Annabeth Chase and Things Are Getting Intense

Chapter Twenty Two

A/N: Okay so I've decided to just write a whole lot of chapters in advance and just get as far ahead of schedule as I can, because I'm going to be pretty busy for a while but I always love seeing all of your comments and support.

Enjoy!

Winter break at the Burrow was cozy. Annabeth slept in Ginny's room, seeing as she was the only other girl and Mrs. Weasley cared about stuff like that. Annabeth wondered what the woman would think if she ever saw Camp Half-Blood. Boys and girls sleeping in the same room? Inconceivable.

Snow carpeted the lawn and the garden and the rolling hills beyond the property, like everything had been dusted with sugar. The chickens mostly stayed huddled in their coop, but they would occasionally venture out onto the snow to find their food. The trees were all bare and their branches coated with snow. It looked like a scene out of a story book.

During their stay at the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley had them doing chores. Annabeth understood that. This was a pretty big property that needed maintenance every once in a while. The morning after they arrived, Annabeth, Harry, and Ron were standing by the kitchen sink, peeling a pile of sprouts with small knives while snow drifted past the window.

Annabeth didn't have any trouble peeling the sprouts. Growing up at Camp Half-Blood meant that she had done a lot of chores over the years, and that included peeling vegetables. Usually she did it with her dagger (once, when she was nine, she used a sword), but she could adapt to the kitchen knife.

While that was happening, Harry told her and Ron what he had overheard when he had followed Snape and Malfoy at Slughorn's party.

According to Harry, Snape had offered Malfoy help. He'd criticized him for being so obvious and for almost getting caught for something. Whatever that something was, no one had mentioned it. That, or Harry had missed some fundamental part of the conversation, which Annabeth thought was likely.

She was sure that if she had been there, she would have learned a lot more, but she made do with what Harry had.

So Snape had offered Malfoy help with something. He'd berated him for being too obvious. And according to Harry, he had made an unbreakable vow, whatever that was, with Malfoy's mother, promising to help.

Annabeth figured, based on the name, that an unbreakable vow was probably not so different from a vow on the river Styx. So she also figured that if you broke an unbreakable vow...

"You die," Ron said. Okay, so not as bad as an oath on the Styx. "Fred and George tried to get me to do one when I was about five. I nearly did, too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental. Only time I've ever seen Dad as angry as Mum. Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same."

"Yeah," Harry said, "well, passing over Fred's left buttock—"

"I beg your pardon?"

The twins entered the kitchen. "Ah, George," Fred said, "look at this. They're using knives and everything. Bless them."

"This is actually a lot better than using wands," Annabeth said, using her finger to swoop a piece of sprout skin off the knife blade and into the sink before continuing to work. "It benefits coordination, motor control, patience, grip strength... not to mention it gave me time to learn this." She twirled the knife between her fingers, spinning it across her knuckles without getting a single cut. Sure, she couldn't cook a meal to save her life, but she could peel vegetables just fine.

"Showoff," Ron muttered.

Annabeth smiled. "I strive to impress."

"Anyway, Ronald," George said, sitting down and propping his feet up on the table.
"What's this we hear from Ginny about you and a young lady called—unless our information is faulty—Lavender Brown?"