Chapter 4:

As promised, the schedules were delivered by Annabeth in the morning before they left for breakfast. She carried all of the schedules in a red folder with one hand and her wand in the other, which left her binder to levitate and follow her. Harry noticed her wearing a pouch on her waist, which must have been enchanted to do something or other, Harry couldn't tell what. "Girls, your schedules are over here. Boys, over there," Annabeth directed to the sleepy group of Gryffindors.

The girls seemed to get their schedules with enough enthusiasm for Annabeth to stop watching them so carefully but when the boys continued to lazily receive their schedules, she pointed her wand at them. Harry stared uncomfortably at it. She held it like a weapon, which he supposed, it was and seemed to have no problem using for discipline. "Boys! Hurry up and get your schedules before you all end up coming to detention!" she snapped. "I don't have time for this!"

After receiving his schedule, Harry stepped back and watched Annabeth. She didn't look too good herself; her hair was in a messy ponytail and she wore the Hogwarts robes but she looked exhausted beyond the point of sanity. Harry figured that this would be the worst time to get in trouble with her. She seemed to be driven to the edge by something.

She seemed to take a moment to calm herself before stowing away her wand and grabbing her binder. She flipped through the pages and looked up. "First year Cory Harrison and first year Felix Green; please come to my office after breakfast," Annabeth announced, turning back to the pages.

"Wait!" Annabeth didn't even bother looking up from her work. Harry saw that the protest had come from two boys who he assumed were Felix and Cory. "The detention was supposed to be in the afternoon!"

"Yes, change of plans. Meet me in my office after breakfast," Annabeth repeated. She closed her binder and reached into the pouch. She pulled out two golden coins and tossed it to the boys, who caught them. "Use those to get into my office," she said before turning and walking out.

"Felix! That was so creepy! My hand just moved and caught it by itself," Cory groaned, looking at the coin in his hand. He attempted to throw it someplace else but the coin didn't move from his hand. "It's stuck to my hand!" Felix shrugged.

"It's not for me," he replied, putting the coin in his pocket. Cory put the coin in his pocket and miraculously, the coin fell off his hand.

"Creepy," Cory commented. "Whatever, let's just get to breakfast." Harry lost sight of them as they ran out of the hole. He turned to find Ron.

"Harry, what'd you get?" Ron asked, ripping the paper out of his hand. His eyes never left the paper and when Hermione walked by, he didn't bother asking and instead just grabbed her schedule.

"Ron? What's wrong?" Hermione asked, trying to grab back her paper.

"Nothing," he finally said, handing them back their papers. "We just got the same classes."

"We have a free day today," Hermione began. "Classes don't start until tomorrow so…why don't we go to the library to check out that guy you were talking about, Harry?"

"Right, the Animagus," Harry said, nodding. "Coming Ron?"

"Yeah sure."

-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-

Felix and Cory strode through the hallways, looking for Annabeth's office. "It's supposed to be someplace around here, right?" Cory asked, looking around. Felix only shrugged. "Damn, why'd that girl have to give us detention like that," he groaned, kicking the wall.

They finally reached the end of the hall and noticed a door with a stone gargoyle in front of it. "Hey, dude," Cory said, peering closer to the statue. "Check it out, it's a-"

"Do you have an appointment with Miss Annabeth?" Cory jumped back when the gargoyle spoke.

"W-what?"

"Do you have an appointment with Miss Annabeth?" it repeated. The two boys were still speechless. "Well, do you have a form of passage? Something that Miss Annabeth gave you if she told you to come here?"

"The coin!" Cory fumbled for a moment before pulling the coin out of his pocket. "I can't give it to you though because it won't come off my hand-"

"Please deposit the item in the tray to my right."

"Listen, I just told you. The-"

"Please deposit the item in the tray to my right."

"Fine, fine," Cory replied, exasperated. He moved to the box and the coin fell into the opening. Felix followed his example.

"Why'd you question him? It's obvious that something was up with it," Felix said in reply to Cory's surprised expression.

"You may enter." Before Cory could say anything else, Felix pulled him through the door. A blast of warmth hit them as they entered the room and caught the scent of eggs, bacon, syrup and waffles. The room was pretty huge; it had wooden floorboards and a large carpet draped in the center of the room.

A fireplace stood against the wall with a few couches and seats in front of it. The majority of the wall was lined with books and cabinets with the occasional picture frame. There were two doors and in the center of the room was a desk, much like a principal's desk, and four chairs in front of it.

Annabeth looked up once they walked in. "Boys, please take a seat." The door slammed shut behind them as they nervously sat down. What kind of punishment would she give them? Was it being her test dummy as she tried out new spells? Was it turning them purple?

She reached into her drawer and pulled out a box. She dropped it on the table and it fell with a loud clunk."Here's what I want you to do, guys."

-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-

After hours and hours of searching, Hermione ended up with a thick book with a bright red cover. Ron and Harry were still reading about Quidditch History but something was off when she first caught sight of the new professor in the dining hall. Something about him was just wrong. She hadto get to the bottom of this.

The uneasy feeling intensified as she scanned through the pages of the book. Was it because he was an Animagus? No. She had met plenty before and that wasn't causing her uneasy feeling. Why was there such a strange aura around him that screamed with a mysterious power? She turned the page.

Finally, she found the list of registered Animagus. She scanned through the small biographies of the few people on the top of the page until her eyes landed on a specific name. She let out a muffled scream at the sight of the new information before slapping her hand to her face to muffle it. "Hermione? Hermione, what's wrong?"

She could hear Ron and Harry making their way to her. She folded the corner of the page and slammed the book closed, switching it with a green covered book and opening it to a random page. "Hermione?"

"Oh, I was just…" she stole a glance at the page she was reading. It was a potions book. "…surprised by some of the ingredients used in the potions, that's all," she lied smoothly. "I'm alright."

"Okay, well if you…"

"Actually, I'm a little tired of reading in here so I think I'll borrow these books and go through them in the dormitory," Hermione hurriedly added. "Don't worry about me; I bet I'll be finished reading these by lunchtime," she said, gathering up the books. She made sure that the red covered book was in her pile, too.

"Sure. See you later…?"

A/N: So what do you think? Its a little side story with Cory and Felix; what do you think their punishment will be? What did Hermione see that shocked her so badly? What is Ron hiding from them? And finally, will you review with your answer? Stay tuned!