When Myths Meet Magic || 6

8 || Annabeth

Annabeth, Ginny, and Jason put their brooms away and skirted along the edge of the forest.

"Did you see McLaggen on that last one?" said Ginny. "Nearly went the other direction on my throw, like he'd been confunded."

"Well, even if he was, he deserved it, didn't he?" said Annabeth viciously. "You should've heard the way he was talking about you and Ron, I nearly stabbed his eye out. His personality is almost as bad as his body odor."

The wind had picked up, as if scorn was contagious to nature. Annabeth turned instinctively as leaves whipped her face and her vision caught on a flickering light through the trees.

"What's that?" she said.

It vanished as they drew closer. Annabeth inspected the ground. Remains of dust scattered in a faint breeze.

"Looks like a monster died," commented Ginny. Annabeth looked at Ginny in surprise who shrugged. "Right? Your clothes are always covered with it back home."

"First we smell, now we're dusty," Jason muttered. "#justdemigodthings."

"She's right," said Annabeth, stepping back. "But how did it die?"

"Old age?" said Ginny. "Epilepsy?"

Annabeth reached forward and her hand suddenly felt like it had been submerged in boiling hot water. She jerked her hand back but it seemed untouched.

"There's a barrier there," she said. "This is the first time—"

Suddenly there was an ear-piercing bellow. In an instant, their wands were out and a commotion seemed to come charging at them from the forest— a wild-eyed moose leapt out of the brushes and a dark form barrelled after it. The moose, which upon closer inspection had long tusks jutting out of its head like an elephant and spouted a stegosaurus tail, kicked Jason on the head as its legs flailed and its wings flapped wildly, and the dark form seemed to hit a wall as there was a flash of blue light, and the creature half disintegrated but not before two snapping jaws lunged once more for the elephant moose dinosaur. Annabeth fired a quick spell and the creature was thrown back— as it fell, a flash of silver cut through the air and it exploded. Ginny quickly lowered her arm.

"Wild," she said, blowing through her lips to get rid of the monster dust.

Jason stared. "When did you learn to use a knife?"

"Ah, Thalia's been giving me some lessons," said Ginny. Although it was difficult to tell in the shadows of the forest, she sounded embarrassed. "I was going to wait until I could get better to show you, Annabeth, 'cause I wanted to surprise you, but I guess that's ruined."

Annabeth laughed. "No way, that was awesome."

Ginny grinned. "It caught me pretty off guard, Thalia's let me have a go at a hellhound once in a while and one time I killed this empousa."

"Thalia let you what?" demanded Jason loudly. He turned on his heel and began to stalk back to the forest. "Gods, she needs to be more responsible, I don't understand what goes on in her head sometimes, how could she just let you take on an empousa by yourself? She really trusts her own skills that much? It's like she has no idea how dead she'd be if she didn't have that huntress blessing..."

By the time the October Hogsmeade trip rolled around, Jason had sufficiently scolded Thalia, and Thalia had sufficiently ignored him. She leaned leisurely in the yellow armchair by the fireplace and occasionally zapped the flames with a few sparks, making it roar higher than ever.

"Honestly, Jason," she finally said. "I was going to ask Harry to teach the whole DA last year. I don't see why you're so worried. Ginny's fifteen. She's way smarter than you."