"Athena Cynthia Pattinson come down here right now!" my mother shouted.
Bianca Pattinson. She had a shrill voice that run through anyone and irritated them right down to their inner soul. My mother was extremely pretty and she had the sort of look that made you follow her rules, stern but nice. In fact, that was the opposite of my mother's personality, her personality was ugly and rude, and very harsh. She was a Slytherin. She made both me and my sister take lessons in Latin, Greek mythology, ballroom, and Astronomy which she says were for a good purpose. I disagreed.
The day was 1971, 1st of September and it was around 9 am - which my mother viewed as late. It was unfortunate as it was a nice day and the sun was out but there was a slight breeze, it suited me perfectly. My sister had to be the one to ruin the day crying about how she couldn't come and whining just to get attention from my father. My mother would have told her to deal with it and - I silently agreed.
My father was just as horrible, Hades Pattinson, going around with Pureblood supremacist views and agreeing with things the forces of evil were saying just being too scared to join them and make it public. He was in his 40s and his hair was greying, just like his strength, he was arguing with my mother less and just following her less - than - nice punishments. He was a weak Slytherin through and through.
I walked down the staircase with one of my trunks full of Hogwarts things and spare robes and the such, holding in my other hand my cage for my owl, Jinx, which everyone but me in my family just about hated. I had asked for help from my father to carry my second and last trunk full of books and Potions ingredients down and he only just gave in, grumbling about how I should be less lazy and learn to do things myself.
After everyone was there and everything there, we apparated to the King's Cross station, mother was complaining about the multitude of muggles, father about the crowd and the 'smell' that muggles gave off, and my sister Bellona about how she didn't get to go to Hogwarts. I'd just about had enough of them for the whole year and then, it seemed I had the final blow of annoyance.
Mother dearest said, "Athena Cynthia Pattinson you had better be sorted into Slytherin, it is the only right choice, or else I will personally disregard you as a member of this family and the Sacred 28 families."
How scary. I knew it was an empty threat. To be honest, I'd rather be just another stranger to them than live with them any longer than I have to. The clock struck 10.30 am and I nodded to them one last goodbye, them not bothering to go with me to the station, and disappeared through the wall onto the most awaited for platform. Platform 9 and 3/4.
This platform was more crowded and chaotic than I had imagined. The tumultuous amount of noise and the shoving of people trying to find space was causing much more discord than I'd realised. There was a boy who stood close to me who was trying to push his mother off of him and he was saying, "Mum leave me alone, I'll be fine if you let me get on the train at all. Don't worry about me."
There were more people surrounding me and I felt too enclosed, I had to get onto the train sooner rather than later. I squeezed past a boy with dreadlocks and two twins with bright red hair - "Move over Gid." I watched as a tearful family, obviously with a first - year child too, ushered her onto the train and watched until they could see she was in a compartment. I felt suddenly dispirited, how could people be so nice to their family?
I was hauling my trunks and my owl onto the train and shoving them into a compartment in the middle of the scarlet steam engine with great difficulty. I would have been shoving for a good few minutes had the boys I had seen earlier not come and helped me. The first boy, with dreadlocks, picked up my trunk with books and Potions ingredients in and said strenuously, "Blimey, where'd you get this from? It's bloody heavy. I'm Leon Jordan, you a first year?"
I nodded, suddenly very aware that I was talking to someone that looked like a decent person. For once.
The two twins grinned and one said, "I'm Fabian Prewett. That's Gideon." Leon Jordan stared them both down suspiciously and then shrugged whispering, "I can't tell the difference so I don't know if they're lying to you or not." I gave a small laugh, I already like these three boys very much, and replied, "My name is Athena Pattinson, nice to meet you."
The boys saluted me and Gideon (I think) said, "We have to go mates, Frank Longbottom mentioned that he had something big he wanted to show us." Leon sighed and Fabian muttered, "Oh, I know for sure then that it's not his d-" Leon shoved a hand over his mouth and smiled apologetically, muttering something about watching his mouth, before they all rushed off.
I was left alone again and I didn't mind, it was peaceful like this, I was allowed to think to myself without being disturbed. My trunks were up on the luggage racks and I sat myself down on one side of the comfortable seats, settling myself for the train ride ahead. I spared no more thoughts that anybody else would walk into my compartment and was staring glassily out of the window, daydreaming, not noticing someone else walk in.
"Excuse me?" someone said, I finally heard them and turned around apologising, "Sorry about that, I was miles away, how can I help?" I spotted his trunks and him cracking his knuckles nervously and I smiled - what I hoped was - a warm smile. The boy had light brown hair, it looked interestingly fluffy, and another distinguishing feature was a scar that ran across his eye, which I thought was rather cool.
"Of course, you can sit here if you like, it doesn't have my name on it." He looked happily at me, stuffing his luggage on the rack and sitting himself down on the opposite side of the compartment. "I'm Remus Lupin, you?" I had no idea he was talking to me, because I'd tried to stare again but I turned around and saw his waiting face.
I said, "Sorry, I'm Athena Pattinson. What house do you hope to be in? Or are you already in one?" If I was going to start a conversation, I better do it right. He grinned at me and stated, "I'm a first year too. Or going to be. I want to be in either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. I wouldn't really mind Hufflepuff either but you know.." I didn't really know, but I guess I would have to.
"What about you? What house do you want to be in?" I thought about it for a moment. My parents wanted me in Slytherin or at least as a minimum Ravenclaw so I responded, "Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. I hope we can be in the same house, we could be friends. If you want of course... I mean... never mind."
Remus Lupin grinned widely and said cheerily, "Me too! You're the first person I've met on this train, and I've never really needed friends before now." Ouch, I felt that personally.
There was a commotion as two people barged into our compartment, observed us for a moment and then sat down, or more like sprawled out and one of the boys with shoulder length black hair and grey eyes smirked and said, "I'm Sirius Black, be graced by my presence." I rolled my eyes and glanced at Remus who was raising his eyebrows.
The other boy with curly brown hair grinned, sitting down next to me and shoving me aside as he sat, and he spoke, "I'm James Potter, be complimented that we chose this compartment." The two new boys high fived after their introduction, talking excitedly to each other. How could they have so much energy in a whole new environment? Instead of saying anything, I put my head in my hands. The arrogance.
I let my shoulder drop from being tense and said finally with an eyebrow raised and a blank stare, "Pleasure. I'm Athena Pattinson and this is Remus Lupin. Be graced by our presence, and thankful you chose this compartment and not another who would not appreciate this idiotic behaviour." James pulled his mouth into a smile, his main aim was to not laugh.
Sirius however, smiled broadly showing his white teeth and said, "Nice one. What's the bet she's in Slytherin James?" I stood up, I did not want to be in the house my parents chose for me, this boy reminded me too much of them, they had ruined the house for me. "I can be a real Slytherin if you don't shut it." James eyed me, interested, and nodded in appreciation.
"What house do you wanna be in Thea?" James asked. I choked on the air and frowned, these boys were unpredictable. They never shut up. In addition, where did the nickname come from? No one has ever called me Thea.
I uttered warily, "Gryffindor or something, I guess." Sirius and James smiled and high-fived once again. They turned their attention to Remus for the first time in a while and he said, "Same. Or Ravenclaw." I sat back down and Sirius moved to sit next to me, "Nice to meet you too Thea."
I knew that these boys would be the end of me.