Obedient Heart | J. POTTER

6 | a will and a determination

Olivia refused to leave her room for a week. Lily had managed to get her to shower once and while she did, she changed the sheets to the bed so that it wasn't the one that had been on it that night.

James and Sirius had immediately set to work on revamping whatever spell had been made on the stairs so that the boys couldn't get up there. Other members of their house suggested that they just leave it and Sirius hexed them.

The three of them worked to gather all of the work she had missed out on but it was getting to the point where they weren't sure what to do. Teachers were asking questions that they didn't have the answers to.

And then there was the matter of Gilderoy and Georgia.

Gilderoy had gone on acting as though nothing had happened, which was beyond infuriating. Georgia was irritated that Olivia had disappeared without a word.

In fact, the girl had sent multiple letters to Olivia but Lily intercepted them, burning them as soon as Georgia vanished from sight. It was safe to say that the Slytherin was not happy with this arrangement.

James and Lily had got to talking about Olivia and her odd behavior pre-Gilderoy incident. Lily explained that it was actually normal for her to act that way.

"Normal?" James had asked. "To do exactly what everyone requests of her?"

Lily nodded, "While Georgia tends to ask quite a bit of her, Liv has always done what others ask. No matter what. That's just the type of person she is."

His eyebrows pinched together in confusion, "But everything?" He frowned, "It's too precise. I - I mean...she does exactly what's asked of her. Word for word. That's never struck you as weird?"

"Of course it has," Lily huffed, "But anytime I ask about it, she gets all closed off and tells me to drop it." She shook her head, "Why do you even care? You barely know her."

"I-" he cut himself off. Why did he care? "The whole Wizarding World seems to think we're together," he reminded the girl, "I can't have her doing anything stupid right now."

Lily scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief, "Of course that's all you care about." She stood up and turned to the boy, her arms folded across her chest, "Don't you have Quidditch practice? Or anything better than this? Wouldn't want your image to be ruined because you're camping out with a mudblood."

His eyes widened, "Woah, hang on." He stood up quickly, "I'm not like that."

"Sure you aren't," she scoffed. "I have to go study for Potions, maybe it's best for you to distance yourself from anything Olivia. Merlin forbid, people think you care about anyone other than yourself."

James ran a frustrated hand through his hair but did nothing to stop the girl from leaving. What was it with people assuming so much about him? Why wasn't he allowed to have and form his own opinions about things without being told that they're somehow wrong?

He stood up to make his way to leave the common room when he saw someone descending the stairs from the girl's side. Olivia. He caught her eye and they both watched each other for a moment. She seemed fine. But too fine. Like, she was putting on an act to fool those around her. She finished her descent down the stairs, "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought there was Quidditch practice today."

"Yeah, there is," he replied, running his hand through his hair. "I was about to head out, but I wanted to-"

"I actually have a few things that I need to take care of," she interrupted and he immediately stopped talking. "I'll see you around, though. Have fun at practice."