A Lovely Time Today

[Rose Holland]

Rose had had a brilliant idea. The sun was shining outside as it was summer, and she realized she wanted to eat outside. A picnic would be a lot of fun! At first she had wanted to ask her best friends to come with her, but then she'd had a better idea. A sister picnic! She hadn't seen Phoebe or Diana nearly enough since the start of the year, so she had gotten to work. Assembling a variety of food by taking it from the Great Hall and digging into her personal sweet stash, she managed to fill her bag with food. She had no basket, so her schoolbag would have to do. She also took a blanket from her dormitory and sent notes to both Phoebe and Diana, hoping her sisters wouldn't ignore her.

Outside, she put the blanket down and placed the food on top of it. She now realized she had no plates, or cups, or drinks aside from a bottle of water. But as far as an improvised picnic went, it wasn't bad. She grinned, waiting for her sisters to arrive and waving at passers by who gave her a funny look as she sad on the blanket by herself.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe had been busy studying for the exams when she had received a note from her sister, telling her to come outside for a surprise. Rose always came up with fun if silly ideas, and Phoebe immediately knew she would have to pause her studying to check it out. It annoyed her just a little bit, as she wanted to do well on the exams, but she knew she had to take a break. As she headed outside she had to smile at the sight of her older sister sitting on a blanket with some food. She looked really proud of herself. Phoebe shook her head, amused, then approached. "A picnic, huh? Very original." She said with a smirk as she sat down as well. "You got way too many sweets, though." She added, looking at the pile of candy right next to Rose.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana had been a little annoyed to get a note from her older sister, but knew better than to ignore it. Even though she didn't like being told what to do, she also didn't want to be excluded. The trip to the great lawn from the dungeons wasn't very far, so it surprised her that Phoebe had beaten her to it. A frown appeared on her face as she approached. It really wasn't much of a lunch. She sighed. "Rose, if you'd let us know of your plan earlier we could have helped you get more proper food." She said a she took a seat on the other side of the Gryffindor. She glanced at Phoebe. "I'm surprised you managed to tear yourself away from your books for a second." She added with a smirk.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose smiled happily as Phoebe joined her and Diana followed soon after. As expected, both her younger sisters had something to say about her plan, but she let it roll off her. If she got upset every time they had commentary on her plans, she would be upset a lot of the time. She knew that this was a good idea, and that it didn't have to be perfect to be fun. "Sweets are great." She simply said, offering them both a biscuit. "There's no mum here to tell us not to eat too many, so lets enjoy that while we can, right?" She said brightly. With her cynical younger sisters she always felt like she had to keep the mood up. Especially as they tended to start sniping at each other. Now that they were separated by house, she had forgotten how tiring that was. Alice usually helped keep them from fighting, but their youngest sister wasn't here. Roseshot a look at Diana. "Let's not start any arguments, okay? It's good to take a break from studying." She said pointedly, offering her another biscuit in case she started to pout from being spoken to like this.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe had to admit that eating outside in the sun wasn't half bad. And Rose was right, sweets were great. She rolled her eyes at Diana's comment and nearly snapped back at her, but Rose reminded her to stay calm. She wanted to argue, but she knew it would upset her older sister so she didn't. It was nice of her to create a moment for them all together like this, and she wouldn't be the one to ruin it. Odds were, Diana would, and then Phoebe could sit back and watch Rose scold her. She grinned at her older sister. "Are you really taking a break, or do you still have to start?" She teased, knowing Rose tended to procrastinate things like studying.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

Exams were soon, which meant Sara was using as much of her time as she could to bury her head into her books, quite literally. She didn't really want to take breaks, but she knew she had to if she wanted her brain to function properly. Normally, Sara took breaks outside and today was no different. Besides that though, she wanted to see if she could hang out with Lavinia today, without Athena around. Sara didn't want to make the hufflepuff choose between her and Athena but she felt excluded when Lavinia was dragged into Athena's plans, without her knowledge. She couldn't get along with the girl, not even just once. Those hadn't been her own words. As she strolled across the lawn she spotted a familiar face and upon approaching the group she recognised the Ravenclaw from her year, Phoebe. She didn't know who the other girls were, though. Before she could say anything, Sara felt something against her foot and she fell backwards, on her bum. She had a moment of silence before she erupted into giggles, holding her stomach. She was so clumsy sometimes.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana sighed as she shrugged in response to Rose's statement. She supposed it wasn't wrong, but she still felt like they needed more real food. At least some more fruit. The girl took the two biscuits her older sister offered, even though she could see it was a sort of peace offering to keep her quiet. She wasn't really in the mood to argue with Phoebe now anyway. It always made her feel strange when Rose was around to make them feel guilty for fighting. She nibbled on her cookie as her sisters started to talk, scanning their surroundings. She saw a vaguely familiar girl approach that she may have seen in the common room before. A sharp laugh escaped her as she watched the girl trip and fall on her behind. "Look at her! That's so stupid!" She said, gleeful.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose was starting to get a little irritated by her sisters. Something she had felt before, but hadn't expected today when she had been looking forward to spending some time with them. The more she spent time with her friends, the more she realized that having sisters was different. With Phoebe and Diana especially, she always had to get into a role where she kept the peace between them or had to ignore their critical comments. Things were a lot more relaxed with her friends. A girl she didn't know walked nearby and Rose started to wave to her right when she saw the girl falling down on her behind. Rose gasped and started getting up immediately, then shot a look at Diana. "Diana! don't be mean." She snapped, even more annoyed now. Her sister should really know better by now, she wasn't a little kid. With a sigh, Rose hurried over to the girl. "Are you okay?" She asked. "I'm sorry for my sister." She added, glancing at Diana again with a frown.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Before Rose could answer Phoebe's question, they were all distracted by another girl approaching. Phoebe recognized her from her classes, and was fairly sure her name was Sara or something. She'd never really talked to her much, but the girl seemed friendly enough. As Sara fell down, the first reaction Phoebe had was to snort. It didn't seem that serious, thankfully. But of course, Diana just had to take it too far. Rose scolded her and went over to the girl, and Phoebe quickly stole the cookie Diana was holding and took a big bite out of it. After swallowing, she stuck out her tongue. "That's what you get." She taunted.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

Sara hadn't expected to be that close to the group of girls and it didn't occur to her as once she recovered from her laughter she heard one of the girls comment on how stupid Sara had been. She frowned, but ignored it, deciding it was better not to fight with anyone today. At least the older girl, who looked a bit older than Phoebe, apologised on her sister's behalf. "Don't worry about it, I'm alright. Thanks," she smiled at the Gryffindor as got up and dusted herself off, though there wasn't much need to do so. "Are you all sisters?" she asked, looking at all three, trying to find some resemblance.

 

[Diana Hollis]

Diana snorted and glared at Phoebe. "As if you didn't think it was stupid." She muttered under her breath. If anyone was vocal about other people's less than intelligent actions, it was Phoebe. Though the fact that her sister had stolen her cookie annoyed her, she decided to just grab another one. If she threw a fit now, she'd look like a child. And she could tell Rose was already annoyed with her for her comment, and she didn't want her older sister to write their parents. When the Slytherin girl asked if they were all sisters, Diana rolled her eyes. As if that wasn't obvious.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose could hear Diana and Phoebe quabble on the blanket and sighed, but for now she kept her attention on the other girl. It made her feel sad that Diana was being so mean. She wanted to help the Slytherin girl up but she got up on her own and Rose gave her a small smile. At her question, she nodded. "Yep." She said. "I'm Rose, you're in Phoebe's year right?" She asked, gesturing the sister in question as she asked the question. "Do you want to join us? They'll behave. I promise." She said, glancing at Diana as she said it. "We have way too many sweets for the three of us."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe sighed and decided to ignore Diana much like she was. It annoyed her a bit that her sister hadn't reacted more strongly, but perhaps it was for the best. She heard Rose invite Sara to sit with her and smiled, holding up her hand to wave at the Slytherin. "Yeah, feel free!" She said, knowing it was only polite. "Recover from that fall with some cookies." She added, teasing her just a little.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

Sara nodded to the older girl. "Don't worry, I'm used to siblings. Yes I am, my name is Sara and I am in Slytherin," she introduced herself. Sara didn't care for stereotypes so she didn't really want to hear any comments about her house. If she did, she wouldn't concentrate on that. She doubted the three girls would say something bad, though. She smiled at Rose, finally getting her name. "Sure, I‘d love to." She grinned at the comment Phoebe made, and she chuckled a little. "Am I joining the dark side?" she asked, giving a suspicious look towards the Ravenclaw.