Preserving a Union ((Kia))

[Ethan Jacobs G5]

Ethan tossed and turned in his bed. He had been sleeping like this almost all night. He slept for about fifteen minutes at a time before waking up again and moving around in his bed for another twenty minutes and fitfully falling back asleep again. Ethan didn’t know why, but for some reason he couldn’t sleep. His mind wasn’t crowded with thoughts or anything, so that couldn’t be the reason. He wasn’t hungry at all, so that couldn’t be the reason. His bed definitely wasn’t uncomfortable, so that surely wasn’t the reason for his sleepless night. Maybe it was because Ethan was so used to staying awake during these night hours. Back in London, he partied pretty much through the night, coming home to sleep early in the morning and not waking up until two in the afternoon. Yes, that would be the reason Ethan was still awake while his dorm mates were fast asleep. Ethan had classes tomorrow and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to concentrate. By tomorrow, everyone at school would be talking about the dark circles under Ethan’s eyes. He could handle it, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle Snape taking away points from Gryffindor just because he had made some stupid potion incorrectly. He moved around a bit more, this time accidently knocking his blanket onto the floor. He slid lazily off the bed to go pick it up, but once it was in his hands, he couldn’t find the strength or energy to pick himself up and go back onto the bed. So Ethan just sat there on the ground with his blanket wrapped around him. He watched the minutes go by on his alarm clock. They seemed to go so fast, that Ethan couldn’t believe he was staring at the clock for an entire hour. The clock now read six fifteen am. He glanced at the window, whose curtains were open just a crack. The sun was rising. He picked himself up and somehow, his feet walked him all the way down the steps and into the Gryffindor common room. Ethan tended to do that a lot. One minute he’d be somewhere perfectly happy, and the next he’d be somewhere else, and he didn’t necessarily have a reason for being there.

He sat in a comfy armchair and stared at the rising sun. Suddenly, he heard a noise. He listened closely and recognized it to be footsteps coming from the girl’s dormitories. Perhaps Ezzie was awake? He knew she was used to waking up early from her job, but somehow he didn’t think it was Ezzie. Her steps sounded much different than these steps. Her steps were more rhythmic, and these steps didn’t follow a pattern at all. It couldn’t be Ezzie. Ethan was quite disappointed. He had been looking forward to some one on one time with Ezzie this week. It was already Friday and the first week of school was coming to a close. Ethan hadn’t spent one second alone with Ezzie all week. They were always watched, always being observed by little girls or ugly boys who wanted to steal Ezzie from him. None of them had a chance with actually becoming friends with Ethan or Ezzie, but they did try. Ezzie would always wave them away kindly, whereas Ethan came up with some smart remark t their behavior. It was rather mean, but Ethan was only mean to those who tried to get in the way if Ethan and Ezzie’s relationship. He was selfish that way, but he just didn’t want to lose her again. After the big fiasco they had gone through during the last month of summer holiday, Ethan and Ezzie’s relationship was very fragile and could fall to pieces any second. He didn’t want that happening, so he tried as best he could to keep them together. Suddenly a figure walked out of the girl’s dormitories. Ethan smiled, even though he was disappointed to see she was not Ezzie.

“Wow, you’re up early. What’s the occasion?”

[Kia Brightstar]

Five thirty am and she was wide awake. Still wide awake. If asked then Kia couldn't honestly say that she remembered falling asleep at any time during the night because she could remember waking up and then screaming into her pillow furiously when her clock flashed the time at her chirpily. But she had slept and she knew that she had because Kia could remember the nightmare that had woken her up repeatedly throughout the night. For the first time that year, Kia admitted it was a good thing that she was back at Hogwarts because she quite honestly thought that she couldn't look at her sister, so dark against the brilliant white hospital sheets, without needing to run away as the image of Kaelyn's face, covered in blood and shards of glass, floated before her eyes. It wasn't the first time that she had been haunted by that nightmare but it was the first time she had woken up in such a violent way; breathing heavily and bolting upright in her bed. It was a horrifying nightmare and one that she found it hard to bear. Perhaps if she had actually roused the legendary Gryffindor courage that slept within her - the courage that had to be within her heart somewhere because she had never been anything but a Gryffindor - and asked her cousin the details of her fathers and sisters accident then she wouldn't be attacked by these nightmares but she hadn't wanted to hear the reasons behind her father being dead or Kae being in a coma. It was hard enough to know that it was true without knowing why. Kia had tried to excuse her cowardice to herself by saying that raking up the memories in Adam - who had been the one to identify her fathers, his uncles, body - was a cruel thing to do to someone she loved so much but the truth had been - and still was - that she wasn't ready to hear it.

It wasn't hard to roll out of her bed and get dressed without waking up the other girls in her dorm. Kia had been doing it for years - although she was usually sneaking out in the middle of the night to cause some mischief or other. And last year she hadn't been alone because Maryn had often, if not always, accompanied her. Kia stopped at the foot of her best friends bed for a minute, pondering and fidgeting nervously, before averting her eyes and walking toward the common room with her head bowed awkwardly. Back at the hospital Maryn had asked Kia to confide in her and it felt almost like a betrayal for her to walk past and down the stairs into the common room, promising herself to talk about it later but knowing that she never would. It was difficult to see the nightmare play out in her mind, surely to talk about it would be a million times worse. Besides, Kia had never quite let on to Maryn that she had completely refused to inquire about the details of the car crash. She knew no more than she did when she had first received the owl at the end of the last school year and Kia was content to keep it that way - for now. But admitting it was like admitting a weakness and that was something Kia had always abhorred. Weaknesses were for the weak and she had always fought to be strong; strong and in control. Now she was neither and it was terrifying.

"Hi Ethan," Kia flashed her usual smile at him; bright, friendly and, right now, utterly fake. "I couldn't sleep," Kia replied, taking a seat in one of the armchairs closest to the fire and absorbing the almost painfully warm heat gratefully. It was another piece of evidence that she had woken up from the nightmare and so the blonde welcomed it eagerly. "I guess you couldn't sleep either?" She asked, watching him in detatched curiousity and a slight bit of concern.