Murdered.
The very word was harrowing let alone the thought.
Despite the shock of the truth, Athena hadn't been that surprised to hear something so brutal. As soon as Dumbledore had mentioned the Death Eaters, she had prepared herself for the worst.
As the Headmaster no longer sought to continue, she guessed the time to ask her questions had arrived.
"Why did no one ever tell me?"
"Ah there are several reasons and I have no prediction to whether you will see them excusable," he replied. "You are the daughter of a former Death Eater, one who abandoned those he was supposed to be loyal to. They had never been aware that he had had a child, and I am certain that they still do not. I believe if they were brought to the knowledge that Atticus Rivière's daughter lived, they would not be lenient to the matter."
"You mean they would kill me," she stated with no question.
"Potentially," he frowned. "But knowing of their barbaric savagery, most definitely they would."
A deafening silence lingered in the room as Athena attempted to comprehend this new turn of events.
"So why was I not told? If they'd want me dead, why was I not made aware, of any of this?" she raised her voice, losing composure.
"For the exact reason that I have mentioned," he said, calmly. "Nobody knew that you were Atticus Rivière s daughter, not even yourself. And evidently, it had been safer that way. Of course, it was inevitable that you would find out eventually, whether that be you were told or you found out the information yourself as you so coincidentally have. But until today, you have lead an uncomplicated life throughout your youth, believing both of your parents to be muggles and in no way vulnerable to those who are dangerous."
"How are you so certain that they don't know I am his daughter?" she asked.
"Merely for the reason that there has never been an attempt on your life," he said with regret.
"And so what am I supposed to do if they do find out?" she questioned. "Hope that they don't kill me? Pray that I don't end up the same as my dad?"
"If it so unfortunately happens that they are to become aware that you are his child, we shall discuss the matter when the time comes. Though for now I advise you only confide in very few, only those who you trust undeniably."
She nodded in reply and then remembered a question she had thought to ask near the beginning of the conversation.
"So Maeve Rivière, we must be related in some way right?"
"Indeed," he smiled. "She happens to be the daughter of Sebastian Rivière who was your father's cousin. You recall I mentioned Fitzwilliam Rivière?"
She nodded.
"He was her grandfather. Thus making you and Maeve second cousins, once removed."
Athena stared at him, trying to piece together and process the connections in her mind. It was certainly a lot to comprehend. This was an understatement.
"Does she know?"
"I have no knowledge of whether she does or does not. If you find it fit to ask her, certainly do so. It's important to know your family. Especially when they have been concealed from you your entire life," he advised.
Once again, she nodded without uttering a word and she did so mechanically, acting almost like a robot.
The conflict of her thoughts was honestly indescribable to the point that she couldn't even fathom the information she had recently been handed. For the entirety of her living years she had never imagined being involved in something so detrimental and entirely inescapable. There had always been a feeling present that there was something missing, and this thing she had never quite grasped.
Over the course of a few hours, she had gone from never knowing a thing about her late father to finding out she obtained this whole other fragment in her identity that she had been entirely ignorant to without even suspecting it.
Firstly, he had been a Wizard, a Pureblood, not that blood meant anything to Athena, but all of those years of enduring the slander and prejudices of being a muggle-born. After a while, the criticism of her blood had seemed like such nonsense, but it didn't deter from the fact that she had always felt she never belonged in this world. And even now, despite her father descending from a well known bloodline, she was much more worse off than before.
He had been a Death Eater. Despite what Dumbledore had said about Atticus not agreeing with their views that had affected her specifically, he still sought to join a group of inhumane people who did the upmost terrible things.
Many matters could be argued for his eventual redemption but this was truly the conflict which she was dealing with. She couldn't decipher whether to be praising her late father or whether she should be disheartened by what she had learned of him.
But they murdered him for the sole reason that he refused to devote himself to them. Over all of the praise and the shame she mostly felt a great sympathy for him. As Dumbledore had explained, he had not been a bad person, but only a reckless boy who seemed to had made the wrong decisions which had eventually grown to be his most immense regrets. Entirely, he was unfortunate enough to be surrounded by bad people, influencing his imbedded dark thoughts.
And now due to her parentage, they wished for Athena to be dead.
"While you were experiencing the wonders of the Pensieve, I sent word to your mother informing her of your newfound knowledge and of what we have spoken of," Dumbledore explained. "I would expect for you to receive a letter from her shortly."
"Alright," she replied. Before she could speak any further, the door to Dumbledore's office abruptly opened with a burst.
"Albus!" a wizened Scottish accent called. "I apologise to be so early but—oh!"
She stared at Athena, taken aback by her presence.
"Good morning Minerva," he smiled. "Is there something you need?"
"Oh I'm sorry to be interrupting but it's the Weasley boy. He's been hospitalised," she frowned with worry in her voice.
Athena shot out of her chair immediately at the the mere mention of the name Weasley. Dumbledore too stood from his seat and they both raced to the door to follow McGonagall outside
"Do you have enough information to elaborate?" he asked in a calm manner.
"Certainly," she replied as they entered the corridor.
She explained how Ron had been poisoned by a glass of oak matured mead that Slughorn had given to him and how supposedly Harry had saved his life by shoving a bezoar down his throat. Apparently, he was fine but not in the best condition.
When the three of them arrived, Ron was asleep, Harry, Ginny, Fred and George were beside his bed and Slughorn paced frantically up and down the hospital wing in panic and worry. Dumbledore and McGonagall consoled him while Athena joined the others.
"Is he alright?" she asked them.
"He's getting there," Fred replied. "Seems to me as if he's dreaming so that's a good sign I guess."
"Good," she breathed a sigh of relief. Imagining something terrible happening to Ron terrified her beyond belief. He was one of her best friends and she could not bring herself to think about being without him. She was then reminded of her other dearest friend.
"Hermione! She has no idea!" she gaped, before departing from the hospital wing hastily.
The sun had now risen and it was not as early as it had been before going into Dumbledore's office therefore Hermione was bound to be awake.
She ran to her dormitory and found Hermione perched onto one of the sofa's in the common room, holding a book and immersed in her reading. Her head snapped up as soon as Athena busted through the portrait. At first Hermione looked shocked and then after sighting her friends facial expression, grew extremely anxious. She shut her book abruptly and stood without questioning.
"It's Ron. He was poisoned," Athena blurted, leading them both away from Gryffindor Tower. She then thought to elaborate. "He's ok but has been hospitalised. The others are there now
Hermione made no reply, only pure silence between the two of them. It was like were trying to contain herself, as if to speak would set her off into hysterical worry.
Once they had returned, Hermione headed straight for his bedside while the others cleared a space for her. The only thing that had changed since Athena's brief departure was the arrival of Professor Snape. The four teachers seemed to be deep into a serious discussion between them and the only person who seemed to acknowledge it as well as Athena was Harry. She gave him a questionable look and he returned with a glance that she interpreted as 'for later'.
Madam Pomfrey entered the room and looked abundantly shocked at the amount of people in her hospital wing.
"Golly gosh! How many of you are there? He's very lucky to have such caring friends," she said. "But I need at least half of you to clear out."
"I give my sincere apologies Poppy," Dumbledore smiled, wavering a hand to the Professors to exit and take their conversation elsewhere.
The rest of them looked at each other, not quite sure who was going to leave out of all of them.
"Come on all of you. Breakfast will be ready in the next few minutes," the matron said. "He won't wake quite yet. Go and get some grub and hopefully when you return he will be."
All of them obliged to Pomfrey's request except for Hermione who uttered "I'm not hungry" whilst keeping her eyes fixated on Ron's limp, sleeping body.
"Very well," she sighed defeatedly. "But the rest of you, off you go!"
They were the first students to arrive at the Great Hall for breakfast that morning and, took their seats to eat the food as quickly as they could. As the hall filled with students and their Gryffindor companions, a few of them asked of Ron's whereabouts.
Harry explained what had happened knowing that everyone would find out sooner or later. Everyone reacted in the same way: completely shocked and immensely confused. But the most terrifying reaction was Lavender's who cried out with a howling wretch. She had left for the hospital wing to see Ron immediately.
As they ate, Harry turned to Athena and in a quiet tone so only she could hear asked, "what happened earlier?"
She looked up at Ginny, George and Fred who took no notice of their exchange, before replying to him.
"I'll explain another time."
He nodded and returned to focus on his food. Due to Ron's incident, she had momentarily forgotten about the earlier events and entire situation regarding her father. She had recieved such shock and worry for Ron that it completely passed through her mind. Until Harry reminded her of it, that is.
After they had eaten, they left without dithering and as they exited the Great Hall, Draco approached affront of them. His eyes drew to Athena's and his expression briefly fell into what looked like concern before quickly changing to impassive. The others disregarded his presence as they walked straight past and she followed.
They reproached the hospital wing and saw that Ron was still asleep but now had his hand resting in Hermione's. Athena's heart warmed for them and when she caught Hermione's eye, she smiled at her gladly.
"Oh what's this?" Pomfrey gawked as she returned into the room. "I didn't mean for all of you to come back at the same time. Blimey, I had another of you in here a minute ago. He must be a popular boy."
They stared at her without responding.
"Alright at least two of you leave," she sighed.
"I'll go," Ginny said. As no one else seemed willing to volunteer, Athena did.
The girls said a goodbye to the rest of them before departing from the hospital wing. They were immersed in light conversation to distract from the traumas of the morning when they heard the sounds of snivelling and distress sounding from the corridor they were walking down.
The girls looked at each other in wonder and diverted their journey from going to the common room and instead went to investigate the crying.
Around a hidden corner crouched onto the floor was Lavender Brown, with puffy eyes and an abundance of tears streaming down her face. She looked up at Ginny and Athena with fright before concealing her face behind her hands.
"Lavender, are you alright?" Athena asked, though the answer was obvious. She shook her head and let out another howling sob.
"What happened?" Ginny asked.
"H-he doesn't l-l-love m-e!" she wailed. "He l-likes h-her! She's so perfect and i'm just-"
She interrupted herself with another ferocious cry. Athena looked to Ginny before crouching down so she was level with Lavender. She placed a hand over her knee in attempt to console her.
"Boys are arseholes," Ginny said with half hearted chuckle whilst she too crouched down. "And Ron, although he's my brother, believe me when I say he can be such a prick! I'm sure Athena would agree."
She could not actually recall a time when Ron had been particularly nasty or at all vile to her but agreed with Ginny only to make Lavender feel better.
"Boys are going to come and go. They'll break your heart again and again but one day you'll find that one special person who doesn't," Athena smiled reassuringly.
"I'm not so sure about that. I think everyone just sees me as p-pathetic," she sighed with a trembling voice and wiping at the tears that continued to fall from her eyes.
"Anyone would be lucky to have you with the amount of love you have to give!" she comforted.
"Yeah definitely. Perhaps Ron just didn't deserve you," Ginny smirked.
Lavender's crying had seemed to have calmed down from before though she was still snivelling and taking deep, controlled breaths.
"Do you really think I'll get my happy ending?" she asked looking at Athena with a twinkle of hope present in her eyes.
"We know so," Athena replied with a smile.
They assisted Lavender to stand up and accompanied her to the Gryffindor common room. Ginny was only with them for a moment before she remembered she had a lesson to attend first thing and rushed off.
As both Lavender and Athena had a free period, they spent the time chatting. Lavender asked her many questions about her relationship with Cedric and every now and then squealing over certain things she would tell her. It was quite sweet actually. She had never taken the time to get to know the girl but when she did, she learned that she truly had one of the biggest hearts though for some odd reason, this was viewed as one of her faults.
Athena's first lesson of the day was Astronomy. She felt an unmanageable dread when thinking of it. She had no idea whether Maeve knew of their relations but felt approaching the subject might be slightly awkward.
She perched onto the seat beside Maeve who greeted her as usual and Athena returned the hello. She had planned to ask her about everything after the lesson as they had a break and she was desperate to talk to someone about the whole thing as soon as possible. She would have told Harry earlier on but they were surrounded by a lot of people and she wanted to tell Harry, Hermione and Ron together.
After the lesson, Athena informed Maeve that she had to discuss something which concerned her. Usually she was the laid back type, but after hearing this, grew apprehensive. Luna split from the girls as she wanted to pay a visit to feed the Thestrals.
They made their way onto the grounds and walked a great distance from the castle so they were completely away from other students. Athena was hesitant and Maeve grew sceptical.
"How's your head?" Athena asked, procrastinating the conversation.
"Erm, fine now," she replied. "Although I had to use the Sobering Charm this morning."
"I had no idea there was a Sobering Charm!"
"Yeah Blaise taught me it," she smirked. "Didn't you wanna talk or were you just checking up on me?"
"No sorry, I do," she sighed. "I need to tell you something. You may already know and I might be about to sound completely stupid but the thing is..."
Maeve waited as she struggled to formulate the right words. She took a deep breath and tried again.
"The thing is...well- we're related."
At first her friend made no reply. Her temporary silence forced her to turn her head and evaluate her expression and it turned out that she was silently chuckling behind closed lips. Athena furrowed her brows in mild frustration though she didn't make it evident.
"I know," Maeve said with her usual smirk.
"You do?"
"Yes, I have known ever since I knew your dad," she replied. Athena's eyes widened at her comment.
"You knew him?" she repeated her words in question "How- what?"
"He used to live with my dad when they were teenagers. I'm assuming you know everything. My grandparents and parents were the only people in our family who accepted Atticus for his beliefs towards those who were not Purebloods. When I was a child, he used to visit us occasionally. He'd tell me all about you," she explained.
"What did he say?"
"I was a toddler I can't bloody remember," she chuckled. "I only recall growing up with the knowledge that I had a relative somewhere out there who was my age and who I would eventually meet. My brother had never been very amusing as he's double my age and I had always longed for a sister. I knew of your surname and realised it was you when I first saw you. I still remember my disappointment when you weren't sorted into Slytherin."
"But you never told me. You never even spoke to me. Why?" she asked.
"I never told you for the same reason that Dumbledore never did, or your mother," she replied, dropping her air of humour.
"So you know? About the Death Eaters."
"Have done for quite some time, yeah," she sighed. "As for why I never spoke to you, well I believed you'd be fixated on the prejudices of Slytherins like all of your mates seemed to be. If I'm to be completely honest, I didn't want you to dislike me so I never approached you."
"What so instead you observed me from afar?"
"Something like that I guess," she smiled. "Besides, Dumbledore didn't want me to get close to you in case I risked exposing the truth too early."
She rolled her eyes as she said the last part.
"But anyway, you know now. Fucking finally," she sniggered. "It must have come as a bloody shock."
"You have no idea," Athena laughed.
As the girls headed back to the castle, Athena briefly informed her of what Dumbledore had said and she also explained the Pensieve and what she had seen. However without knowing as to why, she left out the specifics like Lucius Malfoy being a heavy influence in Atticus's decisions.
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thirty fifth chapter complete :)
goLLy that's a lot of information