Harry had seen the Hades cabin before and the mess was nothing compared to when its three occupants were packing. Nico and Hazel were stuffing mandatory items into their bags, the former did so in a not exactly neat manner.

Clothes of the children of Hades or Pluto were thrown over the beds - most garments in black, of course - books were laying around the floor, papers were dancing through the air, weapons were carelessly discarded everywhere. If Harry had placed his left foot a bit more to the right, it would have been impaled and he would surely be on his way to the infirmary.

Pushing the thought out of his mind, Harry focused on the reason he was here. Both he and Piper were ready to leave for King's Cross (which left in two days), but the three siblings of cabin thirteen were evidently not.

Annabeth had said, in light of the recent lack of activities, that Harry should resume his studies at Hogwarts. This was to take his mind off things, let him rejoin the wizarding world, and give them some time to think. There was a catch, though. Camp Half-Blood was sending four valuable campers to protect him, effectively clearing out the entire cabin thirteen as well as taking with them one daughter of Aphrodite, Piper. Piper had volunteered and the three siblings were needed for their magical ability. Both Harry and Ginny knew, though, that Ginny wasn't only tagging along for her shadow-traveling. They needed someone who knew the magical community, and whether they liked it or not was a whole other matter.

Speaking of, Ginny stepped out of the bathroom, holding a plastic case with bathroom necessities in it. "Hello, Harry."

Harry would have liked to say her facial muscles arranged her face into a bright smile, but the smile had the trace of a grimace.

"Ginny," he nodded at her, pretending he didn't notice the expression, "I was going to ask if the three of you were done packing, but I'm pretty sure I already have the answer."

Nico looked up from zipping his bag. "You were standing by the door for about three minutes, Potter. One glance in and you could've probably come to that same conclusion."

"Er… right." Harry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly for a moment before clasping his hands together. "Well, I'll see you in an hour, I guess."

Harry was never the one who would run around telling people to get ready, but leaving America two days before doesn't seem like such a good idea, especially with the jetlag and the Pluto/Hades kids dropping out of consciousness.

"Close the door behind you, you're letting all the cold air out," Nico raised his eyebrows, probably pointing out the fact that Harry still hasn't made a move to get to the door.

Harry opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but he realized that anything he says next would just be digging a bigger grave for himself. He decided to settle on a short hum of agreement and did what he was asked.

He knew he wasn't just going to sit around for an hour doing absolutely nothing, he had too much anticipation for what was to happen. But he tried to sit down anyway.

Cabin twenty was quite a far distance from cabin thirteen, the former was the farthest to the right of the cabin formation while the latter was more to the left. Still, with his pent- up energy, it took Harry not too long to reach his cabin.

Inside, he saw his section all packed, leaving minimal traces he ever stayed in the cabin. Harry pulled out a chair from a desk and sat, putting his head in between his hands on the flat surface.

Then, he heard a faint tapping on a nearby window. Looking up, Harry saw an owl. Not really thinking it through, he did what he always did when an owl arrives. He takes the letter from the bird and hands it treats. At least, that's what he intended to do. When he reached over to Hedwig's cage to give the messenger owl some food, he remembered he wasn't at the Dursleys' or his dormitory.

"I'm sorry," he told the owl, knowing from experience that owls are intelligent creatures that probably understand you, "I don't have anything for you. But thank you anyway."

The owl tilted its head and hopped on a nearby shelf, leaving Harry with the letter in hand. Not knowing what to do, he flipped the envelope over. There was no address, instead a few words - 'you'd know who this is for when you get it' - but from the script, Harry knew who sent it right away. Neat, elegant - it was from Hermione.

Harry ripped it open to find a piece of parchment that Hermione had written all over. He read it through.

'Why haven't you owled me at all?'

A typical way for Hermione Granger to start a letter; to tell Harry off.

'Ron and I have been trying to contact you, but Dumbledore kept a strict 'what we can tell you' rule. Harry, where are you?'

Harry saw the change in her handwriting, it was unsteadier than before, as if she was frantic with worry.

'It's been two months and no one has seen you. Dumbledore is looking for you, but we don't know where to start. I can't really remember what happened at King's Cross. I'm not allowed to tell you much, so I can't really say anything. Dumbledore wanted to pick you up a couple weeks ago, but you're not at Privet Drive. He says the blood wards don't work anymore, either. I'm sorry I let you out of my sight, Harry. You might be held captive right now and it'll all be my fault. Please, Harry, reply to this. Let us know we still have hope.'

Hermione didn't sign off or anything, she just ended her letter like that. Harry sighed. How many secrets were he caught in now? He couldn't straight up tell Hermione about these demigods; their kind was a secret to mortals as wizards were to muggles.

Finding some parchment and a quill, Harry sat down to write. Though he was going to arrive in London soon, it wasn't as if the others would let him drop by to meet Ron and Hermione. They were going to spend two days locked up in some hotel room, going incognito when it was really necessary to leave.

Dear Hermione and Ron,

How are you? I've been fine.

Harry doubted that they would believe him. A kidnapper could have easily forced Harry to write that, so they needed to know that Harry was in control of his own mind. Or did they?

Look, I don't know how to prove to you that I'm fine. I am, though. It's your choice - believe every word I write or think I'm under the Imperius. But either way, I'm letting you know that I'll be boarding the Hogwarts Express on September first. Until then, I'll be fine.

A pause, as Harry referred to the questions in Hermione's letter. Near the beginning of the letter, she asked him where he was. He decided to address this straight on.

I don't plan on telling you two where I've been for the break. It's not even my place to tell you. So, don't ask. There's nothing much to write in this letter, so I'll see you soon.

"Hey, owl," Harry called to the bird, "mind sending this back?"

The owl hooted and flew down to him, holding out a leg. He tied the letter on. The owl shook its leg, making sure the letter wouldn't fall off, and took off.

Lou Ellen walked into the cabin just seconds after. "Friend?" She nodded after the owl.

Harry nodded. "Worried, apparently," off of Lou Ellen's look, he quickly added, "don't worry, I didn't mention where I was or who I was with. I'm not going to, really."

"Even if they shove Veritaserum down your throat?"

"Er, well, I don't think they would do that."

"Harry- you have a whole team of highly skilled wizards looking for you. They will want to know who took their boy who lived," Lou Ellen shrugged, "anyways, Piper, Nico, Ginny and Hazel are looking for you. Best of luck." She moved Harry's packed bags over to him with a flick of her wrist.

"Yeah, thanks, Lou Ellen," Harry offered her a smile as he made his way out, "see you later, then"

"Later," Lou Ellen repeated with a nod and her own smile, "see you."

They met in the clearing in front of the Big House.

"Ready then, everyone?" Piper asked. There was some nervous jittering and laughs passed along the group. But in the end, no one cared if you were ready. They would throw stuff at you, and it was your job to deal with it.

"Well, let's go," Ginny beckoned them over, towards the platform Chiron was waiting for them on.

"Just in time," Chiron raised an eyebrow at the cabin thirteen kids, "I was beginning to think you all would be late."

Hazel grinned sheepishly. "Sorry Chiron."

Nico shrugged. "We're here now, isn't that what matters?" He held up the bags he was holding, probably to emphasize the fact that he was carrying some heavy objects. "They aren't that light, you know. Can we leave yet?"

"I've got it all sorted for the five of you." Chiron handed Ginny a piece of paper and pointed to some writing on it. "Room details. Cleared restaurants and food services that you are allowed to use. If you need help, here-" Chiron handed Piper a pouch, "-are a few drachmas for contact. Use the Mist if needed. Try not to charmspeak the witches or wizards, they might break through easier than normal mortals, but use it in dire situations."

Looking up from the paper, Ginny asked, "wands?"

"Ollivander's." Chiron answered the daughter of Hades. "You, too, will get a wand." Ginny looked as if she was about to say something, but decided against it when the centaur gave her a pointed look. "Remember the plan. You three-" Chiron was talking about the Pluto and Hades children, "- will shadow-travel over to Diagon Alley. Harry will find your room, and Piper will feed the others ambrosia. Do not venture out until all of you are conscious and fine."

Clasping his hands together, Chiron gestured over to the group of people standing around. "They would like to wish you good luck."

Harry looked at the crowd, consisting of their closest friends. Percy walked over and slapped Harry on the back. Harry knew it was supposed to be a friendly gesture, but Percy had no idea how strong he was, so he ended up hurting Harry a bit.

"Good luck, Harry," Percy smiled, "have fun at school."

Harry smiled back, "yeah, you too. I mean, good luck to you too."

It went on like that for some time, and Harry saw Will handing Nico something.

"I don't care that Chiron is going to give you some ambrosia and nectar, you need more," Will was saying.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yes, Doctor."

"I am your doctor, Nico. Don't say that so sarcastically."

"Yes, Doctor."

Harry looked on at the other people, but Ginny wasn't in the crowd. He glanced over near the railings of the porch. Ginny beckoned him over.

"'Lo," Harry greeted.

"Hi."

Now, Harry was never one for small talk, but he could see the distress in Ginny's eyes. The anxiety a claustrophobic person would experience when they were in a tight space.

"Are you looking forward to going back?" Harry asked feebly.

The look darkened in her eyes when she gave a dry chuckle. "No."

This was when Harry realized he picked the wrong topic to talk about. He gave small talk another go. "Um, the weather! Beautiful isn't it?"

"I vanished from their sight three years ago. Now I return to go to Hogwarts, with you." Ginny continued, ignoring his unsubtle change of topic. "Not only are they going to hate me, they're going to go after you as well."

"If you don't want to go that much, why is Chiron forcing you to?"

"I want to get to the bottom of this, not sit around waiting for you to fix everything." Ginny scoffed. "It was mostly my decision. Chiron just opened the opportunity."

Harry was momentarily offended by the lack of trust that he could fix everything, but he quickly recovered his pride. "Okay…?"

"We should really get going." Ginny cleared her throat and signaled out to Piper and her siblings.

The crowd thinned out once the prime focus was pulled away.

"Now that we are ready," Chiron addressed, "you should better get going. On behalf of Camp Half-Blood Camp Director and others, good luck. Now, you wouldn't be needing Argus since you are shadow-traveling, so I'll see you off here."

Nico huffed. "Somewhere darker and out of the sun would do us some good."

"Or there," Chiron amended, "I'll see you off wherever seems fit for shadow-traveling."

Harry didn't miss the chastising look Ginny gave her brother.

Once they found a suitable place dark enough for shadow-traveling, the five of them joined hands.

"Again, best of all wishes." Chiron started his goodbye speech again. "If all goes well, I'll see you for winter break. If I see you sooner, it should be because of a breakthrough back at home, not because of retreat."

Piper gave a small two finger salute. "Don't worry, Chiron. I'll take care of them."

"Okay, on my say so." Ginny looked at Hazel and Nico. "We are going to arrive at the entrance to Diagon Alley." She gave Harry a quick sideway glance. "Now!"

Harry braced himself, gripping Hazel's hand with his right and holding onto two other bags with his left. But most importantly, he braced his stomach. After the experience of shadow-traveling, one would have to question why people still insist on using it and why it is still a valid means of transportation. Then again, witches and wizards use portkeys, so Harry didn't have much say in the matter.

The world stopped spinning so much and his head cleared out. Instantly, he recognized the place.

"Is this… is this it? Diagon Alley? Did we do it?" Hazel groaned and collapsed against a wall.

"Yeah, this is it. Diagon Alley. We did it," Ginny mumbled back, then declared, "I'm gonna pass out now," and promptly did as she said.

Harry glanced at the son of Hades who miraculously hadn't gone out cold. "Hey, are you good enough to walk? You don't have to carry anything, we just-" he cut off at Nico's pained expression.

"No, no, none of that talking. Head hurts now." Nico pointed to his head and waved him away.

Piper looked thoughtful. "I can-"

"No charmspeaking either. Head will hurt more later."

"I can feed you ambrosia, Nico. Open your mouth."

Nico did so obligingly, and Piper stuffed some from her pouch into his mouth. He started to eat it.

Piper supported Nico's weight when he leaned on to her. "Do you feel any better?"

"Kinda." Nico blinked a couple times and looked at the bags and the two girls. "Let's do this before I feel any worse." He put the daughters of Hades over a shoulder each, leaving Harry dumbfounded. "Where to?"

When Harry realized he was being talked to, he quickly gathered his senses and shrugged. "The Leaky, I think."

"Wait, so not only do wizards have a school named after a pig's skin disease, but they also have a hotel place named after a malfunctioning container?" Nico asked.

"The Leaky Cauldron, actually. It's a pub and inn." Harry corrected. Nico looked at him with raised eyebrows, confirming that he was still confused over names in the wizarding world.

"Alright, Harry," Piper pulled a piece of paper out of Ginny's coat pocket, "the room number's on there. Lead the way."

It was under an hour when the Hades and Pluto kids were back on their feet. It was within another twenty minutes the demigods got their wands. They went school book shopping, school items shopping, and school uniforms shopping. By the time they finished, it wasn't even dinner time yet. They still had two days to do nothing.

Better early than never, right?

The time spent before going to have dinner was explaining the wizarding world and its current events.

Apparently, two days can drag on pretty long when anticipating something. But the two days came and passed, and Harry found himself showing the demigods how platform nine and three quarters worked.

They got on the train pretty early, so there were many vacant compartments to choose from. Hazel found one, an inconspicuous looking compartment that would miss people's eyes.

"So," Piper said, "this is exciting."

"I call the window seat," Nico sat down and almost immediately fell asleep.

Hazel rolled her eyes. "The train hasn't even left the station, Neeks," she told his sleeping form as she accepted a blow- up pillow from Ginny to support Nico with.

A while later, once the train had been traveling for quite some time, Harry heard two voices outside the compartment. It wasn't uncommon and he wouldn't have thought much about it, but he recognized the voices.

A quick look at Ginny confirmed his suspicions.

Hazel looked confused, as would Piper and Nico, if they hadn't been sleeping. But now wasn't the time to gossip. Harry put a finger to his lips to silence any questions from Hazel and pressed his ear to the wall of the compartment, listening to the voices.

"Found any empty compartments yet?" The first voice asked, a voice of a girl.

"All of them are being used." The second replied.

"How do you know? You haven't opened a single door!" The first said back.

"Shh."

"Don't you shush me-"

"You can hear the voices from through the doors if you stopped talking."

There was a pause in speech, as if the first voice was considering this. Then: "that compartment's the only one here making no noise."

Harry looked back at his half-blooded friends. It dawned on him then that the voices were talking about his compartment.

Ginny looked at him, probably thinking the same thing. She had to recognise those voices as well.

"Here," Harry said under his breath, digging through his pocket and fishing out his invisibility cloak and handing it to the daughter of Hades. She put it on, vanishing out of everyone's sight.

It was just in time, too, because a moment later, the door opened up and Harry was greeted with two familiar faces.

"See, Ronald, I told you someone could have been sleeping-"

The second time in under seven minutes, Ron cut across his companion. "Harry?"

Harry looked at Ron. Ron looked back. Hermione, the first voice, looked between the two. "Er, hi," Harry tried.

It only took a few minutes for Hermione to draw out her wand and point it at Harry. "What did I show you on the last train ride?"

"Quite a few things, actually." Harry listed them off. "You showed us your new Transfiguration spellbook, the homework planner you bought from Hogsmeade you wanted to use this year." He looked up to Hermione's displeased face when he remembered about Rita Skeeter. She lowered her wand anyways, since the information Harry had provided proved that Harry was actually Harry working on his own free will.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

The answer to this question Harry found a little obvious. "Going to Hogwarts. I told you in the letter, or did you not get it?"

"Of course we got it, Harry. But you made it seem like you might not have been acting on your own free will." Hermione said.

"Who are these people?" Ron clearly wasn't paying attention to the last part of the conversation. Harry took a look around himself. Hazel gave an awkward wave.

"Er, this is Hazel." Harry gestured to her. "That's her… um…"

"Brother, Harry. Nico's my brother." Hazel covered. It was better to not go into details they couldn't provide. "That's Piper."

Ron nodded as if this was all understandable, which it was, and said, "I'm Ron Weasley. This is Hermione Granger."

Hazel lifted her chin, raised her eyebrows and looked over to Harry, who gave a small nod of confirmation. Yes, this was Ron Weasley, Ginny's half brother. The one Ginny ran away from. His best friend.

"If you don't mind then," Hermione interrupted their nonverbal communication, "Ron and I would like to sit here with our friend."

"Shouldn't you have a compartment? It's been longer than an hour, hasn't it?" Harry asked.

"We were in the prefect meeting." Ron informed him.

Harry smiled, remembering Ron's deepest desire from the mirror of Erised all these years ago. "Congratulations, mate. You deserve it."

"I thought it would be you, to be honest." Ron admitted as he sat down on the seat between Harry and a sleeping Piper. "But you went missing over the break, so maybe Dumbledore chose me as the backup prefect."

"Don't say that," Harry said quickly, "it's not true."

Hazel's foot pushed on his, and Harry glanced at her. She put her hand next to her, where Ginny was sitting under the invisibility cloak. The only seat available. Of course, Hermione would sit down there. She wouldn't be able to. It was occupied. But somehow, she sat down without suspecting anything. Ginny must have moved.

Harry placed his hands on his thighs and got up. "Bathroom," he told the others in his way of explaining. Quickly, he moved out of the compartment and shut the door behind him.

"Ginny?" He called into the seemingly empty walk way. A head of red hair floated into view.

"It's me," she replied.

They looked at each other for a moment before Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "If Ron doesn't see you now, he'll see you later. At the feast. Around."

"I know." Ginny put her lips into a thin line. "It's not like I can avoid him for a year." She shrugged. "Not that I didn't already know before we came here."

The accommodations were difficult but manageable, but it was some time later when the train reached the Hogsmeade village. Harry had told Ron and Hermione to go fulfill their prefect duties, and to not wait up.

It did not come as a surprise to the demigods and that they were the last ones off, considering how deep of a sleeper Nico was. But when they got off, nothing could have anticipated what the group was greeted with. Harry had led them to a private area so they could talk before going to the Great Hall. But instead of it being a completely normal talk about abnormal things, a giant head appeared out of thin air.

It wasn't really there, per se.

It was more of a… Iris Message.

This wouldn't have been surprising if one of the campers had called.

But this head belonged to Lord Voldemort.

Harry couldn't help but stare. Sure, he knew what Voldemort looked like, courtesy to the previous school year's complications. But it was surprising to see the Dark Lord's face every time, regardless. Surprising, considering how much more handsome his features were in his Hogwarts years. It was also surprising that he was confident about his looks enough to be that close to an IM.

Wait. Voldemort IM'ing?

Maybe he was slow at figuring things out, or Nico was fast, but the son of Hades looked Voldemort in the eye and said, "figured out our Greek side now, have we?"

Voldemort chose to ignore this comment, instead turning to Harry. "My sources tell me you are currently at Hogsmeade." At their shocked faces, he continued. "Oh, yes. I know where you are. I will find you, Potter. I will kill you."

"Ah, yes. The classical 'I'm an evil villain and you have no hope' speech." Nico deadpanned. Ginny snorted into her fist.

"Anything else, my Lord?" Ginny asked pleasantly.

Voldemort scoffed and muttered something that sounded like 'kids' and 'no respect'. He swiped at the connection frustratingly and his face vanished.

"Hazel? Piper?" Harry turned to find Nico rubbing his sister's shoulder and Ginny calling Piper's name repeatedly.

Hazel was first to address her companions. It took some shaking to get Piper to respond.

"We… we need to go." Piper stated.

"Back to camp?" Nico asked.

"Yes, back to camp." Hazel grabbed her brother and Harry, who then grabbed Ginny.

Nico looked between his sisters. "Shadow-travel?"

They nodded, and Piper spoke up, "any way possible. The fastest way."

"Camp. Big House." Ginny picked the location. "Three, two-"

The siblings were thinking the same because they all shadow-traveled at the count of two. Either way, they were back at the Big House seconds after.

Chiron, having very sharp eyes - or ears, or whatever alerted him of the quest group's appearance - trotted over not long after they arrived.

"Unexpected, but definitely welcomed back," he said as his way of greeting, "what brings you here today?"

A group of people shadow-traveling into Camp Half-Blood is a big deal around there, because there already seemed to be an audience. Will Solace pushed through to the front.

"Don't worry, Will. I've got all that extra ambrosia here." Nico pointed to the plastic bag. "Ate some, already. Gave some to Hazel and Ginny, too." Will nodded, happy to see that they were not fading.

Harry saw Percy and Annabeth and Jason and Leo and everyone else he couldn't begin to name.

"Annabeth, Chiron." Piper looked at each of them in turn, with a sense of panic in her eyes. She touched the collar of her shirt. "Voldemort- he has the Necklace."

"Necklace?" Chiron echoed.

"Necklace." Piper confirmed. "Necklace of Harmonia."