Strange Teachers

Chapter 20

—Ron—

The day after the wedding, a drenching rain started. This made us stay inside of the Big House, where we were staying. Currently, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and I were playing exploding snap in the lounge, trying to ignore the eyes of the living leopard head on us; that thing freaked me out.

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed as she won a round. "Take that!" she taunted me, since we were the ones who were leading.

I played my turn just as one of the bridesmaids from the night before—I was pretty sure her name was Piper—walked in. She'd gotten through the storm nearly dry thanks to the pink parasol that dangled at her side. The little hearts on it changed colour as I looked at them, much like Piper's eyes. Still, she didn't seem like the pink parasol type—what with her casual clothes and choppy hair. In response to our questioning looks at it, she explained.

"The enchantment around Camp is supposed to keep out bad weather unless the gods want it to get in, so this is one of the only umbrella-y things that we have." That made a lot more sense. "Anyway, we're having a big slumber party in Cabin one, if you want to come."

We quickly accepted. Having not brought more parasols, the demigod suggested that we transfigure something into one. Hermione immediately grabbed a handful of pencils from a desk against the back wall. With a wave of her wand and a relatively simple incantation, the pencils became yellow umbrellas with metallic gray handles.

I took one and, once I was at the edge of the porch, swung it open, the latch making a satisfying clicking sound as it was undone.

On the walk back to the main cabins, 'Mione asked Piper about who lived in Cabin one. Apparently, it was the cabin dedicated to Zeus' half-blood children. How my girlfriend still remembered that insignificant fact was a mystery to me.

"No one, really," she answered with a shrug. "Thalia stays in Cabin Eight whenever she comes to camp. Jason used to, but—" She fell silent, and we got the message that he was someone important that she'd lost.

"Why does Thalia not stay there if her dad is Zeus?" Ginny asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Piper told us about the Hunters of Artemis, promise of eternal celibacy and all.

By the time she was done, we were already at the big marble cabin, though temple was a better word. I couldn't even imagine sleeping here, even less so when I saw the stern figure of a man—probably Zeus—staring down a corner of the room.

Once we were all inside, Piper shook out the parasol while Hermione simply untransfigured our umbrellas back into pencils. The people in the room introduced themselves as Thalia, Reyna, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Calypso, Grover, Juniper, Clarisse, Rachel, and of course Will and Nico (in bear form) we knew. Lucky they all already knew about our being wizards, or 'Mione's trick would've been hard to explain.

Thalia suggested a game of Never Have I Ever to wait out the storm. After she'd explained it to those of us who had no clue what it was, we agreed to do it with just raising your hand and explaining if you had done it. If no one had, or everyone had, you would go again.

Thalia started.

"Never have I ever been on a date."

Everyone but Reyna raised their hand, so we decided to go around saying who they were mostly with. Hazel and Frank were each other's, as were Grover and Juniper, Will and Nico, Calypso and Leo, and our two wizard couples. The others were random people, except for Rachel. Everyone seemed surprised that she'd even raised her hand.

"Did you go on a date before you became the Oracle?" Reyna said. Maybe the Oracle couldn't date.

"Sorta. He and I met up a few times and kissed once."

"Who?" This time it was Hazel. I noticed that Grover, Juniper, Thalia, Will, and Clarisse looked like they were holding back laughter. They obviously knew who it was. Rachel blushed before answering.

"Percy."

"Wait, the Percy whose wedding you just officiated?" Harry voiced my thoughts. "Does Prof. Chase know?"

"Yup; we're super good friends. I got over Percy years ago."

"Ok, on a different note: it's Nico's turn, and I'll be saying his, which we consulted on while you were talking," Will piped in. "Never has Nico ever kissed a girl non-platonically," he finished with a smirk.

Around the circle, Frank, Leo, Grover, Clarisse, Piper, Harry, and I had. The only one that wasn't expected was Clarisse, who said that she and some girl named Selena had dated for a while when they were younger (A/N: I saw this in a Tumblr post and really liked it, but I still ship Selena and Charlie, so I say she's bi and ended up with Charlie and an amicable breakup with Clarisse). Piper had a girlfriend named Shel, apparently.

"Now for mine," Will cut into the silence again. "Never have I ever been on the losing team in capture-the-flag."

"What? H—"

"No way!"

"How is that possible?" The room erupted with protests. This game must've been a bloody big deal.

"Perks of being kids of the god of Prophecy. Some of my half-siblings can predict minor events. We just take the majority vote of which team will win and get in with them."

"Impressive," Reyna commented.

"Thanks. It's your turn, Leo."

"All right. Uncle Leo's got a good one for you. Never have I ever been dead for more than a year."

Odd one. Did that mean that he'd been dead for less than a year? The thought slipped out of my mind when Hazel raised her hand. She ended up explaining the whole ordeal for our sake.

The game continued till it was time for dinner, when we all got magical plates delivered to our cabins by water nymphs. Everyone was sure that the rain would let up soon. In fact, nobody knew why or how it was raining. Overall, the rainfall lasted a full week, without ever getting lighter.

— - — - —

A/N: VERY IMPORTANT NOTES—PLEASE READ

Anyway, this is surreal, but the book is coming to a close. Only a couple of chapters left (not exactly sure how many)! There will be a sequel. Or, rather, this will have been the prequel to the second book, as far as plot progression goes. I hope you'll stick around to read it; it should be posted on December 10th if all goes to plan (people do Christmas specials, so...).

Last thing: my friend thebooklinghippo (LINK IN COMMENTS, it's bugging) and I are doing a gothic writing project for English class. It's set in the same world as her original book, Institute of Ingenio (it's amazing, go read it!). We'll be handing it in on Monday, then waiting for feedback from our teacher so that we post the best possible version on here. Yup, it'll be found on both of our profiles. In the meantime, please go read Matilde's book, she's an absolutely awesome writer, and it is so worth it! I'll post on here when the short story is available to be read.

Ok, so thanks for reading, voting, commenting, and whatever else you're doing!