VERDANT OUTCASTS | cedric diggory

⁰³ | potions class

CHAPTER THREE,
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"Should we wake her up?"

Katarina's eyes flutter open at the distant murmur of voices. She recalls having followed Lorenzo and Theo to their dormitory during a break between classes, mentioning she simply wanted to rest her eyes. She must have fallen asleep. She shuts her eyes again, sinking deeper into the comfort of the bed.

She barely registers the sound of footsteps and the rustling of fabric as Lorenzo and Theo hover nearby.

"Dunno," she hears Lorenzo reply. "She seems kind of peaceful, doesn't she?"

The conversation fades into the background.

Theo's voice cuts through the silence, clearer now. "We've got Potions in fifteen minutes."

The mention of class pulls her closer to waking, but she continues to lay still, her eyes still closed.

"Why are you lot still here? You'll be late," Mattheo's voice enters the room, followed by the sound of a door shutting. She vaguely remembers that Mattheo had missed their first class, unsure of where he had gone.

"And you won't?" Lorenzo asks, aware that Mattheo shares their class schedule. Katarina can almost hear the way his brows furrow.

Mattheo's response is a nonchalant shrug. "I'm always late, doesn't really matter."

The room quiets.

"Why is she still asleep?" Mattheo speaks once more.

She hears someone take a few steps back, and for a moment, she thinks they might be leaving her behind. She snuggles deeper into the comforter, hoping they'll go to class without her. But before she can drift back to sleep, she is jolted awake by the sudden weight of someone hurling themselves onto her chest.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Katarina yelps. She tries to shoot upright, but her attempt fails as Mattheo currently has her torso pinned to the bed. While the other two share a laugh, she gasps for air, scrambling to push the Slytherin off her chest, "Gerroff!"

Mattheo rolls to the other side of the bed, clutching at his stomach as tears well up in his eyes.

"Oh, har har," Katarina sneers, smacking Mattheo's arm, "What on earth was that for?"

"It's nine fifty," Lorenzo says, to which Katarina merely blinks.

"So, that means body slamming me into the bloody bed?" Katarina places a hand over her racing heart, "Fuck, I wonder what would have happened at nine fifty-five— thrown me out the bloody window or what?"

"We have no windows, though," Lorenzo's brows knit in genuine confusion as he glances at the depths of the Black Lake visible through their dormitories' windows, "They're more like transparent walls, really. Can't throw you out of them, can we?"

"It was a joke, Enzo!" Katarina barks, flinging the comforter off herself. She gets to her feet, grabbing the bookbag she had placed at the foot of Mattheo's bed. However, when she turns back around, she sees the boy casually stroll toward the 'transparent wall' near his bed, rapping on it softly with his knuckles. Lorenzo then gazes back at Katarina, asking, "Can you swim?"