Okay, don't usually leave an author's note, but just wanted to clear stuff up. We are just a group of friends writing for fun and we are often inconsistent. So our average is one chapter a week, but it truly varies, e.g. during Winter Break. Hopefully we can finish this before Blood of Olympus comes out! Sorry.

If you are reading this, you haven't given up on this fanfic throughout the last 13 chapters, so we want to take this opportunity to say thanks for your support!

§Leo§

We had just sort of stood there, mute, deliberately not looking at Lyra's limp body. Percy was staring straight ahead and Ron was shifting his weight slowly from one foot to the other. After a minute, we all filed out of the narrow corridor and back into the previous hall we had been in, without a word.

I was the first to speak. "Lyra, we will always keep your hotness- I mean, presence in our hearts."

"Leo! Can't you take anything seriously! Lyra is dead. DEAD. And all you talk about is her hotness. Don't you understand?! We're never going to see her again!" Annabeth was close to tears, emotion changing in record time for both a demigod and a teenager.

"Hey, guys. I'm right here."

We all turned. Lyra was standing there, looking as hot as ever.

"How… but you died… we saw it!" blabbered Ginny.

"Uh, you didn't happen to hear what I said, did you?" I asked sheepishly.

"All of it." she beamed.

"How'd you survive? Another bobby pin?" asked Annabeth, her cold tone returning.

"No. You won't believe this, but I went to the Greek underworld, and saw Charon and Hermes, and Persephone, and then Lord Hades himself sent me back!" She silenced us from shouts of cheer with a sudden panicked look. "The thing is… Malum's back, too." Her eyes met mine for a second, and I blushed, barely realizing the importance of what she had just reported. She reminded me of someone. With a gulp, I realized who she resembled. Calypso. I didn't know how to explain it, but they kind of both held themselves the same way, they both talked with the same certainty. Oh, and they both brushed their hair out of their eyes in that cute way when they were concentrating on something. Snap out of it dude, I told myself, she would never have you.

"Leo?" I realized that Annabeth was calling me. "We have an evil wizard to kill."

"Oh," I said, "right."

We started to walk down the hall, and I found myself next to Lyra.

"Do me a favor, don't die again. It's kinda scary." I said.

"Yes, sir." To my surprise, she slipped her hand into mine.

§Hermione§

We followed Leo and Lyra down the hall, who were having an animated discussion about machines, motors, electromagnets, and other technological stuff. They were holding hands. Wow. They certainly got along. It was hard to believe that they had met for the first time just hours ago. Jason and Annabeth were raising their eyebrows disapprovingly. Percy was trying very hard not to laugh. Ron, Ginny and Harry had their wands out, and were looking attentively from side to side, as though expecting an attack. We walked farther and farther, but there was no sign of Lord Malum anywhere. Finally, Ginny called a group huddle.

"If I were Lord Malum and all of my horcruxes had been destroyed, what would I be doing?" she asked, pacing back and forth.

"I would hide." offered Lyra. I nodded in approval.

"So let's divide and conquer. If you find Lord Malum, send the rest of us a signal if possible, and in general try to kill him."

"I'm with Lyra." Leo looked around as if daring someone to object.

"I'll go with Harry." volunteered Percy. Then, he grinned, and added, "we have an odd number of people. Jason, you want to be a threesome?"

Annabeth thought for a moment, then said, "Ron." I was pretty sure I knew why she had chose him, and I wanted to slap her in the face. Ron hadn't really made the impression that he was smart and brave over the last few days, and Annabeth probably believed she'd have to compensate for that.

Ginny beckoned me over. She held up a hand, which I high-fived.

"So... Good luck," offered Percy. "We got this."

"If all goes well, we'll find each other. Everyone, spread out. We'll go this way," Annabeth said, tugging Ron to the right. Quickly everyone else left in their pairs.

Ginny and I headed left. There were no windows, and the walls were made of stone like some kind of dungeon. The only sources of light were candles that glowed eerily in brackets on the walls. I shivered. Then, I heard voices. I hurried up to Ginny and poked her in the back. She yelped, and the voices stopped suddenly. Ginny gulped. I pointed to the side, indicating that whoever was there was around the corner.

"Hide," she breathed.

But I shook my head. "We can do this." She bit her lip and faced forward again, bracing for our opponents to charge around the corner. When no one came, I knew they were probably scheming how to best approach us, and that the only way we could defeat them was to attack before they could come up with a plan. Without a word to Ginny, I shot towards where the corridor branched off. I hadn't mastered the element of the surprise, so consequently I heard a storm of footsteps yet louder than my own ahead of me not long after I started moving. I yanked my wand out from the saggy pocket of my sweatshirt; Ginny, who had quickly caught up to me, did the same. And then they were coming- more of them than I had expected, about seven adults. A few of them held wands, but the majority were weilding a medley of weapons, ranging from swords to daggers to… dead snakes? Ginny wisely stunned the owner of the latter weapon first, so fortunately we never found out what it did. But then I wouldn't have noticed, anyway- all I could focus on was the concentrating grimace of the enemy in front of me.