Third-Person PoV:
Ron nearly fell down the stairs a mess of gangly limbs and red hair; he clutched onto the handrail and carried on his quick pace down the corridor. He had woken up late again, a huff of hair left his mouth as he turned the corner, Hermione wouldn't have let him sleep in so late, she'd have stormed up the stairs, her hair frizzled like a halo around her head and shake him awake-
The fond smile on his face promptly faded only to be replaced with a deep scowl and a curl of the lips; Ron stomped over to the doors of the Great Hall and quickly plopped himself next to Harry.
"Sorry for sleeping in again, mate; I think I should try seeing one of them muggle alarms wou-" the redhead paused in dishing himself some bacon and toast when he looked into Hermione's brown eyes. Her usually wild hair was almost glossy and fell in messy, loose curls-wait was that some mascara she was wearing?
"Good morning Ronald." Her smile was tight as she took a sip of the hot drink that let off steam in her mug.
"W-what are you doing here?"
"This is the Gryffindor table, last time I checked, there was no ban on allowing me to sit here."
"Uhh, morning Ron. You sleep well?" Harry's eyes switched between the two of them as the tension seemed to rise.
"I was." He spooned some ketchup onto his hastily made bacon sandwich. "So when did you start talking with her again? You seem to have forgotten how quickly she betrayed us."
"Hermione never betrayed us, Ron; she was right, you know. I think we all need to sit down with each other and really listen to wha-"
"Sit down and listen? She never listens to us-"
"I know I didn't, but neither did you, Ron; the only time you really seemed to listen was whenever I was giving you answers to the homework."
The redhead's mouth opened and closed for a few seconds, "N-no, I didn't, I did listen to you..."
"I think we were all a bit rubbish at listening to each other, we-we could all learn to listen better together?" Harry gave them both a shy smile, his words offering an olive branch.
Ron's lips pressed together and fixed his eyes on the two opposite him, his eyes softened-
A screech sounded from the Ravenclaw table as a figure landed on the table. You couldn't quite make out what they looked like, they were blurry, and the body seemed to be whipped by an invisible wind.
"Marquess Leo Valdez, I have a letter for you from her Majesty Queen Calypso."
"Thank you for taking the time to deliver this to me; I hope your journey back is safe." The figure nodded before it rose through the air and seemingly disappeared.
"Do you have nothing better to do than stare?" Leo hunched his shoulders, glancing around the hall the letter clutched tightly in his hands.
The students slowly went back to their conversations, breakfast and rushed homework.
"Queen Calypso? Who is that? And why is she sending letters to a Marquess?" Hermione muttered.
"Never heard of her, I thought there were only three Queen's, the ones married to the three kings."
"There's probably another wizarding royalty out there that is less talked of, maybe even muggle royalty." Hermione considered Ron's words and nodded.
"You're right, we've found out more about the American Royal Family with them staying with us than their whole time interacting with the wizarding world, I wouldn't be surprised if there's even more than the wizarding world doesn't know about."
"Do you think they're courting?" Lavender giggled as she wiggled in the space next to Hermione.
"Of course they are, you can't tell me that's not a boy in love." They followed Parvati's dreamy look in Leo's direction, he was still reading the letter, but his face was soft. A gentle smile had spread across his lips, and his cheeks dusted with a blush, his eyes crinkled further as he seemed to laugh about something.
"It's probably for political reasons; they're royalty, so it's arranged." Ron took a large bite out of his sandwich, some of the bacon bulged out of the sides, and ketchup dripped down onto his plate, Parvati scrunched up her face beside him.
"If it were for political reasons, then she'd be courting one of the Prince's or Princesses'." They all hummed in agreement.
"They'd still be getting connections between the families regardless." Lavender shrugged as she bit into a slice of French toast. "So are you three...talking now?"
They exchanged looks between them, Ron shrugged his shoulders.
"We're gonna try and build a healthier friendship this time."
"You better still come to our weekly sleepovers instead of sneaking around the castle at night, Hermione." Parvati huffed. A blush coated the brunette's cheeks, and she giggled.
"Oh no, I wouldn't miss it for the world, Parvati."
"You have sleepovers now?" Ron frowned and stared at her.
"Yes. I think I just needed to have a bit more patience and open-mindedness when talking with Lavender and Parvati, it is nice to have more friends who are girls. Would you believe that all I need were the right hair products to tame my mane?" She waved a vague hand towards the loose curls. "I always thought that no one would take me seriously if I were more feminine, but there's nothing wrong with liking to do my hair occasionally or dress up every now and then. If people can't take me seriously because I'm wearing a bit of makeup, then that's on them, not me, at least I know how much I'm worth, and that's all that matters."
"Awww, that's so sweet Hermione."
"Yeah, besides, everyone knows that you're one of the smartest in our year."
"If Cedella doesn't hurry, she won't be able to have breakfast before class starts." Hermione pursed her lips and glanced over to the doors of the Great Hall, she then looked over at the Slytherin table and caught the eyes of Draco. He looked around her and raised an eyebrow at her, she lifted her shoulders and shook her head, the blond frowned and tapped his boyfriend on the shoulder.
"Are you friends with Draco Malfoy as well?" The redhead's voice was stern, his fingers losing blood from the grip they had on the edge of the table.
"Kind of-"
"It's complicated-"
"He actually has great fashion sense-"
"His face is perfect to try new looks on-"
Their voices overlapped as they threw their reasons at Ronald, which only made his face redden further, and if he were able to, steam would surely come out of his nose.
"D-do you not even remember what he's done to you? Wha-what he's said to you and about you since first you?! Is that suddenly forgiven-"
"I haven't forgiven him, Ronald! I know what he's done, I'll never forget the times t-that I've- he's, regardless my decision is not your choice. I can see that he's changing, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt; our friendship is more about exchanging information than anything, we've only been talking for a month, yet I've learnt so much more about the Wizarding World than I have from books and my time as a witch."
"Yeah, I kinda agree with her, mate, I'm barely on speaking terms with Draco, but he's been teaching me about the rights I have as technically being a Lord once I'm of age. I should probably do all the paperwork during the Christmas holidays at Gringotts to know what I will have access to and the roles and responsibilities I will have to do. I honestly don't know why no one told me. I knew my parents were kind of big in the Wizarding World, but I didn't think it was that big."
"So I should forget everything he's done and forgive him and start being mates with him and practice Quidditch every Saturday with him?"
"No Ron, what you decide to do is up to you. You don't owe him your forgiveness or anything. You can decide to give him a chance to prove that he's trying to change and to accept responsibility for his previous actions. Or choose not to and just never associate with him again."
"...I dunno, Hermione. I can never forget."
"That's fine, Ron; you don't have to make a decision now."
After Dinner, The Demigod's Common Room...
Soft chatter tickled her ears as she started to come back to the waking world; she didn't quite remember her dream. It was just numbing darkness that had treated her in the land of sleep.
"Good evening." Salem rumbled on his place on top of the ball that Cedella had curled into.
"It's evening? It would be best if you had woken me now. I have to catch up." She groaned as she pushed herself up, the dragon still clinging to her.
"Not dragon, and Siren boy took notes for you. The not-humans are going to bring us food soon."
Cedella paused in the licking of her teeth. "Why do you say that?" Her gaze slowly circulated the room. Piper caught her looking and gave her a wave, she sent back a wave and a small smile.
"They don't smell fully human; they're half-human. Can't pin a scent on what the other half is."
The door opened, and Will walked in with Nico, Draco and Blaise trailing behind him. "Ahhh, good you're awake, I wasn't sure if I should be worried."
"Don't worry about it. They can keep their secrets; we all have them, don't we? Besides, we do not want to be on their bad side," Cedella hissed under her breath to Salem, who rumbled in defeat and slung himself around her neck.
"Did I have a meltdown again?" It was harder to speak the words than converse in Gorseltongue after meltdowns; they spilt from her mouth sluggishly.
"You did, your sister told me that you used to harm yourself when you stimmed, but it would seem that you've gotten back into the habit."
Draco pursed his lips as he sat on the arm of the chair, a bowl of porridge balanced in his lap.
"Where?" Blaise asked, sitting on the other side and running a finger across the top of the dragons head, a pleased purr released from his chest.
"My arms and wrists."
"You've scratched your face too."
"I did?"
"You did, it wasn't too deep, but nothing a potion could fix. I would prefer you to be awake when you take it, though, you also bit Percy."
"Shit! I-uhh it wasn't deep, right?"
"It drew blood, but he's healed it all up, water under the bridge." Snickers arose in the room as a brief smirk greeted Nico's lips at his own joke.
"How are you feeling? You still a bit tired?"
"A little bit, my body just aches, really."
"You haven't eaten all day, and you barely ate yesterday, have some porridge." Draco placed the porridge in her lap.
"But my arms are limpy! I can't eat that by myself." Cedella threw her head back, her lips pursed into a pout as she frowned at Draco.
"Yeah, Dragon, all she needs is tender love and care. How cruel." Blaise tutted at his boyfriend as he took the bowl from his girlfriend's lap and filled the spoon half-full, and brought it to Cedella's mouth. She eagerly ate it off and motioned for Blaise to give her more.
"How you both annoy me so," Draco grumbled under his breath.
At No. 12 Grimmauld Place...
Remus sighed as he walked into the house, dragging his feet along the welcome mat and hanging his coat on the coat rack to his left. It had been nice to go to the muggle library, the muggles being none the wiser of the beast that was hidden deep inside him and moved around him without a care in the world. He doubt's that he'll even be able to go to the library at the Ministry without some sort of restriction being put on what books he plans to take out and how many. Perhaps he should try Flourish and Blotts; maybe they'd be kinder to him.
"Ahhh, Remus, come in have a cup of tea and some biscuits." Molly smiled wearily at him from the entrance of the kitchen. He hadn't even realised that his feet had taken him there.
"Thank you, Molly, something to drink would greatly appreciate it." A sigh escaped his mouth as he turned into the kitchen to find Sirius frowned over a stack of books with a scroll of parchment covered in his usual scraggly writing. The escaped convict's eyebrows pushed together further as his teeth worried the tip of the feather that was in his hand.
"Never did I think I'd see the day that Sirius Orion Black would willingly go through books."
"Well, it's not like I have anything better to do than research what I can on the American's."
"Where did you get those books from?" The werewolf settled down onto one of the chairs opposite his fellow Gryffindor.
"My library, most of the books are on dark magic, but I'm wondering if maybe their magic could be linked to anything. Like maybe they do some sort of blood ritual for those who are not genetically part of the family to be welcomed in, I don't imagine it would be the blood ritual done for magical adoptions we're all familiar with."
"You think they all use dark magic?"
"Maybe...No...I dunno Moony. It's possible The Olympia Family used dark magic on the di Angelo and Levesque kids to keep them alive. They look older from the last photo's taken of them and different. If they were immortal, they'd still look the same." Sirius slid over the photos of Nico and Hazel of what they had seen when Lady Wyvern displayed to the order and then another photo of Nico, Bianca and their mother and a school photo of Hazel. In the older pictures, they looked younger, a sort of innocence was seen in their faces and eyes. The newer images had a certain hardness to them, their eyes sharper, shoulders taut, faces like they'd been etched from stone.
"Then...necromancy? Perhaps The Olympia Family even froze them in time. We have no way to know if it was like the ceremony that Harry saw Voldemort do."
Molly placed two cups of tea and a plate of biscuits in front of the two of them.
"Drink some tea, your research won't run away from you, and some rest might even make some things a bit clearer to look at again."
"Thank you, Molly."
"I'll be finishing off that room upstairs, Sirius; Merlin knows how there hasn't been another infestation of Doxies in there." Sirius nodded to the redhead as she walked out of the room.
"I do think I may have something that could tie in with the Royal Family."
"What did you find?"
Remus pulled out his own notes.
"Last year, from August 16th to August 18th, the city of Manhattan appears to have a blackout. For some unexplainable reason, no one went in, and no one went out. The muggles all woke up to find the city in chaos; some of the statues had moved somehow during this blackout like they were alive or robots across the whole city. Many bridges were destroyed, and two of the rivers were miraculously clean. I got very little footage, though... the muggles seemed to ignore the footage even though it was right there to be used as evidence..." Remus trailed off, his eyes drifted to the ceiling.
"Remus? Hey. Hey! Remus!"
"Yes?! Oh, sorry, Sirius, what is it?"
"You blanked out, you alright?"
"...Not quite, I didn't think I'd see children...killing each other..."
"What?"
"There wasn't much footage; there are glimpses. Like the cameras were able to overcome what was causing them to not work for a few seconds before they cut off again. There was clearly a war going on. I saw children killing children Padfoot. And these-these monsters that these children would kill and they just disappeared an-and if the children were unlucky then the monsters would kill them, and some of those monsters would eat their bodies Padfoot!" Remus clutched his head; his green eyes focused on the table, and pupils constricted.
"Hey, hey Remus. Come on, look at me." Sirius raced around the table and placed two hands on his friend's shoulders.
"They ate them, Padfoot... Why would children go to war against each other... They ate them..."
"...I wish I knew. Children should never be forced to hurt each other, let alone kill. There is something seriously wrong with that family."
Sirius sighed and removed his hands from Remus' shoulders, his grey eyes soaked in the hunched figure before him. An arm was placed around Remus as another gently moved his head to rest against his chest, Remus sucked in a breath as a hand was stroked through his hair.
"D-does this help?" Sirius' voice was barely above a whisper.
"Yes. It's nice." Sirius hummed and continued to pet his head.
Remus wrapped his arms around his waist and leaned further into the hold, the raven-haired man stilled for a few seconds before his body tilted closer to the man in his arms. Silence stretched out between them. Their tea cooling on the table.
"I wonder if that's why they left Europe."
"Hmm."
I remember reading something, can't remember for the life of me where and when, but I remember something about the Olympia Family migrating to America in hopes to escape some sort of evil or monster that was after them. But would their children side with the monsters that were after their family? Wouldn't the monsters just turn on them when they've killed off the opposing side?"
"They did say that there was a Civil War. Honestly, I doubt we'd even get to that point in what we uncover about that family. I'd rather know what we're up against if it all goes to shit and the worse happens."
"What would be the worst outcome?"
"They're probably letting the War here play out. Wait until there's a winning side and then side with them. It allows them to not waste any resources and not face any consequences."
Remus groaned into Sirius' shirt.
"And at the way it's looking for us right now we may potentially lose this war if the Ministry doesn't start opening their eyes."
Reality settled into their bones, suddenly feeling too heavy for their skin and muscles. Two of their friends had been murdered, betrayed by their friend which had left a boy orphaned shy of just a year living in the world. One of them had been falsely accused and sentenced to prison with an unfair trial while the other spent his years believing that three of his friends were dead and the other having betrayed them. Only to find out later that the real traitor was alive and the falsely accused convict on the path of revenge. The orphan had been forced to stay with abusive relatives, completely against the wishes of his deceased mother.
And there was nothing they could do about it. Or any of the situation really.
"Maybe we should look into Greek magic. Possibly an older type. It is rumoured that they got their powerful magic from the gods themselves." Sirius grumbled.
"I think that would be a much better start than what we've chosen to begin looking at."
Can't believe I actually updated😍😍, uni has been hard but fun but not enough time to get the creative gears movingWith the Battles of Manhattan and the Battle of the Labyrinth, I do imagine that they did kill demigods (both sides), I don't think it was just the monsters that killed demigods like Percy and Beckendorf tried to blow up a cruise ship that had demigods on it so.... ummm attempted/successful murder?? (now that I think about it couldn't Percy have just told the boat to tip over or sink?). Rick basically just confirmed that they weren't THAT shy to murk the other side so therefore they did either maim or kill each other on both sides💕💕 thanks for coming to my TedTalk