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that only two of them would interrogate Draco by transforming into Crabbe and Goyle, Saffron, Hermione, Harry and Ron all couldn't wait for the term to end so they could get started. But they managed to have a lot of fun in the meantime. Very few students had decided to stay in school during the holidays, meaning it was left to be mainly full of people Saffron really liked. All of Ron's siblings had decided to stay at school rather than visit their eldest brother Bill in Egypt. Similarly, all of her siblings were at school too. They frequently visited Gryffindor tower to spend time with her, the Weasleys, Hermione and Harry.

Saffron hadn't had the same kind of fun in what felt like an eternity. They didn't have to be conscious about disturbing anyone meaning they could be as obnoxiously loud as they wanted to. They played an inordinate amount of games of wizards chess, exploding snap and the likes. They practised duelling together and simply enjoyed each others company most of all.

On Christmas morning, Hermione woke Saffron up bright and early. When Saffron blinked her eyes open, she vaguely recalled promising the girl that she would get up with her to check on the polyjuice potion. Saffron never let Hermione go anywhere by herself anymore. It wasn't that she felt like her presence would scare the monster away or anything, she just felt more comfortable knowing where Hermione was at all times because she had a newly found everpresent feeling that Hermione could be the next victim. She carried it with her every day.

"Can we head up to Ravenclaw afterwards?" Saffron asked Hermione, who was already fully dressed, arranging a pile of presents on her bed. Most of them didn't seem to be for herself from others, but things she had gotten for people.

"Of course," Hermione nodded at her as though it was obvious. She never expected Saffron to spend the whole day with her. "I'll head back up here once we've finished checking on it, I feel like it should be ready today, by the way,"

Saffron grinned. "That's good to hear, and no, you're coming with me, wouldn't it be nice to see the inside of the Ravenclaw common room?"

That opportunity was too good for Hermione to miss and the girl immediately put to bed the thoughts of intruding on the family meetup.

Saffron and Hermione both exchanged gifts as they made their way down to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They had made an agreement to get each other something practical and not too big as neither of them had a real opportunity to shop for it seeing as they were in school. So, Saffron had gotten Maya to get Hermione an abundance of sugar quills alongside a quill with the ink inside of it. It was practical for someone like Hermione since she spent most of her time writing. Hermione got Saffron a mixture of sweets that she had ordered from the nearby sweetshop and a new satchel for her books as her current one had been repaired so many times by magic that it looked like the magic would eventually consume it and break it.

Both girls were appreciative but kept their eyes firmly on what was ahead of them: the potion.

"Once I get these lacewing flies in, it'll be ready for use," a satisfied Hermione told Saffron, who was merely staring at Hermione doing the work.

"For sure?"

Hermione nodded firmly. "I'm almost positive, then we've just got to handle Crabbe and Goyle--"

"Which should be a piece of cake compared to this," commented Saffron with a smirk.

"Exactly," responded Hermione in agreement. "Once we do that, we're good to go," She paused. "I say we do it tonight,"

"That makes the most sense," agreed Saffron, glancing over her shoulder nervously as she felt like she had heard movement from outside the cubicle. She pouted - it was probably just Myrtle trying to drown herself again or something along those lines. "There's no point in knocking Crabbe and Goyle out twice, as enjoyable as that would be,"

"That settles it then," smiled Hermione. "Tonight it is,"

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Saffron and Hermione were the only students in the Great Hall for breakfast that morning. Originally, they were going to head straight up to Ravenclaw tower, but when Saffron heard Hermione's stomach grumble, she insisted that they go to the Great Hall first and she was glad she did.

As the post arrived whilst they were there, and to Saffron's shock, there was something for her. A tiny tawny owl came fluttering over to where she and Hermione sat and dropped a dark blue envelope on her plate. Saffron had no recollection of seeing the owl before and was thus left in the dark as to who it could be from.

It turned out it was from Luna Lovegood. The girl had left a simple message alongside a piece of her asphodel jewellery, but it wasn't a necklace. It was a bracelet. Saffron looked down at the bracelet she was wearing now and remembered how Luna was shocked at seeing her necklace being downsized. Cleary the girl would rathered to make it for her herself.

Without a second thought, she slipped it onto her risk and left the Great Hall in pursuit of the Ravenclaw common room, alongside Hermione.

That didn't come without a hitch, much to Saffron's dismay and Hermione's delight. As the Ravenclaws didn't have a password, they had to rely on being able to answer a riddle:

"What asks but never answers?"

Saffron let out an exasperated sigh, as she knew she would never get the answer to the question. But she couldn't be too worried about it as Hermione was bound to know the answer.

"A question," Hermione stated simply and with that, the door to the passageway opened. With a relieved sigh, Saffron walked inside and was amazed at what she saw.

Maybe it was because of the lack of people inside of it, but from Saffron's perspective, the Ravenclaw common room was far bigger than the Gryffindor counterpart. The ceiling seemed to never end as it looked like a sky with painted stars twinkling magically above them. The windows were arched and massive, allowing a great view to be seen. Saffron walked over to them and looked out to see the magnificent mountains and hills of Hogwarts, looking undeniably picture perfect. It was quite a spectacle.

The walls were lined with small desks and easels alike, giving the students working space on whatever they wanted to put their effort into. At the back of the room, behind the entrances to the dormitories were large bookshelves that Hermione headed right over to.

"You could probably find out anything about Hogwarts here," Hermione enthused, as Saffron thought about what Maya and Rowan had told her about the room. Nothing stuck out to Saffron to have made her think that it was so nice, but it was probably because this was their normal and they had never seen how the Gryffindor one paled in comparison.

"It really is something, isn't it?" said Saffron loudly and rhetorically, spinning around slowly to take it all in. "I wonder where they all are?"

"We're here!" A voice called from above them. Saffron and Hermione walked towards the source of the voice to see Rowan walking down the stairs. He was still in his pyjamas and wore a bright smile on his face.

"Merry Christmas," he hurried over to Saffron and took her into a hug, which she returned with a beam. "Come on, I'll bring you both up," He offered Hermione a wave and hurried up the stairs that led to the boys dormitories. "We've been staying in my dorm because I can't get up to the girl's dorms,"

"It's like that in Gryffindor too," remarked Hermione thoughtfully as they reached the first door which had a sign telling them it belonged to the first year boys. Saffron nodded. She vaguely recalled the sixth year prefect Alannah telling them that.

Rowan held the door open for the two girls and that was when Christmas truly began. The Mitchells and Hermione spent two hours together. They looked through their presents, most of which came from their individual friends. Though, the one exception was from Amanda, who had made them a photo album which she told them had every photo she had of them in it. They spent a good hour alone talking about that.

Afterwards, they made a gingerbread house that Maya's friend Bethany had gotten for her. It ended in a feud between Rachel and Rowan. As Rachel was getting highly irritated by her twin brother, who had decided to eat the house rather than make it properly. They continued to half-eat, half-make the house, whilst an amused Saffron watched the other four contend with the magic tiny gingerbread men who were furious, like Rachel, at the destruction of the house. Rowan shut him up by biting his head off.

As this continued to go on, Saffron went to use the toilet but a sign on another door caught her off guard. It told her that the dormitory belonged to the second year boys, meaning to Olly.

She didn't want to be nosey. She didn't want to intrude on any of their privacy, but she wanted to see what it looked like. He hadn't been in it for weeks now and she was curious as to whether or not his stuff was still there.

The dormitory was identical to her own back in Gryffindor. There were four four-poster beds, from left to right, belonging to Anthony Goldstein, Olly Jowett, Michael Corner and finally Terry Boot. Three of the four beds had no possessions there, but not Ollys. As Saffron predicted, his belongings had remained untouched. None of his roommates seemed to have moved any of it.

In spite of herself, Saffron decided to examine it. She knew it was wrong, but she did it anyway. As her interest had been piqued. She walked slowly over to the shelves that evidently belonged to him. On top of it was a framed photo, but it wasn't a normal photo. It was like most of the ones Hermione had, as it didn't move.

It was of him when he was much younger, probably seven or eight, holding his little brother on his lap. He himself sat on his mother's lap, looking to the side in order to be seen by the camera, his bright blue eyes were slightly red as a result of the flash and hair was shorter than she had ever seen it on him. His little brother was like his double, but his mother looked different. The boys clearly hadn't inherited their looks from her. She had long brown hair that covered most of her face and unlike her sons who seemed to be eager to be in the photo, she looked like she wanted the camera to be on anybody but her.

Saffron put the frame down and when she did, she saw something that almost reduced her to tears. Under the nightlight that each table had been equipped with, there was a letter. A letter that Olly clearly had had every intention of sending but never had the chance to do so. Saffron knew she had no right to read that letter, but she was unable to resist the temptation:

Dear Locky,

I haven't forgotten about you, I don't think that it's possible to forget about you since you haven't stopped sending me letters back! I'm sorry for being terrible at sending letters back to you this year, I know how much you like them. I really do feel like the worst brother, but if it makes you feel any better I've not been a great friend to anyone either lately. So it's not just you, I promise!

I also promise that I'll be home for Christmas. If that doesn't show you that I haven't missed you then I don't know what will. I can't wait to get back to London to see you both. I like Hogwarts, but it's not home. It's missing you so it can't be.

Promise number three!: I'll explain everything that happened this year and why I haven't been able to write as much when I get back. Hopefully, you'll understand when I speak it to you instead of writing it. But for now, this is all I can say without writing an essay (which sadly I have no time for since I have so many to write for school!). I'm going to this Duelling Club with my friends Saffron and Luna tonight so I'll send this letter to you tomorrow morning. You'll get it when you get back from school then!

Lots and lots and lots of love as always!

Olly

Saffron almost cursed when she heard Rachel call for her. The abruptness of it caused her to lose her concentration and drop a tear on the letter.

Now, on the role of parchment was a solitary tear that wasn't there before. Saffron knew that people would be unlikely to know that it was hers but that wasn't what mattered, not to her.

What mattered to her was that he never got to fulfil any of his promises to his brother. She knew how much promises used to mean to her and if they even meant a fraction of how much they meant to her, to Locklan, he must have been crushed. It was evident that he relied on his older brother, particularly with the absence of a father figure in his life.

"Coming!" Saffron called down to Rachel, placing the letter carefully back where it had been under his night light. Taking one last look at his bed, she shut the door tightly behind her, cleared her eyes of any more tears and made her way down to her siblings and Hermione. Her mind, however, stayed in the room. As all she could think about was Olly and his brother Locklan.