Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HP, 'cause then I'd be rich

Percy's PoV:

I ran into the room, where I saw a boy about a year younger than me sitting on a bed in the center of the room. He jumped when I ran in, and reached into his pocket for a stick.

I scrammed, and was out the door when darkness took over the hall. I slammed into a wall, unable to see, and was dazed when I felt ropes coil around me and bind me.

I felt a very heavy object hit my head and I passed out…

Only to wake up back in the cell chained to the wall.

Ginny PoV:

The next morning, I was so excited about my newfound friend that I didn't notice that anything odd was going on. But, it turned out that I wasn't the only one.

The first thing that was wrong that day were the owls. There were usually double the number of them delivering the mail, and it was a Wednesday, the day that always got the most amount of mail (for some reason).

I ignored it and ate my breakfast.

Then, as the Gryffindor 5th years were walking to Charms class, Peeves had some fun with an odd mixture of sticky and strong goo that came in a can labeled, "Sticky String."

What a diabolical item, almost worse than anything my brothers could come up with.

As we were all struggling to get out of it, a horde of other ghosts showed up and gaped at the scene for a moment. They were about to get a teacher, when Peeves said, "She said the king wanted me to."

None of us had any idea what he was talking about, but apparently the ghosts did. They floated in the hallway for a moment before the spirit of a little boy stepped forward and asked for a can.

After letting out a delighted cackle, Peeves armed the ghosts with the spray and sent them off.

He left us tangled up, and zoomed away.

It was another 15 minutes before anyone showed up to help us out. One of the girls next to me, Lou Ellen, said loudly, "Ugh! Someday, I am going to teach that thing a lesson!"

This was going to be the best (worst) day ever!

Harry PoV:

I stared at Hermione, who was wide-eyed in fear, sitting on a chair in the library. In her hands was a thick book that was far beyond my reading ability, and she stared at it in horror.

"I…I don't know what's going on," she muttered weakly, "It's like I can't… can't think right."

Next to me, Ron was white in the face. I thought back to when the trouble began.

It was an incredibly nice day out, the sun was shining and the birds were flying. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside, watching as Professor McGonagall explained the art of turning a pea into a thermostat.

"Can anyone tell me what the proper incantation is?" she asked, scanning the students.

Hermione's hand, to no one's astonishment, shot up first.

"Yes?"

"It's…" Hermione began confidently, but after that was what caught everyone's attention. Although, no one really slacked in the transfiguration, but anyway, "Well, umm…"

She cut off suddenly, looking panicked, "I… it's, uh… I, I don't know."

Now, everyone looked scared. Hermione, not knowing the answer when she clearly did, well, should have.

McGonagall looked up sharply. "Ms. Granger, are you alright?"

"I think, I don't know, I mean, yes, I'm fine."

The lesson continued, and forty minutes and too much homework later, we were heading towards the common room. Hermione left to go to the library, and Ron and I crashed in the chairs near the fire.

When Hermione didn't come back for dinner, we didn't think it was anything special, but when she wasn't at the common room afterwards, we got worried.

"Do you think she's okay?" asked Ron tentatively.

"I don't know. I mean, when has Hermione ever not known something?"

When we got to the library, she was in the back, sitting on a large chair.

"Hermione, are you okay?"

Whatever was going on here was definitely not good.

Annabeth PoV:

I liked Ginny.

She seemed genuinely kind, friendly, and most importantly, smart.

Hey, I'm a daughter of Athena. Wisdom is important.

I felt bad lying to her, or not telling the whole truth, but I had two things on my side.

One: I hardly knew her. She could be completely untrustworthy, and I would reveal the existence of my kind to her.

Two: More importantly, I had sworn on the river Styx not to reveal any of it to anyone until I was home and (relatively) safe.

That didn't mean we couldn't be friendly. It was nice to have someone living to talk to who didn't say, "Yes my Lady," or treat me like royalty.

Not that the owls weren't awesome.

I was finally out of the cloud of boredom that had encased me for the past few days.

I had dreamed of Percy, trapped in some creepy house with "evil" wizards, dying to be able to swoop in and save him, or at least get in there and fight our way out.

And my dad, he was freaking out, as was the entire camp.

My mother had sent me a vision of her trying to assist my escape, only to have Zeus stop her. It made me feel better to know that she was watching over me, if I had no other connection to my family.

I have no idea who has said this before, but demigod dreams suck.

I watched as Ginny exited the room as dinner ended for the students, I could hear the benches scraping as they were pushed back and the loud chatter and footsteps of the students.

I let out a long sigh, and went over to the bed in the corner of the room. I sat down and pulled out a sketch pad. I had been designing a lot of buildings since being here, relying on the architecture of this place for inspiration.

I thought that they looked pretty cool.

I put away the drawings and lay down. I closed my eyes and drifted off into the realm of Morpheus.

I found myself in a large spacious studio, an architecture studio like the one I had at my dad's house, but this one was the size of Camp Half-Blood.

My mother, Athena, sat at a desk, staring out the windows at a large grove of olive trees.

"Mom?"

Athena turned around and smiled at me, and then she gestured for me to sit across from her in a light blue swivel chair.

I did, and she finally spoke.

"Zeus has refused to let me assist you out of your present situation, but I can give you some advice. As you are aware, Hogwarts castle is the home of many creatures, including owls and centaurs, but you must not reveal yourself."

"Wizards think of themselves as the most powerful beings on earth, because they are not aware of our existence. Yes, there are many children of Hecate who pass themselves off as wizards, but they do not matter for now."

"But, how does this help me? Or Percy?" I asked, confused.

My mother paused for a second, then continued, "This information is important, but not for your escape. I know that you are in need of some mental stimulation, so I will provide some for you. Read between the lines, but be cautious as to how you proceed."

I nodded, still not completely understanding. The dream began to fade, but I heard my mother call out softly, "Ginny is very sensible, for a wizard."

I bolted awake.

The room was dark, but I was able to see the outlines of everything, and as I had not bothered with much of anything in it, I was surprised to see something out of place.

I turned on the light, and examined it. The object in my hand was a small, leather bound book, that looked very old, but it was in almost perfect condition.

The title read, "Εκατό και ένα κατάρες για το σύγχρονο κόρη ημέρα της Αθηνάς"

A hundred and one curses for the modern day child of Athena.

This should be good!

I flipped open the cover and found the preface. It was in ancient Greek, but this is what it said, "Warning: This book is dangerous to any who are not children of the goddess Athena. DO not attempt to use the curse unless situation is correct. Enjoy!

Table of Contents, dedications, introduction, here we go:

Curses to use when held in a hostage situation.

I skimmed through the lists. Not dragons, enemy demigods, monsters, other gods, wizards!

The first curse on the page was really weird. It involved tooth picks the size of my head and a crown of pecans, along with some other ingredients.

The verbal curses were much more useful, but the effects didn't really suit my style. I just wanted to cause a distraction that I could use to escape.

Finally, I found it: an intelligence curse. It would temporarily drain people of their intelligence until they were unable to focus for more than a few seconds, allowing me to casually stroll out.

It was perfect! It would fade after a few days, and I would be able to look for Percy without anyone knowing I was gone until well after I was.

It only affected wizards, so I would have to avoid the many pets that roamed the halls, Hagrid, who was only half-human, and the demigods who attended Hogwarts.

The curse requirements were very simple: all I had to do was chant the incantations twice, and then state the mathematical equation of intelligence, which I had learned years ago.

A minute and a half later, it was done. All I had to do was wait, which quite frankly had gotten much easier. It should take effect immediately, and start with the most intelligent, before finally reaching the rest of the wizards.

I knew Myrtle would come visit me soon, and I was right. We spent a good two hours talking about the events of that day, she was interested in the book my mother had given me, and I was in hysterics when she described the Sticky String incident.

Myrtle had told all the ghosts that Nico, the ghost king, would be very happy if they helped cause a diversion from me, in general.

Also, I was frustrated and kind of, well, really wanted to cause a little bit of mischief.

To me, there was nothing more annoying than sitting and doing nothing when someone's (a.k.a. Percy) life is on the line.

Speaking of Percy, I wondered how he was doing. From what I had seen through my dreams, he was in a bit of a rough spot, and while I thought he would be okay, I wanted to be able to get him out.

I was pretty sure that this was one of my most redundant thoughts.

I jumped as a misty rainbow shimmered into view. "Please insert one drachma for 5 minutes," came the calm voice of Iris, goddess of the rainbow.

"Oh gods!" I thought as I rummaged around me entire room, searching in vain for the coin.

I found one, but of course, as I turned back to the screen, it faded into the air. I almost screamed and I bit back a curse.

"Of course," I thought bitterly, "I had to… UGH!"

I kicked the wall, showing a small smile as I heard it shake.

I honestly was starting to lose it.

I didn't think that the curse or anything would actually help me. I wanted to get Percy, go home and forget that any of this ever happened.

Why?

That question rang through my head. Why did my dad let us come alone? Why did we leave camp? Why couldn't we have kept a low profile and stayed away from danger? Why didn't I know better?

Tears began to slip down my face and I threw myself on the bed. Some magic school.

What were they doing about any of this?

To quote my favorite t-shirt, "Life is Crap."

3rd Person PoV:

So, while Annabeth was busy moping, Percy was chained up in a cell with the world's worst headache, her curse was slowly draining the people of Hogwarts of their intelligence, and the entire demi-god population was freaking out.

Seemed like a good place to stop the chapter.

One more quick thing; there was a very important detail that was missed.

In her quick scanning of the book, Annabeth had missed the second warning.

It read (translated in English), "Please note that curses will not affect anyone who is currently suffering from one. Also, the thinner the spell is spread, the easier it will be to resist. Happy cursing!"

It's a good thing for her that no one in the school is cursed, say in their withering, blackened left hand by a ring that held the Resurrection Stone. Or teaching a subject that was jinxed by, let's say Voldemort, after he was refused the position, like maybe defense against the dark arts.

No one in all of Hogwarts fell into those categories. Yup, not a single person.

Well, here's the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Ugh! I know that there's something else I wanted to say here.

I think it starts with a 't' or maybe a 'q', no wait! It starts with 'r' and it makes me really happy!

Review!

Yeah that's it!

Come on, click the button. You know you waaaaaaant toooooooo! It's right there!