Make Me.

Book 3 - Chapter 8

"Dracula." 

Pansy Parkinson's voice rang across the third-year Slytherin girl's dormitory. 

"Dracula, time to get up," she groaned. Pansy Parkinson had become the designated alarm clock of the dormitory, and Ellie was usually the last one up, forcing Pansy to poke or shake or yell her awake. 

A few of Pansy's pillows fell onto the stone floor as she flung herself up into a sitting position in bed. Daphne was doing the same, having woken up from Pansy's alarm. Ellie's bed was stood still, not a stir coming from it. 

"Dracula." Pansy grabbed a pillow that hadn't fallen to the ground and chucked it at Ellie's bed. It thudded softly against the lumps of sheets, blankets, pillows, and plushies that were crowding the bed. Yet, there wasn't a single breath of movement. 

"Dracula, if you don't get up right now, I'll -" 

"You'll what?" said Ellie, teasing, as she emerged from behind the bathroom door that was connected to the room.

"Merlin's beard," said Pansy with a jump. "Don't do that." 

"Do what? Get up on time? Get up before you? I'd have thought you'd be proud of me," said Ellie, grabbing a tie that was resting on top of her school trunk at the foot of her bed. She began looping it around her neck and tying it up. 

Pansy grunted as she got out of bed and crossed the room, entering the bathroom and beginning to brush her teeth. The door was still hanging open. Ellie was fitting a gray Slytherin sweater over her button up shirt and her tightly tied tie. 

"It doesn't count as getting up on time. . ." Daphne was speaking as she pulled her stockings on, ". . . if you never went to bed in the first place." 

Ellie looked over her shoulder at the blonde girl sat the the bed next to hers. She pulled a fake thinking face.

"Technically - I was in bed. And - I did get up, out of bed - on time. I just didn't sleep," she said matter-of-factly. The semi-circles under Ellie's eyes had begun to retreat over the beginning of the week, but by this Friday morning, they had returned just as if they hadn't lightened in the first place.

""Ou didn' sleeb a' all?" Pansy asked, toothpaste dribbling out the corners of her mouth. 

Ellie sucked in a breath. She sat on her bed, slipping her sneakers on and tying up the laces. 

"No," she said briefly. "What classes have we got today?" 

"'erbology, 'istory of Magic, an' -" Pansy spit the toothpaste out of her mouth. "Double Charms."  

"Maybe you should go to Madam Pomfrey," Daphne started, sounding concerned. "Perhaps she could give you a sleeping potion." 

"Daphe, I'm fine," said Ellie. Her feet hit the floor with a scuff. "Really," she added after seeing the look on Daphne's face. 

"Taking a couple five minute naps at the breakfast table or during lessons doesn't make up for not getting full nights of sleep," Daphne said tersely. 

"She takes twenty minute naps in the library sometimes," Pansy added, flicking the bathroom light off and crossing the room. She was rifling through her trunk for a clean skirt. 

"See," said Ellie, pulling her robe up and over her shoulders. "Pansy gets it." 

Daphne was looking like she could kill the both of the other girls in the dormitory. 

"It's going to catch up with you, sometime. It always does, you know. Everything does," said Daphne after a moment. 

"Greengrass. I'm fine. Really," Ellie urged.