Chapter 10! Here you are! Thank you so much for all the reviews! Love you guys! I'm working on the Christmas-chapter here, you know, and it's a little… hard. Do you know how fucking hard it is to get the Christmas-feel in September?! Still love you!

Ron's POV:

"We are getting closer." I was sitting in the library with Harry, Hermione and Ginny, collecting and writing down odd things about our friends. Hermione were, as usual, leading the "meeting".

"Well, we may have more things about them," Harry said, "but I don't have a clue what's their secret." "Okay, can you take it all in order, one more time?" Ginny requested, sitting on Harry's lap. "Sure, sure."

Hermione went through the whole list; the powers, the strange things happening around them (I swear, I once saw the giant squid wave his tentacle!), the animagic, the prophecy and their parents. The rest of us nodded when she paused. "Okay, that was it," she ended with a sigh.

"Well, maybe we should try deciphering the prophecy?" Harry asked. "Maybe we can get some more information out of it." Hermione cleared her throat. "Okay:

The ancient people has come with the truth,

About the world and its mysterious youth.

Death shall once again wander this castle,

The encounter will not go hassle.

You shall walk down the path of secrets,

The end, is not weakness.

Anyone get anything out of that?"

We had a minute in silence, thinking. Then Ginny spoke up. "Aren't their family from Ancient Greece or something? Doesn't that make them ancient?" Alright, I hadn't thought about it that way. Hermione nodded, and wrote it down beside the mentioned line.

"Got any clues about what secret it is?" Harry encouraged her. She bit her lip and frowned. "Nooo… but the next line initiates that it is the truth about the world. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but…"

"And then," Hermione started. "Comes the dark part." Harry interrupted, and grinned at Hermione's "huff". "Yeah, well, "death shall once again wander this castle" is a little eerie;" I admitted, thinking about the line in my head. "I hope it doesn't mean another war, or that someone dies. Like, I hope it's written really cryptically." They once again nodded in agreement.

"And "the encounter will not go hassle" makes it all worse," Harry added. "Like… like... someone is going to-" the sentence ended with a sob. Ginny turned her head and kissed his lips, muttering something I couldn't hear. Harry nodded and wiped his eyes.

"The "you" in the fourth line must be "you" as in they," I said. "Since the prophecy was to them and all." "Yeah, and they are hiding something. Therefore the "path of secret"." Hermione concluded, still writing down what we had said. "But something about "the end is not weakness" seems off." I nodded. After a little more discussion and a hell lot more of nodding, we went back to our dorms

Next day, Thursday 23rd December, we once again sat in the library, talking even more about our friends. Hermione told us she had an idea, but refused to tell us. When I asked why, she answered while biting her lip:

"I don't know. It may be the only way, and it solves the "truth about the world"-thing, but it can't possibly be that. Also the strange things can be explained, and they powers, but it can't be that! The world can't be like that!" After that, she sighed, and didn't say anything more.

So now we were talking more about the prophecy, mostly the "death shall once again wander this castle"-problem. We were discussing that line as a voice sounded from behind the bookshelf. "Hey, Hermione! Harry! Ron! Ginny!" I recognized the voice as Piper's. We shared a look, and quickly took out some homework we were given (our excuse to use the library).

Piper's head popped up at the end of the row. "I knew it were you guys! Come on, Jason, Leo! Maybe they can help us!" I heard two pair of sighs as Piper started walking towards us, followed by her boyfriend and best friend. "Come on Pipes, can't we wait with doing those essays?" Leo complained. "Dream about it, Repair Boy," she answered.

"So, what do you need help with?" Hermione asked politely, her hands protectively on top of the bunch of papers in front of her. "Well, there's these charms here…"

"Have you written all that stuff?" Leo asked wide-eyed, staring at Hermione's papers. "Well, um… yes?" she answered nervously. Jason frowned. "Aren't that a little much for two essays?" "Hermione loves homework," I told them. "She always writes too much, although the teachers have never complained." I grinned to her, and she rolled her eyes.

"But, that looks like the start of an essay. Are all those papers underneath it only one?" Leo asked, suddenly standing behind Hermione. She quickly turned around, gripping her papers to her chest. "Yes. I find this charm very… exciting and… interesting," she said a little panicked. Leo grinned.

"I don't think so. Are you sure there aren't anything… of more… importance there?" he asked, just as I saw a glint in his eyes. It was... dark, and changing, like a flame. I shuddered. He leant closer to Hermione, reaching out for the papers. She was getting more and more panicked, clutching her papers tighter and tighter. She shook her head. "N-No, th-there aren't anything e-else here. J-Just the e-essay," she said, her voice shaking.

Suddenly Leo stood with all the papers in his hands. My jaw dropped. He moved so fast, I couldn't see him. It looked like that was the case with Hermione too. She glanced between Leo's face, the papers in his hand, and her own hands. Then she reacted.

"Give them back!" she screamed, her hands reaching out for them. Leo grinned wider, the glint burning in his eyes as he jumped two steps backwards. "If you want them, come and get them!" he laughed and threw them towards Jason, who stood on the other side of the table, behind Piper. Oh my. The papers would scatter all around the floor, and it would take hours to organize them like Hermione wanted. Just as they reached the table, where Harry pulled out his wand to levitate them, something strange happened.

Suddenly they stopped in mid-air, moving like a wave. Then they flew, controlled, to Jason, who had his hand stretched out towards them. His normally blue-like-a-sunny-day-sky-eyes were darker, like the sky when a storm where coming. When he glanced towards me, I felt as though I had been struck by lightning.

The papers organized themselves in front of him, guided by his fingers. Piper laid her chin on his shoulder as she read them. She whistled. "That's a lot of information, that's for sure!" she said, sarcastically enthusiastic. "Well done!" Jason laughed, and lifted his hand. The papers flew upwards, and were placed in a line about two meters above their heads. As he did I felt a wind blowing through my hair, and realized he was using the air to levitate them. "Such important information should be destroyed," Jason said. "I know, I know!" Leo agreed. "I'll do it!"

"No!" Hermione leapt out of her chair, jumping up in the air trying to grab them. "No!" "I'm sorry, 'Mione." Piper said, her elbow on Jason shoulder. She was glaring at us in order. "You were getting too close. We can't have that."

"Okay, okay! Make place for the one and only, Leo Valdez!" Leo shouted, and made finger guns with both hands. "I will give you a show you'll never forget!"

He aimed for the papers with both hands, closing one eye. "Ka-posch!" A flaming ball shoot out of the two fingers on his right hand, and hit the paper hovering to the right. It burst into flames, falling down in ashes. "Ka-posch!" The one to the left were hit. "Ka-posch!"

Piper were laughing, her eyes had changed just like the boys'. They now were a mixture of black, brown and dark blue and green. As Leo shoot one after taking a pirouette, I realized.

He was shooting fire. From his hand. And his wand was nowhere to be seen. I stared at his two fingers as the fire erupted from his skin, before forming into a ball and leaving him.

Hermione were standing there, shocked. Her precious notes from half a year were flying around her in ashes, completely destroyed for all time. A flake of ash landed on her head, coloring her hair black. A tear fell to the floor.

I pulled her down to my lap, patting her back and whispering soothing words in her hair. But she seemed immune to me as she watched them burn her work. Everything was silent. Then Piper walked over to us.

She walked the way I never thought I would see Piper walk, like a real model. She looked like a top-model walking on the catwalk for the millionth time, swaying her hips the perfect way, not too much. She bent down until she stared Hermione in the eyes, while placing one hand under my girlfriend's chin and lifting her face upwards.

"You know, 'Mione, you know too much. Wouldn't it be better if all the information just… disappeared?" Piper suggested, her eyes changing into an even darker shade of all the colors.

"Just forget it. Forget it all, Hermione Granger." Piper's voice rung in my head, forcing my brain to forget. But something was wrong. The message wasn't for me. Hermione's eyes went blank, and her head dropped down to her chest. Piper's eyes fixed on Harry and Ginny in turn, their faces pale with fear.

"You two lovey-doves too," she purred, "forget it all. You know nothing about our secret." Their eyes went blank, and their heads dropped like Hermione's. Ginny fell to the floor. Then Piper turned to me, and smiled.

"And you, Ronald Weasley." I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat, and looked away from her eyes. "Do not worry. No one will believe you after all, would they? You have so often been the weakest one. You may keep your precious memories." I heard the laughter in her words, mocking me.

"But you can sleep with your girlfriend. Sleep tight, Ron. And have a Merry Christmas." And just before everything went black, I felt Hermione sliding down from my lap, her hand still clutching mine in her sleep.

Percy's POV:

I woke up in the middle of night, wondering what woke me up. I heard Jason's heavy breathing besides me, and two-three others around the room. But that wasn't how it used to be. Where was Ron's snoring? And the curtains around Harry's bed weren't drawn shut, signalizing he weren't in bed either.

Knock, knock.

So that's what woke me! I jumped out of bed, clutching Riptide in one hand, still capped.

Knock, knock, knock.

My heart pounded a little faster. The sound came from one of the windows, the one between Harry's and Ron's bed.

Something scratched against the window, and a soft "toot" sounded from outside it.

I came closer to the window, and saw… Annabeth sitting there. Or not exactly like Annabeth were witting there, crouched on the edge. But Annabeth, as in Annabeth The Owl, were sitting there, giving me a furious look. I laughed as I put Riptide back in my pocket and opened the window.

She flew straight at my face, and clawed at my face. I put my hands around her, calming her down, until she turned back to human. She sighed. "You know how freaking cold it is out there? I'm not a Snow owl, you know. Just an Eagle owl." "Well, maybe putting on some more clothes could help," I suggested. She huffed, but nodded. She was wearing a grey t-shirt with matching pajamas-pants, and a big owl was glaring at me from her belly.

"So, why did you come?" I asked her, as I guided her towards my bed. Neville muttered something in his sleep, and Annabeth put a finger over her lips. We sat down on my bed, and I drew the curtains shut. Annabeth laid her head on my shoulder, and let out a shaking breath. "I had a nightmare."

That sentence alone made me worried. I held her tightly to my chest, and kissed her lips softly. "It's okay," I said. She nodded, but she was biting her lip as she did when she refused to cry. Annabeth had a philosophy that only the weak ones cried, and therefore she wouldn't. She hated being considered weak. And stupid. And blonde, even though that was her hair color.

"I… I… Oh, Percy!" she sobbed, failing in holding back her tears. She burrowed her head in my t-shirt, her shoulders shaking. "Shhh… It's alright, Annabeth. We're safe, and we're not going back there." I tried my best to comfort her, kissing her forehead and rubbing her back.

Her sobbing calmed down, and she took a last shaking breath. She lifted her head, her eyes red after crying. She was still beautiful to me, though. She opened her mouth, but closed it again. Open, close. She looked hesitantly. "Shh, it's okay. You don't have to tell me." I kissed her mouth shut. "Get a good night sleep, and everything will be fine. You can sleep here with me, okay?"

She nodded, and scurried herself under my blanket. I laid down beside her, my arm around her shoulders, and she placed her head on my breast. She took a shaking, calming breath. "Merry Christmas, Wise Girl," I whispered while I stroke her hair. "Merry Christmas, Seaweed Brain," she answered, her lips curled into a small smile. I kissed the top of her head, and we went to sleep.