A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys - this chapter has been half-written forever, and I just couldn't get the ending the way I wanted it. But anyways, your reviews made me so happy, and thank you for everyone wishing me luck! You're all fantastic. Anyways, enjoy!

AN2: Also HOLD THE PHONE GUYS HOW DID I MISS THAT THIS PASSED 100 REVIEWS? DUDE. You guys fucking rock. E-cookies for everybody. You taste those deliciously sugary bytes? Mmmm. It's cause you're awesome.

Chapter Nine
When I Get Home You're So Dead
…the moral this time is: girls make boys cry.

"Shitshitshitshit-" What had I done? What was Oliver going to do? He was going to find Farrow and tear the little bastard to pieces – and then what would happen? He'd get tried and sent to Azkaban for the rest of our waking lives, and I'd have to visit him with all sad and lonely, with care packages of stupid pranks from the twins and little clippings of newspapers about the world outside, while the dementors followed me everywhere –

"Katie!" Angelina pulled me out of my panicked reverie. "We need to go now. Do you know where Farrow lives? Do you know someone who would?" She was speaking very clearly and very loudly, as if I was both foreign and a little deaf. I focused, pushing away the panic buzzing in my ears.

"Charlotte. Charlotte Greene. She'd know. But how do we…?"

"The pitch!" We both turned to look at Alicia. "We go to the Puddlemere United pitch. They're bound to have a roster there – all we need is to break into the locker room, and that can't be too difficult. They could even be having practice there."
Angelina cast Alicia a wondering look. "You know, Leesh, that could work. But we'd need to go fast; Oliver has – Jesus Christ – easily an hour on us. If Farrow was at his house, we could already be too late. Katie-" she turned to me, pushed my hair out of my face in a motherly gesture. "We'll be back soon. Don't worry too much."

They both turned to disapparate.

"What?" Both stopped, wands in the air. "Oh, forget that. You are not going anywhere without me. You actually thought you'd leave me here?" I pushed the sheets aside, pulling myself out of the bed that had been my prison for nearly a week.

"Katie-"

"Ange, send a patronus to Fred and George. We're going to need backup. Alicia, pass me that bottle. And those pants, please."

Alicia stared at me, unmovingly.

"Pass it! It's a numbing potion. I'll take that, I'll be fine – they took me off the drips yesterday. Alicia. Trust me. You need me to talk down Oliver. Besides – none of this would have happened without me. Please."

She turned to Angelina who watched me closely, debating. "Oh… fine. Alicia, give her the damned potion. We'll do this together. Side-along apparition." She added in a voice that brooked no arguments. "And you sit out the moment I tell you to, got it?"

I nodded, swigging the potion before tugging on my pants. Angelina tapped her foot until I was done, walking somewhat unsteadily over to her. She cast me one last glance.

"If you get more hurt doing this, so help me Katie… I'll kill you."

xoxox

"Charlotte! Charlotte!" I wandered idly through the empty locker room, getting increasingly irritated. Alicia and Angelina had directly apparated us into the hall, and I had surprised all of us (but mostly myself) by guessing Oliver's password: 05151993 – the day we'd won the Quidditch Cup. Now they were frantically rifling through drawers and corkboards, trying to find any sort of contact information.

"Hello?"

I spun around as a male voice echoed through the room. A ruffled red-haired head poked around the doorjamb.

"Kieran!" He was the chaser that Oliver liked so much – a practical joker, best friends with Jordan Meyers, the beater.

"You're… Oliver's mate, right? Katie? I'm so sorry about what happened – I thought you were still in St. Mungo's. Coachie was talking about organizing a visit-"

"Do you know where Eric Farrow lives?" He blinked at me in surprise.

"Pardon?"

"Farrow. The bloke that pushed me off my broom. Weedy. Looks a bit like a rat-human hybrid-"

"Yeah, yeah I know Eric- wait, what? Pushed?"

"Not important. Honestly. Please, Kieran."
He looked at me uncomfortably.

"Oliver's pissed and he's gone after him. I really, really, need to find him."

Kieran's eyes widened.

"He won't be home. It's a Friday evening – he's always boasting about hitting up the bars and picking up chicks – or something equally stupid. At practice today he was trying to get Hannah to come to some… some bar with him. The… the…" he was straining. "The Cat and Elephant? No… the… the…"

"The Castle's Elephant?" Alicia piped up.

"Yes!" Kieran looked relieved beyond belief.

"How did you-?" Angelina looked questioningly at Alicia, who was just on her game today.

"One of George's friends keeps asking him out to these stupid muggle pub crawls and he keeps mentioning it as a meet-up place."

"It's muggle?" Angelina looked suddenly panicked.

"…yes?" Alicia looked from Kieran to me, suddenly wary.

"Shit. If they're going to duel or something stupid –"

I caught on.

"Then they could break the international statute of –"

"-of secrecy!" Alicia finished, panic suffusing her face.

"ThankyousomuchKieran-we've gotta go bye!" I shouted over my shoulder, rushing to grab Angelina's arm. My last glimpse was of Kieran waving weakly at us, mouth open in shock.

xoxox

"Angelina where did you put us?" I gasped, leaning against a dumpster as my head spun from the apparition. It didn't matter how much potion I downed – in all honesty, I still was weaker than I'd been in a long time.

"Nearby alley," she answered, pushing her hair out of her face. "Come on, we need to-" she paled a little, suddenly focused on something else.

"Do you-" Alicia cocked her head. "Do you hear something?" I looked from her to Angelina and listened, hard. Faintly, I could hear it. Loud, pounding voices shouting – something. Repetitively, like a heartbeat. Like –

fight!fight!fight!

and we were all running in the gathering twilight, pell-mell towards the door.

Angelina got there first, tugging open the door before diving into a crowd of cheering, jeering men.

I hesitated for a fraction of a second before elbowing my way into the group, kicking shins that got in my way. I shoved one last tipsy, hairy arm out of my way and froze. Oliver was being restrained by two blokes on the far side of the room, Farrow cowering on the other. Oliver's face was shining with blood, and as I took in Farrow's equally bloody hand and the dark green glass shattered across the floor, I realized why. That little-

"You just stay away from her." Oliver was spitting blood and shouting.

"I'll do whatever the fuck I want! You hit me and Coach'll kick you off the team. And then what'll you do? You'll have no fangirls to fuck, and that little bitch that mooches off of you will walk out the second your cash dries up."

Me. He was saying that about me, wasn't he? I stepped unconsciously into the circle, eyes fixed on Farrow, who was inching malevolently towards Oliver, his beady little eyes gleaming.

"Why do you think she sticks around, Wood? To be with you? You're just a sad little sucker that wastes his time on booze and sluts. And her? If she could play worth a damn, she wouldn't have fallen, would she? And you couldn't catch her, could you? You think she wants to be tied to your drunken ass? You think you could protect her? You're nothing but a failure, Wood. A pathetic, arrogant-"

I forgot that I was in a crowded bar, full of burly, half-drunk men. I forgot that I had just survived multiple fractures that, without magic, could have killed me. I just forgot. I only heard a snide little voice ripping apart the best friend I'd ever had, reminding me of all the reasons we could never work out. I stepped in front of Farrow, just catching the deliciously shocked and panicked expression that flitted across his face.

"Just shut up."

And I punched him, square in the face.

I'm proud to say that a long friendship with both Oliver and the twins has taught me a wide variety of things – and one of them was how to punch like a boy. Farrow's nose crumpled under my knuckles and he reeled, cursing wildly, blood gushing between his fingers.

"Shit. That felt good."

The pub stared.

xoxox

The silence broke with a bang. Angelina descended on Farrow in an instant, bending over him to surreptitiously stun him. Alicia dashed outside, realizing the crack had probably been Fred and George apparating into the alley. The room spun around me. Suddenly, everything flooded in and out of focus. My hand hurt like a bitch, my head pounded. And Oliver was still behind me, I realized.

I turned. He was still braced against the two men holding him back, jaw dropped. They dropped his arms quickly, taking in my face as I crossed to him.

Smack.

I was doing a lot of hitting today.

"You absolute idiot. What were you thinking? Do you know what we've been doing? I've been out of my mind with worry, Oliver! Don't you dare leave me another note like that! I thought you were actually going to kill him!"

"I would-" Oliver mumbled, bitterly.

"-have gone to Azkaban!" I dropped my voice, trying to evade the ears of the eager muggles. "And how would I have visited you then, huh? How would you have played Quidditch, and how would I feed myself? Huh?" Hysterical laughter was starting to bubble in my throat. I was simultaneously laughing and crying. Oliver stared at me like I'd finally lost my mind. "You! You-" I swallowed, hard, looking closer at his face. "You've got blood all over you."

"It's not all mine," he shrugged, the barest smile tugging his lips. "And you've got a mean right hook." He added.

"I learnt from the best." I bit my lip. "Oh, Oliver," and I hugged him. "Stop doing such stupid things. They scare me," I mumbled into his shoulder. I opened my eyes to see one of the men who'd restrained him cutting looks at the other, with wide "bitch be crazy" eyes.

"Don't try me," I said coldly, flipping him off. He backed away, sharpish.

Damn. When did I become such a badass?

xoxox

Charming reconciliation moments aside, it took split seconds for us to realize we had some major damage control to do. To make things worse (better? Worse? I'm still not sure…) Alicia's return was preceded by two bounding, chattering redheads.

"Oh, dear…" Oliver whispered low, behind me.

"Hello, good pub!" Fred shouted.

"Ah, here's dear Eric," George added, equally loudly, bending over Farrow's prone body. Angelina stared at them like a deer in the headlights.

"Oh, hello, dear. Fancy seeing you here," Fred said conversationally, kissing her on the cheek. "This is a charming place, isn't it? Quite…"

"Quaint? Picturesque? Mellifluous?" George chimed in, hoisting Farrow over his shoulder.

"Places can't be mellifluous, Georgie." Alicia had come in, casting an amused and exasperated eye over the twins.

"No?" George looked genuinely surprised.

"No. It means pleasant to hear or musical – that wouldn't make any sense."

"Fancy that." He glanced around the silent room. "What? Haven't you seen a well-vocabularied man with one ear before?"

"You know, George, I reckon they haven't."

"Really? How exciting! I'm one of a kind!" He beamed at Fred, who beamed right back.

"Oliver!" Fred ducked out from under Angelina's arm. "Bit of a bloody mess, aren't you? Shoulda seen the other guy, eh? All very nudge-nudge, wink-wink? Excellent. Come along, you big lump, then." He took the bewildered Oliver by the arm and led him back to George.

"Well, it really has been lovely meeting you gents," Fred began, smiling at the silent crowd.

"Although you don't say much," George added.

"…and you seem, altogether, a rather unshaven and unpleasant lot, looks – as they say – can be deceiving. Why, at first glance, people might think George here and I are identical!" He and George glanced at eachother and burst out laughing.

"It is a funny old world. Well, have a nice day, boys! Angie, Lish, Katie? Come along please." And, just as quickly as they'd entered, they left, strolling jauntily out with Oliver and Farrow in tow.

Angelina stared at me, mouth hanging open in total shock.

"Best be going, then," Alicia, who seemed to be taking all this the best of any of us. "Thank you for your hospitality, gents." And she calmly took my hand and Angelina's and led us, quiet and unresisting for once, out of the pub and into the night.

When I Get Home, You're So Dead - Mayday Parade

please R&R - hope the twinnies were a bit of a pick-me-up =]