Translated from Ancient Greek by Alannah Right, Head Librarian of the Great Library of Salem, Salem Witches' Institute.

Text in italics is assumed to have been spoken in Ancient Greek at the time of events happening

Text in bold are spells

Text in inverted commas are thoughts

Dad arrived to pick Alice, John and me up very early one morning a few days before the annual trip to Hogwarts as we had been invited to the Quidditch World Cup by Mr Weasley. Mr Weasley, through his boss, had somehow secured a large number of tickets to the event, though they are usually sold out years in advanced, and had invited us to attend with him, which was nice of him. Chiron assured me that Mrs O'Leary would be safe and cared for until I sent for her at the beginning of term, but it was still with great hesitation that I left my new dog behind at Camp.

We took the floo to the London terminal, where we took a brief side trip to drop our school things off at the Leaky Cauldron. Then it was on to the Weasley house where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, and Mr Weasley were waiting.

"I told you that was the right floo," Dad said smugly when we had collected ourselves.

The three of us looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

"Hello everyone," I said smiling at the others.

"Come on," Mr Weasley said, grinning like a kid in a sweet shop, "we're going to be late."

Mr Weasley took us on a long trek across the countryside and through woodlands and thickets, which led to a lot of complaining from Harry and Ron.

"Where are we actually going?" Harry asked.

"Don't know," Ron said, sounding surprised, "Hey Dad! Where are we going?"

"Haven't the foggiest, keep up!" Mr Weasley called cheerfully.

"I think Mr Weasley might be related to Luna," Alice whispered.

I laughed quietly. John glared at Alice for insulting his friend.

"Arthur! It's about time son," a man said as he walked over to us. He was a tall, chubby man with brown eyes behind rectangular wire framed glasses. He was wearing a brown waistcoat, made of what appeared to be sheep leather, over a button up shirt, and a blue and red tie. Over all of that he wore a green overcoat, and he had a tweed flat cap covering his brown hair. In one hand he carried a hiking stick.

"Sorry Amos. Some of us had a bit of a sleepy start." Mr Weasley said gesturing at Ron and Harry, who blushed, "and we had to wait for our friends here to arrive from America."

He looked at us, which was fair enough as they were waiting for us when we arrived. "This is Amos Diggory everyone, he works with me at the Ministry, and this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right?"

Everyone at Hogwarts knew Cedric Diggory, or at least knew of him. He was a universally liked member of Hufflepuff Quidditch team, he was their seeker, and was tall and handsome with brown hair and grey eyes. He was everyone's friend and I had never heard a bad word said against him.

"Yes sir," Cedric said politely with a brilliant smile.

Mr Diggory studied us up and down the line. "Merlin's beard, you must be Harry Potter."

"Yes sir," Harry said awkwardly.

"Great, great pleasure," Mr Diggory said, giddily taking Harry's hand and shaking it enthusiastically.

"Pleasure to meet you too sir," Harry muttered as he massaged his shoulder. Mr Diggory did not even ask our names.

"That's it, just over there," Mr Weasley said pointing at the top of a hill.

"Shall we?" Mr Diggory said with an excited glint in his eye. "We don't want to be late."

We reached the top of the hill only to be greeted by a boot, which was probably the worst idea for a portkey ever. Muggles tended to take notice of one mangy boot on a hilltop and a helpful volunteer might decide to remove it.

"Why are they all standing around that manky old boot?" Harry asked.

"That isn't just any old manky boot mate," Fred said, grinning at seemingly nothing.

"It's a portkey," George said.

Everyone put their hands on the boot. I put mine on Alice's and she smiled at me.

"Time to go. Ready?" Mr Weasley said.

"What's a 'portkey'?" Harry asked.

"Don't question it," I said.

"After three. One... Two…" Mr Diggory said, ignoring Harry who was not holding the boot.

"Harry!" Mr Weasley shouted.

Harry rushed over and puts his hand on the boot.

"Three!" Mr Diggory shouted.

There was a white flash and suddenly we were all flying through the air, everyone yelled in surprise.

"Let go kids!" Mr Weasley shouted, I let go and pulled Alice's hand off as well.

"What?" Hermione shouted.

"Let! Go!" Mr Weasley shouted, they let go, but it was too late as Harry, Hermione and all the Weasleys except for Mr Weasley crashed to the ground with a thump. Mr Weasley, Mr Diggory, Alice, Cedric and I came down more gracefully, we sort of drifted down. I was helping Alice, who had not used a portkey before.

"I bet that cleared your sinuses eh?" Mr Weasley said, barely holding back laughter.

Cedric helped Harry to his feet whilst I helped up Ron. Alice gave Hermione a hand up, while the twins got each other and John helped Ginny up.

"Who decided that the portkey should end that far above the ground?" I asked.

"Probably Percy," George said snarkily.

"He works in the Department of Sport now, or whatever it's called," Fred sneered.

As we walked across the field, we saw that there was a massive crowd gathered, cheering and celebrating, and that tents were set up all around a giant stadium. Music from all over the world wafted together to make the entire field have a festival vibe as people danced and showed off their amazing tricks and abilities. The tents were bizarre, shaped like castles, the Taj Mahal, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, a Leprechaun head and just about anything else that could be thought of. Some enterprising wizards had sold the space on the side of their tents as advertising space.

"Well kids, welcome to the Quidditch World Cup!" Mr Weasley said, grinning at Ron's reaction. He looked about ready to faint. We followed him into the crowd, taking in the sights, and dodging the people who were flying about overhead on brooms. We approached a rather small tent that appeared to be barely large enough for four people, let alone the eleven we had with us.

"Parting of the ways I think old chap," Mr Diggory said, waving farewell. "See you at the match," Mr Diggory and Cedric walked off and were quickly lost in the crowd.

"See ya later Cedric," Harry called after Cedric's retreating back.

"Home, sweet home, or tent, sweet tent I suppose," Mr Weasley said as he pushed aside the flap and entered the tent.

The rest of us entered the tent. The inside was many times bigger than the outside, with more than enough space for all of us.

"It's like summer all over again," Dad said, making Alice and me laugh but confusing everyone else.

"Girls," Mr Weasley said, "choose a bunk and unpack. Ron, get out of the kitchen we're all hungry, leave some for the rest of us."

Ron, who had gone to the kitchen, re-entered the main area of the tent, his cheeks almost as red as his hair from embarrassment.

"Yeah get out of the kitchen Ron," the twins said as they plonked down in chairs and put their feet up on the table.

"Feet off the table," Mr Weasley said, the twins sat up straight and removed their feet from the table, until Mr Weasley passed them, when they put their feet straight back onto the table with a roll of their eyes.

"Oh, it's so nice to finally do something as friends," Hermione said happily. "Well, aside from stopping madmen."

"Yeah," Ron agreed dreamily.

Ron was so obviously smitten with Hermione that he would agree with her even if she said the sky was green with pink polka dots.

"So, how was your summer everyone?" Hermione asked.

"My family still hates me," Harry said. "Sirius is filling out the adoption papers and all kinds of other paperwork to get his stuff in order so he'll be able to inherit his family's estate and adopt me but it's slow going."

"Well, that's good, you'll finally get away from that crazy Uncle of your," I said.

"Yeah," Harry said with a smile, "but Sirius thinks it might take him a really long time, apparently there are like a dozen forms to fill out, then someone might force a court battle, seeing as he is a convicted criminal, even if it is just for being an unregistered animagus. I might be stuck with them for another summer."

"I expect Dumbledore won't let him take you without a fight," I muttered to myself, a headache suddenly appearing. "He had to have a reason for putting you with them rather than sending you to safe home. Maybe a blood ward," I stared off into space, "but Sirius' house should be safe as an Ancient Families' ancestral home and a blood ward would be too dark for him," I snapped out of my musing to realise that the others had been ignoring my mumblings.

"Well, my parents took me down to Cornwall," Hermione said. "It rained for about half the week but the rest of the time it was fine. Dad took me sailing and we ate ice creams on the beach."

"Sounds like fun," John said, he looked around quickly to ensure we were alone before lowering his voice. "We went to the summer camp we always go to. Drake turned out to be evil. He tried to kill Janet."

"You beat him right?" Ron asked.

I hung my head and winced. "I lost." Everyone stared at me. "He won our fight and escaped, I was bedridden for a week."

"Whoa," Ron said, looking confused, "hang on, he's a Halfblood. Why would the Death Eaters accept him?"

"Not the Death Eaters," Alice said darkly, "a different monster, a Halfblood called Luke. He used to be our friend but he's gone completely insane. He wants to tear down the Western World because he thinks it's wrong and corrupt. He's also willingly let himself be possessed by the king of the Titans, the Lord of Time."

"Well, our fun discussion of summer got dark," Hermione said, trying to be lighthearted.

'Should we tell them?' I thought at Alice, who looked at me and raised one eyebrow.

'About what?'

I facepalmed, which confused the others.

"You two are talking about something," Hermione said. "It's rude not to include us."

"Private and personal matter," I said before turning back to Alice. 'US!'

Alice put a hand to her head at the forceful thought.

'Sorry, should we tell them about you and me, being you know, a thing.'

Alice's mouth opened for a moment before nodding. 'You do it.'

'Why me?' I asked, my body tensing nervously.

'You're better at explaining than I am, also, I'm too nervous, I'd just screw it up.'

'Very well,' I turned back to everyone else, who had started talking about the World Cup match, or rather Ron, Harry and Ginny were talking whilst Hermione and John looked lost. I cleared my throat. Everyone froze and looked at me.

I blushed. "Over the summer," I said, my voice cracking slightly, "Alice and I started dating."

The effect was immediate. Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped, one of the twins spat out his drink in shock, Ginny looked unsurprised, John already knew so was also unsurprised, and Ron was blushing furiously.

"Like dating dating?" Ron asked.

I rolled my eyes, but I wanted to sink into the floor under their gazes. As I thought about it I felt the floor beneath me soften and I had to stop it from happening before I literally sank into the floor. "Well done Ron, you made an incoherent sentence. Yes, like dating dating."

"Like candle lit dinners and long walks on the beach? Like you're now girlfriends?"

"Yes Ron," I said as condescendingly as possible. "Well done Ron, have a gold star."

Everyone laughed, except Ron, who looked confused.

"Can two girls do that? Become girlfriends I mean?"

"And I thought I had a sheltered life," I muttered. "For the last time, yes Ron, it is possible."

"I, I-" Ron looked totally lost.

"Ron, stop being a moron," Fred said.

"It's about time you two stopped mooning over each other," Ginny said smiling cheekily.

"You knew?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, so do half the girls in Gryffindor tower. Don't worry, no-one will think any less of you for it, or at least no true Gryffindor will," Ginny said in a way that sounded an awful lot like a threat to Ron, who was still scrunching his brow in confusion.

"And none of us here will say anything if you don't want us too," she said, glaring at the twins.

"Thanks Ginny," Alice said. "It's not like I'm scared or anything, it's just, everything is so new and weird, but good weird, the kind of weird that is slowly making everything make sense."

I smiled and kissed her on the cheek, she smiled back.

"Hey, Ginny," George said, our display of affection making him fidget uncomfortably, "wanna go have a look around?"

"I think I saw a sweet stand by the entrance," Fred said.

"Yeah, sounds like fun," Ginny said getting up, her eyes shining.

"Don't get up to anything while we're gone," Fred said with a wink as they left.

"Yeah, mischief is our job," George said.

"Oh, I almost forgot," I said, "I got a new familiar, a dog."

"What happened to Snowy?" Hermione asked.

"We didn't get along. Owls aren't really a Hecate thing, neither are dogs really, but Mrs O'Leary is special," I said proudly. "She's a Hellhound."

"Wait," Hermione said, looking scared, "Hellhounds are really dangerous, I don't think even Hagrid would want one near the school."

I frowned, "she's a well trained one, she's about as soppy as they come."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "that's not saying much, Hellhounds aren't exactly beagles."

I sighed, "Hermione, trust me on this, if Mrs O'Leary was like other Hellhounds she would have tried to eat me by now."

Ron snorted, "what kind of name is Mrs O'Leary?"

I shrugged, "dunno, but it fits."

"Where'd you find a Hellhound?" Ron asked, "they're supposed to be really rare in the wild, most are owned by dark wizards or gods."

"I didn't, I inherited her from a Demigod called Daedalus," I said, smiling sadly as I remembered the old architect.

"Wait, Daedalus, as in Labyrinth Daedalus, or just a namesake?" Hermione asked.

"Labyrinth Daedalus, he kept his spirit alive for millennia inside an automaton, which in turn was inside his Labyrinth," I explained.

"Wasn't the Labyrinth on Crete?" Hermione asked.

"It did that annoying thing magical objects tend to do when left for centuries, it came to life and grew. It was all over the world. Did you feel an earthquake in the summer?"

"Yeah, worst on record for England at least according to Mum," Ron said.

"They felt it all over the world," Hermione said. "Was that the Labyrinth?"

"Yeah. When Daedalus died, the Labyrinth collapsed because he tied his life force to it. In fact he killed himself to destroy the Labyrinth so that it couldn't be used by monsters to sneak into Camp," John said.

"Good," Hermione said, which caused John to bristle at the perceived insult to his brother. "No person should live that long."

"Daedalus said something along the same line," Alice said. "He was trying to escape Minos."

"I'm lost," Ron declared.

I sighed, "I will say this in simple terms using lots of short sentences. An architect called Daedalus lived inside a maze. He turned himself into a machine to escape a man who hated him called Minos who became an important person in the afterlife. He killed himself to destroy the maze that was being used to invade the Demigod training camp and to try and save the world. I got his dog. Did you get that?"

"I think so," Ron said. "Wait, who is Mrs O'Leary?"

"The dog!" I shouted in frustration.

"Oh, got it all now. Why didn't you just collapse the entrance?"

"Magic. Labyrinth." John said, switching who Ron was talking to, because one person cannot handle that much stupid. "It's magic, destroy a door and it will simply move. The Labyrinth was magic and semi-sentient, you could not destroy part of it."

"Hey, it was a valid point," Ron said, "no need to treat me like a child."

"Don't worry about it," Alice said in my ear, "Ron's an idiot, we all know that." She kissed my cheek. I turned and smiled at her and she beamed back as she wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer.

"Get a room," Ron said grumpily.

"Wow, someone is an unhappy bunny," Alice said, making a mocking pout. "Maybe later," she gave me an exaggerated wink, I blushed and looked at the floor.

"Stop that," Ron said.

Alice pouted more.

"Bah! I'm hungry." He stormed out of the tent.

"I'll go get him," Hermione said as she got up.

"Leave him, just give him time to cool off," John said. "He'll come back to his senses at some point."

Hermione hesitated before turning back to us and sat back down. "I suppose you're right," she muttered as she looked longingly at the tent flap. "Has anyone read the uniform and equipment letter yet?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Hermione sighed. "We have to have dress robes. I think there's a formal ball or something happening this year."

"Oh great," I said sarcastically, "more shopping. I wonder if the dress I wore for the celebrations will do. I could go home and get it."

"I think you're the only girl who doesn't like shopping," Harry said, which caused Alice, Hermione and I to glare at him. He chuckled and held up his hands in defeat. "Ok, sorry, bad words, I won't say it again."

"You can't," Hermione said, weirdly sounding scandalised. "You've already worn it to a party, there's protocol for this."

"Hermione," I said, unimpressed. "I think the overlap between the celebration feast on Olympus and Hogwarts is literally just me, and Mum gave me that dress, it seems like a shame not wear it."

"Wait, you went to Olympus?" Hermione asked, her eyes shining with excitement. "What was it like? I bet it was beautiful."

I cringed. "I was a little busy dealing with Gods deciding whether or not to kill two of my friends, but yes, from what I saw it was beautiful."

Hermione's eyes widened as she thought about it. "When was this? And how did deciding whether or not to kill someone turn into a party?"

"In the winter, the solstice to be precise, and you'd be surprised what the gods do for an excuse for a party. When they decided not kill our friends they decided to have a feast."

"That's cool," Hermione said warily.

"Well, aside from the incubus, he was really creepy," I said, shivering at the memory of the rose garden.

"Aren't they soul sucking demons?" Hermione asked.

I shuddered, "no, the godling children of the Goddess of Love and minor gods, they're just really creepy."

The next day Ron, who was normally the last to rise in any group of people, was the first up. He was in the main room of the tent, bouncing with uncontrolled excitement as we went about our daily routine.

"If Ron gets any more excited I think his head will explode," Alice said, which made us all laugh, even Ron.

"Hey," Alice said quietly in my ear, rubbing the back of my hand with her thumb, "let's go look around."

"I'll come with you," Harry said, before Hermione whispered something in his ear. He blushed in embarrassment. "Right, no third wheeling, that's going to take some getting used to. I'll go and unpack."

Alice smiled gratefully at him.

"Come on," she said, practically dragging me out of the tent.