Oops, I forgot to reply to my reviews in the last chapter!

lovin_Lovegood: It's Annabeth's opinion, not necessarily mine. Besides, who ever said weird was bad?

catz r the all time best: Hey, I'm a leftie, too! *High five*

killer_pizza_504: I'm honestly a little scared to.

hunter of artemis 73: Thanks, congrats to you too!

miller123456789: Goof question. I'm pretty sure it's because of something they have in their pigment. Hippos also have red sweat, people used to think it was blood, but it's really this type of acid that acts like sunscreen. I think it somehow get into the milk, making it pink.

killer_pizza_504 (again): Wow, has it really been that long since I updated? Anyway, the fireworks were great in my area, and a happy belated fourth!

Emmagination: Pretty soon.

Steven3270: Thanks! It's the one place I can do it without it being dubbed "socially inappropriate".

Earthling123: You'll find out in this chapter.

Lacy Brown-Love: Sorry about that. My newels stories usually have longer chapters. Here, I try to keep a 1,000 minimum, I'll try to make them a bit longer if you want.

Hayley Granger: Yay, candy!

Sorry for the long wait. My family has been doing a lot of stuff this summer, and I haven't had a lot of time. Plus, I have two new fanfics that I'm currently working on in addition to this one. I want to thank everybody for their patience who has stuck with the story this far, it is greatly appreciated.

"I said I was sorry a billion times! What more do you want?"

"I don't care if you apologize a million times, you are NOT getting away so easily!"

Annabeth ducked, narrowly missing an arrow that flew past her ear as she ran for her dear life. Her pursuer? A small boy who looked no older than eight or nine years old, riding on a dolphin, wearing nothing but a diaper.

. . . Come to think of it, it was more strange than frightening. Or at least it would be if she did not know that the boy on the dolphin was in fact thousands of years old and the god of desire. Eros, the Greek version of Cupid. Although technically the Greeks were first, so Cupid was a Roman version of Eros. Whatever. Either way, she was being chased by the god of desire, and he was not happy.

"You shall repent, Chase! Grovel before me, and beg for mercy. I may take pity upon you!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Didn't Eros have better things to do with his time than chase after little girls who sacrificed the wrong kind of doughnut in their Valentine's Day offering?

"Grovel, I say!"

Apparently not.

"I'm sorry, Eros. Next time I will give you a jelly filled one."

There was a pause as the god seemed to consider her request. "With sprinkles?"

What? Annabeth was pretty sure that the gods didn't even eat their sacrifices. In fact, most people didn't even sacrifice to minor gods period. But Eros had started a tradition of making all of the half-bloods giving him an offering on Valentine's Day.

Still, she didn't want to upset him. "Sure," she said.

This seemed to satisfy Eros, who nodded and bid her farewell, riding off on his dolphin into the distance.

Then Orla Quirkie woke her up for breakfast.

During breakfast a group of Gryffindors crowded around the Slytherin table, taunting Nott and Malfoy with insults. Malfoy responded by shouting at all of them and threatening their families, while Nott just rolled his eyes before eventually getting up, and retiring to his dorm until first period.

The teachers all glanced at each other at the staff table as if debating whether they should interfere. Even Snape seemed reluctant to get involved.

Annabeth clenched her hands into fists. She couldn't believe the injustice that was happening here. It was disgusting!

She tried to meet Nott's eyes to see if she was upset. Even after a good three minute stare down she could not tell if he was or not. Theodore simply pointed at his watch and mouthed the word "tonight". Yeah, as if she could forget.

"Okay, I'm here. What do you want?"

Nott was sitting in large armchair in the Room of Requirement, no doubt of his own doing. There was a couch across from him. Gently pushing aside a Persian cat, Annabeth seated herself as well.

"First of all, happy birthday."

"What? Oh, um, thank you." How did he - -

"I heard Vaisey training his paper bird to sing to you. Anyway, I have a question."

"Go on."

"Do you . . . do you ever get the feeling that you know something is going to happen? Like . . . something really bad. And I don't mean a hunch, I mean, like, actually knowing for sure."

Annabeth squirmed a bit in her seat and hesitated before answering. "No. I know nothing of the sort."

There was no doubt in Nott's mind that she was lying, or at least not telling the whole truth. "Chase, I really need to know. This is extremely important."

For the second time that day, Annabeth met Theodore's eyes. They were wide with anxiety, and perhaps a bit of fear. This surprised her. It never occurred to Annabeth that fear was an emotion that Nott was capable of possessing at all.

"You don't believe me," he said dismally. It was a statement, not a question. "Look . . . I'll-I'll prove it. Something is going to happen on June 16, I don't know what yet, but it's going to get Potter really upset. And . . . and Umbridge is going to sack Trelawney - - although it doesn't exactly take an oracle to see that coming. . . . Oracle. Wait a minute, an oracle! Chase, tell me, can oracle traits be passed down?" Annabeth shrugged. "Chase, listen to me," there was an odd edge to his voice, he almost sounded desperate. "This is really important."

"I honestly don't know much about oracles. I just know that they are usually girls. There have been exceptions, but for the most part it seems that the trait appears in females. I've never heard of it happening in a boy. Do you ever have blackouts, and people say that you're eyes were glowing or something?"

". . . How did you know?"

"Oh my gods," she breathed, "but this hasn't happened in centuries . . . maybe eons, how could . . . ?"

"Hey, what are you guys . . . " Laura Madley stopped in her tracks, staring at Nott with her mouth agape. "Wh-what are y-yo-you doing here?" she demanded. She looked pale, as if she was about to faint.

"Madley, it's okay," Annabeth tried to reassure the girl.

"You've been conversing with the enemy!" she accused. "I'm telling Branstone! Oh, and I quit!"

"Laura, don't you trust me?"

"I thought I could, but now . . ."

"Then why don't you trust I have a reason for doing this?" She doubted the reasoning would work, but it was a desperate plea.

Laura did not buy it. "Don't you know who he is? Don't you know what he is?" she pointed at Nott. "If you want to converse with Death Eaters, then leave me out of it." And with that, she promptly left the room, slamming the door behind her.

Dear Chiron,

Things have taken a turn for the worst, although I have found out some interesting information about Theodore Nott. Not only was his mother in possession of an oracle, but I think he is, too. I did some research on the Lovegood girl, and I doubt she's a halfblood, although she probably has some godly ancestry. Anyway, what do you suggest I do about Theodore?

As for the war, tensions are high. Prisoners have escaped from their cells, people are turning on each other, and nobody knows who to trust. Nott says his father mentioned a prophecy of some sort, but refused to say more. I think it involves Potter, everything seems to in one way or another. Maybe I should speak to the boy directly, or one of his friends. What do you suggest?

Give Luke and the others my regards,

Annabeth

No sooner had Annabeth put down her quill then she met by one of the older girls of Ravenclaw who she recognized as MacDougal. "There you are!" MacDougal said, running up to Annabeth. "Umbridge has been looking for you. She wants you to report to her office immediately." She sounded nervous.

"Is it bad?"

There was a pause. "She didn't say."

"Alright, let me just mail this letter."

"No!" now she definitely sounded nervous. "You can do that afterwards, just go now."

Something was definitely going on. "Fine. I'll go."

As she began to exit the Common Room, Michael Corner whispered, "What kind of flowers do you want on your coffin?"

The scary thing was, Annabeth wasn't even sure if he was joking or not.

Random fact: Charles Dickens had a pet raven named Grip. He also hated the game cricket.

Harry Potter fact: Merlin was in Slytherin.

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