Oliver came home, the amount of muck on his face only shown up by his grin. Every day since Aquila came home after the third task got a little bit easier. The new Hogwarts year had started and presented its own challenges. And the Quidditch season was starting properly. He trained every day, and it felt so good. His team had won every match so far. They were shaping up quite well. He found Aquila chopping some vegetable with expert hands. There were days when she didn't use magic to cook. She said it took the joy from it. She looked up when she heard him enter and gave him that bright smile he loved so well. There were days when he felt it to be quite strange to come home to Aquila. To live with her. The rest of the time it seemed so normal to him.
"Somebody looks filthy and delighted. Good match?" He could have picked her up and spun her around, he was so caught up in his joy.
"Best match. Harper got injured again, poor bastard. I got to sub in. Made some saves. Ate a bludger and some dirt, but I did myself proud. And…. Wait for it." He couldn't have kept the excitement from his voice if he had tried. She hung on his every word, as she wiped her hands clean on a towel. "Harper is retiring. I'm going to be the frontline Keeper. I'm the full time keeper for Puddlemere United!"
Aquila's eyes widened, and her smile became all the brighter.
"Oliver! That's amazing! Merlin's arse! I'm delighted for you!" She ran at him and hugged him close, laughing. "You deserve this. Seems like only yesterday you made the team. Now look at you. The Keeper." She kissed him a dozen times all over his face, not seeming to mind the dirt.
"You're going to get all covered in muck!" he said, with a laugh in his voice. His hair was caked in it, his face filthy, his clothes an indiscernible colour under muck.
"I don't care." she said, starting to dance with him to the music that he had barely noticed was playing in the background. He smiled at her and allowed her to dance him around the room.
"Muggle music again?" He liked the sound of it. Very upbeat.
"Yeah. Few decades old. From the 60s. I'm a bit behind, but I like this stuff." Her smile was heart-warming, and it blinded him. Oliver became very caught up in the moment, holding her in his arms, feeling the warmth of joy from his great achievement. This was it. He was in the big leagues now. "There's no stopping you." she said very quietly. He held her all the tighter.
"There's no stopping us."
Aquila fretted nervously with her hair.
"Is my makeup okay? I'm I too dressed up? Am I not dressed up enough?" She felt incredibly nervous.
"You look perfect, as always. Stop fussing." Oliver brushed her mass of black curls over one of her shoulders, and rested a hand there. "You don't have to be nervous, love." Aquila's insides squirmed non-the-less. She smiled despite this. She liked it when he called her love. They walked together into the very classy restaurant and bar, looking for Oliver's team. They were celebrating him making the front line. It was only right that Aquila go, she knew that, but she was still dreading it.
"There they are." Oliver said, as he guided her over to a group of men and women, most of whom were older than them both. She tried her best to stay calm and to not make a holy show out of Oliver. She kept a pretty smile plastered on her face.
"The man of the hour! We were wondering when you'd get here!" said a man with a thick Yorkshire accent. He was built like a tank, but he was only a few years older than them it seemed. The ginger haired man with a thick walrus moustache, looked at Aquila, and his eyes widened in what she could only assume was surprise. "Blimey, who's this then?" The rest of the team had crowded around with their respective boyfriends and girlfriends, and in some cases, husbands and wives. Aquila smiled shyly at them all.
"Hey Smith. This is Aquila, my girlfriend." Everyone was staring at her, in amazement. She fought off a scowl, and continued to smile. Oliver introduced her to everybody, and she shook their hands and smiled, making polite bits of conversation. They weren't so bad or so scary. "Aquila's a Healer, she had a job in Hogwarts, but…" Oliver drifted off not knowing what to say.
"Hogwarts is currently under new and speciesest management." she said, succinctly. The team looked curious, and a little taken aback, but they asked no more about it. Sitting down to dinner with the team, Aquila had Oliver on one side, and Smith the beater on the other. Smith was a friendly enough fellow. She couldn't tell if he was too friendly or not. She noticed he wasn't there with anyone. But she was probably being a poor judge of it.
"So… Aquila, you'll have to tell us all how yourself and Oliver met. He's told us nothing about you. We didn't even know you existed until you turned up tonight." Buchanan, a wispy blonde chaser said. She looked a little vicious, if Aquila was being honest. Her boyfriend was very vacant and absentminded. Beaten down. Aquila didn't like the way this woman looked at her, but she held her own.
"Oliver and I went to school together. We were both on our house Quidditch team." she said, as the waiters served a creamy soup to them all. Aquila delicately sipped at the soup, unable to hide her aristocratic mannerisms. Buchanan studied her carefully.
"House Quidditch team? What position did you play?" The blonde girl flipped her hair over her shoulder and loudly slurped at her soup.
"I was second chaser. Oliver was captain, as I'm sure you all already know. He was an excellent captain. We won the House cup under him. The year Sirius Black escaped." Most of the team and their significant others smiled and nodded, speaking their soft and kind words. But Buchanan snorted, and said something softly to her boyfriend. She hadn't counted on Aquila's fairy hearing.
"I bet she's under him a lot. She looks a right tramp." She chortled. Aquila glared at the girl. Oliver noticed her glaring at the chaser, and looked between the girls. It didn't escape Smith either, who was the Captain of the team.
"Aquila, I have to say, Oliver is a right lucky bloke. You're as pretty as a picture. And a Healer has to be plenty smart. Not to even mention that you played Quidditch. That's only ever the dream isn't it?" Smith said, patting her on the back with a dust-bin-lid sized hand. The more friendly members of the team agreed with him, and teased Oliver lightheartedly, which made him smile. He clutched her hand under the table. "We all of us thought Wood here was too grumpy and serious to have a girlfriend." That made them laugh, Aquila included.
"I'd have been mad to not fall head over heels for Aquila." Oliver declared. She was taken aback. He was never very open and public about how he felt about her. "And to be fair, I'm quite handsome, apparently. She couldn't resist." That was so out of character for Oliver, that she laughed from shock. He grinned at her, and she could see a slight blush on his high cheeks.
The dinner continued on in happy and gentle conversation. Buchanan didn't launch a second attack. Nor did she even look at Aquila. She felt all the better for it. All things considered, she was glad that she had met Oliver's team. This was such an important thing in his life. She was happy to be more involved. They all milled around together in the bar after they had stuffed themselves with food. Aquila was pleased that his teammates had taken to her famously. They swarmed around her now, talking about Quidditch. They liked her ideas on tactics and the new brooms that had recently come out. She kept up with all the latest in Quidditch because she had a great interest in the sport, but also so she could talk to Oliver about it. He got the most joy out of it. But then Buchanan reared her ugly head.
"What shoes are you wearing, Aquila? They look… old." The blonde had that wicked smile that screamed of malignancy. Aquila blushed. They were old, but they were invaluable. Now was the time she had to reveal her wealth.
"They're first line Louboutons. My grandmother bought them in Paris years ago. She gave them to me for my eighteenth birthday. So, I guess they are old. But some would call them vintage." She tried to smile for the girl, but it died on her face. The girl looked incredibly doubtful.
"You're saying those are original Louboutons? From Paris? I doubt that." the girl sneered. Oliver bristled.
"She's not a liar, Buchanan."
"They'd be worth millions, Oliver. They're probably just stickers on the sole. Your girlfriend's a liar." The rest of the team tried to calm her down, and pull her away, but she wouldn't go anyways. "Who do you think you are? A Malfoy?" The chaser laughed raucously.
"That's a terrible insult. I'm not a Malfoy. I'm a Valentine." Aquila said darkly. The rest of the team looked between the two of them.
"She's got you there, girl, now back down." the other beater, a brown-haired girl, said. Buchanan rolled her eyes and said goodbye to the team, and left, dragging her boyfriend behind her.
Oliver rested a hand on her shoulder. Just by looking at him, she could tell that he hadn't quite understood what had happened, but he was worried.
"Are you okay? I don't know why she got so vicious." His fingers rubbed her bare skin gently, a gesture of reassurance and comfort. She loved him for that. The other beater, a woman by the name of Moran rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.
"Honestly Wood. She wants to shag you." Oliver made a face and recoiled, and Aquila felt similarly uncomfortable. Oliver was incredibly disquieted, and a little bit panicky. Aquila put a hand on his back.
"Well that's clearly not going to happen." Aquila said wryly, giving Oliver a chance to recover. It was always a shock and incredibly uncomfortable to realise that people wanted to do things to you. Nobody understood that better than Aquila. The remaining team laughed, and clapped her on the arm.
"Hold on to her, Oliver. She's got gumption." Smith said, beaming at Aquila from under his walrus moustache.
"Oh I don't intend on going anywhere." Aquila said with a glint in her eye.