When Myths Meet Magic || 5

7|| Percy

At breakfast the next morning, nearly everyone was acting increasingly odd, casting side glances at Harry, both angry and fearful. Percy didn't understand it. Harry was a small, skinny guy with broken glasses and uncombed hair. And yet they were treading so lightly around him you'd think Harry was the Basilisk.

"Hi," A voice said suddenly, and Percy looked away from the staff table where Umbridge the troll was sitting and glanced up at a tall Gryffindor seventh year.

"Hi, Angelina," Harry said back.

"Listen, I've been made Gryffindor quidditch captain," she started to Harry and Annabeth. "We need a new Keeper now Oliver's left. Tryouts are on friday at five o'clock, and I want the whole team there, alright you two? Then we can see how the new person'll fit in."

"Okay," Annabeth said. As soon as Angelina left, she turned to Jason. "You can try out for this position! If you still want to, that is. Katie Bell is also thinking of leaving the team, so we'll need a chaser too, but we need a Keeper more."

Evidently, Jason had the same idea. He nodded, eyes bright.

Thalia grunted and shoveled a spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth in a very un-ladylike manner. "No cheating with the winds, though," she said, muffled through the food in her mouth.

Jason looked aghast. "Me? Never!"

Ron stabbed his potatoes, his face forlorn, but before anyone could say anything McGonagall came along briskly, handing out the schedules.

"Look at this!" Percy groaned. (I forgot to mention, Annabeth cleared up the dyslexia after a lot of potions, charms, hexes, and a very bad smelling sock that turned out to be Ron's.) "History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws! That's Binns, Snape, Trelawney, and that troll in one day!"

"Troll?" Thalia asked, squinting at the teacher's table. "She looks more like a toad to me."

"Yeah, but her name is like... Um-bridge. Um-BRIDGE. And the 'Um' part can be like 'Un', like Under. Under the Bridge. As in a bridge troll. As in troll. Not to mention she smells bad."

Jason laughed. But all laughter was gone as soon as they entered History of Magic. The class was as boring as it had ever been. Even the flinch of fear as soon as Nico entered the classroom had lost its entertainment, as they'd seen it every day for four years. Not to mention Professor Binns hardly ever paused in his lecture to draw breath.

Did he even breathe? Percy wondered drowsily once. He could probably keep talking on and on forever because he didn't need to get oxygen in his lungs.

Which was a very depressing thought.

Even with Binns covering the topic of the giant wars, none of the demigods could bring themselves to pay attention. Annabeth was staring right through Binns, her eyes fixed on the wall with her mind miles away, and yet managed to maintain an interested look. Truth be told, if any other teacher-- Snape, even, or the pink troll, had gone over the lesson, she would've listened. But that was not the case, and they were stuck with a dead teacher.

"And I can breathe again!" Thalia threw her arms back and inhaled extra-loudly as soon as she stepped foot out the classroom.

"Honestly, what would you do if I didn't lend you my notes?" Hermione scolded. No one looked abashed.

"We'd get along," Annabeth said. "I mean, this lesson was about giant wars. We'd just scrape by what we got from learning about our giant wars firsthand. I mean, how different can they be?"

As they would soon learn in the three questions about the giant wars in the final exams, very different. But that wasn't a problem at the present time. Their present problem (Minus Hermione) was divination.

"Good day," Trelawney said in her normal misty voice. "We will be studying dream interpretation this quarter, a lesson I myself am still progressing in. Dream interpretation has no bounds, and even if your Inner-eye is perfected, you still will always have progress in this field of matter."

"Great," Nico muttered. "Because I'd love to spend more time on our dreams if we can." His voice dripped with sarcasm. Annabeth, however, disagreed.

"We should definitely pay attention in this one," She said. "This is probably the most useful thing we can learn in this class."

"Most of our dreams are just straight up visions," Percy argued. "We don't even need to interpret them. It's just 'go to this place and do this because this person said this in our dream so unless we want this to happen which we learned from said dream."

"How many times have you been confused by a dream?" Annabeth asked.

No one answered.

"Exactly," she said sagely.

Percy partnered with Ron, who didn't look very happy.

"You go first," he said dully.

Percy shook his head. "I'm not about to share my dreams," he said shortly. "You ought to remember one, right?"

Ron scrunched up his face. "Well, I had one that I was playing Quidditch," he said vaguely. "Wha'd'you think that means?"

Percy shrugged. "Maybe you'll switch bodies with Harry and be good at Quidditch," he joked. Ron scowled.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was not better. But the good news was, as the Ravenclaws joined them, they got to see Leo.

"How's Ravenclaw?" Jason asked in a low voice as they slipped into the seats.

Leo groaned. "Boring," he said. "All the people in my grade is do homework and argue about Harry." he shrugged. "And not to mention I need to figure out how to make my machines work. I don't know why they won't work! I've tried everything!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes stiffly. "Not feeling so Ravenclaw now, are you?" She muttered under her breath.

Leo cast a wary glance at her. No matter how much they had all been through together in the Argo II, Annabeth still scared the bejeezus out of him.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked Jason.

Jason shrugged, as bewildered as Leo and turned to Percy.

"She's your girlfriend," he whispered. "Is she okay?"

Annabeth shot Jason a nasty glance. "I can hear you, you know."

"First Harry, now you," Thalia muttered to Annabeth. "Damn puberty."

"This isn't puberty!" Annabeth hissed.

"Good afternoon!" the pink troll said, a sharp undertone, her small eyes darting towards their group.

A few people muttered a weak 'good afternoon' in reply, but other than that, everyone had fallen silent.

"Tut tut," she said. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply, 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, professor Umbridge," they chanted back to her. Leo shot a bewildered glance at Jason, who shrugged in response.

"There, now," she said sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

Percy, who had mistaken his quill for his wand when they entered the class, watched as everyone reached down and shuffled for their quills. Umbridge folded her stubby troll hands pleasantly and watched them all scramble. Her eyes locked on Percy, and a shiver ran down his spine. Not a scared shiver, but one that was a dry feeling, like she was a stubby, warted version of Hera.

This class was not going to go well.