LEO'S POV
Back in our dormitory, Percy was counting the minutes until his detention with Filch, "2 minutes 30 seconds...2 minutes..."
"Two minutes," Annabeth said, eyes not leaving her book, "you should go down now."
He shook his head with set determination, "I want to go down at the last thirty seconds." Ah, Percy was exactly like me.
Annabeth gave her boyfriend a dull look, "You plan on making it to Professor Flitwick's classroom in thirty seconds? Good luck with that. It's on the third floor, and we're on the 7th."
Percy laced his hands together conspiratorially, "We can slide down the banister. Right, Thalia?"
Thalia nodded slowly, "Right."
"One minute," Percy said excitedly. He was staring fixedly at my phone, which I'd gotten Lou Ellen to power with magic so it would work at Hogwarts.
"What do you think they're going to make us do?" Thalia asked boredly.
"Cleaning something I'll bet," Annabeth said. "That's what Filch's detentions are usually like. And you wouldn't be able to use magic, obviously."
"I can use my powers!" Percy grinned mischievously. "Water can wash everything away."
"Don't you dare," Thalia glared at him. Then she smiled too, "No, you can't. Drew's going to be there, and she would see."
Percy considered this sadly, then brightened, "As long as she's cleaning she won't see anything."
"Well, if you're going to do that," Annabeth said. "You'd better not let anyone notice."
Jason dropped his pencil, her statement pulling him out of Study Mode. "You're encouraging this? What's wrong with you?"
Annabeth gave him a look, "Percy needs time to catch up on his homework. He doesn't know any other spell besides the complicated ones we've learned in class."
"Thirty seconds!" Percy announced, stumbling to his feet. He threw the phone to me and fled out the door, Thalia following closely.
Sighing, Annabeth returned to reading.
• • •
When Percy came back only ten minutes later, I stopped everything and pointed at him, "Okay Perseus Jackson, what did you do?"
He shrugged sheepishly, "I used my powers. And I made sure nobody saw, don't worry."
"And you left Thalia there?" Annabeth asked.
"Oh. Um..."
"Whatever Seaweed Brain, just go do your work."
"Okay," Percy looked happy with himself as he sat down and pretended to concentrate on his textbook, The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1. Percy and Annabeth didn't have to do homework since they were teachers, but Annabeth still insisted that Percy had to do the stuff that we had to do. To be fair.
Thalia came back about an hour later, looking like she wanted to commit murder, "PERSEUS JACKSON!!!"
"Thalia Grace!" Percy yelled back cheerfully.
"PERSEUS JACKSON!" she yelled again, sparks coming out of her hair.
"Thaliaa!"
"Gods!" Annabeth exclaimed. "If you're going to yell at him Thalia, don't yell the same thing over and over. It's very annoying."
Having been properly warmed up, Thalia began the real lecture. "Perseus Jackson, you left me there! Do you know how many questions Drew asked?! I. WAS. THERE. FOR. AN. HOUR."
"Relax," Percy said nervously. "An hour's pretty standard around here. I had to wash dishes at Camp Half-Blood a lot."
Her blue eyes blazed, and I was really glad that I never dated her. She pulled out her Mace can and it expanded into her spear. "Well, at least there wasn't anybody who LEFT after FIVE MINUTES WITHOUT GETTING PUNISHED!"
She ran at him suddenly, her weapon pumping with electricity. Jason left forward, "Thalia!"
"Whoa!" Percy put Riptide up to block the strike. "Thalia — Thalia! Stop, I'm sorry. Just stop —"
"NO, I WON'T." She stabbed at him, Percy parrying every attack. I wondered if it was appropriate to start filming.
"Hey," Annabeth reached to pull her back by the collar, "calm down."
With a loud pop, Annabeth flew back onto the ground, "Thalia!"
"Thalia, stop it!" Piper shouted.
That made Thalia falter, and Jason grabbed her wrist, "Knock it off."
Reluctantly, the daughter of Zeus changed her weapon back to a Mace canister and shoved it in her pocket. Thalia growled, stormed to her bed, and flopped into it.
I thought she was acting really strange, and Nico thought so too. "Someone's uptight."
"I HEARD THAT!" Thalia yelled through her pillow.
• • •
It was the next day, and most of us had our minds set to not do work.
"I want to go to the lake," Percy announced. "I need a break."
"Yes, you do need a break from candy," Annabeth Vanished a few dozen candy wrappers on the ground.
"I meant from homework," Percy said, gesturing to a piece of parchment with two inches of writing on it.
"You wrote your name in gigantic letters," Annabeth said, peering over at it.
"It was loads of work, even writing it in Greek made me so tired."
She crossed her arms, "You can't go to the lake if you're tired. Even though water gives you energy, it's only temporary and you'll be more tired afterwards."
"I meant I was stressed. Not tired."
"You're already sneaking to Diagon Alley on Monday. And I'm really regretting letting you go there."
"I want to go to the lake too!" I complained. "This homework is boring."
"Yeah!" Nico said, "I want to go outside!"
"I second that!" Thalia declared, agreeing with him.
"I'd like to try out my broom," Piper admitted. "And so does Jason."
Annabeth sighed and said, "Maybe for two hours. No more than that."
"Thank you!" I hugged her, and we ran down the stairs, grabbing our brooms.
All of us cannonballed into the water, except for Piper and Jason who wanted to fly first.
Water was splashing everywhere, and Percy was making balls of water hit people in the face.
Thalia kind of overreacted when he hit her, and she grabbed Jason's broom out of the air and tried to whack Percy in the face. He managed to catch it with his hand before it hit him, "For gods sake Thalia, just chill will you?"
Jason spit water out of his mouth and took his broom back, "Thanks sis, got me all wet."
When Piper began giggling as Jason tried getting water out of his nose, Jason flicked his hand. Piper flipped off her broom and splashed into the water.
"Jason!" she wiped her hair out of her face.
Jason laughed while Piper splashed water at him, but the wind deflected it all back.
Percy bobbed his head underwater a few times, I think he was chatting with the fish.
After a bit more splashing, Percy dove underwater.
I tried looking down but there were way too many bubbles.
Jason dove down and came up a few seconds later, "Annabeth, I think Percy is cheating on you."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Oh? With the fish?"
"With a squid. A big one."
Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I have a weird boyfriend."
I noticed Nico taking long looks at the castle, expression confused. Thalia noticed too and said with concern, "What's wrong?"
"Nah, I just feel weird, that's all. Must be the Fizzing Whizzbees."
"Ah," Thalia accepted the answer and went back to trying to beat Annabeth at swimming.
After an hour or so of swimming contests, a few fifth-year Hufflepuffs came to have a picnic near the lake, and we left since we didn't want them staring at us and accidentally finding out about our powers.
We managed to make it back just in time for dinner.
I tried this piece of black pudding. It tasted pretty good, even though it looked like tar.
"Tomorrow's class again and you guys have barely gotten any homework done," Annabeth said. "How many points do you think will be taken off for us Gryffindors?' She gestured to the hourglasses with the House points. Gryffindor and Slytherin were neck and neck. Then Ravenclaw then Hufflepuff. Gryffindor had slightly more than Slytherin, and that made me happy.
"You guys hardly know any magic," Annabeth whispered furiously at us. "We should do our homework in the library now. Not in our room."
"I read the textbook," Jason said proudly.
"That's great, but it's not you I'm worried about. Piper, you're fine too."
"Come on," Nico complained. "The Fields of Asphodel would be more entertaining than homework." Then he sat forward, "Okay, I'll make a deal with you. I'll read the Standard Book of Spells. I'll do all the homework except for the History of Magic homework and the Potions homework. History is useless and Severus doesn't take points off us."
Annabeth made a face at him, "That's an improvement, so fine."
We all silently pumped our fists.
A few more minutes later, Nico looked worriedly at the doors, then down at the ground.
"What?" Thalia asked. "You're definitely acting up now. Tell us what's wrong."
He hesitated, "I sense a dead person."
Annabeth quickly swallowed her dessert and pushed it aside, "A dead person? Like a ghost?"
"No...a dead guy that's not a ghost."
"We should investigate," Percy said, standing up.
"You're sure it's not a ghost?" Annabeth asked, stuffing the textbook she was reading into her bag.
"I'm sure. I first noticed it at the lake, but I just thought it was a ghost. Now I know it's not."
"Let's hope this is a false alarm," Annabeth muttered. "Act casual, don't raise any alarm."
We walked out the door, then broke into a run, following Nico.
"Where?" I asked.
"Downstairs," Nico responded, "I think it's the Slytherin common room. Either that or close to it."
We tore down the steps and arrived at the corner. A tiny crowd was forming, all Slytherins.
"Just found him—" came the chatter of the students.
"Oh God—" a blonde girl clutched at Blaise.
"Who is he?"
"—don't know, looks like a Muggle."
"He's dead?"
"Isn't it bloody obvious, Montague?"
"We ought to get someone—"
"Look! Look there, there are words—"
"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded, her voice piercing the whispers.
Everyone turned and saw her. Her tone of voice ordered them to move aside. "W-we found him like this," one answered timidly. "None of us moved him."
We stared at the gruesome and bloody sight in front of us.
"Nico, get Dumbledore. NOW," Annabeth said tersely.