Chapter 102
The morning of 2 December Oliver was whimpering miserably in the Puddlemere locker room, banging his head against the wall.
"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" he cursed himself.
"Oi!" Benjy called from across the room. "What's eatin' you, Wood?"
"Ah, it's nothin'," Zachariah Greene said and smirked. "Just troubles with his girl."
"I told you, Zach," Oliver said with a defeated grumble. "She's not my girl."
"And I asked ya if you're sure o' that," Greene replied with a grin. "The way you're over there carryin' on, it don't look like it."
"What's been going on?" Felix Riley asked.
"Nothing," Oliver replied. "Mind your own business."
"Hey Wood," Wilda called walking over from her side of the locker room to shouts of protest. "You'll never make the transition from the reserve team if you don't learn to trust your teammates, take it from me, these blokes didn't like me much when I first got here neither, said I would be a traitor and throw matches for my old team. Till they saw how my old team treated me."
"Yeah, man," Lucas Murray said. "You've been here what, since September? And we hardly know a thing about you."
"What's the matter?" Ella Adams asked, coming over from the women's side to more cries of protest from the guys. "Maybe we can help."
"I don't see how," Oliver said. "Unless you've got a Time-Turner."
"That bad, huh?" Dillon Shepherd asked. "Man, that's rough."
Oliver groaned and lay back against the bench, letting the letters he'd received fall from his hand.
Greene walked by and scooped them up, quickly dodging Oliver as he took a swipe at him.
"Hey! Give those back!" Oliver yelled in protest.
Greene stopped, a look of shock on his face as he looked back to Oliver. "You know Viktor Krum?" he asked.
Oliver sighed and sat back in defeat.
"Yeah, I do," he said. "What's it to you?"
"How's a bloke like you know him?" William Craig asked, looking Oliver up and down. "You go to school with him or something?"
"Or something," Oliver replied.
"Come on, man," Benjy said. "Give us the details!"
Oliver sighed, learning from the times he'd watched them banter back and forth during practice that they wouldn't let it go.
"I met him at the World Cup," Oliver replied. "That's it."
"Obviously not," Greene said, holding up the letter.
"What do you mean?" Wilda asked.
"Apparently our Woody here cooked up some half baked scheme to get his girl looked after and shown a good time by this Krum fellow," Greene replied.
"Look, it's not like that!" Oliver protested, snatching for the letters, but Greene just dodged again.
"Then tell us how it is," Lucas said.
"Yeah, tell us," Shepherd added.
Oliver sighed knowing he'd been defeated as the majority of his team members ganged up on him.
"Fine," he replied. "I was in my fifth year when Hermione first came to Hogwarts. She was having a rough go of it in the beginning, so I looked out for her. I was there if she needed someone to talk to. We became friends, a lot of people read stuff into it, but she's like a little sister to me."
"And you fixed her up with this Krum guy implying she can't get her own date?" Ella asked, taking the letter from Greene and reading over it. "You really weren't kidding, you are an idiot."
"Geeze, man," Wilda said, reading over Ella's shoulder. "You really are a dolt. You never send one owl with two messages, even if they are in the same location."
"Thanks," Oliver deadpanned. "I think I figured that out."
"What's this here?" Dagen Lamius asked, coming by and plucking a second piece of parchment from Ella's hand. "From the Weasley twins, who are they?"
"They were the Beaters on the Gryffindor team when I was captain back at school," Oliver relented with a sigh.
"What's it say?" Samuel Davis asked.
"Yeah sure, let's call a team meeting," Oliver answered sarcastically as Maggie Holmes and Freya Rorik also came over, but there weren't any more shouts as the male members had dressed quickly when Ella and Wilda had come over from the women's side.
"Why didn't you say so?" Freya asked, smirking at him. "Hey coach!" she shouted out the door. "Oliver's calling a team meeting!"
A warm, damp towel hit her in the face as she turned back. She plucked it off with her fingers and dropped it on the floor before prancing over to peer at the letters with Wilda, Ella and Greene.
"Who's Ginny?" Freya asked.
"She's the twins' only sister," Oliver said and sighed, not really happy with all the interrogation going on.
"You say that like there's more," Benjy said.
"You've never heard of the Weasleys?" Oliver asked, glancing over at him as he lay on the bench, just turning his head.
"No," Wilda said. "Can't say we have, why?"
"Only have seven kids," Oliver replied. "Bill, Charlie, Percy, the twins - Fred and George - Ron and Ginny. Why do you ask, Freya?"
"Well, Fred and George said that Hermione went over and confronted Viktor Krum, and that some little weasel was trying to cause problems -" Greene read.
"Draco Malfoy," Oliver replied.
"The twins say that Ginny told them that Hermione had told her that she'd threatened to knock his teeth in and give him a concussion," Freya read.
"Oh, I like her," Wilda said with a grin.
"She's great, isn't she?" Oliver asked dreamily.
"Ah!" Greene said and pointed at him. "See, I told ya!"
"That doesn't mean she's my girl," Oliver protested, glaring over at him.
"Bah!" Greene said, waving a hand at him.
"Hey, come on now," Peter Marshall said. "What else does it say? You guys just can't leave it hanging. It was getting good."
Oliver sighed and rolled his eyes, wanting to bury himself as Freya took the letter from Dagen and began to read aloud.
Oi, Ollie, Fred here,and George. What's the deal?Yeah, we heard about the mix-up of the letters. Saw it , the result of it anyway.
She stormed into the Great Halland over to the Slytherin table.
Ferret face said something to her,but we were too far away to hear.
Yeah, Ginny told us she had to go calm her down after she confronted Krum.
Gin also saidthat Hermione told herthat she threatened ferret facewith knocking his teeth inand giving him a concussion.
That was not cool,sending both messages with one owl.
What, no money for an owl post?
I don't know how you're going to fix this, mate
Me either, but
FIX IT!
Fredand George
"You gotta fix this," Wilda said firmly.
"How?" Oliver asked.
"Well, if nothing else," Maggie said, "You owe the poor girl an apology."
"What's that one say?" Peter Marshall asked, nodding to the letter Greene was still holding.
"Pretty much the same as that one," Greene replied, nodding to the letter Freya had. "Though his English is more broken."
"Would be too," Craig replied, "Considering he's Bulgarian."
"They're right though," Oliver said. "I don't have a way to send it."
"You can use Hercules," a voice came from the doorway, and everyone looked over to see Philbert Deverill standing there.
"But that's the team owl," Oliver protested, sitting up in shocked surprise.
"Aye," Philbert said with a nod. "And one of the team members needs him. He'll get your letters back to Hogwarts if one of the school owls doesn't wait for a reply."
"Thank you, sir," Oliver said, his mouth going dry.
"Well, that takes care of one problem," Wilda said.
"Now we got to figure out how to fix this," Freya added and Oliver looked around to see all his teammates nodding grimly, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" Craig asked.
"You," Oliver replied. "All of you."
"Why?" Benjy asked, looking confused.
"You remind me of the Weasley twins and my other mate, Lee Jordan. They helped me write a letter to Hermione before, and just like then, you're all taking over now."
"I told ya," Wilda said. "We're a family, we look out for each other."
Oliver looked around and saw them all nod without hesitation.
"She's right, there, son," Philbert said, and Oliver looked up at him when he came over and put a hand on his shoulder. "For all their bluster and banter, they really do care about each other."
"I'm starting to see that," Oliver said, and looked back at his teammates to find out that Benjy had pulled a stack of parchment from his locker, and was being handed a quill by Greene and a bottle of ink by Craig while the girls told him what to write. "I can't send it in Benjy's handwriting!" Oliver protested.
"You won't be," Maggie said with a smile.
"You'll be copying it," Wilda replied with a smirk.
"Just like Lee and the twins," Oliver grumbled as his teammates laughed and went back to work on the letter to Hermione.
A few days later, Hermione was surprised to see an owl bearing the Puddlemere United emblem around its neck alight upon the table when the owls brought in the mail at breakfast. Looking at it curiously, she picked up the letter it dropped in front of her, and gave it some bacon before meeting Ginny's eyes and opening it as the girl came over and sat beside her.
2 December 1994
Dear Hermione,
I am sorry about hurting your feelings. Fred and George wrote to me about what happened with the mix-up of the letters and the results. It was really stupid of me to send two letters with one owl, even though they were going to the same place, but that's no excuse for my having done it, or my past behaviour in going behind your back in regard to making a deal with Viktor to watch out for you and make sure you had a good time at this social event. I should have been honest about that after the tournament was announced, and I apologise. Please don't hold it against Viktor. Whether I like it or not, he seems to genuinely care about you, since he has written to me about you a lot this year so far.
And before you ask, it wasn't pertaining to what was going on with Harry and Ron, but more questions on how to approach you, things like what you were interested in and what you liked. He's rather a shy person you see, he may act like he's on top of the world when playing Quidditch, but he's completely different off the Pitch as you may have witnessed. I asked him to do this because I was concerned about you, Harry and Ron and from your letters, rightly so since they seemed to try to pit you against each other, and I wanted to make sure that it didn't get in the way of you having a good time at this formal event, and no, I don't know what it is, sorry, that's the truth. I also didn't mean to imply that I thought you couldn't get your own date for this occasion, and I apologise if it came across that way.
I hope you aren't too angry with me about my stupidity, I hope to hear from you soon.
Oliver
"So?" Ginny asked. "What do you think?"
"I think that it doesn't sound like Oliver," Hermione replied. "At least not entirely. You think he had help?"
"Maybe," Ginny said and shrugged. "Would you blame him?"
"No, I guess not," Hermione said. "So now what?"
"I'd let him suffer a while," Ginny replied.
"Well, the owl's still here," Hermione said. "So obviously it's waiting for an answer."
Ginny shrugged again.
"Write back that you need time to think about it," she suggested.
"Good idea," Hermione said, withdrawing a piece of parchment and her quill and ink from her bag. She quickly penned a note to Oliver and let Ginny read it. When Ginny shook her head, she tried again. It took three tries before Ginny agreed with a nod and the Puddlemere United owl was sent off again.
Oliver sighed and sat down heavily on the bench when Hercules arrived on the 8th with Hermione's letter.
"What's it say?" Freya asked excitedly, ignoring the shouts of protest from her teammates as she bounded over. They had all been waiting for the owl's return, wondering what Hermione's reaction would be.
"Read for yourself," Oliver answered, handing her the note, looking glum.
"Dear Oliver, while I appreciate..." Freya began and then trailed off brokenly as some she read to herself as she skimmed the short letter. "...I must say that I need time to think about this..." Freya's face clouded as she read through some more content before finishing. "...I hope you understand, and will leave me be while I think about it. Hermione. Oh!" Freya whimpered when she finished.
"Yeah," Oliver replied. "It was all for nothing."
"Well, you didn't expect her forgiveness on the spot, did ja?" Greene asked. "I think we were all kind of hoping," Felix said, coming over and taking the note from Freya to read it himself.
There was a snort from the women's side of the locker room, and they looked up at the sound.
"Then you obviously don't know women," Wilda said and rolled her eyes. "Give her time. Don't pester her with owls, and give poor Hercules a rest. She'll write to you when she's ready." "Yeah," Freya said dejectedly. "Still... I think we all hoped it would work out."
There were murmurs of agreement from around the room as Oliver gave Hercules an owl treat before he flew off for a rest.
"May I have your attention?" Professor McGonagall called before the end of class back at Hogwarts, and she waited for the class to fall silent. "Now, I know it is a weekend, and while not a Hogsmeade weekend, that you all have plans, well, most of you. However, I would like to announce that there will be a mandatory meeting of Hogwarts students to this room throughout this Saturday, 10 December."
A murmur of curiosity went through the class, but Professor McGonagall shushed them before continuing, "Now you may choose what time you will attend, but we are meeting here. Bulletins will be placed on all Hogwarts house bulletin boards. I expect to see you all at some point. You may go," she finished a moment before the bell rang for class to end.
"What do you think that was about?" Harry asked as they left the classroom. "Who knows," Ron replied, but Hermione remained silent, simply shrugging when Harry glanced at her, though she had her suspicions.