It's a kinda short chapter, but I felt that I owed you guys at least something. I promise the next update will be longer!

Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan or J.K. Rowling. Also, any dialogue you recognize in this chapter isn't mine. It came from the book. I'm not using a lot of the text from the book, but I want to keep a lot of the dialogue the same.

Ex. when Dumbledore addresses the school.

Chapter 10

Percy really hoped that he didn't looks as unnerved as he felt.

He definitely wasn't shy, but there was something terrifying about standing in front of the entire school. Percy felt hundreds of eyes glued onto him and the room was deathly silent.

He began to walk over to the Gryffindor table, attempting to look confident. He held his head high and assumed a relaxed pace. Percy just hoped that nobody noticed how badly he was shaking.

When he was wearing the hat, this seemed like the best decision, but now he was starting to doubt himself. What if they never accepted him? What if he was always an outcast?

Percy was pretty popular at Camp Half-Blood. After saving the world twice, other campers had started to look up to him. He had what most demigods wanted: fame and glory.

Except Percy couldn't help but wish that he was normal. Maybe not a mortal, but at least a normal demigod. A son of some minor god, so that he could be out of the spotlight. So that he could hide in the background and interact with other campers normally.

There was a problem with being looked up to by so many demigods. They had started to view him as a larger-than-life figure. Like a god. He seemed unapproachable to many of them.

So Percy had gone from being the loner demigod son of Poseidon who shouldn't exist, to Percy the demigod hero and legend.

Legend.

He hated it. He hated the stories about him and his quests. Percy didn't consider himself to be a hero. He had done what he had to. He had done what he needed to do at the time. He never wanted the fame or glory.

And it had all backfired.

He was still a loner among the campers, since very few chose to actually interact with him. He was pointed at and whispered about, but never really talked to. Percy had begun to spend more time with Annabeth and Grover. The rest of the seven were busy with their various tasks and he had his problem with the other campers.

Percy sat down at the edge of the Gryffindor table next to two first years. He was near the back of the room, close to the door that he had entered through.

Percy frowned. He had hoped to sit next to Harry, or at least another student his age. It would have been nice to make a friend. Sadly, those seats were all taken before the sorting took place. Percy would just have to wait until later.

He watched as Dumbledore strode to the front of the room. The wizard's long robes swished as he walked, making Percy crack a smile. This was almost exactly how he imagined wizards; with the pointy hats, robes, and wands.

"To our newcomers," Dumbledore started with a twinkle in his eye, and Percy could have sworn that the headmaster was staring straight at him. "Welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

Cheerful laughs rang out through the room, dissolving the tense atmosphere that had formed during Percy's sorting. Everyone began to clap, and food appeared on the table.

That's right, appeared. With a poof. One second the table was empty, and the next it was full of a delicious smelling feast.

Percy grinned and reached for the plate of pork chops. He could get used to this magic business.

The first years next to him seemed rather reticent. They shoved food in their mouths, but made no attempt to talk.

Percy sighed. "Hey guys, I'm not going to bite."

A rather short boy with unruly blond hair nodded at Percy, but other than that, he it no response.

Percy didn't really care, he had other things to do. He had noticed out of the corner of his eye that there was a ghost chatting with Harry and his friends. Percy wasn't entirely shocked that there were ghosts at Hogwarts; he had an open mind. You had to, if you were a part of the world of the gods. New things just seemed to pop up on a daily basis.

Also, he had seen ghosts before in his trips to the Underworld.

But what confused him was that the ghost had escaped the Underworld. How'd he accomplish that? Percy didn't think that Hades would be very happy if he realized. Probably some security leak, or the ghost had gotten bored waiting for Charon.

Charon took his time transporting the dead to the Underworld. He commonly took only passengers that could pay, and left the others standing in the waiting room. Percy didn't know exactly how it worked, meaning that he wasn't sure if a ghost could just walk out. Nico would know.

As Percy looked around the room, he began to notice other ghosts. They flickered in and out of sight as they glided between the students. There seemed to be different ghosts at different table. Maybe they had house ghosts? Percy wasn't really sure.

"I see you're interested in the ghosts."

Percy's muscles tensed and his hand drifted towards his pocket. His fine tuned reflexes had kept him alive on multiple occasions, but they more often made him seem overly paranoid. He hated it when people snuck up on him.

Percy turned around to see the ghost that had been talking to Harry.

"Yes." Percy lowered his voice slightly, but he didn't think that it mattered - the first years next to him had began to engage in a conversation of their own. "How are you here? Shouldn't you be, uh…. downstairs."

The ghost smiled in return. "Ah, I see. You're one of them." He began to look more serious, "there's different rules here. Not everything works like it does in America."

Percy frowned. Different rules?

"What do you mean?"

The ghost gave a sad smile in return, and began to drift off.

"Wait! You have to finish! I don't understand."

He got no response.

Percy turned back to his food, mind spinning. Distantly, he heard Dumbledore say something about rules. He didn't really care. Percy would figure that out later.

But what did the ghost mean? Percy knew that the center of the god's power was in America, but he wasn't exactly sure what that would mean if he was in a different country. Would his powers not work? Or worse, would Riptide not change from a pen into a sword?

Percy was pulled out of his thoughts by a weak applause. A bright pink figure was retreating back to her seat, and he assumed another speech had just been given. Dumbledore had stood up again and began to talk, and Percy began to hurriedly finish his food.

Finally, Dumbledore dismissed the school and everyone stood up to leave. Percy quickly got to his seat, ready to go and sleep, when he realized that he should probably ask for directions. Where were Harry, Ron, and Hermione?

"Hey - hey you lot! Midgets!"

"Ron!"

"Well, they are, they're twitchy…."

"I know, but you can't call them midgets…. First years!" Hermione took charge. "This way, please!"

Percy shrugged and began to follow them. It probably didn't matter that he wasn't a first year. They would all be going to the same place.

Percy walked a distance behind them, rather interested in the portraits that moved. Different scenes played out in front of his eyes. It was almost like having tons of televisions glued to the walls. The best part was that they spoke to him.

"Hey- you there!"

Percy waved as he strolled through the hallways. He had to admit, this school was pretty cool. Looking up, he realized that he had fallen pretty far behind. The students had almost finished filing into a brightly lit room.

Percy broke out into a light jog.

"Wait for me!"

But the door, which Percy now realized was another painting, sprang shut.

"Uh…."

Percy was locked out.

The painting seemed to have no handle like a door did. It was portrait of a lady, dressed in a white gown. She lazily stared at Percy, offering no assistance.

"Hi, my name's Percy."

She blearily yawned.

"Can you let me in?"

"Password?"

"Uh…. nobody told me a password." Percy mentally scolded himself. Why had he gotten so far behind the group? If he had kept up, he could probably be in bed right now.

"No password, no entrance."

The thought of a warm bed and a good night's rest made Percy more annoyed.

"I'm new. Can't you just let me in this once?" Percy said with a slight edge to his tone.

The lady just frowned and closed her eyes, ignoring Percy altogether.

Percy groaned. He decided that somebody might come and know the password. All that Percy could do was wait.

Percy settled down on the cold stone floor and closed his eyes. Due to the lingering tiredness from his journey, Percy was unaware of the blond haired boy that cautiously walked up to him.

The boy whispered a two spells under his breath, knocking out Percy further, and levitating him into the air.

The young wizard strode away from the Gryffindor common room dragging a sleeping demigod behind him.

I'm so sorry about the wait for that chapter. Thank you all for being so supportive and sticking with me. Right now I'm on summer break, meaning that I should have time to write another chapter soon.

But thanks again for being such great readers. I love you guys!

Parts I took from The Order of the Phoenix:

"To our newcomers," "Welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

Hey - hey you lot! Midgets!", "Ron!" "Well, they are, they're twitchy…." "I know, but you can't call them midgets…. First years!" "This way, please!"

Tala White 14 - THANK YOU! And also, thank you for sticking with me throughout this story and being so supportive. 3

Personofmanythings - Thanks! I'm glad

you liked it!

TVDFan245 - Sorry to disappoint! But, I can promise that Percy is going to have a lot of interaction with characters in Slytherin.

DaughterofApollo84 - THANK YOU SO MUCH! :)

melliott1621- thanks for making me aware of that. I used the common idea of Percy being Voldemort's grandson (as in many other stories) but I'm trying to make it different than the rest. If you notice too many similarities to Amythest Raindrops 16's story, please tell me. I'll be happy to change anything.

JustADamFrenchFry - Welp. Yeah, I'm going to try to write longer chapters, but you see, this is a pretty short one. Thanks for the feedback.

Zardi41 - I'm glad you liked it! Also, thanks for making me aware of that. I fixed the mistake. If you notice anything else, please tell me! And to answer your last question, Percy and Annabeth are still dating, I just suck at writing romance.

And to everyone who told me to update: TA DA!