Finder's Keeper || Oliver Wood [1]

Chapter 22: Conflict of Interest

It was close to curfew when Jessica found herself walking back from the Quidditch pitch with Oliver after one evening practice. Their next match was the following day and would be against Hufflepuff, and they were actually quite excited for it because the weather conditions had been better than ever the past few days and the team wouldn't stop fussing over Jessica having a Nimbus 2000 now as well. The Weasley twins even jokingly said that they were invincible now since she and Harry had two high-end brooms, but Oliver scolded them for not taking their opponents seriously.

Jessica and Oliver walked into the castle in a comfortable silence. After a whole day of sitting in class and another hour of intense training, Jessica wanted to unwind by playing around with some simple Charms. She successfully procured a small bouquet of flowers, smiling down at it in satisfaction.

"What're those?" asked Oliver.

"Dung bombs, Oliver. What do you think they are?" Jessica said sarcastically, making him roll his eyes.

"I meant what kind of flowers are they. I don't recall learning about those in Herbology."

"That's because for one, you don't really listen to anything unless it's about Quidditch. And two, they're not magical flowers — just chrysanthemums."

Oliver merely nodded in response as she waved her wand and the flowers vanished. He remembered her mentioning that name when she complained about magical plants that time she was reading up on them in the library — it was the same day he forced her to sign up for Quidditch tryouts at the start of the school year. Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice that Jessica had started to slow down after turning the corner.

"You should head back to the common room now," said Jessica. "I still have to patrol tonight."

"Wait," Oliver whipped around. "You're still being tasked to patrol this late at night?"

"Uh, yes. What's wrong with that?"

"The attacks are what's wrong with that. All the students who've been victims are muggle-borns, remember? They've been more frequent lately, too. You shouldn't have to be patrolling when nobody else is around. It's dangerous."

Jessica blinked, not quite expecting him to get so riled up over that. She had to admit that she was a bit afraid to go on her patrols in the evening, too, but she was more or less fine with them since she was always partnered up with someone else, anyway. Still, it touched her that Oliver was worried for her.

"I'll be with another prefect — Penelope Clearwater, so we'll be fine. Don't worry, you'll still have your Chaser for tomorrow's match," she said with a hint of humor, making her way to walk past him. However, he caught the sleeve of her robe, making her halt and face him again.

"I'm serious, lass. I wasn't even thinking about the game tomorrow," Oliver mumbled.

Jessica's heart thumped loudly at what he said. Why was his concern affecting her so much? Why could she feel her face warm up with just that small action and those few words?

A set of footsteps diverted their attention away from the conversation. To their right, a Slytherin had come out from another corridor — Terence Higgs. Jessica hadn't properly spoken to him in months except for whenever they had to during class, but it wasn't like they had bad blood with each other, either.

"Higgs," she addressed him. Oliver dropped his hand from her sleeve and eyed the Slytherin boy irritatedly. "It's almost curfew."

"Right. Sorry," he said. "My Career Advice with Snape took longer than I expected."

"I see. You should return to your common room — it's late."

Terence cracked a small smile and nodded, obeying her orders.