The Little Lightning Girl

23-I Find The Eyes of Hogwarts Glued to My Ass

Sleep eluded me.

Well, I say that, but really I should say that sleep tortured me.

Every time I fell asleep, nightmares plagued me until the moment I woke up. Whether the dream was about hearing James get hurt, getting hurt myself, or that total and absolute smothering darkness that accompanied me day and night there... sleeping wasn't pleasant. It wasn't like I didn't want to sleep either, of course I did, I just couldn't. Not for more than three hours a night, it seemed.

It sucked.

For the first week or so, my mum would come running every time I woke up screaming. She'd come and sit next to me and we'd talk until I fell asleep again. She was really trying to be better at the whole parenting thing. But now she was gone.

She had a meeting in France at an important convention for her job and I told her to go. I told her not to worry about me because I'd be fine. I couldn't figure out whether I was lying to her or to myself. 

But a small spot of bright in the darkness came in the form of Kaley's letter, saying that she was coming today. Thank the gods.

She was supposed to get here at ten o'clock, on the same train my mother boarded a few days ago because her family had moved back to France, though she was still going to Hogwarts.

I was practically bouncing up and down waiting for her.

So when, just after ten, the front door echoed a knock through the house, I sprinted down the stairs and threw open the heavy wooden door, practically tackling the girl with golden hair who waited outside.

She was taller than me now. That was my first thought when her arms went around my shoulders. She'd gone through nearly a full year without me. Everyone was on break for the holidays right now, and McGonagall had said that I could come back in January. But right now I just wanted to see my friends.

Kaley seemed equally as excited to be here as a torrent of nearly unintelligible words exited her mouth, "Oh my God! You're okay! I thought you must be a ghost! I can't believe you're alive, so much has happened! I finally-"

"Made friends? Flew higher than ten feet on a broom? What did you finally do?"

Her blue eyes sparkled teasingly as she punched me in the shoulder, "You were a better listener when you were unconscious."

I laughed out loud and pulled her into another hug, "I'm so happy to see you."

She burst into my house and plopped herself down on the sofa, making herself at home.

"Firstly," she began, "my brother would like you to know, and I quote, that he's going to 'kick your ass for getting your ass kicked,'" she stated firmly before popping one of my carrots in her mouth.

I curled up in the chair next to her, the recliner that refused to recline, and took a bite of my own carrot, "Well, Noah can go visit Hades if he thinks I'd let him kick my ass. But I do miss him. Too bad I'm not allowed to have a phone. Freaking monsters and their cell phone GPS crap."

Of course Noah would be the one to tell me that. He was lucky I missed him or I might send him some sort of hate filled letter. I'd love to send a non-wizard a howler, but I was pretty sure that was against probably every rule the Ministry had ever set involving muggles.

I was so glad to have my friend here that I'd forgotten why she had come in the first place until she pulled out a small electronic device from her coat pocket and tossed it to me.

"What's this?"

She smiled, "I knew you'd wake up, if only to defy what everyone said were the odds. So I recorded all of our lessons for you so you could listen and get caught up before you come back. I had James record his potions class for you, though he missed a couple weeks."