Clara POV

"Do not, under any circumstance, let Renee see you wearing that badge today, or ever again."

"What, you mean the badge you created?"

"Ha, so you do care about her," Draco smirked.

"You know I support Cedric, Draco. And Renee has lost my respect right now. You as well, actually." I glanced at the older boy. Surprisingly, there was nothing flashing on his chest. "Where's yours?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. Have you even looked at yours in the last day or so?"

I shrugged. Mostly, I kept it on the "Support Cedric Diggory" side.

"Look," Draco pleaded. "Give me yours."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Just look," Draco said again. "Oh, I should have known you were going to be stubborn about this." He reached over toward me, and I backed away.

"What are you doing? Don't touch me!"

"Just give me your badge."

I sighed, but then ripped it off my shirt. "Here!"

I chucked it at Draco, and as I did, it flipped to the "Potter Stinks" side. Only now it said something else. "Potter's Gonna Cry, Renee's Gonna DIE."

"What in Hades…?" I said slowly. "Who did this?" I pressed the button firmly to get it back to the Cedric side, but the words wouldn't budge.

"You don't know?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Oh… my… gods." I stood up as if I had been electrocuted. "Renee… she didn't enter, did she? Someone really is trying to hurt them. Was it those three? I'll kill them."

"I can actually guarantee that they didn't. She questioned them on the first night. Well, I should say, we questioned them. I was there too, with Sandra. And they swore on the Styx."

"Wait, Sandra? But Sprout said not to — "

"Renee still hasn't told her. That girl is probably the best ally you all could want right now. She just seems to know, you know what I mean?"

I thought back to Halloween at the Shrieking Shack. "Yeah, I know what you mean. She gets stuff that's hard for other people to get."

I heard heavy footsteps, and then the door to the classroom burst open. "Detention, Malfoy, for coming onto another student against their will."

"Cedric?" I gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw him follow you, and you said 'let go of me.' And then I heard you say 'don't touch me,' and I looked for you. But I had to check all the potions rooms, there's honestly too many down here, and it's too echoey. Are you okay?"

Cedric kept his wand trained on Draco as he spoke.

"Cedric, that's not what happened, I promise. Draco was telling me… showing me what you tried to show me earlier." I gestured to the badge on the floor.

Cedric narrowed his gaze at me. "So you believed him, a bully who has definitely targeted you in the past, over me, your Head Boy and housemate?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco retorted. "I'm not a bully, and I've never 'targeted' Clara." He put air quotes around the word. "Well, not in the past year, anyway."

I had to avoid rolling my eyes at that. That was actually a pretty accurate response from Draco, all things considered. My first year had looked a lot different than my second, and in terms of my relationship with Draco this year was starting out even more differently still.

"Oh," Cedric said, frowning. "I hadn't realized you two were — "

"Oh my god!" Draco burst out as I protested, "No, nothing like that."

"I could never be into her!" Draco protested. "That's just gross!"

"I won't tell," said Cedric, smiling.

"No, I mean seriously…" Draco fake-gagged. "In case you've forgotten, she's — "

I nudged Draco in the ribs. "I'm a half-blood, and Draco's family would never approve." And about a million reasons that didn't have anything to do with blood status. "And besides, I already have a boyfriend at home, Percy Jackson."

Why had I said Percy, out of all the boys at camp? The only people at camp who I would be less suited to date would be my half-siblings. I mentally kicked myself. Annabeth would kill me, and Renee, if she ever found out…

"Oh gods, Renee!" I said out loud. "I need to make this right!"

I half ran, half sunbeamed to the Great Hall, leaving Draco and Cedric standing there openmouthed in the classroom.

Renee POV

At first I thought Kat was coming to talk to Mikhail as the yellow-collared girl approached our ever-dwindling group. Usually Mikhail spoke with her over at the Hufflepuff table, as Snape hadn't put any restrictions on the seating arrangements of the foreign students, and the few times she had come over here, she spent so much time glaring at me that Mikhail was always distracted.

But at a closer look, the Hufflepuff was someone far less expected. As she made her way to my side the table, she very purposefully shoved Gill to the side. "That's what you get for hurting my sister, asshole," she muttered.

People were staring now. Mikhail, Lily, Tracey, and Sandra had to pull their chairs in quickly so she didn't trip. And as she approached me, I saw she was crying.

"Wren, I was wrong. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

She sank down into the empty seat next to me, and a few people muttered amongst themselves, but she ignored them. "I shouldn't have been so quick to jump to conclusions. Seeing what they did to those badges made me realize you and Harry would never do something like this on purpose. Can… will you ever be able to… I'm so sorry, Wren. I promise I'll never doubt you again. I swear it on the — "

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," I said sharply. "There may well come a time when you do need to doubt me. But I'm glad that that day is not today." I hugged Clara. "Thank you."

"Thank Draco. He was the one who made me realize the truth. Also, Cedric thinks he and I are together now."

"Wait, what? And you didn't correct him?"

"We tried, but then Draco almost said something I didn't want him to say. So then I told Cedric I was with Percy Jackson."

"How did you even get in that situation?" I shook my head. "Actually you know what, I don't want to know." I took a deep breath and glanced over at Gill. "And for the record, I'm sorry too. About your birthday, about everything… I'm not speaking to Gill right now."

"Don't continue speaking to him," Sandra piped up. "Welcome back, Clara."

"Welcome back, indeed," a voice sneered from behind me, and a shadow fell over our area of the table. "What'll it be? Detention for, let's see… Miss Sanderson, Miss Bradley, and Miss Ballias, of course… and shall we include Miss Moon, Miss Davis, and Mr. Lebedinsky for enabling this to happen. To be completed in lieu of your Hogsmeade trip this weekend. And of course, fifty points from Hufflepuff."

"Styx," Clara whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm an idiot."

"Poor Katarina," Mikhail said. "She vos going to show me Rebecca's brothers' favorite ice cream place."

I groaned. I had no doubt Kat and the other Hufflepuffs would blame me for this. "Clara, you may want to steer clear of your housemates for a while," I advised. "This isn't going to go over well."

"You're making her do what with who?" Sandra demanded. Snape had come into the Slytherin common room to tell us what our detentions would be.

"Sanderson and Bellis will walk Hagrid's Skrewts for one mile," Snape repeated with a greasy smile.

"So you're pairing Renee with the person who abused her, who is getting the detention because he abused her, and you're asking them to do a dangerous activity with with little to no supervision doing something where he could abuse her more. Do I have all that?"

Snape glared at Sandra. "It's fine, it'll be fine, calm down," I tried to tell Sandra, but I thought about Lily's words from that one time in Care of Magical Creatures. Maybe my charmspeak didn't work as well when I didn't actually believe what I was saying.

"Nonsense," Sandra argued with Snape. "Put me with Gill. I'll even walk those Skrewts for two miles to get Renee out of this. I — "

"Quiet, you insolent girl!"

Sandra and Clara were going to be cleaning out Snape's potions supplies without magic or gloves, which was his favorite dangerous job to assign to students for detention. Snape was clearly under the impression that Sandra and Clara hated each other, which was why he had paired them together. Secretly, they probably had the best deal available to them, and they were both aware of that. Tracey and Mikhail were to help Moody catalog his artifacts, and Lily was stuck mending broomsticks (without magic) alongside Warren Montague, the boy who had thrown dungbombs in the common room. "I don't know anything about brooms," Lily had protested. "Let Renee do it since she actually plays Quidditch, I'll take the Skrewts."

Lily hated the Skrewts with a burning passion, and my heart burst that she was willing to do that for me.

"You are lucky, then, that Mr. Montague does know about broomsticks, being on Slytherin Quidditch team. I'm sure he'll be of great help to a novice like you."

"He'll just mansplain everything," Lily grumbled, but it was no use. Our detentions were set.

"If I give some sob story about how the adaptation of the badges makes me believe you, will you take me back too? Like you did with the fat badger?"

I sidestepped to avoid being blasted by the Skrewt I was walking — or rather, that was walking me. I didn't pretend to have control over them.

"You phrasing it that way clearly shows that you don't believe me. What happened, Gill? You used to get along with Clara. Now you're as bad as Draco was before…"

"Before what?" Gill demanded.

"Before he let me play seeker, and started being a little nicer to me, and started to leave Clara alone because of her connection to me," I said in a rush.

Gill narrowed his eyes but didn't press the issue. "I still can't believe that you'd do something like this, but I know you have it in you. I don't want you to get hurt, but at the same time I — "

Gill jumped back in mid sentence as his Skrewt violently blasted something at him from one end. "You actually have to take care of these things in class? What was that overgrown oaf thinking?"

"Do you have a problem with heavier people? Or is it just people that I like in general who you can't stand?" It shot out before I knew what I was saying.

Gill ignored me and turned his Skrewt the other way. At least he wasn't breathing down my neck now. Although as much as I hated to say it, I did agree about the Skrewts.

After we had finished and I was practicing a spell to ease away the burn holes in my clothes, Gill came up to me.

"You're a bitch, you know that. Doing all this for Potter? I know what you need, and it isn't this."

"Oh, then what do I need?" I snapped. After he had left me alone, it had been almost peaceful, minus the Skrewt.

"You know you overreacted to the badges. It's just them making a joke of that article. The one that doesn't even recognize Diggory. You know why? Because you talked her out of it. I don't know what you do, but you made me fall in love with you with the same persuasion you used to enter the Triwizard Tournament. You are the reason Clara ran away on Halloween. And now you're the one who's trying to stir up some controversy with Granger because you and Potter need more drama in your life. You're a bitch, a drama queen, and I hope the first task shows you what you've gotten yourself into!"

Gill raised his hand to hit me again, but I was faster with my wand. "Protego!"

Gill's fist rebounded off the invisible shield, and he stared. "That's an O.W.L. level spell. You aren't supposed to be remotely able to do that. What, can you persuade magic now too? Or your wand?"

What an interesting idea, if I could use charmspeak on magic or my wand. Maybe I'd test it out later. "That's preposterous, Gill. I'm well read, and spells come easy to me most of the time, that's all." I turned on my heel. "I'm leaving. Don't come looking for me."

Clara POV

"Did you tell… anyone?" Renee asked. I could tell that the question she really wanted to ask was if I told our parents.

We were walking on the grounds after our detentions, in which Sandra had joined me in ridiculing Snape and the whole Triwizard Tournament while also speculating about the first task.

Renee's had been quite a different experience, and it made me want to hurt Snape for her sake. What was he thinking, pairing her with Gill? At least she'd had enough time to use the shield charm she had learned this time.

"No, I didn't. I thought about it, but…"

"You didn't expose it? I thought you would have."

"I don't know. Maybe I was embarrassed, maybe I thought it would all be pinned on me somehow."

"Or maybe you believed in me this whole time."

I shook my head. "I was mad, Wren."

"But maybe there was a part of you that knew the truth. And that part pushed its way to the forefront, because you're you."

"Maybe." I said doubtfully. "Did you tell anyone?"

"Just Clarisse."

I raised my eyebrows. "That was so not who I expected you to say. I know you two got closer over the summer, but what about Thalia?"

"She was next on my list, but I know she's busy with Hunter stuff and — "

"She would want to know. The others as well, but you need to tell her. Do you know how hard it was for me not to tell Percy? He could sense even through an Iris Message that something was wrong."

"You've Iris Messaged Percy? And you didn't tell him?"

"Oh gods, you don't know!" I gasped. I pulled out Tony's letter, which I had been carrying around in my pocket as a reminder to check in on the war in America. "He was attacked with Ruby and Diamond at school. Also, he's been talking to Percy and Rachel a lot, and Percy hadn't told me about the attack, and I wasn't happy with him for that."

"Percy and Rachel?" Renee narrowed her eyes. "They aren't together, are they? Because Annabeth — "

"That's what you get from this? It's none of our business, Wren, not right now."

"Sorry."

"Anyway, they were attacked by either a Laestrygonian or a land Cyclops and Tony said that the monster said Ruby and Diamond would be of great use to the time lord."

Renee read through the letter and then sighed. "Have you told Pomona?"

I frowned. Why hadn't I thought of her. "No. But Tony's been reading a lot, apparently. Do you know what I walked in on him doing when I Iris Messaged him? Reading one of our old Lockhart books!"

Renee giggled. "I hope you told him it was trash and how that fraud attacked us in the Chamber of Secrets."

"Of course I did. I've told Percy and Chiron to get him more from the camp library, and I've been looking in the library here as well. If we had been allowed to go to Hogsmeade today I would have bought some for him. And Nico's going to ask Draco for historical fiction recommendations."

"Draco reads historical fiction?"

"That's what I said! I would have thought you knew."

Renee frowned. "Despite what you might think, I don't actually know him all that well."

"That's true. Nico might actually know him better than us," I conceded.

"What's going on with Nico?" Renee asked abruptly. "He's been even more secretive lately, don't you think?"

I shrugged. I hadn't noticed, not more than usual. "He had a good talk with Tony the other day. I think they've set up a Mythomagic-by-mail exchange or something."

Renee smiled. "I've caught him sneaking around at night a few times, though."

"That would imply that you've been sneaking around at night," I reasoned.

"Only once or twice. I went to Gryffindor the night after I…"

She didn't need to finish that sentence.

"Before you questioned Kaylee, Morgana, and Ariana?"

Renee looked away. "I wish I didn't question them. They've said almost nothing to me, but ever since they found out about my Imperius curse thing, I feel like they've been plotting something. I feel like they'd join up with whoever entered me. There has to be a spy inside the school, the same way there's a spy at camp. I just wish we knew who it was, since it isn't them, at least not this time."

Something had been bothering me along those lines as well, and until Renee reminded me of the Imperius curse immunity, I hadn't been able to put my finger on it.

"What was it Draco said, the night you found out you had immunity? That they would try to get to me?"

Renee scrunched up her face in concentration, and I could tell she was going into impersonation mode. "He said, 'Well, Kaylee said that knowing this, they wouldn't be able to "get her to give in" as easily as they had hoped, and Ariana said they'd have to think of something else. Then Morgana said the "other way" would take until June, but that was cutting it close to August eighteenth,'" Renee imitated Draco from memory. "What's bothering you?"

"Well, there's something I hadn't connected until just now. Aside from the attack on Ruby, Diamond, and Tony, there was another attack. Percy told me about it, basically it was an attack on Fiona and this new Apollo girl, Kayla, before she had moved in. Percy thought it was too many demigods in one place — their school's archery team was at a restaurant or something — but now I'm thinking there's more to it than that. Like maybe they're doing it to weaken the Apollo cabin, or to get to… to a specific member of the Apollo cabin." I was reluctant to say "me."

Renee got the reference anyway. "What, so they'd take them hostage or something, and you'd come after them in exchange for their lives? And somehow that would get you on the side they want you on?"

I shrugged. Trust Renee to voice those concerns so well. "Something like that. Because I'm the accomplice, and maybe they want to turn the tide in their favor, and get the gift of prophecy in the process."

"Well, they'd have to go through me first, and Percy and Nico and Annabeth, not to mention our friends here."

"So then they try to separate us with petty fights!" I pressed. "Like the Tournament. We're divided, and then they can play false friendships and come at me more easily."

"That's not going to happen!" Renee protested. "Look, I don't know what you're suggesting, but you need to talk to Pomona about all of this, you really do."

"I know. I just… I'm glad I'm back, Renee. I'm really sorry, for everything. I don't know where I'd be if they hadn't modified the badges like that."

I broke off at the shuffle of footsteps on the grass. Harry was headed in our direction. I glanced up and was surprised to see that the sun was setting already; everyone must be headed back from Hogsmeade.

Harry waved a hand in greeting, and then stopped short when he saw I was there. "So you've come around, then?" he demanded.

I gestured to my badge-less shirt. "Kaylee, Morgana, and Ariana inadvertently made me see reason. And that gods-awful Skeeter woman, what was she thinking?"

Harry gave me a nervous smile. "Well, Renee, I came to tell you that Hagrid wanted to see you. Us. Around eleven o'clock tonight."

"Eleven? But we'll be late for Sirius!" Renee protested.

"Sirius?" I asked.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, we're talking to him tonight. But if Hagrid wants to meet with us… he's never asked us to come this late, or at night at all."

"The last time he did, we needed to transport an illegal dragon," Harry nodded. "That was in our first year, sorry, I'd forgotten you two weren't there for that," he added at our raised eyebrows.

"Hey, you won't need to worry about being late," I acknowledged. "Wren can send an Iris Message if you end up cutting it close, and I'll send a sunbeam down to where you are."

Renee laughed. "I am so glad you're back."

I didn't want to go back to the Hufflepuff common room after I'd finished talking with Renee. Since I'd made up with her, Franklin and Cedric were the only Hufflepuffs actually speaking to me, and Franklin was the only one who felt genuine. Cedric still had his Head Boy / Triwizard Champion / all-around golden boy appearances to keep up. Franklin, on the other hand, was used to enough shit from others, since he'd taken Renee's side in the first place. Slytherin and Hufflepuff generally ignored each other or were civil enough, but since Renee and Harry's names were pulled from the Goblet of Fire, Hufflepuff's only friend was Ravenclaw. But the tensions between us and Slytherin had definitely gotten even worse since I'd made a public display of forgiving Renee, gotten six people in detention, and lost my house 50 points. With three days to go before the first task, I didn't know how anything would possibly repair itself.

"Slytherpuff!" Zacharias Smith called, ramming into me as I entered the common room. Around the room, people glared at me. I made a beeline for the hidden room and punched the "protection" password into the keypad. Tomasz and Franklin were now sleeping on one side of a divider, and I stayed on the other. If it wasn't for Kaylee, Ariana, and Morgana, I'd just stay with Renee and Sandra in their room. But I was shocked to see others using the room and the "protection" password that night.

The "Hidden" Room wasn't exactly the best name for it, since it was pretty much an open secret among Hufflepuffs, especially after I started using it with Renee and whoever else we brought in from other houses. The magic was in the passwords themselves. The "protection" password would never let in the people one needed protection from. It scanned the minds of the users and developed a blacklist of people who couldn't enter, or would be redirected to another part of the room and not seen by the "protection" users. In some ways, it was kind of like an advanced Fidelius charm in that only those it deemed worthy, or that the user had approved, consciously or not, could use the space at any given time.

Katarina Rybalzat and Rebecca Aconna had put water balloons in my bed the first night after I made up with Renee. They'd put itching powder in my socks and drawn my curtains with a spell that caused me to physically rip them in half if I wanted to leave my bed area. When I'd told Renee, who told her friends at the Slytherin table, Mikhail Lebedinsky had stopped speaking to Kat. So it took me a minute to register that it was Mikhail and Kat in my space in the Hidden Room that evening. I knew the "protection" password wouldn't deem Mikhail as a threat, but Kat…

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "I thought you two weren't speaking! Get out, Rybalzat!"

I turned to the door to leave, but Kat lowered her eyes and said in a soft voice, "Clara, wait."

I turned around and looked at her more closely. She had a small cut on her cheek, a scratch that looked to be magic-induced.

"We went to this coffee shop called Madam Puddifoot's, and apparently it's kind of a romantic place, and Rebecca and I just wanted to leave because it was full of couples, and Jasper and Callie were just flirting the entire time, and Lucy and Emma were being weird, and then the waitress came up to us, and she and Rebecca and I got to talking, and she mentioned that she doesn't love having the "younger Hogwarts crowd," like our age I guess, and I asked what happened and she told us about an incident with a couple that could have only been Renee and Gill."

Kat had been rambling, and I had all but lost interest, but I looked directly at her when she mentioned my best friend and her ex.

"It vos – was, sorry – on your birthday, the last time we were there, I mean of course it was, that was the first time any of us had been there as a group, and Renee just wanted to leave and she was mad at Gill and the waitress — I think she's a fifth year Ravenclaw — helped her get out of there safely and then tried to talk to Gill and Gill spat at her and then left — I guess they knew each other — and then the waitress tried to find Renee to help her but she also had to still be at work and then Renee got picked for the Triwizard Tournament that night and then — oh I remember, her name, it vos – was, sorry – Cho Chang, she's the Ravenclaw Quidditch seeker — yeah and then Cho said that she knew there vos no vay that Renee entered because she'd seen everything that happened that day and there was no vay Renee could have. But then Rebecca said she vos being stupid and Renee obviously left so she could enter the tournament and ve got in a fight about it that ended vith Rebecca throwing her fork at me and I said I believed Cho and therefore Renee — after all, ve all saw vot happened after I met Mikhail — and then I vent to find Mikhail because I'd been a brat, but then Lucy got up and came with me, and Emma followed her because you know Emma does votever Lucy does. So anyvay Rebecca and Callie and Jasper and everyvone else are not happy vith me."

That was a lot of information to take in, but something was distracting me. "Kat, you have an accent?"

"It has alvays been there," Kat muttered. "My mother and father tried to remove it, to take it out vith proper English. They vanted me to speak proper English so I could fit in here. I guess being around so many Durmstrang students have brought it back." She glanced at Mikhail, who up until that point had been silent, letting Kat talk. "Or maybe just one Durmstrang student in particular," she added shyly.

Mikhail and I both laughed. Mikhail had brought out a new side of Kat that I hadn't seen before. Not that I'd spent much time getting to know her, or Rebecca, or anyone else in Hufflepuff, though. They were kind of just built in friends that I didn't have to think too much about, or maybe I just had stronger friendships elsewhere. I vowed to pay more attention to Kat and Rebecca's lives, as well as Lucy and Callie and Emma. Come to think of it, I wasn't doing a great job of paying attention to anyone's life aside from Renee, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and sometimes Percy and Annabeth and Nico. Maybe I was starting to see why Renee had decided to contact Clarisse before anyone else about the Tournament. I really needed to step up in the friendships I did have.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked after a minute of contemplation. "On my birthday, why didn't you say anything to Renee or to Gill?"

Kat hung her head. "I don't know. But I'm saying something now, surely that has to count? I'm not just going to blindly follow everyone else. And I have a feeling they vill come around too. This is not the Hufflepuff way. I think that after the first task they vill think differently about all of this, even if they do not completely believe that Renee and Harry didn't do it."

"Why did Lucy take your side, I wonder? I always thought she didn't want a lot to do with me. She's always seemed like a follower, not a nonconformist. Why now?

Kat shrugged. "Everyvon has their story," she said simply.

Renee POV

"What did I say about not voluntarily signing yourself up for this kind of thing, Renee?" Jonathan Bradley shook his head at me.

"I believe you expressly told me not to voluntarily sign myself up to fight a dragon. And as far as I know, there aren't any dragons involved. Well, maybe. I don't know the first task, or any of the tasks, not really."

"Renee, how many more of our ground rules are you going to break, willingly or not, knowingly or not?" This was David. Unlike my adoptive parents, he was smiling a bit as he said this.

"I don't know," I laughed. "Does it matter? Maybe I'll be your rebel daughter."

Annette frowned, and I thought maybe she still wasn't over what happened with Tony last summer.

Clara had made me do this myself because she said it would sound better if it came from me, without her influence, but now I wondered if she wanted to avoid this lecture.

"I just can't believe this," Annette said finally. "With Tony going silent and not speaking to us, and then you drop this bombshell on us, and Clara doesn't tell us anything…"

"Mom!" David protested. "Tony hasn't 'gone silent,' he's just dealing with stuff. Besides, you know we were all like that at that age, starting to question the world — "

"He was doing who-knows-what with teenagers, people older than you, Renee!" John cut in. "He has his friends at school, what's he doing with older kids? And girls at that," he scoffed.

"Dad, I promise it wasn't like that! I knew, exactly what they were doing, and Tony hasn't talked to you about it because he feels you wouldn't understand, you weren't there… and it's not my place to tell you, is it?" David spewed, glancing at me at this last line.

"Maybe it isn't your place, but I'll explain as best as I can," I told David. Then I addressed Annette and John. "As you heard in that conversation on the pen thing last summer, Tony is a mortal with the Sight. That means he experiences everything in our world, sometimes noticing things even more than we do. Rachel also has it, and she's been helping Tony manage things and understand our world from a mortal perspective. Percy often accompanies Rachel because they went to hang out with Ruby and Diamond, who are Clara's half sisters and in Tony's class at school. You must remember them from Christmas, right? Ruby and Diamond train with Percy on the things demigods have to train on, like sword fighting and archery, and Rachel and Tony talk about perspectives."

"And where are you during all this?" John Bradley snapped at David.

"In class, generally. They hang out on campus, by the lake. Rachel has my number if anything happens, and I'm the one who drives him home every day, you know that."

"And what about Tony's friends at school, Chevy and Axel. Do they know about this?"

"Tony's stopped talking to them," David said with a note of finality that showed he was done with this conversation. "Look, I need to go, there's a concert I need to help set up on campus, Samantha and Rhonda's band is performing and I promised I'd help out. If Tony changes his mind about going with me in the next hour or so, call me and I'll swing back to pick him up."

John sighed and Annette rolled her eyes. "Just go, then," she muttered.

"Hey, can I talk to him?" I asked after David had left. "I may be able to get him to open up a bit." Tony had always liked and listened to me, although maybe that was my charmspeak when we were younger. But after the events of this summer I had a right to believe I had a strong relationship with the youngest Bradley.

Annette studied me for a long moment. "Okay," she said finally. "How do I move this Iris Message?"

"Uh, maybe just walk it to his room?"

I was surprised to see her walk to David's room instead of the room Tony shared with Steven. "He's been staying in here," Annette said with a grimace. "David said he doesn't mind, but Tony should really be with someone closer to his own age."

"If you mean Steven, I'll remind you that he's almost five years older than Tony," I argued abruptly. "And you're not letting Tony hang out with anyone else 'close to his age,' when you block off his access to Percy Jackson and Rachel Dare."

Annette pursed her lips but didn't say anything. She knocked on Tony's door.

"Go away. I've already eaten, Mom, I promise. David has a mini-fridge in here, remember?"

"You can't subsist on day old pizza and Pepsi," Annette sighed. "You're not a college student. Anyway, Renee wants to talk to you."

I heard Tony shuffle to the door. He opened it and glared at Annette. "Okay, leave the Iris Message here. You can go now," he said pointedly.

"Tony, I just — "

"I said go, geez Mom."

"Tony," I said calmly, "relax."

"Don't charmspeak me!"

"I'll leave you two here," Annette said cautiously.

"If you listen in, I'll know," Tony argued. "Go make dinner or something, I'm fine."

I turned to Annette. "Please," I urged with charmspeak. "Just let me talk to him."

Annette nodded and backed away. The message started to follow her, but at the same time, Tony and I said, "stay."

Once Tony had angrily shut the door and sat down on his bed, I could see how exhausted he looked. "Is it always like this?" I asked. "Clara told me what happened, is it always… with them and your brothers?"

"They don't understand," Tony muttered, looking at the ground. "Clara would if she were here, and David is at least empathetic, but the rest of them… Ross and Dallas have tried asking me to go to the mall with them and their friends, and Steven even tried to take me to the arcade, but they don't get it. I have to stay here in case something happens."

I raised my eyebrows. "Happens?"

"I'm having dreams," Tony whispered. "There are skeletal horses with black flesh. Death. You, fighting dragons and mermaids and Clara," he said, confused. "Death," he repeated, looking at the walls of the small room. "They're going to die."

"Who?" I asked, alarmed.

Tony shook his head. "People I know. People I don't. I have no idea. Rachel used to help, but Mom and Dad won't let me see her, and David won't even help me sneak out."

"I'll talk to them," I promised. "Look, I need to tell you something. Clara and Nico told me you asked about me when they called. And I know Clara dodged the questions a bit, and that's because she was upset with me. I got picked for this thing called the Triwizard Tournament. But the thing is, I didn't enter."

I explained to Tony about Halloween and everything after.

"Oh, so I finally have a right to know what's going on in my sisters' lives?" Tony snapped.

I sighed. "Tony, you were eight when all of this started. We had no idea you had the Sight, or what that even meant. My relationship with Clara, and with your family in general, was nothing like it is today. And you have to admit, you've grown up a lot from that kid who pretended to be Iron Man without knowing anything about Iron Man except that he shared your name. So yes, if you want to say you've finally reached the level of maturity where we can tell you some things, then that's true."

Tony looked at the ground. "Thanks, I guess," he said after a moment.

"Tony, you're doing what you can right now. David sees that, and I think Mom and Dad and Ross and Dallas and Steven do as well. And Clara and Nico and I will always be here for you. There's a lot going on, but I think you should open yourself up a little more. Mom and Dad and your brothers might not understand everything, but they want to help, and like it or not, you're still a child. I think you should let yourself have some fun before you grow up too fast. Did David mention something about a concert tonight?

"I don't want to go," Tony grumbled. "Nobody gets me."

"It might help," I argued. "Who are Samantha and Rhonda?"

Tony looked away, but I could see him trying to hide a smile. "They're music majors, and David's best friends at the school. It's the kind of stuff Mom and Dad hate, screamo punk stuff. Samantha has this spiky pink hair, and Rhonda has these bright red cornrows, and I love their music and their personalities on and offstage… but I can't go," Tony insisted firmly. "My dreams… what if something happens?"

"Tony, listen to me," I said with the tiniest bit of charmspeak. "Stuff happens every day. People die every day. But you're a ten-year-old boy, Tony, and you should be out having fun. If you want to go with David tonight, you should. The war isn't your concern, it's ours. I can't promise nothing will happen, but I can promise that I'd rather you have a good time. I think you should go downstairs, pick up the phone, and call David to come get you and take you to that concert."

"I can't," Tony insisted again, shaking his head.

"I won't charmspeak you, Tony, but you know you should."

Tony started to shake his head again, but then he stood up. "You know what," he said after a minute. "Maybe I can convince him to pick up Rachel on the way. She'd love this kind of thing, if she isn't busy tonight. In fact, I'll call her right now."

Tony was smiling in earnest now at the thought of seeing Rachel. "Call David first," I reminded Tony.

"Thanks, Renee. You're a good friend, you know that. You go win that Triwizard thing for me, okay?"

I smiled. "I'll try, Tony. Now hurry up, David needs you to call soon."

"I will. I wish I could come through and hug you right now, Renee."

"I know," I said. "But go!"

Tony nodded and waved his hand over the Iris Message.

I checked my watch. It was 8:00 in the evening. I had two hours before curfew, four before we had to sneak out to meet Hagrid. Harry was going to escort me to Gryffindor tower under the invisibility cloak so I would be able to meet with Hagrid and then Sirius, and then I would be using the cloak to stay in the fourth year girls' dorms that night with Hermione.

I took a deep breath. One down, one to go. I had no idea how she would react.

I stared at my rainbow charm for a moment. Sandra was still at Hogsmeade with Tomasz and his cousins – they were treating themselves to a nice dinner – and I had asked Draco to prevent Kaylee, Morgana, and Ariana from coming in. He was hanging out in the common room with his crowd the last time I checked, telling a very falsified story about Harry to everyone who would listen. I hated it how much he was always against my friends (and his stupid trick with the badges), but despite everything, he was still a powerful ally, not to mention the only Slytherin I could trust about demigod stuff. I wished I was able to tell Sandra, but I knew why Sprout didn't want me to. I couldn't risk it.

"Okay," I muttered. "Let's do this. Thalia at the Hunters' Camp!"

Thalia was in a corner sharpening her spear. She looked up when she noticed the Iris Message.

"Renee," she said, startled. "Hey, I just got your last letter. Those Blast-Ended Skrewt things sound awful." She made a face.

"Yeah, they are…" I muttered, trying not to think about Gill. "Look, Thalia, I didn't call just to talk. I need to tell you something."

I explained about the Triwizard Tournament. Thalia listened and didn't interrupt, even when I talked about Clara's betrayal and subsequent realization. I left out the parts about Gill; Thalia was already deep enough into her misandry arc with the Hunters. I knew I'd have to tell her eventually, especially because… well, I didn't know why exactly.

Thalia's eyes widened as I finished my story. "So they're sending you in blind?" she questioned. "Well, you know your spells at least, right? This can't be too bad, most likely."

"Thalia, I don't know if I can do it. I've only had two years at camp and here. Everyone else will have a leg up on me, even Harry."

Thalia considered this. "Well, it is strange that you and Harry… you don't know who did this."

"What do you mean? I know that's strange."

"You wrote to me about the Dark Mark, do you think it has anything to do with…"

"Yes, Thalia, I do, but I don't know how he's getting stronger. Look, there's something I never told you. Last summer I had this dream. See this birthmark on my neck?"

Thalia narrowed her eyes at me. "We all have dreams, Renee. It's a demigod thing, you know that."

I nodded. "This was like a demigod dream in the way that it was very real, but I shared it with Harry. You know how Percy and Clara share dreams and can see each other in their periphery? It was like that. So in this dream Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew – "

"The escaped rat?"

"Yeah, him. So they killed this old caretaker guy at some old house in Little Hangleton here in England. And then they were making plans to kill, well…" I trailed off. "To kill Harry. And me."

I took a deep breath. That was the first time I'd said that out loud. I hadn't even told Clara. Something about Thalia felt different, like I could talk to her about things differently.

"And then there was the Imperius Curse thing," I added. "I'm immune to coercion, apparently – it's an Unforgivable Curse that makes you do whatever the caster says – and then Kaylee and Ariana and Morgana said they were trying to get to me before Percy's sixteenth birthday. And I'm nervous about all of this, but I want to focus on the upcoming task. And I don't even know what it is."

"Renee, you're word vomiting again. You know you do that when you get heated." She put her spear down. "I need to take a report from a Hunting team in a few minutes, so I can't stay long. We're splitting the girls up more often with the threat of Typhon. But I think your best bet is to practice your Latin, because you know that helps you with spells, and keep your quill on you when you go to face whatever it is. You never know when you'll need a sword. And stay away from Harry until it blows over. You can do this."

I stared at her. "Why stay away from Harry? I mean, you know he's more like a brother to me, and there's nothing between us – although I'll need to send you a newspaper clipping that you and the girls might appreciate that suggests otherwise – but he's my best friend after you and Clara. Why should I stay away?"

"Sorry," Thalia said quickly. "I didn't mean it like that. All I meant was, don't give the haters any more reason to think you're working together."

Oh. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it made sense, in a twisted sort of way. I decided to tell Harry about what Thalia said tonight and act upon it, for the next three days anyway.

A/N:
Yes, I realize it's been months since I posted. I'm literally only motivated to work on this story at the beginning of the semester, and I hate that because it's a terrible time to want to write a lot.

Next chapter will be the actual first task, and I have a lot of that planned out already. I'm only hoping I actually find the motivation to write it. On the other hand, my personal life has taken a turn, and I won't go into much detail, but I may have a bit more free time to write a little every day instead of a lot all at once this semester.

Anyway, thank you to Ana and any other fans who are still with me.

~Celia