Hermione looked at her shocked. "Iーwhat?"

Artemis repeated herself. "Would you like to join the Hunt?"

"She's asking if you want to be our sister," I piped in.

Thalia nodded. "You would travel with us. You would be our sister, we would be your family. You would have to be deaged, of course, but it could work out."

"You would get to see history happening," Astrid chimed in. "You would learn so many new things. You would be strong. You would be one of us."

Hermione looked at her hands, thinking. "Iーmay I have some time to think about this please?"

Artemis smiled warmly at Hermione. "Of course. You may take as long as you want. You will be traveling with us as we Hunt Riddle. You can decide by the time we've killed him."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "Thank you so much, my Lady, for this incredible opportunity."

We stood up and bowed to Artemis and left the tent.

Astrid led the way to campfire, Hermione trailing after us listlessly.

"What do you think?" Thalia asked me in Ancient Greek. "I'm still new here, remember? Do you think she's Hunter material?"

I chewed on my lip and looked across the fire to where Hermione was staring into the flames, thinking hard about her future.

"Hermione wants to learn everything she can," I explained to the daughter of Zeus. "The promise of seeing history being created is very tempting for her. On the other hand, she's very ambitious and wants to make the world a better place. She will try until she can't anymore. Based on her rant earlier, she may believe that this is her best option unless she wishes to turn to something… unsatisfactory," my lip curled in disgust at the thought of the jobs people take when they're desperate. "I hope she will make the right choice."

"So how'd it go?" Fred asked and I realized the silencing charm wore off.

"Good," Hermione hesitated. "She asked me to join the Hunt."

"Good for you," George praised her. "You get to live your life without Ron breathing down your neck."

"I haven't accepted yet," she told the redhead. "I just don't know what I should do yet. This is the chance of a lifetime."

"Hermione," Fred looked a her seriously. "We all know that this would make you very happy. You could do things you wouldn't be able to do if you married Ron."

George winced. "Hermione?"

She looked up and the twins exchanged nervous glances. "You know how our mom usually gives you more food than you need?"

The bushy haired girl looked between the boys. "Yes…?"

Fred fidgeted in his seat. "She's been trying to slip you love potions so Ron will have a wife who will get him to actually get up and do things."

Hermione looked shocked then furious. "I always wondered," she hissed. "I always did wonder why I used to have a crush on him when there was absolutely nothing appealing about him. Is that why you attempted to give me food?"

The twins nodded. "We didn't think it was right."

"I would say not," Astrid said darkly. "She's nearly as bad as any male. I'm going back to England so I can skin her alive!"

She got out of her seat and Thalia and I forced her back down.

"But Melody," she whined. "It's not fair!"

"No," I said slowly. "It's not. But we need to use our heads and think about this. We don't want to get the twins in trouble for telling us. We need to come up with a cover story. And we need to think of a punishment horrible enough for the harpy."

Thalia grinned evilly. "We couldー"

But before we could find out what we could do, Artemis exited her tent and we snapped to attention. I silenced the males as Artemis pressed the button on her tent taking it down.

"Hunters," she called and the rest of my sisters stopped what they were doing. "Riddle was seen destroying a small town a mile south of here three seconds ago. Move out."

Within seconds, camp was taken down.

Artemis stepped up to the men and cocked her head to the side like a bird. "Yes," she decided. "You won't be able to keep up," she eyed Moody's wooden leg. With a wave of her hand, they were turned to bugs. She conjured a jar with holes in the lid and stuck the men-bugs inside.

She tossed the jar to me and I placed it inside my bad.

Hermione took out a shrunken broom from her beaded bag and made it big enough to ride on. She eyed it in distaste and I remembered that she didn't like flying.

We took off, running alongside the wolves.

"I will never get used to this, Thalia called next to me as the trees whizzed by as we picked up speed.

I laughed happily, enjoying the feeling of running with the wind.

I risked a glance back at Hermione who was following us with wide eyes, awed at the speed we possesed.

A few seconds later and we reached a smoking town.

Thalia cursed and ran down the street to begin helping people who were still alive, struggling out of the wreckage.

Hermione landed and looked around in horror. I took out the jar and turned the bugs back into boys.

Moody stumbled around for a moment. "Never again," he managed to gasp out.

The twins looked at each other before shrugging. "It was an interesting experience," Fred mused. "I rather enjoyed it," George agreed.

Some of the other Hunters followed Thalia's example and began helping survivors evacuate.

Explosions in the distance caught our attention and we looked to Artemis for guidance. She nodded in confirmation and we ran down the street.

When we turned the corner, we found Riddle in all of his no nose glory torturing a small child of about five, her screams piercing the air.

Artemis's expression turned thunderous. And she drew her bow, aiming, and firing, burying itself up to the middle of the shaft near a certain… asset.

Riddle screamed and dropped his wand, ending the torture on the girl. One of my sisters, Katie, ran to the girl and carried her away as the rest of us circled around Riddle, our various weapons drawn.

"Tom Riddle," Artemis spat. "You have the nerve to step into my realm. Your reign of terror is over."

Riddle picked up his wand and flung the killing curse at Artemis. My sisters and I screamed, most of us flinging ourselves in front of Artemis before she could get hit. Our Lady calmly raised a hand an caught the curse before looking at the glowing green light in her hand.

"Huh," she cocked her head, not paying attention to Riddle's mixture of awe, fury, and fear while the rest of us were relieved. "I did warn Hecate that it wasn't wise to create a spell that caused instant death. 'It's so Healers have a humane way to kill already dying and in pain patients, Artemis!'," she rolled her eyes. "And while I agree on that front, I did warn her that someone could use it for evil. Of course, she assured me that her pet world's inhabitants could do not wrong, or she wouldn't have granted them magic."

She sighed. "But that's Hecate for you," and she flung the curse in her hand back at Riddle who ducked out of the way. It nearly hit Alice, a daughter of Khione, but Artemis put up a barrier to absorb it before it could.

Our goddess tutted. "That wasn't smart at all."

She drew an arrow and let it fly, piercing his shoulder. We began following her example, aiming at places that wouldn't kill him but earn a ton of pain.

Riddle bellowed and he shoved his hand in his pocket. Learning from experience, I shot his hand, keeping him from taking his emergency portkey.

He turned to me, his red eyes burning in anger. "Melody Pearl."

"Hi," I smiled cheerfully.

He laughed. "I seem to have found your elusive family. I will kill them now. Then, I will kill you."

I drew one of my hunting knives and threw it at his chest, hitting him where I had stabbed him before He stumbled back into Alice's sword, making it go through his gut.

We watched as he staggered around, trying to stand. His hand tightened on his wand and he Disapparated, but not before Astrid had the good sense to throw a tracker on him.

I growled in displeasure. He had escaped again.

Artemis sighed in frustration. "Well, it can't be helped. Next time we'll take away his portkey and his wand. Astrid, where's the signal coming from?"

She brought out a device that connected to the tracker. "New York," she looked up startled. "Upper East Side."

Thalia cursed. "That's where Percy's apartment is."

Artemis cursed as well. With Kronos on the rise, it wouldn't do for Percy to die. Then, Kronos would still come back, but no one would be able to defeat him until another child of the Big Three turned sixteen. With Percy as the child of prophecy, we at least had a decent chance of winning.

The twins, Moody, and Hermione ran down the street. "The survivors have been evacuated. What happened?" Hermione asked.

"He got away," Alice growled. "After torturing a five year old and shooting a killing curse at Lady Artemis."

Hermione grimanced. "That sounds like him. He's also clever. He'll check for tracking devices immediately. We'll need to hurry."

Artemis nodded and we set out again.

The males went in the jar, Hermione went on her broom, and the rest of us started running.

Artemis fed us more power as we ran, letting us go faster so we could make it to New York before Riddle left or ditched his tracker.

We skidded to a stop in the street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. "Where is he?" Moody growled when he was let out of the jar.

"I don't know," Artemis said lowly and slowly drew her bow. Astrid consulted the the device again. "He's around here somewhere."

A low, chilling laugh sounded, echoing around the empty streets as the snow fell softly in the late January evening.

We pressed into a circle, standing back to back, our various weapons drawn and waiting.

"My, my," we could hear Riddle saying. Artemis's eyes scanned the buildings carefully, using her superior sight to see what we couldn't.

Suddenly, Riddle appeared behind me, holding a steel knife to my throat. "What do we have here?" he hissed.

I stiffened underneath the sharp edge, Riddle pressing the knife down hard enough in such a way that he drew a few drops of blood.

I looked straight ahead with a a blank mask, meeting the eyes of each of my sisters. They gazed back fearfully, clenching their weapons so tight that their knuckles turned white.

Artemis met my eyes and I nodded.

My hand inched slowly towards the knife strapped to my thigh.

"I don't know what you are," Riddle started. "And I don't care. All I know is that you're unnatural, most likely some kind on filthy halfbreedsー" he ignored the cries of rage coming from the Hunters and continued.

"ーbut I won't stand for it. This will be a perfect world, with muggles at my feet and the purest of the pure living as kings as it should be. So I'll start with all of you."

"Interesting," I said boredly. "Particularly coming from the son of a squib and a no maj."

I winced as the knife pressed deeper, making the drops of blood turn into a small stream pouring from my neck.

"Unhand her," Artemis said, keeping Riddle distracted as I carefully drew my knife.

This was a Hunt. and it had just been announced that it was Tom Riddle season.

Riddle laughed, a cold, mocking thing. "Now why would I do that?" he asked the angry goddess. "This child was prophesized to be the only one able to destroy me. Why would I give up this golden opportunity?"

I gripped my knife and carefully turned it to the correct angle.

"Unless you wish to spend the rest of your days as a jackalope, male," she spat the word like a curse. "You will unhand her. Now."

The knife was pressed deeper, turning the stream into a small river as he chuckled at her.

"You'll be next. Wait your turn, little girl," he told Artemis.

My eyes flashed angrily. Nobody, nobody, insults my goddess. With a vengeful snarl, I stabbed back behind me in between his ribs. Riddle howled as my knife cut him like butter.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I keep my knives extremely sharp.

I twisted out of his grasp before he could slit my throat and wiped the blood pouring from my neck. Astrid handed me a small piece of ambrosia and I nodded in her direction thankfully.

Riddle grasped the knife in his side that was buried up to the hilt and yanked it out before collapsing on the pavement covered in blood soaked snow from blood loss.

Thalia tutted at him. "That just makes the blood flow more."

Alice and Katie quickly searched him for any and all emergency porteys and snapped his wand in front of him. Artemis motioned Bonnie forward and she bound him in magic suppressing Celestial Bronze cuffs.

Artemis waved her hand and his wound was bound but not healed. "You will be kept alive for now before facing the judgement of the king of Olympus in the court of law."

Ana, a daughter of Apollo, and Cassie, a dryad from Yellowstone, hauled him up to his feet and led him away with us to Central Park where we set up camp.

…

"What?" Thalia asked sharply.

"That's exactly what I said!" soft spoken Cassie was close to tears. "I was guarding him and this guy wearing rams horns showed up, smacked me back, and disappeared with Riddle before I could do anything!"

Artemis frowned. "The ram horned man… your description matched that of Krios, the Titan of the West. he is a dangerous adversary. You are lucky to me alive, my dear girl."

Astrid scowled at the ground. "He got away again."

"And it seems he has now allied himself with the Titans," I said darkly.

Thalia nodded. "So it seems. And that's bad because it's rumored that Hecate allied herself with the Titans. She can unlock many magical talents and allow him full access to power."

"But then again, he might not," Astrid pointed out. "He's been ravaging her pet world. I don't think she would bless him. Maybe, if they really wanted more power to the Titan's army, but then, they have that. You know how possessive Hecate is of her her world."

"It wasn't your fault," I told Cassie. "He probably would have escaped later. He's slippery like that."

"Thank you, Cassie," Artemis said gently. "You may go."

The sweet dryad exited the tent, hugging herself.

"Now what?" Thalia asked in frustration. "He won't sit still. It's going to take forever finding him, especially since he finally ditched Astrid's tracker."

I took out a rag and began cleaning the knife I used to stab Riddle. "We might need to call in help."

"No," Astris protested. "We don't need the help of some male." "But he will be useful," I countered. "He has a bizarre habit of escaping things with odds stacked against him without a scratch. His luck could potentially counter the Potter Luck and he's just about the only tolerable male."

"She does have a point," Artemis said.

"Wait."

We turned to the frowning daughter of Zeus. "Mind clueing me in?"

Artemis smirked. "They want to call in Percy Jackson."

...

Well? I had always planned on Riddle coming to America and joining up with the Titans and the Hunters calling Percy in. So what do ya'll think?

On Hermione joining the Hunt, she doesn't have to choose yet, so you still have time to review or PM me with what you think Hermione's choice should be and why. I've gotten a couple reviews saying yes or no, but not exactly giving me a good argument as to why or why not she should join. The reviews just say that it's not really her thing, and that's great, but why is it not her thing? Tell me what you think!

And on the love potions, I am a firm believer she was under Amortentia or something.

Thank you to all who favorited, followed, or reviewed this story! You guys make my day!

Review!

~mirasecret