Through the Hoop

The next day, Monday, Angelina went around Chudleigh looking for a new flat. She eventually found one that was perfect; it was very large, and was reasonably close but not too close to the Cannons' stadium. It had huge windows for Archimedes to come and go through, and overlooked a nice park.

The landlord recognized Angelina (all of them had - it seemed there wasn't a single wizard in Chudleigh that wasn't a Cannons fan), and gave her a good deal, but even so the flat was a lot more expensive than her current one. Angelina took it anyway, even though it made her new paychecks look a lot smaller.

She sent Archimedes off to her best friend Alicia Spinnet. Alicia had played Quidditch with Angelina at Hogwarts, and Angelina really wanted to get together for some girl time and to share her experiences - the good and the bad. And she also figured she could rope Alicia into helping her move! But Archimedes returned empty-handed, and there was no reply by Tuesday evening, by which time Angelina had pretty much moved everything already. Rather than trying to move the furniture herself, Angelina decided to shrink it all and carry it while she Portkeyed.

During her move the press had been getting more and more aggressive. Angelina discovered that the Prophet had even sent Rita Skeeter, their star muckraker, to try to catch her for an interview. Of course, seeing as how Skeeter had been responsible for causing Angelina's friend and teammate Harry Potter no end of trouble, she was the least likely to get Angelina to answer questions.

Planning ahead, Angelina got the same wizard from the Cannons' staff to help her with anti-Apparition Charms and various repelling wards on her new flat as soon as she'd taken it. It was a good thing too, because word got out, and by the time she arrived with the last of her things on Tuesday night there was a new batch of reporters camped out. Fortunately the new landlord had anticipated this, and had already banned them from the building, so Angelina was able to Apparate to right outside her door without being harassed.

After eating some supper, Angelina sat on her couch and pondered why she hadn't gotten a response from Alicia. It was likely that Alicia was just too busy; since she'd gotten top marks on her N.E.W.T.s Alicia had decided to enter the Auror program at the Ministry, and the training was intensive. Still, she'd never failed to reply to Angelina's owls before, and Angelina fretted a bit before deciding that Alicia was completely capable of taking care of herself. Angelina dug out the free tickets to Saturday's game she'd been entitled to, and sent them off to Alicia.

The next morning Angelina was sorely tempted to use the Portkey she'd been given; it was still active, and Angelina was horribly nervous about talking to the press. But she'd told Mr. Dorkins she would, so instead she locked the door to her flat and Apparated to the stadium.

As she approached the gate her whole body tensed; the crowd of reporters seemed even larger than the day before. Thinking she'd made a poor choice, Angelina was about to turn around again when a voice called out "Angie! Hey, Angie!"

It was Oliver Wood, who'd apparently been holding court in the middle of the throng of reporters. When Angelina saw his face it suddenly clicked - they were playing Puddlemere United that day, and Oliver was their star Keeper! The press adored him, so it was no wonder they'd been mobbing him.

Her cheeks splitting in a huge grin, Angelina pushed her way through the suddenly hyper reporters, and when she reached Oliver he threw his arms around her and literally lifted her off the ground in a hug. "Bloody hell, it's good to see you!" he exclaimed when he put her down.

"You too," Angelina said with a chuckle, surreptitiously rubbing her ribs. She gave Oliver a quick once-over, and was astounded by what she saw. Oliver had always been stocky, with all his strength in his arms and shoulders. But he'd evened out since she'd last seen him, layering impressive muscles all over, even on his legs; apparently when he'd started playing professionally he'd decided to take his workouts seriously. His thick Scottish accent had grown a bit deeper as well, but his face was exactly the same, clean-shaven and with a constant hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Before Angelina could say anything else, a reporter stepped right between them. "How is it you know Puddlemere United's star Keeper personally, Ms. Johnson?"

"Are you kidding?" Oliver answered for her. "We were on the Gryffindor team together at Hogwarts! We won the Cup together my Seventh year! Angie's one of the best Chasers I've ever seen fly!"

Angelina flushed a bit at the compliment. "Yeah, well, I never had to try to score against you." She turned to the reporter. "Oliver sponsored me onto the team at Hogwarts. I was just a runty little Second-year and hadn't even played the kid Quidditch leagues, but he voted me on anyway. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be playing pro today."

"Does your friendship mean you'll go easy on each other in the game today?" a reporter called out.

"That's ridiculous!" Oliver snapped indignantly. "Angelina and I are professionals; we play to win. I won't give her an ounce of slack, and I wouldn't expect her to do me any favors either!"

"Good thing," Angelina retorted, "because today's the day your five-goal streak ends, Oliver!"

There was a buzz from the reporters. Oliver had been making headlines since the previous year by keeping up a streak of thirty-two consecutive games without allowing more than five goals through. It was a new record for Keepers, and Oliver's goals-allowed to goals-attempted ratio was lower than any Keeper in the last sixty years. "Mr. Wood, do you think Ms. Johnson will break your streak?" a reporter asked.

"Hell, no," Oliver said confidently. "But if anyone could do it - which they can't - then she could."

"Does the fact that Ms. Johnson is the league's first woman make you any more confident in your ability to shut her out?"

"Of course not, that's just stupid! And anyway, she's not the first woman, or have you forgotten the Harpies?" Oliver met Angelina's eye. "I said it already, Angie's a great Chaser. I swear that one of my biggest worries when I went pro was that someday I'd have to play against Angelina Johnson." He grinned. "But that still doesn't mean she'll get past me!" The reporters tried to ask several more questions of Oliver all at once, but he shrugged them off. "See you on the pitch!" he said to Angelina.

"Get ready to get your butt kicked," Angelina told him. Oliver just laughed and disappeared into the stadium. Angelina pursed her lips. Oliver seemed to have loosened up since she'd seen him, but while she appreciated his support she wasn't altogether sure she liked how cocky he was. Oh, well…I'll just have to take him down a peg or two on the pitch.

"Ms. Johnson, what was your reaction to the attack on Joey Jenkins right after your first game in uniform?" With an inward sigh, Angelina curbed her trepidation and answered a few more questions for the press. As she'd feared, they were still mostly outright antagonistic; the report in the Prophet notwithstanding, they all seemed to think Angelina was some sort of publicity stunt-slash-freak show instead of a bona fide player. While Oliver had been there they'd been focused on him, and now the questions they asked were trivial and condescending; but Angelina managed to respond to each civilly and intelligently.

Eventually she had to excuse herself so she could suit up for the game; the press acted like she was being incredibly rude, even though she was a lot more polite than Oliver's brush-off; Angelina figured it was just a by-product of their sexism coming through.

As Angelina neared the locker room her nerves began firing up again. Despite her confident words to Mr. Dorkins, she was practically paralyzed with fear at seeing Jenkins again. Like she'd suspected, the damage she'd inflicted had been mostly superficial, and Jenkins was given a clean bill of health to play that day. Angelina knew she was acting like a victim, but it still took screaming at herself in her head to stop being such a coward before she managed to turn the corner and walk through the locker room door.

Jenkins had the team around him while he laid out plays on a board. Everyone pretended Angelina wasn't there, which suited her fine. She grabbed her gear, but froze at the thought of going into the women's shower room where she'd been attacked; she just couldn't bring herself to enter, despite knowing that there was a Charm up that only allowed women in. Eventually she ducked around a corner and listened carefully to Jenkins talking as she stripped off her regular clothes and donned her uniform.

The group was breaking up when she stepped back into the main locker area. She was putting her street clothes in her locker when Jenkins said "Johnson!"

Steeling herself, Angelina turned and met Jenkins' glare. "What?"

"You're twenty minutes late!" Jenkins growled.

"I promised Mr. Dorkins I'd talk to the press before the game." It wasn't exactly a lie; she had said she'd talk to them that day, she just hadn't specified before the game or after.

Jenkins was still glaring, but he didn't contradict her; apparently he'd gotten some words from Mr. Dorkins again. "Rumor is you played with Wood before," he said instead, changing the topic entirely. "Is it true?"

"Yeah, at Hogwarts. For four years," Angelina confirmed. "So what?"

"That bastard's been shutting us out for almost a year," Jenkins growled. "You've got fifteen minutes to tell Pattinson and Kendall everything you know about Wood, every single detail that'll help score against him. And if you hold anything back I'll bench you for a month!"

Jenkins turned and stomped away down the corridor to the pitch. Well, that could've been worse, Angelina thought, letting out a long breath. He must've realized that a few drops of Veritaserum in me and he'd be locked away. Smarter than he looks, I guess.

Pattinson and the other Chaser Mel Kendall walked over to Angelina. "So," Kendall said with a sneer, "what brilliant pearls of wisdom can you bestow upon us, rookie?"

Pattinson frowned at Kendall but didn't say anything, which was no more than Angelina had expected. It didn't matter what Kendall thought, though. Oliver had been right; she knew Oliver would give his teammates every bit of info he could think of, so Angelina would do the same. There was one major difference, however; Angelina Johnson was a bit smarter and a hell of a lot trickier than Oliver Wood. "Okay," she said to her fellow Chasers, "this is what Wood's going to expect me to tell you…"