darklilyofthevalley: Yes, he will.

Owlgrrl: Thank you.

ChickWithThePurpleGuitar: He's actually only mentioned like once in the sixth book by Ron. We don't know his first name, so I made it up.

MeggyMooMoo: Their fifth.

"Admete?"

"Yeah, Admete," Annabeth said, "it's Greek for 'Untamed'. I think it fits her personality perfectly. Doesn't it, girl?" Annabeth cooed, scratching the female tawny on her head. "Beautiful, isn't she? I love Tawny owls."

"Sure," Padma said. "Anyway, we best be getting to King's Cross. The train leaves at elven o'clock sharp. If we're even one minute late, we'll miss the train!"

Annabeth nodded. "Okay. Come on, Admete, let's go!"

King's Cross was extremely crowded with muggles and wizards alike. Annabeth glanced at her ticket oddly. At first she thought it was just her Dyslexic mind playing tricks on her, but the more she looked at it, the more she was convinced it was right. "Um . . . Padma?" she asked.

The fifth-year glanced at her, only half paying attention. "Yeah?"

"This ticket says we have to get on to platform nine and three quarters . . . "

"I know what it says," Padma waved her hand dismissively, not wanting to discuss the matter any further. "You'll see soon enough." She glanced around a couple times, finally, seeing what she was looking for. "Oi, Hannah, Ernie! Over here!"

Two other kids came over. They looked about Padma's age. One was a boy, one was a girl. They were both already dressed in her Hogwarts robes, proudly showing off their prefect badges. The girl grinned. "Padma!" she cried, running over to hug her friend. "Did you get my owl? I'm a prefect now!" she bounced up and down excitedly, as if she was on a caffeine-high.

The boy smiled at Padma, and pointed to the girl. "Mental, this one," he said, jokingly.

Padma laughed.

"Who's that?" asked the girl, pointing towards Annabeth.

"Oh, that's Annabeth," Padma said, seeming to have forgotten that she was there. "Annabeth, these are my friends, Hannah Abbott, and Ernie MacMillan. Guys, this is Annabeth, she's a first-year from the States, and I was helping her out."

The two nodded politely towards Annabeth, and in return she gave them a somewhat-shy smile. "So . . . how do we get on to platform nine and three quarters?" she asked.

Ernie laughed. "That's easy. You just run straight through platforms nine and ten."

"You mean I run into a wall?" Annabeth was doubtful. She had seen a lot of amazing sights over the past couple days, but nothing she had seen could make her believe that she could run through a wall. "Is this a joke?"

"Nope, no joke," the boy said. "Here, I'll show you." He grabbed his cart, and pushing it in front of him, ran straight towards the brick wall between platforms nine and ten. Annabeth gasped. Ernie had vanished into the wall!

Hannah followed him, and disappeared as well.

"Where did they go?" Annabeth asked.

"Don't worry," said Padma, "they're on the platform. Come on, let's go."

"But what . . . what if something goes wrong?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"It won't," Padma reassured her with a confident smile. "Now, look around you and make sure that no muggles are watching before you go. Alright . . . NOW!"

Annabeth sprinted forward. "I must be crazy," she whispered, but continued running towards the wall. She shut her eye, expecting a crash any second. There wasn't one. When Annabeth finally opened them, she was shocked. In front of her were hundreds of people in robes, all rushing towards a train. Annabeth grinned; she had made it!

Padma followed shortly after. "Good job. Alright, now just get onto the train."

"You won't be coming with me?"

"No. Prefects ride in their own special carriage. I'm meeting Anthony there."

"Oh. Okay," Annabeth said, trying not to show her disappointment too much.

"Hey, it's alright. You'll be fine," Padma said.

Annabeth nodded. She hoped so.

Annabeth sat in an empty compartment, staring out the window. She reached into her bag and pulled out a Greek book on architecture. It always amazed her what people could build when they put their minds to it. She was just reading a passage about the Chicago Sears Tower when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," Annabeth said, not really paying attention.

Two boys stepped inside the compartment. She recognized one of them to be Vaisey. Vaisey was with another boy who looked slightly older. He was tall and muscular, like a football player, but he didn't look older than twelve or thirteen.

"Excuse me," Vaisey said, "can we . . . oh, hey, Annabeth. Can we sit here?"

"Sure, go ahead," Annabeth said, trying to sound casual, but she was secretly relieved to see a face she knew. She turned to the other boy. "Hi, I'm Annabeth," she said. "Who are you?"

"Thaddeaus Urquhart," the boy said.

Aleron grinned. "Thaddeaus plays for the Slytherin quidditch team. He's going to be captain this year, since Flint graduated."

Annabeth smiled. She had heard about quidditch when Padma was explaining the basics of the wizard world to her. She also knew what Slytherin was, it was, according to Padma when she was explaining the houses to her, "the house for the evil, twisted gits". Annabeth shrugged that bit of information off, Aleron seemed nice enough. She had looked it up later on the train in a book she had gotten called "Hogwarts: A History". She was glad they had the book in Greek.

"How do you two know each other?" Annabeth asked.

"Urquhart and I grew up together in the same area. He's a third year. So what house do you want to get put into?" asked Aleron mildly, changing the subject.

"I don't know to tell you the truth," Annabeth shrugged. "I'm hoping for Ravenclaw, but I suppose Gryffindor wouldn't be too bad."

Thaddeaus and Aleron laughed. "Yeah," Urquhart said, "if you want to be in a house full of blood traitors and mudbloods! I mean, every pureblood in their right mind knows that Slytherin is the best house. You are a pureblood, right?"

Annabeth squirmed a bit in her seat, once again, silently thanking the gods that she had begun reading Hogwarts: A History. She had to come up with something, and fast! She tried to come up with some sort of believable lie, when she realized that she didn't have to lie at all. "I'm a half-blood."

So? What do you think? Good? Bad? Okay? Let me know!