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CLASSES the next day were canceled due to the first quidditch match of the year. It was Slytherin vs Gryffindor, the match that the whole school seemed to be anticipating for.

Athena could not understand it. She would rather spend that time on studying and doing something meaningful, instead of sitting down and watching people fly.

Lucinda, meanwhile, was the exact opposite. In their dorm room at that moment, she was trying to get Athena to join her, while Druella– who thought quidditch was improper– was already forced by her to watch the match. "–it's really interesting, Athena!" Lucinda tried to reason as she paced in front of Athena's bed.

"Then I'm sure you will have a lot of fun," retorted Athena, looking up from the old book she was reading. Its pages were worn out and some pages were even missing, but that did not stop Athena from reading it. She loved old books. To her, it was knowledge of the past that she could use in the future.

Lucinda let out an unladylike groan, earning a glare from Druella that she seemed to ignore. "Even your brother is part of the team," continued the girl with the brown hair that was tied up into a neat ponytail.

Athena grimaced, her expression turning from boredom to disgust at the mention of Abraxas. Of course she knew her brother was on the team– how couldn't she know when her parents always talked about his achievements during dinner but didn't even care nor know about hers?

"I'd rather stick my wand into my eye and stab it repeatedly, than watch Abraxas play."

Druella's expression turned to disgust as she imagined that scene, her head tilted to the side with her gaze on her black-haired friend. "That is revolting, Athena." She said, a hint of disapproval– as usual– in her tone.

Athena did not care. She merely shrugged, while Lucinda rolled her eyes and looked at Druella. "We've got to leave. The match will start in twenty minutes," she pointed out, which made Druella nod and stand up. She turned to Athena one last time and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to join?" even though she already knew the answer.

The young Malfoy nodded in return, shoulders sagging in relief as soon as her friends finally left her and closed the door behind them. She looked back at the book in her hands, a finger tracing the words as she read. She read the same sentence over and over again, groaning when she realised her mind was not on the book in front of her at all.

Athena's eyes landed on the coat next to her. She grabbed it, wore it over the sweater she was already wearing, and slipped on her shoes. She took her book and put it in the bag she slung over her shoulder, then walked out of the dorm room and closed the door with a soft click.

Soon enough, she was in the common room, where she expected to be empty. Thankfully, it was. So, she sat down on the couch by the unlit fireplace. Athena took out her wand and pointed at the wood inside the said fireplace, and muttered a soft, "Incendio.", watching the woods turn into flames.

The crackle of the fireplace brought comfort to her, as did the dark green and silver banners in the common room. Sure, she loved the library more than anything, but the common room also felt like home to her, a place she felt like she belonged in.

And Athena never had felt like she belonged somewhere. Not in Beauxbatons, and definitely not in Malfoy manor.

So, she stayed there in the Slytherin common room and took out her book from her bag, flipped the pages to the one page she left off, and continued to read.

Reading was a part of who she was. So was writing.

When she wasn't busy with the words she consumed, she wrote them.

Studying took up a lot of her free time, especially after the rivalry that had started between her and Riddle. However, Athena always tried to make time for consuming literature, hoping that it would shape her into the people she read about in books.

Happy, carefree, worryless.

Athena knew, deep down, that her wishing for happiness was like wishing to talk when you are mute. It was like wishing to hear when you are deaf. It was like wishing to see when you are blind.

Because happiness never came to a Slytherin.

It came to Gryffindors in their reckless and worryless behavior. It came to Hufflepuffs in their loyalty and their friends. It came to Ravenclaws in their bright futures and their families.

Slytherins, however, seemed to lose themselves in everything that surrounded them. Whether it may be the mindset passed onto them from generation to generation by their families, or the fact that they are who they are.

Athena knew deep down that no Slytherin actually loved themselves. They were all, in a way, trying to distract themselves from them being them.

The distractions for Athena were books and writing. That was why she always wrote perfect assignments and why her handwriting was neat and cursive, something she practiced early on when she was young. She knew her words weren't heard nor listened to by her parents.

To her, it felt like she was talking in a language nobody was fluent in.

So, she always kept her feelings to herself and on the many journals she had filled up throughout the years, tucked away in a small box in her closet at Malfoy manor.

Athena looked up from her book and gazed into the crackling fireplace, its sound bringing more warmth to her than its heat.

She always knew she was nothing compared to her twin brother, who was older than her by a couple of minutes. She knew she was the child they did not want nor prepare for, as she was always told growing up mostly by her mother. Her father was usually quiet, his focus more on his son than the unwanted daughter. He did not waste his words on her.

And Athena did not know which she hated more; her mother's constant hurtful words or her father's constant hurtful silence.

Remembering what she saw in the Mirror of Erised brought back the feelings she had spent years trying to suppress. Feelings of neglect, unwanted, unloved, and more.

She felt like her presence was not noticed. She did not feel invisible, no. She felt like if she were gone, people would notice the empty space but be glad about it. She did not know if that was worse than being invisible or not. She felt like it was, though.

Athena let out a shaky breath, eyes wandering around the empty common room. Everything was left neat and tidy, almost as if nobody had stepped foot in it in ages.

She realized that that made the common room feel cold, not the fact that they were in the dungeons. She realized that the fact that there seemed to be no life in the Slytherin common room was what made it feel empty, not the fact that its only decorations were banners hanging up on the walls, aside from the dark green and black furniture all around the room.

Yet, it still felt like home to her.

But Athena was used to the coldness and emptiness surrounding her, so that did not change anything.

And yet, she wished for life in the common room. A sign that the Slytherins actually liked living and had a reason to live– aside from the reason being to either make their parents proud, or to inherit the wealth that came with their last name.

Her eyes stopped on the old book in her hands again, and with a tear that she immediately wiped away, Athena forced herself to focus on the words in front of her. The words that took her to a whole other world– a world that distracted her from the one she was living in.

She lost herself in the world of the book she was reading, her thoughts and attention on only the characters and nothing else. That was, unfortunately, interrupted when the Slytherin quidditch team came back into the common room, with many other students, cheering and drinking from bottles of liquor in their hands.

Athena stood up with a grimace, the smell of the liquid already making her want to vomit. She found Lucinda quickly and walked over to her and asked, "What's going on?"

Lucinda gave her a grin, her eyes lit up with victory. "Slytherin won the match, so we're having a party." She said, a bottle of firewhiskey in her own hand that was already half finished. "Join us and have a drink. You should live a little, Athena."

Athena shook her head, turning around and almost walking up to the girls' dormitories but was stopped by Lucinda saying, "Oh, I kind of need the dorm for an hour." with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Athena turned to her, her brows furrowing in confusion. Understanding dawned on her when she followed her friend's gaze– which was on a random Ravenclaw in the corner of the already-happening party.

She shook her head and left Lucinda, planning to find her brother. When she did, she said, "I'm going to be in your dorm for a while alone. Is anyone there?"

Abraxas– who was drinking and busy with his friends– turned at her voice and shrugged, the smile fading on his face and being replaced by the look of boredom. "I doubt it. Riddle, I reckon, is at the library. Nott, Dolohov, and Black are with me, so it must be empty." He merely replied and turned away, not giving her a chance to reply– even though she wasn't planning on to.

She had already walked the way to the spiral staircase leading to the boys' dormitories. It took less than three minutes for her to find her brother's dorm, but the second she opened the door, she wished she hadn't.

Because Tom Riddle was sitting down on his bed, a book in his hands as he read with a small frown of concentration on her face. However, he snapped out of it when she walked in and looked at her. The frown of concentration turned into a scowl of disdain.

"What are you doing in my dorm, Malfoy?" Riddle gritted out, looking her up and down in obvious hatred.

Aside from Riddle, the dorm had nobody else in it. Cygnus Black, Dorian Nott, Antonin Dolohov, Abraxas Malfoy, and Tom Riddle shared the same dorm.

Athena was lucky her dorm was only shared with Lucinda and Druella.

She rolled her eyes, walking over to the bed that had Abraxas's jumper on it. She knew it was his. So, she sat down on the unmade bed and pulled out a book from her bag, then finally replied, "I'm not here to argue with you, Riddle. My dorm is preoccupied, so I have nowhere else to go. I thought you were at the library."

Riddle studied her with those cold, calculating eyes, his silence stretching just long enough to unsettle.

Finally, with a disinterested glance back at his book, he spoke, his voice devoid of warmth. "You do realize that no matter how good your grades are, you still will not earn the love of your parents?"

Athena froze.

Her gaze slowly went onto him, her lips parted in a mixture of shock and disbelief. "What?" she whispered weakly, showing emotion for the very first time in a while.

Riddle knew.

How?

She didn't need to ask, because as soon as she looked down on the bed she was on, it became clear who had informed him about everything.

Abraxas.

Her brother had shared all the details of what she had gone through at home with her rival.

Tom Riddle finally glanced back at her with an air of indifferent boredom, as though her shattered heart were of no consequence. "What?" he said, his tone devoid of empathy. "I'm merely stating the truth." He shrugged dismissively and returned to his book.

It was a manipulative trick, Athena knew that. It was a way for her to get distracted from her studies, so that he could reclaim the 'Top Student' title without her competing with him.

It was just an unfortunate coincidence that he used Athena's biggest weakness for it.

Scratch that. It was definitely not a coincidence.

Athena shot to her feet, fury burning away the sting of his words. "You do know that no matter how good your grades are, you will still always be an orphan?" She hissed, her voice sharp with anger.

Yeah, she knew. She knew Riddle was an orphan. Who didn't? One week into the school year, she heard the whispers about it. It was an obvious fact, but nobody knew just who his parents actually were. All they knew was the fact that Tom Riddle grew up in an orphanage and still lived there.

Riddle raised his gaze from the book in his hands, meeting the girl's eyes, which betrayed more pain than anger.

His jaw tightened, a scowl forming as he scrutinized her. He said nothing, his silence conveying more than words ever could.

The depth of her hurt, concealed behind her defiant words, was enough for him to realize that he had perhaps achieved his plan.

And as Athena turned around and packed up her things in an instant, walking to the closed door that was opened by someone else from the other side, she gave the person a look of hurt and disbelief.

Abraxas Malfoy's brows furrowed in concern for once, over the fact that the expression his sister gave her was not of hate– not this time. It was hurt, shock, disbelief, and a little bit of acceptance.

"I am your sister," Athena whispered into his ear before moving past him, her voice cracking with the weight of her anguish. She choked back the lump in her throat, her eyes fixed on Abraxas as he stood motionless. "And yet you betray me, choosing your friend over me by exposing the suffering I've gone through because of our parents, and because of your existence."

"Athena–" Abraxas turned to his sister, who did not let him talk and immediately left. He pursed his lips, his heart beating out of his chest as he turned to Riddle– who merely raised an eyebrow. "What have you done, Riddle?"

"Nothing," Tom Riddle said, his gaze returning to the book in his hands, acting like Athena's reply to him hadn't lingered in his mind. "I simply spoke a truth she will never forget."

Abraxas Malfoy stood there in the doorway, his mind racing as he connected the dots. He debated whether he should've gone after his sister, but he knew that deep down she would not even look at him, let alone let him comfort her.

It was not his fault, was it? Telling Riddle about what could be Athena's weak spot, so that he could innocently surpass her in academics. Riddle had promised, in return, to leave his sister alone and not get her into anything.

In a way, Abraxas helped her.

But in another way, he was one of the people who broke her.