CHAPTER TWENTY
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-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH HE ARGUES
. . .
Erin had heard the first shout for her name and ignored it. Then the second and third came, and she was forced to fly down from where she was overseeing her practise.
Getting off of her broom, she held it tightly in her wrist, letting it hang by her side as she stalked over to the tunnel that allowed them to access the pitch, eyebrows knitted together and a prominent glare already forming on her face.
"Yes?" She came to a stop in front of the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, who was leaning against the wooden stands. Had she been absolutely anyone else, then she could have admitted that he looked rather good; tie loosened around his neck and jaw set. But she wasn't insane, and had the ability to ignore it.
"Why the hell did Lupin just let me know I had a tutor?" Oliver stood up, eyeing the Nimbus 2001 and in her hands with a faint admiration. Not for her, the broom. "Which I was fine with, by the way. I'm not so self-absorbed and idiotic that I can't admit that I'm doing shit in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I was fine with being tutored. Then he told me it was you and maybe I'm not so fine with it anymore."
"That really sounds like a you problem. Do you see me reacting like this?" Erin cocked an eyebrow, leaning her broom against the stands and crossing her arms over her practise outfit, the usual long green robe discarded for a silver and green sweater, short hair loose over her shoulders.
"No. Which is concerning more than anything." Oliver replied, ignoring the hidden jabs at himself and pressing on. "Why would you agree to tutor me?"
"Because it gives me so much power. And deadlines on homework have been extended.. and because of the ego boost of hearing that me, a sixth year, is better than anyone else in this school at Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was very nice about it." Erin said, tilting her head to the side. "I thought you admitted you were shit at it, so why not stop being childish about this."
"You're one to talk about being childish? That note that quite literally set fire in my hands? What the hell is mature about that?" Wood continued, not settling just for the sake of doing what she said.
The argument continued like this for a while, and it gotten to the point where the members of the Slytherin team practising were glancing over more often than not, and wondering just how bad the relationship between the two captains was.
Because you had house rivalry, and then you had whatever the hell was going on between Erin and Oliver.
Nobody could have guessed that once, younger versions of themselves would have played side by side and been utterly horrifed to see what they had become to that day.
"Just admit that you're too immature to put up with me for an hour so that I can teach you something that allows you to achieve a decent grade at the end of the year!" Erin's voice had raised considerably, and Oliver, for once, didn't reply.
He instead seemed to be thinking, arguments for and against dropping it bouncing back and forth in his head. On one hand, Erin Tonks was the first person he would choose to throw off of the Astronomy tower. But Erin also happened to be - and it wasn't just self-proclaimed, the actual professor had said it to the both of them - that she was better at Defense Against the Dark Arts than anyone else was.
Which made this tutoring thing an opportunity that he didn't really feel as if he could miss it. And so, with a deep breath, he shrugged.
"Whatever. I'll do this stupid tutoring thing." He said begrudgingly, not enjoying the spark of amusement that appeared in Erin's eyes. "So when are you planning on having these meetings."
"Two weeks on Sunday." Seconds later and Erin had extracted her wand and very suddenly there was a sheet of paper in her hands and she was consulting it. "It's the day of the Hogsmeade visit but-"
"You've got to be kidding."
"Nope." Erin replied. "Now let me continue before I singe your eyebrows off - and then you'll look like a bigger idiot than you already do. I've chosen that day to start because I doubt that either of us would allow anyone on our teams to have a day off of practise if it wasn't for Hogsmeade. The two weeks give me time to get the list from Lupin and prepare, and gives you time to suck up the fact you're going to have to deal with this weekly until your exam."
"Fine." Oliver swallowed, eyes flickering over her shoulder and seeing the rest of - what looked to be - her main teeam (everyone had heard of her strategy by now) staring back at him. "Let me know when we're going to meet on the day."
And with that, he began to stalk back up to the castle, having no idea how it ended up with him just giving up on protesting it.
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