Over the course of the next three days, we destroyed the Manors of the rest of the lords who funded the Death Eaters. Riddle's sources were being depleted.

We sent any Death Eater we came across to the Ministry with their Dark Mark showing. We did kill the ones that were about to kill us, but we didn't actively seek out murder.

Dumbledore, however, was not amused.

The old goat thought that the Death Eaters could be reformed and made into shining members of the community.

I wanted to laugh in his face.

The Order of the Flaming Chicken ran around the country trying to track us down. They obviously didn't take into account that we had been trained by the goddess of hunting.

Finally, we had enough. The Order was getting in our way. I apparated us to Grimmauld Place and we kicked down the door in the middle of a meeting.

Immediately, their wands were pointed in our faces. "You know," I said casually. "This is war. Not a game of tag."

A couple of the members lowered their wands and we waltzed in and sat down like we had before.

"Miss. Potter―"

"Pearl," I cut off Dumbledore. "Melody Pearl. That's my name, get it right. The Potters didn't―don't want me."

His eyes flashed angrily. "Miss. Pearl. Would you care to explain this?" He threw a copy of the Daily Prophet on the table in front of us.

There was a list of articles about the war, detailing the destruction of the Manors, the deaths of the pureblood lords, and the appearance of Death Eaters in the middle of political meetings.

Then there was a call out of how whoever was going against the Death Eaters were more successful than Dumbledore. Then Rita Skeeter wondered if Melody Potter had returned to England and that's why the war was taking a turn for the better.

I looked up at Dumbledork. "Well, at least she's getting her facts right this time. Except for my name."

Dumbledore looked furious. "You don't deny this?" he asked me. I raised an eyebrow. "What, taking down the Death Eaters? Of course not! Now, I admit, the burning of the Parkinson Manor was a little messy, but I got the job done."

Dumbledore shook his head serenely. "Miss. Pearl, violence is not the answer."

I started at him. "And letting them go with a slap on the wrist is? You know, I had a chat with the god of truth before I came here. He said that you were trying to raise the Child-Who-Lived to be a sacrificial lamb so you could swoop in and save the day so you could be even more rich and famous. I bet you didn't like it when it was discovered that I was the real one who survived."

I leaned foreward and grinned nastily. "You probably weren't too happy when you realized that I can't be controlled." I sat back in my seat in a satisfied manner. "Do you know what happens in war?"

"People die?" Hermione asked, half sure of herself. Thalia clapped for her. "Ding ding ding! Give the girl a medal."

Astrid snorted and drew her knife, using it to clean the dirt out from under her fingernails.

"Exactly. People die. And refusing to kill the opposing side causes more deaths, not less, because you refuse to kill. Killing isn't good, we get that, but if you refuse to kill then you're prolonging this conflict," I informed them.

"You know what our sister told us before we left?" Astrid asked them. "She's a daughter of Ares, you know, the god of war. She told us to get this over with because this isn't a real war. This is just a guy who has daddy issues that can't get his act together so he's making other people feel what he feels."

Thalia burst out laughing. "When a daughter of war tells you it's not a war, you know something's wrong."

I leaned foreward seriously. "You want to know what a real war looks like? Fifty years ago, the Oracle of Delphi gave a prophecy about the next child of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades to turn sixteen will either destroy or save Olympus. Because of that, the Big Three swore an oath not to have anymore demigod children. That oath has been broken three times. Thalia, me, and my brother Percy.

"Two years ago, Zeus's Master Bolt, the symbol of his power was stolen."

Hermione, as the only one with Greek knowledge, gasped.

"So was Hades's Helmet of Darkness. Both blamed my father as the theif. They threatened World War Three. That was just barely stopped," I told the Order. "World Wars One and Two were demigod conflicts that bled into the mortal world. But now? Now the threat is much worse."

"What happened?" Ron asked, slightly terrified of the gravity of the situation.

"Grandfather is rising," Thalia said. "And he is intent on destroying the gods and humanity."

Hermione paled. "Kronos?"

The room darkened at his name. "Do not say his name," Astrid warned them. "Unlike you, our names hold power. But yes, Grandfather is a force so evil, he ate his children to avoid a prophecy."

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter that the prophecy came true anyway. That's the way the Greek's prophecies work. You try to avoid it, and it'll happen even worse than it was decreed."

Thalia closed her eyes and grimanced. "I just barely avoided the prophecy. I was less than twelve hours away from turning sixteen when I joined the Hunt. I'm safe."

I sighed. "And my brother's not. Percy has a habit of running into danger. I'm not sure how life will turn out with him as the prophecy child."

"The point is that war is coming to the entire world if Grandfather escapes the Pit," Astrid told them. "This little skirmish you have going on over here is nothing. We're trying to finish this up as fast as we can so we can go back to our war."

"Here's the thing," I told the Flaming Chickens. "You abandoned me as a baby, kicked me out, branded me as a Dark Witch, and now twelve years later you want me to abandon my life, home, and family like you abandoned me so I can come put my life in danger saving your incompetent hides because you 'realized you made a mistake'. You want me to come back to fight your Dark Lord issue after years of abandonment from all of you? Do you think that I care if 'hundreds of lives' of people who mean nothing to me would be in danger if I didn't come back and help you? Worse, those 'hundreds of lives' that are in danger are the very ones who abused me! The answer is no! No, I do not care, no, I don't want to be here, and Dumbledore, don't interrupt me or I will gut you with a rusty spoon!"

Dumb-as-a-door closed his mouth with a snap.

I panted from the weight of my rant and glared at the room. "No, I don't care," I said more calmly. "Yes, life is a sacred thing. Yes, we shouldn't kill. But unless you can get it through your head that if you don't kill in war, you will die and I will not help your Order. Yes, I believe that we need to stop Riddle, yes, I agree that killing is bad normally, but these aren't normal circumstances. You can either stay with the Order of the Barbequed Chicken or you can come with my sisters and I and actually make a change in the world."

I sat back having said my piece.

Dumbledore frowned and shook his head at me. "My dear, it is as I feared all those years ago. You have gone Dark."

Molly, Ron, Ginny, the Potters, Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks gasped in fear.

I stood up and glared at everyone there. "Fine. Fine. If you don't want our help fighting your war, so be it. But you're not doing anything. You hurting people, not helping them. If you want to do something, come with us. If you're trying to spy on us for Dumbledore, don't bother. We'll now."

"Our Lady turns offenders into jackalopes," Thalia said offhandedly. "Then we get to hunt them down. Tricky little buggers. Melody can recreate that affect. It's lots of fun."

"Speaking of going Dark," Astrid announced. "Do you know what Dumbledore did? He used to be best friends with Grindelwald. He's also been trying to find a way to cheat death. And," she grinned wickedly, "He bound a phoenix to him. The most heinous act in the world."

Astrid and Thalia stood up next to me. "Ladies," I told my sisters. "I think our work here is done."

We slipped out the door and left Grimmauld Place to shouting aimed at both Dumbledore for his crimes and me because 'how could I leave them to fight on their own'?.

We waited in the street for a few minutes before Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Weasley Twins, Bill and Fleur Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Arthur Weasley, and Hestia Jones stepped out of the house.

I gave a quick scan of their minds before beaming. "Right then. Grab on," I held out a stick. Everyone touched a piece of the portkey and we were whisked away.

We landed in the woods and I placed the silver cloth square that contained out tent on the forest floor before pressing the button on the top. The silver tent grew and I led the new resistant group inside.

"Wow," Sirius commented. "This is incredible. Much better than the magical tents we have." The rest of the wizards nodded in agreement.

"Well this was made for a goddess and her companions," Thalia said smirking.

The marble walls of the inside of the tent were covered in different animal pelts. The hall ended in a room with a buffet table and the door leading off the hallway led to bedrooms and a bathroom.

"Come on," Astrid led them down the hall.

We sat down and I pressed a button on the side of the table, clearing the buffet.

"We can eat later," I told everyone. "We need to talk about our game plan. We need to get more info on the Death Eaters so we can take them down."

"I have a job as an auror," Kingsley volunteered. "I can get into the record room and summon the Death Eater's personal files."

I nodded. "Good. I take it they're the magical kind that update automatically?"

At his affirming nod I turned to the table at large. "Was this information shared with Dumbledore?"

"No," Kingsley frowned. "I tried, of course, but he always waved me off, saying it wasn't important. It was almost as if he didn't want to fight a war. If he did, then he didn't want to win."

"If anyone has a chance, kill the snake," Astrid volunteered.

"The snake?" Arthur asked. "You mean Nagini?"

"Yeah," Thalia said. "It's a horcrux."

The result was instant. Everyone started talking at once. "HEY!" I shouted, slamming my palms on the table. "Yes, he made horcruxes. Yes, that is horcruxes as in more than one. He made seven. Six have been destroyed, this is the last one and then we can kill him."

"Seven horcruxes," Arthur whispered horrified. "Seven…"

"We've given you a lot to think about," Astrid stood up. "Go home and rest, it's been a long day. We'll see you next week. Same time, same place."

The people who left the Order filed out of the tent and we collapsed in the small sitting room.

"Well," Astrid broke the silence. "That was fun."

Thalia snorted and we burst out laughing, the tension of these past few days finally getting to us.

A knock on the tent door broke the atmosphere. Thalia rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'll get it."

We heard the mummer of a conversation happening before Thalia led Hermes into the sitting room.

"Lord Hermes," I stood up and bowed. "What can we do for you?"

He waved us away. "Nothing. I'm just doing my job. Sign here please." We signed his clipboard and he handed each of us a letter. He tipped his hat to us before leaving in a shower of gold light.

I sat down and looked at the envelope. In my shock, it fluttered out of my hand and into my lap.

"It's from Zoe," I whispered. Astrid looked at hers. "Mine too." We looked at Thalia expectantly and she nodded.

I picked my letter up off my lap and we looked at each other before opening the envelope as one. With shaking hands, I unfolded the paper inside.

Dear Melody,

These past twelve years have come and gone by so fast. It seems like it was only yesterday that I found thee in the forest by thy old school. From the incident in Arkansas at the police station to this quest we are on to save Lady Artemis as I'm writing this, you have grown so much. I'm afraid I'm not going to get to see you finish growing. I know that by the time you read this lett, I will be dead. And for that, I and so, so sorry.

These years in the Hunt have been the best of my life. Each of you have been my sisters, and as your elder sister, it is my duty to impart one last nugget of wisdom upon thee.

I have noticed that when someone mentions your old family, you become sheltered. You used to be so afraid of being the best that you can be because you were not allowed to surpass thy twin brother.

You should never be afraid, Melody.

We are all stars in the night sky. Do not be afraid to let your star shine bright, Melody. Be the best that you can be. Don't be afraid of doing great things.

I have given these letters to Lord Hermes to deliver a week after my death. These are my last words to thee, please take them to heart.

I will miss you so very much.

With all of my heart, your sister,

Zoe Nightshade

I set down the letter and realized I was crying.

"She mentioned Arkansas," Astrid broke into my thoughts. I looked up to see her crying too.

I gave a watery laugh.

"What happened in Arkansas?" Thalia burst out. "I've been trying to get you to budge or days and you haven't mentioned anything!"

Astrid grinned wickedly. "You know Justin Bieber?"

"Yes," Thalia said slowly.

"He's a son of Apollo," I informed her. She laughed. "That explains so much!"

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, Astrid used to know him before he was famous and all, and he was the worst person ever to her."

"We were hunting in Little Rock, Arkansas at the time," Astrid picked up on the story, her grin growing with my embarrassment. "And he had a concert that night. I was getting mad, but Melody was getting madder because we had run into town and he hit on her which is just wrong, seeing as he was much older than her. So the Hunt went to the concert and we vandalized his trailer."

Thalia burst out laughing. "Oh this is so good!"

"Anyway," I pushed away my embarrassment to continue the story. "I transfigured a pebble into a pig and let it loose in his trailer because men are pigs. And then, you know that movie The Godfather?"

Thalia nodded.

"I conjured a horse head and left it on the pillow of his bed in the trailer."

Thalia started laughing again.

"Then we graffitied the entire thing and left a sticky note that read "With love, from your aunt and and her friends'," Astrid beamed.

"We stuck around and watched Bieber go to his trailer after the concert. Security was baffled as to what happened, but Bieber knew exactly who it was. He told the head of security that it was just a prank from his aunt and her 'little girl gang'," I explained.

"Melody was so mad," Astrid remembered with a fond smile on her face. "She marched up to Bieber and gave him a piece of her mind. Security arrested her and brought her to the police station."

"I could have escaped too," I said, face burning bright red. "I was just too angry to think. So Artemis sent Astrid to break me out."

"She was mortified when we got out," Astrid laughed. "She thought she was so stupid for not leaving."

Thalia burst out laughing, rolling on the couch.

"I guess it's a little funny," I muttered.

"Are you busy?"

We straightened up and faced the Iris Message that showed Lady Artemis with a raised eyebrow. "I was calling for a staus update, but I can call back later."

I shook my head. "No, my Lady. We were just telling her about Arkansas."

Artemis smirked. "That was an interesting experience."

"We've taken out most of the Death Eaters," Astrid informed our goddess. "We just have to get the snake and kill Riddle. We're very close."

She nodded. "Good. I'll see you soon."

Artemis was about to slash through the connection when she paused. "Oh, and Astrid? Would you mind telling me why Hermes delivered a giant gate the other day?"

…

Eh? I feel so accomplished! Three chapters in three days! I'm smiling like a loon right now and my friend who's sitting next to me just asked if I'm okay.

So now we know why this story is called Stars Shine Bright! Congrats to AveRomani who got the closest to guessing what happened in Arkansas! I cracked up writing that. And that gate... My poor, sweet Astrid.

Review!

~mirasecret