Sorry this chapter took so long; I had it written and just didn't like where it was going. So I scrapped it and re-wrote everything. I'll try to post sooner next time, hopefully in a couple of days!!! Thanks again for the great reviews!!!!! :)
After finding nothing else of importance in the Parthenon, Harry and Hermione walked up to the meeting point, followed
by Remus and Tonks. As they approached the entrance to the tunnels, they spotted the other group already there waiting
for them. "What the hell...?" asked Harry, staring at them.
"What is it?" asked Hermione, then following the direction Harry was looking, spotted the reason for his question. There, standing off to the side of the group was Ron and Pyrena, holding hands and looking very cozy. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and all but dragged her over to their best friend.
"Hey Ron!" said Harry, spearing him with his emerald eyes. "Find anything new during your search?"
Ron, startled by Harry's fast approach, said "N-No, didn't find anything. How about you?"
"Sure looks like you found something to me" stated Harry, looking down at Ron and Pyrena's entwined fingers.
"What's the matter Potter, you jealous?" asked Phoenix, walking up to their group.
Giving him a very nasty look, Harry said "no I'm not jealous, I just don't trust you or your sister as far as I can throw you!!"
Ron looked at Harry and said "look, don't get your knickers in a twist. Pyrena and I have spent the afternoon together and realized we like each other. No harm in spending time together, right?"
Realizing that Ron was trying to act mature and not lose his temper right away, Hermione said "there's no harm in that at all, right Harry?" Noticing the look Hermione was giving him, the 'you had better agree with me!' look, Harry looked down at his feet and mumbled "no, I guess not."
Arthur walked up to them at this point and said "we're ready to go down into the tunnels." The group of teens followed him over to where Remus was standing. Remus saw them approaching and said "are we ready to go now?" When everyone answered "yes" Remus took two steps forward so that he was standing in front of a huge boulder.
"Abditus limen, acclaro vester ipsum!" As soon as Remus finished the incantation, as if out of thin air, a doorway appeared in front of the boulder.
"Wow!" said Ron, clearly impressed. The rest of the group just stood and stared as Remus said "as soon as the last person goes through the door and closes it, it will disappear from view." He stepped forward and opened it, and then motioned for everyone to go through the doorway. Harry walked through after everyone else and closed the door behind him, casting the group into darkness. A chorus of "lumos" could be heard echoing through the dark tunnel, and then nine lit wands appeared, lighting the passageway. Forming a straight line, Remus led them down deeper underground and Harry realized that it was getting colder the further they walked.
Stopping, Remus turned and said "you might want to put on warmer clothes, it's going to get a lot colder than this." Glad that he had listened to the list of things they needed to bring, Harry dug through his pack and found the hooded sweatshirt he had packed. Waiting as everyone pulled on coats and sweatshirts, Remus turned and started walking again as soon as everyone was done. They walked for about thirty minutes, going deeper and deeper into the bowels of the hill.
Hermione had been shining her wand on the walls of the tunnel, looking for anything of significance when she stopped suddenly, causing Harry to run into the back of her. Once she recovered her balance, she walked closer to the tunnel wall, waving her wand over the wall and said "acclaro!" Ancient Greek text started to form in front of her on the wall, text that looked familiar to her.
"Hey!" she yelled, making the others stop in their tracks "I've found something!" Remus doubled back to where she was and noticed the tunnel wall.
"I didn't see this when I walked by this section" he said, using his wand to see the words more clearly.
"I noticed a strange marking on the wall; it was the same marking in Hera's diary that Ginny and I couldn't figure out. I simply said 'reveal' in Latin, and it worked" explained Hermione.
"Do you have any idea what it says?" Arthur asked as he walked up beside her.
"I think so" she said, looking more closely at the words. "As the sixth month dies, evil will rise again and seek out the savior. The scepter shall be found and the light will turn to the dark."
"That's the second time today we've heard that last part!" said Harry with frustration in his voice. "What the bloody hell does it mean?!"
Hermione had gone silent after reading the writings on the wall and Remus turned to her expectantly. "Hermione, do you have any idea what it means?"
"The sixth month is June, which is this month, so that gives us less than three weeks. The evil it speaks of is obviously Voldemort in Lucius's body" She noticed the adults flinch at her use of the name and rolled her eyes. "The last part makes it sound like Lucius will get the scepter and we will lose the battle."
Everyone turned somber at her interpretation, hoping she was reading it wrong. "So we are going to fail in our search?" asked Phoenix, not believing her.
Just as Hermione opened her mouth to argue her point, a huge explosion rocked the tunnel. As they all hit the ground, shielding their heads from falling earth, the tunnel collapsed behind them. The passageway back to the door outside was completely blocked. Before they could try to unblock it, they heard muffled voices up ahead. Remus made a motion for them to be quiet as he, Tonks and Arthur quietly crept around the corner. Unfortunately for Remus, the Death Eaters knew of their presence, and a cry of "Stupefy!" rang out. Remus fell stiffly to the ground as Tonks and Arthur ducked back behind the corner. Voldemort's lackeys, unfazed by their guests, walked around the corner, shouting "expelliarmus!" and "immobulus", sending jets of blue and red light sailing at them.
Tonks quickly yelled "protego!" and shielded herself from the disarming spell, but unfortunately Arthur didn't act fast enough and fell over, joining Remus frozen on the floor. Tonks quickly pointed her wand at one of the hooded figures and said "stupefy!" dropping her target to the ground also. Just as he fell, two more Death Eaters came around the corner with their wands drawn. Everyone else in the group quickly aimed their wands, but before they could mutter a single curse, a voice yelled out "Incendium!"
A ball of fire shot out of the group, hitting one of their opponents square in the chest, immediately setting his body on fire. Cringing at the screams of agony coming from their enemy, Hermione turned to Harry who was staring straight ahead...at Phoenix. He stood there with his palm out in front of him as his eyes blazed red. "Obvallo Ignesco Protego!" he yelled once more, causing a wall of flames to appear between them and the remaining Death Eaters. The Death Eaters continued to shoot curses at them, but none of them could penetrate the wall of fire. Hearing four sudden "pops", they realized that Voldemort's men had disapparated out of the tunnel.
"Exstinguo!" Phoenix said, while waving his hand from left to right in front of him. The wall of flames disappeared and Harry marched up to him, grabbing his arm and turning him around roughly.
"What the fuck was that?!" he yelled, afraid he already knew the answer.
"Come now, Potter, you know exactly what that was" Phoenix said rather cockily. "Ennervate!" he said, pointing his wand at Remus first, then copied his actions with Arthur.
"I know bloody well what you did; what I want to know is why you never said you possessed fire magic?" Harry shoved Phoenix roughly, causing him to stumble back a few steps. Tonks stepped between them, looking disappointed in the both of them.
"Boys, play nicely, ok? Phoenix just saved our arses Harry" she said, noticing the anger that flashed in his eyes.
"Yeah, well..."Harry started to say, but Hermione walked up next to him and said "well nothing Harry. You need to save the pissing contest until later. Right now we need to see what had the Death Eaters so interested up ahead." Harry stared after her, incensed that she had embarrassed him like that in front of everyone. Phoenix gave him a shit eating grin and said "my, you are a whipped one, aren't you?" and turned around to follow Hermione, laughing the entire time. The anger escaping from Harry was almost palpable; he wanted to knock the shit out of that wanker so bad...
"Harry?" asked Ron, causing Harry's head to snap in his direction. "Whoa, mate, it's just me. I'm your friend remember?" Harry looked from him to Pyrena who was standing next to him.
"Why didn't you mention your brother's magical abilities?" he asked, turning his anger on her instead.
"It is not my place to say anything about my brother's abilities" she replied, standing up to him with an angry look on her face. "Are you mad because you couldn't play the hero?" she asked, venom dripping off of every word. Before he could reply, she pushed past him and followed her brother down the tunnel. Harry looked at Ron, frustrated beyond belief.
"What the hell is up with everyone all of a sudden?" he asked, anger evident in his voice. "Since when am I the bad guy?"
"I don't have a bloody clue mate" said Ron, patting him on the shoulder. Harry stared in the direction everyone had gone and said "well, I guess we had better follow them." He started walking and Ron followed, wondering what could possibly happen to them next.
As Harry and Ron caught up with the rest of the group, Hermione, Phoenix and Pyrena all stood in front of one of the walls further up the cave. The Death Eaters had blasted holes in the wall so that the writings were missing in places. "What's going on?" Harry quietly asked Ginny, who was standing towards the back of the group.
"They're trying to read the text; it seems the Death Eaters were in the process of destroying the wall before they attacked us" explained Ginny, smiling sympathetically at him. "Have you calmed down any?" she asked, placing her hand lightly on his arm, which was kind of comforting for Harry. At least there was one female that wouldn't shout at him.
"A little" he said, giving her a smile of thanks. "I just didn't appreciate my wife taking Phoenix's side over mine."
"I think this whole scepter business has her a little on edge" explained Ginny "I bet she'll be ok once we get back to the hotel."
"I think I've got something!" Hermione shouted, pointing at a portion of the wall. "To find...scepter...must travel...where...Gods...watch...play" she read, some of the words missing thanks to Voldemort's morons.
"What the bloody hell does that mean?" asked Ron, earning himself an angry look from his Dad. "Sorry" he muttered.
"It means that whatever this wall says, the Death Eaters know the full wording and are probably on their way to the scepter" stated Phoenix, looking at Remus. "We need to figure this out and leave as soon as possible for the next location."
"I think I know what it's referring to" said Hermione, who had been intently studying the wall. "We need to get back to the hotel tonight; I need to look something up to verify my theory." Everyone turned and started backtracking until they came upon the collapsed part of the tunnel. Remus looked at Tonks and Arthur and said "ok, reductor curse on the count of three." They nodded in agreement and leveled their wands at the mound of boulders and earth before them. "One...two...three, reducto!" they all yelled at the same time, blasting their way through the blockage. Each of them climbed up and over the small mound of dirt that was left and walked back to the door, making their way outside so that they could plan the next step in their strategy.
Meanwhile, the Death Eaters that had escaped Phoenix's fire attack had went back to their Master's new lair. Looking around, Rookwood said "this place gives me the creeps. I mean, I know that our Lord likes dark places, but this is the most death infested place I've ever seen."
Nott could only nod his head in agreement; he was too busy looking at all the skeleton's littering the dank cave. Their Master called this place the Nekromanteion; supposedly it was rumored to be the mouth of the River Styx that ran through the underworld. The Greeks would send their dead afloat with a coin under their tongue; that coin was to pay their passage across the River Styx into Hades. Those who did not have a coin were doomed to walk the riverbank forever, hence the skeletons.
Nott and Rookwood walked up to their Master's throne, where Lucius sat waiting. "Well?" he drawled, a little part of him hoping they had failed so he could punish them.
"My Lord, we have deciphered the text in the tunnel" said Nott, bowing before him.
"And...?" Lucius growled, becoming impatient.
"And it says that to find the scepter you must travel where the Gods and Goddesses go to watch and play with their followers" Nott recited, hoping he had gotten the translation right.
"Watch and play, eh?" said Lucius, thinking to himself and hearing Voldemort in his head say 'it is referring to their temples, but which one?'
"It is a temple" said Lucius, repeating what Voldemort had just said "did it say to which God or Goddess the temple was dedicated to?"
"Um, no my Lord" said Rookwood quietly "before we could decipher the rest Potter showed up with about eight other people."
"You FOOLS!!" screamed Lucius. "I give you one simple assignment and you blow it?!! CRUCIO!!!" Rookwood and Nott screamed in agony as Lucius's curse caused them the worst possible pain they had ever felt. Lucius kept the curse on them for about two minutes, and then lifted it, watching with satisfaction as the two followers curled up on the floor. "You will go back and find out who the temple belongs to, and if Potter and the mudblood get to it first, you shall pay with both your lives."
Hermione ran from the lift to the door of their room as soon as they had reached their floor. Her mind was going a mile a minute and she wanted to write down all of her thoughts before she forgot them. Using her key, she opened the door to see her Mum sitting on the bed with Mrs. Weasley, who was holding Conlan. They gave her a bewildered look as she hurried into the room.
"Hermione, what are you doing back so soon? I thought you were going to be gone for two days?" her Mum asked. "Did something happen, is someone hurt?"
"No, Mum. I can't really talk right now, I need to write something down and then I will explain everything." Hermione found a tablet of paper and a pen, and then she sat at the table in their room. Writing furiously, she didn't even look up when Harry walked into the room shortly after.
"Hi Jane, Molly, I guess you're surprised to see us back so soon 'eh?" he asked, walking over and taking Conlan from Molly. "Hey little guy, I'm glad to see you."
"Harry, what's going on?" asked Molly, becoming impatient.
"We didn't really find anything until we got into the tunnel; there was a clue as to where the scepter might be. Hermione translated some of the words and she thinks she might know where we need to go next" he explained. "It would have been easier to figure out, but we were met with about six Death Eaters down there and they proceeded to blast holes in the wall, which also blasted some of the words away."
"Death Eaters?!" said Molly with a worried look on her face. "Is everyone ok, where are Arthur and the kids?"
"Everyone is fine; your family is back in their rooms, probably cleaning up" said Harry, looking down at his own dirty shirt as an example.
Molly jumped up and headed to their rooms and Jane got up also. "I'm going to go fill Robert in on everything that's happened" she said, then walked out shortly after Molly.
Harry took Conlan and lay him down on their bed, and then proceeded to lie down next to him after he stripped his shirt off. Knowing that there really wasn't anything he could do until Hermione cracked the clue, he cuddled up to his son and started to drift off to sleep, exhausted by everything they had gone through that day. He smiled sleepily as he noticed Conlan had fallen asleep and closed his eyes.
"I FOUND IT!!" yelled Hermione, startling both Harry and Conlan awake and causing everyone else to come racing into their room. Harry picked Conlan up and calmed him down, walking over to where Hermione sat.
"What did you find?" he asked groggily, looking at the map of Greece she had in front of her.
"The clue referred to where Gods watched and played; it could only mean a temple. That's where their followers worshipped them, giving them gifts and undying devotion. So I looked in Hera's diary and in the book on Hera I took from the library; there is a temple dedicated to her in Lindos."
Everyone was now gathered around her and hanging on her every word. "Well, I guess we're going to Lindos. I'll go make the arrangements" said Remus, looking at everyone in the room "everyone else needs to pack up. We're leaving tonight."