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

Cleaning Up

It was a few weeks before Harry's hearing, and the days began to return to monotony for the occupants of the house. For some reason, this seemed to impact Sirius and Olivia worse than everyone else.

The next morning, the girls were awoken by Mrs. Weasley informing them that breakfast would be soon, and after that they were to return to cleaning one of the various parlours/now storage rooms that were littered with dark magic and various magical pests. She said that it was "time to tackle those cupboards in the main room" and the girls did their best not to groan. They appreciated Mrs. Weasley and her dedication in making the house liveable, but it was too early for such efforts.

It was much too early for Olivia especially, who had fallen asleep crying and couldn't seem to stop the nightmares from continuing, which led to her actually sleeping in her bed for the whole night. Not that it was good sleep— quite the opposite— but no nightmare had seemed to stop long enough for her to wake up from it.

Ginny was the first to stand up, grab her things, and lock herself in the bathroom, which left just Hermione and Olivia in the room. Thankfully, Hermione showed no interest in continuing the previous night's conversation and started with a different topic.

"So that holiday must've helped then," Hermione said as Olivia sat up and looked at her confused, "You're usually already up and somewhere else when Mrs. Weasley comes in."

Olivia rubbed her eyes and lied through her teeth, "I guess so."

Ginny returned not long after that, and Hermione took her next turn in the bathroom, effectively killing that conversation.

"Excited for cleaning?" Ginny joked as Olivia finally hoisted herself out of bed.

Olivia chuckled under her breath, "If I ever answer yes to that, I've been cursed." Ginny about snorted as she cracked up. Olivia could feel herself smiling along too, though she couldn't tell if it was pride from her own joke or adoration of Ginny's laugh.

Next was Olivia's turn in the bathroom, which was her only privacy for the day so she wanted to savour it. After following the usual routine, showering, and wringing out her hair as best she could, she dressed in her usual oversized clothes that Remus had gotten for her back before their move to Grimmauld Place. It wasn't exactly the right size, but everyone seemed to be hoping that her metabolism would let her gain weight some point soon. She wrapped her hair in a towel and stepped back out into the house reluctantly.

The day followed as most during that summer did: first was a hearty breakfast that Olivia never seemed to eat enough of, then cane cleaning whichever room Mrs. Weasley had decided on (using whichever products Olivia was permitted to use, which wasn't exactly all of them), then a simple lunch that was easy to chew for all, continued cleaning, break time for reading/talking/playing whatever game the others decided upon (or watching said game, as a fair few included use of a wand), trying to listen in on the Order meetings, a huge dinner with cameo appearance of whoever stayed behind from the meeting, and finally off to bed. Order meetings didn't happen everyday, but there was always scheming on how to listen to the next one and there was usually someone from the Order visiting for the afternoon/dinner.

Early on in the summer, Olivia had had less regulations on what she could be involved in, but those slowly were shaved off as more people arrived and her mood became less stable. For example, they discovered early on that her powers could be used to render dark objects completely harmless, which had broadened her horizons significantly; anytime they didn't know what something was, or whenever something inanimate began to move, she was called upon to crush it in its tracks. However, she began to get overzealous with using her powers for cleaning. While others would be scrubbing floorboards by hand, for example, Olivia could sit in the nearby chair and control two scrubbers, which also made her the envy of most others working. Her downfall for this was when she opened a writing cabinet without clearing the action by asking Sirius/Mrs. Weasley.