Chapter 8

Aftermath

A/N: Oliver's POV.

When Davies dropped Katie off at practice, planting a kiss on her dimpled cheek, I glowered. When he handed her her book bag like he was more to her than a passing fancy before grinning at her with a vapid, arrogant smirk, I saw red.

My brain short-circuited as Katie walked toward the locker room.

"Was that Roger Davies?" George asked mildly from where he stood, clipping a loose twig on his broom.

"I think it was!" Fred said jovially, his gaze shifting to me as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I cleared my throat, turning to my notebook where I'd written up a plan for practice and trying to ignore the rushing sound in my ears. I circled a few things randomly to make it look like I was able to form a coherent thought other than the phrase 'What the FUCK?'.

"Good for her," Angelina said proudly. I didn't miss her pointed stare.

Katie walked out of the locker room three minutes late to practice, and I couldn't find it in myself to withhold my frustration.

"Ten laps, Bell," I snapped.

She glared at me. Good. Now we were both pissed.

Toxic of me? Yes. Strangely gratifying? Sort of.

Alicia raised her eyebrows.

"Don't start with me, Spinnet," I snarled, "Triangle drill, that side."

The team started the passing drill in sullen silence while Katie completed her laps.

When she returned, she dropped to the grass and strode up to me with enough bravado that I glanced at her warily.

"Technically, I was at practice on time," she said cooly, cheeks flushed from her laps, "You saw me get here before five o'clock."

"You were not on the pitch at five o'clock, Bell. You show up late, you do laps - those are the terms for every member of this team." I put my notebook in my pocket and donned my gloves as though blood wasn't pounding in my ears, as though I couldn't care less about why she was late.

"Right," she ground out, quickly losing her calm, "Because that's what this is about."

"Maybe you wouldn't have wasted your team's time if you weren't so busy rubbing shoulders with Ravenclaw's-"

"That is none of your business," Katie's voice was ice. I'd seen that look in her eye before, but never directed at me. Good, I could handle rage. It was the hurt that I couldn't fathom.

"Get up there and finish the drill," I stared down at her in a challenge. There was a moment, as she stood there defiantly, that I thought she would win this little showdown. It was increasingly more painful to look her in the eye when she stared at me with such intense ire. But several moments later she turned on her heel, mounted her broom, and joined the rest of the team.

The rest of practice was especially miserable; the team all but trudged back to the locker room an hour later. By the time the sun was setting and I was collecting all of the levitating cones from the pitch, my fury had tempered into a sullen sort of angst.

It was one thing to lose her, if that's what I had done. I'd drawn a line. Set a boundary where once there was a hopeful sort of question mark. I'd done it for both of our sakes, to save us from a short and difficult courtship. It made more sense to stop before we'd started.

It was another thing entirely for her to move on as though last week she hadn't waved at me in the hallway between classes with a smile like we shared a secret.

And to move on with Roger fucking Davies, of all people.

Roger Davies was a colossal prick. He was a notorious womanizer, never with the same partner for more than a few weeks at a time before discarding them like a used tissue. At least, this is what Audrey - a Ravenclaw who was seeing Percy Weasley, Merlin help her - told me one afternoon when we exchanged pleasantries outside the Gryffindor common room.

Davies was also the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, and a monumental pain in my ass. The fact that Katie liked him stung worse than it should.

I walked back to the locker room as the rest of the team filed out, their boisterous discussion dissipating in the late autumn air. Angelina had a protective arm around Katie as they wandered back up to the castle.

Part 2 coming soon! Thanks for reading.