Hey guys! Again, sorry about the wait, but I really like the way this story is developing, and I don't want to rush updates and lose my style...I hope you all like this chapter.

Two months after the final battle Katie found herself sitting in the Three Broomsticks one Friday night, waiting for Oliver. They'd made it their tradition now, and ever since the final battle they went for drinks together every Friday. This was getting harder for Katie though, because she was starting to realize that she cared way more about Oliver than she should. If she didn't snap out of it soon things were going to get ugly. He was a super-star Quidditch player for Christ's sake! She was just some chaser on the Holy Head Harpies reserve team, while he was the super star keeper for Puddlemere United. He had hundreds of fan girls, and since the final battle had appeared on the cover of Witch Weekly as the month's most eligible bachelor. They'd had a good laugh about it, but Katie couldn't shake off the idea that at some point someone would catch his eye.

Oliver's arrival broke through Katie's depressing thoughts as he said, "Hello."

"Hey," she said, "So, you nervous?" Oliver had a game the next day.

"Nah-we're a better team. I'm sure of it."

Katie smirked, "Always so sure of ourselves, aren't we? If I were you, I wood be careful not to get to cocky."

"Wood you?" he replied with a smirk of his own.

Katie rolled her eyes, "You can't do that! It's my joke."

"And my last name," replied Oliver.

"True enough," said Katie, but she couldn't help hoping that someday it would be her last name too...Which of course she realized was a stupid expectation.

"So, how's it going on the reserve team?" asked Oliver. As Katie complained about Gwenog and went on about all of her amazing teammates, Oliver thought about Katie. Over the past two months she'd become one of his best friends...he was able to tell her anything and he never had to worry about it getting around, or the press finding out, or anything...She was smart, funny, talented, caring, compassionate, and everything that he needed. Even her annoying habits made him smile-like when she interrupted him...whenever anyone else did that it annoyed the hell out of him, but not Katie. It was different with Katie. It was just part of her.

"Oliver!" called Katie, "Are you listening?"

"What?" he said, coming out of his reverie.

"I said: Are you listening?"

"Uh...Sorry, Katie, I've just been thinking, cause-"

"You were thinking while I was telling the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me?"

"Sorry. So, what is it?"

"I'm not telling."

"Come on, Katie!"

"Nope. You don't care enough."

"Yes I do! Please, please, please?"

"Okay-" said Katie, more because she was gonna burst if she didn't tell him than that she took pity on him, "I'M ON THE REAL TEAM NOW!"

"No way! Are you joking?"

"No! I'm so excited! One of the chasers, Burns, is retiring to spend more time with her kids (some sort of midlife crisis thing I think) and they've put me in! Even though there are a bunch of reserve chaser's who've been there longer! Can you believe it?"

"Yes," said Oliver, "I know you're an amazing flier."

"Thanks," said Katie, looking down and blushing, "Anyway, we have a game next week. I don't know who we're playing yet though..."

"Wait-next week? What day?"

"Friday."

"Oh no..." said Oliver, as a horrible realization hit him.

"What?"

"We're playing you on Friday!"

"What?"

"I said we are playing you on-"

"I heard what you said," she interrupted him, "I just don't believe it."

"Well it makes sense," he reasoned, "We haven't played you guys yet this season."

"Still..." said Katie, looking worried, "I don't want Quidditch to affect our friendship. Win or loose, and one of us will lose, we're still friends. Agreed?"

"Agreed," he said, taking her outstretched hand.

Friday arrived before they knew it, and it wasn't until then that they saw each other again. Both teams flew out onto the pitch performing a lap around it as the crowd applauded. Then they all flew into position, getting ready for the quaffle to be thrown up and the balls released.

"Katie!" Oliver called, waving to her in the split second between the release of the bludgers and snitch and the release of the quaffle. She waved back before getting into game mode, and once she was in game mode there was no getting out of it. She tried throughout the game to pass to the other two chasers before heading towards the goal posts, because trying to score on Oliver was too strange. She'd done it in a hundred practices, but doing it in an actual game was against her very nature. Katie was a player who used her boundless energy to conjure up hate towards the players on the other team during the game, but it was impossible to hate Oliver, even when he was on the other team.

Soon the Harpies were up, unbelievably, 150, because about halfway through the game Katie had decided that for better or for worse they were opponents, her and Oliver, and she was going to start acting like it. After that decisive moment she was unstoppable, scoring more than the two other chasers on her team combined. As Katie flew towards the goal posts to score again, in order to make them 160 points up, Oliver was seized with a temporary insanity. He'd been watching her through the game, which was part of the reason he'd let her score so much, because he wasn't paying attention, and he was having trouble putting on his game face. For the other two chasers it was no problem, but when Katie approached goal he couldn't do it. Not only that, he'd forgotten how pretty she was when she flew. He hadn't seen her fly in years, but she still looked the same. Her eyes sparkled with determination, and she leaned over the broom, clutching the quaffle close to her, under her arm, just as he had taught her as her coach, making it hard for other chasers to get it away from her. Her blond hair would whip around in the wind, and she'd be so beautiful he would be transfixed. It was this insanity that caused him to shout as he saw her approaching.

"Katie!" she slowed a bit, because she hadn't expected him to address her directly, "Katie! Will you go out with me?" Katie stopped dead, but kept her hold on the quaffle.

"Are you insane?" she yelled back, because they were still a decent distance apart.

"Katie!" called Gwenog, flying around to her, and leaving the other beater to deal with the bludgers accordingly, "What are you doing?"

The commentator's voice was added to the mix at that point, ringing through the crowed, "It appears that Wood has just asked Bell out! Does he mean it, or is it a new tactic. Bell, the newest chaser on the Harpies as proved her worth already, but this sheds some interesting light on the situation. Are she and Wood acquaintances? Has he been letting her score."

"Katie," said Gwenog, "Shoot. Now."

Katie nodded before flying towards the goalposts again. She was almost close enough to shoot when the commentator's voice ran out again, "And Puddlemere's seeker has spotted the snitch" Katie sped up, if the seeker caught the snitch before she scored it'd be a tie game. She threw the quaffle and it was midway through the air-nanoseconds making the difference, when the seeker caught hold of the snitch.

"Damn," Katie whispered, as the quaffle soared through the left hoop, missing Oliver's hand by millimeters. She'd been so close to saving that game...

She turned around to see Gwenog, looking livid.

"Gwenog, I'm sorry," said Katie, flying over to her.

"Well," Gwenog snapped, "It isn't totally your fault, and if it wasn't for you scoring throughout the game we wouldn't even have tied. If you could have been just a little faster," she looked irritated now, "But how were any of us supposed to know that you'd get assaulted by the keeper like that? So unprofessional. Do you even know him?" she asked, turning to Katie.

"Um, yeah," said Katie, "He was my coach on the Gryffindor team for three years. We're friends."

"Well," said Gwenog, looking at something over Katie's shoulder, "I'll leave you to deal with that mess, while I deal with the press. Just deal with it off the pitch. This is already gonna make every sport's magazine cover this month..."

Katie turned to where Gwenog was looking, and saw Oliver flying over to her. Taking Gwenog's warning she didn't go to him, but instead landed, and made her way to the changing rooms.

"Katie! Katie!" Oliver called, and he ran to catch up with her. Unfortunately, he had longer legs than her, and caught her without much effort.

"So?" he asked, "Will you?"

"Will I what?" she asked irritably.

"Will you go out with me?"

"You expect me to believe you were serious?" asked Katie incredulously, "I can't help but think it was just a game tactic. Effective, I'll admit, but really Oliver?" she was angry, and she was hurt. It hurt her a lot to think he'd play with her emotions like that. He obviously didn't know how crazy about him she was, but still, it was just cruel. What made her more upset was that she couldn't even hate him for it. She was horrifically angry at him, but at this point nothing could make her hate him. All the same, that didn't mean she wasn't pissed. She was.

"Katie," said Oliver, "I'm serious. Will you go out with me?"

"Oliver," said Katie, trying not to shout, "You didn't want to loose the game, mission accomplished. Just drop it."

She turned around and found herself face to face with a large group of reporters that Gwenog was trying in vain to keep at bay. She looked to Gwenog who shook her head, and Katie took that to mean "Say nothing."

Everywhere reporters were calling to her, and soon she and Oliver were surrounded.

"Miss Bell!" called a women, "I'm from Quidditch Insider. Were you previously acquainted with Oliver Wood?"

"Mr. Wood!" called a man at the same time, "What was the purpose of that declaration? Did you mean it, or was it a new game tactic?"

"Look what you've done," whispered Katie to Oliver, trusting that all the shouting reporters would cover their conversation.

"What I've done?"

"If you'd accepted defeat gracefully and stuck with our agreement I wouldn't be in this mess!"

"You? I'm the one that looks either: A. Heartless; B. Insane; or C. Both."

"Well maybe you are!" shouted Katie. The reporters were all listening intently.

"Katie, listen, I-"

"Spare me," said Katie, turning around to walk away. Oliver grabbed her arm, and Katie, angry and hurt, snapped. She turned and slapped him, hard, before walking away."

"Katie!" he called as she walked away, having to jump to see her over the crowed of reporters.

She didn't turn around.

The next morning, a Saturday, thank God, Katie got a copy of the Daily Prophet as she did every morning, and a copy of several Quidditch magazines. She didn't even look at the Quidditch magazines at first, but instead turned to her Daily Prophet, hoping it would take her mind off the horror that was yesterday. She had just finished breakfast, so she took the magazines (still not even looking at their covers) and the paper into the living room of her flat. She glanced at the front page as she sat down only to feel the need to throw up her breakfast. She wasn't the main front page article, but it wasn't much better than that. A photograph of her slapping Oliver was playing and replaying itself on the bottom half of the front page. The caption read: Katie Bell, newest and promising chaser on the Holy Head Harpies taking out her anger on the Puddlemere United keeper Oliver Wood after the stunt he pulled at their match yesterday. Was it fair play? Was it even allowable? Should a referee have interfered? Turn to the Sports Section. Katie flinched as she watched herself slap Oliver a few times. It looked pretty bad, she hadn't meant to hit him that hard...She decided to turn to the sports section, but she was saved from doing so by the door bell. She stood up and upon opening the door found herself face to face with Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and George Weasley.

"Hi guys," said Katie.

"What is this?" asked Angelina, cutting to the chase, holding up The Prophet.

"Um..." said Katie, "The paper?"

"Katie have you read this yet?" asked Alicia.

"I was about to."

"Oh, excellent," said George with an evil grin, "I can't wait to see your reaction. In fact, read it aloud. I'll never get tired of hearing. I'll be interested to see how much of it is true."

Katie picked up her own copy of The Prophet, and turned to the sports section. She cringed at the picture on the cover of the section, it showed her and Oliver shouting at each other. She cleared her throat and began with the title, "New Quidditch Strategy Breaks Harpies Chaser's Heart" but Katie stopped, looking up at them, "What is this?"

"Keep going," said Alicia.

"Fine: Yesterday's Quidditch match between the Holy Head Harpies and Puddlemere United looked like it was going to be an easy win for the Harpies. This was their newest chaser, Katie Bell's, first opportunity to prove herself, and it looked as if she'd have no problem. She got off to an okay start, but about halfway through the game she was able to build her confidence and was suddenly the most skilled player on the field. Soon the Harpies were up 250-100, Bell having scored an impressive 13 out of the 25 goals. However, things turned interesting when Bell went to score her 14th goal. As she approached goal Puddlemere's keeper, Oliver Wood, who is also new this season, exclaimed, "I LOVE YOU KATIE! WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME? YOU'RE THE ONLY WOMAN I'VE EVER LOVED!" Bell, astonished by this surprising outburst stopped in her tracks." At this point Katie broke off, and said, "He didn't say that."

"Then what did he say?" asked Angelina.

"He just said, 'Will you go out with me?', there were no 'I love you's. Look at the picture..." she held up The Prophet, which had a smaller picture in the middle of the article of Katie, stopping dead at Oliver's words, and the look on her face was truly embarrassing.

"Keep going," said George with another evil grin, "It gets worse."

"Okay: At this point Harpies coach Gwenog Jones decided to intervene, and after convincing Bell to ignore Wood's advances Bell again began to approach goal. However, in an astonishing feat of seeking Puddlemere's seeker Anthony Williams was able to catch the snitch as Bell threw the quaffle. Though the quaffle made it through one of the hoops it was after the snitch had been caught, and therefore an invalid goal. After the game ended Bell dismounted and ignored Wood's attempts to get her attention. However, upon catching her in front of the Harpies' changing rooms Wood again declared his love for Bell and begged her to take him. Bell however, uncertain of Wood's motives, proceeded to call him insane and unbalanced, and flatly refused his advances, before storming out, but not without giving Wood a piece of her mind. Witnesses have said you could hear the slap as far as a quarter mile away. YOU COULD NOT!" Katie was outraged, "This is ridiculous...When asked to comment, Jones only stated that Wood and Bell were on first-name terms before this crucial match, and had been friendly since they had been on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team at Hogwarts, several years previously. She also stated that she is disappointed in the poor sportsmanship displayed on Wood's part. That breaches the question: Was this poor sportsmanship? We've all seen proposals on the pitch, but always after the match. Can this behavior even be considered allowed during the match? Should the referee have intervened to stop this cruelty. If Jones is to be believed, and Wood and Bell have been friendly for years, shouldn't this type of cruelty be prevented in the future. Wood clearly had a profound effect on Bell's emotional state, and-I'm not reading this...it's just rubbish, all of it."

"Is it?" asked Alicia, "That's why we're here."

"You see Katie," said George with a smirk, "It seems to me that you and our dear friend Oliver have been seeing each other a lot lately, and one cannot help but wonder if this friendship could turn into something more..."

"No," said Katie, shaking her head, "It was his way of making sure they didn't lose the match. Now they've come out with a tie. He knew it'd shock me into stopping for at least a little while, giving Williams time to get his act together."

"You don't think he meant it?" asked Angelina.

"Of course he didn't mean it," said Katie, before turning back to George, "And how did you know we'd been hanging out?"

"Did you by any chance receive any magazines today?" asked Angelina.

"Yeah, I did, but I haven't looked at them."

"Look," said Alicia.

Katie pulled out the three magazines she'd received that morning. She first picked up Quidditch Insider, and flipped it over so that she could, at last, see the cover. She cringed involuntarily. It was another picture of her slapping Oliver.

"Why don't you just tell me what it says?" asked Katie, "I really don't want to read it."

"Well," said Alicia, "The woman who wrote the article apparently spent all of yesterday visiting every place you've ever been. She found out that you and Oliver have been drinks at The Three Broomsticks every Friday night for the past two months. Rosmerta was more than glad to share what she'd heard of your conversations. She also looked up your connections at Hogwarts and tried to get your friend Leanne to talk. She wouldn't, but that only made it sound worse. She says that you and Oliver were clearly on the way to being more than friends, but when Oliver used you in the match he betrayed your trust, and that Leanne's refusal to comment confirmed this theory."

"Great," said Katie sarcastically, before continuing seriously, "Well, I suppose I better talk to him."

"You think?" asked Angelina sarcastically.

"Fine," said Katie, "I'll go now."

"You might want to apparate there," said Alicia, "I wouldn't leave the apartment if I were you. People are dying to get a comment from you. The reporters are right outside the building."

"Well, if you leave than so can I," said Katie.

"Okay," said George, "But behave yourself, won't you Katie?" he said with an eyebrow raise and a wink.

Katie rolled her eyes, "Goodbye George," and with a wave she nearly pushed him out the door, "Bye guys," she called to Angelina and Alicia, who followed him out without complaint.

Katie took a deep breath before pulling her wand out of her pocket and letting the darkness collapse around her as she apparated away.

I hope you guys all liked that! This is definitely my favorite chapter so far. So, how do you think this will all turn out? Leave me a review with your thoughts.

XOXO

GossipGirlHere