Chapter three-Parting is such sweet sorrow, but only if you intend to part!
First I want to thank the people who reviewed me, You guys really made my day.
Disclaimer, JK owns everything I only own Athena blah, blah, blah.(I'm sure you have allready heared this a million times).
I appologize if this is a bit fluffy, I've come down with the flu so I'm not feeling to clever, but I will continue.
Well enough blabbing let the Chapter begin.
Athena was woken in the early hours of the morning by Hermionie straightening her bed, "Geroff, Herm, I'm not even up yet." She mumbled pulling her long brown hair away from her face, "There's no time like the present," Hermionie chirped cheerfully, groaning Athena sat up and yawned, she was wide awake a few seconds later when she realised that the whole room was a total pig sty, "Er Herm, did a bomb go off without me noticing?" Athena asked slowly standing up and forcing her way through the piles of clothing. Hermionie just looked at her like she was crazy, "No, what gave you that idea?"
"Oh just the clothes randomly thrown all over my bed and over the floor and over the dresser and the mirror and yes even the door," Hermionie shrugged, "I lost my copy of Hogwarts a History, I thought you might like to borrow it."
"Did you find it?" Athena asked as she moved through the piles of clothing, "Yup, right on my bed side cabinet, who would have thought?" Hermionie answered grinning sheepishly, sighing Athena picked up the clothes that were lying on her bed and handed them to Hermionie who folded them and put them in her trunk. "And I thought I was a slob," Athena muttered as she headed for the bathroom, "I'm not a slob I'm just strategically placing my clothes where I can see them," Hermionie called after her yawning Athena closed the door behind her.
Twenty minutes later Athena emerged feeling refreshed, and a whole lot cleaner, "Herm Where are you?" She called to the apparently empty room, "She went downstairs for breakfast, she muttered something about leaving and Ron and then called out Harry and dashed out of the door, I think she might be a bit mentally unbalanced if you know what I mean." A voice said, turning around slowly Athena asked, "Okay who are you, and what are you doing in my room?"
"I am the ghost of Christmas past,"
"Be serious!"
"I am! Oh alright, lighten up I was just joking, I'm right behind you dear," turning Athena found herself looking at her own reflection, she tried waving at the mirror but it didn't seem to do any good. "There's no point waving at me, I don't have any arms," the voice told her with a hint of pity, "are you the mirror?" Athena asked, the mirror let out a sound that could only be a sigh and said, "It took you long enough, I was beginning to think you would never guess!"
"Why didn't you say anything last night?" Athena asked putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the mirror, "I would have but I didn't want to disturb you, you were very upset, is anything wrong?"
"Just my boyfriend getting murdered and me being moved across the ocean to a school with people I hardly know." Shrugging Athena said, "it doesn't matter now, I think I'm going to be okay."
"Well I hope so, she might be crazy but your friend seems okay" the mirror said in what Athena could only say was a comforting tone, although she wasn't sure if mirrors had tones, this one apparantly had bright and cheerfull and pitying, and with everything else you had to guess. "How did you get in the mirror?" she asked, the mirror seemed to move a bit which Athena assumed was a shrug, " I don't know, one day I woke up and was looking at this person who was talking to me, So I answered, It's dreadfully confusing when you are in a room full of mirrors all of which sound exactly the same. The amount of conversations I've had with myself, oh where are you going?" The mirror asked as Athena slowly backed away, "Er downstairs, I don't want to be late for breakfast, bye." Athena called as she hurried out the door.
Athena found her new friends minus McGonagall sitting and talking around a table, they were all drinking Pumpkin Juice and Athena noticed they all had serious expressions on their faces. "Hey guys, you are all looking so serious, lighten up," the sighs got louder and sitting down Athena said, "guys whats the matter?" Harry was staring moodily into his glass, the effect would have been better if he had been holding a whiskey but he was only holding a pumpkin juice, he looked up at the sound of her voice, "We have to leave today, and we won't see you untill we get our school things in a couple of weeks."
"No way, you can't be leaving so soon, we have to convince McGonagall to let you stay, I don't know anybody here and I'd be really lonely, and anyway I'm not leaving my friends so soon after meeting them." She said, Fred, or George, shook his head, "It's no use, we have to leave, mum would go spare if we stayed, I wish you could just stay with one of us," Harry started laughing and Fred or George continued, "Well maybe you wouldn't want to stay with Harry, actually that would be funny,"
"What do you mean?" Athena asked convinced that the twins were crazy, "Harry lives with his muggle relatives, they hate magic of any kind, and that includes us, his aunt would have a heart attack and that vein in his uncles neck would burst." Ron explained, grinning, Athena muttered, "Maybe we could see how fast his neck bursts, it could be funny." Harry burst out laughing at the idea of his Uncle with a hole in his neck but still shook his head, "I don't think you would like having my cousin Dudley molesting you, all summer. He's just discovered the opposite sex and is convinced he is their god, have you ever seen a 400 pound lump of fat preening himself in a mirror, it's gross." Harry said going green and pushing his drink away. "Actually, that was one of the reasons I came to meet you, apart from my concern that Voldemort might be attacking innocent people to get to me."
"Harry, it wasn't just a weird coincidence that Voldemort attacked me, he was looking for this," Athena said holding up a glowing green pouch, "What is that? Hermionie asked shading her eyes as the light got brighter. "It's the Emerald stone of the Reilly's. This stone has been in my family for as long as anybody can remember, the youngest of the family always holds it, my parents were killed by some Death Eaters who weren't in Azkaban, they were looking for this. The Emerald can make the right person imortal, for as long as that person wishes. In the wrong hands it could split the earth and that is definatly something bad. The person who holds the stone is always more confident and sure of the spells they use, some say it gives us good luck, but I don't believe it. We make our own luck the stone just makes you believe that." For a few minutes there was silence which was interupted by the arrival of McGonagall,
"Morning students, lovely day we are having, the coach will be leaving at noon, so have your trunks ready by then." She stared around at their depressed expessions and folded her arms across her chest, "Okay, whats wrong?" she asked, nobody answered and she turned Hermionie so she was facing her, "Hermionie Granger, are you going to tell me why you are so gloomy this fine morning?"
"Well...." Hermionie answered going red, "Professor, we don't want to leave Athena all by herself, we are the only people she knows in England and she doesn't know anywhere around here, please don't make us leave." Ron said quickly, he glanced at the others who were nodding, "Maybe we can ask one of our parents if she can stay with one of us, at least then she won't be all alone?"
"She might be able to stay with me, I'm sure my parents won't mind," Hermionie said, "Please?" She begged clasping her hands together and looking at McGonagall beseechingly. "Well, only if your parents agree, if not then she must stay here!" McGonagall said, grinning Hermionie pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket and scribbled a quick letter onto it, She gave it to McGonagall who took it to the post office and sent it off on a first class owl.
"Fine we just have to wait for your parents to reply, you don't live far from here do you?" McGonagall asked, looking at her watch, "No I only live about ten miles from here, in fact they should be getting it any time now." Hermionie replyed crossing her fingers.
The First Class Owl, whose name was Peter, flew down a long road, and rested on a branch of a tree, it gave a muffled hoot and then set off again, it didn't stop flying untill it reached a large detached house, with a neat front lawn and a large car in the drive. Peter flew around the house untill he came to a window, peering in he saw two people sitting at a kitchen table eating breakfast, one of them was a woman she was eating a piece of toast and reading a newspaper, the paper was the Daily Prophet she was reading it with an amused expression, flying down Peter tapped on the window untill the woman looked up and let him in. "Frank, it's a letter from Hermionie, she wants to know if a friend of hers can stay here untill school starts, what do you think?" She asked stroking the owl on the head, "Well if it's okay by you it's okay by me." Frank said giving the owl a piece of toast, Peter ate the toast and watched as the woman tied the piece of parchment onto his leg and opened the window again, hooting he flew off in the direction of The Leaky cauldron.
"Mum says it's okay, you can stay in the guest bedroom." Hermionie said jumping up and down in excitement, Athena grinned and hugged her, "Thanks Herm, remind me to buy your mum a big bunch of flowers, she deserves them."
"So are you all set then?" Rona asked poking his head into their room, nodding Athena said, "Yup, I'm staying with Hermionie, this is gonna be so great." Ron grinned and walked through the doorway fully, "Cool, Harry's going to be staying with me soon, as long as Dumbledore says it's okay, and at least we won't have to go far for all of us to meet." Harry shoved Ron forwards and looked at the mirror, "Athena why is your mirror covered in a sheet, I thought you only did that to budgies?" He asked peering under the sheet, Athena grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "Do not go under there, the mirror knows the theme to every movie, TV Show and game show that has ever been made, it sings them constantly, I finally put the sheet over to shut it up." Laughing Harry started whistling the theme to The Adams Family and groaning Athena grabbed a cushion and threw it at him. Harry ducked and threw the cushion back at her, pretty soon all four were armed with cushions and aiming wherever they thought somebody was, it was difficult to see as the air was full of swirling feathers and more often than not they hit themselves.
"Er you guys, how are we going to explain this mess?" Hermionie asked twenty minutes later when they all collapsed on a bed that was covered in feathers. "Thats easy teenage high spirits," Ron said pulling feathers out of his mouth, "Or somebody spiked the pumpkin juice and we are very, very drunk?" Athena said as she pulled feathers out of Hermionies hair. "I think we should just clean it up as best as we can and hope that nobody notices." Harry said standing up he pulled an empty pillow case out from under Ron and started stuffing it, the others joined in and the room was soon looking almost normal.
They joined the others at noon in the field behind The Leaky Cauldron and McGonagall looked at her watch as they arrived, "I'm glad to see you could arrive on time, any idea where Fred and George are?" Ron shrugged his shoulders and said, "Have you checked inside the carriage, I haven't seen them since this morning." McGonagall, frowned and climbed into the carriage, sitting on two floating floor cushions were Fred and George, they were playing Exploding Snap and kept crashing into the roof, with each explosion they cracked up laughing, and nearly fell off.
"Fred, George, come down now! Your mother would have a heart attack if she knew what you were doing," McGonagall ordered, startled Fred turned and slipped off the cushion, Athena seemed to move at the speed of light, grabbing her broom that had been left by the door she flew and caught Fred two feet from the floor. "Wow, what a save, that was pure skill," Harry said as Athena dumped Fred into a chair and then dismounted. "It was nothing, I was keeper in my old schools Quidditch team. The amount of people I've had to save when they fell off their brooms, its funny really, normally good flyers would suddenly fall off whenever I came near. I don't know why?"
"Er Athena, have you looked in a mirror recently, there aren't many guys who wouldn't want to be rescued by you." Hermionie said, she grinned when Athena went red, "If I was you I'd just ignore it, it will stop them falling off, or they will keep falling off and there will be a few untimely deaths, either way don't worry about it." Athena laughed and said, "Okay, I'm taking your advice no more saving people. Unless they really did fall off, then I think I should at least try."
The journey to Hermionie's house only took half an hour and they were soon landing in a field behind some woods a quarter of a mile away from her house. "we'll be there soon," Hermionie told them, they had decided that Harry and Ron should walk with them as far as the house to make sure that they were safe, with Voldemort still at large it wasn't safe for young witches and wizards to walk the streets. Hermionies house was a large detached house with a large front garden and an equally large back garden. Resting her trunk on the floor Hermionie shoved open the door and was knocked over by a Dalmation, "Down Prince, down." she ordered as Prince slobbered over her and then turned to greet Athena, Harry and Ron. A loud hissing noise alerted them to the presence of Crookshanks who was siting in his cat carrier glaring at Prince who stuck his nose in the door and had it swiped at by a large orange paw. "Crookie stop that!" Hermionie said tapping the top of the carrier. There was no responce except a loud miow and an equally loud hiss. "Crookshanks doesn't like Prince, I don't know why?" She said as she led them to the living room.
"Hermionie you're home, how was the trip? This must be Athena, and these two are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, Hermionie has told me so much about you, its lovely to meet you again." Hermionies mother said stepping forward she hugged her daughter and shook hands with Athena, Ron and Harry. Harry and Ron stared in surprise at Hermionies mother, she was tall and had brown hair, but her hair was long, straight and shiny, very different from the curly frizz belonging to Hermionie. Hermionie noticed their surprised expressions and said, "yeah I know, I always wonder where I got my curls from." Grinning sheepishly Harry and Ron made their excuses and left promosing to owl her as much as possible.
"Okay, I'll show you to the guest bedroom, and then I'll give you the grand tour of the house." Hermionie said, her mother picked up the cage that Aphrodite was in and took it to the kitchen, "I'll just give your owl some food and water and then I'll bring her to your room." She said as she dissapeared into the kitchen. "my mum has a thing about owls, she loves it when I send owls home." She opened a door and walked into a room that had white walls with pink curtains and mahogany furniture. "It's a bit hotel like but I hope it will be okay untill school starts." she said as she showed Athena around the room. "It's lovely, believe me when you have lived in an orphanage for most of your life you can live in anything."
"Where do you normally go for the holidays?" Hermionie asked, as Athena sat on the edge of the bed grinning, "I went to the nearest orphanage, the owners were really nice, because of the closeness to the school they had, had quite a few orphaned witches and wizards. I was allowed to have my own room where I could do my homework without being disturbed and having awkward questions asked about my books, I found that The History Of Magic tended to get a lot of funny looks." Athena laughed and jumped up, "C'mon, you promised me a full tour of the house, I really like it here, the whole house has a good air." Hermionie raised an eyebrow in her direction and Athena explained, "I was top of the class in divination, I can read auras, which are like energy fields around a person, like a giant mood ring. The people in this house are so relaxed and happy that the house is relaxed and happy, at the orphanage it was always moody, depressed and angry at the world, it was horrible."
"Hey, well don't worry about this house feeling depressed, we are usually happy. I mean not all the time, bad things happen, they always do, it can't be helped but we generally have good spirits."
"Good, I don't like bad spirits, they make me scared and I get a sort of helpless feeling, but no more, I shall remain forever happy." Shaking her head slightly Hermionie led her downstairs to the kitchen where her mother was having a chat with Aphrodite, "you are such a good bird, yes you are, oh you are so clever, pretty girl, pretty, pretty girl."
"Mother, she won't answer, she's just a bird, I know how much you like birds but well you will just have to stop having deep and meaningfull conversations with them. Its just ever so slightly crazy." Her mother jumped at the sound of Hermionies amused voice and turned around grinning sheepishly. "You never know she might answer, it's not impossible."
"Actually yes it is, Owls don't have to vocal cords or the lips to form real words, she's an owl not a parrot."
"Do parrots have lips?"
"I don't know, I will have to get a closer look, and there aren't many parrots around here."
"Well you can never be to sure about that"
"Mother, what have you done?"
"Nothing!" Hermionies Mother lifted her hands up in an attempt to prove her innocence, "Honest I was just thinking how nice it would be to recieve mail from a parrot." Sighing Hermionie stroked the downy white head of the snowy owl who turned and looked at her reproachfully. "I think I will stick with sending owls with my mail, its much more reliable."
"Yeah like the mail service." Hermionies mother said sarcasticly, rolling her eyes Hermionie folded her arms across her chest, "Mother No Parrot! And stop pouting, how old are you again?" Sticking her bottom lip out Mrs Granger muttered, "Old enough to be your mother!"
"yeah, well, when you learn to behave like my mother and not my little sister you can have a parrot but untill then no!" Hermionie turned at the sound of giggling and smiling said, "Sad isn't it, the daughter telling off her mother." Shaking her head Athena said, "Nah, it's a sign all is right with the world, the kids finally have control."
Okay what do you think of this for a third chapter. My biggest chapter yet! Read and Review Please!
First I want to thank the people who reviewed me, You guys really made my day.
Disclaimer, JK owns everything I only own Athena blah, blah, blah.(I'm sure you have allready heared this a million times).
I appologize if this is a bit fluffy, I've come down with the flu so I'm not feeling to clever, but I will continue.
Well enough blabbing let the Chapter begin.
Athena was woken in the early hours of the morning by Hermionie straightening her bed, "Geroff, Herm, I'm not even up yet." She mumbled pulling her long brown hair away from her face, "There's no time like the present," Hermionie chirped cheerfully, groaning Athena sat up and yawned, she was wide awake a few seconds later when she realised that the whole room was a total pig sty, "Er Herm, did a bomb go off without me noticing?" Athena asked slowly standing up and forcing her way through the piles of clothing. Hermionie just looked at her like she was crazy, "No, what gave you that idea?"
"Oh just the clothes randomly thrown all over my bed and over the floor and over the dresser and the mirror and yes even the door," Hermionie shrugged, "I lost my copy of Hogwarts a History, I thought you might like to borrow it."
"Did you find it?" Athena asked as she moved through the piles of clothing, "Yup, right on my bed side cabinet, who would have thought?" Hermionie answered grinning sheepishly, sighing Athena picked up the clothes that were lying on her bed and handed them to Hermionie who folded them and put them in her trunk. "And I thought I was a slob," Athena muttered as she headed for the bathroom, "I'm not a slob I'm just strategically placing my clothes where I can see them," Hermionie called after her yawning Athena closed the door behind her.
Twenty minutes later Athena emerged feeling refreshed, and a whole lot cleaner, "Herm Where are you?" She called to the apparently empty room, "She went downstairs for breakfast, she muttered something about leaving and Ron and then called out Harry and dashed out of the door, I think she might be a bit mentally unbalanced if you know what I mean." A voice said, turning around slowly Athena asked, "Okay who are you, and what are you doing in my room?"
"I am the ghost of Christmas past,"
"Be serious!"
"I am! Oh alright, lighten up I was just joking, I'm right behind you dear," turning Athena found herself looking at her own reflection, she tried waving at the mirror but it didn't seem to do any good. "There's no point waving at me, I don't have any arms," the voice told her with a hint of pity, "are you the mirror?" Athena asked, the mirror let out a sound that could only be a sigh and said, "It took you long enough, I was beginning to think you would never guess!"
"Why didn't you say anything last night?" Athena asked putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the mirror, "I would have but I didn't want to disturb you, you were very upset, is anything wrong?"
"Just my boyfriend getting murdered and me being moved across the ocean to a school with people I hardly know." Shrugging Athena said, "it doesn't matter now, I think I'm going to be okay."
"Well I hope so, she might be crazy but your friend seems okay" the mirror said in what Athena could only say was a comforting tone, although she wasn't sure if mirrors had tones, this one apparantly had bright and cheerfull and pitying, and with everything else you had to guess. "How did you get in the mirror?" she asked, the mirror seemed to move a bit which Athena assumed was a shrug, " I don't know, one day I woke up and was looking at this person who was talking to me, So I answered, It's dreadfully confusing when you are in a room full of mirrors all of which sound exactly the same. The amount of conversations I've had with myself, oh where are you going?" The mirror asked as Athena slowly backed away, "Er downstairs, I don't want to be late for breakfast, bye." Athena called as she hurried out the door.
Athena found her new friends minus McGonagall sitting and talking around a table, they were all drinking Pumpkin Juice and Athena noticed they all had serious expressions on their faces. "Hey guys, you are all looking so serious, lighten up," the sighs got louder and sitting down Athena said, "guys whats the matter?" Harry was staring moodily into his glass, the effect would have been better if he had been holding a whiskey but he was only holding a pumpkin juice, he looked up at the sound of her voice, "We have to leave today, and we won't see you untill we get our school things in a couple of weeks."
"No way, you can't be leaving so soon, we have to convince McGonagall to let you stay, I don't know anybody here and I'd be really lonely, and anyway I'm not leaving my friends so soon after meeting them." She said, Fred, or George, shook his head, "It's no use, we have to leave, mum would go spare if we stayed, I wish you could just stay with one of us," Harry started laughing and Fred or George continued, "Well maybe you wouldn't want to stay with Harry, actually that would be funny,"
"What do you mean?" Athena asked convinced that the twins were crazy, "Harry lives with his muggle relatives, they hate magic of any kind, and that includes us, his aunt would have a heart attack and that vein in his uncles neck would burst." Ron explained, grinning, Athena muttered, "Maybe we could see how fast his neck bursts, it could be funny." Harry burst out laughing at the idea of his Uncle with a hole in his neck but still shook his head, "I don't think you would like having my cousin Dudley molesting you, all summer. He's just discovered the opposite sex and is convinced he is their god, have you ever seen a 400 pound lump of fat preening himself in a mirror, it's gross." Harry said going green and pushing his drink away. "Actually, that was one of the reasons I came to meet you, apart from my concern that Voldemort might be attacking innocent people to get to me."
"Harry, it wasn't just a weird coincidence that Voldemort attacked me, he was looking for this," Athena said holding up a glowing green pouch, "What is that? Hermionie asked shading her eyes as the light got brighter. "It's the Emerald stone of the Reilly's. This stone has been in my family for as long as anybody can remember, the youngest of the family always holds it, my parents were killed by some Death Eaters who weren't in Azkaban, they were looking for this. The Emerald can make the right person imortal, for as long as that person wishes. In the wrong hands it could split the earth and that is definatly something bad. The person who holds the stone is always more confident and sure of the spells they use, some say it gives us good luck, but I don't believe it. We make our own luck the stone just makes you believe that." For a few minutes there was silence which was interupted by the arrival of McGonagall,
"Morning students, lovely day we are having, the coach will be leaving at noon, so have your trunks ready by then." She stared around at their depressed expessions and folded her arms across her chest, "Okay, whats wrong?" she asked, nobody answered and she turned Hermionie so she was facing her, "Hermionie Granger, are you going to tell me why you are so gloomy this fine morning?"
"Well...." Hermionie answered going red, "Professor, we don't want to leave Athena all by herself, we are the only people she knows in England and she doesn't know anywhere around here, please don't make us leave." Ron said quickly, he glanced at the others who were nodding, "Maybe we can ask one of our parents if she can stay with one of us, at least then she won't be all alone?"
"She might be able to stay with me, I'm sure my parents won't mind," Hermionie said, "Please?" She begged clasping her hands together and looking at McGonagall beseechingly. "Well, only if your parents agree, if not then she must stay here!" McGonagall said, grinning Hermionie pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket and scribbled a quick letter onto it, She gave it to McGonagall who took it to the post office and sent it off on a first class owl.
"Fine we just have to wait for your parents to reply, you don't live far from here do you?" McGonagall asked, looking at her watch, "No I only live about ten miles from here, in fact they should be getting it any time now." Hermionie replyed crossing her fingers.
The First Class Owl, whose name was Peter, flew down a long road, and rested on a branch of a tree, it gave a muffled hoot and then set off again, it didn't stop flying untill it reached a large detached house, with a neat front lawn and a large car in the drive. Peter flew around the house untill he came to a window, peering in he saw two people sitting at a kitchen table eating breakfast, one of them was a woman she was eating a piece of toast and reading a newspaper, the paper was the Daily Prophet she was reading it with an amused expression, flying down Peter tapped on the window untill the woman looked up and let him in. "Frank, it's a letter from Hermionie, she wants to know if a friend of hers can stay here untill school starts, what do you think?" She asked stroking the owl on the head, "Well if it's okay by you it's okay by me." Frank said giving the owl a piece of toast, Peter ate the toast and watched as the woman tied the piece of parchment onto his leg and opened the window again, hooting he flew off in the direction of The Leaky cauldron.
"Mum says it's okay, you can stay in the guest bedroom." Hermionie said jumping up and down in excitement, Athena grinned and hugged her, "Thanks Herm, remind me to buy your mum a big bunch of flowers, she deserves them."
"So are you all set then?" Rona asked poking his head into their room, nodding Athena said, "Yup, I'm staying with Hermionie, this is gonna be so great." Ron grinned and walked through the doorway fully, "Cool, Harry's going to be staying with me soon, as long as Dumbledore says it's okay, and at least we won't have to go far for all of us to meet." Harry shoved Ron forwards and looked at the mirror, "Athena why is your mirror covered in a sheet, I thought you only did that to budgies?" He asked peering under the sheet, Athena grabbed his arm and pulled him back, "Do not go under there, the mirror knows the theme to every movie, TV Show and game show that has ever been made, it sings them constantly, I finally put the sheet over to shut it up." Laughing Harry started whistling the theme to The Adams Family and groaning Athena grabbed a cushion and threw it at him. Harry ducked and threw the cushion back at her, pretty soon all four were armed with cushions and aiming wherever they thought somebody was, it was difficult to see as the air was full of swirling feathers and more often than not they hit themselves.
"Er you guys, how are we going to explain this mess?" Hermionie asked twenty minutes later when they all collapsed on a bed that was covered in feathers. "Thats easy teenage high spirits," Ron said pulling feathers out of his mouth, "Or somebody spiked the pumpkin juice and we are very, very drunk?" Athena said as she pulled feathers out of Hermionies hair. "I think we should just clean it up as best as we can and hope that nobody notices." Harry said standing up he pulled an empty pillow case out from under Ron and started stuffing it, the others joined in and the room was soon looking almost normal.
They joined the others at noon in the field behind The Leaky Cauldron and McGonagall looked at her watch as they arrived, "I'm glad to see you could arrive on time, any idea where Fred and George are?" Ron shrugged his shoulders and said, "Have you checked inside the carriage, I haven't seen them since this morning." McGonagall, frowned and climbed into the carriage, sitting on two floating floor cushions were Fred and George, they were playing Exploding Snap and kept crashing into the roof, with each explosion they cracked up laughing, and nearly fell off.
"Fred, George, come down now! Your mother would have a heart attack if she knew what you were doing," McGonagall ordered, startled Fred turned and slipped off the cushion, Athena seemed to move at the speed of light, grabbing her broom that had been left by the door she flew and caught Fred two feet from the floor. "Wow, what a save, that was pure skill," Harry said as Athena dumped Fred into a chair and then dismounted. "It was nothing, I was keeper in my old schools Quidditch team. The amount of people I've had to save when they fell off their brooms, its funny really, normally good flyers would suddenly fall off whenever I came near. I don't know why?"
"Er Athena, have you looked in a mirror recently, there aren't many guys who wouldn't want to be rescued by you." Hermionie said, she grinned when Athena went red, "If I was you I'd just ignore it, it will stop them falling off, or they will keep falling off and there will be a few untimely deaths, either way don't worry about it." Athena laughed and said, "Okay, I'm taking your advice no more saving people. Unless they really did fall off, then I think I should at least try."
The journey to Hermionie's house only took half an hour and they were soon landing in a field behind some woods a quarter of a mile away from her house. "we'll be there soon," Hermionie told them, they had decided that Harry and Ron should walk with them as far as the house to make sure that they were safe, with Voldemort still at large it wasn't safe for young witches and wizards to walk the streets. Hermionies house was a large detached house with a large front garden and an equally large back garden. Resting her trunk on the floor Hermionie shoved open the door and was knocked over by a Dalmation, "Down Prince, down." she ordered as Prince slobbered over her and then turned to greet Athena, Harry and Ron. A loud hissing noise alerted them to the presence of Crookshanks who was siting in his cat carrier glaring at Prince who stuck his nose in the door and had it swiped at by a large orange paw. "Crookie stop that!" Hermionie said tapping the top of the carrier. There was no responce except a loud miow and an equally loud hiss. "Crookshanks doesn't like Prince, I don't know why?" She said as she led them to the living room.
"Hermionie you're home, how was the trip? This must be Athena, and these two are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, Hermionie has told me so much about you, its lovely to meet you again." Hermionies mother said stepping forward she hugged her daughter and shook hands with Athena, Ron and Harry. Harry and Ron stared in surprise at Hermionies mother, she was tall and had brown hair, but her hair was long, straight and shiny, very different from the curly frizz belonging to Hermionie. Hermionie noticed their surprised expressions and said, "yeah I know, I always wonder where I got my curls from." Grinning sheepishly Harry and Ron made their excuses and left promosing to owl her as much as possible.
"Okay, I'll show you to the guest bedroom, and then I'll give you the grand tour of the house." Hermionie said, her mother picked up the cage that Aphrodite was in and took it to the kitchen, "I'll just give your owl some food and water and then I'll bring her to your room." She said as she dissapeared into the kitchen. "my mum has a thing about owls, she loves it when I send owls home." She opened a door and walked into a room that had white walls with pink curtains and mahogany furniture. "It's a bit hotel like but I hope it will be okay untill school starts." she said as she showed Athena around the room. "It's lovely, believe me when you have lived in an orphanage for most of your life you can live in anything."
"Where do you normally go for the holidays?" Hermionie asked, as Athena sat on the edge of the bed grinning, "I went to the nearest orphanage, the owners were really nice, because of the closeness to the school they had, had quite a few orphaned witches and wizards. I was allowed to have my own room where I could do my homework without being disturbed and having awkward questions asked about my books, I found that The History Of Magic tended to get a lot of funny looks." Athena laughed and jumped up, "C'mon, you promised me a full tour of the house, I really like it here, the whole house has a good air." Hermionie raised an eyebrow in her direction and Athena explained, "I was top of the class in divination, I can read auras, which are like energy fields around a person, like a giant mood ring. The people in this house are so relaxed and happy that the house is relaxed and happy, at the orphanage it was always moody, depressed and angry at the world, it was horrible."
"Hey, well don't worry about this house feeling depressed, we are usually happy. I mean not all the time, bad things happen, they always do, it can't be helped but we generally have good spirits."
"Good, I don't like bad spirits, they make me scared and I get a sort of helpless feeling, but no more, I shall remain forever happy." Shaking her head slightly Hermionie led her downstairs to the kitchen where her mother was having a chat with Aphrodite, "you are such a good bird, yes you are, oh you are so clever, pretty girl, pretty, pretty girl."
"Mother, she won't answer, she's just a bird, I know how much you like birds but well you will just have to stop having deep and meaningfull conversations with them. Its just ever so slightly crazy." Her mother jumped at the sound of Hermionies amused voice and turned around grinning sheepishly. "You never know she might answer, it's not impossible."
"Actually yes it is, Owls don't have to vocal cords or the lips to form real words, she's an owl not a parrot."
"Do parrots have lips?"
"I don't know, I will have to get a closer look, and there aren't many parrots around here."
"Well you can never be to sure about that"
"Mother, what have you done?"
"Nothing!" Hermionies Mother lifted her hands up in an attempt to prove her innocence, "Honest I was just thinking how nice it would be to recieve mail from a parrot." Sighing Hermionie stroked the downy white head of the snowy owl who turned and looked at her reproachfully. "I think I will stick with sending owls with my mail, its much more reliable."
"Yeah like the mail service." Hermionies mother said sarcasticly, rolling her eyes Hermionie folded her arms across her chest, "Mother No Parrot! And stop pouting, how old are you again?" Sticking her bottom lip out Mrs Granger muttered, "Old enough to be your mother!"
"yeah, well, when you learn to behave like my mother and not my little sister you can have a parrot but untill then no!" Hermionie turned at the sound of giggling and smiling said, "Sad isn't it, the daughter telling off her mother." Shaking her head Athena said, "Nah, it's a sign all is right with the world, the kids finally have control."
Okay what do you think of this for a third chapter. My biggest chapter yet! Read and Review Please!