---> Annabeth's POV <----
During breakfast, Dumbledore made many grim announcements. He explained everything that had gone on: Dawn and Isabell being the murderers, the kidnapping of Susan Bones, Nyx taking control of Dawn, and the scary black mist in Ravenclaw Tower.
The Ravenclaws had made a full recovery, but they were still jumpy. Drew seemed fine too, just really mad about her makeup and hair. I suspected that she had dunked her dress in the lake or the baths or something, because it was soaking wet at the bottom.
Dumbledore told us that the DADA and Mythology classes were to be taken seriously so the students could learn how to defend themselves.
l stared around the room, making a note to pick out the most unattentive or misbehaved students so I could keep them in line. And also tell Percy to try to keep them in line. He tends to just let the pupils run wild.
Hermione was really upset about all the bad news. "I came back to Hogwarts so I could earn my N.E.W.T.S.! Don't tell me I have to wait another year until I can apply for a good job!"
Ron looked at Harry, "I don't think I want to come back another year. N.E.W.T.S. or no N.E.W.T.S."
"Me too," Harry said. "Unless defeating Voldemort isn't enough to get me a job as an Auror."
"What are you going to do, Neville?" Ron asked.
Neville looked shocked to be addressed, "Um, an Auror. Maybe."
"Oh," Ron said. "I'm sure you'll be great...I think."
Hermione shot Ron a withering look, "Of course Neville will be great. Why wouldn't he? Have you forgotten about how he killed Nagini?"
"Oh, of course not. I remember."
"Neville has been working hard to get our points up," Hermione said, taking out a textbook so she could read while she ate. "We are well below Slytherins at the moment."
"Because you refuse to cheat and give us a bunch of points," Ron mumbled.
"Ron, that's academic dishonesty," Hermione chided.
I glanced at the hourglasses. Miraculously, Slytherins had shot from zero emeralds to about four hundred. I suspected that the prefects and Heads were cheating. Gryffindor had about three hundred, and Ravenclaw was slowly creeping up with no one noticing. Hufflepuff, unfortunately, had only a hundred and fifty.
Poor Hufflepuffs. I decided to help the Hufflepuffs as much as I could. There was strength in underestimation.
***
In DADA, we had the students do stretches and exercises because aside from the Quidditch players, they were seriously behind in terms of strength and stamina.
Drew didn't show up, and Draco told me that she had stolen his broom and was currently setting trees on fire in the Dark Forest.
I facepalmed, "Jason, you'd better go keep an eye on her."
Jason brightened, excited by the notion of getting away from all the whiny children, "Sure, as long as Piper comes with me."
I waved them off, and went back to teaching the class.
"Butts down!" Percy yelled. "Proper push-ups people!"
"Are we going to be doing anything else?" Seamus whined. "This is boring."
"Next class is hexes," I told him. "And in a few weeks, if we deem you ready, we'll be teaching you how to use weapons."
The class snapped to attention. "Weapons?" Parvati asked. "As in...swords?"
I nodded, and the students gasped all at once.
"Isn't that dangerous?" someone asked.
"That's sort of the point," I told him.
"So punny, Annabeth," Leo said, rolling his eyes.
"Shut up Valdez," I commanded. "Everyone—yes, you too Leo—start doing jumping jacks!"
"What are jumping jacks? Jacks don't jump!" Pansy complained.
"Well jump, Parkinson," Percy said. "And I'll call you Jack. Then it'll be true."
Pansy screamed in indignation, "Jack is a Muggle name!"
"So is Pansy. You shouldn't be that offended."
She seemed to be having a seizure/heart attack from being severely offended.
Percy rolled his eyes, "Breathe Pansy. Breathe." Then he looked genuinely concerned and frightened, "No really, please don't faint."
After school, Hermione ran up to us, "Guess what? I heard that the Minister—AH!" she suddenly stood up straight, her hair flying back. "Minister!"
Kingsley Shacklebolt raised his eyebrows at her, "Hello Miss Granger." His eyes briefly looked over us demigods, "You are the demigods from the prophecy?"
I nodded, "Yes, sir." At the same time Thalia said, "Duh."
Hermione gave her a horrified look as if she had just tossed a baby off Olympus. "He's the Minister of Magic!" she whisper-screamed.
"It's quite all right," Kingsley said. "You're all going to eat dinner without the Headmaster and a few teachers today. We're having a meeting, and we decided it's better for me to come here than the other way around."
DRACO'S POV <---
I missed having duels with Potter so much that once classes were over, I actually used some of my precious time to go find him.
Annabeth wouldn't approve, but meh, who cares. I can do what I want.
And now that I knew I was a son of Hades, hopefully Potter will know who his superiors are. I eventually found him and Poor Weasley already arguing with someone.
Ah geez, I thought disappointedly, someone beat me to it. I wanted to be first.
I complained some more to myself.
Right now, the Golden Duo turned out to be feuding with Drew Getaway. No surprise there, she's involved in 90% of the fights at Hogwarts. One time I saw her sprint out of her dorm so she could catch a fight.
Lol, get it? It's like "catch a flight," but—er, never mind. Stop thinking to yourself, Draco.
I seemed to be getting more weird after hanging out with Percy all the time.
I forced myself to get serious as I went up to them.
"Why would you ask something like that?" Potty-face demanded to Drew.
"Would you answer the question you DIMWADS?!" Drew yelled back. She still had the permanent makeup and hairdo, but she still managed to pull off the I'm going to throw a brick at you look.
"Oh, I'll tell you you vile, evil Slytherin," Ron fumed. "That was Parseltongue you just said. And it means open."
"Oh THANKS A BUNCH," Drew shouted. "Took you a full ten minutes to look under all that dust in your head to find that information!"
I was about to agree heartily with Drew, then stopped myself, "What are you lot arguing about?"
Drew pivoted and gave Ron a backwards kick in the knee to prevent him from talking. "I lied to Leo okay? And I lied to Annabeth. I did hear a woman talking in a dream. And the lady told me that if I found the right mirror in the right bathroom, I could say open in Parseltongue and something would help me."
I blinked a little, because that information was really sudden, like a slap to the face would be sudden. To prove my point, Drew slapped me across the face, "Are you deaf?"
I glared at her, "My face is insured."
"That's good news, because if I break it I can break it again. Exactly how many times can your insured face be fixed?"
Pottery snickered, and Drew managed to kick him in the stomach without looking back.
"No really," I frowned at her. "You can shatter Potter's ribs like pottery as much as you wish, but don't break my face."
Drew was about to retort, but Pottery Pot cleared his throat, "Don't kick me, but you just told us that a lady told you to open the Chamber of Secrets."
"We need to tell someone," Weasley said. He glared daggers at Drew, "Why didn't you ask about this earlier?"
Drew scowled, "And now you're telling me we should have argued earlier. I didn't say anything because Wilby lied and told me that he already told Dumbledore. He was still under the Love Potion, obviously. If I knew he was lying, I would have told. Honest."
"Honest," Ron repeated, sounding like he didn't believe her one bit. "Okay."
"We'd better check it out first," Harry said, sounding eager.
I wasn't sure, "We should tell someone where we're going first."
Toilet Potty gave me a withering look like I wasn't allowed to talk. "Professor Dumbledore has a meeting right now. With the other teachers and the Minister. We can't interrupt something like that."
"Well we should tell somebody before we run off to the Chamber. What if we die? Nobody would be able to bury me right. That's not good."
"Who flipping cares if we die?" Drew snapped. "Let's go!"
"I'm not kidding," I said seriously, "we should tell somebody."
Ron couldn't resist, "Scared you'll injure your beautiful face, Ferret Face?"
I tried not to make a rude gesture, "I'm glad you find my face beautiful."
"He's terrified all right," Drew said. This time I actually moved to slap her, but reminded myself that I shouldn't make her hate me anymore than I had to.
"I'm sure you're just as scared as you were when you faced me in our first duel."
"I wasn't scared at the time! I was annoyed at that blasted Lockhart for not—"
"Why isn't your House symbol a chicken?"
"Why isn't your House symbol Voldemort?"
"OH FOR HADES' SAKE! I am not on Voldemort's side. And since you're so eager to not tell anyone where we're going, that's what we'll do. You'll see the consquences later."
"Fine," P. Otter snapped. "But I'm not saving your life another time, Malfoy."
"And I'm not going to save yours again."
"You've never saved Harry's life!" Ron argued.
"I did, and it's a long story," I said simply. "So now we're even. Let's skedaddle. Death awaits."
***
"Is this even a good idea?" Ron asked suddenly. "I mean, we could be releasing something."
"Wonderful," Drew said. "Another Netvor? Or maybe even the regenerated Basilisk!"
I frowned at her enthusiasm, "You're a Muggle-born, the Basilisk would target you."
"Actually no, I'm..." she suddenly stopped, probably not wanting to say that she was the daughter of the love goddess.
"We're here," Potty said, opening the door to a row of potties.
Moaning Myrtle was nowhere in sight, she must have been swimming around the ocean or something.
Potter went up to a sink, the one with the snake engraved on the tap.
Drew was about to say something, probably the word to open the Chamber, but I snapped, "Do not say anything Getaway. We should try to figure out what's inside first."
Drew rolled her eyes but didn't say anything to argue.
Weasley pulled something out of his bag. "Something by Fred and George. They replicated some properties of Mad-Eye's eye."
It wasn't an eyeball, thankfully. Just a piece of glass with a gold rim. He held it to his eye and looked at the ground under the sink. "It's pretty dark, there's nothing moving that I can see, but that doesn't say much."
"My sneakoscope's not doing anything," Potty offered.
I stared at him, "You carry a sneakoscope around with you?"
"Why not?" he asked defensively.
"With all the students cheating in school, wouldn't it light up all the time? Honestly, you're so stupid—"
Potter gave him a malevolent glare, "It's always been accurate, and it's never lit up for anything minor like lying about homework assignments. Really, there are two Slytherins here and it's not lighting up."
He had a point. "Fine," I gritted my teeth. "How big of a range does it have?"
The Chosen One had the nerve to look smug, "Admitting we need my sneakoscope now?"
"Answer the question Potty Head."
"The range is about twenty meters."
It was my turn to be smug, "Which doesn't mean much."
"It means enough to say that there isn't a huge spirit occupying the Chamber," Ron countered.
Drew wrinkled her nose, "I unfortunately cannot contribute anything to this. We've done enough, can't we open it now?"
"Why are you so eager?" I growled. "It could be dangerous." I tried Homenum Revelio, which revealed human presence. I detected nothing, but there could still be someone far away.
"Well there can't be anything Dark right?" Drew asked. "Filch probably searched this place. Anything really bad would be detected even from here."
I tried to think of something else to try, and I could tell the Golden Duo was trying too. We came up with nothing.
"Alright," I sighed. "Somebody open it."
Ron snickered, "You wanted to be the Heir of Slytherin, yet you're the only one here who doesn't know how to open it."
"Shut up!" I snapped. "Just do it."
"You do it, Potter," Drew said. "I don't want to embarass myself making those hissing noises again."
"No," Ron said, "you should do it because you're a snake."
"I know I am," Drew said, not even the slightest bit offended. "And I'll bite you if you don't do it. Go on."
Potter sighed and made a few hissing sounds. I swear I saw spittle.
Immediately, the sink sank out of sight, revealing a pipe big enough for even Crabbe or Goyle to step through. I sighed, wishing they were here with me.
We crawled for a little, then reached a large corridor. Potter again spoke Parseltongue to open the entrance (and also to spit on it a little).
I wasn't exactly thrilled to see that the Chamber was pretty dark.
"What time is it?" I inquired. My voice echoed around the Chamber in a eerie way.
"About five or so," Drew responded. "Why?"
"Just wanted to know if it's nightfall yet."
"Oh." For the first time, she looked like she was regretting coming here.
We stopped in front of the colossal statue of Salazar Slytherin. The Basilisk had not regenerated, and the white bones of its skeleton pointed upwards, as if warning us to go back up.
"So there's nothing here," I said. "Perhaps whatever was here is gone? Or—"
"Or the lady was tricking me," Drew finished. "I hate being tricked."
"If she was tricking you, that means there's something here. There can't be nothing. Let's poke around."
They didn't find anything.
Drew was immensely disappointed, "I thought we were going to fight something!"
Ron lost his temper, "Stop being so keen on getting yourself into dangerous situations!"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT LIFE IS SO BORING!!"
"Life isn't boring," Harry grumbled. "It's impossible to get bored with life if you're a witch."
"We should get back," I sighed. "If there was anything here, it's gone now."
We were already three quarters to the exit when a deafening grinding sound made us freeze in our tracks.
Salazar's mouth was opening.
Potter's eyes were getting wide like thirty carat diamonds (which I have seen a lot of). "Another Basilisk?"
"No, you dimwad," Drew said, "unless the first one had a kid with Vol—"
Potter elbowed her, hard. "Don't finish that! You're scaring me."
"You better be scared," a voice said.
We jumped a mile. A black-haired boy around sixteen was dropping down from Salazar's mouth. Another blond teenager came down after him.
The second boy glared at us, "You people are sure loud."
The first thing I noticed was their accent, "You're American."
"And you're British," the first boy said. He glared at us, but something about his glare was weird. I couldn't figure out why from so far away. He continued, "I assume you're not here to discus plans on how to take down this school?"
"What?!" Ron cried.
He ignored Ron and gazed at Drew, "Are you Dawn or her sister?"
Drew blinked, "Drew."
He looked disappointed.
We went closer, and I squinted at the first boy, "I feel like I know you."
He snorted, "I doubt it British boy."
Both boys had worn T-shirts and jeans. The second guy had golden blond hair, and had a scrunched up face like he squinted a lot. And there was no way to put this nicely, but he was short. He was at least ten inches shorter than Leo. He had a Stygian Iron sword with a Celestial Bronze hilt strapped to his belt, which at least made him look slightly more intimidating.
The black-haired boy had slight Asian features, a slim build, and an identicle sword in his hand.
But what creeped us out the most was his face. I found out why his glare was so strange.
One eye was fake. It whizzed around in his socket, just like—
"Moody's eye!" Harry shouted, completely and utterly outraged. "Where did you get that?"
"Moody?" the teenager asked mildly, "I was told it belonged to an Alastor, but whatever."
"Why are you here?" the blond wanted to know. His hand was slowly reaching for his sword.
I considered busting out our weapons and fighting. Against these two, I bet we'd win, but what if there were more people? I decided that before we engaged in a battle to the death, we should at least figure out what why the two boys were here first.
I was about to say something, but Drew beat me to it, "Were we bothering you? We just came to take some Basilisk teeth for potions. They're prety useful." To our amazement, Drew pulled a tooth out of her pocket. That girl sure likes weird souvenirs. I wouldn't be surprised if her idea of souvenirs were bloody knuckles and broken bones.
"Then why do you only have one?" he asked suspiciously. Of course, with the eye, he had X-ray vision. Totally unfair.
"We only need one," Drew replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I had to admire how well she made the two boys look stupid. "One's enough for a lot of potions."
The blond squinted and looked her up and down. Before he could say anything Drew asked innocently, "Why are you trying to take down this school?" She put the razor sharp tooth back inside her pocket like it was a rock she found on the beach. "I won't tell anyone what you say." She smiled, "I promise."
I knew she fully planned on breaking that promise, but the two boys didn't know that. Unluckily, the first boy's face lit up, the telltale sign that he had gotten an evil idea. He faked reluctance, "OK. But you have to swear that you never saw us. No matter what we tell you, swear on the River Styx that you didn't see us."
Bellatrix and my stepdad's training allowed me to instantly see how cleverly the boy had worded it. Once Drew made the oath, she'd meet a face worse than death.
Before she could thoughtlessly make the vow, I slapped my hand over her Mudblood mouth. "Drew, you are such an idiot. You would have died if you made that oath."
The two boys narrowed their eyes at us. The black-haired boy's fake electric blue eye glared menacingly at them. "Demigod. You're a half-blood aren't you?"
I released Drew, pulled my wand out of my pocket, and fished out a Celestial Bronze dagger strapped under my pant leg. "You bet I am. You're looking at Draco Malfoy, hero of the Great Prophecy. You demigods as well?"
The blond boy drew his sword, his face twisting into a scowl, "The name's Michael Yew."
The other boy spun his sword in an arrogant way, "Since we're doing introductions, I'm Ethan Nakamura."