To Guest: your idea was interesting, but I had this part planned for a while.

Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Five

As soon as the giant, two-headed snake thing appeared, Ron seriously regretted getting up that morning. From the strained, and oddly resigned look Harry gave him as he and the teenagers backed as far away from the thing as they could, he thought Harry must be thinking the same thing.

That, or he was already imagining the horrific amounts of paperwork this incident would surely entail.

Either way, Ron didn't have much time to think about it, because the particularly vicious girl with the spear looked like she was ready to knock them out at any moment.

Then the blonde girl caught her attention.

"Clarisse! We need to kill this thing first."

She glared at them fiercely. "Whatever you say, Princess," she snarled.

Harry had clearly had enough of all this. He (or Ron for that matter) was not going to let a bunch of teenagers handle this alone, even if they seemed more than capable and equipped to do so. Ron sensed there was something vaguely hypocritical about this statement, but now was not really the time for any sort of self-reflection.

The teens brandished their weapons, and appeared to be consulting each other on some sort of battle plan. The ginormous snake thing was fluidly propelling its scaled, sinuous body across the rubble. It did not appear to be moving nearly as fast as it was capable of, however, and Ron almost felt like they were being toyed with.

He hadn't felt this helpless since he was a teenager himself.

Harry had stalked forward, wordlessly firing defensive spell and spell at the thing. Ron had quickly joined in, though their combined efforts had repelled the thing back a few paces, it had done little else.

And then they were tackled again, for the second time in as many minutes.

This was getting a little embarrassing.

It was the blonde who had blind-sided them; her serious gray eyes were flickering between their wands and her companions who were each battling a snakehead and what looked like unsightly amounts of poison.

She snapped her fingers at them, just as a gust of wind whipped their clothes.

"Please stay here. You know your weapons aren't working. In fact, you shouldn't even be here. You should get very far way, and forget you ever came."

They both frowned at her. It was almost as if she was trying to Obliviate them without a wand. The girl frowned, obviously frustrated.

"Just stay here."

Before they could comment on that, she'd run off to help.

Harry started forward, obviously irked by a girl not much older than Victoire handing out orders.

"Now hold on a minute mate, she's got a point. I think we'd only get in the way."

"This is ridiculous. Why didn't any of our spells work? Who are these kids?"

Harry was frowning in such a way that made Ron think unpleasantly of the summer before fifth year, and how well Harry did not take to being left out of the loop.

"Oh, it's an amphisbaina! How fascinating," said a voice immediately behind them.

They both jumped.

Ron, if he was honest, was not at all surprised to see his wife. Some part of him had even vaguely been wondering what was taking her so long – she could hardly stay out of such situations.

"Hermione!" Harry sounded both startled and exasperated. "What are you doing here?"

Hermione gave him a Look, one Ron was more than familiar with. "Did you really think you could hide something like this from me? Who do you think arranged for our departments to work together?"

"What? Aren't you working on something for the house elves?"

"I am capable of multitasking, Harry."

"And I think we ought to step back," Ron interjected.

He had been watching their progress with the amphisbaina, or whatever Hermione had called it. The poison dripping off the fangs of both of its heads seemed to be giving the teens a bit of trouble.

"Hermione, you called it something. You know what it is?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'm fairly certain. I read the reports on what people were seeing, and I had an idea on where to look. Oddly, I only could find references in Muggle texts on mythology, but –"

"Do you know why our spells had no effect?" Harry cut her off.

Before she could answer, the amphisbaina burst apart into a cloud of glittering dust that was quickly blown away by the wind.

Nonplussed, the three of them watched as the teens warily approached them. Hermione was eyeing them critically. She had that look on her face – the one that made Ron swear he could actually hear her thinking. She had, once again, noted something both obvious and critically important about these teenagers. Where Ron had once resented Hermione's brilliance, he could truly appreciate it in moments like this. A look of shock had lit up her face.

"Merlin's Pants," she breathed. "It shouldn't even be possible. But the bronze, combined with the monsters… this could change everything!"

The teens were now only a few feet away from them, their weapons conspicuously held at their sides, but at least not pointed at them. Harry and Ron, who had both raised their wands, lowered them when Hermione made impatient gestures at the both of them. Years of habit coupled with the knowledge that she had rarely steered them wrong was enough to trump Auror protocol.

The three teens were having a whispered conversation that Ron could only just make out, and what he heard was confusing without Hermione nearly thrumming with excitement beside him. Judging by the expression on Harry's face when he glanced at him, they both thought that didn't bode well.

"Maybe you should try manipulating the Mist again," the boy muttered.

"I don't think it's going to work on these people," the blonde said.

Was that what she was trying to do earlier? Whatever it was, Ron didn't have the time to wonder.

"You know," Ron began, "the first time we met might have been an accident on my team's part. But this isn't looking good for you, mate."

The boy grimaced.

"We can explain – "

"Yes I think you need to," Harry cut in. "Between the creatures we've never heard of, and your weapons, there's a lot going on here that I would like an explanation for. Don't attempt to lie, either. I know the look of a kid trying to talk himself out of trouble."

None of the teens appreciated that last bit at all.

Ron himself thought it was a little unfair; they'd done the same thing in school, and he had a feeling these teens were in a similar situation.

"Well?" Harry asked.

The three frowned at each other.

"Oh, I think I have an explanation for you, Harry," Hermione said. There was a smug look on her face. "They're demigods."

Note: Next chapter is the last. So I have a couple questions for you: would you like to see the end from the wizard's perspective? And do you want them to remember this experience? Don't forget to review :)