Chapter 32

Percy

After the dance we made our way back to the Leodis, all of us, including the Hogwarts kids, a professor, and a couple of parents, Lupin and Sirius. For once we used the grand ball room which the aerials had prepared with refreshments and seating. No one was sleepy and the party continued for another hour or so, with some couples dancing in spite of the only music being Will singing to them occasionally. Mrs Weasley kept a close eye on her children, but they were well behaved and none attempted to sneak off to somewhere more private.

Sirius, who had gotten the hang of flying around as an owl decided it was time for him to become a person again and asked Annabeth to reverse her transfiguration charm. She pointed her wand at him and almost cast the spell before I shouted "Wait!" I ran to our room and grabbed a bath robe, which for the first time I noted had the Mather-Knap crest on it, and came back. I asked Sirius to face away from us, draped the robe onto him and then nodded at Annabeth, who had a knowing smile.

Unlike Pansy, Sirius became human again wearing a bathrobe.

"My clothes must still be on the pitch. With my wand no doubt." He laughed. "Thank you Percy. And I'm sure everyone else thanks you as well!"

"No problem, give me a second and I'll accio your stuff." I went to the Gryffindor commons, opened a window facing the pitch and used my wand to retrieve both Sirius's cloths and wand, which were still invisible. I felt the weight in my hand though and used repario and the cleaning spell just to be safe, then carried them to the ballroom where Jennifer made them visible again. In a few minutes Sirius had changed and was as good as new.

As the night wore on, couples said their good nights and went to bed. Sirius, Lupin, Mrs Weasley and Annabeth were the last awake in the lobby and I was quite tired.

"Percy, may I ask you something?" Sirius said.

"Sure"

"How.. how is it that the strongest accio spell I've ever seen brought something from down the hall in another room of my home, yet you just retrieved something about a half a mile from here?"

"Oh, well I am quite good at that particular spell" I said. This was something I had not considered and it was clear that neither Sirius nor Lupin nor Molly Weasley was buying my explanation.

"He's also quite good at gathering things when no one is looking and stashing them in the common room to pick up later. Seriously? Did you really think anyone would believe you could retrieve something that far?" Annabeth laughed.

All the adults just rolled their heads as though they were the victim of a practical joke, so I added "Geez Annabeth, thanks! I had them believing it!" We smiled at each other, and I knew I owed her one again.

After everyone chuckled and Lupin admitted that I had him fooled, Sirius began again. "Your spells are particularly strong though. The stunning jinx you used in the lobby, that looked lethal, and your agua transfiguation is like nothing I've ever seen."

Lupin nodded his agreement.

"So, what are you saying, you think I could beat Snape with a wand?" I grinned.

"No, well, yes, maybe. Its just, I've never seen such... authority in spell casting. I wondered if it was something that could be taught."

"Maybe. I mean, I'd be glad to, but honestly its like my sword work, I do not honestly know how I do it, I'm just really good at it. Mom always said I had an affinity for water and any spell involving it I seem to be really good at. Maybe Hecate just wants it that way. But I think Ms Molly will tell you I'm really no better than anyone else if I try to think about it. The other day when she shot sparks at us she killed me three or four times."

"You hesitated." Molly said.

"Yes, exactly. I wasn't sure if I should be shielding or attacking. My natural reaction is to attack and"

"That's gotten us into trouble before." Annabeth said.

"Right, it has. But, if I hesitate, well some sort of mental barrier comes up and my spells are no better than anyone else's. I suspect everyone has barriers like that and we need to work to remove them."

Well, we three had heard about your combat skills before, but tonight was the first time we actually saw them. It was amazing, and... terrifying." Lupin said.

"The kids did great didn't they?" I asked.

"Well from what I saw you and the other Americans did the hard part" Molly said.

"Hey! We're crediting Hermione with two out of three. She was amazing! No hesitation, nothing held back. She recognized the situation, drew her weapon and attacked without mercy, just as we've been teaching. Frankly, she was the one we expected to be a bit more reserved and thoughtful in a fight. Okay, so her first kill was a gimme, I kinda set her up for that one, but the second, that was all her. She could have stepped back to see what happened or what someone else might do, but she acted instead. My advice is whatever you do, never ever ever mess up her entrance. And Ginny, she was in the mix too, she hit as hard and as fast as Reyna, and that's saying something, Reyna has been fighting since she was eight or nine. All in all if I had to do an after action report the only gripe would be that they were so freakin' beautiful the boys were all stunned to the point of inaction. I'm not sure what happened there. I saw Annabeth coming down the stairs and the rest of the world just blurred out. Next thing I knew Kelli the vampire was in front of me wanting to fight."

"Oh that was Piper. She wasn't content with our wardrobe, makeup and accessories, she added a little bit of a love charm to the mix. Damn near got us all killed." Annabeth laughed.

"Oh it did not. Besides, every girl deserves a moment like that in her life, most especially my Gryffindor and American daughters." Molly smiled. "If the boys can't control themselves it will always be up to us to defend them."

Annabeth laughed and held up her hand for a high five. It took Molly a minute to figure out what she was doing before she returned it with a laugh.

"So Percy, you'll have three groups working by the end of the weekend. How many do you expect to train?" Lupin asked.

"I don't know, you really should ask Hazel that, she's in charge and I think doing a great job."

"She will ask you and defer to what you say. Unless perhaps Frank says differently." Sirius said.

"Wait a second, no. Hazel is strong. She's still coming into her own as a quest leader, and she's quite democratic in her style but she is good at using the strengths of her people. There is a reason she's in charge and Reyna is second in command. She is far and away the best magician among us. Yes the two of them tend to leave the control of fights to me, but training is all Annabeth, Jason and Frank. Surely you've noticed that when we have time to plan a fight in advance, well I guess you weren't here for the Neville operation, but after Hazel put me in charge of it, I put Frank in charge of planning it. It was the same with the train. We all have different strengths. Frank is the best battlefield organizer, Annabeth and Jason fight and train, Hazel keeps it all together and helps with the mist, Reyna has overall strategy, Piper is our morale person but don't get her mad, her dagger will kill you as fast as my gladius. Each of us plays a part in addition to being really good at combat."

"But Percy, well, he's the tip of the spear. We defer fighting leadership to him, because on the ground against an enemy or group of enemies, he's going to be the one out front swinging a blade and casting spells. Its what he does. We're all good at it from Hazel and Piper on up we are in the gifted program at delivering death, but Percy is a prodigy. In a fight we'd follow him anywhere because behind him is the safest place to be. Percy is right though, we have a structure and really that decision is Hazel's. My thinking is five groups of five, but that is only because of the number of trainers we have for blade work." Annabeth said. "Why, how many do you think we should train?"

"Well if they are loyal to Harry and the Headmaster, I would love to see them all trained, but I realize that's not possible. How would you access the children so far?" Lupin asked.

"DA1 is coming along quite well. They have the basics down and next week will start with more advanced training. The first week it will be urban environments with Jason. Both you guys, Mrs Weasley and Will can expect to be called upon to help with that. They will have an hour on blade work with me, then go to Jason for a couple more. DA2 has been a pleasant surprise. Fred and George work as well in tandem as Percy and myself, they have a twin thing going on that doesn't require verbal communication and they are out side of the box creatively. Cho claims to be average with a wand, in truth I suspect like Luna her skills with a wand go more towards non combative skills, but both have great foot work and are deadly with blades. We may have to find a shorter sword for Luna though, the Norman is a bit heavy for her. Seamus works harder than anyone and is his own worst critic. Still he is coming along well and is nearly as good as anyone in DA1."

"Percy, do you think your quidditch team will be ready for Slytherin? They have a couple of pro prospect beaters I hear." Sirius asked.

"Not my concern fortunately. I'm grounded by order of the Headmaster, or haven't you heard?" I laughed.

We all went off to bed, knowing that the next morning we would train a bit then block off the travel to Hogsmeade and be wary of attack the entire time there. I figured the Hogswart kids would resent the restrictions caused by us traveling in mass, but we were all so happy hanging out together that no one minded at all. We were quickly changing from a gang of 11 demigods (and a goddess) to a gang of 21 demigods and magicians. While we zapped a few giant spiders and a number of those half bear, half bug things both coming and going to Hogsmeade, we never ran into any real trouble. Harry, Neville and Ron got to kill a few of these and we discussed a hunting trip into the forest for fun one day in the near future. Frank and Alice traveled with us and each got to use their wands for the first time outside of practice in fifteen years, both seemed to feel, well, it seemed to make them feel more normal if that makes sense.

Sunday came and with it a day of general relaxation for everyone except Leo. He was busy with the aerials constructing the urban training environment, and was also setting up a wizards obstacle course as well. All in all our training grounds were the best magical training grounds anywhere, Jupiter and Half Blood included. In all candor I think when he was supervising the aerials Leo was happiest anyway. Jennifer rarely left his side and she was beginning to adopt his sense of humor, which would have scared me if I had thought about it.

The new crew Sunday evening seemed good. We added the last member of the Gryffindor quiditch team which would make transitions between practices easier, and we moved back their start time an hour so that our own team could have the pitch. Will had taken charge of that and mainly they worked on the entrance he had created. From what I saw it was bound to cause a few slack jaws Friday afternoon. Our team strategy was developed around Hazel, both using the mist to frustrate the opponents ability to score, and end the game when it felt like it had ran on long enough. Meanwhile, we would score a few ourselves as we were able. From what Harry and the Gryffindors had told us, matches could go on for hours but an average length was between forty five minutes and an hour. In the end we didn't really care if we won another match, but we wanted to win this first one. No one actually expected us to even be competitive after we told everyone that schools in America stopped teaching broom skills after the advent of steam power, and I suspected none of them knew what steam power was.

Monday things got a bit strange, although initially in a nice way. Breakfast was normal, as was Defense against the Dark Arts. America house and Gryffindor each had a screen of three protection spells up before Professor Weasley entered and her first attempt at firing a spark at one of us, Piper on this occasion, was met with a retaliatory strike of sparks from both houses on rapid fire. Unable to deflect them all, or to raise a shielding spell, she hide behind her desk. Once the fire died down she gave us 10 points per house for our foresight and told us to go ahead and drop the protection spell. Jennifer and Hermione dropped one screen each and as expected Mrs Weasley immediately opened fire again, only to find another wall of protection was behind the first. Of course we unloaded on her again, and by the end of this volley both she and us were laughing hysterically. After that she checked each student's homework individually and seemed pleased with the progress made by all three houses. Of course we had been practicing deflection spells for a week at that point. Slytherin did okay as well, but clearly they were not in the same class as those of us who were working all evening as well.

Potions was, well, potions. Snape seemed friendlier, although still quite stiff with an unapproachable personality. He pushed Harry in particular hard, but generally ignored America House. If anything he was nice to us, which in the context of the class made him even creepier.

The real surprise came at Magical Creatures. Normally we met at Hagrid's hut for this, but as we entered the lobby to go we found Hagrid waiting for us.

"Gather around children, today, thanks to Miss Reyna, we have a real treat for you. An actual Pegasus has come to visit Hogwarts and has agreed to be the subject of our class today."

"Well, where is it?" someone from Slytherin asked.

"Right outside the door, but I wanted to tell you first, Pegasi are noble creatures and expect you to show them respect. You must treat them as you would an equal or they can be quite dangerous. Miss Reyna, would you do the honors?"

Reyna opened the doors to the grand lawn as Hagrid said "And here we have Scripio and... another Pegasus, and uh...a common horse... not sure what that's about"

We looked out and saw two pegusi and a beautiful tan horse standing in front of us, not ten feet from the door.

The America house knelt except for Jennifer of course, who curtsied, and Hazel, who shouted "Arion!" and charged forward throwing her arms around the neck of the horse. Arion apparently missed Hazel just as much as she had Arion, as he lifted his head suddenly and flipped her onto his back and took off running.

"Cover your ears!" Frank shouted and about the time they got to the lake Arion passed the sound barrier for a solid "BOOM!" that shook the ground and windows and kicked up a gigantic spray of mist. An enormous rooster tail of water came from Arion's hooves as he ran across the surface and soon disappeared from sight.

Hagrid was confused by this development to say the least.

"That is not exactly a common horse. That's Arion, the immortal son of Ceres and Neptune. He's the Roman god of horses, and Hazel's other best friend." Frank said matter of factly. "You might want to knell next time to be polite."

Hagrid's expression showed that this didn't necessarily make things that much clearer.

"Hey boss man. Got here as quickly as I could."

"Blackjack!" I shouted as I ran up and threw my arms around his neck.

"Gee boss man, kinda touchy today aren't we?"

"I guess so old friend. How have you been? I've missed you." I said as I ran my hands through his mane.

"Doing great! Got an Iris from Will that you needed me so I came over as quick as I could."

"You flew from the states?" I asked and was stunned as normally a few hundred miles was his limit.

"No, from Edinburgh. Stowed away on a cargo carrier out of Norfolk a week ago. Arion said we'd meet up here this morning so he must have left last night."

"Well I'm glad you're here, but I'm not sure what Will meant. Anyway, this is our instructor, Hagrid. He teaches magical creatures here at Hogwarts."

"Hello Hagrid."

"You,, you can talk?" Hagrid asked.

"Of course we can talk. Its just usually your conversations are dull and we have nothing to say. At those times only our closest friends can understand us." Skippy said. "Would you like us to teach your class for you?"

Skippy didn't wait for an answer. Instead she launched into a lecture, accompanied by Blackjack, who sometimes pantomimed to illustrate her words. In it she spoke of the needs of a pegusi, the care and feeding there of, what sort of care they might need, the benefits of being immortal, never getting sick and not ever needing a vet, the love between their human and themselves, and of course a history of pegusi/human relations which focused on the many times and ways that they have bailed the human race out. The part about the Battle of Waterloo was particularly enlightening and I suspect was completely made up. What was true was a great retelling of the return of the Athena statue, including the attack by Orion. Blackjack at this point showed the scar "Where that bastard shot me in the ass!" They then offered advice on unicorns (do not trust them, they will steal your scotch) and centaurs (do not trust them except for Chiron, and don't trust him either when it comes to scotch.)

It was towards the end of the class when we heard three loud booms, each seemingly closer than the last, and just before the last another explosion of water on the lake followed by a rooster tail in the hundred foot range, followed by Arion and Hazel returning.

This time everyone followed our lead and kneeled, and Arion rose up upon his rear legs and whinnied loudly his approval.

"Is it okay if Arion and Blackjack stay with us awhile?" Hazel asked.

"Of course! Mi casa es su casa" Jennifer smiled.

"Great! Thanks! Come on Blackjack, we'll show you the way!" Hazel said as Arion turned towards the door.

"Hop on bossman!" Blackjack said as he knelt down to let me on.

"Come on Annabeth, always together" I said putting my arm around her and pulling her on, a look of surprise on her face.

"Come on Neville, always together or no reason to walk up those stairs, you pick." Reyna said as she pulled Neville onto Skippy.

We took off and flew up. In the background we heard Hagrid say "Class dismissed."

The mood in the Leodis was elation. We picnicked out by the practice field so as to make it easier for Skippy, Blackjack and Arion to join us. Hazel dug into a large sack of silver, gold and gemstones she had gathered since arriving so they would have lunch beyond Neville's garden, of which all made a point to thank him for. Most of the Hogwarts kids were there too. It was as though our whole gang was back together, although for some reason I found myself missing Grover since he was basically the only magical friend in my life not there. Blackjack caught us up on what was going on at camp and rumors from Olympus. It seemed like forever since we had left Half Blood, but in fact it had only been about a month. Most quests though, the exception being the last Titan war, only lasted a few days. You were either a hero or dead fast. Here we had not even figured out who we were to save that was too young to die. The nature of Hecate's instruction made it seem like it wasn't Harry, since we were to protect him anyway. This was someone else, and we were no closer to solving it than when we boarded the Argo III. So we had to protect everyone. Even the ones we thought were assholes.

As we were leaving the Gryffindor common room to go to Professor Trelawny's class we were met by Headmaster Dumbledore, Minister Fudge, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"I wonder if I might have a word with America House" said Dumbledore.

"Of course sir" replied Hazel.

Before the Headmaster could say anything Fudge began. "It seems the Department for the Reasonable Control of Underaged Use of Magic is having a bit of trouble. You see, so long as you are in Britain, you must carry the trace to alert the Ministry if you have used magic away from Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Now, children, I know this seems intrusive, but its the law and its for your own good."

"We've managed to place it on all of you except" Shacklebolt said, then read from a parchment "Jennifer Oceans, Hazel Levesque, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, Percy Jackson, Rachel Dare, Annabeth Chase and Nico De Angelo. Do any of you know why we might not be able to cast this simple spell on you?"

"What's it do?" I asked.

"Well, if you are underaged and use magic anywhere except Hogwarts, then the Ministry is alerted. It usually means something accidental, although sometimes self defense. We investigate and if there turns out to be a problem, well then the Ministry can choose to take action according to the statute."

"Like you did me when I didn't use magic at all last summer?" Harry said, his voice dripping with venom. It was then that I noticed that none of DA1 had left. DA2 and 3 didn't have class with us for the most part and were not there to begin with. The presence of DA1 was quite a show of loyalty in my opinion.

"Exactly! And you were cleared of all charges!" proclaimed the Minister.

"What is the age, I mean, what age does it not apply.?" Nico asked.

"Seventeen." Shacklebolt answered.

"Well there you go. Everyone you listed is older than that." Nico replied defiantly.

"Are you certain? None of you look to be older than.." the Minister started to say before Nico interrupted.

"Is there any other reason your spell wouldn't work?" Nico asked.

"Well... no, I don't suppose there is. I guess that does explain it. Thank you." Shacklebolt replied, and left, taking the Minister with him.

Some of the Hogwarts kids left but Dumbledore tarried about. "Sometime you might explain how it is none of you look older than fifteen. How old are you really?"

"How old are you Professor? Don't you know it is impolite to ask a lady her age." Jennifer asked.

"Well given that I know your actual heritage, but of course you are correct." He smiled.

"I don't keep secrets from my friends, but I'll leave that up to everyone else." Hazel smiled. "Since you know my heritage its safe to tell you that biologically speaking, I'm about fifteen, but I was dead for seventy years or so. Nico rescued me and gave me another chance. So from my date of birth, I'm about eighty five." DA1 looked shocked to learn this.

"And I'm sixteen, but I spent six years in a place out of time turning men into hamsters" Reyna said, "so from the date I was born, I'm twenty two." This didn't actually shock anyone, although Neville looked confused.

"Cradle robber." Leo giggled.

"Not as much as some" Reyna shot back causing Jennifer to giggle.

"I was born sometime in the early 1940's, but because of a pact between Poseidon, Zeus and my father Hades, I was hidden with the lotus eaters until about four years ago. I look fifteen, feel fifteen and have a fifteen year old's body and learning, but I'm in my seventies. " Nico said. If Dumbledore and DA1 were shocked by Hazel's revelation they were simply stunned by Nico's.

"And I'm, well, I don't know how old I am. I was in a place out of time for a bit too. Really. I have no idea." Jennifer replied.

"I am, since you asked, 115. Still young for a wizard." Dumbledore chuckled.

"And I really am 18." Rachel grinned. Of everyone this seemed to be the one that surprised everyone. What? No weirdness about missing years or a life spent turning people into smelly little house pets?

"I'm 18 as well. In fact my birthday was the first day of classes here. I'm curious Professor, how old do wizards live on average?" I asked.

"Oh, without some sort of magical assistance, usually two hundred to two twenty. Why?"

"So, you're too young to die?"

"Well, I would certainly hope so!" Dumbledore laughed. And somehow I knew who we were to save.

"Oh my gods Percy! We forgot your birthday!" Annabeth shouted.

"Well, its okay, I was kind of busy not dying that day."