Sup! Well, hi...this is chapter 24.

Chapter 24

Okay, so because the last update was actually half of what I actually have for the chapter, this will be Nico's POV again.

As we finally went to breakfast after Percy's stomach growling, like, a hundred times, Harry's Quidditch captain ran up to us.

"Potter and Weasley!" She called. "Quidditch practice today at six. And tomorrow, all right? Hopefully another one after that...which would be Thursday, right? Anyway, just make sure you're there." She looked at Ron, who's mouth was dropped open. "Got that?"

"Uh...maybe. But are you talking about daily practices? It's the O.W.L.s year! How are we supposed to do all our homework?"

Angelina frowned. "You're right. Okay then, I'll give you Sunday off, maybe. That's enough for studying, right? Okay, bye. And enjoy...whatever your first class is!"

Turns out our first class is Transfiguration. And guess what? We did enjoy it! Well, only the end, when McGonagall sent us off with no homework.

Hermione raise her hand. "Er... Professor?" she asked. "You've forgotten to assign homework."

I groaned. Ugh, just as I thought McGonagall would forget, Hermione just had to step up and mention the terrible substance known to humans as...homework. But turns out, Professor McGonagall didn't forget. She was just being awesome.

"Well, to those who are on the team, please practice Quidditch harder. For those of you not...please help the players the best you can."

I don't know if anyone planned this or not (okay fine, I do know. And the answer is no), but practically everybody's mouths dropped open at the same time. And I say practically because Ron was still squinting and trying to figure out what in the world was going on, and I was still twirling my skull ring on my finger. As a son of Hades, it wasn't easy to get little things like homework to faze me. I smiled as I remembered Reyna having the same habit as me-twirling the ring.

She was the only real friend I had-besides Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Will, of course. After going on a super-important quest with her, getting her strength to shadow-travel, and letting her take care of me every time I collapsed from exhaustion, it was hard not to admire and befriend her.

Anyway, as most people gaped at her, she smiled. "I'm quite hoping the Quidditch cup will end up on my desk again. Work hard, will you?"

Woah...she's serious about this. I've never seen her serious about anything but turtles before, because she was the Transfiguration teacher. Just kidding, she was serious about Transfiguration. Just threw that in there to see if you were paying attention.

Harry and Ron nodded in dull shock. Clearly, nobody's seen Professor McGonagall this kindharded looks like she really wants to get the Quidditch cup instead of Snape, who's Slytherin team had won practically every time...of course, until Harry came in.

McGonagall giving Gryffindors lots of time for practice is good and all, but the only problem is Snape. He was making it pretty difficult for us by booking the field so much that Harry's team can't practice as much.

As Harry and Ron went to practice, and Hermione went to the girls dormitory, we were left alone in the common room. Everybody else was somewhere else. The demigods had the common room all to ourselves.

"So, Nico," Percy said. "Where did you go these days? Oh wait, let me guess. Every place that Dumbledore said was forbidden?"

I shrugged. It was true, as soon as the headmaster had told us about the places that were forbidden in his beggining-of-year speech, I suddenly had the huge urge to go there...and, well, surprise, I did.

"Yeah," I admitted. "You?"

Annabeth looked at her boyfriend sternly. "You didn't, right?"

Percy got a guilty look. "Uh, Annabeth, I can explain..."

"I don't need an explanation!" Annabeth said. "I already know you sneaked in to practice water-travel. But next time, take me with you, all right?"

Percy's mouth dropped open. "You, Annabeth? Break the rules? Woah, this place is really messing us up."

"Okay!" Frank interrupted. "Um, Jason?" he asked. "A change of subject, maybe?"

"Uh...I don't know," Jason said. "Um... how air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters?"

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed. "They are not! But sea games are more awesome than air games."

"Oh yeah?" Jason challenged. "What about helicopter-racing?"

"Jet-skiing."

"Pegasi riding."

"Surfing."

"Flying."

"Swimming."

"Quidditch."

"Great idea!" Annabeth interrupted. "Let's talk about Quidditch!"

"Yeah!" Piper cried. "You know how bad the Slytherin team's sportsmanship is? They actually use violence on the Gryffindors!"

"I know!" Hazel said, agitated. "Did you see how Miles Bletchley hit Alicia with a hair-growing hex thing? She couldn't even see out of her eyebrows!"

Percy looked outraged. "Yes, I did. But Snape didn't even listen when 14 eyewitnesses reported to him!"

"He's a moron," Leo said flatly. "Now that we painted Umbridge's hair...what is it, three colors? No no, four. Now that we painted her hair in four colors, it's time to move on to Snape. Hey, you know how Harry's dad said he had greasy hair? How do you think it would look if we actually put grease on his head?"

"Great idea," Will said happily. "Who's providing the- oh wait, it's obviously Leo, right?"

Leo nodded. "Oil is easy for me. So who's getting the oil on him?"

Thalia plucked her bowstring. "Me. I can shoot a remote-controlled arrow so it can splatter him when he goes to sleep. But Leo has to make the remote."

Leo's eyes twinkled. "Awesome."

I nodded. "Maybe I can send a ghost to tell me when he's asleep. Then you can get going. Even thought we might be alike in some ways, Snape is an idiot."

"Tomorrow's Wednesday," Annabeth said. "We have free periods when the rest of the Gryffindors have Divination, and another regular one after that."

"Yeah, I can make the remote and stuff then."

Even though we were making all these things to get revenge on the Slytherins, Harry wasn't too concerned. "They haven't won against us yet since I joined," he said. "Before I joined the team, we didn't even have a Seeker, so it was really hard."

Right now, their only problem was Ron. He'd made some really spectacular saves before, even though he was still struggling. I heard him shout something about Barry Ryan and Ladislaw Zamojsk, who were probably famous Keepers that Ron had made moves similar to. Right now, the only thing he lacked was self-confidence.

Also, the Slytherins always taunted the Gryffindors to make them more worried. This was working quite well on Ron because he was still new to it. Everyone else was already used to it.

Once, when Percy caught Malfoy pretend to drop a Quaffle in front of Ron, he had been attacked by the fountains in the school. The water had turned into icicles and started to poke Malfoy everywhere, which ended him up in the hospital wing. Everybody saw Percy's eyes blaze with anger as he directed the fountains to explode.

"I am so going to get you for this, Jackson," Malfoy muttered to Percy the next day. "How did you do that?"

"My best element is water, Draco," Percy said. "Don't mess with me unless you want all your drinking water to turn into lions. Warning over."

Malfoy shot him a glare, but he walked away. Thinking back on that, Malfoy looked so hilarious when he was going like, "hey, what's wrong with these stupid fountains? Why are they so-ow! Hey, stop that! Jackson-ow! Agh! Go away! Ow!" Or at least, that's what Thalia told me. Will was laughing his voice out, so he couldn't stop long enough to say a word without collapsing into giggles.

The months after that were very cold, but Leo kept the demigods warm with a fire. Hermione used this blue flame thing that they put in jars. That, along with the thick gloves and coats that students used made the temperature change in Hogwarts not so effective. The ceiling in the dining room, which was bewitched to match the sky outside, was almost stormy enough to meet Annabeth's eyes.

There were a few monster attacks over the time, but Hazel and Thalia managed to keep the wizards' eyes blocked with their mist.

"Gods," Leo muttered. "Calypso's going to kill me if I don't go back for Christmas. The last time we Iris-messaged, she looked ready to try running through the rainbow."

Percy winced. "Yeah...Tyson tried to do that once. Um, just saying it for the heck of saying it, that didn't work."

When it finally came to the day where our Gryffindor friends were playing against Slytherin, even Hazel seemed a bit nervous for Ron. Which was saying something, because Hazel's always quite positive.

"Come on, Ron," Harry coaxed, trying to give him food. I sighed. Then I looked over to the Slytherin table.

"Woah..." Will said. "What in the world are they wearing?" He frowned. "Weasley is our king?"

He glanced back to Ron. "Okay yeah, he didn't hear it. But seriously, is that good?"

Percy shook his head while trying to get his...10th? 11th? Yeah, 11th. He shook his head while trying to stuff his 11th pancake down his mouth. Ever since he found out how to turn his food blue without the wizards knowing (first eat. Then turn blue by pointing at his mouth. Clever? No? I agree), he had been eating more than ever.

"Alfoy's ooing ih. Ho ovhioshy ho."

I raised my eyebrows. "Close your mouth while eating, will you? And don't speak when there's chewed-up pancakes in your mouth. It's gross. What were you saying?"

Percy swallowed, then took a deep breath. "Malfoy's doing it, so obviously no."

"Yeah," Piper agreed, frowning. "Harry, you know Malfoy better. What do you think?"

"Well...I think he's going to make fun of Ron. You know, because he might help the Slytherins by dropping the Quaffle. Oh no, they're going to make Ron even more nervous. And less confident. All right, this is bad.

Annabeth sighed. "Oh well. Let's hope for the best, then."

Jason snorted. "The best? When have we ever gotten that?"

"Oh, be quiet."

And when the game started, we finally knew what the badges meant. And, surprise, surprise, it wasn't good.

Yeah, that was only, like, a thousand and eight hundred words or something. Sorry! Okay, please, review. That's...just about all I have to say.

See you people next time!