When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too
When you're gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day
And make it OK
I miss you

-Avril Lavigne


Skylar looked up and watched Grace stride into the Great Hall. Her dark brown hair was down and flowing loosely behind her. She briskly walked past Skylar and Victoire, determinedly looking straight ahead. Victoire and Skylar exchanged looks. "Do you think she's still mad?" Skylar asked, though she already knew the answer.

Victoire eyed Grace as she perched herself neatly at the opposite end of the Gryffindor table along with all the other prefects. She didn't even glance back. "She'll get over it," Victoire finally said. "She always does."

Skylar gave her an exasperated look. "Vic, she won't even look at us!"

Victoire looked around uneasily. People still stared at them wherever they went. "I wish some other people would follow in her lead."

Skylar grimaced. "Just one more week and we're out of here." She shrugged. "By the time we return to Hogwarts from summer break, it'll all have blown over. I'm sure somebody will have gotten knocked up or something. It'll make me hooking up with Alex seem like nothing."

Victoire snorted. "Lovely."

"Just you watch," Skylar told her. "Nobody will even remember Alex by September."

"You will," Victoire said quietly.

Skylar's face flickered into one of pain but it was quickly replaced by an easy smile. "Maybe. Or maybe I'll be thinking about the fabulous summer I had!"

"Fabulous summer?"

"Yes, I'll be off in New York City doing runway fashion shows and you'll be—"

"—in the boring old Burrow," Victoire finished dully.

"Not boring," Skylar corrected. "Your amazing boyfriend will be there and those adorable knucklehead siblings of yours."

Victoire cracked a small smile. "Why are you so perky, anyway?"

"Because I'm not going to let what happened to ruin my summer. I lost the love of my life, so what?"

Victoire stared at her. "Love of your life?"

Skylar's eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh my Godric! Vic, you and Teddy should come visit me in New York this summer!"

Victoire blinked. "What?"

Skylar jumped up. "Oh, this is brilliant! I'm going to go start planning it right now. There are so many places we could go…"

She ran off, her dirty blonde hair swinging behind her. Victoire stared after her, her mouth hanging open slightly.


Sienna peered into the mirror, watching as Victoire's face appeared a moment later. "How is she?" Sienna asked immediately.

"Skylar?" Victoire considered the question. "She's doing just fine, actually."

Sienna gave her a look. "Vic, come on."

"I swear! She's acting like her usual self. Actually, she's even perkier than usual. I think she's in denial."

"Yeah?"

"Which means that when she finally accepts what happened—"

"—it'll be ten times worse," Sienna said with a sigh.

"Have you spoken to Grace lately?" Victoire asked abruptly.

Sienna shook her head. "Not lately. Why?"

Victoire sighed. "No reason."

"Is she mad?"

"Oh yeah."


Victoire spotted Grace sitting alone at the library. She was intently reading a book, her eyebrows furrowed together. Victoire walked over to her. "Exams are over. What could you possibly be studying for?"

Grace glanced up at her. "This is for pleasure," she replied coolly, holding up her book.

Victoire sighed and sat down. "Are you still mad?"

"I don't know. Did you still lie to me for months?" Grace shot back.

"It wasn't my secret to tell." Victoire gave her a hard look. "Just like I never told anybody about you and Lucas when you two first started hooking up."

"That's different," Grace said. "Luke was never my teacher."

"She's heartbroken, Gracie. She loves him."

Grace stood up furiously. "Of course you'd defend her," she snarled before stomping away.

Victoire watched her leave and shook her head grimly. "So damn stubborn all the time."


In the seats beside Skylar, Victoire and Grace were nowhere to be seen. Skylar stared down at her hands miserably as the bell rang and signaled the start of class. Skylar could feel her face burning, and she could feel the hard gazes of her classmates on her. Skylar finally gulped and managed to look straight ahead at the chalkboard. Defense Against the Dark Arts exams had been canceled and an old wizard had been substituting since Alex's dismissal. Usually, he just had them read different chapters from their textbooks during class. The old professor was sitting at the front of the class, still shuffling through his papers when Victoire finally burst into the classroom.

"Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed, scrambling toward her seat.

The professor glanced up at her and waved her off. "It's fine. Take your seat, please."

Victoire paused and frowned, noticing the two empty seats beside Skylar. "Where's Grace? It's not like her to be late…" Victoire paused and looked around the silent room. That was when she noticed everybody staring at Skylar. "What's going on?" she asked slowly.

"Everybody, settle down!" The substitute at the front was now flipping through the pages of a thick textbook. He wasn't even looking up at his students. "Read chapter forty-two, please. It's your last Defense class for the year. Once you've finished the chapter, you may leave. Congratulations on completing the course."

Victoire took a seat and looked at Skylar. "What's wrong?"

Skylar didn't say anything. Instead, she moved her textbooks out of the way to reveal the artwork somebody had left on her table. In red paint, whore was written in large letters.

Victoire's jaw dropped. "Who did this?" she demanded furiously.

Skylar shrugged and opened her textbooks. Whore was painted in tiny red letters all over the pages of her textbooks. "I don't know," she said quietly, her voice breaking.

Victoire looked around at the classroom full of snickering students. She stood up suddenly. "Who did it?" she demanded angrily. The class went silent. Victoire's normally angelic and beautiful face had been contorted into one of an angry harpy and everybody was reminded of the ugly side of veelas. "Who?" she hissed.

"Excuse me, young lady!" The professor said, standing up. He looked alarmed. "What's going on?"

Victoire ignored him. "Can't be Gryffindor," Victoire said icily. "A Gryffindor wouldn't be too much of a coward to admit who did it. Who did this?"

"Vic," Skylar said quietly. "It's fine. Sit down."

Frowning, the old professor scurried over. When he saw Skylar's belongings all ruined, he gasped. "Class dismissed. Everybody leave now!" He looked at Skylar and Victoire. "Except you two."


Grace noticed all her classmates trudging down the hallway, whispering excitedly. "Hey, what's going? Was Defense canceled?" she asked, pulling aside Julia Roth.

Julia shook her head. "Gracie, where were you?"

"I got distracted in the library," she said sheepishly.

Julia bit her lower lip. "We were dismissed early."

"Why?"

Julia looked back at her classmates, who were all continuing down the hallway, still whispering about the incident. "Somebody did something to Skylar," she said.

Grace felt her heart quicken. "What happened?"


Grace stormed up to her room. Luckily, she found Skylar and Victoire inside. Victoire was pacing back and forth angrily and Skylar was watching her with a grim expression.

"I'm going to kill whoever did this!" Victoire exclaimed.

"I'll help," Grace said furiously.

Victoire and Skylar whipped their heads around. They looked surprised to see Grace.

"Who did it?" Grace demanded.

"Who knows," Skylar muttered. "It could've been anybody. It's what the entire school is thinking."

"They're wrong," Victoire said forcefully.

Grace made her way toward them. "I could kill somebody."

"Well, don't," Skylar said warily. "The school year ends in a few days and this will all be over."

"Is the headmaster doing anything?" Grace wanted to know.

"He says he'd launch an investigation." Victoire shrugged. "But who knows what'll happen."

Grace gritted her teeth. "I swear to Godric, I hate the students at this ruddy school sometimes."

Victoire looked at Grace. "So, you're not mad at us anymore?"

"No, I'm still furious with both of you. I'm just more furious at whoever this piece of shit is that did this." Grace crossed her arms.

Skylar cracked a small smile, but her eyes were glittering with tears. "I don't care what everybody thinks."

Victoire looked at her. "We know, Skye. But it's still wrong."

"I just miss him," Skylar said, her voice breaking. She felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. "So much…"

Victoire and Grace rushed forward, startled. "Hey, Skye, it'll be okay," Grace said uncertainly.

"It won't…" Skylar sobbed softly. "It won't be okay."


Skylar took the flask from under her pillow, slipped it in her pocket, and quietly tiptoed out of the room. Victoire and Grace were fast asleep in their beds.

Skylar wasn't quite sure where she was going, but for some reason she found herself headed toward the Astronomy Tower. She took the flask out of her pocket and took a long sip. The alcohol burned her throat as it went down, but she didn't care. Skylar came to a sudden halt when she spotted a tall boy with light brown hair. He was standing by the balcony, leaning over the rails, watching the lake with a pensive expression.

"Didn't you graduate?" Skylar finally said after a shocked moment.

Finn turned around and grinned widely at her. "Are you insane? What nutjob would let me graduate?"

Skylar regarded him with hesitance. "What are you doing here, Findley?"

"I heard you might need a friend."

"You heard right," Skylar said tearfully before falling into his arms.

Finn wrapped his arms around her tightly and growled. "I feel like I need to kill somebody."

"Maybe the person who wrote whore all over my stuff."

"What?" Finn said sharply.

"I know," Skylar said grimly. "Everybody here hates me. Nobody will stop talking about what happened."

"Yeah, no kidding. I worship you, Skye! You were sleeping with a bloody teacher?" He held his hand up to give her a high five.

Skylar stared at him. "You're so strange," she finally said, begrudgingly high-fiving him.

"Maybe so. Now, we need to find that idiot who wrote those things on your stuff so that I can murder them."

"It's fine," Skylar told him. "Honestly, I don't even care that much anymore. It's not worse than Alex leaving."

Finn looked at her. "You really liked him, huh?"

"I love him," Skylar said simply. She felt her eyes begin to sting with tears. "It sucks."

Finn looked at her. It was the first time he'd ever heard Skylar talk about being in love. The closest she ever came was when she dated Teddy, and even then she had never admitted to loving Teddy. He didn't know what to say or do. Skylar was one of the strongest people he knew. She didn't cry in front of people. She didn't admit her feelings. Finn and Skylar were a lot alike in many ways. It was why they drove each other crazy most of the time. But it was also why they understood each other in ways their friends never did. Finn knew Alexander had to be pretty special for Skylar to have let herself fall for him, for her to be in tears over him.

"Tell me it'll get better," Skylar said softly, her voice shaking.

Finn hesitated. "It'll get better."

"Are you just saying that because I told you to?"

He grinned. "It's going to suck for a long time. But one day, it's gonna suck a little less. And eventually, it won't suck anymore."

"Do you think I'll ever love somebody like I love him?"

"Godric I hope so," Finn said before pulling her into his arms again.