Harry felt supremely awkward. He had brought Reyna to the Ministry of Magic to meet with Kingsley, and the beginning of the meeting went as he expected, with smiles and handshakes, but as soon as they sat down, he felt out of his league. Reyna and Kingsley sat, staring at each other, and where Harry might have thought a staring contest was childish in any other context, he felt trapped in a room with two lions sizing each other up, waiting for the other to break. Apparently power struggles are best fought in silence.

In the end, Kingsley was the one to break the silence

"So, miss Arellano –"

"Please, just Reyna." She interrupted him, and he gave her a small smile.

"Reyna, then. Has Harry filled you in on the procedure for the use of veritaserum?"

"Yes he has, but I was hoping we could come to an agreement, privately. We demigods value our privacy, and I'm sure you can relate, considering the fact, that I was dragged through a phone booth, to get here."

"Indeed. With that in mind, how many demigods know of our community?"

"Twelve people in total, and we intend to keep it that way. Normally all decisions would go through the Senate, but my fellow Praetor and I have agreed, that keeping this to ourselves is in the best interest of our people and yours, provided, that your Wizengamot is kept in the dark as well."

Kingsley sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I cannot officially approve of this of course, and I can't let you have any of the ministry stock, but I have heard, that a certain young man with an aptitude for potioneering, has taken residence with you. I might be able to help with some of the controlled ingredients, but that would be the extent of my help, I'm afraid."

"Thank you, Kingsley" Harry let out a breath of relief, that he didn't know he had been holding.

"Thank you, Minister, that is more than we would ask."

"This way, you also get to keep the prisoner. He is after all, one of yours. You should punish him as you see fit."

"Don't worry, we will. We don't take kindly to traitors." Reyna growled out the last part.

…

When they returned to the House of Ten, Harry felt ready to gouge out his own brain. Diplomacy really wasn't his forte, and being the go-between had been nerve wracking, especially since he was scared of one of the parties. Reyna had kept up the same stoic silence he had come to expect from her, throughout the entire trip, and it was more than a little unnerving.

All he wanted to do was to crash on a sofa for a couple of hours, but that was not to be.

"We need to call a meeting. It's way overdue, we'll meet in the dining room in an hour. Go tell the others, I'll go tell the ones at the workshop and the training grounds." Reyna told him. He sighed in surrender and went around the house, in search of the others.

When he reached Hermione and Nico's room, he knocked the door gently.

"Come in" Nico's muffled voice sounded from inside the room. When Harry entered, Nico was the only occupant in the room.

"She's in the bathroom" He clarified.

"Okay. That's not a bad thing, actually, it gives us a chance to talk."

Nico rolled his eyes. "The 'if you hurt her, I'll hurt you'-talk?"

Harry snorted and sat down on a chair next to the bed. "Nah. I'm sure she's quite capable of hurting you back herself. I just wanted to tell you to brace yourself. I realize, that you're not the most extroverted guy in the world, but Hermione's got a big family back home. Not just her parents, she's got another huge surrogate family, that you're going to have to deal with. You're going to have to be sociable for her sake, which includes Sunday dinners and such. Are you up for that?"

Nico glared at him "Of course I am. I can't change who I am, but I would do almost anything for her."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, and the two fell into a slightly awkward silence, which thankfully was broken, when Hermione entered the room, her hair still damp from her shower.

They both still looked a little worse for wear, but they were slowly recovering and were up and about, which was good.

"You're looking much better." Harry smiled at her. "We're having a meeting in the dining room in about forty-five minutes."

With that, he stood up and went to find the others.

Draco was checking up on Will, who was still unconscious, and Jason and Piper were sitting in Zeus' room. He found Percy and Annabeth in a compromising position, and reminded himself to always knock on the door to Annabeth's office, unless he wanted his eyes burned out.

As he finished his round, he found Rachel in the kitchen. She looked lost in thought, frowning at the sky out of the window.

"Did you hear we're having a meeting?" Harry asked, startling her.

"Oh! I didn't even hear you coming. Yeah, Reyna told me. I suppose we can't put it off any longer, even if Apollo isn't here." She still sounded far away, but her voice was coated with worry.

…

Most of the people looked glum, as they sat down around the table. Frank and Hazel were still wearing parts of their armor, and Leo was fiddling with a half-finished Archimedes Sphere.

"What was so important it couldn't wait till I was finished?" He grumbled.

"Leo, you're never finished." Piper pointed out.

Reyna stood up and cleared her throat.

"I've called this meeting, because we really can't put it off any longer. Harry and I had a meeting today, with the Minister of magic. He has agreed to let us use the truth serum unofficially, which is good, but we have no way of obtaining it through their official channels. The minister told us, that you might be able to brew some for us instead?" She looked at Draco.

"Yeah sure, I just can't guarantee it will work though. I made cure for Will, but I'm having trouble finding an agent to make it stick to a demigod core, so to speak. I really need Apollo's help for this. I imagine it will be somewhat the same problem with the veritaserum. If a healing potion can't work, then odds are, that other potions are ineffective as well."

Reyna nodded. "That's what we feared. We need to do something though. Joseph has possibly had contact with this Death Eater relative of his, and it puts our community in danger."

"The protective spells should still hold" Hermione interjected.

"I know, and they are very good for the moment, but they pose a problem for our new campers. They can't find us, and we risk losing them to monsters outside our borders."

"Is there no way we can contact Apollo?" Percy asked.

"No, not if he is on Olympus." Rachel grumbled.

"I might have an idea. At Hogwarts there is an entire section for summoning charms and spells. Not like accio, but more like summoning a ghost or a spirit or something. I went through it one time, and there was this book, but I couldn't read it – I think it was in Greek. It might be nothing, but I think it's worth a try." Draco told the others.

Hermione looked at him, impressed. "Great! Who's up for a field trip?"

Hey guys. I'm sorry I'm so unstable with updating on this one. I'm going through some tough times, my mum is in the hospital these days, and things aren't looking great, which makes it hard to concentrate. I still love the story though and I'm going to continue, I'm just a little frustrated with myself.

Please leave me a review!