Athena woke up to someone shaking her awake.
"Come on now! You have to wake up! You don't want to be late to Potions! Snape would kill you!"
Athena's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. "Ohmygosh! Am I late to class?"
"No," Kel said, "I was just giving you some motivation. We're getting you up about half an hour before breakfast though."
"Thanks," Athena sounded relieved. "Did you come in here to make sure that the first years all woke up on time?"
"Yep! That's a prefect's job, making sure that the first years know where they're going. The prefects are going to hold a meeting for the first years right before breakfast in the common room. Ravenclaws only, of course."
"I'll meet you down there as soon as I get dressed."
"Ok," Kel said as she left the room.
Athena quickly changed into her billowy, black Hogwarts robes and turned to face the other four beds. Two of them were empty, but the last one still had someone sleeping in it. Athena crossed the room to the other bed. She decided that Kel's approach would probably be best, so she started to lightly shake the sleepy, blonde-haired girl.
"Come on now! You have to wake up! You don't want to be late to Potions!"
The girl's eyes flew open! "Oh, no! Potions! I'm late!"
"No you're not," Athena said calmly, "We've about half an hour before breakfast, but there's a meeting in the common room for the first years."
"Oh! I'd better get dressed then. Thank you for waking me." the girl, Stephanie Baker, replied as she slid out of bed.
Athena crossed the room to the small mirror that was on the wall of the dormitory and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. As she finished, she crossed the room and picked up her hat. Shady was hiding inside. She dropped the cat out onto her bed, put her hat on, and turned towards Stephanie.
"Are you ready to go?" Athena asked.
"Yes," she replied, "just let me get my hat." She plopped her hat onto her head and crossed the room to join Athena. "Let's go!"
As they entered the common room, Athena saw the change immediately. It seemed as if all of Ravenclaw was there. The prefects were all holding slips of parchment and talking slowly. Suddenly, one of them stood up on a table.
"Are there any more first years in the dormitories?" he asked as the room grew quiet.
"We're the last from the girls dormitory," Athena told him.
"Good," he said, "How about the boys?" He turned towards the boys' staircase.
"We're here," said an older boy that had just come down the stairs. He was followed by three, nervous-looking boys.
"Okay," the prefect said, "Let's get started. First of all, my name is Brian Dehlert. Secondly, we're going to split you guys up according to year. I want the prefects and the first years here in the middle, second years on the northern wall, third years on the east wall, fourth, south, fifth, west, sixth and seventh get to grab chairs and bring them over on opposite sides of the first years."
There was a lot of shuffling as everyone moved to follow his orders. Athena took Stephanie's hand and pulled her to the middle of the room. The two girls quickly joined the other first years in their little huddle.
"Now then," Brian looked around, "where's Lisa?" He turned to the fourth years. "Have any of you seen Lisa?"
One of the fourth year girls raced up the staircase and could be heard yelling "Lisa? Geez, girl! It's meeting time! Didn't you remember?" Athena heard muffled giggling coming from the second years. A few minutes later, she came back with a sleepy Lisa. She grabbed Lisa's arm and hurried her over to where the fourth years were standing.
"Thank you for joining us this morning, Lisa," Brian told her. "Ok, now we can get this meeting going. First order of business is first years," he said turning toward their huddle, "I know you guys are nervous, but we all had to go through this too. It really helps us get to know you. What you're going to do is, one-by-one, you come up here, state your full name, any nicknames you might have, if you have a pet and its name, and one thing that you think makes you special. Then you get off and let the next person have a turn. Got all that? Now, who's first?"
A boy with very dark brown hair stumbled forward. "My name is Stewart Ackerly, I have an owl, his name is Skylight, and I can play the trumpet."
A girl with shoulder length black hair stepped up. "My name is Orla Quirke, I also have an owl, her name is Dawnrise, and I'm the only one in my family with black hair."
Athena gathered up her courage and walked onto the table. "My name is Athenaia Smith. Call me Athena though. I have a cat," she picked up the kitty who had followed her onto the table. "Her name is Shadow, but everyone in my family calls her Shady. And one thing that makes me special..." she thought for a moment "my birthday is tomorrow."
A boy with light brown hair walked onto the table. "My name is Matthew Reed, but call me Matt. I don't have an animal, but I know that I'm not the only one. One thing that makes me special is that Rowena Ravenclaw was my great-great-great, oh, I don't know how many greats, aunt."
A boy that looked exactly like the one before him ran forward. "My name is Michal Reed, call me Mike. I don't have an animal either, and I'm Matt's twin brother."
A girl with brown hair walked up onto the table. "My name is Emma Dobbs, I have an owl, but he belongs to the whole family, so I couldn't bring him. His name is Chipper, and I'm the oldest out of eight kids in my family."
Since she was last, Stephanie stumbled forward. "My name is Stephanie Baker, I also answer to Steph, I don't have an animal, and I'm the only one in my family that has come to Hogwarts besides my twin brother. He's in Gryffindor."
"That's wonderful!" Brian said stepping forward. "Now lets see if I have all your names straight." He pointed to each of them in turn. "Stewart, Orla, Athena, Matt, Mike, Emma, and Steph." Some of the older kids started giggling. "Ok, I'll admit it." Brian added with a smile. "I'm good at remembering names. But that doesn't give any of you," he pointed to the older kids, "a reason for not getting to know these people. Ok, second year and above, except prefects," he gave a stern look to a prefect who was inching ever closer to the door, "you can go to breakfast, BUT, be back in the common room after dinner for our start-of-term party."
Athena watched as all of the other kids rushed out. The seven first years were left standing beside the four older kids. This time it was Kel, not Brian, who spoke up.
"We have some small tricks that we planned for this year so that we just might beat the Gryffindors and Slytherins for the House cup. First of all, we made maps for you first years so that you guys wouldn't get lost on your way to class. Just tap the parchment with your wand and tell it which class you want to go to. It's a little charm that Larry came up with. Secondly, try to stay together for the first week, at least until you can find all of your classes. This means that you don't run ahead if you know where the classroom is and leave the rest behind. You should help those who are lost to find their rooms. Here are the maps."
As Kel handed out the maps, Brian spoke up again. "Next, you will try to learn who we are and people who will help you out when you need guidance. First and foremost is Professor Flitwick. He's our head of house. You'll meet him this morning during Charms. Usually he's busy, so he'd be a last resort. There are five people that you might meet in the halls that will help you, the four of us and the Gray Lady. She is..." he looked at the room around him, "not here at the moment, but we'll try to introduce her to you sooner or later. There's one other person who will help you if you need it. That's Sir Calvan of Brice, Calvan to us Ravenclaws, our portrait hole. You most likely have met him already. If you happen to need help, and you're close by, don't hesitate to ask him anything. He never leaves the portrait, except for extreme emergencies, so he'll most likely not move until summer vacation."
"Now's the part you've been waiting for, who are we? Each of us will introduce ourselves in the same manner as you guys did. Kel and I are the official prefects, but Larry and Amber were appointed by last year's seventh years to help us out with you guys. I'm Brian Dehlert, as I said before, I have a cat, his name's Trixie. Athena, you might want to keep Shady away from him. He likes to get into cat fights."
"Shady'll figure that out quickly," Athena reassured him.
Shady mewed in response.
"And I live on a farm," he concluded.
"My name is Kelly Lindrom," Kel told them. "Everyone around here calls me Kel. I have an owl, his name is Eyrie, and I'm the easiest of the prefects to find if you need help."
"She's always in the library," a third prefect spoke up. "My name is Larry Phishie, I have two goldfish, they're at home, named Herman and George, and I can swim in the lake without the giant squid bugging me."
"My name is Amber Gordon," spoke up the last prefect, the one who had been trying to sneak off. "I have an owl named Quizzer, and I'm probably the only Ravenclaw who hates this start-of-term meeting."
This got a laugh out of everyone. All of a sudden, an elegant-looking ghost floated in through the portrait hole.
"Hello, dears," she said, "Did I miss the meeting? Everyone's gone."
"No, not yet," Amber told her, "You're just in time to tell the first years who you are and one thing that makes you special. We all know that you don't have an animal."
"Silly Amber," the Gray Lady said, "I had a cat at one time. An owl too. Useful things, they were. I'd never forget them for a second. Now don't say a word, you little rascal. I know you were only teasing. Now then, I am the Gray Lady. Besides being a ghost, one thing that makes me special is I'm the only Hogwarts ghost that was poisoned. Sir Nicholas was improperly beheaded, the Bloody Baron, who knows, but it was very bloody, and the Friar was hanged. I, on the other hand, was poisoned." the Gray Lady seemed proud about this.
"Now that you've met everyone," Larry concluded, "time to eat!" Everyone followed him back down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
As the Ravenclaws walked into the room, Athena was surprised at how different everyone seemed. All of the teachers were at the long head table and just about all of the tables were filled, except for eleven spots at the Ravenclaw table.
Athena sat down next to Steph and looked at all of the food. She helped herself to liberal amounts of eggs and sausage. She even grabbed a couple of scones before she heard a flapping of wings. She looked up and watched in amazement as hundreds of owls flew throughout the room. Rana stopped in front of her plate and dropped a piece of parchment into her lap. It was from Artemis.
Dear Athena,
How are you doing at Hogwarts? Have you met Harry Potter yet? Does he really have that scar? What house are you in? Are you in Gryffindor? Is Harry nice? Who are Harry's friends? Are they nice? Drat it! Mum wants me to stop pestering you with all of these questions. What's Hogwarts like? Is it really a huge castle? When do you start flying? Sorry, Mum! Well, things are kind of the same around here. It's a whole lot louder without you yelling at us to be quiet. Well, I have to stop writing. Mum wants me to degnome the garden. BLECH! Oh, well! Are you coming home for Christmas? Please write me back!
Artemis
Athena smiled as she re-read the letter. Artemis was always asking questions. She understood her sister's interest in Harry, though. After all, he was the one that defeated You-Know-Who. Voldemort, she thought. That's his name after all, and now that he's powerless, we can say it without cringing. Hopefully. She dug into her bag for a quill and began to write on the back of the parchment.
Dear Artemis,
Hogwarts is fine. It's enormous! No, I haven't met Harry Potter yet, so I don't know if he's nice or if he really has that scar. Ask me around Christmas and I might know. My house is Ravenclaw. The girls here seem pretty nice, but they're all rather quiet. Hogwarts is somewhat odd compared to what I was imagining. The ceiling here is very pretty, it was bewitched to look like the sky above. Yes, it really is a huge castle. I do not know when I start flying, but I think it will be soon. I miss you all very much.
Athena
After she finished tying her letter to Rana's leg, and sending her off with half of her scone, Athena looked at her wristwatch. It was nearly time for class. Quickly she stood up with the rest of the first years, stuffed her quill in her bag, and walked with them out of the Great Hall to Charms.
"Come on now! You have to wake up! You don't want to be late to Potions! Snape would kill you!"
Athena's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. "Ohmygosh! Am I late to class?"
"No," Kel said, "I was just giving you some motivation. We're getting you up about half an hour before breakfast though."
"Thanks," Athena sounded relieved. "Did you come in here to make sure that the first years all woke up on time?"
"Yep! That's a prefect's job, making sure that the first years know where they're going. The prefects are going to hold a meeting for the first years right before breakfast in the common room. Ravenclaws only, of course."
"I'll meet you down there as soon as I get dressed."
"Ok," Kel said as she left the room.
Athena quickly changed into her billowy, black Hogwarts robes and turned to face the other four beds. Two of them were empty, but the last one still had someone sleeping in it. Athena crossed the room to the other bed. She decided that Kel's approach would probably be best, so she started to lightly shake the sleepy, blonde-haired girl.
"Come on now! You have to wake up! You don't want to be late to Potions!"
The girl's eyes flew open! "Oh, no! Potions! I'm late!"
"No you're not," Athena said calmly, "We've about half an hour before breakfast, but there's a meeting in the common room for the first years."
"Oh! I'd better get dressed then. Thank you for waking me." the girl, Stephanie Baker, replied as she slid out of bed.
Athena crossed the room to the small mirror that was on the wall of the dormitory and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. As she finished, she crossed the room and picked up her hat. Shady was hiding inside. She dropped the cat out onto her bed, put her hat on, and turned towards Stephanie.
"Are you ready to go?" Athena asked.
"Yes," she replied, "just let me get my hat." She plopped her hat onto her head and crossed the room to join Athena. "Let's go!"
As they entered the common room, Athena saw the change immediately. It seemed as if all of Ravenclaw was there. The prefects were all holding slips of parchment and talking slowly. Suddenly, one of them stood up on a table.
"Are there any more first years in the dormitories?" he asked as the room grew quiet.
"We're the last from the girls dormitory," Athena told him.
"Good," he said, "How about the boys?" He turned towards the boys' staircase.
"We're here," said an older boy that had just come down the stairs. He was followed by three, nervous-looking boys.
"Okay," the prefect said, "Let's get started. First of all, my name is Brian Dehlert. Secondly, we're going to split you guys up according to year. I want the prefects and the first years here in the middle, second years on the northern wall, third years on the east wall, fourth, south, fifth, west, sixth and seventh get to grab chairs and bring them over on opposite sides of the first years."
There was a lot of shuffling as everyone moved to follow his orders. Athena took Stephanie's hand and pulled her to the middle of the room. The two girls quickly joined the other first years in their little huddle.
"Now then," Brian looked around, "where's Lisa?" He turned to the fourth years. "Have any of you seen Lisa?"
One of the fourth year girls raced up the staircase and could be heard yelling "Lisa? Geez, girl! It's meeting time! Didn't you remember?" Athena heard muffled giggling coming from the second years. A few minutes later, she came back with a sleepy Lisa. She grabbed Lisa's arm and hurried her over to where the fourth years were standing.
"Thank you for joining us this morning, Lisa," Brian told her. "Ok, now we can get this meeting going. First order of business is first years," he said turning toward their huddle, "I know you guys are nervous, but we all had to go through this too. It really helps us get to know you. What you're going to do is, one-by-one, you come up here, state your full name, any nicknames you might have, if you have a pet and its name, and one thing that you think makes you special. Then you get off and let the next person have a turn. Got all that? Now, who's first?"
A boy with very dark brown hair stumbled forward. "My name is Stewart Ackerly, I have an owl, his name is Skylight, and I can play the trumpet."
A girl with shoulder length black hair stepped up. "My name is Orla Quirke, I also have an owl, her name is Dawnrise, and I'm the only one in my family with black hair."
Athena gathered up her courage and walked onto the table. "My name is Athenaia Smith. Call me Athena though. I have a cat," she picked up the kitty who had followed her onto the table. "Her name is Shadow, but everyone in my family calls her Shady. And one thing that makes me special..." she thought for a moment "my birthday is tomorrow."
A boy with light brown hair walked onto the table. "My name is Matthew Reed, but call me Matt. I don't have an animal, but I know that I'm not the only one. One thing that makes me special is that Rowena Ravenclaw was my great-great-great, oh, I don't know how many greats, aunt."
A boy that looked exactly like the one before him ran forward. "My name is Michal Reed, call me Mike. I don't have an animal either, and I'm Matt's twin brother."
A girl with brown hair walked up onto the table. "My name is Emma Dobbs, I have an owl, but he belongs to the whole family, so I couldn't bring him. His name is Chipper, and I'm the oldest out of eight kids in my family."
Since she was last, Stephanie stumbled forward. "My name is Stephanie Baker, I also answer to Steph, I don't have an animal, and I'm the only one in my family that has come to Hogwarts besides my twin brother. He's in Gryffindor."
"That's wonderful!" Brian said stepping forward. "Now lets see if I have all your names straight." He pointed to each of them in turn. "Stewart, Orla, Athena, Matt, Mike, Emma, and Steph." Some of the older kids started giggling. "Ok, I'll admit it." Brian added with a smile. "I'm good at remembering names. But that doesn't give any of you," he pointed to the older kids, "a reason for not getting to know these people. Ok, second year and above, except prefects," he gave a stern look to a prefect who was inching ever closer to the door, "you can go to breakfast, BUT, be back in the common room after dinner for our start-of-term party."
Athena watched as all of the other kids rushed out. The seven first years were left standing beside the four older kids. This time it was Kel, not Brian, who spoke up.
"We have some small tricks that we planned for this year so that we just might beat the Gryffindors and Slytherins for the House cup. First of all, we made maps for you first years so that you guys wouldn't get lost on your way to class. Just tap the parchment with your wand and tell it which class you want to go to. It's a little charm that Larry came up with. Secondly, try to stay together for the first week, at least until you can find all of your classes. This means that you don't run ahead if you know where the classroom is and leave the rest behind. You should help those who are lost to find their rooms. Here are the maps."
As Kel handed out the maps, Brian spoke up again. "Next, you will try to learn who we are and people who will help you out when you need guidance. First and foremost is Professor Flitwick. He's our head of house. You'll meet him this morning during Charms. Usually he's busy, so he'd be a last resort. There are five people that you might meet in the halls that will help you, the four of us and the Gray Lady. She is..." he looked at the room around him, "not here at the moment, but we'll try to introduce her to you sooner or later. There's one other person who will help you if you need it. That's Sir Calvan of Brice, Calvan to us Ravenclaws, our portrait hole. You most likely have met him already. If you happen to need help, and you're close by, don't hesitate to ask him anything. He never leaves the portrait, except for extreme emergencies, so he'll most likely not move until summer vacation."
"Now's the part you've been waiting for, who are we? Each of us will introduce ourselves in the same manner as you guys did. Kel and I are the official prefects, but Larry and Amber were appointed by last year's seventh years to help us out with you guys. I'm Brian Dehlert, as I said before, I have a cat, his name's Trixie. Athena, you might want to keep Shady away from him. He likes to get into cat fights."
"Shady'll figure that out quickly," Athena reassured him.
Shady mewed in response.
"And I live on a farm," he concluded.
"My name is Kelly Lindrom," Kel told them. "Everyone around here calls me Kel. I have an owl, his name is Eyrie, and I'm the easiest of the prefects to find if you need help."
"She's always in the library," a third prefect spoke up. "My name is Larry Phishie, I have two goldfish, they're at home, named Herman and George, and I can swim in the lake without the giant squid bugging me."
"My name is Amber Gordon," spoke up the last prefect, the one who had been trying to sneak off. "I have an owl named Quizzer, and I'm probably the only Ravenclaw who hates this start-of-term meeting."
This got a laugh out of everyone. All of a sudden, an elegant-looking ghost floated in through the portrait hole.
"Hello, dears," she said, "Did I miss the meeting? Everyone's gone."
"No, not yet," Amber told her, "You're just in time to tell the first years who you are and one thing that makes you special. We all know that you don't have an animal."
"Silly Amber," the Gray Lady said, "I had a cat at one time. An owl too. Useful things, they were. I'd never forget them for a second. Now don't say a word, you little rascal. I know you were only teasing. Now then, I am the Gray Lady. Besides being a ghost, one thing that makes me special is I'm the only Hogwarts ghost that was poisoned. Sir Nicholas was improperly beheaded, the Bloody Baron, who knows, but it was very bloody, and the Friar was hanged. I, on the other hand, was poisoned." the Gray Lady seemed proud about this.
"Now that you've met everyone," Larry concluded, "time to eat!" Everyone followed him back down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
As the Ravenclaws walked into the room, Athena was surprised at how different everyone seemed. All of the teachers were at the long head table and just about all of the tables were filled, except for eleven spots at the Ravenclaw table.
Athena sat down next to Steph and looked at all of the food. She helped herself to liberal amounts of eggs and sausage. She even grabbed a couple of scones before she heard a flapping of wings. She looked up and watched in amazement as hundreds of owls flew throughout the room. Rana stopped in front of her plate and dropped a piece of parchment into her lap. It was from Artemis.
Dear Athena,
How are you doing at Hogwarts? Have you met Harry Potter yet? Does he really have that scar? What house are you in? Are you in Gryffindor? Is Harry nice? Who are Harry's friends? Are they nice? Drat it! Mum wants me to stop pestering you with all of these questions. What's Hogwarts like? Is it really a huge castle? When do you start flying? Sorry, Mum! Well, things are kind of the same around here. It's a whole lot louder without you yelling at us to be quiet. Well, I have to stop writing. Mum wants me to degnome the garden. BLECH! Oh, well! Are you coming home for Christmas? Please write me back!
Artemis
Athena smiled as she re-read the letter. Artemis was always asking questions. She understood her sister's interest in Harry, though. After all, he was the one that defeated You-Know-Who. Voldemort, she thought. That's his name after all, and now that he's powerless, we can say it without cringing. Hopefully. She dug into her bag for a quill and began to write on the back of the parchment.
Dear Artemis,
Hogwarts is fine. It's enormous! No, I haven't met Harry Potter yet, so I don't know if he's nice or if he really has that scar. Ask me around Christmas and I might know. My house is Ravenclaw. The girls here seem pretty nice, but they're all rather quiet. Hogwarts is somewhat odd compared to what I was imagining. The ceiling here is very pretty, it was bewitched to look like the sky above. Yes, it really is a huge castle. I do not know when I start flying, but I think it will be soon. I miss you all very much.
Athena
After she finished tying her letter to Rana's leg, and sending her off with half of her scone, Athena looked at her wristwatch. It was nearly time for class. Quickly she stood up with the rest of the first years, stuffed her quill in her bag, and walked with them out of the Great Hall to Charms.
