Viper

Chapter 4: Sorting

September 1st, 1991. 11 years old

I was standing in the mirror looking at the dark circles that were forming under my grey eyes. I looked like I hadn't slept a wink, which is exactly what had happened. I kept tossing and turning and was trying to calm myself down from the thought that in a couple hours I would be at Hogwarts. I had started to grow sweaty and felt my sheets clinging to me. After flipping my pillow ten times and moving my blanket on and off me I decided that sleep was pointless. I also decided to floo call Draco. He did not appreciate it.

I finally got down from my bed and rushed to the fireplace. My bare feet padding on the cold marble floors. I opened the ceramic pot containing the powder and threw it in. I stuck my head through, my adrenaline numbing the pain from the position I was in. "Dracoooo"

Suddenly there was a loud noise and something was chucked at the fireplace. I moved my head and flinched as a reaction. "Who is there?" An angry voice spoke. A blonde head peaked out from the side of the room, eyes slanted. "Rosie is that you?"

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Yes Draco it's me. Now get your arse over here before I hex you!" I heard rustling which could only belong to his bedsheets being moved, as he made his way to the floo. He had a very annoyed and angry expression on his face and I could tell he was not having it. "Good morning, sunshine! How did you sleep?" I flashed him a toothy grin in which he did not appreciate and stuck up a vulgar gesture in response.

Judging by the venom in his voice, he was very annoyed."Fucking hell Rosie, it is 2 in the morning, we have school tomorrow and you're floo calling me!  Are you mad?!"

"Oh well you know I couldn't sleep and needed to talk to someone so I figured, hey why not talk to you?"

"You are quite literally the most annoying person I have ever met. How do you expect to get up in the morning?"

I sighed. "Well, getting up in the morning implies actually sleeping. And judging by my nerves, I dont think I'm going to sleep any time soon."

He realized there was no winning me and finally sat down in front of the fireplace. He looked at my smiling face and rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that look."

I couldn't help the smile that formed on my face. "What look?"

He rolled his eyes at me and crossed his arms. "That look. The dumb look you get on your face when I dont ignore you."

I smiled a sly smile. "I don't know what youre talking about."

He leaned his chin onto the palm of his hand and rested his arm on his knee. "What's keeping you up this time, Rosie?"

This wasn't the first time I had woken Draco up in the middle of the night. When I found myself going through my anxiety episodes I would immediately reach out to Draco. It was the reason we agreed to keep our bedroom fireplace always connected. When one of us got into a fight with our parents and were in desperate need of escape, we would floo to each other's bedrooms unannounced. Before we figured out our system of floo calls, I'd just floo to his bedroom whenever I'd get an anxiety attack. After nearly being caught several times by our parents, we decided it's much easier to just floo call.

"I can't sleep, Draco. I keep thinking about Hogwarts. It's going to be the longest I've ever been away from my parents."

"Lexie, you couldn't wait to get away from your parents. That's all you've talked about all summer! You were practically counting the days until September 1st just because you finally get to be free from them. Why the sudden change of heart?"