Before you read this chapter, I wish you all happy holidays and a Merry Christmas. Since this chapter is about Christmas I couldn't not post it on Christmas day. Enjoy!
Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Stoll twins were punished for their latest prank, bewitching a snow storm inside the Great Hall while students were having breakfast, so naturally all the students decided to abandon their meals and join the most epic snow fight of all Hogwarts' history.
No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the draughty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Dionysus's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons. And Flying lessons weren't better. You'd think they would have canceled them due to the icy temperatures and moody weather. But no, they still had to get on the grounds of the castle each Tuesday to have their commune lesson of Flight. And in this class, no cauldrons to keep you warm.
"I do feel sorry for the people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, because they're not wanted at home." Said Octavian, in a Flying class.
Of course, he was looking over at Percy as he spoke, nudging his two goonies with his elbow while they cackled like mindless baboons. Percy tried not to clench his fists, and more importantly, tried not to send them towards Octavian's ugly face. It really wasn't his fault that the week prior, his mother had received a letter from the MACUSA about an affair related to a Manticore causing trouble in New York. Due to her high expertise and knowledge of monsters but also magical creatures in general, she had to go all the way from London to New York to deal with the unleashed beast, which meant that she would not be able to be home for Christmas like they'd planned. And since Percy's father was not home either, the young boy wouldn't be able to see his family during these holidays.
But Octavian was simply jealous. After the Quidditch match, he became even more unpleasant and mean to Percy, which nobody thought was possible. And since he couldn't compare to the green eyed boy in skill, he decided to taunt him about not being wanted in his family, which was absolute rubbish.
When they got back inside, after the Flight lesson had ended, they found the entrance to the Great Hall barricaded by huge pine trees that were probably not meant to be there. So the students were forced to go to their common rooms before supper. But Percy was bored out of his mind, and the last thing he wanted to do was waste time while looking at a blank parchment, trying to write his thirty inches long Transfiguration essay. Besides, it was the last day before the holidays, so the first year had large amount of time to accomplish his homework.
"Hey Grover! Do you want to practice a spell that I read about in a book?" Asked Percy while nudging Grover with his elbow.
"I have two questions. Isn't that forbidden? And since when do you read?"
"I am hurt by your words, G-man. Right here." Whispered Percy, pointing to his heart with his index.
"Why did you ask me though?" Said Grover, a frown adorning his features.
"Because Frank is a goody-two-shoes and Reyna is already dangerous as she is, so practicing a fire making spell with her isn't a very good idea."
That's how the two boys found themselves, on the second floor of the castle, throwing incendio-s at each other. Of course, the best they could produce was a little gerbil of sparks, but to them, it was still a feat.
"Incendio!" exclaimed Percy, while pointing to the closest door to him.
To say they were surprised would be an understatement, when a shot of flames burst out from Percy's wand, making the old wooden door, instantly catch on fire.
Their eyes widened, and their jaws dropped. The door was still combusting when they heard light footsteps coming towards them.
"What are you both doing- Did you make Professor Ares' office catch on fire?!" shouted Annabeth. "Are you going to just stand there like an idiot? Do something!"
"The counter spell wasn't exactly explained in the book-" said Percy his eyes as wide as platters.
"So what do we do now?" Asked Annabeth, her expression showing that she was mortified at the situation.
"There is a very good solution to our actual problem. And it's called running!" At these words, Percy grabbed Annabeth and Grover's hand and pulled then towards the nearest corridor. They ran up flights of stairs, then down, then up again, turning left and right, trying to escape from the sticky situation Percy got them into.
Percy was leading them without any idea where they were or where they were going.They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near the trophy room, which they knew was miles from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
They stopped to catch their breath, Annabeth throwing a dirty look to Percy, who simply rolled his eyes.
"When they catch you, 'cause they're going to, I'm going to tell them the truth. Because maybe you don't care about losing house points but I do." She said.
"How are they going to catch me, when the only two witnesses are here? Except if you're willing to rot me out." Percy responded, turning to stare at Annabeth's grey eyes.
She was like a deer in flash light. Her mouth opening and closing without any words getting out. It makes her look like a fish, thought Percy.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath before responding. "I'm not going to rot you out." She said in a small voice that Percy wasn't accustomed to.
"But I can." Said a high pitched and mischievous voice.
The students turned around to find a blank wall staring back at them. Percy looked around him to try to find where the infamous voice came from; but no one was there.
"Oh, would you look a that, you can't even find me- I'll give you a hint." The annoying sing-song voice said, and then Percy felt a very cold substance fall on him from the ceiling. He raised his head only to meet Peeves, the only poltergeist in the castle, also known as the students' biggest pain in the-
"Would you leave us alone, stupid, wicked spirit." Whispered Annabeth. But apparently it was loud enough for the evil spirit to hear. Big Mistake.
"STUDENTS WONDERING WHERE THEY SHOULDN'T BE! STUDENTS BURNING DOORS! STUDENTS TRANSGRESSING RULES!" The evil spirit hollered
Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor, where they slammed into a door - and it was locked.
"This is it!" Grover moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!"
They could hear footsteps, probably a Professor running as fast as he could towards Peeves's shouts.
"Oh, move over," Annabeth snarled. She grabbed Percy's wand, tapped the lock and whispered, "Alohomora!"
The lock clicked and the door swung open - they piled through it, shut it quickly and pressed their ears against it, listening.
"Where are they Peeves? Tell me, now." Snarled Professor Ares.
"Not until you say the magical word." Answered Peeves, his voice unwavering.
"Don't mess with me, Peeves, where did they go?"
"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please,"
"Argh, fine. Ple-please." The red eyed man said through gritted teeth.
"NOTHING, HAHAHAHA! Told you I wouldn't say nothing until you said please!"
"PEEVES COME BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE COWARD!" They heard Professor Ares cussing and cursing before striding away in rage.
"He thinks the door is locked-" whisperer Percy.
"And it was, until we unlocked it with a charm." Annabeth said, nose rising up at the mention of her success.
"We-we sure-surely wonder why-why..."
At Grover's shaky voice, Percy and Annabeth finally turned around, and they were not disappointed. They weren't in a room, as they had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the sixth floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.
They were looking straight into the eyes of a terrifying and gigantic black and mahogany Rottweiler dog, a dog which filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish razor sharp teeth. It was wearimg a chain collar with three holes and had blood-red eyes.
It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Percy knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.
Percy searched for the doorknob - between Professor Ares and death, he may hesitate a little, but after quick reflection he'd take Ares.
They fell backwards, and Percy slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. The Professor must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared - all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the entrance of the Great Hall, that was not barricaded anymore.
They hurried to go sit, not noticing that they were all heading towards the Gryffindor table.
People gave them weird looks, especially to Annabeth, since she wasn't known to be in a ten foot radius of Percy Jackson, but things change they guessed.
"What is she doing here?" Asked Reyna quite harshly at the sight of the Ravenclaw. Annabeth still exhausted from all that running, opened her mouth to answer but Percy beat her to it.
"Explain later. Now if you could at least try to be civil to each other, especially in the presence of sharp objects," he glanced at the knives that were sitting innocently on the table, "we would all appreciate it."
Both girls huffed, but said no more. "Good because I don't know about you, but all this running made me hungry." Said Percy before filling his plate with everything his hands could reach.
Once the holidays had started, Percy was having too good a time to think much about the three-headed dog. Like always, he had the dormitory to himself, but the common room was far emptier than usual, so he was able to get the good armchair by the fire. Both Grover and Frank had gotten on the train that morning, as they were going home to see their parents, and Reyna and Hylla Ramirez-Arellano were going with their mother to see a Quidditch match in America, where they would spend the holidays. It was probably the first time since he arrived at Hogwarts, that Percy was feeling alone.
But what he didn't know was that he'll have an unsuspected company during all the holidays
On Christmas Eve, Percy went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting anyone to keep him company. When he woke early next morning, however, the first thing he saw was a pair of anthracite eyes staring back at him.
"What the Hades ?!" Exclaimed the young boy, pulling the covers over his torso to cover his night gown, commonly known as Pajamas.
"Merry Christmas to you too." Annabeth said, rolling his eyes.
"Were you watching me sleep? That's beyond creepy."
"You must think of yourself pretty highly if you thought the best thing I had to do on Christmas day was watching you sleep."
Percy blinked multiple times before responding, "So you have something better to do?"
"No but that's beside the point."
"How did you even get in here?"
"I heard a fifth year whispering the password a while ago, I just have a good memory." She said, smiling genuinely.
"Hey, Annabeth." Whispered Percy.
"What?"
"Merry Christmas."
"Open it!"
"But it's anonymous!"
"Seriously, Percy. What's the worst thing that can emerge from this package?"
"I don't know, maybe a ThReE hEaDeD PuPpY ?!"
Percy had opened most of his presents; by now, he had received a flask of Nectar, a plastic bag filled with Ambrosia and even very rare Phoenix' tears from his mother (you know, after the broken shoulder, the concussion and the fainting, his mother decided to send him the necessary to mend with different types of injuries, going from wounds to broken bones. Yes, he knew that his mother went very far with this), a key that could open every lock from his father, chocolate frogs from Grover, and a assortment of candy from both Reyna and Frank. The only gift left was a small rectangular box, wrapped in blue paper.
"Argh." With an exasperated sigh, Annabeth took the small package from Percy's hands and tore the wrapping paper.
"A book?"
Percy took the red leather notebook from Annabeth and looked at the back before opening it. The inscriptions B.C were marked in gold letters on the back.
On the first page, the words Myths and Mysteries of the magical world were written in neat cursive, the black ink glimmering on the golden paper.
"B.C ? As in Before Christ ?" Asked Percy, his head tilted in confusion. "What's the relationship between B.C and the myths of the magical world? "
"I don't know... "
These holidays definitely got far more interesting...
Hey guys! I hope you're all doing alright on this fine day, I also wish you a Merry Christmas!
Sorry for the short chapter that kinda seems rushed but I didn't have much time to write a and revise it before posting, so I apologize!
I hope you enjoyed the Chapter, even though there is not much going on, but consider it my Christmas gift for you.
I hope to hear from you soon for the next chapter, but until then,
Peace out!
(And happy Christmas)