Waking up in the morning, after being super cosy, and sleeping in an extremely warm and comfortable bed was very difficult. I would have slept in the whole morning or stretching to a day, and missed the first day had it not been for Aafiya, who wakes up early every morning to pray, as well as wakes us all up.
She was the best for time keeping and sticking to her schedule, as I later reflected, as she was always reminding us to do something, and it was only the first few hours of the year but she was already acting like our mother.
I walked into the common room, ready and waiting for the boys who were supposed to come down and meet me, when James and Sirius ran down the stairs two at a time, both chasing a small kitten who was seemingly very frightened. I was really worried. For the cat, not the boys. "Boys, are you coming to breakfast or what? Stop being idiots and hurry up," I chastised.
Remus came walking down the stairs too, chatting with Peter calmly, just as James grumbled, "Sorry mother." I grabbed him gently by the ear and Sirius by the wrist, dragging the two boys to the Great Hall, Remus and Peter following us, amused. "Are you always like this?" Sirius complained, struggling to keep up.
As soon as we were all sat down in the Great Hall for breakfast, the two boys who were annoying me already, apologised hurriedly, already stuffing toast in their mouths. The two boys who were innocent bystanders grinned, eating their breakfast too. Remus chose an assortment of spreads on his toasts, like jam and chocolate spread, whilst Peter stuck to buttered croissants.
I'd just made some cereal, and was eating it slowly, when hundreds of owls came flying down to meet their owners, and I recognised one as my owl. The boys also each got one, all except Sirius, who wasn't looking too surprised or upset.
I opened my letter to read:
Dear Athena,
I have been informed by some other correspondents of mine that you have been placed in Gryffindor. I hope this was some silly mistake, and as a gift of forgiveness, I have enclosed a silver bracelet. I hope you will come to your senses soon and stay loyal to the things we have been telling you. In addition, by the same person, I have been told that Sirius Black is in Gryffindor too, let him be the only person you fraternise with as he is acceptable.
Sincerely,
You mother.
I looked in the envelope to see the silver bracelet that my mother had bought my sister, which was now for me, and I 'wondered' why. And I also decided to keep it there in the envelope, as, I knew what they were doing, trying to lure me to not give up on them and their dark twisted beliefs because I was sorted into this house like it was a 'fluke'.
Then, I wondered, who was this correspondent she spoke about, who was telling her of what or who was doing anything? Breaking my chain of thought was a large black owl bringing down a letter that was dark red and already looking menacing. I instantly knew what it was. A Howler.
It landed in front of Sirius Black and he swallowed, by now, the whole school was eating their breakfast save for a few stragglers who like their morning sleep and Aafiya who I expected was getting ready or something. The howler landed right in the middle of James, Sirius, myself, and Marlene McKinnon, who was sitting next to me. The howler looked at Black menacingly and said:
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK THE 3RD, HOW ABSOLUTELY DARE YOU BE IN GRYFFINDOR. I DON'T CARE IF THE HAT DECIDED YOUR DESTINY OR YOU CHOSE TO BE, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS. YOUR WONDERFUL COUSIN BELLATRIX HAS TOLD ME ABOUT EVERYTHING GOING ON BECAUSE YOU WERE OBVIOUSLY TOO ASHAMED TO TELL ME; YOU SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. THIS IS TERRIBLE FOR YOURSELF AND OUR REPUTATION. YOU SHOULD BE DISAPPOINTED IN YOURSELF, HOW ARE YOU MY CHILD? FINALLY, MAKE SURE THAT YOU TALK TO THE ONLY OTHER DISGRACE, YET STILL A SACRED PART OF THE FAMILIES, WHICH ARE UNFORTUNATELY NOT RELATED AS THEY HAVE A WONDERFUL YOUNGER DAUGHTER, MRS PATTINSON'S CHILD ATH-"
The howler was cut off by the Prefect Rory McLaggen waving his wand at the howler and reducing it to cinders, I heard him mutter as he walked past, "Really, that sort of letter is unacceptable. The amount of noise it creates and the language it uses."
I silently agreed but for different reasons, Mrs Black had basically just disowned her child, and told him horrible things about himself that were purely not true. Oh, and now I knew who the person was that had snitched, it was Bellatrix Black, the Slytherin four years above us.
Most of the school looked at Sirius, many people for many different reasons. I just wondered if he was okay after that telling off, I was about to ask him but he waved it off and uttered, "I'm ok." Then he stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, leaving his breakfast half eaten. I felt truly sorry for him.
It was the first class of the term and after getting my own and Sirius' schedule from McGonagall, I found out that we both had Charms. After trying to navigate my way to find Sirius with James (Remus and Peter told us they were going to meet us in class), we all made our way to the Charms corridor and into Professor Flitwick's class. He was head of Ravenclaw and the Charms Professor.
I sat next to Mary McDonald, which proved as a slight distraction, as all she wanted to talk about was either Quidditch, what went down this morning or the rest of our scheduled day. We was also sharing this class with the Slytherins, and Carrow was seated on the other side of me and she was constantly sniffing so I was torn between whether she was needing a tissue or had smelt something really bad.
I decided the former and decided to let her cold settle down, so I moved closer to Mary. I smelt really nice hopefully, I had used my special conditioner on my hair just for my first day, so, of course it had to be the former.
Next class was Potions which was with the Ravenclaws, and our Professor was head of Slytherin house and he hosted the 'Slug Club' which I had learnt from a few Slytherins sat behind me in Charms. Professor Slughorn was confusing, and had a bad sense of humour, and was just overall looked like an armchair turned human. The only upside of this class was the amount of noise, that you could choose your partner, and I could finally talk to Evelyn.
I walked over to the Ravenclaws and overheard a conversation, "Pandora add Porcupine Quills first not Flobberworm Mucus," the girl who was speaking was dark skinned and had a gorgeous head of curly hair and a pretty smile. "Sorry Dorcas," a girl with white-blonde hair, blue eyes and a dreamy expression spoke. Evelyn was sat behind them both quietly observing and I took this as my chance to talk to her.
"Evelyn. Eve," I whispered. Evelyn turned around and saw me, and smiled widely, "I wondered when you'd talk to me Athena. I saw you get sorted and I was amazed. You're a witch too! Did you find out from the letter or.. did you know already but not tell me?" she seemed hurt at the last few words and I thought carefully of what to tell her.
I told her, "I'm sorry, I did know, however, I would have broken a law if I told you so.. if you wanted your friend, you'd better be pleased I kept it a surprise." I did hope she would understand, I loved being her friend, and she had told me all everything about her, but the fact was, it was for both of our safety.
Eventually, She just shrugged in agreement, "Nice friends you've got over there," she mumbled. I looked back to where she was staring at, and saw James and Sirius adding way too much Snake Fangs and pretending to be snakes. Remus who had his head in his hands but was laughing, Peter who was thoroughly enjoying it.
Then there was Lily who was carefully adding the ingredients, Marlene who was chatting away happily to Alice, Mary who was scrutinising Dorcas and Pandora, Aafiya who was watching Lily add in ingredients with great interest. I looked back at Evelyn and tried not to look that attentive at my new friends.
She looked at my facial expressions and said, "It's okay you know, to have other friends. Especially cool, fun ones. I get I'm kinda boring. I have Dorcas Meadows and Pandora Black, oh and then there's Bob - I forget his last name - he's nice and from my year and my house." I felt very sorry for my best friend, but Marlene called me over to help finish our potion and so I left, with a last look at Evelyn who was now continuing defying my gaze and staring at the Potion.
The day raced by quickly with double Transfiguration (with McGonagall) and then Herbology (with Professor Sprout who is head of Hufflepuff too). Lunch somewhere in between with a table who did not forget about this morning's howler, and then after was Herbology and an hour in the library with Lily, Alice and Aafiya near to dinner.
I wallowed mostly during dinner, thinking about my conversation with Evelyn Green and what she said and what that could mean. She obviously understood my situation, she was a Ravenclaw after all, but I'm sure she just needed a few days to take everything in. My first day was.. eventful, I knew that much.