Harry's heavy breathing had stopped, but his throat felt exceptionally dry after pale boy, err... Nico, had spoken.
Nico took a step forward to retrieve the sword from the floor as the wizard stumbled backward, falling into a damp pile of leaves. Nico chuckled, while flicking chunks of mud off of his stygian iron blade with distaste.
Harry sheepishly pushed himself back on his feet, whilst awkwardly replying, "Have we... uh... met before?"
Nico scowled, quickly bending down to retrieve his cloak as well, no longer attached to his shoulders, "Should we have?" Then he paused, and with narrow eyes hissed in irritation, "You must've been the one!"
"Excuse me?"
He rolled his eyes, wrapping his fingers around the hilt of his sword, "Harry Potter, right? Competing in the competition, or whatever it's suppose to be, this year?"
Harry nodded, as Nico's bitter expression turned more grim, if that even was possible,
"He's rising, Harry... And I think you know who I'm talking about..."
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"There's no need to hide, Ms. Chase. Come, let us see what the trouble is," Dumbledore held his wand in front of him, as Annabeth sheepishly took the Yankee's cap from off of her head. The three surprisingly ran at a fast speed towards where Crouch supposedly was.
However, once they made it to the forest, all they found was Viktor Krum, looking slightly dazed and rubbing his head.
"What happened?" Annabeth looked frantically around, "Is this some joke? Where's Harry?" In a moment of sheer panic, her mind jumped to conclusions. Have they failed their quest? Is he... dead?
Viktor shook his head, "He vaz vrunning zat way, chasing after zomeone just az I zad vwoken up." He pointed deeper into the woods, before murmuring, "He attacked me, Mr. Crouch. He vaz sitting down, zen jumped up and attacked me..."
Percy frowned, "What? Why would he do that? He seemed nice when-" He was interrupted by a glare from Annabeth. 'Don't say anything we don't need too,' she seemed to say.
Dumbledore quickly filled in the silence, "And did you happen to see... where Mr. Crouch had ran off to?" Viktor gloomily shook his head once more, wincing as he tenderly rubbed a purple bruise forming above his left eye, which must've been from Mr. Crouch's "attack."
The headmaster stood to face the two demigods, standing behind him, "Well then... Why don't you two see if Harry's alright?"
"Gladly," Annabeth replied, before the two sprinted deeper into the woods.
And the eerie, misty afternoon fog swallowed them whole.
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"What do you mean? Does this have something to do with the dreams?"
Di Angelo looked somewhat confused, "I've only sensed you one time... Hogsmeade," his face then formed into an angry expression, as he raised the sword threateningly to Harry's chest, "Have you been spying on me?"
Harry vigorously shook his head.
"Then what dreams are you talking about?" Nico talked through gritted teeth, as he took another step forward.
Harry eyed the sword with fear, holding his hands in the air as it was held inches away from his heart, "There w-were quite a few... But-but I didn't mean to, I-I swear!"
The tension softened lightly, as the tip of the sword lowered while Nico calmly held it to his side. Then, he began pacing in circles while muttering, "Bet it's some damn prophecy... now it's got me twisted up in it..." Harry took note of the grip on his sword tightening, as he shouted angrily, "Damn! Percy, what have you gotten yourself into now?"
"Percy?" Nico froze, as if noticing his mistake. Harry managed to gain some confidence, taking a step towards him, "You know Percy?" Nico opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by a frighteningly familiar voice.
"Harry! Harry are you alright?" A voice was heard in the distance, just as Annabeth emerged from the brush and into the clearing. She looked somewhat taken aback once noticing who he was talking to, "Nico? What are you doing here!?"
It wasn't an angry tone, but more in shock. Then, Annabeth Chase lunged forward and pulled the stranger into a hug. Harry stood there with his mouth agape, staring at the exchange between the two... acquaintances?... No, they were friends.
Then, almost a second later, someone else emerged into the clearing in the forest... And speak of the devil, it was Percy Jackson. Harry stared at the three, only thinking of one possible thing,
There's a lot of explaining to do.
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Percy did a double take, looking at the scene in front of him.
They were in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, gods know how far away from the castle, in the late evening. Nico, his cousin who was supposed to be at Camp, was currently being tackled into a hug by his girlfriend. At the same time, Harry had the look of utmost confusion on his face. It was pretty clear that he knew something was going on... But how he knew Nico previously was a question which hadn't been answered...
Then Harry's face turned towards him. And after many months of building a friendship with the person they were suppose to be protecting, the progress seemed to be crashing back down that very second... again.
Just proving his point, Harry spoke up, "What's going on?"
Nico managed to squirm away, no longer being trapped in the hug. He stood a few feet in front of Harry, as he venomously spat, "Care to be more specific?"
"How do you know each other?" Harry raised his wand, pointing it threateningly at Nico, "I-I saw you kill a ghost! You were the one that broke into the ministry!"
Annabeth and Percy raised an eyebrow, but didn't seemed that surprised at the news.
Then, Harry whirled around at the other two demigods, "And then there was you!"
"Me?" Percy took a step backwards, "Harry, what have I done?"
"Ron was right, wasn't he? He kept on telling me not to trust you... I-I didn't want to believe him... But with the past couple weeks with Hermione not saying a word about it... and-and this," he threw his hands up in the air with exasperation, obviously meaning their scenario right now, "He's starting to make sense..."
Annabeth held a hand in front of her, gesturing for him to lower his raised wand, "Harry..." she emphasized his name, as if scolding a child, "Harry, you can trust us. We're you're friends... If this is about the competition, you know you can always come to us." But Percy could tell Annabeth didn't have faith in her own words; they knew there wasn't any easy explanation for this.
"But it's not about the competition, is it!? You're not even students, are you?"
Harry quickly whirled around, facing Nico once more, who had tried to sneak closer from behind him... At the sight of the wand, Nico sulked, stuffing his hands in his pockets and walked next to Annabeth and Percy. Harry's breathing was shaky, as he faced the three demigods now huddled together in front of him.
There was a deafening silence, and finally, Harry could no longer take it anymore. He blurted out what he had been trying ask Percy about for months,
"I saw you during the Second Task!"
Percy's face paled, "W-what? Of course I was at the Second Task..." Harry's hand continued to tremble as he held his wand out in front of him. Annabeth didn't take her eyes off of the wizard's weapon, yet managed to in a single motion entwine her hand into Percy's in reassurance. But there wasn't much of it, with Harry's next words,
"You had a sword! Not a wand, a sword. And then,... there was the water... the same water which pushed me up onto the surface."
Nico muttered under his breath, "Really? Chiron said you were suppose to be undercover..." But nobody seemed to pay much attention to his comment.
"'Elemental magic?' That doesn't make any sense! Ludo Bagman didn't even seem to buy it!"
The four stood there motionless, in silence.
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Out of all the people to speak, Harry Potter didn't expect it to be Nico, the oddest out of the three in his opinion, "If you aren't going to say something, I will... There's something coming, and it's best there are no more secrets."
"What?" Annabeth turned towards her right to face him, "We've managed this far! We can make it."
"Yeah, yeah... but what's different this time, is because of the trap. Somebody's planning something specifically for the maze." Nico scratched the back of his neck, "I-I don't know what... but it's bad."
Percy threw his hands up in the air, "Besides, it's not like Harry's standing here right now and can hear everything we're saying, only causing him to positively know we're hiding some sort of secret."
Harry's cheeks grew red, as he sheepishly lowered his wand, "Then what is it?"
Percy sighed, before beginning to speak, "Well-"
"Wait! Ron and Hermione deserve to know too..." Harry chimed in, "Right? We can trust them."
Percy winced, "We may have already told Hermione..."
Nico buried his hands in his face, shaking his head in extreme disappointment.
At the same time, Harry shouted, "WHAT!? What did you tell Hermione that you couldn't tell me?"
Nico sighed, completely giving up with secrecy as he blurted out, "That there is no school! By Zeus, they don't even have magic!" He gestured towards Percy and Annabeth, before finally shouting out,
"We're demigods!"
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Word Count: 1,590