(Annabeth POV) Chapter 7

This will never make sense. We were at King's Cross Station, and apparently we were supposed to walk through a wall. Now, your walls might be insubstantial, but only on Mount Olympus had I experienced such a thing, so I was a bit non plussed. The ticket said to take the "Hogwarts Express" at 11:00 from "platform 9¾". To the best of my knowledge, there was no such thing.

We were all arguing about it, when a motherly lady walked by. I recognized one of the kids with her as Hermione Granger, so I called out to her.

"Excuse me, Hermione? Could you tell me how to get on Platform 9¾ please?"

She shushed me vigorously. "Ssh! Not in front of the muggles." She lowered her voice. "Just run through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Go on, it's safe."

"Okay... " I tried it, and sure enough, the station vanished, and I was in a new place, with a huge steam engine sitting in squat majesty on its tracks. A moment later, Percy popped through, closely followed by Jason, then the others. There was a brief lull after Hazel, when Nico and Will stopped to argue. At least, I presume they were arguing. Judging by the scowl on Nico's face when he came through, it's also safe to presume that Will won.

We started boarding, wrestling our trunks onto the train with less trouble than out fellow passengers, mostly due to how strong Percy and Jason were. Never had I thought I would be grateful for how much time those two spend wrestling!

Finally, we had our luggage stowed and could retire to a compartment near the back of the train.

Nico immediately curled up with his cheek on Will's shoulder and went to sleep. It's really remarkable the effect Will's had on him. He used to be all dark and moody and "don't touch me or you'll DIE"-ish. Now, he's still dark and a bit moody, and not a huge fan of touching, but he's also... cheerful. And cuddly, at least with a certain son of Apollo. And trusting of his friends, which basically includes the Seven, plus Reyna and- well, Will's his boyfriend, but also probably the person he trusts most in the world, with Hazel and Reyna coming in second and third.

Will for his part just put in earbuds and wrapped his arm around Nico. Jason and Piper sat down next to them, so that left Percy, Frank, Hazel and me in the opposite seat. Once we were sitting, Percy tried to pull the yawn-and-stretch card, but I told him to stop in no uncertain terms.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, unless you count seven cursed jewels appearing in front of Hazel.

Finally, at almost 9:30 that evening, the train stopped, and we got our first glimpse of the castle that was to be our new home. I had been quite disappointed that it would be too dark to see the castle properly from the outside, but as it turned out, we were in for quite a sight.

When we stepped out of the train, we were gazing upon a magnificent castle, lit up by floating blue lights outside the towers and above the outer walls. It was, strangely, built in a mix of the Gothic and Romanesque styles. In fact, it was built on almost identical lines as Durham Cathedral. Odd.

We were caught up in the rush of people heading to a bunch of carriages. Carriages pulled by weird skeletal horses with withered bat wings. What was really strange, was most of the students didn't seem to see them. Harry saw them, I could tell by his shocked expression.

"What are those things?" Harry sounded utterly disgusted, and scared into the bargain.

"Thestrals. They can only be seen by those who have killed someone they knew, or who have seen someone they love killed." Nico looked inexpressibly sad.

"Have they always been there, and I just couldn't see them until I saw Tonks die?" Harry asked.

"Probably. If you rode in the carriages, they were there pulling them."

Hermione was puzzled. "How do you know about them, and how can you see them? I know they exist, but I can't see them. Does that mean you've killed someone or seen someone die?"

"They pull Nyx's chariot, and Hades's too," he replied. "That's where I learned they exist."

Will elbowed him, and he added, "In Greek mythology that is."

"And as to my other question?" Hermione pressed.

"I don't think I want to talk about that right now. But yes, I've seen death. Now can we get in?" Nico directed one off his famous "death glares" at her, and Hermione shut up. I don't blame her. I'm friends with Nico, and he still scares me sometimes, when he stares at me with haunted eyes that make me think of Achlys, which is not something I particularly want to remember. Will is pretty much the only person who doesn't run when our Death Boy gets mad, and that's only cause he knows Nico would rather spend eternity with only Cupid for company than hurt him.

We all got into one of the carriages. It was a bit squishy with eight people in a coach meant for six, but there was no way we were splitting up, and everyone but Nico was fine with a bit of crowding. We took the same seating arrangement as on the train, but this time we were all on high alert. I mean, riding in a small covered carriage pulled by carnivorous death horses, what could go wrong. Plus, Nico is extremely claustrophobic, and I'm not too fond of small spaces either. Already Nico had buried his face in Will's shoulder, and Piper, the only one who knows just how uncomfortable I was right then, had put a reassuring hand on my knee. The carriage was conveniently designed so that every sound was reflected back twice as loudly, so now that Percy and Jason were arguing about Zeus only knows what, nobody could make out a word of what they were saying, just that they seemed to be competing over who could make more noise.

In the other corner, Frank was curled up looking sick, and Hazel was covering her ears. Finally Nico lifted his head long enough to yell, "SHUT UP, YOU TWO!"

They stopped arguing instantly, and the sound echoed for a moment, before total silence fell. Hazel murmered softly, "Thank you so much, Nico."

Everyone else followed suit, except the two boys themselves, who were still glaring at one another.

Fortunately, we had arrived, so I didn't have to deal with my boyfriend attempting to kill his cousin. A good thing too, in my current mood I would probably just let them fight until they worked it out themselves.

The castle was even more impressive close up. I could see that the little lights were actually little glowing blue creatures about a foot tall, and more were lining the hallway inside.

A tall, stern-looking woman came out, giving us a slight smile. "The American exchange students? Please come with me."

Following her inside, the castle was all high arches and sweeping staircases. I tried to keep track of the turns we took, but soon I was hopelessly lost.

Finally we came out in a massive room, set up with five tables, and filled with chattering kids.

"This is the Great Hall. You'll be coming here for meals. Now, if you'd just stand over here while we do the Sorting Ceremony."

So we waited while a fascinating talking hat sorted the new kids into four Houses. Each had a name that stemmed from the name of an animal.

Finally the teacher, who had introduced herself as Professer McGonagall, called us forward.

"As you may have heard," she began, "eight students from the Long Island Academy Of Magic will be attending Hogwarts this year. May I introduce, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Frank Zhang, Hazel Levasque, Will Solace, and Nico di Angelo. They are here as the beginning of an exchange program Professer Dumbledore has proposed to Mr. Brunner, the headmaster of the Academy. This year, no Hogwarts students will be going to America, because two wizarding wars in the last three years delt significant damage to the school buildings. Any questions?"

A kid at a table decked out in bright yellow spoke up. "Did they fight in the war?"

Stepping forward, Piper answered. "Yes, we did. Everyone had to."

"What was it like? Was it scary, or fun? Did anyone die?"

"Well-" Piper started, but Nico cut her off.

"It was the worst thing I've ever gone through. I lost my sister to the first war. I was tortured in the enemy base for so long I got PTSD from it. Over half our school died." He choked slightly. "I wish it had never happened."

Will came forward and took Nico's arm, pulling him back slightly.

"Come on mio caro," he whispered. "You don't need to dredge up the memories."

Jason, seeing Nico so upset, came forward.

"Please don't ask us for details on what happened. It's not something we like to talk about."

"Why? You so weak you can't handle a few deaths?" The speaker was a slim blond boy at the green and silver table. And he had just made a very bad mistake. Nico stepped back into a shadow, reappearing in front of the boy. His sword was drawn, and shadows whirled around him. He put his sword at the boy's throat.

"I think you need to be taught a lesson in the magic I have at my disposal." Something was odd with his voice. Then I noticed he'd spoken in Greek.

Too late I realized what he was doing.

I heard Will scream, "Neeks, no!" Then everything went black.

I was plunged back into Tarturus, Percy dying at my feet, overwhelmed by too many curses for even him. I felt again the heart wrenching sorrow and guilt. And all I could think was that I couldn't go through this again.