A/N: Firstly, a massive thank you to my new, diligent reader: Lizaluvsdoggies. She's also given this story a couple name: Livius. :D I like it, and will probably use it in author's notes and responses to reviews. Secondly, yes, I changed my username. It's so that it's easier for fans of my original works to find. :D

-C

December, 1972

The girls sat in the compartment together, excited to spend their winter holiday with each other at Lily's house. Olivia was sitting at the window seat, smiling out at the snow as they sped past it, glad that she was safe and warm inside the train.

"It's not much," Lily said for the thousandth time, nervously looking over at Olivia. "But my parents have been working very hard to make it clean and warm and friendly."

"Sounds better than my house already," Olivia assured her for the hundredth time. "It's large and grand, but it's not particularly friendly. Drizza and Father try, but... well..."

Olivia winced, thinking that it would never really be home. It was where they moved, after her mother was killed. Home was somewhere else, somewhere she could barely recall from her childhood.

But Lily was blanching once more at the mention of the Cromwell's house-elf and Olivia had to talk her down, saying how exciting it would be to have a real Christmas, like everyone else.

"What do you expect the boys will be doing without you this Christmas?" Mary asked, changing the subject. Olivia wasn't the only one getting bored with the same conversation dozens of times over.

"Sirius is going home with Regulus," Olivia sighed. "So he'll be miserable, he assured us. Remus is going home. Peter's staying with the Potters, they said, because his family's all very sick and don't want him to catch it."

It smacked of an excuse to stay in a manor for another holiday, but the Potters didn't care even if they'd noticed, and James could hardly survive without company. When Sirius said he was going back to London James looked as though he was going to cry.

"Sounds like we're going to be having the most fun, then," Mary said with a grin. "I was worried James and Sirius would be together and throw some massive party that would put us to shame."

"Please," Olivia snorted. "As if those boys could put together a part without me, especially if Remus isn't involved!"

"Do we have to talk about the Marauders all night?" Lily asked, her nose wrinkled with disgust.

Olivia disregarded the fact that she, herself, was a Marauder, and just shrugged, smiling back out at the snow, rubbing her hands together.

She'd never spent any length of time in a proper Muggle house, not a wizarding manor or castle, and certainly she'd never spent a winter so far north without heating charms and the like to keep her warm. She wondered how Muggles stayed warm in the winter without them, but she didn't ask. Olivia didn't really like asking questions. She preferred to figure out the answers by watching and learning.

When they arrived in London, Olivia, Mary, and Lily gathered their things. Olivia looked around platform nine and three-quarters as they moved to the entryway back to the Muggle world, looking for her friends. Anne-Claire had stayed at Hogwarts with her own friends, as Olivia had done her first Christmas as a Hogwarts student, so she was nowhere to be seen, but there were the boys a bit in front of the girls in line. Olivia smiled and thought about calling to them to say goodbye, but Remus turned, caught her eye and smiled at her, and she decided that was good enough as she blew him a kiss and watched him blush before Sirius pulled him into the entryway.

By the time the girls had gotten to the Muggle part of King's Cross, the boys were gone. She followed Lily over to her parents, both blond, who were standing with Lily's older, blonde, scowling sister: Petunia.

It was very clear to Olivia after not even a second that no matter how welcoming and warm Mr. and Mrs. Evans were, Petunia certainly did not welcome Mary, Olivia, or even Lily, for that matter.

"Pleased to meet you," Olivia said as aristocratically as she'd been taught throughout her life, offering her hand to Petunia politely, but Petunia looked at it as though it were a snake, ready to bite, until her mother told Petunia to remember her manners.

Oh, she'd remembered them, Olivia thought, she just disregarded them in favor of being rude and self-righteous.

Olivia wanted so badly to ask Lily what her sister's problem was, but she didn't want to be just as rude, asking in front of the girl. She decided to wait until later, when Petunia wasn't around.

"So, Olivia," Mr. Evans said once they were driving northward on something Lily called the 'motorway'. "Lily tells me you're from an old family?"

"Yes, sir," Olivia replied, smiling sweetly as he looked at her in that funny, rectangular mirror on the top front of the car. "My father says we can trace our bloodline back to Merlin on both sides. There's not even two dozen families that can say that."

"What does your father do, dear?" Mrs. Evans asked, curious and kind.

"He's the primary counselor to the Minister of Magic," Olivia said proudly.

"And your mother?"

"Mum!" Lily hissed.

"Oh, yes, I'm so sorry, dear," Mrs. Evans said quickly, sincerely.

Lily must have warned her that Olivia's mother was dead, but Mrs. Evans had forgotten. Olivia didn't want her to feel bad, so she answered the question anyway.

"No, it's fine. My mother didn't work. My father didn't need to, either, but he's never liked not having something to do."

"Livia's going to be the richest witch in England!" Mary said. "Well, when her father dies."

Mr. and Mrs. Evans exchanged what was probably a nervous look.

"Anyway," Olivia continued, trying to avoid talking about money as much as possible, "my mother was killed, by Dark Wizards. I was a small child, but I remember a bit when we found out."

They were mostly silent the rest of the way to the Evans's house, although Mrs. Evans did ask about Mary's family as well, politely, and Mary responded just as politely.

Apparently, bringing up dead parents was a damper on merriment, at least temporarily. Olivia made a mental note of this and resolved to write all of the boys before she went to bed that night. It wasn't that she regretted her decision, but she was feeling a little lonely without them, especially Remus and Sirius.

Mary and Olivia would be sharing the guest room, which wasn't particularly large, but as the girls were used to sharing a room during the school year, anyway, they didn't mind, and they assured Mr. and Mrs. Evans of this, who seemed rather self-conscious as their daughter once Mary had spilled the beans on Olivia's family's wealth.

The holidays weren't particularly unfamiliar, even in the new setting, and Olivia and Mary felt like part of the family in no time at all, and Mary didn't even mind that Olivia stayed up all hours of the night writing letters to the boys.

Olivia woke up Christmas Eve to find Mary standing over her, frowning.

"You were starting to get loud," she whispered. "I thought you might wake up the others, and I wouldn't know how to explain..."

"No, it's fine," Olivia muttered, rubbing her eyes and sitting up slightly. "Did I wake you?"

"No," Mary said quickly. "I almost never sleep on Christmas Eve. I get too excited. I was just staring at the ceiling, trying to decide if it's more taupe or beige by the street light. What do you think?"

Olivia looked up at the ceiling, considering.

"Definitely taupe," she said with a certainty that only a thirteen-year-old could have about ceiling color. "Want to sit down?"

Mary sat and it wasn't long until they were lying back against Olivia's pillows, which Olivia had spread more so that they could share more comfortably. Mary slipped under the covers and pulled them up to her chin.

"So what were you dreaming about?" Mary finally asked softly.

Olivia nibbled her lip for a moment.

"I don't remember," she lied. "Was I saying anything?"

"Something about how you didn't know anything. Which is silly, because you know everything."

"Not everything," Olivia chuckled. "But thank you."

It was her kidnapping, of course. She'd dreamed it over and over in so many forms.

"What do you do when you have bad dreams at Hogwarts?" Mary asked. "I know you have them, but you leave the room."

"I go to Remus," Olivia admitted. "Sometimes Sirius, but usually Remus."

"What do they do?"

"They tell me that I'm all right," Olivia sighed. "And then they hug me tightly and we fall asleep. Or at least, I fall asleep. I don't have bad dreams when I don't sleep by myself."

She felt Mary wrap her up in a gently, friendly hug, and rest her head on Olivia's shoulder.

"Then you're not going to sleep by herself," Mary said firmly. "I don't like the thought of you having a bunch of nightmares when it's such an easy fix. And don't you dare try to talk me out of it," she added when Olivia took a breath to suggest that Mary didn't have to do such a thing.

"All right, then," Olivia said with a small smile at her friend's stubbornness. "Good night, Mary."

"Sweet dreams, Livia," Mary whispered.

In the morning, when Olivia woke up again, she was alone, but Mary's side of the bed had been folded down and Mary was turned to the pile of presents that had arrived.

"I put your gifts in your pile," Mary said, gesturing to the stack of parcels at Olivia's feet.

Before Olivia even had a chance to scramble toward her own gifts, Lily had come bursting in with a large pile of parcels in her arms, settling herself down on the floor beside Mary.

"I wanted us to open them together," Lily said excitedly. "Happy Christmas!"

"Happy Christmas!" the other two girls chorus happily, and they began tearing into their gifts.

From Mary and Margery jointly, Olivia received a new dress, a pale purple thing that was exactly the cut Olivia loved. From Lily, a new set of books on Transfiguration, which was exactly what Olivia wanted, and she couldn't wait to start searching through for any sort of hints that could help her on the quest to become an Animagus.

And then she found Remus's gift, which was a beautiful hand-carved mahogany hand mirror, and on the back she found a small engraving that said, 'To my beautiful Livia, so you can never forget how perfect you are.'

"Oh, it's gorgeous!" Lily said admiring the mirror as Mary put a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans in between them to share, one that the twins had sent her.

"Do you think it's enchanted?" Olivia asked, touching the engraving thoughtfully.

"What makes you think that?" Mary asked incredulously, fishing through the beans for one that seemed safe.

Olivia pointed out the engraving and asked if the bean was all right.

"Yeah, raspberry cordial. Don't be silly, Livia. He's just telling you how beautiful you are," Mary replied, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, it's like you've never been complimented before sometimes."

The other boys had gotten her massive amounts of sweets, which she shared with Mary and Lily. Her father had bought her some new ink, a couple of new dresses, and a necklace that Lily and Mary spent almost a half hour squealing about jealously. Anne-Claire had gotten her sister an expensive sort of perfume that they thought smelled terrible and promptly decided to re-gift to Petunia, who Lily said loved that sort of thing.

"Smells so bad it's got to be expensive," Lily said with a shrug. "She goes mad over that sort of stuff."

Christmas dinner was a lovely event, with the Evans's putting together an incredibly delicious spread for their guests.

"As good as anything I've ever had from a house-elf," Olivia declared honestly after her final slice of pie, laughing as Mr. Evans inquired good-naturedly where she put it all.

Olivia didn't miss the proud flush of Lily and Mrs. Evans at her compliment, however.

It was certainly more festive than Olivia expected a family Christmas to be. With only the three of them, they'd never been near as raucous, but pulling Muggle crackers with the girls (which only gave out flimsy paper crowns that Olivia found fascinating) was nearly as fun as turning Snape's hair purple with the boys.

New Year's Eve, Mary, Olivia, and Lily decided to go to the park and throw snowballs at each other.

"It'll be fun!" Olivia squealed as Lily expressed her hesitance.

It wasn't, however, the snowballs Lily had been worried about, Olivia discovered when they reached the park.

"Well, if it isn't Cromwell," said a voice that Olivia would recognize anywhere. "Coming down from your manor to grace the peasants with your wonderful presence?"

"Snivellus," Olivia snarled. "You're acting quite a big man for someone who can't use magic here anymore than I can."

He sneered at her.

"I can fight as a Muggle as well," he snarled. "But I'm not going to throw the first punch at a girl."

"Why not?" she said sweetly. "You're awfully quick to throw out the first verbal punches."

"Sev, Livia, please," Lily pleaded. "It's the holidays. Can't you just get along for one day? Even just for an hour?"

"I'll behave if Snivelly does," Olivia said haughtily, aware that she was taunting him and that it wouldn't earn her any points with Lily, but she had pride to maintain.

"Awfully bold without Potter and Black to finish your battles," he said softly so that only Olivia could hear.

"And you're awfully bold without a prefect to look over your shoulder and lie for you," she hissed back.

"Maybe we should go back, Livia," Mary said nervously. "I mean, it's sort of cold."

"It's not gotten any colder," Olivia retorted.

Taking out her anger at Snape on Mary wasn't the right thing to do, Olivia knew it, but she felt so much better when she was being nasty to someone.

"Sev, please," Lily said again. "We don't want a fight. We're going to go home. You should do the same."

It was as though Snape had just realized that Lily was there, and with a brief hesitation he nodded, turning his back on them and walking away. Olivia pouted, but she and her friends said nothing about the altercation as they returned to the Evans home, finding that Mrs. Evans had made them hot chocolate and laid out fresh clothes for them.

"I hope you don't mind," she said nervously. "I just thought you might prefer to be warm than to have to search through your things while still wet."

The girls assured her that they didn't mind at all.

Severus Snape was not mentioned at all that night, except for just before the girls were going to go to bed, sipping the dregs of their tea as they waited patiently to count in the New Year.

"We're not mentioning today again," Olivia said firmly. "Not to anyone. It might get back to the boys."

They all nodded.

"Do you think they would do something to him for that?" Mary asked. "I mean, nothing really even happened."

"They shouldn't," Olivia agreed. "But tell Sirius what he shouldn't do and he takes it as a challenge. James is hardly better, most times."

"Potter's usually worse," Lily snorted.

Just then, her father sat down with them.

"Who's Potter?" he asked curiously. "Someone from school?"

"James Potter," Mary supplied quickly. "He's in our house, in our year. He's one of Livia's best friends."

"He's an arrogant toerag," Lily muttered into her tea.

"He's been asking Lily out fairly regularly for a while now," Mary giggled. "He thinks she's perfect. I think it's romantic."

"I think it's annoying," Olivia admitted, and Lily murmured her agreement.

"Still," Mary argued, "he's the only heir of one of the best families in the wizarding world, and not even one of the crazy ones, like Sirius's family. And he's not bad-looking, either."

"Sure, if you like big-headed and messed up hair," Lily snorted. "Even I can admit that Sirius is the good-looking one. No offense to Remus, of course," she added quickly, looking over at Olivia.

"I've heard of Remus," Mr. Evans said, amused.

"He and Livia are together," Mary squealed. "It's adorable."

"He's a good boy, this Remus?"

"The best," the girls all chorused, smiling.

Mr. Evans grinned.

"And this Sirius? This good-looking one?"

"He's an arrogant twit," Lily said firmly.

"You're just mad because he likes to fight with Snivellus... I mean Snape," Olivia said, hating the taste of his proper surname in her mouth. "I can't blame him for that. Anyway, Sirius isn't so bad, Mr. Evans. His family's not the greatest, but he's a good, loyal friend. He's a bit of an idiot as a boyfriend, though."

Mary and Olivia giggled, and then Mary explained that Sirius was dating one of the Sitzer twins.

"I don't think relationships were half so complicated when I was your age," Mr. Evans said good-naturedly. "But you all seem to be able to keep it straight fine. Maybe you're just cleverer than we were."

They were about to assure Mr. Evans that they couldn't be cleverer than he and his generation were, although they knew he meant it in jest, when Mrs. Evans began counting in the New Year with the box Lily called a television. They were counting in with some crowd in some place in London that Olivia had never been to, but the energy was infectious.

"Five!"

The girls were squealing the numbers excitedly, as though a New Year really meant something.

"Four!"

Even Petunia was smiling, Olivia noticed.

"Three!"

Mr. Evans had a Muggle noisemaker at the ready.

"Two!"

Mary squeezed Olivia's hand gently, smiling at her.

"One!"

They all screamed tidings of a happy New Year, and Olivia couldn't remember smiling as much in her whole life.