Author's Note: Well, you guys all seemed to love the little tidbit from this chapter, so I hope you like the rest of it! Actually, I'm hoping for some jaw-dropping and some ranting, but that's beside the point. I'm early for once!! Woo-hoo! Anyways, this chapter is...well, it sort of speaks for itself once you read it. I hope you guys enjoy it, or at least the first part. After this, there are only two more chapters (plus an epilogue), and then I start work on a new project. But again, that's not relevant. So...I hope y'all like this chapter, and I look forward to reading all of your reviews!!!
The spell wore off five minutes after our friends left. At least for me it did. Oliver, unfortunately, was stuck like a statue for five minutes after that. It was actually sort of amusing to watch. But I was too busy trying to find a way out of the bloody dormitory to giggle at the sight of Oliver Wood lying defenceless and frozen in place. At least, I didn’t giggle much.
Finally, the spell wore off him. And let me tell you, Oliver was not in a happy mood. He was distinctly unhappy, to tell the truth.
“Fucking hell.” he roared, vaulting off the bed to pace in front of the window. He just stood there, pacing, mumbling to himself about killing and death and murder for a few minutes. And then his sharp amber gaze came to rest on me. Unconsciously, I took a step back. “Did you have any part in this?” he asked softly. Despite the fact that he looked scarier and more violent than I’d ever seen him, I had to laugh a bit.
“Please.” I told him. “With the way you’ve been acting these past few months, can you think of any reason that I would want to be locked in with you??”
His gaze narrowed. “The way I’ve been acting?” he asked incredulously. “What about you?”
“Me?” I repeated.
“Yes, you, Miss ‘I’m so bloody perfect and my life is bloody perfect so I’ll just prance around with my perfect boyfriend and not tell him that I’ve been snogging my Quidditch captain behind his back.’ What about the way you have been acting?”
I glared at him. “My life is not perfect, as you very well know. Please. Nine months out of the year, I essentially live with you, and the other three months I spend in the same household as Smith, boy genius and thorn in my side. I am not perfect. And I didn’t snog you.” I folded my arms across my chest.
“Oh, really?” he sneered at me. “Because I seem to recall a very close encounter the morning after your birthday in the Great Hall.”
I was proud of myself for not blushing. “That was...that was a mistake.” I said uneasily, and Oliver’s eyes darkened. “It wasn’t snogging, because...it just wasn’t.” I had to swallow to get rid of the lump in my throat.
“Really?” Oliver repeated, his eyes still dark on mine. “Fine. Your life isn’t perfect and you didn’t tell your boyfriend, who is perfect, that you’ve been kissing your Quidditch Captain.” His expression dared me to challenge him.
I’ve never been able to resist a dare. “Okay, again, you’ve got everything wrong, you bloody tosser!” I retorted. “First off, you kissed me. I tried to stop it, and you wouldn’t let me. And, if you’ll recall, I’m the one who ended it. And Aidan isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Oh, please.” he rolled his eyes. “That’s just a matter of semantics. You certainly weren’t protesting overmuch. What is he then, your fuck buddy??”
“Maybe I wasn’t protesting because I couldn’t, seeing as your tongue was halfway down my throat and I would have gagged if I’d tried.” I tossed back. “And no. He’s neither.”
“Oh, so he’s gay then?”
“Where’d you come up with that?” I asked exasperatedly. “And no. Aidan and I broke up just after the match, not that it’s any of your business.”
“My tongue was nowhere near your throat.” he said sullenly, suddenly sounding like a little boy.
“Was too. Not that that was the most random change of subject ever.”
“Was not.” Oliver repeated.
I couldn’t help but grin. “It wasn’t random, or it wasn’t near my throat?” I asked, feeling suddenly cheerful.
“Both.” Oliver frowned.
“Okay then. Was too.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Was n—“ He stopped himself. “Oh, for the love of Merlin, would you stop being such a ninny?”
“You started it.”
“I did n—“ Oliver glared at me. It didn’t seem to keep me from laughing, so he just stared until my hilarity faded.
“Why have you been such an arse lately?” I asked suddenly.
I heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like “Oh, and that wasn’t random at all.” before he spoke to me. “Why didn’t you tell Montgomery?” he countered.
“Because I didn’t know how.” My gaze dropped to the floor.
“All you had to say was ‘Look, you, I’ve had a change of heart. Let’s just be friends, eh?’”
My anger was sudden and hot. “Did you not see the gift he gave me for my birthday?” I demanded.
“Yeah, I saw it. What’s your point?” Oliver asked, slouching back onto his bed.
“He spent a lot of money to buy me a beautiful and thoughtful present. Do you think I would feel right going up to him the very next day and breaking things off?”
“So you stayed with him because of a stupid bracelet?” Oliver asked incredulously.
“No.” I shot back. “I cared about him.”
Oliver’s face turned mutinous. “And what about me?” he demanded.
“What about you?”
“Did you care about me?” he asked angrily. “Did you give any thought to my feelings, what I wanted, whatsoever?”
“Of course I cared about you!” I cried. “But damn it, I didn’t know what to do!”
“Oh, so you just cared about him more, is that it?” His face turned cold and hard. “You could have asked me. Just once, you could have asked for my help, my advice. A bloody shoulder to turn to.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, unable to answer his question because I just couldn’t take it any longer. “I didn’t ask you because I knew what you wanted me to do. But you aren’t the one who was stuck in the middle, so stop judging me!”
In the blink of an eye, his expression changed. “Why am I doing this?” he asked. “Why do you think?”
“I don’t know, damn it. That’s why I’m asking.”
Slowly, he began walking towards me. The look in his eye made me nervous, and I stepped back again. He smiled then, and again, his quick change in mood unnerved me. “I know why you’d do it.” he said suddenly. Oliver kept walking towards me, and I kept retreating. I nearly stumbled over the trunk at the foot of his bed, but I managed to stay upright.
“What?” I asked stupidly. He was too close for me to think straight. He smiled again, smugly this time.
“I know why you would want to be locked in here with me.” My back hit one of the posts on his bed, but Oliver just kept walking. He didn’t speak again until his body almost brushed mine with its nearness.
“And why would that be?” I asked, my throat dry.
Again with the smile, this time slow and warm. I felt it all the way down to my toes. “Because you’re not stuck in the middle anymore.”
“This isn’t funny, Oliver.” my voice shook. “Leave me alone.”
“I never said it was.” he murmured. “But I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, and I felt my knees lock.
“I mean it, Ollie.” I was coming close to panicking. “This isn’t a game.”
His eyes met mine once more, and for the first time, they were completely serious. “You don’t know how right you are, love.”
“Don’t call me that.” I said weakly.
But then he was kissing me again and I no longer had the ability to think, let alone talk.
I didn’t even have to ability to resist him. Once again, he’d managed to step past all my defences, leaving me confused and eager and willing and ready to slap him in the face, if I could just breathe long enough to gain my senses.
But I didn’t. And neither did he. His hands tangled in my hair, and he didn’t even bother to try and be gentle. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything but kiss him back as fervently as he was kissing me.
Somehow, I managed to move away from the bedpost. Oliver’s hands moved from my hair to the buttons on my shirt, and it brought some of those senses back.
“What are we doing?” I managed to ask before his lips came back down to mine once more. Then I wasn’t thinking at all, didn’t remember even asking a question, didn't realize he hadn't answered, and it didn’t even occur to me to do anything but try and get rid of his shirt as well.
He managed to nudge me backwards so that I fell onto his bed, and we rolled over it like a couple of idiot puppies. For just one minute, I didn’t want to remember that this wasn’t the way things were supposed to be, that I loved him near desperation, wanted him to love me back. All I needed in that moment was for him to want me. It didn’t even matter why. I reached up to cradle his face, needing to touch him, assure myself that he was real.
Suddenly, he pulled back. I probably should have been grateful, because I’m pretty sure my brain would have turned to jelly if he’d kissed me just a few seconds longer. But even though his lips were no longer on mine, my head was spinning. And fate had just given me the perfect opportunity to finally tell Oliver the truth. Now. Now was the moment. I could tell him, and everything would be fine. Part of me wanted to collapse in relief because I was going to be able to get everything off my chest. Another part warned that admitting my feelings for him before he told me how he felt was asking for trouble. But the final part of me was screaming that I already knew his feelings—he’d been the one chasing me for over a year, after all—and I should just get it over with.
“We need to talk.” we both blurted out at the same moment. A laugh wanted to bubble up out of my throat, but one look at Oliver’s face told me that it wasn’t exactly the right time to do so.
“You go first.” he offered. I shook my head. I wanted him to be the one to tell me how he felt; it was stupid and female...and cowardly. But my heart was going to be on the line, and it felt like a proper way to go about protecting it. I wasn’t stupid; I had no hopes that he was going to confess his undying love for me. But I rather suspected he would tell me that he cared, that he more than just cared, about me. He had to. Right? Why else would he have kissed me that way just then?
“No, that’s okay.” I smiled shakily. “You go first.”
“No, you do it. I insist.” he protested.
“No, really, Ollie—spit it out.” I pressured. Oliver swallowed hard.
“Let’s go together, then.” he amended. “On three?” At my nod of approval, he began counting.
“We can’t do this anymore.”
“Oliver, I think I—“ we said at the same time. And then, as his words kicked it, my heart stopped. “Wait...what?” I asked. Oliver looked at me strangely.
“I said that we...I can’t do this anymore.” he repeated in an odd voice. My heart cracked, and it was almost as if the world had dropped out from underneath me. “We’re no good for each other this way, love.” Oliver continued as I remained silent. “Anyone can see it. All we’ve been doing is hurting each other. And frankly, a couple of snogs doesn’t seem like nearly enough in comparison.”
He doesn’t want me. It was all I could think. I’m in love with him, and he doesn’t want me anymore. Oh God. Oh God, oh God. What am I going to do? Oh, Merlin, what do I do now? Thank God I didn’t get the chance to make a fool of myself. Thank Merlin he’ll never have reason to pity me.
“Oh.” It was beyond my capability to keep my face from blanching. It took all of my will not to start crying then and there. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Above all else, I needed to keep my pride. Now that there was no possibility of being happy (ha!) with him, I didn’t care about anything else.
“Is...isn’t that what you were going to say?” Oliver seemed to hesitate a bit. I looked at him more closely; he was nearly as pale as I was. And before I could hurt myself more, I chose to ignore his obvious discomfort in favour of my own survival.
“Right. Of course it was.” I looked him straight in the eye. I couldn’t keep my voice from shaking, I knew I couldn’t, so I didn’t try. “You’re a great bloke, Oliver, but no offense...” I had to swallow before I could continue. I was going to hurt him, but it didn’t matter. “No offense, Oliver, but you’re just not worth it.” Because I was looking at him, I could see his shock. I also saw the quick flash of pain before he masked it, but it didn’t matter. In that moment, his pain couldn’t matter as much as my own. “I’m not going to stand around waiting for a bloke who cares more about his Quidditch game than he does about me.”
“Kenna, you know that’s not—“ I wouldn’t let him finish. Couldn’t let him finish. If I stayed around him any longer, I wouldn’t be able to keep the tears held back.
“It is, Oliver. It is. And you know it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go say goodbye to my family.” And before the tears finally had an opportunity to start streaming, I turned away from him for the last time. I prayed that the door would be open; we had been in there long enough by anyone’s standards. Sure enough, the handle turned smoothly with one touch of my hand.
The rest of the team, plus Riley, nearly fell into the room. So much for being completely alone. Riley took one look at my face and knew something was wrong.
“Kenna, what—“
“Not now, Riley.” I said, shoving through the six of them. “Not now.” Miraculously, no one tried to stop me. But I knew that they weren’t far behind.
Sure enough, I’d no sooner buried my face in the pillows on my bed than the dormitory door burst open.
“Okay.” Angelina said harshly. “What the hell is going on?”
I rolled over to find all four girls staring at me. Riley, true to form, looked worried. Katie looked confused, Angelina murderous, and Alicia vaguely interested.
“I’m in love with him.” I said woodenly. There was no point in keeping it quiet now.
No one seemed to notice that I didn’t sound excited about my revelation. Instead, they all began gushing.
“I knew it!”
“Pay up, Alicia. I told you they were perfect for one another.”
“Why the heck did it take you so long to figure it out?”
“Isn’t this just perfect???”
At the last statement, I sat up. “No, it’s not perfect.” I said harshly. “I said I’m in love with him. I didn’t say he’s in love with me.”
The gushing ceased. In its place was a horrible kindness.
“Boys are stupid, Kenna.” Angelina told me. “He’ll figure it out soon.”
The tears I had worked so hard to hold back finally fell. I couldn’t stop them. “He broke up with me.”
Katie looked confused again. “But you weren’t even dating.”
“Exactly!” I cried. “He said we were over before we were really a we to begin with.”
“Oh, Kenna...” Riley came to sit beside me on the bed, and Nefertiti chose that moment to emerge from the bathroom. It seemed the cat was as smart as my friend, because she jumped into my lap and immediately started purring. Riley stroked my hair as I stroked Nefertiti’s dark fur. “Are you sure you didn’t just misunderstand?”
“How could I have misunderstood?” I hated the fact that I was sobbing, hated that I needed my friends to comfort me.
“You didn’t see his face after you opened that door.” Alicia said softly. “You hurt him, Kenna.”
“Would this be before or after he told me that we were no good for one another and that what we had wasn’t worth anything in comparison?” I sniffed.
“He actually said that?” Katie asked, outrage stiffening her voice. I nodded. “I’m going to kill him. This is not how he was supposed to act.”
“Yeah, well, I got in a pretty good shot as well.” I offered up.
“Yeah?” Angelina said. “What did you say?”
“I told him he was a great bloke, but he wasn’t worth it.” My friends winced in sympathy for him.
“Ouch.” Alicia replied. “No wonder he looked so upset.”
“Yeah.” I said glumly. “No wonder.”
“Still....” Angelina bit her bottom lip worriedly. “Are you sure you didn’t jump to conclusions?”
“I’ve never seen Wood look like that before.” Katie interjected. “You cut him deep. Not that you didn’t have the right to, or a good reason, but a bloke doesn’t look...well, devastated, unless he’s truly upset. Why would he be upset if he didn’t want to be with you?”
“I don’t know.” I cried. “I just don’t know! And I don’t care. He had the gall to sound upset that I didn’t want to jump him enough to tell Aidan about what happened, and then—“
“Wait a minute.” Alicia interrupted. “Tell Aidan what??”
I scowled. “Nothing.”
“Kenna.” Riley warned.
“Fine, fine.” I grumbled. “The day he got accepted by all those teams, well, I was with him when he got the letters. And he was so happy, and I was happy for him, and it just...happened. He kissed me. And I kissed him back, but I pushed him away.” I finished hurriedly. “And he was miffed about it.”
Angelina slapped a palm to her forehead. “You bloody ninny.” she groaned.
“What?” I huffed.
“Of course he was upset.” Alicia interrupted again. “You didn’t even care about him enough to be honest with your boyfriend. He had a reason to be upset. I’m ashamed of you.”
“Me???” How was this happening? These girls were supposed to be my friends. “It wasn’t because I didn’t care about him.” I tried to explain. “But I cared about Aidan, too, and he was so bloody lovely and Oliver was being an arse and I just didn’t know what to do.” The statement ended on a wail. Immediately, all four of them moved to comfort me. Well, Alicia just wanted to know if I was pregnant or something, but that didn’t really count, so I ignored it.
“I’m sorry he hurt you, Kenna.” Riley said softly. “Is there anything we can do?”
I sat up and swiped at my face to wipe away the tears. Nefertiti hissed when I moved her out of my lap and then tried to bite me when I reached over and grabbed Aidan’s bracelet. I practically shoved it all Riley, who, bless her heart, barely blinked. “I know you’re going to go find Brian soon. Would you give this to him and ask him to give it to Aidan?” Seeing my friends’ stares, I shrugged. “Well, I can’t very well keep it, even if I wanted to.” I explained.
“Sure, I can do that.” Riley said lightly. “In fact, I’ll go now. Do you need anything else?”
“You mean anything other than the immediate and painful demise of one Oliver Wood?” I smiled weakly. “No. But could one of you go find my mum and ask her to come up here?”
“I’ll do it.” Katie volunteered.
Just as quickly as they’d all appeared, they were gone and I was alone with Nefertiti, one thing out of many that served only to remind me of Oliver and how much he’d hurt me.
My mum came up a few minutes later. In as few words as possible, I told her that I wasn’t feeling up to going down and saying goodbye to Dad or Smith, but I didn’t tell her why. I didn’t want to have anything to do with Oliver, but if I told Mum what had happened, she and Dad would hate him, and then Smith would lose his friend. I didn’t want to do that to the annoying little squirt, and I thought it would be good for Oliver to realize just how much he would be missing. So I said nothing, Mum fussed, and then eventually left me to lie there on my bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering if anything would ever be right again.
A/N: Muahahahahahahahaha. You can all start throwing things at me now. But really, you didn't expect me to make it easy on them, did you?? There'll be time enough for that later on. For now, Oliver/Kenna still isn't happening. And isn't that interesting. I'd love to hear what you guys think, especially on what Oliver had to say. Is he just being stupid again? Or is something else going on? Either way, I want to hear it. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and though I don't have a juicy little excerpt for you this time, I hope you'll review anyways!!
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