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

Safe Space

Olivia arrived at the cottage around nine, feeling quite exhausted from the trip. The doors were locked, of course, but an old cottage wouldn't be complete without a creaky window that could be opened with a little elbow grease. And very little elbow grease, thankfully, for Olivia could barely meet healthy weight fat wise, let alone have any muscle mass. She heaved the window open with as much effort as she could, opening it just enough to scurry inside in her aviary form.

Inside, she found out that the creaky window belonged to the master bedroom, which felt like quite the invasion of privacy considering she'd never stepped foot inside of it. Granted it was barely decorated and Remus had taken all his important belongings with him, but seeing the old novels and tomes dedicated to everything from potions to fantastic beasts was a little too personal for Olivia's tastes. She quickly left for the guest room she had stayed in instead, deciding that that was the best location for a good cry session.

~

Remus, letter to Dumbledore well on its way, had just finished grocery shopping for his house as he normally would. He made sure to grab lots of high-protein snacks, which were just as beneficial for someone recovering from malnutrition as they were for werewolves recovering from, well, the full moon. With bags of high-calorie and high-protein food in hand, he apparatus back to his cottage, careful to apparate to the front porch and knock.

After knocking for a few minutes and getting no response, Remus decided to just enter his own abode using the muggle lock and key. He discovered that Olivia wasn't in the main part of the house, with the living room and dining/kitchen area, and therefore must've been in either one of the bedrooms or the bathroom, if there at all.

Cautiously, Remus called out, "Olivia? Are you alright?"

After a brief silence throughout the house, the guest bedroom freaked open and a timid, bleary-eyed Olivia stepped out, with a simultaneously ashamed and betrayed look upon her features.

"I'm not here to take you back," Remus said, plain and simple, "I'm just here to drop off food for you and to let you know that no one is going to be coming after you. I should be the only one to come in and out of here until whenever you decide to come back."

Olivia had barely stepped out of her room and had an intensely suspicious look on her face, "You mean it? No Sirius barging in here or other aurors trying to bring me back?"

Remus nodded, "And when I come back, I'm going to knock six times," he rapped a rhythm on the door of three consecutive pairs of beats, "And then I'm going to pause a moment, and then I'm going to unlock the door with my own keys," He jangled the keys in front of him to show them off, "And then I'll announce that I'm here. If anyone else tries to get in— and I mean absolutely anyone, even if they look like a friend— I want you to barricade yourself in my room. There's plenty of books to throw if need be, and there's a window you an flee from if they're a serious threat."

Olivia raised an eyebrow for a second, "Is all of this necessary?"

The look Remus gave could've bored a hole in concrete, "Do you realise what's happening out there? The dark lord is back, the death eaters are active, and you're the closest thing to Harry besides Harry himself. I'm— we're taking a huge risk just letting you stay here for a week or so!"

Olivia, still obviously shaken from the night before, sniffled and looked down at her feet in further shame at her own stupidity and selfishness, "I'm sorry I don't-"

Remus sighed and cut her off, "You don't have to be sorry. You've been trapped in that hell of a house with no decent company and no outlet to do anything. I can't imagine the pure boredom you must feel at seeing everyone else being able to do things when you've never been given the chance. That's why I'm glad you wrote to me—" Remus cut himself off and gestures towards the living room, "May we sit and finish this discussion?"

Olivia nodded and joined Remus on the couch, crossing her arms and sniffling occasionally.

Remus relaxed as best he could and continued, "I'm glad you wrote to me because I see a lot of myself in you— which I am aware makes me sound dreadfully old but bear with me— when I was in school, there were a lot of things I wasn't allowed to do because of my 'condition' as they call it. Couldn't play quidditch because of the scheduling, couldn't take astronomy because of night classes, couldn't even eat dinner with everyone on the really bad nights. And so when Albus gave me the Shrieking Shack to use, it became my safe space. And now I'm paying it forward with this house," Remus took a moment to look around the aging cottage with a new set of perspective, "It's much nicer than the shack, but you won't have the same company I did with your father and Sirius so I do apologise for that much. And you will have to go back eventually— if anything happens I'll be fetching you right away, and once the school year starts it will be safer to have you there— but for now, welcome to your relatively safe space." Remus flashed a timid smile, as if scared Olivia would for some reason reject the offer.

Instead, the now-freshly-tearing-up Olivia lurched from where she sat and hugged her godfather as tightly as she could, sobbing into his worn brown robes as she did so. And while Remus was not exactly comfortable with such interactions, he did his best not to show it and patted her on the back as comfortingly as he could muster.

"Thank you. For all of this." Olivia managed to get out as she pulled away, trying to wipe her face free of the various fluids streaming down it.

"You're very welcome. Now, do you remember the knock?"

Olivia smiled slightly and nodded, repeating the three pairs of knocks on the couch's backing.

"Very good. And I'll be back next week with more food, but make sure you're not overeating or I'll never hear the end of it from Sirius." Remus chuckles slightly at the thought of the rant he would want from that, "Is there anything else you need before I leave you to your solitude?"

Olivia paused a moment then shook her head no, "Not that I know of. If I need to contact you, should I just fly back myself since I won't have an owl?"

Remus pondered it a moment, "Unless you have an owl for other reasons that seems like the only way for you to send a message, so yes. But hopefully it won't be necessary."

Olivia nodded along with him and stood up as he did so. Remus stood, adjusted his robes, and took one last look at the place before opening the front door to leave.

"Have a nice break, Olivia, I'll be back next week if you think of anything." Remus wished farewell, smiling down at her as he closed the door behind him and locked it, jangling it to make sure the lock properly worked. After muttering a quick strengthening spell on the lock to protect it against your basic Alohomora, he turned away and apparated off into the unknown.

~

The next week for Olivia wasn't exactly productive, but it was as relaxing as it could be with all the guaranteed nightmares and jumps at every noise outside the front door. Olivia spent most of it basically "working out" her powers by first rearranging the groceries and the bookshelves, then levitating herself for as long as she could without getting tired, then spicing it up by following the weird workout woman on the telly's routine but suspended upside down by her own powers. It resulted in quite a few harsh landings, sure, but the music was catchy and at least the background people seemed to be having a fun time. And all of it was helping her gain control of her powers without needing to be enraged or upset to access greater amounts of force.

She did her best to continue eating and keep her weight up, but could feel herself slipping slightly into barely munching on anything and pretending it was fine. At least in this house she could regularly shower and sleep without waiting on others, though, so there was an overall morale boost to the break.

Unfortunately for Olivia, the week spent there would be the most peaceful week she would have for quite the long time.

~~

Dun dun duuuuuuunnnnnnnn~
Wow I hate myself for that.

Anywho, kind of a dramatic ending there for an overall touchy feely chapter. I'm really working hard to build character relationships between Olivia and everyone else but I don't know if I'm doing Remus justice in this one. Idk, let me know what you think.

Anyway, please leave feedback and I hope you enjoyed!