Chapter 1

Percy POV

It was getting towards the end of the summer and I was sleeping very peacefully in my bed at Camp Half Blood when all of a sudden there was an urgent and very loud knock on the door.

"Who is it and what do you want?" I asked, quite annoyed.

"It's me, Chiron," the half horseman said. "I'm sorry if I woke you, but we have some important things to discuss at the big house. Just be there in 15 minutes, please. The meeting is at 7:30."

"Okay," I said groggily. "See you in a bit."

After I was dressed, I meandered towards the big house. As I walked past the Ares Cabin, I was dragging my hand along the wall. I should have known better because that cabin was usually surrounded with traps. That thought had just popped into my head when I heard something trigger. Then, cables latched around both my ankles and started dragging me back and forth through the wet grass and mud. This went on for about two minutes before it automatically disarmed. I got up cursing as I saw someone run out of a cabin up ahead. It was Annabeth coming out of the Athena cabin. She didn't even notice me and she sprinted up to the big house. I had a feeling that she knew what was going on and it actually was pretty important.

I got up groaning. This was just great. Now I was all dirty, had some blood running down my arms, and had some scratches on my face from getting dragged across the ground. I'm not going to sugarcoat it here, but I was extremely ticked off. Anger tends to give me tunnel vision so I decided to ditch the stupid meeting, regardless of how important it sounded, and go chill at the bottom of the canoe lake. I'm not proud of my decision, but I was mad and it happened to be a very efficient way to clean myself up.

I got out of the canoe lake at about 9:30, two hours after the meeting started, after accidentally starting a giant game of hide and go seek tag at the bottom of the lake. I beat them, of course, but after I got out the first person to see me was Clarisse, and by the look on her face, I knew there was Hades to pay.

"Annabeth is worried sick right now," Clarisse said, "she thought you'd disappeared again. You're probably lucky if she doesn't dump you after this one, Prissy."

"It's your cabin's fault!" I yelled angrily. "I got caught in one of your stupid traps. I just went and got cleaned up!"

"Cleaned up, you say? You were getting cleaned up for two hours?" Clarisse asked mockingly.

"Man," I said, "you're really looking for a beating aren't you?"

"Let's go," she roared, "I'm standing right here, baby!"

"I'm not going to fight you, but I look forward to wrecking you in whatever team game we do next!" I laughed.

"Oh my Gods, Percy," she exclaimed, "just admit you're scared of me!"

I just ignored her as I usually tend to do and went to breakfast. I was way too hungry for my liking. I knew that I'd have to deal with Chiron so I braced myself as I walked into the dining pavilion. Chiron made eye contact with me, and through that fierce gaze, I knew he was scolding me about skipping the meeting. Thank the Gods that it wasn't worse than that but when Annabeth saw me she flipped out, and that's an UNDERSTATEMENT! I'm not going to go into the details because it was an ugly scene. Let's just say that Annabeth was a little bit torked off.

After breakfast Chiron dragged me into the Big House to tell me what it was all about.

"Percy, have you ever heard of witches or wizards?" Chiron asked in a most serious tone.

"Witches? Like the ugly, green, warty, potion stirring hags?" I asked, trying my best to look innocent. "Or wizards? The dudes in pointy hats waving wands and wearing robes."

"No Percy." Chiron said. "Witches and wizards are another group of humans gifted with certain magical gifts that exist on this earth. We are, as you know, one of them, and they are one of the others."

"One of the others?" I asked with a tone of uncertainty.

"Yes, there are many different almost human creatures on this earth." Chiron explained. "The others are not important right now because witches and wizards are the most pressing thing that we need to discuss."

"Okay, but why do we need to discuss them?" I asked curiously.

"Because Percy, as you are perfectly aware of, we defeated Kronos last summer." Chiron said, still acting nervous. "We all thought that he was hopefully gone for at least a few centuries, but we have gotten news from my and old friend of mine. He is a British colleague by the name of Albus Dumbledore. Their most frightful archenemy, who goes by the name of Voldemort, has just risen. This could only be with the help of Kronos."

"So what do we have to do?" I asked, cursing under my breath. "Man, I thought we could just relax for a summer."

"You shall go to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and learn magic to the best of your ability. You will fit in as exchange students from a small, unheard of, wizarding school that exists here in upstate New York. You, Annabeth, Clarisse, and Thalia are to be in the sixth year, and Nico will be in year 4. Do you understand?" Chiron asked.

"I think so." I said with still a small trace of confusion. "So do we have to fight this guy off?"

"You may have to, Percy, but please don't try to go looking for trouble. This war may come sooner than the wizards foresought. They predict that it will come next year, but I fear they are mistaken." Chiron said very seriously. "I believe it will come while you are at Hogwarts."

"Alright. Sounds like a fun, new experience to me," I said sarcastically. "When do we leave?"

"After dinner tonight you will take a plane to Great Britain. And yes Percy, you will be able to fly, I have communicated with Zeus and he has agreed to let you." Chiron said, as if reading my mind. "You will stay at small local inn called the Leaky Cauldron. You will use tomorrow to buy all of your wizarding supplies, and then the next day you will go to the Kings Cross Train Station."

"Wait?" I asked. "We're going all by ourselves?"

"Oh," Chiron mused, "I forgot to mention that I'm going to be going along with you."

"Always a master of suspense" I said. "Wait? But how are you going to fit in?"

"They have centaurs there you know," Chiron explained. "I will fit in as me, myself, and I."

I didn't reply to his smart comment. But after dinner we drove to a New York City airport, and after we got past security we boarded the plane. Our adventure was on.