§Lyra§

It was all my fault. If only I hadn't let my curiousity get the better of me, if only I hadn't convinced Amika to come with me- then maybe she'd still be alive and I wouldn't be trapped here.

I had told her about my plan, and we had flown to D.C., checking all the Smithsonian museums, and finally come to the Museum of American History.

As soon as we entered, something felt wrong. I tapped Amika as we creeped through the main hall, about to tell her. But then the lights turned off. Flashes of red light from either side, and I collapsed.

When I woke, we were no longer in the museum. I looked around at the dark marble columns and high ceiling. There were no windows. I stood up and tried to explore, but found I was trapped in some invisible cage. I searched the room again and found Amika prone on the opposite side of the room. I knew I should've taken some time to plan. What was I expecting? To find the horcrux with Ami and skip out of the museum?

"Ami?" I cried weakly. She jerked and awoke suddenly.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know. We were stunned. Can you get up?"

"I think so." She rose and took a step towards me, but was kept back by her own container.

"Ami, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have convinced you to do this. I… I wasn't thinking. We didn't have a plan," I sucked up my uneven breath, trying not to cry. Amika started to reply, but then we heard a creak from behind us. The large oak door was opening.

A relatively young man strided in. His robes were dark emerald, and he had a leer on his face.

"Perfect, perfect. There's two of you," he slurred. "Got caught trying to find my horcrux, did you? You didn't think they are all protected by every means, day and night? Now, let's see." He studied us. "I think you will survive your task better than the other would," he said, walking over to me. I stared at him, unable to speak. "Which means… Oh, I'm sorry dear." He turned swiftly to Amika.

"Avada Kedavra!" Ami was hit by the green jet and flew a few feet back before slumping on the ground.

"No!" I screamed.

"Yes," he smiled unsympathetically. "Now I'm sure you would love to see this procedure works, but the object has to be inanimate." He jabbed his wand and my surroundings darkened once again, until I woke up with him leaning over me.

"Yes, I think it's complete," he whispered.

I found the will to speak. "Who are you? What did you do to me?" I couldn't yet also consider that he killed my best friend.

He looked down at me. All of a sudden he gave a jolt and looked to the door. "You will find out soon enough. Right now I've got to...er… attend to some matters." He made the already-familiar smirk and left.

§Harry§

I woke up in a closet with something very heavy on top of me. I gave it a kick. "Oomph."

"Percy?" I whispered.

The lump groaned. He was still unconscious. I tried to remember what had happened. I vaguely recalled Ron stupefying Percy and me. I must've hit my head. Hard. Ron would never do that. At least, I don't think he would.

Suddenly, the closet was filled with light and we tumbled out. Great way to store humans. I stumbled to my feet and saw it was Ron who had opened the door. My first thought was that he had come to save us. But then I saw his eyes- rather than the blue I knew so well, his irises were colored a light, robotic silver. His pupils seemed like miniature black eyes in his face, sucking whatever he looked at into nothingness. Immediately I knew Ron wasn't thinking for himself. He must have been possessed or something, I decided. Why else would he stun and kidnap his best friend (and Percy too)?

"Follow me," he growled, and walked stiffly, contrasting his usual stride. I looked around me. Percy had woken up when we fell out of the closet, and he was curled on the ground next to me.

"Harry….?" I shook my head and helped him up. It was no use fighting now. Besides, how and why would I battle my best friend? We walked behind Ron, from the hall the closet was located into a spacious- yet dark- great room. I thought it was empty, until out of the shadows on the far end came a man's voice.

"Ah, here you are. Thank you, young servant." Ron bowed in the general direction. "I am sorry I was not quite ready for you when Ronald brought you here- I had some business to take care of first. But now I finally meet you both, Mr. Potter, Mr. Jackson."

A figure came towards us from the corner. He was thin and young, yet his cheeks were as hollow as a ninety year old, as if he had experienced much in the last few years.

"You're Lord Malum," I blurted out. He smiled.

Percy was annoyed. "So… you've kidnapped us by means of possessing our friend, stored us in a closet, what do you want?"

"Yes, you have a point. Why waste time beating around the bush? The long story short, I know the Order of the Phoenix, and some ignorant horse-man, have gotten you two and your friends to join forces, in hopes to stop me. At first, I must say, I doubted you would accomplish anything. But you seem to have good sources, because you were able to track me and even convince some Olympians to favor you. I decided it would just be easier to kill the weed before it can grow than waste time worrying about what you skimpy wizards and demigods are capable of. The easiest way to do that would be from the inside. This young man already had enough anger to fuel a spirit, which was evident from his violent acts towards Mr. Jackson and that son of Jupiter, so it was almost too simple."

I was still confused. "So then why do you need us? Why couldn't you just have made Ron kill all of us in Olympus and be done with it?"

"For gods' sake, it's Olympus! Wouldn't it be suspicious enough for eight young adults on a quest to disappear? I know you, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Jackson as well. Both of you would do anything for a friend, yes? And I have seen what valuable fighters every one in your little group is- why waste that blood? Surrender, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson. Swear upon the River Styx you and your friends will serve me, and maybe you'll survive."

"Never!" we said simultaneously. He laughed.

"Very well then. Crucio!" My first, stupid thought: Wow, were we seeing a lot of that lately.

Then I saw what he was pointing his wand at. Or rather, who. Next to us Ron was yelping, twitching violently on the cold tile. Lord Malum said he knew our weakness: we couldn't see someone else in pain if we could help it. I realized he was right. My hand automatically moved to the pocket I always kept my wand in, but we must have been stripped of our weapons.

"Surrender now, or watch your friend die in pain," he threatened.

Percy threw himself at the spindly wizard. Lord Malum cursed and pointed his wand at us. He muttered something I couldn't hear, and the next thing I knew, Percy and I were tied up on the floor.

We were thrown into a room that was empty apart from a girl about our age who had curly brown hair and chocolatey skin. She looked familiar.

"Are you a prisoner too?" I asked, addressing her.

"Lyra Clarion." She said, extending her hand in a bored manner, but behind her careless tone, I could sense something else: pain.

"I'm-"

but she cut me off. "Harry Potter, I know. I've seen you at the ministry."

So that's where she was from. I studied her face more closely. Her eyes were red. She had been crying recently.

"Why are you here?" Percy asked gently.

"I don't know. My… my friend and I… we tried to destroy one of his horcruxes. I didn't have a plan. We got caught and…" She started sobbing. I didn't ask where her friend was. But I did permit myself one question.

"Why didn't he… uh… kill you?"

"I have no idea," she said, swallowing hard to stop her tears. "What about you?"

I told her the truth, or at least some of it. "We were on a mission to stop him, too. We had a bunch of friends with us too. Then one of them became possessed by something and brought us here. Oh, and this is Percy." He waved awkwardly. I gave him a look that I hoped said, please don't tell her you're a demigod, she's under enough pressure.

Suddenly I remembered Ron. What would happen to him? I was sure he wouldn't be extremely maimed, not without us as witnesses. Lord Malum had probably given up temporarily, but later he would return to torturing him, I knew. Obviously his goal was for us to see our friend suffering, and promise to surrender in order to save him. Was it worth it? I didn't want to have to decide. We'd just have to fight.

§Percy§

Suddenly, the door to the room opened. It was Ron. Had he come back to make us watch more torture? But he was panting, and had lost the stiffness of when he was being controlled. I noticed he was also carrying my wand and Percy's pen thing.

"What…?"

"There's no time. Come on, I know the way out."

We scrambled up and exited the chamber, Lyra wheezing to keep up. It wasn't like she was out of shape, she just seemed unprepared. We flew through a labyrinth of corridors until we reached a narrow stone staircase.

"This way," said Ron. I ran up a few steps, then realized Lyra was no longer behind me. I turned around. She was struggling against an unseen barrier at the entrance back to the hallway.

"Can't...get...through," she gasped. I started back towards her, but she shook her head.

"It's… no use. I'll be fine. Just… go." I hated to obey, but I knew she was right. Without looking back, I ran up into darkness.

After what seemed like forever I reached the top of the stairs, where Harry and Ron were stopped at a stone door. "Where were you? Where's that girl?" Questioned Ron. I didn't answer.

They turned around, and Ron took out his wand. As Lord Malum probably expected a possessed person wouldn't need to be disarmed, he was the only one of us with a weapon. Again I wondered how he had escaped, but that had to wait until later. Ron whispered, and a soft white light grew in the lock, then faded. He turned the handle and we walked out.

It was dusk. After examining my surroundings, I knew we had been in some old monument in a city.

"D.C," I breathed. Spending so much time around Annabeth now made me appreciate the beautiful Greek-like architecture of the grand building from which we had just exited through an inconspicuous door.

"We need to find the others," Harry declared.

"Do you think they're still in New York?" asked Ron.

I fished out a gold drachma from my pocket that for some reason they hadn't taken from me. Harry and Ron stared at me.

"I don't see a payphone…" Ron said, confused. I flipped the coin into the air.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering." The air in front of me shimmered. "Please show us Annabeth, wherever she is." I crossed my fingers.

The others gasped. Staring at us was Annabeth, looking concerned.

"Are you guys okay? Where are you?"

I tried to look calm. "Hey, Annabeth. We just escaped from Lord Malum's headquarters. It's in D.C, near the…"

"Jefferson Memorial," she finished. "I can see it in the backround. Okay, we'll meet you. I guess we're going to have to do the apparition again." She grimaced at the thought.

Another shimmer and the scene disappeared. Harry and Ron were gaping.

"Well, I guess we should just stay right here," I told them.

§Ron§

In what seemed like seconds and hours at the same time, everyone else apparated to the road where we were. Hermione ran over and threw her arms around me.

"Ron, what happened?"

"I… I don't remember. I was concious, but I couldn't control my own thoughts. It's sort of blurry now." I winced, noticing I had sounded all pathetic and helpless.

"He brought us down to Lord Malum. Lord Malum tortured Ron so we would surrender. But then… what happened, Ron? How did you regain control?" asked Percy.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the cruciatus curse weakened the spirit controlling me. Once Harry and Percy left, Lord Malum ordered me to stay put while he…" I strained to remember. "Anyway, eventually I was alone in the room. I guess some part of me had the will to break free, and I think I sort of squished the spirit out. I knew what I had done, which also meant I knew where the keys were to Harry and Ron's cell and where one of the exits were. I freed them and we all escaped through that door." For some reason I didn't bring up the girl who had come with us.

We all crowded around the place where the door was. Or, used to be. I gasped when I realized the wall was bare, as if the cracks had fused together. As if someone didn't think we should be able to defeat Lord Malum that easily.

"Well," started Hermione, then pondered for a moment. "I don't know what else we can do today, and it's getting late. I say we find a cheap motel and settle down for the night."

Luckily the Order had supplied us with a credit card. Soon enough we found a map, and a bus ride away was a quick dinner and a restless sleep.