Loverboy

You must be Olivia

The one thing that Ollie had dreaded with her growing fondness with Pierre was the rumours. 

She was one of the self-proclaimed Marauders, for Merlin's sake. Her best friends were the star Chaser, the heir apparent to the Black fortune, the witty and studious werewolf (though not many were aware of that trait), and their loveable sidekick and biggest supporter in the group's shenanigans. 

All this to say that of course people knew who she was. Even if Ollie didn't engage in as much mischief as her friends, she was still widely associated with them. And that recognition and popularity came with talk.

So of course, she wasn't surprised to hear her name thrown around in whispers, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable. Mostly, it was people theorizing about their relationship. Just a few days prior, Ollie had overheard some Hufflepuff fifth years wondering if the two were dating. She'd even heard from Josephine that some fourth-years had suggested she and Pierre were actually long-lost siblings- luckily, that one never took hold.

So the glances the two of them were getting weren't shocking either as the pair walked through the corridors of Hogwarts early in the morning. For some reason, despite Pierre properly meeting Ollie's friends at least a month before, Ollie had yet to be introduced to Pierre's two best friends.

So the two of them were making their way from Ravenclaw Tower- where they had met outside the Ravenclaw common room on the sixth floor- to a certain spot in the basement that apparently, Pierre and his friends frequented.

It was near a set of tapestries of various fruits, and when Ollie and Pierre arrived, there was one boy and one girl sitting beneath the tapestry of a pear. Both of these strangers looked up upon hearing the approaching footsteps.

The boy was handsome, no doubt. He had curly blond hair that fell over his eyes, and he had light brown eyes. His nose was small and round, and he had a few freckles dotted over his tanned and round face. His smile was wide as he scrambled to get up and shake Ollie's hand. "You must be Olivia," he said, his voice higher pitched and bubbly. "I'm Eric."

The girl then rose, much more elegantly than her friend. Her skin was a rich caramel color, and her hair was long and curly. She had it pulled away from her face in a blue bandanna, but a few brownish-black pieces still fell around her cheekbones. Her eyes were a deep brown, and her smile was much softer than Eric's toothy grin.

"My name's Anastasia," she said. "Pierre's told us a lot about you."

Ollie returned their smiles, feeling unnecessarily self-conscious. "Good things, I'd hope," she replied, glancing at Pierre, whose smile was soft as well as he looked down at her. Seeing his smile made Ollie's polite and awkward smile shift to be more genuine.

"Oh, he has only the highest praises for you," Anastasia said, her voice slightly teasing as she, too, looked at Pierre at the end of her sentence. 

"He's always going on, and on about how sweet you are," Eric added. "And how pretty-"

"And oh, how perfect that girl is!" Anastasia continued, imitating Pierre's accent. "And I must say, he doesn't seem wrong on the 'pretty' part- you're not bad-looking by any means."

Ollie paused for a second before replying, "Thank you, I appreciate that. You're not bad-looking, either."

Anastasia's soft smile cracked as she laughed momentarily. "I guess I may have sounded like I didn't mean that," she said. "I do, you are quite nice to look at."

"What she's trying to say is you're pretty," Eric supplied, not really very helpfully. "But she doesn't want you to think she's hitting on you."

"Oh," Ollie said. "I suppose that's fair, actually. Why would I have assumed she was flirting with me, though?"

"She likes girls," Pierre replied, as if it was the most insignificant thing in the world. Which, it honestly wasn't that big of a deal. But Pierre wouldn't know how Ollie would react to this, so he watched her closely for her response.

"Ah," Ollie said. "Me too."

"Yeah, I'm always careful when complimenting girls, so they don't assume I have a crush on them," Anastasia said, fidgeting with her hands. "Well, for the ones who already know, obviously."

"What do you mean, 'me too?'" Pierre asked Ollie, his face somewhere between amusement and confusion.

"Simply that," Ollie replied. "I also like girls. They're quite lovely."

"He meant she's a lesbian," Eric said, thoroughly amused. "Not just that she finds them nice."

"Yeah, and I like girls same way I like boys," Ollie explained. "I only realized that fairly recently." She felt her stomach fall only an inch before regaining her composure.

Pierre looked slightly surprised, but not upset, of course. "That makes sense," he said, the awkward air suffocating him.

"Anyway, how did you guys meet?" Ollie asked, realizing it was probably a stupid question before it was even fully out of her mouth.

"Pierre and I are dormmates, have been since first year," Eric said. "We got along then, and we've been best friends ever since."

Pierre smiled a little bit at that. "We also sat together on the train," he added. It reminded Ollie of how the Marauders had become friends.

"And Anastasia became our friend in third year-"

"After a bunch of second years set off fireworks in the girl's bathroom on the fourth floor. I was the only girl in there, and for some reason, nobody else noticed that I was missing or heard my screams," she cut in. "These two heard me, though, and helped get me out."

Hearing about the fireworks made Ollie remember a stunt James and Sirius had pulled that year. "That reminds me, actually, of something my friends did," she said, laughing slightly before fully realizing that Anastasia was, in fact, referring to the same event. "No, wait, that was my friends. And I was the one who helped them make fireworks that would go off for thirty minutes straight."

"Olivia, you rascal," Anastasia said in her smooth voice, a smirk growing on her lips. "Wow, Pierre, your first girlfriend and she's the reason you and me are friends at all."

Pierre rushed to correct her. "Olivia and I aren't dating," he said. "She already has a boyfriend."

---

So Ollie has met Pierre's friends, and they seem to get along pretty well. Im so happy for her, and i'm also so grateful for anyone who has read this far! Y'all are what keep me writing and I love you guys sm. Thanks for making it so far and sorry for taking a million years to update- i lowkey forgot i existed for a little while lmao, but im fully conscious once again and wanted to put something out for you <333

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