Chapter 20

Astronomy soon ended, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to dinner. They sat at their table, and were about to start when Dumbledore called for everyone's attention.

"I have an announcement to make," said Dumbledore, "in order to get to know each other better, the demigods and us teachers have agreed on a schedule where one day a week, one, and only one, year will be allowed to spend the day with the demigods. Each year will be then divided up into each house, and each house of that year will be assigned to a group of demigods. You shall spend the day with your assigned group, getting to know them better, and what they do. I'm sure that some, if not most, of you are pretty excited to learn more about the demigods and all their powers. I shall warn you though, do not aggravate them, for an insult to one of them, or one of their belongings or pets, is an insult to their whole race, and all demigods present will respond appropriately, as shown by Mr. Zabini and his friends earlier today. Now, onto the schedule. On Mondays, 7th years will go; on Tuesdays, 6th years will go; on Wednesdays, 5th years will go; on Thursdays, 4th years will go; on Fridays, 3rd years will go; on Saturdays, 2nd years will go; and on Sundays, 1st years will go. You are to report to the demigods' campsite as soon as you have finished your breakfast. We shall start this tomorrow, with the 7th years, so be prepared."

The Great Hall was soon abuzz with somewhat excitement from getting out of classes, as well as learning what the demigods do on a daily basis (mainly from Hermione and the Ravenclaws). Monday passed slowly for Harry, as he was excited to skip his classes the next day, especially Snape.

Tuesday came and Harry woke up from a dreamless sleep. He got ready and woke up Ron, telling him that they're going to the demigod camp that day. After they met with Hermione and finished their breakfast, the three made their way to the demigod camp. As they entered, they noticed that there were more people here than before, especially the muscular kids, the ones who didn't do much (and looked really beautiful in Harry's opinion, not that he said it), those who were mainly into archery (though there were more of the blonde kids than the silver-haired ones), and those who had mischievous eyes.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione just stood at the edge of the camp looking around, when one of the kids came up and told them where the wizards are going. After they made their way there, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia have seemed to be waiting for them.

"All right," said Thalia, once everyone came. Listen up, because I'm only saying this once. Gryffindors will be with the Poseidon, Athena, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite cabins. Percy and Annabeth will take you guys there."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked with the Gryffindors and followed Percy and Annabeth as they made their way through the campsite to where the four cabins they were going to be with were. From there, the Gryffindors were split into three groups. One group went with the Hephaestus cabin, one went with the Aphrodite cabins, and the last group went with the Athena cabin. Once the Hephaestus and Aphrodite group left, Hermione, Harry, and Ron were left in the last group.

"Annabeth?" asked Hermione, "I remember Thalia telling us that there'd be four groups for Gryffindor, yet you divided us up into three."

"Oh, well that's easy," said Annabeth, "that's because Percy's the only son of Poseidon, remember? Besides, he has practically the same schedule as us, so we'd be together anyway."

"Oh," said Hermione, feeling stupid that she forgot.

"Okay, first we're going back to our cabin," said Annabeth, "some of us forgot our stuff, and we need to get it."

Annabeth glared at the campers behind her, who seemed to share her blonde hair and grey eyes, and Harry was surprised to see that half the cabin had forgotten their stuff. As they made their way to the Athena cabin, Hermione tried to get more information about what they'll be doing today, but Annabeth seemed to be doing a pretty good job avoiding her questions. Once everyone had gotten their books, they went to where Ancient Greek was taught.

When they arrived, the wizards got confused since there was nothing in the tent except what you might find in a classroom.

"Who's teaching?" asked Hermione

"We are," said Annabeth and Percy

They then made their way to the front of the room as everyone else took a seat: the demigods at the front and the wizards at the back, except for Hermione, who had found a seat at the front of the room.

As the demigods, and Hermione, went on with their lesson, the wizards did any homework they had been given the day before. After Ancient Greek finished, the demigods led the wizards over to the arena to spar.

The demigods arrived just in time to see the Slytherins along with the muscular group leave the arena, and it looked like whatever happened in the arena seriously freaked out the Slytherins.

"I still don't get why you have to use weapons to protect yourself," said Hermione

"Listen," said Annabeth, "you have monsters over here, right? And ways to defeat them or stop them, right?"

"Yeah," said Hermione, "so?"

"That's why we learn how to fight," said Annabeth, "just like how you use spells to stop your monsters from getting to you; we use our weapons to protect ourselves. Don't even start on using magic, since not all demigods have a special power, especially magic."

"I thought you guys did have magic," said Hermione, "I mean, you, Percy, Thalia, and Nico did."

The demigods looked at one another and did the last thing the wizards expected: they laughed.

"You actually thought we could use magic?" asked Percy, "no, you're mistaken. You see, we've only been blessed with magic by the goddess of magic herself for as long as we need it. Besides, your magic doesn't affect monsters from our world just like how our magic doesn't affect anyone from your world."

"What kind of magic does work then?" asked Harry

"Usually magic from the goddess of magic herself, Lady Hecate," said Annabeth, "one of her kids, or anyone who's a Greek sorcerer/sorceress."

"Won't the right spells do the trick, though?" asked Hermione, "wizard spells I mean."

"You don't get it," said Percy, "this is magic from two different worlds. It's just like football. Our football is more rugby kind of sport, while your football is our soccer. Same name, but two entirely different things."

"So, can you guys harm us and our monsters?" asked Harry

"We think so," said Annabeth, "but we are not willing to start experimenting during such troubling times."

"How come?" asked Hermione, "Wait, you mean by your weapons? They look like really shiny bronze to me. You know bronze isn't the best thing to use for weapons out there."

"It's not bronze," said Annabeth, interrupting Hermione, "not the bronze you're thinking of at least. Our weapons are celestial bronze, from Mount Olympus itself. It harms anything that is not entirely mortal. This means that it can harm you wizards, since wizards are technically descendants of Hecate, but any godly blood you may have had in you has been washed out throughout the years. As for those born from completely muggle families, you get your magic from an outside source, meaning that during sometime in your life, you've somehow gotten wizard blood injected into your blood stream by something, most likely a mosquito or something."

The wizards then notice that they're already at the arena, though Percy and Annabeth aren't sparring.

"How come you guys aren't out there with them?" asked Harry

"We have to fight with Thalia and Nico when no one's around" said Percy

"Last time we fought with someone around," said Annabeth, "let's just say that he'll never look at owls and their feathers the same way again."

"It didn't help that he had about half his lungs filled with feathers," said Percy

"How did you…?" asked Ron, trailing off

"Don't ask," said Annabeth, "our fighting gets very intense and Percy, Thalia, Nico and I can only take on one of us without having to worry about dying. Not to brag or anything, but people call us the 75% kids. We're like 75% on our way to becoming gods; though it doesn't help that we've all been blessed and granted abilities a normal person wouldn't have."

"Do you guys do this for fun?" asked Harry

"Yeah," said Annabeth

"But it's so dangerous," said Hermione

"See, when you're one of us," said Percy, "the only thing that seems dangerous is either going in you're parent's rivals territory, talking with your girlfriends godly parent who hates you, or talking with a goddess who hates you."

"besides," said Annabeth, "it only seems dangerous to you because you're not a demigod. But if you're a demigod, swordfighting is a crucial and fun way of staying alive."

"So you would call monsters just to have fun?" asked Dean

"Well no," said Percy, "monsters aren't fun to fight against. When it's a friendly bout, then it's fun. Otherwise, it's life or death."

"If this is fun," said Neville, "I'd hate to know what you do for punishments."

"It usually depends," said Annabeth, "if it's something minor, like a harmless prank, then it's going to be Kitchen Duty for a day or something."

"That doesn't sound so bad," mumbled Ron

"You use lave to rinse the plates," said Percy, and Ron quickly took bad what he said.

"If it's something big, like a mutilation or something," said Annabeth, "then it's more severe. I really can't give you an example for this one because it depends on the occasion."

"What else do you guys do for fun?" asked Dean

They then started listing off the things they like to do, which is basically:

Rock climbing (with lava pouring down as a challenge)

Capture the Flag (where they use the weapons against each other to capture the flag; fun, note the sarcasm; they also had to explain it to the less muggle-exposed wizards)

Spar (which we already knew)

Volleyball (guess they had a beach where their camp is, who knew?)

"Other than that, it's usually personal interests," said Annabeth, "though the examples we've given you are simply a generalization."

"I get that you have to protect yourselves and that's why you spar and stuff," said Hermione, "but what about all the other stuff. You know, the lava pouring on the rock wall, and the volleyballing where you can practically knock your brains out with the way you guys are built. Don't you value your life?"

It was true. Almost all the demigods, the exceptions being the ones who just joined, were really strong; like strong enough to lift Dudley and Uncle Vernon at the same time 100 times, lift each individually 100 times, and still have enough energy to go lift weights.

"You see, all these things help us with protecting ourselves," said Percy, "the lava challenge helps us with our speed and the volleyball tournament helps us with our teamwork skills, for when we fight in a large group. Anyways, we have to go. The Hermes cabin's here. Hey Big Brains! Time to go!"

As pointed out, the people with the mischievous eyes were coming, which Harry guessed was the Hermes cabin, and they seemed to have the Hufflepuffs with them

"Big Brain?" asked Hermione, "That is such a stereotypical name."

"He means it in the best way," said Annabeth, "besides, if they didn't like it then he would have changed it. He's not the one to go around calling people names just to annoy them."