The friend of my heart

[Charlotte Owens]

When Charlotte first started her fifth year as a prefect she was ecstatic. Being able to be a role model alongside Daniel was more than anything Charlotte could have ever wished for. But, even after trying to keep a positive attitude after everything that had happened, she still felt like something was missing. All she ever wanted was a large circle of friends but she felt them slipping away each day. Cairo was avoiding her for no reason at all whilst she was avoiding James who she just wanted to forget. Charlotte wanted to forget a lot of things, but no memory charm was going to be able to fix whatever the fifth year was feeling. The girl decided that she would make her way onto the grounds to get some fresh air. After losing a match against Gryffindor, Charlotte was unsure whether or not she really wanted to show her face again, but she ventured out nonetheless. It was just another reason to avoid James. After all, it was his fault Gryffindor won. On the bright side, at least Charlotte was the only person in the whole game to score a goal.

Charlotte walked unusually slow, as if her brain was struggling to tell each foot to take the next step. She kicked up pieces of grass below her feet, not caring how her shoes were going to get ruined. Truthfully, the prefect wasn't sure where she was going but she was just letting her feet take her there. At one point she thought she'd go to the Quidditch Pitch but she hadn't brought any of her gear with her and so there was no point. Eventually she made it to the cliffs. She knew she wasn't allowed there but it meant she was able to be alone for a while as she cleared her mind, trying her best to think up some sort of solution to everything. She sat in the dirt, her clothes getting dirty as she picked up the nearest stick and began drawing different shapes with it in the ground. It was time consuming but it kept her mind clear, and so she just kept doing it, not caring about having to study for the upcoming exams.

 

[Madeline Walden]

Thing were actually looking up for the teenage Gryffindor, for once. She was doing well in her classes, she had an idea on what she actually wanted to do after finishing Hogwarts and she had the perfect boyfriend. Even she and James actually seemed to be getting along, which never happened. The only thing that was missing in Maddie's life was a certain Slytherin. The two girls had seemed to have grown apart a little over the past year and she regretted it immensely, she missed her partner in crime. The only time Maddie had seen Charlotte had been in the classes that they took together but they never really got a chance to talk during them. The Slytherin girl seemed to keep herself to herself these days and she was hard to get hold of.

Having some time to spare before meeting Aion, Maddie made her way to Hogwarts grounds and headed for the Cliffs, it was a favourite place of hers to go and it used to be the same for Charlotte. Maddie hadn't expected to see her friend sitting there but the person in front of her was unmistakably her best friend. She walked a little closer to the Slytherin girl and smiled "Charlotte?" she said a little tentatively "what are you up to?" she asked, wondering what her friend was doing in the dirt.

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte did not know how long she had been sitting there for before she heard the sound of Maddie's voice. She recognised it instantly and looked up to find the real life version of her best friend standing in front of her. She dropped the stick she was using to draw on the ground and stood up, dusting herself off before she pulled the Gryffindor into an embrace. "Maddie!" she exclaimed, squeezing tight before she let go. "I was just sitting here. What have you been doing? How was your holidays?" Charlotte knew that the pair of them had a lot to catch up on and she was ready to hear Maddie talk first. From what Charlotte last heard, her friend had just broken up with Felix, but the prefect knew there was more to it than that. A lot of other things happened in between and Charlotte was eager to know what. She walked over to the grass area underneath a tree and sat down, beckoning Maddie to follow her.

 

[Madeline Walden]

Maddie threw her arms out to her best friend and gratefully received the hug. She squeezed Charlotte tightly and reluctantly let her go, after everything that had happened between them and how they had drifted she never wanted to let Charlotte go again. "Do you want any company?" Maddie asked her, looking from the dropped stick to her best friend. She shrugged her shoulders at Charlotte's question as she followed her friend to a smooth grassy area where they could both sit down. Maddie leaned against the trunk of the tree and sighed. What had she been doing since she last saw the Slytherin? All the drama with Olivia had happened of course, now that had ended Maddie had moved on with a Ravenclaw boy who seemed pretty perfect and her sister had joined her in Gryffindor.

She looked to her friend and smiled "I got co president of Heta Omega so that's pretty cool. Congratulations on becoming prefect by the way, I can't think of anyone better than you to be one! How are you finding it?" she asked Charlotte. She couldn't help but feel a little disheartened when the talk turned to prefects, she wanted to be one so bad but unfortunately she wasn't picked for it. "I haven't been doing much though, focusing on classes this year. They're so much harder but I am really enjoying them. How are you finding the classes? Care of Magical Creatures is my absolute favourite!" she chatted away excitedly. "Oh and my sister, Leila, got Gryffindor too! I'm so proud of her, she seems to be doing so well. How's Spencer? I've seen him around but I haven't really had the chance to chat with him properly" she said.

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte listened with a smile as Maddie spoke to her, filling her in on what has been happening. It felt just like old times and Charlotte was glad that after so long they were still able to talk to each other comfortably. She beamed when Maddie mentioned she was co president of Heta Omega. "That's so cool!" she exclaimed. "What sort of things do you have to do?" Charlotte was not part of a club and so hearing that Maddie was a co leader of one of them was great news. It meant that, despite Maddie not getting prefect, she still had a job to fill, and Charlotte couldn't be more proud of her best friend. "Being a prefect is just like being an ordinary student, apart from having to attend meetings and such, but it's weird that Styx chose me out of all people, don't you think? I thought someone like Cairo or Rome would get it. Although, I'm not sure how well Rome would do as a role model." Charlotte chuckled, imagining Rome attempting to boss everyone around with her badge. Now that Charlotte thought of it, there was no way Styx would have chosen someone like her.

"Care of Magical creatures is really good," Charlotte replied, remembering the image of Maddie and James on one of the Thestrals. She tried to push it to the back of her mind as she spoke as to not dull the mood. "The classes are pretty good, but it's weird that after so long most of our professors are different. To be honest, I just can't wait until it's all over." Charlotte told her, longing for after graduation when they would finally be able to go out and explore the world rather than just Hogwarts. Despite that, Charlotte liked being young and the thought of growing old was scary.

"Is Leila your youngest sibling or is there another one?" Charlotte asked, curious. It had seemed like the Waldens just kept coming and Charlotte couldn't wait to meet her best friend's sister and explore with her just like when she explored with Aaron. "Spencer has been going good, as far as I can tell. I don't really know what he's been doing lately, or even if he's made many friends, but he seems to be getting along fine. I've showed him around the castle a couple of times so he should know his way around now, especially since he's now a second year." the prefect explained. "What about Leila? Has she made any friends yet?"

 

[Madeline Walden]

Maddie smiled at Charlotte's enthusiasm "I don't know really" she laughed "Izzy and I just have to make sure the girls are alright and organise events for them so they can all meet each other and build relationships and stuff. We've decided to co host events this year with the brotherhood, try and get everyone to mingle together" she said smiling "I don't think we should be so seperated" she added, shrugging. She left out the part where James was the brotherhood president, she didn't think that Charlotte wanted to hear about him. She had noticed that the two had been keeping their distance from each other and Maddie didn't particularly want to bring that whole saga up again, if she could help it. She smiled at Charlotte and shook her head "not at all, you're the perfect choice" she said encouragingly. "I mean, precisely, Rome would be a terrible prefect. She doesn't have the right temperament. The power would go straight to her head, she'd be even more unbearable!" she laughed.

She nodded her head "I know right? Professor Melbourne is so mean and yet Professor Phillips, the Muggle Studies Professor, is so nice!" she said. "I know what you mean. Half of me wants to leave now and be able to go out into the world and do my own thing but the other half of me is really happy here, still learning about loads of cool new spells and creatures and things" she chatted.

"Leila is the second youngest, there's one more after her, Benji" Maddie explained to Charlotte "he'll hopefully start here in a couple of years" she said excitedly. "That's cool, he seems to be getting on pretty well form what I've seen of him. We'll have to get all our siblings together sometime. It would be so good for them all to meet" she replied, grinning. "Leila's made a few really good friends already. Her best friend is Jess though, James' sister of all people, can you believe it?!"

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte was glad that there was a club at school where people could simply make friends with each other. Despite that, she too didn't understand why both the girls and boys were separated. "Yeah, I wonder why they did that. The school has both boys and girls so why not mix them together if they want everyone to make friends?" Charlotte asked rhetorically before listening to Maddie continue to speak. Charlotte didn't know why it was, but she felt a sense of guilt talking to Maddie about being a prefect. Maddie deserved the role much more than what she did and so she simply shrugged when her friend told her she was the perfect choice and just laughed along with her when she mentioned the power getting to Rome's head. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about anymore and so she brushed it off.

The mentioning of Professor Melbourne made Charlotte smirk. It reminded her of the lesson where Reuben almost blew up the whole classroom and the professor hadn't taken her eyes off him since. Something inside Charlotte really wished he did blow up the classroom just so she could see the look on her professor's face. "I don't take muggle studies so I'm not sure who Professor Phillips is. Why do you take muggle studies when your dad is a muggle? You'll come first in every exam!" Charlotte exclaimed, chuckling a bit at the thought. Maybe Charlotte should have taken it just so she could get straight Os in something. Nonetheless, it would be a waste of time and so she still didn't understand why Maddie took it.

Charlotte beamed when Maddie told her about her youngest brother. It meant there was another Walden and Charlotte couldn't wait to meet him. "What's he like? Do you think he'll get Gryffindor too? Would your parents be disappointed if he didn't?" she asked, wondering if it were the same situation in Charlotte's family. Most of her family was Gryffindor, apart from her mother, and they were definitely disappointed when Charlotte turned out to be a Slytherin. Nevertheless, Charlotte had accepted the fact that she was different and so it didn't really bother her anymore. "Oh, yes! We could have a Walden-Owens party." Charlotte laughed, wondering if Spencer would even get along with Aaron, Leila or Benji. They were in the same house so Charlotte hoped they would. Charlotte didn't know James had a sister, and simply shrugged at Maddie's words. She'd probably see her around some time.