Oliver was surprised to find that he was resentful of Katie's new friend. He knew it wasn't fair to be jealous of someone else who took up Katie's time; he had gone off and made other friends at Hogwarts. But he made sure to always remember that Katie was his best mate, no matter who he met.
He didn't expect that he would be the one that needed remembering.
Katie always wrote to him, so it wasn't until the summer holidays that he realized that he had been…replaced.
She greeted him at King's Cross with his parents, and he gave her a big bear hug as soon as he got off the Hogwarts Express.
The first words out of his mouth were, "Can Katie come over for dinner?"
"No hello?" Mr. Wood inquired.
"Hi Dad. Hi Mum. Can Katie come over for dinner?" Oliver asked again hopefully.
Katie looked uncomfortable. "Err…" she said.
"What is it?" Oliver asked, turning to her.
"I promised Leanne I would sleep over her house tonight," she replied, not meeting his eyes.
Leanne was the girl of the wizarding family that had moved into their neighborhood. Oliver remembered her from Katie's letters, but Oliver had assumed that he would take priority now that he was back from school.
"You have all summer to see Katie, Oliver dear," Mrs. Wood said to break the silence that had fallen.
"Right," Oliver said.
On the car ride home, Oliver told his parents and Katie of his last days at Hogwarts, but he and Katie looked out different car windows as he did so. The Woods silently noticed that their son lacked the vivacity that he had when he first bounded off the train.
At dinner, Oliver poked at his vegetables moodily, while imagining that Katie and Leanne were braiding each other's hair, or whatever it was that girls did.
When his parents asked him about Quidditch, he spoke animatedly, only to remember Katie was having fun without him, and returned to silence.
He went up to his room without pudding, and his parents exchanged a look, knowing something was seriously wrong.
Oliver glanced out his window, and noticed the lights were on upstairs in the house across the street. Two girls were visible in the neighboring window. He moved to shut the blinds, but then one of the figures began waving furiously. It was then Oliver realized that the two girls must have been Katie and Leanne.
The second figure, Leanne, began waving too, and Katie pressed a piece of parchment to the panes. Oliver had to squint to read it, but it said it big, bold letters: COME OVER.
He had never zoomed for a quaffle as fast as he ran down the stairs.
"I'm visiting the neighbors. Love you, bye!" he yelled as he flung open the front door.
"Alright dear," Mrs. Wood replied, but the door had already swung shut. She smiled over at Mr. Wood, who was reading the newspaper, and she returned to her dishwashing.
Oliver knocked on the front door of what he assumed to be Leanne's house, and waited.
"You must be Oliver," a cheery woman answered.
He nodded shyly, and she gestured to the staircase.
"Ollie!" Katie shrieked from the top of it, and bounced down towards him. Leanne giggled and followed.
"We just had Fizzing Whizbees," Katie said laughing, and it was then Oliver noticed that the girls were not bouncing, but hovering in short increments.
"Yes, and that's quite enough of them," Leanne's mother admonished.
"There's supposed to be a mooncalf in our yard tonight," Leanne interjected. "My dad spotted its burrow a few weeks back."
"You're in for a real treat tonight; normally mooncalves stick to rural areas, like farms," Leanne's mother said. "You lot can watch it dance while I collect its dung for my gardens. Does wonders for my flowers and herbs." She winked.
Leanne wrinkled her nose, but Oliver laughed in delight with Katie. Katie linked an arm around each of them, and they marched outside to wait for the moon to rise.
They sat on a blanket, staring at constellations while Leanne's mother tended to her nocturnal plants.
"That one looks like a goal post," Katie yelled.
Leanne rolled her eyes and turned to Oliver.
"I'm so glad you're finally here so Katie has someone to talk about Quidditch with. I'm rubbish at it. I'd rather play with a puffskein. You can't cuddle a quaffle."
"Well I'm glad to be back," Oliver said, deciding not to mention that he used to sleep with a quaffle instead of a teddy bear.
Just then, an awkward looking creature emerged from the ground in front of them. It was grey and smooth with great bugging eyes atop its head, long legs, and large feet.
The children all stared at it as it began to lean back and forth, and hopped on its hind legs. It twitched and jumped for a quarter of an hour, and they were all transfixed in its every move. Then out of nowhere, it stopped dancing and dropped to all fours.
"What is it doing?" Leanne asked.
The mooncalf made a very clear movement as to what it was doing, and then- "Eww!"