Dumbledore stared at the mix of wizards and demigods in front of him. He could only say one word.

"Why?"

They all stood in the huge Headmaster's office. The previous Headmasters of Hogwarts stared down at Percy, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

A knock on the door interrupted. It was Professor McGonagall. "Albus, the headmasters, Barty Crouch—"

"They'll have to wait, Minerva. I have to deal with this first. Tell them I'll talk to them later."

McGonagall wanted to protest, but she saw Dumbledore's stressed exterior and decided against it. She left.

Dumbledore massaged his temples in frustration. "What–What were you thinking?"

"Well, sir." Harry spoke, sending a glare to the Americans who had chosen to stand as far away from Harry and Neville as possible. "They attacked us. They're obviously very dangerous. I don't think—"

"Don't defend him," Percy spoke, a very dangerous edge to his voice. He pointed Riptide, still in sword form at Neville. "After what he's done? You—"

Harry suddenly remembered the feeling of Percy's sword pressing into his throat. He ignored it.

"He has done nothing. You assaulted us—he assaulted us!" Harry said, facing Dumbledore midway. Harry was sure Dumbledore would take his side this time. Now that he's seen that the Americans were dangerous, he'd finally come to his senses.

"Oh yeah, as if you weren't getting drugs from Hogwarts' resident drug dealer behind the bleachers—"

"IT WAS GILLYWEED—" Harry was getting frustrated.

"OH, SO YOU ADMIT IT WAS WEED THEN?"

"—I NEEDED IT FOR THE SECOND—WAIT, WHAT?"

"—DRUGS MAY MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE UNDERWATER, BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN BREATHE UNDER WATER—"

"—ARE YOU MAD?"

"Enough!" Dumbledore said. Everyone shut up. "This is ridiculous. Percy, gillyweed is an ingredient that allows others to breathe underwater. Neville is no drug dealer. He's just adept at Herbology."

These people were supposed to protect Harry Potter. Instead, they were endangering them. They needed to get along.

"Percy and Harry, you both need to get along. I've decided to schedule you both detention together for the next two months."

Harry and Percy glared at each other. Percy began to protest. "You're not my headmaster!"

Dumbledore silenced him. "You will spend one hour every school night together for the next three weeks. Meet with Hagrid on the front steps of the castle at eight every night. The rest of you will be given detention as well, I'll leave Professor McGonagall to decide. Harry, Neville, you may go."

Harry and Neville turned to leave. Leo couldn't allow this.

"You're just letting Neville go?" Leo protested. "After what he's done?"

Neville turned around in confusion. "What have I done?"

Neville hadn't done anything wrong that he knew of. He couldn't understand why everyone was so hostile.

"Don't play dumb." Percy spat, ready to charge at Neville again. "We all know what you did to Piper that night. You drugged her, you disgusting—"

Piper interjected. "He was a perfect gentleman at the Ball, Percy." She didn't remember much from that night, but she knew that she had initiated it.

The Yule Ball. Neville suddenly understood what was being talked about.

Dumbledore decided it was enough. If he didn't address it now, it would only get worse and worse. "Piper, if you can, please recount what happened at the Yule Ball. If it makes you uncomfortable, you don't need to—"

"I can tell you." Piper said. Her voice was shaky, but she didn't let that stop her. She had to admit it. It was the only way to admonish the guilt. She looked at Neville. "Neville picked me up from my room. We met Leo, then we went to the Ball. He gave me a rose—"

Piper stopped talking, suddenly realizing that Neville could have drugged her. She's heard stories of others being taken advantage of by someone they trust. This could be true for her, too.

The rose. This was the wizarding world. She wasn't sure about the specific details, but the rose could have been some type of aphrodisiac. It would explain so much. She had initially assumed that she was drunk and that night by the unfortunately spiked punch bowl, but this seemed to make more sense.

She looked at Dumbledore uncomfortably. She was suddenly unable to speak. Noticing Piper's sudden discomfort, Leo and Nico glared harder at Neville, who was still trying to process what he had just heard.

"The rose," Piper said. "It was in the rose, wasn't it? The enchantment?"

Where were all these ridiculous accusations coming from? "I didn't drug or potion or-or enchant anyone. The rose was a gift I thought you'd like." Neville said, his voice turning soft at the latter part of his statement.

"We-we slept together." Piper said, disgusted. "Was that your original plan?"

"—hold on, what?" Neville said. "We didn't-I did not. I stopped it!"

"Then why did I wake up to you in my bed?" Piper asked.

"Piper, you asked me to stay," Neville said. "You didn't seem fine so I decided to stay."

The other demigods did not believe Neville. There was no substantial proof, especially with Piper's memories impaired.

Fortunately, that memory came back to Piper. She did vaguely remember that. Come to think of it, Piper had woken up with underwear still on. "I remember now. He didn't do—we didn't do anything!"

Piper rejoiced at the small victory.

"Piper," Leo said. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure."

Now, things didn't add up. If nothing had happened, then why did Neville drug her then?

"Still," Nico said firmly. "Even if you didn't do anything, it doesn't mean that he didn't potion you."

"What other motive could I possibly have?" Neville said.

"I don't know, maybe you chickened out."

While the argument moved back and forth, Harry saw Dumbledore walk to his shelf and pull out a book. It had Advanced Herbology on the front in blackletter typography. Dumbledore silently flipped through the book, stopping at a particular page. His face brightened as he called the room to silence.

"Is this the rose he gave you?" Dumbledore asked Piper, pointing to a rose encased in a transparent dome-like glass, as seen in Beauty and the Beast when she was a child.

Piper let out a breath. "Yes."

"Says here that the rose is ornamental. It can't have been the rose." Dumbledore explained. "Have you taken anything aside from that?"

Piper scrunched her eyebrows. The last thing she remembered was promising Leo that she would break it off. Then after that, it was simply bits and pieces. "No. I don't."

She looked up to Neville. "I'm sorry for accusing you."

The demigods did the same, expressing apologies for their behavior and accusation. While Neville politely accepted them and was generally just glad things didn't escalate, he was now wary of them too. Just a few hours ago, he was certain he would die from their hand.

He promised himself that he wouldn't talk to them anymore; there was no point in trying to cultivate a friendship that had been ruined this way.

Harry put his hand on Neville's shoulder. "Let's go, mate." Harry and Neville scampered off, both feeling dejected yet relieved. They weren't expelled, and that was good news.

When the wizards had left, the air turned cold. Dumbledore was extremely unhappy, Percy could see it in his face.

"You three—" he said, pointing at Nico, Leo, and Percy. "—are you crazy?"

He began ranting. "You attacked Harry. You're supposed to protect him! You are absolutely lucky that Piper was able to stop you.

"What will I tell the other Headmasters? They've been wondering about your headmaster, you know. I dread to see what that Skeeter woman will have published by tomorrow—"

"Calm down," Piper said, putting a lot of charmspeak in her voice. In the span of one minute, Dumbledore had begun rambling and pacing. She was scared the old wizard would have a heart attack.

Dumbledore stopped talking. "You have to tell them, both Harry and Neville. It's the only way, you must tell them within the next week, and that's final. Dismissed."

No one protested.

The news of what had happened shocked Hermione. She couldn't believe that Neville and Harry were really attacked. The bits and pieces of Harry's story hardly made sense to her, and Neville had refused an interview.

She didn't push much further than she normally would, because she was tired. She longed for her bed but still had homework. Hermione dug through her things, hoping to find a piece of parchment. She had clumsily misplaced the large stash and she was almost out.

She found it at the bottom of her trunk. She rejoiced. When she pulled it out, she realized something was below it. She pulled that out too.

It was a dusty book. She had completely forgotten about it. It was the book Annabeth was reading in the restricted section all those months ago.

Titans of the Golden Age

Hermione flipped through it, realizing that it was all about Greek Mythology. She didn't know much about myths, but she vaguely remembered Professor Binns mentioning it in her first year during History of Magic. She set the book aside, promising to read it after she finished her homework.

Hi guys! I hope you're doing well. (though let's be honest, everything is a mess right now.)

I'm really back, and I will try to update at least once every week. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's pretty dialogue-heavy and tbh it was hard to write.

So for Truth Unveiled, my other story, I'll be adding like one-shots at the end of each chapter based on requests or Tumblr prompts (I'm so weak for soulmate aus). Anyway, just request in pm, or review in that story!