An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Seventeen

"What?" was all he could manage, clearly completely lost. People could get into battles of wits and insults with the kid all day long; my system of confusing the crap out of him was infinitely more efficient and less frustrating.

I jogged past him and his group without explaining before they could say anything else, and I made it through the rest of the lap without seeing any more wizards. On my second lap, I ran into my friends. They all thought I was super weird for running around by choice, but they didn't give me too much grief for it.

I was into the last five-ish minutes of my run when I came across Oliver. He was a little bit ahead of me and, like everyone else, he was clearly wondering what the hell I was doing.

"Alexa!" he called, waving to me as I approached.

"Hey Oliver! Sorry, can't stop. I'm in my last five minutes. Wanna run with me?"

"Sure, why not." He shrugged, then fell into step with me as I passed him. "So what's the point of this exactly?"

"To be better at going faster for longer," I answered simply. "That way you're in better shape and can play sports better."

Oliver looked thoughtful. "Does that include Quidditch?"

"Well, I mean, that's not really the most physically exhausting sport, but I guess it could help with Quidditch. It's never gonna hurt you to be in better shape."

Oliver nodded, and I could see the gears turning in his head. My friends were not going to be happy with me for introducing Oliver to team running.

"How long have you been out here?" he finally asked.

"I'm putting in half an hour. But if you're thinking of enforcing team running for Quidditch, I would recommend doing more than just long distance stuff."

"Like what?"

For the last five minutes of my run, I gave Oliver a full work-out plan. From strength to cardio, I gave him all kinds of ideas, and as we parted ways to change before dinner I could tell whoever made the team was going to have to do a lot more physical training than before.

Oops. Sorry guys.

I was distracted again the next day with our second WWHRS meeting, which went very well. David and I spent a little time on that project, I finished up the last of my muggle homework (even though it wasn't due until Sunday), and then it was finally Friday.

I went to check the Gryffindor message board first thing Friday morning, but the team list wasn't up yet.

"It'll be up after the last class of the day," said Oliver from behind me. I spun around to glare at him.

"You're telling me I've been waiting all week for this moment, but now I actually have to wait another, like, eight hours?"

"Sorry, Alexa. That's always when decisions come out."

"Ugh. Fine," I huffed.

"Does this mean you might be interested in playing full time?" he asked.

"No... I think I still just want to be a sub. I have enough other stuff going on that I don't want to spend all my time on Quidditch," I explained. Oliver looked at me like I was insane, and he actually took a few steps back.

"You really think it's more important than Quidditch?" He sounded genuinely concerned for my mental health when he spoke.

"Uhh..." I wasn't really sure what to say to that, but luckily, my friends showed up and saved me from having to answer.

"Wood! What's the word?" asked Angelina, coming over and clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"You know I can't tell you that yet Angelina," he said, thankfully distracted again by more Quidditch conversation.