CHAPTER 24

I finally understand the impact of Quidditch in people's lives –how it builds the character. The thrill of a sport where winning is nothing unless there is teamwork, the skill each player has that makes the team unique, and the driven passion that some –if not all – have that makes them totally stand out.

I realized that everyone has different feelings when it comes to Quidditch.

Some people like Quidditch. Some love Quidditch.

And then there's Oliver Wood.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE. BEST EAT THOSE GREENS AND THOSE CARBS. YOU'RE GONNA NEED ALL THE ENERGY! WE CAN'T WIN IF YOU'RE ALL WEAK AND BEAT–YOU ALL BETTER START PUTTING THOSE CUCUMBERS IN YOUR MOUTHS. SAVE THE PIE FOR LATER!"

"FRED! GEORGE! STOP EATING THE BUNS! YOU'VE BEEN AT IT SINCE LAST NIGHT!"

"KATIE! SPIT THAT CHEWING GUM OUT AND EAT SOME OF THESE BUNS!"

"OI, POTTER! THAT'S ENOUGH. YOU HAVE TO BE AS LIGHT AS POSSIBLE SO YOU CAN RIDE THAT BROOMSTICK OF YOURS FASTER."

"WHERE THE HELL IS ALICIA, ANGELINA? I TOLD HER TO COME RIGHT AWAY!"

"—EARTH TO WOOD! I CAME AS I EARLY AS I COULD. I WAS THE FIRST TO COME!"

Today was the final match for the Quidditch Cup and we were up against the Slytherins. Everyone was fortunately relaxed about it but Wood, who was clearly not having it.

"Hey… uh…" I tugged on his Quidditch uniform, trying to pull him down to his seat. The guy was so frantic about everyone else so much that he was practically climbing on the table from all that nagging. "I think they're more than capable of handling themselves. You should really eat something, you know." He had barely touched his food.

"She's right, Ollie. You can't expect Harry to catch the Snitch on time if you yourself are falling behind the goalposts." Jeanine defended, making quick glances from Harry to Wood. The Quidditch captain had specifically instructed Harry to catch the Snitch only when Gryffindor was ahead by one hundred and forty points.

Wood took a quick look at Jeanine then me and sat down. He still couldn't relax. "Alright. The Slytherin team has gotten cocky, but don't let them get a rise out of you. They're still stiff competition." He eyed all the players one by one. "But we've got three penetrating Chasers, two unbeatable Beaters, the fastest Seeker…" he suddenly shrugged. " –oh, and me, I guess."

Fred and George snickered and smiled menacingly.

Harry chuckled and spoke this time. "Come on, Wood. Don't be so hard-on yourself."

The entire team burst out in laughter and sorry to say, I couldn't help but join in. Jeanine, especially, practically had herself wetting her pants from all the excitement now that another side to Harry Potter's humor was out of the bag. Surely, he didn't get that from Ron and Hermione. He must have picked it up from the twins… unless he was just a natural.

I looked at Wood to see his reaction. I laughed even harder after seeing him shake his head with disbelief and look at Harry with a disappointed expression.

"Oh, come on, Oliver. He was just trying to release some tension." That was probably a wrong move to say as he shot me a horrified look. The rest of them laughed out even harder.

"What? I'm serious! It wasn't an innuendo!" I protested out loud. Wood, on the other hand seemed to have loosened up and started laughing.

"You really need to be careful with the things you say." He scolded lightheartedly. I smiled sheepishly at him.

"Oh, let her say whatever she wants. It's called freedom of speech!" added Fred jokingly. "Right, Elizabeth Jamecey?" He quickly stole a glance and winked at me, before turning back to Wood. I looked away as I felt my cheeks heat up all of a sudden. It's been too long since he last pulled something like that.

Well, What did I say? He'll come around, right?

I later asked Wood if he could step out for a minute so we could talk and he was more than willing to oblige. So, just outside the Great Hall, we were standing face to face, ignoring the pathetic ridiculed chants some of the Slytherins were saying. I caught a glimpse of Pucey in his uniform, and what I swear looked like he was glancing at Wood and I. I couldn't tell so much because I didn't want Wood to see me staring at his numero uno opponent. As devilishly good-looking as he may be especially with that uniform of his, I found myself admiring Wood in his instead. Most especially when his uniform was tightly snug that his chest was becoming more prominent.

"What's up?" He leaned forward as his towering height tried to match with mine.

"I… uh –"

"—Oliver!" came a female voice. It was Lucy.

"Oh, Hi, Elizabeth!" she then gave me a quick bear hug before facing Wood.

"You needed something, Luc?"

Lucy shifted her eyes from Wood to me and as if she understood that we were in the middle of a conversation, she answered, "Nope! Just wanted to wish you good luck! The rest of the guys are at the pitch, making sure them Slytherins won't try anything funny with the equipment!" She then gave me a playful wink. "Be seeing you!" and just like that, she skipped happily away from us.

Wood turned to me, acting like Lucy never made her appearance. "Sorry –You were saying?"

I fumbled with the object in my hands and eventually revealed the charm he gave me. "Here, you should put this on for good luck."

Looking surprised and confused, he said, "No, no. I'm wearing yours already, see?" He lifted his hand and showed me my bracelet. "Besides, I gave you that, didn't I?"

I shook my head and found myself smiling along with the butterflies that were maniacally dancing in my gut. "I'm just lending it. This brought you good luck since first year and I thought you should let it serve its purpose for the last time." This was perhaps the most important day for him. More important than N.E.W.T.s even.

Should I have known that Wood was going to hug me like Lucy –but giving himself a face full of hair— I would have washed my head this morning. I decided to give my hair a one day pass in washing since it was starting to frizz from the weather and the frequent showering. It just had to be today, didn't it?

This was the first time he has ever hugged me. I felt his seriously toned muscles –from his pectorals, to his deltoids, all the way to his biceps and forearms that despite their hypertonic state, gently secured themselves around me. He also had that sandalwood scent that made me melt the moment I smelled him. He smelled like comfort. He smelled like home.

I smelled him again, but this time, trying to savor his scent.

I knew I was against smelling people and that the act itself is maddening, but this was a major exception.

Slowly letting go and ignoring the stares that bystanders were giving, his face was suddenly brimming with happiness. "You're too bloody nice for your own good, you know that?"

Wood's fingers found themselves trailing to a lock of my hair and tucked it behind my ear. "You smell really nice, by the way." He said, chuckling like a lovesick idiot. He just practically admitted he smelled me...

Terrific! We're both mad.

My face was perhaps redder than the red sea as a wave of complete heat washed up all the way not just to my face. Screw my sprinting heart; it was running a bloody world marathon! I pursed my lips and tried to restrain a smile from forming. His scent still lingered along my nose. Oh, Merlin's bloody beard.

Trying to hide my embarrassment, I changed the topic. "Come on, let's get you stuffed up. It's not fair you're forcing your members to binge eat like that when you yourself can't do the same."

Dammit, Wood! You can't keep doing this! This is totally unfair!

Later that day, the most awaited event that everyone's been waiting for had finally come. Today was strangely the ideal day for a match. The sun was out, the sky was clear as it was dementor-free, the weather was just too bloody perfect. It was as if the gods have planned this perfect day without a broomstick out of place.

Even though the Slytherins were leading by ten points, it was pleasing to watch the match as none of the Gryffindors were frowning and were obviously giving it all they've got. Harry was zooming around faster than any of all the players from both teams; the twins were impressively hitting the bludgers as accurately as ever; Angelina, Alicia and Katie were all tossing the Quaffle to each other smoothly as if it they were dancing while Wood was defending the hoops as fast as he was in the previous matches and lessons.

I was able to spot Pucey flying about with the Quaffle, almost earning another score for Slytherin had it not been for Wood's quick reflexes. At that instance, I could not help but reflect on my relationship with the two players.

Call it silly, but I saw metaphors in their match. Pucey as the player himself, who, all this time, I had my eyes on, mentally forced him to return my feelings and score with me, was being blocked by Wood. Oliver Wood was protecting me from an unnecessary and unwanted score. Funnily enough, I think even the Quaffle was perfect to attribute it to feelings… since you know, feelings are usually tossed from one place to another. One person to another.

Merlin, I'm really overthinking, aren't I?

But what was surely passed from one person to another was the Quidditch Cup inside the Gryffindor common room. We had bagged the cup that every captain from the Gryffindor team has been trying to win ever since Charlie Weasley's time –according to Jeanine and the twins. Merlin, I never really cared for Quidditch matches until this happened. I was ecstatic and celebrated with all the Gryffindors.

As usual, the house had a celebration party with a ridiculously yet expected amount of firewhiskey and underage drinking. This time, I had taken it upon myself to pour my own cup with water and pretend that I was drinking from it so that people won't ever have to offer me a cup. I'm certainly not going to let history repeat itself.

"SEE, HARRY? I TOLD YOU YOU'D WIN! I NEVER DOUBTED YOU!" Exclaimed a buzzed Jeanine to Harry as I was watching her from behind a table.

Harry had never looked so awkward –same goes for his two best friends as they were being offered loads of firewhiskey. "ER –THANKS, JEANINE!"

I took a very small sip –if you could even call it that still – and went up to Ron and Hermione. "YOU GUYS ALRIGHT?"

"IF YOU COULD CALL BEING FORCED TO CONSUME ALCOHOL AT THIS AGE AS ALRIGHT, THEN NO." Said Hermione, looking nervous. Ron nodded in agreement.

"HERE, TAKE MY CUP AND JUST PRETEND YOU'RE DRINKING. THAT'LL LESSEN THE OFFERS. DON'T WORRY, THIS IS JUST WATER." I handed Hermione my cup and excused myself to get Ron his own with the right amount of liquid.

I went up to the makeshift bar that was being managed by a bunch of sixth years and I asked for a cup of water, making a lame excuse that I needed it so I could take my non-existent medicine. Successfully obtaining such a drink, I made my way to back until I felt a hand grab my arm.

"DIDN'T THINK YOU'D GO FOR SECONDS." Said the Scottish voice that belonged to the proud Quidditch Captain as he leaned in closer. Surprisingly, he doesn't look as wasted as most of the students here… nor does he smell like alcohol.

"IT'S NOT FOR ME. AND THIS IS JUST WATER. I'M SAVING SOMEONE FROM UNDERAGE DRINKING."

"THAT'S QUITE CHIVALROUS OF YOU!" he said playfully.

I laughed. "I KNOW!"

"LET'S TAKE IT TO THEM THEN!" Agreeing, Wood followed me to Ron and gave him the false cup of alcohol. The two third years gave us a weird look before going back to their chattering.

After that, Wood had asked me to step out of the common room with him. I tagged along with the sober Captain to god knows where. Any place was fine as long as it wasn't in his dormitory. Plus, it's safe to assume nothing intimate is going to happen given that none of us are buzzed.

"Why aren't you drinking, by the way?" I inquired. This was his moment after all. Naturally, he should be back in the common room, drinking to his heart's desire.

"It's fine. I can drink anytime anyway." He glanced at me. "And I should ask you the same thing."

"Not really into those." I said dryly.

"But you drink butterbeer, right?"

I cocked an eyebrow at him, knowing what he was thinking. "Yeap. But it's non-alcoholic ."

Amused, he said, "It's not something I'd instill –drinking alcohol. It's fun every now and then, but the hangovers get awfully nasty as you get older."

A playful smile suddenly formed on my face. "So you're saying you're old?"

"Of course not! I'm still in my prime!"

I sniggered to myself. "Whatever you say… Old Man." Wood jokingly gave me a nasty look.

After what seemed to be ten minutes of walking and comforting silence, he led me to the… library?

"Why are we at the library?" he didn't have any books or parchment on him. And he certainly didn't look like he was going to study.

"I don't know," He scratched the back of his neck. "was the first place I thought of that wouldn't get us into trouble for wandering about." We took a seat in our old spot –the corner at the far end of the room where it was rather difficult to see its occupants. The library was empty, possibly due to the fact that it was a Friday night.

"Wouldn't Madam Pince scold us for being here without any homework or books?"

He grabbed some books from a nearby shelf and positioned them on our desks, making it look like we were reading. "There, problem solved."

I let out a soft laugh and shook my head in amusement. "So what's our agenda today?"

"Nothing, really. Just wanted to talk." His tone was as relaxed as his face was.

"Okay? Well, congratulations on your greatest achievement since Charlie Weasley." I softly gave him a round of applause.

"Thank you. Thank you." He pretended to thank a non-existent crowd of audience. "Oh, which reminds me—" he went through his pockets and took out his charm necklace, handing it over. "Here you go. Now you'll get your own luck when your time comes."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Er… when you reach seventh year, I mean." His voice wavered a bit. He cleared his throat and continued, "But listen. Thank you for this. It meant a lot that you still lent it even though you're the current owner." He moved closer to me and held my hand with his semi-rough one. I could once again smell his scent that now had a hint of soap which told me he was freshly showered. Painfully enough, that alone drove my head wild but was immediately run over by the maddening guilt. I'm really asking for things to get worse, aren't I? I bit my lip and looked down.

"Are you alright?" he must have noticed my uneasiness as I kept avoiding his eyes and desperately tried to keep a straight face to hide my embarrassment. "No, really. If there's something bothering you… or if I'm bothering you –"

I quickly shook my head in protest. "Of course not. You could never bother me." HOLD UP. I DID NOT JUST SAY THAT.

"So there's something else bothering you then? It's okay, you could tell me. You've practically put up with my crap all this time. It's the least I could do."

I couldn't reject his offer especially not with how sincere and concerned his hazel eyes were looking right past the windows to my soul. I thought for a moment, trying to word it out properly.

"Have you ever been in a situation where your heart keeps saying yes but your mind says otherwise?"

"Yeah, all the time, I guess?" he immediately answered.

Not the answer I was hoping for.

"Could you be a little more specific?" he added.

Shit.

My eyes shifted from across the moderately dim and empty room. Wood was certainly keeping his eyes locked on me. "Have you ever realized that you wanted someo –something so bad but kept telling yourself you can't because it's wrong?" Whew. That was close.

Pausing, his face obviously showed he was going through his thoughts, until he finally spoke. "Yes. Why?"

"What did you do?"

"I went for it still."

I frowned. "Why? You know it's wrong."

He breathed heavily and replied, "Sometimes, the right thing for you may be the wrong thing for someone else."

That hit me hard. That even made my heart crash as my guilt was starting to take flight. "I wish I could say that helps… but it doesn't." I slowly withdrew my hand from his hold. It was only then I realized we were subtly holding hands.

Wood looked guilty as it made me start to wallow in sin. I felt myself sink in the dark abyss of my self-conscious shell. "Here, let's switch it then, maybe this'll help somehow – what feels wrong may sometimes end up being right. You'll never really know until you give things a chance, right?"

That just bloody confused me even more! Jesus Christ! This is all that stupid Blondie's fault! If only she had kept her boyfriend on a god damn leash then maybe this would never have happened!

"You know, you could just tell it to me straight so I could at least know if the advice I'm giving you is appropriate." Wood was now at a dangerously close proximity to my face as my eyes started to trail from his eyes to his lips. I was beginning to feel the heat from our breaths and just by his damn proximity.

I swear to god, he needs to back off right now if he knows what's good for him.

Because I'm pretty sure friends don't come up to each other's faces this close in a serious conversation. There is absolutely nothing in the friendship rulebook that says you're allowed to cross the socially acceptable range of proximity!

I shook my head, looking away.

"Really…" he suddenly lowered his voice… That calm, sweet and caring voice he had. It was as if his voice was some dangerous spell to be placed under. It instantly made my entire being relax and I knew I was held captive.

Shit.

"What's bothering you?"

That girlfriend of yours.

The fact that it's her… and not me.

That fact I can't be with you.

Or fall in love with you.

Or even…

He carefully swept a hair strand from my face and I found my eyes locking with his. His eyes were as bright as the moon whose color reminded me of autumn; warm and gentle.

We looked at each other a little too long to be just friends…

You'll never know until you give things a chance… right?

I can't take this anymore…

"Eliza –"

It was as if a whole new world opened up and consumed my entire being. I didn't think it was possible, but all the worries, the anguish were gone. I didn't know where I stood anymore, but I didn't care. I didn't care because the only person who mattered was there with me.

And maybe this is what heaven feels like,

My first kiss.

I slowly pulled back to find a struck Oliver Wood staring back at me in silence with his lips parted.

He looked like I just stabbed him with a knife out of the blue.

SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST DO!?

HOLY SHIT.

In all the days I have regretted doing something extremely impulsive, this one tops them all.

Wood was still locked in the same expression. And this made me panic even more.

Shaking my head in remorse, I fumbled with my words, not engaging in eye contact. "Shit! Shit! I… I didn't mean…"

Ah fuck.

I pushed back my chair to make my exit with whatever dignity I have left.

"I… I… I'm so… sorry! I'm really sorr—"

And in an instant, an arm pulled me back and my words were cut off.

Not by his own words,

But by his lips.

A/N: Hey Guys! I know most of you have been waiting for this moment and here it is! This is actually one of the few chapters that I've really been wanting to post ever since (but we all know I can't just skip to this chapter on a whim). Anywho, hope this chapter did not disappoint! Thank you to my readers for keeping up with my fanfic and know that I appreciate you all oh so much!

Let me know what you guys think!