Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
The Ever Twisting Wind: Of Monsters and Titans
Chapter Seven: Cup of Champions
Beta: ShadowofAxios
It was the day after the disastrous attack on Camp and the Campers were all solemnly gathered around the central hearth to offer their condolences to their departed comrades.
Around the campfire were eight pyres, one for each of the dead Campers. The bodies were all covered in elaborately decorated burial shrouds, each individualized to represent both their godly parents and themselves. Each having been painstakingly hand-stitched overnight by the dead's Cabin mates.
All the campers wore black tee-shirts for the occasion, those closest to the departed, gave short speeches to praise the fallen. All throughout sobs could be heard, even as memorable stories were shared with all.
It was Andi's first time at a funeral. It somewhat reminded her of the Underworld, all gloom and doom. The campfire was a dark purple color, matching the mood of the campers as they mourned. A part of her wanted to do something, maybe try to raise the camp's spirits. Sadly, nothing really came to mind. She was far too tired and a touch depressed about how this whole thing ended to think of anything.
When the last of the speeches were finished, the pyres were lit all at once by the Campers that had given the funerary speeches. The pyres were doused in Greek Fire and so burned up quickly, the magical bright green flames rapidly consuming the wood and the bodies.
The Campers stood and watched in a respectful silence as the last mortal remains of their comrades passed into oblivion.
As the pyres finished burning away, an unusually solemn Mr. D snapped his fingers, smothering the Greek Fire and teleporting away in a single move. At this clear dismissal, the youngest child of Zeus followed the other Campers as they began to file out of the Amphitheater. All she wanted to do right now was to head back to her cabin to mope and dwell on things such as mortality. Maybe some rom-coms, and ice cream would lift her spirits.
And just as the thoughts of some Mega Strawberry came to mind, Andi's pursuit of sugar was halted by a number of campers walking up to her and crowding around her.
"Hey, nice save back there Potter." A guy from Cabin Five said, giving her a solid punch with his good arm. His other was still in a sling, recovering the old fashioned way due to Camp's depleted stock of Ambrosia and Nectar.
The diminutive demigoddess nearly fell down from the unexpected blow, and shot the guy an annoyed look. Only to receive an apologetic one in reply. "Sorry about that. Just wanted to say hello."
"Nice Mitch, send her flying next time." One of the friends that had accompanied the guy who had punched her, Mitch apparently, chided him.
"It's ok." Andi said quickly as Mitch blushed and sputtered as he tried to defend himself.
"Thanks Andi," Mitch said sincerely.
"No problem." Andi waved away dismissively. "So you wanted to tell me something?"
"Yeah." Mitch said as he nodded seriously, he looked ready to add something on but was preempted by a girl from Cabin Six, her blonde hair sticking out of the gauze around her eye and head.
"We just wanted to thank you for saving all of us archers yesterday."
Mitch turned to glare at the girl. "Erika!"
"Hey, you were taking too long." The girl, Erika, shot back.
Rubbing her arm, Andi ignored the byplay. She was too surprised by the fact that they were thanking her. "I, I didn't really do all that much."
That was how she honestly felt on the matter. Sure she had saved some people, she could acknowledge that much, but she could also see that she hadn't done anywhere near enough. Eight dead campers were proof of that.
"You're kidding, right?" A guy from Cabin Ten said while holding himself up with a pair of crutches, one of his legs broken pretty badly. "You whipped up that crazy wind blast and sent them all flying out of danger before that crazy automation could blow them to smithereens. That's something."
"I could've saved more." Andi said sadly as she lowered her head. She hadn't seen those campers get hit, but she had definitely heard them. It was kinda haunting to say the least.
"Hey come on, chin up." A guy from Cabin Four said. "You saved plenty of people. That has to count for something. We can't always save everyone."
"Exactly!" One of Will's sisters said, as she flashed Andi a perfectly white smile. "You saved my life, I can't thank you enough for that, Andi."
Andi just looked at them all and after a moment, nodded in gratitude.
You know, maybe...maybe things are turning around here. Andi thought with a tiny smile. Pleased that at least a few people were now willing to forgive her for mucking up earlier in the summer.
Mitch and the others all seemed to smile at the fact that they had managed to make Andi smile. When suddenly, Mitch's eyes suddenly widened as if he had just realized something
"Hey, was it was okay for you to fight those empousai?" Mitch asked with a frown. "I mean, they are children of Hecate and she's your patron or something now, right?"
The British girl shrugged. "Haven't heard anything from her about this, so she probably doesn't care."
She heard a scoff and looked to see Thalia, who had been listening in - And Chiron says she has a problem with eavesdropping - and was scowling at her.
Annoyance flashed through her, but she tried not to get riled up at Thalia's actions. It made her life a whole lot easier if she just ignored her sister's attitude.
The people surrounding her though, held no such reservations, and gave her a few good looks back.
But for every up, there was a down.
"Hey that's right!" A camper said, glaring at Andi and her group of supporters. "She works for Hecate now."
"You think she went easy on those monsters?"
"Dude, she blew one up! How's that going easy?"
"She could have blown up more than one! Remember Mt. Zeusette?" A furious looking guy from Cabin Eleven said as he took an aggressive step towards Andi. "If she went all out she could have taken them all out in one go! She didn't! She was obviously holding back!"
"And hit us too? Great idea, genius." Erika shot back, rolling her one good eye.
Soon both sides were arguing back and forth, and the tension was such that it looked like a fight would enuse any second. Insults were hurled from one camper to the next.
Andi shot Thalia a angry glare, blaming her for starting this. Her sister wasn't having any of it though, instead shooting back an accusation of her own.
"Could you get any more stupid? Selling out to a goddess like that? I bet you did it for cheap."
Andi flinched. She hadn't! She screwed over two people she cared about all because the goddess caught her completely off-guard and when she was still recovering from a fight!
The shorter girl scrambled for a comeback, she wasn't going to take that lying down.
"Says the former pine tree." Percy said as he strolled up to the group, causing Thalia to turn to him so she could scowl in his direction.
"What was that?"
"Hm?" Percy cocked his head to the side. "Oh, nothing. Just well, it's kind of annoying to watch everyone start playing the blame game when we just got through burning our dead. So how about some tact? Or do you fail hard at that too, Thalia?"
Thalia stepped up to the son of Poseidon, her hand balled into a fist. She looked just about ready to hit him when Chiron galloped towards the crowd.
"Enough!" He shouted, stomping his hooves on the ground as emphasis, a frown marring his face as he shot a sharp look at each and every camper in turn. None of them could meet their gaze. "Children, now is not the time for this ridiculous behavior. Save it for another day...not now. Return to your cabins, all of you."
Andi did as she was told and headed off to Cabin One, giving Thalia a wide berth as she did so.
A couple tense days later, Andi had just finished getting ready for the day and was about to head out to breakfast when a hoot from Hedwig caught her attention.
"Hedwig, you're back?" Andi said as she walked over to her avian friend's perch. "You got letters for me?"
The snowy owl nodded even as she shot the girl a reproachful look.
"I know. I know." Andi said sadly as she fished out an owl treat from a conveniently placed pouch hanging from the perch and offering it to her owl. "I'm sorry that I've got nothing much for you to do nowadays."
Hedwig hooted understandingly, but didn't let up on her glare, even as she obligingly ate her treat.
"Well, I don't exactly have many friends left in the Wizarding World left, do I!?"
It was yet another depressing thing in Andi's life. Sure, she and Ron mailed each other regularly, and she even corresponded with Ginny and Luna once in awhile too. Then there was the sporadic exchanges from Sirius and Lupin as they tried to connect with her. But that's about it. She hadn't even received a single letter from Hermione at all this summer. She had tried to send a few letters, but she never got a reply back. By Olympus, she had even had a few of them returned to her unopened!
Andi was just letting her mood overtake her when Hedwig hit her lightly in the head with an outstretched wing while hooting at her sternly.
"Right, no getting sad over it." Andi nodded. "Let's just see what the letters say this time, okay?"
The owl nodded approvingly.
Reading the letters quickly, Andi groaned. "Darn! I totally forgot about the Quidditch World Cup. I bet it's too late to get tickets now."
Hedwig who had been reading the letters over her mistress' shoulder - how an owl learned how to read, Andi didn't know, but she was absolutely certain that Hedwig could - hooted to grab Andi's attention and gestured at the letter from Sirius with one of her talons.
"Oh thank Hecate!" Andi said with a relieved sigh. "Sirius got a box and says I can invite some friends. Hmm… I wonder who I can invite…"
Her mood greatly buoyed by the prospect of attending the Quidditch World Cup and more importantly getting the chance to show it, the greatest thing in the Wizarding World she could think of, to her fellow Campers. Maybe if they saw the Wizards at their greatest, they would stop encouraging her to leave the Wizarding World, and more importantly she wouldn't be tempted to do so.
That and the idea of showing her friends this major sporting event in itself had her positively bouncing with excitement.
With this idea in mind, Andi bolted out her cabin to find her friends.
Will Solace, son of Apollo, stood at the camp's central hearth, waiting with the rest of Andi's friends as they got ready to set off to this Quipdtich World Cup thing that the youngest child of Zeus had invited them to. In the end, alongside himself, she'd managed to rope in Percy, Annabeth, and surprisingly, a very reluctant Thalia to come along with her.
Andi had of course approached her other close friends but they couldn't make it.
Katie had apologised but her dad had been hospitalized and she had to go home to check in on him.
Castor and Pollux, in turn, had been barred from going by their dad because he didn't trust them to spend time with Andi outside Camp after what happened last Christmas.
Clarisse, for her part, had just outright said, to no one's surprise, that she wasn't interested in "some silly magical sport on brooms" and just refused to go. Andi had understood, thankfully, and wasn't too put out. For once, Will was pleased with the daughter of Ares' bad attitude.
Silena couldn't make it either since her dad had booked an overseas holiday to spend some time with her. Andi had confessed that she actually felt a little bad about asking Silena, because her last minute surprise had actually put the other girl on the spot and made her try to convince her dad to reschedule. Unfortunately, her dad couldn't get leave off work on any other days on such short notice.
The fact that the others couldn't attend was a shame. Thalia however was a completely different kettle of fish. The punk girl was only going because everyone told her to. Heck, even Mr. D gave her lip, and told her to just go. Frankly, Will wished she hadn't agreed. He, like so many other campers, wasn't the biggest fan of the older daughter of Zeus.
Especially the ones she tended to put in the infirmary.
She essentially just kept adding to his workload.
Andi looked like someone on a sugar high with how excited she seemed. Now Will wasn't a major sports fan, but Andi seemed to look like one of those big time fans right now. Not that it was bad or anything. Just a little unexpected.
In fact, looking at it now, he couldn't help but smile at how she was behaving. It was nice to see her bouncing back after the attack on camp.
"Everyone here?" Andi asked as she skipped up to the hearth. "Got your bags?"
Everyone nodded.
"Alright then, let's head out." Andi declared as she turned to face the hearth. "Twelve Grimmauld Place!"
And then the fire ate her.
"Err… Chiron, you sure it's safe?" Will asked the centaur, who had come to see them off, uncertainly.
"Don't be a baby, Will. It's perfectly fine." Annabeth told him as she walked up next and shouted the same words as Andi did.
She was gone in a flash of fire too.
"So do I need a permission slip to be eaten by fire or-" Percy started off, but Chiron just chuckled.
"Not to worry, Percy. It's all perfectly safe. And legal."
"Well, if it's legal." Percy shrugged and took a step into the green flames. "So I just say Twelve Grimmauld Place-whoa!"
With that, Percy was gone.
"I'm not comfortable with this." Thalia frowned, glaring at the crackling flames.
Will smirked. "Well, if you're scared, I'll go next."
"Just do it." Will heard Chiron say. He could imagine the centaur smirking at the use of such an iconic catchphrase even as he glared at Thalia sternly. Even the ancient Trainer of Heroes was not pleased with the elder daughter of Zeus' attitude.
This was all that Will managed to catch though before the flames turned green and engulfed him.
He hobbled out of a fireplace, nearly falling on his face but with some effort managed to get his footing without tripping.
"And yet another sticks the landing." Andi said even as she giggled, loudly enough to fill the air of the gloomy looking living room.
"Lucky him." Percy sourly noted, rubbing his red nose. "I got a face full of chair."
"You should keep on your toes better, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth teased with a smirk.
Percy just pouted at her.
"Welcome, welcome." A scruffy older looking guy said, smiling at him from behind a beard. He had a twinkle in his eye that reminded the son of Apollo all too much of Cabin Eleven. "Please to have you here, uh?"
"Will Solace." Andi told him.
"Right, thanks for coming, Will. Welcome."
Andi moved next to Will, grinning. "Will, this is my crazy godfather, Sirius Black."
"It's seriously his name." Percy quipped, getting a bark of laughter from the older man.
"I like this one." Sirius said as he reined in his barking laugh. "Andi, you think he's cute?"
Andi and Percy gagged at the insinuation, even as Will joined Annabeth in glaring at Andi's godfather. The man just laughed up a storm at the reactions.
"As much as I find a barnacle cute." Andi shot back as her nausea passed.
"Wow, thanks."
"Just being honest, Baywatch."
The fireplace spat out Thalia, she stumbled coming out, but ultimately managed to remain on her feet.
"That… was annoying."
"You think everything's annoying." Percy pointed out.
Thalia gave him a look. "Doesn't make it less true."
Will rolled his eyes, typical Thalia. She was always complaining about something and was never willing to admit it.
"That everyone?" Sirius asked, though he did squint his eyes at the elder daughter of Zeus. Glancing back at Andi, he eyed her closely before returning his gaze back to Thalia. "You two look pretty alike? She's some long-lost cousin of yours, Andi?"
His tone was playful.
"No relation." Thalia said without hesitation, ignoring the way Andi flinched at her heartless comment.
Will could honestly see the smugness in her eyes as she did. Andi couldn't exactly rebuke her either since it's kind of hard to explain how they were related to a mortal.
"Yeah." Andi told her godfather, looking depressed as she did so.
Sirius frowned and pulled his goddaughter into a hug. "Hey, cheer up. You've got me and Remus, we're your family, ok?"
And all of camp, you know, the people who've done more in a summer than you guys have?
Okay, maybe Will was being mean, but in all fairness it was true. He was the son of Apollo, he knew about truths.
Andi seemed to agree with him though as she frowned at the man.
"So are we going right to this World Cup or not?" Percy cut into the tense atmosphere.
"Time zone difference must be confusing you. It's past dinner here. So the Cup's tomorrow. Plus, we gotta wait for Remus and Arthur's boy." Sirius told them. "How about some drinks? I think we have some pumpkin juice and butterbeer. Kreacher!"
"Yes Master Blood Traitor?" A decrepit voice asked as a freakish little creature teleported into view.
All the campers startled and reached for their weapons but paused when Sirius addressed the creature without any surprise at its sudden appearance, though he sounded plenty angry. "I told you not to call me that!"
"Whatever you say, Master Wastrel." The creature shot back venomously. In response, Sirius raised his hand as if to smack the thing.
"Question. What is that?" Percy pointed at the creature, looking slightly on edge if the way he tightly gripped the pen that Will knew to be Riptide was anything to go by.
His question seemed to calm Sirius down and the man let his hand fall to his side.
"Just a house elf. Think magical servants." Andi told them, but gave the elf a frown. "Haven't seen one this, well, old?"
"He's a decrepit bag of bones." Sirius glared down at the tiny creature. "Get us some butterbeer for the kids. And don't you put anything it, you little beasty."
"Kreacher happily serves the House of Black."
With that, it teleported away again.
"Be sure to check your drinks." Sirius told them all, grimacing. "Little bastard never liked me after I didn't side with the purists in the family."
"I'll pass on the drink." Thalia quickly said. Annabeth, Percy, and Will quickly said the same. To Will's surprise, Andi passed on it too.
"Had a drink before we came. Thanks though, Sirius." She said as she flashed her godfather an apologetic smile.
"Oh, well, if you're sure." The shaggy haired man said.
There was a loud pop, like a car backing up, making everyone reach for their weapons all over again. Spinning to face the source of the noise, they saw a man and a boy about their age had appeared just in front of the front door that was just visible from the room they were in.
"You're late Remus." Sirius said with a stern glare, that was belied by his teasing smile. "Andi and her friends got here ages ago. And to think that you left early so you could make it back before she did."
"Sorry, we're late." The man, Remus, offered seemingly genuinely apologetic as he walked towards them. "Molly held us up with her goodbyes."
"And the goodies she had us take along for the Cup tomorrow." A tall redheaded boy added happily as he trailed after the man, lifting up a very full looking picnic basket as he did so.
"Alright, now that's some grub I can eat." Andi cheered and walked up to the ginger guy, Ron, Will figured and gave him a light jab to the arm. "You get bigger again?"
Ron just smirked at her. "Yup. While I think you're just getting shorter."
"...Don't make me bust ya shin, you prat." The pixie girl rebutted with a poke to his chest.
Ron let out a laugh that might have sounded nervous if not for the shit eating grin that he was sporting alongside it. "Please don't."
Andi just smirked at him. "No promises."
Ron looked at the rest of the demigods and leaned down to Andi's ear. He muttered something to her and Andi just nodded. The ginger looked at them with a look of awe, like they were the coolest thing he'd never seen.
"How about we take a small tour and hunker into our rooms for the night?"
The elf returned then with a tray of drinks, barely giving the creature a glance, Sirius gave him an order. "Forget the drinks. Take that basket of food and put it away in the pantry. We're taking it with us to the Cup tomorrow, so no tampering with it. Understood?"
"As you command." The elf said sullenly as he teleported away once more, this time with the picnic basket in tow.
"Now how about a tour of the house?" Sirius offered.
The other man, Remus, said. "That sounds good."
The half-bloods and Ron all went along with it.
Sirius pointed up. "Let's start upstairs, you can put your bags there too."
As they began leaving the living room and headed towards the stairs, an animated portrait, Andi had explained them to Will once, began to yell at them.
"More freaks?! You dare let these swine walk through our sacred house?! Leave this house you filthy muggles! Do not dare darken my house with your vil-!"
Sirius ran up to it and forcefully shut the curtain that covered the painting.
"Merlin quit your yapping!" The man snapped and shouted out towards his disrespectful elf. "You opened it again, you little imp! I told you not to!"
Kreacher teleported next to them once more. "Mistress Black needed to be aired out."
"Go clean something, you useless thing!"
"Of course Master Blood Traitor."
As Sirius huffed and puffed trying to recover his breath, Andi asked. "So who's the portrait of?"
"My mother." Sirius told her with as much disdain as possible before stalking off.
"Sirius never got along with his mother." Remus explained as he ushered everyone after his angry friend. "He was too much of a 'white sheep', as he'd say, in the Black family."
"That's sad." Andi frowned.
"Perhaps." Remus said with a shrug. "But not everyone has a happy family. All of us just have to make do with what we have."
Andi, Annabeth and Thalia all seemed to agree even if they showed it in different ways. Andi nodded sadly. Annabeth looked away with a wistful look on her face. Thalia just glared at Andi.
"You all go find a room." Lupin said when they reached the first floor and it was clear that Sirius had not waited for them. "The whole floor is full of them. I'm going to go check on Sirius."
After the man left, Andi turned to look at them all. "Alright, find a bunk and get comfy. Tomorrow's the big day!"
Her cheer felt forced, as if she was embarrassed over what had happened over the course of just coming here.
"Got some Quidditch posters for ya birthday, Andi." Ron told her. "Ireland, right?"
"Damn right, Ron. Let's find a room and you can show me, ok?"
Andi wandered off with Ron. Will and Percy moved to follow, but Annabeth stopped them.
"Let's talk," Annabeth said seriously. "About Andi."
"Not interested." Thalia said dismissively as stalked off to find a room.
"Of course you're not." The blonde child of Athena frowned at her friend's retreating frame. She turned towards Percy and Will and started explaining her dilemma.
"I think that Andi's godfather has an ulterior motive in wanting to show off his grand old manor." The girl said as she gestured around her at the elaborate trappings of the house. Will had to admit that even though the house looked a little run down, it still very clearly screamed wealth.
"Like?" Will quirked a brow, even if he had a good idea what she was going to say.
"To try and get her to stay here." Annabeth clarified.
The son of Poseidon snorted. "As if that'd ever happen."
"Doesn't mean he isn't trying." Annabeth countered sternly. "Why else do you think he was trying to show this off? He's her godfather. Legally, he has guardianship over her."
"He was in prison though, so wasn't that right taken away?" Will brought up.
"Not after he was cleared." Annabeth said with a shake of his head. "All that isn't the point though. What is important is what it implies about how the Wizarding World looks at Andi."
"And that is?" Percy asked.
"That they want her. Whether Andi wants to stay or not. To them, she's seen as some symbol of that ridiculous title of hers." The blonde knitted her brow. "You think they're going to let their national hero go wherever she wants? Or like her godfather, want her to be part of his family even when they don't even know her. He's desperate for a family after years alone in prison, you think he would accept it if she ever chooses to leave him behind?"
Will frowned in thought. "While I agree on some level, I think you might be going a little overboard. We've been here for not even an hour, Annabeth. Let's not cement our opinions just yet."
"Will, you're being too optimistic."
"Logic isn't everything in life, Annabeth."
At their little standoff, Percy got between them. "Let's just find rooms, guys. We've got a big tomorrow if anything Andi said is to go by."
"Fine." "Okay."
Percy cracked a grin at them.
"I'm going to punt that thing." Thalia said as the little elf left them their breakfast, insulting them all in the process. She looked cranky as Tartarus with the dark rings under her eyes. Seems like she didn't get much sleep due to the time zone change.
"Can you go five minutes without threatening violence?" Will asked her in return.
"Can you not act so chipper?"
"I'm a morning person." The son of Apollo offered a sly smile.
Thalia could only glare at him.
Andi ignored the byplay. She was too preoccupied with worrying about the list of Horcruxes that had mysteriously appeared on the bedside table overnight and that she'd found when she woke up. Confused, she'd taken a quick look at the list and spotted that one of the vile soul anchors was in 12 Grimmauld Place. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the list's sudden appearance meant. It was very obviously a reminder by her patron Hecate that she wanted her to continue working on her quest - one she'd quite honestly all but forgotten about recently - and destroy the Horcrux hidden in the house.
Unfortunately, Andi didn't think she could do anything about it. She couldn't exactly run off to find the thing when Lupin and Sirius didn't know why she would do something like that. It would lead to questions, and somehow she just knew Dumbledore would get involved.
The old man was not really high on her list of people she trusted right now, so getting him involved would just make everything a mess.
Well, either that or Andi would have to tell them about being a demigod. And that would be a whole load of drama she'd rather avoid.
Plus, they were all about to rush off to the World Cup!
She couldn't exactly say: Hey wait, I gotta go find this evil soul fragment first!
Yeah, the youngest child of Zeus didn't see that going over well.
The demigod would just have to deal with it once the Cup was over or at a later date.
There wasn't any harm in that, right?
...Shite, she had just jinxed herself, didn't she?
Heaving a sigh into her breakfast, she turned to Sirius to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while. Hopefully this would distract her from her worries. "So what happened with the Rat? I mean, you're free, so that must mean he's locked up now, right?"
Swallowing a piece of bacon, her godfather let out a laugh. It was low and nearly deranged. "The lil bastard got Kissed by a Dementor after a long and painful interrogation. Spilled the location of Voldemort's wand. Don't ask me how that coward got his paws on it. Anyways, his Ministerness' got it hanging on a plaque in his office now. Like he defeated the Dark Lord himself or something."
Andi's lip quirked. "Good to finally see some justice delivered."
"I can drink to that!" Sirius cheered merrily. Lupin simply nodded, looking pleased but less enthusiastically so. Andi might have been wrong, but he almost looked somewhat sad.
Annabeth frowned. "Kissed by those Dementors? They eat a person's soul when they do that!" Gasping the daughter of Athena levelled a glare at the wizards in the room. "That's a barbaric form of execution."
With a frown, Will turned away from his breakfast. "Didn't ancient Greece toss babies out into the wild if they weren't good enough? Not much room to judge here, Annabeth."
"That was Sparta."
"They were just the biggest culprit." Will rebuffed Annabeth's evasion.
The daughter of Athena looked displeased at having been out talked.
Percy couldn't stop the smile on his face. Probably because someone had managed to get Annabeth to clam up in a verbal debate.
"Point to Cabin Seven."
"Shut up, Seaweed Brain!"
Andi giggled as she finished her breakfast. Now wasn't the time for worrying, it was nearly time for the World Cup.
She could worry all she want later.
"So why did that group come by a shoe?" Percy asked as he thumbed over to a group of magicals.
"That's a portkey." Ron told him. "Lets you teleport to a select location tied to it."
"Like a warp button?"
"Uh, sure?"
"So we got Enterprise tech, er, magic, here. Cool."
"Percy, if you're going to make a reference. Do it right." Annabeth frowned at him. "It doesn't kill and reconstruct you on the other end. From what I read it transports you through some kind of corridor through space. Like a more portable floo network. You can even physically feel yourself moving."
"...Are you a Trekkie?" Percy paused, looking at her up and down.
Annabeth flustered. "What? No!"
"She likes Spock." Will grinned at her teasingly. They would have classic show nights at camp once in awhile. Let's just say Annabeth was all for the blue uniforms.
"Will!"
"Huh, who would have thought." Percy simply said as he continued. "Still don't get why it's a shoe though."
"It's innocuous? Something so muggles would overlook it if they came across it?" Annabeth suggested, her cheeks still rosy.
"Percy, mate, let it go." Andi told him.
"I know it's stupid, Percy." Annabeth added. "They could hand the things out where there aren't any muggles, then they would be able to use something a lot more sensible."
"Logic and wizards don't mix well most of the time." Andi said with a shrug.
Thalia huffed, while shooting Andi a pointed look. "I can get behind that."
Will glared at Thalia for that, but then Thalia had plenty of practice shrugging off disapproving looks and totally ignored him.
"And we wonder what crawled up yours."
At Percy's dry comment, the elder daughter of Zeus glared at him.
"Wanna say that again?"
"I would, but I think you'd have a problem with security if you get all zap happy." The son of Poseidon happily pointed to a group of roaming wizards in matching robes and security badges on their shoulders.
"Tch, like I'm afraid of some wimpy mortals with sticks."
"A single killing curse would drop you dead." Will reminded, as he walked off, unwilling to deal with Thalia and her attitude.
The son of Apollo saddled up next to Andi as she and her wizard friend were arguing on which country was going to win.
"I keep telling ya Andi. Bulgaria's got this in the bag. They've got Krum!"
"And I call shite on that. Ireland's going to ace this whole cup." The tiny daughter of Zeus sniffed.
"Why's that?" Will couldn't help but ask.
Andi looked smug as could be with a cute smirk on her face. "I'm wearing my lucky cloud printed knickers. Never lost a Quidditch match in them."
Will stopped in his tracks, the image coming to his mind and his face turned crimson. Percy had also turned red, but was groaning as if in pain. Thalia just snorted, as if she found this to be typical.
Annabeth, her face flushed, rushed over to grab Andi aside. The two girls began whispering furiously, with Andi's face growing more and more red as they talked. She also looked shamefaced. Will reasoned the daughter of Athena was probably explaining to the socially oblivious shorter girl how it was inappropriate to talk about her underwear in public.
After a couple minutes, Andi came back, looking scarlet, and muttered. "So… Ignore that. Forever. Now."
"Already bleached from my brain." Percy quipped.
Will on the other hand would not be forgetting that. Nor the mental image it painted for him. Puberty was not being kind to him right now. Curse his Father's artistic vision and its hereditariness!
"Still, no way Ireland's going to win." Ron told her stubbornly.
"Whatever, Ron. Just be ready to lose those chocolate frog cards."
Caught up in their conversations, they had all fallen well behind Sirius and Lupin. Clearly noticing it, Andi's godfather shouted back at them. "Hey kids, hurry up! We need to stick together in this crowd."
And what a crowd it was. It was a colorful sea of bright robes, worn literally by thousands of wizards that milled around the swampy campground that was occupied by hundreds of tents that came in all shapes and sizes. Some looked like traditional tents but many looked like they were imitating houses, castles, and a couple were even shaped like famous landmarks such as the pyramids of Giza and Big Ben!
The whole group followed along but Will noted Annabeth did so all while glaring at the two men who were their hosts. Her ire wasn't limited to that though, as the girl turned to look at Ron's back as he chatted with Andi, she commented to the other Campers. "Tall and lanky over there is a hanger on. Andi's famous in the Wizarding World. From what I can see, the guy is just sticking around for that fame. I mean, if he was smart, he would be angry with what Andi did. Instead, he's excited by the fact she's a demigod."
She turned her steel grey eyes towards Sirius and Remus next. "Those two? Andi's technically the last thing linked to her stepfather, their best friend. And frankly, that's all they see."
"And finally, there's that Hermione girl." She said bringing up Andi's former good friend. "She abandoned Andi. For understandable reasons, but she still did."
"All I'm trying to say is that they're so caught up in who she's related to or her fame, that they don't see a girl who needs help. So no Will, I am not being paranoid or something. I just see the facts."
"How long have you been thinking on this?" Percy asked her, frowning now.
Will knew Annabeth could be a touch overprotective about their friend. Heck, even downright territorial. However, this was a tad excessive even then.
"Since we went to Surrey to get her things back."
Thalia rolled her eyes at that. "Boohoo! So she had a shitty childhood. News flash, most of us do. No call to give her special treatment."
"Is that honestly what you think we give Andi?" Annabeth asked with a sound as if Thalia's statement was some kind of epiphany.
Thalia didn't reply, instead looking away and walking off, catching up to and walking next to the two wizards.
"That explains something at least." Annabeth sighed. She adjusted her backpack strap and hurried forward. "Come on, boys. Let's not get left behind."
It took a while before they could squeeze their way through the crowds and to their tent. It was a replica of 12 Grimmauld Place made miniature and in fabric. One that was bigger on the inside. It didn't impress the Campers though. They'd all seen Andi's space distorting wardrobe after all and in comparison to the Cabins back at Camp, the tent's aesthetics was nothing to write home about.
At least it looked cleaner compared to the house.
"Let's put our stuff down." Remus said with a smile as he opened the door to the tent.
"Let's!" Ron said happily. "The sooner we do, the sooner we can head over to the Stadium. I don't want to miss a single minute of the Cup."
"Agreed. After muddling up my case so bad, Fudge practically gave away our own little box." Sirius winked. "Really good seats. So let's not waste it!"
"Oh! I can't wait!" Andi cheered, joining in on the enthusiasm. "Come on, let's hurry up."
With that she rushed into the house, Ron and the two men following not far behind.
The Campers exchanged a look and with a shrug followed after the others at a much more sedate pace.
"I feel like I'm at the World Series." Percy commented as he watched thousands upon thousands of people cheering. Flags waved, banners were spread everywhere, and there were of course the guys who painted half their bodies in their team colors. "But not feeling the hype of it."
In fact, the son of Poseidon looked bored.
The stadium was a massive affair that could house a hundred thousand people, if the programme for the Cup was indicative of anything. Draped in scarlet, it was a splendid venue all set to host a grand event. The only detraction was the prevalent advertising that was all over the place, even the two huge blackboards at either side of the stadium was being used to display them as well.
"'A display from the team mascots will precede the match,"' Annabeth said reading from the programme for the day.
"Oh that's always nice to watch," Remus said with a smile. "The national teams always bring creatures from their homelands to put up a pre-game performance."
As the stadium filled up, a voice echoed over the whole arena, booming into every corner of the stands.
"Ladies and gentlemen...welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"
The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard on either side of the stadium was wiped clear of its last message (an advertisement for Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans) and instead turned to show the score instead.
"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce...the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"
The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.
"Hmm… Hey, Remus, what do you think the Bulgarians brought?"
"No idea, Sirius." Remus said as he leaned forward in his seat to take a better look. "Aaah! Veela!"
"Nice!"
"What are veel -?" Percy started, but was cut off as Sirius let out a wolf whistle at the sight.
The answer provided itself as about a hundred women, veela apparently, glided out onto the field. Each and every one was beautiful. Almost inhumanly so, like they were some kind of monster. With porcelain skin, white-gold hair and delicate features, they seemed nearly sculpted.
Then some cheesy music that felt like it came out of the thirties started to play.
All around the stadium, men and even some women stood up as if mesmerized by the display. Much more than their pretty looks alone could account for.
So the Bulgarian team brought hypnotizing cheerleaders? Will found that disappointing and a cheap tactic to mess with the other team. Sure, they were pretty and all, but he was stuck with girls that were half god.
Seriously, if he wanted to look at something pretty, he's go gawk like an idiot at Cabin Ten with his brothers.
Or just hang out with Andi.
Sirius and Remus looked at the boys with a twinkle of respect. Well, all of them but Ron, who seemed to be ready to jump down into the stadium to get closer to the Veela.
Percy scoffed and whispered. "This is nothing. Once you've had Circe charm you, that's not much in comparison."
"Yeah. Plus Charmspeak is way more powerful." The son of the sun god agreed.
The music finally stopped and Andi kicked Ron in the shin.
"Come on Ron! You're embarrassing me!" She hissed at the dopey faced ginger.
As the Veela's performance ended and they moved off the pitch, angry yells were filled the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Will frankly didn't understand the attraction.
"Huh?" Said Ron, staring open mouthed at the Veela, as they lined up along one side of the field.
"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air...for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Suddenly the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; forming a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it.
"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Will realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.
"Okay someone remind me to get some Skittles, because I just tasted the rainbow." Percy said, using his shirt to catch the gold. "Percy's getting a new bike this school year!"
"Whoo!" Andi cheered as she did the same with a glimmer in her eyes. "Leprechauns rule! Go Ireland!"
The crowd was applauding, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.
Will laughed at their reactions and nearly doubled over at seeing Annabeth making grabs for the gold too.
"...I need a new sketching table. That's all."
"Uh-huh." The medic dryly noted.
His fellow blonde did have a point though. The infirmary could use some more modern medical equipment, like a centrifuge. And maybe some other shiny toys.
With that, Will started to collect some gold, but at a far more sedate pace. Hell, even Thalia was snatching up a few coins and stuffing them into her pockets.
"There you go," Ron yelled happily, stuffing a fistful of gold coins into Andi's hand, "for the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!"
"Hey don't worry about it Ron," Andi said pushing the gold back. "It was a gift I bought for you, I don't expect you to pay me back."
"You sure?" Ron said as he accepted the gold back and looked at the binoculars-like thing that Andi had bought for him from one of the vendors they ran across when they entered the stadium. After having bought one for herself too, of course.
"Duh. Just take it."
You can be real generous, Andi. Will smiled. Maybe a bit too generous though.
The two adult wizards seemed amused by the whole thing.
"Hey kids, you guys do know that leprechaun gold will disappear after a few hours, right?" Sirius teased.
Everyone but the two men in the box groaned and threw their leprechaun gold to the ground, their faces a picture of disappointment.
"And Percy's not getting that new bike. Percy is sad."
"Annabeth tells Percy to stop talking in the third person or else."
"...Percy considers this."
While Percabeth were having a moment, the great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome - the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you - Dimitrov!"
A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.
"Ivanova!"
A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.
"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand - Krum!"
"That's him, that's him!" yelled Ron, following Krum with his Omnioculars. Andi quickly focused her own.
Viktor Krum was arguably one of the most famous Quidditch players in the world. Andi had wanted to see him in person ever since she'd first heard of him.
Personally, the son of Apollo thought the guy looked like some overgrown bird of prey. He was thin, dark, and sallow-skinned, with a large curved nose and thick black eyebrows. Still, it was hard to believe he was only eighteen.
"And now, please greet - the Irish National Quidditch Team!" yelled Bagman. "Presenting - Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand - Lynch!"
Seven green blurs swept onto the field.
"Wow!" Andi gasped. "They're all flying on Firebolts!"
"That's right. How's yours been treating you, Andi?" Sirius asked, making Andi wilt for a second. She bounced back with a bright and cheery smile.
"It's great Sirius. Fly it all the time." Andi said insincerely.
Will frowned. That had been a lie. Andi hadn't flown at all since she got back from her quest in the Sea of Monsters.
"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"
A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a huge mustache, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the field. A silver whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other.
Mounting his broom, the referee kicked the crate open. This released the game's balls and after giving them a moment to fly around the field, he shot into the air after them with a loud blow of his whistle.
"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" Screamed Bagman. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"
"Gotta ask, what's this game about?" Percy asked, breaking the concentration of those watching the match.
Amazingly, both Will and Thalia looked at him as if he was an idiot.
Percy immediately held up his hands. "Hey, didn't come for the game. I came along just to chill with Andi."
Andi, her eyes rapidly following the match thanks to their naturally gifted ADHD, started to simplify the rules for him.
"And the match ends if you catch the golden snitch."
"Okay, yeah. Baseball is way better and less complicated. And also less fatal sounding."
Andi scoffed. "Please! I only nearly died, like, three times. Tops."
And with that unnerving tidbit, the group of demigods settled to watch the match.
After a good ten minutes into the match, the demigods were bored out their gourds. Minus Andi of course.
"This is boring."
"Yeah, they're just tossing balls around."
Will nodded, the ball was being passed around in the pitch for what to him was no reason.
"It's silly." Will added his own opinion. "It's needlessly dangerous. Those Bludger things are deadly."
"Andi's arm got shattered by one." Ron said behind a mouthful of those Bertie Botts jelly beans.
"Seriously? Ridiculous." Annabeth said, crossing her arms in frustration. "Then there's the whole thing with the Golden Snitch. I mean, it counts for so many points that it can invalidate the rest of the game? And the game only ends when it's caught? Madness."
"The whole thing is crap." Thalia said, summing up what the whole group thought.
Lupin chuckled. "No surprise that you all would think that. Many magically aware muggles and muggleborn think the same. They are especially confused by the way the game can stretch on if the Snitch isn't caught. Why, one game even lasted for three months because no one could find the snitch!"
"If this lasts longer than the night, I'm going back home." Thalia firmly declared.
Her fellow campers gave her annoyed looks at that.
Will was just thankful that Andi hadn't heard what her sister had said, she was too busy hurling very British insults at the Bulgarians to notice. Despite everything, he knew that the younger sister was hoping that spending time with the older girl during this trip would help to heal their strained relationship some.
It was becoming clear that wasn't going to be happening.
Still, he was glad that Andi seemed to be enjoying herself. She was so utterly caught up in the whole Quidditch World Cup. She was watching the game with rapt attention.
And had bought tons of memorabilia, including a small Leprechaun hat that she was currently wearing that made her look incredibly cute.
The son of Apollo was a little shocked though by the extent that this enthusiasm seemed to have overcome the other wizards though. It was unnerving, honestly, to see people like Sirius and Ron devolve into fanatics. By Tartarus, even Lupin was getting sucked in even if he was a bit more subdued about it.
"It's like we're at a giant sports bar on game night." Percy noted, to nods from all the Campers.
It was amidst this uncomfortable atmosphere, that Will and the others waited out the hour plus match. As it finally ended with a 170-160 Irish victory, Will couldn't stop himself from thanking the gods that the match hadn't dragged on longer than it had. Quidditch, in his opinion, wasn't fun to watch at all.
"Ha!" Andi whooped, nearly doing a flip in the air. "Told you lot, my lucky-er, nevermind."
Her face was red, and she refused to look at any of the boys until she got control of her blush. The second she did however, she began to tease Ron. "Seems your man-crush lost, Ronny~!"
"So? At least he did it in style! Did you see that catch? Doubt you could've done better."
Andi looked like she wanted to say something, but surprisingly kept her lips zipped.
She must thinking about how she might not ever be able to play Quidditch again, what with her new fear of flying.
Even if no one had said anything about it. From the way Andi had refused to fly at all ever since she got back from her quest, it was pretty obvious. The way she locked up at the mere mention of it during training sometimes, didn't help her attempts to keep it secret either.
Annabeth seemed to have shared his worries, and went over to give Andi a comforting hug.
It was because Will was looking at Andi worriedly that he spotted a crowd of people in oddly uniform black robes pushing their way through the crowds towards the "muggles'" cabin from over the girl's shoulder.
Are they some kind of club? Who would pick pure black for their club outfit? Will scratched his head at this. Maybe they were mourning their loss and had used the color switching spell that Andi had shown him once? Who knew.
Well, it's none of my business. The son of Apollo thought as he and his companions joined the crowds filing out of the stadium and on their way back to their tents.
Will and everyone else were all in their assigned beds in the tent when suddenly shrieks of terror could be heard and all the demigods shot up on reflex at the noise.
"What's going on?" Thalia demanded, her loud voice echoing through the walls of the tent. Will, exited his room to find the others already there, weapons - thankfully still in their mortal guises or in the case of Annabeth's dagger hidden from immediate view behind her back- in hand.
"Oi!" Remus shouted as he spotted Andi in only her panties. "Andi! Go get dressed."
Will immediately looked away, his face burning.
"Tell us what's going on first." The little pixie of a girl demanded, her arms thankfully crossed over her chest now and protecting a little more of her modesty.
"Get dressed and I'll explain as you do!" The man shouted, before adding in an afterthought. "The rest of you do it too."
Huffing in annoyance, the youngest daughter of Zeus turned to obey. Will following suit, whatever was going on, he had a feeling he didn't want to deal with it in his PJs.
"There's been a fire. The Ministry has issued a precautionary mandatory evacuation." He explained hurriedly from the hall while in their rooms Will and he presumed the others, changed out of the PJs.
"It can't be a simple fire. A few spells and that'll be handled." Ron countered.
"You're right. It's not just a fire, it's the local imps too." Lupin added. "They were all driven out when the campgrounds were set up. You can imagine why they would be unhappy."
"But since when have imps used fire?" Andi's voice shouted out as Will began lacing up his sneakers.
"Since someone had the bright idea to give them urns filled with Ashwinders."
"How do you even know this?" A fully dressed Annabeth asked as Will exited his own room. Percy hobbled out of his room as he pulled his shoe on and Thalia was shoving her arm through her leather jacket. Andi was the last out in her tee-shirt, jean shorts and her hi-tops.
"Happy?" She asked sarcastically.
"Much better." The man said with a nod, before his eyes swept along the hall doing a head count. "As for your question, one of the Ministry personnel that's running around telling people to evacuate said so." Remus explained. "Good. Everyone's here. Let's go."
With that Remus led them all out of the tent to meet up with Sirius who was waiting just outside the door, eying something off in the middle distance anxiously. Will glanced in the direction and gulped at the large blaze he could see incinerating swathes of the tent city that was the Quidditch World Cup's campgrounds.
Clearly sensing his nerves, the shaggy haired man put a comforting shoulder on the blonde boy's shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. We're perfectly safe. It looks bad but with a little magic, it'll be out in a jiffy. Just you wait." Sweeping his hand over the crowd all around them. "Just look at everyone else, they aren't panicking, so you don't need to either. Fire isn't that big a deal for us wizards."
"Maybe but I still wish we were near an ocean." Percy said while sporting a tight scowl on his face, his grip on his pen vice tight. He looked to Andi and Thalia. "Think we can get a rainstorm or something here?"
"Percy!" Annabeth hissed at him and pointed to Sirius and Remus. "Mortals resistant to the Mist."
The son of Poseidon looked apologetic.
"Maybe we should go help?" Andi said voicing the opinion of all the Campers.
"Not on my life." Sirius said sternly. "I'm not letting you run off into danger. Leave this to the Ministry."
Andi's eyes were scanning everything with a worried look on her face. "But where's the Ministry folk anyways?"
Sirius pointed out to some in the distance. "They're already on the job trying to round up the imps and ashwinders. The Ashwinders especially are a right pain, but the Ministry guys are professionals, they can handle this."
"Still-!"
Whatever Andi was going to say to continue the argument was lost however when her voice was drowned out by screams as the crowd around them suddenly swelled and began running away from something.
The group turned as one to see what had caused the sudden change in the crowd. Some distance away, somewhere between them and the flames there were a familiar group of men in black robes, but this time their robes were complemented by white skull masks.
"Death Eaters." Sirius snarled like a rabid dog, a dangerous twinkle in his eye.
"Sirius." Remus warned him.
"Figures that lot would be behind this! Okay, we're getting you kids outta here. Now." The shaggy man said while he pulled out his wand. "Stay in a group and let's head to the Floo."
A group of people was hovering in midair over the crowd of man. Will recognized the people in the air as the muggle family who owned the land the campgrounds was set up on and whose cabin was next to where the wizards had set up the Floo for the event. He'd seen them as they'd arrived the day before.
The muggle family was being spun in the air by the the black robed men who were laughing as they did so as if what they were doing was nothing more than a joke. Will didn't agree though. Not when they were turning the mother of the family upside down to make her nightgown fall to show her underwear to the world. They also kept hitting them with flashes of light, spells, that caused welts and swelling.
"And now I'm pissed off." Percy snarled and uncapped Riptide, pointing it towards the men. "Hero time guys. Let's whoop their butts!"
"Don't tell me what to do." Thalia told him as she transformed her spear into its true form and shot a bolt of static at one of the Death Eaters. The surprise attack struck true and the unsuspecting man collapsed.
Way to go overboard, Thalia! The dude's smoking for gods' sake!
That drew the attention of all the Death Eaters, making them drop the muggle family and turn to point their wands at the group of heroes and three wizards instead.
Annabeth put on her Yankee's hat, disappearing from view. "Scatter and take them down."
Percy and Thalia just charged at the group, unfazed as spells flew at them. They just blocked and swatted the spells away with ease with their Celestial Bronze weapons.
Three of the Death Eaters had their wands destroyed by Andi's pinpoint accuracy with her bow. "I've got you covered from here!"
"What are you kids doing?!" Sirius snapped at them in surprise.
Ron just had an excited look on his face.
Andi cracked a grin at him as she fired another arrow of wind. "What comes naturally to us."
Will personally wasn't a fighter, he was far more of a healer. That didn't mean he couldn't fight though. He tapped the small Lyre ring on his right hand and a small short sword appeared in his hand. He couldn't exactly smuggle a bow and quiver for the trip, so this was the best he could do.
"Guys, we have to draw them apart!" Annabeth's voice called out. "They are too close together! It's too dangerous to fight them like this."
Percy deflected another spell and grabbed a nearby lantern, tossing it at a few Death Eaters. They zapped it with a spell, making it fall like a rock. Having caught their attention, he shouted at them. "Nice dresses! Your mommies made them for you? Because Halloween isn't until October losers!"
He bolted to the left, a few Death Eaters chasing after him.
Thalia shouted, "Aegis!" and her Gorgon shield appeared. The sight sent half of the Death Eaters running for their mothers. Sadly, she also scared some of the fleeing crowd into running right towards the fire. She groaned and complained. "Oh come on!"
She ran after them, dismissing her shield as she did so.
Andi jumped up on top of a unburnt tent and shouted loudly. "Girl-Who-Lived right here! Free target you bloody wankers!"
Giggling, she jumped away, a good amount of Death Eaters going after her.
"She's nuts!" Sirius exclaimed as he looked ready to run after her, but the remainder of the Death Eaters were still focused on them.
"Hold on." Will stopped him, as he readied for a fight. "We've got to deal with these guys first."
Sirius looked uncertain.
"Sirius!" Remus shouted as he drew his wand and leveled it at the Death Eaters.
"Fine! Let's deal with this idiots first and hurry after Andi."
"You don't have to tell me twice." The son of Apollo said and as one of the Death Eater's got closer, he snapped his fingers at him.
"Bomarda Marauda!" The Death Eater said only for his wand to spark but fail to do anything else.
Taking advantage of the man's confusion, Will charged him and punched him right in his throat and then kicked him below the belt for good measure. The wizard fell like a sack of potatoes.
Will had a broad smile on his face. And people said a Couplets Curse would never be useful. Shows them.
"Guess he had too much to drink, the bloody nancy. Nice shot, kid." Sirius told him as he whipped his wand forward, causing a whip of light to spring into being and bash through a hastily made shield that one of the Death Eaters had conjured up. Sirius' opponent stumbled from the blow and was too distracted to defend himself against the follow-up strike that cracked him across the chest. "Whoo! Looks like I'm still as spry as I once was. Come on you tossers!"
Okay, he is seriously into this… And I just made a cringe level pun. Will blanched as he snapped his fingers again at another Death Eater.
The black robed goon tried a spell but his wand just sparked uselessly. Like his compatriot, he was confused by his inability to use his magic properly. Capitalizing on his confusion, Lupin jabbed his wand at him in quick succession, launching bolts of light that slammed into the man. The first shot struck the man's wand hand and he was forced to drop his wand as he recoiled as if stung, leaving him defenseless as the other blots hit him leaving him hissing in pain with each hit.
Having taken more than he was willing to endure, the Death Eater fled, Remus' pain causing spells harrying him all the way.
"Run away like the coward you are!" Sirius taunted as he lashed out with a barrage of what looked like the same spell his friend was using at the couple of by now very uncertain looking Death Eaters that had not yet been dealt with.
Imitating their friend, they decided discretion was the better part of valor and fled.
With their opponents dealt with, Will turned to look at some of the others' fights. He was ready at a moment's notice to offer help. Not that anyone seemed to need it.
Percy just wished that for once a vacation would go right for him.
Go to a wacky sports game Andi said, free food she said, our own private box she said!
And then boom! Magical terrorists. As if regular ones weren't bad enough!
He even got to go to England, but demigod luck just had to follow them.
He swatted another spell away with Riptide, a bored look on his face. By his feet were three unconscious wizards that he had knocked out. The last one was proving a little more difficult though and was still trying to take the son of Poseidon out.
"Dude, just lay down with your hands on your head. This way, I don't break your nose or something."
"Insolent whelp! As if a filthy mudblood, who doesn't even have a wand, could defeat me!"
"...I did it to all these other guys. That's not saying much about you, Bonehead."
"You just caught us off guard with that enchanted sword of yours." The wizard said as he swung his wand in a wide arc, launching a barrage of dozens of spells flying Percy's way. "You don't have that advantage anymore."
Aw man! Percy grit his teeth as he tried but failed to deflect all the spells. One slammed into his chest and sent him reeling as if he had been punched in the gut. Another hit his arm and sent it jerking, causing him to lose his grip on Riptide and sending it flying. Now defenseless, he was forced to weather the remaining spells. He was burned, stung, and cut all over his body.
Disoriented, Percy fell onto his knees. Knowing he was in deep trouble, he reached out with his powers, calling out to the water scattered all across the campground.
"What now boy?! Not so smug are you?" The wizard snarled and a green light sparked at the tip of his wand. "Avada-!"
He was cut off as something bashed him in the back of his head, making him fall to the ground in a thud.
There was a shimmer of light and there stood Annabeth, grinning at him in the fire light.
Percy gave her a look. "I had that under control."
She just gave him that 'Uh-huh' look of hers.
It was somehow annoying yet cute all at once.
Annabeth jogged to his side and started to help him up. "So what did we learn?"
Percy just gave her a deadpanned expression. "Magic sucks."
"Not what I was going for, but sure, let's go with that for now."
"Just find me a bucket of water."
Meanwhile, Thalia, the punk themed daughter of Zeus was beyond annoyed.
First she was forced to go on some stupid trip with that annoying counselor of hers and now she had to fight a bunch of assholes that thought torching a campsite was a fantastic idea!
This sucks, was a continuous mantra in her head as she used Aegis to herd the black robed freaks away from the innocents.
Sadly, the other magical idiots were also caught up in the fearful effects of her shield.
"Can these people be anymore stupid? Get out of the way!" She shouted at the civilians.
She couldn't get a clear shot on the terrorists.
When this was over, Thalia was going to give that twerp that brought her to this mess a piece of her mind!
Flipping over a spell, Andi giggled and exclaimed, "Missed again!"
Feeling that she was a safe distance from any innocent bystanders, most of the civilians were far away and it was just her, the group of Death Eaters, and a few torched tents. She'd already taken out four of them with various sneak attacks, and only three of them were left now. It was time to get serious and counterattack and finish this.
Along the way, she had done her best to annoy the Death Eaters. Making them angry so that they would get sloppy. Helped along by her successes at taking out members of their number. All the while, she used her air powers to snuff the fires out to take away the light source and use the dark to her advantage.
Unfortunately, the Death Eaters, especially the three that remained - likely the most skilled -, were obviously used to fighting in the dark and quickly compensated with lumos spells and conjuring balls of light.
So using the shadows was out. It didn't deter her though! She just had to wait for them to get a bit closer. She kept up with fighting the flames though, she wasn't fireproof after all and snuffing them out just made the whole place safer.
"Come on, I'm just one little girl." She smiled while taking steps backwards and the Death Eaters stalked towards her with their wands drawn.
Just as two stepped forward, Andi snapped her fingers.
An explosion of air erupted beneath the two, sending one of them soaring backwards all while screaming shrilly. The other man though had kept a safe distance from his fellow and had escaped the worst of her air mine's power and merely stumbled and lost his balance.
Andi cursed her timing, she still needed to work on that.
She didn't have much time to think on the matter however as even as the man tripped and fell on his back, he managed to fire off a curse in her direction.
She jumped to the side to avoid the curse, but the spell still managed to nick her in the side. Overcome with pain, she screamed out. Looking down, she saw her shirt had been sliced open and blood was staining the fabric. The guy had just tried to slice her in half with a cutting curse!
The time she took to inspect her injury gave the Death Eater time to stand back up and as Andi returned her focus to him, she found herself having to dodge like crazy as the man unleashed a rain of spells on her.
"You damn twat!" She cursed twisting to avoid the barrage, painfully pulling on her wound the whole time. Despite that, she managed to focus enough to fire off a stunner at him. The man was so preoccupied with pressing his own attack that he didn't even dodge and the spell hit him, knocking the bloke out. However, not before one of his spells managed to wound the child of Zeus once more, managing to send her reeling back as her left shoulder got hit by a stinging jinx which caused her to hiss in pain.
Andi forced herself to smile, despite the pain that was wracking her body, at having successfully taking out her opponent when her instincts screamed at her. Spinning away, she barely managed to avoid a spell that had been sent her way by the last Death Eater that in the heat of the battle she'd nearly forgotten about.
"Okay, now I am pissed right the hell off."
The Death Eater ignored her posturing though and sent a barrage of spells her way. Cursing under her breath, Andi spun out of the way even as she used her power to conjure ropes out of the air that she sent lashing out at the Death Eater in the hope of pinning him down. Things wouldn't be so easy though. As the tightly bound streams of wind came within a few inches of the last skulled freak, he whipped his wand and somehow just banished her rope trick.
"Didn't know magic could do that." Andi frowned and did a super leap to the left, avoiding another barrage of spells. She landed and ducked down, going into a roll to save her skin as yet another barrage of spells flew over her head. As she got out of the roll, she aimed her bow at the Death Eater and fired two air bomb arrows behind him to knock him off his footing.
He managed to banish one arrow and toss up a shield to protect him from the explosion of the other.
Okay, so he's got some skill. Just gotta up my game. Andi told herself as she decided to get tricky here. For the next few minutes, it was the same song and dance between the two combatants. Andi would try and snare the Death Eater, while he continued to try and hit her with his spells.
That changed when Andi heard him shout out, "Avada Kedavra!"
All her instincts told her to go up, up as high as she could. That he wouldn't be able to hit her if she had the whole sky to fly around in to evade his spells. Instead she blasted herself to the right, tumbling along the ground, covering herself in dirt and ash. It allowed her to evade the killing curse though, so that was a small price to pay.
Spitting out ash, she pushed herself up. "Okay, let's back up here guy. Calm ya tits for a bit and-"
Unable to even finish her sentence, she was forced to roll to the side once more as the Death Eater shot a Crucio her way.
"This is a thing now!" Andi declared as she nimbly avoided the spell. "Well fine!"
She pointed her palm at the wizard and unleashed a rapid barrage of air hammers at him. The shots of distorted air rained at the man at a blurring speed.
The Death Eater proved himself a nimble bastard though and dodged around the barrage, helped along with a conjured wall of stone that provided him with temporary cover from the hammers that he couldn't dance away from.
A wicked idea popped into Andi's little noggin as she grinned. She continued her barrage, smashing the stone to rubble, forcing him to stick to defense. At the same time, she split her focus and conjured a new set of air ropes for a little surprise.
As he erected a protego before him to replace his destroyed wall, Andi's other hand twitched and the air ropes she set up like a snare by the now crumbled wall jumped at him. The bounded wind wrapped around him tightly, forcing the bugger to his knees, his arms snapping back sharply and causing him to cry out in pain. He dropped his wand in the process and he struggled like a caged animal.
So much for pureblood dignity. Tie them up and they're just the same as everyone else.
Ceasing her barrage, Andi pointed her finger at him like a gun, aiming for his chest. "Say night night~!"
Just as she was about to fire a single air hammer to knock the wind right out of him, the sky lit up with a eerie green light. Looking up, Andi saw that someone had conjured the holographic image of a skull with a snake crawling out of its sockets all enshrouded with a neon green mist.
The sudden gaudy art in the sky distracted Andi as her shot fired, and she messed up how much power she wanted to put into her air hammer.
Instead of hitting the man with just enough force to either give him a debilitating concussion or just outright knock him unconscious, she had instead poured enough power into the attack to knock his head clean off.
Looking down at the rolling head, Andi suddenly felt numb.
"Oh shite."
And now that we got the head, uh, ball rolling again with Andi, its great to get back into the HP side of things again. Thanks to my awesome team as usual of Nameless and Axios.
Someone got Phoenix's number? Because someone's going to need an attorney!
Nameless: Andi is in so much trouble. Wondering how she'll get out of it? Stay tuned and find out.
In the brilliant words of Barney Stinson: Suit Up!
Nameless: On another note, we got a look at how the Campers measure up against wizards. Pretty good, all things told. But if they let their guard down, like Percy did, they can still be badly hurt. Oh, and Thalia is proving herself terrible at using Aegis. No surprise there, this is basically the first time she's using it with anywhere near so many allies and innocents around after all. It'll take her some practice to get it down.
Be sure to remember that this is Percy with only two years of training, not Hero of Olympus Percy. I mean, if it was? Well, body count thy numbers belong to Perseus Jackson! Yeah, I did a Zoe? Wanna fight about it?
So we've shown Will's side of things. Loved doing his character, and how he finds Andi's adorb moments cute. Or just get embarrassed by her lack of tact. Awkward~! Or is it?!
Nameless: He's cute, yes? Well, personally I thought seeing Thalia's behavior here was more interesting. It's reinforcing that she doesn't see Andi as a sister and an annoyance.
Pot meet kettle, guess what I just found out!
Nameless: Yup. We'll give Thalia a chance to vent soon. Then you'll get why she's behaving the way she is. For the time being, just bear with us
And that's all you're getting from us!
Remember to smash that review button and tell us what you loved! No flames and peace off my peeps!