Alice didn’t often have nightmares, but when she did, they were really bad. She spent the entire night tossing and turning, dreaming about green flashes, a horde of wizards in dark cloaks running, chasing her. Screams of her friends and family. She only blamed herself, the night previous she had let her anxiety get to her, spending the hours before bed worried that she would never be good enough to be of actual help to the Order. She made the decision to give up on sleep and come in for work 2 hours early. The ministry was quieter than the usual morning rush but still had a decent flow of workers coming and going. After she arrived through the floo network, she went to the Daily Prophet stand to see what chaotic news today had in store. She reached for a paper and bumped hands with another customer. “Oh, sorry. You can take that one.”
