Chapter 12

My friends had to wake me the next morning, an unusual occurrence although much needed on this particular morning.

"What's going on Willow?" They asked, more correctly, someone asked — I was tired. "Didn't get much sleep?" The person asking actually seemed slightly concerned and I figured that it must be PJ. I made a sound and turned around. "Okay, but Will, it's Saturday, I think you're going to want to get yourself out of bed and down to breakfast."

When I didn't answer, someone else pushed on, "To the game, Willow." It was definitely Bianca this time.

I snuggled my head into my pillow for a bit, then sat up finally. "Right… that's today." I recalled the events of last night and felt bad for Oliver who had to play an important game with approximately the same amount of sleep as I. I got up and put on some shoes. I first didn't bother to change or have a look in the mirror but then the others convinced me that warmer clothes were a good idea as it was probably going to be quite windy on top of the Quidditch panels.

We had our breakfast. I didn't have much. I had decided upon waking up that today was one of those days when I would not take care of myself. I didn't want this day to be remembered. I wanted it to be buried in the sand among all the other uneventful days.

We discussed with our fellow housemates which team we all thought would win and how we thought the match was going to go down, some even made bets. No duels erupted during breakfast, which was a good sign.

We were on our way down to the field when Oliver approached us in the corridor. Initially I smiled at him widely and he smiled back just as wide. I then had to remind myself that I had kissed him yesterday, and I didn't want him to think I liked him. So I proceeded to force the smile down again.

He was wearing his Quidditch gear and looked pompous as he came closer. He also looked happy though. He didn't seem worried or nervous but was smiling as widely as I had a moment ago. "Hi, Willow." He said.

"Um, hi Oliver." I said.

"Wow!" Bianca erupted. "You got him to say your name, Willow!" Bianca crossed her arms with a smile on her face and looked at me for a reaction. I knew she was doing this maybe half out of interest and half because she knew it would make me embarrassed.

"Yeah Will, how'd you manage that?" Wright asked. They all congratulated me, they hit me on my back to somehow communicate that I had done a good job. I looked anywhere but at Oliver as they did this.

"Anyway. Have you placed any bets on who you think will win?" Oliver looked at me intently, still with that smile on his lips and also with a hint of curiosity.

"I don't like to pretend that I am some all-knowing force who has the faintest idea of the turn outs of a game that hasn't even taken place yet. Despite knowing which teams are playing, there are way too many factors involved in the outcome, for me to feel arrogant enough that I would have a change in a mere game of guesses. I'm not a seer." I realised that I was rambling, it was too late to retract it all though.

Oliver looked surprised at my outspokenness. "Yeah, but… I mean you must have some idea of who you think will win?" He searched my face. "I mean, personally, I think the conditions are pretty clear. It's quite obvious who's going to win." He paused for a moment. "Aaand, you did say that you thought I was a great Quidditch player. I mean what could go wrong?" He smiled shyly at me while moving his hand through his hair. A smile spread over my face at how shy but cocky he was acting all at once. But I quickly retracted it.

"Yes. Well." I stammered and stared at the floor. I couldn't look at him out of fear I might start smiling like that again and he'll think I'm all swoony about him. "I… think a lot of Quidditch players are good. Some Quidditch players on the Slytherin team are, in my opinion, quite talented as well, if not as… talented." I glanced at him and he was looking at me as intently as before but more on the quizzical side. "Anyhow, I think we," I took a quick glance at the group, "should get going. Good luck!" I said with fake enthusiasm. "You'll be great, I know it."

"So that was odd." Wright announced casually once Oliver was out of earshot.

"What was odd?" I asked once I realised I wouldn't be able to get out of this conversation.

"You were odd when talking to Oliver." She continued.

"Yeah, well, he's an… odd egg."

"That may be true. But in this instance, he was nice. You, on the other hand, were the odd egg." She gave me a knowing look.

"Yeah well, I'm not used to him being nice." I mumbled.

"So when he's all of a sudden nice, you're all of a sudden a complete tosser?" She hit me lightly on the head as we all stumbled through the corridor, trying to keep close to each other in the sea of students, all making their way down to the pitch.

"I was not!" I argued.

"Why couldn't you have just said you wanted him to win, that you were hoping for his team to win?" Bianca asked humorously. "But you had to talk about how 'no one can truly know, it's all up to the universe to decide'." She mimicked me but with a dazed voice while making strange hand gestures.

"Don't make me sound like Trelawney. Didn't you hear me? I said I'm not a seer."

"Yeah well, Trelawney is not a seer either so I guess you're not all that different." PJ chimed in passive aggressively.

I sighed loudly for them all to register my annoyance. "Come on guys. Graham is on the other team, what was I supposed to say? 'I hope your team beats the crap out of my friend's team.'"

"You know there is such a thing as simply lying for the benefit of making someone happy. He clearly wants you to root for him." Wright said.

Wright's words stuck to my brain for the remainder of the walk down toward the field.

Much like I had not predicted, as it is once again, impossible for me to know, Gryffindor won. But more importantly, Graham's team lost. Which meant that tonight would not be a celebration but instead what could be compared to a funeral-like event, taking place in the Slytherin common room where I would have to comfort Graham for half of the evening, and make him feel happy for the other half.

I was sort of looking forward to spending time with Graham without the rest of my friends. Not that I minded us all hanging out as a group, it was more that we had deeper conversations, him and I alone. Which was nice for certain occasions.

Oliver had invited me to the Gryffindor celebrations, taking place also tonight obviously. I had congratulated him on his win. It had been a very professional like congratulation.

Had I shaken his hand? I hope not.

His hair had been all of that which it usually is but even better and his Quidditch gear had been on and he'd had those red markings from the glasses around his eyes and he'd said with his most Scottish accent, "You know there's going to be a celebration in Gryffindor common room tonight. Are you going to be there?" Which I wasn't sure was an invitation but decided to file it as such in lack of a broader filing system.

But for obvious reasons, I had to decline since I had more important matters to attend to that night. Also right in that second I had spotted Graham sulkily making his way toward the showers.

I tiredly walked the staircase up toward my common room. My friends were with the Gryffindor team discussing the game. Whereas I had gone to Graham and sat with him for a while before he got into the shower. He had seemed surprisingly okay. Supposedly he had only felt shit before the game because of nerves and now that it was over he only felt relieved he hadn't screwed up too badly. He had done a really good job, which I had told him many times back at the pitch and would probably keep telling him for the remainder of the evening. But right now I really wanted a shower. I was alone in our dorm room, a rarity. I dressed down to only underwear and sat down on my bed to take in the peace for a while. It was kind of nice being by myself for a while.

I finally broke the spell of peace and turned on the shower and stepped in. Cleaning myself up felt really good after the rugged morning I had had.

Dinner rolled around eventually. I had managed to take a nap, which only made me more tired and I was now very much looking forward to whatever was being served that evening, hoping it would bring me some energy.

"You really don't know how to slow down, do you?" Asked Graham. He was eating with my friends and I at the Hufflepuff table.

I first wasn't sure what he was referring to, but then it dawned on me that I had basically been throwing food down my throat. I put down my cutlery in embarrassment.

Graham laughed at my embarrassment. "It's okay. It's just funny is all." He leaned his head on my shoulder briefly and put his hand around my shoulder. I laughed back.

"It's nice to see that my lack of table manners can bring a smile to your face in dark times like these." I grinned at him. Graham wasn't all that upset about losing, but someone had made a comment about him being embarrassed to sit with his house after the loss, which had made him upset.

"And they're only going to get darker." He took a giant swig of pumpkin juice. "I'm just not looking forward to Flint's speech tonight." He cringed at the thought.

"You should join us at the Gryffindor thing, Flint can throw himself in the lake." Wright said.

Graham didn't look too sure. "I don't know. I don't want to be called out as a house traitor any more than I already have." He looked sadly as his cup.

"Hey! That's okay. You can always join us at the Hufflepuff party after we beat Gryffindor in a few weeks." I said encouragingly.

"I do love a good Hufflepuff party." He gave me a small smile.

I knocked on the hard wooden door that lead to the Slytherin common room, hoping that someone would open soon so that I could leave this deserted hallway that reminded me of how far beneath the ground I was. I had passed so many passages on the way here that I had never explored before, it felt intriguing and frightening at the same time. Who knows what they keep down here?

My thoughts were interrupted when a fine gentleman finally opened the door for me.

"Looking for Graham?" He asked me while leaning against the door. I didn't even know his name yet he was among an array of people who would sometimes open the door for me and direct me to my friend. Nowadays they always knew who I was looking for right away.

"Yes please." I answered sweetly.

He gave me a polite smile and pointed toward a group of people seated by a window far into the room.

With a quick thank you I quickly made my way toward the group. I didn't want to be roaming around too long without the company of Graham. Most people I had encountered in here were nice. But there were a fair few, Flint and his friends for example, who liked causing scenes, and I was not in need of the attention right now. It was also the fact that not many people of other houses set their feet in here, which meant that when one does, one gets a few stares from people, and again, I wasn't in any need of attention.

I collapsed into one of the loungers next to Graham. I had spotted his head from behind. "Heeey!" I greeted Graham and his two friends and laid my hand on top of Graham's head in an invasive manner. He shook it off.

"Hello Willow." Graham's friends smugly greeted me back and they all threw glances at Graham. I was on quite good terms with Graham's mates although I couldn't see what all the smugness was about, but explained it off as a conversation I hadn't been part of.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to make small talk, but they both seemed to be getting ready to leave.

"We were just about to leave you guys alone." One of them who I knew was called Quentin said. He had that knowing look, like he was doing Graham a favour. I knew what it was about. They all had some twisted idea that Graham and I were in love. I can't really blame them as I believe some of my friends had the same idea although were typically a little less outward about it.

"No stay! Why do you have to leave?" I said desperately. They stopped in their tracks and appeared uncertain of what to do.

Graham looked at me dumbfounded. "What's your angle?" He asked in that up-front way only he could.

"I don't have an angle except these guys seem to think that you and I can only hang out in pairs, which we know isn't true." I dug my stare into Graham, ordering him to agree. My wish was granted and Graham agreed. His friends awkwardly sat down.

The only thing I previously knew about them was that the whole bunch of them were know-it-all's, something Graham was, thankfully, less of a. I suspected it was a defence mechanism for lack of popularity and general awkwardness. Out of those two I could only identify with the first. But they seemed like good people, and odd people at that. The other one, Edwin, he was called, would always wear a flat cap and a pocket watch, which I loved and was partly the reason I had wanted them to sit down.

"So…" Quentin began. Over the years I had gotten to know him as the most confident of the three. "What's up with you and the Gyffindor captain?"

"Uh, nothing's up with us." I replied, snorting. Graham sighed at his friend's lack of tact.

"You sure about that?" He looked suspiciously at me. "I've seen you speaking to him on several occasions. Are you sure there's nothing going on there? Because if there is, then maybe you should consider your actions carefully, as you don't want to lead anyone on."

Graham sat up straighter and said, "Even though I fully believe that you're trying your best Quentin, you should know that you are really not being very delicate here." But Quentin, who kept his eyes glued on me, awaiting a reply, ignored him.

I awkwardly retrieved my arm from where it was located around Graham's shoulders. But I then realised that he was being incredibly stupid.

"First of all, I don't see why you assume that just because I'm having conversations with someone of the opposite gender, that I would have to be attracted to them. Second of all, Graham is not in love with me!" I declared profoundly.

I seemed to have caught them of guard. Quentin switched in his seat. Edwin slowly took his hat off and placed it on the coffee table between us.

Once the hat was properly placed I leaned forward and said the magic words, "Now, who's into Quidditch here?" Their eyes lit up and I smiled, knowing I'd hit the target. "Who wants to discuss the match?"

"Thank you." Graham whispered in my ear and I smiled brightly.

The tension relaxed as we went through the events of the game we had all witnessed hours before and I got an opportunity to show off with my knowledge of the sport. Graham actually seemed happy that I had made his friends stay after all. His friends didn't seem to mind having stayed either.

A long while later, a voice came from behind me. "Penderghast." It said. I initially thought that it was Oliver, which didn't make sense. But upon turning around I saw that the voice belonged to Marcus Flint.

I cursed myself. If I had only left five minutes ago like I had planned I wouldn't have had to deal with this.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked with fake cheeriness.

"What's going on with you and Wood?" He asked coolly.

This felt like a wake up call. Had I really been talking to Oliver that much? Everyone seemed to have noticed. Then again we did keep yelling at each other in the hallway. It's bound to make people notice at some point.

I wanted to tell him that it was none of his business, but it was met with a conflictive need to explain, I didn't want him to get any ideas. "We've just been having an argument, that's all." I couldn't help but visibly show annoyance at him when I talked. "But I think that's over now." I added, more to myself than anyone else.

"Are you's shagging?" He asked and I heard Graham cough beside me.

"You're an asshole Flint!" I spontaneously spat. "No we are not and it's none of your goddamn business!" I couldn't help but notice how distinctly more British my accent turned when I was specifically fired up. The worst part, and what made me so angry, was that he had seemed genuinely curious and like he was not just trying to agitate me.

"So yes? You're shagging?" He crossed his arms and smiled smugly at me only to leave without a reply.

I turned around and faced the others, I was speechless but then I saw that Graham was sort of giggling at something. My eyes shifted between his friends and him for a clue as to what he was finding humorous in this situation. "What?" I demanded when I couldn't find one.

He was trying to hide his expression of amusement, holding a hand up to cover his mouth. "I'm sorry!" He said. "It's just, a little humorous, the way he made you snap like that. You usually don't snap at people, not even Flint. Except for Wood, he quickly corrected himself, you always snap at Wood." He shared a look with his friends. "Or if it's about you two shagging apparently." He snorted and covered his mouth once again.

7 October 2018

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