When Swords Meet Wands

Those Darned Stairs and Freaking Nemean Lions

Annabeth

It had been two weeks since they'd arrived at Hogwarts.

The professor was sitting as rigidly as possibly in the teacher's desk. She was scrutinising each student as if they were prey. Annabeth had disliked her ever since she laid eyes on her.

Professor Miranda Payne stood up and strode over to the front of the class.

"Good morning, students. Take out your books and turn to page seven. The Draught of Living Death. Deadly if brewed correctly, extremely difficult to concoct. But, this is a simple potion for your standard. This is purely for my benefit, to understand each student's skill set."

She looked over each student again, staying on Neville a bit longer.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Start!"

Annabeth dug out her book and let it drop on the table with a thud. Percy and Thalia had already zoned out. Nico seemed mildly interested. He had at least stopped making little paper airplanes under the table.

Annabeth skimmed over the ingredients list. She couldn't understand anything. Dyslexia strikes again. She sighed. How was she supposed to do this? She turned around to ask Hermione, who had already started on her potion.

"Hermione, I can't read a thing on this, can you-"

ROAARRR!

The sound was like a normal lion. It could've also just been Hagrid impersonating a ferocious goose in his class. But she knew better. The monsters had finally figured out where they were.

Annabeth shot up to her feet, hand ready on her sword.

"Stay here! Don't come outside!" Thalia screamed at the wizards.

Annabeth and Percy ran ahead. Monsters were attacking, this was an emergency and yet those gods forsaken stairs wouldn't comply.

Annabeth fell right through a gap, but Percy grabbed her just in time. Flashbacks to their fall to Tartarus replayed in her head. But this time, Percy pulled her up.

She snapped back to reality and continued down the stairs, Thalia and Nico hot on her heels.

Outside, an army of six dracanae were marching towards them, their reptilian tails making a weird swishy sound on the grass. Annabeth still couldn't see the source of the roaring sound. She hoped to the gods that it wasn't a Nemean lion. Then the trees parted.

It was a freaking Nemean lion.

She screamed in frustration internally and muttered every curse she knew outwardly. She had never fought this. Percy had told her its mouth was its weak point, but still. That was an extremely limited amount of information.

"Alright, Annabeth and Percy take the lion, me and Thalia will take the dracanae! Go!" Nico yelled.

Annabeth drew her sword and could hear the chink of Percy uncapping Riptide.

"Get it to open its mouth!" She yelled, running towards the lion.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY SPACE FOOD?" Percy yelled back. She was going to find out just exactly what he meant later.

She gripped her sword in both hands and sliding on her knees, slashed at the lion's flank. Where a huge gash should've appeared was. . .nothing.

The lion roared in fury and bit down with its razor-sharp teeth at Annabeth. She rolled away just in time for Percy to jump on the lion's head using its nose as a jump pad. Sometimes, Annabeth wondered what an incredibly impulsive boyfriend she had.