Chapter 5 - Halloween
October 1991
Rayna had woken up earlier than she planned to. She found that she couldn't fall back to sleep and she blamed it on the fact that it was Halloween. She loved Halloween. After Christmas it was her favorite occasion.
She was especially excited to see how Hogwarts would be decorated for the occasion.
The day went by as normal, nothing out of the odd happening. Rayna went to breakfast and then her first class of the day which was defense against the dark arts with Professor Quirrell.
No one took Proffesor Quirrell seriously because of his stutter and how he seemed scared of everyone. Of course the students played to his weakness and never listened to him, acting out of control as Quirrell had none . Rayna tried to take him seriously. She completed her homework that he assigned and she tried to listen to him speaking but he was just so irritatingly boring.
She sighed, giving up listening to him completely and instead turned to roll her eyes at Adrian who sat a couple rows behind her. Adrian brought his hands up to rest one side of his head and pretended to be asleep causing Rayna to laugh at him.
When turning back around to face the front of the class Rayna's eyes met Oliver's. They stared at one another for a few seconds before Oliver broke eye contact.
Rayna turned fully to the front watching as Quirrell droned on.
Flint sat on the opposite side of the room to Rayna and a few rows behind meaning he could see everyone in the classroom.
He didn't miss the quick exchange of glances between Rayna and Wood. Flint frowned not liking that Wood had been given attention from his chaser. Through out the lesson Flint kept seeing Oliver's eyes trail over to look at Rayna. He didn't like it.
At dinner time Rayna sat with Flint next to her, with Adrian and Higgs opposite . They were sitting facing the Gryffindor table and Flint was glaring at the brown haired Gryffindor captain. The great hall looked amazing and Rayna admired the floating pumpkins above her that decorated the sky. The feast was even more amazing, the food was extra special to celebrate and Rayna truly appreciated how amazing magic was.
Oliver didn't know why but he kept finding himself looking for the Slytherin girl where ever he went. Like right now in the great hall for the halloween feast. His eyes involuntarily searched for her before landing on her. She was sat with some of the Slytherin team. As if she could feel his eyes on her, Rayna looked up and straight at him, catching him staring. He quickly looked down at his plate. Rayna carried on looking at him. There was something about him, she just couldn't place her finger on what exactly.
Their exchange didn't go unoticed by Flint yet again.
He frowned staring at the place Oliver was sat at waiting for him to look back over. Flint knew he would.
He was right. Oliver looked up, instead of meeting Rayna's glance he met Flint's glare. Oliver glared back until Flint raised his eyebrow smirking before gesturing to great hall entrance with a nod.
Flint got up from the Slytherin table causing his friends to look at him questioningly.
"I just need to do something really quickly, i'll be back" he said dismissing himself and leaving the great hall.
Oliver got up a couple minutes later, leaving the great hall aswell.
As soon as Oliver stepped out of the hall door his collar was grabbed and he was dragged down two hall ways then shoved against a wall.
"why do you keep looking at her?" Flint growled glaring at the Gryffidor.
Oliver straightened his robes.
"who?" he asked
"don't play stupid, you bloody well know who!" Flint spat
"I don't know what you mean" Oliver spoke
"stop looking at her" Flint growled
"I wasn't-"
"what are you playing at huh? are you trying to get her attention? trying to distract her? Is that your new strategy? distract my star chaser so you can win because you've accepted you can't win any other way?" Flint accussed.
"no, I don't need to distract people to win" Oliver spat
"she's not stupid you know" Flint stepped closer to him in a threatening manor.
"I know" Oliver said shoving him away.
"stay away from her, If I catch you looking her way again-"
"you don't need to threaten me" Oliver glared.
Flint scowled at him before walking away to head back to the Slytherin common room. He was too angry to go back to the feast.
In the great hall Dumbledore was making his speech. Flint wasn't back yet and Rayna had noticed that Oliver was no longer at the Gryffindor table and she couldn't spot him anywhere in the hall.
Suddenly the great hall doors opened with an aggressive bang alarming eeveryone.
"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS... thought you ought to know" Proffessor Quirrell screamed before fainting.
A moment of silence passed where students stopped what they were doing. Rayna shared a wide eyed look with Adrian before everyone around them started screaming, standing up eagerly to get away. All hell had broken lose and no one really knew what to do.
"SILENCE" Dumbledore shouted. "prefects, if you please escort your houses to the commons room"
The prefects burst into action in seconds gathering up their houses and making them follow in an orderly way.
Once Rayna and Adrian were outside of the hall a realization hit her.
"Adrain, Flint never came back we should go and get him" Rayna spoke hurriedly and in panic and fear for her friend.
"he can handle himself" Adrian rolled his eyes not particularly interested in looking for Flint.
"Adrian, please" she said
"Rayna- fine, which way did he go?"
"I- I don't know" she panicked
"okay, how about you take the left and i'll take the right, you got your wand?" he asked
"yeah, okay that sounds alright" Rayna spoke before they both took off in different direction, their wands by their sides and searching for Flint.
"Carrow?" some said as soon as she ran around a corner to the left, her hand with her wand automatically came up to her defense. "woah, easy there"
She came face to face with Oliver Wood, dropping her arm with her wand back down to the side.
"why are you running? are you okay?" he asked slightly worried at how shaken up she looked.
"have you seen Flint?" she asked wide eyed.
"yeah he went that way" he said pointing to the place she had just come from. "what's going on?" he asked
"there- there's a troll in the castle- Quirrell-"
Oliver grabbed Rayna by the robes pulling her into an alcove hidden away from the view of anyone in the hall way as he saw a large shadow appear on the wall signally that something large was approaching to turn the corner.
"what are you-"
"shhh" Oliver said placing his hand over her mouth so she wouldn't speak.
Rayna met Olivers eyes before quickly looking at the floor.
Then she heard it. Loud thuds were coming from the hall way where they had just been standing. Rayna's eyes widened and came up to meet Oliver's again as he watched her.
The footstep were growing louder and sounded heavier.
Rayna's breath hitched and she tried to focus her mind on something else than the fact that there was a troll so close to them.
She decided to focus on Oliver's breathing, his hand was sill over her mouth scared she would try and say something.
Rayna didn't really take in how close she was standing to him.
Both of them were holding their breaths as the footstep sounded right outside, the troll had stopped. Rayna's breathing picked up, petrified that they would be seen or heard.
Luckily, the heavy foot steps continued until they could no longer hear them, Oliver's hand finally dropped away from where it was covering Rayna's mouth. They waited another minute, letting themselves calm down and finally breathe.
Only now did they both take in how close they were standing to each other. Rayna looked up to meet Oliver's eyes holding contact for a long few seconds before breaking it and looking at the floor. She took a couple steps backwards from him, putting space between them.
It scared her how much she wanted to be hugged by him and reassured that everything was okay now.
This was odd for Rayna. She never wanted to hug people. She grew up with a family that didn't hug or show any physical emotions. She guessed this was because her Father and Aunt brought her up and neither one of them showed much emotion. They were strict and too formal compared to what the ideal family were like, therefore Rayna was too scared to ever step a foot out of line. She was never rude or ungrateful for anything, even when she knew her Father or Aunt were not being fair.
Rayna couldn't help but think; maybe if her Mother was still alive it would be different.
She craved to be close to someone. Yet it scared her too much to let herself.
Oliver was watching her closely, she hadn't said anything since she stepped away from him.
"are you okay?" he asked quietly, almost a whisper. He felt like he should still be quiet just in case.
She looked up at him nodding. "yeah" She glanced over at the exit of the alcove clearly wanting to leave but instead she turned back to him. "are you... okay?" she asked him back.
Oliver nodded repeating Rayna's previous action.
"we should- I should go find Adrian" she spoke turning to leave. Oliver caught her wrist tugging her back a little.
"are you sure you should go alone? It may not be safe" Oliver asked concerned that the troll could still be lurking in one of the hall ways.
"I-"
"i'll come with you" Oliver said before she could speak, Rayna nodded silently, Oliver dropped his grip on her arm and she allowed him to follow her out of the alcove.
They walked side by side, arms occasionally brushing. Rayna could have moved a couple steps away but she liked the feeling of having someone close to her while walking. Even if they weren't speaking.
Turning the corner the Slytherin and Gryffindor stopped walking as two panicked looking Slytherin's spotted them.
"Ray" Adrian shouted running towards her, he grabbed both of her arms as if to reassure himself that she was safe. "I saw the troll turn to follow the way you went, I was so worried I tried to follow but Professor Snape caught me and sent me the other way." Adrian spoke hurriedly.
"Wood" Flint scoffed as he stood to the side of Pucey.
"Flint" Oliver glared.
"let's go to the common room, Snape said he would be there soon to tell us all what's going on" Adrian said pulling Rayna in the direction of the dungeons.
Rayna spared a look behind her to Oliver giving him a small smile before letting Pucey lead her away.
Oliver watched her retreating figure, something he seemed to do a lot the past couple weeks.
"why were you with her?" Flint demanded not following his fellow Slytherin's.
"why should I tell you-" Oliver was cut off by the Slytherin shoving him.
"what were you doing?" he asked again but this time more aggressively.
"alright- alright" Oliver said putting his hands up to stop the Slytherin from pushing him again. "if you must know, she came looking for you but the troll was there so we had to hide for a bit, nothing else" Oliver said raising his eyebrows at Flint. "why do you even care?" Oliver asked
"if you must know" Flint said sarcastically "Rayna is my star chaser and my friend" he spoke
"friend? don't make me laugh" Oliver chuckled "Slytherin's like you don't have friends"
Flint shoved Oliver roughly.
"shut the fuck up" he said threateningly.
"or what? what are you gonna do?" Oliver challenged.
Flint reached for his wand pressing it against Oliver's throat. Oliver raised one eyebrow at him daring him.
"Mr Flint, Mr Wood" the sound of Professor McGonagle gained both of their attention, Flint hiding his wand behind his back "what in heavens name are you doing here, you should both be in your dormitories, it is not safe"
Flint scoffed before leaving, making his way to the dungeons, leaving Oliver with the Professor.
"is everything okay Mr Wood?" McGonagle asked concerned at the Gryffindor's silence.
"yes Professor" he gave her a small smile, one that didn't convince her. Oliver took off in the direction of the Gryffindor tower leaving McGonagle to watch the keeper's retreating figure. He didn't look as happy as he used to. Maybe she had put too much pressure on him by making him captain.
But she knew he could handle it. He was a very good strategist and player and an even better team motivator. She believed in him and she knew he would not disappoint. She just hoped he didn't focus all of his time and energy into Quidditch and forget about the things that make him happy.
A/n; someone pretty please give me a review, I want to know what you think and I wanna know whose reading. xx