Chapter 9: The Private Fly

Wow it really has been a while huh? Oops.

Sorry to keep y'all waiting, but if you do follow my other story, you'll already know that I was actually in Korea and in and out of the Hospital for some health reasons. And then after I uploaded the last chapter of my other story Through Ella's Eyes, I went MIA for a bit cause well... it was my birthday!

Anyway, here's the long awaited chapter.

Dearest Novi

Although I am glad the next letter from Hogwarts since last you've written me was from you and not some angry Professor demanding you need some discipline, I was less than thrilled at the contents of the letter. Though, if I must be perfectly honest, the Marauder inside me is a little amused at the entirety of the event. It is not every day a rogue Mountain Troll breaks into the Castle.

I am relieved to hear that you, Harry, and his friends are all safe. Although it does worry me a little that Harry has taken after his father's talent in looking for trouble, just as you have taken after yours. However this amuses me greatly, that history is repeating itself, I must ask you to try and keep an eye on him, just so he is not getting into any real trouble. And you aren't exempt from this either, you have responsibilities now, being a Prefect and all.

I am glad to hear that your OWL year is treating you well. Keep me informed on your plans for the upcoming holidays too. I understand if you would like to stay behind at Hogwarts to study, though I'd like the company over the Christmas. The house is not the same without you, and I miss you.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Moony

Novi couldn't help but smile at the letter. She could almost see Remus trying to contain his grin that threatened to break out into his usual solemn face as he read about the Troll. She could definitely imagine his face when he wrote about her being a Prefect as well. He probably knew that if Novi had been there, she would laugh and remind him of his days as Prefect, and how he had failed miserably to behave himself.

"Letter from Remus, I reckon?" Mona asked, coming out the shower with a towel wrapped around her head and wearing a rather snug, black satin bathrobe. If Mona didn't know her best friend well enough, she would have thought Novi had just received a letter from a secret admirer what with the uncontrollable grin on her face, but she knew better. Novi always had some kind of secret joke going on with her guardian.

Novi nodded, still grinning and folding the letter and putting it on her nightstand. She would write him a letter soon, telling him she would rather eat her own esophagus than stay at the school during the holidays.

"I had to update him on the Troll incident. He seems pleased and amused," Novi smiled.

"You and Remus have some sort of Harry Potter fetish. I mean, the kid is just a scrawny little git," Mona joked with a wink, making Novi chuckle. "Anyway, I need to make you picturesque today! Lots to do!"

Novi frowned, not knowing if that was supposed to be an insult or not. She watched as Mona dressed in a flashy top and pair of jeans that hugged her tall, willowy form perfectly with sour expression. It was Hogsmeade day today, and for whatever reason, Mona always made a big deal about Hogsmeade day. She would dress the both of them head to toe in dressy outfit and then take pictures throughout the day on her camera.

Novi grumbled, getting out of her own fluffy white bathrobe. "I don't know what the big deal is, it's not like we have to impress Percy and Oliver," she stated as she put on a white Nordic sweater dress over the indigo blue leggings. She immediately shut her mouth though, when she saw the piercing gaze of Mona, daring her to say another word.

"Don't you take away my fun, arsehat. I've gotten a new camera over the holidays and I've been dying to use it. A wizard's Polaroid camera! I can't think of a better day to use it. And I thought you'd want to look fantastic on your first date with Oliver today," Mona said as she pulled out her bag of CharmCosmetics.

Novi paused her action of putting on her eyeliner, giving Mona a confused look. "Who said I was going to go on a date with Oliver?"

"Please, tell me that was your intention," Mona gave an exasperated look. When Novi stared blankly, she rolled her eyes and dropped her voice to a soft alto to imitate her best friend's voice. "Oh, sorry Oliver that I rejected your date offer because I have an unhealthy maternal attachment to Harry Potter, but on the first Hogsmeade trip, we can sneak back early and I can go on a magical broom ride on top of you."

"MONA!" Novi screamed, flabbergasted at her friend's crudeness. Novi could feel her whole face become beet red with embarrassment as their other roommates giggled.

"Okay, so maybe that's not exactly what you said," Mona waved her hand around nonchalantly, seemingly ignorant to the attention that the two of them were gathering from their roommates. "But going on a private fly over the Black Lake with Oliver sounds like a date."

Novi didn't say anything as she tried to calm her flaming cheeks down. And by the time the two girls descended down the stairs to meet Percy and Oliver, Novi was still quiet, glaring at Mona.

"You alright, ducky? You seem a little red," Oliver said as he lifted his hand and ran the back of his hand against Novi's face.

"Fine. I am just appalled at the fact that not only does Mona have a sailor mouth, but she has the corrupt mind to match," Novi deadpanned, making Oliver and Percy raise their eyebrows.

"Well, this will be a very interesting tale to share all in good due time, but are we going to hustle or what? And are those muffins for sharing?" Mona asked, ignoring Percy as he frowned at the word hustle, and proceeded to help herself to a banana muffin.

Soon the four best friends quickly made their way to Hogsmeade. They hadn't been there as a group altogether since last year's first trip, due to everyone's crazy schedules. They had decided to walk it, seeing that they had an earlier start then everyone else, and Mona and Novi couldn't resist but to jinx the two boys' shoelaces to tie together. When the two boys finally managed to separate themselves, everyone, walking or on their carriage got to witness as the four Fifth year Gryffindors, screaming and running all the way to Hogsmeade. Novi and Mona letting out shrills of laughter and yelps while the two boys gave some sort of battle cry, hot on their heels.

Eventually, the four friends were inside of Scrivenshaft's. When they lot of them first visited Hogsmeade on their third year, rather than going into the bustling shop of Honeydukes first, they had come into this shop. It was just their luck that they had all ended up purchasing the same quills, and from then on it was their good luck tradition to the start of their year to purchase matching quills. This year, they had taken upon themselves to purchase rather flashy black and red quills for good luck on their OWLs.

Then they proceeded to visit Tomes and Scrolls, where every year none of them but Percy would end up buying a rather thick and dull book. Then they visited Spintwitches, where Percy grumbled and followed around the rest of his friends as they ecstatically flipped through the newest editions of the Quidditch magazines before the store clerk drove them away.

"Only one place to go before Three Broomsticks," Percy sang a little, glad to be out of Spintwitches and eyeing the colourful candy store ahead.

"Indeed, seeing that none of us want to go to Zonko's this time around," Mona said, flipping through the multiple Polaroid pictures she had taken throughout the day. She was also excited to go to Honeydukes where every year she would buy unhealthy amount of candies, and then to go have a warm butterbeer with some bar foods before going back to the castle.

"Actually, I was thinking if Mister Wood was up for it, we'd slink away right after Honeydukes. I did promise him a fly over the Black Lake, after all," Novi said with a surprising amount of confidence. "How about it, Mister Wood, fancy a fly?"

Oliver was speechless for a second, and felt his stomach flutter with excitement. The idea of spending some private time with Novi made his heart race. Oliver had always been very successful at getting Novi to spend alone time with him, but they haven't done so since Harry came into the picture. So trying to calm his erratic heart he gave her a smile. "I'd love to. I didn't think you'd remember."

"Of course I did," she replied, pretending to be offended. The four of them had already arrived in front of Honeydukes by then, joining the bustling candy shop that contained the excited Hogwarts students of all houses and years. "Well come on then, the faster we shop, faster we can go, Oliver."

From Dumbledore's office, he could see the two Gryffindors coming back from the nearing town early. His twinkling blue eyes observed the pair as they jokingly pushed each other around lightheartedly, their laughs melodic and serene over the tranquil landscapes surrounding Hogwarts.

He watched as one of his brightest and wittiest student, Novela Mary Black pull out her wand, quickly vanishing her shopping bag and doing the same to her friend, Oliver's. Then he watched as the two Gryffindors summoned their respective brooms, catching them with ease when the said object zoomed across the school.

When the pair started to fly over the Black Lake, Dumbledore couldn't help but have a very fatherly smile appear across his old face. Flying so close to the waters of the Black Lake as they were was ill-advised to the students, since the Giant Squid may unsuspectingly swat them by accident. However, Dumbledore thought to himself that even Professor McGonagall, who was very strict, would not have reprimanded her students if she were to witness the sights before him.

Indeed, the scene that lay in front of him was very panoramic. The sun, which had begun to set earlier as the cold winter approached quickly, lighted the endless stretch of water in a thousand glittering diamonds. The long stretched shadows of the old mountains and the tall trees swayed little and made rustling noises as if singing, and made the landscape all the more lovely. The two figures that flew closely across the water could have made even the stoniest hearts sigh with the oblivious adoration that was displayed before him. And Dumbledore hoped that this innocence could last as long as possible for the lovely girl that he had come to know.

"So you never did tell me how the date with Oliver went," Mona asked in between her huge bites of her morning biscuit with jam.

Percy gave a disgusted look at this, flicking off the crumb that had flown from Mona's mouth to his face, he couldn't help but stray his eyes from his Herbology textbook with interest. "You had a date with Oliver?" he asked curiously as he eyed his grey eyed friend. "How come I wasn't aware of any of this?"

"Not that you'd ever be aware of anything, seeing that your face is buried inside a book, even at breakfast," Novi rolled her eyes. Novi always hated when people didn't socialize during meals. "But you weren't informed because it was not a date."

"Rubbish, quite a few people saw the pair of you when they were coming back from the Village. Everyone thinks the pair of you are together now," Mona said determinedly. "You just need to make it official, give it the title, you already act like a couple."

Novi didn't say anything to retort as she looked over to where Oliver was. It was the morning of the biggest match of Hogwarts of all times, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, and he was busy making sure all of his teammates ate something, though he wasn't touching any food himself. Novi could tell that he was nervous behind his strict façade and smiled. The smile only grew larger as Oliver felt her gaze and looked towards her and then sauntered his way over to them.

"Nervous, Captain?" Novi teased as he heaved a great sigh when he sat himself between Mona and Novi.

"Of course not, Gryffindor has the best team in the whole school! We've got this, Novi. You just watch," Oliver defended hastily. However when all of his friends raised an eyebrow and looked at him, he let out a contradictory sigh.

"Don't worry Ollie. You and your team 'got this', as you so put," Mona said, thumping the boy on his back. "Anyway, eat something. Don't want you fainting in the pitch from starvation if the game goes on for long."

"I'm too nervous to eat," Oliver admitted with tight lips as he eyed his young Seeker.

The four friends looked towards where Harry Potter sat. The news that Harry had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team had leaked sometime between the day that McGonagall had introduced him to Oliver and exactly two weeks from the said day.

The poor boy looked even more nervous than Oliver, if that was actually possible. His friends around him tried to feed him bits of bacon and toast as he rejected the offers, looking as if he was going to throw up from the nerves.

"Oliver," Novi called softly, touching his elbow when he let out another shaky sigh. "I have complete faith that you'll destroy the Slytherins out there today. Don't worry."

Oliver smiled. He wasn't sure if he was going to destroy the Slytherins as Novi put. However, knowing that she believed in him and his skills offered him comfort and he felt some happiness bubble from inside his stomach as he looked towards the piercing grey eyes of the beautiful girl in front of him.

"Thanks, ducky. You always seem to know what to say," he said, pulling an arm over her in a side hug. "And when our team does win the game today, will you be waiting to kiss me congratulations?"

"Well, Mister Wood, that remains to be seen."

(A/N) Hey, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, although it was short. I'm sorry if you're disappointed that I didn't put any details on how Novi or Oliver was feeling while they were over the Black Lake but I thought I could add that on later during one of their flashbacks or whatever.

Anyway, if you love this story and want me to update more often, please Review, Favorite, and Follow this story! And if you have any questions that you think I may be able to answer about where this story is about to go, send me a message and I might just answer them next time I'm uploading another chapter.

Cheers,

xxBingum