Chapter Thirteen

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"Found anything yet?"

"No."

There was a pause.

"How about now?"

"Still no."

"Really?"

"Believe it or not."

"But you're taking forever!"

Hermione slammed the book down on the table. "Well of wizards had invented search engines perhaps I would be getting there faster," she huffed to Ron.

Madame Pince poked her head around a bookshelf and glared at them. Hermione quickly stuck her head back in the book while Ron smiled at her awkwardly and gave a little wave. Madame Pince narrowed her eyes and glided back around the corner.

"And you could be a little helpful by actually going through the books with me," Hermione whispered angrily. "At least Harry's helping me."

Harry popped his head up from behind a huge tome. "Mate, just do what she says," he told Ron. "Hermione knows best."

Hermione smirked. "Yes she does. And-" she opened the book "-she's just found something important."

Harry and Ron got up and looked over her shoulder. On the page was a picture of fourteen huge people sitting on thrones, each of their eyes glowing with power.

"Cor, they look nasty," Ron commented. "Who are they?"

"It's just a myth," Hermione told them. "But these people are the Olympians."

"Like the sporting event?" Harry asked.

"No, but the Olympics were named after them," she said, before frowning. "It's strange though, I thought there were only twelve Olympians."

Ron rolled his eyes, exasperated. "But who are they 'Mione?"

"Gods, allegedly," Hermione replied. "I have read this exact book before, in second year while I was looking for the book about the basilisk, but back then there were definitely only twelve olympians..."

"Do you think someone's tampered with it?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so. There would be at least a few signs that someone has changed it, but there are no tears, traces of magic and it looks like it hasn't been touched since I last read it. It's as if it has always been like this. I don't think-"

"Hermione," Ron interrupted. "Who are they?"

"Sorry," Hermione said. "In Ancient Greece and Rome the citizens used gods to explain things like storms or lightning, and the twelve major gods had a throne on Olympus, which is the tallest mountain in Greece."

"Just like the pictures on Jackson's vault," Harry realised. "I definitely saw some of these people there. The one with the beard and the fork-"

"Poseidon or Neptune with a trident," Hermione interjected.

"Yeah, that guy," Harry continued. "He was carved in above a picture of a twelve-year-old boy with a sword."

Ron started flicking through Hermione's book. "Why did you say Poseidon or Neptune? Aren't those two different people?"

"Sort of."

"How can you be sort of two different people?"

"Well, when the Romans took over Ancient Greece," Hermione explained. "They also adopted their gods, only changing their names and slightly altering their personalities and domains. Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea, while Neptune is the Roman, but
in effect they are the same."

Ron nodded. "Oh, I see. So which one is it?"

"Well," Hermione replies briskly. "Professor Jackson has a Roman tattoo on his arm so I assume it's Neptune."

Ron and Harry turned to look at her with dumbfounded, confused and exasperated expressions. "What," asked Harry at length. "Are you talking about."

"I thought you knew?"

Ron and Harry looked at each other. "Knew that the tattoo on his arm we told you about at the beginning of term that we suspected to be the Dark Mark was actually just a wacky fashion statement?"

Hermione threw up her hands in defeat. "I thought you realised and didn't want to look stupid for jumping to conclusions so you never brought it up again."

"Thank you for your unwavering trust," Harry said shortly.

"You don't have to be sarcastic," Hermione mumbled into the pages of her book.

"Okay. What was the tattoo then? Do you think it was a glamour?"

Hermione shook her head. "Oh no, I cast a charm to disperse glamours and illusions, just to see if Tyson was in fact a real cyclops, and it would have changed his tattoo as well, but when we went surfing later on it was still the same."

"So that's why my sandcastle lost it's glamour," Ron exclaimed. "I thought my spell just wasn't strong enough."

"You don't have to cheat in a sandcastle building competition," Hermione told him.

"And besides," Harry pointed out. "Even your sandcastle illusion wasn't half as good as Tyson's. It was like comparing a sandcastle to an actual castle."

"But it wasn't a castle building competition," Ron complained. "It was a sandcastle building competition. And I think mine was much more like a sandcastle than his."

"When you've finished pouting, do you want me to tell you what his tattoo actually was?" Hermione asked impatiently. Ron nodded sheepishly. "It was SPQR with a trident underneath it."

"Didn't you say that was what the fork Poseidon or Neptune was carrying was called?," Harry asked. "And SPQR, does it stand for something?"

Hermione turned a page and pointed at a picture of a huge army wearing what looked like extremely heavy armour and carrying purple or red banners on which was written SPQR. At the forefront of the legion stood a man carrying a gold pole with an eagle
on top. The caption read; Twelfth Legion Fulminata, all ten cohorts assembled.

Ron blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"As far as I can tell," Hermione said. "The legion is the army, broken into smaller divisions called cohorts which each contained around 500 men and were led by two centurions. A legion had around 5000 soldiers in at any one time."

Harry whistled. "Wow, the Death Eaters look practically tame after seeing that."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Call your followers an army, You-Know-Who? Now that's an army."

Harry looked at him. "Why aren't you calling him by his name?"

"After seeing a boy control ghosts I don't really want to take my chances."

"Fair enough. So is SPQR and Fulminata the symbol or title of the army or something?" Harry questioned.

"Not quite. It stands for 'Senatus Populus que Romanus', meaning 'The Senate and People of Rome', while Fulminata means 'armed with lightning'."

"But he told me he was Greek," Ron said. "Why would he get a Roman tattoo?"

Harry shrugged. "Perhaps he just liked Rome better."

"Or perhaps there is a demon Latin teacher in America who goes around branding his or her students," Ron suggested. The other two didn't reply.

"According to this," Harry said as he read the explanation on the opposite page of the book. "Each of the twelve legions got special powers from their patron god. The Twelfth Legion got its power from Jupiter, the king of the gods."

"Superstitious nonsense," Hermione replied firmly.

"That doesn't make sense," Ron said, frowning. "Why twelve?"

"Twelve gods," Hermione said, shrugging. "Major ones at least."

Ron flicked back to the page with the picture of the gods. "But here it says there are fourteen major gods. Wouldn't the Romans have been scared that the two gods they left out would blast them for missing them out?"

Hermione shrugged. "Historical inaccuracies. It's not uncommon. I think we've hit a dead end. We might have to look somewhere else."

Harry patted her on the shoulder to get her attention. "No, Hermione," he said. "I think he's on to something. Look, these are the major gods, right? The ones that have thrones on Olympus. It says there are fourteen. But here, look-" he turned the page
"-it says that the Romans believed there were only twelve Olympian gods. And even stranger, it's talking in present tense about the fourteen gods and past tense about the twelve gods. 'In Roman times there were twelve Olympian gods, and hundreds of
minor gods'," Harry read. "But here it says: 'There are fourteen Olympian gods now, since Vesta (Hestia) and Pluto (Hades) were recently given thrones'."

"Cult members perhaps?" Hermione suggested.

"Perhaps," Harry acknowledged. "But if the people who wrote this book are cult members, then Jackson has to be one too. He burned his food, remember? Maybe it was to appease his gods."

"I think we need to find out all we can about Neptune," Ron said. "And remember, we still don't know what Jackson was doing with Luna, Neville and Malfoy."

"I almost forgot about that," Hermione said. "Malfoy said he was a full member now, didn't he? And they mentioned Nemesis and Ceres and- who was the last one? There was one more, wasn't there?"

Harry shrugged. "It was a long time ago. We made a mistake by not looking it up then and there. It just seemed so irrelevant at the time. And we trust Neville and Luna not to do something stupid. They're two of the bravest and smartest people we know."

"Anyway," Hermione continued. "Nemesis was the goddess of revenge-"

"Sounds like Malfoy to me," Ron muttered.

"-but she was also the goddess of balance. There has to be as much good as bad."

"That definitely doesn't sound like Malfoy, that evil git."

"But Ceres was the goddess of agriculture and grain crops."

"Sounds like Neville," Ron said. "But it sounds so ridiculous. Gods don't exist. Clever people like them can't believe in gods."

"I don't know," Hermione sighed. "I really don't know. We'll just have to wait and see."

The book shut with an ominous bang and a puff of dust. It was replaced on the shelf where it was found, and lay there for weeks, forgotten by the three students in the hustle and bustle of Christmas. Harry, Ron and Hermione all decided to stay at Hogwarts
for the holidays, Harry and Hermione to keep an eye on Jackson, who was also staying, while Ron was mostly staying for the food.

Midnight, 24 December in the Forbidden Forest...

"Thalia, there are too many, and they caught us unprepared. We need to retreat."

"Retreat where, Phoebe?" Thalia asked, shooting an arrow from her bow. "They have us completely pinned down."

"The left flank!" Phoebe shouted to the lieutenant. "If we can get through them we have a clear path to the castle to warn Minerva."

"Since when do you call her Minerva? Do you know her?"

"This is really not the time!"

"Okay, Hunters!" Thalia called. "Concentrate fire on the left flank, retreat to the castle! We need to warn Percy-"

She gasped in pain. She had turned her back. From the throng of monsters had jumped a manticore, and now blood seeped through her silver clothes as the poisonous tip of the manticore's tail was buried deep in her shoulder.

"Thalia!" Phoebe screamed as their leader fell to the ground. Lightning flashed all around and rain started to fall heavily. One bolt of lightning hit the manticore and burned it to a crisp. The monsters retreated, hissing and grumbling.

"Everyone," Phoebe ordered. "Protect Thalia. Clara, you're a daughter of Apollo, do what you can until we get back. Emily and Dove get a stretcher and move her carefully onto it. Metella, call the wolves back to protect us as we run."

The Hunters nodded grimly and set off in the direction of the castle, lights twinkling in the windows and snow dusting the ground.

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Interesting fact: the name Clara comes from the Latin word clarus which means bright or famous. There was a Titan called Clymene as well, who was the Titan of fame and renown.