Half-Bloods and Hogwarts...

Chapter 18

Percy's POV:

Nico is understandably surprised by my little announcement. He scowls and growls and generally looks scary for a few minuets. Tell me something new. Hazel taps him on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. I don't know what she said but he calms down. She whispers some more and he actually smiles! Then he scowls again and speaks, "Fine, I'll help you. Not because I like you though. Annabeth's always been nice to me so I owe her a favor." He looks like he's just eaten something very sour. But he agreed. So all is well. If he hadn't grumbled I'd have been worried!

"So, what's the plan, little cousin?" I give him a grin.

He scowls, "Ground rules, do not, I repeat, DO NOT call me little cousin. I am older than you! No hugs, no snarky comments," I cant help notice that he looks at Harry for that one, "And no assuming I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I owe Annabeth a favor, that's all." He can say whatever he wants so long as he helps us out.

"Sure, sure. So what's the plan Nico?"

"We'll go to the underworld and get rid of you wizard."

"Um, how do we get to the underworld?" Asks Harry suspiciously. I almost roll my eyes, but remember my first quest and how little I knew.

So instead I say, "The entrance via Charon's ferry is in L.A, but Orpheus's path in in Central Park, New York." At their confused looks I add, "Ancient Greek and Roman stuff moves around with the heart of the west. Like, Olympus is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. Mount Othrys is on Mt. Tamalpais in California. The Labyrinth was under all of the United States until it was destroyed a couple of years ago." Unfortunately my explanation seems to only make them more confused, "Look at it this way. Nothing is where you think it should be, alright?"

"But I thought the Empire State Building only had-" Hermione starts.

"102 floors. Yeah, for mortals that's it. But we're special." I grin again.

"That's not possible! The Empire State Building's foundation could not possibly hold up 600 floors. And there are 8 million people there, someone would notice! And buildings and mountains cant move! Its not possible!" Hermione looks like she's about to hyperventilate.

"At Hogwarts staircases move."

"Yes but their supposed to do that!" She practically sobs.

"So are these places. If they didn't move we'd probably have to live in the ancient lands, which are super dangerous for Half-Bloods. Look Hermione, its just as real as magic. So if your a mortal its false. But if your one of us its life."

She stands still for a long minute. Its a really really really long minute if you have ADHD. I'm about to explode when she speaks up, "Okay, what are we waiting for? Lets get to L.A." Nico is about to Shadow Travel when I grab his arm, "No Shadow travel, remember? These guys can apperate us. Much less tiring. Just grab someone's arm." I lean in and whisper in his ear, "Just not Ron's. He kind of sucks at it."

"Oy! I heard that!" Ron shouts indigently. "And I'm not sure I believe your little Underworld/L.A thingymabob."

"Suit yourself." I shrug indifferently.

"I don't believe gods even exist!"

That makes me a little mad, "Can you imagine, just for a minute, never dying? Never fading? Staying just as you are for all eternity? Whether people believe in you or not? You can chose to believe or not to believe Ron, but you'd better stop talking so disrespectfully before one of them incinerates you. And before you ask, yes they will do that."

"That's how my mom died. Well, kind of. Zeus was angry when he heard my dad, Hades, hadn't turned his demigod children over to Camp Half-Blood by the designated date. When he heard about me and Bianca he hit the hotel we were at with his lightning bolt. Me and Bianca survived. Our Mother didn't." Wow, Nico's doing show and tell. Harry and Hermione look horrified. Ron looks so guilty and sorry. He opens his mouth as if to say something but then shuts it. That's good. He knows about loss and that nothing you say can make it better.

I decide that he needs a little more though, "Yeah. When I was twelve I found out I was a demigod. My Sayter protector, Grover, showed up at my mom and I's beach house and there was a chase between us and the minotaur. Then Zeus hit our car with a bolt of lightning. As we ran up the hill towards camp the minotaur grabbed my mom. She erupted in a shower of golden sparks. Grover was unconscious and the monster was still after us. I broke off one of its horns and stabbed it but it was to late for my mom. The me, Grover and Annabeth went to the underworld to clear my name of supposedly stealing Zeus's master bolt. It turned out that Hades had taken my mom captive because he thought I'd stolen his symbol of power. Just for the record it wasn't me. Anyways, Hades tried to kill me. Then Ares tried to kill me. Then when Zeus heard I'd retrieved his lightning bolt he rewarded me by not killing me. Hades returned my mom because even the Lord of the Dead pays his debts. Of course you should always get an oath on the river Styx, shouldn't you Nico?" I know that little ending was unnecessary but whatever. Ron's jaw drops but he shows surprising intuition, sensing the tension.

"Well I guess we'd better get going?" He asks uncertainly. Yeah, Ron is smarter than we give him credit for.

"Ok, we're going to the D.A Recording studios in L.A. Do not, under any circumstance, go in without Nico. Otherwise you'll end up on a one way trip." I look them over for a minute. "Are you sure all three of you want to go? We really only need one of you. And its dangerous. Before we came along it was pretty much unheard of to go to the Underworld and come back alive."

Harry's chin goes up, "I'm coming."

"And you'll need someone with brains to keep you in line." Hermione says defiantly.

"I want to meet the girl patient enough to put up with you!" Ron grins, "I wouldn't miss seeing the mythological center of the world!"

"If you think I would be stupid enough to take you three buffoons to the deepest pits of hell your nuts." Nico rolls his eyes.

"So you think you or Percy could go there? Because you do know that no mortal hero has ever gone to Tartarus and livid to tell the tail." Oh good Hermione is back to normal.

"I don't think we can. I know we can."

"Yeah, been there, done that." I add.

"Oh." She squeaks in a very small voice.

"Well, lets get this party started!" I grin. And with that I grab Harry's arm and we disappear.

A/N

Hey peoples! 1188 words not counting this! My longest ever! It took me ages to write. Anyway, do you like it? Don't be an invisible reader! Sorry about the weirdish ending. Believe it or not I was planning on writing them getting to the Underworld in this chapter. But then I saw how long it already was! I wasn't going to update this weekend but you can thank randomly re-scheduled swim meets. It was supposed to snow but was actually really warm. Please comment, vote and follow. Goodbye Random Strangers!