Erin's words and actions had left a far bigger mark on Oliver than he had expected. Seeing Erin cry because of something he did hurt him. He felt like that time she was angry at him for getting her splinched. She was right. Ever since they had become friends, all he had done was hurt her in some way. For a couple of days he convinced himself that she was better off without him, but her words kept replaying in his head. Should have expected it after last year. She had referred to something that had happened last year twice already and he just couldn't remember any event where he had hurt her. They barely even talked in the previous years.

He hated that she was mad at him. He couldn't focus, he couldn't think of anything else and he had a hard time just being happy. But she didn't want anything to do with him. The things she had said to him ... He had never seen her this angry before.

"Katie?" he asked one night when he was staring into the fireplace aimlessly again.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I'm not empathetic?" he asked. "Like, do you think I don't care about other people's feelings?"

It was quiet for a while and Katie didn't exactly know what to say. She wanted to support her friend, but she couldn't deny that Oliver lacked some empathy sometimes.

"You do care", she said. "You just sometimes have trouble showing it." Oliver sighed. He did care about Erin's feelings. He knew that because he felt crappy every time she was unhappy. Why was he always the cause of her being unhappy? He just wanted to go back to when they were good friends, but then it'd only be a matter of time before he'd mess it up again.

"Hey, Wood. You can talk to me, okay? I'm here for you", Katie said, realising her friend was way more hurt than she initially thought. Oliver sighed again.

"I had promised Erin that I wouldn't tell you guys about her new move. I found out about it by accident."

"But you did tell us", Katie said.

"Yeah, exactly, and now she doesn't ever want to see me again."

"Have you tried apologizing?"

"Of course I have", Oliver said. "She wouldn't even listen."

"No, Wood, have you actually tried properly apologizing?" Oliver had no idea what she meant by that.

"Let me guess, she's angry at you because she thinks you don't care about her?"

Oliver immediately remembered Erin's words. I thought that I meant at least something to you. I thought I meant enough for you to just keep the one promise we made.

"How do you know?" he asked, completely freaked out by Katie's psychic abilities.

"Well, because I'm a girl, you dumbass. Girls care about trust because the amount of trust there is in a relationship determines how strong a relationship is", Katie said. "She's not angry because Angelina blocked her shot. She's angry because you broke her trust. You made it seem as if she didn't mean much to you because it was so easy for you to break a promise."

Oliver fiddled with the hem of his shirt. Why were girls so complicated? He never meant to hurt Erin, he just wanted to win. But sacrificing her secret for a quidditch match was stupid. At that moment he just didn't realise how much she cared about such things.

"How would you feel if she'd gone to a teacher, telling them about your little late night spying sessions on Slytherin?" Oliver frowned.

"She'd never do that."

"Exactly, because you trusted her with that and that means a lot to her. And if she'd tell anyway, would you forgive her right away? Would you immediately trust her again?"

"No, of course not." Realisation slowly setting in and Oliver pushed his face in one of the pillows. Why was all of this so difficult for him?

"She really likes you, Wood. If you show her how much you like her, she'll come around eventually."

"You make it sound as if we're going to start dating", Oliver scoffed. Why were his teammates always on his case about that?

"Sure", Katie chuckled and left the room.

Both Katie and Erin's words kept him awake that night. He understood the situation better, but it left him more confused than ever. Why couldn't he just let her be and move on with his life? He hadn't hung out with her for the five years that they went to the same school, so why couldn't he survive another 7 months?

It was because of the one mystery that he hadn't found the answer to yet. What had happened last year? He had spent hours trying to figure out what he had done wrong, but he had absolutely no clue and it haunted him. He needed to know. It was the foundation of all the issues that were playing and if he wanted to fix things with Erin, he needed to know what had happened.

Since Erin was not going to talk to him any time soon, Oliver decided to go for plan B, which was possibly a lot scarier than plan A. There was one other person who definitely knew what was up and that was Beatrice Haywood. Beatrice despised Oliver, but since she was just angry at him and not hurt like Erin, he thought he might have a better shot. He just needed to get her to listen to him without scratching his eyeballs out.

The end of November was drawing near, meaning that the first half of the school year was almost over. Oliver had just seven more months at Hogwarts and he wasn't particularly looking forward to leaving. He wanted to have a career in quidditch, but since quidditch teams only reached out to new players after they graduated, his future was still very much uncertain. He wasn't going to spend his last months unhappy though, so he needed to find Beatrice.

He found her outside by the lake, talking to Meredith Johanson. Meredith sat next to him in charms, so she waved at him when she spotted him.

"Hi Wood, what's up?" she asked as he had reached them. Beatrice turned around at the sound of his name and her eyes spat fire.

"I actually need to talk to Beatrice", Oliver said awkwardly.

"No thanks", Beatrice hissed, her eyes narrowing.

"I know you don't like me very much, but I really need to ask you something", Oliver sighed. Meredith clearly had no idea what was going on.

"And why would I listen to what you've got to say?" Meredith just quietly backed away, unsure what to do in the immensely tense situation.

"Because it's about Erin and I know you care about her."  Beatrice still looked at Oliver suspiciously, but he had caught her attention.

"You've got exactly one minute." Oliver nodded and took a deep breath.

"So, I know I messed up and I understand that, but Erin keeps talking about something that happened last year and I have no idea what she means. I understand that I hurt her and that it's still something she's dealing with, but I just can't make it up to her when I don't know what's happened." Beatrice raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced.

"You're shitting with me, right?" she said, crossing her arms. She clearly knew what he was talking about. Oliver shrugged, no idea what to do. The confused look on Beatrice's face didn't help either. Why could he not remember something that seemed so important?

"You really don't remember?" Beatrice lost her harsh look, but she still seemed suspicious of him.

"No idea."

"Well, then why don't you ask her yourself? I don't think I should be the person you go to for that."

"I tried," Oliver sighed, "but she doesn't want to have anything to do with me."

"Well, that really surprises me. Why would she possibly do that?" Beatrice said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She couldn't help but dislike Oliver as he had brought so much pain onto her best friend. If only she could just forget about him. Whatever he did to her, she would always forgive him, because she was in love with him. Why was he too daft to see what was happening right in front of his eyes? He clearly fancied her, that was as obvious as anything, but he just didn't realise it. He was too caught up in quidditch to notice anything happening around him.

"Well, thanks anyway", Oliver mumbled, walking away.

Beatrice gritted her teeth, not knowing what to do. She just wanted Oliver to disappear off the face of the earth, but Erin was suffering. Beatrice couldn't deny that she had never seen Erin as happy as when she was hanging out with Oliver. He made her happy, but was it worth all the pain he was causing her? Did she have to give him a push in the right direction in case he'd ever realise that he had feelings for Erin, or was she setting her best friend up for heartbreak again?

"Just put in some effort and she'll come around", Beatrice said, already regretting it slightly. "Show her that you're actually sorry this time."

This boy was going to be the death of her and she wasn't even involved with him. Friendships were weird.

Oliver was breaking his head over the new situation. What could he do to make it up to her? What could he do to get her to talk to him? Maybe he could buy her something, or was that not meaningful enough? He would write her letter if he had any writing abilities, which he hadn't. He sighed. First he needed to get ready for quidditch practice.