Half-Blood Means Two Things || Marauders Era | Percy Jackson ||

|| 13 - I Curse Lady Leach With Sneezes ||

I didn't like school. Especially homeschool with Chiron. And after History of Magic with Professor Binns, I feared I would never enjoy another classroom again.

Fortunately, Professor Albion Vega changed that for me.

I pushed myself out of bed (Squawk didn't wake us up at the butt-crack of dawn again) and trudged into the bathroom. I had to admit, the showers at Hogwarts were much nicer than the ones at Camp and had a considerably less amount of pegasus hair stuck in the drains. Once I'd changed into my uniform again, I held up my tie. Rowan, Lily, and Emilia were all ready, primed and polished, in their uniforms, looking like they were made to wear skirts. I, on the other hand, still couldn't manage to button my shirt up correctly. I groaned, rebuttoning my shirt for the third time.

"If you don't hurry up, we'll be late!" Emilia moaned, packing my bag for me. She reached inside, "What is that -- "

"Nothing!" I practically screamed, rushing forward. I yanked the bag from her hands and pressed it firmly closed, breathing heavily from minor panic. I couldn't have Emilia digging through my bag. I had a knife in there, as well as some golden drachmas. The money, I could explain. The knife would be harder.

I imagined the conversation:

"Why do you have a deadly weapon in your school bag, Charlie?" To which I would have no choice but to respond with, "Because it's shiny?"

This is why I shouldn't be allowed to keep horrible, dangerous secrets. Because "it's shiny."

Emilia held her hands up in surrender. "Geez! Sorry," she muttered, looking a touch offended.

I looked away, swinging the bag around my shoulders, clutching the top tightly.

Way to look super suspicious, I scolded myself.

"It's fine," I said in a pleasant voice. I looked around for Thea. She'd ignored me all of yesterday, and, considering she wasn't in the dorm room, she was ignoring me today. I still didn't understand what was so wrong with pumpkin juice, but oh well. I could turn her white with stories of food fights from Camp Half-Blood. Honsetly, a little pumpkin-flavored spit wasn't that bad, but you'd think I'd slapped her across the face.

I sighed and looped the tie under the collar of my shirt. I didn't know how to tie it, and I didn't want to waste time figuring it out. I just wanted to eat!

"Let's go!" I told the girls cheerfully. I noticed they were all staring at my bag. "Hullo," I said, shifting my bag out of their direct eyesight. I waved my hand in front of my face and they all realized they were staring. "We gettin' food or...?"

"Yeah," Emilia said dismissively and pushed through the door. Lily followed.

Rowan hesitated, watching me. "What's in the bag, Charlie?" Rowan joked, wriggling her eyes in mock suspicion.

I forced a laugh, but it sounded more like a pained cough. "Nothing -- nothing important, I mean," I said, walking out of the room hurriedly, leaving Rowan to come up with even more questions.

Come on, Charlie, I scolded myself as we hurried through the halls, relax, or else people are gonna start questioning you.

At breakfast, I was glad I didn't have a visit from my mental owl, but a few (better trained) owls flew through and delivered packages to some students. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Faith Campbell from Ravenclaw got a massive package. I briefly wondered what was in it.

We didn't have to deal with the Marauders (they'd really taken a liking to that name) at breakfast, and it was sweet relief. And fortunately, there were no more pumpkin juice spitting contests.