Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

68) Katie Probably Liked The Nose Bleed. Weird Little Masochist

Angelina tossed the Quaffle hard to Fred, who threw it to Katie G., who passed it to Rosie. The new Seeker missed the ball entirely, but seemed unfazed as she went to retrieve it, simply passing it to Alicia. Alicia passed the ball to Harry, who passed it to Ron, who dropped it.

The Slytherins laughed at Ron (they mostly hadn't laughed at Rosie — it was a lot easier to laugh at someone your own age than it was to laugh at a firstie). Ron pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, succeeded, then slipped sideways on his broom. He rose to our height, his neck and ears a vibrant red.

"Pass it on, Ron," Angelina called calmly. He passed the Quaffle to Sally-Anne, who tossed it to me, and I tossed it to George, who passed it to Katie B..

"Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?" Draco called. "Sure you don't need a lie-down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?" 

He had a point, but I didn't say anything.

Katie B. had passed the ball to Fred, who passed it to Angelina, who reverse passed it to Harry. He caught it by the tips of his fingers, and quickly passed it to Ron. He lunged for it, and missed by several inches. He retrieved the ball again, this time not fumbling on his broom, but when he came back up, his face was more scarlet than the Quaffle.

"Come on now, Ron," Angelina called stiffly. "Pay attention."

The Slytherins were howling with laughter.

After another bout of passing around the Quaffle, I found the ball in my hands. I turned to Ron, who stared back in terror.

"I have seen you throw a hairbrush at a Titan, and you're having a hard time catching a ball?" I let out a breath, hoping the tough love method would work. "Come on, dude, get your head —" and I threw the ball. I threw it wide so that he'd have to reach to catch it, but I threw it a little too wide. I was ready to apologize, but Ron whipped out some move I hadn't been expecting. He struck his leg out, and kicked the Quaffle upward. He gaped and held out his hands, catching it quite easily.

"What?" Rosie flapped her arms around in terror.

"Aha!" Katie G. cheered. "The myth! The legend! The idiot who hit Kronos in the eye with a plastic blue hairbrush!"

"Watch it!" I shouted, and Katie froze. "Names have power, Katie! This is not the time to be throwing around that name! We're too high up to do this."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I was just excited," Katie stared up at the sky, her eyes wide as if she expected to get struck by lightning.

"Who's Kronos?" Angelina questioned.

"Oh my gods stop saying his name!" I yelled, cursing in Greek. By the confused yet concerned look on Angelina's face, I must've just said it all in Greek.

"What's so bad about saying this Kr —"

"Angelina!" Connor had his hands on his head. "Please, stop!" Travis was looking around wildly, as if he'd been thrown into a monster's den.

"Name's have power," Ron said, frowning. "This guy doesn't need anymore power than he already has." He turned to me. "Should we leave?"

"If it starts getting randomly stormy, yeah," I said, eyeing the blue sky. "Or if we seem to get particularly unlucky. But, for now, it's all right. He won't try to kill us, not here. I don't think they want the wizards involved in the war." I looked back down at Ron, and smiled. "That was an awesome catch, by the way. Did you do it on purpose?"

"Yeah, I did!" Ron got very excited, and looked around. Angeline sent him a nod to continue and pass the ball. I guess he was a little too excited, because he threw the ball pretty hard towards Katie G., and it soared between her hands and smacked her in the face.