Winter had finally arrived bringing with it the Quidditch season. The whole school was riled up for the first game of the year: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Percy was not going because he had decided to stay in the dorm and finish work that his teachers were relentlessly assigning. Their only excuse was "O.W.L. Examinations" He was getting sick of hearing about it.
He also wasn't going to attend the match because he wanted to avoid Penelope Clearwater who had taken up the unpleasant habit harassing him whenever she saw him. She would corner him against a wall and demand that he give her a more detailed explanation on why he had so suddenly broken up with her.
"It eats away at me not knowing. Can we just talk?" she would say to him.
"Eventually." Percy would say as he moved her out of the way and made his way to class.
Percy was also going to use this time to take a look at the book that he had rented out of the Restricted Section in the library. After skimming, he was shocked to see how much Hogwarts censored the material they taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He took a particular interest in the powerful memory-altering spells and began to practice it on people's cats that were left in the common room.
He convinced himself that it wasn't particularly "dark magic" and that the only reason it was in the Restricted Section was because that magic was too advanced for a basic wizard education.
Despite everything seeming to happen all at once, Percy couldn't get one thing out of his mind: the newfound love he had developed for a certain Keeper. With the Quidditch season in session, Percy had found it increasingly difficult to get ahold of Oliver. Their study sessions had been reduced to only once a week and cut by a good thirty minutes.
Oliver's continued absence only made Percy want him more, yet he couldn't shake the feeling away that it would only get worse when the Quidditch season started to get serious. Oliver's mind would become dominated by Quidditch, and Percy, who had grown to like being part of Oliver's life, would soon fade away in the back of his mind with everything else that wasn't Quidditch related.
It was painfully satisfying to think of Oliver Wood. Painful, because a very daunting part of Percy's conscious was convinced that he would never have Oliver. Yet the satisfying part came from his fantasies. Almost every day now, Percy had imagined Oliver in some sort of sexual scenario that involved the two of them.
His most guilty pleasure, which he would never admit to in a million years, was masturbating while he sniffed the scent that came off the sweater that Oliver had left behind at the Three Broomsticks. He still hadn't returned it to him.
The evening after the first Quidditch match, was spent in celebration. Most of the Gryffindor house had managed to squeeze into the common room and were making a big deal about having won the first game of the season against Slytherin.
He was only there to make sure they didn't get too loud and out of control. And he wanted to observe Oliver who was too excited to notice anything besides his teammates and anyone who patted him on the back and said "good on ya."
Pretty soon most of the team, including Oliver, headed back to their beds and the two hadn't spoken a single word to each other.
Percy went back to his dormitory to lie on his bed. He thought about his trunk that laid underneath his bed. Oliver's sweater, which he had never returned, was hidden safely inside. As he drifted off to sleep he set a goal for himself that he would get some sort of interaction with Oliver tomorrow. They hadn't had a full conversation in a while and he was going mad.
The next morning he got up quite early. It was cold, and the whole castle was still asleep. Perfect, he thought as he hatched an idea to get Oliver alone. He got dressed quickly and went to knock on Oliver's door.
Oliver opened his door looking confused and tired. His eyes were half closed and his hair was cow-licked on the left side of this head.
"Percy?" Oliver asked.
"Accio broom." Percy whispered as he pointed his wand inside Oliver's dormitory. A broomstick came flying through the air landing perfectly in Percy's hand.
"What're yah doing?" Oliver asked confused.
"Teach me how to be a keeper again?" Percy asked. Suddenly, he blushed. He hadn't realized how stupid that sounded! What an awful idea, he thought, he's going to realize that—
"Well if you're that desperate, definitely mate." Oliver said with a smile that became permanently photographed in Percy's heart. It was so genuine. So friendly. And inviting. Vaguely familiar…..but most of all, it was irresistible.
They walked down to the Quidditch field quickly because it was a school day and they wanted to get a least an hour in of "playtime." To Percy's displeasure, Oliver had gotten a second broom so that they could fly individually.
They were in the castle's courtyard when they ran into Marcus Flint and a Slytherin girl sitting on a stone bench snogging quite aggressively.
"A bit early don't you think?" Percy said as they approached them. The couple stood up rather startled but when they saw that it was the two Gryffindor students their body language became more defensive.
"No need to ask where you're going." Marcus snapped.
"Why is that?" Oliver asked sarcastically.
"It's easy, both of you are missing something and you're going out to look for it."
"What exactly are we missing?"
"Well, Termite Food you're missing a Quidditch team with any talent and everyone knows this redheaded weasel is missing money." Marcus said with fire in his voice. The Slytherin girl gave an exaggerated laugh.
"Is that why Slytherin lost the first match to Gryffindor? Because we're a bunch of talentless blokes, right?" Oliver retorted.
It got very tense. The Slytherin girl had stopped laughing and Percy, who was just waiting for the situation to end realized that it might turn into something worse. Both Quidditch captains were staring dangerously into the other's eyes not daring to blink.
Percy made eye contact with the Slytherin girl who gave him a dirty look, but then shrugged.
"Marcus, I'm cold. Let's go back to the common room and keep warm." she said placing a hand on his arm. Marcus grunted and then walked past Oliver.
Percy let out a huge sigh of relief, for a second there he had thought things were going to escalate. They both had their backs facing the two Slytherins and were about to begin walking to the Quidditch field when Oliver was sent hurtling forward by a spell.
.
"Oliver!" Percy shouted while immediately retrieving his wand from his robes. Oliver got up quickly and pushed Percy out of the way aggressively.
"OLIVER NO!" Percy yelled. Oliver who had been ready to cast a spell was distracted by Percy's cries. He turned to look at him. Then:
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" came Flint's voice. The spell hit Oliver and he froze where he stood. That moment of distraction had left Oliver vulnerable to attack.
Thinking quick Percy took action.
"PROTEGO!" and an invisible shield manifested itself around Oliver just as Flint yelled, "STUPEFY!" The spell bounced off the shield. Percy was now standing next the immobilized Oliver.
"LEVICORPUS!" shouted Percy but Flint countered it with, "STUPEFY!" The spells collided in midair creating sparks that bounced off each other and ricocheted off of any possible surface.
"AHHH!" shrieked the Slytherin girl who had almost been hit by an unknown spell that had made a small hole in a nearby wall. She took shelter behind a statue.
Percy gritted his teeth. How he could stop him? Then he noticed a courtyard bench that Flint had been sitting on.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" shouted Percy. The bench shot up into the air quickly and waited for orders.
"REPULSO!" with that, the bench hurled away from Percy at a tremendous speed and hit Marcus right on the head, knocking him out cold.
Breathing hard, he casted the spell that allowed Oliver control of his body again. They both stood there staring at each other trying to catch their breathes.
"Come out here!" Percy yelled to the Slytherin girl. She walked out with her wand raised at the both of them.
"Expelliarmus." Percy said effortlessly and her wand flew out of her hand.
"Listen, help us take his body back to Madame Pomfrey. You're going to tell her that he was practicing Quidditch and he fell out of his broom? If anyone finds out what happened here both will be suspended from playing Quidditch and do you think Marcus would be happy with that? No one will know about this, do you understand?"
When she didn't respond Percy asked again more strongly.
"Do you understand?"
The girl nodded her head. Percy made a gesture that gave her permission to pick her wand up.
"Bastard—attacked me unexpectedly." Oliver finally said.
"He's—in a lot of trouble—attacking a prefect…" Percy said angrily. Then Oliver threw his hands around him. He stood there not knowing what to do as it was unexpected. Then he hugged him back. Percy didn't know how long they had stayed like that but it couldn't have been long.
"I owe you one, mate." Oliver said happily as they separated. Percy just smiled and stared at his mouth. He contemplated kissing him. He took a step forward and then retreated. Oliver thought he was going in for another hug because he gave him another quick embrace.
The three students now were carrying Marcus's limp body to the Hospital Wing. The Slytherin girl who was in charge of lifting Marcus's feet wouldn't look at them. She obviously didn't enjoy their company in the slightest and made no attempt to hide it.
However, Percy wasn't paying attention to the girl's rude facial expressions. He was thinking of how much he loved Oliver and how he couldn't even tell him. Percy looked over at Oliver; he was so oblivious to the fact that he was completely in love with him that it was almost silly.
"I love you…."Percy said absentmindedly.
"What was that?" Oliver asked looking at him. He was carrying Marcus's left arm.
"I didn't say anything." he said quickly. Oliver shrugged and looked away.
Close one, he thought.
Thanks for being patient for this chapter.
The next one should be up soon.
-NCW