The Roses of Hogwarts | Cedric Diggory [1]

Chapter Nine: Raspberry and Gold

The seventh of October was just another normal day for Oriane when she woke up in her dorm. Sunlight spilled in through the crescent shaped windows, which lit the bronze color of her canopy in a brilliant orange color. Her roommates had begun to stir from their sleep as the sun slowly rose higher and higher into the sky, moving the beam over all four of their beds.

Nothing was different as she rose from her bed, quickly changing into her robes shortly after. Her hair was brushed, allowing the long, black locks to spill over her back like ink on paper. She was no taller, or wiser than she was on the sixth of October. Everything was the same.

"Five more minutes, please," Calista groaned as she threw her pillow over her head.

Yes. Everything was the same.

Emerald stood over Calista's bed with her hands on her hips. She looked like she could have been her mother in that moment, if it wasn't for the small amount of baby fat that still filled her cheeks.

"I'm hungry," Emerald demanded, "but I know if I leave without you, I'll have to listen to you whine the entire day about how I abandoned you. So get up. I'll drag you by your ankles if I must."

And then there was Charlotte, sitting on the edge of her bed, light hair perfectly straight, and heavy bags under her sleepy eyes. She sat tracing a thin line on her throat, amber eyes focused on nothing. However, after a particularly annoying groan from Calista, she quickly snapped back into reality.

"Just get out of bed already," she barked.

After the short, but effective, pep talk from Charlotte, all four of the girls were dressed and ready for their day of school. Over the last month they had all fallen into a sort of rhythm. Each one had grown comfortable with one another, and Oriane was learning more about them.

Calista was always the energetic and over dramatic one. She was just as likely to avoid an awkward situation as she was to make one. She really did love the color pink, like she mentioned when they were first introduced, as she always seemed to sport a pink hair tie in her ponytail or braid. And chocolate frogs weren't her favorite candy, it was whatever Emerald was eating at any given moment.

Sweet, fiery red headed Emerald was the brains of the group, and she loved to bully Calista whenever given the chance. Which was often, as Calista always made a fool of herself. She was often mistaken as a Weasley, both on purpose, and on accident, in which every time she would go on a rant about how not all redheads are the same.

Yet the only one she had yet to learn more about was Charlotte. She was a mystery for the most part. The most she knew about her life outside of Hogwarts was that she lived with her uncle, Greg. Other than that, she had a sharp mind, and an even sharper tongue. And apparently had a mean right hook.

They were her roommates, and closest friends at Hogwarts. And so, as friends do, they walked to breakfast together that perfectly normal morning.

The hum of the Great Hall was quiet. More quiet than usual. Each passing day, the excitement of the beginning of term slowly wore off, and it reflected in the tone of breakfast each morning. Very few students would wake up sincerely excited for their classes throughout the day. And so the hall grew quiet bit by bit.

"I'm going to die."

"Quit being dramatic."

Calista slumped over a sheet of parchment, her quill in hand as she attempted to work on some sort of essay. Her eyes looked shot as they scanned the lines out of her potion textbook. She put the quill to the paper to write several times, yet ended up picking it back up before tossing it to the side with a sigh.