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PERCY

Percy made sure to get a donut from the Great Hall that morning. He went outside by the lake and waited. And waited. And waited. Seriously, how could it take that long? It was only about an hour to fly here. Had Blackjack forgotten? Had Annabeth forgotten?

But, no. There was the little black dot on the horizon that could only be Percy's loyal Pegasus coming. Blackjack swooped and soared through the clouds, scaring Annabeth half to death, even though she wouldn't ever show it.

When they finally landed, Blackjack said: You brought me a donut, boss! Thanks! Blackjack took the donut and flew away, still chomping on the pink frosting, and leaving a sprinkle trial to rival Hansel and Gretel's.

"Hey Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, smirking. Annabeth had finally gotten a few days off from her architecture internship.

"Hey Annabeth."

"Wow," Annabeth said looking at the castle over Percy's shoulder. "This place is amazing. To think it has stayed around for thousands of years without collapsing or crumbling. Either they had an extremely good architect, or it uses magic. I'll have to ask Lou Ellen…"

Annabeth started walking towards the castle, soaking in everything. "So they don't know about Half-Bloods?"

"Just McGonagall. And Firenze. That's it, I think," Percy said, jogging to keep up with Annabeth's rapid pace.

"Are you… oh, wow!" Annabeth had just made it to the Great Hall and was staring up at the ceiling in awe. "That's amazing! It reminds me of Olympus, but it's not open to the sky… wow."

"C'mon," Percy said, gently pulling Annabeth away from the Great Hall.

Annabeth shook her head, still dazed from the ceiling, but as soon as she walked out of the Great Hall, she snapped out of it and started asking questions at the speed of light.

"How does the ceiling do that? Is it enchanted?"

"I think so, but I'm probably the wrong person to ask," Percy said.

"How has this building stood up for thousands of years? Who designed it?"

"As far as I can tell, part of it fell in a battle last year. They used magic to rebuild it so fast."

"That's…amazing. I bet Hecate designed it, so it is magic-tolerable, sort of like the Hecate cabin back at camp."

"Sure…How do you know your way around here, anyway? I still don't and I've been here two months."

"It's a simple layout. Plus, they would put the most sensible rooms in the most sensible areas," Annabeth, said walking towards Percy's room.

"But things keep moving around. Like the staircases and pictures," Percy complained.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "Do you have a class today?"

"Yeah, in about ten minutes. We would have had more time is someone wasn't so late."

"I was fifteen minutes earlier than what we planned."

"You were?"

"Yeah, now come on Seaweed Brain, we have a class to go to."

The Great Hall was decorated with flying bats carrying around orange streamers that reminded Percy of Camp Half-Blood. The gigantic pumpkins glowed with soft yellow lights. The corners had been draped in fake spider webs sprinkled with rubber spiders that made Annabeth shiver. There were also skeletons enchanted to dance, which reminded Percy too much of Nico and other things from the Underworld. But, overall, the Great Hall sparkled with a gusto that could only mean one thing: it was Halloween.

Halloween was one of the happiest Percy had ever been to. Sure, most of the student seemed upset, but it was the first Halloween Percy had ever spent with Annabeth; they were at different schools most of the time.

It was going to be the second feast of the year that night, but first there was going to be the first trip to Hogsmeade, the town surrounding Hogwarts.

When Percy and Annabeth went outside of the castle and into the little village, they walked around. They walked past a few shops until they saw one that caught Percy's attention.

"It's a candy store! Honeydukes? Let's go!" Percy ran off towards the gingerbread-like store. The windows were fogged up with condensation and it looked extremely crowded. But Annabeth ran after Percy, laughing anyway.

It was definitely the weirdest candy store either of them had seen. There were sugar quills, blood-flavored lollypops, insect hard candy, acid lollypops, frog-shaped chocolate, weird-flavored jellybeans, and just about any odd thing you could imagine.

"Come on, Percy, let's go somewhere else, we've been here for almost an hour," Annabeth said when she finally got fed up with the crowds inside the cute shop.

"But-but- fine," Percy said as Annabeth pulled him out.

"The architecture here is amazing," Annabeth began, "Hey, what's that?" she pointed to an old, abandoned house.

"The Shrieking Shack. Some people say it's haunted."

Annabeth scoffed "Please. Let's check it out." She started walking, so Percy had no choice but to follow.

When they got to the top of the hill, the shack looked kind of beat up and lonely, not at all haunted-looking.

"Why would they think that's haunted?" Annabeth asked, surprised.

"I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that it's boarded up and look inside." Percy pointed to the cracks in between the boards, where broken furniture could be seen.

"Well I'm pretty sure a ghost can't do that," Annabeth said, "Maybe we should go somewhere else…"

"Sure, I've heard of some pretty interesting places around here."

Annabeth and Percy walked down the hill that overlooked the town. They wandered the streets, hand in hand, just having a good time. When Annabeth was around, it was easy for Percy to forget his troubles that so often preoccupied his mind. With Annabeth, Percy was just … Percy. No war, no Tartarus, just Percy.

Percy had a good time… until the spiders came.

Percy and Annabeth laughed at a gag-worthy teashop called Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. They even got something to drink at The Three Broomsticks- even though Annabeth was scandalized that the students were drinking butterbeer- they weren't sure if it was real beer, or more like root beer.

But after they got back to the castle, things started to go wrong. They had gone onto the grounds to enjoy some ore fresh air before the feast, when, out of the Forbidden Forest, came gigantic spiders, easily the size of Arachne.

Big and bulky, pincers pinching, the group of maybe hundreds of them went straight for Annabeth.

"Daughter of Athena," They said in between the snaps of pincers, all eight eyes staring at Annabeth, "You followed the mark, and tricked our grandmother. You sent her straight into Tartarus, and killed her. She is the most powerful, but we are many! We shall destroy you, and you can't fight us!"

Annabeth looked terrified. There was a hopelessness in her eyes that Percy couldn't stand. It looked like it took all of her effort not to run screaming. Percy locked eyes with her and they mutually agreed Stay and fight.

Annabeth took out a spare knife she had somehow gotten and Percy uncapped Riptide. Instantly, it grew into a three-foot celestial bronze sword, good for fighting Greek monsters.

When the spiders saw Riptide, they backed off slightly, but the largest one- obviously the leader- held it's ground. Percy and Annabeth went back-to-back, the way they always fight when they're surrounded.

Percy slashed out at a leg of one of the smaller ones. It crumpled, unable to get up, but not seriously injured. Percy stabbed at its exposed belly, and left it to die. Percy moved on, and soon his sword was just a whirr of metal, bringing down the enemy.

Percy had killed dozens of monsters, but they just kept coming, and Percy didn't know how Annabeth was doing with just a borrowed knife. Percy's energy started to wane, and he knew he couldn't keep it up much longer. The lake! Was Percy's only thought, but he couldn't leave Annabeth.

Instead, concentrated, and the lake exploded. The water make some spiders fall, but it didn't affect most. But Percy had gotten wet, and was full of new energy. He slashed and stabbed, and before he knew it, the spiders were gone, all turned to dust or lay dying.

Percy looked over at Annabeth, who was shivering and looked scared. Percy hugged her, pulling her in close. No words needed to be spoken. When Percy finally did look up, he saw McGonagall coming their way.

"What was that?" McGonagall asked in her sharp tone of voice.

"Uh, giant spiders trying to kill my girlfriend?"

"What were they doing on the grounds? You're not a daughter of Athena are you?" she asked Annabeth.

Annabeth looked up and nodded. She hadn't been crying, but was close to it.

"Hmm… they always stayed in the forest because of me, but you are obviously more powerful than I. Are they all dead?"

"Some ran off into the forest," Annabeth said before Percy could answer.

"They shouldn't be attacking again after what happened… But what will the students think?"

McGonagall waved her wand and all the dust and injured spiders disappeared.

"Get inside, let's hope no one saw you," McGonagall said, ushering them towards the castle.

Yayyyyyy! End of another chapter! Short, I know, but in the next one, something BIG is going to happen!