Chapter 9

Sunlight filtered through the Slytherin common room window, and Nico stirred, his eyelids flickering open. He sat up and groaned; his head was throbbing, like when Athena jumped out of Zeus's skull. He looked at his watch, which reported it to be 9:00 in the morning. Nico pulled himself to his feet and stumbled to the door.

He passed a mirror on the way out and looked at his reflection. Tousled black hair, cold eyes, and sunken cheekbones. Nico sighed and looked down at his robes, thinking, "It'll be better this year. No monsters." He stared at his reflection again before walking down to breakfast. He walked away, but the reflection of him stayed, watching him leave. Once he was gone, the face slowly molted into Percy's sister's, and she cackled before disappearing from the mirror. Nico didn't remember a thing.

The demigods all met up in the Great Hall for breakfast. They sat at their House tables and waved "Hi" to each other before helping themselves to the delicious food. Annabeth was deeply enjoying the food, and Percy was devouring it, even though it wasn't blue. Frank and Hazel couldn't stop eating, and even Thalia smiled when taking her first bite. Nico and Will shared a look, amused at their friends' reactions. This whole time Leo and Percy's sister where huddled at the end of the Slytherin table, barely eating. The whispered and occasionally glanced up, scanning for prying eyes.

Conversations started at all tables. Kids were talking about their life at home with their wizard families, or if the speaker was muggle-born, what it's like in the muggle society. Percy was asked once about Quidditch, and his answer was, "Um, yeah, I like how it tastes." He was given a few strange looks and was ignored for the rest of the discussion.

Schedules were passed out to the students, and when owls flew in through all the windows, the new demigods ducked for cover, except for Annabeth, for owls were her mother's sacred animal. Once mail delivery was over, the students bustled off to their first class, which happened to be Potions for the Gryffindors and Slytherins.

The students lined up outside the door, Professor Slughorn rushed to greet the class, and everybody sat and settled down, anxious for the first lesson of the year.

"Now, now, settle down. First, let me make sure everybody is accounted for…" Slughorn read names off a list, then began the class. "Ok, so today we will start off right away with antidotes. I have a giant goblet of poison in this goblet," he gestured to an enormous gold cup with bubbling purple liquid, "And the antidote to it if your own healing potion shall fail."

"Ok, not too bad," Thalia murmured to Leo.

"Mm-hm, yeah, just put it there," Leo responded absently.

"What's been going on with you lately?"

"Um, thanks, but I'm busy!"

"Uh, ok?"

The Professor walked smoothly to Thalia and Leo. "Now, here's the twist."

"Uh-oh," Percy muttered.

"The Slytherins and Gryffindors each be two teams. Each student must choose a peer from the other House to test the antidote on. Start making your antidotes…NOW!"

Students dived into their school bags, pulling out unicorn hair, banshee hair, blood, vampire teeth, bones, body parts of small animals, and various other ingredients. Percy poured water as a base and mixed toad eye with banshee hair, causing his potion to emit a mushroom cloud. Once the steam dispersed, you could see that the potion had turned sea green, like Percy's eyes. Although, if you leaned in, you could smell hints of lake sludge, and old smelly seaweed, and it had the consistency of mud.

Annabeth, of course, had made a perfect antidote that was smooth as stone, and stormy gray. It smelled like a combination of flowers. Thalia had made a glowing silver potion that smelled like the wilderness, and Nico's potion was black and smelled like death. Leo's was a tie-dye looking mixture of rusted metal colored liquid, with hints of sea-green, like Percy's eyes. Percy's eyes…

"Ok now," Slughorn announced. "Everybody, drink some poison. Within five minutes, you shall fall ill and drink your partners potion. Find a partner and begin!"

Harry sought the eyes of Percy, who attempted to look away but couldn't force himself to.

"Ohhh boy," Percy sighed.

Harry smiled wickedly and raised his filled glass of poison, as if saying, "A toast to your death."