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booksmarts and broomsticks
act iii , turning tables
chapter forty-nine ,  this and that

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➖OLIVER WOOD➖
february 1994

       "WHAT DO YOU MEAN you've not kissed him yet?"

Dria let out a groan at the volume of Jackie's question, wincing as she averted her gaze from the on-looking students whose attention had been caught by the loud exclamation, and sustained by the coughing fit that quickly followed as Jackie choked on a mouthful of her fish and chips.

"Please, keep your voice down." The blonde lowered her own voice, staring pointedly at Jackie, whose coughing had subsided thanks to Penny giving her a large thwack on the back.

It had only been roughly twenty minutes or so since Jackie and Dria had left the Quidditch chasing tent and started the climb back up to the castle for dinner. However, during this ascent, Jackie had raised the question to her blonde friends as to why she and the Gryffindor Keeper had looked so uncomfortable when she had referred to Dria as Oliver's girlfriend — a topic that the Lockaby girl had hoped she would let slide.

Oh, how wrong she was.

The conversation — or rather interrogation — had continued even after they arrived in the Great Hall and greeted Tess and Penny who were waiting for them at the Gryffindor table, who were more than eager to join in with Jackie's questioning.

Dria had offered them small shrugs and one word answers in response as she tried her best to focus on the battered haddock on her plate until their endless interrogating finally caused her to snap and come out in a very ungraceful confession of:

"Well, what do you expect we haven't even kissed yet?!"

While Jackie's immediate response had been to repeat the question back to her, before promptly choking on batter, Penny and Tess looked agog, eyes wide, as Dria buried her head in her hands and let out a low groan.

"How?"

"Are you being serious?"

"I thought you kissed him at your Christmas do?" Jackie coughed a little, her eyes still a little watery from her coughing fit.

"What do you mean?" Dria looked at the girl, incredulously, finally lifting her head from her hands. "I told you nothing happened."

"Yeah, I figured you lied!"

"You know, Dria, I've never taken you for a prude." Tess mused from where she sat on the girl's left.

"I'm not a prude." The blonde responded, giving the Robbins girl's arm a light smack.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Jackie continued, taking another bite of fish, chewing down as she spoke. "It's not like it's your first kiss."

"It's not that it's just—" The blonde faltered as she tried to explain. "It's just strange, you know. We've just been friends for so long."

"That's a shit excuse."

"Hey!"

"You should've seen the two of them when I called her his girlfriend." Jackie looked towards Penny and Tess with a light chuckle. "Seized right up."

"Really?"

"Well, we've not explicitly had any conversation about it." Dria immediately jumped into defence mode, her nostrils flaring a little at her friends' teasing. "We're taking things slow! Which, might I add, was the idea of you three!"

"We didn't mean this slow!"

"Well, what did you mean?!"

"Alright!" Penny exclaimed, waving her hands in attempt to cease the argument, before turning her attention to the blonde opposite her, who gave a tired sigh. "So, right at this moment, where do you two stand?"

"I have no idea."

"Come on, Dria, don't be dense." Jackie scoffed.

"Are you friends?" Penny asked her, her tone much more than the other three at the table

"Yes, of course, we are." Dria let out a small sigh, taking an anxious head through her head. "We're obviously more than that."

"Are you dating?" Penny tried again, quirking an eyebrow, at which Dria pressed her lips together, looking down at her plate of food.

"I mean, we've never gone on a date."

"Has he not asked you out?" The Ravenclaw asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Hang on, we can't put all the blame on Oliver." Jackie butted in, causing Dria to look up and shoot her a very unamused look, causing the Hufflepuff to grin all the wider. "Little Miss Ostrich here is perfectly capable of asking him out too."

"Yeah, it's the 90s, Dria." Tess agreed with Jackie, the duo thoroughly enjoying how much they were getting under her skin. "Don't be a bad feminist."

The blonde rolled her eyes, picking up her fork and taking a bite of her battered haddock, before shooting a helpless shrug at her three friends.

"Look, we don't talk about us." She confessed, causing confused looks to pass between Jackie, Penny and Tess.

"Well, what do you talk about?" The Ravenclaw asked, at which Dria gave another shrug.

"You know, school, Quidditch, other things—"

"You can't be telling me that the two of you have made zero progression." Tess let out a dramatic groan, letting her head rest in her hands

"I'd even argue they're going in reverse." Jackie added, scraping the mushy peas off her fish. "They had more going for them when they were just friends."

"I mean, he holds my hand sometimes." Dria added, trying to help to her case, wincing as she heard how weak her point was. "He didn't do that when we were just friends."

"What?" Jackie slammed her fist down on the table, causing the plates to rattle. "He holds your hand! Holy shit, Dria, we must alert the press!"

"Oh, Jackie, kindly fuck off."

"Leave her alone." Penny swatted at the Hufflepuff beside her, as she tried her best to regain the attention of the blonde who was in the middle of pulling faces at Jackie. "Look, you guys just need to talk. Figure out where you stand, alright?"

"You do actually want to kiss him, don't you?" Tess asked, quirking an eyebrow as she began slowly eating some of the chips off of Dria's plate.

"Yes!" The blonde gave an exasperated cry in response, before lowering her voice and regain gin her composure. "I mean— of course, I do. God, I really want to."

"Then, what is the problem?" The Robbins girl threw up her hands in confusion as she surveyed the blonde, the ghost of a smile on her lips as she tried to understand Dria's rationale. "What are you not telling us?"

The Lockaby only groaned as she rested her head against the hard wood of the table, in a pathetic attempt to avoid the approaching conversation.

"Dria?"

She sensed Tess set her head down next to hers on the table top, trying to get a look at her face and offering the girl a small smile, as she budged up a little closer to her on the bench.

The blonde gave a large huff, and lifted her head up so that it rested on her folded up arms. She blew a strand of hair from her face and regarded her friends with a bashful expression.

"Look, it not like we've not tried."

Her friends furrowed their eyebrows in confusion, as the girl straight up straight, preparing to clarify her point.

What she meant, in truth, was not that she and Oliver had been outright avoiding kissing one another but more so every time she thought they would, much like the incident at Christmas, something or someone had interrupted them.

"It's every time." She stressed to her friends, whose manner had somewhat changed as their amused expression slowly morphed into ones of sympathy. "Either someone walks in or the bell goes — some weird cosmic interference stopping it from happening.

"And now I just feel all this pressure about it being the right place and time, and I'm scared he thinks that I don't want to kiss him." She rambled, swatting at Tess' hand mid-rant to stop her form stealing any more of her chips. "And it's been so long, what if he's over it? What if he doesn't even want to kiss me anymore?"

"Dria, that boy wants to kiss you." Jackie scoffed, pushing her empty plate away.

"You need to stop worrying, okay?" Penny reached over the table and placed her hand on hers, while Tess threw an arms around her shoulders. "You can't overthink these things. It'll happen, alright?"

"Yeah, you just need to grow a pair and do it—"

"Jackie!"

A small chuckle shook through Dria as Penny scolded the Hufflepuff by throwing a chip in her direction, while she stuck her tongue out in defiance. However, despite her amusement, she was very quick to return to her previous state of discomfort upon catching the eye of a certain Gryffindor Keeper as he entered the Great Hall with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in tow.

"All of you shut up, he's coming!" Dria hastily shook Tess' arm off her shoulders, and shot her friends pointed look as Oliver slipped into the seat next to her with a wide smile.

"Hey!"

"Hi." The blonde replied, plastering a smile on her face as her friends acknowledged with small hellos and polite nods.

"What are you talking about?" The Keeper asked the four of them, nonchalantly, as he began serving himself a plate of food.

"Feminism."

"State of the economy."

"Take That."

Dria winced at the responses of her three friends, who were now looking incredibly suspicious as they looked at each other with flushed faces.

The unusual response caused Oliver's attention to falter from his task, surveying with a confused, if not slightly amused, expression.

"Huh." He chuckled, shooting a Dria a light smile as she tried her best to feign a light chuckle as he returned to his face.

Looking away from him, she shot a pointed look over at Penny who offered her a weary smile, as the blonde whisper-shouted over to her.

"Who the fuck are Take That?"

***

"PENNY, THEY MIGHT HAVE been playing at your party, but I think I might have been a little too high to have registered it." Dria explained to the girl, the following day, as they made their way down towards the Quidditch Pitch — the blonde wearing much thicker jumper than she had the evening before.

"I can't believe you've never heard of Take That." Nate shook his head in disbelief as Dria offered him a shrug.

"I have never claimed to be well versed in Muggle music." She held her hands up in surrender.

"Come on, Pray?" Penny looked between her three friends who only responded with shakes of their heads. "Relight My Fire?"

"Ooh, I think might have been the song that was playing when I was making out with Millie's friend." Jackie chimed in, from where she was walking a few paces ahead of them, a shit-eating grin appearing on her lips.

Tess gave a large scoff.

"Which one?"

"Couldn't tell you." The Irish girl shrugged, her grin never fading. "Great kisser though. And we'll always have This and That."

"It's Take That!"

The group of them was amid a large swathe of students making their way down from the Great Hall to the Quidditch stands that morning.

Dria could have sworn she'd never seen so many people so excited over an impending Quidditch match. Usually, there would be a good mix of fanatics and the poor friends who were dragged along for the sake of house pride — she'd enjoyed the time where she fell into the latter group — but today, it seemed that everyone was buzzing.

And the answer to why was incredibly obvious — the Firebolt.

Dria had highly contemplated sitting as far away from the Gryffindor team as she could at breakfast upon seeing how the broomstick had been placed upon the table like a centrepiece, however her plans were foiled when Oliver had waved her and her friends, and they'd had to sit through breakfast whilst — what felt like — every Hogwarts student came to gawk.

"What's girl got to do to eat her cornflakes in peace?"

The blonde had never seen the Quidditch Captain beaming like he was that morning. While, it was pleasant, if not slightly concerning, sight to see, she still had to remind him to eat his toast, due to his attentions being extremely preoccupied with swatting away anyone who tried to touch to broomstick — one of whom had been Penny.

Dria was thankful when it was time for the team to go down to the tent and broomstick finally taken off the table and she was able to eat her breakfast without someone's knee in her back. She'd wished Oliver look with a meagre wave, her nerves from the evening before still refusing to budge as he replied with a wide smile — she was thankful the broomstick had him so distracted, he didn't noticed her strange behaviour.

Once the team had left, it wasn't long before the Hall began to empty out, and despite enjoying the slightly more peaceful atmosphere, Dria didn't have long before she was forced to down the rest of her cereal and was dragged out of the Hall by her friends, only to find herself back in the middle of the crowd.

"So did Wood get a good luck kiss this morning?" Tess hummed, as she and Dria settled themselves in the stands, with Jackie on Dria's left and Penny and Nate in the row below, having been joined by Florence and Vixen, who were arguing with Nate about which team he should support that game.

"You're relentless." The blonde groaned.

"Did he?" Tess nudged her shoulder.

"No."

"I have honestly seen third years getting more action than you two."

"What happened to it'll happen, don't overthink it?" Dria furrowed her eyebrows at the girl whose only response was a smug smirk.

"That was Penny's advice, not mine."

"And what's yours?"

"Oh I have nothing to offer, I just enjoy bullying you." Tess shrugged, earning a light smack from her blonde friend, before her attention faltered and she turned her head towards where the teams were emerging onto the pitch. "Here they come!"

"You're an arsehole!" Dria cried over the cheering that had started erupting from the stands, as everyone rose to their feet and the game commenced.

The blonde had to admit that the Firebolt really was a sight to behold — despite having seen it during the practice the evening before — in a match setting, it really made it seem as though the rest of the players weren't even trying.

Gryffindor managed to get up to an eighty point lead within the first twenty minutes of the game, but as the game progressed Ravenclaw had managed to claw it back to 80-30.

Dria couldn't remember the specifics despite being with Oliver during most of his tactical planning sessions, but she knew that in order to qualify for the Cup finals, they had win with a certain margin of points ahead of Ravenclaw — and with every missed save, the blonde could just about make out the evident frustration on the Keeper's face.

Either way, Dria knew that the sooner Harry caught the Snitch, the sooner their victory would be secured. However, from the looks, the Gryffindor Seeker was having a rather hard time shaking off his Ravenclaw counterpart.

"God, she's really tailing him, isn't she?" The blonde spectated — at all times throughout the game, whenever she had caught sight of the third-year, the Ravenclaw Seeker had only ever been a few feet on his tail.

"It's a smart play, to be honest." Nate turned around from where he stood in front of them, "Why bother searching for the Snitch yourself when you can just let the other team's Seeker do all the work for you?"

"He's not exactly making it hard for her." Jackie muttered, holding her binoculars to her eyes. "What the matter with him?"

"HARRY! THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN! KNOCK HER OFF HER BROOM IF YOU HAVE TO!"

Dria winched as she recognised the voice that had just shouted across the pitch.

"Well, I'd know those dulcet tones anywhere." Jackie chuckled, as she removed the binoculars from her eyes and shot Dria a knowing smirk.

"Oh, God."

"He is really so charming, Dria." Tess added, as the blonde grimaced.

"Holy shit!"

Dria found her attention snapping back over to Jackie, whose binoculars had been lifted back up to her eyes once more.

"What? Please don't tell me he actually knocked her off."

"No, Dementors!"

Dria's eyes widened in alarm as she attempted to follow Jackie's enthusiastic pointing — trying her best to ignore how gleeful the Hufflepuff was looking at the change in events and how relieved she was at the fact Harry hadn't taken Oliver's questionable advice.

"Where?" Tess furrowed her brows as she too struggled to catch sight of Jackie's claim.

"Over there, look!" Nate called from below them. "They're tailing Potter!"

"Again?!"

It wasn't long before Dria had caught sight of the Potter boy weaving high above the pitch, trying desperately to shake the three shadowy figures in pursuit of him, and by the sounds of the gasps around, she had gathered that the rest of the spectators had also gathered what was going on.

Dria looked on with an uneasy expression, her gaze darting between the boy and the teachers' stand, wondering how long it would take for a member of staff to intervene. She had only heard about Dumbledore's reaction to the Dementors the last time they had interfered with a Quidditch match — or more specifically Harry — but nevertheless was sure he wouldn't stand for another incident, which is why her confusion was beginning to grow, the longer the chase went on.

"What is that?"

The blonde tore her gaze away from the teachers' stand — she been too far away to gauge their reactions anyway — and looked back towards the boy in the sky, her eyes widening upon seeing how the events had progressed.

"Is that a—?"

"He's casting a Patronus." Dria stated, not quite believing her own words as she saw the silver-like wisps of magic repelling the dark figures away from the Seeker.

"Fuck off, is he casting a Patronus! He's thirteen!"

"It worked though!" The blonde chuckled, her smile wide upon seeing the boy out of danger. "Look, the Dementors— those are some fucking weird looking Dementors."

Dria's eyebrows furrowed as the dark figures descended rather ungraciously onto the pitch below, her attention only being pulled away from the strange sight upon hearing Jackie let out a derisive chuckle on her right.

"That, my friends, is because they're Slytherins."

"What?"

The blonde quickly snatched the binoculars Jackie had been holding to her eyes, and brought to her own — at which, the O'Hare had let out an objectionable groan.

Sure enough as the figures came into focus, Dria could make out the figures of three members of the Slytherin team emerging from the the dark robes they had disguised themselves with, expressions of pain of their faces as they laid upon the grass.

The blonde felt her jaw clench as she handed the binoculars back to Jackie and let out a low groan, resting her head on Tess' shoulder, losing interest as the match recommenced.

"Great." She mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself. "So I'm going to spend my afternoon treating Malfoy and his goons."

Tess offered the girl a sympathetic pat on the head, as the blonde narrowed her eyes in the direction of the Slytherins, who were still rolling about the pitch, as a furious-looking Madam Hooch started approaching them.

"God, I hope that hurt."

***

DRIA WAS HAPPY TO report that the three Slytherins — which had of course included Draco Malfoy — did seem suitably under the weather when she had tended to them in the Hospital wing, all of them having been winded by the fall and with Marcus Flint escaping with a broken thumb.

The blonde had definitely been a little too harsh when she was trying to ascertain the break and, looking back on the event, had wondered whether her actions had been a little unfair, but upon remembering the Slytherin Captain had conspired to sabotage a thirteen year old, she had felt much more justified.

Soon after their fall, Dria and Vix had excused themselves from their group of friends, deciding to make their way up to the Hospital Wing ahead of the end of the match in order to be better prepared for the incoming players.

Dria had only learned the verdict of the match upon treating the majority of the Ravenclaw team who were looking rather sorry for themselves. Strangely, with the exception of Alicia's dodgy shoulder acting up, the Gryffindor team had escaped rather unscathed from the match.

Fred and George had mentioned there being a party in the Common room, when they had come to pick up Alicia, both of them having changed out of their Quidditch robes and muttering something or other additionally about sneaking into the kitchens.

The blonde had yet to see Oliver, assuming him to be caught up in his victory and upon learning about the party, figuring that he'd have plenty to be occupying himself with while she was down in the Hospital Wing.

With the cold weather of February also came early nightfall, so despite the hour only standing at nearly seven, the sun had already disappeared and Dria found herself working by the lamplight as she manoeuvred her way through the gradually-emptying Hospital Wing.

"Just try and keep your weight of it for now." Dria shot a sympathetic smile to one of the Ravenclaw Chasers who was a couple of years below her.

"Cheers." The boy muttered, leaning most of his weight on the wooden crutch, the blonde had given him before slowly limping out of the door.

Dria winced as she watched him hobble off, before letting out a large sigh and turning away from the door, withdrawing her wand to straighten up the remaining empty cots.

Madam Pomfrey had asked the Lockaby girl whether she would able to finish up with the final few patients and tidy up before she left — the matron having left for the greenhouses to top up her stores, ten minutes previously.

Collecting a few small bottles from the side table, Dria turned on her heel in the direction of the medicine cabinet, faltering ever so slightly as her eyes caught that of the Quidditch Captain, leaning in the doorway.

Dria swallowed nervously before continuing on her way, and plastering on a wide smile as she made for the medicine cabinet.

"Oh, hi." She greeted Oliver. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long." The Keeper shrugged, pushing himself off the doorway.

The blonde noticed how he had also changed since the match as he took a few steps into the room, eyes fixed on her as she attempted to make small talk amidst her errands.

"I figured you'd be up in the common room by now." Dria began, struggling with the door of the cabinet due to her full hands. "I imagine the celebrations are well underway."

Oliver walked over calmly, reaching out and opening the door for her at which she gave a small smile of gratitude.

"I wanted to wait." He replied.

"Oh." Dria faltered, her eyes not meeting his as she stepped away from the cupboard, looking for another errand to seize her attention.

"I looked for you." The Keeper said suddenly, causing the girl to stop in her tracks. "After the match."

"Yeah, I—uh—" The blonde faltered again, "With the Slytherins, and then Chang's shoulder, and Pomfrey had asked us to head up as soon as the match ended so ..."

Her words trailed off. Dria winced a little at hearing her own attempts at meagre excuses, her gaze drifting to the floor.

"Right."

Upon hearing his disheartened tone, Dria brought her gaze back at to see him looking her over as though he was trying to work out some intense puzzle. She gave light cough, trying to rescue the atmosphere as she prattled on.

"Well done, though." The blonde spared him a small smile. "I mean, it was a great match. You did brilliantly."

"What's the matter?"

His directness caught her off guard.

"Huh?"

Oliver gave another shrug, shoving his hands in his jean pockets, a concerned look on his face as she took a few steps towards her.

"You've been a little off."

Dria let out a nervous laugh, her eyes still stubbornly avoiding his as she shuffled on her feet awkwardly on the spot.

"What? No, I—"

"Dria."

     The blonde let out a small huff at the realisation that she wasn't going to be able to avoid the looming conversation. She forced her gaze to meet his and found her worries behind to slip away at the look in his coffee-coloured eyes as he looked down on her softly.

      "You can tell me." He said, his cheeks flushing a little as he reached to scratch the back of his neck. "Do you not want us to hang out anymore is that it or—?"

     Dria's eyes widened as he spoke, a flash of fear running through her as she hastily shook her head.

     "No, God, no." She assured him, her heart warming at the expression of relief that crossed his face. "That's not it at all."

    "Really?"

    "Really." She winced a little. "Why would you think that?"

    "I don't know, you've just been a little distant." He confessed, rolling the sleeves up on his jumper to his elbows as he folded his arm in front of him. "And I saw you when Jackie said the whole girlfriend thing, yesterday."

    "Yeah, that wasn't—"

    "No, it's fine." The Keeper cut her off. "It took me a little by surprise as well."

     A small silence settled over the two of them, a mutual understanding passing between them that she would have to come out with something at some point.

     Dria pressed a hand to her head and let out a small groan, becoming slightly overwhelmed as she began to sense all of her feelings were coming to the surface.

     "It's really stupid." She muttered, wrapping her arms around herself.

     Oliver didn't budge. Instead, he remained focused on her head and cocked his head a little to the side.

     "Try me."

      The blonde took a deep breath before squeezing her eyes shut and just coming out with it.

      "So I think it's bothering me that we haven't kissed yet and I know— I know that such a stupid thing."

      A relieved chuckle came over the Keeper, however the blonde was far too wrapped up in her cacophony of feelings to begin to even register his reaction.

    "But I feel like we just can't catch a damn break and I feel like there will just never be a perfect time and now there's all this pressure on this one thing—"

     "Dria."

     "And I thought I wanted to take things slow but now I'm not sure and you know we've not really talked about what we are, and where things are going." The blonde rambled on, her brain running at what felt like one hundred times speed as she tried organise her thoughts out loud.

    "Dria."

     "I'm happy, I really am and I love spending time with you but I heard Jackie say girlfriend and I just spiralled because is that where we are?" Dria stifled a derisive chuckle. "I mean I'd think I'd know if I was your girlfriend, wouldn't I? And I got scared a little you know, and figured instead of facing it, I'd just do my usual and ignore it, but I can't ignore because you're right in front of me and maybe things are moving slowly, but I didn't mind that too much, but now I'm thinking what if you lose interest—?"

     The blonde stopped to catch her breath, suddenly feeling incredibly light-hearted, however she found herself feeling much more grounded once she realised her hand had been taken in Oliver's.

     "Dria?"

    "Yeah?"

     "You're insane."

    The pair of them descended into light chuckles as Oliver ran his thumb gently across the back of Dria's hand in attempt to calm her down.

     "You've just figured that out?" She mumbled, as the Keeper moved closer and enveloped her into a tight hug.

      Dria took in a deep breath — the smell of him instantly helping in calming her down. The strange mix of scents from his freshly cleaned hair to the cosy smell she couldn't quite place of his jumper complemented each other greatly as she felt his arm tightened around her.

      The girl gave his middle a grateful squeeze of thanks but she found herself immediately pulling out of the hug as the Keeper let out a grunt and grimaced in line at her action.

    "What?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

      "Yeah, yeah." He dismissed her concerns, plastering a smile back on.

     "Did you get hurt during the game?" She persisted, not allowing him to avoid the subject at which he gave a small shrug.

    "Just a Quaffle to the ribs, I didn't think much of it."

    "Just a Quaffle to the ribs?" The blonde repeated with wide eyes, as she folded her arms and shot him a pointed look.

     The Keeper gave another small sigh as he reached for the bottom of his jumper and pulled it up a little, displaying a nasty looking graze on the right side of his stomach.

     "Ol."

     The blonde looked at him with wide eyes at which he held his hands up and moved over to one of the made-up cots, choosing not to argue with the girl.

     "I know, I know." He muttered as he moved, sitting down on the edge of the bed, a light chuckle lacing his tone at her admonishment.

    Dria allowed the Keeper to sit as she turned around and peered into the medicine cabinet, choosing to withdraw a small disinfectant before she returned to him, turning over the bottle nervously in hand.

     Oliver shot the blonde an expectant look as she stood before her, a small blush dusting her cheeks.

    "Um— you're— er, I'm gonna need to you to take your jumper off."

    A smirk immediately found its way onto Oliver's lips as a hearty chuckle escaped him, and he gave a light tsk.

    "Well, that's one way to speed things up." He mused, as he reached for the hem of his jumper and began pulling it over his head.

     "Shut your face." Dria swatted his shoulder, her reserve disappearing as she rolled her eyes and sat down onto the bed next to him.

     Oliver discarded his jumper, now sitting beside shirtless, as Dria gave a small sigh looking at the nasty injury on his abdomen.

     "Oh, Merlin's beard, Oliver." She muttered, shaking her head, as she unscrewed the bottle of disinfectant. "How did you not notice that?"

      "I told you it was just a Quaffle." He chuckled, wincing a little in pain as she dropped the liquid onto the wound. "I didn't think much of it."

    "It might sting a little. Sorry."

    The blonde shot him an apologetic look as she squeezed a few more droplets upon the graze, watching it intently as it began to heal over.

    "Who threw it?" She muttered, her gaze still firmly on her work, as she felt his peer down at her.

     "Who do you think?" Oliver chuckled, before pressing his lips together and letting a small grunt of discomfort.

    "Davies." Dria gave a small sigh.

    "Yeah." Oliver huffed, "Wanker."

    The blonde spared him a sympathetic smile, watching as his monetary annoyance vanished as her eyes met his.

    The Keeper straightened up a little as she screwed the lid back onto the disinfectant bottle, and cocked his head to side to try and catch her gaze.

    "Dria, I'm not going to lose interest in you." He gently laid a hand on hers.

    A small smile emerged on the blonde's lips at his words, although her gaze was still fixed on his abdomen where she was trying to bandage up the injury. 

    "Ferula." She muttered, watching with satisfaction as a couple of light bandages dressed the area, before she brought her gaze back up to his.

    "There is no pressure." He told her earnestly, his thumb stroking the back of her hand, causing her to let out a small chuckle.

   "No?"

    "No." He joined in with her chuckle, with a shake of his head.

    "Okay." She smiled, pressing a hand to his cheek and giving it a gentle stroke before getting back to her feet to return the disinfectant to the cabinet.

    "Now, come on." Oliver grinned, getting to his own feet and pulling his jumper back over his head. "There is a room full of people upstairs, waiting to congratulate me."

    Dria let out a humoured scoff as she returned from the cabinet, pointing her wand at the cot in order to straighten up the sheets from where they'd sat.

    "Oh, you're so modest." She chuckled, watching fondly as he walked over and retrieved her bag for her from behind the front desk and slung it over his shoulder.

     The blonde looked around the Hospital Wing one last time before tucking her wand back in her pocket and making her way over to Oliver, who held out a hand in her direction which she took gladly as the duo started making their way out of the Hospital Wing.

    "So, what was this I hear about you telling Harry to knock off a girl off her broomstick mid-game?" She asked him, narrowing her eyes in good humour as he gave a light tsk and winced in response.

    "Yeah, not one of my finer moments."

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
i told you guys
the resurgence
was coming

one day they'll
kiss, i promise x

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