After the tiring task of forcing Percy and Nico to wake up (resolved by Thalia and Jason shocking both of them), the seven finally got onto the platform, only to be stupefied. There was no Platform 9 and 3/4 and no train leaving at eleven, according to the 'friendly' guard (*note the sarcasm), so they were just about to head back to the Leaky Cauldron when voices suddenly sounded behind them. "Hurry up, Cara! You can't miss the train," yelled a man's voice as he shepherded a young and scared-looking girl to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. The girl was carrying a small trunk and her shirt, pants and the parka she wore were all frayed and old. Clearly, they were second handed. Her strawberry blonde hair was split at the ends and her face was slim and filled her frown lines. They caught sight of the red scars on her hands and gasped. "So, do you think we should just go right through that barrier?" asked Percy uncomfortably. Annabeth shrugged. "Let's give it a go," she said. Then, she ran at it with her trolley before she could lose her courage. To her surprise, she did not bang into a brick wall, but went straight through it, onto a platform called Platform 9 and 3/4 in red on a hanging plaque. The other demigods followed closely right behind her.
When they had all gathered on the platform, they realised that the other students were all leaping onto their carriages. Deducing that the train was going to go accurately, they all rushed and jostled in the huge mob to the get on an empty platform too. Thankfully, training at Camp Half-blood and the experience of fighting monsters had given them strong and hard muscles to carry their owl cages and trunks onto an empty carriage at the end of the train in record time. After throwing their items onto the rack above, all seven of them tried their best to squeeze into second last carriage, since the last was occupied. Good thing it could fit eight people, though it was no longer quite as comfortable as it had been designed to be with seven people squashing into a single carriage. Soon after the train started moving, Nico, Thalia and Percy started to argue about whose dad was the most powerful. Annabeth decided to pull out her new books to read first, while Piper settled down for a nap. Clarisse ended up rolling her eyes and sharpening her dagger with a hard rock she had gotten from gods knew where.
"Look, my dad is definitely the coolest. Who wouldn't want water powers?" asked Percy, his voice cutting like a sharp celestial bronze dagger through Annabeth's concentration.
"I wouldn't! Lightning powers are the best! Admit it, controlling the wind is a pretty cool gift!" Thalia replied.
"Nah, Hades is the most awesome. At least you can shadow travel every place you want to go if he is your dad, you know," Nico said.
"Untrue! If Hades is your dad, then Persephone would treat you awfully. That would be horrid," Thalia replied.
"You're one to talk! Hera would make your life even worse by a hundredfold if you were Zeus's child," countered Nico.
"Hey, calm down, everyone! All the gods are awesome, but admittedly Zeus is still the best," interjected Jason promptly. Nico rolled his eyes.
"Well, of course you would say that! You're a child of Zeus yourself!" whined Percy. Thalia and Jason were high fiving one another, delighted. "Majority still wins," rubbed in Thalia. Nico scowled. Percy pouted.
Just as Annabeth was going to step in and make her move, the door opened and a lady in robes came in. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked. Percy, Jason and Thalia's eyes practically lit up excitedly. "Can I have four of everything on the trolley please?" asked Percy. The lady handed what Percy had asked for to him. He payed for his food immediately and Jason and Thalia also asked for a bit of everything. Annabeth got one of everything, as did Piper, and Clarisse just chose a few different items off the trolley. When they had all payed for out food, they began stuffing it into their mouths, famished, before relaxing and taking a nap, whilst Piper stayed awake to flip through her brand new books as a self-posted guard. She was supposed to make sure that no nasties attempted to hurt the seven of them along the way. For some odd reasons, no evil beasts had came along to do anything yet, so Piper was on guard duty to ensure that no monster came to challenge them in the carriage. They were supposed to swap a few times along the way. Annabeth hoped that the seven of them would not get attacked and lose their covers too quickly, and disappointing Chiron along the way.
