Chapter 15 – American Question

            Friday arrived and Olivia was taken out of her happy state when she realized that the following day was her 16th birthday. "No one knows." Olivia thought to herself sadly. "And those who do know I can't get in contact with. I just wish it could be any other birthday besides 16." With that thought Olivia slowly got herself ready for her classes.

            Professor McGonagall droned on about whatever she was teaching as Olivia zoned out yet again. She'd been doing it all day, zoning out to think about her friends back in America she missed them all but she especially missed Louise.

            Harry was looking around the room as McGonagall went on about human transfiguration, which they would start next week. When he glanced at Olivia he noticed that she was zoned out yet again. Since Harry sat next to Olivia in all of his classes he noticed that she had been zoning out at least two times in each class. He decided to break her out of her trance before McGonagall found her. 

            Olivia jumped a bit as she was lightly elbowed in the stomach.

            "What was that for?" She hissed when McGonagall had turned he back towards them.

            "I was trying to save you the wrath of McGonagall." Harry hissed as a response.

            Olivia looked at McGonagall and then back at Harry. He could tell that she was confused by what he said so he cleared it up for her.

            "You zoned out again."

            "Oh…thanks." Olivia replied blushing slightly as she realized how obvious she must have been. 

            Olivia was able to keep herself from zoning for the rest of Transfiguration and was glad when the class was dismissed. From class the foursome went to dinner since they had to meet with Professor Fireoza and Lupin. As they ate Harry realized that Olivia had been quieter then normal all day today.

            "Hey Olivia …you ok?" Harry asked a little concerned for his friend

            "Hum?"

            "It's just you've been quite all day and you've been zoning out a lot."

            "Yea you have been awfully quite today." Ron added

            "I-I've just been thinking." Olivia replied.

            Harry was about to question Olivia more but Olivia had gotten up as soon as she was done responding and walked out of the Great Hall. Harry wanted to follow her but he had been getting a lot of crap from Ron for liking her and he didn't wan to add fuel to the fire. Harry guessed the he deserved some teasing though for all the teasing he did to Ron about liking Hermione. Harry wasn't going to deny that he liked Olivia, she was beautiful, smart, and funny, but he didn't need the whole school to know that he liked her. So when a group of Gryffindor's left Harry casually got up and followed them out and then went to search for Olivia.

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            Olivia walked to Dumbledore's Office with a look of determination upon her face as she went along. Needless to say Dumbledore was quite surprised when she showed up in his office.

            "Ms. Stanton…to what may I owe this visit?"

            "I want to know if there's any way for me to visit America for a few hours tomorrow?" Olivia blurted.

            "May I know why you wish to visit America so suddenly?"

            "Tomorrow is my 16th birthday and I haven't seen my best friends in over 3 months and I miss them terribly along with my family. I promise that if I go I will do a memory charm before leaving so that they don't remember anything." Olivia pleaded

            "Ah I see…Well Ms. Stanton I do believe that even if I were to say no that you would still find a way for you to visit your friends in America. So just to prove my point I am not allowing you to visit America." Dumbledore responded with a childlike grin across his face.

            "Very well Headmaster I accept your challenge and will report to your office tomorrow morning and evening." Olivia replied before getting up and leaving the headmaster's office.

            As Olivia was exiting the passageway leading to Dumbledore's office she ran into Harry.

            "Harry what are you doing here?"

            "I thought I'd find you here…I was looking for you because you seemed a little distant all day and I wanted to make sure you were all right." Harry responded

            "I'm fine I just had to ask the headmaster a question that had been bugging me all day."

            "Oh…ok" Harry simply replied as they slipped into a slightly uncomfortable silence, neither one really knowing what to say.

            "We'd better get going we have that lesson with Professor Fireoza and Lupin in five minutes." Olivia finally stated breaking the silence. 

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            Harry and Olivia walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to find that Hermione, Ron, Lupin, and Fireoza were already there.

            "So nice of you two to join us." Lupin remarked with a sly smile tugging at his lips.

            "I had to meet with the headmaster and Harry here came to remind me of our little lesson." Olivia stated quickly deflating his grin.

            "What did you have to see the headmaster about?" the professor asked looking concerned.

            "Nothing really just to ask a simple question."

            "Anyway we'd better get on with the lesson." Professor Fireoza interrupted seeing the slight tension between Remus and Olivia.

            The four students went about the lesson like it was a normal school day paying close attention and practicing their defense skills. As the lesson went on Remus paid close attention to Olivia. He watched as she quickly picked up all that she learned and was amazed at how powerful she was. As he watched her he felt a sense of pride well up inside of him, this was one of his little girls and he could barely believe it. But as his pride for Olivia swelled to that of a father who has watched his daughter through everything he realized that he was going to have to tell her everything, and soon.

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            As Olivia worked through the lesson with extra speed to get to bed as soon as possible so that she could get to her birthday she felt like she was being watched. "I'm being silly." She thought critically. "Of course I'm being watched…the professor's need to see how I'm doing."   But somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she was being watched for more then her progress, but she couldn't read the minds around her and concentrate on the spell she was casting at the same time. "I have to work on that.," she thought bitterly. "I hate not being able to do what I want."

            Soon enough the lesson was over and the four students were sent back to Gryffindor tower. As Olivia headed to the tower her thoughts were on how to get to America, visit her family and Friends and get back in time to prove Dumbledore wrong.

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Ok…I KNOW IT"S SHORT! In fact I think it's the shortest chapter I've had so far but I'm sorry. Its one of those in-between chapters that I never want to write but I need to. Anyway I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while but I hit a dead end with this chapter I didn't know how to connect my next two ideas. But I finally got it cleared up so I should have at least one more chapter posted by tomorrow. ENJOY!!!!!

PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!

~Autumn