Third-Person PoV: The Great Lake, Break:
Lou Ellen let her hands run through the grass near the banks of the lake. She was anxiously waiting for the other demigods to come from their lesson, the Slytherins amongst them hadn't mentioned what Draco, Blaise, and Pansy had told them at breakfast to most of the others. She tugged at the grass strands, feeling some of the magic from the ground humming against her skin, a soft grin melted onto her lips, one thing that Lou Ellen would definitely miss about Hogwarts is the magic that had soaked into the ground for centuries greeting her like an old friend when she beckoned it to. It felt very much unlike the magic she would feel at home at Camp Half-Blood, it was a different kind, younger and more malleable than the old magic of the gods yet not quite as robust, more prone to mishaps, but all the same, it was delightful and seemed to fill her with energy that fizzled in her bones.
"Whatcha thinking 'bout Lou?" Travis strolled over, Annabeth and Rachel chatting a few steps behind the son of Hermes.
"The magic in the environment at Hogwarts is different from the one at home, it makes it feel like my bones are gonna jump right out of my body." She giggled and wriggled around where she was sitting.
"It is," Hazel hummed in agreement, "Nico and I feel as if the ground almost has a conscious of its own in the Castle, like all the magic over the centuries has soaked into the Castle and given it a sentient personality."
"That's pretty cool," Rachel pulled out some grass as she settled down onto the grass.
"I wonder how sentient it is?.... Do you think Hogwarts can... re-arrange itself?" Annabeth asked.
"You mean like make new rooms or new corridors?" Travis questioned.
"We could try this weekend! Run a few tests to see how the castle responds." Lou Ellen clapped her hands together. Ideas and thoughts ran through her head rapidly, and possible tests and experiments that could be conducted- she should write them down. The daughter of Hecate reached inside her bag to pull out a small notebook that she kept for spells, experiments, and tests, she pulled a pen loose from her black locks and pressed it to a clean page. Wait. What was she going to write down again? A scowl built upon her face as she stuffed it back into her bag with a huff.
"Forgot what you were going to write down?" Hazel asked Lou Ellen who reluctantly nodded.
Connor snorted as he sat next to his older brother, "Fucking mood! Who hasn't forgotten something just as it was in their head."
"I couldn't help but notice that the Slytherin's have been on edge since breakfast. Anything our fellow snakes would like to tell us about?" Leo flopped down onto the grassy banks of the Great Lake and gave everyone a bright smile.
"They're going to have a House meeting after dinner, if we weren't used to people organizing secret meetings we would've never guessed." Travis waved a hand sarcastically. He would admit that the Slytherin's were much more subtle than other Houses, most likely due to their upbringing but then again wizards were anything but subtle.
"So are we gonna crash their meeting?" Clarisse started sharpening the head of her spear with her whetting stones, "Or are we gonna spy on them?"
Annabeth snorted, "Of course we are going to spy on them, if we just turned up they would just try and play it off and not even go on with the meeting. Our best bet is that they'll give us more intel on Voldemort and how exactly it affects them."
"Most of Voldemort's wizard allies would be some of the older years, a lot of his Death Eaters are still in Azkaban, I'd say in Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The Wizarding Community does seem to forget that Ravenclaw is the house that produces nearly just as many Dark Wizards as Slytherin, that'll be their downfall if they just keep assuming they're all in Slytherin." Reyna mused.
"True. I don't think we can get the school to fully come together though." Nico played with the skeleton of a mouse he had summoned.
"Really? I thought it was going along well." Thalia furrowed her eyebrows at her younger/older cousin, the dark-haired boy gently shook his shaggy head.
"We kind of discussed the prejudice with Draco, Blaise, and Pansy. We won't quite get the whole picture until tonight, but I can understand it's a muddle of how their mindset is. None of them has completely changed, the rest of the school is just too blind to see that it's a carefully sculpted mask, many of them of developed a begrudging respect for muggles, some still hate them but are hiding it. It will take some time for them to see muggles as equals, maybe even years and still some might not even respect muggles at all. It'll prove to be an issue if we want the Houses to unite at all." They sat in silence after Nico's short monologue.
"I don't really think it matters much if we change their mindset right now," Clovis mumbled.
"What? But th-that would just be in the way of uniting them." Pollux stumbled over his words, he waved his hands about in confusion.
"I think what Clovis means is that we need them to be united enough to fight a war as a unit, it doesn't matter if a lot of their beliefs are different or if their reason for going against Voldemort is opposing, as long as they can come together and not need to ask us for help when the time for War comes then they should be able to fight." Percy was rocking about with his legs crossed.
"Let's just hope they let go of their prejudice of Slytherin's enough to actually work than start petty arguments." Nico snorted, "The number of times people have thought I was a Slytherin and then see my scarf, like do I fit the stereotype that much?"
Will looked him up and down with a contemplative look on his face, "Well... you kinda do, dark, mysterious and gloomy, just right." He winked at the son of Hades who glared at him with a light blush worn upon his face.
"And you fit the stereotype of a Hufflepuff as well, now if the wizards ever walked into an infirmary with you they'd think otherwise." He poked Will in the shoulder who poked him back, the couple then beginning an all-out finger-stabbing battle.
The edge of Leo's lip quirked up, "Now that sounds like a start of a joke. A wizard, witch, and a Solace walk into an infirmary..." He trailed off dramatically waving a hand in the air, he caught eyes with Piper and Jason for a few seconds before they dissolved into laughter, the latter failing in covering up his laughter. Reyna cleared her throat just as new conversations began to start popping up.
"...Let's finish what we were talking about before we get off task," murmurs of agreement fell from the demigod's lips. "Who should go and watch?" Nico raised his hand but Will immediately pushed it back down.
"Me and Travis could sneak in and out of the common room easily without being seen." Connor absently said, twirling blades of grass around his fingers.
"Travis and I, anyone else want to accompany them? Knowing these imps they'll play ghost with them and we'll end up not learning anything." Clarisse jabbed a thumb at the brothers who flipped the bird up at their comrade, she sneered at them, reaching for a dagger hidden in the sleeve of her robe, Butch laid a hand on her shoulder and tightened his grip, she lowered her hand and the hand retracted from her shoulder.
"I think I'll tag along too, I already know some good places to hide in the common room, and I can hide us if we're caught too." Lou Ellen twirled a hand in the air, and swirls of green floated off her fingertips.
"I think three is a pretty good number," Thalia smirked.
Dinner at the Great Hall...
Travis spooned some cut quail eggs into his mouth and downed them with a gulp from his goblet that was filled with κυκεών, a mixture of barley gruel, water, herbs and goat cheese. κυκεών usually had wine mixed in it with water but they were all underage at camp so they were banned from drinking it mixed with the alcohol. Naturally, Travis took that as a challenge and disobeyed those rules, and boy was the change nice.
"Excuse me, is that a... smoothie?" Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin seventh year asked, Travis, swirled the liquid in the goblet around and pursed his lips.
"Not quite, it's κυκεών, a drink that has been drunk in Greece since ancient times." Adrian nodded and allowed a small smile to grace his lips.
"It's nice that you still respect your old ways, nowadays society doesn't quite uphold that not all traditions are necessarily bad, it's nice to look back at what we once were and still be able to celebrate it, even if it's through food."
"Oh." Travis took another gulp from the goblet, swallowed the drink down, and set it back on the table, he went back to his meal of lentil soup, quail eggs, and bread with cheese spread over the top. "I'm guessing that there are some traditions that you want to celebrate but everyone will assume that you're a blood supremacist?" Adrian nodded his head, a flush spread across his cheeks as he nodded his head.
"I'm pretty sure that everyone who isn't a Slytherin just assumes that we're blood supremacists, the vast majority actually aren't it's just that many of us value some of the old ways, we like to know where we come from and be connected to our ancestors."
"I've noticed that since we've been here." Travis nodded in understanding. Adrian looked alarmed and gave a quick glance at the Gryffindor table in suspicion.
"People have been... rude to you?" The tone of his voice sounded like a cross between disbelief and apprehension.
"Not directly, they've hinted at it, but they most likely didn't wish to be rude because of who my family is. I don't think anyone wants to be known as the student who upset the American Royal family causing the relationship between Wizarding Britain and America to be ruined." The son of Hermes took a swig from his goblet, forcing traces of amusement and disinterest to interweave into his words.
"Precisely, I won't lie that House conflicts have been few and far between this year, it'll probably be back to what it was like last year but I won't even be here so I'm glad." A laugh left his lips, his eyes were downturned and the smile on his face seemed to also drag it down.
"Out of curiosity, what is the relationship between the Houses truly like. We sort of have rivalries between our cabins at home, mostly for a game we play every Friday where we form two teams and put all of our skills to the test. But bad blood between cabins lasts no longer than a week at most, I suppose you could compare it to that of siblings, we fight, we argue but no matter what we'll always have each other's backs."
Adrian's lips stretched thin and his eyes narrowed as his head lowered breaking their eye contact, Travis took another sip from his soup as the silence settled between them. "That sounds nice, I wish Hogwarts was like that. Before you came we weren't," he paused biting the inside of his cheek and dragging a finger on the wood of the table, "we weren't nice, we bullied a lot of the students that were Muggleborn, Halfbloods or who we believed that brought shame onto their Pureblood name. Halfway through last year, we had a bit of a reality check, even more at the end of the year, the world around us was changing, and we were acting like immature brats that were clinging onto the past in the wrong way." His eyes met Travis's again, "If we wanted to still acknowledge celebrations like the Solstice's, May Day, and All Hallows' Day without seeming bigotted we needed to withdraw ourselves and correct ourselves as much as we can."
"That's quite mature of you all, it's definitely good that you're acknowledging your past actions and looking at the consequences, have you perhaps apologized to all the students you were unfair to?" Travis finished his soup and went back to consuming his quail eggs.
"Not many of us have, I think... we just want to have fully understood why we were in the wrong, we want to feel sincere about it you know?" Travis nodded in agreement.
The two Slytherin's went back to their meals, Adrien had polished off his stew that had potatoes, pumpkin, beef, and carrots in it while Travis had promptly finished off his quail eggs and was now moving on to his bread and cheese. It was halfway through dinner in the Great Hall and many of the students had finished their meals and were now starting to leave.
"Do you think some of you are too scared to give an apology?"
"Pardon?" Adrien looked up again at the Marquess.
"I think that some of you haven't apologized as you are afraid, perhaps not of actually going to those who you've hurt but needing to actually acknowledge the past and fully come to terms with it. Those who you have done wrong now represent a past that you no longer wish to think about and having to go back to those people will open up the unacceptable things you have done." Adrien bowed his head and placed his cutlery on his plate, the knife crossed over the fork, and his adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed.
"You're right. Sometimes I think that not even an apology will make up for what we've done, actions speak louder than words but at times words can help with closure, if we apologize then we can all get some closure yet we don't have the backbone or are willing to step down from our high horse to do it."
"You're doing a good job though, less than a year and you're on the verge of giving a well-deserved apology. A lot of progress has been made in yourselves as people, it takes a lot to change the very person that you are. Take your time but not too long." A grin slipped onto Adrien's lips his lips opened to give a response but he was halted by someone walking up behind him and tapping him on the shoulder.
"Sorry for the intrusion but Adrien and I need to go, we have business to attend to." Cassius Warrington looked at Travis, the brunette allowed a charming smile to grace his face.
"It's no problem, I needed to go meet up with my brother, our parents are expecting another letter soon."
Adrien got up from the table and straightened his uniform. "Thanks for listening to me Travis, you gave me some excellent advice."
Travis laughed and held a hand out to Adrien, "That's what friends are for right?" Adrien gripped his hand firmly and shook it.
"You're a good friend to have." Travis watched him walk out with Cassius, the Slytherin table was slowly starting to empty, the other Houses still hadn't noticed that they all seemed to be leaving the Great Hall quicker than usual, Wizards sure were oblivious at times for being so dramatic. He slowly rose from his place at the table and fixed his uniform, ensuring that his tie was tightened and the cloak flowed around him loosely he leisurely walked towards the hefty doors, the other demigods glanced in his direction, giving subtle thumbs-ups and mouthing ' ἴθι χαίρων' as he met Connor at the door. Eyes fell heavy on the back of their heads, most likely eyeing up the Gryffindor and Slytherin scarves that the brothers wore. As they exited the Great Hall they switched to Greek as they passed by students on their way back to their Common Rooms.
"Φαίνεται ότι έκανες ένα νέο φίλο. (Looks like you've made a new friend)." Connor tilted his head at his older brother.
"Υποθέτω, μου έδωσε περισσότερη διορατικότητα όμως, θα πίστευες ότι έδωσα συμβουλές; (I suppose, it's given me more insight though, would you believe that I actually gave advice?)" Travis gave an over-the-top smile at Connor who in return offered a dramatic gasp.
"Ω, οι μέρες μου, δεν μπορώ να το πιστέψω. Ο Τράβις Στολ δίνει συμβουλές; Ακριβώς αυτό που έχει έρθει ο κόσμος. (Oh my days, I can't believe it. Travis Stoll giving advice? Just what has the world come to.)" His hand came up to wipe away fake tears from his eyes. Travis nudged him as they walked up a set of stairs that began to move.
"Σκάσε, μπορώ να δίνω συμβουλές όταν θέλω. (Shut up, I can give advice when I wanna.)"
"Για τι πράγμα μιλήσατε; (What did you guys even talk about?)"
"Παραδόσεις, πώς βλέπει το σπίτι τους και πώς αντιμετωπίζουν την αλλαγή από το τελευταίο ακαδημαϊκό έτος. (Traditions, how their house is viewed and how they've coped with change since the last academic year.)" Travis shrugged. "Θα σου εξηγήσω περισσότερα αργότερα, ή ανάλογα με το πόσο ξύπνιοι είναι όλοι αύριο. (I'll explain more later, or depending on how awake everyone is tomorrow.)"
"Well, you better remember it cause we'll have a lot to remember after this Αποστολή. (mission)" Lou Ellen walked up behind them with her arms crossed, they whipped around, Travis reaching for his weapon, Connor's hands reached out to the younger girl, fist already tight around her wrist, Travis's hand full with his dagger already on its way to nestle in her stomach, Connor's other hand coming up to her throat to-
They both stopped staring at her for a second before they frantically withdrew. Connor couldn't quite gorge what expression the daughter of Hecate had worn upon her face.
"We're so sorry Lou! We didn't mean to-"
"It's alright," she waved them off as she turned around, "I should've known better than to sneak up on one of us." She turned around to face the two brothers, her lips stretched wide, her body bounced on the balls of her feet. "I know an entrance where we can sneak in unnoticed, come on let's go!"
ἴθι χαίρων means have a good journey or bon voyage (or I sure hope it does)I'm gonna upload the side series within this crossover within the next week, there'll be no regular updates to it but it will mostly be composed of missing scenes or explaining things that need to be explained.