Annabeth had asked Hagrid after the meeting broke up if that whore Hazel had been shown the way to her apartment, although she didn't use those words obviously, and was not surprised to learn that she had never asked. Hagrid said he would see to it, but the Headmistress told him to not bother unless she asked. She knew Hazel would not, because she knew that bitch was fucking her Percy!

She was right of course, Hazel spent the night at Percy's, although she wasn't up for more intercourse as she felt just too tired and sore from the afternoon. She did find out that the oysters and pineapple juice worked just fine however. Prior to their research into the effects of mollusks and native Hawaiian fruit juice, the couple had messaged the team at London, went over what they had learned about the school's finances, and organized the group to search Greengrass Investments at its opening. The appropriate warrants would be available in case any objections were raised at the firm.

Hazel had never worked on perfecting traveling by shadow, although she could for short distances. Percy was much better at mist travel, which was the children of the sea god's equivalent, but this had trouble in areas with low humidity. Hogwarts and the surrounding area were quite humid, but the distance to London was at the extreme of his range. It didn't matter as being an ICW agent on assignment he had a permanent port key that allowed him to travel to and from London Station. If he wore his sunglasses, then every hour on the hour he traveled to the other location. He could change the location if he wished, but could not change the time. If his shades were in their case, nothing happened. If he were touching them in anyway, he was sent off.

Promptly at 9:00 a.m., he took Hazel's hand and they shot to London, then after reviewing Hazel's findings with the team, and getting directions to Diagon Alley, they mist travelled to a spot just in front of Gringotts. Humidity was not a problem in London, ever, and both found it less unsettling that apparating.

Hazel remembered her first few trips outside New Rome into the mortal city where she was alarmed and even frightened by the changes that had occurred between her death and return, but that was linear in nature, time had progressed forward while she was dead, and the technological and human growth was amazing in the last half of the 20th century. Diagon Alley was more lateral than linear. The place was just weird.

As they were wearing normal "muggle" street attire instead of the steam punk garb of the average witch and wizard, everyone seemed to stare at them. It didn't help that the couple was exceedingly attractive. Just as the couple approached the huge doors that led into Gringotts, Hagrid appeared via portkey on its steps.

"Oh, there ya are, I thought I might be late. Professor McGonagall suggested I come and introduce you to the bank so there wouldn't be any problems with ya getting into tha' accounts," he grunted. It was clear he didn't like Percy, and wasn't a big fan of Hazel either, although if she could save the school his opinion of her would increase exponentially.

"Thank you Mr. Hagrid, that was very thoughtful of both of you,' Hazel said. Percy just stared. "Shall we?" She asked, motioning towards the door.

The inside of the bank was spectacular, all white marble with rows for tellers along each wall and across the back. Huge gold and crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and lit the room with bright white light. The most interesting thing to Percy was the goblin tellers. Each teller station had one and all were looking down at their work as the crew entered, but all looked up and gave astonished stares at he and Hazel. Percy had never dealt with goblins before but Hagrid seemed confident and clearly wanted to take the lead, so the couple let him.

"'ere now, I'm Hagrid, Rubeus Hagrid from 'oggwarts, ana.."

"Yes Mr. Hagrid, I recognize you. I don't recall seeing you this summer," the gremlin said showing no emotion.

"Nah nah, I haven't been 'ere. Waiting for the new headmistress to arrive before anything, er… This is Hazel Levesque, she's in charge of finances now. An' 'ere's her paperwork ta show it," Hagrid said as he placed a few folded sheets of parchment in front of the goblin.

"Yes, we've been expecting Madame Levesque and Professor Jackson for several days" the goblin began to reply.

"I never gave you my name" Jackson interrupted.

"No, you did not. Your family is among the oldest customers of Gringotts and the scent of your blood identifies you. Your father opened an account for you pending your arrival a week ago. I am Grimli and I will be pleased to show yourself and Madame Levesque to your personal vaults once we discuss the Hogwarts account. Madame, do you have a plan to make it solvent, or are you here to close it after so many years?" Grimli asked. He seemed to not care at all for the wizards and his tone had a certain zeal at the possibility of closing the ancient account of Hogwarts.

"We have a plan for solvency, may I ask, I am told your bank offers assay services in metals and gemstones, is that correct?" Hazel responded.

"Of course, we examine all deposits into the commercial accounts;" Grimli said, as if he didn't trust the two, "of course if you are transferring from your personal accounts that will not be necessary."

"No, I have raw, un-smelted gold and other metals, silver and platinum mostly, and gems both cut and uncut."

"I see. If you will place them on the counter we can begin."

"You don't have enough counter. It will be a large deposit," Hazel said.

"How large?" Grimli asked.

"Very. Six bags with indetectable extension charms. All but one full."

"I see. Lonium, would you join me in the assessment room." Grimli said to the gremlin beside him before motioning the trio to come around behind the bank of teller stations. He led them to a classroom-sized room with multiple steel tables, each only a foot or two from the ground so as to make it easier for the gremlins to work beside. The tables had velvet pads covering them, which turned out to be a very good idea. There were several sets of scales and a few of what appeared to be stainless steel mining carts as well.

"Will this do?" Grimli asked Hazel. He didn't smile and from his appearance never had in his entire life. This led Hazel and Percy to deduce that he doubted the deposit would be as voluminous as he was told, which wasn't the case at all. Grimli expected it to be large based on the number of bags Hazel had described, but was still somewhat surprised by the size when she had finished dumping them out. At a glace he felt it was more than Hogwarts had ever had in its history.

"Let's find out," Hazel replied as she took the first bag and dumped it on the first table. This bag was ingots and large, almost fist sized, nuggets and even with the velvet padding made a thunderous roar as it covered the table to a height of two to three feet. Without batting an eye Hazel moved to the next table and covered it with more nuggets and gold jewelry, then to a third where she poured out about fifty liter sized water bottles with smaller nuggets.

As Hazel was moving to pour out the bag containing the other precious metals, Grimli spoke to Lonium.

"Have teller stations six to thirteen close and join us. And bring the large scales."

"Which large scales?" Lonium asked.

"All of them." Grimli replied, before addressing Hazel again. "Madame it will take days to properly assess this given the size, however by days end I will attempt to have the ingots and larger nuggets finished. Those will require only weighting and determining carat weight, but it appears at a cursory glance to be of the highest purity. The rest must be smelted and pressed into ingots to remove any impurities and given the size that will take the weekend. The stones and other metals I believe we can have finished by the end of next week. Should this be deposited into the Hogwarts account vault?"

"Not as yet, I would like to place it into another vault pending transfer upon Hogwarts completion of conditions precedent. Is that possible? I expect by the end of next week to know if the conditions for transfer are met. Also, note that in the paperwork you were given, no one is have any account access other than myself, the Headmistress, or her properly accredited representative. All prior privileges are revoked effective immediately," Hazel stated firmly.

"Does that include the designated investment brokerage, Greengrass Investments?" Grimli asked.

"Yes. It specifically includes it, as well as any others, including those at the Ministry. Mr. Grimli, your bank's reputation for security, honesty and trustworthiness are not at issue, but in the coming days there will be information coming forth that will cause these instructions to make sense. It is for the safety of everyone as well, since this deposit carries a severe curse if not used solely for the benefit of Hogwarts."

"I see. Should I have our curse breakers release it from this curse so as to make transfers to investment accounts more manageable? For such a large deposit and ancient account we would be pleased to for our usual fee." Grimli asked in his slow, gravely voice.

"I doubt they would be able to. It is cursed by my father."

"Yes. That would seem to be impossible. Would yourself and Mr. Jackson like to inspect your personal accounts at this time?"

"Yes, that would be good I think. Mr. Hagrid, thank you for showing us in, however I suspect Mr. Grimli is about to lock the doors to this room. We will see you back at the school. I think that you may report to the headmistress that the school will be able to open as planned, provided all other conditions are met. Again, thank you," Hazel said.

Hagrid took his leave, wondering how powerful of a wizard Hazel's father was if Gringotts couldn't break his curse, and as he was exiting the bank saw Madame Greengrass and several of her colleagues being frog marched in cuffs by aurors and ICW agents, along with carts of files. All were apparated to wherever ICW does their work he assumed, and all was caught on camera by an alerted photographers and reporters from both the Daily Prophet and Quibbler. He took the port key back to Hogwarts to advise the headmistress of the morning's developments, but had to wait for her to return from meeting with Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Hazel and Percy were taken by what seemed to be a roller coaster into the depths beneath Gringotts. Percy was kind of into it, but it made Hazel feel squeamish. When they had left the brickwork walls behind they entered what seemed to Hazel to be natural caverns expanded upon by the gremlins, and finally came to a stop at a row of heavy doors in niches carved into the walls. None were marked with words, but each had a symbol that was iconic to the half bloods. Beside a large set of doors marked with a trident, was a smaller door marked the same.

"Your vault Mr. Jackson, hold your hand to the door and it will open."

Percy followed the instructions to find quite a large pile of galleons, the currency of the magical realm, as well as a large pile of drachmas, along with a note.

"Percy, I am so very proud of you and wanted to make your stay more comfortable. You will soon have a new responsibility as my most favored child; I know you will bring honor to our family. This new status will allow for more direct communication, but the law of no interference still applies. Your journey right now will require finance and you do not have time to seek it. A matter of some concern is your relationship with Miss Annabeth. Aphrodite is laughing at you both for the havoc she has caused. Enough. Get your shit together. Finally, give Estelle my love; though it was not me that blessed her with magic, I am happy at this development. If further assistance is needed, you should find the Shell Cottage and visit the beach there."

As he read it, the words on the page disappeared, and when he finished the parchment burst into flames.

'Well that's as clear as mud' he thought, not even sure if he was actually on a quest. 'Well. Now I am. I wonder what it is.'

Percy knew there was more gold there than he would ever need and didn't want to be a greedy person, yet he still wanted enough to get him through whatever his time in the magical economy required.

"Hey Hazel, can I borrow one of your extension bags?"

"Sure Percy," she answered as she handed him one.

"Uh, do you have one that doesn't say 'Hello Kitty' on it?"

"No, they all do, why? You don't like 'Hello Kitty'?"

"Uh, I don't want to be that guy Hazel," he laughed.

"Perhaps I may be of assistance. This is a service we offer for long time customers," the gremlin spoke as he handed Jackson what appeared to be a black leather messenger bag. It had the extension charm and easily held all he wished to take, and might have held the entire lot.

Hazel's vault also had her father's symbol upon it but contained a much larger pile of gold, as well as a similar pile of drachmas. There were also some colored pencils and drawing paper, along with a note.

'My dear daughter, I am so very proud of you, love you eternally, and despise that we cannot speak. When the time is right talk to your friend Frank. He is a good man, though his priorities are misplaced. Take this for all the birthdays I've missed. Draw me a picture sometime.'

As she read hers the letters remained, but when she finished the entire parchment faded to ash and disappeared.

Hazel wept. She had thought her father had forgotten her, but now knew he was bound to ignore her being alive just as he had to ignore her as a child, and the thought of Pluto being proud of her just added to the heartbreak. 'My life is so fucked up' she thought.

The couple decided to tour through Diagon Alley prior to returning to Hogwarts and was fascinated by what they found. The first pleasant surprise was the two ICW agents standing guard outside Greengrass Investments, and as Percy knew both of them from London Station they decided to get an update.

"Did we get them?" Percy asked.

"Oh yeah, they didn't even hide it very well, two sets of books, two statements per account. It was all coded entries but the code was simple substitution code, it took cryptography about a minute to crack. We will be weeks trying to decipher it all, but yeah, she didn't even try to argue about it. Looks to be a classic Ponzi scheme. They had a safe full of gold ingots ready to travel, of course we didn't let them move an inch and we seized all of that. The techs and numbers people are still searching the operation, you want to go in and check it out sir?"

"No, let the guys work in peace. When I worked NYC at a scene the only thing I hated worse than a crying perp was the management getting in the way." Percy replied.

"If you could ask them to give me an update by five o'clock as to where we stand if they could, that would be helpful.'" Hazel asked.

"I'll pass that on Agent Levesque," the agent said.

Everywhere the couple looked in the shopping district was a new surprise. It was like an outdoor mall and any item that affected any aspect of life for a witch could be found there. They passed a robe shop with Hazel commenting that she planned to just wear her usual business attire since she would not be teaching or dealing with the students, and Percy commenting that he had no intentions to wear those ugly ass things on general principle. They went by a broom shop, potions supply store, pet shop, which reminded Percy he need to make arrangements for Mrs. O'Leary, and finally spent some time picking out books at the wizarding book store. Percy was disappointed that his students would not be able to get copies of either Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' or the Marine Corps FM-01, so he would grab those while he was in New York if necessary. Finally they shared an excellent lunch at an upscale restaurant called 'Morgan's', before heading back to the school.

After meeting with Weasley, Potter and Granger, and feeling optimistic about it but without getting a firm commitment from either Potter or Weasley; Annabeth and the Minister also stopped into Diagon Alley. This was due to the headmaster lacking proper British wizarding robes. At Ilvernmorny she had always been able to wear street clothing but her Hogwarts position required formality. First though she needed to go to Gringotts to attempt to transfer funds using her muggle ATM card.

It was not.

Although the bank was perfectly happy to exchange US currency, electronic transfers by debit card did not exist. It turned out to not matter.

"Good day to you Madame Chase," a gremlin said as she approached the teller counter. "My name is Salamdi, I'm afraid your colleagues left some time ago. How may I help you?"

"Oh no, I, they left already? I wasn't here to see them anyway; I just needed to transfer some funds from my bank in the US. Did everything go okay with my, uh, colleagues? Wait a second, how did you know my name?" She asked as she held up her debit card.

"We have been expecting you for several days Madame Chase, your family has long used our services and we were told to expect you. As to the matter of the school's deposit, I understand an assay is taking place, which looks to assure funding for Hogwarts for the next century and beyond, however that is the limit of the information I can give you or the Minister. If you were not you, I could not say even that. We can exchange muggle money, but do not accept plastic cards as currency here Madame, perhaps you would prefer to make a withdraw from your vault?"

It took a confusing conversation for Chase to realized by her vault the gremlin didn't mean the Hogwarts one, but rather one that her mother had created one for her there. While visiting it and finding both galleons and drachma she too received a note that boiled away to nothing after it was read, telling her:

'Aphrodite is mocking you. Get your act together before you embarrass all my children. You are a daughter of wisdom, act like it.'

'Well great, on top of Percy and Hazel rubbing it in my face, now I've disappointed mom. This day is just so fucked,' she thought.

On the advice of the Minister as to where to get the best robes, Chase next visited Madame Malkin's shop, where she was measured and selected several robes for herself, then realizing Percy would use the excuse of not having any to get out of wearing one, she purchased a couple of nice ones for him. Annabeth had long ago memorized his measurements, as had she not, he would have worn camp tees and cargo shorts every day. She smiled with the realization of what day it was, and the knowledge that slut Hazel would not know or remember it, so she at least had a step up there.

After that, Chase went through Diagon Alley just getting a feel for the place, and then popped back to Hogwarts to be briefed by Hagrid, and to have Minerva make a request for the evening dinner to the house elves. Everyone was anxious to hear from Hazel that evening, but her report at dinner was brief. The money was there, provided she stayed, and she stayed if Professor Jackson did. Percy would only stay if Estelle decided to attend, so everyone left with the start of an ulcer anyway.

Annabeth quieted anyone who attempted to persuade Percy; she knew they would have no effect other than irritating him. Percy seemed a bit distant and distracted, no doubt thinking of his sister and how the decision of an eleven year old could determine the fate of so many people. She did ask if his apartment was sufficient and was told he hoped for a doorway to the outside so that he could build a shelter for Mrs. O'Leary and Blackjack. This led to some confusion from the other staff that happened to over hear it, but Annabeth was quick to agree and said she could both add the door and appropriate shelter magically via her architectural spells. Hagrid was interested to learn a pegusus might be joining the castle menagerie, but on hearing Mrs. O'Leary was Percy's dog had little interest, although that would change when she arrived.

Just as everyone was wrapping up, pleased now with the financial situation and stressed as to the Estelle one, McGonagall called for quiet.

"The Headmistress has an announcement."

Annabeth rose and all eyes were upon her. "In the states, and I can only imagine here, when certain occasions occur we take a moment to recognize them, so, without further adieu;" she said as she waived her wand and caused a beautiful blue birthday cake to appear in front of Percy, with 29 candles lit upon it, and a large gift box beside.

McGonagall led the faculty in singing.

"Hogwarts has a birthday song!

It's not too short

It's not too long

Lets take a moment to wish this day

Is a happy birthday in every way!

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy! Birthday!

To you!'

Percy hated the attention and still grinned. Hazel kissed him on the cheek, which infuriated Annabeth, but she was able to remain cordial.

Percy opened the presents and at Minerva's insistence slipped one of the robes on. He seemed to like it, but didn't care for Annabeth saying he looked "like a real professor of magic now."

All in all the evening ended better than the previous one had for Annabeth, perhaps because she insisted that the house elves serve Percy asparagus with blue food dye, a vegetable he always loved, as his side dish at dinner.