mind over matter - theodore nott

49. isn't it midnight

tw: brisk mention of ed

isn't it midnight

My dearest Florence,

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you again this summer! These months always go by so slow, and by the time you get back you've always grown so much. I can't wait to hear everything you've been up to. In all honesty, I need a break from David. It'll be Godrick's work when you come back and I have someone actually amusing to talk to, I tell you.

Well, hope you're doing good and make sure that naughty sister of yours stays out of trouble! I shouldn't have to ask you the same.

Lots of love, mum x

Florence read the letter over and over again, specifically the part about her staying out of trouble. Unless fraternising with the deemed enemy to the point where it's a bit too far past friendship and smoking weed and getting pissed every Friday night as well as getting at least one detention a month and sneaking out to the Forbidden Forest and astronomy tower in the middle of the night counts as getting into trouble, then Florence was in the safe zone.

She glanced to the side, as if she was giving a side-eye to an invisible person. She could almost feel her mother's bewildered presence in the room with her. So, she just decided to brush it off, throwing the letter into her trunk that sat growing dusty at the foot of her bed. Delaney Mortimer was far from discovering anything her daughter had been up to this past school year; therefore, Florence decided it was best to just write a short and sweet letter to ensure her mother expected the very least from her when it came to behavioural issues.

Dear mother,

The brunette began writing, but her face was soon to screw up and she aggressively scribbled out the words. No, no that's too formal. She thought.

She sighed as she went back to writing, dipping her silver in the old pot of ink that sat on her desk.

"To mum," She read allowed, leaning over her desk to get into a better, comfier angle she much preferred writing in, "Emmie's being a nuisance, as usual," She hadn't spoken to her sister for two weeks straight, "I've been hanging out with Lenora, as usual, nothing new," Well, you already know that's far from the truth, no need for any explanation, "I can only imagine how annoying David is being just you two, lucky you, I'll be back in a couple of months and you'll finally have someone to fight back with witty comments."

"What the actual fuck?" Florence's furrowed her eyebrows and bore a face of disgust as she paused her writing to read through her last sentence. She thought herself to be an entirely different person when talking to her parents to who she actually was.

She shook off her first-hand embarrassment and put ink to parchment again, "See you soon, love you lots." She signed off her name and folded the letter up before sliding it into an envelope and putting it in the draw of the desk so she could take it down the owlery when she felt like it.

She stood up from her desk and, since it was already half past eleven, and she was exceptionally exhausted, she decided, even after arguing with herself about it for many minutes and wishing she didn't have to, that she'd finally get to sleep.

Usually, Florence would go to sleep around one or two in the morning — or just never. She'd be doing something that would completely take her mind off of the concept of time and the next time she looked at the clock it would be four AM. Or she'd just force her eyes to stay open until she truly could not handle it anymore, all because she wanted to make every second she had of that part of her day last. It was her favourite time of day, after all.