Demigods at Hogwarts | the rescue mission ✔

5| Death By Toothache

Piper's POV

  "This way," said Harry as we followed him down a narrow dirt path. It was early fall, but the leaves had already started changing colour, lining the trees with speckles of orange, red and yellow. A gust of wind sent them breaking off the delicate tree branches, and I watched as they fluttered down to the ground.

  "Only first-years take the boats to Hogwarts," Harry continued as I knelt down and picked up one of the fallen leaves. It was a subtle red, tainted slightly by the brown crispness of late autumn. "We take Thestrals, a type of winged horse. They'll be invisible to you—only people who've witnessed death can see them."

  The air around us quickly grew tense. Jason stiffened up beside me, and I saw Leo nervously stick his hands into his robe pockets. After all, we'd slaughtered more monsters than most demigods would in a lifetime. Percy and Nico had played big parts in the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War, not to mention how they'd journeyed through freaking Tartarus.

  As predicted, we could see the Threstals pas de problème. They were skeletal creatures, with wings made up of cobweb-like material that shimmered under the crescent moon. Their eyes, which were a ghostly shade of white, seemed to bear the memories of a thousand haunted souls.

  Too depressing? I should probably leave all that to Nico.

  It was hard not to be captivated by the Threstals—you didn't usually come across monsters this majestic and striking in Greek Mythology. And even though Threstals were just as invisible to Hermione as they would be to the students of Hogwarts, she was the first one to catch us staring.

  "You've all seen death," she said in a soft voice, staring blankly at us. I could feel her silently demanding for an explanation, her posture resembling Annabeth's so much that it made me slightly uncomfortable. "How?"

  Every demigod has trust issues, and I had always found it hard to see the best in people. But there was no denying that I genuinely liked Hermione, and I hated keeping secrets from the people whose company I enjoyed.

  Percy, who'd previously had experience lying to save his life multiple times, dealt with the situation. "A kid died from a toothache in English class, freshman year," he said nonchalantly. "We all saw that."

  Hermione laughed half-heartedly, but the look in her eyes betrayed her uneasiness."Toothaches don't make people drop dead."

  "You have no way of knowing that. You're a witch." Jason scoffed, glancing over at me desperately for a brief moment. I stared at him sternly and mouthed a firm "no". I didn't care if Hera herself descended from Olympus at this very moment—charmspeaking Hermione was not an option.

  "You weren't paying attention when Malfoy stormed into our cabin this morning, were you?" she snapped, staring daggers at Percy the same way the waitress had this morning. "I'm Muggle-born, and both my parents are dentists. Before coming to Hogwarts, I spent most of my Friday afternoons reading pamphlets on dental care."

  Percy muttered an Ancient Greek curse under his breath.

  "That was Ancient Greek," Hermione said abruptly, sounding completely certain of what she had just heard.

  "I can't think of one reason why I would know Ancient Greek" Percy retorted, effortlessly becoming the worst liar in the universe.

  They young witch's expression remained guarded as her eyes passed over each of us. "That's funny, because I can't either. There's no way you could've learnt it—not even private high schools in America teach Ancient Greek anymore. Latin, but not Ancient Greek."