Disclaimer!

These characters do not belong to me nor do I make any money off this story. I am merely writing Fan Fiction. The characters belong to their respective author. I hope you enjoy Joining Forces.

Percy POV:

"Annabeth? Are you alright?" We left the Hall of Prophecies, retracing our steps back through each of the rooms we had gone in before. Besides the entrance we had come in the first time, I didn't know if there was another way to exit this underground lair. Nevertheless, Annabeth seemed distracted after we saw that final vision. Undoubtedly, it was different than the others, the core being it wasn't even a vision at all. Looking at her furrowed brows, I guess that's what she was thinking about too.

She gave a nod of her head. "There was something off about that orb. Not just the contents, but why would it be placed in the Hall of Prophecies? Seeing how the Ministry does things, I don't think they would randomly shove something there if it didn't match the category or if there wasn't a purpose itself." She gripped her fingers together as we continued walking. "There seems to have been research beforehand, did the ministry just disregard it? Doesn't seem like them..."

"I think the Ministry believes what it wants then disregards whatever they don't want. Remember when Voldemort first came back?" The next room was the Space Room. Generally, it was immersed in darkness, but floating around the room were brightly shining planets that seemed to be balls of light and fire and colour. Stepping in, I found myself floating upwards as well. Amused, I took my steps with a bounce, arms waving about.

Annabeth floated upwards too. Nonetheless, her brows were still knitted together as she spoke, the pace quickening. "Even so, things don't just seem to make sense. It's like a bunch of ill-fitting puzzle pieces that fit together, but don't make a clear picture." Before I knew it, I had my hands on her arms. My eyes staring into hers. "Percy?" I always loved being next to her. It's always with Annabeth that I feel everything will be alright. It was a core fact that I always knew, something that wouldn't change no matter the situation. After a short moment, I hugged her. Soon, I felt her returning the embrace. She chuckled. "I should stop thinking so much, shouldn't I?"

"Take some breaks," I encouraged. "but you thinking is what makes you Annabeth. Just have confidence we can get through this." For a while, it was just me and her. Surrounded by shining planets floating the expanse of darkness: her hands on mine and mine on hers. When we broke the embrace, Annabeth gave me a smile. "I always have faith."

"Well, isn't that cute?" A shrill voice echoed through the corners to the room. "You two are truly hopeless romantics. I don't know whether I should laugh or puke." Suddenly, a bright red light flashed by, both of us narrowly dodging it; Annabeth floating to the left and me to the right. Following the light back to the source, I gritted my teeth together, drawing out my wand. Bellatrix Lestrange. What was this crazy lady doing here? I don't think I'm a very good fighter while floating either with magic or with Riptide, nevertheless, that wasn't the main concern right now. Spells, hexes, jinxes and curses flew across the room. The planets in the air trembled with the force, some of them being knocked back and forth at the cause of the fight. "What the hell is she doing here?" Annabeth grunted, trying to head back down to the floor and not getting blasted into a dozen pieces in the process. "I get how we snuck in, but her?"

"She's a dark wizard, she probably got some tricks up her sleeve."

"The ministry has really poor security."

Though, arriving on solid ground didn't do the battle much better. Soon, we were in the Brain Room, the shelves all full of brains soaked in a green substance, tendrils whipping around as we fought along the rows. At one point, a spell knocked down a couple of containers. The brains crawled on the ground at an alarming speed, its tendrils extending out and lashing at anything in its vicinity. Bellatrix's face gleamed, knocking down another row of brains towards us. Tentacles grabbed at our legs, more crashing glass echoing after the other. Not a minute later, it was likely that every container in the room was broken. The ministry isn't going to like this.

"Okay enough of magic," Annabeth said. "I'm going back to our roots." She immediately brought out a dagger, slashing at the tendrils at a quick pace. She turned to me, Riptide having already transformed from a pen to a gleaming sword in my hands. "Right by your side." Having a sword in my hand was a strange comfort. On one hand, I can't say that a lot of situation where I did hold Riptide were ones I rather return to, but it was still a familiar feeling in comparison to the piece of wood I had been adjusting to.

Seeing that we were handling the situation rather well, especially now that we were using swords, but still could pull out our wands at the side Bellatrix seemed to have decided to focus on other things, promptly running off to lead us into another chase. "Don't mind her," Annabeth said, after finally we finally freed ourselves. "She'll just lead us around. We might as well leave."

"Still, she's probably here for something. It wouldn't be good if we let her just finish her task."

Annabeth held in a breath before heading to follow Bellatrix. Still, the look on her face was grim. An immense feel of apprehension filled us both.

The Department of Mysteries was incredibly large, but it wasn't too long until we found Bellatrix, partially because of some unexpected help. "Harry?" I exclaimed. Bellatrix had just been knocked back, but she was back on her feet incredibly soon. I could tell she was furious and incredibly irked at her situation, but she still chose to head the other way as Hermione and Ron's spells followed after Harry's. Giving them all a glance over, I asked "What are you all doing here?" Next to me, Annabeth's facial expression turned more gloomy. The three of them were usually quite nosy, but nothing good usually happened when they came around. Still, with the five of us, unless something really bad happened, I doubt we'd have much of a problem with battling. Then again...I think back to the sudden occurrences when magic suddenly stopped working. My grip on Riptide tightened.

"We could ask you the same thing," Harry returned. "The Department of Mysteries isn't usually the hotspot people come here for, unless you have other purposes."

Bellatrix being captured, put at wandtip and swordtip didn't ease the mood by much. Nevertheless, we could recognize that some things had more priority than others. "She's not going to talk," Hermione noted. Her face somewhat pale at Bellatrix, Harry in contrast almost seemed red as if there was a large bottle of anger that he was having trouble keeping in.

"Then perhaps we should address the elephant in the room," Ron took a look at Hermione who gave him a nod. "Is this what you had to do? Come to the Ministry of Magic?"

"Well, Bellatrix is here..." I started. "And you are as well."

"We were told that you'd be here," Ron continued. "You could have told us beforehand. I thought there was more trust between us. We can help, if it wasn't for us, how long would defeating Bellatrix take?"

"What if she was immune to magic?" Annabeth brought out, eyes still trained on Bellatrix. "There's a lot could have gone wrong." There was a lot that wasn't said in the middle, their gazes locked to our weapons. Harry gave a sarcastic nod, "Ah, you always have swords on hand. Makes sense, you come to Hogwarts the same year all this happens—"

"I don't think anything was normal before we came either." I pointed out.

"You know what he means," Hermione objected. "We're not that foolish, there's something you're here for, isn't there?"

Annabeth and I made eye contact for a quick moment.

"Hahaha..." From the ground, Bellatrix slowly lifted her head, her arms tensing around her bonds. Black hair moved away from her forehead revealing fanatic eyes. "It's been a while hasn't it? So many months since you've all been here. He...has been here even more, everything's coming full circle." Her mouth spread into a lop-sided grin, teeth showing.

"The associate? He came from you're from?" Harry gave us a glance. "This is the replacement for Voldemort?"

"Replace my lord!? Never!" Bellatrix lashed. "Don't you dare even soil his name! You aren't allowed to call him by his name!"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle." Harry mocked. "Voldemort. He-who-is-dead." At this Bellatrix's lips curled into a sickening grin, she was still panting, but she had to begin to laugh. Laughed and laughed and laughed as she looked up, the stars flickering across the dark blanket that was the sky. I took a step back when she faced us again. "He-who-is-dead. He who is dead!" Another set of cackling. "You will never kill him, Harry Potter. You are not strong enough, not worthy for a task like that." She took a breath and inhaled, closing her eyes as if she were in pure bliss. "Clinging. Not completely alive, no, but not dead. Never will he be dead."

"Do you mean-" Percy began.

"He's come back," Bellatrix cried, and at that moment everything else seemed quiet. Bellatrix laughed spreading her arms in crazed glee. "My lord has already returned!"

I'm starting to juggle a bunch of things, but I'm going to try and write some fanfic in my free time. I hope everyone's doing well :)