The late afternoon sun cast its light over the lake. Everything was warm and lazy, as if time itself had decided to stretch and yawn instead of ticking on.

You sat cross-legged, barefoot, the hems of your robes damp from dipping your feet in the water. Around you were the only people who had ever really felt at home.

Mattheo was stretched out beside you, his shirt unbuttoned, his hair still dripping from his recent dip in the lake. "I swear to Merlin, if I get sick before the ceremony, I'll hex every one of you."

"Oh no," Draco said dryly, adjusting his sunglasses as he leaned back on his elbows. "Heaven forbid the D4rk Lord should see your sniffling nose and revoke your invitation."

Mattheo grinned. "I think he'd be charmed by the tragic appeal."

Tom sat a few metres away under the branches of a tree, an unopened book in his lap. He hadn't spoken much today - or all summer, really. He just watched. Listening. Like someone who already knew what was coming and couldn't decide whether to prepare for it or run towards it.

Blaise lay flat on his back, arms behind his head. “We could just not go,” he murmured lazily.

"Don't start," Regulus said, standing at the edge of the group, his eyes scanning the horizon. He was always the responsible one.

Blaise turned his head to look at him, the corners of his mouth turning up. "What? I didn't say we wouldn't. I just said we could."

Theodore sat under the same tree as Tom. “We all know the answer to that,” he said, not looking up. “Our parents already said yes to him...”

Lorenzo let out a bitter laugh . "Funny. I don't remember being asked."

That silenced everyone.

You looked around at them. Each of them so different, but all bound by the same thread: legacy. Expectation. Chains.

Draco finally broke the silence. “It’s not like we’re going to d!e.”

“No,” Regulus said. “We’re going to k!II.”

The laughter that had carried earlier now hung hollow in the air.

You stood, brushing the grass from your legs. “This is our last summer,” you said. “Our last days where we’re just us. Where you aren’t soldiers. Where you aren’t... De4th Eaters.”

Mattheo looked up at you, his smile softening. “We’ll always be us.”

“You can’t promise that,” Theodore whispered.

“No,” Tom finally said. “But maybe we can try. Just for tonight.”

So you did.

Lorenzo wrestled Blaise into the lake, and Regulus let out a breathless laugh when the water soaked through his robes.

Mattheo found you standing at the edge of the trees and he leaned in close. “Do you think,” he murmured, “we’ll ever have a moment like this again?”