It was early morning on the 1st January 1952 when Olivia Potter glanced out of her window and noticed that it was snowing heavily.

Intricate patterns of ice floated weightlessly downward from the pure white sky above, each flake swirling and dancing, as an icy wind carried it towards the denuded trees in the Potter garden, ruffling the leaves with the breeze.

Pressing her face against her window, Olivia misted up the glass with her excited gasp before she opened her window and allowed the cold winter air to rush into her room, watching as the wind whispered and blew snowflakes around, landing like confetti on various parts of the garden.

The youngest Potter gazed at the untouched snow in front of her, longing to break the crisp white ground with just one footprint that she could envision sinking into the cold snow, the water probably leaking into her boot in the process.

The swirling white and the lush grass collided, the white dominating over the green and covering the grass completely like a clean duvet fitting perfectly over a bed.

The shrubs and trees that were dotted around the Godric's Hollow cottage's garden were stained with white, the snow seeping up their trunks like a leaking substance.

Even from the view of her bedroom window, Olivia could see that the ground was as smooth as a cake and that the snow fell like icing powder, perfecting it to it's finest point so that the garden was a wondrous dessert, just waiting for her to play in it.

Letting out a scream of excitement, the seven year old jumped out of her bed (that was pressed up against her window) and ran out of her bedroom, sprinting down the hallway to Rochelle's bedroom with the intention of waking her thirteen year old sister up.

As Olivia ran down the hallway, her thundering footsteps must've woken Charlus because his door swung open, nearly knocking her over and she paused in her running to place her hands on her hips and stare at him sternly with an expression reminiscent of Mrs Potter.

"Sorry," a rather sleepy Charlus mumbled but Olivia still looked incredibly offended and stern, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm too precious to be killed, Fleamont. Try not to knock me out with your door next time," she shot him a sickly sweet smile before dancing away to Rochelle's bedroom.

"Don't call me Fleamont!" Charlus shouted after her but Olivia simply stuck her tongue out at him, "What are you going to do about it, Fleamont?" she challenged him, flicking her blonde hair sassily.

"I'll tickle you," Charlus threatened but, before he could even step towards his little sister, she had disappeared into Rochelle's bedroom with a smug look on her face as she waved at him.

"Shelley! Wake up, now!" Olivia demanded as she went into her older sister's room, jumping up and down on Rochelle's bed as the teenager groaned and attempted to bat the seven year old away but Olivia would not be deterred.

Olivia strode over to the window and opened the curtains, letting the bright light seep into the room which caused Rochelle to cover her eyes with her pyjama-clad arm as she asked Olivia what the hell she was doing in her bedroom.

"It's snowing!" Olivia exclaimed and when Rochelle glared at her, she widened her eyes and pouted, "I just wanted someone to play with," she finally won over Rochelle with her puppy eyes and the thirteen year old reluctantly agreed to get ready.

With a devious smirk to herself in Rochelle's mirror, Olivia smoothed down her hair before opening the door as Rochelle disappeared into her bathroom, yelling out to Charlus that he had to come and join them or else.

"Why did you have to drag me out as well if you were just going to ask Charlus?" Rochelle asked Olivia, once they were all outside in the snow covered garden, rubbing her gloved hands together and watching as Charlus rolled a massive ball of snow towards his sisters.

"Charlus gets boring after a while," Olivia said in a rather matter of fact manner as if that was common knowledge and something that Rochelle should've known.

"Oi, I heard that!" Charlus shouted from where he was stood, throwing a snowball at the seven year old who squealed with delight and alarm.

"You're going to pay for that," Olivia practically growled before dragging Rochelle away from the warm interior of the house and into the deeper snow, recruiting her sister onto her team without even asking Rochelle.

"Since when were we teaming up?" Charlus shouted as Rochelle and Olivia both began firing snowballs at him whilst he ducked behind the bench to protect himself from the oncoming attack of snow.

"Since I decided so! Now shut up!" Olivia yelled back, throwing a snowball at her brother and hitting him in the mouth which took him by surprise as he staggered backwards.

"That was one way to shut him up," Rochelle muttered appreciatively, giving Olivia a small high five as they watched with growing amusement whilst Charlus spat out the snow that had gotten into his mouth.

The rest of the morning was filled with shouts of laughter, declarations of snowball wars and outraged shrieking whenever a bit of snow hit someone in the face or took them by surprise.

The Potter siblings were eventually dragged in by Everleigh Potter around midday who forced hot chocolate down their throats and told them that they were all crazy to stay out for so long in that weather.

"So," Olivia said with a careful sip of her hot chocolate as she hopped on the seat beside Charlus, "How's it going with that girl? Did you take my advice?" the little girl inquired and Charlus let out a noise that was a mixture between an exasperated sigh and a chuckle.

"Well, we're now friends," Charlus told his sister in the sort of firm tone that indicated he didn't want to speak any further on the subject and that the conversation was finalised. Olivia, however, was not going to take that for an answer.

"Just friends?" she shrieked, placing her mug of hot chocolate down with a loud thunk that made Everleigh, who was drying Rochelle's wet clothes with her wand in the corner of the kitchen, jump wildly.

"Liv, quieten down," Everleigh reprimanded her youngest daughter sternly but Olivia ignored her, still fixing Charlus with an incredulous stare. "Why are you only friends?" Olivia looked genuinely outraged and exasperated which was a funny combination for the seven year old.

"Because...because..." Charlus began to protest but realised he didn't really have an answer to his sister's question that she would actually understand.

For all of her grown up tendencies and sayings, Olivia still was only seven years old and she only understood that Charlus liked a girl and believed he wasn't dating her because he was too much of a coward to ask her out.

Which wasn't true. What Olivia didn't know was that Mia was part of a prejudiced, dark arts family that abused her with a manner of things, though Charlus didn't know specifically as she hadn't told him much yet.

Olivia didn't know the complications. She didn't know that Euphemia was betrothed to Orion Black, she didn't know that Mia didn't even like Charlus in that way (or so he thought anyway).

"It's complicated," Charlus told his sister, sending a cautious glance in Everleigh's direction who was now talking avidly to Rochelle, the two of them not paying any attention to Charlus and Olivia, much to the former's relief.

It was one thing to be talking about crushes with his seven year old sister but to be talking about the Black family was a huge no no in the Potter household.

It was probably because the Blacks had been supporters of Grindelwald and during his years of terror, Grindelwald had slaughtered Henry's father and Charlus' grandfather, deeming it an unsuitable topic for the family to discuss.

Charlus knew that Everleigh probably suspected that he had a crush on Mia Black but it didn't mean that it was appropriate to discuss the reasons why it was complicated with Euphemia as the reasons included the Black family's involvement with Grindelwald.

"That's what everyone says to me," Olivia huffed, "Can't anyone see that I am obviously more intelligent than all of you?" she raised her eyebrows at her brother before taking a haughty sip of her hot chocolate.

"Oh, are you now?" Charlus smirked in amusement, a challenging tone gracing his words, "You must be a Ravenclaw then," he told her with a teasing glint in his eye but Olivia glared at him.

"Nope. I'm a Gryffindor through and through, like everyone in this family! Potters always go to Gryffindor so I can just be an intelligent Gryffindor," Olivia insisted, looking at her brother rather seriously.

"Or you could be in Hufflepuff," Charlus suggested, leaning back in his seat and letting the front legs tilt upwards in the air, only to topple a little when Olivia kicked his chair in retaliation.

"I find that very insulting. I'm not nice! Nice people go to Hufflepuff and being nice is extremely exhausting," Olivia shuddered as if the very notion scared and disgusted her, pulling a face before she drank some more of her now lukewarm hot chocolate.

"With that sort of attitude, I think you might belong in Slytherin," Charlus joked and Olivia dramatically gagged on her drink, nearly spitting it out in her shock.

"Oh Merlin, no!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide, "If I got sorted into Slytherin, I think I'd leave," Olivia rolled her eyes but Charlus didn't laugh this time - his sister was reminding him too much of his Slytherin-hating self from when he was in first year especially.

"Some Slytherins are decent, not all of them are horrible or evil, you know," Charlus told Olivia before moving yo take his sister's now empty mug from her and placing it on the kitchen counter alongside his own, bopping her on the nose as he did so.

"Really?" Olivia sounded genuinely surprised, "Who do you know that's a nice Slytherin?" she asked, leaning forward and cupping her chin in her hands curiously.

"Mia is in Slytherin," Charlus said quietly and a flash of surprise flitted across Olivia's face before she hid it well, simply blinking her eyes in a manner that she deemed indifferent.

Before the seven year old could say anything, however, Everleigh came over and hoisted Olivia out of her seat, "You need to get out of these wet clothes, missus," Mrs Potter reprimanded her daughter.

"No, I don't," Olivia tried to wriggle out of her mother's arms, "Why can't you just cast a heating spell over me?" she suggested with annoyance lining her tone as her eyes rolled back in her head.

"I will do but you need to have a bath anyway so you might as well have one now whilst you're all cold," Everleigh said with a small smile, tightening her grip on Olivia as the girl squirmed furiously, her eyes darting to Charlus who was watching the scene with a growing amount of amusement.

"But I don't want to! So, why in the name of Merlin's left saggy underpants do I have to be forced into a bath when I don't want to bathe?" Olivia protested, still moving about in Everleigh's arms who glanced at her daughter with a shocked expression as Charlus burst into laughter.

"Olivia Rae Potter! Where on earth did you hear that saying? And why did you think it was appropriate to say such a thing?" Everleigh scolded her daughter, ignoring Rochelle and Charlus laughing their heads off behind them.

"Daddy says it all the time!" Olivia defended herself and Everleigh's mouth parted before she shook her head, trying to conceal her amusement.

"Does he really? We shall be having words about that," Mrs Potter muttered before spinning around to face the chuckling Charlus and Rochelle, "Shut up, you two," she scolded them which only made the siblings laugh even more.

As Olivia was carted upstairs (much to her obvious reluctance), Rochelle turned to her older brother with an amused smile, "Our family is seriously crazy," she chuckled.

Yes, but it's better than the Black family Charlus thought to himself before he pulled Rochelle into a hug, commenting, "Yeah, we are but it's our crazy family and it's worth every moment."

And it truly was.

~~~

"EUPHEMIAAAAAA!" Florean Fortescue pushed himself through the crowds of students who were swarming into the Entrance Hall like a pack of bees, the buzzing of chatter filling the previously silent hall.

Mia looked up at the sound of her name but couldn't do much more after that as she was nearly knocked off her feet and became rather short of breath because of Florean squeezing the life out of her. She laughed, patting her friend on the back before she had to ease him off her gently as he was restricting her air supply.

"I missed you," Florean said with sheepish grin and Euphemia smiled warmly back before commenting in her classic sarcastic tone, "Really? I couldn't tell," which made Florean chuckle and wrap his arm around her affectionately.

Seeing as Mr and Mrs Fortescue had gone abroad during the Christmas holidays to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary, Florean had been left at school which had been rather lonely for the boy as all of his friends had gone home for the holidays.

Charlus had offered for Florean to stay at his and so had Alastor but Florean had refused the two of them, insisting that he would be absolutely fine at Hogwarts.

And it did go alright because he hung out with Brutus Scrimegeour, a sixth year Gryffindor who was on the Quiddicth team and also a good friend of Charlus' and Minnie's.

"He's very funny actually," Florean informed Mia as they walked through the bustling Entrance Hall packed full of chattering students as they exchanged stories about Christmas, gave each other late gifts and one girl was even sobbing into her friend's shoulder which gave Euphemia the impression that her Christmas hadn't gone down very well.

"Where is everyone else? I could only find the girls on the train, the boys were nowhere to be found," Mia asked Florean when they had finally broken free of the crowd and found somewhere to sit down, which happened to be the bottom of the marble staircase.

"I dunno," Florean shrugged, "We'll wait here for them, I s'pose. Where did the girls go?" he questioned Euphemia as his eyes scanned the crowd, evidently looking for either Minerva, Eugenia and Pomona or Charlus, Alastor, Filius and Lyall.

Once Mia had informed Florean that the girls had gone to the bathroom but she had offered to look for him, a silence ensued that was rather comfortable but also left the two at loss of what to say to one another.

Due to the silence, Euphemia became a little more anxious and her teeth began to dig into her lip nervously as she wondered whether any of her family was in the vicinity.

Ever since the incident at the New Year's eve ball, Mia had stayed as far away as possible from Orion and he had luckily kept his distance from her as well though that was probably because Charis and her family stayed at the Black Manor for a little while after the ball which gave Euphemia an excuse not to be forced into Orion's company.

Charis had been a wonderful help and a comfort to Mia and the girl had actually enjoyed the last few days of her Christmas holidays, especially because Cassiopeia and Arcturus hadn't come near her either unless it was to engage in required conversation. Euphemia had also managed to go unpunished the entire three weeks and she was very happy with herself.

"There you two are!" a familiar voice cut through the crowd and Mia snapped out of her thoughts and stopped tapping her foot up and down, which she realised she had been doing for the past few minutes. A smile instantly came to her face as she saw Alastor and Charlus approaching with Filius and Lyall trailing behind.

Euphemia stood awkwardly to one side as all of the boys greeted each other, doing that weird boy embrace that they liked to do, all talking over each other boisterously at once, not letting one another get a word in edgeways.

Filius greeted her first, turning to her after Alastor had finished teasing him about how he had wound up kissing his cousin's friend under the mistletoe on Christmas Day.

"How was your Christmas?" he asked her cheerfully and Mia answered politely, telling him about some of the parties but missing out all of the details about her pretty lonely holiday, with the exception of the last few days with Charis.

By this point, the boys had all turned to Euphemia and Charlus in particular caught her attention but she avoided his friendly (but also concerned and assessing) gaze with a blush creeping up her cheeks that Mia quickly hid with a prominent swish of her long brown hair so that it covered her face.

"Yes, how was your Christmas, Euphemia?" a creepily familiar voice hissed in her ear and Mia jumped a mile, spinning around to become face to face with Orion Black, her fiancée and the one person she really didn't want to see at that moment, especially when she was in the presence of so many of her friends.

All of her mates knew about her arranged marriage to Orion - it was common knowledge amongst the group due to a very panicked Minnie informing them all a while ago.

It was just something that wasn't brought up nor mentioned because the atmosphere instantly became awkward whenever it was brought to light.

"O-Orion," Euphemia stammered slightly, glancing over her shoulder and seeing, much to her dismay, that the boys were too preoccupied with something to notice her slight peril. Orion's eyes narrowed.

Mia gulped before continuing, "What an...um lovely surprise to see you  here," she said, trying to make it sound like she didn't mind that he was making her incredibly nervous and anxious, her erratic heartbeat practically sounding in her ears.

"Well, it's not like you actually spent any time with me during the holidays and now you'd prefer to hang around this filth instead of your own fiancée," Orion practically growled, glowering in the direction of the boys who were mucking around on the staircase, shoving each other playfully, cheerfully unaware of Euphemia's current predicament.

"I was busy...with Charis," Mia told him her feeble excuse before tucking her brown hair behind her ears nervously as Orion leaned in closer, "I don't care. You're my fiancée and you spend time with me," he hissed, his words scarily reminiscent of what he had said at the New Years ball about her dancing with him.

"It's not like I actually want to be your fiancée!" Euphemia suddenly blurted out, a little too loudly and Alastor span around from where he and the rest of the lads were stood, his eyes widening when he saw who Mia was with and how close Orion was to her.

Orion's face stiffened and a dangerous look flashed through his cold eyes before he reached down and grabbed Euphemia's wrist, rekindling the common bruise that had settled there over time due to him constantly gripping her too tightly.

Mia winced but Orion was already dragging her away as Alastor approached the two of them, calling out Euphemia's name with a look of concern as he directed his angry eyes in Orion's direction, who was not deterred by the fifth year, no matter how intimidating Alastor was attempting to be.

"Let her go," Alastor said firmly and the rest of the boys noticed what was going on by now, prompting them to walk over with a mixture of concerned, angry and curious expressions on each of their faces.

"No, she's my fiancée and she'll do as I say," Orion told them through clenched teeth as his nails now dug into Mia's wrist, causing her to visibly wince that didn't go unnoticed by both Filius and Lyall.

"She's her own person, you bastard," Florean growled and Euphemia's eyes widened at the menacing look on her mate's face, from his narrowed eyes to the grinding of his teeth - he represented a rather angry badger that hadn't been fed yet which was incredibly unusual for the usually jovial and lighthearted Florean.

"Flo, it's okay," Euphemia said quietly before she glanced up at Orion with a dull, defeated look on her face, "I'm guessing we're heading to the common room?" she asked with a rather bored, bland tone that didn't really convey much of the emotion that she was feeling internally.

"That would be correct," Orion responded stiffly and Mia gave a nod, signalling for him to lead the way though a flash of pain shot across her face as his hand didn't relax the tight grip it had on her wrist, making spasms of pain run up her arms.

"Mia-" Charlus called out her name, stepping in front of Orion and Euphemia as her heart swelled up into her throat, incapable of speaking as Charlus' worried hazel eyes begged with her not to go with Orion but Mia really didn't have a choice.

Seeing as she was rendered speechless, Euphemia just shook her head slowly and sadly at him, the simple movement enough to break his heart into smithereens but Charlus stepped aside, watching with saddened eyes as she was dragged away.

Charlus couldn't help but wish that his love for Mia was as easy and uncomplicated as Olivia Potter perceived it because Charlus would've given anything at that moment for his sister's simple plan to be put into action.

But that was impossible because the 'situation' between Euphemia and Charlus was much more complicated than a simple crush or a budding relationship.

It was going to take a lot of time and Charlus knew that Olivia would be extremely exasperated with him by the time the next holidays came around.

I think Olivia is one of my favourite characters that I've ever written, I just love her so much :)