After All These Years

Chapter 9

The light tugging at my shoulder quickly began more repetitive and rougher as I tried to return back to my sleep state. The more I tried to block it out, the stronger it became until out of frustration I opened my eyes to see what was stopping me from returning to my peaceful sleep At first when I opened my eyes and sat up, all I could see were colourful blobs as my eyes tried to adjust to the light. I could somewhat hear someone talking as well but I couldn't tell what this person was saying, it all just sounded like muffled mumbles. It took a few seconds but when I fully adjusted to the light and sound, I saw Tom standing in front of me.

"Hello?! Are you deaf? Answer me!" Tom ordered as he looked at me disgustedly.

"What..?"I answered with a lost tone in my voice. He scoffs at me as he rolls his eyes.  "Why are you sleeping here? Go to your dorm."  He ordered.  "Oh uh, my doors locked. I dont have my wand on me. I was going to wait for someone to come and help me but I guess i fell asleep."

"Jesus christ." Tom mumbled under his breath before saying-  "Alright well get up I'll open the door for you."

That's unusually kind of him.  "Oh, thank you."   He slightly nodded and began to walk away from me and towards the staircase leading to the girls dorms.  "Don't leave your wet clothes on the ground next time, it made the carpet disgustingly damp."      I nodded and stood up before grabbing my clothes off the floor and following Tom up the stairs.

I had a little coughing fit as Tom said a spell to unlock the door which led him to stare at me oddly.    "Drink some green tea."  Tom said before opening the door and letting himself in.      "I haven't got any at the moment." I said as I closed the door and placed my wet clothes in a little basket in my closet.

He left quickly. Closed the door shut as soon as I got in. Still dazed, I collapse in my bed.  Shortly after I peacefully fell asleep once again.

As the urge to cough becomes too painfully strong to hold in anymore, I quickly sit up and begin to loudly cough. Once I was finished, I rubbed my eyes and yawned before switching on my lamp. I yawned once again before squinting my eyes slightly open and looking around the dimly lit room.  Based on the color os the sky, I assume I had slept for a couple of hours, 

I slowly began to smell something in my room. I sniffed some more and looked at my bedside table to see a pile of things on it. I closely inspected it to see that there was a quite large cup of steaming hot green tea as well as a plate with some bread on it next to which was my pocket watch and underneath everything was what looked like papers. I looked closely at the paper, trying to see what it was when someone from across the room said-  "It's your homework."      "Oh my god."  I gasped which quickly led to coughing as I turned my head to where the voice was coming from to see Tom sitting in my chair watching me.  "Why are you in my room?"  I said between coughs.   "Drink the tea." Tom ordered, completely ignoring my question. 

I was a bit hesitant at first but soon carefully picked up the cup and drank as much as my body would let me before it began to burn my insides. I placed the cup down before letting out a small cough and looking back at Tom.  He stared back at me for a few seconds before I cleared my throat and said-     "Why are you here?"                   "Madame Pomfrey asked me to."     "Oh.. "       Tom rolled his eyes and scoffed- "You're welcome." He said sarcastically.

"How long were you here?" I asked as I stared down at the time on my watch.   "Before dinner ended, around 6, so about 2 and a half hours."      "Christ." I muttered under my breath as I ran my fingers through my hair. He shrugged and looked away as my things. 

There was a bit of a silence for a minute until Tom pointed at the plate with bread on it and said "Eat."     I was again a bit hesitant but I barely ate all day so I gave in and took the bread.  Tom carefully watched as I ate a few pieces of bread, along with the rest of the green tea after he demanded me to drink the rest.