Positive

"I have to get rid of it."

It was all Katie had said for the past two hours—the same phrase, over and over, while she sat on the couch with her hands clenched into fists.

"Sweetheart," Angelina said, pressing a cup of tea into her flatmate's hand. "Think about this for a second. Be rational."

Katie stared at the cup as if she'd forgotten how to drink. "I have to get rid of it."

"You don't, hon, you don't," Alicia said from the other side of the room.

"I have to—I have to get rid of it."

Alicia and Angelina shared a glance. It had been years since they played Quidditch together—Alicia was training to be a Healer now, and Angelina was Assistant Manager at Flourish and Blotts—but they still know how to read each other's minds in ways that only Chasers could.

"Why do you think you have to get rid of it, Katie?" Angelina asked, sitting next to her friend and gently taking the cup away.

"Because—because—what am I going to tell Oliver?"

"I think Oliver knows that accidental pregnancy is a legitimate risk of having sex," Alicia said with a grin.

"It's not supposed to happen this way," Katie whispered, prodding the pink pregnancy test next to her.

"How else can it possibly happen?" Alicia asked, but Angelina threw her a look and put her arms around Katie.

"How was it supposed to happen?" she asked, pulling her flatmate into a hug.

Katie was trembling. "First you get engaged," she said, voice muffled by Angelina's shoulder. "Then you get married. Then you have the baby."

"So you're just going a little out of order." Alicia moved to the couch and joined her friends in their hug. "It's going to be fine, Katie. We're here for you."

"He doesn't want a baby."

"Why not?" Alicia asked.

"He doesn't want to be a father." Katie was still crunched between her two friends. "He just wants to play Quidditch. He wants Quidditch more than he wants a family."

Alicia and Angelina shared another glance. "I'm sure that's not true, Katie," Angelina said. "I'm sure once you tell him, he'll want it."

Katie's hand moved to her stomach and pressed down gently. "I have to get rid of it," she said, and the first hot tear escaped her eye and trailed down her cheek.

"Shame Katie's sick," Fred said later on at the Leaky Cauldron. They were all crammed into one booth: Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia, Lee Jordan, Harry, and Oliver Wood himself. The Gryffindor team reunions didn't happen nearly as often as they'd all like—someone was always busy, or ill, or, in Katie's case, too emotionally traumatized to make it off the couch.

"We tried to get her to come," Angelina said, "but she's really not feeling well."

Oliver frowned. "Does she need anything? I can skip out early and drop off a burger or something."

"Don't you dare skip out early," Alicia said. "She doesn't want to see—" (Angelina kicked her under the table.) "—to eat," Alicia amended. "She doesn't want to eat a burger."

"Nice save," mouthed Angelina, rolling her eyes.

"I have to go early anyway, I'm afraid." Oliver was already fumbling with his wallet. "Puddlemere practice."

A chorus of groans erupted from the table. "You're always going to practice," Fred said, standing up so Oliver could slide out of the booth.

"If you keep it up, people will start thinking you actually like Quidditch," said George.

"Wouldn't want anyone thinking that," Oliver said sarcastically.

"Why are you going to practice now?" asked Harry. "Isn't it a bit late?"

"We have a more intense practice schedule in summer. We're in the running for the Quidditch World Cup—Fred, hand me a breadstick for the road, will you?—so Coach has us flying nights three times a week."

"This is in addition to your regular morning practices?" Fred asked, passing over a breadstick.

"And the afternoon ones, yes."

"So you're spending, what, ten hours per day practicing Quidditch?"

Oliver wrapped his breadstick up in a napkin. "Ten or twelve, yeah."

Alicia shook her head. "How do you have time for a girlfriend?"

At the word girlfriend, Oliver's mouth quirked up into a smile, as it always did. "I'll always make time for Katie. She's special."

Fred and George groaned in unison. "Keep it in your pants, eh, Wood?" George said while Fred shouted something about his virgin ears.

Oliver laughed. "All right, I'm going. See you lot later, then."

Alicia and Angelina had their eyes glued to Oliver's back as he walked out of the Leaky Cauldron.

"How're things at the shop?" Lee Jordan asked, and Fred began to describe a new product.

"They're called Animal Crackers," he said excitedly. "They're little animal-shaped biscuits that come in a box—we modeled them after a muggle food—and you turn into the animal you eat."

"Last week I turned into a chimpanzee," George said proudly. "The effects didn't wear off for two days."

"At least you weren't Jimmy Peakes," Fred said. "He's been testing products for us, trying to earn some pocket money. Poor bloke turned into an elephant. We couldn't fit him out the door. He had to sleep in the back room."

"Ran like hell when he was human again."

"Didn't even wait for his paycheck."

"We lose a lot of testers that way."

"Cowards."

"Lee, would you consider testing for us again?"

Lee laughed. "Not if my life depended on it."

"Why not?"

"Your safety's guaranteed—"

"—unless you die—"

"—in which case we accept full responsibility."

"Do people die often?" Harry asked, amused.

"Not so far," Fred said. "We've only had a few serious injur—oy, what'd I do?"

Angelina had slapped his arm. "Stop talking."

"Why?"

Angelina beckoned for them to lean in. "We have to tell you something, now that Oliver's gone." She glanced at Alicia, who nodded. "Katie's pregnant."

Silence fell over the table. "How?" Harry asked finally.

Fred raised his eyebrows. "Well, young Harry, when a mother and a father love each other very much, sometimes they decide—"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I meant, aren't they using protection?"

"Apparently not," Alicia said.

"Katie's freaking out," Angelina said. "She can't eat. She won't move."

"She keeps saying she has to get rid of it," Alicia said. "She doesn't want Oliver to find out."

"Why not?" Harry asked. "He deserves to know."

"She thinks he doesn't want kids." Angelina shook her head. "She's crazy."

"No," Fred said slowly. "She has a point. Kids would interfere with The Plan."

Alicia raised her eyebrows and picked up a chip from the communal bowl in the middle of the table. "What plan?"

"Oliver wants to play Quidditch," George said. "And that's all."

"No desk job," Fred clarified. "No family."

"We were all shocked when he decided to have a girlfriend."

"The plan is, he plays Quidditch until he dies."

"Preferably by taking a bludger to the head."

"There's no room for kids."

"Katie's got the right idea, getting rid of it."

Angelina slammed her hand on the table. "Don't you ever," she hissed, "let Katie hear you talking like that."

Fred raised his hands in surrender. "We're not saying we agree."

"And we could be wrong," said George. "Katie's an exception to the rule with Wood. She's a wild card. He could be okay with a family if she's involved."

Angelina sighed and took a long swig of butterbeer. "I wish we could know how he'd take the news."

Fred and George exchanged a glance—and like the girls, they hadn't played Quidditch in years, but they still knew how to read each other's minds in ways that only Beaters can. "Maybe we can," Fred said finally. "Maybe we can."

"Katie is so special," Oliver slurred. "She's just . . . she's so incredible."

"We know, Oliver," called George from the back room. It was later that night in the joke shop, where the twins had lured Oliver under the guise of helping with the final testing of their latest product ("Nobody's died, Oliver, you'll be fine"). Three firewhiskeys later, Oliver was drunk and the twins were ready to put their plan into action.

"You know, George," Fred said loudly, "Angelina and I had a pregnancy scare the other day."

"What?" George said in an equally loud voice. "She thought she was pregnant?"

"No," Fred said, and both twins were looking directly at Oliver. "I thought I was pregnant."

"What?" Oliver snorted. "Men can't get pregnant."

"That's where you're wrong, Ollie Boy." George clapped his friend on the back. "Men who played Quidditch during puberty can, in fact, become pregnant. Something to do with the brooms and the pressure on our, erm, sensitive bits."

"Whoa." Oliver took another swig of firewhiskey. "Are you alright, mate?"

"I'm fine," Fred said. "But you lot might want to take a pregnancy test. Just in case."

"I know I do," George said. "Wood?"

Oliver frowned. "Yeah, might as well." He put down his bottle and stood up carefully. "Are you sure that's right?" he asked. "Men can—you know, have babies?"

"I'm positive." Fred handed him a thin stick. "Go piss on this and let us know if it comes up positive."

"Right. Will do." Oliver lumbered off to the bathroom.

Fred sighed as he watched him go. "He's so thick."

"Bless his heart. You enchanted the pregnancy test?"

"Of course I did. It'll come up positive no matter what."

"Good." George sat down in Oliver's abandoned chair. "Now we wait."

(As he said it, a high-pitched scream erupted from the bathroom, and Oliver Wood stumbled back in with his pants around his ankles, holding the pregnancy test in both hands.)

"I have to get rid of it," Oliver said miserably the next morning.

Fred pressed a cup of coffee into his friend's hands. Oliver was flopped across the ottoman in the back room—all the other furniture was squashed from Jimmy Peakes' stay as an elephant. "Oh, come on," he said, eyeing the pregnancy test. "Would it really be that bad, having a kid with Katie?"

"My career would be over." Oliver gulped down his coffee. "I'd have to quit Puddlemere. I'd gain all that weight. I'd be too heavy to fly." He closed his eyes. "I'd have to buy all new shoes. They say your feet swell up."

"We'll buy you a shoehorn for Christmas," George offered.

"You can take up a different sport."

"Tennis, maybe."

"Yeah, you don't have to fly in tennis."

Oliver groaned and let his head loll back over the edge of the ottoman. "I have to get rid of it."

"Focus on the positives, Wood." Fred helped his friend sit up and poured more coffee into his mug. "Say you didn't have to give up Quidditch—say your feet won't swell up, or any of that. Would you want a kid then?"

"Katie's kid," said George. "She's special, remember?"

Oliver looked thoughtful as he sipped his coffee. "I s'pose—yeah, I'd want to have Katie's kid." He looked down at his coffee. "Is it dangerous to drink coffee when you're pregnant?" he asked. "Is it—crap, is it dangerous to drink firewhiskey?"

"Probably not beneficial," Fred said, "but you didn't know."

"I didn't even know men could get pregnant." Oliver looked panicked. "You don't think I hurt it, do you?"

George was trying not to laugh. "It's probably fine, mate."

"Does this mean you're keeping it?" Fred asked. "If you're worried about its well-being?"

Oliver looked down at his stomach. "I—I dunno."

"Come on. Just picture it." Fred clapped Oliver on the back. "You could teach it to ride a broom."

"Show it how to block the Quaffle."

"Come home at the end of the day and help it with its homework."

"Tell it bedtime stories about your glory days."

"You and Katie can raise your own family."

"Remember how special she is, mate?"

Oliver's mouth was quirked up, the way it always looked when anyone brought up Katie. "She's so special."

Fred nudged George in the ribs. "So you want to have a baby with her, then?"

Oliver sighed through his smile. "Yeah, what the hell. I'll have a baby with her."

"Brilliant!" George was grinning. "Go tell her. And don't forget this." He pointed to the pregnancy test on the floor.

"Right." Oliver scooped up the stick and shoved it in his pocket. "I'll go tell her right now."

When Katie opened the door in her bathrobe, Oliver was standing on the other side.

"Ollie?" Her face was white. "What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?"

(She was going to be sick.) "Is everything okay? You were banging on the door like you were trying to knock it in or—"

"I have to tell you something."

(She was going to be sick.) "Okay."

Oliver took a deep breath and pulled a thin pink stick from his pocket. "Here."

She took it with trembling hands. "Oh."

A pregnancy test. Her pregnancy test. Tears crawled into her eyes. "Ollie—"

He seized her by her shoulders. "Don't say anything."

She closed her mouth.

"I want to do this with you." He licked his lips. "I want to have this baby. I want us to raise it, and love it, and I want us to be parents, and I don't even mind that being a father means making sacrifices, I'm willing to do it. I want to start a family with you, Katie Bell, and I know the timing isn't perfect and the circumstances aren't what we planned but damn it I want to do this even though it scares the hell out of me."

She blinked. "Really?"

"Really." His mouth was quirked up in that smile. "So? Are you in?"

She let out a laugh. "Of course I'm in."

"Are you sure?"

She fell into his arms. "Positive."

[Pirate Ship Battles: Accidental Pregnancy, Katie Bell/Oliver Wood. Second Mate. Prompts: 1(Tennis) 2(Shoehorn) 3(Summer) 7(Elephant) 9(Chimpanzee)]

[Disney Character Competition: Tick-Tock—write about a character struggling with being a new parent.]

[Potions Class: Doing something forbidden and getting caught, or getting away with it. *Sex before marriage]