Annabeth Chase and Things Are Getting Intense

Chapter Thirty Five

A/N: jeez it's been a bit. So I've been really busy settling in in my apartment (I feel like such an adult) and working out my classes and my internship and all that. I have seven other people in this apartment and two others in my room and only one fridge, so that's fun. Everyone in my apartment is really chill and we've been getting along really well, which is a huge relief cause I was worried about that.

Ummm yeah so I've been making friends and getting to know the area and all that stuff, so I haven't had much time to write. Hopefully we'll be back to your regularly scheduled updates, but I can say right now that I'm not sure if there's going to be a chapter on Wednesday, but I'll try my best :)

Enjoy le chapter!

There were so many questions that needed answers. What was the fourth Horcrux? How were they going to find it and the others? What was Malfoy doing in the Room of Requirement, and why did he look so helpless when he had emerged from said room?

Annabeth knew she couldn't answer these questions right now; she needed more information, and she also needed to get some sleep. It was well past midnight and she hadn't slept the night before (she'd been caught up in a debate with Vera about the probability of unicorns with wings existing). She figured two all nighters in a row wasn't too healthy, though she'd definitely done it before.

The problem was that Annabeth could feel her mind getting sluggish, and she couldn't have that. So she waited for Malfoy to disappear around a corner, counted to thirty, and set off for the Slytherin common room.

She took a different route than Malfoy was, just in case he was being vigilant and realized someone might be following him. She pressed herself to a corner as a patrol walked by, which was when she realized that she had memorized their rounds. Maybe that's why she was never running into them. Maybe she was subconsciously avoiding the places she knew they'd be at any given time, and that was why she'd been able to get away with so much night time wandering. Huh.

Sometimes Annabeth still managed to surprise herself.

***

"It's way too late for this," Vera said, bleary-eyed and sitting cross-legged on her bed, hugging her pillow.

"Would you rather I not tell you?"

"Oh, fuck no. Give me all the details."

Freddie rubbed their eyes. They opened their mouth, probably to tell Vera not to swear, but apparently decided not to. It was a testament to how tired they were. Annabeth hadn't really wanted to wake up her friends so late at night... oh wait, yes she did. All this information was still too new in her mind, and she needed to talk to someone about it. Harry had disappeared while Annabeth was still deep into her thoughts, but he wasn't really the person Annabeth wanted to talk to at the moment.

They were all sitting on Vera's bed, with the enchanted curtains drawn so even if Pansy and Millicent did wake up, they wouldn't hear anything. It was like their own little world inside the curtains, one where Voldemort didn't exist and Annabeth didn't have any problems. But no, she always had problems.

"Okay, so..." Freddie trailed off to yawn. "Horcruxes. Those are the things Voldemort is storing his soul parts in. Didn't we know that already?"

"It was a guess," Annabeth said. "But now we know for sure."

"Cool," Vera said. "And how many are destroyed? Two? And we know what three others are?"

"Yes. So what we need to do now is figure out where they are, and what the last one is. We know there's the cup, the locket, and the snake. Odds are the last one will be a relic from Ravenclaw, because I think Voldemort would be too petty to use anything of Gryffindor's even if he could find it."