Thank you for the reviews! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

To Brass Sparrow: well, Divination and DADA might not be what you imagined, but I promise it'll still be interesting. Shame only Will and Thalia showed interest in the subject... then again, demigods can practically predict the future just by going up to Rachel. :)

Guest ~ I can try, certainly, since it is the holidays and everything. No promises yet, but I might be able to send up another chapter sometime around New Years'. Although, when school restarts it would be back to one-chapter-a-week.

Other Guest ~ Tyson and Grover? An interesting possibility. 'Nuff said.

The Son of Hades123: Thank you! As for your questions: yes, Nico will be gay, no I won't be pairing him up with anyone. Mainly because if RR does pair Nico up with someone in BoO, it would be so awkward for this story! But beyond that, I have no idea who or even how to pair Nico up with anybody, he's just so... unique and the special person would, well, have to be really special to be able to capture Nico's attention. (We all already know Percy is special, so, yeah.)

seaweedgirl1607: Hmm, a good suggestion. However, it has been a year, so I'm not quite sure how it would fit. Also, their dorms are pretty far away from the rest of the students, so how would they hear screaming? Not to mention McGonagall probably silenced their rooms, and, well, if they did start screaming every night the other demigods would never be able to get even a wink. But maybe I could slip it in somewhere. Fight with Voldy... would he really use a dagger when he has magic? Then again, he probably would know demigods are magic-resistant... although he probably wouldn't believe it. Maybe, but perhaps it could be a Death Eater raid instead? Just some thoughts.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise... :(

Chapter Fourteen

Thalia

The minute I stepped into the Divination class, I knew it wasn't going to be fun.

The room absolutely stank of incense and spices, as if someone had turned one of those fortune-telling people's tents into a classroom. Wisps of vapor drifted through the spiced air. The single window in the tower was firmly locked shut.

I really started regretting my decision as I sat down on a puffy cushion.

Movement in the corner; I half-turned to see a woman draped in shawls, with round glasses that made her look like a deformed bug, appear from the mist.

"Good day, class," she began in a light, ethereal kind of voice that made me want to bang my head repeatedly against the table. "I am delighted to see you here, safe and well – as, of course, I knew you would. As you know, this is your OWL year, and at the end of this year, you will be taking an exam on this topic… This term, we will start on Dream Interpretation." I silently snorted at that. Dream interpretation? Demigods didn't need dream interpretation. The easiest way to conclude what a demigod dream was telling you was, 'There's gonna be big trouble coming up your way, so watch out!'

"Turn, please, to page fourteen of The Dream Oracle, by Inigo Imago, in front of you. Divide into pairs, and attempt to divine the future through your dreams. I understand that there are two new students today, they will pair with each other."

I shared a dubious look with Will and glanced around the room. The two Gryffindor girls, Brown and Patil, were already talking about their dreams. Potter had a long-suffering expression on his face as he turned to Weasley. Neville and his partner, Dean Thomas, weren't even trying; in fact, Thomas was levitating a teacup as he flicked through the book, and Neville was already half-asleep. I suppressed a laugh.

"Divine the future through your dreams, huh?" muttered Will as he began flicking through The Dream Oracle. "That's easy. I don't even have to try to interpret my dreams. They always show some kind of disaster happening."

"Uh-huh," I said, turning back to the table. "Do you want to start, or will I?"

"You can be the dreamer," said Will, already sounding bored. "I'll interpret."

I thought back to the latest dream I could remember – last night's. "Okay, in my dream there was a centaur and a toad. The toad was yelling at the centaur in Toad-speak. Then the centaur stepped on the toad."

Will made a muffled noise as he tried to disguise his laughter. "Right. Oh, here we go… The Centaur represents unity between animal and human, and is a symbol of wizarding wisdom. It is also a control symbol for the element of Earth, secondary to the Bear and the Unicorn, also a control for Air. The Centaur predicts truly. It is a mark that the skies will determine your fate."

I considered it. "Fair enough. Well, Zeus is the Lord of the Skies anyway."

"Hmm. The toad… The Toad is a symbol for the element of Water, and often means that something is sliding away from your grasp. As toad parts are used in Potions the Toad is often displayed in a budding potioneer's dreams, but it can also mean great sacrifice is required."

"Let's not have sacrifice."

Will snapped the book shut. "What this book is basically saying is that you're wise, the sky is your fate and you may be a part of a great sacrifice. What a bunch of gibberish. I've got a much better version."

"Do tell," I said dryly.

He smirked. "The Umbridge woman, who's probably part toad anyway, will be involved in some sort of discussion with a centaur. She'll do something really stupid. Then the centaur will knock her unconscious or leave a lasting imprint on her memory."

"Sounds good to me. Do we have to swap roles now?"

"I guess so." Will didn't seem particularly happy about it. "So, last night… I dreamed there was an enormous hamburger rampaging through New York. It stopped at the boundaries of Camp Half-Blood, and then we feasted for days on hamburger." I stared incredulously at him.

"You dreamed of a rampaging hamburger?"

He scowled. "Hey, I'm a growing teenager. I need my food."

"You're almost seventeen, if I have to remind you on that. And I'm not even going to bother looking through the book for that," I added. "It's obvious what your dream means. You need to get checked by Mr. D."

"Gee, Thalia, thanks," he grumbled.

I glanced around the class again. Potter was attempting to interpret Weasley's dream, Thomas was all but asleep, Neville was writing something down – with a quill, seriously, had the Wizarding World heard of pens? – and Brown and Patil were still deep in discussion. I shook my head to get rid of the dazed, empty feeling in my mind.

Abruptly, a thought occurred to me, and I frowned. Was it possible? Her first name, Sybil… which was also the name, if I recalled correctly, of the priestess who had written down the Sibylline Books. Maybe, if her ancestors were who I was imagining, maybe, just maybe, Trelawney did have the talent.

"Professor," I said clearly, instantly gaining the attention of everyone in the room, "if I may, who was your matrilineal ancestor?"

Trelawney looked confused. "My matrilineal ancestor? I fail to see how this could be important, Miss Grace."

I fought down the urge to attack her for using my surname and focused on calming down. Will, however, seemed to have had almost the exact same thought as me, because he took over.

"Please, Professor, it could be very important."

She gave us a skeptical look. "Very well. I believe it would be… hmm, it would be Cassandra. Back in her time, there were no surnames, so that is all I can give you." My eyes widened.

"Professor, where did she live? Was it around the Mediterranean?" I asked, desperate for the answer.

"I believe the land was called Maeonia, back then… now, if we would get back to the topic? This is your future, after all." She refused to say anything else after that.

I grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, hastily drawing an image of Greece and the surrounding lands. One of the benefits of a Hunter was being able to visualize maps at will. Ancient maps were harder, but still doable. I shoved the drawing at Will.

"Here's Athens," I said, marking the spot with a star. "This state is Sparta. This one, Delphi. Crete. Rhodes. Olympia. Macedonia. And here, this is Mount Olympus, in Thessaly." I marked down another star.

"Those are the states I can remember. Now, out of Greece," I drew a squiggly line to mark a border, "this patch of land used to be Maeonia."

"Where Damasen lived," recalled Will.

I nodded. "And here is Troy. Ilium." I marked it with an eight-pointed star.

Will examined the map. "Ilium is in Maeonia?" he asked.

"More or less," I answered. "Maeonia is north-west Turkey, plus a bit of other Asia Minor countries. Troy is in north-west Turkey, so, yeah."

"Cassandra," murmured Will. "Daughter of Priam. But she was killed in Mycenae."

Neville left Thomas, who was by now soundly asleep, and dragged his cushion over to our table. "Maybe not. Aeschylus' Agamemnon – and the Iliad and the Odyssey- could be wrong."

"Aeschylus and Homer were sons of Athena," I reminded him. "They're not likely to say anything that's false. You know how Cabin Six is with information."

"True enough," Neville agreed. "But Aeschylus and Homer were demigods. If the gods wanted them to say something that wasn't true, they probably would have, even if they didn't want to. After all, they're more bound than any to Olympus, aren't they?"

"There are spots in both the Iliad and the Odyssey that I have trouble accepting," I admitted. "One of many being that the gods were able to have a council meeting without screaming, yelling and ranting. Another being that Hades would be afraid of Poseidon."

"And there is, like, way too much flattery in there," added Will. "I mean, I don't mind flattery, but I don't need reminding every few sentences that my father is the 'golden-haired son of Leto and great Zeus'!"

"Or," I put in, "maybe the works aren't intentionally false. Maybe the gods glossed some places over with Mist, so that, instead of, say, Cassandra living somewhere safe, she was put down as killed by Clytemnestra."

The bell rang at that moment, and I quickly packed up. "We can discuss this later tonight. What do we have next?"

"DADA," answered Neville. "With Umbridge."

We headed down the silver ladder

~OoOoOo~

I skidded to a stop outside of the DADA classroom, where students were filing in. Apparently, I was none too early. The classroom was almost full, and most people had already chosen seats. I sat down at a table located in between Percy, who was completely distracted because he was making out with Annabeth, who had temporarily left her table, and Nico, who was watching the couple with a dark expression on his face. I couldn't blame him; really, it could be quite sickening sometimes watching them.

I briefly pondered what I had learned in Divination. "Trelawney is descended from Cassandra, who was supposed to have been killed by Clytemnestra. That's how the ancient text goes. But what if it's wrong?" I murmured. "It's possible that Homer and Aeschylus were influenced by the gods to not speak the perfect truth, but truth with some veiled lies. It's hardly as if people would have cared; they were speaking with a demigod, someone much closer to the gods than they were, so they probably believed everything he said. And for the most part, it was true. Of course, the other possibility is that Homer and Aeschylus had had some of their inspiration Mist-modified, so, even though, for instance, Cassandra living on was truth, they truly believed Clytemnestra had killed her."

I shook my head. This was giving me a headache. It was supposed to be Annabeth and Malcolm, Luna and Draco's area of expertise, not mine. Gods this mess was frustrating. I was tempted to shock the table. It was wood, after all, so it shouldn't be that bad.

At that moment, Umbridge came in, and I had to stifle the urge to either yawn or shock my table into oblivion. After all, it was probably a bad idea to do so in front of a 'teacher'.

"Well, good afternoon," she began in a sickly sweet voice that made me want to gag. When we said nothing, she tutted. Tutted. Like some old granny! Well, maybe not the Gaia kind of granny, but still, like an old lady.

"Now that won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply, 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," chanted the class. I kept my mouth shut. Nico did the exact same, glaring daggers at the professor. In fact, he looked as if he wanted to send her to Tartarus right there and then. Maybe it was the pink…? I'd never seen Nico look like that. Then again, we didn't exactly know each other very well, the first time I'd met him was as a hyper ten-year-old obsessed with Mythomagic. Then, the Sword of Hades quest. After that – nada. Not until this 'mission'.

The toad glanced at us with an expression of distaste. Holy Artemis, I really hoped that my centaur-crushing-a-toad dream would come true soon. I glared right back at her. She might think she was scary, but really, she had nothing against even a baby dracaena. Toad quickly glanced away, and I smirked.

"There, now," she said in a falsely sweet tone. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and books out, please."

Students grumbled and groaned as they put away their wands and dragged out their books. I didn't even bother reaching for mine, preferring to watch instead as the words Defensive Magical Theory; A Return to Basic Principles appeared on the board.

At that point, I took out my book, opening it to a random page and staring at the text as my mind whirled back to Cassandra. If the ancient texts had been Mist-ified, then, well, there must have been something the gods wanted to hide from ancient Grecian knowledge. Why Cassandra? She must have survived for descendants to exist, and I was absolutely certain Trelawney was her descendant. Was it because she was supposed to have been the third or even second-most beautiful woman in the world, after fair Helen of Troy? Who was the father? There were so many questions spinning about in my mind that I could feel the headache coming back.

I took out a piece of parchment and started doodling on it, thinking. Was doodling a branch of Divination? Could it be used to answer my questions? If everything had been Mist-ified regarding the Agamemnon incident, then had Clytemnestra even had a secret lover? Now that I knew something was off about the ancient texts… well, I also realized that there could be a lot of things that were false.

I just hoped it was a minor-ish ripple, and not a big one. Like, instead of Cassandra being killed by Clytemnestra, she was spirited away or something. It was certainly better than there being no Aegisthus and Agamemnon surviving, because then it would be way too confusing.

Umbridge said something in her sickly-sweet voice, dragging me out of my thoughts. "-attack children such as yourselves?"

I almost laughed at that. Plenty of things wanted to attack 'children', monsters and crazy relatives being on top of that list. Wait, if Kronos was my grandfather, then would Porphyrion be a grand-uncle? Gods.

Potter, though, didn't say any of those; instead, mock-thoughtfully, he answered, "Hmmm…let's think. Maybe… Lord Voldemort?"

Not quite the example I'd have used, but still pretty good for effects. Weasley gasped, Brown screamed, and Dean Thomas slipped. How one could do that when they were sitting on a chair was beyond me. Umbridge, interestingly enough, didn't scream or flinch. Instead, she said, "Ten points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."

"Twenty points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter," I countered from behind my book. "For talking back to the Toad."

I knew I could be jeopardizing our plan, but right then I didn't really care. Several demigods gave me a grin or a thumbs-up. Annabeth sent me a scowl, but it was clear that she didn't really mind – and that she was quite pleased.

In a sickeningly sweet voice, Toad said, "Miss Grace, students are not permitted to give points."

A wave of anger rose within me. Trelawney saying my surname was fine, since I was trying to get information out of her. Toad, however, was not. I snapped Defensive Magical Theory shut.

"Let me make this very clear to you, Professor," I began in a voice I normally reserved for my cousins and Jason. "My name is Thalia. No Grace. If you call me that, then I am afraid there will be repercussions."

"Are you threatening a teacher?" blustered Umbridge, but I could tell I had gotten to her from her paling complexion.

I continued as if she hadn't spoken at all. "If you have a good enough memory, then you would also know that I am a teacher for Physical Combat and Defense. Therefore, I am perfectly qualified to give or take points. I would also like to remind you also that both teachers and students are entitled to lodge complaints against fellow teachers to the Ministry, or, if said Ministry is so corrupted by bribery, idiocy and old-world policies, to the EWEA, which regulates European schools of magic and can fire teachers with or without the permission of the Headmaster."

Umbridge looked stunned for a minute, probably wondering how I knew all this. The fact is, though, that when you have a thirty-something hour flight with a bunch of Athena kids, you learn stuff. Like, a lot of stuff.

She swallowed and turned back to the rest of the class. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead–"

"Which, of course, isn't true," interjected Nico. "My father would definitely not allow someone like him to get out of the Underworld."

Umbridge looked smug. "Thank you for agreeing with me, Mr. di Angelo. Now, as I was saying–"

She was cut off by a furious Ron Weasley, who was glaring at Nico. "How dare you! I thought you were here to help in the war against You-Know-Who! On our side! But now I find out you're just some Ministry lackey!"

Nico raised a lazy eyebrow. "Did I say I supported a side? Or that I had even chosen a side?"

"Of course you did, you said You-Know-Who was dead!" Weasley looked almost apoplectic with rage.

I rolled my eyes. Boys. Such idiots. They were unable to see the truth in front of them even if it was an inch away from their eyes, and were so quick to draw conclusions. Still, this could be a good opportunity to demonstrate our 'Don't Care' attitude, especially since I had given those points to Potter.

"I don't believe my brother said Voldemort was dead," Hazel commented, her golden-eyed gaze flicking briefly to Weasley before they drifted away to look outside the window again. "He just said Voldemort wasn't back from the dead."

"What's the difference?" The smartest girl in Fifth Year, Hermione Granger, asked, a look of confusion on her face. I almost choked. If the smartest in Fifth Year couldn't figure out something so simple… gods help us. There was definitely no way I was going to even attempt to recruit anybody for the Hunters now. Not if they couldn't figure out such a simple thing. Even a mortal would be able to understand!

Malcolm sighed, glancing at Annabeth – who was clearly not interested, for once, in explaining. "Granger," he began, "would you say you are alive?"

She seemed affronted by the question. Neville's mouth twitched. "Of course!" she said indignantly.

"Have you ever died?" continued Malcolm.

"No," she said, glaring.

"Then," said Malcolm, "would you say that you are alive, but you never died?"

Granger's confusion levels were beginning to rise. "Yes."

"Well, then," said Malcolm. "Why don't you apply the same formula to Voldemort?"

Granger froze, looking like a deer in the headlights; Weasley stared in shock. Potter looked torn between laughing and looking indignant, probably because we were kind-of insulting his friends.

"Erm," Umbridge finally said. "If we could continue reading?"

This time, I didn't bother stifling my yawn. What was the point?

First off, before I'm swamped in flames from Greek myths experts, let me make this clear: I do not mean ANY disrespect towards the Iliad, or the Odyssey, or any other Ancient Greek texts. They are amazing texts and stories in their own right and I mean NO disrespect. This was done to add a kind of subplot, which will be unveiled much later in this fanfic and used to shoot down Toad even more. Zero. Disrespect. Meant. Understood? Thanks for understanding.

EWEA: European Wizarding Examinations Authority. If Britain has one, why not a bigger one for the entire of Europe?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and, please, R&R!

~Olympusseriesisawesome