GRAVEYARD | h.p.

𝖛. MY HORRIBLE HAIR-DO

BY WEDNESDAY, I HAD COME TO DREAD MORNINGS, even though my dorm-mates and I had formed some sort of unorganized routine.

Why?

Well, for one thing, it's the most chaotic time of day. Tara always wakes up extra early due to Salazar Slytherin, and when Apollo starts screeching, she wakes me up too. Half-asleep, I feed Apollo some dead rats to calm him down, but the brat sometimes screeches loud enough to wake Salazar Slytherin up. He's furious to be awoken, and before he can start arguing with Tara and scare Apollo any more, I have to use the lavender spray. We had run out a few days ago, and I had the dreaded conversation with Gemma. As I expected, it wasn't all sunshine and daises.

"What? How have you already used up all of the perfume!" she shouted at me when I told her I needed some more. "I should have known better than to trust you. You first years are always irresponsible brats!"

Truthfully, I was too scared of her to defend myself, so I listened to her insults quietly. In the end, she begrudgingly said a spell that filled the bottle up again. The good news is that I've memorized the incantation, and have successfully used it on my empty goblets of pumpkin juice a few times.

But, anyways, I spray the lavender perfume until Salazar Slytherin falls back asleep. But the overwhelming smell of lavender sometimes wakes Merlin, who just laughs at Tara and me when we get into our inevitable arguments about who gets to use the bathroom first. It's a fifty, fifty draw, really. When I win, I quickly get ready and leave for breakfast. But when Tara gets into the restroom before me... it's horrible.

She manages to wake up Salazar Slytherin again when she blow-dries her hair, who in turn wakes up Apollo. Both of them combined wake up my dorm-mates. I have to live through an hour of Merlin chortling at us, Pansy screaming in her unbearable voice, Fuzzbutt scratching at my legs (and sometimes drawing blood), and Apollo's ear-bleeding screeching. Sometimes, a few fourth years knock at our dorm to say that they can hear us from their dorm (which is maybe forty yards away), and that we should shut up, 'if we know what's good for us'.

After a dreadful hour and a half, Tara finally exits the restroom and the rest of us race to see who can get there first. Luckily, this is a race I always win. As soon as I am ready, I give Fuzzbutt a good shove, and set off to breakfast. For the first week, I got lost in the dungeons, but I can navigate through them well-enough now.

Anyhow, breakfast is even more dreadful than my chaotic mornings. Why?

Because I have to watch Daphne open the bucket-loads of cookies her parents and sisters send her, while Tara receives a new makeup kit every other day. Raven gets short letters every three days, and even though she complains the word choice in her letters indicates that they aren't genuine and that her parents don't mean what they write, at least she gets letters in the first place.

That's right; in the past two weeks, I haven't received any word from my parents or sister.

At first, I try to convince myself that they're busy, but I know that can't be it. I remember when Elenara was in Hogwarts, they sent her a litter every day, no matter what came up. And, even Connor receives a letter daily, but the owl leaves without so much so as looking at me. I'll never admit it aloud, but it hurts. Sure, if Elenara had sent a letter, I'd have just ignored it, but at least I'd know she was thinking about me. Same with my parents.

Plus, other students have also started to notice that I'm not getting any letters. Malfoy has a high time gloatingly opening all of the sweets his eagle owl brought from home on the Slytherin table, sending taunting glances at me.