Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament [Book 4]

37) What Really Went Down With the Magic School Bus

The biggest mistake I had ever made was being late to dinner that same night. Not because of anything important, but because I was told Draco was turned into a ferret.

Silena had given me a recap. Draco confronted Ron about a newspaper with his parents in it, Harry had insulted Draco's stepmom (whom he loved dearly), Draco had fired a warning spell at Harry so he wouldn't do that again, Mad-Eye Moody had transfigured my boyfriend into a ferret, and McGonagall had given Moody a verbal smackdown. Silena also told me that Draco had been trying to secretly warn Ron and Hermione of something, and she only knew this because of how he read aloud from an English version of the Daily Prophet. He must have memorized it beforehand.

Draco told me what the warning was while we were preparing to leave the castle, "Rita Skeeter. She blows everything up to the extreme in the papers. She even lies. My mom told me that she was the one coming to the school for the Tournament. I wanted to warn Ron and Hermione, so they could help keep Harry out of trouble. I'm pretty sure Hermione's figured it out, and Ron will get it soon."

I nodded, then grinned, "I wish I could have seen you as a ferret. I mean, you got to see me as a guinea pig."

Draco glared at me, "At least I looked decent as a ferret."

"And you still do," I smiled, and Draco beamed at me. "You still look very decent as a ferret." Draco narrowed his eyes and tackled me onto the bed, tickling me until I cried uncle.

***

Getting to the bus was easy. Getting it out was the problem.

We had taken brooms to a nearby school and flew in to the busses, only to realize they were gated in.

Seamus was behind the wheel (which terrified me) and Ron was leaning against the front of the bus, staring fascinated at the lights around the school's soccer field.

"What do we do?" I asked, staring at the fence with Draco.

He stared at it for a moment, then his eyes lit up with a plan. He held a notebook — I wasn't sure where he got it, and I was too afraid to ask — and started taking notes.

"We will build a ramp!" Draco announced suddenly, happily showing me the notepad. It made no sense to me, but Draco looked so proud that I couldn't help but get hyped up.

Then I frowned, "How will we build the ramp?"

Draco pointed to the other busses, then at a dumpster. It made no sense to me, but he walked over to the nearest bus with such confidence that I had no doubts his plan would work.

He stared at it for a moment, then began the lengthy process of getting a tire off of a bus. Don't get me wrong, I know how to change a tire, it's not that difficult. But we didn't have any tools or anything like that, and buses are considerably heavier than your average car.

"Hey."

We both looked up at the unexpected voice, and I was surprised to see Hermes standing there. He'd been visiting me more and more often, sad about Liam and the fact Zeus would kill him if he talked to any of his kids.

"Hermes," I greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought you could use some help," Hermes shrugged, then magicked up some tools for us. "George and Martha missed you."

How are you Percy? Martha's voice floated through my head.

"I'm good, thanks."

I'm hungry, George hissed. Did you bring me any rats?

The boy didn't know we were coming, of course he didn't bring any rats!

So no rats?

"Oh hush," Hermes sighed. "I'm not in the mood for you two's bickering. I just came to drop off some tools." He glanced back at the bus suddenly. "I'm going to go check and see if it's, uh, wired correctly."

I couldn't help but smile at that. Hermes wanted to go see Seamus.

"All right, see you later," I said. "And thanks for the tools."

Hermes walked away, and Draco turned to me, "When did you become friends with a god?"

"This summer, obviously."

***

Draco's ramp was a little weird, but effective. The lid of the dumpster was the ramp itself, and the tires were beneath and around it to keep it stable. Lou-Ellen had enchanted the bus with some basic durability magic, so it wouldn't explode when we landed on the other side of the fence.

We climbed in, Seamus looking happier than I had seen him for a long time.

"You guys totally didn't even need me," Ron said. "I didn't even sense any — I take that back. Something's to our left."

Draco groaned and looked out of his window. His eyes widened.

"GO GO GO!" He bellowed, and Seamus pushed the pedal to the floor. We soared over the fence, and I heard strange growling and hissing. When I looked back, I saw the Hydra.

"Didn't Clarisse kill that on her quest?" Lou-Ellen demanded, staring out of the window.

"Yes!" I hissed. "She had canon balls though!"

"Is that a Hyrda?" Ron squeaked, paler than ever.

"No, it's a baby rabbit," I said sarcastically. "Yes, it's a Hydra!"

"Don't sass me!"

"Don't ask stupid questions!"

"Boys, boys, there's enough testosterone in this bus as is, calm down," Lou-Ellen said.

"We're putting easy distance between us," Seamus said, glancing in the rear view mirror. "Do we want to fight it or not?"

"No," Draco said after a moment. "We'll warn the Ministry. Someone will have some better, ah, machinery to deal with it. I'm just surprised it reformed so fast."

"The Fates probably want it for something," I sighed. "They always want monsters for something."

"Let's not talk about monsters, all right?" Ron swallowed. "Let's just get back to the castle." He turned to me. "Can we please just have a normal field trip?"

"With the Friz?" I grinned. "No way!"

Happy Valentine's Day! The day of love and the day of feeling alone, all at once! Wether you had dates or not, we can all appreciate the discounted Valentines candy that will appear in stores tomorrow. Also, Today was my little sister's birthday party. She let me invite some friends over. It was at this roller skating place, and we didn't actually skate much. My cousin did. It was fun. Also, it's really fucking cold. We have a hard time leaving our house cause we live on a dirt road, and they don't salt it. We did get groceries though, so we'll be fine. We also don't have school tomorrow. Not even online stuff. The new superintendent is pretty cool. Uhhhhhhhh it's supposed to be super cold tomorrow. Fuck the weather. Normally, I don't mind the cold. Like, if I really wanted to, I could walk out in shorts and be unbothered (not that I'm going to — my hoodie serves me well against the snow), but it's super freaking icy. The ground is angry and decided to murder walking like a normal person. Weather bad.

Anyway, I hope you guys had a good Valentine's Day, and I'll see you on Tuesday. Love ya!