"Dioleh, wake up," Imani whispered, shaking her slightly. Dioleh groaned. "Shh," Imani hissed quickly, glancing over at the other girls in their room. "Come on," she whispered. Dioleh rubbed her eyes and sat up, reaching for the clothes she had set out for herself. After pulling on her sweater, jeans, and a pair of boots and without bothering to do anything with her hair, Dioleh followed after Imani into the Common Room. There, they found Draco and Blaise waiting and rubbing their eyes tiredly.
"Morning," Imani said cheerfully. The two boys only grunted in response as the four headed for the doorway to leave the Common Room. Outside the doorway, they found Andre waiting and looking just as tired as the rest of them felt. "You got everything?" Imani asked.
"Yup," he replied quietly, holding up a large bag. "Now come on before we get caught." It was just beginning to lighten at the horizon as Dioleh, Imani, Andre, Blaise, and Draco stole outside and down to the edge of the lake. Andre dropped down first, quickly ordering the lighting to that of a bright, hot day as he began to dig around the bag he had brought with him.
Without waiting, Dioleh and Imani sprinted for the saltwater. It was warm against their bodies but as they swam deeper, it cooled soothingly. Emerging again, Dioleh leaned against the dividing glass and watched as Andre set out breakfast. "What'd you snatch for us, Andre?" she asked, moving her wet hair back and away from her face.
"Oh, just some toast, some bacon sandwiches, and a few bagels," he explained. "What do you want?"
"Bagel," she requested, coming to the edge. Draco took the bagel from Andre and crouched down to hand it to her. "Thank you," she said cheerfully.
"Anything for you, love," he replied casually as he grabbed some food for his own breakfast. Spreading out a blanket on the sand, Draco and Blaise sat down with their food while Andre joined Imani and Dioleh in the water.
Dioleh grabbed another bagel as Andre said, "Great suggestion, Imani."
"Hell, yeah," Blaise said, leaning back to take in the sun as he propped sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. Dioleh smiled, sharing an amused look with Draco. After finishing with her bagel, Dioleh swam out a little ways, turning onto her back to float in the warm water.
"It's so peaceful here," Draco said. Imani nodded, joining Dioleh to float in the water.
"I'm just glad we had the idea to come out here before everyone else woke up and could drag us into their mess," Andre said. "Don't get me wrong, Potter and friends are great and all, but they're a whole lot of drama."
Coming back upright, Dioleh laughed, "You say that like we aren't." Andre shrugged with an amused smile. "You would just rather deal with our drama than anyone else's."
"Guilty as charged," he replied with an amused smile.
As the hours passed by, the group spent a warm, sleepy day together in the water or laying on the sand, enjoying the escape from everything. It felt to many as though they finally had a moment, a margin, to process and truly be teenagers. However, like all good things, it must come to an end.
⥖✦✧⦽✧✦⥗
After their day away, schoolwork came rushing at them like a tidal wave so that as soon as they had started to feel more relaxed, they were again thrown under so much stress nobody felt like the break had been enough in the slightest. When they came back into the Common Room, Blaise groaned, his attention fixed on a bulletin board.
"What is it?" Draco asked.
"Career advice," he explained irritably. "We're all required to meet with Snape to talk about it."
"Well that'll be a short meeting," Imani snorted. In a striking impressing of Snape, she said, "Now Ms Kanumba, have you given any thought to your career after school? No? Well just continue all your classes!"
Once the laughter had died down, Dioleh said, "Honestly, I'll probably just drop History of Magic and call it a day."
"Me too," Blaise replied. "That class is terrible."
"It would be more interesting with a different teacher," Draco pointed out fairly. Blaise shrugged.
"Do any of you know what you want to do?" Blaise asked.
"Nope," Dioleh admitted. "Honestly, I was never expecting to stay here this long."
"Me neither," Imani said.
"What electives do you have?"
"Runes and Arithmancy," Dioleh explained.
"You could be a curse-breaker," Blaise said.
"Not really my thing," Dioleh admitted. "Honestly, I have no idea what I would want to do."
"I was kind of always planning on just...being my dad when I graduated," Draco admitted. "He just gives donations and funds charities. But now that I think about it, that does sound rather dull. Maybe I'll work at the Ministry."
"Have fun with that," Dioleh said with a grimance. "I think I'd rather be caught dead than in there again." Draco shrugged. "Well, I guess we'll see what Snape has to say about all of us this week."
"Yup," Imani said. "Regardless, we should get some sleep. We have classes tomorrow."
"Gross," Dioleh groaned. "I'm for skipping. Anyone else?"
Draco chuckled, shaking his head as Blaise said, "Nah. It's too much work to convince teachers you had a valid reason for not being there and then they end up just giving you detention. Plus, we have Umbridge tomorrow."
"Umbitch, you mean," Imani grumbled. "Come on, Dio, let's go get some sleep."
"Yeah, yeah," Dioleh said with a yawn. "Night, Dray. Night Blaise."
"Goodnight," they replied, heading for their dorm.