Sirius took a deep breath. Time to calm down and think about the situation logically. He still had the Order, and he didn't just need Nico's help. Although he knew the boy would without a doubt be able to help, the Order was who he could contact. He drew his wand, prepared to send his patronus as a messenger to Lupin.
Suddenly, someone from behind him called, "Sirius!"
Sirius spun around and yelled, "Stupefy!" before looking at his assailant, but the jet of light merely shot through their face. He realized it was Nico and Percy after a moment, but they were shimmering in mid air. "What—how are you...?" Sirius realized they weren't visible from shoulders down. "What happened to your bodies?" he asked.
Nico smiled, looking highly relieved. "Thank the gods you're safe," he said. "We're not actually here. This is an Iris message. These are the kind of calls you can make with the coin I left you." Sirius examined the shining patch a bit more closely and realized that it did indeed have edges and he could see behind Nico and Percy as well, into a cabin with green walls. A bunk bed was visible behind them.
Percy pushed his head into the front of the shimmering screen. "Listen, Harry just got in contact with us. He said you had been kidnapped. Is everything okay?"
Sirius shook his head. "I'm fine," he explained. "Harry's not. He's walking straight into a trap." He explained all about the prophecy and the secret meetings that the Order had been having in about three minutes before Percy held up his hand.
"Can you tell us how to get to this Department of Mysteries?" he asked.
Sirius shook his head. "The only time I was ever inside the Ministry of Magic was when I was being put on trial, and it's common procedure to put a bag over a particularly violent and dangerous criminal's head in case he's powerful enough to not need a wand."
"You don't always need wands?" Nico asked, confused.
"Only really powerful wizards can do without. You can channel magic through anything, including a teapot or a finger, but it's a lot harder than using a wand. But can we please focus on the issue at hand?" Sirius begged. Time was running out for Harry. He wondered how long it would take before his godson threw himself straight into the hands of Voldemort.
Giving him the thumbs up, Percy said, "We'll be right over. Just let us grab some lethal weapons. Get all the allies you can, I'll see if any of our friends want to come." He raised his hand, and Sirius thought for a moment he was going to try and hit him through the message. "We're disconnecting now," he added, and then he swept his hand through the mist that had hung in the hallway. It cleared up, swirling away into nothingness.
Sirius smiled, a bit more relieved. He knew it was foolish to rely on two kids like this, but he felt that they could really be of a lot of help. Percy was invincible, after all, and Nico could do that menacing shadow thing... If they were against a Death Eater, Sirius had a feeling they could hold their own. He closed his eyes and thought about the first time he had been able to talk to Harry again. The memory was bittersweet, considering that at the time Harry thought that he was a psychopathic murderer and about to kill them, too, but it was so good to see his godson after all that time. He didn't care if Harry hated him. He truly was Lily and James' child, as anyone could plainly see. The affection he had for his old friends had made him feel as light as he ever had been. Then he opened his eyes, savoring that moment of joy. "Expecto patronum!" he cried, and a large black dog exploded from the tip of his wand. "Tell the members of the Order that Harry is in trouble and they need to meet at Headquarters as soon as possible," Sirius ordered. He had never done the whole patronus messenger thing before, but he hoped that it had worked right.
Within the hour, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and a few other members had arrived. It wasn't as many as he had been hoping for, and Nico and Percy were still nowhere to be found. Moody was checking his pocket watch and tapping his real foot impatiently. "We can't wait any more, Black," he growled at Sirius.
"Just a few more minutes," he pleaded. "We'll go in two minutes. Let's give any other members time to arrive." Sirius hadn't been quite sure how to broach the subject that he had invited Percy and Nico to join them on the rescue mission, so he had just figured that they could help him out when they got there.
Suddenly, one of the floorboards creaked behind them. Everyone spun around and aimed their wands at the intruders, but it was just Percy and Nico, who were standing in the corner of the room. With them was a blond girl with stunning gray eyes that were full of cold intelligence. "Nico!" Lupin cried, shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"We're going to help," Nico said. "You've met Percy," he added, gesturing to his cousin. "This is Annabeth. She's a really good fighter."
Sirius held his breath and looked at Moody, who seemed to be considering it. "I don't like it," he grunted. Then he paused. "But you're not too bad, kid. I know you came to visit Sirius. I listened in on your conversation." Sirius felt like a naughty little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Moody knew the whole time? "You seem trustworthy and we could always use an invulnerable guy backing us up."
Annabeth interrupted, which didn't make Moody look too happy. "Do you have a knife I could borrow?" she asked. "This one doesn't cut mortals very well."
Moody gave her a skeptical false eye roll, which was unsettling to anyone who looked at it. Annabeth met his gaze and didn't change her expression. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She shrugged. "It just passes straight through humans, which is who I expect we'll be dealing with. And I don't have umbrakinesis like Nico here, so I kind of need a pointy object to help with." Sirius wasn't entirely sure what umbrakinesis was, but Nico pointed his finger at Moody and his shadow twisted off the ground, which gave him a pretty good idea.
Tonks turned to the kitchen. "Accio knife," she called, waving her wand. A sharp kitchen knife flew out of a drawer and towards them. "Eep!" Tonks ducked out of the way of the blade, which was heading straight towards them. Annabeth, however, snaked out her hand and caught it mid air. She examined it. The wooden handle didn't seem quite to her liking, but she just shrugged and tucked it in her belt.
"So how will we be getting there?" she asked. "Nico can't possibly shadow travel the whole group there without fainting." Nico shot her a glare that suggested he thought otherwise. Or maybe he just didn't like being undermined in front of other people.
"We'll be Apparating," Moody informed her. "You three don't have wands, do you? Grab on to a member of the Order and don't let go." Nico grabbed Sirius's sleeve and gave him a weak smile, which seemed to be his way of reassuring him. Sirius didn't feel much better. Annabeth clamped down on Lupin's shoulder, and Percy grasped Tonks by the wrist. With a pop, Sirius watched Moody Disapparate, and he followed suit, keeping a tight grip on Nico with his free hand. The last thing he wanted to do was drop him or get him splinched along the trip. When they landed in the hallway that was outside the Department of Mysteries, Nico wasn't looking too good. He was paler than usual and breathing hard.
"That was horrific," he said. Percy too, was slightly sick looking. Oddly enough, Annabeth was the only one completely composed. Even her blond curls were still perfect, and her eyes hadn't changed in the slightest.
"That's Apparating for you. Now, everyone follow closely and pay attention to which doors we take from now on," Moody said brusquely. "We may have to retrace our steps a few times, as the Department was created to be a confusing maze for any intruders." He pushed open the door and Sirius stepped inside.
He had never been in this part of the Ministry before. The room had black bricks and little lighting, and the wall was lined with doors. It was a circular room, which struck him as odd. Behind them, the door slammed shut and they had nowhere to go but further into the room. As they began trying doors, they realized that they had no idea which door they had come in anymore.
"We could be trying doors all night," Tonks said, thinking out loud. Sirius pounded a fist against the wall in a rage.
"What are you talking about?" Nico asked. They all looked at him. "It's this door." He pointed at a door that was on the opposite wall from them.
"What?" Lupin was clearly confused. "How do you know?"
Nico seemed uncomfortable with all the attention. Everyone was staring at him now, except for Percy and Annabeth, who were striding across the floor towards that door. "The promise of death and destruction is definitely behind this door," he told them, following his friends to the door. "Not real death yet, but I figure that sounds like someplace we ought to be heading towards."
"He could be referring to the prophecies. I'm sure lots of them have death and destruction involves," Lupin said quietly to Moody, but loud enough that Sirius was able to hear.
"He could be wrong," Moody shot back, but Sirius and Tonks were now joining the kids at the door.
"Think you can lead us all the way there?" Tonks asked, pulling the door open and walking through. Nico nodded seriously and began hurrying down the passage. The Order had to pick up the pace in order to keep up. Suddenly Nico hung a sharp left and changed course. He led them for about ten minutes through the maze of twists and turns within the Department before coming to a stop in front of an old door. To their surprise, the door was open and Dumbledore was striding through it. Somehow he had beat them there, even though they had seen no sign of him the whole time.
"Oh, you arrived much faster than I expected," he said when he saw them. Annabeth went for her knife, obviously suspicious of the powerful old wizard, but Moody grabbed her wrist. "I was going to hurry to the rescue, but I'm so glad you could join me."
Sirius followed the wizard into the room, where Harry and his friends were obviously losing badly. Hermione and Ron were nowhere to be found, a boy was lying on the ground bleeding from his nose and mouth, and Harry was squaring off with three Death Eaters on his own. "Stupefy!" he roared, shooting a spell directly into the Death Eaters. One of them dropped to the floor.
"Where are the others?" Tonks asked.
"There are other kids here?" Annabeth asked, looking assertive and confident. Tonks nodded as she began shooting hexes and the like at the Death Eaters. They were fleeing back down a flight of stairs, and she looked like she wanted to chase them. "We'll handle that. Percy, you and I will go find and help the other kids. Nico, you follow Sirius and help there." She paused and gave Percy a quick peck on the cheek. "Just in case."
"We're not going to die," Percy told her confidently, but there was a slight note of concern in his voice now. "Right?"
"Of course," Annabeth replied, pulling out a baseball cap from her back pocket. "Athena always has a plan." Then she put on the hat and literally vanished. Sirius stood there a moment, stunned by her disappearance, but Percy had gone running off towards an open door and was presumably being followed by Annabeth. Nico had already begun to pursue the Death Eaters into the large room, and Sirius had no time to waste.
Harry was in trouble.
Percy and Annabeth split at the first intersection. Percy had been intending to stay with her, as they had no idea how many of these guys there were going to be, but he heard the sound of frantic yelling coming from one end of the hallway and a scream for help coming from the other end. Annabeth took off the hat long enough to point out which way she was going. "Good luck, Seaweed Brain," she told him, before vanishing once more and taking off.
Percy nodded and ran towards where the increasingly nerve wracking yells were coming from. He burst through a door and drew Riptide. Rows and rows of tanks full of weird creatures lined the walls. A red haired boy with a large squid-y thing attached to his head was on the ground, in trouble, and a blond girl lay on the floor with her arm bent in the wrong direction. Next to him, some guy in a weird mask was aiming a stick at his chest. Percy got the feeling this was a really bad situation and he raised Riptide. Then he did the only thing he could think of. "Hey, ugly," he shouted.
The guy looked up and instantly aimed his stick at Percy. "Avada kedavra," he yelled at Percy. The green jet of light did nothing to Percy but bounce off and dissipate in the corner. Just as expected. Percy ran at him, raising his sword. The man kept shooting spells at him, but they had the same effect—nothing. He was about three steps away from him when he realized that his only weapon wouldn't hurt mortals.
So he did the natural thing. He raised his hand and the glass on the tanks shattered, temporarily distracting the guy from firing anymore useless spells at him. Then the water spilled out and began to snake around the man's body, tying him up like a big rope.
His enemy incapacitated, Percy turned to the kid on the ground. "Let him go," he ordered the creature. It took one look at him and let go of the boy's head, peeling back to lie limp on the floor in submission. He picked it up and stuffed it in a random tank. He would never kill a sea creature if he could help it. Even if it did suck on people's heads, probably very painfully and cruelly, he was Poseidon's son. Even if it looked like a weird science project gone wrong, it was still a sea animal. He had compassion for those kind of creatures, too.
Percy knelt beside the boy, whose eyes were slowly beginning to flutter open.
"Bloody hell," he cried when he did come to. "Harry's in trouble." He struggled to get to a sitting position, but Percy put his hand on his chest and forced him to lie back down.
"I doubt you're in much condition to fight," he told him. "Why don't you keep an eye on her instead?" He jabbed his thumb at the unconscious girl with the broken arm.
The boy looked at her, both disappointment and relief apparent on his face. "What...? Okay, I could do that," he said. "What do I do if he wakes up?" He pointed a shaky hand at the masked man.
Percy regarded the man who had now fainted under the death-like vice of Percy's water rope. "I'll haul him out of here when I go and lock him in some other room along the hallway. If I take away the stick, he's as good as a mortal, right?"
The red head gave him a funny look, but nodded. "Yes, basically."
"Well then," Percy said, picking up the stick and easily snapping it in two. "He won't be much of an issue anymore now, will he?" He dropped the remains of the rod into the boy's hands. "In an hour, this should all be over. By then, you can take her and come find us." Percy grabbed the unconscious man by his foot and dragged him across the door to the hallway.
He glanced back to see the boy snapping the guy's wand into more and more pieces and gave an unintentional smile. Then he locked the man up as promised and ran to find Annabeth.
Annabeth found the cries of help easily enough. They were coming from a girl who had been grabbed by the neck by a man in a black robe. He had the tip of a wooden stick pressed to her neck. She tried to recall what she vaguely knew about this world that Percy had explained on their way through the shadow realm, but honestly she had been distracted by the sense of emptiness and impending abyssal doom. All she could really recall was that those wands were weapons for these people. She lunged across the room, still invisible, and slashed across his wrist with her knife. He yelled and dropped the knife. The girl slipped out of his grasp and fell to the ground, breathing hard. A bushy haired girl grabbed her and pulled her to her feet.
And now what? Annabeth hadn't exactly grown up normally, but she had never killed a mortal. At least not intentionally or when it could be avoided by any means possible. In fact, there had only been one instance, and that had really been Luke who delivered the final blow. She had never killed anything that wasn't going to explode into a shower of golden dust when they finished with it. Even the demigods who supported Kronos last summer were only slightly scratched up and disarmed when she was finished with them. She wasn't totally confident about cutting up someone who she didn't even know. It went against her moral code.
Annabeth glanced around for a potential weapon. The guy was still gripping his cut wrist and writhing, and she took that opportunity to step on his wand hard enough to snap it. He looked down to see an invisible hand—er, foot—break his only weapon in two. Now she just needed to tie him up or something. Her eyes raked the room. This shouldn't be too hard. She was the daughter of Athena, for crying out loud!
There was her answer, lying on the floor. A big shag rug was spread out. If she could roll him up in it, it would be fine to leave him on the floor. Annabeth took the opportunity while he was still distracted to tackle him to the ground. He rolled her so that she was pinned, but Annabeth kicked him hard in between the legs, hard. Easily gaining control of the situation, Annabeth quickly wrapped the rug over him and rolled it up as fast as she could. He started thrashing around when he realized what she was doing, but when the roll was complete, she hauled a desk over and dropped it on top of him.
"That ought to keep him put," Annabeth said, taking off her cap and brushing her hands off on her jeans.
The two girls she had come to save were now gaping at her. "Who are you?" asked the bushy haired girl.
"My name's Annabeth Chase, but we can chat later," Annabeth told them, a bit annoyed. The middle of a battle was no time to be striking up a conversation with someone. "For now, we should go regain the fight. You can fight, right?" It wasn't that she normally would have doubted a kid's ability to fight—they brought a thirteen year old boy here, after all—but she wasn't sure what kind of training these people had.
The bushy haired one nodded. "We know some aggressive spells. I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ginny Weasley." Ginny gave her a small, thankful smile. "We need to find Harry, Voldemort's looking for him," she added, her eyes widening in realization.
Annabeth didn't know who that was, but she figured they could ask questions after they kicked Voldemort's butt. "Come on," she told them, running for the door. She led them back down the long hallway and through the door to where she had seen Nico's friends go running through. Even now, she didn't really know their names. Percy had asked her to come help some of Nico's friends that were in trouble, and she had agreed. Normally, Nico put her a little on edge, but she would willingly help him with whatever he needed. And Percy had asked, so of course she was willing.
The room that the battle was now taking place in was a round room, made of stone. In the center, there was a platform that had a large curtain sitting on it. Annabeth shivered. The curtain gave her the same feeling that Nico let off—it was not something she wanted to go near, at all. Briefly, she was reminded of her short visit to the Underworld the first year she knew Percy. The whole time they had been there, there was the sensation of having her soul torn from her body. Percy and Grover hadn't realized it, but if you stayed in the Underworld while still alive for too long, that was exactly what would happen to you. You died. They had been lucky to have the pearls from Percy's dad, or she doubted they would have gotten back out alive. She had chosen not to mention to them exactly how close to dying they had come. But now there was the feeling of having her soul ripped away again. It was being pulled towards that strange veil.
It looked like Nico's friends could hold their own in a fight. They were making a comeback and really knocking a lot of Death Eaters unconscious. The one Nico was closest to, Sirius or something, was locked in combat with a wild eyed woman. She was cackling and shooting all sorts of strange jets of light out of her wand. Annabeth suspected those jets would be highly fatal if any of them touched her.
She turned to see where she could help and watched as Hermione was battling another robed man. It was clear that the girl was losing, as she was a lot smaller and was being overpowered fast. He drew his wand and started to make a sign in the air, and Annabeth knew she had to stop it. She lunged forwards, drawing the kitchen blade and shoving Hermione out of the way. Before she could stab him in the arm to make him drop his stick, a line of purple flames exploded mid air. Annabeth reeled backwards but they ran across her chest. Her eyes widened in shock as everything started to go black. The last thing she saw was Hermione aiming her stick at the man and yelling, "Expelliarmus!"
Nico turned at the sound of Percy's yell just in time to see Annabeth slump to the ground. He grabbed his attacker by his own shadow and pinned him to the ground, breaking his wand in one smooth motion. Percy was running to Annabeth's side and shaking her, trying to get her to open her eyes. Annabeth remained limp in his arms.
Fury filled Nico. Annabeth had taken a chance in trusting him and coming to help his friends, and now he had put her in harm's way. Mostly, he was angry with himself, but he swung around and directed all of his hatred straight at the nearest target, an unfortunate robed man that found himself wrapped in shadows and banished to the shadow realm. He narrowed his eyes. Who could he get rid of next?
A pile of rubble had landed on the ground near him when a missed curse blew up a portion of the wall. Nico raised his hand and the rocks rattled and shot into the air. Then he turned to help Sirius with his fight. His friend was on the platform, dueling with a curly haired witch. As he watched, already reeling back the enchanted rubble to fling at the girl's head, Sirius dodged a curse and threw back his head to laugh. "Is that the best you can do, cousin?" he taunted.
The witch raised her wand, an insane sparkle to her eye, and shot a curse that knocked him back off his feet. Before his eyes, his friend flew against the curtain... and then went through it. But he didn't reappear on the other side. Shocked, Nico dropped all of the rocks as the witch began to cackle. His body felt numb. He barely noticed when her shadow flew up and broke both her arms simultaneously—it had been a subconscious action.
Nico began striding towards the veil. Next to him, he could see Harry frozen in place, horrified, but he didn't stop to help him. Someone grabbed his shoulder roughly. "Nico, stop," Lupin ordered him. "You can't do anything now, he's dead." He turned his head to see tears sparkling in Lupin's eyes, but there was nothing in his own gaze, he knew. Nico wasn't going to cry over this just yet.
"I can help," he said. "I can save him." Lupin shook his head sadly.
"Nobody can save him," Lupin told him. "He's gone." All around them, the battle raged on, but to Nico's ears, everything was deadly quiet. He shook off Lupin's hand and ran to the platform in the center of the room. As he stood in front of the veil, Nico knew exactly what was on the other side of it. The Underworld was right beyond this gate. If he was right, this would be a fast way to get in without having to die. With any luck, this wouldn't drop him straight in the middle of Dad's court. He'd probably be obliterated on the spot before he noticed it was him. Actually, he'd probably be obliterated even if he noticed. Hopefully, Sirius wasn't there, either.
Before he stepped inside the Underworld, Nico glanced back to see Lupin shaking his head at him frantically. "I'll be back soon with Sirius," he promised, and then he pushed through.
A/N: I am now aware I can't write action scenes to save my life. Something to work on in the future! But right now, I'm trying to finish this because there's only 1 MORE CHAPTER! And I go to camp on Saturday, so I don't want to leave you hanging on this thing for a whole month. I think you would feel the same, right? I've decided that if I do the epilogue, it won't be until I get back. Or maybe not at all. Do you guys think I should?
Also, if there is a sentence that lacks a verb or something, please mention it to me... I wrote and edited around 1 AM, so I wasn't thinking my clearest. Sowwy!
Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think!