The Mysterious Room, Hogwarts
Percy
Percy gritted his teeth. "C'mon guys, THINK! There has to be something we're missing, maybe..." he trailed off. Great. Now he's starting to sound like Annabeth, Percy thought.
"Perhaps the Forbidden Forest? I can't think of-" Annabeth got interrupted.
"It's Albania," A voice called. They looked over. There was nothing but the mossy-stone wall. "It's Albania," it repeated. Suddenly, two figures emerged from the wall. Nico and... Harry? Percy was thoroughly confused. Why? "It's Albania," Harry said, again.
"Albania? Why?" Annabeth questioned.
"Well, last year, a woman got murdered by Voldemort, in the forest," Harry explained, slightly exasperated. "That's where he was last rumored to be, before..." he broke off.
Jason nodded. "Well... then... maybe you do the honors?" he gestured. Harry hesitated.
"Have any of you considered this? Albania seems to be a troublesome place," Nico replied.
"What do you mean?" Percy asked, still not taking his eyes off the altar.
"Well... Reyna and Hedge knows," he grumbled. "And I'm NOT telling anyone else." Percy shrugged.
"Fine. Harry...?" he gestured to Harry. "You-"
"Albania!" Harry declared. Instantaneously, the panel hidden in the floor began to shake. They could see a dark outline, set inside a merlot-red haze.
"That's..." Percy realized.
"The River Cocytus!" Annabeth finished. "So this is in Tartarus, but wait-" The image began shaking again, zooming into the river, than the red riverbed, then deep into the vast canyons of Tartarus. Soon, it emerged on the other side, this time full of darkness, with a slight purplish hue to it.
"Nyx... There's the House-" Percy started. However, it started to move again, sinking further, and further, finally, into a field of gray fog and smoke. The floor was translucent, and Percy could see Chaos's blue-green-blackish tint right beneath. It seemed as if you stepped in the wrong place―like ice over a lake―then you'd fall right through. He shivered. No more talking about falling through, he decided.
The panel in the floor shuddered violently. Actually, the whole room shuddered. It shuddered and shaked and threatened to collapse. Silt and dirt started to rain through the ceiling. Suddenly, the hole in the floor grew larger and larger, swallowing them all.
Percy gazed back as the ceiling crumpled slightly. They were falling through the panel, at terminal velocity. Tartarus seemed to flash by in an instant. Nyx wasn't much longer. Was this the end? Percy thought. How lame. Can't even be poisoned like Hercules, or mauled by violent nymphs like Orpheus. Just falling into a hole, because of stupid gravity, and...
Were they slowing?
