The next few weeks for Oriane were absolutely brutal. Between professors prepping them for their O.W.L's as if they were actually taking them that year, fellow Hufflepuff's using any excuse to send her a glare, and that odd vision, she found herself going to bed with a pounding headache most days. It had been too long since she had last even spoken to Cedric. Every time she saw him in the halls or during meal times he was constantly surrounded by a posse of sorts. Fellow quidditch members proud of him for being a champion, or girls fawning over every move he made.

So when she wasn't with her roommates, she mostly stuck to herself. Whether she was reading in some dark corner of the library, meandering in some forgotten corridor of the castle, or staring out at a frozen meadow, she was destroying herself by being alone. Though, it wasn't like she was a stranger to that feeling, of being alone. It's just, with everyone that had come into her life, she had forgotten what it felt like.

On a Saturday afternoon in mid November, Oriane found herself scribbling away at a piece of parchment, writing some stupid report Professor Snape assigned. Given to them to do over the weekend, of course, because despite how well mannered the man tried to appear, he had absolutely no regard for any well deserved breaks his students earned. So she sat with notes and books gathered around her in haphazard piles, her glassy eyes flickering back and forth between them.

Until a black piece of fabric suddenly covered half the table, her notes and books included.

Looking up from her work, Oriane saw Charlotte standing at the edge of the table. Her bright blonde hair stood out against her dark winter robe, and she stared down at the girl as she clutched a thick folded blanket close to her chest.

"Is this my cloak?" Oriane asked, confused.

"Put it on. There's something I want to show you," Charlotte said, nodding to the item.

This was something Oriane hadn't expected from Charlotte, yet she felt obligated to oblige to the girl's request. Cautiously, she stood from the table, throwing her cloak over her shoulders before gathering her school items. It felt as if there should have been a look of excitement on her face, but Charlotte seemed completely stoic as she led Oriane out of the library, and eventually, out of the castle.

They walked in silence for quite some time as they traversed the grounds of Hogwarts. There was a frigid nip to the air that bit at her cheeks and flushed them a bright pink, yet there was no snow covering the grounds quiet yet. Everything looked dead and frozen as the frost crept up the sides of trees and lamp posts. The day might have been warmer if there weren't grey clouds overhead blocking out the sun.

Oriane wasn't surprised when Charlotte eventually brought her to the Great Lake. She had learned the previous year that it was apparently the girls favorite spot, and she seemed somewhat partial to the giant squid that was rumored to frequent the waters every now and then. As they neared the rocky shoreline, Charlotte suddenly stopped as she unraveled the blanket in her hands before gently placing it on the ground, almost as if they were having a picnic.

"What did you want to show me?" Oriane finally asked as she watched Charlotte take a seat on the blanket.

"I lied. I just wanted to get you out of the castle," she responded simply as she patted the spot on the blanket next to her. "Sit."

They walked out all that way, and Oriane wasn't about to have all that work go to waste. Besides, it wasn't often that her and Charlotte shared instances like that, and she found that she really enjoyed them. She obliged to the girl's request, and she sat on the blanket. It was thick enough to somewhat insulate her body from the cold ground, but she could feel that slight chill creeping up on her.

"I take it Cedric hasn't tried to set things right, yet?" Charlotte asked, pulling her legs to her chest.

Oriane shook her head. "No, not yet. I'm starting to wonder if I should try and talk to him. Every time I see him he's surrounded by other people, though, and I feel like that'd just be more embarrassing."

"Don't. You shouldn't be the one approaching first," Charlotte said firmly. "He's been prancing around the castle being the darling of Hogwarts while you've been receiving backlash for his crap. You don't need the pressure of trying to initiate that conversation too."

Oriane let out a frustrated sigh as she began to mess with the hem of her cloak. Conflict was something that she hated. Even as a child she would begin to cry if she had thought that she had done something wrong, if she had thought she was being anything less than perfect. But it was easier to deal with as a child because she knew that no matter what, Esme's love was unconditional.

She didn't know if it was the same with Cedric.

"I know, it's just hard," she said, her eyes focusing on the lake in front of them. "We used to be so close, and he was one of the first friends that I made when I arrived at Hogwarts. A part of it really hurts that we don't talk like we used to."

"You like him, don't you?"

She couldn't even attempt to hide the look of surprise on her face. Turning back to look at Charlotte, she was even more surprised to find that the girl wasn't even looking at her. Her question was more of a statement than anything else. Something she spoke already knowing the answer to.

"I… I don't know," Oriane admitted shakily as she looked down at her hands. "Maybe? I mean, he was nothing but kind to me, and he… But…" She let out an exasperated sigh as she looked back up at the lake, her eyes almost as cold as the water. "But maybe it's for the best if we don't get close."

That statement was the one that finally got Charlotte's eyes to tear away from the view in front of them. They landed right on Oriane, an odd glint to them.

"Are you saying this because of what was in the paper?" she asked bluntly.

Confused, Oriane narrowed her eyes. "What was in the paper?"

"Anais and Jean Morissette being killed in France back in August," Charlotte explained carefully, still refusing to take her eyes off of the girl. "They're your family, right? Excuse me if I'm being forward or anything, but it sounds like your family is being, well, hunted."

Oriane opened her mouth to say something but all she could muster was a surprised gasp. Had everything really been that obvious, or was Charlotte just that adept at reading people and figuring out secrets? She thought for a moment that she should play dumb, that she should act as if she didn't know what she was talking about, but she knew better than to try and get a lie around her.

"How did you know?" she breathed.

Charlotte shrugged as she turned her attention onto a small family of rabbits that had managed to meander along the shoreline. A few of them looked too small to be real.

"Well, they had that article about your family in France, and I asked my uncle about it. He's an Obliviator for the Ministry, and though he doesn't exactly work on cases or anything, he hears a lot about them. He was a kid when your parents were killed, but he knew a little about that too. How your mom was killed by Voldemort, and your dad by some Death Eater.

"The paper mentioned Camille and Hugo Morissette. They were your paternal grandparents, killed around the same time as your dad. Someone could chalk all this up as an accident. Your mother and father were obviously being hunted down for some reason related to the war, and maybe they killed your grandparents to get to them. It could have just been a coincidence that Anais and Jean were killed recently, and that's what I had told myself for a while. But then you said that about Cedric, that it was for the best if you don't get close, and that just proved everything I had been suspecting."

Stunned didn't even begin to explain how Oriane felt. Charlotte had almost perfectly explained her entire family past even better than the adults in her life who actually knew them. And she said it so nonchalantly, as if she was reciting a report she had written.

"I can't believe you came to that conclusion based off of one sentence," Oriane finally said, unable to think of anything else to say.

"People watching is a favorite pastime of mine," Charlotte said simply. "Besides, I care about my friends. It's important to me that I'm not ignoring signs about them."

The girl paused for a moment as she adjusted her position slightly, pulling her legs even closer to her chest as she leaned forward some.

"But that's why you're conflicted about Cedric," she continued, "you've got all this stuff going on and you're terrified that you're going to get him hurt."

Oriane nodded her head solemnly. "Yeah, I guess. I have no idea what to do about it. I want to talk to him to set things right, but maybe I should let him keep his distance. I just…" she said, her voice wandering off.

"Do whatever you want," Charlotte said simply. "Life is too short to worry about getting hurt or hurting others. No one goes through life and comes out a saint. I'm gonna be honest, I don't think Cedric would mind getting hurt for you." She teased Oriane with a quick smile before adding, "Even though he is being a bit dense at the moment."

That was the first thing in a long while that got Oriane to actually laugh. A part of her felt as if she should have been a bit more worried about Charlotte being able to read her that easily, but she was also glad that it was Charlotte who read it that easy. Out of everyone in Hogwarts, she was the one she trusted the most to keep a secret.

"Thank you," she laughed, her eyes wandering back and forth between Charlotte and the rabbits now digging at the rocks ahead of them. "For talking to me, I mean."

"Well, it won't make Cedric wisen up any faster, but I figured you could use it," Charlotte smiled. "Besides, I know what it's like to have the burden of bearing your family's sins."

This stumped Oriane. Her tone had changed from a somewhat playful one to a near monotonous one. Not as if she was bored, but as if she was almost indifferent.

Charlotte spoke up again, almost as if she could hear the question rattling inside Oriane's head. "My family was taken, too. I figure since I know just about everything there is to know about your family, it's only fair you know a bit about mine, too."

This didn't exactly surprise Oriane, especially after the conversation her and Calista had at the beginning of the school year. Yet, she tried to give the impression that this was the first time she had even thought of the possibility.

"I'm sorry," Oriane offered before quickly adding, "were they taken during the war, too?"

The girl shook her head before resting it on her knees, turning to the side to look at Oriane. "No, their deaths were unrelated to the war. They died four years ago."

It didn't take a genius to do the easy math.

"You were only ten," Oriane stated.

"Yeah," the girl responded quietly, her amber eyes glancing at a glinting light around Oriane's neck.

"How did you… you know… escape?" Oriane then asked cautiously.

The girl paused for a moment as she thought before slowly lifting her head off of her knees. Her head turned to give her a glimpse at the scenery in front of them. A hand reached up and absentmindedly rubbed her throat.

"I wasn't home."

The lie wasn't lost on Oriane, but neither was the hint telling her that she had maybe gone too deep too quick. Of course it would be entirely different for her. Oriane had never known her parents. They had not lived long enough for her to grow up to remember them, but Charlotte had. The questions people could ask her weren't the same as the ones she could ask Charlotte. Her pain was different. More raw.

"But now I live with my uncle. Thing's are alright for me," the girl continued to explain. "He took me in without hesitation, despite the fact he was only nineteen."

"Nineteen?" Oriane repeated in awe. "Wasn't there anyone else who was older who could've taken you in?"

"His parents, my grandparents, wanted to, but good old Greg wouldn't let them," Charlotte said, stretching her legs out in front of her.

The rabbits in front of them had now wandered away from the shoreline and instead were biting at a patch of dead grass a few yards away from the lake. Their fur blended in so well Oriane almost couldn't see them.

"Why wouldn't he let them?" she asked.

"Probably because they're self righteous pricks."

At that, Oriane laughed again. Despite their rather dark conversation, Charlotte managed to at least find some sort of humor in it, as morbid as it was. The girls sat there for a long while, enjoying each other's company and trying to not succumb to the cold breeze that pulled at their cloaks.

"When you finally figure out that you love that boy, please make sure I'm not there when you tell Cali," Charlotte suddenly spoke up, a hint of a grin on her face.

Oriane playfully rolled her eyes at the girl, and she didn't even bother to attempt to argue about whether or not she actually liked Cedric like that. "You know you love her overreactions."

"Yeah, maybe a little," the girl admitted.

And for the first time in the last few weeks, the weight on Oriane's chest seemed to lift ever so slightly. Or at least it felt easier to breathe. For the last year everything felt as if it had been crumbling at her fingertips. Everything was always after her, plaguing her while the students around her lived normal lives. And though she would never wish that sort of pain and anxiety on anyone, being able to bond with Charlotte over it made her feel less like a freak.

If Charlotte could be that strong about it, then maybe she could, too.

Eventually the girls walked back to Hogwarts. Long after the sun started to dip down in the sky. Long after the rabbits bounded back to their burrows. And for a moment, just a moment, Oriane couldn't bother to concern herself with anything else.