Hello! Happy Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, er . . . Winter Solstice! Here is my present to you: an update before I go on vacation.
darklilyofthevalley: That's what I thought, too. I'm glad you liked the chapter.
killerpizza504: Wow, I'm honored (that's now sarcasm, I really am). Anyway, I'm Jewish (hmm . . . a Jew writing about witchcraft and Greek gods, talk about irony), so I don't celebrate Christmas. But, I wish you a happy holiday!
PjoHp. Spellandwords (note: I had to put spaces in your name otherwise fanfiction deleted it): Yeah, unfortunately Percy will not play such a big part in this story. He may or may not make a brief appearance at the end, though.
Meagan Snow: I'm glad you think so! As for school, eighth grade itself probably wouldn't be so hard if I didn't spend half the day in a different language. I'm also mostly in the high classes, which is really annoying. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Camp Half-Blood had two television sets. Most of the time Chiron, Mr. D., and a couple of the older campers used them to watch the news. Every day, if the campers behaved, they were allowed to watch one hour of television. Both TVs were kept in locked rooms in the Big House so that the children wouldn't sneak in (although Conner and Travis had attempted to do so numerous times.) On weekends and special occasions, everyone in the camp would gather around to watch a movie. Of course, satellite television was out of the question, and even cable was an iffy subject. Still, they had not experienced any monster-related issues with the TV signals, so the tradition continued. After all, depriving a child of television in modern-day America, was considered (by most) to be a cruel and unusual punishment.
Annabeth, unlike most of the campers, often would miss the TV hour. She preferred to spend her time doing something more useful than stare at a screen for sixty minutes. Still, on occasion if they were watching something worthwhile she would join them. And after being deprived of any muggle technology for months, she found herself staring at the box for hours.
Drew continued to annoy Annabeth, she would constantly pester her with personal questions that were none of her business, and on more than one occasion, Annabeth was seriously considering using her knife on the girl.
Ethan's mother was claimed as well, although he still stayed in the Hermes cabin, so Annabeth guessed she was a minor goddess, although Ethan refused to tell her himself. The poor kid had been waiting to be claimed for months, and now he didn't even have a cabin. Annabeth felt a little bad for him, but she had enough troubles of her own to deal with for the time being.
She read ahead in her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. Umbridge, no doubt, would quiz her on its contents once she returned. She also wrote up a list of everything that she could recall about obedience training from Rex, hoping that it could help with Canis. And, of course, there were the prophecies to worry about. It disturbed her to think that the last one seemed aimed directly for her.
Even with her burden of work, Annabeth still found time to interact with her demigod friends, who were all eager to hear about her stay. Annabeth did her best to answer their questions as honestly as she could without giving away the fact that it was a magic school, but at times she was forced to say an outright lie. It felt weird lying to her friends, especially Luke. The two always had a special connected and Annabeth couldn't help but feel as if she had betrayed him.
Come to think of it, Luke hadn't quite been himself either lately. Could it be that he was hiding something as well?
"Ackerley, Ambercrombie, Baddock, Chase," there was no response. "Where's Chase?" Umbridge demanded. "You there," she said to Stewart, pointing one of her stubby fingers at the second-year accusingly, "you sit next to her, where is she?"
"I d-don't know," he whimpered.
Orla Quirkie raised her hand. "Professor," she said, "I heard that she was in the States for a week for some American holiday."
"Yeah, Thanksgiving," Vaisey said, recalling the name that Annabeth had used.
Umbridge narrowed her eyes in anger. "And what gave her the idea that she could leave the country whenever she wanted to?"
"The headmaster gave her permission, you dodo," Rose mumbled. The little Hufflepuff had been growing more and more bold ever since she started hanging around the Slytherin.
"Who said that?" she interrogated the class. Her beady little eyes scanning the group of students. Rose did her best to shrink into her seat. "You there!" she shouted. Rose whimpered, before realizing that the professor was talking to Harper. "You're always playing tricks."
"I didn't do it, I swear! I don't even know what a dodo is!"
"It's what muggles call a Diricawl," Emma explained.
Umbridge slammed her fist onto her desk. "Dobbs, DETENTION!"
Luke Castellan finally worked up the courage to approach Annabeth the night before she left. It had been difficult to get her alone, and on the occasion that he did, she was almost always doing homework for school. How much work did that place give anyway?
He found Annabeth in the Big House where she was attempting to write an essay while simultaneously watching The Simpsons. He felt a bit guilty for bothering her, but he knew that she left first thing tomorrow morning; if he didn't tell her now, he might never get the chance.
He cleared his throat.
Annabeth looked up from her work. "Oh. Hey, Luke."
"Hi. Um. . . I was just wondering something. . ."
"What?"
"Well. . . have you ever wanted to avenge Thalia's . . . have you ever wanted to avenge Thalia?"
THAT got her attention. "Of course I would, stupid! You know the answer to that!" but Annabeth was no dummy herself. She knew that Luke wouldn't just throw things out like that. He had something planned. "Why?"
"What if I were to tell you that I know how to get the perfect revenge."
Annabeth's eyes widened, but Luke couldn't tell if it was in horror or excitement. Then, slowly but surely, Annabeth's lips formed a smile. "As long as it's not something stupid like bringing Kronos back to life!" she joked, not noticing her companion's face fall. "So, what did you have in mind?"
"Nothing," he murmured, sighing. "Nothing. It was all hypothetic."
Harper had finally pieced together what was going on: Potter and some of his friends were creating some sort of defense class of their own. Finding out where the meetings took place was the hard part, but after a lot of snooping he discovered a room that seemed to appear whenever someone in the group came to it. How convenient.
Grinning in anticipation, Harper confronted Vaisey in the Slytherin Common Room the night before Chase's return.
"Hey, Aleron?" he said, "have you ever heard of the Room of Requirement?"
Aleron froze, his eyes were filled with panic. "Who told you?" he whispered.
"Erm . . . well, Nott said something about it - -"
At that point, his friend's "cool" demeanor completely vanished. In panic, he started blabbering. "Nott? I KNEW we shouldn't have trusted him!" Vaisey smacked his fist into his hand. "That slimy snake - - well, I suppose I shouldn't be saying that, because I'm a Slytherin, too. But still! Oh god, you won't tell anyone will you? Swear that you won't!"
"Vaisey, I - -"
"SWEAR TO IT!"
"Okay, okay," the other boy said, holding his hands up in defeat. "I swear. What exactly am I swearing to?"
"What - - you mean you don't - - but then how . . . ? - -UGGHH! I'm so stupid!"
"It's about time you've noticed," muttered Forrest, smirking. "Anyway, I don't know what you're on about, but I know what Potter's up to."
Vaisey face lit up. "Forget what I said. Wait, Potter, really? Is this about the thing we saw in Hogs-"
"Yep. Unlike you, I've kept to my word. I've been watching them for months. Potter created some secret organization with his friends. I think it's some sort of Defense Against the Dark Arts class - -you know, a real one, unlike the crap Umbridge is showing us."
His companion nodded. "I just thought . . . never mind."
"What? What did you think?"
"Erm . . . nothing. Forget I ever said anything. It's nothing."
Harper rolled his eyes. "Aleron Vaisey, you may be the world's worst liar. Just tell me already."
Aleron bit his lower lip. His eyes darted around the room, as if looking for an escape. Finally, sighing dramatically, he said, "Okay, I'll tell you. But you have to keep it a secret. Do you promise in the good name of Salazar Slytherin that you will not tell a soul about this?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just tell me already."
"Alright. So you know my dog, Canis . . . ."
A bit of a slow chapter, sorry. But I have some great stuff planned out for future chapters!
HP fact: According to Rowling, there are three thousand wizards in Britain.
Random Fact: Tetraphobia is the irrational fear of the number four.