Through the drowsiness of her current state, Athena dragged herself to Gryffindor Tower, feeling extremely fatigued despite it only being eight o'clock in the evening.
Once she had entered the common room, her eyes wandered to find any familiar faces of those whose company she could immerse herself in. By the fireplace sat Fred, George and Ginny though Harry, Ron and Hermione were not accompanying them.
When thinking of taking herself up to her dormitory, she viewed it with bother and the thought made her feel a draining tiredness. The empty space next to Ginny on the couch looked much more appealing so she joined the small group of redheaded siblings.
She collapsed onto the sofa a bit too exhaustedly letting out a great huff. The Weasley's all looked at her with suspecting grins spreading across their lips. She stared at them questioningly before stating "what?" and Ginny released a light chuckle.
"Had fun tonight?" Ginny asked with hidden meaning behind her question. Athena shifted in her seat so that she was perched up straighter. She didn't make any reply, waiting for someone to elaborate.
"You reek of that muggle stuff," George laughed.
"Oh yeah you would know," Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother.
"Yeah we would," Fred replied. "But how would you little sister? That's the real question."
"Wait...you lot have tried weed?" Athena interjected.
"Yeah," George replied in a way that it was obvious. "Freddie and I used to smuggle some off of old Mundungus last year."
Both Ginny and Athena raised their eyebrows.
"You better hope Mum doesn't find out about that," Ginny teased. "Oh but she so easily could."
"Well you're surely not gonna tell her, are you Gin?" Fred grinned. "After all, she'd be way more disappointed if she found out her precious angel has been getting sloshed. Would probably have a stroke."
Ginny's cheeks glowed red at her brother's threat but she acted indifferently, attempting to show him that he couldn't get to her.
"Who'd you get it off of anyway?" Athena asked Ginny.
"Dean had a short supply of it that he used to buy off of one of his Muggle mates," she explained. "But he doesn't get it anymore...I don't think anyway."
Her voice wavered at the last part of her sentence. Ginny and Dean were no longer together. They ended things around a month ago and Ginny had been quite distraught at first, but managed to get over it quite quickly. No one had been quite as happy over the breakup than Ron. Well maybe except Harry.
Athena and Hermione had caught onto Harry's crush on Ginny. It hadn't particularly surprised Athena. Ginny was stunning and there had seemed to always have been some form of admiration between the two. Though nothing had quite happened yet, most likely due to Ron.
"So who were you getting high with 'Thena?" Fred grinned.
"Just some friends," she replied impassively. "And I only had one hit. I'm not high just bloody exhausted."
They all chuckled in reply to her defensiveness obviously thinking she was concealing the truth from them. They then digressed in some conversation about all of the times they had gotten high, elaborating on the dramatic details of where they had ended up the next day, the twins' stories being of the more exaggerated.
Athena listened without inputting any of her own comments and eventually let her eyes flutter to a close, still able to hear the murmurs and laughs of the Weasley's, until eventually everything went mute.
***
Blood, pain, fear: there was too much of it.
She was empty, there was nothing.
Nothing but a gaping void, waiting to be filled.
But there was no one. She had no one left. Everyone was gone.
Dead, missing, fled: they were all gone.
Emptiness consumed her being.
It hurt so much.
It was killing her.
She awoke with a startle at the cause of her recurring nightmare. The reminders of that day replayed freshly in her mind as she remembered every detail, feeling every version of her pain. But the visions had differed. There seemed to be a new development in the nightmare, one which pained her so much more. But she could barely place what it was without putting herself into shock.
Completely disorientated, she found herself lying on the couch with a blanket draped over her and noticed that despite the room being dark, there were slithers of faint light peaking through the window from the outside, as dawn broke.
Suddenly the door to the boys dormitories opened and she sat up in alarm, peering over to where and who the noise had come from through her lethargic state and saw Harry with Ron's arm draped over his shoulder as he clung to his side.
Ron had a drunken-like expression spread across his face and his eyes were staring off somewhere into the distance as if he was in a daze.
Harry seemed to be having trouble holding up Ron's lanky frame as he tried to drag him across the common room. Athena stood from the couch immediately, without knowing what had happened and approached the boys which made Harry look instantly relieved.
"'Thena! Thank God! Give us a hand will you," he said with a strained voice. Athena rushed beside Ron and slung his arm over her shoulder, helping Harry to keep him on track. Ron seemed to have no idea what was happening as if he was completely out of it.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with him?" she asked as they exited through the portrait.
"It was a Love Potion," he sighed. "There were a box of chocolates addressed to me which were left by Romilda Vane and Ron ate the lot."
"Romilda! Where?" Ron gushed, looking around with excitement.
"Oh gosh. So now Ron thinks he's in love with her," Athena said attempting to conceal the fact that she found this rather hilarious.
"Yeah, a bit too in love. I mean he ate the entire box," he groaned.
Every now and then Ron would sing her name and moaned incessantly about how he wanted to see her. Luckily, Athena no longer felt drowsy or light headed as she had done earlier that night meaning the intoxicants were hopefully out of her system.
"So where are we going? To Madam Pomfrey?" she asked. Ron stopped walking immediately, breaking himself out of their grasp.
"Pomfrey?!" he yelled.
"No no! We're going to see Romilda," Harry said reassuringly to Ron whilst pointedly bulging his eyes at Athena.
"Oh yeah, that's right...My sweet Romilda! oh I can't wait to see her! Do you think she smells nice Harry?" he exclaimed.
"Yeah she smells brilliant Ron," Harry huffed, rolling his eyes. Athena bit back her laughter with great difficulty.
"Of course she does!" he gushed. He continued to ask Harry and Athena questions about Romilda and enthused over every aspect of her, from her hair to her skin to her eyelashes. It was utterly hilarious.
Athena followed Harry to wherever he was taking them which she sooner found out was not to Madam Pomfrey as they went in the opposite direction to the hospital wing. She later discovered that they were heading for Professor Slughorn's office.
"Are you sure she's in here Harry?" Ron asked disconcertedly.
"Yeah, she's waiting for you just behind this door," Harry responded. Ron muttered a few pleased remarks as Harry knocked on the door. The Professor came stumbling to the door, looking extremely concerned and confused.
At first he seemed reluctant to let them in but eventually Harry had managed to persuade him to make an antidote for Ron to drink.
"Where is she?" Ron asked when they entered the room.
"She's on her way," Athena replied.
"Oh great! How do I look?" Ron asked.
"Very handsome," Slughorn replied which made Athena and Harry chuckle under their breath.
Harry and Athena led Ron over to a couch and sat him down carefully. He continued to stare dreamily into a far off space in the distance, showing no awareness whatsoever for his surroundings.
While Slughorn whipped up the antidote for Ron, Harry made light conversation with the Professor. Athena noticed a shrine of photographs and trophies over by the left wall of the office. Out of pure curiosity, she approached the space and started scanning her eyes over the photographs, seeing a few faces which she recognised.
She inspected the shrine with great fascination, inspecting all of those people that Slughorn thought of as worthy in the past. Her eyes suddenly wandered over a certain photograph and in that photograph, a particular face.
Immediately, she grabbed the frame and picked it up to take a closer look. She stared at it for a moment, only focussing on that one face and comparing it with the one that lingered in her memory.
It was the face that she had desperately tried to keep in her mind. The face that had been fading from her memory despite her efforts to remember it.
It was the face of her father. Her heart raced at the sight of him. She hadn't seen him in so long. It was so surreal, she felt she could cry.
But after no longer than a second, a realisation hit her.
The photograph consisted of a group of boys and girls no older than eighteen, pictured together and all wearing Hogwarts robes exactly identical to the ones Athena was wearing.
But this couldn't be. Her father was a Muggle.
Why would he be in a photograph which lay in the possession of Slughorn, her Potions Professor?
Perhaps it wasn't him at all. Maybe she had completely forgotten his face after all of these years of being without him, that this boy in the image just happened to look exactly like him. After all, she hadn't seen his face since she were four years old, this even including in photos.
She stared at the photo without doing anything but intently studying the face of the boy. She opened her mouth to speak, going completely off of instinct.
"Sir," she called in a trembling voice. Slughorn paused in his making of the antidote and looked over to Athena. Harry too seemed curious. "Um- Who is this?"
She asked it although she felt she already knew the answer. But she had to be sure before jumping to any absurd, confusing and completely obscure conclusions.
The Professor edged away from Harry and over to where Athena was holding out the photograph and pointing her index finger to the face. He squinted his eyes to inspect the image and let out a hearty respire.
"Oh why that's young Atticus," he rejoiced.
Atticus. Her father's name.
She stared at Slughorn dumbfoundedly, unable to place any single one of her racing thoughts.
"That's my father," she uttered, looking away from Slughorn and back down to the picture.
"Oh I didn't know Atticus had a daughter!" he said sounding completely chuffed. "Fine Wizard he was."
"But Sir, my father was a Muggle," her voice wavered.
"A Muggle? What kind of folly is that?" he exclaimed in an outraged tone. "Atticus Rivière was one of the best Pureblooded students I taught. He was in my own house too. I was very proud to have called him my student. It hurt my heart when I learned what had happened to him."
Athena processed the words which Slughorn had spoke with much contemplation. She had been frozen into shock.
However, in all that he said, one thing stuck out to her the most.
"I'm sorry did you say Atticus Rivière?"
"Yes," he replied plainly, looking confused. Harry also didn't seem to be able to decipher what was happening and stared at the exchange with puzzlement.
"Would you mind if I borrowed this for a moment?" she asked, holding up the picture frame while her hand trembled ferociously. The Professor nodded without saying a word and went back to making the antidote for Ron.
Immediately, Athena fled the room and only knew of one person who she needed to see. This person was bound to be able to answer all of her questions and he was sure to tell her what she needed to know. After all, he was the Headmaster.
She raced up to Dumbledore's office, clutching the photograph in hand and not giving any care or consideration for the fact that it was probably around five in the morning. She needed answers and she needed them now.
Conveniently, Harry had previously shared the password to get into Dumbledore's office after casually slipping it into conversation one time, so she had no trouble in that department. After saying the password with great haste, she made her way up to the office and stopped at the closed door before knocking onto the hard wood.
She waited a moment but nothing happened so she knocked again this time calling out "Professor Dumbledore?"
Again, she waited with frustrating patience but there was nothing.
She knocked again, with more force this time and called in a louder voice, "Professor Dumbledo-"
The door opened at last and there appeared the Headmaster dressed in long, royal purple dressing robes and a matching purple night cap, both spluttered with yellow stars. He appeared extremely bewildered at first when seeing it was her but then his features relaxed.
"Ahh, Miss Greene! This is a rare occasion. What brings you to me so bright and early?" he asked cheerfully.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Sir but Harry, Ron and I were just in Professor Slughorn's office and I found...this," she explained holding up the photograph. The Headmaster lent closer to the photograph but didn't make any reaction.
"You'll have to forgive me Athena for you may have noticed I am rather withered in age- but what exactly am I looking at?" he asked.
"It's my father, Sir," she pointed to the face. "See?"
He spectated the picture for a moment before nodding and releasing a light sigh.
"Ah yes. Indeed," he enthused. Athena waited for a moment in hopes that Dumbledore would elaborate but when he didn't, she said,
"But he was a Muggle."
"Was he?" the Headmaster asked comically. An irritation grew inside of her but she managed to maintain her tolerance when remembering who she was speaking to. He seemed to sense her state and that she was in no mood for humour. "Would you like to come in Miss Greene?"
She nodded and willingly headed inside with an agitating eagerness to find out everything she wanted to know.
"Please feel free to sit down. We seem to have a lot to discuss and I wouldn't want your legs to grow sore," he said kindly. She obliged taking a seat in the chair opposite from his.
He sighed before continuing.
"Well, I probably ought to start from the beginning then."
-
thirty third chapter complete :)
pay close attention in the next chapter! there will be a lot of dialogue but it's all very much relevant