When Myths Meet Magic || 6

Extra || Christmas

The night before the holidays, having not been invited to Slughorn's party herself, Annabeth dropped off her bookbag from another night of studying and headed over to the Hufflepuff common room, carefully avoiding the path she knew Filch unconsciously trailed. Once in, she easily found the distinct blob of color among the yellow.

"Annabeth!" said Jason cheerily, throwing his hands up as she drew closer.

"Are you drunk?" she said curiously.

"Yes, he is," Nico muttered crossly.

Jason gasped loudly. "I am not drunk!" he said drunkenly.

Annabeth laughed. "Should I ask why?" she said.

"We're playing Uno, but loser has to drink," explained Hannah Abbott, whose voice was significantly higher as if she'd just inhaled helium. The "we" she referred to was a significant group of Jason, Frank, Cedric, Nico, Terry, Susan, Cho Chang, Justin, Neville. To the side, Hazel, Thalia, and Will were observing.

"I see," said Annabeth. "And where did you get the shot glasses?"

"Get them?" said Cedric confusedly, seemingly equally as potion-drunk as Jason. "We've always had them."

Annabeth laughed again as she sat down. "You know, as Hufflepuff prefects, you shouldn't be condoning this," she said to Frank and Hazel.

"You're right, I shouldn't condemn it," said Frank seriously.

"Con-done," said Annabeth, but realized it was no use.

"Play with us!" said Neville happily despite the fact that all of his veins mimicked fresh glow-sticks.

Percy took another bottle out of a small box with the iconic Weasley Wizard Wheezes secretive logo stamped on the side (it was simply a hat with a flame and was labelled Macshiz™. Macshiz™ was essentially how they shipped to Hogwarts students.)

"This is a part of Fred and George's party pack," he explained. "They send a bunch of potions but you have no idea what they are. They just do weird things."

"Not lethal, of course?" said Annabeth.

"Who knows?" said Percy. "Oh, wait, I know. Don't worry, they wear off after a few hours, or you can drink the antidote."

"ANTIDOSE FOR WUSSIES," said Justin passionately.

"Next!" said Terry Boot.

"Who brought the Uno set?" said Annabeth, realizing with a wave of nostalgia that she hadn't played Uno since she was at Camp Half Blood which, due to their quest years, was half a decade ago. It was seemingly a plain, Muggle set.

"I've had it," said Cedric as the cards played, Blue-7, Red-7, Red-2, Red-3. "It's kind of a long story. I went to a Muggle summer camp when I was ten and made friends with this kid named Robert and he gave me this set which I found in a pair of socks this summer. Actually, that wasn't a long story at all."

"DRAW FOUR," said Justin triumphantly as he slapped down the dreaded card and looked at Neville. "AND SWITCH IT TO GREEN."

"Draw Eight!" Neville exclaimed, slapping down another card and turning to Jason.

"No!" shrieked Jason, and his hand of two became a hand of eleven.

Hannah cackled. "Salazar Slytherin who?" she said, high-fiving Neville.

Jason ended up losing.

"Merry Christmas," sang Percy, pouring another mystery shot glass.

Happy Holidays!