Grover Underwood and the Sorceress' Secret

Part 4

Summary:

"Rule 1:" Hazel recites, "What happens on the Argo II stays on the Argo II. I'm sorry June."

"Wait, I thought that was rule 2?" Percy counters. He remembers the rules, if not the order they came in.

"Isn't rule 2 don't let Le-"

"Rule 2 is don't let anyone who wasn't there know any of the following rules."

***

The first night, Percy does not sleep. He messages Annabeth until she has to go and lies on his bed and stares at the ceiling until the sun starts to rise again and then gets up. The rest of the day is spent imitating a zombie, a being he would not like to meet pretty please if it exists but probably will due to his luck.

The second night, he does sleep. The two dorms exchange students are allocated have these annoying stairs that don't let anyone from the opposite gender come up so he sleeps downstairs on the small couch with one arm wrapped around Annabeth.

He wakes up to her wriggling and the sound of approaching footsteps. Riptide is in his hand before he's fully finished sitting up and the blanket someone draped over them last night falls to the floor. Annabeth pulls her sword into her lap and dives for it, just managing to cover the weapon as the portrait (because apparently doors aren't good enough for this place) swings open.

A tall woman with a witch's hat strides in, her face scolding. She looks at them accusingly and Percy feels his face go hot with frustration. The woman zeroes in on him and glares.

"I do hope", she begins primly, "that nothing untoward has happened here.". Glaring pointedly at Annabeth's covered lap, she continues, "I do not know what the rules were like at your previous school or indeed how dutifully they were enforced but here at Hogwarts, we expect our students to act responsibly at all times and to refrain from engaging in any inappropriate behaviour. Miss Chadwick... would you kindly remove the cover." Annabeth does not move. The woman nods expectantly. "Let this be your warning... Hogwarts does not tolerate any foolish-"

"Foolish?" She startles at that, either from the interruption or the way they spoke in sync. The latter can creep people out. The former is as likely, given that she seems like a woman unused to being cut off.

Percy grips Annabeth's hand - enough to stop her from launching into a tirade but not enough to stop her from proudly flinging the blanket off to reveal her bone sword. He kind of wishes she'd chosen the other option. Where are Will and Piper when you need them? The son of Apollo would have some pretty scathing words to say about how making topics taboo is-

"I apologise." Wait what? Percy can count on one hand the number of adults who have apologised to him: his mom, Chiron, his dad (does that count when he was talking about Percy's existence?) and his mom again. McWitchy Witch actually does look apologetic, if a bit stiff. "I hadn't considered that your focus might be something that you would want to keep hidden - I have heard they are often personal in nature."

Annabeth, a half-decent actress, nods regally. He can tell she's holding in a wheeze. "They are." Rachel confirms from behind them. She's perched on the staircase and Percy quickly picks up on her teasing smile. "We normally only show them to family, trusted friends and future spous-"

"Thanks El." They don't want Hera to catch wind of this conversation - as Queen of the gods, she might be watching them more carefully since they're out of her sphere of influence. That's what Annabeth said anyway. Personally, Percy thinks she's sick of people teasing them about something that isn't going to happen.

"Hey, I was just coming down to give Beth her staff. She forgot it when she came down a few minutes ago."

"Thank you El." He mouths along, grateful for the alibi.