I'm pretty happy with this chapter, but I don't want to give anything away, so all I'll say is: Enjoy!
When Oliver awoke to Katie saying impatiently, "Oh get up," and shaking him the next morning he forgot momentarily why he had to be up.
"Oliver!" she said impatiently, "It's nine in the morning, and we've got to be there at eleven! Get your lazy ass out of bed!"
"Katie," he said groggily, rolling over and attempting to slip back into unconsciousness, "The game was yesterday, get back in bed."
"Not the game you idiot!" she said, pulling the blankets off the bed, "Lunch with my family!"
"Ugh," he sat up, rubbing his eyes, "I forgot about that..."
"I can tell," she said, rolling her eyes, "I'm going to go take a shower, but you better be ready to move when I get out!"
"Ugh!" was the only sound that came from him as he pulled the blankets back up over his head.
When they arrived for the barbecue, most of the family was already there. As usual, the entire back yard had been charmed to make it summer, and already most of the younger kids were running around while the elder ones played Quidditch above everyone's heads. Though Oliver had at first been stunned by the scene, he was now quite used to it.
"Oliver! Katie!" came the booming voice of Ian, who pulled Katie up into a hug and shook Oliver's hand.
"We listened the game on the radio," said Patrick, coming up behind Ian, "Bad luck, mate," he clapped Oliver on the back before hugging Katie and saying, "Fabulous job, Katie-Kate, as always."
Katie grinned as her sister Mary Ann rounded the corner and said, "Katie! Come here! You'll never guess what happened to my friend Anabel!"
As Katie was whisked away Oliver hung around with Ian, Patrick, and Paul, who soon arrived. Though they still intimidated him from time to time, he was now rather fond of them.
"So, does that mean you lot are out for the season?" asked Paul as they wandered over to the butterbeers.
"Fraid so..." said Oliver, taking a large gulp.
"Well," said Patrick bracingly, "That means next year you'll beat her!" Oliver raised his eyebrow, so Patrick continued, "You'll have had so much more time to train."
Oliver rolled his eyes, "What a comfort."
Later in the evening, Oliver and Katie were both sitting on the deck talking to Katie's mother and father, Oliver with his arm around Katie, her head leaning on his shoulder.
Ian watched from where he stood with Paul and Patrick, all three of them clutching butterbeers and observing the couple carefully.
"What do you reckon?" asked Paul, watching as Katie took a drink from Oliver's butterbeer.
"Meaning?" asked Ian, turning to look at Paul.
"Well, do you think they've got a shot?" Paul elaborated.
"I do," Patrick spoke up, turning to face the other two, "I honestly think he's it for her." He turned to Ian, "I knew Karen was the one for you, and I know that he's it for Katie."
Ian rolled his eyes, "Sure you did."
"No! I did!" Patrick defended himself, elbowing Ian, "The only question left in my mind is when he'll get the guts to propose."
"There's no way he'll propose anytime soon," said Paul dismissively, "They've only been dating a year!"
"He's got a point," said Ian, "I mean, Karen and I only dated a year and a half before we got married." He smiled fondly at his wife, a petite brunette who was chatting with Mary Ann a little ways away.
"Dunno," said Paul, "Are they really ready?"
Patrick was about to reply when an awfully familiar voice sounded from behind them, "Is who really ready for what?"
Katie had left her parents and Oliver to get a butterbeer of her own, after many grumblings from Oliver for her stealing his, while they were talking amongst themselves, and had overheard the last part of their conversation.
"Nobody," said Paul, the first to recover, "Nobody's ready for anything." He sent a pointed look at Patrick.
Katie raised her eyebrows. She knew that they were talking about something that they didn't want her to know about, but she couldn't think of anything it could possibly be.
"Whatever," was all she said before grabbing a butterbeer and heading back over to her parents and Oliver.
All three sighed before Patrick said, glancing over at Oliver, "All the same, I give him a month."
Oliver Wood was a planner. He always had a plan. For everything. He wasn't one to act impulsively, he always thought things through, and he never acted without thinking. Well, almost never. Katie was the only exception, just as she was the exception to so many of his other now-broken rules. When he asked her out he hadn't thought, he just did. When he told her he loved her he hadn't thought, he just said. And, two weeks after the Quidditch match, when he was at Katie's parents' house for another one of her family events, he didn't think about asking her to marry him. He just did.
They had found a quiet moment together amidst the throng of Katie's family members, who were all laughing and joking, and she was laughing at some witty comment he had made, and the sun was reflecting off of her golden hair, and her bright blue eyes were bubbling with mirth, and he just said it.
"Marry me."
"What?" she asked, the edges of a smile still on her face from when she had laughed, her eyebrow's raised incredulously.
"Marry me," he repeated, "I am never going to love anyone else but you, and I hope you're never going to love anyone but me, so let's get married."
He reached into his pocket and dug out a ring box. When his grandmother had died of dragonpox not two months previously, his mother and father had given him her engagement ring with secretive smiles, and he instantly knew when he saw it that it was perfect for Katie. It was a yellow gold band with a tear-drop shaped sapphire, which had two smaller diamonds on either side framing it.
He opened the box and saw, to his immense satisfaction, her eyes widen taking in the ring, which he had conveniently 'forgot' to tell her he'd received.
"If you want I'll even make a big production of kneeling down in front of every one of your crazy relatives, but please," he looked right into her eyes, and she met his gaze unflinchingly. He spoke the last two words in little more than a whisper. "Marry me."
She kissed him. She was beaming as she pulled away and said, "Of course I will!"
Before he knew what he was doing he swung her off of her feet and twirled her around in the air as she laughed. As he set her down she continued, "Even if you didn't ask properly."
"Didn't ask properly?" he said, eyebrows raised.
"Well, you didn't really ask at all," she said with a grin. She stopped his retort with a kiss and said, "Now, am I going to have to put on this ring myself?"
He grinned and slid the ring onto the third finger of her left hand.
By now, of course, most of her family had noticed what was happening, including Paul, Patrick, and Ian. The latter two were both beaming, and though Paul was happy for his sister as well, he was also a little irritated that he'd been wrong, and could tell from the smug look on Patrick's face that he would never hear the end of it.
Katie's mother was tearing up as was Mary Ann, her father was grinning, and Oliver could've sworn he'd saw gold exchange hands between two of her uncles as the family crowded around them.
"You should be very proud," said Patrick, clapping Oliver on the back, "You're the first one to get through the crazy families and us," he gestured to Paul who was beside him and Ian, who had picked Katie up off the ground.
Oliver shrugged nonchalantly, but grinned. Having her brother's approval after what had happened to Marry Ann meant more than he could ever say, but he knew they understood.
The rest of the evening past in a haze of congratulations and toasts, and when it was time for he and Katie to head home they had a full ten-minute send off as everyone rushed to congratulate them again. However, it didn't escape either of their deliriously happy minds that they still had one more hurdle to jump before they could actually get married: they had to tell Oliver's family.
I hope everyone liked the proposal. I'm really starting to love writing Paul, Patrick, and Ian, and I try to fit them in every chapter, and even if I don't plan on it they tend to find their way in anyway because I have so much fun writing them, so I really hope they're as entertaining to you guys as they are to me. I'm expecting a nice long review from all of you (like my not-so-subtle hint?) to tell me your thoughts. This story isn't going to go much further past the wedding, so I guess you could call this the beginning of the end. Still, we've got a few chapters to go before wedded bliss, and another couple after that, so don't get too worried yet.
XOXO
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