Chapter 42
The Quest for the Resurrection Stone
Hermione
Mr Weasley was fine by Sunday morning and we all had breakfast together in the Leodis, having slept past the time for the Grand Dining Hall to serve us. Everyone was still agog with happiness for Annabeth and Percy, so much so that I hated to bring up that we had scheduled the day to do research on the Resurrection Stone. The previous day's had been for naught, but I had high hopes today would be better. I had thought much of the night about it and it occurred to me that whomever had it, and known of its power and value, would have probably had it set into a piece of jewelry and passed it down through the generations, otherwise it was a hopelessly lost piece of rock. No, it only made sense to have it set, and most likely a ring so it could be turned over in one's hand easily as the fable told. So, we needed to look for rings with a history or reputation for being cursed, especially any that could be traced to the Peverell family or Godric's Hollow where they allegedly lived.
Before I could share my idea with Annabeth, and then feel guilty for taking her from Percy on the first day of their engagement, Professor Dumbledore arrived with the Daily Prophet. He handed the paper to Lupin and told us that three stories had caught his eye. One, Rita Skeeter had been found outside her office, her memories erased, and no incantation or recuperative spell had assisted her in regaining them. It was known that her last assignment was gossip surrounding a certain store in Knockturn Alley, but that despite this assignment it was possible she had ventured out on her own in pursuit of a story as yet unknown. The paper asked that anyone who knew of her whereabouts on Friday contact the paper.
To our knowledge no one had seen her at the match. Certainly none of us remembered seeing her there, but the professors were to quietly ascertain if any of the students remembered seeing her there, other than the ones in the Gryffindor commons when she briefly appeared. Dumbledore felt confident he could deal with those memories and had already put a magical filter on outgoing owl mail in case the name popped up.
The next story the Professor brought to our attention was a report in the Sport pages of America House triumphing over Slytherin, even though their alleged best player, one Percy Jackson, had been grounded by orders of the Headmaster for rule violations. In his absence, Annabeth Chase, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, and Leo Valdez had performed brilliantly, as had here to fore unheralded seeker Hazel Levesque. The article went on to state that one could only imagine the smart play of the team once it was at full strength, but that these four should be at the forefront of attention from the professional clubs looking for speed and skill.
All of the Americans groaned at this and gave Percy a hard time, but were good spirited about it.
"The thing is, once I'm back, we'll probably lose every match, I suck at flying. Its a Poseidon's kid thing. In fact, if you even let me on the team you're all idiots!" Percy laughed to everyone's agreement.
The other bit of news was also cheerful. It seems that since Peter Pettigrew was seen with Voldemort at the breakout, all charges against Sirius Black related to his murder had been dropped. Should anyone know his whereabouts they were asked to advise him as such and asked that he come by the ministry to share any information he had regarding Voldemort, Pettigrew, or the break out.
"Sounds like a trap." Harry said.
"It no doubt is. It mentions neither your parents nor charges related to escaping from Azkaban. However I shall compose an owl to Kingsley Shacklebolt formally stating all I know so no one can claim I wasn't cooperative." Sirius smiled. "In fact, I may send the same letter to the Prophet so they can publish it too."
"An excellent idea I would think." Dumbledore smiled. "Now to something more pressing I think, Harry, Percy, could you give your training classes to another to teach this afternoon? I would like to review Mr Malfoy's memories in the pensieve if we could. Afterwards, I would like the group to visit with Professor Slughorn. I apologize to Miss Chase, I know you would rather spend your first day of engagement together, and you are welcome to join us of course..."
"Oh, Hermione and I are to work in the library this afternoon. Why don't we drop by afterwards and we can share what each group found before we retrieve the professor?"
"An excellent plan. Miss Hazel, does that meet with your approval?"
"Of course! Oh, after we begin a quest, the leaders no longer need my approval professor, it doesn't work that way, they are on their own as far as decisions go. Of course, we'll back them up as we are able to, but you can easily have too many people in charge. Speaking of which, this quest never got its own prophecy, and, while we're at it, we need to name the members of the Slughorn quest."
"Yes, I talked with Lord Chiron about your quest system at length last night, the nuances are difficult I confess, although he gave the greatest endorsement of your leadership, and suggested that prior to proposing Mr Jackson surely asked for your permission." He smiled.
"No, I think those sort of things are outside my area of control." Hazel laughed. "Wait, so Chiron feels I can veto their marriage? That might be useful!"
"Don't even think about it" Annabeth smiled. "How about it Rachel, do you think we get an individual prophecy?"
"Truthfully, no, I'm not feeling it. I mean, you can ask, but its sort of like I'm on hold on the celestial phone line and I'm not sure when Apollo is going to be allowed to pick up the other end. Does that make sense?"
"That must make your life easier." Leo said.
"Well, I don't throw up as much." Rachel grinned, "but it seems a waste remaining.. uh,,, wholesome, if no more prophecies are incoming." She laughed.
I had no idea what any of this meant. I knew Rachel was the current Oracle of Delphi, but the rest of it was Greek to me, figuratively and literally. I made a note to ask Annabeth later.
"As to the 'Slughorn quest' as you call it, I would volunteer myself to lead it. I have known him many years and believe I know what it will take to convince him " Dumbledore said, "And I would like Mr Potter and Mr Jackson as my, quest mates? Team mates?"
"That makes sense to me, but normally quests are all about youth. Young people lead, young people go on them." Hazel said.
"Indeed, so I surmised from discussing quests with Lord Chiron. However, this I believe is a special case in that we are seeking a person, a person with the free will to not come with us, and a person I know well and know his motivations equally well. I suggest this is less a quest, and more of an errand. We do not need to find him, we know where he is, we merely need to convince him to return with us as here he will be safe and out of the reach of his former student."
"I have no problem with it. Does anyone else?" Hazel asked.
"I'd like some back up fire power. After all, we are supposed to be keeping the headmaster alive, and if Voldemort is after this guy there is no telling to what lengths he might go to retrieve him." Percy said.
"I'll go." Jason said, as did Frank and Nico.
"Is that enough for you?" Hazel asked. "Wait, don't answer. Annabeth, you go with them too. I'm not going to take the blame for keeping you two birds apart." She grinned.
"Thanks. Sometimes Percy forgets certain promises he's made about never questing without each other."
"Wait! You can't blame me! I didn't pick the team and you didn't volunteer!" Percy said with silly grin.
"True enough. Really, Annabeth was the one that wanted to stay home this time." Piper said.
"Well, you know how it goes, a girl starts nesting and.." was all Hazel got out before Annabeth yelled.
"Hey! No ganging up on Annabeth! I would have volunteered except your boyfriends were so anxious to get away!"
"Hold it a minute! How did this become our fault?" Frank asked to everyone's laughter.
"May I add someone?" Harry asked sheepishly.
"Uh, of course. You're one of the quest leaders. Who do you want, Neville, Ron?" Hazel asked, thinking in terms of more protection and fighting strength of course.
"Uh, well, that would be great, I mean, but... well, I think we have enough firepower to take on the Special Air Service and Queens' Guard. If the group gets much larger it might be hard to be, uh, discrete. No, I was just thinking, if this Professor Slughorn collects the best, brightest and most famous, then Hermione should be there. I may be the famous one, but she's the top of our class, and probably the whole school, and that has bound to leaked to the academic crowd."
"Aww, thank you Harry but" I said, but Jason interrupted me.
"But that's really good thinking. Excellent. You kept the needs of the successful mission first, not just guns. Really excellent thinking Harry."
"I was just going to say, Piper is more famous that me. I mean, I've never been in a tabloid, well, except with Victor in the Prophet, I'm not sure that counts." I said as Ron made an ugly face at no one in particular.
"I suspect Slughorn is the sort who is more likely to read the Prophet than People." Piper said. "You should go. First quest! Yay!" Piper cheered.
With that we broke up for the morning. Annabeth and I went to the restricted section, after some serious kissing bye with Percy. I finally just walked away quietly and Annabeth caught up to me as we entered.
"Sorry about that."
"No worries, I'm very happy for both of you, we all are. Oh, and I haven't had a chance to tell you, but your friends and family are just wonderful. Especially your father and mother."
"Hmmm, well you haven't met my mother, except in a dream, and at the Quidditch pitch I suppose, and she was on her best behavior then, but yeah, dad is great. My step mom is okay too although she's the reason I ran away when I was little. It took a long time for us to repair our relationship."
"What happened? I mean, if you don't mind talking about it."
"Its, yeah, no worries... well, you know how outside the protection of Hogwarts we demigods tend to attract monsters? It was no different when I was a little kid. Mom left me on dad's doorstep, well, she had one of the winds deposit me there. I was a gift to him. Anyway, he was in no position to raise a child at the time but did the best he could. Then he got married to my step mom, and she didn't know about, well, me and who my mother was. Oh, and you need to know about spiders. They hate the children of Athena because their god lost a weaving contest to her and Athena turned her into a spider. And now days they hate me even more because I tricked her into falling into hell last spring. Anyway, I was about six or seven they hated me enough and thats when the spiders started attacking me at night. My step mom thought I was making it up and sent me back to bed. Two nights of spider attacks later and I was gone. I didn't talk to my earthly family again for years. I just lived like a runaway until I met two other demigods on the run, Luke and Thalia. She is Artemis's chief hunter now, that's Apollo's sister, the goddess of the hunt. Luke died. He sided with the wrong side during what we call the first Titan war, but in the end died a hero and killed Tartarus when he did. Uh, only a few people know this Hermione, but, well, Luke was kind of my first crush. He didn't feel that way about me, he was like seven years older, but as a little girl runaway living in the streets he was the best thing that happened to me at the time. The bronze knife I carry? It was a gift from Luke."
"Does Percy..."
"Oh yes, Percy knows all of it. Percy and he nearly fought to the death. Percy would have probably won, no one knows for sure, but Luke made his sacrifice first. Remember a couple weeks ago when one of the Professors, Dumbledore I think, asked how Percy had beaten a prophecy and Percy said it turned out it wasn't about him? Well, it was about Thalia and Luke instead. Anyway, Nico says he has seen Luke in Elysium, the place of heros, so he died well. I still miss him. Anyway, I guess I got off track. It was a long time before I could forgive my family, but they finally understood me, and we get along okay now."
We got to the library and set our things down to stake out a study area, and it occurred to me to ask Annabeth something else that was on my mind.
"What did Rachel mean about staying wholesome?"
Annabeth snickered. "Have a seat, this story might take a minute too. Okay, so Rachel first ran into Percy at the Hoover Dam when he, Grover, Thalia, and Zoe were on their way to rescue me and Artemis from Atlas who had kidnaped both of us as part of a plan to start the first Titan war. She could see through the mist and helped them escape from some wraiths. This was long before Percy was as powerful as he is now. Anyway, she probably doesn't want anyone to really know this outside the magic world, but inside it, well, no one really cares. Her family is crazy rich. Her father is one of the biggest developers in the world. She's kind of just the opposite, she more or less a hippie artist like Percy's mom. Anyway, they need a ride, she sees a limo and drops her dad's name and gets them one. Later that year, Percy is registering for school where his now stepfather works, some private school in Manhatten, when who does Percy see? Rachel. Oh, and remember Kelli that you killed at the formal? Her and her friends were there too soo Percy"... she stopped to giggle, "Percy blows up the gym and he and Rachel take off. Later we find out that the only way for us to find our way through the labyrinth is for Rachel to show us the way."
"Remember how I told you my first crush was Luke? Well, Rachel's was"
"Oh my god! Percy?"
"Yep, but by then he and I were kind of together. She didn't know it. Long story short, she takes on the role of the Oracle. The old one had died years before and had been mummified, but that was a curse from the gods for giving what was called "The Great Prophecy." Anyway, Rachel has a vision or whatever that the curse was lifted, and decides that it was her role in life to become the Oracle. Now during the year she goes to this prep school, or she would if she wasn't here by order of the gods, and during the summer lives in a cave at Camp Half Blood. She is Apollo's spokes person as to prophecy, which is good because if you ever met Apollo, well, trust me, he needs a filter. Oh, but, to answer your question, part of the oath is that she will remain unspoiled by man. In other words.."
"No sex."
"Exactly."
"But all the guys adore her!"
"Yes, she's wonderful, and one of my best friends. Hey! While I'm thinking of it. Percy and I talked about, you know, small weddings, big weddings, and, uh, as near as we can figure two kids of the big twelve haven't gotten married in a few centuries so it will probably be big. I'd like all my girls from here to be in the wedding. Well you and Ginny for sure anyway. Maybe Luna depending..."
"Depending on what?"
"On how may groomsmen Percy has. See, he really has to use all the guys from the quest, plus he's really gotten close to Harry, Ron and Neville too. And we figure our godly parents will insist on a big woodoo about it. Anyway, you don't have to answer now"
"Of course! I'd love to be in your wedding! The bachelorette party will be epic!"
With that we went to the cards, the Hogwarts library isn't computerized obviously, and uses its own card system that is neither Dewey nor Library of Congress. It is a horrible mess to try to get through, but sometimes a helpful ghost can speed up a search. Once Annabeth knew this she dropped Nico's name and all the ghosts were helping her find material on the resurrection stone and the Peverell brothers.
I had decided on a different course of action. I sat at the table while the ghosts were piling up copies of the "Tales of Beedle the Bard" and "A History of Godric's Hollow" and though to myself "Accio books including material on cursed rings or jewelry" as I held my wand aloft. I had not really tried an accio since I began to be more powerful with spells, but I figured it was worth a try. Only two books came to my table, along with an old scroll.
The scroll turned out to be the business record of a jeweler in London who specialized in making jewelry from cursed objects or just suitable for cursing from eight or nine centuries ago. It was apparently kept as a way to track these items down lest they fall into the wrong hands. As cursed items I wondered what the right hands might be, but that distracted me from the task and I put those musings aside. The words were faded, but glowing in the middle was an entry showing that an Elrod Peverell had paid two galleons to have a cursed stone set into a ring.
The first book had nothing of use except for a general discussion of what curses were suitable for use on jewelry. As it turns out there are a lot of them.
The second had reports of a number of supposedly lost cursed items, including a ring which, if reports were to be believed, could allow one to communicate with the dead. It was last know to belong to a family named Gaunt some two hundred years ago. This got me thinking, so while Annabeth continued with her pile of books, I again closed my eyes and thought "Accio anything with information about any relationship between the Peverell and Gaunt families." Normally this spell had to be more specific than this or my previous request, but apparently the new power I had found with the help of the Americans let me be a bit vague.
"Hey! Cut it out! I was about to read that!" Annabeth grinned as a large book slid from her end of the table to mine.
"Uh. Give me a second, this could be important." I said as I looked at the cover. "A History of Magical Families in England." At first I wondered why it would be in the restricted section, but then I opened it to the Peverell section and was shocked as I traced its family tree.
"Annabeth, you need to see this."
"So I was researching cursed rings, and found an entry that there was one supposedly held by a family named 'Gaunt', now look who the Gaunts are descended from."
She traced the same line I did, and wound up with her finger on the name "Cadmus Peverell."
"That's the brother that supposedly received the stone from Hades."
"Exactly. So, something like that is bound to be passed down in families. Now look at this parchment, its a record of jeweler that made cursed objects hundreds of years ago, see this line here? He made a ring for Elrod Peverell, and if we check the family tree... yes, right here, that was Cadmus's grandson. So, its a ring! Its weird how so many of the people have names like Hecate and her kids isn't it? I guess back them people honored the magical gods more."
"Yeah, uh, I wonder..." Annabeth said as she looked over the ancestry chart. "Oh my gods! Look Hermione!" She pointed at another Peverell branch, one of the other brothers, and at the bottom of it was the name "James Potter." "Wasn't that Harry's father?"
"Yes, but oh! Of course. The invisibility cloak! It must be the one from the story! Harry has it!, Well that pretty much confirms what we believed about it. Or at least what Nico and Hazel were saying. But that doesn't find us the ring."
"Look down here though, right above the handwriting. The last descendant of Cadmus is some guy named Morfin Gaunt, or his sister Merope. Morfin died in Azkaban for the murder of a muggle named Tom Riddle in Little Hangleton. What if.."
"What if that was Voldemort's father? Does it say what happened to Merope?"
"No, but look at the handwritten part, its not that old. It says "Check Obits"
"Anything else?"
"No, just 'Check Obits'"
I closed my eyes, focused on the spell and cast 'Accio Obituary of Merope Gaunt'"
From the unrestricted section came flying a copy of the Prophet from 1926 showing that a woman who was possibly a witch had died in a muggle orphanage after giving birth to a child that she had given a wizarding middle name, "Marvolo." The ministry had no records of her but it appears she may have been one of the many self or home taught magicians that were often unregistered. The article stressed that it was important to register with the Ministry so as to avoid such a sordid fate through proper magical education. If anyone had information about this mysterious witch, they were asked to contact the ministry.
"You know what we have now don't you?" Annabeth asked.
"The complete ancestry of Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Voldemort" I answered "and the last person for sure to have the ring was his maternal grandfather, or uncle."
"If they were in Azkaban they would not have been allowed to have it with them, they take all magic items from you, and if his mother had it, the Ministry would have been able to figure out who she was."
"So where would they leave it?"
"Home" Dumbledore said, startling us both. "You have arrived at the same place I found myself some weeks ago. I came now to tell you we are ready to depart to retrieve Horace, Professor Slughorn, but it appears we have yet another quest to present to Miss Hazel."
"Hey! She can sense valuable stones! Why didn't I think of that?" Annabeth said. "She should go!"
"Well let us worry about that once we return with Horace." Dumbledore smiled. "Oh, by the way, it has taken me several years of research off and on to get to where you have in, has it been an hour and thirty minutes?" He smiled.
"Well, we had a better idea of what we were looking for. Professor, the horcruxes. If I were to make one.."
"You never would Miss Hermione."
"True, but if I did, I would not just use any random object. I would use something a person would be unlikely to randomly destroy or discard."
"Yes. I suppose that makes sense."
"Like a ring?" Annabeth said, as though she could tell what I was thinking.
"Yes. Like a ring. We should approach it with the utmost caution. If we do find it, it is likely to be heavily cursed." Dumbledore said.
We joined the others after stopping by our rooms for our gear. Ron and Ginny were there to see us off, somewhat unhappy that they were not going. Ron pleaded with me to be safe and I pointed out the protection Harry, the Professor and I would have. We had a nice good bye kiss, as did Ginny and Harry, and gave a promise to return safely. Annabeth assured them that if she came back, we would too. Frank, Percy and Jason sternly agreed.
In the end it was a cake run. Dumbledore, on arrival asked Percy, Harry and myself to come in, while everyone else set up a defensive perimeter. The house belonged to muggles and was trashed. We found Slughorn disguised as a chair, Dumbledore introduced us, repaired the home magically, and left us a minute to go to the loo. Slughorn nervously made chit chat about Harry's mother and father, about my being muggle born which to him made my marks which he had heard all about all the more impressive, and about how he couldn't wait for Percy to begin play at quidditch from what the Prophet had said about him.
We of course made small talk back. Harry talked about how he wished Slughorn would return to teaching if only to share memories of his parents (he laid it on a bit thick) and I (probably also laying it on a bit thick) talked about how much I would like to learn from him. Percy just talked about how the Leodis existed in parallel space and couldn't be detected magically, and was the safest place one could be, then Dumbledore returned, announced it was a lost cause and said we'd be leaving.
"Tell me about this Leodis. Could I stay there through the holidays? Is it truly safe from Death Eaters?" Slughorn asked. "They just won't leave me alone and are getting hard to say no to!"
"Do you know Sirius Black?"
"Didn't he kill.. no, there was a blurb about that in the Prophet today as well. Pettigrew is alive. He was friends with your parents and went to prison for conspiring with the dark lord to kill them. Yes, I taught his brother and sister, would have liked to have taught him too, but I did get Regulus."
"He's my godfather, and had nothing to do with my parents murders. Pettigrew was their secret keeper and gave them up. Sirius was trying to warn them but was too late. He got blamed, but he was innocent. And for the last couple of months, despite the entire corps of aurors looking for him, he has been living in the Leodis attached to Hogwarts. The Minister and Chief Auror were both in the room in Gryffindor Tower that connects to it and were unable to sense his presence. Its the safest place on earth. Well, if it is on earth, we really don't know where it is, only how to get to it. Its guarded by two dragons, two pegusi, two enchanted guard dogs, a hell hound, a cyclops and about 50 to 100 of the best spellcasters and fighters in all of Britain, oh, and a Titan. Like a Greek god Titan. Its safe there. Oh, unless you get Percy's girlfriend angry." Harry smiled.
"Hey! She's not scary. Well, okay so.. she's not that kind of scary! Cut it out, she's my friend!" I said as Percy grinned.
"All right Albus! But I want a raise! And I want to stay in this thing they are talking about. Wait, I'll gather my things." Slughorn said, and with a wave of his wand his bags packed themselves as we watched. The only thing mildy exciting was when we left Slughorn was for a moment startled by the size of his escort, but in moments we had apparated to Bob's and were in the Leodis, safe and sound.
Dumbledore asked Jennifer if it were okay for Professor Slughorn to stay and of course she was happy to have another guest. Slughorn was immediately overwhelmed by the vastness of the expanse and lost no time in talking to Jennifer about it as we showed him around. Dumbledore asked if we could meet outdoors which immediately irritated Slughorn as he wished to remain in the Leodis, but we explained that the "outdoors" the Professor referred to was also inside the Leodis. It was a confusing conversation but Jennifer said they would show him all of the place later and sent the aerials to take his bags.
"I know you missed dinner Professor, Professor McGonagall stood in for you, shall we have the aerials prepare a feast?" Jennifer asked.
"We hate to put you out, but I know Horace would appreciate it."
"It is no bother at all, surely by now you know how much I enjoy entertaining. Welcome Professor, I know we will all enjoy your company. Percy, Annabeth, I think you will like what Reyna, Leo and Piper have done with the training tonight. Leo should be waiting for you just outside." Jennifer giggled.
"What a throughly precious young lady. Is she a student as well?" Slughorn asked.
"I find that difficult to say. Although she attends classes its clear she has no need to, and frankly, of all all the Americans, you will find her to be potentially the most terrifying and endearing." Dumbledore said once we were out of ear shot, although I'm not sure that mattered either with Jennifer.
It occurred to me that all of the main trainers, except Reyna, Will and Neville, had been with us. We were adding a new group tonight as well, but they weren't due for another hour or so. We went out the door to the training grounds where sure enough Leo awaited us with a smile and Slughorn gasped.
"This is indoors? All of it?" He asked.
"Well, no, it is outdoors, just as it seems, its just it doesn't exist on the same plain as Hogwarts. Or the rest of the world. Leo Valdez at your service. You must be the chemistry teacher."
"Uh, potions, but, yes. A pleasure."
"Well welcome, we're glad you're joining us. Guys, guess what!"
"What?" Percy and Jason in unison as we walked the path to the table under the oak. We all noticed some odd drones lined up in ranks, probably 50 or 60 of them, they looked to be much like his gold drones, but these had rolled up grass mats for heads filled with straw.
Just then we heard Reyna shout from behind us "First rank attack formation left, second rank right, charge!"
Dozens of brooms flew just over our heads, their riders bearing down at full speed on the straw drones, then swords were extended and as the drones let off a few paltry sparks, the swords connected and the field was littered with the mats cut in two.
"We have Air Cav" Leo grinned like a mad man.
"Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano! I could kiss you!" Jason shouted.
"That is freakin' awesome!" Frank joined in.
This development excited everyone and we were all anxious to go get our brooms and give it a try, but first Reyna insisted on what she called ground school. Everyone landed, Ginny had been the leader of the left rank with Ron leading the right. Neville flew last in Ginny's rank and sort of acted as clean up guy, hitting anything that wasn't already dead. They flew in precision formations so that when they were exposed to fire it was with their smallest profile showing. On landing they all accosted Harry and demanded that he suit up for the next round.
The cavalry thus far consisted of DA1, 2 and 3 and had the entirety of the Gryffindor quidditch team on it, save Harry who had been retrieving Dumbledore. With this many people another table appeared so that we could all sit as the refreshments appeared. Professor Dumbledore introduced Slughorn to everyone one and he seemed in awe of the training.
"The sparks from the strawmen are to replicate curses?" He asked.
"Yes, each rider casts an aura of protection around them to deflect general curses and jinxes. We hope it will stop most, and since they will attack from the rear we should be able to supply covering and suppressing fire from the flanks." Reyna answered.
We discussed all this over dinner, a lovely lamb stew that Jennifer had prepared along with fresh baked bread and butter that was as good as Leo always bragged it to be.
"I... I don't know what any of that means, what you said about military maneuvers, but I don't think any aura is going to deflect a killing curse." Slughorn said after we ate.
"True, but the first wave in will attack under a concealment charm, not that the enemy would be apt to look for them attacking in an organized mass by broom anyway, and after that confusion will reign in the enemies' ranks. Leo, think you could rig some smoke, lights and fire to drop on the way through?" Annabeth asked.
"I think so, and I may do one better. Professor Slughorn, as you're not apt to be busy for the next few weeks, how about we make up a bunch of the strongest love potion that can be vaporized and inhaled?"
"Oh I like the way you think young man. Do we have a place to work?"
"Let me show you to my shop Professor." Leo grinned.
They would not return for several hours and when they did it was clear they spent most of that time laughing and coming up with new ideas to cause chaos on the battlefield.
After two days off the training was particularly hard that night as we worked on fighting in interior corridors and cityscapes. Archery was fun, and Jason gave a great lecture on fighting with a lance or spear (Don't throw your spear. That's what they do in movies. If you throw your spear, your enemy now has a spear, and you are unarmed) but we all really wanted to get back to air cav work. The new group was all 6th and 7th year Gryffindors and at first didn't take to Neville and Annabeth being their sword instructors. Once Neville kicked all of their butts though they fell into line.
Finally around 11 everyone was breaking up for the night and putting gear away. Annabeth, Percy, and myself were sitting around the table under the oak when Ronald and Harry came over.
"Hey, Ron and I were talking and, uh,"
"What is it guys?" Percy asked.
"Well, how would you like to go on a little quest tonight?"
"Uh, what kind of a quest? Usually those things have to go through Hazel. Where is Hazel anyway?" Annabeth asked.
"She kicked off a couple hours ago." Percy answered. "And last I checked, Harry and Ron don't work for us, so, uh, what's the quest guys?"
"You can find a way around any rule can't you?" Annabeth asked.
"Its a talent." Percy grinned.
"Right, well, we were thinking, if we found one of these horcruxes, how would we destroy it?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, I mean, what kills them? We know basilisk venom, what else?" Percy asked.
"Don't know, but we do know where there is a perfectly good basilisk skeleton that has a bunch of fangs that soaked in venom for years."
"Not bad, so you think they might have enough to.. well it makes sense doesn't it, teeth are porous." I said.
"Whats that mean?" Ron asked as everyone stared at me.
"Well, they aren't really solid, they have lots of tiny little holes that could store the dried venom."
"How do you,,, oh, your parents. Right." Annabeth smiled.
"We're in. How do we get there?"
"Right, well the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in the girls lavatory on the second floor, the one with Moaning Myrtle, the ghost. From there you have to be parsel mouth"
"What?" Annabeth asked.
"Able to talk to snakes. Doesn't matter, I can do that part. Anyway, then you go straight down a shaft about a hundred feet or so. We'll need to bring either brooms or rope to get back out. From there its a short walk to the chamber and that's where the skeleton is." Harry said.
"Nico! Jason! Can we borrow you?" Percy shouted.
We managed to get to the girls lavatory without being caught, which was a miracle in its own right, although I'm not sure any professor other than maybe Snape or Flitwick would have punished us. Then Moaning Myrtle went crazy.
"Oh! So you came to bother poor Myrtle aga..." She stopped as she stared at Nico.
"So you're Myrtle I heard so much about." He said. "You guys go on, we're going to talk for a bit."
We looked at each other and Percy nodded to Harry, who began his parsel tongue thing. I couldn't help but eaves drop though.
"Yes. I'm Myrtle, or I was. Are you going to send me... on?" Myrtle weeped.
"If you want to go, if you want to be free of this place. What happened to you was wrong. Your death was a tragedy as murders always are, thats why your spirit clings to this place. You might find happiness again if you went on but..."
"But?"
"But you might not. Most of your spirit is there already. What has stayed is your pain. I can't rejoin your two parts, but I can release your pain if you will let me."
"Then I can go on?"
"That's your choice. But I would suggest that you could serve a greater purpose here, that of being a friend and confident to the girls that come to school here, looking after them, protecting them. That is the sort of spirit that you are, a protector. You are meant to help and keep others safe, not swim through filth for eternity. That is the pain bringing you down and making you hate yourself. This splashing water about and trying to startle people, that isn't you. You weren't like that in life, were you?"
"No."
Just then the sink opened up and Jason summoned a whirlwind for us to ride down. The last thing I heard was "Come, take my hand. Let me help you."
The basilisk skeleton was just where Harry had killed it, and harvesting the fangs was simple enough as they practically fell out when we pulled on them. The Americans had not seen an English basilisk before and were impressed that Harry could kill it. I was too. We wore gloves as we harvested the fangs and Annabeth volunteered to weave grips and sheaths for them so they could be handled safely. With that we returned to the lavatory, riding on the winds, to find Nico and Myrtle crying in an embrace on the floor.
"You're going to be alright now. You won't suffer anymore."
When they arose, Myrtle was in all white and her glasses were gone. She looked angelic and carried a sword that looked like Nico's, only bright white.
"I will do as you ask. I will keep them safe for so long and so far as I can."
"I know you will. Remember, its not your fault you're here. My father must have seen something special in you."
We went in silence back to the Leodis and everyone went their separate ways without speaking too much, but I couldn't help it. I hugged Nico and kissed his cheek.
"You were wonderful to her." I said.
"Its not her fault she's here. She never did anything wrong. I just reminded her of that and gave her a job and a purpose. Now she is the protector of the girls, and a friend to the lonely and afraid. It will fit her well. These horcruxes? They are an abomination and an insult to my father. I think that's why my father sent me ahead before the rest of my friends. I look forward to destroying them with you guys. Now, you should get some sleep, you must be exhausted."
I had not talked to Nico much, mainly because he said so little. He was always the scary one on the edge, but I had not understood him. He has a dark life, but a warm, good soul.
For the first time in days we all had breakfast in the grand dining hall. I had slept well, but not long enough, but the day looked promising. Defense against the Dark Arts was back on track now that Mrs Weasley could focus on class and not Arthur and though she worked us hard she had lost that underlying animosity towards the Americans we had all sensed. Overall the day was a blur, so when Dumbledore sent for us at three o'clock it was something of a surprise. We met in the study, the Americans, Dumbledore, DA1 and the members of the Order living there.
"First, I wanted to meet before dinner today as what we have to discuss is probably of more importance than History of Magic. Not that it isn't important, but I happen to know that today's lecture was to be on the importance of Hecate in settling the dispute between Poseidon and Zeus that led to the First World War, or the Great War as some of us know it. I felt given the make up of the class it might be better for tranquility in the magical community to just give that one a skip."
"Well yeah, that was between Ares, Poseidon and Zeus's children against Bellona, Mars and Jupiter's kids, its a source of..." Reyna said before Dumbledore interrupted.
"Yes, which is why we will be giving it the skip." He smiled, and we all giggled for some reason.
"Pershing was still an arrogant putz." Reyna smiled.
"That won. An arrogant putz that won." Percy grinned back. "Who did you have in that war? Oh, Arch Duke Ferdinand. Kinda short war for the House of Bellona wasn't it?"
"Again, this is why that particular war is not a suitable topic at this table. I suspect we should also skip any discussion of the American Civil War, the First Schleswig War and the French Revolution." Dumbledore smiled. "Now as to why I've asked you here, our quest for the Resurrection Stone has reached a point where I believe we must travel to a location where it might be found. Currently the quest has Miss Hermione, Miss Annabeth and myself as its members. I'm not sure that it was the group's intent to send that party however as when selected the quest was considered an academic one. Now it appears it is no longer academic. We have a location we would like to search for the resurrection stone, and it may be hazardous."
"Who would the team like to add?" Hazel asked.
"You for one," Annabeth answered, "your ability to detect precious metals and stones could be valuable. Given that we're going to Voldemort's family home, I would suggest some major guns as well. I'd like Percy, of course," she grinned, "and Harry. On the off chance we find someone home he may be the only one able to kill them."
"Does anyone have any experience with curses?" I asked.
Jennifer raised her hand. "Probably more than anyone here." She said to everyone's agreement. I'm not sure we were talking about the same kind of curse, but she would make for good firepower anyway.
"If you and Harry are going, I am too." Ron said firmly.
"Yes, I agree. We started all this together years ago, it feels right to stick together." I replied.
"I'm going." Frank said.
"Okay. That should be enough. Any more and we are just going to draw unnecessary attention. Everyone else be ready to reinforce and rescue should we call on the, are we still calling them 'Leo Phones'? When shall we leave?" Hazel asked.
"Now, well, as soon as we catch everyone up with our findings and collect your equipment."
"Semper Paratus" Percy said as he lifted his survival bag.
"'Always Prepared.' In the Roman tongue no less. Impressive" Reyna snickered.
"Motto of the US Coast Guard." Percy grinned back. "It's a Poseidon thing."
Annabeth and I briefed the crew on what we had learned and Dumbledore filled in the blanks here and there, as well as drawing a diagram of the house. Although it was not certain the stone was there, it was certain that it was the last place it could be firmly said to have been. The Gaunt home in Little Hangleton was abandoned and in disrepair ever since the gardener that kept it and the Riddle house had died a year or so ago. It was believed that Voldemort and Pettigrew had launched the plan to trap Harry in the graveyard from there last year, but Folkes had over flown it last night and there was no sign of current or recent activity.
"Rachel, any prophecy for the quest you think?" Annabeth asked.
"No, I don't feel..." she stopped and stared in the distance, her voice deepened and she said: 'The truth is shown now, One too young to die revealed, Don't fuck this up Percy.'" as her eyes turned yellow and green smoke poured from her mouth. Then she vomited and passed out.
"Well... that was unexpected." Jason said as everyone stared at Percy.
"I'm really starting to hate Haiku." Percy said in answer. "Professor, perhaps you should stay here."
"No, I might die here as well as there. If it is my time..."
"And you can't try to outsmart a prophecy Percy, you of all people know that." Annabeth said.
"Is someone going to help her?" Neville asked as he looked at Rachel, her head rolled to one side, with vomit drooling from her mouth and covering her school sweater.
We all looked and Will said "Oh, she'll be fine. Come on Rachel, lets get you cleaned up." He went to her, put her arm around his neck and lifted her and carried her off.
"I'll help" Reyna said as she rose to join them.
"Any ideas on what it means?" I asked.
"Well it suggests one of two things. Either now is the time when the Professor will face death, or we are wrong about who is the one too young to die. And since it calls me out, apparently I'm the one to blame if we're wrong. Or at least the one that will be blamed." Percy said. After a pregnant silence he added "Its okay. I'm used to it, I'm usually the one to blame, because I'm usually the one that fucks up. Anyway, we keep it in mind and we move forward. Its an alert that things are serious now. So lets be careful and watch each other's back, and look out for hidden dangers. Annabeth, where are we on the fangs?"
"I've got a couple of them ready. I wove the grips and sheaths in class this morning." She said as she pulled two basilisk fangs, now with woven fang cozies wrapping them, from her bag. Percy took one and Annabeth kept the other.
"Let's go." Percy said, and it was clear that by default and prophecy he was going to be in charge on this mission.
We left through Bob's and Dumbledore apparated us all to Little Hangleton, or to be more accurate, the yard in front of a shack a bit down the road from what we all guessed was Little Hangleton. It was just at twilight and there were no lights in the shack, nor did it appear anyone had occupied it for some time. The thatch roof appeared on the verge of collapse and the door was just barely attached to its frame. There was a larger manor across the road and up a hill, but it too appeared abandoned.
We went through the door, Professor Dumbledore, Percy and Harry leading the way. The main room was empty save some broken furniture and a fireplace. The Professor illuminated it with his wand as Percy instructed Frank and Ron to set watch outside. As they moved to the door Jennifer announced "There is something very cursed here" and it was as though we could all feel the presence of a powerful evil in the shack.
Just then Hazel said "Here it is!" as she walked towards a cracked dish on the mantle and reached for it.
"NO!" Percy shouted and flipped his wand, causing a whip of energy to encircle Hazel and pull her across the room violently where she ran into Annabeth and Dumbledore quite hard and all three fell to the floor.
A gigantic peal of thunder rang out in the land.
Hazel screamed the whole way as both being violently pulled and the electrical shock caused her severe agony. "Percy!" She shouted when she landed and he released her as tears filled her eyes. She was clearly in deep pain from being shocked and tossed about, and was gripping her wrist as she lay on her side curled up in a fetal position. Her shoulder looked out of place as well. Frank had heard her scream and ran into the house with murder in his eyes.
Frank started to draw his sword, but stopped. "I swear if you've hurt her I'll kill you for that!" and changed into a dragon, knocking the roof off the building and two of the walls down.
"Wait!" Percy shouted but Frank was beyond that. With a clawed hand he picked Percy up, who didn't resist, he just kept shouting "Wait! I can explain!"
Frank was crushing Percy's ribs and he stopped shouting, unable to breath. We heard the grotesque snapping of bones as Frank squeezed him and he cried out. His face turned bright red and he dropped his wand. It was clear Frank was on the verge of taking his life when Hazel gasped, "Hold on, let him explain." Her voice was so weak we barely heard it, but fortunately Frank did and let go, letting Percy fall eight or nine feet to the floor, gasping for breath and landing with a sickening crack from his leg.
Now Annabeth was pissed, she had been worrying over Hazel but was rising to confront Frank and rushed to defend Percy motionless body as he fell at Frank's feet, her wand and sword drawn. "What have you done? You killed him!"
"Its... its okay. Everyone calm down. I was wrong." Percy sputtered as a small river of blood came from his mouth, but held a hand up to stop Annabeth from attacking.
"You're damn straight you were wrong! Jackson, I've always worked with you and your Greek arrogance, but I swear if you've hurt Hazel you're fucking dead, do you understand me? I don't care who you are, or who your dad is, or your girlfriend, if its the last thing I do I will fucking end you!" Frank screamed loud enough to be heard in town.
"Hazel, I'm sorry, are you okay?" Percy whispered.
"Yes, I, maybe my wrist is sprained, and my shoulder, oh gods it hurts everywhere... I hit Annabeth pretty hard. I think I got the wind... why Percy? What is wrong with you? You've never, we,,,, I thought we were friends." Hazel began weeping.
"Because when you reached for it, the ring... that's when I knew what the prophecy meant." He sputtered, blood now covering his neck and running to his shirt. He was turning blue and gasping for breath, but kept going.
"The Professor isn't the one too young to die... you are. Its you. You always have been. Thats why you were returned to us to begin with. You were too young to die. And the ring, its cursed. Its out in the open, begging to be touched, its a trap. Jennifer, can you see?"
The room was silent as Jennifer went to the mantle and looked into the dish. Annabeth held Percy with one arm and found some nectar in her bag with the other, which she dripped into Percy's mouth.
"It has three curses. One is a deathlock. If a mortal touches it they will be cursed with a slow, painful death. I can remove that one. The other two... one is a hidden portion of a dark soul, committed to the stone by the death of another. I believe you have a basilisk fang for that. Finally the last no one can remove as Hades himself set it upon it a thousand years ago. Hazel," she said as she turned to face the three still on the floor, "Percy saved your life. Had you touched it..."
"Oh gods... Percy, I'm..." Frank became human again and was on his knees crying.
"Its okay. Just promise me something." He whispered, barely audible as his eyes drooped closed.
"Anything."
"If something were to happen to me... if... I wasn't around, protect Annabeth just like that." Percy smiled, then passed out. blood still trickling from his lips. Annabeth wailed and poured more nectar into him.
Jennifer made some incantation and a dark mist came from the dish, then lowered slowly to the floor before flying up the chimney. She then took the ring and went to Annabeth and Percy. "I can care for Percy. Would you do the honors of destroying this abomination?"
"No. I'm not, no, not leaving him. Never. Hazel, you do it, if you have any strength, I think for the honor of your father you should do it." she said as she handed Hazel both the ring and the basilisk fang then returned to holding Percy while Jennifer began incantations over him and fed him more nectar. With only one good arm and still curled up on her side Hazel took the ring and set it on a stone in the floor, then took the fang and began to stab it into the rock mounted on the ring.
A moment later dark energy poured from the ring as Hazel ground the fang into the stone. We were all pushed back, but it seemed to move around us. We could see Voldemort's face in the dark cloud that poured from the ring and hear his scream as the part of him in the ring died, and the energy released struggled to attack us, but could not do so.
Jennifer healed Percy's leg, which she pronounced broken, as well as several of his ribs, which she said had punctured a lung leading the drooling blood.
"Percy should probably spend the night in the pool again" She smiled.
"And we should depart this place. I suspect dark forces are coming here now to investigate at Voldemort's command." Dumbledore said.
We held hands as we apparated away, back to Bob's.
Percy was still out, and Frank picked him up gently and carried him. Jason carried Hazel and fed her nectar until she pronounced herself able to walk. Frank would not accept any help and his eyes were full of tears. We all went to the pool, picking up the rest of the Americans as well as DA1 and 2, all of whom were asking questions and not getting answers as Frank stepped into the pool and gently lowered the son of Poseidon into his father's home. A halo of green and blue energy surrounded Percy as he drifted into the water.
Percy would stay in the pool healing and resting all night, and neither Annabeth nor Frank ever left. In the morning a now healed Hazel found them, still covered in his blood, Percy drifting in the pool, and Frank sitting on a couch beside it just where he was as he spent the night watching over his friend. Annabeth sat at the waters edge, her feet in the pool, exhaustion on her face as she too stood watch for the man she loved.
