The Wand Maker's Daughter

Interlude

Ethans eyes flashed red. Florence started back in surprise, but her caught her hand and started to caress her fingers. "Stop" Florence tried to scream but it came out as a whisper. He seemed to hear it like a scream though, because he flinched away from her and angrily placed a hand restrictingly across her mouth. "Hushhh" he slurred. "Don't be so loud, shhhh, shhhh, shhhhhhhhh!"
Suddenly, his face turned into Evy's and Florence woke with a gasp.
"Shhh, shhh, that's okay, you're all right. It's okay." Evy stroked Florence's hair. "It's okay. We're in the dormitories. Ethan's not here. You're okay."
"Oh I- Oh Evy!" Florence sobbed. "He was there again... where were you I- I'm so so sorry."
"It's okay. Calm down." She repeated soothingly, until Florence stopped crying and snuggled into her chest. She was dimly aware that Evy had climbed into her bed with her, but she was too sleepy to care.
"Stay here. Stay... please." She mumbled.
Evy smiled. "Okay- okay I'll stay. I'm here. You can sleep now."
And Florence fell back asleep and her dreams were clean.

She woke up again as Evy extracted herself out of her grasp.
"Why... where are you going?" She murmured.
"I don't think it would be best if everyone woke up and and I was in your bed," Evy grinned. "And besides... look."
And Florence looked and saw that her bed at transformed into a queen sized double bed, squishing Alex's bed up at the side.
"Oops" she giggled. Evy smiled and walked daintily to her own bed at the other side, and when Florence woke again in the morning her bed was back to its normal, twin single frame.

That breakfast she sat in the dining hall, fiddling with her cereal spoon. Why had Evy been the only one that heard her nightmares? She slept on the other side of the room, surely Alex or somebody closer would have woken up before Evy did. She must have already been awake. She had barely noticed that the dining hall was empty of students, for it was the first day of the holidays. Florence wasn't on great terms with her parents and usually stayed during the holidays, and this year Evy had decided to stay with her in solidarity. She hadn't seen Evy since that morning, where she had woken up with yet again another nightmare. She winced at the embarrassing memory of begging her to stay and stood abruptly to put her bowl away.

Even when most of the student body had left, there still seemed to be lots to do. Florence had numerous essays to write, but more than that there always seemed to be something interesting going on in the castle. The groundskeeper accidentally let loose a cage of Cornish pixies and they flew around the castle, biting and scratching anyone that tried to grab them. Eventually when they had though that they had caught them all, Florence got a nasty surprise in the bathrooms when it turned out one was hiding behind a shower curtain. Evy, startled into action by Florence's loud yelps and shouts, and rushed in just in time to see several jets of red light and a hairbrush hit it to the ground, and Florence laughing hysterically at the fright she had gotten. This chaotic event was followed by a swamp that engulfed the entire third floor and later a celebratory end of term dinner, that got slightly out of hand when a rogue pixie was discovered finishing off the treacle tart.
Florence, feeling full of good food and happy, fully expected to find herself drifting off easily to a peaceful sleep. Instead, she woke again late at night from another terrifying nightmare, and, very fed up with her misbehaving body, stomped off angrily out of the dorms.