max artemis potter, superawesomejennifer-thatme, darklilyofthevalley, and Glass of Water: Great, I'm glad it makes sense.

ChickWithThePurpleGuitar: Thank you, I tried to make Harper that annoying kid who asks dumb questions to waste time.

Cookie05 and ButterflyFlyToMe: Thanks, I'm glad you guys like it.

Now, the long waited chapter. Enjoy!

That night, Annabeth found a surprise while brushing her teeth. She had spent the rest of the day trying to keep a low profile after what had happened in flying class. She forced herself to suck up and urge to act out, and absent-mindedly took notes and ignored Harper's obnoxious comments.

Annabeth noticed that the bathroom mirror had fogged up. She groaned and attempted to wipe it off with her pajama sleeve. Nothing happened.

"Annabeth? Annabeth!"

It hit her right then: the mirror wasn't clouded at all. She was getting an Iris message. Maybe it was Luke! It would be nice to talk to him, even if she couldn't tell about magic (Athena made her swear not to tell anyone. As far as Luke knew, she was going to a normal boarding school in London.) At the moment, Annabeth just wanted to see him.

Unfortunately for her, it was not Luke, but rather Chiron who appeared in the mist. Annabeth tried her best to hide her disappointment and smiled at the camp director. "Hi, Chiron. What's up?"

"Well first of all, your mother wants you to know that she is extremely proud of you," he said, "she sends her regards." Annabeth nodded, so he continued. "I apologize for not being able to get a message to you earlier. We were worried that you might have been in the middle of class and I imagine it would be rather difficult to explain. We were trying to figure out which time would be most convenient to send it."

Annabeth said, "Well, we use owls here to deliver messages. I have a Tawny Owl, her name is Admete. If I wrote to you in Ancient Greek, nobody would be able to understand even if they got their hands on the note."

Chiron nodded. "Yes, I remember Professor Dumbledore telling me something about that. So we can go with your plan. Iris Messages should only be used as a last resort in absolute emergencies. Understood?"

"Yes - - but, how can Admete fly all the way over to the US and back on a regular basis? I'm not even sure if she could do it once. She would have to fly over the Atlantic Ocean!"

"Not to worry," said Chrion, "I'm sure your mother will help make the owl's trip quicker and less strenuous. Now, what information do you have on the upcoming war?"

Annabeth felt so stupid. She had completely forgotten about her mission - - the only reason why she even there! She quickly scanned her mind, trying to recall everything that Aleron had told her. "Um . . . well there's this evil wizard who was supposedly dead, but now, people seem to think that he returned somehow. The details are fuzzy. And there's this kid - - Harry Potter, I think - - he's, like, a legend in the wizard world because he apparently stopped this dark wizard when he was only a baby. There's also a group of people, they're called Slytherins and - - "

There was a knock at the door. One of her roommates, a second-year girl named Emma Dobbs, said, "Annabeth are you almost done? I really have to go!"

Oops. She had completely forgotten about Emma. "One second," she called, "I'm almost done!"

"Alright, hurry!"

Annabeth turned back to Chiron. "I have to go, I'll write you soon. Bye!"

The message ended.

The next day, Annabeth woke up with a mission. She needed to find out more about Harry Potter and this mysterious dark wizard.

After coming down into the Common Room, playing a quick game of wizard chess with Orla Quirkie (Annabeth won, of course), she went down the stairs into the Great Hall for breakfast.

Annabeth tapped Padma Patil on the shoulder. "You're in Potter's year, right?" she asked.

Padma scowled slightly, remembering what he and Weasley had done to her and her sister last year. "Yes," she said. "We know each other."

"Are you friends?"

"Well . . . I wouldn't say 'friends', we're civil towards each other, but I don't know him that well. My sister, Parvati, knows him better." Upon Annabeth's disappointed face, she asked, "Why?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Dunno, just curious, I suppose. I want to find out a bit more about the wizard world. "

"Well, I can point him out to you," Padma offered. Annabeth nodded eagerly. "Okay, see over at the Gryffindor table, the boy sitting in between the redhead and the frizzy-haired girl? Oh, perfect! he's turning around right now! Do you see him?"

Annabeth got her very first real look at Harry Potter just then. He was skinny and fairly tall with huge, geeky-looking glasses, and bright green eyes. There didn't seem to be anything particularly extraordinary about him, though. He looked pretty normal - - a bit scrawny, if anything. So Annabeth shifted her attention to the people he was sitting next to. One could tell a lot about a person by who they hung out with. She discovered that they looked oddly familiar, especially the boy. It wasn't until the ginger turned his head that she saw why.

"That's Ron Weasley!" she said a bit louder than intended. A couple of heads turned.

Padma looked a bit surprised. "You know him?"

"Yeah, he lead me to class once. He's friends with Harry?"

"Are you kidding?" Terry Boot chimed in, "He, Potter, and Granger are like the three musketeers!"

Annabeth assumed that Granger was the girl.

Padma looked confused. "What are musketeers?"Annabeth probably would have laughed if her mind wasn't somewhere else. She glanced back in the direction of the Gryffindor table. Seamus Finnigan was sitting at the end, trying to be as far away from Potter, Weasley, and Granger as possible. He ate his breakfast with a rather sullen expression on his face. Every now and then, he and Weasley would cast a glare at each other.

She nudged Anthony Goldstein. "Is that normal?" she asked, pointing at Seamus and Ron.

"Is what - - oh, that. That's been going on for a while now. I reckon that Finnigan got into a fight with Potter - -and, naturally, everyone took Potter's side. Can't say how long it'll last, the two of them are both pretty stubborn."

"So the entire House is just ignoring him?"

"That would be my guess. But to be fair, Potter has it pretty rough, right now he needs all of the support he can get. I imagine Weasley's feeling particularly protective of his friend."

Annabeth nodded. It made sense to her. "What do you think they're fighting about?" she asked.

"Blimey, hell if I know. Although, if I were to guess, I think it may be about all of the lies The Prophet is telling."

"About You-Know-Who?" Anthony nodded. "Do . . . do you believe that he's back?"

Anthony Goldstein's eyes scanned the area, as if making sure that nobody would overhear. Finally, in a hushed voice, he answered, "I'm trying not to get myself too involved. I believe that he's back, but I'm not going to do anything against the Ministry if I can help it for the time being. I suggest you do the same, Chase." Annabeth had never seen Anthony look so serious before. The older boy usually seemed fairly relaxed and outgoing, but at the moment he only looked stressed and tense. "Most of us in Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff as far as I know, believe Potter and Dumbledore as well."

"But Dumbledore's like the greatest wizard of all time, right?" he nodded. "So why doesn't the Ministry believe him?"

Anthony shook his head. "You ask a lot of questions," he said, but answered her nevertheless. "The thing isn't so much that they don't believe him, it's more that they don't want to. I mean, think about it, Annabeth, you're a smart girl: what would happen if the Ministry announced that a murderous madman was on the loose how do you think the public would react?"

The harsh reality hit her like a ton of bricks. "People would panic!" she exclaimed, "and that would make the Ministry look bad, wouldn't it? So they're lying to the public to make themselves look better?" Goldstein nodded gravely. "But - - but that's so messed up! It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Don't they realize what they're doing? This is insane! This is - - " she stopped and she made yet another horrible realization. "That's why they brought Umbridge here, isn't it? She works for the Ministry. You said so yourself on the first day that they're trying to interfere with Hogwarts. They're trying to brainwash the students into thinking that Dumbledore and Potter don't know what they're talking about."

Anthony paused. Sure, the thought had occurred to him, but he had tried his best to dismiss it. But hearing it come from somebody else's mouth - - anybody else's mouth, made him realize that the scenario was not only possible, it was likely.

Goldstein looked at her directly in the eyes and said, "I think you're right."

"This is bad."

Things were about to go from bad to worse.

Sorry that this chapter was just mostly people talking. Things will start heating up in the next couple of chapters.

Characters you can look forward to seeing are Theodore Nott and Luna Lovegood.

Unfortunately, school is starting next week so I won't be able to update quite as often. :(

I also want to know what you guys think of Harper and Vaisey. Do you like them or are they too Mary-Sue-ish (or whatever name they use for boys.) Please review even if you don't have an opinion.