Albus didn't see Caroline much between meeting her in the common room and leaving for Christmas, but when he did, she seemed sad. She also seemed to avoid him. He honestly had no idea what to do; she was the first real friend, who wasn't family, that he'd ever had.

"It's probably got something to do with her father." Rose and Albus were sitting across from each other, eating breakfast. That night was the night of the big Christmas feast and the following morning they would leave for the break. "I mean, when a parent has a child with someone else it can be hard."

Albus just fidgeted a bit with his breakfast, not really getting any down. It had been like that since that night in the common room. He couldn't quite get himself to eat anything in the morning, so he'd be starving through morning classes, and then he'd eat way too much at lunch, making him tired for the afternoon ones. "Oh, come on, how do you know that? Your parents would never even consider leaving each other."

Rose shrugged. "Once we had a neighbor who was the second husband of this woman. They both had children from each their marriage, so it was often weird to play with them. My mom, in the end, had to explain."

Of course, he thought, if there was anything her books couldn't teach her, she'd learned in some other way. She really did know everything.

The days went by slowly without Caroline to play with, talk to and break the rules with. At one point between Defense Against the Dark Arts and Spells classes, he'd been sitting with a small smoke bomb from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It had been an exclusive that would only be for sale in the spring, but because he was the son of his parents, he'd gotten it as a special gift. But without Caroline, all he could really do was to sit with it, throw it up and down in his hand.

He really didn't have any friends except for her, at least not if you only counted Slytherins. She did, he quickly noticed, but still she didn't spend much time with them.

By the time the feast was served, Albus was aching to go home. To think that only some weeks before, he'd thought that leaving Hogwarts would be terrible. Now he was miserable at Hogwarts.

He even considered sneaking to the Gryffindor table to sit with his friends but was afraid that Lucy would notice. Lucy was a prefect, the daughter of Percy and Audrey Weasley and had unfortunately inherited most of her father's characteristics. While Albus didn't mind Audrey, Percy had always scared him a bit.

Caroline wasn't even there. She'd left early, some said, but he didn't know if he believed them. Nevertheless, he didn't see her after the Christmas feast either, nor did he find her in the dorms or on his way with the Hogwarts Express.

At home, all of the family had already collected themselves inside 12 Grimmauld Place. It seemed hard to believe that the house had once been as dark and eerie as the stories about it told, especially during Christmas when the decorations were up and ever fireplace was lit.

There was the yearly competition between George and his son in who was the best prankster, a fight that Fred got close and closer to winning. Angelina would shake her head while Ginny would smile and Ron would complete the tradition by saying, "It's almost as if Fred didn't die at all – insufferable."

Everyone would laugh and eat and laugh some more, and Albus gradually found himself forgetting all about Hogwarts and a little about Caroline.

By the time the vacation ended, Albus still hadn't received a letter from her. While he had hoped and wished for one, a part of him always knew that he wasn't going to get it. He should've sent her one, he realized as he was driving to King's Cross with his parents and brother. It was too late then.

The goodbyes were quickly over and done with and before long, Rose and Albus were once more on the train to Hogwarts. Some of Rose's friends came by to say hi, but they usually left again quickly.

"What's the matter?"

Albus looked up to see Rose's worrying eyes on him. "What do you mean, 'what's the matter'?"

"You're brooding." Rose's accentuation became a little more posh as she said those words. "Again."

"I'm not!"

Rose smiled and tilted her head. "You're worried about Caroline, aren't you?"

He shrugged, shifting to a more comfortable position on his seat. "Why would I worry about her? She's the one who's been ignoring me."

"Still, you haven't seen her since days before we left for vacation and you haven't seen her on the train or at King's Cross. I think you're afraid she's left the school."

Albus' eyes narrowed at her. "Are you always this intolerable?" She didn't say anything. "And I'm not worried that she's left Hogwarts, she loves Hogwarts. She wouldn't go to any other magic school in the world, much less a Muggle one."

Rose sighed. "She does love Hogwarts very much?"

"When have you talked to her?"

"Only once, in class." Of course, in class, Albus thought and rolled his eyes. "She didn't say much, but she still said a lot."

"What in the name of Merlin are you talking about?"

She shrugged. "You know, she said a lot of things that she didn't intend on spilling." Rose's eyebrows rose. "It's only because you're too daft to notice until it's smashed into your head."

Albus sighed. "Speak English, please?"

Rose leaned forward to look at Albus. "She's sad, okay? That's it. Hogwarts is the best thing that has ever happened to her."

Albus looked at her suspiciously. "You said you only talked once."

"We did."

"Then how come you already know more about her than I do?"

Rose leaned back, an annoying smirk on her lips. "I don't know more than you do. But as I said, you're too daft to realize how much you really know."

Albus still didn't understand Rose's way too cryptic message. He tilted his head and looked outside to look at the fields that passed them by instead, trying not to think too much.

A week went by before Caroline returned to Hogwarts. It happened all of a sudden, unannounced. One day she just entered a second period class, silently packed out her books, sat down and listened, as if she'd never been gone. Albus' eyes were on her during the entire period, planning to confront her afterwards.

But, as always, Caroline had her own plans.

She hurried out of class before anyone could stop her and Albus' courage faltered. He was one of the last ones to exit. He'd just seek her out before her next class – he knew her schedule, of course.

Once he entered the hall, though, he was surprised to find Caroline waiting for him. She smiled nervously. "Hey Albus." Her voice was exactly as he remembered. "How was Christmas?"

She didn't apologize for ignoring him, nor did she explain, but she didn't need to. Albus had already forgiven her. After a while, everything returned to normal, and Albus realized that he had no right whatsoever to be angry at her for leaving him; he should be grateful that she was even there in the first place.

Come summer break, they were still inseparable. They had already planned the next year, all the things they'd do – they even made a list. Caroline had, after much persuasion, gotten Albus to add visiting the restricted section to the list.

"Can I visit you sometime during the summer?" he asked her as they walked down a hallway. It was their last day on Hogwarts, one to be cherished. Since the first and second years didn't have any tests, they had an entire day off.

Caroline stopped walking. It took Albus a couple of steps to realize that she was no long walking. He awkwardly slowed down and turned around.

She was biting her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I don't think that's such a great idea. I'm going on a vacation with my mom and dad, just the three of us. No Rebecca." She smiled at the prospect.

"Oh, well." Albus shifted around awkwardly. "I'm happy for you."

She giggled a little, though Albus didn't exactly understand why. "I'll miss you too." Then she hugged him, for the first time ever. Her arms went around his neck, her chin rested against his shoulder while Albus slowly put his hands around her. "I'll send you so many owls that you can start your own menagerie."

Albus chuckled. "I will look forward to that."

At the dinner, Caroline received an owl from her parents. Albus made a little fun of her receiving an owl the night before she'd see them again, but she just ignored him.

"It's good news." She smiled at the letter, her eyes rereading it. "Dad's not changed the plans. It'll just be me and my mom and him, just like the old days."

Albust smiled; it was impossible not to be happy. No matter what mood she was in, she always managed to have such a presence that everybody else within a short distance from her were touched by the same emotion. "Where are you going?"

"To Kenya." Her smile only grew. "We'll go on safaris and look at the wildlife. My dad says it's so cheap once you get there, because of their finances and the civil wars and all that's going on, so we'll live on a beautiful hotel."

"That's all good, but don't you feel bad for taking advantage of their bad times?"

Caroline shrugged; it seemed that she'd thought of it before since she answered quickly. "I suppose it's not very good of me, but it doesn't make it any worse for them, does it? At least some of us will get something out of it, eh? Besides, we'll be paying the fee of a lot of Africans who work at the hotel, so it's not all bad."

While it seemed cynical and selfish, Albus was able to see the logic behind her thoughts. Caroline seemed to realize that Albus was worried, so she immediately began a mission to distract him. "Hey, look, it's the caretaker."

No one knew the caretaker's name. He was a brooding man who didn't break the tradition of being thin haired and sullen, looking as if he hadn't been outside for a century. He was usually a silent man, but he would surprise you – both with cruelty in punishments, but also with being a rather humorous man, if only you managed to get on his good side. Caroline had somehow managed to do that, in spite of her being the one who pulled the most pranks on him. Of course, she was good at blaming them on others, and if she was caught, she'd play it out to be a friendly gesture.

"Do you have any of those smoking bombs from your uncle's trial?" she whispered, leaning across the table.

"It's the final feast on Hogwarts this year, and you want to throw a smoking bomb after the caretaker?" Albus stared at her in disbelief.

She smirked. "Come on, it's going to be our last chance to make fun of him the next months." Albus hesitated. "Come on, we have to do it now or it'll be too late." Caroline looked over her shoulder, keeping an eye on the caretaker as he walked past the pupils sitting on the long row of benches.

Albus took another moment of thought, then gave up. "Alright." He passed the smoking bomb that he happened to have in his pockets to Caroline without anyone seeing it and, without hesitation, she pulled the plug and threw it behind her, right in front of the caretaker where it began sputtering, sending out a grey cloud of mist.

Everyone broke out in laughter, even Albus. Caroline was right; this was his last time to have fun at Hogwarts and, more importantly, have fun with Caroline. Her smile and laugh were contagious, sending him into several fits of laughter before finally calming down.

Slytherin didn't win the House Cup that year; it wasn't a surprise. Even without Albus and Caroline getting caught for a single rule breaking all year, the Slytherin House was no stranger to getting points withdrawn. Still, they were in second place and that was enough for Albus and Caroline.

"We won the House Cup in having fun," she claimed as they walked down the halls. Her voice was louder than usual due to the fact that two first-year Gryffindors were walking close by.

Once back in the common room, they settled on a couch in front of a fireplace, just talking about all the things that they'd do next year. They found their list and went through it, laughing at some, making important notes to remember this and this when doing that and that and adding some extra to-do's while deleting some of the old ones.

It was much later than planned when they went to bed, ushered upstairs by some of the older ones who wanted to have a 'real' party. For some reason, they couldn't be there when that happened.

It wasn't hard to return to the discussion from the night before when boarding the train. It wasn't until half an hour before their arrival that their conversation died out, Caroline's gaze wandering to the window more and more often.

"What's wrong?"

Caroling smiled, tearing her gaze from the outside. "Nothing. I'm just looking forward to seeing my parents again, is all." They fell silent again for a few moments. "I'll miss you a lot."

Albus smiled back at her. "I'll miss you too."

That was the only real goodbye that they had. Everything became so strange once the train stopped. The hallways were chaos and Caroline kept saying that they'd say goodbye outside, but once Albus stepped onto the platform, she was already gone. He supposed her parents had been stressed and not willing to wait, or perhaps she'd thought he'd already left. No matter what, she was nowhere to be seen.