at practice." I complained.
"I guess" she said playing with her hair.
"Katherine!" My boss, Linda, said as she came running into my cubicle.
"What is it?" I asked, trying my best to act like I was wide awake.
"Pleease tell me that everything you wrote in the Oliver Wood piece was fact" She said like she was out of breath.
"All of it is direct quotes or based off of direct quotes from Oliver Wood himself." I said proudly…I had completely forgotten about Oliver up until this point. Since my night at his house I've gone to three parties of famous quidditch stars about new bran names that they are sponsored by, two charity events, and a dinner hosted by Barry Ryan's wife, all of these events happening in a span of about four days. This explains why I'm beat and why I had forgotten about Oliver.
"You better be telling the truth because Blair is about ready to sue the entire Prophet because she claims that the story is false and is upset because it is messing up her image." Linda said.
"Maybe she should have thought about her image before she tried to mess with Oliver's." I said a little too smartly.
"What is you're relationship with Oliver?" She asked randomly
"We were friends back in school…why?" I said
"You never went out?" She asked
"No…ew" I said and laughed because that had been my response to people thinking that Oliver and I should, or did, or would go out for as long as I could remember.
"Okay good" She said and sighed.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just making sure there is no way that she has a case…there will probably be someone here to ask you questions soon so be prepared. And I swear you best have not made that story up…and Dorothy don't you have any stories that you should be working on right now instead of sitting here chatting with Miss Bell" She said and left my cubicle.
"Meow" Dotty said.
"Tell me about it" I said
"So was the story fact?" Dotty asked leaning in closer like she was going to get some big scoop.
"Completely" I said.
"Then how can Blair complain?" She asked
"She can't but she probably was hoping to get her story out first and make Oliver look like the fool but the truth went out first and she isn't happy about it" I said.
"Sounds like something someone like her would do" Dotty scoffed.
"Miss Bell?" A strange wizard in professional looking robes said in my direction.
"Yes?" I asked.
"I'm going to get going Kat I'll get you the rest of the story later" Dotty said getting up to leave while still trying to make us sound more professional.
"I'm Eric Tull, I represent Miss Blair Roberts, I'm here to ask you a few questions about the story you wrote about her and her previous boyfriend's break up" he said.
"Oh yes please sit down" I said conjuring up a chair for him in my little cubicle.
"Yes thank you" he said sitting down while putting his brief case he was carrying down and taking off his hat.
"So now to business, Miss Roberts states that in you're article you accused her of cheating on Mr. Wood with a Mr. Tree and that their relationship was only made because their publicist set it up to be. Miss Roberts believes this all to be untrue and is under the understanding that no reporters were allowed to interview Mr. Wood the night you wrote the story. She claims and I quote that you must just be a fan of his so you were writing stories to make him look like the hero you think he is unquote." Mr. Tull said.
"Well first of all I did make it in to interview Mr. Wood and all of those things mentioned about their relationship were direct quotes from him. Secondly I find Miss Roberts very disrespectful in thinking that I would ever put a bias on my story. Thirdly I do believe these quotes to be true because I believe Oliver to be an honorable man and so I trusted him enough to use his quotes. If he lied to me than that is not my issue but I would never use a quote that is not directly from the mouth of that who I was quoting." I said in my most professional voice I had and tried to make it sound like I was appalled to let anyone think that I lied…of course it was my original intention to lie in the first place but Oliver was the one who made it so I didn't have to.
"Okay…." He said writing down what I said.
"What is your relationship with Mr. Wood?" He asked.
"As of right now I know him only as a quidditch player that I interviewed but I used to know him back in school. We went to Hogwarts together and he was my quidditch captain for my first two years on the team." I explained.
"I see" He said and wrote that down as well.
"Well it looks like Miss Blair has no case on you so I guess I will be leaving you to your own business now. Thank you for you time" He said as he stood up and put his hat back on.
"Anytime" I said and started writing on a piece of paper on my desk to make it look like I was extremely busy with work…which wasn't a total lie but I wasn't honestly writing anything at the moment. And to think this guy thought I lied about something. I giggled out loud as he left sight and instantly Dotty was back in her normal spot.
"I'm beginning to wonder if you actually do work here or if you just hang out here and tell me that you do so that I will actually talk to you" I laughed.
"No I do but my job is pretty boring right now. I mean we have like eight people here who basically write about the same thing. So it's very unlikely that all of us with have something to write about." She laughed.
"Must be nice, I'm stuck here covering like everything" I said.
"Yeah well you have some what of an obscure position I mean like we have writers who write sport and we have writers who write gossip but you do everything that comes between" She laughed.
"And you'd be surprised how much is there" I laughed.
"Dotty are you in here?" Josie, Dotty's boss, said into my cubicle.
"Oh goodness now even you're boss knows to find you in here…I need like a door on here or something" I laughed.
"Yeah I'm here" Dotty said after laughing at me.
"Oh good, I need you to go out and find whatever this hoopla is about Blair Roberts. I really don't care that much about it but apparently there is some form of conference that she is holding about all of the "gossip" that's going around about her and Oliver Wood… I'm intrigued to find out what Wood has to say about this…no body has seen him in days" Josie said.
"Has he been going to practice?" I asked in more of a worried friend way then a reporter I noticed…as did they because they looked at me strange.
"Yeah but reporters aren't allowed into the pitch during practices and some how they get him around with out anyone even seeing him. It's amazing really." She said.
"So you want me to go to the conference?" She asked.
"Yeah and just see if anything interesting happens and if not oh well" She said.
"Alrighty" Dotty said and walked over to her cubicle.
"I think I'm going to go and check out that conference too" I said and headed to Linda's desk.
"Linda I'm going to go to this conference held by Blair Roberts and see what she has to say to see if there is anything more to that story but before I go is there anything more important you want me to take care of?" I asked
"Well there is a story about the new coach for a children's team in London but I can give it to one of the boys. I think it's an excellent idea for you to focus on this story because there isn't much more that says sports gossip like a large break up with a player." She said with her fake smile on.
I went back to my desk and grabbed my jacket.
"Hey Dot you ready to go?" I asked her.
"Yeah are you actually coming?" She asked
"Yeah but if anything eventful happens you can have the scoop" I laughed
"You seem so crushed to give it up" She giggled and we left the office.
The conference was held at a big conference hall on a street off of Diagon Alley. It was pretty lame. Just things like "All of the reporters lie" or "I'm really not a bad person" and even tried to say that she had never even met Chris Tree until someone mentioned that they had numerous pictures of the two of them together on holiday. It was pretty uneventful until towards the end when she spotted me.
"Hey aren't you that woman that wrote the lies in the first place" She said to me randomly in the middle of one of her sentences about how she's really a considerate person who doesn't normally make big scenes in public.
"I am the woman who interviewed Oliver Wood if that's what you mean" I said as politely as I could handle.
"What are you here to think up more lies about me? You actually have the nerve to come to my conference after you're the reason I have to have this bloody thing in the first place." She said… so much for not making big scenes.
"Honey calm down I'm just here to hear you're half of the story, so I can post a fair story from your point of view. I'm trying to help you, not sabotage you" I said trying really hard not to just laugh at her.
"I want her out of here!" She basically cried like a spoiled six year old wanting a pony.
"Fine I'm gone" I said and walked out of the room. About half the room followed behind me.
"Kat wait up" Dotty said
"No go back in there and get the rest of what she has to say. I'll talk to you tomorrow." I said.
"Alright see ya" She said as she sulked back into the room.
I was walking down Diagon Alley when I looked into Madam Malkin's and saw Alicia jumping up and down around the shop. It was opened so I figured why not.
"Katie! What are you doing here?' She asked in her always cheery voice.
"I was just walking by and I'm bored out of my mind so I figured I'd drop into say hello" I said…it was random… but honest.
"Some how I have a hard time believing that a girl who is the talk of the Prophet right now would be bored" She laughed and walked over to me.
"Yeah well I just got kicked out of a conference and I don't really feel like going back to work…." I said
"Why'd you get kicked out?" She asked sitting down on one of the waiting couches and encouraging me to do so as well. This is what I love about Alicia, I rarely ever talk to her anymore but when I get the chance to we are still best friends.
"Why don't we hang out as much?" I asked completely ignoring her question because it felt like it was just going to drag us into one of the boring awkward half conversations.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"We used to be like best friends and now we work like three buildings apart and see each other randomly but other then that we like never talk." I said.
"I know it's weird…I always figured you were like everyone else and your life was too eventful to ever bother talking to me. I mean you guys all have these wonderful careers and here I am working for Madam Malkin" She said.
"Oh God Alicia I would much rather talk to you then do my stupid job." I said.
"Really?" She looked at me and for the first time in my entire life I saw sadness in Alicia's eyes.
"Of course! Alicia I've never met anyone that I've gotten along with better in my life! I was crushed when you left Hogwarts and stopped writing. I always figured it was for good reason but I was still crushed." I told her.
"I know I'm sorry I got so caught up in trying to make it in fashion I kept thinking I didn't have any time for anyone." She said.
"I guess it's a bit of both of our faults that we stopped talking." I said.
"Yeah…I guess….but it won't happen again right?!" She laughed.
"Never again" I said and she leapt into a hug with me.
"Ha we should celebrate by doing something we used to do when we were kids" I said.
"Ha yeah we should, but what?" She said
"Erm…I don't know" I said and played with my hair a bit.
"Junk Food Fest?" She giggled
"Oh man I could go for one of those" I laughed.
"Then Junk Food Fest it is….I'll close up the shop and we can head to the store." She giggled and bounced off to close the store.
A Junk Food Fest is this event that Alicia and I did when we were younger where we would get a bunch of money and go to like Honeydukes or someplace and buy as much junk food as we wanted and then rent a sappy muggle movie (which I introduced to her) and watch them while pigging out on all of the food. The next morning we would normally be miserably sick but for whatever reason this was like our emotional cleansing ritual.
"All set, my house or yours?" She asked.
"Gosh I have no idea what my house looks like right now" I said ashamed.
"Then to my house we go" She giggled
"It's weird I have no idea really what compelled me to come in here right now but I'm glad I did." I said with a smile.
"Me too" She squeal and hugged me. We went to the store and got a bunch of candy, everything from licorice wands to Drooble's, even a few things of Bertie Botts. We rented a few movies and headed out to Alicia's house.
We even got into pajamas that we would have worn as kids. I had a pair of boxers that had quaffles and snitches all over them that I bought and slept in all the time in Hogwarts….Oliver had the same pair that he wore normally so we always joked about that, and I was wearing a tank top that said Gryffindor across it in cursive. Alicia had on purple pajama bottoms that had stars and brooms all over them and a pink t-shirt that said chaser. She even put her hair in pig tails as a joke.
"I love this so much you don't even realize" She giggled.
"I know we used to joke that we would do things like this at this age but I never really thought that we would" I laughed.
"I wish we all didn't grow apart" She said.
"I know! It's so weird though because like I was thinking that and then I was talking to Oliver and he thinks that too and now you think that as well. It almost makes me wonder how we all drifted apart in the first part." I said.
"You talked to Oliver? Oh that's right how did that go?" She asked.
"Well a whole lot better then I thought it would" I said.
"That's good, so what happened then?" She asked.
"Well I got there and Oliver just went straight into his apartment so I was ready to give up but my boss told me that I either needed to have the story done or I needed to look for a new job basically. So I was talking to one of the guys I was with and decided that I was going to try to use my old friendship with Oliver to my advantage. Then I went home and got the picture I have of us after we won the house cup and went back and got into the apartment. Then after a lot of convincing myself that it was necessary I knocked on his door and from there it went really well. We got talking, drank a few beers, and looked at a bunch of old pictures until I passed out on his floor. It was fun staying up all night with him, brings back so many memories….I might as well have been doing this with him" I laughed.
"I remember when you and he used to like not sleep because you would just sit down in the common room and talk until like three or five in the morning and then some how he would still be up at five to make us practice." She giggled.
"Yeah I missed those nights… he and I used to be so close" I laughed.
"I was always convinced that you guys were going to go out and get married" She laughed.
"Oh gosh I know because you would always bug me about it. I never really understood why though." I laughed
"Because you guys were always together and you were so cute and I don't know I just always thought it would end up that way but I also used to think that we would all still be friends so it shows what I know" She said.
"Yeah…. I guess. I'm surprised that Fred and Angelina aren't married yet" I said
"Oh I know it's almost depressing that they aren't together, but don't change the subject missy we were talking about you and Oliver" She laughed
"What more is there to talk about?" I asked.
"Well you were hanging out all night and then what? That's it back to the old ways of not talking to each other again?" She asked
"I guess so…. I mean he told me that he promised that he would try to get in touch but he hasn't yet. He's been sort of under cover since my story so maybe he like hates me now because I ruined his life" I said.
"I really doubt that's what it is, plus the story was in favor of him so if anything he should be thanking you again" She said.
"I don't know… I wish I could talk to him" I said.
"Why can't you?" She asked.
"Because no one but his coaches has seen him since the breakup" I explained.
"So…no one saw him in his apartment but you did" She said.
"Touché" I laughed.
"Actually….now that I think of it I think I remember my mum saying something about him being home. Maybe we could go spend some time at my parents' house and see if he is there" She said.
"You think your parents wouldn't find it weird if I just randomly came to visit them with you" I asked.
"Kates you've been spending time at my house to see Oliver for as long as I can remember it will only just prove to them and us that nothing's changed" She giggled.
"I'll call tomorrow and see if I can get away for some time" I smiled.
"Okay I'll call in the morning to see if my parents will care and I'll call Madam Malkin to get some time off" She giggled and then squealed like it was some big adventure.
"Alright but let's go to sleep now then if we are going to be going there tomorrow" I said.
"Yeah alright good night Kates" She said.
"Night 'Lic" I giggled to myself thinking how many times in my life I had heard that. Here we were years since we last talked and we were having a sleep over like it was summer holiday back at Hogwarts.
I used to spend most of my summers at her house. As she said before a lot of the time it was to spy on Oliver. I met Alicia in my first year and that summer was the first time I spent time at her house…and the first time I saw Oliver. This was before I really knew him and I was obsessed. We used to follow him around and giggle when he looked at us. Alicia thought it was weird at first but just liked the thrill of the chase. Then when we got older and I got to know Oliver more she would just make fun of me because I used to like him so much. A few times she was even convinced that he was the reason I tried out for the Quidditch team. As we got older though spending time at Alicia's in the summer made it more fun to just annoy the crap out of Oliver.
"Come on Ollie get in the water!" I shouted from Alicia's pool.
"I'm not going to go swimming with you fools, I've got more important things to be doing!" He laughed dragging a few trunks out into his yard.
"What can be more important then spending some time with you're greatest friends in the whole wide world" I asked with a gigantic smile on my face.
"Oh I don't know packing to go to my trial for the tornados" He laughed
"Yeah well who likes them anyways" I laughed. Oliver had spent a lot of this summer around at different clubs trying to get a place on the team. So far he had tried at like three teams and hadn't made it.
"Oliver William Wood you better get in this pool soon or I'm going to have to make you get in" I threatened.
"I'd like to see you try Bell" He said walking back into his house.
"Cheater…he knows that I won't go into his house and get him…just wait until he gets back out here" I grumbled.
"I still think that you should go out with him" Alicia laughed.
"'Lic I thought we went over this at the end of the year I'm not going to go out with Oliver!" I said.
"Well remember when we were kids…" she started to say.
"Bring up what I think you're going to and I swear that I might be tempted to drown you" I laughed but it still worked because she shut up.
"Fine" She said with a smile.
"It's times like these I hate you" I said and she laughed
"You lot going to the World Cup later this summer?" Oliver asked from his room window.
"Yeah why?" I said
"Because my dad wanted to know in case you weren't and wanted come with us" He said
"Yeah we are going but we are only staying for a few games because we don't have a tent" Alicia said
"You could probably stay in our tent" He said
"Okay sounds good to me" She shouted
"I don't know Alicia I don't see why we would want to stay with him because he obviously isn't our friend I mean if he was our friend he would come swimming with us" I shouted to Alicia so that it was obvious that I was trying to let Oliver hear my fake complaint.
"Oh come off it Bell" Oliver laughed and closed his window.
I plopped up onto one of those floating mattress things and Alicia was on the other and we were floating around the pool until this sudden jet of water was on me. I opened my eyes and saw Oliver in his yard with the water hoes.
"Oliver Wood I really will kill you!" I said and jumped into the pool and started swimming to the side to get out.
"Oh nose I'm so scared" He said sarcastically.
I got out of the pool and started chasing after him. He was running away until he randomly stopped and bent over causing me to crash into him and I fell over onto the ground. He picked me up and I was kicking, trying to get down.
"What was it you were saying about you killing me?" He laughed.
"Oh come on put me down! This isn't a fair fight" I was complaining.
"Kates there is no fair fight between you and me" He laughed.
"Oh piss off I could take you" I said.
"Oh I can see that" He said sarcastically as I was dangling over his shoulder.
"I could if you were fair!" I said still kicking to get free but he had a pretty good hold of me so I wasn't going anywhere and he didn't even seem to be struggling.
"Oh and what would be fair then?" He asked.
"If you put me down and didn't move" I laughed.
"How is that fair?" He asked laughing at me.
"Because I would win that way" I laughed.
"Kates that's about as fair as a quidditch game against Slytherin" He laughed.
"No because I actually would win" I laughed and I could hear Alicia laughing from the pool.
"Doubtful" He smirked…I could only see the back of his head but I could just tell from the sound of his voice that he was smirking.
"You could put me down and find out if you're so cocky" I was yelling.
"Okay" He said and put me back down on the ground and stood like he was waiting for something to happen. I ran over picked him up, with a lot of difficulty let me add but I still did, and threw him into the pool jumping in after him.
"Okay gosh Kates apparently I don't realize how strong you are" He laughed readjusting his hair.
"Ollie wasn't it you who got knocked out because the quaffle hit you in the head when you were trying to block one of her shots" Alicia pointed out.
"Ha touché" he laughed remembering this event and rubbing the spot on his head that made contact with my quaffle.
"Oliver! You are soaked and you have to leave in thirty minutes!" Mrs. Wood said coming out of her house.
"Oh sorry Mrs. Wood this is my fault I threw him in the pool I didn't realize he had to leave so soon" I confessed so that Oliver wouldn't get in trouble.
"Oh Katie honey that's sweet of you to try to stick up for Oliver but I know him well enough to know that he just jumped in, now Oliver get inside right now and get ready to go! You're not going to get on any team if you keep showing up to trials like this" She said and returned inside the house.
"Why does everyone under estimate my strength?!" I complained.
"Ha because you're just so sweet and innocent looking no one can believe that you're the monster that you are inside" Oliver said splashing water in my face and hoisting himself over the side of the pool.
"Come on Oliver hurry up Philbert Deverill doesn't like his players to be late" Mr. Wood said coming outside of the house.
"Wait Philbert Deverill? I thought he was the manager of Puddlemere United" Oliver said stopping in his tracks.
"He is, your trial with them is today" Mr. Wood said.
"Blimey I thought the one for the Tornados was today!" Oliver said sprinting into his house.
"Woops" I said to Alicia.
"Oh no worries he'll get on the team either way" Alicia laughed.
"I hope so… can you even imagine what he'd be like if he didn't get on one of the teams" I asked.
"Probably the same way he'd be if he ever lost you" Alicia said in her cutesy voice.
"Oh come on 'lic" I complained and splashed water on her.
a/n: So yeah I know it's been like two months since I last reviewed and if you actually care then I'm sorry. It's just been so weird lately and I haven't been writing anything at all. But here is a new chapter so be happy. I wrote this chapter in like two hours yesterday after I was ranting to someone about the fifth movie and I got in the mood to write fanfiction and boom I spit out a whole chapter. I like it and so I hope you do. And thanks to all of the people who have reviewed so far. It means a lot and it makes me feel special. So you are all super cool. You'd be even cooler if you reviewed again. And if you didn't review to begin with this is the perfect time for you to start being cool. Until next time which will probably been sometime soon.
