─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Alternate

Delilah Rose still hated Oliver Wood. After that talk at the stands, nothing really changed. They never talked about it, that conversation never happened.

Christmas break was coming soon and Gryffindor had a match coming up right after. Oliver mandated practice until vacation and no one was too happy with that.

"I need everyone to warm up and-"
"For Merlin's sake, Wood! It's four in the morning!" Delilah complained and everyone muttered their agreements.
"And it's bloody cold!" Angelina piped up from behind her.
"We have a match to win! This is very important!" Oliver told them, "Now get to warming up before we split up and play a game.

Everyone else sighed and got to running around the pitch but Delilah was stubborn. She walked up to him and narrowed her eyes, "You do understand that we want the players to play and not play because they are forced! They won't want to play if they are forced!" She told him.

"They just need to understand the importance of it. They voluntarily signed up for the team and tried out, no one forced them to do it." He folded his arms over his chest.

"But they signed up to have fun and play not get tortured and sleep deprived"

"Well not everything or everyone is who you expect them to be" they both knew they weren't talking about each other but none acknowledged that fact. "And as captain, I have the right to do this"

"I'm not doing this.." Delilah dropped her broom to the floor and walked past Oliver. He watched her go but said nothing.

"Are you kidding me!?" Oliver slammed his hand on the table next to Delilah. Her friends looked at him in shock and confusion. Oliver Wood was very angry. "You just left! Just like that!" The gryffindor table turned heads at him, "I thought we were being civil to each other!"

Delilah wasn't sure what to say. She knew she was unreasonable but nothing made her hate Oliver more than four in the morning.

Once again the two stood in the transfiguration classroom with Minerva McGonagall, "Mr. Wood, Ms. Rose, if this isn't solved before winter break, I'll be taking your captaincy away" she told Oliver before turning to Delilah, "and you will be off the team. Unless you can behave like a team, you can't be on it." She was much more stern than before. "And Ms. Rose, looks like you're staying at Hogwarts for Christmas"

Delilah found out that everyone was leaving for Christmas. Unfortunately she couldn't go home with any of them. Jesse was staying back to give her company which she appreciated but it was going to be lonely.
What made if worse was, Oliver was staying back too. What made it the worst was, Jesse had become acquainted with him.

When Christmas rolled around, the three dropped their friends off at Hogsmeade and then went on about their day.

Delilah ignored Oliver at all costs the whole day but it was at night that she actually found him sitting in the stands in front of the quidditch pitch.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him, sitting down next to him.

"Waiting for you" Oliver looked at her with soft eyes, "I know you tend to come here a lot, I've noticed" Delilah looked at him with a raised brow but didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue, "What is your problem with me Delilah?" He asked, "Look, Quidditch is the most important thing to me, it's my life, I want to play professionally. This captaincy is important and I don't want anything to stop me. So I'm ready to make this civil, I'm ready to drop this but you have to tell me why I was a problem in the first place"

Delilah looked in front of her, staring at the pitch and then turned back to Oliver, "it's stupid," she shook her head.

"Who am I to judge you on that? It's not like my opinion would matter or should matter to you" Oliver told her.

"I-I come from a Quidditch family. Everyone just happens to be good at it. I was never good at Quidditch, never as good as everyone else. I get compared to my brother or my parents and it's not nice. I needed a win okay? I wanted to prove myself. But you took my spot as a keeper and I had to wait another two years with no way to prove myself. And then you would shut up about it during detention and that was it for me" Delilah sighed, "it is petty and stupid. I know I shouldn't take it out on you, I know it isn't your fault but it just happens"

Oliver's mouth parted to say something but nothing came out. He never expected the Delilah Rose to be jealous of him! All this time he thought she just hated him or had some grudge against him but he was completely wrong.
"Well...I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. You don't have to prove yourself to your family. You're a great Quidditch player and probably even better than me sometimes" He chuckled, "Out of alll the people, you should not be jealous of me."

Silence filled the air and the two sat there looking at the sky. None of them spoke for quite sometime and it was understood to both, they were going to be Civil to each other, even if it meant becoming friends. 

It was a gradual change when it came to Oliver and Delilah warming up to each other. It was difficult for them to see each other as anything but annoying. But winter break gave them time to bond without anyone around, other than Jesse, who always broke the tension in the room. 

Christmas came and the two bought presents from each other, which may have really broken the ice. Unfortunately for McGongall, she had created a bigger problem for herself. The two seemed to be in a lot more trouble together than they were before. 

When it was time for the rest of the lot to come back to school, they weren't as surprised to see Delilah and Oliver as friends. Jesse gave them quite some updates through owls. 

James on the other hand was not thrilled about this at all. He was insecure, scared that she might get closer to Oliver. 

If Oliver had one true rival, it was James. They used to be friends until his first Quidditch match when James aimed two bludgers at Oliver, knocking him out for a week and then shut him out after. It was all for the 'fame' or for being the 'better player'. 

 Delilah hugged all her friends and so did Jesse, specifically stopping at Clarissa. She was one of his best friends and he didn't want to ruin their friendship but he couldn't help but admire her. 

Present 

Jesse wasn't sure about it at first but the moment he saw Clarissa with that small baby boy in her arms and the smile on her face, he couldn't be more certain of it. The truth was, there was no way he could've been able to take care of a baby when he didn't even have a stable job to provide for himself. 

"Have you two thought of names?" Adeline asked the two, "because if you want to name him something specific, we would gladly go for it"

Jesse looked at Sophia wordlessly before shaking their heads, "We want you to name him"
 
"Noah" Clarissa spoke up and all three heads turned to her. A smile crept on Jesse's face and he left out a chuckle. 

"I can't believe you remembered that" He said and she nodded.

Adeliene and Sophia looked at them confused and Clarissa turned to explain it to them. They had made a pact when they were in Hogwarts, when they had decided that being together just didn't make sense, that they were better as friends and valued their friendship more than anything. 

It was a classic best friend pact, if they weren't married by the time they were forty, they would marry each other. As the discussion had gone further, they also decided that if they ever had kids, they would name the boy Noah. For sixteen year olds, it was just a stupid pact and just a name that they decided on for fun. None of them expected this to happen. 

When it was time for them to leave for home, Adeliene held baby Noah as Sophia was finishing up with the last of her paperwork. Jesse and Clarissa stood next to each other other, talking about the baby. 

"I can't believe this is actually happening" Clarissa said. 

"We were sixteen yesterday!"

"We are old now"

"Speak for yourself" Jesse joked and Clarissa lightly hit his shoulder. 

"But really, thank you" she looked at him almost in tears, "I'm really happy about this"

"Me too," Jesse smiled at her. He pulled his friend into a hug and kissed her cheek. 

"I'm so glad we never dated, I don't think we would be here now if we had"


Alternate 

"What do you mean you're dating!? you finally asked her out and didn't tell us!?" Delilah sat next to Connor and in front of Jesse as he told them about his interaction with Clarissa. "Yeah, and well then we kissed"Grins spread across all three of their faces as Delilah and Connor continued to ambush Jesse. 

One  Quidditch match to go and Gryffindor was desperate to win. It was the morning of the match and Oliver was at the pitch with his team members for a last minute strategy change. Delilah and Oliver spent all of last evening making plans to win. They had called everyone in half an hour before the match was to start but Delilah wasn't there. 

Oliver continued to tell his team the plan before they all went in and changed into their Quidditch gear. Delilah was still not here which made no sense to him. 

"Where's Rose!?" He asked Clarissa who he bumped into on his way to the common room. 

"She fell, her leg is probably broken, I was going to come to you to tell you" She informed and the color from Oliver's face drained. 

Making his way to the hospital wing, Oliver realized that he didn't care about winning the match anymore. He cared more for his friend. 

"What happened?" Oliver walked up to Delilah. 

"I'm okay, just a sprain. I'll play"

"You can't possibly play" Madame pomfrey interjected. 

"I'll play, I need my hand and my broom. I can deal with it"

"And how will you land from the broom?" The healer asked pointedly. 

"We'll forfeit" Oliver told her, "It's alright"

"No no, we worked too hard on this" Delilah told him, "this means everything to you, I'm not letting it go that easily."

Oliver had somehow convinced her to stay put. They didn't have an alternate seeker and they had to let go. He walked towards Madame Hooch who was bringing the chest with the Quaffle and Bludgers in the middle of the pitch, "I don't have a seeker. She's hurt and she can't play"

"Are you forfeting Wood?" Madame Hooch asked. 

"I have no choice, do I?"

"Not unless you can find a seeker" Madame Hooch told him, "I'll give you ten minutes extra, find someone to play or you lose"



Those ten minutes seemed to have gone by faster than Oliver thought and he could do nothing else. He walked back to the coach and told her that they were forfeiting. 

"No! I'm here and ready to play!" Delilah stood there, all dressed to play with her foot bandaged. 

"You can't play" Oliver stopped her. 

"That's for me to decide," she then turned to Madame Hooch, "I will play. I know I can"

"I can't allow this"

"There is no other way"



And so Delilah carefully mounted her broom and hovered above the ground to avoid putting too much pressure on her foot, "I don't think this is okay" Oliver still argued

"I'm here to win against Slytherin." she said "that's all I know"

"Well let's hope we win" Oliver told his team. 

"Fingers crossed" Angelina crossed her fingers. 

"Knock on wood"




The whistle blew and they all scattered to their spot. Delilah waited a while, trying to distract the Slytherin seeker. 

Lee Jordan's voice boomed throughout the pitch as they all played a rather rough game of Quidditch. The tension was building as Gryffindor scored 10 points. They needed to score 10 more before Delilah could go for the snitch. 

Unfortunately the slytherin seeker found the snitch and zoomed after it. Delilah's foot was bothering her. It was distracting her from actually playing. She went after it nonetheless.

Delilah's eyes met Oliver's and she shook her head, trying to tell him that she didn't think they would win. She continued to follow the seeker  only for a Bludger to come at him. He swirled to the side, allowing Delilah to get ahead and reach out for the snitch. 

"GRYFFINDOR HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

Delilah zoomed towards the ground and hovered over the ground as Oliver ran towards her. They had lost the cup, but she caught the snitch. Despite her foot, she did it for him. She wanted him to win and he couldn't help but smile. 

Oliver helped her get off the broom and immediately pulled her into a hug, her feet leaving the ground as he spun around, "You did it!"

"But we didn't win"

"I don't care!" Oliver grinned at her, "You did all of this-"

"It was for you," Delilah cut him off, "I know how much it means to you"  she smiled at him as he put her down and Oliver didn't know what dawned over him but he reached down and Kissed her. It felt so wrong but so right at the same time. What was even worse, she didn't pull back, she didn't say no, she just sunk into it. Nothing mattered to Oliver anymore, only Delilah Rose.  

Alexander stood in the stands and watched the scene play out in front of him before handing Connor a galleon, "I thought he had a policy! How could he break it!?"

"Love works in mysterious ways" Connor said with a wink. 

A/N
Yay! That's the end of the alternate world chapters. I wanted to put in an alternate story to give our story a leap in time. This book only has one or two chapters left. 
Daisy goes to Hogwarts and just a little more into that and that's about it!!!
I don't want to extend the book anymore because I don't want it to become boring. 

I hope you liked it! Thank you for reading!

<3

Aisla Wrenn