"They're coming after me," Amy felt her jaw drop at the realization. And looking out the window of the castle, watching as the Heroes marched through the gate and down the drive, she knew that was the absolute truth. "They're storming a castle, for me."
"No," Hugo shook his head. It was ridiculous; a handful of muggles had no hopes of overtaking a castle. "They wouldn't try that, it's pointless. They shouldn't even be able to see the castle, much less try to take it."
"They can, they would, and they're going to try it," Amy shook her head backing away from the window, Hugo and Lily, and starting for the front doors. "They're coming to save me. They think I'm here against my will, they've come to take me back to camp."
"Wait," Lily pulled herself away from the window and ran after Amy, dragging Hugo after her. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"It makes perfect sense," Amy called over her shoulder, digging through her bag for her sword as she started down a flight of stairs. She had never been happier she had decided to carry a Celestial Bronze weapon while at school; it was a very real possibility she would need it to stop Heather and Beth.
"They all think I should be with them, because of my mom. But none of them are thinking I might belong here because of my dad. And I probably should be with them for my own safety, but I never really felt I like I fit in at camp." Lily released Hugo in an attempt to catch Amy.
"What camp?" Hugo shouted leaping down the steps three at a time after Amy and Lily.
"My home," Amy pulled her sword from the bag as she reached the large front doors, thankful for the familiar weight of her weapon in her hand, "Camp Half-Blood."
The adventure began in July; the thirty-first to be exact, when the mail-call for the week included an owl bearing a sealed envelope. The large owl sat at one of the tables in the dining pavilion, holding the letter firmly in its beak as it watched the curious campers enter the pavilion and separate at their respective tables. Even something as odd as the arrival of a messenger owl was not enough to allow them to think they could sit anywhere except their own tables.
"Weird," a young girl commented as she approached the table. "Athena's animal at the Hecate table." She smiled stroking the bird gently. The owl turned a pair of large amber eyes on her. "Amy," the girl turned to look at her sister stumbling toward the table, "the owl's for you."
"I don't have an owl," Amy yawned, falling in a seat at the table. She frowned seeing the bird sitting on her plate. "Erika, there's an owl on my plate."
"It's for you," Erika responded as the owl dropped the envelope on Amy's plate and took off. Amy frowned again picking up the letter.
"I didn't think that owls were trained as messengers," she turned the envelope over to read the address.
Amelia D. Wilkes
Dining Pavilion, Hecate Table
Camp Half-Blood, Half-Blood Hill,
Long Island, New York, U.S.A.
"That's a lot for a single address," she looked up at Erika. "Am I the only one who got one?" she turned around to look around the dining pavilion, seeking out other campers with thick sealed envelopes.
"That was the only owl, Amy," Heather Burgard pushed her way through the gathering Hecate campers to stand at the end of the table. "It's just you."
Heather had grown up at Camp Half-Blood, ever since she was little and a satyr found her suffering at hands of a monster. She was not afraid of retribution from the Activities Director, Chiron, or even the cranky Camp Director, Mr. D, and did pretty much whatever she wanted. She leaned against the table beside Amy, folding her arms to wait.
"Are you going to open it?" Heather asked after Amy sat staring at the letter for several minutes.
"I'm allowed too?" Amy looked up at Heather with wide eyes. She was only eleven, and had never received a letter before.
"Yes," Heather nodded, "you can open your letter."
"Miss Wilkes, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31. Sincerely yours, Elaina Abbott, Deputy Headmistress."
Amy frowned again, her eyes scanning over the cover letter a second time.
"You applied to a school?" Erika snatched the letter from her sister's hands. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't apply to anything. I turned eleven like three weeks ago," Amy pulled a second sheet of paper from the envelope, it was the supply list the Deputy Headmistress had promised in the letter. "But it takes a lot of stuff to attend this school."
"Like what?" Heather leaned over to read the list over Amy's shoulder.
"A cauldron, a wand, a mountain of books," Amy sighed slumping in her seat looking at the book list. "Correction; two mountains of books."
"Do you want to go?" Heather's best friend, Beth Carrington slid up beside Amy, she looked over Erika's shoulder to read the letter from the school. "Girl, you have to reply today."
"Today?!" Amy shrieked jumping up from her chair. "The owl left! How do I respond without an owl?" Amy ran from the dining pavilion, rushing past Chiron with a panicked squeal.
The centaur frowned, looking after Amy then turned to the crowd at table twenty, "what was that about? I've never know Amy to skip breakfast."
"She got a letter this morning," Heather and Beth gathered the acceptance letter and supply list from the other Hecate campers and handed them to Chiron. "I think she went go find an owl to take the response back," Beth continued while Chiron read the letter.
"Did she apply for this school?" Chiron turned to Erika as he asked. All of the demigods in the pavilion shook their heads. "Then how could these people have possibly found a way to contact her? The borders are protected."
"An owl brought the letter," Heather shrugged, "animals aren't repelled by the magic, only monsters and mortals."
"But I've never seen an owl act that way before," Beth lifted one brow at Heather. "It just sat there, chilling until Amy sat down."
"Is she going to attend this school?" Chiron asked, looking to Erika for the answer.
"Can she?" Heather asked before Erika could stumble through an answer. "I mean they're both year-rounders, they're here for a reason."
"We're here because our dad died," Erika answered quickly; "a monster got him when we were like five and our mother brought us here so the system wouldn't separate us."
"Hecate cared that much?"
"She said we were stronger together, and this was the only place we could stay together as children," Erika responded looking up at Chiron for confirmation. "Amy's always been better at the magic stuff than me, but I'm stronger than her and have a stronger scent."
"So this letter could be from like, a super smart monster, trying to separate you and lure her into a trap?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Chiron cast a disapproving look at Heather and Beth. "This could be a legitimate school, wanting to teach Amy about magic."
"But she's in the Hecate Cabin, how much closer to magic can you really get?" Heather scoffed disbelievingly.
"Actually being with Hecate, I think," Beth frowned thinking about it. "I mean learning from the mother of all magic would be as close as you get."
Heather rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're hilarious."
"You know I try," Beth smiled sweetly.
"And that was sarcasm," Heather gave a small forced smile at her best friend. "What I was saying is that Amy is already in the best place to teach her all the magic she wants to know. And if she leaves the monsters will get her."
"She knows how to defend herself," Erika defended her sister heatedly. "She hasn't just be sitting around for the past six years."
"That's all just practice. It's completely different once you've crossed the border," Beth waved the enraged response from Erika aside.
"Then its real life and death situations; no Apollo campers to heal you, no Ambrosia or Nectar, just you and a dangerously high pile of days with no sleep behind you," Heather leaned against the table again. "And she'll be alone if she attends this school."
"I think if she wants to go, we should let her go," Percy Jackson entered the dining pavilion, carrying his sleeping daughter in his arms. "I would think a school that teaches children magic would have it own protection boundaries."
"You're being overly optimistic," Heather gave the man a deadpan look. "It has to be a trap."
"Why? Amy doesn't have a strong scent, she barely has one at all. If Hecate had not brought the two of you here I doubt Amy would have been able to cross the border," Chiron took the sleeping child from Percy and handed him the letter from the school. "All of the satyrs talk about her apparent lack of the very thing that makes the demigods targets of the monsters."
"So she's a weak demigod, but she's still a demigod," Beth countered quickly, leaning against the table beside Heather, watching Chiron hold the child. "I mean, not all of us have a strong scent but we still attract monsters. Marina and Gia are toddlers and they attract monsters too. "
"They are also legacies of children of the Big Three, their scent is still stronger than Amy's."
"And it doesn't help that all of their parents fought against Kronos and, or Gaia," one of the Athena campers offered from his table on the other side of the pavilion. The gathered demigods nodded agreement.
"The point is, if Amy wants to attend this, Hogwarts, we should allow it," Percy stuffed the letter in his back pocket, took Marina back from Chiron and moved to the staff table, ending the discussion.
"I don't think they'll let her go," Heather offered to Beth as they moved away from the Hecate table to their tables.
"Me either, don't you remember what we had to go through to leave," Beth sighed shaking her head. "And Percy was the main one trying to keep us in here."
"And Piper," Heather clicked her tongue as she stopped between tables five and six. "But who knows, Percy seems to want to send her to this school," she continued looking up to the staff table. Percy had handed his daughter over to Annabeth, who had a plate of food ready for the toddler.
"And I think she'll go too," Beth dropped in her regular seat at table five, drumming her fingers on the edge of table. "Percy usually gets his way."
"Only because he can convince Annabeth to side with him," Heather shook her head, looking away from Percy Jackson and his family. "But this is different. It's a school, it will have boundaries to protect the students."
"Which means there's really no reason for Amy not to go," Beth sighed.
"So we're going to lose a year-rounder."
Back at the Hecate table, Erika sank into her seat staring at the Amy's plate, thinking the same thing.