Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, it belongs to the awesomeness named Rick Riordan and J. .
Before I even start, I'll warn about a Hecate kiddo OC, merely because I can't find any canon Hecate kids that would push the plot forward. She is pretty major in this story, and a pretty competent spell caster, so expect her to have some of the spotlight later. I tried my best to stick to the HP book to make sure I got the process of things right, but expect mistakes because my writing is the mistakiest of them all.
Even before the accident with the owl and the kid, the seven were having a bad day.
Percy grunted, hauling his luggage behind him. These people really did NOT know how to travel. And trunks? Please.
The noises from his companions obviously voiced the same doubts about this "wizarding school" that required robes as uniforms. I mean, how exactly do you fight when you wearing a robe? Percy had no idea.
Leo was the only one having a nice time - put it to him to design himself a robot to serve him drinks and carry his belongings. "Anyone want some coke?" He asked, grinning to himself, but his excitement was obviously not shared among the group.
"So, we're going to this weird school we don't belong to in the least, and you're asking us if we want coke." Nico was secretly resenting that they can't use their powers. Shadow traveling would at least have gotten them out of this luggage problem.
Jason was not thrilled to be getting to this school. Though the Romans had a pretty clear hierarchy, and they certainly had rules, you had lots of free time to train and certainly no essays to write. Essays sounded exactly like hemorrhoids - a pain in the ass that won't go away, no.
But that was beside the point. Annabeth was too preoccupied with cooing at her owl to be doing much else than dragging her stuff along, which meant Percy was sorely missing her company.
None of them were in a good mood. Hazel was twiddling with a diamond in her palm. Frank was muttering about how much easier it would be just to become Hannibal and carry his and his companion's luggage that way and just get it over with. Nico was thinking about the joys of shadow travel. Percy was feeling hungry, despite having wolfed down at least a dozen of his mom's blue cookies not an hour before. Annabeth was finding it hard to concentrate enough to have an actual intellectual conversation with her owl, whom she's named Athena. Leo, as previously mentioned, was enjoying his Coca-Cola. And Piper dearest was trying to charm speak Jason into carrying her belongings, which he'd courteously declined. Reyna was trying not the bump into anyone, a hard task in such a crowd. Then there was Helena. You know, that useless daughter of Hecate that kind of faded into the background.
Helena, of course, was an expert minimalist. Percy didn't know how, but she managed to fit everything into a small suitcase and a backpack. Her white cane was like a wave of destruction before her as people busily scurried out of the way of the 11-year-old blind girl. Oh, and did I mention that all of the group were turned into 12-year-olds, temporarily so they'd blend in? Helena was the only one that was actually 11.
Jason looked at his ticket grudgingly. "Anyone have an idea where is 9 and three-quarters station?"
"There's a ten and a nine, so it should be somewhere in between," Annabeth said thoughtfully.
Helena cocked her head. "I'm plenty sure Zeus sent someone to take us there. I still don't get why we can't shadow travel. It's plenty straightforward and does not include a nine and three quarters. Or a fraction."
"Exactly!" Nico exclaimed.
Percy jabbed his finger at someone in the crowd. "Is it just me, or does that look like Apollo?"
"That looks like Will," Jason corrected, "and Octavian."
"You forget that both of them look plenty like Apollo," Frank pointed out.
Then the man turned and grinned. "Percy! Jason! Come on over!"
The entire group shared a look. "Yup. Definitely Apollo."
So it was five minutes later when Athena(again. Annabeth's owl. Not the actual Athena) kicked the cage open and hopped onto Annabeth's shoulder. Then flapped her wings, and dropped a rather disgusting load on top of a blonde-haired boy.
Apollo snickered. "Yes, Draco Malfoy. Quite the snob. But that's beside the point. Aaaanyway, the way to the station is to go through that pillar there."
They looked at each other and then at Apollo. "Are you crazy?"
Helena turned away and poked her cane at the pillar, and frowned when she didn't feel any contact. "Guys?"
Frank's eyes widened for a moment, but then Leo cheered. "Whoop! There's a mist form pillar that's an entrance to a train station! Now. How does this work again? I don't believe I ever got briefed."
Then he dragged his robot through the pillar, disappearing. "You're next, Frank," Jason said, voice expressing extreme doubt. At some point, Apollo began to have to shove them inside because they were drawing too much attention, but pulled Jason, Percy, Nico, and Reyna over to the side to have a private conversation.
"Percy, Jason, guys. I know you guys have been through a lot, but I still need to tell you guys this. There's this kid, his name is Harry. He's been issued a prophecy, but he hasn't heard the whole thing yet. I need you guys to watch him and make sure he doesn't get killed. Make sure not to seem too close to each other or expose your powers and make everything too obvious. Helena should be able to help you all blend in, what with her powers over the mist and all, but she's young, and I don't want her getting into trouble. There'll be at least one Olympian at Hogwarts to keep an eye on you guys, so there's no need to worry."
"I didn't get anyone to watch me when I had my prophecy," Percy argued, but Jason cut him off.
"Percy, this is not the time for your sass. Just do it, or I get the feeling that you won't be too happy while you're blasted."
Something was nagging at the back of their minds, but they couldn't quite place it.
"Apollo," Reyna started cautiously, "I know we got our wands, but are you sure we'll be able to actually do magic?"
"Yes. Any more stupid questions?" Apollo glanced at his watch. He was going to be late.
"Actually, I do. Are you sure that Hecate kid could help us blend in?" Nico couldn't help but question. Sure, that girl was fit and she has a grasp of her powers, but he found it kind of ridiculous to trust an 11-year-old girl with not an ounce of experience with quests.
"Yes! I'll answer questions later. Shoo. Scram! You'll be late!"
After being roughly shoved through a non-existent pillar, the four suddenly found it uncomfortable with an impatient Annabeth, a distracted and half-hearted Hazel, a grumbling Frank, a prancing, excited Leo, and an extremely annoyed Helena. "Well, are you guys done with attracting attention? We're going to be late," Annabeth asked.
"Coming," Jason huffed, before dragging all of them onto the train. So apparently he was the big brother that had to get them to places on time now?
The ten of them split up into 3 groups, Jason with Nico, Percy, and Helena, and a radiantly beaming Leo with Hazel, Frank, Piper. Reyna and Annabeth eyed each other, knowing that they were going to be the ones to make friends with Harry, and whomever else he might be with.
Then they filed into separate train cars, and the train was off.
Reyna and Annabeth had no trouble locating Harry.
He was loud. He was obvious. And he was, most of all, trouble.
Of course, there was the fact that he was already accompanied by 2 other kids. But a train car can hold 5 people, so that was that.
"Mind if I sit here?" Reyna asked, voice still caring the authority she had when she was praetor.
"Sure," Harry answered, half-heartedly chatting with Ron about his rat. "Are you sure you can make him change colors?"
"Sometimes, yeah," Ron was easily defensive. Then again, he obviously didn't want to disappoint his new, famous friend.
Reyna and Annabeth shared a look. Too easy. "So, I don't think I know who you guys are. Care to introduce yourself?" Annabeth prompted casually. Because Reyna was never casual. Because she was praetor, and praetors are not casual, nor are they prompted to be.
"I'm Harry Potter. Apparently, I'm famous around here, though no one has told me what happened besides the fact that I somehow defeated some random wizard."
"He is NOT some random wizard! He was the most powerful wizard in the world! I'm Ron, by the way." Reyna had to suppress the urge to snort. Most powerful? They haven't seen anything. And she sincerely doubted their ability.
"And I'm Hermoine." This girl, was obviously somehow like Annabeth. A few moments earlier, they'd heard her talking about 'taking the textbook out' for some 'light reading' and whatnot.
In the other room, with Frank and Leo and Hazel and Piper, conversation was going well. It always went well when you had plenty of drinks and a robot table named Buford to serve you the drinks.
And in the other room, with Percy and Nico and Jason and Helena, there was only awkward conversation.
As in, "Um, so, what do you guys want to talk about?"
"Jason, that was a pathetic attempt at conversation."
"So, uh, what are your guys' hobbies?"
"Surfing. And watching Finding Nemo. And eating blue cookies. But everyone gets it wrong and thinks it's saving the world, which I dearly do not enjoy."
"Uhm. I don't really know? Maybe train?"
Helena just sighed. "You know, if I'm making you uncomfortable, I can always go join Leo and put Piper in here," It was something she often had to offer, but that didn't make it any less annoying.
Jason was startled, to say the least. "Oh! No, it's-it's fine."
The eleven-year-old sent him a withering glare that almost rivaled Nico's, and for a split moment, she didn't seem blind. Then she turned back to fiddling with the cane in her lap. "People say that all the time," she muttered, almost murderously. "I repeat: I can take care of myself. I have had enough O&M to handle basic things. I can see that you want to talk. Without me. So how's 'bout I go and get snacks, and you guys have a little chat and I can come back later?"
She got up and left without waiting for a response, sliding the door together.
"That girl's scary," Jason shivered.
"She has a Nico-ish style," Percy pointed out.
"Are you implying that I'm scary?"
"Guys, we need to talk." Of course. Leave it to Jason to wrench everything on course. I mean, he wasn't made a praetor for nothing.
"About?"
"Percy, you know what it's about. And we need to hurry. If you didn't notice, Helena just left so we would feel comfortable talking, and she's probably going to be back in somewhere around 10 minutes, longer if she went to join Leo, but assuming the worst, we need to get this chat out of the way."
"She might be eavesdropping,"
"We're three cars away from Leo. There's no one out the door. She can't."
"I'm still not sure we should trust her. We'd also need to check on Reyna and Annabeth's progress later. And Leo is probably not doing anything helpful, but yeah."
Then a blonde head popped into the cabin. The Malfoy dude.
"Mind if I sit there?" He jabbed a finger towards the empty seat in the car. His request was met with a stare and silence from all three occupants. He took that as a yes and walked in, just to have the door slide open wider and a cane push him back towards the entrance.
"Nope. My seat." Helena walked in and gingerly removed the tip of her cane from Draco's chest. Taking a seat and laying her cane neatly across her lap, she set down the bag of candy on the ground, and her can of coke on Buford as the walking table strutted in behind her.
Draco glared at her in challenge. "I came first."
"You mean, you came approximately 10 minutes later than I did."
"You did not!"
An ice dagger solidified on her lap. "Try me," she said, softly.
Draco's eyes widened. Then he fled down the corridor to fetch Crabbe and Goyle.
Nico pulled the doors closed and looked at the dagger pointedly. Helena, in answer, broke it into chunks and dropped it into her coke.
"What? Buford doesn't have an in-built cooler system."
Nico, Jason, and Percy shared a look: 'we need to talk about this'.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence.
"What's wrong? You guys look like you've seen a ghost," Hazel prompted as they left the carriages. They weren't accompanied by Helena, who was currently in another canoe a good distance from them with Apollo and Athena.
"We need to talk, guys," Jason mouthed as he rowed side by side with his friends, aiming to be able to chat about their predicament before Helena comes back from her chat with Professor Apollo and Professor Athena's. Why? Because apparently they wanted to chat with her about, erm, learning difficulties, and they honestly couldn't have done that before the school year started.
"Let me guess- it's about that new girl, and whether or not Harry and Ron flirted with Reyna and Annabeth," Leo inserted.
"You seem to forget we're not teenagers anymore, and therefore we cannot flirt," Annabeth herself seemed a bit sad at what she herself said, but quickly straightened up.
"Oh. Right." Frank muttered. "I'm pretty sure that means no cuddles, right?"
"Damn-" Percy muttered, just to initiate a "Language, Perseus," from Reyna.
Hazel muttered something in Nico's ears worriedly, unbeknown to their peers.
"Guys, guys. We've never even been with the- that girl before, are we sure we can trust her?"
"First off, you said girl the way a hunter says boy, and even if she doesn't take offense at that, I'll take offense for her. Second of all, when 12 Olympian gods plus a Styx agree on something, which is for us to trust her, especially considering how little they agree on, don't you think that's enough confirmation?"
"Easy for you to say- you have a pair of lie-detecting dogs. Sad you couldn't bring them, they'd be so nice to cuddle with-"
"Argentum and Aurum are not pillows!" Reyna barked.
"Still. Today, she manually pushed the Draco dude Athena-the owl- pooped on out the car door with her cane, then practically conjured an ice dagger out of thin air!"
"And broke it into pieces and dropped it in her drink, but I expect that's beside the point," Percy muttered to himself.
Suddenly the boats rolled to a stop and they disembarked. They walked up a flight of damp alabaster steps, crowding around a huge wooden door.
Hagrid's voice boomed across the lake as he checked the boats to make sure no one was left. "Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"
When he got no answer, he turned around and knocked three times on the oak doors of the castle before them.