Chapter 2

ANNABETH

The red haired buy said something more intelligent than what Percy had ever said, "Gah! Err..um..so….? Goodness! Merlin's beard…Leave it!"

He turned towards carter.

"and you?"

"We are Egyptian magicians, from the House of Life. Ever heard if it?", Carter asked hopefully. Both Ron and Harry turned towards Hermione. She glared at them and then said,

"Er…Isis, Set, Horus and stuff- you are from-uh?"

Ron and Harry whispered, "Girls!"

"Yeah, now your turn."

Harry volunteered.

"Er…. We are wizards. I mean..Ron and I are wizards. Hermione, here, is a witch."

"What?", exclaimed Carter, Annabeth and Sadie.

"Er, a female wizard. You can say. We study magic…the thing you do with wands. At….. Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ever heard of Albus Dumbledore ? He is the headmaster."

Percy, suddenly, like out of a trance, asked.

"So…. What you did with your wand….stupid-fry…..what kind of magic is that?"

"Not stupid fry, stupefy!," retorted Harry.

Afraid that her boyfriend might get stupid fried, Annabeth said, "Percy heard wrong. So did us. What kind of spell is stub… Stupefy?"

Harry calmed down and replied.

"Stupefy is a stunning spell. To stun….er… stop people…. Bad people from doing things. You saw that bird, it was an accident, but that is what happens to humans too. They don't die, but remain stunned for enough time for you to run or complete your mission. There are many others, like "Expelliarmus", a disarming spell, "Accio", a summoning spell and so on.

Harry stepped closer to Annabeth.

"The others did not notice but I did. Percy did something to the water. He kind of…controlled it. How?"

"Um…he is a son of Poseidon, the water god. He can summon water, control oceans, breathe in water and not get wet."

However, she did not say that summoning the river bed was something he had never done before. The river bed was the earth, was Gaia. It did not seen right. Sadie seemed to sense Annabeth's tension.

"Er…Harry?", spoke up Sadie. "Can I have Annabeth for a minute? You too, Percy. "She glanced at Carter, who nodded. I'll take care.

Percy glanced toward Annabeth and raised his eyebrows. What? Annabeth shrugged he shoulders and walked with Sadie. Percy followed.

"Percy. Annabeth", said Sadie, hiding her gaze.

"I know what you are worried about. Percy summoning the river bed. I did it. I mean….. I did not want to cause any harm. I only wanted to help. I am so sorry. I…."

Suddenly, Sadie felt hands on her shoulders and looked up. Percy squeezed her shoulders and looked at her in the eye.

"Don't work yourself up. Just tell me how you did it", he said kindly.

Sadie gulped and calmed down a little.

"For us Egyptians, The sky is the goddess Nut and the earth the god Geb. I once did Geb a favour of delivering a letter for him from Nut. I just asked for a return gift."

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other. A wave of relief seemed to flow between them.

"Sadie", Percy said with a wink. "Let us go help Big brother".

The three strode back to the rest.

Hermione, determined to put up a conversation, asked,

"Annabeth, you- the daughter of Athena, can do- what?"

"My powers lie in wisdom, strategy, planning, thinking.. and on."

Harry and Ron suppressed a grin and said, louder than before, "GIRLS!"

Good glares this girl gives, thought Annabeth, after Hermione regained her composure after another one.

Ron asked suddenly, "So what do you do….I mean, you fight what?"

"Monsters, evil giants ,sometimes Cyclops, Titans … Blab la bla. You?"

"We fight You-Know-Who", said Ron.

"No, we don't know who," replied Carter, bewildered.

Harry butted in.

"Ron, can't you say his name. We fight this evil wizard- Voldemort ."Ron winced.

It seemed to Annabeth that there was a long story behind this animosity, the way Harry's eyes had become fiery while talking of the wizard.

Harry kept talking.

"We were escaping him and his snake, Nagini. It was then we saw this portal, shining in the middle of nowhere. Voldemort followed us halfway into the portal and then lost us."

A white flash shone behind them, just like it had done when Harry and the rest had made their appearance. The light disappeared with a bang.

A long, slithery scaly creature appeared and bared its fangs.

"No….. Nagini!", Ron stammered.

"RUN!", shouted Harry.

"NO WAIT!", shouted Percy.

He was ready with Riptide in his hands.

"Step-back", he ordered.

Nagini was still a little far. Percy closed his eyes and spread his arms. The water of the river rose, slowly, swirling. And formed itself into a whirlpool, swishing turbulently around the centre. Percy raised his hands and the cataract descended on the advancing Nagini. The snake got caught in the torrent and flowed towards Percy. Percy tightened his grip around Riptide and brought it down on Nagini. It passed clean through the snake's body.

No! thought Percy.

Nagini recovered, bared er fangs and lunged at Percy. Percy leaped sideways and flung himself on the ground. Sadie stepped forward and shouted "Ha-Di!" and aimed the spell towards Nagini. Blue hieroglyphs shone. They failed to blast the snake to pieces but got it severely injured. Nagini writhed on the ground.

Annabeth unsheathed her blade and moved forward. She and Percy did their regular battle performance.

I go one way, you go another…

They tried to confuse the snake. Annabeth shouted, "Hermione!", who screamed, pointing her wand at the snake, "Stupefy!"

Nagini froze and the scaly body dropped still to the ground.

"Wow", whispered Ron. Harry nodded, appreciating. Immediately, he said,

"Look, we don't have much time. We need to run."

Harry ran a little way and all of them followed. He then told them to hold hands. Annabeth knew that they were about to disappear, just like the children of Hades did- shadow travel. She just knew it. A shudder ran through her spine. Her Athenian instincts said Now.

Annabeth felt herself getting squeezed to death. She could feel Percy's hand around hers and gripped it tightly. It was the hand that held Riptide, the hand that killed Kronos, the hand of the son of Poseidon, the greatest demigod ever.