Disclaimer: All ideas are based on characters and events belonging to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.

Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 3: A Walk by the Lake

"Kiley, you don't understand. It's not funny!" Olivia proceeded to throw a pillow at her best friend which hit her right in the face. This did not deter Kiley, however, as she rolled around on her bed laughing her head off at her friend's recent surprise from Lucius.

"The letters danced?" Olivia shook her head in affirmative which cause another bought of laughter from Kiley. "Does he actually think you like that sort of thing? You know, all frilly?"

"I don't know, Kiles. It was horrible. I mean, the date was good but the decor could have definately been improved."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Kiley spoke up again. "What else are you not telling me?" Olivia shook her head and stood to go to the common room but Kiley grabbed her arm. "What is it, Livey?"

Olivia looked down at the hand on her arm before she took a deep breath, ready to tell Kiley about her 'misunderstanding' with Lucius. "When we first got there and he took the scarf from my eyes, I was shocked to say the least. How could anybody like that, let alone me. I've never been one for the overly frilly. I tried to play it cool, though, telling Lucius I liked it but he sort of changed for a minute."

Kiley just stared at her best friend, "What do you mean he changed?"

"For a moment, he seemed to get, well cold I guess would be the best word. He thought I underappreciated what he had done for me. Kiles, for a moment, he actually scared me. I mean, you should have seen the look in his eyes. It was like pure ice."

Kiley let go of Olivia's arm and pulled her into a hug. "It'll be ok, Livey. Maybe it was like a defense mechanism. If he thought you didn't like what he had for you, maybe that was just his way of trying to protect himself."

Olivia smiled and nodded her head, "Yea, that actually makes sense. Who knew you had it in you." They both laughed as Kiley playfully shoved Olivia before they started back down to the common room. They hadn't taken but a few steps when Olivia put her arm out and stopped Kiley. "Don't mention any of this to anyone, ok? Especially James."

"You know you never have to worry about that." The girls smiled and hugged each other again before they made their way down the rest of the stairs.

When they reached the common room they saw a sight that about made them fall down. The Marauders, studying. All of them. "Wow. Remus, how many times did you have to hex them to accomplish this?"

Remus looked up from his Defense Against the Dark Arts book and smiled at the two girls. "Actually, since OWLs are coming up so very soon, only once."

Sirius, who was taking notes from his Transfiguration book, threw his quill across the room and laid his head down on the table. "My brain is fried. I think I'm going to take a break." He pushed out his chair, got up, and started toward the portrait hole. "I'm going for a walk along the lake. I'll be back before dinner."

Olivia perked up, thinking that fresh air sounded pretty good, "Mind if I join you?"

Sirius looked surprised but gave her a smile, "Sure. It's still a little chilly outside though, you might want to grab a cloak."

Olivia ran back up to her dormitory looking for her cloak. She searched around for a few minutes in vain before she saw it laying in the floor beside her bed with Niko lounging lazily on top of it. "Hey Niko, who's a good kitty?" She sat on the edge of her bed petting Niko and talking baby talk to him until she remembered what she was doing in the first place. She laid Niko down on her bed and put her cloak on after doing a slight cleaning charm to get rid of the cat hair.

As she arrived back in the common room, Sirius stood from where he'd taken a seat on a fluffy arm chair to wait for her. "Ready?"

"Yep." They exited the portrait hole and proceeded on through the castle and out to the lake.

They walked in silence for a while as the made their way around the huge lake that was home to the giant squid before Sirius spoke, "So, how was your date?"

Olivia looked at him, trying to evaluate how sincere his question was. She determined that though he probably wasnt completely sincere she didn't think he was looking for an argument. "It was lovely. How did your day go?"

Sirius looked out over the lake, admiring the Forbidden Forest beyond, as he answered. "It was ok. We hung out around Honeyduke's for a while and drunk some butterbeer. All in all just another day in Hogsmeade."

Shoving her hands in her pockets, she followed Sirius' gaze out to the Forbidden Forest. "What's in there?"

He looked down at her and seen where her gaze had landed before he gave a light chuckle, "How am I supposed to know? Hippogriffs, threstrals, and such I guess. I've heard there are centaurs."

"How stupid do you think I am?" Olivia laughed and gave him a playful shove. "You guys may not tell me everything but I know you've been in there before."

Sirius couldn't help but smirk as he looked at his best friend's sister. She really did seem to be growing up. "I don't know what your talking about."

"Mhm. I think we both know you do but if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. One of you will tell me eventually or I'll just have to find out on my own."

Sirius' smirk slipped a little as he heard these words. Remembering all the times that he, James, and Peter had run with Remus on full moons. "Olivia, there's a reason it's forbidden. It is dangerous."

Olivia saw the warning in Sirius' eyes and decided to change the subject to a lighter topic, "So are you nervous for your OWLs?"

Appreciating the effort, Sirius laughed, "Not really. I mean, I probably should be, but I'm sure I'll do ok."

"Just ok? Sirius, your one of the top students in your year, I'm sure you'll do a lot better than 'ok'."

"Well, at any rate, I'd say no matter how much I study I won't beat Remus or Evans so I don't see a reason to fry my brain trying to stuff it full of things that are already there."

"Lily Evans. I don't think she likes me much."

Sirius laughed, "I don't think Evans likes anybody that has anything to do with Prongs."

Olivia thought about it for a few minutes trying to decide how to word what she wanted to say before it all just came out. "She tries to play James off like he's just some immature git that is trying to make her life miserable, but I think she's the immature one. She's too blind to see what's right in front of her, too caught up in years from the past when James was an immature git, to see that he really does love her. Its pretty pathetic to watch James throw himself at her day after day and her not even give him a second look. One day she's going to wake up and it could be too late." It took Olivia a minute to realize that Sirius had stopped. She turned to see where he had gone to find him standing just a few feet back with a look on his face that she couldn't quiet place.

Sirius mind seemed to be on temporary leave. Since when did Olivia get so... insightful? He thought about what she said and knew that every word of it was true but just couldn't seem to work out in his mind how it all came from Olivia. His best friend's little sister.

"What is it, Sirius?"

Sirius snapped out of his thoughts and gave a bark of laughter. "I think Evans would pass out if you told her all that."

"Well somebody needs to knock her off her high horse." They shared another laugh together as they continued their walk around the lake, not noticing that another figure had been watching their interaction from nearby.

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"Where are they?"

"Relax, Prongs. Padfoot said he'd be back for dinner and you know he's not going to miss a meal."

"No, Wormtail. He said he'd be back before dinner. Now, dinner is on the table but there is no Sirius and no Olivia." The words had barely left his mouth when Sirius and Olivia came together, laughing, into the Great Hall. The found their friends fairly quickly and sat down to enjoy their hot meal. "What took you guys so long?"

"What are you talking about, Jamie? We weren't gone that long. Remus, would you please pass the butter?"

"You were gone longer than Sirius said you would be. What were you doing?"

"Sheesh Prongs, we just took a walk around the lake."

James gave him an 'I really don't believe you but we'll let it go for now' look before they all got back to eating their dinners and talking about Quidditch.

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"What are you talking about, Goyle?" Lucius looked across the table at the burly Slytherin while working his way through a chicken leg.

"You better watch Black, Lucius. I saw them together. Walking around the lake. Alone and laughing, having a good time."

Lucius studied Goyle's expression for a few seconds before moving his stare across the hall to the Gryffindor table where Olivia was sitting beside her brother and across from Sirius Black, laughing and eating her dinner.

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Author's Note: Please review and let me know what you think. -PJ