Heroes with Wands

Chapter 34

Harry

"You suppose it's a bit early to make a move on Ginny?" I whispered to Percy, Frank, and Jason at breakfast. "You know, with her and Dean and all."

Percy snorted. "Bro, it's been like two weeks," he said. "She's probably over him." We spared her a glance. She slouched over a bowl of porridge and was still bleary-eyed. "Okay, scratch that."

Jason glared at him. "Harry, man, if you really like her, go for it," he advised. "Hermione's right; you look at her like she's perfect. And she looked at you like that before she and Dean got serious."

"He's got a point," interjected Frank. Thank the gods Leo and Nico were keeping Ron occupied... "She's hurting, yeah. But she likes you, Harry. Why don't you ask her to Slughorn's party?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, maybe." I looked at her again. Her dark eyes darted around like she was preparing for an attack. She averted them from Dean, though.

It'd been two weeks since the last Slug Club meeting, since Ginny and Dean broke up. Nothing had been going well with Voldemort and Gaea.

None of us were getting any strange dreams or visions. Annabeth couldn't even get anything from her drachma.

Everyone was depressed about not going home for the holidays. We'd been off of school for a week already. We weren't in the mood to kick butt or even focus on what we were supposed to be doing.

There were two out of seven horcruxes already destroyed. We couldn't just march down to the Chamber of Secrets to get a basilisk tooth, and the sword of Gryffindor wasn't something to be toyed around with.

It was almost the end of December and we had until August first to find the horcruxes, find the Athena Parthenos, close the Doors of Death from Tartarus, and make it to Epirus hundreds of miles away to close the Doors on our side. Then we had to defeat an army of monsters and Dark wizards who were older and more powerful than us. Plus the fact that we needed to take down Gaea and Voldemort.

Anyway, it was Christmas Eve, and the castle looked its best that year. Hagrid had brought in the usual twelve gigantic Christmas trees that decorated the Great Hall.

Holly, mistletoe, and other Christmas ornaments decorated every hallway and every room (except Snape's, of course). Fairies danced around the trees, ever-lasting icicles hung from the stair railings, and warm, dry snow fell from the Enchanted Ceiling.

"We should Iris-Message your mom and Paul and Chiron tonight!" Annabeth called to Percy. He gave her a thumbs-up, and she smiled.

Annabeth really was gorgeous-her blond hair all wild but perfect, her gray eyes always changing with her mood, her skin tanned, and her features just plain beautiful. And when she was actually happy and not threatening to kill things, she looked even better.

Of course, I wouldn't dare saying these things out loud, now that we new she and Percy were dating. The demigods said they'd had to keep their love lives secret in case of mistakes with us wizards.

Annabeth and Percy, as well as the other two couples, really seemed to love each other. And Leo, wherever he went, he had returned with that same look I'd seen in my own eyes-heart sickness.

I heard a sound like a spoon against glass, and looked up to see Professor McGonagall lightly tapping her spoon against a goblet into the microphone. The murmuring hushed out.

Apparently Dumbledore was on some kind of business-he had been since the last time I'd spoken to him. McGonagall wouldn't tell me what, and neither would the Order.

"Oh, joy," Percy said. I don't think he realized how loud he was. "Do we get to show off how scary and threatening we are?"

People snickered and laughed. I looked over my shoulder at Malfoy-the poor (not really) bloke had to stay here because daddy was too busy serving the Dark Lord.