When Myths meet Magic || 3

2|| Piper

"How much training did you get last year?" Piper asked as she and Annabeth walked out to the flatter stretch of land to the side of the burrow.

"Not much, you know, from all the attack and such" Annabeth said, straddling the Nimbus 2001. "There weren't any more games either, so I haven't really been able to practice. But you know, we might have another seven years, according to Chiron"

Piper took off on George's Cleansweep 5 and she and Annabeth circled the air.

"Another seven years?" Piper asked, disgruntled. "I thought Chiron said the maximum was ten."

"Since when have we been lucky with that, though?" Annabeth asked. "Remember back on the Argo II, how long it took for us to get anywhere?"

"That's true" Piper said as she lobbed a soccer ball— or, as Ron said, a football between them. Then Annabeth squinted into the distance.

"Is it just me, or are those cyclopses trying to do a sneak attack on us?" she asked, pointing to a few specks in the horizon.

Piper strained her eyes and spotted them as well. "True, should we go get the others?"

"They're in the forest, remember?" Annabeth started flying that way. "We might as well, I mean they're just a couple cyclopses.

They zoomed out to meet the monsters, who looked miffed that they'd been discovered still several miles away.

"Ah, but there are only two of them" one of the monsters said certainly. "Simple females."

"Excuse me?" Annabeth hovered around the cyclops' single eye. It was one of the taller cyclopses, more like Ma Gasket than Tyson.

"Should we kill them now?" Piper asked. "You know, these monsters haven't gotten sneakier. Remember the good ol days, when pretty much one in every three mortals was actually a monster in disguise?"

"Yeah" Annabeth said, drawing her knife. "Well, might as well get rid of our problem here."

A left cyclops roared in anger. "We are not simply a problem! We will be the downfall of you, simple female demigods!"

"Yeah, yeah" Piper swooped straight at the cyclops stabbing it in the eye. It howled and fell, taking down another one. Piper flew up, then made a 180 degree turn and dissolved the cyclops and its friend into monster dust. Piper blew her choppy hair out of her eyes and turned to find Annabeth had finished off the other three cyclopses.

"RIght, the downfall of us simple female demigods" Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. "You know, if they were in our timeline, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even try attacking us without a group more than six."

Piper slapped her forehead. "I totally forgot about that! That makes sense why Lockhart didn't recognize us as demigods last year- because he didn't know who we were."

Annabeth suppressed a smile. "Right, Lockhart. Your brother. You know he had charmspeak, right?"

"What?" Piper stopped mid-flight back to the makeshift 'quidditch field'. "He did?"

"You couldn't tell?" Annabeth asked. "Oh, that's right, you weren't there when Jason, Harry, Ron, and I interrogated him. So yeah, he has charmspeak. I mean, it was really weak, because he was just a legacy of Venus, and his mother had charmspeak, so he got some. But he was only slightly convincing, he couldn't completely change opinions like you. Basically, he just got the witches and wizards that he stole memory from to trust him. That's how he got away with it so easily too."

Piper shook her head in disgust. "That's exactly why charmspeak is bad. I mean, Drew was a perfect example, but Lockhart abused his power by ruining people's lives that were just looking up, and taking away their bravery."

"Exactly" Annabeth scowled. "That would be like... after we defeated Gaea, Drew altered everyone's memories to think it was her the whole time."

"It's sick," Piper agreed as they descended. "I think that was enough practice today, fighting on a broom. We can control it better now."

Annabeth suddenly stopped, making Piper almost run into her. "Why'd we stop?"

Annabeth was looking in the direction of the Burrow and ignored her. "Ron!" she yelled. "What's wrong?"

Piper peeked around Annabeth and spotted Ron sprinting up the hill to them, red faced and panting.

"Harryauntblownupministrycomingforhim" he said in one long breath.

"Harry's aunt blown up ministry coming for him?" Piper translating the best she could. Ron nodded his head.

"Dad said that Harry got a warning for activating an engorgement charm. Though how he learned one, I have no idea, but this is his second warning. Remember last year, when he told us about Dobby with the pudding? Yeah, this is warning two. At this rate, he'll be expelled by next year."

"I hope not," Annabeth muttered in Greek to Piper. "This quest is literally a make-sure-Harry-gets-a-proper-education-and-stays-safe-so-he-can-defeat-the-dark-lord."

Ron sighed in annoyance. "You're talking in Greek again, if you weren't aware of it."

"Oh, were we?" Annabeth played innocent, though Piper was pretty sure Ron didn't buy it.

"So! Why'd you run to tell us about Harry?" Piper asked, hastily changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah. We're heading to Diagon Alley later to meet Harry. The Ministry's going to sort out the aunt and we're going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron until Hogwarts term starts."

"Why would we stay there, though?" Annabeth asked, her eyes going into I'm calculating every piece of information you're giving me because something seems off here mode. Ron must've noticed it too, because he shifted uncomfortably.

"I dunno, I think Dad was saying something about convenience with being right next to Diagon Alley or something. He and mum both agreed, so there's really no backing out of it."

"Right, we should tell the others. I think they boys went with Hazel and Thalia to practice killing monsters." Annabeth looked back to the deserted tents for confirmation. "When are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, the Ministry will take Harry to Diagon Alley tonight and we'll meet him there."

"Alright, is Hermione gonna be there too?" Annabeth asked eagerly. Ron nodded, then looked up at the sky, which was quickly setting into night.

"Yeah. Anyways, I should go back. Mum's going to throw a fit if she thinks we went on another midnight adventure."

Piper suppressed a smile, recalling Thalia's story of their midnight fly to Harry's house to rescue him from the Dursleys.

"Well, we should tell the others, I guess" Annabeth said, handing Piper her broom. "Thanks for the broom. You can really tell the difference."

Piper beamed. "I know!" She paused, then looked behind them. "They've been gone for a while, shouldn't they be back by now?"

As if on cue, Nico materialized next to them, the other demigods in tow, except for one.

"Hazel did it" Frank said, pride and worry in his face, an interesting combination. "She just shadow traveled somewhere, except we don't know where."