Chapter 3 - The Feast
When James and Athena reached Hogwarts, they quickly got themselves carriage to take them up to the castle. They chatted until they actually reached the castle and then walked to the Great Hall, feeling a bigger pang in their hearts than usual when they had to separate to go to their different tables, James to Gryffindor, Athena to Ravenclaw.
After Headmistress McGonnagal had given her beginning of the year speech, the Hall was filled with loud voices and the sound of silverware scrapping against plates, but the rest of the Great Hall was unaware of the glances exchanged over the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor table between Athena and James.
They didn't see the other looking when they sent their desperate, needing glances over the tables to each other. They were slowly realizing something about themselves, something that they had been denying existed for years. They were realizing they had feelings for each other.
Albus and Letitia had gotten in their own carriage to get to the school and were talking in an attempt to forget what had happened earlier when they had accidentally sat too close together. Now they were back to talking about what to do about James and Athena.
"Well, we're both close to them so I'll start implanting ideas in Athena's head about James, maybe stuff like he's getting muscles from Quidditch or something of the sort, and you can tell James something similar about Athena?"
Albus nodded, eager to use this to distract him from the feeling he had earlier on the train, "Yeah, it's a good place to start."
The two grinned at each other like they always had, but there was an undercurrent of what they had experienced earlier, the feelings towards each other that were lurking just beneath their just-best-friends mask.
They reached the school soon and walked to the Great Hall, before they too separated, Latitia to Hufflepuff, Albus to Gryffindor. They had agreed to meet up after dinner in the Room Of Requirement, which Harry had told Albus about when he was a kid while telling him about the DA, to talk, as they had spent too much time talking about James and Athena.
Albus finished his dinner first, and dropped by the Hufflepuff table to tell Letitia he'd be waiting outside in the hall, and left. A few short minutes later, Letitia followed and they made their way up to the Room to catch up.
Lily, Julian and Stelella sat together in a carriage, then when they reached the school, made their way inside and to the Ravenclaw table, where they talked throughout dinner about what potions they would be learning in Draco's class, or what defence and offensive spells they would learn in Hermione's class, what plants they would learn about in "Uncle" Neville's class, and if someone would ever fire Professor Binns as he bored even them into a nice nap. All in all, a normal conversation between the three friends.
They also pondered if they would get into the Quidditch team that year, as all three had been practically raised on brooms and were all good flyers. Lily was best in the seeker position, Julian was an excellent keeper, and Stelella was an exceptional beater. When the try-outs came around, they would definitely try, they loved to play Quidditch and wanted to help their team win.
When they finished dinner, they left the table and went up to their common room, still talking all the way. When they got there they answered the riddle quickly, it was easy to them, and walked into the room, which was covered with blue and bronze tapestries and furnished with comfortable blue couches and bronze chairs throughout the room with a plush bronze carpet under their feet and books lining every wall, except for around where the fireplace was, where a warm fire was crackling, and where the stairs were.
They said their goodnights and headed up the separate staircases to their rooms, Lily and Stelella going up the staircase to the right, and Julian going up the left.