"Oh look, Oliver!" his mother exclaimed as she read a letter.

"What is it?"

"Tiannah's going to Hogwarts!"

Oliver felt his heart skip a beat. He couldn't imagine what it would be like facing Tiannah if she came home for the summer, let alone if she was at Hogwarts. Her refusal to come home confirmed in Oliver's mind that there was nothing he could do to mend their friendship.

"That's just wonderful," he snapped as he loudly made his way upstairs. He didn't want to face the inevitable. Explaining himself would be too hard and most likely futile.

"Oh shit, oh shit." Tiannah panicked as she and Hestia disembarked from the plane. Now that she was back in Britain, the thought of facing Oliver felt all too real and close.

"Girl, calm down. I will be there if anything happens," Hestia reassured her friend. Tiannah nodded and made a beeline for her parents waiting nearby.

"How are you?" they asked, clearly noting their daughters stressed expression

"Just jetlagged," she lied, glancing at Hestia, who smiled reassuringly. But there was nothing that could dissipate Tiannah's nerves.

When they got home, Tiannah wanted to maintain normalcy for as long as she could. She chatted with Hestia and her family, the two girls telling Tiannah's parents all the stories they could think of about the Salem Witches Institute. Hestia knew that Tiannah was avoiding and thus kept an endless stream of conversation flowing.

"It's amazing how you have kept your English accents!" Jane told the girls the moment she could get a word in due to Hestia's faced paced ranting.

"Well, we didn't want to lose them, so we practiced. Elocution lessons, taught by me!" Hestia said happily. Jane stared at Hestia strangely. She sure was one of a kind. There was a knock on the door and Jane was the one who stood up to answer it. She walked swiftly back into the lounge room.

"It's Oliver, Tiannah. Do you want me to let him in?"

Tiannah was shocked. She didn't expect Oliver to come and see her so quickly after she arrived home. A huge part of her wanted to see him, but after he so cruelly ended their friendship via letter, did he really think he could waltz on over after years and fix it?

"No way, Mum. Tell him to go f-" Hestia covered her friend's mouth, but Jane got the message, and Oliver left.

Hestia and Tiannah spent the first week of the holidays lounging around, relaxing after a long year. By the weekend they were feeling very well rested. Hestia painted Tiannah's nails as they cat on the balcony, basking in the summer heat.

"Wow, I just thought of something!" Hestia said suddenly.

"You can think?"

"Oh, shut up." She lightly shoved her friend. "If you combine our names, it's Hestiannah. That sounds pretty cool."

Tiannah shook her head exasperatedly, smiling. "You are mental, Hest." She felt a surge of love and appreciation for Hestia. Who needed Oliver Wood when you had a friend like Hestia? Tiannah knew there was nothing she could do that would cause Hestia to ignore her for years.

Hestia continued to paint Tiannah's fingernails in a vivid, emerald green colour. When they were dry, they walked into the kitchen and to refill their cups of lemonade. Jane and Daniel were sorting out payments for Hogwarts and doing Ministry paperwork. Tiannah inspected her nails, not noticing the knock on the door as Hestia skipped to see who it was.

"Hello, Wood." Hestia's voice carried into the kitchen.

Jane and Daniel watched their daughter slowly back away, eyes wide. Hestia walked in, glaring, with Oliver. Upon seeing how much Oliver had changed, Tiannah was overwhelmed with the urge to reply. The last time she had seen him, he was still an awkward lanky boy. He had filled out considerably and was taller than Tiannah by almost a head. The puppy fat had disappeared from his face; his cheekbones were sharp and there was stubble on his chin. Despite the flurry of emotions she felt – fury, sadness, longing – she couldn't help but notice that Oliver was very, very attractive. This realisation only served to heighten her fury.

"Hey..." Oliver said hesitantly. His face bore none of the shock and hostility that Tiannah's did, but he too seemed disconcerted by how much she had changed.

"You absolute jerk! she yelled, walking towards him and shoving him in the chest. "HOW COULD YOU! Two bloody years, and all you can manage is hey?" Tiannah frantically looked around for something she could throw at him, but Hestia seemed to realise what she was trying to do and restrained her. She fought against Hestia's grip. She knew it would be hard seeing Oliver, but not this hard. She wanted him to feel the pain she had felt for years. She wanted to hug him. She wanted to never see him again. She wanted things to go back to how they used to be. But they never would, and there was nothing more difficult than having to accept that.

"Tia... please, listen to me..."

"NO! Why should I?"

There was no reasonable explanation Oliver could give. There was nothing he could say that would excuse his erratic and hurtful behaviour. She felt a surge of rage and broke free from Hestia, making a beeline for a vase. She grabbed it and threw it in Oliver's direction, but of course he dodged it. He hadn't played Quidditch his whole life for nothing.

She found a vase and threw it at him, which he just dodged. There was a bang and Oliver and Tiannah were forced apart.

"Tiannah, apologize to Oliver," Jane said firmly, holding her wand. Tiannah stuck her jaw out stubbornly.

"No, I will not apologize for something I am not sorry for," she snapped, shoving past Oliver and storming out the door, Hestia in her wake.

A week later, Tiannah and Hestia were going through their clothes, sorting out items that were no longer wearable.

"Hm, I wonder what the Hogwarts robes will be like?" Hestia pondered. "I hope we get to personalise them like we did at Salem."

"I'm not sure about that, but I know they are black, but they have trimmings relevant to the houses. Gryffindor is maroon and gold, Ravenclaw is blue and bronze, Hufflepuff is yellow and black, and Slytherin is green and silver," Tiannah replied, throwing away a shirt.

"How do you know?"

"Oliver," she replied sadly.

Speaking of whom….

There was a knock at her door and a painfully familiar Scottish voice spoke.

"Please Tiannah, let me explain."

Tiannah glared at the door, hoping that Oliver would go away, and that her stomach would stop performing backflips. After a week of contemplation, she knew she wouldn't be able to act as though Oliver didn't exist; their friendship had spanned longer than a decade. She wanted to stay mad – she had a right to – but didn't know how much longer she would be able to.

"I'm not going until you hear me out."

Tiannah opened the door. "What, Oliver? What do you have to say?"

Seeing his face close up hurt. His soft, brown eyes reminded her of easier times and made it all the more challenging to hold her ground. He handed her a bunch of flowers.

"Primroses. Your favourite."

Tiannah snatched them from Oliver and tore her gaze away from him. He was still the same, kind-hearted person that she considered her best friend. "Fine. We can talk." She sighed, knowing the conversation wouldn't be easy and that it would probably lead to another argument.

Oliver and Tiannah walked downstairs and out the door. They eventually sat on a seat in her front garden that overlooked a small pond alive with both magical and non-magical organisms.

"Explain," Tiannah said shortly, fiddling with the primroses.

"Hestia and I started corresponding by letter a while back. She told me that you had a boyfriend…"

"And?" Tiannah shot her head up, her stomach beginning to feel strange. When Hestia told her that she and Oliver had been talking, and that he stopped talking to Tiannah after she told him about Theo, she surmised that it couldn't possibly have anything to do with her new boyfriend. That it was just a coincidence that he stopped talking to her around the same time. There was no way Oliver would end their friendship over that. But seemingly, it was the case.

Oliver sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I… I just didn't really think about what it would be like if you had a boyfriend. I was just so used to it being you and me… like it always was. And you were sending letters about how great this boyfriend was…yes, I opened them… and then I snapped."

"Are you kidding?" Tiannah almost yelled, dropping the flowers to the ground.

"Excuse me?"

"You stopped writing to me because I had a boyfriend?! What sort of jealous crap is that! We were meant to be best friends, Oliver! And you let some stupid insecurities get in the way of that?" She went to stand up, but Oliver gently grabbed her wrist to stop her. Tiannah looked down at her old friend, half wanting to laugh and half wanting to cry. For years she had considered every possibility. That he made better friends, that he decided they weren't suited to being friends, that long distance friendships just weren't possible. Whilst this revelation did mean that her and Oliver could mend their friendship – for it was over something fixable - it also meant that Tiannah would be hurt for a long time, because he could have just told her how he felt. And she would have reassured him that nothing would come between them. But seemingly, Oliver was his own worst enemy, because he was the reason Theo came between them.

"I wish I could take it back. I was an immature thirteen-year-old. When you didn't come home, I thought that meant you didn't want anything to do with me. I wanted to talk to you in person, really."

Tiannah noted the warmth and sincerity on his face. She sighed and sat back down. She never could stay mad at Oliver, even when they were kids. But this time, it was more serious. This time, it would take a while before she trusted him fully again. And this time, she felt as though something had shifted in their friendship. Something felt different to how it used to, but not in a bad way. She couldn't put her finger on what it was. But for now, it didn't matter.

"Well, let's talk."

"Really?" Oliver asked, eyebrows raised. "I didn't think you'd agree so easily-"

"Well, you have a lot of making up to do," she said, trying to sound stern but unable to keep the smile off her face. Her life really hadn't felt full without him. "And it'll take a while for things to go back to normal. But I'm not going to give up on our friendship that easily. Unlike you," she added, giving him a pointed look.

"Hey, I deserve that," he said, holding his hands up. "So, tell me all about America."

Tiannah smiled again. It felt strange to fill him in on the details of her life from the past few years – he was meant to be the one person who would always be around to share her experiences – but she felt optimistic that things could go back to normal.

Well, a new normal.