mahogany ; d.m

13 - nausea

As the wintery weather was approaching and the months were changing, the mood of the castle became more and more cosy every day that passed.

Athena's head screamed with the surroundings voices of students in the Great Hall during breakfast one morning. She had her head collapsed sluggishly on the hard wood of the table, while a migraine pierced her cranium. Her mind swam with the remaining traces of firewhiskey which were ever so stubborn to leave, intoxicating her permanently.

The previous night, she had made the upmost mistake of consuming an abundance of alcohol, to have a presently good time, only to find she could barely keep her head up in the morning.

She had been with Cedric and the others again, for the fourth time in two weeks. Isaac had a stock of firewhiskey in his dormitory which he was willing to use up. Therefore everyone came to the Gryffindor common room for drinks. Even Harry, Ron, Hermione and a few others joined in on the fun.

The benefit of firewhiskey was that it seemed to make Athena forget all of her current worries and struggles. She liked the feeling it gave her; like she could conquer absolutely anything.

Two weeks had passed since her loathsome spat with Malfoy. She found herself to be hating him once again with as much ease as she always had. It was almost like the past month had never happened.

Occasionally when she'd catch his eye, she found it appropriate to be mature about matters and just ignore him. Although it would be expected to be done with great difficulty, due to her past affairs with the boy, he had set her mind straight that night.

It wasn't hard to detest someone like Draco Malfoy. He made one loathe him and he made it so easy.

From where she was sat she could see him. He seemed down and looked as if he hadn't been getting any sleep for months; his pale skin a few shades paler every time she saw him.

Yet, she felt nothing. No curiosity, no sympathy, nothing.

In other news, she was growing more and more attracted to Cedric as the days went by. A few days prior, she went to watch him at Hufflepuff's quidditch practice, though she was only allowed to be there if she swore not to say anything about their gameplay to her fellow Gryffindor's.

The Gryffindor's attempted to bribe her for information, but she kept her promise to the Hufflepuff's, which obviously made her friends displeased with her. But they got over it quickly, reminding themselves that Gryffindor could beat Hufflepuff in a heartbeat - even though they had lost to them a few times in the past.

Besides, she wasn't even focussing on their practice anyway. Her mind was fixated on Cedric and how he looked flying through the sky on his broom: his hair ruffling through the wind with every movement he made, his hands and arms flexing on the broom when he'd have to make any sudden movements and his wits to know exactly what it was he had to do.

They weren't exactly together yet, meaning there was no topic of conversation between them about a relationship. It was quite unclear what they were. But it would be safe to say they were definitely more than friends at this point in time.

A loud thud hit the table as someone planted down opposite Athena. She raised her head off of the hard wood with an immense amount of effort, peering up at the noisy culprit.

Ron sat down in the seat opposite Athena, eyeing her with caution. She attempted to straighten up in her seat, but began to feel rather nauseous when doing so.

"Where've you been?"Hermione asked, her voice oddly high.

"I- er just ended it with Lavender,"he replied awkwardly, his ears glowing red.