Strange Teachers

Chapter 5

——Annabeth——

I knew that they'd be shocked about the new class, but that was more than I predicted. After the feast, Percy and I followed Minerva's directions to our room. Ever since the war, we hadn't been able to sleep without each other. Or, rather, if we did, our screams woke up everyone within five kilometers. We were adults now, anyway, so she didn't object to letting us sleep together.

We arrived in front of a wall. I put my hand on it and, sensing that I was a daughter of Athena, the wall spiraled open to reveal an arch, almost like Diagonal Alley, where we'd gone to get wands and other necessities. The door to our room had been bewitched so that only a child of Athena or Poseidon could open it, according to Minerva.

Walking inside, what we saw was beautiful. The first room was a sort of living room, with brick walls and a big fireplace. Along the walls hung beautiful tapestries depicting ocean scenes. A two-seater blue sofa sat in front of the fire and, up against a nearby wall, two wooden desks were facing a bay window out into the courtyard, side by side. A few steps away from the desks, a door was intricately carved with scenes depicting the gods, most featuring Athena and Poseidon.

Stepping over the threshold, I saw the most amazing bedroom. In the center, a queen-sized bed took up most of the space. It was covered in a quilt made of ten centimeter squares, half of which were gray, half of which were a light teal. The walls were painted a soft white that reflected the light from several floating candles that I had lit with my wand.

I immediately thought about our wands and their interesting history. According to Olivander, the old man in the wand shop, they each had half of the same phoenix tail feather as a core. Mine was made of a light coloured wood, while Percy's was almost black. They both had carved plants snaking about halfway up the wand. The wands had been owned by two witches. They were in love with each other, but the era wasn't right for them and their love was doomed. They'd left this world together and I hoped that they could be together in Elysium. Right before, they returned their wands to Olivander. Their welders are supposedly soul mates. I smiled, some superstitions were right after all.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist from behind reassuringly. My head fell back onto his chest, eyes closed, breathing in his scent, breathing in the sea.

— - — - —

Later that night, we got into bed and fell into a rare, dreamless sleep with our arms around each other.

——Ginny——

I woke up to light streaming through the tower's windows, got dressed and went down to the Great Hall with Hermione. Now that we were both seventh years, we were in the same dorm.

A little later, the boys joined us and we all ate breakfast while chatting in somewhat subdued tones about the new school year.

I looked up and noticed that the new professors were laughing and whispering things to each other. I felt my heart tighten a bit. I wish we could be like them. I wish we could've never been through what we had. It seemed impossible to be happy and lead a normal life after all of the suffering, all of the deaths.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the two teachers getting up to give out timetables. When they reached us, Prof. Chase smiled warmly at me.

"Hi Ginny."

"Hey, Prof. Chase"

"All right, Ginny Weasley...here it is," she handed me my timetable. "And I assume that these are Harry, Ron and Hermione?" I nodded and she passed Ron and Harry their schedule while her colleague gave Hermione hers. "See you later today."

They moved on to the next few people eating near us.

"She really does seem nice," Hermione said, making me stop looking at the two getting steadily further away. "I'm looking forward to their classes"

I looked at my schedule for the first time.

"Well, we have DADA first, then Healing after lunch," I remarked. She wouldn't have to wait very long.

——Percy——

Waking up next to Annabeth never ceases to amaze me. I immediately feel like I'm going to have a good day, like nothing can stop me.

That day, as usual, she woke up first and was looking at me lovingly as if she were trying to memorize every detail of my face. Then, she saw that I was awake and just smiled wider.

"Good morning, Seaweed Brain."

"Morning," I replied sleepily.

"Ready for our first day of teaching? It'll probably be a nightmare," she says. She's trying for a joke, but I can tell she's actually worried. So I tell her the absolute truth:

"With you, nothing could ever be a nightmare," at this, her gaze turned soft.

I thought of how, after going through Tartarus, the gray streak in our hair had come back, but we hadn't noticed until after the battle with Gaea. The whole crew of the Argo II hadn't really had any time to themselves towards the end of the quest. The matching locks in our hair were a reminder of what we'd done for each other, what we'd always do. It bound us together.

"I love you," she said.

"I'll never get tired of hearing that," I told her sincerely. "Or of doing this," I leaned forward and we kissed.

— - — - —

After getting dressed, we went down to the Hall to get breakfast. Luckily, Annabeth had enchanted a piece of paper to map out everywhere we went, so we couldn't get lost. Knowing us, though, we'd probably get lost anyway.

We got to the Great Hall, sat down at the staff table, burned a sacrifice to the gods and started eating. Once we'd finished eating, we went to hand out schedules to the gryffindor students. Wise Girl had made me organize my half alphabetically, which I'll admit helped. She had the last names that start with the last half of the alphabet, I had the ones starting with the first.

We continued to go up the table until we left the Great Hall hand in hand.