Chapter Text
He is annoying, he is fast and he is smart. He agrees with all of that.
Robin Hood is what they call him, and they aren’t too far off with this alias. Even though nobody knew his real name, they had taken a pretty good guess.
Robin might have nothing to do with the name Oliver, but you only had to exchange the H in Hood to end up with Wood.
Oliver Wood is the hero of his time.
The story they tell, contains a young boy who steals gold from rich people, in order to redistribute it among the poor.
Well,... they would probably phrase it more like: “He is a criminal, whom nobody could catch, a prodigy when it comes to mastering witt.”
Robin Hood prefers to call himself a good person that spreads fairness in the kingdom. Yes, Robin Hood is a decent person with a decent life who fulfills his life by helping people.
But Robin Hood has one problem...
„Oliver! Get your shit together and go! The guard might only be knocked out for a mere few minutes more and you have to get back as well.“
Oliver jumped down from the branch he had been sitting on and grabbed his bag to throw it over his shoulder. „I’ll manage! I’ve never been caught before and I don’t plan on having that happen yet“, he answered with a cheeky grin.
„Almost never, Oliver. Last time we were here-„
I’ve got it, Tonks! I’ll be back.“, and he darted off.
Tonks was exaggerating. He would make it back safely with a bag full of heavy gold weighing down his shoulder as he quietly slipped out of the castle. And he couldn’t wait for Diggory’s reaction.
Last time, Oliver took a stack of gold from Amos Diggory’s personal stash, which had triggered a most outraged uproar among the rich. The rest of the town’s people had worshipped the ground Robin Hood had allegedly walked on.
One of his young fans even displayed an arrow he had shot at some guy. Not to worry, he had not hit anyone. This very arrow had been left stuck in a tree.
Oliver’s legs easily carried him towards the thick stone walls and further up the wall. He’s a talented climber and an amazing shot when it came to his bow. He was truly made for his work.
It wasn’t the part in which he entered the castle that made his heart beat faster from adrenaline. It was the fact that tonight he would leave a message. He would leave the old man’s money alone and hit where it hurts the most.
Oliver looked around a bit. During his last visit he had discovered a few good spots that provided enough cover for him to wait for the guards to pass by. It would be a slow process to get to the gold.
He also knew that after his last stunt, they’ve made quite the effort to protect their dear money from him efficiently.
But they only knew Robin Hood. Oliver Wood had some more tricks he wanted to show off.
He sat in a closet far away from any coin this castle was made to protect. He listened to the quiet steps outside passing him, and when he could hear the squeak of shoe soles, he knew that that the guard had turned the corner and Oliver jumped into action.
He detached his lockpick from his belt, which really was just made from some old and bent scraps of metal, but they worked amazingly.
The door barely made a sound before he stood in front of a luxurious bed in which Cedric Diggory lay and slept peacefully.
He could’ve done anything he wanted in that moment, but today he wouldn’t disturb the sleeping beauty. Oliver was a good person after all.
Instead, he turned and opened the prince’s closet and reached inside. Oliver grabbed a very specific scarf. It was a black and yellow striped piece of fabric that Cedric was almost too fond of.
With his new souvenir in hand, Oliver turned around and stole a last glance at the prince before running off to get his gold.
Getting back out was the easiest part of his job, in Oliver’s humble opinion. Even if he fucked up, he had a crew full of people who had his back in every situation.
He didn’t mess up today however. He got out safely and approached his friends with a smug grin on his face, as if his shoulder wasn’t begging him to drop that bag. “Well, that was easy.”
A bit further in the back, Penelope’s mouth dropped wide open. “Oh my-! Oliver! Is that the prince’s scarf?”
He touched his fingers to his neck, as if he’d forgotten it was even there. “Oh, this ugly thing? I thought he’d thank me for taking it off him”, he smiled wickedly.
Tonks just shook her head really slowly. “You are actually insane, Oliver. It is totally on you if this thing betrays us.”
“Don’t be so scared, we still have the other half of our job to finish.”
“Sure, let’s go. Before you get another genius idea”, she said, but a slight smile let him know that she wasn’t actually mad.
And after the short while of Oliver having the scarf around his neck, he had to admit that the material was actually quite nice. Whatever fancy and expensive stuff this might be, it served more than just the purpose of making the prince mad.
“So, the plan was to visit a place we haven’t been to yet. Ottery St. Catchpole. It is down the hill and then to the right. Charlie said that we should go there”, Penelope explained.
“Alright. Is there anything else I should know? Any police or guards lurking there?”
“Nope, it should be pretty safe. The only thing he pointed out was that even though it might not look big, there are bigger families living there, so more potential to be seen.”
“We’ll manage”, he answered confidently. It had happend before that someone caught him. It wasn’t dramatic, but he still prefered to keep his identity hidden as well as possible.
From afar he could see the houses already. One stood out specifically. It was tall and big and a bit wonky.
He was intruiged, maybe for this one he would even gather the courage to go in and place their gold on the table or something.
He wasn’t always that reckless. It was just sometimes when his ego got too big that he pulled stunts like that. And seemingly the stolen scarf wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy him, alas he had a feeling that today would once again be one of the more thrilling adventures.
They made their way down the path until they had a good view of all the houses.
“Alright, I mean that should be enough money for all of the people here, don’t you think?”, Penelope asked. “After we’ve put it into the smaller bags, we can each go off into different directions to be faster.”
“Sounds good to me.” Tonks said. She and Penny were looking at him, but he was still amazed by the giant house, wondering how it was even able to stand since everything seemed a bit out of proportion and rather precarious.
“Hello? World to Oliver?”, the elder leaned forward to get a glance of his face.
“-Uh, yeah sounds good, sounds good.” He put the heavy bag he was still holding on the floor and leaned down to open it. When the others followed suit, he started again. “Would it be okay for everyone if I went east this time?
The two girls exchanged a long look. “You’re planning to go in there, aren’t you?”
Oliver only smirked as a response.
He found himself once more analysing the building he was now standing in front of. This must be one of those big families Charlie had let them know about.
For some reason, he found the house oddly beautiful. It was messy and stacked high into the air, but it didn’t feel intimidating. This was someone’s home. As so often he wondered what it would be like if he had a family. A real one.
A mom and a dad, perhaps even siblings. People who would’ve sang him lullabies as a child, made him soup when he was sick. Maybe he had had something like that once.
He just couldn’t remember them.
He dismissed the thought again. He had a family who cared for him and all of his needs. He had found one all by himself and he couldn’t be more proud of the work he did by their sides. It’s just sometimes that he thinks-…
Behind all of the details along the house’s walls, he searched for the entrance. Families with children have a tendency to hide a spare key somewhere near the door so that everyone would be able to find it in case someone lost theirs.
A cheap trick really, but he didn’t plan on doing any damage to a poor family’s property, and as of now he has never forgotten to return the key to its place.
Right in front of his feet lay a doormat. He almost didn’t bother looking under it, it had become too popular for anyone to use anymore nowadays.
Luckily, his gut has made him check anyways. Whatever poor lad in that house wasn’t bright enough to find the key anywhere else, was making it extremely easy for burglars to get in.
Oliver picked it up and turned it quietly in the lock.
The door was very light, one of those that creaked with every blow of the wind. He could identify these kinds of things by now. Barely took him a second thought.
He entered quietly. From the inside the house looked exactly like he’d imagined it. It was crammed with stuff, thing he’s never seen before in his life. But it was nice. Not packed in an overflowing kind of way, just like you’d imagine it to look like when a bunch of kids leave everything sitting around.
He inspected the little hallway, taking in all the details and moving on to look for a dining room or a living room to put the bag on a table, somewhere obvious enough where they would find it.
He had to watch his feet a few times, almost stumbling over something and avoiding the floorboards that looked as if they might creak.
Again, he stood around in the big room admiring it shamelessly and imagining what it would be like to live there.
His home had always been the camp in the middle of the woods. Somewhere nobody could find them. But a house… A house would be nice some day.
Oliver returned to his task, trying to ignore all of his thoughts. He still had to go to five more houses after he’s done here and the others surely wouldn’t appreciate him taking double the time they did.
Just when he put the bag of gold on the table however, he heard something.
Immediately, he lifted his gaze, searching for the source of the sound. His eyes lingered on the doorway leading back to the door through which he had come in. Not really the brightest circumstance.
There was- Nothing.
Nothing?
Maybe he had misheard or perhaps the sound had come from outside, but nonetheless he took it as a sign that he had to leave.
As quickly as he could, he stepped over every creaking plank and abandoned stuffed animal to get out. Just when he had reached the doorway again, he saw it.
He saw him.
A boy.
On top of the stairs, he gazed down at Oliver, both of them frozen in place. He had beautiful red curls and seemed to be just about Oliver’s age, if he took a guess.
He should really be getting out of here, so why wasn’t he?
The boy had mumbled something, but he was so quiet that Oliver couldn’t catch what he had said. He looked a bit scared, still not moving neither up the stairs to get somebody, nor towards Oliver.
Though he didn’t know whether it would help to soothe the redhead’s nerves, Oliver lifted his finger to his mouth and proceeded to show both of his empty palms.
He wasn’t here to rob anybody, but he understood the boy’s fear.
The boy moved slowly and took exactly two steps down the stairs and opened his mouth again. “Who are you?”, he whispered.
Even his voice sounded pretty. Merlin. Oliver couldn’t help but smile at the other, looking up at him and also taking a careful step towards the stairs.
“You can call me Robin.” His smile grew more into a knowing smirk.
He could see the slim boy’s shoulders relax and his eyes going wide in realisation. Unfortunately, the night was too dark for him to be able to see the colour of his eyes so he could only imagine.
Maybe green, or blue…
He took another step down the stairs, still looking stunned. He took another and another until they could finally see eye to eye.
He wore a pyjama with vertical blue stripes that hung loosely on his shoulder, not fitting quite right. His curls were a mess and Oliver wondered what they would look like when he put a bit of effort into styling them. The boy was just a tad bit shorter than himself to Oliver surprise because his long and slim legs made him appear very tall.
Oliver should be long gone by now, not even having introduced himself as Robin. The less people knew about him, the better.
But how should he leave?
There was this beautiful boy staring at him and he was staring right back at him.
Why wasn’t he leaving?
He was waiting for the other to say something, or at least do something, but he just stood there analysing Oliver’s face. And he would judge him for that, if it wasn’t the same exact thing Oliver was doing.
He should say something, if the other is already too busy to do so.
You can stare as long as you like, I don’t mind.
Not something like that. Not at all, ever, in no possible scenario should he say something like that right now, or ever.
But he had to say something, he had to leave and get out of there and get his shit together. Say something!
“See you around.”