Chapter 1
Tom looked up from the goblet he was trying to polish with a grimy rag as three young children tumbled through the entrance to the leaky cauldron. One of the kids, the only boy, sat up slowly and groaned, glaring at the ceiling accusingly before quickly looking down, a guilty expression on his face. The other two looked around at the grimy little pub, trying to ascertain where they had landed. Tom hurried around the bar.
"Who are you?" The fair-haired girl demanded as he drew nearer, "And where is this?"
"Yer in the Leaky Cauldron and I'm Tom!" Tom declared grandly. "Will ya be stayin' ere or will ya be wantin' ta git ta Diagon Alley?"
The girl glanced at her companions. "Staying here." She decided after a moment.
Tom gestured for them to follow and led them up a rickety staircase to a room that looked as dirty as the pub downstairs. "Tha'll be three galleons," he said.
The children looked at one another, panicked. "Umm…" The boy started, patting his pockets. His eyes widened. Then, slowly, he reached into the pocket and gingerly drew out three gleaming golden coins.
Tom nodded, snatched them from his hand, pushed the kids the rest of the way into the room and shut the door behind them.
.oOo.
Lou Ellen sat down on the nearest of the three beds, releasing a puff of dust. "What just happened?"
Percy replied seriously, "You look like a little kid."
The three demigods looked at each other, realizing, in fact, that they all looked like they were ten years old or younger.
Lou rolled her eyes and muttered, "Mother."
Annabeth nodded. "Of course. Lady Hecate must have changed our appearances using her mist. But where exactly are we? That man, Tom, spoke in English but his accent wasn't very recognizable…"
"We could go to that diagonal place he mentioned," Percy offered, shrugging.
"Yeah, and maybe find a post office or some kind of historic site so we can figure out where we are without drawing too much attention to ourselves." Lou added.
"Alright," Annabeth said, "let's go now then."
.oOo.
After convincing Tom that no, they hadn't changed their minds about staying at the Leaky Cauldron and yes, they did absolutely have to go to Diagon Alley immediately, right away and no, they could not go tomorrow instead, the three demigods followed the barkeeper into the grubby little alleyway behind the pub.
Annabeth was a little skeptical when Tom led them towards a dead end and she was definitely questioning his sanity by the time he had whipped out a short wooden stick and started tapping at the brick walk in front of them. However, when it opened into an archway she thought nothing of it, except to wonder if Leo might have invented something like that if they had defeated Gaea.
She was so preoccupied by this wistful train of thought that she nearly walked into Percy, who had frozen misstep in front of her.
She turned her head sharply to see what had caused him to stop and nearly died of shock. "Holy Hades…"
A/N: Hope you enjoyed Chapter one! Just a heads up, this will be updated sporadically, not on any schedule. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out soon though. Please review!