Hope In Hiding (Book 2 of the Lost Potter Series)

Part of the Family

"So have you guys written Harry at all? Or heard from him?" Olivia asked as the group made their way upstairs.

"A little bit, but mum has to check every letter I send," Ron responded first.

Hermione nodded, "I got a letter from Dumbledore at the beginning of the summer saying that I couldn't mention certain words or topics in the letters, even if Harry asks about them. It's been horrible lying to him like this, especially when he's stuck with those Dursleys."

Olivia agreed, "I haven't been allowed to write to him since Sirius and I started living with Remus. They're scared my letters will be intercepted, but Sirius can write to him weekly apparently. It's so frustrating."

"That's dumb—"

"That's hypocritical—" Ron and Hermione said respectively simultaneously. They stared at each other in relative shock when Ginny spoke up.

"Why don't you just write on Hermione's next letter, then?"

Olivia nodded timidly, "If Hermione would be so kind—"

"I would but now that I'm staying with you all, I have a suspicion that mine will also be checked before sent," Hermione said as rationally as ever, looking downcast to have to reject Olivia's writing, "And if they catch you trying to write, they might cut us all off from talking to him."

"Oh... that makes sense." Olivia replied, causing a momentary silence within the quartet. By the time they reached the bedrooms, Ron left to go to his own room while the girls entered the room Olivia had woken up in before. Hermione and Ginny had already set up their suitcases, making Olivia feel somewhat alienated yet again.

"So how was the end of term?" Olivia asked as she settled on her own bed, picking at a hole in her jeans absent-mindedly.

"It was alright, exams and all that were fun as ever," Hermione pondered a moment, "Did Ron ever apologise?"

"About the Yule Ball?" Olivia clarified, with Hermione nodding, "No, he didn't, but it's alright,"

"What's this about the Yule Ball? Did you go? What's Ron being idiotic about now? I'm behind," Ginny asked, pulling her hair down from it's ponytail in a way Olivia could only describe as hypnotic.

Hermione didn't comment on Olivia's momentary fixation, thankfully, and asked, "Are you explaining or am I?"

Olivia cleared her throat and snapped out of it, "No, no, I will. Ginny, do you remember a girl called Liz from Ravenclaw who was Ron's date?"

"Yeah, I remember her. I tried looking for her the next few weeks, too. Why?" Ginny quirked an eyebrow, her face truly suspicious.

"Liz was the product of a lot of Hermione's spells on myself. Had to lighten the hair, darken the skin,  reconfigure the face a bit..." Olivia trailed off, trying to remember what she even looked like at the Yule Ball, "What else did we do?"

"Straighten the hair, change eye colour..." Hermione trailed off, looking to Ginny to see if she got the point.

Ginny's face was a mix of analysing and triumphant, "So that's why your eyelashes were so dark, because you have black hair!"

Olivia shrugged while Hermione nodded along. Neither of them had really considered it. Elaborating, Olivia continued, "That's also why I booked it out of there pretty quickly. The spells started to wear off and I had left your guys' group hours before so I didn't know where Hermione was to fix it."

"Who did you hang out with, anyhow?" Hermione asked, beginning to get ready for bed herself.

"First I literally ran into the Beauxbatons champion, Fleur," Olivia chuckled, "Though I apologised in French so it was fine."

"You speak French?" Ginny asked incredulously.

Olivia nodded, "Un peu, mais ça fait longtemps. (A little, but it's been a long time)" This answer seemed to satisfy Ginny, who returned to looking through her case for something.

Hermione, however, kept the conversation going, "I don't know what to think of Fleur. A little full of herself,"

"A little?" Ginny asked with raised eyebrows.

"-okay a lot, but she wasn't as horrible as some girls even at Hogwarts." Ginny nodded along to this, content with the correction.

Olivia shrugged, "I only bumped into her twice, but she was nice enough."

"So you didn't really hang out with anyone?" Hermione asked again, starting to search through her trunk for her nightclothes.

"After Fleur I sort of bumped into Draco so I kind of hung out with him," Olivia responded, slowly decrescendo-ing as she saw Ginny's face flair up.

"Draco Malfoy? You're friends with that twat?" Ginny snapped back, sounding both enraged and astonished.

Olivia cursed herself for ruining her potential friendship with Ginny in one sentence and kept her eves on the ground when responding, "When my parents were killed, I was taken from my home and put in the Malfoy's. Draco was the only friend I had for the first eleven years of my life, so yes, I'm friends with 'that twat'."

Ginny was visibly taken aback, "Oh I'm sorry I didn't-"

"What did he do to you?" Olivia looked up at her and asked. She didn't ask aggressively, as one would expect, but instead with a disappointed curiosity.

Ginny's usually confident voice faltered slightly, "He loves to call me a blood traitor, and his father got me possessed by you-know-who."

"You blame him for the actions of his father?" Olivia raised an eyebrow at her, "Yes the blood traitor thing is bad but even that is just him trying to copy Mr. Malfoy. It's what he was brainwashed to do as a child."

"No I just-" Ginny paused for a second to gather her thoughts, "Well if he can't realise what he's saying is wrong why should I respect him?"

"I'm not saying you have to, I'm just saying you shouldn't blame him for what he can't control. He only lashes out whenever he feels threatened anyway." Olivia turned away from the other two, very aware she was fighting a losing battle.

"You haven't seen what he's like at school, Olivia," Hermione tried to jump the Ginny's aid, "He's constantly calling everyone around him blood status slurs, and you should see how he mocks Harry. He's constantly trying to get him expelled-"

"You're right, I don't know," Olivia interrupted once again, now starting to feel the tears in her eyes as she looked up once again, "And do you know why I don't know? Because his bastard of a father is so horrible that I ended up in-!" Olivia tried to calm herself, "If I was there, I could stop him. But since I'm not, I'm sorry for the damage he does. It's the only thing he knows."

With a dramatic turn to top it off, Olivia forcefully cocooned herself in her blankets and faces away from the other two, effectively stopping all conversation between them and allowing everyone to mull over the other side's points during the night.

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QUESTION: Who do you ship Olivia with? Let me know by commenting!

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Okay weird ending I know, but I really wanted to get this out there.

Anyway, please leave feedback, and I hope you enjoyed!