Finder's Keeper || Oliver Wood [1]

Chapter 17: The Date

The first Hogsmeade trip of the year was the first one Jessica had ever been nervous about. Her other roommates, Kaitlin and Margaux, were still relaxing in bed by the time she was up and getting ready. Bethany was kind enough to help her dress up a bit more nicely than usual for her date, even when she continued to teasingly say that she would have preferred it if Oliver was who Jessica was going out with and not Terence. Jessica brushed her words aside, knowing that her friend was just joking and something like that seemed highly unlikely to happen. Oliver Wood just didn't seem to be the type to date — his number one priority was Quidditch.

Jessica trudged down the steps from the girls dormitory and down to the common room. Not a lot of her housemates were up yet considering it was one of the earliest Hogsmeade trips of the year. There were still a few older students already awake and ready to head into the wizarding town, and one of them happened to be the Quidditch-crazy boy that Jessica and Bethany were talking about only moments earlier.

"Hey, Wood," she greeted with a smile, detouring from her way to the portrait and to where he sat by the fireplace instead. "Are you going to Hogsmeade today, too?"

Oliver looked up at the call of his name and nodded at her question.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for Carson and Percy," he replied. "I just got up early to work on our training schedules."

"Already?" Jessica said incredulously. Oliver pointed at something behind her. She turned around to see that the Gryffindor Quidditch Team line up had already been posted on the bulletin board. Her heart fluttered in excitement. Even though she already found out beforehand that she had made the team, this felt like it had been solidified — that she was officially now a Gryffindor Quidditch Team Chaser.

"We need to get started as soon as possible," Oliver said determinedly. "I'm almost done with this rough draft, so I just need to know the class and prefect schedules of everyone else on the team and then I can finalize it."

Jessica chuckled in amusement, knowing that there was no stopping him now that he was all riled up for this year's season.

"Where's Faye?" Oliver then asked, expecting Bethany to always be next to Jessica like she usually was.

"Bethany's upstairs — she's not going with me."

"Why?"

"Oh, I... well, I'm going out with Higgs today."

Oliver paused. He completely forgot that Jessica had agreed to go on a date with Terence Higgs of all people. All the excitement and focus he had regarding his Quidditch team had distracted him recently. And now, he was reminded of how bothered he felt about Jessica and Terence going on a date.

"Oh, that's today?" Oliver asked dumbly.

"Yeah. Uh, how do I look?"

Jessica was clad in a light burgundy sweater, a denim skirt above the knees, and long black socks and matching black shoes. Oliver didn't know much about women's fashion, but there was no denying that she looked great. He then realized that she looked like she was even wearing a little bit of makeup. He blinked rapidly, suddenly caught off guard by her appearance.