I loved quidditch and I could admit that. I loved the rush of flying through the wind, the adrenaline that pumped through my veins when I threw the quaffle over the outstretched hands of the keeper and through the hoop was addictive. More than anything I loved the buzz that followed Ravenclaw house for the next few days after we won a match and the knowledge that I had helped bring so much happiness to so many people.

But what I didn't love was the training times. Now, if you asked Roger then he would say that we had the best possible times to be training. He was a firm believer that the earlier the practice was the better. And so when the quidditch captains from each house had gathered to wager for the times they wanted, he had gotten the earliest times possible. Meaning that he had to butt horns with Wood.

But he somehow, to the dismay of the rest of the team, had won.

That was the reason that we were trudging to the quidditch pitch before the sun had even risen. Roger has struck a deal with the house elves to arrange some breakfast for us. But even the prospect of food wasn't enough to force some of the heavier sleepers out of bed. I had learnt quickly that bending to Roger's will was better than having to sit through his incessant nagging if you did otherwise.

"Oi!" Someone shouted and I furrowed my eyes; what normal person was awake so early in the morning? "Benson!" And why were they calling my name?

Then again, I thought, picking up on the brogue that tinted the two words, it's not as if the person was a normal person. I took a quick glance to Roger, who had stopped at the call of my name. He didn't look as if he knew who the person was from the sound of their voice. But how could he not put the Scottish accent to the reaction that it had blatantly caused in the way that I was walking.

I cleared my throat, realising that everyone had stopped around us. My teammates turned to look back at Wood who, from their expressions, was not a welcome sight in their half sleep filled stated.

"What the hell do you want?" They snarled as Wood walked towards us. Once he was a metre or so away from the team, he stopped and raised an eyebrow at the boys that were now standing protectively in front of me. The boys on the team had a ridiculous theory that Wood would somehow find out about my feelings about him and, as a result, would get all of the team secrets out of me.

I sighed, pushing the boys out of the way so that I could face him when I talked to him. "Look Wood, if this is about the training times then I'm the wrong person to talk to; Roger is captain. Besides," I said, giving an irritated look to Roger when I noticed the death glare he aimed at the other captain. "We won the training times fair and square."

"Are you done?" He asked patiently, catching me off guard. I nodded. "I didn't want to talk to you about the training times, lass."

"Well what did you want to talk about Wood?" Roger demanded, "We're late for the first practice of the year because of you - which was no doubt your intention."

"Look, Benson," Wood said looking back at me and pointedly ignoring Roger. "Can I talk to you? In private?"

Before his words could make the rest of the team react, I turned to Roger, "Take the others to the pitch. I'll be there in a minute."

Roger nodded but kept his eyes on wood, "Fine, but don't even think about missing practice."

"I wouldn't think about leaving you without your best chaser."

Roger looked at me then and narrowed his eyes at me, "But I'm going to be there."

"Oh please, we both know that I'm the better chaser," I muttered and looked back at Wood who was standing patiently, watching our exchange. "Don't worry about me; I can handle him."

Reluctantly, the team padded after Roger as he ushered them towards the pitch but not before throwing Wood warning glares. When I was alone with Wood I chewed on the inside of my cheek.

"What did you want Wood?"

"I wanted to catch you before you had your practice because I didn't know when else I would catch you-"

"Again Wood, what do you want?"

"Look, I was just wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" He asked running a hand through his hair.

I eyed him closely; was he being serious?

"What-"

"I mean you don't have to if you don't want to." He added nervously.

Suddenly I was torn. On one hand, I really really liked him but on the other he was the enemy. And normally that would just be a figure of speech but the rivalry between Wood and Roger was huge.

Taking my bottom lip between my teeth, I looked back at him as he locked his eyes onto mine. "Alright."

Roger was going to hate me.

**********

Roger didn't hate me. But his dislike for Oliver grew the more that he was forced to see him. He was forced to seeing Oliver more often than he would have liked because Oliver had picked up the habit of hanging around the common room to see me or to kidnap me for the evening.

It didn't help that Oliver had been waiting for me outside of the common room this morning when we were coming back from breakfast. Oliver's idea of an impromptu date was playing one on one on the quidditch pitch - regardless of the weather. Someone who didn't like quidditch as much as I did would have left him to play quidditch alone.

Even if I did like quidditch a lot, this was ridiculous. I had told Oliver when the rain started that we should have headed inside. But, being the stubborn Gryffindor that he was, he insisted that it would clear up. Only it didn't.

Flying down to the ground, I saw him to do the same. Clambering off of my broom I set it against the side of the stand and pulled out my wand from my pocket to cast a warming charm to ward off a cold. There was no point in casting a drying charm if I would just get soaked by the rain again.

"I don't know about you," I said, peering into his smiling face. He stood beside me and reached over to pull a wet strand of my hair away from my face. "Like I said, I don't know about you but I'm going to head back inside."

"Come on lass," he said coaxingly, leaning across me to pick up my broom and hand it over to me. "You have to admit, whilst the weather might suck, this is fun."

"Look Oliver; I'm cold and I'm wet. Regardless of how fun this might be, I just want to go back inside," I pleaded, pulling my coat closer around me. The cold was even seeping through my warming charm.

"Let's make a deal; if you can score even one goal against me then we can go back inside. Deal?"

I considered it carefully; I'd score a goal easily against him.

"You can't go back on your word," I insisted and he nodded. "Alright, fine. Deal."

I waited for him to mount his broom and head up to the guard the hoops. When he was hovering in the same place, he glanced down at me provocatively, daring me to fly up. Rolling my eyes at him, I picked up the quaffle and mounted my broom at the same time. I flew up to the middle of the pitch with the quaffle clutched under my arm. Shifting the familiar weight of the quaffle between my arms I looked at Oliver at the sound of his voice.

"Scared?" He asked with a smirk as I flew towards him and stopped a few metres away from him.

"Oh please," I muttered, "Why would I be scared? And of you for that matter?"

"You're forgetting that I'm the best keeper in the school, lass."

"My, my, someone thinks a lot of themselves." I watched him shrug "But let's say that's true; it means nothing if you remember that you've never been able to block a single one of my shots."

He glowered at my words, "You must be the worst girlfriend ever."

"I guess that makes you the worst boyfriend ever,"

My eyes scanned his position, seeing the way that he was positioned on this broom to look for a clue on how he was planning on moving. Finding the opening that I was looking for, I flew the last few metres towards him and threw the quaffle, stopping to watch its path. The quaffle arched through the air and managed to just graze the side of his outstretched hands. But that didn't stop it from passing through the middle hoop.

Oliver let out a laugh of pure disbelief as I beamed. "I guess this means we're going inside after all."

Flying back down to the ground, we dismounted from our brooms and headed towards the castle. Walking through the castle, I kept looking at Oliver from the corner of my eye. From the moment that we had left the quidditch pitch, he had started to act really odd.

I was wondering whether or not to ask when we reached the bottom of the stairs leading to Ravenclaw tower. Beginning to climb the stairs I was stopped when Oliver took my hand in his and laced our fingers together.

"Oliver?"

"I, um, I really." He ran the hand that I wasn't holding through his hair, a slight pink tinge to his cheeks as he let out a deep breath. I furrowed my eyebrows when he avoided my eyes. "Can I walk you to your common room, lass?"

That was obviously not what he wanted to say.

"Oliver," I said with a smile, "Since when have you asked? You normally just turn up in front of my common room."

The walk to my common room happened in relative silence apart from a few mumbled words that Oliver seemed to keep repeating. I kept a closer ear on him to try and figure out what he was saying. My eyebrows rose; it sounded a lot like I really like you.

Oliver's mumbling came to a stop when we reached the portrait. It looked as though he was going to say something; he kept opening his mouth before closing it almost instantly. Honestly.

Rolling my eyes I stepped closer to him and pecked his cheek

"I really like you too Oliver."

He stared at me in silence. Merlin it was going to be embarrassing if I misheard him.

"How did you-"

"You're whispering isn't really all that quiet, Oliver."

**********

Oliver had gained a habit of waiting for me during practice. He would arrive halfway through practice and wait on the stands, watching me fly until the end. His presence had put the whole team on edge and I had lost track of the number of times that Roger had tried to get Oliver to leave.

But Oliver wouldn't leave. He would just stay where he was and then wait for me to get changed at the end of practice. As the only girl on the team I had a changing room to myself and I would find Oliver waiting outside of the changing room for me. Again, this ticked off the boys on the team who demanded what business he had waiting outside of the girl's changing rooms.

Today was no exception. I walked out of the changing room, tying my hair up into a ponytail and glanced up to see him push himself off of the wall. Straightening up, he made his way over to me, reaching down to snag my change bag from me. After having argued with him the first few times about it, I had learnt that it as just easier to let him take the bag.

"I swear," he muttered, dropping into step beside me as I linked my fingers through his. "Your team captain is the only person to schedule quidditch practices on Hogsmeade weekends."

"Well Roger knew that everyone would be away from the castle. Or almost everyone," I said with a look at Oliver.

"My girlfriend was practicing quidditch - who else was I supposed to go with?" He nudged my shoulder with his, "Besides, it's not too late to go down to Hogsmeade once we've dropped your stuff off."

Another thing that I had learnt as I went out with Oliver; he was a hopeless romantic. He went out of his way to hide that he was one. It surprised me just how much going on dates and doing coupley things actually meant to him. Feeling a smile tug at my lips, I dragged my feet a little as I stepped to be rewarded with an annoyed look that Oliver tried to hide. He was so cute.

"Come on lass," He said with an impatient sigh as I stopped dragging my feet. "Merlin if I had known that you were this slow then I'd have never asked you to be my girlfriend," He said with a teasing grin as he looked down at me.

"Oh please," I said, taking my hand out of his to look up at him properly. "If I had known that you were so impatient then I'd have let Roger be my boyfriend a long time ago."

He furrowed his eyebrows at me; my relationship with Roger was a sore topic for him. Seeing the look on my face, he started to laugh and reached out for me. Winding his arms around my waist and pulling my back against his chest, he lifted me off of the ground slightly and spun me around. I let out a peal of laughter, hearing the chuckle he let out against my hair. Oliver stopped at the sound of a cough and set me down onto the ground. Seeing the look on the faces of the team I cleared my throat uncomfortably and straightened my clothes.

Nodding politely at my team he took a hold of my hand and gave it a squeeze.

"What are you guys still doing here?" I asked looking across the boys, "I thought you had plans-"

"We do," Roger said not looking at me as the two captains had a silent staring contest. Honestly. "We were just waiting for the two of you."

"Why-?"

"Wood," Roger cut in, being the first to break their staring contest. "We'd like to have a word with you."

"We?" Oliver repeated, his gaze looking across the group of boys, "As in all of you?"

"Yes," Anthony Goldstein cut in, "Now hurry up - like we said, we have plans we want to keep to."

Oliver leaned down to whisper in my ear, "Should I be scared?"

I glanced at the team and turned back to my boyfriend. "Very."

"If they scared me lass, I would be ashamed to call myself a Gryffindor."

With that, he straightened up and walked towards them. The boys crowded around him as they began to talk and I rolled my eyes. Turning a deaf ear to their words I looked around the hall. How long was this going to take?

Evidently their talk didn't last long. The boys from the team gradually left, acknowledging me as they walked past me. When the rest of the team had walked away, I looked back at Oliver, snickering slightly at the look on his face.

"So I guess you do feel ashamed to call yourself a Gryffindor then?" I asked as I walked over towards him. He didn't answer and I linked my arm through his, rubbing his arm slightly. "Oliver, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine lass." He took a breath to compose himself and looked at me. "I'd never hurt you. You do know that, don't you?"

I gave him a concerned look. What was he talking about? "Of course I know that Oliver."

"Good," He said with a disarming smile. Slinging an arm around my shoulder, he pulled me against his side. "Shall we get going then?"

***********

"Hey Benson."

I looked up at the sound of my name; it was a well-known rule in the Ravenclaw common room that you weren't supposed to interrupt someone when they were reading. Placing my bookmark to mark my place, I closed my book.

"Yes, Roger?"

"Wood's looking for you."

Rolling my eyes at the evident disdain in his voice. I started to collect my things. "Where is he?"

"He said that he'd be waiting for you by the Gryffindor common room."

"Thanks Roger," I said rising from my seat and heading for the portrait.

Roger called out my name, stopping me mid step. I looked back over my shoulder at the older boy. "Tell lover boy that I'm watching him."

"Will do," I said with a smile and walked out of the common room. It might have been annoying the way that the boys we retreating Roger but I knew that it was because they were concerned for me.

Exiting Ravenclaw tower I made the now familiar trek to the Gryffindor common room. Would Oliver be waiting outside of his common room? Or would I have to talk to the unpleasant portrait that guarded their common room and seemed to have a personal vendetta against me? Or maybe if he was inside the common room, I could get someone to -

"Wood really seems to like Benson," a voice said, making me pause in my thoughts. My steps slowed down as a smile played at the corner of my lips as I heard the words.

"Yes I guess," a second voice said, accompanying his words with a sigh. "It's such a shame; they suit each other so well. But we both know why he's really going out with her."

My steps came to a halt. What did they mean? I waited, my heart thundering in my rib cage as I waited for the voices to continue their conversation.

"What do you mean?" The first person voiced my inner thoughts.

"She's the only chaser whose shots he can't save." Even if I wasn't a Ravenclaw I would have known what they were alluding to. I shook my head, letting out a breath as I willed it all to be lies. But I couldn't miss the honesty in the voice. "He asked her out so that he could use her for information on the Ravenclaw team. She's so close to Davies that she knows everything about the team because he discusses everything with her."

Turning on my heel I made my way back towards the common room, blinking back the tears that wanted to spill. I had spent years crushing on Oliver, only to have him use my feelings in return. Roger had been right. They all had been.

Answering the riddle and quickly gaining access to the common room, I headed for the girls dorms.

"So what did lover boy want then?" Roger called out.

Ignoring him I continued on my way to the dorm. Roger stepped into my way and I looked away from him, not letting him see the few tears that hadn't listened to me and had fallen away. It was no use; he'd seen them anyway.

"Hey, hey," He said softly setting a hand on my arm. "What's wrong? Did you break up?"

I shook my head and stepped towards him. Wrapping my arms around his middle I felt him stiffen before he returned the hug. He rubbed his hand soothingly across my back.

"You were right Roger," I muttered making him stiffen even more.

He pulled away from me quickly and took a hold of my arm. Pulling out his wand, he muttered a spell under his breath before climbing the stairs to the girl's dorms. How did he know the spell to stop the stairs from changing? Marching me into the dorms, he opened the door and motioned for me to come inside.

I walked into my dorm and sat on my bed. Some of my dorm mates who were in the room eyed Roger oddly. He turned to one of the girls.

"Stone," He said curtly, "Go and call the rest of the quidditch team and tell them we're having a meeting in your dorm." She did as he asked and he turned to the other girl in the room. He rolled his eyes. "I should have known you'd never leave the dorm - either you leave the dorm or I write to your parent's and tell them about the T you got in Charms."

My eyebrows rose as I watched the girl leave and Roger make his way to my bed. He sat down beside me as the team clambered into the room and shut the door behind them.

"Benson," Roger said gently, "Tell me what happened?"

I started recounting what I had overheard, unable to look any of my teammates in the eye. They had all been right all along -

"I'm going to kill him," Roger snarled.

I looked up sharply, "No."

"You heard what he's done and yet you're still defending him?" Roger asked incredulously.

"She's right," Anthony cut in causing silence to spread across the dorm room. "If we hurt him then we risk getting someone kicked off the team. The Gryffindor team won't rest if we take out their captain - that's guaranteed."

"Oliver would just use it to his advantage," I added.

"Alright, let's think," Roger muttered, "When's your next date?"

"Tomorrow after practice. I'm supposed to meet him by the great lake."

"Don't go - let's make him sweat a bit."

**********

I had to give Oliver credit. It had been two weeks of me purposefully avoiding even his shadow and yet he hadn't confronted me. But when he slid into the seat across from me at breakfast I prepared for a confrontation. There was no way this would end without one.

"I thought we were going to meet up yesterday after lunch?" he asked, helping himself to some toast.

"Oh, I guess I forgot about it," I muttered, not even looking up from my textbook as I raised my mug of tea to my lips. I had been staring at the page from the moment that he had sat down but he didn't need to know that.

"Um, lass," he said as though he was expecting me to look up at him. I didn't. He leaned across the table to set a hand on top of mine. I struggled not to pull my hand away from him. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I'm fine Oliver," I said pulling my hand out from beneath his to tuck some hair behind my ear. Setting it on my lap, I kept it hidden from his wandering hand. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"

"It's just that you've forgotten about a lot of our dates, you disappear before I can walk you back up to the castle after practice and -"

"I'm fine," I insisted, now looking up at him.

"Just tell me what's wrong and I can fix it."

"You want to know what's wrong?" I repeated quietly, picking up my book and pressing it to my chest. Oliver nodded and I let out a breath. "How about the fact that my boyfriend," I sneered to word, "Asked me out so that he could find out about the team's secrets. He's been lying to me over the course of our five month long relationship."

His entire face went slack before he managed to compose himself. Leaning closer to me, he spoke quietly, careful not to draw attention. "You have to trust me, lass. It's not what-"

"But I don't trust you," I said cutting him off. Oliver sat back in his seat, watching me carefully. "Some people would do a lot for quidditch Oliver. I'm one of those people as well. But only you would hurt someone for the sake of quidditch. I'm breaking up with you Oliver."

I went to rise form my seat; I didn't know how much longer I could be around him. He stood as well, catching my hand in his to stop.

"You can't just break up with me without giving me a chance to explain."

"Let go," I said, pulling my hand from his. "Roger wants to have as many practices as we can before our next game."

With that I walked away from him and headed for the quidditch pitch.

**********

Needless to say, we won the match.

"I'll see you in a bit," I said to the rest of the team as they hollered loudly in relief at the win. They talked energetically as they walked the rest of the way to their changing room, discussing the after game party that was already brewing in the common room.

"Don't think of skipping this party out," Roger warned as I walked into the changing room and quickly got changed.

Placing the tie around my neck, I turned at the sound of the door opening. It was followed by the sound of two steps.

My mouth dropped open at the person standing inside of the changing room.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" I asked, my voice becoming slightly shrill. "I could have been changing you pervert!"

A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as I quickly finished knotting my tie. Glancing around the changing room I sighed when I realised that he was blocking the only exit. He had me trapped and he knew it.

"I've missed you lass," He admitted, reaching a hand up to rub at the back of his neck nervously.

I chewed on my bottom lip. I wanted to tell him that I missed him too. Instead I settled for, "What do you want Oliver?"

"To talk." I raised an eyebrow, not buying a single word. "I swear; Scotsman's honour."

I let out a sigh as I sat down on one of the benches and motioned for him to do the same. "You've got five minutes."

"Alright." He walked further into the changing room and sat across from me. "I know what you heard must have sounded bad-"

"That's the understatement of the century."

"But it wasn't the truth," he insisted. "Well it might have been at first-"

"You're just digging yourself a deeper hole." He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face in irritation. "You've got two minutes."

"Look I'm not going to lie to you, it was true at first. But it changed half way through. When I told you all of the little things about me and that I liked you, I wasn't lying. Not a single word of it was a lie. I just miss you and I want to give us another go. But if you don't want to then I'll leave you alone."

He sat watching me for a while and when it became obvious that I wasn't going to answer him, he rose reluctantly to his feet. I watched him as he made his way to the door.

"Wait," I called out after him, taking my bottom lip between my teeth. Oliver stopped beside the door. "If I find out about something like this again then I won't stop Roger from attacking you."

"You're giving me another chance?" He turned towards me, a hopeful grin on his face.

"Only one." I said, already thinking of the reaction of the team. Merlin, forget attacking Oliver - they would attack me.

**********

6 YEARS LATER

The chasers flew past the booth I was sat in - a perk to Oliver being a professional Quidditch player- eagerly flying towards the opponent's goal hoops. After a stunningly intricate play, which I recognised as being one that only Roger could create, I watched the quaffle slip through the vulnerable hoop. I was on my feet instantly, cheering at the top of my lungs, as the chasers went after the quaffle straight away.

Merlin, Roger was good. I'd say he was almost better than I was.

"I can't believe you're publically supporting the rival team," A voice grouched from my side.

Looking down at the still seated Oliver I raised an eyebrow, "The rival team? Your team's not exactly playing them right now, are they?"

"Regardless lass," he muttered, reaching out to take my arm when the crowd started to chant Roger's name.

Oliver eyed me, silently daring me to join in the task and I rolled my eyes. Were all Gryffindors so bloody jealous all the time? Using the arm he had a hold on, Oliver pulled me down into my seat. I nudged his side, trying to get him to relax.

"Come on Oliver, you love quidditch." I gestured to the pitch where the two seekers were trying to outfly one another. "Besides, whether they're the rival team or not, you can put your personal annoyance with Roger, aside and admit that this is a good game."

"I'll never admit that about the enemy."

"Honestly Oliver," I muttered throwing him a dirty look. "You're a grown man and you're referring to them as the enemy?"

"Does it offend you so much that I think of Davies that way?"

Having had enough of this rubbish, I swatted his arm with my hand. "Will you stop bringing that up? You're jealousy is becoming extremely tiring Oliver."

"You still didn't answer the question."

Narrowing my eyes at him, I turned my attention back to the game. The two seekers dove for the snitch at the same time and just when I thought the game was coming to an end, one of the seekers pulled back to go the other way. They'd lost the snitch. The crowd gave an almighty cheer and I swung my head to the big screen where they gave an instant replay - Roger had scored another goal.

This time I joined in with the crowd as they chanted Roger's name. Oliver scoffed from next to me and I didn't pay him any attention.

"What exactly is Roger to you anyway?"

"To me?" I repeated distractedly, "He's one of my oldest friends and my first kiss."

"Your first what!" Oliver exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention from several people around us and effectively pulling my attention from the game. My eyes widened realising what I had admitted. Oliver rose to his feet and closed in on me. "Again, your first what?"

"Does it matter?" I asked, playing it off. "We'd both dated other people before -"

"Dated!" He repeated slowly, "I knew there was something going on between you two."

I set a placating hand on his shoulder, "I never dated Roger, but I'd dated other people. Merlin, relax Oliver."

Grumbling under his breath, Oliver sat down in his seat again and let me watch the rest of the game in peace. I tried to ignore his mutterings but the occasional sentences got through to me. Merlin he was being a drama queen.

"I bet you're not like this at my games."

"You're right," I said, looking at Oliver from over my shoulder, turning my face away from the pitch, "I'm not like this at your games and before you start pouting again let me explain. I'm much worse at your games - Roger can't stand coming to any of your games with me because it annoys him so much." I chose to ignore the half smirk playing around his lips. "Satisfied?"

"Very."

At that moment the whistle rang to signal the end of the game. I'd missed the end of the game.

"Davies' team won," Oliver said as the teams took to the ground. "Their opponent team caught the snitch but because Davies' team scored so many goals, it didn't matter that they didn't catch the snitch."

"It looks like his team really is the rival team now - you'll be playing each other in the finals." I remarked lightly as we made our way out of the booth.

"And who are you going to support?" Oliver asked, looping an arm around my shoulder.

"Both teams obviously." At the look he gave me, I continued, "I'm not kidding; I'm going to turn up in both team colours - that way I'm not picking sides and I don't have a grown man whining to me."

"I don't whine," a voice called out making me pause in my step.

Oliver groaned aloud at the sound of the voice and I turned to where it had come from. Roger, now changed out of his uniform, was walking towards us with a big grin on his face. He came to a stop in front of us and I nudged Oliver in the side, making him fix his facial expression. Was it too much for me to ask that my boyfriend and my best friend got along?

"Congratulations on winning the game." I stepped forward to hug him, Roger lifting me off of the ground slightly, "You played really well today."

"It was a team effort." Roger shrugged, setting me back onto the ground. Oliver's arm snuck around my waist and pulled me into his side.

"You're team was impressive," Oliver added, addressing Roger for the first time.

"From what I've seen your team is impressive too." Roger said to Oliver, the two men eyeing each other as a threat.

"It'll be an interesting final." Oliver muttered coolly.

"Yes it will be," Roger agreed competitively.

Merlin they'd started their mind games already. If they just put aside their quidditch rivalry for two seconds then they'd realise that they weren't so different after all.

Syt?SmuE