WTF Annabeth

Chapter 23

Percy

Annabeth had actually came up with the idea of renting tents to the other years as a way for Ron to pick up some cash. He would need it to date a couple of dentists' daughter, no matter how down to earth and unassuming Hermione was. We would make money too, but not a lot. Or a metric shit ton in the world of magic, it really depended on one's perspective. Really we wanted a share so Ron wouldn't think it was charity, and it wasn't. We didn't want to fool with running the project and he, through his Prefect brother and his borderline criminal twin brothers, had the connections to sell to all the classes and eventually expand to all houses. We had already dispatched an owl to the Amazon store stating that we would need to pick up 32 tents at winter break and received word back that they would be ready and happy to do business with us.

I don't think Harry understood most of the crap he was telling Ron, and he could not memorize the math so it was decided that when he got stumped he would just ask Annabeth. She could do stuff like that in her head, it was a daughter of Athena thing we thought. I could control water and talk to the equine world, she understood strategy and could do math. As our classes moved forward the Slytherins feared her, well they feared all of us really but she terrified them. As a result she had been named by Oliver Wood to be the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team's official mascot and given a uniform to wear to the match. He figured when she walked in with the team the Slytherins would simply shit themselves, which they pretty much did.

The true "We Hate Annabeth" crowd was Ravenclaw though as she was clearly more intelligent than any of them, even if she did seem violently insane at times. Hufflepuff thought she and the rest of us were cool because... well, they're Hufflepuff.

Potions was a drag, as always, and Snape tried to load us down with homework so as to keep Harry too busy and preoccupied to play well Saturday. What he didn't realize was that Harry was already preoccupied with both quidditch and SPEW and had been waiting all week for Selina to arrive, which she had just before class. Harry and her had to meet with Dumbledore and he was late, giving Snape an excuse to pile on more work for him. McGonagall got so pissed at this obvious attempt to effect the game that while Annabeth and I taught combat and sword work, she sat and helped Harry get his homework done in record time.

Because Selina had Lemur and would have to use the main fire pit as a result, she had not arrived until that morning, which was the middle of the night for her. She had apparently worked hard on her school work all week in order to take Friday off and attend SPEW. Since she went to sleep early in order to get enough rest Harry didn't get to mist with her Thursday night and went over twenty four hours without seeing her. This had the effect of pissing him off, and he was raring to take it out on the Slytherin team.

Annabeth and I spoke with Dumbledore, and Selina and Lemur via mist, about an idea she had to draw out Quirrell. Harry was at quidditch practice when we met. All agreed, with Dumbledore having some conditions, the main one being that if Quirrell did react to let him and the professors handle it. We decided to not mention this immediately to Harry as he had enough on his plate, and he would kill Annabeth and myself for putting Selina in danger. Plus we had come up with the plan in the middle of the night, misted everyone in that was likely to be awake, and meant to tell him later. We never were alone with Rue later though. He would probably be upset with Selina as well as she agreed to it and told us not to tell Rue until later so he would try to talk her out of it. We would be with her though, as well as Dumbledore and McGonagall, so the risk was slight.

Friday morning breakfast was, as usual, a mob scene. Since everyone had at least one class, every student crammed into the grand hall to eat first and as it was informal so it was a mad house of chattering voices and people coming and going. All poor Rue could do was sit and wait for Selina and pretend to read his papers. He and Ron were talking finance but rather than keep Rue's mind off her arrival it seemed to irritate him. Finally while Rue was trying to explain how oil and gas prices effected the cost of living for people who don't heat their homes with magic or travel by magic, someone was able to sneak up behind him. With Dumbledore. And a unicorn.

"Is this seat taken?"

"Selina!" He nearly screamed as he jumped to his feet and threw his arms around her. "I'm so glad you're here, how was the flue this trip?"

"I didn't throw up! Yay!" she replied as they mashed their lips together to the "ooohhhsss" and "ahhhhs" of the girls at the surrounding tables. There may have been a few "wooooos!" too.

"I have sent Miss Beauregard's luggage to the girls dormitory Harry, would you both mind coming to my office after breakfast?"

"No, of course not Professor Dumbledore, I have potions but... you know I don't mind being late for that." Harry grinned.

"I'm sure Mr Jackson and Miss Chase will take notes for you."

"We would be glad to Professor" I said.

"Excellent, enjoy your breakfast. I'm sure Miss Beauregard or at least Lemur must be famished."

"Why's that?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh, I said 'I' didn't throw up Annabeth" Selina smiled as she scratched Lemur between the ears.

"Oh."

Even though she had only been away for a few days it seemed we had a lot to tell her, especially about our research on Quirrell and Flammel, but she kept telling us that Rue and she had talked every day and she was pretty much up to speed. Either that or she and Rue just wanted to stare at each other and hold hands while they nibbled on breakfast. If they started feeding each other I think the whole table would have vomited and then fallen into a diabetic coma from the sweetness.

The thing is, those of us who knew them best, Annabeth and myself, were stupidly happy for them, especially Annabeth who seemed to take some credit for their getting together even though she had absolutely nothing to do with it. The only one at the table seemingly unaffected by their displays of love was Lemur, who happily munched his giant ass bowl of salad, oats and apples, and Seamus, who tried to eat while avoiding Lemur's horn.

Harry joined us an hour or so into potions and Snape took the opportunity to tear into him even though Dumbledore had excused him. Selina was elsewhere, apparently he had warned her off coming. This was when Snape dumped the loads of homework on him that McGonagall would help him with.

I didn't really have a chance to talk with him, but I had never seen him as happy, and he looked, well, different. In a good way.