The rays of sunlight sliced through the curtains that draped over the ancient window, a few feet from Athena's bed. She awoke with heavy caution to the undesirable brightness of the room on this fine October, Sunday morning.
She shifted up in her bed, resting her back on the headboard, rubbing her eyes immensely. It took her a moment to gather her senses and surroundings, attempting to place her early thoughts.
The only thing she could hear was a faint racket coming from the small bathroom in their dormitory. She had figured out where Hermione was.
Reaching over to her bedside table, she grabbed her watch, which had been given to her by her step dad one birthday, and checked the time. It wasn't as late as she thought it would be. Luckily she hadn't missed breakfast, and Hermione still hadn't gone down.
Fortunately, her head wasn't pounding from her intoxicated evening, but she still felt a benign grogginess. As well as this, it was hard to ignore the constant thoughts which stubbornly continued to crop up into her head.
Consequences.
"Morning," Hermione yawned, slumping out of the bathroom, looking extremely tired. Athena greeted her in return, while tying back her hair.
Hermione stopped aghast, staring at Athena. Her expression was one of a laughable matter, a smirk curling on her lips.
"I can see you had fun last night," she smirked. Athena stared at her in complete and utter confusion. What could she possibly know?
"I'm sorry?"she asked, her heart pounding. She couldn't think of anything worse than her friends finding out the truth of her late night affairs. Hell, she hated herself for it.
Although somehow she knew that if Hermione did in fact know already, this would definitely have not been her reaction.
Hermione let out a small giggle before turning away to fold her pyjamas.
"What is it?"Athena asked, now panicking slightly. She couldn't think of what it was that was giving her away.
"'Thena, I know a hickey when I see one," Hermione chuckled, facing her again.
Shit.
Of course. How could she be so clueless? Draco had been extra persistent on leaving his mark on her last night.
"Oh—haha—this?"Athena replied, rubbing at her neck.
"You mean 'these'?" she smirked. "You should tell Cedric to be a bit more careful next time. He's made a right state of your neck."
Athena could feel the surface of her cheeks beginning to warm. She didn't know whether to feel relieved, that Hermione suspected the wrong thing from the revolting truth, or guilty that she was lying to her best friend.
"Well I'm glad you two are finally together," Hermione said. "Right, I'm off for some breakfast. Do you want me to wait downstairs?"
"No, no you go ahead. I don't know how long I will be."
Hermione nodded, leaving Athena alone in the dormitory.
She progressed into the bathroom for a shower. She stepped in front of the mirror to study her appearance.
It was hard to ignore the pigmented blemishes scattered down her neck, and only to find a few more on her chest when she undressed from her pyjamas.
'Did he have to be such a leech?' she thought, trailing her fingers over the marks where Draco's lips had once been.
Oh, how she wished it hadn't happened. Now she only had more to cover up. And now Hermione thought that Cedric was the artist of these. What if she said something to him? How awful that would be.
Athena put her faith in Hermione to not say a thing to anyone. She was certain that she wouldn't. After all, she had never told anyone else of Athena's crush on Cedric.
After washing away the essence of Draco Malfoy which remained on her skin, she got into some clothes, specifically picking out a woollen turtleneck to conceal the mess.
Before she could irresponsibly forget, Athena opened her trunk, digging through it until she found the small box of pills. They were sat right at the bottom of her trunk, having not been used for months
While she and Dean were together, she had bought them from a muggle pharmacy over the last Easter holidays. Dean always wore a condom but she reckoned she ought to take extra precautions just incase.
Once she had taken the pill, she headed downstairs for breakfast. None of her friends were in the common room as she expected, so she continued through the portrait.
Once she reached the Great Hall for breakfast, she spotted her friends' location, trying hard not to notice Draco when she walked past him. Obviously, she was very aware of his presence, but he didn't have to know that.
He however, interrupted from his spreading of butter onto a slice of toast, followed her with his eyes, but sooner looked away before anyone could notice where his attention lay.
She took a seat between Hermione and Fred, and began pouring herself a cup of tea while simultaneously spreading some butter on a slice of toast.
A few moments later, Isaac Shire approached their table taking a seat next to George. He smiled at Athena and dug into his breakfast.
She briefly wondered why he wasn't sat with Cedric and the others, when she realised that Cedric was nowhere to be found.
Athena felt a dull pang of disappointment at his absence. She liked it when she knew she was in the same room as him; to be near him. He seemed to bring a feeling of comfort and warmth everywhere he went.
Though after thinking about it, Athena could not bring herself to be near Cedric at the moment. Not because of anything to do with him, but instead with herself.
A dreadful feeling of shame hung over her head, reminding her every moment of the person she had seemed to become in the past month. She vowed the previous night to forget this whole thing with Draco. But unfortunately, couldn't quite let it go.
She peered over to Malfoy, who did not seem to be paying any attention to his surroundings. His head was craned downwards, his eyes unfocused, lost in thought and frowning. She returned her vision to her plate before he could catch her looking.
It turned out to be that he was ignoring her. By the following Friday, he hadn't gone near her, spoken to her or even looked at her. Although she should probably feel glad that Draco wasn't bothering her anymore, it made her frustrated. It is what she wanted, its what she had asked him to do, and he seemed to be obeying. But she didn't think he'd actually listen.
During breakfast, that Friday morning, nothing changed. He was still avoiding her and she was still avoiding Cedric. When she'd walk past him they would just smile at each other and that would be it.
In the Great Hall, Draco wasn't present. She scoured the hall for where he may be sat but evidently there was no sign.
As she took a bite from her toast, a huge amount of racket erupted from the far end of the Great Hall. It was coming from a group of 7th years. These 7th years, Athena was very familiar with.
Isaac, Aurora, Forester, Elias and a few others crowded around Cedric and broke into the chorus of 'Happy Birthday'. Soon enough the entire hall joined in on the song. Athena could see Cedric blushing from where she was sat.
After breakfast they made their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts for first period. As she walked beside Harry, a voice shouted her name from behind. She turned around to see Cedric, radiant smile and warm aura, heading towards her. She stopped in her tracks and Harry and the others continued walking.
"Hi, Happy Birthday!" she beamed.
"Thank you,"he blushed. "We're going to the pub tonight to celebrate. You coming?"
"I'll be there,"she smiled, before turning away to get to her lesson which she didn't want to be late for.
She took her seat next to Hermione when she arrived, pulling out her things for the lesson.
Once Snape arrived, the class commenced but Athena couldn't help noticing that the lesson had begun without someone.
Draco still wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Why did it matter to her? She shouldn't even be bothered by his absence. However, she felt rather unsettled because of it.
Ten minutes passed and while she was writing the counter-spells for certain curses, the classroom door opened and Draco Malfoy slipped in. She had expected Snape to say something but he wasn't even fazed by his late arrival.
"For your next task, you shall be working in pairs," he said. Everyone started looking to their friends and smiling before he continued. "But, a pair of my choosing."
There were small groans coming from various places in the room and Snape pulled out a list of names.
"Longbottom with Smith,"he called.
As he read out more pairings, chairs were scraping against the floor as students were standing and sitting at different desks.
"Granger with Nott,"he said. Hermione groaned, picking up her books and walking over to Theodore Nott who had a smug look on his face.
"Greene with Malfoy,"Snape called.
Great.
Of course, out of everyone she is paired with Draco. What are the chances?
As Athena started gathering her things together in a huff, Draco raced to the front towards Snape.
"What?" Snape hissed.
Draco whispered something that was impossibly audible for Athena to hear. Snape's facial expression moulded from annoyed to a look of importance.
"Very well. Go,"he said, when Draco turned away. She looked at him, burning her eyes into him, though he refused to meet her gaze.
'What an earth was that?' she thought distraughtly.
She looked over to Harry, who was eyeing her a look of suspicion. He gave Hermione and Ron the same look.
"Greene, you'll be with Rivière,"he said.
Athena walked over to where Maeve Rivière was sat. She didn't look up at her or smile, but said, "alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine,"Athena replied.
"Not too tired after last night then?"Maeve smirked, amused.
"Nope,"she said, opening her book and beginning the task which had been set.
After the lesson, Harry gathered Athena, Hermione and Ron together behind a tapestry, down an empty corridor, and began talking about Draco's abrupt leave.
"Don't you think it's a bit suspicious?"Harry asked. "First he's late and then he leaves almost straight away."
Hermione told him not to overthink anything before she dashed off to her Ancient Runes lesson. The rest of them had a free period.
"Oh come on! It has to be that he's doing something Voldemort has asked him to do,"he sighed.
Athena hadn't thought about that. She remembered Harry's comment that Draco may have been a Death Eater.
In all honesty, she thought the reason he had left was because he didn't want to have to talk to her. Looking back, she realised that this was slightly delusional.
"Maybe, but we can't really go around pointing fingers without any proof, mate,"Ron said.
Harry sighed and they went on their way back through the tapestry, heading towards Gryffindor Tower.
By the following evening, Harry was still going on about what Malfoy could be up to, where he was going and if it had anything to do with him being a Death Eater.
The time arrived when Cedric would be meeting Athena outside of Gryffindor Tower, to go to Hogsmeade. She had given up on asking the others if they wanted to come because every time they seemed to decline her offer.
She said goodbye to everyone—Harry, Hermione and Ron who were adjoined by Fred, George and Ginny. When she started walking, Isaac stood up from where he was sat, at the far end of the common room, and followed her out.
Cedric was stood outside, a bright smile lit up on his face when Athena and Isaac entered the corridor through the portrait. Isaac went ahead while Athena and Cedric walked behind at a slower pace.
"Good week?" he asked. "I feel like I've barely seen you."
"It was ok. Busy week,"she replied. This wasn't a complete lie. She had been getting alot more homework from her classes meaning most of her time was spent getting it done.
They met the others outside of the castle, Isaac joined Aurora, kissing her as they met, Forester and Elias walked side by side as did Athena and Cedric.
Cedric's hand brushed hers, when she intertwined her fingers with his. As expected, his hand was warm and soft. Because his hand was quite big, like a huge paw, her hand found itself to be extremely comfortable in his.
The night at the Three Broomsticks was an extremely intoxicated mess. Athena knew she probably shouldn't have had too many drinks, but fate had it that she got a little bit too carried away.
At one point, due to extreme drunkenness and little consideration for anything, Athena, Aurora and Isaac were dancing on one of the bar tables which unfortunately led them to be kicked out. Despite this, they found the whole situation hilarious.
As they were walking out, Athena grabbed onto Cedric's arm and clung to him. He wasn't as drunk as she was but was still slightly out of it. She gazed up at him adoringly, her eyes melting into his.
"You're so pretty,"she slurred. He blushed, then stopped walking.
His giant, warm hand cupped her cheek, and his pulled her towards him into a kiss. His lips, like his hands were warm and his mouth tasted of firewhiskey, as hers probably did.
When he pulled away, they stared at eachother in awe for a moment.
He really was so beautiful, she couldn't comprehend it. She had the impulse to kiss him again, but when she lurched forward, a great wave of nausea overcame her. She turned away from him, crouched over and vomited into a nearby bush.
He rapidly dashed behind her and pulled her hair back so it didn't get caught in the sick. His hand soothingly rubbed circles on her back.
She stood up, still facing away from him and wiped her mouth, extreme embarrassment consuming her. Though due to her fuzzy head, it didn't effect her too badly.
"Wow, was the kiss that bad?"he joked, holding onto her waist so she walked upright.
"Haha—no, it was l-lovely,"she hiccuped. "I may be a little drunk."
"A little?"he laughed. The others had already gone ahead so it was only Athena and Cedric.
When they reached the castle, Cedric walked Athena back to Gryffindor Tower, giving her a kiss on her cheek to say goodnight. She watched him walking down the corridor, until he disappeared around the corner.
Before she said the password to get into the common room, she heard footsteps coming from the opposite direction down the corridor.
Randomly, Athena had the impulse to go and investigate. There were no thoughts in her mind telling her this was a bad idea, for her brain capacity was not strong due to the influence of alcohol. It could've been anyone, a professor, Filch, but for some odd reason, these footsteps sounded familiar to her.
Stumbling down the corridor, she followed the sound of the footsteps until the source came into view. As she suspected, the footsteps belonged to Draco Malfoy.
He whipped his head around, stricken to silence and stared at her in shock. He hadn't expected anyone to see him, especially not her.
She stopped where she was, her feet planted into the ground. Something about the look on his face, forced her unable to move.
He began charging towards her, grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a tapestry, out of view from the corridor.
"What are you doing?" she said, her eyes unfocused on his face.
"You shouldn't be up,"he said. She rolled her eyes.
"I could say the same to you,"she slurred.
"You're drunk again,"his voice was in a monotone and his features were oddly soft.
"Haha—s-so what,"she hiccuped. "You've been avoiding me."
The words didn't mean to escape her mouth, but they did before she could stop them. She didn't want him to know that she noticed these things. The things that shouldn't matter to her, but for some reason do.
"That's what you wanted,"he said, coldly.
"It is," she said.
She attempted to step forward when she tripped and stumbled over, losing her balance. He caught her just before she could hit the ground.
He was holding her. She was gazing up at him, his grey eyes prominent through the dark circles that surrounded them. As she stared, she noticed that there were specks of silver that threaded within the greys of his irises.
Mesmerising.
An overwhelming wave of desire washed through her. But she was too tired. As she looked up at him, unconsciousness overtook her being, and she blacked out in his arms.
-
eleventh chapter complete :)
thoughts?