"You know just as well as anyone that he could have been there, my brother was home for Christmas, he had every chance for Lucius to persuade him into blowing things up. Your sister could have definitely been there too, don't lie to yourself Thea," Sirius was ranting to the Marauders and myself about his theories. I wanted to stand up for my sister, but I knew who she was friends with, who she admired, she was no longer twelve.
She was sixteen and had her own mind.
"Why are you telling us this, what do you want us to do?" Remus asked tiredly. Sirius grinned, he always had a plan and judging by the look on his face, it was a rather interesting one. I stood up, brushing down the bottom of my uniform and announcing, "I'm going to the girls, you come up with your own plans, I have no reason to be involved. In fact, they may not have even been there at all Sirius. But you do you, as always."
I didn't dislike him for his decision, however much it came off in that speech, I was just wary that he tended to make rash decisions, especially when it came to potential Death Eaters or Slytherins. The only thing that truly bothered me was Sawyer Vaughn, a Gryffindor one year below who I hadn't really noticed in years, asking, "Did you have a good Christmas Athena? I'm sure it was."
I gave him a side eye, not wanting to give him much of my time, and instead of walking away like I should have done, I asked him, "Why are you bothered? We're not friends, in fact I'm sure that the first time we met you called me a creep." I laughed lightly at the memory, I was very bothered by him in second year, when he first joined the school, and although he had suspicious friend choices, there was no other reason.
Instead of answering my question, the younger Gryffindor boy shrugged and sauntered off up the stairs, supposedly to his dormitory room. Pushing him from my mind, I made my way up some stairs of my own, opening the door to my dormitory and finding chaos brewing inside. "Athena! There you are, Malcolm Griffiths from Ravenclaw is having a party and he invited me, and then he said I could bring friends along," Marlene announced. She was always popular.
I didn't even have time to blink as I was pulled into the room and placed in front of the mirror that the girls brought from the common room into their dormitory two years ago. I was pushed on the shoulders to sit down with Mary who then started to apply eyeliner and mascara and all sorts of other products I usually had struggles with putting on myself, makeup was a skill to perfect.
"Here, wear this one, I couldn't choose between your yellow and your black one but I picked the black for you," Alice said, passing me my dress. I then placed it on my lap, waiting for Mary to finished the look so that I could put on my black dress. The dress itself had a sweetheart neckline and it came just below the knees, it was the only one that I wore on weekends as it was both casual and formal.
I came out of the bathroom, dressed and hair brushed, seeing Lily placing on heavily fumed nail polish, Marlene was curling her hair, Aafiya was tying up her shoes and generally walking out into a mess. Quite unlike the boys' expectations, I would say that the girls dormitory was messier than the boys' was, they had James and Sirius who were heavily influenced to clean their rooms. The girls were too, they just ended up caring less.
The party was being held in the Ravenclaw tower which I had never visited before, in fact, I had never visited near their side, I had been to the Slytherins a few times for pranks, near the Hufflepuffs to go to the kitchen, but I had never found a reason to be near the Ravenclaws. Therefore, this served as a new experience for me, no matter how unexpected this party was.
Reaching the Ravenclaw tower, the girls stood in front of the doorway and Mary knocked using their eagle knocker, and then stood back, as if waiting for it to open by itself. Suddenly, something surprising happened and the knocker started to talk, asking, "A man who was outside in the rain, without an umbrella or hat, didn't get a single hair on his head wet. Why?" The girls stood, confused, wondering why the door was asking them riddles and not opening.
Luckily, Aafiya spoke and with it, she said, "He was bald. Much like my uncle." The door then swung open, leaving me amazed, I had known a lot about this castle, but I had never found out much about Ravenclaw, partly because I never needed to and partly because my parents' focus was Slytherin. If there was a question needing to be asked about Slytherin, I was the person that anybody could ask, regardless if I was a Gryffindor.
"Welcome to the party girls, the drinks are over there. Marlene, you want to dance?" Malcolm asked. He seemed like a nice enough person, but it was also clear where his intentions were and that prompted Dorcas to come over, she herself was a Ravenclaw. Dorcas then joined Marlene and Malcolm, much to the latter's disappointment. Dorcas seemed to be the nice, largely popular girl in seventh year Ravenclaw, as many people she passed waved to her.
"Would you like to dance too?" I hear a voice behind me and jumped in surprise. I turned around to see a boy, he was definitely older than fifth year as he had a Prefect badge pinned to his grey sweater. As we walked over to dance, the black haired boy introduced himself as Milo Ravens, so it was quite fitting for him to be a Ravenclaw. Milo was tanned, he had brown eyes, and he had some freckles dotted across his cheeks, he was also quite nice.
"Do you like this song?" Milo asked, he was referring to the Weird Sisters song that was playing, which, of course I knew all of the words too, I nodded my head and he grinned, telling one of his friends to turn the volume up. After five minutes of dancing and two full songs, Milo suggested that we get a drink to refresh us after singing and dancing rather excitedly. The only problem was, I felt a hand grab my wrist as we were walking to the table.
"Who's this?" I turned to see Sirius, his eyebrow raised and his eyes fixed on the boy stood next to me, I didn't realise at the time but as I was thinking it over I realised he was glaring. I pushed his hand of my wrist, telling him that Milo was a friend who was just being nice, however, Sirius being Sirius, he laughed bitterly and dragged me to the side of the room.
"Who's your friend? What did he say?" Sirius whispered, as if afraid of being heard. He seemed calm on the outside but I didn't know what was happening on the inside as I told him, "He's called Milo and he just asked me if I wanted to dance, it was actually my favourite song and he was polite so I couldn't say no. Relax." He seemed to be biting his lip as I talked but as I told him to relax, he laughed.
"I am relaxed, I need to find James, I'll leave you to have fun with Milo." Without another word, he walked away, leaving me behind and very confused, I had told him we were friends and he was just being polite, but maybe Sirius was the jealous type or was worried about something. I then realised who he said he wanted to go to and groaned, I had a suspicious feeling that Sirius would most likely be planning a prank and I would get to see it anytime soon.
I pushed them thoughts to the side of my mind and made my way to the drinks table, I needed a glass of Firewhiskey to handle this, even if it did go relatively well. Firewhiskey didn't always taste the best, but after a few sips and ten minutes, it was the best drink in the world, and it made you forget any stress or worries you were originally feeling. I wouldn't recommend drinking continuously because being an alcoholic is not fantastic.
"Hey Athena, is your wrist okay? He did grip it pretty hard." Myself and Milo were stood next to each other again, each drinking a glass of Firewhiskey and complaining about our life problems. I lifted my wrist to check on it, with his concern and saw that it was slightly red which may or may not bruise, but it didn't hurt and wasn't terribly bad, so I found it easier to ignore it. "What did he say? It was about me wasn't it? I'm just that cool, Sirius Black wants to talk about me."
I laughed at him, this boy did find a way to make a confusing situation (or what could have developed into something much deeper) very light-hearted. I didn't know if I was ever going to talk to Milo again, or if after whatever Sirius was supposedly planning happened, that he would talk to me. I just know that I had a good time at the party and so, as it seemed, did James and Lily.