"I'm coming, hold your horses!" Alicia Spinnet shouted toward the front door of her flat. Whoever was knocking was doing so at an obnoxious rate.
Alicia cursed as she stumbled over a pair of heels left on the floor before she staggered to the door and swung it open.
"Wood," she said, surprised by the visitor. "What are you doing here?"
"Is Katie here?" Oliver asked, peeking over Alicia's shoulder into the flat. "I need to talk to her."
"She's in her room," Alicia said with narrowed, suspicious eyes. She stepped aside to let Oliver into the flat. "Why do you need to see her? We've haven't heard from you in weeks."
"I just have to ask her something," Oliver said impatiently.
Alicia continued to stare at him with a confused expression, but Oliver was too anxious to explain.
"Hey, Katie!" Alicia called toward the back hallway of the flat. Oliver rocked back and forth on his feet, causing Alicia to smirk.
Could this be it? Was Wood finally going to ask Katie out? Alicia had always thought the pair would make a cute couple and she'd never understood why they never dated.
"What is it?" Katie Bell appeared from the hallway and Oliver took a moment to stare.
Oliver had always found Katie quite attractive, even back during their Hogwarts days. But the nature of their relationship had always led him to dismiss any notion of romance. They were teammates first, followed by captain and Chaser. By that point, they were also friends, and Oliver didn't find it necessary to disrupt that.
Still, as Katie appeared before him, Oliver couldn't help but decide that if he had to ask someone to pretend to be his girlfriend, Katie Bell wasn't a bad choice at all.
"Wood," Katie said with the same surprised tone as Alicia. "What're you doing here?"
"I have a proposal for you," Oliver blurted out.
Katie blinked. "What?"
Oliver motioned her to sit down on the couch next to him as Alicia lurked curiously near the kitchen counter.
"I have a proposal for you," Oliver repeated. "I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend."
"What?!" Katie and Alicia exclaimed in unison.
"Oliver, what are you talking about?" Katie demanded.
"I know this sounds barking mad, but just hear me out. I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend so that other women will leave me alone. I've been getting a lot of press over the past few months and now my fangirls are getting out of control. They follow me in the streets and stake out my favorite breakfast spot. Angelina says they might back off if they knew I had a girlfriend," Oliver explained.
"Angelina put you up to this?"
"Well, she suggested that I get a girlfriend," Oliver clarified. "She can't help me because we're teammates and she's engaged, so I figured I'd ask you."
The response wasn't what Oliver had hoped for. He'd wanted Katie to be sympathetic to his dilemma. Instead, she and Alicia slipped into a fit of laughter.
"I'm serious!" Oliver insisted, distraught over his friends' flippant reaction.
"You really are barking mad," Katie wheezed.
"You really have fangirls stalking you?" Alicia giggled.
"I really need you!" Oliver continued. "It's just until some of the press coverage dies down, probably after the league championship in May."
"So why don't you just get a girlfriend?" Katie finally asked, still laughing and still clearly bewildered by Oliver's request.
"I don't want one right now," Oliver replied. "I'm trying to focus on quidditch-" Alicia snorted from the kitchen. "I can't afford all these distractions right now."
"Don't you think staging a relationship is a distraction?" Katie offered.
"Not if we do it right. We'll just grab dinner a few nights a week. You could come to my matches. You know, just simple couple stuff. Then people will think I'm in a relationship and maybe the fangirls will back off," Oliver explained.
"But even if the fangirls back off, the press will be all over you, even more," Katie said. "You'll be trading one problem for another."
"I can deal with the press," Oliver said. "That's part of the job. But the fangirls… they disrupt my personal time and some of them are awfully bold. It's one thing to give a couple of interviews to The Daily Prophet, it's another thing to politely decline dates with women without offending them. And they come in droves. It's relentless."
"You know, he has a point," Alicia offered.
"Are you mad?!" Katie exclaimed, whipping around to face Alicia. "This is insane. It'll never work."
"Why not?" Alicia asked. "All you have to do is let Wood buy you dinner and snog you."
"Snogging?!"
Alicia smirked at the pair on the couch. "Well, obviously," she said. "You two can't seriously be in a relationship without a little snogging."
"Then you date him!" Katie insisted.
"I'm in a relationship," Alicia pointed out. "Besides, I want no part of the publicity. I don't need Rita Skeeter following me around."
"And what makes you think I do?" Katie demanded.
"You're better at handling that kind of stuff," Alicia said with a shrug.
"That doesn't mean I want to be in the papers every week! You can't just pick out your one single friend and pair her off in a fake relationship!"
Katie couldn't believe her own best friend and roommate would think should an absurd idea would actually work. She liked Oliver but pretending to date him would be entirely different from the friendship they'd built. Besides, Katie was enjoying life as a single woman. She was free to do as she chose while she built her career within the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry of Magic. Even a staged relationship would require her time and energy, and she wasn't sure she wanted to commit herself to that.
"I promise it'll be worth your while!" Oliver offered. He wasn't sure how, exactly, but he wasn't above begging or bribery.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I can think of a few ways-" Alicia giggled.
"Hush!" Katie said with a wave of her hand. She returned her attention to Oliver. "Now, you were saying?"
"What if I helped put in a good word for you at work?" Oliver suggested. Katie stopped to consider the offer. It was true, her dream job was to head the division of British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters. An endorsement from the league's rising star Keeper couldn't hurt.
"I suppose that could be a fair deal," Katie started slowly.
"Really?" Oliver asked excitedly.
"Relax," Katie said, holding up another hand. "I said I suppose it could be a fair deal, not that I'll do it."
"Oh, come on, Katie," Alicia begged. "This could be fun. You get to date a professional athlete without any of the relationship drama!"
"Pretend to date," Katie noted.
Katie sighed. She couldn't believe she was actually considering this. Life was going well for her since graduation and the end of the war. Did she really want to embark on such an absurd adventure with her former quidditch captain?
Still, Katie understood Oliver's dilemma, as comical as it seemed. She knew he was very driven and devoted to quidditch, especially now that he'd achieved his dream of reaching the professional level. He probably hated the attention that came with it. Even when they were at Hogwarts, Oliver's girlfriends came second to quidditch… which was probably why his relationships rarely seemed to last more than a few months. Maybe they really could help each other out.
"All right," Katie finally sighed, still in disbelief over the entire scenario. "I'll do it."
"You will?" Oliver and Alicia both asked.
"Yes, but we do this by my rules," Katie said firmly. "I'll call the shots."
"Yes, of course," Oliver said quickly as he rose to his feet. "Anything you want."
Alicia watched the pair in amusement, as if she knew something they didn't. In truth, she was simply pleased at the notion the two would be spending more time together. Maybe this would be the push they needed toward a real relationship.
"So how does this work?" Katie asked. "I mean, we can't just issue some announcement that we're dating now."
"We'll have to be seen in public. You know, let people see us together. The more we're seen, the more people will assume we're a couple," Oliver explained.
"I can't believe I'm fake dating Oliver Wood," Katie muttered.
"Neither can I," Alicia said much more gleefully. Both of her friends turned to look at her sternly.
"Not a word of this arrangement to anyone, OK?" Oliver said, peering sharply at Alicia. "No one can know. Just you, Angelina and George."
"And don't tell Lee," Katie warned. "You know he can't keep a secret. He'll let it slip during one of his broadcasts."
Alicia held up a hand, the other placed flat against her chest. "I solemnly swear I won't tell a soul," she promised.
"So, we'll start with dinner?" Oliver proposed to Katie. "I'm done with training by 5:00 Friday. Pick you up at 7:00?"
"Deal," Katie answered.
Oliver pulled her into a sudden hug, adding to Alicia's amusement.
"Thanks for doing this," Oliver said. "Really, you have no idea how much this'll help."
Once he left, Katie turned to face Alicia, who was smirking from across the living room.
"Oh, don't be so smug," Katie groaned. "This is a mutual agreement between friends."
"You have to admit, Wood does look pretty good these days." Alicia pointed out.
You're going to be the envy of every woman in the Wizarding World."
Katie shook her head. "I'm not falling for that. Wood is a friend and we're merely helping each other out."
"You'd better stop calling him Wood, now that he's your lover," Alicia noted in a sing-song voice, much to Katie's annoyance.
"Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this?" Katie sighed.
"Nonsense," Alicia said assuredly. "What could possibly go wrong?"