Chapter 5

"But i'm also very smart, so I could be a Ravenclaw.. But on the other hand I'm just so courageous and Gryffindor worthy. Oh, but I'm so kind and loyal..! I'm also very ambitious, and I always get what I want, maybe they'll put me in all of the houses!" Athena rambled from Sage's bedroom floor as Sage painter her toenails, Cedric reading a book at the end of her bed.

"I think you're a narcissist, Athena." Sage giggled. "I think I'm just too honest for my own good." Athena sighed. "Oh, I just cannot wait another week until school starts, I want to know what house i'll be in." She frowned. 

"I think you'd better try out for the Quidditch team as soon as possible, you're really good." Cedric looked up from his book. "You think so? Oh, I'm so glad you say that." Athena gushed. "Are you going to be on the Hufflepuff team?" She asked the him.

"I'm going to be team captain one day." He smiled confidently as Sage finished painter her toes. "Look, they're sage, like me." She smiled as Cedric inspected them. "What about your hands?" He asked. "I can't do my right hand, I have to paint with my left and it's impossible." Sage frowned.

"I'll paint your right hand." Cedric unscrewed the bottle of nail polish. "You've never painted nails before.." Sage was doubtful. "I suppose you have neat hand writing, which means steady hands.. ;) Go for it." She shrugged, and Cedric took her right hand in his, slowly stroking the brush across her finger nails.

His face was screwed up in concentration as he subconsciously moved his face closer to her hands, very slowly painting them, he was careful not to stuff up. "They're perfect, Ced." She beamed at her freshly painted nails. "Oh, I love them, you can paint my nails any day." She told him.

"Cedric, paint my nails!" Athena whined as Cedric got off the bed and sat beside her. "What colour?" He asked. "Oh! Purple, please." She held her hands out as Cedric got to work. Sage couldn't help but to smile while watching them, she adored how kind Cedric always was to Athena. Most of her friends just found her little sister annoying and egotistic, except Olive, of course.

"You should paint your nails, Cedric." Sage told Cedric when he finished. "Boys can't paint their nails." Athena looked confused at her sister's suggestion. "I think boys can paint their nails." Cedric smiled kindly at Athena.

"But I don't entirely want to." He shook his head. "I'd have to wait for them to dry, and they'd chip away very quickly with all the gardening i've been doing with father." He explained.

"Have you packed already, Athena?" Cedric eventually asked. "Yes, I must be prepared, i've been waiting for this for SO long." She boasted. "I've decided I'll be happy with any house." She concluded. "I'll be a star either way."

----

"And then I'll be able to get a cat." Athena walked ahead of Sage and Cedric, who were holding hands. "Athena, that's the platform." Sage warned her sister, who had strolled right past platform 9 3/4.

"This is it.." Athena walked back to them, standing in front of the barrier, preparing herself. "Ready?" Sage smiled at her younger sister. "Absolutely." She strutted forward, confidently passing between the barrier.

When Sage and Cedric passed through after her, Cedric released her hand, noticing Rowan and Harper who were making their way towards them. Sage looked down at Cedric's hand in disappoinment, but she said nothing.

"Athena's already made friends." Rowan pointed at Athena, who had rushed over to a pair of attractive Ravenclaw boys in their second year. "They're too old for her, she's only eleven." Sage frowned, taking a step forward to stop her sister, but Cedric grabbed her hand. 

"She'll never forgive you if you embarrass her on her first day." Cedric warned, and Sage returned to her typical passiveness, though she kept a wary eye on her sister the whole train ride to Hogwarts. 

"Wish me luck!" Athena called back to Sage, as she and the other first years headed for the boats. "Luck!" Sage blew her a kiss, and left for the carriages. "It's scary that we can't see the thestrals." Said Olive when they found an empty carriage.

"I can see them." Rowan and Jill said. Of course, Sage already knew Jill could see them. Jill had watched her great aunt pass away when she was 9. "Rowan, how can you see them?" Sage asked, and the boy flushed pink at being spoken to by her.

"My sister got sick and was sent to Saint Mungo's during the Summer, the man next to her bed died while I was visiting." Rowan told her. "Got a quaffle to the stomach, the internal bleeding was too far to stop." He shrugged.

"That's brutal." Harper cut in. "Cedric, you told Athena to try out for Quidditch! She could die." Sage frowned. "She'll be okay, Sage. People get hurt all the time in Quidditch, this is nothing new. And Athena's good at it, you don't have to worry." Cedric assured her.

Sage watched as the first years entered the hall, led by Professor McGonagall. Athena stared in amazement up at the bewitched ceiling before searching the Hufflepuff table for her sister. "Athena!" Sage waved her hand in the air, catching her sisters attention. 

Athena's face lit up when she saw her, but she quickly turned away as McGonagall began to explain the sorting. A loud gasp sounded through the hall as 'Harry Potter' was called to the stand, all of Gryffindor cheering when he was sorted into their house.

A few others were sorted, before it came to Draco Malfoy. "He'll be in Slytherin for sure." Harper whispered to us. "He's a real nasty fellow, I hear. His father's even worse." He went on. "Works at the ministry with my mum. She's terrified of the Malfoy's." 

"They used to be Death Eaters, you know?" Said Olive. "Lucius, Draco's father, said they were under the imperious curse, but my dad reckons he was lying." She explained, and surely enough, he was then sorted into Slytherin. 

"Oh look! There's Athena." Jill squealed as Athena marched up to the hat, taking a seat on the stool. I grabbed Cedric's arm, squeezing it as I waited nervously for her to be sorted. "Slytherin!" The hat cried out, and the whole Slytherin table let out a cheer.

Sage frowned, watching with sad eyes as her sister skipped over to the Slytherin table. "Don't worry, Sage. You'll still see her around." Olive comforted her. "That's not what I'm worried about. Draco Malfoy is in Slytherin." She sighed. 

---- (Warning: Includes racism and racist terms.)

"Quidditch tryouts are next week, I have to practise, Sage." Cedric pouted as Sage tried to stop him from leaving. "Oh, can I watch you practice?" Sage ran after him, Jill beside her. "We'll be your cheerleaders, Ced." Jill smiled and Cedric agreed. 

"Maybe we'll even see Athena on the way, and congratulate her." Sage beamed as they made their way down the corridor. "Are you trying out for Seeker, Cedric?" Jill asked. "I am." He grinned.

"Oh, look! You were right, there's Athena." Jill pointed to a group of Slytherins, Athena in the middle. "Hang on.." Jill frowned, something wasn't right. "Pathetic orphan." A brown-haired girl was saying.

"What the.." Sage broke into a jog over to the group, where four people were standing around Athena, yelling insults at the scared girl. "Go back to your own country, ling-ling." A boy she recognised to be Draco Malfoy pulled his temples back to make his eyes appear smaller, and more narrow. Athena burst into tears. 

"Excuse me!?" Sage stormed over to them, and they all turned to face her. "How dare you speak to my sister like that!" She yelled. "Sister?" They looked confused. "If you say another word to her ever again, I will personally avada-kedavra you, you despicable, evil, monsters."

Sage pulled her wand out and the Slytherins stared at her, fearfully, before they dashed away down the hall. When they were out of sight, Sage dropped to her knees, pulling her crying sister into her arms. "Oh, I am so sorry, Athena. Don't listen to them." Sage stroked her hair.

"I hate being Asain." Athena sobbed. She had always hated the stares they'd get in public, seeing as their whole family was white, other than Athena, who was Vietnamese. "They're just ignorant racists." Sage wiped her tears away. "Be proud of who you are."

"Do you want us to tell Snape?" Cedric asked, but Athena shook her head. "No, Snape favours them." Athena pouted. "If they ever say anything like that again, tell Sage, Cedric and I." Jill looked ready to punch a wall. Jill was half-black, so she had also experienced racism.

In fact, in their first year they had a white Ravenclaw call Jill the n-word. Let's just say it didn't end very well for the racist boy, and he certainly never used the word again. 

"You're no different than white people, just because we've got different skin colour." Sage shook her head. "There may always be racism in the world, while we're here. I'm sorry you have to go through it. And though I, as a white person, have never experienced racism. I'm always here for you." Sage helped Athena off the floor, and she joined them for Cedric's Quidditch practise. 

For the remainder of the walk, Jill, Cedric and Sage's time was taken up by comforting Athena. She was evidently feeling quite down over the situation, and what she had said to Sage ("I hate being Asian") had sent Sage spiralling. It hurt her to see her sister so unhappy with who she was, who said that one race was superior to another? And why has this prejudice continued for so long?

"But I did meet this wonderful Slytherin girl, her name is Saorise Mill, and we share a dorm. along with Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson, the girl who made fun of me for being an orphan." She frowned. "You're not an orphan, Athena, you have a family." Sage smiled.

And though Sage put up a good front, she was saddened that Hogwarts had not met her sisters expectations. Athena had been so excited to come to the school, and had been let down so quickly. 

----

"Next up, seekers." The captain off the Hufflepuff quidditch team draws the seekers to the front. There were about six of them all together, including Cedric. All trying out for the role that could only be filled by one of them.

"Go, Cedric!" Sage yelled as the seekers kicked off the ground, they would be racing to catch practise snitches. "Shut up." Olive pulled Sage back into her seat as the Quidditch captain gave her a 'don't distract my seekers' look.

Cedric gave her a little wave from the air, before the fake snitch was released, and the seekers shot after it. Cedric weaved between the others, he wasn't small and scrawny as seekers typically were, but he was a lot faster than almost all of them.

By the time it got to 5 minutes in, it was clear to everyone that it was either Cedric, or a black haired boy that Sage didn't recognise, who would win the spot. Shoulder to shoulder the two boys sped after the snitch as it ducked and turned, making it difficult for them to stay on it's trail.

"YES, CEDRIC!" Sage and all of her friends leapt up from their bench when Cedric caught the snitch, beaming as he landed back on the ground, earning himself a pat on the back from all of the other players. 

"I thought I was done for when he cut me off at the end." Cedric laughed as they walked back up to the school, he had earned the role of seeker. "You were amazing, Cedric." Athena flushed pink before departing from the group, over to a few of her Slytherin friends.

"Are you seriously okay with her being in Slytherin?" Harper wandered to the back of the group where Sage was. "I don't mind, and there's nothing I can do about it anyway." She shrugged. "Being in Slytherin doesn't mean you're bad." She pointed out.

"I have to disagree on you with that one, Sage." He shook his head. "Agree to disagree." She smiled. "You're so glass half full, you know that." Harper ruffled her hair, before wandering over to Rowan. "Oh and congratulations on getting chaser!" Sage called after the boy, and he turned around to salute her. 

"Maybe I'll try out for the Hufflepuff team. It actually looks like fun." Olive grinned as they arrived at the common room, all of them dropping onto the couch and wrapping themselves in blankets, it had been cold outside. 

"Our first trip to Hogsmeade is tomorrow." Rowan burst out, suddenly remembering. "Congratulations, Cedric." A pair of Hufflepuff girls giggled as they passed the group. "Er.. Thanks?" Cedric smiled sheepishly, confused by their giddiness. 

"Cedric has some admirers." Harper teased, and Sage frowned at the girls. "Sagie is jealous." Jill poked Sage, who grumbled in response. "I am not." 

----

"I wish Athena could come with us." Sage frowned as she and her friends trudged through the thick snow, entering into the three broomsticks. "Soon enough." Cedric smiled at her as they found their seats. "I'll get the butterbeer." Olive hopped up, scurrying away to the bar.

"I hear that potter boy got seeker on the Gryffindor team. He's only a first year." Rowan told them as Olive reappeared with the drinks. "It's probably because he's famous." Jill sighed. "I don't think so. Athena says he's actually a brilliant flyer, she saw him." Sage disagreed. 

"And Oliver Wood won't stop bragging about him." Rowan laughed. "Oliver's cute, don'y you think?" Olive turned to Jill and Sage. "He is quite pretty." Sage smiled, and Rowan choked on his butterbeer.

"You don't like Oliver, do you?" Cedric's eyes widened. "No? I just said he was pretty." Sage frowned. "Is something wrong, Rowan?" She turned to Rowan who was still coughing and spluttering. "Jeez, you're daft." Harper rolled his eyes at Sage.

"I'm not daft." Sage scolded him. "How am I daft?" She pouted. "Nothing." He shook his head, chuckling to himself as they finished their drinks. "Can we go to the bookstore?" Jill asked, and they all left.

In the bookstore, Jill and Cedric wandered to the back, in search of the same book. "When's your first game?" Sage asked Harper as they browsed the bookshelves for anything interesting. "Against Gryffindor." Two voiced interrupted in unison. 

"Fred." Said a tall red head behind them. "And George Weasley." The second boy, beside the first, added. "We're the Gryffindor beaters." They grinned. "Are you twins?" Sage gasped, as the two boys were completely identical.

"No." They shook their head. "No, we met in our first year actually, it's quite a funny story." The one on the left, whom had introduced himself as Fred, said. "You're the twins who like to play all those pranks, aren't you?" Harper grinned.

"I heard about how you bewitched snowballs to attack Professor Quirrel." Harper laughed. "Well we're off to go torment our older brother, actually. His name's Percy." They grinned before waving us goodbye. "He's the Gryffindor prefect, they'd best be careful." Sage laughed, and they turned back to the bookshelves as Rowan joined them.

"Who were they?" He asked Sage. "The Gryffindor beaters, they were introducing themselves." Sage told him.