OTP Competition: Round 2

Stuck in an elevator! AU

WC: 1,151

When you ask her how they met, she laughs and says you don't want to hear about her eleven year old self. She briefly touches on the short, pixie-like waif she was, but she quickly pushes the topic towards what a young Oliver Wood was like instead. Their banter back and forth is familiar, old, as if it's happened a thousand times, and you can tell it will happen a thousand more.

They look so cute next to each other, you think. They're professional - they always are in their interviews - but you can tell there has been a slight shift. You're not sure what has changed, yet. You hope you'll find out, for it would be so lovely to be the one to present the facts on the star-crossed Quidditch lovers everyone is raving about.

Your acid green Quik Quotes Quill hovers expectantly in the air. Back in the day, it would have been scribbling madly, quipping down any fantastical idea you had, derived from the tiniest glance and blown widely out of proportion. But now, the Daily Prophet has decided to report the truth and only the truth, and now each quill is dipped in the tiniest bit of Veritaserum, cutting it's ability to write entire pages of lies in half.

They're seated in individual chairs, but you think you detect a slight lean towards each other, as if there was a magnetic pull between them.

"Miss Bell, how difficult is it to play on opposite teams as your close friend, Oliver Wood?" you begin, and she smiles, glancing at her conspirator with a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, it's not difficult. Oliver and I have always been competitive, even since our Hogwarts days. Sure, then we were on the same team, but we could be ruthless on the practice field. I remember the time when Oliver forced me to run extra laps simply because I'd scored more goals against him than he saved. He swore I'd done something to the Quaffle and made me run as punishment!"

Wood feigns innocence, clearly prepared to protest this story to the grave, but you don't give him the chance.

"My, my, Mr Wood! You are quite the competitor, always have been. So tell me, do you make her run laps now if she scores against you?"

He leans back in his chair and grins. "Nah, Katie doesn't bend to lap running. That'd just be helping her get stronger, and I don't need that. No, if you really want to break Katie Bell..." he leans in conspiratorially, and you lean in as well, excited to hear what he'll say. Will he say something sexual, insinuating a relationship that you can then comment on? Will he tell you some deep, dark secret about her or the Harpies that will have Puddlemere fans cheering for days? It has happened before, and you're hoping beyond hope that it will happen again. Bell herself is looking suspicious, unsure where Wood is going.

"...if you really want to break Katie Bell, you gotta get her stuck in one of those elator things. The muggle things that go up and down. She's scared as hell of those things!"

Bell's protests are vocal immediately, but you've sniffed out a story, and you intend on following it, even if it wasn't the story you were hoping for.

"Why, Mr Wood, do explain! Please! Whatever do you mean, do you mean Miss Bell is scared of muggle elevators?"

Bell claps a hand over his mouth as he begins to speak, and you smile. They really are adorable together. You're ice cold heart that loves tearing people down is melting slightly - perhaps you're going soft in your old age.

"What Oliver means is that I'm clausterphobic, which is perfectly alright and acceptable. Muggle's have these little boxes that take them to different floors of those really tall buildings they have, since it would be a killer to walk up all those stairs, and they don't have brooms to fly up there. So they've come up with elevators, and when Oliver and I had to go with our teams to that convention in London, we all stayed in a Muggle hotel. But the elevator got stuck between floors, and that's when I realized I really didn't like them, and I really didn't like the small space."

By this point, you realize there's not going to be anything to this story. You start to look for a way to change the subject, but they're on a roll now, and Wood has picked up the ball.

"But, see, it wasn't even that small, and it was just the two of us, so there really shouldn't have been a problem. We weren't sure exactly how to fix it, and we didn't want anyone else to get on it unfixed if we just levitated it to the nearest floor, so we pressed the little button to call for help and waited. We were perfectly safe. At least, I thought so-"

"We were stuck in an elevator!"

"-but she was freaking out and pacing around and babbling about how we were going to die in this muggle elevator-"

"I was not!"

"-and I finally got so sick of it that I just kissed her to make her shut up. It was quite effective, really," he adds.

You can hear the blood pounding in your head. Did you just hear what you thought you heard? Did they mean to say they'd kissed? Were they lying? Were they joking?

No, they're laughing. They're sitting there laughing. You glance to the side, where you can just catch your reflection in the corner of the looking glass. You must admit, it is quite entertaining. Your face has turned red and it appears that your eyes have bugged out a bit.

"Miss Bell, Mr Wood, may I be frank?"

You don't even wait for their nods of assent.

"Are the two of you an item? Are you now dating? Can we expect a miniature Quidditch team from the pair of you in the future?"

Bell laughs as Wood's eyes widen at the mere thought, and she pats his hand as if to comfort him. "There won't be an entire Quidditch team from us, because why would I ever want to have that many children? But yes, the rumors are true. Oliver and I are dating."

The look they give each other is so sickeningly sweet that you're not sure you'll ever be able to find the right words to describe it.

But you're sure as hell going to try.