Captain - An Oliver Wood Fanfiction

Chapter 21 - I did it, dad. I practiced all summer and I finally did it

Christmas break had finally come around and Erin was ready for it. Although she absolutely loved Hogwarts, it was good to be home again for a couple weeks after not seeing her parents for months.

The train ride went fast, as she shared a cabin with Tamsin, Beatrice and Anthony. Michael wasn't going home this Christmas, as he had a little bit of a difficult home situation.

"We're here!" Tamsin said, happy to be back in London. They exited their compartment and waited at one of the exits. Oliver entered the hallway too, shortly smiling at Erin. They hadn't really talked much since that one time on the quidditch pitch. They were okay, just not as close as they used to be.

"Glad to be home?" Erin asked him as he joined them at the exit.

"Yeah, sure. Always good to be back home. How about you? Ready to see your dad?"

Erin nodded. She so badly wanted to talk to him.

The train doors slid open and students started racing out, looking for their parents. Oliver found his quickly and went over to them. His parents seemed really excited to see him, which was nice to see. Erin's dad also used to be first in line, ready to scoop up his little girl and tell her how much he had missed her. Erin screened the platform for either her parents or Benjamin, but she couldn't find either yet.

"They're not here?" Oliver asked, who was standing a couple feet away.

"Mum's always a little late. Likes to avoid the masses." Erin's mum never liked to leave her husband alone for long, so she was always a little late so she wouldn't have to deal with the hustle and bustle.

"Well, have a very nice holiday, happy Christmas", Oliver said with an awkward smile as he left with his parents.

"Happy Christmas", Erin mumbled.

"Who was that girl? Is she your girlfriend?" his mum immediately asked. Oliver rolled his eyes. He had definitely expected that.

"No, mum, just a friend", he said.

"Well, I wouldn't blame you. She's really pretty." Oliver sighed. Yeah, she was.

Oliver had felt really weird these past days. He was happy to be back on good terms with Erin, but he felt as if something was missing. He wanted to be so much closer to her and his last conversation with Percy had given him so many questions. It was a couple days ago, after their trip to Hogsmeade. It was only morning when he had spotted them at Dervish and Banges, looking over the new Firebolt, Erin and Anthony. He had been in a bad mood all day and he knew why. He wasn't stupid, he knew that what he was feeling was jealousy, but he couldn't quite figure out where these feelings had come from.

Did he like her? Like, did he romantically like her? He had never, ever had a crush on anyone, so it was a little hard for him to figure out. He was convinced he'd never get feelings for someone from an opposing quidditch team, but then why was he still feeling like that towards her?

Since Percy, his best mate, was currently dating Penelope Clearwater, Oliver figured he could help him out, so he went to talk to him.

"Perce?" he asked that night in the common room. Percy was reading some book on Magical Law Enforcement that bored Oliver to death.

"Yeah", he said, not looking up.

"How did you know you liked Penelope?" That did seem to catch his attention, as he looked over his book suspiciously.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Oliver said, "how did you know you had feelings for her?" Percy closed his book and thought about it for a while.