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Guess I should introduce myself, huh? I am, well, was, Olivia Wolfe. And if you'd have told me one day I'd die, wake up, and have magic, I would have asked you how much you paid for the crack you took, cause you must be on a damn wild trip. Hell, for a while, I thought I was on a trip. But naw, I just found put Peter was fucking right. Die too young and you do get reincarnated. Doesn't mean the next life is any fucking better though.Maybe I should explain a little more. So, Peter always told me that every soul was supposed to live so and so amount of years. If they lived more or less years than they were given to live, them it was the worst kinda crime. You'd done it or whoever killed you did. So anyhow, if you'd died before you were supposed to then your soul couldn't go where it ought, and it had to live again. Like a redo, cause you ain't done all the things you ought. The other pertinent thing he always said to me was about raven mockers. Used to be, ravens were my favorite animals when I was real little, til he went and scared the snot out of me about them. He always told me, can't never trust a raven. It might only be pretending at being a raven. And the only thing that'd pretend at being a raven is a ravenmocker. Evil, twisted spirits, man eaters, soul eaters, you name something bad and it's liable they've done it. Yeah, keep that in mind. Now, finally, you got the proper background info to understand what happened the day I died. Because of a damn bird no less. Wonder what my tombstone says? Here lies a moron who got flogged to death by a mangey bird?Well anyways, that day was never gonna be a good one anyhow. See, I had been having a shitty day to begin with, and how it ended just made it worse. I woke up on a regular old Tuesday, and got ready for college. I go..er...used to go, to uni in Lawrence, Kansas. Haskell University, specifically. I lived on campus, which was good, but I didn't have nowhere to go come summer which was...not so good. Not good at all really.My dorm room was small, and dingy, the walls and floor having faded into a uniform grayish beige with time. My side of the room just had my bed, a dresser, a desk, and a chair, standard stuff that came in every room. The only thing I owned were my suitcase, clothes, and blue bedsheets. What, no blanket you might ask? Yeah, my room mate set it on fire with a damn cigarette, and I didn't have money to get a new one. Well like I said, I woke up normally, only thing odd was that my roomate was already gone; usually, Alex slept far longer than me, mostly on account of being hung over. When I looked out my window, I saw grey skies, grey clouds, more snow than you could shake a stick at, and a raven feather on my window sill. Yeah, that ought to have been my first clue that the day was really not gonna go well.It took me a bit to get dressed that morning, on account of I accidentally put my foot through a tear in the knee of my jeans, then I put my sweater on inside out, and finally when I was putting on my shoes they were so worn out that I didn't realize I'd put em on the wrong feet til I went to tie them. Definitely shaping up to be quite a day.. Anyways, I finally got ready, and walked off campus to a gas station to get breakfast. It was snowing that day, with a cold clean smell in the air, and biting wind that my sweater didn't seem to stop at all. A car drove by and sprayed me with slush, which caused me to be both colder and more pissed than before. Unfortunately, the burning fires of my rage did not help warm me up.Other than angry, I remember being unsettled, the feather on my mind still. Seeing a raven when I left my dorm that morning did not help with the heebie jeebies. Shivering and feeling a superstitious fool for worrying about the feathers, I started walking down the street, and got ready to cross when the light turned. Suddenly, a croaking noise seemed to come from somewhere above, and I was powerful afraid, because it sounded like a raven. I looked up, and shortly wished I hadn't. There was a raven, but it looked wrong, I couldn't tell you how, it just did. It wasn't shaped right, and, oh yeah, it didnt have any fucking eyes. Just holes. Oh, oh, and then, it divebombed my fucking face. I threw my hands, desperately batting at the shitty thing, and as it pecked on my head I stumbled into traffic. Never saw what it was that hit me, but I went flying across the street. I could hear the wet smack more than I felt it, and I think that's what did it, cause everything gets real hazy after I landed. I remember pain, and my vision going real spotty, looked like I had sparks infront of my eyes, and my head felt all over wet. My memory goes in and out after that, the black spots in my vision got bigger, and then, nothing. There ain't a thing I remember after that. Well, 'cept for waking up, that is. And it was an odd place too, all white and bright and numb. I thought I was in the hospital at first, but I wasn't. That's all there was for a while; endless light. I guess my brain got bored, because I started to remember things; it began with faint snatches of sound, kids laughing or parents yelling or the radio. I saw things too, strange things; I saw dark shadows, always moving, but just outta the corner of my eyes. There were ravens swooping about, and a wolf, and a rabbit. The rabbit would hop towards me, and the raven would hurtle at it the same way it had me. The wolf would defend the rabbit, and then the two would chase the raven away. Soon they faded mostly away, just barely there like mist.Then I could hear Peter, voice scratchy and low, telling me about Sharp Elbows and Raven Mockers and Uktena. That made me awful scared all over again, on account of the raven from the street, and the raven with me in that strange place. 'Be careful of ravens!,' he would say, 'because the croaking you hear might not be one of them at all, but a Ravenmocker come to take someone's soul!'. Distantly, I wondered if that was what had happened-a Ravenmocker took my soul because I was dying, and this is where they took the souls they stole. After a while, my head began to hurt again, and all the light faded out of the strange place, and just before I passed out I almost thought I heard something say: 'Well, beggars can't be choosers'. So ended the shittiest day of my life. I mean bad enough I died, but on my birthday? Yeah, I have shit luck. As I found out shortly after, my luck is pretty consistently shitty.
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In the few months since the twins' birth, things had been hectic around the Potter household. James and Lily were entirely new to caring for children, and they'd gotten two right off the bat; Lily figured it was sort of like learning to swim...by jumping in the deep end. Blind folded. With sand filled floaties and ankle weights. Thankfully, the other Marauders, and Marlene, were often around to help out. Well...calling it a help would be putting it kindly, in most cases. Really,(shockingly), Marlene was often the best at calming the kids and taking care of them. Even upon explaining that she had taken care of 5 younger siblings growing up, Lily and the boys were still a bit in shock. Sirius had commented he would be surprised if she could take care of a potted plant without killing it in two days. Marlene hexed his hair puke green and silver. Sirius cried.And speaking of the babies..The two were so different in temperament; Harry was calm, quiet, and sweet. He loved being held and playing, and he smiled near constantly. Gladiolus, on the other hand, seemed to change moods at a whim. Most of the time, she would act the same as her brother; but other times she would scream and cry until her little face was dark red. At the oddest times, she seemed terrified; and the accidental magic resulting from the incidents always tended to be destructive. It was strange enough that both children were already exhibiting accidental magic at a few months old, but where Harry's tended to be changing the colors of things,(or himself), or summoning bottles and the like, Gladiolus' magic shattered windows and created tempusts. Lily and James had tried asking Professor Dumbledore what he thought about it, but he said his best guess was that the child was having nightmares, and her magic acted accordingly. As for both children exhibiting very early magic, that was put down to being twins. Wizarding twins tended to develop a little quicker, magically speaking.Despite the many difficulties, and expectations to the contrary, the small family was getting along quite well. And then, the shit hit the fan. On October 30th, 1980, Albus Dumbledore, James and Lily's former headmaster and current leader, had broken the news that before the children were born, a prophecy had been made. A prophecy that could implicate them or Alice's son Neville as a potential slayer of Voldemort. Naturally, Lily and James freaked out."How does that even work?! Divination is hardly reliable, do you really think that Vol-""Don't say his bloody name, the geass, remember?! But seriously professor, how would he even know about the prophecy if it was made to you? Its not like you sit and take tea with the prick."Dumbledore held his hands up to quiet them, and explained, in careful terms, how the Dark Lord came to know the prophecy."Sybyll Trewlawny delivered the prophecy while I was interviewing her in the Hog's Head. Though I did not realize it at the time, a Death Eater was eavesdropping on the room we were in. Aberforth pulled the man away, but not before he had overheard half of the prophecy. I am certain that if he'd known the man was a Death Eater, Aberforth would never have let him go, but, alas, he did not. I recognized the man from his description, however. Undoubtably, the Dark Lord has heard the half of the prophecy by now.""Well, who was it then? You said you recognized him. We can track him down and see if he told yet!," James exclaimed, leaping out of the sofa he'd been sitting upon.Lily quickly yanked him back down, admonishing him,"James Potter you will not be gallivanting after some unknown terrorist! You have children to think of!""Besides all that, I have further use of the man. You shan't be attempting to kill him. Moving on, as I stated before, the prophecy could refer to three children we know of thus far. That being said, they are the only wizarding children written in the Hogwarts registry that we know fit the parameters. I strongly suggest you go into hiding. The Dark Lord knows without doubt that your twins qualify, and that Neville Longbottom does also. I have recieved intelligence that he has plans to seek these three children, though perhaps he might go after others."Lily swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. She looked anywhere except Albus' intense blue stare; the red carpet, the cream walls, the maroon wall hangings. Anything to avoid thinking of how Voldemort had targeted her children, and Alice's boy too. To think, three hours ago, they'd had no idea of the trouble that might come for them."What..What are we going to do?," James asked haltingly, before adding,"How can we hide from him?"Albus' expression lightened just barely, and he replied,"If you have someone you know with absolute certainty will not betray you, there is a way to bring about the complete protection of your household. The Fidelius Charm."James perked up."I know of that spell, and I know the perfect person to be the secret-keeper!," he said cheerfully.Lilly's eyes widened, and she smiled. She recalled reading of the spell in a book retrieved from the Restricted Section. Excitedly, she turned to James, and he smiled at her. Both were convinced that they had the same, perfect person in mind."Sirius!" "Marlene!""Wait what? No way, Sirius is like my brother-," James starts, only to be interrupted."Sirius can't keep a secret to save his life!""Oh, and Marlene can? She got drunk off of two glasses of firewhiskey and came out to the couch-""That Dorcas was sitting on, she was telling Dorcas she fancied her-""If that's the case then why did she say 'hey, hey you, don't tell Dorcas, but I'd tap that'-"The argument continued for a solid fifteen minutes, throughout which Albus sat in baffled amusement. Finally, he cleared his throat. They continued to argue. He cleared his throat with more force. Still arguing. At last, he cleared his throat with enough force that not only did Lily and James shut up, but he also had a severe coughing fit."Now, as I was saying, you need to pick someone you have the utmost trust in, preferably someone who can keep a secret," Dumbledore stated.James nodded, before repeating,"Sirius."Seeing Lily about to shout at him, he pointed an accusing finger at her and added,"You got to pick the children's names, I'm picking the secret keeper!""You were going to name them Falmouth and Elvendork!," Lily hissed."Elvendork is unisex! And the Falmouth Falcons are a smashing team!"Sighing, Albus began massaging his temples. This was going to be an even longer night than he anticipated...and now his throat was too sore for lemondrops!Eventually, Sirius was decided upon as the secret keeper, and Albus went over the specifics of casting the charm, giving them a few tomes on the subject for study. It was vital that no mistakes were made in the runework or the casting; such a mistake could have terrible consequences, from a simple failure of the charm to activate, all the way up to the area covered in the charm imploding."Remember, you cannot invert any of the runes, a counterclockwise inward spiral is the form the anchor must take," Albus warned as he prepared to floo back to Hogwarts. Lily nodded, replying,"Don't worry professor, we won't forget. No inversions, no reversals, specifically timed casting intervals.""Professor, could we tell the others why we're going under the fidelius? Not the whole prophecy of course," James asked.Throwing a puff of floo powder into the ruddy flames, Albus answered,"As long as you are sure you can trust the ones you tell. The first half of the prophecy, and that your family are targets, is known to the Dark Lord anyways, so I see no harm. Farewell."Then he stepped through the fireplace, James and Lily's own goodbyes echoing after him. When he was gone, James and Lily turned to each other, each searching the other's gaze for a hint that they knew what to do. But both of them were twenty years old; barely beyond being teenagers. And what teenager, or young adult for that matter, has all the answers? Most grown adults would be hard pressed to handle such a situation being thrust upon them, endangering their families, overturning their lives."I don't want this for them James..I don't want our children to grow up in a war, with a target on their backs. What the hell are we going to do?"When Lily spoke, her voice was small; this was the most unsure he'd ever heard her. He took her hands in his own, rubbing circles in the backs of them with his thumbs."Our best...it's all we can do." "James...what if our best, isn't good enough?Ironically, Sirius reacted worse than Marlene upon finding out he was the secret keeper."Are you insane?!""Sirius..""Don't you 'Sirius' me! Gods James, you couldn't have picked a more obvious person!"Lily and James had called Marlene and Sirius first to explain the prophecy and Fidelius charm. As soon as they'd explained who they'd picked to be secret-keeper and why,("What the hell is that supposed to mean!? I am fan-fucking-tastic at keeping secrets! Lily, defend my honor!....Lily?" "Uhm...sorry Mar...you kind of are horrible at keeping secrets..." "Traitor!"), Sirius had lost it."I mean, he's not wrong. For once. In his entire life," Marlene snarked from the kitchen, where she was raiding the icebox."Not helping Mar," Lily growled."I live for drama.""Are any of you taking this seriously?!?"You could have heard a pin drop. At nearly the same time, Marlene began cackling and James fell off the back of the couch howling. Lily covered her face and groaned from somewhere deep in her soul. Sirius, meanwhile, wore an aggrieved, horrified expression. His shoulders were slumped, and he kept vacantly kept mouthing the word 'seriously'. Lily decides to take it upon herself to be the mature one. Again. Always, really."Alright, alright, puns, yes, we love them. Now back to the matter at hand. Sirius does have a good point. Anyone with a brain would expect us to choose him, should we dissapear under the Fidelius. Therefore, we need to pick someone, nobody would expect. So, who is the least physically imposing, academically gifted, magically powerful person we know, who is also a loyal and trustworthy friend?"This time,(much to Sirius' horror a short year later), the answer is unanimous."Peter!"