Taking into account the new direction that I've realized this fic was going, I've rewritten Harry's fifth year. Hope you enjoy the more condensed version of all the important bits!

I don't own PJO or HP.

Just After Harry's Hearing at the Ministry of Magic

The Summer After the Second Titan War

12 Grimmauld Place

The motley crew of Americans that stood before Harry somehow knew Lily Tonks. Their sideways glances and Lily's purposeful avoidance of eye contact was a dead giveaway. The crowned punk girl was frowning at her, while the clearly emo (or at least very-into-the-color-black boy) glared at her, almost like he wanted to murder her but in a friendly way. The other two, a blonde girl and a green eyed boy, whispered conspiratorially amongst themselves, nudging each other's shoulders as they did. Their American accents were strong (New England, Harry supposed), and Lily did say something about spending summers in America. Yet, there were millions of Americans in America. It just couldn't happen to be the few that Lily knew that showed up on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place? Could it?

"Introduce yourselves, dears," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling sweetly at the four Americans.

The green eyed boy held up a hand awkwardly. "Percy Jackson."

Harry froze, not paying attention to any of the other names. Harry knew him. Percy looked familiar, down to the crazy black hair, and the moment Harry heard his name, Harry knew that they had met before–if only he could remember when, where, and why. (Ron would later tell him that it was because they looked almost exactly the same. Except the American was buffer. And hotter.)

"Harry," Hermione hissed, nudging his arm.

Harry looked up, pulled out from inside his head. He must have missed the names of the other introductions. "I'm Harry."

Beside him, Lily squeaked out, "Lily Tonks."

Rather than saying something normal, such as 'nice to meet you,' Percy turned to the blonde and shouted, "Ha! I win!"

"Lily! You little twat, why didn't you tell us you were going to be here?" the punk girl exclaimed, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Lily shrugged, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes. "Didn't know you lot were coming."

Ginny glanced at Lily and the Americans. "Lily, you know them?"

She nodded casually. "Annabeth is my half sister. We met at that summer camp I go to in America, the one Dad always sends me to."

"Oh," Ginny mumbled, frowning. Harry could tell that she felt very much out of the loop, which was weird, considering that she thought of Lily as her best friend.

Mrs. Weasley, ever the opportunist, took the awkward silence to interject and get the group moving along. "Well, Lily dear, I'm glad you could join us in welcoming your American friends while Nymphadora is out on Order business. Now," she said, turning to the Americans," you can put your trunks upstairs, then come straight down. There's a good deal of cleaning left to be done in this old house, and if you're staying here, dears, you're helping!"

o.O.o

Apparently, teenagers who toil together, bond. The eleven teenagers learned that in the space of three days, as Mrs. Weasley set them to work around the house. After hours of smelling cleaning potions, it made them all loopy enough to finally consider each other friends.

Just before the holidays ended, when the teens minus the twins were holed up in Harry's and Ron's room (which was rather crowded at the moment, given the fact that nine teens stuffed themselves inside), the booklists arrived, along with letters for the Americans.

"It's official!" Annabeth declared after reading her letter aloud. "We are the American Exchange Students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! The AESHSWW!"

Ron frowned.

"I'm sticking to Americans," Ginny decided. "That's a mouthful."

"So you four need all the books," Harry said, "but we only need The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, by Miranda Goshawk and Defensive Magical Theory, by Wilbert Slinkhard."

With a sudden loud crack, Fred and George Apparated into the room. Thalia had an arrow in her quiver in half a second, and it stuck itself just above George's ear in the next second.

"Blimey," George remarked, staring at the arrow embedded in the wall.

Lily tsked. "Thalia, I just polished that wall!" she scolded, utterly nonchalant about the odd mixture of powerful auras that surrounded her and made everyone else slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry," she muttered, walking over and pulling the arrow out of the wood.

The wizards were fairly used to the Americans' jumpiness and fondness of weaponry. The Brits were scared for the first week that the Americans were there, but after that, it just became a thing that just happened, like summoning a teacup. Still, when the arrow almost killed George, everyone jumped.

"George, you alright?" Fred asked, concern written all over his face.

"No!" George suddenly dropped onto Lily's lap. "I'm dying! Tell Angelina that I-" George made a choking noise, then stuck his tongue out, exaggerating his "death."

Lily pushed him off of her lap.

George landed with a thud and a protesting, "Ow!"

"Blimey!" Fred said. "All we wanted to know was who assigned the Slinkhard book!"

"Because it means a new DADA teacher," George finished, rubbing his side.

"But apparently-"

"-you've decided to play a game-"

"-called beat up the twins-"

"-instead of answering our question!" they chorused.

"What happened to the old one?" Nico asked.

"Old ones," Ginny corrected.

"We've had four," Ron added. "In four years."

"One sacked, one dead, one's memory removed, and one locked in a trunk for nine months," said Harry, using his fingers to count.

"Dam," Percy whistled through his teeth. Then he smiled. "That's a lot of dam teachers."

Thalia snorted, holding back laughter. "And a lot of dam books that we need."

"Ron?" Hermione asked. "Does that say what I think it says?"

Percy snatched the letter and squinted at it. "You're perfect?"

"Gimme that!" Ron said, snatching the letter back. His mouth dropped open in a perfect 'o' as he stared at the letter. "Prefect," he breathed.

"Prefect?" Fred cried. "Prefect?"

"No way," George agreed in disbelieving voice.

"What's a prefect?" Percy asked.

"It's like a step down from Head Boy!" Ron said, still in a daze.

"Who's a Head Boy?" Percy asked, still bewildered.

"There's been a mistake," Fred declared.

"They're basically people who can go around and make sure everything is alright and everyone is behaving. I'm one too," Hermione said.

The twins muttered amongst themselves and Harry.

"I thought it said that Ronald was perfect. I thought Ron had an admirer," Percy grumbled to no one in particular.

"Prefect, ickle Ronnie the prefect," Fred groaned.

George handed the badge (that George had most likely stolen from him) back to Ron, muttering about their mother.

Said mother suddenly appeared in the doorway with a basket of robes tucked under her arm. "Ah, here you all are. Now, we'll be going to Diagon Alley today, to Gringotts first to get money for you Americans, then to shop. And-oh! Is that a prefect badge?"

Hermione nodded shyly.

"Oh, Hermione, I'm so proud! Do you know who the other is?"

"Actually, Mum, it's me."

"Ron? Oh Ron! That's wonderful! That's everyone in the family!" Mrs. Weasley cried.

"What are we, the next door neighbors?" George asked.

"Wait until your father hears!" she gushed, going on and on about 'ickle perfect prefect Ronnie' as the twins put it.

o.O.o

September First

Getting to Platform 9¾ was the worst part of the journey (including, but not limited to, the argument that ensued between Lily and Annabeth about the logic of running through a wall, which only ended because Ron physically pushed the arguing duo through the wall and onto the platform). Boarding the train was much easier (after multiple hugs, and a scolding for Sirius).

As Fred and George disappeared with their dreadlocked friend (Lee Jordan, as they introduced him to the Americans), Harry turned to the still rather large group of teens. "Shall we find a compartment large enough for nine?"

"Er-" Ron looked a bit flustered.

"We're — well — Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage," said Hermione, glancing at Ron.

Ron stared at his hand.

"Your hand is clean," Percy informed him.

Ron shot Percy a dirty look.

Harry talked to his friends awkwardly as the Americans watched them with a growing feeling that they shouldn't be watching.

"I'm not Percy," Ron finished.

"Course you're not," Percy said. "I'm Percy. You're Ron."

Harry chuckled a bit as the two prefects walked away from the group.

"Come on," Lily said. "Let's go find a compartment."

Murmurs of agreement sounded through the group. As they walked by, people pointed and whispered, and Lily wasn't sure if they were whispering about the Americans or Harry. Either one was just as plausible.

A sweating boy ran up to them in the last carriage. "Hi Harry...Hi...Who are you?"

The last bit was directed to the Americans.

"We're-" Percy started.

"People who Rumbleroar-" Thalia interjected.

"Dumbledore," Annabeth corrected.

"-Dumbledore will introduce later!" Thalia finished.

"Oh," the boy said, not looking any less confused. "Well, everywhere's full and I can't find a seat so…"

"What do you mean?" Nico said, pulling the door of one of the compartments open. "There's only one person in here."

"Who's that?" Percy whispered to Lily.

Ginny overheard, and pushed everyone into the compartment. "Guys, this is Loony- sorry, Luna Lovegood. Luna, is it okay if we take these seats?"

Loony nodded.

Sweaty boy shot the Americans a quick smile. "I'm the same year as Harry is," he explained, "so I've been sleeping in the same dorm as him for the past four years."

The Americans just nodded.

Percy raised his hand. "When is food?"

"When will there be food," Annabeth corrected.

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but Luna beat him to it.

"You're Harry Potter," she said, ending the conversation she had been having with Ginny. "And you're all from the States."

"Yeah," Percy answered, "but actually. When is there going to be food?"

"Well," the sweaty boy said, "there's going to be a feast at school once we get there, but the trolley cart should come by soon. I'm Neville Longbottom, by the way."

Percy snorted. Annabeth elbowed him.

"What's going to happen once we get to school anyway?" Annabeth asked curiously.

Lily scrunched up her nose. "I'm not exactly sure. Normally, when students first come, they're sorted into they're houses. But with you guys...I'm not sure. Professor Mcgonagall will explain. Probably."

"Professor who now?" Thalia muttered.

"Professor Mcgonagall. She's the Transfiguration teacher."

"What's Transfiguration?" Thalia asked, intrigued.

Lily smiled. "I keep forgetting that Chiron explained absolutely nothing to you guys."

"He did tell us that the school was called Pigfarts," Percy supplied helpfully.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Hogwarts, Seaweed Brain. The school is called Hogwarts."

"Same thing," Percy grumbled.

o.O.o

Hogwarts

"Come on," she said. "The others are over there." Lily pointed to a familiar head of red hair next to a head of messy black hair.

"Can't you see what's pulling the carriages?" Harry asked Ron impatiently as the demigods walked over to the group of wizards that had secured a carriage, tripping over their robes.

"Are you feeling all right, Harry?" Ron responded.

"He's feeling fine," Lily muttered to Ron. She turned to Harry. "Those are called Thestrals."

"Thestrals?"

Lily nodded. "You can only see them if you've seen someone die."

The group of teens crowded into the carriage, and it started moving.

"I can see them too," Luna said. "I've been able to see them since my first day here."

Lily sighed. "Since I was thirteen." She looked at the Americans, an odd look passing over each of their faces, as though they were remembering something that had happened when they were all thirteen.

"I've never been able to see them before," Harry murmured.

"I saw my mother die," Luna remarked. "It was very sad." She turned to Lily. "Who was it for you?"

"That's a bit rude, don't you…" Hermione started, but was cut off with a look from Lily.

"It's fine, Hermione." Lily took a deep breath. "Lee Fletcher. I was running to help him, but I was too late. He died right in front of me."

"Sorry. How did it happen?" Ginny asked.

Lily looked like a deer caught in headlights. "He fell off a cliff." Second only to Hermione for top of the class, yet thinking on her feet was not one of Lily's strong suits.

Ginny looked like she wanted to ask more, but Luna spoke before she could.

"We all know who it was for you, Harry."

"Cedric Diggory," Harry said quietly. "Murdered by Lord Voldemort."

Thalia choked. "Lord Mold-shorts?"

Percy let out a guffaw. "That is the best name for a villain. Ever."

"His name is Lord Voldemort," Harry corrected.

"Lord Moldyshorts it is!" Percy crowed.

"Could you please stop saying You-Know-Who's name?" Ron asked all too politely. "He's called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for a reason! You don't say his name!"