The Golden Wand [Harry Potter/Percy Jackson]

Chapter 9: Annabeth and Hermione

Annabeth POV:

The following week passed in a blur. And through it all the students of Goode, as well as myself, wondered why we were unknown. When Percy told me that Harry Potter hadn't even heard of him during their brief introduction, my suspicions only grew. First, Hermione had shown me that the history of Goode was unheard of to almost every wizard outside of America, and then Percy discovers that he's just as unpopular as our school. 

My deepest concern came when I did some research on the infamous evil wizard, Luke Castellan, who went by the name Kronos. Although there was a great selection of books to find on Kronos in the library, they all concluded with a similar and irritating end - that he had simply disappeared. Not a single mention that Luke was from Goode, not a single mention that it had been Percy and I to destroy him, not a single mention on his attack on Manhattan. Nothing. And my research on the League of Giants was presented with similar results:

"Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries to ever form in the wizarding community is that on the matter of the League of Giants - the extremist wizarding terrorist group that, after a decade of reeking terror in the United States, vanished inexplicably just last Thursday. What happened to this group? Where did they go? Will they come back again? And if they do, will the world be prepared? In my recent interview with famous Auror, Renley Finch..."

I had been too angry to read the rest of the article. 

Despite my anger, the week was enjoyable. Each morning and night my school sat on Gryffindor's table where I became increasingly close to Hermione Granger. The girl was uncannily like me - a book freak, a nerd, a library fanatic... but a dam good witch. The two of us would meet up in the library occasionally, or we walk around the grounds together when we were both free. She would talk about her muggle upbringing, and I would talk about my childhood with my father and how I ran away. I found it incredibly easy to talk about hard things with her - she had already begun to feel like a friend.

When I finished my interview, we discussed how ours went. 

"There was the old man on the floor, the woman that had killed him and... Bellatrix Le Strange, as a child," Hermione admitted quietly. I had heard of Bellatrix - the most evil of all of Voldemort's Deatheaters. And I had read about what she had done; cursed the Longbottoms, led the escape from Azkaban, attempted to kill Sirius Black... tortured Hermione Granger for being a muggle-born. "When I saw her, I could feel my scar begin to itch. During our fifth year at Hogwarts, the Deatheaters had become increasingly aggressive after that night in the Graveyard, when Cedric Diggory killed Pettigrew, and Harry and him had escaped. Bellatrix led an attack on Hogsmead near Christmas time - I had been there at the time with Ginny. The two of us tried to stop her and then McGonagall arrived and we were about to win.

"So Bellatrix grabbed me and escaped. She took me to her house, she t-tortured me. She hated me, she called me a mudblood. She carved that word into my arm - the scar has never healed. Luckily Ginny, Ron and McGonagall saved me, but I can never forget what she did," Hermione was speaking slowly, a tear fell down her cheek. 

I took her hand suddenly. 

"It's okay, Hermione," I reassured her. "We all have scars. We all have enemies - people we can't forgive."

"I made her drink the potion," Hermione sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have - she was only a girl, she hadn't done any of the wrong yet. But when I saw her face and remembered what she had done to me... or what she would grow up to do to me... I just had to hand her that goblet. I fear that might spoil my chances of joining the competition. Does it make me a bad person?"

"No," I shook my head furiously. "It makes you a calculating person - she may have been a child but she would grow up to be a monster, you just wanted to prevent that."