I'm dragging every limb of mine outside for early morning practice. Actually, I'm also carrying the unwilling limbs of six other Gryffindors far behind me. Mostly Fred and George. Yesterday, I heard them threatening to put some kind of toffee in my pumpkin juice, in revenge for today and all the other days they have to get up early.
It's the crack of pre-dawn-thirty when slivers of light start to peek over the horizon and hit me in the face with their warmth. Uncertain sunlight filters through the trees, lighting up the pitch in streaks of sunrise reds and pinks. I shiver in my robes, feeling the rippling early morning breeze; why didn't I bring a cloak? But it's too late now, hopefully others will start to arrive albeit their complaints and we can get started, while I suffer in silence.
I pick up the pace now until I reach the edge of the stands, where the magically trimmed grass meets... more grass. It looks like Hagrid hasn't remembered to set up a base for the stands with his illegal umbrella yet. Gazing up towards the referee's box, where the Quidditch supplies are kept for us captains to use at our leisure, I spot the trunk. Fortunately, the Bludgers haven't sensed me yet and I might be able to sneak towards them without them shaking the trunk and straining their leather bonds.
My broom is kept in the first cubby, the one far to the left. While I wouldn't put it past the Slytherins to try and vandalize it, the brooms are protected by spells that only the owner can remove. Alohomora Wood, I whisper. I'm alone, but you can never be too safe. Grabbing my broom by the polished handle, I mount it and kick off, stopping my flight when I reach the referee box to unlock the playing balls.
"C'mon, now," I mutter to the trunk. "Easy does it─"
WHOOMPH! I lose my vision for a second as a Bludger smashes out of its restraints and flies past my shoulder, nearly chopping my head off. Leaping off the platform, I dive vertically towards the field thirty meters below and then come to a halt. But to my surprise, the Bludger doesn't come for me. I take away my hands, protectively guarding my head, and gaze up at the pitch. That's when I see her.
She's soaring in loop-de-loops on her broom, frolicking in the joy of early morning solitude without a single thing to keep her company.
"Katie!" I shout, making a megaphone with my hands. She turns, whipping the tail of her broom away from me and flies downwards so we can talk normally.
"Oliver," she answers. "Hi!" She waves with one free hand, keeping the other firmly on the handle of her Comet Two Sixty. Out of the corner of my eye I see the missing Bludger coming for her, and by the way she ducks down and yells, "Got it," I assume she's seen it too. She reaches out and misses it, surprisingly ─ but I shouldn't be surprised, after all, she's a Chaser, not a Beater. Usually, Fred and George have that aspect of the game taken care of.
"Yah, can you─" she yells, still a quarter of the pitch apart from me. I spin to the side, aiming for the place I know the Bludger will go ─ my Keeper training helps a lot in this kind of situation. A second later, it lands, struggling in my arms.
Katie is right beside me, having flown up close after dodging the crazed black ball hurling towards her. "So," she says, "Nice weather we've been having."
I roll my eyes. She laughs, a melodious but real-sounding giggle that resounds from her in the silence of the outdoors. "I didn't know you were out here."
We take off on our brooms, flying up into the sky where a hawk is circling in the distance. "Yeah," she answers, turning to me. "I just got up early and for some crazy reason wanted to get out here." She laughs again, and swoops forward. "I figured you'd be happy about it."
"No, no, I am. Just surprised, I guess, that I didn't see you."
She nods. "I don't really talk when I'm up here, so you wouldn't be able to unless you were searching the skies or something. I like just flying, you know? Not worrying about who's got what points and where the Snitch is and all that. It's a nice change of pace."
The rays have light that were only just emerging before have passed the tree line and illuminate Katie's face; her hair glimmers cheerfully. I fight the urge to leave towards her and brush back the stray pieces dangle away from her ponytail, gently framing her features. We're flying as a pair now, our movements matching each other perfectly. We're used to coordinated flight; it's something I like to stress in practices, but this is something more. Something that's both innocent and sweet.
I think she looks lovely, and I say so.
"Thanks," she says, smiling. I'm glad she not one of those girls who takes everything so seriously. I don't have to worry about what I say to her.
"Any idea where the rest are?"
"Not a clue," she pronounces. And we keep flying. I replace the Bludger I'm still carrying with the Quaffle, grabbing it from the trunk as we complete a loop of the pitch in perfect formation, tossing it towards Katie. Before I even see her catch it, it's flying back at my face like a antagonistic winged... Quaffle.
"Catch," she says.
"What're you trying to do, knock my head off?" The large dimples in the side of the crimson ball fit into my hands, aided by the sticking charm, but my reflexes are still tested by the unexpected toss.
"You're not losing your game, Wood, are you?" Katie kids, elbowing me in the side. I laugh, and push my broom forwards, racing her around the pitch. We're laughing, and joking, and knocking each other off our brooms while making spectacular recoveries, and time feels unchanging. Sometimes, when I'm doing something nice ─ not anything fancy, or expensive, or well-known ─ time seems to slip away until all I notice is the good things: what I'm doing, and who I'm doing it with. I notice the chirps of the birds in the trees, the crickets in the field, the cotton-colored clouds drifting here and there. Usually, all of this would have a lesser priority. It's funny how priorities can change so easily.
Katie and I complete one loop, another, another - until the sun has fully come up, warming our chilled bodies, and still no one has appeared for practice. Wind whistling in my ears, I gently come to a stop and float to the ground, turning to face her.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey," she answers. I have to take a second to catch my breath from the flight. Even after five years at Hogwarts, I'm still amazed by flight. I never got to fly until I came here; we didn't have the money for broomsticks back at home, so it was all new to me when I tried out to be a Keeper in third year. But obviously I've gotten better.
"What d'you want to do now?" I ask, suddenly unsure.
She's busily putting away her broomstick and fixing her hair. "Well, I have no idea where the others are, wasn't practice supposed to be ages ago?"
"Yeah," I answer. I scratch the back of my neck and tilt my head to the side. "I guess we should go in for breakfast?"
Yeah, okay," she says. "Thanks for that, though."
I smile and nod, shrugging. "It was fun."
The sounds of the outdoors more prominent now that we're silently exiting the stadium, a thought comes to me that makes me slap my forehead in alarm.
"Wait, I forgot!"
Katie stops, turning towards me. "Forgot what? You didn't bring anything else, right?"
"Um, it's in the cubbies. Can we go back? Just for a second?"
"Yeah, okay. We're probably already late to breakfast, there's no point in hurrying now!" she answers casually, not expecting much. She must think I missed my dragon-hide gloves, or something equally inconsequential. Just wait 'til I show you, I think to myself.
"Great." Within minutes, we're back in front of my cubby. I unlock it the same way as before, not caring if she hears my pass-spell. I trust Katie. Immeasurably.
"So I was just thinking, when I got this ─ well, I was in Hogsmeade, and Angelina said ─ to me, not Fred ─ although he was there too ─" I begin. I pause, trying to catch my friend. Why are girls so damn confusing? If I sound like a blubbering idiot, she's never going to take it.
"Yeah?" she answers, urging me to continue.
"Well, what I'm trying to say is, I don't expect anything from this, nothing at all. You don't even have to like it, just take it, all right? From me." I'm proud that those sentences have made some kind of sense.
"Wait, Oliver ─ you haven't given me anything yet," she laughs. Then her face changes, her eyes unreadable. "Wait, did I misunderstand?"
"No ─ no, I'm just an idiot," I stammer, reaching for the red velvet bag on the floor of my cubby. it has the Gryffindor symbol embroidered onto it, a gift from my aunt and uncle for my birthday last term. It held galleons then, but now its charge is something entirely different.
I get ahold of the bag, and put it in Katie's hands. She looks at me, then gazes down to un-cinch the top, cautiously putting her slender hand inside. She pulls out a card, and a handful of chocolate hearts, her eyes wide. I close mine tight. Oh god, the others will never let me live this down. I bite my lip, begging her not to run away screaming. What was I thinking, giving her a gift? Today, of all days!
The silence that was before soothing now threatens to strangle me. I have to say something. Katie is still reading the card's message, but if I wait any longer she'll soon be gone. I make a choice that I desperately hope is the right one.
"Happy Valentine's Day," I say softly. All the emotion I've been saving up in these last few minutes dive into my chest, making my throat clench in spite of itself. My heart stops beating for half a second, it feels like. I don't know what she'll say. I have absolutely no idea, and it scares me. I'm Oliver Wood. I don't get scared at little things like this. But I just did.
Then, Katie answers.
"Oliver... Oh, Oliver, thank you! That's so sweet!"
She drops the bag in the soft grass at her feet and pulls me into a hug. I can hardly breathe ─ she's strong ─ but it's more my heart jumping for joy that stifles my lungs. I can't believe she doesn't hate me for this, hate me for showing something I wasn't even sure I felt, but had to try. I'm glad I did.
"You're welcome." I smile.
The hug is chaste, it isn't lustful, but that's exactly what I want. I understand Katie. She's a mystery, that's for certain, but a mystery that's part of a gorgeous friendship as well. While that's all it is for now, I wouldn't mind if our relationship, whatever you want to call it, turned into something more. And by the fact that Katie is still hugging me, I think she feels the same way.
Happy Valentine's Day, Hogwarts. How wonderful it is to be young.
Written for the Ship Until You Drop Bi-Weekly Competition, Pairing: Oliver/Katie
Written for the Fanfiction Tournaments Competition, Theme: Valentine's Day