Home, Where The Brave Ones Roam| Draco Malfoy

14

I woke up pretty early the next morning, I'm not sure if it was because of the conversation Harry and I had last night or the fact I was super excited to start my first day of classes. I slipped out of bed and quickly got changed. I knew I should have mentioned everything that happened at Olivanders, but I think I need to keep that private for now at least.

 The trunk that was lying at the end of my bed to reveal the clothing inside. One by one I picked up each article of clothing and put it on. Starting with the white button-up, followed by a messy 8 attempts to do up the tie, I pulled up the unnecessarily long skirt giving it a roll or two, nothing drastic but it was short enough so I was no longer a nun and long enough my butt wasn't hanging out.

Throwing on my grey v-neck, I dug through my trunk attempting to locate a pair of knee-high socks, eventually finding a pair I slid them on my feet, once I was fully dressed I took a seat by the window, pulling my knees to my chest. I simply sat in a ball and just took in the beauty that was this school. The courtyard was stirring, not much due to the fact that it was so early, a light fog hugged the top of the buildings, providing a protective shield to those wandering below.

Wonder what today will hold

Maybe I'll see Draco around if we have any classes with Slytherin

Harry, Ron, and Hermione don't like him, you can't be near him they'll kill you, not to mention what Fred will say.

But what they don't know won't hurt them

Just be careful, they have good judgment.

A subtle shake on my shoulder snapped me out of my thoughts. I drew my gaze from the window to Hermione smiling at me, instead of saying anything she sat down across from me and stared out the window, all the same, she looked like she had a thought on her lips.

it has to be about last night

"It's quite beautiful isn't it?" she asked, still gazing at the grounds hundreds of feet below us

"Yeah, it really is something else" I directed my eyes back out the window to see the sun starting to peek through the clouds, seeing everything so calm brought a smile to my face, this just needs to last forever.

"Listen, about last night" she began hastily "I won't ask what it was about because it's none of my business, but, if you two discover something, you will tell us won't you?" she turned her gaze to me, I looked back at her stare of concern, and gave a smile

"Of course we will, and if he doesn't want to I still will" I reassured, her face lit up, quickly she got up out of her seat and extended me a hand

"Come on, let's go get some breakfast" I took her hand, she helped pull me up and off we went down the twisting staircase. As soon as we reached the common room I noticed Harry and Ron sitting on one of the couches deep in some kind of conversation, not really caring about what I flicked Ron in the back of the head.

"Let's go I'm starving and not waiting for you" I heard Hermione giggle beside me as I kept on walking out of the common room and towards the Great Hall, that is until I stopped walking super fast and let Hermione take the lead since I wasn't entirely sure where I was going at this point. After only a few moments and a lot of stairs, we strolled into the Great Hall, Harry, and Ron on our heels.

"I wonder what our schedules are going to be like" Harry sat across from Hermione and myself, with Ron filling in the gap beside Harry. He was scanning over his time table, while he handed us our own. My nerves slowly started to kick back in as I held my classes in my hand Monday was Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, double Divination in the afternoon, followed by dinner. It looked like a good day to start off my Hogwarts career, relatively light classes.

"I don't see why you didn't drop Divination as I did. Now Arithmancy that's a real class" I scoffed and shook my head

"It's just math, literally the most boring subject in the school besides History of Magic, Divination at least allows you to be somewhat creative when you make everything up" I placed a pancake on my plate and began covering it with butter and syrup

"She's got a point you know" Ron stuffed his face with some hash browns I flashed him a smile as I began eating my pancakes

"Why there she is" I didn't even have to turn my head to know Fred had slipped into the open space next to me, and I'm assuming George sat across from him. "How was your first night?" I couldn't help but smile, I turned to face him to see he was also wearing one

"It was pretty good, a little cold but nothing horrible"

"Good poor Fred was worried sick you wouldn't sleep well" George teased. Everyone laughed and he went a bit red

"Good classes?" he grabbed my time table quickly changing the subject "Divination? Good luck with that old bat, Trelawney's mental" I snatched it back

"She must be insane if you're the one calling her that" I placed it down on the table only to have Lee come over and tap George on the shoulder.

"Come on, I want to get a good-" Lee locked eyes with me and went pale in the face. "Hi Athena," he said quietly

"Hey, Lee" I smiled at him, which I think just made him more nervous, as he resorted to tugging on George's robes like a child instead of using his words.

"Alas that's our cue, such a shame our time has been cut short, until next" Fred shot me a wink, got up from the table, and proceeded to walk away with George and Lee.

"Bye Freddie" I called after him. I turned back to the table to see Harry and Ron giving me a funny look, I went to confront Hermione about it only to see her giving me a similar one. "What?" I asked confused, glancing between the three of them.

"Oh, nothing" Hermione smirked looking back down at her copy of the Daily Prophet, I stared at her for a few more minutes before giving up and going back to my pancakes.

"You're eating again I see"Ron spat as Hermione put down her paper and began to butter some toast

"I think there are better ways of making a stand" she huffed 

"Yeah...you were hungry" a Loud rustle made me jump a little and look up to see the oncoming traffic of owls delivering mail, I looked up trying to see if I could spot my mom's owl but unfortunately he was quite hard to pick out amongst the rest. A loud hoot brought me out of my thoughts as I saw a beautiful barn owl in front of me with a letter hanging out of its mouth. I gently pulled the letter and stroked the owl as a thank you. 

"That your mum's owl?" Hermione asked looking at the bird strangely,

"No" I replied shortly "I've never seen this bird in my life" I added confused. 

"Have a look at who the letters from" Ron placed his package from his mom down, looking keener at what I had in my hand. I looked at the envelope which had no return address on it, never the less I opened it to see the horrible handwriting on the page. Reading a few words on the paper sent me into confusion. 

"Athena?" Harry said slightly concerned, Hermione leaned over, looking at the letter that was in my hands and was slightly taken aback. Harry now very concerned spoke up again "Athena, what does it say" I drew my eyes off of the paper and faced him, looking him dead in the eye.

"Aspen has passed the test."