Audax At Fidelis

by Dreamsteel

A new prophecy prompts the Nine to worm their way into Hogwarts, protect Harry Potter, negotiate their lives around magic, and above all NEVER reveal their true identity. But more things are at stake than just the boy's life: forgotten creatures and deities stir as demigods return to the isles of modern Albion, and events reveal that the fate of magic itself may be in question.

2. In Ictu Oculi

Chapter 2

"Are you serious?" Percy asked.

He and his friends were standing on Camp Half-Blood Hill, which acted as a border between the mortal world and the demigods' safe haven. An hour had passed since Chiron had dismissed them, wishing them all the luck in the world, and most of them had spent the time packing or saying their goodbyes to their friends. The Romans had left a few days ago, but Hazel and Frank had stayed behind, wanting to get to know Camp Half-Blood better and see what all the fuss was about.

Packing had been a fairly quick affair, Chiron having told them not to take any bags or anything other than strictly necessary, but instead to conceal any important items on their persons. The only one with a bag was Thalia, but seeing as it was actually her bow and quiver in disguise, no-one challenged her over it. Annabeth had her baseball cap screwed onto her head (it had started working again, now that the gods were slightly less maddened by pain), Leo had his tool-belt, Frank had hidden various small weapons on himself, and Hazel was empty-handed - or, at least, seemed to be. Percy had Riptide, obviously, Nico his Stygian iron sword, Jason his own blade, and Piper her dagger. Percy hoped that the Mist still worked in the wizarding world, 'cause walking around with swords and knives at your side would get kind of awkward if it didn't.

Percy was the only one so far who had voiced any reaction to what, or rather who, was standing before them - the others were too taken aback to speak. Which, knowing Leo and his unflappable readiness to joke at absolutely anything, was saying something.

The goddess Hecate, for it was she, stared calmly at Percy, her blond hair gently swaying in a non-existent breeze. It was pretty much the first time Percy was meeting her, since he'd been mostly unconscious or busy reeling around in pain on the House of Hades' floor the last time she'd been near the demigods, but his hazy memories corresponded exactly to how she looked now: tall, impassive, and mysterious.

"What surprises you, son of Poseidon?" she asked. Her weasel scampered up her arm to curl around her neck and settled her head at the base of the goddess' throat. If Percy remembered correctly, that weasel had severe gastric problems, so it was a mystery to him why Hecate let it stay so close. The weasel's beady eyes glittered in the sunlight, and it bared its pointy teeth at the dumbstruck demigods, chattering softly.

Percy hesitated. One did not go insulting a goddess' solutions to problems, even when said solutions seemed more dangerous that the problem itself. He'd learned that the hard way.

"Er. Well," he said articulately, "isn't that a bit of a, um... strange way of travelling? You basically told us we're gonna hold hands and close our eyes while you somehow teleport us to a school that's thousands of miles away and protected by magic."

He could almost hear Annabeth roll her eyes. Seaweed Brain, this is the goddess of magic you're talking to, remember?

The goddess nodded, her unnaturally pale face as calm as ever.

"That is correct."

"But isn't that supposed to be, like, impossible?"

Hecate raised an eyebrow.

"You question my power?"

"Um... no, no, no! It's just, er...what do we have to do, click our ruby slippers and call ourselves Dorothy? "

Annabeth elbowed him in the ribs, and Piper stepped forward before Percy could make it any worse.

"My lady," she said smoothly, "please forgive Percy, he's just unused to magic and your power, having only just returned from Tartarus the last time we met. I think what he meant to say," she shot him a pointed look, "was that we were told Hogwarts was pretty much impregnable. I imagine he wasn't expecting such a simple solution to our problem."

Hecate waved a hand around carelessly, and a flaming torch suddenly appeared in her palm.

"And rightly so." she said. "Hogwarts is a school of witchcraft and wizardry, its secrets and its pupils must be closely hidden and kept safe. Indeed it would be impossible for any mortal to breach the castle's security without my help, but seeing as I am the patron of magic and I offer you my aid willingly, your journey to Hogwarts will not be a challenge."

The light of her torch reflected in her eyes, making the pupils dance slightly. Were she not a goddess, Percy would have wondered why the fire was showing up so brightly - it was the middle of the afternoon, but Hecate's light glowed as fiercely as though it burned in the darkest of nights. Her black eyes surveyed them one by one, her features becoming sterner.

"The real challenge will be once you enter the castle, for enter you will if you use your minds and powers alike. You will find enemies, friends and allies, but I need not tell you how some may appear friendly at first while hiding a darker nature. I offered to aid you at the very start of your quest because never before has such a quest been bestowed upon demigods. For the first time in history, mortal or magical, demigods, mortals and wizards will work together to save magic. Many will not know they will be doing so," she smiled slightly, "but co-operate they will."

She gestured at them all.

"Chiron will no doubt have told you how the fate of magic now rests in your hands, and in your hands only. Since the wizards are in effect my children, I cannot interfere and take sides among my own, but you can. The wizard who has returned is a user of Dark magic, one who has sacrificed what was left of his humanity long ago by mortal standards. He has ceased to use my creation as it ought to be used, and instead uses it to gain power, kill innocents and achieve his own gains only. He is, of course, not the first one to have done so, but never before has a wizard delved so deeply in the Dark Arts. He is a wizard, but a follower of mine only in name. His misuse of magic and the means to achieve his aims make him a disgrace to my kind, and he must be defeated, even if I cannot have any part in his demise."

The goddess was still steadily staring at them, but after a few seconds more Leo cleared his throat.

"Um, sorry. But aren't you the goddess of all kinds of magic, like necromancy and witchcraft and all that? This Dark guy, I suppose he used the kind of magic that was made possible by your powers. Doesn't that make it awkward how he's supposed to be destroyed because he explored something you put...in front of...him?" He faltered a little, quailing a bit under the intensity of Hecate's gaze.

"Young demigod, I would have you know I do not have to explain myself to young mortals who understand so little."

Leo's lips quirked almost imperceptibly. Percy nearly rolled his eyes. Here we go again, he thought. Gods not having an answer to queries and taking the easy way out by ignoring pointed questions.

"However," Hecate continued. "This is a quest only I can fully comprehend, though even as a goddess I cannot stop this Dark Lord by myself. I recognize you too must understand the task to succeed. Very well. Voldemort," she said, with a small sigh, "is no longer strictly human. He is no longer even mortal, having tampered with powers not even the gods should be able to use - excluding myself, of course. Nico di Angelo has rightly guessed he can no longer die: Voldemort crafted himself a path that allowed him to outskirt death, even though it cost him the lives of loyal followers, his body, his sanity, and the last remnants of humanity he had left. In nature, appearance, and all but name Voldemort is now more a monster than a person. His growing power mean the bloodshed of wizards and ordinary mortals alike, and more lives lost than can possibly be explained in the mortal world however vast the power of the Mist. By making himself immortal, Voldemort has stretched the limits between mortals and gods almost to breaking point. Mortals have attempted to achieve immortality before," her lips thinned, "and anyone who enters the Underworld can hear the groans of Sisyphus as he endures his punishment. I am the goddess of magic, of the Mist, and of the thin limits between them and the mortal world. I offer my help because Voldemort has disrespected those limits, and for that hubris he will be punished, for no mortal nor wizard with the slightest shred of humanity would have upset the balance I had established."

"So basically, you gods are once more in trouble, and you need demigods to sort it out for you because you can't." Percy summed up. He didn't care that he sounded rude or offensive. This whole 'gods need mortals more than mortals need gods' thing was starting to seriously annoy him, because it meant that all the hard work was left to demigods - who were, by all rights, little more than children - while the gods stayed away and expected them to succeed where they failed. It was madness. It was unfair. It was-

"It is the way it is, Percy Jackson." Hecate said, still impassive. "As much as the gods hate to allow it, they need the help of their children to stop Voldemort in his tracks. But find solace, if you will, in that this quest decides the fate of magic, and by extension that of the world as well. For once, it is no petty dispute of the gods, but a matter every single one of you here should hold close to their heart."

Something in the way she talked about the gods made Percy suspect she didn't consider herself one of them,. Then he remembered: Annabeth had once patiently - well, not really - told him about the origins of the gods, and now he recalled something about Hecate actually being a titan. Besides, she had been on Kronos' side during the Titan war and rumour had it she hadn't gone back to the Olympian side out of good will.

"So, how do we do this?" Annabeth asked, grabbing Percy's hand and gripping it tightly, a silent warning not to speak anymore.

Hecate motioned for them to gather closer, and she started making circular motions with the torch at her side. The light of the fire grew brighter, and the colours changed from warm gold to blinding white and icy blue, the sheer luminescence of the flames leaving multi-coloured streaks in the demigods' visions. They did as they were bid and moved into a circle, holding hands and closing their eyes. The fire from Hecate's torch now glowed too brightly to look at it, and as the nine teenagers huddled together, Hecate spun her torch faster and faster, rapidly creating a circular gap in the air, like a window that looked out on sheer light. She slowed her spinning, but the gap she had created carried on spinning, faster and faster until all movement faded into one glowing disk of something that was neither air, space, nor light. It was magic.

Hecate glided towards the halo of spinning light, placing herself directly behind it.

"Follow my voice." she called out to the demigods. "Do not open your eyes, for seeing magic in its purest of forms will lose you your vision. Walk towards me; do not be scared. My power will see you safely to Hogwarts, but as you travel do not let go of each other. While you are in the aether, what little reality you have left lies in yourselves and in your companions. Let them go and you relinquish all that you know, and you will drift indefinitely in timeless space. Come, come closer. Feel the magic and let it guide you; do not interfere. Young demigods, you are doing the gods a great service, to me especially. I thank you on behalf of the wizarding world, and may Ananke guide you."

Percy kept his eyes as tightly shut as he could, gripping Annabeth's hand in his right one and Thalia's in the left. He felt his feet walk almost of their own volition, responding to the goddess' nearly hypnotic voice. His friends around him moved as well, following Hecate's voice and the pull of her magic. They took a few more steps that seemed to stretch on for eternity, and finally the aether grew so bright Percy's eyelids hardly seemed like a sufficient shield from the light. He took one more step, and suddenly gravity ceased to exist. He felt his body lurch into nothingness, and the girls on either side of him slammed into his ribs as they fell through too. He bit his tongue to stop himself from yelling - it wasn't very dignified, and he didn't want to expose himself to the aether any more than absolutely necessary. Percy gripped Annabeth and Thalia's hands more tightly than ever and forced his eyes to remain shut, which was starting to get harder than it ought to. As he and his friends tumbled and spun like in an über-speed washing machine, the light around them increased, if possible, in intensity, until their eyelids felt like they were about to burn to a crisp.

For how long their journey went on for, Percy couldn't tell. For the whole time - if time even existed in this place - he was only aware of Annabeth's hand in his own, the searing light threatening to pierce his eyes, and the increasing need for oxygen, because it was apparently impossible to breathe while they were being aether-flown through half a world. Finally, when Percy was just thinking how he would faint or quite possibly die if this went on for much longer, the whirling light stopped, and his feet slammed into something solid once more.

Percy stumbled, accidentally letting go of Thalia's hand as he crashed to the floor. He opened his eyes just in time to see grass, and the next thing he knew he was face-down on a lawn, his tongue tasting earth, and his nose sore. Next to him, someone he couldn't see gave a shout and there was a loud splash, followed by laughter. He lay there, stunned for a few moments, hardly able to process what had just happened. Hecate, the goddess of magic, had just transported them across thousands of miles in little more than seconds. He supposed he shouldn't be too surprised: Hermes, Zeus and Nico had pretty fast ways of travelling as well. But Hecate did it in a whole style of her own.

Percy raised his head, clutching his nose with his free hand and pulling up a dizzy Annabeth with the other. She looked okay, as far as he could tell, maybe a bit paler than usual. Her eyes were as sharp as ever though, and they widened in surprise as she caught sight of something behind him. Percy turned to see what it was, and nearly laughed out loud.

They had landed on the shore of a large lake, and apparently Hecate needed to mind her aim a bit more, because some of their number had been unfortunate enough to land in the lake itself. Thalia and Leo were scrabbling out of the murky water, soaking wet and grumbling loudly. Leo looked a bit like one of those friendly alley-cats, with his wet hair sticking out all over his forehead and his slightly scrawny frame made more so by his dripping T-shirt. Thalia looked like a significantly less friendly alley-cat: she was dripping, all right, but her blue eyes hummed with power, and she looked ready to strangle any old granny who tied to pet her.

Thalia swore in Ancient Greek as she reached the shore and pulled herself up. She started to roughly wring her t-shirt of any major excesses of water, glaring at her companions as though daring them to comment. Leo just grinned. He snapped his fingers, and a second later dozens of sparks appeared and zoomed all over his limbs, chest and head. In less than five seconds, he was dry.

"What happened?" Thalia snapped. "Don't tell me we were supposed to land in that damn lake, or I'll zap you."

Percy grinned.

"Not in that state, you won't. Water conducts electricity. If you used one of your pet lightning bolts on us you'd get shocked yourself."

Scowling, Thalia made a gesture over her shoulder, twisting her hand in a slightly dance-like move as though she were in a Bollywood film. Immediately, a strong wind picked up around them, lifting leaves up in the air and whipping their hair around their heads. The wind got stronger, and Thalia led it into a loop around herself, creating her own mini-tornado. A few moments later, she was windswept, cold, and still slightly damp, but significantly drier and even more annoyed.

"Care to say that again, Jackson? I didn't hear you the first time."

Percy gulped, but Annabeth stepped in before anyone else retaliated.

"Guys, come one. We're officially on a quest now. We can't afford to be immature."

Leo groaned and dramatically put a hand to his throat.

"To me, that's like saying we can't afford to breathe!" he exclaimed.

Jason got to his feet. He and Piper stood side by side, looking a bit stunned but well enough.

"I agree with Annabeth. First things first: we have to find a way to infiltrate Hogwarts." He paused. "If we can find it. Actually, are we even supposed to know what it looks like?"

"I think it's a huge, grey castle, with turrets and towers and looking like it belongs in the middle ages." Nico said suddenly.

The others turned to him, surprised.

"How in Hades could you know that...?"

Nico pointed behind them. The eight demigods looked, and their jaws promptly dropped. Behind them loomed the biggest, most intimidating fortress any of them had seen, with, indeed, several huge towers, spindly turrets and countless gothic arches. The stones varied in shades of grey, and the roofing was black slate covered in a slight sheen from a previous rainfall. Together with the hundreds of gargoyles dotting the ledges and the sheer size of the building, it was as majestic as it looked alarming.

"That's a school?" Leo said weakly. "Wonder what their palaces look like."

Percy glanced at Annabeth, who was staring at the castle in a mixture of awe, disbelief and excitement. He knew for a fact she would be happy here for as long as it took for her to find out the exact architectural structure and design of every corner of that castle.

"When Hecate mentioned a castle, I don't know what I thought, but it certainly wasn't this." Annabeth murmured. "She found a way to use the aether to let us pass through all the magical boundaries around this place."

Percy shuffled awkwardly.

"Sorry," he said, "but, um... What exactly is the aether?"

"In Ancient Greek, it literally means 'pure air', and it was believed to be the substance that the gods breathed." Annabeth explained. "Later, in medieval Europe, it was said to be a layer of material that covered the sky, between the highest layers of it and the rest of the universe. Mortals still use the term, but in a godly context it's a substance a bit like the Mist: the gods breathe it and use it as part of their powers for things like creating special effects - or travelling, apparently."

Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Geez, how many more super-powerful omnipresent forces are we going to find out about today?"

"Well, that's the point." Annabeth said, looking thoughtful. "The aether is never mentioned to be very powerful, just occasionally useful. It is only the equivalent of breathable air for the gods, after all, even if it does have its other uses."

Percy goggled at her.

"Not very powerful? Annabeth, Hecate teleported us across the world in, like, seconds! If that's not power, I don't know what is."

"I suppose it makes some sense, though." Hazel joined in. "Hecate is the goddess of the aether now, so it only seems logical she would make it collaborate with her own creations."

Leo held a hand up, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Lady, wait. There are several things wrong with that statement. First of all, magic is anything but logical: you and Hecate nicely demonstrated that for us in the House of Hades. Secondly, what do you mean Hecate is the goddess of the aether 'now' - did she get promoted or something? And lastly, you said that collaboration bit like she has multiple responsibilities as a deity; I thought she was only the goddess of magic?"

Hazel looked a little miffed at being called out like that, and her tone was a bit more clipped when she answered Leo.

"When she supported the gods in their rebellion to overthrow the titans, the Olympians gave her a share in all three major parts of the universe: the sky, the earth and the underworld." she said. "Hecate was already the titan associated with magic, but then she was also given some power over the dead, the ability to control and use the aether as she wished, and various other emblems that are more earthly, like crossroads, doorways, choices and trivial knowledge. When she took over the aether, the original deity in charge of it, Aether, stepped back and let her take up his mantle - a bit like Apollo and Diana took over the sun and moon from Helios and Selene. Hecate's the only deity to have power in all elements of the universe."

"Which actually explains how she was able to create the wizarding world in the first place, I suppose." Annabeth mused. "I mean, you can't create a whole civilization just by being able to control clouds or haunting crossroads."

Piper delicately raised a hand, making a show of clearing her throat.

"Excuse me," she said sweetly. "But aren't we supposed to figure out a way to enter the school?"

Annabeth snapped out of her reverie and got back to business.

"Right. So, the obvious route to take would be to meet the headmaster and convince him to take us in."

"Hey, headmaster! Take us in, we're really good at fighting monsters, flying warships and picking strawberries!" Leo muttered. "Piece of cake."

"We have to make the headmaster pity us," Annabeth continued. "Our powers of persuasion are pretty much useless in this situation: even if Piper could persuade him to take us in, her spell wouldn't hold indefinitely, and I have a feeling swords and arrows won't be much good in convincing him to attend his school either."

"So what do we do, make up a story that we're orphans and we need a home?" Percy asked, himself unsure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Something like that." Jason said thoughtfully. "For some of us that's pretty much true, anyway. We have to make the headmaster feel guilty enough to let us in of his own accord. Maybe make up something about how we have nowhere else to go."

"Yeah, that could work." Leo said enthusiastically, "we could say something awful happened at our last school and we had to fight our way out and come here at the risk of our lives. We can give lots of details, like what monsters we fought on the way, and what all sorts of creepy stuff we had to do to get past the Hogwarts barriers."

Annabeth frowned.

"That's hardly making it sound realistic, Leo. Too many words at the start just makes it obvious we're lying. Plus, we really shouldn't go on about how we breached the boundaries, since they're supposed to keep everything and everyone out. But the disaster idea is good," she said thoughtfully, "lies are always better and more believable when they have some truth to them. Gaea's attack on the camp was disastrous, all right. We can think of that if they ask for details."

Percy nodded in approval.

"And if we have to give any names, give the name of someone we're all likely to know. Like if they ask who our principal was, we say Mr. D."

Thalia looked uncomfortable.

"But we have to be careful not give many names anyway," she said. "We all know from experience how dangerous names can be. Annabeth's right: the simpler the better. If we say too much, we'll have trouble keeping track of what we say."

"Which is why, maybe, we should leave the talking to only some of us," Piper said, looking like she was choosing her words carefully. "No offence, you guys, but I think it's best if Annabeth handles the explanations, and I can do some persuading if there's any need. Jason is quite the diplomat as well now, so he can speak up if necessary."

There were nods all around as the demigods saw the sense in this. Nico muttered how that was more than fine with him, and Frank even looked relieved. Leo looked a bit put out, and Percy couldn't help but feel the same way, but he knew Piper was right: if they messed up, the consequences would be grave.

"I guess we should also cover up our shirts," Hazel said. "Bright purple and orange tops with strange camp names can be quite a bit of a giveaway."

Annabeth slapped her forehead.

"I can't believe I didn't see that earlier!" she groaned. "What if someone had seen us straightaway? Hazel, you're brilliant, thank you."

Hazel's dark cheeks flushed. Percy suspected she sometimes felt a bit inferior to Annabeth, who had saved countless lives with her brilliant plans and divine legacy of intellect. He honestly didn't see why: Hazel was great, and she had her own incredible talents. He had yet to find someone else who could summon riches, manipulate the Mist and tame wild horses like she could.

Once jackets had been zipped up, or shirts put on backwards and hidden by loose hair (or, in Leo's case, put on inside-out) they started trooping up the steep hill towards the castle. It was the end of summer, but even in Europe the weather was still quite agreeable, and the sun was warm enough for them to feel hot and flustered when they reached the top. The huge shadows by the castle itself provided nice cool shade, and they could set about looking for a way in.

"One question," Leo asked, panting as they circled yet another tower in the hope of finding a door of some sort, "if we do actually find an entrance, how do we find the headmaster? The castle looks huge, and it's the summer vacation. Who's actually gonna be there?"

"It's a boarding school," Annabeth replied, "and a very elaborate one, clearly. There are bound to be some teachers around when the students are gone, and I think it's pretty much expected of the headmaster anyway."

"How'd you figure that one out?" Jason asked.

"Well, a school as big as this would require constant maintenance." Annabeth reasoned. "There's probably a whole load of staff, and someone would have to supervise them in case anything needed reporting. So, a headmaster, or a deputy at least."

Piper grinned ruefully.

"I should definitely try to make friends with logic, too." she decided.

Thalia laughed.

"You're a child of Aphrodite." she pointed out. "The rules of common sense are reversed among your lot. Act first, think later."

Piper frowned, but not because she was annoyed at the huntress.

"Unfortunately, I think you're right," she mumbled. "There are times when our emotions prove to be more useful than overactive intellect, but-"

"Well, well, well," said an unfamiliar voice, not a nice one, behind them. "We are in trouble."

The nine demigods spun round in alarm and surprise. Percy found himself reaching for Riptide, but restrained himself just in time. They were supposed to be normal, for Zeus' sake! The man in front of them was, so far, the most unpleasant thing they'd seen of the wizarding world. He wasn't tall, but made even less so by his stooped posture and hunched shoulders. His beady eyes had a mean glint to them, only reinforced by the crooked smile he gave them, revealing broken, yellow and distinctly few teeth. His stringy, greasy hair hanging limply from his mostly bald head made Tyson's hair look clean, and his pox-marked skin was pale and most unhealthy-looking in the bright sunlight. He cackled in malicious glee.

"Students? No uniforms, no luggage, terribly early and attempting to break in? My, my, you must be trying to set a new record."

Percy knew he ought to be concerned about the imminent threats this man was making, but only the word "uniform" registered in his mind, and his heart sank. He detested uniforms. Whatever they were though, he hoped there weren't any ties - they always made him feel like he was choking. Maybe as a son of Poseidon it was because he found death by lack of breathable air so ironic since he could, you know, breathe underwater, but the fact remained that he would rather wear one of those ghastly Roman togas every day rather than a uniform.

Annabeth cleared her throat hurriedly.

"Excuse me, sir," she said politely. "There must be a misunderstanding. Please could you show us the way in? We're new students, you see, so-"

The unpleasant man held up a hand gnarled with rheumatism and topped with yellowed fingernails.

"American, eh?" he sneered. "No excuse, no explanations. Rules are rules. If you break 'em, you're a criminal in all but name. Been telling the headmaster to treat 'em as such for decades, but he seems to think whips and chains and dungeons do more harm than good. Rubbish, I say."

He peered at them and narrowed his eyes.

"Though I must say I've never seen such an extent of students going out of bounds - before the term even started, even. I reckon we can negotiate something special for you little hooligans, eh? I've kept my whips and cat-o'-nines nicely-oiled for years, maybe they'll do."

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw Frank and Thalia tense, and Thalia slowly reached for her backpack, which he knew was actually her bow and quiver. Not wanting to create too much of a scene and jeopardize the whole thing so early on in their mission, Percy stepped forward and held up both hands, trying to sound sympathetic when he spoke.

"Hey, you know what, dude? You're right. It's totally unfair how rule-breakers don't get correctly punished anymore. I mean the only way we'll learn is by force, right? It'll give us something to remember it by."

The man looked amazed, and his small, beady eyes widened. He looked like he'd met the Messiah - which actually, from a non-Christian, polytheist kind of way, Percy sort of was, being the son of a god and all.

The man nodded vigorously.

"Well... Yes, yes. Oh, I've been saying that for years. You lot are in for a heck of a punishment. Nothing like a bit of pain to make you remember to stay in line, that's right."

"Exactly." Percy said, ignoring his friends exchanging looks, wondering if ole' PJ had finally cracked. "Back in our school, we do things way better: corporal punishments, isolation in cells, starvation - the whole lot. The best way is the Spartan way, they say."

The man looked at him blankly.

"The hard way. The painful way." Percy translated.

The man brightened - relatively speaking.

"But I'm assuming you need permission to use your whips on us, though." Percy carried on. "D'you think maybe you could take us to the headmaster and physically show him how awful we'd been and how we deserve a harsher punishment?"

The man nodded readily, all traces of suspicion gone.

"Yes, I suppose I'll have to. I could just take you to my office and deal with you there and then, but Dumbledore might not be pleased if I didn't ask him first..." he mused. "I don't suppose we could just keep this between ourselves, could we?" he asked, looking hopeful.

Percy hesitated.

"Um... No, I really think-"

"Oh, please take us to mister Dumbledore, sir." Piper said, finally cottoning on. Percy sighed in relief; he could hear an edge of charmspeak in her voice and he found himself nodding along to what she said. "We wouldn't want you to get in trouble as well. And it might be the opportunity to show the headmaster how fitting it is that we get what we deserve."

Her voice was warm and respectful, and the other demigods nodded, making approving sounds as though her suggestion was perfectly reasonable. The only one who looked doubtful was Leo.

"Erm... Guys, I'm feeling quite partial to lines and detention, myself. Or even being let off the hook, seeing as, you know, we didn't do anyth-ow!" he yelped as Frank stamped on his foot. "I mean... Whips? Dungeons? Pain?" he squeaked. "I love pain. Let's do this, candy-man."

The man ignored him. He was probably used to protestations and excuse, and visibly was not in the habit of making exceptions, even for students who claimed to love punishment.

"Right. This way, you little scumbags." the man said, shoving past Nico and Percy, shuffling along the sides of the castle. "We're off to see the headmaster, so you'd better prepare yourselves for a thrashing like you've never had before."

Percy exchanged a look with Annabeth and they raised their eyebrows simultaneously. It was amazing how Hazel, Thalia and Piper's trick of saying what your enemies wanted you to say was effective, even when no magic nor Mist was used. Percy made a mental note to start practicing that himself. They'd had proof it could work just about anywhere, even in a wizarding world hidden from the rest of humanity.

In silence, or very nearly, they followed the man, who sounded like he was the caretaker the way he kept grumbling to himself about imminent pranks, widespread plagues of sweet-wrappers and the amount of work he had to do to keep up with it all. They walked for about five minutes before at last reaching a large wooden door with great black iron bolts. The man, still grumbling, but now about how quickly doors like this needed oiling and did they know how many times he'd asked for them to be charmed adequately, and took a huge black key from his pocket, inserting it into a similarly-sized keyhole, and using both hands to turn it. There was a loud clunk, and the door creaked open. The demigods shuffled inside, suddenly wary and - strangely, for them - intimidated. It was cooler inside. The walls were made of stone, and a few torches flickered brightly, casting shadows on the whole corridor.

The caretaker led them along, ignoring their stunned expressions as they took in their - admittedly limited - second look at an aspect of the wizarding world. Percy felt like a bit of a fool. Not once since he'd noticed the castle down by the lake had he thought "hey, this is a medieval castle; it's bound to be medieval inside!"

Only Annabeth looked excited as she looked around.

"I can't wait to see the halls." she whispered eagerly to Percy. "European architecture is so fascinating - it was always so varied and alien to the Greeks. Of course, in a castle as old as this one, the styles must have amalgamated and-"

"Hurry up you little toerags!" the caretaker shouted irritably, already a dozen feet ahead of them despite his obvious difficulty of movement. "Haven't got all day. The other students are arriving tonight, and I for one have got other things to do than babysitting criminals."

"No-one's asking you to." Nico muttered, but like the others he followed the caretaker as he led them through a couple of corridors, a hall or two, and up several flights of stairs. By the time they had reached the third floor, the demigods were stunned, because it had suddenly dawned on them just how wrong they'd been: the castle wasn't huge, it was ridiculously massive. Most of them were already a bit breathless, which considering their training was saying something, and all of them were in shock: the halls were as big as houses; the doors talked; the stairs changed direction even as they were stepped on; the portraits and pictures moved. Percy stood, entranced, staring at a picture of a ship at sea that was floundering in a violent storm, portrayed with towering waves, howling winds, and flashing strips of lightning. Annabeth had to pull him away before they could lose sight of their guide.

"Oh, Kym, sister mine, you've been busy over the years." was all Percy could mumble as he stumbled after the others.

Annabeth had been the one to call him back to the present, but she was by no means totally with it either. Her head kept twisting and turning in every direction, gasping and pointing at anything that stood out as interesting design, beautiful balance or just plain impossible by any laws of nature. But Percy, like the rest of his friends, was very quickly learning that he would have to say goodbye to whatever principles of science and logic he had managed to keep hold of so far.

Leo was all abuzz, too. Much like Annabeth, he looked like he could've done with a few extra pairs of eyes, or maybe some like Orion's, with built-in binoculars and video recorder. Twice, Percy had to push him forward lest he cause a traffic jam in a particularly narrow corridor. He didn't blame his friend though. As a son of Hephaestus, he was bound to stare and prod until he figured out how it all worked.

The caretaker walked surprisingly quickly, the nine teenagers often having to jog to keep up. Finally, after another climb up a huge marble flight of stairs, they met their second wizarding person. This time, the effect was rather more impressive. She was a witch, tall, with black hair streaked with silver and pulled back in to a tight bun. Her hat was big and pointed, and her clothes looked like superimposed medieval gowns, complete with huge flapping sleeves and several layers of dark, heavy fabric. The only things that lacked to the picture were a few warts, a wand, and perhaps a cauldron or two.

The witch didn't spot them at first, walking towards them in a very business-like manner whilst reading a very long sheet of yellowish paper. She didn't slow or halt until she was within ten feet of the caretaker. When she looked up and caught sight of the panting caretaker and nine shifty teenagers, her bespectacled eyes widened in astonishment.

"Mr Filch! What is the meaning of this?" she cried, in an accent Percy only knew because he watched television. Vague memories of swearing, huge lakes and rain swam back as he tried to locate it. English, maybe? No... Irish? Aha! Scottish!

"Students, Professor McGonagall." the caretaker, Filch, said. "I found 'em trying to break into the school. They're American, and I ain't seen 'em before, but students found breaking rules must be punished accordingly. I was just on my way to bring them to Professor Dumbledore, ma'am."

The witch hardly seemed to hear him. She was staring at Percy and his friends, her eyes looking like they were about to pop. Was it Percy's imagination, or did he see a glimmer of realization flick across her gaze...? In any case, the witch professor recovered quickly, and a second later had straightened slightly, rolling up her long piece of paper. Her hands looked like they were shaking a little, and Percy wondered if it was down to advanced age, or if he'd been right and she was genuinely stunned - and possibly a little frightened - in finding them here.

"Thank you, Argus." she said.

Argus? Percy thought. Argus? Who in the name of Poseidon would call their child that?

"I'll take them myself." she went on. "I was on my way to his office anyway, so I might as well spare you the, ah... ordeal." She smiled thinly. It was clear that she was used to getting things her way.

Percy was suspicious, though. She'd been walking in the opposite direction from them, and that piece of paper had seemed more important than so-called rule-breakers a few seconds ago. Either something fishy was going on here, or he was getting way too paranoid for his own good.

Filch shuffled uncomfortably.

"Well... you see, Professor, I had a mind to ask the headmaster if I could use my equipment on them, for once. As it's a special case, and all, I wondered if..." he faltered as the witch straightened completely, and her nostrils flared while her eyes shot daggers at him. The overall effect was intimidating, and Percy had a flashback of Hera when she was angry.

"Really, Filch! This is the twenty-first century, not the middle ages!" ("Really?" muttered Leo. "Could've fooled me.") "Hand these students over to me at once and away with you! I understand you can get frustrated during term-time, when goodness knows how students can be infuriating, but term has not even started and there really is no excuse for your barbaric approach to discipline!"

Filch bowed his head, mumbled a few nonsensical things, then turned and shuffled away, glancing back almost apologetically to the nine demigods while they tried not to look too relieved.

The witch let out a short breath, then gathered her skirts and looked imperiously at the teenagers before her. There was a moment of silence as she considered them, and as they took in the sight of her, the most wizarding image they'd had so far.

"Well, I've really no idea how you lot got here, or what any of this means, but you'd better come with me." she said finally. Something in the way she said it made Percy suspect their arrival wasn't the first strange thing that had happened in the last few days.

They followed her in silence - which was strange in itself, since by now Percy would have expected at least one of his friends to say something - until they reached a dead end, with nothing there but the large statue of a gargoyle. The witch stopped, and Percy wondered is she'd taken a wrong turn. He didn't blame her: this castle was a freaking labyrinth! And he would know, having actually been and nearly died in the original.

"Chocolate frog." Professor McGonagall said crisply. Behind her, a few eyebrows were raised, but suddenly the stone gargoyle raised its skeletal wings, screeched and moved aside, giving way to a gently ascending spiral staircase. Annabeth's jaw dropped slightly, and Percy heard Leo mutter very quietly to himself.

"Pistons?... No, too noisy. Motor?... What kind of fuel? No electricity here..."

Professor McGonagall stepped primly onto the first step, and the demigods watched in stunned silence as she was slowly spun upwards. She made an impatient gesture for them to follow, and they hastened to obey. This was not a woman you could cross and get away with it.

"What was that about chocolate?" Piper whispered.

"A password." Leo breathed back.

"Probably a special code to link two of the most unlikely words imaginable together." Annabeth said. "I mean, who would ever link frogs with chocolate?"

Hazel and Piper snorted quietly, but Percy hoped it wasn't some sort of wizarding delicacy. He'd had enough weirdness for the day, thankyouverymuch.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The seven, Thalia and Nico tramped into the office, some wet, some sulky and some giggly, but all emotions gave way to awe as they took in their surroundings. The headmaster's office was a Hephaestus's kid's heaven. There were strange instruments aesthetically placed around the room, not one them failing to emit a some sort of clicking or a gentle humming, and their shiny metal parts glittered and flashed in the light. It was warm, cozy, and seemed to emanate from the room itself.

Leo's hands itched to pick some of them up and find out what - literally - made them tick. His Hephaestus senses were going overdrive, sensing a huge force at work that made all these wonderful instruments function. A kind of power, ever-present, and somehow everywhere. Leo's mind was racing. How was this possible? Was this the magic Chiron had told them about? It didn't feel like the Mist; it felt more...alive.

Leo mentally shook himself. What was he talking about? Magic, alive? Maybe it was time for a SuperLeo Caffeine Shot - he was getting more tired than he thought. Hephaestus kids could work out how mechanical structures worked, what made machines function, how they could harness the structures and use them to suit their own needs. Magic was, well... Magic. Not mechanical, not machinery, and certainly not alive. He wouldn't be able to know- er, sense it if it was alive. Leo wasn't good with living things, or anything that was conscious. Well, perhaps except for Festus.

Leo shot a glance at Annabeth, knowing her brain would be doing a double-take at much as his own was. He grinned. It wasn't everyday you got to see a daughter of Athena baffled, which she was. Her stormy grey eyes were wide, and her face strangely pale in the warm light. She reached for Percy's hand, who took it. He too was visibly taken aback by the sheer wizardness of the room. Percy's eyes were fixed on a huge wall covered in portrait paintings. Leo squinted. All the people in them looked asleep.

Wait...was that one snoring?

The other thing that nobody failed to note in the room was the tall, silver-bearded, most wizardy man Leo could ever have imagined, let alone seen before. Even Hecate didn't scream Magic rocks! that much. The man was old - well over eighty, in Leo's opinion - but radiated a kind of warm, friendly energy. Somewhat unfortunately, though, it reminded Leo of a few gods/monsters/other mythology-thing that he and his friends had met/stumbled upon/killed during the Giants war. Some of them had looked alright, even friendly, but very soon a manic gleam had appeared in their eyes, as though they were not entirely sane. A similar look about this old man told the nine demigods he was completely, utterly and entirely eccentric.

The man stood up, his sharp blue eyes alight with curiosity.

"Well this is a surprise, Professor McGonagall," he said, "whoever have you brought me, then?"

The severe-looking witch shot a glance at the assembled teenagers. If Leo hadn't had the immediate impression that this was a woman who did not loose her cool easily, he would have said she was nervous.

"Headmaster, forgive this interruption, I know you're exceedingly busy at this time of year," she shot a dirty look at the demigods. A few of them looked back at her like, We can't help it, you dried-up old nymph. "But these children-"

"Excuse me," Annabeth interrupted unexpectedly. She sounded miffed. "We're not children."

Percy raised his eyebrows at his girlfriend in surprise. Usually she left the rude interruptions to him. Leo agreed with the sentiment: Annabeth was far too sensible and diplomatic to forfeit their first meeting with the wizarding world. Ruined relations and Annabeth just didn't associate, which was why Leo stepped forward and loudly cleared his throat.

"Good afternoon," he said politely, but the witch's flaring nostrils told him he was acting far too bouncy and cheerful on a territory that was, for all they knew, potentially dangerous.

"My name is Leo Valdez. These are my good friends Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo, Jason Grace, Piper McLean and Thalia. We, er...seem to have landed on your lawn." He paused. "This is Hogwarts, isn't it?"

He tried to quash the giggle that wanted to escape. Hogwarts - honestly!

The old man peered at Leo over his strangely-shaped spectacles. From a distance they looked like transparent halves of lemon slices. The only ones like that Leo had ever seen had been in his mother's workshop. A customer left them there one day, and Leo had played with them mostly to reflect light on walls - until they broke.

Now that he was standing, the demigods could see the headmaster was indeed very tall. Over six feet. His beard and actual hair were down to his waist and tucked into his belt, secured by - Leo narrowed his eyes to see better - a sparkly hairband?... The man's fuchsia robes clashed magnificently with his heavily-embroidered red waistcoat, and even more so with his bright orange trousers. Leo had to fight the urge to wince. Even Mr D. would have found that outfit a little bit loud.

The headmaster strode around his desk to approach the nine demigods, his keen eyes quickly flitting over each of their faces in turn. He did not speak for another few seconds, continuing his scrutiny. For the first time in his life, Leo felt like he was the machine being sensed, read, evaluated and understood, like he himself usually did on anything that could be defined as machinery. The man's gaze was that creepy. Leo shivered. Here was another magic person not to cross. Great. His not-to-cross list of people was now reaching, what, the hundreds?

"Thank you, Minerva," the headmaster said finally. "That will be all. Please tell Sibyll that she need no longer be concerned."

The witch - whom Leo would never in his life had guessed was called Minerva - looked like she might want to argue, but refrained from doing so and quietly left the office after nodding cordially to the headmaster.

Once the door had clicked short (brass doorknob, magical lock, only opened for people who were welcome, Leo noted subconsciously) the headmaster casually sat on the front edge of his desk and crossed his arms, his x-ray stare still piercing the objects/persons of his attention.

"You have given me your names," he said, "Alas, sadly that does not illuminate me much as to who you are. But quite clearly you do not know who I am, however, and since you find yourselves at a disadvantage in any case, please let me introduce myself. My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am the headmaster here at Hogwarts."

Yeah, we kinda gathered that, Leo thought.

"Now," Dumbledore continued, "we all have the privilege of knowing each other's names. May I presume that we can now progress as to the reason you arrived - and also how?"

His tone was light and courteous, but there was a steely undertone to it that made Leo feel this man wasn't as flowery as he looked, and possibly quite dangerous. The demigods exchanged a few glances. This was the moment. A second later, Annabeth was the undiscussed elected spokesperson. She took a step forward and addressed the headmaster.

"First of all, Professor, I'd like to apologize for my outburst a minute ago," she said smoothly. "It just... It seemed unfair to be called children after what we...after what we went through."

She closed her eyes briefly, and there was a slight tremor in her voice. Leo was impressed. Even he wasn't that good.

The headmaster straightened. He took - seemingly out of nowhere - a long, thin stick (a wand, Leo suddenly realized), waving it once in a long, sweeping motion, and suddenly nine comfortable chairs materialized and dropped gently to the floor.

"I sense a tale coming," Dumbledore said, returning to his throne-like chair. "We might as well be comfortable." He sat, and passed around a box full of lemon candy. Leo took one politely and handed the box to Percy, who frowned almost imperceptibly. Leo grinned, knowing his friend was disappointed the candy wasn't blue.

"Now. You were saying, my dear?" Dumbledore prompted Annabeth gently.

She sat, tense on her seat, with both hands gripping the sides. She hadn't accepted a piece of candy.

"We - my friends and I, I mean - go...or, um, used to go to a magical institute in America. It was a great place, we even went to summer camp there and learned all kinds of things, like how to fight monsters and care for magical beasts."

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose imperceptibly, and he had to recognize Annabeth's skill: the best lies were always in part truthful.

"But one day," Annabeth continued, apparently doing her best to keep her voice level "the monsters attacked. There are so many of them in America, you see. Far too many for our government to control, and over the past few years they've been growing strong." Again, the truth, though Leo sniggered at the thought of Olympus being an actual government. "We were unprepared. They attacked at dawn and destroyed everything about the school they could see, including the magical creatures - the nice ones which we kept with us - the staff, and... and the students."

A tear leaked down Annabeth's cheek, and Leo felt the urge to give her a standing ovation.

"My friends and I... we were on an expedition during the attack, carrying out some tasks a teacher had asked us to do. We came back in the middle of the morning, and-" she took a shuddering breath "-and there was nothing left. The school was in ruins, the land ripped up, b-bodies everywhere." she gave a sob. "And then I... I saw Mr...Professor Brunner, our history teacher. He was still alive, but so badly hurt it was only a matter of time before he... Well, he told us what happened, and that the monsters would be coming back to make sure no-one was alive. He said we needed to get away, stay safe, and hide. He told us he knew about a school - the greatest school of magic in the world - somewhere in the United Kingdom. He was very near the end by that point. He - he didn't have enough strength to say anything else. He sent us here, though. We saw him die but we owe him our lives."

Dumbledore's gaze was trained solely on her, his hands as if in prayer under his chin. He had listened to the complete set of lies with attention, interest and increasing sympathy as it drew to an end. Everyone adopted suitably tragic expressions.

"Ah, my dear," he sighed, opening his hands and closing them gently. "Such a tragedy, and so sudden, too. All of you so young, so unused to war and loss."

Leo's jaw clenched, and he knew Percy, Nico, Jason and Frank would have similar reactions. The girls were a little more self-controlled, but Annabeth had to say something again quickly before this doddering old man said something that was stupid, cliché, insulting - or, as he had just superbly demonstrated, all three at once.

"Yet I cannot say I have ever head of this school," the wizard continued, oblivious to the rising tempers of the smarting demigods. "What did you say it was called?

"I didn't. It's called - was called - Mythomagic Institute." Annabeth replied without missing a beat.

"Mythomagic, hmm..." Dumbledore mused, tracing the ridges of the wood on his wand with his long fingers. For some reason that made Leo nervous. "You didn't mention where it was, my dear."

Annabeth winced in a convincing imitation of regret.

"Sorry," she said. "But when you join the school you have to take an oath not to speak of its whereabouts, it secrets, or even the staff. Our headmaster, Mr. Dee, said it's because these years are a lot more dangerous, for some reason. Monsters are increasing in number and Mythomagic was... Well, I guess you could say a little paranoid. They didn't want any information leaving it whatsoever, which means that we physically cannot tell you anymore about the school."

Leo nearly whistled. Holy jitterbugging Hera. This girl was good. Beyond good, even.

Beside her, Percy was wearing his best grief-stricken expression, but his eyes sparkled with amusement. Fortunately, Dumbledore's attention was still focused only on Annabeth.

He leaned back into his chair.

"Well, thank you, Miss... Chase, is it? It is unfair that you should have had to relive all that while explaining it to me, so again, I am grateful. I consider myself something of a good judge of character, and I can see a recent grief and loss in all of your faces, which is why I will choose to believe you." They all smiled at him, some of them a bit more forcibly than others. Grief, yes. Loss, certainly. But not as recent as mister Greybeard here thought.

Dumbledore smiled back, but raised a finger. "There are, however, a few details I have not yet grasped. You see, Hogwarts is surrounded by age-old magic boundaries, as strong and powerful as the foundations of the earth."

Leo doubted that, he'd met Gaea personally.

"They protect the school, prevent anyone from going to and fro without my permission, and most importantly, keep unwanted visitors out." He chuckled. "No implied insults there, I assure you. However, it would therefore be very tempting to say that your arrival here was impossible; and yet here you are." He spread his hands, as though he'd made a good point - which he had, for him. For the demigods... not so good.

This time it was Hazel who saved them.

"We used a portkey," she blurted. "I - I don't quite know how it worked, since your magic rules are supposed to stop even them from entering, but that's what we used... Look."

She reached inside her pocket and pulled out a torn, washed out, grubby... teddy bear? Leo almost laughed. Of course! One of Octavian's unfortunate victims. But what was it doing in Hazel's pocket, and most importantly, what in Tartarus was she talking about?

Leo exchange a glance with Annabeth. Her carefully neutral expression told him she had no clue either.

Dumbledore's silver eyebrows had shot up.

"A portkey?" He sounded astonished. "Are you sure?"

Hazel nodded and the others followed her lead.

"Fascinating..." the wizard murmured, stroking his beard. "Technically of course, even your answer is not sufficient explanation for this...this extraordinary feat. In theory Hogwarts' magical boundaries are designed to keep absolutely anything unwelcome out. By the laws of magic you should not be here - or even alive. Anything who tries to force the boundaries and cross the limits should be dead."

Leah gulped. Suddenly he was very glad they hadn't used the Argo II to get here. A demigod ship with a fire-breathing dragon and blazing celestial bronze ballistae definitely, even in his mind, entered the category of crossing-the-limits type machinery.

Then Percy spoke up.

"Maybe it wasn't magic," he suggested. "Maybe the portkey worked on technology instead. Leo here," he pointed his chin at Leo, "is an expert on anything to do with that, or machinery. Maybe he could look into it."

Leo tried to look interested and vaguely hopeful, but he couldn't stop himself from shooting a filthy glare in Percy's direction.

"Um... Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I could have a look if you like."

Percy was about to say something else, but Annabeth gave him a pointed shut up now look. He was just about wise enough to obey.

Dumbledore's eyebrows were now reaching alarm-point, rising abnormally high on his wise old brow.

"Indeed?" he asked, incredulous. "Mythomagic must have had much to teach us, then. Here in Britain wizards have never succeeded in mixing technology with magic. The Muggles create wonderful things," he waved a hand around wistfully. "But they go haywire whenever they come in contact with magic. I remember once having bought an electric toothbrush; I put in the...- what are they called? The batteries, yes - but as soon as I switched it on, it started hopping around on the sink singing Celestina Warbeck's "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love" - which, marvellous tune as it is, was woefully inadequate for the task of brushing an old man's teeth."

Leo's mouth opened slightly in disbelief and horror. 'Muggles'? No technology? And he'd been so looking forward to making the suits of armour into automatons and programming his future wand to transform into a light sabre!

Meanwhile, Annabeth was giving her boyfriend a murderous look. Apart from you just had to say the wrong thing didn't you? it said leave the talking to the smart ones, Seaweed Brain. The others, to their credit, successfully trained their features into polite masks of detached interest, but Leo had a nasty feeling Dumbledore's sharp eyes had seen Annabeth's glare.

"Still, no matter," he said loudly. "We have always maintained an amicable rivalry with our able allies the Americans. Perhaps this is an instance where Britain truly needs to up its level of investigation. Now, to business." he said briskly, leaning forward and peering at them over his weird glasses.

"You find yourselves without a school, across an ocean, with no immediate connections, in a nation that is, as I am sure you will have heard, increasingly dangerous since the dark wizard called Lord Voldemort has returned."

The nine demigods straightened and all their senses switched to full alert. At last, something they could relate to and talk about relatively confidently.

"Around fourteen years ago, Voldemort was destroyed trying to kill a boy he thought was a rival. His power backfired, and he has been no more than a mere shade since."

Leo glanced at Nico, their shade expert. The boy looked even paler than usual, but his dark eyes glittered under a brow furrowed in concentration.

"By any laws of nature he should have died, but alas, such was not the case, and he is now back, due to the successful use of Dark magic. The evidence shows that the whole population is in danger, which now that you have entered Europe also includes you. Nine American wizards and witches who travelled to England by an unknown force, and who claim to have succeeded in mixing muggle technology with wizard magic. That, my young friends, is what concerns me most. More so even then the issue of Hogwarts boundaries."

He paused. His aura of eccentric friendliness had dulled somewhat, and now he just looked like a tired, worried old man - with a horrid fashion sense.

"No doubt you will have heard of the progress in muggle technology, especially these days. I need not remind you of its power to make you understand how utterly catastrophic it would be for the entire world if Voldemort somehow got wind of this and decided to recruit all of you - willingly or not - for his army."

The nine demigods looked at each other. Frank and Thalia especially seemed tense, and Leo remembered that Frank had lost his mother to a war, and Thalia must have seen more than enough conflict in her time as a huntress to last for centuries. As for Leo's other friends...

Yeah. They all knew warfare. Even him - he'd helped build it.

Dumbledore spoke up again

"Then it is my duty, but also my honour and sincere hope that you will agree, to offer you a place at Hogwarts for whatever time it may take until Voldemort is defeated - until you graduate if that is your wish. As young wizards in the making, your safety is one of our primary concerns, and Hogwarts is known to be one of the safest places in the world, if not the safest. Your education must continue regardless of political affairs." Leo rolled his eyes. That had to be the most teacherly thing he'd ever heard in his life. "Now. Would you be willing to attend Hogwarts for the time being?"

The demigods, Leo included, gave him identical grins. Perhaps not ideal for teenagers who claimed to be the sole survivors of a very recent massacre, but Leo had a feeling Dumbledore expected them to express some enthusiasm. And after all, the first step to the mission Chiron had given them had been completed.

Dumbledore beamed, and the eccentric old wizard was back again.

"Excellent! Well, that's settled, then. As it happens our students arrive tonight, so you will join the sorting ceremony with the first years to determine which House you are in."

"House?" Nico asked, speaking for the first time.

"In Hogwarts students are sorted into four Houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Each has its own attributes and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While Hogwarts is your sanctuary, your House will be like your extended family."

The demigods' mouths twitched. Oh, they knew about extended family, all right.

"Your triumphs will bring you points and credit to your house, whilst any rule breaking or failure to do the work will lose you points, and quite probably some respect from your housemates."

Leo noted how similar it was to the cabin system at their respective camps, back home.

"How will we be sorted?" Annabeth asked.

Dumbledore pointed to a shelf near his desk. It only had a misshapen piece of fabric crumpled on top of it, but Dumbledore seemed to think it answered Annabeth's question.

"The Sorting Hat." he said, helpfully (well, they hadn't known it was a hat).

Annabeth frowned.

"So, we put on the hat and it tells us which house we're in?" she clarified. She didn't sound convinced, but Dumbledore smiled in confirmation. "What criteria does it base its decisions on, then?" she asked, ever the curious daughter of Athena.

Dumbledore hesitated for a second.

"I... wouldn't want you to form an opinion as of yet Miss Chase." He said carefully. "Naturally, over the years some rivalry has arisen between some of the houses. It would be unfair on both yourselves and your future housemates to choose an opinion of the houses without knowing - as the saying says - both sides of the story."

Leo quirked an eyebrow. Ten drachmae that one or two of these houses were the equivalent of the Ares cabin back home: bullies, mean, and more brawn than brain.

"However," Dumbledore continued, "I recognize how unsettling it must be for you to be here, with no prior knowledge of our ways or culture. Very well. The houses are each known for their particular attributes. Gryffindors are brave and noble; Slytherins are ambitious and able to achieve said ambitions; Ravenclaws are intellectuals and offer some of the finest minds of the wizarding world; and lastly, but certainly not least, the Hufflepuffs are good and loyal - be friends with a Hufflepuff and you will have a friend for life."

There was a brief silence.

"Well, I'm obviously a Gryffindor." Leo said, hands in pockets and grinning. "Because I'm amazingly noble, heroic and handsome."

His friends laughed.

"Annabeth is definitely a Ravenclaw." Thalia said, smirking at her friend. "And Percy is a particularly dim-witted Hufflepuff."

Percy scowled.

"You're likely to be a Slytherin, the way you're placing everyone like they're pawns on a chessboard." he retorted.

Leo laughed.

"Besides, he's Gryffindor: they don't get any braver or more reckless than him." he said.

"I think that applies to Jason as well." Piper joined in, nudging her boyfriend, who tried to look modest.

"And Frank," Hazel said, gazing up at own boyfriend with such adoration that Leo was about to make a snide comment, but Dumbledore raised a hand for silence.

"And therein lies my point," he said quietly. "For centuries the four Houses of Hogwarts have coexisted in the school, partners and neighbours in every sense except the one that matters most: they have never truly been united, as one, in a way that would annul all rivalries and ensure only the best qualities of the students be used in times of great need. The students of Hogwarts, even before they attended the school, grew up listening to House stereotypes and rumours. As Americans, you have the advantage of being able to form opinions of your future Houses free of prejudice."

He eyed them all a little sternly. It was clear this wasn't a request, but an expectation. They all nodded. Dumbledore sat down with a flourish, pulling out a long sheet of yellowish paper and selecting a huge, striped feather from a special pencil-pot. It took Leo a second to process that the man actually intended to write with the feather. He nearly laughed, but just in time remembered that he was supposed to be solemn.

"Good. Now, to make things official, I'll take down your names, then send an order to Diagon Alley to get you some school supplies. They'll all be second-hand, I'm afraid, but the school fund will cover all expenses. You will also need uniforms," he told them, glancing at the purple and orange T-shirts. "Full length black robes, black hats and black cloaks. I assume you still have your wands?…"

Leo sent a panicky glance at Annabeth. Wands? Nobody had said anything about wands! But Annabeth, Hazel and Piper nodded confidently and patted their pockets.

"Good. Excellent. As for your families, I imagine they are still in America, though your tale makes it clear they do not yet know of the tragedy at Mythomagic, nor of your survival. As soon as we are done, we will provide you with means to contact them immediately. Furthermore, while you are at Hogwarts, since you are effectively here in sanctuary and I am headmaster, I will be your guardian. Any special queries, complaints or other matters of interest you can report to me. Any questions?"

It was strange, Leo thought, how this man seemed to cast off and adopt various attitudes in the same way that he would swap shirts - er, robes. So far, they had seen the wise but slightly weird old wizard, the history teacher, the psychiatrist, the lecturer and the businessman. Whatever he would be next, Leo hoped it wasn't a clown. He hated clowns, however much his friends called him one.

"Yes," Percy said. He took Annabeth's hand. "This housing system… Does this mean we'll get separated if we get sorted into different Houses?"

"In essence, yes." Dumbledore answered simply, lacing his fingers together. "You will be attending the same classes as your year in each of your Houses, sometimes joined by classes from other Houses. Each House has a common room, and adjoined are the dormitories of that House."

Percy paled a little, and squeezed Annabeth's hand a little tighter.

"So...We'll be apart?" He couldn't seem to get his head around that bit.

Dumbledore chuckled, a sympathetic twinkle in his clear blue eyes.

"I am afraid that all genders, in every year and every House, are separated, Mr. Jackson."

Percy blushed. So did Frank, and Jason. Leo just grinned. Nico rolled his eyes, while the girls remained unfazed.

"However," Dumbledore continued after a pause, "I do think we may have to make something of an exception from the general rules. Dormitories, you see, accommodate five boys or girls each, one room per year, and there are seven years. Amazingly, the number of available beds that we have always exactly matches the number of students we are expected to accommodate. But since you are here completely unexpectedly and from another continent altogether, you can understand we are not, ah... prepared. But no matter; I'm sure our Charms expert, Professor Flitwick, will be perfectly happy to adapt a corner of the castle to serve as your dormitories. Some of the house-elves will take care of the practicalities, and by the end of the welcoming feast everything should be ready and you will be able to move in."

Leo nodded along with the others, pretending he understood the last bit about charm and domestic Santa helpers.

"I will insist, however," Dumbledore went on, "that any homework, indoor leisure activities and socialising take place in your respective common rooms. It is of the utmost importance that you should build ties or friendship with your future houses, as much for your sake as theirs: it is, sadly, quite rare for our students to have much contact with foreign wizards. You will be a benefit to them, as indeed they will be to you."

He fell silent and gave them a large, warm smile.

"I think that everything has been dealt with." He concluded happily. "Gentlemen, ladies, I welcome you to Hogwarts! I hope you will work to the best of your ability and will find happiness here."

There was a chorus of Thank you, sir and We're so grateful. Really. Piper even used a tiny bit of her charmspeak, just to make sure their new headmaster got their message of innocent, genuine gratitude that couldn't possibly have anything to do with completing a secret mission.

"Thank you, professor," Piper said smoothly, with so much warm respect lacing her words it was tempting to say she wasn't even using her powers. "It was a great risk coming here, trusting magic that we didn't understand. And you are so kind to take us in - we'll do our best to live up to your expectations, I promise."

Dumbledore smiled gently.

"I'm very glad to hear that, Miss McLean."

There was a second of silence, then a strange rumble sounded across the room. Leo looked out of the window to check if Zeus had gotten offended or something, but the sky was clear.

Percy winced.

"Sorry," he said, "but did you mention a welcoming feast?"