§Jason§
I hated having my room next to Leo and Percy. Percy was better than Leo though. Leo would stay up all night tinkering with the Archimedes Sphere, and an occasional string of Greek curses could be heard through the apparently "sound proof" walls. Percy sleep walked too, and sometimes would hit his head against the wall before waking up and yelling at his bed for not stopping him. This time I was waken by both of them including Annabeth. They were shouting and talking to people whose voices I didn't recognize and then Coach Hedge ran up stairs yelling bloody murder. Lovely.
§Harry§
We contentedly slurped our carbonated drinks for a while, Ron now playing with the recliner on his seat. Suddenly, the plane dipped, and the lights went out.
A crackly voice came on the intercom "We have come across unexpected turbulence… seatbelts…" His voice came in and out.
The couple behind us started whispering urgently. Swiftly, they took off their seat belts.
"Um, guys…." Ginny muttered. They lunged towards us, and she screamed. Hermione pulled out her wand from her magically enlarged carry-on, and I could tell her mind was racing as she thought of a spell.
"Stupefy!" she yelled, but the man was too fast, and deflected it with his own wand. I watched as the red light hit someone's plastic cup of pop, making the liquid explode across the traytable.
"But…you're muggles!" said Ron stupidly.
The woman smiled, displaying shiny white teeth. "Are we now?" She chanted something in what sounded like some ancient gibberish and the lights blinked on again, flashing dangerously.
"NO LEXI! YOU CAN'T!" yelled the wizard.
"Fine, I'll just stand here while you do all the cool stuff."
"He said to bring them alive."
"Just let me do the lightning bolt thing, Ivan. Please?"
He shook his head, firing a stunning spell towards Ginny.
The passengers were going crazy, running towards the emergency exits, even though we were still in the air.
Frantically, Ron hit the assistance button above the row repeatedly. I had been annoyed when the flight attendants ran over to us all those times the first hour, but now I was grateful for Ron's curiosity. Sure enough, some were coming down the aisle. Well, they had their uniforms on at least. But otherwise they looked totally different. They both had pale white skin, eerie green eyes and extremely long fangs; their fingernails had turned into claws that burst out of their previously flawless gloves. One stage-whispered to the other, "Of course, they are a bit more matured than our regular meals, but they'll have to do."
Hermione moaned. "It can't be! They're not supposed to exist."
"Huh?" Ron, Ginny, and I asked, not daring to spare her a look while still dueling our many opponents.
"They're Lamia and Mormo, they feast on children. Monsters. They're… never mind. Just… try your best."
They were closer now. Ron and I left Ginny and Hermione to Ivan and Alexandra, and each took a monster.
"Avada Kedavra!" a blazing green light came out of the end of my wand. Part of me wanted to go, hide, for that image had given me nightmares for so long it was torture to see it. But I stood still and watched the beam fly towards the younger looking one. Lamia, I guessed. It hit her square in the chest, but bounced right off.
"Didn't consider that we have indestructible skin, did you, mortal?" she taunted. We ducked the rebounding spell and aimed a few more curses until I realized that wands wouldn't defeat these monsters. I grabbed Hermione's carry-on, which was full of almost everything required for our trip, and swung it at Lamia's legs, aiming to make her topple to the ground in the aisle. Luckily I surprised her, and it worked the first time. Ron followed my lead with Mormo. I held my wand firmly in my hand and bended down towards her. "I told you, your silly wand won't… Oh!"
She shrieked as I poked her hard in the eye with my so-called useless wand. I winced as I prepared to see blood, but instead a golden dust started leaking out of the eye. Suddenly all of her started to collapse into a pile of the shimmering sand. Mormo's joined her sister and it all blew away quickly into nothingness.
"No, that was the best part of the plan! How did he defeat them!?" yelled the Alexandra.
"No matter, I think we can finish them off." replied Ivan, casually casting stunning spells at random.
He was right. Ginny's face was glistening with sweat, her hair sticking straight up as though by static electricity. Hermione wasn't in a much better state.
"Guys, we gotta bail. There's no way we can conquer them. Quick, grab Ginny. Let's go." We all spun. I realized we had not made a plan of where to apparate to, but at least we would be safe. The last words I heard Alexandra say were,
"You said you were going to make sure they couldn't apparate, or whatever you filthy mortals call it. It's always your fault! Oh, just let them go. It's not like we won't see them again."
And then I lost focus. I still hadn't fully gotten used to the sensation of apparition. I ignored the pain while repeating in my head what I had directed myself to just seconds ago: The Burrow. The Burrow. We'll go home and we'll all be safe. Forget Lord Mallum- Ginny and I will at least be together before we are killed. Just make it to the Burrow.
It did not work out that way at all.
§Percy§
Everything was going great until a girl appeared on my head. A red-headed girl with freckles. Followed by a bespectacled boy. When Annabeth came up to investigate, another couple materialized in front of her. She yelped and jumped back only to pull out her dagger and glare at the imposters. "Mortals," she muttered/grumbled.
"Who are you?" The girl with super bushy hair asked.
"Er… who are you?"
The redhead girl spoke up. "Hi! I'm Ginny Weasley. This is my brother Ron," she pointed to the other boy, also with ginger-colored hair, "And our friends Harry and Hermione. We have absolutely no idea where we are and how we apparated here. Could you please inform us?"
Taken aback, I let Leo speak.
"First of all, you all have really cool accents. Second, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY SHIP?!"
It was their turn to look surprised. Then things went from bad to worse. Coach Hedge came up with his well known baseball bat and charged at Ron.
"DIE! DIE!" He shouted, not helping the matter as the others whipped out- were those sticks?- to oppose Coach Hedge's bat. I was wrong. Jets of red light burst from the tip of their wands (or at least what seemed like wands), and Coach Hedge froze and keeled over . Annabeth screamed.
"What did you do to him?! "
"A simple stunning spell," answered Hermione calmly. The others pocketed their wands but Hermione kept hers out, switching it from one of our necks to the next, daring us to attack. "Look, I don't know who you are," she glanced at Grover as he joined us, "Or how we got here, but I don't think it was a coincidence."
The boy named Harry looked at her. "So that's why I was nearly killed trying to apparate to the Burrow. Next time tell me before you switch my destination while I'm in the middle of apparating."
"Hey, that was a difficult bit of magic, to control another's apparation. And I hope you remember that I didn't have time to warn you when we were fighting those monsters."
Monsters? I ignored the fact that the words magic and apparation had just been used with a straight face, and turned to interrogate Hermione.
"You were attacked by some monsters? But you're mortals, right?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. I was shocked by how calm she seemed. "Yes, we're mortals, mortals who just happen to be wizards. On our aeroplane the stewardesses turned into Lamia and Mormo. I don't know if you have heard of their story but…."
"Yes, I have," Annabeth interuppted. "Now, it was nice meeting all of you, but I think it is time you appy-magic out of here. We are on a quest."
I was surprised at her hostility. She usually saved that for me.
"We were told to come here. I don't know why, but I trust Kingsley. We might as well get along. It also might be nice to know your names."
Whoops. "I'm Percy Jackson, that's Annabeth," she scowled, "and Grover and Leo, and the person you just maimed was Coach Hedge."
"Right. Sorry about that. Now where is this ship headed?"
Leo looked proud, "New York, by noon tomorrow. It would have taken longer, but I used my talents to fix her up. No need to thank me. Welcome to the Argo II. Now if you excuse me, I have to go steer."