A/N: Here's chapter 20. Wow 20! :D Please review (I am not getting many now :/ ) Has everyone lost interest in the story?
Oh, well, I will continue anyway. Do people actually read the AN? XD (why do I bother doing these?)
MERRY XMAS! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D xoxoxoxoxo
Hermione's POV:
I opened my eyes. I was lying on some sort of rock floor and I had obviously hit my head, as it hurt terribly. I tried to sit up, but with not avail. Even with my eyes open, everything was blurry.
A fuzzy yellow and orange shape appeared in my line of vision.
"Hermione!" It said. "You're awake!"
At that moment I realized the shape was actually Annabeth, the yellow was her hair and the orange was her camp T-shirt.
"Annnaaabeffff," I tried to say, but my voice box hurt too much to speak.
"Eat this," she whispered. She put a bit of what looked like pastry in my mouth. I chewed weakly. It tasted amazing, like the chocolate pancakes my dad made. Already I felt much better.
I managed to ease myself into a sitting position.
"What was that?" I asked weakly.
"Ambrosia," Annabeth replied. "Food of the gods. It heals injury in Demigods, if you eat too much, though, you will burn up."
I nodded and surveyed my surroundings. Everyone was there, Harry, Percy, Grover and a very beautiful woman wearing a tattered robe that was covered in mud and ripped in several places.
"How did we get saved?"I asked.
"Ah, that was Aphrodite. She used the last of her power to save us."
I turned to Aphrodite. She smiled weakly at me. "Thank you," I said, trying to smile, which resulted in a strange lopsided one.
"No problem," she replied.
I noticed we were locked in a cage. The bars were made of a strange material, like wood mixed with metal, stone and plastic, all twisted together. There were two benches down each side of the side of the cell, on which Aphrodite and Harry were sitting on. Percy sat on the hard rock floor leaning against a bench with his knees up, while Grover was standing up, eating a tin can.
Yuck.
"Where's Ron?" I asked.
Annabeth and Harry exchanged glances.
"What?" I asked.
"He's here," Annabeth said. "But you're not going to like what you see."
"What do you mean?" I asked frantically.
"He... he's been brainwashed by Medusa. I'm sorry," Annabeth said.
"But, we can save him, right?" I asked. No-one said anything. "Right?" I asked.
"I don't know, Hermione. I think he's gone for good," Harry said sadly.
"No! We can save him, I'm sure of it," I said.
Everyone exchanged glances.
A girl in a purple T-shirt appeared at the door of the cell. Her eyes were glassy and her mouth was hanging open. She had massive dark circles under her eyes. She looked like a zombie. She was carrying a tray.
"Food," Annabeth said.
"Food? Where?" Grover said excitedly.
The girl-zombie put the food through a small hatch at the bottom of the door.
"There," I said.
Annabeth picked up the tray of food and frowned. "Ugh, the food does not look very nice."
"What type of plate is it?" Grover asked eagerly.
"Um," Annabeth said, fingering the plates. "Polystyrene."
"Ooh! Extra crunchy. Yum!" Grover said. He bleated and jumped over, taking a plate of food and a plastic fork. He went over and sat in corner.
Annabeth handed everyone a plate and a cup of water. When she handed me I looked at it and prodded it with my fork.
"What exactly is this?" I asked.
"I don't know," Annabeth answered.
It was a plate of brownish green sludge. I took a forkful and nearly choked. It was foul. I gagged and resisted the urge to spit it out, and instead I took a large gulp of the dirty water we had been given.
"Delicious," I said, wincing.
HP PJO HP PJO HP PJO HP PJO HP PJO HP PJO
We sat in silence for a while. It began to get unbearable, so I went over to sit next to Harry. He was still staring at his feet.
"Are you okay?" I asked him.
"Yeah..." he replied.
"Is this about earlier? I knew what you were going to say."
He blushed. "I...I didn't mean it like that. You're my best friend. My sister. Well not by blood, but you know what I mean."
"I do. And we are still related,kind of. Through the gods. You're my... Oh gods! You're actually my Uncle. That is so crazy!"
Harry laughed. It had been a while since he had done that. Probably the last time was probably back in May, when I woke up from being petrified. It seemed like such a long time ago. A life time, almost. It was hard to imagine it had only been around a month and a half. About a week after that I'd gone to Camp Half Blood and then well, everything had gone mad.
After a while Harry went over to talk to Percy and I was left sitting next to Aphrodite.
"I know how you feel about him," she said.
"What do you mean?" I asked incredulously.
"I know about your feelings for Harry," Aphrodite repled.
"What? No! I definitely don't fancy him! I would never like him like that. I would rather fancy Ron-"
"Thanks, thanks a lot," Harry said to me, storming away to the other side of the cage.
I stood up "Harry! Harry wait! I didn't mean it like that! Harry..."
It was too late. He must have hated me. I sighed and sat back down, putting my head in my lap.
"You know, once I'm out of here, I could easily fix this..."
"No! You are not shooting your stupid love arrows into me or Harry. I don't need their help."
"I don't shoot love arrows into people. That is my son, Eros who does that," she replied.
"Well, your son's Arrows, excuse me for getting that wrong. I haven't read the myth in a while," I said calmly. (or I was trying to be)
I heard a hissing noise. I turned to see a humanoid with scaly green skin, a hideous face, a forked tongue and a mass of coral snakes for hair standing at the door, holding keys.
"A gorgan..." Percy breathed.
"What did you do with Ron?!" I screamed at her.
"My name is Euryale. Now, you have an appointment with the lady Medusa," she hissed, unlocking the door.
A/N: Sorry for filler chapter :/ I just don't want the big finale happening too quickly. And, yay! I updated super quickly :D
Reply to a review from Guest:
I know, but I wanted to make Hermione's skills different to everyone else's. :) I will get more in depth into that later in the fanfic/in the sequel. Hope this helps :D