Oliver Wood & the Reluctant Contestant

Reluctance

Oliver was beyond angry, he was furious enough to hex his teammates into oblivion. James had tricked him into signing the contract to appear on The Ultimate Bachelor! Oliver in his right mind opted to refuse, but then he found there was a hex on the contract. If he didn't follow through, his broom would burn into ashes before it got up in the air. At least til the season started but he couldn't make it that long without flying! So now he was standing in dress robes that the show had forced him into, waiting for the twenty "Lovely" ladies.

His nightmare come true! He did not have time for this! But he couldn't stay off the broom that long! Not to mention how was he to train the team! 

!

Hermione looked around uncomfortably. She felt so out of place. There were nineteen other beautiful girls in the carriage with her, god this took her back to fourth year but instead of watching the carriage with the beautiful Beauxbaton girls she was in it.

Hermione was pretty sure she preferred being the spectator.

!

Oliver spotted the pure white carriage. He cursed his teammates one more time before he faced every guy's dream but his, it felt like.

!

Hermione opened up her piece of paper that told her what order she would some out. 20. Of course she was last after all she was the most well known girl in the past decade.

Harry Potter's best friend. Of course they wanted to save her for last.

Hermione vowed to make sure Ginny paid her back. Hermione gave a heavy sigh. Her mind began to wonder who it was that was the bachelor not that she planned on staying.

!

Oliver had gone through five girls, which sounded wrong in all ways but he just didn't care anymore.  Let's just say he wanted to get his broom and fly far far away. As the sixth approached, Oliver looked up. "Alicia Spinnet?"

"Captain?" Alicia said out of pure instinct. 

Oliver thanked Merlin, at least he could have a decent conversation with one of these girls. But he wasn't so keen on the romance part with ones of the girls he had trained at Hogwarts. It'd be like dating James, female or not. 

!

Hermione watched the girls chat idly. She didn't recognize anyone there. No wait that one blonde looked familiar. Where had Hermione seen her?

!

Oliver's cheeks hurt from faking a smile so much. Out of the ten girls he met, he only liked two. Maybe he could convince the producers to let him eliminate 18 so the show could end faster... it would certainly speed up the process and let him go back to the pitch rather quicker.

!

Oh my goodness Hermione knew exactly where she had seen the blonde from before. She had been on a cover of a magazine that Hermione had found when she was cleaning up Ron's room. Hermione fought the urge to laugh. This was almost too funny to be true. But the woman was certainly beautiful. And from the looks of it, she knew it too. 

!

Oliver rubbed his temple. Only one more to go. Thank goodness, he didn't know how much more he could take. He was beyond ready for this show to be over. Granted, not all of them were bad persay. Some of the latter ones were actually pleasant. But he was no more keen on dating then he was when the press had ambushed the stadium. 

However he was definitely not ready for the next contestant. On the other hand neither was she.

!

Hermione had to gather up her wits and skirt as she ascended the marble stairs, because of course she was the one in a long gown and heels, yet she was the one that had to walk up marble stairs, not the so called bachelor.

"Wait Hermione Granger?" Oliver asked bewildered recognizing the female right away. Not that most wouldn't. If Oliver could name a more famous witch, he'd be hesitating for a while. 

Hermione blinked a couple of times. "Oliver Wood. You are the bachelor?" Hermione asked breaking into a smile.

"Oh my god, Oliver do me a favor and please kick me out now. I didn't sign up for this Ginny needed my help and I'm perfectly fine with my single status." Hermione blurted out without  care, thinking he could be her ticket out of there. Never minding the cameras panned on them.

"I'm in the same boat. My teammates got me to sign the contract by pretending it was a goodbye card for my last captain. Then they made up all this stuff about why it looked like a book." Oliver made a face, he should have known.  "Now I can't believe I was fooled so easily. When I'm back they better watch out, I'm definitely not going to make the first few months fun." Oliver couldn't help but grin at the idea of making his beaters and staring chaser groan in pain. 

"So you're the Captain now for Puddlemere?"

"Um yes lass." Oliver said bashfully, not one to brag.

"Congrats." Hermione said hugging him, very proud. As she was with all of her Hogwarts alumni she'd fought with in the War. 

"Um Ms. Granger, Mr. Wood we have to move on." A timid voice said out of nowhere because the two had taken longer than was scheduled. 

Oliver looked at Hermione in his arms. He couldn't believe she was here but it was like she was heaven sent because she already knew him and she was... good, kind, smart, and someone he could call a friend.

Hermione couldn't believe that Oliver was it. She hadn't seen him for years not since the battle when  he had walked into the Hall so solemnly, looking like as if he was holding back tears as he carried Colin Creevy's limp and lifeless body.  Tears started to blur her vision. She couldn't cry but it was still too raw for her despite the two years.

"Mione are you?" Oliver asked, as he felt her body freeze. 

Hermione looked up to Oliver's face. "I'm fine."

But Oliver caught the single tear sliding down Hermione's face.

"No you're not. Tell me what's wrong?"

"I was thinking of Colin, you know he would've been a good photographer, everybody loved him despite how annoying he was with his camera." Hermione said with a small laugh that was nostalgic and a little bit bitter because so many lives had been cut too short.

Oliver faltered for a second. "Yes he would've been great. I would've requested him every time they wanted an interview."

Hermione gave a small laugh.

Oliver grabbed her arm. "Let's go face my worst nightmare."

"But I thought this is any guy's dream come true." Hermione tried to joke as she wiped her eyes, not caring about her makeup. 

"Give me twenty brooms to pick from any day, twenty women though." Oliver shuddered.