PERCY

We almost lost Leo forever in the hordes of running and screaming students. He was cackling like a madman – like, pick any moment that the Joker's laugh exceeded three seconds in any Batman movie or show and that's what he sounded like: deranged and completely high on the freedom of destruction.

Hazel managed to grab the back of his collar and haul him away from the main doors though. As soon as he was close enough I shook him by the shoulders.

"You can audition for the next inevitable Batman reboot when we're not on a magical quest to kill a dark wizard!" I yelled. "Snap out of it, man!"

His giggling slowed to chuckles, to hiccupping, to almost passing right out on me.

"Never… again," he muttered. "I'll fight Gaea, the Giants, and Snake-shorts tomorrow if it meant never more exams. Ever."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Leo they weren't that-"

He put a finger on her lips, making a shushing noise. "They've taken over your mind, Annabeth. Just believe in the power of explosions and they won't have a hold on your anymore. You can be free from the paper devil."

I let Leo drop to the floor, where he splayed out like a starfish, staring at the enchanted ceiling. I saw Hermione and Ron approach out of the corner of my eye, followed by a pale and worried looking Harry. We made eye contact and I nodded to him.

"Guys," I said, "Voldemort's got Sirius."

There was immediate, tense silence. Leo sat up on the flagstones.

"Way to cushion the blow, Jackson," Nico sniped. I held up my hands in defence.

"Well how would you do it, di Angelo?" I asked. Nico scowled and I poked my tongue out.

"Percy," Jason interrupted, "what do you mean? Did you have another dream?"

Annabeth gave me a reproachful look, and I realised that she thought I'd fallen asleep during the exam. I waved my hands at her.

"No no no!" I objected. "Harry did."

Eyes turned to the black haired wizard. Annabeth didn't even hound him, he looked panicked and tired.

"Tell us what happened, Harry," Piper said. I couldn't detect any charmspeak in her voice, but Harry's shoulders slumped gratefully.

"I've been having these dreams…" he began.

"How long?" Hazel asked. Harry looked away.

"All year," he murmured.

"And you didn't tell any of us?" Jason said. Harry looked up at me and answered:

"Not explicitly."

There was silence for a moment before Piper nudged him. "Can you tell us now?"

Harry shook his head, his expression turning steely, and he started towards the now empty corridor outside the Great Hall.

"We can't waste time," he said, pace picking up until he was almost running. "It's just like with Mr Weasley – I have to save him."

The reminder of Mr Weasley's attacked made both Nico and I jerk in surprise. Hermione and Ron were already going after Harry, Hermione yelling pleas for Harry to just stop for a second and listen.

"He said Mr Weasley," Nico mused.

"Could it be the snake corridor?" I asked. "The same one we were in? Harry's been dreaming about that place all year?"

"That alone could have serious psychological effects-" Annabeth started, but Piper just shoved her towards the door, grabbing her hand and running, Hazel in pursuit.

"Never mind that now!" the daughter of Aphrodite called. "We have to catch up before they do something stupid without us!"

"I'll get Thalia," Jason announced, summoning winds to shoot him out of the Hall, like a canonballer at a circus.

"Show off," I muttered, going after our friends the old fashion way, Nico and Frank, with Leo tucked awkwardly under his arm, right behind me, all of us ignoring the protesting of the son of Hephaestus.

There were raised voices coming from the right so I veered that way, only to be just in time to catch the tail end of Ron's cloak thwipping around the far end corner, heading upwards towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower room.

"Harry!" I yelled. "Ron! Hermione! Hang on!"

But they didn't hear us, or if they did they ignored it. I suspected it was didn't hear, because they wouldn't leave us behind on purpose. Piper, Annabeth and Hazel were just ahead of us, shouting after the other three as well. We took off again, Frank dropping Leo onto his own two feet as he saw exactly how many flights of stairs he'd have to carry the elfish boy up if he didn't.

A thousand hours and about half the castle later, we stopped again, panting, outside Umbridge's office door.

"Oh no," Leo said, holding up his hands. "Nuh uh. Not doing it. They want to die, good for them, but Leo ain't goin' in that hellhole."

"Oh yes you are-"

"Guys – she's coming!"

Nico cut Frank off in his reprimanding of Leo to point down the hallway towards where a pink, slightly singed blob of smoking anger and student decrees was marching, coming this way.

"Nico!" Leo hissed. "Hide us!"

"How am I supposed to hide us!" Nico snapped back. Leo waved his arms in the air desperately.

"Shadows, Zombie Boy! Make us one with the wall, or something, but do it!"

Nico raised his hands, flicking his fingers and concentrating. Frank peered around the corner again to see Umbridge, closer than ever.

"Where're the girls?" he asked worriedly. I froze, thinking about Annabeth and how they were closer to Harry, Ron and Hermione than we were, and how they were probably already inside the hag's office.

"Oh no," I whispered. "No no no."

It was too late. Nico's shadow wall was up, obscuring and hiding us from Umbridge as she turned the corner on one pointed heel, storming to her door. She flung it open, and I caught a glimpse of curled blond hair before it flashed away.

"That you are!" Umbridge accentuated, fury falling off her in almost tangible waves that you could probably surf on if you were determined.

"Oh sh-"

Frank covered Leo's mouth before he could finish cursing.

I was trying to think, think, think of a plan that could save my friends from the glamorised version of the troll that lives under bridges and eats people, bedazzling their cave home with bones of their victims and making wigs out of the hair of the dead while she cleaned her maw with a pick made of literal teeth – a literal toothpick –

Not helping one iota.

"Alright guys, I've got a plan."

"I hope your plan's factored in two Grace's and a Malfoy," Nico told me, and I almost asked him what he meant. But then I got the answer before I could even open my mouth.

Jason was flying down the corridor, almost grazing the ceiling, with Thalia dangling from his arms, her expression scrunched up in a mixture of terror and anger. Her bow and arrow were in her hands but she was having trouble aiming, as their assailant was behind them, shooting stunning and binding spells with merciless consistency.

Malfoy cackled gleefully as one jet of light hit Jason's calf, making his leg jerk up and collide with the rock roof just inches above him. Jason set his jaw and swerved as the second spell rebounded off the place where he'd just been. I silently willed them to get just to where we were, at least, then I could jump out, tackle Malfoy, and maybe Jason and Thalia could get away.

I didn't count of that little rat having a small amount of magical talent and some common sense.

The next binding curse hit Jason square in the chest and he cried out in surprise.

"Thalia!" he yelled, before he dropped her. She hit the ground in a roll, coming up on her knees, arrow and bow already out in front of her. She had the shoulder of Malfoy's robe pinned to the wall in seconds before rushing towards her brother. Snake-like ropes were swirling up his entire body, holding him to the ground fast. I could hear more footsteps coming from the same direction, and dread filled my gut.

"Get Grace!" Malfoy shrieked, trying to work the arrow out of his robes without tearing them. "On the floor. Crabbe!"

"Thalia!" Jason shouted as Crabbe and Goyle hauled him up. "Find Percy and Frank! Leo and Nico too! Anyone for back-up – we're gonna need it!"

"Jason!"

Malfoy, down from the wall, levelled his wand at Thalia, and recommenced shooting spell after spell. She ducked and rolled, free-running across the side wall to avoid jets of light that took chunks of rock from beneath her feet.

You know that saying? Hindsight has 20/20 vision, or something? In hindsight, what I shouldn't have done was leap out and bowl Malfoy over. Maybe I needed prophetic contact lenses or something, to know when doing a specific thing was a bad idea on forty levels of existence, but rushing in blind was more my thing, as a rule.

"Percy!" Frank came out after me, effectively discovering the both of us in front of Umbridge's squad, or whatever they were. Nico let down the shadow wall, muttering under his breath something that sounded like:

"Make a shadow cover, Nico. We need to hide, Nico. I'm going to jump out like the Seaweed Head I am and expose us, Nico."

"Our friends were in danger, Nico," I mimicked right back. He shrugged agreement, glancing over my shoulder.

Back to hindsight, yeah? Well, I found myself wishing I'd waited a couple of seconds before being brash and leaping out, because if I had, I wouldn't have ended up lying on top of Draco Malfoy in front of the entire Inquisitorial Squad, who'd just come around the end of the corridor with Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom held aggressively by multiple arms and in painful looking positions.

We stared at each other for a while before Umbridge's door burst open, and Malfoy squealed like a rat caught in a spring trap as the pink freak stepped out. She pointed her wand at Jason, still burrito-ed in ropes. Her expression had mellowed from outright murder to honeyed homicide. Like, she'll kill you and torture your lifeless body, then put that season's latest hair fashion in to pin back your fringe or something.

"Mr's Valdez, Jackson, di Angelo, Zhang and Grace," she said, voice silky and deadly, reminding me of a snake I'd seen slithering over colourful rocks at the zoo. Her eyes shifted to Thalia. "And you."

Thalia redirected her arrow point to train on Umbridge.

"Wand away from my brother," she ordered, and I got the keen sense that the words 'I will lightning your ass' were heavily implied. Umbridge flicked her wand in response, but instead of dropping it, she muttered something, and Jason was suddenly being dragged along the ground by some invisible force onto to be dumped at the Headmistresses feet.

"We gotta to rescue Cinderella from the Ugly Step Mother," Leo whispered to me. It took considerable effort not to laugh out loud. As a demigod with fluctuating life-expectancy, you must enjoy what comes to you.

"All six of you," Umbridge barked, "in my office. Draco, bring them."

There was an awkward moment where she went to leave, before realising I was still on top of Malfoy. The Slytherin and I made eye-contact and raised our eyebrows in unison before I coughed and looked expectant. Leo snorted so hard I was worried he might need a tissue, and that seemed to be the metaphorical straw that broke the imaginary camel's back because Umbridge just lost it.

"Half-breeds!" she shrieked, honeyed killer turning to swarm of angry, megalomaniacal demon bees. "NO PLACE! NO PLACE IN POLITE SOCIETY FOR YOU AND YOUR KINDS! CENTAUR'S TEACHING IN A WIZARDING SCHOOL! HALF-HUMAN ABOMINATIONS LEARNING WITH OUR YOUTH! CORRUPTION IN EVERY CORNER THAT I WALK PAST AND I SAY NO MORE!"

Erratic head-waggling and chin-wobbling followed every word until her hair looked even worse than it normally did, her blindingly pink adorned frame shaking with fury. I was mildly impressed that she was able to say that much without stopping for breath. Her wand, gripped in white-knuckled rage, was pointed down at Jason, who was trying to roll himself away unsuccessfully. Umbridge steadied herself, miraculously, but not by much. When she spoke though, she was no longer yelling.

"You were trespassing your filth-" she spat the word like it was a glob of bile "-in my office, and you thought you might get away with it. What were you looking for? I asked Mr Potter and he said nothing." Her piggy eyes rested on me. "You were going to Dumbledore, weren't you?"

To be honest, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Thinking about it, Dumbledore would've been a good idea. This quest was getting dramatically out of hand.

"More like following blindly," Leo piped up. "I wasn't in on the directions of this, so I don't know what we were even doing over here."

Umbridge looked at him like he was gum on her shoe. Leo generally had the air of a laid-back, happy guy, with more humour than less and a crazy outlook on just about everything. I can't remember a time I saw him really, legitimately furious. Down in the dumps yes, battle-angry – for sure, but never so filled with rage he completely combusted like Jack-Jack from The Incredibles.

Leo exploded in flames. White-hot fire that began melting the stone underneath him into puddles of minerals seared the hallway, burning oxygen and making it so stiflingly hot it was hard to breathe. The ropes around Jason burst into leaping columns of red and orange and he yelped in surprise, sufficient adrenaline finally getting him into the rolling he'd been trying to manage for the last while. I couldn't tell if he was burnt or not.

I was expecting to be boiled to death in my own sweat, being cooked from the inside out, or set on almost-fire like Jason.

What instead happened was one moment there wasn't a blood-red Chinese dragon with frills and scales and little moustache nostrils filling the corridor, and the next there was, throwing half the Inquisitorial Squad against the walls where they slumped with – I prayed – immediate concussions and unconsciousness.

Leo was screaming now, something awful in some language I didn't know, but he looked like a fire devil from a period artist's interpretation of literal Hell. He was so bright my retinas began burning, giving me a major headache and I had to look away. So I didn't see the exact moment when Leo was suddenly, inexplicably and completely put out. It happened so quickly it was like someone had just turned off a flashlight. One second – raging hell, death and fire. Next, slightly smoky and mostly black hallway filled with passed-out wizards and witches, mildly charred demigods, and a twenty-metre Chinese dragon with steam coming from its nostrils.

A collapsed pile of rubble to my right suddenly moved and a dusty Nico di Angelo appeared, his sword out and shadows swirling around his feet. He coughed, building debris clouds billowing away like small cyclones. There was a cut on his forehead, running blood, but otherwise he looked okay.

There was a groan in front of me and as my eyes focused I saw Jason, commando-crawling across the half-melted floor towards Nico and me. Ash was all through his blond hair and his face and he spluttered out what I swore was a soot-ball.

"Leo?" the son of Jupiter rasped, and I lifted my head.

"Frank," Nico said. My eyes went wider than plates and I tried getting up, instead tangling my limbs with a certain floppy and dead-to-the-world Slytherin whom I forgot I was still on top of.

"Where is he?" I asked, shoving Malfoy away and desperately trying to avoid the Chinese dragon in search of Frank. Nico rolled his eyes and pointed to the huge monster filling the hallway.

"Jason asked what happened to Leo," he said, "and I told him: Frank."

"Frank happened…" I trailed off. The dragon moved its head, catching my gaze, and I would know those eyes anywhere, even if they were obscured by copious amounts of smoke pouring from its nostrils.

"Frank?"

The dragon nodded.

"Where's Leo?"

The dragon's eyes crossed to look at its mouth.

"Oh."

"They're fire-proof on the inside," Nico explained unnecessarily, coming up beside me, supporting Jason on his shoulder.

"Frank Zhang," I said in awe, "you are hard-core."

The dragon's moustache-nose hairs waved.

"Yes, he is bloody hard-core!" came a frustrated yell from somewhere near Frank the Dragon's tail. "His scales are! Get me out from under this thing before I get crushed!"

"Can we leave her there?" I asked, as Jason went to help his trapped and disgruntled sister out from under ten-tonnes of Chinese dragon behind.

"I don't think we can," Nico replied. "We need to get Leo out of Frank's mouth, Harry and Co. from Umbridge's office, Annabeth, Piper and Hazel from wherever they are-"

"They're with Harry," I interrupted. Nico nodded.

"And go save Sirius," he finished.

I looked at the destruction of the hallway and general building, from the sprawled bodies of deep-breathing Slytherin's, to the rumpled pile of steaming pink I assumed was Umbridge herself, to the huge dragon that was Frank blocking almost everything with a flaming son of Hephaestus cooling down in his maw.

"Right."

*offers this* *crawls back into pile of assignments and exams* *dies*

^Pretty much why this is TWO MONTHS LATE

I am so, so, so sorry. It'll probably happen again but I'm trying really hard, I swear.

Jasmine Out!