Raven's POV

Clutching my arm, I hurried down to the field. As I followed Ron and Hermione, my arm continued to burn. I tried eating Ambrosia, to no effect, because it was Harry's pain I felt, not my own.

The entire team and most of the Gryffindors had gathered around Harry and I couldn't see a thing. I pushed my way toward the center and my two friends (and only friends) did the same.

My initial plan was to conserve my energy so I could shadow-travel Harry to the Hospital Wing, but once Hermione, Ron and I reached the center, Professor Lockhart twirled his wand in the air and pointed it at Harry's broken arm.

"No!"

I lunged forward, but stopped suddenly when the pain faded from my arm and was replaced by the most uncomfortable sensation. It felt as though the bones in my arm had been substituted by Silly Putty. I flexed my fingers, insuring that I could still move them. The same could not be said for Harry, whose right arm looked as limp as—well, Silly Putty.

"Ah. Yes, well, that can sometimes happen," Lockhart said in an attempt to explain his obvious mistake, "But the point is that—"

"Yeah, thank you, Professor!" I said lifting Harry by his arm that had bones and slinging it over my shoulder. Rom and Hermione held onto me as I Shadow-traveled, to the surprise of Madam Pomfrey.

To spare you the unnecessary details, we helped Harry into a bed; I sat on another bed next to Harry; I had to feel Skele-Gro burn Harry's throat; we left Harry to regrow his bones.

It was a rough night for me. I kept waking up with prickly pains in my right arm. I tossed and turned all night. Finally, with the curtains of my four-poster closed, I lit my wand and began doffing through my bag and robes pockets for something—anything—to get my mind off it,

In my robes pockets, I found a small piece of paper. It was the note to myself I'd written during History of Magic. I unfolded it and, written in Ancient Greek, were four names:

Godric Gryffindor
Helga Hufflepuff
Rowena Ravenclaw
Salazar Slytherin

Suddenly, my plan flooded back to my mind. How could I have forgotten? I shouldered my bag, the paper clutched in my bag.

The next thing I knew, I was on the black shores of the River Styx, as tired as I've ever been. I quickly fumbled for my Nectar and drank it. I regained my energy and sat up. I stood and walked along the banks of the River, waiting at the port for someone I normally avoided talking to.

Charon docked the ferry twenty minutes later, and a long queue of spirits unloaded.

"Hey, Charon!" I called. I boarded the Ferry since he wasn't allowed off it during his eternal shift. He turned to look at me, an expression of annoyance on his face.

"Listen, godling, I'm in no mood for games. I'm on a tight schedule—"

I tossed him a small satchel of Golden Drachmas. I had anticipated this reaction.

Charon peered inside the bag. Looking back at me, he said, "Make it quick, godling."

I showed him my paper. "I know you remember ferrying these people. And I know you know where they went."

"I might recall it," said Charon.

"Well, a lot of peoples' lives are hanging on the answer to the question I am about to ask you, and I know you don't want extra work, so you will answer me. Where did they get judged?"

He glanced at the paper and smirked. "Godric, Helga, and Rowena might be found at the Isles of the Blest. Salazar might have decided to not chance himself, so he might have chosen Asphodel." He pocketed his bag of gold and shoved me off the ferry. "But you did not hear that from me." He pushed off from the shore and was gone.

I stared after him, considering this. I jotted down this new information as I felt Harry's pain subside. I groaned. I wasn't allowed in Elysium, where the Isles of the Blest were located, and it would take me forever to fish out Salazar in Asphodel. My fatigue caught up to me as I Shadow-traveled back to Hogwarts.

I don't know what room I ended up in, but it had a bed, so I passed out in it.

I woke up the next morning and realized that I was in a bed in the Hospital Wing with the curtains drawn. I sat up and stretched silently, and I heard Madam Pomfrey's voice near the curtain.

"There you are, dear. Now, let me see you…"

I peeked out of the curtains. I was in the bed just next to Harry's where Madam Pomfrey was testing his arm.

I waited until she had gone before I opened the curtain wide and said, "Boo."

He jumped. "How long have you been there?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Relax. I passed out here last night."

Then we both started talking, eager to tell our stories of last night. To be polite, he let me go first. I told him that I went to the Underworld for information. I didn't get much, but I got something. Then he told me about Dobby (after he'd explained who he was) coming to visit him and about Colin turning up Petrified.

While he got dressed and went to Myrtle's bathroom, I dropped my stuff off at the Common Room. I took a swig of Nectar to take care of my headache and joined my friends in the damp, dark bathroom.

oOo

December rolled in, signaling my stepmother's absence from Olympus. Professor McGonagall had people who were staying at school during break sign a form. After explanation, I was exempt from this because, since I can Shadow-travel, I came and went during the holiday break. Harry, Ron, and Hermione signed it and we quietly discussed our plan over breakfast.

"The holidays will be perfect for finding that rat out," whispered Ron.

"But the potion's only half done," said Hermione. "We still need you to get us the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin," she said looking at me.

I shrugged. My hair had grown long over the months, and I took my sword and sliced it. It was now spiky and uneven and came down only to my neck, with the exception of the front, which was just long enough to shade both my eyes. "Sure," I said emotionless, as always, "but somebody has to distract Snape. I don't want to pop in while he's in there."

"Potions class would be a perfect time," said Harry. "We distract him; pop, you're in; you get what we need; pop, you're back out; and we're set."

"Sounds like a plan."

It was a pretty good plan. I did pretty well in potions and Snape would suspect me last. The only spot on my record was muttering "Double, double, toil and trouble," while stirring my potion. So, during Potions, I waited for the signal of the distraction. And, knowing the boys, I waited for an explosion.

BOOM

With demigod reflexes, I conjured Dark Energy to shield me from the Swelling Solution that splashed everywhere, after which I quickly Shadow-traveled. Five minutes later, I had the necessary ingredients in my bag.

A week later and a week away from the completion of the potion, a dueling club had started. I, of course, was stoked to learn how to kick ass with my wand as well as my sword.

So at 8, we went to the Great Hall for the first meeting.

How disappointing to learn that the class was being led by none other than Loose-lips Lockhart. He was standing on a long stage that spanned the length of the Hall, looking as pompous as ever. But on the bright side, standing at the opposite end was Snape. How lovely it would be to see Snape unleash hell (figuratively) on Lockhart.

"Gather round, gather round! Can anybody see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent." Lockhart, of course. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club to train you all up in case you ever need to…" By then, I had tuned him out.

I snapped to attention when Snape and Lockhart pointed their wands at each other.

"Two Sickles on Snape," I whispered to a Hufflepuff girl.

"You're on!" she whispered back.

"Expelliarmus!" A scarlet light flashed from Snape's wand and collided with Lockhart, knocking him the the other end of the stage.

Grudgingly, the girl I'd bet handed me two sickles. "Thank you," I said smartly. She stuck her tongue out at me. 'Oh, yeah, real mature,' thought as I turned back to the stage.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione squeaked, craning her neck to see Lockhart.

"Who cares?" the boys and I chorused.

Unfortunately, he was and he got up and forced a confident look "An excellent idea to show them that, Snape. That was the Disarming Charm, ladies and gentlemen. Good work, Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do…"

He finally noticed Snape's expression and decided to put us into pairs. I got paired up with some boy from Slytherin. He was a head taller than me and had the smuggest face, as though beating me would be easy. I smirked inwardly, knowing it wouldn't.

"Wands at the ready!"

The Slytherin drew his wand and readied it while I yawned lazily and scratched the back of my neck.

Lockhart counted: "One…Two…Three!"

As soon as he'd cast the spell, I drew my sword and held it in front of me. The spell hit it. Just like it did when I stabbed monsters, it sucked the energy from the spell and harnessed it for itself. Good ol' Nightmare.

It hummed slightly with power when Snape barked at me.

"Necros!" I turned to him. "Wands only!"

I rolled my eyes and sheathed my sword. Snape came over, to make sure that I didn't kill this kid no doubt.

"Start over. Wands at the ready." I drew my wand, which might as well have been a miniature version of my sword. The boy did the same, not looking nearly as confident.

"One…Two…Three."

"Expelliarmus!"

My opponent was knocked back, not just behind him, but instead collided with the wall…on the far side of the Hall!

After that, Lockhart called up a 'volunteer pair', meaning a pair was chosen. Harry and Malfoy were called up onto the stage. I bet with another girl five Sickles that Harry would win. I was confident. I was also eager to see Malfoy get his ass kicked.

I never got my Sickles, nor did I ever give that girl any. It was a tie, but its results were very important.

Not long after Lockhart counted to three and cried, "Go!" Malfoy cast a long snake onto the platform. Everyone except me backed away from the stage (I wasn't afraid of it) as the snake raised itself in attack position.

Snape was about to get rid of it when Lockhart interrupted and, as usual, made a bigger mess of things. His spell caused it to jump ten feet into the air, arc over me and land on the floor behind me. It turned, angry, to some student by the name of Justin, ready to attack.

Harry slid off the stage and walked a few paces in front of me toward the snake.

"Leave him alone!" he shouted at it.

The snake hissed at him as if to say, "Seriously? Can't I at least have a—"

Harry shook his head, and the snake backed off.

I smirked. I clapped him on the back. "Nice work."

But when I looked around, no one else seemed to share in my congratulations.

"What are you two playing at?" Justin demanded, his voice shaking in fright and anger.

Before I could figure out what he meant, Ron had begun dragging Harry out of the room and Hermione had grabbed my right wrist and did the same.

"Wait—the hell—?" was all I managed to say the entire way up the stairs and into the Common Room. Ron shoved Harry into a chair, whereas Hermione just let go of me near it and circled around next to Ron. And so the interrogation began.

"You're Parselmouths! Why didn't you tell us?"

"What?" Harry and I said together.

"You can talk to snakes."

"I know," said Harry.

"No," I said at the same time.

Our voices overlapping, I explained that I'd never spoken to snakes and Harry described his trip to the zoo. I ended before he did, and he finished with, "But so what? I bet loads of people can do it if Raven can do it, too."

"No, they can't," said Ron. "It's not a very common gift, Harry. This is bad."

"What's bad?" I could feel Harry becoming frustrated and angry. "If I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin—"

"Oh, that's what you said to it?"

"What are you people, deaf?" I half-shouted. "You were right there—I was there—and all he did was tell it to back off! Didn't you hear it?"

"I heard you both speaking Parseltongue. Snake language," said Ron.

"I spoke a different language?" said Harry.

"Wait—I spoke it, too?"

"No wonder Justin panicked," Ron continued, ignoring Harry and me. "Harry steps forward and hisses something at it—it bloody sounded like you were egging it on—and then she comes over and hisses something to you—like she was in on it!"

"But how can I speak a language without knowing I can?"

"Wait," I said, turning to Harry. "Remember that night in the Common Room, when you spoke Ancient Greek. You got that from me. I must've gotten Parseltongue from you. But where did you get it?"

"Why does it matter?" demanded Harry. "At least I saved Justin!"

"It matters," said Hermione speaking up for the first time in the conversation. "Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth—it's what he was famous for. That's why the symbol for Slytherin House is a serpent."

"So now the whole school's going to think you two are his descendants!" Ron added.

"But we're not!" Harry and I chorused.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be."

Harry and I exchanged looks. I rounded on Ron and Hermione, giving them each a Child-of-Hades Death Glare. They both backed up and sat in chairs at the sight of my eyes.

"I can prove it!" I grabbed my bag from my corner. "And I will." I Shadow-traveled with one last glare at the three of them.

Hermione's POV

Raven had told me of the Death Glare, and I hoped I would never have to see it, but when she looked at me, her eyes turned black for a moment, then returned to normal. My stomach felt as though it was melting and I was involuntarily filled with fear I'd never felt.

She didn't show up for classes the next day. Wherever she went, she apparently hadn't finished.

Harry began wondering if he could communicate with her mentally. When it didn't work, I made a note for myself to remind Raven to work on that with Harry.

(A/N: Sorry about the rapid POV change, I just thought I'd add that.)

Raven's POV

I woke up the next morning in Asphodel, having collapsed the previous night. I got up and made my way to the dungeons of my father's palace.

Just beneath the dungeons is where all the records are kept of deaths and family lines. As you can imagine, it is quite full. I spent all day in there, filing through paper after paper, when I heard a voice behind me.

"Playing hooky?" said the silky voice of my stepmother.

I groaned, turning to her. "Please, Persephone, don't tell my father I'm here. Just let me work on this, and then I'm back in school."

"How about I let this slide, provided you leave. Now."

As you can probably tell, my stepmother and I don't have the best relationship.

"Look," I said through my teeth, "I'm just looking for Salazar Slytherin's ancestry."

"And whatever for, may I ask?"

"There's a good chance that I and a friend of mine might be related to him! I have to find out. He might be a descendant of my mom's—"

Persephone bared her teeth. "Don't—mention—that woman."

My brow furrowed. "You knew my mom..."

My stepmother's eyes widened and her lips pursed, but she answered, "We never formally introduced, no, but I know of her."

"What happened to her? At least tell me that."

Persephone's eye twitched. It only did that when she was super-pissed.

"Please. I have no mother-figure in my life, other than you. No one to talk to about life, about school, about love, no one. At least tell me who I should be pissed at for depriving me of that!"

Her eyes softened as she considered. She sighed. "Come with me. We'll discuss this in the Garden."

'Holy Hades, the Garden! This is going to be a serious talk' I thought.

As we sat on the patio overlooking the Garden, she began her story.

"There's a reason—a personal reason—for us sending you to that school. A reason your father wants Voldemort dead.

"It was the summer of 1922 and your father had met this girl. They fell in love and had you. Your uncle Zeus found out quickly about you. When you were five, a prophesy was made and Zeus demanded your father hand you in. Hades refused. He hid you with your mother and a year later, you were brought to the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

"But many years later, Zeus found a pawn, a mercenary. This mercenary went by the name 'Voldemort'. Zeus promised him power, the usual empty promise, for he did not swear upon the River Styx.

"One night, Voldemort snuck into your mother's house, and your mother was the only one there. He figured he might as well settle for someone you and Hades loved. Only after Voldemort killed her did your father appear and cast him away. He immediately took you from the hotel, modified your memory, and began raising you in the Underworld. You were six, physically."

I stared at her, unbelieving. How could that bastard of an uncle do that to me, to his brother?

"But…He and Zeus…they're not—"

"Oh, no. Once Zeus found out Voldemort had failed, their alliance was broken."

I stood and began to pace. My mind was reeling with questions, all of which seemed unanswerable. "I just can't believe it…"

Persephone stood. "Alright, you've stalled long enough," she said, back to her normal stern self. "I won't tell your father, but you'd better get your ass back to school, or so help me, I will turn your hair into baby's breath, do you understand me?"

I nodded and did as she asked.

"Ow!"

I Shadow-traveled and landed in a corridor on top of a student.

Revised 7/23/2011