Book 2: Swords and Wands: The Prisoner of Azkaban
Summary: The demigods return in their second year to more surprises then they would ever have thought. Who is this Sirius Black and what does he have to do with Harry Potter? Find out in Book 2 of Swords and Wands
NOTE: Thumbs up if you spot a reference from one of my favorite Harry Potter Fanfictions.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, HOO, or HP and I never will.
Chapter 3: Midnight Meeting
"Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. And clear!"
Percy, Hazel, Frank, and Charlotte stood up. The Hufflepuffs began making their way through the shadows, being cautious. They stopped right behind one of the many suits of armors in the barren corridor.
"I don't think we should do this." Frank spoke.
"Oh, please, Zhang, backing out already?" Charlotte teased.
"Shut up." Frank hung his shoulders.
Frank took a step forward when a hand shot out in front of him. Percy peered over the armor before pushing everyone down. Footsteps approached quickly.
"Thanks, Snape," Professor Lupin sounded like a child being forced to say that.
"It's my pleasure," Snape's voice sounded the exact opposite. "Just remember to take it and don't be late for your next appointment. Hogwarts is not equipped for dog problems."
Snape walked forward, cape billowing behind him. He disappeared down the corridor, leaving Lupin to sigh and rub his face. The professor turned around and walked down the corridor.
"What was that about?" Hazel whispered once the hall was deserted once more.
"I don't know."
"It doesn't matter; let's just get this over with." Charlotte spoke.
Filch was not expecting to walk down the certain corridor today. He was not expecting on getting called to the corridor by a tiny, second year, Hufflepuff girl. He was not expecting the corridor to have yellow and black streamers. He was certainly not expecting a parade of badgers to ambush him.
He was expecting the second year Hufflepuff to be gone and unable to help him with the furry, black-and-white badgers currently surrounding him. He was expecting the giggling to occur. Filch cursed as he began shaking them off.
He hates students.
Meanwhile, in the Ravenclaw common room, Leo Valdez was rereading 'The Book of Muggle Inventions' for the seventh time. Luna sat next to him, reading an upside down Quibbler.
"Can you believe this? 'The Mix-A-Lot creates a black liquid from powder' It's a coffee maker! And the TV is called Muggle Madness, stating it is almost magic on how they get the tiny people in the screen. Seriously?"
"Not all wizards are used to the muggle world like you Leo." Luna chimed.
They both went back to reading. They weren't excepting to be bothered when a first year girl wearing dark hair in braids approached them.
"You make machines."
"Um…yeah." Leo looked up from the book. "Thanks for reminding me that helpful fact. I would have never known if it weren't for you."
The first year rolled her eyes before crossing her arms impatiently. "How?"
"With parts." Leo did jazz hands like he was listing a prize.
"I mean Hogwarts can not run electronics, much less machines that don't move with magic." She spoke quickly and without patience. Leo was starting to not like this pushy first year.
"Who said I don't use magic?" Leo was starting to pull straws. He hoped the first year would buy it.
"That's why everybody is amazed by your inventions," The girl shouted, bringing her hands up. "You don't use magic!"
"That what I want people to believe, unless you think I'm so powerful that I can bend around the rules that a great, powerful wizard made." Leo lied convincingly. Come on, come on, buy it, buy it!
The girl studied him with squinted eyes, trying to detect the lie. "I'll see you around, Valdez."
The girl stalked off, braids swinging. She walked quickly as if she was on a mission before seating herself at a table on the other side of the room with some fellow first years. She glared at him from afar, pointed at her eyes and then at him, before picking up her book.
Leo turned to look at Luna nervously. She slowly pulled her Quibbler down so he could see her whole face, whitish blonde hair looking as pretty as ever, her eyes, like the moon, were wide. She had a quirky smile on.
"That was peculiar."
At breakfast, the next day, a very strange thing occurred. It was very early, only a few wizards at breakfast (for some reason all the demigods were there at this time in the morning). Rachel was still in bed. Annabeth had been walking to the Slytherin table like she normally did when suddenly Hermione waved her over to the Gryffindor table.
The first thing Annabeth did was look around to see if Harry or Ron were standing behind her, but both of them were seated with Hermione, who was still waving her hand over.
Annabeth brought her hand up to point at herself and mouthed "Me?" Hermione nodded enthusiastically. She slowly walked over to the table. As she drew closer, Ron whispered loudly and quickly to Hermione.
"Oh, 'Mione, what are you doing? Just because she went into the Chamber of Secrets with Harry and I last year and is in all of our classes now doesn't mean we are bud buds with her. You are bringing a Slytherin to the Gryffindor table! Are you even-"
"Hello, Annabeth." Hermione greeted warmly. Annabeth couldn't help but relax a bit as she sat down. Harry smiled at her lightly and Ron stared at her like he had been smacked.
"Hello." Annabeth replied.
"So, I was doing Runes homework and I wasn't sure about one of the points of the essay, because it's commonly confused with…"
Meanwhile, at the Hufflepuff table, Percy, Hazel, and Frank were laughing about their work. They sat at the end of the table, alone, eating breakfast treats. They were recounting the tale when suddenly a parchment hit Percy on the back of the head.
He looked behind him, at the parchment, and then to Leo who sat almost parallel to him at the Ravenclaw table then back to the parchment again. Leo nodded his head at it. Slowly, Percy reached down and picked it up. He unfolded it quietly, Frank and Hazel watching him. The tree, midnight, make an 'x' if going: Percy, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo.
Under Leo's name was a red 'x'.
Percy looked back to Leo who nodded his head again. He then shuffled through his bag until he found a quill. It just so happen to be the one that wrote in blue ink. He made an x under his name before passing it to Frank and Hazel who read it.
He looked at his water, wondering why Leo was calling a midnight meeting. He furrowed his brow in thought. Suddenly his water shot up and then back into the cup again, splashing a bit.
Frank and Hazel, who had been writing an 'x' under their individual names, looked up. Percy shrugged innocently, looking back to the water. He filed it to tell Annabeth later.
Hermione and Annabeth chatted freely about the Runes homework when suddenly a piece of parchment hit her on the back of the head. Annabeth turned her head around, Hermione following. Leo gestured to the parchment urgently.
She leaned down and picked it up, unfolding it. The tree, midnight, make an 'x' if going: Percy, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo.
Under Leo's name was an 'x' made in red ink, under Percy's: a blue mark, Hazel had a multicolored 'x', and Frank had a plain black 'x'.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, leaning over.
"Nothing." Annabeth folded the parchment before writing 'Secret meeting invitations don't include everybody who is going to the meeting'. She then proceeded to levitate it back to Leo.
He turned around, collected it, read it and then looked at Annabeth with an icy gaze. His face lit up with a perfect smile, mocking Annabeth. He picked up his wand almost perkily before tapping it to the parchment, muttering a spell. It lit up in flames before crushing to ashes. Leo looked at her like 'what now', rubbed his hands together-dispersing of the ashes, and turned back to the table.
Annabeth roller her eyes before tuning back into the golden trio's conversation.
She was only interrupted when Rachel approached, pulling on Annabeth's sleeve, almost confused.
"Come on, you're starting to attract stares." The red headed girl looked to the Slytherin table over her shoulder. Annabeth saw many of the older years looking at her spot at the Gryffindor with disdain.
She smiled apologetically to Hermione, Ron, and Harry (the four of them had been enjoying a rather great conversation about fears and interests, Ron warming up to Annabeth once she revealed she feared spiders, explaining the Aranche "myth" to him, saying she had been scared of spiders since she heard it. Ron shuddered after the story, nodding to her with an approving glance) and got up, Rachel leading the way to the Slytherin table.
They sat down, the older Slytherins staring at Annabeth and whispering unpleasant things to their neighbors. Annabeth sat there, sitting straight with pride, ignoring Rachel's worried look sent her way.
Piper and Jason were informed by Leo later in the day when and where to be, after Leo practically pried them from Ginny's side playing the "It's a family problem, no need to be concerned" card with the ginger haired girl.
Come midnight, the students gathered at the tree, all confused by the request. Leo wrung his hands together nervously. His thoughts were flying and with every single one, his nervousness built. He looked at the faces of his friends, pale in the barely visible moonlight. The black lake glistened behind them and their tree shaded them from view of any curious peepers at the windows of Hogwarts.
"I make machines, right?" Leo began. The demigods nodded their head like it was obvious. "Well, how do they work?"
He was met with blank stares except for Annabeth, who seemed to have her thoughts going as fast a freight train. Leo nodded at her trying to help confirm her thoughts.
"Magic disrupts most muggle stuff at Hogwarts: video game devises, cell phones, TV-" Leo listed, counting them off on his fingers.
"And machines." Annabeth finished. "You aren't using magic to build them."
"Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner." Leo nodded his hands quickly, looking at the rest of the demigods. "I don't even think about them, I just make them."
"But that's a-" Annabeth looked at him, boggled.
"Power of Hephaestus." Leo nodded grimly as if he had announced a death and everybody was meant to mourn them due to its importance.
"Hold on a second, what are you two going on about?"
While Leo and Annabeth may have understood, the rest of the demigods were still confused. Percy spoke up, not liking how far behind he was getting in this conversation. He had felt this feeling way to much.
"We can't have demigod powers." Annabeth explained, used to this role and missing it greatly. "It was a trade, myth for magic-you could say. She turned us into wizards and witches, but by doing so, she took away our demigod powers."
"Because she didn't think we were worthy." Hazel added. Annabeth turned to look at her, forgetting the fact. "We couldn't have both until we proved ourselves with the powers separately."
Percy shifted uncomfortably. Piper balanced on her toes. Jason studied Leo and Annabeth's faces. Frank nodded his head, putting it all together.
Percy then told them what happened at breakfast in the morning causing Annabeth to look at him confused. Why didn't you say that earlier you stupid seaweed brain? Her look screamed. He shrugged and she rolled her eyes playfully.
"How can we know?" Jason asked.
"How can we know what?" Annabeth questioned.
"How can we know we have all our powers back?"
The demigods watched each other again. Annabeth thought about it before looking up with determination covering her face. She smiled as she spoke, loving being part of this team again
"We test."
And that's what the demigods did. At 12:30 in the morning, Percy stuck his hand into the cold water. He felt it, felt its temperature, and while it did calm him, his hand still pulled out wet, no matter how hard he concentrated. He tried several times to no success. When he concentrated hard enough, a tiny sphere of water floated up before breaking into nothingness.
Jason tried very hard to fly, but didn't move even a millimeter above the ground. When he tried to summon a spark, he managed to lightly shock Frank, who jumped, startled, in the air. As for controlling wind, he managed to lightly move a tiny breeze that could, at the most, move a feather.
Next was conversation, particularly Piper's conversation. Piper's charmspeak was only active on certain words including love, magic, or scarf. She could barely get Frank to agree to give him her scarf, much less getting Jason to carry around on his shoulder the rest of the night.
Then Leo focused on fire, which lead to basically nowhere. It would look and feel like a fire would start, but then it would fizz out before Leo could so much as set fire to a leaf. He could still make machines without thinking at ease at least. He could only hope his fire powers would erupt again soon.
Frank couldn't shapeshift; the closest he got was fur erupting up his arms and a claw or two forming. He could only maintain for so long before it sunk back into skin. He shrugged desolately, letting Hazel begin her tests.
Hazel tried her best, but only one gem appeared and it was about the size of a small nut. After that, she got a headache, taking a step back and leaning against the tree. She eventually fell asleep as the lull of conversation carried on.
The demigods didn't make it back to their common rooms until 4:00 am, Hazel woken up before. The demigods all used great skill to get pass Filch and Miss Norris, being sure to blend in with the shadows.
Percy couldn't sleep after they got back to their beds. He stared at the ceiling, studying it. He was counting each individual thread in bed when he fell out of consciousness. When woken up, he felt like he got no sleep at all. In fact, he felt like he had only had five minutes of sleep.
Worse of all, he couldn't even make it to breakfast.
Meanwhile, Annabeth wished she didn't make it to breakfast. She had sat down next to Rachel at the Slytherin table, getting there later then her normal. The redhead chased her eggs around the plate until she looked up, concentrating her ice like eyes on Annabeth.
"Where were you last night?"
Annabeth was startled. She looked up with wide eyes and her face paled. Rachel raised her eyebrow, reminding Annabeth to answer.
"I didn't go anywhere." Annabeth tried for the easiest option: denial. Maybe Rachel would back off if Annabeth denied her accusations.
"I woke up at one o' clock in the morning and you weren't in your bed. Where were you?' Rachel sounded frustrated.
"Geez, what are you stalking me?" Annabeth tried to cover her tracks. Jokes work right? Right?
"No, but I'm your friend and I've been worried about you lately."
"Don't worry about, Rach."
"I can worry about it if I want to! First you are all cryptic about your schedule! And then you sit at the Gryffindor table like some kind of rogue! Next thing you know you are missing out of the dorm at one o' clock in the morning!"
"It doesn't matter!"
"I'm your friend and you shouldn't be hiding secrets from me!"
Annabeth looked at the second year girl next to her at those words. She took a deep breath, knowing what would happen if she didn't explain. Drama would explode in the halls of Hogwarts and so would the demigods' identities.
"I'll tell you everything later, okay?"
"Fine."
Not everything, no not everything. She'll tell Rachel about the schedule, say Hermione asked her to sit at the Gryffindor table, and she was down in the common room at one o' clock to work on some late night homework.
Yes, that would do.
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