2

Leo

It was a few days after they left the US, and Leo missed the States more and more. Almost immediately after the Argo ll got on the Atlantic Sea, it started storming. Like, a storm so bad an ordinary ship would be ripped to pieces. This ship wasn't exactly ordinary, but not immune to the storm either. The ballista's were already done for. The oars too.

Everyone on board was doing his best to keep the ship in one piece. Jason was hovering around the sails, trying to hoist the sails together with Piper and Frank, but with no luck. Hazel tried to keep coach Hedge from doing anything stupid (you never know). Annabeth was helping Leo steer the ship. Percy managed to make the waves a little less high and wild, but it didn't matter.

Leo frantically tried to find a solution. If he remembered well, Great Britain was near, so he could try to get there. He would think about a place to moor later. "Annabeth!" he yelled over the storm. "Help me get this thing to Britain!" Annabeth heard him and began steering and giving even more orders to the others while Leo quickly explained to Festus what to do, since he knew the dragon best. Then he ran back to the helm and steered southeast. "Either this works or it doesn't work." he said through gritted teeth. The ship flew up and headed into the stormy clouds.

Leo had no clue about how long they were flying before he saw something that looked like the dark outlines of a shore. Yeah! he thought, we might actually make it! That's when it started going wrong. Just when he was about to go straight down, the engines exploded. Everyone was thrown to the front of the ship as a huge fireball destroyed the back of it. The explosion also pushed the ship forward. They were now way too far inland to land safely.

Leo ran forward and yelled to Annabeth: "The engines were overloaded! But get this thing on the ground! I'll take care of the flames!" He stopped right before the open end the explosion had made of the back. Leo was bummed out. He'd spent months on building this ship, only to use it for two weeks. And he couldn't get Festus a new body, as the dragon would go down with the ship.

Speaking of going down…

The ship suddenly rocketed down with huge speed. Leo barely had time to grab hold before he was thrown off the ship. He barely managed to pull himself back on board. Then he yelled: "ANNABETH! What are you doing? I almost got a free ticket to Hades!" Annabeth didn't turn to look at him, but yelled back: "Sorry! But I can't control the Argo anymore! We need to evacuate!"

"Too late for that!" Hazel screamed. She pointed over the side of the ship. Leo looked. Things which seemed to be trees were getting bigger and bigger as the burning ship shot towards them. Leo just managed to shout: "Take cover!" before the Argo ll hit the ground. The blow was too much for Leo and everything went black.

3

Harry

Harry and Ron were sitting in the Gryffindor common room, talking and laughing about that day's Potions lesson, in which Snape got told off by Umbridge for not having cleaned up the students' mess. Though they didn't like Snape, they wouldn't have missed this for the world. Hermione was urging the boys to start on their homework, when they heard a loud BOOM!

"What was THAT?" said Ron, startled.

"I don't know. Maybe it was something outside." Harry said. He pointed to the nearest window. "Let's take a look."

They all walked to the window. They leaned forward and gazed upon the fields. Harry gasped when he saw what caused the boom. Then was a huge sea of fire in the Forbidden Forest! It was storming very hard, but the fire kept burning. If the rain stopped, the fire wouldn't be contained anymore and could maybe reach Hogwarts!

Harry turned to the others. He said: "I think we should do something." Ron and Hermione nodded. Harry thought and said: "Hermione, you get Dumbledore. Ron, you're coming with me. We'll see if there's anything that needs to be done now. Let's go!"

They ran to the exit of the common room, and split up when they got out. Harry and Ron ran as quickly as they could through the many halls, which were filling themselves with curious students. Harry burned with curiosity, too, as he didn't have a clue where the fire suddenly came from. But he would have to ignore it for now, and extinguish the fire. Well, he could try to.

At last they reached the edge of the Forest. They found their way through it (which wasn't hard, with the light of the fire guiding them) and found the source of the blaze. There was a huge ship, which seemed to have crashed, burning away. Around it lay bodies. Harry looked at Ron. Ron was gazing at the fire in amazement. Harry waved his hand in front of Ron's face to get his attention: "Ron! This fire is too huge to extinguish on our own. See those people laying around? Help me get them to safety!" Ron blinked first, and then nodded.

Harry ran to the nearest body. It was a girl, with brown hair and tanned skin and ripped clothes. She had a nasty bruise on her forehead and was unconscious. Harry pulled out his wand and tried to use Wingardium Leviosa to move her further away from the ship. He barely managed it, she was heavy. Ron seemed to be having a bigger problem with a chubby Chinese-looking boy. His wand arm trembled with the weight of the guy. Harry ran over and helped him get the boy out.

They'd moved already three more kids when Dumbledore, Hermione and the professors came. Immediately students crowded around them, screaming and asking why there was a huge burning ship in the Forest. While the professors hushed them, Dumbledore waded through the mass to inspect the burning ship. Harry and Ron got to him as quickly as they could, and told about the kids scattered around the site of the fire. Dumbledore stroked his beard and said: "Ah, so those are the ship's crew. Well done boys, getting them to safety. I'll let Nurse Wainscott take care of them. Are there more needing help?"

Harry shrugged. He had a feeling there were more people, and hoped they weren't on the burning ship.

"Um, it's great you're letting Nurse Wainscott take care of those kids," said Ron, "but shouldn't you extinguish the fire first? I don't think this rain is going to restrain it much longer." and he pointed to the fire, which was spreading slowly but surely.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Of course, mister Weasley." He turned to the professors, who finally managed to escape from the mass of students. "Professor Flitwick, professor McGonagall and professor Snape, would you please assist me extinguishing the fire? I think us three must be enough to do so." Flitwick and McGonagall nodded. Snape muttered something that may have meant 'alright' . Dumbledore turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione, who was standing nearby. "But we could always use more help." He said with a wink and together with Dumbledore and the professors, Harry and his friends got as close to the blaze as possible and cast Aqua Eructo.

It took a while to extinguish the fire, but at last the last flame flickered and went out. Everyone had been watching worriedly, so when it finally got dark again, a big sigh was heard. The students began to leave, but Hermione folded her arms and said to Harry: "So, did you save part of the crew? Where are they?" Ron pointed to a spot just a few meters away from them, near a little group of trees standing closely together. Dumbledore already stood there, inspecting the unconscious kids and the teachers were searching for more possible survivors. Hermione and Ron were tired and went back to the castle to sleep. Harry wanted to help the teachers, but everyone urged him to go to sleep, since it was late already and tomorrow would be just another school day. So Harry went reluctantly back to the castle.

When he entered the sleeping chambers, nobody was actually sleeping. Everyone was talking about who these kids could be (the fact had spread in no time), where the ship came from etcetera. Many other theories kept popping up during the night, but none of them was the answer to the mystery. But Harry decided to ignore it and go to sleep. But he too couldn't ignore the weird things that had happened that night.