§Percy§

We hadn't even crossed the open doorway when Harry cast a non-verbal spell, stunning Alexandra and the other dude, and they fell on the floor, Lord Malum's expression changed from anger to surprise to anger again as I charged toward him holding Riptide in sword form.

Lord Malum pointed his wand at Harry, knowing that with a weapon that could hurt from a distance, he was the worst threat. "Avada Kedavra!" he screamed. I didn't wait to see what happened. I didn't think about the consequences of what I was about to do. I charged at Lord Malum, and drove Riptide straight through his skull. Of course, nothing happened, other than him blasting me backwards with his wand. Harry joined me from apparently dodging the killing curse, and we worked as one. Alexandra stirred. Harry grunted and said something inaudible. She crunched up in pain, her face a sickly blue.

A smile played across Malum's lips. "Stupid Potter. Just because I can love and that stupid oaf Voldemort couldn't doesn't make me any less powerful."

"My… Lord," Alexandra gasped, her face now dark plum. "help… me."

"Hmmm… let me think about it for a few minutes." He mocked, clearly enjoying her pain.

"Stop!" I shouted. I didn't know why, but I didn't think that she deserved this.

Harry glared at me, but lifted the curse. She gasped for breath, massaging her neck. The man was now stirring. "What happened?" he asked dimwittedly. Lord Malum turned to him. Big mistake.

"Avada Kedavra!" Harry shouted. Malum crumpled to the floor.

§Lyra§

I was reading one of the boring books Lord Malum had given me when I heard shouts. I ran at the open doorway, but, as usual, the force field held me back. Why was Malum trying to keep me safe? I was just a prisoner. My mind returned to what he had said when he had killed Amika: "Now I'm sure you would love to see this procedure works, but the object has to be inanimate." What was that supposed to mean?

Was I an "object"? He did something to me- I know that for sure. When I had awoken I had felt different, as if someone else was trying to live for me, want to make me think and move in ways I never had before. I tried to remember everything we had learned about Lord Malum. He wanted revenge against the wizards who had been cruel to him, he had made twelve horcruxes…

Wait.

I am a horcrux, I realized. My knees buckled. Lord Malum made me a horcrux. Everything was clear now. That was why he had had to kill Amika. He said I would survive the procedure better. Suddenly, I wanted to hit myself. If only I had realized this when Percy and Harry were here. One of them could have killed me. I didn't have my wand. But would a wand even work? I needed to get out of here and tell them.

§Ron§

Finally, when everyone was either dead, unconscious, or immobile, I looked at Jason. My face was drenched with cold sweat, but he was grinning and panting from the adrenaline. "We're a good team," he decided.

"Yeah." Then I remembered. "We have to find the others."

"Do you think Harry and Percy are done yet?" Jason asked casually, as if he wasn't asking if our friends had killed a man.

"Well, they could always use the extra help." I led him through the building to the place I had last seen him with Harry and Percy. The room was silent. We creeped in slowly, then saw Harry and Percy sprinting out of the room, almost running into us.

Their faces were incomprehensible, but Percy reported, "It's done. We- we killed him."

For that second it suddenly felt awkward to celebrate over murder, but I reminded myself, he was a bad wizard. He was going to kill us all.

"Where are the others?" Harry asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. Should we find them?"

He bit his lip, weighing the consequences. He was about to answer when we heard footsteps in the hall. No one needed to be told what to do. We scrambled into the shadows, hidden.

Fortunately, it was Annabeth and Ginny. We stepped into view, and they jumped. Annabeth cried out, "Gods, you scared us!"

Harry and I both ran towards Ginny,but stopped in front of her awkwardly. "Uh," I said, gesturing that he should go ahead. He smiled gratefully and they pulled into a tight embrace.

Percy and Annabeth seemed embarrassed to display such affection in public: they just squeezed each other's hands. "I was so worried about you," I heard Annabeth whisper in his ear.

Then Leo and Hermione emerged from the doorway. Leo smiled. "Group hug!" He spread out his arms, but when no one joined him, he lowered them, putting on a sad face. We relished our success for a while in that big, empty room. Suddenly, a figure was running towards us from a side corridor. As it got closer I could tell it was that lady who had attacked us on the plane.

We all pulled out our weapons, but she pleaded, "Don't attack!" I lowered my wand slightly, but didn't put it away, and saw the others had done the same.

"There's something I need to tell you," she said, sounding panicked. "You haven't killed him."

"Yeah, we destroyed all the horcruxes and I just saw Harry do that killing curse," Percy said. "Plus, why would you tell us that, anyway?"

She sighed. "I'm on your side, Perseus. I just was undercover working for Lord Malum and pretending to lo-" she stopped suddenly. "Regardless, there's- there's another horcrux- a thirteenth horcrux. He just made it recently."

"Well then, where is it?" demanded Leo.

She looked uncomfortable. "There's more. This horcrux… it's a person." I stared at her, shocked, wondering whether she told the truth. Why would he make another horcrux- and why would he intentionally make it a person? Harry was only a horcrux by accident. I looked at the others to see if they were as surprised as I am. Yes, they were all gaping, except for Harry and Percy. They were exchanging looks of horror. I was going to ask them if they knew anything about it, but they pushed past me towards the door.

"You don't even know where it- she- is!" Alexandra said.

"Actually, we do," Percy told her gravely, then told us, "Stay here. You don't want to see this."

I rolled my eyes. "You two trying to defeat Lord Malum alone was a one-time thing, alright? No way, we're coming with you."

"Yeah, Dumbledore's army," said Ginny, smiling.

"What?" asked the demigods, then Annabeth recomposed herself. "Well, like Ron said, you guys need us. We're a team."

Harry swallowed. "Okay, then, come on." We followed them silently out the doorway, Alexandra standing behind us, watching us leave.