Thank you for all of your reviews!
hAdesLythErinmadrigalX: Believe or not, I actually am rather fond of Draco myself. I just wanted to make sure he stayed in character.
Cookie05: Cool, I think my dad's renting it this weekend.
darklilyofthevalley: Yes, that is implied. Annabeth most certainly thought of Thalia that way. She will find out, just not yet.
superawesomejennifer-thatme: Thank you!
ButterflyFlyToMe: They would, we just don't see a lot of Slytherin perspective. If you remember, Vaisey's family was trying to stay neutral. The death Eaters are not fond of cowards. Kayla's death had been a warning.
ChickWithThePurpleGuitar: So do I!
Masterofbugs123: My thoughts exactly.
Daughter of Artemis: Thanks!
Thank you all for your patience, I know it has been a longer wait than usual.
When Annabeth had come down the next morning, she was in a much better mood. That night she had her first chance to actually sort things out. She had come to the conclusion that while her actions may have been careless, it didn't do to dwell in the past.
Annabeth entered the Great Hall and scanned the room for Vaisey. He was nowhere to be found. Annabeth shrugged and assumed he was just late, they'd sit together in potions later.
But to her dismay, he wasn't there either. She had asked several students if they knew where he might have gone, but none of them seemed to know. And Harper was oddly quiet the entire morning. He shared a room with Vaisey, didn't he? Maybe he would know what was going on. This, of course, would be a last resort, but as the day wore on, Annabeth found she could wait no longer and approached Harper during study hall.
Annabeth cornered the Slytherin boy before he knew what hit him. "Alright, what gives?" she demanded, "you haven't made a single bad joke or obnoxious comment all day."
Harper pretended to look confused. "What are you talking about? I don't know anything about Vaisey!"
"I never said anything about him."
Forrest cursed under his breath. He looked at Annabeth, and then seemed to come to his senses. "Hey, what are you doing on top of me? Get off!" he began to kick and squirm. "Leave me alone!"
"What happened to Aleron?" Annabeth's voice was low and dangerous.
Harper scowled. "It's none of your business!"
"What? What is none of my business?" she was dying to find out what Harper knew about her friend.
Now Harper actually grinned, and Annabeth knew she had made the wrong move. Now he knew that he had something that she wanted. He had an advantage over her because she had shown weakness. "I'll tell you if you get off of me," he said.
Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Yeah, how stupid do you think I am? Just tell me and I'll let you go. Why is that so hard?"
He shook his head. "Sorry, Chase," he said, not sounding sorry at all, "I can't tell you. Slytherin's honor."
"You're making that up!" she accused.
Harper cocked an eyebrow. He was totally enjoying this. "Am I?" he asked slyly.
"I'm not playing games with you, Harper!"
"Neither am I," said Harper, getting up and dusting himself off. "Look, if you care so much, wait for Vaisey to get back and then ask him yourself." He was gone before Annabeth could say anything more.
Saturday night, Annabeth met Seamus Finnigan in the Hogwarts Library for their tutoring session. The Irish boy looked as sullen as ever.
Annabeth, who had not gotten any further in her search for Aleron, was not fairing much better. She slammed her books onto the table in anger. "Hi," she grunted.
"Nice to see you so cheerful," he muttered.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I just want to get this done," she pulled out a roll of parchment and began to write, every now and then muttering something under her breath. This was so hard, if only they let her write in Ancient Greek . . . .
Suddenly, she stopped. "Hey, Seamus?" Annabeth said, "do you know if there are any spells that can translate writing into other languages?"
Finnigan blinked, confused. Why would want a spell for other languages? The girl could hardly write in English!
He was about to answer, when Annabeth put her to finger to her lips. "Shh," she said, "listen."
At first Seamus did not know what she was talking about, but after a couple of seconds, he heard it, too: someone was shouting. They listened for a couple more seconds, the shouting did not cease. If anything, it grew louder and louder. And more and more annoying.
Annabeth groaned. "I can't concentrate with that noise!" she complained, standing up.
Seamus took the hint, and reluctantly followed.
She looks so pretty in white, Vaisey thought, as they lowered the body into the casket. Kayla looked as she always had. A petite, yet elegant frame, with her long dark hair tied in two neat braids. So innocent and young . . . he saw the world cloud up as his eyes became wet. Embarrassed, he took a quick look around to make sure that no one had seen, quickly wiping the tears off onto his sleeve. No, he was not going to cry anymore.
Aleron watched as his father closed her large, now lifeless, dark eyes. They would never open again.
She looked so peaceful, almost as if she were sleeping. Vaisey wished with all his heart that were so. He looked away as they began to lower the coffin.
"Wait!" Mrs. Vaisey cried. She pulled out a stuffed animal, a Hippogriff; it had been Kayla's favorite. She bent down and placed the toy into the coffin, giving her daughter one last kiss on the cheek. "I love you," she whispered. She had thought no one had heard, but was wrong.
Vaisey had seen every last detail. He felt the wetness in his eyes again, but this time he did not brush them away.
Rose Zeller was a small, Hufflepuff girl. She had deep blue eyes, and red hair that was always extremely neat. Rose was shy and usually quiet, but cried rather easily, which made her an excellent target for bullies. Like now, for instance.
"Give him back!" the eleven-year-old shrieked indignantly and two Slytherin boys played monkey in the middle with her (now petrified) cat. "Stop it!"
"You want it? Come and get it!" one of the boys taunted.
Rose was now crying. Felix, her beloved Abyssinian, was being thrown back and fourth between Graham Montague and Miles Bletchley. It was all her fault, it was her first attempt at Petrificus totalus and she had been aiming for the Venus Flytrap in the corner. How was she supposed to know Felix would jump up on the table at that very moment? She had been running to get help when Montague and Bletchley showed up and decided to have a little fun.
Rose ran between them, trying to catch the poor, frozen feline with no luck. It wasn't fair! The boys were older, bigger, and stronger than she was!
She tried to chase them down the corridor, maybe they'd run into a professor.
As the neared the entrance to library, they did run into someone. Two someones in fact, but they were not professors.
"Oi," said one of the people, a boy who looked a couple years older than herself. He had sandy-coloured hair that could either be described as light brown or dirty blond, and his eyes were a dull shade of blue. Rose had seen the boy before, but couldn't recall his name. "What's going on 'ere?" the boy demanded.
"Yeah," the girl said, "some of us are trying to study!"
Rose recognized the girl instantly. It was Annabeth Chase, the Ravenclaw girl from America. Rose felt a spark of hope, Annabeth may have only been a first-year, but her magic was fairly powerful. And although she didn't know about the boy's, Rose was sure together they could take them. "T-they have m-m-my cat!" Rose said, she had been crying for so long that her voice quivered when she spoke.
Bletchley and Montague continued their game of catch, apparently they were not very threatened by the three.
Annabeth's eyes filled with rage when she realized what they were doing. "How did this happen?" she demanded.
Rose quickly told them what had happened, sniffling every now and then. Annabeth seemed to grow angrier and angrier.
The Ravenclaw girl turned to Seamus. "Quick, what's the counter-spell to Petrificus totalus?"
"Uh . . ." Seamus struggled to remember. "I think it's Releaso," he said, raising his wand. Unfortunately, Bletchley had seen him do so, and quickly disarmed him.
Annabeth didn't waste a second, with her wand raised, she shouted, "Releaso!"
Felix sprung back to life.
Harry Potter fact: For the Prisoner of Azkaban film, a new director was chosen. Upon meeting the three stars, he told each of them to write a first-person essay about their character. Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, wrote a seventeen-paged paper. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, turned in a one-paged summery. And Ron's actor, Rupert Grint, ditched the essay and never turned it in!
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