Callie was slowly beginning to settle into life in Atlantis. School, on the other hand, was taking longer to adjust to. The Atlantis High School was nothing like Hogwarts and Callie found herself reminiscing, at odd times, about the ‘good, old days’ spent freezing her arse off in the Potions dungeon or that one time she’d almost been buffeted off of the top of the Astronomy tower by a particularly strong gust of wind when she’d been trying to study Venus in retrograde.
One thing that had lifted her spirits, however, had been Oliver’s announcement about the new Quidditch league. Callie wasn’t the best Quidditch player in the world - she wasn’t even the best Quidditch player in her family - but it was a flavour of home which had come in a most timely manner. For the first time ever, she was really looking forward to getting back on a broom and, what was more, her team had Roger Davis as its captain, which gave it a wonderfully familiar Ravenclaw-y feeling. Still, there was an annoying, niggling, little part of Callie that had been slightly disappointed not to be put on Oliver’s team...
Even though the Quidditch teams and specifically Oliver were on her mind, she was surprised when she looked up to find herself standing outside his room's door. For a second, she panicked and had to think hard about why she was there - she hadn’t been daydreaming about him that much, had she? Luckily, though, the basket of goodies from Emilia in her arms was a good memory prompt and, having regained her calm, she reached up to knock.
It had been a looooooong week already, but Oliver loved every minute of it. He was bringing Quidditch to life in Atlantis and starting up an entirely new league that'd go into the history books here. It had to, right? Since Hope Wicker had mentioned playing in the future. There was still a great deal of work to do with organization, getting the teams registered and decked out in colors and such. Plus a lot of people off on a mission… Still, he couldn't wait.
He was still drying his hair after his shower and just wearing some pajama pants when he heard a knock on the door. Had he ordered dinner before his shower and forgot already? That Dash kid was way too fast. Oliver grabbed a shirt off his couch, sniffed it to make sure it was clean, and was still pulling it over his head as he opened the door. "What do I owe you, again?"
Callie blinked, startled in the face of more abs than she could count, before Oliver’s head emerged out of his shirt and the fabric settled into its rightful place. Realising that her mouth had fallen open, she closed it quickly and cleared her throat, trying to think of something funny, witty or, at the very least, grown-up to say.
It wasn’t a secret in the Spinnet family that, growing up, Callie had a bit of a crush on Oliver Wood. In fact, her aunts and uncles had regularly teased her about it whenever they were going to see him but, to his credit, Oliver had always ignored them and treated Callie like his little sidekick, which, of course, only made her admire him all the more. The crush had waned naturally over time, as Callie had become more and more wrapped up in her own life at Hogwarts, but she was finding it rather disorienting here in Atlantis being confronted with Oliver exactly as he’d been at the height of her crush on him. What was more, the age gap between them had shrunk from the gulf of twenty three years to the mere hop, skip and jump of eleven. It all added up to make her heart beat just a little faster than usual whenever she saw him and her usual eloquence all but fly out of the window.
“As much as I enjoy the idea of having you in my debt,” she said finally, hoping there hadn’t been too long a pause while she’d been dithering. “Nothing. These are from Em. They were this morning’s and she said they’d be no good by tomorrow. Better they not go to waste.”
When he saw who was standing at the door (and it wasn't Dash holding food that he didn't remember ordering, which was kind of a relief because that meant he wasn't already forgetting things), Oliver's face split into a smile. Callie Spinnet, who wasn't Callie-Bean any longer, having grown up like 11 or 12 years since the last time he saw her.
"Hey Callie," he responded, humor evident in his voice as he stepped aside to let her come in. "I'll have to pass my thanks to Em, then. Unless this is a bribe from Roger to get on my good side before the season starts. Spinnets and Treats is cheating." He wasn't sure why Em would throw out perfectly good baked goodies or why Callie was bringing them over, but he wasn't going to question a delicious gift.
“Beware Spinnets bearing treats?” Callie laughed, stepping passed Oliver into his room. “Don’t worry,” she added, placing the basket down on the bed. “They’re not bribery, or poisoned for that matter.” She gave a little shrug. “Just a bit stale.”
One hand lingered on the handle of the basket as she took a furtive glance around his room before she met his gaze again and smiled. Crossing her ankles where she stood, she let the toe of one boot play restlessly against the heel of the other. When Em had given her the basket of leftover cakes and cookies from Snoozle and told her she could dish them out among their friends, she’d headed straight for Oliver’s house, thinking it would be fun to talk to him. Now that she was here, though, she wasn’t completely sure what to say.
“So… you must be in your element with all this Quidditch stuff,” she said, letting her hand fall from the basket to the camera case which always hung at her side. Quidditch, at least, was always a safe bet with Oliver.
"Hadn't even considered poison til you mentioned it," joked Oliver, leading up against the wall by the door. "But yes, absolutely. It's something we've been working on ever since I got this job. It was slowed down by mistletoe and people turning into bears and birds and whoever knows what else. Now, though, we're on the pitch and ready to score. Just a bit more to go, if the Captains and their Co's get the team data finalised."
He nodded his head in the direction of the camera case. "You know, if you're interested, we could sort of hire you on to take pictures of matches when you're not playing. And hopefully find someone else to cover when you are."
Callie glanced down at the camera when he motioned to it before turning her attention back to him, her face splitting into a wide smile.
“Seriously?” she asked. “That would be great!” She wasn’t as experienced with action shots as she was with landscapes and cityscapes but she never turned down the opportunity to take photos.
“Actually, there are a couple of spells I’ve been working on which would probably work really well for Quidditch captures. They were meant for birds in flight but there can’t be that much difference between a bird and a Quidditch player.”
Her excitement bubbled up as she spoke. Her friends at school teased her about the way she started speaking quickly whenever she was happy and she often had to remind herself to pause and take a breath. It was during one of these pauses that she suddenly narrowed her eyes, giving Oliver a searching look.
“Hey, this isn’t just a ploy to try win back over one of your lucky Spinnets, is it?”
Oliver quickly put his hand over his heart and plastered his most wounded expression across his face. "To win them back, I'd have to lose them first. Are you saying I've lost a Spinnet? Have my Spinnets abandoned me?"
Shaking his head and smiling, he dropped the act and stood away from the wall before walking around the room a bit. Walking always helped him think. "No, seriously. There's a lot of things outside of the matches that I hadn't considered before. Parties, pictures, merchandise, and so on."
Callie felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach at the adorable expression on Oliver’s face when he was pretending to feel hurt. She swallowed them down, laughed and rolled her eyes at him. “Well perhaps if you hadn’t been such a noble Gryffindor about it and chose your team more tactically, you wouldn’t have misplaced any Spinnets along the way,” she chided jokingly.
“Equally seriously, though, I’d love to with the photos. You know that’s always been way more my thing than actually flying…” She trailed off before adding, with a grin, “Although you’d better believe I’ll be ready to help my team kick arse whenever they need me. I was taught by the best, you know.”
"This incredibly noble and mature Gryffindor would like to quickly point out that the teams were chosen by kind of a lottery system, not picked by the Captains. So, neener neener." He playfully stuck out his tongue, to emphasize the mature part. He took a moment to absorb the rest of what she said, though, and squinted.
"California Spinnet, are you telling me you were taught by none other than Quidditch legend and extraordinary talent, Oliver Wood?"
“Oh, get over yourself,” Callie giggled, shaking her head, and pulled a face at Oliver in return, even while her stomach was doing a backflip. He had been a good teacher and she’d always been keen to be around him, although, between him and Als, they hadn’t given her much choice but to learn. She thought, even if they’d never got her onto a broomstick, with the amount they both talked about the game, she would have learned by osmosis sooner or later.
“Anyway,” she said, shifting a little awkwardly, her fingers absentmindedly playing with her camera strap as they always did when she was thinking of what to say. “I should probably get going. I told Em I’d only be a few minutes. And it sounds like I’m going to have to start practicing,” she added, tapping the camera. She paused a moment. “Well, I suppose photography and Quidditch. Now I’ve been this cocky, it would be pretty embarrassing if I made a fool of myself.”
"Oh yeah," answered Oliver, nodding his head sagely. "Expectations are higher than the Astronomy Tower." He smirked and leaned carefully against the edge of his desk before nodding at the basket that was still on the bed. "Be sure to thank Em for the goodies? And yourself for the delivery? The thoughtfulness is appreciated. Even if I suspect this is an attempt to fatten me up and slow me down at the goals."
He tapped his nose and nodded. "It won't work."
Callie lifted her eyebrows knowingly.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” she teased, walking past him to the door. She pulled it open but lingered in the doorway for a moment longer.
“Bye, then,” she said finally, raising her hand in a little wave.
"I'm onto you, Spinnet Masterminds," he added, following her to the door. "And it was good to see you, Callie. I'll have my people call your people so the people can people and sort out the photography stuff. Maybe we can put together a newsletter or something with them. Merlin's rump, now I need to find a sports reporter."
Callie laughed, inwardly glowing at the knowledge that he thought it was good to see her.
“I’ll listen out for the people peopling,” she said as she walked out into the hall.