Heroes with Wands

Chapter 33

Annabeth

Piper was in the middle of explaining her power to Professor Slughorn when Ginny came in, red-eyed and puffy-faced.

"She and Dean," Hermione whispered. "They've been fighting again."

I was grateful for Percy. He never fought with me. And even when we had tiny arguements, it was never enough to make me cry. Ginny looked like somebody shot the Cruciatus Curse at her grandmother.

She sat across from Harry, who awkwardly stood and sat again. She stared blankly at him, and then proceeded to eating her ice cream.

"As I was saying," Piper continued, clearing her throat, "my power, charmspeaking, allows me to persuade anyone to do anything I want. It's very rare. Only certain goddesses, a breed of female monsters, and maybe five living children of Aphrodite have it, including me."

"Remarkable!" Slughorn decided. "So, your parents, eh? One's a god, one's a mortal?"

Piper nodded. "My mother's Aphrodite and my father is...." she looked at Jason.

"He's a Cherokee artist," Jason decided, taking Piper's hand. Her cheeks flushed.

Slughorn looked to Hermione. "What about your parents, Ms. Granger?"

She put her hands in her lap. "My parents are dentists," she said. "The fix people's teeth."

"Is it painful?" asked Slughorn, baffled. I tried not to laugh-Percy, Jason, and Frank were shaking with the effort. Percy looked as though he were in pain from trying to conceal the laughter.

"Certainly not," Hermione replied. "Although, one boy did bite my father once. He needed six stitches." She laughed a bit, but it died out. The room got quiet.

"Anybody else care to share?" Professor Slughorn questioned. He'd mostly went around the table asking about people's parents or ancestry, or their grades, favorite spells and potions, stuff like that. He missed all of us demigods except for Piper, and only because Jason and Percy gave her two gallions to charmspeak Slughorn into asking her.

Slughorn's eyes landed on Ginny, who mournfully sloshed her ice cream around with her spoon. "Ms. Weasley!" he said. "Care to share about your delightful hex I saw you perform?"

She turned red. She cast that hex with the bat boogers, and Slughorn had seen her and been ultimately impressed. I didn't see what was so incredible about it, but whatever.

"It's called the Bat-Bogey Hex," she said, though it sounded like more of a croak. "It just turns your bogies into bats."

Obviously.

Slughorn nodded to her, then his eyes landed on me. "Ah," he said. "Your mother is the goddess of wisdom and intelligence, yes? Tell me about yourself."

I shifted uncomfortably. Some chubby kid shoveling the ice cream in his face said, "Somebody doesn't like attention."

I glared at him, and said, "My mother always expects a lot from her kids. George Washington, for instance."

The chubby kid dropped his spoon on the ground, wide-eyed. "Your brother is George Washington?"

"Half-brother," I corrected. "but yes. It's difficult being a child of wisdom. Our fatal flaw is deadly pride. Being a child of two prophecies....I have it the worse. And I'm usually in the most danger for trying to prove I'm the best."

Percy snorted. "That's an understatement."

I shot him a threatening look, and he scrunched up his nose at me. "She's a sore loser," Piper said, looking at me and smiling. "Don't ever bet against her, because you'll lose. And on the rare occasion where Annabeth loses, you'll probably end up with a black eye."