Chapter 2

It was still early in the morning and Percy was having a rare good dream. His dad was congratulating him on saving Olympus, Tyson was being given a nicely varnished new club and Annabeth was ranting about architecture. He had just turned down the offer of immortality. The look on Zeus' face? Priceless. So he was not best pleased when it was marred by screaming and yelling. He immediately woke with a jolt and felt oddly nervous when he realised that the dreadful noises were still audible. He recognised them at once, the sounds of battle.

He frantically pulled on as much armour as he could find which just so happened to be a helmet, a breast plate and one leg greave. He tripped out of his cabin and ran to find the battle without stopping to call for backup. In hindsight, probably not the smartest move. As he ran he pulled Riptide from his pocket, yanked the cap off the pen and the sword materialised in front of him. He charged over the top of the hill and various thoughts flashed through his mind; could it be the Hunters? He thought with a flutter of excitement. What kind of monster will I see when I reach the top? Where is my other leg greave?! With these thoughts it wasn't surprising that he stopped dead when he finally reached the other side of the hill.

A group of guys in robes were picking up some other dudes dressed in black. Then they disappeared. Whoa, Percy rubbed his eyes, what the- Was he hallucinating? His vision then fell on two teenagers, who looked to be slightly older than him, crouching around another body on the floor. Next to them were two girls. One of them was crying and the other, a red-head, was doing her best to comfort her. They were mostly all in their pyjamas, which probably didn't bother him as much as it should have done. Suddenly the crying girl stopped. She looked up. And saw Percy.

"Hi?" he asked casually, as though this happened every day, but on the inside he was screaming. Those guys just vanished into thin air! His brain hollered at him but he continued to ignore his immediate battle instincts. The girls looked up at him and the red-head cautiously called out, "Um...Harry, come over here a sec..." She had a British accent and one of the boys who had been crouching jogged over.

"Sure, what's..Oh." He stopped abruptly, looking at Percy in concern. How rude, they hadn't even said hello and his bed-head wasn't that bad. The dude was average height and skinny, with emerald green eyes, a mop of black hair, like Percy's, and round glasses. Percy could just about make out an oddly shaped scar on his forehead. Maybe they were rogue demigods making their way to camp? But that still didn't explain the disappearing people, and the teenagers in front of him seemed to be around his age, making the idea highly unlikely. Oooh, logic. Annabeth would be proud.

"Hey Harry, she's awake. Where d'ya go? Oh." A tall, gangly, red-headed boy stopped talking and stared at him. There was a girl with bushy brown hair leaning heavily on his arm. She looked tired but said, "Don't stare Ronald, its impolite".

Ronald shut his mouth which had been hanging open and stared at the ground instead, the tips of his ears burning.

"Oh stop sulking," the two girls had walked over and the red-head who looked like the dude's sister was trying hard not to laugh. The girl who had been crying was looking at me intently. She had long blond hair and piercing sky blue eyes which were rimmed with red, indicators of her recent distress. She was frowning however, and Percy squirmed a bit before realising that she was probably trying to figure out why he was wearing half a suit of armour.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.

Wow, polite much. Percy figured that, as he was still alive, they weren't monsters and they looked as surprised to see him as he was them, so he decided it was safe to tell them his name.

"I'm Percy Jackson, I'm staying at summer camp," he replied guardedly.

"Summer camp?" she repeated wearily. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Best place for it," Percy replied defensively and the girl looked like she was about to argue before she was interrupted by the still flushed Ronald.

"Do you think we could rest for a bit at your camp? Hermione's not feeling great." he asked, gesturing to the brown-haired girl, brushing over the fact that everyone also looked like they were about to collapse.

"Umm..." Percy hesitated. Clarisse would probably try to whoop his ass if he let a spy or someone into camp, not that she actually could but Percy didn't want to waste his energy evading her.

"Please," the blonde girl looked close to crying again.

Percy sighed. Seeing as a few of them had just disappeared and they didn't seem to be bothered about it, he realised that they probably weren't ordinary mortals. What the heck, he couldn't deal with girl tears. He'd just take them to Chiron and hope someone had hidden Clarisse's new electric spear, preferably in the lava pit.

"Sure, follow me," he replied. The bushy haired girl flashed a small, relieved smile and the group followed him up the hill. He was about to give them permission to enter the camp when they walked across the border without even hesitating. Upon noticing that he had stopped they looked at him questioningly but he shook his head dubiously and carried on walking, wondering who on earth these strange people were.

The group trailed behind Percy, lost in thought and Skye's curiosity began to build as they headed over the top of the hill. Without warning, the group stopped abruptly and Skye gasped at the sight that met her eyes. The camp was full of large white-columned buildings and in the distance she could see miles of strawberry fields, a kayaking lake, stables, a climbing wall that seemed to be shooting lava and a huge pastel blue farmhouse with white trimmings, which is where they seemed to be headed. Skye's jaw dropped and she could've sworn she had just seen a-

"Flying horse," Ron muttered faintly. Ah, so Skye hadn't been imagining it then.

Percy looked a bit worried and said quickly, "Don't ask any questions. Chiron will explain."

Skye could see Harry bursting to say something however and laughed as he tried not to ask a question.

"You look more confused than a Hufflepuff," she told him giggling, the morning's event had left her feeling slightly hysterical. Harry looked indignant and Percy glanced at them weirdly.

"What the hell is a Hufflepuff?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Luckily Skye was saved having to explain by the appearance of a centaur.

Harry's face fell and he made to bow in respect, which Skye thought was a reasonably smart move considering the attitudes of the centaurs that lived at Hogwarts. However Harry aborted his bow at a strange noise from Percy, which sounded like a stifled snigger.

"What?" Harry looked miffed but the centaur smiled kindly, noticing Harry's accent.

"Do not be embarrassed," he said. "I know that my British counterparts are less tolerating of humans and treating them with any less respect would have greatly injured their honour, but here in America we are more relaxed." Then he turned to Percy. "Do not laugh at others' customs, it could get you hurt."

Percy looked at the ground, his ears almost as pink as Ron's had been. It was Skye's turn to smirk, as the centaur turned back to Harry.

"I am Chiron, activities director here at camp, and yet you do not seem shocked by my appearance. Who are you?"

Harry glanced back at his friends but they nodded encouragingly and he said, "I'm Harry Potter, and this is Skye Carter, Hermione Granger and Ron and Ginny Weasley," pointing at them in turn. "Until last year we were all students at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Percy's mouth dropped open and he stared at the group of wizards.

"So you're...magicians?" he asked, gobsmacked. Skye groaned loudly.

"No, we are wizards and witches. Magician is the term used for muggles who play with cards and pretend to do tricks," she snapped pointedly. The others laughed at her indignant tone but Percy was too curious to be embarrassed.

"Wow," he gasped, "So you can like, do magic and stuff? Awesome!"

Harry laughed at his awed face and conjured his patronus, making it run around Percy.

"You're such a show off," Skye grumbled but Harry just shrugged in amusement as his stag raced around them.

"What in Tartarus is that?!" came a girl's shrill voice from behind them. Percy closed his eyes and smiled weakly as Harry's patronus faded. As one the group spun around and was confronted by a girl with long blond hair tied back in a messy pony tail and tangled with leaves and twigs. There was mud on her face and what looked ominously like burn marks on her bright orange shirt. She didn't seem too happy.