So after the alerts I got for this story, I figured it could do with a few more chapters and some plot development. Enjoy.

Chapter Two

Ron Weasley kicked up his heels onto Harry's mess of a desk and waited. Harry was almost late coming in again, but that was hardly a surprise. His nephews were at that young and tender age where they were really getting into the swing of sibling arguments, and his niece never liked to be left out. Harry had his hands full, and Ron would only be adding to it after this meeting.

He rubbed his temples with a long, exasperated groan.

Ron had a headache, one that wouldn't be going away any time soon.

It had been a few weeks since his rookie team of Aurors, consisting of Chand, Jenkins, and Eaton had grabbed that teenager. Everything had gone downhill since. The three of them had been so eager to prove themselves. It was why he'd taken them on personally – senior Aurors usually took on a promising rookie or two and trained them in the field, but these three hadn't been the best in the program, but they were determined. Honestly, they reminded him of himself when he first started, and he felt obligated to help them. With time and attention, they could be groomed into excellent Aurors. If he had done it, they could.

He really didn't think this confidence in their potential was misplaced.

But he really wished they hadn't taken it upon themselves to attempt to bring someone in and interrogate them without him, especially a kid.

And what a kid they had brought in.

Helena Eaton, who was normally rather nice, watched far too many Muggle shows. It was she who had been completely convinced that the kid was a time-traveling and possibly parallel universe-crossing younger Harry Potter from a past gone horribly wrong and in need of help.

Why she would leap to this conclusion, let alone consider it a viable explanation was beyond Ron's understanding. It was a little embarrassing to watch, actually. Ron himself was once more than prone to some wild leaps of the imagination, and however much he joked about them then, they did cross his mind. He hoped he wasn't quite as bad as Eaton, but he had a sneaking suspicion he was.

With a clatter, Harry pushed open his office door. He mumbled something vaguely resembling a good morning before dumping a sizeable stack of papers and his wand on his desk.

"Not that I'm not always glad to see you, but what are you doing in my office so early?" Harry said, once he sat down.

"Well," Ron began. There really was no easy way to say it. "You know that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has been having a lot of trouble lately?"

Harry frowned. "Er, not really. Haven't been keeping up with all the office gossip, what with the botched Blackburn case of the supposed Dark Wizard in the hedges."

"Anyway, they have been. And they've asked me and my team to come in on a case with them," Ron sighed. He watched as Harry processed this for a moment.

"Are you telling me, that they honestly think a Dark Wizard has something to do with what, their latest case of fire-breathing chickens?"

Ron sighed again. He understood what Harry was saying, really. The occasional Dark Wizard had been known to use magical creatures in the past, and Merlin only knew how many wizards and witches were caught every year trafficking dangerous classes of creatures in and out of the country. But it was rarely something the Aurors would ever need to be involved in, and if it was anyone else saying it to him, Ron might have been tempted to laugh. As it was, his headache just felt like it was getting worse.

"They might have a point this time, mate."

"What?"

Ron shifted. "A few weeks ago, my team hauled in this kid – "

"They what?"

"A kid. Eaton thought it was a time-traveling version of you." Harry looked at him skeptically. "Yeah, well…I got there, and the kid ran off with a couple of friends before I got a name."

"Why didn't you report this?"

Harry had an unreadable look on his face. As his boss, he should be reprimanding him on not filing a report, and as his best friend he expected to hear about these sorts of things.

"It was all a little strange, but I didn't honestly think it was the sort of incident that Eaton and the others needed to be reprimanded for. Eaton just watches a lot of that Muggle stuff, sci-whatsits?"

"Sci-Fi."

"That, yeah. Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has had reports of some really strange creatures terrorizing London almost immediately following that incident."

"And you think they're related."

"It's a possibility. I don't think Eaton was right, or even close to being right. But she might have picked up on something. There was something a bit off about the kid, but we lost all trace of him and his friends and couldn't follow up."

"I guess you have a case then, Captain Weasley. Whatever happens though, please keep this from something that has to go to Kingsley. I have nightmares about paperwork as it is," Harry said, looking forlornly at his desk.

Ron nodded. There was no reason to jinx himself when he already had an awful feeling that this was the sort of thing that would in fact go straight to Kingsley's desk.

ooo

Speaking of awful feelings, Percy Jackson was not a happy camper.

Instead of spending what remained of his summer celebrating saving the world (again) and catching up on everything he had missed at camp, he had been sent off to London.

He really regretted mentioning that whole occult kidnapping incident to anyone now. Not only because it made it his second kidnapping, but because Chiron had been pretty alarmed. And it had landed him here, in another country clear across the Atlantic once again.

Chiron was worried about the cult people he'd run across last time. If they could kidnap one demigod, who was to say they hadn't gotten others? And with Percy's knack for finding trouble and lately for getting himself kidnapped, Chiron had thought him the perfect guy for the job.

He'd been vaguely aware that satyrs had been sent out not just all over the country but also across other continents on the chance of finding more demigods. He had yet to see any of these half-bloods, but that didn't really mean anything – Percy had been asleep for a good chunk of the year thanks to Hera, and fulfilling the next Great Prophecy.

So, with a nod to his companions, they set off into the city. There were a few satyrs they needed to find to figure out what was going on.

Review, please! I should mention that I'll be apartment hunting and moving, so may not update for a while. But no worries :)