Ron ushers in the last piece to the puzzle.

Chapter Rating: General Audiences

Content Warning: Torture (referenced)

Word Count: 2088

Sorry for the late post. Emergency night shift at work... on my day off. Sigh.

Is it bad how much I ship Blaise and Hestia? Like... I basically invented them for this fic, and... ugh it's so bad. Maybe I'll write some one shots of them down the line. Probably not soon though, because God I need a break from this universe (for a short time, anyway).

And all the characters are owned by JK Rowling, or Rick Riordan.

Credits at the end.

____________________RON____________________

Harry was the last one to arrive.

Ron had woken up early to get something quick to eat before heading back down to the Room of Requirement. In the Common Room, he'd gotten a--for lack of a better word--hologram of a green-eyed girl, with pixie-cut black hair and green tips to match her bright eyes.

"Ron Weasley?" the girl asked. "I'm Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate? Friends with Percy and Annabeth... they didn't answer me--I think they're asleep or something, and Annabeth mentioned you were sort of in charge of the wizards..."

"Yeah-- yeah, I know who you are," Ron assured her. She looked half-dead from exhaustion and was covered in filth. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm in Hogsmeade, and I need to get to Hogwarts... um, like, right now. Steal a broom and give me a lift?"

"Uhhhh..." Ron glanced at the notice board in the common room, already full of Umbridge's decrees. "Sure. Lemme grab Harry's Firebolt, I'll, um, just be a few minutes."

"Thank the gods--I'm in the Three Broomsticks bathroom. Figured it's the least likely place for the Death Eaters to find me, since they're all supposed to be in Azkaban or whatever."

"Wouldn't want to be seen. Smart."

Ron waved the image away, and walked back into the boys' dorms. Harry was still fast asleep, which made it easy to borrow his broom. Ron figured Harry wouldn't care; Ron was a good flyer and wouldn't wreck it or anything. He also grabbed a cloak, one his brother Percy had bought a year prior, but left behind when he left his family behind. He'd hemmed it the best he could with some spellotape--it worked much better to repair clothes than broken wands--so it fit him better. The cloak did its job, and hid his Hogwarts uniform. With the hood up, he would look eighteen--or, at least, not like a student--to Umbridge or Filch.

He walked from the common room to the Owlery, broom hidden between his left leg and the wall. He got to the room without incident, which was a miracle, between Peeves, Mrs. Norris, Filch, and Umbridge. The way from the common room to the Room of Requirement wasn't used during the holiday break, so they never monitored it. The Owlery, on the other hand, was a hubbub of students no matter the day--kids always needed money from their parents, after all.

In the Owlery, Ron called down Hedwig and Pigwidgeon. They both landed on his arms: Hedwig on the left, Pig on the right. "Hey guys," Ron said, "I need to get to Hogsmeade without Umbridge finding out. Can you guys get a bunch of birds--Hogwarts birds, or owls whose owners aren't here right now--and convince them to go and get some exercise? Umbridge won't find a parliament of owls stretching their wings out of the ordinary, and I need cover to get there and back unnoticed."

Pig flapped and squeaked with excitement; Hedwig nipped his arm in an affectionate sort of way to show she understood. "Thanks, guys," Ron called as they soared up to where the bulk of the owls sat, hooting away. Within a few minutes, more owls than Ron could count were popping through the open windows. Ron pulled his hood up and fastened his cloak, climbed on Harry's broom, and kicked off, following them out. Soon he was flying in a cloud of owls, packed so dense that he couldn't see where he was going.

"Make sure we're going to Hogsmeade!" Ron called towards the direction of Pig. "I'll only be a minute, then we can go back!"

After about fifteen minutes of flying, Ron saw the top of the Shrieking Shack. "I'm landing!" Ron called. "I'll whistle when I'm ready to get back to Hogwarts!"

He heard Pig's squeak and Hedwig's hoot of acknowledgment, then broke through the floor of the parliament of owls and landed in front of the Shrieking Shack. The place bustling with families shopping before New Year's; Ron pulled his cloak tighter and acted like he'd just snuck from his parents, too.

He strolled around, pausing now and again to "window shop" in case any of the adults there worked for the Ministry and would report him to Umbridge. After a few more minutes, somewhere between five and ten, Ron reached the Three Broomsticks. He inched around the building to the girl's bathroom window and shot red sparks from his wand.

Lou'll get the message. I hope.

Lou peered out the window a moment later and motioned for Ron to pull down his hood. He did so, giving her a thumb's up. She whispered something to herself, smiled, and opened the window. "You're not using a Polyjuice potion," she affirmed.

"I know that," Ron replied.

"Well, now I do. Help me out."

She reached out the window and locked her arms around Ron's neck. He grabbed under her arms and pulled, his gait awkward from the weight of the seventeen-year-old girl. Soon, she was free of the Three Broomsticks window, and fell to the snowy ground with an ooof!

"Sorry," Ron apologized.

"Not your fault--I like my butt cold and wet anyway."

Ron laughed at the sarcasm, but, nevertheless, picked up on her broken tone. They stared at each other for a moment, debating whether or not Ron should address the elephant in the room.

"A little kid's staring at us," Lou whispered, the corner of her mouth twitching.

Ron turned to see a young boy, wide-eyed, like Ron had just pulled Lou from her wedding. He grinned at the boy, winking like the whole scene was some elaborate game of super-spy. The boy grinned back, laughing and happy to be a part of the game. Ron put a finger to his smiling lips; the boy nodded and ran off with a gleam in his eye.

"Nice," Lou grinned at him.

"C'mon, we need to get back, unless you have some weird Hecate magic that'll let us apparate to Hogwarts."

"If I did, would I've asked you to pick me up?"

"Wow, you're almost as sarcastic as di Angelo."

Lou laughed. "I prefer sass. Sarcasm is a tool of sass."

Ron showed her the broom. "You need help getting on?"

Lou took it from him and climbed on in the driving position. "I bet I can fly better than you can, Ron Weasley."

Ron climbed on behind her and grabbed her waist. "We'll see."

With the cover of the trees and buildings, they got back to the Shrieking Shack. Ron whistled, and the owls returned. They flew among them, but Lou steered like she could see the path ahead. She called orders to the owls, and they obeyed her, twisting and turning like a master Quidditch player until they flew into the owlery in a quarter of the time that same journey had taken Ron.

"Well?" Lou asked, brushing a green bang back into place.

"You win," Ron conceded. "I take it you want to call a full meeting?"

"That would be nice," Lou agreed, the worry filling her words yet again.

Ron told Pig to get everyone--being so tiny, he could hide from the teachers with ease, and get inside tiny cracks in Common Room windows. "Peck on 'em until they get it right," Ron instructed him, "and make sure to do it as fast as possible."

Pig squealed and bolted off again. "Some owl you got there," Lou said. She wasn't being sarcastic.

"Thanks," Ron answered her. "I'll show you into the Room of Requirement, I guess. Can you do a Disillusionment Charm or something? Make us invisible? It's a long way there."

Lou answered him by casting the spell. Invisibility was nice without the cumbersome cloak, though it was harder to remember to avoid people walking straight into him when he didn't have such a constant reminder of his invisibility.

They were the first ones in the headquarters, like Ron expected. Lou dissolved the charm immediately and attended to their list of horcruxes. "I got the snake, so we can cross that one off. No idea what the final horcrux is, though. Sorry."

She sounded too matter-of-fact to be sorry; it was more defeated than apologetic. Ron opened his mouth to say something--Will should be there, and he knew what such a tone meant--but he could think of nothing to say. What if Harry or Hermione had perished in front of his own eyes? What words would make that any less horrible? He didn't know how close Will and Lou were, but if they'd traveled together for so long, they must've at least been good friends.

The awkward silence was broken by Blaise and Hestia coming into the room, laughing as they chatted.

"Are you serious?!" Blaise asked Hestia. "You realize how long I've been sitting on that?!"

"Now I do," Hestia laughed. She turned to Ron with a happy but exasperated look. "You know, this about-to-die thing has a silver lining."

" 'Course it does," Ron said, biting his lip to keep from bursting into laughter. He had a sneaking suspicion what they were talking about. "Blaise finally told you he fancies you, right?"

"Hey!" Blaise cried.

"Yes, he did," Hestia said with a laugh. "Boys are such idiots sometimes--no offense."

"We are," Percy said, entering with Annabeth and Hermione. "What did we do?"

In answer, Hestia grabbed Blaise and kissed him full on the mouth. Everyone cheered, half as a joke. It was a silly moment, like one from the movies, but after eight straight days of apocalypse talk, it felt good to be silly. It was enough.

"Lou?!" Annabeth exclaimed, ending the moment. Harry still wasn't there, which made Ron want to keep Annabeth from talking, but there was nothing he could do.

"Hi," Lou said. "I got... news."

"Yeah?" Percy asked. "Where's Will?"

Lou took a deep and shaky breath.

"Oh no..." Hestia whispered under her breath.

"He's gone?" Hermione asked in a gentle tone.

"Yes," Lou said, tears falling now. "Not-- not dead... but..." Her shaking tears cut her off.

"Calm down," Annabeth said in a gentle voice, guiding her to the table. They sat together, side by side. "Tell us what happened."

"We got Nagini," she said. "But Will had to offer himself up to do it. My-- my mom is giving me dreams again, now that I forgave her, after what Percy said. Bellatrix Lestrange has him--she wants to torture him for information on the camps and the Greek world... and use him as bait for Nico. Will knew that would happen... he did it anyway..."

"Oh gods," Percy breathed, face in his hands. "Gods, Lou... Will... of course he's that much of a brave idiot..."

"Tell me about Bellatrix," Annabeth said to no one in particular. "I need to know what Will's in for."

"Not good," Ron replied. "She tortured our friend's parents to insanity--it's what she was locked up in Azkaban for. She won't listen to anyone or anything but Riddle... she's completely insane."

"We've got to rescue him," Percy declared.

"We can't," Blaise pointed out. "We've got two-and-a-half days left to stop the apocalypse. I met Will a few times, and I know how Nico talked about him... but we can't save one bloke only for him to die a few hours later in some mass divine warfare."

"There's more," Lou continued. "Message from my mom that Nico gave her. We're supposed to destroy the last horcrux--Percy should know what and where and how according to her. She didn't say it, but she was using her magic to make sure Riddle's followers could eavesdrop on the dream. From what I know of Nico, he knows Will's in danger and is planning to fight Riddle a day early to get his boyfriend back."

"Okay..." Annabeth said, uncertainty creeping into her voice. "Um... Percy?"

Everyone stared at Percy Jackson, who looked white as a ghost. "A bit of Nico's letter..." he started, voice shaky. "The last horcrux... it's a living--thing--too. But... it, um, it's blessed so... it has to consent to die."

"All right?" Ron prompted him to continue, unsure why Percy looked so uncomfortable.

"Percy..." Annabeth walked towards him, took his hand, and squeezed it. "Who?"

"It's... Harry... Harry Potter..." Percy forced out, shaking, pale as Nearly Headless Nick.

Absolute silence. Ron's eyes settled, not on Percy, but on a spot just above his head. On the doorway, where a figure stood so still it looked like a Muggle statue.

Harry Potter was the last one to arrive. Perfect timing.

Putting this to a vote: should I post the sequel on this story page, or should I make a new story page? Now that we only have three chapters left I should probably figure that out. Lol.

This week's beta commentary:

STORY: With some spellotape

GIULIA: Ron has attempted to mend far too many things with spellotape hahaha

LISSY: Lol yeah

SARA: Aesthetic

Credits:

Melody Rose - Author ()

Sara - Beta Reader (http://icomparemyselftoyou.tumblr.com)

Giulia - Beta Reader (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6748882/)

Please comment so I know what you think! See you next time!