A stunned silence holds for a few seconds until almost at the same time, everyone's heads turn toward Thalia and Percy.
They seem to be fine. The Minotaur has vanished and in its place is a pile of dust. They have put their weapons away.
They are arguing.
The blonde with the dagger says, "Styx," and starts towards them.
Before she can do anything, Thalia yells, "You think you can take me?"
He steps back and for a second, Harry thinks he won't raise to the bait. Rather, he takes a pen out of his pocket and uncaps it. It transforms into the glowing golden sword he was carrying earlier.
He raises one eyebrow. "Bring it on."
She brings out a Mace canister which expands into a spear seemingly from nowhere. They begin circling each other. Harry glances around wildly. Nobody is moving, not even the Annabelle girl.
"Aren't you going to do something?" Anthony Goldstein demands.
The Reyna girl laughs. "You wanna get in the middle of that?"
Percy suddenly jabs his sword at her, testing her defence. She catches his sword on the guard of her spear and shoves him off. With her free hand, she taps her bracelet.
It springs into a shield with a face so horrible the whole group winces and steps back. Percy strikes again and they're locked in combat so fast Harry can barely follow it. After about a minute, it looks like Percy has a slight advantage. There's no doubt he is an incredibly good swordsman.
Harry hears the all-black boy whisper to the blond boy with an infectious smile, "Best swordsman in three hundred years at camp." He wonders where the camp is.
"After Luke." Annabeth's shoulders tense in front of them and the girl with a feather in her hair digs an elbow into the boy in black's side. Harry wonders what happened to Luke.
Thalia manages to shove him away from her and raises her spear. Evidently this could mean danger for the boy because Annabeth swears, "Styx," again, but this time everyone seems to be too wary to move toward them.
Thalia yells. The boy's head whips toward the sky as a lightning bolt comes down.
Draco swears.
It hits Percy hard in the chest.
He bends over, gasping, and Susan Bones bursts out, "Stop them! They could kill each other!"
"Didn't last time," a boy with a mischievous smile says.
"That could be because the Oracle came and interrupted! And last time, they were both younger - well, Percy was - and he had the creek behind him! Travis is right, one of them could die this time!" The black haired boy yells.
Annabeth says, "Jason?"
The blond boy with the scar frowns and says, "Why me?"
"She won't kill you and he probably won't kill you and you can fly."
"What?" Daphne Greengrass looks pale. "He can fly?"
Percy straightens up and throws himself at Thalia.
It almost looks like he was holding back before.
She shoves him back and blasts him again. This time, he yells and storms toward her.
Literally.
A tiny hurricane is gathering around him, battering her back from hitting him.
The girl with a feather in her hair says to Jason, "Go!"
Even though Harry knows she isn't talking to him, he feels like going to break them apart. Looking around he sees everyone except a very pretty Asian girl, who just looks a little disoriented, seems to feel the same way. A couple of people have even taken a step toward the battle.
Annabeth shakes her head and says, "Piper..."
The girl with the feather says, "Sorry!"
Jason - who really can fly - lands off to the side a little and Thalia yells something at him. He yells back - something about brother - and she taps her shield.
Thank God. That thing was scary.
Percy is still inside his hurricane.
Now Annabeth runs over. She looks at him and he looks at her, and then she says something quietly.
The hurricane dissipates immediately.
He's completely dry.
Blaise Zabini lets out a low whistle.
Percy, Thalia, Annabeth and Jason walk back over to the extended group.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Ron demands.
The boy in all-black sighs. "I suppose, thanks to those two, we owe you a proper explanation."
Percy and Thalia both give him a death glare. While Percy's is intimidating, Thalia's makes Harry wonder why this kid isn't scared of her.
Annabeth says, "Do you have somewhere safe we can go?"
At this moment, the golden dragon causes a distraction by tilting its head pouring a stream of oil onto Parvati's head.
This seems to surprise nobody.
The dragon boy winks and says to the girl with the feather and Jason, "Just like old times, huh? Remember when Beauty Queen over here got claimed and Superman, you were all like-"
"Leo!" they both say threateningly.
He laughs, and the girl punches him in the arm.
"Anyway," Annabeth says, looking pointedly at him, "any of you have your own place?"
Ginny nudges Harry in the ribs.
"Ow - oh yeah - me."
He looks around the group.
"You can all Apparate, right?"
A girl says, "What's Apparate - Travis, stop it-" this to the boy who had thought they couldn't kill each other, who seems to be annoying her.
"Right - um - shall we Side-Along?" Everyone nods.
"What are you talking about?" An African American boy standing next to the girl with red streaks in her hair who pointed out the Minotaur earlier, who now sniggers and says,
"Set, the world has come to an end. Carter Kane does not know something. I can die happy now."
"Shut up, Sadie," he mutters.
"If you just - grab a partner - number 12 Grimmauld Place -" Hermione says. She looks around, and grabs hold of a pretty girl with braces.
She turns on the spot and Disapparates.
There is a general outcry as the result of the girls vanishing.
"I swear she's fine," Draco says quietly.
He holds out an arm to the boy in black, who gives him a measuring glance and says, "I may be better off with someone who has less demons haunting them."
He nods and looks at the curly-haired blond boy, who grins at him and takes his arm. They also vanish.
Harry holds out his arm to the girl who yelled at the dragon boy. She takes it, and he turns, thinking destination, determination, deliberation and appears in the kitchen.
Draco, Hermione, the girl with braces, and the curly-haired boy are all there too.
Draco looks curious, of course; his mother was Sirius' cousin. The other two look vaguely nauseous. Side-Along Apparition is never pleasant.
The curly haired boy sees him come in and says, "I'm Will."
Harry says, "Harry."
The girl Harry transported says, "I'm Calypso,", frowning at him.
Ron appears next with the one braid girl in Roman armour, who looks slightly tired.
Justin pops in next with the all-black boy who looks at the Roman armour girl and says, "Reyna..."
She glares at him, "Don't you dare tell me not to lend my strength when you only let me help you when we were-"
He coughs loudly and looks pointedly at her.
One by one, people pop into the house.
When Thalia gets in, she frowns.
"This house is creepy. It reminds me of..."
She takes a long breath and says to Harry, "Haven't got anything patrolling the corridors?"
He half-smiles.
"Only Kreacher."
"What's Kreacher?"
At this point, Kreacher makes it unnecessary to explain by shuffling into the kitchen.
"Master! Oh, you is back, does you need anything?"
"Um, some tea maybe, Kreacher." Hermione glares at him. "Please?"
At this point, almost everyone's back.
Padma comes in last with a really tall Chinese boy who appears, stumbles, and barks, "Darn it!"
A couple of them snigger and the dragon boy, Leo, mutters something to the girl Harry brought in.
Draco glances at Hermione, who's staring at the ground, performs a quick headcount, waves his wand with his characteristic grace and the chairs multiply so that everyone can sit down.
The Carter boy frowns at Draco's wand.
Everyone sits down.
"How did you do that?" the Carter boy asks, leaning forward.
"Who are you?" asks Neville simultaneously.
"Clearly they've got wands, Carter," says the girl with the red streaks, who is second only to Percy for slouching.
A pretty girl with golden hair and eyes leans forward. On the table in front of her is a diamond which she takes and slips into her pocket.
"I can tell you're using magic. But how?" She has a kind of old-fashioned accent.
"Because we're witches and wizards," sighs Blaise.
"What the hell?"
AN/ Thank you so much for reviewing, favouriting and following this little story!
If any of you have someone you'd like to see as the villain in this story, please tell me about it in a review.
I know this chapter isn't great, but I promise I'll get some action in the next one.
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