Adele Black: The End

I Can Still Make the Whole Place Shimmer

"Grip it tighter," I said as the young camper in front of me learned how to use a sword for the very first time. "That way you won't drop it out your hand."

It had been approximately one year since I finished the prophecy, and in that year there had been tons of developments that weren't in my Five Year Plan.

I had accepted the job with Themis, which lead to me moving back to New York. I got a little apartment in America's version of Diagon Alley in order to be extra protected. It hurt to leave all my friends and family in London behind, but I had missed my family. I did see them occasionally, of course, but not to the same extent that I used to. But I wasn't completely alone in my apartment, because I had Achilles.

I also had Fred.

After a few serious discussions, Fred decided that he would be moving with me to America. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had branched out. I felt guilty at first that he had left London— he had left his family— because I was going back to New York, but Fred reassured me that I had nothing to worry about. Fred saw his family often, and would often make it his mission to go to all of Ginny's Quidditch games. He saw George quite often too. We had connected our fireplace to the Floo Network, thus making it much easier.

That was another thing: fireplaces and fire didn't bother me as much anymore. If anything, it was because of the fact that I saw the lava climbing wall pretty often at camp. Camp reminded me of all the good things fire brought: warmth, camp fire sing-alongs, the lava climbing wall, fireworks over the lake at Camp Half-Blood and roasting marshmallows to make s'mores.

"Like this?" The young camper, a daughter of Hermes, asked me. I stepped away from her and looked her over.

"Yeah, just like that," I said. "Now, everybody show me your best defensive stance!"

There was a flurry of movement as the young demi-gods, all mostly new campers, stood in defensive positions. I held back a grimace: there was certainly some work that needed to be done.

"Alright, I'm going to come around and give everybody some suggestions, so stay in your position as best as you can. If you can't, that's okay, I understand— ADHD can be a pain," I said with a smile at the end. I didn't want them to be scared of me just yet.

After correcting 3 campers' positions, I saw Piper McLean rush over to me. "Adele! Chiron's calling a meeting with the counselors in the Big House."

I groaned. "Alright," I said, turning to the young campers, "that's it for today. Nico di Angelo is probably going to be taking over your lesson tomorrow, because I have to work. Do me a favor and tell him that Adele said he's a corn on the cob, alright?"

The campers nodded and dispersed. I jogged up the hill and met Piper up there. "Any idea what the meeting's about?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "No clue, but a special guest is here."

"I wonder who that could be," I remarked.

The two of us talked about random things as we made our way to the Big House. During the past year or so, I found that Piper was somebody I could rely on at camp. Despite the fact that she was barely 17 and I was 20, the age difference didn't hinder much in our friendship. She was intelligent and knew how to fight. I knew I could count on her to watch my back in Capture the Flag, just like she knew I would watch hers.

"Hey, Chiron, what's up?" I asked as Piper and I walked into the Big House.

"Oh, not much. Mr. D keeps losing at poker, but what else is new?" Chiron shrugged with a smile. "Anyways, everybody's already here. Come on in."

Chiron galloped into the side room with the ping pong table that had a mismatch of chairs around it. I saw every cabin had a representative sitting down, except for Poseidon. I was here as counselor for the Athena cabin. I searched the room and my eyes landed on Thalia, who stood up.

"Thalia!" I excitedly exclaimed. I briskly made my way over to her and captured her into a hug. "It's so nice to see you! Gods, it's been ages!"

In deed it had been: the last time I had seen Thalia was just after the Battle of Manhattan about four years ago. She looked the exact same as she did then, of course. Her hair was still black and spiky, her eyes still an electric blue, her outfit still entirely black, and a silver crown representing her status as Lieutenant in the Hunters of Artemis still sat on her head.

"Adele, you look... older," Thalia uncomfortably said as we finished hugging.

"You look a day under sixteen," I joked, trying to lighten the mood. She didn't laugh, so I winced and quickly turned away and went to my seat.

"Right," Thalia coughed as she sat back down. "I've come here with the Hunters— they're currently in the Artemis cabin— because I was given a task by Lady Artemis, and I was told I need to take two demigods from camp with me."

"What's the task?" Clarisse asked roughly from besides me.

"Lady Artemis lost her favorite arrow in London, so she's sending me on a recovery mission," Thalia strongly said. She electric eyes stared fiercely into mine as she said London, and I knew what she was going to be asking. "Clarisse, will you come on this mission with me?"

Clarisse pretended to weigh her options before accepting. "Yeah, why not."

"Great. Adele, will you come?" Thalia asked. "You've been to London before, so you must know the area."

"No," I said simply.

"No as in you don't know the area?"

"No as in I decline the invitation," I said, my eyes piercing hers. There was a sharp intake of breath somewhere in the room, but I wasn't sure whose it was.

Thalia looked at me in disbelief. "You're declining?"

"That's what I said."

The room seemed to heat up suddenly and I got a brief whiff of the gross scent of what the air smelled like right before a lightning strike.

"You're joking, right?" Thalia frowned.

"I joke about tons of things, but I'm not joking about this. There are plenty of other demigods at this table who would be capable of helping you out," I said. Frankly, I wasn't in the mood for whatever attitude Thalia would shoot back at me.

"Okay, and? I asked you," she huffed.

"And I said no," I fired back. Eyes darted between the two of us as we spoke. "I'm not going. I have a job I love, my own apartment, I teach sword fighting classes, and I have a boyfriend that I love very much, who also happens to make a killer gyro."

Thalia scoffed and rolled her eyes. "A boy? You're staying for a boy? Adele, he's just going to disappoint you, like Luke disappointed me and like Hercules disappointed Zoe."

"And if he disappoints me, him and I can work it out together," I maturely retorted. "But he's not the reason I said no, Thalia. He'd support me if I went on this mission, but I don't want to go. I want to stay here. I want to keep working with Themis, and teaching sword classes, and having an apartment, and living my life."

"So you're just giving up?" Thalia fired back. Her hair seemed to stand up more, and I made sure to look around me to ensure that I wasn't next to any wires or outlets.

"I'm not giving up," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Sure seems like you are."

I sighed. I wondered if Thalia's outward appearance was the only thing that stayed the same since she became a Hunter, because her maturity level sure didn't. However, that also could just be a side effect of her being Zeus' daughter: she was hotheaded and often acted before thinking things through.

"Thalia, 16 year old me would've loved to join you," I calmly said. "But I'm not 16 anymore. My priorities in the past 4 years have changed."

"Right, because 4 years is such a long time," Thalia sarcastically drawled.

"Maybe not for you, but you're always going to be a day away from 16. 4 years for you is nothing, you're immortal, but 4 years for me is long. I don't want to spend my days on the run anymore," I stated, trying to get her to understand. "I gave my blood, sweat and tears for this... this life that I built, and I'm not giving it up."

Thalia bit her lip and I was surprised that her teeth didn't break through the skin. "We spend our days on the run. That's what we do as demigods."

"Maybe we did once, but we're not anymore. Thalia, our priorities are different now. Me, you, Percy and Annabeth... our priority was surviving and we were constantly running. And now Percy and Annabeth are at college in New Rome together, and I have a job and a boyfriend that I love. Our lives went on different paths than yours, and that's okay."

"Aren't you ashamed? What does it say about you that you won't go on this mission with me?" Thalia sneered. "What the hell happened to you Adele?"

My eyes moved from hers to the window. I stared out into the the strawberry fields and I pictured the day Narcissa burnt down Teddy Lupin's world.

"I saw something they can't take away," I breezily said, my eyes vacant. "'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned. I finally realized that everything you lose is a step you take, so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it. Our lives are in different stages now, Thalia, and you've got no reason to be afraid."

"I'm sorry, Adele, are you speaking in Taylor Swift lyrics?" Will Solace piped up out of the blue.

I blushed and didn't respond to him but instead turned back to Thalia. "Thalia, one day, I'm not going to be here. I'm not living forever. I didn't make that choice. There'll be a day when I'm 60 years old and you'll still be 15. I said no, and you need to respect that. There are plenty of other demigods that are capable of doing this."

Thalia glared at me for a hot minute and I was certain that I was going to be struck by lightning and turned to ash like I was in some cartoon. Eventually, though, her glare softened and she asked the rest of the room if anybody else knew their way around London.

"My dad's shot a few movies there," Piper offered up, "I've been a few times."

"Would you like to come?" Thalia asked hesitantly, almost as if she was preparing herself for another no.

"Sure!" Piper beamed.

After that, everybody sort of dispersed, leaving Thalia and I alone in the room. She sat at the opposite side of the table, directly across from me. She looked at me like I was a previously unknown foreign specimen.

"Piper's a great fighter," I bluntly said to get rid of the awkward silence forming in the air between us. "She's smart too. She won't let you down."

"I know she won't," Thalia grumbled. "I just wanted you to come. Annabeth and Percy weren't available, and Grover's dead, so you were the only one in our little group that I knew would be readily available."

I let out a sigh. "Thalia, It's been 4 long years since I've seen you. A lot has happened during that time. What was fun before that isn't necessarily fun for me now. I've spent a lot of time fighting— monsters and dark wizards. I used to get a rush from going out on quests, and fighting monsters."

"I can't imagine that ever changing for me. I'll always feel that rush," Thalia calmly said. "What changed for you?"

I shrugged. "The monsters I fought on the outside became nothing compared to the monsters I was fighting from within. And after a while, running doesn't sound fun. The rush I got turned to dread. It was no longer 'Gods, this fight was awesome' but instead 'Gods, this fight was draining'. And that's not a way to live."

Thalia was silent. "Do you miss it?" She finally asked.

"No, I don't."

Neither of us said anything for the next few minutes; there was nothing left to say. I wasn't as close with Thalia as I was with Annabeth or even Percy. Piper and I might have even been closer. Perhaps part of me resented Thalia— she selfishly wiggled her way out of a prophecy, while I had to deal with not just one, but two. Maybe part of me didn't like her because she acted as if we were all best buddies, but we weren't. I had known her for only a few months before she joined the Hunt. Thalia was hypocritical— she once despised the idea of joining the Hunters of Artemis, but as soon as she realized that Luke was lost, and that she didn't want to deal with the prophecy, she went and joined them. I couldn't blame her though, because I might have done the same thing. The other part of me loved Thalia like she was a sister.

"I... have a place in London that you can stay at if you need shelter. There's wards around it, so no monsters should get in. The closest thing you might see that could resemble a monster is Kreacher, but he's a house elf and he's harmless. He mostly keeps to himself," I finally said, looking outside the window. It had gotten dark.

"You do?"

"Yeah. It's in Islington. Go between houses number 13 and 14 on Grimmuald Place and say Number 12 Grimmuald Place and it will appear. There might be people coming by randomly, but you would just need to watch out for my cousin Draco."

"Draco?" Thalia asked with a chuckle. "What kind of name is that?"

I grinned at her. "The Black family has a thing for space related names. Anyways, you just need to watch out for his sharp tongue. He most likely won't be there, but he might. Leave a note on the table in the kitchen if you go there, just so I know you made it safely to London."

"Thank you," Thalia said. "See you around?"

I nodded and stood up. "See you around."

Around two months later, I found myself cursing as I closed the front door of the apartment I shared with Fred in Wizarding New York City. It was about noon, and I had gotten the chiton I wore stuck in the door again. I opened it and quickly removed the fabric from being caught in the door.

As I worked with Themis, I was required to wear formal attire during court sessions on Olympus. During prep days, Themis could care less what we wore. Today, however, we were in court. Themis was representing Poseidon in a case where Poseidon accused Zeus of striking one of his Pegasi with a lightning bolt, effectively killing it. Zeus decided that he would be his own defense, and the rest of the Olympians were the jury.

Anyways, because of that, today I had to wear formal attire. I wore a long white linen Doric chiton that was fastened with gold circular brooches at my shoulders. I wore sandals, which weren't the most comfortable. My blonde locks were elegantly tied back in a low, messy bun with strands around my face hanging loose. Some of the hair in the bun were in braids. The most annoying part of my attire, however, was the golden olive branch crown I had to wear on my head. The leaves on it wrapped around my head like a crown, except they tapered off on the sides and didn't connect on my forehead. It was tasteful, but it got caught in the strands of my hair easily.

"Adele?"

"Hi!" I said with a smile as I caught sight of Fred, who was standing in the hallway with two suitcases packed and Achilles on his shoulder. I briefly pecked him on the lips. "I figure I'll just change at the Burrow, I don't want us to miss our portkey."

Fred smiled down at me and kissed my nose. "That's fine, that means I get to see you in your wonderful outfit for a little longer."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't go and think we're going to be doing any funny business at your parents house."

"I would never," Fred cheekily grinned, mocking offense.

"Mmmhmm," I said. Fred picked up the pencil on the end table against the wall in the hallway. Achilles jumped over to me and I grabbed my purse and put him in it so he didn't fly away.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

The world was spinning and I felt like my intestines were twisting themselves outside of my body and then untwisting themselves to crawl back in. Soon enough, though, it was over, and I stood in the backyard of the Burrow. I landed gracefully down, and Achilles hopped out of my purse and crawled up my arm and onto my shoulder. Fred landed on his butt.

"How'd you land so gracefully?" Fred asked as I helped him up. We walked together towards the back door, the wheels of our suitcases getting mud on them as we went.

"I think it's the outfit. All the extra linen could act like a parachute," I said, jokingly.

"Would that even work?" Fred asked me.

I shrugged. "Well, maybe. I could always jump off the diving board the apartment has and into he pool while wearing it. Maybe the bottom half of this dumb sheet would be a parachute."

Fred gave me a wicked grin. "Only if you're not wearing a bra underneath."

I rolled my eyes at him but smiled anyways. Achilles' little eyebrows furrowed and he stuck his purple tongue out at Fred.

"Alright, alright, Achilles— I'm just joking," Fred told the Pygmy Puff.

"Should we knock? You did say we were coming, right?"

Fred paused. "I knew there was something I forgot to do! Eh, it'll be a nice surprise for them."

"That's true. I think I've only seen George and Angelina recently. Yeah, only them, because I was last here when Fleur and Bill brought Victorie home from the hospital," I said as Fred quietly opened the door.

"How many Weasley's won't have red hair, you think?" Fred whispered as he held the door open for me.

"Hmm. Well, Victorie has blonde hair, so that's one. Harry and Ginny will definitely have at least one kid with black hair. Hey, I'll bet you a chocolate frog that when we have kids, one of them will have black hair," I grinned.

"You're on. I think our kids will all be gingers," Fred remarked. "Wait, where is everyone?"

The Burrow was silent. The only noise that I could hear was the clock ticking. I glided over to the Weasley clock. "Your parents are at Bill and Fleur's. Harry, Ron, Percy, Hermione and Audrey are at the Ministry. Charlie's in Romania and Ginny is currently in Wales. George is in Diagon Alley, and we are here. We should make dinner for everybody."

Fred looked in the fridge and freezer and I made my way to the pantry. "There's steak in here," Fred said as he opened the fridge.

"Your mom has pita bread in here," I said.

"Gyros?" Fred asked.

"Gyros," I nodded.

The two of us moved around the kitchen together like a well-oiled machine. Fred cooked the streak on the stove top in a pan, and I made the Tzatziki sauce out of fresh cucumbers and some Greek yogurt. I dug around in the fridge some more and found some tomatoes and lettuce and a small jar of olives and set them aside and got the Pita bread ready.

Eventually, Fred and I put the gyros together all on one big plate. I cast a heating charm over it so the food would stay warm.

"We make quite the team," I happily remarked as I dried the dishes that Fred washed.

"The best, if I do say so myself," he grinned, turning the water off, and leaned down to kiss me.

"You should know that I did manage to get three Fanged Frisbees into Camp. I passed one onto the Stoll brothers, I put one in the forest, and I gave one to Mr. D. He loves it, of course, but he won't actually say so," I murmured into his lips.

"Mr. D," Fred grinned. "What a god. I imagine he threw great parties."

"I've heard he has. I'm sure they were great when he could drink alcohol, but he's pretty much the god of Diet Coke now," I chuckled. "Did you know that he grew vines specifically when Zeus told him not to, thus causing the Prohibition Era?"

"Prohibition Era?"

"Oooh, let me tell you," I giddily said, like I had just been given the opportunity of a life time.

I was about to go into a spiel that Fred would actually listen to, because he always listened to what I had to say and took any opportunity he could to learn more about the world from me, but there was a tiny little gasp from the doorway. I turned to see who it was, but the gasper was gone.

"Harry! There's a really pretty girl," I heard a toddler's voice whisper yell.

"Ginny's not going to be here for another 20 minutes, Ted," I heard Harry say. "Get behind me."

"There's no need to do that, mate, we don't bite. Well, I don't. Adele on the other hand..." Fred joked. I rolled my eyes.

"Fred!" Ron excitedly exclaimed. "I didn't know you'd be coming!"

"Oh, Fred, is Adele with you?" Hermione asked, "There's this book I found that I've been meaning to give her. It's about—"

"Fred!? You're here!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.

Suddenly everybody descended into the kitchen. Fleur, who held little Victorie in her arms, was the first to spot me. She came over to me.

"Adele! You're glowing!" Fleur enthused, her French accent still strong.

"Am I?" I asked, genuinely confused. "It's probably just sweat."

"Adele's here?" Multiple people shouted at once.

Fleur stepped away from me and I was then exposed to everybody. I suddenly remembered that I was still wearing my chiton and olive branch crown.

"You look gorgeous! Did you and Fred like, just get married?" Ginny gushed, excitedly.

I blushed. "No, I was at work and if I changed once I got home we would've missed our portkey, so I decided I was just going to change here, but then we started making gyros for everybody, and I got distracted, but it's good to know that I can still make the whole place shimmer."

"Wait, where on Earth would you work that requires a bed sheet?" Ron asked.

"Olympus," Fred told him, his voice full of pride. "Adele here is a lawyer on Olympus, and she had a case today so she had to wear formal attire."

"It's not that uncomfortable, actually. The olive branches are the worst, they always get caught in my hair," I supplied.

"You must teach me how you did that bun," Ginny murmured to me. "I'm going to need to learn how."

"You mentioned you made gyros?" George piped up. "Fred made the steak, you made the sauce?"

I nodded. "Yup! Let me go change and then we can dig in."

I quickly shuffled over to suitcase and lugged it upstairs with me. Everybody was entrapped with my appearance and it was making me uncomfortable. As I got into the twin's old room, I shut the door but could still hear George and Angelina enthusiastically going on and on about the gyros Fred makes to the family. I quickly changed into some sweatpants and a shirt and socks. I took my hair out of the bun and let it tumble down my back.

"I never liked olives before I had one of these," I heard Angelina say as I came down the stairs. "They're not cooked in, but Adele always puts them on as a topping, and I swear, she must have the Midas touch or something, because the only olives I've ever liked are hers."

"That would be because I grow them myself," I said. "I have two small olive trees in pots on the balcony of our apartment, and I brine and cure them myself. You can't eat olives before that, but it takes about 3 to 6 weeks to cure them."

"Olive trees grow in New York?" Harry asked, confused.

"No," I plainly said, "but I wasn't going to pay money for shitty olives, so I might as well grow my own."

Over the course of the meal, Achilles rolled between different people. He stuck mostly by Teddy, who found him very cute. He also tried to steal food off of Harry's plate, but wasn't successful. Fred and I talked about how our lives were going. Fred mentioned how business was booming, and that the shop nearly was sold out of everything after the rush before Ilvermorny's school year began.

"It's great too, because Ilvermorny's students get to go out on the weekends, so business is booming," Fred said.

"Hogwarts only let us go out on specific weekends and it was only to Hogsmede," Bill frowned.

Fred shrugged. "Americans are a different breed," he joked.

"Hey!" I said, mocking offense.

"Except for you of course, dear."

"Nice try."

The meal went on, and then Ginny and Harry stood up.

"Uhm, we have an announcement," Ginny said with a big smile on her face. Harry looked nervous.

"Oh, what is it? Don't tell me you're leaving the Harpies," Ron said.

"Harry proposed to me and we're getting married!" Ginny happily said. Harry then started grinning like he had never been happier, and I suppose that was probably true.

Congratulations went around the room and Mrs. Weasley immediately was besides herself with wedding planning. She bombarded Harry and Ginny about guests lists, food, dresses and suits, flowers, a reception, and churches. The two of them looked very off-put.

"When we get married, I don't want a huge fuss," Fred whispered to me later that night as we laid in his bed.

"Gods no. Honestly, I'd rather just have a huge party with everybody. Not a wedding sort of party, but a party party," I said.

"Can you imagine Mum trying to get us married in a church?" Fred snorted.

"Gods, that'd be awful. You know... we should just get married at city hall. Have George, Angelina, Percy and Annabeth as witnesses and then later on throw a huge party but tell nobody what the party is for and then be like "oh by the way, we got married!" We can do it outside Camp, put a huge tent up and a bunch of wards."

Fred turned over to look at me. "Ah, yes. We could get Pollux, Mr. D's kid, to help us pull it off."

I snorted. "And resurrect the Cult of Dionysus? No thank you."

"I mean, Hermione does want to learn more about the Party Ponies."

"You do have a point. Alright, well, it'll be a fun party. But we can't do it until Harry and Ginny are married. I don't want to take the spotlight off of them," I said.

"I haven't even proposed yet," Fred pointed out with a grin.

"Ah, the keyword being yet. And don't think I don't know why you had Ginny ask what size my ring finger is back in May when Victorie was born," I chuckled. "You're many things, Fred Weasley, but secretive is not one of them."

Fred cursed under his breath. "Ugh. I told her to be discreet! Oh, anyways, did I tell you that Achilles ate a Sour Patch Kid the other day?"

"What!?"

"Yeah, he stole one off the table and then managed to con me into giving him one."

"How did he even con you? He's a Pygmy Puff."

"Achilles is an intelligent Pygmy Puff. And I'm pretty sure he's planning world domination," Fred said.

I burst out laughing at the thought of Pygmy Puffs running the world, and kept on laughing for longer than I should have.