*-- MEANDERINGabout| KATIE/OLIVER

[ritz]

Oliver wasn't much for sitting around and doing nothing. He loved activity, whether it be complex (like quidditch) or simple (like going for a walk). Mostly, he just hated sitting around alone for too long in his apartment, which was far too big for him to be in alone, for the most part. Pulling on a muggle coat, he headed out, not sure what he was going to do, but knowing that he needed to do it, else he was going to go stir crazy. Shoes on, he locked the door and tucked away his keys in the same pocket he kept his wand, and descended into the street.

He had no real destination when he started walking. He'd never taken enough time to explore his neighborhood, and he figured this was the time to start. As he walked, Oliver noticed that his neighborhood was full of interesting attractions; libraries, museums, coffee shops... plenty to do, plenty to see. At least, he figured, he couldn't get too bored in an area like this. He considered going into the large, almost intimidating, library, but instead ducked into a little coffee shop, ordering a latte - the pretentious drink he'd gotten addicted to while visiting Italy with the team a month before. Paying with the muggle money he kept only in this coat, Oliver smiled at the girl behind the counter, who blushed and giggled in response.

Immediately, his hackles went up. Did she recognize him? He thought he was one of the only wizards in the area. He didn't want press following him like they did his teammates who lived in Diagon Alley. He hated the press - he hated the girls who offered him their bodies in exchange for fame. He hated all of it, really, except playing for a solid team.

Oliver realized, as the girl handed him the paper cup containing his beverage (he never understood the use of paper cups - surely they weren't ideal for hot things) that she'd written a rather long number on it. A telephone number, if he remembered correctly from Muggle studies all those years ago. He stared at it a moment, then looked at the girl carefully, and informed her that it was unlikely he'd call. She didn't look pleased, and Oliver frowned. Wasn't honesty the best policy?

To avoid the barista's anger, he ducked back out into the street, and right into someone. Ah, sorry He managed, Scottish brogue thick as ever as he tried to steady his coffee and avoid spilling, Didn't mean to hit you.

[destiny]

If Katie hadn't suddenly remembered what day it was after scrambling to get up out of bed that morning, she might have thought that she was going to be late for work. She had jumped at the sound of her alarm clock going off at six-thirty that morning, knowing that she had to be up and at work to open the doors in an hour. And so she had literally run around like a chicken with her head cut off. The jeans from the night before were tossed back onto her body, followed by a crisp white shirt that she snatched from its hanger in the closet. She didn't pay attention to the fact that she had put a tank top of teal beneath the shirt, nor the fact that she had slipped her feet into a pair of heeled black boots. All that mattered was that she was late, and her boss wasn't overly forgiving.

But as she ran out into the kitchen, one hand behind her head while the other tried to secure her bunched up hair in a clip, Katie suddenly groaned. Her eyes fell to the clock sitting on the oven, one that also displayed the exact date that it was. That was when she realized that she didn't have to be anywhere, that she had woken herself up for no reason at all. And since she was Katie Bell, and therefore a strange person to begin with, she knew that she would not be able to fall back into bed and drift off to sleep once more. That part of her day had been and done before she had a chance to figure out what the heck was going on. Rubbing a hand over her tired eyes, Katie adjusted the clip a little in her hair before making her way to the bathroom to shower. At least if she was going to be up, she was going to enjoy a nice hot shower.

The feeling of the hot water running down her skin did wonders to wake up the rest of her body, easing the ache of her joints from the repetitive motion of putting books back on their shelves. Then there was the reaching down for things, and crawling to collect the money that the elderly women had dropped, but could not bend over to retrieve on their own. Nearly twenty minutes later Katie stepped out of the shower, dressing herself in clothes that were not quite as abused as the ones she had worn before as she had struggled to prepare for a job that would not be expecting her that morning. In another ten she had dried her blonde locks into their naturally wavy state, deciding that for today, she would just leave them as they were. They need not be pulled back if she wasn't going into work.

But at the thought of work, Katie glanced around her kitchen once more. She hadn't made coffee or anything, but her body was ready to go out and seize the day. With her destination in mind, the girl headed out the door, grabbing her purse from the kitchen table before she headed down the steps and up the street, aiming for the little coffee shop that she had come to know well from her early morning walks to work. The other ladies at the library liked to tease her about it, noting that she never came into work without some form of caffine in her hand, to which she simply smiled and continued on. They were all content with their strange form of tea, but Katie had become accustomed to drinking coffee over the past little while, and drink it she would until she no longer worked early in the morning.

She glanced around her, taking in the sights that she normally missed in her haste to get to work. And of course, like only Katie seemed to do, she ran into yet another person, without really paying attention to where it was that she was walking. "Oh my goodness, I am so...Oliver?!"

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He'd been ready to apologize again, putting his coffee down on the table near the door when she spoke his name. He froze up for a moment before meeting her eyes and immediately recognizing the girl in front of him. "Katie Bell!" He grinned, making quick work of pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head affectionately. He'd definitely missed her - that much was completely obvious to Oliver. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he would most definitely be able to make a very educated guess.

While he hadn't noticed much other than quidditch while he was at Hogwarts, he had certainly noticed Katie Bell. She was beautiful, that much was sure, but there was definitely more to it. It was strange, but Oliver remembered her as the one person who stood up to him while he was captain. Sure, the twins mocked, and Harry sometimes frowned, but Katie was the one who outright argued back. She had his attention even without knowing she had it, most of the time. He was drawn to that stubborn nature - he was drawn to her fighting spirit and strength of will. He had a feeling that was because he was never able to will himself to tell his father off - not until long after Katie was able to do it to him. That was definitely part of the extensive reason he was drawn to her.

They'd managed to stay friends after she graduated, but that all changed after the battle - which they'd arrived at together, no less. He knew it had something to do with Fred's death - her disappearance from his life, that was - but he never quite understood what had happened. It was a pain for Oliver - added to the pain from the loss - that apparently Katie had been pining after one of the twins when he himself had been pining after her - or at least been inexplicably drawn to her. Either way, her disappearance had hurt.

Somehow, though, Oliver found that he had forgotten all about that pain the moment he saw her, the moment he had her in his arms. Slowly releasing her, he smiled down at her beautiful face. "How're you doing, lass? Let me buy you a coffee, I feel like I've not seen you in decades."

[destiny]

The fact that he recognized his name was enough to convince Katie that she had the right boy and not someone who looked eerily like her friend from school. But before she could do anything further, Katie felt herself pulled into his strong arms and held there against his chest, his lips coming down to kiss the top of her head in the midst of his excitement. Despite herself, Katie felt her arms shift upward, wrapping around his until her hands rested gently on his biceps. Oh yes, just by the touch of him Katie could tell that it was Oliver Wood who now held onto her, for no one else in the history of the world had ever held onto her so tightly before. Save for one. But that had been a long time ago, back before things had turned as dark and dismal as they had. Back when she had still been a student who thought that the world would remain safe thanks to the adventures of a one year old boy.

And how wrong they had all been.

"Oliver," she breathed, a little shocked by the sound of her own voice. "It's been ages." And ages it really had been. The battle of Hogwarts had been almost three years ago, which meant that Katie had isolated herself from the wizarding world for almost three years as well following the death of Fred and the others. In a way, she supposed that she had never fully recovered from the trauma of the event that shaped and destroyed so many lives, and simply pushed it aside as if ignoring it would let it go away in time. It hadn't, which left Katie back at square one. But now was not the time to think about that, simply because she was in the arms of one Oliver Wood. Who, now that she thought about it, perhaps should not have been as pleased to see her as he was, considering the things the two of them had argued about back during their Hogwarts days.

With him as the team captain, he had made some calls and plays that were either risky or rather insensitive. And Katie had been the one to let him know about it. Instead of taking his word for granted as the others seemed to have done, she got up in his face a few times, and considering the height advantage he had on her, that seemed a rather interesting feat. There had been a time or two where Katie thought he was going to reach out and clock her, but he hadn't, whether it was because she was a girl or because he had enough self control not to, she hadn't discovered. But now that he was holding onto her, had kissed the top of her head and proudly declared that he wanted to buy her a cup of coffee to make up for lost time, Katie found that a smile of her own had grown on her lips. Apparently she had missed him as well.

"How have you been?" the girl asked softly, nodding her consent to sit down with him for a little while. She had nowhere else to be, but why not? It couldn't hurt after her run in with George, right? That had been bloody painful. "I think the last time I saw you, you had a lot of dead weight on your shoulders."

[ritz]

He couldn't help but frown at the way she recalled the last time they'd seen each other. Was that what their years of knowing each other came down to? A battle? Oliver tried to forget that day - he did a good job getting his life together afterward - as much as possible, only because thinking about things like that only served to tear people apart.

In the first year following the war, Oliver segregated himself from everyone, and allowed himself the time he needed to get over everything. What Katie said about having the 'dead weight' on his shoulders was more literal than he would have liked. Oliver ended up being one of the people moving the dead when everything was said and done. He was strong physically - that much was obvious to everyone - but that day he had also bore the emotional burden of the families who had lost someone.

He didn't mind carrying that load; he was strong enough mentally and physically to do so. However, Oliver would have liked to have bore the burden for someone like Katie; he would have liked to help someone who he could have, prior to the final battle, say he cared deeply about - someone who he wanted to be there for, even though she pushed him and everyone else away.

"I'd rather not talk about all that," He said quietly, "I try to never..." He trailed, shaking his head as though the thoughts and conversation would disappear. "I've been good," Oliver told her, trying to change the subject himself, "I'm playing for United, now... doing well. How're you?"

He would much rather talk about her, anyway. Everyone knew what he'd been up to - everyone knew how his years had passed. Katie, however, was an enigma, disappeared from the magical world, leaving each of them to wonder how their former friend had been. Even Alicia and Angelina hadn't seen the other girl, so there was no doubt that Katie's mystery of a life would be more interesting than his own. "Where've you been? I tried to write... I just..." His owl had come back, angry and frustrated each time.

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[destiny]

Katie cringed a little. She had chosen quite the wrong words to describe the last time she had seen Oliver Wood, knowing that there had literally been dead weight on his shoulders. Colin Creevey to be exact. The idiot boy just couldn't keep himself away from the fighting despite the fact that he was underage, and had been killed in the crossfire between the Order and the Deatheaters. Katie hadn't actually seen who it was that killed him, but she remembered choking up at the idea that the boy would no longer be there to stalk Harry with his camera, which had amused her greatly when she had been in school. Not exactly the most pleasant of memories to hold onto.

Guilt ridden by her carelessness, Katie took a small step closer and wrapped one of her hands around Oliver's larger one. "I'm sorry," she told him softly. "I didn't mean to make you think about it." He was surely able to recall the memory with clarity, which made her feel even worse. But to know that they had both been a part of something so awful really didn't help the situation either. The battle had taken a toll on each of them in a unique way, and while Oliver had been able to continue his life as a quidditch player in the wizarding world, Katie had felt that the pressures of her magic were just too great to ignore any longer. Thus she had left it, without a word to Oliver, or the girls who had been her best friends at Hogwarts. It had been almost three years since she had spoken to either Angelina or Alicia.

Her eyes lifted a little as he spoke again, clearly changing subjects away from the less pleasant topic that Katie had brought up. At least he was still playing quidditch, she thought to herself. Oliver had been a brilliant quidditch player back in their school days, despite the fact that his ways of keeping the team in shape were sometimes dangerous. That was really where all of their arguements sprung up. While most of the team mocked him behind his back, Katie was the only one who had full out yelled in his face because she felt he was being an ass. If she wanted to play for the Slytherin team, she'd have asked to transfer houses, she once said.

Not that she ever could have left, mind you.

"I've been alright," the blonde said, releasing his hand gently as she flashed him a small, apologetic smile. "I'm working at a library, so that keeps me plenty busy during the day. And since I was never one for the nightlife, I stay in to read a lot." Understatement, she thought. Not dating and not having many friends in the muggle world made Katie a little lonely sometimes, which even resulted in her contemplating the idea of getting a cat for company. She had always been much more of a dog person, but she figured that cats were independent, meaning that the poor thing wouldn't ruin the house while she was away at work each day. "Still surrounded by hundreds of adoring female fans?" she teased.

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[ritz]

"Thousands," Oliver corrected with a laugh, "But no, not really... I sort of try to avoid it... the press and all... that's why I live out here, a couple of streets over." He explained, waving absently in the direction of his home. It was strange, thinking of it as 'home' when it was just an apartment. But then, Oliver's apartment wasn't just an apartment... it was bigger than most houses.

It wasn't so much the size but the connotation of the word home that seemed strange. He never thought he would consider anything but his parents' house home - of course, he knew he would leave eventually and be an adult... he just never realized that he would cut emotional ties with the land that gave him his accent and his home for twenty years of his life. But he didn't think of it often - seeing Katie brought rushing back those twenty years, even though they were two years done by the time Oliver had been cut out of Katie's life.

People said that home was where the heart was, and Oliver guessed that was true; his heart was no longer with his father, and his mother didn't want him, if that was the case, so how could that farmhouse in Scotland be his home? Yes, London was different, but he was happy there, wasn't he? Or at least, happy enough. He'd be happier if the blond in front of him was back in his life, he decided right then and there.

Opening the door for her, he held it for her to enter the shop first, grabbing his own beverage again as he did. "Where's the library you work at? Maybe I'll stop in, visit..." He suggested loosely. After all, he didn't want to push her into seeing him too fast; obviously she'd left the magical world for a reason. "Depending how coffee goes, that is." He added, somewhat cheekily, since he didn't want to seem overbearing. Oliver knew he was overbearing, he just hoped Katie would forget for a while and let him back into her life before she remembered.

A lot to ask, but maybe he could do it.

[destiny]

It had been almost three years since she had seen Mister Oliver Wood in the flesh, during an event that both of them would much rather forget, she was sure. But here they were, right outside a muggle coffee shop as they spoke to one another again as if they did not share such a painful memory after all. It felt so strange to be standing there with him, and yet at the same time Katie could feel some of her happier memories return to the forefront of her mind, where they allowed a smile to form lightly on her lips. To think that Oliver had this effect on her was enough to make her want to blush on the spot, but then again, she was Katie Bell. She was not a girly girl as so many others had been back at school, and that was perhaps a part of the reason that Oliver had bothered to speak to her at all.

Besides, she wasn't exactly the type of girl to fawn over a Quidditch player either.

"I see your modesty has improved greatly," she laughed, stepping through the open door with a wink. Of course she was only teasing, that was the way it had been between them for a while. And since Oliver had the skills to become a professional Quidditch player, there was really no doubt in her mind that his correction of 'thousands' was much more accurate then her own guess. The amount of people who actually got into the wizarding sport was some insanely high number, and although it was a vast majority of men who enjoyed being the spectators, she knew of quite a few women who had once watched for the rather good looking men that took the pitch for each match. Once or twice before, she had been counted among their number as well.

It was his comment of visiting her at the library though that made her smile fade a little. Quickly putting it back into place for the sake of appearance, Katie knew in her heart that it wouldn't be a very good thing to see Oliver again after today. Hell, she probably shouldn't have been talking to him at all since she had made up her mind to cut the wizarding world out of her life. Already she had experienced the recollection of memories she had been trying to leave in the past. So what else could possibly follow? Considering the history she had with Oliver, and a past secret that she swore she would take to her grave, Katie was sure that nothing good could come out of their reunion. Not as far as she was concerned.

"Coffee...right. I knew I came here for something," she said lightly, trying to joke a little and mask her hesitation at his offer.

((i'm sorry this took so long!))

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