Audax At Fidelis

by Dreamsteel

A new prophecy prompts the Nine to worm their way into Hogwarts, protect Harry Potter, negotiate their lives around magic, and above all NEVER reveal their true identity. But more things are at stake than just the boy's life: forgotten creatures and deities stir as demigods return to the isles of modern Albion, and events reveal that the fate of magic itself may be in question.

16. Acta Non Verba

Chapter 16 - Acta Non Verba

Author's Note:

Hi guys.

He-he, sorry. I know. Ages, as usual.

Still, this one's fairly long isn't it?

Yes. I rather think so too.

---

Almost as though he were in a dream, Percy drew Riptide from his pocket and uncapped it, revealing the sword's glowing bronze blade. He didn't know what was going on, but this woman was pretending to be his mom, Nico's dead sister and two goddesses all at once. Even in his world that was not normal.

He pointed it towards the woman. His mother's face looked back at him, her lips twitching higher as she took in his movements.

"You would harm your own mother, demigod?" she asked, still in the same beautiful but not-quite-human voice. "And here I thought you would be happy to see me."

"You and I both know you're not my mom, lady. You're not Bianca or Calypso either, so quit pretending." Percy's voice shook a little, though he didn't know why. It wasn't like he hadn't missed his mother before. Poor Sally Jackson spent half her life wondering where he'd gone off to and if he was alive or not.

Nico and Leo were still gazing at the woman, spellbound, so Percy nudged them with his foot. When they didn't respond, he kicked them. At last, they stirred a little, scowling at Percy and absently rubbing their shins.

"Sure looks like Calypso," Leo muttered.

"She's supposed to," Piper said from behind them as the woman carried on smiling like she didn't have a care in the world. She sounded wary, and when Percy glanced back at her he saw that she looked a little scared as well. "She's a Bean Nighe."

"A been-niggy?" Leo asked, his confusion effectively rupturing the woman's hold on him.

Piper looked annoyed.

"I don't know how to pronounce it, Leo." she snapped. "It's Scottish Gaelic. They're mythological creatures."

"Like sirens?" Percy asked, thinking of the singing. It still reverberated in his head. He shook it a little, then realised that it wasn't his head that was the problem: the singing actually was reverberating. The little clearing still pulsed with the song's melody, buzzing with life and sound as though the song had woken it from hibernation.

Concentrating, he kept his eyes on the Bean Nighe, who was still gazing at them without showing much inclination to speak. It was hard work. The gentle nagging of the song's remains kept pulling at his mind, like tendrils of a vine that clung to his thoughts, softly pulling at him to come and play. He shook his head again, knowing he probably looked like a confused puppy but not caring: he could feel this woman's power like her could feel his heartbeat thrumming in his veins.

Piper's little beaded braids clinked as she shook her head.

"No, more like the Fates. They're supposed to take the shape of the woman you want to see most, but-"

"So kinda like the opposite of a boggart," Percy said, remembering an episode where Filch had spent half an afternoon dealing with one in an abandoned broom cupboard, grumbling because none of the professors were available to help him with it. "Hey lady, are you-"

"Don't!" came Piper's sharp voice. In front of Percy, the woman's eyes turned almost hungry, with a glint in them that hadn't been there before. "If you ask her a question, you'll have to answer one in return. She'll answer three questions, but only if you're able to answer three in return. No more, no less."

Percy gulped. He'd read enough legends to know that creatures like these were the trickiest to deal with. Usually they managed to trick the greatest of heroes regardless of their courage and strength. Only the wittiest got past them.

Percy had a feeling Annabeth was probably the one to deal with this. Without letting his gaze stray from the Bean Nighe, he told her so.

His girlfriend cautiously stepped over to join him, touching Nico's shoulder on the way, making him jump. The poor guy had been staring at the woman with such longing Percy could only imagine what it felt like. No doubt seeing your dead sister's face on a creepy siren-shapeshifting-boggart woman messed with your mind.

Annabeth's expression as she came into Percy's line of view made him wonder who she was seeing. Maybe Athena, who hadn't given her daughter much attention lately.

"How do we do this?" Annabeth asked, addressing Piper, who was still hovering at the back.

"I'm... I don't know," Piper said. Percy could imagine her biting her lip in regret as she did so.

"Well where did you learn about them in the first place? Didn't they have any advice on how to deal with these creatures?"

"I learned about them when we were doing all that reading about Jack and the Nuckelavee," Piper said. "But the book only described the creatures, not how to deal with them."

Not once during their exchange so far had the demigods taken their eyes off the Bean Nighe. Frank and Thalia even had their bows drawn and an arrow notched in her direction. She didn't seem to mind that they were talking about her as they scrutinised her face, like spectators of a zoo keeping an eye on the scorpions behind the glass. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the attention, her eyes flicking to each new person as they spoke, the amused smile never leaving her lips. It was hard to see because she was still in the shadows, but Percy thought her eyes glinted with increasing interest as the exchange developed.

"What else do you know?" Annabeth asked Piper, this time in Greek. The woman's smile widened, but for some reason Percy sensed that she could not understand them.

"I... I think I remember something about them granting wishes, but you have to - um," Piper sounded flustered all of a sudden, "Never mind. But we have to speak to her politely, I think. Or she won't talk. The bloody clothes she's washing are supposed to be the clothes of the damned, or those about to die. But I think that bit's a little woolly - like, only during plagues and stuff."

"So we're not about to die?" Leo asked, still in - albeit shaky - Greek. "Good to know."

"I don't know." Piper said, sounding frustrated. "I wish I could remember more, but I-"

"We could try the question thing," Hazel suggested quietly. "If we carefully prepare ours and promise to answer hers as a group, maybe we can avoid-"

"-awkward situations." Frank finished for her, smirking. "I know what the capital of Assyria is, so we're good."

Percy tried to laugh, but it came out as a gurgle instead. The song was still affecting him, turning his vocal cords to spider webs - sticky and cumbersome.

"Okay," he said, "We'll try that."

"What do we ask?"

Annabeth tightened her grip on her drawn dagger. Percy had no idea where she'd got it from.

"First," she said, licking her lips, "we ask the terms."

Switching to English, she locked eyes with the creature.

"Okay, you're some kind of Scottish fairy lady. We've established that. We also know you answer three questions if we can answer three in return. We offer these terms: if you answer our three questions, we'll answer your three as a group, meaning that whoever wishes to answer will do so. When we complete the deal, we will each go our way. Now please state your own terms."

The Bean Nighe looked at Annabeth with the same expression of distant amusement, almost as though she were sizing her up for this task.

"Finally, you address me directly," she said, her voice nearly causing Percy's brain to wander off again. "I would say I'm offended, but the truth is I am greatly enjoying this moment."

The demigods said nothing, possibly because it was hard to concentrate both on what she was saying and how she was saying it. Listening to her while doing your own thing was like trying to decipher the whisper of leaves in the wind while the birds acted as willing but intrusive translators: utterly impossible unless you happened to be Snow White.

The Bean Nighe glanced at Hazel.

"I see you have suffered much in your life, girl - perhaps as much in your second as you did in your first." she said. "I cannot seem to easily choose a form to suit your wish. Your mother was an easy guess, but as for the other-"

"Please," Hazel whispered, "Just give us your terms."

The woman's eyes glittered in the shadows. She moved slightly, tiny patches of sunlight rippling against her skin, giving it an unexpectedly rough-looking texture.

"You are bold to state your own terms before me," the woman declared, "In my time, I would have snubbed you for pointing your weapons at me alone. But," she continued, "seeing as it has been centuries with my last dealing with mortals-"

"We're not mortals," Nico blurted. "You said so yourself."

"Young demigod, when you have seen the birth of the hills upon which this very forest stands, everything else is mortal whether they live to twenty summers or a hundred." the Bean Nighe answered calmly, though Percy had a feeling she would not remain so if she kept being interrupted.

"As I was saying, I will accept your terms as a toast to the first demigods - indeed, the first people - I have spoken to for hundreds of years. However," she said, her dark eyes glinting in a patch of sunlight again, "I find it only fair that I impose a condition of my own."

"What is-" Annabeth started, then caught herself. "I mean, please state it."

"Should you find yourselves unable to answer one of my questions today, I will reserve the right to ask it again at another date, in addition to another, this one asked to an individual, not a group."

Percy glanced at Annabeth, slightly thrown by this offer. He could tell by her expression that she had not expected it either, and the others were exchanging similarly wary looks.

What was this going to get them into? Annabeth chewing her lip suggested probably nothing good in the long term, although Percy couldn't really see the harm in one extra question, even at a later date. Annabeth was always telling him that the devil lay in the details, but this was the case of a single question. In fact, it seemed like an obvious path to choose, and one that could even go in their favour if they managed the odds adroitly.

"Should we decide to accept those terms," Annabeth said after a few more moments of deliberation, still chewing her lip, "we wish to leave this clearing knowing in advance what the extra question will be."

Percy stuck out his bottom lip, impressed. Okay, he thought. We can deal with that.

The Bean Nighe tilted her head to the side, considering the daughter of Athena before as though seeing her in a whole new light. The amusement in her smile was gone, instead there was more of a detached interest, as though Annabeth were a kind set apart from the rest of her friends.

"You drive a hard bargain," she commented. "I have not said that often. Perhaps I should not accept these terms after all."

Her dark eyes brushed over each demigod in turn, watching their reactions to that. Leo looked a little relieved - no doubt he preferred to leave as soon as possible anyway - but Nico's expression was defiant. It took Percy a second to remember that shadows were, all things considered, his thing. If the woman decided to harm them after all, the son of Hades could cook up a few skeletons here and there - in this heavily shadow-dappled clearing - to help them out. Will Solace's doctor's note had expired a couple of weeks ago, Nico was free to go Dark Lord Of All Dead Things as much as he wanted.

To his own surprise, Percy felt himself relax. There was very little Nico couldn't handle, especially if he had half a dozen of his friends with him.

Perhaps the Bean Nighe was aware of their own brand of powers, for she eyed them for a moment more before nodding and gesturing gracefully with her hand.

"So be it," she promised. "I agree."

Annabeth immediately retreated to the back of the group, her brow furrowed in thought. When Percy and the others joined her, she was muttering under her breath, listing what they could and could not ask.

"We'll have to go first," she murmured in Greek, then in Latin to make it easier for Frank and Hazel, "so we get all three answers even if we can't answer hers."

They nodded, although Leo pointed out that that strategy would only work if the question they couldn't answer came last.

Once they had decided what their questions would be - and it took a few minutes, for how extended was the Bean Nighe's knowledge? - they turned to face her once more, finding that she had not moved, her face and form still mostly obscured by shadow, her dark eyes shining. The only difference was that now she was touching her cheek with a pale finger, watching them with a thoughtful expression, though she smiled widely when they turned around.

"We're looking for a... a friend." Annabeth said without further preamble. "We think he got lost in this forest. Do you know where we might find him?"

The Bean Nighe took her time to answer, still stroking her cheek with her finger.

"One hears many things in this forest," she said after a moment. "If one were to listen like a blind man and watch like a deaf one, one would find what they sought."

Leo leaned in towards Piper.

"You didn't mention she would answer in riddles." he hissed.

"Because I didn't know," Piper whispered back, sounding frustrated. "You try remembering a whole textbook."

The Bean Nighe glanced at them, then raised her voice.

"Go east, until you reach a valley of rock. Perhaps you will find your friend there."

"Well that's definite." Percy muttered.

Annabeth nudged him, then nodded at the woman politely, gesturing for her to ask in turn.

The Bean Nighe considered them a while longer, her ever-present smile still in place, then posed her first question.

"What brings so many demigods to a land forbidden to them?" she asked, her eyes glittering. "Wizards and Hogwarts do not mix with your kind."

"Our teacher sent us," Jason answered shortly. "We have a task here."

"What task?"

"Is that your second question?"

The Bean Nighe narrowed her eyes, but Annabeth shook her head, shooting Jason a warning glance.

"No, it's part of her first. It's only fair." she added, a little defensive, when her words were met with surprise from the others. Annabeth counselling confidence in an untrustworthy creature was novel. So far she'd been the one to bite their heads off if they came close to hinting at their secret.

"We were sent as protection for somebody," Piper said slowly and carefully. "Should that fail, we are to re-establish contact between our two worlds, but only through people like you."

"Take that as you will," Leo said, smirking a little. Piper nudged him, but he just shrugged in response.

The woman's expression did not change, but she was so immobile for a few seconds that Percy knew she was surprised. The fact that she still looked like his mother did not help: she looked exactly like the time he'd managed to spill a whole bottle of purple drink down his front. The memory twinged at his heart.

"Which leads me to my next question," the woman said, just as smoothly.

"Hold on," Annabeth objected, "it's our turn."

For the first time, the woman's eyes flashed with annoyance. Her face grew stony as she turned to address the daughter of Athena, who likewise looked as grim and determined as recent events had allowed her to be.

"I make the rules here, little girl," the woman said, her tone suddenly a lot less melodious, "you would do well to remember that you will only leave this clearing as I see fit."

"But you agreed to our terms-" Annabeth argued.

The woman gave her an ugly smirk and waved a hand slightly.

"I agreed that we would all go our own way, but only after three questions each were asked. As it is, you have asked one, and I wish to proceed to my second."

"But that's not fair," Annabeth said hotly, "We went first, we should-"

"That's not fair," the lady mimicked, her features getting uglier by the second as they twisted with mockery. She moved slightly, advancing into a larger patch of light, the gold-lit patches of her skin holding none of the youthful smoothness the rest of her shadow-covered limbs showed. She was smiling at Annabeth. "Do you have any idea how young and insignificant you seem to me at this moment? Demigods of all people should know that nothing has ever had anything to do with fairness. Accept your fate, little girl, and let the grown-ups lead."

Percy glanced at his girlfriend. Her face was red and she was shaking all over, although Percy knew without a doubt that, should she choose to throw the knife in her hand then and now, it would not shake at all.

In fact, time for caution was over, he decided. Creepy shape-shifting wraith ladies could play their word games if they liked, but humiliate Annabeth Chase in his presence they would not.

Casually, he drew his sword.

"I'd be careful what I say, lady," he warned, still fairly politely in his opinion, " 'Cause it might have escaped your notice, but we outnumber you nine to one, and even with all your mumbo-jumbo that can't be good odds. Especially since we've killed hundreds of monsters in the past few months, and you've apparently been doing laundry for the past couple of millenia. In fact, I'm a little out of practice, and if we weren't bound by this little deal of ours, I'd make it my pleasure to take off your head."

The Bean Nighe glared at him.

"Insolence comes naturally to fledglings, it seems," she hissed. "I tell you now, boy, my powers are more than sufficient to ensure you never leave this forest again."

"Oh sure," Leo said easily, as the others also took the hint and started to edge sideways into their favourite attack position - the delta formation. "But you'd end up without your head. Which, you know, has to mess with your washing routine. I mean, you'd get the powder everywhere! Not to mention the blood."

"Silence!" she screeched. "Put your little blades away. You cannot harm me, I am the omen of death itself."

"No. You're a sad little thing, letting time and ego wash away your abilities," Hazel said, managing the feat of still sounding as polite as though she'd been addressing the queen.

The woman's dark eyes flicked to her as she spoke. The rage made her unrecognisable from the ethereal creature she'd been minutes ago.

"The only way people and creatures like you survive is through interaction with humans," Annabeth said, sounding collected despite the Bean Nighe's words. "People who still believe you exist - or, at least, existed. You said yourself you hadn't seen anyone for ages. That's gotta have had a severe indent on your strength."

"Pretty songs and washing clothes," Nico drawled, twirling his black sword in his hands. "I'm terrified. Piper's good with her voice too, you know." he waved his sword towards Piper, who smiled a dangerously pretty smile.

"Oh, I'd love a sing-off." Leo said.

All the demigods had their weapons out by now, and had formed a large semi-circle around the Bean Nighe, who had no retreat option left but the cliff.

The woman herself stood rigid as a pole, her face no longer twisted or intense with fury, but stony and cold as the rocky surface behind her. Her fists were clenched.

"Ask your question," she said, her tone just as stiff. "Let us be done with this travesty."

Annabeth obliged immediately.

"You knew on sight that we were demigods. Who else can do it?"

"Anyone who was excluded from Hecate's realm when she cloaked it. As such, I can, but the centaurs cannot: many demanded to be included when Hecate told them of her decision, at the price of forgetting everything they knew of the world of the gods." Her voice was cold and clipped; Percy's head no longer felt full of cotton wool. She was no longer making any effort to enchant them. "Your aura is unlike any wizard's. You stand out to us like fireflies in a cloud of moths.

"And now, I would ask you: who else have you met like me, from the realm of the gods?" The woman thrust out her chin as she spoke.

She was getting defensive, and if Annabeth weren't still shaking slightly with anger and hate, Percy would almost feel sorry for the creature. In situations like these, the demigods were the ones who often played the role of bullies. In the years since he'd found out he was a demigod, Percy had come across an almost endless number of creatures and people who had been powerful once, but had lost much of their grandeur and fearsome reputation in the dust left by time. Many still acted as though nothing had changed, but really they were all just celebrities past their time, clinging on to the life they had loved and lost - like The Rolling Stones.

Piper took the lead this time.

"Not many, and we've only spoken to a few. First there was the ghosts-"

The Bean Nighe's eyebrows shot up.

Ah, problem, Percy thought. Ghosts were still wizards, in a way. They probably weren't on the list of things the Mist didn't cover, which the woman no doubt knew, but ghosts still knew they were demigods because they recognised something chthonic about Nico - which the Bean Nighe did not know.

"-and then the Asrai in the lake, the Nuckelavee, and Jack of Kent."

And the portrait on the fifth floor, thought Percy, but didn't say it out loud.

Despite her new-found sobriety of behaviour, the Bean Nighe visibly paused to give this some thought. She appeared to believe them on faith - maybe there was even something in her power that prevented them from lying, since Percy himself had not even thought of trying to deceive her - but was having difficulty drawing conclusions from their answers. Percy had no idea what purpose hid behind her questions either.

"None of those creatures come from our world," the Bean Nighe said slowly, watching their faces for clues, "or match up with the lore of the gods."

"With all due respect, my lady," Piper said carefully, "neither do you. We've actually not met a single sentient creature from Greek or Roman technology. We just gave you the names of all the people who recognised us on sight for who we are."

"And the Romans often paired up their gods with local deities when they started to settles on the Isles." Annabeth put in. "Maybe that's why."

The Bean Nighe looked unconvinced, perhaps because it was Annabeth who had spoken last, but gestured for them to ask their last question.

This time, it was Jason who spoke up. They had agreed earlier that he ought to be the one to pose it, since he was now the official diplomat of both camps.

"In the event of a war among wizards, the likes of which could threaten our world as well, which side would you support?"

The Bean Nighe stared at Jason, blinked, then stared again before throwing her head back and letting out a laugh that seemed to echo the cry of crows.

"Silly boy," she admonished, although there was a smile on her lips and the resonating, distracting beauty of her voice was back, "we do not meddle with the affairs of wizards. They do not even see us."

There was an edge of bitterness to her voice, confirming Percy's earlier thoughts on the loneliness of living on the very edge of society's awareness.

Jason remained serious, his bespectacled face looking very earnest in the dim and dappled light of the clearing.

"Lord Voldemort has risen again," he declared.

The woman snorted.

"Again, not my concern, godling. A wizard who cannot see me does not know I exist, and so cannot threaten me."

"No, but he can threaten the world you live in," Jason pressed on. "You live in this forest, don't you? Some say Voldemort is recruiting the darkest of magical creatures to his side, promising them a place in wizarding society. If he wins, don't you think he'll need somewhere for them to live and hunt?"

The woman looked taken aback. She hesitated for a second, then shook her head.

"Even if the Forest were the only place he could accommodate his armies in - which I doubt -" she said dryly, "Even if it were so, you misunderstand my place in these affairs. I would not support either side: I do not fight, I hold no knowledge of importance to them. I do not exist to them."

"But what if there was a way to make you real again?" Jason said softly.

The woman eyed him doubtfully.

"Real again?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "Lift the Mist. Make people able to see you again. You get to predict death and play twenty questions with passer-bys just like the good old days, eh?"

"And I suppose you have it in your power to make that happen?" the Bean Nighe said, with a surprising amount of sarcasm considering she'd been away from teenagers and the Youth of Today in general for hundreds of years. "Whereby I end up so grateful that I vouch my loyalty to you ? You think it is that simple? You will not obtain what you want, little demigods."

"What we want is your answer."

The woman scowled, then straightened.

"To give you that, I need to ask you a question of my own. I am not ungenerous," she said, smirking a little, "count it as my third and final question if you like. But I think it will serve us both in the long run."

She eyed them each in turn for a few moments before posing her last question.

"You ask for my support in some supposed oncoming war. I wonder if you know whom you are addressing. Demigods are known to be reckless, but even I had not considered that you would try to make an ally of an enemy. Do you truly know who and what I am, what you would be doing to unleash me upon the world once again?"

As she spoke, her expression changed from mocking to something that eerily resembled hunger. Before the demigods could do more than take in her words, she stepped into a patch of light, for the first time completely leaving her sanctuary of shadows. At once, the pale glowing figure was gone, replaced by a haggard wraith, ancient beyond all reckoning, bent and wizened with age. Her hair hung to her waist in thin white wisps, her skin lined and cracked, stretched over the bone in some places and accumulating in thin folds at others. The Bean Nighe stretched her lips into a horrible grin, revealing very few teeth and the black inside of her mouth. Her eyes, now glazed with white and gleaming silver in the startling light of the sun, met the demigods' shocked faces and creased with humour as she cackled at their reactions. When she spoke, her voice cracked like thawing ice in the mountain, harsh as a raven's caw.

"My question is this, demigods: should there be a war, and should I decide to support you, and should you succeed in winning said war - what place will I and others like me occupy in this new world of yours?"

Her blind eyes glittered.

"Can you guarantee me a better life than Lord Voldemort? Who of the gods and wizards will welcome us with open arms? Do you truly think you can merge two worlds, whose very existence hangs in the balance of your actions?"

Percy looked at Annabeth, and saw the others exchanging glances as well. There really had to be something about this woman, or about this place, that prevented them from lying. No words would come to him, and the others seemed similarly speechless.

The simple truth of it was that they could not answer. What could they say when the woman asked about the future and the only thing they felt certain of was the present?

There was triumph in the hag's expression, her cataract-covered eyes narrow and gleaming with success. With a sinking feeling of confirmation, Percy realised she had planned this outcome. Perhaps not the question itself, but she had counted on an impossible one to pose last in order to warrant her extra-contractual fourth question.

If he were honest with himself, he'd known she was going to pull something on them from the start. This was how stories like this went, wasn't it? Rapunzel, the Sphinx, the bridge of three questions... Tricky villains gave the intruding hero a choice or quest with all outcomes detailed out for them, and if they couldn't fulfil it, they would suffer the consequences as the villain had - inevitably - planned from the start.

Perhaps the antagonists of the story knew people better than people knew themselves. Maybe heroes were so... so all the same, that even villains, who were always defeated in the stories, learned to use them to their full extent. Sure, heroes usually won in the end, but if they hadn't possessed that fatal flaw of predictability from the start, their troubles would never have occurred at all.

With a jolt, Percy realised he was automatically placing himself and his friends in the heroes' position. Did the wraith see them thus as well? What if she saw them as the villains? Had they tricked her already? Percy thought of their hushed conversation prior to their first exchange, full of thinking ahead and planning both questions and answers, and immediately felt uneasy.

Unaware of Percy's uncharacteristically philosophical reversal of perspective, Annabeth was cautiously taking a couple of steps forward. She was clenching her dagger more tightly than ever, and every move she made betrayed wariness and caution, but her voice was steady when she spoke.

"It seems we are... unable to answer that. As you no doubt planned." she said, flatly echoing Percy's thoughts.

The wraith smirked, showing her only front tooth.

Annabeth spoke again.

"What was the question you were planning to ask us at a later date?"

"What I would ask of you," the Bean Nighe rasped, "is your name."

Annabeth was stunned into silence for long enough that Thalia took up the task of spluttering and looking indignant.

"All that, for a name?" she said, her black eyebrows so arched and furrowed into her brow they were practically a line across her forehead.

"Whose name?" Nico asked, frowning. "You said you would only ask one of us."

"That is my business," the wraith cawed. "Now that you know the question, the date and recipient of it remain in my control."

"But... you already know some of our names," Piper blurted. "You heard us-"

"I will not explain myself any further," the Bean Nighe said snippily. "Go, demigods, in the knowledge that you have met one of my kind - and lost."

She started laughing, her old voice cracking and gurgling at the back of her throat. It sounded painful, but that did not stop her from throwing her head back and increasing the volume of her guffaws. Very quickly the sound of it became too loud to tolerate, and the demigods turned on their heels as one, running out with their hands over their ears, the crone's laughter reverberating in their heads for a long time after they left the clearing.

After running for a few minutes - Percy had no idea where they were running to, but he found it hard to care - they finally came to a halt, gathering at the foot of a large, twisted conifer that was so tall it dwarfed all the trees around it. They stood there, hands on their knees and breathing heavily, looking at each other in silent agreement that they had emerged from a decidedly strange situation.

As usual, Percy was the first to speak.

"So, we're now in debt. Sucks for the one to answer."

"She didn't mention any specific date," Hazel offered hopefully. "It can be years before we see her again."

"Yeah," Leo said, holding his side and wheezing a little. "I'm not counting this place as one of my favourite vacation spots."

Meanwhile, having recovered more quickly than the others, Thalia was busily walking around their group, bow out and arrow notched, alternately peering through the trees and glancing up at the sky obscured by evergreen branches. She looked preoccupied. Percy supposed it was because they had probably spent more time in the forest than many of them had realised: the sun was already fading in strength, and whilst it was nowhere near dusk yet, the temperature was definitely falling along with it.

"Did anyone notice the direction we were running in?" she asked, a worried frown on her face. Thalia seldom looked anything other than worried, bored or impassive, and wandering around a monster-infested forest apparently did not warrant a change.

"Wasn't it northwest?" Jason said, readjusting his glasses and looking around.

"I thought it was southwest," Frank mumbled. "Although I suppose there's a reason I was never chosen to patrol wooded areas in New Rome."

"We definitely went to the west," Thalia confirmed, "but Jason's right: we've deviated to the north. Apollo is in the east - in a stone valley, apparently. We should start making for it now."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Leo said, ruffling his curls back into some rough semblance of a place.

"Um... The path disappeared ages ago." Piper pointed out.

"Yup... Just a sec..." Leo muttered, rummaging around his toolbelt for a few moments before triumphantly pulling out something an waving it in the air.

Percy expected to see one of Leo's newest marvels. Perhaps a fine-tuned version of his Archimedes ball, or a gadget that would laser-point a path out to them according to godly satellites (otherwise known as planets and moons - there was a reason they'd been named for Graeco-Roman deities). He then remembered that technology wasn't very effective in the magical world, and that the object in Leo's hand was, in fact, a compass.

Leo beamed at it.

"It's from the Argo II. Only bit of muggle tech on board. I unmounted it just before leaving camp, 'cause I wanted some part of it with me, you know?"

Everyone goggled at him. Leo's face fell.

"What?"

"You said 'muggle'," Annabeth said. "Not 'mortal'."

Leo's expression switched to confusion, then veered to the slightly defensive.

"Yeah, well I-"

"Aw, you're going native!" Piper cooed. That type of voice wasn't at all typical for her, but no-one was complaining at the change in tone of the conversation. "Look at you, all wizardly and magical, and stuff..."

"Hello, it's a compass." Leo huffed. "How much less wizardly can you g-"

"And he's not even denying it!" Thalia crowed, joining in.

"Leo Valdez, the next mind of the wizarding world." Hazel declared in a sing-song voice. "You should start going by Merlin II."

"Or Leo the Loopy." Jason grinned.

"Valdez the Vonderful Vizard."

"Leo the Lovely Lum-"

"Oh, shut up." Leo snapped, stalking past the others as they fell about laughing.

It felt good to laugh at such things, silly though they might be. Even Annabeth was giggling as Leo studiously ignored them, his bright red ears betraying his act of unawareness. Percy watched his girlfriend as all the tension, anger, and resentment, hidden and repressed for weeks, melted away from her face and body, leaving her as radiant as he knew she could be.

Unfortunately, the effects of laughter only lasted for a few moments. The demigods soon sobered and set after Leo, who had stalked into the trees without a glance behind to see if the others were following. Although more laughter sounded as Frank tripped over a root, pulling Jason and Percy down with him as he fell, it lasted a for a lot less time, for they were now properly, utterly lost.

Not that it mattered for the moment, exactly. Leo's compass was getting them in the direction they needed, and they had a vague idea of where Apollo could be, thanks to the Bean Nighe's answer, the accuracy of which they did not even bother doubting since the binding magic of the deal had so obviously prevented lies from being told.

However, this was a part of the forest that was twice as intimidating as the one they had entered. For one thing, the path was indeed gone. They were charging through the undergrowth, swatting at nettles and spider webs and other - less mundane - things that were better not to dwell on. Thalia kept wincing and scowling heavily in their direction as they walked. No doubt compared to her huntresses they were making an amount of noise similar to that of crazed elephants chasing after banana thieves.

That said, if anything did hear them bulldozing through the woods and cared, they didn't do much about it. Perhaps it was because it was daylight, but Percy had the feeling that they were not in much immediate danger. Werewolves and giant spiders were said to populate this place, but it appeared that they preferred to get busy later in the day.

Centaurs were perhaps their most pressing worry, especially now that the demigods knew they would not recognise them for who they were. Students whispered, teachers warned and older students bragged - life away from the gods appeared to have turned the horsemen into fearsome creatures, more savage and primal than most mythological beings the demigods had met. Percy thought of the Ichthyocentaurs, whom Hazel, Leo and Frank had met while he and Annabeth were in Tartarus, and smiled faintly. He would have bet a century in Tartarus that centaurs of the Forbidden Forest would not send them off with home-made brownies. Home-made arrows, maybe, but not cake. Which was a shame, he thought, as his stomach rumbled. Brownies sounded really good right now.

They walked on, for an hour at least. Conversation was sparse, for all of them were preoccupied with their own thoughts. The Bean Nighe's words, while spoken in anger and defensiveness, had struck more than one chord.

The thing that most niggled Percy was her taunts that they would hardly give her a better life than Voldemort would, if they won. Creatures like her were ignored or feared, in their world as much as the wizarding world. How could they, strangers in a foreign land as they were, hope to change it so?

The struggle was indeed complex and large-scale, going beyond Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and only now was Percy beginning to see what Chiron had hinted at when he'd said they would often be out of their depth. The magical world wasn't just divided between those who believed Harry and those who didn't. It was divided almost beyond repair, something the demigods had realised even in the few weeks they had spent here, between wizarding families, blood prejudice, tradition and novelty, conformity and freedom. In such a small and scarcely populated world, the thought was dizzyingly worrying. How could it hope to survive without radical change?

After another long stretch of silence, during which they managed to keep on track only due to Leo's compass and Thalia's vigilant surveillance of the area, Piper spoke up.

"Jason, how did you know Apollo was going to be punished by being made mortal?"

Their curiosity pricked, everyone turned to stare at Jason, who looked like he'd just been startled out of a daydream.

"Um... well, I had a dream about it a while ago. I saw Zeus talking to a few gods about which measure would be best to discipline Apollo, and Athena suggested making him mortal again," he glanced at Annabeth, who - seemingly against her will - didn't look overly impressed by her mother's suggestion, "but this time with literally, like, no powers."

"He's been mortal before?" Hazel asked, frowning.

"Yeah, a couple of times actually." Frank answered, holding a branch off the path for her. She smiled and touched his shoulder in thanks, and he smiled back before continuing.

"Once when he served Admetus, an old Argonaut and the king of Pherae, and another time when he served Laomedon, another king, but of Troy." he recited with perfect recollection. "But in both cases, although he was mortal, he still retained some of his powers. He even made Admetus' cows bear twins for the entire time he looked after them."

Annabeth was looking at Frank in amazement.

"How d'you know all of that?" she asked. "I'd never heard of Apollo serving a king of Troy."

Frank shrugged, and looked embarrassed.

"I used to think - hope, really - that I was a son of Apollo, seeing as I was good at archery, an all." he mumbled. "I read up on him a lot, so I still remember stuff."

"That's really cool, Frank." Hazel said with a smile. "It's silly, but now I can't believe I've never done research on my dad. Nico, did you-"

Nico shook his head, chuckling darkly.

"Didn't need to. I lived in the Underworld on and off for ages. I got to know what he's like pretty well, and Persephone's occasional jealous rants supplied all the gossip and detail."

"Not that you'd ever listen, huh?" Percy asked, grinning. "Gossip ain't your style, death boy."

"Definitely not," Nico agreed seriously. "Nor have I ever attempted to see for myself if his helm of invisibility makes the wearer look like Darth Vader."

Leo shot him a look over his shoulder and grinned.

"I knew you weren't entirely hopeless!"

Nico smiled faintly, but Piper was still thoughtful.

"So if Apollo's been mortal before, he'll know what to do to become a god again?"

"I hope so, 'cause I ain't babysitting him." muttered Frank.

Thalia shot him a smirk.

"That's 'cause you ain't seen him, sunshine." she said, her eyes twinkling. "Apollo is hot."

The boys all shot her confused looks.

"I thought you'd sworn off boys...?" Jason asked, trailing off vaguely, trying not to sound like an over-interested brother.

"Well I hadn't made the oath when I first made that contemplation." Thalia pointed out, prompting laughter, a blush from Hazel and Annabeth to mock-gasp.

"Don't let Artemis hear you," she admonished, though she was smirking. "Anyhow, he's also conceited beyond belief. And I doubt he'll look the same if he's truly powerless."

"Good," Piper said, also smirking at Thalia's unperturbed back, "we can't have our favourite virgin huntress going all gooey-eyed at the sight."

Hazel was blushing to the point of going maroon now, and looking increasingly flustered, so Percy hurriedly changed the subject. He often all too easily forgot that she was still unused to modern subjects of conversation. Nico also sometimes had similar reactions to boys' banter in the dormitory, but Hazel was a case by herself. You could say 'underwear' and she'd colour like an alcoholic's ethylic test.

The exchange gave way to another stretch of comfortable silence, during which Hazel kept glancing nervously at Thalia's confident gait while Piper tried not to giggle. Annabeth soon reverted to the usual sanctuary of her own thoughts, something Percy knew she needed to do when she'd been upset, but he wished he could talk to her in private. She'd had a 'bit of a breakdown' earlier, to quote their new and severely prone to understatement British friends, and he wanted to talk to her beyond the hushed 'you okay?' and squeezed hand they'd exchanged earlier.

But the fates really must have had it in for Percy that day, for just as he was going to pull his girlfriend to the back of the group for privacy, Leo came to a sudden stop, causing Thalia dodge him nimbly, though Jason wasn't so lucky and walked into him, sending them sprawling towards thorny bushes and damp earth.

Scrambling up and swearing under their breaths, the two boys looked at what had caused Leo to stop: up in front of them was a sudden lightening of surroundings, like the sun had finally found a spot where it could fill the whole space with its light. The trees thinned, and beyond lay a landscape the demigods could not quite see.

In her element, Thalia took the lead. She motioned for the others to stay quiet and still, then took out another arrow, swapping it for the one already in her hand, and notched it into her bow. It was a habit of hers. She only did it if she had time to fully prepare her strike, like now, although this time her move would be defensive instead of offensive.

Silent as a shadow, she edged towards the part where the trees disappeared completely, gradually descending into a crouch as she neared the open space. If her hair had been four feet longer, she could have made a regular Pocahontas.

She peered around her, the arrow in her bow never less than steady and primed for attack, but all was quiet as the demigods waited with baited breath. At last, after a minute's reckoning, Thalia motioned for the others to come out.

They went to join her, as quietly as they could, although there was no use pretending that they would approach unheard. Percy swore to himself for umpteenth time that he would learn to step silently if it was the last thing he did. It was starting to impeach on his pride: he could barely sneak up on Annabeth without her turning at the last second and poking in the ribs, before whispering "You suck at stealth, Seaweed Brain." That said, she always kissed him after such dismal failures, but it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

As they drew level with Thalia where she stood, blinking in the sudden bright light, the demigods realised why the trees had thinned out so quickly. They had reached a small, grey valley, and were currently standing on its western side, staring down at a hundred-foot drop that made Hazel go slightly green and back away from the edge.

"Looks like we found the stone valley," Nico said. "Does anyone see a mortal sobbing over a lost godhood?"

"I say we go down and check out the valley," Frank said tersely, peering over the edge, his natural anxiety having curiously waned to be replaced by the confident demeanour of a seasoned soldier under potential attack. "Technically, we have a vantage point here, but that's not much good if we don't know what that's supposed to protect us from."

"But there's no path," Hazel said, the forced calm in her voice clearly heard even as she determinedly looked ahead to hide it.

"We'll have to climb down." Thalia confirmed after having scrutinised the edges of the valley and come to the same conclusion. "Leo, d'you have rope?"

Leo nodded and immediately pulled out a long coil of it from his tool-belt and handed it it to the huntress, who immediately tied it the the stump of the nearest tree, whose trunk was thick and firmly secured to the ground by a myriad of roots.

Percy glanced at Hazel, who was looking a very determined sort of calm. He knew she didn't like heights, or just generally being in danger of leaving solid ground, but she was doing her uttermost to act like it wasn't even close to being an issue. Thalia was also notoriously afraid of heights, but that only seemed to apply when she was openly falling or flying - apparently scaling down a long distance of slippery, mossy rock with her back turned to the drop was no obstacle.

"Frank," Percy found himself saying, "Why don't you fly Hazel down and we'll meet you there?"

Hazel threw him a look of unbound relief framed by coloured cheeks. Frank also seemed pleased at not having to balance his burly frame on a rope being used by seven other people.

"What about me?" Leo asked, twisting his hands nervously. "Not that I can't climb, really, but I've never actually scaled a cliff before and we don't have gloves, or a harness, or-"

"Sure, I'll take you." Frank agreed, clapping Leo's shoulder, making him him jerk forward and nearly fly over the edge after all.

Within the next ten seconds, he had transformed into his favourite flying shape - a bald eagle - and had delicately picked Hazel of the ground, flapping off to the bottom of the valley, disappearing behind several boulders protruding from the cliff's face. Just as Thalia was leading the way on the rope, Frank came flapping back up, picked up a slightly apprehensive Leo by the seams of his t-shirt, and glided back down again as Percy helped Annabeth follow after Thalia.

For their conveniently shape-shifting friend, the whole operation took about thirty seconds. For the others, it sometimes felt as though it would take thirty minutes. The rope was of undeniable quality - it was of demigod make after all - but somewhat too thin for the purpose of scaling rock, and its solidity did not make it any easier on the demigods' hands, especially coupled with the scrapes and bruises they collected from continuously bumping against the cliff as they climbed down.

They had gone for the safer option of making one person use the rope at any one time, but the journey was still far from secure even when Thalia successfully called up that she had reached safe ground and held the rope steady for those who came after her.

Percy himself could feel the sweat beading on his back and brow despite the cool temperature as he navigated the awkward, rough edges of the cliff's hand and footholds, trying not to make too much noise lest they wake up something they would very much like had stayed asleep.

Finally, when all of them had reached the ground safely, the demigods looked around in mild apprehension, dusting their hands on their trousers and peering into the depths of this new, grim view that had not been improved by a change in perspective.

The valley stretched out in both directions, as valleys were wont to do, the part on their right going slightly uphill whilst to their left the path - if tumbled rock and dead trees could be called that - straggled for a little way and then appeared to head down. If Percy hadn't already been in a place that was actually a living being, he would have made the comparison of preparing to journey down some fell creature's bowels.

"I say we split up," Thalia said when the redundant silence had stretched on for nearly a minute. "Cover more ground."

Annabeth automatically bit her lip, no doubt about to protest that they had no idea what kind of monsters they could find here, but caught herself at the last second. They had left Hogwarts and all the precaution it required behind them. They were on a quest, and they had faced worst. She nodded.

Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel and Nico elected to go right, while Jason, Piper, Leo and Thalia agreed to go left. Any messages were to be transmitted via the DA coins, though Nico volunteered to act as a shadow-taxi in case they met any tight spots.

Once they had separated and the gloom of the place had cut them off from each other in more than just the conventional ways, the silence set in. It wasn't the kind of silence that was so absolute it was deafening, quite the contrary. There were still some little sounds, like tiny pieces of gravel not even needing a breath of wind to fall from the sides of the valley, minuscule scuttling sounds that betrayed the presence of insect life, and there was the general, almost un-hearable whisper of life all around that said a forest was nearby and teeming with life - although admittedly it didn't look like it for the moment. But these were the kind of sounds that underlined the overall silence, made you aware of it and afraid of what it contained - or worse, what it didn't. Silent flesh-eating monsters were always much worse than hissing, slavering, and growling flesh-eating monsters.

For a long while, Percy and his little group picked their way across and around the massive boulders of rock that lay in their way like the petrified remains of fallen giants. Their breathing grew a little harsher as they climbed higher and further. It sounded too fast, too alive for this place, like a hummingbird zipping and zooming around in an abandoned factory.

Without Thalia, the tracking was revealed to be more than difficult, especially as their feet mostly walked on bare rock, where they saw for themselves that leaving traces of their passage was tricky, let alone pick up on someone else's.

That said, there was little to no actual tracking to do. The Bean Nighe had said that Apollo would be in the valley, and since the demigods had stumbled upon it somewhere in the middle and split off in both directions, logically one of their two groups would find him eventually.

Percy was starting to wonder why Hermes had sent them after all. If his powers had truly been affected by Hecate's overall presence in the magical world, surely it at least did not stop him from flying up and down enough to scan the entire gorge?

"Percy," came a whisper to his right, making him jump.

It was Frank, who had retreated from his position as leader of the party to edge closer to the son of Poseidon. There was a worried frown on his face, and he looked intensely preoccupied with something. Maybe he didn't like the idea of being sent on a wild goose chase off to find wayless gods.

"Sorry, man," Percy smiled tiredly, "lost in my thoughts."

Frank did not seem to mind, though the frown did not lessen.

"What do we do if we find Apollo?"

Percy blinked. They'd covered this before, with Hermes, he seemed to remember, but the god had rather typically given them a vaguer than vague answer.

"Um... Well, take him with us back to the castle, I guess."

"Yeah, but... where do we keep him?"

There was a slight vein pulsing on Frank's temple. Percy had noticed it was more a mark of nerves or worry rather than anger in Frank's case. One did not go 'keeping' gods, unless one's name was Gaea or Sisyphus.

"I dunno, in our dormitories?" Percy shook his head. "The house-elves might see him, but I don't see any other option."

"What about the DA room?"

Percy gave this some thought.

"Harry said we can't use the room if someone's already using it," he remembered, "and we'll need it twice a week for the DA lessons."

"Well, what if... What if we tell Harry about him? Not that he's a god, obviously," came the hasty amendment as Annabeth shot him a withering glance over her shoulder, "but maybe that he's... you know, a victim of Voldemort who needs shelter."

"Harry's loyal to Dumbledore," Annabeth objected flatly, "he'd never agree to hiding someone without his consent."

"You know, I think he might be persuaded to," Hazel said, sounding thoughtful. "I know Hermione's pretty upset that Dumbledore was forced to let Umbridge teach at the school, and his authority's been undermined by her promotion as High Inquisitor. Maybe we can persuade Harry that it would be in Dumbledore's best interests not to know about someone we're hiding - spare his reputation, you know."

"What's left of it," Annabeth said, her mouth twitching. "Seen the papers lately?"

No, as a matter of fact, Percy hadn't. Annabeth often talked like that, as cynical as the most en vogue satirist of the magical world, throwing in facts from the news and actuality like she'd been born in the magical world and never left it. Either she'd been doing ridiculous amounts of reading up or she was putting on a good show of knowledge, but either way Percy was far from being on par with her. Probably a solar system away, in fact.

"We can try telling Harry," Percy said, drawing the words out for as long as he could to give himself time to think. "And take it from there. Make Apollo disappear if Harry still wants Dumbledore to know about it."

Nico looked back at them and raised an eyebrow.

"Are we sure we want a god around the place, though? Apollo won't be a god anymore, but I doubt he'll be comfortable in Hogwarts."

"I doubt we'll be comfortable with him there either," Annabeth admitted, "I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat twenty-four seven, expecting to hear how Flitwick's enchanted orchestra has gone rampant, or that Trelawney's found a new master."

"Don't tempt the Fates," Percy and Nico mumbled together.

"We could ask Chiron," Hazel piped up from the front. "He owes us one for sending us here in the first place. He could arrange for Hecate to aether-fly Apollo to Cam- Ohmygods!"

"What's up?" Percy asked, stumbling over a rock and having to catch himself on a dead tree branch.

In the split-second that followed, he heard Annabeth's sharp intake of breath, a muttered curse in Italian from Nico, and a faint whoosh from somewhere behind him to his left. The latter sound felt somewhat familiar, and, strangely, so was the sight that greeted his eyes as he righted himself. Taut bow, arrow, scars and all.

"I believe I am, lad." said the voice at the end of the arrow currently being pointed at them.

Percy spluttered.

"Jack?"

The man who owned the voice grinned, a somewhat contrasting sight with his formidable bow still being pointed at their chests.

"Aye, that'll be me."

"We had no idea you were there!" Hazel exclaimed, hand on her chest as she calmed a racing heart, her voice too loud in the gloomy valley, resonating as it hit the rocks.

Jack gave them a reproachful look, his sharp eyes seeking each of their faces in turn.

"Aye, that's the idea, luv. Although s'no wonder. Makin' the kind o' noise what would wake the hills, chattin' and jabberin' and debatin' like they's still in school. What do them ole' crackpots teach you these days, how to talk the monsters away?"

Annabeth and Hazel flushed and looked away, but Percy threw furtive glances around them. Frank had disappeared. Where on earth...?

"You think pointing that bow at us is gonna make us any quieter?" Nico said irritably, leaning back when Jack deliberately waved it a little closer to his face.

"Nothin' a li'l fear won't put right," Jack said with a shrug, finally lowering his bow. He grinned at the demigods, showing off his predatory grin like a wolf in front of something young and juicy. "So, me darlin's. Of chasing rogue deities, are we?"

Annabeth opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again, frowning.

"You heard us talking," she accused him.

"Oh, aye," Jack said, grinning, "an' fer longer'n you think, I'll wager. Where's me ole' Leo th' Loopy, eh? His compass lead 'im off to fairyland?"

Hazel stared at him in astonishment.

"How long have you been following us?" she asked, her voice going shrill.

"Long 'nuff that your little hunter friend noticed me a while back," Jack said without a trace of shame. "Smart, that lass. Even showed me where to step so I dinnae walk inta you lot."

"Thalia knew you were following us?" Annabeth asked sharply.

Jack ignored her.

"Your godly friend ent 'round 'ere, mate," he said, looking at Percy, "I had a scout 'round, he ent 'ere 'less he's a rock. He isn't, is 'e?" he added, looking hopeful.

"Er, no." Percy said, struggling to focus on him when Frank was still missing. Where had he gone? Had Jack kidnapped him before showing himself?

Jack shrugged again.

"'Shame. Woulda made a nice new paperweight."

The utter uncertainty in every one of Hazel's features at this caused Jack to burst out laughing after one look at her. He touched her cheek briefly, shaking his head.

"Och, but 'ere's a frightened lil rabbit," he said, not without kindness. "Don' worry, sweetheart, I ain't gon touch yer friend. I jes' hope for your sake the other less considerate folks in 'ere have extended him the same courtesy." he added, with a smile made of charm and broken glass.

Hazel pushed his hand away, her eyes narrowed. Her tiny figure, staring up so defiantly at Jack o' Kent's swaggering, bulky frame, looked almost like it had come from a comic book.

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw something move against the cliff's rock face, like a little shadow darting out of sight. He turned his head to get a better look, but found himself staring at stone, bare but for the cracks of wear and the patterns of age-old strata.

Annabeth just sighed.

"Jack, much as we're glad to see you instead of - I don't know, centaurs or something - can we get to the point and learn why you're fol- glp!"

She lurched forward, and Percy shot out his hand to prevent her from falling, automatically preparing to uncap Riptide and spin around to kill the thing that had attacked her, but within a second she was already steadying herself and pulling at his sleeve, telling him not to do anything. Her cheeks were pink as she began searching her pockets, determinedly not meeting anyone's eyes.

"I'm fine, I just forgot that I... Oh, where is it, I had it here somewhere..."

After a few moments she pulled out from her back pocket a large golden coin, blushing a little deeper when Percy's look of confusion morphed into a grin.

"I forgot they were set to vibrate..." she muttered, as the others snickered and Jack, for the first time since they'd known him, was left looking a little lost.

She turned the DA galleon over in her hands, inspecting the sides of the coin to read whatever message had been set on it. Her face took on a look of surprise bordering on alarm, then confusion. She immediately handed it to Percy, eyes wide.

Percy squinted at the coin's small writing in the dim light, the letters jumping out at him immediately thanks to Annabeth's idea of having changed the alphabet to Greek. He managed to read the message without a problem, but was left nonplussed by its contents nonetheless.

He handed the coin to Nico, who took it it with curiosity, but whose expression quickly changed to suspicious confusion.

Apollo here. V cnfsd. SOS. Bring earplugs.

"Trouble?" Hazel asked Percy quietly.

Percy nodded, showing her the coin. He wasn't certain, but the message sounded far from successful or relieved.

"We need to go," he said, and without further preamble they turned their backs on an increasingly left-out and annoyed Jack and raced down the path.

The way down was easier, even for Percy who had sea legs as opposed to mountain legs. They skipped over roots, jumped from rock to rock and skirted around massive boulders like they'd been training for years, for some reason never needing to pause and stop to think about the best route. It would have been a nice feeling, Percy thought, if it hadn't been for the pressing urgency that kept its fist knotted around his insides and the protesting Scottish highlander who was bounding after them, calling, cursing and swearing as he fired question after question and they chose not to answer.

Dimly, Percy was pleased that Jack had apparently abandoned all standards on stealth. Compared to the smooth, efficient movements of the demigods as they hurried to rejoin their friends, Jack was making the sounds of an overweight pirate dancing the rumba on a pogo stick, cursing parrot included.

After a while of heavy breathing, footsteps thudding on bone-dry rock and a good few minutes of quiet Gallic grumblings once Jack had finally given up pressing them for details, they reached the point where they had initially climbed down. They forged ahead, though as they grew closer Percy started to think he could hear sounds that decidedly did not belong in a forbidden forest's hidden valley. The first few times he stopped to listen there was nothing to note except Nico's ragged breathing or a particularly colourful curse from Jack. The fourth time he stopped, Percy thought he heard... shouts?

Signalling for the others to slow down, the group eventually came to a halt behind a large rock that had managed to lodge itself smack in the middle of the track, despite the narrowness of the gorge at this particular point, effectively blocking the way completely. Percy put a finger to his lips, feeling a little hypocritical as he did so because the air coming in and out of his tired lungs was just as noisy as Annabeth's and Nico's. Jack, of course, was in a league of his own.

Maybe it was because she was so light, but Hazel appeared to be less tired and more alert than the rest of them after their chase. She was cradling something in both hands, but put it away in her jacket pocket before Percy could see what it was. Nodding reassuringly at Percy and before anyone could stop her, she heaved herself up on the boulder, nimbly making her way up the rock until she had reached the top, where she flattened herself against the surface like a lizard in a sunny spot.

Looking around, and noting with worry that Frank was still not among them, Percy bit his tongue to keep himself from shouting up at her to come down, knowing it would betray their position, but also knowing full well that she was exposing herself to whatever danger the others were facing at the moment. That was if they were even there, Percy corrected himself. The sound of shouting had been faint but barely resonant at all, which said they were probably closer than the volume suggested, but you never knew in mountainous area.

A couple of moments later, Hazel was wriggling back down, sliding back to the ground on her front the last few feet. She dusted off her hands and clothes, her face strangely set.

"Well?" Percy whispered.

Hazel looked at him like she didn't quite know how to.

"You'll see." she said. That was all.

She turned on her heel and walked soundlessly to the part of the path where the rock leaned against the face of the cliff like a tired traveller. Percy gaped after her while Jack grinned.

"Oh, I like her," he said.

"She's not available to like," Nico growled, the words springing automatically and unbidden from his mouth.

"Yours, is she?" Jack asked, scratching his stubbled cheek as they watched Hazel find a spot between the rock and the cliff and wiggle through, her curly cinnamon hair the only bright thing in the world for a second, then disappear as the rock swallowed her up.

"More so than yours, at any rate," Nico snapped. "She's my sister."

Jack eyed Nico up and down, and smirked.

"I can see the resemblance," he sniggered.

Nico flushed, and the shadows around them - grown larger and longer in the past hour - lurched alarmingly, as though they had suddenly remembered that their centre of gravity was not, as they had thought, the ground, but rather this scary young man and his commands. But Percy had recovered from his stupefaction at Hazel's bizarre behaviour and put out a hand to stop his cousin from nuking their - what, ally?

"Jack," he addressed the man quietly, "I don't care why you're here, but if you're gonna stay you're gonna be quiet as hell. Our friends are over there, and they might be in trouble."

Annabeth nodded in agreement, her expression matching the surroundings.

"And don't even think of doing anything fishy."

Jack put a hand to his chest as though mortally offended.

"Och, talk aboot a blow to the heart, lad! There I goes, savin' yer life and yeh repay me by doubting me? That stings, lads, it really does."

"Shh!" Percy flapped his hands at them.

"Keep talking, mate, and I'll give you something that'll do more than sting," Annabeth hissed at the highlander.

With any luck, Percy thought desperately, any passing monsters would mistake her for an ill-tempered snake.

Jack only winked.

"I look forward to that," he said, so low that it came out a purring growl.

Annabeth looked at him coldly for a second, then slapped him, the sound resonating around them.

Percy face-palmed. It was a wonder they hadn't been set upon by monsters a dozen times already. Then, with a jolt, he realised the most likely reason for that. The feeling of slight dread suddenly making itself at home in his stomach, Percy gulped and tapped Annabeth on her shoulder.

"Annabeth... Um, I think you just slapped the reason we're still alive," he said.

"What?"

"You weren't just following us, were you?" he said, addressing Jack, who looked put-out at having been slapped but not particularly angry. "You were protecting us."

Jack massaged the side of his face, eyeing Annabeth with an edge of apprehension, and snorted.

"Looks like I barely needed to," he muttered. "Bloody effing kids..."

Annabeth looked unrepentant. If anything, she looked even more suspicious.

"Who sent you?" she asked.

Jack looked exasperated.

"Look gal, I don' obey any orders 'cept me own. There was I, ambling 'round me home, lookin' fer summat crunchy fer lunch, and all o' sudden there's lil miss Scary Eyes 'ere," he pointed at Annabeth, who glared back, "throwing a hissy fit 'bout being fed up o' her life. Well, I says, what with the noise the lass is making, there'll be all sorts o' unpleasant company all kinds of soon. So, says I, Jack, it's 'bout time ya get your arse movin' again and rustle up some sorta pastime, an' help these kids on the way if ya have to. Next thing I know, there I was, followin' ye bunch of geezers into the very depths o' this godforsaken pit of a place, tryin' not ta scare ya outta yer boots as I'm shooin' off every son of a bastard what tried ta eat ya."

"So you're doing this for fun?" Percy translated. It was hard to keep up with his way of speaking, which meshed together several accents into something that wasn't quite Scottish, but certainly far from the English Percy had been speaking all his life.

"Ach, lad, a man can deal wiv storms, a wife, famine, six wives, monsters an' th' plague, but if there's one thing that can finish a man," he grimaced and made a cutting motion towards his throat, "tis boredom."

"Ah yes, the well-know cure to boredom," Nico drawled, "associating with outcasts, fighting off monsters and tracking fallen deities."

"Well it fair beats fairy-huntin', in any case," Jack concluded, shrugging his massive shoulders, his silver-beaded braid bouncing on the brooch that held his kilt up.

Percy was about to say something else, but just then came Hazel's voice from their left.

"Guys, hurry up!"

Her curly head was poking out from the wiggle-hole she'd found a minute ago, staring at them reproachfully, before ducking and disappearing again.

The remaining demigods gave Jack a final bemused glance, shrugged helplessly at each other, and followed Hazel through her hidey-hole.

It was very narrow and very obvious that Jack would not be able to squeeze through unless he planned on becoming a handful of foul-mouthed diamonds. Nico went first, his face set in stone and fists clenched tight - he hated closed, tight spaces. Annabeth followed, carefully manoeuvring her dagger so that it wouldn't catch on the sides.

Before Percy went after her, he motioned for Jack to climb over the boulder as quietly as he could. If he really was intent on being useful, he could be the surprise back-up if needed.

A flicker of annoyance flashed across Jack's scarred face, but he gave a curt nod and started scaling the rock. Even as he squeezed into the little space, Percy could hear him mutter to himself about ducking lids. Or something.

Wriggling around in the hole, Percy found himself wishing he'd gone in head-first. As it was he had to navigate the dusty, suffocating wormhole with his feet alone and try not to kick Annabeth or Nico in the process. After nearly a minute of scuffling, slight panting coming from one of the others, and a close shave with a vicious ant, he finally saw daylight and crumpled to the ground in a heap, coughing out the dust of the passage from his lungs.

Hazel and the others were already on their feet, but they weren't looking at him. Rather, they were staring in concern at the scene that greeted them.

The valley had widened a significant amount to resemble a rock version of a clearing, with the high edges of the cliffs on either side giving it a somewhat basin-like appearance. You could see trees edging the top of the cliffs, standing like dark pikes against a greying sky, almost like soldiers looking in on their prisoner at the centre.

The prisoner in question certainly appeared to be living up to his title. The very sight of him screamed misery, even without the assistance of the little moans that escaped every so often from his form like flecks of ash from a fire. Pale hands were fisted and knotted in dark hair that made Leo's mop of Latin curls look tame, twisting and tearing away at the roots as though trying to rip it out, but weakly, as if their owner had neither the strength nor the willpower to actually do it.

Thalia, Jason and Piper were standing at odd ends around the shuddering wreck of the person, awkwardly glancing at each other, pity and helplessness etched deep in their features.

Leo was sitting on a rock a little way off, looking on with sympathetic interest, but being unusually quiet (for him) and looking very still without his hands fiddling with some wonderful new gadget designed to make Umbridge shriek and run away.

The figure in the middle of the clearing was sobbing, and it was clear that he hadn't just started: the sobs came out choked and rasped, his throat sounded raw and his pain no less so. He was wearing typical muggle attire, consisting of a jacket, shirt, and jeans, but even from where Percy stood he could see that the edges were frayed and the jacket was stained with tears and dust.

This wasn't a god, Percy thought sadly. This was an exiled child.

That was the image that came to mind as the demigods watched the fallen Apollo - for who else could it be? - crying and gasping and heaving choked breaths, prostrated and curled on the ground, like a child left abandoned by all he had known to the cruelties of a dangerous world. The four thousand-year-old god had been reduced to nothing but a broken teenager, unable even to look his new world in the face.

Thalia glanced back, relief spreading on her face when she saw that they had finally found them. She joined them on the ledge without a sound, looking unsettled.

"Look at him," she murmured, motioning to Apollo with her eyes, "They've turned off the sun and made him a black hole of despair."

"Is that really Apollo?" Annabeth whispered back.

Thalia's solemn face nodded.

"He was busy yelling at Zeus and shaking his fist at the sky when we found him."

"It's a good thing no-one found him first," Nico said, his eyes also fixed on Apollo's crumpled form.

"I'm not sure we did." Thalia admitted. "He's covered in scratches, some quite nasty, and there's blood on his clothes. He won't let us touch him."

As if to prove her point, just as Piper was reaching out a hand to touch Apollo's shoulder, the god looked up and scrambled to his knees, knocking her hand away in the process. His face was indeed covered in scratches, and his eyes were almost impossibly red and puffy.

"Oh woe, woe is me!" he cried up to the sky, as he did so effectively annulling any kind of sympathy the demigods had harboured up till then. The Grace siblings and Piper pulled faces that said 'oh, here we go again'.

"Alas," Apollo cried to himself in his dismay, "what ever will become of me, and how is it all to end? If I stay here through the long watches of the night, I am so exhausted that the bitter cold and damp may make an end of me- for towards sunrise there will be a keen wind blowing from off the river. If, on the other hand, I climb the hill side, find shelter in the woods, and sleep in some thicket, I may escape the cold and have a good night's rest, but some savage beast may take advantage of me and devour me."

Percy heard the words, but only registered that they sounded strange somehow. Rehearsed, ready-made. Scripted.

For her part, Annabeth was staring at the god in astonishment.

"He's quoting from Homer's Odyssey," she realised.

Hearing her voice and apparently registering it for the first time, Apollo raised his pitiful head and turned to look at her. There was a new kind of terror on his face that Percy recognised but could not place.

"Alas," Apollo breathed, as though to himself, "what kind of people have I come amongst? Are they cruel, savage, and uncivilized, or hospitable and humane? I seem to hear the voices of young women, and they sound like those of the nymphs that haunt mountain tops, or springs of rivers and meadows of green grass."

Ah, that explained it. Nerves.

"He sees himself as Odysseus," Annabeth murmured to Percy, who was feeling slightly lost, "exiled from Ithaca through the workings of ill fortune. He thinks the gods are somehow preventing him from going back home."

Thalia looked worried. She glanced at Annabeth.

"Can you make him calm down? He hasn't stopped quoting tragedies and doom speeches since we found him. We even had to stop him from going through the whole Ajax episode," she added, with a meaningful look.

"Meaning?" Percy asked, unable to look away from Apollo's terrified face.

"Lots of sheep and blood," Annabeth surmised rather unhelpfully. "I guess I can try..."

After the god's dramatic albeit probably unintended rejection, Piper had elected to join Jason's side. She was holding his hand and had draped his other arm over her shoulders, looking very glad to have something so familiar and steady by her side, something Apollo so very obviously lacked right then.

Hesitantly, Annabeth made her way over to the god, who had started crying again, only now the tears streamed down his face in silence, leaving salty tracks that mixed with the blood from his cuts and made his front a ghastly sight. He watched the daughter of Athena approach him, took in her grave face and distinctive eyes, and something like recognition spread across his bleeding face. His eyes filled up with tears again. When Annabeth was within a metre of him, he lurched forward and grabbed her legs, words streaming from his mouth in a babble of fear, despair and heart-wrenching misery, his eyes refusing to leave her face, begging her to understand what he was feeling.

But the demigods didn't understand a word of it.

It was, quite literally, Greek to them.

Their experienced ears could pick up on the fact that he was in fact speaking Greek, but it was so arcane and ancient a form of it that the tragic expression on the god's face and his wringing hands as he spoke them were their only clues as to the meaning of the words.

Annabeth herself was standing stock-still as Apollo clutched at her knees, eyes wide in alarm as she stared down at him. Her expression was all frowns and concentration as she tried to understand what Apollo was saying, but her mouth was open in confusion.

"He... He thinks I'm some sort of goddess..." she said, so quiet and uncertain that Percy could barely hear her over Apollo's sobbing pleas. "He wants help... I think... I think he thinks I'm my mother."

The demigods stared at Apollo, who had stopped talking and was instead consolidating his grip on Annabeth's jeans, supplicating her with his eyes - but for what exactly, who knew. Perhaps even he did not.

"I think he's hallucinating." Thalia said quietly. "Either that or he's traumatised and confused."

"He's not the only one," Percy muttered, wondering what to do. He had a feeling that Apollo would not go clutching his knees if he got any closer to him.

Next to him, Hazel whispered something. Percy turned to look and saw that she was holding both hands up to her mouth, before crouching down and bringing them to the ground. She opened her fists, and out crawled a little grey lizard. Percy was stumped for a second, but a moment later the lizard became a fluffy husky dog and trotted up to a now hiccuping Apollo.

"Oh," said Percy stupidly. So that's where Frank had gone.

Frank the husky carefully padded right up to Annabeth and nudged her calf, whining quietly. Annabeth looked down in surprise, but apparently understood quicker than Percy and immediately crouched down to let him closer to Apollo, who blinked his puffy eyes in bemusement.

Frank woofed softly and stepped into Apollo's one drooping arm, the other still clutched to Annabeth's leg. The former god looked stunned for a moment, but then cautiously unclasped his hands and put both arms around Frank's fluffy form, burying his head in the grey and white fur, again looking so much like an abandoned child that Percy found himself thinking very offensive things about Zeus and his idea of discipline.

Frank whined sympathetically and wagged his tail. If he had been in human form the very idea of doing what he was doing now would have made him splutter and flush crimson, but it seemed being canine worked wonders for reservation and unbound generosity. Even Annabeth appeared to forget for a second that this was a son of Mars and briefly stroked his ears, a grateful smile on her face, looking very tired all of a sudden.

Within a minute Apollo's sobs had subsided completely, leaving him quiet and prostrate on the rocky floor, covered in dust and scratches and bites. Finally, Annabeth looked back and motioned for them to come over.

As Percy and the others approached, Leo awkwardly climbing off his rock and stretching out his legs with a grimace, faint little rumbling sounds started coming from the dark-haired boy who was no longer a god.

"He's sleeping," Annabeth confirmed when they reached her. "Poor thing."

To Percy and everyone else's amazement, and with an almost maternal grace to it, Annabeth stroked back a few dirty strands of hair from the torn and bloody face of Apollo. Her face as she did so was tired, certainly, and world-weary, but also peaceful. Not at all as though she'd been raging against the gods only a couple of hours ago.

And that, more than the former god's surprisingly quick transition from divinity to peaceful oblivion, was - to Percy - the real miracle of the day.

0o0o0o0o0

By the time they reached the edge of the forest, the air was colder than ever and there was a smell of snow in the air, though they were still treated to the spectacular sight of Hogwarts' turrets gleaming in the red light of the sunset, and the Quidditch pitch lay once more as empty as a shell. A few streamers still stirred feebly in the breeze, proclaiming the winning team's victory, but the burnt quality of the light made it impossible to determine if they were red or green.

Percy's stomach was rumbling, and he knew for a fact that no platter on the dinner table that night was going to be safe from him. He had his arm around Annabeth, who had been walking alongside him the entire way back and now had her head resting on his shoulder, speaking only to ask Leo for water and to ask Jack if Apollo was okay.

Their mysterious Scottish friend had proved true to his word whatever his intentions may have been, and had dutifully carried the sleeping new mortal in his arms the entire way back, his massive arms apparently never feeling the strain. He had shaken his head, as genial as a toymaking grandfather, when Piper and Hazel, who were the best at Charms, offered to make him lighter with magic.

"Poor lad don' weigh more than a bebby unicorn," he'd said softly, chuckling. "Don' smell half as good, though, I'll give yeh that."

Once the gamekeeper's hut came into clear view - Percy noted that it had lights on inside, though he had never seen it inhabited as the gamekeeper himself was rumoured to be on a trip - Jack halted in his tracks and gently handed Apollo to the girls, wands a-ready, who soon managed to make him hover in the air like a puppet with invisible strings. Carefully, they set about manoeuvring him so that he stood vaguely upright and not lying down, in case someone saw them going back up the grounds.

Meanwhile, Percy was thanking Jack.

"I still have no idea who you are," he said. "But thanks. Seriously, man. That's twice you saved our lives, and we couldn't've carried him all the way like that."

"Yeah, thanks." Thalia echoed, sounding a bit far away. Her eyes were trained on the castle, seeking out Gryffindor tower. No doubt she was wondering what she'd find there when she entered the common room.

Jack waved a huge hand like it was nothing. It was funny, Percy thought, how he'd seemed so much of a predator when they'd first met. Well, a predator that would eat them, at least. He still had far too much grace and stealth to be entirely trustworthy in Percy's book, but the wariness he'd felt at first was fading.

"Don' mention it, lad," he said, then he winked at Thalia. "An' good job jobbed to th' lil missy what sussed out that I were followin' yeh. Tha's top-notch hunting, sweetheart."

The huntress shot him a small smile, but quickly looked back at the castle, shrugging lightly.

"Your breathing wasn't like any animal's I'd heard before..." she said vaguely, apparently already lost in thought.

Jack humphed.

"Weel, I'd better work on that, then," he said sarcastically, saluting her with two fingers to his head. "Toodle-pip then, me hearties."

"Jack!" Percy called after him before the not-quite-stranger anymore could disappear among the trees. "What you saw... What you heard - I mean, what happened today - you can't tell anyone, okay?"

Especially what you saw Frank doing, he added silently.

Jack looked back over his shoulder, grinned, then held out his hand in what might have been a sign that mum was the word, but then again might have been telling Percy to bugger off.

Rolling his eyes, Percy turned his attention back to the group. For some reason, he wasn't too worried.

Getting a comatose but upright Apollo up a slippery green hill was harder than it looked, as it turned out, even with a total of three people supposed to keep him steady using levitation charms. Come to think of it, multiple handlers was probably the main cause for all the stops and starts - magical co-ordination was not yet one of their strong suits - but it was the preferred option over lugging a bleeding, unconscious teenager on their backs, for fear of being mistaken for muggers.

By the time they reached the massive entrance doors, night had pretty much fallen, although fortune would have it that Filch had not yet gotten round to lock them and so getting in was not the problem they had feared. Navigating the corridors was a lot trickier, since portraits were still very much awake and curfew wasn't quite in action yet - students were still coming back from dinner. Using Hazel's amazing geological senses, which for some reason worked within Hogwarts as well, they avoided the most popular routes back to common rooms and stuck to shadowy passageways, when necessary holding loud conversations about how annoying it was for them to carry their moronic friend, who had somehow messed up a calming potion that had succeeded into sending him off to Sandman.

After that, hauling Apollo up to their common room was child's play. They dumped him on the sofa nearest to the fire, fetched a spare blanket from the girls' room, then stood looking at each other, hands on hips and teeth biting lips, wondering what to do next.

"He looks kinda pale," Percy said finally, "maybe he needs food?"

"Or ambrosia," Thalia said, frowning. "Heal all those cuts."

Annabeth looked doubtful.

"He's mortal now, I don't think ambrosia would do any good."

"Well he's no Muggle either, or he wouldn't be here."

"I'll get some regular food, it's better than nothing," Percy announced, grabbing his robes so that he didn't look like he'd been in the forest all day despite the mud on his shoes and the bits of plant stuck all over the bottoms of his jeans. "Dinner should still be going on."

Leaving the others to stare in silence at their new ward, he started walking down the corridors, wondering if looking urgent was suspicious, or if it would in fact be more suspicious to be a growing teenage boy and not hurry to dinner. Either way, he had to be quick, because whereas being a sixth-year entitled him to walk around the castle until nine o'clock, it did not do well these days with Umbridge's foot in the system to do something even slightly suggestive of mischief. Not that it had actually stopped anyone from doing so yet, but the presence of a fallen god in his dormitory made Percy unusually aware of the risks of attracting attention.

About two minutes later, he heard footsteps running toward him from behind. He turned to see Leo and Frank jogging over, bright red spots on their cheeks and looking a little flustered.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked, "I said I'd-"

"You're not the only one who hasn't had dinner, man. And Annabeth said to help you get some food back for all of us." Leo said, breathing a bit more heavily than running down two flights of stairs warranted.

Percy raised an eyebrow.

"And why do you look like dinner's gonna have strippers assisting? Seriously, you could cook an egg on your faces right now."

Leo mumbled something incoherent, and Frank flushed harder.

"The Grey Lady," he mumbled, "Nico summoned her to stand watch in our corridor, but he didn't tell us, so when we came out we didn't see her and, um, ran into her, er..."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Percy laughed, picking up the pace. His stomach rumbled loudly, making the occupant of a passing portrait look up and down in concern, trying to find the creature stalking it. He was almost ashamed to admit it, but he actually hadn't thought of getting dinner for himself. He wondered if there was a wizarding equivalent of takeaway restaurants, and whether ordering something from school would be possible, and what the penalty would be if they got caught.

Dinner was a loud and boisterous affair, despite the unusual moody silence along Gryffindor table. Percy failed to note the significance of this, for he was busily sneaking breadrolls into the sack Leo had handed him right before entering the Great Hall. He added a few apples, chocolate muffins, a pitcher of pumpkin juice (weird stuff, but surprisingly sweet and refreshing), and two dozen chicken drumsticks wrapped in napkins.

Alec Malone watched him shovel food under the table with the air of a cow watching the cars go by. Sooner or later in a teenager's experience life was going to be full of other teenagers sneaking off food for gods knew what.

"Midnight feast, huh?" he asked Percy.

Percy smiled tersely.

"More like an eight o'clock snack," he said. "It's for my friends."

"Do they usually get room service?"

"No, they're um... Studying. Er, Runes and Transfiguration, I think. Busy times, you know."

"Huh." Alec said, watching him snatch a few slices of cheese. "Must be eager, on a Saturday night and all."

"Have you met my girlfriend?"

Alec chuckled, but it was short-lived and he returned to his previous expression like a man who had heard a good joke but suddenly remembered he was due to be hanged the next day. Percy had noticed the entire table were being rather glum, especially the older students, but only just realised what the reason behind that might be.

"Game that bad, huh?"

Alec looked baffled.

"What?"

"The game. Quidditch. Bad affair, I know r-"

"We won." Alec said, in the tone of one addressing someone with fragile nerves and short-term memory loss, but who was no less annoying for it. "Squashed the snakes, like we knew we would."

"So, um, why is everyone...?"

"S'the whole Potter business, ent it?" Alec replied, with unexpected bitterness and not a whole lot of grammar, the rancour apparently making a local accent resurface.

Percy sighed. He stopped trying to squash six oranges into his sack and looked up.

"Look, I know you don't think Voldemort's back, but the guy's honest dude, why can't you just believe that-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alec said angrily, dabbing at where he'd spilled his drink when he jumped in shock with all the clumsiness of a nervous banker who refused to accept that recession was a real thing.

Percy blinked.

"Harry - you said he was the reason..."

"Yeah, 'cause he got hisself knocked outta the team, didn't he?" Alec said, his cheeks red with feeling and his napkin turning orange from the spilled juice.

"Oh," Percy said. "Did he cheat, or..."

"No," Alec snapped, less loudly now that the anger was being replaced by suspicion. "Didn't you hear? He won fair an' square, but Malfoy was bein' a prick about it, and of course precious Harry couldn't stand it so he went an' punched the little bugger..."

"And Angelina kicked him off?" Percy glanced at the tall ebony girl who was moodily poking at her food.

"Angie's a workaholic, not suicidal." Alec said, looking at Percy like he was a marble short of a set. "Umbridge did, the old bat."

"Toad," Percy corrected vaguely, seeking out the leprous amphibian in question along the staff table. She was currently sipping at her glass of wine while both her neighbours appeared to be very deliberately talking to the person sitting on their other side.

"An' of course Fred an' George got kicked off too," Alec continued moodily, stabbing his potatoes, "which means Angie has to find three new players before training for the next game begins, or the cup'll go to dear ole' Snape again."

"Right," Percy said, still absent. He had just spotted Frank getting up from the Hufflepuff table with a bulging sack like his own. The son of Mars spotted Percy and waved, to which Percy said "Well, I'm off."

Alec grunted a reply which Percy didn't bother trying to interpret. He went to join Frank, by which time Leo had also finished at the Ravenclaw table, looking empty-handed and carefree, although the others knew he had simply put the food in his toolbelt.

They made it back to their dormitory without incident, although they themselves weren't quite sure why they were so careful to be as quiet as possible, knowing now that Umbridge was at dinner and that they were technically weren't doing anything wrong. Maybe a whole afternoon of tracking in a dangerous forest had the same effect on their caution levels that a sea cruise had on one's legs for several days afterwards: you couldn't shake it off.

Frank shut the door behind them, cutting off the cold draught that had risen since night had fallen. Snow was falling, not that they could see it from their common room, and already the corridor windows were showing signs of being mostly obscured the following morning by the snowflakes being blown against them. Perhaps it had been a good thing Hermes had asked them to play treasure hunt today after all, or Halloween at Hogwarts may have been augmented by the extra-realistic decoration of a life-size frozen god.

Everyone was present once the three boys had returned. After the sacks of food had been deposited and emptied out on the table, they turned to stare at Apollo, whose soft breathing sounds and peaceful expression told them he was still deeply asleep. Annabeth was sitting closest to him, in an armchair by the fire, its light making her hair glow as bright and red as its embers. The others were scattered all around, either perched on the sofa, hovering near the fireplace for warmth, or sitting together in a chair. Only Nico stood slightly apart, pressed against the wall in the darkest corner of the room and a frown on his brow, the reflection of the firelight in his eyes the most visible part of him in the moment.

Finally, after a few minutes' silence during which the demigods simply watched him, not even touching the food (it just felt right somehow) the former god stirred. He groaned, turned over, found that he could not as the sofa was cruelly narrow, and sat up, dazed and disorientated. He took in the sight of the nine silent demigods in bemused silence, rubbing his sleep-filled eyes with a dirt-encrusted hand. Then he looked around.

"Where's the doggie?" he muttered, his voice hoarse with sleep rusty with too many spent tears.

They glanced at Frank, who squirmed a little. He might even have blushed, though the fire made it hard to tell.

"Um, that was me." he said, looking uncomfortable. "Sorry, er , Lord Apollo."

The former god looked disappointed.

"Oh," he said. "I'd already named you Fluffy in my head."

"That's... um... Thanks." Frank said, rather desperately.

"How are you feeling?" Annabeth asked.

Percy noted with surprise that she sounded genuinely concerned.

"Like I've been cast out of heaven," Apollo muttered, holding his head. "Oh, wait. I have." He laughed.

No-one else did.

"You're covered in scratches," Piper said after an awkward silence. "We have a little ambrosia and nectar, but now that you're mortal you might not-"

She stopped, because Apollo had gone worryingly pale again and burst into tears. They stared, awkward again, because what could they say to someone who had lost their immortality in exchange for an average teenage body, acne, and terrible naming skills?

"Oh, but my head hurts

And my torso feels so soft

Where is my six-pack?" the god wailed, burying his face in his hands.

And his lyrical skills had apparently not improved either. Percy exchanged a look with Annabeth, who was frowning in incomprehension. She'd been kidnapped when they'd met Apollo for the first time, so she was understandably unfamiliar with his poetry-spouting habits when he was happy, upset, or plain bored. Haikus, as Thalia whispered into her ear quickly, were saved for special occasions. For when the god was really upset or bored.

"Hey, I know this is hard," Piper said gently, coming to kneel next to the sofa, "but you've got to get a grip, okay? This is practically enemy ground for you, d'you understand what's at risk?"

Apollo didn't answer, just kept his face covered and rocked his body slightly, making very faint little moaning sounds.

"Do you even know where you are?" Annabeth asked quietly.

Apollo kept his head cradled in his hands for a few more moments, then peered over his fingers.

"Percy Jackson," he answered thickly. "When Zeus... When I... When it happened," he gulped, "I was falling and I knew I was mortal, but I could still... I could concentrate on where I needed to land. Sort of." he pulled a face. "I thought Percy could help me, so I concentrated on falling where he would be. I landed in a rocky canyon, on top of an ant colony, so I got covered in bites, but then I fell and hit some rocks, so I got covered in cuts... And... And my flawless tan is gone!"

He burst into noisy tears again.

Percy sighed, not wanting to appear insensitive (for once) but this scene was starting to get repetitive. Judging by the way the others were shifting their feet and exchanging looks, he wasn't the only one. He crouched, moving nearer to the sobbing boy, trying to school his features into something suitably sympathetic.

"Dude," he said. Always a good start. "It's okay. You're safe, we found you in time. I'm here, and so are my friends, and we'll help as much as we can. Only," he hesitated, then made up his mind. "Only we've kind of got our own thing to deal with at the moment. You see, we're in wizard territory, and it's all hush-hush and top secret and-"

Apollo was nodding quickly, the tears having finally stopped. He even looked eager.

"I know," he said, "Oh, I know. The new prophecy that's obviously very important even though it wasn't made by me or my oracle, the wizarding world, the fate of magic." he nodded again, importantly. "That's why I chose you among my many dearest friends for the honour of helping me."

"Um... Why?"

Apollo smiled, surprising everyone.

"Why, don't you see? Saving the wizarding world, our world, and magic itself. It's the perfect way to make me a god again!" He beamed. "You can help me, Percy Jackson, by letting me help you."

---

This chapter's title, Acta Non Verba, means 'Deed, not words'.

Next chapter might be up sooner than usual (not like that's difficult, huh? Believe me, I hate myself just as much as you do on that count) and will be in a somewhat different format, which I'm quite excited to try.

Thanks to 8Lottie8, who was very informative and lovely about Latin grammar, Risa Silvara and 32 for being lovely in general, the gusman, for an entirely deserved cautioning, YKW and XAHHA123 for your lovely reviews.

And my extra-specially lovely friend bubblegumbloo who drew me a very unique picture of Jack O'Kent, which you can find by clicking a link on my profile :-)

Also for everyone else who reviewed, (oh gosh, getting too many to address personally now; yippee!) favourited, and followed :-)

Toodle-pip, then, me hearties!