The next couple of days, went with tending to their wounds and making plans. Piper had been transported back to the house, but Will was stopping by every day, to check up on her. When she was able to sit up, they decided it was time for another meeting.
After their scuffle with the monsters at the café, Nico had decided, going to visit the Underworld.
The others had looked rather surprised, when they saw Hermione practically begging to go with him. It wasn't every day someone would plead for a trip to the Underworld. Nico refused adamantly and Hermione spent the days he was gone, practically sulking.
She kept herself occupied though. The Camp and new Rome, needed protection, so she spent an entire day casting every protection enchantment she knew, even going so far as casting the Fidelius charm, making Reyna secret keeper, meaning that Reyna had to walk around for days, making sure that everyone knew how to find the camp again. They placed scouts outside, to make sure they got the stragglers and new campers.
Hermione's energy was drained by all the casting, but after a night's sleep, she restless again. While it was good to get to know the others better, she still needed to keep her mind occupied, so she started working on another project. It was hard for her to see Nico leave. She was more scared of losing him again, than she had anticipated. Besides, it was a long time since she had seen the Underworld. She had visits to make.
One day, Leo was walking through the living room. He had been summoned to the dining room, and had washed up, by the orders of Annabeth, when saw Hermione half sitting inside the fireplace. He couldn't even see her head.
"You know, there's still around six months till Christmas, so you're a bit early. Besides, isn't there this thing, that Santa won't come, if you're waiting for him?"
"Ow!" It sounded from the fireplace. Hermione had bumped her head against the mantle.
When Leo could see her again, she was rubbing her forehead. Black smudges were all over her face, and her ponytail was only there as a principle, since most of her hair had escaped it, making her look like a dirty, grumpy lion. She had her stick in her left hand, and was tapping it against her thigh.
"What were you doing? Trying to set yourself on fire? All you've got to do is ask." He said with a smirk and a wink.
She was way too occupied to respond to his teasing though, which he thought was really unfair.
She walked to a small table next to the fireplace, that had several books open. She picked up one of them and started pacing with it, muttering to herself. She looked even more like a mad scientist than he did sometimes, which was a rather big accomplishment. In the end, he felt like he was going dizzy and decided to stand in front of her, stopping her in her path, but she didn't even notice that, so she ended up sprawled on the floor.
She lifted her head and scowled at him from the floor.
"Now, will you tell me, what you're doing?" he asked innocently.
She huffed "I'm trying to hook up the fireplace to the Floo Network"
"Flu network? Are you serious? I mean, I like Will and all, but the guy has a boyfriend he wants to see from time to time"
"No, the Floo Network. Not a disease. It's a method of transportation, wizards use. You throw in some special powder and say your destination. Then you get out of another fireplace somewhere else. Now, a friend of mine had a father, who hooked up a new fireplace, but he did that from within the ministry. I'm trying to hook it up from here, but it isn't working!"
Leo hesitated, honestly a little scared of the girl, although he would never admit it.
"Um, that might be, because it isn't really a normal fireplace. I might have made some tweaks." He said carefully.
Hermione made a frustrated growl and knocked her head back down on the floor.
"I'll help you later, but right now we should be in the dining room. I think Nico might be back" he coaxed, and stretched his hand towards her. He helped her up, and they walked to the dining room together.
All the others were already assembled, Will, sitting next to Piper redressing her wound. When the door opened, they were met with a bizarre sight.
Leo stood, freshly washed, not even a small oil stain in sight. Next to him stood Hermione, who looked like she might have had another dance with the Chimera.
"What?" She asked self-consciously.
"Um…"Jason got out, making her look at herself.
"Oh! Right! Scourgify" She said, and their eyes went even wider, when they saw the dirt disappearing on its own.
Nico, who had previously been a witness to Hermione's small miracles, only smiled.
"Let's get going then." He said, turning serious. "I've been around a bit, trying to figure out what's going on, and honestly it isn't looking good. Zeus found out about you, and he wants to kill you" He said, his eyes locked on Hermione's.
The others looked chocked at his callous remark, but Hermione only gave a wry smile. She looked around a their shocked faces.
"Oh, come on. There have been people wanting to kill me since I was eleven. I'm not going to break down and cry now. He knows that."
His lips twitched
"Either way, we need to discuss plans. He knows about you being a daughter of Poseidon, but I don't know if he knows about you being one of Hecates blessed."
"I spoke with my dad, and he said, that at this point, all communication between Zeus and Poseidon has ceased. Zeus is ordering a shut-down of Olympus. The gods are separating, taking sides. Especially the minor gods are siding with Poseidon. They are tired of Zeus's tyranny. They are encouraging Poseidon to overthrow Zeus, and they might not be so powerful, but there are plenty of them."
"Now, I'm not Zeus's greatest fan, but all out civil war is going to be bad for all of us. The division is no doubt going to spread to the demigod community, and the gods are going to use the planet as battleground, making humanity collateral damage. We need to take action before that happens."
"And what do you suggest we do?" Reyna asked. "At this point, war might be unavoidable"
"I think we should do an Apollo." Nico declared, first looking at Will, then at Jason.
The suggestion was met with shocked silence.
"Isn't that basically the same thing as just handing Poseidon the throne?" Jason asked eventually, with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Not if we play it properly. You're right, without Zeus, there will undoubtedly be a power vacuum. Someone would need to take over. Someone, who would keep the status quo, and isn't otherwise interested in the throne and thus would give it back upon Zeus's return."
"And who would that be then? Hades?" Jason asked scathingly.
"Gods no. My dad would like to stay out of it. He agreed to guide us, but that's it. I was going to suggest Apollo."
"Apollo?! Seriously?! 'My-life-is-a-haiku', 'Ode to Bacon'-Apollo?" Leo asked in disbelief.
"Hey!" Will shouted.
"I don't know. He got better" Percy pointed out.
"Exactly. He spent some time with real humans and demigods. He learned to be more serious and humble. Zeus has turned into a hateful dictator. He is treating his fellow gods and subjects with unnecessary cruelty. Everyone is scared of him, including his wife, but the goddess of marriage will never do anything to compromise her own. We need to handle this." Nico finished.
Annabeth sighed. "If we decided this, how would we even do it? None of us is powerful enough"
"No, probably not, but together we might be. Especially with her." Nico said, pointing at Hermione.
Hermione had a spectacular 'deer I the headlights'-moment.
"What do you mean, 'me'?"
"You are the most powerful one of us, you are even more powerful than some of the minor gods. Your magic from being blessed by Hecate, is being multiplied by your powers as a demigod and vice versa, which is probably the only reason the planet is still in one piece. If your magic didn't harness your powers over the earth, it would have cracked a long time ago. Training, increasing your abilities to control the earthquakes, should in turn make your magical capabilities grow as well, to keep up with the quakes. At least, that's Dad's and Hecate's theory." Nico explained.
"Your dad discussed me… with Hecate?"
"Of course, you're interesting to the both of them." He told her, trying to hold back a smile.
Percy filed that away in his memory. It would make sense for Hermione to be interesting to Hecate, if she was one of her blessed, but why would she be interesting to Hades, if she was the daughter of Poseidon?
"The point is, that if we work together, we might have a shot at making Zeus mortal for a while, making him see a different perspective of the world he's ruling, hopefully humble him a little, making him a better king."
Hermione sighed. "If we're going to do this, I would like to do some research. It might also be beneficial, to get in touch with someone else, from the magical community, particularly Harry, who you met the other day, and possibly Luna Lovegood. Maybe a couple of others. I'm working on setting up a Floo connection. It's a way of transportation, used in the wizarding world. I can't get them through the border, but I might be able to get them in here directly. I actually got the idea from Nico's arguments with Terminus."
"Sounds very 'Trojan Horse'" Frank said. "No offence"
"No, you're right. I need to put protection enchantments on it as well, so we can control, who comes through." Hermione realized.
"Sounds like we've got a lot to do! Good news is, we're almost done, working on Festus. He should be good to go, by the time Rachel gets back." Leo declared.
"Right. Now, all you need is a prophesy. Let me know, how that goes." Jason said bitterly and left.
"Jason!" Piper called after him, and tried to stand up, only to be pushed back down by Will.
"Let him cool off a bit, Piper." He said. "It was hard to be me, when Apollo was cast out. I can't imagine how hard it must be for Jason to hear us talking about doing it to his dad. You know, what happened to Apollo, was horrible in a way, but it also made him better. He feels better now, more balanced. Being human allows gods to work on their feelings. It makes them hurt, but it also teaches them to work through it. I think it might be a valuable lesson for Zeus. I'm in." He said, looking to Nico.
"Me too" Frank and Reyna chorused.
"In." Came from Reyna.
"You know, if anyone knows about Zeus' punishments, it would be me. And I got a mild one. I don't want to hurt Zeus, but I know, that many lives will be spared, and the future might be better if we can do this. I'm with you." Calypso declared.
"And I'm with you" Leo said, looking at Calypso.
Percy had been skeptical, but after hearing Calypso's little speech, he decided as well. "You've got me as well."
"And me, Annabeth offered."
"Then let's get planning."
I don't know if I missed something about the earthquake-powers with Percy. Maybe he can do it, but mostly he's just using water. At Mt St Helens, he called to the sea too, basically creating a geyser, that launched him into the air.
The thing about the memory spell on her parents is, that she has the capability to do it, but she is basically back to before going on the run from Death Eaters. She can do it, but the question is if she should. If she reversed the memory spell, it would only put them back in danger, so would seeing them, which makes for a really shitty situation.
One of the things I like about Hermione is, that she is generally very composed. Of course, she cries, from time to time, she gets angry, but she doesn't throw anything near the temper tantrums and breakdowns, Harry and Ron are throwing, front, left, and center. That makes me think, that she would be better at reigning in her powers as well. Probably some tremors from time to time though.
Also. I never liked Ron. I could write many curse words about him, but I shall try to refrain.