Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter
The Ever Twisting Wind: Of Monsters and Titans
Chapter Sixteen: Horcrux Horrors
Beta: ShadowofAxios
In a private little corner of the expansive Hogwarts library, Andi had set up a study nook to work on an assignment for Ida's magic lessons. Specifically, she'd been tasked to research godly invocations and to pick out and dissect a spell she found particularly interesting.
It was a test of sorts that the ancient nymph had given Andi to see if she was advanced enough to study such magic, something which she said was a big step forward. Andi was determined to do well and impress her tutor, thus proving that she had been right to trust that the demigod was ready to take this step.
Having been working hard for the past few hours, the daughter of Zeus decided it was time to take a break. Stretching a little she tried to ease the soreness that her hours hunched over dozens of ancient tomes, not to mention lugging the books down to the library from her suite in the first place had caused. Sure, she could've just worked on her studies in the suite but she'd wanted a change of scenery. Now as her muscles ached a little, she almost regretted it.
Almost.
The Hogwarts library had always been one of her favorite places to study. Surrounded by tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows and filled with a strictly enforced quiet, it was the perfect place for academic pursuit.
Gods, she almost sounded like Hermione!
That thought brought her enthusiasm to a screeching halt.
In a bid to distract herself from that train of thought she began fiddling with the binding of a particularly thick tome and glanced around her. Everyone else in the library was giving her a wide berth, no student wanted to be within twenty feet of her.
That was fine though, she could honestly give zero cares about it.
She knew where they were coming from. She did go overboard in the Second Task after all. She nevertheless didn't care for the fickle opinions of wizards. Never had and never would, so she ignored them. Well, for the most part anyways.
There was one person in the library that she did care about.
Seated in a far corner of the library behind literal walls of books was Hermione, Andi's erstwhile best friend. Someone who Andi was very, very strongly tempted to reach out to. To make sure that she was doing okay.
Seeing the other girl alone on the opposite side of the room, Andi was tempted to just walk over and talk to her.
Resisting that impulse, the daughter of Zeus opted to look back at her aged reading material.
Some bridges just couldn't be mended and Andi did not fault Hermione for not wishing to try.
Some things couldn't be forgiven.
Focusing back on her reading, something caught Andi's eye. "Invoking divine judgements, huh? I wonder how that works."
Andi trekked through the 'Forbidden' Forest, occasionally glancing at the map drawn onto a large card she gripped in her hand for the directions to her destination: a large clearing deep inside the forest.
"Alright, I'm here. Time to say the words… Oh golden sun brah. Car sleek and sexy fine. It's shooting time...that's six syllables though." Andi blinked her eyes, narrowing them as she looked at the card more closely.
Yep, that was all six lines.
The demigoddess couldn't help the embarrassed blush that spread across her face at reading the awful Haiku that the sun god's note had said would call him down from the heavens.
You see, a couple days ago the sun god had sent her a card with instructions on how to redeem the archery lessons that he'd offered her back on the Winter Solstice.
Eager to redeem her lessons with the god of archery, Andi had followed the written instructions to the letter. Up to and including coming alone and even reading that truly atrocious Haiku.
"What? Dammit! Now I have to rethink it!" A jovial voice cried out, sounding almost pouty.
"Lord Apollo." Andi squashed her surprise and greeted him with a nervous bow. Hoping that the god had not taken her criticism too badly.
Damn my slip of the tongue.
The sun god looked like an exceedingly handsome young man as usual. He had bronzed skin, golden hair and sky blue eyes, all with a smile that could blind you, literally. Andi had to admit, her cheeks heated up a bit, and it wasn't just from the heat radiating from the red maserati he was leaning against.
Every time she saw the sun god, she felt like she was looking at a future Will, and in her somewhat biased opinion, her boyfriend was going to be one McDreamy stud muffin one day.
"Deadly aim ahoy?" Apollo pondered as he tapped his chin with a pen as he crossed some lines on the notepad that had appeared from nowhere. "No, too pirate-y. I should go ninja! Everyone knows ninjas are way cooler."
Andi stayed silent, letting the god do his work as she waited in respectful silence. Fidgeting every so often out of sheer nerves.
The god rambled on for fifteen minutes before he finally shouted in victory! "Aha! I teach youths. Not my best, but we'll roll with it."
"Good job by the way." The sun god congratulated, his face serious. "Looks like you've learnt some restraint."
The demigod had a feeling that was going to be touched on a lot today.
"That's right!"
And my privacy's gone. Just roll with it. Andi told herself as she smiled.
Apollo gave an amused sigh. "And that's what we'll need to work on."
"Copy that." Andi nodded as she moved closer to the god and looked at his flashy sports car. She'd never seen something so expensive looking. A mortal ride must have cost a fortune, she wondered what kind of engine ran the embodiment of the sun.
"Like my ride?" The sun god said, his serious demeanour evaporating in an instant to be replaced by the lighthearted one he often wore.
"That's good, natural even. It's totally awesome." The god said preening with pride.
"Oh, uh, sorry." She quickly apologized to him. "Didn't mean to stare."
"No problem. Just watch whose stuff you're gawking at." Apollo warned. "Not everyone appreciates it."
"Right." Andi nodded. "Gawking to a minimum."
"Well? Hop on in!" The god told her as he pulled out a pair of aviators. "We ride towards the sunset!"
Getting into the car, Andi nervously took a seat and belted herself in even as Apollo reminded her to do so. Slipping into the driver's seat, he explained that after the whole Phaethon debacle every demigod had to strap-in if they were ever in the sun chariot.
The daughter of the skies just nodded, her nerves not helped at all but that reminder of the son of Helios and his unfortunate end.
Her worries were however quickly cast aside as with a quick jerk of the wheel and press of the accelerator, Apollo had the sun soaring into the sky. The adrenaline junkie in her reveled at the sudden burst of speed, and she had to actively work at restraining herself from letting out a whoop of excitement.
However as the car levelled off, Andi couldn't hold back entirely anymore. As such with the wind fluttering her hair, she peeked over the edge of the flying red Maserati and looked down on the land as it zipped by far below. The air was thin but as a daughter of Zeus, she was perfectly comfortable despite the altitude.
"I swear, I've never seen a demigod crash and burn that badly on a driver's exam. Literally in that case!" Apollo said continuing the tale of poor Phaethon. Turning her attention back to the god, Andi noted that he wasn't belted in at all. In fact, having flicked the autopilot on, he'd stood up and summoned his regal golden bow into his hands.
He took aim as an arrow of light flickered into existence and fired it at a billboard that featured the Cool-Aid man and put a hole right between his eyes.
"Sunny Dee's better!" He called out as he sat back down and looked at her excitedly. "Your turn!"
Andi looked down at her seatbelt.
"No worries, if you fall, you can fly to safety." He waved off Andi's concern, ignoring how his words caused her eyes to widen with panic.
And no, she didn't suddenly feel short of breath. It was the altitude!
Not wanting to look like a scaredy cat, Andi unbuckled and stood up, locking her feet firmly. She looked at the god as respectfully as she could manage. "Do you mind if I use a sticking charm?"
Ugh, she felt like a total dweeb now.
Her cheeks colored as he chuckled good naturedly. "Sure, just don't ruin the seat or I'll smite you."
And he wasn't kidding, even while smiling the entire time.
Ignoring the shudder down her spine, Andi applied sticking charms to her soles and pulled out Skyline in bow form. Nocking a wind arrow, she began to look around for a target.
"Lift your elbow an inch more." He told her as he adjusted their course by turning the wheel with one hand.
"Also, calm down, you're too tense. It's like do or die with you, go with the flow. "
Nodding, Andi did her best to follow his instructions. Her eyes narrowed on a smallish billboard, some Ipod one, and fired her arrow. She aimed for the head on the dancing figure, and managed a hit.
Sadly, it wasn't dead center.
"Huh, you need to work on your long ranged sniping." Apollo commented as he lifted his shades to look closer. "You've got pointblank down, but mastery of the mighty art of the bow is determined by how far you can hit a target. Like mwah."
"R-Right." Andi nodded and started to take aim again.
"Tsk. Tsk." Apollo said as he raised his own bow. "Wait your turn."
With that he casually fired off a shot that streaked off into the far distance.
"Sorry, about that Lord Apollo." Andi apologized with a quick bow that Apollo acknowledged with a distracted nod, before she quickly returned her attention to the arrow only to pout as it had disappeared beyond even her enhanced sight.
"Oh! Nice hit, even for me." Apollo crowed as he waved his hand and conjured the image of his arrow jammed into the axle of the front wheels of a kick scooter and a monster of some kind that Andi didn't recognize groaning on the ground next to it.
"Suck on that you loser!"
"Wow!" Andi unabashedly exclaimed at the incredible feat.
"It was no biggie. For me, at least." The god crowed. "But try something a little closer in your next shot. You're not up to my level."
"I don't think I'll ever be in this lifetime."
"Too true." Apollo agreed. "Not ever. I'm the god of archery after all."
Andi's pride stung at that. A part of her wanted to protest, but she squashed it. She knew he was right.
Still, it didn't mean she couldn't be the best demigoddess archer around. That's a fine goal to strive for.
"You gonna take your shot?" Apollo asked with an amused smile.
"Oh! Right." Andi gave him a firm nod and took aim. "What do we got going on?"
"Hmm…" Apollo looked to the horizons consideringly. "There! That cyclops over to the North. He's just about outside your range, so it'll be a good test of your skill."
For a moment Andi worried about whether the cyclops in question was evil or one of the friendly ones like Tyson. She was also worried that it might be one of Uncle Poseidon's kids. She didn't want to upset him if she could avoid it.
But with Apollo right next to her, she didn't have a choice. Raising Skyline, she took aim and let her arrow fly.
"Good shot." Apollo congratulated with a luminous smile. "Fatal shot to the centre mass, even if you missed the heart you were aiming for."
Andi felt bad, she'd give her uncle another offering to make it up to him if the cyclops was one of his own.
"No need to worry about that." Apollo assured her. "That was a hyperborean cyclops, not related to Uncle P at all. You didn't think I would be mean enough to get you in trouble with him, do you?"
"No, just, I ran into a camp of friendly monsters. It changed my perspective a bit on how I view them."
"Oh! Azeios and his crew?" Apollo noted with a smile. "Don't worry, he's a pal. I wouldn't shoot his people or get someone else to do it." He then added in a mumble. "Zeus wouldn't like it either."
Shaking his head, the god of archery continued with a critique of Andi's technique. "When dealing with moving targets you need to anticipate where they'll be a little better. Just look at your last shot. You're hitting them but not where you want to. Plus, relax a little. Like I said earlier, don't take every shot like it's the end of the world, you'll wear yourself out."
"Thanks, Lord Apollo." Andi said genuinely. "I'm just nervous is all. I'll try to relax."
"Exactly! You gotta be chill like me. Go surfing, makes you mellow brah." Apollo grinned as he held up a hang loose sign. Or at least, Andi assumed that was what it was.
"The sea isn't my thing." Andi offered as respectfully as she could.
"Air surfing?"
The daughter of Zeus hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and confessing something she'd been trying to avoid for a long while, even from herself. "I'm afraid to fly solo. Plus high altitudes in general, they make me kinda nervous nowadays."
He clapped her reassuringly on the back, making her lose her footing before he steadied her by grabbing her arm. "Don't get too hung up on it, you've got a lifetime to get over it! You won't know till you try."
He winked at her and Andi did feel a bit reassured by what he'd said.
Was he making a prophecy?
"No comment." The god said with a shrug.
Oh great, now he's being cryptic.
"Of course I am, it's half the fun." The god of prophecies admitted. "But just a reminder: restraint."
Uh, should I just speak out loud? Or, I don't know. Your shot? Andi offered him as she sat down and buckled up again.
"Nah, don't speak out loud. You need the practice policing your thoughts." Apollo replied even as he raised his bow.
Roger dodger.
"Oh, oh!" Apollo grinned broadly as he pointed forward. "Look who it is!"
Andi narrowed her gaze to look at the direction he was pointing. "Hermes?"
The messenger god was flying through the skies some ways ahead of them. He was wearing a flight suit with his caduceus in hand and his winged shoes flapping at such crazy speeds that they sounded like a jet engine.
"I'm going to shoot him." The sun god snickered. "Right up the butt!"
"I-Isn't that mean though?" Andi couldn't help but ask. Plus, that sounded very painful.
"First off, never tell a god that. I might not mind, but others might." Apollo said as he released his shot, which flew through the air unerringly and hit the other god right up his anus.
"AHH! YOU SPRAY-ON TAN DICK!"
Apollo only cackled in glee, and flipped the other god the bird as the sun sped past him. Once he was out of sight, the sun god turned back to Andi and continued with his lecture.
"Second, I do believe I win our little game."
Andi blinked in confusion, she hadn't realized they were even competing.
Ignoring her befuddlement, Apollo continued with a sly smirk. "Besides, Hermes likes it in the butt."
What's that even mean?
"Yaoi Andi, yaoi."
She cocked her head. "What's yaoi?"
"I could tell you for hours, but we don't have time for that." Apollo grinned at her.
Isn't that what Aphrodite said about that yuri thing?
Shaking these thoughts away for now, the demigod shifted nervously as she asked. "He's not going to take this out on me right? I've already got a long list of divine haters on me right now."
"No no, Hermes is a good sport." Apollo reassured her with a mischievous smile.
"If you say so." Andi took his words to heart.
"Ah, I'm such a good teacher!" The sun god boasted proudly. "See? You're already taking how gods might take offense to your actions into consideration."
"I'm trying at least, but someti-"
"Well keep it up!"
"I will. Just wish it helped me a little more lately." Andi said with a sigh as she thought of all the crap that got piled on her recently.
"You mean what happened at the goblin bank?"
"Yu-" Andi began, only to realize her manners were slipping and quickly correcting herself with a more formal, "Yes, Lord Apollo."
"Well don't sweat it. No god messed with you that time. That screw up was entirely your own train wreck."
It's not comforting that I messed up that badly all on my own!
"Hey, at least that means no one was pissed enough at that time to mess with you."
"I guess that's something?" Andi asked uncertainly.
"You've gotta take what you get when it comes to us gods, kid. Though that said, you should be more respectful to Hecate. She is your boss." Apollo said as he started to veer left. "Your disrespect towards her has been floating around."
Andi shrunk in her seat at that tidbit.
"Yeah, you should feel uneasy." Apollo warned. "It's not helping your case with the other gods. Not one bit."
Andi nearly rubbed her face in frustration, but refrained. She didn't want to look like a whiny brat in front of Apollo.
"I know I messed up with Lady Hecate." Andi admitted. "I can't change the past, so I'll just have to ty my best to make amends form here on out."
In return, she got a beaming smile from the god and a wink.
By now, Andi had figured out that the sun god was taking it upon himself to teach her how to keep her manners when dealing with the gods. Going as far as to be her 'safe' godly partner in this sense to practice with. Basically, he'd turned the archery lesson into one that was as much about teaching her restraint when dealing with the gods as it was about her skill with the bow.
"Hey, thank you very much, Lord Apollo. I mean it." Andi said, offering her sincere thanks for what he was doing for her.
Apollo waved it off as they started flying back to Scotland.
She hoped that didn't mean the sun was going backwards.
"No worries, it's the least I can do. I mean, not to brag, but like I said, I'm an amazing teacher. Just look at Chiron! My best and brightest!"
That was holy gospel alright.
"Now," he looked at her with a grin, "give me the dirt on you and my boy Will. Is he going the slow route? Or have you gone to second base already? Because you kids these days are just all over each other. I totally approve by the way. He's a good kisser like his handsome daddy right? Spill the dets!"
Andi could only blush and stammer at all his questions aimed at her relationship with Will.
It was few days after her ride with Apollo, and Andi was trying her best to erase the last thirty minutes of the ride from her mind. Seriously, he told her things the daughter of Zeus didn't need to know!
Either about her own anatomy or of her boyfriend's!
She'd learned things she never wanted to know. Things no normal girl should know. Like how if a couple pressed the right pressure points in just the right way at the right time, they could gain temporary telepathy and enter into a mind meld.
The thought of baring more than just her body during an intimate encounter brought a heated flush to her face.
Apparently it led to the best climaxes ever.
After learning all that, it was very hard to look at Will in an I.M. right now.
The slamming of a book in front of her made Andi jump in her seat. "I didn't do it!"
Ida raised a brow at her. "I asked if you were paying attention. Clearly, you were not."
Andi ducked her head. "Sorry, just rememberings things."
Highly inappropriate things, gah! Focus Andi!
Ida looked ready to chide her, she was wearing her best lecture face right now. Before the nymph could get a word out however, a series of heavy knocks rained on the door to their suite.
Both females looked to the door in surprise.
"Expecting anyone?" Ida asked.
Andi just shook her head.
While both the demigod and mountain nymph pondered who could be at the door, Wendy took it upon herself to remember her manners and moved to answer it.
She was rewarded for this with the dubious honor of being shoved to the side by a frantic Dumbledore as he rushed into the room.
"Andi! There's been a situation that I need to urgently speak to you about."
In a burst of flames, Fawkes deposited Andi, Wendy and Dumbledore in the street in front of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The party found themselves greeted by a row of grimy unwelcoming houses, some with broken windows that glimmered dully in the light from the streetlamps. Paint was peeling from many of the doors, and heaps of rubbish lay outside several sets of front steps. All in all, it painted a terrible picture.
Looking at the sight, Andi couldn't help but wonder, as she had every time she'd visited, how the supposedly wealthy Blacks would stoop to living in what was clearly an impoverished muggle neighborhood and whether the fact they did said something about them that they were trying to avoid.
Dumbledore either didn't notice or didn't care, instead he examined Number Twelve intensely. All while sporting the same frazzled air he'd been wearing since he'd burst into her suite declaring that something had happened to Sirius at Grimmauld Place and asking for Andi to go with him to check up on her godfather.
Upon hearing that, Andi hadn't hesitated. She'd been worried about Sirius for days now. Ever since the fiasco at the bank, she'd been trying to arrange a visit with Sirius to deal with the final Horcrux hidden in his house, but he had been strangely hesitant. In fact his whole demeanor had been odd lately. He'd been writing less and prone to rambling about the strangest things. Andi had honestly been worried he'd suffered a relapse of whatever mental problems he'd gotten from his trip to Azkaban.
So after easily getting permission from Ida, Andi had immediately followed with Wendy in tow as the Headmaster called on Fawkes to transport them to London.
"Something is definitely amiss here."
Dumbledore's sudden statement startled the daughter of Zeus out of her thoughts and she could only reply with a confused, "Huh?"
"The house seems to be radiating strange magic. A kind I do not recognize." Dumbledore explained with a pensive look. "Add to that the fact that Fawkes should have flamed us directly into the house and-"
He was interrupted by a defensive sounding trill from Fawkes.
"He says that it's too dangerous to just flame in there." Wendy wrinkled her nose. "The whole place smells of wicked magic. If we had went in blind, who knows what we'd be facing."
At the mention of dark magic, both Andi and Dumbledore exchanged worried looks.
Not good, this is really not good. Andi bit her bottom lip in worry. Is this because of the Horcrux? Shite! Please don't let it be.
"We must hurry." The aged wizard said as he walked with surprising speed towards Number Twelve. "Sirius seemed quite desperate for aid before he was cut off"
The demigod nodded even as she matched his pace and marched up the steps. She reached for the doorknob but before she could even touch the brass, the old door opened eerily on it's own.
"And that's not creepy." Andi couldn't help but remark to cover her own strained nerves. This was feeling more and more like one of those horror movies they showed at Camp.
She'd never liked them and now it looked like she was about to star in one.
Oh joy!
"They aren't that bad." Wendy replied verbally, having gotten the gist of her thoughts from their bond. "Though, it is a little creepy how close things are to those movies."
"Tell me about it." The older girl replied, uneasy over the whole situation.
Still, Andi squashed it and followed as Dumbledore walked through the door. They were greeted by pitch black darkness, the opened door and Fawkes' faint natural glow combined to create a sliver of light that was the only source of illumination.
"It's two in the afternoon, it shouldn't be this dark." Andi frowned, her eyes trying to pierce the darkness, just waiting for something to leap out at her. "Even if it was, the gas lamps would at least be going off."
What she wouldn't have for Bianca and Nico to be here. Their superhuman night vision would be a great help, letting her have an idea what was awaiting her in the shadows. That would at the very least lend a hand at fighting the sense of foreboding that Andi was feeling right now.
Still suppressing her nerves, Andi and the others walked further into the darkened entryway of the house. Wendy in the rear had only just crossed the house's threshold when it slammed shut with a bang that echoed in the entryway. With light from the outside cut off, the quartet was covered in near total darkness, save for the dim glow Fawkes gave off.
"Horror flick it is then." Andi affirmed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Wary of unseen dangers, she kept her guard up. Acting casual she grabbed hold of Skyline, ready to summon her weapon at any time.
As her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, her attention was caught by a familiar pair of glowing red eyes. Where have I seen those before? I don't think that it's that creepy house elf, they're too tiny. Horcrux in the house… Double shite! Voldemort.
"Who's there?" Dumbledore called out as he levelled a stern glare at the crimson gaze, drew his wand and flicked it. The spell sent motes of light that peppered the entryway, at last giving them their first clear view of their surroundings.
It revealed Kreacher, who for some reason was floating in the air, to be the source of the red eyes.
"Kreacher?"
"That's not Kreacher, Headmaster." Andi swiftly said, summoning her bow, nocked a couple wind arrows and took aim at the possessed elf.
The creepy little thing was unfazed and just gave a wicked grin as his beady little red eyes narrowed in some way that somehow made it more sinister.
"Welcome to my new abode, my two least favorite people. Pardon the...mess. Ah, but where are my manners! Refreshments?"
Ah, there was something Andi was familiar with. The creepy voice that Voldemort had.
Try hard much?
She would have given a retort, but something cutting through the air forced her to change her words.
"Incoming!" Andi cried out and raised her hand to summon a wall of wind, but Dumbledore hastily stepped in front of her.
He swiped his wand through the air and a hasty protego shimmered into being in front of them. Just in time to protect them from a barrage of tableware and food that began pelting the shield with surprising force.
"Andi, I'll shield us. You attack."
The demigod snorted at the unnecessary save and instructions, even as she did what the old man had told her to.
Like you need to tell me that. Andi thought dismissively as she levelled her bow at the elf once more.
Knowing the elf was just a hapless puppet to the Horcrux, Andi didn't want to kill him if she could help it. As such, instead of immediately letting loose with her arrows, she took a moment to quickly examine the elf. Except for his glowing eyes, he looked just like the scant few times that Andi had run into him. The only other thing that looked out of the ordinary was the fancy locket around his neck. Not only was it far too expensive looking to be something a house elf would wear, more importantly it gave off an ominous vibe.
That's gotta be the Horcrux.
"Let's end this, you meanie face."
Without waiting for the Horcrux to react to her taunt, Wendy called on her powers. Her hair flickered as a rush of hot air started to emanate from her and flames licked at her fingertips. Combining her two elements together, she sent a small flaming twister spinning towards the possessed elf.
Looking unperturbed by the elemental attack, the possessed elf merely snapped its fingers and conjured a burst of force that collided with the twister and dispersed it in a loud boom.
Kreacher seemed to have underestimated the power that would be unleashed by the meeting of the two powerful attacks and was sent stumbling back in the air.
Capitalizing on the opening, Andi loosed her wind arrow and sent it whistling towards the locket's chain as it rested against the cusp of the elf's neck.
Despite its disorientation however, the soul fragment recovered in time and with another snap of its possessed fingers sent another blast of magic to defend itself. It collided with the arrow and unleashed an explosion of force that sent dust and broken tableware flying everywhere.
Undeterred by the failure of her first shot, the demigod drew another arrow.
"Shame, this is what I get for being such a grand host? Pity. You're just like my last guest. Though, at least there's less howling."
Dumbledore gave a small gasp, as if he had finally recognized the speech pattern and figured out who they were dealing with. "Voldemort?"
The elf gave a vicious smirk and nodded its head.
Before Andi could get off her next shot, the entryway rumbled and shifted.
Wendy cried out and grabbed onto Andi as the entryway began to spin in every which direction. It was like being inside of some Rubix Cube. The hallway had suddenly started spinning haphazardly in every direction and rooms began connecting to either end of it.
Acting quickly Andi quickly transformed Skyline back into its disguised form and clipped it safely onto her clothes even as she lunged to grab hold of Wendy just as the Aura and Dumbledore lost their footing. Soon all three of them were sliding all over the place. Back, forth, and sideways, gods they even hit the ceiling a few times.
Andi clung to Wendy, keeping a grip on her so they couldn't be separated like they'd lost Dumbledore. The old man had disappeared almost immediately through a doorway once the room started going crazy.
The little Aura clung to her as well.
"Wendy, Storm Mail!"
Wendy began to transform into wind but this didn't seem to sit well with their malicious host. "Tut Tut. Get a clue, Potter. This isn't supposed to be a team event."
With that mocking statement the room began to shift even more violently than ever before and large bulky furniture was added into the mix. One particularly large sofa smacked right into them and separated them before Wendy could complete her transformation into the Storm Mail.
"Andi!" Wendy shouted as she slid down an expanded toilet of all things.
"Son of a-" Andi couldn't even curse as she fell through a lit fireplace, getting a few burns in the process and coming out of a chimney on the other end.
Hissing, Andi looked at the angry red spots on her skin. "I'll get Wendy to help with these later."
Shaking off the stinging pain from the burns and bruises from the repeated impacts that the shifting entryway had left her with, the demigod examined her surroundings.
This room was dark as pitch and she couldn't see a thing. Not wanting anymore surprises to catch her unawares, she summoned Skyline in its sword form to provide some light. Faint though it was, it proved enough to let her make out a bedroom. The walls oozed black sludge and the framed pictures near her on the nightstand didn't move, Andi couldn't blame them. The eyes of the people in them had been cut out and their bodies twisted into tortured poses.
"Great, all we need is the ceiling to start bleeding." Andi groaned and felt a drop of something hit her cheek. Her free hand reached up to touch whatever it was. Pulling back her hand to examine it, she was a little disturbed to see a dark red color. She looked up to see a stained ceiling that occasionally dripped on her. "I was being rhetorical!"
The sudden question of whose blood it was popped into her head.
"Alright, am I in a horror flick or something?" She asked herself as she stood up, her sword held ready. All the while the blood continued to drip down on her. "There were rules or something, I know Will told me that. Aw, it's probably just rubbish anyway."
Cautiously she walked towards the room's only door, which swung open on its own accord. Taking this in stride, after all she was apparently stuck in Voldemort's version of a haunted house, she walked out of the room and into a hall whose walls were lined by rows of old paintings. Only to have the room's door abruptly snap shut behind her. Spinning around, she was just in time to see it disappear as if it had never existed.
A soft, tortured groan had the demigod turning back around, only to come face to face with a disgusting sight. The paintings along the walls, with their tormented, eyeless subjects were coming to life. But they weren't just animating in their frames. Oh no! It was worse than that. Much worse.
Before her eyes they were being twisted into monstrous creatures. A pair of lanky two metre arms started growing out of either side of their frames and a pair of large elephant like legs followed suit out of the bottom. The flesh of these new limbs looked downright cadaverous, but that wasn't what made them unsettling. That honor went to the tortured forms of the paintings' subjects who seemed trapped in some kind of unknown torment as they writhed and screamed in incoherent agony.
Well, most of them did.
"Filthy blood in my home!" A female voice wailed.
The shrill voice made Andi wince and she could only think of one person, or painting, that had a voice like that.
I thought Sirius had gotten rid of his mother's bitchy painting?
Seems he failed in that regard.
I don't think I'd wish whatever is happening to these paintings to anyone. Even her. It looks awful.
Andi's musings were cut short when the paintings began to use their new limbs to pry themselves free from the walls and lunge at her.
The demigod felt she handled the situation well.
"What the flaming shite!" The demigod shouted as she jumped out of the way of an unsteady lunge by the thing directly in front of her and slashing it in half with Skyline. "Did Voldemort binge a bunch of horror movies or something?!"
Her only answer were tormented moans and screams as the monstrous paintings advanced on her like a zombie horde.
"If these are your version of zombies, Tom, then I'm severely disappointed." Andi quipped even as she dived under the four reaching arms of the nearest painting creature and cut it to pieces.
Wind picked up around her blade as she launched an arc of air, cutting three paintings to ribbons and freeing them from their pained existence.
Quickly repositioning her blade, Andi switched targets and destroyed what seemed to be a troll dressed as a minstrel.
"Death to the mudblood!" The zombified painting of Sirius' mother - What's her name again? - shouted as she led a charge of a dozen of her ilk towards the demigod.
Ignore her. Ignore her. Just free her and be done with it. Andi repeatedly told herself, even as her annoyance with the painting of Sirius' mother grew with each insult.
"Dirty, rotten-!"
Sirius' mother was silenced as the daughter of Zeus sent a wave of wind flying down the hallway. The blast of air bowled the charging creatures over and sent them colliding into one another, turning the whole group of them into a twitching heap of grotesque mutated flesh.
Skyline hissed and spat as winds twisted around the blade and Andi raised it up above her head. With a powerful swing, she sent a large arc of air that sliced through the pile, reducing it into shredded canvas, broken frames and mutilated corpse like flesh.
"Be at peace." Andi murmured to herself as she offered the remains of the paintings a ritual blessing.
That done, the witch moved on. As she did, she tried to call out to Wendy several times. It all amounted to bupkis.
This whole link thing is far too one-sided. Andi huffed in frustration as she turned the corner, and ended up in a hall whose walls were lined with stuffed house elf heads. Ah, the next trap...so blow darts or snakes are going to slither out their mouths any second.
Taking another glance around the hallway, she raised her hand to prepare to send a pair of lances of air to destroy the heads all in one go. She never managed to get her attack off though, before the very elaborate mounted house elf heads complete with plaques bearing the dead elves' names, came back to life and began to spit fireballs at her!
"Come on!" Andi complained as she jumped and ducked under the fireballs. She threw her hand to her left, a wall of wind blocking one she couldn't evade.
The resulting explosion sent her stumbling and leaving her open to a sustained barrage. Reacting instinctively, she summoned a cocoon of air around herself that kept her safe.
Her brow started to sweat as she kept the barrier up under the fiery pressure. Despite that, Andi kept up a rapid pace as she walked as fast as she could down the hallway, rattling from each blast.
Spotting the turn of the hallway, Andi picked up the pace and stumbled forward as a group of fireballs smacked the rear of her wind cocoon. Thankfully, the force of the barrage pushed her towards the end of the hallway and the demigod leapt to safety around the corner.
With no more fireballs plaguing her, the witch released a sigh of relief. She got to her feet quickly though, glancing at this new hallway and what new traps were set up this time.
There was nothing in the hallway whatsoever.
Why does this unnerve me worse than fireball launching mounted stuffed heads?
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Andi told herself and began to concentrate. Vapor started to collect and turn into a mass of cloud. Smirking, the demigod shaped it into a somewhat clumpy likeness of herself.
Directing it to walk down the hallway, Andi beamed as her idea worked. As soon as the cloud clone began walking down the hallway, the wallpaper started to peel itself from the walls in long tentacle-like strips and attacked it, wrapping around its limbs and pulling it apart easily.
After nothing was left in the hallway, the paper returned to its proper place on the walls.
"Tentacle wallpaper, riveting." Andi pursed her lips. Raising her hand, winds hissed around it and coiled into a twister. Firing the construct of air that she'd created, a vertical twister traveled down the hallway scouring the murderous wallpaper right off the walls.
With the walls now bare of all paper and the threat dealt with, the demigod smirked. "One for Team Andi."
She started to walk down the newly barren hallway now, but she just had gotten a few feet in when a rattling tickled her ears that set off her instincts. Heeding her gut, she quickly jumped forward. Just in time too, because the walls behind her had suddenly jutted forward and smacked together.
He really enjoys playing with me, doesn't he? Andi couldn't help but lament, but quickly steeled herself. "Alright, just like Camp, nothing too hard."
Pumping herself up, Andi broke into a sprint.
The floor wobbled and abruptly shot up to the ceiling forcing Andi to leap forward once again to avoid being crushed. She quickly tumbled forward as the walls around her tried to crush her. Her hearing picked up on the ceiling coming down on her so she got to her feet. She poured on the speed, even then she could tell she wouldn't make it. Acting quickly, she fired off a blast of air behind her that launched her forward like a rocket.
Even with that move, she barely made it to the end of the hallway where she slammed into the wall of the corner. Thankfully, it seemed she was safe for the moment as everything had suddenly stopped trying to crush her. The demigod was pleased, it looked like all those hours on the Climbing Wall at Camp had paid off.
Compared to that particular death trap, this was on easy mode.
She smirked at that. Let's hope Voldemort continues to underestimate me.
The daughter of Zeus was about to continue her trek through the deadly house when she suddenly felt a tingle in the back of her mind. Andi didn't really get it, but she somehow just knew that it meant that Wendy was on her way.
Deciding to make her partner's life easier and take a break at the same time, she stopped to wait for the Aura to catch up.
"Andi!" Wendy called out, making the demigod look up. A wisp of air touched the ground and Wendy appeared in front of Andi. The Aura immediately pulled Andi into a hug. "Thank the gods! I was so worried."
"How'd you find me so fast?" Andi asked as she gave a soft hug back.
"Oh, that's easy. Our bond lets me track where you are, remember? Of course, I had to turn into a breeze to get past all those nasty looking traps. He had exploding fruit bowls!"
The little Aura shivered at this.
Andi sighed. "We'll talk about the explosive fruits later. And how we can amp up this bond of ours because I feel like I'm getting the short end."
Wendy was about to retort, but was cut off by Voldemort's voice echoing from the walls.
"You always were amusing, Potter. I'm intrigued by how you managed to force an Aura to be your familiar. I was under the impression you already had one in the form of an owl."
The daughter of Zeus scowled at the nearest wall. "She's not my familiar. She's my friend. Oh wait, you don't know what that word means. Sorry Tom!"
The walls were silent and Andi felt pleased with herself. She glanced at Wendy and said. "Mail up. We're not getting separated again."
"Thank goodness." Wendy happily obliged and turned into their Storm Mail.
"So, what other traps did you see?" Andi asked as they rounded another corner -It was starting to look like she was walking around in circles- noting that it was flanked on either side by suits of armor.
Andi blasted them to scrap with a pair of Air Hammers without a second thought the moment they started to twitch.
"Nothing major. The staircase flattened out when I went upstairs, also found the bathroom. Blood was coming out of the taps and everything. It was odd though since it was writhing and stuff, almost like it was alive."
"Oh so that's why the ceiling was dripping blood." Andi nodded in understanding as they found the stairs, which were indeed flattened. "Let's go find the Headmaster, I'm sure he's worried."
Andi floated down the stairs. The railing ripped itself off its fittings and became a centipede like creature that tried to smack her with its heavy wooden legs, but protected by her Mail Andi barely felt a thing and quickly reduced it to kindling.
"Andi, can we not go to anymore haunted houses after this. Please?"
I can only promise to try. Andi thought back to her.
"I'll take what I can get."
When the pair touched down on the floor, the floorboards creaked and split open. Vermin, looking sick and twisted, spilled out and swarmed the demigod.
Andi felt like she was back under Blac-Bloody Lake again for a brief moment, but quickly shaking it off, she waved her arm. A gale flew from her swipe and sent the swarm of pests slamming into the walls in a shower of gore.
Looking at the viscera seeping into the broken floorboards, the daughter of Zeus couldn't help but relive the guilt over the event that led to the lake's change. The swarm was a little too similar to the massive schools of fish that the lake's crazed naiad had attacked her with during the Second Task.
Troubled, her arm limply fell back to her side.
"Andi, it's okay. You have to focus." A worried Wendy encouraged.
Right, sorry. Andi offered apologetically. Head's in the game, I swear.
"If you say so- Is that a door?"
Andi blinked in surprise as she spotted the same thing. So far they had been walking through nothing but trapped hallways, without a single adjoining room.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"Because it's almost certainly an especially dangerous trap?"
"Probably." Andi said even as she forced out a nervous smirk. "Well, let's get this over with and spring it."
"Let's." Wendy replied with equal enthusiasm, that is to say, none at all.
Cautiously, the partners approached the door which swung open on its own. Steeling themselves, they walked in, unfazed as the door disappeared behind them.
"Hey, a person!" Wendy observed warily as they surveyed what Andi recognized was the drawing room.
That's Lupin! Andi noted worriedly as she recalled what Voldemort said earlier about a howling visitor.
The werewolf looked deathly pale, and terribly thin. Even more so than in the aftermath of a full moon. His clothes were a torn mess that amounted to nothing more than rags. He was pacing the drawing room like he was possessed, twitching here and there and his eyes were feral and bloodshot. Only becoming more so as he spotted her and they turned to look at her with inhuman intensity.
"...Professor." Andi said as calmly as possible, not wanting to spook the man.
Her only response was an animalistic snarl and Andi knew this wasn't going to be a happy reunion. Without warning, he lunged at her, his body distorting violently.
"Whoa!" Andi exclaimed as she ducked under him, making the man collide with a chair, toppling it and him. He howled as his mass grew and tuffs of grey fur began to sprout as he changed into a werewolf.
"No." Andi told him sternly while pointing. "Change back into a human, right now! It's not even a full-moon! I checked!"
Lupin didn't seem to care as he tried to swipe at her with his diseased claws.
The demigod flew towards the ceiling, sticking to it so as to avoid having to fight the lycanthrope.
"Tom, do me a favor and suck a fat chub!" Andi shouted, making Wendy gasp at her vocabulary. "Not the time, Wendy. Lupin, stay there or so help me…"
Her lingering threat fell on deaf ears as he jumped up at her, but Andi just shot through the air to a different end of the room. "I swear this stuff only happens to me. A werewolf I don't want to kill, great!"
She moved to another part of the ceiling as he leapt at her again, missing and falling through a table. He snarled at her and pushed himself up, his body transforming even further. His already lanky arms growing even more so and his claws growing into half foot long talons.
Using his newly deformed appendages, Lupin leapt onto the ceiling and stuck there. His talons digging into the surface as he crawled towards Andi with a hungry look in his eyes.
"...Yeah, I just threw up a little in my mouth." Andi looked sick at the display and whipped her hand forward, tethers of wind rope launching themselves at the former teacher turned beast.
The mutated werewolf just responded by puffing up a newly grown frog like throat sac that quickly filled with a unsettling crimson glow before emptying it by spitting its contents at the incoming ropes. These contents took the form of what looked like orbs of blood.
Even then, the changes didn't stop and glowing red veins began to pulse across his abused body as more and more mangy fur sprouted from his skin.
Right before her eyes, the usually kindly Lupin was being transformed into a twisted black and red monster. Looking on helplessly, Andi could only horrifically wonder what magic could overload lycanthropy and do something like this.
"I hope Lycaon never finds out about this." Wendy whimpered at the vile sight, causing the Storm Mail to shudder.
Crouching down like a jumping spider, Lupin leapt across the room at Andi, his claws outstretched and ready to rend her to shreds.
Andi kept doing what she had been, jumping out of the way and passed him in midair. Just as they passed one another, his head twisted in a near one eighty, and he spat a stream of wicked blood balls at her.
Not for the first time Andi thanked the gods that she had the Storm Mail as it protected her from whatever terrible thing the blood would have done to her if they had hit.
As they both landed on opposite sides of the room and in reverse of their previous positions, Andi's little trap activated. A surge of wind ropes erupted from the wall he'd landed on and wrapped around his body. He tried to struggle, but in spite of his obvious superhuman strength, his limbs were soon bound to the wall leaving him with nothing to do but snarl at her.
Or at least that's what Andi wished was the case, instead his body continued to deform. With his existing limbs pinned, whatever was controlling his curse was growing whole new ones. Dozens of new twisted limbs of raw flesh and bloody fur grew out of his body trying to get him back into the fight. Some were passably humanoid but others were things more suited to bugs and ended in wicked sharp blades. By Tartarus, there were even a couple of disgusting looking tentacles growing out of his face!
"Yeah, no, bedtime Fido." Andi told him, tired of this song and dance as she conjured more ropes to bind him. More and more wind buried the now helpless werewolf, encasing him in a literal cocoon of wind twine.
"Wow, you've been really practicing that one."
"What can I say, I know the ropes." Andi cheekily replied as she landed and slowly advanced to her captive.
"...You've been writing to Percy too much."
"Probably." Andi couldn't help but agree, but it was nice to occasionally pen Percy.
Even as the daughter of Zeus was chatting with Wendy, she was concentrating on the air inside the cocoon, steadily depriving the former professor of oxygen until his thrashing ceased as he lost consciousness due to asphyxiation.
With him down for the count, Andi breathed a sigh of relief and stopped suffocating him. She didn't release him from his bonds though, just in case. She wasn't going to take risks, not when they were still very much behind enemy lines.
"Ok, now what?" Andi muttered to herself as that realization sank in.
"We could go around wrecking the place like we did on Othrys." Wendy suggested helpfully.
"I don't think my godfather would appreciate me tearing his house apart."
Any further discussion was shelved when a burst of flames erupted in the center of the room. Startled, Andi tensed, ready to slaughter whatever appeared. Luckily for Dumbledore she had enough sense to stay her hand just long enough to recognize him.
Looking at the twister covered demigod, the elderly wizard sighed in relief. "Andi, thank Merlin. I feared the worse."
Andi tried not to roll her eyes. "I can handle myself just fine, I'd rather know what took you so long since you had Fawkes with you."
"I would have come sooner, but I couldn't pinpoint where you were." Dumbledore explained with an apologetic sigh. "The only reason I was able to get here now was because I had Fawkes zero in on your magic as you fought whatever hurdle Voldemort had set up in this room."
More like followed my scent.
It were times like this that having a strong scent due to her heritage came in handy.
"It doesn't work that way, Andi." Wendy chimed in. "Fawkes isn't a monster, he can't smell your demigod scent at all."
Alright, I get it. Not all Phoenixes are monsters. Andi pointed to the wrapped up Lupin. "He messed with Lupin, overloaded his curse somehow. Forced him to transform without a bloody full moon. Even pushed the transformation way beyond what it normally does. What the hell, Voldemort should not be this powerful."
Dumbledore looked at the cocoon of air that kept Lupin restrained.
"I had heard that Voldemort had some means to torture his werewolf followers by affecting their curse, but not to this extent."
"Yeah, he's a real charmer." Andi snarked in distaste, before pointing to the bound and unconscious former Hogwarts Professor. "I'm keeping Lupin like that. Just in case. Gods know what else he can do if he was freed."
"That's a good idea." Dumbledore conceded.
"By the way, Headmaster, any clue how Voldemort's Horcrux has turned the house into the Room of Requirement, but turned all evil and super creepy? Like some kind of House of Horrors remake?"
Dumbledore looked at Andi in surprise, "You know this is the result of a Horcrux?"
"Yes," Andi hedged, quickly realizing that she needed to avoid setting off Dumbledore's alarm bells. "I learnt about it in my studies. I think this might fit the bill. Am I right?"
"Yes, it is. And as for why it's this powerful? I'd theorize it's taken over the house entirely and is using all the magic that it has soaked up over the years to do all this." Dumbledore concluded, gesturing at the trapped form of Lupin lying unconscious at their feet.
"That's enough of a break I think." Voldemort's twisted voice echoed from all around them. "Time for Round Two!"
At his declaration, the room began to shift and rotate once again, disorienting them as they bounced about. Andi was thankfully protected while Dumbledore cast some form of bubble around himself.
"Again, suck a fat one Tom!"
The shifting rooms didn't last for long this time though as instead everything around them just abruptly faded to absolute nothingness. Andi was just beginning to panic when reality suddenly reasserted itself and they found themselves in the dining room that was laid out as if to receive a great many guests, including a large collection of food.
Unfortunately, all of it was rotten.
At the head of the table was a possessed Sirius and Kreacher, the owner of the house eating the rancid food as if it were a regular meal.
"Voldemort, release them at once!" Dumbledore demanded as he levelled his wand at the possessed individuals, energy crackling from the old piece of wood.
"I think not." Voldemort replied even as he laughed and clapped.
At that, all the china and cutlery laid out in the room come to life and attacked the good guys. Forks, spoons and knives flew at them like homing missiles. Plates, cups and bowls did likewise, and even the shards of shattered crockery that formed after Andi and Dumbledore battered them away leapt back into the air after a moment to try to impale them. Worse though were the teapots that flew into the air and tried to pour their seemingly limitless scalding hot contents on them.
Even as Andi and Dumbledore were busy fending off the animated kitchenware, Voldemort laughed again and snapped his fingers. This caused a swarm of bugs to explode out of the rotten food and surge towards the wizard and demigod.
Still not done, Voldemort turned to Sirius who was still shoveling spoiled food down his throat and snapped his fingers a second time.
Immediately, Sirius shot to his feet and rigidly turned to face them with his wand pointed directly at them. "Confringo!"
A jet of fiery orange flew towards them. Seeing this, Andi fired an Air Hammer at it and got it right on the nose as the spell exploded into a curtain of fire that washed over the table and rotten food.
The explosion was powerful enough to throw both Andi and Dumbledore off the game for a moment, and both of them was caught off guard as the mind controlled Lord Black cast his next spell.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
A the white light shot from his wand, Andi once again launched an Air Hammer to erupt the spell in mid air but missed entirely, as her aim was thrown completely off by a swarm of flies getting right into her face and blocking her view.
Thankfully Dumbledore was on the case and he quickly non-verbally fired off some kind of counter curse that caused the spell to fizzle out while still in flight.
Sirius was undeterred however and fired off a "Bombarda!"
There was no beam of light to intercept this time and the floor next to Andi just spontaneously exploded, sending her stumbling back with a yelp.
"Son of a bitch." Hissing at the small blast, the demigod was displeased and swung her blade, a gale raced towards the two possessed victims. Voldemort just smirked and snapped his fingers and countered it with a burst of raw magic.
"What kind of cheating spell is that?" A frustrated Andi complained as she found herself surrounded by another swarm of bugs. The Storm Mail hissed around her, keeping her safe from them but like the fish in the Second Task they blocked her view and made it difficult to attack the heavy hitting enemies.
"Dumbledore, clear the bugs!"
The elderly wizard's only response was to spit fireballs out of his wands, burning the annoying insects to crisps. Without even breaking stride he turned his wand onto the room's walls and floors. Flicking his wand in a subtle gesture, he transfigured the wooden panelling that lined the wall into knight like constructs equipped with broad kite shields.
The things proved their worth when one jumped in front of another of Sirius' blasting curses and was sent flying across the room in splinters. Unfortunately, the rest of them weren't anywhere so helpful. Instead, they just stood frozen as dark vine-like growths began to form on their bodies.
"Headmaster!" Andi shouted in warning, even as the constructs turned on them, the hands on their off arms falling off and transforming the limb into wickedly sharp stakes.
Despite her warning, Dumbledore was caught flat footed as his creations turned on him and did nothing as the one nearest to him moved to stab him. Thankfully, Andi rushed in at dazzling speeds, swiping her blade in a deadly dance and turning it and its wooden brethren into timber. "Stick to fire, let's not give them ammo."
The Headmaster nodded and with a flick of his wand and aided by a burst of fire from Fawkes, sent a powerful wave of fire that swept across the entire room.
The walls were set ablaze and the table was reduced to ash along with everything attacking them. The conflagration didn't stop there however and continued all the way till it threatened to consume both Sirius and Kreacher as well.
Voldemort was not so easily defeated though and Sirius jumped in front of Kreacher.
"Protego!"
The shield withstood the flames, though Sirius looked greatly drained by the feat. Taking advantage, Andi struck.
She shifted Skyline into its bow form and fired a barrage of arrows that shattered the weakened shield, even as she flew in for a tackle.
Sirius staggered as his shield broke apart, but Kreacher picked up the slack.
"Nice try." The elf said as he snapped his fingers and Andi was knocked off her flight path and right back the way she came.
Gasping in shock and the jarring feeling of suddenly having her momentum completely reversed, Andi was in no position to control her tumble through the air. Wendy was on the ball though and steadied them so she didn't crash into a wall. The demigod glared at the elf who was smugly grinning at her, which left it distracted enough to allow Dumbledore to strike.
"Ha!" The old wizard cried out as he flicked his wand like a whip, a roaring white flame springing from its tip and lanced towards Kreacher.
Voldemort was not defenseless though and Sirius jumped in the way and was struck instead. The intense flame cleaved right through his fragile human body, bisecting him and reducing him into two partially cooked chunks of meat. He didn't even release a scream or a cry, but Andi did.
"NO! SIRIUS!" The demigod shouted in horror, her eyes wide as she flinched at seeing his remains fall to the ground with two thumps.
Dumbledore didn't waste time to mourn though and followed up with a second strike.
Kreacher tried to snap his hand, but the flaming whip was too fast. With a ear splitting crack, it had covered the distance and severed it clean off.
"GAH! My hand!" The house elf screamed as it stumbled back in pain. A look of shock overcoming him as he looked at his burnt stump.
Without remorse Dumbledore flicked his wrist for a third time, and without giving the elf any time to do anything, he cleanly took its head off.
As the body hit the floor, the head rolling to the side, the house roiled. The locket, now devoid of a body began to pulse with a dark light that seemed to reach out into the house itself.
"Destroy the locket, Andi! It's the Horcrux!"
"Quickly!" Wendy urged. "Before it uses the house against us again!"
Already knowing that, Andi composed herself and shifted her weapon to it's blade form and jumped forward. Skyline's tempered tip sank into the locket with ease, shattering the unholy thing.
A hideous wail came from the broken fragments, making the demigod wince at the sound as everything else drew quiet. Simultaneously, the whole house shuddered and beads of crimson wept from the wall, spilling down towards the floor.
Andi paid it no mind. All her attention was focused on the open eyed Sirius, his face twisted in agony.
Sitting in the plush chair in Dumbeldore's office with the fire crackling and Fawkes trilling sadly in the background, Andi felt a touch detached from reality.
"Everything has been taken care of." The old wizard told her in a soft voice. "I've ensured that no one will probe too deeply into Sirius' death. All anyone will ever know is that there was a magical mishap."
She nodded to him, uncharacteristically quiet.
Seeing she was not going to verbally respond, he shot Andi a disappointed but understanding look as he continued speaking.
"Sirius' Will was read. He left everything to you."
Her small shoulders slumped at hearing that.
Andi had opted to skip the reading. The mere thought of attending made her stomach churn. It was as if she was happy about being awarded something even though she'd completely failed at her mission to protect the innocent. But it seemed there was no way to avoid that after all.
"I see." Blue eyes cut to the fireplace, finding the crackling flames almost painful to watch as her mind flashbacked to how Sirius died. She looked away, turning back towards Dumbledore. "That was kind of him."
Too kind maybe. Sirius and Andi hadn't known each other that well, they weren't super close. In fact, Andi didn't even really like him at all. She found him a pain at times, especially with how he seemed to want her to be the second coming of James Potter.
Yet, his death had still induced a deep level of guilt within her. She'd failed him, an innocent and a friend no less.
"My dear, do you wish to talk about it?" The Headmaster of Hogwarts asked her in that kindly old man persona of his.
The demigod shook her head. "I'm just processing, I'll be fine."
It was a lie, she just wasn't comfortable enough to talk to Dumbledore about this. After the meeting, she was going to talk to Ida, or maybe I.M. Chiron if he was awake. She'd been talking to them on and off about it over the past few days and it had been a great help so far with dealing with things.
It wouldn't change facts though. Her inaction had indirectly led to a man's death.
It was all because she had procrastinated over the locket. If she had focused on the quest and not let herself get distracted by other things, then an innocent man would still be alive.
The wizened wizard sighed at this.
"How's Lupin?" Andi couldn't help but ask with concern.
Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "Whatever dark magic Voldemort did to him is proving quite resistant. I'm afraid poor Remus isn't responding well to the treatments. As such, he'll be in Saint Mungo's Janey Thickey Ward for those suffering long-term effects of spell damage indefinitely at this point of time."
Andi's stomach roiled at this news. Yet another innocent she had failed and whose life was now ruined.
Hiding her inner turmoil behind a stoic facade, she stood up with a nod. "Thank you. I'll be going to bed now. I'm glad we got the last one."
Her voice held no triumph, all it did was leave a bitter taste in her mouth.
Dumbledore wished her goodnight and she nodded distractedly in reply as she exited his office. Feeling in the mood for a walk she wandered the hallways, taking the long way back to her suite.
For a long time she wallowed in her melancholy but slowly but surely a new flame of determination sparked in her heart.
"Never again, I'll never cause another tragedy because of my mistakes ever again."
Andi had enough for a lifetime after all.
Done and done! Man, we are getting down to the wire! Thanks to the team of Nameless and Axios as always!
I always wanted to see what those lessons would be like if Percy had accepted them from Apollo, so I got my imagination going to Andi and here we are! I think it went along swimmingly and she learned loads from a good sponsor god like Apollo. He's so selfless, yep!
Nameless2210: So Andi was a lot more restrained in the scene with Apollo than she usually is, wasn't she? Well, that's because she's trying to be respectful. In word and action but also in thought. After her recent experiences, she's firmly learned her lesson about being respectful to gods even in her own head. We're undecided if she'll slip up if she's in a particularly stressful situation, like combat. That'll depend on how soon it comes up, it's a lesson she's only just started to internalize after all. Gotta give it time before it's set in stone in her head.
I just want to say that I wrote that last scene from a slightly personal place as my Grandmother had just past, so I figured I should use those emotions when writing the scene. I tried not to make Andi overly hung up on Sirius, as that's how I currently feel, so I reined myself in. Still, it helped me loads just to write things out like that.
Nameless2210: I did mention Andi would be getting a windfall soon, didn't I? Congrats to those who realized that by that I meant Sirius' death. Even if you didn't, I hope you enjoyed this little twist.
Let it go to show, we are not afraid to kill of popular and beloved characters, I mean it. We offed Lupin in Rhode, we killed Snape in Alkaid, what did you people expect of us? We enjoy death maybe a tad too much. XP Nothin much else to talk about, Hermione cameo, Dumbledore got some screen time to show what he's got, felt that was fair of us. Since, we love to point out his flaws so much in our fics. He's an easy target!
Nameless: He totally is. As for Hermione, she will continue to cameo but this is probably the biggest one from now onwards. This was the closure scene for Andi, where she accepted the fact that the bridge between them has been thoroughly burned and is beyond repair. The next time we see her will be through mentions of her by Ron. After all, even if they aren't friends anymore I'd expect both Andi and Ron would still want to keep track of her.
Now, you know what to do! Smash that review button, tell us what you enjoyed most, and remember no flames peace. Peace off my peeps!