Hermione looked at him appraisingly. Did he really not blame her? He was glad he did it? Okay. But even if he did, did she/was she? She thought about it and nodded slowly. Then she let out a deep breath. "Okay. Thanks." She forced a smile.

Then instead of answering about the sword's danger, he surprised a laugh out of her! "I wish!" She shook her head and smiled. Then she pursed her lips. She didn't want to tell him what she'd taken though her reasons were justifiable. But she knew he wouldn't believe she hadn't taken anything and even if he did, how would it make him feel that she hadn't joined him in the thievery? So she started off in a casual tone, "Oh, all I took was..." And stopped. She looked toward the cabin, hoping for a distraction. But it wasn't like there were campers everywhere. They had all eaten breakfast and moved on to other things. So it was pretty quiet. But there was one camper inside and he was giggling manically. She looked at Paul and waggled her eyebrows. "Someone's up to something nefarious~!" she said.

She moved away from the door and peeked through a window that was slightly open. Inside was Connor, of all people. And he was alone! She jumped to her feet, exclaiming, "Woah woah woah! Where is Travis???" She was SHOCKED to see them apart. She pointed into the room, blocked by the glass. "And what the heck is that?"

The lanky brunette nearly jumped out of his skin. Going from giggling to scared to outraged. "Jeez, Hermy! Scare me to death, ugh!" He looked at his project and then back at her. "And where have you been? Is Paul with you? Missed you at breakfast." He raised his eyebrows questioningly, almost like she'd be in trouble if she answered him the wrong way.

But she wasn't scared of him. "Ack!" she exclaimed at the nickname, grimacing. Then she put her hand on her hip. "None of your business. But up to no good, like you. Where's Travis?"

Connor gave up and scowled. He lifted his project, eyeing it critically. "We had... a... fight. And this... is how we pay each other back." He patted the mysterious object and began grinning evilly. Whatever trick he was planning on playing on his brother, Hermione hoped she was around for it. At a distance. She backed away from the window making a face. Then she turned to Paul. "Is that what my evil smile looks like? Yikes."

"Yeah, kind of." Paul said with a smile. Paul found that smiling like a maniac with a liter of Jolt and a blowtorch whenever someone said pranks was pretty much a Hermes' trademark. "Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course." Paul gave the mysterious device a look, and found that he had no idea what it was. It looked like something that the Hephaestus kids could make. Before Paul could speculate further, he heard a voice from behind him.

"What are you Hermes' dorks up to?" said the a girl who was walking by. Okay, "girl" was a bit of a stretch. The more appropriate word would be something like Amazon, or Warrior Queen or "Holy crap that chick is buff." Poor Connor rolled his eyes. "Not know Clarisse." Clarisse took this as an opportunity to pry further. When she turned to Paul, she gave him an appraising look. She was a little bit taller than Paul, but she tried her best to make him feel like a worm.

"What are you looking at, punk?" she said scowling. Paul glanced at Hermoine, then at Connor, who subtly shook his head. The message was clear: Do not mess with her. Paul never was good with messages. "Honestly, I thought I was looking at Mark Mcgwire. Either that or the Terminator. Should I get my autograph book?" Connor laughed nervously, but Clarisse only scowled further. "Listen, you nerd. I'm a daughter of Ares. How about I make your life a living hell?"

"Well, I'm not really interested in a relationship right now, but thank you for asking." Clarisse looked like she was going to explode. "Arena. Ten minutes. Bring a weapon." With that, Clarisse walked away. Paul turned to Hermoine and Connor. "She seems like a sweetheart."

Hermione mock shuddered. "I had no idea I looked like that!"

Connor scoffed inside. "You have the worst evil smile of us all, Hermy!"

Her face darkened then. "Don't call me that," she grumbled.

"Can't hear you~!" He sing-songed.

Then someone else took an interest in them. That wasn't too unexpected, seeing as how they were peeking into their own cabin from the outside. But it just had to be Clarisse, didn't it? The slightly older girl was not at all nice. It was common sense not to get on her bad side. So when she spoke to them, Hermione tensed. She turned with Paul to face her. Then Clarisse stepped closer and Hermione stiffened against the impulse to shrink down. She forced her expression to stay blank. However, she was not the target today.

When Paul glanced at her, Hermione frowned deeply. Then she watched, slack-mouthed, as the situation imploded. She actually gasped when Paul told her he wasn't interested. Clarisse's face turned PURPLE. Then she challenged him and stormed off. Hermione and Connor stared.

Connor recovered first, standing up and moving to the window. He looked after the Ares girl and glared. "What a jerk!" He gripped the project and shook it in her direction. "I outta use this on her first!"

Hermione's head jerked toward him and she hit the window, making the glass rattle. "Don't make it worse for him!" She scowled. Then she turned her angry face on Paul and put her hands on her hips. She continued looking at him for a moment. Then she stepped up to him--much as Clarisse had done--and jabbed a finger into his chest. She looked up into his face sternly. "You," she said harshly, "Are going to destroy her." Then she raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. Yes?

At least it worked this time!

She had the cutest look on her face. There was no way Paul could say no to a face like that. "Of course I will." He said smiling. "Let me go grab my weapon so we can do this." He quickly went into the Hermes cabin and quickly returned with a pair of black boxing gloves. He had changed out of his jeans and put on a pair of shorts. In his other hand, he still held the Sword of Achilles. Paul still didn't think it was a good idea to just leave it laying around. He motioned for his two friends to follow him to the practice arena.

Paul did a lot of boxing at his old school. Last year, he had an impressive win/loss record and could hold his own against students two years older than himself. Clarisse, however, did not know that, so Paul arriving to the practice area wearing a pair of boxing gloves instead of holding a sword should come as a shock. When the three arrived, Clarisse was already there, in full armor and with many members of her own cabin sitting in the stands. She gave Paul a quick glance. Not believing her eyes, she looked again and started to laugh with her cabin mates joining in. "Whats the matter, lady? Afraid to fight me on my own terms?"

The laughter stopped and she did her famous glare at Paul. Without saying a word or even changing expression, she buckled off her armor and reached for a pair of the arena's own gloves. Paul first handing the Sword of Achilles to Hermoine. "Here, hold onto this for a minute please." Then he took his shirt off, revealing a strong set of arms. "This too. Thanks." The two fighters took their positions and squared off against each other.

Hermione smiled back and let him go. Connor tossed her a look as Paul came in and shut the door. "Since when did you two get so chummy, Hermy?" he asked, tossing in the loathed nickname mostly because it sort of rhymed. He smiled in a supremely irritating way.

"Oh, go back to your project," Hermione snapped. She'd said it without thinking, but she was glad she had because it forestalled any other reaction. It headed off the flashes of guilt, discomfort, and shyness before they could give themselves away. Then immediately she turned her back and walked away from the cabin.

When Paul came back out she raised her eyebrows.

Connor walked out with he same expression.

Then Hermione looked Paul over and her expression shifted.

Connor looked between them and then rolled his eyes heavenward and shook his head. Hermione gave him an odd look and he squinted back at her suspiciously. To which she jumped slightly and looked away, quickly following Paul. He squinted again and followed slowly. He was starting to realize that she had a thing for their cabin mate. Even worse, Paul was either oblivious or into it. And that was not cool at all. Well, if they weren't cabin mates it'd be fine and dandy. But until Paul was claimed by a different god they had to knock it off! And if they didn't he was going to have to say something. Ugh... This kind of thing was why he hated being cabin counselor. Then again, he tilted his head and reconsidered, he could always make Travis do it instead--

Finally, his thoughts cut off when they reached the arena. He was disappointed but not surprised to see Clarisse wearing armor. "Seesh," he muttered. "Spurned ladies are the worst."

Hermione would've smiled at that, if it was actually funny. She glowered at him instead.

"Seesh!" he repeated, moving away.

As for Hermione, she just bit her lip when Paul insulted Clarisse again. But at least it got her to take off her armor. Hermione accepted the sword tentatively and met Paul's eyes. She tried to look encouraging and confident for his sake. But that all crumpled when he handed her his shirt. She didn't think he noticed but her mouth fell open. "Okay," she whispered, feeling her face go hot.

She clutched both items to her, heart kicking, and stared after him until he stood across from Clarisse. Then she caught herself and moved to the other side of the stands to sit with Connor. Surprised, she noticed that he wasn't the only one there. A few other Hermes' kids (not Travis) and even some other random campers had shown up to watch. Hermione wasn't exactly sure how she felt about the spectacle, but at least Ares' side wasn't full while theirs was empty.

Then she anxiously turned her eyes back to the two fighters.

Clarisse was fast, Paul noted to himself. And she had a long reach. But Paul had two serious advantages that he knew the Ares girl couldn't contest with. One, Paul was trained and had much more experience as a boxer, and two, Paul had done a really good job of pissing her off.

The pair traded blows on each other. Clarisse used all of her colossal strength in her blows, and almost brought Paul to his knees. Once she started to tire, however, Paul started to lay on strikes, becoming more and more aggressive. To her credit, Clarisse did admirably in defending herself, but everyone watching knew the outcome could only go one way.

It all ended when Clarisse readied a right cross, but before swinging, she got distracted by something above Paul. The young man didn't even notice her pause, and gave his opponent an uppercut, which knocked her to the ground. Rather than getting up, Clarisse just stared at him. "What?" Paul asked. He looked around and saw the rest of the audience watching above his head. When he did the same, Paul saw a red image of a spear and a shield hovering above his head. Clarisse smiled (something else that supprised Paul). "Welcome, little brother." was all Clarisse said.

Hermione wasn't too worried. It wasn't like Paul hadn't faced worse than this before. They'd all battled MONSTERS before coming here. And these two opponents weren't even using swords or anything. But Clarisse was a daughter of Ares. She packed a punch and she didn't hold it back. Well, Paul did too, it seemed. Maybe the nervousness had more to do with the fact that Hermione just didn't like fights. Okay, that was probably it. She bit her lip.

The campers took turns cheering and booing for their sides as the fight progressed. Then Hermione's side started getting wilder and she allowed herself to smile a bit. He was going to win! The next instant, a sign appeared above Paul's head. Hermione shot to her feet, still clutching the sword and shirt and stared, amazed. Clarisse swung at him one last time, then he ended the fight with an uppercut. But the crowd hardly noticed, including her.

Then Paul realized what was going on and Clarisse SMILED at him. Finally, the bleachers all cheered for him and applauded the fight, Hermione included.

The Ares kids that were present rushed over to congratulate and welcome Paul, perhaps lift him on their shoulders. This gave Hermione a bit of pause, but after a minutes she picked her way down to the arena floor and stood on the sidelines, shifting from foot to foot, waiting to give him back his stuff and congratulate him. She smiled in case he looked her way.

(Not much of a post. More of a joke.)

Paul let himself get mobbed by his new cabin mates, and he didn't try and stop them from lifting them up on his shoulders. As he did so, he gave Hermoine and Connor a thumbs up. Of all the cheering sons and daughters of the war god, Clarisse cheered the loudest. "Hey guys, we should give him the newbie treatment!" She shouted to be heard above the din. Many of the Ares cabin mates agreed, and suddenly Paul didn't think this was such a good idea.

After being unceremoniously tossed into the lake by his new cabin mates, Paul hauled himself out, feeling wet, and very, very cold. "I should be suprised, but I'm really not." he said to no one in particular.

Hermione wasn't waiting when he climbed out. But she did come walking up shortly after, carrying a towel. She smiled slightly.

"So, you won, Ares boy!" She tossed the towel at his face. "Good job!"

Then she slid her hands into her back pockets and leaned back slightly, looking up at him.

"I left your stuff in the Hermes cabin," she mentioned.

"Great," said Paul as he dried himself off and reached for the shirt Hermoine had been holding on to. "At least my shirt stayed dry." After that, the rest of the day seemed pretty straight forward, almost normal by Camp Halfblood standards. Paul got the tour of Ares cabin, and got his stuff moved in. Other than some light teasing from his new sibling, they were actually decent to him, even Clarisse. Paul didn't get to see Hermoine again until after dinner time, and Paul's dreaded date with the camp bathroom. At least Hermoine told Paul she would try and help him, so the son of Ares didn't think it would be all that bad.

After nearly three of the worst hours of Paul's life, he mentally kicked himself for thinking it wouldn't be all that bad. But it was done, and Paul believed you could eat off that damn floor. When they were done, and sitting outside of the now sparkling boy's bathroom, Paul turned to Hermoine. "Thanks. If it wern't for you, I'd be here all night."

They were reclining outside now, both smelling of sweat and bleach. Hermione had already thoroughly washed her hands, then wiped off some of the sweat. But it hadn't helped much.She felt seriously gross and moody too. This was not a fun way to hang out with a guy she liked. At all. Hermione kneaded her neck and shoulders, trying to massage out the kinks all that work had created.

But she'd still had to do it. When Paul turned to her and thanked her she looked over at him and half-smiled.

"Yeah, well... It was only right. My fault to begin with."

She sighed tiredly and twisted her feet from side to side.She was ready to go, but she didn't quite feel like getting up yet out of laziness. Maybe Paul would give her a hand up in a second.

"I wanted to go with you." Paul said while giving her a hand up. "I don't see how you are at fault." Paul looked at the clock on the wall, and finally realized how incredibly late it was. Suddenly feeling exhausted he turned to his friend. "We need to get back to our cabins. I'd hate for Mr. D to turn me into a shrub for cleaning the bathroom." With that, Paul and Hermoine walked together back to their own cabins. When Paul reached his bunk in Cabin 5, he crashed on it immediately and went into a very restful sleep.

---

The say that demigod dreams are insights into the future. Others say that they are views into their dark subconscious. Either way, Paul hasn't gotten a good night sleep in ages. This time, however, he saw a vision of war, death and destruction. Cities burned, people died, and nations were crushed. At the end of the dream, he saw a tall, armored man, holding a sword. Wait. Paul thought to himself. Not just any sword. That's the sword of Achilles! Instead of a rusted hunk of junk, the sword looked sharp, and as deadly as the day it was forged. The bloody man looked Paul straight in the eye, as if piercing the veil of the dream. "Thalia's tree. Now!"

Paul awoke with a start. Almost as if following orders, he grabbed his shoes and slipped them on. Before heading out, he quietly grabbed the sword and sneaked out of the room. When he left, he quickly examined the sword and was surprised to find that it was no longer rusted and old. It appeared exactly as it had in his dream.

Hermione couldn't sleep that night. The excitement of the day should have worn her out but instead she stayed awake, her thoughts taking turns on the various highs and lows of it. Getting Paul claimed by his godly parent had mostly just been an excuse to spend time with him. And a little bit to get into the attic, where she'd always wanted to go. If she'd taken the right item from there she never would've been able to resist bragging to her cabin mates about it. But all she'd taken was the scarf and she wasn't keen to talk about that. In fact... she hadn't even taken it out of any klepto tendency. Some child of Hermes she was. She just took it so that she could dispose of it once and for all, so that no one else ran afoul of it.

Getting to kiss a cute, strong, nice, GREAT guy like Paul should've been one of the highs of the day. But somehow it hadn't been. She fretted about that as she laid in bed, trying to sleep. It had felt good at first, and even like a huge relief to just do it without any inhibitions. But each of them had been controlled by the spell of the scarf. They hadn't chosen to kiss. So it felt wrong because of that. And it hadn't SOLVED anything. Hermione still didn't even know if the guy actually liked her. She told herself there was no reason why he COULDN'T but she still didn't know if he DID.

She kept remembering that kiss! And it confused her too much. What was the reality of their relationship and potential and what was the fantasy of the scarf?

Finally, she got out of bed, retrieved the scarf, and went to the dining pavilion. All of the sudden she was standing there, no matter that (1) it was midnight or that she might get eaten by "the cleaning harpies" for being out after curfew nor that (2) she was traipsing around in flannel pajamas with her blond hair tied in a messy bun and her bangs pinned back in a little poofy bun on the top of her head. At least she'd bothered to put on some flat shoes. Oh well, she didn't intend to get caught. This was just a brief, necessary little errand.

She stared at the fire. This was the fire which all the campers used for sacrificing a portion of their food to the gods. It was always lit and it reflected the mood of the campers when they were all around it. Right now was it reflecting her mood? It just looked like a normal fire. She couldn't tell if it was yellow orange or red.

Holding the scarf in both hands she said to the flames, "Aphrodite... I'm returning this to you because it belongs to you." It was a lame speech but she didn't have much to say to the goddess that was complimentary so she wanted to keep it simple. Gods knew she didn't need that one's attention whether it was good or bad. But she'd felt like just throwing the scarf in here without any explanation would've been insulting. Now, feeling slightly safer about it, she threw it in. She didn't see burn but it disappeared immediately. Then she cringed, afraid the goddess might suddenly appear or something. But fortunately, she did not. Maybe she was busy.

Sighing with relief, Hermione rushed back to her cabin. But on the way she caught sight of another camper. She didn't know who it was at first. But she used her skills to sneak past him and then wait behind a building while he approached. Finally, she realized it was Paul. And that he was armed. What on Earth? While she stood there, surprised, he finished walking past her.

At that point she could've just gone back to bed or continued following him. But instead she stepped onto the path and whispered after him, pitching her voice so that only he'd hear it.

"Paul? Is that you?" And then after a second, What's going on?"

At the sound of his name, Paul brought his blade up to defend himself. He almost didn't see Hermoine, but when he did, he started to feel silly. "Gods, you scared me to death." he said, lowering his sword. She must of have a very good reason for being out here in the middle of the night he thought to himself.

"I had a dream from Ares." Paul told his friend as they walked. He wasn't quite ready to call the God of War "dad" yet. "He told me to meet him at Thalia's tree." Paul looked back down at the sword again. "Oh, and did I mention that Achilles' sword got a makeover?" he said while holding it up.

As the two made their way toward the edge of Camp Halfblood, Paul decided to ask. "So what are you doing out here?"

*poor server. Feeds it chicken soup*

---

Hermione flinched when he raised the sword. But didn't step back. "Sorry."

When he recognized her she smiled, stepped forward and walked with him.

"I see," she whispered. Then she looked the sword over and smiled. "That's good. It'll do more than give monsters tetnus now, I bet." She smiled teasingly. But then she glanced away, thinking about what Chiron had said about the sword. That 'its wielders didn't have a good fate' or something like that; that it was bad luck. It worried her. But she didn't think she should say anything... he seemed destined to have it. And speaking of weapons... Hermione hadn't brought any. She really hoped nothing was about to happen at this tree. But what could? That was the source of the camp's barrier. So it was where the barrier was strongest of course. If something did happen she would make do somehow. Honestly she was still more worried about the warning that they'd get eaten by "The cleaning harpies" if they snuck out at night. They were blatantly breaking that rule and she expected to be caught at any moment. She kept her ears perked for beating wings. But at the same time, it was rather exciting and she didn't REALLY want to chicken out. Hermes kids of all people lived for this type of clandestine stuff!

"I had to dispose of something," she replied in an undertone, as mysteriously as possible.

"Hey, say no more." said Paul, hands raised. "I don't need to know all the details." Paul wanted to speak on this more, but as they approached the hill, the son of Ares could see his father, leaning against Thalia's tree, looking rather impatient. The god of war looked at Paul, then to Hermoine. He shrugged at the daughter of Hermes and turned back to his son.

"You're very lucky, you know that. The tenth chosen demigod to wield the Sword of Achilles AND that's two demigods in a row for me." All that Paul managed to get out was a very confused and concerned "Huh?" Ares let out a hearty laugh while Paul regained himself. "I feel like there's a lot more we need to talk about before we start talking about this damn sword." Paul said. "Like how the hell are you my father? Mom never said anything about this." Ares suppressed another smile. "Your mother was always a good soldier, and Spetsnaz are trained never to reveal anything. But that's not important right now."

Ares raised his arm and outstretched his hand. As he did so, Paul felt the heavy bladed sword fall from his hand and go to Ares. When the God of War gripped it in is fist he spoke. "This sword has been in the hands of the greatest warriors in history. Generals, Conquerors and Kings. Before you, there have been nine. You will be the tenth, and if the oracle is to be believed, the last one."

(I'll let this sink in before I continue.)

Hermione smirked. Yeah, a descendant of the "Jack of all trades" god could've been up to anything out here. It was better not to ask.

Hermione turned her attention to the tree as they approached it, trying to be ready for anything. When they spotted the god, she almost stopped in her tracks. When he looked at her, she did. She hadn't yet learned to stand up for herself when meeting a god. And this was the god of war! Not someone she wanted to make mad. Paul kept walking which put him in front of her. She shifted so that she was standing more behind him, and started having second thoughts about coming here.

But Ares just shrugged at her presence and said what he'd come to say. Hermione forced herself to relax. She didn't know what she would've done if he'd demanded obeisance or something, seeing as how she didn't really go in for war. Fortunately, though, he didn't. So she just tried to focus on that and to listen and think about what all this meant for Paul.

He was meeting his father for the first time. That was rough for any kid, and especially rough for demi-gods, in her opinion. Spetsnaz? What was that? It sounded like some kind of spy or something. And it brought to mind Paul's real name, Pavel. Maybe she could ask him about it later.

Suddenly, Paul's new sword was flying toward the god. She jumped. But it wasn't like Paul had thrown it at the god.

Then all of the sudden they were faced with an ominious prophecy. And knowing what Chiron had said about the sword...

Hermione thrust herself forward. "What is THAT supposed to mean? The last one?" she demanded. She even stomped her slippered foot. Then she verbally retreated slightly, "Uhm... Lord Ares?" she tacked on respectfully.

Ares, sword still in his hands, turned to the newcomer and gave her an appraising look. "What is it, daughter of Hermes? Is there something you wish to add?"

(short one I know.)