Heroes at Hogwarts

thirty | rainbow band-aids and water buckets

annabeth

Annabeth held Percy's hand. It was limp in hers.

Will had performed some emergency procedures on him (much to Madam Pomfrey's surprise), and they'd almost killed him with ambrosia and nectar, but he still hadn't woken up. That damn hydra. Annabeth sighed. Why wasn't he waking up?

When she, Percy, and some of the others had been out talking to the local dryads, it had poked out of the woods. It was strange. They hadn't seen anything to suggest monsters were there the entire trip. Not even the patrols the others had done when they got there earlier in the year. It must have wandered from a long way away.

They weren't expecting it. The first thing it did was kill some innocent trees. Annabeth had been so angry. Frank and Jason had to dive out of the way to avoid being turned into demigod stir fry. The second thing it did was run at the group. Its claws had raked Annabeth's calf, tearing it open.

She'd grabbed the closest pointy object, a stone, and dove for the tail. A hydra tip that Clarisse and Chris had figured out: their tails are extremely sensitive, and don't grow back like the heads do. Annabeth's first thought was to cut off said appendage.

She didn't make it far. Piper and Hazel had grabbed her arms, stopping her. They didn't know the little life hack she was about to attempt. But the monster had seen them (which was crazy, since hydras had terrible eyesight). It blasted a string of fire right at them. Piper dove left, Hazel right, but because Annabeth had been between them she didn't have anywhere to jump to.

Annabeth squeezed Percy's hand again. What had she done to deserve him? He'd seen what was going to happen before Annabeth had. He'd dove for her, pushed both of them out of the flames, but they'd been momentarily stunned.

Annabeth squeezed her eyes shut. A small tear dropped from her eye.

The hydra had taken advantage of that fact. They didn't have their weapons. As Frank, Jason, Piper, and Hazel were running the other way, Percy pushed Annabeth to her feet and she too ran away from the monster. She'd thought Percy was right behind her. She'd thought he was okay.

She was wrong.

She'd heard his scream as soon as she broke through the trees. She hadn't had time to turn around, but Leo told her she didn't need to see it, didn't need to hear about it. Next thing she knew; it was dragging her seaweed brain back into the woods. The others had gone after it. Annabeth hadn't. She just couldn't make herself move. She guessed she should have run after the beast, chased it down for taking her boyfriend. Her best friend. Her Percy.

But all Annabeth could think was, it can't end like this. Not here, not now. She and Percy had been through so much. Riding in a zoo truck, hefting the sky on their shoulders, fighting side by side for years. They went through Tartarus. Annabeth could only watch as their friends ran after the hydra.

And then Harry, oh Hera, Harry Potter. He'd only been expecting a water lesson at the lake that night. Not to see one of his best friends getting dragged into the woods. Annabeth leaned her head on Percy's bed. Harry Potter had been through so much pain already. Granted, not as much as the demigods, but if you added that to his already difficult life...oh that poor boy. Annabeth took a deep breath.

"Percy." She lifted her head and whispered to him. "If you can hear me, and I know you can...it's Annabeth. I love you. Please don't leave me."

Will had told them that Percy would wake up, without a doubt, the problem was when. He could sleep until the next day, the next week, the next year. Annabeth had cried into the blonde's shoulder when he said that. Everyone had been sitting by his bed earlier in the night. Reyna, Rachel, Jason, Piper, Will, Nico, Leo, Calypso, Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth had all crowded around the tiny bed with tears in their eyes. Percy was their glue, everyone's best friend. What would they do if Will was wrong? What if he never woke up? Annabeth couldn't afford to think like that.