Annabeth Chase and Things Are Getting Intense

Chapter Fourteen

A/N: Happy father's day, everyone! Especially my dad (even though he doesn't read this and I'm not entirely sure he knows it exists. (love you, abba (which is what I call my dad))) Wow, three parenthesis in one. Hehe.

Also, Eid Mubarak (I think that's how you say it but feel free to correct me) to my Muslim friends!

Dumbledore wasn't in his seat during lunch. Usually he was at every meal, but Annabeth had been noticing for the past week or so that he'd been absent. He still wasn't there the next day at Breakfast. Annabeth hadn't seen him in the halls, either. Was he even in the school?

Up at the high table, in the seat next to Dumbledore's, Slughorn was scanning the Slytherin table. Annabeth averted her eyes and pretended to be in a conversation with Vera before he could catch her eye; he'd been trying to talk to her for a few days now, and she was determined to avoid him as much as possible.

"Why are you staring at me?" Vera asked.

"We're talking," Annabeth replied. "This is a conversation."

"It is? I think I've been doing it wrong my whole life, then." Vera smirked. "Is Slugface trying to catch your eye again?"

"Obsessively," Annabeth confirmed, ducking out of the way as Freddie rustled their copy of the Daily Prophet. "I think I'm going to ditch potions today."

"That's a major part of the curriculum," Freddie said without looking up.

Annabeth shrugged. "It's not like I'm worried about graduating. I'm not exactly sticking around here after Hogwarts."

Making a little humming noise, Freddie went back to their paper.

"Do mine ears deceive me?"

Annabeth looked up, already primed to roll her eyes as Gregory Darwin, now in his seventh year, leaned down from where he was standing and rested his elbows on the table. Ty Laurent, his friend (and most likely boyfriend, but nobody could figure that out), was standing next to him with his arms crossed and a smile on his face.

"You're leaving us?" Gregory nudged one of the third years out of the way and settled on the bench next to Annabeth. "Betrayal!"

Rolling his eyes, Ty gripped Gregory by the shoulder and hauled him off the bench. Ty was built like a monster truck on steroids, so that was easy for him. The third year smiled at him and took her seat back, smacking Gregory in the chest for good measure.

"Well, I'm not staying in Britain forever," Annabeth said. "I came here to learn about the history, remember? My family's in New York."

"And my family's in Finland!" Gregory threw his hands in the air. "But I'm staying!"

Ty frowned. "You have one uncle in Finland."

"And an aunt," Gregory corrected. "And five cousins."

"Except your aunt already had those five kids before she married your uncle, so..."

"They're family!"

"They're from three different men, Greg."

"Potato, tomato," Gregory waved him off. "Point is, how dare you."

"Hey, check this out," Freddie said, laying their newspaper flat on the table. "They searched Malfoy's house. Listen: 'this second search of the Death Eater's residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the office of the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting on a confidential tip-off'."