And here is your promised chapter, delivered on Saturday 12th April AEST! There's not much action in this chapter, but there is a lot of planning and just chilling out after a monster attack (because demigods are just awesome like that) Now, where's my pantry? Out of stock? NOOOOOOO!

Responses:

~Everybody who hates Janus: Should we start a hater's club? I'm sure we can find lots of similarly-hating fans. We could have club badges, and ooh! Free cookies! (That'll definitely get people to join)

~NightShade7896: Thank you! Six and a half hours... wow. My mom would probably have made my ears bleed if I was on the computer for six and a half hours straight... :( As to your first point, well, it would certainly be interesting, but it would probably have to wait until BoO to, like, get *authenticity* Can you believe its only six months away? (Wait, no, that's half a year - NOOOO!)

~Id65: Term 1 is that lovely period in time where you go back to school after summer holidays. It is also that lovely period in time where the teachers bombard you with homework. *sigh*

~DreamingAboutLeoValdezForever: Well, I chose Hazel because, out of all the demigods, she's the only one who's actually died, right? So it makes the most sense for her to meet Janus and have that *lovely* chat about He-Who-Needs-Fresh-Clothing

Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure RR and JKR have long outgrown school, but if you really don't think so...

Chapter Twenty

Luna

After the 'fight' – more like a scuffle, actually – Annabeth decided to call a meeting. The question on her mind, of course, was 'What the Hades was that all about?' It was also the question on my mind; and, by the look of things, Draco and Malcolm were wondering the exact same thing.

Even though it was more than two months since I'd dropped 'Looney Luna', I still found myself feeling happy because I didn't have to talk about Wrackspurts and Heliopaths. Although, it had been slightly amusing, leading the students of Hogwarts on a baffling road. Now I wouldn't be able to use it as a confusion topic.

On a side note, the Great Hall was trashed. Monster dust had scattered across the entire floor, and the wall had a comical bulge from the katobleps that told us everything was wrong. The doors had been sent across half the room. Somehow one of the chandeliers had crashed, sending glass and crystal over the floor. It really was a scene of carnage.

Anyway, we quickly patched up the worst of the calamities. A fresh wind sent the monster dust back to where it belonged, and the glass was swept away on a small wave before being unceremoniously dumped outside on a lawn. Lou waved her hand and fixed the door. Then Annabeth dragged us all back to the dorms Dumbledore had set aside for us. Well, technically not me, Draco and Neville, but yeah.

Then our discussion began.

Annabeth opened the talk. "Does anyone have any clue what that attack, if we can class it as an attack, was about?"

To my surprise, Hazel answered. "Unfortunately."

We all turned. It had been rather surprising when Hazel out of all people had gotten hit by poison gas and then collapsed into Leo's arms. Of course there were no romantic intentions or anything, but it was still surprising. She seemed better now, though, after a square of ambrosia.

Hazel then proceeded to tell us all about her vision involving Janus. It didn't sound like a particularly nice vision. She described it as being 'uncomfortably close to Hecate.' I didn't know too much about the original Hecate incident, but I did know that Hazel had told Hecate that she was going to choose her own path. Which she had.

After she finished telling her not-so-nice vision, we all fell into silence, lost to our thoughts. This news had completely derailed our plans. And, judging by the look on Hazel's face, she knew it too. We all knew that this was getting complicated. It had turned from the simple Get-Rid-Of-Voldemort-By-Infiltration to Befriend-Harry-Potter-And-Get-Him-To-Do-The-Dirty-Work plan. Well, okay, maybe it wasn't quite like that.

But things had definitely gotten more complicated. Since we'd never expected such a serious derailment – sure, we had a Plan B and a Plan C and Plan D and Plan E, but none of them had been prepared for, quite literally, divine intervention – we didn't have anything to fall back on. We were wandering blind now, and until we fixed up another plan – which was going to be difficult – we had to be careful.

Draco definitely couldn't help in this scenario. It was well-known that Harry and Draco absolutely loathed each other. Well, at least Harry did. Draco… well, I'm not too sure. Maybe it was an act, maybe it wasn't. I was never the 'read-your-emotions' type of girl. That was Aphrodite's forte. Stereotypical? Yes. True? Also yes.

As for me… well, I was fairly unknown. As a person anyway – the entire school did know about my status as a demigod. It was amusing how perceptions had changed in the blink of an eye. It was certainly refreshing to be revered for being a demigod instead of being reviled. And while Harry and I might have a chance at friendship, the chances were pretty minimal. I did know Ginny Weasley, so possibly that was an outlet. But overall, I would be pretty useless in a 'Befriend Harry' scheme.

Neville would probably have the most luck out of the three of us 'Hogwartian' demigods. Maybe his friendship with Harry was salvageable. Maybe. Even so, there was nothing to say it would succeed. Or that Ron wouldn't be jealous. Ron was a nice guy, overall, but he did have sometimes exhibit extreme selfish tendencies. Like what happened at the Triwizard Tournament; although, he did get over it. After his best friend had nearly been killed by a dragon. I guessed we were just lucky that the dragon had been charmed and spelled so many times that it had forgotten it was supposed to attack that. The fact that most European dragons had forgotten what demigods smelled like was probably a bonus too.

Of course, the irrefutable fact remained that this quest-mission had changed drastically.

Finally, Draco spoke. "So, Hazel, what Janus basically said is that we have to become BFFs with Potter?" I noticed that there was a thin veneer of loathing in his voice. So maybe their hatred wasn't an act after all. Not that it particularly mattered, whether their hate was real or one-sided.

Hazel took a deep breath. "If you want to put it that way," she said. A nugget of gold popped out of the ground next to her, and she waved it away distractedly. "He didn't actually specify. All he said was that I'd picked the friendship route. It seemed kind of obvious that the route involved Potter."

"But he didn't specify," mused Piper. "I haven't met this two-headed guy before, but something tells me he did that on purpose. Janus is the god of doorways, right?"

"Technically, it's beginnings and transitions," said Frank from his spot by the window. "That includes doors, though. And passages, and endings, and gates."

Jason shrugged. "The old myths all mention that he could be considered a god of time, too. Although, I'm not sure how much of that is actually true, or if he can even control time. He definitely can't do it like Saturn."

"He can read minds, though," grumbled Hazel. "Not fair."

"Yeah, sure," said Piper. I could feel a faint trace of charmspeak permeating the air. "But why didn't he just go and say it straight out? How hard can it be for a god to say, 'Be friends with Potter'?"

"Unless he's just too lazy," offered Percy, causing Annabeth to snort.

"Percy, Janus might be scatterbrained and have split personalities – quite literally – but I doubt he's actually lazy," she said. "I agree with Piper. There must be some kind of underlying meaning."

"Or he's just being an asshole," Percy supplied.

"He's still a god, Percy," sighed Annabeth.

Before the situation could escalate, Katie broke in. "Okay, so there's some sort of motive for him not saying it straight out. Any ideas? No, that does not include him being, as Percy so kindly put it, an asshole."

Connor seemed to consider it. "He's a god," he finally said.

"That's not a good enough answer either," she snapped at him.

"Guys," Piper said quickly, charmspeak in the air again. "Cool down. We're getting nowhere, arguing like a bunch of idiots. We should think this rationally."

"I would think rationally if my brain wasn't shutting down from exhaustion," mumbled Travis.

Piper pulled out the cornucopia and shot a Starbucks at him. He grabbed it and downed it in one gulp. We stared.

How he could drink an entire Starbucks in one gulp was beyond me. Maybe it was a trait of Hermes or something.

Lou sighed and stood up. "We're not getting anywhere, just talking like this. I'm going to go back and clean up the Hall, maybe get a bit of fresh air. Anyone want to help?"

I jumped at the opportunity – the room was getting stifling, confusion heavy in the atmosphere. It was probably unlikely that it was like this all the time, but the monster attack, and Janus, and his weird useless directions were all getting on our nerves. It was a relief to slip outside, into the comparatively cooler air of Hogwarts.

The two of us wandered through the corridors, our path lit by a glowing ball of fire, courtesy of Lou. The torches of Hogwarts were all out, and faint beams of moonlight glowed in the classrooms. It was beautiful, in a creepy, surreal way.

"You know, Hogwarts is a nice place," Lou suddenly said. "The students might be a bit off-putting, but it's still a nice place. Although, it's at times like this that you can actually appreciate a bit of its beauty." She waved her hand at an empty classroom, moonbeams shining on the empty desks.

I nodded, glad to break the (somewhat uncomfortable) silence. "Yes, at night it is quite serene. It's a shame curfews stop students from seeing this."

Lou smiled. "And if there wasn't a curfew students would be up all night doing… questionable activities."

We both laughed at that. "True," I agreed, as we fell into a comfortable silence.

We must have walked past a dozen tapestries and classrooms before we arrived outside the Great Hall, Lou's flickering fireball casting a dim amber glow over the old walls. Even in the relative darkness, I could make out some shapes; a crashed chandelier, for one. The tables still lay haphazardly scattered around the room. Tomorrow would be a walking talking disaster, if we didn't fix it.

Lou waved her hand, and the fireball split, gently rotating until a few dozen fireballs, now burning sunshine yellow, floated in front of her. They quickly darted to differing corners of the Hall, lighting it up in muted shades of saffron.

I was glad for the darkness. For one, the destruction seemed to be less. And it hurt less, to look at the darkness rather than the light.

Lou sighed. "Better get started. Do you want to get started on the tables while I work on replacing the chandelier?"

I nodded, taking out my wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," I murmured, pointing it in the general direction of the table.

The dark shape lifted, a fireball highlighting it in the darkness. The red-and-gold-edged tablecloth showed that it was the Gryffindor one. Carefully, I guided it over to the farthest edge of the hall.

The fireball floated along the table's length, lighting it up as I inspected it for marks. There were a couple of food blemishes on the tablecloth, which I left for the elves – otherwise, there was nothing. So it had escaped relatively unscathed.

A soft golden hue suddenly spread across the hall, barely lighting it up; I glanced upwards to see one of the unscathed chandeliers gently flicker with its candles. The new source of light contributed to the unveiling of the Great Hall. As I looked around, I realized that it had been bad; but at the same time, it could have been a lot, lot worse.

I levitated the Hufflepuff table back to its rightful place; unlike its Gryffindor counterpart, this one had marks of battle. Quite literally – there was an arrow sticking out of the wood, as well as scorch marks on the cloths. I pulled out the arrow – it was a bronze one, so either Frank or Will – and dropped it on the floor, before lifting the tablecloth. Thankfully, the fire hadn't burned onto the table itself. I doubted a simple Reparo would be able to fix scorch marks.

The Ravenclaw one fared even worse, with half the tablecloth completely burned away. There were large claw marks gouged into the wood, as well as sword marks – evidently, someone's sword had crashed into the table. Frowning, I tentatively tried a Reparo.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. So I left it to Lou, who was by now reshaping the door frame back to its original, non-bulgy state.

The Slytherin table, on the other hand, had come out perfectly fine. There wasn't even one scratch mark on the polished wood. It was as if a god had decided to pick up the table and cart it away during the battle before returning it afterwards. In fact, the table seemed better than it was before the battle.

I shook my head in disbelief before levitating it back to its original place.

A crackle of sparks sounded from the entrance, and I turned to see a tiny flame burning softly on one of the pieces of wood. It wasn't a magical fire; the flame didn't burn with that sort of ethereal energy. Lou flicked her hand and doused it, leaving smoking wood behind. I frowned. Where had that come from?

Then I realized that, in fact, there was another table I had forgotten about. The staff table. I glanced around and groaned.

Out of all the tables, it was the staff table that had been practically splintered. Jagged pieces of wood littered the floor. Interestingly enough, the Headmaster's chair was perfectly intact.

Lou finished the doorframe and turned, blinking at the sight of wood fragments. "O-kay," she said slowly. "We could probably fix this, but I really don't want to spend the night piecing a table together."

I nodded. "We should probably just make a new one."

A Patronus shot from Lou's hand, streaking away before I could see its shape. "I'll ask Hazel to lift us some new stone. It'll be more durable; besides, what if another attack happens? Luna, do you mind clearing away the wood?"

I waved my wand and the wood fragments shot into a group fit for a bonfire. "Evanesco," I said. Sure, it wasn't fourth year magic, but that wasn't exactly something I cared about.

The wood vanished just as large lumps of silver, gold, steel, obsidian, granite and quartz appeared in its place. Each lump was more than big enough to make a table. Lou eyed it all quizzically.

"Luna, which do you think would be best suited for this place?"

I studied the stones, then the Hall. "Obsidian or steel, maybe," I said. "Definitely not gold or silver."

Lou nodded. "It wouldn't fit in with the décor already present… let's go with steel. I have a feeling most wizards won't know what it is. And… are the teacher's chairs still okay?"

Since I couldn't spot them anywhere in the Great Hall, I said, "Probably broken. Can't see them anywhere."

"So we'll have to make chairs as well… steel for the table, and quartz for the chairs?"

I imagined it in my head. "That does sound quite nice. Maybe the quartz could be in different colors."

"And we can use the gold and silver for the Headmaster's chair. It is slightly plain anyway."

We set to work. I decided to split the gold and silver lumps, turning them into light, thin shavings. Then I melted them with a superpowered Incendio. The molten metal gleamed in the firelight.

Meanwhile, Lou was using magic to shape the steel lump. Apparently she was going to use all of it. Slowly but surely, it began taking on the defined shape of a rectangle.

My own metal was now a thin sheet of liquid rotating in the air, supported by magic. I waved my wand, and it flew over to the Headmaster's chair. Carefully, I aligned it until it was perfect, before dropping the charm.

Cooling metal splashed into the grooves, trailing gold and silver in their wake. Quite soon, the Headmaster's chair was embroidered with a delicate pattern of gold and silver.

At the same time, Lou finished her own work. A solid steel table thumped into existence, followed by variously colored quartz chairs. Each was styled like its own royal throne, although they were shorter than the Headmaster's.

We both stepped back to admire our work. "I think we're done," said Lou.

"It looks great," I said.

Lou called a house elf to help with the tablecloths – Mipsy, I think she was called – before we both left to go back to our common room.

When we came in, to our surprise, there was no argument. In fact, most of us were sound asleep. The only ones who were awake were Annabeth, Piper and Hazel, who were discussing something quietly.

"Oh, hey guys," said Piper, stifling a yawn. "Welcome back. How bad was it?"

Lou's eyes gleamed. "We might have given it the staff table a bit of a makeover. And the house tables might have been a bit wrecked. I'm just glad I Vanished our table before the mess began."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "So we should expect gawking students tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, probably. Do we have a class to teach tomorrow?"

"No, but we have sixth years the day after tomorrow."

"Thank gods."

"While you were gone," added Hazel, "we came up with a possible reason of why Janus was so vague."

I leaned in. "I'm listening."

"We think it's because, well, just because Hazel picked it doesn't mean that it's set in stone. Yeah, I know the River Styx was mentioned. Still, we feel that Janus would have specified," said Piper.

Annabeth nodded. "So we came up with a new plan. Janus definitely implied that we'll need Harry's help, but I'm not too certain on that – and to be honest not quite so keen either. This way is easier."

"So what's Plan… F?" I asked.

"We don't rule out the possibility of infiltrating Voldy's ranks," answered Hazel. "But we don't rule out Harry either. Plan F is basically balancing on the fence, although it would be helpful to become friends with Harry."

"So, to sum up," said Lou. "We're still frustrated over Janus, but we think we may have deciphered a bit of his stupidly cryptic words and we decided to keep our options open while making friends with Harry Potter because we can use that relationship either way. Am I right?" Somehow she managed to make it sound not sarcastic, which was a pretty amazing feat.

Piper gave a dry smile. "Uh-huh. Anyway, I don't know about you, but I'm tired. All this thinking has worn me out. I'm going to go to my nice, soft bed, and set up exploding muffins in case someone tries to wake up. You guys okay with that?"

I snorted at the idea of exploding muffins – would they explode next morning in Leo's face, or in Jason's? Or would they explode earlier than that and catch Connor and Travis? It would certainly make for an interesting sight. "Can I order some, Piper?"

We all laughed, before Piper excused herself and left for the bedroom/dormitory. Hazel yawned. "I might follow her example. What about you guys?"

Lou's eyes fluttered shut before opening again and glancing at the floor, where most of the boys were sprawled. At least the girls had the sense to, like, go to bed. "You go on ahead, Hazel. I'll just send these idiots back to their beds. I really don't feel like listening to a whiny Connor in the morning because I left him on the floor."

"True enough," agreed Annabeth as she stood up. "We'll be waiting for you in the dorms, then." She yawned as well. "If we can stay up."

Lou snorted. "You go to sleep. I'll crash the second I get there anyways."

I nodded and followed my sister to the dorms, where extra beds were already waiting. I decided not to ask why. The bed was soft and comfortable, after all. In seconds I was asleep.

And I instantly dreamed.

So, Chapter Twenty from our favorite quirky character! I did try make her be more focused, but at the same time still dreamy and thoughtful... does that make any sense?

Sorry to everyone who wanted Percy or Nico as narrators, I'm trying to give all the demigods a voice here! Makes me feel appreciative for HoH now, with seven voices - at this rate, this fanfic will end up with two dozen voices. Which I totally don't mind. :D

Not much action, but plenty of pondering. So far, they're leaving options open... of course, eventually they will have to pick one...

Next chapter will be back to one of the Golden Trio (haven't decided yet) With any luck, it'll be out around next weekend! (Or more precisely around the 18th to 23rd)

No rotten fruit/muesli bars/stale cookies? No? Good! I'll just be going before you lot change your minds...

*slips away very, very slowly*

~Olympusseriesisawesome