Chapter 28

Thalia

"It was giants, wasn't it?" Hermione asked anxiously.

Hagrid looked at her, his eyes wide. "How'd you know?"

Harry sighed. "We guessed. It was kind of..."

"Obvious," Ron finished.

"People, stop interrupting!" I said. "He's going to tell us what happened now."

"Yeah," Hagrid said after clearing his throat. "Dumbledore's sent me on the mission ter find giants. Make peace with them, yer know? They're not too difficult to find, huge loafs."

Annabeth nodded. I could tell she was writing this down somewhere in her boring-speech-filled brains, just like Hermione. Everybody else, including me, just looked mildly interested. Well, most of the demigods did, but the wizards looked extremely interested.

"Where are they?" Annabeth asked. "I would guess the forest or the mountains."

Hagrid cleared his throat. "Uh, the forest in the mountains, really. Anyway, Olympe and I-"

"Who's Olympe?" I asked. "Oh right, sorry, interrupting."

When Hagrid finally really started to tell the story, I started to zone out. Today had been a long day, double Potions and Transfiguration. Plus, there was a dracaena attack in the hallway I was in, and everybody else was at lunch, so I had to shoot off a couple of arrows. There has been regular monster attacks lately, maybe once a week. We did have to deal with them in front of the wizards, but most times everybody surrounding us were members of the D.A, who were already informed of the demigod thing.

Sometimes my ears would work for a few more seconds, and I would hear snippets of the story, things like, "we were pretending to go to holiday together, see..." or, "they're 'bout 25 feet..." Plus, my demigod ADHD and the fact that I am not a daughter of Athena didn't really want me to just sit there doing nothing. Sometime in the middle, I heard a word, gurg. I just had time to think, what in the world is a gurg? A bubble? before my ears went back to rest.

It didn't really even matter that I didn't listen too much, because I knew Annabeth or Hermione were just going to retell the story almost word for word about 10 times. By then, maybe even Percy would have figured it out. Me? I usually got it on the second repeat.

I looked over at Leo just as Hagrid was saying something about, "found his head at in the lake." He was tinkering with something as usual. However, this new invention of his looked ridiculously like a bow. Then I realized-duh-it was a bow. He already had a set of arrows next to him. Huh. The bow looked a little familiar. Then I gasped. It looked like the one Orion had. Well, before Nico and Coach Hedge broke it, of course. There were spaces for three arrows, and it looked just as sturdy as Orion's. Of course, not as huge, but still every bit as dangerous and strong. Man, Valdez is getting good at these things. I might ask him later to see it if I could remember.

Then my mind swayed to the holidays and an Iris-message with Lady Artemis a few days ago. She had told me that I might have to go back to the hunt after Christmas, though I was also allowed to stay here. It really depends if I'm needed here or not. I mean...ten demigods on a quest, that is a whole lot of monsters we're attracting. I mean...who knows how long it's going to take for some big bad monster-wolf to smell Percy's yummy oceany scent or something and come lumbering over?

Plus, Hecate gave us way too much magic. I mean, we can literally do just about anything with our wands. The amount of power sends out more signals to monsters, like, "hey monsters, really powerful demi-wizards over here! Come and get 'em!"

Hagrid's story ended. Suddenly, there came some knocks on the door. Percy's head snapped up. Wow, that guy can sleep through anything that doesn't involve danger. And when danger came? It was impossible to get him to sleep.

"Invisibility!" I hissed to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Table, now."

They quickly whipped the cloak on and I felt them go under the table while we did invisibility spells on ourselves. Nico simply stepped into a shadow and disappeared. Percy and Leo...well, they sat on the table after flying the wizards's teacups into Hagrid's sink, then turned invisible. We American demigods aren't really into tea, more like a sprite and some cheeseburgers. I slid under the table with our golden trio friends.

Percy tensed before he disappeared. "I can sense her blood," he whispered. "It's Umbridge."

Hagrid opened the door. Indeed, Umbridge was standing in the doorway, holding her soon-to-be useless wand in her hand.

"Hello," she said sweetly and loudly, which immediately made me know that something bad was about to happen. "You're Hagrid, right?"

Percy kept Fang from jumping on the pink-ish green-ish (the paint still hadn't quite worn off) toad and licking her face, while Unbridge stepped in and looked around Hagrid's room. She looked like a real toad who was looking at a bunch of flies, and trying to pick a good, juicy one to gobble up.

Hagrid frowned. "Er...I'm guessing you're the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?"

"Of course, yes. And my name is Dolores Umbridge. I happen to also be the Hogwarts High Inquisitor."

"Dolores Umbridge," Hagrid mused. "I thought yer worked for the Ministry?"

"Yes, certainly I used to be the Senior Undersecretary to our dear Minister of Magic," Umbridge said. "But now I'm here."

"All right," Hagrid nodded. "But what's that, the Hogwarts High-"

"I heard people talking," Umbridge interrupted, grinning slyly. "And there are sets of footprints head towards your cabin from the castle. At least four. Do you know why that might be?"

I gritted my teeth. Go on like this, and I might go to the point as to swear on the River Styx I would make her regret ever laying hands on the school.

What kind of person did she think she was? When you start messing with the heroes of Olympus, you usually end up either chopped in pieces, or possibly sent into such a deep sleep that you'll never wake up again. Right now, that first option is starting to grow an arrow point and creeping towards Umbridge.

"I on'y jus' got back," Hagrid said uncomfortably, gesturing to his coat. "Maybe someone came earlier, before I was here."

I heard someone mutter quietly, that's it. Then, I crawled out the table, my hunter-of-Artemis reflexes making me completely silent. We have to use that to sneak up on animals, you know? Anyway, I saw Umbridge smiling her sweet smile at Hagrid, while he stood there looking really uncomfortable while Umbridge interrogated him.

"And why are there no footprints leading out?" she asked.

"I...I dunno why that might be, Professor."

Right next to me, Hazel muttered a curse under her breath. I almost jumped. Luckily, Umbridge's ears were probably so dirty that she couldn't hear things well, so Hazel's curse got by unnoticed. Our footprints, however...

"I will be checking up on your teaching, of course, so you'll see me then," she said. "Before then, I'll suggest you stop taking these trips to...the beach, and also report to our Ministry exactly what you are doing every time you leave the school. Good bye!"

She walked out the door. I waited one second...two...three seconds before I let Harry, Hermione and Ron get out from under the table. Harry smiled grimly.

"Okay..." I said, removing the invisibility spell. "Well, um...I think that you should be more careful, Hagrid. That lady's been checking teachers. Apparently she'd already put Trelawney on probation."

Hagrid snorted. "Careful? Sure! I've got somethin' great planned for next Friday, you'll love it!"

"Er...about that...what are the creatures you're planning to show us?" Hermione asked. "Umbridge's been putting extra care in those who are close to Dumbledore. You're one if them!"

The half-giant chuckled. "Oh, don't worry. These creatures ain't gonna be boring at all! They'll be quite interestin' to learn about."

Annabeth sighed. "Are you sure? I know that your definition of fun isn't like ours. Well, demigods, maybe. But wizards like Umbridge? Definitely not. You like dangerous magical creatures like giant scorpions and dragons, according to Harry. The Ministry...well, they're a bit more strict."

"Maybe you should just teach us the more basic things," Hermione suggested nervously. "You know...how to tell the difference between knarles and hedgehogs...how to breed flobberworms correctly..."

I knew Hagrid wasn't going to like those things. Just hearing it sounded boring. I mean, seriously, flobberworms? Those sound like regular worms (which were boring on its own, even without the flobber part), but with that touch? Well, I knew that ADHD people must not like it very much.

Personally, I would think that whatever Hagrid came up with would be more interesting than flobberworms and those other things Hermione mentioned...knuckles and bob? I don't know. But Umbridge was definitely a problem. If Hagrid brought a creature that was marked, "scary," or possibly, "totally awesome to demigods," by the Ministry, Umbridge would report it to Fudge.

"That's not very interesting!" Hagrid said. "Don' worry, you'll love what I came up with."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but someone knocked open the door. Well, knocked was an understatement. The something blasted the door into shards, which flew into the cabin.

Percy dodged the handle as Jason blew a large piece of the base away. We looked at each other nervously and went out.

In the air was a huge, flying snake. It was sparkling in the moonlight, roaring loudly. Drakon, I thought bitterly.

Harry casted a mute spell around us and the monster, making sure the other students didn't hear us.

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelped. "What is that?"

"Drakon!" Annabeth shouted. "I don't know why it's glimmering, but-"

"I do," Leo said. "It's a mechanical drakon, kind of like Festus. Except, well...Festus isn't a drakon."

I growled. "I hate drakons."

"Agreed," Piper said. "How in the world are we supposed to kill that?"

"I don't know, but we better do it soon!" Frank yelled desperately. It's coming!"

He began to change shape, growing into a dragon with razor-sharp fangs. Frank roared and headed towards the drakon, blasting fire that didn't do much harm to the thick, metal shell of his opponent.

Leo grabbed a golden disk from his tool belt and threw it on the ground. It started growing instantly until Festys appeared, creaking and squeaking at Leo. He jumped onto the bronze dragon, which soared into the air to join Frank in the fight.

"You guys, can you attack it with spells?" Annabeth asked, looking at Hermione. She nodded, but was still pretty much frozen in shock.

Our friends unfroze, and Harry shouted something that sounded like, "stupefy!", pointing his wand at the drakon that had gotten maybe one tiny dent in the tail. A red light flashed from his wand, directed at...well, I'll give it a name. Dumb-Dumb, maybe. Yeah, the drakon was definitely stupid. Anyway, the beam of light hit Dumb-Dumb's glowing red eye. It blinked once, then shinned back with no damage done.

"Look out!" Hazel yelled. She pushed Harry out of the way as Dumb-Dumb turned to give its terrifying glare to Harry. He managed to get away in time.

"Try it together!" I shouted. "Hit him with you best spells or something."

I ran towards the fight. I concentrated, and a huge bolt of lightning flashed through the sky. It hit the drakon's right eye, just as three lines of light flew from the Harry, Ron, and Hermione's wands. The light went out.

"Leo!" Piper screamed. I looked up. Leo was on the drakon, holding on and trying to screw open the monster's head while flying and shaking through the sky. Leo looked down and shouted, "I'm fine!"

Percy dodged a spew of poison from the drakon as it flew towards him. He lifted his hand, and a huge wave of water deflected the poison right back into Dumb-Dumb's face, right after Frank the dragon sliced across it with his claws. Both of the lights were out.

Annabeth ran towards the drakon. It may not be able to see her, but its great sense of smell was all but gone. Annabeth jumped over the spiky tail as it swung towards her, then dodged as it came back at her. She jumped onto Dumb-Dumb's back when it moved to the ground, allowing Leo to haul her on. There, Leo continued trying to disassemble the drakon's circuit while Annabeth stabbed through the drakon's armor. Surprisingly, her white sword cut through the bronze like celestial bronze swords cut through regular armor.

I didn't know why, but it was definitely good to know. Hazel had her eyes closed I concentration. The drakon seemed to be fighting against something (well, actually he was fighting against all of us), probably Hazel controlling the bronze shell on his body. It kept twitching, but still trying to attack us from everywhere.

Nico was fighting with the spiky tail that constantly tried to cut his head open. His skeleton warriors used their own bones to stab their master's attacker. Whenever a spike got sliced up, he would try to cut through the metal.

My little brother flew up to join Annabeth and Leo. Leo shouted something at him, and he flew to the drakon's nose level. He started taunting it, distracting it from the tiny humans on it's back, one of them who was trying to open a window on it's head.

Annabeth went over to help Leo. She cut through the first layer of metal like paper, but the second blocked her sword and bounced it off. Dumb-Dumb's sharp tail flew over and knocked her in chest, sending her over to the ground. She screamed once in the fall, but then was caught by Percy. He stuffed a piece of ambrosia into Annabeth's mouth, who's wound began to close. Will ran over and started doing his voodoo healing magic thing.

"Thalia, my sword," Annabeth said. "Drakon bones-real drakon bones- are stronger than that drakon's scales!"

I got to where her white bone sword was. I grabbed it up and broke into a sprint while Leo was still desperately trying to disassemble the drakon with no luck.

I would've stopped to examine it carefully, but there wasn't time. I started slashing through the drakon's armor, sometimes spilling a bit of oil.

Meanwhile, Percy started making progress cutting through the drakon's shell on the side. It looked more like a giant hole than anything else now.

"Electricity!" He shouted. "The first was defeated by electricity! This guy here is weak enough now!"

I nodded to show I understood. Jason stopped distracting the drakon and ran towards me. Just then, Leo popped open a square hole in the drakon's head. He yelled I victory and stabbed a saw inside the wound. Dumb-Dumb started to weaken. Like, even more.

Jason and I got to each other. We grasped each other's hand. I put all of my energy into the next lightning strike, and I could tell Jason was, too. My lightning part of the "child of Zeus" thing was stronger than Jason's, probably because he could also fly. Anyway, a huge bolt of lighting flashed through the air and stuck the drakon right on the brain. Somewhat luckily, Leo had fallen off and rolled onto the grass, spitting out oil. The electricity arched through Dumb-Dumb's body, kind of like how Clarrisse had defeated the other one in the Second Titan War. Right about then, Harry shot a fire spell or something at the drakon's mouth. Hermione shouted a curse, and Ron did the red light thing again.

The drakon began to fall. When it did, it's tail managed to flop towards Piper and hit her backwards maybe four feet. She cursed as blood poured out of her arm.

Frank flew down, turning back into human form. His leg was bleeding. Who knows how bad of a wound he got? The drakon must have scratched or bit him at some point. He limped over, muttering, "stupid drakon..."

"Frank!" Hazel cried, running over just as Frank collapsed, wincing in pain. She poured nectar into his mouth.

"People!" Percy shouted. Blood was coming out of a cut on his side, which is why he was holding it with his left hand. "We have to get back to the castle. Harry, Hermione, Ron, you guys okay?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, we're good. You guys were awesome!"

"Weren't so bad yourself," I said. "Nico, can you get Annabeth, Piper, Frank, and Will back to the dorms?"

Nico nodded, limping slightly. He and the said four disappeared into the shadows.

"I'll, uh..." Percy said. "Get you guys?"

"It's not safe," I said. "No offense, Percy, but you just learned water travel three months ago. Or maybe four. Ugh, I probably need to actually look at the date someday. Anyway, it should be safer if we went in two groups."

"Walking back is too dangerous," Hermione said. "We have to do your type of traveling every time we want to visit anybody we're not supposed to visit. Water travel and shadow travel is not too different from apparition, but a bit quieter. In shadow travel's case, a lot quieter. We'll go with Percy, if that's okay with you."

He nodded. "Sure."

I nodded. "All right, Kelp Head. Everyone else, including me, is going with Hazel, right?"

Leo, Jason, and Hazel nodded.

"See you there," I told my friends who were going with Percy. Then, we disappeared into the shadows and reappeared in our room.

When we got back, it was past midnight.

"Nice place you have here," Ron said, looking at the demigod room. We had decorated it with some camp pictures and stuff, but really the best part was the beds. Ron flopped onto the bed next to Annabeth and Percy's which was mine.

"Careful," I warned him. "The bed might be weak in places. You know, accidental lightning when I get bad nightmares. It gets annoying sometimes. I keep having to get Hermione to fix it."

Hermione shrugged. "Well, if you would just do the mending spell yourself..."

"She okay?" Harry asked Percy, who was sitting on the bed with Annabeth asleep next to him.

"Fine," Percy said. "I don't think it was too bad of an injury. Everyone else good?"

Will Solace came over, looking like he'd just won a marathon and then fought off an army of admiring fans.

"Four people to mend," he muttered. "That really knocked the sun god out of me. You eight hurt?"

Hazel looked at us. "I think a bit of ambrosia is enough. Only small cuts. And you golden trio...I still have no idea if you can eat god food. I mean, you guys are pretty powerful. Harry. you might even be a descendent of some sort of the gods. I don't think we should take any risks, though."

Jason nodded. "We were sent to protect you. We don't want to be the people who ended up killing you. Wow, that would be pretty ironic."

"Well," Leo said. Maybe Madam Promfrey can help. She knows about the demigods/monster thing, right?"

"All of them do except for Umbridge," Will said. "So...yeah."

"Luckily tomorrow is a Sunday," I muttered. Nobody will ask why we're hurt. But what about Monday?"

"I've got no idea," Harry said finally. "Can you do your illusion trick to make it look like we're good?" he asked, looking at Hazel. "Does it work if you're at a farther disarmament from them, or..."

Hazel cocked her head. "At what time are we going to be separated? We have the same classes."

"Good point," Ron said stifling a yawn. "But now, I think we should go to sleep. It's really late. We could talk about these things tomorrow, here, or something."

"Yeah," Percy said. "And by the way, I think tomorrow is also good for another D.A. The last three or four had been on weekdays, so I think a weekend is best this time."

"Sure," Harry said. "I'll set the Galleons in the morning."

They went to their dorms, leaving us in ours.

"Well that was a long day," Will concluded. "Go to sleep, people. All of you. And Hazel, by the way, I think you should tell Hecate that we're a little over powered. I mean, a few dracaenae, we can handle. But that drakon? Our scent is getting to strong. Maybe we should have less power, if Hecate can take something away or something."

Hazel nodded. She had already started to go to sleep, so we left her in peace.

I headed to my bed, where there were indeed a large amount of burnt marks. I pulled my wand out and sighed before mending it with my spell, which I knew would actually attract more dangerous monsters, which I didn't even know was possible. Yes, us doing wizard magic would attract monsters. I wouldn't be surprised: everything we do seems to attract monsters.

That, however, kind of got me thinking of Artemis's offer. A few days ago, I had gotten a dream from her. She had told me that going back to the Hunt would be better for me, her, and my friends here. I told her I would consider going back after Christmas, and now, it was sounding better and better. I wanted to go back to my life of being a huntress, and I knew that if I left, it would be safer for the demigods here. Ten people just to protect one? That was a bit too much.

"I'm going back," I told myself. "Back to my sisters."

So, as I told you guys, I'm extremely sorry for being late. But just so you know, I will update pretty late from now (not this late, that would be a nightmare), but I will never abandon it. So, see you!