A Tale of Gods and Magic

Annabeth: Malicious Ducks, The Bane of Percy's Existence

A/N

Sorry this took so long to post. Might be awhile before the next one. Good luck getting through the pre-Solangelo fluff and plot-unrelated craziness that my brain has created. IDK what even happened here. Percy develops an irrational fear of ducks. Sorry if this is horrible writing. Try to stay sane while reading!

“Do we really need to wear robes?” Percy held up his like he was holding a dead rat. Annabeth facepalmed.

“Could be worse,” said Annabeth earnestly. She plucked at the black material. It definitely wasn’t something she’d wear out in public, but at least it wasn’t a plaid skirt. She detested plaid skirts; the clashing colors and the annoying pleatedness and… she shook her head, scattering her thoughts to the deep abysses of her mind. There was a lot of interesting, irrelevant stuff in there and… ugh, getting off-topic again. One of her worst habits was letting her mind go off on tangents about random things when she was anxious.

“... ties, you know… “ Percy was off about some other aspect of the uniform. Annabeth rolled her eyes and pawed through the rest of the trunk.

Each of the demigods had gotten a large leather trunk, courtesy of the Hecate cabin, when they’d returned. It had been filled to the brim with robes and books and wands galore. Hecate’s children had left a short note;

Dear “Chosen Ones,”

Howdy! Since there is no time to go through the regular protocol, shopping, etc. before school starts, we have delivered all the goodies needed! Powers will come soon. Send us an Iris-message if you get any news about our mom. Good luck!

-Hecate’s Children

Apparently, Chiron had traveled to “Diagon Alley” or whatever to get their wands, because, according to some dude-whose-name-she-didn’t-remember “the wand chooses the wizard.” Personally, she felt it was very sexist that witches were not included in said statement. But either way, Chiron had sent an Iris-message saying that the wands would not be a perfect fit to the demigods. She didn’t really care. They were just frivolous sticks in the end, ri-

“AAAAAAAAAAH!” Percy dropped his wand and went running out of the room.

“Percival Jackson! Come back here!” yelled Annabeth.

“MY NAAAAAAAAAAAME’S NOT PERCIVAL!!” bellowed Percy in an embarrassingly shrill voice. He kinda sounded like Grover when encountering a tin can.

“Just come back here!” She could hear Nico squealing a long string of Italian curse words. Then there was Will, saying something about Nico and surgical procedures, and then there was the sound of a duck quacking, which had to be Frank.

Finally, Percy came back into the room.

“Frank… duck… sparks.” Percy’s eyes were wide.

“What?” Annabeth sighed deeply.

“Um, so. I picked up my wand and then it sparked, but it was pink! Then I ran out of the room, because, you know, stop, drop, and run, and then Frank turned into a duck! A duck, Annabeth! A duck!”

“It’s stop, drop, and roll, Percy. Can’t you get anything right?” Sarcasm dripped from Annabeth’s voice. “what’s so wrong with ducks anyway?”

“Um, they’re ducks. What else is there to say? They’re yellow and fluffy and waddly and vicious. Vicious, Annabeth! You don’t know what they do when you’re sleeping. Or when you’re awake for that matter-”

“Percy, snap out of it. It was a duck, not a dalek. Now, the wands are for magic, not just being sticks. So, of course they spark! You’re going to have to get used to strange colors coming out of your wand if you want to survive a day at Hogwarts.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “stop staring at me like that.”