An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke up the next morning in my own bed, with Cedric nowhere to be found. When I got up, Alicia explained that he'd carried me down from the Tower a little while after I'd passed out and let the Gryffindors get me safely into my own room, since he couldn't do it. She and Angelina were both curious and worried about what had happened yesterday, but I honestly didn't want to talk about it, and I told them as much. Thankfully, they gave me the space I needed.

I went through the same conversation with Lee and the twins, and although they seemed equally concerned, they also didn't push me. All five of my friends stayed close to me as we made out way to breakfast, and as soon as we entered the Great Hall, Cedric shot out of his seat and approached us.

"Alexa! How are you feeling?" he asked, coming to a stop in front of me with a concerned look on his face.

"I'm alright," I said, waving him off. I didn't want to make a scene in the middle of breakfast, especially because I didn't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction of knowing just how much she got to me. "Thanks for staying with me last night, and getting me safely to bed."

"Of course. I'm here for you, whatever you need." He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, and I smiled.

"Thanks, Ced. I'll let you know if I need anything, but for right now, I just want to get some breakfast."

He smiled and nodded, then went back to his seat as my friends and I headed to our table. I tried to keep a sunny expression on my face, mostly as a protest of Umbridge, but I was so mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted that a lot of my usual energy was notably absent. The only bright side was that Quidditch had been approved this morning, but even that wasn't really enough to keep a smile on my face for long.

Especially when I still knew Umbridge wouldn't hesitate to change her decision as a method of punishing me.

After breakfast, my friends and I headed in a crowd to Transfiguration, but we were stopped short by Jackson. I'd briefly scanned the Great Hall for him this morning, but he'd been nowhere to be found.

"Alright Stark, let's go. I talked to McGonagall, she's letting you out of Transfiguration this morning. You missed our run and you clearly need a morale boost, especially before you have class with Umbridge later today, so we're going to go do something more productive than first period classes."

I just stared at him for a few beats, blinking as I processed his words and considered my options.

"Okay."

Jackson grinned and started heading in the opposite direction of Transfiguration. I nodded goodbye to my friends, then followed after him without a second thought.

We walked through the castle in comfortable silence for a few minutes, until I spoke.

"So did you actually convince Snape to let you out of Potions, or are you just straight up skipping class with one of the scariest teachers in this school?"

"Pft, Snape loves me," said Jackson casually. "He's not gonna care if I miss one day."

I nodded slowly. "Okay, sure. Let's go with that, at least until he kills you the next time he sees you."

Jackson scoffed, and we kept going without saying anything else. I thought we might be headed to the Astronomy Tower, but to my surprise, Jackson stopped outside the classroom we'd used for WWHRS.

"Before we go in, let me just say... you're welcome." With that, he pushed the door open. I stepped through to find the classroom full of everything I'd used to work on my hoverboard, along with every other spare component with a scientific use that Jackson could find. I turned to him slowly, an awed smile on my face.