A/N: Okay guys, I'm going to be honest with you: I've been lazy these past few weeks. Well, not lazy, exactly… just very, very busy. School, homework, & field hockey have been taking over my life. I've hardly had any time to read, let alone write! My apologies for the long wait.. and I'm sorry that this chapter is so short. Anyways, enjoy.

Chapter Ten

Hermione found herself climbing the metal rungs of the astronomy tower ladder, panting. She had run most of the way, trying to catch up to the girl who had caused such a scene at the Gryffindor table just a few minutes ago.

She reached the trap door, and pushed using her free hand and her head. 'Locked,' Hermione thought, 'of course.' She pulled her wand out of her robes and whispered a spell. The lock made a clicking sound, and when she pushed the door the second time, it opened.

Before she went inside, she checked out the conditions of the girl she had followed. Kaye was sitting sideways on one of the tower's open window panes, her back pressed against the stone wall. The repeated sniffs suggested that she had been crying.

Hermione sighed inwardly, and fully opened the trap door. She set it down gently, not wanting to disturb the peaceful silence.

Hermione approached the window and stole a glance. The sight was captivating. You could see everything – the sky, the lake, the forest… it was simply beautiful.

"I've been waiting all my life for something like this to happen to me." Kaye said, sadly.

"Some kind of adventure. An experience I'll never forget. Something that'll change my life forever. Something… else."

"My life was miserable before all of this happened to me. It's like, for seventeen years, I wasn't even alive. I was just a body, without a soul. And then I met him, and my whole world turned upside down."

"I saw colors. Reds, blues, yellows, greens, purples, pinks – I saw everything, Hermione. Not just the same old ordinary blacks, grays, and whites."

"Things actually mattered to me. I had priorities. I wasn't off on a search for money so I could just scrape by, crying myself to sleep every night, wishing I were someone else. I was … having fun."

"He did that for me. He changed me. He taught me how to love."

She gave one more look towards the bright blue sky, and turned toward Hermione.

"I never knew my parents. They died a few days after I had been born. I lived at an orphanage for eleven years of my life, dreaming about them. Hoping they would somehow come back for me."

She let her brown eyes connect with Hermione's, and said, "They never did."

Hermione waited for her to continue. As the girls stared at each other, Hermione saw something in Kaye's eyes… something familiar…

"He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. And when he left me that summer… I wanted to die, Hermione. I really did. I don't know how I held on."

Kaye thought for a moment, and then continued, "I guess I forced myself forget. I don't mean to say that I ever completely forgot about him – he was always haunting my dreams. I could never really escape from him, no matter how badly I wanted to."

"The thing I don't understand is.. why did he leave me?"

She shook her head, "But I guess it doesn't matter any more. He's gone. Forever."

"I'm not sure what came over me in the Great Hall. I was thinking about him, and I let myself get too carried away."

Kaye looked back through the window, and said, "Thank you for coming after me, and listening to me ramble. I really needed someone to talk to."

Finally, Hermione spoke, "Do you mind if I ask you one thing?"

Kaye shook her head.

"What's his name?"

Kaye froze. Did she dare speak his name? The name of the boy she had desperately tried to forget?

Kaye took a long, deep breath. Tears had sprung to her eyes, and slowly began to flow down her cheeks.

"Harry Potter."

It was at that moment that Hermione knew what she had seen in Kaye's eyes, something that had been so familiar to her.

It was the very same look of loss that the-boy-who-lived himself had expressed only thirty minutes before.