Don't Let the Pigeon Write Fan Fiction

“Wait, so if the Firebolt isn’t from you then where did it come from?” Ah, it seems he was listening enough to ask the big questions.

“Well, I can’t really say,” I replied slowly. “Just know that it's just as safe as if I did actually give it to him. The thing is though, we need to make sure McGonagall believes it was me- can you keep the secret?”

“What will happen if she finds out?” He seemed totally out of the daze now and was looking a bit more serious.

“For one she wont let him use the broom, but not letting Harry use it is the least of my worries. The bigger thing is that if McGonagall takes it, things are going to get rocky between him and his friends. I’ve promised that I was going to look out for Harry, and creating distance between him and his friends about something that is actually inconsequential is not keeping my word.” I looked over the hunk of a man before asking, “so can I count on you?”

“Of course.” He replied without hesitation. “If the broom really is safe, and if keeping this secret will help Harry then I would be a terrible captain to do anything less. And I mean, I ‘d agree to do a lot more for even the chance to have one of my players fly around with a Firebolt.”

The grin on his face made me want to simultaneously roll my eyes and kiss that beautiful smile. Oliver was a great person, but it seemed that quidditch was so totally ingrained into who he was it sat right there with his core values. It all was still totally endearing though and made me feel very happy to get to be back with him. I think maybe he too was thinking something similar because as he smiled down at me he seemed to register something else.

“I missed you.” He said it so forwardly I was about knocked over by his words. I saw the change in his demeanor but I don’t know if I will ever get used to him showing me any forms of affection. The fact that he liked me was forever a dream made reality. 

“I missed you too.” I replied, looking away. I could feel my cheeks start to warm and also felt a bit shy. How could he so easily break through me? We were tucked around the corner near the great hall, which wasn’t super private, but suddenly it felt a lot more intimate. 

“I liked your gifts, especially the photo-” I looked back up to see he was now beaming at me. I felt my blush deepen, but I couldn’t look away this time. So instead I just grew a smile of my own.

“Did it help with convincing your family you really do have a girlfriend?”

He chuckled. “Actually yes, immensely. You were the first thing I brought up when I got home, knowing it would likely take the whole break to convince them you were real. But I was so happy and surprised to see the photo tucked into my case when I opened things later that evening. I went and showed my parents right away and they ended up parading your photo to everyone in the family as the holiday went on!”

“Oh now I feel a bit self conscious! Maybe I should have had someone other than Percy take the photo. It was a spur of the moment decision, and now I feel like I don’t even remember what the photo looked like!”

“Don’t worry, it was beautiful. Anytime the photo wasn’t being passed around I had it and would just stare at it the whole time. I think it's the best photograph I’ve ever seen-” he paused for a moment though and I watched as his cheeks started to go pink. “-I like seeing you in person more though. It feels a bit unreal that you look even more beautiful in person.”

My brain short circuited for a moment as my heart went into overdrive. How did I even manage a day away from this boy, let alone two weeks?! 

“I liked your other gifts as well-” he continued, maybe nervous when I didn’t respond. “I put the hanging charm on my broom right away and I think it looks really great. I haven’t had a chance to really use the goggles, but I am sure they’ll be great as well.”

“I liked your gift as well!” I responded quickly, coming back to my senses. “I actually haven’t taken if off since I first put it on Christmas morning-”

I reached up to my collar and loosened my yellow tie. The Hogwarts school uniform didn’t really leave much visibility for things like necklaces. Even though no one could see it I still wore it everyday though because I knew it was there and because he had given it to me. Once the tie was loose I unbuttoned the first two buttons of my shirt and held it open to reveal the delicate piece of jewelry. 

I wasn’t sure why I was showing him, I’m sure if I just told him without evidence he would have believed me. I just really wanted him to know that I loved it though and needed to prove it. 

“It looks great on you!” He said happily as he looked down my neck. Then I watched as his face shot to a shade of red and he quickly looked away. Confused, I looked down and saw that two additional buttons had come open when I pulled the shirt and I had just given Oliver a clear view down my shirt. I could have been embarrassed but when looking down I saw how good my cleavage looked and I wasn’t even sorry.

“In your picture-” Oliver stammered out, still looking away. “-your clothes looked really nice. I hadn’t seen you wear that before and I thought they looked very good on you.”

I cocked my head with curiosity as I started buttoning my shirt back up. The way he said it made it sound like the words were falling out on their own- like he had previously been trying to hold them back. He was acting so adorably flustered and I wanted to tease him so badly, but I held back.

“Oh, thank you. That was actually the outfit I picked out for our date before I had to cancel. I still wore it when we were together but I had my coat on the whole time so you wouldn’t have seen.”

“Would you um, would you wear it again?” His face was still red but he turned back to me as he asked, sheer determination evident in his gaze.

I fucking loved this man. My heart felt like it was spilling over with my adoration of getting to be back with him. Just looking at him now with his crimson face and that look in his eyes, it made me feel absolutely feral. I really really wished that I could lean in to kiss him, but I had to hold back. 

I wasn’t going to push him, even if I felt like the title of girlfriend should at least allow me the chance to put my lips on his. I mean, I wasn’t even asking for something like a makeout session or anything (even if I also wanted that as well). Even just a peck would be absolutely AMAZING.

I wasn’t going to get greedy though, I could wait for however long it took. I could figure out a way to show how I felt in other ways, like wearing a specific outfit apparently.  But before I could even answer his question, we were interrupted. It seemed that these little moments were always doomed to be comically overthrown. 

We both jumped as Percy Weasley walked up beside us, him looking extremely happy and me feeling very relieved I had fixed my shirt. Apparently though, his excitement had more to do with just being back at school, and he told us all about his academic prospects for the new year as he walked us into the Great Hall. Even though he was very invested in our relationship, he seemed blissfully unaware of anything he might have been interrupted. 

As we followed along I did manage to reach out to hold Oliver’s hand, to which he responded with a very tight grasp back. We kept our hands held fast until we had to separate to our respective tables- it made me really hate these house distinctions. I moved into my spot next to Cedric, and while he and I ate and talked I kept looking back to catch a glimpse of my red clad boyfriend. It made my heart flutter every time I looked back to see he was already looking, and smiling at me. 

--

“Hey Ced, I’m going to go up to the Gryffindor common room for a little bit before curfew hits.”

“What? But you spent the whole break up there, and I thought we were going to hang out tonight.” The grey eyed boy gave me his worst puppy dog eyes, a look I bet worked wonders on his family over the holiday. Honestly it worked really well on me too, but I had to push through it.

“We still will, I just have to check on something real quick. So you go down and find us a good spot by the fire and I’ll make it quick.”

He still seemed a bit put out but he nodded his head. The meal had finished and everyone was starting to make their way back to their common rooms.  My motivation to not go to my own was three fold. First, McGonagall had come and snagged Oliver for a chat during the meal and I wanted to maybe see how that went down. Second, I wanted to check in on Hermione since despite my best efforts the boys were still being a bit cold. Third, there was a boy with red hair that I hadn’t been able to talk to yet that I was itching to get to. Honestly the first two things could wait until tomorrow morning, but I didn’t want to wait anymore before I saw Fred.

The Weasley boy and I had made eye contact a few times during the dinner when I had turned with the intention of seeing Oliver. That red hair really just drew eyes towards it and I couldn’t help also looking at him. He must have noticed me staring because almost every time I looked at him he turned to see me. We were far enough away we couldn’t talk, but he kept making faces or gestures towards me that made me laugh. 

When I left Cedric I turned to where the other boy had been sitting, but he wasn’t there. I scanned around the room quickly, but the only red hair that I saw was Percy’s. I moved through the crowd, pushing until I made it out of the great hall, but I still didn’t see him. I was about to head up towards Gryffindor tower when there was a tap on my shoulder.

“Looking for someone special?”

I turned to see Fred’s smiling face, looking just as mischievous as ever. Normally I would have just rolled my eyes at a comment like that, but in that moment I felt an overwhelming glee at being with him again. Without really thinking I pounced; wrapping my arms around him, making him stumble, and almost sending us both to the ground.

“Merlin, if you wanted to knock me out there are easier ways to do it.”

I did actually roll my eyes at that comment, but I didn’t drop the embrace. The last two weeks suddenly felt extremely long and I needed to make up for lost time. Not to mention that Fred had been particularly helpful during the break, even if he didn’t know it. 

“I missed you.” I said, in what felt like an uncharacteristically sentimental moment between us. 

Most of our interactions were spent joking, laughing, and teasing. Most serious moments were just in discussing music, with only a few other exceptions…. (think shower talk and during that quidditch match). I think we both mutually cared for each other, but neither of us were as outright in talking about it- it just wasn’t our relationship. So my words felt a little bit awkward floating in the current silence between us. It was made a little better though as Fred leaned his chin onto the top of my head and quietly replied “I missed you too.”

Then for a moment I felt stuck; conflicted on wanting to stay in this moment for longer and also unsure of how to not awkwardly end it. Right at that time though I saw there was a large group of Slytherins coming out of the Great Hall, and a head of unappealing black hair caught my eye. I flinched, remembering the still unopened gift and realized that I didn’t want to have any opportunity for communication with Flint until I gave it back to him. 

I pulled away quickly from my friend, looking up at him with some anxiety. 

“Hey did that fancy map you gave Harry show any ways to get to Gryffindor tower without a crowd?”

Fred looked down at me, a little confused but it didn’t last long. His smile was back as he grabbed my hand and pulled me away. As I followed along I hoped that even if the Slytherin 7th year did see me, he would be dissuaded from following.

Once we were away from the hoard of students we relaxed our pace and I was able to fill in Fred on the happenings of the holiday break. I talked about the Slytherin’s gift and the other one Hermione was still deeming from my secret admirer. Then I told him about the Fire bolt, which I was surprised he hadn’t heard about yet. I thought that the first things Harry would do when his team came back was show them his new broom. Maybe he was still feeling nervous about it getting taken away and didn’t want to jinx it.

I decided to let Fred in on my secret, even though I hadn’t been planning on it. I didn’t want to tell him or Cedric just so I could decrease the opportunity of the truth getting back to a teacher. But as I tried to spin the tale I realized I just couldn’t keep it from him. I knew even if I felt this way with Cedric I wasn’t going to be able to tell him, what with him being a prefect and all. With Fred though I did make him swear to not even tell his brother, something that felt imperative to him actually keeping the secret.

“So, who actually gave him the broom then?” He had stopped to ask the question at the end of the secret hallway before entering back into the normal passageway. I think I had been hoping everyone wouldn’t have considered this fact, but I was 0/2 now.

“I… can’t say…. But I know it's safe and that’s all that matters I think.” I went to move forward, but he held out his arm to stop me.

“But how can you know?” He stared defiantly at me, letting me know that he didn’t want to just bypass the topic. I stopped trying to move past him and took a deep breath- another complication of my situation in this world.

“There are just some things in my life that I’m not going to talk about, and this falls into that. I know it's probably frustrating and confusing, but I can’t budge. And, I haven’t given you any reason to distrust me right? I think by now you know I would never do anything to put the people I care about at risk. So please trust me.”

He looked me over, with an expression I tried not to read. I liked to think I was a good friend to have, but I also knew that anyone who eventually got closer to me was going to be left with a lot of questions. I had secrets that I may never be able to share, and that wasn’t something just anybody was going to be able to deal with. I was afraid that in moments like this, if I looked too closely at his face I was going to see some disdain at having to deal with this kind of relationship. I looked away, suddenly feeling a bit overwhelmed with this truth I decided to share.

"Are all Americans this secretive or is that just unique to you?”

I turned back towards him to see a playful smile. I could tell he wasn’t really over it, but that he was choosing to let it go at this moment for me. Immediately I felt relief and was able to smile back.

“Definitely an American thing, that’s why our cowboy hats are so big- they hold all our secrets.”

Things were lighter as we moved into the hall, and we ended up talking about Fred’s winter break until we reached the common room. He talked about how one of his older brothers had come unexpectedly for the Holiday. Charlie, the dragon brother, would have usually been too busy and far away with his work to come, but a summons from the ministry allowed for the well timed visit.

This wasn’t actually surprising news for me, because Ron had mentioned it one of the days after Christmas. He had gotten a letter from that same older brother jokingly chastising him for not being at home. Ron had acted annoyed at the time, but he was smiling the whole time he read the letter to me- and also when he read the whole thing to Harry later. 

It made me wonder if Charlie Weasley’s visit to the ministry would have anything to do with the upcoming triwizards tournament. It would be later this year that Book 4 would take place so it didn’t seem too far fetched. Also, it was through that same organization that the ministry would get the dragons for the first task. 

I didn’t have much more time to think on it though because once entering the common room my thoughts and our conversion were stopped by a large orange cat who pounced on me.

“I think he missed you-” Hermione said, walking over from where she had been sitting in the corner. It almost felt like she had also been waiting for me to come in.

“Well I missed him too,” I smiled, giving Crookshanks a big squeeze and him leaning right on into it.

“Bloody cat had two weeks of living with you.” I heard Fred grumble as he moved towards George and Lee, who I noticed were over on the other side of the crowded common room. I chuckled as he left, and then turned back to the brown haired girl.

“I was serious about missing him though. I think I got too used to him as a companion, and I’m not quite ready to not find him at the foot of my bed in the mornings.”

“Well I know he will be sad about it, and I will too…” Her face filled with emotions at her words and I could tell she was trying to hold back tears. After everything that happened I think she had gotten pretty used to me being a constant companion as well, especially with her two best friends being little bitches right now.

“You know, it's probably not too late to switch to Hufflepuff,” I said, dropping Crookshanks to the ground and putting my arm around her shoulder.

She gave a half hearted chuckle. “I don’t think I would fit in too well down there.”

“Well everyone would definitely try to make you feel welcome, but honestly you’d probably hate it. If you get annoyed at the dumb shit Ron says then you’d be overwhelmed with the stuff that is said in my common room.”

She gave a real laugh now and it lightened the mood quite a lot. I made sure that she really was doing okay before we hugged it out and I watched her head off to bed. Right as she disappeared Ron and Harry came into view and I gave them a death glare. The red head looked hesitant to come over, but the boy who lived strutted right over to see what was up. 

For what felt like the tenth time I laid into them about giving their friend a hard time. I reiterated that they were being childish and that Hermione’s intentions were based on her wanting Harry to be safe rather than him flying fast. I also might have threatened to retract my statement from their head of house if they didn’t figure out their shit soon.

After the discussion I left them to sit in their guilt. I dramatically moved over to the Weasley twins and Lee. I hadn’t seen Oliver yet and wondered if maybe he was still talking with McGonagall. Hopefully things were going well and they just got side tracked talking about quidditch starting up again. Either way, I guess I’d have to wait until later to find out.

“I’m out of here-” I said, walking up to the three boys. “I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow in Transfiguration.”

“What? You’re leaving already??” Lee asked, beating Fred to the punch.

“Yeah, I promised Cedric I wouldn’t be too long.” I said the rest of my goodbyes and started making my way out of the noisy room. I wasn’t at all surprised to feel a body follow up behind me.

“I can’t believe he’s not upset with you.” Fred whispered, moving his mouth close to my ear. The heat of his breath made me shiver.

“Who? Ced? Why would he be?” We crouched through the entrance and popped back into the castle hall.

“Well you said you weren’t going to tell him the truth, so he thinks it was you who gave it to Harry right?”

I stopped, my body suddenly feeling cold.

“Fuck.”

--

“A Firebolt????” 

I winced at his words, not because they were loud but because it was so hard hearing him upset. We were in his dorm room, thankfully alone so there were no judgmental looks from anyone else. Cedric was pacing back and forth while I sat awkwardly on his bed.

“You didn’t even get yourself a firebolt!” He ran his hands through his hair, making a bit of a mess of his usually perfect locks. I was really regretting telling him it was me who had given Harry the new Broomstick. I should have just not said anything I mean, I was technically lying now anyway. Why didn’t I just lie for my own benefit??? Stupid.

“At least we don’t have to play them again this year-” I said, trying unsuccessfully to lighten the mood. 

“But if they win both their matches between Slytherin and Ravenclaw it wont have mattered!” He stopped and looked over at me, hurt very evident in his eyes. “Why did you have to get him a new broom at all?”

My heart broke a little as I hopped off the bed. I stood next to him but I didn’t feel like I could fully reach out yet. Man, I was such an idiot. Fred was right about Cedric being upset with me, and still for some reason I still thought it best to tell him. I just- I just didn’t want him somehow hearing about Harry getting the broom from me if word spread. It was hard now, but I think it would have been worse if he found out later from anyone else.

“Is this because of Wood? Are you just trying to get on his good side by making his team better?”

“What?? No, of course not! My intentions were just to help out Harry.”

 Now it was my turn to feel a little hurt. Did he really think I would do something like that? I might be stupid but I wasn’t that stupid. 

“But a Firebolt??” He asked again, his eyes desperate. I reached out now, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“I mean, I know it's a nice broom but is it really going to make that big a difference?”

--

“Can you believe what a difference a broom can make?!?” Lee’s voice boomed around the stadium and I winced, daring to take a look over at the boy next to me. Cedric was clapping but it was slow and he was glaring at me the whole time.

Time had passed quickly once school started back up, and suddenly we were at the first quidditch game of the new year. It was Gryffindor vs Slytherin, different from what I remembered from the books, but that didn’t seem to change anything that really mettered. Since Harry never got his new broom taken away there was no need for the story to delay their game.

Over the last few weeks the rest of school life continued on as normal with even Cedric seemingly getting over my betrayal. Thankfully words hadn’t spread on where Harry’s broom came from so I didn’t have to endure those same feelings from anyone else. I really thought that maybe he had moved past it, but watching Harry kick ass flying around Slytherin was obviously bringing things right back to the surface.

Harry had just narrowly avoided two different bludgers as if it was nothing and the show was making the crowd go wild. It was a little hard to watch; on one hand I was ecstatic for Harry and the Gryffindor team, and on the other hand I now had to endure glares from my usually sunshiney friend. 

“I think I better go find Hermione-” I yelled out through the cheers.

“I think you had better.” Cedric replied flatly, looking utterly annoyed. Honestly if there was one thing to draw out a bad mood on this guy it was quidditch, or honestly me as well. The mix of the two did not allow for a peaceful enjoyment of the game.

After leaving the stone cold Hufflepuff I immediately felt a lot lighter. Once I moved into the Gryffindor section I was eagerly swept in- and I knew it was going to be a lot easier to enjoy the game. Hermione was happy to see me as well and I found myself as a useful buffer between her and the youngest Weasley boy. The golden trio had mostly made up, but I think the use of the broom in the match might have also pulled up some hurt feelings on this section of the stands as well.

Soon enough though, everyone forgot about anything that wasn’t the game playing before them. It was spectacular watching both red and green teams fighting tooth and nail, giving literally their all. I knew in the end that Gryffindor was bound to win, but that didn’t stop me from being on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

Watching Oliver at the goal posts was especially hard though. This was the first time I was watching him play, while not being the other team playing. When it was them vs. us, I had my adrenaline and competitiveness there to distract me. Now I was a ball of worry as I watched him fly around to save each shot. This sport meant so much to him and it made the stakes feel even higher.

Oliver was great though, as was Harry, Fred, and the rest of my friends flying around. Having such an attachment to literally every member of the Gryffindor team made watching this event so much more dramatic than the last one. I had never truly disliked Slytherin house, but right now they were literally the enemy. I don’t think I had ever spat out such blatant atrocities to a group of people I really did not know that well.

My current feelings towards the green team I think also stemmed from my most recent interaction between Marcus Flint and I. During the first week back I had made sure to return his gift back to him, wanting to make it very clear that I was not interested. He had gotten upset, which wasn’t all that surprising, but it made me feel more uneasy. He kept pressing me for a reason as to why I wouldn’t accept it- trying to interrogate me on who convinced me to return it. No matter what I said he didn’t seem to listen and so I ended up just leaving without much of a resolution.

What was worse though was that the next day he tried to talk to me as if nothing had happened. As if our conversations weren’t awkward enough I now had to deal with him pretending we were suddenly close? Like what the hell was he tr ying to do?? I was so thankful that this was his last year and that very soon I wouldn’t have to be dealing with him anymore.

My mind quickly shot back to Oliver, thinking again how this was also his last year. His last year doing school quidditch and a chance to get a championship on his resume. If everything continued as I understood he would have that win to carry onto graduation. But again, being in the moment and seeing everything go down in real time made you really question if this fate was set in stone. 

When the showdown between Harry and Malfoy started I was literally standing on my seat watching the events unfold. After this game filled with five penalties and an endless amount of sabotage we all watched in awe as Harry caught the snitch and sealed Gryffindor’s victory. 

My ears were ringing from screams of the Gryffindor house around me, as I jumped up and down with Hermione and Ron. The anxiety and trepidation from before was washed away as excitement started spilling out of me. I felt like I couldn’t contain it and so grabbing the two younger kid’s hands I raced with them out of the stands and towards the field.

As we ran onto the grass with a group of other excited Gryffindors I saw Harry touch down on his broom and literally jumped on him. Even though I was fairly short he was still smaller than me and so I ended up knocking us both to the ground, his new firebolt being pushed to the side. With Ron and Hermione following behind we ended up starting a dog pile onto the heroic Seeker. 

At some point people started getting shoved off and I felt myself being pulled up from the ground. I turned to see both Weasley twins; George now grabbing Harry and hoisting him onto his shoulders and Fred just to the side of me holding my arm. When we locked eyes huge stupid grins crossed our faces and we literally started jumping up and down together. We were yelling, then laughing, and then crying from laughing so hard.

We stopped jumping so I could catch my breath, but I lost it as Fred moved forward and wrapped his arms around my waist. He held me tight and was tall enough that as he stood with his arms around me my feet were lifted slightly off the ground. To stop myself from slipping out of his grasp I wrapped my own arms around his neck and held tight.

The noise of the still excited crowd around us was muffled as my face moved into the crook of his neck. In the moment of less sound I was able to take in more of my senses and suddenly realized how absolutely drenched in sweat this boy was. Usually something like this would have grossed me out, but it didn't actually bother me. 

Actually I was more surprised that the smell of said sweat was also not bothering me at all. Even being this close to him it didn’t bug me. He smelled strongly, but it wasn’t bad, it just smelled like Fred. And for some reason that made me want to lean into him more.

“June?!”

I pulled away, the sounds of the area coming back in at full force. As my feet hit back down onto the ground  and I looked past the stocky boy to see who had called my name. My heart had hitched at the voice so I felt sure I knew who it was.

“Oliver!!!” I yelled, as his brown windswept hair came into view. I stepped past Fred and started to run towards the boy who had come into the now large group of red clad students.

When our eyes met my heart started to beat even harder and I wanted so badly to be able to run faster. With both of us running though the distance was closed soon enough. The people around us were all smiling, but it was nothing compared to the smile shining on Oliver’s face. It was brighter than anything I had ever seen before.

Once we reached each other I went to throw my arms around his neck like I had done with Fred, but I found myself being lifted too high up in the air. Without even a pause Oliver had run up to me, reached his arms around my legs and lifted me into the air. I screamed, but that scream very quickly turned to a laugh as he spun me around. I had to hold onto his head to stabilize myself from the whirlwind motions, but also from laughing so hard (this was turning into an ab workout).

When he brought me back down to the ground my sides were aching but my heart had never felt so good. As I looked into his beautiful sweaty face I was washed over with this feeling that I had reached one of the happiest moments of my life. I truly wasn’t sure if there was ever going to be anything that topped it.

It was crazy though how fast I was proven wrong, because as soon as I saw that shift in Oliver’s eyes I just knew what was going to happen. Even though my brain knew it was coming I couldn’t even move as he brought his hands up to my face and pulled me in closer. When our lips met I threw out all preconceived notions of happiness. Nothing that I knew before this moment came anywhere close to how this kiss made me feel.

Best. Match. Ever.

SONGS:

June: Kiss On My List- Hall and Oates

Oliver: I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)- The Proclaimers 

Harry: I Got You (I Feel Good)- James Brown

Fred: Missing you- John Waite