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Chapter Text

If only someone had told Regulus Black that the same day he decided to go and try to retrieve the Dark Lord’s Horcrux would be the same day that his son would be delivered to his door by a small flying golden cradle, things would have been different; But no one did, and the damaged Kreatcher was the one who let the baby inside the house, and with no other option was the one who alerted the rest of the family -and by that we meant the two worst candidates for grandparents ever- Walburga and Orion Black.

Walburga screeched for days, demanding to know the baby’s origin. If he was as pure blooded as them, to know where her son was and letting the house elf to look out for the baby while they settled things -It was a great honor for Kreatcher, honestly, only high trusted house elves were used as nannies. But he was still weak from the Dark Lord’s request, and both suffered for it- and Orion Black was gone all day to talk to his father about the possibility of the new baby to be the Black heir.

And with all this the blond babe didn’t have a name yet, a very quiet baby that let himself be dragged around by elf magic, slept with Kreatcher in the cupboard under the stairs -it was more convenient for the crippled house elf this way- that only made gurgling noises when he as hungry least he triggered another screech session of Walburga.

This lasted for almost two years, the dead of Orion made things worse for the little babe. Kreatcher had to constantly teleport the wandering babe out of Walburga’s way, which caused Kreatcher to get behind schedule on his duties, which made Walburga mad, same anger she took out on Kreatcher. The baby learned to stay quiet and inside the cupboard when the beatings happened, quite terrified but more wary of what would happen to him or the elf if he ever tried to defend Kreatcher again.

It was not until the defeat of the Dark Lord -and when Walburga got worse- that Arcturus Black finally decided to intervene.  He only managed to snatch the baby away from Walburga’s ‘care’ with the treat of going to the wizegamont if she refused to let him see the baby. The witch only left the babe at the main Black Manor foyer and flooded away as soon as Arcturus crossed the threshold.

The sight made Arcturus’ heart ache. The baby was small for his age, his hair was plastered to his head with grime and a layer of dust adorned his skin. His clothes were the same as one of the house elves, a little robe made from a pillowcase and his feet were barefooted. But what hurt his hear the most was the wary glances the kid kept throwing at him.

Despite his age, Arcturus decided to crouch down to be on eye level with the two-year-old, his voice was nothing but a whisper when he finally addressed him.

“Oh, look at you, quite a handsome young man”

He made a movement to try and touch the toddler, but he got so scared that he fell on his bum trembling like mad and putting his hands on top of his head, as if trying to protect himself from an upcoming hit. The face of the Black patriarch hardened; his daughter-in-law/niece had a lot to respond for.

“…Hey, hey, don’t be scared…I’m your great grandpa…you can call me bon-papa, your father and uncle used to call me that”

The trembling receded a little, and he finally could be face to face with the most mesmerizing grey eyes he had ever seen in the Black family line, they were almost silver. The kid tilted his head in question, hands now fidgeting with the end of the pillowcase/robe, and Arcturus could see that the baby was using a piece of red clothing as a nappy; his small legs were covered in small scratches, probably for toddling around in a house filled with rough superficies and cursed objects.

“dada? Mated Degulus?”

Arcturus frowned a little at the tittle but then reasoned that if the house elf was the one in charge of the baby, he would have told him about his father, in a rather weird manner, bout he told him, nonetheless.

“Yeah, Regulus. You know he and I share name, Arcturus”

Arcturus smiled sadly at the mention of his grandkids, he had always liked both. Even when he had to pretend to side with Orion on the disinheritance of Sirius, the kid wouldn’t be a good heir anyways; don’t tell anyone but Sirius was still Heir Apparent despite his scandalous imprisonment, with Regulus and Orion out of the picture Sirius was the logical choice.

“Awtudus”

“But you can call me…”

“Bon-papa?”

The toddler was so unsure, but there was a little bit of hope inside his grey eyes, that made Arcturus smile warmly at the boy. And really, he would have to come up with a name soon, since Walburga was so mad that haven’t named the kid yet.

“Good boy, come he...” But his nice intents died as soon as he scooped the baby from the floor, he started to cry and wiggle around to be let free. Which was rather dangerous and concerning, considering that after a few tries the kid went lip and continued to cry hysterically, but no more resistance, as if resigned to whatever was his destiny. “Mimsy!”

The house elf appeared in a pop; her already big eyes widened a little bit more at the sight of the hysterical baby.

“Yes, Master Arcturus?”

“Could you bathe him?” In a gut feeling induced movement, Arcturus passed the baby to the house elf. Sight that was hilarious because he was almost as big as her. But as soon as he realized who was holding him the baby started to calm down “And inform the kitchen elves about him, so they could prepare appropriate food”

A very wide eyed Mimsy nodded her head, letting one of her ears be captured by small dirty hands.

“As you wish Master Arcturus”

In the retreated form of Mimsy, Arcturus could see the still watery eyes of his new charge. That now with all the tears seemed like glowing silver. He passed a hand down his face and crumbled on the foyer’s sofa.

“Walburga, what did you do”

-

“Bon-papa! Bon-papa! Look what I draw!”

The little screams made Arcturus heart soar, it had taken a lot of work to get the kid to be this comfortable around him, but now he didn’t even hesitate when inviting himself over Arcturus’ office to show him something he had made or did. The now four-year-old smiled toothily at him, on his hand was a parchment of a drawing of Harry Potter that moved around slashing monsters, the kid was on the drawing too, on top of a dragon that flied around. It was quite well done for a four-year-old.

“Mimsy helped me a little with the moving parts, but I did almost all the job!” The kid made his way up to Arcturus lap to put his drawing down on top of all the wizegamont documents that Arcturus was currently working on. He chuckled a little at the obvious distraction tactic and ruffled the kid’s head.

“Good job Lycoris”

Something that he hadn’t been expected happened, Lycoris pouted, as if offended with his name. Which made him puzzled, Lycoris had been the name of his favorite sister and that it meant twilight, and he had told this to the kid several times; thing that made the kid fluff up like a peacock. But now he was pouting.

“I like Draco better, Lycoris sounds like the sweets’ name. I’m not sweet. I’m fearsome…like a dragon!”

Declared the toddler proudly pointing at the moving drawing of himself on top of a green dragon, Arcturus chuckled under his breath, ruffling once again the somehow tidy curls on top of his great grandchildren head.

“Oh, but you would always be my sweet boy”

“Bon-papa!” Squeaked Lycoris in embarrassment as Arcturus hugged him tightly to him and started to make the chair spin in place with a wandless spell. The kid screamed in delight and started to demand to go faster.

-

“D-don’t leave me here”

Arcturus was trying to maintain his blank face in place, but it was hard with the way his kid was looking at him. He hated it, he hated this. Walburga somehow had convinced the wizegamont that the kid should be raised by his grandma in account of Lord Black’s duties and age. The wicked witch only wanted them to suffer.

That and he suspected the Black madness had finally gotten into her, and now she had this delusion that she should oversee the education of the ‘dirty half-blood’ that was ruining the Black line. -no one actually knew Lycoris’ true parentage, but Arcturus Black could care less.

“I’m sorry Little Lycoris, I promise I’ll do all what I can do to get you back”

He let some of his pure-blood mask slip away, Walburga’s reaction be dammed. He scooped the kid up and gave him a long warm hug.

“How long?” Lycoris whispered into his ear. Hot tears already damping his robe, but he didn’t care.

“I…I don’t know” Arcturus’ voice was almost cracking, bur he looked at Walburga dead in the eye and declared to her “I-I’ll do my best”

“M-me too” Was the las words he heard his great grandchildren whisper before Walburga snatched him away.

-

“Kreatcher, I want to go home” Draco was not crying, he understood his first week there that crying led to nothing, still, the sadness in his voice was palpable.

He was resting on his stomach, without a shirt or pants on. Kreatcher was tending to his wounds, whip lacerations he always gained after ‘etiquette’ lessons. It had been a year since he last saw his bon-papa.

“Kreatcher reminds young master Draco that he is at Grimaud Place, House of the most ancient house of Black.”

Draco made a face at Kreatcher detached tone, it sometimes hurt more than the flesh wounds, because it reflected what Kreatcher had gone trough the years he didn’t see him. Not that he remembered much, but he knew the house elf used to be warmer to him.

“No, not house, home. Home is where there’s people who care about you, people who love you no matter what. That’s not here, Lady Black doesn’t love me…she doesn’t even like me!” Ok, he lied, he still cried on occasions. “See what she did”

A moment passed between them, Kreatcher giving him time to control his chocked sobs and regain his composure, like all pure-blooded kids should do. Once he was calm again, he sat up at the edge of the bed so Kreatcher could treat the wound on his arms.

“Kreatcher is sorry Master, but…”

“I know Kreatcher, you can’t go against her…”

Draco sighed sadly, how the house elf loyalty functioned was one of the first things he learned back when he lived with his bon-papa and asked why Kreatcher didn’t went with him. After all his wounds were treated and dressed, with a salve that made it so he wouldn’t scar -it wouldn’t do if the Heir of a noble house had anything but perfect skin- Kreatcher seemed to make his mind and took out a small object from between his dirty pillowcase robes.

It was a rope bracelet with what was supposed to be a dragon and star charms made from colored crystal. They may look quite deformed to the critique eye, but it made Draco’s heart melt.

“…Kreatcher made this, Kreatcher recommends holding into it…if young master is even in peril, young master must wish to go home, Kreatcher present would take young master there”

Draco took the bracelet with reverence, he hadn’t had anything presented to him since he arrived at the Black house, he was permitted to use his father’s and uncle’s old kid robes just because as Black Heir he needed to look decent.

“Thank you Kreatcher!” He gave the elf a tight hug, which he returned almost as fiercely. And if he felt the elf’s tears on his shoulder, he didn’t comment on it.

-

“You dirty half-blood! Come back here!”

A ray of red light blasted by his head and landed on one of the unanimated portraits down the hall, the force of the mini explosion made him lose his footing ironically saving him from another curse. He scrambled to his feet and started to run again down the hallway, trying to reach the stairs.

“I just have to get to the door; I just have to get to the door”

He murmured under his breath, dodging curses and hexes that came from the other side of the hallway, where a very mad looking Walburga was standing with her wand casually launching the spells left and right while she wobbled on unstable feet.

“Run! Run like your dirty mother did when she left you here!” The witch cackled like mad, her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a mess, a strong smell of alcohol came from her breath. “Like a coward!”

The last blast sent him toppling down the stairs, and prompted another mad laugh fit from the old witch. Thank to her inebriated state she was not chasing him, because if she did, Draco was sure that the Crucio he had managed to doge when this all started wouldn’t have been the last.

“Eeeep!”

His head was spinning when he finally landed himself upside down next to the horrendous troll umbrella holder, all his body ached and something wet was crippling down his head and obscuring his vision; it was blood. Draco gritted his teeth and braced himself to stood again and start dashing like mad to the door while he still could.

“Kreatcher! Bring me the disappointment!”

Dread filled Draco’s stomach, Kreatcher would have no other option than to obey her; and then both would get punished for it. He knew he shouldn’t have insisted on being the one to deliver Walburga her afternoon -more like the day’s tenth round of- fire whiskey, but his small friend had been too beaten up to even elf-apparate. And then he went and tripped, breaking the precious bottle of alcohol right in front of the mad woman.

A pop was the signal that Kreatcher was there, all bloody and covered in bruises. His large eyes were filled with sorrow and sadness.

“Kreatcher is sorry”

“N-no, Kreatcher please…please” Draco finally managed to put both of his feet under him and kept launching wary glares to the top of the stairs.  “She is so mad, I-I don’t know what she’s going to do”

His voice trembled as he hugged himself, there was no way for him to scape if Kreatcher decided to follow orders and took him back. “Kreatcher, I’m scared”

With closed eyes he let the house elf take his arm and prepared himself mentally for the next few hours, small mercies were that he was sure about to pass out due to blood loss. But when the distinct elf-apparition pop sounded again, they were not in front of Walburga, not even inside Grimaud Place, they were in an alley.

“Kreatcher must remind young master that despite House of Black not being young master’s home, Kreatcher would always be here”

Draco focused again on the house elf in front of him, he could see the small legs about to give out due to the magic exhaustion it took to go against direct orders; that combined with his beaten-up state was making his friend seem in the verge of collapsing.

Draco’s eyes widened when he finally managed to decipher Kreatcher words, his hand immediately going to the bracelet he had not taken off in the last year. This was it, wasn’t it? Their goodbye.

With watery eyes he reached a hand, out, to take Kreatcher’s hand in his, but the house elf gave him a resigned shake of his head.

“Kreatcher?” He tried desperately this time. “Come with me, please…” He wasn’t even sure if he would appear at Black Manor if he activated the artifact, his heart had lost all hope after two years of not receiving any notice from his…from Lord Black. So, he couldn’t offer the elf sanctuary at Black Manor.

Kreatcher seemed to know that, with a watery smile and a tight hug, the house elf apparated away, not before uttering his last ‘sane’ words to his favorite person still alive. Handing him his precious Master Regulus Diary.

“Young master must go find home”

And Draco did, clutching the bracelet with both hands he wished desperately and with all his might to find home, a safe place, with people like him; where he could make friends, where he could find family.

Some would say that portkeys needed activation words, and a set of coordinates. But no one had ever used portkeys created by house elf magic, and if we involve a little bit of wild accidental magic and divine intervention, the impossible resulted possible…Draco disappeared in a flash of light only to appear a few minutes later in front of a tree on top of a hill, one ocean away, with a loud thunder-like sound and promptly passed out.

Chapter Text

Draco first came to conscioussness, feeling bright light trying to assault his eyes. Even before he managed to open his eyes he could feel he was in a rather comfy bed and his head felt like exploding. There were hushed voices around him that he could not discern.

“Oh, he’s waking up! Thank the gods!” “Someone, bring Chiron!”

When he finally managed to open his eyes, worried light brown eyes on top of a freckled nose of sun kissed skin were the first thing he saw. That and a mop of dark hair and strong arms helping him to sit on top of a horde of fluffy pillows.

“Here kid, drink this…” A goblet with something was trusted to his lips and after the first sip; it tasted like Mimsy freshly baked lemon cookies and Kreatcher rare marshmallow infested hot chocolate; he started to try and gulp the whole thing down. “Hey, hey, not so fast”

When he relented to drink the strange beverage in a more normal peace, the other boy let him to it. At his retreating back Draco noticed that he was young, around ten or so years old. Like all the kids that seemed to roam around wherever he was. Some girls stared at him owlish and started to whisper something he couldn’t decipher.

“His eyes!” “Bring someone from Athena Cabin!”

Sleep was sounding more and more like a good idea, and he passed out.

-

“Glad to have you back” A deep voice called from somewhere at the feet of his bed, making him properly open his eyes after pretending to sleep for around five minutes. He was trying to get a hold of the situation. But when he opened to look at the new addition, Draco’s jaw almost dislocated itself, the man-person in front of him had a set of equine extremities attached to their torso.

“Centaur!”

Draco said in awe, he knew about European centaurs and how ‘they were below wizards’ according to Walburga; but he had always wanted to meet one, being able to run like the wind with your own legs must be cool.

“That I am, Chiron a pleasure. Now, who may you be, young man?”

“D-Draco, Draco Black”

Draco hesitated only a little bit about giving his full name, but he reasoned that if this was somehow an illegal infirmary ran by kids and that had a centaur in charge, the probabilities of them turning him to the aurors were small. The warm expression on the man’s face was also a great contribution to his decision, gut feelings had always functioned in his favor.

“Tell me, Mr. Black, are you aware of…. your parentage?”

He made a scrunched face at the question; it was a strange question. Was this more like and illegal orphanage of some kind? That would explain the quantity of Childs that seemed to be roaming around and popping their heads inside the room sporadically. Oh, well, Draco was technically an Orphan, and he was sure this site would be one thousand times better to Grimaud Place.  

“Mum left me on the doorstep when I was a baby and dad died the same day”

Chiron seemed taken aback by his blunt answer but shook his head and called for someone to come up, the freckled darkhaired kid Draco remembers from the first time he woke up was at Chiron’s side in an instant; alongside him was a smaller kid, closer to Draco’s age, blond haired and blue-eyed holding rolls of bandages and other strange objects.

“Tell cabin six to prepare another bed, tell them they have a new brother” The blond kid nodded, trusted his cargo to the older kid and was soon out of the room. The dark-haired kid chuckled in amusement and went to put the things back on their place, Draco supposed.

After more time he wanted to admit the second part of the sentence finally got to him.

“B-brother?”

-

After a quick tour around camp by the hand of cabin six head counselor, whatever that was -Luanne was the head counselor, a girl around sixteen years old with curly dark brown hair framing her face in princess curls, olive skinned and grey eyed- he was trusted inside a…cabin? A construction of some kind where a bunch of kids were sitting around beds and chairs and…was that a bed on top of another bed? How was that safe?... and why were most of them blond? Or why all of them had grey eyes like him?

Luanne had explained something to him on his tour, but he was still skeptical at the whole ‘You’re a demigod, and this bunch of kids are your half-siblings’, of course he knew omnipotent entities existed in the philosophical way of the word; Hecate being one of them; but to suddenly gain the knowledge that they were very real, was making his head hurt.

The hole horde of blond-not-so-blond kids and he stared down at each other for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just two minutes; until someone a little bit older than him jumped from his perch on top of one of the high beds and landed perfectly in front of him.

He had short blond hair and square glasses framed his face; like all the other kids at camp he had on an orange shirt and some shorts.

He soon was joined by a slightly older girl that had her hair up in a ponytail who crossed her arms in front of her, frowning as if inspecting him. Draco fidgeted in place; from the corner of his eyes, he could see the older kids rolling their eyes.

“So, how old are you?” Finally said the girl, Luanne appeared behind him at that same moment and scoffed at the girl antics.

“Annie, stop intimidating the new campers” Scolded Luanne while pushing Draco a little bit forward. Guiding him somewhere.

“Don’t call me Annie!” The girl stomped her feet down and pouted, the rest of the kids laughed and returned to whatever they were doing before he arrived. Well, the glasses kid started to follow them around clearly excited about something, guessing it was about his age Draco responded.

“I-I’m six”

“Ha! I’m not the youngest anymore!” Whopped the kid, starting to jump up and down and doing a silly dance that was making Draco a little bit dizzy.

“Shut up midget!” Shouted someone in exasperation.

“You will share bunk bed with Malcom.” Announced Louanne stopping in front of one of those beds that had another bed on top; the one at the bottom was tidy and bare, while the one on top was a disaster, books and wraps everywhere. Well, this was…not home, not yet, but it was something.

-

Draco liked camp, he got new siblings, new friends. He got to run around and do things kids do. No more torture-like etiquette lessons, no more sneaking around inside his own house to the point where his steps were now soundless -habit that he couldn’t quite shake off and ended up in some scare jumps- he got to read all the books he wanted, not only the ones approved by Walburga. He even got an explanation to why he had troubles reading certain things!

Annabeth seemed jealous that he had had access to books in Latin.

Draco got to see and ride Pegasus, try out archery, sword fighting, dagger throwing, climbing, hand-to-hand combat; he got to attend classes with other kids, to learn muggle things, and other types of magic; to meet nymph and satyrs and other mythical creatures…but still, there was sometimes where he missed Kreatcher, where he wondered if his bon-papa was searching for him. When the rest of his cabin talked excitedly about some dream about their mom, on how pretty she was, on how knowledgeable she was, Draco had to force a smile to his face; Athena had never appeared to him in dreams, and he wondered…

…if he was ever wanted.

-

Luke; cabin eleven head council and Annabeth’s friend; was gone on a quest, apparently Lord Hermes had decided to send him to retrieve an Apple from the Garden of Hesperides. For what? Draco didn’t know, but the quest was so like one of the quest Hercules had done -story that he had just read- that he was confident that he would return alive.

Well at least he was using that logic to appease a worried Annabeth.

He didn’t really know Luke -Draco had only been at camp for a month- but he seemed well liked; he was the one in charge of training new campers -seemed as a lot of them were at his cabin the first weeks…if not longer- but Draco always felt very uncomfortable when Annabeth was near the older boy when he was around.

Really, he didn’t know how to feel about the absolute adoration his sister held for the older boy.

After two weeks Luke was back, face marred by a scar and there was a bitterness in his eyes that no one else seemed to notice, too preoccupied with the fact that the quest hadn’t been done; and that despite that Luke had returned alive.  

Draco attributed the change to the failed quest, and the way people kept glancing with pity in Luke’s general direction. On his humble opinion, those campers could go and eat their pity.

Luke had gone and fought a dragon! He may have not won, but he survived! And even managed to damage the creature.  He was worth of admiration, not pity. Draco told the teenager that in confidence one day, after one of Luke’s trainings for beginners.

That, no matter what everyone said he was still a hero, gods and everyone else’s expectations be dammed. It had been the first time in weeks that Luke’s smile felt genuine, all bitterness disappeared from his posture.  After that Draco didn’t tough about it again, Luke was fine, they all were.

As fine as a demigod could be.

-

“You are getting better with those throwing daggers Drake” Luke said while ruffling his hair. Draco batted the hands away, the seventeen-year-old only chuckled alongside the rest of the members of his cabin.

Annabeth was usually the one training him with the daggers -Annabeth in close combat and an Apollo kid helped him with aim- but his traitorous siblings decided to leave him behind training with cabin eleven.

“It’s Dra-co, Draco!” He scoffed; the older kid had taken to call him by the nickname since their heart to heart. Draco feigned to be annoyed, but he secretly loved it.

“Drake, drake” “Drake, Drake”

Chorused a pair of brothers, the Stolls; Draco had trouble identifying if they were twins or not, other campers said that they were brothers on their mother side too, but that they were not twins. Which was rare but…oh he was getting out of track.

Draco glared at them and crossed his arms over his chest; puffing his cheeks out to emphasize his mood. Some of the older girls cooed at the sight.

“Ugh, Why I can’t go train with my siblings?”

“Because it’s the yearly Challenge between Ares and Athena cabin” said Luke ruffling his hair again, Draco did nothing this time, resigned to his fate.

“And we like you with all your extremities” Added whom he believed to be Connor with a mischievous smile.

-

“We against whom?” He asked incredulously, all his siblings were sat around a map of the forest; wooden figures laying around in multiple multicolored shapes. Draco supposed the silver ones were them; and was pretty sure the smallest looking one was him.

“Us, cabin 4^th, cabin 9^th and cabin 12^th against cabin 11^th and 5^th. The Apollo kids are not participating this time since almost all of their members are out of camp; someone has to run the infirmary, or so said Lee” Louanne said, as if she expected that to be common knowledge, which it was, Draco had been at camp five months now and had participated at capture the flag multiple times; but this was the first time he was put on a more open position.

“We need you for strategy” Mumbled Malcom, for once looking quite serious; all his siblings were in deep concentration, thing only managed because the theme of discussion was considered ‘battle strategy’. “You have a decent range with your daggers, and with Apollo cabin out of the picture we can use that to our advantage”

The rest of his siblings nodded in agreement, while Louanne moved around the map the smallest piece of silver painted wood -which he just noticed was shaped like a baby bottle, rude! - trying to find the best advantage point.

“What?”

“Listen…”

-

“Penelope! get your siblings under control!”

Louanne was yelling at the head counselor of Ares cabin; a beefy looking read-headed girl, that was at least one head taller than Louanne, with a red bandana wrapped around her head. She scoffed and glared at Louanne.

“My siblings? Yours are the ones relying on numbers”

Look, Draco was not proud of his current situation; but Clarisse had told something hurtful to Malcom, Annabeth was near and jumped to defend him, Draco close on their heels and then another kid from Ares’ joined.

It ended in a fist fight. Chiron was going to get mad if word got to him. The fact that none other of the present were actively trying to stop the fight didn’t help matters; Louanne gave out a sigh and started to try to separate them.

“Drake! Stop hitting Sherman! …Annabeth! Malcom! Let Clarisse alone!” Louanne managed to grab Draco by the collar of his shirt to yank him away; he kept kicking and screaming.

“Peter! Don’t encourage them!” She yelled at one of the younger Ares kids who was screaming ‘fight, fight, fight’ as if it were a mantra.

With the pass of minutes Louanne grew irritated, more so when she finally managed to separate Malcom from the pile.

“That’s it! The three of you are on dish duty the rest of the week!” Louanne was fuming, Annabeth only relented from her position on top of Clarisse when Louanne glared at her hard enough to melt metal. “Penny…”

The head of Ares cabin glared back at Louanne but relented after a silent dialogue between them. Ares and Athena cabin rivalry was legendary, but there were rare times when a deep friendship formed between some of their members. Penny and Louanne being one of those.

If Draco remembered correctly, both had arrived at camp with the same satyr.

Penelope sighed in resignation and assigned her campers the same punishment “You too kiddos”

-

Who would have known that constant fighting would develop in a year to a tight friendship? No one, at least no one that saw that the same did not happen for Annabeth and Clarisse -whom had a more rival like relationship going on-

And to the delight of cabin five and the dearth of horror six; it was a dangerous and explosive friendship, in similar heights to the Stoll brothers.

“Sherman Yang! This is the third time this week!” Grumbled Lee under his breath, resetting again younger camper’s shoulder to the right position. He dislocated it again jumping from the top of the climbing wall…willingly, trying to prove he was faster than the bowling ball that Drake threw in one of his gravity experiments. “You should at least try to stop him Drake”

“Um…sorry?”

Lee sighed in exasperation and after finishing the bandage dragged the seven-year-old blond and nine-year-old black-haired kid out of his infirmary; not really giving Sherman enough ambrosia to completely heal, because the kid deserved it, just enough to not let him suffer.

“Go to the arts and craft room, Austin should be there, maybe learning to play an instrument would keep you busy enough…”

Austin was one of Lee’s younger siblings, the kid had a talent with music like no other son of Apollo in that decade and had the patience of a saint. He was just one year younger than Sherman and Lee hoped that the activity would be challenging enough to keep the terrors occupied.

With the bonus that Austin as fellow Apollo’s cabin member would know better than to let the kids hurt themselves…Later, Lee would regret that decision because the two troublemakers managed to convince Austin to tag along their shenanigans and play ‘epic background music’ for them.

Lee blamed Draco, whom could be seen as the most innocent of the group; with his angel like looks and innocent smiles; but Lee was sure the little kid was the mastermind behind all the things the trio got up to; Lee knew it, it didn’t matter what Louanne said to defend her baby brother.

-

Draco was enjoying the unnatural sunny day of early January, live at camp was great but something had been bothering him. The attitude of some of cabin eleven campers had turn worse. Today he had seen something that made him feel funny, a bunch of cabin eleven’s kids had been yelling at a girl -which he was sure was just recently claimed- and out of a sudden they stopped and went away.

The weird timing was not what made him feel wary, it was the fact that they had yelled at the girl to the point she had started crying.

Making up his mind Draco approached the girl who was hugging her knees, her clothes had a weird glow to them; her hair somehow was still in a styled hairdo, and she had little jewel-like stamps at the corner of her eyes. He remembered now; she was the new member of cabin ten.

Draco frowned when he noticed that her jeans now had holes on the knees, and they had some blood on them. They had pushed her. He sat alongside her without asking and started to hum under his breath, trying to let the girl regain her composure.

“What do you want” She grumbled after a while; teary brown eyes stared at him.

“Nothing…”

“You came to make fun of me too? Go away” She tried to push him, but he quickly put his hands out as if trying to convince her he had no weapons on him -which was a lie, everyone at camp walked around with at least three weapons- the girl rolled his eyes at him but relented on her attack.

“Hey, no, I saw what they did. They are just jealous because they are undetermined…” He made a face at that.

Luke was a great older brother figure, all warm smiles and mischievous attitude; but even him was not enough to appease the worries of a lot of unclaimed kids. Draco was starting to worry about the undetermined kids’ resentment.

There had not been a claim since Luke returned from his quest, not until the girl alongside him was claimed a few days ago -all glowing pink mark and make over- But, it seemed that the rest of undetermined kids had started to get their frustrations out into other campers.

The girl hummed under her breath as if agreeing with him pained her, understandable if she had been in cabin eleven for a long time and understood the kids’ point of view.

“Aphrodite is a neat goddess to have as a mom” he said instead, not ready to go down the hole that was the fact of technically abandoned kids.

“You are an okayish looking boy” The girl said after a while.

“What a compliment” He joked giving her a mocking bow “I’m Draco but everyone calls me Drake”

“Drew”

Chapter Text

Draco didn’t know how he was convinced to be the lookout for his sister, but Annabeth was convincing and to his misfortune Malcom and the other kids made themselves scarce as soon as they noticed Annabeth’s train of tough. Draco was not so lucky, and he had been the one hiding outside of the big house to alert Annabeth of Chiron’s approach.

Only once Annabeth had encountered the kid awake, and he seemed to have no clue of what she was asking about. Draco knew that his sister’s obsession with quests was bad, but not this bad.

Objectively speaking he knew that the kid was strong, with him defeating a minotaur all on his own and all that, but he really doubted he was the kid the oracle talked his siter about…because if he was, Draco feared what was to come.

When they got caught after a few hours -really what they were expecting? Annabeth rushed to the infirmary with no actual plan. Their mom would be so proud of them- thank the gods that it was Chiron. Annabeth managed to convince the centaur to let her be the one to take care of the new kind and later when he woke up give him a tour around camp. Alleging that she needed the experience since she was one of the youngest cabin counselors now that Louanne had gone to check out colleges.

Draco was offended that he was put to the side, but alas his siter was hyper focused on one task and all strategies were down to obtain her objective. As soon as she got permission, she practically shoved him outside.

Two days later, he had nothing interesting to do, well, he was launching pebbles to the back of Sherman’s head as the dark-haired kid was practicing his aim with the slingshot. Taking glee every time, the shoot went sideways missing completely the pinecones Sherman was aiming at.

“What are you doing here Drake? I tough you were with Annabeth” Grumbled Sherman under his breath after another of his shots was made to be off course. Giving him the stink eye and putting away the slingshot in one of the loops of his ripped jeans.

“Hello to you too Sherm”

“Hello? You have been launching rocks at me for ten minutes!”

“A great achievement to your patience, you deserve a trophy” Draco smiled all teeth at his oldest friend. Sherman sighed and started to walk lazily to his side.

Draco was bored, morning activities had long ended and none of his actual siblings were in the mood for his antics. Austin was on guard duty at the infirmary and Drew -whom he just recently befriended- practically kicked him out as soon as he knocked on cabin 10’s door, it was spa day, she said.

“Shut it, go and pester the new kid”

“That’s boring, Annabeth is the one in charge of nursing him. And there’s nothing to do in there, unless you count staring at the boy sleep. Which, first, creepy; second, zero entertainment value the boy doesn’t have a good sleeping position, you know? He drools when he sleeps”

Sherman rolled his eyes at him, looking to the sky as if asking for patience. But at the end he always relented to Draco’s wishes. Sometimes Athena’s and Are’s kids thought very alike. Being the child of the gods of war and strategy.

“Stop complaining, let’s spar if you are so bored”

Draco’s smile was feral.

“Oh, you are on”

-

They sat panting, resting their torsos against the trunk of a nearby tree. All sweaty and with a few new bruises alongside their skin. They were a top of a small hill with perfect view to the center of camp. Draco’s eyebrows frowned when he saw dots of red move a dark one to the bathroom stalls.

“Your sisters are at it again” he said in exasperation, slowly getting to his feet and making his way to the stalls.

A lot of campers did the same from different point of camp, it was an Ares cabin tradition to intimidate new campers -Tradition Draco hated, he was only glad that they were not fully troglodytes and left new campers younger than ten out of it- Sherman was slightly limping at his side, maybe he had kicked him a little bit too roughly…

“Poor bloke…I hope he likes sewage water” The taller boy snickered, and Draco was reminded why sometimes he hit the older kid with all his force. He only rolled his eyes and started to walk faster.

When we were mostly there, at the end of the crowd that had formed around the stall to watch the show, he saw his sister at the entrance of the girl’s bathroom looking baffled “Annabeth?”

As soon as her name left his lips, there was a shock, a loud noise, and suddenly water was coming out of the room alongside with Clarisse and the other girls -almost all of them were from Ares’ cabin, but he could see one or two from other cabins- His sister was dripping wet, and the smell of sewage water was everywhere. “What the…”

From that distance Draco couldn’t hear what they were saying so he decided to push his way to the front of the crowd, Sherman hot on his tail. The campers all stood gawking as if trying to understand what just happened.

They had made it close enough to hear them now, and the boy did something stupid. Yup, prime demigod material right there.

“You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth”

“That boy is dead” Sherman shuddered at the heated glare Clarisse sent the new camper. And seeing that they were struggling into keeping his sister at bay, Sherman nodded his way with a bloodthirsty smile and went to his siters side. “I’ll go with them; Friday night is going to be interesting”

“See you later Shermmy!” Draco called after him, smile all teeth and steel in his eyes.

“Fuck off Dracey!”

-

Chiron pounded his hoof to get everyone’s attention. Chatter slowly quieted, his siblings at him had a gleam on their eyes. Annabeth had told them about the bathroom incident in full detail; the lot of them agreed that it would be a good thing to have the new kid at their team on Friday. He would be perfect bait.

When everyone was finally quiet, Mr. D stood up and addressed the lot of them.

“Yes, I suppose I’d better say hello to all you brats… Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels” Mr. D’s voice was always monotonous and a little bit annoyed when he gave out announcements.

Sherman and some of his siblings whopped and clattered their plates on the table, it had been almost two months since they had maintained their winning streak in capture the flag. Draco’s table grumbled under their breath eyeing the Are’s kids with frustration.

“Personally. I couldn’t care less, but congratulations or whatever” Chiron made a coughing noise, and Mr. D sighed again. “Also, I should tell you we have a new camper today, Peter Johansson”

Chiron seemed to murmur something to Mr. D. Probably the bloke’s actual name. Mr. D didn’t know them by name the way Chiron did, or if he did, he never addressed them by them. Draco was pretty sure the only ones that were addressed correctly by the god were Pollux and Castor, the god’s actual sons.

“Percy Jackson…That’s right. Hurrah and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on, shu”

They scrambled to the amphitheater, Draco waving at Austin who had his harmonic out, who was giving him a ‘help me’ look. Confused, Draco turned his head to see Will Solace, the same blond kid that was always at the infirmary, at Austin’s side looking quite eager to sing.

Draco laughed his head off, despite being an Apollo’s kid Will was known around camp for his horrible singing.

-

The rest of the week passed in a blurry, the only interesting parts where when they convinced Hermes cabin to side with them for capture the flag -thing the Hermes’ cabin almost never did, preferring to side with Ares’ cabin who let them run rampage in the forest; contrary to the neatly planned plans of Athena’s cabin- alliance were made but others were torn.

In the end it was Athena, Apollo, and Hermes’ cabins against the rest of camp. And Draco was bouncing in place to know the outcome. It had not been easy to convince Apollo’s cabin to take a side, since they preferred to go around both sides treating injuries.

Hoofs pounded the soil; everyone was quicker to pay attention this time. Anticipation hummed in the air.

“Heroes!” Draco always felt warm when Chiron called them that, he may have never been in a quest. But in his mind life as a demigod on itself was troubling enough to be worthy of the title. Especially for the kids that came from abusive households or had a bad time at home.

 “You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed but may not be bound of gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed.”

Draco’s eyes hardened at the mention of bounding, it had not been a rule when he was first permitted to participate in the games. He had lost count on how many times he had burned himself trying to escape the ropes. Never again was he going to be so defenseless.

“I will serve as a referee and battlefield medic.” Some surprised gas could be heard around, it had taken a lot of convincing from cabin 6 to get the cabin 7 on board, but the promise that Chiron would keep an eye out made the sun kids relent. “Arm yourselves!”

-

Draco was hidden between the branches of a high tree, Austin at his side reading his arrows. Both were on the first line of defense a few yards behind the border patrol. Throwing daggers and arrows at whomever passed their way, Draco insisted on having a direct line to where Percy stood. A dozen of backup plans ready in his head if their plan failed.

But Ares’ kids were quite predictable, after a while five Ares warriors came out of the bushes yelling and screaming. Sherman was among them.

Draco and Austin shared a fierce smile when they saw Clarisse was leading the attacking team, all was according to plan. With a promptly nod, Austin whistled, a low sound only certain people could hear, mostly Apollo’s kids, the signal that the plan was in motion.

“Cream the punk!” Clarisse yelled, Draco and Austin crouched down to hide better between the branches. Bow and dagger ready to burst into action if needed.

The bulky kids soon made their way across the stream, Draco was a bit surprised on how Percy managed to sidestep Sherman’s swing. But that flied out of his mind as soon as he took notice of the spear in Clarisse hands. Austin gave him a worried glance.

“Give him a haircut” Growled Clarisse once the kid was on the ground. “Grab his hair”

With a nod to Austin, Draco started to slowly climb down the tree keeping as silent as he could. An easy task with the laugh and taunting of half of cabin 5.

“Oh wow” Clarisse voice said as Draco finally put his feet on solid ground “I’m scared of this guy. Really scared”

“The flag is that way”

Hiding between trees and avoiding stepping on branches made him do a weird soundless dance, but all was for a stealthy approach. Percy stood on trembling legs admirably swinging his sword around to keep the assailants at bay.

Draco was now near enough, but he had to time his entrance, after all it would be five against one -he was not counting Percy, because the kid had barely only one week of training- that was why he had to time it right.

“Yeah” Taunted Sherman, Draco could not see his face, but he bet he had his meanest smile on. “But see, we don’t care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid”

“You do that without my help”

Draco internally groaned, the kid was not doing himself any favors. Image was very important for cabin 5, thing they had in common with Aphrodite’s cabin. Just that instead of good skin and perfect looks, the Ares’ kids prided themselves on tough looks and intimidation.

After Clarisse’s spear attack, Sherman slashed his sword across Percy’s arm leaving a large cut. Draco furrowed his brows; it was not deep, but it seemed it was time to intervene.

“No maiming!” He called stepping away from the bushes, aiming a dagger to one of the fares kid’s chest armors and throwing, the force knocked them back and took out their air. One down, four to go.

Sherman laughed, mirth and blood thirst evident in his eyes as soon as they settled on him. Draco swore under his breath, Sherman was in ‘warrior mode’ and would not calm down any time soon if no one knocked some sense into him.

“Oops” As if trying to prove a point, his dark-haired friend pushed the new kid into the creek. Giving him a mocking sorry face. “Guess I lost my dessert privilege”

Draco got distracted of helping Percy by Sherman who launched himself in his direction, Draco eagerly returned the blows. Short sword against twin daggers. The rest of the Ares’ kids soon disappeared going after Percy, he really hoped that the plan had gone well; and that the kid didn’t end up with a lot of broken bones.

Their fierce battle was interrupted by Austin’s cheers, Luke had the flag! Draco promptly knocked the back handle of his daggers on both sides of Sherman’s skull knocking him down with a grunt. Oops, he may had given him a concussion.

Austin soon joined him, giving Draco a stern glare at Sherman’s groans. But the dark-skinned kid stern façade was soon replaced by the excitement of winning. Together they started to jump around Sherman’s body, much to the boy’s annoyance.

Like good winners, they helped Sherman up and went to join the rest at Chiron’s side. They arrived in time to see Annabeth appear from thin air, and Draco trotted in her direction cheery smile plastered on his face.

“You set me up” Percy looked upset; Malcom had warned them that this maybe the outcome. But all had decided that the risk of upsetting Percy was worth taking for finally winning against cabin 5.

“You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it figured all out”

“I told you. Athena always, always has a plan” Stated Annabeth unapologetic, thing that made Percy angrier than upset.

“A plan to get me pulverized!”

Draco rolled his eyes, positioning himself against his older sister. Arms intertwined and cheeky smile in place.

“Don’t be a crybaby Perce, we were keeping an eye on you” The green-eyed kid furrowed his brows when he saw him. Clearly annoyed by his interruption.

“You weren’t that much of help, shortie”

Draco’s smile disappeared, lips in a tight line. He hated when older campers dismissed him for his age and height. He got it, he was only eight, still part of the youngest campers. But he had beat a lot of kids at training!

Percy may be at least four years older than him, but he had had two years of training! The brat only had one week! He would not stand a chance against Sherman. As if sensing his ire, Annabeth’s grip on his arm tightened. Draco bristled but got the message and stood still.

“I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in but…You didn’t need help” He was still fuming, but snapped into attention at Annabeth’s surprised gasp, curious he followed her line of sight. Oh no.

“How did you do that?” Both of their eyes were fixated on the sword cut Sherman had got Percy. Same cut that seemed to be slowly healing.

“Sword cut. What do you think?”

“No. It was not a sword cut. Look at it”

The blood was gone. Where the cut had been there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. The three of them watched with wide eyes as the cut turned into a small scar and then disappeared completely.

“I-I don’t get it”

“Step out of the water Percy”

Draco turned to stare at his siter, she didn’t think that Percy was…. did she?

“What?”

“Just do it”

As soon as Percy’s feet were out of the stream he almost doubled over. Annabeth steadied him, and Draco could only stare in bewilderment.

“Styx. This is not good” Annabeth swore under his breath, which Draco for some reason found amusing and started to chuckle lightly, disbelieving.

“You think?”

“Shut up Drake…I assumed it would be Zeus…”

Draco’s internal freak out and Annabeth’s rambling was interrupted by a low growl, everyone’s arm hair stood up. Everyone took attack positions, even Chiron took out his bow. Soon, a black dog appeared on top of the creek, a hellhound.

Draco felt the blood leave his face, all cheer about the game soon forgotten. They were in deep trouble.

“Percy! Run!”

His stupidly brave sister tried to put herself Infront of the new camper -Draco had no time to rub in Percy’s face the fact that Annabeth did that to Percy and not to him because he had had more training, and a better chance at surviving- because Percy soon fell, razor sharp claws ripping through armor as if it was butter.

And in an instant the attack stopped; Chiron had killed the beast with at least a dozen arrows. By some miracle Percy was still alive but Draco could see the bloodied remains of the armor. All the blood was making him queasy.

“Th-that’s not supposed to be here” Austin muttered under his bread somewhere behind Draco, it was a whisper, but all campers were shocked still and silent enough that it made them all heard the statement.

“Someone summoned it. Someone inside camp” At Chiron’s statement all hell broke loose, people started to scream. Younger campers that generally oversaw menial task in the game started to cry. People started to point fingers; the loudest voice was Clarisse.

“It’s all Percy’s fault! Percy summoned it!”

“Quiet!”

Stomping of huffs that for the first time in years seemed to do nothing to rule in the noise. Everyone was scared, some were muttering horror stories passed from older generations, of the time before Talia’s tree, before they were relatively safe at camp boundaries.

“Annie…he’s wounded” Annabeth was so shocked she didn’t even protest the nickname, promptly grabbing Percy by the arm to help him stay on his feet.

“Quick Percy get in the water”

“I’m okay”

“No, you are not” Her tone was steady, gray eyes hardened with resolution. The attack seemed to have confirmed her suspicious.  “Chiron, watch this”

As soon as Percy stepped back into the creek the wounds started to heal. The closest campers gasped.

“This is not good” Muttered Draco under his breath. Dread pooling at his stomach. He really hoped that this kid was not the one the oracle was talking about, because if it was…his siter was about to get involved in things bigger than any of them could imagine.

“Really not good, Percy, your father…”

At Percy’s confusion at Annabeth’s words, Chiron stepped out. As soon as he did a glowing symbol appeared on top of Percy’s head. People gasped. Chiron’s face became stern.

“It is determined” At Chiron’s tone of voice, everyone started to drop to their knees. One knee on the ground, one fist on the ground, stare fixated to the soil. With normal claims, the act was almost mocking with good nature and always with cheery smiles.

But in that moment the atmosphere was oppressive, no one was smiling.

“My father?” Percy’s voice wavered, for sure startled at the sudden act of submission.

“Poseidon. Earthshaker, Strom bringer, Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea god.”

-

Days passed; everyone was tense and avoiding Percy. Draco would often see the poor boy alone on all camp activities, even to the point that his training lessons became one on one with Luke, the only head counselor willingly enough to teach him -that was false, Annabeth volunteered to teach him; but her specialty was with daggers not with swords- Draco felt bad for the kid but was not stupid enough to show it.

It was everyone against the kid, the most he could do was leave the kid alone. After the claiming there had been a counselor meeting -leaving out the oblivious Percy of course- and according to Annabeth, Clarisse had told all six head counselors to ignore Percy Jackson as if he had the plague.

Cabins with the least number of campers took it to heart, despite some campers’ protests at Ares’ cabin extreme reaction. Athena cabin was just wary maintaining their distance to see how everything played out, and Hermes cabin was divided.

Ominous clouds started to appear in the horizon, and for the first time in years…it rained inside camp boundaries. Everyone ran inside, fear clear on everyone’s faces; Zeus had always left them out of storms, a way of honoring his daughter some tough.

Now it was raining, unprepared campers soaked to the bone, the rain was freezing cold and strong. It felt like needles on their skin.

Soaking wet Draco entered his cabin, a worn towel was thrown his way by a distraught looking Malcom. With dread and noticing the stunned silence inside the cabin, he passed his eyes around the room, everyone was there…everyone except…

“Where’s Annabeth?”

“She volunteered herself, for the quest” Replied Susan, a girl a year older than Draco who had arrived at the beginning of the year. Her light brown hair was spread around her in a halo where she was laying flat on the ground, her tanned skin was pale and wet from the rain. Disbelieving grey eyes staring empty at the ceiling.

They all had heard about the honor of quest and how it would be a great way for their mother to recognize them. A good mind for sure would help to end a Quest faster and they kept up the believing that chances of returning alive would rise with a kid of the goddess of knowledge riding along.

But all the present recognized that the current situation was a suicide mission, more than normal quests were; not even an honorable way of dying, with the bonus of having angry gods breathing down their necks. For which one of their sisters had volunteered herself without consulting with anyone.

“You can’t be serious…” He muttered, but no one jumped to tell him it was a joke.

The door opened behind him, Annabeth had a serious face and walked with purpose towards her assigned bunk bed. They stood frozen in place watching her pack things up.

“Annabeth, you can’t be serious”

She kept packing paying none of them any mind. Finally, she turned around with her duffle bag hold tight in her hands. Determined expression on her face.

“Malcom, you are in charge while I’m gone” Malcom jumped in place, despite there being older siblings available they all had discussed that Malcom would be the best option if Annabeth ever went out…it had been decided in what ifs and what nots, but now that the time came Draco’s stomach was in knots.

“Behave” Was Annabeth’s last instruction, soon everyone clambered after her, to at least wish her good look on her way out.

Draco really hoped she came back. If not, he would find the way to revive Percy Jackson and kill him himself.

-

The days passed slowly; tension was high at camp. Despite everyone’s attempt to go around their activities like normal, no one was that into it. With electronics not really working for demigods the only source of news was the smuggled newspapers that the Hermes’s cabin had acceded to contraband every two days, but it was not enough.

The mist distorted the story, Percy had somehow become wanted across the country, and had had some incredibly unlucky scenarios that painted him like a terrorist. -Ares’s cabin found it amusing, some even keeping the newspaper’s cuts to make fun of Percy later- They knew, of course, that it was all because of the mist, but it seemed that Hecate; the goddess in charge of it; hated Percy or something.

So, with no reliable source of news and Chiron prohibiting them of being the ones to incite contact via IM with the participants of the quest, live kept going.

-

Annabeth and the Satyr were back! They were alive!

All the campers soon came out to greet them, cabin 11 even went and raised them to their shoulders and started to run downhill. Everyone was cheering and singing, they were alive! Percy was on his way to return the master bolt! The quest had been a success!

Well, everyone except cabin 5. For some reason they were in a bad mood, when Draco glanced Sherman’s way with a worried frown, the other kid shrugged and pointed upwards. It had something to do with their father.

Later they would find out why, Ares had been the one behind it all, according with what Mr. D had decided to announce. Draco and his siblings were skeptical about the implications, Ares may like wars and chaos, but the idea seemed something the warrior god would not implement on his own. Someone else was involved.

Percy returned, he seemed happier. No one avoided him now, he was a hero after all. But the circumstances around the master bolt kept bugging cabin 6, Annabeth was the one to tell them in confidence a week later about one possibility that no one wanted to consider; the old gods, Kronos may be raising. Athena cabin began plotting.

-

Draco was spread like a star over the lake’s deck, one arm over his eyes to shade himself from the sun. The nanaids kept splashing him trying to get his attention, but he just felt so empty. Soft steps alerted him of someone nearby, but he didn’t really care. The mysterious person sat near his legs and poked his exposed stomach to get his attention.

“Drake…you good?” Grumbling under his breath, Draco put away his arm to get a good look of the one disturbing him. It was Drew, with an outfit more weather appropriate for early fall; not at all the norm in the eternal summer that was camp half-blood.

Draco felt like crying at the implications of it. More so when his repressed sobs gained him a worried frown from his newest friend.

“Annabeth is going back home…” He mumbled under his breath, refusing to sit properly or even see Drew to the eyes, Draco had not cried in a long time, he was not going to start now; not for a silly reason like this.  “You are going back home; Austin is going back home. That only leaves me with Sherman who is in a mood”

Luke also left them, a pang of guilt traveled to his gut when he realized he may had gone with him if he ever asked; his mother had never visited him in dreams like she sometimes did with his siblings…there was also the knowledge about the possibility of a war dooming over their heads…then he remembered his life before camp, about Kreatcher and his great grandfather.

The sense of abandonment grew ridiculously stronger. It felt overwhelming, his mind providing him with the wails of an eight-year-old kid who grew up too fast, who felt like…everyone, some way or another, left him behind.

“Draco, no…come here” Drew practically manhandled him to sit at her side, to tug him down one of her arms, legs dangling from the deck in a kind of awkward half hug, it felt right and warm; tears started to fall from his eyes without his permission, Drew only hummed under her breath letting him cry to his heart content.

Some make fun of cabin 10’s ability to sense emotions and empathy with others; Draco tough that was one of the things keeping camp standing.

“We will be back next winter or next summer, don’t worry.” She said after a while, one hand gently petting Draco’s hair.

“I know…I-I don’t know why I’m like this” And it was frustrating, logic dictated that he was overreacting, but emotions overwhelmed him as soon as Annabeth announced that she was going back. It suddenly became too much.

“It’s okay to cry sometimes, you know” Drew ruffled his hair affectionately, nudging him closer to rest her chin atop of his head. There were times like this when he was grateful for his height.  “You were the one who told me that”

A small smile tugged at his lips, that was true; Draco had told her that after he cached her crying again, she had been embarrassed about being a crybaby and about the fact that an eight-year-old kept conforming her despite being almost ten.

“It seems like I need to take my own advice to heart”

“It does…better?”

“Yeah…I feel better now that I put my snot all over your designers’ blouse” Draco joked, Drew let out an exaggerated gasp.

“Eew! Drake!”

They both laughed, after a while they had to stood and go to the entrance of camp to say goodbye to the others or join the returning campers. Sherman and Austin soon joined them. Despite the goodbyes, Draco would like to think they had such a great time for the last day of summer.

Chapter Text

Draco was…was something, tired, maybe a little bit annoyed…definitely not scared, no, there was no time to feel scared. It first started with a foreboding feeling that had every demigod looking behind their backs through all day, then, a panicked dryad made a fuss at dinner…someone had done something to Talia’s tree! It had been poisoned!

Everyone screamed, panic quickly escalating. Chiron had to pound his hoofs in the ground quite a few times to get everyone’s attention. Mr. D had a wary look in his eyes, and soon disappeared in a pop followed by thunder. Zeus was angry.

“Childs! It seems we will have to restore camp border patrols…” Chiron’s face was grimly, the light of the torches made him look like the thousands of years old he actually was.

Everyone shuddered at the suggestion, monsters would gather soon around camp; too tempted by all the demigods gathered there. The silence was a complete contrast to the previous chaos, everyone frozen in place.

Clarisse was the first to break the silence, standing on top of cabin’s five table, determination in her eyes.

“Ares’ cabin will be in charge; volunteers gather in front the big house tomorrow at dawn.”

Some hummed in agreement, Draco and his siblings exchanged glances. They had survived this long, they were not going to let things go the way the fates wanted, not without a fight. Malcom hastily followed Clarisse example, gathering the attention from the rest of campers.

“Athena cabin will help with defining patrol routes”

Clarisse nodded their way, it was no time to fight over silly things, the kids of the gods of war could feel it; battle drew near. It seemed that their declarations made the fire in everyone rise.

“Demeter cabin will do whatever we can to try and cure the tree”

“Hermes cabin will help with supplies”

“Hephaestus cabin will start making and repairing weapons and armor”

“Apollo cabin will help with aerial and long rank tactics. We also would open an in-site infirmary”

“Dionysius cabin will help Demeter cabin”

“…Aphrodite cabin will do whatever we can”

Chiron’s eyes looked at all of them with pride in his eyes, he had been there for all of them, training them for something like this, despite hoping this never happened.

“Everyone dismissed”

-

The day just kept getting worse, first at breakfast Mr. D announced that the Olympic conseil, after days of discussion and consideration, had seemed logical to put all the blame into Chiron and Argus -Them being activities director and chief of security respectively- both would have to leave camp by that evening. Someone named Tantalus would be the new activities director.

Almost all campers tried to start a riot right then and there, but Chiron stopped them. Telling them to try and save camp, that he wanted something to return to. All campers respected Chiron, and relented, not at all happy with the development of the situation.

Clarisse called for the members of the border patrol, and they soon were all doing their new ‘normal’. Draco had managed to get a place in the patrol team nearest to the tree -He convinced Clarisse after managing to stab her at least twice in a spar- Armor may be a little bit too big on him, but it was the smallest they had.

The sight of the tree made him feel angry, the once beautiful pine tree that used to be one of Annabeth’s friends, was dying; its needles were yellow. At the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole oozing green sap. It felt sad, it felt like it was dying, and with it, all camp.

Draco could not lose the place he called home, not again.

Demeter and Dionysus cabin alongside the dryads and satyrs had been fretting around the tree all morning and were just send to lunch by an irritated Clarisse, nothing they did seemed to be working. What else could go wrong?

…And Draco would later hit his head against a nice rock because he just jinxed himself.

Two bronze bulls appeared out of nowhere, the Colchis bulls, they spitted fire…Draco was not ready to be a roasted marshmallow. One patrolling camper ran out to get someone from Aphrodite’s cabin, for sure they had some Medea’s sunscreen ridiculous strong sunscreen somewhere.

“Phalax formation, now!”

Draco and some others snapped from their stupor, soon closing lines, and reading their shields. He really hoped to not die today, he still needed to end the novel he was reading…On the corner of his eye, he saw…were those Annabeth and Percy? And who was that one with…was that a cyclops?!

There was no time to appreciate the fact that his sister was there, with a cyclops of all things, because one bull decided to breath fire on them. The formation struggled a little bit against the force of the blast.

“Hold the line!”

They were doing quite great, if he said so himself, they were still alive! But then something startled their leader, and she came down crashing upon them, breaking the formation; another breath of fire was sent their way.  Draco would later be ashamed of what he did, but…the shield was scalding hot, so he dropped it and ran. The others following his example, only for a few minutes tough, they all soon returned to their senses and returned to battle.

“Spread out! Keep them distracted!”

Not following at all Annabeth’s instructions, Draco exchanged a glance with Sherman, and they soon were running down the other side of the hill, right where Clarisse was.  While Sherman helped Clarisse up to her feet, Draco started to run in zig zag and yell, dragging one of the bull’s attentions. He really hoped Clarisse was as good in real battle as she was in training because he did not want to die by fire.

The bull was near now, someone had managed to slash its snout, that was now half gone and had a huge gash in its side. Draco screamed when it lunged at him, fire burning his arms, but soon let out a sigh of relief when the thing stopped. When he dared look up, Clarisse stood there, spear on hand.

“Don’t freeze in battle Dracey, stand up…” Draco would have protested at the name, but he was dragged to his feet out of the bull’s range of fire. Clarisse shoved him in Sherman’s direction. “I’m going to have some words with that…”

She disappeared uphill, gone to scream at Percy Jackson for sure. Sherman and he started to make their way uphill too, slower than Clarisse; Sherman had somehow gotten a broken arm, that combined with the second and first degree burns all over their bodies made the way up a little uncomfortable.

“Nice distraction there Dracey”

“I’m Draco…Drake if you want” He grumbled under his breath, playfully glaring at his best friend. He really appreciated that he kept acting as he always did. With all the crazy things happening he needed that little form of normality.

-

Draco was feeling pretty amused by Tantalus and his relationship with food -or the lack of it- He found it oddly funny…what did Michael Yew gave him? It was the last time he let the archer treat him, next time if Lee was not available, he will go to Will, Will may not know a thing about singing but he was one of the best healers. He found everything terribly funny, not even the fact that Chiron was gone made him shear tears.

“Drake…are you ok? You look…cheerful” Blinking owlishly he turned, oh, he had forgotten about Annabeth between all the chaos that followed the attack.

“I think Mich gave me the wrong dosage” he told her, smile plastered on his face, eyes closed while he wobbled his upper body in a…happy dance? What was he doing?

“What happened to you?”

“He is part of the border patrol, managed to get Clarisse to acknowledge his skills. And well, our little brother almost got roasted” Replied Susan clearly trying to keep her laughs at bay, her pun wasn’t even funny, but Draco could not help his mad giggles. Was this how adults felt when they were drunk? He hated it.

“But he’s nine!”

“He is the best dagger thrower, and his best friend is Clarisse’s favorite brother, your point?” Before the table developed in a discussion about where Draco was allowed to be or not, someone blew the conch usually used to call for dinner. Tantalus stood up, oh, now that he noticed the cyclops was still there…

“Yes, well. Another fine meal! Or so I am told” Draco didn’t catch the rest of the words because he was madly giggling about the food moving on its own out of the mans reach, the only thing that kept him muffled as to not gain unwanted attention was Malcom’s hand on his mouth. “We are reinstituting chariot races!”

But that snapped him a little of his fit of giggles, Draco had heard about the chariot races and found the idea so appealing that he had tried to make one once…Chiron had caught him before he could convince Beckendorf -cabin nine counselor- of even making one. The other campers seemed equally exited…well almost everyone.

“Now I know that these races were discontinued some years ago due to…technical problems”

“Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations” Apollo cabin was clearly dreading the idea, which Draco tough was ridiculous, their dad drove a flaming chariot around the globe! The hypocrisy!

“Don’t be a party pooper Lee!” He screamed after licking Malcom’s hand to let him to leave him alone, Sherman and Drew laughed at their seats, while Austin stuck his tongue out at him. Draco was soon silenced again by the hand of another of his siblings.

“…Ahem.” Tantalus kept going, not paying any mind at the interruption. “But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days’ time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses.”

There was something implied there that was bugging him, there were more pressing things than a chariot race! -Draco knew he was contradicting himself, let him be! He was high on painkillers.

“Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team’s cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?”

“But sir!” Draco giggled madly when he noticed the YOU MOO GIRL sign on Clarisse’s back. “What about patrol duty? I mean if we drop everything to ready our chariots…”

Tantalus scoffed this time, but the annoyance look disappeared at soon as his eyes landed on the interlocutor. A smile that made Draco’s skin crawl made itself present.

“Ah, the hero of the day. Brave Clarisse, who single handedly bested the bronze bulls!”

“I-I didn’t” Clarisse glanced in Sherman’s, and then in Draco’s, direction. It was nice to be recognized sometimes. Tantalus didn’t seem to notice.

“And modest too. Not to worry my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?”

“But the tree”

With a glare the new camp’s activities director made it clear that the discussion was over; Sherman and some others from cabin five dragged down their sister back to her seat. But there was fire in their eyes, with a glance all camp knew that the patrols would be still running.

“And now, before we proceed to campfire and singalong, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here”

This? Draco scoffed around Susan’s hand, that was clearly a cyclops, a male one, not a this.

“Now of course, Cyclops have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren.”

The words made him feel queasy, they sounded so much like the nonsense Walburga sprouted around about all magical creatures and even fellow wizards. Logically he could see Tantalus point of view, with the records of Cyclops attacking campers and what not, but the one there was clearly different. For once, he sat clearly uncomfortable and seemed to not be planning to eat any camper.

“Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I’ve thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes’s cabin possibly?” It! He said it! Draco was liking the man less and less. Hermes’s cabin clearly could not take the big guy. Tantalus was just picking on the poor boy.

“Come now, the monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?”

Before Draco could start yelling -probably getting all his cabin in trouble- the weirdest thing happened. The Cyclops was claimed! By Poseidon nonetheless!

The reaction was mixed, some laughed, some widened their eyes so much that Draco was afraid their eyeballs would come out. But the most concerning one was the scoffs and longing looks of the undetermined children at cabin eleven’s table.

“Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods! I can see the family resemblance!”

-

The next day Draco was fuming when he saw how everyone treated the cyclops and how Percy denied everything as soon as his new brother was not looking. All types of creatures -at least the ones who weren’t actively trying to kill him- were good on his books; being technically raised by house-elves make him had great appreciation for all kind of magical and mythological creatures.

More so when everyone insisted on them being inferior, he had had enough biased lies fed to him by the worst kind of Witch; he did not want to hear anything that even resembled them.

That was why he marched up to the woods where the cyclops went to hide himself when Percy was unavailable, mythologic book in hand.

“Hi there! big guy! How are you doing?” Draco took him in; disheveled brown hair, big brown eye, chunky teeth, and what Draco was sure was the biggest camp half-blood t-shirt available. He was short for a Cyclops, almost between what would be considered inside human approachable levels of height. He was hiding by the creek, Draco found that amusing. Brothers did think alike.

“Who are you?” The Cyclops frowned, putting a hand protectively over a pile of…peanut butter sandwiches? The big fellow was having a picnic?! Nice!

Without invitation Draco prowled down a few respectful feet away, just the right amount of distance to look at him in the eye without having to creek his neck.

“I’m Draco! But you can call me Drake, my friends call me that”

“Are we friends?” What was with this person’s innocence? He looked like a puppy! -A very big one but a puppy nonetheless- With a winning smile Draco trusted out his hand for the other to shake.

“If you want us to be”

“I’m Tyson” Without any warning he was shoved a little bit too roughly at Tyson’s side, in a very awkward and maybe too powerful hug. Draco made a squeaking noise when he noticed that his feet didn’t touch the ground. Tyson was sitting! Draco wasn’t that short!

After Tyson released him, Draco dusted off his t-shirt and overall shorts, smiling widely he decided to sit right across the happy fellow. Not really going for a sandwich despite Tyson’s questioning glance, he was not there to steal his food.

“How fitting, did you know your name means high-spirited and fiery?” Draco chuckled, whomever had named the kid had a good sense of humor. With Cyclops being fire resistant and all that. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for Percy!”

He hummed under his breath, trying hard not to scoff. In one part he could see how Percy was feeling, having a new sibling appear out of nowhere, one that everyone kept making fun of. But Draco would say he was disappointed on how the teenager was handling the issue, the solution was not in denying their sibling relation ship when Tyson wasn’t present!

They talked for a while, about camp activities and surprisingly school stuff -apparently Tyson went to the same school as Percy, and wasn’t that a weird coincidence? - Draco felt sad on how everyone kept isolating the kid, if Tyson wanted them dead, he would have done so along ago! But, has anyone died or mysteriously disappeared? No!

“You know, I think Beckendorf wants to bring you to the forges” Draco told him in a whisper, almost as if it was a big secret, right after the sad tale that was Tyson’s first experience with the ‘Chicken Ponies’. “He’s the head of cabin nine”

Charles Beckendorf or Beckendorf for anyone who wanted to live, was a nice inventive guy that seemed to live at the forges -There had been some rumors about him and Drew’s older sister, Silena, but nothing was confirmed- If Draco’s observation was right, Beckendorf was the only one that reacted genuinely positively about the announced that Tyson would stay at camp.

He had a feeling it had something to do with the known relationship between Cyclops and Hephaestus.

“I have big hands”

“Don’t look so doubtful, here says that Cyclops are excellent wielders…they often work for Hephaestus…” Draco frowned at the wary look that took up Tyson’s face, determined he grabbed the taller kid’s hand and prompted him to his feet “You will never know if you don’t try! C’mon! I’ll show you the way”

How could anyone be afraid of the big boy? He was literally a ray of sunshine!

-

Draco tried to not think much about the strange birds that appeared that morning; Sherman, Austin, Drew, and he had one of the mid-morning patrols, right before the Chariot’s race. He wanted the first one, at dawn, but Drew practically threatened with murder if someone even attempted to make her get up at six a.m.

Draco kept pouting while the racers prepared their rides, he had been dismissed because everyone was sure he would fly off the chariot as soon as it started. Sometimes it was a curse to be the youngest at his cabin, he could not wait for when a new camper arrived -now he knew why Malcom was so excited when he arrived.

After discussions, a few fights, and maybe some threats, it was decided that Annabeth and Raymond -Athena’s cabin current oldest camper; he was seventeen, had light brown almost blond curly hair, grey eyes, dark skin, and a mischievous streak that could rival any Hermes’s kid- would be the ones to ride the chariot.

Despite Tantalus’s insistence of concentrating on camp activities they kept the patrols going. Clarisse was right, it was no time to play games. When the odd prisoner was not looking, they replaced some classes for training. No monster would take them by surprise.

…Except birds, murder birds. What was the issue lately with animals?

The race had been going fine, as fine as a race with permitted arms and cheating was going to be. The birds that had been bugging him all day, resulted to be not at all that friendly. Out of nowhere they started dive bombing them, their numbers were a big problem.

Draco flinched when he felt the small pecks on his arms, the birds had bronze beaks! They were Stymphalian birds! Panicked he ran to where the rest of his siblings were trying to cover themselves behind some shields.

If he knew this was going to happen, he would have taken the patrol scheduled at the same time as the race.

In the mid of all the chaos no one noticed the disappearance of cabin three’s chariot alongside Annabeth; then, out of nowhere one of Chiron’s usual songs started to play. All the scratched members of cabin six exchanged exasperated looks, of course! Sound! It was so obvious!

In a question of minutes, it was all warped up. Most of the chariots were destroyed and everyone was wounded to some degree.

Draco could say with certainty that Lee wouldn’t be happy. The infirmary would be cramped.

The two only good things -opinion may differ on whom you asked- were that Ares’ cabin had won the race and that Apollo’s archers had managed to take down some of the pests.

The later would not be so great news when Tantalus ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse’s chariot victory-a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian death-bird. Don’t get Draco wrong, they were tasty, but their appearance was not the most appetizing.

-

At the singalong Draco went to sit alongside Sherman, as far as he could of the Apollo kids. He sent an apologetic smile towards Austin who nodded in understanding. It was clear that they tried to get everybody’s spirits up, but it wasn’t easy after that afternoon’s bird attack.

Draco was not in the mood to sing at all, the scratches still itched and that got him in a bad mood. Replaying in his mind what could have been done to prevent such a humiliating defeat, they may have managed to kill some of the birds, but they had been unprepared, and it showed.

After all the songs were sang, and the lot of them were preparing to get back to their cabins. Annabeth shot them a look that kept them on their seats. Soon all camp’s attention was on Percy Jackson.

“Sir”

“Our kitchen boy has something to say?” Tantalus clearly didn’t like Percy, and it showed. After some snickers and giggles Percy seemed to gain more incentive to tell whatever he wanted to tell them.

“We have an idea to save the camp.”

“Indeed. Well, if it has anything to do with chariots…“

“The Golden Fleece, we know where it is.” Silence, and then murmurs, some older campers were explaining to newer campers what the Golden Fleece was; some other were dubious, relating the fact that it was lost since Jason’s time.

Percy seemed to feel their hesitance about it and blurted out a pretty weird tale about dreams, Grover -Percy’s best friend, who also happened to be a satyr- and Polyphemus. It all sounded crazy and weird, but demigods were used to weird and almost prophetic dreams, so some people quieted down to hear better.

Especially when Annabeth took over the explanation, she was more convincing -and more liked.

“The Fleece can save the camp, I’m certain of it.”

There were some hopeful faces around the campfire, for once everyone agreed, the Fleece seemed to be the only thing that could help them. That was why everyone stared angrily at Tantalus’ when he refused.

Tantalus wasn’t the one being attacked by monsters, he was not a target, he was safe inside and outside camp borders. They were not. Sensing everyone’s anger Tantalus seemed to hesitate.

“Besides, the Sea of Monsters? That’s hardly an exact location. You wouldn’t even know where to look.”

“Yes, I would, 30, 31, 75, 12,”

At the weird numbers everyone seemed to look at Percy as if he were crazy, from the corner of his eye Draco could see Malcom’s eyes get wide -his brother was a fanatic of war related themes, maybe he knew something.

“Ooo-kay, thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers.”

“They’re sailing coordinates. Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies.”

Oh, that made sense, Malcom for sure knew about coordinates, maybe the theme came up when he had obsessed over submarines three summers ago. Annabeth murmured something under her breath and then her face had a wild hopeful look on it.

“That’d be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!”

“Wait just a minute”

No one let Tantalus talk, the idea had been sold and delivered. Everyone’s eyes were wide with excitement. Almost as one all campers and even some satyrs -Maybe Grover’s friends? - started chanting.  

“We need a quest! We need a quest!”

“It isn’t necessary!”

“WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!”

If Tantalus had any protest they were drowned in the roar of the screams, feet stomping and claps. The magical fire that reflected camp’s mood was for the first time in weeks soaring high. Draco and Sherman were screaming themselves hoarse. They only relented when Tantalus managed to scream even louder than them.

“Fine! You brats want me to assign a quest?”

“YES!”

“Very well,” The new camp’s activity director’s face was…something, Draco’s eyes turned toward Malcom and both shared worried glances. There was a trap.  

“I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying. I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle! And choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of champion is obvious.”

The intonation of champion was wrong, logic told Draco that Percy should be the one to go since he was the one who brought the idea and had had information that managed to convince all that a quest was needed. But there was no way Tantalus was going to send Percy.

“The champion should be one who has earned the camp’s respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defense of the camp. You shall lead this quest … Clarisse!”

And there was the trap, Sherman started chanting his sister’s name very loudly. Arm tossed around Draco’s shoulders in a euphoric celebration. Draco had to use all his willpower to not cringe at the situation. All ten members of cabin five were chanting, with some from cabin ten and eleven tossed in.

“CLARISSE! CLARISSE!”

“I accept the quest!”

There was clearly a division, all campers were on board with the quest idea. But there were three sides, the ones who didn’t care who went and just wanted to cure the tree, the ones who were on board about Clarisse going…

“Wait! Grover is my friend. The dream came to me.” …and the ones who were on Percy’s side.

“Sit down!” Sherman’s voice was too close for comfort, but Draco bearded with it. He knew this was coming; Sherman didn’t like Percy, no one at Ares’ cabin liked Percy, not since he fought with their father. “You had your chance last summer!”

“Yeah, he just wants to be in the spotlight again!”

“I accept the quest!” Clarisse repeated louder. “I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!”

Almost all of Draco’s siblings were on Percy’s side -he was on the neutral side, with no other option since Sherman was so close to him. Besides, Draco really wanted another camper to go, if Percy went, then Annabeth went too. He wasn’t sure he could deal with that type of worried induced stress again- soon another screaming match started between the most combat parties.

“Silence, you brats!” Tantalus practically screeched, a wild look on his face. “Sit down! And I will tell you a ghost story.”

Stunned at the sudden outburst everyone complied. Tantalus seemed to find necessary to tell them the story of how he had ended up in the Asphodel Meadows, with a very detailed retail about how he fed his children to the gods. Some of the younger campers at Hermes’s cabin started crying; Draco was a very brave nine-year-old and did not cry, thank you very much, Sherman, stop hugging him! he doesn’t need it!

Their ‘caretaker’ then exchanged words with very uncomfortable looking Clarisse, a clearly pissed Percy and a calculating Annabeth -Draco knew that look, Annabeth would find the way to tag along some way or another- After Clarisse had disappeared of sight, Tantalus addressed the rest of camp.

“And let me remind everyone- no one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries … well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won’t come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry! Good night, my dear campers. Sleep well.”

-

It was early morning, and cabin six awoke in a panic, Annabeth was not at her bed. They had even looked down the bunkbeds -where spiders usually managed to hide, lest say that the Athena’s children couldn’t find Annabeth, but destroyed every spider on sight.

Trying to act casual everyone got out and as discreetly as possible combed camp in search of their sister. Draco and Malcom were assigned to look near cabin three…where they found the door wide open and no one inside, that was not good.

Their worries were confirmed at breakfast, where Mr. D shouted quite angry about the disrespect of some campers, Tantalus cheerly remembered the god about the ‘expelled for eternity’ thing he had told/threatened the campers with. Mr. D agreed and even put some threats of his own, like turning them into squirrels -for some unknown reason- and run them over with his SUV.

Cabin five was not at all pleased at the implications, more so when they realized that Clarisse was insistent on going alone -no one else had been present when the Oracle talked, but it seemed that there was something in the prophecy that made Clarisse refuse any of her siblings or friends help.

It had been the first time Draco saw the Ares cabin fight between themselves, they usually did whatever Clarisse told them -Sherman had once told him it was because Clarisse was the best combatant of them all and had proved it- so it was a very rare sight.

“Listen! I don’t care about Prissy, Wise girl or the dumb cyclops; none of you are coming.” Clarisse voice could be heard over the ruckus at cabin five’s table. Her voice had the tone of a general regarding her tropes, even the most distracted demigods stopped their usual breakfast routine to hear her. “I need you all here, protecting camp while I’m not around”

“There’s nothing to be…” Tantalus started to protest but soon went silent at the scalding glance Clarisse sent his way, she was the daughter of the god of war, and it showed.

“Did I make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am” All cabin five members mumbled under their breaths halfheartedly, even Draco and some of the other campers that were part of the border patrol did the same.

“I can’t hear you!”

“YES, MA’AM!”

-

Almost half an hour later, all campers were at the beach, surrounding a strange looking ship that Clarisse, summoned?

“Sherm, how on earth did your sister got a hold of a boat?”

Draco stood alongside Sherman and Austin, watching how satyrs and dryads were charging the ship with supplies in a hurry. Drew and almost all of cabin ten flew the place when they noticed the ship’s crew.

“The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That’s their curse for being defeated”

“And that includes ships?” Asked Austin, who started to look a little bit queasy as the ship crew moved around moving boxes and cleaning the ship’s deck. Clarisse was already on board, commanding all the people on the ship. They were about to depart.

“And submarines and all kind of war transportation”

Both Draco and Austin hummed under their breath, the ship was starting to leave the deck. Surprisingly quickly for a ship in that state.

“That’s cool and all…But why that one?”

The ship was weird looking. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top-a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms- dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls. It was a Civil War battle cruiser, the CSS Birmingham. It looked that it was going to sink at any moment.

“Spirits of the losing side Drake, losing side!”

-

The next few days were…something. For clear reasons -named the threat of being expelled from camp if they ever tried- no one made any attempt to contact Annabeth or Percy. Clarisse was also out of question since there was a rule about not contacting questers unless they did it first.

It was worse than the last quest, at least then they had information about how it was going -completely wrong information, but information nonetheless- Since the quest was literally in the middle of nowhere, no one knew a thing about how it was going, and that made them restless.

The nervousness was not helped at all with all the attacks that camps suffered, they increased each day, and each day monsters managed to go deeper into camp.

Smaller attacks kept everyone occupied, all campers had decided to not pay any mind to Tantalus’ insistence on keeping normal activities going -That gained them punishments like dish washing and stable cleaning and other menial tasks- but the man gave up after a few days were everyone kept ignoring him.

With the tree getting weaker by the day, there was always a patrol around the borders, almost -Tantalus stood his ground when they tried to ditch meals and sleep. Draco was sure the man only wanted to try the food, which wouldn’t be served if no campers were at the dinner pavilion.

As the attacks grew, the injured did too. Apollo cabin had had to disassemble their on-site infirmary when Tantalus arrived, and now the usual rooms at the Big House were overflowing. When they were not patrolling Draco, Sherman and Drew were helping Austin around the infirmary -mostly with carrying supplies, no one in cabin seven trusted anybody else to perform first aid.

-

Draco woke up to screams for buckets of water and burning smell. When he got to the front of his cabin, weapon in hand and armor thrown hastily on top of his pajamas, he saw with horror that a giant lizard looking fire breathing monster was attacking the arts and crafts cabin, which was at the borders of camp’s buildings but still far from the actual border…the tree was getting weaker.

With a war cry, every camper available launched themselves to attack the monster -most of them in pajamas- on closer inspection he realized that the monster was a kind of Dragon, a Draco Aionius to be specific…Sherman would make fun of him all day if anyone told him that Draco and the monster shared names.

Which was kind of annoying, Draco shared names with all the Dragons! His name was almost literally Dragon in Latin! -thank the gods Arcturus didn’t name him Draconis.

Some kids keep insisting on saving the burning cabin, others -like Draco- were more focused on driving the monster out of camp. Sherman stood in the middle of the chaos trying in vain to lead the attack.

“Someone, get his attention! Don’t let it get any further!” His friend’s screams fell on deaf ears, the defenders kept launching themselves to battle almost blindly, Aionius kept gaining terrain.

“Sherm! How’s the situation?”

“Bad, as you can see…we need to drive it away…”

Sherman looked at Draco with a pensive face, he was plaining something and he wanted to know what. Whatever it took to drive the lizard away from camp, they could manage injured and maimed.

“What are you thinking?”

“Bronze bull”

Realization struck him; Sherman wanted to use the same strategy he used against the bulls. Which meant to put his life at risk to save camp, probably get horrible injured or worse. But it would be only them and not all camp. Nodding toward his friend Draco prepared his daggers.

“My siblings are going to kill you for suggesting it, and me for doing it…I’m in”

Draco and Sherman started to attack the dragon on sensitive parts, like eyes and nostrils, to captivate all their attention. Thing they managed to do in a question of minutes with their relentless attacks, soon they had a fire-breathing lizard hot on their tails and they started to run towards the border.

“Demeter cabin! Try to stop the fire from spreading!” Oops, that was Malcom. Draco was going to be in deep trouble if he survived “Draco what the heck are you doing?!”

“Being bait!”

Malcom’s protests were drowned by Sherman’s screams to get campers to act, the arts and crafts cabin was lost, it was more important to kill the monster than to save last week pottery project.

“Ares’ cabin! Follow us! Attack as soon as we are outside camp borders!”

Between all cabin five remaining members, some cabin seven archers and some very angry and worried members of cabin six -Draco would later receive a lecture of two hours for his recklessness, that resulted in one broken wrist and a dislocated shoulder- they managed to impale the Dragon with spears, swords, daggers, and arrows; the thing disappeared in a poof of golden dust; that Draco was sure would get stuck to their skin like glitter.

-

They were at dinner; ten days had passed since the quest started and some of them were starting to dread whatever could be of them if the quest failed. The ambient was heavy with nervousness and resignation, some of the most paranoid campers -mainly form Athena cabin- had started to plan out routes and hideouts if the border fell completely.

Suddenly a shimmering started to appear behind Mr. D, an IM! Murmurs of excitement started to pass around campers, which Mr. D promptly silenced with a wave of his hand. Everyone promptly shut up when they noticed a familiar blond head. It was Luke.

 “Who poisoned Thalia’s tree, Luke?” The already silent campers turned even quieter when they noticed the scene inside the IM; Annabeth and Grover held captive by a giant bear monster, Tyson was nowhere in sight, and they were surrounded by an army of monsters.

“I did, of course, I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus.”

“Chiron had nothing to do with it?”

Draco had to admit that Percy’s move was very cunning, it was clear he was distracting everyone from noticing the IM and that his intention was for Mr. D to hear Luke to admit his guilt. Some excited glances were exchanged between campers, if Percy managed to clear Chiron’s name he would return.

“Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn’t have the guts.”

Some campers growled under their breaths, a lot of them had known Luke, had been his friends. The sense of betrayal was stronger from the members of cabin eleven. Mr. D’s fierce glance was the only thing keeping them all from screaming at the traitor.

“You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?”

“You don’t understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece … once I was done with it.”

There was a pause, the scene moved a little and they could finally see Percy’s face; it was one of horror and realization.

“You were going to heal Kronos”

“Yes! The Fleece’s magic would’ve sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven’t stopped us, Percy. You’ve only slowed us down a little.”

“And so, you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up-all to help Kronos destroy the gods.”

Draco shuddered at the implication of reviving an old god. He once tough that if Luke had ever asked him, he would have tagged along, but now that he saw how Luke’s obsession was changing him, Draco could never support him.

Despite being angry at the gods to a certain degree, he would never risk anyone at camp. Draco didn’t really care about the conflict -despite understanding Luke’s point of view- camp was his home, and he would do everything he could to protect it.

“You know that! Why do you keep asking me?” Luke screamed in frustration.

“Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you.”

“What audience?”

With Chiron’s name cleared Percy decided to reveal the IM to Luke. The sandy blond turned around. Draco had to bite his tongue to not start screaming at whom he once considered a brother figure. Mr. D didn’t seem amused at all at the development.

“Well, some unplanned dinner entertainment.”

“Mr. D, you heard him, you all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn’t Chiron’s fault.”

Mr. D sighed. “I suppose not.”

“The Iris-message could be a trick,” Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands. Draco and some other campers stared at Tantalus as if he had grown another head.

Did the man know that he was implying that the goddess wasn’t doing her job correctly?

“I fear not, it appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse’s pinochle games.”

Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn’t bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. “I got it!” he cackled.

“We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus,”

Mr. D announced. Tantalus looked stunned. “What? But-“

“You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed.”

“No! But-Nooooooooooo!”

Everyone cheered when the prisoner returned to his place at the fields of the Underworld. Between all the scandal no one noticed that the IM had dissolved.

-

For some unknown reason Clarisse was the one who carried the Fleece -Where was she when the IM call happened? – one of the campers in the border patrol spread the notice around all camp about the returning questers, with it being night some decided to go out in pajamas. A few minutes after Clarisse; Percy, Annabeth and Grover arrived alongside Chiron and…the wildest centaurs Draco had ever seen.

Everybody looked weary and battered as we crowded around Thalia’s tree. The moment Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough, the moonlight seemed to brighten, turning from gray to liquid silver. A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass, all the way into the valley. Everything came into sharper focus-the glow of the fireflies down in the woods, the smell of the strawberry fields, the sound of the waves on the beach. Gradually, the needles on the pine tree started turning from brown to green. Everybody cheered. It was happening slowly, but there could be no doubt-the Fleece’s magic was seeping into the tree, filling it with new power and expelling the poison.

Everyone inhaled relived, it had felt like all had been holding their breath since the tree was poisoned and finally, they could breathe freely. The cheers were so loud that Draco was sure they could be heard a mile around. Clarisse was carried by cabin five members, well the ones that were tall and strong enough to do so.

Sherman and Draco were running behind all of them cheering like mad. No one paid any attention to Percy nor Annabeth, too preoccupied with celebrating than to scream at them for being idiots and leaving camp.

Soon the pair were joined by Austin and Drew, the first started to intone a song to mark the start of the most cheerful campfire they had had in days.

-

Draco decided to watch the chariot race from the top of a tree near the finish line, he was not brooding, nope, not at all. He wasn’t angry that he had been dismissed again from being the second driver, he understood that, since it was an alliance with cabin three, they needed equal representation. That and Annabeth had a point, pointing out that the Chariots were an invention of both Athena and Poseidon.

 Maybe if he hadn’t been so grumpy, he would have noticed all the epic moves that the racers did with their weapons and other mechanisms. He may have screamed like mad at Beckendorft for using Greek fire so near the trees. But he was brooding.

Draco only snapped out of his bad mood when he noticed their chariot crossing the line. Annabeth was the driver -wasn’t Percy supposed to be the one driving? Him being the son of the one that invented horses and stuff- all his bad mood went away, they won! No chores for a month! With the ability of one that had been at camp for three years he jumped out of his branch and landed. Running towards the finishing line to congratulate the winners.

All cabin six was going wild, chanting Percy’s and Annabeth’s name like mad. But before they could celebrate further Percy waved his hands around trying to gain their attention. He was almost drowned in the cheers, but Annabeth’s glare made them back off a little bit.

“Hold up! Listen! It wasn’t just us!”

“We couldn’t have done it without somebody else! We couldn’t have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover or anything! We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy’s …”

“Brother! Tyson, my baby brother.”

Draco cheered louder at this, beaming at Tyson who was bashfully trying to hide behind a tree -very poorly, the guy was a little bit too big to try that- He wasn’t sure how they managed but Draco guessed that adrenaline could do wonders, because they managed to lift Annabeth, Percy and Tyson between the dozen of Athenea’s campers.

-

Draco sat alongside Annabeth on their scheduled tree patrol. He had managed to bribe one of his older brothers for the chance to patrol that day alongside their head counselor. Annabeth and he had never really been close, but he felt entitled to bug her and reprimand her about her foolish actions; like the good little brother he was.

 “What do you want Drake?” Annabeth snapped a little bit too moody, Draco grimaced looking away, his eyelids dropping heavy. But who needed a normal sleep schedule? He didn’t.  “You have this look, like you are thinking too hard about something”

Draco spluttered at Annabeth’s bluntness; it may be due to the late hour, but his brain didn’t want to cooperate with him. Sighing he stared up to the stairs, trying to find the constellation where his name came from, it always gave him strength. With a calm voice, almost whispering he told her his thoughts, not really looking at her -as he said they were not that close, but he needed to get it out of his chest.

“You just left with no warning. To a place where no one could get a hold of you, you never called, and then you were suddenly back…” He sighed, dropping himself next to the trunk of the tree, face still fixed on the stars. “I know Malcom and the rest already gave you a piece of their mind…”

“Aww…tiny beany Draco was worried?”

“I’m not TiNy!” Draco squeaked in indignation, finally whipping his head around to glare at Annabeth’s mocking face, but it was not all mock, there was something soft in Annabeth’s glare that make him want to fidget in place.

 “I wasn’t worried, who would be worried if one of their siblings turned out to be eaten by a deep-sea creature!? Not me” He huffed in indignation, last time he opened his feelings, he would later tell Drew he tried…wait, why was Annabeth suddenly nervous? Was it something he said?... Draco internally groaned “What did you do…”

“Sirens…”

“Sirens, like…Greek sailor eating sirens?” Draco whisper-yelled, he wasn’t really that surprised, Annabeth was known for his stubbornness and her eagerness, but to think she would go and try to confront the sea monsters. Only her, really.

“Did you hear that?”

“Don’t change the theme Annabeth!”

“Drake, listen” Furrowing his brows he turned his head in the direction Annabeth was looking at, a thunder sounded in the distance, something shifted behind him. He hurried to his feet and in a panic to put the torch near to make sure that the fleece was still in place. Annabeth for some reason didn’t even look at the tree.

A loud gasp gained his attention, Grover appeared from the hill, he was supposed to bring them midnight snacks -which were now at the ground. His goat eyes were so big, fixated on something behind Draco’s back. Confused he turned around, what he saw almost made him drop the torch to the ground.  

“I-is that…”

There was a body there, black hair, black clothes. Draco didn’t recognize whomever they were but by the reactions of Annabeth and Grover they were someone very important. Putting some things together he realized that maybe the fleece did something more than to cure the tree.

“Go and tell the campers, Grover make sure to tell Percy…Drake you go and tell Chiron”

“SOMETHING HAPPENED BY THE TREE!!”

-

The remaining of summer was weird for everyone. Suddenly there was someone sitting at Zeus’ table -camp rules and all that- Annabeth kept sending Thalia wistful glances.

And wasn’t that a hole thing to get used to? Suddenly the girl you only heard about on whispered stories around camp, on how her sacrifice had been keeping camp safe for at least six years, the same girl Annabeth talked so highly about, was there, sitting among them. It felt surreal.

Thalia seemed to not like all the attention and kept snapping at curios campers left and right. The only one who could have a decent conversation with her was Annabeth. But there was sometimes when the girl suddenly stopped, still as a tree.

It was the day before everyone went back to their families or decided to stay at camp. Draco took it better this time, but he was still brooding, this time on his bed; pretending to read while his siblings packed. Trying to not be obvious in his longing glances at the advanced schoolbooks and science things.

Draco haven’t been able to go to school like he wanted. Chiron told him once of the possibility -the mist could take care of his lack of papers- but the offer was later taken back, it appeared that Athena didn’t want him out of camp for some unknown reason -didn’t that hurt? His mom having so much power over him when he hadn’t been able to see her out of the winter solstice excursions to Olympus, Draco had never actually talk to her.

“Would you do me a favor Drake?” He was startled out of his toughs when Annabeth suddenly took a seat at his side, making him slide a little bit towards her when the bed shifted under her added weight.

Resigned he put the book down -it was about astronomy, being named after the stars made him very interested in it- and warily took his sister’s appearance in. She was already in a weather appropriate outfit, hair in her signature ponytail…eyebags under her eyes, yup his sister was stressed about something.

“What do you want?”

“Could you keep an eye at Thalia while you are here?…she seems…”

Draco internally groaned, of course that was the thing that kept his sister awake. Some had teased her that maybe she was thinking about a certain boy -Draco didn’t like to think about that, nope, Percy Jackson was NOT a good match for his sister, despite whatever Drew and others at Aphrodite cabin said- but it was more typical of Annabeth to over think the actual important stuff.

He had a suspicion that Thalia was so snappy with everyone else because she didn’t have the heart to snap at Annabeth when she was acting paranoid about Thalia’s health and general state of being.

“Stop being dramatic Annabeth” The two stared at each other, stormy grey met molted silver. After a few minutes Draco was the first to blink “Fine, now, go pack, I need my alone time”

“Thank you, Drake”

Annabeth's expresion was soft and Draco had to hide his blushing face behind an upside down book.

Chapter Text

There had been more retrieving missions as of late. Draco had the bad feeling that Chiron wanted to keep all demigods out of mortal’s places because of Luke. Last summer had been an eye opener, Luke was preparing to go to war, as they should too.

Sadly, some of the missions were failures, where the satyrs were too late, and the kids had disappeared or perished. From the few that got to camp they were wary. Ares’ cabin intense training didn’t help matters.

Among the new bunch there were some kids that were very proficient in mist bending. Like Lou Ellen -A dark haired kid with green highlights and the most vivid green eyes he had ever seen, they liked pranks and were at home with the Stoll’s– their control over the mist was such that they even could manifest solid objects out of it.

Sherm was the one in charge of the training of new campers, the Stoll’s were not fit for the role, and Clarisse was too hard on them -as if Sherman was not equally hard, at least he didn’t insult them that much- With no other available option -with campers out of camp- Chiron let Sherman be in charge.

“Sherm! How’s my favorite camper doing?” Draco asked bouncing on the balls of his feet, hair a little damp from sweat. He had been helping at the forges. The sight inside the arena made him chuckle a little bit, the four new campers were spread in the ground, some even faceplanting it, groaning and with some scratches here and there.

Sherman was fine, not even a dop of sweat on his skin. Spear planted in the ground, carefully watching his charges, same dignified position that broke with a sigh at Draco’s entrance.

“What do you want shortie?”

“For the last time, I’m not short! You are only like three years older than me!”

“Truman is taller than you and he is a year younger”

Draco crossed his arms over his chest, grimacing a little when the sweat wet t-shirt moved at his back. He was not pouting, no sir!

“He doesn’t count, you Ares kids are too tall”

Sherman chuckled in his direction and started to ‘gently’ tap the campers with his foot on their sides to get them to stand up. That gained him some groans and even some very creative curses. Chiron’s only regret about Sherman training new campers was that his pouty mouth quickly transferred.

“Wake up special snowflakes!”

Draco didn’t pay the scene any mind, going straight for the dark-haired kid that was faceplanted to the ground. A sword discarded at their side. He started to shrug the form a little bit.

“Louuu…wake up, I have questions”

“Stop it, they are not one of your experiments” Sherman called from somewhere in the Arena, Draco stopped and turned to glare at his friend.

“But they know a lot about the mist! Maybe we could take advantage of that and train to bend it to our will and…”

He started rambling, oh! The things they could do if they gained more control over the mist. But it was so frustrating that only a few campers could even attempt to use it to get mortals out of their tails, let alone create objects from out of it. Draco was also invested, maybe a little bit too much, on it because the mist was a form of magic.

“And… we lost him. I’ll run for the hills while he is rambling”

“I’m too sore to even try” Groaned Lou from their position on the ground.

-

Draco had been anxious since breakfast; it was not as if he could miss the sole occupant of Zeus’s table between the nonexistent crowd. That was why he had asked to see Chiron as soon as he was available, and that’s why he now was seated on top of some dusty boxes at the Big House.

“Where’s Talia?” He asked crossing his arms over his chest, how could he ‘keep’ an eye on her when she wasn’t even at camp?! Worse of all, no one else seemed to know where the older girl had gone, and that only added to his nerves.

“She…went to find her family”

Draco scrunched up his nose, he knew Talia and he weren’t on speaking terms. More so when the girl caught up with the fact that he was keeping an eye on her -Talia seemed to dislike when Annabeth insisted on babying her, and so she disliked him- it only helped to make his job difficult when the girl started to avoid him.

“Oh. Did…did someone went with her?”

“She’s fine Draco”

Chiron’s smile was warm, eyes understanding. But that only made him ramble a little bit about the situation.

“What if something happens to her?! Annabeth would kill me”

“She will be back by winter, don’t worry”

“You don’t tell demigods not to worry Chiron, you just don’t….” Draco snapped out of it when he noticed Chiron’s warning glare. Sighing in resignation he dropped to the floor with practiced ease. “Sorry, I’ll go IM Annabeth…”

And wasn’t that a fun conversation to have.

-

Draco wasn’t liking the pattern here, Talia, he understood, they didn’t get along that well. But he tough Clarisse and he had a weird friendship, at least enough to be made aware on her whereabouts when she suddenly disappeared from camp. He wasn’t being paranoid, no sir.

“Sherm, where’s your sister?”

Sherman was with some older campers, playing a game of basketball. The Apollo’s children team of one was winning by a large margin. The other team was a mix between Ares and Hermes cabin. The dark-haired pre-teen turned to face him with a questioning glance.

“You’ll have to be more specific, I’ve like five sisters”

“Where’s Clarisse?” He huffed, rolling his eyes. The older camps chuckled a little at his attitude but with a wave from Sherman they kept playing without him. Sherman made him walk to the bleachers to talk more ‘calmly’.

“Relax, she’s fine”

“Where’s she?”

“Went on a secret mission, that’s all she told us” Sherman huffed in amusement, fanning himself with the hem of his t-shirt “Didn’t knew you cared about my siblings”

The older kid shoved him almost making him drop to the ground, Draco scoffed and with one of his hands he shoved Sherman back by the face.

“Oh, shut it. You know why I’m worried”

“Another camper disappeared?”

The change in the atmosphere was palpable, the playful attitude from before changed to one more somber. It was what they were really felt, all the games and other things all camp have been doing the last days were pure pretense, everyone was tense, campers kept disappearing.

“Yeah, another of the undetermined kids, the Stoll’s are trying to clear the air by pranking people but that doesn’t mean that no one noticed the missing camper of the week”

Draco looked up to the sky, asking for something, a miracle maybe. He appreciated what the Stoll’s wanted to accomplish, but it was no time to lose time pranking, they needed training. But there was no way he could bring that up at dinner, not with the already dense atmosphere at camp, and not with him being the only one of Athena cabin, if his sibling were there, they would support him.

“Pranks…I hope they go for Demeter cabin”

“Sherm! This is the fifth camper that disappeared, even Mr. D is…”

This time Sherman was the one who scoffed “He’s not worried”

“Whatever”

A few minutes passed between them, watching how the basketball game progressed. Draco had his arms crossed over his chest, scowling at nothing, while Sherman seemed to be invested in watching how his team was pulverized by the Apollo camper. After a while Sherman sighed and side hugged Draco.

“I think that’s why they sent Clarisse on a mission, she’s tough, don’t worry”

-

Winter break was there, and Draco really appreciated his friends who returned to camp at his request. He hated when Mr. D let some snow inside camp, why have a magic field around if you are still going to let the kids freeze to dead? -he was exaggerating, winter at camp was nothing compared to winter outside the borders, but he liked the sun, sue him.

Drew and Austin were sitting around him on top of his bed, Draco himself was buried in the warm comfort of the blankets, hugging for dear life Austin’s torso.

“Austin, tell your dad to be hotter, I’m freezing”

“Which one?” The dark-haired kid teased while trying in vain to remove the smaller kid’s arms from around him. Apollo’s children usually ran at higher temperatures than anyone else, and Draco was taking advantage of that.

“To think I came back for winter break for this while I could be at that jazz festival. I’m glad to be your personal heater Drake”

Drew huffed, in mock offense, and threw herself in false despair on top of Draco’s legs, hand to the chest and everything. Draco had to muffle his laughs on Austin’s stomach.

“At least he’s paying attention to you, I didn’t even get a hello!”

He was glad that this year his friends were able to come back for winter break, with all that was happening at camp he needed the company.

“It’s winter, let me be”

“I forget you are technically a squirrel, going to hibernate soon?” Austin had given up with trying to extract himself from Draco’s hold and started to poke his cheek to annoy him.

“Ha, ha, you don’t understand, being the only one in cabin six means It’s only my body heat against the winter chill”

Sometimes Draco wanted to sneak into Hephaestus’ or Apollos’ cabin just for the natural heat that the children generated, it must be warm and cozy over there. But the rules, he hated the rules.

“Annabeth hasn’t returned yet?”

“She got a retrieval mission”

“Let me guess, Percy went too” Even if he couldn’t see Drew, Draco knew that she had that strange sparkle in her eyes all Aphrodite’s campers had when romance was involved.

He didn’t want to think about his siter and romance, thank you very much.

“For the last time Drew! There’s nothing between them!”

“Not yet at least”

Groaning Draco let Austin go to try and kick his other friend on the face, Drew was sneaky and stopped his legs before he could do any damage. Now he was trapped between the older girl’s hold and the tangle of the blankets.

“Ugh, I don’t want to think about that”

“I sometimes forget you are only nine” Drew rolled her eyes, staring intently at him.

“And you are eleven”

Austin seemed to decide that he had had enough of their staring contest because he stood up and started to retrieve his coat. Making a search mimic with his arms, palm stretched on top of his eyes an everything.

“Where’s Sherman?”

“Out, dumping snow on people’s heads” Grumbled Draco under his breath while he tried to free himself from the blanket’s hold.

Draco was distracted and didn’t notice that Drew’s hold on his ankles got tighter, not until he felt the floor collide with his head. He was being dragged out of his cabin. Austin cackling up front, opening the door to let Drew drag him right into the snow.

“C’mon let’s go!”

“I hate you all so much!”

-

The trio had been having their own snowball fight, Sherman and his siblings were having a very extreme version of it near the center of camp and Draco had run out of there with no desire to end up with snow inside his pants. So, he had fled to a safer place with Drew and Austin close on his tails, no one interfered in an Ares’ snowball fight without ending up in the infirmary,

“What was that?”

A huge splash was heard from the direction of the canoe lake, with it being camp half-blood no one really paid it any mind. Stranger things had happened with the Stoll’s brothers prank wars -and it couldn’t be a monster, since the tree was restored- Draco and his friends were the only ones close enough to notice the steam and the naiads’ screams.

“Why is there a bus at the lake?” Drew asked to no one in specific, watching in fascination as said bus somehow drove to the lakeside, steam following the vehicle all the way.

“I’m out of here…” Mumbled Austin under his breath, clearly recognizing the situation.

“Wait, is that…”

What they assumed was the driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, he had the sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. His smile was bright and more playful. He wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt. They didn’t really paid attention to the rest of the passengers, not when a prime teasing material was right in front of them.

With twin Cheshire smiles, Draco and Drew turned around to a very distraught Austin who had been trying to sneak his way out of there.

“Don’t you dare”

“We got to admit, Apollo is…” Austin scoffed at his friends, he hated when they talked at the same time, it was a little bit disturbing.

“I’m warning you…”

“…Smoking hot!” While the duo cackled and Austin groaned, they didn’t notice the hunters, nor the children from the big three.

-

The group of friends later reunited with a drenched Sherman; he was shivering and about to catch hypothermia but sported a smile that indicated he had won the battle. Same smile that disappeared when he glanced towards one cabin, curios the trio glanced in the same direction only to see the always unoccupied cabin eight had some new occupants. All of them female.

“The hunters of Artemis are here” Mumbled Austin under his breath, looking a little bit distraught. Thing that Draco couldn’t comprehend, weren’t they like…technically Austin’s cousins or something?

“You don’t look too pleased to see them” Pointed Drew out, frowning when she noticed that some Ares camper was fighting with the hunters by the basketball loops.

“I’ve heard stories of them, none of them good”

Sherman nodded at Austin’s side, Draco remembered those stories; something about the destruction of five cabins and the start of a forest fire. Yeah, he understood why they weren’t very welcomed.

“Oh, hey guys!” The group was taken out of their musings by the sudden appearance of Percy Jackson “We’ll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening against the Hunters, prepare yourselves! Nice talking to you, bye!”

“Per…and he is gone” The interaction had been so fast that Percy seemed to be haunted by hellhounds or something, Draco narrowed his eyes in Percy’s direction…if he was there…

“What were you going to ask him?”

“Annabeth…”

Draco glared at all the newcomers at dinner from his lonely place at cabin’s six table, especially Percy, where was his sister? Was it him or Percy was avoiding looking his way? Angrily shoving food into his mouth Draco kept glaring daggers at Poseidon’s son, alternating with glaring holes at Thalia’s direction.

If what he heard was true, Thalia, Percy and Annabeth would have met Grover at some shady school to retrieve some demigods…Percy was there, Thalia was there, even Grover was seated at Mr. D’s side…so, where was his sister?

His glaring was interrupted when Chiron stood up to formally welcome the Hunters of Artemis and announce the ‘friendly’ capture-the-flag game of the next day. Draco would like to add that with the current campers and with the Hunter’s reputation, they were utterly unprepared.

From cabin ten there were only Selina, Drew, Laurel and Jason; from cabin nine there was Beckendorf and two other siblings; from cabin seven there was only Lee, Will and Austin; from cabin eleven there were only the Stoll’s and…who was that kid? Was he new? Anyways the only cabin with more than three people was Ares’s cabin, a total of almost twenty people if one counted Draco, Percy, and Thalia.

-

Draco had been chasing Percy or Thalia -whomever he managed to corner first- all day. But whenever he got to one site, it was to empty space and gentle words of other campers telling him that they have just vacated the place. It was getting frustrating, a wild goose chase around camp. More so when he had to avoid scornful glares from the hunters.

He got the whole ‘maiden’ thing they had, but some of them took the ‘no male interaction’ too far. Draco lived there! He wasn’t going to take extra precautions to not be seen or whatever.

Finally, he saw Percy sulking by the chariot stands. Draco hurried his way, on silent steps in case the teen bolted and decided to disappear again.

“Percy!” Draco took a little bit of glee in the way Percy startled and almost fell off the bench, ha, he deserved it for making him look around for him.

“Oh, hey…”

“Draco” He managed to not roll his eyes out of pure sheer will, he knew that the age difference made Percy not interact with him that much, but the guy was sometimes practically glued by the hip to his sister -and putting her in dangerous situations- The least he could do was learn the name of some of her siblings.

As if the same grey eyes weren’t a dead giveaway of their relationship.

“R-right”

“Where’s my sister?” Percy’s mood seemed to turn down some more, as if the sulking wasn’t any indication; Draco didn’t care, he needed answers “Where’s Annabeth?”

“She’s…she’s fine”

“Where is she”

Something like frustration seemed to pass Percy’s face, but quickly settled in a grimace. Draco had a feeling that his siters was ‘lost’ like Mr. D liked to call the disappeared campers. He didn’t want to believe it, but with her absence his theories turned to the wild side.

“Look, kid I’m sorry but…the oracle!”

“What?” Draco’s questions where left unanswered, Percy had bolted in the direction of the Big House with determination in his eyes “Hey! That wasn’t an answer! Percy!”

But Percy was gone, and Draco wasn’t anywhere near to know where his sister was. He didn’t want to alert the rest, he will wait until next weekend, yes…no need in panicking the rest of his siblings.

-

They were ready to go to battle…capture-the-flag, it was the same. It appeared that in less than 48 hours the hunters managed to antagonize almost all campers, even the ‘all loving’ Aphrodite campers.  

It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, and about the same number of campers. The Apollo cabin oversaw field injuries, alongside a group of hunters, who seemed to not trust the boys with their sisters’ treatment.

Draco had managed to sneak himself a place between the camp’s lines, there was no way he was missing out going against the hunters of Artemis. More so when he noticed that the new kid -whose name was Nico- was going to participate as part of Hermes cabin.

What was with team leaders and their choice of barely trained campers for their teams?

"I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena’s -Drew’s older sister- rambling startled him out of his thoughts, it appeared that she and the hunters had had heavy discussion about love and what not.

That explained the willingly participation of the entire Aphrodite cabin, no one insulted romance in their presence.

“Drake, help me!”

Draco sighed at Drew and some of her siblings trying to put their armor without breaking their nails, who told them to have a mani-pedi so near a game of…oh, no, wait, it was all the hunters’ fault, they appeared without warning.

Sighing in fond exasperation -and very aware that any of his inputs at the strategy may be turned down due to his age- he tuned out Thalia and Percy’s discussion to help his friend.

Which was a bad idea because he got stuck on guard duty, with the Stoll’s, Beckendorf and the new kid. Even the Aphrodite’s kids had a better position than him! -Drew, the traitor, ran after her siblings while sticking her tongue out to him.

It was kind of awkward at first, Percy was frowning at something, Beckendorf had that sickly love stare on his eyes -which meant he was either thinking about an invention, or about Silena- the Stoll brothers were scheming something, and the new kid kept rambling.

Draco hadn’t really got to know the new kid at all, with him running after Percy for answers and what not. Nico seemed nice…too nice, the demigod life would be hard for the kid. Draco smiled to himself at the constant questions the kid kept sending Percy’s way, oh, sweet revenge.

They had set the flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that, if you look at it just the right way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground.

Of course, Draco was the one who put it there, campers usually teased him for being an avid climber.

Thalia had left some time ago, and boredom was starting to settle on his bones; Draco preferred the front or border stations, since he managed to master the throw daggers that has always been his position, alas Percy and Thalia didn’t seem to care. He wasn’t sulking or anything, he knew defense was important.

From the corner of his eyes, he could see Percy climbing up one of the boulders, a tiny figure following behind. Glancing around and accounting the persons it seemed that the one following Percy was Nico.

“Hey, kid, don’t…” But the pair of dark-headed boys were already too far to hear him. Grumbling he turned to Travis and Connor, since they oversaw all Hermes’ campers “if he falls it’s your fault”

“Drakey, don’t be so mean” The taller one, Travis, snickered at his side. Draco thanked the gods for Travis’s grow sprout because he could now differentiate the two brothers.

“Yeah, don’t forget you have to obey the counselors” Added Connor, resting his elbow on top of Draco’s head to emphasis the heigh difference. He grumbled under his breath.

“Shut up Connor”

“Can you guys hold the fort?” Percy yelled from his advantage point, Beckendorf seemed offended he even suggested otherwise.

“Of course.”

“I’m going in”

“Wait! Percy that’s not what Thalia…and he’s gone” Draco had to resist the urge to face palming himself hard enough to nock himself out. Thalia was going to kill them. First Percy, then them for not stopping him.

“Hold your positions” He grumbled under his breath; eyes fixated on the woods around them. Nico had managed to descend safely to the ground and quickly joined them, clumsily dragging a sword clearly too big behind him. Ok, great, there were only technically four combatants.

“Who put you in charge?” Retorted Connor, mischievous smile in place.

Draco and the Stoll brothers were always at odd ends since the pair decided to prank Athena cabin with a bunch of spiders, Athena cabin had responded with a week of turning the Hermes’ cabin blue and purple at combat training.

“I’m technically Athena’s cabin counselor seemed as I’m the only one currently at camp” He directed a smirk towards the younger Stoll “And you said you have to obey the counselors”

“He got you there Con”

Connor went to sulk by himself at the other end of the boulder, his brother following behind chuckling. Draco himself was at the left side, while Beckendorf was in the middle. Nico seemed to notice that the two of them were around the same age since he suddenly decided to appear at Draco’s side.

“Your eyes!” gasped the kid, when he was near enough to seem face to face “Are you Annabeth’s brother?”

“Have you seen my sister? Where is she? Is she ok?” Draco wanted to reprimand himself, of course the rest of the newcomers would know where his sister was! Since they arrived with Percy.

“Um…” Nico’s face turned a little bit complicated…and wasn’t that nice? The fact that he could see the other kid eye to eye without having to break his neck. He hadn’t notice before, but him and the olive-skinned kid were the same height…maybe he should let go of the kids shoulders and step back…personal space and all that.

But before he could finally get some answers, Beckendorf interrupted them, a bush was moving.

“Later, we have company”

They were under attack.

A group of at least seven hunters suddenly appeared in the clearing, arrows flying over their heads. Draco furrowed his brows, because those were way out off target and the hunters were supposed to be sisters in arms with Artemis, goddess of archery…wait…

“Drop to the ground! It’s a trap!”

But it was too late, the arrows started to release smoke, thick and dark, that make his eyes stink and his throat hurt. Nico started to have a coughing fit at his side, Connor was cursing loudly in Greek, Travis and Beckendorf seemed to have managed to escape the cloud of smoke and were engaging in combat somewhere nearby.

“Nico, get out of here. Run to the creek, alert our team. If you see someone with our flag, try to stop them” Draco turned the kid to the direction he was almost certain was the creek, with all the smoke and tears in his eyes he wasn’t very sure. But better put the more inexperienced combatant in a safe place.

“And you?”

“They will never know what kicked them” He growled under his breath, smoke arrows had been ‘discouraged’ for years -now that he tough about it, maybe it was because of the last camp vs hunters’ game- but the hunters didn’t know or didn’t care.

Nico nodded his way and started to run towards the creek. With effort he managed to locate Connor and helped him out of the cloud of smoke. When both managed to get close to the combat, it was clear that their flag had been stolen.

“The flag!”

“On it!” Beckendorf started to run, Draco sighed in relief when he noticed it was in the same direction, he sent Nico to; good thing he didn’t get the kid lost.

“Prepare to get your asses kicked ladies” Travis was mad, he had a nasty bruise on his chin, his celestial bronze short sword held tight. The Hunters seemed offended by being called ladies.

“This is why we don’t like boys”

“At least we didn’t attack anyone with lachrymose smoke bombs!”

Draco would like to say that they won, but they didn’t. Hunters played dirty -not as if there were any specific rules against it, but whatever- they attacked them both with arrows and with hand-to-hand combat.

He tried to support his team from the far side but was soon dragged to the close combat when Connor dropped to the ground after he received two arrows to the head. Thank the gods for helmets.

But before he could do anything, he was suddenly staring at the sky. Pain throbbing at his head. Glad to know the hunters didn’t hold back with young males. He was kept that way until Chiron appeared and put the three of them on his back.

Now facing the ground, Draco was pretty sure he had a concussion and maybe a broken something. When they were near the creek, it was clear to him that they had lost. Great, there went blue team’s victory strike.

"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

Campers started to group around them, Chiron gently put them back on their feet, well, Connor stood where he was because of his wounds. Travis was glaring daggers at the group of hunters that had ambushed them, specially at a very tall girl. Uh? His mind was fuzzy, but Draco remembered her from somewhere…oh she had been the one to judo flip him.

But before ‘congratulations’ could be exchanged Thalia appeared with a storming look on her face, for some weird reason she reeked like rotten eggs. Draco shivered when he noticed the smell of ozone and the electrostatic in the ambient, she was pissed.

"Perseus Jackson! What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?"

"I got the flag, Thalia! I saw a chance and I took it!"

Draco saw this coming, from a mile away, and he wasn’t that pleased to be right this time, because the tension was quite literally palpable. His arm’s hairs were standing up, all his demigod instincts were telling him to get the heck out of there.

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

"You had too many on you!"  Percy stood his ground, both demigods starting each other down.

"Oh, so it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that."

"Argh!"

Thalia pushed Percy, and a shock went through his body that blew him backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs. Draco could only watch in horror. Two power houses were about to collide, and they all had prime seats to witness it…they were in the way if they decided to go all out…

"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to—"

A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe. Percy stood up looking angry.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to, either."

Thalia was breathing heavily. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

For some reason the nickname Draco often heard Annabeth call Percy made the kid angrier than any insult.

"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

Draco could see now how the children of the three main Greek gods could be so dangerous, lighting and water -things he would like to point out were highly dangerous combined- appeared in the fight. But what he considered the most dangerous was their volatile emotions, with both angry it was clearly that it was not a good idea to ever cross either of them.

Not even Chiron’s pleas got the stubborn demigods to back down, it seemed like the fight would have lasted forever, with them in the middle of it.

Suddenly, Percy dropped the water he had risen, all anger fading to confusion; sentiment that was quickly spread among all the present.

Everyone turned to see what got Percy distracted, a lot of them had to do a double take at the sight. Someone… something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.

Draco hadn’t ever actually seen the mummy that hosted the Oracle, but unless there was another mummy set free at camp -and he didn’t really want to think about that- it was the only explanation of the bizarre scene of the mummified body to casually stroll towards them in what appeared to be a power walk.

The Oracle stopped in the middle of everyone, even the Hunters seemed to not know what to do about the situation.

‘I am the spirit of Delphi. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.’

Having an ancient spirit speak directly to your head was a very, very weird experience. Also very loudly, like the spirit didn’t knew how to modulate their voice.

The Oracle glanced at all of them with their inexistent eyes. Were they staring at Percy? Did he…Draco wanted to face palm, Percy had said ‘The oracle!’ before ditching him, he had done something to the spirit and for some reason the oracle had decided to grace them with their presence.

Percy had made them angry, didn’t he?

‘Approach, Seeker, and ask.’

The Oracle despite being clearly glaring at Percy had directed their words towards…Zoe? Draco didn’t remember the Hunters names that much, but he was pretty sure the apparent leader was Zoe.

"What must I do to help my goddess?"

A chill ran along everyone’s spines, green mist scaped out of the Oracle’s lips.

‘Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand’

Then, as they were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.

Great, they had a new prophecy and Draco still didn’t knew what had happened to his sister.

-

Mr. D had called for a council of cabin leaders, and Draco was stuck in the infirmary. The Ares kids were supposed to send a representative, too, but all of them had gotten broken limbs ‘accidentally’ during capture the flag, courtesy of the Hunters.

Apollo campers weren’t going to attend anyways, the hunters seemed to hate them on principle, them being all males was not helping matters.

He himself was stuck there thanks to a broken arm, and some nasty bruises.

“Sherm, how on earth did you broke your leg?”

Draco’s best friend was on top of a bed, casted leg, and everything.

“Oh, hey Drake, fancy meeting you here…” Sherman said in fake cheer, to later change his expression to an unimpressed glare “the same way you got a broken arm”

“Did they judo flipped you too?”

Oh no, that Phoebe girl -Draco learned her name from the Stoll’s…and wasn’t that concerning- had had her way across camp if she also broke Sherman’s leg.

“Well…not the same then…”

Before he could get the story out of Sherman, because there was no way all Ares campers got broken limbs on accident -if they did get them, they usually got them on purpose- they were interrupted by a bouncy dark-haired kid. Far too happy considering all the injuries around them. Dimpled smile and everything.

“Hey! You! You are the kid from yesterday!” What was this kid? A literal ray of sunshine?

“Oh…hey…I’m Draco”

How did one interact normally with people? Without fighting them, converting them to the dark side or one who was not crying? …hi my name is Draco…? And then what?

“Don’t lie to the kid, your name is Drake”

Interrupted Sherman with a mischievous smile, Draco rolled his eyes and shoved Sherman hard enough to make him fall from the bed. A yell, from Lee for sure, could be heard somewhere in the infirmary. Time to take their leave.

“Shut up!” Taking Nico by the shoulders -with one hand, may he add- he started pushing him out of the room “Come, we are not hearing the words of a moribund”

Draco practically made the poor kid run as soon as they were outside the Big House; Lee Fletcher was a thing to be afraid of when he was stressed and had access to his quiver. Having all five Ares’ campers injured counted as a very stressful situation.

They finally stopped at one of the small hills, near the strawberry fields. Nico didn’t waste time to start rambling.

“I’m Nico, you were so cool yesterday! Can I have a knife too?” Nico said too eagerly eyeing his ankle dagger holders that were hidden by his socks.

“They are daggers” Draco grumbled under his breath, no need to point out that he already knew the new kid’s name. “You’ll have to wait until combat training…which is going to take a while because Sherman is the one in charge of that”

Nico was the only one in actual need of the training, the rest of new campers had gone back home for Christmas. Lou Ellen was gone before Halloween, something about pagans and celebrations. Draco had his suspicions about the green haired kid but didn’t want to give them high hopes.

‘Minor’ gods -if one can consider any type of divine begin, as minor- didn’t have a cabin at camp, so even if Draco’s assumptions were right Lou would still have to live at Hermes’s cabin.

“Sherman?” Draco hated when he got sidetracked inside his mind, sheepishly he returned his attention back to the curious dark-haired boy.

“The one with a broken leg”

“Oh”

Nico deflated, and Draco felt like he had kicked a puppy. Sighing he reached for one of his daggers, they were old anyways, and it was not as if he didn’t replace them constantly, throwing them at targets and whatnot.

“Fine, I’ll give you one, but don’t go around running with it”

“How old do you think I am?” Nico said outraged, Draco now with a very sharp dagger in his hands simply shrugged and held the hilt towards the kid.

“I don’t know, six?”

“I’m ten! We are the same height!”

“I’m nine by the way” He would later remind Sherman that he was, in fact, not short.

Nico accepted the dagger with a little grumble under his breath, but his face was alight with wonder and glee. Draco would have been concerned if this was any other person, but for demigods it was actually very helpful to not be afraid of wielding sharp objects. Their lives kind of depended on them.

They kept silent for a while; Draco stood by the tree with Nico’s quiet murmur about the weapon as the only background noise. But at last, it was inevitable.

“H-how…how long have you been here?” The same question every new camper asked. Followed by… “do you know your godly parent?”

It always broke Draco’s heart, how small all the kids seemed to be when asking about the absent parent, about the only living relative they had, about the person they always wanted to meet, about their last chance at family…the circumstances of every kid were different, but it broke Draco’s heart every time because more often than not, he didn’t have the answers they wanted.

“At camp? Three years” Draco had to chuckle a little bit at Nico’s widened eyes, more campers were older than ten. Annabeth, him, and some other children were exceptions. He then turned around suddenly shy “…and yeah, because of the eyes and stuff. All of Athena children have grey eyes”

“Do you know who mine is?”

And wasn’t that always the million-dollar question? Sometimes he had vague suspicions of a camper’s parentage -like with Lou Ellen- but others, there was no way of knowing.

Draco stood straighter, watching the dark-haired kid intently from head to toe. But there was no significant sign he could place. No mischievous looking face from Hermes, no strong built from Hephaestus…

“Sorry, no…” Draco didn’t like Nico’s sad face, so he decided to change the topic “How was coming to camp in Apollo’s chariot… bus?”

“It was awesome!”

-

They had been talking for a while, the sun had started to set, and the sky was now a lovely shade of orange. Draco loved sunsets, and adored sunrises -it had nothing to do with his middle name, no sir-They had transitioned to the soil, pants damp with snow. Nico had been telling him about his time at school and some card game he had.

“So, you came to camp with your sister?”

“Something like that” Nico seemed down for some reason, but not in the pouting way, more like in frustration “She joined the hunters”

“Oh…Talking about sisters, have you seen mine?” He said gesturing to his eyes, grey eyes were a constant on Athena’s children.

“Annabeth, right?”

Nico went straight into story mode, moving around trying to put emphasis on the actions that went down that night. About how they had been dragged by the teacher out of the precincts, about how Percy had followed them, how an invisible force tackled them to the ground. How a blond girl appeared out of nowhere…how same blond girl dropped to the abysm.

Something heavy settled at Draco’s stomach, was this why Percy and Thalia kept avoiding him? He would have had love to know he no longer had a sister as soon as they arrived!

Numbness settled in his mind; Nico seemed to notice if his worried face was anything to go by.

“Are…are you ok?”

“Yeah…you know? It isn’t even a surprise; demigods usually don’t live over eighteen” And wasn’t that sad? That he always knew there was a possibility to lose his siblings? To die himself if he wasn’t careful? Nico’s face was conflicted, and Draco felt like choking as a sob tried to escape his throat. “Sorry…I got to go”

Draco didn’t attended dinner that day.

-

“What are you doing here so early?” Draco grunted, body wrapped in all the blankets he could find, he usually had no trouble waking up before dawn at summer, but in winter it was as if his bed had him trapped.

At the other side of the door stood Nico Di Angelo, in warm clothes, snow covered hair, red cheeks and letting the chill air enter his small paradise. Grumbling under his breath he let the other child inside, who was too bubbly for that early in the morning.

“Draco!”

“What did you do…” Draco asked with suspicion, there was no way to be in that happy without any outside interference in such a cold morning.

“You don’t have to worry anymore, Percy promised to bring back your sister and to keep my sister safe”

“My sister?” He started numbly at the wall for a second, processing the words. It appeared that Nico had felt bad enough to ask about his sister to one of the questers…same group of questers that Draco knew Percy wasn’t part off “…please tell me Percy didn’t sneak away from camp. Not again”

“Again?”

“This summer, A-Annabeth, him and Tyson -Percy’s brother- sneaked away. They almost got expelled” Now poor Nico seemed worried, but it was too early to deal with this. Dragging the kid by the shoulders he started to shove him outside the cabin “Don’t worry, if they return, I don’t think they would be in that much trouble”

“If?”

“…having low expectations will save you a lot of heartbreaks” Those were Draco’s partying words before closing the door at Nico’s face, he was cold, sue him.

-

Draco felt like Nico had been avoiding him the last couple of days, but it wasn’t his fault. Someone had to let the kid know about the less flashy side of being a demigod, like the early deaths and the constant danger.

So, after some discussion with Drew, he decided to go and find his fellow camper. The kid was alone at the arena, making a poor attempt at training.

“You are doing it wrong”

“Drake?” Nico glared at him a little bit warded, Draco felt bad about being so pessimistic about Annabeth and the quest in general -especially since it was Bianca’s first quest- so he had volunteered to do this job.

“Since the Stoll brothers are stuck at the stables because they wanted pity vengeance and Sherman still got a broken leg, I’m in charge of your training”

The Stoll’s were lucky that Chiron intervened before the Hunters could get a hold of them. They had been mad about the prank -which Draco considered extreme, Centaur’s blood was highly corrosive- and had chased the brothers around camp for hours.

“Oh, cool!”

“First of all, that sword is way too heavy for you”

They had trained for at least three hours, had gone to lunch, and had decided to pass some time together. Draco’s friends were preoccupied in other things -Drew, all Aphrodite children really, Sherman and other campers were involved in some schemes against the hunters; Austin had gone to that jazz festival- so he had free time.

He had followed the olive-skinned kid to the Hermes’ cabin to play mythomaniac, after some discussion about the basic rules and card attacks, Nico was now showing him the figurines that came with the game. Wasn’t it a weird concept? To play with representations of your ‘family’?

Draco had to admit the Athena figurine was well made, it even had a small serpent at his mother’s feet and a little owl at her shoulder, battle Greek armor and all. But there was one figurine that had him baffled.

“Come again now?”

“This is Dionysius, he told me to never call him the wine dude ever again”

“He doesn’t look like that!”

Draco had to slap a hand on top of his mouth to stop the outcry, but there was no way that some mortal tough that resembled the god of wine. Certainly, a part of Draco’s mind reminded him of his days of leisure reading history of art books, and how in some paintings Mr. D was portrayed as a young man, looking more like his sons than the old man Draco was used to, youthful and effeminate. But being remined of that by a small statue of some game made him feel dizzy.

“Do you have all the gods?”

Draco didn’t really want to think about the fact that gods’ appearances were what they wanted you to see -clear example was Lady Artemis and her 12-year-old appearance- he didn’t want to think of Mr. D as some weird handsome young man in some grape crops in Italy or something.

“Almost all the main Olympians, I’m missing Hades” Thankfully Nico accepted the change of subject, clearly also disturbed by the differences between the figurine and the actual god “Why he doesn’t have a cabin? Hera has one”

“um…It’s complicated”

How does one explain about Hades’ treatment, and generally how no minor gods were represented at camp?

-

Draco had been keeping Peleus company -the baby dragon in charge of warding the fleece- Mr. D often screamed at him for giving the baby food out of his meal schedule, but Draco couldn’t help it! How could someone say no to those eyes?

Anyways, he had been there since lunch, kind of hiding, Nico had made some weird remark about some dreams about Annabeth and his sister; and now all camp kept sending them pitiful glances. Nico himself had disappeared somewhere and with no other place to go Draco went to ramble to his fellow dragon.

Not like he understood the grunts and snarls, he got at response, but it was nice to have someone to listen.

A loud grunt was the only warning he got before he was shoved downhill by a pretty rude dragon. He was about to scream a piece of his mind to the giant lizard when he noticed the sound of footsteps behind him. Daggers on hand he turned around on guard, ready for any attack.

But there was no monster, only Clarisse, who looked that she really needed a shower and a good night sleep. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.

“Clarisse?” He stared, dumbfounded. Clarisse was the toughest camper he knew and seeing her like those made alarms start on his head, something was wrong.

“Dracey, what are you doing here?”

“You know, Dragons have to stick together” The older girl rolled her eyes at the remark, Draco had given up trying to correct Clarisse on his name ages ago, and had decided to cheek the girl as often as he could “How was your mission?”

The familiar banter seemed to apace the older girl, both now making their way down hill, towards camp.

“Not going to tell you anything pipsqueak” Clarisse shoved a bag into his arms, and he almost doubled over, it weighted as if Clarisse’s hobby was to carry around stones “Be useful and put this on my cabin, I’ve to talk with Chiron”

“He seemed busy at lunch…”

That seemed to irk Clarisse, face turning to stone. A grimace clearly hiding behind her eyes.

“He’ll make time for this”

“Clarisse…what’s wrong?”

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."

-

Draco hadn’t been able to locate Nico since morning. The Stoll’s told him that he hadn’t returned since he went to talk with Percy and wasn’t that worrying. He had been nervous since he noticed the absence of the older Di Angelo among the questers, and that meant that whatever ominous dream Nico kept having had become reality.

He felt like the worst person on earth, maybe if he had paid Nico’s dreams more attention, they could have done something -not really but guilty was speaking- Draco couldn’t even be happy that his own sister was back, because his new friend was nowhere at camp.

He felt his stomach drop to his feet when Chiron announced at dinner that Nico had gone missing, ‘Another lost camper’ said Mr. D. Like Nico was just another number, which he supposed he was for the god.

Later, before every camper that had a place to be after winter break, he managed to talk to Percy. Who was, no surprise there, talking to Annabeth. But Draco wanted answers and despite Drew’s heated glares his ways -for interfering in romance or something- he interrupted the pair.

“Percy”

“Oh, hey…Drake, right?”

“Draco” He grumbled, only his friends had the right to call him Drake -which sure, were often all campers, but right at that moment he was irritated at the older guy. Annabeth seemed to catch his mood, questioning him with a raised eyebrow he decided to ignore.

 “You were the last one to see Nico, right?”

“Yes?”

“Did he say something? Why did he leave?”

“Um…look, we just discussed about his sister…he got mad, went running to the woods. I tried, really, to find him, but there was no sign of him” Something in Percy’s tale made him wary, he was hiding something. Draco had only known Nico for almost a week, and he knew that despite the boy’s tendencies to overreact he was very mature for his age.

Nico didn’t make a fuss when Bianca decided to join the hunters, he didn’t make a fuss -aside from trying to sneak out of camp- when Bianca decided to go on the quest. He even listened to Draco’s explanation about camp and the rough life as a demigod.

Draco didn’t want to believe that his friend would run to the woods -without telling him- there was something more to that story. Something related to the mark that appeared at the dinning pavilion’s marble floor.

It made him irritated, to not know all the facts, to see another camper get lost. To lose part of his ‘family’ and not being able to do a thing, again. It made him frustrated and snappy.

“You could have looked harder!” Percy was stunned at his remark, face red and ready to start a screaming match. He seemed as frustrated as Draco was feeling.

“Drake! Stop it” Annabeth decided to intervene, sending him a warning glare.

Draco huffed, gave them a tight nod, and stomped out of there, breathing hard. He knew he was being irrational, but with what he overhead from Clarisse…the lost campers were not lost, the monsters had been kidnapping them, recruiting them. Luke was making an army, and now Nico was somewhere, at his mercy.

Chapter Text

Draco had been contacting all the new demigods that had been at camp last fall, sometimes the IM connected, and he was reassured that they would attend camp by summer, other times…he didn’t get any response, and he feared the worst.

Thank the gods Lou was one of the campers that reassured him they would arrive at camp as soon as they could -Draco tried not to stare at the background, filled with jars and herbs, like a potion lab; was Lou a witch? wizard, magical person.

Anyways, he had had all spring to calm himself down and could see how he had been irrational the last time he saw Percy. Maybe he owned the older guy an apology…yeah, no, the son of Poseidon didn’t tell him about Annabeth, Draco was entitled to be petty.

He passed the rest of his spring days training and sparing alongside Ares’ cabin. Clarisse seemed worried, and it reflected in the brutal training.

Annabeth had appeared at camp at least twice, but both times Draco didn’t saw that much of her, only her sleeping form at the cabin before she was gone the next day.

Clarisse and she were planning something, and if the counselors of the cabins of the gods of war were planning something, things were getting worse.

-

The summer season had started, most campers were already at camp. The first day, at dinner, Chiron announced Mr. D’s absence and the new sword instructor, someone named Quintus.

He was in his fifties, with short gray hair and a clipped gray beard. He was in good shape for an older guy. He wore black mountain-climbing pants and a bronze breastplate strapped over an orange camp T-shirt.

Some campers glared at the newcomer warily, they hadn’t had good experience with new instructors.

“Hello!” As if sensing the humor from the camp, without needing to see the magic campfire that reflected the camp’s general mood. “Oh, don’t be like that. Master Chiron told me the situation; I hope we can work well together”

But before anyone can protest or clap politely to the new addition, a loud bark sounded from behind the head table -that was Dionysius table, poor Castor and Pollux got always stuck there- almost as one the campers drew their weapons.

Quintus stood up with placating hands, at Chiron’s nod of encouragement they retreated their weapons quite confused. A big shadow appeared aside Quintus, it was big, and was clearly a monster dog.

Some campers yelped in fear, some others readied again their weapons. All were still, waiting for any move from the canine to start the attack.

“This is Mrs. O’Leary” Quintus seemed amused by their reaction, projecting his movements he went to pet the head of the enormous dog, who stuck out her tongue and started to wag her tail “She is going to be accompanying me at the arena”

The whole camp stared at Quintus with wide eyes, then at Chiron, then at the Stoll brothers, waiting for them to announce that it was all an elaborated prank. But the Stoll’s were as confused as them, and Chiron’s face told them it was very real.

“T-that’s a hellhound” Whispered-yelled someone from Hermes cabin, eyes wide, blade clinging to the ground. As one all campers started to put away their weapons, still distressed about the monster but willingly to back down if Chiron was ok with it.

“That’s a good dog” Countered Draco, stars practically on his eyes.

“Drake, no” Malcom groaned at his side, Susan facepalmed, in general Athena cabin was glancing at its youngest member warily.

“Drake, yes”

Quintus chuckled from the front table; with the silence it was quite easy to hear the whisperings. He gave the Athena table a curious look.

“She’s inoffensive…if you don’t attack her first, that is”

-

Draco sat at the arena’s ground, poking with a stick the still form of Sherman who was sprawled like a star, face down. Lance broken at his side and sporting more bruises than any aftermath of capture the flag game.

“I don’t feel my body”

“C’mon Sherm, don’t be a crybaby” He chuckled at his friend’s suffering, the dark-haired teen could only groan; he didn’t have enough energy to defend himself.

“I can’t wait for cabin six turn with the madman, you will suffer”

Draco rolled his eyes at his friend’s ‘evil laugh’ and general dramatics, jokes on him because it made him start coughing and groan in pain when his bruises brushed against the ground. Poor him, because they were not grave enough to grant a visit to the infirmary, and no kid of Apollo would heal him without asking for something in return -well, maybe Will would, the softie.

“C’mon we will be late for dinner” Draco helped his sore friend out of the ground, and excitedly waved in the direction of the hellhound who was playing with a mannequin, a Greek armored mannequin…he would worry about that later “See you later doggie!”

-

Draco and his friend group were at the canoe lake, on top of a trireme, playing naval battle. No, not playing, training. Chiron had let out an orange marine serpent and they were combating it. But he was not really playing that much attention, he kept launching the chariot racetrack wistful glances.

Demeter and Athena cabin teams were mock racing, and once again Draco was deemed too young to participate.

“Stop pouting Drake”

“But I wanted to race”

“It’s too dangerous Dracey, you would get hurt Dracey” Mocked Sherman, it had been what Malcom and Susan had told him when he tried to join them.

“As if fighting a sea monster isn’t” Draco deadpanned.

“Touché”

“Your siblings have a weird sense of security” Commented Austin, clearly recalling that Athena’s cabin was the third one with more visits to the infirmary -the first one being Ares, the second one being Hermes- Hey! Someone had to prove the strategies and combat techniques!

“Stop the chit chat! We are under attack!” Screamed Drew, she was having trouble keeping the monster at bay. Without getting herself drenched in water.

“You only don’t want to get your hair wet” Sherman retorted but went to help her anyways. Draco sometimes wondered if Ares’ and Aphrodite’s kids considered each other siblings, stepsiblings…something of the sorts. The same with Aphrodite’s and Hephaestus’ kids…but then that would make Beckendorf and Silena’s relationship weird and he stopped there.

There was no use on causing himself a headache trying to figure out their genealogy.

“I should have gone with the others to Pegasus riding” Draco had to muffle his laughter, the tail of the sea serpent had made a big wave that had Drew drenched, her hair ruined.

-

Everyone was sleeping, until something started to make noise outside camp. Athena cabin tried in vain to feign that nothing was happening. A quick glance to the clock told them it was around three in the morning, way too early for whatever was going on.

“Drakon attack!” Yelled some satyr outside, all Draco’s siblings huffed in annoyance. Grumbling some got out from their comfortable beds and started to dress up in some armor.

There was no actual rush since the thing wouldn’t enter camp borders.

“Not another one!” Malcom had stood up so suddenly that he had managed to hit his head on the ceiling, Draco was chuckling from his bed trying to find the right way to put his chest plate in the dark. The only ones already up and ready, judging by the silhouettes, were Annabeth and two of the oldest campers. They were discussing something in the corner.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the lot of them when she noticed that no one was trying to get up to get the light and everyone was struggling in the darkness to get dressed. She went to turn on the light, and with a raised hand stopped everyone that was struggling to put their armor on. An amused glint on her face at the various states of dress.

It was weird sometimes how the head counselors had so much power over their peers, as if they were commanders of their own peloton.

“Call for the Apollo arches, we will need the large range for the flying monster”

It appeared that, that was the strategy they had come out with one that didn’t require any of the members from Athena cabin; they had proficiency with all kinds of weapons, but Apollo campers had the blessing from their father, and it was not as if they wanted to get out of bed.

Yay, they could stay inside sleeping! Draco sloppy dropped on his bed again, fully prepared to let the older campers take charge of the problem while he slept. Half hastened chest plate and everything.

“Thank the gods it’s outside camp borders” Grumbled someone to his right, Draco and some others groaned at the reminder of last drakon attack on camp. At least it hadn’t been that early in the morning.

“Isn’t that unusual? Monster usually don’t get this near to camp…”

Before Malcom could voice his very logical concerns -that honestly, it was too early to think about it- he was rudely interrupted by Susan, who send a scornful glance in Draco’s direction.

“Drake, for the gods’ sake, don’t do anything stupid”

Draco was very offended by this; it was not like he went out every day searching for trouble. And it was not like he had the sudden need to get out and cause trouble at three in the morning!

“Yes mom”

Apparently, Annabeth had asked what everyone was talking about because some rude person declared. “Last summer, you were not here Annie…Drake here did something stupid”

“Hey!”

They managed to get the monster out, didn’t they? Besides, it hadn’t been his idea and he didn’t get killed, did he?

Thankfully the discussion about his lack of self-preservation was put aside by the sudden discussion of whom would go to wake up the Apollo archers, it was well known that they didn’t appreciate to be waken in the middle of the night. That and the risk of being caught by the harpies, not as if they would care if it was an emergency or not.

After some intense games of rock-paper-scissors, one of his siblings decided they had had enough wasted sleeping time and threw a pillow in Draco’s general direction.

“Go get the Apollo archers Drake”

“Why me?” Draco scoffed, glaring daggers in Sean’s general direction -Sandy blond guy, grey eyes that seemed almost blue, around sixteen, the poster child of Californian boy.

“Older sibling rights!” Chorused him and some older campers, snickering at the groans from the younger ones.

It was a claim that senior campers had over the general younger population, especially for the members of their own cabin. The only one that didn’t suffer from it was Annabeth since she was technically above them in the hierarchy.

Grumbling Draco got out of bed, hastily putting on some flipflops and giving them all a nasty glare. If he didn’t complain they would be there for hours trying to debate who should go. Believe him when he says you don’t want to start a debate in Athena’s cabin, they could take hours, if not days.

“I hate all of you. If I get eaten by the harpies, I’ll come back to haunt you!”

With his parting words Draco stomped out of the cabin, he had considered smashing the door close, but didn’t want to risk being heard by the harpies.

He made his way over the Apollo cabin, humming under his breath the mission impossible theme and hiding behind things when a shadow moved. The air was cold, and he was regretting his cloths choice. Basketball shorts and a tank top were fine for the heat inside a cabin of around twelve campers, but not weather appropriate for the chilly nights of summer.

Now in a bad mood due to the cold, Draco opened Apollo cabin’s door with a bang, that had some people stumbling out of bed from the surprise, some others cursed him in Greek, and he had to sidestep an arrow.

“Get out!”

“It’s three in the morning”

“What’s do you want?” Lee had his arch on hand -so he was the one whom almost impaled him, good to know- scoffing his way. His expression was thunderous, were Apollo campers like sunflowers? Did they need their dad up in the sky to feel cheery?

Draco shivered a little under the heated stare and gulped watching warily how some older Apollo campers woke fully, and in a bad mood.

“This is not a prank or the result of a bet” he said in a placating manner, showing them both of his hands to appear less threatening. Thanks to the Stoll’s last prank war no one reacted well when outsiders suddenly appeared at their cabin with no invitation. Especially at the dead of the night.

When Draco got them to relax their stances, he pointed to his ear to let them hear for themselves what the problem was. Draco himself couldn’t hear the commotion but was sure all the Apollo campers could -he had tested Austin’s hearing; he could hear from one end of the strawberry fields to the other.

“What’s that?”

“Drakon attack, flying Drakon…Athena cabin recons that it would be better dealt with your archery expertise”

Despite Draco’s mocking tone -because it still hurt his pride to ask for help- Lee took his word seriously, he had heard the commotion. The teenager motioned to some of his siblings to get dressed and follow him.

“Michael, Victoria, with me”

While the mentioned campers got ready, Draco dragged himself over to Austin’s bed, the dark-skinned teen hadn’t even stirred or make any move to indicate he was awake. Draco envied him so much. Grumbling he threw himself over the bed with the only purpose to fall asleep.

“Move aside Austin”

At that moment, Draco didn’t care about camp rules, really, it was three in the morning, and he was a very tired ten-year-old. Austin wasn’t even awake, but he made him some space. Clearly used to the bed invasion by younger or older siblings.

It was not as if they hadn’t had sleepovers over the years, the only trick was to not get caught. That was why everyone respected the assigned tables at the dinning pavilion, too many eyes and in direct contact with Mr. D’s judgment.

-

The next day Draco had been rudely awoken at dawn, dragged to the ground by his ankles and landing with a thumb on the hard wood floor, a mischievous looking Austin was grinning at him, still holding his ankles.

“You are evil” Draco grumbled trying in vain to go back to sleep, but there was too much light, as if Apollo wanted to blind his own children this early in the morning, or as if saying ‘get up, look at me’

Some Apollo campers chuckled at his suffering, Will -one of Austin’s brothers- came up to him with a glass of water and a sleepy smile.

“And you should go back to your cabin”

Reluctantly sitting up Draco stared around, noticing that Lee and the other two were still absent he furrowed his brows. Had Athena cabin been mistaken? Should they had sent more people?

Dreading that they had sent campers to their dead, now wide awake, Draco turned to Will and Austin.

“Where’s Lee? What happened?”

“They went to talk to Chiron; we’ll know for sure at breakfast” Calmed down Austin, clearly reading his thoughts. Draco was sure that he had mind reading powers, it was creepy sometimes how easily he read Draco…or maybe it was the fact he was one of his closet’s friends, who knew.

“Now go, don’t make me throw cold water on you” Half-threatened Will holding up his now half full glass of water. Draco rolled his eyes but relented, sneakily making his way back to his cabin. If he was lucky his siblings would let him sleep till breakfast.

-

Draco felt refreshened, after a nap of two hours and the prospect of food, he was feeling like it would be a good day. That was until they got to morning announcements and a very tired looking Lee stood up at Chiron’s side to deliver a…warning.

“It’s still out there,” Lee warned during announcements. “Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It’s eyes—” he shuddered.

Seeing Lee like that make Draco feel queasy, the older camper was always fiery in his tirade to treat campers and lecture fools on common mistakes at the archery range. Seeing him distraught and worse for wear made Draco uncomfortable aware that something big was nearer than they tough.  

“You did well, Lee,” Chiron patted him on the shoulder. “Everyone, stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before.”

“Aye,” Quintus said from the head table. “And it will happen again. More and more frequently.”

The campers murmured among themselves. Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp.

Athena and Are’s cabin exchanged glances. Not only Annabeth and Clarisse -whatever was their secret project- but all their members. Children of the gods of war, they could feel something big was coming.

Sherman and he exchanged a look, they needed to speed up the new campers’ training. Draco had to admit that if Luke was indeed recruiting campers, it was a hell good strategy, they trained them and then Luke turned them against them.

The camp had around eighty campers, nothing compared to three years ago when they had a hundred, or when Draco started camp, their numbers had then reached almost two hundred.

Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

“This is a good reason for new war games, “Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. “We’ll see how you all do with that tonight.”

Confused glances were exchanged, what was Quintus talking about? Draco really hoped it had nothing to do with the ominous crates he saw when he went to play with Mrs. O’Leary the other day.

“Yes…” Chiron said. “Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat.” He raised his goblet. “To the gods.”

-

Breakfast had finished with a queasy mood, some people lingered at their designed tables. Others went to their activities or to talk around to other campers. All Athena cabins had decided to stay behind and discuss strategy plans, to later present them to the other cabins.

Or that was the intention, Malcom suddenly thumped his head at the table with a suffering groan. Sian and Susan snickered at his side. Draco could only stare at his brother as if he had gone crazy.

“What’s gotten into you?” Snapped Taylor -Tall girl, one of the oldest at camp, with olive skin, cloudy grey eyes and dirty blond hair- she was always in bad mood in the mornings, grumbling under her breath about the limitations on coffee consumption.

“Annabeth, she’s at Poseidon’s table”

Like possessed all cabin six turned their heads in unison, not caring for subtlety. Sure enough, there was Annabeth comfy seated at said table, clearly discussing something with Percy and Grover.

The campers that had stayed behind were also staring at the scene, Quintus wasn’t doing anything except looking a little bit uncomfortable. Draco was glad Mr. D had ditched them, if not his sister would have ended up turned into a squirrel or something.

“I can feel the glares from Aphrodite cabin” Hissed Susan in distaste.

Draco turned around a little to get a clear view of said table. To his dismay Drew was one of the ones still seating there, gossiping, and throwing meaningful glances towards the trio.

As if sensing his distraught, Drew turned his way. Accurately landing her eyes on him from across the tables, she wiggled her eyebrows at him, making Draco groan in exasperation.

The rumors at camp would get wild, great.

“So, how long do you think it would take for them to get together?” Malcom said casually, while Sian took a sheet out of somewhere and started to write down everyone’s responses.

Draco glared at them, they sure weren’t…were they?

“Ten drachmas that it takes them…until the end of summer” Susan said.

“Next year” Taylor deadpanned

“Are you seriously making bets?” Draco spluttered when he noticed the exchange of money and got a peek at the sheet. It was an ‘official’ betting sheet, provided by the Stoll brothers, the whole camp was on this.

“Sush it Drake, let the grownups talk”

“I’d tell her” Draco grumbled under his breath, if Annabeth ever got a wind of this, she would murder them while they slept.

“If you do, you will wake up in the middle of the lake”

“You wouldn’t dare” he said with fake confidence, maybe his siblings wouldn’t do it, but Conner Stoll, definitely, would.

-

Later that day, after dinner all camp gathered around at the dinning pavilion, it was a little like getting ready for capture the flag. Draco had to help Drew with her armor since she had just painted and filled her nails. They looked sharp, and Draco was wary of them while he hastened the sides of the chest plate.

Honestly, some campers often shoved aside the Aphrodite kids for their looks and shiny attitudes. But Draco knew they could be vicious.

Last winter cold war towards the Hunters was his point of reference. That and all the times he had got to go to the infirmary due to deep scratches caused by a pissed Drew.

Sometime during the day, the crates in the arena had disappeared, it didn’t sit well with Draco, those crates were huge, and they moved, so whatever had been inside them had been tossed into the woods.

“Right,” Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. “Gather ’round.” He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost.

Draco had to hide his smirk behind his shield when he heard the startled screams of the campers closer to the man, Mrs. O’Leary was running around Quintus making the ground tremble.

“You will be in teams of two,” Quintus announced.

But before Draco could snatch away Sherman or be snatched away by Drew. Quintus yelled over the commotion making everyone complain and groan. The teams were already chosen.

“Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course…you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive.”

Uh? It sounded pretty simple, they just had to find one monster -whatever it was- and take the package, check if it was the one. Quite the easy task, if one counted the years, months, days of training everyone had for that exact task, banishing monsters.

“I will now announce your partners,” Quintus said. “There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining.” Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names.

Draco was having slight suspicious that their sword trainer was much more observant than they tough. He had clearly paired them up considering combat technique and personal preferences.

She had put Beckendorf with Silena, no surprise there, one would have to be blind to not see their obvious flirting. Draco would pay to see how they battled together.

Travis and Connor; Pollux and Castor; Annabeth and Percy, as if there was any doubt about those.

There were also strange combos, like Clarisse with Lee or Sherman with Katie Gardner -from the Demeter cabin- or Grover and Tyson -which had been curiously the only pairing where both members protested.

Draco himself was paired with Drew, much to the latest delight.

 “Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!”

-

Draco and Drew had come up with a compromise, Draco would scout from the top of a three while Drew guarded the base.

He had wanted to go all out and star scouting from the ground. Drew had pointed out that, one, no way in Hades would she aimlessly run around the woods ruining her hair without knowing what they were combatting first, and two, Draco had better chance at spotting and taking the monster by surprise from his height advantage point.

Which, fair, he sometimes forgot he was the son of the goddess of strategy.

After some tense silence Draco saw it, a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as a sword. A Scorpion. Thank the gods it was not a spider.

Shivering at the thought of a spider that big, he made his way to solid ground to report the sighting and start planning.

“A what now?” Drew asked perplexed after his description of the monster.

“Scorpion”

“Oh, thank the gods it’s not any other type of arachnid” she said mischievously but he could see she was also grateful.

“My thoughts exactly”

“I never got Athena’s cabin terror of spiders” Draco rolled his eyes; it was not as if Drew wanted to combat a spider that big, he knew for a fact that she didn’t like them either.

But it was a common thing at camp, make fun of the terror the Athena cabin had for spiders. Draco still loathed the Stoll brothers for shoving plastic -very realistic- spiders inside their cabin that one Halloween when almost everyone stayed behind to go trick or treating.

“They hate us, we hate them, end of story”

“So, what do we do?”

Quite grateful for the change of topic, Draco started to plan a strategy. Eyeing the bag that Drew carried around -It had weapons, make-up, and some other things he didn’t see the point of carrying around, but Drew had insisted on bringing it.

“What weapons do you have?”

Draco’s eyes opened comically when Drew practically put her entire arm inside the bag. He was sure that thing was magical, maybe an artifact of some sorts.

He remembered there being spells for creating literal pocket dimensions, when he got to go to Livermore it would be one of the first things he could research -if he was ever going out of camp to go to school- it would be neat to have living quarters inside a trunk.

“Short sword, dagger, spartan xylic, Greek fire grenade, and…perfume?” Draco could see how a perfume could be a weapon, but now he was worried if this implied that Drew knew how to use it as a small fire thrower “And of course, myself”

He had to roll his eyes at that last one, his friend had a talent for charm speak, a talent exclusive to Aphrodite’s children. She didn’t like to advertise it that much, because none other of the current occupants at cabin ten had said power, not even Silena.

Draco really appreciated that she was comfortable enough around them to speak freely about her powers, and to use them when no one else was watching.

“Do you think you can lure it to a clearing?”

“You offend me honey”

The battle wasn’t that complicated, it was only one monster against two trained demigods, he would be very offended if it took them more time than necessary.

Drew lured the scorpion into a clearing where Draco had put some traps and was waiting on top of a tree. The traps activated; the scorpion was trapped. It started to trash but before he could attempt any scape Draco landed on top of it and drew his daggers on its head. Killing it in a puff of golden dust.

“This better wash off” Grumbled Drew, she had been standing close enough to have monster dust all over her clothes and hair.

Draco chuckled at the utter disgusted face that his friend had, it ‘didn’t went with the outfit’ or something.

“It’s like glitter, you will have monster dust on you for days”

“Usually I’m impartial to glitter, but this? I hate it” and in a dramatic gesture she threw herself to the ground, one hand on the chest another to her forehead. Not really caring about the rest of monster dust that lied in the ground.

Letting her to her dramatics Draco landed near the silk package, which didn’t have any laurels. But did have some leaves…green leaves.

“It isn’t even the correct one”

“Great, I got glittered up for nothing” Now Drew was just complaining, she had started to make monster dust angels on the ground. Before Draco could reprimand her of insulting the dead-not dead? - remains of the monster, the conch was heard. The game had ended. “Wanna bet it’s either Clarisse and Lee or Annabeth and Percy?”

“Why not Silena and Beckendorf?”

“Those dorks may have lost themselves…in each other’s eyes” Draco rolled his eyes, Drew often made cheesy jokes about the love live of others that made him groan.

He was pretty sure she only did it to annoy people.

“Get up drama queen, we better return. I need a shower”

“Ditto”

-

It was just his luck that his sister disappeared. With Percy, out of all people. Why was it always Percy?

They had started to worry after they didn’t appear for ten minutes, not that long to be truly worried. But, hey, try to keep almost eighty demigods with DHA in the same place waiting for them with rumors of a possible attack on camp, and it was a question of time for them to panic.

So now they were searching in the woods, with torches and screaming their lungs out. Out of nowhere, after an hour of searching, Tyson started to run towards the ‘Zeus’s fist’ rocks. The rest of them followed behind in a hurry.

“Percy! Annabeth!” Tyson’s voice bellowed the loudest.

There they were, Annabeth and Percy looked clearly confused and didn’t have any wound that could explain their disappearance. Draco had to roll his eyes at Drew’s knowing look send his way, there was no way his sister had gone to make out with the guy letting all camp worry for them. He didn’t want to think about that.

Clarisse took charge of the group of people when she noticed the pair, starting to almost sprint to their side; clearly distressed by something. Draco didn’t know she even liked Percy…or maybe she cared somehow for Annabeth, who knew.

“Where have you two been?” Clarisse demanded. “We’ve been looking forever.”

No one could hear Percy’s response due to the distance, practically running as they got closer. Right behind Chiron, Tyson and Grover, the ones that were the most worried about them.

Draco himself cleared a path for himself with elbows and shoving people aside to stand near his sister -the rest of his siblings had been in another search party- She looked fine but had a hint of fear on her eyes while glancing occasionally to the boulders, as if something may come out of them at any minute to attack them.

“Percy!” Tyson said. “You are, okay?”

“We’re fine,” Percy said. “We fell in a hole.” All campers exchanged skeptical glances between Annabeth and Percy, raised eyebrows that clearly implied that maybe something else happened. Percy went completely red. Which wasn’t helping the rumors that the Aphrodite cabin was already spreading. “Honest!”

“There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute.”

“You’ve been missing for almost an hour,” Chiron said. “The game is over.”

Clarisse for some reason looked queasy at the word hole for some reason. Draco felt bad that they didn’t have time to celebrate her and Lee’s winning, she even was wearing the promised the gold daggers, but the scare of the disappearance of two campers made everyone quickly forget about the previous game results. Specially when the winner herself started to act strange as soon as word got out about the missing persons.

 “A hole?” she said suspiciously.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers. “Chiron…maybe we should talk about this at the Big House.”

What were they talking about? He glared around only to receive shrugs, no one knew what they were talking either. Clarisse went pale and Draco had the suspicious that whatever the big secret was, it would compromise camp’s security.

Clarisse gasped. “You found it, didn’t you?”

Percy looked as confused as all, Draco mentally scoffed, the older teen seemed to be confused a lot. Maybe he should get him some books in general Greek mythology knowledge.

Annabeth bit her lip. “I—Yeah. Yeah, we did.”

“Annie! What’s going on?” It was such a serious situation that his sister didn’t even mention or recognized the nickname she so hated. The situation was serious.

Annabeth only took his hand and squeezed it, eyes betraying nervousness.

“I’ll tell you all later”

“Tonight, is not the right time, and this is not the right place.” Chiron stared at boulders as if he’d just noticed how dangerous they were. “All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!”

-

Draco was bored, there was a council going on right now at the arena and the only thing on his mind right then was to train -Annabeth had vaguely told their cabin about an entrance of sorts to the labyrinth and that drove them up in a frenzy for training and strategizing- so he was wandering around the woods trying to find a suitable space to train without nosy nymphs who would get mad at him if he even dared to breath in their tree direction wrong.

The rest of his siblings were anxiously waiting for the council verdict back at the cabin and Draco could only take so many hours with them huddled inside the cabin without maiming anyone.

After the third time Malcom challenged someone to play battleship, the fourth time Sian had moved wooden pieces around on the strategy map of camp, the fifth time Taylor complained about the heat, the tenth time he had to dodge a pillow…Draco was done, he loved his siblings, really, but not when they were all buzzing with pent up energy.

At a distance he could see his favorite member of the Hermes cabin, waving a ‘stick’ around producing small lights of different colors. Weren’t them too in the open to be doing that? Or was it that demigods were ok to do magic around?

Draco hadn’t been able to read more about American magical society, aside from the few things that were related to the Greeks, so he was curious. Making as little sound as possible, he positioned himself behind the teenager.

“Lou! What are you doing?”

The dark-haired teen screamed and dropped to the ground with a loud thud, startled by his sudden appearance. Draco chuckled a little, it was sometimes too easy to scare Lou Ellen.

“Drake! Are you a ninja or something? You almost give me a heart attack”

Ignoring the grumble and mumbled curses, Draco walked closer to the ‘stick’ that Lou Ellen had thrown away when they jumped up in surprise.

Tsking in his mind about how careless they were being. If his ‘dear’ grandmother saw this sloppiness she would have screamed and thrown some ‘harmless’ spells in warning.

Putting away the thoughts of his magical upbring aside -inside a mental box he would not touch with a ten feet pole- Draco examined the wand with curiosity. Not lifting it from the ground, first rule he was taught, there are some wands that react badly if someone else aside from their owner picked them up.

Aside from the fact that it was very poor manners to take another’s wand without asking first.

“Is that a…. stick?” Draco purposefully misnamed the item, magical mortals -he had decided to refer to them like that, wizard or witch or wixen were sometimes too confusing- in general got irked when one misnamed magical things, like, wands.

It was very satisfying to watch Lou Ellen spluttering with their words, their face was one of clearly internal turmoil. Fighting with themselves to tell the truth, or to let him keep calling the object a stick.

“What? No?! It’s a…yeah, it’s a stick”

“Do you think the statue of secrecy applies to demigods?”

Lou sat there, mouth opening and closing clearly taken aback for the fact that Draco knew. He chuckled to himself when, after a few minutes, Lou finally put their words together.

“You know?”

“Of course, I know. And you are not very subtle”

Lou mostly used magic based on the mist -Draco really wanted to know what the difference between mist magic and mortal magic was- but they often adopted certain body poses when casting that resembled a little bit too much someone casting with a wand.

“I had to practice!” Lou protested, finally getting themselves up from the ground. Glaring daggers at Draco for deceiving them.

“Aren’t you afraid to activate the track?” He distracted, not really to reveal all his ‘tragic’ backstory to them, not yet.

Thankfully Lou seemed to take the hint and went along with the change.

“The, what now? That kind of thing only exist in Europe”

“What?”

“It depends on the school, but Salem has wands programed up to an hour per day approved to practice on holidays, you just have to do it out of no-majs way. It’s common knowledge…unless”

“I was born in Britain”

“That explains some things”

“Hey!”

The rest of the day passed with them on the woods, chatting away about magical America and some differences Draco seemed safe sharing.

But when they returned, the ambient was somber. He shouldn’t have left the cabin, there was a quest…and his sister was leading it.

-

Despite his half-hearted protests about Annabeth going on a quest, again -He gave up when she decided to disappear at sea- the next morning the questers were up and ready to go.

Almost all campers decided to go wish them well. Or something like that, since the counselors finally revealed to camp about the very real possibility of an invasion coming through the rocks, a couple of tents had been set up. For the moment there were no actual patrol schedules, but it was a question of time.

Last night Annabeth had debriefed the lot of them in what to do in case of certain things, like the real but not very probable, appearance of scouts from Luke’s army at the entrance to the labyrinth.

Malcom was in charge, much to Taylor’s chagrin, but he was the best with strategy and the one who got along with Ares’ cabin enough to come up with reasonable plans.

Draco was distracting himself petting Mrs. O’Leary watching the ‘questers’ exchange some words. Some campers shared Chiron’s concern about the implications of taking four people instead of the traditional three -Draco would like to point out that the winter’s quest demanded five people to go, but well…it did ask for them. If not, it was the norm to only send three- the ambient was tense with nervous anticipation.

Beckendorf was already moving his campers around setting up defensive traps, it was a matter of time before Clarisse assigned patrols and started intensive training; and Malcom sequestered half Athena cabin away to strategize.

Sherman was standing next to him, the only brave -idiot, said Austin- enough to stand so close to the hellhound. Draco could practically feel the frown his friend was sending the questers, and he wasn’t even in his line of sight.

“Why is it always them?” Grumbled Sherman under his breath.

For a lot of campers, quests were ways to prove themselves to their godly parents, hence why Annabeth really wanted to go on a quest three years ago.

Some campers had started to get annoyed when it seemed that only a group of people seemed to get quests nowadays.

Not as if Draco would like to go on a suicide mission, but Sherman and a lot of Ares’ kids really wanted to prove themselves on the outside world, and to their dad. Which Draco didn’t get, Ares sometimes sounded like an arse, but whom was him to judge a god?

“What, you want to go in there too?”

“No…Clarisse prohibited us from even bringing it up…she…” Sherman’s frown transformed in a grimace.

Draco rectified his thoughts, Owen -Clarisse’s older brother- would be the one in charge then. The older girl had been distant lately, and Draco could tell that the Ares’ kids weren’t taking it that well. Emotional comfort wasn’t really a thing for them, that was why they had the Aphrodite cabin.

He really hoped Clarisse was at least talking with Selina about what she was going through.

“Chris is still…”

“Yeah…”

“I’m sure Pollux and Castor can keep it at bay until Mr. D gets here”

Draco wasn’t that close with the twins, they preferred to hang out with the Demeter cabin and the satyrs. But they always were around if you needed help, and in Chris case it was much appreciated.

“I hope so…”

“Let’s go, they would put us on the worst schedule for guarding if we are late” Draco gestured to the tents, his sister and her group was gone by now. He mentally prayed for their safety.

-

Draco was taking a break on top of a tree in the forest. The training had been harsh recently, Quintus had become quite adamant on defense and Clarisse and Owen oversaw sparing sessions -With Clarisse constant bad mood a lot of people ended at the infirmary- so he was pretty roughed up.

He frowned when he noticed a shimmering in front of him, but before he could overthink it. An IM message was right in front of him. Nico was in it, looking quite tired, his hair was longer, and his clothes were completely different. The big black sword was a nice touch.

“N..Nico?” A lot of emotions were rapidly playing on his head; relief, worry, frustration.

“Hey Drake”

“Where are you? Are you ok? Don’t scare me like that! I tough something bad happened to you, Percy didn’t tell us anything and with Luke recruiting demigods, I thought…” He thought he died, or worse that Luke had gotten a hold of him. Nico seemed clearly uncomfortable with his ramble.

It hurt Draco’s heart to realize that his friend tough no one was worried for him “You look like shit” his brain decided to say.

“Language!”

“You are such a grandpa” Draco joked but apparently, he said something wrong, he could see how Nico physically recoiled from the IM “Nico?”

“This was a mistake…take care Drake”

“Don’t you dare Di Angelo! Nicolas!”

As soon as he said that Nico made a hand gesture and the IM call ended. Draco’s frustration was met with only the sound of the birds.

That was the anticlimactic end of the first contact he had with Nico in five months and Draco was glad that at least he was now sure that Nico was alive…for now.

-

The notice from the sudden eruption of mount St. Helen’s didn’t reached camp immediately, not until a very hysteric Annabeth appeared at camp. It was not a normal natural disaster, apparently it had got everything to do with Luke’s plan, and Percy’s powers and wasn’t that concerning.

Annabeth first debriefed with Chiron, but the rumor mill at camp soon caught up, soon everyone was speculating what had happened with Percy.

Some very nasty Ares’ kids even suggested that he was dead, Chiron only said that they will wait for at least two weeks to declare anything.

That only seemed to make Annabeth more worried. She had started to get out her frustrations at training, now every member of Athena cabin had some nasty bruises all over.

One week in and with no news from Percy, everyone had started to think the worst. Athena cabin had started to weave Percy’s burial shroud -like actual weave, from scratch and all- Annabeth had refused at first to even stare at it, even going as far as hiding the materials.

But she gave up after a few days, focusing more on training the ‘troops’ than any burial ritual preparation.

It was late evening and almost all Athena’s campers were at the cabin. Draco and some others were at the ‘strategy’ table, moving around pieces to try and visualize any and all possible scenarios. Austin was there at Draco’s left, looking quite uncomfortable with all the serious looking grey eyed people around him.

The door suddenly banged open, and it showed Annabeth, sweaty, dirt covered Annabeth with an arrow embedded in her chest plate at her left shoulder. Draco really hoped that it was only the armor the arrow pierced. Malcom was right behind him looking worried.

“Annabeth, please…”

“I said I’m fine”

Before any argument could break out at Athena’s cabin, really, his siblings were this close to stage an intervention. Austin spoke in a deadpan.

“You have an arrow sticking out of your shoulder, the bags under your eyes have bags and I’m pretty sure you skipped at least one meal this day” Words seemed to die before they could be formed, Annabeth was now glaring at Austin as if he had stolen her sketchbook or something. But his friend, too used to Draco’s antics, didn’t even blink “As a son of Apollo, my diagnosis is…you are not fine”

“What are you doing here, Lake”

“Resorting to last names…I’m clearly not wanted here. I’ll leave you to your drama.” Nodding his head, still not externally reacting Austin stood up and looked at the small wooden pieces scattered around. With a grimace he turned to talk to everyone there, not really wanting to go, but realizing that they needed some privacy for this.  Once at the door he glanced Draco’s way with a small smile “See you later Drake. Make sure to send her to the infirmary or I’ll send Lee to get her”

After Austin was gone, they all just stood there, clearly wary of Annabeth’s mood. Well at least the ones that were younger than her, Draco’s oldest siblings seemed to be irritated.

“He was here in Apollo cabin’s representation to coordinate the relieve efforts once the battle starts” Hissed Sian under his breath, glaring daggers at their sister who stubbornly didn’t let it go and decided to stand there, arms crossed over her chest -arrow and all- glaring at everyone that even seemed to want to add to the conversation.

Raymond being the oldest present threw his hands up exasperated with large steps he positioned himself in front of Annabeth and started to shake her as if that would make her regain her senses, making the arrow crumble to the ground, thank the gods it had not pierced the armor -Draco would really miss the older teen when he went for college next year, he usually was the one to put some sense in their lives- after a while were she kept glaring daggers, Raymond sighed.

“Owlet, please, you are just hurting yourself” The dark-skinned young man whispered defeated, Owlet, little owl or any other related nicknames were usually reserved for situations like these.

Naming each other after variations of their mother’s sacred animals always marked when things where they wanted to convey, they really cared for each other.

That seemed to break Annabeth’s posture a little as she left herself be hugged by the taller young man.

“He…he can’t be…”

All the frustration and pent-up energy seemed to dissipate. The rest of his siblings looked at a loss of words, everyone knew why Annabeth was acting that way -gossips aside- Percy was her best friend, and it broke everyone’s heart to see their usually strong-willed sister like that.

“There’s still one week to go…who knows, maybe Percy Jackson would surprise us once more” Sian joked.

“Don’t jinx it, we have been working hard on weaving this thing from scratch” Groaned Taylor staring mournfully at the small weaving table at the corner. The shroud was almost done.

“Shut it Taylor” snorted Annabeth, a wet laugh escaping her lips.

They ended up sleeping at the center of the cabin in a dog pile, but Annabeth at least stopped snapping at everyone.

-

Tomorrow would be the burial ceremony, and there was no one that could handle Annabeth at that moment. She was not crying just because she was that stubborn, but the tension at Athena’s cabin was so thick one could cut it with a butter knife.

Draco had fled the place as soon as he noticed that Susan and Taylor had all the intentions to talk to Annabeth about the ‘situation’. Malcom had gone out, shroud in hand, afraid that Annabeth would destroy it in a grieve induced rage fit.

He himself had gone to Hermes cabin, Lou Ellen had offered not long ago to show him their schoolbooks and Draco felt it was a good time as any to lose himself trying to decipher magic books.

He wasn’t hiding, no sir.

“Ok, spill it” Lou Ellen declared exasperated dropping the herbology book back to their lap. They were on top of the bed while Draco was resting his back to the side, sitting on the ground. Lou had lent him a book in native American wandless magic that he found fascinating, while Lou was reading their summer herbology assignment.

“What?”

“You are constantly glaring at the door, waiting for someone to come in”

Maybe Draco hadn’t been as fascinated as he wanted to be, but he was distressed. Annabeth had been weird all day, everyone had been weird all day. Even the kids who didn’t knew Percy.

It didn’t helped that the satyrs were also down for Grover’s disappearance and that the Nymphs were trying in vain to cheer up Grover’s girlfriend. Camp felt depressed and that made him uncomfortably aware of their ‘mortality’.

“We are practically breaking the law here” Draco tried instead, playfully holding up his book to make his point. Lou Ellen hadn’t responded his question about the statue of secrecy and demigods, he was pretty sure that it counted if they exposed magical mortals to Greek mortals and vice versa. And wasn’t ready to go to jail “Of course I’ll be cautious”

“As if anyone in Hermes cabin would care about old books” Retorted Lou Ellen rolling their eyes “What’s on your mind Nis”

“For the last time, my full name is not Draconis…Annabeth, she…she’s not taking it well”

No one at camp, really. Not even Draco and he didn’t even liked Percy that much.

Lou stared at him in silence, making them mind they sat at his side. Shoulders touching and voices a whisper. Lou didn’t know Percy personally, there hadn’t really be time for them to get to know each other, but Draco was sure that they knew about them.

Everyone at camp knew about the kid who defeated the minotaur at age twelve.

“They…they w-were best friends, weren’t they? How would you feel if something similar happened to one of your siblings? Or Sherman? Or Austin? Or Drew? Or….me?”

Draco grimaced, it was telling how Lou didn’t asked about how would he feel if it was one of his mortal family. The situations were way different. He didn’t know how he would react if someone told him that his great-grandparent had died.  Or Kreatcher, or Mimpsy -Walburga Black could go rot in hell for all he cared.

But if any of camp, any of his closest friends, his closest family were to disappear the way Percy did…

“I’ll be devastated” His voice broke, choking down a sob. That was why he felt so uncomfortable being around Annabeth right there because he saw himself in how she reacted, how she handled it. -Draco was not proud to admit that he reacted similar when Nico disappeared, he still snaps at everyone that even whispered a bad speculation about his friend- He saw one possible future that he dreaded the most. Someone close to him dying.

“Oh Ly”

Lou Ellen was side hugging him; tears were blurring his vision, but Draco didn’t care. He was scared, what would be of them if the primordial arose? If Kronos won? Would they die? Would his family disappear? …. would he be alone again?

“I should have never told you my full name if I knew you would come up with ridiculous nicknames”

“Shut it DL, accept the love”

“DL? What am I? a wannabe DJ?” Draco chuckled a little bit, a wet sad laugh escaping him. He really adored his friends “Thanks Lou”

“Any time”

-

Everyone was gathered at the amphitheater. The ambient was somber and everyone, for once, kept their full attention to the front. The special campfire that reflected camp’s mood was deep purple. Up front at the center was a silver goblet that held Greek green fire.

Chiron cleared his throat, Draco wondered how many heroes the ancient master had had to bury, and the thought just made him more depressed.

They didn’t deserve it, they should have the opportunity to grow up, go to college, get married, die of old age.

“We are all here, reunited to honor Perseus Achilles Jackson” Started Chiron, standing at the side, not really looking at them “Son of Poseidon, dear friend, survivor of three quests…lost on his fourth one”

Annabeth was upfront, standing at Chiron’s side. Draco squeezed Malcom’s hand when he heard the shuddering breaths of his siter. She was trying not to cry.

“After two weeks we have to assume he is dead” Chiron said. “After so long a silence, it is unlikely our prayers will be answered. I have asked his best surviving friend to do the final honors.”

Annabeth clearly hadn’t sleep last night, clearly, she had been crying, but she stood strong, and Draco admired her more for that. She took the green silk with as if it was made from glass and would break at any sudden movement -the specific tone of green was a sea green that resembled Percy’s eyes, one of the reasons Annabeth was so adamant to destroy the thing when they first started making it- with shaky steps she took the cloth closer to the fire.

“He was probably the bravest friend I’ve ever had. He…” Maybe his sister was going mad because she suddenly looked livid, as if they weren’t honoring one of her friends. Then she pointed an accusatory finger towards the other side of the group, right behind everyone’s backs “He’s right there!”

Heads turned so fast that Draco made himself dizzy, but right there was Percy Jackson, looking unharmed.

“Sian so jinxed it” Muttered Taylor at his side.

“Shut it Tay” mumbled Raymond, almost everyone was staring dumbfounded at the son of Poseidon.

A bunch of campers started to surround Percy, relieved faces all over the place. Beckendorf was the first to properly reach the teen and promptly clapped a hand to his back.

“Percy!” Beckendorf grinned.

Draco was near enough to the Ares campers to catch their grumblings but even them had to admit that it was not as heated as it used to be. Even Clarisse just rolled her eyes at the whole scene, like she was expecting it and it was just part of the numerous dramatic antics of one Percy Jackson.

“Well,” Chiron sighed with obvious relief. “I don’t believe I’ve ever been happier to see a camper return. But you must tell me—”

Before Chiron or anyone else could put any word in the matter Annabeth seemed to come out of her small world and practically pushed everyone aside by sheer force of will.

Some campers were about to snap back at her but thought better of it when they saw the thunderous glare, she was sending Percy.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” And doing a very contradicting thing, some campers were expecting her to punch Percy in the stomach or something, his sister went, and hugged Percy so tight Draco would swear he heard some ribs cracking.

Draco was too far to hear what they were saying but Annabeth had Percy firmly planted in front of her by the shoulders, clearly checking for injuries. It was not as they wanted to intrude -aside from the Aphrodite cabin-but everyone was just so shocked that no one thought of moving.

“LOST?” It was that scream that made everyone return to their senses. Some started to move to get a better view of what was happening. Chiron seemed to realize that they now have the camp’s undivided attention and decided that out in the open was not the place to discuss things.

“Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private, shall we? The rest of you, back to your normal activities!”

All camp had great view to see how the centaur picked up the teens from the hem of their clothes as if they weighted nothing and galloped toward the Big House.

“Well, that was anticlimactic” Mumbled Sian, watching the scene with amusement.

“What do we do with this?” Susan had gone to put out the fire and retrieve the piece of clothing, frowning at it as if it had offended her entire family.

“Burn it? Suggested Malcom.

“Oh, heck no, I spent too many hours weaving that thing to just burn it up” Protested Taylor. She had been the one to weave the pattern, being the best at weaving. Draco was sure Taylor wanted to be a textile engineer.

She was fuming glaring daggers at everyone that approached the cloth.

“Wasn’t that its purpose tough?” Replied Sian frowning.

That’s how the Athena cabin returned to their cabin to debate what to do over the piece of clothing, Draco was just relieved that at least for now everyone was alive.

-

A mortal’s help was what they needed, a clearsighted mortal, who knew? Not them. Thank the gods that Percy, because it was always Percy, knew of someone with the clear sight.

Someone that Annabeth didn’t like and kept grumbling under her breath about it. Draco had disappeared to the arena as soon as she had started to ramble about how they didn’t need this person’s help.

Whom happened to be a girl, thank the gods that no one of Aphrodite cabin overhead that conversation because it would only fuel the theory about Annabeth and Percy’s relationship.

Not really wanting to be around to witness all the knowing looks exchanged between his siblings regarding Annabeth, he went to the arena.

Draco had been feeding Mrs. O’Leary since Quintus disappearance, it broke his heart every time he saw the canine so down. He really fell for her; Draco knew firsthand how devastating the sentiment of abandonment could be.

He only hopped the hellhound would get over it any time soon and start eating more -not as if he could talk about it, it took him almost five years to get over what happened with his great-grandfather.

“Don’t worry girl, I’m sure he’s alright” The hellhound whined at the remind of her master, Draco scratched her behind the ears, but not even that seemed to cheer her up.

“Why don’t we play some? Where did you put that…Mrs. O’Leary?” Suddenly she stood up, disbalancing his stand and making him thumb to the ground. She was moving her head around, like dogs did when trying to catch certain sounds.

Without warning she leaped for the forest, like she was chasing something. Draco stranded up as fast as he could, running with all his force behind the canine. But her size and ability running in four paws soon left Draco behind.

“Mrs. O’Leary wait!”

But Mrs. O’Leary was gone, as if she disappeared in smoke. Draco dropped himself backwards to the ground groaning. How did one lose a very big dog? How?

-

It had been lunch when Chiron appeared at the dining hall looking distressed. That immediately put everyone on edge, Chiron was usually calm, regardless of the situation, so if he was openly showing signs of worry, the situation was bad.

Seeing that he had the campers’ attention Chiron told them all what was agitating him.

“I have grave news campers…it appears our enemy has what he was after. We must prepare…”

And if a damp had broken campers busted into tears, some other started screaming. All the tension had been high waiting for news of the battle and in that moment, no one could take the pressure. Specially not the younger or newer campers.

“I don’t wanna die!”

“I want to go home”

“I want my mommy!”

Draco would lie if he said he had taken the news well. He was a trembling mess, pressing his face to his nearest sibling shoulder trying hard to be calm. The hysterics around him were not helping the situation.

Until someone banged something metallic against the table, immediately everyone halted. Clarisse was standing on top of Ares’ table, face determined and posture tense.

“Listen here short stacks! We have been preparing for this all summer!”

The younger kids -as if Draco could call them younger when most of them were the same age as him- had stopped crying. Fearful faces were replaced with determination.

“If we die, we die with honor!”

Draco gulped down his fear and almost as one the whole Athena cabin stood up.

“We will implement plan A15 for now, all to positions” Shouted Malcom, Clarisse nodded her approval towards him.

“Archers, with me!” Lee commanded.

“Are’s cabin! To the barricades!”

In a question of minutes all camp was armored, weapon in hand and ready to battle. Even the satyrs and nymphs had joined their ranks. Draco had a feeling they would need all the help they could find.

-

They surrounded the clearing where the Zeus’s Fist was. Campers were running around getting in positions.

The main on feet attack group was Ares’ cabin, armored to the teeth with long lances and big shields, all together forming the phalanx formation. Draco hoped that Sherman would be alright when all the chaos started.

The rest of his friends were scattered around. Austin was with the archer’s group, hiding in the woods, trying to gain an advantage position from the top of the trees. Lou Ellen and some other Hermes’s campers were at the base of the trunks ready to defend their long-range fighters.

No one was actually close to the entrance; the strategy was for the monsters to get into Hephaestus’s cabin traps. The Hephaestus cabin had set up traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth—razor wire, pits filled with pots of Greek fire, rows of sharpened sticks to deflect a charge. Beckendorf was manning two catapults the size of pickup trucks, already primed, and aimed at Zeus’s Fist. and from there, once the enemies decreased, they would attack.

If that didn’t stop them, Draco dreaded the enemy’s numbers. Malcom had planned this knowing that the enemy army was huge, but they didn’t know how much of them there were or what kind of monsters they had.

Draco oversaw the youngest campers, from ages nine to eleven. Three of them were from Hermes’s cabin, two from Demeter’s cabin and one from Apollo’s cabin.

He had at first protested it, he had enough battle training and experience to be put on the front line. Malcom argued that the youngers would better listen to someone their age when they got distressed, Draco had the feeling that his sibling simply wanted to maintain him out of the front lines; he relented after an intense gaze from Raymond.

His small battalion was in charge of carrying the supplies. The Demeter kids trailed behind Pollux and Castor with boxes full of water bottles and juice boxes. Draco and the four others had satchels full of ambrosia, bandages, and other concoctions. Assigned to trail behind the Apollo healers, whom were currently at the side, waiting around Athena’s cabin tent.

Draco was stuck with Will, who looked so nervous he may faint.

“Will, breath”

“How are you so calm?”

“Oh, I’m internally freaking out. But I don’t want Riley to start crying again” Draco pointed with his head at the youngest of them, she was from Hermes’s cabin and had just been at camp for about a month.

She had been the one crying the most when the hysteric started at the dining pavilion, she had been still crying when they reunited in the clearing to regroup. Draco had to calm her down for about five minutes, repeating repeatedly the orders of running back to the cabins if things were getting out of hand.

All the demigods below twelve had those orders, some would never follow them -like Draco- but it was out in the open, no one would blame them if they decided not to fight.

“You are right, I got this”

“And if not, we always have Lee” Draco joked, shoving shoulders with the teenager playfully, trying to dissolve the tense atmosphere.

Will may not be the best archer, but he was the best healer. They really needed him in his best condition.

“Right, right…ready to guard me, oh fierce Dragon?”

“Not really” The conversation was interrupted by the ground trembling. Draco shallowed down his nerves “But let’s find out”

Everyone in the clearing stopped what they were doing. Clarisse barked a single order: “Lock shields!” Then the Titan lord’s army exploded from the Labyrinth.

-

The first thing they were supposed to do was to retreat, observe the situation and go help where they were most needed; but as soon as the army of monsters broke out of the entrance, the healers and their small messengers were running around trying to attend the wounded. The quantity of monsters was overwhelming.

Draco watched with horror and morbid fascination as one of the Laistrygonian Gigants bellowed at the Ares phalanx, smashed it sideways with his club, and the entire cabin was thrown aside, a dozen warriors tossed to the wind like rag dolls.

“C’mon Drake, let’s go…We are taking the Ares cabin! Keep the efforts up!” Yelled Will, whom apparently had been staring in the same direction.

When they arrived at the pile of Ares’ kids, the lot of them were almost all already up and heading back to the battle. In fact, Clarisse was nowhere to be seen, for sure going back to the front lines as soon as she could put one foot in front of the other.

Draco inhaled deeply when he saw Sherman, his best friend, who had large gash on the shoulder and a lance still stuck to the wound.

“Sherm! Oh my god”

“I’m fine”

“Aside from a few scratches everyone seems alright…except for the lance in your shoulder!” Will added helpfully after going around diagnosing the remaining Ares kids, Draco recognized some of them, it was clear they were worried about Sherman’s wound.

“I’m fine, heal this so I can go”

“Right, right…” Will’s hands were shaking but after some deep breaths he regained his composure. Draco passed him whatever he wanted from the small first aid kit inside the satchel almost in a trance. The battle was real, this was real “This will do, it’s not deep. We have to save the ambrosia for really bad wounds”

“Fine by me…” Sherman stood up moved his arm around a little and nodded in their direction “stay safe Drake. C’mon special snowflakes! Keep going!”

They kept running around moving wounded campers out of the way and treating major wound on the ones that needed it. Draco almost threw up when they found the unresponsive body of one of the Dionisius twins.

Will shacked his head sadly and started to drag the boy away. Draco close behind on shaking legs.

Their numbers were going down, wounded and…d-dead campers lied around the battle ground. But the monsters only seemed to gain numbers, viciously attacking the demigods not really caring if they were friend or foe.

Argus and Athena’s warriors rushed forward to meet them. I saw Annabeth draw a sword and engage one of them.

Chiron calmly aimed arrow after arrow, taking down a monster with every shot. But more enemies just kept climbing out of the maze.

Another enemy warrior shot flaming arrows into the trees, sending our archers and dryads into a panic.

Draco was only standing up and running by pure force of will. His head hurt and his vision was blurry from the unshaded tears. Malcom was right, all his battle experience was in controlled situations, he had never had experience with vicious monsters like this.

But he kept going, the healers could not be delayed, lives depended on it.

A dozen dracaenae suddenly broke away from the main fight and slithered down the path that led toward camp, like they knew where they were going. Draco panicked when he noticed it, a gaze around told him that half of the younger campers had fled to the cabins. If they got out, they could burn down the entire place, completely unopposed.

Suddenly, a somehow familiar mop of dark hair appeared. They killed one of the serpent women. Draco could only stare in surprise as his supposedly lost friend made the earth tremble, and corpses from warriors arose from within the earth.

“Who’s that?”

“Nico, don’t you remember him?” Nico crumpled to his knees, clearly exhausted.

“No way…we have to…” Sadly they didn’t have time for him. Campers kept going down like flies all around them and it seemed that Nico was just down from exhaustion. He was not a priority at that moment.

Then things got worse, a forest fire had started. The flame arrows finally catching something dry enough to burn. Some campers where debating with themselves to rush to get the fires out, but it seemed no one needed to worry about it that much.

Percy Jackson had gone and done it again. A wall of water came rushing through the trees. It doused the fire, Juniper, Grover, and pretty much everything else.

Just when it seemed like the battle had balanced out again—like they might stand a chance—an unearthly shriek echoed out of the Labyrinth. Kampê shot into the sky, her bat wings fully extended. She landed on the top of Zeus’s Fist and surveyed the carnage. Her face was filled with evil glee.

The mutant animal heads growled at her waist. Snakes hissed and swirled around her legs. In her right hand she held a glittering ball of thread—Ariadne’s string—but she popped it into a lion’s mouth at her waist and drew her curved swords. The blades glowed green with poison.

Kampê screeched in triumph, and some of the campers screamed. Others tried to run and got trampled by hellhounds or giants.

Draco and Will had rushed to the trampled campers, trying to put them out of the disaster zone. Not really discerning between enemy demigods or others. They were after all the same, just kids trying to survive in a world that hated their guts.

Another tremor on the ground and Kampe was gone. Where Kampê had stood a moment before was a mountain of boulders, almost as tall as Zeus’s Fist. The only sign that the monster had ever existed were two green sword points sticking through the cracks. A cheer went up from the campers.

 But the monsters didn’t relent their attack, instead they grew vicious. Terrified of what would Kronos do to them if they returned defeated. One surprised Chiron with a glancing blow to the back legs, and he stumbled and fell. Six giants cried in glee and rushed forward.

Out of nowhere the most horrible sound anyone had ever hear resounded around the battlefield. It made every cell in Draco’s body tremble in fear.

It seemed to affect the monsters more, the forces of Kronos dropped their weapons and ran for their lives. The giants trampled the dracaenae trying to get into the Labyrinth first. Telekhines and hellhounds and enemy half-bloods scrambled after them. The tunnel rumbled shut, and the battle was over.

The end had been kind of anticlimactic, but Draco wasn’t complaining. The clearing was quiet except for the fires burning in the woods, and the cries of the wounded.

Will snapped him out of his stupor and they went around trying to help as many campers as they could. Will’s eyes showed hesitation every step they took, glancing back to the injured camper director.

“He would send us away” Draco startled Will when he spoke, it was clear the sandy blond kid wanted to rush and help Chiron.

“I know”

“Let…let’s focus on the others”

-

When things finally calmed down Draco could finally go to Nico’s side, he was standing near where he had seen him collapse. The grass for some reason was dried there, and Nico still looked like he could use a nap. Will had gone back first, telling Draco to go and check on his friends.

“Nico, are you ok?”

Nico stared blankly back at him, shrugging as in response. He was heavenly leaning on the three and his olive skin had a sickly tone to it.

“Hey Drake. I’m surprised you are not scared of me now”

Draco pressed his lips together and frowned.

“You can summon the dead, so what? Ares’ kids can also do it. Nico, if you haven’t come many more would have died”

“Not everyone would think like that” He didn’t like where this was going, the self-depreciating smile Nico was porting was getting on his nerves, it was as if he was just waiting for everyone to turn their backs to him.

“You saved us Nico! If someone says otherwise, I’ll stab them” Nico snorted, the movement seemed to disbalance him a little. Draco needed to drag him to the infirmary “C’mon you need to rest”

“I’m fin…e”

Nico almost dropped to the ground; Draco barely managed to save his head from banging into the ground.

“Why are all my friends like this?” He mumbled under his breath, starting to drag Nico towards camp.

-

Draco dropped by the infirmary after lunch, Nico was already up and shoving his belongings inside a small backpack. That was weird.

“Hey Neeks! How are you feeling?” His friend was suspiciously silent. Draco had noticed that the too bubbly kid he met months ago wasn’t the same. He almost regretting thinking that Nico needed a reality check last winter “Nico?”

“I’m…I’m going”

“Going where?”

“Anywhere” At Draco’s grimace, Nico added “This camp isn’t for me. There’s a reason they didn’t put a cabin to Hades here”

Which was fair, also, Hades? Who would have thought, Nico was a son of Hades! Now he saw why he was reluctant to stay at camp. Hades wasn’t even welcomed at Olympus!

“You want to find yourself, your place in the world” Draco could respect that, he had done the same when he was six. Nodding with a sad smile he decided to let his friend go “…fine, j-just be careful. Make sure to IM me if something bad happens”

“Sure…”

“I’m serious Di Angelo! Do you know how worried I was when you disappeared last winter?” Nico seemed uncomfortable at the remark, so Draco only shook his head and headed outside the infirmary. He hoped to see his friend someday again.  “Just, take care Nico”

-

Chiron had taken Lou aside the other day. After finally confirming Lou’s parentage, because apparently Hecate had been recruiting her children through dreams -Draco so called it- and had reached Lou Ellen not that much ago.

Lou had told Draco that they were not going to join the enemy forces, but Chiron had other things in mind. Now he was watching helplessly how his friend got all packed up, in other situation he would marble at the extension charms over their backpack, but right now he wanted to hug them and not let them go.  It was too risky.

“You don’t have to go Lou…what about Salem?”

“Circe is in this too, you know?” What did Circe had to do with anything? She was a minor god under Hecate’s domain, and sure she would be on the titan’s side. But it was such a random remark that Draco was at a loss of words. Lou snorted at his confused face “She’s the school’s headmistress”

“No way!” He really hoped it was true and not a trick to try and distract him “wicked”

Now he had one more reason to try and apply to Salem Wixen Institute. It sounded more and more interesting than any other school.

But that was not the point, as if sensing that he was not letting the topic drop, Lou sighed defeated.

“Don’t worry, my mom is very respectful of people’s decisions”

“So…she knows?”

“That I’m a spy? Yes, she’s aware”

Hecate was also the goddess of crossroads, so Draco supposed that she would value decisions to a certain extent. He didn’t know how to feel about it.

Sighing he dropped himself to the ground, he gave up, there was no way of changing Lou’s mind. Draco felt hopeless, he couldn’t stop Nico -not as if he tried that much- and now he couldn’t stop Lou.

“Be careful Lou”

“She’s my mom Drake” Wasn’t that the problem? Weren’t parents supposed to protect their children? Not using it to fight their wars!

“I know, but…just be careful”

“Would your own mother abandon you?” Lou quickly clicked their mouth up when they noticed the bitter look on Draco’s face.

“Seeing as she has never talk to me, not once in ten years…” He had given up not long ago trying to contact with his mother. Draco was still bitter that all of his siblings had at least one dream per month that had their mother in it, but not him, never him.

Sherman liked to joke that if he was so biter about it all he should join Luke’s side. But there was a problem with that, Draco would feel resentment against his mother, but Camp was home, and he will do everything he could to protect it.

“Drake…” Lou Ellen looked troubled, clearly regretting their wording. They dropped to the ground right beside him “Mom told me something when she talked to me…regarding you”

That made Draco stood up as if lighting had struck him, it was ominous when gods knew things about you, more so when said god was the goddess of magic and you were of magical birth.

“What did she say?”

Lou made some movements to crouch in front of him. Taking Draco by the shoulders, green eyes practically looking at his soul.

 “You…you are not supposed to exist Draco”

“Wh-what?”

Lou pursed their lips, clearly debating with themselves if it was a good idea to tell him. But the can of worms was already open. Draco needed answers. Finally relenting Lou nodded when they say something in Draco’s eyes.

“Mayor gods swore to not mend with mortal magical affairs or people…not after…and here you are”

“W-what do you mean?”

Apparently, that was all Lou would tell him, they stood up and grabbed their bag, walking calmly to the door. Acting as if they hadn’t just dropped a major information bomb on Draco.

“I hope we win this war” They were now at the door, hand on the handle. Draco practically jumped to his feet to run after them.

“Lou! Don’t you dare!”

“See you next summer Drake…”

And in a blink, Lou Ellen was gone. In a cloud of green mist.

Chapter Text

After last summer battle, no one was dumb enough to believe that it was over. With Percy alive -Draco trying not to think about this in an ominous way - there was the very real possibility of the big prophecy being about him.

And for some reason he couldn’t understand, Chiron let Percy go back home to ‘relax’.

Wouldn’t it be more logic to have him to train at camp?  

When he protested, Chiron told him it had to do with Percy’s powers and how they were connected to his emotional state. He wasn’t convinced.

It may be jealousy talking thought, Draco was stuck training while Percy and all the other not yearlong campers were out in the world ‘enjoying’ -as much as one could, with monster attacks here and there- their mortal-live style.

He, like the last three years, was the only one left of his cabin and from his close group of friends Sherman was the only one that stayed behind, which was a bad combination.

Without Austin or Drew to stop them they could get the most weird and wild ideas inside their minds.

Like trying to make a training automaton of their own despite not knowing a thing about them -which resulted in a small explosion, a one-month ban from the arts and crafts cabin and the ire of Beckendorf.

Some campers protested about the behavior, but it was in no one’s top priority to correct it. Not with the upcoming war. If they didn’t disturb any battle preparations, everyone left them to their antics.

The only one whom seemed worried about them was Will, and the kid sure could be stubborn.

The Apollo camper sole handily dragged Sherman and Draco out of the training arena after both ended up with sharp ‘common’ objects they found around piercing their armors; some even making them bleed.

Draco was not proud to announce that it had been an experiment to determine which improvised weapon could do the most damage. Not one of their brightest moments, but hey, now they knew at least fifty ways to stab someone with a plastic fork. Why would anyone carry around plastic cutlery? Maybe they were hungry in the middle of battle, who knew?

“Could you both stop this? Please?” Will had practically bandaged their whole bodies, not actually necessary but Draco suspected that Will used the bandage for other thing than disguise them as mummies.

“I don’t think that’s how bleeding works” Deadpanned Sherman, he had one of the biggest wounds that was still bleeding. A large gash on the right side of the abdomen that was painting the bandages red.

“The destructive behavior you idiot” Will sighed so hard he was afraid that his soul would leave him. He gave something to Sherman and proceeded to stare disapprovingly at both of them “I’ll have expected more of the son of the goddess of strategy”

Draco fought hard to not wiggle or move under Will’s stare. He had been subjected by the older kid’s judgement a little bit too much the last few days.

They talked about it once, how Draco felt bad for all the dead that happened in the battle of the labyrinth, how he couldn’t look in Mr. D’s direction without breaking down -Thank the gods Pollux was with his mortal mother because if Draco saw him, he would cry in the spot- Lee was gone and the remaining Apollo campers were so down that the days seemed cloudy.

In few words how wrong the world was and how it was Draco’s fault and what could he do to avoid another similar situation.

Will had called it survivors’ guilt. Which was…an accurate term. But he didn’t want to think about it.

But what else could he do? He hadn’t done anything useful last battle, maybe if he had been in the front lines, he could have saved someone.

Maybe if they managed to train new campers more efficiently the dead count would be zero, and everyone could return home with just small scratches. Or that was the logic behind the failed automaton.

“Drake, stop it please” Will pleaded, he had missed one of his daggers and Draco was attempting to cut the bandages that restricted him to the bed -because Will was that extra- Sherman had resigned himself to his bandage imprisonment and was just staring blankly at the ceiling “I’ll call Austin and tell him what you are doing…”

That stopped Draco dead on his tracks, one arm free from the bed. He turned to stare down Will so fast his neck cracked.

“Don’t you dare! He’s this close to get that invitation into the advanced music program!”

If Austin loss more school, he wouldn’t be able to apply to the program. Draco knew how important it was for his friend. He wouldn’t do that to him -because Draco knew that as soon as Will called Austin, he would drop everything and head to camp.

Sherman was out cold by now; whatever Will gave him was just that effective.

“Only if you sleep here the rest of the night, I often see your lights on at two in the morning”

Will also knew that the threat was more towards Austin than to him. And if the softie was willing to risk his brother, Draco had to admit they were being reckless. He dropped to the bed in a huff, willing himself to not protest despite the pain the movement gave him

They ended up staying at the infirmary for two days. Because apparently no one could say no to Will Solace.

-

Winter break had this year a surprising number of campers, but the holidays were not the thing that made everyone return. It was dread. The returning campers seemed to find necessary to train every minute they could.

Some had been training on their own at their homes, some others had begged their mortal parents for the opportunity of any source of combat-oriented instruction.

Camp’s normal activities had been temporarily forgotten, preparing for battle taking over everyone’s schedule.

Michel Yew -who was now the Apollo’s cabin counselor after…Lee died- had to intervene when some Hermes’ kids had started to train in secret inside their cabin at night. Stating that draining themselves up was not going to help anyone.

Younger and newer campers were the most desperate to get their bearings, dreading what would happen to them if another battle in such large scale as last time happened.

Monsters had been quiet, not even a glance of them anywhere around a mile of camp. That was worrisome, they were reuniting their forces, and after their last time Draco feared how many of them there were.

Because monsters didn’t die, they regenerated, but demigods did. Demigods where the only ones suffering losses on both sides on this war.

Draco often woke up screaming for Sherman, for Austin, for Drew, for Lou, for Nico, for his friends, for his family. Begging his unresponsive mother to keep them safe.

Despite knowing deep down that everything lied on their shoulders, that whatever may the future bring would be affected by the selfish wishes of the fates.

-

Austin and Drew were visiting camp for spring break, and Draco never felt so betrayed when he was manhandled out of the arena towards the canoe lake, tied up and being dragged around by the ankles, it was telling when no one batted an eye at the sight.

Will had ratted him out, Draco would make sure to get back at him somehow.

“Stop with the plotting Drake, leave Will alone” Has Draco told anyone how he got creeped out when Austin seemed to read his mind? He swore that it may be Apollo’s influence or something.

He had given up after his third attempt of escaping where Drew threatened to put pink bows all over him, not as if he hated pink, but it was amusing enough to be dragged around by the ankles, he didn’t want to add the bows to the picture.

“Yeah, even if he didn’t tell us anything you look bad enough to stage an intervention” Supplied Drew huffing a little trying to maintain peace with Austin.

“Is that what this is?” Draco protested at the girl, it was telling how Drew was risking her manicured hands to drag him around, he was just that loved. Lucky him “I don’t see you dragging Sherman aside!”

“We are not suicidal!” Drew, the vengeance incarnated purposefully dragged him over a patch of gravel.

“Oh, don’t worry we got some of the older Ares’ campers help” Austin chuckled to then drop him unceremoniously near the lake bankside.

“Of course, it was your idea” Grumbled Sherman somewhere to his left, when Draco finally managed to turn around, he had to contain his laughter. Sherman was drenched head to toe in a glittery gooey red mess and was tied up with bright neon pink ropes “Hey Drake, fancy meeting you here”

“What happened to you?”

“My dear siblings seemed adequate to have the Stoll’s help them. They were too eager to help”

“What did you do to them?” Draco had tears on his eyes of suppressed laughter. The Stoll brothers were known for being petty, so if they agreed to drag Sherman out and put him in that state in the process, Sherman may had done something to make the Stoll’s angry.

Seeing as there was no actual maiming it was something minor thought, Draco still shivered at what the brothers did to the Artemi’s hunter.

“Sush, and relax” Interrupted Austin, carrying a big umbrella over. Drew was carrying a small shovel and a bucket…wait a minute.

“Or we will make you” Drew threatened waving around the small shovel. Did…did they got kidnaped to have a beach day?

“Fine, whatever, let me go so I can go wash this out”

“My friends are crazy” Grumbled Draco under his breath, the world may as well end tomorrow and they were having a beach day. And it wasn’t even that sunny!

“Look who is talking!”

-

“Silena is acting weird” Drew suddenly dropped herself at Draco’s side at the stands near the training arena. He did not yelp, no sir.

It wasn’t weird for her to suddenly appear and tell him his worries, Aphrodite kids often spilled their guts to their friends. Muttering under his breath and pretending to not see Drew’s smirk Draco composed himself to regard his friend with a confused glance.

“We are this close to the end of the world, of course she’s acting weird”

“No, not that, idiot. She suddenly cried yesterday because of the results of a dumb tarot reading.” At that Draco gave her a weird look, tarot reading. Drew dismissed it as if it was normal “And she has been keeping something hidden inside her jewelry box! She never does that! Not even with the weird things Beckendorf does for her at the forges”

So, the real problem was that Drew wanted to take something borrowed from her sister and she started to act defensive of the jewelry box. Draco nodded to himself, Silena was know for being very compassionate and kind spirited, it was weird that she didn’t want to share something.

She even openly displayed the weird trinkets her boyfriend forged for her, which often didn’t match with the rest of her sibling’s idea of ‘fashionable’. Drew had often complained about how they were not ‘chick’ and how they clashed with Silena’s clothes.

“Maybe she’s just stressed out”

“We are all stressed out!”

Draco side hugged Drew, trying to be a source of comfort. Some people were not taking the pressure that well, and despite whatever Drew said, she was one of the people that was finding the whole ordeal a little bit too hard to digest.

The nasty rumors didn’t help, some bitter campers whispered about how Aphrodite cabin was useless in combat. It was taking a toll on his friend, and he just wanted to shut them up, but they couldn’t afford internal conflict. Not right now.

“Don’t worry about Silena, maybe she’s just…worried, she and Beckendorf are applying to college next summer, right?”

Louanne had gone crazy the year she had to apply to college. Those had been very strange days at Athena cabin…

“I hope it’s only just that…”

Ok, it was enough of depressing thoughts and things to get worried about.

“Heard you are going back to school on Monday, are you the middle school queen bee yet?” He teased, shoving Drew a little. “Do you have enough pink clothes for Wednesdays?”

The girl snorted at his sudden change of theme “I should have never dragged you to watch mean girls”

-

The days were getting warmer, but that didn’t meant Draco appreciated when the sun was the one waking him up. No, that was too bright to be the sun, the curtains were closed!

He groaned and buried his face in the mattress, it was too early for whatever this was. Draco swore if it was Will, trying to wake him up to help with target practice again he will maim the sun’s son, Austin’s brother or not.

“Who’s there?”

“Good to see you’re such a morning person” The voice made him stand up so fast he ended up splayed on the ground. In a tangled mess of blankets.

“Nico?”

The darkhaired chuckled a little at his predicament “Hey Drake”

“I knew I told you to IM me whenever, but I didn’t mean… four in the morning” They had talked a few times since Nico had decided to go out in the world last summer. Draco now knew about Nico’s missing memories and how he was trying to retrieve them.

They often bounced off ideas of whom Nico may have been. There weren’t many clues, and aside from information Nico got out of some ghosts they often ended up in dead end roads.

“How is it going? Any luck?”

“Not…much”

“I insist that maybe you are from Europe, Di Angelo sounds Italian and If my memory serves me right like seventy years ago there was a lot of…immigration…emigration…migration…you got my point”

“Seriously not a morning person” Draco rolled his eyes, sitting properly on the floor. He gave the older kid the stinky eye, noticing the eyebags and disheveled hair.

“As if you could talk ghost king, I’m pretty sure you haven’t slept at all. That’s the only reason you are awake”

Oh, no, he was transforming into Will. Nico stuck his tongue out at him, quite childish he may add, but considering that he was around twelve to thirteen years old in…body? Soul? Memories? That, it was quite a normal reaction.

“You got any pen and paper?”

Draco dropped to the ground with a groan. Since last summer the ones who were able to go out of camp were sending back reports, on Chiron’s orders, to get a general view of the activities of the enemies.

Someone must have told Hade’s son about it -it wasn’t Draco- and now he was stuck as Nico’s unofficial report writer, which was not a fun activity when both had dyslexia.

“Are you seriously going to made me write a report? At four in the morning?!”

“Do you want the information or not?”

“Whenever you visit camp, you owe me some candy” Draco grumbled under his breath as he stood up to retrieve some paper from one of the work desks. Good thing this was Athena cabin, which had a hideously large amount of paper and pens.

“Start writing Drake”

-

Draco knew that the apparent silence from the monsters all winter meant something, now camp kept receiving reports of monsters roaming all over the country. It appeared as if they had waited until the temperature rose to make their move.

The worrisome thing aside from that, was that Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill. Draco had read about the Greek gods, he had seen the overcrowded Hermes cabin, there was no way there were no new demigods.

So, either, they ended up dead or got recruited to join Krono’s army at a young age. And he couldn’t decide which one was worse. Fighting against clueless brainwashed kids didn’t sit well with him, Draco really hoped that at least Luke had some sort of age requirement, because he wasn’t comfortable thinking about little kids running around the decks of the haunted Princess Andromeda dodging monsters.

They for sure would only keep them as emergency food…

-

Draco had gone out early morning because he couldn’t sleep, he had taken Mrs. O’Leary with him after he passed the arena and heard her whimpers. Who needed horse riding when one had a hellhound? The fur was so soft that Draco could bury himself on it to die happily “Who’s a good girl?”

He got so distracted petting her, he didn’t notice the bulky figure that stood at the side, arms crossed, and a glare directed at him.

“Drake! You almost gave me a heart attack!” It was Beckendorf. Draco almost fell off the dog as he startled at the sudden voice, thank the gods he had a good gold on Mrs. O’Leary collar, if not he would have been made great friends with the ground.

“Sorry, sorry, but she kept whimpering and we don’t want accidents inside the arena”

“Tell me about it…has she eat?”

Beckendorf had been the one in charge of Mrs. O’Leary since Percy asked him to. Draco tried to not be offended Percy didn’t ask him, which fair, he wouldn’t let the ten-year-old in charge of a hellhound five times his size either.

“I was going to fed her after the walk” Maybe Beckendorf had been the better choice, the guy had even made a collar and some toys for the hellhound. And he always made sure she had eaten “You know, we should charge Percy for pet sitting”

“He asked me to take care of her, you are just here because you like her”

The Hephaestus’s son easily put him down from his perch on top of Mrs. O’Leary, as if Draco weighted nothing! He may weight less than some of the hammers Beckendorf used in the forge, but it was ridiculous how bulky the teen was.

He didn’t point it out thought, the last time he did he had been carried around camp like a sack of potatoes.

“I mean, yes, but still…How is going with the Greek-fire bombs?”

Beckendorf grimaced a little bit, Hephaestus cabin had been developing some weapons since last battle. Greek-fire had been one of the favorites, but it was hard to control.

That one time Sherman and he made the arts and craft cabin explode, Beckendorf had been mad at them for doing it near the Greek-fire supplies. Apparently, some meters to the left and the whole cabin would have been devoured by fire, all the occupants included.

“Still on the prototype stage…at least this time everyone conserved their eyebrows”

“Silena would kill you if you lost yours”

Draco chuckled, he could imagine her horrified face if her boyfriend suddenly one day turned up with no eyebrows and singed hair.

“Yeah…she will”

It had been idea to mention the Aphrodite cabin counselor, now Beckendorf was staring at nothing smiling to himself. Draco fake gaged at the side.

“Stop with the gooey eyes, I only can tolerate this cuteness after having breakfast”

Beckendorf rolled his eyes but started to trot in the direction of the dinning pavilion, Mrs. O’Leary had disappeared somewhere while they were talking. But there was nothing at the woods that could harm their friend, so Draco wasn’t really worried about her.

-

Summer had started and things weren’t looking good. Their numbers were lower than the year before. He felt anxious, there hadn’t been any news about Lou Ellen in a while. Chiron had told them to lie low when they were starting to get attention.

Camp now seemed something more like a military camp, despite the Stoll brothers pranks here and there, the ambient was gloomy. Not even the opportunity to go outside of camp in small missions was good enough to lift anyone’s spirits.

The eldest of Athena cabin had woken up quite early, not as early as the Apollo campers but there was barely any light out. It was a special day after all.

“What’s an owl doing here?” Taylor asked in a whisper, there in one of the trees sat an owl, a rare sight at camp.

“Mom it’s that you?” Susan asked hopefully, owls were related to Athena. Maybe their mom would finally break the silent treatment towards their youngest member. She still felt bad when Draco’s eyes dulled over whenever someone mentioned they had seen Athena on their dreams.

“As if” Scoffed Taylor, rolling her eyes.

“Well, someone is being optimistic today” Mumbled Malcom sleepily.

“Shut it. Now…who wants to do the honors?”

Sian smirked evilly while dumping a whole bucket of lake water on top of Draco, who promptly sat up and almost took out someone’s eye with the dagger he slept with. When the situation registered in his mind, he groaned and dropped back to his now drenched bed.

“I hate all of you!”

“Happy birthday!!” Chorused his siblings, even Annabeth, the traitor. Pranks on one’s birthday was an Athena cabin tradition, to keep the mind sharp and all that. Don’t tell the Hermes cabin.

So far Draco had been drenched in water, hanged upside down from a tree, have his toothpaste replaced with shaving cream and some other things.

“Just let me sleep” He did not care that the blankets were soaked, he buried himself in them. Raymond practically carried him out of bed to drop him unceremoniously in the middle of the cabin floor, drenched clothes, and everything. Raymond had decided to stay at camp another year, college would wait for him he said.

“No can do, c’mon we practically had to beg the Stoll’s to get a hold of this things”

“Lemon cookies!”

-

Sherman and Austin had gone in a mission, where all campers from Ares and Apollo cabins participated. It had been a raid at Philadelphia, some Satyr had reported some enemy demigod activity and after some discussion it was deemed necessary for both cabins to go. Large and close combat attack combined.

They didn’t really know what they would be walking into. So, they had being cautious sending both cabins at once. Thank the gods nothing happened.

Draco and Drew practically kidnaped their friends as soon as they arrived. They had some scratches but nothing else.

“How did it go? Everything turned right?” Drew was shoving Austin’s face right to left rather roughly. Apart from being covered by grim the archer didn’t have anything out of the ordinary.

“We are fine Drew”

Sherman on the other side had some nasty scratches all over his arms and a large gash at his shoulder hastily bandaged. Which wasn’t that unusual for the Ares camper, but his silence and furrowed eyebrows were telling. He was angry at something.

One would know if they made an Ares camper mad, their anger was silent, but the retribution was to be feared. It was usually quite violent, their father being the deity of instigating violence and all that.

“Shermy?” Draco asked uncertainly. Austin grimaced at Drew’s side.

“Sherm is mad that we get to keep the chariot” Draco hadn’t noticed the carriage, after all he was more preoccupied seeing if his friends were alright. But sure, Michael Yew was driving around camp a chariot…that was flying…how did he miss that?

It was a very neat chariot, Draco had already an image of himself on top of it. But judging by Michael’s bragging attitude right now, there was no way anyone outside Apollo cabin would get the chance to ride it.

“We were the ones leading the raid!” Exploded Sherman angrily.

“But we seized it” Protested weakly Austin. Clearly tired of a discussion they must have had all the way to camp.

“On who’s orders?” The dark-haired teenager huffed in anger, took Draco’s arm, and started to drag him towards Ares’s cabin “C’mon Drake we are going”

“Wait, what?”

Draco turned around helplessly trying to understand what was going on, taking care of not stumbling over his own feet. Austin smiled sadly at him, while Drew screamed at the top of her lungs a little bit too delighted with all the drama that was going around.

“I told you Papa will take you in the divorce!”

“Not funny Drew!” Giving up on trying to free his arm Draco started to trot along Sherman’s quick peace. This was wrong, Sherman always walked faster when he was upset “What’s wrong Sherm? If it’s about the chariot we can always sabotage it. Austin wouldn’t be that mad at us, I bet he’s only taking Michael’s side since it was his first mission as Apollo’s counselor…”

The sad smiles from earlier were telling. Whatever this conflict was about Austin was only participating due to it being a cabin against cabin kind of problem.

“It’s…it’s not that Drake” They had entered Ares cabin by now, Sherman’s siblings greeted Draco with a nod, the lot of them in various states of wounded. They were always the ones at the front lines, and not everyone seemed to appreciate that fact “Thanks for the concern thought, I’ll let you know if we take up your offer”

Draco grumbled under his breath; he didn’t like when his friends fought among them.

To his luck said friends knew how to hold grudges -Drew still brought up the accident about the melted make-up whenever they tried to make excuses about her ‘spa-day bounding’; Austin still give them the stink eye every time anyone brought up the fact that there were some instruments missing at the sing along; Sherman still scoffed in their direction when someone suggested him to buy a new spear- but those where grudges between them, which had been somehow cleared.

Clarisse entered the cabin behind them, clearly displeased with something, probably with Chiron judging by the way she kept mumbling about horses. When the Ares’ leader spotted him, she immediately went to ruffle his hair up.

“I see you brought the wise-baby”

“Hey!”

What was worse being called a baby or being called short? Sherman snorted at his side. Clearly amused by his reaction.

“Apparently I got him in the divorce” The Ares campers laughed at that, some even making wiggling eyebrows at Sherman for some reason. The same that rolled his eyes so hard Draco was afraid he may have damaged the optical nerve “As if!”

He passed the rest of the day at Ares cabin; he could only hop this grudge would not last.

-

Draco had been feeding the dragon that morning -after being catch too many times smuggling the reptile food, Mr. D grumbly let him be in charge of some of his meals- when he saw Beckendorf near the dinning pavilion.

Silena had been a worried mess after Percy had announced their plan. It had been some hard weeks of trying to reassure the daughter of Aphrodite they were going to be ok. Just yesterday she had dragged Drew back to their cabin, if she couldn’t fuss over her boyfriend she settled on fussing over her siblings.

“So, tomorrow’s the big day…how good do you swim?”

“We should put a bell on you kid, I swear you don’t make any sound” Beckendorf almost hit him with the tiny hammer he was tinkering with. For someone with big hands Beckendorf could make impressive tiny things, right at that moment he had a reliquary of sorts. Dealing with the final details.

“I’m not a cat” Draco frowned at the remark but sat at the older teen’s side anyways “Drew sends me, she told me Silena is so nervous she made them clean the cabin from top to bottom. This is an indirect order to go and reassure your girlfriend you’ll come back alive”

“As if I could promise that…” A dark remark, but so true it hurt.

“Don’t jinx yourself…Charlie~”

“Only Silena has permission to call me that, you brat” Draco got shoved to the side, almost tumbling over to the ground, only his quick reflexes stopped him from meeting the ground.

Beckendorf chuckled a little at his reaction, Draco had to roll his eyes in feigned annoyance to not break out laughing on the spot. It was better if the teen got in a good mood, but not at his expenses!

“Stop being all gloomy and go talk to her” He replied instead.

“You are right, I should go…give this to her”

The object was indeed a reliquary in the form of a gear with a quite complex way of opening, it was so well made that Draco had to wonder how someone as big as Beckendorf had the patience to make something so small and detailed.

But alas, love may do wonders.

“You are such a dork. Good luck tomorrow Beckendorf!”

-

Draco had been doing some practice drills at the arena with the Ares cabin when the conch horn sounded all trough camp, Percy and Beckendorf were back!

The fight between cabin seven and five had been going for a week now. Clarisse had declared she would not talk with anyone outside her cabin three days ago when Chiron told her once again that there was nothing he could do.

That didn’t included Draco, whom had been technically adopted by the Ares cabin at this point. He was used as a messenger between the Ares campers and their friends from other cabins. Because there was no way they would back down from this.

The attacks between both cabins were starting to get ridiculous, Draco had practically begged Sherman to talk with Clarisse about the situation. But Ares kids were stubborn, he even threatened to not talk to Draco either if he kept pushing the theme.

Anyways, all camp eagerly made their way to the dinning pavilion, where apparently Percy was waiting for them. Connor was at his side, looking dejected…where was Beckendorf?

Chiron galloped into the pavilion first, which was easy for him since he's a white stallion from the waist down. His beard had grown wilder over the summer. He wore a green T-shirt that said MY OTHER CAR IS A CENTAUR and a bow slung over his back.

"Percy!" he said. "Thank the gods. But where . . ."

Annabeth ran in right behind him, Draco and some other campers managed to arrive at the pavilion to witness the whole conversation. Drew caught his eyes from the other side with a worried frown, she had noticed too, Beckendorf was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?" Annabeth grabbed Percy’s arm. "Is Luke—"

"The ship blew up," Percy said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where—"

Silena pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn't combed, and she wasn't even wearing makeup, which wasn't like her.

"Where's Charlie?" she demanded, looking around like he might be hiding.

Dread set in Draco’s gut when he noticed the helpless glance Percy sent Chiron. Oh no…loud gasps could be heard from the Hephaestus’s kids. Draco himself felt his own eyes starting to get wet.

The old centaur cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House—"

"No," she muttered. "No. No."

She started to cry, and the rest of them stood around, too stunned to speak. They'd already lost so many people over the summer, but this was the worst. With Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the anchor for the entire camp.

It was a very awkward moment, no one knew how to react. The lot of them had been trying their best to not cry openly. To not show weakness. But no one could blame Silena, all camp knew how much she loved Beckendorf.

Finally, Clarisse came forward. She put her arm around Silena.

"Come on, girl," she said. "Let's get to the Big House. I'll make you some hot chocolate."

Draco chocked down his own sobs and tried to follow them to the Big House alongside a very worried Drew. But Clarisse told them to stay back, it was not as if they could enter the Big House if there was going to be a debriefing to all the head counselors.

Drew and he ended up bundled together at Aphrodite cabin, waiting for Silena. The older teen cried herself to sleep, and Draco could only stare numbly. Things were only getting worse.

-

While Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabin grieved, there were some stubborn thick headed that seemed to disregard the fact that they had no time for internal conflict.

The dead of Beckendorf seemed to have stirred something between the two fighting cabins, they were now attacking each other out in the open.

Draco and Drew could only watch on the side lines as…

A fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins. Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. Soon, the roof of the Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it. Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off. Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry.

"Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! / I don't want to rhyme all day!"

“This is getting ridiculous!” Screeched the girl, she was currently angry at the world. Drew was worried about her older sister, that combined with a headache due to crying almost all night made her moody “I can’t believe they are here acting like children! .... are you ok Drake?”

“Yeah, it’s just…” his friends were fighting, people kept dying, the gods didn’t respond to their pleas, everyone was expecting for them to just own it and fight this war by themselves…honestly, Draco just wanted to cry “I…I’ll go check on Mrs. O’Leary”

That was another depressing thought. Whom would tell the hellhound that Beckendorf would no longer made her new toys?

Drew put her hand on top of his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and putting a sad smile on her face “Just…hang in there, Drake”

Because what else could they do?

-

Percy had gone and disappeared, tension at camp was high, not helped by the nearly hysteric way Annabeth kept insisting on searching for him. Chiron told her they had no time and that he would turn up eventually -Draco suspected Chiron knew where he had disappeared to.

They could only keep training and waiting for the worst.

Everyone at Athena cabin knew that Annabeth had a cellphone, against all rules. Some often asked to use it to call their mortal parents. She usually kept it on silence and tucked away at camp, despite the protective barrier no one wanted the attention of monsters.

That’s why all cabin six almost had a heart attack when a phone tone could be heard. Some materials crashed to the ground and some books ended up half across the cabin.

With a sheepish smile their sister took out the phone from one of her pockets, the rest of them watching her like hawks. Draco and Susan glancing into the forest occasionally on the lookout of monsters.

After some tense moments, hey it took a normal demigod a while to completely read something, especially small text in a small screen. Annabeth stood up abruptly.

“We need to go right now to the empire state building!”

“W-what?” All the grey eyed children glared at their sister astonished at the sudden decision. Sure, they all had tough of going to Olympus to defend it at some point, but tough better of it.

Even Annabeth had been reluctant to act in that regard. But here she was, just one message…Draco groaned, he would bet it was Percy’s message.

“Percy sent a message…he didn’t explain much. But it’s clear the fight with Typhon is a distraction”

Yup, it was Poseidon’s son message, good to know.

Malcom perked up at the ‘distraction’ part. They had discussed the titans’ movements a few days ago. Malcom was a firm believer that the attack was just a decoy and that everything was a trap.

“So why are the gods still fighting him, for sure mom could see that coming a mile ago!”

“Typhon is still a powerful god you, dumbass” Taylor rolled her eyes, that had been the main point of ‘why is mom fighting the monster if it’s clearly a trap’ debacle.

“No time for discussion, tell the rest of camp, we depart in twenty minutes”

As soon as she said that Annabeth was out of the door. The rest of them stared dumbly at her form. Draco wondered if the bet was still in place, he would like to participate now. If those two dummies didn’t confess, if they survived, he would hit his head against a wall.

“Who’s going to tell Ares’s cabin?” Asked Sian after a beat, everyone at Athena cabin groaned.

-

Let Draco tell you something, twenty minutes was not enough time to prepare a small army, let alone a bunch of hyperactive and anxious kids. Cabin’s four, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven and twelve were soon all inside the three vans the camp owned.

He had tried, but there was no way of convincing Ares’s cabin on joining them. They may be just ten campers, but their combat experience would be missed on battle.

They were around forty campers. Draco and his siblings were with Argus, alongside Pollux -the only remaining member of cabin twelve- and all the head counselors of the cabins, and Chiron.

He had wanted to ride in the van with Drew and Austin but was practically shoved inside the van alongside some battle supplies. It was not fun to travel inside the back side of the van all the way to the city, but he was the only small enough to fit in there without stabbing himself with all the weapons.

Draco would usually complain about the treatment because he got dizzy easily inside cars, he didn’t have great experiences ridding them- but they had sparce space. Hephaestus cabin occupied a whole Van with all their trinkets and there was no way they could afford to leave those behind.

When they finally arrived Draco rushed outside, eager to get some fresh air before he threw up. That wouldn’t be a good way to start a battle.

Austin was the one whom dragged him towards the main group after a while, they were all surrounding Percy and Chiron. Waiting for something.

"Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you." Percy glanced at Chiron expectantly, but the old centaur had told them before departure that he couldn’t help them much. The destiny was always on hero’s shoulders, and Chiron may be their master but he was no ‘hero’.

Chiron shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

Draco didn’t know how or where Chiron pretended to find centaurs in the middle of the big apple. But no one protested. All attention on the most powerful demigod amongst them.

Hey! Being a kid of one of the big three had to count for something!

Percy seemed quite hesitant under all the attention, but after a deep breath he composed himself. If he was indeed the kid of the prophecy, he better owned it, right?

"Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Draco glanced at the big building warily, his stomach rebelling against the thought of going up. He had had some trouble with mortal ways of transportation since he was little, Lou Ellen told him it may be because magical transportation usually used movement stabilizer enchantments. The point was, that after such a long and agitated travel there was no way he wouldn’t threw up as soon as they arrived at Olympus.

He didn’t want to imagine Zeus’ anger about dirtying his floor.

That’s why he stayed behind when Percy told them to go up, along with Argus and Mrs. O’Leary. It was not as if all forty of them could fit in one elevator anyways. Malcom glanced at him worried when he noticed Draco was staying behind.

“I…I’ll stay here, you know, keeping Argus company”

“Take these, they will settle your stomach” Will practically shoved some medicine inside his mouth. That kid was on everything.

Soon, they were alone outside the building, the mist making no one notice the quite big hell hound in the middle of the street. Argus was a quiet guy, so Draco didn’t make any effort to start a conversation with him, the silence between them was recomforting somewhat. The noise of the city as a nice background.

Until the noise stopped. Draco glanced around worriedly; this was New York city. With 24/7 shops in almost every corner. One of the cities who never sleep.

“Argus…something is wrong…” Draco had never seen the eye covered man with such a wide expression, all the eyes that covered his body were wide open staring at something. But he couldn’t dwell much on that, because Mrs. O’Leary suddenly barked excitedly and rushed towards a hot dog stand.

“Girl! Don’t eat the vendor! Only the hot dogs!” He was worried that maybe such a direct attack would make the vendor see through the mist and the man would get spooked about the big dog, or whatever the mist tried to show him but when he arrived the man was curled on the floor, lying almost motionless “He’s sleep…. everyone is asleep”

Now he knew why Argus seemed so freaked out. All the mortals in the big apple went into slumber suddenly. A very big spell had been casted. Apparently, the battle had already started.

-

Draco wasn’t paying attention when the rest of campers returned from Olympus, he was too stunned at the scenario. When he paid closer attention all he noticed all the nearby mortals were on the ground.

When Annabeth took out the shield and started exploring the surrounding city, they had known for months now that the enemy army outnumbered them by a big margin. But seeing it in person made everyone dismay.

A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals. At first I thought they were dolphins. Then I saw their doglike faces and the swords strapped to their waists, and I realized they were telkhines—sea demons. The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of its way as it rumbled into the tunnel.

There where hundreds, if not thousands of monsters, and them? They were only forty, fifty if the Ares cabin decided to appear. They would need a miracle to even come out of this alive.

It had been a good eleven years of life.

Draco snapped into attention when Percy asked about the mortals. He could see sleep magic, time magic, and for sure the mist was working overtime to cover all this from the rest of the country.

The implications of such a large range being affected made him queasy. That was large scale magic, Hecate was definitely on the titan’s side -no surprise there, they already knew that he only hopped that Lou was alright- and since it was related to sleep maybe…Hypnos or Morpheus was helping. He hoped it wasn’t Morpheus, because he was the god of dreams, some people seemed to forget that demigod dreams failed under his domain.

If he was the one helping the Titan’s out, they may need to take with a grain of salt all the information revealed to them in dreams from now on.

"All right," Percy said. "We're going to hold Manhattan."

Their leader had gone nuts, yup, that was it, they were about to die in a suicide mission and their leader had gone completely crazy.

Silena tugged at her armor. "Um, Percy, Manhattan is huge."

"We are going to hold it," Percy said. "We have to."

Draco and some others stared at Percy in disbelief, did he not comprehend the concept of ‘outnumbered’? Let alone the fact that Manhattan was a complete island. A 22.83 square miles island if one wanted to be specific.

"He's right," Annabeth said. "The gods of the wind should keep Kronos's forces away from Olympus by air, so he'll try a ground assault. We have to cut off the entrances to the island."

"They have boats," Michael Yew pointed out.

For some reason Percy seemed to be hit by a wave of realization. His face turned into a kind of determination that almost gave Draco hope.

"I'll take care of the boats,"

Michael frowned. "How?"

"Just leave it to me,"

Draco had to admit that Chiron may had been into something when he said Percy was their leader, just moments ago everyone was panicking but with those words said in such confidence everyone composed themselves quickly. If they died, they died, what else was there to lose?

"We need to guard the bridges and tunnels. Let's assume they'll try a midtown or downtown assault, at least on their first try. That would be the most direct way to the Empire State Building. Michael, take Apollo's cabin to the Williamsburg Bridge. Katie, Demeter's cabin takes the Brooklyn-battery Tunnel. Grow thorn bushes and poison ivy in the tunnel. Do whatever you have to do but keep them out of there! Conner, take half of Hermes cabin and cover the Manhattan Bridge. Travis, you take the other half and cover the Brooklyn Bridge. And no stopping for looting or pillaging!"

When did Percy had the time to memorize the city’s main avenues names and where they were…well if memory served him right Percy did lived in New York for almost all his life. So, he may haps had that advantage over Draco whom only left camp on counted occasions.

Still, it was quite impressive how the teen came up with strategies on the spot. Maybe something good came out of him hanging around Annabeth after all.

"Awwww!" the whole Hermes cabin complained.

"Silena, take the Aphrodite crew to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel."

"Oh my gods," one of her sisters said. "Fifth Avenue is so on our way! We could accessorize, and monsters, like, totally hate the smell of Givenchy."

And maybe that was why Drew always carried around a bottle of perfume on her purse. He never got the chance to ask.

"No delays," Percy said. "Well . . . the perfume thing, if you think it'll work."

The spirits were getting high now, if it was true or false confidence Draco didn’t care. If everyone was ready to fight, so was he.

"All right, enough! The Holland Tunnel. Jake, take the Hephaestus cabin there. Use Greek fire, set traps. Whatever you've got."

The newly appointed Hephaestus’s cabin counselor grinned like he may bite someone. "Gladly. We've got a score to settle. For Beckendorf!" The whole cabin roared in approval.

"The 59th Street Bridge…Clarisse—"

Well, wasn’t these awkward. Clarisse and her whole cabin were still at camp. Sherman had refused to say goodbye to them when they were departing from camp.

From a distance he could see his friend’s hesitation about staying, but if Clarisse said something the whole cabin followed. It didn’t help that no one apart from Draco took their protests and threats seriously until they refused to come.

Michel scoffed at the mention of cabin five’s leader.

"We'll take that," Annabeth stepped in, saving Percy from an embarrassing silence. She turned to them. "Malcolm, take the Athena cabin, activate plan twenty-three along the way, just like I showed you. Hold that position."

"You got it.”

Plan twenty what? Some of his siblings were as confused as him, but Malcom and some others seemed to know what the heck she was talking about. Draco hoped they would tell them what said plan was supposed to be.

"I'll go with Percy," Annabeth said. "Then we'll join you, or we'll go wherever we're needed."

"No detours, you two." Someone screamed from the back. Nervous giggles filled the silence, Percy didn’t seem to mind.

But again they were this close to a battle to the dead, there was no time to react to childish taunts. The good thing was that it made them relax a little.

"All right," Percy said. "Keep in touch with cell phones

"We don't have cell phones," Silena protested.

He reached down, picked up some snoring lady's BlackBerry, and tossed it to Silena. "You do now. You all know Annabeth's number, right? If you need us, pick up a random phone and call us. Use it once, drop it, then borrow another one if you have to. That should make it harder for the monsters to zero in on you."

Everyone grinned as though they liked this idea.

Travis cleared his throat. "Uh, if we find a really nice phone—"

"No, you can't keep it,"

"Aw, man."

"Hold it, Percy," Jake Mason said. "You forgot the Lincoln Tunnel."

Draco didn’t know where was that but judging by Percy’s conflicted face it was important. If his memory served him right from the things, they saw trough the shield. A Sherman tank and a hundred monsters were marching through that tunnel right now.

Yup it was important, and they were all out of campers.

Then a girl's voice called from across the street: "How about you leave that to us?"

A band of thirty adolescent girls crossed Fifth Avenue. They wore white shirts, silvery camouflage pants, and combat boots. They all had swords at their sides, quivers on their backs, and bows at the ready. A pack of white timber wolves milled around their feet, and many of the girls had hunting falcons on their arms.

"Thalia!" Annabeth cried.

The daughter of Zeus grinned. "The Hunters of Artemis, reporting for duty."

Despite the not that friendly greeting, and some dirty glares exchanged between the Stoll brothers and that one hunter who was victim of a very cruel prank. Everyone seemed to breath a little bit easier.

Thirty may not be a great number, not compared to the hundreds of monsters that were on standby waiting to kill them. But these were Artemi’s hunters! Trained by the goddess herself, maybe they had a chance…of at least not die in the first five minutes.

Hey! He was being optimistic!

After a brief exchange of words, the Hunters disappeared. Followed by their wolves and falcons. Only the camp’s demigods remained, some eager to go in their positions.

Draco wanted to know what strange scheme their siblings had planned. He knew Malcom liked to strategize against impossible scenarios, but whatever plan twenty-three was sounded more than just Malcom’s wild strategies.

"You're the greatest heroes of this millennium," Percy’s voice boomed trough the eerie silence. "It doesn't matter how many monsters come at you. Fight bravely, and we will win. FOR OLYMPUS!"

They shouted in response, and their forty voices echoed off the buildings of Midtown. For a moment it sounded brave, but it died quickly in the silence of ten million sleeping New Yorkers.

It was time.

-

They made a detour, Draco may be bad with directions but even him knew where the east was, this was not the east. They were at the Rockefeller at the feet of the Atlas statue. Malcom and three others were hurriedly circling the statue searching for something.

“Why are we here? We don’t have time for this!” Susan exclaimed exasperated; it had become quite frustrating that after a few awkward silent minutes none of the senior Athena campers explained anything.

“Yeah, Mal, we needed to be at 59^th St Bridge like yesterday” Lian complained -He was a pale boy covered from head to toe with freckles, had strawberry blond hair and light grey eyes with green specs on them.

Raymond was the one whom answered, his cry of ‘eureka’ snapped everyone’s attention towards him rather quickly.

"Turns out most of the statues in the city are automatons. Daedalus planted them here just in case he needed an army." Was Raymond seriously tickling Atlas feet right now? No wait, he was pushing a hidden button of sorts.

The statue started to move; Draco had to suppress a surprised laugh. “No way…”

“We know how to activate some; Annabeth has the whole version of Daedalus’ notes. But she did tell some of about the most prominent ones” Explained Malcom, grinning madly at the now standing statue of Atlas, it had deposited the metal rings that represented the world on the ground as if those were an annoyance it couldn’t bear to carry any more.

Which, fair, it was the statue of Atlas after all.

“Command sequence: Daedalus Twenty-three. Defend Manhattan. Begin Activation." As soon as the command words were said the statue nodded once and went on its merry way somewhere. “They'll keep waking each other up until they're all activated."

From there they kept running toward the East, that was until Sian decided to make a detour at a…liquor shop?

“What are you doing, we are not Hermes children!” Taylor screamed when she noticed their brother’s absence. The rest of them halted on their tracks because there must be some reason behind Sian’s sudden interest on hard beverages.

“We may need some ammunition, or are you up to fight hand to hand with a bunch of monsters dear sis?” Sian came out of the shop holding up a pair of champagne bottles…were those?

His sibling had made Molotov bombs, of course he did.

Malcom grinned in approval, and as the one in charge in that moment he barked orders.

“Take everything that may be of use! It may not be Greek fire, but it will buy us some time!”

-

Monsters had appeared almost as soon as they arrived at Roosevelt Island. They had gone out of improvised bombs a while ago, the lot of them were lightly wounded -thank the gods- the only thing that kept them running was the adrenaline.

They moved in groups of three, Raymond and Taylor were the ones stuck being a pair, since they didn’t have Annabeth with them at the moment.

Despite being pure and absolute chaos there was some order in all their battles. If some team started to struggle another went to support them. The dracaenas seemed to be the only type of monster actively giving orders to their troops, the rest of them attacked at random.

Draco had to slash a hellhound, which almost cost him an arm when he hesitated. Susan had shoved him aside and had received a nasty bite out for her trouble.

“Do you think they would need reinforcements?” Draco asked worried, he may not have super hearing like Apollo campers but even he could hear the struggle coming from the south.

“Reinforcements at the Williamsburg Bridge? Didn’t you hear? we are pretty busy here as it is.” Stated Malcom while stabbing a hellhound in the eye. Making it go out in a puff of golden dust.

“That’s where the Apollo cabin is right?”

He had been distracted musing over Austin’s status that a Dracaena had almost beheaded him.

“Worry about you own life first kiddo”

“Thanks Tay”

Right, he needed to focus, every monster on sight was an enemy, no time to dwell or hesitate.

-

They kept fighting for what felt like days, but where more probably just minutes. They were exhausted, wound, and grim covered. Clothes torn apart for some of the most reckless of them.

The ground trembled and a loud splash could be heard. Something had happened on the south side.

Before they could process that, as soon as the sun started to go down, the monsters started to retreat. Malcom frowned and halted whoever tried to go after them. Which were no one, they really didn’t have the energy for that anymore.

“That’s…weird”

Draco was painting, heavily leaning against an abandoned car, arms covered in gashes and scratches, the rest of cabin six were in no better conditions. The safe amount of ambrosia and nectar had long ago been consumed, and despite the wounds and pain no one wanted to risk dying that way.

“What should we do?”

“Ray, Sian and I will stay here, on guard. Go back, I think someone said something about making the Plaza hotel our base of operations. Find Annabeth, tell her what happened” Taylor may be constantly complaining about the smallest details at camp, but she was also the oldest of them all. She had seen things.

Everyone nodded. Draco hopped thigs had been gone fine on Austin’s side.

-

When they arrived at the Plaza Hotel, Drew greeted them with a grim expression, tear tracks marking her cheeks.

“G-guys? It-It’s Annabeth” They barely heard the directions towards the room where Annabeth was, rushing inside to see if their leader was ok, if their sister was still alive.

The picture wasn’t that good, Annabeth was sprayed over one of the beds, looking quite pale, the sheets around her had some dried blood; the bandage on her shoulder was drenched in blood.

Draco had to take deep breaths to stop himself from spiraling at the sight.

“Oh, no… no, no, Annie? Are you ok?” Malcom started to fuss over her was soon as they were in reaching distance. Annabeth smiled at them sheepishly.

“Took a stab for a friend, they were aiming for Percy’s back”

“Doesn’t he have the Achilles curse?” Susan scoffed. At the remark Annabeth went beet red and wiggled a little to get into a sitting position. Draco practically ran to get some pillows behind her to make it easier.

Before anyone could say anything else. Percy came, with Will Solace hot on his heels. Draco breathed better when he saw the son of Apollo Percy had brought.

Draco’s heart really wanted it to be Austin, to see his friend safe. But everyone knew Will was the best healer there was to offer, Annabeth needed that. He could only pray the rest were alright.

They got shoved out of the room as soon as the treatment was over.

“Are you also against shoplifting? Because I don’t think I have enough money for this”

Malcom rolled his eyes, took the list from Travis hands, and stomped in the direction of the drugstore.

“We raided a liquor shop” Deadpanned Susan before following their brother. Travis whistled and smirked.

Wait…Sian and Travis were friends, weren’t they? That may explain some things…

-

When Annabeth told them to head to Central Park, Draco wasn’t prepared to be bodily stopped by the shoulders by none other than Raymond. Malcom looking grim at his side “Look Drake, you need to go back”

“Are you insane? We need all the attacking force we can muster! This is no time to give me special treatment because of my age!”

“It’s not that, we will go to Central Park” Malcom grimaced, it was clearly because of Draco’s age. He didn’t see anyone batting an eye when Percy went to the underground age twelve. Should he wait another year just to be considered old enough?

He scowled hard at his siblings, no one else was glancing his way.

“Your mission is to locate wounded campers, help them on the spot if it’s not serious. Bring them to the Empire State building if it is. Will will set camp in there along some other Apollo healers”

Draco’s intense stare faltered a little bit, that sounded logic -curse Malcom and his logic stunts- and he would be actively helping to reduce mortality.

“Why not the Plaza Hotel?”

“We may have to repledge if things kept going as it is” Central Park was already too close to the empire state building for comfort.

Draco sighed defeated “Did Annabeth approve this?”

“She was the one who suggested it”

“Of course, she was” His siblings glared at him holding their breaths waiting for his decision “Fine. I’ll go. But if monsters get in my way, I’ll eliminate them”

“I bet you will”

Raymond handed him a small bag full of almost all the reminding cabin six’s ambrosia and nectar. It weighted heavily on Draco’s shoulders.

-

Draco had been rolling around the ground dodging attacks, slashing monsters whenever the opportunity arose. He was glad he had decided to wear cameo pants and not shorts.

Too many of their friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing.

With the night approaching he was working against time itself here -wasn’t that ironic? They were actually fighting against Kronos the titan of time after all- if night went down the wounded would be harder to find. More so when the monster attack made them back up towards the Empire State Building.

Draco had been helping an injured demigod -A son of Demeter with a broken leg- back to base when suddenly the enemy army attack started to get fierce. The enemy troops moral boosted by the few feet’s they were from their objective.

They were only holding because of stubbornness. Annabeth shouted from somewhere.

"We have to fall back to the doorway. Hold it at all costs!"

Everyone started to scramble back, Draco fighting against the added weight. Basil -the Demeter kid he was helping- was doing his best to help him, but his injured leg made Draco be the one supporting more than half his weight.

The sudden sound of the hunting horn made them all confused. As far as Draco could see all the Artemi’s Hunters were already there. The other army seemed as confused as them, so thank the gods they were not monster reinforcements.

Giants lowered their clubs. Dracaenae hissed. Even Kronos's honor guard looked uneasy. Then, to their left, a hundred monsters cried out at once. Kronos's entire northern flank surged forward, but they didn't attack. They ran straight past them and crashed into their southern allies. A new blast of horns shattered the night. The air shimmered. In a blur of movement, an entire cavalry appeared as if dropping out of light speed.

Draco: who had never stopped walking towards the doors; could only stare dumbly, frozen at the door, at the army of centaurs. Not only the ones that appeared at camp one summer ago, dozens and dozens of Centaurs.

The reinforcements were for them!

“Drake, I really need to get this thing settled” Draco smiled sheepishly towards the injured teen and finished dragging him inside.

“Oh, sorry”

With him he had rescued at least fifteen gravely injured campers and had left behind lightly injured ones that were somehow fine after some first aid.

But without the Apollo’s cabin present, no one dared to eat or drink more nectar or ambrosia than was necessary. Draco mostly only gave them water bottles, band aids and candy bars-that he may or may have not stolen- to keep them going.

Inside the building was madness, Apollo campers running around barking orders -Michael had been lost in battle, and now Will was the one in charge. Draco tried to not dwell that much on that, there would be time to grieve later. If they survived- there were more injured inside, it was packed with exhausted Satyrs, campers, and hunters.

“Thanks Drake…you should rest, you are about to pass out” Will looked exhausted, his t-shirt was covered in stains, some of them of blood, some other Draco really didn’t want to know. Before he could protest his curly haired, dark-skinned friend appeared out of nowhere and lifted him up in a fireman carry.

“Austin!?”

“Come here Drake”

“I said I’m fine!”

He should better be worrying about Will; Draco was absolutely fine. Passing out as soon as he lied down was just because…of the sleeping spell casted on Manhattan, yup.

-

Draco may had woken up much later from when he wanted. Like, really, how could he have slept over the Drakon release? He begrudgingly admitted that he may had been a tad bit exhausted.

Luck seemed to be on their side, at least some, Ares’s campers had started to arrive at the hastily threw together infirmary. They had finally come!

His excitement was short lived when Sherman stumbled inside the building, armor half melted. He had some nasty burns but otherwise was fine. Without him previously consuming the almost suicidal amounts of ambrosia everyone else on the battle line had, Sherman had a chance to get out quickly of his predicament.

“Sherman! Are you ok? Where’s Clarisse?”

“Your name’s sake did this to me Draco, you have such nasty relatives”

That made Draco stop his fussing, to stare at his best friend with a ‘are you serious’ look.

“I’m not related to the Drakon, idiot”

He did not smacked Sherman on the back of the head just because he was injured. Draco had principles!

Despite the attempt at banter, Sherman started to glance around rather awkwardly.

“W-where’s Drew?”

“What’s wrong?” Draco wasn’t liking this, whatever Sherman wanted to say was obviously bad news.

“Bring all the Aphrodite cabin’s kids available…t-they need to know something”

After running around in a wild goose chase, Draco managed to reunite at least half Aphrodite cabin. Silena had gone back to camp, so the love kids followed behind Drew as a brood of ducklings.

All was relatively fine, until Sherman started his tale. Some curious campers roamed around eager to know news from the front lines. Soon it was too obvious that everyone was eavesdropping, more so when someone dropped a dagger when the ‘Silena was the spy’ part was mentioned. Oh, it had been him.

Drews expression was closed off, Draco felt his own heart shatter. Not for Silena’s apparent treason, but for his friend. Drew was known for admiring Silena, they were quite close.

No matter what Sherman said about how Silena was a true hero -She was, but in that moment, Drew may not be thinking clear enough to analyze all the facts, like how her sister sacrificed herself at the end for them, for camp.

Draco was sure Drew was devastated and most of all, furious at the treason at herself more likely. She had had her suspicions, Draco remembered, but always founded excuses to explain the odd behavior.

“She…she was a hero” Ended up lamely Sherman, writhing down at Drews murderous glare.

“She was a spy!” At that Drew stomped out of there, her face so fierce that even Ares kids stayed out of her path. Draco ran after her but couldn’t find her as much as he tried.

He only hoped she didn’t do anything stupid.

-

Kronos seemed to think ‘Oh, it’s night time, let’s attack!’ because he was an immortal being and didn’t need sleep! -thinking about it maybe that was why they attacked at night…

Anyways, campers and hunters rushed out when they noticed the Titan army making their way towards Olympus.

Draco managed to get into the front line, despite Malcom’s protests. He and Sherman were slashing monster left, right, up and center. But they were just too many of them. At one side one could see Clarisse fighting against a giant -the ones with ice powers. Hyperborean or something- but she wasn’t doing that well.

“I think your sister needs help”

“Everyone needs help! Even us! … Duck!” Draco dropped to the ground, barely dodging a dracaena’s sword. Campers and hunters lied around, injured, dead.

Then, the fight suddenly grew quiet, and it had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Centaurs. Right at the center of the battle stood Chiron.

He had an arrow notched, aimed straight at Kronos's face.

The Titan seemed amused, everyone hold their breaths. The arrival of Percy only seemed to add more tension to the matter.

“Step aside, little son."

Hearing Luke call Chiron his son was weird enough, but Kronos put contempt in his voice, like son was the worst word he could think of.

"I'm afraid not." Chiron's tone was steely calm, the way he gets when he's really angry.

Draco felt like his limbs were dead weight, like he was rooted to the spot…wait, that must be time magic. Oh no.

"Chiron!" Annabeth said. "Look out!"

The dracaena queen became impatient and charged. Chiron's arrow flew straight between her eyes band she vaporized on the spot, her empty armor clattering to the asphalt.

Chiron reached for another arrow, but his quiver was empty. He dropped the bow and drew his sword.

Kronos chuckled. He advanced a step, and Chiron's horse-half skittered nervously. His tail flicked back and forth.

"You're a teacher," Kronos sneered. "Not a hero."

"Luke was a hero," Chiron said. "He was a good one, until you corrupted him."

It was weird to see Luke like that, golden aura, and eyes. The last time Draco had seen him it was in that IM message Percy projected at dinner two years ago. He had told himself that he didn’t care what happened to Luke then, when he threatened camp.

But seeing him like this, made Draco’s heart ache, the once kind big brother figure was possessed, by the titan of Time. The cruel expression didn’t have place on Luke’s face.

"FOOL!" Kronos's voice shook the city. "You filled his head with empty promises. You said the gods cared about me!"

"Me," Chiron noticed. "You said, me."

Kronos looked confused, and in that moment, Chiron struck. It was a good maneuver—a feint

followed by a strike to the face, but Kronos was quick. He had all of Luke's fighting skill, which was a lot.

He knocked aside Chiron's blade and yelled, "BACK!"

A blinding white light exploded between the Titan and the centaur. Chiron flew into the side of the building with such force the wall crumbled and collapsed on top of him.

The time magic dissipated, every camper still standing watched stunned how their master, their companion, and for a lot of them, their father figure, disappeared behind the rubble.

No one cared about the monsters in that moment, leaving behind any reasonal tough all campers rushed to aid him. But despite their best efforts, there was no sign of Chiron.

A ripple of ugly laughter ran through the Titan's army.

Annabeth looked livid; a shiver ran through all cabin six’s members present. Of fear and anticipation. She would avenge Chiron, or at least try.

She attacked Kronos, and his smug smile faded. Perhaps some part of Luke remembered that he used to like this girl, used to take care of her when she was little. She plunged her knife between the straps of his armor, right at his collar bone. The blade should've sunk into his chest.

Instead, it bounced off.

Of course, the titan also had the Achilles curse, why didn’t anyone seemed fit to inform them? Like, hey you all, you see that Titan who’s using Luke’s body like a cheap car ride. Well…. he has impenetrable skin! Look out! Or something like that.

While Percy and Annabeth fought against Kronos -and against each other for some reason- the monsters seemed to come out from their stupor.

The attack started again, and it was rent less. With already low numbers the campers and hunters tried their best to defend the few feet left between the enemy and the building doors. It would take a miracle to turn the situation around.

A dog's howl pierced the air somewhere behind the Titan's army. "Arroooooooo!"

That sound made everyone freeze again. Draco could only hope it was their local friendly hellhound instead of enemy reinforcements.

The enemy forces stirred uneasily. Then the strangest thing happened. They began to part, clearing a path through the street like something behind them was forcing them to.

Soon there was a free aisle down the center of Fifth Avenue. Standing at the end of the block was one fluffy giant dog, and a small figure in black armor.

“No way”

“Is that”

Murmurs started to get exited on their side, maybe there was some god that took pity on them. Because, standing right in front of them was one of the most evasive campers, also a child of the underworld, their last hope at turning things around…

"Nico?" Percy called.

"ROWWF!" Mrs. O'Leary bounded toward them, ignoring the growling monsters on either side. Nico strode forward. The enemy army fell back before him like he radiated death, which of course he did.

Through the face guard of his skull-shaped helmet, he smiled. "Got your message. Is it too late to join the party?"

-

After Nico, Hades, Persephone -and for some reason Demeter- appearance things started to look less gloomy.

Camp attacked with renew vigor, slashing monster alongside Hades’ undead. At that moment no one batted an eye at the zombies, not even the Aphrodite cabin. They were allies, and they needed all the help they could find. There still was a wide breach around Hades, Nico, and the campers. The dead aura was just too much for some.

Draco ran excitedly at Nico’s side, slicing monsters in the process. Sherman hot on his heels watching his back.

“Glad you could make it!”

“Hey Drake, you look horrible” Despite not being able to see Nico’s face, because of the helmet, he could hear the snark in his remark. Sherman chuckled a little at his side.

“That’s what happens when you are in battle for three days straight….” Draco deadpanned “Be careful with the enemy demigods, we don’t want to harm them that much”

“You mean, be careful with Lou Ellen” Sherman supplied wiggling his eyebrows. Draco stared at his best friend annoyed, whatever he was implying, it was not like that!

“No. Talking about them…have you seen them?”

Nico grimaced a little, closing his eyes to concentrate on the life force of his friend. Nico and Lou Ellen had never met, but with all the ramblings Draco told Nico, he was pretty sure the goth kid knew enough about them to point them out in a crowd.

“The barrier that Hecate put up needed constant magic influx. All I know is that all Hecate’s children on the enemy side were the ones powering it. They are not dead, just…exhausted”

That made Draco frown, great not even the magic goddess could bother to power her own enchantment. Sherman noticing his mood shoved him aside, making Draco almost fell over Nico.

“C’mon! Let’s beat titan’s ass!”

He hadn’t the heart to tell Sherman that the main titan had bypassed their barriers and was now on his way to Olympus. He really hoped Percy could stop him.

-

They had won! Draco almost stumbled over when the news reached them. The head counselors were required at Olympus, and Draco hadn’t been so glad to just be a little demigod with not such big responsibilities.

That was until Nico sequestered him inside the elevator, alongside with the gods. What had his life come up to.

At first Hades and the gods were going to ride up alone, then Nico dragged Draco, and despite the high spirits, the gods were glaring at him as if he had offended their mother. Which excuse you, he only had insulted Kronos so far, and if memory served him right the gods also hated him.

“I see you have made…friends”

“Don’t look so surprised Father”

Before father and son could exchange any more words Demeter interfered. Draco could only stare at the god’s dynamics -weren’t Demeter and Hades siblings, and then Hades was technically Persephone’s uncle, but he was also her husband….?

“That kid looks almost as pale as you” Draco felt offended, pale him? He was tanned! Like, he passed all his summers under the sun! “He needs to eat some cereal!”

“Mother!”

“Are they always like this?” He really hopped the gods were distracted enough to not hear his whispered question; he didn’t fancy dying inside an elevator after all the carnage. It would be quite a humiliating way to go.

“Only when Lady Demeter is around”

-

Nico di Angelo came into Olympus to a hero's welcome, his father right behind him, despite the fact, that Hades was only supposed to visit Olympus on winter solstice. The god of the dead looked stunned when his relatives clapped him on the back. I doubt he'd ever gotten such an enthusiastic welcome before.

Draco stayed behind, watching his friends with a kind of pride. Not because their feats in battle, but because they were still there, breathing.

He zooned out a little at the god’s rewards for the heroes, Draco may be in shock of seeing his mother, one part of him felt relief at seeing her looking unharmed. Another was still bitter at her, for not paying any attention to him.

Draco had to admit that he felt jealousy by the way Athena kept glancing at Annabeth. Like she was so proud of her she couldn’t contain herself.

Athena called, "Annabeth Chase, my own daughter." She smiled. "You, my daughter, have exceeded all expectations. You have used your wits, your strength, and your courage to defend this city, and our seat of power. It has come to our attention that Olympus is . . . well, trashed. The Titan lord did much damage that will have to be repaired. We could…”

Draco couldn’t hear any more, if he stayed, he would get mad at Annabeth, and she didn’t deserve that. Annabeth had been a force to be reckoned with all battle, she was the most determined one of their siblings.

She deserved this, the honor, the opportunity; she didn’t deserve Draco’s ugly jealousy. He got out; maybe fresh air would help him get a clear head.

Draco didn’t notice the longing glance Athena sent his way, full of regret and sadness.

-

Someone should call camp and tell them to send the vans to retrieve the campers.

Draco was lucky and had a friend who owned a flying chariot -wherever where he got one, he would have to ask later- the only bad thing was that the four of them didn’t fit comfortably on it. But Austin had practically manhandled all of them, even the moody Drew, so Draco couldn’t really complain.

Despite the tight travel arrangements, and Austin’s and Sherman’s constant bickering about the speed and height. They made it back to camp in one piece.

But it was not all that a happy return. With the battle finally over they now had time to lick their wounds.

The wounded were cared for. The dead were given proper funeral rites at the campfire. Silena's shroud was hot pink but embroidered with an electric spear. The Ares and Aphrodite cabins both claimed her as a hero and lit the shroud together. No one mentioned the word spy. That secret burned to ashes as the designer perfume smoke drifted into the sky. Even

Not even Drew, who seemed to have come to terms with the fact. Draco really hopped it hadn’t affected his friend that much.

Talking about siblings…Taylor and Raymond didn’t make it back. According to Sian they had gone down with honor and in battle, a place secured at Elysium. All Athena cabin grieved, just how many had they lost? Just how many futures were cut short?

-

From then on days passed flying, camp got extended so it was cutting close to the start of term, but everyone agreed it was just too early to be apart.

And things at camp were chaos, a good kind of chaos. After what Percy did in Olympus. New demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

Lou Ellen and their siblings arrived at camp just a few days later. There was this weird kid that kept falling sleep in the weirdest places.

From Brazil there was Paolo Montes, a child of Hebe -it was fun, Drew and Draco trying to understand whatever the other kid was saying, as French and Portuguese were from the romance languages, they supposed it would be easy…it was a work in progress.

Draco even got new siblings! He was finally not the youngest one! -Like, really, their mother may had kept them away on purpose, because there was no way of being born as an Athena child without noticing you were an Athena child.

Live was good, not great -campers that participated in battle still startled at sudden noises, and stuff like that- but better in some way. Nico was at camp, somehow fitting in despite his protests.

There were new cabins, new campers, new hope.

All was fun, until Chiron called him to the big House, August 31^st. His siblings and friends made fun of him, like when you get called out to the principal’s office.

Annabeth shrugged when he sent her a questioning glance, she didn’t know what it was about either. Weird.

As soon as he entered, he felt he already knew what this was about. And he wasn’t happy about it.

There at the center of the cabin, stood Chiron, alongside a trunk a little owl perched on his shoulder -not like, little in size, it was the species of the owl…the sacred animal of his mother.

“amathés” Dracotold himself.  He had turned eleven, didn't he? He had forgoten.

But hey! Judging by this, he would be going to school! yay!...now why did Chiron looked so grim...

Chapter Text

Draco stared at Chiron as if he had suddenly grown a pair of human legs and threw aside the stallion body. When he entered, he noticed it had something to do with his magical education. As, an actual owl was there, he doubted it was his mother.

Lou and he had talked about the process to apply to Salem Wixen institute. Lucky for him they had started to accept males almost a decade ago. Draco even had a plan to convince Chiron of letting him go, Athena’s restrictions be dammed.

But he wasn’t expecting this. Whatever this was.

“Say what again?”

“One of your mother owls sent two letters back in June, one was addressed at you from somewhere in Europe, the other was for me, telling me to hold on them until after the battle, in case…” In case he didn’t survive, geez, thanks for the vote of confidence mom.

Draco almost instantly recognized the seal embedded in the red wax. That was a letter from Hogwarts, how had that ended there. In America, with a whole sea between them?

Walburga Black always went on and on about how great Slytherin was and what would become of him if he disappointed her like his imprudent son had. Draco was five.

He had assumed that if he received a magical education at all he would go to a local school, like Livermory or Salem. Or in the worst he would be ending mortal-muggle school at camp, self-study magic as much as he could and would end up applying to college once he turned eighteen.

“From your face I’d say you know what this is about”

“Do you?” Draco used one of his daggers as a letter opener. It was quite difficult to read the text, given that the font wasn’t demigod friendly. But he managed, out of pure stubbornness.

“Europe was once the center of the western civilization, there was a time where a lot of demi witches were born between the gods and mortals”

Chiron let him read at his own peace, he frowned when he noticed the replying deadline. It had been a month ago!

Wait, what did Chiron said? Demi witches…then if they were banned and, according with what Lou told him, Hecate and the like being the only ones permitted to mingle with that type of mortals now…then that meant…

“You knew about Lou’s parentage all along, didn’t you?”

“I did, I was more surprised to learn about yours”

“Lou told me, that the gods promised to not mix with the mortal side of the magic world…”

Chiron grimaced, oh great, Draco was also a forbidden child, wasn’t he? Hey, Nico, Thalia, Percy, and he could start a club!

Why did gods couldn’t conserve their hands…or in his mother’s case, minds to themselves?

“I’m afraid that’s not my story to tell”

“What happened, Chiron? I need to know”

Because it was common knowledge that the big three promised over the river Styx all those years ago, everyone knew the cause, albeit very vague. And, with the resent battle it had been somehow lifted, hasn’t it? The ban over children of the big three.

But here Draco was, not knowing why his existence was so wrong that his mother refused to acknowledge him.

“I can only say the promise was made at the same time in similar circumstances of the ban on children of the big three…” That didn’t explain a thing, he wanted to scream in frustration, all the previous good mood disappearing. But it was Chiron, so Draco kept his frustration on check “Would you attend?”

“Do I even have a choice?”

Draco knew how to read, it said ‘June 31^st’ the reply must had already been sent. Athena for whatever reason wanted him to attend. Great, first thing he heard from her in years, and it was just a command.

Expecting him to drop everything and follow her lead.

Well, ok, he was a little excited of going to Hogwarts, according to his father’s diary it was a nice place -yes, he kept the diary Kreatcher gave him all those years ago, it took him ages to read because his father wrote it with fancy lettering, and in French for some reason, but it was worth it…it was also the only thing he had from him.

He even scribbled on the margins when he felt lonely.

But that was not the point!

Frustrated, Draco took the empty trunk and owl cage to drag them outside, Chiron watching him with a conflicted face.

“Very well, I’ve arranged everything, your flight is at six in the afternoon. The school supplies, wand and owl are your mother’s gifts”

What wand? Which supplies? They may be inside the trunk, Draco nodded in Chiron’s direction, he had things to pack.

Draco groaned when he noticed he would miss the marble ceremony.

-

Drew, Austin, Sherman, and Lou Ellen were at cabin six watching Draco throw cloths inside the trunk, they had been outside the Big House waiting for him, only to be rewarded by a fuming Draco who kept muttering under his breath.

They had managed to coax a version of the news out of him, Draco made sure to not actually mention anything magic related, apparently the statue of secrecy did apply to demigods. Good to know.

“Say again…why are you going to a boarding school in Scotland of all places?” Drew scoffed, her hands clearly itching to stop Draco’s tantrum and start packing the clothes herself. Thing she did after Draco wrinkled his only dress shirt -what does one pack for a school in the middle of nowhere? He hoped Drew knew, because he didn’t have that much cloth options.

“Mom’s orders”

“Did she finally talk to you?” Austin asked eagerly, passing Drew some clothes. Even underwear, it was telling that no one batted an eye at that, all of them were used about the fact that people had access to their clothes.

Campers often borrowed clothes from each other since there were not many options for them inside camp. So, it was not unusual to grab someone’s underwear.

“I didn’t even have an opinion on the matter!” Draco tossed himself over his bed, letting his friends take care of the whole packing thing. He was glad that the wand and supplies were in a hidden compartment and that no one questioned him about the owl “I wanted to go to Lou’s school if the opportunity ever arose”

“Why thought? Salem has a bad reputation, with all the stories about Witch hunting, and stuff. Only fanatics of the occult would want to go there”

“What? Afraid of some ghosts?”

Austin did not scream when Nico appeared out of nowhere -Draco had seen him enter the cabin but was too lazy to tell anyone else- He didn’t, no sir.

“You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Hey Neeks” Draco was glad that Nico was somehow integrating at camp, he still didn’t sleep there, going so often to Hades’ palace and disappearing for days sometimes. But hey, at least he visited regularly.

-

Draco had finished packing, and then all his siblings wanted to get a say in whatever the owl would be named. Because owls were Athena’s sacred animal, so they had to think things toughly.

The owl was a regal looking little owl, with rare dark plumage in which the white dots appeared to be constellations. He had molten silver eyes, contrasting greatly with the typical golden. He was small and fluffy, between an owlet and an adult, judging by the size and puffed look.

Sian wanted to name it Bubo, Annabeth refused as it was a known name of their mother’s owl. Malcom suggested Glaukopis, which was shoot down for the same reasons.

At the end his name was Noctua, Susan sure knew how to sell her naming skills, Draco was sold as soon as it was mentioned Noctua was the owl constellation.

Hey, he was named after the stars, it was just common sense his owl would be the same.

He really appreciated that no one made a huge show of him going away, despite being his first time going to an actual school. Draco wasn’t in the mood. So, his ‘goodbye party’ was disguised as a debate of naming the owl and people sneaking things inside his trunk.

Hannah -his new baby sister. Only by a year, but he would take whatever he could. She was from Asiatic descendance, the grey eyes looked quite cool combined with her black hair- had even sneaked in some small origami figures. For good luck or something.

Someone had even sneaked in the new marble of the year! At least he would still have it. Small mercies.

-

Gleeson Hedge was a veteran satyr, from the stories he heard around he had been the one who brought Clarisse to camp.

The poor bloke had been kind of exiled to Canada due to some conflicts with the Council of Cloven Elders for siding with Grover. But now he was back and out in new missions, like being the one accompanying him to the Rochester airport at London.

After he ‘delivered’ Draco to British territory he would go somewhere in Nevada.

He didn’t put that much attention to his ramblings, Draco was rather preoccupied trying to keep calm every time the plane shook. If he really was a ‘forbidden child’ maybe Zeus had some reason to blast him over -Athena being his favorite child not withstanding- or maybe not, no gods had ever bothered him, but he had always been at camp… anyways, he still felt like throwing up every time the plane shake. It had been nine torturous hours of flight.

He only hoped it was just an occurrence with mortal transport because he was eager to try a flying broom.

-

“Well, this is it. Stay out of trouble cupcake!” Mr. Hedge had only accompanied him to the train station near the airport. Draco had only met the man like ten hours total, but he was going to miss him.

“You…are going back?” He at least hopped he would accompany him to king’s cross station to take the Hogwarts express. Besides, it was nine a.m. what was he supposed to do till eleven?

“Sorry kiddo, Chiron’s orders, we can’t go near magical folks without suspicious, they can see a little trough the mist” Not to mention wixen in Britain considered magical creatures as beneath them.

“I’m guessing this is goodbye”

“Remember that damned owl is already at school, stay out of trouble!” Draco chuckled a little at Mr. Hedge’s outburst, they got strange glances from the nearby people.

“Yes sir, good luck in Nevada”

“Yeah, one could say it would be a Wild ride”

-

The one-hour trip on train to King’s cross did nothing to help him with his motion sickness, not even his sleepiness spared him the constant travels to the restroom. A kind old lady even let him take some of her grandchild’s medicine -well… Draco kind of tricked it out of her, but hey! He was dying here- Draco ended up at the station barely past ten and was dying of hunger.

When he returned from his brief trip to a local store, just as he was nearing platform nine and platform ten, he saw a distraught looking kid around his age talking with one of the station guards.

The kid looked like he was this close to start panicking.

He supposed that talking to the guard didn’t help the dark haired kid at all, Draco was sure he was a wizard just by the sheer fact that he had an owl with him -he was oh so glad Noctua had threw a tantrum so loud they ended up sending him first with Hermes express delivery’s help- taking pity on the dark-haired kid, Draco approached, trunk on one hand and a pasty in the other.

“Hey, you lost?”

When he turned around startled. Draco was met with green eyes, they reminded him a little of Lou Ellen’s. The kid stared at him dumbly, as if he had grown a second head.

“Uh?”

“You seemed lost. Where are you heading?” Draco casually asked as he kept sleepily munching on his pasty, that owl was quite dashing. All white plumage and intelligent eyes.

Was it him or it felt like the bird wanted to tell him something? Like ‘hey, your mom’s sends her regards’…nah, Noctua hadn’t been able to talk to any of them and wasn’t that a disappointment.

Draco wanted to talk to owls the way Percy talked to horses!

Well, he kind of understood them…

“Do you know where platform 9 ¾ is?” Oh, yeah, the kid Infront of him, focus!

“Oh…Hogwarts too?” The kid exhaled relived for some reason “Well, I don’t know where it is either, but hey at least we can be lost together”

At that moment a group of people passed just behind them, and they caught a few words of what they were saying.

“…packed with Muggles, of course…”

The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was bushing a trunk, and they had an owl.

The dark-haired kid and he exchanged a glance, with a nod both started rushing after the read-headed family. Genetics was strong with them. ‘Muggles’ was what gave them away, why did wizards insisted on using such weird words?

“Now, what’s the platform number?” said the boy’s mother.

“Nine and three-quarters!” piped a small girl, also red-headed who was holding her hand. “Mom, can’t I go…”

Oh, Draco hadn’t seen her there. She was practically glued to the plump woman’s side! His hearth ached a little at the mom-daughter duo. But he shrugged it off after a few seconds.

If he wanted to take a nap, he better found the train first. There was no time to let his mind wander.

“You’re not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right Percy, you go first”

He stared at the wall where the oldest kid had disappeared -why was he named Percy? This would get confusing- was his sleepy mind playing tricks on him or that guy just disappeared? Then two identical redheads did the same and Draco’s sleepy mind finally caught up with the fact that it must be some kind of magic.

“Excuse me”

“Hello, dears” The read headed woman gave them a friendly simile, that made Draco smile back in reflex. She seemed nice, he hadn’t had experience interacting with adults outside of Chiron and Mr. D, so he really hopped she was nice. “First time at Hogwarts? Ron’s new too” She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons.

“Your hair is like strawberries, how pretty” Blurted out his mouth on its own before he could stop himself. Where was the Draco that could stay awake for days?

Sherman always made fun of him when he got sleepy, because he tended to blurt out his thoughts without filter. But it usually took at least two sleepless days, maybe it was the stress.

The lady gave him a winning smile and blushed a little bit at the compliment.

“Well, thank you dear. Are you having trouble finding the platform?” The redheaded boy gave him an incredulous stare, as if he couldn’t believe someone was complimenting his mother’s hair.

“I’m assuming is over there but…”

But that was a wall, a very solid looking wall. The dark-haired boy at his side seemed to think so too, he had started fidgeting in place.

“Not to worry” she said “All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don’t stop and don’t be scared you’ll crash into it, that’s very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you’re nervous. Go on, go now before Ron”

The curly haired kid made his mind first, and practically ran straight into the wall’s direction. Pushing the little cart with all his might. Draco watched bewildered how he seemed to disappear into nothing.

“There he goes, now dear your turn…you don’t have a trolley” The kind woman’s voice took him out of his staring, she was frowning at his lack of cart. Like she didn’t believe a small kid like him was carrying around the quite big trunk by his own.

“Uh? Oh, no this is not that heavy” It was not…he thought, there hadn’t been that many clothes to pack, and no one batted an eye at it at the plane. But he didn’t know if his baggage was just light or if it was demigod strength kicking in “Thanks for the help!”

He ran straight into the wall before the lady could tell him any other thing.

-

Draco had found an empty compartment at the middle of the train, had practically flung his trunk over to the racks and threw himself over to the seats. They were not that comfy to sleep on, but he had slept on worse superficies.

Like a pile of rubble in the middle of New York.

He took a blissfully nightmare-less nap until someone startled him out of his dreams by knocking quite insistently on the door of his compartment. Clothes ruffled and hair dishelmed he went to open the door grumbling under his breath.

“Yes?”

At the door was a girl with brown hair so curly it looked like the mane of a lion. Behind her was a plumb boy who seemed nervous. He recoiled even more when Draco frowned his way.

“You should get changed; your clothes are all wrinkled”

The bushy haired girl remarked, wrinkling her nose at the state of his clothes. Her tone was bossy, but Draco didn’t react, used by it by the way Drew usually talked.

“That happens when you have been traveling for over…twelve hours” The two kids in front of him opened their eyes wildly, as if not expecting that answer. Draco fought to keep down a yawn “…did you want something, or can I go back to sleep?”

“Are you from the States?” The girl was kind of blunt and rude, or that was what Draco’s foggy mind was catching up.

“And what if I am?”

“Oh, no sorry, didn’t meant anything by it. I just noticed your accent”

Oh, yeah…he had lost his accent after five years of living at camp. He still pronounced some things weird, in a mix of accents. Anyways, that wasn’t important.

“Can I go back to sleep?”

“Yeah, sorry for bothering you”

He lay down again, just to then sit up abruptly. They didn’t tell him what they wanted! Now he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Groaning he took out one of the theory books he had been reading and started it again. Resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t fall asleep anytime soon.

The book had been on potions, which he found fascinating, so Draco didn’t notice the darkening sky nor the way his stomach kept grumbling demanding food.

Draco was just startled out of concentration by a familiar knock. And sure, enough there was the girl from earlier.

“What now?”

“You’d better hurry up and put your robes on. I’ve just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we’re nearly there. Then I remembered I saw you napping, and came here to tell you”

Draco blinked owlishly at her, now that he noticed it was getting quite dark.

“How…considerate, thanks I guess…”

“Got to go, don’t get out, people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors” She may not be that bad, Draco thought “You have drool on your cheek”

Or maybe she was.

-

His father had tried to describe the castle in his diary, but it didn’t compared to the actual sight of it. Oh, Annabeth for sure would go wild if he ever told her about it.

The view from the boats had been breath taking, but now Draco was making himself dizzy trying to take every detail of the entrance hall at once. He was only walking because of the crowd, if not he could stand frozen in place trying to take all in.

The paintings moved! Some of the flaming torches were floating! And he could swear he saw a medieval armor adjusting its helmet.

“Welcome to Hogwarts” He hadn’t even noticed the strict looking lady in front of them, that was how distracted he was. He snapped into attention once he realized that woman probably wouldn’t take kindly if he missed her speech.  

“The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, you r House will be something like you family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory and spend free time in your House common room.”

He lied, he still zoned out. But it was just too many things to see! Thankfully he had read all about the sorting ceremony on his father’s diary. Apparently, it had been nerve breaking for him, because his brother’s -Draco’s uncle- sorting had ended up…bad.

“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”

Draco tried to rearrange his clothes in vain. Drew would have his head if she ever see him in that state.

-

Draco hadn’t paid any mind to the ghosts; he had seen one or two already. He was more preoccupied trying to keep calm. In that moment right in front of the doors he finally noticed that he would be soon attending classes with some of the kids around him.

He would have to sit at a desk instead of reading hanging upside down a tree, how did one make friends again? He had dyslexia! Reading would be difficult, specially if the teachers wrote like in the acceptation letter…he was doomed.

While he was spiraling inside his mind, they were shoved inside this large room with candles and the sky reflected on the ceiling. He distracted himself with that while trying to maintain his cool façade, he was not freaking out! Nope.

Draco had been so nervous he didn’t notice the singing hat nor the fact that they had had started to call out names.

“Boot, Terry!”

“RAVENCLAW!”

Not until his own name was called.

“Black, Draco!”

With shacking legs, he strode over, c’mon Draco! You fought giants and snake ladies; some unwanted attention shouldn’t stop him!

For some reason the hall was dead silent, when he finally managed to sit at the stall the green and silver table started to murmur between themselves, followed by the rest of the students.

“Black?”

“Since when did the Black family was still a thing?”

Oh…he forgot about that, his ‘family’ was kind of unfamous, wasn’t it? Before he could dwell on it his vision went dark behind the sorting hat.

-

‘Oh, I haven’t seen one of your kind in a while’ Draco got startled so hard that he almost fell over, if not for the teacher’s quick reflexes he would have ended on the ground. What a great way of starting school would that be.

‘Don’t fret little demigod, I’m only talking inside your mind’ The hat was a sentient begging, what? Said hat chuckled at his reaction ‘You should have paid attention young man. Now, let’s see…’

Let Draco tell you something, having a magical hat inside your mind was a weird sensation. Cold and hot at the same time, he could feel how it tried to get a sense of his superficial thoughts.

‘Bravery? Yes, but more out of circumstance than out of will…so Gryffindor it’s not really an option’

Excuse me? Try to fight monsters on a daily basis and we would talk about bravery!

He scoffed, he just fought in a war! He saw people die! He would like to see the old ratty hat fighting giants, dracaena, drakons, that kind of stuff.

Draco could feel the hat’s amusement ‘Oh, do you wish to go to Gryffindor?’

Well, not really. Wasn’t that the house his uncle went to? Despite Walburga’s nonsense he had thought that maybe going to his father’s house wouldn’t be so bad. But really, since going to camp and assuming he wasn’t going to Hogwarts he didn’t put that much thought on it.

I…don’t really have a preference Mr. Hat, just pointing out the obvious

‘Quite prideful, little demigod’ How much time would this take? Draco could already feel everyone staring at him ‘let’s see, let’s see, this is quite difficult, I haven’t had this much trouble in decades!’

‘Intelligent? Yes, very. Knowledge seems to be something you often seek out’

Do I need to tell you whom my mother is?

´…but you don’t just seek knowledge for the sake of it, you search for things that could be of use to you’

Of course! What’s the use of knowledge one cannot wield it?

At this point Draco felt like he was being ignored, by a piece of cloth! No wait, was it even considered like that? Pretty sure it was just an accessory.

‘Loyal to a fault, but only of those who had gained your trust…Hard working but just to obtain things that benefit you…so Hufflepuff may be a stretch. Very well. Better be…’

“SLYTHERIN!”

The sudden outload scream made him swore under his breath. He didn’t know if the teacher understood him, but she did raise an eyebrow at his outburst. Smiling sheepishly, he passed the hat back and made his way towards the green table.

He was greeted by polite applaud and blank faces, but he could feel the stares.

Oh, great, he forgot that it was the house where a lot of ‘pure blooded’ families went. Was it too late to turn back and ask for a resorting?

-

Draco did not want to talk to anyone, not yet at least. All the kids kept sending him glances, some of those were clearly hungry to know who he was, for any type of information they could use.

Things seemed to settle down a little bit when ‘Potter, Harry’ was called. Draco turned his head so quickly that he almost hurt himself. His reaction gained him some funny looks from the members of his table.

But it was Harry Potter! The one he grew up reading about when he was little!

When he noticed the scrawny looking boy from king’s cross, he could feel the disappointment forming. Was that really the kid that fought dark creature…

What was he thinking? Those stories were obviously fantasy! How a kid his age could defeat dragons at age four?

Draco mentally facepalmed for not noticing that sooner, it may be common for a powerful demigod to do heroic deeds from a young age -if the Greek myths were to be believed- but unless Harry was a secret son of Hecate -going by the color of his eyes- there was no way he had done everything that was written in those books before coming to Hogwarts!

-

Zabini was the last to get sorted, and the only one whom seemed not to care about Draco’s self-imposed distance from the members of their house. The kid went and sat right across him.

He had to admit that the taller dark-skinned kid was good looking, and that the buzz cut looked good on him. Almost Aphrodite child levels of handsomeness… Stop it Draco! You can’t go around trying to assume everyone’s ‘divine’ parentage! You are NOT at camp.

Thankfully they first ate before anyone even tried to talk to him, because Draco was sure to maim anyone who interfered between him and food. Hey! He hadn’t eaten since nine in the morning!

Once the food vanished and the desserts appeared -Draco had never seen so much ice cream in one place, regretfully his inner Austin told him to not eat many sweets before bed if he ever wanted to sleep- the boy started a conversation, everyone seemed to start chatting after eating.

“Hey, I’m Zabini. Blaise Zabini”

“Who are you? James Bond?” The buzz headed kid looked at him funny, oh, yes, ‘pure blooded’ wizards in Europe usually didn’t mix with muggles. There went a good joke “Forget it…I’m Draco Black”

“Or so I’ve heard…any idea why everyone started whispering as soon as you were announced?”

“You are not from here, are ya’?”

Draco winced, hadn’t he snapped early at the bushy haired girl for making a similar question? Thankfully the kid only seemed amused. His deep chocolate eyes seemed to be laughing.

“You aren’t either, judging by your accent I’d say the States…”

Oh, he liked the kid already.

“Judging by yours, I’d say Italy”

“Guilty of charges. My mamma it’s from Italy, but since Father was from the islands, she decided to send me here…more like my father’s family would make a fuss If I didn’t attend”

How funny, weren’t their circumstances quite similar? Chiron had told Draco he was free to came up with whatever story he wanted to explain his situation. Hecate had promised to control the mist to cover up his tracks, but for now he would go with vague answers.

Draco needed to think his backstory trough, the mist often came up with wild explanations on its own -Percy’s manhunt three years ago was a clear example- so he would settle with vague explanations for now.

“Everyone kept whispering because no one knew about Lil ‘old me. My existence was never announced to the public”

“And that matters because…?”

Draco had noticed the girls catting nearby, one brown haired with a pudgy nose and one blond headed with delicate features, clearly listening in to their talk, but he didn’t expect for the brown-haired girl to jump into their conversation, quite eagerly by the way.

“The Blacks are members of the sacred twenty-eight! One of the few families to have the title of most ancient and noble house, with a history over five hundred years!” Draco scoffed; it was not as if his family was famous for good reasons “Everyone assumed that it had gone extinct with no heirs, and that the Malfoys would get the inheritance. With the other heirs available being a blood traitor and Azkaban prisoners”

“You are?”

The girl didn’t even seem sheepish for her intrusion.  Where were the pure blood etiquettes Walburga so graciously made sure he remembered?

She gave him a coy smile and extended her hand “Parkinson. Pansy Parkinson. From the noble house of Parkinson”

Draco only took the offered hand because he had manners. Blaise smirked at him, while munching on some kind of pastry.

“Such a famous person, aren’t you?”

“Infamous more like. She forgot to mention the Blacks are well known for the Dark arts and siding with Dark lords”

He grimaced, Draco knew all about the Black family history and their dirty laundry. When he went to live with Walburga she made sure to make him remember every little secret the Black family had before her, with him being the ‘heir’ and whatnot.

He would rather be disinherited than to have anything to do with such a dark house, wait…was he still the second Heir? He had disappeared without trace after all…

“Who’s your…” Pansy didn’t seem to read the mood. How had she ended up in Slytherin?

“Look, Pansy, right? They didn’t announce my existence for a reason, make whatever assumption you want to believe I couldn’t care less” The next part was aimed to all the members of the table he could notice were eavesdropping “But I won’t tell anyone what it was, and I’d very much appreciate if people kept their curiosity to themselves”

Pansy huffed in annoyance and went back to chat with the blonde girl. Blaise seemed to find the situation funny judging by the small smile on his face.

“You seem to be full of secrets Black”

“You have no idea…please, call me Draco”

-

Draco felt bad for Harry, the way people clearly ogled at him was affecting the poor guy; Draco would have been in the same situation if he didn’t make his remark at the start of term banquet. But in a bad light, while Harry was admired by his prowess as a baby. Draco would be feared for his family’s history.

A kid in Gryffindor had already busted out crying when their eyes met one day at breakfast. Blaise had found it amusing, Draco did not.

He only hopped the kid understood that whatever his ancestors had done, he didn’t have a say in the matter.

Classes were…alright, History was the one he dreaded the most because there was no way of him staying in place for the whole hour. Not when the teacher was a ghost that seemed to like to drone out forever.

And let’s not talk about Defense against the dark arts, some of the things written on the book where so wrong Draco was afraid that if any of the other kids ever encountered a monster, they would die under five minutes.

 The teacher didn’t help matters, with his trembling voice and strong smell of garlic, he didn’t seem like the type of person who could do good against anything. Not even a fly.

The rest were quite alright, one of the teachers could transform into a cat! -The strict looking lady from the entrance ceremony, her name was McGonagall- Another one was tiny -quite a rude remark, but his brain couldn’t help to focus on that detail when the teacher gave class standing on top of a pile of books.

Astronomy was by far his best class, no, it had nothing to do with the fact that he already seemed to know all the material. Don’t look at him like that Blaise! It’s not his fault seven-year-old him had a thing for stars!

But the one he was looking for the most was potions. When he read the book, his mind immediately went to camp, and how much the concoctions would help them out when things couldn’t be treated with just sips from nectar.

*-*

Snape wasn’t looking forward to that Friday’s first year potion lesson -as if he ever looked forward to any of his lessons- the Potter boy and the Black boy would be in it.

He had had the displeasure to meet Draco Black when he gave his start of term discourse to his snakes, and he was not amused by him. The blond kid had been about to sleep on his feet, and he doubted he had heard any word Snape had spoken that night.

But what could he expect from the child of Sirius Black?

Because there was no way Regulus could be his father, not when he disappeared eleven years ago. At barely eighteen. If the Black family kept the child a secret, it was the logic conclusion he was the child of the infamous, playboy Sirius Black.

It was his luck to have the sons of two of his school days bullies.

Ironically both boys inherited the opposite of each of their parents. While Potter had Lily’s eyes and Senior Potter’s rat nest of a hair. Draco Black had Sirius eyes and blond curly hair.

That didn’t stop his loathing.

*-*

Draco had to admit he stopped paying attention after his name was called in roll call, why did teachers insist on it? Well, this was his first time hearing the Gryffindor’s names, being the only class, he shared with them and whatnot. But he was this close to memorizing his all his year housemates’ names!

The teacher wore all black clothes and looked to be quite young, maybe in his thirties. Well, compared to the rest of the teachers anyways -one of them was a ghost! - but he also seemed to have the sourest face Draco had seen in his life. He had seen monsters cheerier than him!

“Ah, yes. Harry Potter, Our new…celebrity”

So far Draco had dismissed his sibling’s tales about bad teachers and how some of them ended up being creatures in disguise, but he was starting to have his doubts…he really hopped his potion teacher wasn’t a Cyclopes or something, no wait, he was far too short for that…

“You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making” he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word.

And hadn’t the Cyclopes had stopped attacking demigods? With Tyson being the commander and whatnot…maybe it only applied for those at Poseidon’s forges.

“As there is little foolish wands-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic….”

But what other creatures there were? Now that he thought about it a lot of Greek monsters were female. Like the furies and the harpies…

“Black!” He got startled out of his thoughts so hard he sent his seat stumbling over to the ground.

Some people snickered; Blaise seemed to be holding back his laugher. But the teacher didn’t seem amused at all.

“What is the difference between monkshood and wolfs bane? As it seems like you already know so much to be droning out the lesson”

Quite chastised and with a red face Draco rearranged his seat while reciting the first thing that came to mind…

“Monkshood and wolfs bane are the same plant, other common names for it are aconite, monkshood, leopard’s bane, mouse bane, women’s bane, devil’s helmet, queen of poisons or blue rocket. It is known to be a poisonous plant…”

…which may had been a little bit too much information, ups.

“I asked for an answer Black, not for the encyclopedic. Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

“I don’t know, sir”

“Tut, tut…fame clearly isn’t everything”

Draco raised an eyebrow at that. The level of animosity Snape had for one kid was just unreasonable, had Harry done something to him? Like replacing his morning cup of tea with some strange liquid or something?

“Let’s try again Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”

“I don’t know sir”

“Thought you wouldn’t open a book before coming, eh, Potter?”

The Stoll’s had done so to Chiron, once, and they ended up cleaning the stables for months.

“I don’t know, I think Hermione does, why don’t you ask her?”

“Black?!”

Draco didn’t jump just because he had been waiting for the call. Whatever Snape had against Harry seemed to extend to himself. How lucky of him.

“I don’t know what asphodel and wormwood made, but a bezoar is a stone. One fabled poison cure, a hardened spherical deposit of indigestible material that forms in the gastrointestinal tract of hoofed animals, goats were the most common. For hundreds of years, bezoars were believed to be able to render any and all poison inert…”

“Again, I asked for an answer not for the encyclopedic definition!” Draco couldn’t pinpoint if the teacher was mad at him for his large answers or for the sheer fact that Draco knew them.

“Mr. Black is right. For your information, Black, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful is known as the Draught of Living Death. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?”

With that the questions stopped, and everyone rushed to take notes; Draco was amused at the bushy haired girl that had kept her hand up all the time. Her last name was Granger, wasn’t it?

“A point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter” The black-haired teacher then turned to sneer at him “Take this as a warning, Black, you came here to learn, not to recite the whole books. If you do so again, points would be taken from Slytherin.”

Had he participated in a prank without him knowing? Because Draco couldn’t think any reason the teacher would hate him.

“Didn’t you say Mr. Snape favored Slytherin?” He whispered at Blaise, his desk mate, while they prepared the potions ingredients.

“That’s what everyone said in the common room, mio amico. Any idea what’s his problem with you and Potter?”

“None” But he would like to find out.

-

Blaise and Theodore Nott were his roommates – and wasn’t it weird, sharing a room with so little people- but they shoved him off on Saturday morning when he kept insisting, they go out to explore the castle.

Blaise told him ‘Saturdays are for sleeping in’ before rolling back into his bed; and Theodore, despite being the quiet type, launched a book straight to his head when he tried to open his four poster bed’s curtains.

So now, Draco was alone roaming the castle halls early morning -He wasn’t pouting! - when hushed whispers from a barely open door caught his attention.

“I told you, the book says you should stir clockwise!”

“This other book says different, so which one is correct?”

“Obviously the one written by Potion Master Septimius Prince!”

“But this is the version of Master Budge…”

It was a group of four upper year Ravenclaws, around third year, all bundled around a bunch of potion books looking quite distressed. It reminded him of the heavy debates Athena cabin often had, with books on hand to support their claims.

But what problem could they have just one week into the term?

Draco made his way towards the bunch of books sprawled around, uh something to do with…. a Shirking solution? The list of ingredients was kind of weird. For the lot he could read.

“What’s a shrivel…fig?”

Draco had to get out of the way of yet, another book launched his direction. What was with people and their disrespect for books?

The one who had thrown the book stared at him owlishly. “F-Fruit! Kid, you scared me!”

“It’s a type of plant native to Abyssinia”

“oh” Draco nodded as if he knew where Abyssinia was. Wasn’t it the name for Ethiopia when the country was still an empire? Well, whatever.  “You can settle this easily, simply try out both recipes and compare them” Did wizards didn’t know the scientific method?

“Are you insane? Professor Snape will kill us if he ever finds out!”

“But he said so himself, and I quote ‘do what you must. Just don’t get caught’” He may had been about to drop asleep at the start of term speech Snape gave them, but he caught some phrases…mainly the ones that accommodated him.

The Ravenclaws looked at each other warily, then at him and then at their surroundings like they expected it to be trap.

“C’mon! I’ll even help out!”

-

Blaise, Theodore, and he had formed a kind of friendship, it hadn’t come as natural as it had been at camp, but the dark-skinned kid had cheek that Draco really appreciated. He also made connections rather quickly and didn’t hold back his words.

Theodore was more of a shadow that followed around, but Draco didn’t mind. He respected a fellow bookworm.

It also helped they didn’t seem to mind the nasty looks and whispered conversations that often happened behind Draco’s back. He didn’t mind, let people assume whatever they wanted.

But really? This was a library! Stop your gossiping!

“You have been staring at the same page for five minutes” Blaise seemed amused.

“Can’t concentrate, letters keep moving around” Draco had been staring at the page as if it had offended him, he had been able to read a paragraph before the constant murmur inside the library made him loss concentration.

“The letters?” Theodore for once put aside his book, glaring at him in confusion and with a face that clearly meant ‘only the pictures move, not the letters’

“Don’t you know what dyslexia is?”

They ended up discussing differences between ‘muggles’ and wizards. Despite some bigoted phrasing -that he made sure to correct, maybe if he started to change their views the next generation would stop spouting nonsense- it was quite and enlighten evening.

-

Draco had been feeling homesick, and despite anyone else may think, the forbidden forest reminded him of home. Roaming creatures inside it included.

He also didn’t want to IM call camp, he felt it would be quite humiliating to go crying to his family after just two weeks away. With that in mind he ended up in a clearing in the forbidden forest brandishing his daggers at a tree.

Or that was the plan, before he could even attempt to throw a dagger, the rustle of branches and the sound of hoofs stopped him on his tracks.

“Drop your weapons!”

Did Hogwarts have something like forest guards? Draco swore a little under his breath and put his hand up in a non-threatening position. If they snitched him to the teachers, he was in deep trouble.

“Styx…I wasn’t doing anything!” But those were not people on horse, those were “Centaurs?”

Draco was puzzled, those didn’t seem like the centaurs he knew. They were not wearing colorful shirts and weren’t being obnoxiously loud. Maybe they were another type of centaurs…like, British centaurs, did they enjoy tea and biscuits?

“Child of man what are you doing here?”

They seemed distasted, Draco winced, great, why no one told him there were sentient creatures inside the forest that could snitch on him! Ones who were known for their distaste for wizards.

Well, if he was expulsed, he may have a chance on going to Salem or Livermore…now, that was a tough.

They stared at each other for what felt an eternity.

The Centaurs in question were three, one had fiery red hair and beard, his horse half was that of a Hackney Horse -why did Draco knew about horse races? Curiosity, having horse-Pegasus flying lessons for almost half his life, and mainly because it irritated Chiron if you misnamed things- the other one had waist length hair and looked quite wild, his hoofs belonged to a Shire Horse. The third one was younger, white-blond hair -two or three shades lighter than his- and had a Palomino body.

“That is no child of man” Grunted the red haired after looking at the sky, as if the non-visible stars had told him the answers. “Half-blood”

“Son of Pallas” Chipped in the dark haired one. Wasn’t it great? Draco had gone and outed himself.

Thank the gods the centaurs didn’t seemed angry at his intrusion, just, curious, and cautious. Draco would be too, where demigods went monsters often followed.

“What brings you here?”

“Training?” His voice cracked a little and he winced internally “look, I didn’t mean to trespass…I’ll get going…”

The three centaurs looked at him while Draco made his way out of the clearing backwards. They seemed to be debating with themselves about something. When he was about to enter the tree line and head back to the castle, they stopped him.

“You can train demigod, we won’t say anything to the wizards” The centaur was being a little bit condescending, but the way he said wizards made Draco shuffle around a little uncomfortable, the way the centaur intoned it implied Draco wasn’t included. He really didn’t know how to feel about that.

“But if you are truly a son of Pallas. You should never adventure up north”

“What’s there?”

“Acromantula colony”

Draco ended up at the library, book of beast on hand. Let’s just say he had nightmares about house sized, human eating spiders for a few days.

-

Flying lessons! They were finally there!

Draco had been eager to learn since Lou Ellen told him about the device, he had laughed so hard when they admitted that witches and wizards did indeed fly around on brooms. A European invention it seemed.

His father’s diary also mentioned them, but it had been quite funny to see Lou Ellen’s embarrassed face.

Some kids even had some wild stories about flying high enough to almost crash into helicopters and whatnot. Draco really hoped Zeus was in a good mood, because he will try to see how high he could get.

“You seem about to go on flying all by yourself” Chuckled Blaise at his side at breakfast. Draco tried hard to stop practically vibrating with excitement, but it was just too much.

“Oh, shut it Blaise, aren’t you excited?”

“Contrary of what you may believe, I’ve had gone flying numerous times” As so had Draco, on Pegasus may he add, but he hadn’t heard anyone mentioning flying horses, so he had kept silent on that matter.

“In the champs of Venice…yeah, yeah, I’ve heard”

They were the first to arrive at the grounds, despite his fellow Slytherin’s complains about sharing the lesson with the Gryffindors -thing Draco didn’t understand, they barely knew each other, it seemed to be a kind of ‘house pride’ thing- they seemed quite eager to get to class.

Just when the Gryffindors were making their appearance. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

“Well, what are you all waiting for?” she barked. “Everyone, stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up”

Draco wasn’t really expecting this kind of broom, so he eyed them cautiously. They seemed old and some of the branches were falling off.

In retro expective, the cool metal sci-fi looking broom on his head may had been a stretch of his imagination.

The wizards kept insisting on writing with quills! What was he expecting?

“Stick out your right hand over your broom” Called Madam Hooch at the front, “and say ‘Up!’”

“UP!” everyone shouted.

Draco’s eyes went wide when the piece of wood launched itself towards his face. Demigod reflexes the only thing stopping the handle of hitting his face.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips.

“Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle…three…two…”

A boy, the one that had busted out crying that time at breakfast, suddenly started to float up, in a uncontrolled speed. Uh, oh.

“Come back, boy!” Madam Hooch shouted, but Draco didn’t see her doing anything to actually stop the now panicked kid.

Weren’t they wizards? Wasn’t she a ‘responsibly’ adult?

Annoyed, Draco was about to mount his broom and go to the rescue -if no one was doing it, why not him? – when suddenly the kid started falling. He was sadly not faster than gravity, so the kid ended up face down on the grass after a nasty thud.

Madam Hooch at least was decent enough to escort the kid to the infirmary, apparently, he had gotten a broken wrist. Which make him exhale a little in relief, that was just a minor injury, the kid would be fine in no time.

Sadly, they were ‘grounded’ in the literal sense of the word until Madam Hooch returned, but Draco didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

“What are you doing?” Said Blaise looking at him warily. Draco had mounted his broom and was already flying a few inches up, grinning widely.

“C’mon don’t you want to see how fast this thing can go?”

“You could lose us house points. I wouldn’t do it” Theodore apparently had decided to be the voice of reason. Draco shrugged it off, going up a little bit more.

“I won’t get caught”

“That wasn’t what Snape meant!”

“C’mooon, no one will know” And with that, he meant if everyone that was now staring at him as he flied in lazy hoops kept their mouth shut, no one would get in trouble. Brooms were strangely aerodynamic, who knew?

“Black! Madam Hootch told us to stay on the ground!” Ups, he had forgotten about the Gryffindor goodie two shoes.

Before he could retort with something among the lines of ‘Where is your bravery, Granger?’ someone appeared at his side, floating a little bit clumsily on place.

“Oh, hey Harry, fancy meeting you here” The dark-haired kid was so excited he didn’t seem to hear him. Draco could relate he had been the same the first time he got to fly a Pegasus.

“This is awesome!”

“I know, right?”

“Harry, come back!” Granger practically shirked, Draco grimaced a little at the tone but paid her no mind. He had done some ‘recognizance’ and there were no teachers around.

He was confident they wouldn’t get caught so soon.

“Race you to that tree?” He asked instead because this was fun. Harry followed his pointing finger and agreed eagerly. They made a few loops, increasing speed in each one.

Everyone ignored Granger’s hissy fit to start cheering them on. At some point Blaise provided them with a metallic ball-apparently an enlarged neckless bead- to start playing seeing who can toss it the farthest and retrieve it before it touched the ground.

All was excitement and laughs, up until Draco loose hold of the ball when they were quite high and it went pummeling to the ground, Harry making a dive after it.

Because, why? Why did Harry didn’t have any kind of self-preservation?

But he had to admit the maneuver was so smooth it appeared as if Harry had been broom flying for years instead a few minutes. A foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight and he toppled gently onto the grass.

Before anyone could cheer about the absolute madness that was a scream made everyone’s blood run cold.

“HARRY POTTER!” Professor McGonagall was running toward them. No one noticed Draco’s panicked landing, she hadn’t noticed him also in the air thank the gods. He grimaced a little bit for getting Harry into trouble.

But was it really his fault? He didn’t force him to it.

“Never…in all my time at Hogwarts” Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously “how dare you…might have broken your neck”

“Professor, it wasn’t Harry’s fault, Black also…” Draco glared hard at the redhead that spoke out loud, from all the persons there he had expected the snitch to be Granger.

Thankfully, McGonagall seemed to be focused on Harry as she dismissed Weasley’s accusations.

“That’s enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now”

Everyone stood there, watching Harry and McGonagall disappear at the Castle’s doors. Shocked. Draco really hopped he hadn’t gotten the other kid expelled.

“I think he didn’t get the ‘don’t get caught’ part’” Blurted out his mind after a few minutes of silence, some people jumped at his sudden appearance.

“When did you got here?”

-

The next day his guilty mind made him made his way towards the Gryffindor table. Blaise send him a questioning look which Draco responded with a nervous smile.

Theodore only rolled his eyes and buried himself on his morning reading, he had been of the idea that if Potter had been caught it was his fault for being an idiot.

When he arrived at the red and golden table, he was met with angry glances from all his Gryffindor year mates. He paid them no mind. Draco was there to apologize after all.

“I’m so sorry Harry I didn’t…why are you smiling?” But Harry wasn’t sad, or crying or anything, quite the opposite, he was smiling widely as if something good had happened to him.

“Oh, shove off Black.”

Still confused by the dark headed kid’s reaction he turned to met angry blue eyes. Weasley seemed the only one to react out of the pair, Harry was just…weirdly cheery he didn’t seem to notice Draco was standing right beside him.

“I said I’m sorry! Really, didn’t meant for you to get caught…but for what I see it wasn’t that bad” Unless the kid hated school and was eager to go back home, or something.

The redheaded didn’t seem convinced. Even some of the obviously overhearing Gryffindors seemed to calm down when they noticed Draco was there to apologize and not to cause any more trouble.

He frowned at Weasley, trying to not get worked up by the heated glare “Look, what I have to do for you to stop glaring daggers at me. It wasn’t even you who was in trouble!”

Harry didn’t seem to mind, so he didn’t saw the problem.

Weasley looked him over up and down as if trying to determine his worth. It appeared he had gotten an idea when his face brightened up with a mischievous smile.

Draco had heard about the Weasley twins, Ron’s older brothers, and could see the resemblance.

“Do you know where the kitchens are?”

“No…but I could find out, why?” He asked warily, Draco wasn’t liking where this was going.

“Let’s celebrate, Harry” said boy apparently had dismissed their discussion and was now cheerily shoving food into his mouth, so much for a heartfelt apology. Maybe Theodore was right, he shouldn’t have bothered.  “Bring some food to the trophy room at midnight, that´s always unlocked”

“Are you sure? If we get caught, we’ll get in trouble”

Not as if he would get caught, mind you, sneaking around monster’s -both human and Greek- all his life gave him a huge advantage of going around a castle with so many dark corners and places to hide. But this was started for getting Harry in trouble wasn’t it.

“You mean if YOU get caught…Or what, scared?”

Draco made a face at the baby Weasley. And stomped out of there huffing. The redhead was infuriating, and he only had had two conversations with him!

“See you at midnight then”

-

Draco had no trouble finding the kitchens, his upper year Ravenclaws friends knew a kind fourth year Hufflepuff named Cedric -The kid had grey eyes! Draco would later pester him to know where those came from- that kindly told them how to get to the kitchens.

No suspicion in any of their eyes, at all. Draco felt bad for deceiving them.

He made his way trying to be as quiet as possible, Filch was by far less frightening than the harpies, but his pride would take a huge blow if he got caught by a cat of all things.

Not with a basked full of cake and pastries, part of him was glad Weasley dared him to it, because he now knew how to have access to endless number of sweets.

If Austin only knew what he was getting into. Draco missed his friends.

The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness.

Right in the middle of the room stood, four people, one of them Draco was just… what was Granger doing there? “I just brought enough food for three. Honestly, I was this close for not coming, thinking it was a trap”

Granger had a pinched face at his appearance, clearly noting his all-dark cameo cloths he had worn to mend better with the shadows. Blaise had raised an eyebrow at his appearance, but then muttered he didn’t want to know.

He even wore a crochet hat -courtesy of…Ta-Taylor- to hide his blond hair.

In contrast the fourth in front of him were in some clothes clearly meant for sleeping in. Yea, Granger’s light pink gown wouldn’t help her at all in a stealth mission.

“As if we could do something so Slytherin”

Sneered the redhead, and Draco frowned at him. Clearly displeased, basked of baked goods forgotten.

“Look, Ron, right? Have I done anything to you?”

“What?”

Weasley clearly hadn’t expected the direct confrontation, but Draco lived with a bunch of kids and teenagers some of them whom liked to create misunderstandings. He knew how to be direct.

If words didn’t work, often a good sparring match settled things down. He doubted Weasley knew how to fight, so he had to make this work.

It also helped that Athena kids were knew to be…convincing.

“I don’t know, you seem to hate me, but I think I haven’t done anything to deserve it”

Weasley’s face turned red, almost making his skin the same shade as his hair. Harry shuffled uncomfortable in place. He had apparently tough things over and found Weasley’s anger disproportionate, good to know.

“You got Harry in trouble!”

“Did I? He didn’t seem so troubled at dinner, and wasn’t this supposed to be a celebration? What should we celebrate if he had gotten into trouble? His expulsion?”

Before anyone could retort. Really, Granger seemed about to jump in to lecture them all. A noise in the next room made them jump.

“Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner” It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris.

Harry waved madly at them to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch’s voice. Neville’s robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

“They’re here somewhere. Probably hiding”

They started a mad dash out of there, Draco even stopped the plump kid from failing down more than once. Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were going.

He had to admit, running in the castle at night was something that had him smiling widely, despite Granger’s reproachful glare.

It was so much like camp! Maybe he should call home.

They stopped at some stairs and Draco had to wonder how little exercise the kids got if that little had them breathless.

“I think we’ve lost him”

Maybe grinning madly with adrenaline was the thing that made Granger snap, who knew. But she recuperated rather quickly and started pointing fingers.

“I told you we would get in trouble! Black, even you!” Granger pointed at him looking betrayed, what? Did she think that because Draco was doing good in class, he wouldn’t be a troublemaker? If so, she was in for a surprise “Someone must have overheard your conversation and tipped Filch”

“How is this my fault, strawberry shortcake was the one who came up with the idea!” Draco frowned, crossing his arms. Harry snorted and Granger glared at him with curiosity but the other two seemed a little bit loss.

Right, right, sheltered purebloods, they wouldn’t know about TV shows featuring redheads.

Draco huffed in annoyance when he noticed Weasley about to retort, Draco would bet he would accuse him of tipping Filch or something. Rolling his eyes, he turned around and marched out of there.

“You know what? Good luck getting back at your dorm”

-

Draco was in a fool mood, sue him. Blaise snickering at the state of his hair and Theodore’s disappointed glances weren’t helping matters. That’s why he snapped as soon as he noticed Weasley and Harry approaching them in the hallway.

“I see you didn’t get expelled, nice”

Some people stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the scene, clearly eager to know what was going on. Draco’s scowl made them retreat.

“Look, can we talk?” Weasley meekly asked.

Huffing Draco motioned to an empty classroom, Blaise sent him a glance and he shock his head. He didn’t help, pretty sure he could take them out with the eyes closed if things turned ugly.

Theodore mouthed ‘see you at the library’ before dragging Blaise away.

Once the door closed behind them, he turned to scowl at the two boys.

“What do you two want?”

Harry sent him a pained smile while Weasley’s ears turned red. “I…I’m sorry, ok? Harry says he doesn’t blame you for the broom incident. And I might have overreacted a little bit”

Draco gave the redhead an unimpressed look.

“You made me wander around the castle at midnight, to then blame me for getting almost caught”

“Look, I’m sorry, ok? It’s just, I’ve always heard these things about Slytherin and…”

So that was this? Draco had heard about Slytherin rivalry with all the houses, but he found it ridiculous, more so when he noticed the way some ostracized them just by the fact they were in the same house as you-know-who.

Were they aware Draco was just eleven?

That was no excuse, Draco leveled Weasley with a heated glare. He didn’t really want to recurse to this, but…

“I grew up part of my childhood hearing stories about ‘brainless Gryffindors’ ‘utterly reckless’ ‘big headed’ ‘narcissists’ ‘selfish’ ‘scum on earth’” and so much more things, that he thought weren’t amicable for kids ears.

Walburga Black made her distaste known, that and described with morbid detail all the things she would do to Draco if he ever ended up a Gryffindor like her ‘ungrateful’ son.

“And do you see me treating you any different than anyone?”

Weasley was speechless, Harry looked uncomfortable, clearly only there for being moral support. Draco turned sharply on his heel and headed out.

“I just hope whatever you wanted to celebrate was good enough to risk expulsion. Have a nice week”

-

Another week passed before he got the courage to IM someone, he went to visit Noctua when he admitted to himself, he felt lonely.

Blaise and Theo were great company, don’t get him wrong. But he was tired of the whispers, of the fearful glances, of the mean muttered comments. Was this how Percy felt almost four years ago when he got claimed?

He missed his siblings, he missed his friends, he even missed Mr. D’s weird humor! So, he resolute to call someone.

But not camp, not yet.

He dusted off the emergency drachma he always carried around, made a rainbow with some colored glass he found -someone must have a raven because those were far too shiny things up there- and called the only person he knew would be able to answer him without problem.

After some minutes, an image formed and a tired looking Nico appeared, he was in the underworld judging by the shadows and strange plants around him.

“Hey, Neeks”

“Drake?” Nico’s hair was all over the place, and his clothes were wrinkled as if he had slept on them. Quite the normal occurrence when the son of hades traveled around so much. For some reason he had a gardening hat on. A pitch-black gardening hat.

“Gloomy as always, I see”

Nico gruntled in response, frowning when he noticed Noctua and the other owls in the background “Where are you?”

“The Owlery?”

“Your school, has an Owlery”

Ups, that wasn’t normal, was it? Well…it was Nico, maybe he could trick him into thinking that owleries in schools were the norm. Yup, wasn’t it common in the war to deliver messages by pigeon? “Yup. Maybe that’s why mom send me here, to see if these people weren’t mistreating the owls”

Nico rolled his eyes at him but let the theme drop.

“Spit it out, what troubles you?”

“What can’t I call you to ask about the wheatear?” Both had a staring match at the remark, Draco felt offended the other demigod thought he had ulterior motives. He had! But that wasn’t the point. Sadly, for him he lost patience first “Fine, I wanted to call camp but…”

“You feel it is too soon”

“Yeah…” Draco grimaced, but felt better at the understanding in Nico’s eyes “What are you doing? Is that Persephone’s Garden?”

“Taking out the weeds”

They ended up discussing random things and Draco felt better already.

-

Their small potions study group -that was totally not brewing group, nope- had been experimenting this week with pepper up potion. After last time’s results that indicated that depending on the brewing one could enhance or reduce a potion’s effects, they had decided to move to other ‘safe’ options to compare.

He liked his Ravenclaw friends, once he got them to stop being shy about experimenting around ‘what? You call yourselves ones whose seek knowledge but are frightened to expand it?’ they got along like a well-oiled machine.

Maybe the hat was into something when he tried to put him in Ravenclaw.

Miley Bridgestone was the oldest one by a few months’ daughter of a minor pureblood family, her auburn hair was always up in a bun and had even weirdest ideas than Draco sometimes.

Richard Payne was the voice of reason, and the only thing between Draco and his empire of pepper up potions. He had told them the idea once, Richard made sure to shut it down before anyone could think about it.

Laura Owen was quite quiet in general, but Draco knew she secretly enjoyed the chaos. He could see it in her amber eyes.

Then there was Dustin Brown, muggle born, he was the one to bring up chemical reactions into the debates and the reason they almost got caught when they made that one classroom explode trying to mix bicarbonate with different magical reactive -thank the gods the Weasley twins were blamed for that one.

Currently their batch of pepper up potion had turned out, fine? The objective had been to see if they could make the smoke that came out of the ear’s different colors, the one they had now could turn the smoke blue.

Draco wanted it to be silver, but he was outnumbered one to four.

“What did I tell you? It turned out all right!”

“Well, well, well…what do we have here” Everyone’s attention snapped to the voice at the door, Draco swore under his breath when he noticed the pair of redheads smiling like the cat that got the mouse.

“I don’t know Gred, it seems like a group of Ravenclaws…” Started one of them.

“Illegally brewing!” the other followed, as if it had been rehearsed.

“Who forgot to lock the door?” Dustin scowled at them as if this was all their fault, Draco pointed at him because Dustin was the last to enter. That got the brunet to shut up.

“The Weasley twins” Hissed Miley with distaste, she loathed the twins because despite their pranks they were always in the first places at school.

Especially brewing.

Not at all related to their current predicament, nope.

“As if you hadn’t had been caught doing worse things!” Richard defended positioning himself in front of their cauldron so the twins couldn’t see exactly what they were doing.

The groups stared at each other for quite some time, Draco groaned and made his way upfront.

Maybe this was why the hat seemed was more suited for Slytherin, because there was no way he could let the twins get out of there with the information so they could black mail his friends.

“Look, we can make an agreement”

He was an Athena child after all. The eye’s twins opened like plates when he put himself in front of his friends.

“A witty bitty little snake is here too Forge!” The one to the right.

“Who would have tough…” The one to the left.

“Ravenclaws…” Then back.

“Corrupting…” and forth.

“A little baby, snake!” to end up with.

“How scandalous!” both talking at the same time.

Draco groaned; it was such an annoying way of talking.

“Oh, gosh. Thank the gods the Stoll brothers never did that” Because they may not be twins, but they had been once almost identical. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Um…look, if you don’t tell we won’t tell either” He tried again smiling charmingly at them, Miley stiffed behind him, clearly wanting to reach out to stop him from digging his own grave.

“About what?” One of the twins asked warily. Draco really needed to learn how to differentiate them.

“About the…stolen toilet seat!”

The twins laughed as if that was just a minor thing in the scheme of all, which Draco tough it was. They closed the door behind them and approached their brewing table, clearly eyeing the ingredients.

“Those are some fine potion ingredients, where did you obtain them?”

“People will notice if you started receiving packages at breakfast”

Great! They had something to negotiate with, not all was lost. Draco smiled at them, maybe he could exchange potion ingredients for their silence.

“Now that you ask about it” Richard and the Ravenclaws were giving him now questioning glances, oh…well…how did Draco say this?

“I recollect them from the forbidden forest” Because Centaurs let him do it when he told them he wanted to brew potions for camp half-blood, they even gave him some books about centaur healing practices that he had under key on his trunk.

Draco facepalmed himself when he was met with silence, right…’forbidden’ forest. Where students weren’t supposed to go, same place he visited once a week to recollect ingredients and train a little with the Centaurs.

Thankfully the twins smile only grew.

“Well, well, well…” Started one of the twins.

“We may have a deal…”

The twin Cheshire smiles had the Ravenclaws shuffle around a little. Draco could only smile in reply.

“Why do I feel we have made a grave mistake” Mumbled Dustin.

“It’s like selling our son to the devil!” Miley said worried.

Laura’s smile was feral. Like she had been expecting this kind of outcome.

“If the school explodes tomorrow, we didn’t have anything to do with it” Richard simply washed his hands from the situation. The Ravenclaws rapidly nodded in agreement.

-

It was Halloween afternoon, and Draco had finally decided to call camp. There should be some campers around, they often went trick or treating as a group. So, he was sure he would find a lot of his friends there.

Taking a deep breath, he called out to the rainbow goddess and a shimmering image appeared in front of him. At first it was blurry but soon it had a tired looking Sherman on frame, the Ares cabin usual disaster in the background.

There were some last minutes disguise supplies lying around. Sherman himself was covered in fake blood and had an arrow sticking out of his head.

“Hey Sherm!”

“Drake? Are you going trick or treating?” The Asian kid frowned when he noticed his clothes. Draco chuckled to himself.

“I wish, this is my uniform” Well, kind off, he may or may have not put on the ‘formal’ hat just to feel like he had put on a disguise. It had been a tradition at camp, to throw over the cheapest costume and see who could get the most candy. It was fun.

“You look like a cartoon wizard”

“I know!” It was sad to think that Sherman couldn’t get the inside joke, but Draco made a mental note to tell Lou Ellen when he saw them “How are things at camp?”

“The kiddos are going trick or treating later”

Before his best friend could say anything more, he was shoved aside by the lot bunch of Ares’s campers. All covered in fake blood and ratty clothes, apparently, they were going as a zombie horde.

“Is that Drake?!”

“Hey!”

“How are you doing?”

“Great costume!”

Sherman shoved aside his siblings frowning “One can’t have five minutes of privacy?”

“It’s camp, where the concept of privacy doesn’t exist. What were you expecting?” Draco was giggling at the campers’ antics.

“Har, har, wait…are you in a forest?” Oh, yeah, Draco had learned his lesson after he almost got caught talking with Nico, he was currently inside the forbidden forest, there was no way someone would catch him calling his friends there, right? It was ‘forbidden’ after all “Drakey, you shouldn’t go around tempting monsters”

“I have my daggers with me, see? It’s not as if monsters would enter the school, right?” Draco rolled his eyes at his friend, but stopped when he noticed his grimace “Right?”

“It had happened before…” Oh great, and here was Draco thinking he had had such a peaceful term so far “Mark once had to…”

“Don’t jinx it Sherm!”

Sherman stuck his tongue out at him “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go and feign being a wizard at class and call more often Drake! Even some letters would be nice. Drew has been IM’ing me asking about you”

Noctua may also be going crazy inside the owlery, who knew? Maybe it was a magical owl who could cross the ocean in days. Draco made a mental note to try and send something to Drew and Austin.

“Will do my best, see ya Sherm!”

-

Breakfast had been great, but dinner was just, wow.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins flutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, and it had at the start-of-term banquet.

But before he could get his hands on the food Professor Quirrell had barreled in and declared there had been a breach in security and now they had a troll inside the castle.

Draco tried not to scoff at the way their ‘defense against the dark arts’ teacher tumbled to the ground, where was his bravery?

Sherman had so jinxed it.

It may not be a Greek monster, but all types of creatures were interested in a demigod snack, so if this was because of him, Draco would make sure to take care of the problem.

With that in mind he separated from the group, giving his two friends reassuring smiles and mad dashed out of there trying to find the dammed creature.

Which was an easy task once he heard a petrified scream, coming from the direction of the Girl’s first floor bathroom. Draco ran so fast he almost fell over like twice. When he yanked open the door, the sight was…confusing.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were inside in various states of distress trying to go against a twelve feet troll.

“Come on, run, run!” Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn’t move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.

The shouting wasn’t helping, and Draco made his decision when he remembered the reckless tendencies of the Gryffindors. Draco was trained to kill monsters; these kids were not.

“Hey you, ugly!” He called, taking out the daggers from his ankle hostlers, he hoped the mist would cover for him with a reasonable excuse “Fancy some of these?”

“B-Black?” Harry stammered when all the attention in the room focused on Draco. The three children were staring at him with wide eyes.

The troll snarled and got his club up in an ‘intimidating’ pose. How cute, Draco had stabbed giants twice the size of this guy.

“It will focus on me now” Because he was a savory demigod snack, yay him “Get out of here!”

“What?”

“Get the Hades out of here!” He yelled before running in the other direction, straight back in the hallways. Draco may have the mist on his side, but he didn’t want to let the kids see him savagely stab a troll on the head several times. That caused trauma, he would know.

The total struggle at most took five minutes, because the troll was thick skinned. Panting and covered in green smelly blood -He missed monsters that turned into dust and didn’t cover him in smelly substances- Draco made his way to the nearest boy’s restroom; he could already hear Blaise’s screams if he dared enter their room smelling like sewer water.

He was such a drama queen.

*-*

Harry and the rest stared at the retreating form of the troll and Draco Black speech less. When they finally got their bearings back together, Hermione and Ron practically glued themselves to Harry’s side. Which he appreciated, really, he was still a bit shaken up about the whole thing.

Harry had no idea where Draco had gone, but the eerie silence meant that either he defeated the beast, or he had been eaten.

He really hopped it was the latest, he still owned Black an apology.

Now that he thought about it, why had the blond come to the rescue?

When they rounded the corner, they found the teachers congregated around the body of the troll. It wasn’t breathing, Ron inhaled sharply at his side, what kind of first year could take down a twelve feet troll all by himself?

It was Professor McGonagall the first whom noticed them, to then frown at them as if she suspected them of something. Snape sneered as soon as he met Harry’s eyes, really, what was his problem?

Quirrell was pathetically whimpering at the side.

“What on earth were you thinking of?”  said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice.

“I’d like to know, what precisely went down” Snape said staring in disdain at something, Harry noticed the green trail and his gut twisted, was that blood? Was Draco Black going around Hogwarts hallways covered in blood?

Was he ok?

Ron looked a little bit green when he noticed the trail.

“I went looking for the troll because I…I thought I could deal with it on my own…you know, because I’ve read all about them”

Harry had to force himself to not turn around and stare at Hermione as if she was speaking nonsense. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

“They came to help m-me when they hear me scream, but it was too much even with three of us…thankfully a u-upper year Slytherin came to the rescue” That seemed to puzzle Snape a little bit, his face was tight, Harry really hoped Hermione hadn’t got the Slytherins in trouble with their head of house.

“He…he told us to stay back and taunted the troll to chase after him.”

“Well…in that case” said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them “Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own”

“Five points will be taking from Gryffindor for this, I’m very disappointed in you. If you ‘re not hurt at all you’d better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses”

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron.

“I’ll say you were lucky a good hearted Slytherin was passing by” Snape sneered at him at the statement, McGonagall paid him no mind. “Still good job for aiding a friend, you each win Gryffindor five points…and I presume, despite not approving of his methods”

McGonagall stared at the troll’s body and Harry winced when he noticed the stab marks. Did Draco Black had a thing for carrying around knifes?

“Fifty points should be awarded to this mystery Slytherin”

*-*

The next few days after the Halloween incident had been, quiet. Draco managed to get back in the dungeons before Snape practically threatened everyone to tell him who had been the one that foolishly dealt with the Troll.

The Prefects glanced at each other confused, but no one said a peep, not even Pansy Parkinson, the nosiest girl of their year. And he could feel her eyes burning holes on his still damp hair.

Draco had decided to lay low, postponing some of his study group’s meetings.

He also kept noticing the Gryffindor trio watching his every move, but every time he tried to confront them, they seemed to disappear. Draco hoped they approached him faster because it was getting tiring.

Draco had now a light sleep, the little noise in the room made him restless. That’s why he got startled when Malcom’s voice suddenly made itself present inside the curtains of his poster bed. “Drake, we may have a problem”

Thank the gods this bed was wide enough that he didn’t end up in sprawled on the floor. Groaning he shoved his face into the pillows “There’s this thing called time zone; you know”

His older brother paid him no mind and continued his report.

“We have lost contact with Olympus; mom hasn’t contacted anyone in a while. Have you heard anything?”

That made Draco push aside his pillow to stare at Malcom. His brother for his part looked sheepish when he noticed what he had blurted out.

“How should I know? Mom never talks to me”

Malcom rubbed his face skewing his glasses a little bit, making Draco notice the eyebags under his eyes. That made him feel horrible, knowing Malcom he had been up all-night calling campers to get their reports. Now Draco felt like a brat.

“Sorry, sorry, that’s what you get for waking me up at…too early in the morning” He grumbled sending Malcom a tight smile.

“I know, just wanted you to know…. where are you?” Yay for AHD and how easy was to get sidetracked, because Draco didn’t want another lecture on ‘mom loves us all’ ‘don’t be like that Draco, she’s trying her best’ or his favorite ‘maybe she’s waiting for the right moment’

So, letting the slip go, he gave Malcom a funny look. “At the dorms?”

“Those are some fancy curtains”

“Didn’t I tell you? My school is kind of fancy” Draco smirked at his brother, he had to admit that he didn’t know if all dorm rooms where the same, but apparently because of Slytherin’s high population of pure bloods, the parents had improved the dorms.

At least Draco got to sleep on a big bed.

Malcom was about to say something when a confused mutter made both froze in place.

“Draco?” He hadn’t mentioned he shared the room, right?

“Oh, Styx, talk to you later Mal!”

-

His ‘partnership’ with the Weasley twins was weird, they were funny guys that reminded him of the Stoll brothers. And for the same reason he was wary of them.

They had already noticed Draco avoiding their traps and had started to get insistent on ‘knowing him better’, for setting up a personalized trap, he was sure. He would be in deep trouble if they got notice he feared spiders.

He knew Jordan Lee, one of the twins’ friends, had a tarantula, and Draco wasn’t looking forward of meeting it.

Their meeting spot for the delivery of the ‘goods’ -Draco felt like he was inside a mafia movie- was under one of the courtyard trees, to avoid suspicion Draco often hanged out there with his friend to do homework.

Today he was alone taking advantage of the time to write a reply to Drew’s and camp’s letters. Noctua was indeed a special owl and could deliver letters in a day all the way to the Americas, good to know. -yes, he even sent a letter to Paolo.

He was so concentrated on not messing his spelling up he jumped when the Weasley twins appeared.

“Whom are you writing to?”

They said with curiosity, eyeing the pink paper Drew liked to write her letters into.

“Your girlfriend?”

“Boyfriend?”

“Significant other?”

“You know I’m eleven, right?” Thank the gods, or well his mom he supposed, for packing those fancy ballpoint quill pens because if not all his letters would have been ruined.

“Who knows” Shrugged the one Draco was sure was Fred. After looking at them closely he had noticed they had slightly different freckle patterns.

“So?”

“To my friends and siblings” Draco rolled his eyes at them shoving the letters back into his satchel. Roaming around to find the small bag with the twins’ requested item.

“Siblings, as in, plural?” That one was Greg.

“You are not the only ones with a big family” With a triumphant cry Draco hold up the small bag toward the redheads, it had been a pain to find something so little in the forest floor.

Greg took it smiling widely, for what they wanted that small amount of pixie dust? It wasn’t Draco’s business, if they ever got caught, he didn’t see or hear a thing.

“We thought, you know, you were the only Black left” Frowned Fred.

“Oh, no, no, they are my half-siblings” Ups, that was too much information. Draco hastily stood up and started marching out of there, not missing the wide eyes the twins now had “A pleasure doing business with you”

Draco hopped the mist would come up with a veritable excuse. Or maybe a tale of another ‘Black widow’ like Blaise’s mom?

Maybe he should start working on that cover up story.

-

The first match of the Quidditch season was Slytherin vs Gryffindor, Lou Ellen had mentioned the sport once, before dismissing it to proceed to explain Quod to him.

But Theo was, surprisingly, an avid Quidditch fan and had made Draco take a crash curse on it as soon as he mentioned not wanting to go to the match because he didn’t understand the game.

Blaise had laughed at his suffering, the traitor.

So now, he was sure whatever Harry was doing wasn’t a known maneuver, or a valid flying technique or whatever.

“What does he think he is doing? This is not the rodeo!” Draco passed the binoculars to Theo in exasperation because that was a reckless way of flying. Theo let out a gasp and started to watch Harry insistently.

While Blaise gave him a confused look “The, what?”

“mort…muggle thing, they mount angry bulls and see how long they can hold…unimportant, Potter is about to fall down”

“Muggles are weird”

“Tell me about it, tried it once, not fun” It had been one of the restored bronze bulls…in his defense, it had been Sherman’s idea!

The game continued its curse, with Theo worriedly checking on Harry occasionally, with good reasons because the dark-haired kid seemed to think gravity didn’t applied to him and did an insane maneuver to catch the snitch.

By almost shallowing it! The nerve!

It had made him anxious; Draco would have felt better if the broom had been a Pegasus or some sentient being, there was no way Jelly -yup that was the Pegasus name- would let Draco fall that way.

“Blaise, if I ever try out for the quidditch team, please hit me on the head” he told his dark-haired friend while Theo and the rest were preoccupied screaming at the Gryffindor’s.

Who knew Theo had it in him?

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t seem so delighted by the prospect!”

-

It was December 18 and Draco was out in the forbidden forest training with Ronan -he managed to learn the Centaur’s name! – when a shimmering appeared in front of them. Frowning he got permission to ‘take’ the call.

“Annabeth?”

She was looking, bad. Her hair was a little bit matted, and she had bags under her eyes. A little bit of a maniac glint that made him take a step back.

“Drake! Thank the gods I could get a hold of you, have you seen Percy?”

Draco scowled at her, had she forgotten? “H-how on earth would you expect me to see your boyfriend?” He was at the other side of the ocean!

Unless Percy had decided to take a vacation at the forests of Wales there was no way for him to ever get a glance of the guy.

“C’mon Annie, you need to sleep, let Drake alone” Susan dragged Annabeth out of frame, Draco for once noticing the state of Athena cabin on the background.

There went their record of ‘decently clean cabin’.

But the call didn’t end Malcom came into frame looking distressed.

“Mal? What’s going on?”

His brother grimaced; this was not good news. There was never good news.

“Percy disappeared, two days ago, Annabeth has gone…”

“Absolutely crazy?”

“Maybe” Malcom sighed, Draco could see in the background all his siblings roaming around, for what Austin had written a lot of them had got early winter vacation. And assuming Annabeth had called them back to camp, then cabin six was at full capacity for the holidays

“Look, I’m sorry, but could you come back early? We think maybe having everyone around would help Annie stop this nonsense”

“Christmas break here is around…you know Christmas”

Draco hated when Malcom used his pleading eyes on him. They always worked. “Drake”

He chewed his lip and glanced at Ronan for guidance -as if the centaur would know about school policies.

“I already finished these terms work and we don’t have exams…I’ll see what I can do” He relented after a while “keep wise girl sane, would you?”

Malcom ended the call with a grateful smile. Ronan stood there looking at the sky as if it could tell him all the answers to the universe.

“Mars is getting brighter”

And wasn’t that ominous.

-

Bonus~

Chapter Text

So far winter break hadn’t been the best, not after a panicked Annabeth appeared at breakfast, just one day after the most of them arrived, and announced that she couldn’t find Percy anywhere.

Drew had had already dreaded the holidays because they would be her first time acting as a cabin counselor, last August didn’t counted, her friends helped her out -It was nice to have Drake’s color-coded schedule for a few days- The winter would have been her first time coordinating all activities by herself.

And of course, something had to happen.

As if Olympus being dead silent wasn’t bad.

Drew had been the first one to arrive from her group of friends, well the ones that leaved camp; Austin would arrive in a week, after his school Christmas’s presentation -She had already threatened the dark-skinned kid with bubble gum pink hair if he didn’t bring back to camp a video of the whole endeavor- and Drake was an unknown, writing letters was fine and all but it wasn’t the best form of communication.

What kind of school didn’t had phones?

Anyways, with Athena cabin running around, all the other campers were also on high alert.

One of camp’s most powerful members vanished without trace, whomever did that, would be someone powerful.

She just hoped it wasn’t any of her mother’s schemes, Aphrodite often had weird tastes in romances, tragic, being one of her favorites.

She swears to Hades if Silena and Beckendorf’s tragic ending had anything to do with her mother, she would find a way to make her pay. No one messed with her family.

“Hey, DT, whom are you planning to murder?” Sherman glanced at her warily from his place among some of her brothers, who were playing a card game in the ‘male side’ of the cabin, the rest of her siblings were outside flirting with the Apollo kids or something.

Drew frowned from her place at her bed. Novel put aside for now -it wasn’t as if she was paying attention to it anyways- She hadn’t noticed when he entered the cabin.

“It’s warrior princess for you, headband head” One of her brother’s snickered, Sherman rolled his eyes and brought down a card. They were playing UNO. “What brings you to the pink monstrosity that is cabin ten? I thought you swore you’ll never put a foot inside”

“Not when is spa day” Sherman shuddered while the rest of her brother’s snickered, yeah, it had been fun to drag Sherman and the rest to cabin ten’s spa day. Aphrodite cabin could be terrifying when skin care was involved.

“He though we would do his chores if he asked nicely” Responded Ali -Younger by a few months, olive skinned and strong bone features- his pale green eyes alight by mischief.

“Really Sherm? My siblings know better than to get tricked by you”

“I had to try” Drew rolled her eyes and decided to get closer to them. Her homework could wait “Ha! UNO! snowflakes!”

“So, you have chosen dead” Trent -Younger by a few weeks, He had dark skin with light spots his hair was up in an afro- deadpanned while putting down a plus four, followed by the rest of them, making Sherman grab twelve cards from the deck.

“This was an arranged game!”

“What? Got distracted by my pretty eyes?” Julian batted his eyelashes while the rest of them laughed their heads off, Sherman fuming to the side. Julian was younger than her by a few days, like, really Aphrodite? He had tanned olive skin; long eyelashes and the most mesmerizing amber eyes Drew had ever seen.

“He only gets distracted by Miranda’s pretty green eyes” Drew casually imputed, gaining a spluttering reaction from her friend and interested glances from her brothers. Ah, romance, a good way to distract cabin ten’s campers.

Was it a scheme to let Sherman get some ‘bro’ advice over a girl? Maybe, the tick head didn’t want to hear her advice.

“You, you traitor!”

“Oh, do tell me more” Sherman got practically dragged behind the curtains that separated the boys from the girls by a very excited Trent. Julian hot on their heels, Ali had gone out, if she had to guess, to retrieve Mitchell and the rest of her brothers.

She left the cabin with a smile on her face, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

-

Drew stumbled over a few steps when something collided with her back, said something, or someone, were trying their best to impersonate a baby koala. There were very few people who would dare to almost tackle her to the ground when she was wearing withe jeans, and between them, the only one small enough for her to carry around was…

“Drake?”

“Drew! It was horrible, ten hours of travel, ten!” He may have just arrived because she hadn’t seen him at breakfast.

Drew had travelled abroad to visit her relatives on her dad’s side. If ten were too much for the kid, she would pay to see his face at the almost fourteen hours that it took to fly to Tokyo.

“Sweetheart, let go, you are wrinkling my t-shirt” She pledged, more out of habit than anything, she really didn’t mind if her clothes got ruined by hugs or things like that. Especially not from her favorite camper.

“Nah-uh, I’m recharging”

Why did her back feel wet? Wait…

“Drake?... Are you crying?”

“N-no”

Drew technically manhandled Drake into a more comfortable hugging position, his feet were still off the ground, and she was still carrying him around but now they could see face to face. Thank the gods she wasn’t wearing heels.

“There, now I can see those pretty gray eyes” Drew had known this would happen; it was Drake’s first time out of camp after all. No matter how fun his new school sounded in his letters, and how many new friends he made.

Despite the battles, despite the dead, despite everything.

He was still an eleven-year-old boy.

All of them were just kids, and she hated it.

“Let go, I have a reputation”

“C’mon let’s find Sherman, I’m sure he would be excited to have someone listed to him rant about Hephaestus’ cabin lack of progress in capturing the dragon” Not paying attention to the stares she made her way toward the training arena, Drake in town. Walking like a penguin with Drake’s feet on top of hers, nor caring about ruining them.

“Capture the flag is still cancelled?”

“Yup”

-

After leaving Drake with Sherman, Drew was on patrol duty and didn’t had time to listen the two warrior heads rattle about ‘strategy’ and other schemes to capture the dragon.

That was until a huge SPLASH was heard all around camp, and someone blew simultaneously the conch of ‘arriving-questers’ and ‘someone-is-kind-of-drowning’.

In a question of minutes all sixty returned campers congregated around the lake to see who was responsible of the commotion. It was clear when one noticed the destroyed chariot at the side and that kid from Iris’ cabin trying to calm down the Pegasus.

Annabeth was back.

Most campers tried to fight their way to the front, eager to know more about the expedition, or in Will’s case to lament the fate of his cabin’s chariot.

“Annabeth!” A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”

“Ha! They deserved that” Drew smacked Sherman’s head at that, one thing was to obsess over the ban on capture the flag, other was to still hold a grudge about the whole chariot debate of last summer.

The Asian boy smiled at her sheepishly while Drake rolled his eyes at the side. He was glaring intently at the new kids.

“Shut it Sherm” She had not noticed when him and Drake appeared at her side, but they often did that, so she let it slide.

“Will, I’m sorry,” Annabeth sighed. “I’ll get it fixed; I promise.”

“Who are they?”

“Oh, you weren’t here at breakfast, Annabeth’s vision was more like ‘you shall retrieve some campers’ rather than ‘Percy is over there’” This time was Drake who smacked Sherman’s head.

Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up the newbies. “These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven’t they been claimed already?”

The poor kids seemed very confused at what was happening, and no one was really explaining them things. Wasn’t it her duty as a cabin head to explain this kind of things. Sighing Drew make her way upfront.

No one else seemed to notice the kids’ discomfort. Well, more like teenagers, really.

Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, “Any sign of Percy?”

“No,” Annabeth admitted.

The campers muttered.

“People, you are confusing them, shut it” Drew snapped after the noise grew annoying, some campers nodded sheepishly, others seemed to lose interest and returned to whatever they were doing, her friends being from that group.

Whatever they were planning, Drew wasn’t getting involved.

Drew looked the newcomers up and down, trying to see any resemblance to any god. The smaller one looked elfish, almost like a kid of Hermes. The blond one was handsome, almost on Aphrodite son’s levels of handsomeness…and the girl, oh the gods! What had she done to her hair?

Drew may had made a face at the girl because she frowned at her as if she would steal her boyfriend or something, but really, who had let a little kid run around with scissors?

“Well,” Drew said, “Welcome to camp, I guess”

The elfish boy snorted “Gee, thanks”

“How about some answers before anything—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?”

Was it Drew of the blond one had a very military stance? Levelheaded, she would bet for Athena cabin if his eyes were grey.

“Jason,” Annabeth said, “I promise we’ll answer your questions. And Drew” she gave Drew a small smile “Thanks for controlling the crowd, I see you are taking being a counselor seriously”

“A pleasure as always” Drew and Annabeth didn’t get along that well, not after the many schemes Drake made her participate in. But she had to admit there was a lot to admire from the older girl.

“I’ll admit, the trip didn’t accomplish what I hoped.”  Annabeth admitted after a few seconds of silence, Will snorted, gaze fixed on what once was a chariot.

“Hey,” The I-chopped-off-my-own-hair girl said, “we didn’t ask to be brought here.”

Drew rolled her eyes, great uncooperative campers. She hoped they would be easy to handle “Sorry hon, that’s what you get for being a demigod”

“We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome,” Annabeth said, with a pointed look at Drew. “We’ll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they’ll be claimed.”

“Would somebody tell me what claimed means?” Before Drew could snap back, the girl was starting to get to her nerves, not as if she had a lot of patience to begin with. There was this red light and on top of the smaller kid’s head there was a fiery hammer.

Drew and Butch -the kid from Iris’ cabin- exchanged a grimace, great. Another one affected by the curse.

“That,” Annabeth said, “is claiming.”

“What’d I do?” The kid backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. “Is my hair on fire?” He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing, and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.

“This can’t be good,” Butch muttered. “The curse—”

The curse that not even Hecate cabin could break, there was none according to them, but that didn’t explain the bad luck.

“Butch, shut up,” Annabeth said. “Leo, you’ve just been claimed—”

“By a god,” Jason interrupted. “That’s the symbol of Vulcan, isn’t it?”

Vul-what? Heads snapped to stare at Jason so quickly, Drew got dizzy. Chiron often made them read all about the gods, that and she was friends with a mythologic nerd. Those were the only reason of why she knew Vulcan was the roman name of Hephaestus, her…stepdad?

Anyways, godly genealogy aside, it wasn’t common for people to bring roman names up, specially not at camp-half blood.

“Jason,” Annabeth said carefully, “how did you know that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Vulcan?” Leo demanded. “I don’t even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?”

“Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus,” Drew said, “the god of blacksmiths and fire.”

The girl -whom she still hadn’t got a name for- Jason, Annabeth and Will glanced at her funnily, Drew shrugged.

“Your lil’ bro likes to rant about mythology, hide away when Nico visits if you don’t want to know fun facts of the birth of your mother” Drew shivered at the memory. She didn’t want to know about one of the many origins of Aphrodite that involved a knife and the titan Uranus. Thank you very much.

The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. “The god of what? Who?”

“Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine.”

“Sure, Annabeth.”

“What’s Cabin Nine?” Leo asked. “And I’m not a Vulcan!”

“Come on, Mr. Spock, I’ll explain everything.” Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.

Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. She studied him more like he was a complicated blueprint. Finally, she said, “Hold out your arm.”

How had Drew, one known for checking out everything that anyone was wearing, not notice the tattoo on the teen’s arm! it was darkly etched, impossible to miss: a dozen straight lines like a bar code, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.

Something nagged in her head, that she knew what SPQR meant, that she was meant to hate it.

“I’ve never seen marks like this,” Annabeth said. “Where did you get them?”

Jason shook his head. “I’m getting really tired of saying this, but I don’t know.”

The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason’s tattoo. The marks seemed to bother them a lot —almost like a declaration of war.

“They look burned into your skin,” Annabeth noticed.

“They were,” Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching. “I mean … I think so. I don’t remember.”

There were a few minutes after that when none of the remaining campers said a thing. Watching Annabeth’s face, waiting for her verdict. Percy may be their leader, but Annabeth was their strategist. The one that made important decisions.

They were such a power couple that Drew got jealous sometimes. Not of the couple per-ce, more of the confidence they emanated. She didn’t like Percy or Annabeth that way.

“He needs to go straight to Chiron,” Annabeth decided.

“Drew, would you—”

“Sure, no prob. Follow me blondie…” She lazily waved her hand for Jason to follow her, she could feel the heated stare from the chopped-haired girl, what was her problem?

-

On the way to the Big House, Drew made sure to point out important places and explain camp overall. But every time She mentioned a god, Jason came up with the roman name and frowned so hard Drew was sure her eyebrows would fusion with his eyelashes.

After being corrected for the n-th time she grew exasperated.

“So, what you DO remember? Because I hate to repeat myself”

“The name of some gods?”

She had noticed the kid grabbing his head a lot, maybe he needed to visit cabin seven for some treatment.

“Um…yeah, that sounds like a very bad case of memory loss, are you sure you didn’t drop on your pretty blond hair on your way here hon?” Drew asked, patting his head lightly, the hair indeed was soft. If it wasn’t for the weird feeling the kid was giving her, she would bet he was one of her siblings.

“N-no?” The blond rolled his eyes and slapped her hand away “I have a girlfriend”

Drew rolled her eyes; she wasn’t even flirting with him! Was this her curse for being too pretty?

“And you are not my type, hon, just giving some compliments, rooting for you to be one of my campers” Because damn, that kid could be a model, strange tattoo be dammed “Now” She clapped once, to get the teen’s attention while standing in front of the Big House.

“We are here, knock three times and wait for the clip-clop. Gotta go…some of my friends are being stupid” Because Drew swears, she saw them enter the forges when they were passing by, they don’t need an explosion on top of the dragon.

*-*

Draco and Sherman were forced to sit with Aphrodite kids at the singalong. Drew had dragged them out of the forges by the hem of their clothes as if they were kittens and had threatened to snitch on them to their cabin heads if they didn’t behave.

Drew’s siblings were giving them funny glances and some even were snickering at them.

“C’mon it wasn’t even that bad” Complained Sherman practically sprawled all over Drew, whom for her part didn’t look at all bothered.

“You were planning on drenching yourself in oil and tabasco sauce to lure the dragon out”

At Drew’s deadpan Draco grimaced, yeah, that sounded more epic on their heads.

“That part of the plan was all Sherman” He defended himself. His plan was more, stealthy.

“Lying tramps all around the woods it’s not the best idea either” Drew rolled her eyes.

Well, yeah, but! If no one was allowed to enter the forest, then there was no risk for any…except the dryads, and the satyrs…well, wasn’t that embarrassing.

“Tell that to Hogwarts centaurs” He muttered under his breath, pouting. And here he was trying to put in practice things he learned from the British centaurs. But he didn’t take in account that said centaurs didn’t care for the security of anyone that entered the forest without permission.

“What?”

“nothing”

After a few more songs Chiron stood up from his place and trotted over to the center of the campfire. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows.

“Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I’m happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we’ll get to the s’mores, but first—”

“What about capture the flag?” somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar’s head.

Draco and some others nodded at the statement, he had missed camp games, and returning to camp without being able to play them made his mood drop. The Weasley twins would be staying behind for Christmas break, and he dreaded what shenanigans they would get up to without him knowing.

Because they had noticed Draco never got caught in their pranks, no matter how hard they tried -Try living with a cabin full of kids that loved pranks, one would develop a kind of sixth sense to survive- so they have been trying hard to doze him with strange substances all month.

If he was not there to disable the traps, the twins would bobby trap every inch in the dungeons. At least he wanted to be able to play his favorite game before returning to that.

“Yes,” the centaur said. “I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games.”

“And kill people!” Shouted Sherman, Draco snorted so hard he almost fell over. Drew rolled her eyes at them.

“However,” Chiron said, “until the dragon is brought under control, that won’t be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?”

Nyssa was someone Draco had never really got the chance to known, he knew the basics; she was from the Hephaestus’s cabin, and like a lot of her siblings she seemed to live in the forges.

He had been banned from the forge, age seven, when he tried to melt cheese in there, so apart from Beckendorf he didn’t really knew anyone from Hephaestus’s cabin.

He did know about the Dragon tough, Beckendorf couldn’t shut up when he managed to make it work.

“We’re working on it.”

More grumbling. “How, Nyssa?” an Ares kid demanded.

“Really hard,” the girl said.

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones—bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.

“We will have to be patient,” Chiron said. “In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss.”

“Percy?” Draco asked, everyone’s mood dropped, anxiety replacing the cheery mood from the singalong. Percy had been declared their leader in that battle almost four months ago. And he was missing.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

“I didn’t find Percy,” she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. “He wasn’t at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we’re not giving up. We’ve got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis —everyone’s out looking. We will find him. Chiron’s talking about something different. A new quest.”

*-*

Well, here went nothing. Drew took a deep breath and stood up. She hadn’t discussed the issue with anyone, but it kept nagging her since Jason named Aphrodite as Venus.

“It’s the Great Prophecy, isn’t it?” She called out, standing up right in front of her siblings. Draco tried to sit her back down, but her face made him think better of it.

Drew was often dismissed for being an Aphrodite child, but she knew, a lot. She knew when someone wasn’t feeling well, when someone was sad, when someone was in love.

Empathy was a thing that Aphrodite kids had, and it had been screaming at her since Jason arrived. Because she couldn’t feel him, he was a turmoil of emotions. Even the glimpses she did feel, felt murky and artificial.

Something was wrong, terribly so.

“Drew?” Annabeth said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, come on.” Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. “Olympus is closed. Percy’s disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with three new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?”

She hated how her words made everyone uneasy, the ambient turning tense. But it was the most obvious conclusion. And she didn’t like that her family was, once again, at risk.

The prophecy had been dismissed by Apollo himself when their Oracle recited it. Because great prophecies often took ages to activate.

But what if the god was wrong? Or better yet, what if the god had been hiding the truth from them? Like gods didn’t do that daily.

Everyone turned to stare at Rachel, their local redheaded Oracle, she should now, right? She was the one whom recited the prophecy.

“Well?” Drew called down. “You’re the oracle. Has it started or not?”

Rachel’s eyes looked scary in the firelight.

“Yes,” she said. “The Great Prophecy has begun.”

Shouted questions, sobbing survivors, bitter mutters. Was all that reigned camp for a few minutes. It made her dizzy so many negative emotions in one place. But she didn’t let it bother her that much.

The resignation at last summer battle grounds was worst, the desperation in the ambient had had put almost all Aphrodite kids to their knees.

But they were stubborn, as only love can learn to be.

When the talking finally subsided, Rachel took another step toward the audience, and fifty-plus demigods leaned away from her, as if one skinny redheaded mortal was more intimidating than all of them put together.

“For those of you who have not heard it,” Rachel said, “the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this…”

A lot of campers tensed and quieted down to put attention, just cabin counselors and their most trusted ones knew the whole prophecy. It had been a way to not spread panic.

Drew scoffed, as if it had helped them at all.

 “Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall—

Jason stood to his feet as if he had been stroked by lighting. Drew’s stomach dropped to her feet, she liked to be correct in any discussions. Liked to say ‘I told you so’ but right in that moment, she prayed to whomever would hear her, to let her be wrong for once.

“Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus,” he chanted. “Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem.”

*-*

Draco knew Latin, of course he did, Walburga Black made sure of it. And apparently being a demigod with a tendency for Greek made things easier, but…he felt uneasy when he heard the words coming from the new kid.

It was not normal for demigods to know Latin, Draco’s especial circumstances aside. He didn’t know if he should be worried about that or about the prophecy.

An uneasy silence settled on the group.

“You just … finished the prophecy,” Rachel stammered. “ —An oath to keep with a final breath/And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—”

“I know those lines.” Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. As if he was having a headache, Drew had mentioned that the teen had trouble with his memories, but this was beyond weird, even for demigods “I don’t know how, but I know that prophecy.”

“In Latin, no less,” Drew called out. “Isn’t that suspicious?”

Chiron grimaced, the simple action told them all there was something he knew but wasn’t allowed to tell. Suddenly all camp was staring at the blond teen warily.

Was he an enemy? An ally?

-

They kept discussing the situation, and Draco assumed the smores would have to wait for another day.

Apparently, there was only four days until Hera…did something or something happened to her? It was not clear. Annabeth clearly didn’t want to interfere if things were related to the queen of the gods.

They were now saying that if this was quest it should be Jason whom leaded it -Draco hadn’t known one could have a Patron God aside from their own godly parent- Sherman scoffed at his side when that point was made clear.

Yeah, he forgot sometimes his friend really wanted to go on a big quest.

“Why hasn’t he been claimed? If he’s so important—”

And was a loudmouth about it.

“He has been claimed,” Chiron announced. “Long ago. Jason, give them a demonstration.”

Draco and some campers stared at Chiron with wide eyes, was he implying Jason had been claimed when he was little?

Only Athena children were known to be claimed at birth, with the special circumstances of it. But Draco doubted Jason was a child of Athena, his eyes were completely blue in first place.

Athena’s children always had silver-grey-bluish eyes.

At first, Jason didn’t seem to understand. He stepped forward nervously. He glanced at the other still unclaimed camper, Piper, was it? She nodded encouragingly. She mimicked flipping a coin. Jason reached into his pocket. His coin flashed in the air, and when he caught it in his hand, he was holding a lance—a rod of gold about seven feet long, with a spear tip at one end.

Draco widened his eyes, that was so cool!

The other demigods gasped. Rachel and Annabeth stepped back to avoid the point, which looked sharp as an ice pick.

“Wasn’t that …” Annabeth hesitated. “I thought you had a sword.”

“Um, it came up tails, I think,” Jason said. “Same coin, long-range weapon form.”

“Dude, I want one!” Sherman had sparkles on his eyes eyeing the coin, now spear, both of his better weapons were the lance and the sword. Draco wanted one two, it was such a cool weapon.

“Better than Clarisse’s electric spear, Lamer!” one of Sherman’s brothers agreed.

Some idea seemed to snap in place for Jason as he asked the nearest campers to move away a little bit.

Jason raised his javelin, and thunder broke open the sky. Lightning arced down through the golden spear point and hit the campfire with the force of an artillery shell.

No way, Draco tried to make eye contact with anyone, whomever, because this was crazy. All of them had their hair up from static electricity, but that was unimportant.

When the smoke cleared, and the ringing in everyone’s ears subsided, the entire camp sat frozen in shock, half blind, covered in ashes, staring at the place where the fire had been. Cinders rained down everywhere.

“Um … sorry.”

Chiron brushed some burning coals out of his beard. He grimaced as if his worst fears had been confirmed.  “A little overkill, perhaps, but you’ve made your point. And I believe we know who your father is.”

“Jupiter,” Jason said. “I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky.”

*-*

The first time she heard a prophecy, Drew had gotten the chills, she had tough that maybe it was because a mommy suddenly decided to take a stroll trough the woods just to deliver it.

But seeing the green mist, it still gave her the chills, it didn’t matter if the Oracle was alive this time.

“Child of lightning, beware the earth, The giants’ revenge the seven shall birth, The forge and dove shall break the cage, And death unleash through Hera’s rage.”

On the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. They carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.

All camp was dead silent, the last part kept repeating on her head on loop. Drew couldn’t permit any of her siblings to go, not after the last time, not when they were still healing from Silena’s departure.

It had to be her, wasn’t it? That was what head counselors where for.

Sherman sent her a worried glance, Drake took her hand and squished it as if his life depended on it.

“Is that normal?” The brunette blurted out -Piper, was it? - maybe she hadn’t realized the mood, but all camp was dead silent for a reason. They were already mourning the lost ones “I mean… does she spew green smoke a lot?”

“Gods, you’re dense!” Drew snaped, making some nearby campers jump. “She just issued a prophecy—Jason’s prophecy to save Hera! Why don’t you just—”

Drew took at deep breath when Annabeth scolding glance landed on her. She hadn’t meant to say that.

“Drew,” Annabeth snapped. “Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitely isn’t normal.”

“Sorry”

“If breaking Hera’s cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death …, why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She’s never been kind to heroes.” Annabeth paid her apologies no mind, already in planning mode.

Drew took deep breaths trying to maintain the same levelheaded attitude of their leader. Annabeth was right, something was wrong.

Jason rose. “I don’t have much choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can’t just not help the queen of the heavens if she’s in trouble.”  

Nyssa stood up, a closed off look on her face. Right ‘the forge’ meant someone from Hephaestus’s cabin should go, and they weren’t having any luck since…. Beckendorf’s dead “Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly…. we’ve also got to think —why beware the earth? And what’s the giants’ revenge? What are we dealing with here that’s powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?”

They kept discussing the prophecy and what it implied, but Annabeth’s words echoed in her mind. If the prophecy was wrong, if everything was a trap, one of them would walk straight into a trap.

She would make sure none of her siblings died, not so soon.

*-*

Draco honestly zoned out as soon as Nyssa’s words made themselves at home in his head. Going through all the mythology books he had ever read to try, and pinpoint what they were dealing with. So, sue him for being startled out of his thoughts by Drew standing so abruptly.

“Oh, absolutely not!” Drew was on her feet and flashing Jason a heated glare. “The dove may be Aphrodite’s symbol, but none of us are going with you”

He could hear the relieved collective sigh coming from the Aphrodite kids. Silence fell over once again, this time because it was unheard of demigods turning down a quest.

Some Ares’ kids seemed about to protest, even Sherman, but all of them shut up as soon as Drew’s frown was directed at them.

“Drew!” Annabeth looked quite scandalized; Draco supposed that for someone with a record of four quest the tough of turning down one was so foreign it may as well be another language.

“Don’t give me that look Annabeth, not all of us want to go and get chased around by monsters. ~Cabin ten is not going, none of my friends or family is going to risk their lives. We are staying right here~”

Why had he ever considered leaving camp? He was better at camp, at Drew’s side, she would take care of them all, they all were safer at camp. No point of going and risking their lives, he should drop out of Hogwarts and stay at camp forever.

Deep down Draco knew this may be the effects of the charm-speak Drew had left out. But his mind was so foggy he couldn’t fight it.

Drew was distraught, and when she was stressed out her charm-speak went highwire.

“I had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this.” The new girl stood up, trying to placate the wave of magic with her words. Unless she also had charm-speak they would be there for a while.

“There’s a problem with that honey, you are no child of Aphrodite” The Aphrodite kids practically sneered as one at Piper’s hair and clothes, Draco rolled his eyes, Aphrodite kids and their obsession for overpriced clothes.

Chiron looked sad, he was clearly letting things play out, but at the end of the day they would need a kid of Aphrodite. Drew was the more logical option, she was a veteran, had battled on last summer war and had a decent handle of weapons.

Draco would pay to see how Chiron convinced the girl, because there was no way she would go out of free will. She was almost as stubborn as him.

“Well …” Annabeth said. “Given the wording of the prophecy—”

“No! I’m supposed to go.” Draco paid the brunette no mind, putting aside the voice inside his head that begged to agree with her. But he should have paid the feeling more attention.

Because that was another user of charm-speak, one whom had been claimed by the goddess of love right in front of their eyes.

“Well, I guess that settles it” Conceded Drew glancing Piper up and down to then nod in approval.

“What?”

Soon everyone realized the change, there was no glowing mark, but the new girl was emanating a pink energy, and honestly if they didn’t notice the change of clothes and magical make-up, they were blind.

“Hail, Piper McLean,” Chiron announced gravely, as if he were speaking at her funeral. “Daughter of Aphrodite, lady of the doves, goddess of love.

*-*

Drew was amused at how much Piper tried to remove the magical make over, not even sleeping made her get a hair out of place.

Yesterday she had lost her hold on the charm-speak, but only the idea of sending one of her siblings into a quest made her feel queasy, and nauseous, Aphrodite kids may know how to battle -despite whatever the other campers assumed- but it was not their scene.

She refused to let any more of her siblings die at the hands of monsters.

 Not as if it would be any better to send an untrained kid to their dead. Drew really hoped that Piper’s demigod reflexes were good because if something happened to her, Drew would blame herself the rest of her days.

Well, she had tried to make Piper stay back as soon as Drake pointed out the other teen didn’t have any training, but the girl had been so stubborn about it that Drew gave up after her third attempt.

“Oh, honey, it won’t go away.” Drew called after watching the other’s hair pop right back into place when the girl tried to mess it up for the n time. “Mom’s blessing will last at least another day. Maybe a week if you’re lucky.”

She would know that time when she was claimed Drake had tried all there was to try and ruin the outfit, with Drew’s blessing of course, it had become tedious to have the same braids for a week.

Piper gritted her teeth. “A week?”

The other Aphrodite kids—about dozen girls and five guys —smirked and snickered at her discomfort.

Drew sent them a scolding glance, shutting everyone up instantly. They needed to be nice to their new sister, they would probably lose her in a few days.

“Don’t worry, hon.” Drew blotted her lipstick. “It isn’t that bad, at least you can’t get dirty for a while”

How did she know that? Drake and Sherman had dumped a bucket of mud on her, she had been furious until she noticed her clothes were still perfect.

The rascals still ended up in the infirmary with scratch marks thought.

“Hurry up, Sherm agreed to give you ‘Dagger lessons for dummies’” One of the good things of having an Ares kid around.

Piper groaned but started to get out of bed. The rest of his siblings snickered a little bit. Drew let them to it, rolling her eyes.

“So anyways, people, fifteen minutes until breakfast. Mitch, remember you are on garbage patrol after last week incident”

Her younger brother flinched at his name being called. Mitchell was a kind guy, with curly light brown hair and mesmerizing baby blue eyes. But he was so clumsy sometimes and had almost cost them their record of cleanest cabin.

“Piper? Meet me at the dinning pavilion in five”

With a nod to all her siblings she left the cabin in a hurry. She had to have some words with Sherman first, he tended to go overboard with the newbies.

*-*

“’Scuse me,” said a voice by her feet. The garbage patrol guy, Mitchell, was crawling around on all fours, picking up chocolate wrappers and crumpled notes from under the bunk beds. Apparently, the Aphrodite kids weren’t one hundred percent neat freaks after all.

She moved out of his way. “What’d you do to make Drew mad?”

Mitchell grimaced when he received some dirty looks from some of their siblings.

“Spilled out the trash cans right before cabin inspection”

“We have to rush to get the floor cleaned up again” Grumbled darkly another of the boys giving Mitchell the stinky eye. Piper had no idea what cabin inspection was, but it must be a big deal.

She didn’t know what to make of Drew, honestly. At first, she seemed like the typical superficial bratty girl, but yesterday’s display made her realize that there may be more to her.

“Whom were the ones that were sitting with you guys yesterday? I don’t see them here” She had noticed three more persons sitting with the group of people that she now knew as her siblings.

Piper had assumed that all campers sat down their godly parent emblem, but the two guys from yesterday were nowhere to be seen.

All Aphrodite cabin laughed, like that fake laugh from commercials that irked Piper’s skin. As if they knew something she didn’t.

Which well, of course they did! She had been at camp twelve hours at most.

“You know, it’s not against the rules to sit with whomever you want at the campfire” A voice called over from behind the boy’s side curtain. Someone should be changing in there.

“Yeah, that rule only applies at the dining tables, we only did it that way yesterday to not confuse you guys”

Mitchell rolled his eyes at the girl who spoke. Piper would better start to learn their names.

“Anyways, the small blond one was Drake from Athena cabin, the bulky guy is Sherman Yang from Ares cabin, good luck with that training, he will pulverize you if Drew hasn’t talked him out of it yet” At once all the present shivered, with a haunted look on their faces.

At Piper’s questioning glance another pretty boy pipped up. “He was the one whom trained us for the last battle, Drew had convinced Silena that we needed more training”

“I broke my nails like ten times!” Shirked another girl near Piper’s age. Why did all her siblings were so close in age?

*-*

Drew had been lucky, despite her distaste at how or why, emphasis on why, cabin five and six insisted on having early morning training before breakfast. But at least she could talk with the dark-haired kid before he set up something way out of Piper’s current level.

Sherman was hanging around the basketball courts, all sweaty and grim covered -that made her scowl internally- Drake at his side drawing something on the ground with a stick.

 “So, is she ready for the massacre?” Was the first thing the taller teen -by just a few inches- said as soon as he noticed her.

Drew only smacked the HIM on the back of the head.

“Stop trying to kill my siblings”

“Tough luck, he just tried to kill me at training, and we are best friends” Deadpanned Drake from his place near the ground, was he drawing a Dragon?

She was feeling a little bit calmer, but the idea of sending someone without training was making her want to throw-up, taking a deep breath she turned to Sherm to talk to him to approve or totally dismiss his training ideas.

Pointedly ignoring the worried glances her friends were sending her.

*-*

They were this close of the dinning pavilion when the alarm went out. They were under attack!

Draco almost tripped on his own feet when he stood up ready for battle, Apollo kids were already out aiming their arches at the menace that came from the sky. Satyrs passed running alerting still sleeping campers about the attack. The campers started to run out of cabins, half in pajamas and half in armor.

It was a familiar scene, way too familiar.

“Take cover!”

“Dragon!”

Really? This was the third time a Dragon attacked camp!

“What?”

“Not your sleepy head” Draco scoffed at the remark, he was not so big headed to think they were referring to him!

“Wait” Draco wasn’t as sleepy as the rest of panicking campers. Wasn’t that…It had strangely shiny scales for a dragon, unless a kind of magical dragon that was only common in  Norway had found it’s way all the way to camp -yes, he read a book about dragons at Hogwarts, problem?

“That’s the automaton!” His declaration didn’t do a thing to appease the campers, oh, right, it was a rampaging dragon.

“It’s cool! Don’t shoot!”

Someone was riding it! It was that new kid from yesterday.

Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other demigods hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody seemed anxious to get close.

Draco practically made Sherman walk closer by shoving him in that direction. This was so cool! He had already tough Beckendorf dragon was neat, but now It had shimmering bronze wings!

Now that he noticed that kid was the new Hephaestus cabin, he had promised a mode of transportation, hadn’t he?

But how on earth had he managed to put wings on the dragon?

The kid held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy grin on his face. “People of Earth, I come in peace!”

Draco had had his doubts as soon as word got around about the new cabin nine’s member, he didn’t look bulky like the rest of his siblings. But now felt bad for judging the kid based only on appearance, there, covered in soot and grease he indeed looked like a kid of Hephaestus.

The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons.

“Festus is just saying hello!”

“Don’t you dare think about it” Draco jumped at the sudden voice of Clarisse at his side, she put a hand on top of his and Sherman’s shoulder, clearly meant to stop them from approaching the thing.

Sherman glared at his sister scandalized as if he was offended, she thought he would approach a fire-breathing metal dragon. Draco snorted, as if that wasn’t what they were trying to do.

“That thing is dangerous!” she shouted, brandishing her spear.

“Kill it now!”

But when had a hand on his shoulder stopped Draco? In a moment of distraction, taking advantage of the commotion he managed to get free and practically threw himself at the kids face.

“Drake!” Groaned in exasperation Clarisse.

“That’s so cool! How did you do it? Where did you find the wings? Unless you made them, but if you did then…where did you find the bronze? By the way, what’s your name?”

The kid only stared at him owlishly, clearly surprised by his reaction. Seeing as the rest of camp wanted to sell the dragon in parts, Draco wasn’t surprised.

“Leo Valdez” It came out more like a question, but Leo seemed to not have slept all night, so Draco let it slide.

“Stand down!” someone ordered.

It was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and that girl from the Hephaestus cabin, Nyssa. Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement.

Annabeth for her part passed a hand over her face in annoyance when she noticed Draco’s presence.

“Leo, what have you done?”

“Found a ride!” Leo beamed “you said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!”

“Drake, take two steps back from the dragon” It was not fair, the dragon would leave camp in a few hours if not minutes and Annabeth was stopping him from getting close to it.

“B-but!”

“It—has wings,” Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.

“Yeah!” Leo said. “I found them and reattached them.”

“But it never had wings. Where did you find them?”

Leo hesitated. “In … the woods,” he said. “Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire.”

“Mostly?” Nyssa asked. The dragon’s head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil—poured out of its ear, all over Leo.

Draco took a step back, yeah, maybe Annabeth had a point, but it was a freaking metal flying dragon! Some oil wouldn’t stop him.

 “Just a few kinks to work out,” Leo said.

“But how did you survive …?” Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. “I mean, the fire breath …”

While they were distracted Draco sneaked closer, determined to at least get on the dragon’s tail -the safest place to try because of its distance from the mouth.

“I’m quick,” Leo said. “And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?”

“Draco Lycoris Black, stop that this instant or I swear to the gods I’m going to…” Maybe it was not a good idea to go against Annabeth’s orders when she was clearly stressed out about Percy’s disappearance.

The sudden outburst made everyone’s attention turn to him. He had managed to grab the tail; it was so smooth.

At Annabeth’s and Clarisse’s combined glares he put down the dragon’s tail with a sheepish smile. Jason gave him a funny look but returned to stare at his friend.

Jason scratched his head. “You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, ‘festus’ means ‘happy’? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?”

The dragon twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings.

“That’s a yes, bro!” Leo said.

The older blond kid then turned to stare at Draco in amusement, like he found the situation funny.

“And your name is Draco? As in Draconis? Latin word for Dragon?”

He only shrugged in response, what else was there to say?

“Now, um, I’d really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the —um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous.”

Jason frowned. “But we haven’t planned anything yet. We can’t just—”

“Go,” Annabeth said, still frowning at Draco, he was in trouble, wasn’t he?

“Jason, you’ve only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!”

Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper -who had appeared without Draco noticing- “You ready, partner?”

Well, Drew didn’t need to worry about Sherman’s training, because they were sending her out without one. How great.

Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could’ve shredded her to pieces. “You bet,” she said.

While the kids loaded their supplies, more like, took their backpacks from their cabins, Annabeth took him aside.

Draco soon found himself surrounded by his angry older siblings. Sherman sent him a mock full salute, while Dre pantomimed to play the trumpet at his side with a ‘somber face’.

“Um…hey guys, long time no see…” At the unimpressed stares Draco sighed in defeat, he was just glad that Hannah wasn’t there, he didn’t want to be a bad influence on her “I had to try, ok? Peleus doesn’t let me ride him”

-

After the quester’s departure camp continued it’s feigned normal peace, Athena cabin was running around camp preparing for a quest of their own. Annabeth and some others would go out in groups to try to find Percy.

Malcom and Annabeth would go south, Sian and Susan to the north, the Hunters were already exploring the west side and Grover was doing his best into searching in the wild.

The rest of them would stay back and research. More so with the new development at Jason’s appearance.

Draco really hoped they could find Percy soon, he had told Malcom that if an eruption hadn’t killed him, he should be fine, but with the prophecy at play they really needed one of their powerful demigods ready to confront whatever was coming.

Talking about powerful demigods, certain son of Hades was at his cabin, so Draco procrastinated on his unpacking by going to the goth themed cabin.

What was up with the Greek fire torches?

He entered without really knocking, a habit that was hard to break even back at Hogwarts.

“Nico! I heard you were here…. I know you like the dark aesthetic, but you really had to decorate this as a vampire’s den?”

Nico didn’t pay him mind, rather preoccupied trying to find something inside one of his numerous backpacks. Clothes and supplies were thrown across the room.

He knew that Nico had a room at Hade’s palace and wondered if he had it in the same state, for what all he knew Persephone wasn’t that fond of messes.

One of the clothes caught his attention, it was pitch black and felt like silk, it was also like a big rectangle of cloth.

Nico swatted his hand away and smirked at him. “Hey there Lycoris”

Draco stood there for three minutes trying to decipher where that had come from, to then groan in annoyance. Annabeth had screamed his whole name to the whole camp earlier, hadn’t she? “Please, don’t. Or I’ll start calling you Nicolino”

The dark-haired teen frowned at him. Who knew? Draco was right! Nico was in fact Italian. He had even told Blaise to teach him some phrases in Italian to see if the language could stir up Nico’s memory.

“Fine” Nico rolled his eyes “and It’s Annabeth’s fault, she let Percy decorate it when I didn’t show up to the meeting”

Oh, well that explained the whole extreme dark aesthetic, Nico may prefer dark colors, but Draco was sure the kid would only put a mattress in the middle of the room and be done with it.

Percy on the other hand was a prankster, so he could totally see him doing this just for the laughs.

“At least they didn’t put dim red lights” Draco chuckled imagining the cabin like that “What’s up with the fancy black curtain?”

“It’s a chiton”

Draco frowned, it was a type of robe, right? Like the togas?  “Why do you have one?”

“Hades”

Oh, well, that explained some things. Draco really hoped Nico used pants or at least underwear under that. Historical accuracy be dammed.

“uh, uh…. anyways, you up to a sparring match before you go back to your dark brooming cave?”

“It’s a room. At Hade’s palace” Nico deadpanned clearly exasperated, but a twitch on the left of his lips made clear he found the remark kind of amusing.

“Please? Hanna has been asking about you, if you don’t meet her, she’s going to start to think I made you up”

“Fine”

-

Two days had passed and there was no notice from the questers. Wait, did anyone got the chance to explain the kids how IM’s worked?

Oh, well, Draco hoped they returned alive.

Sighing he grabbed his school supplies and headed towards Hecate’s cabin -it was a weird thing, made out of rocks with runes- Sadly for him, the cost of getting out of school early was a ton of homework, and despite the grand book collection of Athena’s cabin, they didn’t have magic books that could help him with it.

Thankfully Lou had offered their own schoolbooks, so there was that. It was totally not an excuse to see the new cabin’s interior, and not an attempt to get his hands on new potions books.

“Lou~!”

“Come in, don’t touch anything…. I don’t take responsibility if you walk out of here with flaming hair”

Draco’s grin only grew widely when he noticed all the strange books, mysterious smells, and the cauldron at the corner with something bubbling; it was so charged with magic that he felt dizzy. Lou Ellen had so far three siblings, all of them with either vivid green or dark almost black eyes.

“Oh, hey there!” His sudden appearance made someone throw away a wand and another to run to try to cover up the cauldron. Draco held up his hands in a placating manner, potion book on one “Oh, don’t worry I’m like you lot”

“We are not all witches you know?” Came an annoyed voice somewhere inside, Draco swears the cabin seemed to have extension charms because there was no way it was that big.

The person in question was slightly older than Draco, with dirty blond hair and freckles to rival the Weasley twins. Her name was Catherine if he remembered correctly.

The other two were a pair of fraternal twins, Margarita -nicknamed Mago of all things- and Rafael. Their mischievous strikes could rival the Stoll’s, and with magic on their side the pranks were endless.

“Ups?” He looked at Lou Ellen feeling a little bit lost, had he broken the statue of secrecy?

Lou Ellen dismissed his worries with a wave of their hand “Don’t worry they do know about the mortal magical world”

“MACUSA tried to kidnap us, twice” Added Margarita as an explanation.

“Emphasis in the kid” Contributed her twin.

Draco spluttered in place, MACUSA was the American magical government. He had read, once, about the ridiculous Rappaport’s Law that the country approved, but it had been back in the 1700’s! He was sure it had been disapproved or something.

“Excuse me?”

“Children of Hecate make the Magistrate sensors go haywire. They have this weird policy about no-mag born” Dismissed Lou Ellen as if Draco’s views hadn’t been turned upside down.

“They still kidnap children!? I thought that went down, you know, centuries ago!” The twins shrugged, likely used at the reaction. Catherin nodded along, like she agreed with him.

“Only ‘powerful ones’” Deadpanned Lou.

Now Draco was going to pester them to tell him about MACUSA’s weird laws, because he really hoped that all the contents of the Rapaport’s law were not applied today. Homework forgotten.

*-*

The days passed in a torturous peace, not knowing a thing about the questers was making everyone start to worry. Especially when the deadline was nearby.

 Drew was dreading the return, or the lack of it. If Piper didn’t come back, was it her fault for not putting her foot down and gone instead of the girl?

She had been so secure in her decision, sure, but the fact that they sent a barely trained kid with other two barely trained kids on a quest made her sleepless with guilt -Even Percy had had at least one week of training!

“Don’t worry so much Drew, you’ll get wrinkles”

It was spa night at cabin ten, but no one was really feeling relaxed. Despite doing their best to act normal, the fact that one of their own -even if they didn’t know the girl that well- was out in the world at the mercy of monsters made them all queasy.

Even before Silena got to be a head counselor, Athena cabin had been kind of isolated. With them being seen as weak and whatnot, campers often avoided them if any kind of battle was happening nearby, looking at them as dead weights.

That’s why Drew had been so adamant in them training under Sherman, despite all the broken nails and dishelmed hair, because she wanted her siblings to at least be able to defend themselves. She wanted them to survive.

But there went Piper, with no training and…had she ever had a weapon? Annabeth had said something about a dagger.

“…Are you going to retire if Piper returns?”

“When, Mitchel, when. Stop being pessimistic” Drew grumbled under her breath, while braiding the hair of one of her younger siblings “And maybe? I don’t know, being in charge of you brats it’s not really my thing”

“Are you implying you don’t like to boss us around? Because let me tell you, your face says otherwise” Snarked one Julian, his hands preoccupied with a box of nail polish.

“Oh, no, I do like boss you around darling, but this isn’t really my thing” Lacey snorted and others rolled their eyes.

The only reason she was ‘elected’ as a counselor was the sheer fact that no one else wanted to be one. Not after Silena, not after they lost her.

She had been one of the best they had, and no one felt confident enough to fill her shoes. Despite the espionage.

Drew was still mad about that, because she had been there for Silena all the time and even her couldn’t see the obvious in front of her. Hearing that Luke had promised to leave the Aphrodite and Hephaestus kids alone, made her gut twist.

Their sister had loved them so much, she would have sacrificed the rest just to keep them safe.

 Love was indeed a fearsome thing.

“Results aside, thanks for not letting any of us go….I don’t think I would ever be ready to face monsters again” Lacey’s voice wavered a little bit at the end. She was the same age as Drake, and had been at camp just for a pair of years.

Drew grimaced and motioned for her to sit down in front of her get her turn at braiding.

“None of us sweetheart, none of us” The ambient was heavy, fill with worry and anxiousness. Drew didn’t like it “Say, I heard some weird rumors, about certain someone making googly eyes at one of my friends…”

“Who told her, you traitors!”

*-*

Dinner was a tense affair, today was the last day the questers had to rescue Hera from, whomever it was that had her. Draco hadn’t really touched his food; he was too worried to even take a bite. He was also internally missing Hogwarts vast supplies of desserts when a flash of light blinded them.

It came from cabin ten’s table, and as soon as it receded, they were met with quite a sight.

The questers were back! They were standing on the Aphrodite cabin’s table, and Piper had one foot in Drew’s pizza. Sixty campers rose at once, gawking at them in astonishment.

Before anyone could say anything, Leo jumped off the table, ran to the nearest bronze brazier, and threw up in it —which was probably not a great burnt offering for the gods.

Will was the first to stand up and go to help the poor teenager. Some other campers left out little chuckles, more in relief than laughing at Leo for throwing up.

They were alive! They had returned to camp in one piece!

“Jason?” Chiron trotted forward. No doubt the old centaur had seen thousands of years’ worth of weird stuff, but even he looked totally flabbergasted. “What—How—?”

From there they held kind of a Q&A, Draco’s stomach dropped at every word that came out of their mouths.

 One didn’t need to be an Aphrodite child to feel how everyone felt: relief about their safe return, fear about their new situation. Anger at everything for not letting them have normal lives, resignation to accept the hits and determination to always come on top.

They will overcome this, right? They had to.

*-*

Piper was having the best sleep she had had in years. Or at least that was how it felt like. Until whispered voices interrupted her slumber. Frowning and not really wanting to wake up she laid there, hearing the intruders with her eyes closed.

Her new siblings were discussing about her.

“We should let her sleep more”

“I know, but she didn’t eat anything yesterday at dinner. She should have something to eat….” Piper was still too unfamiliar with her new acquired siblings, but that was Drew’s voice, hard to forget after her outburst four days ago at the campfire.

“I think Austin is rubbing on you”

“Oh, shut it. Lacey, go bring some water, Mitchell, see if you can convince one of the Dryads to bring food over…” Piper didn’t know what to think about her, when they first met, she had felt jealous of her interaction with Jason.

The dark-haired girl obvious flirting was making her see things with green tinted glasses -and apparently it wasn’t even flirting, Jason had asked- But after the apparent worry she had over their siblings, even over Piper, she was starting to notice that she may have judged too early.

“I tough you weren’t going to boss us around anymore” Because despite the annoyance in the rest of his siblings’ voices, there was fondness in there, mixed with respect.

Piper thought she may be able to look up to her as a cabin counselor.

“Special circumstances midget, it may be my last time having the authority to command you all”

“Are you really going to step down?”

Wait, what?

“We have already talked about this Feli…”

“What if she doesn’t even want to!”

Were they implying for her to take the cabin’s head counselor place? She hadn’t even been at camp more than a day! She had been out and didn’t know even the slightest thing about camp’s dynamics.

She tried to sit up but ended up thumbing her head on the top bed, gaining a few snickers from her siblings. With a sheepish expression she turned to face the curious faces of her brothers and sisters.

“Morning.” Piper sat up and smiled. “Beautiful day.”

“Sorry for waking you up sweetheart” Piper just noticed, Drew’s voice was like honey, soothing and calm. Or was it because they were now sisters and Drew changed the way she referred to her?

It didn’t really matter, Piper liked her voice, it calmed her.

But despite the calming effect, some people were tense, staring intently at Drew’s back. For sure waiting for her to address the elephant in the room. Piper had the suspicion everyone had noticed her eavesdropping.

After at least 5 minutes passed, where Lacy gave Piper a glass of water, and Drew shuffled around arranging minor details of the decoration. The dark-haired girl finally sighed in defeat.

“Fine, you brats, I was waiting for all of us to have breakfast but whatever” Drew sat at Piper’s bed a few inches away from her “Look, if Annabeth gave you the tour, she for sure told you about how head counselors get chosen. Right?”

Piper nodded, trying to stay calm. Would she really be a good leader? The quest had showed her she had the mindset and the drive for it, but was she up to go for it? To take charge of a cabin full of teenagers and kids that she would need to guide?

“You are now eligible for the position…. Do you want it?”

“Drew is ok and all. Despite her bossy attitude and sour face” Another teen piped up smiling sheepishly at her, he was Julian if her memory served him right.

“Geez thanks” Drew shoved the kid aside, by the face. Piper imagined it was something common to do for people with siblings “Look, other campers see us as the ‘barbie’ cabin, that the only thing that matters to us is how do we look, which brand we are using or things like that”

Her siblings looked queasy at the statement, and Piper felt bad, because that had been her first tough too.

“But it’s not like that, at all. Sure, we all have designer clothes, know how to use make up and are gorgeous without trying” Drew flipped her hair, Lacey imitating her on the background. It brought a little smile to Piper’s face.

Then it dawned on her, she may only had heard rumors. But the way her siblings looked up to someone that had betrayed them somehow, made her realize.

“But Silena Beauregard knew better than that. Aphrodite is about love and beauty. Being loving. Spreading beauty. Good friends. Good times. Good deeds. Not just looking good. Silena made mistakes, but in the end, she stood by her friends. That’s why she was a hero”

“I see the quest do change people’s perspective” Drew’s smile was warm, it felt soothing somehow “exactly, we are no dolls, we have feelings, we get hurt…we love too hard….so, are you up to the challenge?”

Wasn’t there a way for both of them of being cabin counselors? Piper really hoped so.

“I think, we both can do it”

Then, spontaneously, the Aphrodite campers cheered so loudly, they must’ve been heard all across camp. They herded Piper and Drew out of the cabin, raised them on their shoulders, and carried them all the way to the dining pavilion—still in their pajamas, their hair still a mess, but she didn’t care. She’d never felt better.

*-*

Drew hadn’t expected for Piper to offer co-counseling, sure, the Stoll’s did it, but that was because they were like twins. Not that it would last forever, Connor had stayed behind this time to take care of somethings before his graduation next year, so Travis was on charge.

Sadly, she couldn’t dwell on the implications -that even newer campers seemed to trust her- because the situation wasn’t good. At camp, it never was.

Chiron had called for a general meeting, it was a tight fit, with there being now twenty -well, around ten or so, with so much of them not at camp right now. Meetings on summer would be a pain-

Drew was had Clarisse and her dirty boots on the table on one side and Lou Ellen on the other.  Drew had given up trying to teach the Ares kids any manners after she got bitten, literally by Sherman when she tried to teach them the correct way of holding a fork. Thank the gods the mighty warrior didn’t stabbed her with it.

She preferred to watch, with great amusement, how Lou literally played “got-your-nose” with Miranda from Demeter cabin. It was a shame Sherman wasn’t there, he could have played the ‘charming prince’ or more like ‘wild warrior’.

Lou Ellen sent her a mischievous smile as if reading her thoughts, Drew and they hadn’t really talked that much but any friend of Drake was a friend of hers.

“Stop that Butch, we need those” Drew wrinkled her nose when she noticed the Iris kid shoving pencil inside Clovis -a son of Hypnos- nose. Thank the gods she brought her own pen, no way in hades was she touching one of those.

They were only waiting for Jason and his questers, any moment they would enter alongside Annabeth and the torture would end. Or would it begin?

Drew wasn’t sure, either way, being confined to a space with ten or more kids with ADHD wasn’t a good idea.

The man -or teen? - of the hour finally arrived. Jason looked quite nervous, glancing around as if he was searching for someone, Thalia, Drew would guess. Leo and Piper immediately sat next to him.

The one that made everyone immediately sit into attention was Annabeth, she didn’t look so relaxed. She wore armor over her camp clothes, with her knife at her side and her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Let’s come to order,” Chiron said.

“Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you’d kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too many for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, Jason, Piper, and Leo have returned successfully… more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in.”

-

Drew wanted to bang her head against something, anything else beside the muddy table in front of her. Romans, roman demigods, of course those existed.

And they appeared to be their enemy, because live couldn’t get any more complicated. The only one, aside from Jason, who seemed alright with the current situation was Clarisse, but Drew didn’t know if it was feigned nonchalantly or something else.

Well, Ares, more known in Rome as Mars was one of their major gods. So, she guessed the Ares girl wouldn’t really see the bad side.

But the enmity was since the Trojan war! This was ages of resentment. Drew sighed, what was it always them?

“Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn’t even remember who he is.”

Why was it always Percy Jackson?

*-*

Draco was blissfully sleeping in for the day, it was the weekend after all, in a pair of days he would be back to school. After the whole ordeal of ‘Oh, hey, the next big quest is probably starting next year’ no one was really looking for it.

New Year was going to be such a lively party.

His sleep was interrupted by someone launching a pillow at him, effectively took away his breath and making him tumble to the ground. Gods, he sometimes hated his siblings, Draco swears he would teach Hannah to be a good kid, and not a brat like the rest of them.

“Drake, you got, mail?” Of course, it was Sian, it was always Sian. Groaning he stood up, just this close of throwing back the pillow at the offender, only to stop on his tracks at the sight of a bird. A snowy white owl.

“Wh-what?”

“There was this owl outside, alongside a box from Hermes delivery express…. who ordered new books? We don’t have enough space for them!” Susan had been the one whom expended all her allowance in new books, like always.

Draco didn’t pay any mind to the bickering, because after observing the owl for a few minutes -he had been asleep just a few minutes ago, sue him- he remembered where he had seen them, it was Harry’s owl!

“Hey there beautiful…Hedwig, wasn’t it? What are you doing here?” The poor thing looked exhausted; did they seriously send the poor owl on their own all the way across the ocean? “Did Harry seriously send you here?”

Maybe it was Draco’s fault, he always talked about his friends at camp, did he made people misunderstand that wizarding owls all were able to travel long distances in a question of minutes? He would have a long talk with Harry when he got back. Well, if the brat decided to finally talk to him again.

Now, it may be Harry’s owl, but it wasn’t his style to send letters -he hadn’t seen him send any- so it wasn’t his idea…

“It was Granger, wasn’t she?” But Draco thought the Gryffindor girl would be more mindful of the distance, she was the only one with enough brain to read a book once in a while, “No wait, Weasley? After Granger pestered them, sounds about right. I’m sure Granger would know the distance between the states and Britain”

How was he having a conversation with an owl? Draco didn’t know but every time he said something wrong, he could tell Hedwig got offended, or when he guessed right, he could feel her feeling proud, it was weird.

Was it their version of ‘talking with the horses’?

“Are you talking to the owl?” Asked Sian baffled, apparently Draco’s stare match with the owl was more interesting than chastising Susan’s expending habits.

“We can do that?”

“Not really? Just…see her eyes, don’t they tell you anything?” Noctua may had galaxy for eyes, but Hedwig’s eyes were more, wise, more telling, as if she had lively a thousand years. It was kind of weird.

“So pretty”

“Your school is so weird, using owls to delivery letters” Malcom commented, petting Hedwig with reverence, the lucky bird seemed to preen under the ministrations. Lucky girl she had landed herself in a cabin full of kids that would do anything for her just because she was somehow related to their mother.

Some kid had already run out to get some food for her.

“Tell me about it, and these people seemed to forget I live like at the other side of the world. Poor girl, thank the gods Hermes took pity on her” That’s what Draco assumed had happened, because as an admirable ordeal it may had been if the owl did it all on her own, it was also a kind of animal abuse if you asked him.

“Where’s Noctua by the way?”

“He flew out as soon as we arrived, since I had to bring him inside the cage, he hates me now” It had been an embarrassing time at the airport with the damn owl screaming as if Draco was taking him to the slaughters or something.

Draco got detained by airport security because of that, thanks so much Noctua.

“Who knew, he’s a drama queen. Like owner, like pet” Snickered Sian, Draco had to wonder if everyone noticed how they congregated around the owl as if it had the answers to all their questions.

“That’s not even how the saying goes!”

With Olympus MIA, it may be the closest his siblings had felt to their mother in months…. maybe he should go to drag Noctua back from the forest just to appease their minds. It was after all an owl who came directly from Athena’s palace.

Huffing he opened the card, who told Granger to write in cursive? After a few minutes of trying to read a cut from a newspaper fell. All the blood left Draco’s face, and it wasn’t because it had magical photos on it, but because of what it said.

“Drake…. Draco, are you ok?”

“I need to talk with Chiron”

--

To Draconis Black (if that’s your full name)

I went to ask about your whereabouts to the Slytherin table at breakfast when I noticed your absence.

Parkinson told me that they didn’t know and that it wasn’t any of my business. If I was so concerned, I’d better write you a letter. She implied it may go unanswered because of my lack of pen manners, that I should go and research in the library.

I think she meant it in a mean way, but seeing as you are from an important family, I decided to take it as an advice.

Heir Black, did you know? An uproar had been spreading trough magical Britain. Apparently, the last head of house Black is in bad health, and someone had leaked the information about your appearance at Hogwarts.

It has been all around the papers lately, you should come back soon. Speculating if you are the next head of house and what the destiny of the House of Black would be.

Was this why you disappeared so suddenly?

I hope everything is alright at home,

Best wishes Hermione Granger.

Ps. You looked so cute as a kid.

Ps2. Harry and Ron are also worried about you, more Harry, Ron is…stubborn.

Ps3. Do you happen to know who Nicholas Flammer is?

--

New Heir Black appears just as current Lord Black is on his deathbed, coincidence? Or something more.

[Image description: A photography of Lord Arcturus Black, who sat somehow regally on one of the most exquisite chairs, despite his obvious age and clearly sullen face due to illness he managed to look like a Lord in all his glory. He was proudly showing to the camera a portrait of a young blond kid, around four years old, the image was on a loop of the small kid showing a dragon plushie to the camera to then hide it behind his back and show his shy smile.]

December 20^th

By, A. Fenetre

Speculations about the Black Family had plagued the wizegnamont since the retirement of Lord Black from ministerial duties three years ago. The most Ancient and Noble House of Black had been part of our government for centuries, even preceding the conseil.

But with no apparent heir and with the persons eligible either at Azkaban or disinherited, the wizarding world was ‘dreading’ the disappearance of one of the oldest families on British soil.

It seems we didn’t need to worry, as on past September first, a surprise has made their presence known. While the lot of us were speculating about our savior and hero Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts, it came as a shocking surprise the presence of

Draco Black, as was announced at the sorting ceremony.

Rumors started to circulate alongside the noble houses when they received notice from their school aged children: was it someone from a branch family? Was the kid even related to one of the most (un) famous house of all Britain?

That is why this reporter had decided to track down Lord Arcturus Black to get some answers.

…

Lord Black denied us information about the kid’s parentage, but it should be either one of the last known heirs of the family. Ex-Heir Sirius Black, currently convict at Azkaban, or the late young and promising Regulus Black (Whom had been rumored to be a follower of you-know-who).

…

Chapter Text

Draco’s hands were trembling, not even the warm tea Chiron had given him when he noticed his state made him feel calm. He didn’t have read the article yet, nor the letter. But the image of his great grandfather, aged, old, ill, made his gut twist with worry.

Was that because of him? Had Draco’s disappearance caused such state? But Draco couldn’t say he wouldn’t run away again if they decided to send him back there. His family was at camp, not in Britain.

Would they make him go back to Walburga? Would he have to go back to that life?

The newspaper article and the letter lied forgotten in front of him. Chiron gave him a few more minutes to take deep breaths before approaching the issue.

“What’s the matter Drake?” But he couldn’t do it, once his stare landed on the moving picture black dots started to appear at his peripheral vision and his breathing got heavier. Draco Black, the one who could fight literal monsters but couldn’t deal with emotional turmoil.

“Oh, dear…Draco, breath” After some breathing exercises his breath got back to normal, Chiron gave him a concerned glance but decided to let it slide, for now “Do you want me to read this to you?”

“Please”

The interview cleared some things, like the fact that Draco was from the main Black family line, Second Heir to the Black family - It didn’t say anything about the first heir, was it still Uncle Sirius?

It also provided him with a kind of backstory, apparently, he had disappeared when he was six. It cleared out, that Draco’s existence was known to a select few family heads of the winzegamont due to whom his father was -never mentioning said father, Draco really hoped people weren’t assuming that Sirius was it- It also emphasized that Lord Black had searched for him for years to not avail. And that he had only accepted the interview to reach out to Draco’s legal guardian to request a meeting with him.

That made him feel a knot in his gut he didn’t knew he had loose a little bit.

“H-He wants to see me?”

“It appears so, his tracking magic should have been stopped if not due to the distance, due to the cloaking magic that covers the whole camp…” Chiron seemed pensive, but Draco couldn’t dwell on that in that moment.

He felt dazed, like he was in a dream. What if this was just that? A dream? What if Lord Black didn’t want to see him at all and was just playing up to the media?

What if he was just pretending all this time?

“H-he was, looking for me?”

“Draco? What do you want to do?”

“I….I need time to think about it”

He didn’t run out of the Big House; it was just powerwalking. And he wasn’t crying either, it was just the snow that melted as soon it touched his face, really.

-

Draco ended up inside the forest, tucked away between some bushes, stubbornly glaring at the sky while tears free felled from his eyes.

He didn’t know how to feel, how to react. It had never occurred to him that if he went back to Britain there was the slight chance, he would meet his great grandfather again. Not after all those years, not after he was left behind in Walburga’s care.

A part of him really wanted to see him again; him, Mimsy and Kreatcher, they were the only people he got good memories of, in the wizarding world. Draco knew if Kreatcher was still alive he would be ecstatic to see him, he knew that he would break down crying if Mimsy hugged him…but Lord Black?

How would he react? Would he punch him? -not really, he looked quite frail in that picture- would he scream at him? Would he hug him?

Despite his inner turmoil he was on high alert, he wasn’t stupid, he knew there were monsters lurking around the forest. That’s why he launched a dagger at whatever was approaching him from the left, gaining a tiny yelp from someone.

Draco grimaced, he hoped it hadn’t been a nymph, they often were a pain in the ass if you damaged their trees.

“Hey? Drake, right?” That wasn’t a nymph, Draco furiously wiped his eyes on his sleeve and frowned in the intruder’s direction. He had made sure no one knew where he was hiding.

“How did you find me?”

“Nyssa kicked me out of the bunker, my subordinates are rioting…are you alright?”

Oh, it was Leo, the kid had grease stains everywhere, his hair was covered with some cloth that was once white and he had eyebags under his eyes. He looked stressed, and Draco imagined it was the common state of one tasked with making a giant boat to ride to the war.

It was supposed to fly, wasn’t it? Lou Ellen had told him that they and their siblings were helping cabin nine in that aspect.

But, as interesting at it sounded, he wasn’t in the mood to discuss this right there.

“Yes” At the insistent concerning glance Draco stood up, determined to march up deeper in the forest for more time alone. Drew would later scream at him, Sherman would wrestle the answers out of him, Austin would give him pleading eyes, Nico would give him a concerning glance, Lou Ellen would pester him for answers, his siblings would bundle him up when they noticed that he had be crying… he really needed to be alone right now.

“Look, compadre, that’s a lie and you know it” Had no one warned Leo to not approach a kid of Athena when they were in a mood? Leo let go of his arm after some awkward moments of intense glaring from Draco’s part.

“What’s troubling you, midget?”

Draco huffed, only his friends had any right to call him short “You are the petit one. I’m almost as tall as you”

“Still got a head over you, thank you very much” Wait, was this some strategy to make the ambient less tense? Did Draco look so bad that even the new kid felt the need to comfort him? Well…. he was the new head of cabin nine, wasn’t he?

“Well?” Leo’s gaze was sincere, and Draco felt queasy about it. He usually didn’t spill his guts to anyone, but Leo may as well be dead next summer for all he knew. He, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, Percy and two others were destined for something big, weren’t they?

Something big in demigod’s terms often ended with someone dead.

What was there to lose if he got some advice from him?

“What would you do if someone you tough dead, was alive and wanted to meet you?”

The teen looked a little taken aback, clearly not expecting Draco to tell him that much. But later Leo’s face closed a little bit, in a grimace. As if it was some scenery, he had always wanted for himself.

Oh, yeah, some demigods usually had a lovely family the firs few years of their lives. Whom was the one Leo wanted to meet? Maybe his mom.

“Your dad?” Yeah, definitely, his mom.

Draco gave the teen a sad smile “My great-grandfather”

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, Draco felt his eyes getting puffy. When they returned to the cabins, he would be swarmed by concerned faces.

“Do you like him?”

“I loved him, and I tough he did too…but then I was left in a bad place, he told me to wait for him but I…I ran away” Leo seemed to flinch at the ‘ran away’ part, was he like him? Another demigod kid that ended up in bad circumstances because the fates hated them out of principle?

But the teen didn’t seem ready to open, so Draco whispered instead “I don’t know if he really wants me back”

“Whatever you decide. Live without regrets” Was the only thing the other said, silence felt over both, like a heavy blanket.

But they were demigods, they couldn’t stay still for long periods of time.

“Bueno, ya estubo” Leo clapped his hands, the sound muffled by the gloves, and forced a smile to his face “c’mon, this is so depressing, I would let you help me out at the bunker if you help me convince Nyssa that I don’t need a nap”

“Deal”

-

Chiron had called him out after lunch, Draco had told him that he indeed wanted to see his great grandfather after breakfast. The centaur worked fast.

But when he arrived at the Big House, he was almost knocked over by the door suddenly opening. Only years of training prevented him of flinching when the door stopped just inches away from his face.

“Lou Ellen?” Green eyes offered him an apologetic smile.

“Hey Drake…Come with me” It wasn’t a suggestion, nor had he any other option. Before he could protest, he was being dragged all the way towards cabin twenty.

“But Chiron”

“Chiron called me here, at first I tough I was in trouble for…” He knew that explosion yesterday wasn’t a coincidence, Lou Ellen had gotten caught up in a prank war with the Hermes cabin, again “Anyways, Chiron needed me to send a message to my dad…who knew you were a big shot at Britain, dear?”

Draco frowned, what had Lou’s dad had to do with anything?

“Your dad? How’s he going to help?”

“He knows people” They responded mysteriously before shoving him inside cabin twenty, it was cozy as always. The other occupants were already there, congregated around a table, clearly scheming some pranks judging by the cackles of the twins “Dad would be meeting Lord Black in a few days to discuss some things…by the way, now you are kind of legally my nephew in wizarding eyes”

Lou stopped pushing him until they reached the table, there was some buckets of paint, some balloons and other prank supplies.

Draco didn’t know what made him splutter more, Lou’s words or the fact that Mago was suggesting a balloon filled with horse manure. How would they even put it in there?

“The-what?”

“It was the only explanation my dad could think of to explain why he had you under his custody” He had given up understanding the situation as soon as he stepped inside the cabin, so the only thing he could do was to stare blankly at them.

Draco considered Lou a close friend, but they would usually talk of things expecting everyone to know the context of their words.

“My dear mother” They rolled their eyes, not really paying any mind at Draco’s baffled face “Supposedly told him to go to Britain to check upon the child of one of her nieces, when it seemed you weren’t in proper circumstances, he took you away. Lady magic let him since he was rescuing you from a bad place”

He blinked slowly, twice, brain quickly catching up with the meaning of the words. The rest of Hecate’s children had stopped their scheming to stare at them.

“Your mom is literally Lady Magic” He deadpanned after a while. Because that was the only thing that stood up from that phrase, that and his mythology nerd itching him to correct Lou Ellen, because he was technically their grandnephew.

“Lady magic letting him since he was rescuing you from a bad place” Lou Ellen intoned, as if it was something important.

Before he could inquire further what they meant, Mago and Rafael popped up one of those party poppers right in front his face, getting small pieces of paper right into his mouth. Catherin only rolled her eyes at the lot of them, sometimes Draco wondered how they were related. Because the twins and Lou tended to be louder, Catherin seemed to prefer the quiet.

“Oh, cheers we are also kind under Mr. Blackstone’s custody” Rafael supplied.

“Wait, what?”

“Remember the kidnaping incidents? Well, they were only two because Mr. Blackstone intervened in the second one” Mago rolled her eyes, as if being rescued had been an inconvenience for her.

“You never told me what the story was behind those”

“Nothing much to say, we were about to blow up the facility” Shrugged Rafael, as if it was not that big of a deal being kidnaped by a governmental entity. Draco supposed that in the grand accidents that demigods seemed to attract, it was just a common Monday.

“Like the first time” Pipped Mago in. Oh gods.

“Then Mr. Blackstone entered screaming to halt everything, scream he knew us, and they better explain why they had us trapped inside a facility that had been closed up for years” Rafael said in a blank tone, not at all bothered by the memory but clearly not waiting to remember it.

“Then he obliviated them and used the mist to hide us away” Supplied Mago as soon as Rafael stopped talking. Wait, Draco was getting a sense of Deja vu…

“Always comes up to our home once in a while” Rafael.

“Mama seems to think he is her long-lost brother, and that he is our uncle” Mago.

Draco groaned, twin talk, of course, of all the things. Wait what had they said? Were they implying that their mother was brainwashed in believing Mr. Blackstone was their relative?...

“Wait, wait…obliviated them? Used the mist? Mortals can use the mist?”

“That’s why Mom took an interest in him” Lou rolled their eyes.

“What does your father do?” Draco asked warily, Catherin smiled evilly at him, as if she had been waiting for that precise question.

He took his toughs back; all Hecate’s children shared the wicked smile.

“Didn’t they tell you?... He’s the head of the American Unspeakables”

Draco facepalmed groaning “Of course, he is”

-

“Are you sure about meeting him drake? We can still take you out of that school and hide you away in the mountains” Draco’s heart felt warm at everyone’s concern. Athena cabin had practically bundled him up in a burrito blanket the rest of the winter break as soon as they noticed his emotional state.

Even Sian offered his favorite superhero blanket, he never did that.

But it was time to go back, he was sure Snape would find a way to give him detention the rest of the school year if he was late even for a minute. His head of house had been so against of letting him go back early, that Draco had to write ten essays just because.

A dyslexic kid and a lot of essays didn’t get along that well. He almost throwed out of the window his potion books.

“The mountains?” Draco snorted, why did his eyes feel wet? “I’ll be fine, I think”

“Why can’t we come with you?” Pouted Hannah, giving him doe eyes. He knew he shouldn’t have taught her those.

“Believe me Hannah, ten hours of flight are not worth it. Besides, it will be until easter holidays” His siblings were being a little bit too overprotective.

Drew was worse, no, scratch that, Austin was worse. He had been stuck at the infirmary for a whole day just for a scratched knee.

“Whatever, IM me after you met him. If he makes you cry, he’ll pay” And Sherman was being violent, how much he loved his friends.

“Thanks”

-

Draco was close to fall asleep standing; he didn’t even notice the horde of reporters at the platform. He just shoved his way upfront, hastily opened the door to one of the wagons and made a quick search for an empty compartment.

He may be a little bit too distracted because as soon as someone touched his shoulder, Draco judo flipped them inside the compartment he had just opened. When he heard the surprised yelp, he came back to his senses.

The one he had thrown inside was Blaise, and Theo was at his side clearly holding back his laughter.

“Oh, hi Theo, hi Blaise”

“Don’t ‘hi Blaise’ me, you, you! … I’m taller than you!”

Theo busted up laughing, thank the gods Draco had managed to land Blaise in the benches, he didn’t want to imagine his whining if he had ended up on the ground.

A prefect came to hush them up, making the three of them to get inside the compartment.

“You look like dead” Stated Theo after he finally got his giggles under control, Blaise was pouting watching the rest of returning students through the window.

“I wish” Draco mumbled under his breath, Nico had mentioned how handsome Thanatos was -Like, apparently, he was son of Aphrodite or something- and if he looked like dead he for sure was an ugly version of it.

“What?”

“What?” Oh, yeah. That phrasing may have sounded ominous, ups?  “Sorry, I’m still jet lagged, arrived today because there were some things to take care of back at home….” Like the sudden imminent and totally possible end of the world, you know just a normal day at camp “How were your holidays?”

Blaise crossed his arms and turned his whole body towards the window, giving them his back. Draco sighed; this was going to be a long ride.

“Had to attend the Malfoy’s Yule Ball, it wasn’t that bad” Shrugged Theo, clearly the least affected by Blaise’s tantrum. Well, there went his time of sleep.

“Blaise stop pouting, I didn’t mean to do that, you just…startled me” Why was he friends with kids with a tendency for the dramatics?

“How strong are you?” Blurted in Theo with a little smirk, Draco took it back, his fellow bookworm was anything but quiet.

He had come to learn that Theo may come up as someone who doesn’t talk much and likes to read everywhere; but he was a cunning little thing that liked to cause mayhem “You are not helping me”

“No, but just curious, say…. could you like, princess carry Blaise around?” At least Blaise turned around at the comment, clearly offended. Theo just smiled sweetly at both.

Draco rolled his eyes; it was clear to him that Theo wanted to ask him something but was just dragging the thing out. He sometimes hated how round abound the Slytherins where.

“Both of you actually”

“No way”

“Prove it”

-

After some boyish shenanigans, like running up and down the hallway with Blaise giving Theo a piggy ride while Draco gave Blaise a piggy ride…they ended up sprawled on the floor when a prefect leg locked Draco’s legs. He could appreciate the sense of normality his friends provided -Yes, he was aware they had magic.

It was clear that Theo was ready to ask him something, when the door burst open, marching in the most unconventional pair Draco had ever seen.

Pansy Parkinson and Hermione Granger, their eyes burning with curiosity.

“Draconis Black! There you are!” Screamed Parkinson at the top of her lungs, manhandling Draco into an awkward one-sided hug, as if they had been friends all their life.

Theo rolled his eyes at the action, to then scoff when he noticed Hermione. But the one to protest was the Italian.

“Who invited the mud-“

“Muggleborn” Draco hissed under his breath giving the three ‘pureblooded’ people inside the compartment a heated glare.

Parkinson gave him a confused look, while his friends looked a little bit sheepish, all his hard work had been undone in a couple of weeks, yay.

Draco knew -from painful experience- what some pure-blooded families would do to their children to ‘educate’ them in the ‘correct’ forms. He would save them, just wait, and see.

“muggleborn here”

“No one, and neither Parkinson was invited. But I’m guessing why they are here” Draco grumbled under his breath, Parkinson for her part looked quite pleased that he acknowledged her presence. He had been evading her all first therm.

From both he didn’t know who was worst, Parkinson, who clearly wanted the information for her own gain or Granger that just wanted to know it for the sake of knowing it.

“May as well sit-down Granger” He ushered the girls inside the compartment, to shut the door behind him. Draco gave a pointed look in Blaise and Theo’s direction when they seemed about to protest about Granger’s presence there. Fortunately, his friends knew manners and only huffed in annoyance.

Well, ‘manners’. At least they hold their tongues. Blaise very impolitely stood up and sat again on the opposite side of the compartment. Leaving Granger alone in one bench. She didn’t seem to notice.

 “First of all, my name is Draco, not Draconis” he said while sitting alongside Granger. It was the thing that had been bugging him since he managed to decipher Granger’s letter.

His siblings had cracked up laughing when he told them someone at school taught his full name was Draconis. Sherman called him Draconis for a full day, and he was this close to kill him and hide his body in the forest.

“Uh?”

“I tough it was a nickname”

“It isn’t, moving on…” Purebloods and their weird naming senses.

“Wait, what IS your actual full name?” Blaise had a sharp smile.

“Not going to tell you” It wasn’t like he hated his full name; he had been quite proud of it when he got it, it just, it felt too personal to share it with anyone whom he didn’t consider family.

“C’mon, you know mine” Blaise Decimo Zabini, because he was the first of the tenth generation. Something like that, he got lost as soon as Blaise got sidetracked in their Italian lessons. The little devil told him his whole family history in Italian.

“Nu-uh, not happening”

“Now I need to know”

Before they could keep teasing each other, Parkinson intervened shoving her elbow to Blaise’s gut to shut him up.

“Where were you during the break?”

Draco really hopped that Blaise kept up his ‘gentleman’ act because even him could wither under the stare the dark-skinned boy was giving Parkinson.

“Back at home, near Manhattan”

“Why did you have to leave earlier? How did you manage that?” Granger joined in in the interrogation. Draco huffed, what was this? Twenty questions?

“There were some circumstances back home” Like the disappearance of someone very powerful, the appearance of three new demigods and the whole ‘roman gods are real too’…wait if Roman gods also existed -alas, they were like the same gods but not- other mythologic beings also existed? Like the Celtics? Did he have to go and find them to introduce himself? Draco had some research to do.

“No, they didn’t involve Lord Black; my legal guardian is still looking into that situation” He quickly added at Parkinson’s inquisitive stare “…As for how I…”

“Wait, wait, wait, Who’s your legal guardian? Is it not your mother?” Blaise stared owlishly at him, oh, did people assumed he was living with his mother?

“No. Mother and I don’t really talk much” Try, not at all. He had to keep himself from scoffing at Granger’s pitiful stare “She’s…a busy person”

“But you know who she is”

“Of course, I do. I also know who my father is, I’m not daft…” Draco rolled his eyes, why was people so obsessed with the lives of eleven-year-olds? Parkinson seemed eager to continue with the interrogation, but he was now in a bad mood “No, I will not tell you…at least not until I met Lord Black and discuss what parts of the story can be known to the public”

At that Parkinson huffed and stomped out of the compartment. After a few awkward minutes of silence Granger followed, well not exactly Parkinson, but she went somewhere.

-

Draco and his friends hastily got down from the train, it would be their first time going to the castle by carriage. Pity, Draco liked the lake. He stared bewildered when he noticed the black creatures that seemed to be the horses. They were a kind of winged horse with a skeletal body, face with reptilian features, and wide, leathery wings that resemble a bat's.

Was this how Pegasus looked like when un-dead? Or was it another completely different species?

Draco would make sure to research them. One thing he was certain.

“They are beautiful” Some people stopped what they were doing to give him a weirded-out glare, he was just trying to befriend the fellas, nothing to see here.

“You can see them too?” Whispered Theodore giving the creature a wary glance, they may see scary, but Draco knew that no matter how a creature looked if they didn’t attack him at first sight, they were good on his books.

Besides, Nico had mentioned a creature like this one from the underworld, so he was curious as to how such creature got to the surface.

“Yeah? I mean, they are hard to miss”

The skin felt weird, but not unpleasant. The one Draco decided to approach was quite friendly, they reminded him of the Pegasus at camp. Wait…he had to find out where he could find these fellows. He may have just found out a way to practice for the chariot races.

He knew there were unicorns in the forbidden forest, but the centaurs had told him to stay clear of them. Apparently, they could be quite temperamental, and they didn’t wanted an impaled demigod.

“Mate, are you aware you are patting the air?” Blaise asked puzzled, watching Draco’s actions a little bit warily.

“What?”

“Threstals, just the ones who had witnessed death can see them” Supplied Theo as an explanation.

“Oh…. Oh”

-

A few days had already passed since they returned from the winter break, the stares and whispers were starting to get on his nerves. Especially since they insisted to follow him, even to the library!

“What? Do I have something in my face?” Draco snapped at a nosy Hufflepuff second or third year that kept staring at him from across the library. Madam Pince hushed them all, so Draco could only stare heatedly at the ones staring at him.

He would be a fool if he got himself kicked out of the library.

“They are just curious Dray”

“I told you to not call me that, Blay” Blaise rolled his eyes, as if Draco was being the dramatic one.

He didn’t hate the nickname per se, but it was too close to ‘Dracey’. Draco discovered that anyone, aside from the members of the Ares cabin calling him that, irked his nerves. Or maybe he was just too irritable with all the rumors flying around.

“Can’t do, you call Theodore, Theo, and me some ridiculous names sometimes, you need your own nickname”

He had to stop himself from smacking Blaise, he knew that names were important for purebloods, but he also knew that Blaise was just doing it to be annoying.

“And Dray is the best you could think of”

“The one that annoys you the most” Theo had to stop him from throwing the book he was reading at Blaise. The dark-skinned kid only smiled cheekily at him.

Before the argument could develop into a discussion, Draco stopped when he noticed a couple of Slytherin upper years shoving a first year Gryffindor out of the library. That was Longbottom, the one whom busted out crying the second day of classes as soon as his eyes landed on Draco.

He had later remembered the cause, one of his aunts and her husband had driven the boy’s parents to a comatose state for overusing the crustaceous curse.

Draco still felt nauseous every time he remembered Walburga’s proud face recounting the tales of said aunt. As if torturing people was something to be proud of.

His internal guilt may be the reason Draco decided to stand up and shove his supplies inside his bag. Theo gave a suffering sigh while Blaise looked confused.

“Where are you going?”

“He’s following Adrian Pucey and his minions” Theo waved his hand as if he had given up on caring a long time ago.

And well, considering the fact that his friends knew he regularly adventured inside the forbidden forest, had something to do with the dead of the troll at Halloween and that he was friends with the Weasley twins…

“Why?

“Longbottom”

“What? Are you thinking of playing hero?” Blaise dropped his head over the table in a dramatic movement, that ended up in him almost tipping over Theo’s ink. The brunet shoved Blaise aside. “Oh, merlin, why are you so nosy”

“I’m not nosy, just a concerned citizen.”

“Longbottom doesn’t even like you!”

-

Draco didn’t have to walk that much, everyone inside the castle was quite lazy…or was him the one with too much energy? Anyways, he managed to find the group rather easily. Hard to miss the trio of fourth years shoving around a quivering first year down to the dungeons.

Specially considering the leg locked curse they had casted on the kid.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here” Adrian Pucey and his minions got startled at his sudden appearance, but quickly recovered when they noticed who he was.

Draco’s position in Slytherin was, delicate. He may be the heir to one of the most ‘ancient’ and ‘well known’ pureblooded families. But he was also viewed as an illegitimate child, with no one knowing about him for eleven years -it was quite common for heirs to be introduced to high society at least once before they attended Hogwarts, Draco was not, hence everyone assumed he wasn’t wanted.

Which was true in some twisted way that he didn’t dare even think about. And it wasn’t as if he was affected by the judging glances and fake smiles, he preferred to fabricate a reputation for himself rather than rely on the one his family already had.

Black family reputation could go down in the drain if someone asked him.

“Black” Pucey sneered “go mind your own business”

“This is my business”

“What? You are siding with the blood traitors now?” Taunted one of Pucey’s minions, Aidan Burke, son of a secondary branch of the Burke family, considered part of the twenty-eight.

No one had been stupid enough to directly confront Draco, Slytherins liked to approach things in a ‘discrete’ way, but Draco knew all the names of the people who stared at him in disdain, for when the time came, for when they decided to act against him -if he passed the names to the Weasley twins…well, that was his business.

“Well, that would make sense. But I thought you would be smarter about it, considering your status”

Pucey seemed to get the indirect verbal signal, forgetting all about Longbottom who was staring at the whole scene with a weirded-out face.

Oh, yes, Slytherins didn’t fight with each other outside the common room, to show that they were a united front and all that. Longbottom must be getting wish plash since they may have appeared on friendly terms at meals.

“Heard you were sent away because your great grandfather couldn’t stand you….”

The other two snickered, if Draco had been a lesser boy, he would have punched them right in the face.

“say, is it true?”

“What?”

“That you are a half blood?” Draco knew they meant that as an insult, but he just stared at them as if they were daft.

Draco had been called that all his life, being a half blood has been the root of all his problems and the cause of all his fondest memories. Everyone around him immediately knew what he was, monsters, other demigods, or mythical creatures. He had never thought he would have to clear that point to anyone.

“I mean, yes, wasn’t that obvious?”

Well, Draco was technically a ‘half-breed’ if one took in consideration the ministry’s classification. But they didn’t need to know that.

More importantly, where did they hear that?

“I told you so” the third, dirty blond, dark brown and unidentified kid extended his hand expectantly, the other two rolled their eyes, but handed over some galleons anyway.

Were people seriously betting on his blood status? How disturbing was that.

“Is that why they sent you away? Because you are a stain in the Black family pure lineage?” Taunted Pucey, now in a mood for having lost his money.

Draco didn’t want to know what his guess had been.

“She must have been a beautiful woman to seduce a member of the Black family” Stated with malice the blond one. Draco didn’t like where this conversation was going.

Why was Longbottom still on the floor petrified? By the gods, he should have flown ages ago.

“Say, what did she do? Did she used amort…”

“Leave my mother out of this” Draco hissed, glancing to the ceiling, as if expecting thunder to suddenly appear in the dungeons.

Athena was rumored to be Zeus’ favorite child after all. Draco wouldn’t pass it over the king of the gods to punish ignorant mortals if he felt like it. Let alone Athena’s punishment.

“You may be from a prominent family, Black, but you are nothing special” Why were these kids so cliché and bad at taunting? Or maybe Draco was the one with the patience of a saint.

“Oh, bu-hu, you hurt my feelings…Don’t talk about my family without knowing a thing about it”

He had meant that in a ‘I’m saving you from divine punishment, be grateful’ way, but it come out more as a threat. Draco winced, great.

“Or what?”

“You are going to reject it” He decided to roll with it, they hated him anyways.

“What can you do?”

“For instance?” And he may still be a little stressed about the rumors, Draco judo flipped Pucey and put his knee on his back. No one had had any time to react, the other fourth years were staring as if they hadn’t been expecting a physical attack, right, pure bloods

“This. Not so high and mighty now, are we? What? Are you going to rattle me to your daddy?”

“Black! Stop that this instance!” Suddenly a new voice boomed inside the walls of the dungeons, in a ‘righteous’ fury.

“Oh, Styx”

It was Snape, of course it was Snape. That was his luck. Everyone froze in place at the Professor’s appearance. Draco was in a very incriminatory position, and he knew without glancing at his head of house that he was in trouble.

“Detention Mr. Black!”

“B-but P-pr-profesor!”

“What are you doing here Longbottom? Go back to Gryffindor tower, is almost curfew” Snape sneered, and Longbottom soon hopped out of there, the ‘responsible’ adult didn’t pay any mind at the cursed child.

Draco was manhandled out of his position on top of Pucey, the hold on his left arm a little bit forceful. The other Slythrins smiled in mockery when they noticed that they were not in trouble.

“I’m not taking any points, but any other instance when I caught you up Bullying fellow Slytherins I may have to reconsider”

Draco was internally seething “Fellow Slytherins” He sneered, giving dirty looks at the three upper years “So it’s okay if I ‘bully’ other houses?”

He directed his question to Snape who was still holding him up by the arm if he wasn’t a demigod that would have left a bruise.

“Detention scrubbing cauldrons every weekend until the easter holidays. Now go back to the dorms” Snape shoved him in the direction of the dormitories, the fourth years walked in front of him snickering.

“You got lucky Pucey” Draco mumbled under his breath, he would have to help the Weasley twins with this set of pranks, it had become personal after all.

-

Draco was once again in the courtyard, despite the chilly weather, the ambient inside the dungeons had become quite oppressive. Pucey and his lackeys had spread rumors about him, and the few people that somehow respected him had started to taunt him.

He still didn’t get the whole obsession with blood status. Would they react the same if he told them he shared blood with a god? Not as if he would tell them that, Chiron made clear that it was a bad idea.

“Oh, look who’s here” He didn’t get startled by the sudden voice, no sir.

“Is our favorite snake, Forge”

“That’s right Gred”

“I though I’ve got ridden of you two” Draco groaned in fake annoyance, he had been searching for the twins to ask them about pranks, but the read heads couldn’t be found anywhere. Aside from the Gryffindor table, but Draco knew the Slytherins would get worse if he approached them that in the open.

He was on thin ice for being on friendly terms with the Ravenclaws. Not as if he cared.

“Wood is going crazy with training”

“I heard; hope you win the match. Say, do you have any supplies available for pranks?”

“Oh…have we corrupted you?” Draco scoffed at Fred’s remark, as if.

“Bridgestone is going to kill us if we did”

“Dear, I was corrupted way before meeting you” Don’t make Malcom ever get involved in a prank war, his brother could be mean. The Stoll’s didn’t know what hit them.

“So, who made our baby snake mad?”

“Adrian Pucey”

“Oh, we are in…”

Glad to know everyone hated Pucey.

-

“What are you doing here?” Hissed Theo under his breath, Draco glanced over his book in confusion at his friend. But he was suddenly assaulted by a bunch of fluffy brown hair that almost got inside his mouth.

“Studying?”

Granger was there, Draco had thought that the Gryffindor trio had gave up on approaching him after not seeing them all this time. Apparently, Granger was stubborn.

“Why at our table?”

“There’s no place in any other table” That was a blatant lie, there was plenty of space inside the library. And if there, wasn’t one could ask Madam Pince to conjure another table, or one could take out the books and study in their common rooms.

Theo gave the brunette a dirty look, Draco sensed he was about to say something he would regret, so he stopped him with a warning glare.

“Theo”

“Fine, just, don’t talk to me”

They passed a moment in silence, thank the gods the pile of books that Theo had out was hiding them in plain sight. Draco would hate if Pucey approached them to taunt him with Granger there, not as if Pucey came that often to the library.

“Why are you reading a book about alchemy? Finally figured out whom Nicholas Flammel is?” Draco asked when he noticed the book, Granger whipped her head up so fast that even him got dizzy.

“You knew?”

“Forgot to tell you with all the stuff going on” He dismissed, Granger seemed to want to say something but relented with a nod of understanding.

“Oh”

“That’s an outdated book, you should check in the transfiguration section” Added Theo, scoffing at the old book.

“I tough you didn’t want to talk to me”

“I don’t” Theo dismissed; Draco smiled internally.

They passed another few minutes in silence, Granger Cleary debating with herself.

“Do you know where to find…”

“Oh no, the nerds have met” Blaise had gone to find a book for their potion’s homework, he glanced warily at Granger. Draco rolled his eyes, droning out the discussion about books the two Bruns had engaged in.

Draco was glad that his friends were starting to see that not everything was blood status.

“Don’t be rude B”

-

“Oh, I hope this game don’t disappoint” Draco rolled his eyes at Theo, who was the one who dragged them out of the Slytherin dorms? Blaise gave him an amused glance.

They were on Gryffindor’s side and were getting some strange glances.

“Black, Nott, Blaise? What are you doing here?”

“Cheering? Honestly, I wanted to go to Hufflepuff side, but then Theo dragged us here…” That was why he was cladded in yellow; he had promised Cedric to cheer for him -the kid wasn’t related to Athena at all, but he was a good bloke- and he wanted to piss Pucey off.

The twins and him had agreed to prank him right before the easter holidays, so the older boy was going to be mad at him anyways.

“Because that’s the worst point of view in the entire bleachers” Protested Theo, taking a seat alongside Granger. For one who denied they were friends Theo and Granger were quite close.

“We could have gone to the Slytherin side” Protested Blaise, the only one in green. He had obliviously believed that Theo’s announcement at dinner was a ruse.

“This side is closer to the goals” Theo was in a brown robe, as a form of showing impartiality.

“There, that’s why we are over here…Oh, hey Longbottom”

“T-Thanks, f-for the other day”

“No prob, if any of the Slytherins are giving you trouble, tell me, I’d stop them”

“What? Are you going to tell your da…” Weasley snapped his mouth shut, everyone’s eyes glanced at him in horror.

“My dad?” Draco dismissed them; it wasn’t as he hadn’t heard that one before “I wish, nah, I’ll take care of the problem myself”

He hopped Pucey liked his surprise.

-

Draco had felt alone all the train ride, no one of his friends returned home for the Easter Holidays, and the few people that did took the train keep whispering whenever they saw him, so he decided to keep to himself.

Everything was quite depressing and lonely, up until he arrived at king cross station and was tackled over by a dark headed teenager. Both landing on the floor with a loud thumb. Noctua squawked indignantly from his position on top of Draco’s trunk. Someone chuckled nearby.

“Lou? What are you doing here?” Draco groaned shoving them aside, they were starting to get some stares. He hopped that the reporters weren’t nearby.

His nerves had been on edge all day because of everything.

“It occurred to us too late that you don’t know whom my father is”

Lou helped him up, and once on his feet was when he noticed the man. Quite tall, olive skinned and with…brown eyes? No, green eyes, no, black eyes, no…. wait, what?

It wasn’t like Piper’s kaleidoscopic eyes; it was like the man’s face changed constantly. Like he didn’t want anyone to recognize him. Which, Draco supposed was because he was the head of the equivalent to the CIA in the wizarding world.

“Hi?”

“Louise Blackstone, a pleasure to meet you” The man waved his wand, and the face finally settled in features like Lou Ellen’s, ebony black hair, olive skin and light brown eyes met him. He didn’t have the freckles Lou Ellen had, nor the green highlights on the hair.

Draco stared perplexed at the man, because that was magic, he had never seen before. But…

“Did your father named you after himself?” Draco asked Lou. Mr. Blackstone snorted as if he had been asked the same thing before.

“No, I did not. Lou was the one who named themselves. I feel honored they liked my name so much”

Lou Ellen had gone beet red and had started to shove them all out of the platform. Towards the apparition point. Draco send the man an amused glance, who shrugged in a ‘what can you do’ way.

“Shut it old man, we are going to be late”

“The appointment is until tomorrow, little flame”

“You promised to let me go to diagon” Draco watched the interaction perplexed. He knew Lou was on good terms with their mortal parent. But seeing them together was quite the experience.

A small part of him was jealous and wondered if he could have had the same with his own father. The other part felt quire relieved that Lou got along with their dad. With demigods that wasn’t always the case.

Mr. Blackstone shrinked down his trunk with a wave of his hand, told something to Noctua whom soon disappeared in the horizon and gave them a mischievous smile. One which Lou returned with some malice.

“Ready to go? My dear cousin?” Draco gulped, oh, right, they were going to apparate.

“Grab my coat tightly, we don’t want anyone splinting themselves, do we?”

He grabbed the coat with all his might, and he had tough airplanes were bad.

-

They had passed the evening going around different shops, chasing Lou Ellen all trough Diagon Alley, getting lost, ending up in knockturn Alley, buying some weird things. Draco knew Lou had wanted to distract him, but the nerves were getting the best of him.

“I’ll never get accustomed to that sensation” That was why he was so green when they apparated to the Black Manor that morning.

“And there goes his breakfast” It hadn’t been a good idea to eat so much. Poor bush, he hoped it liked digested pancakes.

“Why are you here again?” He groaned, giving his friends a dirty look.

“Moral support”

“It doesn’t seem like it”

“Children” Interrupted Mr. Blackstone with an amused glint in his eyes. They had apparated outside the Manor’s boundaries because they needed permission to enter the guards. Well, the Blackstone’s, Draco could just walk right in without problem “C’mon…. we were supposed to”

Someone was supposed to guide them inside the Manor, but before he could muse on the ‘who’, he was, once again tackled to the ground. But this time it wasn’t a teenager, it was a small creature.

“Lil Master Lycorice!”

“Should we help him?” Lou was laughing, while Draco was on the ground trying to make sense of the situation.

But there were only some small creatures that called him Lil Master, let alone Lycorice. He felt his t-shirt getting wet and the small person on top of him started trembling. Draco’s own eyes got misty. There was just one option here.

“M-Mimsy?” The house elf started to bawl her eyes out, apparently relieved that he still remembered her. Draco followed suit just some minutes later, hugging the house elf tenderly to his chest.

It had been too long; he had missed her too much.

-

It had taken ten minutes for Mimsy to calm down, just enough for her to elf-apparated them inside the mansion. Tears still leaked from her big eyes, and she used a small piece of cloth to clean them away every so often.

Draco was a mess, his eyes were red rimmed, he was still crying, he had snots all over his face that Mimsy had gave up on cleaning. He had practically glued their hands together as soon as Mimsy offered her hand.

It reminded him too much of those first days in the Manor, where he would wake up crying and Mimsy would guide him, to the kitchens for some warm milk, or to his bon-papa’s room. Always reassuring him that everything was fine, that he was safe, that she would protect him.

“Mimsy is so glad Lil Master Lycorice is back, Master Arcturus has been waiting for him for a long time” Mimsy blabbed, guiding them thought the halls.

Draco was glad that Lou, nor Mr. Blackstone had said a thing since they entered the mansion. He appreciated the way they didn’t minded Draco’s reaction.

He had heard Lou crying too, so he wasn’t that concerned of weird rumors appearing back at camp. Not as if his friend was that bad -Drew would have their heads if they made fun of him.

“Bad elf Kreatcher refused to tell us where you had gone, not even after Mistress Walburga was dead” That made Draco froze in his place “But Mimsy never ever lose hope…Master Lycorice?”

“W-Walburga Black is d-dead?” There wouldn’t be any possibility of him having to see the witch again.

“The vile woman is dead” Confirmed Mimsy with confidence, as if she had been the one who had ended the woman.

“I-I’m glad”

“Drake, are you ok?” That was the first thing Lou had said, they were worried. Draco turned to stare at them with a blank on his face, tears finally stopping.

“I hope she rots in the fields of punishment” he said with a vicious smile that made even Mr. Blackstone take a step back.

-

“Mimsy will be back with refreshments” The house elf announced after stopping in front of a pair of doors Draco knew well, the master bedroom ones. Mimsy popped out of existence, letting them contemplate the elegant and opulent doors.

Those were rococo or something like that, Annabeth would know.

Lou gently grabbed his shoulder making him realize he had been there, staring at the wood for at least five minutes “Are you ok?”

“Y-yes”

“I should have brought Drew” Lou mumbled, making Draco smile a little at them. He would have wished that everyone could have been there with him “C’mon…”

-

The man on the bed was frail, his once peppermint hair was now pure white, he had hollowed cheeks, his eyes were dull and Draco suspected he had put on a glamour for those newspaper’s photos, because he looked more worse. He looked like he was dying.

“Lycorice? You have grown so much” Arcturus Black finally greet him after doing the polite greetings with Mr. Blackstone. Draco couldn’t take it anymore, he practically ran towards the bed, taking the old man’s hands in his, big fat tears streaming down his face.

All the guilt he had felt when he saw the photo in the newspaper came crushing him like a train.

“je suis désolé bon-papa, je suis un mauvais petit-fils. Tu est come Ça parce que je avait disparaitre.” He mumbled over and over, voice small, entire body trembling from repressed sobs.

That he was a bad kid, that he should have stayed back, that he should have trusted in his great-grandfather more, that he should have stayed back no matter the price if the consequences were for his bon-papa to be like that.

He didn’t notice when the Blackstone’s left the room, nor when he had been gently deposited alongside Arcturus Black, head resting on the old man’s shoulder. Tucked inside the sheets, like when Draco had a bad dream.

“Non, non. Mon chou, mon coeur, Ça n’est pas vrai” Mumbled Arcturus at Draco’s head, pressing small kisses on his temple every so often. Mumbling reassurances that it wasn’t his fault, that he was a good kid, that he was glad he had gotten out of that rotten place, that he was glad he was still alive.

That was how Draco felt asleep at just ten in the morning, embraced in frail arms that he thought he would never get the chance to experience again.

-

“Are you feeling better?” Was the first thing Draco heard after he woke up, he blinked owlishly, not really remembering when he had fallen asleep.

He glanced up to met kind gray eyes, that made him remember with clarity the last few hours. Gosh, he was a mess, he was such a crybaby.

“Are you really not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad? You should be the one angry, I left you there all alone” Arcturus Black had him still in his embrace, and Draco felt warm inside, he still cared.

“But y-you didn’t have any other option”

“Didn’t I? I should have fight for you more fiercely…that’s what I realized once I had lost you” Draco grimaced and averted his eyes, he should have waited a week or a month more. “I’m glad you found more family”

At his great-grandfather’s words Draco stopped his musings to stare at him, did he referred to Mr. Blackstone and the ‘official’ story they would release to the media?

“I’m glad you have siblings and friends that would look after you”

“Y-you know?”

“The only good thing about being a moribund is that I was left on in the secret” Draco noticed how his bon-papa averted his eyes when he mentioned the moribund part, he was really dying, wasn’t he? “Your mother came over, she explained everything. Who would have guessed that you are such a special child?”

“M-mom came to see you?” He spluttered; a cold rage filled his gut. Great his mother was intruding in his life, and she wasn’t even polite enough to do it in front of him. Draco hated when people went behind his back.

“Don’t be too hard on her Lycorice, she has her own circumstances”

He took a deep breath but kept silent, he would not make any promises regarding his mother. Arcturus sighed, getting the hint that, that conversation was over.

“Tell me all about what you have been up to all these years. Say, did you managed to befriend the Potter kid and ride on top of a dragon?”

Draco beamed at the man with warmth in his eyes, he really didn’t deserve such an understanding great grandfather.

“Both are still a work in progress, but I think I’m closer to taming a dragon”

“Tell me everything”

Heir Black, where had he been?

[Image description: A wizarding picture of Draco Black, Arcturus Black, Lou Ellen, and Louis Blackstone; all seated cozily in one of the Black Manor’s drawing rooms. Draco was glued to the older man’s side, smiling widely at him making a paper dragon fly around the older man’s head, not minding the camera at all. Lou Ellen and their father were sharing amused glares]

By Mr. X.

A friend of mine had asked me a favor to do an interview, he said he would publish it in all the newspapers of Britain, so I refused at first. You see, boring interviews aren’t my thing.

My daughter was the one to convince me when it was mentioned the missing Black child was the subject of it.

…

“Who are the child parent’s?” Was the question I loathed the most but knew I had to ask.

“His parents are of un-importance, you see, we don’t want him to grow under the shadow of anyone. But if you really want to know, his mother is from the states, from the Glaukopis family”

“The one from ancient Greece?”

“Honestly? I don’t know, let me tell you, I didn’t care where my grandson had come from, he is still my family…”

Sirius stared at the newspaper in shock, he had thought the first article in December had been a ruse. There was no way his family would have delayed the announcement of such a powerful heir.

Was this something Regulus had been dragged in without his knowledge? Had his little brother been sold to a foreign family? He scoffed, as if that little death eater had opposed to the idea to obtain more power.

He was relieved that the kid wasn’t Narcissa’s, he shivered at the thought, his crazy mother had once proposed for her to marry him. As if they needed more inbreeding.

He still felt hurt that his little brother hadn’t told him about the kid. Because there was no other option for the kid’s parentage, despite not stating it, he didn’t like blondes. And he was sure he would remember getting someone pregnant. 

Grumbling under his breath, Sirius teared the article into tiny pieces, if his family didn’t find the time to inform him of the kid, it was clear they didn’t want him to meet him.

That was fine, he still had his precious godson.

He transformed back into his dog form, he needed to retain his energies inside the hell that was Azkaban. No time to dwell on his family, they had disinherited him, after all.

Chapter Text

“Drake? Are you awake?” Draco yawned begrudgingly getting up at Lou’s insistence. He gave the older demigod a reproachful stare, until he noticed that his great-grandfather was no longer in the room.

The past few days had been a bliss, while the Blackstone’s went out to explore magical Britain -In Mr. Blackstone case Draco was sure he also went to have boring meetings with lawyers- Draco was left to reacquaintance himself with his great-grandfather.

“Lou? Where’s bon-papa?”

“C’mon everyone wants to talk with you”

The dark-haired teen didn’t even let him change -Mimsy had somehow made his old dragon pajamas fit him- before he was being shoved out of the room and guided directly to the family dining room.

The table was filled with a feast, Mr. Blackstone and Bon-papa were already eating breakfast, but the thing that stood out the most was the shimmering image in the middle of the room. Where one could see the woods, some cabins, and a bunch of grey eyed kids and a dark-haired one telling animatedly a story.

“And then he barraged in trying to distract the drakon….oh, hey Drake”

Draco had to do a double take, because, yep, his bon papa was in an IM call with Athena cabin, and Sherman.

“Sherm?... What are you telling my bon-papa? let me remind you it was all your idea”

“We are snitching on you to see if he can convince you to stop being so reckless” Supplied Susan with a smug grin, Draco narrowed his eyes at them.

“Snitches get stitches”

“Lycorice”

“Sorry”

His siblings snickered at Draco’s immediate response. His bon papa seemed amused about the whole ordeal.

“Oh, my god, you should come over Mr. Black, I’d like someone near by to stop Drake from doing anything stupid”

“Susan!” Draco stated scandalized, his siblings dissolved in laughter. Sherman had a knowing grin on his face that made Draco blush to the roots of his hair, he wasn’t a grandpa’s boy! “Where’s Sian and Annabeth?”

Draco tried to change the topic, but it had been a bad thing to notice, because the laughter stopped, and everyone turned somber.

“They are still trying to locate the roman camp, Sian IM us earlier, saying he had to knock out Annabeth to get her to sleep…that girl is starting to become a little restless” Oh, right, Sian had moved schools just to keep an eye on their sister.

“It was nice to meet you Mr. Black, it’s almost dinner, and with a bunch of us we need to go and fight for our food, bye~” Intervened Sherman, for once reading the room.

“Don’t make us sound like a bunch of savages!” Protested Malcom shoving Sherman hard enough that he ended up on the ground. Great way to not make them look like savages, Draco snickered.

“Take care Drake”

The IM vanished after Hannah waved enthusiastically at them. Draco turned back to stare at the ones present.

“What did you tell them?”

“That your grandpa could see through the mist…which is not a lie by the way” Responded smugly Lou Ellen while shoving some scrambled eggs into their mouth. Draco had to stop his urge to throw at them his piece of toast.

“You can?” He asked instead.

“I was recently blessed with it”

Glad to know the gods were still alive, despite them not contacting camp in months.

-

Draco and Arcturus had been taking the sun in one of the solariums of the mansion, eating snacks and making small talk. Their evening was interrupting by a loud crack and the appearance of the Blackstone’s with a bunch of shopping bags.

Draco had refused to go, in part because he wanted to pass more time with his bon-papa, in other part was because he hated apparition.

“Sometimes I think you only came to freeload and to tour around, Bon-papa, we should charge them”

“Don’t be like that Lycorice” Arcturus chuckled, he looked a little bit better, more at ease. Draco hopped that he would recuperate any time soon.

“Yeah! Lycorice, I thought you were supposed to be sweet, like your name” Mocked Lou Ellen, snatching away one of the cookies on his plate.

“Oh, you didn’t” Draco spluttered, he hadn’t been able to tell off Lou for calling him Lycorice all this time-because his bon papa was there- but now they had gone and made a pun out of it. Draco stood up and started to chase around the teen who sprinted out of the room with a maniac cackle “Come back here!”

-

“Bon-papa…where is Kreatcher?” Draco had been meant to ask since the beginning, but first he went searching for him in the mansion. Maybe his friend was hiding away because he felt guilty or something, Draco wouldn’t pass it over Kreatcher to do something like that.

But after three days of exploring and popping up at the house elf headquarters -there were three currently at the mansion, including Mimsy, they didn’t appreciate when Draco startled them in the kitchen- he could not find him.

Draco’s first tough after hearing that Walburga was dead was that his Bon-papa would have taken back the house elf. They all were linked to the Black family’s magic after all.

“He…he’s bonded to the house; he can’t leave it” Arcturus grimaced.

“What? Why?”

“Walburga”

Draco frowned, of course his ‘dear’ grand mother would do something to Kreatcher even after her death. He would like to call Nico and make sure the old hag was enjoying her time in the fields of asphodel.

“I hate her”

“Don’t we all?”

He sighed, if Walburga had been dead for five years, and Kreatcher had been all alone all that time, Draco hoped his friend was alright.

“I want to see him”

“Mimsy says he is not in the best condition, are you sure?”

Did he wanted to even set foot inside the Black’s townhouse? No, never in his life. But Kreatcher was there, he owed it to the house elf.

“He…he is my friend”

-

Lou Ellen and Mr. Blackstone were the ones to accompany him to the House, Bon-papa’s health had turned bad overnight, and Mimsy had stayed back to take care of him.

The door of No. 12, Grimaud Place was giving him the chills, and it was just only a door! Not even Lou Ellen’s surprised gasp when the house appeared made him feel any better.

It was the last place on earth he wanted to go to.

“Drake? Are you sure about this?”

Draco took a deep breath, the image of a beaten up Kreatcher flashed in his mind. Right, he was there to meet him “I-I can do it”

“Well, let’s go”

He was the one whom opened the door, as much of the Black’s property the guards instantly opened for blood relatives. Not even the ones blasted out of the family would be locked out -well, they would if someone put another set of guards on top of the ancient ones, but generally if one had been disinherited, they wouldn’t dare approach the rest of the remaining members of their family.

The interior was dark and murky, layers and layers of dust covered every surface, that made Draco worry, house-elves would instinctually clean things up, something was wrong with Kreatcher.

The thing that stood up to him the most, and that made him froze in place, was the new portrait added at top of the front stairs, the woman in it also was frozen in place -Normal for mortal paintings, but Draco had the suspicion that it was a magical portrait- it was Walburga Black, who seemed about to get a stroke.

“YOU! FILTHY BLOOD! DID YOU CAME BACK FOR ME TO STOP YOUR MISERABLE EXISTENCE!?” Screeched the woman, Draco’s mind flashed back to that day five years ago, where he was sure he would have died have he had stayed.

His breathing became hitched, Walburga kept screaming obscenities at him, describing what she would do when she put her hands on him. Not even Lou’s gentle hands on his shoulders make him calm down.

Why hadn’t he considered that his ‘dear’ grandma would be narcissist enough to make a portrait of herself? Why did she hate him so much?

“Drake? Drake? Breath with me”

Did he not deserve to be born?

His breath had become erratic, a panic attack, great. What had Will said when he told them they would be a thing after last year’s battle? Right, try to calm down your breathing, find things to focus on…

But all he could see was the dark halls of the Black house, which made him spiral more.

“Drake?”

Draco didn’t notice but Mr. Blackstone had gone up to try and silence the portrait, Lou had his hand firmly grasped and murmuring reassurances to him. A soft pop startled them all a little bit.

“Kreatcher is here Master Regulus, Kreatcher will take you somewhere safe”

He didn’t even doubt the elf’s voice, not even when he called him by another name. Draco practically launched himself at the small creature and both popped out of existence.

“Drake!”

-

They had appeared back in the small cupboard, thankfully Draco was still small enough to fit comfortably in it. It was filled with objects and dust, but, despite that and the darkness Draco managed to calm down.

Maybe it was because of the small hands that caressed his hair, and the whispers of reassurance. Or maybe it was because he recognized the place.

It had been his safe space all those years, a place that Walburga wasn’t even aware of. The small cupboard where Kreatcher raised him when he was a baby, the same cupboard Kreatcher took him to when Walburga was in one of her moods.

It was his safe heaven, and it broke his heart seeing it so filthy, because Kreatcher had always made sure to keep it spotless, their small home inside the madness.

Draco took the startled house elf in a fierce hug, not caring about the dirt that covered the small body, nor Kreatcher’s appearance. His friend had lost weight -not as if house elves had much to begin with- one could see his bones peaking out of the skin. His posture was set in an almost permanent bow, and his eyes wandered everywhere but him.

As if watching him directly will end up in something painful.

“What had she done to you?” Draco asked between sobs, his dearest friend was just a shell of what he once was.

And it was all Walburga’s fault.

“Kreatcher is honored to serve the most noble and ancient house of Black, Walburga Black has been an excellent mistress, Kreacher is fine”

“Oh, Kreat, no…”

“Master Regulus must not fret over the filthy creature that Kreatcher is, Master Regulus should focus on his studies”

Draco blinked, tears leaving marks in his now dust covered face. Regulus? Kreatcher had once told him he looked like his dad, they had the same nose and some face features. But they were not similar enough to be mistaken for each other.

“R-Regulus? Y-you think I’m my dad?”

Kreatcher gave him a strange look, but then dismissed whatever he was thinking.

“Master Regulus must not say silly things, Kreatcher would go back to serve Misstress Walburga. Kreatcher had put the guest in the drawing room. Master Regulus should go entertain them”

And with that the elf disappeared with a pop.

-

“Drake! We got worried when the house elf kidnapped you…where were you? You are covered in dirt” Draco was tackled to the ground by a distressed Lou Ellen. Mr. Blackstone for once seemed pensive, his eyes were glowing, and Draco wondered what kind of magic he was using.

“A safe place…I think Kreatcher is off his rocket”

“You think?” Lou scoffed, helping Draco up. And…Mimsy will throw a fit for the dirt in their clothes. Lou smudged up the dirt on his face in an attempt of drying up his tears, making Draco smile a little at the gesture.

“His contract has been corrupted” Mr. Blackstone said in a grave voice, eyes returning to normal. Uh? Had he been seeing the actual magic? How wicked was that “I’m guessing Walburga did something to it when she died, and with the years it had deteriorated”

Wait, what?

“Y-years?”

“Walburga Black has been dead since your disappearance”

It was not good for a house elf to be alone that long. Their magic would accumulate, and they could have issues regulating it, especially since Kreatcher seemed to not use magic at all, if the state of the house was anything to go by.

Draco chewed on his bottom lip, worried “What do we need to rescue Kreatcher?”

“A curse breaker, a very good one…What do you want to do child?”

“Do you even have to ask?”

Mr. Blackstone nodded as if he was expecting that answer. Draco appreciated that he asked him and didn’t do all the things assuming Draco’s opinion. Despite not being present in all the reunions Mr. Blackstone had had with the lawyers, he was aware of all the procedures and knew Mr. Blackstone would always ask for his opinion.

“I’ll get in touch with my contacts in Egypt, they have the best curse brakers”

“L-let’s get out of here; this place is giving me the creeps” Lou prompted after a few minutes.

Everyone nodded, before getting out of the room Draco took out his camp neckless that was hidden inside his clothes, where all the beads were, put he paid no mind to the five beads that greeted him, with careful hands he detached the small colorful and a little bit deformed glass dragon.

The one Kreatcher had made for him when he was little.

He put it on the coffee table, hoping Kreatcher would keep it.

“I’ll be back for you my friend”

-

The rest of the break was stressful, someone had spotted them the day they went to the Black family’s town house, he had told Lou Ellen it was not a good idea to go to Diagon Alley, and now they had wild assumptions on the diaries because everyone could identify them…. well, not Mr. Blackstone who had changed his appearance for the interview and changed his face every time they went out.

But the time had come, Draco had to go back to school. He didn’t want to “Are you sure I’ve to go back? I can stay here with you. We can call some tutors; I don’t like Hogwarts that much anyways”

“Lycorice”

“B-But you said so yourself! Y-you are dying! W-what if you are g-gone when I came back”

Draco wasn’t being unreasonable, no sir. His Bon-papa was just being too optimistic.

“Don’t worry mon chou, Lady Hecate had assured me that I’d not die until Olympus gets back to normal”

Draco scoffed; all the while being dragged away by a very amused Lou Ellen. Because of the rumors, Draco would be apparated straight into Hogsmeade and from there his lovely head of house would retrieve him “How would she know that?”

He was sure Snape would find a way to give him detention even before he put a foot back in Hogwarts.

“Now, now, off you go. Don’t get into too much trouble lil’ one”

“I MADE NO PROMISES” Draco screamed dramatically, if only his Bon-papa knew what he had done to poor Pucey.

-

Draco had been right, Snape gave him detention mere meters away of Hogwarts’s grounds, apparently, he couldn’t smile in proximity of the Professor without it being suspicious.

With all the pranks he had played to the fourth year Slytherins, Snape was getting suspicious of him. There was no actual evidence per say, it wasn’t his first rodeo pranking people under the eyes of the authority -said authority being cabin conseils, it wasn’t as if Mr. D cared that much about discipline- there was not actual evidence that he was involved.

Everything indicated that Pucey was another victim of a prankster, most would think the Weasley twins were the ones behind it all. Not Snape apparently.

When Pucey got stuck on a sticking charm to the main hall wall? Draco was at the library.

When Burke got drenched in sewer water by the Quidditch pitch? Draco was at the common room.

When Lungbert -the dirty blond one- got his essays replaced by poetry about snakes? Draco was at detention with Snape.

So, he didn’t really get why he got detention for mere existing. But with Snape one didn’t know.

-

“Draco! Darling!” Draco groaned at Parkinson’s shrieking voice; Theo had warned him that people would start making their moves now that everyone was aware of his position. But he wasn’t expecting an ambush at breakfast.

Blaise snickered at his side, while Theo rolled his eyes. He managed to escape the incoming hug, which gained him the stink eye from the dark-haired girl.

“Parkinson” Draco stared at the girl as if she was daft “I would not tell you whom any of my parents are”

“Whatever, just, sit down” He was practically shoved to the seat, between Parkinson and a blond-haired girl. Theo and Blaise huffed and took the seats opposite to them.

“What do you want Parkinson?” Groaned Theo, right, Draco often forgot that these kids knew each other since they were little. Well, knew of each other.

Blaise and he shared an amused glance. Theo seemed more exasperated than when Draco told them he visited the forbidden forest on a regular basis.

“Making alliances dear, alliances”

Draco rolled his eyes while serving himself some breakfast, he could feel the stares all Slytherin table were sending them “Thank you so much for ignoring me that one week”

That one week had been the worst, where Pucey started rumors and Slytherin’s practically shoved him aside. Blaise and Theo had remained stubbornly at his side, and Draco really appreciated it.

“Not as if you didn’t do the same darling” The girl scoffed. She was referring to the week after Halloween. But his reason was because Parkinson was too nosy for her own good “I’ll find out what happened on Halloween” Case in point.

“Anyways, this is Daphne Greengrass”

“It’s too early for this”

*-*

Harry’s head turned around to stare at the commotion that came from the Slytherin table, some upper years had had their hair changed to bright red. The twins snickered somewhere at the Gryffindor table, sharing amused glances with a member of the green table…was that Draco Black?

“Black is back” Hissed Ron, mouth full and giving the blond the stink eye. Harry sighed, he didn’t really get what the problem was between Ron and Black was. Well…he did know it was one sided and that the blond didn’t pay his friend any mind.

“For someone that appears to hate him, you pay him a little bit too much attention Ronald” Hermione said in a deadpan voice, she was reading, yet again, one of her ‘light reading’ books.

Harry had been baffled when he saw the girl with the Slytherins at the library. But she had seemed at ease, and he let her be.

“I still can’t believe you get along with the Slytherins” Unlike Ron, who was still bitter about the whole ordeal. The two of them had had a screaming match just the other day about Hermione allying herself with the ‘enemies’

The twins had to intervene, dragging Ron aside to reprimand him. A rare sight that even Percy seemed perplexed about.

“They are not that bad” Dismissed Hermione, she sighed in annoyance when she noticed the sudden screaming match at the Slytherin table. Apparently, the upper grades were sure Black was the one behind it all.

The twins seemed ready to jump in if things escalated.

“They bullied Neville!”

“Um…a-actually, D-Draco helped me…and Zabini has also h-helped me” Harry turned to stare at the blond Gryffindor, he knew about Black helping him out. It was the day they figured out whom Nicholas Flammer was.

But he didn’t know that Neville had had more troubles, maybe they should look out for him. His fellow Gryffindor was sometimes a quivering mess, a perfect target for bullies, Harry would know.

“Stop being ridiculous Ron, you just need to get to meet them”

“Harry, help a mate out”

“I…I also don’t think they aren’t that bad”

Ron huffed and stood up, for once, breakfast abandoned “You lot are crazy”

Harry stared at him, conflicted, Hermione rolled her eyes so hard Harry was sure they would fall off.

“Ron would come around Harry, if you want to be their friend, you know where our usual table is at the library”

*-*

“Are both of you seriously color codding everything?” Blaise asked bewildered, Draco and Granger had all their notes out in the library table and where color codding the information. Yay for the highlighters he smuggled from Athena cabin.

“It’s easier to remember” Draco dismissed, all his elementary school notes he did at camp had demigod friendly font, were color coded, had small drawings explaining things everywhere and could easily be used as schoolbooks. He planned to do something similar with his magic notes.

“I know exams are nearby”

“Ten weeks” snapped Granger, apparently, she had had a little fight with Harry and Weasley earlier due to her insistence for them to study. So, she was in a bad mood.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…. but isn’t this a little bit extreme? Theo, help me he…” Blaise stopped his protests as soon as he saw Theo almost drowning in reference books “Forget it. Why am I friends with you lot?”

“Because we have it all, looks and brains”

“You lot may be pretty but it’s not worth the…Granger?”

Granger had gone beet red and was staring at Blaise as if he had grown a second head.

“I think you broke her”

-

Draco was at the forbidden forest, his training with the centaurs had ended a while ago, and he had finally managed to bully Bane enough to tell him where the Threstals were.

Apparently, they were propriety of Hogwarts and lived in herd inside the forbidden forest. They were quite temperamental, but Draco had managed to find a young and friendly one that let him get close enough.

It occurred to him that he needed an expert’s opinion, and he was still curious of why the Threstals looked so much like undead horses, so he IM called his expert in all goth and deathly things.

“Drake? What are you doing with a Threstal?”

“Nico! So, you did know what they are….” Nico stared back at him clearly exasperated, as if he didn’t get pass Draco to go and find trouble, which, rude. His friend was in a weird place, it was dimly lit but Draco could discern some classical architecture in the background. More importantly “why do you have the chiton on? Where are you?”

“I asked first”

“I asked second”

Nico rolled his eyes, looking at the ground as if asking patience from Hades himself. Draco smiled amused.

“I’m on a mission for Hades, now, explain the underworldly horse”

Oh, Draco didn’t tough this trough, unlike Sherman that didn’t even batted an eye at Bane’s presence on their IM call at Halloween, Nico was more observant. How was he supposed to explain a clearly magical creature near the ‘mortal’ school?

“They…. live near the school?”

“Is your school magical?”

“N-no!” Oh well, there went his cover.

Wait, why was Nico aware off magic schools?

Nico sighed, clearly asking himself why he was even friends with Draco. Draco only gave the dark-haired kid his best innocent look, that was quite mastered with all the shenanigans that they got up to at camp.

The new campers were the ones who always felled for it, while Sherman did something in the background. Sadly, it didn’t work on people that had know him for a long time. Or Snape.

“Are you aware that Hecate kind of works for my father?”

“I mean, yes? We had a discussion with Lou Ellen once”

“So, you may know that I know about magic stuff”

The two stared at each other willing the other to break the silence. Draco wondered if this meant Nico was aware of the whole magical society, and what other things he may be aware of.

After at least five minutes Draco huffed, shoving aside one of the baby Threstal that seemed to want to eat his hair. The adult ones hadn’t pay him any mind, Draco was just glad they hadn’t out right attacked him, as he had been warned they could.

Nico chuckled a little bit, He wondered if Nico could talk to them the way Percy talked with normal horses. But he wasn’t able to talk with the Owls, so he didn’t have high hopes.

“Fine, yes my school is magical”

They talked a little bit more after that, on how Nico was indeed aware of various things. Like Nico had already know about the Roman camp -Draco had a slight suspicion there was more to that- that there were in fact other pantheons around and that Nico had had the displeasure to meet Osiris.

He also managed to extract details about the Threstals and how to tame them. Oh, how naïve his friends were sometimes.

“Wait a minute…. are you trying to…Drake, you can’t use Threstals for chariot racing”

Draco batted away another baby horse, this time a little more warily, Threstals ate meat afterall. He hadn’t noticed before, but those beaks were sharp.

“I could try”

Nico sighed, clearly defeated. Out of al his friends Draco found Nico’s reactions the more amusing. Because despite the protest Nico was the one who always had his back.

“Drake, no”

“Drake, yes”

“You don’t even have a chariot!”

“Oh, you man of little help”

He was sure he could get his hands on one of the school carriages…and it would be a great side project he could drag Leo into. That kid really needed to destress, if Draco received another letter talking about videogame consoles and ship mastils he would go back and drag Leo to sleep himself.

-

Draco had to admit, Parkinson was stubborn. Not even the study frenzy made her back down. At first, he had been wary when Parkinson landed her eyes on Granger, but the short-haired girl only grimaced a little before sitting herself across from Blaise.

Apparently good grades topped over bigotry. Draco would make sure to indoctrinate her too.

“Is this seat taken?” Draco stared baffled at the green-eyed kid that wanted to sit across from him. Ballpoint quill hovering up his parchment.

“Harry?”

Harry stood there a little bit awkward, Blaise and him where the only ones currently at the table. Theo had practically sequestered the girls -well, mostly Parkinson, Hermione went willingly- when he noticed Parkinson’s lack of foot notes on her essays.

 “Hi”

Blaise had to shove him for him to shut his mouth, right, staring at people was rude.

“Yeah, sure, sit down, just, don’t move those parchments or Theodore would have your head”

Said papers were still drying off, Theo had practically threatened them with painful death if anything happened to them. He was quite in a mood since Hermione kept bringing up the fat that the exams where near.

Unlike her Gryffindor friends the Slytherins also wanted to start ahead, knowledge was a great thing to have to barter.

“What brings you to the war zone?” Asked Blaise after a while. Clearly bored, they had been at the library for at least three hours, Draco had stopped paying attention after the second one.

“Look, I-I wanted to apologize…for”

“Don’t, it was all Weasley’s fault, Fred and George told me how narrow minded he can be. Don’t apologize for something that wasn’t your fault” Draco dismissed; he appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn’t Harry’s place.

Fred and George had advocated for their brother, telling him that the kid would eventually come around.

Draco really had any lingering feelings toward the redhead, he just wanted an apology and then they could try to be friends. He was a very forgiving person, specially in cases where external factors molded children ideals -cof Like last summer’s battle cof-

“B-but” Harry withered at Draco’s raised eyebrow “F-fine…. c-can we be friends?”

“I don’t know, being my friends is an exclusive club, right Blaise?”

“Oh, yes, the entering quote is a bag of sweets”

Poor Harry spluttered in place clearly flustered, Draco gave him a cheeky grin “Joking Harry, just, take out your notes before Theo and Hermione returns from his hunt of books…They are…”

“In a frenzy”

“You could say that”

-

Draco wasn’t trying to be nosy; he was just a little bit late to breakfast and Gryffindor table was on his way to it. Really, it didn’t help that he had good hearing, nor that he wanted to ask Hermione something about the Transfiguration assignment.

“Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?!”

Weasley’s wording didn’t help to keep his curiosity at bay, dragon?

“We’ve got lessons, we’ll get into trouble, and that’s nothing to what Hagrid’s going to be in when someone finds out what he’s doing…”

“Hermione” He stated, interrupting the bushy haired girl. This was getting ridiculous; they weren’t subtle at all “The key to keep secrets is to not scream them”

They were lucky that he was the only one that seemed to overhear them. The three tensed up, Weasley was the first to react turning around with a frown “Black”

“Draco!” Harry and Hermione chorused together with little smiles on their faces.

Weasley rolled his eyes, Draco guessed the redhead kid had had some discussion with his friends because he was less hostile towards him. Progress.

“Hagrid is the grounds keeper, right? The big fella that guided us the first night” At their nods Draco grinned, Firenze had told him about him.

The centaur had the grounds keeper in high regard “Can I come too?”

“Why would you want to come?” Weasley scoffed, Hermione smacked the back of his head with a warning glare.

“Um…it’s a dragon?”

-

“It’s nearly out” Hagrid ushered them inside.

Draco had seen the small hut on his excursions to the forbidden forest but had never enter it. It was quite cozy. It was telling that Hagrid didn’t even bat an eye at his presence there, the man was just too excited to care.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table.

Draco knew of dragons, had fought dragons, had helped make an automaton dragon, heck his name meant dragon. But seeing one being born was a whole experience, the creature was tiny, its spiny wings were huge, compared to its skinny jet body, it had long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging orang eyes.

It sneezed- A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Hagrid murmured.

Draco nodded in agreement, Harry, Weasley and Hermione looked a little bit skeptical. What were they expecting? Even human babies weren’t that cute right out of the womb.

Hagrid reached out a hand to stroke the dragon’s head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs

“Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!” said Hagrid.

“Hagrid” said Hermione “How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?”

He toned out the whispered discussion the Gryffindor’s were having. Turning all his attention to the tiny creature that flapped its wings every so often.

“So pretty….ow, don’t bite me….” Wait, wasn’t it custom for people to bring presents to a newborn? “Oh, damn I should have brought a baby dragon gift…wait here little one”

He stood up so abruptly that he startled the other four in the room, Hagrid seemed that he just only noticed his presence “Draco? Where are you going!?”

“Be right back!”

-

Draco had been the first one to volunteer in feeding the dragon, Hagrid left him. He could often feel Hagrid’s gaze on the back of his head, as if Draco could suddenly change his mind and attack the man.

Which was quite a ridiculous notion, Draco was like…tiny, compared to Hagrid. He wondered if the man was half-giant or something, that would explain the wariness.

The other three took turns in helping, but they were not as careful as Draco. Specially Weasley.

“Weasley” Draco hissed “Don’t move”

For once the redhead heard him, because, really, Weasley was this close to get his hand chomped out by tiny fangs. If Norbert -he was pretty sure they were a she, but Hagrid seemed too happy when he named the Dragon so he didn’t correct him- decided to close his mouth in that instant Weasley would have a serious issue on his hands.

Everyone with common sense knew that Dragon saliva was harmful, well every demigod knew about that. Specially the kids back at camp, with two -three but Draco didn’t count Festus- dragon attacks on camp.

He did have ambrosia with him, but he couldn’t give any to anyone inside of Hogwarts, so Weasley would be on his own if he got poisoned by a baby dragon.

Taking a deep breath, really hoping this would work, he did the best impression of Annabeth he could muster.

“Norbert Ricardus Hagrid! Stop that this instant, or I swear to the gods I’ll get Hagrid right here” Both, Weasley and the dragon stared at him, Weasley more as if he had grown a second head, Norbert more in defiance.

Pheleus wasn’t like this when he arrived at camp.

Surprisingly the dragon retreated to her food, giving him a nasty glare. Draco rolled his eyes, it was not as if Hagrid would ever raise his voice against the baby, he was too soft for that.

He was startled out of his thoughts by a laugh. A relieved laugh. Geez, if Weasley was that scared of a tiny dragon he wouldn’t imagine what would he do with a full sized one.

Draco and Weasley had been in civil terms since they had started to help Hagrid out, but they weren’t friends, yet. Because of that Harry and Hermione always walked around them trying to maintain the peace.

He was even left out of what he dubbed as ‘scheming circle’. He regrated having informed them that their whispers were too loud, now Draco couldn’t hear a thing of what they were saying.

Weasley finally calmed down “You, ok?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe you talked down a dragon”

If Weasley knew that he had friends that could talk their way out of a monster attack, he missed Drew.

“Dragons know how to talk to each other” He replied cheekily, Weasley snorted as if he found the notion funny. Draco trued to not get offended about that “What? You find my name funny?”

“N-no, sorry…”

Draco rolled his eyes, one couldn’t joke with the redhead in peace, he had the sneak suspicion that Hermione scold him about it. He wasn’t that sensitive, he lived with Ares kids, they could be more abrasive than your average person, heck! His best friend was Sherman!

“I’m joking, say…your family is pure blooded, right?”

“So, what?”

“Ron isn’t your actual full name, is it?” He dismissed the wariness in Weasley voice, he had given up trying to convince the redhead he wasn’t a supremacist or anything like that “No, no, wait, if you don’t want to tell me, don’t do it, but…. what are Fred and Greg’s full names?”

“They will kill me if I tell you”

Now he needed to know “Oh, c’mon!”

*-*

Harry felt bad that no one wanted to tell Draco about their plan with the dragon. Hermione thought it was risky to tell anybody else, Ron still didn’t trust the blond.

He had hoped the two would start to get along, and they did, somehow. But Ron was still wary of the Slytherins, no matter how Neville put a good word for them -He really needed to keep an eye out for the kid, because, he hadn’t notice that he was being harassed in the first place, with all the business with the stone he wasn’t really paying attention to anything else.

But this was getting ridiculous, they had been caught, they had been lucky to not had been caught carrying the crate. But apparently someone -Ron firmly believed it had been a Slytherin- had snitched on them and now the old caretaker was leading them to McGonagall’s quarters.

Had Harry thought that things couldn’t have been worse? He was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

“Harry!” Neville burst out the moment he saw them “I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Pucey saying he knew something that would get you in trouble…”

Harry glared at Neville hoping to shush him, they didn’t need the Professor to know about the dragon. There was also the thing on how Pucey had know about it, Draco had told them that the older Slytherin had a grudge against him.

Was he trying to get Draco in trouble believing he would be with them?

“I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the Astronomy Tower. It’s one o’clock in the morning. Explain yourselves”

Harry gulped, not even Hermione knew what to say.

“I think I’ve got a good idea of what’s going on. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. You fed Mr. Longbottom with some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble”

Harry winced at Neville’s hurt glance; he knew they would have paid more attention to where they planned things. Draco had got involved in the whole dragon business because of that, and now Neville would get in trouble.

“We should go to the Astronomy Tower, check out what these vandals were doing over there” Spoke Mr. Filch, Harry shared a nervous glance with his friends, the invisibility cloak was there, Harry hopped it stayed invisible if no one was using it.

“We heard Draco! Yeah, Draco, not Dragon, was planning to go around tonight, and I kind of dragged the rest into this mess trying to get him in trouble, sorry Neville”

Harry had to stop himself from turning around to stare at his friend, was he really throwing Draco under the bus?

“Draco? As in Draco Black?” Even McGonagall seemed skeptical “Pray tell me why you want to get him in trouble Mr. Weasley?”

“B-because he i-is a Slytherin?” He could hear how Hermione facepalmed herself.

“I’m disgusted” said Professor McGonagall “Four students out of bed, in one night!”

The Professor took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm herself “I’ll inform Professor Snape of it, like you all should have done”

“All four of you will receive detentions -yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it’s very dangerous- and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor”

“What! You can’t do that!”

“Fifty points each, Mr. Weasley”

“Professor, please”

*-*

Norbert was gone, and he got detention for ‘wandering around after midnight’. Which, for the first time in his live, he didn’t. Snape seemed to take glee in making him scrub unholy stuff out of cauldrons.

He wasn’t talking to Weasley, nor Harry or Hermione, Longbottom had told him what happened -something inside Draco warmed at the thought of the dirty blond kid trying to stand up for him- apparently his ‘friends’ were smuggling a dragon -He tried not to give anything away that indicated he knew about it- and had thrown Draco under the bus when they got caught.

They were lucky he liked them, because he would have taken retribution for being used as a scape goat.

Draco was impressed at Weasley’s quick thinking, and if he was speaking to him, he would go and taunt him for the very Slytherin move.

He sighed, scrubbing off another cauldron under the watchful eye of Snape. Hey at least he had had practice with all the dish duties he had at camp.

Then some of the stuff landed on the floor and started to fizzle, he was sure it would have made a small hole on his skin. No, screw it, he will get back at Weasley even if it triggered a prank war with the twins.

-

“Say again, why did you call me here?” Draco asked warily, eyeing the dark shadows looming around in the dark forest. He wasn’t dumb, thank you very much, he would have never put a foot inside the forest at night.

But Bane had asked him to come, and he rather respected the centaur. So, he sneaked away of the castle. All cladded in black and with his weapons strapped to his body. If the centaurs were asking for help, it would be something monster related.

“Unicorns had been killed by something; we want to know if…”

“If I had anything to do with it?” He asked bluntly, Firenze winced, Draco rolled his eyes “No, I get it, demigods attract some nasty fellas…do you have any hints?”

“Just some trails”

Bane nodded in the direction of the ground; Draco hadn’t noticed before but there was a shiny silvery liquid on the ground “Unicorn blood”

He pursed his lips; he didn’t like this. Aside from being almost two in the morning, and that if he got caught out, Snape would find new formulas for him to scrub them off the caldrons, he didn’t like the ambient, it was sinister. His demigod sense was telling him that something was in the forest, and it was worse than any monster.

“You should come with me, son of Pallas…Mars is bright tonight”

“Way to be ominous Bane”

-

Draco froze in place, swearing in his mind. Why was Hagrid, Hermione, and Harry inside the forbidden forest at night? Longbottom had mentioned something about their detention, but he didn’t expect for said detention to be inside the forbidden forest.

But before he could turn and run in the other direction Bane shoved him in front of him with his bow. He gave the centaur a dirty glare.

“Hullo, Bane” Said Hagrid “All ri…Who’s that?”

“Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?”

The centaur clearly dismissed the question, Draco tried to hide behind the centaurs -despite all the warnings that it wasn’t safe to stand behind a horse- but Bane had his hand on his shoulder keeping him in place. Hermione and Harry were glaring at him with wide eyes.

Yeah, great way to convince someone he didn’t usually sneaked around at night, maybe Weasley was blessed by Apollo or something.

“Draco?”

But he was still not talking to them, so, resigned, he turned to only see Hagrid. Which was an easy task, he was quite tall after all “Hagrid, are you here investigating the unicorn’s trails?”

“D-Draco?”

“We haven’t seen anything of importance, but…” Bane let go of his shoulder, and walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward.

Draco rolled his eyes already knowing what the centaurs would say, even repeating it himself in synchrony.

“Mars is bright tonight”

Hermione looked at him funny while Harry seemed to be processing the hole ordeal. Bane and Ronan had disappeared, and he hurried after them. He needed to run after all.

“Take care”

*-*

Harry hadn’t been talking to Ron more than necessary for the last few days, he was still mad at him about the whole ordeal with Draco. He was itching to know what the blond was doing inside the forest alongside the centaurs, but he clearly was still mad at them.

No matter how many times he tried to apologize, the blond seemed to disappear every time he approached. And he was the one with an invisibility cloak!

Anyways, him being mad with Ron didn’t mean he wanted his friend any harm. He and Hermione were starting to get nervous after the red sparks and Hagrid’s disappearance.

At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid’s return. Ron, Neville, and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming.

Neville had seen something, then Ron went to investigate, only to panic when he found a spider larger than average.

“We’ll be lucky ter cach anything now, with the racket you two were making. Right, we are changing groups -Neville you with me and Hermione, Harry you with Fang and Ron”

*-*

A sudden scream had had everyone star running in the direction of it, the centaurs may be part horse, but with all the branches in the ground and Draco’s training, he could easily follow them. The closer they got, the clearer it was that the trails were fresher than any other area.

When the pair of centaurs and him finally made their way into the clearing, Bane froze in place at the scene in front of him. Draco sighed internally. Firenze was a good bloke, but old centaurs like Bane were such a pain sometimes.

“Firenze!” Bane thundered “What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?”

While the centaurs discussed things Draco stood closer, Weasley was on the ground, passed out. Huffing he went to carry him, there was no way any other centaur would be willing to carry a human.

It was quite an awkward carry, because Ron Weasley was a tall bloke that had at least one head over Draco. Thank the gods he was able to manhandle him in a piggy ride, because he was sure Bane would let him there if he had the chance.

Nor was the redhead human, but he was also a wizard.

“For the best!” Draco would deny he jumped in a defensive stance once Bane started to kick his legs in anger. The movement may had woken up Weasley because he heard some confused noises behind him, but Draco only tightened his grip.

If Bane really got angry, they would need to run out of there.

“What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!”

“Do you not see that unicorn?” Firenze bellowed at Bane “Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, I don’t see any difference with you requesting the presence of the youngster here”

Draco stared at the blond centaur appalled, was he seriously throwing him in the middle of the discussion? Thankfully the statement seemed to surprise Bane too.

“That is different, the dem…”

“WE should really get going” Draco interfered, pointedly staring in Harry’s direction. Centaurs, aside from Chiron, were not very subtle “I’ll come back another day to help out with our…pest problem. Maybe someone at camp knows what’s doing these”

“You are right, I’ll contact Chiron. See you later son of Pallas”

-

Draco honestly moved on autopilot after they returned Weasley and Harry with Hagrid, not even Hermione’s worried screams made him stop in his sprint inside the forbidden forest. Whatever Harry had seen was bad, it reeked of malicious intent, one didn’t have to be a child of Aphrodite to notice.

The whole forbidden forest felt dirty, like something was lurking around. Draco gave up around sunrise, unless he wanted to meet the arancomantulas, he had covered all the forbidden forest.

With the sunrays making their presence known, Draco decided to call his friend. Nico knew things about dark creatures.

“What?” The dark-haired kid had his hair all over the place, UPS, Draco still forgot about the time difference.

“Do you know anything about Unicorn’s blood proprieties or something about V-V-Voldemort?” Nico gave him a weird glare over the stutter at the man’s name, but sue him, he had been told all his life that he couldn’t say the ‘lords’ name unless he wanted to summon him.

Thankfully his dark-haired friend let it slide.

“I don’t know anything about blood, but I know that Unicorn’s blood is used in some beverages” At Draco’s raised eyebrows Nico just huffed and rolled his eyes “Olympians” as if that explained anything.

Then his friend hummed to himself as if thinking about the question. Yeah, Draco would better ensure he called at a reasonable time; Nico did have less sleep than the average demigod.

“Voldemort? I’ve heard that name going around in the magical section of the Hades, but…I investigated it then because it sounded strange. Voldemort isn’t the man’s name, there is no one in the live or death registry named like that”

“It must be a pseudonym”

“I’ll ask father about it, he seemed very mad when I mentioned the magical side of his subjects, there seems to be a weird story going on there. Apparently, they had the more somewhat successful ‘avoid death’ ideas”

Draco grimaced, he wondered if Nicholas Flammer and Peverell Flammer were in those ‘somewhat successful’ list, being over 600 years should count, right?

He hoped his uncle did nothing to the old French couple, they contributed a lot to the advancements in wizard society “Lord Hades must not be happy about that”

“Tell me about it, apparently Thanatos had given some brothers gifts because they managed to catch his attention…”

“That’s sound familiar…” Draco made a mental not to investigate about that, but now that he had Nico there, better get over with his weekly call “How’s things at camp?”

“Never, ever, give Leo Valdez coffee”

-

Draco blinked, once, twice, and yep, the redhead in front of him kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. He still couldn’t believe he let the twins convince him of it.

“Look, Weasley, your brothers dragged me here, but if you are going to just stare at me, I’m going back”

Draco still felt quite irritated at the twins for practically kidnap him from his Ravenclaws friends. Brewing days were sacred! Specially since he had finally convinced Chiron that healing potions would be useful on the battlefield.

“B-Black! W-wait” The blue-eyed kid screamed when Draco turned around to open the door. He hesitated before turning slowly to face him “I’m sorry”

Draco pursed his lips; it wasn’t as if he was still angry at the redhead. It was just that he was sure he was only apologizing out of pure peer pressure. Those types of apologies never stuck.

“Sorry about what?... Look, I’m not even mad about anything. You grew up hearing things, I get that. Just…have in mind not everything is as they tell you, form your own opinions, don’t parrot all the things you heard. Who knows maybe the people you swear to hear could be good friends”

Draco sighed, he didn’t had time for this, exams started the next day, he hadn’t been able to sleep well the last few days, trying to stay in loop of the things happening back at camp “Good luck with the exams, tell Hermione I’ll crush her”

-

Draco had been summoned to Headmistress McGonagall headquarters as soon as exams ended, dread filled his gut, but hey, at least the universe aligned itself to let him finish his education, yay him.

When he got there, he was baffled to see Lou Ellen, alone, nervously waiting for him “We need to go, now”

“Lou?”

McGonagall seemed curious to ask what was going on, but either, Mr. Blackstone had floo called ahead explaining the situation or Lou Ellen was using the mist to manipulate the Professor’s perception.

“Annabeth is departing in three days; we need you at camp…Chiron has commanded all the demigods to return” They replied in Greek, Mr. Blackstone had been involved then. Draco nodded numbly; he had been trying to put the whole ordeal out of his mind.

“It’s starting, isn’t it?”

“At least this time we are on the same side”

“We were always on the same side” McGonagall was giving them weirded out looks, but Draco didn’t pay it any attention. Just once he stood with Lou Ellen inside the chimney, he finally spared some words to the old woman.

“Transfiguration is my favorite subject, hope to see you next September Professor” He wasn’t sure he would survive, after all.

He hoped his bon papa was aware where he was going, he hoped he didn’t wait for him if he didn’t make it. Draco would make sure to wait for him in the afterlife if things got bad.

McGonagall left her office quite puzzled, but all interaction got shunned aside as soon as she found a frantic Harry Potter screaming no-nonsense about Professor Snape. It may be the mist working to hide the tracks of the demigods.

Chapter Text

When they arrived at camp -Draco was wrong, portkey was so much worse than apparition- it was to find a new type of chaos. The boat was right in the middle of the camp, and Draco whistled in appreciation at its mere sight.

It was huge, but the campers running around where what worried him. All available campers had been called back, and everyone was trying to be of aide to the quest. Some younger campers even sprinted up and down camp carrying small supplies, that Draco was sure some older camper assigned them to out of pity.

Lou Ellen soon disappeared, they went to join the Hephaestus and Hecate cabins who seemed to be the busiest ones, they were frantically checking the whole boat for any imperfection.

He marched towards his cabin, that had the door wide open and that had Malcom or any other of his siblings poking out their head every so often to scream orders.

His gut twisted when his eyes landed on Annabeth, both had had a nasty fight via IM call when Draco called to suggest for him to stay back in Britain, as a reinforcement of sorts.

Annabeth had snapped at him that it wasn’t safe, that the prophecy clearly dictated that just only seven were the chosen ones. Draco bitterly reminded her that he shouldn’t count as a demigod, seemed as their mother didn’t acknowledge him as such.

It developed in a screaming match, that had ended when Annabeth hanged up in frustration, leaving behind Draco as a crying mess, he just wanted to help. Blaise and Theo had comforted him later, not clearly sure why he was so upset. Even Parkinson gave him some of her sweets that day.

He really got where his sister was coming from, but it was so frustrating to, year after year, being left behind. Specially since last year’s big battle, he wanted to do more.

--

Dearest Draco Black

Where the heck are you? Your owl came like he wanted revenge on the world at the train this morning. He almost bite Goyles’ fingers out of his hand (sadly Vincent does have a conservation instinct and offered his sneaked-out pieces of bacon to the fluffy fury)

Theo, the mad man, decided to send you some letters with the owl, you wouldn’t believe the injustice of a ceremony. Gryffindor won!

You should be grateful Theo didn’t have any howler on hand because, I’m sure, he would have rambled at you the same way he did to me. I swear if I hear another whining about the unfairest of it all I’ll maim someone.

By the way, Snape isn’t happy with you, apparently your guardian directly asking McGonagall over him made his hackles bristle, be prepared next year.

Anyways, as I’m an awesome friend, me and Theo made sure to put away your things (mate you need to buy more robes, or clothes in general) Theo would deny it but he got startled so bad by your house elves that he jumped over the bed like a startled cat.

I’ll await your letters!

The best mate, Blaise Zabini

--

DRACO, I don’t know your second name, BLACK!

Where did you disappeared to? Snape was seething mad when he noticed your absence, and he seemed like he bit a lemon at breakfast the next day. If he hated you, now he loathes you. Whatever you did to him, I think is very personal (I know you did nothing, don’t start whining).

But that is not the point, you, heartless owner, your poor owl was very distressed when we found him at the train station. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones that didn’t know where you disappeared to.

So, I send him back, to…well, first to Mr. Black because honestly, I don’t know where you went.

Oh, you wouldn’t believe the injustice Slytherin suffered! Dumbledore went and took points out of nowhere to give to the Gryffindors! How dare he!

I mean, Hermione I get it because she’s brilliant, but Potter? Longbottom? …Weasley? And it was just unfair, he gave them just enough points to surpass us! You know how hard we worked for those points?

You even earned like 15 on your own!

I don’t get why Blaise isn’t mad about it, or maybe I’m mad enough for the both of us, who knows.

With you disappearing like this, now you owe me, Marcus Flint approached us at the end of year banket and practically bullied us into applying for the team next year. Apparently, someone -I suspect Pansy- couldn’t shut up about how good at flying you are.

I of course said yes, you better be prepared for the tryouts.

The actual best mate, Theo Nott

--

Draco entered Aphrodite cabin with silent steps, he had been searching for Drew all around camp, more like distracting himself because it was obvious where she would be. But he had ran around camp, helping with the supplies and last-minute preparations.

He also got attacked by Noctua, who had fled all the way there by his own and decided that pecking at Draco’s head was a good form of retribution for being left behind. He only settled back when Hannah started to spoil him, petty Owl.

Draco was pretty sure he would have been attacked more if he had taken the time to retrieve the owl before they took a portkey.

Noctua had also come with a small note from his bon-papa, all his school supplies had been retrieved by the Black House-Elves and that he hoped to see him at the end of the summer. Draco’s heart ached at the words; Arcturus Black understood, he may not return.

He also received a letter from the Theodore and Zabini, stating that Gryffindor had won the house cup thanks to Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville. That raised his eyebrows, the point difference with Slytherin had been huge, how did the managed to win so many points in one night?

Theo was understandably mad about it. The brunet did single handedly won at least twenty points for Slytherin in Charms.

“So, how are you doing?”

Drew jumped at his sudden entrance making him chuckle a little bit “Drake, give a girl a warning, would you?”

“Hey DT. What are you doing?”

The dark-haired girl gave him the dirty eye before huffing and showing him what he assumed to be an essay of sorts, eyebrows climbing to his forehead in question. And he thought that he was the only one with such boring summer homework -oh, yes, the Professors at Hogwarts had left the summer homework way before the final exams, because they were that sadistic.

“Writing essays, apparently Piper is convinced the way we word the charm speak would have different effects”

“Drew Tanaka? Willingly writing something that is non-romantic?” Drew shoved him aside by the face, which, rude, it wasn’t that much of a secret tough, all camp knew that a lot of Aphrodite kids passed their time writing romantic novels, some even had pen names and had published some light novels.

“Shut it troublemaker” Draco stuck his tongue out to her while trying to read over the essay -he loved Drew, but her habit of writing in cursive made him want to strangle her, who write in cursive nowadays?

“Who are you avoiding?”

At that Draco put the paper down to scoff at his friend “What? I can’t visit Aphrodite cabin now, love the redecoration by the way, it’s pinkish”

It was indeed less bright pink, but just slightly, apparently, despite the silent treatment from the gods, Aphrodite wouldn’t let anyone paint her whole cabin other color than pink, thank whomever those pastels and other slightly less bright colors were available.

“You and Annie are still fighting?”

“It’s not fighting per se” He mumbled under his breath, Drew gave him the ‘Are you sure’ look that made him squirm a little “Fine, I’m avoiding Annabeth, happy?”

“You should talk to her, before…”

Before she departed to the unknown.

“don’t remind me…Did you?” Draco changed topics; he wasn’t in the mood to be psychoanalyzed by his best friend. Drew gave him a warning glance but relented.

“Yeah, she promised to IM us if something bad happened” She was talking about Piper, Draco still didn’t know the girl that well but apparently, she and Drew had accorded to be co-conseils for their cabin.

With approval from all their siblings, which made Draco very proud.

-

After some discussion -it was more Drew staring him into submission- Draco redundantly went in search of his sister to properly talk with her and say his goodbyes, this time the whole endeavor would put the questers at the other side of the world.

Annabeth was in the designated spot of cabin six to ‘freak out’ as Sian fondly nicknamed it, it was a small corner were maps, books and various trinkets hanged around, for the purpose of doing furious research. It was created two years ago when the whole labyrinth thing happened.

The rest of his sibling were out, so he just hangered in place a little bit awkwardly, after a mental pep talk, he cleared his throat, startling Annabeth a little bit.

“Annabeth?” The blonde gave him an awkward half smile which he returned a little bit sheepish.

“Drake, look”

“I’m sorry” They both said at the same time which make them laugh in relieve. Fights between siblings weren’t rare, but in Athena cabin it varied from, being mad at someone who took your favorite book without asking, to being mad because someone stabbed you at training. -curiously enough, taking books resulted in more fights than stabbing your own sibling.

Draco sighed “You don’t know how frustrating it is to see you in danger time and time again without being able to intervene”

“Aww…is my tiny bitty baby brother worried about me?”

He rolled his eyes but could feel his face aflame, logically it was quite ridiculous to worry about Annabeth, she was one of the demigods with more successful quest in the modern history “Shut it”

“Thanks, for worrying, you and Malcom are right, I should be more…levelheaded”

“You are, and that is more frustrating” Because, despite the frenzy of searching for Percy, Annabeth never let any of her duties aside. Draco was sure she could become the president if she wanted.

“Are we good?”

“Yes, don’t forget…Athena always has a plan” Annabeth gave him a smile and he left her to sort the last details of her travel. They were departing tomorrow early morning after all.

-

Draco had been dragged aside after breakfast by a very enthusiast and suspicious looking Susan, who practically shoved him inside the training arena. Standing there were five people, Hannah gave him a little wave, but the other four he knew were part of his cabin, he had noticed the new addition last night. But he had been so tired that he had dismissed them.

Time zones were hard on him.

The other four were two girls, and two boys. The younger girl -possibly around seven- was dark skinned and had wild light brown hair around her, she reminded him of a combination Louanne and Hermione. The older girl -around thirteen- had copper skin, dark blond hair, and fiery looking steel gray eyes. The younger boy -around six- had a curious look on his face, he had freckles rivaling the Weasley twins, strawberry blond hair and big, doll like bluish-grey eyes.

Those three were giving him cautious and curious glances, but he had to frown back at the fourth boy. He was older looking than the rest, but he couldn’t be over thirteen, he had his hair neatly combed to one side, his grey eyes were stormy, and he reminded him of Ron, of all people.

“So, this is Drake, he’s going to teach you lot the ropes” Draco turned over his heel to give his older sister an incredulous look, what? He hadn’t been consulted about this!

Susan gave him an apologetic smile, which was replaced by an annoyed frown when the older boy decided to speak up with a sneer on his face and looking Draco over from head to toe “He doesn’t seem like much”

“Let me remind you, Mikael, that Malcom handed your ass last training, and he was going easy on you; so, let Drake teach you the basics before you end up with a dagger to the shoulder…Drake, try not to maim them on purpose”

With that Susan disappeared from there in a hurry, leaving Draco spluttering in place “I was supposed to be training with Sherman today!”

“You lot can try and kill each other after lunch!”

Huffing Draco turned around to stare at his new siblings. Well, he was apparently in charge of ‘introduction to training 101’, he wasn’t foreign to the process tough, he had been helping older campers with it. Remember his and Sherman’s intents on reforming the training schedule last year?

“So, Hi, I’m Draco but everyone at camp calls me Drake” He had to give the teen a pointed glare when he sensed he was about to laugh at his name “Sorry for the late introductions but I go to school a little bit further than anyone else. What are your names?”

“I’m Denise!” The little strawberry blond almost screamed, rushing over to give Draco a hug to the mid waist with a toothy smile, apparently someone was very excited from getting new siblings. Draco’s heart didn’t melt, no sir.

“Abigail but call me Abby” Responded the taller girl with a nod of acknowledgement.

“I’m Lily” said the other girl with a shy smile.

“And I already know Hannah and you must be Mikael” Hannah beamed at him, and Mikel rolled his eyes, oh joy, a difficult pupil, he hoped that Athena’s traits kicked in soon because he didn’t put it pass him to kick the older kid to the ground if he had to; he may be a veteran camper, but he was still twelve!

“Who’s Sherman? I didn’t see him back at the cabin” Denise asked after a while. They had all started to walk to the weapons shed, the little kid was holding his hand and hoping along, Draco swore to himself to protect the innocent child.

“He’s not our sibling Owlet, he’s a friend, from Ares’s cabin”

He was turned around, so he didn’t saw the vicious glare Hannah send Mikael, or how nervous the teenager now looked -they had seen Ares’s cabin train, had been told that only some people adventured to train with them under the risk of losing limbs, Mikael sweated a little bit.

-

Draco was worried, Nico wasn’t responding his IM calls, that was weird. He had promised to always respond to him no matter where he was, even in the middle of a mission.

Draco had fought with the dark-haired boy over it after his disappearing acts.

They had screamed at each other, that Draco just wanted to make sure Nico wasn’t dying in a ditch somewhere, that he wasn’t even asking the kid to stuck at camp if he didn’t want to. Nico had screamed back, that he didn’t owe anything to him, that they weren’t family.

Sherman and Lou Ellen had to interfere before they ended up in a fist fight. It took almost a week for them to make peace, Nico agreeing to always respond to his calls, or to call back whenever was possible.

That had been before Hogwarts, and Draco hadn’t called that much, but the teen always responded, it didn’t matter if he was at Persephone’s Garden, or in that weird place where he had to use a chiton.

He.always.responded.

So, excuse him for panicking a little for the whole ‘radio silent’ on his friend’s part.

“Has anyone seen Nico?” He asked after a while to a group of people that were playing at the basketball courts, all of them shake their heads, one of Sherman’s brothers called out.
“No, you are the only one he talks to regularly, if you don’t know where he is, what makes you think I’d”

“Thanks for the help, Truman”

“A pleasure as always Dracey” He gave the Ares kid a nasty glare before making another round around camp in search for his friend.

-

“Oh for…that is the fifth time the mist crumbled over!” Draco huffed in frustration, Lou Ellen had been trying to teach him how to manipulate the mist for the last hour, and he was growing quite frustrated.

It was supposed to help him in locating Nico, since no one knew where he was. But Lou insisted he needed to first learn the basics, so for the last hour he had been trying to condense a cloud of mist into any form.

“For the last time, you don’t move your hand as if you are wielding a wand, you…just let it flow” Lou made a weird movement with their hands as if she was dancing or some weird water flowing motion. It was accentuated by the bright green mist that appeared and transformed in a floating goldfish.

“You should have taught him before he went to school, you know how hard it is to break the habit” Commented Catherine entering the place. The lot of Hecate cabin behind her, they had gained another four members this summer, Lou had once told him they knew where the rest of their siblings were but didn’t comment further on it.

“Oh, hey brats, how are you doing”

“Fine, fine, these ones started a dispute with Hermes cabin, again” The twins had smirks all over their face and Draco knew they were already planning something. He hadn’t feared kids his age so much before.

“Connor and Travis wouldn’t be around forever” Defended Mago, who being a prat magicked out a sofa and threw herself on it. Making Draco roll his eyes so hard at the blatant demonstration of power.

“Besides, we have to show the newbies the ropes somehow”

“I said, show them the ropes in training, weapon training, not in prank wars” Despite the annoyed tone Draco knew that Lou wasn’t mad, they were more exasperated than anything -and slightly offended they didn’t invite them.

“Isn’t that why he’s here” Retorted Rafa with a wave of his hand. Kicking the feet of Mago off the sofa.

“Hey!” The fourth newbies gave him an expectant look, Draco feel his skin crawl, oh no, he was already in charge of Athena’s newest campers training. Maybe he should combine their schedules, he should ask Malcom, Mikael for sure needed the practice -and someone to bring him back from his high horse.

“Yeah, you have to pay up the mist lessons somehow”

“Why am I even friends with you lot?”

-

Draco was just this close to start a country wide search for Nico -and he now felt like Annabeth- when a shimmering image started to appear right in front of him when Sherman and he were at the woods trying to locate some satyr for Chiron.

He practically shoved Sherman to the ground to be the one in front of it, quickly realizing who was the one IM calling them. Only to frown when he noticed that his friend was paler and thinner than usual “Nico!...what happened? Are you alright? Where are you?”

“Hey Drake” Nico grimaced a little at the sudden noise, but that was what he got for worrying him. Before Draco could conjure his inner Austin, Sherman tripped him, and his face meet the ground with a loud thud.

“You look like dead warmed over, no pun intended, are you ok?” Stated Sherman now practically standing on top of Draco. Draco just grunted in place, squirming around to free himself.

“Hey Sherm, I’m fine”

At that Sherman stepped down from him, and helped him up, both gave Nico an incredulous stare. It was obvious he wasn’t fine.

“I’m fine, really…. Or I’ll be”

“What happened to you?”

“Ephialtes and Otis” Both campers winced at that, Draco knew about them because he was a mythology nerd, Sherman knew about them because what they did to his father.

“Like, the giants?” The taller boy asked warily, now clearly worried for whatever happened to Nico.

Draco was sure he would be fretting over Nico if he could, maybe he should go and bring Austin, or better yet Will, there was no person on earth that could go against Will’s fretting, and Nico was known for his stubbornness.

“Did they trap you in a jar? Oh, my gods, please tell me you have foo…are you in the Argo II?”

“Yeah?”

Before Sherman or he could interrogate the son of Hades about how the mission was going and if he had already received treatment a voice interrupted them, it was clearly worried “Nico, to whom you are talking to?”

Then they came into frame, a dark-skinned, wild curly haired girl with hazel eyes that Draco swore shined gold in the right light. Nico smiled slightly at her which made Sherman and Draco exchange raised eyebrows, their goth friend never smiled if he didn’t know the other person.

“Hazel, these are Drake and Sherman, from camp, Annabeth’s brother and…the Greek version of Frank”

Who was Frank? Sherman seemed about to protest when Hazel decided to interrupt him “Oh, hey, I’m Hazel, daughter of Pluto, Nico’s sister”

Draco and Sherman stood there gaping like fishes, because, what? If Draco remembered correctly Pluto was the roman version of Hades. But! Hazel seemed too familiar with Nico to have just met him, which implied the two of them already knew of each other.

In that moment the final piece of the puzzle -that he was unaware he was trying to solve- snatched in place. The chiton, the weird architecture at the background of some of their calls, the disappearances, Nico was the only one not at all fazed about the Roman camp.

He knew about it all along, didn’t he?

“We have so much to discuss Di Angelo, so much” Draco sheeted under his breath in Greek, making Nico cringe back a little bit at the heat in the blond stare.

Sherman sensing the change in atmosphere, for once, decided to intervene. There was no use of having Draco screaming in the middle of the forest, his siblings would notice his disappearance after a while. And Nico needed time to rest.

So, Sherman put the blond in a headlock, one hand over his mouth, despite the protest and gave the ones at the other side of the call a bright smile.

“Hey, nice to meet a Roman demigod”

“Likewise?”

Nico seemed relieved; Hazel was just puzzled. Sherman started to drag Draco out of there, which was difficult given that the blond didn’t want to be moved “C’mon we have to go do our errands; you can scream at him later”

-

Later that day Draco was pouting, Sherman told their group of friends about their IM call with Nico and the fact that he was now with the questers.

“So, are you mad at Nico for…not telling you he already made contact with the romans?” Concluded Drew with a raised eyebrow, Draco rolled his eyes.

“For not telling me he somehow acquired a new sister, the other was quite obvious when you told me that chitons were fashionable in Rome” He huffed and threw himself backwards to stare at the branches of the tree they were all under, taking a break from camp activities.

“Oh, yes, my ramblings about history of fashion, I like that history teacher, they are nice”

“Oh, please exchange with me” Pleaded Draco half heartly, doubting very much any mortal history teacher would know about goblin wars and such.

The subject was fascinating -coming with someone that liked to know all about mythology and such- but the way their teacher explained it…he even called him Abraxas sometimes for some reason! No one in his family was named Abraxas! That must be a name from at least 80 or so years ago.

“Nah, I’ll let you have your naps, growing boys need those”

The only one pouting even harder than Draco was Austin, who was splayed on his stomach in a starfish imitation. The ‘tantrum pose’ as Drew had dubbed it “I insist they should have taken one camper from Apollo’s cabin with them”

Draco, Drew and Sherman exchanged an exasperated huff, Will and Austin, and honestly, the whole Apollo cabin had been very vocal when Annabeth refuted to grab any of them with the crew.

Will had have to be dragged out of the ship ten minutes before its departure, still rambling about how to correctly use the supplies he prepared for them.

“They took Mr. Hedge” Supplied Sherman. Drew made a zip it motions but the damage was done, at least Austin pushed himself up by his elbows to stare in disbelief at the dark-haired teen.

“I know you like him because of Clarisse’s stories, but I saw the guy, he is completely nuts”

“He was a nice chaperon” Pipped in Draco, he was honestly a little sad that with the new magical ways of travel -which he hated by the way- there was no way the satyr would accompany him anywhere.

“You would say that; he let you eat candy”

-

Draco started to get restless, he seriously was wondering why Chiron wanted all demigods back at camp soon -like, he would have liked to presence the whole disaster of the last day of school, he bets Theo’s face would be worth it- Aside from saying their goodbyes and well wishes to the questers, the rest of camp had been ‘normal’.

One or two monster attacks here and there, some deadly games, breaking fights here and there, badly burned teens from the climbing wall, helping at the infirmary because someone almost lost a limb -actually, Paolo did, in fact, lost an arm, thank the gods for Apollo campers- you know? normal stuff for a demigod camp.

And as if sensing the restlessness’s of the veteran campers, for the first time since Draco had been at camp, Dionisius and Demeter cabin let all camp help in the strawberry harvest.

Which was rare, they protected the fields as if they were their babies.

But apparently, with no Mr. D there to stop them, Pollux and Katie Gardner had decided they oversaw the fields and that anyone could join the harvest. The conditions were, try not to eat all the basket, and to not damage the plants.

Chiron seemed wary but approved the activity, some campers didn’t join, like half Ares cabin -a little afraid of Demeter’s cabin rage if they did something to the plants without meaning- or a part of Aphrodite cabin -too much sun was bad for the skin- or were straight up banned from the fields -cof Hecate and Hermes cabin cof.

In reality, just the younger campers and the ones in charge of them joined the harvest. Draco wasn’t supposed to look over his younger siblings, that honor was put on Malcom. But Denise was stubborn and decided to stick close to him, not that he minded.

“So, who’s that?” Said Drew giving the strawberry blond a ’oh my god how cute’ look, Draco rolled his eyes, Drew could go gush over her own siblings, thank you very much.

Denise seemed taken aback by the Aphrodite cabin counselor look, Drew was being extra as always and had one large hat that served as an umbrella for at least three more people. Large gloves that covered up to her elbows, sunglasses, and other stuff, thank the gods it was all white, because if Drew went for the ‘Addams’s family look’ Draco suspected Denise might cry.

Had she run out of that ridiculous high sunscreen? Or she was just being extra?

“Denise, my little brother”

“Awww… he’s cute. Hi sweety how are you?”

“Hi”

Much to his pleasure, Denise decided that he was getting too much attention and hid behind Draco. Which made him give Drew a smug smirk. Whom looked back at him affronted.

“I’m glad Pollux and Katie let us join in the strawberry harvest” Diverted Austin before it could devolve in a fight.

“Yeah, It’s…nice” Sherman was the one to respond clearly not paying attention to them, his glare was elsewhere and he had a dreamy look on his face. Drew smirked and Austin rolled his eyes.

“Do you think Annabeth likes strawberry jam?” Mumbled Denise under his breath giving Draco an expectant look. Draco’s gut twisted a little bit with guilt, no one had told Denise that they may not come back.

“She would love it Owlet” Denise bright smile made Draco smile in return, the little kid then ran to collect one basket for them. Drew gave him a sympathetic look which Draco returned shrugging, he would try to protect the kid, but there were some things he would need to know about being a demigod.

“Earth to Sherman, what are you looking at?” Draco frowned when he noticed his friend practically swooning in place. The Asian teen turned around as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

“Uh?”

“Don’t be dense Drake, it’s obvious who he is staring at”

“Don’t you dare!”

Drew took a deep breath and seemed about to scream to all camp, when Sherman tackled her to the ground, electing a series of curses from the other teen as that made her hat flew away. Austin facepalmed and Draco was just in time to carry Denise away from the path of destruction and to cover his ears from all the curses in different languages the other two were saying at each other.

“Don’t follow their example Denise, they are a bad influence”

“We should stop them” Austin said with no conviction, he was clearly resigned to the fate that was his friends being savages.

“And lose the opportunity to see Miranda reprimanding Sherman?” Draco stopped him with a mischievous smile when he noticed who was the one in their way to stop the fight. Sherman immediately tensed up and blushed all the way to the back of his head when Miranda started to reprimand them.

“You do know”

“I’m not blind Aust, it’s just…you know you lot are at least two years older than me?”

“That’s true”

-

“I did it!” Draco screamed in excitement; he had just successfully condensed the mist into a…solid-ish form. Of course, no one at Hecate cabin was impressed, all of them knowing how to conjure even the smallest things out of the mist from a young age.

“That looks like a blob” Retorted bored Rafael giving the small green blob a side glance.

“Oh, shut it” Draco wasn’t a son of Hecate! Let him be excited!

“More like a bugger” snickered one of the newer Hecate campers.

Draco turned around appalled only to receive a flurry of moths to the mouth, hearing the mad cackles of the younger campers, he turned around, not caring about the absolute mess that was now his hair -he could feel one of the moths trashing around in it, which, iugh, thank the gods it was not spiders- to the place he knew the twins were “You corrupted them”

“Us?”

“They were like that when they arrived”

Draco wasn’t convinced by the twins’ ‘innocent’ smiles at all.

-

It was night, and Draco was having a little bit of trouble falling asleep, there hadn’t been any news from the questers. And he was getting restless, granted it had been at most three days since the last IM call, and that it was more unusual for quester to call back at camp during quests, but Nico had promised. Annabeth had promised.

His musings were startled out of him when he felt a presence at the side of his bed, it wasn’t Malcom, he could hear his light snores from there, so it must be someone else.

“Who’s there?”

“D-drake?” Draco relaxed back when he noticed the now youngest Athena cabin camper at the feet of his bed wrapped in his sheets, thank the gods it wasn’t any of his other siblings, Draco wasn’t in the mood for midnight debates about something or other.

“Denise? What happened?”

“T-there was a s-spider on my bed” O Styx, they would need to tell Malcom in the morning. Better make sure there were no unwanted visitors inside cabin.

Recently there had been more activity of spiders towards Athena cabin, Draco didn’t like that, it was as if Arachne had decided to mess with them.

“aw…Owlet, come here”

“I know I’m a big boy and I shouldn’t be scared of spiders, papa said that they are our friends, and they eat the mosquitoes” Draco grimaced a little at the explanation, gently letting the smaller kid slide into his bed.

Mortal parents of Athena cabin didn’t really get their repulsion of spiders, some were understanding and attributed it to a type of arachnophobia, others tried to get their kids to stop fearing them -some with very extreme approaches- but no one really got it.

“Yeah, to a lot of people spiders are their friends, but to us…. they kind of hate us, you know?”

“W-why? I didn’t do anything to them” Denise pouted, snuggling closer to Draco. It was quite a warm summer night, but he didn’t mind.

“We didn’t, none of us…mother did”

“Mama?”

“Yeah, she had a fight with this lady that weaved beautifully, but she made fun of the gods, so Athena transformed her in a spider, that’s why all spiders hate us” He still remembers how Kreatcher had to defend him against the spiders that crawled all around the Black townhouse, or how most of his early accidental magic was fire to get rid of the little pests.

“That’s not fair, it was mama, not us!”

“I know buddy, I know” Draco patted Denise head affectionally, how much he wanted for the kid to comprehend that, being a demigod, wasn’t fair at all “C’mon it’s getting late, you can sleep with me, just, don’t push me out of bed”

“Thanks Drake”

“Good night, Owlet”

--

To Draco Black,

Mate, you wouldn't believe the things that are happening over here, Mamma is seriously reconsidering going back to England!

Some crazy muggle decided to blow up the Roman coliseum. Mamma and some other members of the high conseil were seething mad because it was a hidden entrance to the Italian parliament, it was ward to hell and back thank merlin, so it didn’t receive damage; but it took them days to reestablish the connection to the pocket dimension. Some other crazy stuff has been happening all around.

Like there was a sink hole in one abandoned commercial district, it would be all for the muggles to deal with if the Aurare (Italian version of the Aurors) hadn't detected a weird magical signature every. single. time.

It's weird mate, Mamma was this close to take me to our Manor in Bologna until weird sightings were reported over there, I don't know what's really happening, but I'm his close to believe in mass hallucinations.

Why would people see a ship in the middle of the Italian mountains? A flying ship!

As far as I know Durmstang's magic ship doesn't fly!

Anyways, how is it going over there? Maybe I'll convince Mamma to go to the States next summer, for sure she would appreciate the change in scenery.

Pd. Theo says that you need to meet us at diagon this year, please tell him when you are going before he throws a tantrum. Mate, I'll kill you if you let me alone with him, I don't want to pass all day at florits and bolts or at the Quidditch shop, at least not alone.

Pd 2. Mamma was appalled when she saw me write this, I had to explain to her that you cannot read cursive to save your life, she seemed weirdly understanding.

The best mate, Blaise Zabini.

--

The fourth of them had been assigned as a recognize team, if any mortal asked, they were supposed to say that they were on a stroll through the woods and that his supervisor wasn’t that far -which was half-truth, their actual supervisor was Drew, as she was a cabin conseil, but there was supposed to be a satyr somewhere behind them as a lookout-

Drew was in a bad mood because no one told her in advance of the excursion and she was wearing her good boots, which now had mud all over them. Draco was just surprised she was able to walk in platforms thought the woods without breaking her ankle.

“Just one normal summer, it’s all I ask. But what I get? Babysitter duty and recognizance mission” Grumbled the dark-haired girl under her breath as she made space between a bunch of branches.

“Who are you calling baby?” Scoffed Sherman right behind her, only to yelp when she let go of the branches to hit him on the face. Austin rolled his eyes and Draco just passed forward without paying any mind, he was short enough to pass without trouble.

“Hon, you know that Austin and I are here as your impulse control”

“Drake is my impulse control”

“He doesn’t count if he is the one with the bad ideas”

“Hey!” Draco yelled in offense, both dark-haired teens had been bickering all the way. But he didn’t want to be a theme of discussion.

Before anything could escalate, Austin held up his arm asking for silence, his light brown eyes squinted at something in the distance. The three of them stopped the bickering, if Austin asked for something, it was always important.

“Shh…Drake, how common are eagles in New York?”

Draco frowned puzzled, his friends knew about Sian’s obsession with birds, and as a side effect Draco’s knowledge about them. Consequence of the almost eidetic memory Athena kids have and their tendency to ramble about their interests out loud “It was more common in the thirties, I think the contamination affected them, why?”

“You don’t see those?”

Austin pointed to something in the sky, even Draco could only see small dark brown blobs, that he assumed were birds -Eagles, judging by Austin’s question- but from that far and with the tree branches in between he couldn’t see anything of importance.

“sunny, Sunshine of my heart, not all of us have enhanced sight” Sighed Drew a little bit exasperated. It was common for demigods to forget that not all of them had the same abilities.

“Eagles, pretty big ones”

“Romans” said Sherman almost in a trance, Drew, Austin and he shared an uneasy glance. Drew wasn’t supposed to tell them about the Roman legion and their apparent thirst for vengeance, that was information reserved for cabin conseils, but she had told them regardless.

-Something in Draco’s gut twisted at the blatant trust, because he was hiding something from them, maybe he should ask Lou Ellen if they could tell them about the whole magical stuff-

“What?” Drew was the one to break the silence giving Sherman an incredulous look, Draco did know why he jumped to conclusion as soon as Austin said those were eagles.

“Eagles are a symbol of Roman legions, and I suppose those may be scouts”

“I often forget you are such an ancient war nerd” Austin chuckled a little bit, to clear the air a little. They knew Romans were on their way to camp, they hoped they were more far tough, oh, joy such good news to deliver on 4^th of July.

“Hey!”

“Oh, you are denying it. Let me see, who was the one encouraging little Harley about ancient roman flamethrowers?” Drew quickly latched on the change of topic, signaling them to start to walk back to camp.

“Drake” Deadpanned Sherman.

“Who was the one providing them with details about how to make one?”

Before any of them could retort Austin turned around so quick, he almost fell over. To give the Asian girl and incredulous look “They did what?”

“Oh, sush it, we have permission from the mayor authority” Retorted Draco with a dismissive hand.

“Leo doesn’t count”

“I’m telling Nyssa” Grumbled Austin under his breath.

“You are not fun”

“Are you aware that Harley is like…six?” Drew retorted giving them a look, Sherman shrugged.

“Eight actually”

“Oh yes, like that is better”

They kept bickering all the way back to camp, the satyr that was following them gave them a weirded-out look when they caught up to him -he was eating some wild berries- Drew told him that they would explain later.

...

Btw...if you like demigod!Draco Malfoy stories (promotion corner, lol/not sponsored lol) I recomend...

Adonis by KimiGold 

I love their take on the Au, and the fact that it is Narcisa the one that...go read it, it's nice.

Pétres kai Fídia by Violet1309

I think they recently changed the fic name because it was 'The other Castellan' or something like that before, but it is a nice story where Draco is...in fact...Luke's brother *dramatic music* 

(and those are my recommendations, if you haven't read them yet) 

Chapter Text

Camp grew restless after the revelation that Roman troops were getting nearer, most of Athena and Ares cabin had a strategy meeting in the big house, taking advantage of the absence of Mr. D. Draco managed to sneak in despite his older sibling’s protest, for that he was seated on the Ares’s side of the discussion.

At the center, in the middle of the usual ‘meeting’ table was the map and wooden pieces Athena cabin often used to strategize. Malcom and Clarisse heatedly discussing strategy, while occasionally someone, either from Ares or Athena cabin, chimed in.

“I know you don’t like it, but we may have the advantage if they come here” Malcom pointed out the general vicinity of camp.

“We should go and meet them half ways” Clarisse grunted.

“No, think about it, we would have the terrain advantage, and we know the woods like the back of our hands” Susan pointed out, pointing to elevated terrain and the woods that would give them advantage.

“We don’t know how many of them there are, we may as well be trapping ourselves inside camp borders…a siege” Clarisse frowned harder at the wooden pieces, as if willing them to tell her the answers.

Ares’s cabin was great brute force, great at taking decisions in the middle of the battle, but strategizing wasn’t really their thing. Ares was the god of violent war after all, while Athena was also the goddess of knowledge.

“We have the satyrs and nymphs on our side”

“They don’t know where camp is either” reluctantly grunted Truman, from Ares’s cabin, seeing what cabin six was implying.

“We could hide out the archers on top of advantage points, like here, and here” Pointed out Lian, pointing out small elevations around, Draco frowned and stood up from his place to point out three specific points on the map.

“Those won’t work, they wouldn’t have a good shot, twenty feet at most” The terrain was rocky, unstable, Apollo’s kids would have a hard time balancing themselves there. The trees were also taller there, it would block some of their vision. They couldn’t afford blind spots.

Why did he know that? Draco had grown at camp, had loyal friends that often followed him wherever he went, even to the deep of the forest.

Draco had taken Austin there once, to see if he could hit a target from wide distance, a kind of game they had, where Draco put Austin in the most disadvantageous positions to see if he could override Apollo’s blessing. Austin had managed the shot somehow but had complained that he almost fell over too many times to count on his way up and down. That’s why Draco knew those weren’t good spots.

“What would you suggest then?”

“The trees, an ambush, rain of arrows” Draco shrugged, like it was the only logic solution. Some of his siblings nodded in understanding, some with a slight grimace.

Draco knew why no one had suggested it before, rain of arrows may end with someone like a brochette.

Mark, from Ares’s cabin whistled at his side, giving him a small shove to the shoulder. Clarisse was giving him a little disturbed glance “I didn’t know your kid sibling had such blood lust”

“I mean, not like with celestial bronze, we don’t want them dead….do we?” Mumbled Draco once he noticed everyone’s attention on him, blushing slightly. It wasn’t like he wanted them dead, ok? It was just…he was getting tired of people attacking their home.

“What did you expect? He’s friends with that one” Responded cheekily Malcom signaling with his head to Sherman who launched a pencil at him, Draco rolled his eyes. Malcom kept talking as if he didn’t almost lose one eye to a flying projectile “We don’t want them dead…for the time beginning, I don’t think Percy would be very pleased if we committed murder”

“He doesn’t need to know”

“As if Annabeth would let us get away with it”

-

Draco started to squirm under the deadpan glance Nyssa was giving him. She was the temporary head of Hephaestus’s cabin until Leo’s return, and she wasn’t happy with him with the ideas he kept babbling to Hayley. But he had ended up with the short straw and had been the one send to request cabin eight abilities.

“Let me get this right…you want us to what?”

“Repair the armor that is salvageable, melt the one that isn’t, make more chest plates and such…” Draco stared holes to the letters on his hand, he knew he should have wrote it in paper, his sweaty hands had made the ink unreadable “At least 1,000 normal arrows; maintenance to all the current weaponry laying around camp and…if you have time maybe some catapults?”

The last was saying in almost a whisper when he kept receiving the scalding glance from the girl in front of him.

“If you have time” grumbled Nyssa under her breath. “Maybe write down what you all want, in Greek. I won’t make thing without an actual order, last time Clarisse got mad because we didn’t make the fifteen swords she needed”

“Right, yeah, will do that” Draco sighed in relieve. Turned on his heels ready to bolt out of there, Hephaestus’s cabin kids -aside from Beckendorf, Leo and Hayley- always intimidated him.

People knew not to mess with them because they could and would ruin all your armor if they were feeling petty. And let’s say he knew Nyssa wasn’t happy with him now.

“Oh, and Drake?”

He flinched but turned around reluctantly “Yeah?”

“If I heard another word about fire throwers or something similar from my baby brother…” Her smile was sweet, almost sunny, but Draco knew what she was implying and grimaced.

“I’ll make sure Sherman stops telling the kid how to actually make those”

“Good”

-

They were having lunch when something strange happened. The fire where everyone burned their offerings suddenly went out. And that, that was strange. It was supposed to be fire blessed by Hestia; it wasn’t supposed to burnt out.

“What is that?” Hesitant murmurs started to go all around the twenty tables, glancing around with wariness, as if waiting for an ambush.

Chiron stood up from the Dionysius’s table and approached the calix with a grim face. He took out a piece of paper out of it, looking a little bit baffled. The fire started to burn again once Chiron’s hand was at a safe distance.

The whole camp went silent.

“Connor?” Connor stood up from Hermes’s table giving Chiron’s hand a wide-eyed glance. Where had that have come from?  “You have got mail”

Everyone holded their breaths, waiting for Connor to stop reading, to tell them all something. But Connor’s paling face wasn’t reassuring anyone.

“Is Rachel still in her cave?” Chiron nodded, and Connor bolted from the dinning pavilion, not before screaming “Malcom you may want to hear this!”

Perplexed Malcom ran after him, everyone stared at their backs a little bit baffled. What had just happened?

-

Draco had been in a research rush since lunch, trying to figure out where could the message have come from. The more he read, the more he feared the answer.

A general cabin six meeting was called, everyone waiting as patiently as they could for Malcom to return. When he did, it seemed as if the temperature inside the cabin dropped.

“What was that all about?” Lian asked forcing Malcom to stand in the center of the room. Malcom for his part seemed paler than usual, the sun-tanned skin looked sickly, and his eyebrows were frowned with worry.

“It was a message…from Annie”

“She could have IM’d us…how did she managed to do that?” Pointed out another voice, Draco didn’t really recognize who, he was too preoccupied watching how Malcom paled.

Draco’s gut twisted, he didn’t want to believe it but, according to all what he managed to read…

“No, IMs are kind of down, remember? Only one of every five calls connect, no…besides she wouldn’t be able to call us…”

There was only one possibility “Please tell me she isn’t in Tartarus” He blurted out, regretting his words as soon as they were out.

The silence was answer enough. Malcom was known for going silent when he didn’t want to tell them something.

“No…”

“W-What was the message about?” Asked Susan with a wavery voice, but no one commented on it, Draco could feel that everyone was barely holding it together. Denise had practically melted against his side in a fierce hug.

“The…the Athena’s Parthenon, according to Rachel, if someone from the roman side delivers it to camp, it may stop the gods from splitting between sides”

“It was lost, thousands of years ago” Pointed out Liam giving Malcom a weird stare “It’s why mom isn’t appreciated in her Roman form”

“They found it” Was Malcom’s only response.

The silence in Athena cabin was unbearable, but the heaviness of the statement made everyone’s moral fumble to the ground. It was only broken when Draco noticed the wet feeling at his side, and Denise broke in hearth broken sobs.

“Y…you ok Deni?” Draco crouched down concerned, everyone else seemed to want to jump in, to reassurance their youngest member. But they also seemed about to cry themselves.

“I had a dream, l-like a week ago…I-I tough it was just a nightmare”

Realization hit Draco like a truck “It wasn’t just the spider…”

The small kid shook his head, sobs still escaping his lips “N-no…I saw A-annie, and…a dark-haired kid…t-they f-fell” Draco’s heart shattered, he scooped up Denise whom hided his head on Draco’s shoulder still crying his hearth out “I didn’t know”

“Oh, Deni…” Draco decided to Denise out of the cabin, holding back tears of his own. The kid wouldn’t calm down if he noticed that every one of their siblings were now silently crying. He could explain the crying child without causing panic, but if everyone saw the whole Athena cabin in a crying mess…they would all lose hope.

-

It took Athena cabin almost the whole day to recover, but they did. Draco may have had to carry Denise around all day, he may have lost sensation in one arm; but after dinner, the whole cabin was more determined than ever.

They all would pray to whomever would listen to them for Annabeth’s -and Percy’s- safe return, but they will be prepared for anything.

Athena always had a plan.

-

The Romans were still far, but as they seemed to finally localize camp’s general direction, they started to prepare.

Clarisse LaRue from the Ares Cabin was yelling orders at the campers, forming them into lines. Leo’s brethren from Cabin Nine hurried around, fitting everyone with armor and passing out weapons. Even Chiron the centaur was dressed for war. He trotted up and down the ranks, his plumed helmet gleaming, his legs decked in bronze greaves. His usual friendly smile was gone, replaced with a look of grim determination. In the distance, Greek triremes floated on Long Island Sound, prepped for war. Along the hills, catapults were being primed. Satyrs patrolled the fields, and riders on pegasi circled overhead, alert for aerial attacks.

They were making groups, telling all what to do in certain situations, where to hide to take advantage of the terrain, what to expect if they engaged in battle. Malcom always let Clarisse be the one to deliver the final strategy, not because he wasn’t able to -Draco was sure Malcom could stand in front of a crowd just in his underwear and still be able to command them.

No, it was because Clarisse was admired and feared in equal parts by the campers, and they needed that, someone who could rill them all up for battle.

-

Draco stared a little perplexed at his own small battalion, anyone from thirteen and under seemed to be under his command, just one or two kids from each cabin, but that made them at least thirty kids. Mikel stood at his side with a scowl on his face, clearly displeased about having to take orders from Draco.

Denise was glued to his leg and Lily was holding his hand in such tight grip that he was worried she may break something. Hanna stood at his left, shoulders practically touching. Even Mikel, despite his bad mood, seemed to stand guard at his side.

He took a deep breath and faced the small part of the army, he may see ridiculous with his siblings glued to him, but he didn’t care. “You lot, are here because you are deemed inexperienced”

Susan was the one who assigned him to this task, and surprisingly it only took her to mention Hannah, Denise, Lily, Hayley, and all the smaller campers for Draco to relent his rant about letting him go to the front lines.

He had promised to protect his little siblings after all.

“Yes, I know, some of us have been there for all the battles” He said when some veteran campers seemed about to protests, honestly, aside from Draco and Hannah there where at least ten more kids that had been there last summer “And we WILL participate in this one” he placated.

“But! Take in account our main order” Lily gripped his hand harder, because their main order implied the worst-case scenario “Find Hayley, retire to cabin’s eight bunker if battle get’s dangerous, regroup there if it’s necessary…if worst comes to worse, run. We lot need to survive to rebuild camp”

A kid from Ares’s cabin shifted in her place, clearly uncertain about that. But that was always Malcom’s plan, at the battle of Manhattan and at the battle of the labyrinth. If camp got compromised, if demigod’s lines thinned out; the youngest campers were supposed to flee, regroup in a secure place…and reorganize.

“We, like all the present in this camp, are warriors!” His battalion screamed, a little bit unsure but with determination in their eyes “Well then, to the trenches!” Draco scooped up Denise and gave Lily’s hand a small reassurance squeeze. His small group marched to the side of the hill; he really wished the freaking statue arrived on time.

*-*

“Look, Nico” Jason said, ‘I’m here if you want to talk about, you know, what happened in Croatia. I get how difficult...”

 “You don’t get anything.”

“Nobody’s going to judge you.” Nico’s mouth twisted in a sneer.

“Really? That would be a first. I’m the son of Hades, Jason. I might as well be covered in blood or sewage; the way people treat me. I don’t belong anywhere. I’m not even from this century. But even that’s not enough to set me apart. I’ve got to be…to be …”

“Dude! It’s not like you’ve got a choice. It’s just who you are.”

“Just who I am” The balcony trembled. Patterns shifted in the stone floor, like bones coming to the surface. “Easy for you to say. You’re everybody’s golden boy, the son of Jupiter. The only person who ever accepted me was Bianca, and she died! I didn’t choose any of this. My father, my feelings …”

Jason tried to think of something to say. He wanted to be Nico’s friend. He knew that was the only way to help. But Nico wasn’t making it easy. He raised his hands in submission.

“What about Hazel?” He asked, because she presented herself as Nico’s sister, and that had to count for something, besides “What about that kid? Drake? You seem close to him”

At that Nico’s face deflated a little bit with guilt as if he had forgotten about his sister, about his friend. “I have also seen you around camp with some campers, Drew is one of them, isn’t she?”

Jason still remembered the dark-haired girl, she and Piper used to hang around back at camp, planning stuff for their cabin.

“D-Draco is too young to understand, he will eventually grow tired of me”

Jason frowned at that, and even Nico seemed unsure of his own words “Do you seriously think that?”

He may not know the kid, the age difference at the fact that Jason only saw him around camp for the rest of winter break didn’t let him get to know him. But in the few interactions he managed to see…he seemed sincere.

Dragging Nico out of his cabin, including him in everything he did every time he saw him. There was a rumor, that Nico only appeared at camp because Drake had thrown a tantrum -as if he had been a little kid crying for his mother- Jason would dare to say Nico saw the kid as a little brother.

Nico remained silent, gaze fixed on the floor, like willing it to give him the answers of his problems. Jason sighed.

“Yeah, okay. But, Nico, you do choose how to live your life. You want to trust somebody? Maybe take a risk that I’m really your friend and I’ll accept you. I’m sure all your friends will. It’s better than hiding.” The floor cracked between them. The crevice hissed. The air around Nico shimmered with spectral light.

“Hiding?” Nico’s voice was deadly quiet

Jason’s fingers itched to draw his sword. He’d met plenty of scary demigods, but he was starting to realize that Nico di Angelo – as pale and gaunt as he looked – might be more than he could handle.

Nevertheless, he held Nico’s gaze. “Yes, hiding. You’ve run away from both camps. You’re so afraid you’ll get rejected that you won’t even try. Maybe it’s time you came out of the shadows.”

Just when the tension became unbearable, Nico dropped his eyes. The fissure closed in the balcony floor. The ghostly light faded.

“I’m going to honour my promise,” Nico said, not much louder than a whisper. “I’ll take you to Epirus. I’ll help you close the Doors of Death. Then that’s it. I’m leaving – forever”

Jason wanted to protest, knowing there will be people who will scream their protests if Nico leaved. But before he could voice his concerns. Behind them, the doors of the throne room blasted open with a gust of scorching air.

A disembodied voice said: Lord Auster will see you now. As much as he dreaded this meeting, Jason felt relieved. Now, arguing with a crazy wind god seemed safer than befriending an angry son of Hades. He turned to tell Nico goodbye, but Nico had disappeared – melting back into the darkness.

*-*

Apparently, the barrier also made whoever wanted to find them a little bit confused, Roman’s were taking their time to arrive. It was a good and a bad thing, good because they had more time to prepare, bad because they didn’t know when their enemy would arrive. And the waiting was killing them.

They couldn’t send aerial scouts because they may get spotted by the eagles, their only source of information were the satyrs that managed to pass themselves as fauns, which for some reason the Romans seemed as inoffensive.

But news traveled slower by land, and the tension at camp was getting higher.

The harpies that roamed camp were gone, so there was no one who would eat them if they camped on their positions, if they wanted. Basically, only paranoids from Ares and Athena cabin did it. They were only able to do so because of the barrier’s microclimate, Draco would be worried other wise about them getting the flu or something.

It was night when it happened, Draco was kind of trapped with Denise using him as a pillow, but he managed to get the torch near the shimmering IM message. He gasped at what he saw.

“Nico? What’s wrong? Are you ok? You don’t look so good...”  His friend looked paler than usual, thinner than usual, he had the darkest eyebags he had ever seen on him.

Draco may have relented his search frenzy when Nico called the other day and confirmed he was with the questers, and things at camp may had distracted him of thinking about the son of Hades’ situation. But Nico was always on the back of his mind, he was his only friend with no regards of his own safety.

When he arrived at camp -always when, never if- he would make sure to try and put some common sense into him and give him a hug and maybe hit him hard on the head. All at once if he managed.

“Hey Drake, I need you to hold the forte until we get there” Nico wasn’t like himself, his eyes were glassed as if he had called Draco half asleep. He seemed about to drop to the ground at any minute. Draco gave him a concerned glance.

“Are you ok?”

But Nico didn’t seem to want to talk about it, in fact it seemed he didn’t hear Draco at all “We think…we know the statue will stop the war between Romans and Greeks, just stall until we get there”

“Are you shadow traveling with that thing here? Where are you?” Draco whisper yelled at him, gesturing widely with the torch in his hand. Nico had told him how dangerous it was to shadow travel, how the user could lose themselves in the darkness. And unless someone had magicked the statue to be the size of a mythomagic figurine, it was huge.

“We will be there soon Drake”

“Nico!”

But Nico seemed to be in a trance and ended the call without a glance towards him. Feeling angsty he gently put Denise’s sleeping body back to the bed and started to make his way out of the cabin.

“Draco? Where are you going?” Whispered one of his siblings in the dark. He had been on guarding duty -No Athena cabin wasn’t paranoid; they only took precautions.

“To get Austin and Lou, or better yet, Will. Nico is doing something stupid!” He remembered the mysterious voice was Lian, but that didn’t matter. He needed to reach them, to tell them the mad plan Nico had “He’s bringing back the statue!”

He needed to find Will, to have him in stand by for when Nico arrived.

-

One could cut the tension between Clarisse and Malcom with a butter knife. Clarisse was mad because Malcom’s strategy involved letting themselves fall in the roman siege. They were surrounded, all aerial forms of communication were cut off, not even Noctua with his owl magic was capable to fend off the roman eagles. Iris cabin had lost at least two pegasi -Draco knew, that if he managed to return to Hogwarts, Blaise and Theo would have his head for not responding to their letters.

They knew where the romans were thanks to the satyrs calling in favors from distressed nature spirits, the Goldsmith Winery on the north shore of Long Island. And the tropes they managed to see made everyone nervous.

From a Roman perspective, it was a small force, barely two hundred demigods, but Camp was still recovering from Manhattan, their numbers weren’t high. At most they had a one hundred and fifty warriors, counting nymphs and satyrs, they were outnumbered. Things didn’t paint themselves pretty, especially considering all Roman troops were well trained and well organized.

Not as if Draco was dismissing the Greeks training, but they still had to break fights between themselves occasionally, they were more volatile, they didn’t have the hypermilitarized mindset the Romans had.

And that, that was a huge disadvantage.

-

“Oh, Iris goddess of rainbows, show me Nico Di Angelo, wherever he is” Draco repeated for the nth time that day, it had been just two days since Nico’s concerning message, but Draco had called him restlessly almost all day. He had to be dragged to breakfast and to do morning drills, but he kept insisting that Nico was their best bet if they wanted news.

Not as if Malcom, Clarisse, or Chiron didn’t try to contact the Argo II at least thrice per day.

This time the call did connect, and Draco hold his breath. In the shimmering image Nico appeared, head resting on his aviator jacked. But he looked sick. His skin had a bluish tint. His cheeks were sunken. He almost ended the call right there, knowing how much his friend needed the rest.

But stopped in his tracks when he noticed a familiar satyr stirring a bowl.

“Mr. Hedge?” The satyr startled, letting Draco see that the bowl had some waffle mix.

Mr. Hedge turned around and frowned, he didn’t seem to recognize Draco until his eyes landed on his hair and eyes. Yeah, traits hard to miss for Athena children. “Cupcake?”

“I’m so glad to see you! Is that the statue?”

“It’s supposed to be a surprise” Grunted under his breath the satyr giving Draco the stinky eye, but it was not as if he could see pass the statue’s feet.

“Sorry, sorry…how are you all doing? Any god news?”

Mr. Hedge’s face twisted in worry, barely imperceptible, his eyes turning to Nico ever so slightly, to then smooth out in a confident smirk “It may take some days, but we will arrive soon”

At that Draco didn’t know what to say ‘good luck’ seemed shallow, and he didn’t want to jinx his friend. Instead, he decided to distract the satyr. Gossip wasn’t really his thing, but nymphs talked, and Drew loved to hear them -He wondered if that was why he tolerated Pansy, because he reminded him of Drew- and, in the time of darkness they usually focused on happy gossip.

Their own form of trying to preserve the morale.

“I heard from the nymphs, congratulations”

Mr. Hedge stared at him trying to decipher the message, but when he got it he turned a light shade of pink “Those gossip snitches…Have you seen her?”

“You haven’t presented us” Draco teased “All I know is Clarisse took her under her wing, she isn’t supposed to be in the battlefield, but if things turn bad, I’m sure the whole cabin has orders to protect her…I’d too” He will forcefully remove her from battlefield if he had too, her and some old satyrs were on his list of ‘kidnap if necessary to hide in cabin’s nine bunker’ if things turned bad.

Grover may be an active member of their forces, but they all agreed that having one or more of the elderly satyrs in the middle of battle would be more of a nuisance than an aid.

No one wanted another one to transform in a tree sap in front of everyone.

“Who’s that?” Draco frowned when he saw another sleeping form, he could only see the top of what he assumed to be a braid and what he now recognized as roman chest plate.

“The roman demigod who will deliver the statue and end this madness…Gotta go cupcake, we have visitors”

“Take care of Nico, would you?”

*-*

“Clovis” Nico growled, “for the gods’ sake, stop dreaming so powerfully!”

 Clovis’s eyes fluttered open. He turned and stared at Nico, though Nico knew this was simply part of Clovis’s own dreamscape. The actual Clovis would still be snoring in his armchair back at camp.

“Oh, hi …” Clovis yawned wide enough to swallow a minor god. “Sorry. Did I pull you off course again?”

Nico gritted his teeth. There was no point getting upset. The Hypnos cabin was like Grand Central Station for dream activity. You couldn’t travel anywhere without going through it once in a while.

 “As long as I’m here” Nico said, “pass along a message. Tell Chiron I’m on my way with a couple of friends. We’re bringing the Athena Parthenos.”

Clovis rubbed his eyes. “So, it’s true?” The baby cow looking guy yawned again “People were starting to think Drake was mad or something”

Nico’s eyes widened, Drake? How did he know about it? Clover didn’t seem to notice his surprise.

“He’s really worried about you…splinching? Yourself, whatever that means, he has been pestering Will all week to let him help out at the infirmary when you arrive” He apparently knew about the shadow traveling, Nico made a face.

He had told himself that he better stayed away from his friends at camp, after the ‘conversation’ -more like screaming match- he had with Jason he had decided that after all of this was over, he will stop appearing at both camps, no one there liked him anyways.

But his subconscious seemed to betray him.

“We’re being followed by a hunter,” Nico said. “One of Gaia’s giants, I think. Can you get that message to Thalia Grace? You’re better at finding people in dreams than I am. I need her advice.”

“I’ll try.” Clovis fumbled for a cup of hot chocolate on the side table. “Uh, before you go, do you have a second?”

“Clovis, this is a dream,” Nico reminded him. “Time is fluid.” Even as he said it, Nico worried about what was happening in the real world. His physical self might be plummeting to his death or surrounded by monsters. Still, he couldn’t force himself to wake up– not after the amount of energy he’d expended on shadow-travel.

Clovis nodded. “Right … I was thinking you should probably see what happened today at the council of war. I slept through some of it, but…“

“Tell Drake I’ll be ok…Show me” Nico said

*-*

“Lou, are you aware that not everyone at camp knows I can do magic?” Draco groaned, trying to concentrate as hard as he could in making something rather than just making small hurricanes of mist.

His control was still sloppy, but at least it made it easier for the Hecate kids to conjure the actual barriers. They kind of borrowed his uncontrolled mist and reformed it into proper enchantments. Oh, how he missed his wand. He wondered if those rumors about the trace were true.

“Yeah, pretty sure just us know” Lou Ellen looked a little worse for wear, their eyes had dark circles under them, and they were putting barriers left and right with a little of a maniac glee in their eyes.

“Then why you sequestered me at breakfast screaming ‘You should practice your barriers skills! Muahahaha’ ” Draco deadpanned.

“These things take juice out of us; Lou has been the one to put up most of them…” Pipped in Rafael at his side, a small, barely imperceptible, smile on his face -and wasn’t that wrong, not seeing any of the mischievous twins smile like imps.

“Besides, you do need to practice, what if you are in mortal peril and need a barrier?” Chastised Catherine somewhere behind them, which was a fair worry, but he was in one of the most secure magical schools more than half of the year.

The only time he would need a barrier for defense was at camp, and if it came to it… “I’d better fight my way out of the situation than start chanting these nonsense” He grumbled under his breath.

Lou Ellen had come up with the enchantment, it had taken them a lot of sleepless nights, but they had managed to combine all types of magic to create the barriers. The problem was that it was a mix of Latin, Greek, and some unknown language that Draco was sure his ‘cousin’ invented on the spot.

Only Hecate kids seemed able to pronounce the monstrosity.

“Rude!”

Draco rolled his eyes, slightly growing concerned for his friend when they faceplanted a tree. He gave the rest of snickering kids a dead glare “Fine, I’ll help…but if we end up in one of Hermes’s cabin traps, you are on your own”

“We also helped with those” Supplied Mago a little bit more cheerily.

-

Sherman suddenly ran inside Athena’s cabin, currently war planning central for the whole camp. Roman troops had been starting to show all around camp two days ago, and each passing minute they increased.

Draco felt his gut twist at the sheer number of monsters, it reminded him too much about Manhattan, about Luke’s army. But this time they were trapped in their own home, with no way out.

“We are in trouble…deep trouble” Breathed out Sherman after he managed to catch his breath, he and some other campers had gone scouting camp borders, to get a better glimpse at what they would be confronting.

“What’s wrong Sherm?” Tadeo -temporary head of Ares cabin since Clarisse was otherwise preoccupied, with an about to give birth wind spirit- seemed worried. The kid was barely seventeen, one year younger than Clarisse, he had olive skin and a gentle face. He always seemed calm, everywhere except at battle, he didn’t worry easily.

“They have onagers, six of them, camp wouldn’t survive that…Draco, take the kiddies, hide in the bunker…”

“L-like the catapult?” Asked in dismay Liam, looking a little green around the edges. Draco wanted to protest about the indirect order but if they had weapons of mass destruction…

“What other type of onager you know?” Snapped Sherman “They are huge…they have something gold as munition” Sherman was uncharacteristically grim “One of the projectiles could take down a whole cabin”

Silence invaded the place, as hours passed, they knew they had been largely outnumbered, but they still hold to hope stubbornly, they hadn’t survived all these years to go down like that.

… “We need to sabotage them” Draco blurted out before he could back down, he wondered if the hat sorted him right then if it would have put him in Gryffindor. Don’t get him wrong, he liked Slytherin, well his friends there, but have always wondered what would happen if major events changed one’s attitude.

“What?”

“They should strike tomorrow at dawn, right? we need to stop them before that, we need a team, small, of sneaky people that could approach without being seen.” Malcom was giving him a baffled glance, Liam seemed about to protest “I know I’m supposed to guard the kiddies, but I trust them, they are not helpless. Mikael, take them to the bunker.”

Mikael seemed about to pinch himself to see if he wasn’t dreaming, the rest of the cabin looked at him in awestruck horror, his siblings quickly catching the implication behind ordering Mikael to the bunker; he turned to stare Malcom in the eyes, with conviction on his soul “You know my specialty is in stealth”

He waited, holding his breath, he saw how Malcom’s face made one dozen different gestures before sighing, resigned. It was the best option they had.

“Who else do you suggest?”

“Lou, they can cover us with the mist…maybe someone from Hermes cabin…”

“I’ll see what we can do…”

-

Draco felt a little ridiculous in his all-black outfit, Cecil from Hermes cabin and, surprisingly Will were the other volunteers -not as if he asked Lou if they wanted to do this- He was the one to suggest they dress in all black, Lou insisted on them to paint their faces with black grease paint like commandos.

Will had flighted them on the dark beanies for some reason.

They were crouched down on the grass, waiting for an open, what would they do? Draco wasn’t sure, but he wanted to protect his family, his friends. He would even die if he had to. If he survived these, he would never again follow his Gryffindor’s instincts, ever.

Will stood up when he noticed something, Draco was about to shove him back down when he noticed the figure.

“Nico?”  His friend spun, his sword instantly in his hand, and almost decapitated Will Solace. “Put that down!” Will hissed. “What are you doing here?”

“Me?” Nico asked. “What are you doing? Getting yourselves killed?”

Will scowled. “Hey, we’re scouting the enemy. We took precautions.”

“You dressed in black,” Nico noted, “with the sun coming up. You painted your face but didn’t cover that mop of blond hair. You might as well be waving a yellow flag.”

Will’s ears reddened. “Lou Ellen wrapped some Mist around us, too.”

“Will didn’t wanted to ruin his hair…” Pointed out Draco, hair hidden away behind his favorite beanie “I admit this type of outfit works better in the dark”

Nico turned around looking baffled, great, his mist camouflage seemed to work like he wanted it to. If he managed to return to Hogwarts, he will use it for the good -of sneaking around under Filch’s nose “Drake?”

“Nice to see you Neeks, I want to hug you and hit you so much, you are lucky I can’t do either without making a ruckus and getting the romans attention” The hug was a figurative way of speaking, Nico didn’t like when people touched him, Draco opted for being near, to show that he cared. He tried to hug Nico once, but he ended up with a black eye.

Nico knelt next to them. “Did Coach Hedge make it to camp?”

Will smiled a little bit “Yeah. Hedge is fine. He made it just in time for the baby’s birth.”

“The baby!” Nico grinned, which seemed to hurt his face muscles. As if he wasn’t used to making that expression.

“Mellie and the kid are all right?”

“Fine. A very cute little satyr boy” Will shuddered. “But I delivered it. Have you ever delivered a baby?”

Oh, well that explained why Will was there, Draco repressed a shudder of his own. He had to muffle a chuckle when he saw Nico’s frown.

“Um, no.”

“I had to get some fresh air. That’s why I volunteered for this mission. Gods of Olympus, my hands are still shaking. See?”

“I didn’t need that mental image Solace” Draco protested, not really noticing the small interaction between Nico and Will at his side, he didn’t want to think about birth of all things in the middle of battle.

“Whatever,” Nico snapped. “We don’t have time for chitchat. The Romans are attacking at dawn and I’ve got to …“

“We know,” Will said. “But, if you’re planning to shadow-travel to that command tent, forget it.”

 Nico glared at him. “Excuse me?”

It was kind of fun to watch the staring match between them, they looked like complete opposites that the scene seemed a little bit ridiculous.

“Coach Hedge and Drake here told me all about your shadow-travel. You can’t try that again.”

“I just did try it again, Solace. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. I’m a healer. I could feel the darkness in your hand as soon as I touched it. Even if you made it to that tent, you’d be in no shape to fight. But you wouldn’t make it. One more slip, and you won’t come back. You are not shadow travelling. Doctor’s orders”

Draco hadn’t been gladder in his life for Apollo’s kids’ stubbornness. Even Nico seemed to hesitate under Will’s intense stare.

“The camp is about to be destroyed”

“And we’ll stop the Romans,” Will said.

“But we’ll do it our way. Lou Ellen will control the Mist. We’ll sneak around, do as much damage as we can to those onagers. But, no shadow travel.”

“But“

“I don’t want you to disappear” Whispered Draco sadly, he had only managed to hear glimpses of what Mr. Hedge had said about Nico, with the approaching birth of his child and all that. But he did hear loud and clear the part where Nico had become transparent, like a ghost.

Nico glanced at him and all the fight about the theme left him. “Whatever,” Nico said. “But we have to hurry. And you’ll follow my lead.”

“I was the one who came up with the plan, you know” Draco grumbled under his breath. But the older teens didn’t seem to hear him.

“Fine,” Will said. “Just don’t ask me to deliver any more satyr babies and we’ll get along great.”

-

Draco was liking the roman leader -whatever the correct term was- less and less. Only years of etiquette stopped him from snarling at the blond. Cecil had done an excellent job with the onagers, Draco had got opportunity to hit some Romans, but the one he wanted to hit the most was the prat in front of them.

For some reason he marched up to Nico, as if he knew him. Draco knew about Nico’s position as Pluto’s ambassador or whatever, but a small twist of fury made itself present in his gut. How dare that impostor of a good leader approach his friend as if he knew what he wanted?

“I’m helping the Greeks and the Romans,” Nico said.

The spaghetti blond laughed. “Don’t try to con me. What have they offered you – a place in their camp? They won’t honor their agreement.”

That raised Draco’s hackles, for sure Nico knew that he was always welcomed at camp, he always told him every time he visited. And even if -in the very remote case- it wasn’t true, Draco was sure Nico knew Draco will always be on his side. No matter what.

“I don’t want a place in their camp,” Nico snarled. “Or in yours. When this war is over, I’m leaving both camps for good.”

That made Draco trip on air, Lou Ellen easily catching him before he could fall. Why did he feel his eyes itchy? There wasn’t time to cry in the middle of a possible battle. Lou rubbed his back with small circles, they seemed a little bit concerned.

Will Solace made a sound like he’d been punched. “Why would you do that?”

Nico scowled. “It’s none of your business, but I don’t belong. That’s obvious. No one wants me. I’m a child of…”

“I do want you!” Draco screamed, startling everyone, even himself, when had he started to cry?  “aren’t we friends? We may be unwanted children, but we were unwanted children together”

“You are seemed to be the exception to the rule Drake” Nico said a little bit meanly, Draco could feel how Lou Ellen clenched their jaw. Thank merlin Sherman wasn’t there, or he would have sucker punched Nico right there.

Draco stared at his dark-haired friend unbelieving, hadn’t they shared a lot? Hadn’t they been each other’s company for years? Granted, Nico was always distant, but Draco respected that, campers usually had emotional baggage, some more than others.

He tough they were friends.

“Oh, please.” Will sounded unusually angry. “Nobody at Camp Half-Blood ever pushed you away. You have friends, Austin, Drew, Sherman, Lou…. Drake. You are the only one pushing yourself away. If you’d get your head out of that brooding cloud of yours for once…”

Draco inhaled, trying to control the tears. Deep down he knew Nico didn’t meant it, that something must have happened for his friend to say such cruel words. He steadied himself back on his feet giving Lou a wavering smile.

That settled it, the order would be: Hit on the head, screaming match, then hug, for when the whole Gaia business ended. He really needed to talk with Nico.

“Enough!” Octavian snapped. “Di Angelo, I can beat any offer the Greeks could make. I always thought you would make a powerful ally. I see the ruthlessness in you, and I appreciate that. I can assure you a place in New Rome. All you have to do is step aside and allow the Romans to win. The god Apollo has shown me the future…”

“No!” Will Solace shoved Nico out of the way and got in Octavian’s face. “I am a son of Apollo, you anaemic loser. My father hasn’t shown anyone the future, because the power of prophecy isn’t working. But this…” He waved loosely at the assembled legion; the hordes of monstrous armies spread across the hillside. “This is not what Apollo would want!”

Octavian’s lip curled. “You lie. The god told me personally that I would be remembered as the saviour of Rome. I will lead the legion to victory, and I will start by…”

Whatever further nonsense Octavian was about to spill was curt short by the ground slightly trembling. All the onagers fired at once, and six golden comets billowed into the sky.

-

Draco didn’t have time to process his grieve at Nico’s hurtful words, nor time to celebrate the arrival of the statue, because the freaking soil was talking. Gaia was awake, and they were surrounded by monsters. Soon Greeks and Romans closed ranks, the monsters that supposedly were on the roman side turned on them. Who knew? Where had Draco seen something similar? It would always be a mystery.

Dog humanoid monsters, and other weird things started to attack them. Where those Centaurs? Draco couldn’t stare much, but he would make sure to tell Firenze about the tattooed meat-eating Centaurs, he liked more the ones at the forbidden forest, thank you very much.

Everyone soon was in battle mode, it didn’t matter that just ten minutes earlier they were enemies, the Praetor -the same girl he saw when he got to talk with Mr. Hedge- apparently over ranked Octavian.

Which was good, because despite joining forces they were overwhelmed.

Draco slashed left and right, Lou Ellen’s small flock of pigs had run for the hills, but he and them were back-to-back slashing monsters. Sherman soon appeared, taking Lou’s place, letting them fall back a little bit to cast spells.

“Hey, fancy seeing you here” Draco impaled something in the eye with one of his daggers, he would have to re-read the book on Roman mythology, because he didn’t know what he was fighting, if he survived of course.

“Do you think the kiddos are alright?” Sherman said in greeting, one of the kiddies was his little sister.

“I hope so, let’s just, not mention where they are, in case of, you know” Draco managed to evade an attack, also pushing Lou out of the way. He then gestured to the ground as if it would suddenly grow a pair of legs. Which apparently it could, considering they were fighting against it. “The earth hearing us”

What was his life that he could have an actual conversation while fighting a bunch of monsters?

“Right…have you been crying?”

Before he could retort Lou appeared behind him launching a bomb over their head, it exploded in Greek fire. Draco didn’t know if they got it from the Stoll’s ride to Hephaestus cabin, or they simply made one from mist.

Lou then turned to give Sherman a grimace and a shrug “Our dearest Nico needs a good punch in the face, it’s all”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing” They were all about to get hit by one of the two headed men, but an arrow thrown them off course “Thanks Aust!” Draco called without looking, already rushing to make the monster disappear.

“Draco…” Sherman warned retrieving his spear from a pile of monster clothes. These ones disappeared in a puff of smoke, who knew.

“He said some things, I don’t think he meant them…but” Draco made his friend glance briefly to where their friend was fighting, he still looked about to fall over. Knowing him he was standing up due to adrenaline and pure stubbornness “He looks bad, he may be tired, we don’t really know what happened to him…to all of them”

Annabeth and Percy fell into Tartarus, but for what little he heard Mr. Hedge say, there was a possibility Nico also fell…alone. Draco didn’t want to think how that would affect someone.

“He’s lucky we are in the middle of battle” Grumbled Sherman under his breath and charged another monster.

-

Draco was starting to feel a little self-conscious when he finally noticed that the romans had actual strategies in place, the girl that brought the statue -was it Reyna? - Screamed left and right and everyone on the roman side knew what she was implying.

Draco could feel Malcom’s longing gaze about the militarized organization, and he didn’t even know where he was in the middle of the chaos.

Then, the questers, his sister, arrived! How on earth was there an actual Dragon, Draco didn’t know. But his sister arrived thanks to it, Percy at her side. Camper’s enthusiasm soared, if they died today, they would all fight to the end, at their leader’s side.

“Greeks!” Percy yelled. “Let’s, um, fight stuff!”

They yelled like banshees and charged.

-

Draco was trapped, after the hill taking the form of Gaia herself -and what opportunity did they have if they were fighting the earth itself? – he and some other demigods near him had been half buried into the ground.

Demeter kids were trying to free as much as they could, as fast as they could. Sadly, the monsters seemed to be digging themselves out more quickly. They charged the Greek and Roman ranks, taking advantage of the demigods’ disorganization.

“Drake! Are you ok?” Sherman asked when he noticed him waist deep in the earth. Draco felt like a potted plant.

“I think I have mud in my underwear…at least is not sand” He mumbled under his breath while stabbing the earth with his daggers to get himself out of the situation. He only looked up when he noticed the other pair of shoes alongside Sherman’s “Oh, hey Miranda, you didn’t hear that”

The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes but kneeled to put her hands on the soil. Now that he noticed she had a lot of scratches all around her arms and her hair was soiled in mud. They haven’t really talked, but after the whole strawberry field fiasco, Sherman had started to talk more to her.

Thing that Draco was glad about, one could only support so much encouraging speeches from Drew.

“Stop that and let me concentrate” Draco rolled his eyes at her but put his hands up, daggers an all. Sherman stood behind him, putting his hands under his arm pits, ready to push him out of the soil like an oversized vegetable.

With Miranda’s soil magic and Sherman’s brute force Draco was out of his situation rather quickly. How humiliating was that his friends could still carry him around like a ragdoll?

Draco was right, his dark jeans were caked in mud, and pretty sure he had some soil where the sun didn’t shine. It felt disgusting.

“Sherm, I’ll be fine, put me down” Draco mumbled when he noticed his feet hadn’t been touching the ground. He felt like an oversized cat. Draco turned around his head slightly when his friend didn’t respond and had to bit down a groan.

Sherman was looking at Miranda as if she had hung the sun in the sky.  The green-eyed girl wasn’t doing any better. Their little spell broke when they finally noticed the battle around them -Draco whole heartly supported his friends, but he really didn’t want to be in the middle of a ‘moment’.

“Go big guy, I’ll take care of the carrot”

“I feel offended by that! My hair is blond! Not ginger” Draco grumbled under his breath, thankfully that Sherman hadn’t passed him to Miranda’s outstretched arms -he didn’t doubt the girl could carry him around, he had seen Demeter kids move around compost bags as if they weighted nothing- One humiliation was enough for today.

“Shut it Dracey…thanks Mira…”

“Guys…there would be time later to stare in each other’s eyes…Charly looks like he needs help” He hated to interrupt, but like, a battlefield wasn’t the best place for confessions. Sherman nodded and ran to the aide.

Miranda and he stayed back to help people out of the earth.

-

Draco was glad he decided to wear a beanie, because he was covered head to toe in dirt and mud. Miranda had found her sister, Katie, and between the three of them made a quick work of getting whomever they could out of the sinkholes, or whatever they were.

While they were dragging some of the injured toward a safe place, Pollux, from Dionisius cabin, spotted them and ran to their side. He too was covered in dirt and had green leaves stuck to his hair. Draco guessed he had used some of the strawberry and grape plants that had appeared randomly on the hill to help people out.

“Where are the kids? Why aren’t you with them? Are they alright?” His eyes had purple flames on them, and Draco remembered his dad was also the god of madness.

“I feel offended you call us kids” Right, only Athena, Ares, Hermes, Hecate and Apollo cabin knew about the change in plans, Pollux had the right to be worried. Cabin twelve had recently gained some new kids, and Pollux had been very protective of them.

“I had to take care of some things and ended up here, but they are you-know-where” Draco pointedly looked at the ground, between the chaos he hadn’t noticed where the humanoid form of Gaia had disappeared to, but he didn’t want to take any chance “They have Peleus and the fleece with them, that’s powerful magic…they should be fine”

The other blond nodded and ran back to battle. Katie rolled her grass green eyes.

“Sorry about Pollux but…”

“I know, no one wants to lose anyone in battle…” Draco pointedly ignored the ‘sleeping’ bodies around them, they hadn’t been fast enough to get everyone out of the ground on time “Sadly we aren’t immortal” He mumbled under his breath.

-

Leo was dead, a lot of people were dead. But the head of cabin nine had sacrificed himself, Draco could still see the explosion that turned the entire sky gold. The surviving monsters had retreated when they noticed the absence of Gaia, but the damage was already done.

Draco had to drag Sherman away from Truman’s body, from all twenty cabins at least one camper was lost. The roman side also lost soldiers, the cohorts -he asked someone what the standards where for- seemed devastated when they started to retrieve the bodies.

They won, but at what cost.

Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Roman, were burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nico to oversee the burial rites. Nico agreed immediately.

Seeing Nico there, in front of everyone, overseeing the rites with a somber face make Draco remember their discussion -or more like Nico’s screamed statement- when the last shrouded was burned, he practically kidnaped the dark-haired teen. Nico may be able to move between shadows, but Draco knew how to be one.

*-*

Nico was tired, overseen the rituals may seem simple, it implied standing right around the fire. But not everyone could see the souls that appeared, nor how Thanatos floated around, ready to guide all the souls to Elysium. Because that’s what they deserved.

That was why he didn’t notice someone was tailing him, nor did he had the energy to stop them from dragging him somewhere. But once the sudden movement stopped, he unstilted his sword and pointed it to the mysterious attacker head. Barely stopping inches away from their neck when he noticed who it was.

“We need to talk” Right in front of him, looking mad at the world was Draco Black. Covered in small scratches and with bandages around his arms. He still had the ridiculous all black get up. Despite Nico being at least two years older, Draco was almost as tall as him, and if looks could kill Nico was sure he would be already ten feet under.

“Drake? I almost beheaded you!” Nico promptly but his sword away, a little bug eyed, Drake knew how Stygian Iron worked. He had told him when he asked about the black sword.

“Good, that way we’d see if you would cry at my funeral” The blond spatted, not at all worried about how he almost lost his soul.

Nico could feel how his face paled, remembering what he said when they were confronting Octavian. “D-Draco…I-I didn’t…I”

“You should have told me how you felt, I should have done something” It was baffling seeing the fight leave Draco’s eyes, replaced by sorrow that made Nico wish he had never said such cruel words “Like I did when you told me kids started to look at you funny at the end of last summer”

That brought a small smile to Nico’s lips, Draco had pranked all the kids that had started weird rumors about him. But the sadness in the blond’s face made the small smile disappear and guilt hit with force “…I…”

“I tough we were friends” Nico generally didn’t know what to do with crying people, seeing Draco cry broke his own heart “B-but if w-we are not, i-it’s fine”

“Its not like that, please don’t cry” Nico pleaded, closing, and opening his fist as his side, not really knowing what to do to stop the tears. Nico was sure he had some of his own.

“Then? I did my best, I gave you space, I waited. But apparently it wasn’t enough” Draco whispered, looking Nico in the eyes. If he wasn’t sure Drake was from Athena cabin, he would question if he was able to look at Nico’s soul.

“I’m sorry you feel lonely, I’m sorry you feel like no one wants you here”

Draco had helped Nico remember some things about his childhood, Hades, he even learned Italian just to help him remember the language. In one of those talks, Nico remembered how Draco confessed to him that he ran away because he wasn’t wanted, how his own grandmother didn’t like him. How Athena didn’t talk to him the same way she did with the rest of his siblings.

How, in the confidence of the night, Draco told him he was glad they were friends, because friends were the family one could choose. Hearing those words coming out of him made Nico regret the doubt Tartarus and Nix had installed in his heart.

How did he dare doubt his friends?

“But you should first see for yourself that, that is not the case….” Draco continued in a whisper, looking at everything but him. Nico saw with horror how Draco’s face turned blank, as if he had shut down the feeling from the conversation. That made him a little worried.

 “They are waiting for you at the big house, my sister and the others” Were Draco’s last words before he turned and disappeared back into the forest “Sorry if I bothered you”

*-*

Draco had found Drew at Aphrodite cabin after his discussion with Nico and bawled his eyes out. Drew looked a little bit concerned but send glares at his siblings to keep silent about it.

Later, after a nap Draco hadn’t noticed he had taken. He woke up surrounded by his friends. They looked ragged, all of them did. Austin had broken one leg when he had tried to dodge one of the wild centaurs’ attacks. Sherman had somehow only broken his right pinky. Drew had at least five bruised ribs, Lou Ellen had a nasty bruise on their right eye.

Draco himself had his arms bandaged because he got deep scratches from a hellhound.

“Hey guys”

“Drake!” All of them chorused, he sat up in Drew’s bunk bed and smiled tiredly at them. They all survived thank Merlin. He didn’t know what he would do if he lost any of them.

“Ok, then, with all present awake, we can plan murder” Sherman looked mad, and Draco cringed, staring at Lou Ellen who shrugged and tried their best to look innocent. From everyone’s faces of agreement they knew about it too.

Draco sighed; his friends could be a little overprotective “We are not doing anything to Nico”

Sherman didn’t look convinced at that, Austin wasn’t looking at anyone, and that meant he knew something.

“Ok, spill guitar boy”

“Rumors at camp say he also fell into Tartarus” That made the murderous fury disappear from Sherman and Drew’s faces. Taking a deep breath Austin finished his sentence “alone”

“Fine” Grumbled Sherman after a tense few minutes “But if he doesn’t apologize in a week, I call dibs on smacking his head”

“An Ares kid wanting to solve something without violence? Who are you and what have you done to our friend?”

“Shut it Drew”

…

By evening, the general mood had improved somewhat. The dining hall pavilion had never been so crowded. The Romans were welcomed like old friends.

Coach Hedge roamed among the demigods, beaming, and holding his baby boy and saying, “Hey, you want to meet Chuck? This is my boy, Chuck!”

At announcement time, Chiron stepped forward and raised his goblet. “Out of every tragedy,” he said, “comes new strength. Today, we thank the gods for this victory. To the gods!”

Draco could feel in his soul how no one was exactly happy to cheer to the gods, they had been the responsible for it all…for all the bad thing that ever happened to them. And it was as if they had help them at all, but what were they expecting from the divine?

Then Chiron said, “And to new friends!”

“TO NEW FRIENDS!” Hundreds of demigod voices echoed across the hills.

-

Draco was target practicing with his new daggers, the last ones had been unusable after being used to stab the ground, who knew daggers weren’t meant to be used as garden shovels? -note the sarcasm- Hayley had been the one that made them, and Draco was testing their balance and sharpness.

He was concentrated, it had been the kid’s first job with blade weapons and had practically demanded a full review on them, that’s the only reason he got startled.

“Drake!” Draco rounded around so quick at the sudden voice, dagger in hand, and let it go. Nico stood there looking a little bit bewildered, thank Merlin the dagger had missed and now rested on a trunk tree. “I’m sorry”

“N…Nico? I could have beheaded you!” Draco spluttered, Nico and he hadn’t had any chance to talk, not with all the things going on at camp. Now they could go to small exchanges to their roman counterpart! That would be interesting.

The dark-haired teen didn’t seem faced and made a vague gesture with his head to the dagger on the trunk, at least fifteen feet away from him. “You missed by a lot”

Draco was about to protest, going back to the light banter they always seemed to have between them, like they were friends. But Nico stopped, quickly approaching, and hugging him tightly.

He tough they would continue as usual, fall back in routine and let the incident stay back. If no one mentioned, then it didn’t happen, right? They would just go back to being friends, put aside their differences, pretend it didn’t matter, that Draco’s feelings hadn’t been hurt, that Nico had no issues, like they were perfectly fine.

But then Nico had come and hugged him. Nico the one who never initialized touch, the one who punched him in the face once when he had dared to surprise hug him. That same Nico was giving him a hug, and Draco could feel the tears fall from his eyes. “Is this a dream?”

“No, it’s me, apologizing for being a jerk” Supplied Nico, voice muffled by Draco’s hair. He was still surprised but returned the hug fiercely, like fearing Nico would disappear at any moment.

They stood like that for what felt like hours, Draco was sure he had wet Nico’s shirt with all his tears, but he didn’t care. Friends were always family for him, and what Nico had said hurt, like a stab to the heart. He was just so relieved he hadn’t meant it.

“You know I see you as a little brother, right?” Nico mumbled, separating just enough so Draco could see his face. It was also wet with tears.

Draco’s heart soared at the statement and gave the dark-haired teen a tiny hesitant smile. “We know you fell…it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, b-but I wanted to let you know I’m here for you, we all are”

Nico looked in the verge of tears again and Draco took a stuttering breath in. Nico gave him a pained look and turned to stare at the woods “The goddess of misery put weird toughs in my head, I should have never doubted you”

It was always a god’s fault, wasn’t it? Draco hesitantly took Nico’s hand and squeezed.

“Does this mean I can tackle hug you now?” He diverted, there would be time later to unpack all the things Nico was struggling with. For now, Draco wanted his friend to forget it all, to be kids again.

“Baby steps fratellino, little steps” Draco’s smile should have rivaled the sun, had Nico remembered he considered all his friends, family? He could feel a laugh trying to break from his belly. He would be Nico’s brother for as long as he wanted it.

Draco retrieved his daggers, and both started to make their way back towards camp, towards home.

“How did you escape the infirmary?” He asked eventually, a little bit amused. Will had practically kidnaped Nico one day, and according to Austin, had been put on strict bed rest. Then the brunet teen had complained how he couldn’t enter the infirmary without gagging at Will’s lovesick eyes directed at Nico. Drew and her siblings squealed at the news and started mumbling about love.

Apparently, Will had a crush.

“Austin helped me…Will is weird” Mumbled Nico under his breath, and Draco had to bit down an impish smile when he noticed just the smallest of blushes on Nico’s ears.

“He’s the ‘Doctor’ he’s entitled to look after our health…Sherman and Drew are mad at you”

“I should also apologize to them, shouldn’t I?”

“You bet”

--

Drake,

My contacts in Egypt agreed to send an expert to the Black House to resolve our little issue, I’m sure everything is going to be fine for Kreatcher. He would need a mental healer, maybe the goblins would be able to help (I doubt any wizard in Britain would be willing to help a house-elf and he will be too delicate to move him to the States).

But with you there it would make the transition better (I’m aware that the issue with Gaea just finished, but Kreatcher would need you back soon).

Your Grandfather was…still delicate the last time I saw him, but in a better shape. He seemed relieved when I told him you were fine -for the gods’ sake write to him- We still need to go over some issues, but -I know you don’t really care- you are about to be the main heir to the Black fortune.

Your Uncle Sirius had still been considered on the previous will, and he would still inherit a part of the fortune, but Arcturus agreed that being so long in Azkaban would have deemed him a little bit insane -also, for some reason, your grandfather insists he’s innocent, we may talk about this later.

As for the Black sisters, we are searching for a way to restore Andromeda’s status as a Black, but I doubt very much she would appreciate it. Bellatrix has been blasted off the family magic, seeing as she isn’t going to repent for her actions. Narcissa…she’s getting some inheritance for her and her children, but Arcturus decided that the sum shouldn’t be that extravagant, the Malfoys have enough fortune to last them a live time.

Next summer would be the inheritance ceremony, we will need to buy formal robes.

I send a Portkey attached; it departs on the 20^th of August at noon -Camp’s time zone- you could take it from Hecate cabin. Say hi from my part to the other Hecate campers, tell them to visit me whenever they want.

See you soon,

Uncle Louise

Chapter Text

Black heir taken out of school early, is Lord Black’s health really that bad?

By Rita Skeeter

That’s right dear lectors, and internal source has told us that the little prince had been retired early from school in an emergency by his guardian. We have no more information than that. But we can speculate, as we know, Lord Arcturus Black health hadn’t been the best these last years.

…

Is house Black about to have a big change? We don’t know the little prince’s points of views or if he had been educated to replace his great-grand father at the wizegnamont. Maybe the views from the new continent could bring a wave of change to our parliament, or maybe the little prince has been poisoned already.

…

Of course, we hope for Lord Black’s health…

-

All eyes on the young quidditch promise that is Victor Krum!

By J. Ivanov.

Drumgstan may be a mysterious school where not all of us may had had the chance to go, but it has been the home of very talented Quidditch players, Russian keeper Giorgiev may sound some bells from the fanatics back in the 90’s. The woman who invented the Giorgiev faint!

Well, Quidditch fans, we have got good news, Drumgstan emergent star, Victor Krum is turning faces. He may still be a student, fifteen years old, but he is on his way of becoming the youngest professional seeker of the century! A lot of teams are already on talks with Dragan Krum, the boy’s father, to let the promising player start summer training with one of the teams.

…

Who knows? Maybe if Krum’s career succeeds, Bulgaria may be takin the trophy home the next world cup.

-

Hogwarts DADA Teacher. Is the post really cursed?

By X. Lovegood

As some may know, anyone that had attended Hogwarts the last two decades, something always happens to the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, be it a mysterious illness at the end of the school year, or an accident, all teachers had resigned as soon as the school year.

This Quibbler voulume brings to you a compilation of the many mysterious ways the last five teachers had had to step down from the post.

…

This year is not the exception, Quiberinus Quirrell, who once was the school’s muggle studies Professor has disappeared without trace, some speculate he had fled the country. What had the man seen that made him scared enough to leave?

…

-

Internationals: Attack on Italian Magical Parliament!

By G. Bianchi.

You read right. A sudden attack had been detected at the Roman Coliseum’s hidden entrance to the Magical Parliament. Authorities don’t know if these was a muggle terrorist attack or something else.

Witnesses say there were strange sightings all over the place, a flying boat being one of these, but after a while they seemed to disappear, like there wasn’t anything there to begin with. The Italian Magical Parliament’s head wanted to dismiss these reports by saying there may had been something in the water or that people were getting a little bit too happy with the booze for the upcoming celebrations. But Aurare (Italian counterpart of British Aurors) had found strange magical signatures all over the place.

…

-

History of magic: Glaukopis family

By X. Lovegood

We have done a great investigation about the Glaukopis Family, as you know the Quibbler proud itself in its trough investigations.

Glaukopis family comes from a very old family line from Greece, with links to the even more ancient line of Arbios. The Glaukopis family originated in Athens and since then had have expand all over the world, we would never be sure which is the main line.

…

Their registry has been lost in the European magical community for years, after at least three generations of squibs, but that doesn’t minimize their accomplishments, some very famous and known muggles of all time had had some connection with the family.

This makes young Draco Black, a recently public acknowledge member of the family, the first magical kid in the line in decades. But, counting that all the family branches seem to have moved to the States, then, we may have going in blind with this information, there may be a lot of wizards in the family we may not know about.

And taking into account that Glaukopis family and any other family with links to the Arbios lost line are very secretive, we may never know them at all.

..

-

Internationals: Strange sightings at Italy now in Greece too, what’s going on in one of the oldest magical societies?

By L. Sanders

After last report, there had been more sightings of the strange phenomenon of the flying boat, authorities had already contacted Drumstang School of Magic, to corroborate they had anything to do with the incidents. Drumstang Headmaster Igor Karkaroff seemed to take great offence at what Italian and Greece magical authorities where implying and assured that the iconic Drumstang boat was in the school’s command.

…

Sightings of these magical boat had been reported from small towns all over Italy and in some parts of Greece, authorities had been in a frenzy trying to keep muggles in the unknown, but much to their confusion none of them seemed to have noticed the flying maritime transport. These has had the authorities baffled, some even forgetting themselves about the case when entering places where this unknown magical signature is highly concentrated.

The European magical association is in discussion of asking the MACUSA to send some of their best men, seeming as they apparently had dealt with something similar before.

…

-

Mr. B is pushing the British ministry to approve media regulatory laws that enforce the protection of minors in media.

By S. Luna.

Mr. B, no name had been disclosed, is the magical guardian of Heir Draco Black, and recently has been pushing for laws to enforce media regulations regarding minors. This, after Black mansion had been drowned in letters and Hogwarts Express have barely been saved from reporters abording the train.

Mr. B is also an active member of MACUSA -no actual post has been revealed due to security reasons- and has let the British ministry know he finds appalling that there isn’t registry of any minor protection laws anywhere.

“I find it absolutely insane, that, while having a lot of war orphans no actual law protects them from abuse, them and normal early detected no-maj borns wizards. MACUSA may have been over paranoid in the last decades with no-majs detecting magic, even taking children out of their homes. But they had laws that protected them, orphanages that worked under strict regulations. We didn’t want any obscurials on our hands…”

Of course, media may not be the first thing activists will start off, but since Mr. B’s direct charge seemed to be affected by it, it was where he decided to start. Mr. B also revealed that he may know why there are not actual laws for minor protection despite there being an entire cabinet about child related business.

“I think is because of old families, it is public knowledge that everyone tries to ignore, that old family are very strict with their kids. Some even going as far as physical punishments. It’s logical then that if the old families have the control of the parliament no laws would be passed to go against their interests”

…

Mr. B didn’t have any more time to respond more questions but, with this action he had brought a wave of muggleborns activists to start collecting funds and firms for bills regarding minor’s security and safety.

-

Gildorey Lockhart is returning to his natal Britain!

By P. Truman.

That’s right Lockhart fans! Out favorite hero -sorry Harry Potter- has let us know that he will come back to Britain! The reasons remain unclosed but, Lockhart had promised events to promote his last series of books.

…

Our beloved wizarding adventurer may even stay for an extended period!

Ladies prepare the books because Lockhart has announced a meet event at Flourish and Blotts. To the mommies out there, mark the date in the calendar and make sure to shop for your kid’s school supplies whit anticipation!

-

Why was heir black sent to America and not to any of his relatives? An immersive in the Black family situation

By Rita Skeeter

-

Mr. B gets the ministry approval, respecting minors: reporters would need the minor’s guardian’s permission to appear in media.

By S. Luna

-

Gildorey Lockhart announces the reason of his return! He’s the new teacher at Hogwarts!

By P. Truman

Chapter Text

Draco eyed the supposed portkey with suspicion. It was an old shoe, so old that Drew almost threw it away when she saw it. He barely managed to save it claiming it was for an arts and craft project. Lou Ellen was cackling madly in the background being the only one that knew what it was. Drew had then proceeded to check out all his wardrobe to make sure he didn’t have anything that was a ‘fashion disaster’ in the making -he suspected the girl may have sneaked some clothes in his wardrobe. 

The date of return made him have second guesses, because, his home, camp, was finally save -Draco swears to the gods if anything else happens he’s going to find a way to maim them- he could easily ask his bon-papa to come to the States, never to go back. Pretty sure Arcturus Black will be well received at camp.

On the other hand, he had made friends, he knew his presence was required now that all magical Britain was aware of him. Knew that his bon-papa’s health may turn bad due to the portkey. And of course, he couldn’t leave behind Kreatcher.

“So, you are going back soon, right?” Asked Drew while combing his hair at cabin ten. They were in front of a mirror while the older girl tried to style his hair. Sometimes Draco let the Aphrodite kids cut it because some of them wanted to be hairdressers when they grew older. 

The first time had been a disaster, thankfully Athena cabin knew how to weave hats and had caps lying around. Sherman laughed every time he saw him tough.

“Yes, but…” Draco sighed, looking a little bit defeated. Drew gave him a smile through the mirror, but that only made him sigh harder.

“Oh Drake, it’s okay, camp would be here for when you return” The dark-haired girl gently hugged him from behind and rested her head on top of his. Draco smiled contently at her, snuggling in the hug a little bit, that was until he noticed some other cabin ten’s campers in the background.

He turned beet red “Dreew, stop, I have a reputation”

“Of being a serial hugger”

-

“Oh, I can’t see this anymore” Groaned Austin while pretending to hit his head on a tree trunk, quiver on his back, they were near the training grounds where currently Nico was trying to teach Will some swordsmanship, while the three of them pretended to not spy on them while feigning to practice target. 

“Oh, c’mon Aust, don’t be a drama queen” Drew rolled her eyes, Draco snickered a little bit. Rumor mill at camp had gone wild when everyone noticed a blushing Hade’s son one day at breakfast while staring at cabin seven table.

Draco hadn’t asked, if Nico wanted to talk about it, he would be there; meanwhile, it was fun to see his pseudo-brother so flustered. He was the only one stopping Drew for going and shoving the two of them inside a closet, tough.

The swordsmanship training was kind of failing, on both parts. Draco didn’t have a good sight like Austin, but even him could see how red both teens were on the face. 

“It’s just…I love my brother, I do. I also like Nico. But…If I have to listen one more haiku about Nico’s beauty in the dead of night, I’m going to hit Will on the head”

Oh, Will was known for his lack of musical talent, so, Draco didn’t want to imagine how bad where his haikus, surely not as bad as the ones Nico told him Apollo came up to. 

“That bad?”

“You tell me”

“Okay, we will give them till winter break, if nothing happens Aphrodite cabin will intervene” Drew declared as if it was war, Draco had to groan this time. Good job Austin! All his hard work convincing Drew of letting them alone was gone.

“You can’t go around meddling with people’s affairs!”

“Oh, you poor baby, just wait till you get a crush of your own, you would beg me for help”

Draco made a face at that, he knew that girls -or boys- didn’t have cooties or any other nonsense kids his age came up to, but just seeing Drew’s mischievous smile made him make a disgusted face “Iugh, nope”

“Totally forget sometimes you are still a brat”

Draco slapped away Austin’s hand on top of his head, frowning. If he was being difficult, and he wanted to talk about relationships. Well, let’s say Draco can arrange that. He turned around with mirth in his eyes that make Austin take a little step back.

“Shut it Aust, or I’m telling Drew about your little crush”

“Oh” Drew raised an eyebrow intrigued, Austin could only splutter in place.

“You little traitor!”

*-*

After giving the books to Ginny, Harry was glaring daggers at Lockhart when a sudden awed voice made him turn around, it was the same girl he saw at Borgins and Burkes. She was looking at him as if he had put the stars in the sky.

“Are you really Harry Potter?” She asked with awe, now that he was closer, she oddly reminded him of Draco Black, which was odd because first, this girl had straight dark brown hair, nothing like the blond curls of Draco, second, they looked nothing alike. It may be the eyes, he thought, they both had gray eyes; but Harry was sure Draco’s were more silver than gray.

“Who’s asking?”

“Oh! How rude of me. Aurora Malfoy '' Harry raised his eyebrows, wasn’t Mr. Weasley complaining about the Malfoys when he told him about the persons he saw at Borgins? He had specifically told Harry to stay away from them. Begrudgingly Harry took the offered hand, not to look impolite. The girl beamed at him.

But whatever moment the brunette may have tough they were having was interrupted promptly by Ginny who put herself between them, glaring daggers at the other girl “Leave him alone”

Aurora’s doll like face scrunched up in an ugly sneer, making a show of glancing Ginny up and down “Red hair, second-hand books…you must be a Weasley”

“Malfoy” Spat right back Ginny as if it was a curse.

But before Harry could intervene, or Ron could start a fight with someone who was clearly younger than them, the same blond man from Borgins appeared behind the girl, putting a stern hand on her shoulder.

“Aurora, I told you to not wander”

“Desolé, Papa '' The girl at least seemed sheepish. But Harry was a little bit wary, he knew how spoiled kids comported, always the perfect angels if their parents were around. Judging by the previous sneer, Aurora Malfoy was the definition of spoiled brat.

“Lucius” Greeted Mr. Weasley coldly when he arrived. The twins behind him.

…

*-*

It had been kind of awkward to tell his siblings that he was departing from inside Hecate’s cabin, but once he admitted magical transportation was involved everyone said goodbye quite easily -his excuse was that his bon-papa was kind of ill and he needed to be there as soon as possible, thing the Hecate’s kids could help with.

Denise and Lily had given him small drawings and presents, seeming as both were staying at camp for the whole year. Draco’s heart ached a little bit at that, but he promised to write to them at least once a week.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come? Your dad will be there” With one old shoe in one hand and Trunk in the other, Draco made quite the ridiculous picture standing in the middle of the Hecate cabin. Noctua flew away as soon as he noticed the cage.

“Getting cold feet blondie?” Lou Ellen taunted, giving him a warm smile. Every other Hecate camper was out, doing camp activities “Sadly, I have to help some of the kiddies for school”

“Stop calling us kiddies”

“I didn’t mention you”

“I know what you implied” Draco grumbled under his breath before closing his eyes tightly and repeating like a mantra inside his head ‘don’t throw up, don’t throw up, don’t throw up’ and in a loud pop, he was gone.

-

Draco practically launched himself over to his grandfather, after the portkey; having to deal with wizards at the authorities at the international portkey arriving point, having to go by a few chimneys; he finally managed to arrive at Black Manor, Mr. Blackstone was already there with the old man and had to send a little wandless spell his direction to stop his momentum. But what can he say? The world almost ended, again, he had the right to hug everyone.

“Bon-papa!”

“Lycorice!” The older Black was clearly amused about his great-grandson’s antics. But accepted the hug quite eagerly, a guilt pooled in Draco’s stomach when he realized that his Bon-papa would have been very worried about him all this time. He hugged him harder. 

“Now, now, calm down a little bit Drake” Mr. Blackstone’s green eyes were full of mirth “I see Lou was right, you have become a monster hugger”

-

One of the reasons of why he finally arrived at British soil at a reasonable date, was because Mr. Blackstone needed him for whatever voodoo magic the specialist needed to do to free poor Kreatcher from the Black house. Draco knew that the curse expert was from Egypt, but apparently Mr. Blackstone hadn’t told the man whom his client was.

“Well, I wasn’t…expecting this”

The man standing in the middle of a dusty living room, had olive skin and hazel eyes, his hair was hidden away in a white turban and had a generous set of eyebrows, he may be in his middle fifties, but with how magic people aged, one couldn’t know for certain.

“Hi? Um…heir apparent, Draco Black”

“Asim Saleh, from the international curse breaker association based in Egypt” The man introduced himself, quickly recovering the professional air. Mr. Blackstone then decided to finally appear in the room with a small grimace, Draco had gone first while his guardian dealt with the portrait, they didn’t need another episode like last time.

“You didn’t tell me the client was a kid” Hissed Mr. Saleh at Mr. Blackstone with a nasty glare.

“Does it matter?”

“I can pay!” Draco protested, if Mr. Blackstone believed the man could help Kreatcher he would throw away the Black’s family fortune just to have his friend back.

Mr. Saleh rolled his eyes at the protests “It’s not that, we have to do this more carefully, kids still don’t have their magical core fully developed”

“Are you implying we may need to meddle with that?” Mr. Blackstone’s eyes narrowed at the statement; Draco shivered a little at the implications.

It was known that whatever magic that messed with one’s core could be potentially lethal, especially in kids. That was why it wasn’t recommended to learn apparition before seventeen -the age where one’s magical core stopped growing- because, despite the many advantages of instant teletransportation, one could, aside from losing one arm, also misplace the magical core. And that, that resulted in people losing their magic. 

“I hope not…Bill! Get your arse over here!” The man suddenly yelled, making Draco give him an annoyed glare, he wasn’t startled, he had seen him take a deep breath, but he didn’t appreciate the sudden outburst in such a small place. At least Asim looked a little apologetic at them “My intern, I sent him to scan the whole house to check for any other curses that may intervene…” 

At that Draco couldn’t help but laugh loudly, startling the redhead that had just entered the room and making the Egyptian man give him a concerned glance.

“Are you ok kid?”

“Everything in this house is cursed!” He cackled, because, if one was even at least a little bit sensitive to magic, they would feel that the whole house was surrounded by it. Black magic, the nastiest of them all.

Maybe he should consider donating everything inside it to the curse breaker association, they would have a field day with even the smallest objects inside the house. 

“Draco” Reprimanded Mr. Blackstone with a warning glare.

“Sorry, sorry, I just found it funny”

“Worrisome declarations aside” Mr. Saleh looked a little bit disturbed by the outburst, same as the young redheaded man at his side “yes we know kid, but even between all this black magic, not all of it is malign. Not all black magic is bad, same as not all white magic is good” 

-

After two days, three pixie attacks, one house elf attack, a certain portrait screaming with the intention to leave them deaf and a visit to Knockturn Alley, they were getting ready to perform a ritual.

It would transfer Kreatcher ownership, from the Black family to Draco himself. He had protested at first, waiting for his friend to be free, but then Mr. Saleh had explained that Kreatcher could have a breakdown if he felt him rejecting the servitude bond, not because he couldn’t sustain himself without it -there was enough ambient magic at the Black house to sustain at least three house elves- but because of the deep psychological scars that had been ingrate into the small creature.

Draco wanted to protest more but Mr. Blackstone sent him to retrieve the redheaded assistant before he could annoy the man any further.

Talking about that “This may sound weird but…” He glanced at the young man with a critical eye, he had had the feeling that he knew him from somewhere “Do you happen to have twin little brothers?”

“A subtle way of asking if I’m a Weasley, kid” The young man rolled his eyes, hands occupied drawing some runes on the floor. Walburga Black would have thrown a fit at the people ruining her hardwood floors “Yeah, name is Bill Weasley, the oldest of the bunch, I assume you have met Fred and George”

“And Ron, but he is a prat, so I don’t count him” Draco eyed the symbols with curiosity, maybe he should study ancient runes. It was an optative in third grade, wasn’t it?

“What did he do this time?”

“What? Not defending him?” He raised an eyebrow in defiance, Draco knew about brothers that could be a nuisance, but his first instinct had always been to defend them -yes, even Mikael- when someone else was badmouthing them.

Like Malcom once said, only Athena’s kids can make fun of Athena’s kids.

“My littlest brother can be a headache in the best of days”

“Yeah, no kidding…wait, how many of you there are?”

“Seven” Bill stared at him as if waiting for his reaction at the number of siblings he had, but, honey, Draco didn’t even know how many siblings he had! Twelve? Twenty? A hundred? Who knew? -Later Draco would remember that since Grindegauld’s regime of terror Wizards decided to stick to one to at most three children- not seeing any bad reaction from him, the redhead continued “there’s me, then Charlie”

“The Dragon tamer” Draco nodded, it still hurt that Harry nor Hermione seemed to not trust him enough to tell him about their plan with the dragon. On the other hand, he really wanted to go to this Dragon Preserve, maybe he could convince Mr. Blackstone to go next summer…if the world didn’t decide to end once more, that is.

“Why do you know that?” Bill gave him a narrowed stare. Did the young man know about the whole dragon fiasco? He hopped not.

“…the Gryffindor’s Quidditch captain”

Bill thankfully laughed at that, who knew that Wood’s ramblings about their last seeker would help him. Draco should send him some candy or something.

“Is he still mad that Charly didn’t accept the Chumney cannons proposal?” Bill seemed a little bit too amused by that, Draco wondered if Wood had been such an avid fan since his first year “Anyways, then is Percy, you should know him, he’s still at Hogwarts, one of Gryffindor’s prefects”

At the name Draco almost choked on his own spit, gods, the fates had a weird sense of humor.

“I’m sorry…Percy? Like, Perseus?” Why was there another Percy near him? This was so funny, maybe he should send a letter back home asking his sister what his boyfriend was doing at his school. He should get a camera. That would be hilarious!

“Percival, but he doesn’t like his full name, but who does these days?”

“I do”

Bill kept talking as if he hadn’t interrupted him, to which Draco rolled his eyes. He could see it now; Bill was the older of a bunch of kids. Liam also does that, pretending no one else was talking.

“Then, there’s the twins…”

“Gred and Forge, yes I know them”

“Then there’s Ron and finally the little princess, Ginny”

“Princess?” Draco asked a little bit wary of the term, he could see Bill was fond of his sister but there was also some bitterness in his statement. 

“Mom really wanted a daughter” Oh, yeah, that would do it. Draco internally cringed “She’s starting Hogwarts this year”

“That’s cool, I wonder how it would be if any of my siblings went to Hogwarts with me” 

Draco frowned when the redhead didn’t reply, he should have investigated it further if Mr. Blackstone hadn’t screamed from downstairs. 

“Lunch is here!”

“Coming!” He rushed out trying to ignore awkward silence in the room, but contrary of what Draco may believe it wasn’t because Bill was jealous of his little sister. It was because Draco said siblings. Bill stood there blinking owlishly at the statement

-

“Are you sure about this?” Asked for the tenth time, Mr. Blackstone, his face was a little wary. Thankfully the ritual wasn’t going to meddle with Draco’s magical core, but it was still risky.

It was a transfer of ownership, it involved some blood magic and, to be honest, was technically illegal on British soil. It also made Draco dress up in a white robe and bathe in strange smelling waters, to ‘clean his soul’ or something. He was sure Mr. Saleh was just joking. 

“If it’s necessary to have my friend back, count me in” Draco reminded Mr. Blackstone, the green-eyed man huffed in exasperation but relented, letting Draco finally walk to stand in the middle of the runes circle.

Mr. Saleh started to cast, and the runes turned bright, so bright Draco could barely see, as he was right in the middle of them. A loud pop could be heard, Kreatcher had appeared, called by the magic.

“If you feel like you are in pain…” Mr. Blackstone practically screamed over the chanting. 

“I’ve dealt with worse, in worst situations” Draco rolled his eyes, the man was being a worrywart, maybe that’s why he got to be the head of the unspeakables.

“Fine, I’ll throw you under the bus when Mr. Black ask how things went”

“Let’s do this”

-

Draco groaned, he somehow ended up sprawled on the floor. His head was killing him, but his magic was humming contently. Slowly he got his bearings and finally noticed the screaming that was happening, how he hadn’t noticed the protective magic bubble around him?

 Kreatcher stood in front of him, clearly protective, while screaming about ‘letting Master Regulus’ alone’ the three adults in there seemed to have been trying to explain to the house-elf that they weren’t trying to do any harm. Mr. Blackstone stopped talking when he noticed Draco had regained consciousness.

“Kreatcher, Kreatcher, is fine, it’s me…” The house-elf turned around with bright eyes, he seemed a little bit saner, and idly helped Draco sit up. 

“Master Regulus?”

Draco smiled at his friend, whatever Walburga did to him seemed less severe now “Not quite, but close” 

“M-Young Master?” Kreatcher made both end up on the floor again, but Draco didn’t care, not about Kreatcher’s dirty pillowcase that was making his white robe dirty, nor about the dust and grime on the floor, or the way Kreatcher started to pet his hair with small dirty hands as if to reassure himself Draco was there. 

He could feel the tears in his eyes, letting them fall free “Yeah, it, it’s me Kreat, it’s your little dragon”

“I haven’t seen such a close relationship between a house elf and their master” Commented Mr. Saleh, making him remember they weren’t alone. Draco sat up a little bit sheepishly noticing how Bill was watching the whole exchange with an astonished face, Mr. Blackstone’s eyes were suspiciously bright, and Mr. Saleh had a smile on his face “At least not on British soil”

-

“Drakeeee!” Draco had to stop himself from flinching at the sudden noise, but thankfully was spared from the ground thanks to Kreatcher moving them away from the incoming person “Ouch”

Said person ending up on the floor after their attempt at tackling him “Hey Lou…what are you doing here?”

“The old man has to sign some papers for school” His friend mumbled from the floor, apparently deciding it was a good place to be.

“Lil’ Master Lycorice! Mimsy was wor…Kreatcher?”

Mimsy stared at Kreatcher with wide eyes, if one stared closely there were some tears on her eyes. Kreatcher moved forward and make an elaborate bow “Kreatcher presents itself to the head the house elves of the Black family, Kreatcher is now appointed as Master Dragon’s personal elf”

“it’s himself, Kreat, you are not a thing” Draco cringed at that, and relented at Lou’s heated glare “or themselves, or herself, I don’t really care, but you are my friend not an object”

The two present house-elves paid him no mind, and stared at each other, Mimsy clearly assessing Kreatcher and Kreatcher waiting for verdict. Just as the silence was starting to get awkward Mimsy took Kreatcher’s hand and started to drag him somewhere. 

“Mimsy will not tolerate this! That pillowcase it’s dirty. Lil’ Master Lycorice’s personal elf needs to be presentable”

The following silence was only broken by Lou’s whistle “She’s harsh” They then turned to assess him, and made a face at the state of his clothes and hair “But she doesn’t tell lies…you too need a bath”

“Whatever” Draco grumbled under his breath while making his way to the nearest bathroom.

-

Kreatcher was now officially Draco’s personal house elf, thing his little friend liked to rub on Mimsy’s face. Draco found amusing how Mimsy stormed off after a heated debate over how to do Draco’s laundry -Later he told Kreatcher to not be mean to the other house elves, thing he agreed to, a little bit reluctantly. 

He also had to order Kreatcher to go to the goblins for mind healing sessions, Draco felt kind of bad about that, but his friend wouldn’t go otherwise. Draco and Mimsy had to team up tough, to get the stubborn elf out of his dirty pillowcase.

“C’mon Kret! Mimsy made you a nice pillow-based uniform!” Draco felt a little bit ridiculous, crouching down trying to get Kreatcher out of the chimney where he had decided to hide. Thank Hades it wasn’t connected to the floo network “It even has the Black’s emblem!”

“Kreatcher is an unworthy creature of such fine things! Kreatcher is fine with his current state” said state was covered in cinders and smelling like burnt wood, Draco didn’t mind, he had smelt worse when he had to clean the pegasi’s stable, but Mimsy’s scoff behind him told another story. 

“Kreatcher doesn’t know what he is talking about” The female house-elf reprimanded, Draco could picture her frown even though he couldn’t see her face “If someone saw Kreatcher, they would assume Lil’ Master Lycorice is a bad owner, do you want that?”

Kreatcher seemed to hesitate at that, and Draco sighed, finally taking the elf’s hand, and helping him out of the chimney, Mimsy had her small fists on her hips and was scowling at both. Oh, right, cinders on the ancient camper.

Draco would later apologize for the mess. He had an elf to convince. 

“T-they aren’t even new pillowcases Kret! They are from camp, very old, passed down by my siblings” Which was true, the goblins had told Draco to not overwhelm Kreatcher with shiny new things.

“Kreatcher accepts just to not shame the Black name”

Despite the reluctant acceptance, Kreatcher seemed to preen even more with his new robes. He did a wonderful job around the manor, always a call away from Draco. Sometimes Draco only called him for his company, thing the house-elf found weird the first time, and Draco had to remind him that he considered him his friend. 

Kreatcher had also managed to convince Hogwarts’s elves to let him help in the kitchen and cleaning Draco’s dorm, at least Draco didn’t have to worry about him when he went back to Hogwarts.

-

Despite being literally just one day before departure, his friends had agreed to meet at Diagon. None of them had to buy any school supplies tough -thank Hades for Mr. Blackstone- so it was more like a social gathering. Draco was just glad that his friends weren’t mad at him for not responding to their letters.

People stared at him, but they were at least polite enough to not approach him, well, all except certain dark-skinned brat that almost pushed him to the ground in his haste of running from somewhere. 

“Draco! Thank merlin! Help me!”

“Woa, Blay, what’s wrong?” Draco watched warily around him; he didn’t want to attract any monster. 

“Marcus Flint is what’s wrong, he and Theo had been exchanging letters all summer, talking about strategy and what not, he’s insufferable, I can’t take him anymore” Oh, there was no actual danger, Draco sighed giving Blaise an eyeroll.

“I thought you were in danger or something!”

“I am! Of dying by boredom!” Before Draco could ask Blaise what he was referring to, Theo appeared looking like he had been running a marathon, dishelmed hair, and all. 

“There you are! We need to check out the gear if we are going to apply for the team!”

Draco groaned out loud, he had tough that the brunet had been joking on his letter. But he forgot this was his Quidditch obsessed friend “Oh no, are you still planning to apply to the quidditch team?”

“Of course! And you two are going to apply with me”

Theo started to drag them towards quality quidditch supplies by the hem of their robes, as if they were kittens or something. Blaise seemed resigned to their fate but kept grumbling under his breath. 

“I don’t want to die at every match, like Potter”

-

After being forced to buy a lot of things -Draco put his foot down at buying a broom, his argument was that he would have one delivered if, and only if, he made it into the team- Theo had dragged them to Flourish and Blotts, which seemed to have had a small party in it. Quite a rare sight for a bookshop.

“What happened here?” Draco’s internal Athena kid wanted to rescue as many books as he could from the honestly disturbing number of pictures of a smiling man that kept winking at them on loop “Some kind of…event? Why does the name sound familiar?”

“Mate, that is our new DADA teacher” Grumbled Theo from behind a pile of books, right, he had wanted to come by to see if there were decent Defense books, didn’t he? Well, the purple disaster explained things. 

“Oh, you have to be kidding me”

“Nope, announced last month, it was even in the newspaper and everything” Blaise dismissed, clearly more preoccupied trying to find some reading books -live inside a castle wasn’t always that fun- Draco frowned when he saw a newspaper lying around with Harry on it.

“Why am I not surprised Harry is on the front page?”

“Really? He shouldn’t be there…” Theo mumbled while eyeing the paper suspiciously.

“What? Why?”

“Do read the news Draco” The brunet scoffed and shoved half of the books he was carrying into Draco’s arms “Your guardian made them approve a law to protect young wizards and witches, it started with media but there are now some groups trying to push for minor protection laws”

“Oh, yeah, I read something about that. Mamma was delighted with that, apparently Britain is the only magical population in the world with so laxed laws about it” said Blaise, while carrying some type of Herbology book, Draco raised an eyebrow at his friend who shuddered. 

-

Draco had interrupted his packing -which wasn’t that much, Kreatcher and Mimsy took care of the most important things, which was fair, Draco was used to survival packing, just a pair of clothes, some ambrosia and his daggers and he was ready to go- to have tea with his Bon-papa, they were now reading something while enjoying the quiet. That was until Draco realized that the information on his new books was lacking. 

“Hogwarts education is going down the drain” He scoffed, frowning even harder at the nonsense the book had in it. Draco practically launched the book in frustration, the false information and the frilly font wasn’t making it easier for him to read it, Kreatcher popped in and took it before it could hit the wall “Thanks Kretch”

“And why do you say that?”

“These are not books, these are fantasy novels, some of the things don’t even made sense!” And that was coming from a demigod that fought fantasy beasts daily. But what Athena’s kids hated the most was misinformation, so he stood up to rant to his great grandfather who watched the whole scene a little bit bemused “Bon-papa! Let me tell you that’s not how you defeat a Troll”

“And why would you know that young man? As far as I know Trolls aren’t in the Greek folklore”

Ups, no one was supposed to know about that. Draco avoided Arcturus' narrowed eyes and bolted for the door “Look at the time, I have to finish packing…sleep tight!”

“Lycorice!”

-

“Ok, are you sure you have everything?” Arcturus and him were in the middle of the platform, his great-grandfather was on a wheelchair, his health still being quite delicate, but his permanent pale constitution seemed to improve with the grandfatherly attitude. Draco forced himself not to squirm under the stares.

“Yes bon-papa, I do”

“My grandson is all grown up and going to Hogwarts, I’m proud of you” Draco hopped he wasn’t as red as a strawberry under all the praise. Arcturus had mentioned he had always wanted to be there when Draco departed for school, and now he was there, fussing over Draco.

The unfamiliar feeling of an adult figure worrying over him was making him flustered, he thanked Hades that his friends weren’t present to tease him. 

“It’s not even my first year bon-papa”

“Oh, shush it, give this old man a hug” And Draco did, because he may be embarrassed but would never deny his great-grandfather anything. If he hugged him very tight, it was just between them both.

“I’ll see you at Christmas bon-papa”

“Are you still sure you don’t want to go back to camp?”

“I want to pass the hols with you, and don’t worry about me, Kreat is already at Hogwarts”

“That elf for sure can be stubborn” The old man gave a last squeeze to the hug and gave Draco a warm smile “Take care Lycorice”

“I will”

-

“Is this seat occupied?” It was ridiculously easy to find his friends, they had taken the same compartment they did at winter break, and he assumed it was the same they had claimed at the end of the school year. Was it now their official compartment? 

“Draco!” Blaise beamed at him, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were inside the compartment too, but where preoccupied eating sweets, right, Blaise had mentioned in his first letter. 

“Blay! Where’s Theo?”

“Went to find Flint, he is going to convince him to follow his Quidditch’s plays, the mad man”

Draco rolled his eyes in fond exasperation, putting on the racks, Noctua’s empty cage. He wanted to leave it at Black Manor. It seemed like the owl despised it, but Mimsy had insisted “How bad would he react if he didn’t get into the team?”

“Very bad, he has been training all summer”

“Who?” Interrupted a new voice, it was Pansy being followed closely behind by a blond girl. Draco didn’t remember her name, but Blaise did.

“Hey Pansy, Daphne. Theo, he wants to apply for the quidditch team” At that Pansy rolled her eyes so hard Draco worried she may have broken her optic nerve. Daphne chuckled at her friends’ antics.

“Draco, some Ravenclaws are searching for you, they are down the corridor”

-

“My favorite Ravens!” Draco beamed at his clandestine brewing club; Miley gave him a smack to the back of the head while the rest chorused.

“Draco!”

“You, sir, need to stop disappearing when the breaks are about to start” Grumbled Miley, shoving Draco inside the compartment which was somehow filled to the brim with books and small smoking cauldrons. How? At most they had been there ten minutes.

“Sorry, sorry, I did send you all a letter”

“ ‘I’m fine, don’t worry, best wishes Draco’ ” Deadpanned Laura while shoving said letter, more like a note, in front of Draco’s face. 

“I was in a hurry?”

“Whatever, close the door, we need your opinion for this” Hurried Dustin taking out of what Draco assumed to be an enchanted bag, a chemistry kit, like the ones they give kids for Christmas. He promptly closed the door behind him.

“If the compartment explodes, I’m throwing all of you under the bus”

“Man of little faith”

-

Who knew one shouldn’t mix Shrinking solution with bicarbonate? They were lucky Richard knew a shield charm to stop all their things shrinking down from the droplets left out of the small explosion. Just when Richard -the only responsible one in there, or so he said- was opening the window to clear the fumes the compartment door opened and Cedric Diggory, the guy Draco had befriended last year thinking he may be one of his brothers, stood there watching the scene dumbfounded. 

“I don’t know what to say”

“Hey Ced, nice to see you did get the perfect badge” Cheered Dustin, not at all minding that he had a lock of hair caught on fire. Where did that even come from? 

“Why am I not surprised you were involved?”

Draco spluttered in place; Cedric had been one of the few people that had caught them when some of their experiments went wrong. Thankfully the Hufflepuff didn’t snitch on them, that may change though, it seemed like the blond now had a perfect badge pinned to his robes “It’s not what it looks like! We were set up”

“Sure, thing Draco” The gray eyed teen gave them all a mock reproachful stare “Just clean up before any other Prefect comes to see what the ruckus was about”

“I love that man” Mumbled Dustin after Cedric had disappeared behind the door, the rest of the Ravens giggled like mad.

“Who doesn’t?”

-

After the disaster Draco had been sent back to his own compartment to change, there he avoided Pansy’s curious glances and Theo’s reproachful stare. They were now playing a game of exploding snap, when a thought occurred to him “Has anyone seen Harry or Weasley?” 

“Oh, now that you mention it, Hermione visited the compartment asking for them”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“What? You viciously defeated me in an exploding snap game, I can hold grudges” Defended Blaise while gesturing to the game which Draco was currently winning, surprisingly Goyle was in second place, it appears that betting candy could be a good incentive.

“So can I” Grumbled Draco, reminding Blaise with his stare that they shared a dorm. A heavy sigh made them all turn to stare at Theo who finally put his book down to give them a stern stare. 

“Ladies, ladies, you are both pretty” the brunet deadpanned.

“But I’m the prettiest”

“Sure, you are Pansy”

-

Draco hadn’t paid that much attention to the sorting, more preoccupied watching with awe the enchanted ceiling. That’s why when he finally tuned in his surroundings, he found odd how a first year Slytherin kept staring at him as if he had stolen her candy or something. 

“Any idea why she’s staring at me?” He whispered to Theo who sat at his right and was pretending to pay attention to the last of the first-year kids. 

“You seriously don’t know?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking you about it” Draco scoffed, glancing back at the girl, she had straight dark brown hair and gray eyes. She seemed a little bit familiar, but he couldn’t tell from where. 

“That’s Aurora Malfoy, your cousin” Deadpanned Pansy to his left, seemingly exasperated at Draco’s lack of recognition. 

“Wait, what?”

“Do you live under a rock?” Draco had to resist the urge to scoff at Pansy’s accusing tone. He was rather preoccupied last summer! Excuse him if he didn’t have time to know all the gossip of the world!

Taking a deep breath to not snap at the girl he mumbled under his breath “Sorry, I do know the Malfoys are somehow related to me, I didn’t know she started Hogwarts this year”

“Merlin, he does”

“Hey!”

-

“And I was wondering why Snape didn’t gave me detention as soon as I stepped inside Hogwarts” Mumbled Draco under his breath, cringing each time what he assumed to be Mrs. Weasley’s voice reverberated through the entire Hall.

“What an entrance” Blaise seemed a little awed, he had practically demanded Draco to explain to him what a car was. And seemed to be impressed by it.

“How stupid” Retorted Theo with an eyeroll.

“I’m just glad I’m not stuck cleaning cauldrons the first week of class”

“Oh, Snape will find something to give you detention for” smirked Pansy while spreading some jam over her toast. Draco didn’t know when, but all their year had sat around them, even the ones he hadn’t exchanged a word with. It seemed that Pucey’s hold on them just lasted last year, good to know. 

“You must be Draco Black” A little voice said behind him making him turn around. Aurora Malfoy stood there, her robes all proper and no hair out of place. She was flanked by two other girls Draco assumed must also be first years. 

“Oh, Aurora Malfoy, right?” The girl nodded tightly, eyes roaming Draco’s face as if searching for something “I heard we are cousins”

“You look like my mom” The kid mumbled, taking a seat at Draco’s side, making Blaise scoot over with a little bit of annoyance. Draco raised his eyebrow, looking at the kid a little bit amused, she reminded him of his siblings back at camp.

“She’s Narcissa Black, right?” 

*-*

Harry looked a little baffled at the kid in front of him, Creeve was very persistent for someone that was so shy five seconds ago. Ron was clearly holding laughter at his side and Hermione wasn’t faced at all, too preoccupied with her copy of ‘Wandering with wolves’. He took a deep breath, ready to gently turn down the request. When an excited squeal made them turn around to watch Malfoy approach, another two first-year Slytherin girls at her sides.

“Are you really signing photos?” The girl was practically vibrating in place, Harry’s face became aflame, oh great, another fan. He had forgotten he had those “Can I have one?”

“No” he told them firmly, making the four first-year students flinch back a little bit. Harry felt bad and sighed in exasperation “Because I am not signing photos”

“But he said” Was Malfoy about to cry? Oh great. Harry was now receiving reproachful stares from onlookers.

“Look I am not…”

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Gilderoy Lockhart walked towards them with big steps, his turquoise robe swishing behind him “Who’s firming photos?”

*-*

Draco had been avoiding Snape like the plague the last two days, he somehow managed to avoid detention from his trouble last school term, he would like it to remain that way. He had somehow bonded with his estranged cousin who insisted on sitting at his side every meal for some reason, Pansy’s theory was that Malfoy had always wanted an older sibling figure, Draco didn’t know if he should take that as a compliment.

So far classes weren’t that bad, and besides having to help Blaise and a Ravenclaw kid to fight off a very rebellious mandragora at Herbology’s class, their days seemed to run smoothly so far, that was why half his friends were dreading DADA with Lockhart. 

“I just hope our class is not a fiasco like the Gryffindor’s where” Mumbled Theo under his breath watching warily in front of the class where Lockard was putting out a cage that rattled around every so often.

“Did you talk with Hermione?”

“No, but that Finnigan boy rattled loud enough at the courtyard for the whole Hogwarts to know”

Before they could father discuss the fiasco that would be the class -away from Pansy’s ears, she would hit them all on the head for badmouthing the Professor- Lockhart finally decided to start his class. 

“Well class! Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts! I am Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League; and the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times in a row! But we are not here to talk about that. My smile wasn’t the thing that helped me fight the banshee that calls on death!”

Draco wanted to bash his head on the desk, the man was grating on his nerves, and he had only met him for like five minutes. He had to resist the urge to interrogate the man on all the wrong facts his books talked about, because it would be suspicious if he knew how to properly defeat a werewolf.

“ I see you all have bought my whole series! Good, good. We are going to start with a little quiz. Don’t worry! It’s only to see how much you have read, how much have you learned. The highest score so far was Miss Granger from Gryffindor! So, let’s see how Slytherin fares!”

Draco and Theo shared a grimace, they hadn’t had the time to talk with the Gryffindor, but he tough, Hermione would be sensate enough to not fall for the charlatanerie, apparently, she was in the same boat as all the Slytherin girls. He would give the girl some books to make her realize there were abysmal inconsistencies.

Draco almost groaned out loud when he read the quiz, sadly, he knew all the answers. Despite having ranted to his great-grandfather about the books, his inner Athena child forced him to read them all to find all the inconsistencies. His books were all plagued now with notes at the margins and highlighting explaining why certain things didn’t make sense. Hey, maybe he should lend Hermione one of his copies.

When Lockhart retrieved the quizzes, Draco had to hide himself behind his own books; he had responded to them all, correctly, for the gods, the humiliation. Thankfully Lockhart set the papers aside, apparently going to grade them after class.

“Now class, I was going to let you test yourselves against one of the vilest creatures of the wizarding world” Lockhart signaled to the covered cage, and Draco raised an eyebrow, pretty sure the any of the truly deathly monsters couldn’t fit in there. “But there has been a miscalculation on my last class, so we can only observe them now” 

 “Cornish Pixies” Breathed Theo in astonishment. Inside the cage were at least ten Cornish Pixies, half of them on the cage’s floor asleep.

“Great observation Mr...”

“Nott”

“Mr. Nott, ten points to Slytherin!” Despite Lockhart beaming at them, and the girls -and some boys- swooning at the smile, there was a part of the class trying to hold in their laughter. The Slytherin house consisted mainly of pure bloods and half-bloods, they all knew about Cornish Pixies, and knew how easy it was to defeat them.

“Now, since the Ravenclaws seemed quite eager to test their enchantments on these little fellows, we have time for questions. Anyone?” 

Immediately Pansy put her hand up in the air, followed by very excited Slytherin Lockhart’s fans. The man beamed at them, clearly pleased with all the attention.

“He reminds me of Narcissus” Draco mumbled under his breath, talking to no one in particular.

“Your aunt?” Blaise asked, clearly confused. Draco sighed.

“No, from the Greek myth…”

Their conversation was cut short when Lockhart addressed Pansy, after making a show of deciding who to pick. The prick. “Yes, Miss...”

“Parkinson, Pansy Parkinson Sir” 

“What would your question be, dear?”

“Are you single?” The girls squealed; Lockhart's smile turned a little bit strained, but he answered non the least. Draco sighed, positioning his head on the palm of his hand waiting for the torture to stop. 

After five minutes of questions, Draco zoned out, that is until someone asked about Lockhart’s beauty and the Professor -if one could call him that- responded bashfully.

“Oh dear, you could say it is divine. One shaman I founded in one of my travels through the States mentioned that I may be of divine descendance…you know? People in the States think that gods still live among us, not only wizards but also muggles!” At that Draco let his head fall into the desk with a loud thud, did this man was seriously saying that he had divine beauty?

Lockhart may be handsome, but no Aphrodite kid level of handsomest, heck Draco was sure Drew would disinherit him if she ever landed her eyes on his bright colored coordinated robes. Sadly, he had brought the attention of the whole class to him.

“Is there any problem Mr…”

“Black, Draco Black. And no sir, I was just surprised to hear unbiased rumors on British soil”

The whole class stared at him a little bit astonished, Theo was making hand gestures for him to stop talking, clearly hearing the mocking tone in his voice. But this man was speaking nonsense! If his New York accent came up, no one seemed to pay it any mind. 

“Oh! Heir Black, you have been living in the states, right?” Before Draco could retort, Lockhart shook his head sadly, as if reprimanding a small kid “But you, more than everyone knows how vast the country is, maybe it is just ridiculous nonsense to you…”

Oh, hades no, he wasn’t going to let this man keep talking “I know enough about Greek mythology to know when…”

“Aha! So, you do know the base of these rumors! I didn’t mention any religion in particular! You just confirmed it may have something to do with Greeks!”

Draco spluttered in place, furious, he had to be dragged out of the classroom when the bell rang.

-

“Draco! Theo! Blaise!” He may have been a little bit too inverted on his Herbology homework, wondering if the mandragoras could be used to cure Medusa’s stare, that’s the only reason he got startled at the sudden voice of his Gryffindor friend. 

“Hermione! This is the library! Shh!” Reprimanded Theo with a small smile, Blaise at his side rolled his eyes and kept writing his Potions essay. 

“Sorry, sorry”

Behind the bushy haired girl, two boys appeared, Harry’s presence was expected, he had after all joined their unofficial homework club last term. The surprise was the redhead, to whom Draco hadn’t talked after the failed apology.

“Harry, Weasley…I heard about your little adventure, let me say that…” Draco started.

“It was completely irresponsible” Gushed Hermione, reproachful stare already on her friends. 

“What? No, I was going to say that next time they should invite me over…a flying car Hermione! Like in the movies!” He had to admit, it reminded him of her sister’s little adventure on top of the Argo II. Leo had promised to let him ride it when they returned…and well…there wasn’t a boat anymore.

“Sometimes I forget you are friends with the twins”

“They aren’t that bad '' Defend Draco, while Blaise chuckled at their antics. Theo, like always had droned them out to keep writing his…was that the transfiguration homework?

They kept working in relative silence, well at least the Slytherin’s and Hermione, Harry kept glancing at Draco every so often as if wanting to ask something, and Ron hadn’t even attempted to do his work, eyebrows furrowed and staring at Draco like he had stolen his food.

“What?”

“Is Malfoy related to you?” Blurted out Harry before he talked himself out of it, Draco rolled his eyes, of course everyone knew about his cousin before him. 

“More related to me than Weasley here” He mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Blaise and Theo to hear, who chuckled a little at the statement. To the Gryffindors he said “She’s my second cousin”

Harry hummed and nodded as if that confirmed something, but he wasn’t done with his questioning. After another two minutes the dark-haired boy questioned in a hushed accusatory tone “Did you send a house-elf to prank me this summer?”

“Excuse me?” Draco asked, baffled. 

“You hear him! Did you send a house-elf to Harry’s house?” Whispered yelled Weasley, as if he had been trying to say the same all this time. Draco sighed heavily; brows furrowed. 

“Why, pray tell me, would I do that?”

“Aha! You admit you own house-elves!”

Blaise hit the red haired kid at the back of the head lightly with his rolled-up parchment, as if he was a misbehaving dog “The Black family is one of the most ancient ones Ronald, of course he has elves, almost all Slytherin has”

“Don’t call me Ronald”

Draco huffed in annoyance, he was a fool for ever thinking that maybe Ron Weasley and him could be friends, the worst thing was that he was feeding Harry strange ideas, and the dark-haired kid was eating them up! He abruptly stood up, startling some nearby tables with the sudden movement “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it. Now if you excuse me, I have to get a book for my essay”

He stomped over to the Herbology section, fuming, what would he ever send a house-elf to prank someone? He had just gotten Kreatcher back, he would never send him in foolish errands like that. Kreatcher was his friend, not a servant! 

“What?” Draco snapped when a warm hand landed on his shoulder, Theo gave him a tight smile. 

“He still hasn’t apologized, has he?”

“Will he ever?” He huffed out, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Theo was his friend, and he shouldn’t take it out on him. He gave the brunet a smile “Thanks for the checking on me, Theo”

“Don’t know what you are talking about, I needed a book too”

-

They were walking back from the library, after the small argument Weasley had stormed out of there, Harry and Hermione close behind. The girl had sent them an apologetic smile before following his friends. They had stayed back, there was no way Draco would let a silly argument ruin his schedule.

When they were getting near Slytherin’s common room entrance, Draco stopped abruptly, making Theo and Blaise bump on his back, but he didn’t care. There in the middle of the hallways was Adrian Pucey, a fifth grader, looming over a clearly terrified first grader. A first grader Draco knew well.

“Leave her alone Pucey” Draco pushed the older teen away, the dark-haired kid quickly hiding behind his robes. Blaise and Theo positioning themselves at his sides. It was weird that Pucey didn’t have any of his lackeys around, but Draco was too mad to care.

“Or what? You have no authority over me Black”

“I may not, but maybe my fists can arrange that”

At that the teen sneered, mockingly putting his hands up “Always going for the muggle way, where is your pride as a wizard?”

“At least this way there isn’t any magical signature left behind” Draco took a step up, internally pleased when Pucey took one back. Then he pitched up his voice and put on his most innocent face “No Professor McGonagall, we don’t know who it was, when we arrived, he was already on the ground. It could have been anyone”

“Whatever” Spatted nervously Pucey eyeing warily the kid behind Draco’s robes, which was weird because Draco was the one threatening him and was sure the teen had been about to hit the girl just minutes ago. It didn’t make sense him being wary of the girl “See who you take sides with, Malfoy”

Draco huffed, watching how Pucey entered the common room. Maybe a set of pranks was due to maintain that dunderhead under control. After a few minutes of silence, he turned around when he felt small tugs on his robes. 

“Are you okay Aurora?”

“I’m fine…I don’t know why he did that”

“Because he’s a prat, come, let’s go to the common room”

Draco didn’t notice Aurora Malfoy’s mischievous smile, nor the wary glances Theo kept sending to the younger witch. 

-

The day had come, and Draco was dreading the results. Fine, he had had a weirdly smooth understanding of flying broom dynamics in that first flying class. It had been fun, but flying now reminded him of Leo, and that was a can of worms he didn’t want to open.

It was sad how easy he caved when Theo started to pout, though, so now he and Blaise were walking behind a very excited brunet who kept rambling about all the faints and strategies they could make to impress Marcus Flint, Slytherin’s Quidditch captain. 

“I don’t think this thing can fly at all,” Mumbled Blaise, eyeing the pair of brooms they had borrowed from the school’s shed. They were old and were losing branches, Draco just hoped they didn’t break apart with them on top. At least on the lava wall he had objects to slow down his fall.

“I told you to buy a new one” Theo dismissed rolling his eyes “But you had to follow Draco’s lead”

“Excuse me for not being a Quidditch fanatic”

Theo smirked while practically dragging them, brooms, and all, to the quidditch pitch, it was too early for this “If you do enter the team even using that, I’ll applaud in ovation”

“Har, har, you indulge me with your faith in my abilities” Deadpanned Draco, trotting up to not be dragged. Blaise didn’t care and kept grumbling under his breath following unenthusiastically “Which position are we applying to?”

“Me for chaser. Blaise, and you. I don’t know…”

“May as well apply for seeker or keeper, it runs in the family” Draco shugred, his dad had mentioned in his diary how he had played as a seeker for Slytherin and how Uncle Sirius had been a Keeper for his own team. He wondered if insults were exchanged on the pitch, and it seemed like his dad resented Sirius for leaving him behind.

“Ooh, another clue for Draco’s mysterious dad”

“Shut it”

Draco stopped dead on his tracks when he noticed that the pitch was already in use, but not by their house “Are you sure today are the tryouts?”

“The flier said so, first Saturday of term, early morning, why?”

“Then why are the Gryffindors here?”

“Oh, great”

*-*

“Flint” Wood screamed to the head of the Slytherin team “It’s our turn training, we woke up early for this. So, you can go back now”

Harry watched, baffled, how Marcus Flint, Slytherin Quidditch team Captain scoffed at Oliver Wood, clearly displeased with their presence on the pitch. All the Slytherin team was behind him, in full uniform. Adding in some people with sports like clothes.

“You may have reserved the pitch Wood, but you didn’t specify the time. Madam Hooch knows that Slytherin team has it’s tryouts every year, first Saturday of term early morning”

“I don’t see anyone for the tryouts!” Spluttered Wood flying his arms around. Flint took a step up to be chest to chest with their Captain, Gryffindor team was waiting for the fight. 

That was until a blond entered the pitch, running like something was chasing him. In came Draco Black, not even out of breath, behind him were the rest of his friends trying and failing to catch up. That effectively diverted the attention from all the present to the new arrivals “Merlin we are late, told you to catch up”

“Not all of us run like our lives depended on it, Draco” Panted Nott, using his broom as a baston to keep him up.

“Draco?” Harry blinked once or twice, but yeah, that was Draco Black, in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Looking more ready for a marathon than for a Quidditch tryouts. 

“Harry…hey Fred! Hey! George!”

“Hi Drakey!”

“Don’t mingle with the enemy!” Screeched Wood, still on Flint’s face “Look, Madam Hooch didn’t tell me anything when I reserved the pitch”

“Maybe because only Slytherin’s are mad enough to wake early morning for Quidditch tryouts” Grumbled Zabini under his breath, and Harry could only nod, it was clear that the Gryffindor team wasn’t used to the early practice. 

“We tough this may happen” Sneered Flint, taking out a parchment from under his robes “Snape gave us a note”

Wood snatched the affronted note with bad humor and read it while grumbling under his breath. “You, are you searching for any position? Which one are you lot, trying out for?”

“None of your business Wood” Flint huffed.

“Fine, we will let you to it. Team! Stay close to the pitch! We will return at...”

Flint rolled his eyes but gave an estimated “We will finish by ten”

“Eleven!”

Harry was about to head back to his friends, maybe if they rushed, they could still grab some breakfast. 

“Oh look, Hermione is here”

“What’s going on?” Asked Ron “What are they doing here?”

“Draco! Theo! Blaise! What are you doing here?” Asked Hermione in a more cheerful manner to greet her Slytherin friends, Harry still wasn’t sure how she managed to befriend Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Draco, he could see, he was a social butterfly, but his two friends often came up as stern and closed.

“Theo wants us to apply for the team” 

“Blaise is just mad I woke him up from his beauty sleep” Nott rolled his eyes, giving Hermione a ‘what can you do’ kind of shrug. 

“I hope you get in!” Hermione beamed, but before anyone could say anything else, a tall figure appeared and pushed Draco out of the way, and into the ground. It was Adrian Pucey. 

“ No one asked for your opinion, mud blood”

Harry didn’t know why but all the present tensed, Wood had to stop Fred from punching Pucey and he had a feeling that if looks could kill the Slytherin would be ten feet under with the way Draco glared at him.

“You didn’t”

“I knew you were a dirty half-blood, but thought you smart enough to not mingle to mud bloods, Black” It all happened too fast, Ron took out his wand, Draco stood up so fast Harry was sure he did a front flip. In an instant, it ended, Draco punched Pucey right in the face, sending him flying to the ground. Sadly, it happened at the same time Ron lost control of his wand, and his redhaired friend was throwing up slugs.

“Don’t call my friends derogatory terms Pucey” , Sheeted Draco, Harry could only stare wide eyed, because Pucey had been thrown like a rag doll. As if Draco had more muscle than the average twelve-year old.

The pitch was silent, only broken by Draco’s heavy breath and Ron’s gagging noises. At the five-mark minute Wood started to drag the team out of there. 

“…We better go, good luck with your tryouts Flint” Wood pushed them all out of the pitch, at the corner of his eye he could see a furious Snape entering, and Draco’s face paling.

*-*

Draco was fuming, not only did some bigot dared to insult one of his friends right on his face, but he also got in trouble! Snape didn’t let him explain himself and he had been banned from trying out for the Quidditch team, had had a lecture of an hour about ‘mindlessly punching fellow Slytherin’s’ and had been assigned a month of cauldron duty.

At camp at least Chiron always listened to both sides of the story! 

“One month of detention, one month!” He kept pacing, they were inside their dorm, Theo was sprawled face-down over his bed while Blaise sat at the foot of it, stress eating a bag of chocolate. He was worried the school would call his mom.

After more pacing, a few curse words in Greek on behalf of his favorite professor and promising himself to go to the forbidden forest to punch some trees; Draco calmed down and plopped himself at Theo’s side. “At least you managed to steal Pucey’s place in the team”

But that wasn’t a good thing to say, Theo whined pitifully “Right, after getting detention by the sheer fact of standing at your side” he grumbled “Besides, I didn’t want to be a Beater”

Before Draco could say anything more, he got the air taken out of him by Blaise who decided at that moment the stone floor was too cold and landed on both as if they were the most comfortable bed. Theo puffed in indignation, Draco did his best to reign in his giggles “You at least got something of it, I’m stuck helping Flinch clean trophies for a week” complained Blaise.

“I reckon we are the only Slytherins that got into trouble”

“At least Snape is biased enough not to take out points from his own house”

-

Draco may have just sparred with Firenze, may have almost broken an arm in the process, but he was still seething. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the forest, it was a weekday after all, but he couldn’t contain his anger. Firenze was the one who suggested a spar when he saw his condition, and it did help somewhat.

But he still couldn’t take Lockhart’s words out of his mind. He still couldn’t get why the man’s topic of choice when the class got bored was to ramble about Greek gods, as if the man knew anything about it! The least funny part? If he read between the lines correctly, Lockhart was reeling everyone to believe he was somehow related to Aphrodite, goddess of love and good looks. It granted Draco's nerves.

As if it wasn’t enough the man was clearly a charlatan seeking for praise, now he wanted to be ‘divine’. Draco was sure Drew and Piper wouldn’t let him inside their cabin, ever.

Taking a deep breath, he prayed with all his might for the IM call to connect, Iris hadn’t been the same since last summer, but Draco really hoped his plan covered just this one call before he murdered someone.

“Drake?”

“Nico! Thank the gods it connected!”

His friend had some bad bed hair and was inside his cabin back at camp. Draco was really glad his friend stayed at camp, because he seemed far more healthy than the last time he saw him. Maybe he should send Will some chocolates for his troubles. 

“What’s wrong?”

“My teacher is what’s wrong”

Nico yawned, making a gesture with one of his hands for Draco to explain. He had rambled before about Snape to whomever would hear him “What did he do this time?”

“No, not Snape, the new teacher” At Nico’s raised eyebrow Draco elaborated “He started to talk about Greek gods! Like that has anything to do with defense against the dark arts!” Nico raised his other eyebrow at that, and Draco sighed “Well, maybe, but your dad isn’t that bad!”

“What did he say?”

“He kept rambling and rambling about wrong facts of the underworld, painting it all like a gloom place”

“Which it is”

Nico wasn’t helping Draco to stay mad, he puffed out air, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Nico a pout “Yes! But he didn’t acknowledge the good things like Elysium, or how Hades isn’t always that bad”

Was he exaggerating? Maybe a little, but Lockhart didn’t even stick to the standard version of the myths, he said such crazy things that Draco was sure the man had come up with half of the things he was sprouting around. Draco respected creative writing, but not when teaching a bunch of impersonable kids.

“I must say, I feel proud that you are defending my honor fratellino”

Nico seemed to be too amused by the whole prospect, Draco stook out his tongue at him out of pure childishness “oh, shut it Nico”

“Have you calmed down?”

“I’m not responsible if Lockhart ends up maimed…but yeah” Maybe he should prank Lockhart with actual Greek things, to make the man stop talking about it. With that in mind he gave Nico a mischievous smile “How’s Will?”

Nico didn’t turn red, no, it was the nonexistent light inside Hades’ cabin. 

-

The climate was bad, as if Zeus had been repressing his bad mood and decided to ruin Draco’s days just because he was a demigod, that or it was only how the weather was in Scotland. Draco didn’t like it. 

On the other hand, he was glad Snape banned him from the Quidditch team since he wasn’t going to train under such heavy rain just for the fun of it -note the sarcasm. At first the Slytherin’s weren’t going to train, but Theo convinced Flint when he told him he saw the Gryffindors training under such conditions. Draco had a stash of pepper-up potion -his small brewing club was becoming quite wealthy selling the potion as Madam Pomphrey was running out of it- in case Theo turned sick, he didn’t want to catch the flu, thank you very much.

He didn’t care if Theo flooded their dorms every time, he arrived drenched, Blaise, on the other hand.

“Oh my god, you are drenching the carpet!”

“It’s just water Blaise” Theo without decorum put his quidditch robes -mud and all- on their carpet and ran to their shared bathroom. Draco, who had been reading a book, rolled his eyes at the scene. It was the third time this week, and the last two, Blaise kept complaining as if he had been the one who bought the carpet. As if their assigned house-elf didn’t clean their room occasionally -advantages of being in the house of pompous Slytherins.

“Yeah? Well, I don’t want mud inside our room!”

“Deal with it Zabini” Called out Theo from the bathroom. The sound echoing around a little bit due to the ceramic tiles.

“I swear to merlin, Theo is getting all sports headed every time he goes for Quidditch practice”

Pinching his eyebrows together Draco stood up and scooped up Theo’s robes, not at all caring if his own clothes got dirty. He wasn’t in the mood to hear Blaise’s complaints “If I clean up, would you let me finish my book?”

“Go ahead, I don’t know how you would do it with all the mud”

“Oh, you man of little faith” Draco smirked, the goblins had told him on their last letter he should include Kreatcher more on his daily routine, out in the open, to beat down the ridiculous notion of ‘a good servant shouldn’t be seen’ Walburga had beaten into him. And well, what better time to present his friends? At least it would stop Blaise from complaining about cleanliness.

“Kreat, buddy, could you please help me out a little bit?” Draco called out, already swishing his wand around trying to get rid of the water. Blaise gave him a raised eyebrow which he ignored.

Kreatcher took his time appearing, the house-elf would have noticed that his roommates were awake and one of them was still inside the room. Draco hoped he decided to appear, so far Kreatcher had refused to do so, and Draco had had to go and hunt him down in the kitchens.

“Did Master Dragon call?” He had to suppress his smile at Kreatcher’s appearance. The small creature seemed a little bit hesitant and kept glancing at Blaise. Blaise only spluttered.

“Who’s that?”

“Kreat! Is nice to see you, could you help me out with the carpet, Blaise here is being a drama queen about the mud” With a dramatic gesture he signaled the carpet, which was…worse for his trying, he should start learning cleaning spells. 

“Draco” Hissed Blaise under his breath, eyes as big as plates.

“Kreatcher, this is Blaise Zabini, one of my roommates”

Somehow, they caught Theo’s attention who came out of the bathroom only in a towel and seeing the whole scene with a surprised expression “You have a personal house-elf?”

“Theo! Clothes! Put on some clothes!”

“And the nudist is Theodore Nott” Draco didn’t give any mind to his now arguing roommates about proper clothing “Now…let’s clean this up…Stop the ruckus people!”

-

Draco and his friends were at the library, Pansy had dragged Crabbe and Goyle to their table. Apparently the two large boys really needed help with homework but were too shy to ask for any. That was until Pansy noticed and half-threatened for them to come. Draco was a good influence on her.

Surprisingly Blaise and Hermione were the most patient ones to teach them, aided with Draco’s perfect -demigod friendly- notes, both didn’t have any difficulty at all. It was sad to think they were struggling just because some teachers hadn’t noticed their predicament. Let’s just say that Hermione was pleased that someone took her advice to heart.

“Draco!” A small, excited voice called from behind, it was his cousin along with what Draco believed to be half the Slytherin’s first years. 

“Hey Aurora. How is it going?”

“Would you help us out with Potion’s homework?” The girl gave him big doe eyes, as if Draco could ever turn down anyone, especially if they were related to him. Denise and Lily were making him weak to puppy eyes.

The same girl narrowed her eyes when they landed on Hermione who was seeing the scene with slight amusement. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, Hermione Granger…have you met my cousin, ‘Mione?”

“Kind of…” For some reason Hermione grimaced, took a deep breath, and gave her best -fakest- smile “nice to meet you”

“I don’t recognize your surname” Oh, right, Draco had forgotten his baby cousin would have grown up in a pureblooded environment. She was so nice to him that he had dismissed that small detail. Draco hoped he could change her views somehow.

“I’m a muggle born”

“And we are okay with that, right?” He stressed with a strained smile of his own. Aurora stared at him warily but slowly nodded while taking Hermione’s hand in a weak handshake.

“Yeah…”

-

“Hey Owlets” Draco greeted, glad that his call had connected. He had promised to IM call his younger siblings at least once a week but hadn’t been able to do it due to problems in the service -literally, the IM call said that each time the connection failed.

“Drake! We miss you so much”

“I miss you too Denny, Lils” Both his younger siblings had somehow ended up with clay on their hair, some scratchers here and there and there was at least a tweak stuck on Lily’s hair. 

“Malcolm is so boring; he never wants to play with us”

“Hey! I heard that!” Draco rolled his eyes at Malcolm's voice, somewhere in the cabin. Denise gave him a ‘see what I’m talking about’ look. 

“Don’t worry Denny, I’ll be back before you notice”

“Are you sure you can’t come back for winter break?”

Draco hid a grimace at that, recently the letters he received from the manor weren’t painting a good picture “I’m sorry Lils, but that depends on my grandfather’s health” At their sad faces, Draco decided to change themes “Have you dreamed about mom recently?”

“I did! She showed me one of her libraries!”

-

Soon, Halloween morning was there. Draco really loved the decorations and wished that someday he could show his friends. He took a seat at the Slytherin table for breakfast, Slytherins first years entered looking at all with excitement. Well, almost all of them.

“I must admit, the decorations are good” Aurora took the seat across from Draco. Always the proper lady with an almost stoic face, but he could see the excitement in her eyes. 

“Those are some pretty big pumpkins” Mumbled one of the first years, with wide eyes at the frankly enormous pumpkins, one kid could fit in there, no problem.

“You think we could transform one in a carriage?” Replied Aurora almost in a whisper, as if it would be a crime if any caught her excitement. Draco had to laugh at the question of course, Lily had made him read her story books almost all summer -trying to distract themselves from the…. Gaea situation- so the memory was fresh on his mind. 

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because that’s what muggles do in one of their stories”

Some kids perked up at the mention, Slytherin may consist mainly in purebloods but the half-bloods -and the very scarce muggle born- would have gotten the reference “Really? Do they know about transfiguration?” 

“You have to read Cinderella cuz” He said fondly ruffling his cousin’s hair, as far as he knows, Draco was the only person at Hogwarts allowed to mess with her hair “You’ll love it”

“But father says”

“Your father’s not here, he won’t know”

-

‘The chamber of secrets has been opened; enemies of the heir beware!’

Draco stared at the words then at the petrified form of Mrs. Norris as if he was in a trance, not really paying attention to anything around him, he felt the blood rush to his head. He wasn’t afraid, no, he was ANGRY. 

He was supposed to be safe inside the castle, his friends were supposed to be safe with him. But now there was a thing, a thing that suspiciously worked like medusa, inside the castle, turning innocent -and not so innocent- cats into stone. How long would it take to turn students into stone? His friends? Oh, Hades no, he won’t let it.

Hadn’t they already lost too much due to the gods? Wasn’t it time to let them live? To let them be free. Taking a deep breath, he turned to his friends who were watching the scene like the rest of the school, astonished.

“Go back to the dorms” Draco practically whispered but was sure that at least all the Slytherin’s and half the Huffelpuffs heard him. 

He was unaware but his eyes were faintly glowing silver in his anger, and some magic sensitive people could feel his magic in the air. And it made it clear to half the population of Hogwarts, Draco Black was mad. 

“Draco?”

“Go back to the dorms, no one should be alone”

-

“Are you really, okay? I haven’t seen you sleep in a week…and we share dorms!” Draco was glad they were in the library and that Blaise couldn’t scream at him in there. He had gone in a research binge, but frustratedly enough, aside from some ill based rumors -how on earth did some people assumed Harry to be the heir? - he couldn’t find any relevant information. 

“Go away Blaise” He took another book from the Latin section, read the cover to then throw it aside when he read it was about common potions “This isn’t it…”

“Oh don’t ‘go away Blaise’ me, what’s going on? You are seriously scaring the firsties” ‘And me’ went unsaid.

Huffing Draco turned around to stare at his friends, Theo was observing his pile of ‘approved for future reading’ books, a pensive look on his face. Taking a deep breath, he motioned for them to come closer, something Blaise did eagerly, he seemed to really want answers.

“Something is in here, something that shouldn’t be, but I can’t find what it is or where it could be”  he whispered, maintaining an eye out in case anyone wanted to hear their conversation “I would have asked my siblings, but they don’t respond” Draco was so distracted observing the perimeter he didn’t saw Blaise’s mouth open wide or Theo’s shoulder tensing at the mention of siblings  “I don’t want anyone to die”

He let them take in the information, shoulders tense, waiting for their reactions. Back at camp a breach in security like these would have granted patrols, moving in groups, and keeping an eye on anything suspicious. But Hogwarts was as normal as it could be, and it was frustrating. 

“d-die?” Spluttered Blaise, voice trembling with panic “Draco, what on earth are you talking about?”

“How much do you know about medusa?”

At that Blaise blinked owlish at him. Draco made his best bet at telling them, he knew some old families still practiced the old ways -thanks so much Lockhart for bringing that up- and there was a slight possibility that their friends knew the basics of Greek mythology, with Theo being from an old family and Blaise being from actual Italy -Draco wondered if his friend’s mother worshiped Trivia, roman form of Hecate. He would ask later.

“Are you telling us, that you for some reason you refuse to explain, that Medusa or something similar may be behind Mrs. Norris petrification”

“It does make sense,” Theo talked for the first time. Blaise gave him a wide-eyed stare “What? Slytherin’s emblem is a snake, wasn’t Medusa like…the snake lady?”

“A gorgon, able to petrify people with her stare” Draco clarified “Has a head full of snakes” She also hated Draco’s mom’s guts. That was why he got so angry when the message appeared.

“Okay, fine, I see where you are coming from” Relented Blaise.

Theo sighed, glaring at the ridiculous pile of books Draco had made “Scoot over we are helping you”

“Thanks guys”

“Don’t thank me, I expect a mighty cheer performance tomorrow” The brunet grumbled under his breath taking a book from the pile. Draco was glad he chose the Latin section of the library for his research; this way he wouldn’t have to explain why he knew Ancient Greek.

Every respectable pureblood heir knew Latin, because of course they would.

He did a double take at Theo’s words… “Oh! It is your first game!” He was being such a bad friend “I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“The massive pile of books says otherwise”

“I can do both”

Small extract from Ch. 8, because the Ravenclaw friends haven't been mentioned in a while:

Miley Bridgestone was the oldest one by a few months’ daughter of a minor pureblood family, her auburn hair was always up in a bun and had even weirdest ideas than Draco sometimes.

Richard Payne was the voice of reason, and the only thing between Draco and his empire of pepper up potions. He had told them the idea once, Richard made sure to shut it down before anyone could think about it. 

Laura Owen was quite quiet in general, but Draco knew she secretly enjoyed the chaos. He could see it in her amber eyes. 

Then there was Dustin Brown, muggle born, he was the one to bring up chemical reactions into the debates and the reason they almost got caught when they made that one classroom explode trying to mix bicarbonate with different magical reactive -thank the gods the Weasley twins were blamed for that one.

Chapter Text

All the Slytherin second and First years were at the bleachers, Draco had Pansy on one side, and Aurora on the other. Blaise was in the row in front of them with Daphne, Crabbe, Goyle, and their new addition, Millicent Bullstrode -A girl that finally gave up to their small circle when she noticed Crabbe and Goyle studying with them- They were cladded in Slytherin colors, Draco had convinced Pansy of painting his whole face green.

He may not like Quidditch, or their team -why did they have to have a record of cheating? Weren’t they the house cunning house ? If they were going to cheat better make sure to not get caught- but he had promised to cheer for Theo, he really hoped his friend’s first match wasn’t as memorable as Harry’s, in the ‘I almost fell to my death’ way.

Both teams were now in the air, their group's whole focus was on Theo who as a beater was going around the pitch doing maneuvers to hit the bulgers back at the other team. Draco may not have Austin’s sight, but even him could see the big grin his friend had. On the other hand, Pansy grimaced every time she saw Theo do a stunt or a bold spin.

 “Merlin, I can’t look at this”

Blaise snorted, leaning back to give the girl an amused look “Really Pansy? Really?”

“What? I may tolerate Theo, but…that looks like such a savage game”

Which may as well be Pansy-speak for ‘I’m worried he may fall’, but before Draco could tease her Bullstrode turned around with an offended look on her face. She was quite a tall girl and a little bit buff, she reminded Draco of the Hephaestus’s campers -wonder how Harley was doing. 

“It’s not savage”

“Of course, you would say that Bulstrode” Pansy practically sneered, making Bullstrode turn pink -either in embarrassment or in anger- and make the discussion drop. Draco frowned, giving Pansy a reproachful stare, what was she implying? Sure, pureblood tradition deemed delicate girls as the epitome of beauty -clear example, his cousin Aurora- but the world was a big place, for sure they would know that everyone was different.

Huffing he stood up, still giving Pansy the stink eye and went to sit at Bullstrode’s side. Where he was pleased to see Blaise and Daphne giving the taller girl comforting smiles and awkward pats to the back “Don’t worry Bulstrode, I’m sure that when Theo gets to be captain, he would let girls play”

“I sure hope so”

…

After a while they changed places, Aurora had gone to her first-year friends when she was called over. Pansy and Daphne were now in the same row, while all the boys plus Bullstrode were at the front. Draco had to admit, Quidditch was a fun game to watch, despite not really knowing what was going on, he at least knew the basics, and he had Bulstrode, Goyle and Crabbe to answer his questions -and Jordan Lee’s ‘helpful’ commentary- Blaise seemed to be cheering for whomever was winning, even once cheering for Gryffindor, which made Goyle start complaining about house loyalty.

Between all the excitement, Draco frowned when he noticed a strange pattern with one of the balls, thank Hades he wasn’t the only one seeing it. Bullstrode was the one to point it out. “That bludger is crazy…and Theo had to be a beater”

Blaise, with the most expensive and fancy looking binoculars, turned his head to watch the interaction, it appeared like the Weasley twins were trying to defend Harry from the rogue bludger. “Is it me or that thing is chasing Potter?”

“It always has to be Harry” Draco groaned, still remembering last year's Quidditch shenanigans, he at least hoped that this year he wouldn’t have to attend Quidditch matches to assure himself his friend would make it out alive,but it seemed he hopped wrong.

…

After the time out, they watched, holding their breaths as Harry fought off the flying cannonball -yes, Draco was calling it that in his head- the dark-haired kid was crazy, apparently, he had told the twins to keep their positions, and decided to confront the rogue ball on his own. If Draco wasn’t sure he was the only magical demigod in years -no matter what Lockhart claimed- he would have sworn that Harry was a kid of Zeus, or a minor wind god, because there was no other explanation as to how that kid was still in the air.

“Oh, Merlin, that kid is crazy” Apparently curious morbidity had won Pansy over and had her being the most transfixed one of them in seeing if the bludger hit Harry or not. 

“I think that was clear with the whole, ‘came to school in a muggle flying thing’”

“Shut it Blaise” He rolled his eyes, frowning when he noticed something. “Guys…”

“And girls” Piped Daphne in. 

“People then” Draco snarked, to then snatch Blaise’s binoculars from his hands. Paleing at what he saw and handing them back “Why is Theo flying towards Harry?”

“Oh no, our crazy kid is trying to save the the other crazy kid” At Blaise's remark, in an almost comedic timing, both Harry and Theo got hit by the Bludger, starting to spiral down in a rather alarming way, both losing hold of their brooms and rolling over the mud, Harry going in one direction while Theo went in the other. Draco was the first to his feet when he noticed Blaise was not far behind.

They ran to the pitch, in Draco’s case tossing people aside as if they weighed nothing. He was so focused on reaching Theo that he didn’t hear the announcement that proclaimed Gryffindor’s victory. Now drenched thanks to the rain, Draco practically skidded over the mud to pat Theo’s figure up and down searching for injuries.

Thank Hades Theo was still conscious, at least the hit hadn’t been to the head. “Theo! Are you alright! You stupid idiot”

With a relieved sigh Draco then crushed his friend in a fierce hug, Blaise joining after he finally reached them. The brunet groaned, as far as Draco could tell he had gotten hit on the side by the flying ball and for sure had at least some nasty bruises on his left side and at least one broken rib.

“I’ll be better if you don’t crack my ribs Blaise, Draco”

After a few more minutes they released Theo, now the three of them covered in mud, Draco was glad Blaise didn’t comment on it. The dark-skinned kid seemed more preoccupied frowning at the crowd forming around them, but they were not looking at Theo…Harry.

The green-eyed kid apparently had a broken arm and Lockhart was trying to help him out, Draco had to resist the urge to go and throttle the ‘Professor’, it was risky to claim to know anything about healing, he had heard enough lectures from Will to know that. Draco didn’t go to Harry’s rescue because he saw how Flint was berating the Slytherin seeker, his furious face just flicking over them, once, with the clear intentions of also lecturing Theo, a furious gaze from Draco made him, and the whole Slytherin team, retreat to the changing rooms. 

“What a great team we have” Grumbled Blaise under his breath, also giving the older Slytherin’s the stinky eye.

“Let’s get you to the infirmary mate” Draco easily managed to put Theo back on his feet, maintaining a hand around his waist to help with the weight. Blaise retrieved Theo’s broom which luckily was just a few meters from the landing site. 

“I can walk on my own” Grumbled the brunet under his breath, scoffing and trying to free himself from Draco’s hold, Blaise rolled his eyes while Draco started to drag the kid around like he weighed nothing, mindful of the wounds. Theo would have to have Sherman’s stubbornness, strength, and his level of not caring to injure himself further, to get out of it. 

“Don’t make me carry you! You know I can”

“Let’s go, worrywart”

“I heard that!”

-

Thankfully it only took a bottle of Skele-gro, along with some ointments and Theo was good to go. Madam Pomfrey wasn’t very happy with them for dragging mud inside her pristine infirmary, so they were practically shoved out of the infirmary once the treatment was over. Which ended up being a good thing because they found the Gryffindor trio in the hallway. Draco had to hold back a full body shiver when he noticed Harry’s arm.

“I’m pretty sure you had all your bones intact when I shoved you aside Potter” Theo was the first one to recover from the sight, looking mildly disturbed by it, Draco was trying very hard to not laugh at the ridiculous sight that was the former arm, he didn’t think Harry would appreciate it “What in Merlin’s name happened?”

“Lockhart” Deadpanned Harry.

“That stupid man” He will have to go behind the twin’s backs to set his pranks -they found the man hilarious- but he will make him pay. 

“Draco!” Hermione said scandalized, and he had to take a deep breath to not snap at her. She and Theo already had a lot of discussions about Lockhart, he didn’t want to tell her he was on Theo’s side on that.

“Better get that checked out”

Theo started to shove them back to the dorms, Draco really wanted to change, he could feel the clothes sticking to his skin, it wasn’t pleasant. Just as they were passing at the Gryffindors' side, Weasley seemed to snap out of whatever argument he was having inside his mind. 

“Nott!”

“Weasley?”

“T-thanks for shoving Harry out of the way” It was barely a whisper, but they all heard it, Ron’s ears were as red as his hair and if he wasn’t helping to support Harry, Draco was sure the kid would have run away. 

“As you can see, none of us are evil Ronald McDon-” No wait, Ron wouldn’t get the joke, Hermione at least rolled her eyes, but he stopped before Ron interpreted it like an insult. With a small smile he signaled to their mud caked clothes “See you around folks, got to go change before we get the flu or something”

At that Blaise finally seemed to realize the state of his own clothes, face draining from color “My mom sent this from Milan! It’s real Italian silk!”Draco smiled amused; Blaise was reacting like a certain child of Aphrodite would. Better not let him meet Drew “Do you think Kreatcher would know how to wash it?”

He feigned to think it over, it would be easy, as the clothes weren’t Draco’s so he could easily hand them over without Kreatcher thinking he was breaking their contract. But Kret was very particular with cleaning chores, refusing to do them if they didn’t benefit Draco. It would take a while to convince him “I’ll ask, but you better be nice to him”

“He’s the servitude!”

“He’s my friend”

“Fine”

Theo took their sleeves and started to drag them towards the dungeons, leaving behind a little confused trio of Gryffindors. 

“Bye guys!”

-

“Seriously guys? You don’t let me sell pepper-up, but you are willing to try to make evil repellent charms?” Draco grumbled, eyeing the books and parchments around the room filled with different ways of getting rid of evil and such things.

The school had been in chaos since that Colin Creevey kid appeared petrified, Draco and Theo had researched the whole library about snake related monsters, they managed to narrow it down to three suspects, it would be two, if Theo wasn’t so adamant on keeping the Basilisk on the list.

Not as if Draco could tell Theo that he had fought against Basilisks and doubted the creatures to be intelligent enough to manage to hide for this long -not when Draco patrolled at night when he was getting restless; he berated himself for sleeping the night of the Quidditch match, maybe he could have saved the kid- and besides, according to the book, the magical version of the Basilisk was huge and killed with their glare, not their touch.

Miley grumbled under her breath, moving things around and making some runes in a parchment “Are you going to help or not?”

“I’m going to watch how you ridicule yourselves”

Dustin rolled his eyes, giving Draco an exasperated look. “It’s for the firsties, Penelope asked us”

Oh well, that checked out on why Miley was so stressed out. Penelope Clearwater was Ravenclaw’s sixth year prefect. Admired by her fellow Ravens for her fairness and sense of honor. 

Draco didn’t like her that much, but he was biased, she was the only person standing between him and access to the Ravenclaw’s common room. He had even managed to find the entrance on his own and told the right answer to the riddle, only for Clearwater to appear out of nowhere and command the gargoyle pommel to not let him in. The nerve!

“I though Ravens didn’t believe in nonsense”

“We live amongst ghost Draco” Laura smirked while making small charms, with feathers, some crystal beads, and some type of rock. He wasn’t really paying attention when Miley explained it, if he remembered right, it was onyx, carnelian, or something. 

“Fair point”

“Besides, it is more for the Hufflepuffs than for our house, Cedric can’t be in two places at the same time” Draco frowned at that, giving the dark-haired teen -Richard- a confused glare.

“Wait, I tough you said Clearwater was the one who asked”

“He overheard Richie here when he was investigating at the library” Grumbled Miley giving Richard a reproachful glare, the teen only smiled innocently back at her. Draco smirked, giving Richard an arched eyebrow.

“Let me guess, he jumped at the idea of helping Cedric”

“Tell me you can say no to his face”

“Fine, I’ll help” Draco sighed, jumping down from the desk he had been sitting on, if this nonsense helped his schoolmates to stop being so jumpy, he would help “I’d lose my mind if I have to meditate another fight between Slytherin first years and any other house…I swear to Merlin, why they can’t be like Aurora? At least she doesn’t go around picking fights''

Draco didn’t see the concerned glances between his Ravenclaw friends, everyone knew Aurora Malfoy was the one picking fights -especially if she caught anyone bad mouthing Harry Potter- and letting her minions do the dirty job. Apparently, she was playing angel for her cousin.

-

Draco frowned when he saw what he assumed to be Fred jump out from behind an armor right in front of a small red-haired girl to make her scream. That wasn’t nice, nor funny, not when the kid seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, being an older brother was making him soft. So, he stomped up to them with his arms crossed over his chest. “Stop doing that you idiots”

“What? Draco is concerned about little Ginny?” Mocked what he assumed to be George coming up from a hidden passage.

“This is a minor prank compared to what you have done to Lockhart” Fred smirked.

Changing the man’s shampoo for colored ink, his soap bar for one with green paint and replacing all the self-portraits at his office with still life paintings -That he made, to assure that the portraits wouldn’t snitch on him- was just the beginning.

“Not that we don’t appreciate your work” George

“But you better invite us the next time” Fred

Draco rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation, making the big theatric of pinching the space between his eyebrows, he was trying very hard to not burst out laughing “Yeah, yeah, what are you? The Prank Aurors?”

“I like the title, what do you think, Gred?”

“Very fitting, don’t you think, Forge?”

“Whatever, leave the kid alone” He made a shoo motion with his hands, making the twins put an arm each on top of his head as if he was a perch. Draco pouted, while the red-haired girls seemed to get her bearings back. Glad she found the interaction amusing. 

“What, got a crush?” Fred smirked.

“On our little sister?” George mock gasped.

Draco had to resist the urge of facepalming himself, of course the girl was a Weasley, as if the hair didn’t give that away. Then he smirked remembering a conversation he had with a certain dark red-haired bloke “Oh, so you are Princess Ginny”

“Princess?”

“Met your older brother this summer” He gave the twins his best innocent look, making them take a step back, clearly wary “Tall, with a ponytail, very muscly. Nice bloke…finally managed to know your full names”

“No, you didn’t”

“Bill wouldn’t”

Of course, he didn’t, he did ask, but Bill was too loyal for his own good. He even tried to bribe him with some cursed objects for him to practice! But bill said ‘Weasley’s aren’t snitches’ and refused to discuss the theme further. But the twins didn’t know that “Wouldn’t you want to know?... Anyways if you don’t want it divulged, I’d stop scaring little sisters”

“Party popper”

“You are worse than Percy”

The twins kept grumbling all the way to the end of the hallway while giving Draco fake offended glances. Oh, he was sure he would pay for that, but maybe a prank war would lift the spirits a little bit. Ginny coughed, clearly hiding a giggle. “T-thanks”

“No prob, it was nice to meet you Ginny”

-

“Nev, mate…why on earth are you buying these?” Draco stared baffled at the dirty-blond kid in front of him. Miley had taken advantage of his skills and stamina to be the delivery boy of their small charms. They were quite popular, in a ‘Ravenclaws made them, so they must work’ kind of way. So, in his free time Draco ran around the castle delivering them to the customers. 

“Why are you selling them?”

“Not really selling if we don’t gain anything” He grumbled under his breath, Richie only charged for the materials, so they didn’t earn money from the charms, at all. That had been Clearwater’s condition when Miley asked for a way to pay for the materials “Not my point, you do know that the Longbottom’s are a pureblood line, right?” 

The kid fiddled in place playing with the string of his money pouch, not meeting Draco’s eyes. That made Draco sigh, one day he would make his friend see he was worthy of being at Hogwarts “Oh no, Nev…you know you are not a squib”

“Better safe than sorry”

“Fine, you and…was it, Thomas? Or Finnigan?” Draco reluctantly handed over the charm and pocketed the money while talking, already making plans in his head “You know, I don’t care, if your Gryffindor’s want, we can walk to classes together or something, more pureblooded to half-blood and muggle born ratio or something”

Blaise had been the one to offer Hermione the other day, but she refused, seeming to be too preoccupied with a side potions project of sorts, she refused to give them details. Neville gave him an affronted look, kind of like the one he gave Blaise when he told the same to Hermione.

“Don’t give me that look, I know how bad it sounds, but if it gives the Hufflepuffs a peace of mind, why not you lot?”

The unofficial potion brewing club was cursed, once again Cedric overheard, and asked if they would be able to do the same with their year’s Hufflepuffs, not even Pansy could deny the fifth-year prefect anything. So now, in each shared class with the yellow cladded fellows they went together.

Some of them were nice, like Justin Flint-Fletcher and Hannah Abbot, others, like Zacarias Smith, Draco was this close to smacking him -Pansy especially loathed the guy, she couldn’t be near him without lashing out with insults.

“You walk to class with the Puffs?”

“I dare you to say no to Cedric’s face”

-

“What does he think he’s doing?” Blaise hissed urgently at his side on their potion class workstation, Draco turned to give the shaved-headed kid a raised eyebrow. With his head Blaise pointed to one of the workstations on the Gryffindor side. Harry and Ron’s table.

Harry took cover behind the cauldron and took out from his pocket one of Fred’s Dr. Filibuster fireworks and gave it a knock with his wand.

“Who?” Draco paled when he noticed the firework, the twins had given him a scare with one of those. He knew those could ignite even inside water. “Oh Merlin. Is he crazy?”

The firework started to whistle and make sparks. Knowing he only had a few minutes, Harry stood up, pointed, and launched it to the air. It landed at Goyle’s cauldron. Draco swore under his breath and rushed as fast as he could -which was pretty, fast, one didn’t run from monster’s half his life without gaining speed- towards Goyle’s cauldron, launching himself over it just in time to scream at everyone “Get down!”

The explosion was muffled by his body, but it still made the room shake a little, he could feel the still warm potion uncomfortably heating up his stomach’s skin, thank Hades it wasn’t a potion that required boiling temperature. The nearby tables all had crouched down, taking cover.

“Oh, this isn’t good, I never wanted to know how a balloon felt” Was the only thing he could say before his stomach started to swell up, fast, was this how pregnant women felt? At the abnormal sight, everyone started screaming and running around, as if they had been the ones drenched in the potion. 

“Draco? Are you ok?” Theo, bless his heart, was the one that helped him up to his feet before he got stuck in the cauldron. Without help Draco was sure he would be on the floor making a reverse imitation of a turtle. 

“I look like I’m ten months pregnant, what do you think?”

“Still snarky, he’s okay” Blaise chimed in, amusement dancing in his eyes. Around them the room was pure chaos, Snape seemed about to burst a vein.

“ Silence, SILENCE! Why am I not surprised you are involved in this, Black?”

“Sir, Draco protected us” Defended Daphne when she noticed that Snape was about to lecture Draco first, giving him the antidote later. 

“Thank Morgana for that, I don’t think swell would look good on me”

“Thanks, Pansy,” Draco rolled his eyes.

“Oh, no darling, you rock the look”

The dark-haired man gave them a glare that made Pansy stop teasing him, taking out a small vial from his robes he gave it to Draco, almost reluctantly. “Take this Black, stop shaming Slytherin house” Snape went to Goyle’s cauldron and extracted the black and twisted remains of the firework. An abrupt silence fell “ If I caught whoever did this, I’ll make sure of their expulsion”

Thank Merlin that he returned to his normal state after taking the antidote, because when he noticed a certain trio of Gryffindor’s sneaking out of the room as soon as the bell rang, he was in peak condition to chase after them, hastily explaining to his worried friends where he was going before bolting for the door. 

“What do you think you are doing?” Draco hissed under his breath, clearly startling the three in front of them. He frowned when he noticed the small bulge on Hermione’s arms. 

“Draco! ...Shouldn’t you go to the infirmary?”

“What’s in this?” Not paying any mind to Hermione's vague attempt at redirecting his attention, and as fast as a Hermes’ child, he snatched away the small package frowning even more when he took stock of what was inside it.

“Hey! Give that back!”

“What kind of mysterious potion are you brewing that needs boomslang skin and bicorn horn?”

“None of your business” Surprisingly Hermione was the one that defended their acts, the other two seemed too baffled to even respond. But Draco wouldn’t take it.

“It is my business when you endanger our classmates!” He whispered and yelled, making the bushy haired girl take a step back “Hermione, do you know how dangerous it would have been if any of the potion landed on someone’s throat? Someone could have choked to death!”

Draco despised cruel pranks, the Stoll’s t-shirt prank on the Hunters being one of them, he liked pranks, sure, when they didn’t do considerable damage to the victim. Landing someone in the infirmary was always a no go. 

Hermione seemed to finally register his words and all the ‘righteous fury’ she had since he snatched away the ingredients disappeared. She seemed to almost be on the verge of crying, great.  

“I hate it when I’m the reasonable one” He murmured under his breath, to then gave them a stern glare “If you ever need potion ingredients you just have to ask me”

“Why you?” Ron seemed to finally find his words.

“The secret brewing potion club” Whispered Hermione as if realization just hit her, he had told her about it, of course, almost all his friends knew about it. They even did some custom-made skin care potions for Pansy and Blaise when they asked.

Hermione knew about them, Hades, she even went with him to a meeting once!

“The secret brewing potion club indeed” Draco sighed giving back the bag, it would be hypocrite of him if he tried to stop whatever they were doing “Go on then, I am no one to judge fellow potion enthusiasts”

Hermione took the back shyly, as if she was afraid Draco would start screaming at her. When they were about to turn around and continue their way, Weasley stopped dead on his tracks and gave Draco an inquisitive look. 

“Wait, Black” He raised an eyebrow at the red head, gesturing with his hand for him to go on “Do you think Adrian Pucey may be the heir?”

Draco snorted slightly amused “He does have the mentality” Ron’s glanced at the Gryffindors like that confirmed something “But no, as far as I remember the Pucey’s don’t have any relation to Salazar Slytherin”

“As far as you remember?”

“ Dear Walburga Black made me memorize the most prominent wizard’s family trees” With a mischievous smile he turned to stare Ron in the eyes “Did you know we are related, Weasley?”

“W-What?”

“Your grandmother’s name on your dad’s side was Cedrella, right?”

“How do you know that?” The red head frowned in suspicion. Harry seemed a little bit baffled, and Hermione watched the interaction with curious eyes.

“Her maiden name was Cedrella Black, a disgrace to the family” he did the air quotes and everything, he still remembers Walburga’s drunk ramblings about her cousin. Ron stood there blinking owlishly, and Draco smirked “Anyways, go do your sketchy business in…the girls lavatory? Really?”

“Better than exploding a classroom”

“Whatever”

-

“A week of detention?” Draco blinked at the small note his friends gave him, it wasn’t that much long ago he finally got dismissed from cauldron duty. Apparently, Snape really liked how clean he left the cauldrons.

“For fleeing the scene of the crime too early, mate”

“It appears I can’t breathe without making Snape mad!” He threw his hands up in the air before face planting on his bed, he would apologize to Kreatcher later for the mess. 

“For all its worth, even the Gryffindors defended you when Snape announced it to the class”

“I want a change in head of house” Draco grumbled under his breath; Theo awkwardly patted his back while Blaise patted his hair. He appreciated the sentiment. 

“At least he didn’t take any points”

“If I didn’t know Snape would expect it, I’ll prank the Hades out of him” He huffed sitting up cross-legged in the middle of the bed and motioning his friends to do the same, Theo did a little bit reluctantly, he was a little bit touchy about personal space, while Blaise practically launched himself at the bed’s feet. Making them bounce around a little bit. 

“Talking about that, how’s it going with Lockhart?”

-

For some reason walking with the Puffs to classes apparently was an open invitation of friendship, Justin Flint-Fletcher -just Justin, my last name is a mouthful-, Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones and Wayne Hopkins were now usual additions to their table at the library. Draco wasn’t sure how Madam Pince hadn’t kicked them all out yet.

“Heard what you did, mate, are you sure you weren’t meant to be in Hufflepuff?” Asked Justin as soon as the Hufflepuffs arrived. They seemed a little bit baffled, Draco raised his brows, apparently the rumor mill had caught up about his brave rescue. Pansy, definitely, had something to do with that. 

“Take that back!” Blaise fake gasped while giving Draco a crushing hug as if trying to protect him from the Hufflepuffs, Theo was at Draco’s other side, nodding along, in front of them like a little bodyguard “Don’t try to snatch our knight in shining armor away”

“Don’t be ridiculous guys” Draco groaned rolling his eyes at his friends’ antics, not paying any mind at Blaise’s sudden impersonation of a leech he turned to respond to the curly haired Hufflepuff “the hat did say I could go anywhere”

“Really? Why Slytherin then? No offense, guys…just…”

“We have a bad rep?”

“Yeah…”

“I like silver, see, it goes with my eyes” He smirked when he saw how some had to cough to not start a laughing fit right in the middle of the library “Family tradition I guess”

-

“Did you see the announcement?” Asked Blaise at lunch, Draco had to roll his eyes, of course everyone had seen it, they read the thing together! Theo nodded as if it was news to him and Draco had to stop himself from facepalming.

“About the dueling club? Yeah, we should go. If the one imparting is Professor Flitwick or even Snape we would learn something”

“Flitwick?”

“He was a professional duelist, my grandfather told me he managed to win the European championship despite his…condition” said condition being that Professor Flitwick was part gobbling, Draco was sure he wasn’t, actually, half-gobbling, the Professor would have smelled the demigod in him as soon as he stepped inside his classroom, or maybe he didn’t inherit their strong sense of smell. Not as if he could ask the man without giving his own status out. But hey, progress! Theo didn’t say ‘creature status’ as he would have done a year ago “and Snape is rumored to be a great duelist, some seventh years, even claim he wanted to be the defense professor”

“Why do you talk with seventh years?”

“Making connections Draco, connections”

-

Draco groaned as soon as he saw who the instructors for the dueling club were. His mind immediately tunning out whatever Lockhart was saying “Oh, Hades no…I should have put that laxative potion on his juice at dinner”

“For once I’m on your side” Theo had his arms crossed, clearly disappointed. They had gone to ask Flitwick about his dueling experience, the man enthusiastically had told them some of his best matches. But he failed to comment that he wasn't the one in charge of the dueling club. “At least Snape is here?”

“Mate, Snape hates me”

“Fair point, hope you don’t die” Chuckled Blaise, clearly amused at whatever Lockhart was saying. 

“I love your enthusiasm”

Their hushed talk was interrupted when they noticed both Professors taking position, Draco raised one of his eyebrows, those weren’t good positions to fight, at all. Their stance was too wide, their feet were in the wrong position and their bodies weren’t crunched down enough.

Five out of ten, Sherman would probably whoop their asses in less than three minutes.

“As you can see, we have our wands in the traditional combat form. When I count three, we will launch our first spell. But well, it’s clear none of us want to kill each other” Oh, right, this was a magical dueling match, they were going to use magic, not their fists.

“Unfortunately,” Grumbled Theo under his breath.

“One, two, three” Both professors raised their wands and pointed them to the shoulders of the opponent.

“Expelliarmus” Snape screamed, a blinding red light could be seen before Lockhart was blasted over, flying backwards, outside the pallet, hitting the wall and sliding down until he was lying on the floor.

“Oh, well, this is fun” some of the Slytherin’s whooped at the sight. 

Then the professors started to pair up people for small mock matches, but before any of the second years -wasn’t it curious how they stood together? - could snatch the closest friend away, Snape went to them with a malicious glee in his eyes. Flowing cape and all. At least he wouldn’t have to fight for Theo with Blaise.

“Weasley with Finnigan, Granger with Bulstrode, Zabini with Crabbe, Nott with Goyle, Black with Abbot…” Well, those weren’t the worst pairings, Hermione may have not warmed up to Millicent yet, but they at least were in talking terms. But Draco wasn’t liking Snape’s eyes or how a certain group of fifth graded Slytherin’s were standing suspiciously close “…let’s see how good the famous hero is, Potter with Pucey''

.

“Don’t move” Draco hissed under his breath putting himself in front of Justin. Because Abbot had been his partner in the mock dueling match, he had been dragged to the Hufflepuff side of the room when they moved around to get a better view at Harry and Pucey’s match -in which world was it okay to pair a twelve-year-old with a clearly vicious fifteen-year-old? - 

The fates seemed to hate him that day, because the snake Pucey decided to summon, and then his favorite teacher attacked, landed right in front of him.

Remembering his camp training -yes, they did have some training about common wilderness, questers often needed to camp out in the wild, it would be humiliating if they managed to die at the hands of a mortal animal- he assessed what to do, the serpent seemed to be warning them, and…yeah, that was either a venomous one or an imitator of one.

That didn’t matter, they were mad, clearly distressed at their sudden summon and consequent attack on themselves. Draco wouldn’t blame them if they decided to launch and bite someone. Taking a deep breath, he decided to approach slowly. Hey, maybe that ‘Serpent’s were also Athena’s sacred animal’ aspect will kick in and he would be able to hiss at the snake or something.

“Draco?” He could feel Abbot trying to stop him, but he easily got out of her hold. 

“Hey there's a pretty one, we are so sorry. But really, if you want to bite someone, bite the blond man over there, he was the one who attacked you'' No, hissing sounded a little bit far fetched, even if he was able to talk to the snake, he was pretty sure Percy didn’t neigh when he talked with the horses.

Surprisingly his words seemed to calm down the snake, letting him get close enough to crouch down and try to grab them by the head, like in some survival documentary. Hey, he should write a letter to Denise and tell him his weird dream of being a snake whisperer at the zoo had some chances to come true.

The snake tensed up when they caught on to what Draco was trying to do, which made Draco do something his older siblings would scream at him for, he put his hands up “no, no, see, I’m unarmed, don’t wo…” In the baffled silence, a hissing sound was clearly heard, and everyone snapped their heads towards Harry who was making hissing sounds at the snake.

Snape quickly got rid of the snake, but the whole hall was madly whispering. At that, Draco paled, wasn’t there a magical language that allowed wizards to speak to snakes? Parseltongue or something? It was far more common in India, and tropical regions of the world with an abundance of snakes, but on British soil, the last wizard who spoke it had been Voldemort.

Harry had practically declared himself the heir of Slytherin.

-

Next day’s breakfast was chaotic, kind of, all the school was gossiping around, some of them even avoiding Harry like he had the plague. Draco had to scoff at that, giving all who dared to stare at the Gryffindor table with wary glances a nasty glare. “Why am I a snake whisperer and Harry the heir of Slytherin!?”

“Shut it Draco, be glad you didn’t start to hiss out like a lunatic”

“Harry is not a lunatic Pansy” He snapped back at the girl, taking the last of the buttered bread on purpose, to annoy her “Besides, what good did that make? Skeeter and all of those nasty reporters somehow got word of it and are trying to investigate my family further”

Draco may consider buying a subscription to the Prophet just to keep an eye on the reporter, she for sure was a sneaky one. Claiming that, an anonymous source -he swears, when he finds the one sneaking out information he would make their skin neon green for a week- had tipped them over that maybe the Glaukopis family may be even older than they thought. Even having ties to old families, like Salazar Slytherin.

 If only they knew that technically speaking Draco was part of -maybe- the bloodline that gave them all magic. He still had to ask Lou details about that, but pretty sure Hecate was, either the origin of their magic, or helped to accelerate the process of mortals having it. 

“Taking advantage of the loophole since they are not actually writing about you. That woman can be cunning” Mumbled Theo looking slightly impressed.

Draco could bet half of his drachmas that Skeeter had been a Slytherin, that was why they had a bad reputation!

“You know if you finally admitted whom your father is then you could divert their attention”

“Talking about cunning women” Draco gave the dark-haired girl an unimpressed glare “Not a chance Pansy”

“I had to try”

-

“Ok, I’m feeling ridiculous” Draco glared at the snake that his centaur mentor -friend? – managed to convince to lay there. It had been at least a few minutes, but he couldn’t hear them inside his head or anything “Are you sure they agreed to do this Firenze?”

“Yes, the serpent came willingly son of Pallas, now, what do you want to do?” The centaur didn’t have the right to look so amused. But right, he wasn’t the one staring intently at a snake almost as long as Draco was tall. Thank Merlin they weren’t hungry at the moment. 

“Am…I don’t know”

“I tough you wanted to know if you could talk to them?”

“The other snake understood me, but I didn’t feel like, any special connection inside my head or anything”

Was he trying to see if he could actually talk with snakes? Yes, sue him. Every kid once dreamed about talking to animals, and since Owls seemed out of the equation he would try with the serpents. That raised one question though, were the Hermes’ kids able to talk to snakes? He hoped not, Conner and Travis would misuse such talent. He shivered at their ‘genius’ idea of filling Athena cabin with spiders one summer. 

“Powers may manifest themselves differently young demigod, Poseidon’s son’s ability to talk with horses is unique to him” Firenze gave him sigh, as if it was common knowledge, Draco had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

He walked to stand right in front of the quite frightening enormous snake, sat down and introduced himself “Hello, my name is Draco Black, it is nice to meet you, thank you for coming to this meeting” not as if anyone apart from Firenze was near to call him crazy. 

The snake this time stirred up, flickered their tongue a couple of times and rested their head back by the grass. But he could feel something foreign in his head, not actual words, more like emotions “Oh! Oh! I could feel it! She’s amused! I didn’t know I will be so excited about a snake laughing at me”

“What else?”

“Nothing else, I just know how she feels, and I think she knows how I feel,” he said a little bit dejected, the snake decided to slither up his arms and settle around his torso and shoulders.

Draco really hoped the ‘content’ feeling the snake was portraying wasn’t because she just secured her next meal. 

“Are you sure you can’t feel in a similar manner the Owls’ thoughts?”

“Not really, believe me I’ve tried, the only Owl I actually know what they mean is Noctua and that’s because he is a little menace”

“Interesting”

*-*

Harry was going around the castle, trying to find Justin Flint-fletcher since their last class -herbology- had been canceled due to a snowstorm, maybe he could make the other see that he wasn’t like, making the snake attack him or anything.

He found the Hufflepuffs at the library, but they didn’t seem to be studying. All of them -minus Justin- were seated together with their heads touching and whispering between them. Harry didn’t want to eavesdrop, but curiosity won. 

“So, I told Justin to hide in the dorms. I mean, if Potter has pointed him as his next victim, it’s best if he lies low. Of course, Justin feared something like this would occur, since he did tell Potter he came from a muggle family. What Justin told him exactly was that he had a place reserved at Eton. Not the best commentary one could make to the Slytherin heir, right?”

Harry frowned at the accusation, trying to stay hidden by the ‘invisibility’ section. 

“Then, are you convinced that Potter is the Heir, Ernie?”

“Hannah” said solemnly the blond chubby guy “Talking Parcel, everyone knows it’s the brand of a dark wizard. Do you know about someone noble who knows how to talk with snakes?”

“Draco” said the blond girl -Hannah- without hesitation, and Harry had to agree. Honestly, he only talked to the snake because the blond was trying to talk to it first, that made him assume that every wizard could talk with snakes.

He asked Ron that, when he explained parseltongue to him, but the read-head muttered something about how Draco was just crazy and ended the discussion there.  

“He doesn’t count, he just talks to snakes, he doesn’t hiss at them”

“Don’t be ridiculous McMillan '' Snapped a familiar voice from a few stands over, making all the people at the Hufflepuff table look a little bit apologetic. Draco appeared from the opposite section where Harry was hiding with three thick books in his arms giving the Hufflepuff guy a sneer “You know? Parseltongue is a common trait in some places in India. It’s a very respected trait to have, you should read more. Salazar Slytherin may even descend from them, he’s not the first nor the last to have the gift”

Was it Harry or did Draco wink at him? He was pretty sure he was in an out of sight place, but maybe the blond could see him. He gave back a strained smile, indicating he was glad for his intervention. Even if Harry had been eavesdropping on the conversation, it wasn’t pleasant to know people talked behind your back. 

“Besides, the Potters have some Hindu ancestry, who are we to say that Harry didn’t get it from his Hindi great-great-great grand aunt?”

“No one asked you, Black” Snapped the McMillian boy giving Draco a nasty glare. 

The blond only rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. “This is why you are not invited to the study sessions”

“The library isn’t yours, and I’m pretty sure you are supposed to be in class” 

“Professor Flitwick sent me to fetch a book” Draco held the books higher as if anyone had missed them, Harry wasn’t sure how he made it look easy, those seemed to weight a lot “Now if you excuse me”

Draco made his way out of the library, dragging Harry behind him. The dark-haired kid could only follow him rather astonished. “Don’t mind them Harry, McMillian likes to rile people up. They all know that you tried to help me , I don’t know why he’s speaking nonsense about Justin''

“T-thanks Draco”

*-*

Dear Nico,

Please respond soon, this little brother of yours fears that there may be something roaming around school that may be as dangerous as Medusa. It petrified -as much as one can- a ghost!

Ghost king of mine, what on earth can do that to a ghost?

On another note. Is everything okay back at camp? I hadn’t been able to IM message for a while, the connection is getting worse each passing day. My little siblings sent me some drawings with Noctua the other day, but it is taking him a worrisome time -for an Athena blessed owl- to go there and back, if anything happens, don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll go see my grandpa this winter break, but I’m sure if you tell Lou Ellen they would find a way to contact us.

Hope you respond to me before going back to kissing Will.

Un abbraccio, tuo fratellino

Drake.

-

“Everyone is being ridiculous” Draco grumbled under his breath; they were packing their trunks to go back for winter break. No matter how much Kreatcher protested, Draco was very able to pack some things. He needed the distraction. Since Justin had been found petrified everyone started to avoid Harry more and even Draco sometimes received wary glances.

“Says the one who is obsessed about finding out what the creature may be”

“Shut it Blaise,”

“What are you doing for Yule?” Theo intervened before they could start a discussion, again. Blaise had made it clear that if he had to pass more time than necessary at the library, he would wake them up with cold water for the rest of the winter “For some reason the Malfoys aren’t doing their annual ball so I may be spending the whole break at the manor’s library, maybe grandfather has something about the creature”

“More books?” Blaise groaned “You two can come to my house, we are going to Sicily this year”

Draco had to suppress a shiver at the suggestion “Um, no thanks, Mediterranean destinies and I, don’t mix right now” especially Italy and Greece.

“Let me think about it” Draco was sure Theo would rather stay inside than go to the beach, the mad man liked the cold weather. The brunet rolled his eyes at him as if he could hear his toughs “Heard Aurora is staying back too”

“She wanted to come with me to the Black manor, to meet grand-pere, but her mother refused profoundly. Which I’m secretly glad for, grand-peré’s health hasn’t been the best lately” the letters he had received were a little bit strange, like his bon-papa was trying to make it look as if nothing was wrong “I may have to threaten a certain upper year, he and his minions are also staying back”

Crabbe and Goyle were also staying back, so maybe he should ask them to look after his little cousin. Draco didn’t trust Pucey to not try anything while he was away.

“She didn’t get what she wanted? Glad we are not staying back to witness that tantrum” Theo’s face looked horrified, as if the fact that Aurora’s mother denied her kid something marked the end of the world.

“She’s not that bad”

“At least not in front of you”

-

They were on the train; it had just left behind Hogsmeade. Pansy had taken Daphne away, to talk with some of the upper years. Bulstrode had gone with them, or so he assumed, they left the compartment at the same time -Draco really hoped for the girls to be getting along better- now there was only him, Blaise, and Theo.

It was relatively a calm journey, due to the cold each of them was wrapped in a blanket, reading either a book -Theo’s and Draco’s case- or a magazine -Blaise- so excuse them for startling over the loud ‘pop’ of house-elf apparition. Draco crunched down in an ‘attack ready’ position, Blaise dropped his magazine over his face and Theo ended up on the floor. 

Kratcher gave them all an anxious glare, clearly nervous by the strong reaction. Draco had to take a deep breath to settle down his beating heart and gave his friend a concerned glance “Kreat? Is something wrong?”

“Master Dragon” He ignored Blaise snort at the name “Master Dragon’s presence is required at Black Manor”

“Is grand-pere okay?”

He took the elf’s hands dedicatedly, sensing that he was about to start hurting himself. Draco hated how some old families made their elves believe themselves less and that even talking with a wizard was something worthy of punishment. 

“Master Arcturus health isn’t good, Mimsy told Kreatcher to fetch Master Dragon when Mimsy noticed the holidays have started” Okay that explained Kreatcher’s sudden appearance after Draco told him to go back to the manor “Master Arcturus has been stubborn to not worry Master Dragon”

“What do you mean by stubborn? He just sent a letter three days ago, he said he was fine”

“Kreatcher is sorry, Master Arcturus had made Kreatcher promise to not tell”

Draco’s face may have revealed more than he wanted, because his friends were giving him worried glances. 

“You better go Draco,” Theo said after a while.

“Send us a letter if you need anything” Blaise assured, giving Draco his school bag -the only one luggage he had on him, Kreatcher had taken his trunk from Hogwarts- “we are a floo call away”

He took a deep breath, gave his friends a strained smile while he squeezed Kreatcher's hand like a lifeline. “T-thanks guys, see you”

And in a ‘pop’ they were gone.

-

“Bon-papa?” Draco hesitated at the door, Mimsy had taken him directly there, rather urgently. He didn’t like the implications.

When he entered, the sight of his bon-papa made his heart break. He was thinner, one could see his bone structure through thin skin, he was paler too, his hair was opaque, the once impressive image of Arcturus Black had been reduced to an ill old man, and Draco hadn’t been there to take care of him.

“Lycoris? Mimsy sure can be cunning, I guess she got that for serving three generation of Slytherin’s” Arcturus tried a humorous approach, but it was interrupted by a coughing fit, making Draco speed walk to the bed with worry “I was supposed to pick you up at the station, I had the whole tour planned out, we were supposed to go eat ice cream at this Flourish and Blotts…”

“W-why did you lie? Bon-papa, tu ne vais pas bien…” Draco took his hand as if it would break. Tears pricking his eyes, but he wouldn’t cry, bon-papa was still alive, there was still hope. 

“I’m fine Lycoris, this is how old man’s looks like” Arcturus sighed, moving a hand to rest carefully on top of blond curls “Do you remember what I said Athena told me?”

“That you would li-live enough to see me survive the battle with Gaea” 

“And I’m glad I did, you have grown so much Lycoris” No, that couldn’t be, Draco had just been able to see his bon-papa for a month at most if one counted all the days from both years! He didn’t want it to end so soon “Don’t worry about this old man, you can go visit your friends, even go back to camp if you like”

“Non, je vais rester ici, à tes côtés” Mumbled Draco carefully positioning himself at his bon-papa’s side on the bed. 

-

Draco had passed the last few days around his bon-papa, not really moving from place despite Mimsy’s insistence. Christmas came and went, he made sure to send presents to his friends and family, but his own laid abandoned in a corner of the room. Draco wasn’t in the mood to open them.

He slept in the room, helped his bon-papa in whatever he could -whatever Mimsy would let him- and often read the old man books, it warmed his heart each time Arcturus Black smiled softly at him, not even once losing his patience when Draco got stuck at some sentence.

It was late evening, and Draco had fell asleep, cheek resting on the book, cocooned at Arcturus Black side, who had fallen asleep while petting Draco’s hair. The door opened almost shyly, and a familiar figure entered the room. The sudden change in light awoke Draco. 

“Mr. Blackstone?”  

“Hey Drake, how is he doing?” The dark-haired man smiled softly at him, his eyes trying to hide his worry when they landed on Arcturus. But Draco saw it and sighed.

“He doesn’t want to go to Mungo’s” Draco mumbled, moving a little bit around to tuck his bon-papa under the covers, avoiding Mr. Blackstone’s glare as much as he could, no one else needed to see him sad “He…he w-wants to di-die at his home”

“Come here kid, let’s get some fresh air…”

He shook his head, not really wanting to leave his bon-papa’s side “N-no…” but Mr. Blackstone easily scooped him as if he was a mere toddler and walked both out of there.  “I’m not a little kid and you are not my dad”

“I’m sure Lou wouldn’t mind” the green-eyed man chuckled lightly, Draco tried to squirm out of the hold but Mr. Blackstone was stronger than he seemed -Draco had to told himself to relax a little bit, he was very tense, no one had ever actually carried him around like this; besides Kreatcher and Mimsy when he was really small “I’m sorry it took me this long to arrive, things have been chaotic at work”

“It’s okay”

He gave up and settled into the hold, when had he started crying?

“I’m so sorry kid”

“I’m Nico’s honorary little brother, that must count for something, right?”

-

“You don’t have to be here to see this Drake” Mr. Blackstone face was grim, the only human adult present clearly wanted to put Draco out of the room, to save him from the heartbreak or something. Draco shook his head, softly squeezing his dying great-grandfather’s hand in his. Smiling sadly at Mr. Blackstone. It wasn’t the first time he saw someone die.  

“I want to be here” with a reassuring smile and tears in his eyes, Draco pulled out a small bag of his pocket, that made Mr. Blackstone took a shivering breath and stopped his attempts to drive Draco out of the room. “Everything is going to be alright; I’ll give you all the drachmas I have, don’t worry”

Arcturus Black smiled softly, eyes already foggy and unfocused, but they seemed to be looking for someone “Lycoris?” and Draco had to take a deep breath from stopping himself from breaking down.

“I’m here bon-papa, it’s me”

“My sweet Lycoris” a fragile hand went up, met halfway by Draco’s hand who eagerly put it on his cheek like Arcturus likely wanted. The old man gave a small smile “I’m glad I got to meet you in this live”

And all the light left Arcturus eyes, Draco let himself cry “Wait for me at Elysium” around him all four house-elves were crying, Mr. Blackstone was rubbing soothing circles at his back, and Draco, Draco was crying inconsolably “Please”

-

Draco had been in his room for two days straight, only eating when Mimsy threatened him with bodily harm if he kept refusing. Kreatcher popped in and out of the room retrieving Draco’s favorite old ‘toys’ -as in trinkets that Walburga wouldn’t miss- in an attempt of cheering him up.

But he felt empty, Mr. Blackstone had been the one in charge of all the paperwork and the papers now knew about his bon-papa’s passing, Draco just wanted to hide away from the world. Because the world always took too much from him.

“Drake?” A voice called from the door, and he turned around confused. 

“Lou? Nico? ...what are you two doing here?”

“Dad got us; told me you haven’t gotten out of here in two days…” Lou greeted, making their way over to him and making themselves comfortable on the bed. Nico close behind them “I managed to snatch the goth away from camp under the pretense of a small quest, we can only be around for a day at most.”

“Quit rambling Blackstone, he doesn’t need the whole story” the so called ‘goth’ -really Draco was sure Nico felt under the category of hard rock fan rather than goth- sat at Draco’s other side giving him a side hug.

“Sorry, I’m nervous. I’m not great at the ‘comforting people’ thing” Lou gave him an apologetic smile patting awkwardly his head. Draco chuckled a little bit settling more in Nico’s hug “We should have brought Drew, or even Sherman”

“I felt when he was gone” Nico told him after a few minutes of silence, Draco felt tears in his eyes, and Lou’s heated glare directed at Nico. But he shook his head at them, he needed to hear this. 

Nico squeezed him a little bit, before giving him an encouraging smile “Don’t worry Drake, he’s in a good place”

-

“Are you sure? No one will judge you if you take your time…even your inheritance ceremony was planned for next summer” Mr. Blackstone didn’t look pleased, and was staring warily at Draco, like he could break at any moment.

But he wouldn’t, not after his friends reassured him, not after he remembered all the death he had witnessed. Taking a deep breath, he gave the dark-haired man a no-nonsense stare.

“I have to do this… the will reading, claiming the lordship position, those were his last wishes”

Mr. Blackstone’s face turned into resignation, they had already discussed this at least ten times “But he didn’t mean them to be done right away, you know he wanted you to have a normal childhood”

“I never had anything remotely near a normal childhood”

“Well then, let’s send some invitations”

-

Draco hated this, he hated the formal clothes he had to wear, the ambience and especially how a certain blond man kept staring at him as if he had killed his dog or something -wait, Malfoys had Peacocks for pets, didn’t they? - correction, like he had killed one of his peacocks or something.

How could such a man be related to his sweet little cousin? How?

“It is a pleasure to meet you, I regret our meeting had to be in these gloomy circumstances” Draco said through his teeth, giving all the present the fakest smile he could muster.

He had set up the meeting, knowing that the adults would look at him in condescending ways, considering his age, but Mr. Malfoy wasn’t even trying to hide it.

The Malfoys were sat in a loveseat, side by side, Narcissa Malfoy neé Black held a carefully constructed blank stare, Draco could see how his -aunt? Cousin? - did everything  in her power to not stare at the other couple.

The Tonks  sat in another loveseat, specially conjured for the occasion. Andromeda Tonks neé Black didn’t even attempt to stop herself from glaring at her sister. Mr. Tonks sat dutifully at her side, one of her hands in his, as if that would stop the woman from doing anything harsh. 

The only one that actually seemed hostile was Mr. Malfoy, sadly Draco couldn’t will Mr. Blackstone into the room -well he could, but Mimsy had made him promise no more accidental magic after he destroyed the garden-  as it seemed that the man was retrieving all the official documents. 

“Are we sure a child should be taking over the Black’s lordship? A half-blood child at that? with unknown parentage?” Draco had to take a deep breath at the man’s rambling, Merlin, he was like Walburga, now he knew why he married into the family “Where’s your mother child? She should be glad to have possession over the treasures of the Black line”

“Not everyone is as frivolous as you Lucious!” Accused  Andromeda giving the blond man a heated glare making the man’s ire turn towards her. Surprisingly Narcissa didn’t seem affected by this at all, she kept staring at Draco like he held the keys of a mystery -and there went his hope that at least one of his relatives was normal.

“What are you even doing here, Andromeda? If memory serves me right, you were blasted out of the family tree for marrying that mud blood”

“Slurs won’t be tolerated in this household” Draco thundered, magic making the ambient electric in his fury. He swears to Hades, his siblings were less of a nuisance than this man “Remember you are here just as a mere formality Lord Malfoy, if you don’t behave, I have the power to cast you out of my home” 

The man sneered and seemed about to retort but Draco cut him harshly in a cold tone “We may be family, but you are not my blood, I don’t need you here”

It seemed that Narcissa finally caught up Draco’s emotional state and intervened, giving her husband a glare “I apologize for my husband’s actions Lord Black”

“Better keep him in a tight leash,” He sneered giving the blond man a mockful glare “Funny you mention blasted out family members, Andromeda isn’t one of them”

The statement made all the adults in the room froze, Draco rolled his eyes at them “The one who has been disinherited is Bellatrix, seemed as she is quite mad herself for following around a mad man. Or tell me, Lord Malfoy, do you think she is worthy enough of the Black name after all the things she did?”

Thank Merlin Mr. Blackstone appeared right at that moment, because Draco was just a few more comments away from committing homicide. Surely, his little cousin would be sad that her father died in mysterious circumstances, but hey, at least she would be free from the man’s influence. 

“Now that that is out of the way, nice to meet you, I’m Draco’s legal magical guardian. Louise Blackstone, head of the American unspeakable, you may not be able to remember my face when you step out of these room”

Mr. Blackstone put a hand on Draco’s shoulder while putting all the papers on the coffee table, it was more of a way of stopping Draco from doing anything rash than anything else. He huffed but nodded. 

“Hope you understand, a matter of national security and all that. As for Draco’s mother and that side of the family, let’s us say that the Black fortune is just a tiny particle of dust compared to their own riches, they don’t want anything with it, Miss A is content enough leaving it all to her son” Oh, apparently Mr. Blackstone had heard some part of Malfoy’s rambling, and he wasn’t happy. Draco had to suppress a smirk at Malfoys offended stare “Now that the formalities are out of the way, let us go back to Lord Arcturus Black will, shall we?”

-

It was a day before they had to take the train back to Hogwarts, Mr. Blackstone had refused to leave Draco alone, but he managed to convince him to go back home after he called over his friends.

As soon as Mr. Blackstone was gone, Draco took them over to the library, Blaise rambling out about his holidays in an attempt to lift Draco’s mood up. but after no response from the blond Blaise stopped and opted to stare at the manor’s decoration.

“I won’t say I’m not glad to be here, because this place is huge and has even more books than the library back at Grandfather’s manor, but…are you sure you are okay Draco?” Theo said after a while, a book in hand.

“Me? Y-yeah”

“You are a bad liar” Mumbled Blaise, throwing himself over one of the armchairs near the library’s fireplace  “Want to talk about it?”

“No, not really”

Both of his friends nodded before settling back into relative silence. Theo reading and Blaise trying to enable a conversation with a portrait of a little girl. Draco had to suppress a grin at that, the portrait was ancient, the magic had faded way back, there was no way it would respond to Blaise's questions.

After almost half an hour Draco sighed, they were his friends, right? Friends were always there for each other “My middle name is Lycoris, I didn’t want to tell you guys because that is how bon-papa called me, he was the one who named me. Lycoris after her favorite sister, she didn’t marry, bon-papa didn’t want her memory to fade” Theo had put down his book and he had now Blaise’s whole attention “It means Twilight in Greek, oddly fitting seeming as he didn’t know whom my mother was until a year ago”

“I miss my mother the most, father may have followed the Dark lord willingly, but she always told me to not believe everything he said. Father did not like that” Theo said after a while, not meeting anyone’s eyes “After they took him away to Azkaban for m-murder, grandfather has refused to talk about her, all her portraits had been removed from the manor…I was eight”

“My Papa was a good man, even if I don’t remember him enough, he always let me get whatever I wanted. But then, one day, suddenly, he was gone” Shared Blaise with misty eyes “Mamma couldn’t bear with that…”

The silence felt heavy, but rather comforting. Taking a deep breath Draco gave his friends the most awkward smile in history “Man, adults are weird” But it made Blaise chuckle and Theo smile, so he counted that as a win. 

“Did you find anything about the snake-monster?”

“Okay, hear me out, I’m pretty sure it is a Basilisk”

“Not this again” Draco groaned, while Blaise rolled his eyes. Theo seemed highly offended at their lack of faith in his research abilities.

“I said, hear me out!”

-

“So, you are officially Lord Black” Pansy said from her side of the compartment. Draco sat sandwiched between Theo and Blaise, as they arrived together at the station, the girls sat on the opposite bench.

“Yeah,” Theo gave Pansy a warning glare that made Draco smile thankfully at him “Let’s not talk about that”

“Fine” 

It wasn’t after the train was in motion that the silence was broken, this time by Bullstrode who had been staring out of the window the whole time “Something weird happened to Crabbe and Goyle at Yule”

“You write to them?” asked Daphne. 

“They can write?” Mocked Pansy.

“Don’t be rude” Draco scoffed, making Pansy stick her tongue out at him. He paid her no mind and put all his attention back to the taller girl “What did they say?”

“They woke up in a supply closet after Christmas dinner, with no shoes and frozen to the bone”

“Together?” Draco had to give Pansy a disgusted stare at the comment and tone of it. No one else in the compartment seemed to catch Pansy's meaning.

“Don’t be daft Pansy”

“What? I’m seeing all the possibilities”

“Thank Merlin they weren’t petrified or something” Continued Theo the conversation as if two of his friends weren’t discussing something in the background, which was rude. 

“No…someone did that on purpose” conceded Bulstrode, giving Draco a meaningful glare and a raised eyebrow. As if he knew the answer to the question “The twins stayed back for the hols too”

“Didn’t they promise to not involve any of your friends in the crossfire of your pranks?” Grumbled Blaise, also giving Draco a raised eyebrow. Draco rolled his eyes, for sure the twins would keep their word…right?

“They did…after I promised to leave Jordan Lee’s stupid spider alone”

“What’s your problem with spiders’ mate?”

“They are evil”

-

After some stares and side comments Draco went in search of the twins, he was a little mad that his friends seemed the twins as mere pranksters -like almost everyone at school did- for sure they could see how clever they were, like Draco did, right?

He found them hunched together at an alcove, mumbling over a piece of parchment and with their wands out “So, spill it, did you do something to Crabbe and Goyle?”

The twins seemed startled and for some reason Fred hastily put the parchment inside his pocket, as if it was something important. Draco just hoped they didn’t steal the answers to an exam or something -which didn’t make sense since exams weren’t near, but hey one didn’t know with the twins.

“Isn’t it Lord Black?” Mocked George as soon as he recognized him. 

“Your majesty? What have these poor peasants done to gain your attention?” 

Draco sighed. Of course, they would be like this. But he could see the slight worry in their eyes, so he was sure it was their way of trying to cheer him up. “I think we accorded to leave out friends out of our…little dispute”

“We did,” Nodded Fred.

“Still figuring out how we are going to get you back for the itchy powder on mom’s new sweaters” Grumbled George giving the stinky eye, oh, the pranks Draco could do bribing house-elves and portraits.

He gave them his best innocent smile “Then? Why did you attack Crabbe and Goyle?”

“We didn’t!” Fred seemed scandalized by the accusation, and Draco believed him, prankster code and all that. He bets the twins would gladly take the guilt if it had been them “But…”

“Ron, Harry and Hermione were acting suspiciously” George.

“As in, Hermione is at the infirmary for a potion going wrong kind of suspicious” Fred.

“Anything to add to that, potioner?” George ended the twin talk, squinting at Draco, like he had something to do with it.

“Don’t look at me like that! She was doing something on her own, I had nothing to do with that” Draco spluttered in place, he knew he should have followed the Gryffindor trio when he caught them with unusual potions ingredients. 

“Well then, with that clear” 

“You better watch your back Drakey” The twins took a hidden passage and left Draco there frowning. He needed to talk with a certain bushy haired girl.

-

Draco was on his war path toward the infirmary, trying to get to the bottom of things. Poor Crabbe and Goyle seemed very distressed when they told them how someone had put something on the food -Draco had the urge to shake them for eating something clearly suspicious, he was glad no one was actively trying to poison them- even Aurora seemed somehow affected by it when she realized she had let in outsiders to their common room.

He suspected either a very advanced cloaking charm, or Polyjuice potion. Not really wanting to think on the later option, by the sheer fact that it was borderline illegal. Surely Hermione wouldn’t do that, right?

But he stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed a certain read-headed girl, staring blankly at the wall, books scattered around “Ginny? Are you okay?”

“I…I can’t get rid of it” She gestured with a haunted look to a black booklet that had been thrown farther than the other ones. As if it had been on purpose. 

“The journal?” Draco frowned, retrieving the leather bound book, and going back to stand by the read-head who flinched at the sight of it. “Oh, do you want to get rid of it?” Maybe she wrote some things she regretted or something?

“Maybe I could hold onto it for you” He decided after some awkward minutes in silence. Which was the right decision. It seemed that the gloomy looking kid perked up a little bit.

“Would you do that for me?”

“Yeah, sure, and I could give it back later if you really want it back, it’s from someone important to you?” Ginny shook her head as if the mere thought was something evil. Draco frowned, maybe some kid had made fun of her for having a used journal? Because he was pretty sure her initials weren’t T.M.R, kids could be cruel sometimes “Hey, hey, no need to be ashamed, I have my dad’s journal with me at all times, see?”

Carefully he took out the journal from his bag, showing it to the read-head but not really giving it to her. 

“R.A.B?”

“Those are his initials…could we keep them a secret between us?” Pansy would for sure figure out who his father was just by the initials but judging by Ron’s lack of ‘pureblood education’ he doubted Ginny would be able to figure what R.A.B meant.

The girl nodded confidently, making Draco smile a little bit. She reminded him of Lily back at camp, maybe he should send letters to Lou’s school to see if they knew something.

 “Great, now, I’ll put this somewhere even though I would have trouble finding it, sounds good?”

“Yeah”

“Wanna go to the infirmary? You look a little pale, and we are like, ten steps from it” If he remembers correctly, he saw how the Gryffindor prefect -Percy wasn’t it? - dragged the girl to the infirmary before the hols, maybe she still had the flu, she looked a little bit pale. 

“I think I…I’ll go back to the dorms” Draco nodded -maybe she just needed some sleep- while helping her retrieve all the other books. If madam Pince saw this she would have lectured them about the respect books merited. 

“Bl-Draco?” The girl said shyly after all the books were back inside her bag.

“Mhm?”

“You are a nice bloke”

“Tell that to your brother” Draco deadpanned, making Ginny giggle. He waved her goodbye and went to find a good hiding place for the book. Infirmary forgotten.

Maybe he could hide it inside the forbidden forest or something.

Chapter Text

Draco had returned to his room, forgetting momentarily about Hermione. He didn’t know Ginny that well, just seeing glimpses of her around the castle. He was only sure of two things; she was the youngest Weasley and, for some reason, Aurora hated her.

Hermione had told him about the confrontation of the Weasley’s with the Malfoy’s in the bookstore, at first, he thought it was silly to see grown men fighting like school children. But after meeting Mr. Malfoy at Christmas, he could see why the Weasley’s patriarch had resorted to physical violence, Hades, Draco had been so close to punching the man himself.

He was glad that Aurora resembled her mother more, he adored her but wasn’t sure  what he would do if she behaved like her father.

Draco put the book on top of his trunk, frowning. At first, he hadn’t noticed it, but the book had some type of magic, too preoccupied with taking it as far away as he could from the girl. He hadn’t opened it out of respect, but he had a feeling the book was bad news.

“What are you doing Draco?” Theo mumbled while entering the room, he looked a little bit tired from his Quidditch training, Blaise was with the girls back at the common room. Or at least that’s where he saw him when he made his way towards the dorms.

“Hey Theo…do you feel something weird with this thing?”

“Please tell me you didn’t bring some of the Black’s family library to school” Despite his words, Theo seemed entirely  too excited about the prospect of Draco having a potentially dangerous book in his possession.

“I’m not that  daft Theodore” Draco rolled his eyes “I wouldn’t bring something illegal to the castle”

“You sure about that?” Before he could respond, Theo was already waving his wand around in quite complicated patterns. Frowning when he didn’t get the result he wanted “My spell doesn’t say anything, but it does feel like it has magic”

“Oh, thank merlin I wasn’t going crazy”

“Where did you come across a probably cursed object?”

“Ginny Weasley gave it to me” More like he volunteered to take it away “She was acting quite strange”

“Weasley?” Theo frowned even more; the confusion was clear on his face “I’m pretty sure her father would have given all his children a talk about interacting with cursed objects”

Draco knew it would be logical to do that in a world of magic, but the way Theo said it made it seem as if it would be ridiculous for the Weasley’s not to know how to handle cursed objects.

“Why?”

“He’s from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. They deal with accidentally cursed muggle objects…I think Malfoy doesn’t like Ginny Weasley since her dad was the one to push a yearly search on pureblood families for cursed objects. Aurora just hates her out of principle ” 

“I didn’t receive any notice about that” Draco frowned; Mr. Blackstone hadn’t mentioned it either. He knew, from firsthand, that the Black family owned very dark objects that he would willingly give to the ministry only to spite his late grandmother.

“Maybe it's because the Black’s weren’t openly supporting you-know-who” That made him raise an eyebrow in incredulity, Draco adored his dad, but he wasn’t blind. The diary Kreatcher had given him all those years ago had some concerning writings about blood purity that made Draco shiver in disgust, thankfully they became less and less as his father grew and noticed how wrong his views were.

He didn’t blame him for believing in blood purity for so long, after all Walburga had been his father’s mother, Draco had also been ‘raised’ by the woman. He only hadn’t succumbed to her teachings because of the physical abuse and the quite traumatizing taunts about Draco’s origin. But from what he could read in his father’s journal, Walburga had been once a ‘good mother’ that poisoned the mind of her kids with kind smiles and a ruler.

He also knew that his dad had been a follower of Voldemort, but that something happened the day Draco was born that resulted in his death.

“Did you have a visit from the ministry then?” Draco inquired, redirecting the conversation to relatively calm waters.

“At summer break” Theo grimaced “Grandfather wasn’t pleased”

“What do you think I should do with this thing?” Draco didn’t know if he had to call it a book or a journal “I was thinking on taking it to the colony and ask if they knew what it was”

“Whatever you do, please don’t touch the book directly. Some things have compelling spells. Like those never-ending books”

Right, maybe Ginny wasn’t the only one that needed a refreshment on what to do if they found a cursed object.

“Right…I’m going to put on my camouflage and go to visit my friends at night, I’ll remember to put on some gloves”

“Camouflage” Theo deadpanned, putting away his quidditch supplies “You only dress in all black”

“Have I ever been caught?”

“That one-time Weasley landed you up in detention” Theo rolled his eyes.

“That night I didn’t even go out!”

-

As promised Draco had sneaked out at night towards the forest. He didn’t like the longing stares he kept getting from the redheaded girl at dinner, maybe Theo was right, and the book had compelling spells on it.

“Son of Pallas, we heard the news, a star should follow their journey among its peers” If Draco hadn’t been used to the centaurs suddenly appearing he would have stabbed Firenze or something. But seeming that he was used to it, he sighed and gave the blond centaur a tired smile.

“Hey Firenze, t-thanks?” He may have viciously stabbed an arancomantula on his way there, but it was the stupid spider’s fault for being out of their territory and out of hibernation, the slight cape of white snow didn’t do anything to hide it. That was the only reason his dagger was out, yup.  “Is Bane around?”

“He is but…”

“Is he stargazing again?” Draco sighed, following Firenze to the ‘centaur clearing’ as he called it in his mind. The colony of the forbidden forest was usually on the move, but this was the clearing they preferred for stargazing and to sleep.

“He doesn’t like what he sees”

“Tough luck, the stars won’t change even if he keeps staring at them” Destiny didn’t change for anyone, not Percy, not Annabeth, and definitely, not for Draco. He thought bitterly.

Before Firenze could reply they were standing at Bane’s side, who looked very worried gazing upon the stars. Draco could bet that the centaur was worried because Mars was ‘getting brighter’ again, as if Draco’s uncle was ever chilled out. “Hey Bane, how is it going?”

“Son of Pallas, what a surprise to see you around”

Draco huffed in annoyance, glaring at the older centaur with mockful reproach “Hey! Don’t be like that, every time I come by to train you are occupied”

Bane chuckled slightly, it had taken Draco a lot of persuading, but he and the colony leader were on good terms.  It helped that Draco often volunteered to go hunt monsters with them.

“What brings you here demigod?”

Draco rummaged around a little bit, taking the book out of one of his bags. “Ok, sorry in advance if this is rude but…do you know what this is?”

“Drop that evil thing” without warning the back of his hand had been hit with one extreme of a bow, which…

“Ouch?” Draco frowned, rubbing his hand slightly “So, the book is evil, noted”

“Where did you get this object?” The centaur had somehow hooked the book with the bow and was examining it from a distance, as if touching it would infect him with something.

“Some girl at school had it” At Bane’s unimpressed glare and Firenze’s worried one. Draco sighed “I’ll make sure she’s fine but…do you know what it is?”

“I do not, son of Pallas, but…”

“I swear to Hades if you say ‘Mars is getting brighter’ or something I’m going to change all your arrows to flowers” Draco deadpanned, very serious about his threat, centaurs often gave wizards vague answers and talked in riddles and nonsense about stars. But he knew they did that on purpose because he had had eloquent talks with Firenze, and he had grown up with Chiron as a tutor. He knew centaurs could talk normally; they were only being annoying.

“It oozes very dark magic” Bane said with a raised eyebrow at Draco’s outburst, mouth twitching trying to hide a smile “you should hide it in a place only you know how to find until we can identify what it is”

Draco was about to ask how the centaurs would identify the thing if he was being told to hide it, but then Bane, taking the fur around his neck opened the book as if it was a bomb and ripped a page, before tossing it to the ground.

He blinked owlish at the centaur before nodding “Okay…thanks, I guess”

“don’t touch it directly” warned Bane before heading Merlin knows where, Firenze trotting behind.

-

Draco may have gotten distracted the other day, but as soon as classes were over, he dragged Theo and Blaise with him towards the infirmary. Where, despite Hemione’s protest they got to see their friend; small patches of fur around her skin, whiskers, and all. Draco wasn’t impressed.

“Hermione Jean Granger! What on earth did you think you were doing?!” He approached her bed, arms crossed over his chest, giving the bushy haired girl a glare.

“Hi Draco”

“Don’t ‘hi Draco’ me”

“C’mon mate, I’m sure she has already heard a lecture from McGonagall” Interfered Blaise before he could start his lecture -probably getting themselves kicked out of the infirmary.

“As if you wouldn’t do the same” Mumbled Theo under his breath giving Draco a raised eyebrow. He spluttered in place. After a while he sighed and gave Hermione -and Harry and Ron who had arrived in the meantime- an unimpressed stare.

“Not if I’m not certain of the effects” Draco sighed, sitting at Hermione’s bed “Really Mione? To spy on Pucey?”

“It did work, didn’t it?”

“Crabbe and Goyle are very traumatized by the events and have refused to eat cupcakes since then” Deadpanned Theo giving the trio a raised eyebrow, at least Hermione looked a little bit guilty.

“Sorry?”

“Not us who you need to apologize to”

“But! We did manage to learn something, not from Pucey but from Malfoy” Ron exclaimed, evidently trying to show them how they did it for a good cause, but the name of his cousin made Draco frown at the redhead.

“If you start saying nonsense, like my little cousin is the heir, I’m going to spell your mouth shut Weasley”

“She said that the chamber had been opened once, seventy years ago” Interfered Harry before Draco could start fighting with Ron “Her father told her”

Of course, his pompous, good for nothing, uncle would know about the chamber.

“We didn’t see anything about that when we were researching in the library” Theo said, giving them a frown, alas, they hadn’t searched that recently. They searched through the more thrown back news articles they could find at the library and in ancient tomes. Hogwarts was quite old after all.

“You researched? Without me?”

Draco gave the girl an eye roll “You were too preoccupied doing an almost illegal potion”

“What did you find out?” Ron seemed to be excited at the prospect but was turned down by Theo who stared around frowning.

“Guys, I don’t think we should be discussing this in the middle of the infirmary”

Draco nodded, because despite their currently only company being the petrified students, it wasn’t a very secure place to discuss strategy “Meet us this weekend at the entrance hall, I know a secret passage that the twins don’t use often, we can talk there”

“I’ll be out of here around the first week of February” Grumbled Hermione, twisting her whiskers. Draco had to bite his cheek to stop himself from laughing.

“Don’t worry ‘Mione, we’ll tell you everything”

-

Draco was searching for a certain dark-haired girl, he didn’t want to point fingers, like Weasley. But he had met Lucious Malfoy over winter break, and he believed the man to know more unsavory things than the average wizard. Old pure blood families were like that.

He still shuddered when he remembered how proud Walburga had been, every time she recounted Bellatrix Lestrange’s achievements -as if torturing people into a vegetable state was anything to be proud of. That was the only reason why he decided to ask his cousin directly what she may know. Nothing to do with the fact he didn’t trust Ron entirely, no sir.

Draco wasn’t counting on finding his cousin and Ginny Weasley in the middle of an argument, over him of all things.

“Stop staring at my cousin, Ginebra ” Aurora practically hissed, using Ginny’s full name as if it were an insult. Judging by the redhead girl’s reaction, it was.

Aurora had some of her friends behind her, trying to look intimidating. While Ginny was in front of a blond girl from Ravenclaw who from some reason didn’t have shoes on.

“I don’t know what you are talking about Capella ” Draco raised his eyebrows at the use of Aurora’s second name. There seemed to be a little bit of history between them.

“It’s Malfoy for you, you blood…”

Draco coughed rather loudly, all the heads snapped to look at him, the Slytherin first years paled, Ginny huffed in annoyance and for some reason the Ravenclaw girl smiled airily at him “Am I interrupting something?”

“D-Draco”

“You know I don’t like all this blood bigotry Aurora” His cousin at least seemed to be ashamed by her actions, Draco would have to have a talk with her about narrow minds -and maybe mention how her father treated him, that would serve the man right. “I’m pretty sure I told you lot to be at the library at noon, Theo won’t be pleased if you are late” at that, the rest of Slytherins paled and started to almost sprint down the hallway towards the library.

Their small study sessions had turned to a big group, where the firsties took advantage of their knowledge to complete their homework. That was if Theo was in a good mood, if not they would be subjected to his spartan like attitude towards studies.

With just the three girls now, he turned with crossed arms, pointedly glaring at his cousin for an explanation. “Well?”

“She keeps staring at you, like she also stares at Potter. It’s getting creepy” Aurora huffed, crossing her arms, and glaring defiantly back at him.

Draco knew that he should have explained better to her about personal space and privacy when he reprimanded her about the ‘Harry Potter club’.  Colin Creevey had unfortunately fled from that conversation.

“First, thank you for defending me Ro, but I’m capable of fighting my own fights” The dark-haired girl bristled but settled into a pout. “Second, Weasley, I’m taking care of it, don’t worry”

“Not like I care” The redhead huffed and stomped out of the hallway.

Draco rolled his eyes and had turned towards his cousin, ready to ask her about what Harry had mentioned without seeming suspicious. That was until a dreamy voice interrupted them.

“Be aware of the Nargles, half-blood ” The blond girl smiled -at him or at the wall, Draco couldn’t tell- and walked away.

“Okaaay” Draco wasn’t freaked out at her emphasis on the half-blood part, no sir.

“Don’t mind her, she’s Lunny”

Usually, he would reprimand his cousin for the word, but being honest, the blond girl gave him the shivers “C’mon, let’s go to the library before Theo starts torturing your friends”

-

“Why are you standing there?” Cedric Diggory asked, frowning. Draco, Blaise, and Theo were standing in front of a tapestry -a very rare one, this didn’t move- near the staircases. Making their best impression of marble statues.

“Nothing, Prefect Cedric~” Singsonged Draco giving Cedric his best innocent smile. The Hufflepuff sighed.

“Just, don’t get in trouble”

“Us?” Blaise gasped “How little you think of us Diggory”

“That was more aimed at Draco”

“Hey!” His two traitorous friends chuckled; Cedric gave him an exasperated smile but continued his way to the main Hall.

“See you later guys”

“Bye Ced~” Much to his luck that was when Harry and Ron appeared, looking a little bit dishelmed. Ten sickles they woke up late “Oh, thank Merlin, we were starting to get weird glances”

“Why are you in front of that portrait?” Harry frowned.

“It’s the entrance, now come on”

Draco held the tapestry, just high enough for the four of them to get inside the small corridor right behind it. According to the portraits near the entrance, it was a passage that some Professors used in an emergency, and since Hogwarts was supposed to be a very secure place, it was deserted.

“I still don’t want to know how you find these things” Complained Blaise, casting a Lumos after the five of them were inside the tunnel. It was quite humid and dark, Ron kept staring at the walls as if expecting something to suddenly appear -Not spiders, Draco got rid of those.

“It’s called exploring, and…maybe following the twins around a little bit. I’m pretty sure they somehow have a map of the school” He had caught them staring at a parchment but as soon as he managed to get close, they said something, and it transformed into a blank page. “Here is okay”

Ron and Harry stared at him a little bit funny but after Draco assured them that no one would hear them they explained their little adventure at Christmas. Draco had to stop himself from smacking them for what they did to his friends and little cousin.

“We should search the library for more information about what happened seventy years ago” Mused Theo, Draco knew he was already planning all the things they would need to search for. He had a slight suspicion that maybe it had been censored somehow. Otherwise at least someone would have heard about it.

“I think I’ll engrave my name on our table” Groaned Blaise, gaining himself a few pats on the back from Ron who looked like stepping in the library was the last thing he wanted to do.

-

Lou,

Is everything alright back home? I haven’t been able to contact any of them. I’m worried, the last time I knew anything about Malcolm, Lily and Denise was back in late November.

Is something wrong? Do you think I should head back?

Please respond, I’m sending Noctua to your school in hopes he could reach you there. He is very frustrated since I’ve sent him to camp twice already, and he came back dazzled but with the letters intact.

If you can contact camp, please tell everyone I miss them and that they better stay alive until I’m there.

A very worried

Draco.

-

Drake,

I don’t know what’s happening at camp, I’ve tried to contact Chiron, but the IM call doesn’t connect. I’ll ask my dad about it, but if I still don’t get answers I may go to camp to try and get some.

I know that Austin stayed back at camp due to some problems at his school, so don’t worry that much about Sherman. Worry more about camp, at winter break Hayley came up with something called a three-legged death race, and your little siblings were very thrilled by it. Morgana, help us if he got it approved by Chiron.

I also haven’t heard anything from camp, I’m getting worried.

Stay safe,

Lou.

-

Draco was at the owlery, staring at Noctua with a small frown. Trying to decipher why he couldn’t just fly inside camp like he did with Lou’s school. He was getting worried, last time there had been radio silence, it had been from Olympus. And look how that had ended.

He is ashamed to admit that he jumped when a sudden small hand posed itself on his shoulder, making him turn around sharply only to be face to face with the same blond girl from the other day. She still didn’t have any shoes on.

“Hi there”

“Um…hi” Draco took a step back, Noctua decided to perch himself on top of his head, the owl was staring at the girl quite intently.

The blonde smiled at the owl, to then diver her gaze towards something only her could see. Draco had to admit he felt a little bit unsettled. It felt like the first time he met Clovis from Hypnos cabin; the girl had the same dreamy aura but at the same time it was so different that left him feeling wary. “I’m Luna, Luna Lovegood”

“Okay”

They stood there for very awkward minutes; Draco was debating how to politely flee out of the room when the girl snapped her attention back to him. Staring intently at Draco’s chest, right where he concealed his beads necklace.

“Isn’t it funny?”

“What?”

“That my name is Luna when my family has been blessed by Apollo?” At that, Draco took a deep breath, he hadn’t known that wizarding families could be blessed by gods. Well, apart from Hecate, but he supposed it could be possible since the ban between godly intervention in Hecate’s realm had been placed only around seventy or eighty years ago “My great-great-grandmother was a seer”

Draco grimaced, great, what he needed, a way to get a hold of a prophecy, yay. Don’t get him wrong, he liked Rachel, she was a good oracle. But he really didn’t need a way to contact Austin’s dad, school was chaotic enough as it was. “Thanks for sharing, I guess”

Well maybe Luna could be a good last resort if he couldn’t get a hold of camp before summer break.

“Did you know there’s still some wizards that believe in the old gods?” Draco nodded, Lockhart coming to mind. “Take care half-blood”

The girl turned and climbed down the stairs, leaving behind a very stunned Draco, who still had Noctua on top of his head.

“Well, that wasn’t disturbing at all” He mumbled to himself.

-

“The only thing I can find in the school records is something about a T. M. Riddle won a trophy back in 1943” Grumbled Theo, he had some bags under his eyes, but that was because between him and Hermione they spent all their free time at the library, Theo, and Harry on top of that went to Quidditch practice.

“Wait, who?”  Draco frowned when the phrase registered in his foggy mind, he may have also been trying to find something about the strange book, at night, with help from Kreatcher who had agreed to apparate some books from the Black library for Draco to read. He now knew more about dark objects than he ever wanted to know.

“Riddle”

“His initials would be T.M.R., right?” Draco frowned, those were the initials in the book Ginny had, it was too weird to be a coincidence. Maybe it had something to do with all their problems? But it was only a book, right? Books may contain the secrets of the universe but without someone to read them there was nothing to fear. 

“Yes? Why?”

“Nothing”

-

Draco carefully took the book out of the opening he had shoved it in, the Athena’s kid part of him had been anxious about letting the very well-maintained book at the mercy of the elements, but Bane had warned him about it, and he didn’t think it would be a good idea to keep the book inside the castle.

Especially since he was sure Ginny had been following him around. He examined it, crouched down by the roots of a tree with his wand lighted by a lumos on his mouth. One of the reasons the redhead hadn’t been able to locate the book had been that recently he only went to the forest at night.

Security had begun to relax a little since there hadn’t been any more attacks, but curfew was still severely encouraged by the heads of each house. He knew for a fact that McGonagall checked the perimeter of her tower at least once every hour till midnight, Flitwick had casted a spell at the stairs leading to Ravenclaw tower to warn him if anyone was trying to sneak out, Sprout only had to ask her students to not go out at night -it was quite surprising how good behaved the Hufflepuffs were when it concerned their head of house, even Zacharias Smith.

On the other hand, Snape had threatened them with horrid detention, as if that would deter anyone; well, it didn’t stop Draco, Snape couldn’t do anything to him if he didn’t catch him in the act.

Draco furrowed his eyebrows when he confirmed that the initials on the book were T.M.R, so, with a mental apology towards Ginny’s privacy, he opened the book.

It was blank, he frantically opened it sporadically on a random page, but all of them were blank, pristine white, like it had never been used. Draco groaned; his small endeavor had been for nothing.

“Stupid book” He muttered under his breath, shoving it hastily back in the opening, a little bit frustrated about the whole ordeal.

“ Unskilled weaver’s kid” A voice, combined with chirps and clicks came from behind him, Draco mentally cursed when he turned around -wand still on his mouth- to see a giant spider right in front of him.

It was an acromantula, roughly the size of a small van, he had seen them before -may have killed some- but they usually were smaller, not old enough to talk. Did he technically kill baby spiders? Yes, but those things were vicious, so he didn’t feel that bad about it.

“Spider” Draco hissed through his teeth, reading his daggers and putting his still lit wand behind his ear. Like an improvised lamp.

“ You should not be here”

It was quite surprising that the spider hadn’t succumbed to the instinct of attacking Draco, like all spiders did with Athena’s children. But he wouldn’t let his guard down, that was what could get a demigod killed.

“It’s a free world. Besides, what are you doing out? I recall Bane mentioning it was hibernating season for your kind”

“ The castle isn’t safe; our sisters had come to us for protection” At that the thing gestured towards a place right between them both, it was quite dark but with the light from his wand and the contrast from the lightly snow-covered forest soil, Draco could see a dark line of spiders crawling around in a desperate attempt of getting away from something.

The direction was from the castle towards the forbidden forest. “Good riddance, I was getting tired of killing the spiders under my bed”

He had a feeling that the spiders may have been a clue of what was going on inside the castle.

The giant spider clicked its jaws, angry, yeah maybe it wasn’t a good idea to tell the very big spider about Draco’s tendencies on killing its distant cousins “ I should devour you right this instant”

“You are welcome to try”

-

Drake,

Read this thing seated for the love of Hades. Okay, are you ready?

Leo is back! Well, kind off (don’t worry, Lily and Denise punched him for you). He came back then went with Apollo on a quest. Yes, as in Lord Apollo, Austin’s dad, sun god and all that jazz. But he’s mortal now, it’s too complicated to explain over a letter.

You are not going to like this, don’t panic but, camp was attacked (again).  It seems that there’s a new prophecy this time featuring our favorite god (yes, I’m talking about the one that got turned into a mortal teen). Don’t worry your little siblings are okay, I’m terrified about how the small ones bonded with Hayley, man, you should have never told them about your little adventures. Lily got her hands in a flame thrower and refused to let go.

Anyways, gladly, despite the injured, no one died, thank Morgana for that.

And, we may have found out why all the communications toward camp are gone, there’s this new threat (I know you, please don’t lash out at sentient beings after reading this). They are calling them the triumvirate, Roman emperors that somehow are still alive -what’s even our lives? -  they somehow are diverting godly and mortal communications from and towards camp. We have a feeling it is also affecting our roman counterpart, we don’t know anything about the twelve legions.

Thankfully they seem unaware of magical communications, so I'll pop over camp every so often and you could send me any letters you want to send to them.

Malcom told me to tell you this: ‘ We are fine Lil bro; we will hold the forte don’t worry. Don’t even think to come back before school ends…by the way you have some explanation to do. See you next summer’ …. I may have let him know I knew a magical way to contact you. Ups?

In my defense your brother can be quite intense, I’m not sorry about that. (Don’t worry it doesn’t break the statute of secrecy since they are related to you…now under that logic all camp should be able to know without triggering mortal magical radars…I’ll ask my dad).

Stay safe,

Lou

-

Draco hadn’t been gladder about his extreme tiredness -thank a very stubborn spider for that- because he had been tired enough to not outwardly react to Lou's letter at breakfast. Of course, the gods couldn’t let them live in peace.

Still, Theo gave him a concerned raise of eyebrows “Everything alright?”

“It’s just something from back home”

“From the manor?” Blaise said with a confused frown.

Draco had to stop himself from facepalming at his friend’s obliviousness. “Are you aware that I’ve lived half my life in another continent?”

“Oh, from your uncle then”

“My cousin” He corrected absentminded “Something is going on back home that is interfering with Noctua’s ability to deliver letters to my…friends”

“A malfunctioned ward? Mate, I heard those are because of lack of maintenance”

If only Blaise knew that he was kind of insulting Zeus’s ability of putting up magical barriers. Not only that, but he was also kind of dismissing Talia’s pine. Draco was glad that Zeus didn’t pay attention to that part of the world, and that the Hunters of Artemis weren’t nearby.

“We did ‘maintenance’ and ‘upgraded’ them like, two years or so ago” The fleece and the dragon counted as upgrades, right? “It’s something else”

“Well, good luck with that”

-

Draco had fled the Slytherin common room as soon as he saw Pansy’s small station for writing Valentine’s cards. All the girls from his house and year had planned to make some for Lockhart, he knew he shouldn’t have told them what they did back in the states.

Blaise and Theo would accuse him later of using them as sacrificial lambs, but it wasn’t his fault they hadn’t reacted as fast. What he didn’t expect was to be grabbed by the wrist and shoved inside an empty classroom.

“Hey!”

“I told you Fred, third time's the charm” The Weasley twins appeared from the shadows, right in front of him.

“Are you telling me I’m the third person you shoved inside here?”

“Yeah, almost got hexed by a Slytherin prefect” Fred rubbed his arm, his sweater had a small scotch mark. Draco betted it had been Gemma Farley, the fifth-year prefect. She was vicious with a wand.

“Serves you right” He smiled viciously, Slytherin’s were known for their policy of fire first, ask questions later. Self-preservation and all that. “Wait, why did you practically kidnap me? I thought we agreed to put on hold our prank war”

“Yeah, about that” Fred

“Do you know what’s wrong with Ginny?” George

“She’s been acting” Fred

“Strange” George

“We have had” Fred

“To stop her from” George

“Following YOU around” The twins finished looking concerned, Draco frowned, he had seen the girl around quite a lot lately but was sure that Aurora had been keeping her away.

He was a demigod, he knew when he was being followed, but the twins had a point. From an outsider perspective it was quite strange for Ginny to suddenly follow him around.

“I’m working on it” Draco grumbled, not sure Ginny would appreciate it if he spilled the beans to her brothers. He would hold on to the information until he knew there was no other way of helping the redhead “Just keep an eye on her”

“Whatever you say”

“Dragon-fly”

“Now, what are your thoughts…”

“About Valentine’s Day”

-

Draco did a double take when he entered the great hall that morning because, what on earth was he seeing? The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. He had to suppress a shiver; it was like a funhouse mirror of cabin ten.

“What in Morgana’s name is happening?”

“You know today’s date?”

Draco knew the date; he had some pranks planned with the twins. But he was sure none of them involved the great hall, they knew how to not get caught by the professors. No, this was something else. This reminded him when the Aphrodite cabin had gone all out in Saint Valentine’s festiveness. No one had been safe.

“Who in his right mind would put this display up?” Draco groaned, blowing off some of the confetti from his piece of toast.

Last year he had noticed some upper year kids exchanging presents and what not, but it wasn’t that much of a festivity inside the castle. He had heard from his Ravenclaw friends that the real lovely-dovely vibe was felt at Hogsmeade where couples went the weekend before or after Valentine’s.

“I think I know who’s responsible” Groaned Blaise pointing at the Professors table. Where a certain pink-haired man -Draco regretted the timing of his prank, Lockhart had taken advantage of the change of hair color- cladded in lurid pink robes to match his hair and the decorations stood clearly waiting to get everyone’s attention.

“Of course, it had to be Lockhart” Mumbled Theo in annoyance. Pansy and Daphne were a few seats over, looking at the Professor with heart-shaped eyes and Draco had to stop himself from gagging.

"Happy Valentine’s Day! And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all!” Draco groaned remembering all the glitter he had to provide for said cards, he was lucky no one else in Slytherin knew he was responsible for the glitter mess at the common room. Millicent was the only reasonable young woman that didn’t fancy the man, at least one of his friends was sane “and it doesn’t end here! My friendly, card-carrying cupids! They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines!”

Dwarfs, poor little fellows dressed as cupids. Draco grimaced, he hoped that the guys were so focused on their task, to not sniff him out -as if he was a delicious hot dog in the middle of a dog park- maybe he would invest in a perfume just for today.

Before anyone could murder Lockhart -Draco was sure Snape was at the front of the line for that, he was second- a flock of crows entered the great hall carrying around a box, a baby pink box that was suspiciously making its way towards Slytherin table, more specifically, to Draco.

“Oh, no” Draco groaned when he recognized the Dove emblem at the side of the box, it seemed like something only the Aphrodite cabin would come up with, and judging by the crows, Lou Ellen had helped them “I’m going to kill them”

Lockhart seemed delighted by the whole prospect; the rest of the students seemed content enough to start gossiping. The box started to move around a little bit, and Draco made sure to run out of the Great Hall, box in hand.

-

The thing had been cursed, of course it had. He now had the infamous permanent makeup on, and there was no way of taking it off. He would take his revenge on Drew as soon as he stepped back on camp’s soil.

At least it also contained all the letters his friends and family had written to him. It appeared that they never forgot about him even if he was so far away from home. Shoving all the small cards and trinkets inside his bag he grumbly made his way towards class, at least the make-up complimented his complexion.

His sudden glow-up made every professor and every student make a double take every time he passed by. Draco hated it. He was going to glitter bomb Aphrodite cabin. Much to his Slytherin’s friends’ amusement, and the professor’s annoyance, he and some others received a lot of visits from the dwarfs.

The only upside from his makeup, was that it included perfume, he guessed it was strong enough for the dwarfs to not detect his eau de demigod, because the little men approached him without a second thought.

Blaise was the one with the most boxes of chocolate and cards, Draco a close second -they were more like thank you letters from Aurora’s friends- Daphne and Pansy also had some. Theo received one and turned so red Draco worried he may combust. It made them cringe and chagrin the whole day, but it was a relatively good experience.

Well, for them, the rumors about Harry’s experience with a very determined dwarf was cannon food for the rumor mill around Hogwarts. Draco hoped that whoever had sent the poem hadn’t been too hurt by Harry’s reaction. He was sure more because of the public humiliation rather than the poem itself.

-

“Are you going to talk or just stand there? I don’t have all day Mr. Black” Snape sneered at him after five minutes of awkward silence, Draco didn’t want to be there. It was clear Snape didn’t want him there either, but Bane had said that the goblins may be of assistance, and Draco was getting desperate with the sudden silence from the Slytherin heir.

Silent monsters were always a bad sign.

“Professor Snape, sir” Draco inhaled and stared at his ‘favorite’ professor in all the school with a determined face “I need a permission to go to Gringotts”

“And pray tell why you ask me?”

Draco blinked owlish at the statement; Snape had gone back to grading papers as if Draco being there was just a nuisance “You are my head of house?”

“Am I? I remember quite well how I was dismissed by your tutor for Professor McGonagall” Draco cursed under his breath in ancient Greek, of course the jerk -he means Professor Snape- would hold a grudge about last year.

“Is important”

“Is it?” It was starting to irk Draco’s nerves how Snape wasn’t even glancing at him. Even Mr. D was politer! “I expect a letter from your tutor no later than tomorrow evening”

“B-but”

“Back to the dorms Mr. Black”

Now, how to explain the whole thing to Mr. Blackstone? He was sure the head of the American unspeakables would do something drastic if he revealed the whole truth. Draco almost stomped out of the room, he didn’t just because he was sure the man would give him detention just for walking too strongly.

-

“Wait, what’s the groundskeeper's name again?” Blaise frowned, an old paper article in his hands. The six of them were at the library, in an attempt to get more information. But aside from very interesting articles about the muggle war, there was no relevant information for their case.

“Rubeus Hagrid, why?” Hermione responded frowning.

“He was expelled from school the same year Riddle got his trophy”

“Don’t you think…” Theo said a little bit warily, Draco didn’t know if the Gryffindor’s knew about Hagrid’s status as a half-giant but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell them. That was information the man should be free to give to whomever he wanted to share it with.

He gave the brunet a glare that made him snap his mouth shut “He seems like a good man, I doubt it had anything to do with him” Theo at least had the decency of looking sheepish, progress! Draco frowned thoughtfully, it was true that Hagrid had been expulsed, but, knowing the man “He may have been expulsed from having an illegal animal inside the castle or something”

Blaise and Theo's faces were wide eyed -no, Draco hadn’t told them about the Dragon- the rest of them exchanged a knowing look.

“Yeah, can totally see Hagrid doing that”

-

“Why the sudden kidnapping, guys?” Draco groaned, he had been on his way to lunch with his friends and some lingering Hufflepuffs, since there hadn’t been another attack they had returned to going to classes by house, but some Hufflepuffs insisted that now they were all friends and kept hanging out with them. Not that Draco minded, but Pansy had other opinions. Then he had been snatched when they passed an empty classroom, they were lucky he hadn’t stabbed anyone with his daggers at the sudden action. “I tough our meeting was until Tuesday”

“It’s not kidnapping, it's intervention” Replied dryly Laura with an amused expression. The room had inside his Ravenclaw friends who were looking at him hungrily, as if Draco had the answer to the last term exams. “Now, spill, which ones are you choosing?”

“What?”

“Electives, Draco, electives”

“Did you seriously have to abduct me for that? I’m pretty sure there’s rumors now about feral Ravenclaws courtesy of Pansy” Wayne Hopkins could also be a gossiper when he wanted, he was by far the only Hufflepuff Pansy tolerated.

“So?” Prompted Richard, Draco had the feeling they had bet on what he would choose, as if the fourth years hadn’t anything better to do.

“I’m between Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Muggle studies, and Care of Magical creatures”

“Draco, those are all the electives, minus Divination” Grumbled Dustin, frowning. Draco rolled his eyes at them.

“Yeah, Divination and I don’t mingle”

“I thought you knew about muggle inventions?” Added Laura with a raised eyebrow.

“Now that you point it out, I better stay out of that class too…” He couldn’t risk attracting monsters just because he decided it would be fun to be near electronics, he missed camp’s very old tv and their movie nights.

“So, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical creatures?”

“I guess?”

“Right, we will have the notes for our next meeting. Have a nice day” Ans just like that he was shoved back outside the room, right in front of his frozen group of friends. Wayne seemed about to bolt and ask for a professor’s help.

“That was too weird mate” Blaise had no right to look that amused.

“Tell me about it” Draco grumbled, straightening out his clothes “So, do you already know which electives to choose?”

“We have until April for that”

-

Drake,

My suspiciously well-mannered nephew, I’m still not convinced for your reasoning about going to Gringotts. There were a lot of things left unsaid in you letter, I could tell. But I also know you, so, you have my permission to go during easter hols. I’ll send a letter to your Professor with the specifics.

I’m sorry little man, but your Snape is stubborn and can hold grudges. If I ever meet the man in person, remind me to hex him.

Don’t worry about camp, Lou tells me that everything went back to normal -besides the communications- once Lord Apollo went to fulfill his quest.

If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask, I’ll do whatever I can to help you out.

Best wishes,

Uncle B.

-

“How come Snape can be a professor when he’s so childish?” Grumbled Draco under his breath, he couldn’t tell Mr. Blackstone how important it was to get the book checked without telling him about the book.

He knew he could trust him with things like this, it just felt awkward to have to rely on an adult. It had always been just him and his siblings and friends.

“Mate, did you just seriously just say Snape is childish?”

“He apparently had an argument with my uncle over letters, international letters, mind you” Draco deadpanned, giving Blaise a raised eyebrow.

“Why?”

“Remember the book?” Theo nodded in understatement while Blaise seemed even more confused, right, only Theo knew about it, ups “The centaurs told me I better get it checked over at Gringotts”

“I still can’t process that you are able to have civil conversation with the centaurs” Mumbled Theo.

“They usually hate wizards” Blaise replied, narrowing his eyes at Draco suspiciously “Do you give them carrots or something?”

“Don’t be daft Blaise” He scoffed “And never make horse jokes in front of them, you’ll end with an arrow to the chest”

“Not like I’m planning on meeting them, but noted”

He would pay to see any of his friends trying to converse with the centaurs, Chiron was the only one he knew that could have a normal conversation, the rest were either obsessed over stars or too preoccupied partying to attempt a ‘civil’ conversation.

“So, back to the book, it is cursed, isn’t it?” Theo prompted; book discarded at his side.

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this”

-

Drake,

Something is wrong, communications have been haywire everywhere, now it’s not only towards camp, but also all forms of communication -mortal and godly- between us or not. But if a demigod is nearby, I assure you the line would be suddenly cut down. I hadn’t been able to reach my dad, even owls had started to get affected. If this triumvirate has a magical side, I’m afraid to think what they would do with a sorceress in their lines.

I hope this letter gets to you safely, I’m with Malcom thought, do not come back. It’s too risky, what if they do something to the planes or the portkeys? Then you would be lost forever.

Stay safe, I mean it

Lou

-

Poor Noctua had crashed at the breakfast table, looking like he had been swallowed up by a storm, despite the clear sky. Draco suspected ventis involvement. More so when he was able to decipher Lou’s letter that had the tint ruined due to the rain.

Maybe he should stop sending Noctua back to camp for a while.

“Mate, what happened to your owl”

“I also want to know that” He carefully put Noctua inside his robes, casting a drying charm and trying to give back the stubborn owl some warmth, there was no way he was in condition of flying to the owlery by himself “C’mon Noctua I’ll drop you by the owlery”

“Don’t be like that, I want to pet the pretty owl” Pansy pleaded with wide eyes, Draco raised an eyebrow at her sudden outburst “What? I’ve always thought he was pretty, but for some reason he always flies away as soon as he delivers his letters”

“The plumage is quite rare, is it a magical owl?” Pipped in Daphne giving the owl some pets on the head. The little traitor seemed to be enjoying the attention.

“A present from my mother” Draco sighed and put Noctua back on the table, where the petty owl preened under the girls’ ministrations. “Specially breed for me, he can fly great distances in a question of minutes”

“I thought it was quite illegal to breed magical owls without special permission” Theo frowned, now looking Noctua over as if it was a rare specimen “And that it was quite hard to get owls with special traits”

“This one also looks like an Owlet, like the ones described as Athena’s sacred animal”

Draco gave Daphne a blank stare, right, he had forgotten about Lockhart’s insufferable essay about Greek gods. It had been a plot from the man to make them ‘see’ all the similarities he had with Aphrodite -as if- but his plan had gone off course, when they noticed they could write about any Greek god.

He had felt secondhand embarrassment when he noticed his classmates writing rather enthusiastically about his mom, admiring her for being a warrior. He was sure Ron had written about her. Draco felt mortified for a whole week about the sudden interest in Greek mythology all his classmates seemed to have.

“So, you DID choose Athenea for the essay” Accused Pansy with a triumphant smile.

“She was the most reasonable one” Defended Daphne with a huff.

“Isn’t your mom’s family from Greece Draco?” Blaise added with a mischievous grin.

“Yes” He grumbled, giving the dark-skinned boy a nasty glare “But the family moved to the states decades ago, so I do not know much about the Greek gods” 

Which was a blatant lie and Draco was sure his mother would have stroked him with thunder if she had been able.

-

Draco had been called to Snape’s office, which wouldn’t be that rare if he hadn’t been on his ‘best behavior’ the last few days, in preparation for his small trip to Gringotts. As soon as he entered Draco knew, it wouldn’t be good.

“Mr. Black, it appears that your guardian had not met the deadline to sign the permission slip” Snape declared, for once looking Draco in the eye. He didn’t like the slight maniac glint on them “Therefore you are not allowed out of Hogwarts premises for the spring break”

“But he had already said yes!” Draco protested.

“No paperwork, no permission. You could even bring this up to McGonagall for all I care, but you are not going to win this time Mr. Black”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to look at the ground to not give the man the satisfaction of seeing his distress. Which was turning each day in hatred. Whatever he had done to put himself on Snape’s bad side was only putting the man on his blacklist.

“ I wish you were a monster, just to get the satisfaction of sending you to Tartarus ” Draco mumbled in ancient Greek under his breath.

“What was that Mr. Black?”

“Nothing, s-sir”

“Very well, go back to the dorms”

Now he had to come up with a way to know what the whole book business was about, and he couldn’t contact his family, just what he needed.

-

This may be a bad idea, but they were running out of options, so there he was, alone in the middle of the night. Trying his best to remain in the shadows casted by the trees. Logically speaking he knew this was a bad idea, but Theo and Hermione hadn’t found anything yet. Harry and Ron were growing restless each passing day, Blaise honestly didn’t care. And Draco was stressed about what was happening back at camp, there hadn’t been any more information from Lou Ellen, and he didn’t like it.

So, excuse him for seeking answers for one of his problems.

“Here goes nothing” Draco mumbled while taking out one of his pens, doodling a silly figure on the page. He reasoned out that maybe there was magic involved and that if he wrote something it may reveal itself to him.

He wasn’t expecting the book to write back, it sounded…annoyed.

‘ Who’s this? You are not Ginebra’

Draco raised an eyebrow at the tone, it hadn’t talked but the rushed writing was telling. Whatever the book was, it was getting desperate ‘Are you Tom Riddle?’

‘Who’s asking?’

‘That’s of no importance, tell me what you know about the chamber of secrets. I know you gained a trophy because of it’

‘A fan of mine, I see’ Draco could feel the scoff behind those words ‘I do not appreciate my book landing in the hands of petty little kids, do you even know how to write? Your calligraphy is atrocious, and let’s not talk about your spelling’

He frowned at that, offended. If he wrote a reply harshly, there was no one around to judge him. ‘I have dyslexia, I’m sorry for offending your royal highness sensibilities’ He huffed, when he saw something being written in cursive, it was a sassy book. It was too late to be discussing with an object ‘you know what? You are being a moody book I do not want to talk anymore’

‘Technically speaking, it would be writing, not talking’

‘I hope you enjoy your small humid place inside the forbidden forest’

-

“Please Black, please” Draco was practically dragging the youngest Weasley around, she had latched on his arm and had started begging as if there was no tomorrow.

“Draco?... Ginny?” Fred asked frowning, the twins came out of one of the many secret passages of Hogwarts. Which was great because Draco had been searching for them. It wasn’t that great when their faces turned thunderous when they noticed Ginny “What did you do to our little sister?”

“I did nothing, she’s the one pestering me about a stupid book”

“It’s mine!”

“No, it’s not, please, tell her to leave me alone”

“What book?” George asked frowning, Draco hopped he saw how weird it was for Ginny to be like this “We didn’t peg you for being a bully, Black”

Draco spluttered offended at the accusation “A book that for some reason your little sister had, that I suspect is a…” but before he could finish the sentence, a fist connected to his face.

It was a good hit, 2/10, needed more work in the strength, but had good technique. The twins stood frozen staring wide eyed at their little sister. Draco only batted the fist away from his face, staring at the girl carefully.

“Fine, I’ll find a way of getting it back”

After those ominous words the read-headed girl turned and stomped out. He and the twins stared, bewildered at her retreating back, Draco just broke out of his daze when he felt something slipping out of his nose.

Ok, maybe Ginny may have more strength than he thought.

“Did…did she just hit me?”

“How are you still standing?” Spluttered out Fred with a wince, Draco raised his eyebrows at the accusation. Did Ginny have a habit of hitting her brothers? Not like he could judge, but he still found the tough amusing.

“She has a good punch, but could do better”

“Mate, you have blood coming down your nose”

“I’ve had worse” Draco sighed; it was more annoying than painful, maybe he should go back to his dorm before he drenched his shirt in blood. Kreatcher would have his head if he did.

With that in mind he turned around, head held high to stop the blood from rushing down his face. Giving the twins a message before marching to the dungeons “Maybe give your little sis a speech about sentient objects”

“What?”

-

Theo stared at him with a frown, he had told his friends about his little encounter with Ginny Weasley and had put up to date Blaise with the book shenanigans. Blaise being the good friend he was had started laughing when he mentioned the petite girl punching him hard enough to draw blood.

“We should really tell someone about this” Theo frowned, sending Blaise a glare to make him stop giggling like mad.

“Which professor? Snape? Who hates me? Or better yet, our fabulous DADA professor?”

“I don’t know, McGonagall, Flitwick, Pomphrey? Even Sinistra” Theo protested throwing his hands up in exasperation, he really wanted to tell a ‘responsible adult’, but Draco really doubted any professor would even give them the time of the day.

“Right, go to the teachers with a cursed object, me being a member of one of the dark magical inclined families AND a member of the most unsubtly hated house there is at Hogwarts…what would you think their conclusion would be Theo?”

Theo deflated at that and gave him a tired sigh “I hate when you are right”

“Then you must hate your life, because I’m always right”

“Guys, stop your bickering” Blaise rolled his eyes, recovering from his laughing fit.

“Theo started it” Draco grumbled under his breath.

-

Drake,

I don’t know when this may reach you, apparently communications are slowly being reestablished. But it’s a slow process, so I doubt you’ll be able to IM message anyone from camp. I’m hoping that Owl letters are the first to stop being affected. Don’t worry camp-half blood is as good as it can be.

Camp Jupiter on the other hand…

Please write to Nico, he is being reckless, he is grieving, and I really think he needs his honorary little brother there for him. Will was doing his best, last time I visited, but there’s only so much Mr. Sunshine can do.

 Something happened to the Romans, Nico didn’t give any specifics -except to Will, of course- but judging by their reactions, it wasn’t good. I fear there may have been battles involved -when hasn’t it?

I fear that something big is happening, and as always would end with us battling something, please come back as soon as school lets out.

Lou

-

Draco hadn’t wanted to go to the Quidditch match, no matter if he had promised Cedric to cheer him on. He felt sick, the only reason why Nico would lose composure was if someone close to him had died. He really hoped it hadn’t been his half-sister, because he knew losing any more relatives would break his friend.

But Theo had been insistent, and even Pansy and Blaise had helped on dragging him out of the dorms.

“Stop being all gloomy, you prat” Pansy huffed while putting all her strength in pushing Draco around. He wasn’t making it easy for them. “What do you eat, rocks?”

“I ate the same food as you Pans”

“Don’t call me that you, ungrateful child” Pansy finally gave up and turned around to their group of friends that so far had been following behind with amused smiles “Greg, if you would?”

“Don’t you dare Gregory” Draco hissed when he noticed the large boy crouching down in an attempt of scooping him up “If you even attempt it, I’m going to carry YOU all the way towards the pitch, Gryffindor’s side”

Vincent rolled his eyes. “As if you could”

“Two galleons that he can” Blaise countered with a too big smile. It was a trap of course; Blaise and Theo knew Draco could easily lift both Gregory and Vincent.

“Don’t, I can assure you Draco is stronger than he looks”

Pansy didn’t pay any mind to Theo’s words and trusted out her hand for a handshake “Deal”

Draco sighed, Blaise and Pansy had the bad habit of making bets whenever they could. Blaise was a good Slytherin thought, he only betted when he knew he would win. At this point Pansy was just trying to recover her pride.

“Draco, if you would?”

“I brought this upon myself” With a huff he easily put Gregory on a fireman's carry and dashed towards the pitch, a startled scream coming out of his friend. Some upper years took a double take when they noticed it was Draco the one carrying the taller boy, but no one commented on it.

-

Draco was once again in front of the tree where he hid the book, it was the second time that week. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to write in the diary knowing that it may be cursed. He sighed, if Theo ever got word of it, he would hex him till next Tuesday.

“Okay, I’ll admit that this thing has a compelling spell” Draco grumbled under his breath, eyeing the book warily. The only thing stopping him from writing on it was his stubbornness. That and the fact that it dared to insult him the other day “But is so irritating I’m more tempted to put it in the black lake”

Grumbling, he took it out from its hiding place and redirected his steps towards the centaur’s colony, they would know what to do. Or that was the place he had wanted to go to, when he looked up, he was near Hagrid’s hut. Draco stopped dead in his tracks, he hadn’t meant to be there, at all.

The book had tricked him!

“That’s it, I’m putting you in the Black Lake, see how you like that '' He stomped towards the lake, frowning. He had heard rumors about a giant octopus at the Black Lake, and even tried to find it through the window from the common room. Draco really hoped that they liked to eat books.

“So, this is where you were hiding” An ominous voice practically spatted, clearly audible in the silence of the night.

Draco turned around cautiously, hiding the book on his clothes as much as he could without directly touching it “Ginny?”

The redhead girl was in front of him, barely visible by the light of the moon. But her posture was tense, and from what he could see, she was gripping her wand in front of her, more likely waiting for a good opportunity to hex him.

“Give me the book, Black”

“Not a chance” He barely had time to dodge a hex “Ginny, stop this nonsense, don’t let it control you”

“Give me Tom back”

Draco dodged another hex and started the most awkward dance of his life. If he had been any other kid, they would have succumbed at some point, but Ginny wasn’t counting on his demigod reflexes or stamina. Honestly, he could do this all night if it was necessary.

“Ginny, stop this nonsense! The book is controlling you!”

Normally he would try to keep his voice low enough to not cause a ruckus, but with the way Ginny was behaving -like a brainwashed kid- he really wanted Hagrid to notice. Not like he needed help handling a little kid -he would ignore the fact that she was just one year younger than him- but his usual form of dealing with things involved physical violence and maybe a dagger or two. The twins would kill him if anything happened to their little sister.

“Give it back, give it back, giveitback”

Draco took refuge behind a tree, holding his breath a little bit, maybe if he was lucky enough Ginny wouldn’t see him. He also took the chance to grab his wand, he stared at the book heatedly, this all was its fault.

An idea struck him, putting back the wand on its hostler, he took out his dagger. Very sharp, slightly glowing, celestial bronze dagger. He hoped he was right about this.

“Stop or the book gets it” Draco stepped out of his hiding place, book in one gloved hand, dagger firmly held in the other. When had he been reduced to a cartoon villain?

Ginny had stopped her attacks, just to openly laugh at him. The laugh was cruel, and with dread Draco realized she was not herself.

“Oh, poor child, who believes his small dagger would do anything to damage me” Ginny’s voice came up unnaturally cruel.

But he noted how she phrased it, he wasn’t even pointing the dagger at her, Draco had been right, if he managed to damage the book then whatever Ginny had under its control would leave her alone.

“Oh, but haven’t you noticed? This thing is special” He gestured to the fact that it was glowing, Ginny’s face didn’t change and for what he could see she seemed amused.

“I admit it had been quite frustrating trying to locate my book, you hid it in quite an unusual place”

Draco tried to not look smug “What? Never thought of looking in the forbidden forest?”

“I did” Not-Ginny bristled “But I never thought any at Hogwarts would be bold enough to go so deep in the forest”

“Right?” He was sure that he had been the only one in decades to explore the whole extension of the forest. It helped that he had been accompanying the centaurs. Otherwise, despite all his training, he was sure he would have ended up dead in a ditch. “Now, leave her alone or I’d cut this thing”

Draco must have seemed ridiculous, trying to be intimidating while threatening to rip a page of a book.

“As I said child, there is no way you could do anything to harm me”

“Do you really believe that?”

Taking a deep breath, praying to whoever listened that this would function. He ripped a page out of the book, but instead of using his hands like Bane had done, he used his dagger. At first Not-Ginny laughed, but then they stopped.

Draco saw, fascinated, how a paper-thin scratch appeared on Ginny’s face.  “Interesting…But as you can see, you are also hurting her” Her smile was cruel, and Draco cursed, whatever was possessing Ginny, appeared to be bound to her. He first needed to separate them “Now, give that back, or do you want to hurt her?”

He hesitated; it was clear that it wasn’t a good idea to give the book back. He could run back to the forest, but it had already tricked him once. And it now knew where Draco had been hiding it. Also, he couldn’t keep threatening it if whatever he did to the book would hurt Ginny too.

“Don’t look so smug” Draco grumbled while tossing the book towards the impassive Not-Ginny.

The girl opened the book as if searching for more damage, and Draco tried to come up with a plan. Maybe he could follow Theo’s advice on informing someone about the whole ordeal. His musings were cut short when he felt a sharp pain in his arm. A stinging hex.

“Now, you should follow me”

“The wand says there’s no other option” He tried to keep his distance, glancing longingly towards Hagrid’s hut. But the groundskeeper seemed to have a heavy sleep. Draco was at the mercy of a possessed first year kid.

“Glad we are on the same page”

He hoped his friends would not notice disappearance.

*-*

Draco was nowhere to be found, he usually at least told them where he went. They may not be able to go to the forbidden forest, more like, didn’t want to go. But Draco always told them every time he adventures into it, just because Theo and Kreatcher had thrown a fit the last time he did it without them knowing.

Blaise started to worry when Draco hadn’t come back to the dorms, he always did, no matter how late.

Theo had told him that he caught Draco sneaking out last night, but when he called out, he seemed to be in a trance. That was worrisome. They asked around at breakfast, even going to the extent of sitting with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs but no one had seen him.

It was as if the earth had opened and swallowed him whole, Blaise didn’t like it.

Their last resource were the Gryffindors, so with great reluctance Blaise and Theo marched to the red cladded table with grim faces, not really caring about the looks they were receiving or Pansy’s hissings asking about what they were doing. Hermione was the first that noticed them and frowned when she noticed their mood.

“What’s wrong?”

“Have any of you seen Draco?”

All the second year Gryffindor’s seemed to be listening in. Neville Longbottom looked quite worried, right, they were friends “No…why?”

“He wasn’t at the dorms this morning,” Theo explained, not sure how to word it. Blaise was glad about his friend’s intervention; he tended to babble too many details when he was nervous.

“Have any of you seen him around Gryffindor tower?” Like the fact Draco knew where all the entrances to the four houses’ common rooms were.

“He knows where the entrance is?” Before Hermione could scold them for knowing things they shouldn’t have -but seriously, Gryffindor’s weren’t subtle at all. A pair of redheads positioned themselves at his and Theo’s sides -Don’t tell anyone but Blaise was sure Draco was helping Longbottom out to remember the passwords.

“What are you talking about?” Blaise often scurried away when Draco talked to the twins, because he didn’t want to get involved in whatever pranks they planned. Not like he hated pranks, mind you, but plausible deniability and all that.

He assumed that the one that just talked was Fred. And the one on Theo’s right was George.

“Something good?” George

“It is rare” Fred

“To have snakes at the lion’s table” George ended the twin talk, from the corner of his eye Blaise could see Theo trying to control himself. He hated twin talk.

“Draco’s missing” Theo deadpanned.

“Really?” Harry asked with wide eyes “Are you sure?”

“He didn’t come back yesterday, and you know what he always says”

“He will never sleep in the forbidden forest if he could help it” Blaise, Theo and the twins said in unison, it was quite a weird experience. But it was telling, Draco trusted in the fourth of them to some extent.

Blaise wasn’t blind, it was obvious his friend was hiding something. There had been some slips from Draco already, like he wasn’t used to keeping whatever it was a secret. But he and Theo had agreed to not pry. Draco would tell them when he felt like sharing.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Don’t you remember Mione? He was there when we had detention last year” Harry rushed out, Blaise would like to know about that story.

“I tough it was an only one-time thing” Hermione hissed back, giving all a scandalized glare, Blaise shrugged, Theo nodded along as if he concurred with Hermione but had given up reason a long time ago.

“Oh, no, he goes regularly,” George said quite seriously.

“How do you think the illegal potion’s club gets its ingredients?”

At the twins’ words, Hermione started to imitate a gaping fish. It may have been amusing if the circumstances were different -it wasn’t completely illegal, mind you, Blaise was sure that Flitwick knew about it and that it was somehow an official school club. But Draco liked the mystery, so no one had told him that everyone in school knew.

“Not the time for lectures ‘Mione, if you see him, please hit him in the head and tell him we are worried”

-

Their worry skyrocketed after the announcement; someone had been taken to the chamber, more so when it was announced Dumbledore had been asked to attend the board of directors’ emergency meeting. They weren’t supposed to see the pain in the wall, but as the announcement had been made during dinner and since the Slytherin common room was in that direction all of them had first seats to read the awful writing. It said their, as in plural, that or whomever the Heir was, respected neutral pronouns. But Blaise had a feeling that the ‘ their ’ somehow involved their local reckless idiot.

“Blay” Theo said, face pale. All the student body had been told to stay put at their dorms. That the evacuation would start shortly.

As if they had no other choice but to let the victims die and get all the others out of there to prevent more deaths. Just when the mandragoras were entering adulthood.

“I know”

“We should…” Theo looked so lost, so afraid. And honestly, Blaise was too, but Draco was their friend, he had confided in them. He trusted them and they wouldn't let him down.

“Tell a Professor? Theo, Snape hates him, and I doubt any other professor would hear us” He started to peace around the room, hands on his head, trying to soothe himself with the feeling of his buzzed hair. Draco said he knew how to braid, that one of his friends taught him. Maybe he should let his hair grow and let Draco play with it next year. If they managed to rescue him.

“I hate when you are right”

“In this case, me too mate” Blaise sighed, staring at their already made trunks with disdain, then, it hit him, if they were worried about Draco, there was someone that had all the right in the world to know. Taking a deep breath, he called, hoping that for once the small creature listened to him “Kreatcher?”

Theo sent him a startled gaze, Blaise hadn’t been the one that had forgotten about Draco’s small friend – ‘He’s my family’ the blond had told them once, not at all caring that for purebloods House-elves were nothing more than filthy creatures. Draco had said it with such emotion that Blaise had wanted to go back to the Zabini main manor and hug Ziny, his nanny house-elf.

Thankfully, Kreatcher popped into existence. He was the best dressed House-elf Blaise had seen in a while, not like his mamma made their elves dress horribly, but their small toga-like robes were simpler than the heavily embroidered one Kreatcher had.

“Have Masters Ize and Master Teddy called?” If house-elves could, Blaise was sure Kreatcher would roll his eyes at them. His big eyes stared at them with contempt, pausing when he noticed a certain blond missing “Where’s Master Dragon?”

“Kreat…we can’t find Draco”

“The Slytherin heir has him” Blaise sent Theo a look, that was no way of delivering bad news.

Kreatcher crumbled to the ground, as a puppet that got its cables cut. Staring at them in disbelief and trembling all over. Blaise hadn’t seen a house-elf cry in his life, but the picture of a tear stained Kreatcher was making him uncomfortable.

“No, no, no” Kreatcher mumbled over and over, tearing at his ears, and scratching himself to the point of drawing blood, Blaise heard some whispered ‘not again’ for some reason.

“Kreat!” Blaise snapped after the elf had started to tear apart his clothes. What to do? Kreatcher was Draco’s personal elf if something were to happen to Draco…Kreatcher would die too.

“Could you go retrieve Draco’s guardian?” Commanded Theo after a while, face somber and with such authority that even Blaise stopped mid movement. It was a good idea, giving the elf a thing to do, to distract him, to let him feel useful “I doubt the school would call him”

Because Mr. Blackstone was head of the American Unspeakables, because Draco was also an American citizen. If word got out about what happened in Hogwarts, it would become an international scandal.

“Master Louise is in America” Kreatcher deadpanned, trying to clean away his tears with the hem of his small sleeves.

“Please?” What was his life? Blaise Zabini pleading to a House-elf “He may be the only one able to help”

“Kreatcher will do his best” The small creature stood up, looking determined “Master Ize, please find my dragon”