Annabeth Chase and Things Are Getting Intense

Chapter Twenty Six

A/N: Did I forget today was an update day? Yes. Did I stay up to finish this chapter so that you can read it? Also yes. Enjoy!

Harry didn't mention anything about Horcruxes for the next few weeks. Maybe he finally grew a brain, but Annabeth still wasn't talking to him. He'd ruined their chance to get the memory, the one Dumbledore had said was going to be the most important one they'd see. Now Annabeth had to wait for Slughorn to forget about that disaster, and she didn't know how long that would take.

How stupid was he? He'd replicated almost the exact thing that had happened in the memory, which was probably Slughorn's worst fear if he had corrupted his own recollections to get away from what he had said that night.

It seemed that Slughorn had all but forgotten what Harry had said to him; the professor was acting like his usual self and doting on Harry as he always did, but Annabeth noticed a slight tension in his shoulders whenever he got close to Harry. As long as that tension was there, Annabeth couldn't bring up Horcruxes. She needed to wait for him to forget.

Granted, Annabeth hadn't been the one to ask him about it, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She was in the room and could be under suspicion by extension, which meant she couldn't ask him about it now. Because Harry was a complete moron.

Speaking of Horcruxes, Annabeth had looked in every book on dark magic she could find as the weeks passed, but none of them even mentioned Horcruxes. Short of breaking into the restricted section (which Annabeth was already planning on doing), she didn't think she was going to find it in the library. Which probably meant that it was such dark magic, no one even wanted to talk about it.

Which meant that Annabeth had just found the name of those life-storing objects Voldemort was using.

To split your animus, your soul, aka your life force, into different parts had to be a very complicated feat of dark magic. Annabeth remembered Daedelus, who had cheated death for thousands of years by transferring his animus from his body into an automaton. That act alone, even without his past sins, had gotten him into worlds of trouble in the underworld.

Annabeth figured it was different for Frank, since Hera was the one who had attached his life to the stick. Because rules don't apply to spoiled goddesses with sticks up their—

Anyway, Annabeth needed to see that memory, if only to confirm her theories. And Harry had gone ahead and messed it all up.

The sound of the fake wall sliding open drew Annabeth's attention to the front of the Slytherin common room. Vera and Freddie walked in, having finished with their third Apparition lesson. They both looked tired, so Annabeth scooted over on the couch she was sitting on to make room for them.

Vera flopped down onto the cushions the second she could. Freddie sat near the edge in a more dignified manner.

"Oh, boy," Freddie said. "That's your thinking face. What's going on?"

"I do not have a 'thinking face,'" Annabeth said.

"Sure you don't," Vera snorted. "And I don't have blue hair. You have a thinking face."

"Why does everyone say that?" Annabeth muttered.

"Because it's true," Freddie said.

"Whatever. How did apparition go?"

"Freddie got it," Vera said. "I didn't. But you're changing the subject."

"They're called Horcruxes," Annabeth said suddenly. "Those things Voldemort has been splitting parts of his life force into, they're called Horcruxes. I saw it in a memory Dumbledore showed us. Well, no one explained what they were, but based on Slughorn's reaction and Voldemort's eagerness to get information on it, that's it."