All Magic Comes With a Price (Percy Jackson AU)

Hazel

It's the second day off school, I've got math right after gym, I eat lunch two hours later then I did last year and my uterus hates me.

And I've got homework.

Who else hates the back to school season? Tell me someone is suffering too. 

QOTD: In BotL, what were Percy and Annabeth's plans after his tour of Goode HighSchool?

::

Snow drifted from heavy grey clouds and blew across the ground quickly covering it. A chilled wind blew through the grounds, sending spirals of snow through the air. The large paneled glass windows of the Hufflepuff common room was barely letting much light through, for the snow had reached to more then half of the top of the window panel that was above ground. A caroling christmas tree had been placed in the center of the common room, the bristles having been done up with yellow and black ornaments of different shapes and colors, and Hufflepuff scarves were woven through the branches like a garland, covered in sparkling tinsel. The common room was being warmed by a crackling orange fire that cast a glow around overstuffed chairs surrounding it.

Up in the girl's dorms for the fourth year, tucked underneath the duvet, her frizzy cinnamon colored hair splayed on her pillow and around her head, a small piece of it stuck to her face. Hazel groaned underneath the blankets as she turned to the side, peeling open her heavy golden eyes. Hazel pulled her hair back with her hand, her fingers combing through the top of her hair.

Hazel glanced over the side of the bed, sleepily staring at the small pile of presents laid in the night at the foot of her bed. For a moment, Hazel didn't seem to realize what the scrappy pile of presents meant, but the meaning seeped through her head and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Since when did she get presents for Christmas?

Hazel pulled back the covers, pulling out her feet and shivering when they were met with the slightly cold floor. Pulling the cover back as she stood up, Hazel knelt by the small pile of presents at the foot of her bed. Three presents to be exact. One was long and thin, and the other two were long, thick cardboard tubes that, like the first present, was dully wrapped in brown paper. Her name was messily scrawled across the top in black ink, and her father's name was written just underneath it.

Hazel picked up the three parcels, and delicately sat on the edge of her head, her legs crossed. She slid her thumb underneath the folds of the first package, delicately tearing it upwards. Unfolding the other corner, Hazel slid the present out of it's wrapping and gave a small gasp. A sketchbook lay in her lap, over three dozen pages of plain paper stitched together and bound with a cover.

She stared at it in awe for a moment, before immediately moving to the tubes. Tearing the paper off less delicately then the first, Hazel soon found herself with a brand new sketchpad, and two sets of colored pencils.

She held the pencils in awe for a moment, admiring how perfectly sharp they were, how bright and dark the colors were. How brilliant it was to have more then one shade of blue.

::

Hazel took her new pencil's to breakfast. A soft smile on her face and a Hufflepuff scarf wrapped around her neck, Hazel flipped to the first page of the sketchbook, lightly sketching over it with a light grey pencil. She kept her head bowed, her curls streaming around her face as her switched between pencils, running the tip over the paper.

The picture slowly started to take form, a criss-cross of multi colored lines that took the round shape of the engraved goblet that was in front of her and filled with pumpkin juice. Hazel shaded the goblet with a brown, and highlighting it with a bright gold.