Order of the Olympians

Order of the Olympians Chapter 4

                                                                                   Chapter 4

Moody twisted the bronze doorknob and sneered at the silver serpent knocker as he shoved open the door. Percy held his breath before following on his heels. As soon as all four demigods stepped foot inside the hallway, a cloud of heavy chalk dust whirled around them like a mini tornado. Moody looked on with interest, but the dust seemed content with whatever it must have found, because it slumped slowly back towards the ground.

"Well if that ain't strange..." Moody mumbled before scowling again. "All right you lot, it's way past yer bedtime. Go on upstairs. There are plenty of beds up there." With that, he limped towards the closest door, and disappeared behind it.

The four demigods examined their new safe haven in interest, then headed towards the creaking stairwell. The front door opened into a long, skinny hallway with a large dusty chandelier softly illuminated with twentieth-century gas lamps. Percy noticed the once brilliant wallpaper peeling off in strips, and heavy cobwebs hanging in almost every corner.

As they made their way up the steps, they automatically shied away from the silver serpents that decorated the wooden paneling underneath the wallpaper. When they reached the first landing, a voice shrieked out from behind them.

"FILTHY HALF-BLOODS. I CAN SMELL YOU!"

The demigods whipped out their wands and pointed them towards the shrill voice. Just before they called out their weapons, the voice screamed again.

"FREAKS! HOW DARE YOU STEP FOOT IN-"

"SHUT IT!" The hallway door flew open, and Alastor Moody bellowed towards the voice. The demigods backed up the stairs quickly and watched as the wizard flung a tattered velvet quilt off of a portrait, and cursed loudly at its occupant.

"Is that...is that painting alive?" Annabeth hissed, gripping her wand tightly.

Moody directed a spell towards the painting and the lady stopped moving altogether. He returned the quilt to its rightful place and sneered at the newcomers. "Of course it's alive! Haven't you lot ever seen moving portraits before?"

Percy lowered his wand and motioned for the others to do the same. "Uh..no. I guess we don't have them in New York."

The wizard narrowed his eyes. "Then you'll have an interesting time arriving at Hogwarts. Place is full o' em. Now get to bed!"

They all looked at each other with wide eyes, but shrugged as this wasn't the strangest news they had ever heard. Percy waited for Moody to limp back into the room he had claimed, then nodded towards the others to continue on up the stairs.

Annabeth reached her hand towards the doorknob of the first bedroom on their right, but Nico stopped her. "This one is occupied. I can sense a few people sleeping in there."

"How about the next one?" She asked, pointing towards the room a few feet down the hall.

Nico tilted his head for a second in consideration, then shook it. "Seems to be empty, come on."

He led the group into a dusty room with four matching twin beds, two pushed up against the north wall, and two pushed up against the west wall. The room was dark, with eerie moonlight streaming in through the boarded-up window. They all stumbled in, exhausted as the events of the day finally caught up to them.

Percy and Annabeth dropped their suitcases on the sides of the beds on the west wall while Nico and Will took the remaining two beds.

"I'm sure I don't need to remind you guys, but let's keep our 'wands' with us tonight. I don't like not knowing who else is in the house." Will yawned, and stuffed his own wand into a clasp near his ankle. They all mumbled their goodnights and fell silent.