AN: Just warning you guys; I haven't read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies in, about, a billion years. There will probably be mistakes on the Hogwarts stuff, and if there are, please inform me (nicely inform me) and I will try to fix them to the best of my abilities. Thank you.

"This match is going to be so great!" gushes Hazel. Her golden eyes light up with the prospect of watching Quidditch, even though she is Gryffindor's Seeker and has experienced many games herself.

"What's so great about it?" Thalia jests, and Percy rolls his eyes. Their little cousin has stated the fact eleven times over.

"Because it's going to be Slytherin vs Ravenclaw! Leo and Piper up against Jason and Reyna!" She turns to Percy. "Aren't you excited?"

The Hufflepuff shrugs, attempting to give off an air of nonchalance. "Yeah. I guess. It's pretty cool. It's Leo's first game, and I'm really excited for him."

Thalia jabs her elbow into his side, earning a yelp. "Admit it; you just want to ogle Annabeth Chase."

"What?" he squeaks. "No! That's not–" He shoves Thalia's mock-kissy face out of his space. "That's not it! I'm really excited and happy for Leo!"

"Oh, please," Percy's fellow Hufflepuff Frank says.

Frank doesn't like violent games like Quidditch, but goes when Hazel, his girlfriend, is playing. She isn't this night, but the entire group is going to support Leo whom had replaced the previous Keeper, Jake Mason, mid-season when Jake had broken all the bones in his body and swore to never play the sport again.

"Even I know that you like Annabeth Chase," Frank continues. "Heck, the entire house was talking about it just last night!"

"The entire house?!" Percy feels heat burning his cheeks.

"Yep."

"I-I mean," he straightens and picks up his jaw, "the entire house is completely wrong. I do not, in any way, have a crush on Annabeth Chase."

Thalia snorts. "I'll be convinced of that as soon as a Muggle charms a pig to fly."

He's about to retort, but then he hears chatting, the shifting of fabric, and seemingly perfectly polished shoes clacking against the marble floor in a hallway to the left of him.

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

In their bronze and blue robes, they step into the hallway Percy and his friends are in. They chat about random brainiac things and Quidditch plays. Jason Grace and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano are two of the three talking about the plays, but Percy's eyes are drawn to the one in the middle of them.

Annabeth Chase has her bag of equipment thrown over one shoulder, including her Prefect badge that she always pins to the front pocket for Quidditch games. Even though half the team are guys, she dwarfs all but Jason. Her square jaw is already set. Her curly blond hair is pulled back into a bun for the match, and her steely grey eyes twinkle with challenge.

"Good luck, guys!" Hazel says.

"Thanks, Levesque," one of the players returns, probably recognizing Hogwarts' current youngest Seeker.

"Kick some butt, Annabeth," Thalia says. She pinches Percy between the shoulder blades.

"Ye-yeah. Score some goals, Annabeth," he agrees.

Annabeth smiles something that makes his knees go weak. "Thank you," she says. She sends him a wink with her next sentence. "I'll make sure to dedicate a score to Hufflepuff's finest Keeper."

Percy guesses his face is the same color as the red on Hazel and Thalia's robes by now. Yes, he's good at what he does in Quidditch. In fact, he's been named the best of the season. But hearing the praise come from the best Chaser of Hogwarts, who has eleven people to battle with for that title compared to his three, it leaves him a little flabbergasted.

"What, no encouragement for your favorite cousin?" Jason says. He covers his heart with his hand. "I'm truly, deeply offended."

Hazel giggles. "Good luck, Jason," she and Percy chorus. Frank gives a nod.

"Yeah, yeah. Break some legs, and all that," Thalia says, waving at her little brother absent mindedly.

The team goes down another hallway, where they go to the chute they come out of, while Percy, Thalia, Hazel, and Frank continue on their way to the spectators towers.

The boys depart from the girls, the closest Gryffindor tower being a little more of a walk, and they take their seats next to the other Hufflepuff.

It isn't long before the players fly on the pitch. After they swirl around the pitch, showing off their skills, they line up and wave at the crowd as the announcer–one of Slytherin's Perfects, since both of Ravenclaw's, Annabeth and Jason, are on the Quidditch team–yells out the standard rules.

There are many shouts of "Annabeth Chase!" from the towers and the Ravenclaw in question has to do a 360 on her broomstick to appease them all.

"…and last but not least, we have Leo Valdez playing his first game as Keeper! Give him a round of applause, folks!" says the announcer. Leo waves with a big grin that Percy can see from the stands. He's floating in between Slytherin's Beaters, Piper and Octavian.

"Go, Leo!" Percy shouts. He wolf whistles and claps his hands together so hard it hurts.

Then the players stop waving, all looking down intently, and the air crackles with anticipation. The Seekers tense, and Percy can tell the snitch has been released. The Bludgers fly up in the air, and the Quaffle is thrown, and all hell breaks loose.

The Keepers, Leo and Jason, zip right over to their sides. The Seekers fly off with a purpose. All six Chasers immediately dive for the Quaffle.

Travis Stoll from Slytherin is the first one to get his hands on it. Reyna tries to take it from him, but Clovis Lethe slams into her, sending her broomstick spinning. Travis roars in outrage, spreading his now-empty hands, and Percy realizes it was a fake-out.

Annabeth zips out from under Travis, clutching the Quaffle to her side, and makes a bee line for the Slytherin's goals. Too late does Leo dive for the ball, and the announcer has to add ten points for Ravenclaw.

Annabeth pumps her fist, making the already cheering crowd go wild, and then dives back into the game.

Over the next half-hour, Slytherin has racked up one-hundred-and-forty points. Meanwhile, Ravenclaw's other Chaser, Michael Yew, has scored four times, Reyna has scored five, and Annabeth has thrown the Quaffle through the hoop eleven times, earning two-hundred points between the three of them.

During that time, Percy gets up from his seat, moving to the railing of the tower so that he can get a better look. (Pretty much all not-currently-playing Quidditch players do this.) Also during this time, he may or may not have thought Annabeth was gorgeous flying around with that determined look on her face.

Connor Stoll, Travis's younger brother and fellow Chaser, throws the Quaffle with a loud grunt. Jason tries his best to deflect it, but it flies through the hoop on the left. Connor dives for the Quaffle again, but Michael snatches it from right under his nose. The Slytherin curses loudly, distracting himself, and he probably would have been dead meat if Octavian didn't hit the Bludger that was coming at him away in time.

Michael throws the Quaffle to Reyna, who flings it to Annabeth, who chucks it at the goals. Leo hits it away, aiming for Travis, but Annabeth intercepts it. She catches it with one palm, under-handing to the smaller goal on Leo's right.

"Another ten points for Ravenclaw!" shouts the announcer.

Travis does a straight down nosedive for the Quaffle. He swings himself on his broomstick, knocking the ball into Clovis's open hands.

Percy's eyes train on the Chaser as he whips down the pitch, dodging both Michael and Reyna.

"Octavian!" Piper shouts to her fellow Beater. They're close enough to the Hufflepuff tower that Percy can hear her. "One's after you!" She swings upward, smacking a Bludger off of Clovis's trail. Percy spots the other on Octavian's trail.

Whatever Octavian's mean remark is (Percy really, really hates that guy. He's a jerk to everyone, even his own teammates, and especially to Piper, the only girl on Slytherin's team) gets drowned out by the commotion from the rest of the players as Reyna nabs the Quaffle.

"Hey! Hey! WATCH OUT!"

Percy cranes his neck to see Annabeth flying towards the Hufflepuff tower he's on, a frantic look on her face. She practically throws herself in front of him, about two or three yards away.

Only when he hears the sickening crack of a Bludger connecting with flesh does he understand what she's doing.

Her broomstick goes on a downward spiral, and then she's thrown from it into the canvas of the tower. It rips under her, and he can't keep the scream in when he hears the wood of the structure snapping.

"ANNABETH!" he yells. The crowd choruses a gasp, a few other people screaming her name, too. Six of them are her team.

Michael, the closest one to the tower, does an immediate nosedive for his teammate.

"Timeout! TIMEOUT!" Malcolm Chase screeches desperately. He zooms down in search of his younger sister.

"Players, STOP! The Ravenclaw captain has called a timeout!" says the announcer. "And with good conscious, too. Ravenclaw's star Chaser Annabeth Chase has just taken a nasty one."

One of the officials leans over, whispering in his ear. "And it seems one with valor, too!" the announcer says, surprised. "Annabeth Chase just took a Bludger that seems to have been aimed for Perseus Jackson, Hufflepuff's very own Keeper! What a twist, folks!"

The news makes Percy's knees buckle. Frank is next to him in a moment, steadying him. "Are you okay?" he asks. All Percy can do is shake his head.

"We're playing Slytherin next week," he gasps. "Th-they-they wanted to cross me off. Make it look like an accident, or-or something. One of the Beaters."

"It couldn't have been Piper," Frank says, telling Percy what he already knows. "So that leaves only Octavian."

As if it's an omen, one of the officials takes the microphone from the announcer, ordering into it, "Octavian Solace, please make your way to the official's tower. Travis Stoll, please guide your teammate to the official's tower in case he 'suddenly' forgets the way. Thank you."

"C'mon, Bumpher," Travis snarls, looking absolutely disgusted with his teammate. He slams his broomstick into Octavian's roughly. "I hope you get kicked off the team for that one."

The announcer gets handed his microphone back. "It appears that Octavian Solace has just committed a Bumphing, targeting Perseus Jackson."

Percy can hear the canvas shifting and the Ravenclaws snapping at each other.

A moment later, they all carefully float away. Malcolm, Jason, and Reyna balance Annabeth's limp form between them, the others flying anxiously around them.

When Percy catches sight of Annabeth, he wants to cry. Blood covers her robes, the crimson stuff dripping off her gloved fingertips and trailing over her face. Her eyes are closed. He prays to whatever god that will listen, begging for her to still be alive.

"DON'T WORRY!" Michael shouts with all his might, making sure that he's heard in every spectator's tower. "SHE'S NOT DEAD."

"Yet," mutters one of Percy's fellow Hufflepuff. Murmurs ripple throughout the tower. Percy wants to punch the guy in the face.

"Annabeth." You'd think he's just run a marathon from the way he's panting. "I've gotta–I've gotta make sure she's alright."

"Can you walk?" Frank questions.

"I, uh, yeah. I think so." He pushes himself off his friend and the railing, standing on wobbly feet. He starts walking.

"I can't believe she took that hit for me."

AN: I get it if you don't agree with my house choices for Percy and Jason, and, I admit, they both could have just as easily been in Gryffindor, like how Neville could have just as easily been Hufflepuff. But please respect my creative choices since this is, after all, my story.

In case you guys forget (I had to look at it a couple times. *smiles sheepishly*):

Gryffindor: Thalia Grace and Hazel Levesque.

Slytherin: Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Jake Mason, Connor and Travis Stoll, Clovis Lethe, and Octavian Solace (I took some liberties with his last name. Sorry, Will Solace!).

Hufflepuff: Percy Jackson and Frank Zhang.

Ravenclaw: Annabeth Chase (Prefect), Jason Grace (Prefect), Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Malcolm Chase (Quidditch captain), and Michael Yew.

This was not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. If you find any errors, please tell me so I may fix them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson or J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. I cry about it sometimes.

Constructive criticism welcome, and reviews make my day!