Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Twenty Four

The weeks were passing fast. Before Annabeth knew it, January had ended and it was a week and a half into February.

Annabeth had slipped back into her pre-task fever, spending all of her free time in the library, barely paying attention in her classes, forgetting about meals half of the time. She took so many books out of the library that she actually reached the limit Madam Pince would allow out at a time. Not the student limit. The overall limit.

She needed a backup plan. And a backup plan for the backup plan. And another backup plan for that. She read every water based book she could find, looking for alternatives in case Percy wouldn't be able to come through for whatever reason. And she needed spells that worked well underwater, whether already existing or self invented.

The library didn't have any books specifically on the Black Lake, so Annabeth read a few dozen on various magical water creatures and their habitats, behaviors, aggression levels, eating habits, even their mating patterns. She made a list of all the lake creatures she found, so she could do more research on them, and listed off their attributes and habits.

What she also looked for were ways to cast spells underwater. If her plan with Percy worked, she would be able to talk like normal, but if not, she needed other options. She found the concept of nonverbal spells, which she knew off the top of her head required much more focus and control. She would have to practice those soon.

the water in the lake was freezing, but Annabeth did daily swims anyway to help her body adjust to the cold water. She hadn't forgotten about that gym she had found at the beginning of the year, but she hadn't known her way around the castle at all then, and all of her many searches had turned up nothing. It was like the room had vanished.

Speaking of vanishing, she wondered if she could somehow get to the nearest mortal town and steal some scuba gear, just as a backup, but she knew that was illogical. Hogwarts was far away from any mortals, let alone towns.

So she stuck to the library and any open classrooms she could find, researching spells and ways to cast them underwater if her plan with Percy didn't work. She spent entire nights in the library with the help of her invisibility cap, reading by candle light until her dyslexia got so bad that all she could make out on the page was unintelligible scribbles.

Usually when she got like this, Percy was there to make sure she did all those basic human things required to survive, like eat and sleep and other tedious stuff like that, but since she wouldn't be seeing him again for another few weeks, Vera had taken over that job.

"I'm confiscating these," Vera said, scooping up four of the who knew how many books stacked on the table Annabeth was sitting on.

"Wait, i'm not done," Annabeth protested, making a weak grab for the books. She was sitting in the library after yet another all-nighter, perched on the edge of the table with her feet on a chair, leaning over a heavy book with her nails in her mouth.

"Yes you are," Vera said. She pulled the book off of Annabeth's lap and set it on a nearby shelf, completely out of place. Then she pulled Annabeth's fingers out of her mouth and grabbed Annabeth's shoulders, forcing her to meet Vera's eyes.

For some reason, Vera's face wouldn't come into focus. Annabeth blinked a few times, and her eyes sharpened, but not all the way.

"Okay, I'm taking you out of here," Vera said, pulling Annabeth to her feet. "You're going to bed. Come on."

"No, i need to do more research—"

"You've been researching for three days straight. Come on, you're going to end up killing yourself. When was the last time you ate?"