The Lost Potter

A Visit from the Candyman

On the day of July 30th, Cornelius Fudge made his maybe-every-other-yearly visit to the prison, and the prisoners, Sirius and Olivia included, were having none of it.

It started off shortly after breakfast, the noises did. Olivia couldn't tell what in the world the noise was- screaming, crying, there was also some banging in there if she heard right.

"Sirius, What in the world is that?" She whispered forcefully, very concerned at the state of it.

"Fudge must've finally shown up. He's supposed to come yearly, but we all know that doesn't happen." Sirius muttered, already in a sour mood. Not only did Fudge have to talk to them, but he also had to prevent another day of their attempts to get out.

"Fudge? Cornelius Fudge?" Olivia clarified, crossing every appendage hoping that it wasn't going to be him.

"What other person is there with a last name like Fudge?" Sirius joked, not hearing the desperateness in her voice.

"Oh no. No no no no," Olivia started to panic, "Is he a mean person? Please tell me he's nice."

Sirius, starting to catch on to her apprehensiveness, responded, "He's power hungry, but not abusive or anything. Why?"

Olivia took a long shaky breath and let her eyes close, "He's in Lucius's pocket. But I doubt Lucius would have him do anything to me," she snapped her eyes open, "right?"

Sirius shrugged, but tried to sound more convincing, "It would hurt his reputation too much for anything like that to happen. Besides, he always brings along an assistant who will stop any contact between the Minister and us."

Olivia was calmed down by this slightly, but still bounced her legs and wrung her hands in anticipation. Not long after, Fudge came to Sirius's cell.

"Ah Sirius, wonderful to see you again," Fudge said in a flat voice, leading Olivia to think he was being sarcastic. She couldn't see his face to confirm, really.

"Fudge. Still kicking, I see." Sirius said back, sounding much more hollow than how he talked to Olivia. He didn't even notice the difference, but it spooked Olivia.

"Still a master of charm. Do you know what day it is, Sirius?" Cornelius reached his hand back, and the assistant behind him handed him a newspaper, "Or what year it is, for that matter?"

"You know, I think my calendars a little off, What is the date?" Sirius found himself not caring as much about comebacks as he had, and wondered if he was losing his touch or just using all his wit on Olivia.

"July 30, 1993. Can you believe it? When did they shove you in here again? Plenty of years ago now," Fudge mocked, sliding the paper Sirius's way, who sat still on his cot. Picking up the paper, he saw a grand picture of a certain ginger family on the front, all smiling in front of the pyramids. But he noticed a familiar animal in the youngest boy's hand and outright gasped

"What? Surprised you can still read?" Fudge quipped, feeling especially happy with himself for being so on top of his game.

"No, just surprised at what thy have for headlines these days. Is the world so dull that front page news is a family visiting Egypt?" Sirius pretended to scoff at, really studying at the filthy little rat that plagued his thoughts.

"Well if it's so dull to you, I'll leave it to you. Maybe when I come back again you'll have it memorised," Fudge joked again, earning an eye roll from his assistant as they retreated from the cell.

Olivia was last on their list to visit, but they didn't go into her cell like they did with all the others'. Fudge was about to, when the scrawny boy with him stopped him.

"Sir, remember what you were told about this one," He said, looking at Olivia as if she was nothing better than dirt on the floor. In this uniform, that's probably what I look like.

"Oh right, right. Well how are you doing, little lady? You're what, two years into your service now?" Fudge asked, putting on a cheerful mask.

"I don't know the date, sir." She pointed out, putting emphasis on the sir. Fudge, however, took this as genuine and his ego visibly swelled.

"Oh yes, it's the thirtieth of July, 1993." He said, looking at one of their extra papers.

My birthday is tomorrow, Olivia realised, not sure how to feel about that. But instead she took a different route, "Thank you. Sir, have you ever met Harry Potter?"

Fudge was taken aback, but kept talking, "No, I've not yet met the boy. Why do you ask?"

Olivia sighed, "Well if you see him anytime soon, wish him a happy birthday- it's tomorrow. I'm missing so many birthdays in here," She started sniffling, her eyes welling up. Sure she was sad, but playing it up for the guy running the place never hurt.

"Oh, I'll-I'll do that. See you in a few years, miss," He said, rushing to get out of the situation. The two rushed off the other way, down the hall no one knew much about.

Sirius waited until he couldn't hear the footsteps and started to laugh, "Come on, how did you play him better than I did? I'm supposed to be good at this!"

Olivia joined in laughing, glad he hadn't asked about her specially protected cell. Yes she had forgotten to tell him over the two years. But never mind that.

"What can I say? I'll use my youth while I can. Besides, now he can report back to Lucius that I'm sad in here, they won't suspect anything."

Sirius was studying the paper once again but chuckled at her tactics, "Clever girl. Now did you see the paper he was holding?"

Olivia thought back to the paper but couldn't remember what was on it, "Not really, not long enough to see what was on it. Why? What's there?"

"The Weasley family won some sort of trip and got their picture on it. But guess what filthy rat one of the boys is carrying around with him?" Sirius spat out the words filthy rat as if they were curses.

"Pettigrew? He's with them?" Olivia asked, surprised that the fully grown man was hanging sprung with an unrelated family.

"In his animagus form, he's actually a rat. The youngest boy is carrying him." Sirius explained, looking at the family moving around in the photo.

"Ron has him? You mean Scabbers has been Pettigrew this whole time?" Olivia remembered Harry telling her about the odd rat, and now it dawned on her how close Peter was to Harry, "He's sleeping in the same rom as Harry. My God, he couldn't be up to anything, could he? Not with You-know-who not around, right?"

Sirius sighed a gravelly sigh, "I don't know what that rat will do, but I know we need to get him as far from Harry as possible."

~~

God writing takes up so much sleep, but I'm super excited about this one so I guess I'll sacrifice a little.

Anyway, please leave feedback and I hope you enjoyed!