Chapter 15

Harry was gloomily trudging up the majestic and constantly moving staircases of Hogwarts. He had just come out of a meeting with Professor McGonagall, who informed him that he would not be able to participate in Quidditch since he was a year older than all the other players would be. He turned the next corner and saw one of those shady exchange students right there. It was Hazel, and she was alone.

Harry was about to walk right up to her and ask her what her intentions were with his beloved school, but he stopped just as he was about to go charging towards her. She crumpled down on the floor and let her head slump into her arms. Her shoulders started shaking, and the floor beside her began shining with glistening tears.

Harry was utterly shocked, not really knowing what to think about it. He scurried away to the Gryffindor common room and retrieved his invisibility cloak. By the time he arrived back at the spot where he saw Hazel, she was gone. But it didn't take long for him to find her, since she had dropped a few tears behind her, creating a path for Harry to follow. Hazel entered the Hufflepuff common room, unaware of Harry following her invisibly. Hazel climbed the stairs that led to the boys' dormitory and slid something under Frank's door. She stared at the door for a few seconds, then went back down the stairs.

Harry was curious as to what she had slid under the door. Was it possibly something to help kill him and his friends? He had to find out. Surging forward, he stepped on something sharp. He remembered that invisible things don't yelp in pain, so he muffled his shout. Harry gazed down at what he had trodden on, and he saw an emerald. An emerald. In a tower of a castle, hundreds of feet above the ground. Completely dumbfounded at this, he quickly snatched it from the ground and proceeded to investigating.

He tried opening the door, but it was locked. Luckily, Harry remembered the present Sirius had given him a few years ago, a device that got past every lock. But it was still in his dorm room. Suddenly, a Hufflepuff opened a nearby window. Perfect.

"Accio lockpick," Harry whispered.

The device came soaring through the window and presented itself to Harry. Luckily no one had noticed the flying object. After a few tries, the door swung open and Harry grabbed the parcel that Hazel had slid under the door. Harry almost laughed at how devious he was being. He had probably discovered something huge. He unraveled the parcel to see…a piece of wood. Disgusted, Harry shoved it away. Then he realized that it could be a disguise for something much more important. He stuffed it in his pocket, went downstairs, and followed a Hufflepuff out the door.

He started thinking. What would he find if he explored the other exchange students' dorms? Harry decided to find out. He continued following people into their common rooms, opening the doors, and stealing the exchange students' interesting possessions. He did this to every house. Once he finished stealing Percy and Annabeth's possessions from the Gryffindor tower, he took off his invisibility cloak and went to the common room to meet up with Ron and Hermione.

"Hey," he whispered. "Wait until everyone goes to dinner. I have stuff to show you."

Once everyone else had exited the common room, Harry revealed all the objects he had stolen from the exchange students. He told the story of how he came across them, and he began explaining the possessions he had found.

"Wait, hold up," Hermione insisted. "You went into the girls' dormitories?"

"Playa!" Ron shouted.

"Oh, shut up you two," Harry said impatiently. "Anyways, you'll never believe what I found." He brought out each object and performed its abilities as he explained them. "I found this random piece of firewood in Frank's room. I guess the Hazel girl was holding onto it for him. But Hazel left behind this emerald. How does she make one just randomly appear? And I looked in her calendar, which had events like 'sword fighting lessons for Piper.' Then in Jason's room, I found a picture of him wearing a purple cloak and battle armor. Battle armor?! And not only that, but the pictures weren't moving. They aren't really wizards."

"Here, let me see the picture," Hermione offered. "That's a Roman praetor cloak. I learned about it in school. Interesting."

"Yeah," Harry continued. "And then for the Piper girl, I found a poster of Tristan McLean, the famous actor. If you think about it, they kind of look alike. And there were some notes in Piper's bag, with the title 'How to Charmspeak.' What does that even mean? And in Leo's room, I found so many things for building, like tools and random machine parts. I even found some sketches of a boat with a huge dragon as its mast head. And I'm pretty sure the notes were in Ancient Greek. Then I was looking through the Thalia girl's stuff, and I found this bracelet. When I touched it, it turned into a shield! Percy also had a shield like that. And then Annabeth had a computer with huge architectural designs. They were gorgeous, and they seemed to be made for palaces. I'm telling you, these kids aren't normal."

A loud noise interrupted Harry's rant. Percy and Annabeth came climbing through the portrait wall, having just come back from a Transfiguration tutoring lesson, which they were taking in order to catch up. The demigods and the wizards stared at each other intensely.

"Um, hey," Percy stammered. "We were just going to put away our books and head to dinner."

All five of them walked off to dinner, staying in their little groups, trying to avoid each other. The wizards were convinced that the demigods were there to hurt them. Meanwhile, Annabeth and Percy's minds were thinking fast. They had heard the entire conversation earlier. Their cover was blown.