Saturday 9th October 1993

Liv had just finished recalling her morning to Holly over scrambled eggs, who had been both simultaneously laughing and cringing at the experience.

"Anyway, turns out he does know my name," Liv finished up the story and took a large gulp of tea.

Holly paused. "Huh?"

"Oh," Liv realised her annoyance at Fred for not knowing or asking her name wasn't something she had shared previously. "Nothing, it's just – he made a big deal about me knowing his name in the first Transfiguration lesson, then never found out mine, and I just thought it a bit weird."

"Liar," said Holly, beginning to grin, "you thought it a bit rude. I can tell." Her eyes were twinkling mischievously, and Liv knew she was about to get roasted. "You know, you really have such an old-fashioned approach to manners. Why should he know your name anyway?" She began peeling an orange. "Honestly, Liv, feeling offended at some passing acquaintance not knowing your name – that's kind of arrogant. It's folk like you that give us Ravenclaws a snobby reputation." Holly was watching Liv intently, waiting for a reaction after intentionally winding her best friend up.

"Whatever," Liv grumbled as she ate her breakfast, purposely not giving a reaction. Holly decided to try again.

"What - you want him to know your actual name or something? What "Liv" is short for? 'Cos I can tell him if you want..." her voice trailed off as she craned her neck to look over at the Gryffindor table, spotted the Weasley twins – who had their back to the Ravenclaws – and before Liv could react, shouted:

"OY! WEASLEYS!"

Liv, with her back to the Gryffindors, became as hot as a radiator, and looked across to her best friend in horror. Pleadingly, she began to mutter, "Don't you dare... Hols, please, don't - Hols, oy, pack it in..."

"WHAT?!" came the response from across the hall, with both twins answering in loud voices, causing a quell to fall across the hall. Liv had begun to kick Holly under the table, resulting in Holly laughing and dodging the blows, while simultaneously trying to grab Liv's ankles. During the scuffle, as the noise in the Great Hall returned to normal levels, the Weasley twins appeared either side of Liv and, still standing, leaned across the table at an uncomfortably close distance to them both.

"Ladies, please-"

"No need for violence-"

"We're lovers, not fighters-"

"And we suspect you require our assistance."

By this point, Holly had managed to grab hold of one of Liv's legs, causing Liv to be sat at an awkward angle half-way underneath the table, still blushing brightly.

"Gerroff..." she grumbled, trying to pull her leg from Holly's grasp.

"Crikey, Jones," George began, looking down in concern at her contorted position, "you ain't half winning at getting our attention today." Turning to Holly, he said, "She tell you what she got up to this morning? The little minx..."

Holly laughed and finally released Liv leg, allowing Liv to compose herself somewhat and sit up straight again.

"Yes, George, I have relayed the information, thank you."

"George?" said Fred on her right. "How'd you know he's George?" This seemed to be a genuine question.

Liv shrugged, her blush finally subsiding. "I dunno, just do," she muttered, reaching for her tea for another gulp.

"Just do, she says-"

"Just knows, she reckons-"

"Got that Ravenclaw insight, you see, George-"

"Always knew they were a sneaky lot."

"Anyway," Fred now turned to Holly, "what'chu shouting us for? I was three bacon rashers deep back there."

"I wanted to know if Liv was being truthful about her story this morning," Holly lied, not missing a beat. Again, Liv looked at her friend and thought what a brilliant lawyer she'd make. The twins both laughed.

"Trust me," Fred said, "I reckon Oliver Wood has got that image imprinted on his brain for life now. He could sketch it from memory."

"Bet that's what he'll be doing tonight at least..." George said quietly – but not quietly enough. Both Holly and Liv gasped, exclaimed "Ew!", and threw a piece of buttered toast at his face in quick succession. The twins laughed more as they took this reaction as a cue to leave.

"I hate boys," Holly muttered angrily. "That was a nice, bantering conversation, and they had to ruin it with their verbal sexual assault."

Liv grinned and looked up at her friend. "You've been reading Gloria Steinem again, haven't you?"

Aside from sharing her favourite Muggle music artists with her pure-blood friend, Liv also enjoyed lending her feminist books and essays from the Muggle world. Gwen, Liv's hippie mother, had a large collection in her small van, and was happy to lend them out to the "next generation of women's rights activists" as she called it. It also conveniently freed up space in the caravan.

Sunday 10th October 1993

The rest of the weekend passed with regularity, which Liv was thankful for. Holly and Liv spent time with some of their fellow Ravenclaw fourth years enjoying the last of autumn's warmth on the rolling Hogwarts grounds. Liv felt laid back and relaxed, forgetting all about the awkward events of Saturday morning.

That was until Sunday afternoon.

Holly had asked her new friend Laurie if she wanted to enjoy a walk around the Black Lake in the late summer sun – a very romantic setting – and so Liv decided to spend a few hours in the library getting ahead of her class work. Head down, Liv's thoughts were deep into her History of Magic work on Goblin Rebellions, finding the topic fascinating, and considering writing a recreational essay on the similarities between the treatment of Goblins in the wizarding world and the historic treatment of various oppressed communities in the Muggle world – it was practically writing itself – when a loud cough brought her head up so quickly she thought she'd get whiplash.

"Oh - hello Oliver," Liv greeted the Gryffindor captain with a whisper.

"Hello", Oliver said, his tone serious, "may I sit here?" he asked, pulling out the chair opposite Liv.

Liv nodded, "Sure," before dropping her gaze back down to her work.

Oliver coughed again, and assuming he must have a cold, Liv kept her head down, allowing herself to be pulled back into the year 1612 – but she was abruptly pulled back again by Oliver once more.

"You know," he began, "I really don't think it's on what you did yesterday. I've thought about it overnight, and I think we all need to have a better system for booking pitch time."

Liv looked up. She decided to ignore the first part of what he said, responding politely with, "Yeah, sounds good," before looking back down at her work again.

"Will you help me?" Oliver said after a pause.

Whiplash again. "What?"

"Well, I don't even know where to start. Who do I petition? Madam Hooch? McGonagall? I suppose I should draw up a timetable – is there a way to make a timetable magical so everyone can have a copy that shows everyone's requests and stuff? And even if I did that, who would be in charge of approving requests? Well, I suppose Hooch is the natural first-"

"Oliver", Liv interrupted, "why are you asking me this? I'm not the Ravenclaw captain. You should talk to Davies and the other captains – including Flint," she added, knowing what he was about to say.

Oliver did not respond, and for too long a minute neither of them said anything, but continued to look at one another, as though each was waiting for the other to speak. Liv was just beginning to think how strange this whole interaction was and was planning to make excuses to leave when Oliver finally spoke.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me in a few weeks' time?" His tone wasn't emotional at all, he spoke as if he had just asked for the week's weather forecast.

Liv was dumfounded. She laughed – but Oliver continued to remain stoic.

"Oh, God, er- no, sorry- I mean, not no, no, but I just mean- um, I might be going with Holly, Oliver- sorry, we normally reserve the first trip of the year for each other, and well, I think I ought to check with her first, like..."

Oliver was nodding his head calmly.

"Yeah, no, that's cool," he began, "Just let me know."

Offering her a friendly smile, he got up from his seat and left the library.