Knickers

Chapter 5: Jealousy

Harry Potter stood in the locker room of the Chudley Cannons, a towel hanging loosely about his hips. The aches of a game well played—210-40 in favour of the Cannons—sent twinges of discomfort throughout his body. With a sigh, another stray drop of water trickled down his well-defined chest, and he reached into his locker for his clothes.

"Good game," a soft, seductive voice called from directly behind him. Startled, Harry turned and took in the sight of Katie, also clad only in a towel, as she went to her own locker.

Harry grinned and pulled his boxers out of his locker. "Not so bad, yourself. You were on fire out there tonight."

Katie shrugged and shot him a sly grin as she dropped the towel and, naked now, picked up her knickers and slipped them on. "I do what I can. Looks like we've got the Nationals in the bag if we keep going at this pace."

Harry nodded, completely ignoring his girlfriend's naked body as he dropped his own towel and slipped his boxers on. Truth be told, he was a little nervous about the possibility that they might make it to the finals. After all, it was now two months into the Quidditch season, and the top two teams—the Chudley Cannons and the Holyhead Harpies—seemed poised to spar for the National Cup. The trouble with this lay, of course, with the problem that had been plaguing Harry since his third year at Hogwarts—one way or another—Ginny Weasley.

"Well, I think we have a problem." Katie broke into his thoughts with a smirk, standing in front of him wearing only her knickers and bra. "Should I be worried about our relationship?"

"Hmmm?" Harry mused, reaching for his jeans.

Katie rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty much naked here, Harry, and you’re not even looking. Hell, I’m insulted that you don’t have an erection right now.”

“That’s nice, sweetheart,” he mused, pulling on his jeans and turning to reach into his locker for his shirt.

Katie's hand was propped upon her right hip in annoyance at her boyfriend's ambivalence. With a huff of impatience, she took matters into her own hands and shoved Harry back against his locker, the sound resounding throughout the empty locker room.

"Katie, what the fu… oomph!" Harry started as pain resonated throughout his back, the metal of the locker leaving an imprint as his girlfriend launched herself at him. She melded her lips to his, shoving her tongue into his unresisting mouth. The kiss itself lasted maybe 20 seconds, but the desired effect was achieved as Katie pulled back and saw blatant lust burning in the eyes of her lover.

"Do I have your attention?" she said softly and mischievously. Truth be told, she was just toying with him, choosing to play with her boyfriend here in the Quidditch locker room in the hopes that Oliver would perhaps stumble in and become jealous—a far fetched concept, but one that Katie held out hope for in her overly girly mind.

"Um-Hmm," Harry murmured, drawing Katie closer and instinctively moving his hand to start removing her bra. Harry hadn't been planning on getting shagged at the Quidditch Pitch today but, considering that the locker room was empty and his girlfriend had just thrown herself at him, he could deal with whatever happened.

"So I was thinking…" she murmured, swatting at the offending hand to prevent Harry from having his way with her right there in the locker room.

"Mm-Hmm," Harry continued to murmur, his lips coming down onto hers, and his hands roaming in the general direction of her breasts.

Katie returned the kiss, noticing that Harry was employing his mouth to sufficiently distract her from the fact that her bra had fallen to the floor and his hands were playing with her nipples. Harry Potter, Katie had learned, was a 'breast man' if she had ever met one. "…That maybe we should go back to my place after this and…" She was interrupted again by a less than amused cough.

Harry, ever the responsible one and, in this case, the gentleman, pulled his girlfriend closer to shield her from whomever might get an eyeful of Katie wearing only a pair of skimpy lace knickers. She obviously couldn't turn around without flashing whoever it was behind her. He raised his head, freezing as he took in their audience.

It seemed that Oliver had chosen this day as the day to invite the entire press corps into the locker rooms to interview his star players. However, he hadn't expected to find them in a compromising position.

This wasn't to say that he wasn't aware that Katie and Harry were seeing each other—sleeping together even—but, until that moment, it hadn't been physically manifested for Oliver to see. Furthermore, even though he had a live in girlfriend, Oliver felt himself getting turned on by the sight of his best friend clad only in a scrap of fabric that he hardly qualified as knickers and her obvious arousal, judging by the erect nipples she was currently sporting.

But these feelings needed to be put aside while Oliver dealt with the matter at hand. Indeed, it was proving to be embarrassing both for Oliver and for Katie and Harry, as Oliver had promised a professional interview with his star Seeker and best Chaser, and Katie and Harry hadn't, until now, been open about their relationship. Oliver could just envision the front page of the next day's Daily Prophet and, for that reason, he wanted to help restore some of his best friend's pride.

The fact that she looked amazing in her knickers was beside the point

"Harry, what… holy shit!" Katie blurted out as she turned around in shock, pulling herself from her boyfriend's insistent grip, giving the press an eyeful before Harry pushed her behind him and handed her the button down shirt that he had taken out of his locker seconds before Katie had begun her attack. Harry's reaction had been second nature as he was used to the attention that the press foisted upon anyone with a juicy story or, in his case, a scar on his forehead,

Harry turned his back to the press, who were currently snapping pictures like there was no tomorrow, and said, "Katie, it's going to be fine," in a low voice, a small smirk gathering on his face. This was just the opportunity he had been looking for to turn Oliver's world upside down. The truth of the matter was that Oliver had feelings for Katie. After all, she was his best friend. He just didn't know the depth of them yet. Harry didn't mind, in the least, taking this opportunity to show Oliver exactly what Harry knew he felt.

"What are you talking about?" Katie murmured harshly. "I just had a picture of me, practically starkers, taken for the Daily Prophet!"

"It's part of the plan," he continued, reaching down to Katie's hands and finishing buttoning the shirt she had been angrily doing up.

"What plan, Harry? What did you do?" Katie raged quietly, impatient with her boyfriend.

"I didn't do anything. Now do you want Oliver or not?" Harry said quietly, brushing a hand in comfort over Katie's flushed cheek in an expression of affection.

Katie looked at him as if he had gone crazy. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'll tell you later; just follow my lead." Harry ignored this last question and turned back to the press. "Hello, everyone. How are you all doing today?"

"Mr. Potter, what is the meaning of this? Are you and Miss Bell engaged in an affair?" the reporter from the Magical World News asked.

"Yes, something like that," Harry murmured with a smirk, shooting a look back at his girlfriend and then turning back to the reporters, his torso still bare. "Could you give us a second before we begin the interview? Katie and I would like to get dressed."

Oliver, still stunned by the show he had been treated to only moments before, sprang into action at these words. "Yes, yes. Let's just give my two star players a moment to compose themselves."

With a sigh, he shot an annoyed look at Harry and Katie and hustled the reporters out of the locker room.

Katie watched as Oliver shuffled the last reporter out of the room and spun around angrily. "What the fuck just happened? Did you know this was going on today?"

Harry sunk down onto the bench and shot Katie a sly look. "Did you see the look on his face?"

Katie had had enough. She wanted a straight answer, NOW. "Harry, you tell me, right now, that you had nothing to do with this, or I swear…"

"All right," he said, choosing that moment to pull Katie forcefully down onto his lap.

"Don't touch me, Harry Potter," Katie yelped, moving to get off his lap, but Harry held onto her firmly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you want an explanation or not?"

Katie stilled. She DID want to know exactly what Harry was up to.

"Right, then," Harry said, as if he were starting a friendly conversation about the weather. "I had nothing to do with this."

Katie looked at him incredulously, not willing to believe this piece of information.

"I didn't," Harry re-iterated. "But you have to admit that it is good timing."

"Good timing?" Katie tried again to extricate herself from Harry's lap. "The Daily Prophet has a starkers picture of me, and you think that that's 'good timing'?"

"Nearly starkers, my dear. Nearly starkers," Harry murmured, running a hand up her thigh. "The Wizarding World will just have to suffer from the fact that, at the moment, only I have the pleasure of seeing you starkers. Speaking of…"

Katie slapped at the offending hand. "There is no way you're getting shagged now, Harry Potter. You lost that chance when you invited the press in to take 'nearly starkers' pictures of me."

"Hmm. Again, I didn't do anything. Oliver did. And a fine man he is, too." Harry shrugged his shoulders and gave her a lop-sided grin as his hand continued to roam up her thigh, until he almost reached…

"Would you stop that?" Katie removed herself from her boyfriend's lap in one smooth movement. "I'm serious, Harry."

"I can see that," he shook his head, still smiling. "Did you see his face by the way?"

"Who are you talking about?" Katie asked in an annoyed voice, as she went to her locker and grabbed her jeans, slipping them on over her knickers.

"Oliver," Harry replied, reaching into his own locker for his socks and shoes. "May I have my shirt back, please?"

"What do you mean by that, Harry?" Katie said, her heart leaping in hope. Maybe the tide was changing. After all, Fleur had been gone more and more from the flat lately; Oliver had told her. Maybe there was hope after all.

Harry shrugged. "Just that I want my shirt back."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Not that. The other."

"Oh! You mean Oliver." He pulled his right sock on, purposely dragging out his words in order to drive Katie crazy.

"What about Oliver?" Katie said impatiently, undoing Harry's shirt, taking it off, and handing it to him before reaching to the floor for the bra that Harry had taken off of her earlier.

"Well…" Harry took the shirt and pulled it on, his hands moving to do up the buttons. "The moment you turned around 'nearly starkers', I think Oliver's eyes nearly fell out of his head. He looked like I look when Ginny's with Colin."

Katie stilled, her bra half on and half off. "He didn't."

"He did," Harry said firmly. "Trust me. I've had that look on my face enough times to recognize it when I see it. It was jealousy."

"Jealousy?" Katie said hesitantly, unwilling to get her hopes up without a valid reason.

Harry nodded. "Um-Hmm. Jealousy. And a bit of lust."

"But that means that…" Katie reached into her locker for her shirt.

"You might stand a chance," Harry finished for her, tying his shoelaces.

Katie pulled her t-shirt over her head, trying to keep her heart from beating uncontrollably. "And he and Fleur…"

"Having some problems, they are." Harry stood up from the bench and grabbed his bag and jacket out of his locker, locking it, finally, with a short wave of his wand. "Just yesterday, she came on to me here in this very locker room."

"Here?" Katie said in shock. "Where was I?"

Harry shot her a pointed look, "Talking with Oliver in the other room."

"Oh," Katie said, pausing slightly, her brow furrowing. "Wait. What do you mean by 'came on to you', anyway?"

"We're talking hands down my trousers," Harry finished, grimacing as he remembered the blatant physical assault he had been subjected to. Any other time, he likely wouldn't have minded. After all, it wasn't everyday that a beautiful woman came into your locker room, undid your trousers, and stuck their hands inside. But he had just been speaking to Ginny and her family, who had come to the game that day… with Colin. Harry, understandably, hadn't been in the mood for anything happy, let alone anything sexual.

Katie's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

He looked at her as if he wasn't sure if she had been serious, "Extremely. She tried to go down on me, too, but we heard you two coming in."

"Would you have gone through with it?" Katie asked after a moment, as she found her socks and shoes and started to put them on.

"No," Harry said succinctly. "If you will recall, I was a tad preoccupied at the time. The Weasley’s, including Ginny and, of course, Colin, were at the game and I really wasn't in the right frame of mind for anything. Besides that, I DO have a steady girlfriend right now, and, although very shortly she'll be leaving me for another man, I'm not the type to stray."

"And I appreciate that," Katie sent Harry a sympathetic look and walked over to give him a hug. He held her tight, returning the hug. He was offering her encouragement for the battle they faced getting Oliver to dump the fickle Fleur and take up with the best friend he obviously had feelings for, and she was attempting to help him forget the woman who was, even now, planning her wedding to another man.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, would you two get off each other!" Oliver said in an exasperated tone as he came into the locker room to find Harry and Katie in yet another compromising position, albeit clothed this time. "You do realize you're going to be the Daily Prophet's headline tomorrow, don't you?"

Harry pulled away from Katie and smiled at Oliver. "I rather thought so. I'm actually surprised that they hadn't figured it out sooner."

"Well, we have been careful about it," Katie said amicably, turning around to close her locker and pick up her bag.

"We have, haven't we?" Harry said, offering his arm to his girlfriend. She took it slyly, just missing the jealous look that Oliver was sending their way at the intimacy the couple shared.

Indeed, in the past few weeks especially, Oliver had noticed that the relationship between him and his own girlfriend had become… strange. Fleur was always at work, and, when she wasn't at work, she was always somewhere other than the flat. If he hadn't known better, he would have said that she was having an affair, but that couldn't be it. Fleur wasn't like that…

"No sex in public places…" Harry went on to describe how he and Katie had pulled the wool over the Wizarding media's eyes.

"No expensive dinners in visible areas and, most importantly…" Katie continued.

"Always use protection of the invisible variety," Harry finished.

"Excuse me?" Oliver queried, clearly shocked. What was this about invisible protection?

Katie's eyes twinkled. "We use the invisibility cloak a lot,” she clarified for her best friend, knowing exactly where his mind had gone to at that last statement. She rolled her eyes as she thought of how Oliver's mind had very likely focused on what he would do for a Chaser if she ended up pregnant and unable to play… "Don't worry. No risk in my being out of commission due to an unplanned pregnancy." And this was true. That was part of the deal; Harry and Katie were allowed to exploit each other sexually but not to the point that it would affect any future relationships they might have. It wasn't as uncomplicated as that, though, and both of them had known it. Indeed, Harry knew that when he succeeded in getting Katie and Oliver together, he would forever remember his time with Katie fondly. After all, he and she were friends, and, not only that, they were lovers… albeit lovers who didn't love each other, but lovers, just the same.

Oliver interrupted these inner musings with a red-faced response to Katie's last candid remark. Truthfully, that thought hadn't come into his head, but maybe he should be talking more to Katie about that. After all, there was no sense in putting their star Chaser on maternity leave when it was completely unnecessary… "I'm so glad you think so highly of me. For your information, I wasn't even thinking of that."

"Oh come off it, Oliver." Katie let go of Harry's arm and moved over to her best friend to take his. "You know you have a dirty and mercenary mind. You were probably picturing how badly we'd lose the National Cup if you had to re-train a Chaser line at this point." Harry, ever the supportive boyfriend, simply took Katie's bag and slung it over the shoulder that held his own, not seeming to care if Oliver monopolized his girlfriend's time.

Oliver thought this was rather odd. If Katie were his girlfriend, he didn't know if he could accept the fact that she had such a close best friend who was male, ESPECIALLY one that looked like that in only a pair of knickers…

"No, no I don't, and no, that wasn't what I was thinking of, at all," he said finally. Katie had shot him an odd look over the amount of time it had taken him to answer. Indeed, his mind was still lingering on the burning image of his best friend in only black lace…

From behind them, Harry simply smirked, knowing exactly where Oliver's mind was, judging by the look on his face a moment ago. This plan, however impromptu, was panning out perfectly. Now Harry needed Oliver to catch Fleur in a compromising position with someone, and Oliver and Katie were as good as 'together'. Perhaps the fact that he and Katie were going to be displayed on the front page of the Daily Prophet the next day wasn't such a bad thing, after all…