Half-Blood 「 PJO & HP 」

CHAPTER 6

THE AWKWARD TENSION WAS TOO STRONG. The both of them let a few minutes pass by with no chatter, no noise, not even a single sigh, but only with deafening silence. It wasn't the kind of silence that's unbearably uncomfortable and the pain gets worse every single, tiny, quick, nanosecond.

Erin was about to stand up from the couch she had sat on and shout like a maniac when the man on the chair in front of her let out a graceful, manly cough.

"Lovely place you've got here." Neville observed, taking a sip of tea.

"Thank you," Erin said unsurely, "but I'm afraid that this is only temporary."

"Huh, shame." He took another sip.

"So, can you explain...all of this?" Erin gestured to the coffee table in front of her where the letter had lay, along with a file that Neville had brought in.

"Finally, I though you'd never ask."

Erin had fallen to sleep minutes after the man had said goodbye and disappeared with a loud crack to remind her that the encounter was indeed real and not an illusion from lack of sleep. By the time she had woken up it was already noon and suddenly found herself standing in front of the living room with Ari and Angel watching a movie while doing their nails.

"Oh look," Angel looked at her, "the beast is still alive after all."

"I slept late last night." Erin flopped down on the couch beside them. "A man came in by the name of Neville Longbottom and gave me a brief explanation of...my other world."

"Neville?" Ari asked. "That sounds oddly familiar."

Out of nowhere, Angel suddenly stood up, knocking a few bottles of nail polish down and sprang towards the kitchen to find her phone.

"What is it?" Erin asked.

Angel came back, with her fingers tapping on her phone, and a wicked grin plastered on her face. Ari must have known what was going on, too, because she slowly stood up with her mouth slightly agape.

"Angie, I swear, if you—"

"Relax, I'm only sending our dear Zayle a few hints as to what we have uncovered." Angel had not taken her eyes off her phone, and her malicious expression remained in tact as if it was her resting face since birth.

"Um, what does Zayle have to do with all of this?" Zayle was a daughter of the goddess Kimopoleia, the first mortal child of the goddess known to be existed. But how was she connected to any of this?

Angel shoved her phone inside her pocket while Ari was still standing in shock. "Nothing," Angel spoke cheerfully, "it's just that she's a huge bookworm."

No later than five minutes, Angel's phone rang and Ari paled with fear. Whatever it was they had gotten into, Erin had no desire to get involved.

"You know, I'll just head over to the kitchen and get something to eat." Erin surrendered before standing up. "And I will enjoy my life as a child before I turn into confusing, emotional teenagery-adultish people like you guys."

Once the clock had struck three, the two young adults who were supposed to babysit the eleven year old had gone out once again, but this time, it was for shopping, leaving the little girl to jump in victory for being alone with food and TV. Unfortunately, her valued alone-time hadn't last for long as she found Neville Longbottom pop up before her, causing her to yelp in fear and fall down from the couch with the bowl of popcorn landing on top of her head.

"Thanks for scaring the Tartarus out of me!" Erin placed her hand on her chest while breathing heavily. "The doorbell does actually work, you know?"

Neville scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Uh, well, maybe if the telly wasn't loud enough to black out any other noise, you would've been spared from the heart attack."

"Woah, is it always like this here?" Erin asked Neville while looking around the busy streets of the city.

"Isn't it like too where you're from? Your camp is located at New York, after all."

"Long Island, actually." Erin corrected. "And I haven't been outside of camp that much, to be honest. I was always either in the woods or on top of a nearby hill or sleeping inside our cabin."

Neville stopped walking and turned to face the child beside him. "Have you met her? Demeter? It must be quite interesting to be the daughter of the goddess of agriculture. As your Herbology professor, it's an honor."

"Trust me, being a demigod isn't really special. There's too much competition, seeing as the gods really love to bone here and there—"(Neville made a face at Erin's choice of words)"—and produce spawns like me. Er, sorry, I have two older hormonal teenage half-brothers. And no, I haven't met my mother. She only shows her face to her so called beloved children probably once in their life around the time when we're sixteen. It's actually a huge miracle to see her twice in a lifetime."

Neville gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry. It must have been very hard."

"I really wish that I could suck it up to the deepest parts of my heart and smile it off and say that it's fine, but unfortunately, I was never a fan of lying."

"Well, The Leaky Cauldron is this way, shall we?"