A/N: Okay, long time no see I know, and I have some really good reasons and some really bad ones for not updating, but let's not get into that now. Anyway, this chapter is for: Remuslupinlover50 with Kudos and cookies here for:

GinnySong

May a Chance

BookFreak

Guest (1)

Guest (2)

Fortflames12

Anomaly

HunterofArtemis

A Monochrome Symphony

8Lottie8

ShadowsOfATridentTattoo

Chapter 9

From the moment that they had stepped out of the safety of the magically warded shopping district, Jason had had the feeling that something was about to go horribly, horribly wrong. In a reflexive response to this, his hand tightened around the coin that hid his weapon, and his eyes began to compulsively scan the street around them, searching for danger. Moody would be proud.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he was the only one to be feeling this overwhelming sense of dread, meaning that the others were being less cautious, the abundance of protective borders making them complacent in a very dangerous manner. As it was, it was only a half yelled warning from the son of Jupiter that prevented Hazel, the member of their group closest to the seemingly harmless shop front, from having her neck caught in a strangle hold from what had formerly appeared to be a dumpy old lady with a blue knit hat.

As one, the demigods drew their weapons and fell into formation as though they had been training alongside each other for years instead of just a few days. Faced with the loose defensive position, the 3 old ladies that had been drawing closer stopped for a short moment, only to be replaced a fraction of a second later by a trio of evil looking women with double snake trunks for legs, putrid yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the faint drizzle that surrounded the battlefield and forked tongues that flicked out periodically to taste the air. The worst part of the new ensemble for Jason and his group however, was the fact that they were now decked out in full battle armour, spears and nets clasped in scaly claws.

Retiarius style fighters… the trickiest opponents to ever have to face in an arena… just what they needed right at this moment.

As the monsters continued to approach them, their pace the steady strut of those who knew they would be the victors before the fight had even begun, Nico fully revealed the stygian iron blade that he had had Lou partially conceal with her magic, using the surprised gasp of the demons to take a swing at the nearest one, only to miss and have to dance back to avoid the net that had been thrown in his direction by one of their other opponents. In the background, the largest of the creatures let out a low, hissing laugh.

"Pleassssse, with the doorssss of death open, we will not ssstay dead long. What do you hope to do with your little toys?"

With that, she sprang at Reyna who only just managed to deflect the spear that was aimed at her heart, surprised by the speed of the thing that looked like it could barely stand up, let alone move around freely. As if that was the signal to start, the other two immediately sprang into action, releasing an onslaught of attacks that the demigods were hard pressed to defend against whilst avoiding the completely oblivious civilians that seemed to meander past at just the wrong moment every time, something that the snake creatures were ruthlessly using to their advantage. Just what were these things?

Jason hadn't even realised that he had said that last part out loud until he heard a winded call from Nico as the son of Hades double teamed on of the monsters with Frank.

"Scythian Dracaena. They have mobility issues. Use it against them."

As he said this, the gothic boy dived down low, cutting his opponents legs (snakes?) out from under them just as Frank released a volley of arrows that had the screeching beast disappearing in a violent his and a shower of gold sand that flowed around Nico like some deranged kind of confetti. Jason was just about to make a comment about how the ghost king looked like he had been bathing in fairy dust when the slight shifting of the air currents told him of the net that was hurtling quickly towards his head. Right, fight now, mock the potentially most dangerous person here, later…

Straightening up from the crouch he had fallen into, the young preator stepped up beside his long-time partner and the two of them observed their opponent warily.

"Any ideas?"

"Not really."

"Brilliant!"

Inwardly cursing the entire situation to the very depths of Hades, he took a deep breath and began to channel as much lightning energy into his blade as he could, hoping that he would be able to stun the creature with it long enough for Reyna to come in with a save. Or, at least he hoped that would happen, otherwise this would hurt… a lot.

It took much longer than he had anticipated for him to create enough of an opening in the monster's guard for him to strike its metal chest plate, sending through it enough volts to stun an elephant, though it only seemed to phase it for a second before its eyes began to focus on him once again… and he was wide open.

Never before had he been so glad to hear the whistle of an arrow flying so close to his ear, but no sooner had he managed to regain his balance than a short cry had him spinning round again to face the last attacker. What he saw there made his blood run cold and he started running before he had even processed what it was he had seen. Hazel was laying there, completely unresponsive, either unconscious or dead, but it didn't matter as, right now, her opponent was advancing on her, spear raised, and he was too far away to help.

Amidst all the yelling, the tanned had that had lost its grip on the sword lying beside it twitched. Hazel was slowly waking up only to recognise her situation. Looking up with eyes filled with both fear and defiance, it looked like she intended to stare her death in the face, only for her to be forced to blink away the golden dust that fell in a cloud around her. In the place of her would be murderer, there now stood a fuming teen with an aura which seemed to make the very air around him flinch away in fear.

Jason made a mental note never to mess with Hazel when her brother was around.

As the relief and adrenalin crash started to wash over him, Jason began to survey the scene that they had left behind, absently noting that there was enough sand here to build a sand castle… and wasn't that an amusing thought… a castle made out of monster remains… that would be fun to kick down surely? Still lost in the slightly hysteric musings, he gathered up the trophies left behind by the monsters, a single scale each, and their little group hightailed it out of there, not willing to wait for the next group of monsters that came along to take a pot shot at them.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

With a loud crack and a flash of purple light (which probably wasn't necessary, but Lou had always had a flair for the dramatic) the 6 demigods appeared, panting, in their hidden room, each of them collapsing happily onto their respective bed rolls. Shopping be dammed for the present moment.

"Can you believe it? Of all the monsters we could have faced, it had to be the intelligent ones with Roman training… its like the fates are laughing at us or something."

Everyone looked over to where Hazel was batting the fussing hands of her older brother away, each of them finding amusement in the scene, but none of them caring to disagree with her statement. It really was like the fates just liked messing with them sometimes.

With a huff, Lou pushed herself up into a sitting position, pushing her bangs out of her eyes so that she could focus her bleary eyes on the son of Hades. It seemed as though transporting large groups was still taking its toll on her.

"What even were they Nico, and how the Hades did you recognise them so quickly?"

"Scythian Dracaena, basically, 50% snake, 50% woman… and 100% creepy. I had to fight a group of them last summer… not fun."

A gloomy atmosphere seemed to descend on the room at that, and, when he was looking for any possible thing that he could use as a distraction, Jason remembered the spoils that he had absently slipped into his pocket before he had run. Pulling them out again now, he watched how they had an almost prismatic sheen in the dim light of the attic.

"Well, were all safe now, and relatively unharmed. And the spoils from that fight were pretty good too… look, they're shiny."

There was a beat of silence that seemed to echo around the room before Frank threw a book at the son of Jupiter's head.

"Way to look on the bright side Sparky."

With that, the whole room cracked up laughing, the adrenaline highs still going strong, and Jason relaxed back onto his bed grinning madly. At least the tension from before had gone, even if he would be getting a nice new bruise on his rib for all of his charitable efforts.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

All of the demigods had been scattered around the room, each of them engaging in their own activities happened. A large crack had filled the air and the arrivals, two red haired teens who appeared to be some more of Molly and Arthur's children, found that they had an assortment of pointy objects either pointed at or pressed against them.

With a scowl, Jason pressed the golden blade of his dagger closer to the nearest ones neck and had to fight back the urge to growl. So far, only the Granger girl had been allowed to know of their presence, and she only knew them to be students that would be assisting with lessons at the school next year. However, these two had just arrived into a scene that could not be explained away as simple magic, especially as Nico had been in the midst of sparring with a group of skeletons that had yet to be dismissed. From the look in the twins' eyes, this was not something that they were going to overlook. Choking back a sigh, Jason clenched his eyes shut, it would probably be better if they just got this over with. Maybe having the support of some insiders would help them in the long run… maybe.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We could say the same to you."

Thankfully for the twins, Reyna chose that moment to step forwards, motioning for Jason to move back as she did so. It was a good thing too, he had just about had enough of things going wrong today, but he didn't think that Dumbledore would be too impressed with him if he killed some of the students…

"You were explicitly told not to come up here, and you were told this for a reason. Your mother may possibly have mentioned a risk to your health if you did decide to go exploring, but you ignored her. You broke the rules, you answer our questions. Sound fair?"

As she spoke, she drew the long knife she kept stored in her left boot and began cleaning her fingers with it, making a great show of letting he golden blade shine in the light as if to say 'disagree, I dare you.' All it took was for the twins to share a terrified look and their survival instincts kicked in.

"I'm Fred, and this is my brother George." The one Jason had threatened informed them weakly, his eyes never leaving the blade in the brunette's hand as she inspected her hand, looking for any more dirt to clean out.

"And what are you doing up here?"

Her voice was cold enough that even Jason shuddered at the tone, it brought up too many bad memories of punished soldiers back at camp. The daughter of Bellona could be particularly… creative when it came to punishment, and that voice always proceeded the more vindictive of her repertoire. With a slight shiver of fear, the other twin now spoke up, looking like he was about to pass out all the while.

"Fred dared me to…"

His voice trailed off and, like his brother, he flinched away as Reyna looked up once again. However, before she could start another tirade, Hazel stepped forwards, rolling her eyes at the drama queen that was her commanding officer.

"Oh, come on Reyna, stop scaring them. They're both harmless. Just get Lou to disarm them and then we can sort this whole thing out in a friendly, not life-threatening atmosphere. Jupiter knows, we've had enough of those today already!"

The twins were nodding behind her, seemingly pleading pathetically with their eyes to the extent that even Reyna caved after a short debate with herself. Sighing, she turned away and went to sit next to Jason where he was attempting (and failing) to meditate his stress away in the corner.

"Fine. Lou, disarm them, then we can talk. But they are both going to have to take an unbreakable vow to not reveal anything we tell them in here to anyone that doesn't already know unless we give them permission to. Is that acceptable?"

The tension eased at that, and everyone went to sit in a loose circle around the two seated members of their group, something that caused Frank to snicker something about 'story time' before his girlfriend hit him over the head.

"Now, tell me what you know about the Greek and Roman gods…."

A/N: There, it's done, finally. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sara has too much on, meaning that she is no longer beta-ing this story (if you would like to, please pm me) but the asking of the question fall to me today. Okay:

What is the name of Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter?