"Wake up!" yelled a distant voice from the world of the living. Percy slowly opened his eyes groggily, to be greeted by a pair of electric-blue eyes staring at him. "Whoa!" he yelled, jumping up into the air. "That must have been ten feet!" snickered a girl's voice. "Thalia! What are you doing at camp?" Percy demanded, shocked. "I was called by Chiron to return for a quest, Kelp Head! Now hurry up! Chiron wants all the children of the Big Three as well as several others," Thalia replied. "Where's Annabeth?" Percy asked. "Packing your stuff," said Thalia. "Packing? Why ever?" Percy urged. "If you get up and go to the Big House, you'll know! So get up or I'll shock you with lightning," Thalia threatened, irritated. Percy leapt to his feet and raced down to the Big Hall with his pajamas still on.
"Finally, Percy! You've kept us waiting for ages!" yelled Piper McLean. She seemed extremely disgruntled as she sat next to Jason Grace.
"Right. Now Percy has joined us, let me explain. I need you to go down to a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They have only just finished a war and we need to see how they fare," Chiron said.
"Secondly, Rachel has gotten a vision that showed the few of you fighting with the general population of wizards, so the few of you will be going to Hogwarts. Let's do a roll call. Jason?" "Here!" Jason said. "Piper?" Chiron yelled. "Here!" "Annabeth?" "Here!" "Percy?" "Here!" "Thalia?" "Here!" "Clarisse?" "Here!" "Leo?" Silence. "Leo?" asked Chiron again. "Err, Leo is still missing, Chiron," Jason said uncomfortably.
"Oh yes," sighed Chiron, looking despondent.
"I forgot. I've gotten too used to his presence, it seems. How do we complete this quest, Rachel?"
"I've actually had another vision. It shows Leo crashlanding in Hogwarts later in the year, so I believe that the six of them can go first!" Rachel declared.
Chiron nodded. "Good. Have you all packed?" he asked.
Percy began to shake his head, but was stopped when Annabeth interjected.
"I've already packed for you, Seaweed Brain!"
Percy smiled. "You're a life saver, Wise Girl!" he exclaimed, delighted that he did not have to pack. Everyone else rolled their eyes. Annabeth's cheeks were flushed pink.
"How are we getting there, Chiron?" asked Clarisse.
"By the Pegasi. You'll land near the Leaky Cauldron and someone familiar will show you around. Your supplies are in this letter," said Chiron, shaking a thick envelope with a wax seal, "And your guide will show you around and go with you to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh! And I almost forgot to tell you that you will be going undercover as exchange students from a new American Wizarding School called Hecate's American School Of Magic, or HASOM for short. You'll also look younger when you enter London to join their school as twelve year old students."
Thalia's face was pale as sheet that Percy could not help laughing at her as they travelled to London by Pegasi. When they arrived, Percy and his six other friends saw Leaky Cauldron, which was concealed by Mist from Muggles, and entered. To their surprise, they saw a skinny but tall boy, about twelve, sitting in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron. He was familiar, dressed in a black shirt and jeans, but instead of his usual black aviator jacket, he wore a long black cloak which reached his ankles. "Nico!" Percy yelled as he tore down to hug Nico. Nico looked stunned for a moment, before returning the hug awkwardly.
"Hey, Death Breath! So here's where you've been all along! Why didn't you tell us?" demanded Thalia.
Nico shrugged as he stepped back.
"I was supposed to be here watching undercover. Tom?" Nico said.
A toothless and wizened old man man came to him.
"Could you help me open the passage into Diagon Alley?"
Tom nodded and limped over to a brick wall, before tapping it with what looked like a beautifully carved stick. The brick wall folded itself into a walkway, revealing the hidden world of bright colours inside. The seven of them stepped through the door, and it closed behind them.
"First of all, we need to grab money from Gringotts, the wizard bank. The gods have opened an account for us and duplicated the key for all of us to access," said Nico, handing out a gold key to each of us, before continuing, "And be warned. The bank is manned by goblins, who are touchy and sensitive, so do not provoke them or say anything regarding their looks and job."
Percy had the feeling that those words were said mainly for his and Thalia's benefit.
They entered Gringotts and met the green goblins and along the way to their underground vault, all the Big Three children except Nico began to pray that Hades would not kill them whilst they were in his domain. Percy found the trip abnormally jerky, unlike the swift and fast cart that passed by them just now, but thankfully Hades must have felt merciful, for he did not kill them. When they finally reached their vault, they realised that their vault was filled to the brim with those odd wizarding money, lots of Greek drachmas, Roman denarius and even American dollars and English pounds. They grabbed a leather bag and filled it with a bit of everything, just in case, before leaving the vault and Gringotts to see Diagon Alley. It was filled with lots of people. They jostled into the crowd and went to get their wands first.
Ollivander began by asking "which is your wand arm", before measuring Percy and finally handing him a wand. "Eleven and three quarter inches, dragon heartstring core and maple wood, try and give it wave," Ollivander commanded. Percy took it and felt foolish waving it. Lightbulbs were busted apart. Percy dropped the Wand, astonished. "No...no, let's see, phoenix feather and alder wood, nine and a half, try this..." Ollivander said. Percy waved it... And successfully burned down the carpet. After a few more tries, Ollivander approached Percy with a curiously gorgeous wand. The wandmaker told Percy to wave a cedarwood and alicorn tail hair wand, thirteen and a quarter inches in length. Percy waved it nervously, hoping not to cause any horrifying disasters again. To his relief, the wand seemed to suit his hand, and it shot out a shower of sea blue and green sparks.
"Intriguing," murmured Ollivander to himself. "Sorry, but what is intriguing?" asked Percy. "Your wand is unique. Very few, mark my words, very few people get chosen by such a powerful wand. Watch over it carefully, my dear boy," Ollivander replied.
Then, it was Annabeth's turn. She got 'chosen' by a phoenix feather and fir tree wand which was nine and three quarter inches long. Thalia got a laurel and phoenix feather wand, ten and a half, Jason got a phoenix feather and oakwood wand, twelve and a half inches long, Clarisse got an ash wood and dragon heartstring wand, thirteen inches precisely, Piper got apple wood and unicorn tail hair, eleven and a half inches in length, who, according to Ollivander, gave one other tail hair to a brave and noble guy named Cedric Diggory, who was dead, and Nico got a white poplar and dark-phoenix feather wand. By the end of the wand choosing, Ollivander was staring shell-shocked the seven of them.
"My...my. You all seem destined to become exceedingly powerful witches and wizards. Your choices are rare. Only about fifteen percent of the wizarding population choose wands as powerful as yours," announced Ollivander, "How queer." Percy and his friends glanced at one another oddly, before frantically giving seven galleons each for their wands and taking their leave, hoping that their cover as exchange students would not be blown so quickly.
The next most eventful place they went to was the Magical Menagerie. All the seven of them had decided to buy themselves a pet as a treat. Percy was surprised that the owls there did not divebomb him. Athena, mother of Annabeth, did not like her choice of boyfriend and was not pleased about Percy, so she liked to send owls to divebomb him. Fortunately, those at the menagerie did not, although they seemed uncomfortable to be in the direct presence of Percy, they did not attack or provoke him. Percy sighed in relief. In the end, he chose the only owl who seemed to like Percy and was not awkward around him. It was a stormy-gray owl with blonde wings and sea-green eyes. Annabeth chose a caramel-coloured owl with sea-green tips on the wings and stormy-gray eyes. Nico chose a black-and-silver-gray screech owl with stunning gold eyes, Clarisse chose a reddish-brown eagle owl, Thalia chose a snowy-owl, with sandy-white feathers, a crescent-moon shape on its forehead and electric-blue eyes, Jason chose a dark-coloured eagle owl with silver eyes and Piper chose a tiny and pale silver-white owl with multi-coloured eyes. In true fact, the amusing part was when all the owls starting hooting and flying to Annabeth, trying to get her attention. It took Annabeth ages to find the owl that she thought suited her. Another amusing part was when all the owls except the screech owls flew away when Nico went within a five mile radius of them, so Nico ended up with limited choices, and could only chose an owl from amongst the screech owls.
When we finally finished shopping, we headed back to the Leaky Cauldron. Nico had already already reserved rooms for us, so we lay down and relaxed in our rooms, waiting for the next day to come.
