In the months to follow, Sirius and Olivia grew close, relying on each other heavily to keep their sanity intact. Olivia managed to keep her secret about her heritage, even though she'd told Sirius her name and he kind of suspected it.
They talked about everything- Sirius talked about what he remembers of the world, and Olivia brought him up to speed as best she could. Once her birthday came around, Sirius even managed to sneak her one of the mandrake leaves he'd managed to hold on to- though he wouldn't say why he had them.
It was about a year after Olivia had been incarcerated that she brought up a different subject- escaping.
"You've put up with this place for ten years?" Olivia asked again as her stomach rumbles with the disgusting food once again.
"I haven't had much of an option." Sirius chuckled, even though it sounded empty.
"You haven't thought about leaving?" Olivia had a fleeting thought of the guards hearing her talking about escaping, and lowered her voice slightly just in case.
"There are ways I could attempt it, but it's dangerous. Besides, if I leave I just have a life of hiding to go back to. Hell I've got more company here then I would get out there." He tried to joke, sounding depressed about the whole ordeal.
"Well if you take me with you then you'll have company out there, too," Olivia half-joked, but Sirius knew she was seriously suggesting it.
"I don't know if I could get you out, too," Sirius sighed, checking the hallways again to make sure there aren't any dementors around.
"Well how're you getting out? Is there not room for one more?" Olivia asked, realising how manipulative she sounded but brushed it off. He knew her well enough to know she just genuinely wanted out.
"It involves some advanced magic, took me years to learn." Sirius mentioned, unsure if he should even suggest it.
"I still have nineteen years," She joked, "Besides, I don't have anyone to go back to either."
"What about your step family?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, the Malfoys definitely want me back." Olivia rolled her eyes, grateful that Sirius couldn't see the sadness on her face when she thought of abandoning Draco.
"You never told me your step family was the Malfoys. How horrible was your birth family that they put you with that bunch?" Sirius tried to joke, but it struck a cord with Olivia.
"They didn't have a choice." She said quietly as tears welled up in her eyes.
The two of them didn't talk the rest of that evening, and went to sleep in deep and sad thoughts.
~
"I'm ready."
Sirius, who was barely awake, brushed the hair out of his face, "Hmm?"
Olivia, who'd been awake for several hours but didn't look any more put together, elaborated, "The difficult magic you talked about. I'm not going to be stuck here for twenty years, i'm ready to learn the magic."
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked, actually waking up. Was this kid seriously asking him to teach her how to become an animagus?
"Definitely." She affirmed, glad he couldn't see how crazy she must look.
"Okay then. How much do you know about human transformation?" Sirius asked, a slight smile growing on his face.
-
"Why is this part of the process?" Olivia asked as she stared at the mandrake leaf she'd been smuggled months before.
"I don't know. It's in all the books." Sirius shrugged, remembering his personal experience, "I did it over the summer my third year- couldn't really have a mandrake leaf in my mouth for school."
"I mean I guess so. I'll start tonight, then we can mark of days. Is it 30 or 31 days?" She asked, deciding to just do with it.
"31 full days." Sirius supplied.
"Ughh," Olivia groaned, placing the browning leaf inside her cheek and falling asleep fitfully.
-
"Once the sun sets tonight you can take that leaf out, "Sirius greeted Olivia that morning a month later.
"Oh szank gahd," She slobbering. Turns out it's hard to talk as a poisonous leaf slowly disintegrates in your mouth.
"Although, I'm going to miss your lisp," Sirius joked. Olivia rolled her eyes, not that he could see her.
"Shud up," she responded, earning laughter from her prison mate.
-
"Ist it done?" She asked eagerly an hour after their supper had been finished. Not only was it hard to talk with the mandrake leaf, eating was a nightmare. She was looking forward to really chowing down.
"Say the incantation I taught you one more time and then you can take it out. But do NOT throw it away." He stressed, racking his brain for all the detailed steps he'd taken so many years ago.
"Zhe beas inside 'f me ish'waiting to come ou. An' today, I will le' it run free." She recited the stupid mantra and pulled the skeleton of a leaf out of her mouth, saliva getting all over the place. She placed it on the dinner tray that had yet to be collected and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Feel better?" Sirius asked from down the hall, and Olivia could almost hear his smile.
"Much better. So what do we do with this leaf that I have to keep it around any longer?" She asked skeptically, looking at the disintegrated foliage in her gruel tray.
"We have to make a potion out of it. You'd better get used to that leaf, it'll take a while to get the potion's ingredients from the scraps we get here." Sirius joked, but wasn't really kidding at all.
"As long as it's all worth it in the end, I'll marry this leaf for all I care." Olivia quipped back, and Sirius could've sworn that James had said the exact same words to him. The teary smile that played on his lips made him immensely glad his prodigy couldn't see him, for he did not want to go through explaining James to her. After all, how could you possibly describe your best friend to a stranger?
~~
VERY IMPORTANT: Please please please leave me suggestions for what Olivia's animagus form would be!
Look at me, updating like three months later. Fun fact: this book was first released roughly a year ago (give or take a few days) which is what inspired me to actually finish this chapter tonight.
You know, instead of doing my French project which can heavily impact my grade.
You're welcome everyone.
Please leave feedback, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed.