Mid-Spring, 1997: Part One

In the immediate aftermath of Katie's almost miraculous recovery, Oliver found himself contemplating quitting his job.

As his luck would have it, Puddlemere was scheduled to go abroad for a match in Luxembourg and they were due to leave just two days after Katie finally regained consciousness. It was a tough battle for Oliver, as he wanted nothing more than to be by Katie's side during her recovery. But, in the end, he knew that, should she ever find out what he had done—and chances were beyond impossible that she never would—Katie Bell would most likely never speak to Oliver again.

And so he went to Luxembourg with the rest of the team.

Naturally, it was the longest-lasting game of his entire Quidditch career. At the end of the two-week long match, Oliver found himself with a not-entirely irrational dislike of seekers. Honestly, they had one job. Just one! How hard could it possibly be to catch the bloody ball, which was roughly the size of a walnut and bewitched to evade capture?! Although Oliver really could have cared less about the outcome of the match by the third day of play, he did believe that the Puddlemere seeker had no idea how lucky he was that he had been the one to finally catch the snitch, in the end, as he was just about the only seeker Oliver had frequent access to and would be quite happy to throttle due to his new dislike of the other man's position.

Needless to say, Oliver was happy to be home. And quite glad that management had decided the whole team deserved a few days off after the long, hard-fought match.

Arriving back in his flat, Oliver was unsurprised to find a build-up of Prophets and mail on the balcony just off his living room, which had accumulated in his time away. Flopping down on his couch with a sigh, Oliver gave a lazy flick of his wand and summoned all of the various mail items. He had just sorted all of the newspapers off to the side—to be perused at a later point in time—leaving him with a rather decent stack of letters, when he noticed that one of the envelopes was definitely not made of parchment, but rather a thinner paper of a decidedly muggle origin.

Casting aside the letter with his name written across it in the familiar Weasley scrawl, Oliver instead picked up the smaller envelope. He knew this handwriting…

Dear Oliver, the letter began

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to contact you sooner. As was likely apparent, I was a bit out of sorts when I first woke up. I do remember that you were there, though. After the Healers finished with all of their tests, Mum told me that you had been to visit me almost every day since you found out I was in St. Mungo's. I was really hoping that you'd come back that next day, so I could see you again, but Angie told me that you had to go out of town for a Quidditch match. Of course, out of all the matches you've had in the past few months, this is the one that lasts for days. Hopefully it will end soon. Bloody seekers can't do their jobs right, can they?

It has been just shy of two weeks since I finally woke up from that dreadful sleep, and the Healers say that I'm fit to go home, which I'll do tomorrow. I'll have a few days at home with mum and dad, and then I'll be back to Hogwarts—hopefully to finish up my final year. We'll see how that turns out.

Anyway, should your match finally end and you receive this letter in time, I would love it if you could stop by some time. Clearly we have a lot to catch up on, and I would really like to thank you in person for coming to see me all of those times while I was in St. Mungo's.

Please send an owl back as soon as you can so I'll know to kick mum and dad out of the house before you get there!

All my love,

Katie

A slow smile spread across Oliver's face as he finished the letter. Katie wanted to see him! Katie wanted to see him.

He glanced at the date on the most recent copy of the Daily Prophet. Katie's letter had sent her letter two days ago, which meant that she had gone home yesterday. That likely meant she had a maximum of two days left at home before her return to Hogwarts. It was far too late in the day to visit her now, but he didn't have practice tomorrow…

Quickly, Oliver darted across the room to a small desk littered with spare bits of parchment and old plays from his days at Hogwarts. With just the slightest bit of difficulty, he found a clean piece of parchment along with a quill and some ink and wrote out a quick reply to Katie.

Luck must have finally been with him because just as Oliver finished writing his note, his owl flew in through the balcony door that he had left open after retrieving the mail. He hurriedly attached the letter to her leg and then sent her on her way again.

As Oliver watched her disappear in the darkening night sky, the smile on his face widened into a full-on grin.

He was finally going to see Katie again tomorrow.

Oliver was a bundle of nerves the next morning. This particular morning began much the same as any other morning, with Oliver waking before dawn—after all, one never knew when a last-minute dawn training session would be called. And although he didn't have Quidditch at all today, he opted not to go for an early morning ride, as he felt things really wouldn't turn out well for him if he went flying in his current state of mind.

Today was the day he was finally going to tell Katie his true feelings for her.

Katie wasn't faring much better than Oliver that Tuesday morning. Of course, her anxiety had been going on for several days, now.

It had started pretty much the moment her mother had left her hospital room, the night before Katie was to be released, a sealed letter to one Oliver Wood in her possession. Why had Katie felt the need to write to Oliver, again?

Naturally, part of it was because she genuinely missed her former captain. The Gryffindor team Katie had played on for a majority of her school career had been rather tight-knit, and it just wasn't the same after Oliver had left school. It might have helped if Oliver had kept in touch, but he had been too busy with his fledgling professional Quidditch career to keep up any type of correspondence. Katie really had done her very best to at least attempt to write to him regularly but his dead slow replies had been rather discouraging.

It was with a heavy heart that Katie lost contact with Oliver. Angelina and Alicia attempted to console her, as they were both aware of the younger girl's long-standing crush on their former captain. It was a pain that only time would heal.

So imagine Katie's surprise when she had woken up to one Oliver Wood sitting beside her bed, holding her hand.

Wasn't she supposed to be in her seventh year? Wasn't Oliver long-gone from Hogwarts? Hadn't she been attempting to date boys her own age? Although, admittedly, the last thing she remembered was ducking into the Three Broomsticks with Leanne to avoid one of her more enthusiastic failed dates...

Obviously none of that could be true if Oliver was there beside her. It was only natural for her to assume that she was back in her fourth year and she (and not Harry, for once) had been knocked unconscious during one of Gryffindor's more vicious matches. And Oliver, her dutiful captain, was holding vigil by her bedside, anxiously awaiting for his Chaser to awaken. This must be reality and everything she'd thought to be true was just a dream.

Well, Katie had definitely never been more wrong about something, as she quickly found out for herself when Oliver practically bolted from the room in an attempt to summon a Healer. It was only later, when he never returned, that she found out why he had even been there to begin with.

"He's been here to see you nearly every day, dear," Her mother informed her, still teary-eyed over her daughter's recovery. "I do believe your friend, Alicia, believes that it's because he fancies you and he regrets that he never told you before you lost contact with each other. Whatever his reasons, he's been absolutely wonderful company these past months."

Ha! As if. Oliver Wood? Fancy her, plain, old Katie Bell? It would have been Alicia to come up with that sort of nonsense.

But what other reason would Oliver have had to visit so often? After all she had done to attempt to get over her older friend, she wasn't entirely sure she could handle allowing herself embrace Alicia's suggestion.

And yet...

Fred, George, Alicia, and Angelina had all kept in regular contact with Katie after they left school. They were her closest friends, outside of her year-mates. But they hadn't stopped by nearly as often as Oliver had; only about once a week—or so her mother claimed. Not that Katie would ever hold this against them. She was touched that any of them had visited her that much.

But back to the point: why had Oliver, of all people, visited so much?

And so she had written him a letter, inviting him to come visit before she returned to school. Because naturally the best way to get over an old crush was to invite him over. Nervous could barely begin to cover what she was feeling the morning of Oliver's intended visit, but she would try to find some Gryffindor courage.

Big-shot, professional Quidditch player, soon-to-be Rookie of the Year, completely adorable Oliver Wood had spent a majority of his free time over the past several months sitting at the bedside of a comatose Katie Bell, and she was determined to find out why.

a/n—At the time I posted this chapter, there were 11 reviews, 11 favorites, and 11 follows for this story. Naturally, this is far too much perfection, so I've made the executive decision that there need to be more reviews.