Harry Potter and the Lost Half-Bloods. *1*

Annabeth

I provide an extended quidditch analogy
ANNABETH: it was my turn.

I couldn't help but think of something Cho would always tell me before a quidditch game. It was a bit of a Ravenclaw quidditch team inside joke to incorporate muggle sports terms into the game.

"Annabeth Chase is up to bat!" She'd always randomly shout at me during a game. "Annabeth Chase is up to bat!"

She'd keep adding more softball and baseball terms as the game would go on.

If I'd almost catch the snitch, but I'd miss: "strike one, Chase!"

If I'd knock somebody off of their broom: "grand slam for Chase!"

In those situations when I'd prevent the other seeker from catching the snitch: "hm...we'll call it a ball for Chase!"

And when I finally caught the snitch, leading our team to victory: "over the fence! Over the fence! A homer for Chase, winning the game!"

Yeah, Cho doesn't know baseball or softball very well, but she enjoyed yelling those terms at me, screaming at the top of her lungs. How does that relate to right now, you may ask? Well, because as I stepped towards Hera, I could hear Cho's voice in my head.

"Chase is up to bat!" She announced. I couldn't help but smile to myself, though it hurt to thing that those memories with Cho would soon be erased.

As my memories came back, I couldn't help but continue to hear Cho's cheers.

When I ran away from home, I could hear her voice.

"Chase is out of the park!"

Did Cho even know what that meant? No. But she'd announce it as I left the locker room after a game.

As I watched my younger self growing jealous over Percy and Rachel's friendship: "strike one, Chase."

Ouch. That was a low point in my life.

Luke's body hit the ground: "strike two."

Again, an even lower point in my life.

As I let my pride get the best of me and I was dragged down to Tartarus: strike three, she's out.

That's what my life had consisted of. Strike, after strike, after strike. When would my coach let me sit the bench for a game? In other words, why was it always me? From the time I had arrived at camp, I'd begged for a quest. Since the first one, I'd begged to never put people in such danger ever again. But since then, it's always been Percy and I. Quest after quest, game after game. It never seemed to end.

But it wasn't all bad. I'd had plenty of grand slams and home runs in my time.

My first kiss with Percy: definitely a grand slam.

All of those wins in capture the flag: home run after home run.

The friends that I've made through all of the hell the gods have put us through: grand f-ing slam.

Of course, I was sad upon the realization that Hazel and I weren't best friends in this life. I was happy, however, to see that Piper and I were as close as can be. I had Grover, Thalia, and Percy as well. In addition to them, I had everybody in front of me, even if we weren't as close we could still grow closer. We were all friends. In time, we could become best friends.

I'm a builder, it's what I do. My next big project would be building up all of my friendships with all of these individuals. They were all what mattered most to me.

"Seaweed brain," I approached Percy. "I told you to never go get your memory altered ever again, I told you to never, ever do that to me!"

Percy laughed nervously.

"In my defense, I only know half of our story right now. Can't you at least wait for my memories to be restored before you beat me to a pulp?" He requested. I rolled my eyes.

"You made me a hypocrite! Now we both got our memories altered, damnit Percy!"

I happily judo-flipped him to the ground.

"W-Why?" Percy gasped.

"For old time's same. You'll understand in a moment, hun." I kissed him on the cheek and returned to those who had already had their memories in order.

"It never gets old, seeing you do that to Percy." Jason said.

"You should try it some time. Quite a stress relief."

Judo-flipping Percy a second time: grand slam, for sure.

"Go on, Percy. Get your memories restored so I can yell at you with reason and so I can kiss the real you."

Percy seemed to like that idea.

"Yeah, okay. I'm down." Percy stepped towards Hera. "Go on, do your magic."

As Percy emerged from Hera's light, I couldn't help but notice something was off. His face was drained, his grey streak seemed even grayer. In that short amount of time, he seemed to have grown even older. Then again, hadn't we all?

Still, something was off. I know Percy had endured a lot in his life, he had every reason to be a bit taken aback having to relive it all. It wasn't the sadness in his expression that alarmed it, it was the darkness in his eyes. It was the same untamable darkness I had seen down in Tartarus when he had controlled the poison.

"Percy, welcome back man." Grover clapped him on the back.

"Yeah, haha," Percy forced a smile. "Good to be back."

As everybody joked and talked with Percy, I couldn't help but notice how something was off with him. He wasn't happy. He had a look in his eye that was unfamiliar for Percy. It made me uneasy.