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

Social integration

The Weasleys were the next group of people to arrive at Grimmauld Place. It was one of the final days of June and, of course, no one had bothered to tell Olivia about it.

She was in the kitchen as usual, munching on some low-calorie snacks (Remus had bought her a ton of different crisps and snacks over the weeks) when the front door seemed to burst open, a loud ruckus and conglomeration of voices sprouting from it. While Olivia couldn't see if they were friend or foe, the kitchen was in the basement, after all, so she instantly jumped up in alarm, threw the snack back in the cupboard, and transformed. Flying up on top of the cabinets, she stayed on high alert and listened to the muffling from upstairs.

The family went to the rooms first, as Olivia later found out, and the voices slowly diminished. Not wanting to risk it, Olivia hopped along the tops of the cabinets as stealthily as she could. Her goal was to stay hidden, but be prepared to find an open window if the intruders proved to be a threat. Luckily, the plan never had to be enacted, as Olivia began to recognise voices from the tops of the stairs.

"-when's the last time you had a proper meal? I'll fix us up some dinner then."

"Well if you insist," Came Sirius's joking tone.

"The kitchen is downstairs to your right, Molly," Remus informed her, "I'm going to write back to Dumbledore to assure him you all made it."

Molly made her way down the creaky stairs and Olivia felt cornered— no matter what she did now, she was bound to give this poor woman a heart attack. Considering that she didn't really want to do that, she took the non-confrontational route and stayed perched on the cabinet, stepping far enough back that hopefully Mrs. Weasley wouldn't see her.

After waiting for basically the entire duration of the cooking, the other inhabitants of the house (and some who had entered at some  point ) began to filter into the kitchen/dining room.  There were plenty of Weasleys, a few aurors, including those that had interviewed her before her trial, and even some new faces that probably also contributed to the much-spoken of but unseen Order of the Phoenix. Unfortunately, more people meant less space to hop down and more chance of someone thinking she was a spy or something as threatening. Sticking to the non-confrontational aspect, Olivia just hid as best she could and waited for Sirius or Remus to show up in order to defend her against the trained Aurors.

Remus was the first to come downstairs, though he was in deep conversation with what looked to be Mr. Weasley. Considering the fact that she had no idea where Sirius was, and that most likely no one would fire a harmful spell at Remus's face, she fluttered down from her perch and landed harmlessly on Remus's shoulder, chirping quietly to him as to not scare him. While he still jumped, it wasn't nearly as bad as the aurors that jumped up in high alert, wands ready to fire at her.

"Oh! There you are. Sirius was upstairs looking for you," said Remus to Olivia, "Why are you— Oh, I see. We forgot to tell you that the Weasleys were coming, didn't we?"

Olivia very obviously nodded her head, still giving scared glances to the aurors.

"Sorry about that. I forget that Sirius doesn't let you read the letters. Here," Remus waves for the aurors to sit down, "On the end here is Mr. Arthur Weasley, next to him is Kingsley Shacklebolt, then Alabaster Moody, then that's Nymphadora Tonks," the girl with now vivid blue hair huffed at her name but said nothing, "Next to her is Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger, who I think you know, and the youngest Weasley boys are closest to us with Ron, Fred, and George. Mrs. Molly Weasley prepared the food. Are you more comfortable now?"

Olivia took a deep, unsure breath but nodded again.

"Then maybe you could transform so I don't look mad? I promise no one is going to fire anything at you," Remus said this with a steely look to the aurors.

Olivia hopped off his shoulder and fluttered on to the cold floor, quickly transforming back and trying not to focus on all the eyes on her, "Is that better?"

Remus chuckled at her, "Everyone this is Olivia Potter who you all probably remember as the child who was sent to and escaped from Azkaban."

Olivia visibly cringed at the name of her former hell, really wishing she could go back to just listening in from on top of the cupboards. All eyes were focused dead on her, and she suddenly felt very uncomfortable in the  once-friendly kitchen. Her borrowed jeans and t-shirt she'd been wearing around for ages seemed to get the particular attention of Ginny which made her want to vanish even more. If only she'd been told about people coming to stay...

"Would you like some food, dear? You look starved," Mrs. Weasley asked first to break the silence.

Olivia timidly shook her head, "I'm actually quite full—"

"I'll give you a plate anyway, just in case." Mrs. Weasley assured her, placing a dish in the seat next to Hermione's. Olivia sat down, still feeling unsure, with Remus sitting across from her. Conversation slowly started to resume as Molly placed down the food at the centre of the table.

"So Olivia—" Started on of the twins.

"-how'd you do it?" Finished the other.

Olivia shrunk in her seat slightly, "How'd I do what?"

"Ya know, escape?" The first one said, leaning it and giving a face Olivia wasn't really a fan of.

"Leave her alone," Ginny piped up from the other side of Hermione, shocking the twins and Olivia alike.

"Quite the snap there—"

"Protective, are we?" The other twin said to her, quirking an eyebrow.

"If you were tortured like that, would you want to talk about it?" Ginny snapped again, though never looking angry about it. Just casually and fiercely correcting her brothers. Olivia felt immense gratitude and wondered what she'd done to deserve that when her and Ginny had barely spoken before (and Ginny didn't even know who she was then).

"Anyway, how've you been doing?" Hermione spoke up, turning to Olivia and cutting off the earlier conversation.

Olivia shrugged, "Fine. I'm not allowed to do much of anything, but that's normal. I've pretty much learned Latin, I suppose."

"Why are you learning Latin?" Ginny piped up once again, with Hermione scooting backwards to help allow her into the conversation.

Olivia suddenly felt nervous with the ginger's bright brown eyes locking with hers, "Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most spell incantations based on Latin?"

Hermione nodded to confirm so Olivia continued, "And since I can't actually practice magic ever, this way once I can I won't have to do as much work to catch up on, if that makes sense,"

Ginny nodded at the answer, but was cut off from responding by Sirius sauntering downstairs just in time for the eating to start.

"There you are, Liv, I thought everyone had scared you off!" He said, plopping down at the end of the table between Olivia and Remus.

"They did." Olivia said quietly, leaving Remus to fill in Sirius on Olivia's hiding.

Meanwhile, the meal was underway with everyone chattering and stuffing themselves. Olivia talked with Hermione, Ginny, and occasionally the Weasley boys, but didn't touch any of the delicious-smelling food on the table. Soon enough the meal was over and it was getting late. All the kids were shooed off to their rooms, being told to get ready for bed. With Olivia tagging along with the other two girls, she somehow felt a sense of normalcy within all the weirdness surrounding them.

~~

This took me ages to write I'm so sorry for the break (I've spread out the prewritten chapters so hopefully it's not too bad but still).

Anyway, please leave feedback  and I hope you enjoyed!