Erin had absolutely no idea what to expect, so she just changed into some comfortable, but still presentable clothes and waited by the fire. Most students went up to their dormitories at night to hang out with their roommates, so it was calm in the common room. Erin looked at her watch every two minutes, not very sure what she was waiting for.
At two minutes to ten, Tamsin walked up to Erin, looking rather confused.
"Erin, Wood's at the door. It's ten o'clock, what's he doing here?" she asked. Wood was at their door? What?
Erin stood up, just as confused as Tamsin and walked to the entrance. So Oliver was literally going to show her something?
She opened the door to reveal Oliver Wood, casually leaning against the wall.
"Merlin, Wood, what are you doing here?" Erin whisper-yelled.
"I told you I had to show you something", he shrugged. "Let's go."
"Where are we going?" Erin asked, not moving an inch.
"Slytherin quidditch practice."
"What? But it's ten in the evening!" The quidditch teams always practiced either before breakfast or before supper.
"Exactly", Oliver said and rose a brow, indicating that something fishy was going on. That did catch Erin's attention. Oliver turned around to walk away, but Erin knew that sneaking through the castle was risky at night.
"Wait, Oliver!" She called out for him. "I know a better way." Oliver turned around and she pulled him inside the Hufflepuff common room. Luckily, there were only a handful of students still up and most of them didn't seem to care. The Hufflepuff common room was often visited by other houses, even though it was technically not allowed, so it wasn't a very big deal.
"We can go through the windows up there. We'll be outside without having to go through the castle hallways", Erin explained. "But if we're going to be spying on a quidditch practice, I'm bringing an extra jumper, hold on."
Erin sprinted up to her dormitories, pulling a warm, grey sweater over her shirt. She grabbed her notebook and quill to jot down some of Slytherin's strategies. She looked in the mirror and quickly brushed her hair. He probably wouldn't even notice, but she still wanted to look as good as she could in such an unexpected situation.
"Ready to go", she said as she came back down. Oliver was wearing a black turtleneck which suited him really well. Erin tore her eyes away from him and opened up the window.
"Come on, let's go", she said and folded her hands for him to step into.
"You're going to push me up?" Oliver asked skeptically, which Erin scoffed at.
"You think I'm not strong enough? I can stupify you up there too if you'd rather have that", she hissed.
"Easy there, tiger", he smirked as he stepped into her hands, finding a good grip on the windowsill. He pulled himself up with ease and squirmed through the window.
"Come on", he said and reached out. She put her hands on the windowsill as well and pushed herself up as far as she could until Oliver could reach her and pull her up entirely.
"What a workout", Oliver sighed as they had both landed on the grass.
"Are you calling me fat?" Erin said jokingly hurt, which immediately made Oliver uncomfortable.
"No, no, that's not what I meant at all. I just-"
"Relax captain, I'm joking", she chuckled as she dusted off her outfit. They both checked their surroundings before starting their hike to the quidditch field.
"So why is Slytherin practicing this late?" Erin asked on the way there.
"To practice their foul play. They've been doing it all year", Oliver said, gritting his teeth.
"With Marcus Flint as captain, it will be a messy year", he added. Even though Erin liked the majority of Slytherin house, their quidditch team was rotten, relying on expensive, gifted brooms, intimidation and foul play.
"But how? It's after curfew", Erin said irritated.
"Snape gives them special permission. Some bullcrap about complete focus or something like that. I can't believe the other teachers allow it." Oliver was clearly not very fond of their team either. Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup for years in a row now and seeing as they didn't play very nicely, it'd be so rewarding to take that away from them.
"Shame we can't apparate", Erin puffed when they saw the quidditch pitch from a distance. It was quite the walk.
"I've been meaning to ask", she remembered. "When's your birthday? Since you're taking apparition lessons in your seventh year."
"December 15th", he said, which was only two months from now.
"So we're practically the same age", Erin smirked.
"No, definitely not. You're still a baby", Oliver said and playfully bumped her shoulder.
They got close to the quidditch pitch, so they kept quiet and slowly moved forward, making sure no one could see them. They found a spot just behind a hill, so they were hidden from the Slytherin team, but where they had a good view of their practice. It was dark, but it was not difficult to see that their moves were aggressive and aimed for destruction.
"They need to lose this year", Erin whispered, highly irritated. "If it's not me, I hope you can." Oliver smirked at the compliment.
"You bet that's what I'm going for."
Oliver got out a little brown bag from his pocket.
"Sugar quill?" he asked Erin and handed her one. Erin shrugged and opened the packaging.
"I never eat these, but they're quite good", she said as she enjoyed the taste of pure sugar.
"Really? They're great, my favourite sweets actually." Erin chuckled at how weird their situation was. It amazed her how different their relationship was from just one and a half months ago.
It was quiet for a while. Erin tried concentrating on the Slytherin team, jotting down some notes, but laying so close to Oliver, for whom she still had massive feelings, made it very difficult. Why was it so difficult for her to lose these feelings? Hanging out with him just gave her hope. The moments they sometimes had, those who were so special to her, they had to mean at least something to him too, right? She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that things that had such an effect on her didn't seem to faze him at all. She just wanted him to like her so badly.
"Hey, Oliver?" she asked after a while.
"Yeah?"
"How do you feel about our match that's coming up?" Erin asked nervously.
"I don't know, I'm always a little nervous about quidditch games", he said.
"Yeah, me too. I just hope we don't get completely humiliated. I feel like it's all my responsibility", Erin sighed. She was team captain so all pressure was kind of on her.
"Hey, you'll be fine, you're a great captain", Oliver said. "But we'll still absolutely smash you", he added with a smirk. Erin couldn't help but smile. How did he not realise how charming he was?
"Just to warn you, I tend to get a little in my head a couple days before a match", Oliver chuckled. "So if I don't talk to you, that's the quidditch maniac in me."
"You don't say", Erin smiled.
"Hey, let's promise something", he said and held out his hand. "Let's promise that whatever happens during the game, whoever wins, we'll still be friends after?" Even though Erin didn't particularly like the word "friends", she did like that deal. Maybe, just maybe, if Erin wasn't Oliver's direct competitor anymore, he could see her in a different light.
"You've got yourself a deal, captain", she said and shook his hand. The touch gave her chills, but made her all warm too. She so badly wanted to kiss him, but after being friendzoned once again, that didn't seem like a good choice.
"You okay?" Oliver asked her, waking her up from her daydream. She was still staring at him and still holding his hand.
"Yep", she said and quickly pulled her hand away, her face staining bright red. The embarrassment she felt right there was indescribable, but Oliver just smiled. She's really cute, he thought, before shaking those idiotic thoughts away. She's the one to beat.