Despite all doubts, Severus Snape really kept his mouth shut, and without any noteworthy complications, I was sitting in the Hogwarts Express safe and sound.

Well, as safe as one could be on their way to a school run by Voldemort.

Knowing Snape might actually be on our side eased the nerves regarding that, at least.

And for the first few hours, I had some faith that if they sent me back here time and time again, Luna would be, too. Though, after walking the train up and down twice, I gave up on that.

And I dreaded stepping into that castle more than I ever had before. Because I knew as soon as Wren would notice Luna wasn't with me, she'd ask where she was.

And I couldn't say I didn't know, because I did know.

It was one thing to lie about my own whereabouts, but I wasn't about to lie to my best friend about her kidnapped girlfriend. Not after she had already lost her own mother, in a way.

How many more things did life have to throw at her?

I was almost jittery as I walked into the castle, luggage in hand to bring it to my dorm before dinner- not that I had an appetite to still.

I lost my appetite at the realisation that it was me who had to deliver the bad news to Wren once again. Just like it had to be me last time. And just like it will have to be me in the future.

Now that she cut all ties to her family and her girlfriend was rotting in a cellar at the Malfoy's, who did she have but me?

I sighed as soon as I saw her leaning against the wall at the entrance of the castle. The smile she carried even before she saw me widened once she did, and she opened her arms immediately.

Merlin, why, why, why.

"There you are!" She murmured into the crook of my neck, arms tightening around my upper body. My arm still around her shoulder, I pushed her to walk along with me, not feeling like wanting to catch any of the Death Eaters attention.

Hogwarts was a lot stricter now. More orderly in all the worst ways.

So, I doubt they'd appreciate the welcoming committee.

It's not like Wren cared, though. She'd love to stick it to them any way she could, which is why she dared to come here in the first place. After all, she was the one who said she wasn't scared of a man with an incomplete face.

And while many people might say that, she most definitely meant it. After what he had done to her family's dynamic, I understood why she might feel that way.

"Those surely were the worst two weeks of my life. Your time at the Weasley's couldn't compare," She chatted away, though I could tell her attention wasn't entirely on the words coming out of her mouth.

Her head tilted and turned every possible way in hopes to catch a glimpse of her girlfriend. I hated the fact that I knew she never would.

"Hogwarts just isn't the same without you and Luna," She continued, the name coming out of her mouth so carelessly almost making me flinch. "Where is she, by the way? Did you two not get here together?"

The seemingly harmless question escaping her mouth made me swallow thickly. Little did she know Luna never got here, at all.

"No, we didn't," I forced out just as we turned into the corridor leading down to the dungeons. "Come along," I mumbled, my hand slipping off her shoulder to rest on her back in a comforting manner.

"Oh." She furrowed her brows, though stopped turning around every other second now that we stood in front of the Slytherin common room.

Before I could say the password, the heavy stone wall opened up from the inside, revealing Blaise and Pansy as well as the rest of our dorm. They didn't pay much attention to us, already on their way back up to dinner.

At least that meant I could talk to Wren without anyone interrupting. I doubt she'll be hungry after hearing what I had to say, anyway.

"Have you seen her, then?" She asked curiously, stepping into our dorm and quickly snatching my luggage out of my hands in order to chuck it on top of my bed.

In a hurry to get to dinner as well, of course. After all, that's where she expected Luna to be.

I could physically feel my insides twisting and turning, the thought of this conversation alone making me feel nauseous. I sat on my bed, next to the trunk, and Wren, already on her way back out, shot me a confused look over her shoulder.

"Let's go-?" She questioned, and I knew she could feel something was off when I didn't move. "Luna is probably waiting-"

I didn't mean to, but I shook my head slightly at the sentence that was about to escape her mouth, making her almost choke on her words as she didn't dare continue them.

My gaze was on my lap, fidgeting with my fingers in order to find anything else to do but look at her. Though, when she became quiet, I batted my eyelids open, looking up at her as her eyes widened in horror.

"Where is she?" She asked frantically, her voice louder than it needed to be. The volume made me flinch, though I knew she had every right to react this way. "What happened?!" She asked again, even louder this time as she took a few steps back towards me.

"They took her-" I couldn't finish my sentences as her face distorted in a mixture of agony and horror-the complete opposite of how she had reacted to the news of Delphia.

"What?" Her voice was anything but a whisper; a loud hiss might have been the appropriate description for it. "What are you talking about?"

"From the train. They took her from the train on our way home. I couldn't do anything. I'm so sorry-"

Tears accumulated in her eyes as she spat her next words at me, anger and misery lacing her voice alike; her breath heavy.

"On your way home?" She asked, and that's when it dawned on me.

She didn't know about my own circumstances over the holidays. For all she knew, I was enjoying a jolly Christmas fest at the Weasley's while I knew her girlfriend had been kidnapped. In her eyes, I simply didn't think owling her about the events was worth it.

I gulped at the realisation, and she shook her head forcefully. "You're telling me you've known about this for two weeks and didn't think it was important enough to send a fucking owl, maybe?!" Her voice was deadly, and I knew another wrong word would ruin the whole thing.

"I-"

"-What the fuck is wrong with you?"

It's been quite a while since Wren and I fought. The first and last one like this was back in, maybe, fourth year? Surely it had to do with Draco, and I knew back then I'd do anything to avoid her being angry at me again.

We never had more than a few petty bickerings after.

I hated the way she looked at me. And I hated the way from her point of view, she was justified to look at me exactly like that.

"You're a horrible-"

Before the sentence managed to fully slip out of her mouth, I quickly interrupted her with the first thing that came to my mind. My own eyes watering at the weight they carried for me.

"I couldn't owl you!" My voice was raised, too, and I could simply hope everyone else was already at dinner at this point.

"What?" She scoffed. "Too busy pretending to be part of a family that you're not?" She knew how poisonous the words coming from her mouth were, and she seemed to almost revel in the fact before shaking her head and turning to leave the room.

I was almost going to let her leave, way too taken aback by her choice of insults. And even though I didn't stay with the Weasley's, and haven't seen them in months, it hurt.

Because she very much knew the circumstances of the Potter-family's tragic end. She knew I didn't have anyone but Harry.

And I thought I had her, too.

"I couldn't owl you because I was right there with Luna, you fucking twat!"

At that, she stopped in her tracks, the hand already clasping around the doorknob lowering again. And even though I was mad at her, I felt relieved.

She didn't turn around, and I knew she was repeating my words over and over in her head, hoping they didn't mean what she was surely thinking by now.

Unfortunately, they did.

"You-?"

"Yes."

Her hands reached for her face before she turned around, and I didn't expect to see tears staining part of her cheeks and under eyes. She just looked at me, not moving or saying anything.

And it was driving me crazy.

"If I were to be pretending to be part of a family, it would be the Malfoy's. Since the summer, by the way."

I could hear her breath hitch from here, even when there was still a considerate amount of distance between us.

"But the letter-?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"Somebody else sent it," I simply shrugged in return, my eyes diverting from her unreadable gaze.

"Who?"

"I don't know."

I could justify lying about that. At this point, I was pretty positive it was indeed Snape, who had sent them. Though, just like I had told Draco; that was not my secret to tell yet.

"Fuck," She exhaled loudly, still seemingly glued into place as her whole body deflated.

"I know."

A/N: I kinda live for wren's insult lmfaooo I'm sorry we all a little toxis its only human :)

HAVE A GREAT DAY