A/N: I'll probably edit this whole thing later on bc it's rushed and I'm not happy with how some parts are written BUUUT pls don't forget to tell me what y'all think of this chapter after you read it! ❤️
The morning of the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match was very windy and rainy. It felt darker and colder than usual when Jessica and her teammates turned up at the Great Hall for breakfast.
"It's going to be a tough one," said Oliver, who wasn't eating anything.
"Stop worrying, Oliver. We don't mind a bit of rain," Jessica tried. But even she was lying to herself. It wasn't a bit of rain — it was more like heavy showers and ferocious winds by the time the team had made it into the locker rooms. They would have been soaked to the bone had it not been for her smartly conjuring a translucent shield that hovered above their heads on their way there.
Everyone got changed into their scarlet robes and gear quietly, all of them deep in thought. When they had finished, they gathered like always and waited for Oliver to give his pre-match pep talk — but he didn't. He tried speaking a few times, but he always ended up shaking his head. In the end, he wordlessly beckoned for his teammates to follow him out into the field. Jessica shared looks of concern with Angelina and Katie before making their way outside.
The rain and thunder were so loud that Jessica couldn't even tell if the crowd was cheering — they probably were seeing how packed the stands were. The Hufflepuffs came from the opposite side of the field, wearing bright yellow robes. Cedric Diggory and Oliver Wood walked up to each other and shook hands; Cedric had on a charming smile, but Oliver couldn't muster one of his own and merely nodded.
"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch said, which Jessica barely heard over the noise. If they were playing in clear conditions, she would have been excited about the fact that this would be her first time playing an official Quidditch game with her Nimbus 2000 from Charles because last school year, she had been petrified before their match. But because she was too preoccupied with their situation, this barely even crossed her mind.
Madam Hooch blew the whistle. Everyone kicked up into the air, and the game began. Jessica found herself swerving slightly due to the strong winds, but she hurriedly steadied herself. She sped after Katie to assist her after seeing that she had gotten the Quaffle first. It was absolute madness trying to maneuver through the blurs of yellow and scarlet in the air, and she couldn't even hear Lee Jordan's commentary — it was like she had lost her sense of sight and hearing in a Quidditch game, for Merlin's sake. She, Angelina, and Katie managed to score a decent amount of goals, though, but after ten minutes, they weren't sure how much longer they could last.
There was a flash of lightning, and Madam Hooch blew her whistle loudly again. With a frown, Jessica descended into the ground with her teammates.
"I called for time-out!" Oliver explained, raising his voice at his team. "Come on, under here —"
They huddled at the edge of the field under a shade, all of them dripping with mud and water.
"What's the score?" Harry asked.
"We're fifty points up, but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night," Oliver said.
"I've got no chance with these on," Harry waved his glasses exasperatedly. Only a second later, Hermione Granger came running into the tent.
"I've had an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!" she said. He obeyed right away and gave them to her. Hermione tapped his glasses with her wand and said, "Impervius! There!"
"What did she —" Oliver began.
"A water-repelling charm," Jessica supplied for him, impressed by Hermione. "That was really clever, Granger."
"Thank you," Hermione beamed at her as she handed Harry his glasses.
"Brilliant!" Oliver said gratefully to the third year girl just as she ran back out into the crowd. "Okay, team, let's go for it!"
They dove back into the game with even more adrenaline running through their veins. Jessica and the other Chasers were ruthless in an attempt to keep the gap between them and Hufflepuff as far as possible. Oliver blocked almost every goal that their opponents tried to shoot. Fred and George aimed the Bludgers at them as well, hoping to throw them off. As for Harry, he had finally spotted the Golden Snitch. However, Cedric had seen it first and was already zooming upwards. With a newfound determination, Harry raced after him.
The two Seekers flew higher and higher into the air, eventually becoming neck and neck with each other. They could both see the tiny, shiny gold ball fluttering just within their reach. But just as Harry had neared it, a horrible, cold sensation swept over him.
And then he saw them: the faceless, hooded, black dementors. Harry barely had time to process why they had managed to enter the grounds in the first place because they were suddenly swarming him and sucking all the life out of him. He was starting to grow faint and could even hear pained voices at the back of his mind, screaming for mercy... and before he knew it, he was out.
Jessica had just scored a goal when screams of panic echoed throughout the Quidditch pitch. She turned around frantically, wondering what was happening, and then she noticed that everyone was pointing at the sky. She looked up and gasped — Harry had fallen off of his broom and was plummeting towards the ground at a frightening speed, looking limp like a rag doll. She pulled her broom to a stop, but she had no idea what she and her teammates were supposed to do now.
Just when she thought things were going to take a turn for the worse, Dumbledore shouted, "Arresto momentum!"
★ ★ ★
"He looks a bit peaky, doesn't he?" said Ron. He, Hermione, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, and even Neville, Dean, and Seamus were all surrounding Harry's bed in the hospital wing. The rain had stopped, but the skies were still dark as they waited for him to finally wake up.
"Peaky? What do you expect?" Fred scoffed.
"He fell over a hundred feet!" George said.
"Yeah, come on, Ron. Let's walk you off the Astronomy Tower —"
"— and see what you look like!"
"Probably a right sight better than he normally does," Harry mumbled, his eyes slowly opening. Everyone chuckled at how he managed to crack a joke even in his state.
"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked him as he sat up.
"Oh, brilliant."
"You gave us a right good scare there, mate," Fred told him.
"What happened?"
"Well, you fell off your broom," Ron started.
"Really?" Harry said sarcastically. "I meant the match. Who won?"
Everyone exchanged nervous looks, unsure of how to explain it to him.
"No one blames you, Harry," said Hermione tentatively. "The dementors aren't supposed to come inside the grounds. Dumbledore was furious — as soon as he saved you, he sent them straight off."
"Where is Wood?" Harry asked, realizing that he was the only one from the team not there.
"Still in the showers," Fred explained. "We think he's trying to drown himself."
"He is not," Jessica hit him with her broom. She didn't want Harry to feel guilty by knowing just how upset Oliver was about their loss.
"If you don't believe me, why don't you check the showers for yourself, eh?" Fred wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"Bet she'd love to see that," George smirked. Jessica whacked him with her broom as well.
"Shove off, the two of you," she grumbled, red in the face. The twins snickered under their breaths at her reaction.
"There's uh, something else you should know, too, Harry," Ron said carefully. "When you fell, your broom, it... it sort of blew into the Whomping Willow, and... well..."
Ron uncovered the broken pieces of Harry's Nimbus 2000 that he had been hiding in a blanket. Jessica winced at Harry's heartbroken face — there was no way that broom was getting fixed.
By the time Jessica and the rest of the team returned to their dorms to let Harry recover as well as to freshen up after such a hectic game, Oliver Wood still hadn't come back to the Gryffindor Tower. Jessica couldn't help but keep glancing at the portrait hole in concern, wondering when he would finally walk in.
"You're going to break your neck if you keep doing that."
Jessica looked at Bethany, who was sitting next to her by the roaring fire, in surprise.
"Huh?"
"You've been looking at the portrait hole for the past fifteen minutes. If you're so worried about Wood, why don't you go look for him?" she deadpanned. Jessica stuttered for an answer, making her redhead friend sigh dramatically. "Good Godric, Jess, you don't have to deny it. Just find him already!"
Taking Bethany's advice, Jessica gave in and left the common room. She wasn't sure where Oliver was, but she supposed that the safest bet was to check the Quidditch Pitch again.
Jessica's walk back there didn't take long. She quite enjoyed the silence after such a chaotic and eventful game. The skies had also cleared up just a bit, but the air was still a little chilly. It was only a matter of time before it turned humid, which is something she never really liked.
When she arrived at Quidditch Pitch, she scanned the bleachers first. Sure enough, Oliver was sitting on one of the lower levels, leaning back onto the seats behind him. His hair was still damp as if he had really been in the shower for too long as Fred and George claimed, and he was staring up at the sky with an unreadable expression. Jessica didn't want to disturb him, but she decided that letting him sit out there for any longer wasn't going to do anything. With a small sigh, she walked up the steps and made her way towards him. He glanced at her when he heard her footsteps approaching.
"Hey, lass," he said, pushing himself up to sit up straighter. Jessica plopped down on the space next to him.
"Have you been here since the match?"
"Yeah. Tried to drown myself in the showers earlier, but it didn't work."
"You should try the Black Lake next time," she suggested. Oliver raised an eyebrow at her dry humor. "Kidding. How are you feeling?"
"Remember how I said at the start of the year that I wanted to jump off the Astronomy Tower if we don't win the Quidditch Cup?" he said. Jessica nodded. "Well, let's just say that maybe I should try that sooner rather than later — like, right now."
"Don't be so dramatic."
"I'm serious! What's the point of life anymore?" Oliver said exaggeratedly.
"Well, for one, you need to stay alive to redeem ourselves in the next few games and actually win the Cup," Jessica nudged the boy beside her.
"I suppose you're right."
"Of course I am. I'm not the top of my year for nothing," she joked. Oliver managed to smile at that. "Besides, there's no use in whining about the match now. What happened to Harry was an accident, and we should be grateful he's fine, too."
"Yeah, but if only he spotted the Snitch a little earlier..."
"Oliver!" Jessica hit his arm scoldingly.
"Okay, okay, I was just joking!" he said, raising his hands up defensively. Although, deep down, he still wished Harry found the Golden Snitch before Diggory did... but he wouldn't say that out loud while Jessica was still there.
"Come on, we should go back to the common room," said Jessica after a moment. "It's getting humid out here."
The two of them walked back into the castle in a comfortable silence. Jessica allowed Oliver to sulk because she knew he was upset — she was already bummed out by their loss, so she could only imagine how he was feeling. Even though he was being quite dramatic, she understood that Quidditch meant a lot to him and this was his last chance to win the Cup for Gryffindor.
Jessica wanted to return to the common room without any complications, but the universe decided otherwise. As they walked up the stairs and neared their destination, a pair of Ravenclaw students ran past them.
"Argh! I hate Peeves!" one of them said.
"I'm going to get bruises from those stupid walking sticks!" said the other. They continued to shout their complaints about the poltergeist as they sprinted away and turned the corner. Then, they heard a distant cackle from behind them.
"Who else can I throw these at?" Peeves's voice said mischievously from down the hall. Jessica and Oliver exchanged wary looks. It seemed that Peeves was up to no good again with his pranks — this time, he was pelting sticks at random students.
"Oh no," Oliver said.
"Should we hide?" Jessica asked hurriedly, looking back to see if Peeves had arrived already.
"But where —"
"There."
Jessica held Oliver by the wrist and pulled him along with her. He stumbled after her as she brought him into a spiral staircase partially blocked by a pillar — the exact same one the two of them hid in that night of the Gryffindor party.
"This is familiar," Oliver couldn't help but say.
"Oh," Jessica said, quickly realizing why. "Yeah, I guess it is."
"How so?" Oliver questioned innocently, watching her carefully for her reaction. Her eyes flitted away nervously to avoid his gaze — he had her cornered.
"We kind of took a walk and hid here after the party that night. One of the teachers was patrolling, so..."
"I thought you said nothing interesting happened after I drank all that firewhisky," said Oliver, his heart racing as he realized he had been right along. He knew what happened between them wasn't just a figment of his imagination. There was no way something as vivid as that wasn't real — but Jessica had purposely covered the whole thing up.
"Er, well... the thing is... I mean..."
"I knew you were lying."
Jessica barely heard Peeves's obnoxious voice as he zoomed through the corridor and past them. It was like she could only hear the blood pounding loudly in her ears as she came to terms with the fact that she had been caught.
"I didn't really, I-I just... oh, come on, it's not like you remember anything, anyway," Jessica spluttered.
"Er, I do," Oliver confessed now that he was a hundred percent certain of it.
"Y-You do? Everything?" He nodded, and a blush quickly found its way onto Jessica's face. "Why didn't you say so?"
"I wasn't sure if had dreamt it at first because I did get pretty drunk back then, so that's why I had to ask you," he confessed. "But then you told me that nothing actually happened, so I didn't push it anymore."
"This entire time, I really thought you forgot," Jessica mumbled. "You should've just went straight to the point and asked me about it properly!"
"I didn't wanna embarrass myself in case I really did imagine it!"
"Still! I would've told you —"
"Would you really have told me that we kissed if I asked?" Oliver retorted, taking a step towards her. Jessica took a step back because his words and actions flustered her considerably.
"M-Maybe."
"Come on, where's that Gryffindor courage?" he teased.
"In my defense, I was and still am thinking about our friendship," Jessica protested. "It takes courage to think about how that kiss would affect that, too!"
They lapsed into another silence. The air was thick with tension, and Jessica wanted nothing more than to run away so she could escape it. In the end, Oliver was the one who broke it and spoke up.
"You know, you're not a very good liar," he suddenly said.
"What do you mean?"
"It was quite obvious you weren't telling me the truth when I talked to you the day after the party," he explained, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned. "But you looked like you didn't want to bring it up for a reason."
"Well, yeah, but... I swear, I didn't want to lie," Jessica said weakly. "It's just I... well..."
"Then be honest when you answer me now: did you regret it?"
There was no point in lying anymore. She wouldn't even try to do it because here they were, face to face, and he could probably tell immediately if she wasn't being truthful. Jessica then realized that he had somehow moved much closer to her in the middle of their conversation, and she tried so hard to not let that get to her so that she could respond properly.
"No, I don't regret it," she said quietly. She felt so vulnerable and exposed for admitting that. "I didn't want to tell you we kissed because I was afraid you'd forgotten it, which you did — well, I thought you did. Or that even if you remembered, it was nothing to you. Or that I'd just embarrass myself because... because it meant something to me."
"You seriously think that didn't mean anything to me?" Oliver said incredulously.
"Well, yeah," Jessica said in embarrassment. "How am I supposed to know how you feel? It's not like you go around telling me and —"
"For someone who gets straight O's in all classes, you can be quite dimwitted."
"Hey! I am not —"
"Oh, be quiet."
He leaned down, only for Jessica to stop him by placing a hand on his chest.
"What do you think you're doing?" she narrowed her eyes at him.
"For once, lass, can you please stop questioning things?" Oliver rolled his eyes. This time, he didn't even hesitate or ask for her permission. He cupped her face with his hands and finally leaned down to connect their lips.
For a split second, Jessica didn't know to react because holy hippogriff, was he seriously kissing her again — but this time, he was fully aware of it? But just as Oliver said, she decided not to question it anymore and melted into the kiss, her eyes fluttering shut. She slid her hands from his chest and up to the back of his neck, making Oliver shiver at her touch. He then gently tilted her head so that he could deepen the kiss, and they soon found themselves enveloped in pure bliss.
A/N: I was really happy to see that you guys would read a sequel to this book 🥺 I'm already planning it and I'm hoping to flesh out all the details already so I can start writing it as soon as possible and y'all won't have to wait for too long after this book ends haha :') Also, I just want to say that I really appreciate all your feedback and support! It really means a lot to me :>
Edit: the sequel has been posted hihi :)