A/N: Sorry again for the delay, I had a few issues with how I wanted this chapter to turn out. Not exactly how I pictured it, but as close as I could get my rambling thoughts translated onto paper anyways. Lol. Oh, and it was kinda huuuge, so its in two parts. Second part will be up in a day or two, gotta edit it still and didn't have time to do it with this part. Silly I know. :|

Chapter Fourteen: Period Pain, And Other Pains In The Ass: Part One

Thud. Thud. Thud.

I rolled and tossed and curled and did everything humanly possible to stop the infernal thudding, but nothing was working. I remained curled up in a ball under my duvet even though the small reasonable voice in my head was telling me that I needed to get up and take some sort of hangover potion or else I would be just resigning myself to my hungover state. And what a state that was I tell you. First of all there was the vomiting, which lasted well past that of Severus' shoes, then there was the head thumping, which was still working its magic even now the next day and worst of all, was the fact that I am more than positive that it was Peter who had helped me up to the common room, and I am more than scared to admit that the memory is a little hazy from then on in. I was more determined now than ever to stay huddled under the covers in case my horrid nightmares of Peter lying in all his ratty glory next to me might actually be true. Oh no, I need to vomit again! I flew from my bed and to the bathroom faster than what I thought was humanly possible.

"Feeling rough are we?" Lexi's monotonous voice rang out from the bathroom door as I sat hugging the porcelain toilet for dear life, my head resting on the toilet seat as I took deep heavy breaths trying to regain the feeling in my legs which I seemed to have lost since sprinting here.

I didn't reply. I physically couldn't.

"Well, you should go thank Peter for helping you back home last night. Don't know how he managed to carry your fat ass up them stairs, but he did, so the least you could do is go thank him"

My eyes snapped open as I glared up at her from my lower position curled up on the red tiled floor. "He-he carried me?" Oh Merlin I was going to be sick again. The thought of his little grubby hands coming near me never mind carrying me up several flights of stairs was not helping my current condition at all.

"Yes. Yes he did. Right after you vomited on Snape's shoes" I flinched at her harsh tone as I threw my head down my lavatory saviour once more. My stomach tightening in protest as pain filled my insides from hurling for several hours straight. I was officially never drinking Fire Whisky again. Wine and the odd Rosmerta cocktail or two, yes. But fire Whisky was officially scrapped from my liquid menu from now on.

"Sev-Severus? He saw that?" I managed to pop out as I pushed my way from the toilet and leaned against the cool tiles of the wall. My body temperature of a thousand degrees lowering somewhat. I was surprised I didn't sizzle on contact and cause steam.

"Yes. Yes he did" Her hands rested on her hips as she spoke with venom laced words. She was clearly pissed at me for going near Severus. Apparently even the fact that I had emptied my entire stomach contents over him had no effect on her sobering opinion. "He also heard every word you told him" Ah, that's why she is being so bitchy still! "Luckily for you though he didn't know what you were about to tell him where as I did. Olivia, how could you be so stupid!"

I closed my eyes in annoyance. I accepted the fact that my cover had been blown quicker than the average person who lies would have been, then again I wasn't exactly radiating stealth was I? I also accepted my fate of having to be lectured again for Merlin knows how long about why I shouldn't go near him, blah blah blah. But what I didn't accept, was the fact that all this needed to be discussed now. At this exact moment, when I physically felt like I was dying. Could it not wait till tomorrow, when death himself had decided I wasn't worth it after all and left me here to rot in all my horrid misery? Hell I will no doubt still be sitting in this exact position even then!

"Don't think we are not gonna talk about this just because you drank yourself silly last night. Your decision, your problem" I frowned at the lack of care in my best friends words. "So spill it. What's going on between you two? And the truth this time Olivia"

I took a deep calming breath and opened my eyes. I know she wouldn't go away and leave me to die peacefully until I told her what had happened, so I might as well get it over with, and fast. "I ignored your warnings and have been speaking to Severus as normal for the past week. I have been flirting with him like mad and even asked him to tutor me on Potions. I bragged to him I had a date last night when I felt I couldn't ask him to go with me and so I drank several glasses of spiked punch to drown out the whole experience, only to find myself licking Remus' crotch and spilling more than just my heart out to Severus, who will most definitely never even be looking in my direction any more after that escapade never mind talk to me, so it was all in vain. You win, I'm a loser and the story is over with. Finito. Goodbye. Done!" I breathed heavily as I tried to catch my breath, Lexi looking at me in utter shock as I crawled my way through the bathroom. "Well I am off to bed to no doubt die from alcohol poisoning so if you wouldn't mind just leaving me alone till then, that would be great" I brushed past her and over to my bed, somehow managing to make it back up and into a little ball again without so much as my stomach churning once. "Night night"

Silence filled the room for all of two minutes.

"As if I am going to just let you lie there after you spilled all that!" Lexi hissed as her heels thudded over to my bedside. The noise giving my headache, a headache. "You, Olivia White, may be okay with me still, despite my disappointment at the moment in you, but Lily is raging at you and so is Sirius, and James for that matter" I peeked my eyes open in sheer terror. "Yes, Peter told them what he saw. I however, managed to get him to keep the bit about you nearly admitting your undying love to himself, for a price" the fact that she shivered after telling me that information didn't escape my notice. "But it seems that your boyfriend has been bragging about your interest in him to Sirius and James, so me helping you was pointless after all. You are on your own with this from now Ollie, so you better either buck up your ideas about lying, or get used to dirty looks for the rest of the year from them three as they ain't happy one bit. Sirius especially. You know how he gets."

My eyes remained peeking out at her throughout her whole monologue. I saw the look of sadness in her eyes over my predicament but that wasn't enough to hide the sheer disappointment and anger that was radiating off every pore in her body. It was crystal clear that I had hurt her by lying to her about Severus and even worse, no doubt planked her in it with Sirius also. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Sirius hated Severus and if he ever found out Lexi so much as even had an inkling about me and him, he would be raging. Inhumanly so in fact. I hung my head in shame as I brought the covers up to hide my face. I couldn't bare looking at her any more. I heard heels stomp across the floor once more followed by a slam of a door and I knew then, that she couldn't bare to look at me at the moment either.

Severus' POV

It would have only taken me mere moments to of cleaned my costume and shoes with magic, but with the rage I was feeling I knew I needed something to curb my temper. So I relented to doing it the Muggle way. Something the majority of my fellow Slytherins would more than frown upon, but I was positive than none of them had ever had happen to them, which had happened to me last night.

White had indeed emptied her stomach over my legs and shoes, but that wasn't the worse point of my night. The internal struggle I had felt before that over whether or not to comfort her was definitely a low point for me. How I could let my defences down and comfort a Gryffindor of all people? Even one so delectable and interesting as White, was beyond frustrating. I felt highly disappointed in myself and even could go as far as blaming myself for White vomiting on me. To me it was my punishment for going against my morals. To top off that wonderful memory, I had marched angrily all the way back to my dorm room only to find that someone had magically painted 'Severus hearts Filch' all over the walls with little hearts, and had placed photos of the disgusting caretaker on my bedside table as well as one of his mops in my bed. To say I was disgusted and boiling with rage over this would be the understatement to all understatements. That was when I had decided that I could either march up to Gryffindor tower and murder Black and Potter as the slept smugly and get sent to Azkaban, or bite my morals over Muggle ways and unleash my rage into cleaning myself up. I reluctantly decided on the latter as I knew there were much better ways in torturing Black and Potter than a rage filled killing.

I felt my heart rate rise considerably just recalling last night. Even as I looked around now at the still visible words on the walls I felt my blood boil. How dare they break into my private quarters and decimate my belongings and personal space with lies! Of course, I had shown Slughorn the moment I had found it which only led to him telling me he would investigate into the matter, but was reluctant to as he assumed it had to be a fellow Slytherin as no other house could know our password. I, on the other hand, knew it was Potter and Black. Password or no password, they had been in here and I knew it and I was more than set on their revenge after the humiliation they had caused me. Walking through the deserted school covered in White's vomit was one thing, but rumours that I was in love with Filch spreading about like wildfire was another thing entirely.

I sighed deeply as I dropped my head into my cupped hands. White. She was another problem. I knew myself that regardless of her actions last night, I still felt something for her. Something akin to what I had once thought I had felt for Lily. She certainly had her drawbacks, but I was more than positive after what had happened last night that I was deeply committed to her. Love? That was a word I didn't understand in the slightest. But I certainly knew I had thought of her naked more than just a handful of times, not including the times I had used the image of her to clean my wand, or so to speak. Something in my chest alighted every time she was near me. It was beyond the realms of only fascination now. It took her display of emesis for me to see that. If it had been any other female, or indeed person, who had done what she had done, then I would of certainly hexed them into St. Mungo's without as mush as a passing thought. We were secluded and cut off from prying eyes and I could have hexed her without no-one ever knowing it was me. But I didn't. I found that the only response I had felt from her embarrassing display was that of concern, and that scared me more than anything. I knew I had to flee the situation before I lost the control I usually had over my emotions and did something ridiculously silly. And flee I did.

I stood from my position on my bed and walked towards the far end of my room. Emotions? I thought. I was more than positive that she had been trying to tell me something before her little incident. It was something important from the tone of her usually sarcastic voice. I just knew then, that along with my main objection of the week being revenge on Black and Potter, I needed to also find out what White had been about to say. What words would of caused my Olivia to sound so serious? Now that was a mystery in itself.

Olivia's POV

Breathe. Breathe Olivia. Everyone doesn't know. Just your closest friends, and they hate your guts for it. Just breathe.

My mantra wasn't working as well as I had hoped it would. I was still finding myself jumping at every look someone in my dorm would shoot at me as though they were mentally torturing me. If I believed that seventeen year olds could know Occlumency, then I would definitely not think myself crazy, but in this case, I most certainly was. No-one had dared even to acknowledge my presence after Lexi's warning/rant yesterday morning. I half expected Sirius to smash the doors in to the girls dormitory to get to me more than a handful of times last night, but luckily, he didn't. Not even Lily had showed any interest in me. Apparently I was only good enough now to be shot dirty looks at while getting bitched about to her two new found best friends; Alice and what's her name, some black haired girl from the other seventh year girls dorm that I had never liked. She seemed to be enjoying herself with them more than she had ever had with me and Lexi, that was something I was definitely sure of. We must of not been shallow enough for her it seems.

Anyway, I was allowed to live my hangover out in peace, which I was more than thankful for, but I had a feeling that was all going to change today. Classes were today, which meant I had to, at some point at least, see people outside of my bedroom and talk with them about more than who was using the bathroom first. Now, there is a lot of people I could do without talking to for a very very long time; Sirius and Severus sharing top spot on my list. There are many embarrassing things I can recover from, but hurling over the guy I am totally in love with is not one of them. Throw in my fear of confrontations and Sirius' legendary off the rail anger issues, and today was sure to be one of the worst days of my life. I took one step out of the door and firmly retraced my steps back in. Forget about it. Its a long lie in and the hospital wing with menstrual cramps for me today!

And so I lay, and waited like a yellow necked chicken, for any stragglers to clear the common room and for breakfast to start before I quickly and quietly made my way out my room and down to the common room and out through the portrait hole. I sighed in relief at not being jumped by anyone before making my way down to the hospital wing. I thought about what might be going through my friends heads at the moment as they took in Peters retelling of what he saw Saturday night. Every time I ran it through my mind it ended with Sirius murdering Severus, which wasn't exactly a good out turn. For all I knew he could be six feet under by now! I mean maybe I wasn't confronted yesterday as they had already confronted Severus and buried him under the Whomping Willow? I nibbled nervously on my finger nails as I continued making my way down the many flights of stairs. What would Severus say if they did confront him? He doesn't know I like him, so would he just say how much I have been annoying him recently? Oh Merlin, I really hope he doesn't find me that annoying. I sighed heavily as I reached the third floor.

"Olivia. I need to speak to you..."

I stopped chewing my nails as I turned round and stared doe eyed at the sight of Remus Lupin strolling towards me with a look of concern.

"Wha-what do you want?" I stuttered out as I tried to calm my jelly like legs. I grabbed onto the banister for support as I awaited a stern telling off from yet another one of my friends. I had never got on the wrong side of Remus before, so was hesitant if his kind heartedness extended into his anger or if he was one of those who bottled everything up and just exploded like Sirius. I was praying for the former.

"Olivia, I just wanted to say first that I'm not angry and am not here to shout at you" his sincere words made my shaking hands steady slightly as I managed out the smallest of smiles at him, causing him to smile back at me before slowly continuing. "Peter told us what he apparently saw, and I just want to say that I think it is very kind of you to extend a hand of friendship to Severus" I blinked a few times as my mind struggled to absorb his words. Was he great full I was talking to Severus? What the hell? "I know I may not see eye to eye with him, or his friends, but not everyone is as bad as people think, and sometimes people just need a friend to show them that. I think its very patient of you to offer your hand to him when he is struggling most" he cast his eyes to the floor as his voice lowered somewhat, "not everybody can see past the stigmas some people carry"

"Remus...I...ehm, what?" I laughed nervously as my eyes darted to and from his face for some sign that this was a trap. A lure of some sort to get me to spill the beans on what actually happened.

"Sorry" he laughed lightly as he hugged his school bag tighter to his chest, "got a bit overly sentimental there. All I meant was that you shouldn't need to hide from people just for speaking to someone from a different house"

I smiled confidently at him now as I realised that Remus couldn't hurt a fly, no matter how angry he was. "Well as relieved as I am that you don't plan to kill me, that doesn't solve my problem of the others. Lexi is in a right tiff over it all, Lily is firmly ignoring me as she seems to think I have betrayed her trust after what he did to her in fifth year, and Merlin knows what Sirius is doing. No doubt plotting my demise as of this moment" I sighed heavily as my suspicious eyes darted around the empty corridors as though expecting Sirius to jump out at any moment and shoot me up with Veritaserum. Unlikely but still, I wouldn't put anything past him.

"Well I can't speak for them, but I am sure it will all blow over soon. I mean its not the biggest crime is it?" His tone was light and airy as he tried his best to reassure me, but I couldn't escape the look of utter sorrow and knowing in his eyes. He knew Lily wasn't ever going to forgive me and that Sirius was going to do something ridiculously stupid when he finally got his hands on me, or worse, Severus. The question was, when exactly that might happen? I shot Remus one more small smile before I continued my way down to the Hospital Wing. My mind more set on hiding away today than ever.

"Menstrual cramps, Miss White, can be solved from one sip of this potion, so I propose you stop your over acting and take it, as there is no way that you will be staying in here any longer"

I frowned at Madam Hurley as I applied the puppy dog eyes on further and doubled over as I rubbed my stomach in pain. I knew it was a long shot trying to get her to let me crash here for the day as she was mostly a 'potions solves all' sort of nurse, and not exactly known for bedside manners either.

I saw her roll her eyes at my feeble attempt of acting before she began stomping away rubbing her temple. "Poppy, see to this one will you as she is causing me a migraine"

I smiled triumphantly at my luck as Madam Hurley's young nurse in training came over and smiled pitifully at me. She was a sucker for an unfortunate story and would believe anything you told her. If ever I was in luck, it was today.

"What's wrong dear? You feeling under the weather?" she soothed as she rubbed my arm up and down as I nodded a mere yes in reply.

"I've got really bad cramp and I don't like taking potions much" I squeaked out as a sniffled a little for added effect. "You think it would be possible if I could get a sick note and stay here for the day until I feel better?" I rubbed my stomach again as I closed my eyes as though I was in dreadful pain.

The junior nurse put her arms round my shoulders as she began leading me off to a bed. "Of course dear. I shall send a note to all your Professors now. You just lie down here and I will bring you a hot water bottle to make you feel better"

I smiled gratefully back up at her. "Thank you"

She nodded once in acceptance before rushing away into the office to which Madam Hurley had just disappeared into moments before. Bet the old toad will be raging when she comes out and finds me still here, I thought as I smiled gleefully. Serves her right in the first place. I sighed heavily as I snuggled into the soft mattress and finally let myself relax. If there was one thing I could count on Madam Hurley doing right, it was to not let anyone visit someone in the Hospital Ward unless they had been asked. She was a stickler for rules at times so she was, which I was more than great full for at this moment in time.

Severus' POV

To say that I had not been looking forward to seeing Olivia in Potions would have been right this morning, but the moment I had walked into the Potions classroom just before lunch and found her missing and not just late, I immediately felt my heart sink. It seems that even though I wished to avoid discussion of Saturday night with her, I missed her charm and presence next to me all the more. It was a burden to work through class today without her. I found I had missed her little questions and how much she really did help me sometimes, whether it was just being the ingredient collector and nothing else. This unfortunately led to my first ever messing up of a potion. Part of me blames Olivia for unknowingly consuming my thoughts and making me loose concentration, but the intellect in me knew it was absurd to place blame on anyone but myself for daydreaming when I shouldn't have been. I made quick work of bottling my slightly off coloured potion hoping to leave class as soon as possible and to forget that today had ever happened.

"Severus, can I have a word please" Slughorn called to me just as I was leaving my desk. I refrained from sighing as I turned my full attention to my head of house just as the last remaining student left the classroom, leaving only him and I behind.

"Yes sir?"

"Severus, I was wondering if you knew where Miss White was today? Its not like her to just skip a potions class" His tone was concerned as he pondered over his own question. I knew he was right to wonder where she was, as although she was almost always late, she never missed a class. I too had been wondering about her absence all during class, hence my ruined Draught Of Living Death potion.

"No sir, I do not"

"Hmm, well if you see..." Slughorn trailed off just as a paper plane whizzed past him and landed just behind him on top of his appallingly messy desk. He reached in between his many photographs of sickeningly sweet smiling Witches and Wizards, and opened the folded parchment before sweeping his tiny bead like eyes over it once, and looking up to address me once more. "It seems Miss White is in the hospital wing feeling a little under the, ehm...weather"

I noticed the slight uneasiness in his tone which caused my eyebrows to furrow together slightly in concentration. Was their something else he wasn't saying? Had something happened to her? I tightened my hold on my satchel. "Is everything alright with her sir? Is she okay?"

He shook his head before chuckling slightly. "Yes yes my boy, she's fine" he smiled once at me before becoming slightly flustered looking, "Actually, if you wouldn't mind Severus, would you be able to drop in on her and pass along a copy of the notes you have made for class today? Madam Hurley has insisted upon each Professor seeing to it that she doesn't fall behind because of her absence today"

I internally grumbled at the prospect of missing lunch should Olivia decide to discuss anything with me, but accepted anyway hoping that maybe after seeing her that my concentration would return to full for use in the remainder of my days classes. "Of course Professor"

I nodded once and left. My feet stomping over the stoned floor as the first hint of the emotion called nervousness riddled its way into my system at the prospect of coming face to face with the captivating, but bewildering girl, that was Olivia White.