August, 1978
Olivia wandered through the house she had been sent to, the headquarters of the group Dumbledore had contacted them about. She had encountered no other people yet, and the building was dark. Perhaps she was the first to arrive. Suddenly, she felt arms snaking around her and she jumped.
"Well, well, well," said a familiar male voice. "If it isn't little Livia Cromwell."
"Sure is," said another familiar, nearly identical voice. "How've you been since we left you last, princess? Behaving yourself, I hope?"
"Fabian? Gideon?"
The hall lights went up and sure enough, there was no mistaking those adorable, identical crooked smiles and twinkling blue eyes. The three of them laughed as they led her into the kitchen, where the meeting was going to take place.
"So, princess," said Fabian, "how have you been? When Dumbledore said that the Marauders were joining us, we just knew we had to make it to this meeting, no matter what."
"Had to check on our protégés," said Gideon.
"And our best girl, of course."
"So how are you, princess?"
"You look even more ravishing than when we last saw you."
She laughed.
"Yes, well, I believe I was twelve then, so I should think so. I'm fine, I suppose. I've been worse, certainly. You missed a lot when you graduated."
"Good pranks?" they chorused, eager to hear the greatest hits version of Marauder madness.
"Damn right," said an even more familiar male voice from the door of the kitchen. It was Sirius. Olivia's heart raced as he walked in. "Hey, boys, nice to see you." He turned to Olivia and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. "Good to see you again, love. I was beginning to think you just weren't going to speak to me again. Was I right?"
That stung.
"Sirius, I'm sorry. I thought I was protecting you, but even Dumbledore told me I was being stupid. So I'm sorry. I'm here, and I'm ready to work with you again, love."
He smiled.
"Good. I have some things I need to ask you, then, when we finish this meeting."
Fabian raised his eyebrows.
"What's going on between you two, exactly? Seems we really did miss a lot."
Olivia just laughed as Sirius stood behind her, resting his hands gently but possessively on her shoulders.
"Well, boys, Livia and I have been together since we were sixteen and I'm madly in love with her. So if either of you had plans of snagging her, you've been warned, she's off limits."
She laughed even harder as the Prewett boys looked truly disappointed.
"Damn," Gideon sighed. "Well, you've certainly grown into a beautiful woman, princess, and you've got yourself a damn fine catch there, Black."
Sirius smiled down at her with pride.
"I know."
The meeting seemed to drag on, all sorts of people and information, all being introduced at once, to the point where Olivia's head was spinning. Sirius had his hand on her thigh, gently and absently stroking her leg with his thumb. That may have contributed somewhat to her lack of attention to the meeting.
After the meeting, she was the polite daughter of a politician as she had been raised, greeting people whose names she could recall from the introductions at the beginning of the meeting and exchanging pleasantries until Sirius, impatient child that he was, dragged her off by her wrist to the entrance hall and pushed her up against the wall.
"I've missed you, love. I wished you would write to me or something, anything, just to know you were okay."
She gazed up into his shining gray eyes.
"I know, love," she whispered back, caressing his cheek with her thumb, "and I'm so sorry. I wish I hadn't done it."
"You know what hurts the most?"
Olivia shook her head, bracing herself for the worst. He pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal a bruise, small and nearly faded. Her heart broke. Her mark had almost faded. She brushed it gently with her fingertip, pained that she had hurt him so much so needlessly. What had she been thinking?
"When you left Moony, he showed us his mark and told us that when it was gone, he would know he had lost you. I checked this every morning, begging you in my mind to fix it, to come back to me. Please, Livia," he whispered, holding her hands in his, pleading with his eyes. "Fix it?"
First, she pressed her lips gently to his and he responded instantly, pressing her harder against the wall, deepening the kiss. He was being so rough; he had gone so long without her. She slowly worked her way down to his neck and renewed the bite, sad that he held in his noises, but knowing that they didn't want anyone walking in on them, especially Dumbledore or Mad-Eye. When she pulled away from his neck, he pushed her even harder into the wall.
"Love, I want you to move in with me," he hissed.
"What?" she breathed, not sure she had heard him right.
"You know I have my own house. It's not the Cromwell Manor and it's not the Potter Manor, but it's big enough for the two of us and I'd give you anything you wanted, anything you asked for, love. I just hate waking up and knowing you're somewhere else. I want you next to me all night, every night."
For a moment, she weighed the options in her mind. Her father would miss her, but he loved that she was with Sirius and he wouldn't mind her moving in with him. Besides, it was time she moved in somewhere that wasn't her father's house. She was a grown woman now. James and Lily were getting married soon. It was time she and Sirius started taking steps toward an adult relationship, even though she knew in the back of her mind that she could never have a real life with him. Olivia fought back those thoughts, her heart more than aware that she might not have much time left with him. With that knowledge, there was only one thing she could say.
"When do I move in?"
He grinned and took her lips in his again, and they lost themselves quickly in the passion of the kiss. What seemed like a year later, there was the sound of someone clearing their throat nearby.
Sure enough, when Olivia opened her eyes and looked to the side, not taking her lips from Sirius's (who was ignoring the sound), there were Lily, James, and the Prewett twins watching them. She thought she could see Remus and Peter behind them, but the hall was very dark.
"Livia," said Lily, "we have shopping to do, dear. The wedding's coming up, and we haven't even gotten our dresses fitted."
Sirius pulled his lips from Olivia's and hovered them over her neck, murmuring, "Oh, bugger off, Evans," before nipping and sucking Olivia's neck as if nobody was watching them.
Moaning in spite of herself, which caused laughs from the twins, Olivia gasped, "Um, what, right now, Lily?"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Well, considering we have appointments to keep, yes, Livia. Trust me, Black, I'll fight you over her for today, but she's all yours once this wedding's over."
Sirius seemed to Olivia to be ignoring Lily as he began tracing circles along Olivia's collarbone with his tongue, but the excess of male laughter in the hall caused her to look down. Sirius was flipping Lily off.
Olivia laughed breathily, despite Lily's glares.
"Sirius, love," she gasped, "I really do need to go."
He groaned and trailed kisses up to her ear, which he bit and sucked playfully. She sucked in breath sharply.
"Dammit, Sirius, you can do this later. I really do need to go with Lily, and I'm sure you and Prongs have things you need to take care of."
Again, he seemed to be ignoring what he didn't want to hear, sliding his hands up her shirt, which caused Lily to gasp and cover her eyes.
"But if I let you leave, love," he whispered right into her ear, so that nobody else could hear, "how do I know you'll come back this time?"
His fingers tracing her skin made her shiver and the Prewetts were cheering him on, as though they were at some sort of distasteful bar and this was their entertainment for the night. She half expected them to start tossing coins at her.
"Sirius, love, I give you my word. I promise, I'll be at your place tonight, okay?"
He couldn't ignore her anymore. He looked her dead in the eye and with his sad, gray, tearful eyes he whimpered, "You promised last time and you disappeared anyway."
That was it. She began to cry. She couldn't take it.
"Love, please," she whispered, falling into his arms, holding herself up against his body. "Please, darling, I don't know how to bring you to trust me again. I will come back, and I'll never break a promise to you again, on my life!"
Her eyes were searching his, begging his, to forgive her. He hugged her tightly for a moment, his body shaking with his near-sobs.
"Okay, love, it's okay. Please don't cry, Livia." He pulled back, smiling just a little. "I'll be waiting for you tonight. Have fun with Lily. I'll be thinking about you the whole time."
With that, Olivia gave him a quick peck on the cheek, taking Lily's hand and waking out of the door of the headquarters, hearing before she closed the door: "Oi, Prewetts! Tongues back in, that's my girlfriend you're looking at!"
Oh, Sirius.
The dress fittings went well. Olivia was just wearing a little black dress, nothing special. Lily's dress, on the other hand, was a giant, spectacular creation. Olivia hated giant, spectacular creations, but this was Lily's day, and she had to admit it looked nice on her best friend.
"So," Lily said awkwardly as they looked over china patterns, "moving in with Sirius?"
"No jokes, Lily," Olivia growled. "He feels like I betrayed him, and he's completely right. I mean, you were there when Dumbledore basically told me to stop being an idiot, grow up, and talk to Sirius. If Albus Dumbledore thinks my love decisions were bad enough to point it out, I've truly failed."
"Well," Lily said casually, frowning at the china thoughtfully, "I never would have said this before, but I really do think you two are perfect for each other. I've never been very close to Sirius, you know, but he would come around when James and I were going over wedding plans and he looked so different, so miserable. Nothing James did would cheer him up and he just looked like the walking dead. I hate to admit I was wrong after all these years, but I think he really loves you."
The girls looked at each other and giggled. Lily admitting that Sirius loved Olivia was like saying that she was admitting that Father Christmas wasn't real (except he was, Olivia insisted it, no matter what anyone else said).
"Remind me why you dragged me out to look at china patterns?" Olivia sighed.
"B-because," Lily said, blush creeping onto her cheeks, "I tried with James, and h-he didn't know anything…"
Ah, so Olivia was being used for her snobby pureblood upbringing. The truth was she, like James, never paid attention to what her food came off of. She just ate the food. Unlike James, however, she was clever enough to take advantage of situations to get what she wanted.
"Whose china do you like better, my family's or the Potter's?" Olivia asked, looking down at all the china in front of them.
"Yours," Lily said happily. Olivia called over a sales person.
"I have a question," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes. "You serve all the best families, correct?"
"Naturally, Miss," the young salesman said with pride.
"So you've serviced the Cromwell china?"
"We sold the Cromwell line their original china centuries ago, Miss."
"Very good. Well, my name is Olivia Cromwell, and I want you to get Miss Evans here the closest match to the Cromwell china you currently have available, no matter the cost. I'll cover it."
"Oh, Livia," Lily cried, blushing. "I can't ask you to do that!"
"Consider it your birthday present," Olivia laughed. "I doubt that after this wedding Sirius will let me out of the house soon enough to shop for one."
The salesman showed them the closest china match they had available and Lily loved it. It was prohibitively expensive, of course, but Olivia could certainly afford it.
"You made that florist appointment for the same reason, didn't you?" Olivia laughed. Lily nodded. "Well, flowers are easy. Get a bunch of lilies and charm them gold for Gryffindor. Tie them with crimson ribbon. It's fairly cheap, it's symbolic, James will actually appreciate it, and it will look nice. See, no appointment necessary, just go in, place an order, and get back out here."
"You just want to get back to Sirius," Lily smirked.
"Absolutely. Now, hurry up, sweetheart, we don't have all day."
Lily bounced off to the florist, placing her order, paying the base cost, and bouncing back to Olivia with her face flushed and excited. She was so happy, so thrilled to be marrying, and to be marrying James. Olivia would never have that. She tried not to let it show on her face how she felt about that point.
"Well, that's all taken care of. Mrs. Potter helped me with most things," Lily said, not noticing the change in Olivia's demeanor. "You have to promise me you and Sirius don't get killed on that mission Dumbledore's putting you on. You need to be back and alive for my wedding, both of you."
"It's a basic recon mission," Olivia snorted. "The worst case scenario is Sirius scars some Muggle for life because he forgets he's supposed to be a Muggle. Speaking of, let's get to his place the Muggle way, all right? I want to get used to Muggle London before he and I take off."
They walked out of Diagon Alley and Lily led her off in the direction of the Underground. Olivia had spent very little time in Muggle London, only as much time as she had spent there when visiting Lily, who didn't actually live in London.
"Do you know how you're supposed to pull off your assignment?" Lily asked. "I mean, are you supposed to be honeymooners or something?"
"No, that's why I don't understand why he wants us," Olivia said with a laugh. "He wants us to be barely acquainted business partners. He said that people with a suit get all kinds of information in the Muggle world that regular people wouldn't have any access to. At least, when you're trying to get information from ordinary people. It's a good way to earn trust."
"He's right," Lily mused. "If I guy in a suit or a lab coat or something came to my door asking my dad if he had some spare cash for the train, my dad would give it to him, but if he was wearing regular clothes, I think my dad would assume he was going to spend it on alcohol or drugs or something. Average Muggles trust suits."
"Yeah, but I'm wondering how Sirius is going to be about it," Olivia said honestly. "I mean, firstly, he doesn't know how to dress Muggle, and secondly, he doesn't know how to pretend he doesn't know me. I'm not sure he could keep his hands off me to save his life."
"He may have to do just that," Lily mused. "I mean, we're talking about this mission like it's just nothing, but if we're not careful, any mission could be dangerous. Like I said, you'd better be careful, because I need you both alive for the wedding!"
"Yes ma'am!" Olivia joked. "Anyway, since I've helped you with this stuff, could you do me a huge favor and help Sirius dress for this mission? Teach him all things Muggle, I beg you."
"I don't know," Lily said hesitantly. "What makes you think he'll listen to me?"
"Please, Lily? Please?" Olivia begged comically. "I mean, you're actually Muggle-born. You have expertise none of us can match. And if you want us alive for your wedding…"
"Fine," Lily sighed. "Fine, I'll dress your puppy dog. Don't expect me to be enthusiastic about it!"
The girls made their way toward Sirius's house and Olivia was acutely aware of what she was asking of Lily. Sirius would be disagreeable, moody, and difficult to work with. But Olivia wouldn't have asked Lily to help if she hadn't known the redhead could handle him. After all, Lily was scary when she wanted to be, and she had James to hold over his head now. James would cooperate, wanting to keep his wife happy before the wedding. Sirius had no choice but to comply with Lily's wishes.
At the moment, Olivia had to comply with Sirius's wishes, and so she couldn't be the one giving him orders. She had hurt him badly, and she needed to make amends before the old dynamic between them could be restored. They would be walking on eggshells for at least a week, and all she could do was hope that everything between them would be mended by the time they went on their first mission.
"That's it," Lily said, pointing at the house at the end of the little road, similar to the way Grimmauld Place, his old street, was set up. It was a charming little place. Olivia had been before, but it had been so long… they had still been in school. She had even stayed there with him for a time, but she hadn't ever expected to be moving in.
They knocked on the door and Sirius flung it open immediately, wrapping his arms around Olivia, thanking Lily, and closing the door on the ginger's face as he yanked Olivia inside the house.
"I went to your father's place while you two were out," he said. "We threw together your things. If you need something else, you can go get it later. Right now, we have catching up to do."
He carried her off to the bedroom, ignoring her giggles, her flailing feet, and everything but making amends. The world could wait.
