Serendipity: An Oliver Wood Fanfiction

Chapter 11

Oliver and Alhena avoided one another in the first couple weeks since Christmas break. In fact, Alhena had gone as far as to remember where he was, and what time it was when she'd see him. Unconsciously memorising his schedule so she knew where not to be, and when not to be there.

Flint had expressed his anger towards her getting kicked off the team as soon as she'd stepped foot into the common room, but she didn't care about Flint. It was his mention of Quidditch, the idea that she truly was finished with it, that struck her like a punch to the gut. 

She'd cried soundlessly into her pillow the first few nights back, and though she didn't tell Willow, didn't share her sorrows. Willow would hear her, and sometimes shed a few tears of her own. In all her life, she'd never seen or heard Alhena cry. It was a painful thing to witness. 

Alhena had been replaced by one of the younger students, and though she knew they'd have no choice but to replace her, it angered her to see them playing without her. And so during every Quidditch practise, no matter which house, Alhena would sneak out of her dorm to watch. 

She liked to watch from a window on the seventh floor, where no one ever really went. It meant she could watch in solitude. It meant no one would see the pained expression on her face whenever a goal was scored. At every action the Chaser would make. 

One day, during a Gryffindor Quidditch practise, Alhena stood by the window on the seventh floor as she usually would. She'd been watching the Potter boy chasing the golden snitch, when something caught her eye. 

Alhena leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the cool glass window, her warm breath fogging the glass. In the distance, at a tree near the Quidditch pitch, sat a boy. He was tall with brown hair and wore a Gryffindor scarf. Alhena frowned, squinting her eyes to make out who it was. 

"Oliver?" She almost laughed, it seemed he had the same idea as her, or perhaps he only came to watch the Gryffindor games. "I wonder if he watches all the teams play.." She mumbled to herself. 

And he did. Two days later, Alhena was on the seventh floor again, watching the Hufflepuffs training their new Seeker, and there he was. Sitting in that same tree, in that same scarf. She began to wonder if it losing Quidditch had hit him as hard as it had hit her. 

A conflict rose within Alhena that afternoon, one that she couldn't extinguish, even after she left the seventh floor, even during dinner that night, even when she laid her head on her pillow to sleep and even when she attended her first class the next morning. 

So when it came to the Ravenclaw teams training, and Alhena spotted Oliver in the tree once again, she made a decision. With one hand on the glass, Alhena sighed. She realised she'd been watching him just as much as she watched the actual Quidditch game. Though he didn't do anything but sit patiently. 

She imagined he was critiquing their game, like she usually did.

"You're an idiot, Alhena." She mumbled as she turned away from the window, and hurried down the stairs. "You're going to regret this, and you know it." She continued to scold herself, all the way through the school and outside. 

She stood on the steps to the exit, one hand shielding her eyes from the sun as she scanned the area. It looked different from down there, almost not like the same place compared to what she'd see on the seventh floor. 

The walk to the tree felt like a long one, and she did her best to avoid being seen for as long as she could. On the Quidditch field, Jason Samuels swung his bat, hitting a bludger at the seeker. Alhena saw Oliver visibly cringing at it. 

"I thought the same thing." She spoke aloud, not looking at him as he turned to her in shock, almost falling off the branch he sat on. "He should've hit the chaser, now team two is way ahead." She continued, her eyes on the game.