Heroes with Wands

Chapter 12

Ginny

Mum gathered the Order of the Pheonix at Sirius's old place. There was just enough room for all of us to gather at the kitchen table; Mum, Dad, Kingsley, Lupin, Tonks, Mad-eye Moody, Snape, Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Fred, George, myself, and the demigods, plus Hedge.

"Why are we here?" Snape asked in a bored tone.

"Severus, please," McGonagall said. "Don't be rude, now."

"It appears we have some sort of a problem," Mum said. She looked at the demigods. "These are our, um, guests. They're demigods."

"Demigods..." Snape thought for a moment, then his beady black eyes focused on Percy. "As in, half-human, half-god?"

"Yes, sir," Percy said. "My mother is a mortal, or muggle, from what Harry says, but my father is the God of the Sea, Poseidon. Or, erm, Neptune, but he prefers Poseidon."

"God of the Sea?" McGonagall said. Percy nodded. "Interesting."

"I'm Annabeth. My mother is the goddess of Battle Strategy and Wisdom, Athena," Annabeth said. "Jason's a child of Jupiter, the Roman King of the Gods. His sister Thalia was born of Jupiter's Greek form, Zeus."

Lupin raised his eyebrows. "Roman and Greek of the same blood? That's new."

"Yeah," Jason said. "It's a long story. Frank's son of the Roman god of war, Mars. Leo's a child of the Greek god of forge, Hephaestus. Hazel's a daughter of the Roman death god, Pluto. and Piper's the daughter of the goddess of love, Aphrodite."

"What about the blote eating the can?" asked Hagrid. "What's he doin' 'ere?"

"Watch it, buddy. Chuck Norris is my inspiration. You know what that means? BAM!" Hedge chewed on the can and grinned.

Piper gripped his arm. "Coach, stop talking." He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He closed his mouth and glared at her. "Thank you. Gods, you are so dramatic."

"Gleeson Hedge," Leo said, patting his friend on the back. "Or Coach Hedge, we just call him that. Gleeson's just wrong. He's a satyr, half-man, half-goat. My man! Uh, my, erm, goat, I mean."

"Oh!" Annabeth sat forwards a bit. "That reminds me. Chiron wants to speak with you. Mr. D, too, I think he's come home."

Home, she said. I think he's come home. They talk about camp like I would talk about the Burrow.

We watched her fish a Greek coin, a gold drachma, from her pocket. Hedge smashed his fist down on a water bottle. Annabeth threw the coin into the water.

"O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us Chiron and Dionysus at Camp Half-Blood."

A ripped image appeared in front of us. The other wizards gasped but remained still. Chiron and Mr. D sat at a table playing cards. They didn't seem to notice us.

Mr. D, or Dionysus, took a bottle of wine (Annabeth said he was the God of Wine) from the table and sighed. "Damn Zeus for cursing me. My father is nothing but cruel to me."

"Oh, Dionysus, please," Chiron said, chuckling. "He's not that bad." Dionysus muttered something and poured the wine into a goblet. The second it touched the glass, it turned to water.

"You know, the Christians have a guy that does this backwards," Dionysus said matter-of-factly. He looked up at the sky. "Hear that, Father? That's a god!"

Thunder rumbled in the sky. "Sorry, my Lord," Chiron said, kicking Dionysus with his front hoove. He noticed the Iris-message and his face broke out into a huge smile. "Annabeth! How lovely to see you all, children!"