DISCLAIMER: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

Chapter One

Shoelaces

The only time Noah was ever certain that she was a child of Hecate, goddess of magic and witchcraft, was when she was tying her shoelaces.

A tingling rush would course through her veins and send warm shivers into her fingertips—then her laces would lift themselves from their limp state and form a sturdy knot that would last all day as she ran from the lava on the climbing wall, had her foot stepped on by the pegasi in the stables, and got her butt handed to her in sword fighting matches against one of the Stoll brothers from Cabin 11.

Noah stood hunched over in the sand pit, gasping for breath. Her ears were still ringing from the sound of clashing metal as another one of her attacks was blocked. She turned back to look at Connor, and he smiled smugly.

"Come on, I gave you enough time to block that one."

"Suuure you did," she wheezed. "Anyway, that was…a l-lucky shot."

Connor snorted at this. "More like seventeen lucky shots."

She took a deep breath and winced, deciding to swallow her next remark. She couldn't help but be a little jealous at his athletic build even though he was only thirteen. They'd been going at this for an hour and he had yet to break a sweat. Meanwhile, loose strands of her disheveled, black hair—same as her mother's—clung to her dark forehead and when she licked her lips, they tasted salty. Her eyes were like her father's, dark chocolate and squinting against the blazing Long Island sun.

Anyway, she hated sword fighting, but it was either this or sit in meditation for two hours with her own siblings. Swords were heavy and she couldn't get used to the feeling of swinging them around Connor, on the other hand, looked perfectly comfortable with his Celestial Bronze short sword—a gift from his dad, Hermes. It must've felt nice to know that at least one of your parents acknowledged your existence by giving you a cool magical item.

Even her half-sister, Lou Ellen, had gotten something from their mom. It was a glittery silver hair scrunchy that not only kept her hair out of her face, but also boosted her magic powers by five times. The best part was that none of her siblings could "borrow" it without permission from her. Anybody who tried would find their body parts rearranged for the next two hours. It was this that made her the automatic counselor for Cabin 20.

"Ow! J-Jeez, Connor!" she cried, clutching her throbbing leg where a large bruise was already forming.

"Sorry! I thought you at least saw that one coming," he drawled.

She tried to glare at him, but it didn't work as well since her eyes were still watering. Connor only laughed and held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Ok, ok, just kidding! We can stop here."

Almost too relieved, she let the training sword slip from her grasp and collapsed onto her sore rear end, not caring that sand was getting into her clothes.

He rolled his mischievous blue eyes as he twirled his sword around.

Showoff, she thought irritably.

"You've got to be the most out of shape demigod ever."

"Yeah well, n-not all of us can b-be related to the god of athletes," she mumbled after she had finally caught her breath.

"You're right. I am pretty gifted."

She only rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but grin.

"I don't get it," she said finally, "I mean, why did you…wh-why are you even…" She trailed off, trying to find the right words, but then shook her head.

"What?" Connor stabbed his sword into the sand and sat down beside her. "Just say it."

Biting her lip, Noah hesitated again before speaking up. "Why did you even ask me to do this? Since I'm from Cabin 20 and all…"

Connor didn't answer right away, watching her dig the heel of her shoe in the sand as she waited for the uncomfortable silence to end. Of course he knew what she was getting at.

After Kronos was defeated and the Second Titan War finally brought to an end, all the minor gods and goddesses had been given cabins in Camp Half-Blood, even those who had sided with Kronos. Despite this peace offering, it didn't change the fact that many of the original campers had lost brothers and sisters in the war. While there were never any outright fights or attacks against campers of the new cabins, especially since Chiron kept a careful eye on things, tension still ran high and wounds from the war were not easily healed.

Finally, Connor answered,

"Look, Noah…I just needed a sparring partner and you offered." He pushed his curly, brown hair out of his eyes and flashed his famous crooked grin. "Besides, anyone who can blast a dresser through a wall is cool with me."

Before Noah could splutter out any kind of argument, someone called her name,

"There you are, Noah!"

She and Connor jumped up and turned around where Simon, her older half-brother, was jogging towards them. He was a weedy-looking boy with the same green eyes as their mom and a sly, pointy face like a rat that made it seem like he was planning to turn someone into a garden slug.

"Why? What is it?" Noah asked him, slapping sand off her shorts.

"You've got, uh, something waiting for you back at the cabin. Come on before Lou Ellen gets even more ticked off."

And before she could open her mouth to ask him what he was talking about, her grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off.

O0O0O0O

"Whoa…hope this doesn't turn out like the dresser thing," Connor said, staring blankly along with the rest of camp.

Perched on the roof of Hecate's cabin were at least twenty owls, all looking very unconcerned with the confused campers below or the stocky, red-faced teen yelling at them.

"Sh-Shut up about that. I don't even know what's going on," Noah moaned as her cheeks burned and she looked at her feet.

The "dresser thing" had been over a month ago, but she should've known that she'd never live it down.

There was a magnificent golden dresser in the Hecate cabin which could do magical laundry so that every camper who opened their personal drawer would find their clothes fresh and neatly folded inside every other week. It also added a new drawer whenever another child of Hecate was claimed.

Noah had tried to make it levitate one morning after Simon had been teasing her again about her lack of magical skills. Even though she managed to prove him wrong and lift it off the ground for about two seconds, it still went flying through the window, taking out a huge chunk of the wall with it.

Chiron had not been amused, to say the least. Nor had the other five campers who'd been blasted twenty feet into the air thanks to the magic stones the cabin was made of.

At least no one turned into a tree, she wanted to argue. But she kept her mouth shut and tried not to die from embarrassment.

"Noah, what're you trying to pull here?"

Her head snapped up as Lou Ellen towered over her now that she had given up on screaming at the owls.

"M-Me? I haven't—how sh-should I know what's going on?" Noah spluttered, taking a half-step back.

"Yeah! How can you be so sure it's her fault?" Connor piped up. "Maybe she's been cursed by Athena."

"Not helping," Noah muttered. Though some part of her wondered if he could've been right.

She was still learning how to survive the reality of demigods and Greek mythology-turned-real, but one of the things she had learned right away was that the gods were temperamental and would have no trouble turning on you for whatever reason.

"Not her fault? There's a letter inside with her name on it, so who else could it be?" Lou Ellen snapped at Connor. Then she turned back to Noah. "Did you try a summoning spell after I specifically told you not to?"

"A letter? I don't—" But then realization hit her harder than Connor had earlier and she ran towards the cabin, not caring about all the eyes watching her back.

It can't be, she told herself.

The letter should have come on her eleventh birthday months ago. She remembered waiting all day and night for it, but to no avail. No letter and no explanation, only bitter disappointment that gnawed away at her. She knew her dad had felt the same way even when he tried to comfort her and tell her not to be upset, that maybe a mistake had been made.

And because she hadn't gotten her letter, he sent her to Camp while he moved back to England to get on with the rest of his life. He'd tried to cover it up with some stupid excuse in a note saying he was doing it to keep her safe, but she could still visit whenever she wanted.

Visit only. Not to come back and live with him anymore.

He'd even scribbled his new address on a separate piece of paper, but she hadn't written back to him. There were some days she thought she would, but she forgot about it as soon as she started up another day of training.

Yet there it was—a thick, yellowed envelope with a purple wax seal of an elegant crest: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large 'H.' Loopy green handwriting danced in front of her searching eyes, but she managed to make out what it said.

Noah Run

Half-Blood Hill

USA Long Island, New York

Cabin #20

She ignored Lou Ellen calling her from outside, demanding again to know what magic spell she had screwed up this time and tore into the letter with growing hope and fear.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

To N. Run,

It is our pleasure to inform you that you've been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed are a list of required items and textbooks you will need. The term begins 1 September and your reply is expected no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

It took her an extra minute or so the get through the whole letter, but with each line her eyes grew wider and wider. This was really happening. It wasn't her ADHD acting up or the Mist playing tricks on her. She vaguely heard the sound of wings flapping in the wind as the owls flew off.

O0O0O0O

The rest of the day passed in a blur and even though Noah went on with her normal routine, it all felt so alien and distant to her with the Hogwarts letter tucked into her pocket so she could read through it again in between activities.

She couldn't even join in on the campfire songs, her mind too far away. She didn't know what scared her more, having to write her dad or the possibility of her wish was actually coming true and that she'd get to go to the magical school she'd grown up hearing about. She'd even asked her mom for guidance in a silent prayer as she gave her offering to the gods at dinner.

Please help me figure out what to do.

She'd never had any real contact with the goddess before and wasn't sure whether to expect a sudden epiphany or to be struck by lightning as some kind of sign. If something was supposed to happen, it didn't.

It wasn't until the nighttime sky was littered with stars and the rest of camp was quiet that she sat on the front steps outside her cabin with a pen and paper. She spent a few minutes looking for different constellations before finally clenching the pen in her hand.

Dear Dad,

It's Noah.How are you? Sorry I haven't written back to you until now—a part of her wasn't really, but it was the best transition she could come up with—but I got my Hogwarts letter today.

I would like to go, but I don't know how I'll manage the trip and everything. If you could help me out, thank you. If it's too much trouble, that's ok too. Hope you're ok and I still have your letter.

Noah

She stared at her writing, feeling her eyes prickle when she got to the last line. She didn't know why she put that, only that maybe he should know. And Love,Noah would've been weird to use, she decided.

"Ok, that's done," she sighed to herself.

So she carefully folded the letter and went back inside, actually starting to feel a little better.

A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! My main focus is to keep Noah from being a Mary-Sue as much as possible so you'll want to continue reading about her. See you in chapter 2 where she finally meets Hermione.