3, 2, 1

Chapter 7- Sort of sorting and a rather frightened elephant

 The Demigods had gotten outside, managing only barely to stay together, and were now trying to figure out who to follow. There was one man who shouted for first years and a line of students walking towards the Threstral drawn carriages, not that the demigods knew what they were called. They spent half a minute standing there before they noticed that a centaur stood beside the carriages, scanning the crowd with agitation. They walked towards him, trying to blend in.

"Hello, I'm Hazel and we think we're meant to see you," Hazel smiles.

The centaur frowns, "You are the American 'wizards'."

The demigods nod.

"I am Dezan, a magical centaur. You will follow me to the castle and no, you will not ride me."

Leo's face falls and Dezan starts walking away, the demigods have no choice but to follow. They enjoy it, although running around in the dark getting your socks drenched when you accidentally stand in a puddle isn't really that fun. Dezan, on the other hand, seemed extremely glad when the journey was over.

"You will wait outside that door until a ghost comes to fetch you, I believe the other students are already inside and are watching the first years be sorted." Dezan nods his head to them and gallops off into the forest.

"Wow that dude was a downer, glad we have mythical centaurs instead of them," Leo says while looking through the closest window.

Percy snickers slightly, "Yeah, I'd love to see the moment when he meets the Party Ponies."

Suddenly, a figure walks through the wall, this scares Leo so much he lights his pants on fire, Reyna and Annabeth draw their weapons, Frank turns into a large elephant, Hazel lets out a squeal, Jason and Percy both jump, Piper nearly draws her weapon but stumbles and ends up dropping it, and then Nico just stands there trying not to roll his eyes.

"Oh, sorry." The rather large ghost apologies, "I'm the Fat Fiar, and I'm here to escort you inside for your sorting."

The demigods look at each other, and slowly, Reyna, Annabeth, and Piper (after she picked it up off the ground) sheath their weapons, Frank turns back to normal, and Leo's pants extinguish.

Nico steps forward, "Hello sir, lead the way." He gritted his teeth slightly, this reminded him way too much of the monk he followed to meet his dad.

"Happy to," The ghost promptly walks through the door and the demigods follow.

The students sat amazed as the demigods entered through the side door, everything about it felt so homely that they couldn't help but love it. From the happily chatting students to the floating candles that left interesting shadows on their faces.

"You will be sorted alphabetically," a rather grumpy man said, "According to first name."

The demigods look at each other and shrug, the man continues.

"Annabeth, you will be first. So without further  time wasting," The man takes a deep breath and his voice bellows around the hall, "Annabeth Chase."

She walks up and sits on the stool as it was centre-stage so she figured it was for her use, "What do I do?"

The man sniffs but doesn't reply, he places the hat on her head.

You are one tough cookie, brave? Definitely. Loyal? Certainly. Cunning? Yes, yes. Logical? Of course. But where do you belong? I see that you wish to be with your friends, to stick together. But you also don't want to seem suspicious. You are difficult. I guess you belong in... "Ravenclaw!"

Annabeth jumped as the house was called out, she took in the information, Percy was definitely not going to be with her. Slowly she stood from the chair and made her way to the clapping table clad in blue. Percy smiled at her reassuringly, even though he too knew that they, now, had no hope of being close to each other.