A/N: Again, the long wait was not intentional and I apologise profusely, still this chapter is for: Pointshoes2012 and the correct answer was Prewett.

Chapter 6

Supressing a growl if irritation, Reyna drew her golden dagger from its sheath on her thigh and, with a flick of her wrist, sent it right into the far wall, causing the pink haired girl across from her to squeak in surprise, but the daughter of Bellona simply ignored her, too lost in her thoughts to care.

It had been a full week since the demigods had arrived at Grimauld place, but, bar the few times the ghost king had yelled at Zhang for hitting on his sister, nothing much of importance had happened and the stagnant situation was beginning to make Reyna lose her composure. It wasn't being in the order that was the particularly rotten part, nor was it the lack of action. They had worked out a system where order members and, occasionally, demigods would trail the Harry Potter boy, taking two hour shifts, though they could probably have stayed for longer if they wanted to, it wasn't like the boy really did much anyway.

The problem also wasn't being practically caged in this run down and depressing house when not on shift, which was the majority of the time since the enemy they were supposed to be fighting was laying low for the present, and it wasn't even the fact that the very air in this house seemed to push her down and sap her strength. No, the reason for her irritation was a certain blonde haired son of Jupiter that was paying her absolutely no attention no matter how hard she tried to gain it.

Before he had vanished that day, several months ago, she thought that they might have had a thing together, but now she couldn't help but feel a cold knot form in her stomach whenever she saw him. Did he have a girlfriend at this new camp? The others did mention he went on a quest with that daughter of Aphrodite… Piper was her name, and the Venus girls had always been interested in the young praetor. The more she thought about it, the more her jealousy grew into a fierce rage and she wanted so desperately to destroy something.

She really did like Jason, she looked up to him and respected him long before he had earned his position, but Juno had taken him away from her and now he seemed to be so far beyond her reach that it wasn't even worth trying anymore. Perhaps it was never meant to be, but the pain was still very much there in her heart.

The golden sheen of her knife in a pale hand brought her back out of her thoughts with a jolt, but when she looked up, the one offering the weapon back to her was the girl… Hermione. Trying for a comforting smile that must have turned out more like a grimace, Reyna nodded in thanks, slipping the dagger back into its sheath and standing straight.

"I was told to let you know that Harry will be arriving here in about an hour, so you don't have to go do your shift."

At this, the soldier frowned. The boy was not supposed to be arriving for another week yet, and if he was on his way now, that means that something had gone wrong, though what it was she would have to find out soon. Cursing, she squeezed her eyes shut. Zhang was meant to be watching the boy now… didn't that just figure?

"What happened to him?"

Reyna spat out, thinking of ways to punish the undetermined archer when he returned, though pulling up short when the younger girl flinched away from her slightly, looking terrified by the snarl on the praetor's face. Working to soften her expression, the daughter of Bellona hid her anger and asked again in a kinder voice. It had the desired effect and the girl relaxed enough to answer her this time around.

"Mundungus left his duties to buy some stolen cauldrons; Harry was attacked while he was away. It was two dementors."

Anger diminishing now, Reyna slumped back into her seat, shuddering slightly. She found that she could not blame Zhang for this after all, these dark beings were definitely worse than many of the monsters she had ever faced before, and they had no way of combatting them, other than the two from the underworld, but they rarely took shifts out during the day.

"What happened?"

She asked again, voice muffled by the hand that was covering her face.

"Harry managed to fend them off, but he now has a hearing for using underage magic in front of a muggle."

"Mauris." She swore under her breath. This was exactly what they had been trying to avoid by giving the boy a guard. It was obvious that the government her was corrupt, but no one seemed able to see it beyond those of the order.

"Thank you for telling me… could you go tell the others? I think they are up in our room."

The girl looked more than a little apprehensive about going and speaking to the other four, she had a deep rooted fear of Nico for some reason the roman decided was not a good idea to dwell on, but she ran off anyway, bounding up the stairs two at a time. Probably thinking she would be safer upstairs than down with the really ticked off soldier who had just stuck a knife half way through the wall.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Hazel sat at the kitchen table, feet on her brother's lap as they talked to a half- giant (the mortal kind, not Gaia's crazy children kind) named Hagrid through an Iris message, books and papers strewn all around them, taking up all the room that there was to spare on the surface.

"Hazel, I don't think we should plan too many practical lessons, I mean, animals hate children of Pluto."

The ghost king scowled at her answering pout, his sister was really getting into this whole teaching thing, but her reply was cut off by the teacher on the other end chuckling deeply.

"Not the thestrals." On seeing their nonplussed look, the giant sighed again. "Death's horses. Hogwarts has a whole heard of them. Only tame ones in Britain I reckon."

At this news, the daughter of Pluto's face lit up, she had always loved horsed, and Nico only shrugged. That could work… possibly, though the horse thing was still a major issue, even if he was best friends with Percy.

"I'm great with horses." Hazel practically bubbled with enthusiasm where her brother seemed bored out of his mind, "And nifflers will be okay too I think, with the whole underground thing."

Trying to emulate her interest in the subject as he was meant to be someone studying to be a teacher in this subject, Nico sighed and let his head fall back.

"I guess I could teach greek creatures out of a book, summon some hell hounds or one of the furies…" He paused to think for a moment before shifting to look at the message again. "Hagrid, do you still have that Cerberus puppy you bought off my dad in a pub a few years ago?"

At this new bit of information, the half giant seemed to pale, but then bounced back with renewed vigour and a whiskery smile.

"That was your dad? Oh, well, um, Fluffy's gone to live in Egypt now, guarding tombs. Hogwarts got a little too small for him you see."

Nico only shrugged, no too bothered that that idea didn't work out. The Cerberus puppy, or Fluffy as the man called him (seriously? Who called a 20ft hell hound with three heads Fluffy? ) would love that, they really did make the best guard dogs. Just as he was about to respond however, the message dissolved in a flash of purple tee shit and black jeans as Reyna ran through the rainbow, destroying the connection.

"Guys, Harry's coming. Now. We need to disappear; he can't know that we're here."

At this, the son of Hades swore, they would need to move really quickly to get everything back away, could they not have had a few minutes extra warning? As he moved around, frantically gathering up notes and diagrams of different magical creatures that they would have to learn by heart at a later date, Hazel spoke up.

"I'll find Jason, Frank and Lou, you guys clean up here. There is an order meeting in 10 minutes anyway."

The other two nodded, but the younger girl was already out the door. Sighing in defeat, they turned back to the mountain of papers, scooping as much as they could carry into their arms and checking to make sure that nothing was left behind.

Hazel ran as fast as she could up the stair way, needing to find the others quickly. They had been told not to let anyone but the order members and Hermione know that they were there, even the younger Weasley children did not know of their presence at the moment. More than anything however, Harry mustn't know. Reaching the top floor landing quickly, Hazel darted into the room they were currently sharing with Buckbeak the hippogriff, finding the others sprawled on the floor in a loose triangle.

Frank was surrounded by papers of his own, trying to figure out the best way to teach wizard children about , Mobile phones and Microwaves without actually having to take them into the school where the very magic in the air would make them utterly useless, while Lou was trying, and failing to channel her magic through the wand instead of her hands. She had never needed a conduit before, and it was really grating on her nerves trying to adapt to using one now.

Off to the side a little, Jason sat polishing his gladius, running through all the different move combinations he would be trying to teach in the new subject elective at Hogwarts, wincing slightly when he thought about all the different ways each one of them could go horribly, horribly wrong. After all, from what they had heard, wizard children were not used to having to do anything physical, or not much of it anyway. He and Reyna really did have a hard job ahead of them.

All three of them jumped however when the breathless daughter of Pluto bounded into the room, bending double to catch her breath before speaking.

"He's coming. Harry. In about 10 minutes. Get everything of yours up here and out of sight before he arrives. Come on, we're running out of time!"

This signalled the start of a mad dash in what looked to be the most deranged scavenger hunt that anyone had ever devised, making all of the adults chuckle in amusement as they saw the children dashing around, collecting Latin and Greek books out of strange corners and pulling armour out of hidden nooks. Finally, just as Frank was pulling the door to the attic shut behind him, they head the front door open and shut with a snap. The sound of rushing air could be heard as they all let out a collective sigh of relief, grinning like idiots at one another before falling to the ground in silent giggles about their situation.

On their arrival, Dumbledor had had the attic remodelled just for them until it looked like something that could not have fit inside the house bellow them in a million years. Over in the far corner a bed was made up for Buckbeak, which he was readily curled up in, crunching on ferrets. Across from him was a rack of weapons for them all to train with, and a wide open area in which to do so at the very back of the room, though they would have to keep all fights quiet and the use of powers was limited so as to remain hidden. A few mutilated dummies lay scattered around the place and, in one corner, 6 bed rolls lay in a neat line, 2 black, 2 purple, 1 red and the other a strange material that seemed to shift colours depending on the lighting or what the person inside felt like. As far as temporary camps on quests went, it wasn't half bad. The only down side was, if any of them wanted to leave, they needed to either shadow travel out with Nico or apparate with Lou, neither of which were particularly pleasant experiences.

"Its been way more than 10 minutes." Reyna stated stiffly, pulling herself to her feet once again. "Let's try Iris messaging into the meeting."

When all the others nodded, Lou pulled out a dachrama from her back pocket and, with a wave of her hand, summoned a rainbow in the middle of the room so that everyone could see it. For a second, it looked like the connection did not want to take, but then the image cleared, revealing the kitchen full of people.

Somewhere, someone screamed and the demigods nearly burst out laughing again, but the order members that had previously met them simply ignored the message, continuing on with their conversation.

"Nice of you to show up." Sneered the greasy haired, hook nosed man who seemed to be the centre of attention in the room at the time. From the descriptions of everyone they had been given earlier, the half-bloods assumed that this man must be Severus Snape, the potions master at Hogwarts. Apparently he was here giving top secret information on Voldermort's actions, and he didn't seem to like being interrupted in the middle of his speech, if his tone was anything to go by.

"As I was saying, it seems the Dark Lord has taken a specific interest in the department of Mysteries. There is a prophecy in particular he wants..." He shot the message a dark scowl when all the demigods groaned at this, deciding to ignore them and to simply carry on with his report. "…Concerning Harry Potter and himself. He believes that knowledge of its content will help him win the war."

"Excuse me sir," Nico twisted the last word with a sneer, having taken an instant disliking to this oily man, something that seemed to make a dark haired man at the other side of the room laugh in delight, "But we happen to know a lot about prophecies, having seen too many of them ourselves. They all have double meanings and often don't make sense until the events come to pass anyway. Even if this moldyshorts guy can get his hands on it, he probably won't be able to get anything out of it anyway, so why worry about it?"

It looked as though he was about to continue when the daughter of Hecate hit him hard over the head, silencing him as she growled back.

"Mortal prophecies are different zombie boy… they practically spell out what is going to happen and why, this is a big deal!"

Her comment seemed to make some of the order members they had never spoken to before uneasy, but she merely flipped her hair over one shoulder and ignored them, turning back to Dumbledore where he sat at the head of the table. Sighing, the old man raised a hand to cover his eyes.

"That being as it is, it would probably be prudent for everyone, bar our American visitors and Sirius of course, to take turns in guarding the department of mysteries where the prophecy currently resides."

"Its in the M.O.M?" A shocked Arthur Weasley put forwards, face paling slightly, and the sneer seemed to reappear on Snape's face.

"Yes. Billy, show them the maps."

Without a word, the eldest Weasley child pulled out a blue print that would not have looked out of place on the walls of the Athena cabin, laying it flat on the table so that everyone would be able to see the multitude of doors and squiggles that indicated walls.

It looked as though the greasy bat was about to start speaking again, but, before he could, there was the sound of a door creaking open at the top of the stairs. Through the crack, the demigods could just about make out a flash of green eyes and black hair that was so similar to Percy's that it was untrue, but then Moody swept a hand through the message, destroying the connection and the demigods found themselves staring at the wooden wall of the attic. Well… that went well.

B/N: naw, not many people tried the last question... did I make it too hard? Anyway, the question for this chapter is *drum roll*

What animal is Umbridge often compared to?