Hermione was excited, and with good reason.
In a few minutes, she would see them. Those 'demigods'. If they even existed.
The Ministry of Magic had done a 'big reveal', as Hogwarts students called it. They had announced to entire school the existence of a particular group of people - the different 'halfbloods'. Or demigods - children of Greek gods or Roman gods- with mortals!
Would you believe it? Hermione had not- at least, not for a long time. She had stubbornly kept up her 'this-is-a-ridiculous-joke' stand. But that was until she was shown a pamphlet from 'Camp Half-Blood' which explained all about the gods and their mortifying habit of having children with mortals that caught their demigods were apparently attacked by monsters wherever they went, and to stay safe, a camp had been built for them near Long Island Sound, and another in San Francisco.
Of course, a mere pamphlet had not been enough to make her believe this whole drama. She had done some research. Professor McGonagall told her, and a shocked assembly of Hogwarts students, that wizards had originally descended from a Greek goddess, Hecate. So she had searched for information about the origin of wizards, and sure enough, after a few days of deep searching, she had found evidence- murky- yet clear to the seeker.
But today, Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister for Magic, had promised her full proof.
What Hermione hadn't expected was to see the gods themselves! And not only that, she would get to meet the most famous demigods of the century!
The prospect was too thrilling to be skeptical, and she had deserted that attitude for a more cheerful, anticipating one. Harry and Ron were with her, of course.
They were at the Atrium of the Ministry headquarters. It was empty at this moment. All staff and employees had been evacuated for the meeting with the gods. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood behind the Minister and a few other important personnel, dressed in their robes with their wands out. They were waiting for an Iris message from the gods, whatever that was.
Kingsley stood on one leg, looking uncomfortable in his formal robes.
Ron opened his mouth to say something, no doubt about the awkward silence prevailing in the atmosphere, when something shimmered in the air and Hermione shushed him. A screen (or something of the sort) popped into existence, and through it, they could see a huge room with a hearth in the middle. The flames danced merrily, lending an unearthly glow to the entire room. The celing was broad and glittering with constellations. It reminded Hermione of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The gods were seated on their thrones in a U-formation. They were huge - and they glowed with an aura no one could describe.
The throne in the middle was bigger than the rest and its occupant had an air of authority to him. Hermione guessed he was Zeus, the king of the gods.
The screen was in corner of this magnificent room, and on an altar just beside it, stood a goddess whose face reflected centuries' worth of experience. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were a deadly black. Magic radiated from her, and it silenced even Minister Shacklebolt as he gazed upon the room.
The goddess, whom Hermione assumed to be Hecate, the goddess of magic, spoke then, "Welcome to the Hall of the Gods, my descendants!"
Kingsley snapped out of his trance at once, and said, "Thank you, goddess! We are honoured to be in your presence. And for our turn, we welcome you to the Ministry of Magic, London."
At this, Hecate gestured to some people in the room beside her, and they came forward.
A centaur was first, and following him were some humans... the trio assumed them to be the demigods.
Speaking of the Golden Trio, they had seen many things over the years, but nothing had left them as stunned as this sight. The gods were on their thrones, looking regal and majestic and... well, capable of zapping anyone out of existence.
Ron's mouth was open in wonder and the awe was clearly seen on the faces of Harry and Hermione, too.
"These are the most famous demigods of our times. They are true heroes, they have rescued Olympus not once, but over and over!" said Hecate and stepped back, as did the ministry officials on their side.
The demigods - seven of them - stepped into clear view. They were staring at Harry, Ron and Hermione with... confusion?
"Oh, man! They're human!" said a scrawny boy with black hair.
This statement broke the silence that was pervading in the room, and Ron burst out with a retort. "We're as human as you are!"
"That's a shame, really. I thought we would see an evil witch riding on a broom and cackling wildly, with a potion in one hand and a wand in another. And two wizards with long, pointed hats and prize poker faces." said the boy.
"I assume you were not informed about our complete normalcy in features, then. I assure you, witches and wizards are very different from what books and movies portray them to be!" said Hermione, calmly.
"Oh... uh, I think you should speak to Annabeth. She might be the only one who can understand you here!"
A beautiful girl standing next to him elbowed him hard, and said, "Alright then! We're normal teenagers, too. Only with a little monster-attracting problem."
Ron smiled widely at her, "Of course!"
It was Hermione's turn to elbow Ron then. He had an annoying habit of falling hard for the beautiful girls, and- much to Hermione's dismay- this girl was even prettier than the veelas.
"I'm Piper McLean, by the way, and I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love," she said, and a blimey-she's-so-beautiful goddess sitting on a throne acknowledged her statement with a nod.
Ron was still staring at Piper dreamily when a blonde boy next to Piper spoke up, "I'm Jason. I'm a son of Jupiter." With a glance at Ron, he added, "I'm Piper's boyfriend."
Ron's face fell visibly, and he went red when he saw everyone staring at him. Hermione smiled sweetly at Ron, with an I-told-you-so look and he gathered himself up.
The introductions went quickly then.
"Maybe you would like to show us what you can do?" asked Percy, the boy with intense sea-green eyes. It was the blonde, Jason, who was the most handsome, but somehow Percy was more confident and his attitude was charming.
"Um... yes, if you want us to. What should we show you?" Harry asked.
Percy's eyes lit up. "Can you make things fly? I've always wanted to see a conjurer who could make everything in the room fly around him!"
Hermione laughed and obliged, lifting Ron's wand, which he had placed aside, into the air, with a quietly muttered, "Wingardium Leviosa."
"Hey, my wand!" protested Ron.
"How many times have I told you, Ronald, never to leave your wand lying around? You're so careless..."
Hermione trailed off as she saw the seven demigods, and Chiron staring at her and the flying wand in interest.
Just then, Hermione returned the wand to Ron's hand, ignoring his silent cursing.
"How did you like that?" she asked.
"That was cool! You did it so easily!" Leo said.
"Oh, Harry's Patronus Charm is the one to see. What I did was nothing!" said Hermione, trying to look modest.
"Show us, then!" asked Piper, to which Harry made his Patronus appear.
The silvery form of a stag bounded up to him. He patted its head, at which it disappeared into thin air. The demigods were now paying attention. That spell looked really powerful.
"What can you do, ginger-boy?" asked Jason, grinning.
"My name is Ron, thank you! And I can do this!" Ron transfigured Harry's spectacles into a dancing kettle with an abnormally huge spout.
The seven demigods cried out in astonishment, and Hermione cried out in frustration, "Ron! It was not supposed to have such a huge snout! What you have learnt from transfiguration class, I simply cannot imagine!"
"Shut up, Hermione. At least it didn't burst into flames!" Ron said angrily.
Harry was looking at the two of them with a bemused expression, when the demigods started clapping.
"Thank you. But it was no big deal, really," said Hermione.
"What about you? You are the children of gods. You must have something interesting to show us!" said Harry.
The demigods exchanged glances, and Percy stepped forward first.
"I can control water," he said.
A spherical aquarium of sorts was in one corner of the hall. Percy raised his hand slightly, and immediately a huge wave splashed out of the glass sphere. Then Percy created a mini-whirlpool in it. Jason stepped forward, grinning again, and created a cloud of lightning above the sphere. Percy and Jason together created a terrifying little storm in that corner of the room. Ron's jaw fell, and he stayed agape.
Next, Hazel stepped forward, and made a pile of gold and rubies appear next to her. And within a moment, the pile had been transferred to the wizards' side of the screen!
Ron stepped forward, and picked up a ruby, looking at it suspiciously.
Hazel smiled, and the ruby vanished from his hand. The pile reappeared on her side.
Still smiling, she said, "I never really sent it there, you know. It was here all the time, but I bent the Mist to make you see that illusion."
Ron's jaw fell lower when Frank stepped forward and turned into a dragon.
"Fight the fire-boy, fire-dragon!" screamed Leo and set himself aflame.
Hermione was stunned. These demigods were so powerful. She had never seen anything like this, never before! They could have easily defeated Voldemort, even!
And she had a sneaking suspicion that this display showed not even half their true extent of powers!
The Frank-dragon and the flaming-Leo proceeded to have a fight, which ended when Frank turned back into his own self, and Leo reluctantly extinguished his fire.
Ron's lower jaw seemed to be permanently separated from his upper jaw, when Piper stepped up and said, "Close your mouth!"
Ron shut his mouth immediately.
Piper then asked Harry to start dancing like a chimpanzee, which he did without questioning.
Piper explained her charmspeak, and then stepped back.
When Ron, Harry and Hermione looked expectantly towards Annabeth, she shook her head ruefully. "I have no special powers. I only use my wit to get out of situations."
Ron immediately said, "Hermione, she's just like you! The anchor to reality! I wonder where Harry and me would have gone without you!"
Hermione pretended to consider the question, and replied, "Oh, I don't know? Azkaban?"
Harry and Ron laughed at that in good spirit.
"Well, that was truly amazing!" said Hermione.
"What you guys did was cool too! I can't wait to learn it all!" Jason said immediately.
Kingsley, who had been standing in the background until then, spoke, "You will, soon enough. Since you do not know any magic as of now, you will be learning separately for one month. And we expect you to be good learners, because you will have to cover up the portions of six years before you can join your classmates. But it should be easier for you, I think. Your descent will ensure that your magic is very strong. Your spells, if correctly delivered, will have a much greater impact than those of normal wizards."
Except Annabeth, the demigods were struggling to take it all in. Kingsley immediately reassured them that all of this would be explained in much clearer detail later, at Hogwarts.
It's barely two weeks since term began. And so many things have happened already. I wonder if we will ever have a peaceful life? Hermione was lost deep in thought, as the Minister continued to brief Chiron with some details of the demigods' expected arrival at Hogwarts.
As Hermione's thoughts were wandering, Harry and Ron, for the first time, were listening to Minister Shacklebolt with their undivided attention.
"There will be a portal between Hogwarts and Camp Half-blood. This is so that the other demigods of your camp can come to Hogwarts from time to time, so that they get used to the castle. They will also be having some special classes. However, I think these classes will be few and far between. Our teachers are very busy this year, and so is the Ministry, what with having to undo whatever damage Voldemort did..."
Chiron spoke gently, "We understand your position, sir! And we will certainly give you your space. But, as for the special classes, I think I might have forgot to mention that many of our campers attend mortal... er, muggle schools during the school term. So we will have very few campers from Camp Half-blood."
"That's alright! Headmistress McGonagall will want to take at least a tour of the castle, and teach them some basic spellwork, though. So we will take as many campers as there are for these special classes. But these seven here will be coming to Hogwarts as full-time students. They will be sorted into houses, and will live at Hogwarts. They will also take all the normal classes, once they are able to, and attend the NEWTs which are the qualification examinations. After that, they will be recognised as wizards wherever they go, and will receive our assistance whenever they require it."
Chiron beamed broadly and replied, "Thank you, sir! We are also willing to give you our assistance anytime you require it. And I would also like your students to spend some time each week at Camp, learning to fight from us, and learning our way of living."
"Certainly. I think Headmistress McGonagall will be all too willing to allocate a period for this purpose. By the way, she sends you her apologies that she couldn't attend this meeting."
"Oh, that is perfectly fine."
After this, Harry and Ron delved into a whispered conversation about what they had heard. They decided to bring Hermione up to speed later, as she was still lost in thoughts.
Soon, they had to bid farewell to the demigods and bow to the Olympians and Hecate, and the meeting was over. The children of the Olympians were to come to Hogwarts in a week's time, and until then, the students of Hogwarts could only muse on the adventures that would surely follow their arrival...
A/N - When you review, it makes me happy. And then, I feel like posting another chapter right away! So please, please do review and tell me how it was.
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