The Heroes of Olympus: Quest for Hogwarts

Chapter 2

Harry

'Harry! Come on, we'll miss the train!' Ron yelled into his house. Even though last year was supposed to be our last, we were repeating 7th year because of the circumstances of last year, the war between us and Voldemort. I ran out of the house, grabbing my new owl Snow along the way. She looked exactly like Hedwig, maybe that's why I bought her. I brief wave of sadness flushed through me as I remembered my dead owl, the one I had had for many years. It passed and I quickly resumed running to the Weasly's car. After their old house was burnt down by Bellatrix, Grimerald Place had become their new home, and I lived there with them. There was rarely a need for Order meetings anymore, seeing as Voldemort was gone.

Half an hour later, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and I were piling out of the car. We took our trunks and walked to the wall that was Platform 9 ¾ . We quickly ran into it, and passed into the crowded platform. Once all of us were through, we made a beeline for the back of the train, to our usual compartment. I received a few stares and whispers, but it was nothing but what I was used to. Everyone knew who the 'boy who lived' was, and that he had defeated Voldemort not 3 months ago. We walked down the isle of the train and I saw quite a few familiar faces. Semus had even managed not to blow anything up yet, and I must say I was impressed.

As we approached our compartment though, I looked through a window to find myself staring at a group of teenagers, the same age as me, smiling and laughing with each other. I looked to the other side to find more, and I counted a total of 13 of them, but one on my left caught my eyes. He had messy jet-black hair and a startling pair of sea-green eyes. You could clearly see he was muscled and his tan almost made you think that he had spent his entire life on a beach. He had a lopsided grin plastered all over his face and there were crinkles under his eyes that told you he smiled a lot, but somehow he looked a little bit sad, broken even, like he had done something no person should ever have to do. Power streamed off him in waves and he looked like a natural-born leader. I shrugged it off as I walked past but kept wondering why Professor McGonagall would let new student in at our age. I asked Hermione and she just shrugged, but she was clearly as puzzled about it as I was.

PERCY

The train ride was torture. Put 5 ADHD kids in one cabin for ages, and what do you get?? A disaster. We were all tapping, kicking, or squirming I our seats. Half of us were in my compartment, the other half on the other side on the aisle. I had Annabeth tucked under my arm, Thalia on my other side, and then Leo and Nico on the seats opposite us. Frank, Hazel, Jason and Piper were in the compartment opposite to ours. I was so stiff when we got up, I decided to take a quick walk down the aisle to stretch out. I passed many compartments, but as I passed by one just as I doubled back, a group of three people, two guys and a girl, were staring at me as I passed but I shrugged it off. Much better, I thought to myself as I walked back into my compartment.

HARRY

I was in the middle of talking to Ginny when I looked into the aisle and saw the toned-dude with black hair walk into the isle, looking stiff. I watched as he shrugged his shoulders as he walked casually down the passage. He rolled his neck and walked back into his compartment, while I looked over to find Hermione had that twinkle in her eye that she only gets when she's thinking really hard about how she can figure something out. Dude, I told myself, prepare for some sniffing around.

HAZEL

'First years, this was, come on!' said a burly man holding a lamp. Both our compartments got out and headed for the figure. Once I got closer, I could see he was probably a cross between a human and a giant. We followed him and when Percy saw how we were getting to Hogwarts, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. We were taking boats and crossing a very large lake in them. Percy continued to grin and then somehow, the smile got bigger and his eyes glazed over. He stayed like that for about 30 seconds and then announced, 'In this lake lies a giant squid called-'his eyes glazed over again, and then he came back.

'The giant squid is called Pete, and he says hello!' Percy said cheerfully. Everyone laughed and ran their hand through the water, as if to say hello. Percy took on a sudden look of panic and mouthed 'fish, to many fish'. By now I was clutching my stomach and had almost fallen out of the boat twice. The others looked at me questioningly and I said, 'to many fish.' That was all it took for them all to crack up and laugh hysterically. Percy was zoned out again and I could tell he was talking to all the many different types of sea creatures in the lake.

Being Poseidon's son, he was like fish Jesus and all sea creatures and horses bowed down to him as there lord. As we approached land, Percy looked sad that he had to leave the water behind and was grouchy all the way up until Annabeth's 'OH MY GODS, ITS BEAUTIFUL. OH, LOOK AT THE DESIGN, THE ARCHITECTURE, THE-'I just zoned out then and looked at Percy who had a smile creeping onto his face. I knew he loved it when Annabeth went all Wise Girl on him. She babbled on for at least 10 minutes before she realised we weren't really listening. She looked embarrassed, and Percy rushed to comfort her.

'It's okay Wise Girl,' he said to her, 'keep babbling. It's cute!'

Annabeth blushed a deep red, but kept silently marvelling at the sight of the castle. I must say, it was pretty impressive. As we pulled onto the shore, Percy kept the boat steady as the rest of us got out, then climbed out himself without a care in the world if he fell in. We approached Hagrid, Percy reminded everyone, 'Remember, try to keep our cover, we want to blend in as much as possible.'

'Yeah, yeah, kelp head,' Thalia said, using her own nickname for Percy, 'we get it.'

'Just checking you actually remembered, pinecone face,' Percy said. This is how they always were. Sometimes Percy got electrocuted, sometime Thalia nearly drowned, sometimes they would make a storm so big it out other storms to shame, but no one ever did anything about it. Same thing went on with Annabeth and Percy, just more frequently. Percy would let slip some small detail, realise what he said, bolt out of the room with Annabeth hot on his heels and come back 10 minutes later with their arms around each other as if nothing had happed. No one stopped it because it was amusing to say the least. Everyone knew that Percy could beat both girls with ease, but he let them win, sometimes unintentionally. I broke out of my train of thought when we were approaching a big set of double doors to the castle grounds. I could hear Percy mutter something in Greek, and it took me a moment to realize what it was. 'Well, here goes nothing!' Then they were in, now students of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry.