Well...uh, hi! And, immediate answer to King: No.

Chapter 16

Will

I woke up to the sound of thrashing. Over at Annabeth and Percy's bed, Percy was tossing and turning, muttering things like, "basilisks, kill!"

I shook him awake. Usually it would be Nico being shaken awake by me, but people who were talking about killings are first priorities.

He opened his eyes. "Hey Will."

"What was that about?" I demanded.

"Tell you later," he mumbled. "Disturbing dreams."

I nodded and proceeded to throw a pillow at di Angelo's face. I probably already reserved a spot at the Fields of Punishment via Nico, but I didn't care.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What was that for?" he asked, agitated.

I shrugged. "Too lazy to walk all the way over to your bed, so I tried the long-range waking. Turns out it works just as well."

Nico cursed and threw the pillow back. I stepped aside and let it land on Percy, who glared at me. I shrugged it off. After becoming immune to Nico's, glares just don't scare me.

Percy and I had become close when I had cured Annabeth's arm. He had thanked me a billion( okay, that's kind of exaggerated) times, then we had become friends.

As we pulled on our robes, Percy told us about his "disturbing dreams."

"Well, I dreamed about this ghost at school. I saw her dying. She was killed when she went into the bathroom to cry, and then she saw the eyes of a basilisk."

We continued to look at him. The story couldn't be finished. People don't die from looking at a basilisk...or do they?

"And?" Leo asked.

"And she died. Oh, this was actually the first basilisk attack, I think, because Harry's second year one was the second. I think that basilisks can kill wizards and mortals just by eye contact."

Annabeth nodded. "I read something like that in a book-Fabulous Beasts and Where To Find Them. They can kill in more than one way."

"And that's not it," said Percy. "I saw at least six of those stupid head-lice monsters attacking Hogwarts. I didn't see when it was...could've been a hundred years ago.

Hermione poked her head in. "What?" she asked. "Really?"

Percy nodded. "Demigod dreams are usually right."

As we finished breakfast, we noticed Umbridge wasn't there. As we almost passed her classroom, we saw people giggling.

Then was the final reward. Umbridge the toad girl herself. Her hair was green and puffy, which meant the spray worked perfectly.

"Oh, Professor!" exclaimed Annabeth in mock-surprise. "I love your green and puffy hair! How did you get it to look like a cotton ball?"

"Off to class!" she shouted shrilly without bothering to answer the humiliating question.

Everybody laughed even harder when they saw Annabeth was right about the cotton-ball thing.

As we finished our morning classes, Percy's dream came true. Which might sound good sometimes, but trust me, when the dream is about basilisks, dream-come-true isn't so great. We were at a corridor without any classrooms.

Luckily, not too many wizards were there. Neville screamed like a girl when he saw the monsters.

Percy stepped up. "Neville, get everyone out of here! We'll deal with them!"

Neville stood his ground. "I want to stay!" he said bravely, like a true Gryffindor.

The basilisks roared in perfect harmony.

Neville backed off. "On second thought, I'll leave," he said in a small voice.

The other wizards were already evacuating, no need to have someone in the lead. I couldn't hear anything from all the screaming( well, I actually could hear something-the screaming).

"How many are there, anyway?" Leo yelled over the confusion.

I cursed in frustration. "Valdez, now is not the time! But I think there are six."

"Thalia, shoot your arrows at any basilisk you see!" Annabeth commanded.

Percy grinned. "Frank..."

Frank groaned. "The thing?"

"Weasel!"

"Fine."

"Percy, with me!" Annabeth said. "Jason, Piper, get one...Leo, work with Frank to kill the scared monsters. Hazel and Will, you guys kill one together...and Nico, go stab any part of a monster you can get."

With that, we charged. Hazel immediately summoned a bunch of those red things...I think they're called rubies, but I don't know. I don't wear that kind of jewelry.

I cursed and pulled my sword out. I wasn't supposed to be good at sword fighting, and...dum, dum, dum, I wasn't good at sword fighting. Go figure.

After trying to stab the sword into the basilisk's back and almost getting my own hand, I gave up. The only godly gift I had was healing, and that wasn't going to help me fight the monster in front of me. Instead, I turned to look at my friends. Frank was doing awesome, as the basilisks were all trying to run away. Leo blasted their's to ashes with a white-hot flame. Thalia shot one arrow after another, hitting her mark every time.

Piper was sparring with a basilisk, knife versus fangs and claws while Jason shot mini lightning bolts at it. It's surprising how much Piper had improved since she left for the quest.

Percy was busy distracting his monster, and Annabeth disintegrated it when she stabbed it in the neck. Percy moved on to the last one, but he was too slow. The last was the strongest and the largest, and, unfortunately, not the dumbest.

It dug it's fangs into Percy's shoulder, and Annabeth screamed. Frank turned on it, chasing it away. Thalia and Nico finally took it down with a silver arrow and a stab in the gut.

Piper and Jason got their little monster down, too.

I ran to Percy. Yes, we didn't get a cure to basilisk bites yet, but Harry had told us that phoenix tears can serve as an antidote.

Percy's eyelids strained to keep open. "Don't worry, man, Fawks is still here," I assured him.

Nico stepped over. "I'll shadow-travel him," he offered.

I glared. "Fine."

Nico gripped Percy's body and they left.

I glanced nervously at Annabeth, then at the piles of ashes. They quickly flew out of a window at Jason's command.

We sprinted to Dumbledore's office. Percy's eyes were closed, and Fawks was standing besides him, silver tears dripping out of his eyes.

As we watched, Percy's wound closed. His eyes fluttered open. "Everyone safe?" he croaked. "Where's...where's Harry? Annabeth?"

Annabeth kissed him. "Don't worry, nobody's wounded."

Dumbledore smiled. "Well, we've canceled this afternoon's classes. Go get lunch."

Annabeth lifted Percy up. "Come on, seaweed brain. And no pancakes this time."

Percy stared at her in shock. "What? No!"

"For two weeks!"

Percy shrieked. "Argggggh! How are you..."

Annabeth ignored him and almost pushed him out.

Almost everyone ran to us at lunch. "How are you alive?" demanded a boy at Hufflepuff."

Nico glared at him. "You won't be if you keep asking."

He scooted away.

Percy beamed. "Eat pan...uh, pan pizza!"

Annabeth sighed. "Whatever."

"So!" said Frank cheerfully. "Where's Hermione?"

Harry shrugged. "Probably finished lunch and went to do hats for the rest of the time."

I sat down. "Nico. Rest, now. You still haven't completely healed from shadow-traveling too much."

He looked up at me. "But-"

"Now!"

Nico stomped up the stairs.

I smirked, then started eating.

When we finally finished, Harry and Ron had already gone up the stairs.

Harry looked up. "How did you not die?"

"Well, I don' know why, but basilisk stares don't kill us," Annabeth answered. "Of course that helped."

Ron groaned enviously. "Lucky!"

Hermione looked up from her knitting. "Ron, you wouldn't think being a demigod is lucky if you were attacked by monsters every other day!"

"Every single day," muttered Percy under his breath.

Harry looked at him. "Seriously?"

"During war, yes. Not during war, almost."

Harry sighed heavily. "Whatever."

Annabeth smiled. "Well, it's October now. Should we see how Fred and George are doing?"

Thalia blinked. "What does that have to do with October?"

"Nothing, just two thoughts occurring at the same time."

We joined the twins at the other couches. They were popping sweets in their own mouths, and then they held a bucket up to their mouths and vomited. It was disgusting and cool at the same time.

"Come on," Lee Jordan muttered. "Get the other end in, come ON!"

Fred stuffed the purple side of the

candy in his mouth, soon followed by George.

The vomiting stopped immediately. "YES!" George cheered. "We did it!"

They both got up and hugged me. I smiled. Now we can finally skive off class...

Then I yawned. "Come on, Nicholas. Time to shower and sleep."

Nico groaned. He seemed to be doing that a lot since I came. I wonder why...

I dragged him the old fashioned way( by the ear, of course) to our room.

"If you shadow travel again for the next two days," I hissed at him. "You will be disobeying my orders. And you do not want to disobey my orders. Understand?"

He didn't answer, but I had a feeling that if he did, the answer would be yes.

Percy came in and sighed. "Will, to make you happy, do you want me to wash Nico off for him?"

I grinned. "To make him sleep earlier? Sure, why not?"

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. The only thing Percy did was blasting a wave of warm water on Nico. Well, I guess that helped clean him very very very fast.

Percy grinned. "Done!"

I lifted Nico up and threw him on his bed. "No waking up in the middle of the night," I warned him. "No shadow-traveling to the Forbidden Forest-"

"I didn't do that yet," he said, grinning. "Thanks for the idea, though."

"You should smile more often," I told him. "And if you do go to the forest, I shall kill you. Now, off with you!"

I threw his covers on, and then walked back to my own bed. I looked over to Percy and made a mental note to let him torture Nico whenever he showered for more than, say, five minutes.

Smiling contently to myself, I fell asleep.

Short chapter, sorry, I know this was kinda late, but...well, whatever.