The Golden Wand [Harry Potter/Percy Jackson]

Chapter 29: Stuck in the Golden Suite

Annabeth POV:

On the third day we heard the Hogwarts students complain about our food. It was music to our ears, but the happiness only lasted a short while. The truth was, Hazel – who specialised in illusory and earth magic – had put an illusion on our food to make it look better than it was. When in reality we were eating chicken and rice, the others saw pizza and tacos and apparently even a "whole bloody hog roast". We enjoyed gloating about how amazing our food was, but it became harder and harder to gloat knowing the truth about our situation.

On the fifth day the arguing started again; previously, we had all done our best to ignore each other, but I suppose it had all become too much. Krum, Igor and Adrian, still drunk from their wine fountain, were singing too loudly for Ginny. She didn't even hesitate. She raised her wand, yelled a curse and the fountain exploded right before our eyes. The flying rubble hit Jason and knocked him out. Consequently, an argument ensued between Adrian, Ginny and Nico. Nico called Ginny a "dumb whore", Adrian called Nico a "pathetic slob", Ginny called Adrian a "miserable drunk with a pea-sized brain and a handsome face that compensates for his idiocy and his lack of power and the disappointment he brings to his family". That struck a nerve on drunk Adrian, who then petrified Ginny and punched Nico in the eye. Everyone else in the room joined in after that, which eventually resulted in half the room frozen half-to-death from a spell cast by Fleur, all three Durmstrang boys knocked out, burn marks covering all of Hazel's left side and Hermione and I in floods of tears. I hated crying.

On the eighth day we woke up to find the Hogwarts students had made a barricade around their quadrant, blocking themselves from sight using chairs and furniture. Krum tried to break through the barricade. After hours of Percy and Jason hooting and mocking Krum, the room erupted into chaos again and this time Percy had to save us all by putting out the fire Adrian had started. More words were exchanged; I found it harder and harder to believe that this was an argument we could recover from. By the end of the day the Durmstrang boys had made a barricade of their own around their camp.

On the tenth day Nico conjured a banana into the room. A real banana. We stared at it in disbelief. Nico had always specialised in apparition, disapparition and conjuring... but this was a whole new level of skill. This was getting-past-Dumbledore's-spell kind of skill – basically the kind of skill that no one had thought was possible. We cut it up into five even pieces and shared it between the five of us, making sure to eat it quickly so that the Beauxbatons' girls wouldn't see us. We were done with the gloating.

On the eleventh day Sarah almost died. She hadn't been eating the food, having refused to eat chicken as a result of being vegetarian. No one could survive like that. I had been playing cards with Percy, smiling as his eyes squinted in confusion at his cards, knowing full well that I could beat him easily but choosing not to because he looked cute when he was focused. Distantly I heard Sarah and Fleur arguing. I didn't pay them any attention; arguing was hardly uncommon around here nowadays. But then there was a loud crash as her plate shattered on the stone floor, followed by the bang of her body landing next to it.

"Aidez nous!" Fleur cried. "Elle ne se lévera pas!"

I knew enough French from Piper to know that something bad had happened – really bad. When I reached Sarah's side she was on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her face cold and unconscious, her body lifeless.

"What happened?" I yelled frantically. "Did you do this?"

Fleur looked offended. She shook her head quickly. "No, of course I didn't! She hasn't been eating properly, I think she's starving."

"Help her!" Ines screamed. "Please!"

"Nico?" I turned to him – his boyfriend being a nurse, Nico knew more than anyone here about first-aid. He ran over quickly, focused, not saying a word. In this moment, it didn't matter to either of us whether we hated this person or not – just like any other time, it was our mission to save her. That was us, really; we were trained to save others, no matter what.