Chapter 2

Percy watched Harry's studious looks, like he knew something was up. He probably did. Chiron had warned he might, he was clever. Just hopefully not the truth, anything but that. Then again, mist was a powerful thing, he had been fooled by it for several years. After a while, his ADHD mind pulled him off task. He wondered what Hogwarts was like, what Luke was planning, why the most powerful kids of the big three couldn't fight, why had Luke betrayed them, why others weren't coming with them, and why they had been sent to England of all places. He wanted to know the answers.

He was thinking this when two more people rushed in. A tall, skinny boy with flaming ginger hair and shabby clothes followed a bushy, brown haired girl carrying a pile of books,

"Harry... ummm, and you are?" the boy asked, the girl nudged him angrily but Thalia answered anyway,

"This is Bianca, her younger brother Nico, Percy and I'm Thalia. We're cousins." They stared at her,

"Ummm, why are you here?"

"Our ummm... school isn't really safe anymore."

"Ummm, okay. We're Ron and Hermione" Harry looked at them and smiled half-heartedly, which they returned equally feebly. They awkwardly budged up between Harry and Bianca, grimacing at each other's touch.

When Percy looked at them up close he could tell that they'd been through a lot. Ron had alert but tired emerald green eyes, his ginger hair was laced with almost-but-not-yet grey hairs, his voice was worn and tired but dressed with false joy and you could see his arms slumping forwards. Hermione had intelligent but hurt hazel eyes, like Annabeth's used to be. He cringed at the thought of not seeing his friend and then of her facing Luke. Hermione's hair hung messily around her head in strands and her face was raw and red like she'd been crying, which was very likely. Together they looked like war victims, which was true according to Chiron's story.

The thing about ADHD was sometimes time seemed slowed and sometimes speeded up so it only seemed like a few seconds before Hermione said it was time for their robes, although it had been several hours, which caused a catastrophe,

"What the Hades are robes? I hope you don't mean other clothes 'cause no way in Tartarus am I wearing a school dress!" screeched Thalia,

"We weren't given robes, not dresses, not tops, not trousers, not even spare underwear! Only a stick! Where in Tartarus will we get 'robes'?" agreed Bianca which Percy followed with,

"If it doesn't have pockets I'm definitely not wearing it! Because, gods, I'm not carrying Riptide with me everywhere!" Nico just gave a glare that could definitely kill. Hermione seemed truly flustered and a billion questions popped up: why wouldn't they wear robes? What did Tartarus and Hades mean? What the hell was Riptide? What did it have to do with pockets?

"I guess I'll have to lend you some then." She said calmly.

About five minutes later seven children in flowing robes sat around a glamorous carriage,

"Can I see your wands?" Ron asked. They all pulled out wands. Percy's was coral wood with a mermaid hair centre, thirteen inches long and good at defence. Nico's was black ash wood, ghost vapour centre, twelve and a half inches long, brittle. Bianca's was dead maple wood with a deer hair centre, was fourteen inches long and excelled in healing. Thalia's was pine wood, electrified metal centre and was about fourteen and a half inches, was good at survival. Hermione looked stunned and Percy got the feeling these weren't regular,

"Ummm... look its Hogwarts!"