Title: The Ghost Queen
Author: Angela Ravenclaw
Rated: T
Warnings: Spoilers for… everything; violence & mild cussing
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable
Chapter 6
Camp Half-Blood
"C'mon, up you get!" Aunt Rose said to Holly, trying to shake her awake. The alarm clock had already gone off, but Holly just hit the snooze button and rolled over. Unfortunately, her aunt was having none of that.
"Five more minutes…" Holly grumbled under her cover, so that all Aunt Rose got was "Mmm…"
Today was the first day of the summer holidays. Holly had been looking forward to having some time to herself, but nooo, her aunt just had to sign her up for some stupid summer camp and mess up her plan (which was to sit around all day doing absolutely nothing).
Aunt Rose shook her still harder, saying, "Get up, you don't want to keep the camp directors waiting, do you?"
"All right!" Holly groaned as she threw the cover roughly off her and started to get dressed, shooting Aunt Rose her signature death-glare. She was pleased to see that her aunt seemed to shiver a little under the look.
She finished her morning cleaning routine and grabbed a bagel from the table. Sitting down in a chair, she watched as her aunt bustled around the kitchen doing whatever she always did.
"So, I suppose you're not going to tell me what I'm gonna do at this camp, are you?" Holly said for the umpteenth time. All Aunt Rose told her was that it wasn't a wizard camp and not to tell anyone about her magic.
"No." Came the curt reply.
Holly rolled her eyes. Aunt Rose just loved making her wonder. She wondered if it was the result of reading way too many mystery novels. Her aunt had whole bookshelves full of them. Too bad she couldn't pull off the whole "mysterious gal" act like Holly could.
Aunt Rose took her on Side-Along Apparation to get to the camp. Holly was more than capable of Apparating herself, but laws are laws, so she could only take the test after she reached seventeen.
"Well, this is where I leave you. See that tree? That's the property line. Go over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse. The camp directors should be inside. Bye!" Aunt Rose said, eyes darting around the wooded hills and farmhouses as if a monster might be charging out from behind a tree at anytime. She looked extremely nervous for some reason. A huge pine stood proudly at the crest of the nearest hill, looking slightly out-of-place among the much smaller trees that littered the place.
With a loud Crack, Aunt Rose Disapparated, leaving Holly standing alone with all the luggage to carry herself.
"Thanks for telling me where I am." Holly muttered, frowning to herself. She didn't understand why her aunt, who was usually pretty calm and collected, was acting all weird and jittery. Or why she left her in the middle of nowhere, for that matter. Was this camp really that bad? If so, why did Aunt Rose, who was always very nice to her, send her to this place? None of this made any sense.
She signed and started walking toward the pine tree. She'll just put the matter on her "Mystery List", which size was really getting alarming. Yep, that sure was the understatement of the year.
The farmhouse was a four-story manor painted baby-blue with a white trim with a porch that went all the way around it. There were lounge chairs a card table, and an empty wheelchair on the porch. From what Holly could see, the place looked pretty normal, except for maybe the nymph-shaped wind-chimes that turned into trees as they spin. Holly raised her eyebrows. Wasn't this place supposed to be a muggle camp?
She looked around and saw, to her great surprise, the place was filled with ancient Greek buildings, only these weren't crumbling and looked brand-new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. There were high-school aged kids and what looked like people with goat legs running all over the place, all dressed in bright orange T-shirts that said something Holly couldn't make out, doing things like shooting arrows and canoeing. Some rode horses down a wooden trail, and, unless the bludger incident's after-effects lingered to this day, some of their horses had wings. No, it wasn't weird at all for muggles to be riding magical horses. She thought she was beginning to understand why Aunt Rose didn't want to go near this place. It sure messed with your head.
She looked down at the card Aunt Rose had given her before they left home. It took her a while to decipher the writing on it due to her dyslexia (A pain in the butt, but she managed school with her supreme magical skills. More than managed, one might say). So, the camp's name is Camp Half-Blood. She felt her eyebrows rise even higher. She was a half-blood in the wizarding world, with her mom a half-blood and her dad a muggle, but they didn't know that, did they?
The camp director's name was Percy Jackson. Finally, something normal. It was just a name, but she'll take it.
"Um… Mr. Jackson?" Holly called out.
She heard footsteps on the front-porch. No – not footsteps – hooves.
Before she realized what that meant, a centaur burst onto the front porch. Holly was once again taken aback. Why the hell did this place have a centaur if it wasn't a wizard camp?
This particular centaur, however, was better dressed than his British counterparts, who wore pretty much nothing at all and had wild hair and beards. His human part had curly brown hair and a well-trimmed beard, and wore a T-shirt that said World's Best Centaur. Holly had a feeling that the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest wouldn't be too happy about that. From the waist down, he was a pure white stallion.
The centaur said as he galloped toward Holly, "Hello, I'm Chiron, the camp's activity director. Percy isn't here today, so…"
He stopped dead as he caught sight of Holly. The color all but drained out of his face as he stared at her.
"You… You're a witch."
It took Holly an hour-long lecture and a PG-13 rated film for her to understand what was going on. She summarized it into: the Greek gods were still around and still liked to have kids with mortals, which resulted in her being there that day. Her missing dad was apparently a god. That was really a lot to take in, even for Holly. In fact, she was so shell-shocked at first she couldn't make any noise for approximately five minutes. When she finally did, it came out as a squeak. Or maybe a bad tape noise. As for where she was, she was at Camp Half-Blood, Long Island Sound, New York.
Chiron didn't tell her anything about the relationship of gods and the magical population, except for the fact that they mostly ignored each other. He looked so freaked out about the whole thing that Holly didn't pursue the matter. He had even made Holly swear on the River Styx not to tell anyone about the existence of witches and wizards.
"Well, I guess that's it for now." The centaur said, leaning against the back of the wheelchair, looking relived to finally be able to get rid of her, "I'll call Alyssa to give you a tour around our camp."
Just then, the door of the Big House opened and someone walked in. He looked like he was in his twenties, tall and thin, with unruly black hair like he's just rolled out of bed and bright blue eyes. He, like all the campers Holly's seen outside, was wearing an orange T-shirt. This time, Holly was close enough to make out the words Camp Half-Blood on it.
"Ah, you're just in time! This is Holly Potter, our new camper. Mind introducing yourself?" Chiron exclaimed. The centaur turned to Holly with a stern look in his eyes, like the Remember what I told you, don't spill the beans! kind of look. Yeah, like she was planning to after knowing about the River Styx.
The new camper didn't seem to notice anything at all. He was looking Holly up and down with an assessing look in his eyes. It gave Holly the feeling that she was being X-rayed. Then, without warning, his face split into a wide grin and he held out his hand, saying, "Hi, Holly. I'm Emrys Madison, senior counselor of the Hecate cabin."
Yes, Chiron knew about Holly but not Merlin. I'm not ignoring the problem, and will address it in future chapters. Until then, feel free to make up your own assumptions! :)
Hope you guys all had a lovely Christmas!
