James Potter and the Half Blood Hallway

Twenty - One

The boys stared in shock.
"Whoa," said Al, great amusement showing on his face. "James you really did just insult a god....you are so dead." James rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," said James, changing the subject. "What's the task?"
"Kids these days," muttered Apollo, looking more like his usual grinning and annoying self. "No questions asked, just 'what's the task!' You know how much easier the Torsion War would've been if the half bloods just listened like that?"
"And then Hera completely whips your memory and sends you to a camp full of Romans where you could get beat into a freaking pulp," muttered Percy. Thunder crackled in the sky.
"She started it," Percy muttered.
"Oh!" said Apollo suddenly. "That reminds me I'm on a time limit."
"How much more time do we have?" asked Madam Pomphrey.
"Hmm....actually, the time limit was up about twelve minutes ago."  
"Oh." Trelawney snorted, causing Apollo to glare at her.

"Get on with it then," said Neville. "We don't all have to end up a pile of ashes!"
"But immortal," Apollo chided.
"Just, please, tell them the task," muttered McGonagall.
"Task?"
"The one in the prophecy?" said Scorpius.
"Oh right!"
"Oh gods!" muttered Percy.
"I'm sorry?" said Slughorn. "I'm a bit confused. What's going on here?"
"On with the task!" Snape yelled. "If things moved any slower we'll have been passed by a fatuous dawdler!"
"Right!" said Apollo. "The task. You have to watch after the pictures."
"Really?" said James. "That's all? But the prophecy sounds so evil!"
"Maybe it is." Apollo winked, as if to say 'It is.'

"That seems so easy," muttered Scorpius.
"It's never that easy," said Dumbledore's painting.
"Time to go!" said Apollo. "Oh! One more thing. The Cyclops and Mr. Underwood are coming soon."
"Grover and Tyson?" said Percy, eyes widened.
"Yeah," said Apollo. "They should be here right about.....now. Avert your eyes."

This time James didn't look as the bright light appeared and then disappeared again. Percy grinned.
"Come on guys," he said to James, Al, and Scorpius. "Time for you to meet my family." 

~***~                                         ~***~                                    ~***~

When Lou got the IM her heart skipped a few beats. It was her brother Jack Pents. He was only eighteen. Lou would be seventeen soon, though. By wizarding laws he had been an adult for over a year now, she would be next year. How in the name of the gods he managed to get a job as an Aurar was beyond her. Perhaps, their mom had pulled some strings.
Nonetheless, there they were. She hadn't actually expected him to call her. They hadn't spoken in years. Not since the thing with Alabaster....

"You wanted to talk?" said Jack, ripping her from her thoughts. "You look distracted. Something wrong?" There was. She had wanted to speak with him about the prophecies, to learn anything he knew about the Potters, Weasleys, or Malfoys, but as soon as she stepped foot in his office something had told her to stop. Something like a warning, a cold feeling, a sense of danger, which was the same feeling she had now.

"Yes..." Lou hesitated. " How....how are things in..."
"Our other world?" Jack supplied. Lou nodded, deciding she was just being paranoid. Jacks shrugged.
"Okay I guess. Heard there was a prophecy." Lou nodded. There was one of those awkward pauses they so often had.
"Why don't you come back to camp? We can help each other figure it out." He shook his head.
"You know I can't do that. For two reasons, and one of those reasons being I'm not aloud back in there ever again."
"But things worked out for -"
"No."

His voice was cold, distant. Lou looked away. It wasn't just that he wasn't aloud back in, or that he was afraid of the wizarding world finding out about Camp Half - Blood, it was that he didn't want to come back. He didn't want to see his old friends. He didn't want to see his siblings. He hated them. He hated himself. He hated the gods, but not as much as he hated the titans and giants. He hated everything and everyone. He was as bitter and broken as the son of Hades.

"Fine..." Lou said quietly. "Whatever." She ran her hand through the Iris Message before he had the change to say anything.

~***~                                     ~***~                                 ~***~

Sally had a dream. Not like a demigod dream of coarse. No, this was just a regular old mortal dream, though with an intensity that made it seem realistic.

She was walking on a beach with Poseidon. They were happy, but then Paul showed up from the middle of now where, handing her flowers. Poseidon then handed her a bocce of beautiful underwater flowers.
Somehow, Paul had gotten a unicycle and was ridding around perfectly until he crashed into a car. Poseidon had the key. (Sally wasn't sure where he'd gotten them from either)

"Let's go eat!"

Sally saw herself now, sitting between Poseidon and Paul, laughing and joking as if they weren't just competing for her hand in marriage.

Poseidon parked the car in the parking lot of Burger King. They walked inside and ordered cheeseburgers that blown up x3000. The strangest thing? Hades was the cashier.
"Don't forget the tax!" Hades told them as he handed them their food.
As they sat down to eat, Hermes barged into the bank - yes the scenery changed to a bank -  with a pistil in one hand and a trash bag in the other.

" This is a robbery!" shouted the god of thieves. "Give me the money and no one gets hurt!" Sally was again in first person mode. Poseidon and Paul were gone. This is the part with the real intensity.

She turned to press the button under the counter, as she was banker. Dream Sally didn't know it was Hermes. In fact, only several moments after she had woken did she realize it was Hermes.

When Sally pushed the button Dionysus came strolling in, wine class in hand, as a disco ball lowered down from the ceiling. Suddenly, she was dancing with all twelve Olympians. Hera had a mean twerk. Dionysus kept handing off drinks. Dream Sally was as drunk as ever. Hephaestus had mad a mechanical bull ride. Sally was taking her turn. She managed to stay on for a little while, then she fell off.

Sally jolted awake. A grin of laughter snuck its way onto her lips. Paul was still asleep beside her. She slowly got up, as if not to disturb him.
In the kitchen, she brought out a bottle of blue liquid. She smiled at the label, which read Monster Energy.
"No more energy drinks before bed," she told herself.