In the Spirit of Victory (Percy Jackson/Harry Potter Crossover AU)

Homeward Bound

     "One you missed," Richard remarked, stretching out, "and if you missed the joke, we're not going to repeat it for you."

     Monica glared at him, walking over and pushing his legs off the dash board. "You three are weirdos."

     "Takes one to know one." Camille grinned.

     "Or all of them," River chirped, getting a small chuckle out of Cami.

     "Maybe not all of them," Richard said, thinking of a couple different characters back at school. He counted himself lucky that the majority of his weirdness was kept separate from each other. If the Weasley twins were every introduced to the Hermes kids, all heck could break loose, and if Draco Malfoy ever stumbled on the Aphrodite cabin, Richard was sure the amount of hot air in the vicinity would make the area fly away.

     Of course thee were certain unavoidable crossings of his two worlds. River and Camille for example, as well as Blaise Zabini in the Eros Cabin, Cedric Diggory with Fortuna, and Richard's half sister, Angelina Johnson, represented Nike for Gryffindor. There was a small handful of other magical demigods outside of those three, but Richard wasn't all that well acquainted with them. There was a danger in discussing magic with muggles and the gods around mortals. There would be people, like Monica, that would hear things they weren't supposed to. Questions were asked and left unanswered, which led to digging and snooping, and then soon the secret of either world could be completely blown. It was best to avoid anything that could trigger a chain of events like that.

     Of course, Camille and Richard didn't like people telling them what to do, and River was all about smooth cover ups (she usually wasn't very good at them) so they ignored that set of advice completely.  While none of the other witches or wizards at Camp Halfblood associated with each other, it was rare to see one of the three without the other two.

     "Can I drive?" Monica asked, placing her hands on the wheel before grinning, " I don't know if i can trust you weirdos behind the wheel."

     "I haven't killed us yet," Richard scoffed, "and even if i had, I'm still the oldest."

     "Not by much!"

"I'm eighteen in a little less than a month. You're how old again?"

     Monica glared at him. "Sixteen."

     "Exactly."

     Monica rolled her eyes slightly and tugged on one of Richard's dark curls. "Mean."

     "Yeah. I know." He swatted her away. "Did you happen to catch Jerome on your way back? As much as Camille would love it, we can't leave him here."

     "That would make my year."

     "Sorry, Cami. Christmas is canceled." Jerome swooped through the door with a dramatic toss of his hair. Camille let out a loud groan and clapped a hand over her eyes.

     "What did i do to deserve this?"

     "Must've been something amazing. Not just anyone can be blessed with the company of this."

     Camille peeked out from under her finder and rolled her eyes in exaggerated annoyance. "The gods stuck you on us as a curse."

     "Ouch. I'm not that horrible to put up with, am i?"

Jerome looked around, the rest of his teammates staying quiet. He gasped in mock-hurt. "Oh. I see. I'm just to good for you all. You can't handle all of this fabulous."

     "I'm not even going to offer a response." Richard rolled his eyes.

     "Jealous." Jerome sniffed.

     "Yeah. We're all jealous." Monica knocked him in the back of the head. "Now what did Chiron say?"

     Jerome glared at her for a moment before he flopped  on to the floor. "He's glad we're alright," he grumbled with a loud obnoxious groan, "he wants us to get back ASAP."

     "Woah." River's jaw dropped, "that's it? He just wants us back at camp? No extra field trip? No last minute errand? Was he running a fever when you talked to him?"

"Did he seemed like he'd been possessed by a demon?" Camille added.

     Jerome stared at her blankly for a minute before he heaved a sigh of long suffering. "Cami, darling, we've talked about this. I'm calling for an intervention. This is getting out of hand, and frankly, I'm concerned for you."

     "What in the name of Hades are you talking about?" Camille arched her eyebrow.

     "Your addiction to summoning demons!" Jerome sat up. "I know it seems like a good idea at first, but it never ends well. It's going to be hard, but we'll help you. We'll hide the salt and the candles, you can quit cold turkey-"

     A water bottle came out of nowhere and pegged Jerome in the center of his forehead. He let out a shriek and fell back to the floor, clutching his head with a groan.

     "Bull's-eye!" Richard laughed, looking at Camille. She smirked and turned around in her seat again.

     "Monica isn't the only one with killer aim. Let's go, child!"

     Richard didn't need to be told twice. He was just as eager to get back to Camp Half-Blood as everyone else, maybe slightly more so. He had one last week before all the crazy happened. One last week of his last year of camp before he moved permanently back to the U.K. Auror training was going to be a breeze after eight years of monster hunting. And dealing with any sort of criminal was going to be a piece of cake compared to dealing with Jerome. 

     "I'm dying!" Jerome wailed from the back, "she killed me!"

Monica flipped the radio on. "What?! We can't hear you!" Up went the volume, the radio scanning the area for stations before it settled on one. 

     "I said-"

     "WHAT?!"

Richard and Camille exchanged a look before they both laughed loudly, Richard turning it up again in order to drown both of them out. Yeah. Auror training was going to be an incredibly light and fluffy piece of cake compared to all of this. But gods would he miss it.