Chapter 30

Percy

There had been a little whining about the toughness that the training had taken on but honestly it was paying off. By the end of the week DA2 was better than DA1 had been at the beginning of it, and DA1 was, well they could beat up the Hypnos cabin probably. Reyna and Frank thought they could probably fill slots with the 12th, but only because their skill with wands made up for their lack of godly parentage. Their sword work was fine, so long as they stuck to basics, but it had a lot of room for improvement. Even Rachel was coming along skill wise and I think we all secretly hoped that at the end of the quest Hecate would see fit to let us keep our wands, or at least let Rachel keep hers. DA1 and 2 had picked the members for DA3 and they would be brought in Sunday for a meet and greet. There would be three more Gryffindors and two Ravenclaws in this group, but so far the different houses worked together well.

Hermione was frustrated with teaching the American's spells as she thought herself redundant to Mrs Weasley, Remus and Sirius, but in truth she was, without knowing it, telling us the basics of our job here so we worked hard to praise each class she taught. I still had no idea what half the spells originally programmed into my wand were useful for and she was slowly but surely leading us through that. Everyday Remus and Sirius would go over the spells Mrs Weasley taught and then extend on that knowledge with either more spells or more uses for the ones she had taught. The magic side of our combat training was growing just as fast as the blade side, which we all felt would serve the kids well. I was looking forward to trying out spells in combat.

The weekend looked restful compared to the week. Classes were shortened on Friday so as to let out at noon, with quidditch at three. The formal was to begin at seven, or an hour after quidditch, which ever was last. Then from noon to five on Saturday the students were allowed to go to Hogsmeade. With any luck at all we might get to fight and take some prisoners either at quidditch or on the Hogsmeade trip, but either way the Hog Warts kids would get a couple days break from training.

The only stressful part of the day came when Sirius decided that he would transform into a dog in order to see Harry play.

"You can't!" Harry exclaimed, "They know you can be a dog, they might see you!" Harry then left and went down the hall towards his room.

"Who is 'they'? Besides, whats life without a few risks?"

"I have to agree with Harry, the whole of the Ministry is apt to be out today," Remus said, "Come on, we'll stay here, I believe Leo could rig up a way to watch it on that thing in the study."

"It wouldn't be the same. Look, if I see anyone staring I"ll just take off and apparate to Bob's."

"It would be better if you wore Dad's cloak" Harry said as he came back holding a silvery gray remnant.

"Where did you get that?" Nico asked suddenly.

"Uh, it was my father's." Harry replied.

"Really? It makes its wearer perfectly invisible doesn't it?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Oh, I've... I've seen one like it before." Nico sputtered and wandered off.

"Well. That was odd." Sirius said.

"Instead of a dog, why not become a bee, or bird. Something like that?" Frank asked.

"Uh.. see, normally Frank animangi can only be one thing, and I, well, I am a dog. A Labrador retriever actually. We don't all have your talent." Sirius answered.

"Oh. Well, Reyna could turn you into a hamster."

"Right, nothing unusual about a hamster running loose at the pitch. I might get stepped on."

"Just trying to help" Frank smiled.

"I could make you invisible." Jennifer said.

"How would that be better than Harry's cloak?" Sirius asked.

"It just would. Trust Jennifer. If she says no one will see you, no one will see you. A cloak might blow open in the wind or have something spill on it. Jennifer is better. Trust her. When we're in the stands stand to my right, with Jennifer to your right. Annabeth will be on my left and Professor Lupin on hers." I said, and it was then settled. In the last week the magicians had begun to notice that we deferred to Jennifer a lot, for no reason apparent, when powerful magic was required, but so far no one had asked why.

"Any particular reason for that order?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. I fight right handed, so does Annabeth and Jennifer, but Jennifer uses magic exclusively. I usually charge targets fast, so you are less likely to get hit on the draw back if you are on my right as opposed to anyone else's, and having someone between Jennifer and myself creates a lane for her to fire down if I run straight or to the left." I smiled.

It was still a couple hours before quidditch so most of the Half Bloods were hanging around the study hall, critiquing the progress by the two groups coincidentally while the Gryffindor kids were at the practice arena gathering up their gear. I say coincidentally because about a half hour before it was time for the players to go to the pitch, they all came into the study room.

"We have a request." Harry said, and it was clear he was the spokesman for the group.

"Okay, how can we help?" Hazel answered on behalf of us all.

"Well, its, well last week Neville went outside the protection of the castle and he was fully armed. Today we are going to be, and, well, we'd like to be fully armed as well." Harry said.

We all looked at each other I guess mildy surprised that none of us had thought of it.

"You're right" Will said. "but can you carry arms while on the broom?"

"Well some pros carry chalk bags to help with their grip, we figured we could make the survival bag look like that."

"Percy, you and Will want to get the kits and swords?" Hazel smiled.

"Yeah, but I want it understood they are under the same rules as Neville was. Look guys, we were just talking about how far you've come and how good you've gotten, but, and this is a big 'but', you're still not first string with a sword. So if a fight comes, leave that to us as much as you can and stick to your wands. Use a sword as a last resort, okay?"

"You got it!" Fred and George said on their behalf.

Ten minutes later they were loaded for bear and on their way. We sent Jennifer, Frank, Lupin, Leo, Jason and Sirius with them. I had wanted to go, but Annabeth demanded that I be with her, and she was right. As usual.

We left in mass a few minutes after them so that we could get seats and scout out the terrain. I didn't expect an attack, like I had told Sirius and Remus, Voldemort had to be just about out of dependable, close, followers. I still expected a jail break, and a few weeks later it turned out I was right, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Although we didn't figure on needing anything in it we all took survival kits at Hazel's insistence. She wanted us to get used to carrying them whenever we were not under magical protection, and Will wanted us to carry them at all times, which made more sense to me than just when we were outside. If we never knew when something might happen, then we never knew where it might happen either.

Remus, Jennifer, Frank, Jason, and presumably Sirius came up to join us in the stands as the crowd began to arrive. Remus reported that Harry and company were nervous about the start of the season and the opening match. It turned out there was a professional league of this game and with no university system to feed it, the Hogwarts matches, as well as some other schools around Europe, were basically the minor leagues. Scouts would especially be watching the Gryffindor team as it had now four prospects for the pros, and all its players were considered above average.

Due to this, and the outpouring of alumni from all houses for the start of the season the stands filled up quickly. We were in the Gryffindor stand, which as a result was especially crowded. Directly across from us was Slytherin and it too was full. Even at the distance we were at Mr Malfoy's long blonde locks identified him, and his sniveling kid stood directly in front of him with his useless friends. Something caught my eye and it took me a minute to figure it out. I remembered the scope Will had included with the kits and looked through it just to confirm.

"Guys, we have trouble." I said quietly.

"What's up?" Jason asked.

"Kelli, Tammi and one of their friends at 12 o'clock" I said as I handed the scope to Annabeth, who looked through it as Jason retrieved his.

"Gods I hate those bitches. At least this time we're armed. You want to take them now?" Annabeth asked.

"Crap, That guy with the Parkinson girl? That is Dylan, the ventus." Jason said.

"What's he doing here?" I wondered aloud.

"Nothing good."

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked.

"There are three girls and a guy mixed in with Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin friends that we've fought before. The girls are empousa, thats like a greek vampire, and the guy is a ventus, or wind demon. No way its an accident they show up here." I explained. "I blew the girls up once, and another time Annabeth and I dropped an overhang on top of them. We've never had weapons when they were around. The ventus, well they are tough too, but Jason has a way with them. Annabeth, I think we should scope out the spectators and field and such before we move on them just to make sure nothing else is here."

Annabeth began a slow survey of the crowd while Remus continued to talk.

"We need to warn Harry! Have him hold up until the threat is gone."

I had my communicator from Leo and tried to remember how to work it. Red button once communicates I finally remembered. I whispered into it. "Hey guys can you hear me?"

"Yeah, what's up, they are about to fly out." Leo said.

"We've got some monsters in the Slytherin stands. Kelli the cheerleader and her friends. We will be covering them through out the game, but if the shit hits the fan we'll need to lock them down and for the team to scram, fly to the school, anywhere but here. Oh, there is a wind demon with them, so flight might be tough, be ready to go to ground. Figure we'll lay trap for them after the match."

"Sounds good. Keep us posted."

"Anyone else see movement in the woods?" I asked as Annabeth swung the scope that way.

"Uh oh." She said.

"What do you see?" Hermione asked as she joined us.

"Spiders. Big ass spiders. About a zillion of them."

"Oh, the acurantulas, Hagrid raised their mother, I wouldn't worry about them. They never leave the woods." Hermione replied.

"They're out of the woods and coming this way. Would a protection spell hold them?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe protego totallum, but it would take a while to block off all of the woods."

"I agree. We may just have to fight each one." Remus added, clearly worried.

"Jennifer?" I asked.

"Not while I'm keeping someone invisible, can you do something about that?"

"There simply isn't time! Look!" Hermione said as the first of the spiders left the darkness of the woods.

Annabeth pointed her wand where Sirius was and mumbled some gibberish that sounded like 'aviorish' too quiet for anyone else to hear. A moment later talons pinched into my shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to startle, and Annabeth said "Go ahead."

Jennifer made a deal out of randomly waiving her wand back and forth as the spiders in the front ran into a wall of sparks and began to back away. The rest of their brothers and sisters stopped advancing. Through out the match we would occasionally see sparks over that way as other creatures came forward and tried to pass thorough, but Jennifer's spell was exceptional as always.

"That... that's not possible. It should take a hundred spells to cover an area that big." Hermione said.

"I agree" Remus added.

"Me too. Oh, this is nice. If I'm not mistaken, I'm a talking owl. Most excellent Miss Annabeth!" Sirius said from my shoulder.

"You might want to keep quiet. Even in this world I suspect talking owls are rare." I said.

"Point taken" he whispered.

"What do you suppose riled the spiders up?" Hermione asked no one in particular, only to be answered by stares from all the half bloods, especially Annabeth. Of course the Hogwarts kids didn't know about the special relationship between children of Athena and spiders, especially Annabeth. After last spring they really hated her.

"Probably the noise of the match. In any event, its under control now. I wouldn't let it worry me." Annabeth said, as she continued to stare at Hermione until her lone brain cell dedicated to remembering things not taught in class kicked in and reminded her of the constant problems half bloods have with monsters. She was adorable, super bright and intelligent, but sometimes thick as a brick.

The Hufflepuff team flew out of their locker room without a lot of fan fare, went in a giant circle that took them by the boxes a couple of times, ending up in front of their own where they posed for pictures and waved to family before turning around to face towards the inside of the pitch. All of the crowd cheered for them, just as they did when Gryffindor entered the stadium.

The Gryffindor team road out with Fred and George igniting fireworks along the way as they did the same as Hufflepuff. Hermione explained that this was in response to Slytherin, whose parents last year spent tons to put on light show whenever the team enters the field where their images were projected on the crowd and the stadium was lit up with fire works all around as if it were the world cup final match. She suggested that we might want to come up with a grand entrance of our own since we would be opening against Slytherin the following week.

"Think you can handle that Will?" Hazel asked.

"I'm on it." He replied.

Once the match began it was over pretty quick. It lasted maybe 15 minutes, but to be honest I didn't watch any of it. I kept scanning the crowd and the grounds looking for more monsters, but didn't find any. When Harry caught the golden snitch (no, really, that's what they called it) and ended the game I had seen, well, none of it. Apparently the score was 190 to 20 and this was considered closer than expected. I retrieved my scope from Annabeth and reminded her that she had her own, and surveyed the Slytherin box again. Tammi, Kellie and their associates were leaving with Malfoy, Crabbe and their friends. They made no move for combat. Other than that the only unusual thing I saw was Nico of all people talking with Dumbledore a few rows below us.

"Okay guys, lets get to the Leodis and regroup. Frank, you want to get us ground folks organized for the stroll there?" Hazel said.

"I'm on it, suggest two by two cover formation, wands ready."

"Agreed." Hazel said.

With that we left the stadium in groups of four, walking two by two with the second row a bit to the right of the front. This way all four had clearly assigned fields of fire, and it was something we had practiced in the summer and with the Hogswart kids. Leo had the team fly to the castle as soon as the match was over and even though it was not allowed they were instructed to fly to Gryffindor common and to wait for us in the ballroom of the Leodis.

Tammi, Kelli and the rest were somewhere in front of us, but must have gone to the Slytherin House quarters as soon as they arrived as we did not see them again.

Once we were inside and the celebration in the commons room for the victors was over, we gathered up DA1 and 2 went to the Leodis. Once there we briefed everyone relevant, Dumbledore included as he had stopped by to congratulate the team, on our past encounters with the empousa.

"Do you believe they are acting as mercenaries for Voldemort?" Sirius, who was still an owl, asked.

"Uh, possibly, but it is more likely they are drawn to Percy and I. Empousa are servants of Hecate, but these have been rogue we think for several years. See, monsters come after us, supposedly by scent. I believe that is what was attracting the spiders as well. There haven't been any like us north of Hadrian's Wall in a thousand years, so there should be a lot of what we call 'monsters', but these four, well they aren't here by random chance. Its possible they are here to kill Harry, but they would certainly give up that opportunity to kill Percy instead. They totally hate Percy. As to the spiders, in addition to hating all half bloods, they really hate me, and I really hate them." Annabeth answered.

"Certainly both are possible." I added.

As it was certain that the ball would not begin until seven now, we had plenty of time to prepare. The problem was Hazel and Piper had been planning on the girls coming in together in what can only be described as a wave of hotness, and a few monsters wasn't going to get in the way of their doing so. It was decided that the guys would go to the lobby area at the base of the stairs, just outside the grand ballroom/dining hall, and lay in wait for the empousa and any other monsters, and the girls would arrive promptly at seven. With that we laid out a box trap plan based on the empousa coming up from the dungeon sometime in that half hour, and we practiced through it a couple times. With the firepower available I wasn't too worried about the outcome. Of course I didn't expect Piper to stupify all of us magically either.

The appointed time was rapidly approaching. Most all of every house had arrived and was in the ballroom waiting for the dance to begin, and we were still milling about. Neville had thoughtfully picked out corsages for each of us to give our dates, so we were standing around with a flower in one hand, the other hand ready to draw swords and wands. Exactly at seven the girls began coming down the stairs. They were ungodly beautiful and everyone was literally compelled to stop what they were doing to focus solely on how insanely beautiful they were. The Hogwarts guys were especially vulnerable to the mark of Aphrodite, including George, Fred and Seamus, who didn't even have dates among them. I wasn't much better off. I couldn't take my eyes off Annabeth. She, well, she was my everything. She glowed and seemed to be walking on air. When I looked at her the rest of the world just faded out.

"Awwww! Did Percy Jackson bring me a rose?" Kelli said, causing me to break away from Annabeth's intoxicating looks.

"Why Kelli, I was wondering when you would slither in. Get it? 'Slither in?' I saw you at the game of course."

"Of course. Just as we did you, but I decided we should wait to have our little talk. The anticipation makes the moment so much better, don't you think?"

"Kelli, do you know this guy?" Malfoy asked.

"A better question is 'Malfoy, do you know this girl, and how would you come to do so?'" I asked.

"We were introduced through the finest introduction service in Europe, it has been used by the royal families for generations." Malfoy grinned. "My father arranged it."

"That explains a lot about the royal families then doesn't it?" I asked to no one in particular.

"So... are we going to do this? You and me and Tammi and Cassandra and Dylan have so much to talk about. And you're here all alone, where is your little girlfriend?" She grinned, her fangs and talons now showing, which caused Malfoy to back off. Clearly she hadn't bothered looking to the staircase behind her. She was fixated on killing me, and that was her downfall.

"Malfoy, you and your Slytherin friends should leave. Now. Dylan, I think you remember my friend Jason Grace?"

"What? Oh Bullshit! I didn't sign on for this! Sorry Jason, I'm out of here." And with that Dylan turned full venti and blew out the door.

Our girls stopped a couple of steps up from the bottom of the stairs, saw the guys were agog at them, and saw that I was talking to the empousa with little support. Thanks Piper, but damnation they all looked so freaking beautiful I didn't care. I would fight the empousa myself if need be. Fortunately the girls weren't affected by the mark so I didn't have to.

The girls drew their wands and weapons, opened their shields and in under a second Annabeth looked at me and nodded.

"As to Annabeth, well, we're always together. Stupify!" I near shouted as I hit Kelli square in the chest with all the force I had as she swung her right talon at me. She had not expected me to use magic and she doubled over and flew across the room, possibly already dead from the force but certainly dead when Hermione raised her sword to catch her in the back as she flew into them. The blade penetrated straight through her heart and she crumbled to black sand.

Nico and Will struck next, first Nico soaked Cassandra while Will froze her, and I turned to face Tammi as I dropped the rose, popped my shield and drew Riptide from my jacket. I blocked her talon with my shield as she shrieked, then swung low into her exposed side with all my might, nearly cleaving her in two until I hit some metal in her hip. It didn't matter as Annabeth took off her head while shouting something about her ruining her corsage.

The guys snapped out of it a good two seconds into the fight, but by then two empousa were dead and one was a frozen statute.

The statue lost its arms and head, then crumbled into black dust as it was attacked by Reyna, Ginny and Hermione, the latter screaming "You ruined my entrance you bitch!"

Then the fight was truly over.

"That... that..." Ron said

"That what?" Hermione snarled, her anger still up and adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"That is the sexiest, most wicked, thing I have ever seen... Corsage?" He asked.

"Why, why thank you Ron." Hermione smiled as she composed herself.

The couples gathered together, Hermione brushed some sand from her dress, and we went to enter. Malfoy and his friends were left in the lobby, along with his father who showed up a minute or two after the fight.

As we entered Professor Flitwick announced us. He asked where we wanted to say we were from and Annabeth answered, "Just go with New York City, America."

The crowd stopped talking as we entered. Music softly played but all eyes were on Annabeth, then in turn each of the girls. Seamus courageously took the arm of Rachel, while the Weasley twins entered with Luna. Cho did indeed have a date, some schmuck from her house who wasn't important enough to remember. When Harry and Ginny entered, polite applause began, and it was louder still through the rest of the couples, until Ron and Hermione entered last and to the loudest applause. The demi gods were all cheering for Hermione, who we credited with two kills, the first by our students.