#: I wrote down all five hundred before I went to wait for Poseidon on the beach.

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

So has anyone combined the Poseidon blinds Telemachus Au with a prophet Telemachus Au yet? Because they should.

[bikkinibottom]

Can’t Walk Without You

Here’s a little something I wrote to celebrate 100 followers! I got the idea based off of this post here.

This is my first time writing fanfic so I’d love for some feedback! Hope you all enjoy it!

Summary: It’s the 90’s and Percy makes mixtapes for Annabeth. She listens to them when she misses him.

She took it with her everywhere now, constantly listening to whichever song that played through the Walkman. It got to the point where even if she was having a conversation or in a meeting, the headphones rested around her neck playing music just loud enough for her to still hear and whoever happened to be right next to her. Some may call it rude, but people knew to never question Annabeth, especially with everything going on now.

Annabeth remembers the first mixtape Percy had made for her when they were fourteen. It was not too long after the battle on Mount Othrys where Percy and the group had rescued her and the goddess Artemis from Luke’s imprisonment. She smiles fondly too herself as she remembers the encounter with Percy:

Christmas was just around the corner and Annabeth begrudgingly decided to spend the holiday with her family in San Francisco. Percy and she had agreed to meet up to exchange gifts at Half-Blood Hill before she left. She stood near the Big House, which was adorned in colorful holiday lights, waiting for him. Behind her led to where the cabins were, the hearth at the center of the U-shaped formation seemed to glow brighter than ever, warm and inviting just like a fireplace at Christmas-time should be. The sky was clear save for a few clouds, the constellations piercing and bright. Fresh snow lay all over camp, some of the year-rounders just beginning to take advantage of the fresh snowfall. She looked up to see Percy approaching her, his ears looked pink without a hat on from what she could tell in the dim light.

‘Seaweed Brain’ she thought, thinking of the winter hat she knit him for his gift. It was a simple beanie that was baby blue, with one black stripe cutting across.

“Took you long enough. I got a flight to catch tomorrow, Seaweed Brain,” she jokingly said to him.

Clearly something else was occupying his mind because the scowl he attempted to make wasn’t sincere and looked more like fond exasperation. Annabeth tried not to look too into it.

He stopped walking and begun to turn around dramatically.

“Well if you’re gonna have that attitude about it I’ll just be on my-” but Annabeth cut him off with a laugh and shoved his arm.

“Come on, Percy. I’ve been waiting for this,” she told him with a bit of mock irritation in her voice.

“You have?” the boy before her asked timidly. And for the first time that night, Annabeth noticed Percy actually looked anxious for whichever reason she could not figure out yet. His eyes looked more of a golden from the reflection of the Christmas lights shining off the Big House.

Annabeth looked away from his eyes as she casually said, “Duh, we’re exchanging gifts. It’s like the best part of the holiday season,” though she wasn’t too sure of her response seeing the gloomy expression take over his face.

Percy looked away as he let out a simple, “Right.”

Not wishing to dampen the mood on what was supposed to be a pleasant occasion, Annabeth quickly asks, “Do you want to go first?”

“Uh, I- no. You go first,” he responded quickly as well.

Annabeth presented him with his gift bag filled with sea-green tissue paper and he dug around in it until he pulled out the gift card she had gotten him. He flipped it over to see what it was for and he smiled appreciatively.

“That’s the skate store you go to a lot right? The one by your apartment?” she asked just to double-check and make sure.

“Yeah! I- Thanks Annabeth,” he told her genuinely then paused. “Uh, how much is on it?”

“A hundred dollars,” she replied.

His eyes seemed to pop out of his head before he stuttered for the next few seconds. Annabeth just looked at him with a confused but amused smile on her face.

“This- this is more than enough for a whole new skateboard. I- I don’t think I can accept this,” he blurted out in shock.

“Skateboards are expensive. I thought that was a good amount,” she said matter-of-factly. Annabeth had briefly forgotten that Percy and his mom didn’t have a whole lot, meanwhile, her family was more than well off and Annabeth could afford to splurge on her friends.

“There’s another gift in the bag,” she pointed out.

He gave her an incredulous look before digging around in the bag. He pulled out the beanie wrapped in a layer of tissue paper and unwrapped it. He held out the hat in front of him with a neutral expression.

“You hardly ever wear a hat, let alone own a proper winter one so I figured you could use a nice one. I made it myself,” she said, her voice laced with pride. It had taken her a couple of tries to knit a hat before she managed to perfect it. Athena wasn’t the goddess of crafts for nothing. Annabeth was proud of her handiwork.

“You made this?” he asked softly. The tender look in his eyes made Annabeth’s face a little warm but she nodded genuinely.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Annabeth said. “It’s your turn.”

“O- oh. Right.” Percy cleared his throat and placed the gift bag on the snowy ground with his presents inside. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a card with a smaller rectangular box attached to it. Annabeth didn’t know what the box could be seeing as it was wrapped but she opened the card and read it to herself first.

The card itself didn’t have many words and with the low-lighting, she couldn’t exactly make it out with her dyslexia. But underneath the message of the card, she noticed Percy’s chicken scratch hand-writing where he wrote out in Ancient Greek, ‘Hope you have a good new year. Merry Christmas, Wise Girl. Your friend, Percy’.

She smiled up at him and gave him a sweet thank you.

“Um, the uh, the gift. I made it myself. I don’t know if you’ll like it but um, if you give it back I understand. It’s kind of lame, actually-” Percy stammered out, and she could tell the red on his face wasn’t coming from the Christmas lights. With a roll of her eyes, she tore open the wrapping and was presented with a cassette player. Written on one side in Percy’s hand-writing it said: ‘Songs I Think You’ll Like (vol. 1)’.

“It’s a mixtape,” Percy blurted out, “I was thinking about how we’ve barely ever talked about music so I put a bunch of songs I figured you’d like. You can listen to it whenever you want.”

Annabeth was at a loss for words. Picturing Percy in his room toiling with the radio on, waiting for hours for the right song to come on to record, or maybe using some of Sally’s old records to record music from... It was a little too much for Annabeth.

Impulsively she jumped towards Percy, wrapping her arms around his neck in a quick hug. Backing away she looked him in the eyes.

“Thank you, I love it,” she told him. At that point, she didn’t need a mirror to know that both their faces were red now.

“Really?” he asked, relief in his voice and body language.

“Yes, I can’t wait to listen to it,” she answered genuinely.

A goofy smile broke out onto his face and Annabeth felt herself smiling as well. After talking for a bit more, they eventually said their goodbyes and parted ways.

As Annabeth boarded the plane the next morning, she had a brand new Walkman stuffed in her pocket that she had bought as soon as she left the campgrounds last night. She couldn’t wait to listen to it on the plane.

Recalling the memory brought a melancholy smile to her face, but it was very dim. Annabeth remembers how nearly every month after that she received a mixtape from Percy in the mail, each with a different purpose but all equally good. When they had started dating, the music became a lot more romantic and he would gift her one at each monthly anniversary. She would’ve received a new mixtape soon for their five-month anniversary, but now he was missing and Annabeth wasn’t sure if she’d ever get to hear it. The thought made her chest ache painfully, and she blinked back tears.

Rolling onto her back in her bunk, Annabeth thought back to the events of the day and let out a frustrated sigh. Just when she finally had some type of lead to where her boyfriend might be, she was met with three demigods at the Grand Canyon with more questions than answers. Not to mention her least favorite goddess seemed to be involved in all of this somehow. Realizing she needed to get actual sleep tonight if she was going to leave early in the morning to search for Percy, the daughter of Athena put on her invisibility cap, grabbed her Walkman, and snuck out of Cabin 6 to head over to Cabin 3.

Inhaling the ocean scent that Poseidon’s cabin had, Annabeth made her way over to Percy’s dresser, where he always kept extra clothes. Grabbing one of his hoodies, she put it on and laid down in Percy’s bunk. It wasn’t the biggest secret amongst her siblings that she would often sneak out to his cabin at night but since he went missing she made it her new unassigned sleeping quarters.

If the bed weren’t cold, Annabeth could almost imagine Percy there with her. Surrounding herself in his ocean breeze scent helped put her to sleep but there was some dull ache lingering inside her tonight. It was as if there was nothing inside her; her heart, her lungs, everything just- gone. Instead, a dark void seemed to eat at her from the inside out, and all of her senses felt numb.

Putting on her headphones and pressing play on the Walkman, her favorite cassette plays out. Once they’d started dating, Percy gave her this one and told her the songs sounded a bit like the one they had danced to on Olympus all those years ago. She recalls Percy telling her that to him the song sounded a bit sad, but a little hopeful too.

Annabeth cries herself to sleep that night.

[theartofimaginaryfriends]

Chapter 3 - Welcome to Ilvermorny

Fic series: The Final Straw (HP/PJO Crossover)

Premise: The Welcome Feast causes a rocky start to the year.

Masterlist

Taglist: @ilvermornymascot, @lukecastellandeservedbetter

Word count: 1,652

A/N: I feel it's important to mention that I wrote this at 2AM (lmao shocker) and accidentally called the dorms lodges because I pictured them as such. After consulting the group chat I always consult, it's staying that way because why not. And yes, I absolutely used combination knocks because of Wizards of Waverly Place (S4 E21 if you don't know what I'm talking about). Please let me know if you want to be on the taglist, and please comment as it helps keep me motivated! Hope you enjoy the chapter, it ended up being fun to write!

The room buzzed with excitement as the students watched the first years get sorted into their houses. Nova stood next to the Head Boy, Lucas Hoffman, and tried to seem interested in the sorting. The nerves she felt were hard to hide, with the threat of a Prophecy being revealed tonight. Rachel Dare had collapsed on the way up to the school with the rest of the transfers, and Nova couldn't help but notice a flicker of a green glow in her eyes.  

She could only hope that nothing would happen while the mortal girl waited with her friends to be sorted into a house like everyone else. The last thing that was needed was to provoke a group of demigods with quick access to their weapons and already felt suspicious of the place. “You okay?" 

 "What?" Nova looked up at her friend. "Oh yeah, just tired and hungry." 

"Are you sure that's it?"  

"Lucas, I'm fine," Nova insisted. The Head Boy opened his mouth to speak but ultimately let it go, knowing how stubborn his friend could be. They turned back to watch the sorting, and Nova cheered with the rest of her house whenever someone got sorted into Pukwudgie. Still, she didn't seem to have her heart in the sorting like she did every year.  

When the ceremony ended, the student body moved into The Great Hall. Nova relaxed a bit entering the familiar surroundings and smiled. The staff table was at the very end of the hall and faced the door that led into the room. A bear lectern was placed in front of the Headmasters seat, which sat in the middle of the long table.  

Unlike Hogwarts, Ilvermorny had over one hundred circular tables for the students, and students from every house were free to sit together. The American Wizarding school prided itself on their inclusivity, part of that being the inter-house relationships.  

The Hall was decorated with Indigenous artwork, representing the founders of the school. Paintings on the walls told the story of Ilvermorny, and how it was founded. The ceiling was reflective of the night sky. Thousands of candles were floating in mid-air, lighting up the room. Ilvermorny had brought some of Hogwarts' famous features to The Great Hall as a way to help the European students feel more at home.

Ghosts floated around and interacted with the students, startling the demigods that were already distracted by the interior. When the witch took a seat next to Cree, she couldn't help but notice a particularly familiar face within the ghosts. Peeves the Poltergeist had decided to tag along, likely eager to terrorize a new group of students. Harry Potter, who was at the same table, followed her eye line and looked even more displeased than she felt. "Blimey, I thought he was joking." 

"I'm sorry, what?" 

"To our new students, welcome," Headmaster Tahamente greeted everyone. "And to our upper years welcome back. We have much to discuss this evening, but for now please enjoy the feast." 

Food appeared at the table, and students immediately began piling their plates. Ron Weasley was one of the first to dig in, stuffing his face with shepherd's pie. Hermione scoffed at her friend's lack of proper etiquette. "Honestly Ronald, do you have any manners?" 

"What? I'm hungry," he said between mouthfuls. Nova laughed as Harry rolled his eyes at Hermione chastising Ron.  

"Um... can I help you?" Harry asked, uncomfortable. Nova followed his eye line to Cree, who was staring at The Chosen One in disbelief.  

"You're Harry Potter," his jaw dropped. "As in the Harry Potter." 

"Cree, we talked about this." 

"Can you blame me?" 

"I'm sorry, Harry," she sighed. "I requested my friend here do the exact opposite of that. Cree is clearly a big fan of yours." 

"It's nice to meet you, Cree." he smiled. Harry hated attention because of his fame, but he was kind nonetheless. That was something Nova liked about her friend and made a mental note to talk to Cree about dialling down the fanboy attitude after tonight. 

All the boy could do was stare open-mouthed, still starstruck. "Potter has a whole fan club here, too?" 

"Malfoy, are you really failing to consider the fact that our friend here is world famous?" Nova sassed. She had only known Draco during her transfer year at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament and was still skeptical of the Slytherin. Despite choosing to go against Voldemort during the war, he was going to have to put in a lot of effort to gain the trust of everyone he had bullied these past few years. 

"I don't need-" 

"Hey," Harry put a hand on Malfoy's shoulder. "You said you wanted our forgiveness. That means not lashing out." 

Draco relaxed at Harry's touch and went back to his food while he tried to hide the blush forming on his face. The meal consisted of Cree overwhelming Harry with questions, and Nova constantly apologizing for her friends' behaviour. It went on until after dessert when the Headmaster approached the lectern once again. A hush fell over the crowd as he began to speak.  

"I hope that was a satisfying meal," he smiled at everyone. "First, a few housekeeping rules. Students must not leave their lodges after ten pm on weekdays, and midnight on weekends. Students under year five are not to leave campus on weekends. The forest is off-limits, as the Party Ponies do not take kindly to unwelcome visitors-" 

"Party Ponies?" Ron whispered. 

"I'll explain later," Nova responded.  

"Finally, if you haven't already," Professor Tahamente continued. "Please come see me, or your Head of House to state your pronouns and preferred name." 

Nova glanced around, watching all the confused expressions from the Hogwarts students. She remembered when she first learned what pronouns meant, and hoped the European wizards complied without issue. "As you all know, we are joined this year by students from Hogwarts, and Demigods from Camp Half-Blood-" 

Whispers filled the halls, many of which speculated why Demigods were at the school.  

"Settle down," Tahamente gently commanded. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has found itself in need of repairs that may take the whole year. Headmistress McGonagall has asked me and President Olivier to host her students while their school is under construction. As for the Demigods, we feel that the divide between us needs come to an end. Chiron and Mr. D have gladly set up a program in hopes of creating a bond certain to help in the future."

"Mr. D can’t even be bothered to remember our names," Nova overheard Percy's comment. She made eye contact with him as she stifled a laugh, and the boy smirked at her and winked.  

"Finally, we have new additions to our staff," the Headmaster turned slightly, gesturing to the staff table. Tahamente began with Chiron and Mr. D, then introduced the professors that had joined the staff for the demigod program, as well as the new Gamekeeper. "Now that introduction is out of the way, we will end the night-" 

The headmaster's speech was interrupted when a girl with fiery red hair stood up abruptly. Rachel's eyes glowed bright green, and a mist the same colour poured out of her mouth as she made her way to the front of the Hall. The wizards looked terrified, and most of the demigods were annoyed. 

"Demigod and wizard come together,  

Find the bridge and break the tether.  

The heroes combined,  

Shall face the unkind.  

In order to preserve their days,  

They must find the one in which betrays."  

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Percy shouted angrily.

The son of Poseidon stormed out of The Great Hall, and Annabeth stood up to follow. Nova rushed to the demigoddess and stopped her before she continued on. "Take Percy to the lodges. A Pukwudgie will be able to guide you there if you ask politely." 

"Thank you," Annabeth rushed to catch up with her best friend, and Nova went to help Rachel for the second time that day.  

"Are you alright, dear?" Nurse Hawkins helped Rachel to her feet.  

"Yes, thank you," she responded tiredly. 

"She's in my house, I'll get her to the dorms immediately," Nova put an arm around the mortal to support her. After some protest, the Nurse allowed Nova to take Rachel to the dorms. All she needed was a small amount of Wiggenweld potion. She led Rachel out of the Great Hall, trying to ignore the stares and whispers as she passed. The girls didn't speak until they got to the entrance of the Pukwudgie building, passing Annabeth and Percy as they sat at the campfire the school had set up for the Demigods.  

"Our lodge has a small infirmary, we'll stop there first." Nova led them to the infirmary and helped Rachel onto a bed. The Head Girl went into the cabinets to find Wiggenweld, then poured a small amount into a Dixie Cup, and handed it to the Priestess. "It's just a basic healing potion, it won't harm you." 

Rachel took the cup and hesitated before downing the liquid. She winced at the taste but looked a lot better instantly. Since Python took over the Oracle of Delphi, readjusting to the oracle's magic was taxing on Rachel. Nova couldn't imagine what it was like and felt for the mortal girl.  

When they left the infirmary, Nova brought Rachel over to the group of new students that had just arrived with the sixth year prefects and began the trek up eight flights of stairs to get to her new room.  

The room was easy to find, it is the first door in the corridor on her left. The Head Girl was about to open the door with her new combination knock when she noticed the name plaque under her own. She was sharing her room with Payton Wills, a Gryffindor that she didn’t get along with at Hogwarts.