AN: I do not own any of Rick Riordan's works, or JK Rowling's.

Introduction To Hecate

or

"Jumps Scares and Insular People"

Percy was creeped out.

Seriously.

Despite knowing that Nico was there to keep him and the other campers from being eaten by the unkillable monster, unless he wanted to get the sending goddess upset with him, as well as the monster being on the other side of the wards most of the time, he could feel the creepy crawleys crawling up his back with just knowing that there was a nightmare-showing monster that was impossible to kill at the gate of the camp.

It didn't help that apparently one of Hermes' campers had been reacting to the aura the thing exuded by deciding to jump scare everybody and stand behind one of his half-brothers smiling crazily, rubbing his fingers on the other guys shoulder, all the while staring at the one he was trying to intimidate. Needless to say, it wasn't just the person he was staring at that would be creeped out; no, it unnerved most people in the vicinity as well because of the fear shroud that was heavily dissipated by the wards of the camp, but not entirely.

Nico was hardly bothered, as the guy had an immunity for most things like that from being descended from Hades.

Anyway, Percy and Annabeth had finally been told that if they were seriously looking for the community who had Hecate's blessing, that they would be told in one of the out of the way areas across the strawberry fields, specifically the one with three white poplars in front.

To even get that arranged had been a headache, because even among the campers, Hecate's cabin didn't have the best reputation. They were known mostly as insular, and most didn't join in cabin based competitions. They also left for the winters, strictly arriving for the summers. Not saying that they didn't throw their weight in when it was necessary, but most didn't do anything with Celestial Bronze weapons, relying on magic based weapons instead. Not saying that they were unable to take a monster down with them, just saying that they weren't weapons that others could use half the time and despite the nonchalance that Percy had adopted to most of what they had used around him by exposure, they still caught him off guard with something that he didn't expect.

The girl that Annabeth had finally had meet with them was one of the quiet ones. She wouldn't talk with Annabeth with Percy there, and she shut off completely when Percy was around, looking around nervously. However, she had been the one to volunteer to talk with them, and that whole complicated mess had Percy swearing not to kill her and others like her in the camp.

This had made Percy somewhat nervous, but he did so, knowing that she had to be here for summers because the monsters would hunt her constantly when she was home, same as most people in the camp.

Then she dropped the fact that one of her parents was a werewolf and that he was from Britain but had been forced to move because of prejudice in the community there. This made both Percy and Annabeth take a deep breath, but as she had said that there were monsters that they were not supposed to fight, they imagined that this was one of the times not to go after someone based off of one of their birth parents as she had already warned Percy of, and Percy and Annabeth promised.

Then Annabeth had followed the girl to the shade of her cabin and waved Percy off because she had shut down, and went to discuss things with the very shy preteen. The two girls had kept Percy in sight, even if Annabeth was the only one she would talk to.

All of that had led to them meeting by the strawberry fields today.

When they arrived, there were three of the known Hecate's kids there and Grover.

"Hello, I am Percy.

"Hi, I am Annabeth. You are Cassy, right? We talked yesterday."

"Yep, and this is Mary Lu, and this is Clement Grimm."

Clement grinned, "Hi, again. We faced the climbing wall that spurts lava together, wasn't it Tuesday this week?"

Percy relaxed, remembering the brown haired boy who kept his hair swept to the side. "You're a child of Hecate? I know I didn't really introduce myself, but I thought you were a child of Hephaestus, with how often you hang out with them."

"Nope, a child of Hecate, even though I might have a talent for putting things together with metal."

Percy grinned back at him.

"Now you were wondering about how magical communities and how to get into the one in Great Britain?"

"Yes."

"Well, you know how insular we are at camp. The magical communities are like that normally. Now, with Hecate not only giving birth to demi-gods, but also blessing others, there is a larger portion of magic users in the world than there are demi-gods. Part of this is because we know that she is indiscriminate with those she blesses, human and monster, and monsters are still rarer than humans. I am pretty sure that is because there is a set of requirements that those she originally blesses with magic must meet. Now, once we had semi-regulated communities; they were an open secret that magic users lived there, even though we lived mostly apart. However, once the Catholics and Roundheads became militarized, we had to go into hiding for our survival. You know of the burnings and witch hunts, right? Well, some of our communities were wiped off the map during that, and we had to become militarized and hide. Nowadays, we function as separate countries, with our own governments, schools, shopping centers, communities, etc. We employ heavy wards like at camp to survive, not just monsters, but other people too."

"Wait, you're part of the states, but aren't?"

"Not really, and as such, while we try to follow where the non-magical country of USA is, there are laws that are in place just because of the magic that is prevalent in our communities. One of such is that we don't tell people unless they are an immediate family member or will have to go there. As people whose quest it is to go there, we can tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, unless it follows the same rules. Need to know is the basis for continuing our survival. Now, to get into magical Britain, we will have to introduce you to the magical side of the states."

"Fair warning, it's really different than what you know."

"Hey, why did you say, originally blesses with magic?"

"It can be passed down to your kids, and theirs, and so on. Because of that, old magical families that are still magical are heavily respected, and demi-gods like us can be looked down on as upstarts. Sometimes it's hard for us to become part of the community because we weren't born to those already part of it."

"So your dad was a magical werewolf, and because of that, there are guidelines of Hecate's that he had been following?"

"Yes. He had actually been magical before he was bitten, but Hecate allowed him to keep it because he followed her guidelines before that. Some that become werewolves and keep their magic can have some pretty nasty kids like anybody, but once part of our community, we police them, or at least, we are supposed to."

"We have our own armies and police officers, well, the whole legal system, really."

"And we hide," finished Cassy.

"Thank you guys," said Grover.

"Here, I'll get you directions to the public office when we get back to the cabin. One of us might have to lead you there to get you over the wards. We do try to keep out people without magic, but they can be led in by a magical person."

"Okay."

"Sure, thanks."

Annabeth was somewhat awed by what they learned, but also willing to go with it. How could they not become used to new worlds opening up before them when it had happened at least once a year for the past few?