Age is just a number... right? Closed

Wednesday 17th February 2021, ~4pm

Gabriella was tired - unusually tired, in fact. It was only Wednesday, and generally Gabriella was good at not getting tired until Friday afternoon, at which point she'd curl up on an armchair in the Ravenclaw common room and take a nap for a couple of hours. It was Friday, after all, and she had a whole weekend to do her homework. Not today, however. In fact, today was the worst time to be tired - she had tons of homework to do, including yesterday's which she hadn't done any of, but Gabriella still didn't want to do any homework. All she wanted to do was - well, curl up on an armchair in the Ravenclaw common room and take a nap for a couple of hours. That, however, was out of the question. What with Quidditch practices and various other commitments, Gabriella really needed to get her homework done when there was time. Which, unfortunately, was now.

But she was just... so... tired... The school day hadn't been particularly taxing - Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, no Herbology, which was always a good sign - so why was she so tired? Ah, yes, she thought to herself. The whole birthday thing yesterday. Yesterday had been Gabriella's twelfth birthday, and she had accidentally stayed up until one o'clock in the morning. Back at home, she'd had to go to bed at nine. That would be it... why she was so tired... she'd have to drink some coffee or something... a drink that was also banned at home... home... home... her bedroom was always a place she could fall asleep... the windows and the door and the bed compiling a pretty assembly... what. Gabriella stopped walking and rubbed her eyes vigorously. What the hell had she been thinking about? She screwed her eyes up and tried to think, but no thoughts came. Wow, the Ravenclaw said to herself. I knew I was tired, but I didn't know I was tired enough to fall asleep in corridors...

There was only one thing for it. She was going to have to run back. Nobody ever fell asleep while running, did they? Maybe running would make her feel more awake - she would have to cross the courtyard to get to Ravenclaw Tower, after all, and the wind whistling past her face might revitalise her somewhat. Yes, that was a good enough idea. Immediately, she began to run. A vague thought floated across her mind, something about don't run in the corridors... but as long as she didn't meet any prefects, it would be fine. Prefects - or older students, at that. Older students unnerved her, instantly transformed Gabriella from her usual, bubbly self into a... a tortoise. Were they shy? No, unlikely, the Ravenclaw reasoned with herself. Anyway, older students turned her into a very shy animal, was what she was trying to say - or think, think would be more apt... was she falling asleep again? She would have to run faster.

As she approached the corner, Gabriella picked up speed, the only way she would be able to get back to Ravenclaw dormitory without falling asleep again. She was going to have to ditch the homework and do it tomorrow, unless she could drink enough coffee to keep her awake. Suddenly, as she turned the corner, something stopped the Ravenclaw in her tracks, and she toppled over, falling flat on her face on the hard stone floor of the corridor. What the hell...? Gabriella turned round to see a nail sticking out of the wall, that had somehow split her school satchel right across the middle. Ink bottles smashed on the floor, leaking ink everywhere, including all over her school books. Vaguely, she noticed that her knees were bleeding from the fall, but unimportant, unimportant... at least the pain would be enough to keep her awake. She scrabbled about on the floor, hastily trying to pick up everything she'd dropped before anybody noticed.

Word count: 721
@Serena Bowen