You're not lost on your own -- September 1987

Finally class was over.  It was a double period, so it had been a long class to say the least.  We trudged back up to the castle dirty and sweaty from class.  I looked at Percy.  "You look miserable," I noted, a smile playing at my lips.  "Not what you like?"

I shook my head.  "I hate getting dirty like that," I commented, wiping my hands on my robes to try to get them clean but to no avail.  I looked over at Oliver.  "You seemed to enjoy it, though."  Oliver looked absolutely pleased.

I chuckled at Percy.  "I love it," I replied.  "I don't mind getting dirty.  I'll be getting onto the Quidditch team one day, too, so I have to like getting dirty as they play rain or shine.  Hopefully next year."  We walked towards the Tower to put things away and then we were going to go clean up a bit.  "At least Herbology was last... makes it nice to clean up before dinner."

Oliver had a point.  "We'll have to sit by Charlie.  He can bore your ear off with Quidditch talk then," I said as we got to the Fat Lady painting.  We entered the common room and put our stuff up in the dorm.  We got back into the common room and I nearly ran into Charlie.  "Oh, hey Charlie... this is Oliver.  He loves Quidditch," I introduced.

I grinned and shook Oliver's hand.  "Nice to meet you," I said.  The three of us walked down to the Great Hall together.  I was planning on meeting Bill down there.  We talked Quidditch and drove Percy nuts the entire way down.

I finally got to the poitn where they needed to stop.  "Would the two of you shut it?" I asked, chuckling slightly.  I was glad that they got along, but I really did not want to hear about only Quidditch.

"Chin up, Perce, there's Bill," I said, making way for the three of us to sit down by him.  At least that way we all could chat.  "Bill, this here is Oliver Wood.  He'll be trying out for the team next year as Keeper."

I offered my hand to Bill. Though I wanted to continue to talk about Quidditch, we ended up talking about the first day of classes.  It was rather interesting, though.  Percy's brothers had great tips for us to get through classes, which was nice.

I smiled at Oliver and we had the two younger kids sit between us.  We piled food onto our plates as I asked them how classes were.  I was glad to see that Percy seemed to be getting along alright... I had been worried about him.

We were easily the noisiest group at the Gyrffindor table.  With three Weasleys and Oliver, no one was surprised I did not think.  "Alright... look.  If you really want to get one up on a team's Chaser, you just need to have a good Keeper," I argued with Bill.  He was claiming that Chasers were the best way to defeat the other team's Chasers.  "If you don't have a Keeper to block the goals, then what else really matters?  You can keep trying to get the Quaffle from the other team, but if they aim it at those posts and the Keeper sucks, then game over."

I was sure that we were driving Percy nuts, but Charlie started the argument and I was going to finish it.  "No," I said, shaking my head and hitting the top of the table slightly.  "Your defense is only as good as your offense," I countered matter-of-factly.  That was all it came down to.