Percy Jackson and the Heir of Slytherin [Book 2]

32) Train Ride Home

Most people immediately signed up to go home over Christmas break. Harry, Hermione, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, Terry Boot, and Silena were the only ones I really knew staying.

I was happy to get to be going home. Luke had sent me a letter about his new girlfriend and told me that we'd be staying with them for most of Christmas break. I hoped I liked them. It'd be cool if I knew one of them.

The train ride was a bit lonely at the beginning. I'd sat alone in a compartment, drawing a picture of Justin. Suddenly, the door slammed open.

"Sup, Biotch!" Seamus flopped on the seat across from me. I raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

He groaned, "Dean threw a fit after I blew up his candy and kicked me out, so now I'm sitting with you."

I nodded, "Blow up my stuff and I'll kick you out of the train."

"You mean the compartment."

"I meant what I said."

Seamus paled and sat his wand on the seat beside him. He was about to say something when the door opened again.

"Hi," Ginny said, another girl I recognized behind her. "Can we sit here? Lavender's boyfriend walked in, and now they're kissing. We decided to leave, but we don't know anyone in any of the other compartments."

I nodded, "Yeah, that's fine. Hi Ginny. Hi Luna. Did you lose your shoes again?"

Ginny looked down at Luna's feet with wide eyes.

Luna nodded, "I'm sorry. You had just helped me get them back yesterday."

I grinned, "Well, then I'll help you get them back today. TERRY!!!"

Everyone stared at me as if I were insane, except for Luna, who was a daughter of Athena.

The door opened, and Terry peeked in, "You called?"

"Your housemates stole your sister's shoes again. Can I kill them now?" I asked, looking up at Terry's exasperated face. Ginny looked flabbergasted, while Seamus looked bored.

"You can't kill them. I'll do that myself. C'mon. We'll find them," Terry said.

We all stood and followed him, watching him poke his head through the doors. If there wasn't a Ravenclaw in a carriage, he would skip past it. If there was, he would have us search every inch of the compartment.

Eventually we found her shoes with a bunch of fifth years. They flinched under Terry's glare.

We went back to our compartment, and Terry ended up staying with us. We all laughed and ate candy.

Towards the end of the ride, Ginny asked nervously, "So you're all... you're all demigods?"

I nodded, "yup."

Seamus frowned, "How do you know about demigods?"

"Um, my family are some of the blessed. Hestia blessed my mom. She blessed the rest of us when we were born, but my brothers don't get to go to camp. I'm supposed to go to camp this summer, to help with cooking and cleaning and whatever stuff you guys don't have time to do. But my mom said that it was dangerous. What's it... what's it like there?"

Seamus immediately grinned, ranting on the different parts of camp.

"My dad is Hermes. Terry and Luna's mom is Athena. Percy sucks and says 'my dad isn't supposed to have children' and 'they'll kill me if they know' so he stays in the Hermes cabin and pretends to not know, but every Demi wizard knows who their parents are, because they get to go in their parent's vault, and we're all kind of hoping to find out who his dad is this summer, but his dad is probably just a minor swordsman or sea spirit or something, but it would be cool to know anyway."

Terry glanced at me. I could see him trying to figure it out. Luna had asked once, but when I said that I couldn't say, she hadn't brought it up since. Seamus joked about it, but I could tell that he was curious. Ginny was clearly curious, too.

I just shook my head, "I'd have to get claimed this summer for you guys to find out. Let's hope that doesn't happen."

Seamus rolled his eyes then shot up suddenly, "I heard that some campers get to go to Olympus this solstice! We already know that Liam is going, cause Luke turned it down, and Draco is totally going to win the Athena battle. What about the other cabins? What do you guys think?"

Terry smiled slightly, "Clarisse from Ares cabin, definitely. Silena from Aphrodite cabin. She's the only one there who can throw a punch. Katie Gardner, for sure. Uh, probably Lee Fletcher from Apollo cabin. Maybe Michael Yew. Castor and Pollux won't be going if they can't go together, so probably Devin. I'm thinking Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin."

I nodded, "Thats sounds about right. It'd be cool to go, but Liam is a better swordsman than me."

Everyone nodded along, and we continued to talk to Ginny about what camp was like.

"Wait. Where will I be staying?" Ginny asked.

"You'll spend a week there and a week off. Probably the Big House. It's a lot nicer than the cabins," Terry said.

Ginny nodded and was about to say something else, when the train stopped. We grabbed our stuff and started saying our good byes. Then we left to find our families.

I spotted Luke quickly. He was taller than most, and had a massive scar on his face. And a big smile. He was hard to miss.

Walking over to him, I grinned. While Hogwarts was amazing, I still missed my brother. When I got to him, he pulled me into a hug.

I was happy to see Luke again.

Hi! I love you all. I have been in a strangely energetic mood, and I want it to stop, because I have nothing to do. I finished my last thing to do yesterday. We got assigned summer homework a few days ago. We had to read To Kill a Mockingbird and do some stuff about its theme. At first, I found the book really hard to follow, but then it just became... wow. It was good. I didn't like doing the theme part of the thing though. No matter. I finished it all in two days. I just need to print the homework page and write everything down, which I can't do, since I don't have a printer. But I wrote down the quotes and answers in my notes, so I'm finished. I guess this is what we're going to be doing in AP English. I'm not even good in this subject. It confuses me. I'm also taking all AP classes. I think the workload is gonna kill me, but it'll be fine. I am already dead inside.

And guess what? The first book has 10k reads now! Even though the reads per chapter have been declining, but whatever. We still made it. 10k reads.

Anyway, I hope you guys have Wednesday (just a Wednesday, I don't trust Wednesdays), and I will see you all on Friday (I don't think Fridays are evil). I love you!