Chapter 7: Drew's Dilemma
Olivia’s happiness at securing the position on the Quidditch team lasted only until Sunday evening. At dinner, Laura Wood sought her out and told her, in a grim whisper, just how grueling the training sessions would be. After this encounter, Olivia fell strangely silent and only picked at her roast beef. Cora, who had hated roast beef since the age of seven, watched her friend for a few moments and then suggested they turn in early.
Olivia gave no reply, which Cora took to mean “Yes, let’s.” She therefore got up, turned around, and crashed straight into Drew MacDounagh, who had obviously been coming to talk to them.
Startled, Cora watched as Drew hit the table where she had been standing only moments before, but unfortunately, he didn’t stop there. He kept sliding until he reached the floor - underneath the table.
A couple of fifth-years sitting nearby took one look at Drew, lying on the floor, and burst into hysterical laughter. Cora stared, dumbstruck, not sure whether to start laughing or to run for help. Only one person came to Drew’s aid - Olivia, who had been startled out of her Quidditch-induced reverie by the thudding noises and the high-pitched laughter.
She leapt up and pulled Drew to his feet. “Are you alright?”
Drew grinned, sheepishly. “I’ve been better.”
Cora thought Drew looked absolutely fine, but Olivia apparently disagreed.
“You sure? You don’t want me to get Madame Pomfrey, or something?”
“No, no, I’m really alright!”
“Er, Olivia? Could I have a word? Now?” Cora sounded incredulous and angry at the same time. “Are you feeling alright?
“Me? I’m fine. Drew’s the one who just hit his head!”
“No, I mean, do you have multiple personalities or something? Yesterday you hated Drew.”
“I did?”
“Yeah.” Cora felt no need to mince words.
Olivia pondered for a moment. “Yeah, well, hitting your head like that is really, really painful. I’ve done it before!”
Cora raised an eyebrow, decided it wasn’t enough, and raised the other one. “I don’t want to know. But Drew looks fine!”
“No, he isn’t.” As if to emphasise her point, Olivia grabbed Drew around the shoulders and started shaking him. Hard. “See how melancholy he is?”
Drew managed to choke out “Olivia! I’m fine!” between gasps of air.
“Oh. Sorry.” Olivia released him, and he crumpled in a heap on the bench, thankfully not hitting the ground again.
At this point Professor Spinnet showed up. “Fighting, Potter, Abdiknot, MacDounagh?”
All three shook their heads and added “No, ma’am,” in unison.
“Well, be sure it stays that way!” Professor Spinnet turned back to the staff table.
Cora stared at the Transfiguration teacher’s retreating figure with incredulity etched across her face. “What on earth was that about?” she whispered to Olivia.
Olivia chose to ignore her friend and turned instead to talk to Drew, still breathing heavitly on the bench. “So, Drew,” she said, in a voice loud enough to make the addressee jump, “You were coming to talk to us, weren’t you? We’re surrounded by fifth-years, and I don’t see Will or Josh anywhere.”
Will Celeyran and Josh Dartman were the elite of the first-year set. They were followed everywhere by their roommates and fellow Gryffindors “ Drew, Calvin, and Zander - and were always being compared to this great Quidditch player or that well known Ministry of Magic employee. Olivia knew for a fact that Drew idolised them, so to find him completely out of their sight for a prolonged amount of time was like registering a shift in the Earth’s gravitational pull. It just didn’t happen.
“Oh. Right.” It seemed they had reached the reason Drew had braved fifth-year teasing and cold, dusty floors. It also seemed that he was none to keen on admitting what he’d wanted to say for the past ten minutes. Instead he stared at his feet.
Olivia seemed unperturbed by this. “Well? Say something!”
Drew muttered something incoherent, the only intelligible words being “Quidditch” and “flew”.
“Sorry? I didn’t catch that.”
Not looking at her, Drew swallowed and said, in a very fast monotone, “I just wanted to say that I saw you at the Quidditch trials and I think you flew very well.”
Whatever Olivia had been expecting to hear, that wasn’t it. Her face cracked into the first smile since Laura Wood had brought the grim tidings about Quidditch. “Thanks!”
Drew nodded, and promptly fell onto the bench again.
“Oh, sorry! Did I do that?” Olivia rushed to help him up.
“Yeah,” said Drew. Upon seeing the look on Olivia’s face, however, he added, “But don’t worry about it. Happens all the time. Though, come to think of it, it’s usually self-induced.”
Olivia still felt badly about this, so she decided to cheer Drew up. “Cora says you were talking about The Chronicles of Narnia the other day. Have you read them too?”
Drew jumped at the conversation-starter. “Oh, yeah! They’re my favorite Muggle books! Mum thinks I’m mad, but then again, Mum edits The Quibbler, so there you go.”
“ The Quibbler? That must be fascinating!”
“Er, no, it’s actually kind of dull…”
Drew trailed off, not because he didn’t have anything else to say, but because he and Olivia had made their way into the Entrance Hall and could no longer be heard over the footfalls of other students.
Cora, who had been watching the scene unfolding with her eyebrows up higher than she had ever known they could go, stared after them. “This can’t be possible,” she muttered, as though trying to prove something.
But she was wrong. This was even worse than a shift in the Earth’s gravitational pull. It was like discovering life on another planet, or finding out that her entire life was a mere by-product of a brilliant, fourteen-year-old American mind, or that“
She stopped thinking. Her thoughts were confusing her. Instead, she glanced at the staff table, received no reassuring signs, and ran into the Entrance Hall after Olivia and Drew.
A/N: I know this is a shorter chapter, and I had actually anticipated it to be longer, but this was a good place to stop. The good news is that once summer vacation starts updates will be faster. And there isn’t any bad news! Once again, thanks to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Olivia saying she’s hit her head before refers to the time I concussed myself on my best friend’s bunk bed. Just a fun fact.
Also, I have a question: do you want to see the Quidditch match or not? The action will pick up a lot faster without it, but it’ll probably be the only comic relief you’ll get for a while, so take your pick. Answer that and ask me whatever you want in the very long review you are about to leave! (Hint, hint.) See the convenient little box at the bottom of the page? Make use of it! Please?