When they suddenly stopped in front of a blank wall, between two sets of armour, Athena, along with the rest of the first years who's familiies weren't always from Slytherin looked around, confused.
"Acutulus" Said Professor Sharp, and the wall swung open, leading to a dimly lit, green tinged room. The couches were a deep, dark leather, and everyone could see that they were partially underneath the lake, for half of the common room was seemingly underwater. Athena walked around, appreciating the warmth of the hearth, and she noticed two corridors leading to each side.
"On the right is the girl's dorms, to the left is boys. Four people to each room, your trunks are waiting outside the commonroom. Please get them when you are finished deciding where to sleep for the next year." Professor Sharp said this, and each person walked down their respective corridors. Sierra and Athena quickly found a room to share with two of Sierra's friends, two fifth-years named Yolandi and Jennifer.
Yolandi was Indian, she had a very regal nose, and her hair was silky, long, and black as sin, but she had the most adorable babyface; And you wouldn't expect the witty, and sometimes sarcastic remarks she would shoot out.
Jennifer was tall, maybe almost six feet, with tan skin and legs for days. Her hair fell down her back in a graceful platinum french braid, and you'd expect this girl to be a stereotypical Slytherin, rude, snarky, always sliding distrustful glances, but this girl was a hoot! She could throw around perverted jokes like the best of them, and she was quite promiscuous, with the lads and gals. Athena blushed at that last fact, and they all laughed uproariously.
When their trunks were all carried in, and there was a moment of utter chaos because Justin Higgs had grabbed Athena's trunk, under the premise of helping her, but the second his foot entered the female corridor, the floor became slick, and it tilted, causing him to slide down, trunk and all.
Professor Sharp pointed out that the floors only did that when a boy's thoughts were impure, and the entire common room was in stitches, they were laughing so hard.
Athena was just glad that her trunk was locked shut. People didn't need to see her knickers.
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After everyone was settled in, Athena quickly went to the bathrooms to change into her nightclothes.
When she came back, clad in very soft flannel pants that dragged on the ground, and a long T-Shirt with her favorite Muggle band's logo on it, "Pentatonix," with a tight long sleeved shirt underneath, her hair braided into two french braids down her back, and her mouth tasting minty, she was shocked to see that the rest of the girls were changing in the room. Her face flushed bright red, and she climbed into her four-poster bed, bringing the green duvet to her chin and turning her back to them, trying not to think about how she had just watched her new acquaintances basically naked.
She heard a chuckle behind her, but she refused to turn, her face probably nearing the shade of her hair.
"Why are you obviously avoiding looking at us, Athena?" Jennifer said good-naturedly.
"I-I don't want to make you all uncomfortable." She mumbled, and she heard tittering laughter from the rest of them.
"It's fine, girl! It's not like you don't see the same stuff every day!" Said Yolandi, and she heard the other too girls give grunts of agreement. Athena shrugged and turned onto her back, still not looking at them.
She honestly didn't really see the same things as them. Her breasts had yet to develop, to her utter dismay, and below her pants was just a light layer of peach fuzz. She wasn't even shaving her legs yet!
The other girls could sense her obvious discomfort, and dropped the subject entirely. They started to talk amongst themselves, talking about cute boys, and girls in the school.
When she figured they were all done, she got up and went to one of her two large trunks. One, held all of her clothes and toiletries, whereas the other held all of Delilahs things.
She popped open Delilah's trunk, and pulled out the cage that was folded up and placed on top. The other three girls looked at her curiously as she unfolded the wire top, snapping the four sides into place, and attaching them to the deep plastic bottom. The cage was about five feet long, and three feet wide, the base was black with small, painstakingly hand-painted silver stars covering it.
She put a litter box in one corner from the top opening of the cage, filling it with shavings, before lightly covering the rest of the cage with the same recycled-cardboard. She took out a heavy ceramic bowl, and placed it in another corner, and attached a hanging water bottle above it. Reaching back into the trunk, she grabbed a large handful of hay from a bag, and put it in a basket that hung from a wired wall. And for good measure, she tossed in a wooden puzzle-cube that was safe for the rabbit to gnaw on.
While Athena was doing all of this, the other three girls were now on her bed, looking over her shoulders, practically enraptured.
Athena started whistling one of her favorite Muggle songs, "Can't help falling in love." But she was more thinking of the Twenty-One Pilots version.
She filled the water bottle and the bowl from a bottle of water in the trunk, and she grabbed another ceramic bowl, placing it across from the water dish, and filling it with dark brown pellets. She made a mental note to be really nice and ask the people in the kitchens for fresh, leafy greens.
When she was satisfied with her work, Athena walked over to the carrier the other girls hadn't even noticed. It was in a dark corner, probably to calm the animal inside. Athena went to her knees, and she opened the door of the carrier. After a few tense, silent moments from the girls still on Athena's bed, they let out soft gasps of delight as the rabbit cautiously hopped out of the carrier.
Delilah looked at her mother, with her bright hair and her kind face. Delilah stood up on her back legs, and rubbed her chin against Athena's hand, marking her scent. She then took it upon herself to ensure her mothers safety by running around the room numerous times, stopping every so often to nibble at a bedpost, before running around a bit more, jumping and kicking her feet up. She'd never had this much room to play, before! Delilah would always be in her cozy cage, or that blasted carrier.
Athena finally noticed the girls on her bed, and she smiled as she saw them all staring at the rabbit, their faces a mixture of adoration, joy, and awe.
Delilah suddenly stopped, hidden by Yolandi's bed. Athena walked over to find Delilah's face pressed up against a wire cage, and she seemed to be almost communicating with a brown and white rat. Yolandi walked over and opened the cage, at which to Athena's horror, the rat jumped at Delilah. Athena was about to intervene, when she realized that the rat wasn't attacking Delilah... It was... Sitting on her?
The rat was sitting on Delilah's back, and grasping her fur in its little hands. Delilah didn't seem to mind, and she slowly started to hop around the room, like she was getting used to having something atop her.
"Is that rat... Riding the rabbit?" Asked Jennifer incredulously, and Athena nodded almost solemnly.
"That seems to be the case. Well at least we know they get along!" Yolandi said cheerfully, and it caused them all to laugh. Jennifer and Sierra informed them that they both had owls, Sierra with a big, beautiful Barred named Twilight, and Jennifer with a Great Grey named Moonshine, hinting at the girls favorite forbidden drink.
The rat was apparently named Chuck, and Athena informed them that her rabbit was named Delilah.
After Professor Sharp told them that lights out was in a few moments, Athena realized one wrong thing.
She couldn't sleep without music.
When she was at that house most people would call her home, she'd fall asleep with her headphones in, and her phone plugged into the wall so that the phone wouldn't die while it was being used. It's not like she was going to even hope for a wi-fi signal here, she at least had hoped for outlets. But she had no such luck.
"Bollocks!" She whispered angrily, kicking a wall.
"What's wrong?" Said Sierra distractedly, climbing into bed.
"Nothing. Give me a moment."
Athena for some reason had just remembered she was a bloody witch.
She grabbed her "Spells for Beginners" textbook, and rifled through it quickly, looking for a revitalizing spell. If it worked on people, it should work on technology, right? Right?
When she found one, towards the end of the book, she grabbed her wand from beside her bed, Cedar and Pheonix Feather, ten and three quarter-inches. She grabbed her cellphone from her trunk, and prayed to God this would work
"Reviviscat, non mori."
She grinned in absolute delight when her phone turned on. Her friends were looking at her, their eyes wide.
"That spell is in the back of the book, Athena. We haven't even reached it. How did you do that?" Sierra asked this quietly, and Athena looked honestly confused.
"What? I wasn't paying attention. I just... really, really needed this to stay on for the night." Said Athena earnestly.
"Why?" Asked Jennifer, a light coloured, plucked to perfection eyebrow raised.
"W-Well, my Mum and Dad fight a lot, and it's mostly at night... So I grew used to listening to music at night. It was the only way I could all asleep. D-Don't worry though! Only I can hear it if I put these in!" She held up her headphones, and they all walked over to see them.
"Show us!"
"Yeah, that sounds cool!"
"Please?"
All three of them were wearing puppy dog pouts, and she gave in. She unlocked the smartphone, not letting them see her passcode, and started playing her playlist that the other three clearly saw was named "Make them stop."
The first song of many, was "My Immortal" by Evanescence. They listened to the woman's ethereal voice, and they all swayed. When the song ended, another started. It was the same band, and if they looked, almost all of the songs were.
"Are they all like that?" Yolandi asked, sounding maybe even hopeful.
"Aye. They help me sleep, they're so calm and soothing."
"Well, then we don't mind if you don't bother putting those ear thingys in. We could probably use some soothing, too." Jennifer said these words, and the other two girls nodded quickly.
Athena smiled shyly, and agreed to keep the music playing for them all.
At last they all went to bed, after being scolded by a very tired Sharp.
Athena jumped out of bed when Sharp had left, and grabbed the small stepstool out of Delilah's cage, placing it against the side of the bed before climbing back in.
It took only moments for Athena to re-start the playlist, and for Delilah to finish doing her business in her cage before she hopped up the tiny staircase, and into her mothers warm arms.
Athena got the best night's rest she had had in years.