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Forks and knives moved across plates without making any scraping noises. Up and down the Gryffindor table, people spoke to one another, laughed, chewed food, slurped pumpkin juice, yelped when something spilled over them – yet no sounds came out of their mouths. Athena could see roaring flames in the fireplaces positioned throughout the Great Hall, flickering in total silence.
She adjusted the earmuffs that pressed down on her head. All she had to do was flick them off and she could join the rest of the world. But even without the ability to hear, she could see fellow students sneaking glances at her and whispering behind their hands. She knew what they were saying to each other. And regardless of whether or not they were talking about her, the rush of hundreds of voices with hundreds of emotions had proven to be too much of a strain on her ears. Athena didn’t want to end up in the hospital wing again and attract more attention.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Athena knocked over her goblet and spilled pumpkin juice all over her roast chicken dinner. When she looked around, she saw two boys standing behind her seat. They weren’t in her class; they looked like they might be a couple of years older than her. One of them had odd-looking bangs that stuck up like rabbit ears. The other one wore a bandage over his nose. He waved his hands in the air and mouthed something to her, while his friend appeared to be scolding him.
Athena lifted the earmuffs ever so slightly and the conflicting sounds hit her all at once with the intensity of a well-placed Knockback Jinx. “...scared her, Clay!” the first boy shouted at his friend.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” said the boy wearing the bandage. Athena couldn’t hear the rest of it. She was drowning in rumbling voices and scraping silverware and so many emotions all in one place. Homesick first years, like herself. Fifth years and seventh years already fighting off panic over O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s at the end of the school year. Excitement over Quidditch trials next week. Anger over someone losing twenty points for Ravenclaw. Worst of all were the whispers coming from the Gryffindor table.
“That girl they’re talking to…is that…?”
“Athena Cykes?”
“Yeah, that’s her.”
“Are you Athena Cykes?” The boy who’d put his hand on her shoulder – Clay – peered down at her. She nodded. “Listen, I just…”
The whispers grew louder and they came from all sides, poking and prodding at her, burrowing into her ears.
“Do you think she did it?”
“Do you think she killed her mum?”
“I heard they found her with the knife in her hand and there was blood EVERYWHERE.”
“Why d’you think she wears those earmuffs? You think it’s to keep her from killing everybody?”
“She never talks to anyone. It’s so creepy.”
Athena wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Her earmuffs hung loose off her neck, but she wasn’t thinking about putting them back on. All she could think to do was breathe, just like she’d been taught. In and out. In and out. In and out.
She was innocent.
In and out.
Mr. Wright said so. He’d proved it.
In and out.
They hadn’t caught the real killer, but it wasn’t her.
In and out.
“Hey.” A girl from across the table stared Athena down. “Did you really kill your mum?”
Athena clamped her hands over her ears and burst into sobs. She tripped over the bench as she tried to run out of the Great Hall. Someone caught her before she hit the floor, and she heard Clay and the other boy calling her name, but she shook herself free and sprinted past the tables toward the Entrance Hall. She didn’t stop running until she reached the Owlery, where she collapsed on the floor and cried into the straw. Mr. Wright said she hadn’t done it. So did Miss Maya, along with all of their friends in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Uncle Simon believed her, and while it had taken some convincing, Mama Aura did too. The Wizengamot voted to acquit her. Why did her classmates still find her suspicious?
Maybe if she could just remember who had been in her mother’s office, they’d stop. But she couldn’t. Even after several therapy sessions at St. Mungo’s, that one memory remained inaccessible to her.
“Mum,” she sobbed, “I just want to go home.”
There was a little desk at the back of the tower, covered in brown, gray, black, and white feathers. Inside it held spare sheets of parchment, quills, and a bottle of ink, in case anyone needed to send a quick letter. When Athena could stand on her feet again, she made her way over and scribbled out a letter to her guardians.
I hate it here. Nobody likes me and everyone thinks I killed Mum. Please come get me. I promise I’ll study real hard at home and then you won’t have to send me back.
Bupo fluttered down to perch on the desk as she finished writing. Athena tied the note to her barn owl’s leg and he flew off into the night.
It was time to pack. As soon as Mama Aura and Uncle Simon read her letter, they’d surely come to take her away.
“Miss Cykes. Class started ten minutes ago.”
Professor McGonagall gave Athena a stern look from behind her desk. Athena mumbled a quick apology and took a seat in the very back of the class. She’d waited up all night for a response from Aura or Simon, but Bupo didn’t return to her dormitory. Once everyone else had gone down to breakfast, she emerged from her bed and took the long way to the Great Hall. Just as she’d hoped, most of the students had filed out by the time she arrived, leaving her to eat her breakfast in peace and run to Transfiguration.
They were still working on turning matches into needles. Athena should have mastered it by now; everyone else at least had something silver and sharp. Yet as much as she waved her wand, she couldn’t focus on what she needed the magic to do.
She felt Professor McGonagall standing over her desk. “Miss Cykes, I’d like to see you after class.”
Athena nodded, fighting back a few sniffles. Now she was going to get lectured about her schoolwork, on top of everything else? Or maybe Professor McGonagall wanted to ask her the same question that everyone else kept asking her: Did you do it?
After the rest of the class left for History of Magic, she trudged up to the professor’s desk, her eyes on the floor.
“Miss Cykes?”
Athena blinked. Her teacher’s voice sounded gentle, not stern.
“I want you to know that I saw what happened yesterday evening and I have spoken to the rest of Gryffindor House. Absolutely no one is permitted to ask you any more questions about your mother or what happened to you over the summer. If they do, they will receive a week’s worth of detentions.”
Athena started. “Really? They’re…they’re not allowed to bother me anymore?” Already, she could feel a weight lifting off her chest.
“If they do, I expect you to report it to me straight away,” replied McGonagall, returning to her usual stern tone. “It is none of their business and nobody should force you to relive that kind of trauma.”
“I mean…” Athena shrugged. “I can’t tell them anything anyway. I don’t remember what happened.”
“Be that as it may, the other students have no right to what you remember.” Professor McGonagall reached over to pat Athena’s hand. “You may go now, Miss Cykes.”
Athena skipped all the way out of the classroom. “Thanks, Professor McGonagall!”
The threat of detention from McGonagall did stop the questions. Nobody else came up to Athena to ask if she’d killed her mother. She did notice the two boys trying to get her attention at the Gryffindor table, but she ignored them and kept to herself as much as possible, never staying too long in the common room or speaking much to her dorm mates.
The questions stopped, but the whispers continued. She heard them fluttering around her head like butterflies, close in range, but never close enough to catch. Whether she worked in the library or ate in the Great Hall, all she needed to do was lift her head to see other students staring at her. They always looked away when her eyes met theirs.
“She’s only a little kid. There’s no way she could have done it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m telling you, my uncle works in the Ministry. He saw what happened.”
“He saw her stab her mum?!”
“No, I mean, he saw the trial and all. And they never caught who really did it.”
“Yeah, they never caught anyone else.”
“It had to be her.”
“McGonagall ruins everything. All I did was ask a question. SHE ran off. Only guilty people do that.”
Athena went back to waiting for Bupo’s return and often fell asleep on the windowsill next to her bed. Aura and Simon had to take her away soon. They wouldn’t leave her at Hogwarts if they knew what a horrible place it really was. She felt so certain of this fact that she stopped studying for tests or completing her homework assignments. What was the point in finishing an essay on Levitation Charms for Professor Flitwick if she wouldn’t be in his class for much longer?
It wasn’t until Friday morning that Bupo flew into Gryffindor Tower with three letters that he dropped into Athena’s lap. One from Uncle Simon, one from Mama Aura, and one from Maya Fey. She ripped opened the one from Mama Aura first. Her trunk was packed with everything except the clothes that she wore, so it wouldn’t take long for her to be ready when her family came to pick her up.
Hey, Princess, the letter read. I’d love to come up to that school and use those kids for dueling practice, but…
But? Athena blinked. But what?
…you need to be able to fight your own battles. When you come home for Christmas, I’ll teach you a few jinxes that’ll get them off your back…
“Christmas?!” Athena cried out loud. That couldn’t be right. She couldn’t wait until Christmas. They needed to come and get her now. She tossed Aura’s letter aside without reading the rest and tore Simon’s open. He would explain that his sister didn’t understand and they were coming to get her, and…
Dear Athena,
I’m sorry that you have to deal with so many ignorant classmates. But now is not the time to give up and fly home. You still want to become an Auror someday, don’t you? You’ll face far worse kinds of people than school bullies in that line of work.
These other children will soon forget about what happened and move on to something else, and in the meantime…
The rest of the words came in and out of focus. They weren’t coming. They weren’t going to take her home. She had to stay at Hogwarts.
She reached for Maya’s letter last. Maybe Maya would tell her that there’d been a mistake and the Fey clan was going to adopt her now.
Dear Athena,
I heard all about your letter from Simon and Aura. I’m so sorry you’re having such a bad time at school, sweetie. Hogwarts is an amazing place, but sometimes the kids there can be nastier than grindylows. Lots of people thought I’d killed my big sister too.
I’m sorry we never caught the person who killed your mum. We’re still investigating, so I can’t promise you that we’ll catch them. But I can promise you this: you won’t always feel so lonely at Hogwarts. It might feel like it takes forever, but one day the other kids will stop talking about it and move on to something else. And you’re going to make friends, because there will be kids who see how amazing you really are.
Besides, there’s still a lot of fun stuff to look forward to at Hogwarts. You’ve already met Hagrid, right? He lives in a hut right near the Forbidden Forest and takes care of all the magical creatures on the grounds. Don’t be scared by his size. He’s really nice and he helped me a lot when Mia died. Just watch out for his cooking.
There’s also the Halloween feast coming up! Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on the pumpkin pie. And I bet Quidditch is starting up soon? They usually don’t let first years on the teams, but the matches are always fun to watch and you’ve never seen one before. So, go cheer on Gryffindor – we need all the help we can get!
And I’m not supposed to tell you this, because it’s supposed to be a surprise, but Mr. and Mrs. Wright invited everybody to their house for Christmas dinner, so you’ll get to see us over the holiday. I promise to give you the world’s biggest hug when you walk through the door.
So don’t give up, okay, Athena? It’ll take some time, but I know you’re going to make friends and then Hogwarts won’t seem as terrible or scary as it does right now. And remember: we’re Gryffindors. We don’t run from trouble. We MAKE it.
See you soon.
Love,
Maya
Athena hugged the letter to her chest as tears slid down her face. Maya’s words only left her missing her family even more. She wanted to sit and watch her mothers work on their experiments in the Department of Mysteries, to draw pictures with Uncle Simon and learn everything he knew about birds, get hugs from Maya, hear Mr. Wright’s stories about the many cases he’d solved, watch Iris knit sweaters, and play games with Pearl. Why didn’t they understand? Why wouldn’t they bring her home?
She grabbed another piece of parchment and wrote out another set of notes for Bupo: Please, PLEASE bring me home! I’ll do any homework you give me, promise. I’ll be really, really good. I just want to go home!
This time, they would have to understand. They just had to.
When another week ended with the same responses from her guardians, Athena conceded defeat. They weren’t coming to get her. She needed to actually do her homework.
Athena continued to ignore her fellow Gryffindors, spending most of her free time at a table by herself in the library with her earmuffs firmly set on her head. She considered Maya’s advice about going to visit Hagrid, but something always held her back. After all, he didn’t have to worry about receiving a detention from Professor McGonagall if he asked questions about the trial.
Yet she did feel the tiniest bit curious about the conversations she overheard regarding Quidditch. She recalled Uncle Simon and Maya getting into arguments over rival teams, but it was hard to understand what was going on when she only had the voices from the Wizarding Wireless Network as a reference. This would be her first real opportunity to watch a match.
Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were scheduled to play each other in the second weekend of October. When Athena entered the Great Hall that morning, she saw everyone dressed in red and gold or yellow and black, waving pennants with either a lion or a badger. So great was the excitement that she didn’t hear any whispers about her when she sat down for breakfast. Even so, the jubilation and excited tension in the air put a strain on her ears, so she slipped her earmuffs back over her head. Seven students rose from the table, all dressed in the same red robes and carrying broomsticks over their backs. They must be the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
One by one, everyone filtered out of the Great Hall and headed towards the pitch. Athena trailed after them. Nobody paid any attention to her as she found a seat in the Gryffindor section of the stands. The teams flew out onto the pitch and everyone around her pumped their fists, waved their pennants, and cheered – though Athena’s earmuffs prevented her from hearing any of it.
Madame Hooch came out and released the balls. All fourteen players zipped through the air, passing the Quaffle back and forth to each other and avoiding the Bludgers as best they could. Maya and Uncle Simon had each taken turns explaining the rules of the game to Athena; she knew enough to understand that the Chasers scored points with the Quaffle and the Seekers needed to look for the Golden Snitch. But they all moved too quickly for her to understand who was in the lead. Sometimes the people around her would rise to their feet and wave their hands in the air. Other times, they would flop down and shake their fists at the Hufflepuffs.
Athena fidgeted with her earmuffs. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take them off, just for a minute. If she could hear the score, she could follow along from there.
She flipped them off her head.
Just like in the Great Hall, every noise and every emotion came rushing to her at once. The excitement and the joy. The anxiety and frustration. The screams from every end of the Quidditch pitch, the cheers and the boos, the whoosh of the brooms swooping over her, the screech of Madame Hooch’s whistle, the voice of the commentator, all vibrating inside her head. Her earmuffs slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. The noises slammed against her ears like the Bludgers and the pain steadily escalated until she dropped to her knees and screamed.
“Hufflepuff in the lead, 60 points to 20…”
“BOOOOOOOO!”
Two people crouched in front of Athena; she barely had the presence of mind to recognize them as the boys from the Great Hall. “Hey, are you okay?” asked the one with the funny-looking bangs.
“She looks like she’s got some kind of headache. We should take her to the hospital wing, Apollo,” said the other boy.
“You’re Athena Cykes, right? Do you need to go to the hospital wing?”
That was the last thing she heard before she blacked out.
Athena woke up to new sounds: light footsteps across a stone floor, rustling sheets, the flicker of candles, the sigh of someone breathing next to her. That someone had a brief coughing fit and shifted on a mattress. Not as grating as the emotions on the Quidditch pitch, but still sore against her ears.
She opened her eyes slowly and found herself lying in a bed in the hospital wing. Another girl sat in the bed next to hers, still coughing. She wore a sunflower in her thick, brown hair. A pair of knitting needles and two skeins of yellow and black yarn lay in her lap. Athena recognized the girl from Herbology class but couldn’t remember her name. Nor could she remember how she herself had ended up in the hospital wing. Nobody else seemed to be around.
“Where…how…what am I doing here?” Athena asked in a small voice. Her heart hammered in her chest. I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything. The room smelled like the one in St. Mungo’s where they took her after her mother died, where no one looked familiar and no one could answer her questions about her mothers or Uncle Simon, where she couldn’t remember anything useful, and the smell of blood was up her nose…
The other girl’s soft voice broke through Athena’s panicked thoughts. “Oh! You’re…!” She coughed into her sleeve. “…You’re awake. Some boys brought you here. They said you fainted at the Quidditch match. I’m glad you’re okay.”
The memories of the Quidditch match began to return, though still fuzzy. “Who are you? Where did those boys go? Where’s Madame Pomfrey?” Athena asked.
“The boys left, but they said they’d be back. Madame Pomfrey should be back soon too. She’s in her office right now.” The girl bit her lip. “You’re…Athena Cykes, right? In Gryffindor? I’m Juniper Woods, from Hufflepuff. We have Herbology together.”
Athena knew that she ought to say “hello,” or “nice to meet you,” but she was too busy bracing herself for the inevitable questions that always followed, You’re Athena Cykes, right?
Juniper rearranged herself so that she sat on the edge of her bed, facing Athena. She pulled on the ends of her braids – much like Athena did when she felt nervous. “I heard about what happened to you last summer.”
Athena’s muscles stiffened.
“I’m so sorry about your mother. You must miss her a lot.”
The room started to spin. Athena fell back against her pillow, somewhat aware that the tightness in her chest had loosened ever so slightly.
Nobody had offered her their condolences before. Not one single student.
“Are you okay?” Juniper exclaimed. She reached over to grab a satchel on the end table next to her bed. “Here…” After rummaging through it, she pulled out a cluster of white flowers. “These are from my gran’s garden. They’re white chrysanthemums, and they’re meant for people who lost someone they loved. Do you want some?”
“Er…” Athena swallowed; her throat felt scratchy. “Uh-huh?”
Juniper pressed the flowers into her hands. They smelled wonderful, reminding Athena of the outdoors and secret forests full of magical creatures. Not that she’d ever been to one herself; her family didn’t live near any wooded areas and nobody was allowed to go near the Forbidden Forest that bordered Hogwarts. “How long have they been in your bag?” she asked Juniper.
“Since August. Gran got me this bag when Professor McGonagall took us to Diagon Alley. It keeps flowers fresh no matter how long it’s been since you picked them.”
“Wooooow!” Athena took another sniff of the chrysanthemums and Juniper smiled at her. “How come Professor McGonagall…?”
Before she could finish her question, the doors to the hospital wing burst open. The same two boys from the Great Hall and the Quidditch pitch hurried over to her bed. “Look, she’s awake! See, Clay? I told you she’d be fine,” said the boy with the rabbit-ear bangs. They draped themselves over the railing at the foot of her bed. “How are you feeling, Athena?”
Athena shrugged. Her muscles tensed up again in the presence of strangers. “I’m okay. Thank you for bringing me here.”
“Don’t mention it. We weren’t going to leave you lying in the stands like that.” The boy pointed to himself. “My name’s Apollo. Apollo Justice. This is Clay Terran.”
Athena wasn’t sure how to respond. All that came out was, “You’re not in my class.”
“No, we’re third years, so you wouldn’t know us too well,” Clay explained. “I’m glad we can finally talk to you. Sorry about what happened in the Great Hall the other day. I swear we weren’t trying to ask you questions about your mum. It’s just, well…” Athena heard a change in his voice, the sound of grief being suppressed. “My mum died last year too. So I know how you feel. I just wanted to say I was sorry.”
“Yeah. My whole family’s gone too.” Apollo now had his arms crossed tight over his chest. “But it’s fine. I’m fine.” Athena tilted her head. Nothing about what he said sounded “fine” – and it didn’t match what she could hear, either. He smiled slightly. “That’s what we tell ourselves so we won’t feel too sad about it. If we keep saying we’re fine, then we are fine. You know what I mean?”
“…No,” Athena admitted.
“Here, I’ll show you. It really helps. You just take a deep breath, like this…” His chest expanded as he inhaled.
“…And then you yell at the top of your lungs!” finished Clay.
Apollo opened his mouth and belted out, “APOLLO JUSTICE IS DOING FINE!” The pain in Athena’s head spiked from the sudden volume. Next to her, Juniper nearly jumped out of her skin.
The door to Madame Pomfrey’s office opened. “Mr. Justice! This is a hospital wing! If you and Mr. Terran can’t respect your fellow students, I’ll have to ask you to leave at once!”
Apollo cringed. “Sorry, Madame Pomfrey. We were just trying to cheer her up.”
“Hmph. There are other ways to cheer up a sick person.” Madame Pomfrey’s expression softened as she turned to Athena. “How are you feeling, Miss Cykes? I have your earmuffs right here if you need them.” She knew all about Athena’s sensitive hearing, thanks to a letter that Aura and Simon wrote to her at the beginning of the school year. “Would you like to stay in the hospital wing overnight?”
Athena didn’t need to think too hard about an answer to that question. A night in the hospital wing meant a night away from her dormitory. “Yes, please. Thank you.” She closed her eyes for a moment. Maybe if she pretended to be sicker than she felt, Madame Pomfrey would contact her family and make them take her home. It wouldn’t be hard to play up anyway, with her head still throbbing and her ears buzzing.
Madame Pomfrey did a quick examination. “No signs of a concussion or any other symptoms – good, good. You can hear me the way you normally do?” Athena nodded. “I advise you not to take off your earmuffs during a Quidditch match again. You’d do better not going to them at all and avoiding the temptation. Now, lie down and try to rest. I will check on you throughout the day.” She moved to Juniper’s bed next. “And how are you feeling, Miss Woods? Would you prefer to stay in the hospital wing too?”
Juniper hacked out a “yes” before her coughs overcame her ability to speak.
“Very well. The two of you can keep each other company tonight.” Madame Pomfrey then gave Apollo and Clay a stern glare. “I will allow you to stay and visit for a few more minutes, provided you do not shout again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Madame Pomfrey,” they grumbled. With that settled, she turned on her heels and went back to her office.
The four kids lapsed into an awkward silence. Apollo kept fidgeting with a heavy bracelet on his wrist. “Athena…can I just ask you one question?”
Her throat instantly closed over. She should never have gotten her hopes up. In and out. In and out. I’m innocent. Mr. Wright said so. He proved it. I didn’t do it.
“About the trial over the summer…you had Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey defending you, right?”
Athena’s breath hitched. That wasn’t the question she’d been anticipating. She hadn’t expected to hear excitement in his voice either. But her throat was still closed over and all she could do was nod her head.
“What are they like?” Apollo leaned over the railing at the foot of her bed, eyes shining.
“We follow all of Mr. Wright’s cases,” Clay explained. “Apollo’s his biggest fan.”
Athena exhaled. At least they weren’t asking about the trial itself. “They’re really nice. They never stopped believing in me, even when nobody else did.”
“That’s what I want to do,” said Apollo fervently. “As soon as we’re done with school. I’m going to join the Ministry and fight for people who don’t have anyone else to help them, just like Mr. Wright and Miss Fey.”
“Really?” Athena perked up. “Me too!”
She half-expected one of them to joke that she couldn’t possibly do something like that, not as a former murder suspect. But Apollo just smiled and said, “Hey, maybe we’ll be working together, like Mr. Wright and Miss Fey?”
Her throat was closing over again, but it felt different from before. “You’d…want to work with me?”
Apollo laughed. “Well, I can’t work with him.” He jabbed Clay playfully in the elbow. “He’s going up into space.”
“Wow. Like, going up to the moon and all of the planets? My mums know people who study them in the Department of Mysteries. Only they’re not allowed to talk about what they do. That’s why they’re called Unspeakables.” Athena looked over at Juniper, who’d been coughing quietly the whole time. “What about you, Juniper? What are you going to do when you grow up?”
Juniper paused to inhale the scent of one of the herbs in her bag. “I don’t know yet. But I want to learn more about magical plants. When I go home for Christmas, I’m going to give Gran some seeds that Professor Sprout gave me, and we’ll start our own magic garden next year.”
“Oh, I’d love to see it!” squealed Athena. Then she frowned. “But I thought you said you already had a garden?”
“Not a magical one,” explained Juniper. “Just regular flowers and herbs.”
“Do you come from a family of Muggles too?” asked Clay.
Juniper coughed some more. “Yes. Professor McGonagall brought my letter and explained everything to Gran. We couldn’t believe it!”
Clay grinned. “Yeah, Apollo’s dad did the same for me and my mum. If there’s anything you don’t understand and you’re too embarrassed to ask, just come and find me, okay? I’ll help you figure it out.”
“And if you want to know more about magical gardens, you should talk to Hagrid,” added Apollo. “He’s the gamekeeper here, so he knows all about things like that.”
Athena thought back to Maya’s letter. “Is Hagrid nice?” she asked the boys. “Would he ask me questions about my mother if I went to visit him?”
Apollo shook his head. “Hagrid’s like us. He knows what it’s like to have people laughing at you and he doesn’t have any family either. He might ask you how you’re doing, but he won’t make you tell him if you don’t want to.”
“Yeah, Hagrid’s the best,” Clay agreed. “He knows loads of stuff about Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest. Sometimes he even lets us come inside the forest and help him feed the school thestrals.”
“Thestrals?” Athena tilted her head. “What are thestrals?”
“They’re flying horses that look like skeletons, but they’re friendly. They pull the school carriages and Hagrid says they can understand you when you talk to them. But you can only see them if you’ve seen someone die.”
Athena shivered. “What if you’ve seen someone die, but you don’t remember what happened?”
Clay frowned. “I don’t know. I think it still counts. But you can ask Hagrid – we’re going to visit him tomorrow. Want to come with us?”
“Yes!”
Athena’s head still throbbed and her ears continued to buzz. And if she left the hospital wing of her own accord the next day, there would be no reason for Madame Pomfrey to contact her family. Somehow, that didn’t seem as important anymore. She needed to get better. She would make herself get better if she had to.
“How ‘bout we meet you outside the hospital wing tomorrow afternoon?” Apollo suggested. “You can come too if you want, Juniper.”
“Okay!” Juniper beamed.
The boys left soon afterwards. Athena and Juniper kept each other company for the rest of the evening, the former watching the latter knit a scarf for her grandmother and looking at pictures of the Woods’ family garden. Juniper, in turn, had numerous questions for Athena about growing up in a home with parents who knew about magic. For the first time since she arrived, Athena felt comfortable talking about herself.
Maya Fey woke up from an impromptu nap at her cubicle in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. “Sleeping on the job? I could report you for that,” Simon said as he passed her.
“Yeah? Well, I’ll report you for having terrible taste in Quidditch teams,” she retorted.
“At least the Falmouth Falcons don’t put all of their faith in the talents of a single player,” he called over his shoulder.
“I hope Ludo Bagman hits a Bludger right into the stands and breaks your nose!” she hollered back.
“I hope so too. I would love to see him disqualified for a whole season.”
“Aaargh!” Maya stuck her tongue out at him. Just once, she’d love to beat Simon Blackquill in a duel of words, but that man always seemed to get the better of anyone who tried. If she didn’t find the subject hopelessly boring, she would have studied psychology too. Then they might be more evenly matched.
Right after Simon left, the lift opened and Bupo flew out. He dropped a letter in Maya’s lap and proceeded down the row of cubicles, likely looking for Simon as well. “Oh no…” Maya flipped the envelope over. “I hope it’s not another letter begging me to take her away from Hogwarts…”
But when she opened it up, she found a letter and a photograph inside. The picture showed Athena standing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, grinning from ear to ear. Three other students clustered around her; two boys with the Gryffindor emblem on their robes, and a girl from Hufflepuff. Hagrid stood behind them, feeding raw meat to a thestral. All five of them waved energetically to Maya.
These are my new friends, the caption read, Junie, Apollo, and Clay! I hope you get to meet them soon!
Maya smiled. “I hope so too. Good for you, Athena.”