I really should be getting back to my other stories, but what the heck. I'm really into this one. And everybody's so supportive! Thank you for all the reviews! This is my most popular story other than my SYOC.

Here's a warning: when you read this chapter, make sure you are in a secluded room with the door closed. No, I am not going to kill you, this chapter just has a lot of humor in it. A lot. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Misters Jackson and Potter do not belong to me. That would just be weird. Besides, I would prefer Nico...

Chapter Four: We're Off to See the Wonderful Wizards of Hogwarts

Percy's POV

The morning of September first reminded me greatly of the day before the Titan War. Everybody wasrunning around, looking for things of importance, people were yelling, the portrait of Mrs. Black was screeching, and nobody could find Harry. So in other words, Code Red.

At one point, Fred (or was it George? Oh, whatever. On with the story!) knocked down Ginny with his trunk. Cue more yelling. Then one of Harry's guard (who was still yet to make an appearance) didn't show up. Cue more panic. By the time we got out of Headquarters, my head was pounding so much, it felt like a Minotaur had jumped up and down on it.

We squished into two clown cars that greatly interested Annabeth. Since we didn't have enough room, Nico volunteered to Shadow Travel over there. I think he was just scared of being at too close quarters with other people.

We got to the train station with time to spare, thank the gods. The Guard led us to the area between platforms nine and ten. It was then and only then that I noticed a large, scruffy black dog was among us. And he was getting reactions from certain people.

"You're being stupid, do you really want to get caught?" Mrs. Weasley hissed. Meanwhile, Harry (who turned out to have just been asleep) was grinning like Tyke had blessed him. Ron and Hermione had worried expressions.

I walked over to Ron and muttered, "Why are you guys so hyped up about a dog?"

"Sirius is an Animagus," he muttered quietly. "A wizard that can transform into an animal."

"Alright," Mr. Weasley said, cutting off all conversation. "Here's what you have to do: when nobody's looking, run straight at the wall."

We looked at him like Mr. D had gotten to him. "You want us to run into a wall," Thalia repeated bluntly.

Mr. Weasley frowned. "Yes, I think that's what I just said."

"Nico, I think you should go first- you've had experience at running into walls," I told the son of Hades, who in turn glared at me.

"No, I think you should go first, Percy," Annabeth said, surprising me. "Let me put it this way: your ego is so inflated, that if you run into a wall, it won't matter. And if we're lucky, your ego will deflate enough that you can fit into a normal sized doorway," she teased me.

I glanced at my cousins, who were smirking. "Why do you guys hate me so much?" I whined.

"Oh, we don't hate you," Annabeth tried to reassure me, but when she received a look from Thalia, she amended her statement, "...most of the time. We're just being logical."

"I hate being logical," I grumbled.

"Mm," Nico agreed with me. "Logical definitely isn't your thing. Like when you wanted us to jump off a cliff in the middle of a blizzard."

"Hey, at least my plan was better than yours."

"I didn't have a plan."

"Precisely."

"I was ten! I wasn't supposed to have plans!"

"I had plans when I was ten!"

"Yeah, to blow up your school bus!"

"THAT WASN'T PLANNED! By the way, how d'you know about that?"

"JUST GO!" Everybody yelled at me, causing several mortals to stare. Before I knew it, my girlfriend and two cousins were behind me, pushing me towards the barrier. When I got within five feet, I shut my eyes and prayed to whatever god who was in charge of brick walls (I think that would be Janus, you know, the annoying god of doorways?) and braced myself for impact. You can imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes to see, not my blood spilled everywhere, but a massive red train being swarmed by people in swishy robes. Well, at least I got the right color. You know, blood is red, the train is red? Oh whatever.

Like always, the sight, or even thought, of robes made me think of a tall skinny dude wearing robes with stars and moons on them, with a pointy hat to boot, waving around a stick and muttering nonsense words. Mind you, that's what the sight of just one robe will do. But with everybody in sight wearing them, well, something inside me snapped. Hard. I started cracking up.

Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico appeared behind me. They noticed me doubled over trying to breath.

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Um, Annabeth? I don't think ODE went too well."

"ODE?" Nico inquired.

"Short for Operation Deflate Ego," Annabeth explained. "But I don't think it worked the way I wanted it to."

"Gee, ya think?" Thalia said sarcastically. "Now we have to deal with a crazy Percy."

"I'm not crazy!" I said as I straightened up. "It's just that when I saw all the people in robes... well... Oh my gods, are those broomsticks?" I noticed a broom getting carried by a kid around our age, and pointed at him. The others looked where I was pointing.

Our sanity was saved by the arrival of everybody else, including Sirius. The adults said their goodbyes. I was a little surprised when Mrs. Weasley hugged me, but I was started to get used to it. She'd learned not to hug Nico, thank the gods, but she did hug Annabeth and Thalia. Harry led us to the train, when he found out that Ron and Hermione had to do Prefect duties.

The only open compartment already had two occupants. There was a dark-haired, nervous-looking boy holding a cactus-like thing and a girl with long blond hair reading a magazine upside down. Vaguely, I wondered if reading something upside down would make it easier to read with dyslexia. I highly doubt it would change anything. We sat down, with me between the girl (who turned out to be Luna) and Nico. Thalia, Ginny, Harry and the boy, Neville, sat on the other side.

There was a silence in which we all looked at each other. "Awkward silence," I stage-whispered.

"Sooo..." Harry said, breaking the silence. "What houses do you think you'll be sorted into?"

Annabeth and I exchanged glances. "What do you mean, houses?"

Harry POV

So they were going to the most prestigious wizardry school in all of Europe but they didn't know anything about it? What is this? Then I remembered what I had been like when I first came to Hogwarts. I took pity on them. "When you're at school, you are sorted into one of four houses. The houses are like your family. You do everything with them: eat, sleep, and attend classes together. If you do good stuff, you earn points for your house. Any rule breaking subtracts points. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Gryffindor is known for being brave and daring. Slytherin is for the cunning and evil, basically. Ravenclaws are extremely smart, and Hufflepuff is for the just and loyal."

"So," Nico summed up. "Annabeth will be in Ravenclaw because she's just smart like that, I will be in Slytherin because that's how I roll, Percy will be in Hufflepuff because he's too loyal for his own good, and Thalia?" Nico mused*, "Thalia, you get kicked out because you don't fit in any of the categories."

"Hey!" Thalia protested as she lunged across the compartment to tackle Nico.

"Ew! Get off me!" Nico complained, pushing the girl off.

"Well, maybe if you took back what you said..."

"But it's true! Cunning is so not your thing. Loyalty isn't really in your job description. Just totally isn't either. In no possible way are you smart, and brave... well, that's questionable at times."

"He's got a point," Percy commented. I watched them in mild amusement.

Just then, Hermione and Ron walked in. They took the last two seats.

"How are your prefect duties?" I asked them casually, trying to ignore the death glares Thalia and Nico were sending each other.

"Well, guess who's prefect for the Slytherins," Ron said grumpily, devouring a Chocolate Frog.

"Malfoy."

"And Pansy Parkinson," Hermione added with distaste. "You know, the one who's face looks like a pug's."

"Malfoy's going to be all over his position. I just can't wait to give Crabbe and Goyle detentions," Ron said.

"Ron! You mustn't sink to their level!" Hermione scolded.

"I'm not. I'm just going to get his goons before he can get my friends. Maybe I'll make Goyle do lines. Yeah he hates those," Ron added thoughtfully. He mimed writing on a piece of paper. "I...must...not...look...like...a... baboon's backside."

Everyone in the compartment snickered. Except for Luna Lovegood. She fell off her seat, rolling in laughter.

Merely seconds after Luna had calmed down, the compartment door slid open, revealing the one and only Draco Malfoy, his two thugs shadowing his footsteps.

"Malfoy," I said with as much venom in my voice as I could muster.

Malfoy's gaze slid past me and settled on the Americans. "Who's this?" he sneered.

Ginny stood up defiantly. "None of your business," she snarled.

Nico grabbed her wrist gently. "It's fine," he muttered. "Might as well as make our reputation now."

"Who's this? Your boyfriend? A little young for you, don't you think?"

Nico made a strangled noise that sounded like a cat coughing up a hairball. Annabeth looked at him in concern while Thalia and Percy tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress snorts.

"You wish, pretty boy," Nico said, standing up too. With his black Muggle clothing and slouched posture, he looked sad and not very intimidating. But his eyes were full of anger.

"An American?" Draco said in mock surprise. "How...unexpected. What's your name? Or do you have no manners?"

"Nico di Angelo," Nico replied coldly. "Perhaps you could grace me with yours, or is that too far below you to give your name to strangers?"

"Draco Malfoy," Malfoy replied with superiority. "I would expect you to at least know my surname."

Nico shrugged. "Sorry, but we Americans don't stand on ceremony too much. You gain your status. So unless you've done something outstanding that changed the world as we know it, I feel safe to say that I don't know who the blazes you are." Wow this kid was good. In the past thirty seconds, he'd insulted Malfoy three times. Malfoy looked shocked for a second before turning to the others. Nico sat down, satisfied.

"And you?" Malfoy shot at Jackson.

"Percy Jackson," Jackson replied calmly and evenly. "Though I'm not going to bother asking if you know me. And before you ask, no, I don't know who the Hades you are." Nico shot Jackson a glance.

Before Malfoy could put a word in edgewise, Thalia spoke up. "You can call me Thalia, if you wish to speak to me or about me."

"No last name?" Malfoy sneered.

"Not for you," Thalia replied.

Annabeth, the last to introduce herself, narrowed her eyes as she said, "I'm Annabeth Chase."

"I don't recognize any of your surnames. I suppose you must be Muggle born, or possibly half bloods. Well, which is it?"

The Americans exchanged glances, then responded simultaneously with, "Half Bloods."

Malfoy sighed. "Well, I suppose that's better than Muggle born. I am going to give a piece of advice now: be careful who you make friends with. Purebloods have a greater chance at success in the real world compared to people with filthy little Mudblood parents-"

Malfoy got cut off by Nico who lunged at him, pushing him up against the wall and grasping his neck with his hand. I could see Nico's eyes were filled with hatred, burning with anger. But... there was an underlying sense of pain there, too.

"If I hear you say that ever again, you will wish I killed you right here and now," Nico say quietly and slowly, making himself all the more frightening. "I have sources you'd never even dream of using. If you want to test me, then so be it, and Father help me," he threatened. Then he landed a left uppercut to Malfoy's jaw. Malfoy's head snapped back, hitting the wall. Already, his mouth was bloody. Nico let go of the Slytherin and stared him down until he turned to go out the door.

"My father will hear about this," Malfoy added as he walked out the door. "And watch yourself. I'll be dogging your footsteps, Potter." Then he left, with his two bodyguards following stupidly.

Nico shook out his left hand, massaging his bruised knuckles. "That was refreshing," he said lightly, but there was still an air of hurt and anger.

Jackson had an amused look on his face. "And that is why you don't want to get this kid mad."

"Who is his father?" Annabeth inquired.

"A Death Eater," Ron replied vehemently. Needless to say, we were all surprised when the Americans started to laugh.

"Who the heck would want to eat Thanatos?" Percy said between gasps of breath.

Nico shook his head, smiling. "I know for a fact that death does not taste good at all."* He shuddered at the memory.

Thalia stared at him, as Nico realized what he had just said. "YOU PERVERT!" she screamed.

"NO! I didn't mean it like that..." he protested, but trailed off as the others fell into fresh rounds of laughter.

"Nico, is there something you're not telling us?" Percy teased.

"Don't be shy, we're all family here," Annabeth added.

"I'm not the one with the messed up mind here, that would be you two," he indicated Annabeth and Jackson, "honestly. Dating you're own..." he muttered something in a different language, something that caused Annabeth and Jackson to turn lovely shades of red, and Thalia to say "well, now that you put it that way...".

The rest of us exchanged looks. They had taken the most terrifying group of Dark Wizards and laughed them down. Who were these kids? And the way Nico had reacted to Malfoy? I sat there, mulling through my thoughts, until the train stated to slow down.

We were at Hogwarts. I was finally where I belonged.

*(haha, get it? Thalia was the Muse of Comedy? Ya know? Oh, well...).

*(Okay, I know there's not ten seats per compartment, but just bear with me here, okay?)

*Chapter seven of my story Unheroic Deeds will be about Nico's first encounter with Death, and why he knows that Death doesn't taste good. It'll be up soon, I promise...

Anyway, I know the Draco meeting was crappy. I got kind of stuck. I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed- it helps me improve my writing, therefore creating a better story. A win-win situation, and all you have to do is review!

BTW, you should check out Dark Phoenix by Lightningscar. It's extremely good. It's not your average "Nico goes on a quest to destroy the Horcruxes" story. Not that I'm putting down all those stories. I'm just saying this one is really unique.

Silver out.