A Few Days Later:

It's Lotty's birthday soon, she's going to be 13, though she still won't be able to visit Hogsmeade until her 3rd year. I decided to go into Hogsmeade to get her something for her birthday. On my way there, I bumped into Ed.

"You off to Hogsmeade too?"I asked him.

"Yep,"he responded, casually.

"Good, then we can go there together,"I answered.

"How long are you going to be spending there, Cathy?"Ed asked me, warily.

"Well, not long,"I said,"I'm going to get something for Lotty's birthday."

"Ah,"said Ed,"that's one of the things I was going to do."

"Then we can both look,"I suggested.

"Yeah, I suppose that would help,"Ed responded,"I've no idea what she'd like, do you?"

"Almost anything from Honeydukes will do,"I said,"have you found out anything about that ball Anita found?"

"Ah - Anita,"Ed replied,"I've just remembered - that's another reason I'm going into Hogsmeade - and, no, I still have no clue what it could be."

"Oh?"I asked.

"Yeah - Anita - for some reason, she wants me to buy a coil of extra strong, enchanted rope,"Ed went on.

"Whatever would she want something like that for?"I asked.

"She said something about building a rope-bridge,"Ed continued,"looks like she's been saving up for it for ages, too. This is no sudden plan, it seems."

I hadn't heard anything about this from Anita, I was utterly mystified.

"Did she tell you why she wanted to build a rope-bridge?"I asked.

"Nope,"Ed answered,"and I don't think I want to know, to be honest. She also wants it to be invisible..."

I don't know about him, but if I'd been tasked with buying enchanted, strong rope for Anita, I would definitely want to know more than she was 'using it to build a rope-bridge - an invisible rope-bridge'! Knowing Anita, she probably had some reckless, dangerous plans... or was it for another prank?

I got something for Lotty in Honeydukes. Ed and I had a 'break' in the Three Broomsticks, where we discussed what we'd done this last month. I started talking to Ed about Anita's mermaid prank.

"Those rumours have been going around the whole school,"Ed remarked,"has she owned up to it yet?"

"She tried to!"I said,"no one believes her! They wouldn't believe me, either."

It turns out, Anita has been spending a lot of time with Ed when she's not in classes. I was surprised.

"She doesn't seem to be making friends,"I remarked,"apart from us, that is."

"Well, friends can be over-rated,"Ed said,"I think maybe we're too close, as a family. We don't make friends so easily, because we're here in our comfort zone, and you know - high expectations. We expect 'friends' to have the same closeness we have, but no one can compare to that. We've got the strongest bond with each other - so when we try to make friends with other people, it seems like they're not really friends."

I thought about what Ed said. Certainly some of it makes sense to me.

Even though I consider myself to be an extrovert, I find it really difficult to make friends. Maybe it's true that I'm subconsciously expecting a bond as strong as the one I'm used to with my family, and I'm not going to find that easily. All of the connections I have with other students here are shallow. They're all more acquaintances than friends.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

During my time at Hogwarts, I've had several whirlwind friendships. They began all of a sudden, intense, amazing, and full of drama! The good kind, and the bad. These, however, all ended abruptly in some horrible way. I sometimes miss all of those friends that I made, even though we were only friends for one term, a few months, sometimes only a few weeks; but I've moved on, and I'm ok with it. I treasure the good memories I shared with them. Even if they later turned into an enemy (the non-fun kind), I still value the good times we had. I don't hold grudges, but when I pass them in the hallways, or see them in class, it's like they're strangers now.

Sometimes it can be awkward. One of these friends, in particular, shares a dormitory with me. Amelia Sanding. Amelia has a twin sister (also in Slytherin). Our whirlwind friendship began in the 4th year, and lasted one month.

It was at a time when her sister, Artemisia, was recovering from a serious Quidditch accident, and couldn't be at Hogwarts for a month. It was during term-time, and those twins have always been inseparable. Amelia's parents made her remain at Hogwarts, while her sister recovered at home.

Usually I'm the one that talks to the other person first, initiates the friendship, but in this case, it was Amelia. I was sitting in the common room, studying, or trying to study (I can never pay attention to anything when I'm bored). Amelia sat down next to me and started talking about a recent Quidditch match. It was the match where we beat Gryffindor for the first time in three years. I'm interested in Quidditch, but sadly dreadful at it. When I first came to Hogwarts, I had dreams of becoming an excellent Quidditch player, and I did try, but no matter how hard I practised, I never could make it into the team. Both Amelia and her sister are in the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Amelia is a chaser, and Artemisia is the seeker. Artemisia is the one that won the match for Slytherin. She caught the Golden Snitch. Unfortunately, it also resulted in the accident...

As we'd been talking about Quidditch, Amelia invited me on a moonlit broom-flight over the Forbidden Forest, and I joined her readily. We snook outside after dark, flew above the tops of the trees, and had a midnight picnic by the side of the Black Lake. The times I spent with Amelia were amazing, some of my happiest memories at Hogwarts. We used to do broom-races (Amelia always won, but that didn't make it any less fun), we visited Hogsmeade together, and even sometimes pranked people in class or in the common room.

When her twin sister was finally able to return, I knew it would impact our friendship, and that we wouldn't be spending as much time together, but I didn't expect to suddenly stop being friends. I think it might have been because Artemisia was jealous, and not wholly Amelia's doing, but shortly after her sister returned, she began ignoring me. She acted like I no longer existed. It was the worst feeling ever, like I was completely invisible to her. Artemisia was particularly hostile, making it clear I wasn't welcome. It only took a few days for me to realise our friendship was over.

I don't dislike Amelia, though it is like she is a stranger to me now. Like there is an invisible wall between us, wherever we go.

'Friends' come in and out of my life all the time, and I've come to accept that fact. My closest friends will always be my family. They have always been there, through all of the trouble - and being a Carrow means an exceptional amount of trouble! Especially as my parents aren't up to Carrow standards.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort's followers were greatly diminished, defeated and imprisoned. Yet many still remained, retreating into the shadows. Their power in Wizarding society was almost entirely vanquished, but they did what little they could with the power they had amongst their own families. Like our family...

My mum is pureblood, but she's from a different country, and that never suited my dad's side of the family. Dad shares some of the Carrows' typical ideas about things, but he also disagrees with a lot. He doesn't like certain types of dark magic, and disagrees with persecution and rejection of Muggleborns. Though he never has, and never will trust muggles. The rest of the Carrows consider my dad to be weak, and at one point, they even tried to take us away to be educated by our grandparents instead (in a dispute over the way we were being raised). We had to move around the country a lot, to avoid the trouble they caused. The irony is, our cousin, Dominic, once ran away from home and lived with us for a while (though that did sort of make things a lot worse...)

There were so many fights, and so much running and moving. We'd make new friends in one place, and then leave them all behind. Sometimes having to pack up and go on the run with as little as an hour's warning, or in the middle of the night.

It wasn't so bad when I started attending Hogwarts. Our parents still moved around for a few years while we went to school, but Hogwarts had become a place of constancy, like a solid island in the midst of a raging ocean.

Anyway, they couldn't kidnap us from school, and in the end, they gave up. For the last three years, we've actually been able to live in the same place. I feel more settled now than I've ever been.

Even though my past isn't exactly ideal, I wouldn't change it. It has made me who I am, and I'm sure I'm better prepared for whatever life has in store for me, as a result of it. Also, it has created an unbreakable bond between my siblings and I. We are the only constant people in our lives. The most true friends, the most trusted allies. We have something a lot of people don't have, and for that, I am ever thankful, and grateful.

However, right now, I'm more concerned with finding Anita and asking her about this 'ropebridge' project of hers!