Nico heard footsteps, and turning around, he found Annabeth staring teary eyed at them with her lips trembling. Her hands shook as they held a letter and a ring.

~~~

Hermione shot up from her seat, rushing over to Annabeth whilst bombarding her with worried questions. Harry and Ron followed and the trio stood around the daughter of Athena, listening as she read the letter to them.

All Nico could do was stare in hurt confusion at what was happening. He watched as they comforted Annabeth and he listened as the group began to plan next steps for dealing with the impending battle the next day.

~~~

Annabeth woke up drenched in sweat, the scene from her dream replaying over and over in her head.

"Avada Kedavra!" A shot of bright green light hit Percy's chest, sending him flying backwards into the wooded clearing.

Annabeth aggressively wiped at her eyes, causing the tears to spread and her eyes to become even redder than they were before.

"It was just a dream," she mumbled quietly to herself. "Just a dream."

She looked around, slightly confused as to what she was doing on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.

"Morning."

Annabeth jumped, before she realized it was just Nico sitting perched on the nearby chair.

"Did you even sleep?" She asked.

"Could ask you the same thing."

Annabeth gave a slight chuckle at Nico's childish nature. She knew he was being serious, but in all fairness, he was sitting like a cat and she was incredibly sleep deprived and over stressed.

Nico jumped off the chair's ledge and sat in the chair across from her.

"Well?" He prompted.

"Well what?"

Nico shook his head. "Are you gonna tell me what the dream was?"

The daughter of Athena frowned. Rather than answer the question she asked one right back. "Where's Harry, Ron, and Hermione?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "They're down in the Great Hall going over battle strategies and preparations for today with everyone."

Annabeth all but leaped from the couch. "Why didn't anyone wake me up? I should be there! My mother-"

He cut her off. "You needed sleep. And with not waking you up you still only managed like four hours." He took a breath, "We can head down in a minute."

Nico gave her time to glare before he continued, "And besides, you're scary when you're woken up."

"I am not!"

"Are too."

~~~

Annabeth strode towards the Great Hall with Nico hot on her heels. Before turning the corner and heading in, she spun around to face Nico. "Is there anything else I should know about?"

Nico's face paled for a moment before he adamantly shook his head.

Unconvinced, she turned back around and walked into the hall, only to witness Thalia and Will hovered over a table with Hermione.

"Thalia! Will!" Annabeth yelled, jogging over to them. "What the Hades are you doing here?"

"Death Breath said you needed help with your quest," Thalia replied.

"Oh did he now?"

Smugly Thalia looked at Nico (ignoring his death stare) and hummed, "He shadow travelled to camp and got Will, before talking to Chiron who- might I add, is terrible at secret keeping- and told them where they could find me."

Annabeth saw Nico start to slouch away out of the corner of her eye.

She caught the back of his jacket and pulled him back to the conversation.

Will gave a slight smirk before adding, "He also caught us up with everything. Impending war, deadly prophecy, and missing Percy."

Thalia snorted. "Wonder where we've heard that before."

Ignoring Thalia, Annabeth turned to Nico. "And you did all this... while I was sleeping? Nico, I'm not a heavy sleeper."

Rather than answer, Nico rubbed the back of his neck. "I uh, I may have asked Hermione if-"

"Oh, no!" Hermione rushed over. "He most certainly did not ask me to get involved. Don't you dare blame this on me, Nico D' Angelo."

Annabeth crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Hermione. "Did you or did you not make me sleep well?"

"I did not."

"Then how-"

"Hey, Harry," Ron called, ignoring Nico's silent death threats. "'Mione's back!"

Hermione facepalmed.

"You were saying?"

"Okay, fine. All I did was apparate and pick up Thalia. That's it. Promise. I did it while Nico got Will."

Annabeth ran her hands through her hair. "I can't believe this."

Rather than wait for Annabeth to either kill someone or have a breakdown, Will stepped in. "Look, whatever happened the past few hours doesn't matter. Professor McGonagall and the others have started setting up a boundary around Hogwarts and employing defensive tactics. We have other students preparing around the school for when the time comes. We even have the Order on their way to help."

"What about Percy?"

"He's gone to You- Know- Who."

The group whipped around to find none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Annabeth, I'm really sorry. I tried to stop him, but underneath his stupid suicidal plans he has a brain and he stupefied me before I could do anything, and then he left."

Harry stalked up with his wand raised. "Malfoy! Get your death eater a-"

"Shut it, Harry. He's with us," Annabeth said.

"W- what?"

"Draco is working with us. Double agent. Secret spy. Whatever you want to call him."

"Annabeth," Draco pleaded. "You- Know- Who is expecting him. He's walking into an ambush and doesn't care."

Annabeth rubbed her hands over her face and slightly pulled at her hair.

Thalia stepped a bit closer, putting her hand on her shoulder. "Are you-"

"I'm fine," Annabeth stated, shaking off Thalia's hand. "Percy can handle himself. We know that. He has the Curse of Achilles, so for the most part he can't die."

"He doesn't have his powers."

Annabeth shook Nico's comment away. "Doesn't matter. He's still a wizard. Not great at it, but he's got to be powerful enough for where Dumbledore worried that he could turn without even knowing his ancestry."

Steeling her eyes ahead she finished, "We are going to win this war. No matter the cost."

Thalia, Nico and Will locked eyes. They didn't know the outcome of the war, but they knew one thing for sure: Annabeth Chase was not one to give up.