Disclaimer: I don’t own Oliver, or the Chudley Cannons. I do own Alexis Kocrum, however.

 

Author’s note: I wrote this story with lots of help from a friend of mine, who is probably going to try and write for Sugar Quill, on the next submission date. I hope you like it. J

 

 

Captain of Captains

By Abigail

 

 

“Next!” cried Alexis Kocrum, the Chuddley Cannons captain, as a boy walked out of the room, disappointed.

 

Oliver Wood’s legs begun to shake madly.

 

“Er…” he said, as he took a step forward and found himself in front of Kocrum’s small wooden desk. He was about to say something else, when Kocrum cut him off.

 

“Name?” he asked, his voice hoarse, as though he had repeatedly asked that question many times in the day. In fact, he had.

 

“Er…Wood. Oliver Wood.” Oliver’s tone was uneven, and extremely high, even though he was trying hard to steady it.

 

“Let me see…” said Alexis, grabbing a grabbing several pieces of parchment lying beside him and flipping them over. After several seconds, he seemed to find what he wanted. He separated one from the lot and begun to read carefully.

 

Oliver waited impatiently, but he didn’t dare to interrupt him, apart from the fact that he could hardly string two words together.

 

How did I get myself into this?, he thought bitterly as he looked around. If he wanted to be a professional Quidditch player, he should have picked another team. One that had won at least one game in the past three centuries.

 

But there was something about the Cannons. Something that made him feel like he was destined to do a lot of good things for them, and they for him.

 

Then again, he probably should have listened to Alicia when he had told her about his plans of trying out for the Cannons.

 

“What?” Alicia Spinnet said, as she looked at her captain and friend, startled. “You can have better future than that!”

 

“Maybe. But I’ll never know if I don’t give it a try.”

 

And now here he was, waiting in front of Kocrum’s desk, a mad impulse telling him to turn and run through the door as fast a she could.

 

But he couldn’t. He had gone this far. The least he could do now was to hear what Alexis had to say about him.

 

But, at least for the moment, he didn’t seem to have a lot to say. He kept reading the paper with an unbearable patience, and making funny noises all the time, shaking his head, or nodding.

 

Oliver tried to shake out the feeling that his coming here had been in vain by resting his mind in his former team mates.

 

Specially Harry. He had read in the Daily Prophet about what Harry had gotten into. The Triwizard Tournament. That boy was definitely crazy. The tournament was only for people seventeen and up. If he wasn’t mistaken, Harry had turned fourteen over the summer.

 

And he had also heard from Professor McGonagall that there wasn’t going to be a Quidditch Cup at Hogwarts this year. Too bad. If only there had been a cup, then Harry would’ve been busy enough as captain of the team to think about other business involving danger. Because Harry still didn’t know that he was going to be the next Gryffindor Captain.

 

Finally, Kocrum spoke, startling Oliver a little. He had sort of forgotten where he was.

 

“Great then, I see,” Alexis said, looking up at him, “you were also a captain.” Oliver nodded fervently, and noticed that a small smile crossed Kocrum’s face. What Oliver didn’t know was that this was the first time in the day this happened. “And won the Quidditch Cup last year, according to your resume.”

 

Oliver nodded for the second time, swelling like a balloon with pride, and remembering how much fun it had been. God, he missed Hogwarts.

 

“However, Mr. Wood,” Kocrum started again, “it seems that you were captain for around four years, and won the cup only once.”

 

This time it was as though someone had pinched Oliver with a needle. He nodded again, with shame.

 

Kocrum was looking at him strangely, and Oliver knew that if he managed to keep his mouth shut for much longer, he would surely get kicked out of there in a hurry.

 

He made up his mind fairly quickly, and managed to get his thoughts in order.

 

“If you let me speak,” he asked tentatively.

 

“Of course,” Alexis nodded.

 

“Well, if I could say something for myself,” he said, rather quickly, “I must say that winning was not actually my main worry,” and he hoped against hope that Kocrum didn’t notice he was lying. *Catch the Snitch, Harry, or die trying* *…Just because I told her I didn’t care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch on it first*.  He frowned as he shook these memories off, and continued, “My main worry as a captain of a school team was to make each and every single member of the team better with each practice.”

 

“Then why did you lose?” Kocrum asked quietly, his eyes boring into Oliver’s.

 

“Oh, well,” Oliver replied, getting more nervous every minute. “Sometimes things got out of hand, and not even I could make them better. Having to train Harry Potter is a dangerous business, since he seems to attract danger quite easily.”

 

Maybe blaming it all on Harry wasn’t the correct thing to do, but at least he wasn’t lying.  Even though Harry was the most excellent Seeker ever, Oliver had to admit that the kid was a magnet for trouble.

 

“Harry Potter?” Kocrum asked, suddenly getting up from his seat. “You… you trained… him?”

 

Oliver swelled up again, and beamed. “Yes,” he replied shortly.

 

“Oh, I’ve heard he’s an excellent Seeker,” Kocrum stated hurriedly.

 

“Best there is.”

 

“If you trained him, Wood, then you must be… the…” Alexis seemed to have trouble finding the right words, “the Captain of Captains.”

 

Oliver smiled. He liked the Cannons, alright. “Well… if you say so…”

 

Kocrum looked at him with sudden admiration. “I do. Besides, you seem to have what it needs to be a good professional Quidditch player. Not at all shy, proud of himself, intelligent, well built… You boy could even save my team, and give it glory once again. I bet you are just what we need…”

 

Oliver was about to explode. He was lost for words. This was so touching.

 

“Well…” he began, but Kocrum seemed to be way too exited to let him talk.

 

“Here’s the schedule for the team’s try outs, next week,” he said, scribbling hurriedly on a piece of parchment and handing it to him. “And… but, for goodness sake!” he exclaimed, his eyes round and big, “I even forgot to ask you… you are ok with being a Keeper? I mean, it’s the only spot we’ve got left”

 

“I was a Keeper at Hogwarts,” Oliver replied, as he took his schedule with a sweaty hand.

 

“Great, then,” Kocrum said, beaming, “I expect to see you there.”

 

Oliver could have yelled. He was about to, actually, but he knew better. Quidditch was about being “cool”. And let’s face it, yelling against the wind with excitement isn’t the best way to show you are “cool”.

 

So instead he said, “You won’t be disappointed,” and walked out of the room as quickly as he could.

 

He could easily yell outside.

 

 

Author’s note: For all those who are waiting for a sequel to “Somebody Else”: You’ll be glad to know that I already wrote it, just need to have it beta-read. I will post it as soon as possibleJ

Abby