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Ollie grew flustered at the idea that his meeting Echo here was something of a date. He nervously laughed it off as his cheeks began to warm, and he ran his hand through his shaggy hair to keep himself busy. Suddenly he lost the nerve to look Tessa in the eye, so his gaze fell to the bar and rag she’d been using to wipe it down when he had come in. “Nah,” he stammered, scratching his head. “Not a date or anything like that. Just a witch from work. A friend.” Glancing back up he saw Tessa still had an eager look on her face and he turned away from her, scanning over near the door in case he’d missed Echo’s arrival. “How’s my little Hannah?” he asked Tessa as a change of subject, moving to turn the rest of the way around to face her again but spotting Echo near the fireplace on the other side of the room. He smiled at Echo and gave a little wave but having noted the big dog she was with he decided it would be better for her to come to him than the other way around. Dogs, and animals in general, weren’t a big fan of the Devereauxs. Besides, he really did want to hear how Baby Hannah was doing.

There was never a concern that Kit would aim the baseball at his head and even less of a concern was the speed with which the ball came shooting towards him. The boys were perfectly matched, both in skill and their adoration of each other. Neither would purposefully engage in behavior that would be of detriment to the other, even if they did take the mickey out of one another at times. Ollie was a professional athlete, he was well accustomed to smack talk over the course of his job and even more so over the course of his life with Kit. The brothers had a very different relationship with their sisters but between the boys there were playful taunts and friendly competition. Ollie swung the bat hard, though with very little effort, and the sound between the collision of bat and ball made a large crack like thunder that stood out against the lovely weather. He didn’t wait to see how far he’d hit it, once the ball was gone Ollie dropped the bat and began running the bases. He zipped around their makeshift diamond with ease, the wind a cool, refreshing sensation as his surroundings blurred. He was very nearly to home plate in a matter of seconds but at the last moment he felt a force knock him off his feet and he tumbled to the ground. Legs tangled up with his brother’s outstretched arm, Oliver objected vocally. “That was your fat head!” he mocked, “I’ll get the next one. Mark my words.” And he did. It was 1-1, then 1-2, then 2-2, and so on. There game ran well past lunchtime and when his stomach started to sound more like a werewolf than a gut, Ollie called the game. “Fine, you win, but you’re still making dinner unless you’d prefer accidental poisoning for tea.” He wasn’t a poor cook but he certainly wasn’t as skilled as Kit was in the kitchen. Plus he was a lazy arse, comparatively, and sitting on the couch listening to the radio seemed like a much better use of his time.

Ollie watched his brother fumble in the cupboard as he took a step backwards and leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest with his apple still in reach. “If we’re dressing each other up, I’ll have to call in reinforcements. I’m sure Dora’s got plenty of ideas for what she’d like to put you in.” Bringing up their mutual friend, and the witch who unabashedly crushed over the older Devereaux boy, was a fun way to win an argument. A baseball flew his direction and Ollie caught it with his free hand as his brother summoned the bats in an attempt to avoid dealing with the mess of the cupboard again. Finishing his apple and having only the core left, Ollie turned and faced the long hallway, at the end of which he could see the rubbish bin in the far room. Sizing up his shot and screwing his face up to get the angle right, Ollie chucked the apple core down the hall and saw it knock the rim of the bin then fall into the can. A perfect shot. He grinned, pleased with himself and feeling arrogant about his chances of winning their little ball game, when he heard the soft swoosh of a bat heading in his direction. Animal-like reflexes snapped into action and he snatch the bat from the air mere moments before it collided with his shoulder. “Says the bloke throwing bats at people’s backs,” he retorted teasingly.

The weather was rather nice for late Autumn. Sun shinning and only fluffy white clouds in the sky. There was a little wind but nothing horrendous and it actually felt nice as Ollie and Kit ran around their makeshift baseball diamond, pitching the ball and practically smashing it to oblivion, forcing the pitcher to run full on to catch the ball more than two football pitchs’ length away. “Try to put it right here, this time,” Ollie said in a playfully taunting tone, gesturing to a chest high area right in front of him. “You’re not supposed to strike the batter.” Ollie stood sideways in front of the little rubber plate he’d conjured and set up on the grassy field. He pulled the bat back over his shoulder and gave his brother a cocky grin, wiggling the bat in a little cyclone motion as he waited for Kit to throw the baseball toward him.

Fortescue and Everwood remarked about Ollie as if he wasn’t there, and Ollie was forced to just stand there and listen to it. So he accidentally stole a cone. Big deal. He’d come back and he was paying for it now, wasn’t he? Or he would be, after the man rung him up. Hard work… Ollie was a delight! What did these two know about it. Echo turned her eyes up at him and Ollie’s face broke out into a goofy smile reflexively. “My brother says the same thing.” Ollie pulled his coin pouch from his pocket, a show of good faith that he was, in fact, going to pay after the older wizard passed a double scooped waffle cone to the blonde. “And I’ll take…” Ollie looked at all the little labels that decorated the menu board. He liked trying new things so it usually took him a while to decide what to order wherever he went but as he’d already made it known he was hard work, he chose quickly. “Mango berry bash, please.”

Having received his cone and paid for the both of them, Ollie turned away from the counter. “Inside or outside?” he asked, hoping she’d want to sit at one of the open tables outside of the shop. He liked to people watch and imagine what they were getting up to for the day, creating little stories in his head for where they were going and why. Of course, he wouldn’t need to do that as much if he was having a conversation with Echo, but aside from talk of her blossoming quidditch career, Ollie didn’t really know much about the younger witch and there was always the possibility that she couldn’t hold a conversation to save her life. He doubted it, though.

Tags: Echo Arista Everwood // Word Count: 298 //
Outfit: IDK, something cool // Notes: ✦

Echo’s laugh was lovely, and the way her smile brightened her entire face was something to behold. He wondered if her boyfriend would be upset by his asking her to an ice cream date, not that it was a date but a trip to the ice cream parlour between two people. Talking would be involved. Definitely nothing romantic. He’d already mentioned his dick indirectly to her, he didn’t need to go and actually hit on his sisters’ friend. Plus she probably had a boyfriend and they both would think him a creep for hitting on her. Not that he was hitting on her. But if he did. Which he wasn’t. She was hot, though.

“Erm…” Ollie turned and gave a quick look back at Fortescue’s, then to the empty cone, then to Echo. “I might have. Accidentally. Sort of.” He grinned. “Stop being cheeky and let me buy you a cone. You know, a full one.” Echo agreed and the pair headed down the alley together. She mentioned having to sign an autograph, which Ollie had secretly witnessed but he played ignorant and widened his eyes I surprise. “Did you? That’s good practice for when you’re famous. You should be thanking me, Everwood.”

They weaved through the crowd and up to the door of the ice cream shop, which Ollie held open for Echo then followed in behind. The stood in the queue, only having to wait behind one other person before it was their turn to order. Upon stepping up to the counter, Mr Fortescue gave Ollie a disapproving look. He looked between the witch and wizard, then to the empty waffle cone in Echo’s hand. “Are you planning to pay for that?” he asked. “Sure am,” he said, half apologetic and half cocky. It was a strange mix that Ollie had perfected over his many years as a good hearted goof ball. “Whatever flavor this one wants.” Ollie looked to Echo, waiting for her to pick a flavor. “Oh, and throw in some memory modification toppings, would’ya? Chocolate flavored, if you’ve got it.” He gave Echo a wink as Fortescue gave a puzzled look.

Tags: Echo Arista Everwood // Word Count: 356 //
Outfit: IDK, something cool // Notes: ✦

Stacking the pots of polish he’d collected into a sort of pile on the shelf, Echo brought the remainder to him. On hands and knees no less. And then she made a joke about it. Merlin on a muffin, had his face caught on fire? It felt like his face was on fire! His cheeks had turned red, but he tried to laugh off the inappropriate joke because else was there to do about it? Actually set the shop on fire? No thank you. “Yeah, ‘cause then where would I go to make an arse of myself in front of my sisters’ friends? Zonko’s?” He fake-thought about it for a second then nodded. “Yeah, Zonko’s could work.” Pushing the embarrassment that he felt down beneath the surface, Ollie took the last of the jars from Echo in a more casual manner than he thought he could pull off and set them on the display he’d created. It wasn’t a very good display. Instead of an organized pyramid it looked something like a toddler’s first attempt at making a castle with their building blocks; a big asymmetrical blob that got taller toward the middle-ish part.

Broom polish returned to the shelf, though not nearly as nice of a display as it had once been, Oliver took a dramatic step away from the shelf. “I was never here,” he said with a wink, followed by a charming smile as he ran his fingers through his long hair that had fallen in his face when he was crawling around on the floor. “Well, Everwood, I think I’ve done enough damage here for one day. Have a good one.” He gave a small wave and skirted around the little witch with braids in her hair that had been looking at Echo since he’d made a scene about her being a professional quidditch player. It seems the girl had come to ask Echo for an autograph, and it was the perfect excuse for Ollie to get the hell out of dodge before he really mucked things up.

Sneaking out of the shop without Rex seeing him was easy enough, since the shopkeep was speaking with another customer showing off some expensive helmets and pads. The alley was bright outside and Ollie shielded his eyes from the sun until they adjusted. Looking back through the window he could see the little quidditch fan offering a book and a quill up to Echo, though he couldn’t see what the book was he suspected it had something to do with quidditch or the Arrows. Her father surely wouldn’t let her ruin just any old book with an autograph of a future star. Ollie groaned to himself. Echo, even if she didn’t end up being a star player, was still someone he’d be seeing again, as would his sisters. There was no escaping the buffoon he’d made of himself in front of her but he could at least try to minimize the damage. He didn’t know Echo well enough to know whether she would blab about his clumsiness and inappropriate joke and it wasn’t as though he had left her with a stunning impression of himself afterwards to soften the blow. Sera and Roma were going to have a field day with this. He needed to make things right, or at least less awkward, before leaving. Looking down the alley, he spotted the ice cream shop and decided a nice cone might make Echo feel less inclined to tell his sisters what a creep he’d been. She was busy with signing autographs and whatever shopping she’d come into the shop to do that day, so Ollie headed down the way to grab a cone with plans to wait outside the quidditch shop to make amends.

Tags: Echo Arista Everwood // Word Count: 626 //
Outfit: IDK, something cool // Notes: ✦

No quill on her? What sort of celebrity was she? Ollie grinned at her confidence, not recognizing any hint of embarrassment that his display might have caused. She was too even keel for that. Most people would consider that a positive thing, but it meant that Ollie would struggle to find the line with her between having fun and being a tit. Not that they really ever saw enough of each other for Ollie to really make an arse of himself repeatedly like that. Well, now that they were on opposing teams he might see her a fair bit more, but he tried to rein in his personality while on the job. He was not well-loved enough to get away with being a wanker in public and still holding favor in the eyes of society. He didn’t really want to get to that point, either.

As Rex snatched the broomstick from Oliver’s hands, Ollie caught Echo’s reaction. Sort of. He gave a short laugh, running his now free hand through his long mop of hair as the apples of his cheeks tinged pink. Thinking Echo was laughing at him (though being nice enough to turn away and not laugh right in his face) he shuffled his feet and looked elsewhere around the shop until she spoke again. He took the tub of broom polish from her and read over the label as she began her questioning. “Only when I’ve not got a date…” he said in a relaxed yet humorous manner, obviously making a joke but having very little wherewithal about him to recognize what sort of joke he had just made and to whom.

It hit him suddenly and a new wave of embarrassment rushed over him. “No… What I mean to say is… Umm…” He stumbled over his words as he quickly tried to replace the broom polish on the shelf, his lanky arm knocking over a whole pyramid shaped stack of polish that was on display. “Bollocks,” he groaned under his breath as he tried frantically to right the display that was spilling all around their feet. Turning up the few jars still rolling about on the shelf before they fell, he wasn’t in time to keep the majority of the display from falling. At least he’d not drawn Rex’s attention again, yet. At the rate he was going, Ollie was going to get himself banned from one of his favorite shops. Kneeling close to the ground and shoveling the containers into his arms, Oliver avoided making eye contact with his sisters’ friend. Oh Merlin, what if she told them?! He was never going to hear the end of it. Then Kit would join in. This was a bloody nightmare.

Tags: Echo Arista Everwood // Word Count: 453 //
Outfit: IDK, something cool // Notes: ✦