Note: Everybody's answers differed as to when Annabeth's birthday is, so for the sake of this story, it's in mid-February.
Now, to my lovely reviewers:
PjoHp_Spells_and_words: Okay, thanks!
killerpizza504: Thank you!
SM. Raleigh: lol
Meagan Snow: I think that's Percy's.
lizard186: First of all, I'm glad you like the story. As for your question: it just strikes me as odd that they celebrate Christmas in places like Hogwarts and Camp Half-blood (mostly the latter.) But to be honest, I'm actually Jewish, so it's not really my place to say. It's just something that I have observed. But just to be clear, the last thing I want to do is judge anyone, I've seen families that take Christmas very serious. Of course, the same thing can be said about Hanukah, that it's all about presents, I mean.
lizr18: Hmm. . . interesting theory. But she would still have to appear at some point, right?
"Check-mate," Annabeth announced, moving her queen forward. A triumphant smirk played on her lips. "Rematch?" she asked.
Her bunkmate, the only other year-round Athena camper, Malcolm, groaned. We've already played eight times!"
Annabeth shrugged. "What's your point?" she asked, already beginning to regather the pieces. She couldn't stop now! Annabeth had won six of those eight games; one of them had been a draw.
She had received the magical chessboard that morning. It had been an early gift from Vaisey, with a note claiming that he couldn't bare to wait until Christmas to send it to her. The board was carved out of some expensive-looking stone and each piece was decorated with such perfection, she was sure it must have taken the artist months to carve each one.
Not wanting to waste the gift, she immediately put it to good use. By midday, she had already bored Malcolm out of his wits.
"He sent you a log-distance present? That's SO romantic!" Drew gushed. "So what are you getting him?"
"Look out!" shouted Lee Fletcher as a volleyball headed straight towards her. Fletcher ran and hit the ball just in time, pushing the Aphrodite girl out of the way. Drew shrieked loudly as she hit the ground, complaining about how he messed up her hair, demanding an apology.
Lee rolled his eyes and helped her up, muttering something about how he would never understand girls, before retreating to the climbing wall.
"Great job!" Pollux cried sarcastically from the other side of the net. "Now the teams are uneven!" He groaned, "Come on, Castor," he said, indicating to his twin, "Let's go to the arena."
The other kids all grumbled as left as well, with an exception of Annabeth who was tying her shoes.
Drew pouted and looked at her. "You're not mad at me, are you, Annabelle?" Drew looked as if she was about to cry.
Annabeth herself had been planning to leave as well once her shoe was tied, but she ended up taking pity on the girl. Drew was only ten, which made her younger than most campers (she had been an exception) and the whole experience was fairly new to her and likely overwhelming. Besides, if she didn't say anything, Drew might start crying and she would look like a monster. "Don't worry about it," she said, "Apollo campers are really vain. They don't like it when people tell them to apologize."
Drew nodded but still looked upset. Annabeth sighed. "What would make you feel better?"
"Going to see the pegasuses!" she said, instantly cheery.
"Pegasus," she corrected, "the plural of pegasus is pegasus. Like sheep or moose or shar pei. Some say pegasi, although I prefer pegasus. I suppose the latter would fall into the category of 'octopi'. Either way, it's not pegasuses."
Drew rolled her eyes. "Well, I don't know what a shar poo is - - or particularly care, but I want to see the pegasus," she said, carefully enunciating the last word just to annoy her.
"Hey, Annabeth!" called Malcolm. "Your dog left us an early Christmas present on the floor of our cabin!"
Annabeth, relieved for an excuse to get away from Drew, bolted for the Athena cabin. Still, Drew's previous question repeated in her mind: What WAS she going to get him? She had originally been planning on a paper bird that she had charmed to fly around by itself. Annabeth had been so proud of herself because that had been a fifth-year spell, although now it seemed rather flimsy and trivial compared to the gift she had received from him. Perhaps she could get the bird to do something more impressive than just fly, but nothing came to mind.
When she reached the cabin, Canis happily greeted her by running around in circles. Malcolm was eyeing him oddly.
"Is it just me," he said slowly, "or does that dog have two tails?"
"Mutation," Annabeth answered a little too quickly. "The family who owns him don't believe I tail docking."
Her half-brother raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but said nothing. He indicated to where the mess was and Annabeth went to clean it up. Making sure that Malcolm wasn't looking, she pulled out her wand from her boot, "Wingardium Leviosa," she whispered, causing the feces to rise into the air. Annabeth concentrated on moving it until it reached the trash on the other side of the room. She had not once touched the ordure. She smiled proudly.
She really did love magic.
As the next few days went by, Annabeth wrapped presents to her fellow campers and a few for her close friends at Hogwarts. Some had a lot of thought put into them, such as Luke's invisible armor. Others, however, were thought of in a few seconds, for example, Drew's present from Annabeth consisted of one of her stepmother's old lipsticks (which may or may not have been used).
When Christmas day finally arrived, she received numerous gifts from her friends at Hogwarts and the camp. Fred and George got her a variety of new products (a portion of which was given as a Christmas present to the Stoll brothers). Rose Zeller gave her a bulletin board, which she gladly stuck on her wall. And Seamus Finnigan gave her a sketchbook for her buildings. Even Harper gave a fancy letter-carrying pouch for Admete.
The best part by far was when Grover came back. He had been monitoring a school in New York, Yankee or Yancy something. It was so good to see him, that Annabeth did not even commend him for eating half of the Christmas banquet (not to mention several other inedible objects).
Still, one question lingered in the back of her mind: What would she get Vaisey?
The first time Annabeth had snuck Canis through the airport, she had given the dog a sleeping potion so that he wouldn't attack anybody. After two weeks of thorough training, and due to the fact that she misplaced the second vile containing the potion, Canis walked through the airport on a leash.
In retrospect, that may have not been such a good idea.
Canis was absolutely terrified by the new environment. It was, big, loud and full of strangers! The little dog immediately switched to defense-mode, barking at anyone who came too close to them. Fortunately, nobody was injured, or else there would have been serious issues.
But he was so well behaved at camp, Annabeth thought. What could have triggered his aggression at the airport? Well, it could have been a lot of contributing factors, she reasoned. There were far more people at the airport than camp. The camp was in more of a natural setting, which may have relaxed him. And lastly, and probably most likely, was that maybe Canis didn't see the demigods as Muggles. But that wouldn't explain why he attacked Luke. . .
This was going to require some thought.
Upon returning to school, things did not stay calm for long. After only a couple of days back at school, a terrible rumor began to form that Broderick Bode was strangled to death in St. Mungo's by a Devil's Snare. It was a rather morbid way to start a new year.
There was a memorial for him on the first Saturday in the Great Hall, Annabeth left early. She felt out of place, and, although she knew it was rude, she was bored out of her mind, and couldn't force herself to sit still. She figured that it would be more disrespectful to sit there a fidget than to leave quietly without making a scene.
When she reached the Common Room, Annabeth saw that someone was already there. It made her feel a little less guilty about leaving the memorial. She noticed that the girl was Luna Lovegood. "Hey," she called.
Luna looked up from the magazine she was reading. "Hello, Annabeth," she said, "I heard you come up."
Annabeth glanced at the other girl, and noticed something for the first time. "Your eyes are gray," she said.
She nodded. "Yes, so are yours."
Blond hair, gray eyes. . . "Are you reading upside down?"
"Yes," Luna replied mildly.
Annabeth remembered learning that sometimes dyslexic children would find it easier to read upside down. It wasn't something that she did personally, but she knew others who did. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you reading it like that?"
Luna shrugged. "I like to."
Annabeth supposed that it was possible that the other girl was just plain crazy, but it seemed that there was something else. Could she be a demigod? Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but just then, their head of House, Professor Flitwick, came running into the room.
"What are you two doing up here?" squeaked the tiny man, "the memorial is in the Great Hall. Get downstairs immediately!"
Yay! Luna is awesome!
HP Fact: The name "Dumbledore" comes from the old English word for Bumblebee. J.K. Rowling said that she named him this, because she imagined Dumbledore humming around his office a lot.
Random Fact: Until recently, nobody knew what color dinosaurs were. But recent advances in technology have made it possible to look at the melanin pigments in fossilized feather (yeah, feathers, not scales. So only feathered dinosaurs) and were able to make educated guesses about what they might have looked like. Most believe that there were many reds and purples, and blues and greens are also likely.
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