Chapter 11

Percy

The first night dinner at Hogwarts was excellent in a strange way. First, we had no where to sit. Dumbledore took to the podium and introduced us to the four houses, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. He said we were students from a school of magic in America and were here because a disaster had befallen our alma mater, a freak storm caused by a Titan attacking New York had flooded it. This was the first clue we had that Dumbledore had some knowledge of our actual history. The students had all seen the fight at the train and were staring at us for a clue of who and what we were. We tried to act like normal high school kids, but in the world of magic that made us stand out like exhibits at a freak show.

Dumbledore continued saying that our classes would be with Gryffindor, but that we would be judged as our own house for House Cup purposes, and that Professor McGonagall would be the Head of our House for disciplinary purposes as she also over saw Gryffindor. With a wave of his wand the Gryffindor table elongated from the middle and we were asked to be seated.

As we entered, every male eye was on the girls, and I was beginning to think their uniform design was just simply a bad idea, but all the girls were enjoying vamping it up and the attention.

Not by coincidence we ended up seated beside Ron and Hermione to one end of us with Harry and Ginny at the other. Beside Harry and Ginny were two twins, introduced as George and Fred Weasley, Ron and Ginny's older brothers. They were hysterical.

Next, the first years were "sorted" into their houses by a hat. No really, they put a hat on the kid's head and it said which house they are in. But first it sings a song. No, really, the hat sings a song.

Finally, once every one was at a table, food just appeared and we ate. The food, well, it was excellent and there were tons of it. George said it was prepared by "house elves" who slaved in the kitchens all day to feed us. That made as much sense as wind servants actually so I didn't argue it.

Just after the food arrived the "house ghosts" came floating in. These were standard ghosts, any of us could have dispatched them all in seconds I imagine, but there was one assigned to each house. Gryffindor's was some guy named "Nearly Headless Nick" who floated down the table until he got to us, then floated up to the ceiling, staring at Nico. Nico signaled him to come down, then stood, and whispered in his ear "Just act normal."

After that, Nick visited all the other tables, talking briefly with their ghosts, who all looked over at Nico before going about their business. Most of the room was staring at Nico as a result.

After dinner, Dumbledore had the school sing its alma mater as a salute to their guests, which was any song the singer thought of at any tempo and key. Such a noise I have never heard.

As our "gift" back to the students of Hogwarts, Will got up with a guitar and sang what was claimed to be our school song, but was really just Robert Earl Keen's "The Road Goes on Forever and the Party Never Ends" with the usual words replaced with a telling of the events of our last year. "They fell down into Tartarus where so many souls are sent, the road goes on forever and the party never ends..."

Finally Dumbledore welcomed all, warned about being lazy and not paying attention, or something like that, then the pink troll lady interrupted and spoke too. She made no damn sense at all and for a bunch of ADHD half bloods it was pure misery. This was as good a time as any. I nodded to Hazel at the other end of the table and she nodded back.

I leaned over to Harry and Ginny and said "After dinner come by the study room in the Leodis, okay?"

"Sure" they both nodded.

As we left Hermione took charge of the first years, and as we had no idea where we were going, we followed her. Annabeth loved the place at first sight. The center of the main building was a series of stair cases that kept rearranging themselves, so you had to pay attention to not only where you were going, but timing just exactly when you should go. After several minutes of climbing stairs we were high in Gryffindor Tower, and all along the wall were paintings where in the subjects moved. Most were of old dead people from the history of the school I guessed, I had never seen any of them.

"Now," Hermione announced, "once here you must give the lady the password. You get the password from either a prefect, head boy or girl, or the head of house. And it occurs to me, I didn't think to get the password. Ron, do you have it?

"No. Why? I thought you did."

"Well that's okay, all you have to do when this happens is go seen the head of house. Who wants to volunteer to go to Professor McGonagalls..."

"Open the door" Nico said to the woman in the painting. She looked up, shocked, then looked at Nico and seemed startled, turned pale, and then without a word the painting swung out of the way and the door was open.

"Or, uh, you can just get Nico to open it for you. Thank you Nico." Hermione said, clearly as flustered as the lady in the painting.

Hermione led us all in and down three steps inside the doorway to the Gryffindor common room a generally octagonal room that was plushly appointed. A fire was in the fireplace and took the chill that was in the highland air away. Even though it was still technically summer, we were so far north the night air had a damp chill to it. Several tables and multiple chairs were scattered about, as well as a few couches. A chess set was on one of the tables, while cards were on another. Since no one was playing chess or cards at the moment, the chess pieces moved themselves about and the cards played solitaire. There was a conspicuous absence of a television or any other modern entertainment.

"No TV?" I asked.

"No, electronics and magic don't work well together" Hermione explained.

"We can't use them either. Cell phones and, what do you call them? "Muggle" computers and such throw up red flares for monsters when we are around them. The big house had a flat screen we used sometime but none of us really missed having one."

Hermione directed the first years to their living quarters and for a few moments we were alone. The boys went through a door to the left and the girls to the right. In between them was the door to the Leodis, which blended right in.

"Really? So we have that much in common" She smiled as I told her about our aversion to electronics. "May I ask you something Percy?"

"Sure."

"Do you know what a dentist is?"

I stopped smiling. Was there something wrong with my teeth? "Uh, yes, why?"

"Oh good!"

"Is something wrong with...

"Oh no no no! Its just, well, I'm muggle born. Neither of my parents use magic, they are dentists and no one here knows what that is as witches and wizards fix teeth magically." Hermione smiled. "What do your parents do?"

"Well mom, I guess you would say she's a housewife and a writer. My step father, Paul, he is a school teacher and a really good guy. But as you say, both are muggles, neither uses magic, although mom can see through the mist."

"What is the mist?"

"Uh, you ever do magic out in the world where muggles could see it?"

"No, I have the trace."

"Oh. Right. Well, say Dumbledore cast a spell in the middle of down town London that, I don't know, created an elephant. The muggles wouldn't see an elephant, they would see.."

"A car, or bus, or something. Muggles see what they want to see."

"Right, well they see what the mist allows them to see. Anyway, my mom, she would see the elephant. Rachel is the same way."

The door to the Leodis opened just as Hermione asked, "So what about your biological father?"

Annabeth came through the door, looked around and saw the room was otherwise empty, and said "He's the Greek god of the oceans and earthquakes, Poseidon. Hermione, could you join us? We need to talk." She smiled.

When we got to the study room everyone was already there, including Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Neville. Annabeth remained standing and I sat beside her. Hermione sat between Harry and Ron, and once all were situated Annabeth began.

"Okay, so we couldn't talk earlier in complete candor as Luna, bless her soul, isn't on the approved list to know yet what we are about to discuss. Frankly we were going to put off having this conversation all together, except my mother's dream invitation to Hermione requires that we have it. You are our friends and we hope to be yours and we can't do that unless you know we aren't keeping anything important about ourselves from you. But, other than Dumbledore, no one knows this, and yes, even after this conversation there will be plenty of things we don't know about each other, but tonight is some important stuff. It cannot be repeated outside this room. Do each of you agree?

They looked at each other and nodded their heads.

Hazel took over. "There is a list of six people that are allowed to know this at this time, five are in this room, the other is Professor Dumbledore. Some of it you probably know if you paid attention during your history of magic classes. First, magic use is a gift to favored people by the goddess Hecate. Long ago certain people gained her favor and the use of magic was her reward to them. It continues today to those who recognize it and may sometimes skip generations. Others seem to gain it for reasons known only to Hecate, or Trivia as the Romans call her. The other gods of the Greek and Roman pantheons tend to ignore the magic users as they have their own plates full. Recently though, a few things have happened. It has come to the attention of the gods, due to prayers offered by Dumbledore, that Voldemort wishes to change the balance. He wishes to use magic to not only control the magical world, but the muggle world as well. This is a real problem for the gods."

"You see," Reyna said, "the pantheon of gods still exist because of the influence they had on the ancient world carrying over to the modern. In particular the arts and government are modeled after Greek ideals, while the militaries of the world and her electoral bodies are heavily influenced by the Romans. But almost every aspect of life in the occidental world has been influenced by either Roman or Greek culture, or both. Both pantheons continue to exist because way back when, people had faith, much as they have faith in the one true God now. Yes, many of us are Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and such, and most of us follow Christ in one path or another. You can call the pantheon aliens, or sub divinities, but it doesn't really matter, they exist because of someone having faith, putting that faith into an ideal, and that ideal carrying forward to current times.

"So, should Voldemort succeed, people, muggles as you call them, would have proof of the magical world. No longer would faith be required. And that would be cataclysmic." Piper said.

"A few moments ago you asked who Percy's father was. Do you recall the women in your dream?" Annabeth asked Hermione.

"Well, mainly I just remember having a picnic at Shiloh, with you girls, and some women who were, well, beautiful. I mean, you're all so pretty, but there was,,,, well, Oh, and a guy whose beard was on fire!"

"You met my mother, Athena, patron of Athens, goddess of wisdom, strategy, law, justice and a few other things. You also met Aphrodite, Piper's mother, the Goddess of Beauty, truth and love. Oh, and procreation! Right Piper? She's big on procreation isn't she? She really likes her followers and children to procreate early and often, she's that big on it, right?" Annabeth grinned.

"Um yes. Yes, she is." Piper said as Jason sat up and began paying attention.

"My mother, Bellona, was there as well, the Roman goddess of war. Many of the gods have both Roman and Greek facets, but Bellona is strictly Roman with no Greek counterpart. Oh, and the gentleman whose beard was on fire? That's Hephaestus, Leo's father, the Greek god of the forge and technology. He is married to Aphrodite, so Piper and Leo are siblings, but they share no DNA. You'll find that faithfulness has a different meaning to the gods. Recall that he wished to have tea with his son's girlfriend, but not necessarily his wife."

"Each of us is the child of a mortal parent and a god, although some of us, our mortal parent has passed on. My father is Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans." Jason said.

"Mine is Poseidon, Greek god of the seas, Earthshaker, Father of Horses and and god of a bunch of other things." I said.

"Hades. Greek god of the underworld. Technically part of my duties is rounding up problematic souls who have tarried here when they should be in the underworld. That is why you see the ghosts and painting spirits acting as they do around me. They don't want to be thought of as problematic." Nico said.

"Hades is also my father, Nico is my brother, but my gift has nothing to do with ghosts or the dead, I deal with other facets of the underworld." Hazel said.

"Mars, the Roman god of war." Frank said.

Wait, I thought Bellona was... you have two war gods?" Neville asked.

Frank and Reyna looked at each other, nodded, then giggled in unison "We like war."

"Apollo, Greek god of the sun, prophecy, music, healing, and a few other things" Will said.

"I think that is everyone."

"Wait, what about Jennifer and Rachel?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, my parents are a financier and a lawyer. I'm Presbyterian, I just have the gift of prophecy. Well, I do when Apollo isn't on probation with Zeus. Other than that I can see through the mist. " Rachel said.

"And I've been claimed by Poseidon as well." Jennifer said diplomatically.

"The gods rarely intervene directly. Historically they have sent their demi god children. Dumbledore requested help with returning balance to the world of magic, and defeating Voldemort and his allies. We are the answer to that prayer. Everyone of us has fought in at least one war against the Titans, who are sort of like eternal enemies of the gods. Some of us have fought in two. We don't come from a school of magic, we come from a Roman camp, Camp Jupiter, and a Greek camp, Camp Half Blood. At present our two camps are at peace. This was not easy and that peace was earned by the struggles of every demi god at this table, but most especially Leo, Reyna, and Nico." I said, then continued, "We are here to help you, but no one can know of our true nature, or it would be just as damaging as as the muggle world learning of the world of magic."

"About that, we don't do magic the same way you do. Each of us has gifts we can use, but the spells you will see us cast work in much the same way as yours. Your wands focus the magic within you to a useful purpose. Our wands do the same, there just happens to be a lot more magic in us, given who our parents are. Either that or we begin with different expectations of the power of magic. This is something we will have to explore moving forward."

"I think that about covers it. Any questions?" Hazel said.

"Oh! You might want to tell them about ADHD." Leo said.

"Right, good point. You may notice that we have translated versions of the school's texts. The reason is the most powerful part of our brains knows Greek or Latin, and we are hard wired for war and combat. All of us have been diagnosed with ADHD as a result."

"So..." Harry began, " No one else in the order knows about you?"

"The Order of the Phoenix? As we understand it, they only know that assistance has been requested. They might figure out that we are it, and eventually they will be told, but until then it is important that everyone think of us as just some kids from America learning magic. In truth, that is what we are." Hazel answered.,

"They won't let us join the order and fight until we are seventeen" Ron said.

"Really? Most of us were fighting monsters when we were twelve, Jason and Annabeth before that. Evil won't care how old you are when it attacks" I replied. "We will teach you to fight as we do. Annabeth is our instructor, and she taught me." I said. "We would like you to teach us how to use spells."

"So Annabeth is the best with a sword? That's awesome, but uh, but you already know spells don't you?" Harry asked.

"No, Percy is far and away the best with a sword, and combat generally." Frank said, and Jason nodded. That was nice of them, but I'm not sure its true.

"Well thanks guys, but the thing is Harry, Annabeth taught me because she understands the tactics of sword play and can explain it, like she did to me. As a son of Poseidon, I just know how to fight, I can't explain to you how I do it, and yes, we know how to cast spells, and what they do. We need you to teach us why we would want that done, and when. We know how to drive nails, and saw wood, but we don't know how to build a house. Earlier you saw me cast, what was it? A "patronus"? That owl thing? I have no idea what that does. Does that make sense?"

"I think so" Hermione said. "You know 'wingardium leveosa' can lift things, but you don't know to use it to lift a mountain troll and drop him on his head."

"Exactly!"

"It would be an honor to teach you what I know, but Harry is the one who has the most experience." Hermione said. "First year he defeated Voldemort and with Ron a mountain troll. The next year he killed a basilisk by himself. And he's the Tri Wizard Champion."

"Well Fowlkes helped" Harry protested. "Almost always I've had help, and everyone knows you're the best in the school at spells."

"Just one?" Leo asked.

"Just one what?" Harry replied.

"Basilisk."

"That's all there was. I don't think the chamber could have held any more, why?"

"Oh, nothing, they are a tough kill. I've never been able to kill one, but Frank just turns into a weasel and wipes them out. Apparently that is their natural enemy."

"Why would a hundred foot snake as thick as an oak tree trunk be afraid of a weasel?" Ron asked.

"Whoa, what? You had a basilisk that big? Damn! Ours are deadly, but they are only the size of garden snakes and kinda slow." Frank said, impressed.

"Oh. Yeah, thats not our basilisk" Harry laughed. "Ours was a bit of a challenge. I stabbed him in the brain with the sword of Gryffindor."

"So you know how to fight with a sword?" Annabeth asked.

"No, it was just the only weapon I had." Harry grinned.

"Well, that is something I can teach you. I taught Seaweed Brain and he turned out okay." Annabeth smiled at me.

"Guys, moving on, we have looked over the plans for Hogwarts, and it looks like we are pretty safe on the castle and grounds, plus we will be in all our classes together. What concerns us is Hogsmeade and the forest. Both of those seem open to attack, and we expect to be drawing in monsters by our presence here. Apparently we are the first demi gods here in a thousand years of so and the monsters, thats what we generally call anything that wants to fight us that isn't a giant or a titan, should start coming in waves attacking every chance they get. Any ideas on how to defeat them?" Reyna asked.

"Well, Hogsmeade, we only go in groups and the professors are usually there somewhere nearby. And at the edge of the forest, that's where Hagrid lives and he is on good terms with most of the creatures there." Neville said.

"Who is Hagrid?" I asked.

"He's our friend, he teaches magical creatures, he is the giant you saw at the train." Ron answered.

"I didn't see a giant" I confessed.

"Sure you did, big guy, about 3 to 4 meters, weighs about a thousand kilos, bushy hair and beard? Annabeth started to attack him?" Ron said.

"Oh, the big guy? His name is 'Hagrid'? I thought you meant a 'giant' giant." I said.

"We killed all of those last year Percy." Frank said.

"CRAP! I knew I was forgetting something!" Nico shouted suddenly.

"What?" Annabeth asked, her concern showing. Well, we were all concerned. Nico just didn't do emotional outbursts.

"Bob. Bob says 'Hi'" Nico said, his eyes glistening.

"Bob.. Bob is alive?" I asked.

"Yes! Moments after the last giants and monsters were slain at Necromanteion, he was slain by those trying to force their way through to this plain of existence. But instead of being reborn in the fields of punishment, where he's spent what? The last 5000 years? He is reborn in Elysium, the field of heros, for saving us all."

"That is awesome! Way to go Bob!" I nearly shouted.

"Wait! You haven't heard the best part! What does Bob do? Oh, and remember, he's reborn with all his memories."

"What?" I ask, thinking Bob with his memories couldn't be a good thing,.

"Well he looks around, decides that he likes being in the light more and he didn't want to ever go back to who he was before, so he goes to dad's house, puts on one of his old uniforms, and starts mopping the floor!" As soon as Nico said this we all laughed with happiness at the good fortune of our friend Bob.

"Who is Bob?" Ginny asked.

"Well, he was a titan. In the first Titan War, the 'first' first Titan war, he wavered between fighting for Kronos, his father, and his brother, Zeus, so when Zeus and the Olympians won, as punishment he was sent to the fields of punishment, that is in what you would call hell, for lack of a better term. On his second or third trip there, Percy pulled him into the River Lethe, which wiped out all his previous memories. He didn't even know his name, so Percy told him he was Bob and that they were good friends. On Percy's next trip, this time Annabeth was with him, Bob gave up his life to help them get out. Bob is good people." Hazel explained.

"How many times have you gone to hell?" Hermione asked, shocked that anyone had I guess.

"Four I guess, and its really the underworld, not just hell." I replied to the collective silence in the room. "No where near as much as Nico, but he's more welcome there."

"I have a bedroom there at my father's house." Nico said, "but it is well air conditioned. I'm trying not to travel there so much because, well, it takes a lot out of you and it is super depressing."

"You can look Bob up in your Greek history or mythology texts, his real name is Iapetus." Annabeth said, trying to be helpful.

There was a sudden breaking of glass at the end of the table. Jennifer sat with a shattered goblet in her hand, blood dripping onto the table, and insane rage in her eyes.

"Percy Jackson. We will talk. Now." She commanded with fire in her eyes and rose, leaving the room.

I looked around and everyone else was as startled as me. Leo offered to see what was wrong, but I suggested that I needed to go, since it was me that Jennifer demanded. I rose and followed her, and found her standing at the far end of the hall, tapping her foot with her hand still bleeding and fury in her expression. It seemed as though the air around her was slowly catching fire.

"What's wrong" I asked as softly as I could when I approached.

"Well Percy, lets see. Maybe its because Iapetus is more than just a guy you tricked. Maybe he is someone's grandfather and the only family that was ever nice to her in those 5,000 years."

"No.. he's your grandfather?"

"Iapetus. Father of Atlas. Grandfather of Calypso. Now, you're going to help him. I'm grateful he's not in the Fields of Punishment any longer, but he shouldn't be mopping floors in the House of Hades. He deserves better than that for helping you save the gods and the world. Don't you agree?"

I noticed a marble bench along the wall and sat down. "Yes. Let me see your hand, we need to get it wrapped.."

"I can heal myself. Don't forget who and what I am Percy Jackson." She said as her hand suddenly stopped bleeding and the cuts merged together as if they were never there.

"No, I mean, of course. Can I tell you something? Your grandfather's last words to me were 'Tell the stars Bob said hello.' It broke my heart, and yeah he deserves better. I don't know how far we can get with Zeus but Hades would probably help us out. Hey, he's pretty good with a spear, best I ever saw. He nearly killed me but I got really lucky."

"That is why they call him Piercer." She said, clearly hinting that I should learn that first hand should I let Bob rot in Hades.

"Come on, lets see what we can do. You're right, I owe you and I owe Bob."

"Leo has repaid any debt you had to me, we've been over that, do not bring it up again. You just owe my Grandfather, he saved you, Annabeth, and this whole world and I expect it to be repaid quickly." Calypso said firmly. I seriously did not want to see her angry again.

We got back to the room and everyone was quiet, in fact they were on eggshells about saying the wrong thing, so no one said anything at all. Annabeth looked worried for the first time since Gaea had been defeated.

The meeting ran short after that. Jennifer and I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, but it was clear to everyone that something was. The Hogwarts kids were too nervous to ask, and the demi gods knew there was a reason we left the room.

We returned the discussion to safety in and out of the castle, and it was agreed by all that once inside the protections we were probably safe, although no one as yet knew if those would work against our sort of monsters. Hogsmeade we agreed to go to only in mass, and the forest, well all the Hog Warts kids thought that Hagrid was enough, and none of the Demi god kids did.

Finally Annabeth suggested a training schedule, four hours a day after class and eight on the weekends. No one, not even I, thought that workable, although I took Annabeth's side, as I didn't need anyone else angry at me.

In the end it was decided that after homework an hour or so would be the most that could be afforded, at least at first. Ron pointed out that none of their enemies fought with knives or swords so anything they learned would be an advantage and this was true enough, though spoken by someone who had never been hit by a sword.