Chapter Text
It was near time for the winter holidays at Hogwarts. Many students were excited to return home to celebrate Christmas with family and friends in town while some students were traveling out of the country.
Nature's frozen wonderland forced many of students to stay in their respective common rooms— either huddling together near the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate or wrapping themselves in warm, woolen blankets.
All except Oliver Wood— who may have started going insane as he scoured for his prized possession: his quidditch whistle.
And Percy Weasley, who was going to take an early retirement to his chambers that day. He had the unfortunate luck of seeing Oliver in this maniac state.
"Oliver, what are you doing?" he asked, looking at the brunette haired boy who was underneath his bed. It had taken a total of 5 minutes and Percy repeating the question for him to receive a response from the boy.
"Looking for my whistle." Oliver dryly said, not even acknowledging Percy's presence.
"Your whistle?"
"Yes! My whistle!" Oliver hissed, "I was using it yesterday during quidditch practice, came back here and I placed it in the drawer near my bed. Now it's missing!"
He snorted, "And your searching for it under my bed?"
"What else does it look like, Weasley? I'm going to search through everyone's stuff until I find it!"
To invade his personal space just to find a bloody whistle. That was preposterous, no it was pure ridiculousness! Not even the twins would do something so stupid.
"Really?" he retorted, "Do you think I will allow you continue to intrude in mine and other's personal space? Can you not recognize how absurd that sounds?"
Now Oliver had crawled out from underneath the bed and was staring at Percy and he did not look very pleased with his reply. His fists were clenched.
Seemingly suppressing the violent urge to punch the red head in the face, he instead said:
"What am I going to do then? I have practice with the team tomorrow and it is clear that someone here has stolen my whistle!" he shouted.
Percy raised his eyebrows and stated, "Why is stealing the only possible option? You could have misplaced it yesterday while you were on the pitch. There is no proof that I would take it. I don't even play quidditch so it's practically useless to me." He continued, "Now if you don't mind. I have some personal business to attend to. If you want to search through mine or anyone else's belongings, then be my guest. I will gladly tell Professor McGonagall about all of this."
Oliver rolled his eyes, huffing away in defeat to his side of the room, continuing his search in silence.
The red head scoffed and thought to himself, 'What was the importance of such a useless item anyway'. It's only purpose in was to disturb his rest when he wakes up the gryffindor team in the mornings.
Besides, he had to more pressing issues to deal with, like writing a letter to his Mum and Dad regarding Fred and George's mischief.
'Do those two ever get tired of driving him crazy?' he thought to himself. It was a rhetorical question, of course. Those two revel at any opportunity to make his life a living hell. Sometimes, he wondered if writing letters worsened his situation, as his mother's howlers were just falling unto deaf ears.
He opened his drawer at the horrifying sight of an empty space where his quills typically lived in.
No. That can't be.
Yet, despite the turning and tossing of all the items in the drawer— none of his quills were found! He looked around his desk, his bookshelf and under his bed. Nothing! Not even one of them!
Those quills were his prized possessions! All of them were birthday presents from Bill and Charlie!
His only option was to ask the only other person in the room now. He hoped that Oliver wasn't angry anymore regarding their disagreement prior .
"Oliver, have you happened to borrow any of my quills?"
The brunette haired boy was now laying on his bed, idly looking at the ceiling.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
He swung himself off his bed to face Percy and said, "No, I haven't seen it mate." His finger pointed at Thomas' bed, a small smirk now written over his face, "But it could be over there."
"No, we shouldn't do that." Percy paused, as if considering his options. Then shook his head in disapproval, "You know we can't!"
"First, my whistle and now it's your quills… that's very suspicious, if you ask me. There's only three of us. I looked everywhere for my whistle and you just lost your quills, the only other person that could have possibly stolen our stuff is him!"
Percy frowned, "But why would he need it?"
"I don't know. Maybe he's working for the slytherins." Oliver replied.
Percy snorted but his face dropped when he realised that Oliver was dead serious.
"That makes zero sense—"
"Slytherins? Really?"
Kestin Thomas, the man of the hour, had finally arrived.
From the clock on the wall, it was 20 minutes after curfew, this was a major violation of the rules— but that can be dealt with at another time.
Oliver walked up to the boy and immediately pointed his finger to his face. "Where have you been sir?"
"Where have I been?"
"I don't believe that I stuttered."
"Uh- I was with —"
"I knew it!" Oliver yelled. "He's guilty, Percy! Stuttering is admission of guilt!"
Percy rolled his eyes. "That does not prove anything at all." He took a few steps closer to the pair, "However, you are a bit suspicious."
The boy sighed, lifting his arms up in defeat. "Alright, I'm tired. You got me. Fred and George signed me up to this."
Oliver playfully gasped, "What? My students would never do this!"
"Students?" Percy scoffed. "This is typical Fred and George behaviour, Oliver. It really should not be a surprise to you."
"Can't you take a joke?"
"Perhaps I would if you were in the very least amusing."
"Alright, calm down you two. It's pretty late right now. Everyone should be in bed."
Terrible choice to interrupt when Percy and Oliver are arguing.
"So now you've realised the time? You arrived twenty minutes after curfew!" Percy yelled.
"And you gave those prats my whistle!"
"And my quills!"
"But everyone is sleeping now! The two of you can get your things tomorrow." he pleaded.
The two boys shared a glance, realising how late it was.
"I guess we can wait."
"Sleep is very important after all."
Thomas breathe a sigh of relief.
"But I'm not finished with you." Oliver coldly said.