PERCY

We all collected our trunks from their dispersed positions and lugged them around the corner. What we saw made us all crack up.

There were a bunch of people wearing some of the weirdest clothes I've ever seen. They had different hair styles – one girls was bubble-gum pink – and each person was holding a broomstick.

"What're we gonna do with them," Thalia snorted, pointing to the brooms. "Sweep the floor?"

The girl with pink hair frowned slightly before making eye contact with Chiron.

"This is them then?" She asked. Her accent was British. Chiron nodded.

"Yes, Nymphadora." The girl, Nymphadora, huffed at the sound of her name and looked at us demigods.

"Tonks," she snapped. "My name is Tonks."

Chiron nodded in apology. Then he faced us.

"Auror's, this is Jason Grace," Jason waved. "Piper McLean," Piper curtsied. "Hazel Levesque," Hazel waved awkwardly. "Frank Zhang," Frank saluted and I sniggered. Chiron ignored me and continued.

"Leo Valdez," Leo stuck out his tongue. "Annabeth Chase," Annabeth waved and smiled. "Thalia G-"

"Just Thalia," Thalia interrupted. Chiron nodded.

"Of course. Umm, this is Nico di Angelo," Nico looked up from his hands and passed his eyes emotionlessly over the Aurors'. They shuffled awkwardly.

"And this," Chiron pointed at me. "Is Percy Jackson."

I watched as each witch's and wizard's eyes were drawn to me. Tonks smiled widely and whispered out of the side of her mouth at a scarred man next to her. The man's scraggly hair was a pale strawberry blond and for the first time I realised that he had a glass eye strapped to his head. It whizzed around at a dizzying speed and I felt my stomach lurch as is stopped suddenly and glared at me. I swallowed and gave what I hoped was a friendly smile. I think it was more like a grimace. The glass-eyed man limped forward on a stick and got right in my face.

"You're the sea kid?" He asked, his voice husky and deep. I nodded, wondering how they knew.

"Alistair Moody," the man introduced himself. Behind him, Tonks whispered 'Mad-Eye Moody." I tried to keep in my snort of laughter, but it came out and I quickly tried to cover it up as a cough.

The rest of the Auror's stepped forward in turn and introduced themselves. Besides Moody and Tonks, there were only two more men. One was a middle-aged looking man called Remus Lupin, and the other was a tall dark skinned man named Kingsley Shacklebolt. They each gripped brooms in their hands and cloaks were hung over their arms.

"So, what're the sweepers for?" Leo asked, looking at the broomsticks. He touched one. "There's nothing special about them. Nothing mechanical."

Tonks laughed and Remus smiled.

"Valdez, right? They're not mechanical. These things fly. Mine is a Silver Arrow model, while Remus and Kingsley have Nimbus 1000's. Moody has a Tinderblast."

We all stared at the different brooms. Annabeth narrowed her eyes sceptically.

"They fly, huh?" She asked, but it sounded like a challenge. Tonks looked at her and smirked.

"Sure do, blondie. Watch."

Tonks swung her leg over the handle of the broom and then kicked off the ground. Thalia watched in fascination as the broom started levitating off the ground. Annabeth doubled back while Leo practically drooled over it. Nico muttered something about hoping Zeus was in a good mood. Which reminded me.

"Chiron," I said, after Tonks had touched back down. "What about Nico and me? We can't go into Zeus's territory or he'll blast us to bits. I don't think Hazel is super-safe either."

Hazel looked uncomfortable at the sudden attention towards her and she dropped her gaze to the ground. Chiron smiled.

"Glad you asked, Percy. Originally you were going to Apparate with the Auror's, but they told me just now that since you are not naturally magical, the Ministry would pick up your traces if they tried. Instead, Mr di Angelo and Miss Levesque will be shadow-travelling together to Grimmauld Place. You, my dear boy, will be water travelling."

I cocked my head. Water travelling?

"Like, swimming?" I asked, wondering exactly how long it would take me to swim from Long Island to London. The Auror's laughed like this was funny. Annabeth rolled her eyes and Chiron shook his head.

"No, Percy. It is much like shadow travel, only through water. The rest of you-" He pointed to everyone besides Nico, Hazel and me. "Line up your trunks in front of Mr Moody, then get into pairs and pick an Auror to travel with. Alistair will be taking your bags."

I was about to ask how Mad-Eye was going to fly with so many huge trunks, but then the guy pulled out a duffel bag the same size as our suitcases. I was going to ask how that would help, before he started dumping our trunks inside it like it was nothing. My jaw fell open and Annabeth started muttering about how ridiculous it was. By the time Moody was finished, the bag looked only half-full. Then he strapped it onto his broom end and glared around at the demigods watching him with wide eyes.

"Get on with it, midgets. It's a fairly long flight." He growled, before mounting his broom and standing still, waiting for my friends to pair up and get on one of the flying death traps. Thalia was pale as she gripped Annabeth's shoulder while the daughter of Athena led her towards Remus. Once Thalia was on, I skipped over to my girlfriend and pecked her cheek.

"See you at the Grim-and-Mouldy Place," I said, smiling. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but smiled as she mounted the broom behind Thalia.

All my friends were soon on a broom. Leo and Frank were together and sitting behind Kingsley. Leo kept running his hand along the wood and mumbling about how much he could improve the broom with some mechanical updates.

Jason and Piper were seated with Tonks, who looked pretty happy. Jason had just explained to her that he could fly by himself some of the time so the weight wasn't too much for her broom to hold.

I watched as each demigod sent a silent prayer to Zeus as they started rising into the sky. Thalia squeezed her eyes shut and locked her arms onto Lupin's shoulders so tight her knuckles turned white. The daughter of Zeus had been excused from her Hunter duties to go on this quest, but she still had her oath against boys. Somehow though, I knew Artemis wouldn't be mad at her lieutenant for holding onto a man. Thalia was terrified of heights.

As I watched my friends fly off on freakin' magical brooms, Chiron touched my shoulder and jerked his head towards the beach. Nico and Hazel started into the forest and I yelled after them.

"See you guys at Nico's place!"

Nico glared at me as he and his half-sister disappeared into the shadow of an oak tree.

"So," I started, as Chiron led me down to the surf. "Water travel?"

The idea for water travel is not mine, and I disclaimer it because it belongs to heyitstempest, who used it in her story first.