Percy Jackson and the Locket of Salazar [Book 6]

32) Love Amongst Murderous Stumps

Harry filled Ron and Hermione in on what we'd seen while with Dumbledore on the way to Herbology the next morning.

"Wow, scary thought, the boy You-Know-Who," Ron said quietly as we took our places around our Snargaluff Stump. "But I still don't get why Dumbledore's showing you all this. I mean, it's really interesting and everything, but what's the point?"

"Dunno," Harry put in his mouth guard, "but he says it's all important and it'll help me survive."

"I think it's fascinating," Hermione said earnestly. "It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weaknesses? What do you think, Percy?"

I blinked, a little startled. I'd only half been listening to the conversation. "I think it hardly makes any sense at all. Not the showing us, I mean, but just... Voldemort." I made sure to keep my voice low — it wouldn't do any good to have my peers freaking out on me. "He was unloved and turned out nasty. But so was Harry — no offense, man, you're loved now — and he turned out great. Did Voldy have some evil worm in his ear whispering evil things or something?"

"It's in his nature." Hermione shrugged.

"I don't believe in nature. Nurture all the way. Except maybe a little but nature, but it's mostly nurture."

"Well, it must be —"

"So how was Slughorn's last party?" Harry interrupted to ask, successfully breaking apart our brewing argument.

"Oh, it was quite fun, really," Hermione said, pulling on her gloves. "I mean, he drones on about famous ex-pupils a bit, and he absolutely fawns on McLaggen because he's so well-connected, but he gave us some really nice food and he introduced us to Gwenog Jones."

"Gwenog Jones?" Ron sputtered. "The Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Hollyhead Harpies?"

"That's right," Hermione said. "Personally, I thought she was a bit full of herself, but —"

"Quite enough chat over here!" Professor Sprout hustled over to us and tried to look stern, but she was never very good at it. "You're lagging behind, everybody else has started and Neville's already got his first pod!"

Neville did, indeed, have his first pod, but he was also sporting several nasty scratches and a split lip. If the son of Demeter couldn't come out unscathed, things didn't bode particularly well for the rest of us.

"Okay, Professor, we're starting now!" Ron told her pleasantly, then turned to us and muttered. "Should've used Muffliato, Harry."

"No, we shouldn't!" Hermione cried promptly. "Well, come on... we'd better get going..."

She looked at us like she did not want to get going at all. We did it, anyway.

If you've ever been attacked by a stump, you know just how much of a thrashing you could get. If you haven't, then don't try it, it's painful.

As soon as we touched the stump, thorny burns struck out, battering us. Hermione ended up with one tangled in her hair, Ron beating at it to try and get it off of her. Harry and I, meanwhile, were very thankful for our gloved as we trapped and knotted as many of the vines together as we could. A hole opened within the mass of twisting vines, and Hermione, quite bravely, stuck her whole arm into it, and it promptly closed around her elbow. We tugged and pulled until the hole reopened, and she victoriously presented us with a pulsating green pod. The stump, at once, pretended to be innocent and normal, stilling.

"You know, I don't think I'll be having any of these in my garden when I've got my own place." Ron wiped the sweat from his face.

"You have a place. It's a very lovely cave at Camp Half-Blood."

"I don't plan on living there."

"Why not?"

"It's a cave."

"I suppose that's fair."

Hermione plopped the pod into a bowl and continued our earlier conversation, "Anyway, Slughorn's going to have a Christmas party, and there's no way you two can wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come."

Maybe if I just brewed some poison, I could 'accidentally' drink it and get out of going.

Ron attempted to squash the pod in the bowl, standing and putting his frustration into each failed attempt. "And this is another party just for Slughorn's favorites, is it?"

"Just for the Slug Club, yes," Hermione said.

The pod rocketed off, knocking Professor Sprout's hat askew and landing behind her desk. Not wanting to hear the ensuing conversation, I moved to go after it, but Harry beat me, the prat.

"The Slug Club? Really? It's called the Slug Club?" Ron scoffed.

Harry returned far too soon for his own liking, looking sourly at the bickering duo before looking at me as if I could provide some reprieve from their argument.

"Look, I didn't make up the name 'Slug Club' —"

"Slug Club." Ron sneered. "It's pathetic. Well, I hope you enjoy your party. Why don't you try getting off with McLaggen, then Slughorn can make you King and Queen Slug —"

"We're allowed to bring guests," Hermione said, turning a strangely bright red, "and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid then I won't bother!"

Harry very loudly smacked the pod to try and cover the sound of whatever was happening to our left. It didn't work very well.

"You were going to ask me?" Ron's voice had lost all note of anger.

"Yes," Hermione said, still sounding quite angry. "But obviously if you'd rather I got off with McLaggen..."

There was a pause filled with the sound of Harry beating the pod with a shovel. Then, Ron answered, "No, I wouldn't."

Harry missed the pod and shattered the bowl, which seemed to be enough to break Ron and Hermione from their moment. They turned to look at us, startled, remembering our existence, and fumbled about, embarrassed. Hermione snatched up her copy of Flesh-Eating Trees of the World and searched through it for the correct way to juice our pod.

"Hand that over, Harry," she said, voice strangely clipped, "it says we're supposed to puncture them with something sharp..."

While Hermione punctured the pod, the rest of us dove at the stump. I could see Harry's mind working through the scenarios, struggling with the concept of two of his friends getting together. What if they broke up? Would they be weird and cutesy?

I could also see Ron's mind working. He was pleased with himself, but slowly that look fell away from him as he remembered the oath he took when becoming the Oracle. What he would do, I wasn't sure. He had options, but didn't seem to like any of them.

"Gotcha!" Ron triumphantly cried, pushing down his concerns for the moment and pulling out another pod just as Hermione managed to break the first one, leaving a bunch of green slime and wiggling tubers in its place.

I was on vacation and didn't post for a while, so my sincerest apologies, dear readers. I apologize a lot on here, I realize, and will probably continue to do so. College is looming ever closer (I leave two weeks from tomorrow), and I'm not sure what my workload will look like. I'll probably do a lot of writing, so I'm really hoping I don't get burnt out, but it's very possible. I'm also really looking forward to it though. I think I'll like my classes, and the events will hopefully be fun. Vacation was fun. We went to the beach, but it rained some. I had a lot of ice cream. Tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be nineteen. My sister's making me strawberry pie and my dad is making me brownies. I love food, guys. As a student, I get 20% off one Target purchase and I think that's really nice. I wish I'd known about it sooner because I already went to Target, but I can get other stuff later and use it then. I'm not totally sure how to use it, but I'll figure it out. I read four books while on vacation. They Both Die at the End is probably one of my all time favorites now. Moby Dick is one of my all time most hated. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Catcher in the Rye were good.

I hope you guys have had a pleasant time, and I'll see you soon! Love ya!