A small blonde girl with dazzling blue eyes was bounding down the corridors of Hogwarts happily, the sound of her sandals echoing off of the stone. She was excited to get out to the lawn to meet her uncle, it was his birthday, She smiled when she saw her Uncle Al sitting beneath the shade of a tree by the lake, a blanket spread out with a cake and two goblets of milk next to him, he smiled when he saw her. "Happy birthday Uncle Al" She said joyfully as he stood up to hug her, she smiled and embraced him back. Every year they had the same tradition, they would come out on the grounds and enjoy a slice of birthday cake together, it was her most favorite thing about birthdays. You see on birthdays, no matter what, her Uncle Al would be there. She never got angry with him when he had to leave her, but sometimes she wished that she didn't have to share him with the rest of the wizarding world. "I have a special letter for you" Her Uncle said smiling, his blue eyes shining as he handed over a thick letter with green print on it, that she recognized as her Uncles scrawling handwriting. It was addressed to 'Athena Dumbledore, Out by the lake with her most favorite Uncle, Hogsmeade.' She positively beamed "Your my only Uncle!" Her Uncle smiled and nodded "And therefore your favorite by default." Athena gave him a look, unable to wipe the grin off of her face. She opened the letter, taking care not to break the seal, she would want to save this letter forever. "Dear Miss Dumbledore, I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She read aloud, and her Uncle beamed at her. "Imagine if I wasn't?" She said laughing, and her Uncle chortled, seeing as the girl had been raised in Hogwarts her whole life, and he was the Headmaster.
Athena stood with the heard of other first years in the Great Hall that she loved so much. Her hand tightened around the handle of her wand, Phoenix tail core, Redwood, 10 inches, 'a particularly powerful matching' according to Ollivander.
"We'll be in Slytherin of course." A girl with dark hair and heavily lidded eyes said to the boy standing next to her.
"Slytherin? I think I'd leave. I'd rather be in Hufflepuff." A boy with messy black hair and glasses who was standing next to Athena interjected. Athena nodded in agreement.
"My whole family's been in Slytherin." A painfully handsome boy with thick dark hair and striking gray eyes said from next to the boy with glasses.
"Really? And I thought you were alright." The boy with glasses said grinning. The handsome boy just shrugged.
"I think I'll be different though."
"Black, Sirius" Professor McGonagall called out from next to a stool with a battered old hat sitting on top. The handsome boy walked confidently up to the stool, the hat was placed on his head and the boy had a determined look on his face, as if he was fighting with the hat. "Gryffindor!" The hat finally proclaimed and there was a tremendous amount of whispering from the Slytherins, Sirius Black however looked quite pleased as he made his way over to the Gryffindor table. A few more children were sorted, two for Slytherin and one Hufflepuff. "Dumbledore, Athena!" Professor McGonagall called, smiling slightly at the young girl. Athena caught her Uncle Al's eye and he winked at her, She sat on the stool a bit nervously looking out at the Hogwarts population. The hat had barely come in contact with her head before shouting out "Gryffindor!" There was a thunderous applause from the Gryffindor table and a few shouts of "We got Dumbledore!" and Athena sat down across from a smiling Sirius Black. More children were sorted and the next Gryffindor was Evans, Lily a small redheaded girl with big green eyes, who looked petrified, as she sat down next to Sirius. Athena then got lost in thought, looking around at the Great Hall and all the students, unable to believe that she was finally attending Hogwarts, she had been waiting her whole life! When she finally zoned back in the sorting was over and she was sitting next to the boy with messy black hair and glasses, and a small pale looking boy with sandy hair and pale blue eyes. "James Potter, charmed I'm sure." The boy with the messy hair said winking at Athena who rolled her eyes. "Athena Dumbledore." Athena got acquainted with the rest of the group Remus Lupin, the boy with sandy hair. And a rather plump boy named Peter Pettigrew kept nervously interjecting into the conversation.
Athena was walking back from her last class of the day with the Marauders (as the boys had dubbed themselves) "I can't believe Flitwick is going to put levitation charms on the test!" Peter whined, it was no secret that charms was his worst subject. "Yeah, I hope he has an endless supply of feathers for you Pete" James said grinning, Peter had managed to blow up 15 feathers in class today. It was halfway through their first year and they had finally figured out the group dynamic, the boys had frequently asked Athena for help with various things from marauding to homework. They knew that she wouldn't make fun of them if they needed help with work, and that she wouldn't tell on them if they asked for help with a prank, and Athena's michevious side liked having a hand in the pranks and she really didn't mind explaining homework if anybody needed help. "Ah come off it James, Peter we'll work on levitation tonight okay?" Athena said smiling warmly at Peter who blushed a little, he was always nervous around her. They had just reached the seventh floor where the portrait of the Fat Lady was located, When out of the corner of her eye Athena saw Bellatrix Black and her usual group of Slytherins standing outside of the portrait hole, levitating Lily Evans' school books out of reach. Athena whipped out her wand and marched over to the group, with the Marauders following tightly behind her. "Oi! Leave her alone!" Athena yelled as she reached the group, she stood in front of Lily who was obviously quite terrified. "Oh look who it is everybody, Athena Dunderhead!" Bellatrix said smirking, her merry band of Slytherins laughed at the comment. Behind her Athena could feel James, Sirius and Remus take their wands out to back her up. "Athena Dunderhead? That's really the best you could do?" Athena taunted, looking bored. She and Bellatrix had been fighting since their very first day. "Looks like Mum and Dad were right, that nutter Dumbledore raised another Mudblood lover." Bellatrix said smirking again, she knew that the way to get Athena riled up was to mention her Uncle. "Tell me Bella, are you so daft because your the product of the marriage between two first cousins? Honestly, for all of the hate you have for muggles you should really look into the muggle explaination of genetics. In a few years all you purebloods are going to be mutants." Athena said, bored expression still on her face but her eyes were flashing with anger. Behind her Athena heard Lily snort and stifle a giggle. "Something funny mudblood?" Rudolphus Lestrange spat, looking menacingly at Lily who moved closer to Remus under his gaze. Athena glanced over at Lily and shook her head for a moment before turning back to the Slytherins "Yeah Rudy, It's funny that we're standing here wondering when you Slytherins are going to stop being so damned thick, and we're wondering how many times I need to insult you morons before you get the picture that, and let me make this perfectly clear..." Athena stopped and pointed her wand to her throat, magnifying her voice. "WE. ARE. NOT. AFRAID. OF. YOU." She concluded, waving her wand back over her throat to lift the charm. Bellatrix looked positively livid, and raised her wand to hex Athena. Athena, not wanting to get into a duel today, was quite glad to see Professor McGonagall making her way up the stairs to the seventh floor. "What are you Slytherins doing up here anyway, isn't there to much sunlight up here for you? Too much happiness? Why don't you go crawl back to your dungeons where you belong." Athena spat, hand on her hip. Bellatrix opened her mouth to say a curse but Athena shook her head "Uh-Uh-Uh Bella, I wouldn't do that if I were you." She said indicating McGonagall who was approaching. Bellatrix looked torn for a moment "Your not worth the detention Dumbledore. This isn't over." Bellatrix said, venom dripping off of every word, and then with a sweep of her hand she and the rest of her Slytherin cronies were gone.
"That was bloody brilliant Dumbledore!" Sirius said when they had all arrived in the common room. Athena was sitting on the couch by the fire next to Lily who still looked rather shaken from the whole experience, and the boys were sitting in the comfy arm chairs across from them, Remus sat cross legged on the floor leaning against the chair the James sat in. "Thanks?" Athena said shrugging, she didn't see the big deal. "It was amazing to see those Slytherins get ripped to shreds by a little blonde Gryffindor!" James said excitedly, having just decided that Athena Dumbledore was the only girl in the world who was worth the time to talk to. "Oi! Watch what you say or it'll be you getting ripped up by this Gryffindor." Athena said, hand on her hip. James grinned at her. Lily kept glancing above her head and gripping her books to her chest, as if expecting Bellatrix to run in and take them again, Athena put a comforting hand on her shoulder "Relax there Evans, She won't bother you again, at least not today." Athena said frowing, wondering if she had just inadvertently marked the redhead for torment by defending her. "How do you know?" Lily said kind of timidly, Athena and the boys were the popular outspoken kids from Gryffindor, Lily preferred to study and blend in with the backround as best as she could. " 'Cus I've been fightin' her since the first day of school, I would be a fool not to learn her tactics." The blonde said matter of factly, she believed once you made an enemy, you made it your business to learn everything you could about them. "W-What did that mean, what they said..'Mudblood' I noticed you all got really offended, I've never heard that before." Lily asked looking around at her companions, the boys looked everywhere but at her. Athena sighed "It's a really bad name for somebody who's muggle born. It comes from the school of thought that the only people who are worthy of learning magic are those who are from 'pureblood' families, or in other words those who have wizarding parents, grand parents, great grandparents and so on and so forth. It means you have dirty blood, it's the worst thing a wizard can say to another wizard" Athena said frowning deeply, she was a pureblood, but a 'muggle lover' and therefore worse then somebody who was muggle born in the eyes of the Slytherins. Lily paled a little, she had wanted so much to come to Hogwarts and make tons of friends, she didn't know that the fact that she had non-magical parents would even be an issue. "It's codswallop in my opinion. I mean just look at you, your a much better witch then any of those Slytherin morons. I'm willing to bet on it, or my name isn't Athena Dunderhead." Athena said grinning, which got a smile out of Lily and boys who had previously looked stricken.
