Demigods at Hogwarts

Chapter 6

Frank's POV

When they got outside, they were hoping to find Percy, Annabeth, and Leo there, ready to fight off the gryphons with them. Frank was happy to see that they were there, but he wasn't expecting to find four other people, whom Frank had never seen before, standing by them. The four had their wands out as if they were also going to try to fend off the monsters. He exchanged nervous looks with Hazel as the demigods stood still, not knowing exactly what to do, until Percy asked Piper to tell them to go back inside. The wizards went back without as much trouble as Frank thought they would have to go through, and when they left, the half-bloods got their weapons out.

Frank's first arrow went through a gryphon's wing and as it went down, Percy turned it to glittering dust with riptide. Frank continued, shooting arrows at the monsters as the others also fought. Leo bashed one which had dived towards him in the head with his hammer while Piper shot food at them, which both distracted and hit them. It was definitely much easier and ended quicker than the time only he, Hazel and Percy had encountered them in Alaska. After they had defeated all the gryphons, the demigods hid their weapons, so that the wizards would not notice them.

Jason put his hands to his hips, "I guess we'll have to put the train back on its tracks now."

"Somebody should go check on the people who were out here," Frank suggested, "they might be a bit worried. It'll be good if one or two of us went back to check on them."

Annabeth and Percy agreed to go because they had shared a compartment with them. Leo also said that he would go, but when he was almost at the door, they saw smoke coming from the front of the train, "Looks like Leo's help is also need elsewhere. Adios!" Leo jogged over to the smoking engine.

"Back to putting the train on its track. Who's going to do what?" Frank had forgotten about Nico, who was standing only a few feet away from him.

"Well, Jason could use the winds to try to blow it back. Frank could turn into a strong animal, and help push it. I could try to control the metal on the train and pull it using my powers. Piper and Nico could watch and tell us which way to move the train because we won't be able to see all of it while we try to get it back upright," Hazel said. Frank loved how she could take control over difficult situations during tough times.

Following Hazel's suggestions, they were able to get it back on the tracks. Piper got out lemonade for everyone from her cornucopia. Frank, after turning into an elephant, was out of breath and Jason and Hazel looked like they were going to pass out from using so much of their powers. After they had finished, they went back inside and sat down in their compartment. They could still hear some of the students who were worried and confused as they started to settle down.

"Will we be safe at Hogwarts? I'm worried that it might distract us from our quest or put the other students in danger," Piper asked. That had also been on Frank's mind too, but he just didn't know the answer.

Nico leaned forward, "That's going to be the difficult part. The school will probably be safer than it is outside of it, but we're demigods, monsters are still going to try to kill us. The wizards were able to see the gryphons so they can see through mist better than we thought they could. We have to do are quest all while keeping our identities hidden and the students safe."

"Your right Nico, this isn't going to be just fun and games. We're carrying a lot of responsibility on our shoulders right now so this isn't going to be easy but we have to try," Jason said.

Right then, the compartment door opened and they saw Leo, "Hey guys, hope I didn't interfere an extremely secretive conversation or whatever."

"No, it's fine, we were just talking about the quest. Anyways, did you get the engine fixed?" Piper asked.

"Yep, all fixed and ready to go. It was a bit confusing because it had a lot of magic in it, but the other actual engineers had a harder time with it than I did," Leo did some sort of superhero pose with one hand at his tool belt and the other in a fist, pointing up. The train started to move, "Well I'll go back to Percy and Annabeth and the wizards," Leo waved and left.

After Leo left, the boys and girls went into different rooms and got into their uniforms. When they finished dressing and got back in the compartment, the train had already reached Hogwarts. They left their suitcases behind as instructed and walked out. It was getting dark but Nico was still able to spot the three other demigods getting into a wagon pulled by strange, dark horses with leathery wings. They joined them and the four wizards that they had encountered before with the gryphons. There wasn't a lot of extra room left but still managed to fit inside and introduced themselves.

Frank looked at the strange beasts outside again, "What are they? They look like some sort of bat pegasus."

Nico answered as he stared at them, "Thestrals. They can only be visible to you if you've seen death."

Ron looked surprised, "Can you all see them?" The half-bloods nodded silently. "Oh, so you've... You know... Seen someone... Die I guess," he looked down at his hands awkwardly.

Percy put a hand on his shoulder, "No need to be sorry for asking that man, but yea, we have," Percy gave him a friendly but sad smile.

To change the subject, Hermione started a new conversation, "So which house do you think you'll be in?"

"House? We get put into groups?" Annabeth asked.

"The new students get sorted into four houses, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Gryffindor," Harry explained. He continued about which kind of people went into which and about the points you could receive or loose for your house. He also went on about the different dorms and ghosts for the houses.

It all seemed interesting but Frank was worried that he might be put into one that he didn't like. He was about to ask how they got sorted, but wasn't able to because the carriage stopped and they had to get out.

The eight demigods had to join the first years to get sorted, and followed a strict looking teacher, professor Mcgonagall, to a big set of doors. Before they were opened, she gave a short introduction about Hogwarts to the new students. After a few minutes, the doors were opened and they walked into a large dining room. There were five long tables, one where the teachers sat at and the others where packed with students. Did he have to get sorted in front of the whole school? Frank didn't even know how they put the students into the houses but he was worried that he might somehow fail it. He could see Leo fidgeting with some scraps that he had taken out of his magic tool belt and Piper nervously braiding a part of her hair.

They were surprised to see that out of so many other random objects, an old looking, worn out hat was put on a stool in front of them. He could hear the first years mumbling, obviously as confused as he was. Suddenly, the side of the hat opened up like a mouth and started singing. Many of the new students stepped back. Out of surprise, Frank almost accidental pulled out his bow and could see from the corner of his eye, Percy putting his pen back in his pocket, luckily not uncapped.

After accepting the fact that there was singing wizard hat in front of him (which actually didn't take that long because he had encountered much weirder things before), Frank listened to what it was saying. The song explained Hogwarts, a bit about the history of it, and the four houses. When it had finished, the students and teachers started clapping.

The clapping stopped and everybody went silent when professor Mcgonagall stood up with as scroll in her hand, "The first years..." she looked at the demigods who were obviously not eleven years old, "...The new students will now be sorted. When I call your name, come sit on the stool and place the sorting hat on your head. After it has made its decision, it will call out the name of the house that you belong in and you will go sit with the others in your house at one of the four tables."

She unrolled the scroll and started to call out the names.