Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I have, um…, ooh! I have a random lizard here with me to prove that I don't own anything but my plot.

Lizard: *Stares*

Me: Oh MY GODS! I am so so so so so sorry!

Me: Okay everyone. I have Steve the gecko here with me. Better?

Gecko: *blinks*

Me: Great! Now tell me Steve, do I own any of the characters or stuff from either book?

Gecko: *Stares, then uses tongue to lick one eyeball*

Me: I know I don't, it's sad. But I would have completely butchered both series.

Gecko: *puts tongue back in mouth.*

Me: Aw, thanks! They are new! Anyway, you've been a great help!

Gecko: *Scurries out*

Me: Bye! You were a big help!

Me: *mumbles* Note-to-self, add Steve to story. Steve is a gecko, not a lizard.

Me: On with the show, um, story!

Ginny PoV:

I heard someone coming and quickly stashed the map away, closing it the way that Fred and George taught me to.

"Ginny?" called Hermione, "Your mom says to tell you that we all have to go to bed soon, because we are going to Diagon Alley tomorrow."

"Thanks!" I responded, getting off the bed and heading over to the door.

Passing Hermione, I bounded up the stairs to my room. Plopping down on the bed, I wondered, "Who is Annabeth?"

She was likely a member of the Order, but if she was the one that my parents had been talking about, then maybe she was just a confused, abducted muggle teen.

I decided to put my thoughts aside and focus on getting ready for school. I changed into pajamas, and was about to climb into bed, when I had a sudden, alarming thought.

"What if Harry finds out?"

Not that I wanted to keep secrets, but whatever was going on, Harry did not need to be involved.

Harry PoV:

I watched Ginny disappear into the room as I wondered why she would need to use the map. Oh well.

I walked into Ron's room when he burst out, "Harry! Did you see the paper?"

"No," I said hesitantly, "Er, what happened?"

"There was an attack on two muggle teens this afternoon." Put in Hermione. "But the strange part is, neither was hurt in any way when the Order arrived."

"That is weird." I mean, how could two unarmed kids, and muggles at that, stand up against ten or more Death Eaters? Not even an Auror could do that!

"Were they okay?" I asked.

"The girl was, but the boy disappeared. The Prophet doesn't say anything else about it. There is a picture of them when the Order came."

She handed me the paper and I looked at the picture. There was a circle of Death Eaters around two people.

The first was a blonde girl with gray eyes standing back-to-back with a boy about her age. Her hand was in her pocket and she was whispering something to the boy.

He was standing in a defensive stance and he was whipping his head around to see his assailants. He held a pen in his hand and was listening to the girl.

The boy had messy, jet-black hair and green eyes. I took a step back, when I realized that I recognized him, other than the fact that he looked a lot like me.

"This is him," I proclaimed in shock, "Voldemort (Ron and Hermione flinched) killed him last night. I saw him do it."

Ron's eyes widened in horror and Hermione gave a small gasp, her face repulsed.

"But that's not all. Voldemort (Another flinch) said that the muggle was part of his plan. He said that he was going to use him as bait."

"That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron was fuming and started to speak when Mrs. Weasley poked her head in. "Off to bed! We have a long day tomorrow."

She stopped smiling when she saw our faces. "What's wrong?"

Ron hesitantly showed her the paper and she took it. "It's horrible," she said, "We got there too late. Please don't think about it."

I could tell that she was choosing her words very carefully, as if she were hiding something.

"Hermione, off to bed. Don't wake Ginny." And with that, she left. Hermione shot them a look that said, "Talk later" and followed her.

"G'night mate" Ron yawned and fell asleep.

Still troubled, I did the same.

3rd Person PoV:

Neither of them were awakened by the uninvited visitor who crept in an hour later, grabbed the copy of The Daily Prophet and left.

Percy PoV:

Everyone in the room was staring at me in shock after the green light hit me. So far, I wasn't all that impressed with these people.

Okay, so I woke up in chains in a weird mansion and was dragged to meet a creepy nose-less guy who I think tried to kill me. Nothing special. Not that I didn't try to leave, though.

It seemed that they couldn't hurt me, but I got hit in my Achilles heel twice and then whatever they were doing worked.

I snapped back to attention I realized that the "snake dude" was talking again. "Take him away" he rasped, "and call Severus immediately."

The two people on either side of me grabbed me and started to drag me away, but I saw another man appear in the room with a large "Crack!"

I saw greasy, black hair, a sallow face and a long, hooked nose before I was out of view. I was dragged down the hall, down a few sets of stairs, and into a dark, intimidating dungeon.

They threw me into it and walked up the stairs, laughing about stupid "muggles" or something like that.

I struggled upright and leaned against a wall. I felt Riptide reappear in my pocket, and I pushed against my bonds and got my hand into my pocket.

I grabbed riptide and pulled up, getting the cap off, but something fell on the floor. It looked like it was stuck in my shirt.

I ignored it, partly because I couldn't move, and used riptide to break through the chains, and took in a deep breath, glad to be free of them.

The dungeon was basked in a faint glow from the sword, and I looked to see what was on the floor.

It was a small ring, which had two intertwined bronze strips. I cautiously picked it up, and turned it in my hands.

In the inside of it was a small engraving of a flaming 'L'. I recognized it immediately as Leo's mark.

He had tried for a month to get a cool engraving to mark his projects with, and when he finally found it, he talked about it so much that the Stoll brothers had spray painted it all over camp.

After that, everyone knew it pretty dang well.

I didn't know what to do with it, but I trusted Leo and I remembered how Annabeth had talked to him, so I put it on my finger. Nothing happened.

I shrugged and noticed the beams on the ceiling, which were placed with enough space for someone to lie on top of comfortably and safely.

Now all I had to do was get up to it.

I tried to climb the walls, but they were too smooth and had no handholds. I grabbed my chains, thinking of looping them around the beam, but I had cut them too short.

I had an idea. Running into a dark corner, I wrapped the chains around me loosely, so that at a glance, I would still be chained up, but with easy movement.

I capped the sword, hid it behind my back and waited.

I hate waiting.

Sure enough, thirty minutes later the door was opened and a woman set down a cup of water. Then she knocked it over, spilling the contents. She cackled, "Maybe next time you will get something if you behave."

She left, still laughing.

I made sure that she was gone when I sprang up. I reached out to the water, pulled it off the floor and created a whirling platform of water.

I stepped onto it and it carried me to the ceiling. I got onto a beam and let the water fall.

Turning onto my back, I sent Riptide's point through the roof and pulled it in a circle, then I moved back, fast.

I caught the piece of the ceiling as it fell, and the water rose up to gently set it down. I reached up and pulled myself through the hole.

This was really easy.

Annabeth PoV:

"I said, who are you!" The ghost repeated annoyed.

"Wait, there are ghosts here too?"

"No. I'm not here and you are not at a magical school. What do you think?" She replied sarcastically.

"I'm sorry. I'm just in shock." Then a thought struck me. "Does the ghost king know?"

At my words, she started to tremble. Then, she tried to cover it up by saying, "Why do you care?"

"I'll take that as a no."

The ghost started to get mad, "Who are you!"

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and resident 'guest' of this lovely place."

"Oh. That makes sense now. All of the owls were going crazy."

There were owls here too? What was next? A giant squid? A Phoenix? Spiders!

"In any case, nice to meet you Annabeth. I'm Myrtle." Myrtle introduced herself, dropping her annoyed, upset façade.

"You don't happen to have any way of getting into contact with Nico, do you?" I asked.

"I can get a brief message to him, but he cannot come here. There are over five hundred other spirits here and I can't imagine how much trouble they would all be in."

"I understand, but I need to get a message to him." I was almost desperate at this point, I was dying of boredom already and I had to know if Percy was okay.

I asked Myrtle if I could walk around and she didn't think that it would be a problem.

I was about to start breaking down the door, again, when she stopped me.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the wall. On it, there was a key hanging from a nail.

"Idiot!" I cursed in Greek.

Unlocking the door, I stepped out into the hallway of a very ancient castle. "Whoa." I whispered, taken aback at the beauty of it. And the architecture…

Anyway, Myrtle took me on a nice tour of the castle and introduced me to some other polite ghosts.

We avoided all of the staff members and I got to see the Owlrey, which was packed with owls, all of whom seemed very pleased to see me.

I was surprised when many of them started to speak at me. "My lady has come to see us" was the general greeting, although many of them had some very profound thoughts and greetings.

This must have been what Percy felt when fish and horses spoke with him.

When we got back to my lovely room, I thanked Myrtle for showing me around. I decided to wait and see what happened before contacting Nico.

When Myrtle left, I took one extra precaution to protect my secret. "I swear on the River Styx that until I find Percy and we can leave safely, I will not speak of my heritage to anyone."

Thunder rumbled loudly, and I smiled, glad to know that the gods were still with me.

Dumbledore PoV:

I sat at my desk, deeply troubled with the new developments of the day. I honestly had no idea what to do, and poor Ms. Chase was most likely even more lost than I was.

I stood and started to pace.

I thought that her companion would be alive, but I am not sure. And I had to add this to my usual troubles.

I sat back down as Severus opened the door. "Ah, Severus, thank you for joining me." He strode over to my desk and said, "The boy is still alive, though we are all unaware how."

"What happened?" I questioned.

"There is a new boy who lived; he survived without even a mere scar."

"What do you mean?"

"The Dark Lord uses the killing curse. It hit straight on, but he remained untouched."

Ignoring my shock, he continued, "Neither the Dark Lord and his followers nor the Order knows much about this boy, but he is clearly not a normal muggle, neither is his companion."

At that exact moment, thunder boomed, although there was not a cloud in the clear night sky.

MWAHAHAHA!

Sorry, I thought that it fit the mood.

Yay! You now know who Steve is!

Nico: Gecko whisperer!

Me: NICO! Get out!

Anyway,

REVIEW!