CHAPTER TWO,
─── ❛ curious propositions ❜

and it would be a
fine proposition, if
i was a stupid girl

──────────── ELODIE FELT SICK.

After two months of mourning her relationship, with no closure having even been provided to help her recover from the loss, she had at least hoped the break-up had broken Aspen as deeply as it had broken her.

Indeed, was it so naive of her to consider that dumping her at least wasn't an easy decision to make, and that it had destroyed him just a little bit to have to do it? That was what she had convinced herself when the letter had appeared at her window, anyway; that he was struggling to get through something personal, and the only reason he waited to do it via a letter was because he couldn't face the pain of doing it to her face. She had even been hoping that perhaps, once he saw her again, all of his feelings would come flooding back, and perhaps they could start things over again.

But now she realised just how very wrong she had been, and she felt nauseous when she considered just how fervently her emotional intelligence had been lacking. Had she really spent weeks, pining after somebody that hadn't given her a second thought, and had spent his entire summer getting to know somebody else?

She felt completely humiliated.

But she couldn't blame herself for falling for his act, either. After all, that boy used his charm like a disease. He attracted people, luring them in the with his contagious personality, and then he infected them until they felt nothing but ugly inside, abandoning them to rot.

Then again, it was her fault for falling for a Slytherin, wasn't it? They weren't exactly known for having the softest of hearts. Perhaps she needed to date a Ravenclaw next, or a fellow Hufflepuff, or to be honest, at this point - a woman.

Perhaps the loss was a blessing in disguise. She had enough on her plate this year as it was, she didn't need a boyfriend added on top of that. Indeed, she had far more important priorities, and she knew that she would get by just fine without him.

Still, that didn't mean a little bit of revenge, to make him regret his decision just a little bit, would be nice.

"Okay", Willa announced as she slid into her seat at the Hufflepuff table, "So here's the plan."

Elodie's eyebrows furrowed with confusion, "The plan?"

"To get back at Aspen, obviously", the blonde girl spoke as if it were blatantly obvious, "Get with the program, El - there's no way in hell we're letting him get away with this."

"Is that what you were doing over there for so long?", Beckett questioned, "Cooking up schemes."

"No, don't be absurd", Willa rolled her eyes, "I was flirting, obviously. New year, new foundations to be put in place."

"You know, you could find a relationship so easily if you just choose somebody and settled down", Harper sighed, "I wish I had as many options as you do."

"Oh please, you must know that's the entire point - I don't want to be tied down. I have far more self empowerment this way - they can't use me if I'm the one using them. And it's so much more fun", she grinned, "Besides, you'd have options too if you didn't hold everybody to the standards of the boys in those cheesy books of yours."

"If I have to lower my standards for somebody then they aren't worth the time of day", was all Harper responded, before allowing her gaze to fall back into her book.

"So", Margot questioned, leaning across the table with a glint in her eye, "Who's the unfortunate fellow this week, Will?"

"Micah Fenrin", she responded, making sure to over-enunciate every word so that she got her point across.

"Are you insane?", Elodie gasped, "He's a notorious heartbreaker, you're just asking for trouble."

"Exactly! Final year, gotta aim high", Willa smirked, "May the best heartbreaker win."

The five Hufflepuffs all laughed to themselves then, and Elodie shook her head in disapproval, "You're ridiculous."

Willa had always been ridiculous, but the others didn't mind much. They were rather a ridiculous bunch, actually, especially for a bunch of Hufflepuffs, but that was what made them so unique. Harper had her books, and her rose-tinted view of the world, and Margot had her painful realism, combined with her fighting spirit that made her so difficult to tame when she sensed some kind of injustice. Willa was nothing but a short fuse and a cocky but insatiable attitude, but she was a diamond, and from her you could never quite expect anything less.

"So, girlie", Willa interrupted Elodie from her observations, "how are you feeling - really?"

"Fine", Elodie lied, though all four of her friends' eyebrows raised dubiously in her direction, "Really, I'm fine. I didn't have time for a boyfriend this year anyway - with Head Girl duties, and NEWTs to study for, I just don't have the free space to be wasting time fooling around with some guy. Plus, now that I think about it, he doesn't have any kind of passion for anything, or any focus. I want somebody with drive, somebody with ambition and sophistication. Aspen Prescott wasn't worthy of my time anyway."

"Wow", the blonde gauped, "you are so unbelievably stiff, El. I mean, drive and ambition and sophistication? You're starting to sound like Harper. Aspen is fit, crippingly so, and his charm. Don't forget why you fell for him in the first place."

Elodie shot her best friend a look, "It isn't stiff to realise your interests are better off elsewhere, Will. I'm not denying he was attractive, or charming, or sweet. But he's moved on, and I'm moving on too. I'm focusing on myself and my studies."

Of course, she was still lying through her teeth, she just hoped that her ramblings were convincing enough to fool them. The truth was, poor Elodie was still as whipped as fresh ice cream, and if Aspen Prescott came running back to her that second, pleading for her forgiveness, she'd take him back in a heartbeat.

The comments about her worth hadn't been a lie, she knew she deserved somebody that valued her more strongly and didn't treat her like he had. But her feelings were still stirring at the bottom of her stomach, sitting dormant and neglected like lukewarm tea, and it would only take one bat of his eyelashes to send her buckling at the knees.

"Well, I think Elodie is right. Boys are a colossal waste of our time", Margot hummed from behind her meal.

"Easy coming from the sapphic", mused Beckett, resulting in a colossal roll of Margot's eyes.

"My sexuality has nothing to do with it", she said with a look in his direction, "it isn't about who you like, it's about the fact that we're barely seventeen, and there are so many more useful ways that we could be utilising our energy than wasting it away on meaningless relationships that most likely aren't even going to last past eighteen."

"Well, aren't you cheery", Harper scoffed, and Elodie noticed as Willa's vivacity died down at Margot's words, and she appeared almost completely in discomfort.

"You know I'm right, Harper. Real life isn't like the romances in your books, the perfect person doesn't just come along out of nowhere and give you the perfect happily ever after. Real life is poverty and prejudice and global warming, and you need so much more than another person to give you a purpose."

Yeah - they were ridiculous alright, and pretty bloody well different indeed.

"Are you going to eat that?"

Oliver's fork had been lingering over the same slice of treacle tart for the best part of ten minutes, yet the remainder of the sticky dessert had hardly edged towards his mouth the entire time. Given everything that was on his mind, he couldn't say that he was particularly hungry, and the only thing that could possibly satisfy his insatiable appetite that evening was a cure for his overbearing problem. Still, it was beginning to show to his friends that he clearly had something on his mind; it wasn't normally easy to stop the young captain from eating, all of that exercise made his appetite rapacious.

No, he had spent the best part of the feast with his eye fixated on the Hufflepuff table to their right, his thoughts heavily distant and almost completely unpresent for the whole of the sorting ceremony. The entire journey from London, he had spent his time rambling on about the audacity of his parents to believe he was too dedicated to his sport - as if having too much dedication was even a thing - and how he couldn't believe that they could call him out and accuse him of not having enough of a life. Indeed, his poor friends had heard nothing but utter verbose for hours, and they had given him pretty much no advice to solve his unwavering problem - that he had to somehow conjure up a girlfriend before christmas.

He was officially, almost certainly, screwed.

But since he had gotten off the train, and his impressive hearing had allowed him to overhear a rather interesting conversation, a plan inside his head had almost definitely started brewing.

"Huh", he grunted, blinking his aching eyes and allowing his attention to be drawn back towards his friends, "Oh - no, not hungry. Go for it."

The dark-skinned male sat opposite him at the Gryffindor table practically jumped for joy at his words, reaching forward to grab the abandoned plate before demolishing the tart for himself.

"This whole Quidditch thing must really be getting to you, Ol", another boy said to his left, "I mean, it takes a lot to disway your appetite."

"Oh yeah", the greed-ridden boy nodded, his mouth still full and dripping with treacle, "What's on your mind, mate?"

Oliver wanted to say that nothing was on his mind, and keep his scheming to himself, but then again, his two best friends had always been pretty clued in on reading his behaviour. It was for that reason that they were the two best friends Oliver had ever had.

Micah Fenrin - treacle thief - was a menace to society. No really, he was a menace; harmless, but riddled with mischief. He was good fun, nobody could deny him of that, but if you asked the likes of Professor McGonagall what kind of boy he was, she would tell you that he was almost certainly the biggest nuisance she had ever met. He didn't do his homework, his shirt was practically always untucked, and he couldn't sit still if his life depended on it. Plus, he pulled women like they were tied to him on a string - always busy, but absolutely never tied down.

Oliver loved him, but Micah was trouble (a "buffoon", as McGonagall had worded it), there was no denying that.

And he found his foil in Kaylan Shrew, gentle and soft like candy floss melting on the roof of your mouth. Kaylan was the muggle-born son of a Puerto Rican mother and an Italian father, and his modest upbringing in the heart of the muggle world had made him much more humble than most. He had a sensitivity that Oliver had always found inspiring, but one that he could almost never embody for himself, as he was certain he wasn't even capable of such emotion. And his grades? Well, let's just say he was a professor's dream.

Oliver paused, "what do you guys know about Elodie Bright?"

"Head Girl, Elodie Bright?", Kaylan questioned,

"Did everybody know she was Head Girl, other than me?"

Micah scoffed, "all of that focus on the game tends to make you pretty inattentive, mate. What could you possibly want to know about her for, anyway?"

"Just... curiosity", he answered, "that's all."

"Oh, please do not tell me your solution to this whole girlfriend saga is trying to pull Elodie Bright", Micah fell into fits of laughter, causing at least seven fellow Gryffindors to stare at him from along the table, "You have got to be kidding me, so out of your league, and so unbelievably far out - arrogant hot-head, not really her type mate. Besides, she has a boyfriend."

"No, she doesn't - at least, not anymore", Oliver asserted, "and I never said I was interested in her, I just wanted to know more about her."

"She was dating Aspen Prescott, the Slytherin with the overly-groomed blonde hair", Kaylan mused as he absentmindedly tucked into a slice of cake, "she's very dedicated to her studies, hence the Head Girl thing, but she's nowhere near as snotty as Weasley, she's actually rather down to earth. And she plays the violin pretty well as far as I've heard - she's the daughter of two famous musicians."

As Kaylan spoke, the two boys turned to look at them, their eyebrows raised.

"What?", he shrugged, "I'm observant. Just because you two don't pay any attention to anything outside of your own interests."

"Yeah, yeah, Shrew", Micah rolled his eyes before turning back to Oliver, "anyway, this break up adds a whole new layer to the potential for this game plan, Woody boy. If what I'm hearing is that you plan to utilise all of that post break-up angst to make your move, I'm down. Though, I will say - it's going to take a lot of game that I'm pretty certain you don't have."

"No, I was not planning on utilising that angst, Mike", Oliver responded in a tone that was almost questioning, "I just think that we could have some corresponding dilemmas that could make us of use to each other."

"Literally what the hell is that supposed to mean?", his best friend questioned, but as he spoke, Oliver's eyes had been diverted elsewhere.

Over at the Hufflepuff table, only several feet to their right, Elodie Bright had begun to stir. She no longer sat stagnant, peacefully chatting away with her clunky group of misfit friends, but rather, she had risen from the table and was beginning to move - by herself - towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"I've got to go", Oliver said, frantically rising from his own seat.

"Oh no no no", Micah gasped, "Please tell me you are not about to go talk to her now. Sir, are you crazy?"

"Perhaps", he responded, "I'll see you guys around."

Before either of his two friends could argue any further, the quidditch captain had climbed out of his seat and was making his own way across the Great Hall, scurrying his feet in an attempt to catch up with the honey-haired girl who had already bounded through the doorway.

As he rushed through the wide arched doorway and poured into the Entrance Hall, Elodie was already halfway towards the stairs, bustling a stack of papers and a clipboard in her hands. She had a glint of concentration in her eye that made her look like she wasn't going to stop for anything, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth a try.

"Hey!", he called, "Elodie - Elodie Bright!"

Elodie stopped in her tracks several feet across the corridor, turning her body to face her intruder and allowing Oliver several seconds to catch up. "Can I help you, Wood?"

He wheezed, discovering that evidently his quidditch stamina didn't extend to rushing through hallways, "You know my name?"

"You're captain of the Quidditch team, of course I know your name", she said, furrowing her eyebrows as if it were obvious, "What can I help you with, Wood? I haven't got all day."

"Busy schedule, have we?", he smirked, though she didn't appear to be particularly amused.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do", Elodie scoffed, "and it isn't something you'd quite understand."

Oliver seemed bemused, "are you trying to suggest prancing around with your clipboard, telling people what to do is some kind of huge, burdening responsibility?"

"A lot harder than whizzing around on a broom and throwing a ball around, yes", she crossed her arms more tightly across her chest, "your question?"

Being up so close, now that she was standing directly in front of him, allowed Oliver to get a better look at her. Elodie's hair was the colour of brown sugar and honey, nestling neatly just below her shoulders like it had been freshly cut, but it looked frizzy and bustled like it had been caught in the rain. Her skin was tanned and littered with speckles of tiny freckles, so faint that they blended into her cheeks, and she had tiny dimples in the crooks of her cheeks when she spoke, that had clearly been formed from years of constant smiling. Her eyes were wide and much like her hair, had a pigment of warm honey, but the corners around them were dark and grey with the evident circles of sleep deprivation.

"I have a proposition for you", he answered, but she only appeared more confused.

Her eyebrows raised, "you have a proposition for me?"

"Mhm", he nodded.

"And what might this proposition be?"

"I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend", Oliver inserted, prompting her to burst into fits of humour-filled tears.

"What? Why on earth would I do that?", she laughed, "is this supposed to be some sick way of asking me out, because I'm not interested. Please, stop wasting my time."

Oliver rolled his eyes, "No. Believe it or not, Sunshine, I don't have any interest in dating you, either. But I happened to overhear you talking about your summer heartbreak debacle on the platform earlier, and about how you wished you had somebody to throw back at Prescott's face to make you feel a little better. I just wanted to give a helping hand, that's all."

"What?", Elodie's laughter weakened, "so you're eavesdropping on me now? Don't you think that's a little voyeuristic."

"It's pretty hard not to eavesdrop when you and your little group talk loud enough for the entirety of Scotland to hear", he scoffed, "I wasn't listening voluntarily, believe me."

"Whatever, Wood", she rolled her eyes for the second time, "what's supposed to be in this for you?"

He paused for a second, working himself up before he let out a long, dishevelling sigh.

"I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend to meet my parents over Christmas break", he explained half-heartedly, "I kind of led them to believe I had a girlfriend to get them off my back about spending too much energy on Quidditch, and if they find out I was lying they'd almost definitely pull me from the sport."

Elodie chuckled again, "What, so you aren't capable of actually getting a girlfriend yourself then? You have to buy a fake one with the promise of little favours?"

"I don't have time for a real girlfriend, not when this is single-handedly the most important year of my life. If I don't win the cup this year, if I don't get to compete at all - I'll never get this chance again", Oliver responded, "Look, I'm not promising you little favours here, I'm pitching you with a deal. I think we could help solve each other's problems, whether it be getting your little boytoy back-"

"I do not want Aspen back."

"Then to aggravate his temper, show him what he's missing, whatever. Either way, don't you think that the captain of his number one rival team is a pretty surefire way to rile him up?"

Elodie's head wandered into thought about Aspen's dedication to the Slytherin Quidditch Team, "I suppose."

She couldn't deny that what Oliver was offering didn't sound appealing - I mean, she'd be kidding herself if she said she didn't want to make Aspen jealous for some unknown motive, though her reasoning was becoming more questionable by the second. Whether she did want to take him back, or whether she just wanted him to feel as humiliated and disregarded as she had felt, Oliver Wood was right in suggesting that he was almost certainly one of the contenders that would aggravate Aspen the most.

But then, she didn't have the time for any of these games. Pretending to be in a relationship with somebody, just to feed lies and make other people feel something, it all felt very immature. And to spend so much time pretending to be affectionate with him, when he loved himself more than anybody she had ever met - well, it didn't exactly have her jumping to say yes.

Oliver paused for another moment, allowing her time to contemplate, but when it appeared she still wasn't going to give him an answer, he allowed his eyes to fall down instead to meet her gaze.

"Think about it", he said slowly, with much greater softness, before he picked up his feet and began to walk away, leaving Elodie standing there with nothing but her own thoughts to consider.

After all, it was a curious proposition indeed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE... hey hey! so it begins... olodie have met and the proposition has been made. can't wait to see how this one goes. and we finally got an introduction to oliver's friends and a closer look at the hufflepuffs! I'm having a riot with these characters to be honest because there are so few canon characters in this year group, so I'm very much enjoying the free reign! unfortunately (or fortunately) I do not have much time for this authors note so it'll have to be short and sweet. love u all! - dani xxx