By the time Nico arrived, Hermione's crying had reduced to sniffles and hiccups. She was exhausted, on the verge of sleep. They had carried her into the principia, where she was half lying, half sitting on Percy, Calypso trying to make her drink some water.

Nico sat down in front of her and stroked some hair out of her face

"Hey, Princess. What's going on", he said softly

"They found my parents, Nico" She brokenly whispered.

"I erased their memory of me and sent them to Australia before going on the run. Now Harry found them."

"But isn't that a good thing?"

This started a whole new wave of sobbing.

"Th- they don't know me, a-and I c-can't fix them. It's too dangerous for them t-to see me, but it doesn't matter. They won't miss me, because they don't know me."

Percy caught Nico's eye, silently demanding an explanation.

"Later" Nico mouthed as he started gathering Hermione in his arms. He lifted her up and shadow traveled them to his bedroom. He tucked her in with his still warm sheets, and crawled in beside her, holding her as they both fell asleep.

…

Hermione woke up to a soft knock on the door. From what she could tell, it was very early in the morning. Nico was still snoring softly behind her. She knew from experience, that nothing but an act of violence could wake him, when he was like this. She was still careful, when going to open the door.

On the other side stood a beautiful girl, with brown hair and bronze coloured skin. She was at the principia the day before.

"Good morning" she smiled and looked over Hermione's shoulder to see Nico still sleeping.

"Morning" Hermione slurred "Piper, right?"

It was deeply unfair that anyone could look so beautiful at the crack of dawn.

"Thought you might like a shower and some breakfast, before everyone else is up and starts with their questions" Piper said gently.

"I could definitely do with a shower. Urh, and I need to shave my legs. If I get any hairier, animal rights activists are going to try capturing me and release me into the wild."

Piper chuckled "I can see why he likes you" She said with a smile and led Hermione out into the hall, closing the door softly behind her.

"Who likes me?"

"Come on. You know perfectly well who I'm speaking about. I'm a child of Aphrodite. I know these things. And if I'm not much mistaken, the sentiment is shared." Pipers smile widened to a grin, when Hermione blushed

"What is this place anyway? Nico just shadow traveled us directly to his…um his bedroom." Hermione blushed even deeper with that realization.

They were walking down a dimly lit hallway.

"This is the House of Ten. Eleven if you're want to stay." She said with a large smile.

The hallway was beautiful. The walls were covered in frescoes depicting the adventures they had been through. From the ceiling, chains of lights hung, giving off a low warm glow.

"About a year ago, we all got together to make this place. Annabeth drew the structure. Leo made all appliances and all the electronics. You might also meet Buford The Wonder Table, he's probably lurking around somewhere.

"Leo installed so many appliances, we might as well be living in a large computer. He could tell you more, but if you ask him, he won't ever stop speaking." Piper said, as Hermione examined some control panels on the wall.

"He almost sounds like a steam punk Tony Stark."

Piper snorted. "You're not far off. He even made Buford and Festus sentient. He wanted to install a Jarvis, but the rest of us all, voted against it. Speaking to a disembodied voice coming from the walls is just too weird. He got to install it in his Lab though."

They continued down the hallway and Hermione studied the paintings. She stopped in front of an image of Nico sitting cross-legged in a bronze jar, meditating with pomegranate seeds at his feet.

"Oh Nico" she whispered. "He was there for eight days?" She asked Piper, tears glistening in her eyes. "Yeah. How did you guess?"

"I counted the seeds." She replied, like that should be obvious.

"Who made these?" Hermione whispered.

"Rachel Dare. She's the Oracle. You haven't met her yet, but you can't go on a quest until you get a prophecy, so you're grounded until she gets home from vacation."

Piper studied Hermione as she ran her fingers across the painting.

"Hermione, how well do you know Nico?"

Hermione smiled. "Why do you ask?"

"You just seem very comfortable with each other. He's completely different around you. Even when he was with Will, he was mostly moody and brooding. He didn't like physical contact. Yet here he is, with you, holding your hand, joking, making you blush."

Hermione sighed.

"It's a hard question" she said as she moved away from the painting.

"How do you define knowing someone? Is it knowing their favourite colour? Knowing their greatest secrets? Trusting them with your life?" She paused, and Piper waited for her to elaborate

"I was twelve, when we first met." She eventually continued

"For a year we spent almost every day together. In the beginning, he was as you described. Moody. Depressed. Sometimes, just really angry. To be honest, I just thought he didn't want to be there. He was ordered to train me, over the summer holiday, by his father, and mine. Once the holiday was over, he still kept coming back though. We did a lot of sneaking around." She remembered with a fond smile.

"We went on a lot of different missions from his father actually. We grew pretty close. I'm still trying to find out how much of that has changed over the years."

"Why didn't you keep in touch?" Piper asked bewildered.

"One day he came to me, saying that he needed to be away for a couple of weeks , but he promised to come back. Those couple of weeks suddenly turned into five years. I learned later that he had been stuck in Tartarus." She whispered.

"But he came back out?"

"Yes, but by then, war had broken out in the magical community. And as he said- not even his dad could find me."

Piper could tell she wouldn't get much more out of Hermione. They reached the kitchen, which gave her a chance to change the subject.

"So. What do you want for breakfast? We have pretty much everything here."

"Maybe just some toast? This kitchen is amazing!" She said in awe.

And it really was. White walls, carved marble countertops. Dark wooden cabinets with bronze filigree handles.

She sat down on a chair at a breakfast bar.

"I agree. Leo and Annabeth worked a lot together on this room. Wait till you see one of the bathrooms though."

"I'd like tha-"

Hermione was interrupted, by a hatch opening in the tabletop she sat at. She Jumped and yelped, when two pieces of toast jumped out of the hatch.

Piper just lifted an eyebrow.

"That's new. Might need to speak with Leo about that. Could hit someone in the face." Her calmness told Hermione, that one might learn to live with surprises like that, living in the same household as Leo Valdez.

"At least your breakfast isn't on fire. I tried that last week, with a bowl of cornflakes."

They sat for a while, eating in comfortable silence.

"Can you tell me where the bathroom is?" Hermione asked, when she finished her toast.

"The guest bathroom is just down the same hall we came from. First door to the left. If you want, I could find you some clothes to borrow."

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. I brought my own wardrobe."

"Where on earth are you keeping it then?" Piper asked, bewildered.

"Right here," Hermione replied, smiling and drawing a small beaded bag from one of her pockets.

"That must be the world's tiniest shorts, if you're keeping them in there."

Hermione just smiled mysteriously and pulled out a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, a cardigan, socks and a change of shoes. Piper sat openmouthed, blinking rapidly, not trusting her own eyes.

"How did you do that?" She asked, after getting over her internal freak-out.

"Magic" Hermione grinned and started walking down the hallway.

I wanted to have Hermione start bonding a little with some of the others. I promise more action soon though. Please leave reviews. I really love it when you do. :)