Chapter 7

The next week I would summarize as trying to remove Oliver Wood from my life. I tried not to notice when he entered the Great Hall (but my attention always seemed to be at the door whenever he appeared there;) I tried not to go through all our conversations in my mind (the only thing it did was set my teeth further on edge,) and I tried not to pay attention to how sloppily he dressed, how sloppily he sat and what a sloppy sod he generally was.

November had now rolled around and I no longer felt as insecure on the field as I had at the beginning of the school year. It meant that I could actually have fun. I found they were the times when I seemed to be laughing the most, when I was flying with my friends.

I'd been trying to book as many practises as I could, now that I'd got a momentum going. I also found out in relation to this, that apparently one team is not allowed to book a whole week. This led to a whole thing with Madam Hooch in the Great Hall. Apparently she had found the idea of booking the pitch for that many days consistently was ridiculous. She wasn't the only one, made apparent by a group of giggling Ravenclaws. It was fine though. I knew they didn't mean anything by it and frankly, I found it rather funny myself. The thing was, I had never actually meant to book the whole week. I had booked one session, and then I'd booked another one upon realising something else I needed to try with the team. On it had gone like that until Madam Hooch had had to personally inform me of my blunder.

I spent most of my time with Graham, sitting with him during lunches and studying with him in the library. He was the Oliver antidote I figured, since he was a Slytherin I reckoned Gryffindors were likely to keep away, which was the goal.

Although at the moment I was with my housemates on the floor of our dorm room, something I was reminded of frequently, "Sometimes it's just impossible getting you to concentrate, Will!" PJ slammed her palm on the floor to get my attention. She wasn't upset. PJ never seemed to get upset with anyone. She always said that if one could truly imagine others complexly, then one could no longer find a justifiable reason to be upset with them.

"She's in her bubble again." Bianca mumbled from her bed.

"Yeah, well…" PJ mimicked the act of putting a needle through a metaphorical bubble. "There. Can we get back to the task ahead?"

With only two practises this week and plans that required seven, we had to fit all the undoable plans for this week into next weeks schedule, and even that seemed to be a stretch. Unless we put a practise early before a school day, and no one wanted that. Which meant that Wright, PJ and I were currently spread out on the floor over my confusing collection of notes for intended training sessions, trying to piece it all together.

"Sometimes you just have to compromise, Will." Wright said, quite desperate now.

"Forcing everyone out of their beds before daylight in the cold is such an Oliver thing to do, I'm not like that. I won't do it." I gathered some of the loose sheets from the floor, they all had scribbles over them that didn't seem to follow any type of pattern whatsoever. I tried best I could to order them in any way that made at least a minimal bit of sense.

"Although…" I began after a moment's thought. "If we place a practise on the Thursday morning next week, doesn't that mean that Griffith and I will have time to try out the bludger backbeat?" I asked with a regained spark of excitement.

PJ looked critical, "That move is so rarely used, Will. Putting effort on perfecting it will only derive valuable time from the really important plays. We've already got too much on our schedule." She showed me the crowded list we'd written during the evening.

Wright had taken on a strict attitude. "You just want to have a laugh with Griffith, Will. We all know how that ends — with you two mocking about, not doing anything worthwhile and distracting the rest of the team." Wright said squarely.

"We only get that way toward the end of the practises, most of the time we focus!" I argued.

"Most of the time you pretend you're in the world cup." Wright corrected me. "Honestly Will, how did you even land this position?" She laid down on the floor in defeat. "Normally I respect Pomona's decisions, however wonky they may seem. The one where she made you the captain of our team though, what went through her mind then is beyond me."

This got me thinking, because I couldn't really believe it either. Yet here we were, late at night on a Sunday in our dorm, a recurring occurrence. I looked out over my confusing collection of notes, some taken during practises, some I'd written during classes, some I'd scribbled on napkins when I'd had a random thought at dinner, some I'd even written in the middle of the night when I'd woke up from a particularly exciting dream.

Then again, we were all putting our heads together to plan out how best we could structure the practises so that we would get the most out of them. Knowing Wright and PJ as well as I did, I knew that had the captain title been bestowed upon them, they wouldn't have wanted to bother anyone else with the undertakings. The way I saw it though, was that they were as much a part of the team as I. They had as much of a responsibility over it as I, they had after all been on the team equally as long as I had and they both cared just as much I, if not more.

If this had been what actually went through Pomona's mind when she had made the decision, I don't know. It just wouldn't surprise me if it had. And if it had stood between us three, I think choosing all three of us instead of PJ or Wright singularly, is not wonky at all.

"Yeah, beats me." I replied, long overdue.

Graham and I were sat on the floor of a corridor just outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Robes had been disregarded on the floor. We were fully stocked up on sweets and pumpkin pastries we'd stolen from dinner a couple of hours ago.

This was where I would usually sit if I wanted peace or to just have an undisrupted conversation with someone. Hogwarts was big, and I loved walking around deserted corridors, finding places I hadn't been before and getting lost in the maze until the point where I would begin to long for my common room and my friends. But a couple turns and I would usually be back where I could find my way again. Yet funnily enough, sometimes it could still seem impossible finding a place that wasn't crammed with people. In cases like those this corridor is of good use, where you could be sure not to find even one passer-by.

Graham and I could sit like that for hours, talking, not talking, practising spells, (nothing too advanced, mostly transforming objects,) and eating. Graham was good at talking, he knew how to start a good talk, those talks that went beyond discussing current events and instead to opinions and feelings on complicated subjects.

Today he was sad though. Being on the Slytherin team with Flint as captain could be hard on the psyche at times, and today was one of those times.

"I didn't even get to play today. I had to run laps around the pitch all throughout. The worst thing about it is that I know he's aware of how desperately I need to be flying right now. I need all the time I can get out there before our match, and he knows it. I think somewhere in his twisted mind, he thinks torturing me is worth it, even if we might lose the game because of it. I'll probably make a fool out of myself next week because of this and he'll be even more smug."

"Losing one opportunity to practise won't lose you the whole game." I told him, but he didn't look reassured. I was trying to console him, but this was not common ground for me. Feeling this anxious about a game felt alien to me. But he was playing against Gryffindor next week, it was the most anticipated game of the year, the stakes were high, much higher than any game Hufflepuff would ever play. It's neat, but it's also quite daunting and anxiety inducing. The game sort of loses its charm. The love of flying might be lost.

"You are more than welcome to join the Hufflepuff team." I said, to which he smiled. This was something I had told him countless times throughout our time at Hogwarts, and I always meant it even though I knew very well that it could never happen.

Graham crossed his eyebrows, "Do you hear footsteps?" He said, shocked, as if he'd forgotten about the fact that there were other people in this world, and some of them might in fact be walking this corridor.

Still, I couldn't quite believe it either and waved it off, "It's probably coming from upstairs."

We kept listening. "No, those are definitely coming from this floor." Graham said, and sure enough, a group of people rounded the corner then.

The corridor had gone dark over time and I couldn't make out who they were. The sconces on the walls were burning strongly, creating a warm flickering light around us. I longed for when they would put up the Christmas decorations. I wanted garland and holly to adorn the walls.

"You got lucky, she could just as well have been in the tower." Wright's voice said then, to someone other than me.

"I'm not denying that, but walking all those stairs is not my first choice, walking all those stairs is never my choice." PJ replied.

My friends were now in viewing range, "Yer not getting away laddie!" Wright shouted in a Scottish accent, supposedly referring to me. Graham was the only one who laughed.

I was getting curious as to what they wanted with me, they didn't typically approach me when I was with Graham. It was as if they thought him sacred or something. My friends had indeed met Graham before and talked, but we'd never actually hung out together.

To my surprise, they all sat down next to us on the floor.

"Oh! Pumpkin pastries!" Wright called, she reached for it and before grabbing it she gave Graham and I a look that said 'this is okay right?'

"Yes, take it." I said impatiently and then had to give her a smile to cover for the tone I had used. "What's up?" I asked, eyeing them inquisitively.

Wright was toying with the pastry. "Uuh, nothing much…" she looked at the others for help.

"I got a letter from my brother." Bianca said with half of an enthusiasm. She sat down and grabbed some beans, only to spit them out on the floor in disgust, earning a stifled laugh from PJ.

I nodded slowly. "Fun. And how is he?"

"He's good." She nodded back.

"Great." I looked at the half-chewed bean on the stone floor as I waited for them to bring something up, give me some light into why they had made their way to this part of the castle.

"What's the time?" Graham asked while searching the walls nearby for a window that would give him a clue.

"It's so much as 6.46 p.m." Wright answered as she squinted intensely at her wristwatch, only the dim sconces serving as illumination of the indicators.

"I was thinking of heading to the owlery before curfew…" Graham stated to no one really. The hall went quiet.

"Okay, seriously Willow, what's going on?" Bianca burst out and I laughed, content with the diffused tension. "You're being all awkward and quiet." She explained further. There had been an elephant that needed to be pointed at, trust Bianca to be the one to stretch her finger before anyone else.

"I'm sorry, I just don't understand what's going on here?" I laughed some more. "I feel like you guys must have come down here for a specific reason, what did you want?"

They all started talking almost in unison and it was all versions of, "We just wanted to hang out with you!"

"Honestly, is that so weird?" PJ asked.

"Will, we've hardly seen you this week." Bianca finished off.

It was true. We only ever talked when we were discussing Quidditch at night. I felt bad about not joining them for dinner and stuff. There was an imbalance in the group when one of us was gone and I knew the feeling. I had felt it before. Still, I couldn't be bothered right now. Not because I didn't love them, but because Oliver always seemed to come up whenever I was with them. I thus hung out with Graham, who didn't mind seclusion either.

"What does this guy have that we don't?" Wright challenged Graham mischievously, who had been quietly smiling at the rare awkwardness of our little gang.

"Some class that's for one." He teased in that confident snarky way only he could muster. He was eyeing Wright who had lay down on the stone floor on her stomach. In contrast to himself who had conjured a velvet cushion for his own comfort.

"Woah." All three girls chimed in a synchronized fashion that was typical for people who spent a lot of time together. It was sweet to see and I couldn't fight back a smile. I had missed them, I realised. It wasn't like I hadn't seen them in the past few days, it wasn't like we hadn't talked, we'd talked every night — but I had missed them.

PJ had now brought out her Exploding Snap cards and they were all stacking them collectively, building a house of cards. While they did, they simultaneously explained the rules to Graham.

It was another game we had all come up with. We had hexed the deck so that instead of acting like a regular Exploding Snap deck, the cards would instead start exploding randomly at a tap of the deck with one's wand. The goal was to complete the house of cards and if a card exploded while you're stacking it, you lose.

I could see what they were doing, I wasn't entirely sure, but I guessed that the display in front of me was of my friends making friends with Graham. I smiled and lit a flame with my wand so that we could see better as the others explained our game to Graham.

As soon as Graham had understood the rules (which was soon indeed as the rules were not many,) we began the first round.

Just as Wright had laid out the first card and retracted her hand, Graham did something unexpected; he flicked his wand to make the stone blocks underneath Wright go soft like a bed where she lay. She looked up at his satisfied guise, which probably came less from the aspect of doing something nice for someone and more from the effect of astounding them.

And Wright did look astounded at his clever magic, for about a millisecond at least, before gathering herself and flicking her wand back at him, creating a backrest which matched the velvet one that clothed the cushion he sat on. He smiled and leaned back on it.

"You guys think you're taunting each other when in fact you are merely making the other more comfortable. It's not really a game of genius you've got going." PJ said as she carefully placed her card on the tower we had mustered with exaggerated caution, hoping that it would somehow influence the likeliness of the card exploding in her face. In reality, she knew as much as I that whether the card exploded or not, was a game of chance and not precautions. Typical of PJ — applying reason when there was none.

"You misunderstand." Graham stated, "The objective isn't to make the other comfortable, but to better make the other comfortable."

PJ looked like she was ready to give up there and then at his strange antics and Wright gave a loud sigh, "Take a slytherin to make a silly diversion into a game of glory or disgrace." Wright smiled crookedly, "I just thought you looked uncomfortable."

Graham laughed merrily and shook his head. At his turn, he nervously took a card from the deck. He held it lightly out of fear of it exploding in his hand, which wouldn't really hurt at all. Still, it wasn't an uncommon way to act while playing this game. "How did you come up with this game, anyway?" his words came almost as a whisper, not wanting to disrupt his concentration as he neared our tower of cards.

"I don't know really…" I began, "I guess, like with most of our games, we were hanging around in our common room in a bored state one day and suddenly, a game was created."

"Necessity is the mother of invention." PJ said humorously and I let out a laugh. PJ was good at fitting idioms into everyday conversation, and I would always find them funnier than everyone else, there was just something inherently funny to me about a 17 year old who spoke in the way old witches do. My laughter however, caused poor Graham to lose control and the cards all fell into a pile while everyone cried out in despair.

Graham sat back in defeat and just then one of the cards exploded, but it was no ordinary explosion, the deck was not only charmed to act arbitrarily, but also, instead of the cards exploding regularly, a tiny firework blasted in a ray of colours, and we all cheered despite our hard work laying now in a pile.

"I had forgotten you added that Willow!" Bianca ejected joyfully.

"Speaking of common rooms," Graham began, "…how about we head toward my common room as it's getting colder by-the-minute here?"

The three girls exchanged looks. Some were looks of excitement and some that of uncertainty.

"Your common room?" Bianca asked tentatively.

"Yes, my common room, the Slytherin common room." Graham simplified.

Bianca looked sort of nervous. Wright looked intrigued. PJ looked at Bianca.

"What's the matter?" Graham queried, stumped at their reactions.

I patted him on the shoulder, "I think they're scared of your common room, Graham."

"It's not that!" Bianca fortified, "It just doesn't seem like the chummiest of places..." Her eyes were pointed downward in shame and she peered at Graham to make sure he wasn't offended.

Graham didn't look offended, but he did look ready to fortify himself as well, "There's plenty of chum!" He assured them, "Well, okay… It might depend on when and where you choose to reside in there, but it can indeed be chummy at times!" He paused and looked to me for validation. "You've been there Will, do you reckon it had chum?"

I couldn't help but snicker at his vulnerable tone. "First of all Graham, your common room contains plenty of chum! I am a strong proponent for you common room. Second of all…" I turned to my fellow housemates, "What's all this, girls?"

Wright was smiling widely, she wanted to visit the Slytherin common room, I knew this for a fact as she had daydreamed about it plenty of times. "I want to go to the Slytherin common room." She pronounced like it was as clear as day, and Graham looked thankful at that.

"Oh well then, it can't be that bad can it?" Bianca gave in.

Wright clapped. "This is so exciting!" She exclaimed and Graham smiled wider.

"What about you PJ?" I asked.

"Can we make a stop by our common room first though?" PJ asked.

"Sure thing!" I said and I didn't think to ask why until we had got up and walked the whole way, ending up right outside the common room in question and standing by the doorway for some time.

I was laughing at something with Bianca when Graham (thankfully) asked, "Why are we stopping here?" It was something I hadn't even thought about thanks to my utter obliviousness about what is going on around me half of the time.

PJ cleared her throat and paused, as if to gather courage, "I'm supposed to meet Oliver outside our common room right about now."

The mood changed. Graham didn't reply but shot me a quick glance.

It was clear that although my failure to ask why we were stopping here had been unintentional, her failing to tell me had not been. "What? Why?" I asked, hearing the disapproval in my own voice.

"She doesn't know." Bianca answered instead of PJ, in that annoying way only she knew how.

"Before we left our common room back when we were looking for you this girl came up to me and said that Oliver had wanted to ask me something. I'm thinking it's probably something about Quidditch," she pondered, "…anyhow, I asked her to tell him that I'm usually back by our common room by eight," she looked at her wristwatch. It was enchanted to glow in the dark, "I believe the polite thing to do would be to make sure I'm here. Knowing Oliver, it's probably 'urgent'." she used air quotations and rolled her eyes.

There and then PJ had popped the Oliver free bubble and some strange feelings had welled inside.

Everyone was looking at my disappointed expression. PJ broke the silence with an attempt at lightening my mood, "But it's a good thing you're here then, as you can probably answer his questions better than any of us can. You're the captain. It's probably you he wants to talk to, really. It's just… a bit odd with you two… I guess…"

I felt a sudden urgency to get away from where I was. It had dawned on me that Oliver could arrive any second. He would probably be here precisely on time.

"You're sure Oliver is gonna be here?" I asked nervously, "How can you be sure, who was this random girl who told you?" I looked left and right to make sure he wasn't already here.

PJ sighed, "I don't know her, she was called Andrea… something…"

"Andrea Weise?" I asked her. I made my mind up that the information PJ had received was probably trustworthy, seeing as Andrea was a fellow seventh year Gryffindor to Oliver and hung out in the same crowd as he did.

No one seemed surprised I knew who they were talking about and they each said their of courses and rolled their eyes at me being a stereotype of myself.

I decided that here was not a safe place to be anymore and without thinking straight I thought it best to leave, "Alright guys," I spurt nervously, trying to sound casual. "I think I'll just take a stroll, you guys go ahead, see you later." I gave a wave and began backing away.

"Honestly Will, he's not an augurey." Wright said.

I ignored her and said with a final wave, "Alright, bye guys." and turned the corner.

9 September 2018

A/N: Did you like/dislike anything about this chapter? Please let me know!