AN: Sorry this has taken so long. On top of ff.net being
down I also was moving and had no computer for a pretty long while. Now I am
back, however. YAY! As always PLEASE read and review!
~Six Weeks Later~
Athena's first month flew by as she juggled her time between classes, sturdy sessions with Hermione, getting to know her parents and spending time with her boyfriend, Ron Weasley. He and Harry had, as usual, made up rather quickly and Harry had backed off. He and Athena had actually become very good friends and spent many hours sitting in the Gryffindor common room talking, which is precisely what they were doing at 11pm on October 20th.
"I don't know. I just wish he'd talk more." Athena sighed as she looked up at Harry. They were on the couch and Athena was lying on her back with her head in his lap.
"Ron's just shy." Harry said with a smile. "Give him time."
"We've been going out for over a month! How much time does he need?!" She asked, exasperated. She then tacked on with a mumble, "I would have been better off with you."
Harry gave no sign he'd heard her but his heart jumped a little at her comment. He had been thinking the same thing for awhile now but Ron was too good a friend for him to do that to. Athena seemed to be all Ron talked about nowadays but it seemed to be mainly superficial stuff. Did you see how purple her eyes were today? or She has such a cute face. Now that he thought about it Harry truly doubted Ron really knew anything about Athena. But Harry knew. He knew what it had been like for her back at Faulkner, how hard she was struggling to catch up and still have time to get to know her parents. He knew about the nightmares as well and was sure they had something to do with her still missing twin. But above all he knew how to comfort her when she cried. Ron had never seen her cry and rarely seen her laugh. The more he thought about it the more upset he got. What right did Ron have to be with her? To be with the girl that he, Harry, loved? Loved? Harry questioned himself; but it was true. He was head over heels in love with Athena Black and couldn't do a thing about it.
"Hello? Harry?" Athena asked with a laugh.
"Huh? What?" Harry looked down at her as he snapped out of his reverie.
"You like…phased out. Am I that boring?" She jutted out her bottom lip in a pout.
"Trust me." Harry said, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "You aren't boring."
Athena smiled and sat up. "Yeah I guess. Okay, I'm going to bed."
"Night Fena." Harry said, using his special nickname for her. He waited until she'd disappeared up the stairs before retreating to his dorm. The fact of the matter was, Athena wasn't the only one having nightmares, and though Harry's "skill" in Divination was lacking he knew a premonition when he saw one.
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Lyria looked gravely at Sirius. "I can't just sit here and wait for something to happen!" She said. "And I find it hard to believe you're content wither. Our son is out there and we're expected to trust FUDGE in finding him?!"
Inwardly Sirius was smiling. Lyria had said "our" son as opposed to "my". She'd been letting him in more recently and Sirius was beginning to have hope that they would be able to work everything out. "Lyri, will you just calm down?"
"I AM calm Sirius!" She yelled, in a voice which showed she was quite the opposite.
"Athena was brought to us-"
"By Dumbledore! Fudge had no more to do with finding her than he did with conceiving her!"
Sirius wrapped his arms around her. "Well, if my memory serves me right I think that blissful moment was shared only by you and I." Then, looking down into her blue-gray eyes, he leaned over and kissed her softly. Pulling back he whispered, "I didn't betray Lily and James" before capturing her lips again with another searing kiss. Lyria returned the kiss with fifteen years of pent-up passion releasing itself in seconds. The moment was perfect until the door was thrown open.
"We've found him." Professor McGonagall said.
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Athena sat up in bed and carefully climbed out, afraid of waking the others. She stopped in the common room before leaving and turned back around, this time going towards the boys' dorm. She walked into the dorm the fifth year Gryffindor males shared but then realized she didn't know which of the heavy curtained beds belonged to who. Finally she decided to just pick on and sure enough it was Harry's. She carefully climbed onto it and then flopped down onto Harry's stomach, straddling him.
"Oooff." Harry gasped waking. He let his eyes focus. "Fena? What in the world? Is something wrong?"
"Shhh." Athena giggled. "No I'm fine. He's here though…at least I think he is."
"Jason? Did you have another dream?"
"Yeah and I was gonna go see if he really was here but realized I could get in trouble for wandering around the school at night so I came here to talk to you about it instead."
"Right." Harry laughed. "Because being caught in the boys' dormitory after hours wouldn't get you into trouble."
"Oh…I didn't think about that…" Athena's eyes grew wide.
"Relax, it's fine." Harry smiled. "But never scare me like that again. I thought something had happened to you."
"Awww, aren't you sweet." Athena held out her arms and Harry sat up, hugging her.
"Though I could kill you for waking me up in the middle of the night."
Athena didn't have time to answer because the curtains on Harry's bed were pulled open by a very red faced Ron. "You jerk." He spat, glaring at Harry.
Harry looked at Ron, confused, and then at Athena. Finally her realized it and held up both his hands. "This isn't what it looks like."
"It looks like you and Ron's girl have been snogging." Seamus said with a grin from the now open curtains on the other side of Harry's bed.
Athena climbed off Harry's lap, her own face very red. "Ron really. It's not what you think." She shot a glare at Seamus as she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck. She kissed him gently. "I premise. Harry and I were not in his bed snogging. We're just friends. You're my boyfriend. Not him." She kissed him again and he began to calm down, until he looked at Harry again.
"What were you doing then?" He asked Harry rather sharply.
"Athena…wanted to use my cloak to see if she could find her brother." Harry covered, knowing Ron would be almost as upset by the truth as he would if they'd been snogging. "She thinks he's here." Harry was stinging from Athena's words and they echoed through his head. You're my boyfriend. Not him. So maybe it was true but it still hurt.
"That's all?" Ron asked, his arms wrapped possessively around Athena's waist.
"That's all." Harry reaffirmed. "Ready Fena?" He asked. He knew Ron hated when he called her that. Harry believed it was because he was jealous that Harry had a special name for her and Ron himself didn't.
"Yeah." Athena kissed Ron once more and then slipped under the cloak with Harry. She shot him a look of gratitude and they headed toward the door.
"You can't blame him Ron." Seamus commented. "Your woman's got nice knockers."
"Yeah." Ron laughed a little bit. Within seconds Harry had dropped the cloak and punched Seamus square in the jaw. Athena's face was flushed with embarrassment at the comment combined with anger that Ron had agreed and laughed. She was almost in tears.
"If you EVER speak about her again like that I will hurt you so badly you'll be talking out of you ass for a month. Got me?" Harry asked his hand on Seamus' collar. Seamus nodded, still fearing Harry. "Apologize. Now." He demanded.
"I'm r-really s-s-sorry Athena." Seamus stuttered.
"You should just hope she doesn't decide to mention it to her father." Harry tossed Seamus aside and turned to Ron. "Ron you're one of my oldest friends but I can't believe you didn't defend her. You don't deserve a girl like Athena. If I were lucky enough to be her boyfriend I would treat her with the utmost respect. She and I may be "just friends" but we share a bond you'll never have." He looked over at Athena, who now had hot tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry." He whispered as he approached her. He pulled her into a comforting hug, allowing Ron to have a good look before he covered them with the invisibility cloak and ushered her out and down the stairs.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"Hey that's what friends are for right?" Harry said, trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice.
"Yeah." Friends. They were more than "just friends" Athena knew.
"Come on, let's go find your brother."
