Everything seemed to unroll kind of perfectly for Sarah during the next couple months, she had to find some kind of balance for her studying, too, the OWLs were approaching, Oliver's NEWTs, too.
Oliver was incredibly sweet, he would pick Sarah up and fly out to the lake again whenever they took a break from studying and Quidditch training. The Gryffindor team had won the match against Slytherin, thus the Inter-House Quidditch cup, Oliver's goal this year.
The Gryffindors all cheered so loudly, and Oliver had been so riled up, that he flew up to the benches and kissed Sarah in front of the entire school, getting another row of cheers and applause for that.
They'd become the couple people would turn around to follow when they passed the hallway, because ruthless captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team was happily dating. Hearts broke around the Hogwarts walls, as much girls as boys, because apparently Wood wasn't the only one pining over Sarah McCauley, or so Lee would say. He had a tendency of using dramatic wording.
"I'm telling you, Roger still hasn't recovered," said Lee gathering up his notebooks and quill, "Caught him staring at you a few times before when you answered to Flitwick."
"Oh, will you shut up already?" scowled Sarah, playfully shoving his shoulder.
"I saw it too, if you don't believe Lee," teased George, ruffling her hair.
She rolled her eyes disbelievingly, and turned the corner to exit Charms class, feeling someone pick her up, and she let out a screech, then she saw Oliver, wiggled out of his grasp.
"I could have hurt you," she warned, poking his chest so he'd back away.
"Hello to you, too," he grinned, pressing a kiss atop her head.
"Aren't you sweet? Don't be gross, please," said George, pointing his index at the both of them.
"Is that so?" Oliver smirked, wrapped his arms around Sarah and leaned her back, very clearly about to kiss her when she stopped his face from leaning forward, "I have class, and you can be certain that if Flitwick catches you, you'll have to say goodbye to your perfect record."
Oliver chuckled and helped her back up, her friends grinning at the sight of them. Fred walked out of the class then, joining George's side and made a rather long eye contact with Oliver, something about it made Oliver bring Sarah closer, "Come on, I'll walk you to class." He took the books she was carrying and the whole group started walking, letting Sarah and Oliver linger behind.
"I have a question," said Oliver on their way to the Astronomy tower, Sarah's last class of the day, he had finished his already. "And I mean it with utmost honesty and genuinely, should I be worried about Fred?"
If she'd had a mouthful of water, she would have spat it out in surprise, "What?"
"I'm getting this," he raised his shoulders, trying to find the right words, "Overly protective vibe?"
"Well-" she lingered, not really knowing how to put into fewer words that although she felt the urge to kill Fred and George twice a day, there was some unspoken agreement between the three that they were a priority to each other.
"So I'm not wrong?" he asked cautiously.
"I don't know, Oliver, I'm not going to tell you whatever you're feeling is wrong, but from where I'm standing, he cares, but he also likes to mess with people," reasoned Sarah coolly.
"Yeah, I suppose it's a sort of brotherly feeling, right?" he pulled her closer to his side again, like he did before when Fred showed up, and Sarah had a quiet thought that Oliver was not as casual about it as he let on.
And that reason alone is why she said, "Right," although it made her smile drop for some reason. Oliver kissed her temple, pulled her out of her thoughts, "Could you stay with us at dinner? Anne and Mike won't shut up about last time when you made them all laugh, they're begging me to bring you back. They might like you more than they like me."
They'd arrived before the Astronomy tower, everyone was climbing up the stairs.
"Sure, I'll be there," she smiled, pushed her hair away from her face because of the wind outside.
Oliver watched her fondly and gave her back her books, "I'm gonna kiss you."
"Do not kiss me," she ordered, looking at the awaiting teacher and the people walking up the stairs.
Oliver nodded, then he quickly kissed her cheek, "Did it anyway!" and he ran away, leaving her smiling.
_
From the corner of her eye, she saw Fred appear in the portrait hole, arm around a girl she vaguely recognized, kissed her and left her grinning widely, going up to her own tower.
Her head snapped back to her book, feeling the need to clear her throat, and Fred plopped on the couch next to her, "McCauley, you're reading. That's new."
"Weasley, you're being a presumptuous pain in the arse, that's also new," said Sarah, not looking up from her book at him.
She heard him chuckle, "So, is she March's Denise? Last month's Rebecca or last week's Jane?" she asked.
"Alina," said Fred with a cheeky grin.
Sarah took in this name also, hoping she won't be as hurt as the others, "And does she know what she's in for?"
"Of course," said Fred pointedly, "They always know, but at some point I find out they secretly hoped it'll change."
She raised a brow at him, "So you're just the honest bloke, looking for harmless fun and the girls are simply holding you to unrealistic standards that you told them beforehand you don't intend on meeting?"
He flashed her a grin, "Exactly."
"That's crass, Weasley, harmless fun in relationships hardly exists," winced Sarah, then looked up at Oliver who'd just walked in.
He reached her and set a kiss atop her head, "Hey, beautiful."
She smiled and Oliver sat on the couch, threw an arm around her to bring her close.
"Yes, well," muttered Fred, and turned away from her.
They spent the evening talking, they were all friends at the end of the day, Angelina and Katie came in with some exciting gossip that they shared with the group, getting even the guys invested, and Oliver blended right in, it made Sarah smile, to see him and her friends get along, they'd been together a little over three months, now, and he became quite important to her. Fred rarely acknowledged him, though, and it was a shame, to not have her boyfriend and best friend get along, she constantly found herself trying to balance the two out.
_
Sarah's Potions class was walking out, they'd all received the grades of their mock exam, and the grades were not diversified, the majority had gotten 'Poor', which was a failing grade, didn't look promising for many in having an OWL in Potions. People were mumbling, downcast, some on the verge of burning their papers as soon as they walked into the common room.
"What do we have here?" asked Fred teasingly, snatching Sarah's paper from her hands, keeping it out of her reach.
"Weasley! How old are you, seriously?!" she scolded, jumping up to reach her paper.
Fred dodged her and flicked his wand at her paper, making it into a paper airplane flying around the common room.
"You can't expect me to completely brush over the fact you've got an Outstanding in Potions, do you? You need to be humbled, otherwise George and I will need to put up with you being a smug pain in the arse all summer," said Fred, snickering down at her, making her paper fly from corner to corner.
"You're just jealous," she shoved him with her shoulder, "And a presumptuous git."
She snatched his wand from his hand, started running with it, and directed the paper plane right into his face, unfolded it, thus blocking his vision with it. She started laughing hysterically when Fred walked forward with his arms stretched out, not seeing a thing and hit a table, knocked over a plant. Thankfully Sarah quickly made it go back, and not make a total mess on the floor.
Fred tore away the paper from his face, got the hair out of his face, "Sarah Lilian McCauley, give me back my wand immediately!"
"Come and get it!" she snickered. "Ah!" she ran away from Fred when he leapt forward, going around the couch and somehow he made his way right in front of her, blocking her from going forward and before she could turn the other way around, he grabbed her under her knees, threw her on the couch and hit her head repeatedly with a pillow, and took his wand back from her.
Sarah grabbed his jumper and yanked on it, causing Fred to fall over the couch and on the ground next to it, and she took this as the opportunity to jump back behind the couch and finally have a barrier between the both of them.
They were grinning and panting, Sarah ran her hands through her hair to get it out of her face, picked up the unfolded paper plane he'd made out of her Potions exam, the capital letter 'O' written in its corner.
"This paper looks better than your future," teased Sarah.
Fred climbed over the couch and reached her in a split second, but simply held a firm grip around her, keeping her on her toes about what he might do next.
Both their hearts were pounding from the chase earlier, she felt him breathe out against her hair, bringing her close for a second, then he shoved her playfully to the side, "It's actually impressive," said Fred, pointing at her paper.
"Why, thank you," she pressed a dramatic hand over her chest. "I actually worked my arse off for this, it better be impressive, Weasley."
"I would expect nothing less." Fred grinned, and rested nonchalantly an arched arm on her shoulder.
He looked over her face, pointed at her cheek, "You have an eyelash on your face, here," he touched his cheek to mirror where it was.
"Oh," Sarah brushed over her cheek, "Is it gone?"
"No, hold up," he brought a hand up to her face. Sarah quickly winced and shut her eyes, ready to step away, "Don't flick it off."
"I wasn't going to!" He gently took it off, and lowered the finger her eyelash was resting upon, now, "Here."
"What are you giving it to me for? It doesn't go back, Weasley," she squinted confusedly at him, looking between him and the eyelash.
"You're supposed to make a wish, then blow it away," explained Fred, as if it was some common knowledge and she should abide to the ritual.
"It's stupid, I'm not doing it," she breathed in and was about to blow when Fred put his hand up, "You have to! You want the universe to fall apart? If you don't do it, I'll tell everyone the end of the world was because of you."
Sarah sighed in contempt, closed her eyes for a second and blew the eyelash out the open window. "I wished for you to shut up," she said, crossing her arms pointedly.
He clicked his tongue, shaking his head as if disappointed, "You're not supposed to say it out loud, McCauley, now it's never gonna happen. Such a shame."
Sarah looked up at him then, feeling her heart get lighter by the second, it always did in the aftermath of the messing around and mocking. She smiled, looking through the window, although Fred's gaze didn't leave her right away, it did when Oliver jumped between them, pulling them apart.
"Hey guys!" he said cheerfully. "How are you?"
He asked, but didn't wait for an answer, brought Sarah closer by the arm around her neck and kissed her, and Fred backed away then, exchanging a slight uneasy look with George who was across the room. Sarah tried pulling away a couple times, Oliver closed the gap right away again, holding her tightly still, "Oliver-" she finally got a word out.
She put her hands on his chest to stop him from leaning forward again, questioned him silently. "Just missed you, that's all," he smiled at her, pushing her hair back.
"You could have waited for privacy, though," she whispered, full well knowing there were people around and that he did it on purpose.
"Couldn't help it," he said conceitedly, twisting his arms around her.
"Try next time, all right? I don't know what you're trying to prove. Excuse, I have OWLs to study," she backed away from his grasp and walked up to her dorm.
Oliver ran a hand through his hair, watching her walk away and locked eyes with Fred, who found himself blocked by the both of them during that scene earlier, glad he could finally walk away, too. "I'll just-"
Fred passed Oliver, who smiled at him, clearly annoyed. "Yeah, you do that," mumbled Oliver, and stormed up to his dorm.
_
The next morning, Oliver approached her, awkwardly trying to apologize, but she was late for class, he had Quidditch practice, she didn't have time to sit through his rambling, told him they'll talk later.
At some point in the afternoon, just as she got out of History of Magic, there was a flower petal that flew in front of her, twirled around her head, tickled her nose and flew in eights before her, then wiggled, as if it was telling her to follow.
"Fred, is this going to lead me to another pond of toads? I swear I'll hex you-"
"I don't know what this is, McCauley," said Fred, eyeing the petal with disinterest, looking down to fumble with his quill.
"George?" she raised a brow, but he only raised his shoulders, not knowing, either.
"If I die, Selena, you get my cassette tapes collection," said Sarah before she started following the petal.
Selena jumped up, "The Whitney ones, too?"
"By all means, don't hide your excitement before the prospect of my death," chided Sarah, walking behind the floating petal.
She walked along the corridors, towards the courtyard, and disappeared behind the large tree in its middle. Small flowers had blossomed in it, in was early June, and she looked up, saw a gentle wind making them flutter.
Oliver appeared from behind it, holding out the palm of his hand, and made a movement with his wand while walking towards her.
"There's no one around," he spoke softly. "And this is for you." From the movement of his wand, little sparkling parcels twirled around and made for a lily flower, the petal was from a lily. "I'm sorry."
Sarah took the flower from him and brought it close to breathe in its scent. "It's my favorite, how did you know?"
"I have my ways," he took her hand in his, pressed a kiss atop it. Sarah smiled, sneaked her arm around his neck, "This is really sweet."
"Am I forgiven?" he asked, tilting her chin up gently with a finger.
"Maybe," she grinned, breathing in the flower again. She gently brought him closer to her, tips of their noses brushing when Oliver lifted his head to look around, "Hm...wait a second, I see Angie and the guys passing through the corridors."
She rolled her eyes, "You're an idiot," and brought him down, feeling how he smiled into the kiss.
"Great, they've made up," said Angelina, shaking her head fondly.
"He was a real arse this morning," commented George, exchanging an amused look with her, glancing back at Fred, fumbling with his quill still, complaining that it broke and now he had to get a new one.