The Half-Blood Princes {Book 2}

My Birthday

Percy

"Our O.W.L.S are here!" I yelled out to Nico and Will. The looked at each other quickly and ran into the house. I smirked, they were adorable together. I turned around to face the group at the table. Hermione was drumming her fingers on the wood, Harry was flipping the letter over in his hands, and Ron was - he was actually reasonably calm compared to the others. Sure, he was staring into space, not even looking at the owl in front of him, but that's fine. Annabeth held the fourth letter in her hands, the one addressed to us. 

"Well," Mrs Weasley said as Will and Nico ran into the room. "Since everyone is here, you can open them!" The sound of tearing filled the room. Then silence. Ron, Harry and Hermione's eyes scanned the page. After a little bit, Harry let out a small laugh. 

"I did alright!" He said in relief. Ron breathed a sigh and leant back in his chair. Annabeth passed the letter to me and I read over it. It was basically a note from Dumbledore saying that we had gotten the same O.W.L.S as Harry so we could take the same classes. I know it's our job to protect him, but we need to ease up a little. Dumbledore can't expect us to be hovering over him all day, although since Voldemort is back that might be what he wants. I passed the letter back to Nico and Will. 

"So Hermione," I said. "All Outstanding I'm presuming?" I had familiarised myself with the grading system at Hogwarts at breakfast, even though it made no sense whatsoever - I mean, who puts the top result as an 'O'? 'A' was the first letter in the alphabet so it made sense to be the highest grading system - but I wasn't judging the strange world the wizards had. 

"Almost." Hermione whispered. She wouldn't look away from her paper. Harry snatched the letter away from her. 

"Come on Hermione," He said. "Yep. Ten 'Outstandings' and one 'Exceeds Expectations'." Ron rolled his eyes. 

"That's amazing Hermione, I don't know why your so worked up. You shouldn't put so much pressure on yourself." Ron said. Everyone nodded in agreement and Will pat her on the back, congratulating her. Annabeth cursed in greek and stood up quickly. 

"Annabeth?" I asked, concerned. She started mumbling incoherently. "Annabeth?" I asked again, this time more desperate. She snapped out of it and looked at me. 

"Sorry Percy, I just remembered how much I've missed out on back home." 

"What?"

"I have so much work to catch up on. I'll be back soon it won't take long," She paused, assessing her choice of words, "Hopefully it won't take long." She corrected herself and ran upstairs. 

"What was that about?" Harry asked. 

"I think she just had an anxiety episode where she remembered what she has to do for school back home." I explained, still slightly confused. She didn't normally do that, she was usually up to date with work for the university we were attending back in our time. We hadn't officially started attending, but they gave us work to catch up on for when we came back (since we're missing the first semester, being twenty years in the past and all). "I'm sure she'll be fine." I assured everyone. 

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Three days had passed and Annabeth hadn't eaten. I visited her sometimes, but she was buried in a book all the time. It was starting to get unhealthy. 

I came downstairs after waking up on the fourth day of Annabeth's 'episode'. It was around noon, I shouldn't sleep in like this but I can't help it. There are thin walls and I could hear Annabeth's pen scratching away at paper all night. Also, I was worried about her. 

I walked into the kitchen and gasped. The window and door was open, showing a blue canopy covering a long table of blue food, fruit platters and cake. Everyone was outside, even Annabeth (reading a book). I walked outside and was greeted by shouts.