prospicere futurum | fred weasley | cedric diggory

6.

Corinne slipped her boots on silently, knowing better than to wake her sleeping roommates before they were ready. Ella had their alarm clock set for the exact latest minute the two could roll out of bed, fix their hair, get dressed and race down for the final minutes of breakfast. Corinne had twice now been informed to stop trying to mess with their system.

She would always try to put the extra time to good use, catching up on homework from the light creeping in through their window or else squeezing her eyes shut and willing her body to let her enjoy the extra sleep with her friends. But it was no use. While the workload was picking up now, after nearly a full week of classes and homework, she couldn't force herself into writing essays so soon after waking up, the familiar warmth of the bed calling to her, tauntingly, both of them knowing she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.

Corinne twisted the handle as she pulled the door shut, although she knew first hand how hard it was to wake her friends. She started down the stone steps, a noticeable chill seeping through her after leaving the warmth of their dormitory. It was only a few days into autumn, but it was coming in full force. Most of the trees at the edge of the forbidden forest had already turned yellow and orange, some already littering the ground.

The common room was, unsurprisingly, empty as she started out towards the staircases, the low rumble of morning chatter growing louder with every flight she descended. How Gryffindor ever won the house cups when the majority of it's student body wasn't up by 8, she would never know.

She stepped through the open doorway into the Great Hall, glancing out of habit towards her usual spot at the Gryffindor table, despite knowing it would be nearly empty. She did spot a few younger students, crowded near the front, already onto second helpings of breakfast, as well as a few scattered seventh years already pouring over textbooks in silence.

"Morning." She felt the warmth in her hand before she placed his voice, spinning with a smile as she met his gray eyes, the color dancing through them in the morning sunlight from the ceiling. "You're up early."

"I'm down early." She explained, "My roommates are apparently sick of me waking them up in the mornings, or, trying to wake them up. I've never succeeded."

He laughed, genuinely, the noise ringing over the low babble surrounding them as a few students looked up to him with matching grins. "Will you come sit with me, then?"

She nodded, thankfully, ignoring the giddy smile she could feel spreading across her face as she let him pull her towards the golden painted rows of Hufflepuffs.

"We were wondering where you were." The brunette from their Potions class spoke up. Lucas, she remembered, his eyes flickering towards Corinne before returning to Cedric with half a smirk.

"Don't send the search parties out until I'm..." He glanced at his watch, "Four minutes late, at least." He joked, looking back towards Corinne with a grin. "This is Corinne. Corinne, you know Lucas, that's Johnny, and Mark." He pointed between his friends who all shot the Gryffindor large smiles as she took a seat next to Cedric.

"It's nice to meet you guys."

"It's nice to know that anyone from Gryffindor actually has an alarm clock." Johnny smiled, elbowing Mark's arm beside him as if reminding him to laugh, only to be met with an eye roll and a bit-back smile.

"It's too early for you." Mark replied, piling another scoop of eggs onto his plate and pushing the bowl back towards the center where Cedric held it out for Corinne, each of them grabbing slices of toast and dropping it to their plates before they could notice the heat on their fingertips. Corinne picked up her knife, listening absentmindedly as Mark and Lucas argued over which of them was going to finish their Herbology paper. She dipped the end into the small jar of deep red jelly and spread a thin layer over her bread before turning to hold it out to Cedric.