Strategy { Oliver Wood}

Chapter Twenty Seven

Melanie walked beside Oliver through the snow, and she had to admit to herself that while she had dreamed of that moment, when she had dreamed about it, it didn't feel so awkward. They didn't say anything to each other until they arrived to the village and even then it wasn't much conversation between them. She slipped her hands into her pockets of her coat to keep warm before turning to him.

"What do you want to do after Honeydukes?" she asked.

"Er..I don't know." Oliver said with a slight shrug.

"There's no shops you'd like to visit, you know like Spintwitches or something?"

"Well, I have all the quidditch supplies I need for now."

"That doesn't stop you from looking, does it?"

Oliver grinned. "No I suppose it hasn't in the past."

"We can go there afterwards." Melanie told him.

"I wouldn't want to bother you with going to check out quidditch products." Oliver told her.

"Oh nonsense. ' she waved her had before him. "Ace and I go into that shop all the time when we're here. Don't worry about it. " 

"Alright, to Honeydukes then Spintwitches."

"Sounds like a plan." Melanie smiled at him before they arrived to the sweet shop.

As they walked in, Oliver watched as Melanie greeted the shop owner as if they were old friends.

"Where's Andy and Ace?" the man asked her.

"I'm not sure where they ran off today, Mr. Flume. It's just Oliver and I today."

The man gave a kind smile in Oliver's direction before leading Melanie over to the display case where some of the pastries were. 

"Made those fresh this morning, you might want to try them out."

"I will! Thank you." Melanie told him before Ambrosius Flume walked away to assist another customer. She turned around to Oliver to see him watching her.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked curiously.

"You must come here a lot." Oliver said. "They seem to know you very well."

"I'm one of their best customers." Melanie chuckled. "I make it a point to go to Honeydukes when I come to Hogsmeade. Sometimes if I'm lucky I get to try one of their new products before they put it out. That's one of the best parts. Although, I'll admit, last year around Christmas, Andy, Ace, and I came here and they were giving out this limited time peppermint pastries..." she leaned into him to speak quieter, " they were awful."

She made a gagging face.

"Really? I can't imagine anything coming out of this shop tasting bad, besides the Bertie Bott's beans."

"Well, it could have just been me but I hate peppermint desserts. I don't mind having a peppermint, but in dessert. Nope, can't do it." she shook her head.

"Did Andy and Ace like them?"

"No." she laughed. "Andy was polite and ate hers but Ace spit his out. It was great."

Oliver followed her as she walked around checking out the selected sweets.

"You guys are all really close aren't you?" he said.

"Who?" she said half-listening as she looked at the Jelly slugs container.

"You and Ace...and Andy?"

"Oh well, duh, I've been friends with them...it feels like forever. I became friends with Andy first year, and Ace second year during quidditch."

"That's nice."

"Well, haven't you been friends with Todd since first year?"

"Yeah." Oliver nodded. "He's a great friend...most of the time."

The two chuckled. "The majority of the time that I don't see him around you, he's trying to hit up the Hufflepuff girls."

"I don't know what it is, but he really likes those Hufflepuffs."

"They got some lookers over there." Melanie said.

"What?!"

"They do! Oh come on, Wood, please don't pretend like you don't check out other students. It's like human nature to observe one another. I can look at girls and guys and say they're attractive without actually wanting to be with them."

"Oh."

"You don't check out other people?" she turned to him.

Oliver turned red in the face.

"Wait, you actually don't?"

"Not really." Oliver admitted scratching the back of his head. "Not unless Todd points it out or something."

Melanie pursed her lips together for a moment before dropping the subject and moving onto another display case full of crystallized pineapple chunks.

Ace walked into the Ravenclaw Common Room to find Andy and Jenna sitting on one of the sofas. He raised his brow in question remembering Melanie's "discovery" but made no mention of it before walking over and sitting across from them.

"Have you guys seen Melanie today?" he asked. "I saw her at breakfast but then..."

He saw the two girls exchanged saddened looks before Jenna looked up to him.

"Um...according to Brandon, he saw her in Hogsmeade with Wood."

"Oh...really?" Ace's eyes widened slightly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Ace." Jenna told him.

"What? No, don't be sorry. This is great, isn't it? Melanie got what she wanted." Ace said with a forced smile on his face. "Well, I'm gonna head upstairs for a bit I'll see you guys later."

Jenna turned back to Andy who had a frown on her face.

"Poor Ace.."

When Melanie arrived back to the Ravenclaw tower, she headed up the girl's dorm with her bagful of sweets and found Andy lying on her bed, enjoying a lazy afternoon.

"There you are!" Andy said sitting up. "You've been gone all day!"

"Well, not really, I was in the castle reading before I went to Hogsmeade."

"With Wood."

"Yes with Wood. Goodness, Hogwarts is full of gossip queens." she chuckled.

"Brandon saw you two at Hogsmeade while he was there."

"Oh well, that explains it then."

"What did you get?" Andy asked leaving her bed and climbing onto Melanie's.

"The usual, pastries and chocolate. I figured I'd detox from pie for the time being."

"How did it go?"

"Honeydukes was Honeydukes not much has-"

"Come on, Mel, you know what I'm talking about...how did it go with you and Oliver? It was practically a date."

"To be honest, it was not what I expected, but it was interesting."

'Interesting?"

"Yes...interesting."