The Great Lake

((New Day))

(Danny came walking down the trial at 7am his face expressed in happniness. He was with the girl of his dreams and he, Sophia, and Andrian were the golden trio again. Regardless of the fact that Andrian was getting expelled, he was happy. He sat down by a tree and watched the lake silently.)

Sophia walked out to the lake as the morning air rustled through her hair. As she seen Danny she smiled. "Hey love, what you doing out here alone?"Sophia asked him as she sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulder.

(Danny jumped a bit when he heard Sophia.) "Just being by myself," he smiled at her "what about you?"

Zoe left the castle and made her way to the lake. It was a little cold outside so she pulled her hoodie closer to herself. She really needed some fresh air. Since the snow and ice came it seemed like most of the students stayed inside. Everywhere Zoe turned there was somebody. She just needed some air.

What better place to get it, than the lake. It was after all one of the most beautful places on the grounds. Zoe slowly made her way. It was the first day in weeks that it was snowing at the moment. She looked up at the sky as the clouds moved slowly through the sky. It was as it they were having trouble moving today too.

After what seemed like forever Zoe found herself lakeside. She stopped and looked around for her log. There it sat covered in snow. "Well this is going to be fun, wet dream." Zoe said to herself grumpy. She walked toward it to rake the snow off. Once it was as clean as it was going to get she sat down. Just as she was about to raise her head up to look across the lake she heard a sound behind her. Out of instincts her hand went straight to her wand.

Darren left the castle and walked out to the grounds. He instantly raised his wand and cast a heating charm on himself, it was unusually cold and he wasn't exactly wearing warm clothes - a blazer over a t-shirt and black jeans.

Turning, he began walking towards the lake. The lake was his favirote place at hogwarts, though he liked it best when it was quiet and empty. Unfortunately, it was rare for it to ever be empty it was always full of people chattering. However, even from this distance he could tell there weren't many people out today. Well the weather wasn't great, it was colder than it had been all week.

Arriving at the lake, he looked around. It was empty, he could see no one around. Sighing, he turned back towards the lake. He wasn't in a mood of spending time alone right now. Darren had only been looking for someone at the lake, but she wasn't there. She had disappeared... again. Gritting his teeth, he turned and walked back towards the castle when he suddenly spotted someone.

He couldn't tell who it was from the distance but he walked towards him or her. Coming closer, he realised it was zoe, another person he hadn't seen for a while. "Calm down!" he said, alarmed as she reached for his wand. "Its me Darren, hi!"

Zoe turned in the direction of the sound. "Oh, sorry Darren. Just a little jumpy." She took her hand back out of her pocket from around her wand. She blushed a little and looked at the ground. She would have hated to attack a dear friend.

"Hi there. What brings you out here today?" Zoe asked. She hadn't long been back at Hogwarts. She had only seen a few people since she had gotten back. Being out in the cold probably wasnt a good idea since she was just getting over being sick. But she loved it.

"Yeah," Darren replied, putting his wand back in his pocket - he had drawn it out as soon as Zoe had reached for hers. "Nothing really, there was nothing to do at the castle so I decided to come out here.." he lied with a shrug. "What are you doing out here so early?" he asked, sitting down by a tree.

Zoe laughed a little. "Honestly I think while I was at St. Mungo's they messed up my sleeping. I didn't have a window so I never knew the time of day." Zoe raised her head and looked out acroos the lake. The sun was slowly rising and it sprikled off the ice and snow. "Plus look at it. Its the perfect time to relax. The only better time would be at sunset."

Zoe had missed all of her friends while she was gone but a few she missed more. She wondered why no one came to visit her, but she tried to put that out of her mind. She looked on the ground and found a small piece of wood and started playing with it in her fingers.

"So what have you been up too? I mean its been a while since I saw you last." Zoe finally asked after a couple of minutes passed.

"Oh thats where you were!" Darren exclaimed loudly. "I wonder where you had gone.. No one even told me.." He was a bit annoyed, he was sure Mari had known where Zoe had been, but she hadn't bothered telling him. "Why exactly were you at St.Mungos?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

Darren thought that a full recount of what had happened the past 3 months would take the whole day to tell so he just dodged the question by saying "nothing much.." even though that was a complete lie.

"This is going to be a long story. But I'll try and keep it small." Zoe admitted. "It started as something simple like a little cold. But it went away. So I thought nothing of it. Then it came back worse. Then I got better. I went through went through about 2 1/2 weeks of this. Finally I went to St. Mungo's to see if they could help and I passed out. I had a dangerlousy high fever. But finally they were able to heal me." Zoe looked up at Darren, she wasn't sure if he was paying attention, then she continued. "It took them a while, but when I came too. I was told I had Vanishing Sickness and I was extremly lucky that I came in when I did."

Zoe reflected on her time at St. Mungo's. She didn't remember most of it. "Yea I think it was sudden. Plus, they wouldn't let me have vistors for a while." She was so glad to be out and back home. More than anyone could have imagined.

She looked up from the ground. "But I'm heathly as a horse now. And so happy to be back."