By The Water

Lauren brain was whirling a million miles a minute. Everything was happening so fast. The homework situation was not becoming any better, and everyday brought more and more to be done. Lauren felt as though she would explode if she spend anymore time within the castle walls and sought tranquility by the water's edge.

Lauren sat and took a deep breathe, noting that there wasn't many students outside at the moment. Lauren smiled softly, thankful for a moments peace. She leant back against the grass and let the sun's rays warm her cold skin.

Hilary wandered out to the lake, her defence homework in her hand. She knew it needed to be done, but she didn't feel like sitting in the library. So she had made her way down to the lake to work on it, if she could concentrate outside.

She noticed Lauren sitting a bit away on her own. She approached the other girl.

"Hey Lauren," she said, sitting down next to her. "How's it going?"

Lauren sat up and opened her eyes to see Hilary sitting next to her. "Hi," Lauren said wearily, "Homework?" Lauren asked gesturing to what was in her hand. Lauren sighed at the memories of all of her 7 classes and the homework that was due. "I have so much to do, and yet I am here, procrastinating. It is nice to procrastinate once in a while though," Lauren said, leaning back once more. "How have you been?"

Shelby went down to the lake and spotted Lauren sitting by the water. She realized she was following Hilary to the same spot and started to giggle. She felt like some kind of weird friend stalker.

"Hey you two," she said with a smile. She set her cloak down and sat on it. She had changed out of her princess costume from the party and back into normal clothes, but she left the tiara on, not caring about the strange looks people gave her.

"Procrastinating is good for you," she said with a shrug. "It keeps your brain from exploding." She looked down at her homework. She really didn't want to work on it now. "I've been good. Other than the tonnes of homework. How about you?"

"Hey Shelby," she said, turning to face the girl who had just arrived. She smiled at the girl's attire. "Nice tiara," she added, with a smile.

Lauren smiled and nodded before she noticed Shelby walking towards them. "Yeah, not too bad. I feel snowed under by the homework and the hospital wing, but apart from that, just peachy."

Lauren smiled once more when Shelby came to sit down, "Hey, Princess Shelby. Beautiful tiara." Lauren looked at the two girls, "Hey, sorry I left the party so early, I was just really exhausted and didn't feel much like celebrating. Did I miss anything?"

Shelby grinned. She'd considered wearing her entire costume down to the lake, but the dress was a little heavy and she didn't want to have to wear it on the long walk back up to Ravenclaw tower. "Thanks," she said, fixing the tiara so that it was on completely straight.

"You missed everything. Cass nearly burned her hands off on her exploding carrot costume," Shelby replied.

Lauren laughed softly, "Sounds like it was a good night then. I'm sad I didn't stay." Lauren closed her eyes again and tried to let the tension in her body dissipate. It wasn't working so well. She took a couple of deep breathes and yet she still felt as tense as a piece of wire. So much for relaxing by the water, Lauren thought, though she was glad of the company of her friends to help keep her mind of her troubles.

She looked at Lauren. "I think that we need to go on an adventure, to help you become less stressed," she said, matter-of-factly. "You need a good distraction from your responsibility, and what better than a little rule breaking?"

She listened as Shelby told them about the party. She wished she hadn't left the party so early. She seemed to have missed all the excitement.

Lauren shook her head, "Oh no!" She told Hilary, "No more rule breaking for me. I think my stress would go through the roof if I lost anymore points and had to wash those blasted dishes again!" Lauren was a Gryffindor and was meant to be known for her bravery, but she just wouldn't get into trouble again!

Shelby was relieved when Lauren said that she didn't want to go on an adventure. She was not going to forget their detention with Professor Ellis any time soon and she preferred not to have another experience like that one ever again. She couldn't help but wonder if Lauren was thinking the same thing.

Lauren sighed again for like the thousandth time today and felt like she as letting her bad mood affect the rest of the group. Lauren noticed Shelby's relieved face and wondered if she felt the same as her own wish to not want to break anymore rules, "Sorry, Hilary. Resa might want to go with you. Besides whenever I get involved we always seem to get into trouble. Resa's the stealthy one."

Lauren got up and went to the edge of the water, letting her fingers trail on the water's surface.

Hilary pretended to frown. "You guys aren't any fun," she said, teasingly. She stuck her tongue out at the girls. She understood the other girls' concerns about getting in trouble again. Especially after all the stuff the had happened in the past week or so. She still hadn't completely managed to get the stench of dragon dung out of her nose.

Lauren seemed to be in an especially dismal mood but Shelby couldn't figure out why. She had said that she was feeling overwhelmed from homework and helping out in the hospital wing, but Shelby couldn't help but wonder if there was another cause behind the mood.

"Is anything else wrong, Lauren?" she asked. "That was quite a sigh."

Lauren turned as Shelby addressed her, "What? Oh.. no. Nothing's wrong. I'm just a little stressed, that's all." Lauren did feel stressed and snowed under by work, but the main reason she felt so awful was that she was homesick.

The reason was because it was her baby brother, James', birthday today, and it was the first family birthday that Lauren would not be present for. She could imagine them having a cake, and 5 year old James blowing out the candles.

A tear rolled down Lauren's cheek and she quickly wiped it away, hoping that her friends didn't see it, and think she was a cry-baby.

Hilary didn't miss the tear that had slipped out of Lauren's eye. She knew that there was something else bothering the girl. But she didn't want to push her friend to talk. She had been in that situation before, and it wasn't nice.

"You can tell us if something's wrong," she said, quietly. "Or if you need to talk, we're here to listen. That's what your friends are for."

Shelby also saw the tear. She put an arm around her friend protectively. "No, something else is definitely wrong. What is it? You know you can tell us anything," she said quietly. She could feel her own eyes welling up with tears at the sight of seeing Lauren upset, she didn't like it when her friends were hurting.

At Hilary and Shelby's kind words and Shelby's arm around her, Lauren's tears began to free flow down her face. She ducked her head down, "Oh, It's nothing really." Lauren hiccuped, "It's just that it's my brother's birthday today, and I guess I just realised that it'll be the first one that I'm not a part of. It's no reason to cry over, I'm just being silly."

"I don't think it's silly," Hilary said, moving to hug Lauren. She sort of had an idea of how the other girl felt. She was still waiting on a letter from her sister. "It makes sense for you to be homesick now. I would be, if I was in the same situation. Maybe it would help if you wrote to your brother."

Lauren hiccuped and nodded at the same time. "Thanks. I still feel riduclous crying though." Lauren said, "I suppose I could write to him. He's only five though, so he can't really read yet, but I'm sure mum would read it to him." Lauren smiling, thinking about her brother. "I still can't believe he's five already. I remember when he was just a little baby. So small." Lauren sighed as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, "Oh, I wish I could stop crying!"

"You could always draw him a picture," she said, remembering what her sister had done at age five. "That way he'll be able to understand it for sure, no reading required."

She smiled at her friend. "Don't worry about the crying," she said. "It helps you to feel better. It gives you a way to get it all off of your chest."

Shelby removed her arm from around Lauren's shoulder and patted her on the back gently. "Hilary's idea is fantastic. Just remember to treasure the times when he was young, because trust me, once they get older than five, they turn into cheekly little buggers who go through all your things," Shelby smiled, trying to get her friend to laugh. She had a lot of experience with little brothers.

Lauren laughed at Shelby's words, "Oh I know! I also have a ten year old brother!" Lauren said smiling, very thankful for her friends. "Oh Hilary, I wish I could, but I don't even think that he would be able to understand my pathetic excuse for drawing! I guess that's why I'm finding the Potions and DADA homework so hard!" Lauren said, and it was true. Lauren couldn't draw to safe herself!

"Just do stick people," she said, with a smile, as she leaned back on her hands. "A circle for a head, some lines for a body and appendages. You can't mess that up too badly."

All this talk about siblings reminded her that she still hadn't heard from Emma. She felt the worry creeping up from her stomach, but pushed it away. She wasn't going to dwell on it. Emma would write when she got the chance.

Lauren laughed. "I suppose I could manage that, but I have a tendency for messing up things that are deemed easy. We'll see!"

Lauren smiled and stood up. "I think I'm going to the library. I might try and see if I can get History of Magic and DADA homework over and done with... Perhaps even Herbology as well. Astronomy and Potions can wait. At least I've finished Charms and Transfiguration!" Lauren said as she brushed off the grass from her robes.

"I'll see you guys later on, but I might be in the hospital wing. Madame Rosey needs some help with a batch of reviving potion!" Lauren waved to her friends and made her way back up to the castle.