Sirius Black had not been seen on Halloween night, nor any other night following that, and so the castle got back to his usual routine, forgetting all about the murderer's attempt to get into Gryffindor's tower. I tended to forget it myself, until I had to get in the Common Room and I had to face Sir Cadogan, with his stupid changing passwords. That day I was in a particular hurry to get into some dry clothes, as I had to walk in a storm, to come back from Herbology. I was standing soaking wet in front of the portrait, shouting at Sir Cadogan that he couldn't change passwords without telling it to me, or any other prefect. I was also helped by Percy, who didn't know anything about this new password. In the end we had to call Professor McGonagall who assured him we were gryffindors and reminded him for the hundredth time that he had to tell prefects about new passwords before setting them. She seemed quite angry, for a moment I thought she would use her wand to trasform the portrait in a doormat, but she didn't. When we finally got in we barely noticed who was there. Percy pinned the new password on the noticeboard as I ran into my dorms to change. When I got downstairs Percy had already left, he had no free period, as he was supposed to be in Muggle Studies. With a satisfied smile I sat on my favourite armchair and opened the book I was supposed to read for Professor Vector: Numbers to Magic. I was only 400 pages away from the end, I hoped I could manage to finish it by the end of the day, so I could focus on my charms work. Apparently, though, I couldn't. After reading only a few lines I heard someone sobbing at the far end of the room. I looked up just to see Oliver's girlfriend curled up on a sofa, tears streaming down her face. I wasn't sure about talking to her to see what was wrong. I never really spoke to her and she wasn't on the list of people I liked most, but anyway it wasn't in the spirit of a Gryffindor leaving a fellow housemate sobbing on a sofa, was it? In the end I got up and sat next to her on the sofa.
«Is everything all right?» I asked, politely, with the "head-girl smile" on my face.
She shook her head, but stayed silent.
«Do you want to talk about it?» a small -ok, maybe not so small- part of me was hoping that she would shake her head again, so I could go back to my book without feeling guilty.
«It's just...just...Oliver» she replied, leaving me a bit disappointed.
«Why? What has he done?» I sighed, was I really going to help her with Oliver?
«Well he...he's not considering me much, is he?»
I shrugged, I didn't really pay attention on how Oliver was treating her, I tried to avoid looking at them especially when he was holding her in his muscular arms...hang on, since when I thought about Oliver's arms as muscular?
«He's all about quidditch...he has always practice...I always come after that»
I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. That girl was hilarious. How could she possibly think that she would be before quidditch in Oliver's heart, or mind, or any other piece of his body as far as I was concerned.
«I'm sorry, but do you realize that you're dating Oliver Wood, right?» I asked when I recoverd from my giggle-attack.
«What's that supposed to mean?»
«Oliver loves quidditch more than anything else in this world, probably even more than himself!» I remember about all the bludges he took to save a goal «Ok, that should have been without probably. Even more than himself»
«So you're saing I will always be after quidditch?» she started to sound rather angry.
«No...well yes. Actually, Pamela, if you really cared for him you'd never ask him to choose between you and quidditch, you'd understand how important it is for him and you'll realise that Oliver without quidditch...well it just wouldn't be Oliver»
«It's Patricia» she said coolly «and why should I listen to your advice anyway?»
«You're not forced to!» I exlaimed «but I've known Oliver for quite a long time right now and, honestly, it doesn't really take a genius to see how much he's obsessed with quidditch!»
«You're suggesting I'm a bit dumb?»
«Well, yeah, maybe I am. You're trying so hard not to understand the obvious!» I was a terrible comforter, I always knew that, I just wondered why I wanted to try in the first place.
«The obvious being that I can't go strolling down the corridors holding hands with him, or getting a goodmorning kiss in the Great Hall, or finding him outside my classrooms like everybody else does because he's always with his head in some quidditch scheme rather than thinking he has a girlfriend?» she shrieked.
«You know what? I was wrong to tell you that you're a bit 're a total idiot!» I got up quickly and headed for the portrait hole, I was just about to get out when I remembered I left my copy of Numbers to Magic on the table in front of the armchair where I was sitting. With a long sigh I walked back there to take the book, as quickly as I could, anxious to get out of there. Unfortunately when I turned back I saw Patricia standing in my way.
«What, now?» I asked, a little exasperated by all of this.
`«You do like him don't you?» she gave me a knowing look «You're just jealous, you're trying to tear us apart»
«Honestly, if I wanted that, all I had to do was snap my fingers» I put more confidence in my voice than what I really had, but I didn't care.
«So let's assume you were right...would you say that I don't like Oliver?» she asked me.
«Why do you like him?»
«Well he is popular, he is quidditch captain he is very handsome...can you believe I actually heard Cassandra Hawthorne, the girl from Slytherin, admitting that he was an eyecandy?»
«And what about liking him...because he has the nerves to control every situation, because of his determination, is ambition, because he is hilarious when he tells McGonagall that he thinks quidditch is much more important than trasfiguration, with a perfect straight face? What about liking more Oliver?» I replied, a little annoyed. That was why I never liked girls from his fan club, they were total idiots.
«I do like Oliver. He is the one who i handsome and popular and everything else...»
«No, Patricia» I tried to explain, orcing calm into my voice «You like what other people think of Oliver. If you want one last suggestion get to know who you're dating, before you date him. Now if you excuse me I am expected to be in the potion dungeons in ten minutes»
Without a further word I left the common room and hurried down the stairs that led to Snape's dungeon. When I got there I sat next to Percy, without even thinking about it. Of course Snape didn't want us to work together as we both seemed quite satisfied with the situation, so he forced me to work with Miss Hawthorne, the very same Cassandra Hawthorne that didn't mind having a full look at Oliver every time he was passing by. I needed to get a grip on myself about that Oliver thing, I had been thinking only about it every time my mind wasn't busy with studying, luckily that wasn't much time, but anyway...I couldn't help noticing that Cassandra was quite a girl, but she was a Slytherin. so she was never going to be a serious problem. Hang on, a serious problem to what? Angry with none but myself, I opened my book on page 394 and read what I needed to prepare amortentia. It was a hell of a potion and I had to be very focused to get it right, I was quite happy about it as it left me no time to think, plus I'd never really been close to amortentia before and I wondered which smell would it have for me. Once we were finished, Snape came by to check how we worked. He didn't seem happy to give me another "E" but he just had to, I did everything by the book and I knew the potion was perfect. After he went by, I carefully got closer to the cauldron and smelled it: I could sense old books, sea breeze, the perfume of a bath foam from the prefect bathroom -which quite surprised me- and another smell I could not recognise. As I left the dungeons I began to wonder why I particulary liked that bathfoam, I never really used it a lot of time, I prefered the one with great purple bubbles, that smelled like raspberry, or the thick vanilla foam. By the time I got to the Gryffindor table for lunch I still hadn't figured it out and I was distracted by the lovely smell from the kidney pie in front of me. I was actually so busy eating that I barely noticed Oliver sitting next to me.
«Next time you're trying to help me with my girlfriend just pay attention on what you're saying» he said, scaring the hell out of me.
«Oliver Wood, you scared me so much I guess I've lost ten years of life!» I protested, before getting to the point of the conversation «and by the way, what did I say that was so wrong?»
«That she had to know me better»
«That wasn't wrong, the only things she knew about you were that you're popular, you're quidditch captain, and your handsome, that's spotting the obvious, isn't it?»
He didn't reply, but looked at me with a strange smile on his lips.
«What now?» I asked, exasperated.
«You just told me I'm handsome.» He replied, grinning broadly.
«And so? It's a fact Wood»
«So I'm back at being Wood?» he asked, the grinning vanishing immediately from his face.
«Well, only when you act like a jerk» I replied, with a little smile, taking his hands.
For a moment it was like we were again in our first year, when Oliver was sad about not being able to get through Potions and I had agreed on helping him. He took my hand back then, and it was the beginning of our friendship. I smiled remembering it, who would have known that in seven years Oliver would have become...well I didn't know what he was for me, but the idea of not seeing him everyday ever again was enought to make my heart lose a beat.
«I'm not really hungry...fancy a walk?» he asked.
I nodded and got up to follow him in the grounds. It wasn't raining, not yet, but the sky was really dark and we could see lightnings over the mountains surrounding the castle. We didn't speak much, we just walked silently, heading for the quidditch pitch. I wasn't surprised that he walked down there. It was exactly what I would have expected for him. We layed on the grass, exactly in the middle of the pitch, with our eyes closed, using our cloaks as blankets, to keep us warm. I suddenly heard a smell, the same smell of bathfoam that was coming from amortentia. I opened my eyes, suddenly, to see if there was somebody else out there, only to realize that it was only me and Oliver. It was his favourite bathfoam that I sensed in th potion early that morning. Oh well, I guessed that if it was Percy's it would have been worse.
«You know, I don't really want Pat to know about that»
I knew perfectly well what he meant, it was the one thing Oliver had shared only with me in the whole world. I sighed.
«Then don't tell her. But you have to open up to people if you wanna go out with them, you know»
«She was, well, kind of a distraction. And don't tell me that I shouldn't use girls as a distraction»
«I wasn't going to. She's using you to be popular. Really a nice couple» maybe I was a bit to harsh, becaouse a second later Oliver got on his hands and knees, so that he could look at me properly in the eyes.
«I don't open up easily with people, you should know» he was dead serious now. I wished we just didn't get to talk about this.
«I know, kind of...you never had any problem with me»
«Well, that's because it's you.»
«Meaning?» I asked, closing my eyes again, trying to act as if I wasn't really interested in our conversation.
«We connect in our own particular way, you have to admit that. Look at us, we have barely spoke with each other for the past year and here we are, as if nothing has happened»
I didn't reply. He was right of course. We always had that strange thing, we always knew that we could count on teach other. But it was going to end, no matter what, with the end of the school we would part and the distance would take away also our special bond, I could feel it.
«Bill, if I had asked you out that night...»
«That night, Oliver, my answer would have been no» I answered, before he could finish the question.
«And if I asked you now?»
«Now...»
«Oh here you are!» someone shouted at us. We turned to see Eve at the beginning of the pitch, with a rather annoyed look on her face.
«I don't know if you planned to stay here all day, but we have transfiguration in ten minutes.»
«O damn, McGonagall is gonna kill me!» I jumped to my feet and ran to the castle.
Luckily Eve arrived just in time, another ten second and I would have been foolish enough to tell Oliver that I could smell him in the amortentia.