§Hermione§

Dinner was great. Apart from the fact that Leo kept blowing me kisses and stuff. I mean, it was cute but in a cuddly teddy bear way. When I asked him to pass the Catsup, he winked and passed the mayo as well as the castup. Ron left the table in a huff muttering something about needing to use the restroom. Boys. I caught Annabeth's eye, and could tell she was thinking the same thing. I almost smiled, but then I remembered how hostile she had been. I turned away.

"Pass the mustard, Cupcake." the crazy, unshaven man called Coach Hedge said to Harry.

"Er… what?" Harry asked blankly, looking around the table for a cupcake covered in mustard.

"I said PASS THE MUSTARD!"
"Oh." Harry passed the mustard.

It was silent again. Ron came back in through the swinging door, about to say something, but then made a genius decision and sat down between me and Ginny. Everyone chewed their food, sneaking looks at the others. Leo kept pulling things out of his toolbelt and making little trinkets like light up necklaces and whirling bracelets that he passed down to Ginny and me. Harry smiled at Percy nervously. Ron and Ginny started whispering, angrily pointing fingers at each other. Probably he was warning her against Leo and she was saying that she was perfectly fine and capable of avoiding him. I watched Annabeth stab her cut-up hamburger with a fork menacingly. What was her problem? I made a mental note in my head to keep my space with her. I squeezed Ron's hand under the table. He turned from Ginny and smiled, squeezing back. Hey, he wasn't smart, or sensitive, but he was a good guy.

After what seemed like forever I finished dinner. I took my dish to the small sink in the corner, but the demigods got up before they cleared their plate, and scraped the rest of their food into a blazing fireplace I hadn't noticed before. As I left the mess hall with the others I heard Leo arguing with Annabeth about who should wash the dishes. I guess they weren't that bad.

§Jason§

I didn't sleep well that night, and it had nothing to do with the awkward dinner. As soon as my head hit the pillow of the cot in my cabin, I fell asleep. I was in a wide hall with a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Along the walls were about a dozen doors. There were voices issuing from the first room, so I opened the door. The people inside continued to talk, so I guessed that they weren't aware of my arrival.

"... have to take action!" A handsome man no older than twenty said. There were about 75 people seated in neat rows, and the man sat in front, on some kind of throne. While there were many older than him, he seemed to be in charge. "Randal, any news?" He asked addressing an elderly man in the 3rd row.

"None, Milord."

There was a knock on the door behind me, and I stepped aside as a young couple strode in.

"Sorry we're late." The girl said, batting her eyelashes.

"Alexandra, Ivan, did you succeed in capturing that Potter boy and his sidekicks?" The man questioned, ignoring Alexandra's flirtations.

"Weeeeell… about that…"

"OK, never mind. You failed me again. Now shut up and sit down, or I'll make you!"

"Fine." Alexandra said under her breath, electricity crackling in her palms, apparently in her frustration.

"Sir, please. We did the best we could. There were so many of them…" The man said, not daring to look at his master.

He sneered. "You have the audacity to excuse the fact that you, one of my most powerful servants failed to capture an uneducated school-dropout and his stupid little wizard friends?"

Wizards? Jason shook his head. That was the reason they somehow appeared, as if by magic. So then were the sticks they pulled out that knocked out the coach wands or something? If this guy knew what he was talking about, there was another race of magical people in the world, that no one at camp ever knew about. Was this true? He needed to tell Percy. The leader started to speak in his cool voice again, and Jason turned his attention back to his demigod dream.

"Now," he said, speaking to the whole table, "As I was saying before these two rudely burst in, I have a plan… a plan to take revenge on those wizards who neglected me for so long. I will be respected! I..."

All of a sudden my vision was littered with spots, and I woke up to the sounds of shouting. "Everyone, evacuate immediately! The Argo II is sinking!"

§Harry§

The ship was in chaos. Leo frantically ran to the control room while most of us stood huddled in the hallway. I considered our options. We could stay on this ship until it crashed and killed us, or jump to our deaths. I wondered whether any of the "demigods" had powers that would keep us safe. And then I realized we had one of our own.

"Ron, Hermione, grab someone. Ginny, you go with Ron. I'll find Jason, he's the only one unaccounted for. You guys get the others as quickly as you can, and apparate the heck out of here," I yelled. They nodded silently, their faces pale. I wish I could reassure Ginny, who was shaking, but I turned and ran down the hallway, checking in each cabin for the blond teen. I found him when I open the last door. He must have been woken when the ship started falling, but he wasn't groggy like we were. He was standing in what looked like a battle stance facing the door, but when he saw me he relaxed.

"I'm going to get us out. Just trust me. It's going to be painful the first time but it's better than dying," I told him, walking into the room to grab his arm. Suddenly, the ship lurched to one side, and we fell out of the small window that had broken earlier somehow. I didn't know it was possible for this to happen, but nothing seemed rational these days anyhow. I desperately tried to get a better grip on Jason as we fell towards the sea below. But then he stopped in midair. I yelled in shock, and he caught me as I fell. I could tell it was hard, because if anything I was heavier than him.

He flew towards a nearby island. It was hard to register all that had happened, but I understood one thing: demigods, or at least Jason, could fly.

"What… just... happened?" I panted, as we landed. He started to speak nervously, but then there was a crack and Ron came with Ginny, Leo, and Coach Hedge. He looked extremely uncomfortable supporting two teenagers and a crazy man. Soon after came Hermione with Annabeth, Grover, and Percy. Leo was screaming.

"Noooooo! MY BEAUTIFUL SHIP!"

"He'll be fine." Annabeth said, patting Leo's arm reassuringly. I was surprised she was able to speak, she was nearly green from the side-along apparation.

Nobody was paying me much attention, so I walked over to Ginny and slipped my hand into hers. Her face was chalk white and she was shivering, despite the warm day.

"Everything's going to be OK." I promised. She squeezed my hand.

"I hate quests." She said, kicking the sand and making a cloud of white dust.

"Tell me about it."

We walked over to join the others who were now watching Coach Hedge storm around the beach, clubbing every obstacle with his baseball bat.

"Outta my way, Cupcake!" He said to a frightened hermit crab, raising his bat threateningly.

"That goat has got serious anger issues." Ron whispered to Grover amusedly.

"Satyr." Grover corrected, somewhat hurt.

"What attacked us?" Asked Hermione, glancing at Leo.

He stared. "What did you say, dear? I was too busy admiring your beautiful face to…"

"We were attacked by Lord Whateverhisnameis' followers." interrupted Ron. As if on cue, a jet of golden light hit a nearby palm tree, and it burst into flames.

"Oh my god, we have to move now!" Shouted Ginny as another tree exploded.

"You can't argue with a hot girl with a British accent." He said, and with that, they all held hands, and apparated again.

"Really, Hermione?" Ron was shouting. I opened my eyes. We were in some huge park somewhere with lots of trees.

"How long was I out?" I asked, sitting up, and putting on my glasses which were on the grass next to me.

"About an hour." Said Percy. He, Annabeth, Jason, Leo, Grover, Coach Hedge, and Ginny were sitting in a circle studying some kind of map Annabeth was holding, while Ron and Hermione were having a heated argument a little farther away.

"Where are we?"

"Central Park." Answered Hermione, coming over. "I hear the zoo here is amazing, and this will be a great studying opportunity. Recently, I've been really into zoology, and studying patterns in the way that animals communicate, and what factors- "

"Hermione, honestly, shut up!" Hermione glared at Ron, then sat down quietly next to Ginny.

§Percy§

Wow. Our quest was off to an amazing start. Annabeth was mad at Hermione, and Hermione was mad at Annabeth, Hermione, Ginny and Harry were mad at Leo, Ron was really mad at Leo, and now Ron and Hermione were mad at each other also. While everybody was shouting at each other, and the mortals (or 'muggles' as Harry and his friends called them) were staring at us suspiciously, Jason pulled me aside.

"There's something I need to tell you…" He said.

He told me about the dream he had had last night, having something to do with a long hall and a girl named Alexandra, but I wasn't really listening.

"I've figured out who they are now." Jason said, gesturing to the four friends, "They're wizards."

"Hmmmm… WHAT?" I said snapping out of Percy Land.

"Wizards." He repeated. "That's why they can appear at will."

"Oh. I thought they were descendants of Terminus or something."

"More likely Hecate," said Jason thoughtfully

"Wanna fight for it?" Annabeth's voice screamed. I saw her and Hermione standing face to face, pulling a map of the mythical sites of New York back and forth. Annabeth had her drakon-bone sword out, and Hermione her wand. Oh gods. I pulled out Riptide, Jason pulled out Juno's gladius, and we charged over.

§Ron§

Hermione was the one who told us we needed to get along with the demigods. What a hypocrite. I ran to them to pull her away, but Jason and Percy got there first. Percy held … a pen? It flickered between a regular, cheap pen and a long metal thing. Jason also had something in his hand that I couldn't pick out, but occasionally caught glimses of a sword-like object, as if fog was clearing but then returning again. This was not good. Were they attempting to injure Hermione? I drew out my wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" I cried, and again. I felt a moment of relief as they both keeled over. Annabeth and Hermione had stopped fighting and were now staring at the scene. At least I was grateful for that.

"Crucio!" They twitched uncontrollably, shrieking.

"Ron, stop!" screamed Hermione. I ignored her.

"Don't… touch… my girlfriend…" I growled. When I felt they understood this, I lifted my wand and the curse withdrew. They rose shakily to their feet. Hermione stared at me angrily.

"Ron! Omigod, I can't believe you just did that. I didn't need any help! As soon as we finish this I'm going to report to your boss you used an Unforgivible Curse!" She was right. I let my impulsiveness get the best of me, although as an Auror, I'm supposed to know better. I guess I'm just way to protective. I felt guilty, but kept my ground, because I wasn't going to let the others see my weakness. I was still angry at Percy and Jason. If they even dared to touch her...

"So they are wizards…" Percy said to Jason. "I think I believe you." Annabeth hurried over to Percy, handing him some

Hermione turned to Percy. "And you guys are demigods." She took a drawn-out breath. "Now we have no reason to keep secrets. We are on a mission to stop a man called Lord Malum. He is evil, powerful, and will do anything in his power to control the world. We also know he has recruited both wizards and half-bloods to help him. The only way to defeat him is for us to work together." She looked at us expectantly.

Jason murmured, "Lord Malum. The guy in the dream," then said to Hermione, "We're in."

"Excuse me, shouldn't we talk about this first?" Annabeth says angrily. "I mean, look what they just did to you. Do you really want to side with someone like that?" I glared at her.

"Honestly, Annabeth, if you guys help us you're going to meet a lot worse than Ron," Harry, my loyal friend, told her.

"It's okay, wise girl," Percy walked over to her. "I think we can trust them. We'll help them. After all, it seems we have the same quest."

She was silent. Oh, joy.

Leo coughed. "Okay, so we're going to help the pretty witches… and their um, rightful guy friends," he added when I made a move towards his throat. "But first we need to get to Olympus. I don't think gods tolerate rainchecks."

We stared at him. "Olympus?" Ginny repeated.

"I told you guys already, it's in New York. But why would you need to visit the gods?" Hermione asked.

Leo shrugged. "I dunno. But it must be important because they don't usually waste time on their children." He looked down.

Harry broke the silence. "All right then. How do we get to the Olympus anyway? I've never visited New York before."

"Just apparate to that building." said Hermione, pointing to a skyscraper a good ways away. We all put away our weapons, grabbed a wizard, and were pulled into darkness.