| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Seventy-Two

"How was your meeting with Flitwick?"

Olive sat down with a sigh, looking every bit confused as she was exasperated. Her face was white and alarmed, as if she had seen a ghost, but there was a nervous smile twitching her lips upward. It was rather confusing as to what exactly she was feeling, and it was just as confusing for Olive as well.

She immediately picked a dinner roll from a platter, shoving half of it into her mouth from pure stress.

"Not well, I take it." Cho noted, sending a quizzical look to Natalie across the table.

"It was... it was fine." The Lark girl answered once she had chewed and swallowed her mouthful of dinner roll. She sighed, putting the rest of it on her plate. Her hands picked off little pieces, crumbling them into basically dust, "More than fine."

"What do you mean?" The youngest of their trip asked, swirling her pumpkin juice mindlessly around her goblet, "Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"Yeah." Ollie pressed her lips into a tight line, "It's a bloody brilliant thing... I just."

She leaned forward and pressed her fingers to her temples. For a moment, it looked as if she was going to pass out.

"It was totally unexpected."

Her chest felt tight as she mulled over her conversation with her Head of House. It had gone the exact opposite of how she intended.

"This is... this is good, Miss Lark." Flitwick set down her portfolio, "Not just this one, but all the one's you've given me."

Olive smiled sweetly, a humbling blush spreading across her cheeks, "Thank you, Professor, really."

He patted the folder with a grin, "I was going to offer you a few contacts to reach out to about some starting careers in editing intermediate spellbooks... but I think I might have something a little more invigorating for you."

The Ravenclaw was practically on her edge of her seat, her hands practically kneading themselves into dough under the table. She was surprised to even hear about editing spellbooks at some publishing company... but what else did Flitwick have to offer her?

"You... you do?" Her voice felt small, shaky even, but it still held every bit of curiosity and excitement.

"Yes. I have a former classmate who does publishing in America. I'll give you her address, and you can send one of the school's distance owls her way with a resume and portfolio." Flitwick stroked his mustache, "Of course, if you really want to get serious about this, Miss Lark."

Olive couldn't stop nodding, unable to speak due to her heart leaping up into her throat. After a few moments of Professor Flitwick just staring at her, she cleared her throat and squeaked out a few grateful, excited words.

"Thank you, Professor. I really mean it." She took the slip of paper from him with the contact information she needed, "I'll get on this straight away."

"America?" Natalie's eyes widened, "That's so far."

Olive nodded, staring at her plate full of bread dust, "I... I think I might throw up."

"Please don't. We don't want a repeat of last year."

"I was sick."

"And I'll be sick if you vomit everywhere!" Cho scrunched up her nose.

"Are you going to do it?" Natalie leaned in intently, "Send your portfolio and stuff over to that woman?"

Olive took the slip of paper from her pocket. Unfolding it, she read Flitwick's looping cursive with a hint of a smile on her face.

Laney Willows
Five Broom Publishing
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

"I don't know." She answered truthfully, "I... I want to. This is everything I've always wanted... but what if I have to move there? I can't leave Missy, or-"

She almost said Remus and Sirius, but quickly cut herself off. However, her abrupt pause caused her two friends to send smiley looks to each other across the table.

"Or George perhaps?" Natalie nudged Olive under the table.

"What?" A blush rose to Ollie's cheeks, especially as she recalled the previous night's kiss... and the fact that they were going on a date next Saturday for the next Hogsmeade trip (which conveniently falls right before Valentine's Day).

"You came to bed late last night." Cho noted with a fake-suspicious quirk of her brow, "You were smiling."

"I wasn't... I wasn't smiling." Olive rested her head down on her hands, "Listen, Flitwick practically just opened up some extremely opportunistic doors for me. Let's talk about that and not my love life for once please."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, but from the poorly suppressed smirk on her lips she wasn't mad at her two best friends. Olive carefully folded up the slip of paper and tucked it into her pocket, thinking about the opportunity that was being presented to her.

This was big. Sure, Laney Willows might hate her work. She might not give her the opportunity she had been dreaming about since a kid... but it was a start. That tiny slip of paper Professor Flitwick had given to Olive was the missing puzzle piece.

She wanted this. For the first time in her life, her future seemed a little clearer. She could picture herself, sitting at a desk in a tiny flat somewhere in Boston, or even somewhere anywhere in the world, putting the finishing touches on a story that would be published.

It all made sense now. All she had to do what put the gears in motion, and the sooner she did that, the better.

Now she understood the excitement Fred and George feel whenever they talk about their shop. Olive can see it now: her shop (though not literally). The excitement and nerves of endlessly possibilities was bubbling in her veins like a freshly brewed potion.

This was happening, and she wanted nothing more than to put together an even better portfolio and send it as soon as possible.

"Hello, earth to Olive?" Fingers snapped in her face, jolting Ollie from her trance. She looked up, her gaze shifting between Natalie and Cho. There was an intensity to her near cobalt-blue eyes, as if a fire had been lit.

The Ravenclaw got to her feet, grabbing another dinner roll from the platter, however she wouldn't be eating it from nerves this time.

"I'm going to do it." She tossed the roll up and caught it, drawing giggles from Cho and a raised brow from Natalie.

"I want to be a writer- a published writer, where you can walk into a store and by a book with my name on it- and this just might be my opportunity to become one."