Fantasy-Mania31: Thank you.
darklilyofthevalley: I like it!
Cookie05: I actually saw again recently as well, with my little sister. Luna is awesome, I agree. Annabeth will definitely interact with her, since they are both in the same House.
ChickWithThePurpleGuitar: Her name is Marietta Edgecombe. She was actually the obnoxious Ravenclaw who scolded Annabeth for clapping for a Slytherin. She will make other appearances in the story. As for Luna, yes, she is in Ravenclaw.
Unnamed-Anonymous-Reviewer: Yes, Annabeth does become much more Gryffindor-like in the later Percy Jackson books. At the beginning, she is mostly a cocky, little kid, who thinks she is always right (and normally is.)
Padma lead the Ravenclaw girls up to their dorms, while Anthony lead the boys. Annabeth was the only first-year to be sorted into Ravenclaw, so she was sharing one with the second-year girls. She didn't understand why she couldn't get a dorm to herself. Anthony said it was "safer", whatever that meant.
"A lot of people don't want their children in the school," Padma explained, "they're afraid of the rumors and what not. I've actually heard that this year, years one and two will be somewhat combined."
Annabeth looked at Padma curiously, "What do you mean?" she asked.
The older girl shrugged. "Beats me. Anyway, you better get to sleep, class starts tomorrow."
The next day, Annabeth ran into Aleron on the way down to breakfast. She smiled at him, "Congratulations, you got into Slytherin. That's what you wanted, right?"
Vaisey smiled, "Yeah. Thanks. And I'm glad you got into Ravenclaw, the second best House."
Annabeth smiled. "Is it true we'll be having classes with the second years?"
"Yeah, I heard that, too," Vaisey said. He shrugged. "It might just be a rumor, but it would make sense. The Ministry seems to be starting a whole new curriculum, and since there are so few of us, why bother teach us separately?" he looked annoyed. "I'm so not looking forward to class."
"Why? I'm kind of excited to learn about magic," Annabeth said.
Vaisey's eyes widened in horror. "No wonder you're a Ravenclaw!" he said.
Annabeth punched in jokingly in the shoulder.
And the two laughed all the way to the Great Hall.
Annabeth squinted at her agenda, trying to make out the handwritten words. Apparently, these wizards didn't use printers, which would have been much easier for her Dyslexic eyes. She wondered if there was a spell that could translate something into a different language, or perhaps read out loud to her. She made a quick mental note to look into that later.
She looked up, and frowned. Where was her group? She was so focused on her schedule, that she hadn't realized she had trailed behind the others. Now how was she going to get to potions?
An older boy in a Gryffindor uniform walked past her, she noticed that he had on a prefect badge. Perfect.
"Excuse me," Annabeth called out.
The boy turned to look behind him, as if she was talking to somebody else. "Are you talking to me?" he asked.
"Yes," answered Annabeth. "I'm Annabeth Chase. I am a first year, and I'm having trouble finding my class."
The boy raised an eyebrow. "Got lost?"
She nodded, embarrassed.
He laughed. "Don't worry, happens all the time to me. Sure, I'll lead you, seeing that I have nothing better to do. Plus, it's an excuse to be late for class," the boy grinned. "I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley. So, exactly what class are you trying to get to?"
"Potions."
Ron's eyes widened. "I wish you luck. You're going to need it."
Annabeth did not like the sound of that. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, for starters, everyone hates the teacher. Saying that he's a git is a huge understatement."
"Professor Snape?" Ron nodded. "My friend Vaisey met him last night, he's the head of his House. Vaisey said he seems okay."
Weasley stopped in his tracks. He looked as if someone had just punched him. "You mean your friends with a Slytherin?" Ron spat out the word Slytherin, as if it was some sort of disease.
"Uh . . . yeah."
Ron shook his head a couple of times, trying to get his thought straight. "Alright, you're new here, so you may not understand how things work. We do not like Slytherins. They are the enemy."
"Enemy?" Annabeth repeated. "Well, that hardly seems fair."
"It is completely fair. To associate with a Slytherin, is like associating with . . . with . . . um . . ." Ron struggled to think of something. "Something very bad."
"Why? What did they ever do to you? Give me three reasons."
This time Ron laughed. "What did they do to me? Okay, for starters, the Malfoys were all in Slytherin. The Malfoys are big, snobby, jerks who only care about themselves. They hate everyone who is not a pure-blood. Second, Professor Snape was in Slytherin. Snape hates everybody, especially us Gryffindors. He is a completely unfair teacher, and does not teach well at all. Third, You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, he is the most evil wizard of all time. He's killed more people than I can count, and my best friend was almost one of them."
"Those aren't reasons, they're just examples. Just because a couple of them are bad, doesn't mean you have to take it out on the entire House," Annabeth pointed out logically.
But Ron wasn't interested in logic. "Yes it does!" he cried, sounding like a little kid.
"No it doesn't. You're basing this off of something personal. Personal experiences cloud peoples' judgement," she said wisely.
Ron was not going to lose a fight to a first-year! "Well, then maybe Snape had a bad experience with Gryffindors, and that's clouding his judgement!" Ron stopped, realizing what he had just said.
"Perhaps he has," Annabeth agreed. "But, seriously, can you lead me to the potions lab?"
"What? Oh, yeah. Sure, follow me," Ron had forgotten how the fight had originally started. "Just go down the dungeons and make two lefts."
Annabeth shuffled her feet a bit, embarrassed. "Er . . . this is going to make me sound really stupid, but can you lead me down?" Annabeth said, "I . . . I have a bit of trouble telling my left from my right." This of course, was an exaggeration. She, while did have a bit of trouble, being Dyslexic and all, could figure it out on her own after a few seconds. It was the spiders she was worried about.
Ron raised an eyebrow, not buying it for a second. "Really?"
"Okay!" Annabeth said, "I'm scared there might be spiders down there. I really, really hate spiders."
"Maybe you're just basing it off of a personal experience," Ron said sarcastically, not bothering to mention that he, too, was terrified of the little arachnids, "it's not fair to blame the entire species."
Eventually, Ron decided to lead her down. Fortunately, neither ran into any spiders.
"By the way," Annabeth said, "what are you going to tell your teacher when you come late for class?"
"What else?" Ron smirked. "I'll tell them that I was fulfilling my prefect duties."
Annabeth laughed, stepping into the potions room. She quickly took a seat next to Aleron Vaisey. The Professor's back was turned as he wrote on the board. Maybe he won't notice, she thought hopefully.
No such luck. "Ah, Miss Chase," said Professor Snape, without even turning around. His voice was quite, barely even a whisper, yet there was something about it that you couldn't possibly miss. "How lovely of you to finally join us," he drawled, "ten points from Ravenclaw."
So far, her school year was not off to a great start.
Haha, I love the argument she had with Ron. I just started it, and then couldn't stop. I want to thank darklilyofthevalley for giving me that idea.
Anyway, you know the drill. Please review.