Hidden Door
Grover quickly hid his wand before staring toward the entrance. Remus also seemed to relax, keeping up the act of a chained prisoner. Soon, several footsteps could be heard approaching, along with something inside a cage, letting out howls and growls beneath what looked like a heavy cloak, one that seemed to be tightly restraining whatever creature was inside and keeping it from moving.
Grover's eyes widened slightly.
Several men dressed in black appeared to be carrying a huge cage. There were four of them. Two of them wore wizard robes that reached the ground, somewhat dirty and stained, with scratches across the fabric and pointed wizard hats. The other two looked more like adventurers, carrying swords. But the most important thing was that one of them seemed to have part of a very familiar set of armor, along with the sword at his waist.
Even though Grover couldn't clearly see the man's face, since he wore something like a carved black wooden mask, it was obvious that his equipment had a very Greek style to it, like what campers at Camp Half-Blood normally used.
When the men passed in front of his cell, that last one seemed to feel Grover's stare on him, so he turned his head just slightly, and their eyes met for a moment.
And for a second, Grover felt his gaze sharpen as he looked at him, as if he recognized him.
But the man quickly looked forward again and kept walking with the others, while whatever they were carrying inside the cage suddenly began to thrash for a moment.
The group quickly opened one of the empty cells, and after setting the cage down on the floor, the two wizards raised their wands in perfectly coordinated unison.
The cage door opened.
And then the beast inside shot straight into the cell, while the cloak that had been restraining it flew outward.
Only then did Grover finally see what it was through the bars, and his eyes widened with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
He had heard about these creatures before at Hogwarts. Not because of anything particularly special, but because Hagrid, the very friendly groundskeeper, had apparently once tried to raise one despite how dangerous and forbidden they were.
A dragon.
It had silver and pearly scales that seemed to glow softly even in that dim place, along with two large beautiful iridescent eyes without pupils that seemed to shimmer with several different colors.
Maybe just a baby.
It roared as fire spilled from its mouth in a burst of flame, but it didn't seem able to pass through the bars.
The small dragon, no more than a meter tall, saw that its fire hadn't worked and immediately lunged at the bars in fury. Right then, the cell door slammed shut in front of it, and a massive amount of electricity began to surge through the metal.
The moment it touched the bars, the current surged through its body.
It let out a pained roar before collapsing onto the floor.
The little one opened its eyes with a trace of fear and moved away from the bars, staring warily at the men who had captured it. It didn't roar this time.
It only backed away, like a creature that had learned far too quickly that resisting only brought pain.
The men only looked at it for a moment before turning around and leaving through the same way they had entered, as if nothing had happened.
Though Grover felt that the masked one looked at him one last time before disappearing down the hallway…
As if he knew exactly who he was.
Once they were gone, the electricity running through the bars stopped flowing quite as strongly. Though it was still there, as the dragon proved a second later when it tried to bite the bars again and was electrocuted once more.
"Sir… those men… who were they?" Grover asked after the strange group had completely disappeared.
"Poachers," Remus said, a faint irritation in his voice, as if he held a bit of a grudge against them. "They're criminals who work for money, usually by capturing magical creatures. They don't care if the creature suffers, bleeds, or dies in the process. As long as someone pays well, they'll do the job. Though these ones seem to hunt creatures that are a little more unusual too," he said while looking toward Grover, the satyr, as well as some of the other mythological creatures nearby.
Just thinking about them seemed to genuinely bother Lupin, and Grover could feel his emotions clearly.
Even so, Remus turned to look at the small dragon, which was now curled up in a corner of its cell, staring fearfully at the bars.
"An Antipodean Opaleye. I've never seen one this close before. And such a young one too," Remus said with slight surprise as he looked at the dragon.
But his expression turned a little sad when he saw how small it was.
At the same time, however, he quickly seemed to think of something, his gaze turning serious.
"If this kind of creature was brought here and that man didn't come with it, then that means he isn't nearby. And poachers don't stay in one place for long. This might be our chance," he said as he turned toward Grover.
Grover quickly brightened and pulled out his wand again, hope returning to him.
…
Meanwhile, a completely dark fireplace, one that normally should have stood out because of where it was located, suddenly burst with green flames as three teenagers were violently thrown out of it, landing in a heap on top of each other for a moment.
But the two on top immediately pushed themselves up and pulled out a dagger and a wand respectively.
They looked around in every direction with their guard up…
Only to freeze in complete shock at what they were seeing.
Harry and Annabeth stood completely still for a moment.
They couldn't believe that everything which had been destroyed almost down to the foundation the day before was now… normal.
The entire museum was in perfect condition, as if the destruction from yesterday had vanished without leaving behind a single trace.
It even looked cleaner than before.
And people were walking around nearby as if nothing had happened, with some of them giving them odd looks after noticing what looked like a stick in Harry's hand, while others looked toward Annabeth's hand with confusion, as if they couldn't quite see what she was holding.
But they kept walking, only giving them a few odd looks.
Because they were missing one other person…
Who was currently still underneath them, with both of their knees pressing him into the ground.
"Get off me," Percy growled, genuinely annoyed.
"Ah, sorry," Annabeth and Harry said as they stood up, finally allowing Percy to get back to his feet with an irritated look before brushing off his clothes.
"You two seriously need to fix that," Percy said irritably, because every single time they traveled to or from Avalon, for some reason the Floo Network always seemed determined to spit them out in the most dizzying and painful way possible.
Percy also looked around.
Though he hadn't seen what the place looked like before they had left, so he couldn't be quite as shocked as Harry and Annabeth.
"How is this even…?"
"Reparo," Harry said calmly while putting his wand away. "It's a spell used to repair things. It returns them to how they were before," he added while looking around carefully in case there was anything suspicious or dangerous nearby.
"Do you think it was the wizards of this country? Or maybe Sirius and the others?" Percy asked, since Sirius had told him there were wizards in this country too.
But they seemed to be even more hidden or paranoid than the ones in Europe, because ever since they arrived here, they hadn't run into a single one of them.
"I don't think it was Sirius; he usually doesn't care much about making everything look nice again. Maybe it was people from this country's magical government," Harry added with a nod, relaxing slightly as he let out a quieter sigh.
"Magical government? Wait, they have a government inside another government?" Annabeth asked while looking at them, raising an eyebrow with interest.
"I don't think this is the right time to explain," Harry said, before turning around as his gaze landed directly on what they had been looking for.
A massive door right next to the fireplace.
And carved into the center of it was a pentagram glowing with a barely visible light.
Annabeth and Percy also turned and looked toward the door.
The moment they saw the pentagram, identical to the one on the coin Hecate had given Harry, all three of them understood that this place probably wasn't normal.
And if they were lucky…
Maybe they could find some kind of clue about Grover here.
Suddenly, the coin in Harry's hand grew slightly warm.
At the same time, the pentagram on the door lit up…
And the door opened on its own, letting out a faint trail of smoke.
The three of them tensed instantly and looked around.
But no one seemed to have noticed.
In fact, every person nearby simply turned their eyes elsewhere, as if something in their mind was telling them not to look in that direction.
Even Harry frowned slightly when he realized it.
"A Muggle-Repelling Charm," Harry realized.
A powerful one too.
Even at King's Cross, there were always wizards around making sure Muggles didn't look too closely when someone crossed through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. And if one got too close, they usually redirected them with a Confundus Charm.
But now there wasn't a single wizard standing guard.
The door had simply opened on its own…
As if it had been waiting for them from the very beginning.
"Well… I just hope whatever's inside doesn't want to eat us, turn us to stone, or punish us for running away from home," Percy muttered before following Annabeth and Harry toward the door.