Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Seventeen

"Never said it was."

"Ok!" Gregory said, clapping his hands together, "ignoring Simone and their... violent state of mind, maybe it was a mandrake. They have loud screams."

"Then we'd all be dead," Carrie Foreman said, crossing her arms in thought. "And what kind of task would it be against mandrakes? They spend all their time buried."

"Maybe they'll be uprooted," Annabeth thought out loud. She had run into the topic of mandrakes during one of her many study sessions, and she was beyond intrigued. "And I'll have to find a way to tune them out. But I don't think that's likely. It seems too small."

"Too small?" Freddie exclaimed. "Their cries can kill you!"

"But there's an easy way to block out those cries," Annabeth pointed out.

There was a murmur around the Slytherins, discussing mandrakes and their danger levels.

Then someone shrieked and yelled, "stupify!" a red jet of light shot towards the window and bounced, startling a curious mermaid who had been watching, who swam away in a flash. Everyone ducked as the spell ricocheted around the room, finally hitting Malfoy full in the face and causing him to drop onto the sofa he was standing in front of, unconscious.

"Oops," said a small voice from the back. "My bad."

"What if something really important is taken from you and tortured?" Simone said after a bit of silence. "Like a dog or your best friend, and that's their screams."

The common room went silent as everyone stared again and slowly backed away from Simone. They shrugged and said, "what? I wouldn't put it past the ministry of magic. You know how many people they sent to Azkaban without trials?"

"But the cruciatus curse is illegal," Freddie said, "so other methods of torture must be, too. And would they really do that to students?"

"It does seem excessively cruel, even for them," Annabeth said.

"Holy shit, it's one in the morning!" Genevieve Queen, the female Slytherin prefect, yelled. "We have classes tomorrow! Everyone get to bed!"

"Come on, Vieve," Gregory said, pouting. "A few more minutes? It's not that late."

"Do you want to tell that to McGonagall when you fall asleep in her class again?"

"Alright, everyone to bed!" Gregory yelled. "Come on, we don't have all night!"

It took a lot of complaints and a bit of herding by the prefects, but eventually all the Slytherins returned to their dorms.

Annabeth was exhausted. What with all the activity from the task and the hours of celebration in the common room, she had no energy left. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

***

Annabeth dreamed. Of course she did. She was standing in a well furnished but dusty room, dark except for the lit fireplace. A sofa faced away from her and towards the fire, and a man stood hunched next to it. The world outside the window was black, like a void pushing against the glass. A snake was curled around the sofa.

The fire suddenly surged green, flames reaching up. Annabeth couldn't see most of the fireplace— it was blocked by the sofa— but there was a small grunt of acknowledgement coming from the seat. Annabeth hadn't thought anyone was in that chair, but she saw the fabric of the cushion shift, like someone was adjusting themselves. It couldn't be an adult, if it was then their head would show over the edge. But that grunt didn't sound like a child.

"My lord."

The voice came from the fireplace. Annabeth tried to move to see how that was, but her feet were stuck to the ground. Annabeth would have let out a sigh in frustration if she could. If she was going to have a demigod dream, couldn't it be useful?