Chapter 6
I jumped into PJ's bed to wake her up. "It's Hogsmeade day!" I yelled enthusiastically. She made a sound and I kept talking so to not let her fall over asleep. "Can you believe it? Three weeks has already passed since last time! Can you believe it?" When I didn't get a reply I kept saying, "Can you? … Can you?" Over and over until she let out an angry "Yes, I can believe it!" and sat up. I always woke up first, which meant that I was the designated waker-upper of the remaining company.
"Come on guys," I moved on to Bianca, whom I'd just climbed over annoyingly, that would usually suffice for her to wake. "Get up or I'm going to start singing, and you all know what that's like." I made my way to Wright's bed and sat on her, lifting her wrists and shaking them. "I'm feeling extra loud this morning as well."
Feeling that my work was already done as they were all making strange noises in the act of getting out of bed, I went and lay on my bed instead. I had already gotten dressed and brushed my teeth, so I just floated some stuff on my nightstand with my wand as I waited for them excitedly.
Last Hogsmeade date I hadn't been able to go because of homework, this week I had made sure to get it all done in time. A feat I had barely managed and also meant I had to stay up an hour longer than everyone else to plan the Quidditch practises for that week and my eyes now felt a little too itchy. I tried to pretend like I was my normal self, but had it not been for Hogsmeade I'm not sure I would have been able to get up.
I listened to Wright's singing. In contrast to me, she genuinely had a lovely voice. This took me off guard as she rarely ever sang. I didn't recognize the song. It was probably one of those punk-esque songs she always listened to. Wright was one of those people who you'll think you know, and then the next day, she'll do something in direct contrast to what you previously thought about her. It's what made her special. She was like an advent calendar; once in a while she would open a new box and let you in on a new surprise.
"So we were thinking, Willow…" Bianca slurred with her toothbrush in her mouth while leaning out of the bathroom door. I paid half of my attention on her and the other half to my levitation spell. "…That maybe you could ask your Gryffindor friends to join us. Angelina and the others, you know." She retrieved into the bathroom again.
"Yeah sure." I said a tad louder.
Moments later she emerged again and walked up to where I was laying. I could feel her hesitating before she spoke, "And maybe you could make sure Wood joins as well." She said with almost laughably fake nonchalance. I noticed that the room was unusually quiet.
"Why?" I asked. My levitation charm had stopped and I was sitting up.
"We know you don't particularly like him, Willow…" She trembled pleadingly, "But he's kind of cute and we thought it might be fun to have him around."
I deliberated whether the word cute and Oliver went together. "He's a bit stiff though, isn't he? Don't you think he'll just ruin the mood?" I reasoned.
"Well, we thought about that, but then we thought…" Bianca had a hard time getting the next words out and she looked around at the others, "We thought maybe he's only stiff when he's talking with you..." The volume of her voice went down a ramp throughout the sentence, stopping at barely vocal.
"You think so?" When she saw the look of dread on my face she realised her poor choice of words.
"Oh, shit, sorry! I didn't mean for it to come out like that!" She grabbed my shoulder fervently.
"Good job Bianca." Came PJ with a pat on Bianca's shoulder. "Look Will, we thought it might be fun if he joined us, but if you are uncomfortable, you don't have to ask." PJ said.
"I'm not uncomfortable!" I said suddenly. Something inside me really didn't want my friends to think the situation made me uncomfortable.
As I made my way up to Gryffindor tower I imagined my friends flirting all day with Oliver, and I almost felt like staying home. My expectations on this day had lowered dramatically in the last hour.
Once I had reached the portrait hole I had to stop to catch my breath before entering. "Fortuna Major." I said finally, and the Fat Lady opened the door without even acknowledging me. I thanked Merlin they hadn't changed the password and I would've walked this whole way for nothing. I spotted Angelina and Alicia sitting by the fireplace.
"Willow." Alicia announced my presence. They both greeted me with surprised looks on their faces.
Not bothering to explain myself, I moved on to my question. "Me the others were wondering if you guys would like to come with us to Hogsmeade?"
"Yeah, of course, we were just about to leave as well." Alicia said with enthusiasm.
"Great." I said, but I couldn't make myself smile, as I knew what I had to do next. They sat there looking at me expectantly, sensing that I wasn't finished. "…And ask Oliver to come as well." I finished uncomfortably. A blush was forming on my cheeks so I turned and walked straight out.
"Okay!" They yelled after me. I was originally supposed to have walked down with them to meet with my friends by the main entrance, but I couldn't bear to stay with them. I had wanted to tell them 'It wasn't me who wanted Oliver to come! It was my friends!' I couldn't expose them like that.
Anyway, I just felt so embarrassed. Oliver and I were always annoyed at one another, how weird it must've seemed to them that I was now asking him to come along and have butterbeer with my friends. Merlin. I began to run in mere frustration, but stopped soon to catch my breath. I walked down the rest of the path until I met my friends, who looked confused.
"They'll be here soon." I said, sparing them the details. "Are you playing the hand-matching game?" I asked as I could see Wright's hand in a weird position.
The hand matching game was one of our "eternal" games, and one PJ had come up with. Someone makes a weird pose with their hand and the others have to match it. It's eternal because if you agree to play the game, you can't ever escape it, and whatever situation you're in, if you see one of the participants holding their hand up in a weird position, then you have to copy it with yours. It has led to several hilarious conversations with teachers, mainly Snape. Bianca and PJ didn't look that into it at the moment though, as they kept throwing glances at the stairwell.
When the others arrived I didn't greet Oliver, and I tried to ignore him as much as possible as we walked toward the train to Hogsmeade.
It was hard ignoring Oliver though, since my friends were all hovering next to him while I walked with the rest of the Gryffindors behind. It was an embarrassing sight, they didn't realise how obvious they were being, I was embarrassed for them. Like, I got it; Oliver was a new person who had taken a central role in their life recently, something which I take part of the blame for; it must be exciting for them, but he wasn't that interesting, really.
Bianca turned around and met my gaze briefly, a deadly mistake as I had already planned for this. I reacted rapidly and her eyes widened in horror. My hand had lifted in a particularly intricate pose.
Bianca's backstory with this game was that she had rarely been put in any situations that were too embarrassing, and she had so far never once backed out. None of us had yet to back out actually, and all of us would rather be seen dead than backing out. She had however, just been about to say something to Oliver when she had been interrupted and she looked quite fear struck at the moment. She gave me one last look of anger before replacing it with one of concentration, focusing on my hand now.
I couldn't help but burst out laughing as she tried desperately to match the pose as quick as she could. PJ instead tried to catch Oliver's attention, but it was too late, he followed Bianca's stare and his eyes landed on me. Our eyes met as I was still laughing at Bianca and he was wearing a curious expression.
"Is this it?" Bianca exclaimed hopefully to me, not even bothering to be quiet about it.
"No." I laughed. "You're missing the finger." Everyone now looked on in confusion, as they weren't aware of the game that was taking place. PJ and Wright were laughing, much like me, out of malice. Bianca gave up and instead went to slap me playfully on the head. Not much else happened before they were all 'huddled' next to Oliver again.
I sighed. My friends were obviously not going to be any fun being around today.
I pulled my hand into my sleeve to cover myself from the cold and wet door handle, leading us into the Three Broomsticks. We got a table booth in the far back of the pub.
Closing my eyes out of weariness I listened to the rain falling against the windows while the others ordered.
"We'll just have seven butterbeers and… Willow, what are you having?" Bianca asked in a compassionate tone, probably worried that I wasn't having fun or something.
"I'll just have some water please." I said once I'd opened my eyes. "I don't drink magically obscured drinks." I explained to the others before they had a chance to ask.
"How come?" Angelina asked after the waiter had left.
"Umm, let's see, what excuse should I use this time…" I pondered jokingly. "I promised my parents I wouldn't." I settled on, only half serious. Oliver snorted at this and I gave him a look.
He seemed to come to his senses then, "No, I mean, I actually think it's great." He said quickly.
"Yeah well, we all promised." Alicia said bitterly and took a swig of her mug that had just been handed to her by the waitress. I was generally worried when this topic came up, that people would be offended by my choice to abstain from something that was such a big part of their everyday lives, but in this case they seemed only amused by my reasoning.
It wasn't as crowded in the Three Broomsticks as usual because of the rain and the time of day. But as the hours passed, more people gathered and the rain persisted. This was my favourite thing to do in Hogsmeade, not run around from store to store, but simply sitting in the pub and talking with my friends. Graham had stopped by our table a while ago, a nice surprise. He didn't stay for very long though, out of discomfort around my friends I would assume.
Both Oliver and I had both left the table several times at spotting a fellow teammate in the pub. Going to such a large school meant it could take days before the next opportunity to talk to someone arrived again, which meant that one had to seize any opportunity to talk practises and the likes.
As everyone got tipsier they also seemed to find everything funnier. I would always copy my friends' behaviour in these situations. So if my friends got noisy and careless, I would also find myself relaxing and being a lot louder. Quite a few people had come and gone in the time we had been occupying the booth and by the second round of butterbeers ("Round three!" someone called just then), it was ridiculously crowded. People were standing by the table and sitting on the backrests.
All was fine though and we were having fun. It was only when the betting game rolled around that it got awkward. If someone was to be blamed for it, it would be Bianca. I now wanted to curse myself that I hadn't left before it had all begun.
"I bet that you won't kiss Willow, odds 1-10!" Bianca had shouted at Oliver and laughed too loudly.
"That doesn't make sense." Oliver reasoned calmly. I noticed he wasn't as drunk as the others. "Why would you bet that?" Everyone around went 'oooh', but Oliver wasn't easily discouraged, "No, but isn't the whole point of the game to get people to do things, not refrain from doing things?"
I was torn between wanting Bianca to explain herself and wanting her to shut her mouth completely for the rest of the day, but she sat up straight as if getting ready to explain, and when she did, she did so sloppily and convolutedly, "We make people do what they do not want to. So I'm betting on you to do not snog her because you do not want to not snog her." Bianca said as if it was the most logical thing a person had ever said. Oliver rolled his eyes. Everyone around us seemed to think that Bianca was truly amusing.
"Why would you do this?" I shot at her angrily. "Why do you love to make things uncomfortable for other people?"
"Just take the bet." Some unknown person in the crowd said, and then someone began counting. "One…" I was gawking at Bianca, but in my head I was thinking of what to do. "Two…" It seemed silly to refuse the bet, I'd never refused before and I didn't want anyone to think I was refusing because I had romantic feelings toward Oliver. "Three." In a lack of a better idea, combined with panic, I simply blurted:
"Three." And Oliver did exactly the same.
I was quiet for the rest of the night. Everyone probably thought I was lame because of it, but I didn't really care. I was frustrated with Bianca. She loved to put other people in uncomfortable situations; she got a rush from it. She's exactly the type of person who would say something like. "Get a room." Merlin I hoped she'd never say that to Oliver and I, or anyone and I for that matter.
"Hey Penderghast…" Oliver said later in the evening when we were back at Hogwarts. We were just about to part with the Gryffindors. I usually got annoyed at the use of my last name. Today however, when already in a bad mood, and having been hanging out with Oliver in a un-Quidditch related situation, (as friends, one might even say) you'd think he'd finally give me the decency of using my first fucking name. Long story short, I wasn't annoyed, I was pissed off.
"Oliver." was all I said back. We stopped while our housemates went ahead to our individual common rooms.
"Ooh, still mad?" He asked, finally distinguishably drunk when I didn't have the others to compare him to. "Because now you don't get to kiss me?" He teased. Anger flared inside me. Not because of what he'd said, I knew he was only teasing, but I was still stuck on the name-thing. I'm stubborn like that.
"Goodnight, Oliver." I said coolly and followed the others, very behind now.
How does he even dare? I thought.
I ran up to my friends and barely made the stairwell before it moved. I had to jump with it moving, which was strictly forbidden, but I was angry.
"Well that wasn't easy." PJ was saying when I entered the conversation. "He was impossible to talk to, seemed completely disinterested all day."
"Sorry guys, but I told you he's stiff." I said knowingly.
"I'm sorry Willow!" Bianca burst in her drunken state and I froze mid-step. She was drunkest out of them. "I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable! I was upset about Oliver being so boring with us when I see how he is with you." She moped.
"How he is with me? As I told you this morning, he's stiff."
"He might be callous even with you," PJ, who had also stopped walking now, said, "But he's also angry with you, and sometimes he even smiles, or tries to be polite—"
"At which point he fails miserably." I interrupted.
"And when he does, he gets awkward and self-conscious!" PJ erupted, like she'd solved a riddle, a riddle I couldn't solve, so I choose to ignore her.
"Then, by your logic," I motioned to my friends, who were now circled around me on a stairway that kept taking us further from our destination every time it moved. "You'd rather he treated you the way he treats me, you'd rather he's an asshole to you?" I said through raised brows, thinking that I'd won, thinking they couldn't possibly agree with that.
"Yes! Much rather!" Bianca said immediately. I gave her a confused look, but when I looked at the others, their nods told me that I had in fact lost. Even Wright, who didn't seem all that interested in this conversation in the first place, signalled her agreement.
"The grass is always greener on the other side, I guess." I replied.
6 September 2018