When Myths Meet Magic || 2

2|| Harry

After a session of degnoming that stretched for hours, Harry, Ron, Percy, Nico, Annabeth, Fred, and George returned dirty and with bite marks on their hands.

"And that my friends, is the beautiful art of degnoming,"George said, making air quotes. "Beautiful art my arse. That Lockhart is going to be the death of us, I swear."

"Well that's a shame," Ginny said from the kitchen table, where she was reading something. "Because our new lists for Hogwarts came just now."

She looked up from the scrolls and yelped at the sight of Harry, who gave a small wave. Her face beet red, she threw the paper down recklessly and darted up the stairs like a little red beetle.

"Ginny," Ron explained with a snort. "she's been talking about you all summer."

Everyone else nodded in exasperation as a confirmation.

"I'll go talk to her." Annabeth hurried up the stairs.

Harry rubbed his eyes from beneath his glasses. "I kinda wish everyone would stop treating me like a god," he groaned.

Nico shook his head. "It's better than being treated like sewage," he assured him.

Mrs. Weasley turned to Nico from her chair, where she was knitting a sweater. "I'm sorry dear," she said sympathetically. "I do hope you're treated better now."

Nico shrugged. "More or less," he said indifferently. Mrs. Weasley clucked her tongue sadly.

Annabeth walked back down the creaky stairs, sighing. "Ginny's gone mad," she claimed. "Locked herself in her room with a hole drilled into the door to watch out for Harry."

Harry turned as red as Ginny had been.

Thalia, who no one noticed had stayed in the backyard, returned with another note.

"So, Piper, Jason, Frank, and Hazel are meeting us at Diagon Alley," she announced. "On July 20th. Which is in two days. Do you want to contact Hermione to come with us?"

Harry, still wide awake, jumped up. "Yeah! I haven't talked to Hermione since Hogwarts!" He exclaimed excitedly.

"Great! We'll message her after breakfast," Ron said, also jumping up.

They hurried out to the tents, where Annabeth quickly conjured up a rainbow with her wand.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow—" she began, but Percy cut her off.

"Oh, Fleecy, do me a solid," he said loudly, ignoring the looks the others were shooting at him. "Show me Hermione Granger in— somewhere."

The rainbow flickered and revealed the image of Hermione, who was— you guessed it— reading.

"Hey, Mione!" Percy called, and Hermione let out a little shriek and dropped her book.

"Oh, it's you!" Hermione folded down the corner of her page and set it to the side. "Hey guys!"

"Hey!" Annabeth greeted. "We're going to Diagon Alley on the twentieth, want to meet up? Maybe you could stay over for the rest of summer? Sorry it's such short notice," she added apologetically. Hermione smiled.

"Of course! I was planning on going there anyways. So I'll meet you guys at one? I assume it'll take an hour for Percy and Ron to finish eating."

"Hey!" They both complained.

"See you there then." Nico swiped through the connection.

"How are we going to get there?" Thalia wondered. "Please don't say by car again."