A/N: Happy New Year :D! I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New year and best wishes for 2015. Wait... I haven't posted since last year XD When I woke up this morning I was like Oh my gosh, I haven't eaten since last year! XD

And, on to more serious matters. I got this rather inappropriate review this morning... from a guest reviewer, I am thinking about turning off guest reviews. So, if YOU are a guest reviewer reading this and you want to review, ONLY REVIEW WITH NICE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THE FANFIC OR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! Okay, rant over XD OK? And maybe Guest reviewers could all get accounts XD That would make life a lot easier! So, please be nice and appropriate. Okay? :) (sorry for long Author's note) And, anyway on with the chapter :)

Annabeth's POV

Euryale led Hermione, Harry, Percy, Grover and I down the small, dimly lit passageway. I could hear the echos of our feet on the stone. We had left Aphrodite in the cell. I wondered how they managed to keep her confined, surely a goddess has a lot more power than a monster? Percy had defeated Medusa before, so surely if a demigod could kill her, a goddess could definitely do it.

I tried desperately to get my hands out of the shackles that she had put around all our wrists. No use. They were made of celestial bronze, which would be impossible to break with my wrists. I would have to stay captured for the moment, if only-

Wait? did I have my dagger? Had they remembered to take it away from me, because I wasn't conscious when they did.

I looked at my hip. Yes, my knife was still strapped securely to my belt. That was good. I needed to think up a plan.

Maybe they would take my handcuffs off when we got to Medusa, if that was where we were going, maybe the gorgon was lying and taking us to our death. I averted myself from that subject and focused on the things we needed to do.

Rescue Aphrodite,

Save Ron if possible

Defeat Medusa and her sisters.

Get back to Camp Half-Blood before midnight, which was in eight hours.

Yep, no biggie.

That would be easy to do in eight hours. I sighed.

"We are here," Euryale's voice broke the silence. The same glassy-eyed girl wearing the purple t-shirt pushed us through a stone arch after Euryale. The room that we were pushed into was enormous, you could probably fit ten of the big house at Camp Half-Blood into it. The room itself was beautiful. Gods know how much work had gone into it. There was intricate carving on the ceilings, huge stone pillars coming down carved with trees and mountains and rivers. Tapestries hung from the walls, each a night-time scene. One was a temple with stars and the moon in the backdrop, one was a river flowing through a forest, another was a great castle on a rock beside a lake, a big mansion with an eerie look about it and the last was the tops of trees swathed in a thick fog. The place had an air of magic about it. I breathed. The room was an architectural masterpiece.

"Hermione, look," Harry said, pointing to the tapestry of the castle.

"Hogwarts," Hermione breathed. "I wonder why there is a tapestry of it here?"

"Ah, the tapestry. A gift to Hecate from her son, Godric Gryffindor," a voice said from behind us.

We all turned around but we stopped short when we saw the snakes.

A woman was sitting on a throne that looked like it was made of a human. It was like a large stool that a person was standing behind with their arms outstretched to form a back and armrests. The whole thing was stone.

The person, sorry, creature that was sitting there wore full greek battle armour, she had writhing green snakes for hair and black sunglasses over her eyes. There was an assortment of stone statues sitting around her.

"Hecate lived here, you know," Medusa said, her voice dripping with poison. "This is the ancient house of Hecate. I take it you've seen the cave, no?" she gave out a small laugh. Her face turned sour. "She invited her favourite mortals there, and blessed them with magic. She left her four demigod children, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw to lead the mortals, and so that school began. This place has been derelict for centuries, ever since Hecate moved to the Underworld."

"Why did you kidnap Aphrodite?" Percy asked.

"It's simple. If I kidnap Aphrodite, there will be no love left in the world. Only hate. Sweet, glorious hate!" Medusa began to cackle manically

"You're crazy," Percy said.

"How did you kidnap the Goddess?" Hermione asked.

She gave a small laugh. "Kronos of course. He bestowed me with his power."

"What?" I asked. "Kronos is dead. You are delusional!"

"I am most certainly not. Kronos gave me his power to end all children of the eldest gods."

"You mean me and Harry," Percy whispered. "Why?"

"Because you and your filthy little demigod friends deserve to die," she cackled. "We shall have a duel to the death, and by death I mean your death, okay?"

"I accept," Harry said, looking at Percy.

"Uh, I do too," Percy said.

"What are you doing Harry, you idiot! You could get killed! You've never been in a duel before!" Hermione said.

"Uh, yes I have. In the dueling club last year!" Harry shot back.

Medusa stood up. "Boy! Give me my weapon!" A boy around thirteen with bright red hair and an orange Camp t-shirt and that same glassy look in his eyes appeared carrying a sheathed sword. Why was there someone with a camp t-shirt here?

Oh gods, it was Ron.

"Ron! Ron! Ron, Ron look at me! It's Hermione! Ron!" Hermione yelled.

"Ah, yes, my little pet. He's ever so nice to have around, you know. He does the dishes."

"What have you done to him?"

She gave another one of those short laughs that were really getting on my nerves. "I simply altered him, that's all."

"How do we get him back?" Hermione asked.

Medusa gave another short laugh. "You think I would tell you that, Half-Blood, out of the goodness of my heart? So that you could get him back ? No, silly girl, NEVER!"

Hermione bit her lip.

"And now," Medusa laughed. "The duel begins."

AN: Aaannnd the end of the chapter! See you soon :D Ps: please review! :D