I'M ALIIIIIIVE! I'm SO sorry! I had testing…then I was grounded…and then I had non-stop play practice…then MORE tests and homework…I HAVE FINNALLY GOTTEN A DAMN BREAK! 'Scuse meh language, but REALLY.

Oh, and in the last chapter, I had forgotten that Harry had been under the Cloak, so Annabeth couldn't have seen him. I'll have to go back and edit that… So yeah. They can only see Ron and Hermione.

An example of my horrible case of Impulsive Randomness Disease:

Right before I began writing this, I spent a good half-hour gluing plastic rhinestones to a piece of copy paper. Why? Cause I was bored, home alone, and I had access to a pound of multi-colored rhinestones, a toothpick, and a bottle of Elmer's glue. WHAT DID YOU THINK I WAS GONNA DO WITH MY TIME? HOMEWORK? Oh hell no. So I glued rhinestones to a piece of paper. My level of sanity is dropping so rapidly it's scary…

The wise words of ME: "I sometimes wonder is insanity is contagious. I mean, how else would I make any friends?"

AHEM.

Anyway…without further ado…OH, LOOK A TREE…ahem, sorry…..without further ado…CHAPTER TWO! (OH MY LORD ALMIGHTY IN THE SKY! THAT RHYMED!)

The trio followed the lanky, freckly red-head and the girl with bushy brown-haired girl into the café.

The place was no less shabbier inside then it had been from the outside. The booths we cramped and the table-tops were covered in light film of grease. But hey, Nico had slept in worse places before, and he felt ready to drop dead (no pun intended), so he wasn't about to be picky.

The two teens they had followed slipped into a booth, and, in turn, Annabeth slipped into the one behind theirs. Percy went in next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She smiled at him lightly and pecked him on the cheek.

Oh, gross.

Nico rolled his eyes at the couple, before sitting opposite of them, not wanting intrude on their little love-fest. The only problem with that? Nico's back was to the door, something that made him twitchier than he would've liked to admit. He noticed that the brown-haired girl was looking over her shoulder constantly as well.

Looks like we're not the only ones with something to hide.

Nico stared off as Percy and Annabeth whispered to each other quietly. Suddenly, he noticed something was off. The air next to the red-headed boy across from the girl seemed to be…shimmering. He blinked rapidly, and the shimmering ceased. He sighed and folded his arms on the table, resting his head in them.

Gods… he thought I must really be tired.

"Nico?" Annabeth's voice reached his ears. He looked up.

"Huh?"

"You should try and get some sleep. You're gonna need all the strength you can get if we're going to-uh…" she glanced behind her, "You know what all the way back to New York." The brown-haired girl might've gone a bit rigid as Annabeth said that, but Nico was too tired to care. He nodded fuzzily and rested his head again.

He had only been asleep for a couple minutes when the yelling started.

He snapped awake, jumping up. His hand instinctively flew towards his sword. Annabeth and Percy were drawing their weapons as well. There were two new people in the room; a pair of burly workmen, armed with—

"Sticks?" Nico asked incredulously. "They're armed with sticks?"

The large blond one turned towards him, his eyes filled with cold, evil amusement. He shouted something Nico thought to be gibberish, and a beam of light shot from the stick. Without thinking, Nico flung himself to the side, smacking into the ground. The tile on the space he had been a moment before shattered.

"Ooo-kay," he muttered, disconnecting his cheek from the floor. "not just a stick." He picked himself off the floor, ready to deck the guy in the gut. The man pointed his stick at Nico again, his mouth open.

Suddenly, a guy's bodiless voice shouted, "Stupefy!"

A beam of light shot out of nowhere, aiming for the blonde guy's face, but before it could hit, Nico tackled the burly man. They went tumbling to the floor, Nico kicking and punching, the man struggling, obviously startled by the fact that this was a scrawny thirteen-year old boy beating him up.

At this, Percy and Annabeth kicked into action. Annabeth sheathed her knife, before aiming a good kick at the man's face. He flew back, smacking into the wall. He pushed his hair back from his face and pointed his wand at Percy. However, he never got the chance to say a word, for Nico was thrown hard against him by the blonde one.

Nico and the other man slumped to ground, Nico dazed and sore, the man out cold.

The redhead was just plain gaping in shock, while the girl was at least trying to help, although her spells kept missing. Another sudden beam of red rebounded on the window and hit a waitress.

Blondie recovered his wits and bellowed, "Expulso!" A table suddenly exploded.

Something hard smacked into a wall, and a new boy was suddenly visible. Percy kicked Blondie in the face, and he stumbled back, wailing. The girl took this chance and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!" This time, the spell actually hit Blondie. His limbs snapped to his sides, and he fell forward into the debris.

The teens all stood where they were, breathing hard and shaking all over. Nico pulled himself to his feet, rubbing his chest and wincing.

"What just happened?" Annabeth demanded, at the same time the red-head shouted, "Who are you?"

They seemed to stare each other down, before Red-head turned to the girl and mumbled, "Should we tell them?"

The girl clenched her fist, looking pained. She nodded ever so slightly. Freckles (that was what Nico decided to call him) turned back to Annabeth.

"Death Eaters," he growled, through gritted teeth.

"Excuse me? Did you say Death Eaters?" She said, he tone a bit condescending.

Freckles nodded grudgingly.

Percy raised an eyebrow, turning towards Nico. "Well, you're Death Boy," the strangers all went rigid and suspicious. "Do you know anything about this?"

Nico made his way over, shaking his head. "Nope. At least, Father never mentioned it, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything." He looked at Freckles.

"What, exactly, is a Death Eater?"

The three strangers shared a panicked look. The dark-haired one, who had seemingly popped out of nowhere, reluctantly replied, "Dark wizards."

Annabeth let out a high, nervous laugh. "Wizards? Puh-lease. They don't exist." She seemed like she was trying to convince herself more than them.

Honestly, after what he had seen, Nico didn't find that so hard to believe.

"Oh, believe me. They do."

The girl seemed to find her voice then. "Well, we told you what you wanted to know. Now tell us, who are you?" he voice was quavering slightly.

The trio exchanged looks. Annabeth's eyes suddenly lit up, and she replied, "Well, I'm Annie Bell." She smirked. Percy, seemingly getting the message, told them, "Uh, Perry Johansson." Nico tried hard not to laugh, at least until he realized it was his turn. He cleared his throat.

"Uh, Nick…Johansson," then he quickly added, "We're cousins."

They nodded slowly, before turning towards themselves, arguing quietly. They began whispering what Nico could only guess were spells, and the café rebuilt itself. They preformed some spell on the "Death Eaters" and Percy helped Freckles and the black-haired boy hoist the two into a booth, facing each other. When all that was done, the girl rounded on them, her wand pointed to them.

"I'm terribly sorry," she said, her voice shaking, "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to—"

"No," Percy's sword was now drawn, pointed at the girls neck. Nico didn't know what she was seeing, but it obviously wasn't good. She swallowed thickly, her eyes wide. The two boys started towards them, but Nico pulled out his sword, and they stumbled back.

"Well," she squeaked, "We'll be going then…." She grabbed he companions' hands and seemed to be concentrating, much like Nico did when he was about to shadow travel.

What Percy did next was probably the stupidest, most impulsive thing he had ever done, which was saying a lot. He grabbed Annabeth (who in turn grabbed Nico) and latched on to the girl's arm. They all disappeared with a loud crack.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! How'd I do? I kinda suck at fight scenes. Sorry.

I want you guy's advice on something: There's this horrid girl at my school who absolutely hates my guts. All she does is insult me, mess with me, and steal my stuff. She once told me she wanted me to be hit by a huge boulder and die. I've tried confronting her, be she just ignores me and continues. What should I do about her? Leave a review please!

Thanks for reading!

~The ULTIMATE Catchphrase