Surviving Times

Mia's POV:

"Good Morning." I heard a greeting. A silvery little kitten sat before me. He watched me as I woke up and I returned a good morning to him too. It really was a better morning than the others where I had to wake from a nightmare. The Exceed disappeared after that.

I tried to turn, but I noticed something clinging onto me. It was Daphne. She had her arms wrapped around me. I sighed. I totally forgot she was sleeping beside me. I tried getting her hands off me, but Daphne had a death grip.

With no other choice, I decided to wake the blonde too. It was morning anyway.

"Daphne, wake up." I called her. She g.r.o.a.n.e.d, complained in semi-sleep but woke up, nonetheless. She glanced at me with her confused dewy green eyes. "It's morning." I said.

"Mm."

"Up."

"…It's freaking five am in the morning, and you want me to wake up?"

"Take your hands off me then."

"No, not happening."

"Hug a pillow instead."

"It won't be warm."

"You can charm it."

"Nope. Instead, you are going to stay here with me till seven."

"That's not happening. In case you don't remember, we have classes to attend, starting today."

"They start at nine."

"We're not skipping our daily routine just because we're in school. Now, up. I've got to wake the boys up as well.''

She eventually got up and went to change, through grumbles of course. I looked at the boys who lay asleep on the floor. I rolled my eyes at them. These two were clearly pretending to be asleep.

"If you don't get ready in 15 minutes, you make your own breakfast." These words work like magic despite saying it for more than a thousand times already. The boys soon got up and went inside the briefcase to change.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, the four of us were standing in the training room. We had one constructed inside the briefcase. Sure, we could just go to the Hogwarts grounds or forests but I'm sure no one's awake at 5:20 and I think our personal gym is way better equipped anyway.

When Theo, Draco and Daphne clutched my arm, I used the time turner to send us few hours back in time. As usual, we did some training. I believe one should never slack off. Pan-cosmic Traveler or not.

First one-hour, normal physical exercises. It was extremely boring. Next two hours, we sparred against each other. Draco's my partner, generally. Because Theo and Daphne always manage to do better when they faced each other.

"How long before they both this again?" Draco asked as he threw straight hook at me.

"This is love-hate. It might be over tomorrow or after a decade, who knows." I countered it easily. He was not frustrated in the least at his constant loss. That's what I like about him.

"Though it's nice to watch them bicker, I miss the old Theo and Daphne." He did a round house kick and escaped from my grasp.

"They're bound to get together, sooner or later. Don't worry." I quickly sprung back to my feet and hit his torso. He fell on the ground with an audible thud. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Even when they are like that?" Draco looked at our two other friends. They were also fighting. But in between, there were many taunts, threats, mockery and lethal blows.

"…They're quite passionate. Nothing wrong." I chuckled. Draco presented me an incredulous look before getting back on his legs.

"Ready for another round?" I suggested.

"Sure." He was.

***

Draco's POV:

After straining every muscle in my body, it was exceedingly hard to make a movement. I guess I went a little overboard. But it was worth it. I know. I could feel the growth in me, from every spar. And from each one, I figured it out. Mia's fighting style. It had no pattern, no style, no form. It was not defensive or offensive and definitely not neutral either. It just kept changing.

It took me years to find out since she disguised in very cleverly. She fooled me into thinking there was a pattern when there was none at all. She had it all planned and predicted and I just danced on her palms every time. The same with Theo and Daphne… but since I've been her punching bag for longer time, I definitely made some improvements.

And I was proud of it. And maybe Mia was too… but I don't get the strange look she's giving me.

"What's wrong?" I urged her. She snapped out of her daze and stared right into my eyes. I caught the glimpse of emotions on those black pools.

"Nothing. It's just… you're all grown up." She said this with a faraway look, tone and emotions that made me feel annoyed and honestly a little embarrassed. I looked away from her and felt my cheeks heat up, more when I heard her chuckle. I disregarded the 'motherly' comment. It succeeds in making me feel like a brat.

"Aw, come on. Don't pout now, Draco." She grinned at me. I sighed and stood again.

"I'm not a kid, Mia. Stop treating me like one."

"But you are adorable."

"…" I give up.

I sighed and looked at two figures who 'looked' like they were trying to annihilate each other. I have to say, pairing Daphne and Theo was a great idea. They just sparred… seriously. Their spar ended and I walked to them, Mia too.

"Need a break, you two?" Mia asked them. They both shook their heads, and we started our magic training. After that, for an hour or so, I practiced some alchemy as usual. One might think that it was all unnecessary, but I'd say otherwise.

The CQC helped my reflexes and dependency on magic. The magic training allowed me to do magic more efficiently. I always practice alchemy, simply because I like it. I hit the shower after I was done.

I walked with a towel wrapped around my waist from the bathroom. Yeah, I got a separate bathroom in my dorm. So do the rest of my pals. I put on my uniform. The clothes were really soft, and it fit me well, way better than the one's from the store. I looked in the mirror. I looked fine.

By 7 am, I was ready for the day. There were some sandwiches prepared for me to eat. So far, uber eats was doing alright. After I had my tea and breakfast, I walked out of my room.

I closed the door and Theo waved to me.

"Hello, mate." He said with a grin, to which I returned my own.

"Hello, Theo." I said. We both walked to the common room while chatting a bit. It was better than walking silently in these gloomy stone dungeons. It reminds of the time when we raided some tombs in china… it was dreadful and thinking about it sends shivers down my spine.

We both reached the common room and the girls came after a few minutes. They were girls. It would be weird if they arrived on time. The four of us sat on one of the sofas which were close to the lake. The only thing nice about the room.

"There's a lot of water elementals here." Theo commented. It was true. We were very close to water, and the entire Slytherin house was surrounded by it. Our founder's element was water too.

"Do you think there are mermaids in there?" Daphne asked. We all heard about the legends of merpeople residing in Hogwarts.

"Not the beautiful ones." Mia answered her question while she read her copy of Daily Prophet.

"Why do you even read that? It's just a xeroxed copy of yesterday's newspaper. There is nothing new in it." I said.

In my opinion, the newspaper was not worth reading. The news in it was old and sang praises about the ministry. The gossip section was even more bogus. All of it was utter nonsense. I stopped reading it when I read this ridiculous article saying Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald were secret lovers. But since that very day, Mia started reading it every day…

"To kill time, obviously. I can't believe it's the first day in school, and I'm already bored out of my wits." Mia stated dully.

Well, I couldn't say no. It was 7:30 and no one was out yet. I feel it would be the same in the future as well. I knew we would be different but… the difference was too big. It's a good thing that I already have my friends with me and don't need new ones.

We continued with our little discussions. A while later, we went along with others to the great hall. It was half filled. The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were mostly there but the other two houses were yet to arrive.

We had our usual fruit diet in the great hall. Headmaster Dumbledore entered. It was only for a millisecond, but his gaze stopped on Mia. We caught that, but he didn't have to know it. We didn't dare to communicate telepathically. He was a natural legilimen. We agreed to have a moderate display of our talents beforehand.

People didn't have to know that we four were skilled occlumens. It would just bring suspicions. We don't want to blow our cover and reveal our identities as the directors of Fiore…

And what's the best way to not let anyone know you are skilled in mind arts? Show some fake thoughts. They are easy to create… like right now, my fake thoughts consist of coldplay playlist on repeat.

Theo might be fake thinking about coffee fields in Africa or tacos, Daphne about strawberries or constellations. And I bet a thousand galleons that Mia is fake thinking about scotch, vodka or fire whisky.

And thus, we successfully managed to fool a master legilimens named Albus Dumbledore. Oh, the baffled look in his face was picture perfect.