The world exploded.
Harry was right in thinking that something was wrong with the twins.
One of the heads on twin set no. 1 started morphing and spewing fire, making the patrons of the café scatter.
Harry scrambled out of his chair, drawing his wand.
He expected Hermione to same, but was surprised to see her standing up slowly, reaching behind her, drawing a…. Hairpin?
She stepped forward and yelled
"Harry, get behind me! Magic won't work on that thing!"
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nico, and the other girl, engaging the other set of twins. Nico, slashing at the twin set with his black sword.
He turned his attention back to Hermione and the twins in front of him, just in time to see Hermione twisting her hairpin, turning it into a beautiful sword, almost the same size as Nico's.
He had never felt more inadequate in his entire life.
…
Hermione stood up slowly, trying to determine the best way to attack. She could hear Nico and Piper in the background, but they could manage.
The monster started morphing, and she heard the bell above the door jingling again. People were running out, onto the street, but she could also hear the voices of Annabeth and Percy. Just as well. The ceiling was starting to catch fire, they could really use some water.
She charged at the monster, that had now fully morphed into an eight foot two, tall figure, with two heads, one a lion, and one a goat. Its tail was a serpent, spewing corrosive venom in all directions.
"What is that thing?" Percy yelled.
"Chimera!" Hermione and Annabeth chorused.
Hermione slashed with her sword at the right side of the monster, but the Chimera dodged, making her duck and crouch, when a burst of fire shot past her.
She started slicing at the creature's legs yelling, "Harry! Fire!" Hoping that he would get the point. Where there had been hands before, the Chimera now had big lion's paws, with claws that could easily rip her throat out. It was swatting at her, but she raised her sword, parrying. The monster was turning one of its heads down towards her, getting ready to burn her to a crisp.
"Harry!" she screamed, trying to push him in to action.
Harry had been frozen in shock. When he gained his senses, there was brutal fighting going on, and he was surrounded by fire.
"Aguamenti!" He shouted, raising his wand, spraying the Chimera in the face that was turned towards Hermione. She used the monster's distraction to jump to her full height, pulling her sword upwards with her, cutting off one of the beast's paws. The other paw managed to pound her down on the floor.
The Chimera roared furiously, and lunged at Hermione, lionhead first.
…
Nico and Piper had been busy fighting their chimera. He had seen them twice before. One with Hermione, and once in Tartarus. Percy and Annabeth had jumped behind the bar, and it looked like Percy had broken the pipes, because he was sending water out through the room, helping Hermione's friend Harry put out the fires.
Piper had tried using charmspeak, but it didn't work, so she had drawn her dagger, Katoptris. They fought well together.
Piper stabbed the Chimera between the ribs, making it stagger and wheeze. Nico was about to give the final blow, but the Monster turned sideways, giving the snake tail an opportunity to attack. Nico cut off the snake's head, but it had already sunk its fangs into Piper's thigh. The snake's jaws were locked, and she couldn't get the snake's head off, so it kept pumping venom into her system.
Nico slashed his stygian iron blade sideways, effectively cutting the Chimera in half at the waist, making it disintegrate
That was when he heard the other Chimera roar. He turned around to see Hermione on her back. She was holding her sword up in front of her, but the beast was about to pounce.
He pulled his dagger out from its holster with inhuman speed, throwing it towards the Chimera, where it lodged itself in the lion's throat. Hermione didn't hesitate. She swung her sword with all the power she could muster and sliced off both the Chimeras heads, making it explode in golden glitter that covered her entire body.
…
Hermione was lying, panting heavily, trying to get herself together and sit up, which was hard after a battle, knowing that the threat was over.
"Hermione! Some help over here!" Nico yelled.
That made her scramble and hurry to his side, where he was sitting, tending to Pipers wound. He had just managed to pry away the head of the snake that had been stuck to her thigh. Her jeans had large holes, that were smeared with dark yellow venom.
"Rip open her jeans and see what you can make of it. I'll get nectar and ambrosia" he said hurriedly, positioning Piper against a chair. "Percy!" he yelled over his left shoulder. "Let Harry take care of the rest of the fires and Annabeth take out the rest of the customers! Go get Jason!"
Hermione dropped her sword and took Katoptris to cut open Pipers jeans. The venom was already spreading.
"I need to make a tourniquet" she said. Nico threw her a piece of a broken chair leg. And she got to work, using a piece of the jeans she had ripped. "Nectar" She stuck out her hand, and Nico threw it to her. She poured a few drops into each wound, making Piper hiss and let out a string of curse words. When she was starting to apply the tourniquet, Jason came rushing in, his glasses broken, a cut across his bicep and his blond hair streaked with soot.
"We'll stabilize her, and then I'll shadow travel her directly to the Valetudinarium." Nico told him.
"Fighting is almost done outside. We had another two of these and two empousai." Jason said, as he sat down beside his girlfriend.
Tears were streaming down Pipers face
"It hurts, Jason, gods it hurts!" she was crying.
"Here, eat this" Nico gave her a small piece of ambrosia.
"There. Tourniquet is done." Hermione said. "I'll be right back" Nico said, picking Piper up and carrying her into the shadows.
Jason went outside to check on the others.
Hermione sat back on her haunches, wiping her brow with the back of her hand, trying not to get too much blood on her face, which was hard, since her hands were covered with the substance.
She hated that. The metallic smell of the blood, mixed with the smoke from the dying embers was enough to make her want to puke.
Not to mention the fact, that the blood was starting to dry, making her hands very sticky.
She looked around at the damage. The fire had almost eaten a quarter of the café. Everything was soaking wet, and there were small piles of embers steaming in a corner.
In the middle of the room, Harry stood looking at her, as if he had never seen her before.
"You were amazing." he said, sitting down, leaning against a wall, patting a spot beside him, indicating she should sit there.
"I always knew you were amazing, but I really had no idea to what extent. How did you know all that?"
She sat down wincing, her muscles trying to tell her, exactly, how out of practice she had been.
"I studied healing techniques a lot actually. Ever since first year, when Ron was injured. I remember feeling so helpless back then. The fighting, Nico taught me, but I'm ridiculously out of practice with the sword. I would have been eaten if he hadn't thrown that dagger."
"How come you never trained with the sword?"
She picked it up from the floor, studying it.
"I was always with you guys, especially, when we were on the run. Sometimes, when I had a rare moment alone, I would take it out, to look at it. To remember. I had been worried about Nico. I hadn't heard from him since the end of third year."
"Showing you, would raise too many questions, and honestly, I didn't know if you would be able to see it. Most mortals can't. You would think I was crazy, waving around a hairpin."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked confusedly.
"It's the metal. It's called Celestial Bronze. Mortals generally can't see it or be hurt by it. It's lethal to monsters though. And other demigods." Hermione explained.
"This sword is very special. It was made especially for me. Actually, I think it was Hades himself, who commissioned it, although I suspect it was Nico's idea." she said, smiling.
She ran a finger over the sword, tracing the swirling black lines.
"It's made from Celestial Bronze, but it's embedded with Stygian Iron. A metal of the Underworld. It makes it really unique. I really love it. It also has a place to store my wand in the hilt, but I only use that on missions."
"I don't think it's just the sword you love." Harry pointed out, teasingly.
"Oh, shut up. We should probably clear out. It won't be long until the place is run over by the authorities." She deflected.
"When can we see you again?"
"I don't know, Harry. I can't bring you back to camp at the moment because of the borders, but I have another idea, I want to work on. I'll contact you when I know more." She gave him a hug.
"Safe apparition!" She wished him, and he disappeared with a pop, just as Nico returned from the shadows.
She twisted her sword, turning it back into a hairpin, which she stuck back in her ponytail. Nico threw his arm around her shoulder.
"Let's go get the others and go home." He murmured.
Hermione only grunted in reply, leaning against him, as they walked out of the café.
The outside didn't look much different from the inside. There were scorch marks on the ground, and golden dust covering the pavement.
The others stood in a huddle near the wall, waiting for them, all covered in various cuts, burns and bruises.
"Home?" Frank asked.
"Home." they all agreed.
Phew. I love fight scenes, but I feel like I'm crap at writing them. Please, again – review :)