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Chapter Text

I did what you’ve all been asking for…I started the PJO/HP crossover fic and am now just starting the 4th chappie! Things are going a bit slow right now bc it’s the beginning (and all beginnings of books are pretty dreary) so I’m just getting some of the basics out of the way. Also, this is my very first crossover fic SO in conclusion, my very first HP/PJO + HoO crossover fic.

BUT BUT BUT.

There are some things I want to let y’all know b4 I post the first (and possibly second) chapters of this fic and starting posting the rest as time goes on. Here, I have compiled a list just for y’all (how sweet of me! XD).

1. Since I have LOTS of shit to do (who knew junior year could be so stressful?), I won’t be updating on the daily. In fact, updates are gonna be quite slow at first until I get the hang of things in my life.

2. Takes place after the Battle of Hogwarts (during Golden Trio’s ‘seventh year’) and after the Giant War

3. Harry is arrogant in here (and for a reason too, it’s important to the plot) and tries to compete with Percy (also for a reason) and gets a little crush on Annabeth (also for a reason)

~ I don’t consider ToA (Trials of Apollo) canon (except for CALEO) so nothing…from that mess is in here

~No normal wizardry magic can harm the demigods (well…not fatally), except for some potions and any spell a DEMIGOD or DEMIWIZARD uses on them

~Monsters CAN’T be harmed by wizard magic (unless that certain wizard is SO powerful to mess up the magic of the monster’s very lifeforce (*cough* don’t even consider Harry, trust me *cough*)

4. The pairings in this book that I will say (for now bc I don’t want to spoil the book) that are non-spoiler are:

-Percabeth (Percy x Annabeth)
-Jasper/Jiper/Jasiper (Jason x Piper)
-Frazel (Frank x Hazel)
-Caleo (Leo x Calypso)
-Solangelo (Will x Nico)
-Hinny (Harry x Ginny)
So basically all the canon ships XD I’m still contemplating Hinny and whether I want the characters to end up with other ppl but this is likely who I want them to be with.

5. Hermione is just as suspicious as Harry in here and wants to expose the Americans bc she thinks they’re not really wizards/witches (she just acts like a know-it-all mostly in here at first, also relevant to the plot)

6. Ron’s just confused with his friends and exasperated by their paranoia (VERY important to the story and there is a MAJOR reason why, although it might be a different version of what you think it is;))

7. So legit out of the entire trio, Ron is like the only sane one here

8. Wizards can see through the Mist (something that Demigods use to hide their godly stuff)

9. There are gonna be demiwizards in here (so basically a demigod and a wizard). Here are two that won’t spoil the story: Draco is a demigod (a son of Zeus) and Luna is a daughter of Iris

10. Snape is alive (and also a demigod, but he’s not gonna be suuuper chummy like in other fanfics with the demigods, he’ll still show off some of his normal self to them)

11. Dumbledore is alive as well

12. There ARE gonna be OC’s, like probably three or four (actually like three and a half bc one of them is not technically an OC…but you’ll see what I’m talking about ;))

13. Also, there are gonna be deaths sooo…beware of those.

14. Oh and btw, there are gonna be gay pairings if Solangelo hadn’t given you a clue (I am a multishipper so you might expect me to do one certain pairing among others, based on my other fics but chances are…I’m won't)

I know it seems like I’m favoring the demigods more than the wizards but like I said, I love both fandoms equally and both authors express the hardships of their characters in different ways. I’m just making the wizards like this bc it is IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT! (I know you’re seeing this a lot and going ‘pff yea right surreee it is’ but I’m so freaking serious, if my story goes the way I want it to go, this will all make sense like in the middle of the fic).

Chapter Text

Percy Jackson was actually having a pretty good day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the waves lapped lazily at his bare legs as he sat on the hot surface of the dock that led to the lake. Mindlessly, he would lightly run his fingertips on the surface watching the ripples as they grew larger and larger. To be honest, this day seemed too good to be true, he simply sat there occasionally running his hand in the water and watching the setting sun turn the sky an array of pinks, purples, and gold. 

He knew he shouldn't have jinxed the precious moment. 

"Percy!" For a moment, Percy didn't seem to comprehend the fact that someone was calling him -and quite frantically too-but when the voice called him again, this time louder and accompanied by a series of swears, he jerked up and toppled into the water. Since he wasn't expecting it, the feeling of the ice-cold water after sitting on a hot area of dock for the whole day did not sit well with him. Sputtering, he pushed himself to the surface and lifted his damp fringe from his eyes and glared at the offender who was now laughing his ass off on the ground. 

"That wasn't funny, Valdez," Percy snapped, trying to look like he had everything under control, but the moment he set foot on the warm sand, his foot slipped and he fell face-first on the ground, getting a mouthful of sand. Leo Valdez's laughter sounded off in the background as Percy attempted to spit out all the sand from his mouth. Finally, he sat up and glared at the son of Hephaestus who had stopped laughing at last and was now sprawled on the ground, breathing heavily. 

"Yo, Perce? I thought you were the son of the sea god? I've seen other demigods climb up the dock better than you."

"Shut up," Percy grumbled before standing up and dusting himself off. Leo stood up with him and he ran a hand through his wild curls before snapping his fingers. 

"Oh shoot! I nearly forgot, there was a reason why I came here!" 

Percy raised an eyebrow, "other than to see me spectacularly fail at a simple job?" Percy might as well admit that he got a little clumsy before, otherwise Leo would never let him live it down. 

He was sorely mistaken. 

Leo smirked at him, "well that was just the cherry on top, eh Sand Eater?" Percy groaned and rolled his eyes as Leo doubled over in laughter again. 

"You're never gonna let go of this, are you?" Percy asked the shorter and slighter demigod beside him. 

"Nope!" Leo responded cheerfully much to Percy's despair, "now let's head on over to the Big House, Chiron wants to talk to us."

***

Wizards?!?!

"Wizards?" Jason Grace, who was sitting next to his girlfriend Piper McLean, yelped. 

"It doesn't seem possible," Percy's own girlfriend, Annabeth Chase agreed, furrowing her eyebrows, he knew from that look that his Wise Girl was trying to grab at any sort of evidence that proved that wizards somehow existed. 

"Yet, it is," Chiron said gravely, "because just a few minutes ago, I received a call from one of my dearest friends who is the greatest wizard of his time. He said his school is in dire need of help and if I could send some of my best warriors out to Scotland to help." 

"Really though, I'm not surprised," Piper said thoughtfully, "I mean if demigods exist, then why can't wizards?"

No one could argue with that kind of logic. 

"What is this school called anyway?" Percy asked Chiron. Apparently, this 'wizard school' was in Scotland, which is in Europe, so he and his friends would be traveling to a different place altogether. But that was just about all he knew about wizards. 

"It is an intelligent school named Hogwarts that-" But a burst of laughter from the demigods prevented Chiron from saying more. Jason had tried to keep a straight face for the sake of being polite but ended up coughing out a couple of laughs while his girlfriend lay helplessly against Leo as they both tried to control their laughter. Percy felt his stomach was about to burst by how much he was laughing. Hogwarts? Who would even think of naming a school that?

"If-shit, I can't breathe-if the people in the school are so intelligent," Leo gasped out in between laughs, "why did they name their own school after a pigs disease?" And that set us off again. 

"Well now, you all, that is enough. This school is in very grave danger and this is not a laughing matter, no matter how poorly named the school is," Chiron reprimanded sternly. We all quieted down at that and sat there gasping for breath. Finally, Annabeth asked the question that hung in the air. 

"What do you mean 'grave danger'?" 

"I don't know for sure, he didn't elaborate," Chiron said thoughtfully, "but I do know that it seems serious due to how upset the headmaster was and how he pleaded that I send my best people to him. Something must be threatening Hogwarts, and it must be something horrifying if Albus is acting this way."

"Albus?" Jason asked. 

"Yes, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts and the greatest wizard I have ever met."

"Wait, Albus Dumb-as-a-door?" Percy blurted out. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Annabeth facepalming and the rest of the demigods hold back their laughter. 

"I do believe his name is Albus Dumbledore, not Dumb-as-a-door, Percy," Chiron said, "please do refrain from calling him that to his face."

"Sorry," Percy muttered while the rest of the demigods shook with suppressed laughter. 

"But how many of us are supposed to go to Hogwarts?" Annabeth asked. 

Chiron frowned, "I don't know for sure. Albus never mentioned-"

The door banged open, flying off its hinges and nearly smashing Leo and Piper to a pulp if they hadn't scrambled away in time. Chiron sighed as he gazed forlornly at the door-he would have to get a new one...for the tenth time-before turning his gaze to the figures at the doorway. It was Clarisse and Connor Stoll. 

"What do you two need no-"

"A prophecy!" Connor gasped out, as he bent to rest his hands on both his knees. He looked like he had run from one end of Camp to the other. 

"Rachel gave out another prophecy," Clarisse explained, waving a sword-which was bent at an odd angle-empathetically. Percy instinctively leaned away from the sword brandishing daughter of Ares before her words caught up to him. 

"Wait, a prophecy?" He said loudly, "but Rachel's Oracle powers aren't working!"

"Yeah that's true, that's why this one's kinda weird," Connor said, as he walked backwards to the steps leading to the Big House, "come on we'll show you."

"He means that she only said parts of the prophecy, it was like she was forced to not say the whole thing, like some something was stopping her," Clarisse explained. 

"Like Ella the harpy?" Percy asked. Clarisse nodded. 

"Kinda, except we don't know what to make of it, I think it's best if you all check it out."

We're right behind you, Clarisse," Chiron sighed, the rest of the demigods trotted after him. They came to the large clearing where the campfires were usually held, even from far away Percy could hear the raspy voice of the Oracle. 

"With a last act before the end of the world begins and the darkness gains."

Chiron pushed his way to the front while Percy and his friends squeezed in after, it was quiet for a moment as everyone looked at Chiron, waiting for any orders. Finally, the centaur flicked his eyes from Rachel to the watching faces, "can someone tell me what was said of the prophecy?"

"But, Chiron, it's only bits and pieces-" a boy protested but Chiron silenced him with a look. 

"It doesn't matter, tell me what you all heard if you can?"

Silence again, until Nico di Angelo stepped forward and recited. 

"Seven shall journey to the land of Magic's spawns

...To find the one fallen from his throne

Allies made and enemies are formed...following the signs...

Love shall tear or reign...

Unless Revenge and Hate prevail

And the one who knows Love the most shall free the chains

With a last act before the end of the world begins and the darkness gains."

"Well," Chiron said, trying for a wan smile as he turned to Percy and his friends, "I guess we now know the number limit to who shall go to Hogwarts. Why don't we head back to the Big House to talk about the latest quest."

Chapter Text

Harry's POV

Something seemed a bit off today, Hermione seemed anxious yet excited, and Ron was just confused (well there was nothing off about that one). 

"Hermione, for god's sake, what is up with you today?" Ron finally asked after Hermione shifted in her seat in our designated compartment in the Hogwarts Express. We had all decided to go back to Hogwarts to repeat our last year, which we had missed due to us fighting and defeating the evil wizard Lord Voldemort. 

"Ronald, didn't you read your Hogwarts letter?" Hermione asked looking surprised. Ron tilted his head confusedly before nodding slowly. 

"Of course I did, 'Mione, and all I saw was a letter from Dumbledore explaining the necessities of what we need for the school year, nothing worth getting excited about. Wait," Ron looked suddenly nervous, "was there a mention of a test slipped in there and I missed it? Shit, do we have to take a test?"

"Oh of course not, Ronald," Hermione rolled her eyes, "you read the school supplies letter, but I bet you didn't even think to read the second letter that Dumbledore and McGonagall had given to us along with the school letter."

I watched with amusement as Ron sat there stumped and grasping for a good answer, before muttering a "there was a second letter?" Hermione sighed. 

"We're having exchange students, from America!" Hermione finally said the news, accompanied by a squeal that made my ears hurt. Ron winced and narrowed his eyes at Hermione. 

"Calm down, woman or your screams are gonna end up reaching bat frequency," he barked. 

"Oh shut up, Ron, you insolent and idiotic-"

"Oh, I'm insolent? I did help with the war-"

"I didn't say you didn't, but your emotional range still is a-"

"Oh, not this again!"

I sighed and rested my head against the window watching the trees blur by and tuning out Ron and Hermione's bickering. I was just about to doze off when I heard the door to our compartment slide open. 

"Hey, mind if we sit here? Everywhere else is full." A voice said the accent sounded foreign. I jerked myself out of my light doze and came face to face with eyes that looked so very similar to mine. In fact, the guy looked about the same as me, except more built, and muscular. His black hair was ruffled and windswept and his green eyes-which I realized were not emerald green like me but looked more like the ocean, unrestrained and unpredictable-sparkled with fun. 

A pretty blonde girl stood next to him with princess curls framing her soft-looking face. She was lean, like the black-haired boy, but had more delicate features like the rounding of her shoulders and angling of her face. Although, her beauty was somewhat altered by her eyes, which were a stormy gray that seemed to look straight into me and read my thoughts. I quickly looked away, red in the face. Both of them wore orange t-shirts that said Camp Half-Blood (whatever that meant) and the boy wore a pair of cargo shorts and the girl had on jean shorts. 

Both their hands were also interlocked, I noticed this and immediately disliked my look-alike. That pretty blonde girl deserved more than a rough around the edges looking guy who seemed like a major jock. She deserved someone better, maybe someone like me. 

I was considering that thought when Hermione asked the two unfamiliar people who they were. I leaned in too, interested in hearing more about them. 

"I'm Percy Jackson," the black-haired guy introduced himself, sounding completely at ease with the awkward situation. I disliked him even more. 

"And I'm Annabeth Chase," said the pretty blonde. Annabeth, a gorgeous name for a blonde as royal looking as her. 

"Well, I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione introduced herself before pointing to Ron and me, "and these are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter." 

I waited, expecting the heartfelt reaction I always got whenever people hear my name. Maybe this will make Annabeth forget all about Percy and realize she had been thinking wrong this whole time. But, to my surprise, both transfers simply nodded without any recognition in their eyes. 

What? How could that be? I'm famous, for Merlin's sake, they have to know about me!

I decided I would keep a close eye on these exchange students, something didn't seem right about them. When Percy and Annabeth sat down across from Ron and me, I felt a strange aura of power and something more foreboding emitting from them. They both also moved around a lot, Percy fidgeting with a small brown...pen? Annabeth was tapping her nails on the window, her stormy gray eyes flicking all over the room as if trying to assess everything in it at once. 

I knew right there and then that I didn't trust them at all. 

"So," Ron began awkwardly when the silence got too long. The trees were basically zipping by now. "Are you two the only ones going to Hogwarts?" 

"Oh no," Percy laughed, "there are more of us, about seven including Annabeth and I," he took a moment to smile fondly at the blonde beside him, it looked cute, but I was sure it was fake. "They're all in the other compartment and they voted us to go out and meet new people."

"That's nice," Hermione smiled before beginning to fire questions, "are you all excited? How is the UK compared to America? What school did you go to before? Are you good at magic? Have you read the course books for this year yet? What about-" 

"Relax, Hermione, don't scare them off before the school year even starts," Ron said laughing, Hermione glared at him and elbowed the redhead sharply. Ron sucked in a breath and groaned. 

"God, woman, you're a maniac, you know?"

Percy and Annabeth laughed, "it's fine," Annabeth reassured the pouting Hermione, "and to answer your questions, America is a lot more different than the UK, we went to Hecate's School of Magic before, we're not that good at general magic, and I've read the course books but I don't think Seaweed Brain over here did." She poked the black-haired guy playfully on the shoulder. He stuck his tongue out at her. 

"They were sooo boring," he whined which caused Annabeth to laugh and ruffle his hair and Hermione to look at him with her famous how-dare-you expression. 

Percy seemed way immature than Annabeth, another reason why she needs to dump him and go out with me. I'm more mature, I mean, hello, I've been in a war, of course, I had to be mature, otherwise, the whole wizarding world would've died. 

"You didn't read the books?" Hermione's shrill voice of disbelief brought me back to reality. "But how on earth will you do well in class?"

Percy stared at her like he was trying to sort her out and it got to the point where Hermione blushed under the concentrated eye contact before he turned to Annabeth with a playful grin. "Looks like we found another Wise Girl," he teased. 

"Wise Girl?" Hermione asked while at the same time Ron and I said something different. 

"What's up with the nicknames?" I asked looking confused. 

"What do you mean 'can't do general magic'?" Ron asked. 

The three of us looked at Ron in surprise and confusion. Ron blinked at the sudden set of eyes on him before turning a faint pink and rubbing the back of his neck consciously. 

"What? Don't you remember when Annabeth said that they're not that good at general magic?" He mumbled. 

The two of us continued to stare at him as if he had suddenly decided to go out with Trevor the toad. Annabeth simply raised a brow at Ron before saying "yes, I did say that, how observant of you to notice...Ron, right?" 

Ron nodded mutely while Hermione looked like she was either gonna argue that she was observant as well or ask Ron when he became so smart. 

"Our school specializes in specific types of magic for certain people, we're not that trained for general magic because that was not what we had learned prior. So all the classes are going to be new for us as well." Annabeth directed her next statement to Hermione this time, "But I am, indeed, excited for the school year."

"Huh," Hermione ran over Annabeth's explanation mentally before nodding slowly, "I guess that makes sense, but you're going to love Hogwarts! Do you know what House you're going to be in?"

The transfers looked at each other, "uh Houses?" Percy asked. 

"Wait, you don't know about the Houses?" I spoke up feeling a rise of suspicion, "then how were you sorted?"

"Well we don't know about these Houses because our school sorts out the students into Cabins," Annabeth injected smoothly. The three of us looked at each. Cabins? Why in the name of Merlin would they do that?

"Why-?" Hermione began.

"It's to symbolize what type of specialized magic we're doing," Percy interrupted, then turned bright red when Hermione, Ron, and I stared at him. Well, at least he could've waited until she had finished the question. This Percy kid seemed to be a handful, I don't understand how Annabeth deals with him. 

"Well, Gryffindor is for the brave, obviously the best house there is," Ron bragged but stopped when Hermione elbowed him again. Muttering and rubbing his arm, he continued, "Ravenclaw is for the clever, Hufflepuff for the loyal and kind, and Slytherin for the bad people."

"Ronald!" Hermione chastised, "not all of them are evil, remember Merlin was a Slytherin too, and so is Andromeda."

"Oh, right, but most of them are evil," Ron corrected, before turning to us with a serious expression, "so stay away from Slytherins and make sure you don't end up in that house, trust me, they're messed up."

Percy and Annabeth shared looks again and I felt a sense of annoyance that they could just be one of those duos that can have a whole conversation through one look. It's so cliche and corny, especially with dumb and annoying Percy Jackson. 

"Well, have you at least heard of-" Ron began but was interrupted when the compartment door slammed open with such force that the three of us jumped, I noticed that Percy and Annabeth stayed still. 

At the doorway stood a tall and muscular blond guy with hair not as messy as Percy's. He wore a purple hoodie with the words SPQR written in gold letters and jeans. He had bright blue eyes that seemed to crackle with electricity and gold-framed glasses. In short, he looked like one of those superheroes from Dudley's comics. 

"Guys you have to come with me, it's serious," Blond Guy said, his voice filled with excitement and shock, his accent was also different, probably another one of those Americans. Immediately, Percy and Annabeth stood up, both alert and strangely, hands in their pockets. 

"What's up, Jason?" Percy asked, his voice low and worried. Blond Guy (or Jason) blinked, taking in Percy and Annabeth's stance before waving a hand airily. Then the strangest thing happened: he started speaking in a language that I couldn't understand at all. 

"Δεν χρειάζονται όπλα. Είναι εδώ, τον είδα πραγματικά."(1) Jason whispered, looking beyond thrilled. He was hopping from foot to foot and seem to be playing with some sort of gold coin in his hand. 

"Για ποιον μιλάς?" (2) Annabeth looked confused but her hand was making a slow retreat from her pocket, I wondered what was in there, and why did the transfers seem so wired up? I mean, this Jason guy can't even stop moving!

"Πιστέψτε με, παιδιά, θα είστε σοκαρισμένοι. Ελάτε μαζί μου,"(3) by his tone, it seemed like Jason was insisting on something but I couldn't even begin to understand what it was. "Επίσης, ίσως θα μπορούσατε να εξηγήσετε το όλο θέμα,"(4) Jason finished, as he gestured to us. I was immediately on guard, was he talking about us? What did he say? And why did he need to use a different language to say it? 

"Sorry we have to go," Annabeth apologized looking sincerely sad that she had to leave us. Percy gave us a wave and called out a 'see you at Hogwarts' before he and Annabeth hurried out of the compartment after Jason. 

Hermione, Ron, and I were left sitting together with only one thought running through our heads. 

What the hell just happened?

Chapter Text

Jason's POV

It seemed like forever when the Hogwarts Express finally came to a stop and we were allowed to leave. 

"Whoa," gasped Annabeth, "is that Hogwarts?" 

"It looks gorgeous," Piper whispered reverently, I couldn't help but agree. Hogwarts was a giant castle that looked definitely from the gothic period and maybe bits from the Renaissance period too (dammit, Annabeth was rubbing off on me). It looked tall and imposing, but Annabeth couldn't stop gushing about it. 

"Just wait until you see the inside," said the voice of Draco Malfoy, a fellow demigod, good friend, and my younger half-brother. He was grinning at Annabeth who couldn't seem to remove her eyes from the figure of the castle. "The inside is just as beautiful as the outside, maybe even more."

Annabeth gasped, "is that even possible?" 

Draco nodded as if he was sharing some big secret, "I bet you it is, Beth," he smirked at me before shaking his head fondly at Annabeth who had gone on another rant about the castle's architecture. 

"Gods, Draco, don't encourage her," Nico groaned as he buried his head in his hands to avoid Annabeth's words. 

Even with the words, I could tell that Nico was just as relieved to see Draco as the rest of us. When Annabeth and Percy had left to see if there were other people in the train that we could be friends with, I had gone out with Leo to see if there was any food on that train. Long story short, we both got ourselves lost and ended up in the wrong compartment. You could imagine my shock when I came face to face with a pair of eyes I never thought I would see again. 

Needless to say, we were both very happy to be reunited once again and after telling everyone else about the good news, there were many celebrations going around. Percy and Annabeth had immediately pulled Draco into a tight group hug when they saw him, and Nico gave an awkward one-armed hug. Leo and Draco had done a very complicated handshake, and Piper pulled Draco into the tightest hug I had ever seen (not as tight as mine though). After introducing Draco to Calypso, Leo's girlfriend (Leo had said this very proudly) and the two exchanged small smiles and handshakes, we were ready to settle back down for the rest of the trip. 

We had talked and laughed our way through the entire ride and Draco had explained the main basics of Hogwarts to us. Apparently there were four houses which were Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Draco had explained what each house's traits were, although Percy and Annabeth had gotten confused when he got to Slytherin. 

"So, Slytherin is not all filled with bad and evil people?" Percy had asked with his I'm-confused-and-also-tired look. Draco had shaken his head. 

"We just have a bad reputation, that's all. When I came here for my quest, the Slytherin prefect gave me the real deal about Slytherin. It's not as bad as most people make it as," and then he had asked where Percy and Annabeth had gotten their information from. 

"Some people named Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger," Annabeth replied, "although I take it that they were lying?"

Draco sighed, "I had a feeling you had heard it from them. They're Gryffindors, they have some sort of house rivalry against Slytherin, I wouldn't be surprised if they were bragging about their house and putting my house down. Plus, they fought Voldemort, so they have a sort of vendetta against me."

"Well not on my watch," I declared, "if I end up in Gryffindor, I'm gonna talk to my little brother and no specks eyed scrawny boy is gonna stop me!" 

"I wish you would stop calling me 'little'," Draco had groaned as he thunked his head against the back of his seat while the rest of us had laughed. 

Back to the present, we all got down from the train and made our way to the carriages. We passed a giant man calling out "Firs' years this way," and a gaggle of girls huddled and whispering to each other. When they saw us, they seemed to freeze before giggling and batting their eyelashes, what, did they have something stuck in their eye? Gods, I hate it when that happens, and then you got to blink constantly but then it still doesn't come out and-

Sorry, stupid ADHD.

We all ended up getting a carriage together and Draco told us that there was another demiwizard along with him in Hogwarts. 

"Or should I say, demiwitch," he chuckled, "her name's Luna Lovegood and she's a daughter of Iris."

"Luna?" Annabeth asked excitedly, and when Draco nodded, she made a sound so foreign that all of us stared at her like she had grown a second head. 

"Uh, Annie?" Leo said slowly like he was talking to a scared cat, "did you just...squeal?" 

"Valdez, don't you ever call me that again or you won't have a tongue to talk with," she waited until Leo had nodded, not trusting himself to speak in case Annabeth decided to cut out his tongue. "Besides, I've known Luna practically my whole childhood, I was devastated when she had to go on an unknown quest and all this time she was here?"

"Yep," Draco said, "don't worry you'll meet her soon enough, she's in the year below us."

The carriages screeched to a stop and as we all descended down, I noticed that someone in our group was missing. I looked around and saw Nico close to the front of the carriages and stroking the mane of a large skeletal horse. 

I hadn't noticed the front of the carriages when I had first gotten into them, I was too into my high of being reunited with my brother again. But now that I took a closer look, I could see and feel the eeriness coming from these horses. In fact, these guys let out the same type of aura that Nico did whenever we fought in Camp. 

"What are those?" I hadn't noticed that the rest of my friends had followed me to the front. Piper had asked the question as she stood by my side. 

"Thestrals," Calypso said quietly. She turned pink and crossed her arms defensively when we all looked at her in varying degrees of confusion, "what? I read the Care of Magical Creatures coursebook. It was interesting."

Leo grinned and wrapped an arm around her, "Sunshine, did I mention that you're totally amazing?"

"Just a few million times, yes, Firebug."

"Fucking hell, stop being so cute!" Draco yelped suddenly as the rest of us snickered at Leo and Calypso's affronted expressions. 

"But the Thestrals?" Nico pressed on, "how-?"

"You can see the Thestrals?" 

I looked back to see the same scrawny boy that was in the same compartment as Percy and Annabeth when I had burst in. This time, he was closer, so I took in more details about him. He had round-rimmed glasses and startling green eyes. His hair was a true mess and his mouth was turned down in a frown as he looked us over suspiciously. 

Great, we haven't even stepped foot into the castle and we already made someone suspicious of us. And better yet, it's Boy Wonder himself.

"Why? What's wrong with seeing Thestrals?" Percy asked.

Harry Potter narrowed his eyes, "because the people who can see Thestrals have seen death."

We all went still, even Leo stopped tinkering with whatever was in his toolbelt. I remembered all the people I had seen die around me. Oh, gods, I failed, I failed, I couldn't save them, I failed. 

"I think it's best if we go into the castle," I heard a voice say, but it sounded muffled in my ears. All I could think about were the screams of the wounded in the war. I was supposed to be their leader and yet I failed them. We may have won, but the amount of the dead always overwhelmed me. 

"Jason? Jay? You okay? Oh, gods, please answer me, Jason," I came to Piper looking at me concerned with Draco peering at me over her shoulder. The rest of my friends were spread out in a loose semi-circle (a tactic I found was quite reassuring and protective) and were looking at me worriedly. 

"I'm fine, seriously guys," I insisted when their worried looks still held, "I just had a mini flashback," Everyone's faces turned to grim regret, we all knew what it felt to have flashbacks. Percy and Annabeth got them the most, it's why they never sleep apart. 

"Flashback of what?" Damn, I had forgotten that guy was still there. To my surprise, it was Draco who got in Potter's face and said in a deathly quiet voice. 

"That is none of your bloody business, Potter, now if you will excuse us, my brother, his friends, and I have a castle we need to get into." He pushed his way past a stunned Potter and taking the opportunity, we followed. 

Welcome to Hogwarts, I guess. 

***

Hermione's POV

I was practically bouncing in my seat. I couldn't wait to see the sorting, I really want to know which Houses the exchange students will end up in. Harry slid into the seat next to me, he looked so deep into thought, that I decided not to interrupt him. Ron threw himself into the seat on my other side, looking disgruntled as he eyed the empty plate in front of him. 

"Why can't everyone just move faster, I'm hungry," he whined. 

"Oh Ronald, can't you just stop thinking about food for one minute, those exchange students are going to get sorted soon. I wonder what Houses...?

"Oh yeah, them," Ron frowned, staring at his bare plate like it had personally offended him (maybe it had) "I still can't believe Hogwarts accepted transfer students."

"Of course they do," I said looking scandalized, how could he not know about this? Oh wait, this is Ron we're talking about, "Hogwarts accepted students from Ilvermorny twice during the 1800s."

"Let me guess: you read about that in Hogwarts, A History in the library?" Ron snarked.

"Well someone needs to be the smart one in the group," I shot back, looking put out. 

"Smart? Yeah alright, but-"

"Those exchange students are weird though like they're not right in the head," Harry interrupted. His eyes were fixed on the doorway that the first years (and this time, exchange students) would enter through to be sorted. "They were talking about flashbacks and they could even see the Thestrals."

"Really?" I was interested in these students already, how on earth could they see the Thestrals? Who did they see die? They couldn't have been in a war, right? I explained this theory to Harry and Ron. Harry denied it quickly. 

"There's no way, 'Mione, what wars have we heard of in America? They probably saw their pet dog die or something."

Ron looked more skeptical, "mate, they didn't even know who you were, it's not like Britain and America have a one-way trip news station."

Harry's expression soured, but before he could open his mouth to retort, the doors opened and a herd of first years came through. To be honest, there were less of them than usual, maybe it was because of the war. 

Professor McGonagall called out the names of the first years and one by one each went timidly up to the stool and had the Sorting Hat dropped on their head. All in all, there were about eight Gryffindors, seven Ravenclaws, eleven Hufflepuffs, and five Slytherins. The ones who ended up in Slytherin looked positively terrified at the thought, I don't blame them. Slytherin has been dubbed as the Death Eater House now, according to nearly the entire school. 

"And now, before you all tuck in," Professor Dumbledore had stood up after the last first year had been sorted, "I have an announcement. You may have noticed that there is an empty seat at the teacher's table."

I, along with a bunch of others, turned to look and found that the Headmaster was right, the seat for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes were empty. I wonder who the new teachers are. 

"That is something to be spoken for at another date," there was a lot of murmuring at that but Professor Dumbledore simply spoke over the voices to regain attention, "but on a better note: please welcome our exchange students who have come from America. Let us see where they will be sorted."

Chapter Text

Harry's POV

The door to the Great Hall swung open and seven people came marching in. I recognized Percy and Annabeth standing close to the front, and the blond guy Jason just behind Percy. 

"Please come up when I call your name and sit on the stool and let the Sorting Hat sort you in your appropriate house," McGonagall commanded. The seven transfers nodded. 

"Chase, Annabeth!"

The blonde girl with the princess curls and the gray eyes strode to the front. Every step she took looked purposeful and she seemed to let out an aura of confidence and power without even trying. 

I looked over to Hermione and noticed her narrowed eye look as she sized up Annabeth. I had seen that look more than often on her, she was analyzing something. I wondered if she was just as suspicious about the exchange students as I am. 

Annabeth sat down cautiously on the stool, her back ramrod straight and her eyes flickering all around the room. I shivered when they landed briefly on me. 

The Hat settled itself on Annabeth's head and didn't even take a second before shouting out, "HOW ARE YOU ALIVE? GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR!"

I, along with the majority of the school, stared wide-eyed as Annabeth handed the hat back to McGonagall and sat down across from Ron. What the heck was that all about? 

McGonagall looked just as surprised as we were but she recovered quickly, clearing her throat and calling out the next name. 

"di Angelo, Nico."

The guy who walked up next from the small group wore black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt with a tattered bomber jacket over it that-you guessed it-was black as well. He had pale skin and even from here I could see how dark his eyes were as they looked around the Hall. If Voldemort ever had a child, this kid would look exactly like his child. 

Wait...

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I missed everything around me until the Sorting Hat called out "SLYTHERIN IF YOU MUST, JEEZ WHAT IS UP WITH YOU PEOPLE? HOW ARE YOU STILL SANE?" 

Nico slid off the stool, gave the hat a dark glare before striding over to the Slytherin table. Of course, that guy was a Slytherin! He looked like death incarnate, just proves my Voldemort's Son theory. And to my shock, he sat right next to Malfoy and the two immediately struck up a conversation as if they were best buddies or something. 

Definitely worth looking into. 

"Grace, Jason," called out McGonagall.

The blond I had seen before strode forward, again with the same purposeful steps that I had seen Annabeth take. But this guy seemed to emit even more power, like a controlled storm of emotions and strength ready to let loose when needed. It was unlike Percy, whose power rampaged around him unknowingly like large waves splashing around you. 

Jason's eyes sparkled blue with the intensity of a leader as he sat on the stool. The Hat placed on his head, before calling out after barely three seconds, "GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR AGAIN, OBVIOUSLY!"

This was getting very interesting, I watched Jason sit next to Annabeth and flash Nico a small smile and wave. Why had the Sorting Hat said 'obviously'? The Hat never did that to me, and I'm the Boy Who Lived!

"Jackson, Perseus."

"Just call me Percy," my lookalike said to everyone, grinning. I could practically hear the girls swoon and I saw Annabeth's eyes narrow. I couldn't help but smirk, was she getting jealous? She should've known that boys like Jackson won't last long in long relationships. 

Percy plopped down onto the stool and almost instantly before the Hat was even on his head, it screamed "GRYFFINDOR! HOW HAVE YOU BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH AND SURVIVED? IT'S KILLING ME! GET THIS KID AWAY FROM ME!"

Confused clapping came from my table but I only had eyes for Percy who sat down on Annabeth's other side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder while giving Jason a fist bump. 

McGonagall, meanwhile, had taken to soothing the Sorting Hat who was now shivering in her arms. She stroked it gently, murmuring words to it before calling out the next name. 

"McLean, Piper."

A beautiful girl walked confidently to the stool, her eyes seemed to shift colors and her choppy brown hair swayed as she walked. I could hear gasps and saw almost every boy eyeing her. Jason shifted in his seat and leveled a firm glare at everyone in the vicinity staring at Piper. 

Another couple? 

"Are those eyes even real?" I heard Ron whisper out loud. 

"Oh, of course not, Ronald, she's probably showing them off because it's her first day," Hermione huffed, looking annoyed as Piper sat on the stool. 

I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Jason turn his head slightly to our direction, I had a sneaking suspicion that he had heard Hermione and Ron. 

But he had no reason to get mad at us, I mean, those eyes can't be real at all! 

"SLYTHERIN!" Shouted the Sorting Hat and Piper got up, giving McGonagall a smile as she handed the hat back before settling down at the Slytherin table, amidst loud clapping from her housemates. She sat across from Malfoy and Nico and began chatting. 

Seriously, how did all the transfers seem to know Malfoy? Even more proof that they were in Voldemort's circle. 

"I knew it!" Hermione whispered, looking satisfied, "a girl like her would only end up in a sneaky house like Slytherin, what a show-off."

Ron and I stared at Hermione, was she jealous of Piper? Jason, on the other hand, had heard the statement (even though Hermione said it pretty quietly) and his hand slammed down on the table so hard that the Gryffindors around us jumped. 

"I would rather you not talk about my girlfriend like that again," he spoke through clenched teeth as if he was trying his very best to stay in control. His eyes swirled like a tornado and I felt a strange tingling sensation like the feeling you get before being shocked. Jason's hands were clenched into tight fists on the table. The whole Gryffindor table was quiet now and Hermione's squeaky "okay" echoed around the Hall. 

I glanced around to see if anyone else had seen what had happened and I saw only Malfoy and Nico staring at Jason with a 'what the fuck was that all about' look. Jason subtly shook his head at them and gave Hermione one warning glare before turning back to see the sorting. The tingly feeling had nearly disappeared and the only thing left behind was a smell of...ozone?

Hmmm...

I decided to keep that incident in the back of my brain before tuning into the sorting. The Hat was now sorting "Ogygia, Calypso." What kind of name was Calypso? 

The Hat took only a minute before yelling out "SLYTHERIN!" Calypso went to sit down next to Piper as the Slytherin table cheered yet again. Calypso was also just as beautiful as Piper and Annabeth, but her beauty seemed timeless, whether she was 90 years old or 17? I would never know, her beauty was like that. 

It freaked me out if I must admit. 

Finally, McGonagall called out the last name of the transfer students, "Valdez, Leo!"

"Yeah, McShizzle in the house!" Cheered an elfish looking boy that had his share of muscles but still retained some scrawniness at the same time. His brown eyes sparkled mischievously, and as he jogged to the stool he gave jaunty salutes to everyone and flailed his arms in a sorry excuse of a wave. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at Leo's antics. 

"Leo just get over here," McGonagall sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. But some of the other teachers looked amused as well. Flitwick's mouth was twitching up slightly, and Dumbledore waved back. I looked to the end of the staff table and saw that Snape had his eyebrows raised so far up that they almost reached his hairline and-holy hell-was he actually smiling? 

Ron seemed to notice too, "blimey, what's Snape doing?" He whispered to me. I just shook my head, too in shock to fully comprehend the situation. 

I jumped when the Hat called out, "SLYTHERIN IF YOU REALLY WANT TO!" Leo hopped up and hurried over to the Slytherin table, high fiving and winking at random people he saw along the way. He sat next to Calypso and placed a hand over hers on the table. She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. 

Why were there so many couples? 

I found the exchange students really weird. Why did Leo want to be in Slytherin? Malfoy must have poisoned his mind, yeah that must be it! The exchange students have been brainwashed by Malfoy, that was why they were being so chummy to him. The stupid blond git, couldn't he just leave me alone for once?

I have to save them before it's too late. They don't know about these kinds of stuff, they've never been in a war before so good versus evil could be a whole new concept to these kids. I have to clear all this up so they know, it's my duty as the hero of the wizarding world. 

I was about to tell this to Ron and Hermione when Dumbledore stood up. Ron moaned while clutching his stomach, "finally!" The headmaster surveyed us from his stand on the podium, his eyes lingering on each of the exchange students. "There is nothing to be said at the moment, for lack of food seems to be causing a ruckus among most of you," his eyes met Ron's whose ears turned red. 

Dumbledore spread his arms and said, "tuck-in," and tuck in we did. The moment the food appeared on the plates, Ron dove for it and grabbed as much as he could, stuffing his face with everything at once. Hermione wrinkled her nose and muttered a couple of choice words at Ron before primly taking a bite of her chicken.

"So," I said, trying to make conversation with the new students, "most of your friends seem to be in Slytherin."

Percy shrugged at that and smiled, "well yeah, Slytherin is the house for the cunning and ambitious. I'm not surprised that Piper and Nico ended up there, Calypso I can see as well but Leo was what I was surprised about the most."

"You'd be surprised by the Slytherin traits Leo possesses," Jason said thoughtfully, as he swirled his spoon idly in his soup, "To be honest, I'm not that surprised. Ambition is something that guy has in buckets."

"How so?" Hermione questioned, although a bit more subdued. I think she was still nervous about talking in front of Jason. I didn't blame her, that guy looked pretty terrifying when he got mad. Maybe he was just naturally protective?

"Well," Annabeth said, "he does want to open the most famous machine shop with Calypso someday. That's pretty big goals right there."

"Yeah, someday," Percy echoed, a faraway look filled his green eyes, "we've all said something like that, haven't we?"

Jason and Annabeth looked solemn and bowed their heads as if they were at a funeral. The moment seemed so tense and still, like a bubble hovering in the air just waiting to be popped.

Ron decided to pop the bubble, "bt slthen 's evl," he tried to say around a large mouthful of food. 

Annabeth laughed as Hermione scolded Ron for eating and talking. 

"Don't worry," she said, "I have an idiot right here that does the same," she looked fondly at Percy who was also stuffing his face with...blue food? Where did he get that?

"What were you saying anyway?" Jason asked.

Ron swallowed his food before repeating, "but Slytherin's evil."

"Apparently, they're not," Annabeth countered, her gray eyes fixed on Ron. Ron tried not to squirm as she continued staring at him, it looked like she was picking out each and every one of his thoughts and analyzing them. In fact, she reminded me so much of Hermione. 

Except Hermione's way smarter, I know that for sure. Annabeth looked like one of those blondes who acted like they were smart but were the exact opposite. 

"Everyone knows that Slytherin's filled with all sorts of bad people," Hermione retorted, she looked skeptically at Annabeth. The tension was starting to thicken as the two girls eyed each other. 

"Maybe you got your information wrong then," Annabeth retaliated in a soft voice with an edge to it. Hermione looked scandalized, no doubt, indignant that some dumb blonde would dare to insult her knowledge. But before this could turn into a whole catfight, a voice came from behind me.

"Exchange students-ah, am I interrupting something?"

We all looked in unison to see Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes staring down at us. Hermione and Annabeth quickly schooled their faces to show a neutral expression. 

"Nothing to interrupt, sir, we were just talking," said Hermione.

"Yes, a friendly conversation with friends," added Annabeth, although the words 'friendly' and 'friends' held a bit of a force to it. Hermione's left eye twitched and Dumbledore chucked. 

"I do love it when new friends become familiar ones. Friendship is a true asset to use on the go," we all continued to look blankly at him, well except for Ron and Percy who had gone back to stuffing their faces with food. Dumbledore turned to Annabeth, Percy, and Jason. 

"Can you get the rest of your friends and meet me at my office after dinner? I would like to discuss some matters with you all."

"Of course," said Annabeth and Jason together. Percy responded with a thumbs-up as he grabbed a brownie (which was blue) and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. Hermione and I simply gaped as Percy swallowed it without a problem, he seemed to notice us looking and gave us a hesitant smile. 

"Something wrong?" 

Annabeth sighed, "nothing's wrong, Seaweed Brain, we need to round up the others and go to Dumbledore's office."

"But my brownies!" Percy protested, eyeing the pile of-still blue-brownies on the plate longingly. Annabeth gave one of those long-suffering sighs that I have only heard Hermione and Mrs. Weasley use. 

"Alright, you can bring three. ONLY THREE, then we have to go to the Headmaster." 

"Leo better not steal my brownies again," Percy muttered as he snagged three of the largest ones he could find. Jason snickered at Percy's comment. 

"What did he do this time?"

"He burned me!" Percy said looking wounded, "I still have the burn marks, and then he made a run for it with my brownies before I could recover."

Jason laughed then, "but wait aren't you a son of-" he yelped loudly for some reason but didn't finish his sentence. I was confused and disappointed, what was he going to say? A son of who?

"Well we have to go," Annabeth said with a forced smile, "we'll see you in class?" 

"Definitely," Hermione said while shooting one of her own forced smiles. The exchange students strode over to the Slytherin table where I saw them say something to the rest of their friends before Leo, Calypso, Nico, and Piper got up and the whole group went to Dumbledore after waving goodbye to Draco. 

When the transfers, along with Dumbledore, disappeared out of the Great Hall, I turned to Hermione and Ron. 

"Well," I said, "it's a good thing I brought the Cloak with me this year huh?"

Chapter Text

Leo's POV

"Hogwarts is in grave danger," Well, who knew Dumbledore could begin a meeting on such a high note? The demigods were all crowded around the headmasters in comfy armchairs that Dumbledore had conjured up to, in his words, 'make the meeting more comfortable.'

Yeah, I was comfy all right, until Dumbledore's next words brought me down.

"There have been strange occurrences going on around the halls, and recently there has been an outbreak of fights. I feel like the Wizarding War was not the only reason for these increase of sudden emotion."

Great, can't we just get a break for once? I didn't die and come back to life for this schist! I could tell the others were not happy with this sudden news as well.

"What kind of dangers?" Annabeth asked, ever the rational one.

Dumbledore frowned, "I thought you all might know what was going on, did Chiron not tell you?"

"Chiron didn't know either, we thought you might have known but weren't telling us before," said Piper. Great, we were shoved into a quest and had no idea what we were supposed to be doing in the first place.

"I'm afraid the future of this school and the cause of it is not clear in my eyes," said Dumbledore, "if Chiron hadn't told you, then the likely reason has to be that he doesn't know either. What about your prophecy? The Oracle, I presume, is what it is called?"

Jason shook his head before Dumbledore had finished speaking, "the Oracle's not working either. We only got bits and pieces of the prophecy so it doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Because Apollo!" Percy butted in, and Annabeth facepalmed yet again. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at Percy and Jason rolled his eyes. 

"Well, the rest of the gods weren't all innocent either, in case you forgot," Jason pointed out, "technically it would be Gaea's fault, wouldn't it?"

Percy contemplated that, "I mean I guess but-"

I interrupted before things got out of hand between the two sons of the Big Three, "but that's part of her job offering right?" The others, including Dumbledore, blinked at me, I plowed on. "Oh come on, you guys, it's all in Dirt Face's job requirements: destroy demigods, gain control of the world, bring monsters back to life or something."

Jason and Percy opened their mouths to argue but Calypso cut them off. She had been watching the exchange quietly and when she spoke, her answer was firm.

"Gaea wanted to cause as much destruction. I agree the gods are not out of the clear at all, but there could have been some monsters and creatures who may have awoken due to her attempt to rise."

Now you all can't even think to deny that this woman is the greatest being I've ever seen. I wanted to kiss her so badly but decided that maybe now wasn't the best time. 

"Would any of you mind explaining what exactly happened in America during the Battle of Hogwarts?" Inquired Dumbledore who was looking from Percy and Jason to Calypso and me with a bemused expression. The twinkle in his eyes had dimmed.

So we did, all of us taking turns to explain different parts of the prophecy and the Giant War. Jason, Piper, and I described what had gone down in the beginning with us ending up at Camp Half-Blood and the backstory. Percy talked about his experience at Camp Jupiter, and Annabeth talked about her quest with Arachne. Tartarus was a solemn and tense subject but Percy and Annabeth still managed to tackle it without having any flashbacks. Then each of us took turns rounding up the end of the story. 

After we finished, Dumbledore sat so still that he looked like a statue, a statue of an old man with a beard that ended up at his midriff. Did I mention he looked like Gandalf? Wait, why was I thinking about Gandalf? Had Jason mentioned it to me? Or was it Draco? Wait, what was I talking about again?

 "So you died?" Dumbledore said, at last, looking at me. I nodded, not knowing whether to be proud or relieved that I did. 

I decided to go with the former, "yup, the world just can't live without the Bad Boy Supreme!" I pumped the air with my fists. Piper was the one who facepalmed, Calypso and she shared a look that said why do we even try anymore?

What? 

"Now everything you lot had been talking about makes marginally more sense than it did before," Dumbledore spread his arms and gazed at us with those strange blue eyes of his. "Although, I do hope you are able to help us. The fate of the wizarding world rests on your hands, I just hope nothing like what happened over the summer happens this year."

Wait...what was that supposed to mean?

"What happened over the summer?" Annabeth asked, her eyes sparkling curiously in that way it always did when she had a mystery to solve. 

Dumbledore stared in the distance for a minute and we waited patiently for about five seconds before ADHD took over and Percy waved a hand in front of the Headmaster's face. 

"Yo, Headmaster? Everything all right?" 

"Percy!" Annabeth hissed, pulling her boyfriend back from Dumbledore, "show some respect!" She cleared her throat "Professor? Are you okay?"

"Hm, what?" Dumbledore blinked and looked at us like he had forgotten what he was doing for a moment, "ah yes I'm fine, Miss. Chase, just lost in the waters of memories."

"I can relate, literally and figuratively," Percy muttered under his breath.

"Anyway," Dumbledore clapped his hands, "I think it's about time you lot go to bed. The Eighth Years are sharing a Common Room because there are so few of you. But peek in the door all the way at the very end with the silver doorknob, those will be your rooms."

"But sir," protested Annabeth, "what about the murders?"

"That is a story for another day, my dear," Annabeth looked disappointed. 

"Now off you go, and do keep in mind, Harry Potter has been through a war as well, so he will be quite suspicious of you. Miss Granger most likely will too, due to her need to know the world's secrets."

We nodded and made our way to the door. But before we left the office, Dumbledore spoke once more. 

"And demigods, I'm glad you are here, Hogwarts does need all the help she can get." And with that Dumbledore turned to face the window behind him that overlooked the Black Lake, and that was when we knew we were truly dismissed. 

***

Third Person POV

"Harry, are we seriously going to do this again?" Hermione asked exasperatedly. She, Ron, and Harry were seated on the comfy couch that took up most of the space in front of the fire. Most of the Eighth Years had already gone to bed by now and the three of them were discussing the exchange students. 

"You're just hesitant because Jason got mad at you," Harry shot back, still grumpy that Hermione had flat out disagreed with Harry's plan to go eavesdrop on the exchange student and Dumbledore's meeting. 

"I'm trying to be polite," Hermione said through gritted teeth, "besides, the war is over. We have nothing to worry about-"

"except for the Death Eaters who are in hiding and vowing to get revenge on us," Harry's voice grew louder with every word. 

"-we're going to get our schoolwork then and the year will go by smoothly-"

"As if!"

"Oh, Harry, are you truly that paranoid that you think a random group of strangers are evil?"

"No, but-"

"Mate, I have to agree with Hermione on this one, okay?" Harry looked in surprise at the slouched form of Ron who was the only one out of the three of them to not have gotten up during the exchange. He simply sat as low as he could on the couch so that the sparkling glow of the fire was level with his hair. 

"Really?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. 

"What?" Ron asked defensively, "you thought I would hop along with him and go snoop on the exchange students?" 

Hermione said nothing but her pink face said it all. Ron huffed and rolled his eyes, he met Harry's gaze firmly and pulled himself up straighter before continuing. 

"Look, I just want to have a normal year for once. I'm done with sneaking around under a cloak and spying on people just for the heck of it. For once, I just want to...relax and get some peace and quiet."

The only noise after Ron's mini-speech was the crackle of the fire, which was now dimming down slowly. Harry couldn't believe it, his friend, one of his best friends was turning his back on him. Did Ron not believe what Harry thought? But Harry had been right, he always had. Who thought that Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater? Him. 

Maybe Malfoy had gotten to Ron too, somehow, just like he had gotten to the exchange students. Harry had to prove them all wrong before it was too late. 

"But the exchange-" Harry began helplessly. Hermione slammed her books down on the table with such force that the sound echoed all around the room. She glared at Harry with such annoyance and exasperation that he actually winced. 

"I am going to bed because that is a much better option than listening to all the lies falling out of your mouth, Harry Potter." And without farther ado, she scooped up the books and marched over to the girls' dormitory stairs and stomped up. 

"Blimey, she's pissed," said Ron as the sound of a door slamming sounded down the stairs of the girls' dormitory. 

"She just has a lot of nargles around her," a breathy voice came from behind Harry. Startled, he whipped around to see Luna Lovegood staring at him with a thoughtful expression, like she was trying to figure out what kind of obscure creature was floating around him. 

"Oh, hey Luna," Ron said, waving awkwardly. "Didn't see you there."

Luna didn't seem to hear and instead fixed her gaze on Harry, "You have a lot of nargles all around you. They're messing up your thoughts, playing with your mind."

Harry fought the urge to get away from Luna's eerie stare. 

"You don't seem to have as much as your friends, Ronald," said Luna turning to a surprised Ron, "that means your mind is clear and your thoughts are yours and no one else's."

Ron simply stared at Luna in stunned silence. 

"The exchange students aren't evil, you know," Luna continued in a matter of fact tone. "Stop misjudging them, they've been through just as bad as you, maybe even worse." Her breathy tone had slowly morphed into a serious one as she spoke. 

She looked at both of them before smiling mildly, "well, I do need to sleep, goodnight Ronald, Harry." 

The boys gaped at her as she drifted off to the stairs as if pulled by some sort of imaginary string. 

"Well, uh, I'm gonna head on over to bed too, okay mate?" Ron said uncomfortably, ruffling a hand through his fiery red hair. Harry nodded, and Ron took his leave. 

There was something up with those transfers, no matter what Ron and Hermione or even Luna said. Harry would dig into it until he unearthed the truth and showed everyone who the new kids really were. But Luna's words still whispered to him. 

'They've been through just as bad as you, maybe even worse.' 

Stop it. Harry shook his head harshly, trying to get rid of the voice in his head. There was absolutely no way the exchange students have been through worse than him, Luna was just...loony, there was no other explanation. 

Besides, there was a reason why Luna's main nickname was Loony Lovegood because everything she said is absurd and not correct. 

Harry was going to prove that, no matter what it takes. He will expose the transfers for who they really were. 

Chapter Text

Nico's POV

"FOOOODDD," Leo yelled the moment he threw open the doors to the Great Hall and saw the golden plates piled with heaps of different kinds of food. The Latino plopped himself down into the seat next to Draco at the Slytherin table and piled as much food as possible onto his plate before shoveling them all into his face at the speed of light. 

Draco and Calypso eyed the wizards who looked at Leo strangely and the wizards quickly turned away. Smirking at each other over the top of Leo's head, the two of them high fived. 

Jason sat down on Draco's other side and took a simple bowl of cereal, but he looked troubled. Leo looked up from his large pile of food to frown at Jason. 

"Man, stop looking so glum, what's up?" 

Jason swatted away the fork that Leo was poking him with, "I'm just worried, we didn't burn any food for the gods last night and I don't even want to know how they're gonna react if we forgot today as well."

Leo nearly choked on his next bite of food and Piper, who had sat down on Jason's other side, stared at her plate of eggs and bacon with a nervous look. 

"Schist," she whispered, looking around to make sure no one was listening, "I totally forgot!"

"We should tell, Professor Dumbledore," reasoned Calypso, "he'll understand, he knows who we are."

I agreed. Based on our conversation last night with the headmaster, it was safe to say that he understood our needs perfectly. Our rooms were the prime example. I could just remember it right now...

"He said the Common Room was behind the picture of a dove, Percy," 

"Yeah, man, we passed the very painting we were supposed to go into like five times," Jason retorted, rubbing his eyes tiredly. 

"I thought it looked like a pigeon!" Percy protested, Annabeth smacked his arm while Piper facepalmed. 

"They're both the same thing!" Both of them shouted at the same time. 

Percy frowned as he processed the new information, "oh...really?"

"Well, let's just ignore Percy's blatant show of dumbness," Leo interrupted, Percy looked affronted and opened his mouth to respond but I beat him to it. 

"How do we open it again?"

Calypso shook her head at all of us, "were none of you paying attention to the headmaster when he told us the password?" 

We all shook our head no. 

She sighed, "it's Hera's Dove."

Leo nearly tumbled forward in laughter and Percy joined him. As the picture swung open, which didn't surprise anyone, the demigods staggered inside, still laughing. 

"Oh that's rich," gasped out Percy, "these wizards really don't know Greek culture."

"What did you expect?" I asked although I was smiling as well. It was pretty funny.

"Now where are our rooms?" Annabeth asked, looking around. The Common Room looked pretty cozy. There was a fireplace crackling merrily with armchairs and a large couch in front of it. The walls were streaked with banners of gold, silver, bronze, and black. There were smaller tables situated all around the rooms with comfy looking chairs for studying. On either side, there was a set of stairs going up to another hallway above. 

"My guess is that those must be the girls and boys dormitories," Calypso said. 

"Which means, according to Dumbledore, ours is right between them," Piper finished.

"So it must be this door right here!" Called Leo, as he waved his arms madly like he was presenting something on a talk show. The door that the son of Hephaestus was pointing to was made of pure gold with streaks of silver and bronze. The doorknob was made of a strange kind of metal and the door itself looked brand new compared to the rest of the room. 

"Seems legit," commented Percy before grabbing the knob and pushing open the door. The room inside was amazing. For a moment we all just stood there, taking it all in. 

There were beds pressed to the walls and a large skylight above one of the beds. There was a small water fountain at the corner and there was a large, dark corner at the very back. Another door, which Annabeth opened, led to a training room filled with all kinds of weapons and dummies. There was a worktable with many tools and wires at the other end of the training room. 

"Oh yeah," Leo said smirking, "I can definitely work with this. 

I had to agree, Dumbledore really did things to the max. 

"Yo -co...NICO DI ANGELO!" I grabbed the hand waving in front of my face and swung it away from me. There was a startled yelp, and I found myself face to face with one Leo Valdez sprawled awkwardly on the Slytherin table with the rest of the demigods stifling their laughter. 

"Gods, Neeks, you're turning to Annabeth with every passing second," Leo said, pulling his arm away and getting off the table with an indignant expression, "and this is what I get for trying to be helpful."

I snorted, ignoring the weird looks I was receiving from the wizards.

"Anyway," Leo pulled himself up in his chair, ignoring the looks as well, "while you were too busy in La La Land," he ducked my attempt to punch him, "Piper asked Dumbledore for a brazier to burn food for the gods and you're the only one who hasn't burned anything yet."

"What about Percy and Annabeth?" I asked as I scraped a good part of my pancakes into the fire. "Where are they by the way?" I directed this question to Jason, who shrugged. 

"Dumbledore asked them to come to his office this morning for some important information, apparently, they said they'll be back for breakfast."

"Wonder what this meeting is gonna be about," I said offhandedly. Everyone sat and ate the rest of our breakfast in silence while we all pondered the answer. The quietness was actually peaceful until a voice spoke up behind me.

 "Mind if I sit here?" 

Draco choked on his bite of eggs and I didn't know who it was at first until Jason looked somewhere over my shoulder and went, "Ron?"

I turned around and sure enough, there stood Ron Weasley in all his glory, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding everyone's looks at him. I could still hear the sounds of Draco choking behind me and thumps of Leo hitting him on the back. 

"Uh, sure, man," Jason said at last. Ron's shoulders slumped in relief before he sat down across from Jason. The sudden silence of the Hall showed clearly that all the other Houses (including Slytherin) was staring at the redhead Gryffindor who was now turning a bright red and looked as if he were burning a hole on his plate with his stare. 

I decided to break the awkward tension and turn to face the wizards sitting around and gaping at us, "well, what are you all looking at? Go eat or pull a rabbit out of those pointy hats of yours."

The other demigods laughed, and the tension broke. Some of the wizards gave uneasy chuckles but still returned to their eating, but there were still some occasional glances to our group. 

"Here, eat something," Jason shoved a plate full of food to Ron. The redhead Weasley didn't need to be told twice and started eating with fervor that could rival Leo and Percy combined. Draco continued to ogle at Ron blatantly until Jason subtly elbowed him and shook his head minutely. 

"Forgive me for being so blunt, but aren't Gryffindors supposed to hate Slytherins?" Calypso asked politely. That girl was too goddamn polite for her own good sometimes, other times she can be a whirlwind of emotions. Leo can attest to that. 

"Well," Ron looked back at the Gryffindor table before turning back to face us again quickly. I looked back too and saw the glares Harry and Hermione were pining at the redhead. So the Golden Trio had a fallout so soon into the year? 

"Harry can be quite paranoid," Ron explained "and I guess he pulled Hermione into his delusions at last," 

"Paranoid over what?" I asked although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

Ron stared at his plate for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking up at us with a newfound sense of determination. I now knew why this boy was placed in Gryffindor, the House of the Daring. 

"They're suspicious about you and will stop at nothing to figure you guys out."

"So Potter's back to his old tricks again, huh?" Draco sneered, chewing on his next bite of eggs with a lot more aggression needed to eat eggs. 

"Well some of his suspicions turned out to be right, didn't it?" Ron snapped at Draco, still defensive over his friend. Draco turned a pale pink and his eyes flashed angrily. But Jason interrupted before a full-blown argument could break out between the wizard and the Son of Zeus. 

"You're not suspicious?"

Ron sighed and picked at his food, "I just want to have a normal year for once, you know? All this running around looking for clues, I've been doing that for years. I just want a break and have a get through at least a month without getting in trouble or have my life dangling in front of me by a thread for once. Harry and Hermione are not letting me achieve that." 

Us demigods looked at one another knowingly, we could totally relate to that. 

"Wow, look at Weasley using the big words," Draco said, smirking at Ron's reddening face. 

"You watch your mouth, Malfoy!"

"Guys, guys," Piper held up a hand in between the two bickering boys. "Why don't you two just try to be nicer to each other? The war's over, and Draco did his part because it was essential to his quest. I know my boyfriend's brother, he's such a sweetheart inside, so can you please give each other a chance?"

Draco buried his head in his hands, "Pipes, did you have to call me a sweetheart?"

Piper pinched his arm and Draco yelped. Ron started to snicker at that but quickly stopped when he saw Piper's glare aimed at him. The Gryffindor cleared his throat self-consciously and under the watchful eyes of the demigods, he awkwardly stuck out his hand at a surprised Draco. 

"Things will be much better and relaxing for me if I don't have to worry about arguing with you every time I see you," he explained to the silent blond. "So, truce?"

Draco stared at the extended hand for a moment before shaking it hesitantly, "yeah, truce, I guess."

"Now that's what I call chummy."

"Shut up, Leo," Draco swatted at the Latino's arm and Leo ducked laughing at the blond's assault. They were interrupted by a loud cry coming from the doors of the Great Hall. 

"FOOOOD!"

There were loud thundering footsteps and Percy Jackson vaulted over one end of the Slytherin table and landed beside Piper. Annabeth shook her head exasperatedly at her boyfriend before sitting down next to an open-mouthed Ron. 

"Blimey, how the bloody hell did you do that?" He asked Percy faintly. Percy shrugged and gave him a lazy grin. 

"Training and exercise, my good man. Also running for your lives constantly tend to help too."

"What?" Ron asked blankly. Piper elbowed Percy harshly, Annabeth speared him with a glare from hell, and I almost spilled water down my front. 

Great job, Jackson, way to be subtle. 

"Oh just, we train a lot in our school," Annabeth covered up quickly while trying for a smile, "one of the simulations is to pretend our lives are on the line and we have to survive the encounter. That's what Seaweed Brain over here was talking about."

Nice save, Annabeth. 

"Besides," Jason changed the subject before Ron could get more confused, "what were you guys doing with Dumbledore so early in the morning?"

"Oh nothing, really, you're in for a real treat, mate," Percy grinned at Ron, "apparently, Annabeth and I are teaching some class called Defend the Dark Arts for you guys."

"It's Defense Against the Dark Arts, Percy," Annabeth groaned, but the rest of us weren't listening. 

"No way," gasped Leo, "we get to teach?"

"Bloody hell," Ron whispered when he heard the news as he stared at Percy and Annabeth with shock. 

"No," Annabeth corrected, "Percy and I are teaching, you all get to help when needed. And yes," she directed her last statement to Ron, "we're teaching and it's gonna be interesting so best be on your watch." 

"Stop scaring the wizards, Wise Girl," laughed Percy while grabbing Annabeth's hand from across the table. "Besides, he's our friend, right?" He asked Ron. The redhead nodded wordlessly and Percy's look of worry faded away as he grinned wider than before at Ron. 

Leo, however, was still sad about the fact that he wasn't an actual teacher at Hogwarts. He was pouting but perked up when Calypso gave him a peck on the cheek. That woman had Leo wrapped around her pinky finger. 

"No one in their right mind would make you a teacher, Valdez," I commented. 

Leo looked outraged, "that is so not true! Right, guys?" He turned to the rest of the demigods who suddenly avoided Leo's hopeful gaze. Leo threw a piece of bacon at me halfheartedly "you guys suck."

"Sure we do, Fire Boy," Percy laughed as another piece of bacon flew at his face, he caught the piece expertly in his mouth and chewed it contently. Ron looked on wide-eyed. 

"You guys are crazy," he whispered in awe. We all looked at each other before shrugging. 

"Yeah seems about right," Jason agreed. 

"You got that in the bag, my good fellow," Leo said in a posh accent before dissolving into laughs.

"When are we not?" I said to a now slightly smiling Ron as he watched our antics. He brightened up even more when he saw something just past our peripheral. 

"Oh look, the schedules are coming!"

"Schedules?" Annabeth asked, perking up immediately. "Finally! Now I get to see what classes Hogwarts has to offer."

"Everything's alright except for Potions," Ron reassured Annabeth, "you seem like the Hermione Granger of America so I expect you'll love the classes."

Annabeth beamed. 

McGonagall came to the Slytherin table and handed out the schedules for each of us. If she noticed Ron, Annabeth, Percy, and Jason sitting at the Slytherin table, she didn't comment about it. Instead, she simply told us 'good luck' and made her way to the Hufflepuff table. 

I looked down at the piece of parchment in my hands that held my schedule for the year and after comparing schedules, I came to the conclusion that Gryffindors and Slytherins only shared Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Annabeth, Jason, and Percy had Ancient Runes while the rest of us had a free period (although Ron said that Hermione had also taken Ancient Runes as well). 

Although, I did have Herbology and Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws so I might be able to see Luna. I wanted to rely on some sort of information to Will, who was back at Camp, about the blonde-haired daughter of Iris, who was also his friend. 

"Oh no, here comes Harry and Hermione, hide me before they find out where I am," Ron moaned as he tried to duck behind Percy who saw Harry and Hermione moving past the Ravenclaw table to where we all sat. I could feel the suspicion and annoyance issuing from them. 

"Are you scared, Ron?" Teased Percy. 

Ron looked affronted, "of course not! I just can't handle the drama that I'm sure will ensure if they see that I'm sitting at the Slytherin table, especially with Draco Malfoy." He shot a look at Draco who smirked back at him. 

"Yeah, let's get going to class," Jason got up. Percy looked longingly at his stack of cookies (that Annabeth had spelled blue for him) but he got up as well, but not before snatching a handful of cookies. 

"Don't worry, man, we'll make sure that Harty Pooper and Hermy Gronger never find you," Leo promised, slinging an arm around Ron's shoulders. 

"Uh, it's actually...ah never mind." Ron smiled tentatively at the hyperactive Latino beside him. Draco appeared beside him with a smirk, although it was altered by the serious look in his eyes.  

"Weasley, I want you to know, that this is my family. Yeah sure, we're crazy but they're awesome, they've been through a lot, and I would die for them. So I want you to know, you in or not?"

Ron looked at Percy and Jason giving each other noogies while Annabeth and Piper facepalmed. Leo was poking at Calypso's side, which made the titan's daughter laugh. I was standing off to the side, looking at Ron's expression as he took it all in. Finally, the redhead gave one of those Ron Weasley's Look of Pure Determination and nodded firmly. 

"I'm in."

"Well, glad that's all settled," Leo popped in beside Ron and Draco, "who's ready for some magic tricks?"

"Leo, stop," Piper groaned as Percy pretended to wave a magic wand while Annabeth told him that he already had a wand of his own ("if you want to be stupid, at least do it properly!") and I followed after the group, letting a smile of my own slip. I guess Draco was right, we are a giant family after all, literally and figuratively. 

Passing by the other wizards and sneakily scooting past Harry and Hermione, we pushed open the doors of the Great Hall and walked out. 

Time to do some magic. 

Chapter Text

Nico's POV

        The moment I stepped into the musky greenhouse, I knew I was done for. 

        There were plants everywhere! 

        A child of the Underworld never belongs in a place with plants, they always end up...

        "Nico?" Calypso whispered, trying to keep her voice down for the sake of the wizards who were already giving me weird looks, "move faster, you're killing the plants."

        I looked down and noticed that my assumption was right, the plants next to me were in fact already yellowing and turning shriveled. 

        I shouldn't be surprised, a child of the Underworld never goes to a greenhouse because of that very reason: the plants die around them. 

        I tried to smile at the wizards staring at me, I think I frightened them even more. I quickly turned away. 

        At that moment, I saw a crown of blonde hair moving among the mass of blue robes. When Luna Lovegood's misty eyes met mine, she immediately broke ranks and hurried over to me. She hugged me with the strength of a bear before smiling at me.

        "I had a feeling you all would come to visit," her voice was still as soft and whispery as it was before. But don't let that fool you, Luna is a master at double knife-wielding and if a poor useless idiot attacked her, she is a tornado of knives and blonde hair. 

        I remember that incident with the Ares and Nike campers quite vividly. 

        "Hey, Luna!" Shouted the hyperactive voice of Leo as he pushed himself next to me and waved energetically at Luna. Luna laughed and waved back just as energetic as the Latino. Calypso and I facepalmed. 

        "I never met you but I just want to say hi so I don't look like a jerk!" Leo went on in that same loud voice. Calypso buried her face in her hands and I groaned. Luna, however, simply laughed again. 

        "I do not know you either, Fire Wielder, but I have a feeling we will be amazing friends. The Nargles said so."

        Leo blinked, probably teeming with questions such as 'how did she know about my fire powers?' and 'what's a Nargle?' But thankfully he kept quiet, just as the teacher entered the greenhouse. 

        "Alright, class," the teacher clapped her hands, her eyes eagerly scanning the room, "I am Professor Sprout, as most of you may have already known, and today we are going to be relearning the basics of most if not all of the magical plants in Scotland."

        "Shit," I whispered, hopping from one foot to the other, the plants around me dying at the speed of light. "Shit!"

        "Nico, I think you better leave," hissed Calypso. I looked at her to see her eyeing the numerous potted plants slowly wilting around where we sat. Apparently, just my very presence was causing a ruckus in the plant world. 

        What else was new?

        "Professor?" Luna called out, her voice stark and cutting through Sprout's lengthy and tedious explanation of some sort of leafy plant she was currently holding in her hands. "Professor? I think Nico might have to be excused from your class."

        "Really?" Sprout raised one eyebrow, not believing Luna one bit. "And why is that? Does Mr. di Angelo think he is some sort of higher being that requires more respect than the rest of us?" 

        "Actually Professor-" Leo said loudly, no doubt about to spill some very valuable information about us if Calypso hadn't smacked a hand over his mouth and Draco hadn't stepped harshly on his foot. Leo yelped in pain and aimed a wounded look at Draco, "owww" he whined. 

        "He's killing the plants," Luna went on as if the conversation hadn't been interrupted. 

        "Killing the plants? Nonsense!" Sprout barked, "there is no way that is pos-" her voice trailed off when she caught sight of me hopping around trying not to step on any of the plants (not that that did any help) and some of the other Slytherins leaning away from me with varying degrees of horror. 

        I had never seen someone's face go from red to a deathly pale white so quickly. 

        "GET OUT!" Screamed Sprout, all calm and easygoing persona out the window the moment she saw her precious plants withering away in front of her eyes. "You're excused, for the rest of your life, now get out get out get-" 

        I hurried out the door before the situation could get out of hand (at least more than it already had). I caught sight of Draco trying to cover up his snickers and Luna sending me a serene smile amongst the chaos of yelling and students scrambling out of their seats. 

        As the door slipped shut behind me, I heard the voice of Leo Valdez calling out, "professor, can I be excused too? I would probably burn the plants."

        Poor teacher, she was going to have a rough time. But who likes talking about plants anyway? It's not like I was going to be a gardener or something. I'm saving that for the Demeter kids. 

***

Hermione's POV

        I was seething. 

        If I had ever told Harry and Ron that the new kids were not so bad, I have definitely changed my mind. 

        They're beating me at everything. 

        Normally, I was the first to answer all the questions the professors threw at me in every class but now that dumb blonde Annabeth was ruining everything. 

        As I walked into the Charms classroom, I was determined to beat her this time. Charms isn't just all about theory and writing stuff, it's about actually doing the magic. Since Percy and Annabeth had told me at the train that they weren't very good with actual general magic, I want to see them try to beat me at this. 

        I took my usual seat at the front of the classroom, Harry sitting next to me. After last night, Ron had been avoiding us as much as he could but since we all had our classes together, Harry and I planned to waylay him and demand to know what was going on with him. 

        A horde of students came into the room, chattering and taking their seats. Annabeth and Percy were at the end, laughing and holding hands as they took their seats close to the end of the room. Ha! I knew they were slackers if they really knew so much then they would sit at the front!

        I was about to tell Harry this when I saw his eyes blown wide and his jaw dropped. I followed his gaze and saw what made him look so shocked. After the jumble of students, Jason had come through the door into the room, and he was talking to a familiar-looking lanky redhead. 

        "What the bloody fuck is Ron doing?" I heard Harry mutter under his breath, but I didn't respond, instead, I chose to watch Ron and Jason make their way past the seats to where Percy and Annabeth sat. They were both engaged in some sort of discussion and Jason must have said something that made Ron snort and punch him lightly on the arm. 

        They walked past us without a second glance. 

        "He didn't even look at us, Mione," whispered Harry, his voice trembling with pain and anger. "Is it going to be like fourth year all over again?"

        "I don't know, Harry," I said helplessly, "I don't understand why he's so taken with those exchange students! I saw them talking to Malfoy and Luna too and they seemed more than just acquaintances with him."

        Harry stiffened at the mention of Luna's name but he immediately latched on to the next piece of information I had just given to him. "Malfoy? Like Draco Malfoy? Evil Malfoy? Death Eater Malfoy?" 

        "Yes Harry," I sighed, here we go again.

        "Damn right I knew those exchange students were up to no good!" Harry said a bit too loudly because some of the students nearby had turned to us with curious expressions. Thankfully, the exchange students and Ron hadn't heard the outburst. I quickly shushed him. 

        "Harry, shut up! Ron's already mad at us because of last night and I hate to say it but I feel like we're in the wrong this time around."

        "What?" Harry gaped at me, "no we're not! We tried to warn him, but the exchange students must have brainwashed him because they knew he's friends with me so it would be the easiest way to get to me."

        That would have been a plausible reason except for one thing, "they have no idea who you are, Harry, that isn't logical." 

        Harry's expression soured as it usually did whenever someone mentioned that the transfers had no idea who Harry Potter was. But before he could respond, Professor Flitwick bounded into the room. 

        "Wands out and no talking, please!" He squeaked as he settled himself on top of the stack of books behind his desk, "after attendance, we're back to reviewing older spells that we have to learn for NEWTs"

        I sat straight ready to take notes or perform spells when needed. No matter the weird kids in Hogwarts this year, I still need to make sure I pass the NEWTs. 

        Besides, how bad could Charms be?

        Halfway through the class and I was positive I had miscalculated. Charms was a bloody nightmare today. 

        Any question that Professor Flitwick posed, both Annabeth and my hand would be up in the air ready to answer. Even though Annabeth was in the same house as me, I still felt annoyed whenever Flitwick called on her, how did she even know all this? It's not like she fought in a Wizarding War or something!

        By now, it was time for the practical work. Flitwick wanted us to improve the spells we had already learned before so that we were better prepared for the NEWTs. Today's revision spell was Aguamenti, the spell to cast water. 

        I had mastered the charm, as always, faster than anyone in the class...that is if Annabeth hadn't been there. According to Flitwick, Annabeth and I had both gotten a hold of the spell faster than anyone else. I was filled with anger, I should have been the only one to master the spell before anyone because I'm the smartest witch of my age, how is Annabeth so smart? She had to be using a potion or something to be as smart as me!

        Harry was having trouble, as usual, so I decided to help him out (again, nothing new here). While Harry struggled and grumbled his way through the spell, I snuck a look at the transfers to see how they were faring. 

        Annabeth and Jason were leaning back against their chairs and chatting easily, both of them had already finished with the spell and now had the time (like me) to chat or help others. Percy was eyeing his wand with a sort of fascinated curiosity before he said in a clear voice "Aguamenti!"

        A jet of water shot straight out of his want tip and doused the students sitting all the way down his row. There were shrieks and some of the girls who had gotten hit were stumbling away while wringing out their shirts which were soaking wet like they had just gone for a swim. 

        "Oops?" Percy offered sheepishly after a couple of moments of silence where no one knew what to do or how to react. 

        Jason laughed at Percy's shocked look while Annabeth facepalmed and said something quietly to Percy, her eyes sparkling with fondness and a look like she knew something I didn't. Ron was staring wide-eyed at the black-haired transfer and just when I thought he would get suspicious, he just clapped Percy on the back and shook his head in awe at the students grumbling about their wet clothes. 

        I swore I could hear Harry's jaw drop to the ground as he stared at how laid back Ron was acting towards Percy, even though the guy had literally caused a mini tsunami in the classroom. Flitwick bounded over to Percy and congratulated him heavily on a spell well done. Percy just turned red as his hand was shook over and over by the tiny professor and I turned away from the scene, not being able to handle it anymore. 

        As I stuffed everything back into my bag and Flitwick called out homework for the class (to practice the charm to perfection if we hadn't been able to today), I met Harry's eyes as we both stood up to leave the classroom, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. 

        Those transfers were up to something and it wasn't something good. 

***

Percy's POV

        "No way!" I was practically half on the floor from laughing so hard. My friends and I had regrouped after Charms was over for the Gryffindors to head on down to Potions (which the Slytherins and Gryffindors shared). Ron, Jason, and I were practically breathless from laughing while Annabeth looked like she was gonna strangle Leo and Draco had a weird expression of a mix between amusement and exasperation. 

        Actually wait that isn't a weird expression, Annabeth uses it on me all the time!

        "Yeah," Leo continued on with his story, as we made our way down to the dungeons where Potions was held. "And then I proved it by making the plant she was holding catch on fire."

        "Leo, you scared the poor lady half to death!" Calypso groaned looking majorly done with her curly-haired boyfriend who was grinning like a maniac next to her. 

        Ron was leaning against the wall howling with laughter while Jason was trying to gasp for breath. Annabeth gave us all her famous Daughter-of-Athena glare before looking at Leo as a teacher would look at a misbehaving child. "I hope you learned your lesson," she said. 

        Leo, for his part, looked unabashed, "it was pretty cool actually, the fire from the plant she was holding caught on to the other plants and soon pretty much the whole greenhouse was on fire."

        "It took loads of Aguamenti spells and many muggle fire stopping tricks to finally put out the fire," Draco finished dryly, "and as a result, Leo ended up getting an earful from Sprout and was banned from the class as well as earning himself a week worth of detention and fifty points taken from Slytherin."

        Nico groaned, "we haven't even started the school year and you lost us points? Valdez, we're probably in the negatives now!"

        "Well, sucks to be you, but Annabeth earned us a whole load of points by being herself," I said cheekily while wrapping an arm around my Wise Girl and pressing a kiss to her forehead. I heard Piper give an 'awww' and Draco and Ron pretend to barf. 

        Jason crossed his arms, "and what are Ron and I? Chopped liver? We answered questions too!"

        "You answered questions, Weasley?" Draco asked looking genuinely surprised, "it must truly be a miracle!" Ron looked disgruntled but I saw his lips twitch up slightly as we all chuckled. That made me happy, at least we were all trying to get along. 

        "Oh don't be like that, Dray," Leo mock simpered as he pulled Draco into a one-armed hug, "we all can't be as smart and gorgeous as you." Draco punched his arm hard and Leo let him go with a gasp of pain. "Jeez, Blondie, you planning on bruising my entire body?"

        "Uh.." I looked to Ron who was looking positively confused with the whole interaction, "are you two...you know..." He looked to Calypso for validation and I understood what he was trying to imply. 

        "No they're not together, Ron," Calypso said, shaking her head while smiling slightly, "I'm not familiar with the term, but I believe they call what they have a...bromance?"

        "The very best!" Leo said pumping his fist into the air before linking an arm with Draco and pulling the blond forward. Draco was grinning at Leo's antics and ruffled his hair teasingly, "we're the broest of the bros, no one can out-bro us!"

        "Ahem," I cleared my throat, "I beg to differ."

        Leo narrowed his eyes while Draco just rolled his, "oh please," he said "you and Jason do not count. I think you two are secretly into one another."

        "Yeah man," Leo chimed in, "we get full homo vibes from you two."

        "But that's the same with you two!" Sputtered Ron, who was trying to keep track of the fast-moving conversation. 

        "Wait, really?" Leo asked the redhead, looking doubtful but pleased. He let out a cheer when Ron nodded. "Yo, Draco, we've been promoted on the bro-scale! We're now under the full homo impression by outsiders!"

        "You guys are ridiculous," sighed Calypso as Jason and I argued with Leo and Draco about which of us were the best bros. There was no possible way Leo and Draco could beat Jason and me! I mean, look at us, we're full bro material. We even have the bro handshake (which is much better and more complicated than Draco and Leo's). 

        "We're here, guys!" Called out Piper, loudly and effectively breaking the argument between us. I wonder if she used charm speak to get us to stop. 

        Leo shot Jason and I a look that clearly said 'this is not over' but Draco wasn't paying attention anymore. He looked fairly excited and twitched in suppressed anticipation as he yanked the door to the Potions classroom open. We exchanged confused glances and followed. 

        The moment I stepped in and saw the teacher, I knew exactly why Draco was excited. And it seemed like Nico understood too. 

        It was quiet for a moment before Nico said loudly into the silence "Severus?!"

        All current noise in the room stopped and I noticed many of the students staring at our little group in either shock or puzzlement. Hermione and Harry were giving us the trademark looks of suspicion.

        "Oh dear gods," Severus groaned when he saw us all at last. Draco snickered and Ron just blinked. 

        "You guys know Snape too?"

        Oh, this was gonna be a fun one hour, I can just tell.

Chapter Text

Nico's POV

        Percy beat me to it. Before I could even take one step toward Severus, and maybe even berate him for being so silent and uncommunicative for so long, Percy shot forward and wrapped Severus Snape up in a bear hug.

        I think the Slytherins stopped breathing for a moment there.  Leo seemed to think so too because he waved a hand in front of a tall and dark-skinned boy (who I remembered was called Blaise Zabini) "yo? You guys good? Need an inhaler? An oxygen tank?"

        The Gryffindors just looked like their world was crashing and burning around them, especially at the fact that their own housemate was doing the hugging and so happy too.

        "Leo shut up" Piper groaned, pulling him away as Annabeth sighed and walked over to Percy who was probably suffocating the poor Legacy of Hecate. She pulled the two apart and gave Percy a frown "you just can't control yourself, can't you?"

        Draco snorted and muttered "way to be subtle, Jackson." I couldn't help but agree with him. Ron was looking kinda sick at the scene in front of him, I worried that we had accidentally traumatized him before he shook his head and muttered "bloody hell" under his breath. 

        "I haven't seen Sev in months, of course, I have no self-control!" Percy protested, turning to Severus with a large grin, "Sev! How you been holding up? Why didn't you visit Camp, instead of being stuck holed up in a dingy old castle like this?"

        I could practically feel the Slytherins and Hermione Granger's indignation when Percy had insulted Hogwarts. But before any of them could open their mouths to fire a retort, Annabeth spoke. 

        "Percy, Hogwarts is not a dingy old castle!" She said, hotly and defensively "it's quite a magnificent and interesting form of architecture and it holds many secrets and beauties-" she could've gone on about the layout of the castle and bored us all to death if an amused Severus hadn't interrupted.

        "As much as we would love to hear your...enlightening lecture" his tone dripped with sarcasm at the word 'enlightening' and Annabeth's eyes narrowed at his tone, Percy was stifling his laughter, "you all have a class to attend to which I have to teach, so get to it." he gave us all a pointed look which I understood immediately. It said 'we'll talk later, now go, people are getting suspicious.'  I looked around and realized he was right, the students were giving us varying degrees of looks: ranging from wariness to suspicion along with some stragglers looking traumatized for some reason...probably from seeing Severus so happy for once, that man was too brooding for his own good. Sometimes even more than I am! 

        I glanced over to Ron and Draco, the redhead was looking confused and his mouth was gaping open in shock. I just know he's already bursting with questions about what the Hades just happened. 

        Percy and Annabeth got the message and nodded, both turning to go sit somewhere in the middle in between the Gryffindor and Slytherin sides, which had somehow spawned while we were distracted by our old friend. Jeez, did these two houses really hate each other that much?!

        I noticed Thing One and Thing Two from the formerly Golden Trio giving Ron pointed looks that the red-head was determinedly trying to ignore. I stayed quiet and decided not to intervene, something told me that it was going to be worth it if I didn't. And worth it indeed, it was. Ron finally cracked and abruptly veered over to follow Percy and Annabeth to sit in the middle and as an instinct, to move the burning gaze of his friends away from him used the nearest person as a shield, which just so happened to be poor Draco. 

        He grabbed the son of Zeus by the elbow, Draco looking confused and frankly quite worried for Ron's sanity, and dragged him to sit with him. I heard something that sounded like a pigeon hacking a lung and Granger's voice muttering to a choking Potter to shut the hell up. Ron sat down, keeping firm eye contact with the blackboard as if it were the most interesting thing in the room, and after a moment's hesitation, Draco sat down slowly next to him, looking at the red-head like he was a ticking time bomb. 

        It was quiet for a while after that, even Severus looked taken aback by Ron's bold act (although he didn't impersonate a dying pigeon, like Potter had) but he moved along with the class, and assigned us to work on some random potion that I was barely paying attention to. I now realized why everyone was so shocked that Severus has let Percy hug him like that. The man was a bastard to everyone, I had to admit, I was impressed! I wish I had gotten more tips from him, I would've put all Sherman Yang and Connor Stoll in their places for overworking Will Solace, the Camp's head medic. Not that I care anyway-

        What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Severus Snape. The Legacy of Hecate, his mom being her daughter. Said man was now walking in my direction and his expression was pinched, as if he had swallowed a particularly sour grape, Dionysus would have been proud. But before he could reach us, Percy cleared his throat pointedly. Severus gave him a look with his classic eyebrow raise and Percy jerked his chin toward the blackboard as if asking for something. I followed his gaze and realized what he was talking about. The directions on the board seemed to blur and twist together into one big jumbled mess. 

        Severus sighed and waved his hand, the same set of directions reappeared next to the jumbled mess, but instead in perfect Greek. Percy gave Severus a thumbs-up and the other rolled his eyes but nodded at him in acknowledgment and I noticed, as he walked over to us again, that Potter and Granger were eyeing us suspiciously, looking between the Greek directions and us. Ron was looking at the Greek directions too but in a squinty-eyed way as if trying to decipher what it said. Why the red-head was doing something like that, I had no idea. Draco noticed him staring at the board and sighed, grabbing him by the ear and turning him back to face the potion, scolding him under his breath as he did. I smirked and turned away, to look at Severus who was staring at us with that pinched look again. 

        "What are you all doing here?" He asked once he reached our table. Draco and Ron were the farthest away from us, and funny enough, the two were conversing something serious in low voices so they didn't seem to have noticed Severus or what he had asked. I thought that a good thing, the last thing we needed was the red-head asking questions about us, and right when we were on his good side. 

        "On a mission," I responded since it seemed like no one had answered. I looked around and realized why. Jason and Piper were too busy trying to douse a flaming Leo with water without drawing too much attention to themselves, Calypso and Annabeth were working together on their potion, their heads bent close together and murmuring to one another. Percy was sitting by them and frowning at his bubbling concoction, his nose wrinkling at the smell that emanated. 

        Severus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, he waved his hand slightly and the smell coming from Percy's cauldron disappeared, the color of the potion lightening a bit and turning milky like what the results proclaimed. Percy gave the man an awestruck look but Severus interrupted him before he could speak.

        "Save it, Jackson. I need everyone's attention, right now," Before any of us could say anything though, I heard Jason say "Aguamenti!" Leo sputtered and coughed out the water he had accidentally swallowed from the charm. Piper burst into laughter and Calypso looked up to facepalm but sent Jason a thumbs up, "nice one!" She called out with an amused smirk, ignoring Leo's affronted gasp.

        Severus cleared his throat quietly but meaningfully and we all quieted, watching him expectantly. He took a deep breath in and exhaled "alright...I presume this so-called mission is related to the weird happenings around Hogwarts? And the death of Ms. Lewis?"

        "Ms. Lewis?" Annabeth asked, her eyes lighting up curiously at the prospect of a clue "who's that?"

        "Dumbledore hasn't told you?" Severus asked incredulously. He sighed loudly when we shook our heads in negation "of course he hasn't. He's probably in denial or something, she was one of his favorite students."

        So the headmaster himself had withheld details from us because he was under the stages of grief? Of course, our luck can't be just that good, can it? Apparently everyone else thought so too, but it was Annabeth who spoke up.

        "So Albus did know something about the murders," she said thoughtfully "he just hid it from us."

        "I wouldn't exactly say he hid it from you lot," said Severus, leaning down to inspect my potion and giving me an approving nod. Huh, so apparently I had retained some information about brewing it. "But I believe it's best you talk to him about it, get the facts out. He's been silent about the subject since it happened in late July. But he brought Ms. Lewis' old friend back to teach at Hogwarts this year so I believe he's trying to move on?" 

        He sounded doubtful which did not reassure me whatsoever. 

        "What does her friend teach?" Piper asked, leaning forward on her elbows to hear the conversation better. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Draco turn his head to look curiously at us. Ron was cursing up a storm as lengthy and dark as the fumes coming out of his cauldron. Draco sighed and went to help the Gryffindor's potion.

        "Ancient Runes. Her name's Professor Myra Jenkins," said Severus "not many of you will have the class in your schedules, it's an advanced class meant for NEWT levels so-" he had barely finished talking before we all took out our schedules and Annabeth grinned widely. 

        "I knew it! Percy, we have Ancient Runes along with Jason and I believe Draco does too. We can see what she's like and hopefully get some answers out of her" she said, speaking quickly in excitement. "Finally, we got a starting point for this mission!"

        "Take care not to blow your cover," Severus warned, "Professor Jenkins is quite observant and an extraordinary witch, make sure to stay on your toes when talking to her."

        We all nodded and after that, Severus got called over to a table of Slytherins who had unfortunately blown up one of their cauldrons, splattering what looked like sticky green goo all over everyone within vicinity. I winced in sympathy when I saw a short-haired Slytherin girl wring out the green goo from her hair and rant to another bigger boy about using the wrong ingredients and being such a dumbass. The Gryffindors on the other side laughed loudly and I saw Draco's eyes narrow. 

        Ron stayed wisely silent, keeping his head down and working on his potion, but I knew he had seen the accident that had occurred in front of them. 

        After class was over, we packed up extra slow, letting the other students filter out. The Golden Duo sending us suspicious looks (as usual-) but giving us a wide berth as they passed us. Although Harry gave Percy a slight shove with his shoulder, the son of Poseidon giving them a bewildered look as they walked away.

        "What was that for?" He asked, turning to us in confusion. I shrugged and decided not to respond, some things were better left unsaid. 

***

Draco's POV

        I made my way to Hagrid's hut for our next class which was Care of Magical Creatures, along with the rest of the demigods and Ron Weasley at my side. Weasley seemed pretty comfortable around us now, and not as suspicious, or maybe he was tired of being suspicious all the time and just ignored anything weird we did now. 

        I still couldn't figure him out. Out of everyone in the Trio, I had always considered Ronald Weasley as the most predictable, we fought at each chance we got, taunted and mocked each other, made each other's lives miserable. It was tradition by now. But now, I remembered his abrupt offer for a truce, his handshake which seemed like a mile away giving me a sense of deja vu from a certain time on the Hogwarts Express with him and a certain Boy-Who-Lived-Twice, his barely-there amusement at my teasing, him grabbing at me and dragging me to a table in Potions. 

        Today made me realize just how much I didn't know about the red-head Gryffindor. I don't know if that was a good thing or not. 

        "Yo Drake? You coming?" I stumbled slightly as Leo shoved me with a teasing grin. I heard Weasley snicker and I gave him a look that shut him up, but before I could turn that same look onto Leo, he was already gone with Calypso, both off to see what sort of new creature Hagrid had up his sleeve this time. Calypso was bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet, and Leo was fondly shaking his head at her and pulling her close by linking their arms together. 

        I felt a small pang in my chest when I saw how happy the two were. Honestly, I have nothing against Calypso, I love the girl, she's amazing and hilarious but I also missed the time when it used to be just Leo and me, when we both had accidentally smacked into one another during Camp and bonded instantly, that and the fact that we were both single as hell. But now, as I watched the two laughing and sneaking small kisses here and there and simply grossing out the students around them, I felt strangely excluded. Obviously, I know Leo and I were still bros, but I still felt weird around them now...maybe it was the fact that he had found his perfect person and I was still looking. 

        I shook myself off, what the hell was I thinking? I, Draco Malfoy, being jealous of my own best friend, someone who's basically my brother from another mother? How shameful! Leo would be so disappointed. I turned away from the sappy duo and met the eyes of one Weasley who was watching me the whole time. I flushed and snapped at him, going on the defensive. 

        "Are you going to watch me the whole time or actually do something?" 

        Weasley rolled his eyes and turned away "you looked like you were going to pass out, I was just being a concerned classmate" he shot back before nodding over to where a large group was gathering around Hagrid "it's not that bad today, we're just examining one of the creatures Hagrid brought back from the Forbidden Forest, they're apparently harmless."

        I doubted that. Whatever creature Hagrid comes up with always seems to be high up there in the harm scale. I remembered the Blast-Ended-Skrewts way too vividly. But I held my head high and gave Weasley a curt nod "alright, let's go see."

        My friends were already gathered around. I could see Beth taking notes furiously on a piece of parchment while Percy and Jason were all over the creatures, petting it and cooing at it alongside Piper. Calypso was trying to stop Leo from showing off his fire powers to one of the more curious ones who had waddled over to the pair. Nico was standing off to the side looking like he would rather be anywhere but here as a bunch of the creatures surrounded him and nuzzled his black combat boots. 

        I marched over and went to get this assignment over with, it can't be too hard. Just pick them up and pet them, notice their characteristics, and try to define what they are. But one look at them and my step faltered. They looked almost like Buckbeak, that damn hippogriff that had clawed at me. Just like that, I subtly looked around for an escape plan but Weasley stopped me in my tracks. 

        "Hey, Malfoy? What're you doing? The Griffins are this way," he snorted and grabbed my elbow again (like seriously, what is up with him today?! I didn't think he was this naturally touchy, let alone with me) and hauled me over to the edge of the ring of people surrounding the Griffins, who were jumping around with a playful look to their eyes. I immediately dug my feet into the ground without realizing I was doing it. Weasley looked back and gave me an annoyed look.

        "Mate, they're harmless and they're babies it's not like they're gonna maul you to death or something," he sighed, rolling his eyes and-thankfully-letting go of my elbow. To prove his point, he scooped up a Griffin and held it out to me in a silent request. My eyes swept over the other students, who were all too busy with their own Griffins to notice my moment of weakness, I met Weasley's open blue gaze and narrowed my own eyes. I shook my head once more, hard as if to emphasize my choice. 

        "Why don't you pet it? They seem attracted to you, maybe you're long lost distant relatives or something," I retorted snappily, thoughts of our hesitant truce out the window, and I turned on my heel before he could respond, striding back out of the circle of people, pushing people out of the way until I was standing a moderate distance from the group. I crossed my arms and kept my face carefully blank to hide my sudden flash of vulnerability, I didn't have time to show stuff like that to everyone, they wouldn't want to see all that and from a Death Eater no less. Mission or not, I was still a Death Eater, the bad guy, to these people. 

        But another emotion crept to the surface: guilt. I had ruined whatever chance I had of befriending Weasley, and gods know, I was actually looking forward to it. I know I know, I'm certainly off my rocker, but then again, so is Dumbledore and he's one of the wisest people I've met. Well, no point mourning over spilt milk, knowing Weasley's temper (or lack of-), I knew for a fact that I had just blown any chance I had and sooner or later, Annabeth and Piper would be on my case for messing up the truce he had so kindly offered, of course. 

        I heard footsteps crunching over the fallen leaves and a pair of ratty old sneakers stopped in front of me. I looked up from where I was examining the leaves on the ground and, to my surprise, it was Weasley with that damn Griffin. I raised my eyebrow at him and he sighed loudly through his nose.

        "Listen Malfoy, when I said I want a truce with you, I meant it, and I'm going to try to keep that truce afloat," he told me "besides, how can you get rid of your fears if you don't face them?" He held out the Griffin again. I sputtered. 

        "Excuse me, Weasley?! Fears? Who the hell said I was scared?-"

        Weasley gave me a long look and just when I thought he would snark another retort, he quirked part of his mouth up in an amused half-smile "no one, no one in their right mind would say that. I just thought it would be nice for you to expand your horizons, embrace your fea-inner weakness. This isn't Buckbeak, Malfoy, and you know that." 

        I watched him before switching my gaze to the Griffin, my heart cracking at the pouting gaze the animal seemed to give me. Goddamit, even the creatures seem to know how to sway me, am I seriously that predictable? I let out a long breath, and Weasley's grin widened, I felt like smacking it off his face but I resisted. 

        I hovered a hand over the Griffin and paused, both Weasley and the creature stared at me, waiting expectantly. The noise of the rest of the class dulled down to background noise in my ears, my fingers twitched. And then, it was like Weasley had read my mind because before I could pull my hand away at the last minute, he snagged the wrist and in a second, had my hand placed on the Griffins head and helped me pet it, his hand loosely over mine. The Griffin's fur was soft as heck, but the only thing I could think of was why the hell was Ronald Weasley's hand so bloody hot? It was like the fucking sun in his palm, I swear, I was going crazy. Not as crazy as Weasley though and definitely not as much as Potter and Granger, that's for sure.  

        I met Weasley's eyes confusedly and off-footed and he stared back determinedly even though he looked awkward as well, I hadn't even stared him in the eye properly for the past seven years and now I seem to be doing it every other second in just one day. I huffed and pulled my hand away, giving Weasley a short nod in thanks. 

        "I appreciate the help, thank you," I said formally. Weasley rolled his eyes but nodded, the weird moment broken and the noise of the other students coming back full force as one of the Slytherins popped over and pointed at the Griffin.

        "Yo, is that one still being examined? Cause like, none of the others are available and you two seem kind of busy..." he trailed off, looking between me and Weasley. We both immediately shook our heads and Weasley gave him the Griffin, as I turned away. How bloody embarrassing. 

        "Here you go, uhh..." Weasley fumbled, as he gave the Griffin, looking at him uncertainly. The Slytherin laughed and stuck his hand out.

        "Ellis. Ellis Maddox, no need to ask who you are, one of the Weasleys obviously and given your interactions with Draco, I'm betting Ronald," he smirked, taking the Griffin and inclining his head in thanks before nudging me conspiratorially and walking away. I wondered if I was that annoying when I was younger, probably more if I was honest. Ron simply stared after him bemusedly.

        "Are all you Slytherins like this?" He asked me, and just like that, we were back to normal. Or as normal as we could get given the circumstances we were in. 

        Today was weird as fuck, not going to lie, and I wanted it done and over with. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more normal. 

***

Leo's POV

        "Yo mannnn!" I cracked up, sprawling on our room's couch, "that's fucking hilarious! Annabeth, I didn't think you had it in you!"

        Annabeth raised her eyebrows as she sat down on the other side of the couch and pulled her bag onto her lap, "you'd be surprised as to what I can do, Valdez. Besides, those two have been annoying us for a while, I just gave them a taste of their own medicine."

        "That's my girl!" Percy grinned, kissing her cheek and flopping next to her, "putting all the peasants back in their place."

        I snorted and turned away from the sappy Percabeth scene, I still couldn't believe it, gods I wish I was there to see it. I stifled my laughter at the very thought of what that would've looked like and what Hermione Granger's expression would've been. 

        "Hey, Annabeth?" Piper asked, walking in, her hands linked with Jason and barely hiding a smile "is there a reason why I heard from my boyfriend that you transfigured Hermione Granger's hair into a load of snakes?"

        Annabeth looked up from where she was snuggled against Percy, and batted her eyes innocently, "it was an accident!"

        Everyone laughed out loud, Piper shaking her head in amusement and Jason snorting at Annabeth's smug look. "Innocent until proven guilty, Chase!" He called out, sitting down next to Nico and ruffling his hair teasingly, the other giving him a death glare that didn't seem to affect him at all. 

        "Okay so getting down to business!" Annabeth clapped her hands together, getting almost all of our attention. I was already bored and I took some random trinkets from my toolbelt and started fiddling with them. 

        "Right," Jason agreed, sitting up straight and looking at us with serious eyes "Ms. Lewis."

        "She must have been the murder that Dumbledore was talking about," said Nico, playing with his ring "but why he never thought to mention her, at least even just a hint, to us baffles me."

        "Severus did say that she was one of his favorite students," Piper said sympathetically "and once you're in grief, denial is the hardest stage to get past."

        We all nodded in understanding, the mood turning somber for a moment. Memories of the war and the deaths flashed through my mind, I recalled my death, the suffocating feeling of dying and the fire all around me. That was the one time I had truly feared the true power of fire. I pushed the memories away and tried to break the solemn mood, this felt too awkward for me. 

        "But on the bright side: we got ourselves a clue!" I said brightly, " we know what we're doing now, somewhat."

        Annabeth nodded thoughtfully, "yes a clue...." she pulled out the laptop that I had made for her after Chiron had told us that magic and electronic devices canceled each other out. I had gone a bit farther with it and it now works for demigods too, without monsters tracking us down too easily. Annabeth was my first customer and after her, I had to deal with a stampede of Athena kids rushing in to get their own laptop. 

        Of course, I didn't do it to Annabeth's, but to the others...well, they'll be getting a little surprise when they open up their laptop onto their homepage wallpaper. Hint: it has the phrase Bad Boy Supreme on it. But like I said, I would rather live with all my body parts intact and working, so I took that feature out for Annabeth. 

        "Alright..." Annabeth, trailed off, her tongue poking out as she typed something on her laptop. Percy leaning back on the couch next to her and peering over her shoulder. "Janet Lewis is her full name, and she lived among mortals, it seemed. Moved to Germany and then back to London, and there she owned a tattoo parlor until her sudden death two months ago." She tilted the laptop to the side so we can see what she looked like. 

        She looked straight from this badass women's page in magazines to be honest (do they even have those anymore? Or did they even have those in the first place? Ugh, stupid ADHD!) with her short black hair and dark make-up. She was pretty tall and willowy and stood with her hip cocked to one side slightly, her stance and clothing let us catch a glimpse of a tattoo sleeve up her left arm. All in all, she would've been someone I wouldn't ever want to mess with if it weren't for her amiable smile and the mischievous glint in her eyes, she looked like a prankster straight to the core, a prankster with a heart that is. 

        We were all quiet as we processed that information and the photo. I whistled as I twisted some pieces of wire together, "yeesh, she seems like a roller-coaster!" 

        Percy chuckled "I bet! This Lewis woman seemed to have led a busy life, anything else you can find, Wise Girl?" He asked. Annabeth shook her head in response, frowning at the screen, moving the laptop to face her once more. 

        "Unfortunately no, it's like she's disappeared off the face of the earth after...well, I mean technically she has but that's not the point," she continued on hurriedly before anyone else could make a comment "what I'm saying is the only thing I could get out about her was exactly what I told you guys just now. Everything else was just a variation of it."

        "So nothing about her being a witch or any leads on her death?" Nico asked. I jumped, I had almost forgotten he was there, he seemed to blend in naturally with the shadows and his clothing choices don't help him either. 

        "None, it just says she was killed while walking back home after picking up groceries. Apparently the bags were scattered all around her when the police found her," responded Annabeth, still poring through the article. 

        "Besides, they wouldn't talk so openly about her witch blood, in fact, I'm almost positive the mortals didn't even know about that," Percy added. We all stared at him with raised eyebrows and he looked at us in confusion, "what? It's not that hard to figure out!" He said defensively. 

        I snorted and held my newest creation in front of me, examining it critically. It was a bronze sunflower clip, a perfect gift for Sunshine. I wish she was here so I could show it to her now, but she went with Draco, Luna, and Ron to explore the castle grounds (and also to distract Ron from getting suspicious of our mission). I had a feeling that Carrot-Head Wizard was bombarding Cal with all sorts of questions about our interaction with Sevvy. Oh! Nickname Alert! Carrots fits Ron quite nicely! My delight in finding a suitable nickname for the redhead wizard was short-lived as I slouched down in my seat, already missing Sunshine and her eyerolls. I looked over the sunflower again and grinned, sounds like the perfect nickname for her to add to my list.

        A sunflower for my sunflower! I was on a roll with these nicknames. 

        "So the only people who know more about her would be Severus, Dumbledore, and that Ancient Runes professor, Jenkins, right?" Jason said, to which we all nodded, "so we should split up. Half of us take the prof and the other half take Sev. And then we all regroup to talk to Dumbledore, sounds like a plan?"

        We thought that over, I fiddled with the clip, adding extra sequins to it as I pondered Jase's idea. That didn't seem so bad, honestly. Severus would be easy to talk to, especially if you got either Percy, Nico, or Annabeth to do the talking. But the prof...

        "Maybe we should save the talking to the professor part until later?" Piper suggested, basically reading everyone else's minds. We barely knew the woman, just her name. Coming up out of nowhere and talking to her about a murder would make a horrible first impression. Jason nodded in understanding.

        "Alright, so no talking to the professor. How about Sev and Dumbledore?"

        "I think that's alright," said Percy thoughtfully "we can talk to Severus first and then as a group, meet up some other time and talk to Dumbles," he pouted as Annabeth hit his shoulder at the name. 

        "Maybe the other half, instead of talking to the prof, should check out the library?" Nico said, leaning against the wall and crossing his ankles together. "I've heard from Luna that it's a pretty big place and lots of books and-"

        "I'll go!" Annabeth interrupted, her eyes sparkling eagerly at the idea of looking through all those books. I held in another snort, what a surprise. 

        "So Annie and the ladies take the library and us merry gents deal with Sevvy, sounds like a slam plan or what?" I grinned, spreading my arms, and ignoring Annabeth's death glare at the nickname. But I made sure to sprint the heck outta here to my next class when the bell rang, signaling the end of our break and the beginning of the afternoon classes. I barely heard Annabeth's voice behind me as I slipped out of the portrait hole. 

        "Sounds like a plan! Oh, and Valdez? You're fucking dead."

Chapter Text

Calypso's POV

        I hurried into the History of Magic classroom with Draco, making it in just in time before the bell rang again, signaling the beginning of class. This class had a mix of different house students in it and so the classroom was a sea of colors. Thankfully, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they, like Ron, had opted out of this class. I ignored the other students and kept my eyes forward, weaving my way around desks until I came to a stop at the desk next to Leo's at the near-back. I sat down with a loud sigh, Draco sitting down in between Nico and Leo. I glanced around and noticed that someone was missing from our Slytherin group.

        "Where's Piper?" I asked. Leo rolled his eyes and snickered.

        "Where else, love? She's skipped class after hearing from Ron about how boring it is. She's exploring the castle with Jason." 

        Draco stifled a snort at that, "more like exploring each other's mouths." Leo choked in laughter and Nico stifled a snicker with his palm. Draco held his hands up in defense, "what? It's true and we all know it!"

        I laughed and nudged his shoulder, "doesn't mean you gotta say it so loudly." And indeed, there were some students looking curiously at us at Draco's statement. I chuckled at their expressions but soon after couldn't resist the yawn that escaped my mouth. 

        Leo gave me a sympathetic look.

        "Tired already, Sunshine?" I had stopped berating him for using that nickname and simply nodded. He clucked his tongue at my response and pulled out something from his pocket and gave it to me. 

        "Here you go, I was going to wait until after classes to give it to you but I decided you need some brightening up right now," he grinned, waiting expectantly as I took the object and examined it more closely. It was a hair clip, with a bronze medium-sized sunflower on it. As I tilted it side to side, the sunflower seemed to sparkle and glint beautifully in the light. I was breathless in surprise and, I had to admit, quite flattered. This wasn't the first time Leo had gifted me with something he had made but no matter how many gifts I received from him, each one will always end up leaving me speechless.

        "Soo...." Leo trailed off, looking at me with an uncertain smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Draco watching the interaction amusedly. "How do you like it?" My boyfriend asked without realizing that we had an audience. 

        In response, I gently put the clip up in my hair, making sure the sunflower was sitting proudly on display atop my head. I smiled wide and leaned over to kiss Leo on the cheek, "I love it, Firebug," I said sincerely. He grinned and blushed, fiddling with his quill. Draco clapped loudly and Leo jumped, just now realizing that we were being watched this whole time. 

        My smile grew at that and so did my energy level, I was considerably much more awake. Being with Leo tended to make me that way. "If I must be honest, I hadn't realized Ron was such a curious individual," I said, continuing on with the conversation as I lightly chuckled. Draco couldn't stifle a snort at that. 

        "He's always been a nosy one, comes with being best friends with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

        Leo grinned and threw an arm around Draco "aw Drakey, don't be jelly! You're just as nosy as he is, don't worry," he said in a baby-voice. Draco punched him on the shoulder and smacked the arm off of him.

        "Don't even think of calling me that, reminds me too much of goddamn Pansy. And I'm not jealous, I don't nose around other people's business!"

        Before I could ask exactly who Pansy is, a hush fell over the students and, I kid you not, a literal ghost walked through the wall across from where we sat and floated above a rickety old armchair sitting in front of the desks. The Hogwarts students and Draco acted like this was completely normal but Leo and I exchanged confused looks before, to our surprise, the ghost introduced himself as Professor Binns and began droning on about Witch Chases of the 1600's or whatever. 

        At this point, I had thought that nothing in Hogwarts could surprise me but seeing a literal ghost teach a class seemed to take the cake for today. I wondered if he even knew he was dead. Leo nudged me and when I turned to him with an inquisitive look, he smirked and jabbed a thumb in Nico's direction. 

        Damn, I had almost forgotten about Nico's whole deal with ghosts. I peered over past the desks to where he sat and saw that his fists were clenched in his lap and he was gritting his teeth, probably to control his 'Son Of Hades' aura from spreading and alerting the ghost of his presence. Leo was snickering under his breath, and Draco was switching his gaze from Professor Binns to Nico as if watching a particularly interesting tennis match. Although I don't blame him, this was probably the most interesting thing going on in class because History of Magic seemed like naptime for all the other students. 

        I crossed my fingers, hoping against hope that we can make it through class without anything happening. The last thing we needed was more suspicion cast on us, Potions was already enough of an ordeal. 

        Unfortunately, the Fates seem to hate us. Nico specifically since this was his second incident and he let out a loud gasp that seemed to echo all around the classroom and even jerk some students out of their half-slumber. Nico slumped in his seat in a sort of resigned acceptance and I knew what was going to happen next. 

        Right on cue, Professor Binns stiffened as if sensing the dark and foreboding aura that Nico di Angelo exhibited. He turned slowly and his ghostly eyes seemed to seek out Nico who was trying futilely to hide in the shadows. It was quiet then, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. A couple more students lifted their heads up blearily, wondering where their lullaby had gone, probably. I held my breath, watching Nico intently. He looked sick but annoyed at the same time, not a good facial combination but he seemed to pull it off well. Binns went paler than he already was if that was possible. And then, the guaranteed weirdness occurred, just as we all expected. 

        Professor Binns immediately dropped the book he was holding which fell with a loud thud onto the ground, instantly waking up the rest of the class. Great, I thought, more people to watch and get suspicious.

        Nico sat up straight in his seat and tried to stop Binns, "listen, we can talk about this later, Binns, right now you've got a class to teach, don't you-?"

        Binns seemed in a state of half-panic, he shook his head rapidly, "no class is as important as you, Ghost King! I beseech you, I'm not ready to go yet, my prince, I want to stay here, to teach!"

        I looked around the class, at the weary-eyed students who were stretching and yawning, each in various stages of sleep. It seemed like Nico would be doing everyone a favor if he brought Binns to the Underworld. Or maybe not, considering that maybe these students actually enjoy History of Magic simply because of the naptime they got from it. 

        "You are the reason why Father doesn't let spirits and ghosts wander around unchecked," said Nico, apparently all pretense of stopping Binns gone. Now he looked dark and intimidating, he was standing up too, and I noticed a bit of the shadows from the back of the classroom clinging to him. Any second now, and some other Hogwarts student would notice and that would be a mess. One of us demigods had to intervene, but how?

        Binns continued to blubber, "I'm sorry m-my prin-prince! I wa-want to stay, ple-please don't make m-me leave! Please, I b-beg of you, Gh-Ghost King." He floated over to us and bowed deeply to Nico. At this point, the whole class was staring at us in stunned silence, Binns' stuttering being the only noise in the room. Finally, Nico sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking in almost disgust and annoyance at Binns hunched form. 

        "Alright, alright, get up and look presentable, at least," he commanded. Binns instantly stood up ramrod straight and puffed his chest out, floating several more inches off the ground. Nico rolled his eyes "good, now if you want to teach here, then do some teaching instead of droning on like some sort of vacuum cleaner." At Binns blank look, Nico facepalmed and restated himself, "just go teach properly for once!" Binns nodded and after giving Nico a deep bow in thanks, he floated back to the front of the classroom and took a breath to continue his droning when Nico interrupted him.

        "Oh and Binns?" When the ghost turned back to look at him eagerly, Nico shot Draco a look and simply smirked when the other stared back at him confusedly. He faced Binns and cocked his hip to one side and said in a haughty voice "my father will definitely hear about this!"

        I covered my mouth, but was unable to quiet down my choked laughter, Leo was clutching his abdomen and wheezing in silent laughter. A confused Binns simply nodded and continued on droning away but this time asked a couple of random questions here and there to the class. 

        Draco pulled the son of Hades down into his seat and hit him hard on the shoulder multiple times until a snickering Nico grabbed his wrists so he wouldn't end up bruising him. 

        "What?" He asked, a teasing glint in his eyes, "you didn't like it? Funny, I thought it fit just perfectly given the situation-"

        Draco huffed and pulled his wrist from Nico's grip and crossed his arms, facing Binns and ignoring Nico for the remainder of class even when the other apologized profusely (while still holding back laughter-) and glared heavily at Leo (who barely hid the fact that he was laughing) and me (while I did give him a sympathetic look, that didn't manage to balance out my stifled laughter). But in the end, he reluctantly agreed that Nico pulled off the 'my father will hear about this' card just as good as he did. 

        And what was better? The rest of the students' glares at us for having an actual History of Magic class seemed to cover up their suspicion of us for now. I threw them a sweet smile and finger-wave. Today was awesome. 

***

Hermione's POV

Today sucked. 

        That was all there was to it. And it was all thanks to those no-good exchange students. Of course, it was, who else could it be? They always seem to come in and ruin everything, even without realizing it sometimes, but I'm sure they know what they're doing. They have to know, how thick could they be if they didn't?!

        Things were already getting tense when classes started, especially Potions. Honestly, I understand House Unity and all, but since when was Ron chummy with Malfoy all of a sudden? Harry seemed to want to know too since he had spent the entirety of Potions looking at Ron and Malfoy sitting together and working on their potion. Of course, he had ended up with a glorious zero for his lack of attention, which I'm not surprised about; but really, I didn't blame him. I was just as surprised and hurt that someone who I had considered one of my best friends - and formerly more than that - would go and consort with someone who - as a trio- we had despised. 

        Then came along lunch, which ended up being the breaking point for Harry. The exchange students had decided to sit at the Gryffindor table this time - I'm guessing House Unity, again- and somehow they had even roped other Gryffindors into their antics, joking around and laughing boisterously like they were all one big family. That hadn't annoyed me, honestly, I had seen much worse when it came to noise. But what had been quite irksome was the fact that Malfoy was sitting with them too and we all know that if it were any other time, Malfoy wouldn't be caught dead sitting at the Gryffindor table, so why was today so different? Ron had, for a change, decided to sit with us which I was pleased with but I didn't think Harry was too happy considering he kept scowling into his plate whenever Ron glanced over at where the exchange students were and chuckled. It took one particular glance somewhere close to the ending of lunch when Harry finally snapped and looked at Ron with such hurt that my heart had ached, and had said - quite aggressively- that maybe Ron should sit with his new best friends instead of making the rest of us feel bad.

        The argument that followed wasn't pretty and Ron had ended up moving to where the exchange students sat - who were peering curiously at us during that time- while Harry stormed out the Great Hall with one last angry glance at the Gryffindor table. I had been forced to eat my lunch alone while ignoring Ron with the transfers. 

        All in all, not our best moment but really can you blame us? How would you feel if your best friend for seven years suddenly got up close with some random kids we barely even know? 

        I huffed in annoyance as I sat down at my seat in the very front row of the Ancient Runes classroom. I hoped that none of the exchange students would be here but my pleas were dashed when I saw Percy and Annabeth walk through the door first. They were holding hands and Percy was swinging them idly as he watched Annabeth explain something excitedly with an amused expression. Jason and Malfoy followed close behind, both also engaged in a close conversation, Malfoy waving his hands a lot as if to emphasize a point while Jason snickered. 

        I still didn't understand how Malfoy of all people got so close to the transfer students, and it irked me to no end that I actually didn't know something. I tapped my quill lightly but rapidly on my desk and watched them pass me from the corner of my eye. They didn't even glance at me, although Jason gave me a nod in greeting which I would have appreciated if I still wasn't hesitant around him. That stunt he pulled at the Sorting still scared me, I must admit, it felt like he was about to fry me alive with the way he had looked. And the air...had strangely smelled almost...electric after. 

        Strange. I stored that memory in the recess of my mind for later purposes. Right now, it was time to focus on class, not anything else, no matter how much I want to. I sat up as straight as I could in my seat when the professor walked in, I had gotten an O for two years in a row in this class, there's no way I'm going to lose my streak this year. 

        The teacher bustled in right as the bell rang to signal the beginning of class; habitually, I looked her up and down, trying to figure out how I'd best be able to get on her good side. She was tall, definitely, and could even put some of the boys in the class to shame when it came to height. Her straight blonde hair and pale skin gave her the appearance of being a simple-minded person, but I knew from past experiences never to judge someone from their appearance. As she looked around the room, - probably doing a mental tally of the number of students in her class- I saw how calculating and sharp her brown eyes were and knew then and there that this woman was not to be taken lightly. 

        "Hello class," her voice was smooth and effective in cutting off any and all conversation. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the exchange students leaning forward and looking at her with interest. "My name is Professor Jenkins and I'm your new Ancient Runes teacher after your previous one left due to...ah, personal circumstances."

        I pursed my lips, knowing that those 'circumstances' might have something to do with a certain Battle of Hogwarts. 

        Professor Jenkins started off the class by doing attendance, and - to my surprise - she barely gave the exchange students a second glance after their names were called. I couldn't help the thrum of delight at seeing Annabeth's eyebrow raise - the only action that signified that the exchange students were slightly baffled by the lack of reaction. 

        You lot can't have everyone's attention I thought with a mental cheer of victory. I knew that no matter the teacher, I would definitely be enjoying this class. At least no one here would bow down on the exchange students and offer their head on a silver platter for them or something. 

         After that, the class went relatively smoothly; since it was our first class of the year, we went over the basics and then Jenkins touched on various languages first, primarily Greek and Latin, and I was so interested in the topic that I barely paid attention to the hushed murmurs of the exchange students behind me. 

        Just when I thought this class couldn't get any better, I was pleased to see Jenkins actually berate Percy Jackson for talking while she was and she actually deducted house points from Gryffindor for it. As a Gryffindor, myself, I knew I shouldn't be feeling as satisfied but seeing the red face of Percy and the upset faces of the rest of the transfers and Malfoy were very well worth it.

         The icing on top was when Professor Jenkins even called on me first rather than Annabeth and awarded me 10 points to Gryffindor when I answered the question correctly, and praised my intelligence - which brought forth the familiar tingling feeling of pride and embarrassment in me whenever teachers acknowledged my smarts. Seeing Annabeth's frown just made the happy balloon-like feeling in my chest swell up even more. 

        Needless to say, I enjoyed the class immensely and when the bell rang to end the class, I took my time packing up and letting the other students bustle past me; I was still smiling when I left the classroom and felt like I was in a halo of contentment even when I reached the Gryffindor Common Room for my free period before Defense Against the Dark Arts.

        Maybe today wouldn't be as bad as I thought.         

***

Harry's POV

Today was definitely testing my patience. 

        Now really, I'm sure that won't come as much of a surprise to a lot of people considering almost everything tested my patience at one point (Hermione will never forget to remind me that our fifth year was a nightmare with me around) but I was in such a grim mood today, that even my fellow housemates gave me a wide berth. 

        I swept into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with a shadowy expression that would've put Snape to shame and sat down at the front of the classroom. My mood lightened up a tad when I glanced around the familiar classroom - Defense had always been my comfort zone when it came to classes, and this year was no exception. I barely paid attention to the rest of the students piling into the classroom; instead, I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the teachers' desk and tried to ignore the thoughts in my head running around tumultuously, I couldn't afford to get distracted by unwanted thoughts during my favorite class. 

        Naturally, that was when my mood decided to take a deep plummet back at the sounds of familiar laughter and voices. Sure enough, the exchange students came into view with Malfoy and - my eye was definitely ticking now - Ron in tow. Malfoy and Ron seemed much more at ease with one another and they were even talking cordially as they passed me. Ron paused just for a moment to give me a second look which I huffed at and ignored. I heard his sigh of defeat before the sounds of his loud footsteps walking away and tempered down the sadness that was rising up within me. 

        I knew I was being unreasonable, I wasn't that stupid.  I had absolutely no valid reason to dislike the exchange students, people might think. Oh, he's just jealous for having the spotlight being stolen from him. Oh, he's just being an arse because he's not the only famous one anymore, for some reason. I could care less about the fame, or the damn spotlight, or whatever the hell everyone else thought was the reason I detested the transfers so much. 

        Because they were all fucking wrong. It wasn't the fame or the spotlight that I was upset about.

        It was the fact that some random strangers from across the world came swooping in, took the entire school by storm, and - the icing on top - stole my best friend right from under my nose. 

        But weren't you the one who got all suspicious at the exchange students and pushed Ron away as a result? A voice - that was starting to sound like Hermione - whispered in my head. 

        There's a valid reason for that another voice in my head argued back, heatedly. Anyone would be suspicious of a couple of strangers randomly coming up under the guise of being transfers. 

        "Great, Potter," I mumbled to myself, "you're having an actual argument with yourself. Talk about going barmy."

        A Slytherin nearby gave me a strange look and I glared at them until they looked away with an eye-roll; at this rate, forget the exchange students, I'll end up driving myself crazy. 

        A particularly loud round of laughter brought me back to my senses, and I couldn't help but glance back at where the transfers, Malfoy, and Ron were seated diagonally behind me. I saw Jason argue with Percy about something while Leo was egging them on and nudging Draco who looked like he was having a heated debate with Annabeth. Piper and Ron were simply watching it all go down in amusement while Calypso scolded Leo for provocation while smiling and shaking her head. I felt a pang in my chest when I saw Ron lean over to Jason and whisper something in his head; Jason probably repeating it louder to Percy with a triumphant smirk while the other looked at Ron with wounded sea-green eyes as Ron stifled his laughter. 

        I quickly looked away before someone noticed and clenched my fists so tight that I felt my nails digging into my palms. I didn't understand why and how Ron could just leave me like this - and so easily too. All my years at Hogwarts - with the exception of a couple of months during our fourth and seventh years - it had always been Ron and Harry. Harry and Ron. The two were inseparable and he had been my first friend; the main person that had gotten me even more excited at the prospect of Hogwarts every year after. Now though, it felt like I was getting sucker-punched in the gut every time I see Ron with those strangers and barely even sparing me a glance. 

        It hurt - terribly so - if I had to admit, but I wasn't going to show that to them; they don't deserve to see my weakness. 

        It took Hermione hurrying into the classroom and sitting next to me with a panted "had to go to the library" for me to realize: where exactly was our teacher?

        "Our teacher isn't here?" Hermione repeated my thoughts out loud, looking around in surprise. "They're late!"

        I couldn't help the amused smile at her disapproving tone and propped my chin on one hand, "maybe they got stuck in traffic," I joked. Hermione let slip a small grin, her indignance dispersing at my quip. 

        "What a shame. They should have left earlier then," she shook her head in mock-pity. We shared a laugh and I felt significantly cheered-up once I caught my breath. 

        Then, Percy Jackson had to ruin it all by striding up to the front of the classroom and going, "sorry sorry! I lost track of the time, I thought class started in five minutes not that five minutes had already passed since class started-" he shot Annabeth a sheepish look while Jason and Leo smirked widely. 

        The rest of the class stared at the boy in confusion. My eyebrows slowly rose up, what the hell was this guy talking about? My confusion increased when I saw Annabeth join Percy at the front of the classroom and Leo yell out.

        "Go ace it, babes!" 

        A round of sniggers traveled around the room. Annabeth scowled at Leo while Percy just threw him a dramatic flying kiss. I turned back to see Leo pretend to catch the kiss and touch it to where his heart was, dramatically swooning as Calypso - while rolling her eyes at the Latino - caught him before he could fall off the chair. 

        "Alright folks," Percy clapped his hands together and looked around at us. "So this might be kind of weird for you all, but guess who is your new Defense Against Dark Stuff teachers?" He made corny jazz hands as the rest of us stared some more at the two. 

        Annabeth nudged him and hissed, "it's Defense Against the Dark Arts, Seaweed Brain, gods-"

        Seaweed Brain? Huh...weird nickname. 

        Wait- I focused on the more important matter at hand and said loudly, "you're our teachers?!"

        Percy and Annabeth turned to me and the way they looked at me in unison gave me the creeps; it was like they were both trying to analyze my worth in their own unique way. 

        "Yes we are, Potter," Annabeth said, her stormy grey eyes boring into mine. "Is there a problem with that?"

        "But-but," I sputtered, "you don't even know magic! You said it yourself, you aren't proficient in our type of magic, o how could you teach-"

        "Trust me, it's just as weird for us too," Percy chuckled. "But who said we're gonna be teaching your type of magic?"

        I was stunned into silence; the room was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop. 

        "You heard right," Annabeth said, turning to face the rest of the class. "Rather than going over the same old spells that your previous teachers must have already taught you, you're going to be learning our version of 'Defense.'"

        "And what's your version of defense supposed to be, Professor?" Only years of following rules and being a good student forced Hermione to spit out that last word. I knew that if it came to it, I would never call either of them 'Professor' even if they hexed me to do so. 

        "Firstly: that's what we're going to show you all, be patient," Percy spread his arms with a grin, completely bypassing Hermione's indignant look. "And secondly, stop with the 'professor' shit; it's really weird to be here teaching people the same age as us, I don't think I'd be able to handle it if you guys called me 'professor' too."

        A couple of students around me relaxed at that and seemed much more at ease with the idea of Percy and Annabeth being teachers. I frowned, why the hell were they teaching when half of the class were war heroes and could easily handle the teaching? Also, what did they mean by their version of defense?

        "Before we get started," Annabeth said. "I want to ask a couple of questions so that I know you lot have an understanding of the basics" - Hermione leaned forward in interest - "first question: what is everyone's idea of a weapon?"

        She asked around and nearly everyone in the class - minus the group of exchange students - responded by holding up their wands (with the exception of a few talking about using their fists). 

        "Oh oh oh, Chase, I got an answer!" Leo waved his hand madly, though his shit-eating grin told me that he knew exactly what he was doing to Annabeth when she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before calling on him.

        "Yes, Leo, why don't you enlighten us with your knowledge?"

        Leo missed the sarcastic tone and puffed up as he spoke. "A weapon doesn't have to be a wand or your fists - although that's a good point people made there when they said that. It can also be just about anything at hand that will help you be able to defeat your opposers quickly and efficiently. So it could range from things like knives, swords, whips, axes, to even random stuff like glass bottles and pipes."

        Annabeth nodded looking grudgingly impressed but not surprised by Leo's answer. "Good job, 10 points to Slytherin." Leo whooped at that and pumped the air with his fists. 

        "Anyone else got an answer as to why we would typically use other weapons rather than wands to fight?" Annabeth asked. The class remained silent and glanced around, waiting for someone brave enough to put their hand up and speak. 

        "Er-" I was surprised to hear Ron's voice and glanced back to see him hunching his shoulders closer but looking determined to answer. "So like, if spells don't work against a certain enemy, then it would be handy to have something non-magical related with you so you have back-up?"

        "20 points to Gryffindor!" Percy grinned at Ron's bashful flush, "not bad, Weasley. But yeah, he's right; I know it may be surprising to a lot of you, but there are baddies out there who are so powerful that oftentimes spells won't affect them. That's where our version of defense comes in."

        Annabeth hoisted up a bag of something that clinked when she set it down on the teachers' desk. I couldn't help curiously looking at it, and I saw Hermione - and basically the whole class - doing the same. I was ready to see what their so-called 'version of defense' was. 

        "In here are our definitions of weapons," Annabeth explained. "I'm going to open this bag and show you a couple of the weapons just so everyone is familiar with the likes of them." She opened the bag and pulled out a long sword that looked very similar to the Sword of Gryffindor. I heard several people gasp and Ron mutter "bloody hell."

        "This is a sword, I'm sure many of you realize judging from your reactions," Annabeth said, moving it around expertly. "This is typically the kind of weapon that we use back in our school, so it's a default when we train with weapons, which is why a lot of us-" she gestured to the group of exchange students and Malfoy - "are pretty proficient at fighting with swords."

        "It's quite common for dem-" Annabeth gave Percy a warning glare and the other quickly changed what he was saying "-students back in America to do fighting techniques with swords, even if they prefer other weapons which we'll show you lot right now." He finished while scratching the back of his neck nervously. Annabeth looked like she would have facepalmed if she didn't have an audience and turned back to the bag; I heard soft murmurings coming from the group of exchange students. 

        I shared a glance with Hermione; what was all that about? What was Percy about to say? I could just see the gears turning about in Hermione's head. 

        "Now a little demonstration of a sword-fight would probably help you guys understand how to fight with one, right?" Annabeth said and the class nodded eagerly. 

        "Alright, so would my assistant, Jason-" Percy's words were interrupted by protests coming from the exchange students group.

        "Not Annabeth? Wow, surprising-" Malfoy commented.

        "I'm far more than just your assistant!" Jason said indignantly. 

        "Oi, I thought we agreed that I'd do the fighting too!" Leo pouted.

        "Leo, we said you'd do everything but the sword-fighting, remember?" Annabeth reminded. 

        "Besides, you don't even own a sword, mate," Malfoy said, his eyes sparkling in amusement. "You said it yourself - you think that swords are overrated."

        "You said what?!" Jason and Percy gasped; Leo glared at an innocently smirking Malfoy. 

        "Thanks a lot for that, mate,"

        Malfoy shrugged nonchalantly, "don't mention it."

        "Jason?" Percy said, his fingers tapping at the speed of light basically against the wood of the desk. "You coming, dude? Or are you scared?" He smirked. 

        Jason's eyes shone in challenge as he stood up and made his way to the front until he was nose-to-nose with Percy. "In your dreams, Jackson. We all know I'm the better swordsman here, other than you Annabeth-" he gave a nod of acknowledgment to Annabeth. "-and Neeks, over there." 

        Nico scowled at the nickname but gave a lazy salute in acknowledgment. 

        Percy scoffed and grinned, "prove it then, Sparky." 

        Before I could understand what was happening, Jason pulled out a gold coin and flipped it up in the air; when it fell back down, however, it had transformed into a long golden sword that didn't look anything like the one Annabeth had shown us. Jason held the base of the sword with ease as if he'd done it countless times. 

        Hermione's gasp pulled me back from staring at Jason and his sword to switching my stare at Percy. The black-haired boy had pulled out an innocent-looking pen. Before I could scoff at how stupid he looked, he uncapped it and a bronze sword replaced the pen, glimmering dimly in the room and rivaling the golden light of Jason's sword. 

        I only had one thought at that moment: what the everloving fuck?

        "What's the bet that Percy will win the fight?" I heard Malfoy whisper to the rest of the group. 

        "Doubt it," Leo and Piper responded promptly. 

        "Bet?"

        "Hell yeah!"

        "I think it'll be a tie, those two are too evenly matched," Nico said, crossing his arms and smirking.

        I tuned out of them discussing the details of their bet - with that di Angelo kid muttering to Malfoy about the dangers of not supporting his own brother as Malfoy scoffed - and saw Annabeth signal for Jason and Percy to ready themselves - the two moved into stances that I recognized as fighting stances back during my time seeing fights with Dudley and his gang - and told them to start.

        Now I had seen plenty of fights before. Not just wizard ones either, but muggle ones as well - being cousins with someone like Dudley Dursley does that to you. But never in my life, had I seen such a vigorously intense fight as Jason and Percy's. The two literally looked like they'd murder each other, and the air began to smell faintly of ozone again, for some reason; the atmosphere felt like someone was about to get electrified any second now and the tiny hairs at the base of my neck stood up. 

        The fight looked like it had gone on for ages when in reality, it had probably lasted for only a couple of minutes. Jason and Percy took turns advancing and thrusting the blades of their swords at each other while deflecting when needed. It was like watching some sort of insane dance, I couldn't look away. When Annabeth tried to maneuver her way in between the clanging of swords and the swiftly moving bodies to stop them, they barely noticed and continued to fight fiercely. She tried calling out to them but they were too focused on each other and the thrill of the fight, most likely, to hear her. 

        Finally, after Percy's sword almost nicked Jason's shoulder, Annabeth sent a look to the group of exchange students and Piper stood up on her chair - Hermione gave a scandalized huff - and yelled in a clear voice. 

        "STOP FIGHTING!"

        It was like a wave of some sort of energy swept over the room and even though I wasn't a part of the fight, I wanted to stop whatever I was doing and listen to anything Piper McLean said. Vaguely, I noticed a lot of the students in the class had that same dazed look on their faces and Hermione was staring with her mouth half-open at Piper - I saw that she didn't look as affected, for some reason. 

        Jason and Percy had stopped their fight - Jason almost instantaneously, but it took a while for Percy to realize that his fighting partner had stopped - and looked around in confusion. I rapidly shook my head to clear whatever haze I was in and was relieved that I now didn't feel like I wanted to stop every war out there for Piper and her voice. 

        "Did we get out of hand again?" Percy asked sheepishly. Jason blinked a couple times like he was trying to remove something from his eye. Annabeth rolled her eyes but the grey in her eyes were much lighter when she turned to look at the two boys. 

        "Yes, you did, as usual. I should have known this time wouldn't be any different," she shook her head and sighed. 

        "Oops?" Percy offered while Jason facepalmed. 

        Annabeth simply rolled her eyes again but didn't bother hiding the soft smile on her face as she turned to look at the rest of the class who was still looking at her and Piper with varying degrees of dazedness.

       "Snap out of it!" Annabeth commanded, snapping her fingers loudly so that it rang around the room in the silence. At the sound of her fingers, most of the class blinked out of their daze and muttered to one another in confusion. Piper had sat back down in her seat and was slouched in it, looking embarrassed. 

        "Er yeah-" Percy said, placing the cap of his pen on the blade of his sword and we all watched it shrink back to being an ordinary pen. He pocketed it and looked around, "that's how fighting with a sword is supposed to look like. But of course, since you guys are just starting off, we'll all go easy so there won't be any...accidents." 

        I had a feeling he meant to say something else other than accidents.

        "Since Jason and Percy were very evenly matched," Annabeth continued on briskly. "They'd probably have gone on like that for ages-" Percy and Jason chuckled awkwardly, "-but of course, due to time restraints, I had to cut it short since this was supposed to be a simple demonstration and not a full-fledged sparring match."

        Percy went to protest but quietened at Annabeth's 'you really want to try that?' look; Jason remained, wisely, silent. 

        As much as I wanted to hate the class, I found that I couldn't. Why you might ask? Because it was actually interesting. After the intense sword-fight between Jason and Percy, Annabeth went over the other various weapons in the bag - daggers, javelins, spears, and many more that I failed to remember because it all made my head spin - and she even passed some of them around the room for the rest of us to hold - "so you all can get the feeling of it," she had explained. 

        I held the sword handle and almost winced at how heavy it was, much heavier than the Sword of Gryffindor, for sure. I was surprised though, at how easily Malfoy held the sword when it came to him; he even twirled it elegantly with one hand, much to the amusement of Leo and surprise of Ron. 

        Bloody git, how did he learn to hold a sword like that? He looked like he'd never even seen a weapon other than a wand before in his entire life. Another thing to add to my - rapidly growing - mental list of questions. I should really write them down on a piece of parchment or else I'll forget some of them.

        When class was finally dismissed, the students packed up their stuff and hurried out the door, chatting excitedly about the class, the sword-fighting demonstration they had witnessed, and what their next Defense class would be like. As I was swept in the throng of black robes, I couldn't help but glance back at the classroom I had just left; Hermione was saying something to me but I barely heard her. I saw the rest of the exchange students, Ron, and Malfoy get up to congratulate Percy, Jason, and Annabeth on a job well done. 

        Now wasn't the time for irrational jealousy, I knew. But the emotion I felt this time, was a sense of rising suspicion and curiosity, begging the most important question running around in my head: where did these people actually come from? 

Chapter Text

Alright heya, I know y'alls were probably expecting an update when you got the notif, and I'm sorry that you got this Authors Note instead, but I want to set some things gay straight.

Warning: there WILL be swearing. 

One: This book is going to be under "Semi-Hiatus" and "Slow Updates" for the time being, BUT the other part of the news is that I'm planning a rewrite for it as well! I looked back on the previous chapters (and I mean like Chapters 1-5) and they were cringy as fuck, pardon the language. I legit cringed more than five times while reading them, and that's when I decided that a rewrite was definitely in order. I'd like to say that my writing has improved over the months, and I'd like to see if I can do another shot at writing a PJO/HP Crossover that, hopefully, won't be as cringy as it is now. 

Also, there will be some MAJOR changes between this one and the rewrite, so just a heads up for that. I'll list what those differences are below in a bit, but I just want y'alls to know that these ideas are all up in the air for now, and I'm still in the stage of planning. 

Two: I sort of lost motivation for this. There are multiple reasons why, and I'm going to be as frank (hahahahaha-) as possible with them, so bear with me. 

        1. Imagine you get a notification that someone commented on your book. You're hella excited, and you click on it immediately. The comment is "UPDATEEEEEEE!1!!11!1111" and your mood drops because you realize that you aren't getting any other feedback except for people hounding you to update (and, in some cases, quite aggressively too). Whatever motivation you had for your book drops down another inch, and you click out, resolving yourself to ignore this book for the time being and focus on other things so you don't get anxious about updating and letting people down if you don't. 

This is exactly what I'm going through, and it fucking sucks as all everloving hell. I understand that some of you guys really love this book (and to those people, thank you so much, you all are amazing! 🥺) but constantly hounding me to update just pulls down my motivation to write, and instead makes me more anxious whenever I think about writing another chapter for this book. I appreciate feedback, bottom line, but not constant comments asking me to update, that's all (and I'm sure I'm not the only author who thinks this way).

[Note: this necessarily doesn't apply to here, but occasionally I do get messages such as what I said above. Since I have this story published on three different writing platforms, I'm just writing this in general, not just directed at messages I get on Ao3]

        2. Rereading the cringe of writing in the beginning chapters just threw all motivation for me to continue this story out the window. Instead, rereading all that made me get the idea to rewrite the whole thing, and expand upon other characters that weren't touched upon -- both canonically and in fanon-- in here. So, ideas about a rewrite are taking up more of my brain than updating this story. 

        3. My schedule is wack as fuck. I hate it, and I wish I could have some downtime to write, but it's bloody effing me up right now, and I know this is the lamest excuse but there's no other way for me to put it! I kind of kept forgetting about this story until I come across it in my Published whenever I rove through it to work on other stories. Then, I feel guilty for not writing and force myself to write, hence me losing more inspiration and attraction to write more of this fic, and the cycle repeats. 

        4. I have some other cool fic ideas that I'm currently working on (some of my readers here might know of these specific fics ;)) and they're taking up more of my writing time than this one, honestly, which I apologize about. 

There are probably more reasons why that I'm forgetting at the moment, but those are the general gist of why I've suddenly lost the updating spur-on for W2WC. 

But then again, don't worry folks, cause there will be a rewrite on the way!! I'm already planning it, and thanks to some Pinterest Headcanons, I'm getting a vague idea of what I want to happen! Just to give y'alls a sort of heads up, I'm going to list what will most likely be seen in the rewrite (note that this isn't set in stone but I'm about 85% sure of it). So here they are...

• Most likely no Percy, Annabeth, OR Percabeth (or rather, a severe lack of the three). Why? Simple; because they've been overdone (both in canon and in fanfics). We already know more than we need to about these three topics, and I wanted to see if I can flesh out some other characters that Rick left in the dust while glorifying Percabeth. (No hate; I've just seen enough of them so I wanted to try something new...again, bear with me lmao). So if you like Percabeth or their character parts, this m i g h t not be the book for you because they won't play that much of a prominent role here. Although idk for sure, because I'm still planning this stuff out...though I'm leaning toward it. 

• Most likely (like 95%) no Jiper/Jasper/whatever else their ship name is-- also no Piper. Why? Even more simple; I'm sick of forcing this ship in my fanfics when I barely even like them as a couple. Don't get me wrong, I can tolerate Jiper but go as far as to write them? Yeah sorry, no thanks. I'm not Rick; I don't know what sort of background cutesy stuff they did before Jason woke up on that bus, so I can't portray them as a couple to their fullest potential...hence why I liked them the least as a couple out of the Seven (ironic cause Jason is one of my favorite characters but Piper is my least favorite). Going off of that, I never liked Piper as a character (her chapters always consisted of her mooning over Jason which bored me tbh), so I'm leaving her out of this story. BUT, I am making Jason one of the main demigods in here (he bloody well deserves it after Rick played him dirty, smh 😔). 

• So, just getting it out there, I'm the person who considers ToA (Trials of Apollo) as one huge fanfic that we were all forced to read. Therefore, I consider nearly all of the shit that happened in it to not have occurred. Stuff like Caleo and such I can deal with, but stuff like what fucking happened to Jason is something I cannot deal with, and I want you all to know that he's still alive to me, and in every fanfic I write involving him. Got it? Good, let's keep moving. 

• Shelper is going to be a thing, albeit a very minor thing cause Piper is barely going to be in here. And also cause after the Burning Maze, I stopped reading ToA and I couldn't care less, really. 

• Lots of gay, hopefully, if it all works out and I don't change plans! Literally, I was looking through the group of demigods who I planned would go to Hogwarts, and I can see the prospect of a gay (bxb and/or gxg) pairing with nearly all of them, and I'm like "y u s!" So yeah...lots of gay, lmao XD

• I'm also going to focus more on the lives of other Hogwarts students (not just the Golden Trio), as well as the demigods. I love both fandoms equally and I would hate to be biased in here (which it seemed like I was slightly after rereading some of my earlier chapters). There will be a plot, but also there will be sub-plots involving the lives of both worlds, not just the demigods. 

• Jason is going to be bisexual. Enough said. 

• Going off of the character rant, I'm going to put more of an emphasis on other characters (like some side-characters) that never got a chance to truly shine, not just the main ones. (Some of these might include, but are not limited to Frazel, Reyna, Drew, and Jason). I'm just trying to elaborate on them so their personalities aren't just brick walls. 

• Most likely some interworld relationships (basically meaning relationships between demigods and wizards/witches)

• THIS IS GOING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIRD PERSON POV!!!! Good lord, I was dying when I was writing this in 1st Person! At first, I was fine with it; but then I realized that I am, in no way, Rick Riordan -- who can effortlessly make 1st Person hilarious and entertaining. So yeah...we're just gonna stick to 3rd Person POV lmao. 

Anything else I hadn't mentioned is probably going to remain the same from this book in the rewrite or I might be forgetting stuff but meh, what else is new lmao. 

        Erm well...other than that, I guess that's it! Sorry if I was a bit salty lmao, my filter is kind of off when it comes to winding explanations such as these.

        Also, my schedule is still crammed so like...the rewrite is gonna be slow, but I'll post the link on here when it gets going, don't worry! I'm sorry once again for letting y'alls down, but I couldn't handle the writing, and such and such of this, and I'd been considering a rewrite for a while, honestly. 

        Sooooo stay safe, peeps! And take care of yourselves! I'll post the Rewrite (hopefully) soon in the near future! 

        ~ Kit 

PS: Oh yeah, two things...

1. Harry + Hermione are still going to be suspicious, BUT Harry isn't gonna be all moony-eyed over the demigods like in this book (idek why I thought that was a good idea...smh). He might be taken aback by their looks (especially when it comes to certain demigods that I won't disclose now, cause ✨p l a n n i n g ✨) but not enough to be irrationally jealous over. Everything I do in this book when it comes to negativity (like these two being suspicious and all) are based on their previous actions, as well as plot stuff, so do not come at me asking "why did you make Harry mean?" because I'm not going to answer your question if you do. 

2. Sooooo similar to the Dron poll in this book, I'm gonna ask a question and I'll take your responses into consideration if you decide to answer! Note: I might not follow it exactly to a T, but it will definitely help me decide. 

        Would y'alls rather Reyna be single or have a love interest in this book? (And if you say love interest, then male or female?) I'm thinking of possibly using Luna as a love interest...but y'alls lmk what you think!

Chapter Text

Yooooo everyone, ya miss me?

*crickets*

No? Okay, yeah that's cool...

I'm just messing around lmao, anyway I know it's been a while since I've mentioned anything about W2WC and the last thing I left you guys on was a rewrite for this fic, right?

Welp, the time has come. I have arrived with news of a rewrite that I've just posted like....uh, less than five minutes ago!! Now y'all know the deets of this rewrite because of my previous chapter, so I shouldn't have to explain all that to you guys again. Now without further ado...

here it is!! But be warned, it's a b i t (okay more than a bit) different from the original plot of W2WC! The characters are more or less different, and there are a lot of plot alterations. The demi-peeps go to Hogwarts only in like Part Two, so just...keep a level head, k? 

Anyway, I had fun making this and I'll be uploading the Prologue too so y'all don't just have an Introduction to go off on, and I hope you guys give this fic a chance! Also also, quite slow updates, alright? I'm taking college classes, and I'm tryna balance my life online and irl, so bear with me, okay? Plus I have a lot more fics to work on, so this is def gonna be slowly updating fic. 

You guys are great and make sure you stay cool! I'll see y'alls over in Henosis! 

-- KIT