The lonely isle was obviously referring to Ogygia. Hermione would have preferred not to analyze the prophecy any more than that, but the part about the foreign curse worried her.

She really didn't want the wizarding world involved in this. They had just come out of a war. They really didn't need another.

Shortly after hearing the prophecy, Jason left.

Piper sighed, when he left. "I'm sorry about him. He hasn't really been himself, with this whole conflict."

"It's all right. I can't imagine it's easy for him." Percy said. "Zeus has been hard on him, ignored him, and only had him as tribute to Hera. But then he meets his dad, and gets awestruck. I should know, it happens to me every time. Then we try to hold on to the good things our godly parents gave us. I was lucky, at least I got Poseidon."

Hermione looked at him incredulously, as he sat, casually speaking about meeting his dad.

"Oh yes. Lucky you, Son of Poseidon." Hermione snarked, and stood up to leave. Nico grabbed her hand and squeezed it, sending a silent message, that he would find her later. She walked out to the training grounds, conjuring a dozen training dummies. She had pulled her hairpin out, twisting it into a sword in one fluid motion, decapitating the first dummy as she passed it.

…

"Your dad?" Nico asked Percy sarcastically. "You do know, she's never met him, right? That he never even bothered to show up, or bothered to even tell her the name of her mother." He looked at Percy pointedly

Percy looked crestfallen.

"What? She doesn't know who her mom is?"

"Nope" Nico said, popping the 'p' "Not all of us get that luxury. Only one, who knows is Poseidon. She was adopted as a baby. The only reason she even found out she was a demigod, was because I found her and could feel the power of Poseidon in her. It was an absolute miracle she hadn't been eaten, by the time I found her. She was thirteen, and I could feel the power across the equivalent of two football fields. Either her mother died, or didn't want her and put her up for adoption, but either way, Poseidon abandoned her, and left her to fend for herself. She was left with no training, no network and no help, beyond what she could find in the magical world, and they don't teach you much about controlling earthquakes or sword fighting, especially with their own war going on. She is amazing, and even my dad loves her. Poseidon is missing out. But I doubt she would be awestruck if he finally deigns to show up. I'll remind you, you've never even seen her angry. I'll tell you, she is livid at Poseidon, and he's going to feel it." Nico ranted.

"Maybe that's why Poseidon is hiding. I've seen her swordsmanship. I'm scared." Leo quipped. "Either way, you better kiss and make up. Festus is flying out tomorrow, and it sucks to fly with people sulking."

Percy slammed his forehead against the table. He didn't know. He hadn't asked more about her parents. They had talked a little more lately, but somehow, he always ended up speaking about himself. He needed to try harder. It was easier with Tyson. He was almost always happy. Hermione was a girl. And she was a complicated one of them, in his opinion. As he had said before – being a big brother sucked.

…

Nico found Hermione lying on the ground with her eyes closed, debris from the dummies scattered all around her. He went over to lie down beside her, but she didn't acknowledge him.

"I know how you feel."

"How could you possibly?" she whispered.

He sighed. "We all have some things we don't like to talk about, even with the ones we care about the most" He said carefully.

Hermione opened one eye to look at him.

"Is there something you don't like, but want to talk about?"

"I don't remember my childhood at all, you know. Bianca and I, just sort of woke up one day, at the Lotus hotel. We didn't know anything, only our names. It wasn't until Bianca died, I realized I was the son of Hades. I felt her passing. I discovered that I could control some ghosts, skeletons, zombies. I felt like, I didn't belong at Camp-Halfblood, so I started searching for the Underworld."

"But you did belong. You're a demigod."

"I think out of anyone, you know more about not feeling like you belong, even though you do" He said, smiling gently. "Anyways. I found the Underworld, obviously, but Hades was not happy to see me. He wouldn't tell me anything. He had preferred Bianca, because she was older. She would have fit the prophecy, but she died."

He sat up, trying to find words.

"Gods are different in many ways, Princess. But in other ways, they're exactly like normal people. They feel pain like we do. Not the physical pain, but the emotional pain. Maybe they feel it even more than normal people, and sometimes people react in strange ways, especially with loss. Gods are immortal, but they still fall in love with mortals. Sometimes, they have short flings, but other times, their feelings run very deep. Apollo is still affected by the pain of people he lost, centuries ago."

She looked at him intently, waiting for him to get to the point.

"My father didn't want tell me about my mother, he didn't even want to speak about her at all, until I blackmailed him, and even then, he only told me the bare minimum. I still kept searching for knowledge though. One day, I had been trying to contact my mother's spirit, but I was caught in a vision instead. I saw Hades pleading with my mother, begging her to come with him to the Underworld, to protect her from Zeus. My mother refused, and in the end, Zeus destroyed an entire hotel, just to kill us. Bianca and I survived, but our mother died, and our father was heartbroken. I've never seen him so furious. My point is, that Hades didn't want to tell me about my mother, because it hurt him. Gods are selfish creatures. If it hurts them, they won't do it. I don't know, what happened to your mom, but I figure there's a reason Poseidon is keeping his distance. You must look a lot like your mother, because you look nothing like Percy. It might painful for Poseidon to face you. He's still a jerk, for not showing up though. That's the least he could do."

Hermione frowned and huffed.

"So, he's a coward." She said, nodding. "We better get inside. We have some planning to do."

...

When they got inside, Hermione drenched in sweat from her impromptu training session, Percy stood up to apologize.

"Save it," she said, holding up her hand. "I'm sorry to overreact, but Poseidon is a bit of a sore topic for me. That, and I'm full of restless energy. Let's get planning!"

She sat down at the table.

"Er, right." Leo started. "Festus is pretty much ready, we just need to fine-tune some of the equipment. Don't want to end up in the wrong dimension." He sat, smiling like a maniac, looking every bit the crazy inventor that he was. Hermione had the impression, that he wouldn't be terribly sorry about making that mistake.

"And you're sure we have no other choice, but to fly on Happy, the Dragon?" She asked nervously.

Leo looked proud, that someone else had noted the name of his dragon. "You'll be perfectly fine, I promise you. Now, if you can cast those concealment charms, then we'll be even more safe. You'll love it!"

"Alright" She said, taking charge. "I propose, we stay at Ogygia for five days. In the meantime, you can try to get in contact with Apollo." She looked at Will, who nodded

"I can definitely try, but gods aren't always easy to reach."

Nico snorted "For you, though, Apollo will come through in a second, and you know it. Daddy's boy." He smirked

Will blushed. "That was one time! I was sitting in my exam, and I prayed to my dad. Next thing I know, He right there behind the teacher! I almost failed!"

"Yeah, and after, he took us out for ice cream." Nico reminisced.

Will's boyfriend, Joseph, sat clenching his jaw. Hermione would guess, that he wasn't a great fan of his boyfriend getting along with his ex. She moved hers and Nico's clasped hands, to rest on top of the table, as a signal, that he had nothing to worry about. The guy just sneered at her, rolling his eyes.

"Either way," Hermione interrupted the guys "We need Apollo. If he can bring ice cream, all the better. Just save some for me" she winked at Will.

"I would like to train on both earthquakes and defensive magic, to see if out theory holds, that they will grow together. It's really an interesting study."

Annabeth sat, nodding at that.

"The rest of us need to keep up with our training and the patrols. The monsters around the borders are getting restless. We had two soldiers on patrol yesterday, who almost got eaten." Reyna said.

"I also have another request for you guys." She pointed at Will and Calypso. "That potions book I gave you, Calypso, has several large chapters about healing potions. I would like, if maybe, you could take a look at it with Will, to see if there's some of it you can use on demigods. Extra healing resources are going to be necessary in the near future, I'm afraid." She shrugged apologetically at Will who nodded, looking grim.

Joseph was still sneering at her. She did not like Joseph very much.

"Then let's get packing" Percy said.

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