miller123456789: Thank you!
PJO and HP lover: Good question. The reason is because this story is not an AU for either series (yes, I know that Annabeth states in The Lightning Thief that she's never been on a quest, but that get covered at the end, trust me.) The trick to keeping both story lines in order in a crossover is not have very little to no interaction with the main characters. That's why I'm mainly having Annabeth speak to the minor characters, and not with the Golden Trio.
ButterflyFlyToMe: Thanks, but what exactly are you refering to?
Cookie05: I don't know. How many are there?
Glass of H2O: I wish I was that lucky!
darklilyofthevalley: Me too.
Annabeth was careful to avoid Umbridge the next few days. She didn't know how McGonagall had handled her, or how much power the woman had, but she didn't want to find out until the last moment possible. She would enjoy her ignorance while she could. In transfiguration class McGongall acted as if nothing had changed, and Annabeth couldn't tell it if that was a good sign or not.
She met up with Finnigan a couple of times in the library. Homework went nearly twice as fast with him around. The poor boy seemed to be growing more and more depressed each day. Annabeth wondered if she should say something to him, but decided against it. At least for now.
On Thursday, Annabeth woke up in a bad mood. She was so not looking forward to class that day. For starters, Defense Against the Dark Arts was their first period. And to make matters worse, she had flying at 3:30. She just knew it was going to be a nightmare.
When Annabeth entered the classroom, Umbridge gave her the evil eye. Annabeth acted as if nothing had happened and took her usual seat next to Vaisey.
"Hem hem," Umbridge "coughed" to get their attention. "I have decided that today we are going to switch things up a bit."
The class brightened up. Did this mean that they were actually going to start using spells? Was McGonagall that good?
"You have all been assigned new and permanent seats," she said, ignoring the class's groans. She cleared her throat again and began to read from the list. "Mr. Harper, please take a seat by the corner. Mr. Vaisey, come over here and sit next to him," Vaisey looked like he was going to be sick, but reluctantly obeyed. "Mr. Creevey, you will be sitting with Miss Quirkie, over here. Miss McDonald, please take a seat next to Mr. Wespurt. Baddock, by the window next to Zeller," she continued her list in no particular order. It seemed that Umbridge was purposely putting students in the places where they would be most uncomfortable. And, in all likelihood, she was.
". . . And finally, Miss Chase, please sit right in front of the teacher's desk, next to Mr. Ackerly."
Annabeth blinked. That was it? Stewart Ackerly was a second-year, and in Ravenclaw, just like her. He almost always had his nose in a book. Although she never spoke more than three words to the boy, he seemed friendly enough. Ackerly was probably a muggleborn or a half-blood, because Annabeth noticed that the books he read were often of muggle literature. And although she would have preferred Vaisey, Annabeth didn't mind Stewart. But why had Umbridge put her next to him? Everyone else was paired with their worst enemy, or complete opposite. Could it just be that Umbridge had run out of people and they were the last two? The scenario was possible, but it seemed unlikely. While Umbridge seemed to hate all of the students, Annabeth was pretty sure that she was high on the list. It would certainly be out of character for Umbridge to give anything but the worst.
Her logical mind believed that there was an alterior motive. I mean, Harper and Vaisey? Come on! There was no way that could be coincidence.
"Miss Chase, did you not hear me? Sit down next to Ackerly now or I will put you in detention!"
Annabeth did as she was told and sat next to him. Stewart was also rather jumpy. He was nervous and often twitched. He was a tall boy with curly brown hair, and dull blue eyes. He was busy skimming the latest chapter in their text book when she sat down next to him.
Vaisey shot her a look and mouthed "lucky" to her. Annabeth shot him an apologetic glance, but said nothing. She could not risk another detention.
Saying that Annabeth was reluctant to go to flying class was an understatement, saying that she was deathly afraid was much more accurate. The last time she had been in that class she'd been publicly humiliated, an experience which she did not want to repeat. Her pride had been hurt. Now it was up to her to fix it.
Flying class was horrible. Madam Hooch explained to them the rules of Quidditch, and then they all tried to score goals with the Quaffle. Harper and Vaisey didn't miss a single shot, and most of the others did pretty well, too. Annabeth made two goals out of ten. It was humiliating.
Annabeth left flying class in an even worse mood than before. She was not going to tolerate any more ignominy for others.
"Excuse me, young lady," said a voice.
"Would you like to sample our toffee?"
Annabeth looked up. Two identical boys stood over her, holding a box of candy. The both had red hair and freckles and wore Gryffindor robes. Maybe they were related to Ron.
"I'm Fred and this is my brother, George," said one of the boys.
"We're twins," said the other.
"Yes, I figured as much. Unless you happened to be clones."
"So, do you want?"
She shrugged. Annabeth figured her day couldn't get any worse, so she took one, not bothering to read the label. Annabeth wasn't allergic to anything, so she didn't see the point.
Immediately, she felt something strange in her mouth. Her tongue was swelling up! That couldn't be! What was in that candy?
She noticed that the two boys were sniggering.
She glared at them with a look so intimidating, that anyone who any any common sense would beg for mercy.
Fred and George did not.
Annabeth could not take it anymore. Her tongue was chocking her!
By this time a crowd of onlookers had gathered around. They were laughing as her. This was so disrespectful; she was the daughter of Athena, for crying out loud! How DARE they? She grabbed both boys by their shirt collars holding them close to her face.
"Fiths ith," she said, unable to speak properly.
The twins seemed mildly surprised by her reaction. Nobody had ever reacted this way before. It was just a joke, after all. It wasn't like they were doing any permanent damage. Everybody liked a good laugh.
But the look in the little girl's eyes was beyond angry. It seemed almost murderous.
People were watching. What were they going to do?
Fred managed to laugh. "Alright, hold your horses, lassie. It was just a joke!" he pulled out his wand, "Shrinkinus linguia!" The Ravenclaw's tongue returned to normal. "There," he said, "no harm done. Now, could you please let go of us?"
Annabeth did not let go. She continued to glare at them.
The crowd waited in anticipation. Would there be a fight?
"No harm done?" Annabeth repeated incredulously. "No harm done? Πώς τολμούν να κάνετε έναν ανόητο της κόρης του Αθηνάς*!" she cried furiously.
The two boys looked at each other, not exactly sure how to respond. She had just spoken Jibberish. "Um . . . sorry?" said George.
"You'd better be!" she spat. "Never, ever try anything like that again, or . . ." Annabeth put her hand on her pocket, slowly pulling out her bronze dagger just enough so that only they would be able to see.
They gasped, gawking at the blade. "Where did you get that?" one asked, his voice was hoarse.
"That's for me to know, and for you to never find out!" Annabeth said, and with that, she stalked away, leaving the two Gryffindors standing there is shock.
*Translation: How dare you make a fool of the daughter of Athena!
Author's Notes: People with ADHD (including myself) will sometimes behave impulsively, especially when under stress. Annabeth was stressed and in a particularly bad mood, which pushed her to lose her temper in front of the Weasley twins. Normally she would have thought it out logically, but she was really angry at this point. People behave differently when they've been having a bad day. Fred and george just happened to be doing the wrong thing, to the wrong person, at the wrong time. Annabeth's pride was hurt, so, naturally, she was going to lash out.
The candy she had eaten was "Ton-Tongue Toffee". It was tested on Dudley Dursley in 1994, by the Weasley twins. The product causes one's tongue to turn purple and swell up.
What am I forgetting? Oh, yeah. The spell "Shrinkinus linguia", come from "Shrink lingua", which is Latin for "shrink tongue", I just changed it to make it more spell-like.
Harry Potter fact: J.K. Rowling's favorite animal is an otter. She also had admitted that she is allergic to cats and prefers dogs.