An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Fifty-Six

"Alexa. Alexa, come on. Wake up."

Groggily, I pried my eyes open at the sound of my name. I blinked a few times, trying to wake up enough to register my surroundings.

"Ugh, I guess I was more tired than I thought," I groaned, sitting up and stretching. "Thanks for letting me use you as a pillow Ced."

"Sure thing Alexa." He smiled, and I felt a blossom of warmth in my chest.

"Is class over?" I asked, turning to look at my Gryffindor friends.

"Yes, and now you have to head to Arithmancy," said Angelina.

"Come on." Fred held out a hand to help me up, dragging me to my feet. "You can take another nap at lunch."

"Nah, that hour in Charms was all I needed. I'm good for the rest of the day. Did Professor Flitwick notice anything?" I asked as we headed into the hallway.

"He came over, but he thought the same thing we did. You clearly needed the sleep. He told us to let you rest," answered George.

"Okay, he's officially one of the coolest teachers I've ever had," I decided. My friends just smiled as we got to the place in the hallway where it was time for us to part ways. None of them were interested in the magic contained in numbers, and as a result none of them were in my Arithmancy class. "I'll see you guys at lunch, yeah?"

"We'll see you then Alexa!" agreed Alicia, smiling and giving me a short wave.

"Try not to pass out in this class too!" Lee teased, shooting me a wicked grin before heading off to his next class. I just rolled my eyes and headed down the corridor. I had no intention of falling asleep in one of my most interesting classes. Besides, there was a chance we were doing a review day just like in Charms. If that were the case, I was not missing out on an entire period opportunity to keep searching all the Hogwarts records for another lead.

***************

Unfortunately for me, Professor Vector didn't give us the review period I was hoping for. We kept going through new material at a whirlwind pace; apparently we had a lot left to finish before the rapidly-approaching O.W.L.S.

I managed to keep up, but I had to focus on Arithmancy the entire time. I didn't get a single free second to dig into Hogwarts leads.

I decided that needed to change when I got to lunch.

I made it to the Great Hall before my friends, threw together a sandwich, then started heading back out. I ran into Fred and George quite literally as I tried to exit the main doors.

"Whoa! Alexa, where are you going?" asked Fred. Thankfully, I hadn't dropped my sandwich when I ran into him, so I could stay on my original path.

"I'm going to go search through more of the files on my computer," I answered, not even trying to hide what I was doing.

"Didn't we just have a conversation about how important it is for you to take a break?" sighed George. He sounded like a truly exhausted parent, and the realization hit me like a punch. I made George Weasley sound like an exhausted parent. Something clearly needed to change.

After I solved my mystery.

"Guys, I'm fine. You were absolutely right, I needed a break. But now that I've had that break, I can get back to work. I'm used to this, it's not that unusual for me and my family to just work on something nonstop until it's done. I think it might be genetic..." I trailed off, but I turned my attention back to the twins when I saw how unconvinced they were. "Besides, here's the thing: I'm not gonna be able to fully rest or relax until I get some answers. And nothing is going to feel better than the moment all the pieces finally come together and I get the answers I've been chasing since Christmas. That's the best feeling in the world."