Chapter twenty five; Tight schedule

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Olivia almost didn't recognise the girl in front of her as she panted for air. She looked dead; pale skinned, dead eyed,
unhealthy and absolutely terrified.

It was harrowing to see Alexis in the state she was.

It caused her to wonder instantly. Is that what Draco looked like? From there she fell into bouts of worry and anxiety. She questioned her decision to ever leave Draco when she had been presented with the opportunity so many times to help him. Why she didn't convince him to leave with her in their sixth year?

It was Blaise who tore her from her thoughts as he stepped forwards towards her cautiously, "Lex?"

"Didn't you listen to a word I said?!" Alexis puffed, her tone worried, "Olivia you need to leave, there are Death Eaters in this castle looking for you."

Olivia swallowed and nodded her head. She got up from the floor and reset the rug over the loose floorboards, "Okay, I just need to do one thing." She told her, dropping her bag onto her old bed and opening it up.

"What's more important than getting out of here, Olivia?" Blaise asked her incredulously.

Olivia began pulling the Twins' products out of her bag and armed herself with them, stocking them up in her coat pockets as an answer.

The background noise of students talking, and whimpering drifted over the palpable tension brewing between the four students. Serena looked to her friend wearily, "What's going on down there?"

"The entire castle is in shambles." Alexis told her, "It seems it's been decided it'd be the time to rebel against the strict rules set in place."

"What's that supposed mean?" Olivia mumbled absentmindedly.

"It means there's students running around everywhere. Some are trying to escape, others trying to fight."

Olivia slung her bag over her shoulder and held to her wand tightly, "Right, well isn't that—"

The tall figures bursting into her room interrupted her as both held the same frantic expression Alexis had not five minutes ago. One was dressed in Hogwarts uniform like Blaise and Serena while the other was dressed in a suit minus the jacket.

"For fuck sakes Olivia!" Theodore Nott scolded, "What don't you understand about limited time?"

Olivia's jaw hung open, ready to deliver her remark to Theo but was interrupted by Serena ramming past her. Her friend ran in the direction of the second boy as she cried his name and threw her arms around his neck, "I didn't think you'd be coming back!"

"I apparated when we got word there was a possible intruder inside the castle, mother and father don't even know I left."
The two pulled away, staying within a close proximity of one another when he nodded to Olivia, "I had a feeling it'd be you."

Olivia rolled her eyes, "You believe everything has something to do with me Montague."

Theo walked further into the room and grabbed her wrist, where he tugged her out of her old dormitory, "That's because, nine times out of ten, you are involved somehow." He told her as he pulled her into the common room where students were scurrying around in a frenzy.

Blaise, Alexis, Serena and Graham had followed them down and formed a circle either side of Olivia and Theo. Though evidently anxious, it was Alexis who dared speak up first, "So, uh, what do we do?"

Olivia looked to her friend, "You do nothing. I can handle this on my own."

Blaise groaned in protest, "Oh come on Liv—"

"—no Blaise." She told him sternly, "there isn't a chance I'm going to let any of you help me."

"Why?" Serena asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What happens when I leave behind the mess I created and the Death Eaters manage to get the school under control again?" Olivia asked, "Those who fought, protested or attempted to escape will be punished. It's not worth it."

"We want to help you Olivia."

"I won't allow it." Olivia said simply, "You need to think of yourselves for no—"

The loud buzz and clatter in the common room drew to a sharp halt as Pansy Parkinson sprinted in through the stone entrance and took Olivia by her wrist, "The Carrows are coming." She panted.

Alexis' eyes widened further, "You should get out of the common—"

Pansy shook her head, "No time, come on Black." She told them before proceeding to pull Olivia over to hide behind the staircase leading to the girls dormitories. Olivia was utterly confused by Pansy's actions, the way she told her to get a move on earlier and now saving her arse from the Carrow siblings by dragging her to hide. The two girls had a rough past, constantly clawing out one another's throats whenever they were given the opportunity. Hell, even Olivia had punched Pansy before on several occasions.

Following the silence across the common room, Olivia lowered her voice to a whisper in order to talk to Pansy. Olivia was stood behind her underneath the staircase while Pansy looked out for the Carrows entering, "Parkinson?"

Pansy never took her eyes away from watching out but whispered back nevertheless, "What?"

"Why are you helping me?"

Pansy's rigid shoulders dropped and she payed Olivia a side ways glance, "Remember when I apologised to you on the Platform in June of last year?"

"Yeah."

"It was sincere. I saw your face the night Dumbledore died, how disappointed, stressed and determined you looked throughout the night. Then your injuries atop of that. Your speech at Dumbledore's funeral and the way you saved our arses through Theo the day Aurors caught a bunch of Death Eaters—"

Olivia's eyes widened, "The day I accidentally punched Draco? You were there?"

"Yes, Father thought it'd do me good when it did the exact opposite. I want no part in how he plans to take over our world Olivia, you were a main factor in helping me make my decision." Shocked with Pansy's confession, Olivia stuttered profusely, "I've come to regret everything I've done to you, you didn't deserve it."

Olivia had no words for Pansy, she was rendered speechless. After their six year ongoing feud it was all ending due to her own actions — not the ones where the two fought or bickered either.

When Olivia eventually found a reply and prepared to give it to Pansy a muffled whimpering echoed across the silent common room. She switched places with Pansy and pushed the girl behind her, holding her there with her arm as she peered to the side of the wall they were hiding behind.

Olivia could see the Carrow siblings, Alecto stood scoping the common room out while Amycus was in Alexis's face. The muffled whimpering Olivia had heard was in fact Alexis, as she stood cowering under Amycus' scrutinising glare. The brother looked down upon her, up in her face as he questioned her, "And who gave you permission to come here?"

"M-my mother."

"So you came straight to the Slytherin common room? Why?"

Alexis' eyes screwed shut tightly and she whimpered again, "I-I don't know."

"What do you know that we don't Rosier? Who are you hiding?"

"N-no one."

Olivia clenched her jaw as Amycus Carrow, a man twice Alexis' size and age, was threatening her. He was leaning over her, questioning her, scrutinising her and it was all wrong. It was very much obvious that Alexis was scared of Amycus Carrow, and the man planned to take full advantage of her fear for himself.

The end of the small line that represented Olivia's patience came when she saw Amycus reach into the pocket of his robes to retrieve his wand. It was that reason that pushed Olivia to lift her own wand and aim it in the direction of the Death Eater.

To start, she silently disarmed him from behind the wall and caught his own wand in her left hand while the room fell silent. Amycus' attention was no longer on Alexis, and that was the main focus. Instead Amycus Carrow scowled the common room, looking for the person who had dared disarm him with a furious expression on his face.

Meanwhile, Pansy Parkinson had tugged on Olivia's arm desperately before whispering to her, "Are you mad?" She asked Olivia, "He'll kill you Black."

Olivia smirked back at Pansy while twirling Amycus' wand in her fingers, "Oh, I'd love to see him try." She mused before stepping out behind the wall and snapping the mans wand over her knee.

The faint splitting of the wood was audibly heard as no one dared speak around the Carrows, and so everyone — including the brother and sister — looked over in Olivia's direction.

Olivia cocked her head with a pout as she waved the two snapped ends of a the mans wand in the air, "Looking for this?" She asked him, watching with great satisfaction as he fumed. Amycus, while charging towards her, began to shout at her but Olivia easily overcast him with the silencing charm, "I'd say I'm sorry, but we both know I'd be lying, right?" She laughed while taunting the Death Eater.

Alecto came to her brothers defence, raising her wand to Olivia with a scowl, "The Dark Lord has been waiting for you to show your face like this, for quite some time has he itched to silence you."

"Well I'm afraid he'll have to itch a little longer," Olivia pouted, "send him the message for me, would you?"

Alecto too charged at Olivia, "I don't think so—"

"Stupefy!"

The sister of the two siblings was knocked from her feet, and she was blasted backwards as the white light emitting from Olivia's wand hit her square in the chest.

It seemed to fuel Amycus' hate fire, as he stormed towards his sisters attacker unarmed. Olivia rose a single brow as she watched the man come for her, pushing a third-year boy over on to the sofa to reach her. It was comical to watch and Olivia lifted her wand again, "Measctha suas!"

A yellow light emitted from the tip of her wand and encased around Amycus' head, circling there for some time as a point of distraction. The whole point of the spell was to disorientate the opponent, Hermione had learnt that the hard way.

Either way, the spell had worked as Amycus held both hands to his head while stumbling around in circles. With him down and his sister stunned for the time being, Olivia ran over to her friends one last time and embraced them quickly. She found her throat tight as she prepared to pull away from the embrace of Blaise, Serena and Alexis and swallowed thickly. She'd of stayed there, in their arms, forever had she been given the opportunity, "Be safe, all of you, and stay in here."

Blaise stepped forwards to protest, "But—"

Olivia shook her head, "— I mean it Zabini. I can handle my own. Stay in here where I know you'll be safe."

"If you're going to have any chance of remotely making it out alive you need to go Olivia." Theo told her.

She nodded, "Can you apparate in and out of the castle?"

Alexis nodded while swallowing, "I mean, it's how I got in."

"Brilliant." Olivia said, shifting her weight between her feet like a giddy child. She looked back to Alecto, the woman stirring in a haze from being stunned. Olivia aimed at her and fired the same spell non-verbally and watched as she stiffened on the ground again. She turned back to the three in front of her with a sincere expression, placing her hands on Blaise and Serena's arms, "I love you guys."

Alexis shook her head, her eyes watering, "When will we see you next?"

Olivia gave her a soft smile, "If all goes to plan; after the war is won, hopefully."

Blaise leaned forwards and kissed Olivia's cheek before moving to her ear,
"There's a door that you can escape from, it's hidden in the Room of Requirement."

"Thank you."

Blaise shook his head, "Please stay safe Olivia, for you own sake."

"I'll try my best." She smiled before turning away from them and running over to the stone wall. There she turned on her heel and found the eyes of Pansy Parkinson, Olivia nodded at her gratefully before turning and running out of the common room and into the mess she had created.

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Olivia was running close to the walls as a mixture of staff, students and Death Eaters ran through the castle. She was yet to be seen, and had three means of escaping should one fail. It was either she could find the door Blaise had been on about, go back up to the Astrometry Tower and fly from there, or apparate from outside the castle.

She was weighing her options out in her mind while she snuck through a rarely used corridor on the second floor. Her hair had changed back to black some few minuets ago, and she didn't have the time to change it another colour.

Too busy consumed in her own mind, Olivia didn't even notice as someone approached her from the opposite end of the corridor as she looked behind her. It wasn't until she turned to face where she was going did she see them, and when she did she raised her wand instantly.

Olivia fired away immediately, with no hesitation and watched as they deflected her oncoming spell with haste. She fired again, the stunning spell had come to mind and at the very last second the person had managed to deflect her spell once more. She knew he was capable of more — of firing himself — but at that time she didn't want to think about why he wouldn't be engaging in duelling her. The whole scenario reminded her of what she had seen Harry go through the night he had assassinated Albus Dumbledore.

"Stop." Severus Snape eventually hissed, "I have no intention of duelling you Black."

"Why the hell not!?" Olivia fired angrily, "I have every intention of you, you're the reason we're facing this mess!"

"I played my regrettable part in his death but it had to be done." Snape told her, lowering his wand, "Draco Malfoy could've quite possibly been dead as we speak if I hadn't stepped in."

As a fire engulfed Olivia's eyes she clenched her jaw as her face hardened. She was sick of people dragging Draco's name around, using him as a form of bribe, comparing her to him, blaming a mans death on him. It was unfair.

"You can't drag him down for something you did!" Olivia yelled hotly, her hand trembling with anger as she raised her wand again.

Severus' face remained oddly calm as he faced the receiving end of Olivia's wand and anger. He only held his hands up in surrender, "It would've only prolonged the inevitable, you of all people should understand that."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't understand!" Olivia yelled, a snag of confusion settling in her voice.

Severus Snape exhaled deeply, "You are your fathers daughter, Black, now for the last time lower your wand. I'm not here to take you to The Dark Lord."

"Then what?"

"I want to help you. As of now Death Eaters think you, or the intruder, has made their way up to the Gryffindor Tower to prepare for apparation. The Great Hall is empty, you can escape by the Courtyard."

Olivia studied him wearily, "How do I know this isn't a trap?"

He sighed in exasperation, "If something happens to go wrong I'll be there to fix it."

Olivia turned to leave, but stepped back on herself, "Why are you helping m—"

"Salazar's sake, go!"

After an initial moment of hesitation she turned her back to her old Head of House. She didn't know if it were a stupid decision or not, but she took his word and ran. She sprinted down in the direction of the Great Hall, coaching herself not to look back.

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So much has happened in six days.

I passed my theory test (thank god) and I've booked my driving test too, which was actually terrifying. A lot of other things has happened also, but a legend died today. Stan Lee made the best films, aside from Harry Potter, and I am gutted. The entire Marvel franchise is one of the best ever!

The reason this chapter didn't come out as quickly as I planned was purely because of my college work load. I've had to put it first for obvious reasons and whenever I can I've been writing two chapters about the same event/day in two different point of views which, you know, is always interesting.

We had our own mini reunion here before the final battle and reading it over to edit, I actually enjoyed it so I hope you did too!

I will update before next Monday, I promise you that!