The Lost Potter

The First Attack

The duo in the Shrieking Shack were having a rough time with even te first step of their plan- getting into Hogwarts. They knew there had to be a time when no students were around, but neither of them had a good idea when that could be.

"How long do we have to wait?" Olivia had asked Sirius two weeks into their stay. All they'd had to do was dusting off the interior and hunting, which led to dull days that dragged on forever.

"I figured the first big feast was on Halloween, so we'll go then," Sirius brushed off as he tried searching the rickety floorboards. The weather wasn't too hot yet, but they knew the wooden house would get really cold once winter started to creeping in. Sirius's idea for this was to open up the floors to the less flammable underneath, where they could build a small fire. It was dangerous to do, of course, so he was trying to find the ideal spot.

"We still haves weeks before then! Pettigrew could be doing anything," Olivia muttered the last part, focusing on Sirius's face to gauge his reaction. She'd noticed him getting more on edge lately, especially when Pettigrew was talked about. This was just her testing the theory that Sirius couldn't heal form Azkaban until Peter was imprisoned- or worse, killed.

And as Olivia expected, Sirius froze. He didn't turn to face her- instead, he kept his shoulders hunched over and replied, "You have been there more recently than I have. What time are the students for sure out of their dorms?"

"I don't know," Olivia sighed, "I never went to classes with everyone else, remember?" She watched Sirius gradually loosen up as the conversation trailed off, and her heart pranged as she saw her theory prove true.

"Okay, then we wait until Halloween. We can't afford to take any chances," Sirius said darkly, resuming his prowl around the ground floor.

Those two weeks passed dreadfully slow for the two, and once it approached, their idleness has lead them to be quite snippy with each other.

"Sirius, you can't prevent me from coming with you. We've been planning this for over a month!" Olivia protested, storming after the man who had just fled downstairs. It was the morning of Halloween, so they had set out to prepare when Sirius began insisting he go alone.

"Once I get in and grab him, all I'll be doing is bringing him back here. You won't miss any of the action." Sirius persisted, trying to preoccupy himself with his pacing.

"We both know the instant you get the chance you're killing the bastard. You're even bringing the 'emergency' knife!" Olivia snapped back. The "emergency" knife was from Grimmauld Place- Sirius had nabbed it before they first went to seek out Harry and had kept it ever since.

"I'm bringing the knife because I don't think I'll even be able to get in without it!" Sirius growled back, zipping up his jacket as a chill went through the house. The knife twisted in his pocket, jutting out ever so slightly.

"If you don't think you can get in, maybe you should bring someone who could get in through the window. Hmm, know who do we know who can fly?" Olivia felt her foggy thoughts turn angry as she glared at him. Every night they'd spent here, she'd had some sort of nightmare- but neither of them wanted to tell the other about it, so they suffered quietly. Not only that, but their hunting turned out to also be flawed- the food may have filled them up, but didn't last as long as a decent meal would. At this point, Olivia and Sirius looked like skeletons- and it was getting to them.

"Liv, listen to me, please," Sirius broke down, turning back towards Olivia and grabbing her by the shoulders, "If they catch me in there, all they'll do is send me back to Azkaban. I can get out of there. But if they catch you, we don't know what will happen. I don't want to be the reason you go back to the Malfoys, and I sure as hell don't want to be the reason why you go back to that hellhole. Let me do this first run alone, please."