Chapter 2
Oliver is basically vibrating with joy. He’s very excited for his first year at Hogwarts. Euphemia and Fleamont were very clear on the fact that Oliver was to be looked after by James (and by extension Peter) which means that they were to share a compartment until Oliver was ready to be on his own. This meant that Oliver got to meet James’ friends, which he was extremely excited about (albeit a little nervous). Effie and Monty shed many tears on the platform which causes Oliver and James to share a concerned look. Their parents would be okay on their own, right? They hope so.
Effie and Monty eventually let them go and they board the train. They find a spare compartment after James is sure his friends haven’t already boarded. The three of them put their trunks above the seats and Oliver promises Ashe she’ll be fine until they make it to Hogwarts. She seems sad that she has to be in the cage but she knows there’s no getting out of it.
Oliver sits down next to the window and James sits next to him. Peter sits across from them. Oliver leans his head against the window and watches parents make tearful goodbyes to their children. He catches eyes with his parents who wave. He waves back and nudges James to wave too. Peter also waves.
The compartment door slides opens and Oliver turns to see Remus walk in with Lily in tow. James gets to his feet and pulls Remus into a hug. Peter waves from where he sists. James opens his arms for Lily who looks at him up and down before giving and hugging him. She looks over his shoulder and sees Oliver sitting in the corner. She smiles bright and Oliver smiles back with a small wave. Lily pulls away from james and steps around him so she can get to Oliver. She offers a hug to him to which he accepts. She sits down next to him. “It’s so good to finally meet you in person, Oliver,” she says.
Oliver nods. “It’s good to see you too.” Lily isn’t in her Hogwarts uniform, as is the same for everyone. She’s wearing a sweater over a white button up shirt and a plaid skirt along with a pair of black tights. She’s got a scarf around her neck.
James seems sad that he can’t sit next to his brother but he’s cheered up almost instantly when the compartment door opens again. He’s basically throwing himself at Sirius who has no time to prepare himself. He flinches violently, to which James immediately pulls away. Sirius takes a deep breath before smiling at James. “Hi James.”
“I missed you,” James says without any amount of embarrassment towards admitting it. Oliver’s brother never has been one for embarrassment.
Sirius smiles and opens his arms for James to hug him again. “I missed you too, James.”
Oliver leans closer to Lily. “Are they always like this?”
Lily also leans in. “Pretty much. Inseparable, those two.”
“Who knows what they’ll do when they’re put in different classes,” Peter speaks up. Both James and Sirius turn to glare at him. He smiles innocently at his friends.
“Careful, Pettigrew,” Sirius says. His eyes glint with mischief. “We have a rule not to talk about sad things.”
Peter rolls his eyes. “Uh huh, sure. Sorry, Sirius.”
James laughs as Sirius pouts. Sirius’ eyes meet Oliver and his face lights up. “You must be Oliver!”
Oliver smiles. “Yup, that’s me. It’s nice to meet you, Sirius.”
Sirius nods. “It is. James talks about you constantly.”
James nods shamelessly while smiling. Oliver laughs. “I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of the stories about the Great Sirius Black.”
The train lurches as it heads off. Sirius, James and Remus are forced to sit down. Peter swaps places with Remus so he can sit near the window and James sits next to Peter with Sirius next to Lily. James, Peter, Sirius and Remus start relaying what happened over their holidays while Lily shares her stories with Oliver. Oliver tells her what it was like at home without James and she shares how she’s upset her sister couldn’t come to hogwarts too.
“That must’ve been difficult,” Oliver says. “I mean, I hated being away from James for so long but we did have the mirrors to communicate and we both knew I’d be at Hogwarts the year after so we would only have the one year apart. Was your sister happy to see you home for the holidays?”
Lily frowns. “I’m not sure. She didn’t take me being accepted into Hogwarts very well. She called me all kinds of names but my mum and dad said that she was just sad I’d be going. She tried to guilt trip me so many times to get me to stay with her but I couldn’t stay. It’s Hogwarts, right? I had to go.”
Oliver nods. “I get it. There’s nothing she can do to change any of this. Even if you didn’t go to Hogwarts, you’d still be able to do magic you just wouldn’t know how to control it. It’s better that you go to Hogwarts than to stay home and accidentally hurt someone.”
Lily takes a moment to comprehend Oliver’s words. “Wow. I guess you’re right.” She smiles. “Thank you, Oliver.”
“Of course,” Oliver smiles back. Lily reaches over to squeeze his hand. Oliver can see why James fancies her. Other than the fact she’s drop dead gorgeous, she’s also kind and very smart. Apparently she also likes potions and aspires to do work at St Mungos when she’s out of school. She truly is amazing.
After everyone gets into their uniform, Lily goes to find her dormmates Mary and Marlene. The train stops shortly after and the students pile out. Sirius seems to be looking for someone. When he finds the person, a strange mix of emotions cross his face— Oliver’s best bet would be something between relief, sadness and the smallest bit of resentment. He’ll look away at James or at where he’s walking and then look up and lose them. Everytime he would, panic would cross his features and he looked like he might die.
It’s very strange to look at. The first years are herded towards the boats so James gives his brother one last hug before letting him go off. The boat ride to Hogwarts is weird and Oliver decides that he never wants to be on a boat ever again. The first years are guided into the castle by a man that doesn’t bother to introduce himself. He’s got a cat following him around. She looks very wiry. Oliver doesn’t pay much attention to that because wow. The castle is so much cooler than James had described. The ceilings are high and the portraits on the walls smile and wave at them when they walk past. They’re taken to the Great Hall where Professor Mcgonagall addresses them.
“Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup.” There’s a murmur of voices all around Oliver and he’s suddenly missing his big brother very much. “The Sorting Ceremony will begin momentarily.”
Mcgonagall looks like James described. He spoke very highly of her, being his head of house and all. She’s not old but she isn’t young, either. She’s got crows feet around her eyes and her hair is greying. She has it tied into a bun. She’s got square framed glasses sitting on her nose and she’s wearing a green dress with a grey vest. She walks into the Great Hall, leaving the students behind.
No one speaks and everyone kind of just stands there awkwardly. Oliver notices a certain boy off to the side that kind of looks like Sirius. He’s got the same black hair but his is shorter than Sirius’ but they’ve got the same grey eyes. Oliver doesn’t get to think much of it before the doors open and the man with the cat ushers them all inside. The first years walk down the middle with Gryffindor on their right and Ravenclaw on their left. Oliver spots James easily. He’s sitting next to his friends. Lily’s sitting a bit further up the table with two girls. Oliver assumes they’re Mary and Marlene. With what both Lily and James have told him, Mary’s the one with dark skin and dark curly hair while the very pale blonde girl is Marlene. Quite opposites, those two.
When James spots him he smiles big and Oliver does his best to reciprocate it. He’s worried about the house he’s going to be sorted into. He’s unsure what’ll happen. James has talked about his sorting so many times that the words have been jumbled in Oliver’s head. He can’t remember what exactly happened but apparently the hat didn’t talk for very long and he shouted Gryffindor very loudly at the end. Apparently the hat does that for every house.
The names are called out in alphabetical order. There are a lot of first years and Oliver forgets their names as soon as they get up there.
“Regulus Black?”
Wait Black? As in Sirius Black? Oliver turns his head to see Sirius looking very anxious. Oliver turns his head to the Slytherin table. He sees a woman who is looking intently at Regulus like he might turn around and kill them all if not given their full attention. Regulus walks up and sits down on the stool. Professor Mcgonagall sets the Sorting Hat on his head. It moves, causing Regulus’ head to turn with it. “Hmm, Regulus Black. I have been waiting for you.” Regulus’ face scrunches up. “Hmm… Where to put you, where to put you.”
People start whispering and James is holding one of Sirius’ hands. Oh. This is Sirius’ brother. James hasn’t talked about him a lot— if more than once to tell him that Sirius does, in fact, have a brother.
“Slytherin!”
Regulus’ shoulders slump slightly but he’s quick to pick himself back up. He glances briefly at his brother before getting up and walking over to sit next to the woman that had stood out of Oliver before. When he sits down, she puts her hand over his. Oliver looks at Sirius to see him slumped over. He’s not sure whether or not Sirius is relieved or upset. Maybe both. He wants his little brother in his house but he also wants his brother to be safe from their parents.
Mcgonagall continues reading out names and they’re getting down the list. People get sorted into all four houses though Oliver doesn’t really pay any attention to anyone in particular. Barty Crouch Jr gets put into Slytherin— which no one was expecting considering his dad's been talked about for the Minister of Magic position if the current Minister were to step down. Other than that, Oliver can’t comprehend all the different names.
“Oliver Potter.”
Oliver balls his hands into fists. He takes one last look at his brother before walking up to the stool. He sits down and pain blooms in his palms when his nails break the skin. The hat gets placed on his head. “Potter, ey?” Oliver swallows. He feels goosebumps break out all over his skin.
“We’ll love you no matter what house you get sorted into.”
That’s what Monty had said before. He doesn’t care what house Oliver’s in and neither does Effie. They don’t care. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t.
“You’re very loyal. Yes, you’re loyal,” the Sorting hat says. It’s not like he’s talking to the people around him, he’s more so talking to himself. “But you’re also cunning and ambitious. You believe in optimism and you’re often the first to volunteer for something. You love your family but you care greatly about what they think of you.”
Wow. Oliver swears he never heard about the Sorting Hat being like this with James. Oliver doesn’t entirely care about the things the hat’s saying and the fact that everyone now knows them. James already knew these things. Perhaps not the thing about Oliver caring deeply about what his family thinks about him but doesn’t mind James knowing that. Oliver looks over at his brother who seems a bit nervous. It’s making Oliver nervous.
“Slytherin!”
What.
Oliver’s eyes widen so much he’s afraid they’re going to pop out of his head. James looks distraught and Sirius looks like he’s having a midlife crisis. Both Peter and Remus are trying to comfort their friends. Peter looks a bit like James though so he isn’t helping much. At least Lily’s smiling at him.
Mcgonagall takes the hat off his head. He stands and starts walking over to the Slytherin table. Not a lot of people care about some random first year but Regulus is looking at him and James is looking at him and Sirius is looking at him and- and everyone is looking at him but they’re not and Oliver can’t seem to figure out how to breathe.
He continues to clench his hands into fists as he sits down at the table with some of the other first years that don’t know anyone which means they have no one to sit with. The Sorting Ceremony continues. Oliver can’t bring himself to look at his brother. What if he’s angry? What if he’s mad? What if he doesn’t want to be Oliver’s brother anymore? What if he cares about what house Oliver’s in? What if his parents didn’t actually mean that and they hate him now because he got Slytherin? What if-
Oliver’s startled out of his thoughts when a girl with dark skin and very blonde hair sits down next to him. She smiles at him. There’s a boy that looks a lot like her that sits down next to her. Perhaps they’re siblings. They look like twins.
“Hello!” she says. She offers her hand to Oliver. He blinks at it for a moment before reaching over to shake her hand.
“Hi. I’m Oliv-” Oliver doesn’t get through his introduction because the girl takes his hand gently and turns it so his palm is facing up. There’s little trickles of blood running down his skin from crescent shaped wounds. Oliver grimaces. “Sorry. I wouldn’t want to shake that hand either.”
The girl’s smile doesn’t waver. She pulls out a small potion bottle and opens it. She tips little drops of it onto his palm. He watches her do the same with his other hand. When she’s done, she puts the bottle back into her robes before leaning back to admire her work. Oliver stares dumbfounded at his hands. The wounds have completely healed over and the blood is gone.
“Wow,” Oliver mumbles. He looks up at her. “Thank you.”
She nods. “Of course. I can already tell that we’re going to be great friends.” Something flickers in her eyes. Happiness, maybe. Knowledge, but does that sound weird? “Anyway, I should go.” She stands and waves at the boy that looks like her before walking away.
“What-”
“She’s in Ravenclaw,” the boy says. Oliver looks at him with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Then what was she doing here?” he asks.
The boy shrugs. “Dunno. She does what she wants. I’ve stopped trying to stop her.”
Oliver just nods slowly, not knowing what else to do. He looks down at his hands and then offers his left one to the boy. “Well I’m Oliver Potter.”
The boy takes his hand. “Evan. Rosier. That was my twin sister Pandora.”
“It was very nice of her to do that for me,” Oliver says. He looks at the table over to try and spot her. She’s sitting with four girls.
Evan hums. “She’s a strange one, Panda is. She’s very smart so I’m not surprised she got Ravenclaw. I also wasn’t surprised she decided to stop here.”
“Why?” Oliver asks, looking back over at Evan.
“She… knows things,” Evan says carefully. “We think she’s a seer. She gets dreams sometimes that tell her things about the future. She claims to know every friend we’re going to make here, though she won’t tell me “until the time is right”. I suppose you’re one of the lucky few.”
Oliver begins to nod but stops when Evan’s words really sink in. “Wait what? How does she know that? And why would we be friends?” Evan raises his eyebrows. “Not that I don’t want to be friends,” Oliver rushes to defend himself. “I do. You seem great but I don’t see why we would be. I wasn’t even expecting to be sorted into Slytherin.”
Evan shrugs. “Pandora knows what she knows so she gets to pick and choose what she tells others. She’ll tell us what she means when she needs to and not a moment sooner- as she’s told me many times.”
“Well, Evan, I look forward to being your friend,” Oliver says. He smiles and Evan looks him up and down.
“Just because Pandora says we’re going to be friends, doesn’t mean we will be.”
Oliver laughs. “Oh Evan, you seriously underestimate my ability to get people to like me.”
Evan raises his eyebrows. “Is that a challenge or a threat?”
Oliver flashes him a grin. “Both.”
The rest of the Sorting Ceremony goes on fine. Oliver sort of stopped paying attention after he got sorted. The feast begins and Oliver talks to Evan more about random things. Evan likes to draw, apparently. Oliver asks him what he likes to draw and he gets all snappy and closed off. Oliver apologises and they switch the conversation over to something else.
After the feast, the first years get shown to their houses. Oliver doesn’t catch the name of the girl that shows the Slytherins to the dungeons. Oliver and Evan stay close together because they’re “fated friends” as Pandora decided. The room has a green hint to everything. It’s a big space with the walls lined with portraits. A lot of portraits. The middle is open with couches and tables around the edges. There’s a big window with a place to sit underneath. The window doesn’t show the Hogwarts Grounds, no, it shows the inside of the lake. They are in the dungeons after all.
“Girls over there, boys over there,” the girl showing them around says. “Your belongings have already been brought up to your dorms and if you have an owl, they’ve been brought to the owlery. If you have any issues with your dormmates then bring them up with our head of house, Horace Slughorn. Classes start on Monday, so the fourth of September. Breakfast is at 7:30 and classes start when the bell tolls- blah blah blah. Ask Slughorn or another Slytherin — preferably not a first year — if you don’t know what to do. Enjoy your stay at Hogwarts.” She walks away and the first years all look at each other. They start off to their rooms, the girls going one way, the boys the other.
It makes more sense why Pandora thought they’d be friends when Evan and Oliver discover that they’re sharing a dorm. They walk in together to see two boys already in there. Oliver recognises them both. Barty Crouch Jr is sitting on his bed, already taking off his shoes while Regulus Black is taking things out of his trunk. They both turn when the door opens. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Regulus says.
Oliver blinks. “Um, hi. I’m Oliver.”
“We know,” Barty says. He grins. “We were at the Sorting Ceremony. The professor said all of our names before we walked up to get sorted.”
Oliver nods. “Right. Sorry.”
“You know, you apologise a lot,” Evan says as he walks over to the bed his trunk has been put in front of.
Oliver sighs. “Sor-” Evan gives him a look and Oliver clears his throat. “I’ll work on it.”
Evan shrugs. “I wasn’t saying it was a bad thing. Though you should probably learn to tone it down. It’s not very Slytherin of you.”
Regulus scoffs and Oliver frowns. “Yeah,” he mumbles. He goes over to his bed and takes off his shoes. He grabs out his pyjamas like the other three do. Barty seems to have no boundaries and changes in the middle of the dorm. Oliver averts his eyes and is glad when Evan gets out of the bathroom so he can change without having to look at Barty’s naked body. When he gets into the bathroom he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and sees his cheeks are slightly pink. He ignores whatever that means and gets changed. He gets out and lets Regulus into the bathroom.
Oliver kneels in front of his trunk to get out some of his things. He chucks his wand onto his bed. He gets out a book and sets it on his nightstand. He sits on his bed and starts to pull his curtains closed, wishing deeply that James hadn’t taken his mirror to give to Sirius (it was fine to give it to him during the holidays but what did he need it for while they were at school? They have all of their classes together and they share a dorm) but Barty whines. “Oh don’t be boring! It’s not even 9 yet.”
Oliver looks at Evan who shrugs. Oliver puts his curtains back and sits down on his bed. “Well what did you want to do until we have to go to bed?”
The bathroom door clicks as it opens and Regulus walks out. He ignores everyone and goes straight to his bed to pull the curtains closed. Barty groans but Regulus doesn’t even acknowledge any of them. His curtains glow faintly as a silencing charm is put around his bed. This leaves Oliver, Evan and Barty to entertain each other.
“Let’s sneak out,” is Barty’s first option.
Evan rolls his eyes. “Yeah, Crouch, no. We’re not going to sneak out and get in trouble on the first night here.”
Barty pouts. “But curfew starts at 10!”
Evan gives him a look. “Do you know where anything is in this castle?”
Barty’s eyes shine. “Oh but Rosier, that's why we’ve got to go exploring.”
Evan wrinkles his nose when Barty completely butches the pronunciation of his last name. “Rosier,” Evan corrects. “Ro-zyé.”
“That’s what I said.” Barty leans back on his hands. “Row-zee-ur.”
Evan shakes his head. “No, you imbecile. Rosier. It’s a French name so it’s pronounced Ro-zyé.”
Oliver smiles as he watches Evan and Barty say the same things over and over again. Perhaps Pandora was onto something. The way Barty smirks gives away the fact he knows he’s saying it wrong and he’s just doing it to piss off Evan. Oliver can’t tell if he actually knows how to say it properly or if he’s just an idiot.
“You know what, fine!” Evan throws up his hands. “Pronounce my name incorrectly. I don’t give a shit.”
Barty pouts. “Oh my little Rosie, you don’t have to get so upset.”
One of Evan’s eyes twitch. “Watch yourself, Crouch.”
Barty sighs dreamily. “Oh stop flirting with me, Rosier, you make me blush.” He continues to mispronounce Evan’s last name which makes him groan and fall back onto his bed. Oliver laughs which makes Evan hold up his middle finger. All this does is make Oliver laugh harder. Barty laughs with him and Evan grabs one of his pillows to hold over his face.
“You can both go fuck yourselves,” Evan mumbles through the pillow.
“Oh Rosier.” Oliver puts a hand over his chest, also botching the pronunciation of Evan’s last name. It feels weird to do so because English is not Oliver’s first language. Well, Effie and Monty raised James and Oliver to be fluent in both Spanish and English so it’s more like English isn’t Oliver’s only language. He knows how to pronounce it properly but he also wants to piss Evan off. “You’re just an angel, you know that?”
Evan sits up and throws his pillow at Oliver with deadly aim. Oliver has lived with James for his whole life and has had many many sleepovers with him so he can sense a pillow to the face from a mile away. He ducks in time for the pillow to miss him and hit his headboard. He turns and grabs the pillow to throw it back at Evan. He notices the way Barty’s clutching his stomach while he cackles so he decides that the pillow is better off in Barty’s face.
“You just declared war, Potter,” Barty announces. The three of them start throwing pillows at each other while cussing each other out.
The fight dies down and they each declare that they’re ready for bed. Barty and Evan close their curtains and Oliver’s about to close his and go to sleep but Regulus opens his. They just stare at each other before Regulus gets up and walks into the bathroom without uttering a single word. Oliver blinks at the closed bathroom door before drawing his curtains. Regulus black is weird. He locates his wand and casts a silencing charm. Oliver remembers practising different spells with sticks in his backyard with James. They weren’t allowed to use real magic but they’d bugged their parents enough to get them to agree to teach them. Casting a real spell is daunting and he isn’t sure if he’s done it right.
It’ll have to do though. He mutters “Lumos,” under his breath and the tip of his wand glows. He gets comfortable while grabbing his book. He holds up his wand so he can start to read. The silencing spell’s entire purpose is because Oliver’s an active reader. If something juicy happens then he is either screaming, giggling, kicking his feet, and/or making gagging sounds. It really depends.
Oliver had put his book away at about 2 in the morning, as his pocket watch had told him. He wakes up when Evan opens his curtains and lets in the light. Oliver groans and buries his head into his pillow. “Wakey wakey,” Barty says in a sing-song voice from somewhere behind Evan.
“Five more minutes,” Oliver mumbles against his pillow.
“Nuh uh.” Evan flicks Oliver’s head. “It’s already 7:45. We’re late for breakfast as it is and Pandora’s probably worried about me.”
“Can’t imagine what your brother’s gonna think we did to you,” Regulus says. Oliver raises his head high enough to see Regulus filling his book bag with books. Him, Evan and Barty are in their uniform already except Barty’s tie isn’t done up.
Oliver groans and he flops down again. “You have a point.” He takes another moment to regret all of his life choices before getting out of bed and taking his uniform into the bathroom with him. He gets changed as quickly as his body will let him while it catches up with the fact it needs to be awake. He’s significantly more awake when he steps out of the bathroom and is immediately smacked in the face with a pillow. Oliver just stands still for a moment before slowly turning to Barty who was the one that had thrown said pillow. “You are dead to me, Crouch.”
All Barty does is wink before they’re leaving the dorm. Oliver grabs his wand and his own book bag (that already has all of his books in it because he’d done it at home before they left for Kings Cross) which he slings over his shoulder. He walks with his dormmates through the common room and out into the dungeons. They follow a bunch of other students who are also going to the Great Hall for breakfast. Oliver’s still a bit tired. He rubs his eyes as he walks. Barty and Evan are talking about something while Regulus just ignores them.
“So what do you think of Hogwarts so far?” Oliver asks, trying to spark up a conversation between them.
Regulus glares at him. “Let me get one thing straight, Potter, you and I are not friends. Just because our brothers are doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you. Stay out of my way.”
Oliver blinks and then snorts. “Uh, that’ll be quite difficult considering we share a dorm.”
“We are not friends,” Regulus snaps again and Oliver sighs with a smile on his face.
“Oh Regulus. We will be friends. I’m certain you’ll fall in love with me.”
Regulus gives him an unimpressed glare. “That is ridiculous.”
“Yeah well I think you’re ridiculous,” Oliver responds. The doors to the Great Hall open for them and they walk in. Regulus stops acknowledging Oliver and goes to sit down with Evan and Barty at his heels. Oliver’s about to follow them when he’s pulled into a hug. He chokes slightly and pats James’ back.
James buries his head into his brother’s shoulder. Oliver exhales deeply before hugging him back. “I’m so sorry,” is all James says.
Oliver furrows his eyebrows as he pulls away. “Sorry? Sorry for what?”
“For getting into a different house than me,” James elaborates and it makes Oliver smile slightly. He didn’t say because Oliver got into Slytherin, he’s more worried about Oliver not being with his brother. “I didn’t see that coming.”
Oliver shrugs. “It’s not that bad. I was surprised too when the hat put me there but the people in my dorm aren’t so bad.” James glances over at the Slytherin table and Oliver follows his gaze. Barty’s trying to shove sticks of butter up his nose while Pandora tries to stop him. Oliver scrunches up his face. “I never said they were smart or had any common sense,” he defends. James shakes his head with a sigh. “I really am okay, though,” Oliver assures his brother. “They’re nice.”
“They’re Slytherins,” James points out.
“I’m a Slytherin,” Oliver replies and the guilt that crosses James’ face immediately makes Oliver feel bad. “I didn’t mean to insinuate you were being rude to me, James. I know you weren’t. What I meant was that not everyone in Slytherin is a bad person.”
James nods slowly. “I get it- really, I do, it’s just that Sirius has said some not so good things about Slytherin and I was worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” Oliver promises. “I’ve got…” He trails off while looking over to Barty, Evan, Pandora and Regulus again. The butter sticks have been confiscated and now Barty’s deep in conversation with Pandora about something. Evan and Regulus are talking to each other about something. It’s a strange thing to see considering Barty’s in the middle of Regulus and Evan. Barty’s almost got his chest pressed against the table so he can talk to Pandora who’s on the other side while Evan and Regulus are leaning back slightly to talk to each other. A small smile pulls at the corner of Oliver’s mouth. “Friends,” he finishes. “I’ve got friends.”
James sighs and wraps Oliver in another hug. When he pulls away, he presses something into Oliver’s palm. He looks down to see his mirror. He curls his fingers around it while looking up at James.
“What about Sirius?” Oliver asks.
James smiles. “Sirius will have it in the holidays but while we’re at Hogwarts, you can have it. This way you can reach me if you ever need me.”
Oliver nods and slips the mirror into the inside pocket of his robes. “Thanks Jamie.”
“Oi Potter!” Barty yells.
Oliver looks over to see Barty waving him over. Oliver looks back at his brother. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to you later?”
James nods. “Definitely.” Oliver turns and begins to walk away when James catches his arm. “Hey wait.” Oliver turns and James frowns. “If they give you any trouble, you tell me right away, okay? That’s the deal.”
Oliver rolls his eyes but smiles. “I can handle myself, but sure. That’s the deal.” James seems happy with that so he lets his brother go. They walk away from each other to sit with their respective friend groups. Oliver sits down next to Pandora. “What’re we talkin’ about?”
“Barty was telling me about how Evan absolutely hates how he doesn’t pronounce our last name correctly,” Pandora explains. Evan sends her a glare which makes her smile. “And I was telling Barty that I didn’t mind it.”
“I’m guessing Evan was not a fan of that?” Oliver asks. Barty grins as he shakes his head. He’s still basically hugging the table even though Regulus and Evan have stopped their conversation in favour of listening to them. “Yikes.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Evan says. “It’s not that hard. Rosier.”
“Row-zee-ur!” Barty yells. He leans back to be face to face with Evan. “That’s literally what I’ve been saying.”
Regulus screws up his nose. “No. Ro-zyé. It’s French so you have to add an accent to be able to pronounce it properly.”
“Oh he knows,” Pandora says. “He knows perfectly well how to say it.”
Evan punches Barty’s arm. “Then why the fuck have you kept doing it?” Barty and Evan get into a row about Evan’s last name again. Pandora seems to find this rather amusing. She leans close to Oliver.
“I never said he was capable of saying it.”
Oliver laughs which makes Pandora’s smile widen. When Oliver’s got control over his stomach, he grabs a waffle from the table and bites into it. He sees that only Pandora has food in front of her. “This food isn’t going to last forever people,” he says. Oliver gestures to the food but Evan and Barty aren’t paying attention to him. He picks up a roll of bread and chucks it at Barty’s head. “Oi. Food.”
Barty glares at him but starts putting things on his plate. Evan does the same but Regulus doesn’t. Oliver stares at him until he eventually sighs and puts food onto his plate. Oliver doesn’t stop staring at him until he sees him take a bite and swallow at least once. After that he’s satisfied enough to continue on with his day.
The bell tolls and the group goes off to their first class. They have Potions first which Oliver’s excited about.
The days go on but Oliver spends little time in the Slytherin Common Room and his dorm. He’s either in the courtyard or the library, always with James and his friends. It’s not that Oliver doesn’t like hanging out with his dormmates— he does! — it’s just that James doesn’t really trust them. Besides, he wants to spend time with his brother which Oliver sees nothing wrong with.
Regulus still refuses to hold a real conversation with him but by the end of September, he’s at least saying a few words whenever they’re alone in the dorm and Regulus does at least look at him when they pass each other in the corridors. He doesn’t smile or wave or even nod his head, he just looks over at him. Sometimes Regulus is sitting in a nook to read and every time Oliver walks past, he looks up in acknowledgement. A couple times Oliver has approached Regulus when he has nothing else to do to see if he’ll talk to him yet. So far nothing, but Oliver’s spirits haven’t been diminished. He’s determined to at least get Regulus to hold a full conversation and not immediately shut it down whenever Oliver talks for more than a minute.
“Hey Ollie, wait!” Oliver pauses as he’s about to step into the common room. James jogs up to him a little out of breath.
“You okay James?”
James nods. “Yeah, fine. I wanted to ask you about something.” Oliver nods for James to continue. “Lily’s been hanging out with that Snape boy a lot and I was wondering if you’ve seen her in the Slytherin Common Room at all?”
Oliver blinks at his brother. “Why can’t you just go ask Lily yourself?”
James frowns. “She won’t talk to me about it. She says that I should butt out of her life.”
“She has a good point,” Oliver says. James’ frown deepens. “Look, Jamie, last I checked, what Lily Evans does is none of your concern. If she doesn’t want you to know then it’s not my place to tell you.”
“But you’re my brother,” James whines.
Oliver purses his lips. “Exactly. I’m your brother, not your spy. Severus doesn’t seem like such a bad guy, why can’t you just leave him and Lily alone?”
“But what if they’re up to something?” James rushes out. “What if they’re-”
“What they do is none of your business,” Oliver cuts in. “Lily’s right. You should butt out of her life. I’m sorry, James, but it’s true. I can’t help you.” He turns around and walks into the common room. Truth is, Oliver doesn’t spend enough time in the common room to even know if Lily had been in there. The only times he’s in there is when he’s walking through. People aren’t exactly secretive when it comes to their dislike for Oliver. He’d never tell his brother but people have, on more than one occasion, called him a Blood Traitor and hexed him with a simple body binding curse or a Silencio spell. It’s not that bad and someone finds him eventually and removes the body bind.
He hasn’t said anything to James even after promising he’d go to him if anyone was making trouble. Oliver’s sure James would just make it worse if he did something to them. Besides it’s a lot of different people and some of them just mutter the words “Blood Traitor” under their breath whenever he walks past. He’s not sure if people do that to James. They most likely don’t considering he’s not in Slytherin and Gryffindors could not give two shits about Blood Purity. Most of them, anyway.
None of them have been from Severus Snape though, so he’s not lying to James on that front. Oliver thinks that Lily may have talked to him about not being mean to Oliver because he has seen Severus give disgusted looks to a lot of other first years or so-called “Blood Traitors” no matter what year they’re in. Blood Purity is a stupid concept.
Oliver’s thinking about that as he moves through the common room. There are people around the edges chatting on the couches, some are in the middle with papers out studying (though that’s only sixth and seventh years). Some of them glance in his direction but apart from that, no one acknowledges him. Until they do.
“Ascendio!”
Oliver yelps as he’s swept off his feet and propelled into the air. His back hits the wall with a thump and he falls to the floor. He groans and his head spins. His vision is blurry and he can’t see who did it. He blinks a couple times and looks up to see a boy and his friends grinning. Second years Mulciber and Avery are laughing, Mulciber has his wand out.
“Blood Traitor,” Mulicber sneers with a smirk. He starts to walk towards Oliver.
“Oi, fuck off would you?” A girl stands between Oliver and Mulciber with her own wand drawn. “Picking on first years is low, Mulciber, even for you.”
“Watch yourself, Meadowes,” Mulciber snaps. “You don’t want to step to me.”
The girl scoffs. “Oh go tell Daddy on me. Fuck off and leave him alone.”
“Listen to Dorcas, Wulfric, or that’s ten points from Slytherin,” Anika Sparks (Slytherin Prefect) warns from one of the couches.
Mulciber grumbles but puts his wand away and walks off, Avery in tow. Dorcas turns around and offers Oliver her hand. “You okay?”
Oliver takes it and pulls himself up while wincing. “Fine. Just hurt my back a little.”
Dorcas frowns. “I should take you to Madam Pomfrey.”
Oliver shakes his head quickly which makes everything start spinning again. He holds his head with a groan. “I’m fine,” he tells Dorcas. “I swear.”
Dorcas scoffs. “You can barely stand and I think you have a concussion. Come on, let’s go.” She takes Oliver’s arm and starts leading him out of the common room. He can’t be bothered fighting her anymore. His back does hurt a lot and his head is pounding. He also can’t walk in a straight line so Dorcas has to support him. It would be easier to keep his balance if the damn world would stop spinning.
They pass Regulus on the way to the Hospital Wing and he looks over as he usually does but this time he freezes as he sees how Oliver can barely hold himself up. He puts his book into his bag and walks over. “What happened?”
“I just fell down the stairs,” Oliver says before Dorcas can open her mouth. She gives him a look. “Damn moving staircases, am I right?” He laughs awkwardly.
Regulus narrows his eyes at him. He doesn’t say anything as he goes to Oliver’s other side and lets him sling his arm around his shoulders. Oliver transfers some of his weight off of Dorcas and onto Regulus. With the two of them, they get Oliver to the Hospital Wing way quicker than they would have with just Dorcas. Madam Pomfrey sees them and hurries over. “What happened?”
“Fell down some stairs and hurt my back,” Oliver tells her, sticking with his story.
“He also hit his head pretty badly,” Dorcas adds. Madam Pomfrey nods and gestures to one of the beds. Dorcas lets go as Regulus manoeuvres Oliver to be sat on the bed. He doesn’t lie down because he doesn’t need to. He’s only here because Dorcas said he needed to and he doesn’t have the strength to argue with her right now. Madam Pomfrey comes back with a potion and tells him to drink it. He does. The pain in his head seizes and the world comes to a stop. He smiles.
“Thank you, Madam Pomfrey.”
She nods. “Of course. Your back as well, yes?” Oliver nods. She pulls out her wand and waves it over his back. There’s a clicking in his back and the pain evaporates. He sighs in relief. “There you go, dear. Now, Mr. Black, am I correct in saying that you share a dorm with Mr. Potter?”
“I do,” Regulus says.
“Can you please keep an eye on him and if there’s any complications with the potion or if the pain comes back, do tell me straight away.”
Regulus nods and helps Oliver stand. He takes a few careful steps to test his balance. His legs feel a bit weak but he smiles. “I’m good.” Regulus nods again and lets go of his arm. Oliver grins at him. “Aw, you helped me.”
Regulus scrunches up his nose. “So?”
“You care,” Oliver teases. Regulus rolls his eyes and starts walking off. Oliver looks at Dorcas who seems rather amused by this whole situation. Oliver’s speed walks to catch up to Regulus. “Admit it, we’re friends.”
“No,” Regulus says plainly. They’re out of the Hospital Wing and are making their way down to the dungeons.
“Yup.” Oliver sighs dreamily. “You love me.”
Regulus makes a sound of disgust. “I would rather throw myself off these stairs.”
Oliver looks down as the stairs move. He cringes at the drop. “That would be painful.”
“Hm, wouldn’t you know?” Regulus gives a pointed look at Oliver before walking down the stairs again.
Oliver hurries to follow. Dorcas is a few steps behind them. “Well I’m very clumsy.”
“Okay,” Regulus says. “I don’t actually care.”
“Yes you do,” Dorcas says. Regulus stops to turn and glare at her. She rolls her eyes. “Oh come on, when you saw Potter was hurt, you were ready to murder someone.”
“Aww.” Oliver turns to Regulus who huffs and continues walking.
“In your dreams.”
“How’d you know I dream about you?” Oliver asks. Regulus glances over his shoulder and Oliver grins. They stop outside the common room. Regulus turns to Oliver.
“Who hurt you?”
Oliver blinks. “What?”
“Who hurt you?” Regulus asks again. “Who was it?”
“No one-”
“Meadowes?” Regulus turns to Dorcas. Oliver gives her a pleading look. She sighs.
“Sorry, Potter.” Dorcas looks at Regulus. “Mulciber and Avery. They’re second years like me.”
Regulus hums and turns around. He walks into the common room. Oliver and Dorcas share a look before following him in. Regulus doesn’t pay anyone in the room any mind. Avery and Mulciber are already gone. Regulus walks up to the dorm so Dorcas stays behind. “Thanks for everything,” Oliver says quickly before following Regulus up to the dorm. When he steps inside he sees Regulus grab something from his trunk. Barty’s in the room but Evan isn’t. “Regulus?”
“What?” Regulus doesn’t look up.
“What are you doing?” Oliver asks carefully.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Regulus says offhandedly. He stands and walks past Oliver. “I’m going to the library,” he says before leaving, closing the door behind him.
The room’s silent for a moment. “What was that about?” Barty asks.
“No idea,” Oliver replies. “I sort of don’t wanna know.”
Barty hums. “Well what happened to you, huh? Heard you were in the Hospital Wing.”
Oliver snaps his head over to Barty. “Where’d you hear that?”
Barty raises his eyebrows. “Around. Word travels fast here. So what happened?”
“Fell down some stairs,” Oliver mumbles under his breath as he walks over to his bed. He grabs his book bag that he’d put at the end of his bed. He presses the pads of his fingers against the cold surface of his mirror. James is going to hear about this. Will he believe that stair story? Regulus didn’t but it didn’t seem to bother him. Does he care about Oliver? For a minute there, he believed he did but maybe that was all in his head. “Where’s Evan?”
Barty groans. “With his sister. The stupid idiot banished me from talking to her for the rest of the week.”
Oliver snorts. He puts his bag down, thankful for the distraction. “Why? What did you do?”
There is a look of pure mischief in Barty’s eyes as he grins at Oliver. “We were left unsupervised.”
“Barty,” Oliver starts. He raises his eyebrows. “What did you do?”
“Set a couple books on fire.”
“BARTY!”
Barty breaks down laughing while Oliver shoves his face into his hands to hide his smile. “We were left unsupervised! I wanted to set something on fire and Pandora wanted to see what a burning book looked like.”
“What is wrong with you?” Oliver looks up with a big smile on his face. He starts laughing. “Oh Merlin, you’re insane.”
“Oh I know.”