Chapter 7
Harry's POV
Piper's dagger fell to the floor and clattered ominously. The whole building was deadly silent. Students were shaking in shock and agony twisted Frank's face. Vanessa was unsteadily leaning against the wall, a blank look on her face. Her eyes registered nothing.
There was a stinging sensation on my cheek and I touched it gingerly. My fingers came away sticky with blood.
Percy strode over to Annabeth and wrapped his arms around her. He planted a quick kiss on her cheek and stroked her hair. Frank choked back a sob and Vanessa's eyes stayed that unnerving, blank, glassy look. They were suffering the most out of all the demigods; they had lost a major aspect of their lives.
"This won't do us any good," Jason rasped. "We have to take action. We have to rescue the people taken. We have to fight back."
"I agree," Piper spoke up. "We can't let these…Death Eaters get away with this. We just can't."
The teachers murmured in agreement, and Dumbledore shuffled forward to the demigods. Jason looked shell shocked, and Leo was miserably tapping his foot against the crumbled floor.
"You lost two of your number tonight," Dumbledore started. "And we will retrieve them, as well as the students that we have lost."
Percy nodded. "We'll do anything that we can."
Dumbledore turned back to the teachers.
"Help the students, repair the hall, and set up extra defenses, anything that you can do! The Death Eaters must not be able to get in again."
"Now," he said softly, turning to face the demigods again. " Follow me. Ron, Harry, Hermione, too. We have to talk."
I followed Dumbledore with the others as they dragged themselves behind him. Percy and Jason looked completely exhausted, which did make sense. They had just produced a miniature hurricane, zapped at least a quarter of all the Death Eaters, and defeated about half of what was left. And they had lost two of their friends.
"How did those Death Eaters get in?" Hermione whispered in my ear. "And why were they trying to capture people. Why didn't they just kill them?"
"I don't know, Hermione," I whispered back. "Who knows? We have to get them back, though."
Dumbledore led us through the hall that led us to his office. He raised his arms.
"Acid Pops," he said plainly. Leo looked confused.
"Excuse me grandfather," he interrupted. "But do you have a healthcare plan? Acid can be rather nasty."
Calypso stamped on his foot, and Leo fell silent.
"I guess not," he muttered under his breath.
I stayed close behind Dumbledore along with Hermione and Ron. The demigods still had their weapons out, and it didn't look exactly good for me if they decided to run me through with it. The cut on my cheek still stung like crazy, and that pain would be a hundred times worse if anyone tried to stab me like the demigods did with some of those demigods.
Percy's POV
I couldn't believe it. We'd failed. We'd succeeded in defending Harry from capture, but the price was too high. Nico and Hazel were gone. And there was so much we didn't even know. Why had the Death Eaters targeted them in the first place? It was like they were two of the designated targets. Where had they taken them? Frank and Vanessa were taking it way too hard on themselves for that.
I looked over at the two, suffering people, my arm sill on Annabeth's shoulder. Frank looked exhausted, and just what he had been like on our first quest, the one to Alaska, fearful, scared to let anyone down. And now, he felt like he really had.
Vanessa was walking robotically, her glazed eyes staring point blank ahead. They were sad and empty, and her once lustrous hair was dull and limp, reflecting her mood perfectly.
"I've led them into this," I whispered bitterly into Annabeth's ear. "I was supposed to be the leader. But I'm not. I've failed at protecting them."
Annabeth looked at me, surprise reflecting in her gray eyes.
"Percy, you haven't," she whispered. "There were just too many of the enemy. This couldn't have been changed. We'll get Nico and Hazel back. Promise."
I didn't tell her, but there was doubt throbbing at the bottom of my stomach.
"Sit down," Dumbledore announced wearily. "We need to talk. Harry, Ron, Hermione, there's a lot of things that we need you to know."
I glanced wildly at the others. Dumbledore was going to let it all loose. The wizards were going to know everything. Our home, the wars that we'd fought…Chiron's words to us on this mission. The reason why we came.
I sat down in the proffered red velvet chair. The room had definitely been accommodated for all the people present before the attack. Two chairs remained empty.
The "Golden Trio" looked pale and ashen, as if they were still in shock over what had happened. And they probably were. Frank's grief was starting to turn into a want for revenge, and I could see him practically heaving with the effort to not run out and try to get Hazel back. Vanessa still looked blank and lost from a distance, but her eyes had taken on a steely glint.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, pretty load for the old gheezer.
"Percy, can you please start? These people need to know."
I fished out a golden drachma from my pocket with sweating hands and jutted my palm to the ceiling. A gentle, mist-like spray streamed out and I tossed the coin in.
"Show me Chiron, trainer at Camp Half-Blood." My voice shook, and Annabeth patted my leg underneath the table with her hand. The vapor vortexed and glimmered until I could make out Chiron's bearded face.
"Chiron," I spoke up. The centaur looked up from the task of trying to convince a young Hermes camper that trying to put spiders in Mr. D's diet Coke was just a very thoughtful way to get fried.
"Percy? Is something up? What's happened?"
His eyes scanned us, looking for anything that could tell him about our storm-cloud mood. His eyes narrowed.
"Where is Hazel? Is she-where's Nico?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Everybody was staring at me, so I shut my mouth after trying to speak but only producing a few embarrassing squeaks that would've made Festus proud.
"Gone. They're both gone," Annabeth said quietly, staring at the floor. "There was an attack by the enemy. They took Nico and Hazel."
Chiron's face went totally ashen. In the background, Mr. D yawned at popped another Diet Coke. He seemed to have already finished the spider infested one and hadn't noticed. So much for some extra help from him.
I nervously cleared my throat.
"Well, anyways, we have to spill now. Like, spill, spill. Like, spill, spill, spill. Like –"
"Chiron, we need to tell the wizards the truth. Like now." Annabeth interrupted, kicking me under the table. I shut it.
Chiron bit his lip, and I could practically see the squeaky cogs in his head turning and…whatever else was in there. Harry and his friends looked totally weirded out, and I couldn't blame them. Ron's eyes were the size of hard-boiled eggs.
"The demigods came here for a reason," Chiron started slowly. The image wavered, and Hazel through an entire gold bar in. The image stretched wider, and glowed brighter.
"Dumbledore came to me with his…problem," Chiron explained. "The wizards cannot stand on their own in this war on their own. They would fail, even with the Boy-Who-Lived and Squirrel Head and Carrot Top."
Ron's eyes shrank down to their normal size.
"Dumbledore asked me to send some of my best warriors, the most powerful demigods." Chiron turned the angle of the image a little to face Harry and his friends completely.
"I understand that you think you can win on your own," He said gently. "But so far, that is not the case. The demigods are here to aid you in this phase of your war. Without them, you will fail. However, today, 2 of them were captured while protecting you. Your world will fall unless you get them back. Dumbledore here informed me that what Voldemort seeks is eternal life. And if Nico is left in his hands, he can be very dangerous indeed. You need a quest, both wizards and demigods side by side in battle."
The whole room fell silent, broken occasionally by Fawkes the phoenix, cooing softly as he preened his feathers.
Chiron turned back toward the rolling hills of Camp Half-Blood.
"I have to go now," he said softly. Good luck. And you must get Nico and hazel back. They are essential." He slashed a hand through the Iris message, and he was gone.
