Modern Hogwarts

The Daily Life of Nolan Pearce

Saturday, 23 November

It was after two am when Maggie came downstairs to wake Nolan up. He had fallen asleep again at one of the desks in the Common Room. The candle had long been out and a few papers had flown off the desk.

"Nolan," Maggie said softly in his ear and rubbed his back.

"Hmm," Nolan groaned as he woke up. He lifted his head up and looked at Maggie. "What time is it?" He asked groggily.

"After two," Maggie whispered. "You need to go to bed."

"You're probably right," Nolan mumbled and rested his head back down on the desk.

"Maybe you should give this up," Maggie said. "You're exhausting yourself. When was the last night you got more than four hours of sleep?"

"I don't know," he mumbled. "But not giving up on Emily. I will figured this out. There isn't a problem that can't be solved with math and determination."

"Nolan please," Maggie pleaded and rubbed his shoulders. "Take the day and relax."

"You know I can't," Nolan replied. "You know I won't be able to relax until I solve this."

Maggie took a deep breath and sat down on the floor next to his chair.

"Are you going to come to my Quidditch match tonight?" Maggie asked quietly.

"Flitwick and I are meeting with people from the Ministry," Nolan reminded her. "If we finish early, I'll try to make it to the match, but I can't make promises."

"Alright," Maggie mumbled and played with the seam on her tee shirt. "I get it."

"I'm sorry," Nolan said. "I can't relax knowing Emily's in pain. We're close to solving it, I'm sure of it. Flitwick's gathered the best minds in Ravenclaw to meet with the Ministry guys."

"I hope you figure it out," Maggie said and got up. She walked back to her room without another word.

Nolan looked at his watch and decided to go to bed. Lazily, he shoved all his papers into his bag and carried his books up to his room.

He didn't wake up until after eight, when Patrick had woken him up for breakfast. "You've got a half hour before breakfast is over," Patrick told him. "You better go if you want to eat."

"Thank you," Nolan mumbled and sat up. Since he hadn't been sleeping much, Nolan had been eating like a madman to keep his energy up.

Nolan didn't bother changing to go to breakfast, he just put his robe over his pajamas and walked downstairs.

As he walked through the library in the common room, he heard Maggie and Taylor talking near the window. Nolan was going to greet Maggie like he usually did after he woke up-- until he heard her talking.

"It's become an obsession!" She cried. "He doesn't see anything else besides that stupid problem and food. He's not even coming to the Quidditch match tonight! It's Ravenclaw's first game of the season! It's my first game of the season! He used to notice when even the slightest thing upset me, now he doesn't even notice it when I'm full on crying at him!"

"Hopefully he'll get over it soon," Taylor said sympathetically. "You know how he is, he gets obsessed with something and suddenly it's the only thing that matters. He'll come around, give him time."

"It's been two months!" Maggie cried. "If he'd pay attention to me long enough, I'd tell him I can't do it anymore and I want a break."

"I don't blame you."

"I cried so much last night it gave me a headache," Maggie said. "I came downstairs to fill up my water bottle and found him passed out at one of the desks. I told him to go to bed asked him about Quidditch. He didn't even notice the mascara stains on my cheeks! Or that I started crying again after he said he wasn't coming. He's just a jerk."