Acquaintance - Oliver Wood/OC

Chapter 18: A Date Declined, a Non-Date Accepted

I had gotten quite good at the art of avoiding Oliver as I had spent more time than what might be considered healthy doing so. Yet it was distinctly harder now that we were officially friends. What made it even harder than a normal amount of hard was that the more I avoided him, all the more difficult it became. Everyday was like entering a new level, with a faster pace and auxiliary obstacles. The Gryffindor captain wasn't known to back down easily, and so I suffered.

When he called for me in hallways I pretended not to hear. When he and Andrea came up to me after classes I would keep the conversation concise. When he had booked a practise right after mine I had to hurry to the locker rooms before his team got to the pitch. When he came up to the Hufflepuff table to tell me about whatever ridiculous escapade Flint had got up to this time, I had to lie and say I was in a hurry for Defence Against the Dark Arts.

The less I spoke when we saw each other, the more we instead saw of each other. It was like I was throwing a stone into the abyss and the abyss threw three more back me in return.

What bothered me more was that I couldn't help but worry about the day when he would finally back down. The fact was, every time I failed to avoid him, my day got a little bit better. I wanted to talk to him after class when he would sit on one of the desks with his bag hung loosely around his shoulder. I wanted to hear what Flint had done, not because I cared all that much, but because it was coming from his mouth, and I would get to hear his incessant rambles about conduct and rules in Quidditch, which Flint was intransigent to. They were things the public might consider below average qualities in a person, but I had come to adore, strangely enough.

My feeble attempts only degenerated further when I met Andrea and Oliver together in a hallway on my way outside for Care of Magical Creatures.

I was distinctly warm. The weather outside was raw and I had dressed accordingly. Taking care of Mackled Malaclaws in icy rain called for precautions if one didn't want to lose any fingers in the process. I was already at risk of losing fingers from the sharp bite of the little creatures. I didn't need another incentive that would accentuate the already existing hazard.

"The Rotfang Conspiracy!" Oliver greeted me with a solid high five.

"Here to conspire some conspiracies and advent some adventures!" Andrea added.

I smiled and greeted their lightly dressed selves in comparison to me. "For a group of mostly Quidditch players we sure had a hard time catching that shiny little Nogtail."

There was a moment of silence, which I normally would have filled with some commonplace chit-chat, something I had learned Oliver was no good at. Even disregarding that fact, he still seemed too busy fixing his hair to even realise the situation. I was not to engage in commonplace chit-chat now though. I had sworn off that sort of thing a long time ago (last week to be exact). But who needs to be exact? Life was full of hyperboles and understatements.

"Alright! Anyway," I began, looking awkwardly everywhere but at them, starting over my shoulder and concluding straight down the hallway where I was headed. "Class starts in a couple of minutes, I'll be late if I don't head off now." I said, leaving before we could say our goodbyes. My pulse soared thinking of the next time I would talk to him again, seeing as I wasn't exactly sure if I would. Our acquaintance wasn't exactly known to be constant and reliable. It felt oddly similar to balancing a very slippery object on another even more slippery and also small object.

"Will!" Called Oliver's voice from beside me. He actually managed to calm my heartbeat for once.

"...ow." He finished lamely, diverting his eyes. He stopped beside me and I continued walking. I did have a lesson to get to, no matter if I genuinely was late for it or not.