Author's Note: This is a really looonnnnggggg chapter. Also, wouldn't be surprised if there are any spelling errors.

Annabeth was the only one who'd figured out her wand. Apparently, at Hogwarts, there were no elevators or ramps, so in order to get a wheelchair up the stairs, one has to spell oneself. But wait, there's more! The stairs move.

Percy watched in horror as Annabeth levitated Chiron just a few steps above herself and the others right as the stairs began to change. Annabeth barely managed to stop herself from falling right off the edge, giving Percy a little flashback he was able to shake off.

Annabeth muttered a few choice words in Ancient Greek.

"The stairs move?" Jason watched in amazement as Chiron was pulled further and further away.

"They're wizards," Piper muttered. "I should've seen it coming."

"What now?" Percy asked. "Do we levitate him back?"

"Guess so." Annabeth muttered. And she did. Percy had no idea how. He couldn't even hold his wand properly.

"Why thank you, Annabeth." Chiron said as he landed safely back in front of them. Another section of staircase was coming their way, leading closer to where they were going than the last.

They got to the top and were met with a painting of a large woman. She was singing. Actually singing. The awful noise carried down the hallways and into their ears.

She's worse than coach Hedge, Percy thought.

The woman stopped when she saw them. "Ah, Delphi Institute for Magic! Welcome to Gryffindor! You'll be staying here for the next few months!"

"The painting is talking to us," Piper muttered, eyes wide.

"Um," said Jason. "Where's the entrance?"

"It's just behind my canvas," the lady said.

"Well, can you let us in?" Percy asked.

"Absolutely not," she shrieked. "You have not given me the password!"

Percy looked at Chiron.

"Balderdash," said the centaur.

"Isn't that a Pokémon?" The painting swung wide, hitting Percy in the arm. "Hey!"

"Percy, Jason," Chiron said sternly. "Go find your room. Annabeth, Piper, I need you to accompany me to my quarters and collect some things."

"But where is our dorm?" Jason asked.

"You'll find it."

"But, Chiron-"

"Annabeth, Piper, we must be off."

The two girls levitated him away, looking back at them with sympathy.

"Great," Percy muttered.

As soon as they walked in, all eyes were on them. This wasn't new to Percy. Saving the world, going missing, then saving the world again within the space of a year made a guy pretty well-known. That and being the only living demigod child of Poseidon.

Suddenly aware of how he was walking, Percy awkwardly strode across the room. The way to the dorms was pretty well marked. They followed the signs and wandered around until they found a door with a handwritten note saying 'Delphi Institute for Magic: Boys'. The door was closed. No sound came through.

Percy pushed it open to find an empty room.

There were seven large four-poster beds, arranged around a central stove. Two of the beds looked slightly crammed into opposite corners of the room and untouched. They were also the two that had orange luggage in front of them; one marked with a trident, the other a lightning bolt. The room had several windows, all showing the darkness of outside. On the heater was a note written in fine cursive on a weird kind of paper Percy didn't recognize. It took them a couple minutes, but Percy and Jason managed to decipher the fancy script. It read:

Dear Mr's H Potter, R Weasley, N Longbottom, D Thomas, and S Finnegan,

Seeing as your room is the largest, you have been selected to house the male delegations from the Delphi Institute for Magic. This is final.

Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall

"That makes this so much easier," Percy said.

"Makes what so much easier?" The question came from the doorway. Five boys stood there, staring at Percy and Jason. One with a scar the shape of a bolt of lightning on his forehead.

"It makes…. Uh…" Percy sputtered. "Learning your names so much easier! Yeah. Cause um, well, we know your names? Your surnames at least-"

Jason elbowed him. "I'm Jason Grace," he said. "This is Percy Jackson."

Percy waved.

"Um, this letter is for you guys." Jason handed Harry Potter the letter.

A look of realization formed on the boys faces as they read. They all introduced themselves one-by-one: Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Harry Potter. The last one was quite obvious but Percy didn't point that out.

"Um,"said Neville. "Welcome to our dorm."

Dean, Seamus and Neville were comfortable with them right away. Neville reminded Percy of Frank, trying to be nice. They all seemed pretty cool to Percy. Harry and Ron were a little cautious but they joined in Dean and Seamus's conversation. Something about twins?

"Oi, Harry!" Dean called. "How far d'you reckon Fred and George'll get putting their names in?"

"Dunno," said Harry. "I just bet Hermione thinks they can't do it."

"Are we all just gonna skim over the fact that Viktor Krum is at Hogwarts right now," demanded Ron.

"Not all of us have as much of a crush on him as you do, Weasley!" Seamus teased.

Jason looked at Percy, his eyes saying: Who is Viktor Krum?

Percy shrugged: I have no idea.

"So, Jason, Percy?" It was Dean.

"Yeah?" Jason said.

"You're entering, right?"

"Yep. All of us are." Percy left out the fact that they were being forced to enter.

"So who d'you reckon it'll be?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "Who do you think your champion will be?"

All the boys were staring at them with fascination.

"Could be any of us," Jason said. "Dumbledore said the most worthy, right? I think everyone has a fair chance."

"Oh, come on, mate!" Seamus said. "You've got to have some idea!"

"I honestly don't know."

Percy didn't want to say, but he had a bad feeling it would be him, simply because the gods hated him.

"Who do you guys think your champion will be?" Jason turned the question on them, starting a huge debate and betting pool.

Annabeth and Piper sprinted down the hallway, desperate to get away before Chiron changed his mind about the plants in his room for the zillionth time. They'd carried them in and out of the room for two hours before Chiron finally found the perfect balance and let them go.

They weren't tired, though. In fact they had quite a lot of energy. It was a Friday night, they hadn't done any training or homework, and because New York was five hours behind, their bodies thought it was only five-thirty in the evening.

They only got a little lost.

"Where are we going again?" Piper asked.

"The Gryffindor woman painting thing." Annabeth replied, slowing down.

"The fat lady?" came a Scottish voice from the wall scaring the young heroes half to death. It was a painting of a pub owner, standing in his dirty sixteenth-century pub. "Yeah, I know where she 'angs about (I'm laughing too hard at my own pun…). Seventh floor. Just keep walking 'til you find 'er."

"Do all the paintings here talk?" Piper asked.

"Well, a'course!" said the painting. "And the tapestries."

Annabeth imagined if some of the tapestries she'd seen could talk. She shivered. "Anything else we should know?"

"You're the Delphi students, aren't ya?"

Annabeth nodded.

"Right then, I suppose I should warn you about Peeves…"

"Peeves?" Annabeth asked.

"Peeves the Poltergeist. He's a right wee troublemaker, in't he? The only one 'a the ghosts that'll cause any trouble."

"Thanks. We'll keep that in mind," Piper said.

"Now off to bed, both 'a ya! Before Filch finds ya!"

Annabeth remembered Filch from the feast. She was not keen on seeing him up close. "Thank you, sir. Goodnight." Annabeth and Piper ran up the next set of stairs until they reached the seventh floor. Once there, they ran until they found painting they were looking for.

"Oh!" cried the woman. "Look who's late!"

"What's the password again," Annabeth asked, silently cursing Percy for his unfailing ability to make her lose focus. "Pokémon?"

"Balderdash," Piper said.

The painting swung open. They entered into a large room full of comfy looking chairs, a fireplace and large windows looking out over the grounds of the school which were shrouded in darkness. Through the west (?) window, Annabeth could just make out Durmstrang's large boat floating on the lake. Annabeth sighed. As much as she missed being with her friends all day, she'd had enough of big boats to last a lifetime.

Piper joined her. "The Argo II was bigger," she said.

Annabeth put an arm around her friend. "We'll find him, But for now, we have this-" she gestured to the castle shining outside their window "-to deal with. Come on, let's go meet our roommates."

Annabeth and Piper followed the arrow marked 'Girl's' up two flights of beautiful mahogany stairs. They had been told by Chiron where their room was and they followed the numbers until they found the one they were looking for. Laughter came from behind the closed door. They knocked and turned the knob.

Inside were five four poster beds, a table and chairs (I'm making this up), a stove, and three girls. Two were giggling quite loudly, the third laying comfortably under the covers, face hidden by a large copy of Transfiguration Vol. 4. Annabeth liked her immediately.

The giggling stopped when they stepped over the threshold and properly into the room. The girl looked up from her book. It was Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's friend, one of the people they were there to protect.

Annabeth decided to break the tension. "Hi," she said. "I'm Annabeth Chase. Uh, I'm seventeen years old and I'm from California. That's me in a nutshell."

Piper snorted. "Understatement, but I'm Piper. I'm sixteen. I live in New York."

One girl gasped. "I love your accents!"

"Thanks."

"I'm Lavender. Lavender Brown." She got up and shook Annabeth and Piper's hands.

The girl Lavender had been talking to did the same. "Parvati Patil."

"I'm Hermione Granger!" called Hermione from her bed.

"Nice to meet you guys," Annabeth said. Lavender and Parvati went back to their conversation, Hermione, her book, and Annabeth and Piper started to deal with their luggage. Annabeth pulled out her sponge bag and pajamas and went to get changed.

In the bathroom, she pulled off her uniform and exchanged it for some shorts and one of Percy's faded Camp t-shirts. It smelled faintly of the ocean. Seaweed Brain, she thought, smiling. She brushed her teeth, folded her uniform and left the bathroom for Piper.

"So Annabeth," said Lavender. "Who are those hotties you came with?"

Annabeth thought of Percy. He had definitely grown up well since they were twelve. She smiled. "Piper!" she yelled. "Lavender thinks Jason's hot!"

"Gods, don't tell him that, you'll feed his ego!"

That got a laugh from everyone, even Hermione, who Annabeth knew was listening. "Jason is the blond," she clarified. "He's Piper's boyfriend."

"And the other?" Parvati asked. "With the green eyes?"

"Percy Jackson, my boyfriend. Speaking of them, we should go check on them, make sure Percy hasn't set anything on fire."

Piper laughed and followed Annabeth out. They found the boys just outside the entrance to the boy's dorms.

"We were just coming to find you!" Percy said, putting his arm around Annabeth.

"Guess who we're rooming with," Jason said, hugging Piper to him.

"Who?" Piper asked.

"Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. How perfect is that?"

"Very," Annabeth agreed. "And we're with Hermione. At least that makes this whole thing easier."

Percy kissed her forehead. "We should probably get to bed, hopefully sleep away the jetlag."

Piper nodded.

Annabeth hugged Percy, breathing in his natural salty smell. "I love you," she said.

"I love you, too." He kissed her. "See you in the morning."

She kissed his cheek and him and Jason bounded back up the stairs.

Annabeth and Piper returned to their room. Annabeth got comfortable, then slipped into familiar nightmares.

Ron thought Harry was the only person he knew whose nightmares woke them in the middle of the night. Turned out he was wrong.

Ron woke up from a dreamless sleep at around 1am only to find himself on the floor. He groaned and picked himself up, pulling the covers back into a comfortable position.

He had just closed his eyes when he heard a loud gasp. He was about to call out Harry's name, then he heard Jason's voice: "Percy?"

Ron quietly positioned himself so he could see. Luckily, the room was dimly lit with light from the nearly-full moon. Percy's skin glistened with sweat. He was shaking. Ron wondered why. It wasn't cold in the tower. Then he realized: Percy was crying.

"Percy," said Jason again. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes," Percy stuttered.

"Are you lying?"

"Yes." It was barely a whisper.

Jason got up. He went over and wrapped his arms around Percy, who sobbed into his shoulder. Jason kept muttering the same thing over and over: "She's okay, Percy. She's okay."

Ron was wondering who 'she' was when he realized he should not be watching. He rolled over and closed his eyes, finally drifting off when Percy stopped crying.