Chapter Text
Everyone at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry knew that Oliver Wood lived and breathed Quidditch and everything to do with it. Everyone from his Gryffindor teammates to the Portraits and Ghosts of Hogwarts (who always whispered "there's that Quidditch boy away out on his broom at 5am again" as he passed) knew that there was nothing that Oliver Wood took more seriously that Quidditch. Merlin, even the Giant Squid in the Great Lake must have known that not a second went by without him mentioning the Q word. It was fair to say that Oliver Wood's life was well and truly consumed by Quidditch.
And no one was aware of that more than Melissa Carter, who heard his thick Scottish accent mutter words like "Quaffle", "Hoops" and "Beaters" repeatedly behind her as she tried to focus on the small test that Professor Snape had set to kick off the new term. It was beginning to irk her, so much that, no matter how hard she tried, she could not zone out his mutterings. Melissa placed down her quill and purposefully turned around in her seat to stare down the Gryffindor boy behind her. If he noticed her turn around, he failed to pay attention to her. Melissa watched as he scribbled over his piece of parchment, creating what seemed to Melissa to be some sort of formations for Quidditch. She opened her mouth to tell him to "shut up" but, at the moment, it felt like a snake was coiling itself around her throat, blocking the words from escaping her. So without uttering a word, Melissa turned back around and focussed on finishing her paper.
Fifteen minutes or so later, Wood was still muttering Quidditch terms but Melissa had managed to complete her test nonetheless. She made a point to show her annoyance at the boy behind her by slamming her chair against his desk as she stood. She heard the mutterings stop, but did not turn around to look at him or to apologise. Instead, she strutted to the front of the classroom, passed over her test to Snape without a word and left the classroom.
✧
It was difficult to concentrate in the Slytherin Common Room that night. Melissa often found her quill stopping mid sentence as she tried to write an essay for History of Magic. Unlike a lot of the students at Hogwarts, Melissa found History of Magic rather enjoyable so for her not being able to fully concentrate on her essay was a massive sign that the noise in the dimly lit Common Room made it highly unworkable.
The noise was due to -from what Melissa could gather - an incident that had occurred earlier that day in Care for Magical Creatures. Draco Malfoy - a third year student - had been injured in an interaction with a Hippogriff. Melissa's head had began to hurt with the insistent complaints and exclamations from Draco's fellow third year student, Pansy Parkinson:
"That stupid oaf! What was he thinking letting that dangerous beast near us all!"
"Poor Draco! He was in a right mess. And right before the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. Imagine if he misses it!"
"I personally can't wait for that oaf to get sacked for this!"
Melissa had had enough of all of the whinging and whining in the Common Room. She snapped shut her book she was working from and barged her way through the bodies congregating in the Common Room before heading off, through the portrait hole and into the tranquill corridors.
Melissa took the all to familiar route towards Hogwarts Library. A dimly lit room covered wall to wall with bookshelves filled to the brim and freshly polished desks. This made is relatively easy for Melissa to find a subdued area to carry on with her History of Magic essay. However, this peaceful and much longed for silence was quickly interrupted by the sound of mutterings from the other side of the bookshelves. Melissa immediately knew the source of these mutterings and felt her hands tense around her quill as a result. Was there anywhere in this bloody castle where she would be able to concrete and get this essay finished once and for all?
There was no time for the snake to start coiling itself around her neck again as Melissa took no hesitation in pushing her chair out aggressively to stand and charging over towards the other side of the bookshelf.
The sight that Melissa was met with was one similar to what she had encountered when she had turned around in her seat in potions earlier that day. Oliver Wood was sat, muttering the names and positions of his fellow Gryffindor Quidditch teammates whilst circling and creating arrows on a piece of parchment covered with the names of his teammates.
"You might want to be more careful about muttering your tactics, especially when it seems you are oblivious to the presence of unassuming Slytherins, Wood," Melissa said in a waspish tone.
Oliver Wood's head shot up at the sound of her voice and instinctively covered his Quidditch plans and stared at Melissa dangerously.
"Oh, there is no need for that. I think I have already seen and heard enough to make your surprise tactics not so surprising."
Oliver sat up in his chair, broadening out his shoulders almost defensively in response to Melissa's words. He was yet to utter a word, but Melissa knew that the moment that he did, her confidence would waver. So she continued to speak.
"I suggest you start to keep your tactics to yourself from now on, otherwise I may just let it slip to Marcus Flint that you plan to use the Parkoff Play against him."
And with that, Melissa left Oliver looking dumbstruck and whipped her head around to make her way back towards her desk. She hoped that finally she would have the silence that she much needed to finish this essay for once and for all. And her wish was granted. Her quill flowed graciously across her parchment as she put all her concentration into the essay and words on the page. Finally, she pressed the quill against the paper for the final full stop of the essay. With a satisfied smirk, she rolled up the parchment, placed it into her bag along with her chunky History of Magic book. She felt like a massive weight was lifted off of her shoulders as she went to make her way out of the library, however her surge of happiness was short lived as a voice called out to her.
"It's Porskoff Ploy by the way. If you are gonna spill our secrets they may as well be the right ones."
Oliver's comment caused a "shhh" to come from Madam Pince and for Melissa to freeze. A sufficient come back did not come to her, so she began to walk away again, her cheeks warming up to a deep red.
✧
Once Melissa arrived back into the Slytherin Common Room, she was welcomed by the sight of her fellow Seventh Year, Marcus Flint, throwing an apple up and down whilst laying on the leather sofa in front of the crackling fireplace. Melissa snorted at the sight. It was almost as if it was straight out of the movies: the villain plotting his next move. Why did they always have to have apples?
She had attempted to creep past the scheming boy when the eerie sound of the movement of water outside and the crackling fireplace was interrupted by Flint's rough growl.
"Oi, Carter!" he said, sitting up and catching the apple one last time.
The water outside reflected onto his face with a greenish tinge due to the green light emitting from the lowly dangling lamps attached to the ceiling, showcasing the arrogant and eager glint in his eyes. Melissa did not respond and instead simply crossed her arms over her chest.
"You goin' to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Flint asked with a smirk.
"How many times do I have to say no, Flint?" Melissa said before storming off towards her dormitory.
Melissa was well versed in dealing with Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. At first, she did not know what to do with his all too obvious advancements towards her; she would simply just run away from him. This only ever seemed to give him more hunger, however as he persisted on continuously trying to catch her and ask her to spend some time alone with him. It took a few months for Melissa to finally stand up to him and inform him that she was in no way interested in him. Of course, Marcus Flint could never take a hint, even if it hit him in the face. And oh did Melissa want to hit him in the face sometimes. His attitude towards hersand others really did rub her up the wrong way. She even found herself wishing one of the Blungers during a Quidditch match would knock him off his broom. It didn't matter that he played for and captained her house's Quidditch team, nothing gave her much more pleasure than the thought of Marcus Flint getting what he deserved, even if that meant a Blunger to the stomach.
Melissa chuckled at the thought as she pushed her dormitory room open. Her three roommates were already there, dressed in their pajamas. Melissa's best friend at Hogwarts, Esther, was tying her curly dark red hair back when Melissa walked over to the bed next to hers and slammed her bag onto her bed.
"Flint is such an arse," she muttered.
"Do you want me to go and sort him out?" Esther said in response.
Melissa dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "Nah, it'll only make it worse."
Kelsey, the blonde headed girl from across the dormitory watched the interaction between the two best friends closely.
"Flint ain't too bad, you know. You should at least give it a go."
Melissa scoffed. "He seriously isn't my type."
Kelsey hummed before returning her attention to peeling back the covers of her bed. Rose, the final girl in the dormitory remained oblivious as she hid her face behind a book, leaving Melissa and Esther to have their own conversation.
"So why weren't you in the Common Room tonight?" asked Melissa.
"Head Girl duties."
The one benefit Melissa thought came along with being quiet was that it meant she could lay low throughout her school years. This meant that she was able to get the good grades she needed but did not need to take on some of the responsibility burdens that came along with that, such are Prefect and Head Girl badges. These kind of things didn't interest her. Yes, as a Slytherin she did strive for power, but Melissa believed that power lay with knowledge and she would rather spend hours acquiring knowledge than chasing misbehaving first years down corridors.
"I bet that was fun." Melissa said as she got her pajamas out of her bedside drawer.
"Oh yeah, totally." said Esther sarcastically.
"Right, be quiet you two. It is time to sleep." Kelsey ordered as she went to turn the lights off in the dormitory.
"You know, I often wonder why you were chosen as Head Girl when Kelsey takes more satisfaction out of control." Melissa whispered to Esther as she passed her to get to the shared bathroom to get ready for bed and finally put to an end the stressful day that had put her to sleep far quicker than any night at Hogwarts so far this year.