Breaking Free (Book 3 of the Lost Potter Series)

Catching Up

"Olivia? What's wrong?" Draco asked from beside her as Olivia failed to articulate any sort of response, "Who is that?"

"She's— Ah—" Olivia couldn't peel her eyes away from Laura's, her thoughts a constant loop of whythefuckissheherewhythefuckissheherewhythefuck--

"I think I broke her," Laura finally broke the eye contact as she glanced towards the man with his arm around her, smile dropping slightly.

Olivia found herself able to breathe again as she looked towards the carpet, face heating up to a bright red. She berated herself for acting like this, like such an idiot.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked again, but by this point the rest of the room had noticed what was going on and Olivia knew she just needed to face it. Holding her head as high as she could, despite her inner monologue screaming at her to flee, she descended the stairs one creak at a time and made her way over to Sirius' side.

"Sorry if I scared you," Laura started talking in a rush, "I know I'm probably the last person you were expecting from what Jame—I mean, Sirius— has been saying."

"And what have you been saying?" Olivia shot him quite the look, not moving to hug or shake hands with Laura in any capacity. Draco decided to stand off to the side and grab some of the food left out for everyone on the table.

"Oh, nothing bad," Sirius tried to calm Olivia down with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, "Just our actual names and how we've been having a rough time. Namely with my lack of arm."

"Oh. Right." Olivia again struggled to meet Laura's eyes, her brief anger at Sirius and at herself fading to pure embarrassment once again.

"And I was talking about Charlie and I's work in Romania with the dragons. Real fascinating work, though I haven't been around this large a group of people in a while," Laura tried to lighten the mood, the man next to her nodding to confirm. Olivia figured he must be Charlie.

"It's always a packed affair at the Burrow," He joked.

While that conversation kept on, Olivia had an idea to get Laura's attention off of her, Hey Harry, have you met Charlie's girlfriend yet?

Charlie brought his girlfriend? I guess not, the twins and I have been de-gnoming the garden for hours now. Where are you? How did the memories go?

Olivia kept her glazed over eyes towards the back wall as she responded, In the living room, against the wall between it and the kitchen. And the memories went alright, I still haven't gotten anything to eat yet though.

Want me to grab you something as I go through the kitchen?

I'd really appreciate it. Olivia felt herself smiling despite the awkwardness as she tuned back into the conversation at hand.

"—He kept telling me about the Order and then insisted I couldn't know any more because it 'wasn't safe' so I'm very glad there was a plus one on the wedding invite." The group of adults have a polite chuckle.

A tap on her shoulder alerted Olivia to Harry's presence, and she made sure to turn and be obnoxious about his entrance. Time for some good-natured revenge.

"Oh, Harry, thank you," Olivia said almost as if they hadn't been talking moments prior as she accepted the plate of food.