the moon is no door ↠ Tom Riddle

03

It was in the early hours of the morning—the soft light illuminated the wooden floors and the scarlet red covers on the beds. It was calm and quiet, the only sounds were the gentle breathing from the peacefully sleeping Gryffindor girls.

And, there was a figure, lurking at the corner, between the door and one of the wardrobes, directly opposite where Saffron was laying. It was humanoid, tall and dressed in black, shadows cast over it so she couldn't make out any features besides the pallor of its face.

Saffron was seized with terror. She couldn't breathe and she couldn't move. The figure stayed still, but she was helpless.

Sleep paralysis. She knew what this was, she knew that she wasn't truly in danger, and she knew the figure was a hallucination, but she was still petrified. Willing her limbs to move didn't work at first, but she tried and tried until she could just move her fingertips. Slowly, as she worked her fingers and toes, autonomy returned, starting from her hands and feet back to her middle.

When she was able to sit up, she stared at the spot where the hallucination stood. The terror was gone now, and her pulse had slowed down back to normal. Her eyes were heavy and tired, but part of her knew that there was no way she could get back to sleep now.

Saffron had never been a very good sleeper. She struggled to fall asleep, and when she did, it didn't take much to wake her back up again. Plus, she was bothered by horrible, vivid nightmares every few nights and, occasionally, sleep paralysis.

She hadn't experienced an episode of sleep paralysis for about six months at that point. It used to plague her several times a month as a child, but it had gotten much less frequent as a teenager. And, even though she'd experienced it hundreds of times by that point, she never quite got used to the helpless feeling, laying paralyzed, a malevolent figure standing at the corner of the room.

Because she was up at that point, she stayed still, staring at the ceiling for a little while longer. Finally, she got up, got ready for the day, and sat down on her bed, picked up a book: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Saffron had read it before, but it was one of her favorites. She'd always preferred Muggle literature.

Then, the other girls slowly started to wake up and get ready for the day. Saffron waited patiently for them while she read.

"Let's go," Pippa said eventually, smoothing back her hair in order to put it into a ponytail. Saffron had always been jealous of Pippa's hair. No matter what, it looked perfect—the girl could probably be hit by lightning and it would still be flawless.

Saffron closed her book and followed her friend out of the door. Rory was waiting for them in the common room, talking idly with Bennett. When they saw the two of them, both boy's faces lit up. Bennett had a thing for Saffron, but he was basically in love with Pippa.

The four of them made their way from Gryffindor tower to the Great Hall. Their conversation was lively, and it mostly kept the cold fear from creeping back into Saffron's consciousness. They had found Lionel and Soren talking outside of the Hall and stopped to talk to them.

Saffron hadn't spoken to Soren since they had parted ways on the train. As siblings, they were close and got along quite well, but they were so different they didn't spend a lot of time with each other while they were at school.

By the time they actually entered the spacious room, breakfast was already well underway. It was rather loud. Lionel and Soren parted ways to go to the Ravenclaw table and Saffron found a spot among good friends at the Gryffindor table with the others trailing closely behind. She sat with her back to the Slytherin table so she wouldn't have to look in their direction.