pure ; james potter [marauders era]

t w o ;

[ september 1st, 1972 ]

Octavia let out a small sigh as she looked around her, seeing students of every year and house hug their family goodbye before boarding the Hogwarts Express. Normally she wouldn't mind being here alone, but the glares and insults being thrown her way by the Malfoys and Blacks had quite the effect on the twelve year old girl.

Over the Christmas break, Octavia had finally made the decision to run away from her family. Her parents had heard about her being placed into Gryffindor, a sure sign to them that she was getting more and more disobedient. They punished her multiple times, and even more once they saw letters coming from students who's names they didn't recognize to be 'pure'.

In their minds, the only way to assure they had their daughters true allegiance was to agree that instead of waiting until she was sixteen to receive the dark mark, they would do it on her fourteenth birthday.  Although the young girl still had two years before being forced into joining as a follower of the Dark Lord, she didn't want to take the chance of her parents making it any earlier.

She was finally sick of it all. All the pure-blood bullshit, all of the Voldemort talk and she was certainly sick of being punished for making friends with the most kind, innocent and caring friends.

She picked up her bag and walked towards the train, her cat Jinx following behind her. Lucius Malfoy, a wizard from Slytherin in her year level noticed her walking past and coughed out something that sounded like 'filthy blood-traitor'.

Ignoring the platinum blonde boy, she walked onto the train and to the very last compartment on the left. Sirius and James were already there, to Octavia's surprise, talking happily. They paused for a moment when Octavia walked in, only to pounce on her, almost tackling her with hugs a second later.

"There's our girl!" Sirius exclaimed.

They both finally got off of Octavia and gave her some room to breathe while she put her stuff away. "How was you break, Tavia?" James asked her, over the moon to see one of his best friends again.

"Amazing," She sat down on the empty seat opposite of the boys. "I finally did it, I ran away from my family!"

"That's amazing!" Sirius praised the girl, but James couldn't help but feel sorry for the young witch. She was only twelve, for Melin's sake! "I did too, actually. I was going to send you a letter and ask if you wanted to run away with me but things got so bad and I left before I even had time to write one!"

Octavia was proud, she was happy that Sirius finally decided to do what's best for himself and leave the ones who had done nothing but bring misery into his life for the past few years, but at the same time, she felt sorry for him. Being without anyone for the school break has really taken a toll on her, and sometimes she missed the comforting words her dad said behind her mothers back. She didn't want Sirius to feel the same pain she was feeling at the moment.

"Where did you go? You know, after you left?" Octavia asked the boy, who's hair seemed a little wavier than last year.

"I went straight to Potter's, they took me in straight away and I couldn't be more grateful." Sirius playfully punched James on the shoulder, but James didn't seem to be in that mood.

Instead, he looked at Octavia and asked her the same thing. "Well, where did you go?"

Octavia looked down,  a little embarrassed. Her face scrunched up and even though she promised herself she wouldn't, she felt her eyes begin to water. She swallowed the lump in her thought and breathed before answering the boy. "Well I didn't want to bother Remus because he was preparing for a full moon, I knew Peter's parents were strict, Sirius' parents would have hated me because I disgraced a pure-blood family and I didn't want to go to yours because you're a bit far away from where I was."

More like because I'm completely crushing on you and didn't want to unload my embarrassing problems onto you and your family and make myself seem pathetic, Octavia thought to herself. Merlin, she hated lying to James! But it's not like she had any plans of telling him about her little crush. No way, no thank you.

"So I just kind of slept on The Knight Bus, travelling around where ever it went." Octavia finished, still looking at the ground.

"Octavia, that's not okay!" James almost yelled, horrified that his friend would spend every night of the break on a moving bus with absolute strangers. She could have stayed with him, his parents wouldn't have cared in the slightest bit, even if she arrived at his house at four o'clock in the morning! "Next break, both you and Sirius are staying at my place. We have plenty of room, you're both welcome and it's safe."

James put lots of emphasis on the 'safe' part, making sure Octavia knew he didn't like the idea of her being alone at all. She smiled at him brightly but before she could decline his offer, he shut her off again.

"And before you saying something like, 'I don't want to be a burden, or 'I can't intrude on your family', my parents wouldn't mind at all. They know you guys are my family and would love to meet you, anyway."

Octavia couldn't help but let a single tear fall down her face as she jumped into James' arms, hugging him gratefully. She didn't say anything, instead, she just treasured the moment. He smelt so nice, like peppermint and she adored the way his arms were lazily thrown around her waist. She wished she never had to let go, but Sirius' cough pulled them apart.

"Okay lovebirds," He smirked teasingly, "Peter and Remus are here so stop being cute and make room for them."

Octavia punched Sirius on his shoulder, trying to ignore the red swelling on her cheeks. "We're not lovebirds," She muttered, "He's obsessed with Lily Evens."

"Am not!" James defended. "She's just nice and pretty and fun to tease."

And it was true, he wasn't obsessed with Lily. I mean, how could he be when one of his best friends was Octavia Knight; the smart, beautiful, strong and independent girl who he turned to when he wanted advice or needed a shoulder to mope on. He knew very well that perfection didn't exist, but Octavia was making it harder and harder to believe every time he saw her.

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published [11/1/2017]