Demigods at Hogwarts | the rescue mission ✔

8| Emotional Bonds

Piper's POV

  "I don't get why we need to take lessons here," grumbled Nico. "And before anyone asks, I'm not using my wand. Ever." He stared disdainfully at the long piece of wood which was tucked in his pocket.

  "It's because we'd probably need magic to fight Annabeth's kidnapper and her allies and minions," I told Nico calmly. "Like Chiron said, as demigods, we all have magic in our blood. How hard can it be?" I had seen Hecate's kids do magic before, but I had never guessed other half-bloods could do the same.

  "But why do we have to catch up on all the stuff from the past six years here?" groaned Jason. There were dark circles under his eyes, and everything about him screamed 'grumpy'.

  I raised my eyebrows, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. Okay, maybe my boyfriend did look adorable when he was exhausted. "Same reason I gave Nico. Besides, it'll be interesting."

  "What's Herbology supposed to mean?" asked Leo curiously. He was, surprisingly, the only one who seemed to be studying our timetable.

  "Herbal biology," replied Thalia abruptly. "We've got Charms, then Potions and Divination." She scanned the timetable again, her eyes narrowed in concentration. "It's cool that we get to choose our subjects."

  Percy frowned in confusion. "We didn't choose our subjects."

  "Oh, I chose for all of you," Thalia said factually. "Divination, Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes. I figured that they would be easy for us. Divination's reading the future, Muggle studies is basically studying the mortal world, and Ancient Runes covers stuff like Ancient Greek and Latin."

  We all gawked at her.

  Thalia stared at our bewildered expressions. "What?"

  Jason cleared his throat in an impression that he was very annoyed. "Well, you could have at least asked us," he grumbled scathingly.

  Thalia shrugged. "That doesn't matter. We're running late for breakfast." she pointed out as we reached the bottom of the staircase and entered the Great Hall.

  Turns out Thalia was right—we were late. Almost everyone had finished devouring the piles of food on their plates. Owls were swooping down from the ceiling, delivering parcels and papers. We had to dodge all the falling objects as we made their way to the Gryffindor table. I remembered Hermione telling me vaguely about how the owls delivered the post here. Newspapers, packages, everything.

  As soon as they were all seated and safe from the falling parcels, we started discussing how our lessons would be like. As we talked, I tried to avoid the stares of the seventh graders. Other demigods think that being Aphrodite's kid is a breeze—you know, never having to worry whether you look good or not—but it's annoying when people stare.

  "Anyways," Jason said, cutting me off from my thoughts. "how do you think Charms will be like?"

  I turned to face him, but it wasn't me he was looking at. It was Percy.

  Percy looked up from his food absentmindedly. "Yeah?"

  "Percy," Jason said, this time a lot more seriously. "I've been trying to start a conversation between us for the last fifteen minutes! You haven't touched a morsel of your food, and you're not paying attention to anything we say. What's wrong, man?"

  Percy muttered an unconvincing 'nothing'.

  Jason gave Percy's shoulder a shake. "Dude, it's obvious that you're not okay."

  I nudged Jason. "We've got to talk."

  Jason stood up, bewildered "Okay..."

  As soon as we were out of the Great Hall, I stared at him. "What do you think you're doing?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, obviously," I sighed. "Percy's feeling sad because Annabeth's not here. He's distracted and feels like no one understands what he's going through. He needs time to process this whole situation." I mentally facepalmed as Jason frowned at me, looking confused. "And bringing up the fact that he looks like he's feeling terrible won't help."

  Jason laughed nervously after I had finished. "Whoah, Beauty Queen. You think that Percy is losing his marbles because Annabeth is not around? No offence, but that is a bit crazy."

  "It's not," I insisted. "Annabeth and Percy have always relied on each other since they were kids. Annabeth practically broke down when Percy disappeared from Camp Half-Blood. They've got an emotional bond that none of us have-"

  "Don't we have an emotional bond?"

  I sighed. "What I mean is, Jason, be more sensitive. The last thing Percy needs is someone fussing over him."

  Jason grumbled. "You should've just told me that instead of lecturing me for five minutes, Pipes." He turned around and walked back into the Great Hall. Letting out an exasperated sigh, I followed him.

  Well this chapter just went all over the place, and I apologize for boring you guys. On the bright side, the next chapter should be more eventive...?