An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Fifty-Five

Technically we couldn't determine a winner of the water fight, but as far as I was concerned it was me by a mile. Not only did I destroy every single one of my friends, but I finally had more than a few minutes where I felt completely happy. No stress, no worry, nothing. Just enjoying my day and the people I was spending it with.

Once the water fight died down, we stayed in the lake and just floated around in the shallows, feeling the sun on our faces. It was a beautiful day, and we were taking full advantage of it.

Once we got tired of being in the water, we relocated to the shore and laid flat on our backs in the grass, letting the sun dry us out.

"Guys, this is literally perfect," I sighed. My eyes were closed, the sun gently warming my face, and for the first time in months I could just take a breath.

"We're glad," Cedric replied. I could practically see the smile on his face from his tone, and the warm feeling spread from my face to my chest. "You clearly needed a break."

"Yeah, no person is supposed to work that hard for that long," joked Lee. "I didn't actually know it was possible until right now."

"Hey! We work hard for months on some of the things we do!" Fred piped up.

"Yeah! Pranks like ours don't just happen by accident," George agreed.

"Alright, alright, aside from things like pranks," Lee corrected. "I just don't know how you can focus on reading the same books over and over for so long."

"I can't!" I piped up. "Why do you think I drafted you all into helping me scan the library books? I have no patience! I just learned how to learn stuff, I guess. I come from a family with some die hard academics, it's pretty terrible."

I thought about Bruce's seven PhD's and shuddered. That man was truly crazy sometimes.

"Alright, enough talk about school. That's exactly the reason we decided Alexa needed an intervention," said Adrian, sitting up and moving towards the picnic blanket. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm ready to eat."

"I second that," said Angelina, sitting up with Adrian. I didn't respond right away. I took one last moment to memorize exactly how I felt in this moment, with the sun and my friends and the lake and everything perfect. Then I sighed and sat up, moving towards the picnic blanket with all my other friends.

"Okay, yeah, Adrian's right. It's definitely time for food. What do we have?"

Since Fred, George, and Lee were basically the kings of taking food from the kitchens, the picnic did not disappoint. We had a full feast on the lawn beside the lake, and by the time I was done eating I felt more at peace than I had in a long time.

"Guys, thank you again for doing all this," I said, sighing as I laid back on the picnic blanket and closed my eyes. "This has been an absolutely perfect day."

"We're glad we could help," said Lee.

"Yeah, you really needed a break," agreed Alicia.

I snorted. "No kidding. And now, I hate to ask this, but what time is it?"

Even with my eyes closed I could tell my friends were shooting each other looks, trying to decide whether or not to answer me.

"Guys, come on," I continued, sitting up to look at everyone. I got the feeling they needed a little more convincing before they helped me get back to work. "You made me take a break, and I feel much better because of it. But I'm not studying anymore. At least, not right now. Right now I'm trying to get to the bottom of that mystery that's been bothering me since we got back from Christmas. My brain's been distracted from that for long enough."