Hi, I feel like I haven't updated in forever, so here it is. I got over 20,000 views, so thanks you for being so supportive and reading this. Plus, I wrote another story: The Story of Zoƫ Nightshade, and I would appreciate it if you check it out! Please review, I love reading them, good or bad, to see how I'm doing. BTW the spell is a tweaking of the latin translation of the word "english" and all the books mentioned are real, so don't sue me for copywriting!
HARRY
"I've got it!" Hermione said at the breakfast table a few days before Halloween. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before, it's so simple! Obviously that thing coming out of the water was just a regular wizard. He or she just used a bubblehead charm. Or transfigured themselves into an underwater creature."
"Or Gillyweed," Harry said, remembering the circumstances that had caused him to eat that four years ago.
"Well that, and most other plants with the same abilities are extremely rare, and no one would pay that amount of money or steal from Slughorn for a nighttime swim."
"You're slacking off, Hermione," Ron teased, "I bet in out first year you would have figured that out in a few hours."
"Well I have better things to do, Ronald," Hermione said, glaring daggers at Ron. "Like helping the poor, enslaved-"
"Not spew again."
"How many times do I have to tell you? It's not spew! It's S.P.E.W.! The Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare!" Hermione shrieked, louder than some of the owls bringing post in.
"No need to get angry, Hermione, I was just teasing," Ron, said, his hands up in a defensive position.
"Whatever," Hermione said, a term she had no doubt picked up from their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Percy.
"What class do we have next?" Harry asked.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts." The four of them got up, heading towards that classroom.
"What did Percy say we'd be learning about?" Harry asked.
"Professor Jackson."
"He said to call him Percy," Harry protested.
"And I'm not calling a bloke who's younger than me 'professor'," Ron said, much to Hermione's annoyance.
"He's still in a position of higher authority."
"And he's still flipping younger."
"That's not the point, Ron."
"Then what is the point?"
"He's still your professor and your teacher."
"Like Harry said, he said to call him Percy."
"But he's still our teacher!"
By the time Ron and Hermione had finished their argument, the four of them were already in their classroom. Harry had time to register Percy and a girl with intimidating gray eyes, and curly blond hair, before Percy bust out laughing. The girl, who was tall muscular, and looked about Percy's age rolled her eyes at Percy. She held out her hand to Harry "I'm Annabeth Chase."
"Harry Potter," Harry said, shaking her hand. He expected to see recognition on Annabeth's face, as Harry had unfortunately become very well known after the war, but Annabeth didn't seem at all surprised, shocked, or impressed.
Annabeth Chase introduced herself to the rest of them, all the while Percy was laughing.
Finally, Ron asked, "What's he laughing at?"
Annabeth sighed and said, "You're argument." She didn't elaborate.
"But what's so funny?"
Percy had finally stopped laughing long enough to say, "They remind me of us," before he started giggling hysterically again.
"How?" Ron asked.
"Well, you two are obviously dating," Ron and Hermione glanced at each other in alarm before Annabeth continued, "And you're obviously a lot smarter than him," Annabeth addressed Hermione, "And you always make annoying jokes," Annabeth told Ron, "and our relationship is a lot similar to yours." Annabeth said, reminding Harry of Hermione.
"Blimey," Ron said ever so intelligently.
"You two are dating?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Annabeth said, giving Percy a funny look. He had finally stopped laughing.
By that time the students had started coming in. Once the class was all settled (aside from the whispering about Annabeth), Percy said, "I have brought in a special guest today. This is my girlfriend, Annabeth, who will be teaching you about logic."
Many of the girls sighed in disappointment, and a few looked angry and jealous. But mostly, people were whispering to one another.
"I'm Annabeth Chase," Annabeth said.
"Annabeth can talk her way out of anything," Percy interrupted. Annabeth glared at him.
"What sort of things have you done?" a boy in the back asked.
"Quite a lot. I would explain it to you, but I can't."
"Why not?"
Harry noticed that Annabeth gave Percy a worried look before continuing. "Does it matter?" Silence was her answer enough. "Anyways, as I was saying, I'm here to teach you about logic." No one dares interrupt her. "Suppose you lose your wea- wand. You are stuck, with no help on the way. What do you do?"
No one said anything. Harry raised his hand tentatively.
"You. Harry, right?" A few people gasped at her not knowing who Harry was.
"You get them to talk, until you find a solution."
"Very good." Annabeth looked impressed. "Have you talked about fatal flaws yet?" Annabeth asked Percy.
"No."
"A fatal flaw is the thing about you that will get you killed. A lot of villains' flaws are pride and superiority. This makes them easy to trick."
"What do mean by 'trick'?" someone called out.
"Outsmarting your enemies. Most of the time this involves talking. You get their pride up, and create mass confusion. Sometimes you can get away."
A scrawny student raised his hand. "What do you mean by 'sometimes'?"
"It doesn't always work. Sometimes you get killed, or sometimes, help comes." Annabeth said this so calmly, but the sadness in her eyes makes Harry believe that it was probably the former.
"Here are some scenarios," Annabeth said, gesturing to the chalkboard behind her. Written on it was a bunch of letters Harry couldn't make sense of. "Write them down with the remainder of class. They will be turned in as homework by next class. Begin."
"Excuse me, Annabeth?" Hermione said, "That's written in Greek."
"Styx," Annabeth muttered under her breath. Thunder rumbled. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Is there a spell to turn this into English?" she asked the class.
"Yes, but shouldn't you know it?" Hermione said.
"I do, but I'm testing your knowledge," Annabeth retorted a little too quickly. Hermione narrowed her eyes, but didn't say anything.
"Angliciuse," Hermione muttered and the words turned to English.
The class began copying it down, but Harry noticed that Hermione kept glancing at Percy and Annabeth with suspicion.
As soon as class was over, Hermione sprinted out the door, calling "Library" over her shoulder.
"What's she up to this time?" Ron asked as they made their way towards Charms.
The next day was Halloween. The first two months of the term had gone surprisingly fast. In what seemed like no time, Harry was up and ready for the trip to Hogsmeade and the Halloween feast.
Harry and Ron met Ginny and Hermione in the common room. Where Hermione had books strewn everywhere. Ginny looked like she was trying the calm Hermione down.
"It's not that big a deal, Hermione," Ginny said.
"Yes it is! How could the library not have something? They had it last year!"
"Had what last year?" Harry asked.
Hermione waved the question off. "Never mind."
"Let's go down to breakfast," Ginny suggested.
The Great Hall always looked amazing on Halloween, but this year, it was extra fantastic. Bats with orange streamers, huge pumpkins that talked, spider webs with what looked like real spiders, skeletons that sung and danced, and mummies that walked around, tripping on their dragging linen.
But despite McGonagall's best efforts to cheer up the school, most of the students looked even gloomier than before. The skeletons and ghosts were reminders of how many people died, how many were lost.
But overall, it was a good Halloween. The Hogsmeade trip was fun, a reminder that there are good things still left, still good memories to counteract the bad ones.
Probably the most interesting thing that happened that day was the spiders. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were on the way back from Hogsmeade. They were stuck with the stragglers, those few who were late coming back in the castle. The four friends were late because of the good time they had had in the little town. They didn't want it to end. They had visited the Hog's Head and said hello to Abeforth, and even visited Zonko's.
When they were coming into the castle, they saw Percy and his girlfriend, Annabeth. They were talking and laughing about something or another, when out of the Forbidden Forest came the spiders. Ron immediately cowered away, but the giant spiders only seemed to go for Annabeth. They said something Harry couldn't hear, but Hermione obviously did, because she looked completely astonished.
Then the strangest thing happened. Percy took out a muggle pen from his pocket, and uncapped the top. Immediately it turned into a sword. A three-foot bronze sword. But Percy seemed completely at ease with it, swinging it left and right, making the spiders crumble to a fine gold powder. Annabeth was also fighting them, with a bronze knife, back to back with Percy. They seemed completely at ease, but their faces showed hard concentration. Then the water came up from the lake and drowned most of the spiders.
Harry was confused. How could the water come up like that? It had never happened before. Ron also seemed confused, and Ginny looked scared. But Hermione looked the most worried. She was pacing back and forth, muttering "No no, no, no, no. This isn't happening. This can't happen. No, no, no," under her breath. Then, she suddenly sprinted off to the castle.
"Where are you going?" Harry shouted toward her retreating figure.
"Owlery! I have to send a letter!" Hermione shouted as she sprinted towards Hogwarts.
"Why does she need to go to the Owlery now?" Ron asked, bewildered, his voice still shaking a little from the spiders.
"She told me a theory she had, but it really seems impossible," Ginny said, looking more worried still.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"I don't want to scare you."
"At least tell us who she's writing to," Ron said.
"Her parents. She's asking for books."
The next morning at breakfast, Hermione got a huge package from her parents.
"Blimey, what's all that for?" Ron asked, with his usual amount of tact.
There were about six or seven books in all, and they looked like muggle books. They had titles like: Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths, Mythology for Dummies, and A Treasury of Greek Mythology.
Hermione didn't even answer Ron; she just dived right in to the books. Hermione was so interested in these books that she didn't even pay attention in class. Occasionally she would say things like "Oh no, oh no. This is not happening." But other than that, she wouldn't say a word to Harry or Ron.
At the end of the day, Hermione finished all her books. The four of them met up in the common room. In their favorite seats by the fore, she told them her theory.
"But how?" Harry asked, "It's all fake. None of this can be real."
"That's the thing. What if it's not fake?" Hermione said.
"How do you know all of this anyway? It's not like Binns teaches it," Ron said.
"Like you would know what Professor Binns teaches," Hermione scoffed, "I went to a muggle school. They teach that kind of thing there."
"What makes you think this?" Ginny asked.
"I don't know. Even if is fake, it sort of fits. He wrote in Greek. The gold dust. His sword. The constellations. And the spiders."
"What do those things have to do with it?" Ron looked disgusted.
"Well, one of the myths deals with a feud between the goddess Athena and spiders. And that spider said 'Daughter of Athena. 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!'"
The three of them looked at her with blank faces. "I didn't understand half of that."
Hermione sighed in exasperation. "According to these myths, Arachne was the first spider. Her children were all of the other spiders. I'm not sure what they mean by 'the mark,' but Tartarus is the deepest part of the Underworld. It's where the most wicked undergo eternal punishment."
She still got three blank faces. "Just read these, and you'll understand," Hermione shoved the books into their arms.
"One thing I still don't get," Harry said, "Why'd you have to write your parents to send these."
"They weren't in the library. All mythology books disappeared, which makes me even more suspicious."
(P.S. In the next chapter, the plot is revealed, so keep reading!)
