I put the extra sleep I'd gotten to good use, waking up earlier than usual and heading down to the lake. I didn't yet have a complete plan for how I was going to do everything I needed to do this year, but I decided running in the mornings before breakfast would be a good start. That way I could keep using my free periods for homework, just like I had with Professor Binns' class last year.
The sun was barely up when I got out to the lake, doing a few stretches before starting out at a good pace. The grounds were deserted, and the castle was quiet. Not many other people were up right now, and I took a deep breath of fresh morning air as I ran. I could hear birds chirping, and everything just felt peaceful.
Sure, it would force me to change the sleep schedule I'd been on for almost seventeen years, but it was probably the only way I'd be able to do everything that needed to get done. Besides, I could live with little moments of peace like this. Hell, I might need them once things started picking up at Hogwarts, like I knew they would.
I ran a few miles, then went inside to get dressed for the day before breakfast. My friends were just finishing getting dressed when I got back to the dorms, and they were clearly surprised to see me looking awake, much less like I'd just gone for a run.
"Alexa! You're actually up?" asked Angelina.
"Yeah. I don't like it all that much either, but I'm starting to see why my family always wanted to do training in the mornings. It's just a good time for it."
"Does this mean you're always going to be up early?" asked Alicia, sounding shocked. She was totally justified, but still.
"I think it does," I sighed heavily. Both of my friends looked impressed, and I just laughed them off as I changed. They waited for me, and then the three of us headed down to breakfast together. We sat down with Lee and the twins as usual, and all three of them gave me shocked looks.
"Alexa, what are you doing out of bed?" asked George, his tone implying I was definitely crazy.
"Umm... eating breakfast? I'm usually awake right now, why are you so surprised?"
"Because our first period is History of Magic!" said Fred. "Why on earth would you wake up instead of sleeping right through it?"
I laughed. "Oh believe me, I was tempted. I have a lot going on this year though, so I need to take free periods and put them to good use whenever I can."
"So what are you doing with this period then?" asked Lee, munching on a piece of toast.
"I'm not sure yet... I don't have that much homework right now, since it's only the third day of school. And muggle school doesn't start until next week..."
"I'm sure you'll find something," Angelina teased. I just shrugged and poured milk into my cereal. I mean, she wasn't wrong.
I ended up practicing with the new Mystic Arts stuff Strange taught me over the summer. Once school really got going, I'd probably just do what I did last year and use Binns' class period for homework, but until then I might as well practice a different kind of magic.
The hour passed quickly, and I met back up with my friends to walk to Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures. DADA came next, and Moody's lesson revolved around curses again, which only reinforced my desire to get to the point where I could shake off the Imperius Curse like it was nothing.
After DADA we all headed to lunch, and after all that physical training and concentration, I was starving. I barely had time to grab the components of a sandwich, however, before I was interrupted by a friend I hadn't had much time to talk to yet.
"Alexa." I turned around to see David standing behind me, a concerned look on his face.
"Hey David! What's up?"
"Why weren't you in Astronomy last night? Is everything okay?" Dang. I really hadn't caught up with him in a while.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for checking in." I smiled, and David did too, and then I steeled myself to say my next words. "I... uh... I dropped Astronomy."
"What?" David looked shocked. "Why on Earth would you do that?"
I shrugged. "I didn't really like it that well. I'd rather have the sleep."
David let out a short laugh, but he didn't argue with my decision, which I appreciated.
"Well, I suppose that's fair enough. I did miss having you as a partner for the lessons, though."
"Yeah, sorry to leave you hanging. And sorry I didn't give you more of a heads up. But here." I turned around and quickly assembled my sandwich before standing. "Let's go catch up over lunch. I haven't talked to you in a while, and I actually have a few other things to tell you, too."
"Alright, I'd like that. I have a few updates for you as well."
"Great!" I turned back to my Gryffindor friends, who were still deep in conversation about Moody's most recent lesson. "I'll see you guys in Potions, alright?"
"Sure thing, Alexa!" They all gave me short waves as I headed out of the Hall with David, still holding my sandwich.
"Do you need to grab something to eat?" I asked David.
"No, that's alright. I got here earlier from Arithmancy, so I had time to eat something before I came over and talked to you."
"Great. Where do you want to go then? Maybe outside, since it's pretty nice? Who knows when the weather's gonna take a turn for the worse and we'll be stuck inside for like, the next year."
"Sounds like a good plan to me."
We headed outside, and I quickly ate my sandwich as we walked. David still didn't know really anything about Jackson, and I needed to get him up to speed with the rest of my friends. That was going to take a lot of talking, so I wanted to finish my food before I started.
"Alright," I finally said as we headed for the lake. "A lot happened last year that you don't actually know about yet. You remember that storm thing that almost killed us both over there last year?"
David laughed. "How could I forget?"
"Well, there's actually a lot more to that you should probably know."
I did my best to explain quickly as we walked around the lake, about Jackson and A.I.M. and the chip his mother put in his head. It was a lot to get through, but I managed to keep it pretty short. At the end, for probably the first time I'd ever seen, David was speechless.
"Alexa, that is... insane," he finally said. "You really dealt with that all by yourself?"
"For the most part. I did have a little help digitizing the entire Hogwarts library, though."
"Oh, now that bizzare task makes sense," he laughed. "Wow, that is a truly amazing story. Well done."
"Thanks! Glad I finally got a chance to get you caught up on all of it." David still seemed to be trying to process everything, so I decided to take the direction of the conversation into my own hands. "So how about you? What's new since we last talked?"
"Oh! Alexa, I have wonderful news! St. Mungo's agreed to work with me in an official capacity for my research!"
"Oh my gosh, David, that's great! Congratulations!" I gave him an energetic high-five, then kept talking. "So what does that entail? Where are you at on everything?"
"They're giving me the samples and facilities I need," he said. We were walking back up to the castle now, since we both had class fairly soon. "Things are going much slower than I would have liked, I have to admit, but still. This is real research! The same type that people who have already graduated are doing!"
David was more excited than I'd ever seen him before. The usually stoic Ravenclaw was practically jumping up and down on the lawn as we walked back to the castle.
"Of course, they're being more careful with everything, since I'm still sixteen. Things are really only in the planning stage, since I can't legally do magic outside of Hogwarts, but they've assured me we'll keep moving forward, no matter the challenges."
"David, that's awesome. I'm so, so happy for you."
"Thank you, Alexa." David was positively beaming as we came to a stop in one of the corridors. It was time for us to part ways, me to Potions and David to Ancient Runes. "And I'm glad we got to catch up."
"Me too. We need to do this more often, especially since I'm not in Astronomy with you anymore."
"I completely agree."
"If nothing else, I'll see you in Arithmancy tomorrow!" I called, waving to David as I headed down the corridor to the dungeons.
"See you then!" David waved back, and then I turned to speed walk to the Potions room. The last thing I wanted was to be late to Snape's class.
****************
I made it to Potions on time, thankfully. The rest of the day passed normally, and I was doing my best to enjoy the last few days I had before muggle school started and my schedule got a lot busier.
I went on another morning run, which was becoming a calming habit, and sat down to breakfast with my friends with a big smile on my face. I'd just started buttering my toast when an owl I didn't recognize came swooping down and landed right in front of me, dropping off a thick letter. First week of Hogwarts and I'd already gotten more mail than all of last year combined.
"Not another Howler?" joked George.
"Apparently not, but don't worry, I'm sure another one of those'll be here any day. I actually have no idea what this is." All my friends watched curiously as I pulled out the contents of the envelope. There was a short letter, and that's where I started.
"'Dear Alexa, you asked me to send you pictures of my favorite dragon, so I'm making good on my promise.' Aw, it's from Charlie!"
"Of course he's managed to keep talking to you about dragons, even when he's in another country." Fred rolled his eyes, clearly remembering Charlie and I's extensive conversation this summer, but he was smiling too.
"'I hope you won't mind just how many pictures I've sent. You asked for my favorite dragon, and I really tried, but I can't just pick one favorite. So I've sent pictures of all of them.'" I glanced back at the massive envelope with a massive grin. Charlie had found the exact right person to share his dragon obsession. "'Hope to see you soon, Charlie.' I literally can't wait to see these."
I folded his letter and stuck it in my bag, then I pulled out the other contents of the envelope. There were easily forty pictures here, if not more, and to my delight, they moved! Most wizard pictures moved, so I wasn't that surprised, but it was still insanely cool to see a dragon moving around in its frame, flying and breathing fire.
"This is the coolest thing I've ever seen," I said, shuffling through the stack and passing the pictures around the table. The twins weren't very interested, probably because they saw this stuff from Charlie all the time, but the rest of my friends were as entranced by the pictures as I was. We looked through the pictures for the rest of breakfast, the twins occasionally chiming in to give us a story about Charlie getting his eyebrows singed off by this dragon, or getting in trouble with his mom for trying to bring home a baby version of that dragon. When it was finally time to head to class, I carefully put all the pictures in my bag so they'd be safe until I could hang them up all over my dorm room.
We were on our way to Transfiguration with the Slytherins, and I literally couldn't be in a better mood.