Percy Jackson and the Order of the Phoenix (SEQUEL)

PROLOGUE

Over summer, Annabeth had been quite busy drowning herself in schoolwork. And by the time the lengthy, hot, humid days seemed to fade away, she was proud to say that most of her summer courses kept her on track. It took many, many hours of work - but out of sheer dedication and a plethora of all-nighters - she completed a school year's worth of college education.

She sighed, rubbing her bloodshot eyes, and yawned. Through narrowed, squinted eyes, she tried her best to decipher the writing on her glowing computer screen. But to no avail, whether from dyslexia or lack of sleep, was she able to continue. With great disappointment, she closed the laptop and shoved it to the foot of her bed drowsily.

The college in New Rome had just recently introduced electronics into their education system. It had shocked her at first, but apparently demigods had just made a breakthrough in upcoming modern technology. After Leo had came back, he showed great interest in the "electronics issue," and declared that it had to be solved.

And it was.

He and a group of ingenious individuals from a combination of Hephaestus, Vulcan, and Athena ancestry alike, had been working for months on the project. Annabeth was proud to say that - even though she no longer had Daedalus' laptop - she took as many thorough notes as possible on the contents inside, and had personally helped with them cracking how the monsters were even able to track demigods through electronics in the first place.

But that was at the end of June, only a few days after they had arrived back from Hogwarts. Hermes had helped "sponsor" the production of demi-phones and other demi-tronics (which is what they have been accustomed to calling it) quickly after. They were still hard to get, with a combination of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold being the center of their newly-found technology, but it was enough for a few individuals to get their hands on.

Percy, being proclaimed a two-time hero to the Greek and Roman world, was actually gifted one of the first prototypes, along with Annabeth and the rest of the seven.

Some of her siblings (Malcolm in particular) had noticed how she missed Daedalus' old laptop, and even called in a few favors with Cabin 9. They engraved the same Delta symbol on the lid of her new laptop as a surprise. Thus, bringing her to the month July, where she was at this very moment.

At 4:02 A.M. in the morning. Yay.

At least she had somewhat made it through this year education-wise. Now she only had two problems left... at least at this moment:

First off, she still had to finish her work on Olympus. Sure, it now looked extravagantly better, and she had actually received a few compliments on her own work from the gods, but after being absent for a year, she had some catching up to do.

Secondly, Percy was still acting strange.

He never was the one to be worried and stressed, it was usually her. That's what had been bugging her like crazy. But whenever she would ask what the Hades was he so depressed about, he'd always say something along the lines of "Nothing, really," or "You shouldn't have to worry about it,"

By Zeus, she was going to wring his neck if he doesn't say what it is soon. They hadn't gone through Tartarus just for him to act gloomy all of a sudden. What could this be all about?

It started at Hogwarts, so therefore, something involving the wizards must've been at the root of the problem.

Thinking of the magical world caused her eyes to drift towards the wall, the wall which her bunk bed was against in the Athena Cabin. After their most recent adventure, she had a few Daily Prophet newspaper clippings tacked onto the wall. Mostly they were cut-out photos of Percy and Harry, being the only two which were champions on the Triwizard - well, technically there were four schools and five champions, but the name still stuck - their photos were the only magical ones which she could salvage from Rita's biased articles.

Even though that witch was a persnickety hag in Annabeth's opinion, her photographer still managed to get some nice pictures.

One photo from the "Weighing of the Wands" article was her favorite. Harry and Percy stood side-by-side, and the two of them had the most befuddled expression on their face after a blinding flash from the camera, obviously caught by surprise. It always gave her a smile as the two of them squinted in the black-and-white photo. Every once in a while the photo-Percy would awkwardly wave, and Harry would take off his glasses to wipe their lenses with the sleeves of his Hogwarts robes.

There were also a few Ravenclaw and Gryffindor banners meshed into the "collage" of souvenirs as well. A little Gryffindor flag was a gift from Ron, which he had given her quite awkwardly in attempt to make amends, and the Ravenclaw merchandise was from Hogsmeade. She found a little shop mostly of posters for Quidditch teams, with Hogwarts House-themed items in the corner, but after the Sorting Hat proclaiming she was a Ravenclaw, she decided to take pride in her apparent house.

Thalia had thought it was ridiculous, but she didn't care. Percy was nowhere to be seen now that she recalled, probably with Harry raiding Honeyduke's for snacks.

Now she was getting distracted. What was she thinking about again? She was... was getting... so... so very tired...

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'Tap tap'

'Tap tap'

'Tap tap'

Annabeth's closed eyes were shut tightly in attempt to block out the noise. She stirred.

'Tap tap'

'Tap tap'

"Holy Hera!" another demigod shouted. At the sound of her voice, Annabeth assumed it to be Melody. By that time, Annabeth had given up on the hope to fall asleep again. Slowly, ever-so slowly, she blinked the sleepiness out of her eyes.

By that time Melody had tossed the covers of her own bed aside, and nearly jumped in excitement as she went to open the window.

Annabeth had pushed herself up, sitting on her bed. She willed herself to begin to stand. Quite awkwardly she might add, with her left foot being asleep.

The window opened with minor difficulty as the twelve year old poked her head out to see what had caused the noise.

Annabeth was only mildly aware of Malcolm's annoyance of being woken up, but didn't bother to acknowledge her siblings currently due to what had caught her attention.

Melody's arm was outstretched as an extremely furry barn owl perched onto her forearm. Her sister grinned, almost beaming as their mother's sacred animal rested on her.

Annabeth wasn't too fond however, glancing at what the owl had arrived with. In one of the creature's sharply-talon feet was a roll of paper. A newspaper to be more precise.

She yanked it out of the bird's hands, and not bothering to pay it the normal wage for delivering the Daily Prophet, she swatted it away. Being a Daughter of Athena seemed to give her leeway. If it was possible, the owl looked sheepish as it fluttered out the window.

Now, Annabeth may have tried her best to distance herself from the wizarding world, but she still had enough ties to receive their newspaper.

Today's version wasn't what she expected, however. Because today's headline started out with "New Undesirable No 2." The photo was what had caught her eye. It was from July, during the Third Task. Annabeth had recognized the scene well. But it wasn't concentrated in Cedric's body... no...

The photo was of Nico di Angelo's face.

Turns out he did become a criminal.

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WORD COUNT: 1,293