Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all it's names and trademarks are property of J.K. Rowling, Warner Brother's Studios, and Scholastic Publications. I will not pretend to be affiliated with any of these groups, nor am I making any money off of this story. I'm sure this information is not surprising to any of you.

Olivia

The days became unremarkable; everything fell back into step. James and Sirius were once again up to their usual pranks. I'd see them crouching in some corner sniggering, sometimes accompanied by Remus, Peter, or both. They were in and out of detention on a daily basis.

Lily had calmed down a bit. She had figured out that James didn't intend to play her, or dump her in the near future, and with that information came peace of mind. She was no longer yelling at girls for looking at James, although she did have the nerve to bitch-slap one buxom Hufflepuff for hitting on him.

All was well and peaceful, until a letter arrived at the Gryffindor table, a few days after All Hallows.

I was picking at my food, occasionally yawning. I looked atrocious, I could tell, even without a mirror; then again, what else was new? I was about to give up on breakfast and go wait outside the charms classroom, like the good little nerd I was, when the mail arrived.

I halfheartedly glances towards the ceiling, wondering if Ophelia would have anything for me, but she just fluttered down by my plate, and nibbled affectionately on my fingers. Absently I gave her my toast crusts, and stroked her soft feathers.

I was startled by a loud curse. In Sirius's low rumble, I heard, "Bloody hell!" I quickly spun around, looking at the Gryffindor table.

Sirius was gaping at a piece of parchment, a torn envelope at his elbow. James, beside him, had his face buried in his heads, Lily's concerned face over her shoulder, rubbing his back comfortingly. Remus looked anxious, his brow furrowed. (Peter hadn't bothered to get up this early.)

I got up, and hurried over to the Gryffindor table, perching on the bench beside Sirius. "What's the matter?" I asked, looking between the four worried faces.

Wordlessly, Sirius passed me the tri-folded letter. I was almost afraid of what I would find inside. The words were printed in black ink, in a generic font; overall, it had a rather cold effect.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We regret to inform you that your parents, Mr. And Mrs. Potter, were involved in a skirmish on November 2nd. They and several other aurors were attacked by a large group of Death Eaters, and their condition is grave. There is a possibility that they may survive, but nothing is certain as of yet. You will be notified when they're condition resolves itself.

Sincerely,

Dr. Winthrop, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

"Oh God." I murmured, my eyes wide.

Sirius now had his head in his hands in a position not unlike James's. awkwardly, I patted his back, uttering soothing, nonsense words. He kind of leaned on me, as though he had lost the will to sit upright.

"They're like parents to me." He moaned.

"They are parents to me!" snapped James irritably.

"Stop that." Remus looked stern. "I know you're both upset, but try not to bite each other's head's off." James and Sirius glared halfheartedly at him.

"Look, why don't you guys go back up to the tower? Remus, Lily, and I will cover for you in class, okay?" Numbly, the boys nodded and rose to go. Lily quickly kissed James, and he smiled weakly. Just because he looked lonely, I patted Sirius's shoulder. He looked at me oddly, then bent down, and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, and hugged me. A little shocked, I hugged back. The next thing I knew, they were gone, headed out of the great hall.

The next few days were terrible. James and Sirius barricaded themselves in their dorm, only coming out for breakfast, and the post. Both of them had bloodshot eyes from which hung thick, dark gray bags. They looked disheveled, and didn't talk or eat on their rare appearances, unless forced to. Finally, on the night of the third day after the arrival of the letter, I came bearing gifts.

I was clutching a large hamper of food, fresh from the kitchens. I must have looked odd, stumbling around the castle with this huge basket of food, a scrap of parchment clamped in my mouth. Every now and then, I'd stop, balance the hamper on one knee, and consult the paper Remus had given me, which bore directions to the Gryffindor common room.

I wound up standing in front of a painting that matched the description he gave me; a rotund woman with mousy, sausage-like curls protruding from her scalp. She wore a dress in an unfortunate shade of pink, and simpered snottily down at me.

"I know the password, hang on." Once again, I performed my balancing act to retrieve the paper I had managed to speak around.

"A Ravenclaw? Trying to enter the Gryffindor common room?" She sniffed haughtily.

"Poppycock." I read from the scrap, ignoring her.

"It most certainly is." She retorted, but swung open anyways.

Nervously, I shuffled into the Gryffindor common room, self-conscientiously hanging my head and hiding behind the curtain of my own hair. Curiousity made me peek through the fringe of hair to observe the alien common room. I was like the Ravenclaw one, only the upholstery was a rich red, the Gryffindor color. I found the effect to be warming, overly so, and I longed for a cool blue to hide behind. Luckily, Remus spotted me, and hurried over.

"Good, you made it." He poked around the basket.

"Your portrait is quite the snot." I grumbled, hefting the basket, so it wouldn't slip my grip.

"She doesn't like Ravenclaws. Or Hufflepuffs or Slytherins for that matter. Then again, your suit of armor nearly ran me through, and would have if Flitwick hadn't been there." He smiled halfheartedly, and gestured for me to follow him. "The depressed duo is over here."

I followed him to a shadowed alcove, where James and Sirius sat staring glumly into space. Lily sat fidgeting at James's elbow, and looked relieved to see me. I plonked the basket down, saying "We have come to a mutual agreement."

They looked pitifully up at me. Sirius spoke, demanding, "Elaborate."

Rolling my eyes, I sat down, and twitched the cloth covering the basket aside, revealing four bottles of warm butterbeer, two large meat-filled pastries, and a variety of Honeydukes sweets. The two boys sat up straighter, and I could almost hear their empty stomachs rumbling.

"This is yours. Under one condition." Remus had joined us.

"What's that?" James inquired warily, his voice lacking the usual energy it typically possessed.

"You have to come to class tomorrow." Lily intoned.

James and Sirius exchanged glances. I spoke up again. "Look Mr. And Mrs. Potter aren't dead yet, and sitting around here moping and waiting for that stupid letter isn't going to help you." I looked sharply at them.

"Would they want you to be cooping yourselves up in your dorms, refusing to eat or come to class?" Lily had pulled that card again. This was turning into a soap opera. All we needed was for someone to get amnesia, and for Lily to cheat on James.

James and Sirius exchanged glances a second time, then sort of shrugged. "'Guess not." James muttered, reaching for a small chunk of fudge.

"We'll come to class tomorrow, right, Prongs?" Sirius was struggling with the lid to butterbeer bottle was he spoke.

James nodded as he wolfed down half of the meat pastry.

Remus, Lily, and I were quite proud of ourselves, when the two boys showed up at breakfast with their bookbags. We beamed through the first half of the day, until they disappeared at lunch.

"I'll check Gryffindor tower. They're not ditching us now." Lily muttered, hurrying up the marble staircase.

Remus muttered something about looking in the library, and shuffled off, hands stuffed into his pockets. On a gut instinct, I turned, and headed for the dungeons. As I stumbled down the dingy passageway, I remembered that this was James's and Sirius's last class before lunch.

As I hurried towards the potions classroom, I heard loud, angry voices, and the sound of a fist making contact with human flesh. I turned the corner, and gasped.

A bloodied and bruised Severus Snape was being held up against the wall, panting. James and Sirius had hard, cold looks on their faces that I had never seen before. As James's fist crashed into Snape's nose, he yelled, "You fucking bastard! You sniveling excuse for a person! How dare you insult my family?"

After a flurry of punches, James seemed to lose steam. He fell to the ground, and his shoulders heaved with sobs. Sirius went in for his turn at Snape, when I decided to intervene. I moved forward, and wrapped my arms around Sirius's waist. "He not worth it." I said into his, back, my voice dull and hollow. He recognized my voice, and stopped struggling to get free from my grip. "I'm sure there's an explanation for this, and it had better be good. Go run off and find Remus and Lily, they're quite distraught."

I sounded bitter and sarcastic, and I thought that my disappointment had mellowed them down. It had; until Snape spoke.

"Got yourself a new bitch, Sirius? She seems smarter then your usual sluts, maybe you should listen to her. It's surprising, you've never been one for brains, just how good of a snog they are. How long is she gonna last, Padfoot?"

Sirius lunged out of my arms, and tackled the Slytherin boy, hissing, "You are not in a position to be talking like that, Snivelous."

I dragged him off Snape, mostly by saying, "They're just words, Sirius."

Once I had pried him away from the bleeding boy, I knelt before him, rolling up my sleeves. "Go. Find Lily and Remus." I demanded. They obeyed, hanging their heads pitifully.

I surveyed the damage. Broken nose, split lip, black eye, and other assorted bruises. Maybe even a concussion. I 'tsk'ed and pulled out my wand, but Severus turned away. "Don't touch me, mudblood."

I laughed grimly. "Have it your way. Petrificus Totalus."

His arms and legs snapped together, and his face froze in a grimace of fury. His eyes followed my hands, as I used simple healing charms to patch him up. As I did this, I spoke.

"You really deserved that. I wouldn't be helping you, if it wasn't for them." I jerked my head in the direction Sirius and James had taken, as I tapped his nose with my wand, causing the crooked fragments to seal together seamlessly, returning the nose to it's impressively huge beak shape.

"Let's get one thing straight: I'm not dating Sirius, or James, or Remus, or Peter, or anybody. If I hear that you told anyone other wise, you'll regret the day you were born." I sat back, admiring my work. His bruises were gone, nothing so much as a scratch showed. It wasn't as tidy or as painless as Madam Pomfrey, but it would do. I rose to leave, saying over my shoulder. "By the way, this incident never happened. If you say anything to anyone about this, those bruises will come back for a month-long visit. Cheers."

I released him from the body bind, and heard him muttering, "Crazy bitch…"

Sirius

Olivia didn't speak to me all day. It wasn't like, "I'm pissed off at you and I'm going to turn up my nose whenever you walk by" more like "You've got some explaining to do, and that's all I want to hear from you right now." I can't say that I blamed her; I know how it must have looked.

After classes, I used the map to find her in the owlrey. I assumed she was avoiding her usual haunts, and thus avoiding me. I sighed, and headed up to the tower. I picked my way through rodent bones and owl pellets, feeling rather ashamed of myself. You know, like how a dog feels when it shits on the carpet; guilty.

She was standing by one of the perches, scratching the owl I recognized as hers fondly under the chin. I cleared my throat to announce my appearance, and she jumped, whirling around to face me.

"Hey." I shoved my hands in my pockets.

"Hey." She crossed her arms across her front, looking my straight in the eye. She had a look on her face that said, 'Talk.'

"I guess you want to why we were beating on Sniv-er…Snape back there."

"I'd like to." Her tone was clipped and curt.

I sighed, and distractedly ran a hand through my hair. "Me and James used to pick on Snape a lot. But we've kind of laid off him this year, just because we've had better things to do. But he thinks he's scared us away with his death eater pals, and he'll say petty little things just to push our buttons. It usually doesn't get to me, or James, but today during potions he was going on and on about how Grant And Amy, James's folks, about how they deserved what they got, and shit. It just touched a nerve." It sounded weak, even as I was telling it.

She seemed to understand, though. "He did deserve it. Next time, think like a wizard, not like a thug." She turned back to her owl in a way that didn't seem to dismiss me. I stepped closer, reaching out to stroke the animal's beak.

"What happened after we left?" I had been wondering all day.

"I sat down and had a cup of tea to catch up on old times."

"Really, though, what happened?"

"I introduced myself, patched him up, much to his dismay, and threatened to beat him up again should he feel the need to tell anyone about it." She looked pleased with herself.

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself."

"I keep forgetting that you're a big boy." She rolled her eyes. "'Kay, next time I won't help you, and let McGonagall help you instead."

I was about to retort when something small and feathery smacked into my head. It was an owl the size of my fist. "Who the hell uses and owl this size?"

"St. Mungo's." She replied grimly, pointing to the envelope attached to the bird that was half it's size.

I gulped, and untied the parchment with shaking hands. Breaking the seal, I extracted the letter.

Olivia

His dark eyes scanned the letter, the paper quivering slightly in his grip. His face was pale, and his expression pained.

I waited anxiously as he read, watching his face with anticipation. Finally it broke into a relieved grin. "Thank Merlin. They're okay." He relaxed visibly, looking like a great weight had been removed from his shoulders. He laughed, chuckling from relief. Sweeping me into a hug, he pressed his face into my shoulder, and exhaled. I wrapped my arms around him for comfort.

As he drew back, his face was inches from mine, and I could have sworn I felt the brush of soft lips on my cheek. But a minute later he was gone, having muttered something about showing James the letter.

Author's Note: Ahh, it's so awful. –sigh- It'll have to do for now.

A quick thank you to all who reviewed, especially RockStar Lover, Paddie's Girl and Nicoley17. I usually hate it when authors pick two or three reviewers to thank in person, but these three have really been brilliant. Thank you so much!

I will shut up now, and let you all carry one with your lives. I must go before I get caught on again. Happy reading!

-Salvation-ala-mode