WITHOUT A WORD ( OLLIE )

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

The Eve of Lights Ball was sure to be a great time. Laila was assured of that by the fact that she was going with the one person she would ever want to go with – Oliver Summerby. Ollie and Laila began dating during the summer while on the trip to Rome and the past few months only seemed to bring her more joy. As she looked herself over in the Gryffindor common room, she hoped that the attire she picked out was more than acceptable to him. She wanted to blow him away, and hoped that her outfit did just that.

Laila’s white cutout lace dress fit perfectly on her petite frame, she admired as she slipped into her white sandals with bows at the front of them. She quickly put on her accessories and did her makeup, a sweeping wing eyeliner effect outlining her eye shape beautifully. Laila grinned at herself, did a little turn, then giggled as she put away her things and headed down toward the Great Hall where she and Ollie decided to meet.

She moved slowly into the hall with the crowd of people, looking up to admire the canopy of lights that welcomed the students. Laila grinned, feeling the warmth of the light flicker against her cheeks as she wavered in between them with each step. She stepped to the side, out of the way of the flow of students, and stood up on her tip-toes trying to find Ollie, hoping that process wouldn’t take too long.

@ollie

[Deleted]

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Ollie was very excited for the Eve of Lights Ball. In the past for Ollie, things like balls had been stressful events, where he had had to worry about the thought of either asking someone to go with him or the perceived embarrassment of going on his own, but this year there was none of that. He was very happily in a relationship with Laila, and they barely even needed to ask each other if they were going to go - it was assumed that they would go together, and both of them were very happy and excited about that.

Ollie was also really excited to see what Laila would be wearing. She had wanted to surprise him with her dress, and he knew she would look amazing in it. He had tried to pick out clothes that would look good on him as well to impress her, but he knew that she had much better fashion taste than he did. Still, he hoped that she thought he looked good.

He came down the stairs and made his way to the Great Hall, looking around for Laila. He stayed up on the staircase to look over the crowd to find her, soon spotting her and making his way through the crowd to her, taking her hand before she noticed him. "Hey," he said as he came up behind her, smiling as she turned to face him, his eyes widening as he saw her outfit. "Wow, you look amazing," he said genuinely. She really was beautiful, even more than usual, which was saying something.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

While Laila looked for Ollie, it seemed he was looking for her as well, and at the sound of 'hey' she realized he was beside her. Laila grinned while her heart pitter-pattered in her chest. "Hi love," she said back, looking down at herself and blushing as he complimented her. "Thanks," Laila said softly with a chuckle. She looked back up at him, taking in his appearance for a moment before meeting his eyes, her grin widening. "You are the handsomest boy in here," Laila said and wrapped both arms around his shoulders, cradling the back of his head with her hand as she kissed him.

The brunette Gryffindor pulled away and smiled shamelessly, biting her lower lip. This was their first real event together and she was excited to see how it'd play out, knowing that it would be fun for the both of them. "Are you hungry at all?" she asked with a raised brow as she took his hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze. Laila was unsure of what they should do first, as she was sure they'd eventually make their rounds to everything that the ball had to offer. She didn't want this night to turn sour because he thought she was boring, but she was nervous about dancing with him. They had never really danced before and well...she wasn't the best dancer. She guessed at some point during the night that fact would unveil itself, but she hoped it wasn't too soon.


@ollie

[Deleted]

Seeing her look down and blush just made him appreciate her even more. She was modest, and he loved that about her, but she was still the most beautiful girl in the entire place. He couldn't believe how lucky he was. "Correction, I'm the luckiest guy here," he said as he moved his hands to her waist and met her kiss. "None of the other guys get to spend the evening with you," he added, smiling down at her.

Both of them were basically grinning like little kids. They were excited to be out at their first event together, where they could really dress up, and that energy was spreading to them and they just had to do something. "Yeah, some food sounds great to start off with." As they started walking along towards the food, hand in hand, he smiled over at her. "I've been looking forward to this all day. I kept wondering what you would look like tonight and you even blew that out of the water," he said, assuring her again how beautiful she looked. That, on top of the personality that he was fast falling for, made her pretty much the perfect girl.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila blushed again at Ollie's words, grinning childishly. "You're too sweet," she said softly, kissing his cheek and then his nose, giggling. "But if that's your logic then I'm the luckiest girl here," she said with a grin, knowing fully well that was a true fact. Ollie was the perfect guy - always knew what to say, was there for her, made her feel comfortable, and to top it all off was seriously hot, too. He made her feel on top of the world.

"Great!" she said at his agreement of food, walking with him further into the ball. "I'm actually kinda starving, but I didn't want to say anything if you weren't hungry," Laila chuckled. Maybe it appeared juvenile, but she just didn't want to seem like a pig in front of him. "Aw, that's cute! And thank you - I appreciate that. I can't just look this good with a flick of a wand," she laughed, although that wasn't very true. In fact, she used her wand to curl her hair matter-of-fact, but he didn't need to know that. She'd let him go on thinking she put a lot of effort into her appearance; she did put effort, just not...work? Yea. That made sense. She tried to hide the smile that seemed ever-lasting on her face, but it was impossible; Ollie did something to her that she just couldn't hide away. "I've been looking forward to it too - it's going to be a lot of fun," she said, then looked to a table where a couple sit and watched a plate appear before them. "Oh - I think if we sit at the table then we're automatically served food," Laila said with a grin. That was pretty cool.


@ollie

[Deleted]

Ollie laughed and crinkled up his nose when she kissed it. "Well, in that case, let's be lucky together," he said warmly, lacing his fingers through hers. He loved the look of her face when she was laughing, it had the childish innocence to it, but also just a great joy in her eyes as well.

"Oh, you know you can always say anything around me, right?" he said as she said she hadn't wanted to say so. "Plus, I'm a teenage guy, I'm basically hungry all the time, so it's a pretty safe bet," he added with a grin. Ollie was in fact sure that she could look very amazing without any wandwork at all, just by rolling out of bed, as far as he was concerned. She would always be beautiful to him. Someday he hoped to be able to see what that was like with her. "Oh, that's awesome! Let's see what we get," he said excitedly as they went over to the table and took a seat next to each other, waiting for the food to appear.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila nodded, getting slight chills as his fingers laced with hers in their journey toward the table. She couldn't help the overwhelming feeling of joy that she felt around Ollie. A mere three months had led them to this moment, but Laila felt like they'd spent forever knowing each other. She thrived off of his happiness and wished she could be there to always keep a smile on his face. She could only hope she made him as happy as he made her.

She nodded and pushed her hair back out of her face. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind," she answered with a smile. Laila knew that Ollie would be accepting of whatever it was she had to say, but sometimes in a teenage girl's mind, that 'knowing' disappeared when silly things like eating came up. Laila grinned and nodded, taking the seat next to him at their table. It wasn't long before a plate filled with different foods appeared before them. She looked up at him and smiled. "Different from back home, huh?' she said with a grin, remembering her trip in the summer where she learned that Ollie didn't really perform magic at his home the way they did at her own. It was different, but not bad - just different. Laila picked up her fork and knife and began cutting the piece of grilled chicken on her plate, looking up at Ollie with a smile. "There must be some sort of spell to track the tastes of whoever sits down, because grilled chicken and alfredo," she said, looking down at her plate where noodles lay beneath the chicken she was cutting, "is one of my favorites."



@ollie

[Deleted]

Ollie could understand Laila being a little unsure about herself sometimes - any teenager was, really. But he wanted to continually assure her that he loved all of her, and wanted her to feel like she could say anything to him and feel totally comfortable with him. He wanted to see who she really was, and not just what she wanted him to see. "Oh yeah, this is way different from back home," he agreed, thinking how they had to cook everything from scratch. Not that that was a bad thing - and plus, even this food had to be cooked somewhere, right? They couldn't just materialise it. When what appeared in front of him was peppered steak with roasted vegetables, his eyes lit up. "I don't know how that works but I'm not complaining," he said with an excited tone. He didn't know of any spell that did that, but there were a lot of very talented professors at this school who knew a lot more than he did. "This whole place just looks amazing, though. Hey, we should go on a boat ride later," he suggested. That would be nice and romantic especially if it was just the two of them on the boat.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila chuckled at his agreement with her - they both knew well that Ollie's home was different from Hogwarts anyway, but for food to appear right in front of them was definitely different than Ollie's home. However, that different wasn't necessarily good. Over the summer while visiting, Ollie and Laila had the chance to bake homemade cookies together from scratch (with the oversight of Ollie's mum) and it was one of the funnest experiences she'd ever had. In her heart, that was much more magical than any spell.

"It really does - and that'd be great!" she said with a grin, stuffing a piece of chicken in her mouth. It was delicious! She grinned and swallowed, then tilted her head to the side as she looked at him. "I haven't been on a boat ride since first year," Laila remarked while smiling.


@ollie

[Deleted]

The cookie baking had definitely been a fun experience. Ollie didn't have a lot of experience with cooking, but with the oversight of his mum, it had mostly gone okay. The cookies had been delicious, and they had tasted even better knowing that they had cooked them together. And Ollie also saw then just how much Laila loved cookies, which only made him love her even more. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcyNG6Zeeec) It had been awesome having her meet his parents, and they had absolutely loved Laila as well, which only made him all the more convinced that he wanted to be with her for as long as he could.

"Yeah, me neither," he replied happily. He was glad that they were offering boat rides tonight, it was a nice addition to what was already a really great night. "The tournament is such a big thing. It's pretty exciting, it's nice to have something big going on other than just Quidditch, you know?" he commented as he had some more of his steak. "I think you would have been a good champion," he said, smiling at her.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila smiled, glad that the boat ride would be especially memorable for the both of them. It was always a cool thing to revisit things from your past, and the boat ride to the castle from first year was something she was looking forward to revisiting. "It is - it's really exciting! I can't wait to watch the tasks," she said, then raised an eyebrow. "Me? Champion?" Laila asked then chuckled. "I don't think so...I'm not that great of a witch or anything," Laila said as she twirled her noodles around with her fork. Laila definitely didn't think she would have been a good choice for champion. She wasn't as gifted as some of the competitors that were chosen, and if she'd been among them then surely she would have let Gryffindor down, and that would have been something horrible to live with.

@ollie

[Deleted]

Ollie was also really looking forward to watching it, and he hoped that Silvia and Iain would do a good job for Ravenclaw. "Sure! You'd be great! It's not like the champions have to be the absolute best at everything - plus, I think you'd be as good as anyone in Gryffindor," he told her happily. "But at least this way we can watch them together. And I won't have to be worried sick about you if there were any dangerous tasks," he said, reaching over and giving her hand a squeeze. Being left handed and sitting on the left side of her meant that his right hand was free to hold her hand (assuming she was right handed).

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila blushed. "Well thanks," she said with a chuckle. There was no use protesting his compliments because, after all, they wouldn't have the chance to find out since she wasn't a champion. His mention of being worried about her made her grin. She didn't want him to worry anyway, but knowing that he would made her feel a little safer. "I'm glad we'll be able to watch them together, it'll be fun," she beamed, giving his hand a soft squeeze in return. She chuckled and then tossed her hair over her shoulder with her free hand, looking over to the lake and then back to Ollie. "You ready for that boat ride?"

@ollie

[Deleted]

By now they had finished their meals, which would be enough to keep them going food-wise for the rest of the evening. That meant they could spend the rest of their time just enjoying the surroundings together, and the boat ride sounded like a great way to start that. "Sure, that sounds great. Let's go," he said as he got up to his feet and offered her his hand with a smile. There was a walk down to the boathouse but it was a beautiful clear night and the idea of walking outside on the lawns at night with Laila was one that really appealed to him. It reminded him of the time they had run around in the grounds in the rain on the first day they had met. "Do you remember how we ran around out here the first day we met, and got absolutely soaked?" he asked, smiling fondly.

LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON

[LAILA IMOGEN BRANDON]

Laila grinned as Ollie got to his feet. She took his hand quickly as they set off for the boat-ride, her heart fluttering down into her stomach and giving her nerves. He made her feel so loved and protected. She didn't feel alone because he offered her company that none else could match. There was something in his touch and voice that made Laila feel like the quietest mouse, attesting to the nerves currently residing within her, but also made her feel like the bravest lion, able to accomplish anything with him at her side. It was an amazing feeling. She looekd over at him as he brought up their meeting and laughed. "Of course! That was a blast - I might have got a bit of a cough afterward but I wouldn't go back and change it for a miillion chocolate frogs," she said with a grin. Laila squeezed his hand slightly and giggled. "Did you know - then, I mean? Did you ever have the slightest thought that our meeting would lead us to this?"
@ollie