Harry watched as Annabeth walked right up to the Care of Magical Creatures class with her friends. She looked angrier than usual, but other than that, you would almost think she hadn't even seen the article.
Like always, Harry hadn't known what the big deal was that she was a half-breed. He hadn't even known they were a thing until Lupin. But, like always, Ron had filled him in. Given Ron's obvious dislike of Annabeth, Harry had been expecting him to be smug about the news article, but instead he had just seemed surprised and angry.
"It's Hagrid all over again!" he had exclaimed after getting over the shock (which was a good while later). "That Skeeter cow has another thing coming!"
"D'you think Hermione's seen it?" Harry had said. Hermione had had to go to the hospital wing after someone sent her bubotuber pus in the mail.
"If she hasn't, she'll find out soon enough," Ron had said.
When they had arrived at Care of Magical Creatures, everyone that was there before them had been talking about the article. Now, when Annabeth arrived, they all quieted.
"I can't believe she came," Ron said, bewildered. "Even most other half-breeds despise demigods."
"O'cource she came," Hagrid said proudly. "She's brave, that one."
Suddenly a bizarre thought occurred to Harry.
"Hagrid," He said slowly. "Did you know?"
"She came to see me after break, same day you did. When Skeeter wrote what she wrote." Hagrid looked over at Annabeth, who was glaring at anyone giving her looks. "She told me then."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked incredulously. "You tell us everything!"
"Yeh don't know what it's like, Ron," Hagrid said. "She's had a hard life, and it ain't me place to tell."
Harry looked back over at Annabeth. She was standing with her friends near the plot of overturned dirt. She was talking to them, but her eyes were skirting around the class and the edge of the forest, examining the students and the trees.
Now that he thought about it, that was something she always did, even before today. Harry realized that he had never actually seen Annabeth relax. She was always on guard, like she was expecting an attack at any given moment.
Had she spent her entire life on guard like that?
***
The mail started coming the next morning. Annabeth almost didn't notice it at first. Usually the only mail she ever got was from Percy and the rest of the seven, but owls liked to swoop down by her anyway, dropping little presents like twigs on her plate. This time, a lot more owls than usual crowded her, and Annabeth had a sneaking suspicion as to what they were.
Annabeth untied a letter from the nearest owl, which hooted once before taking off. The letter was addressed to her. Tearing open the seal, Annabeth unfolded the letter before Vera or Freddie could get a word in. It was short, but this was the gist:
You are a dangerous beast and if you had any sense you would leave Hogwarts before I call the aurors to take you to azkaban for child endangerment. Dumbledore made a big mistake letting a filthy half-breed like you into Hogwarts and I hope you get expelled and arrested.
Fury flooded Annabeth in a huge wave, raising her heart rate and heating her face. Filthy half-breed. Dangerous beast. Annabeth ripped the letter in half and made a grab for the next one, but someone with no sense of self preservation grabbed her wrist.
"That's a bad idea," Freddie said as Annabeth broke her grip and grabbed the next one.
"Screw that," Vera said angrily, also grabbing a letter. She read it and laughed darkly. "This person made a mistake including their return address."
Vera turned the letter around and grabbed a quill from her bag. She furiously scribbled something on the back, gave it back to the owl, and sent it back out.
Ignoring Freddie, Annabeth grabbed another letter and ripped it open. It was almost identical to the first. Insults, threats, venomous words. Annabeth crumbed it up in her anger and reached for another one.
Then, out of nowhere, a streak of gray swooped down on the table, scattering all the owls in a rustle of feathers and alarmed hoots. Students exclaimed in surprise at the sudden flocking, bending to cover their heads.
Saffi made another dive at any owl that tried to come back, then settled on Annabeth's shoulder. One more owl circled around and tried to land in front of Annabeth, but Saffi took flight and flew straight for the other owl until it veered away.
Satisfied, Saffi dropped a letter on Annabeth's plate and landed back on her shoulder, hooting triumphantly.
"Good owl," Freddie said in relief.
Annabeth huffed in frustration. She loved her owl, but she couldn't stand not knowing what was in those letters. She knew Freddie was right and she really shouldn't read them, but she just needed to know.
On an unrelated note, Annabeth stabbed her fork into her eggs so hard that the plate underneath chipped, extending into shallow cracks.
***
It started quietly.
First it was conversations ceasing when Annabeth walked into a room, people staring at her as she did all those normal human things like walking and sitting down for class. The looks she got were sometimes fearful, sometimes withering, and in very few cases, curious. Some people made it a point to avoid Annabeth, some skirted around her in the halls like she was contagious, and some pretended she wasn't even there.
Annabeth did her best to ignore it, but she had to admit she snapped a few times. She never resorted to physical violence, though, and Annabeth saw that as an achievement.
She missed Camp, where a spar could break out and it was pretty much the norm. But the kids at Hogwarts weren't trained like Annabeth was, and she had a huge advantage over them. Which meant she had to keep her fists in check.
But Annabeth knew this reaction was just the first wave.
After a few days of this, Annabeth still hadn't gotten to fight something. She was wandering the halls after class with Vera, her pent up anger almost too much to handle. She was strongly considering going into the Forbidden Forest, though the centaurs had made it very clear that she was not to return after last time (long story).
And that was why Annabeth stopped in her tracks when she saw a door she vaguely recognized. It was dark wood, with little spiral carvings around the edges.
"What are we doing?" Vera asked, raising an eyebrow.
Annabeth barely heard her. She walked over to the door and pushed it open.
"Finally," she said, frustrated it had taken this long.
It was the gym, the one that Annabeth had found months ago and then never seen again. Until now, that is. It was almost all the same, with the magical workout machines and the full size pool and the running track on the outside of it. There was a new addition too, Annabeth noted with huge relief. Training dummies stood against one wall, just like the ones at Camp.
"Woah," Vera said, following Annabeth inside.
Annabeth wasted no time. She stomped over to the nearest dummy, unsheathed her dagger, and attacked.
The dummy sprang to life right on time to block Annabeth's dagger from slashing open its chest. It had an ancient greek style sword and a full set of armor, but the metal didn't look enchanted and Annabeth guessed that one good swipe could break it.
It had been way too long since Annabeth had a good spar, and her muscles sank into the rhythm of it, slashing, parrying, jabbing. The dummy lunged and she sidestepped, using the opportunity to turn it into a spin. The momentum it gave her enabled her to sink her dagger right between where the fourth and fifth rib would be. It stopped moving.
Annabeth took in a breath. That had been way too easy.
"Annabeth," Vera said, eyes wide. "You are so fucking cool. Teach me."
Annabeth smiled. Yeah, Vera probably shouldn't be trusted with a weapon, but Annabeth had met demigods way more chaotic that had been given the blade of their choice. It wasn't like Vera would actually have a weapon at all times. If Annabeth was going to teach her, Vera would be borrowing a blade from Annabeth.
"Let me fight another one first," Annabeth said. She moved on to the dummy next in line while Vera pumped her fist.
***
Wind whipped Annabeth's hair into a frenzy, blocking her vision as she ran. Roars echoed in the night, getting closer and closer every second. Annabeth pumped her arms, her terror giving her the energy to keep going even though she couldn't remember when she last slept or ate.
"Come on!" the figure in front of her yelled over the wind. "We're almost there!"
An infuriated roar cut through the night and Annabeth tripped over a root, pain shooting up her ankle. Hands helped her up and she started to run again but her ankle crumbled underneath her and she went down.
Fear kept her trying again but she couldn't put weight on her ankle and oh gods, she was going to die here, wasn't she, she was going to—
Annabeth cried out as Luke scooped her up like she was a sack of potatoes and kept running. She threw her arms around his shoulders, tears prickling her eyes, but she knew she was slowing him down.
"Not much farther!" Grover yelled up ahead, but he sounded frantic with panic.
They had reached the crest of a hill but the roars were getting louder and louder and Annabeth knew they would be overrun, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest but she refused to sink into mindless panic because as long as she was with Luke and Thalia everything would be fine.
A monster was so close but it blended in with the dark and all Annabeth could see of it was the gleam of its eyes.
"Luke!" Thalia yelled. "Go! I'll hold them off!"
"Thalia—"
"Go!"
"No!" Annabeth screamed as Luke ran faster. "We can't leave her!"
Luke didn't answer as he kept running, and Annabeth screamed, pounding her fists into his shoulders, tears streaming down her face. Thalia stopped running and she was engulfed by the darkness, but Luke didn't stop and neither did Grover. Why couldn't they see that Thalia needed help?! She was already injured from the cyclops, she couldn't take on this many monsters on her own!
"Thalia!" Annabeth screamed, and she could hear the monsters, there were so many of them. "We can't leave her! No!"
A fork of lightning split the sky in two as Thalia's scream rose over the monsters'.
***
Annabeth woke with a start, gasping. She sat up, breathing hard, wiping at her wet face, maybe wet with sweat or tears or both. She could feel her heart beating like the drums in a rock song. The dorm was dark, or maybe it wasn't and Annabeth was blind again, oh gods, what if she was blind again, she couldn't see anything—
"Lumos."
Annabeth jumped at the word, spoken softly so she barely even heard it. The soft glow of a wand illuminated Vera's face across the room. Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief though her heart was still beating faster than the drums in Jumanji. She wasn't blind, not again. She buried her face in her hands, her breath getting shakier and shakier, finally breaking into a small breathy sob.
Vera didn't say anything as she got out of her bed and into Annabeth's. This was a routine by now, whether the nightmares were Annabeth's or Vera's. Neither of them slept well, so they were always up when the other had a bad dream.
"Hi," Vera whispered as Annabeth leaned against her. "Want to talk about it?"
"Remember..." Annabeth took a second, gathering herself as much as she could, trying to slow her racing heart. "Remember when I told you I was on the streets? With Luke and Thalia?"
"You said they were both like you," Vera remembered. "Demigods?"
Annabeth sniffed and nodded. "Luke was a son of Hermes. Thaila... I can't say."
If Vera noticed Annabeth talking about Luke in the past tense, she didn't say anything.
"And the messenger from Hecate's," Annabeth continued quietly. "A Satyr. Grover. He took us to the school, but... it wasn't... it didn't go to plan." Annabeth took a deep, shaky breath. "We were already being tracked by monsters, and there were just so many of them, and we were already injured, and... we were so close, Vera. We were on the border."
Vera didn't say anything, rubbing encouraging circles on Annabeth's back.
"We weren't going to make it," Annabeth continued after a second. "Thalia... She stayed back. She held them off so we could get to safety. We wouldn't have survived without her."
"Did she..."
"She didn't die, not exactly." Annabeth could feel her heartbeat start to slow down now, but it was still going so fast. "She would have, but... her father, he turned her into a tree. She lived like that for six years."
"Damn," Vera muttered. "What about Luke and Grover?"
Annabeth felt the ghost of a smile lift the corners of her lips ever so slightly. "Grover's doing good. He has a lot going for him now. He's a really important goat."
"And Luke?"
Annabeth stilled. "I don't want to talk about Luke," she said quietly. "Not yet."
Vera rested her head on Annabeth's shoulder. "Ok."
"What about you?" Annabeth asked quietly. "Do you want to talk about yours?"
"Oh, you know," Vera's voice got small. "Same old. Foster mom chasing me with a pillowcase and all that. Nothing new."
Annabeth nodded. This wasn't the first time she was hearing about this, and the thought of anyone doing something like that to her friend made her want to commit a murder.
They were silent for the next few minutes, and after a bit Annabeth could feel Vera's muscles relax as she drifted to sleep. Annabeth took a little longer. She couldn't stop thinking about her dream. She hadn't had it in so long.
She knew demigod dreams were almost never for nothing. Demigod dreams were different from nightmares, of course, and Annabeth had nightmares all the time. But this one just seemed... different. She tried to review the dream, but, like dreams do, she couldn't remember any details.
Maybe it was nothing. Nightmares were nightmares, they happened. Still, it took Annabeth a long time to fall back asleep that night.