Home, Where The Brave Ones Roam| Draco Malfoy

13

Fred led me in through the portrait and into the beautiful Common Room, it was a circular room filled with stuffed armchairs, tables, there was a bulletin board off to the side which I assumed school notices would be posted. There were several different shades of red that decorated the common room, hence the house colour. The tower had large windows, allowing the night sky to peek through, but the thing that caught my eyes the most was the fireplace. It was a dominant fireplace, taking up a whole wall with a giant mantel and a lion portrait hanging above.

"Wow" was all I managed to get out, it was beautiful it really felt like home. Fred chuckled and slung his arm over me 

"This is where all the magic happens" he beamed I turned to look up at his smiling face 

"Well no shit this is a magic school" I replied, he rolled his eyes and smacked me upside the head. I moved away from him and took a seat by the fireplace and stared into it. I guess you could say I like fire, something about it was familiar as strange as it was, fire seemed to be something people are scared of that only brings destruction but it was so much more.

"What are you thinking about?" I felt Hermione sink into the couch beside me as Harry and Ron collected themselves on the floor

"Oh just taking it all in" I smiled at her, taking my eyes off of the fireplace and once again looking around the room, noticing everyone else in the common room staring at me, I had to admit it made me slightly uncomfortable, but I guess it's something I'd just have to get used to. Among those people I noticed Fred smiling at me from afar while Geroge was talking to Lee, we locked eyes and we simply just stared at each other.

"Hey Athena" A familiar voice snapped me out of my gaze and I focused on the two boys in front of me, I recognized Seamus right away but I wasn't acquainted with the boy beside him. He was tall, had to be taller than Ron with dark hair and skin, with a kind smile "I don't know if ya remember me but-" 

"You're Seamus, right? From the train?" I cut him off, he hesitated for a second before continuing, shocked that I remembered who he was.

"Yeah, uh, this is my friend-" 

"Dean Thomas" he was cut off once again, "Pleasure to meet you, I saw you play last year in the world juniors, you were brilliant" he stuck out his hand enthusiastically. I couldn't help but be a little taken aback 

"Thank you, nice to meet you, Dean," I said shaking his hand which was short-lived due to the fact someone had completely shoved him out of the way and flashed a camera in my face

"Hi- Athena, my names Colin Creevey, massive fan" he raised his camera to take another picture

"Not now Colin" Harry spoke up before another flash could go off "leave her be, she's had a long day" I gave Harry a thank you smile as Colin lowered his camera

"Oh okay Harry!" he ran off almost as quickly as he came.

"He's going to try and do that a lot, he won't take major offense if you say no" Harry sighed 

"I'll keep that in mind" and then the hoard came. Everyone started coming up to me and introducing themselves, which don't get me wrong it was great but it was slightly overwhelming. From the names, I could remember there was Neville, who I'd already met on the train, Lavander Brown, Parvati Patil, the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team, some of Fred and Georges friends who I really can't remember the names of and some first years that had tried to talk to me earlier apparently. When half the house had finished introducing themselves to me Harry was the first to speak. 

"Okay, this is crazy." He stood up and moved beside me, facing the crowd "Athena everyone, everyone Athena, now let's leave the poor girl alone yeah, shouldn't half of you be in bed?" everyone kinda just stared at him before slowly making their way upstairs to their dorms.