[REVISED]
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First Day at Hogwart.
Monday, September 1st, 2011.
Piper's body jerks up in her bed, her skin covered with goosebumps. Her eyes scan the room and, satisfied that she won't be attacked, lets out a shuddering breath.
Beside her, snug under the comfort of her blanket, rests Hazel who's facing the opposite of Piper. Piper looks up, eyes narrowing, unable to see past the bed because of the darkness.
Rubbing her temple, Piper swings her feet over the side of the bed, feet touching the cool floor, sending shivers down Piper's spine. Flashes of her dream come back to her, claws at her throat, a witch's hand on her forearm, a look of worry on her face. Piper sucks in a breath and winces, mind racing after the memory of her dream. Alas, her mind is like a blanket of fog, her mind grasping at strings.
Piper gets to her feet, the cold floor creaking under her weight. It's probably nothing important then.
The thought rests uneasily in her mind.
What woke her up?
Looking around, her eyes land on the clock on the counter between the two beds.
She steps towards it, the glow of the number blinding her. Putting her hands up to shield herself, she spies the number through her fingers.
7:00 AM.
"I guess I should be getting ready," Piper whispers to herself. As she turns away, she catches the smell of smoke.
Eyebrows raising in surprise, Piper turns to face the window, eyes latching onto the light streaming through the curtain. Piper hesitates for a minute before lightly making her way towards the window, the floor creaking under her.
She moves the curtain away and immediately, light erupts into the room, temporarily blinding her. Behind her, she hears Hazel groan. Piper's vision returns a second later and she blinks away the tiny dots across her vision. Piper's eyes narrow onto the streets of Diagon Alley.
Her eyes follow the movement of a small crowd up until she sees a fire overtaking a crumbling building. Her eyes follow the fire, which turns to smoke that covers the sky.
"Pipes?" She hears Jason's groggy voice come from behind her.
Piper jumps and spins around, the curtain returning to its place.
"Yeah?"
"What're you doing?"
"Getting ready," Piper says.
"It's 7:00."
Jason doesn't respond so Piper believes that he's satisfied. Now facing the darkness, she starts to stumble through the room, unable to see anything after looking at the blinding light outside. Piper hits something hard and Piper looks down, her eyes following the outline of a suitcase.
She looks behind her to see Hazel's suitcase propped against the bed.
Okay, so this one over here is mine.
Reaching down, her fingers find the zipper and she gives a slight tug. The zipper doesn't move. As she grabs the zipper once more, she hears a crash, followed by an 'ow' coming from the hallway.
It triggers something inside her brain. Something from her dream.
Something, blood, flashes in her vision and Piper collapses backwards, her back slamming into the bed. Piper lets out a small gasp, going unheard to the others in the room. She can hear Jason getting into a sitting position and can practically feel his concern.
"Percy," came an exasperated sigh from the hallway.
"I blame this on you," came Percy's voice, "you're the one who woke me up early."
Annabeth's reply came fast, "maybe we want to look presentable to the others."
Percy just lets out a long sigh, as if knowing arguing with Annabeth was a lost cause.
Piper's hand return to her zipper as she hears someone step onto the floor. Peering behind her, Piper spots Jason grabbing his uniform that's laying on top of his suitcase. The two of them make eye contact for a minute. Jason breaks away and starts walking past her and into the bathroom. Piper does her best to ignore him.
As soon as Jason closes the door, the door leading to the hallway bursts open and Piper nearly jumps out her skin.
Annabeth walks through the door, her grey eyes taking in the room. Piper looks down from Annabeth's face to see her wearing her school uniform, with her robes hanging from her arm.
From above her, she hears Hazel's groggy voice says, "how'd you get in here?"
Piper's lips quirked upwards and thinks, good question.
"And why are you here?" Piper adds and she looks back down at her suitcase.
She tugs at the zipper and starts unzipping it. A second later, the suitcase opens.
Annabeth looks between the two girls and says," we need to get ready—you three are the last awake. The train leaves at 11 and we're leaving in thirty minutes."
"Ah, Annabeth?" Piper asks, her hands reaching for her uniform.
"Yes?"
"You do realize that it's 7:00, right?"
"Your clock is broken," Annabeth says. "I have my phone with me, just in case of an emergency."
"You didn't answer how you managed to get in here," Piper says and Annabeth groans.
"Have you not read the spellbooks? I used Alohomora to open the lock. Good thing I did or you would be racing to get ready," Annabeth explains.
"You could have told us outside the door, you know that, right?"
Annabeth doesn't respond and Piper grins.
"Or were you trying to create an excuse to use a spell?"
"Perhaps," Annabeth says and Piper can hear the smile in her voice.
Across the hallway, Percy's panicked voice came into range, "uh, Annie? Have you seen Marina? I can't find her."
Annabeth's brows squish together as she inquires, "how do you lose an owl that's in a cage?" Percy doesn't respond for a moment, but Piper can hear his feet thundering in his room, trying to locate the missing owl.
He nervously replies with, "um."
"Fun story," Percy says.
Piper grins at his response and she looks up to see Annabeth's face turn unreadable. She turns around and walks out of the door, closing it behind her as she says, "I swear to the gods."
A second later, Jason exits the bedroom, a small smile on his face. Piper is tempted to ask him what he did but decides against it. If Jason did have something to do with the missing bird, and Piper knew, she had a feeling Annabeth was going to give her a scolding she wouldn't forget.
Instead, she grabs her clothes and heads into the bathroom. In short form, she changed into her uniform, which is a bit itchy. Then, she braids her hair. She proceeds to brush her teeth and grab her robes off the counter, deciding not to wear them.
Walking out into the room, she stumbles into Hazel, who jumps at the sight of her.
"Sorry," Hazel says and races into the bathroom that Piper had come out of. Piper frowns at the closed door in front of her, wondering what's wrong with the daughter of Pluto. Somethings obviously bothering her, but Piper can't just place what's wrong.
Piper walks into the hall, where most of the demigods are waiting. Nico and Will are standing side by side, with Reyna a couple of feet from them, glancing at them with an amused smile. Curiously grows within her and she starts walking towards Reyna when one of the doors opens and Annabeth and Percy walk out.
Annabeth's expression is one of surprise and half-amusement. Percy, on the other hand, looks sheepish. "What happened?" Piper inquires, glancing between the two of them.
"Ah," Percy says, "let's just say the owner may or may not need to get a new curtain."
Piper's brows shoot up and she glances between the two of them and she notices the birdcage, with the owl inside, hanging from Percy's hands. At least they got the owl back inside the cage.
"Then we better get moving," Hazel says, walking out into the hallway.
"Let's," Percy agrees.
They make their way towards the stairs and they hear the sound of roaring laughs and happy chatter come from downstairs.
"They're probably celebrating the fact that their children are going away for a whole year," Rachel says as they head down the stairs.
"I would too," Thalia replies in short, "imagine having a kid who could set your whole house on fire with a flick of a wand?"
"If they're powerful enough, they wouldn't need a wand," Annabeth says in reply and Piper's mind immediately goes back to the fire a couple of blocks away. Did someone lose control of their magic?
When they enter the dining area—if you could call it that—they head towards the owner, who is fortunately behind the counter.
Along the way, Piper can hear the whispers from some of the people. She hears one of the people say, "did you hear about the fire that destroyed the building?"
"Yeah, I heard it belonged to one of Kahlil Shafiq's daughters," another replied.
"People say she tried to ki—"
Another flash from her dream appears; gold pours from the coffin, a fic—Piper shudders and tries to focus on the conversation. She considers herself lucky that no one seems to notice Piper's sudden shuddering.
"Have they found her yet?" The other one cuts the person up.
"No. Conspiracists say that it's the work of a death eater."
Piper raises an eyebrow, what's a death eater?
"Bah," the other says loudly.
"They're just trying to scare us. Reporters say that the fire started from a fireplace. Besides, why would a death eater go after a pureblood?"
The other didn't respond.
I know who would though, Piper thinks grimly. Another attack from the mysterious people—which Piper refers to as 'the cult.' If they're getting this bold, then we better be on high alert when we get to Hogwarts.
The owner behind the counter gives the demigods a once-over before sighing and taking the keys. They turn and walk out of the inn and into the busy street in front of them. "We won't reach the train in time," Annabeth says, her voice giving away to slight panic.
Piper peers over her shoulder to see Annabeth looking down at her phone.
Nico rolls his eyes and says, "I can shadow travel us there. Before you say anything Will, I've gone a full month without shadow travelling. I won't collapse if I use my magic." At this, Will opens and closes his mouth, as if he's unsure how to respond.
Instead, Reyna says, "we can't exactly just shadow travel in front of the wizards and witches."
Nico replies, "we can find somewhere secluded—where no one will notice us."
"How about there?" Rachel inquires, gesturing to a dark alley covered by shadows.
"That will do," Nico says and he guides them towards the alley. As soon as everyone is in the alley, Nico grabs ahold of Will's hand and Reyna's wrist and it's a chain reaction of everyone grabbing onto one another.
"You might feel sick," Nico advises. Piper opens her mouth to say something but she's flung into darkness before she could utter a word. Piper's stomach lurches and her hands grow clammy as her grip loosens on the hands holding her. One thing is for sure, Piper thinks, that's she's never going to shadow travel ever again.
She realizes that 'you might feel sick' does not prepare you at all for what happens when you shadow travel.
Then, the shadows disperse, leaving the demigods confused and stumbling into Kings Cross Station. Piper is the first to recover and glances around at the different platforms. Truth be told, she's never really been to any train station that she could visibly remember but she's certain that there aren't any quarter stations.
"Where's the platform, isn't it supposed to be 9 ¾ 's?" Thalia's voice rings out through the group as they walk towards the platforms between and 9 and 10.
"It could be a form of magic, like a passageway. I read it somewhere in one of the books," Annabeth says.
"What would we do without you, Wisegirl?" Percy says, his eyes trailing the people heading in different directions.
"Is it just me," Rachel says suddenly, drawing attention to her, "or are those people running into that wall?"
Everyone turns their heads to where Rachel is looking and by magic, there seem to be people running through a wall.
"It must be there," Annabeth says. Piper's eyes trail a boy with black hair—nearly the same as Percy's—run through a brick wall. None of the mortals seem to notice the unusual event, and the people that accompanied the boy didn't even blink an eye.
"I saw her at Diagon Alley," Hazel says, popping up beside Piper, who jumps.
"Where did you come from?" Piper questions quietly.
Hazel laughs and says, "the pros of being short."
"Well, there's only one way to find out if it's the way to the train," Reyna says. Before anyone can stop her, the daughter of Bellona strolls over the older woman, who's probably the mother.
The mother's eyes are on the girl with long red hair, who is preparing for her run across. A short second later, the girl disappears into the platform.
The demigods follow Reyna, albeit at a slower pace. "Excuse me. Ma'am, but is this place," Reyna waves her hand vaguely at the wall the redhead had just gone through. Apparently, Reyna forgot what it's called.
The mother smiles at her and says, "the entrance to platform 9 ¾?"
Reyna nods and says, "thank you. We're a bit confused."
Beside Percy, Annabeth lets out a breath of relief.
They found the station in time.
The other demigods make it to Reyna, who's looking at the wall in confusion and suspicion. The mother turns to a younger man with red hair and says, "Ron, will you show them the way through? I'm sure you want to, dear."
"Sure, Mum," Ron says, looking a bit tired.
The mother turns to the demigods and says, "now, all you have to do is watch him. If you feel nervous going through, just run more confidently through. Go ahead, Ronald."
Ron makes a noise at the back of his throat at the use of his full name in front of a bunch of strangers. Without glancing behind him, his fingers wrap around the cart he holds and he rams into the wall. Piper spots Annabeth flinch from where she stands and Piper can understand why.
"It still feels like its the first time seeing your kid go through," the mother says.
She glances back at Reyna and says, "now your turn dear."
Reyna knits her brows together and glances once at the wall before sighing. "Thank you, miss..." Reyna trails off, unsure of what to call her.
"Weasley," the woman replies kindly. Reyna thanks her again and turns back to her cart. Her eyes narrow towards the wall for a minute before taking the cart in both hands. Before she can think about what she's about to do, Reyna runs towards the wall. She goes straight through it.
"She didn't even look scared," a boy says from behind Mrs. Weasley. The boy—around his early twenties—holds two pages of paper in his hands, and he's missing—he's missing an ear. Piper forces herself to look at Mrs. Weasley, who looks like she's seen a ghost.
Mrs. Weasley glances back at her son, her mouth pursed, looking ready to berate him for either disappearing and appearing suddenly, or for scaring her. For the boy's credit, he didn't look scared under his mother's glance.
Piper looks back at the group of demigods only to find some are missing. "Where'd the others go?"
Annabeth turns to her and says, "most of them went through already, not wanting the nerves to get the best of them." Piper frowns and turns her attention to Hazel and Rachel, who eyes the wall skeptically.
Piper sighs and says, " it looks like they aren't willing to go just yet, so I guess that means that I'm going." Not letting herself be distracted, she grabs the handles of the cart and runs through the wall. She tenses as she finds herself on the other side, onto to platform 9 ¾s.
Sighing, Piper walks towards the train, watching some of the muggle-borns doing double-takes as she walks by. She glances at the entrance of the train, then her cart in front of her. "I'm guessing that you leave this behind," Piper mutters to herself.
Without taking a look behind her, she steps onto the train. She grabs the door leading to one of the aisles and opens it. She steps through and the sound of chattering students and the smell of something burning can be found. She starts walking down the aisle, her eyes glancing through the windows to the people aboard the train already. She passes a kid whose robe is on fire and is yelling spells to try to disperse the flames.
She passes windows that had people playing board games, eating snacks if their life depended on it and kids who look like they're going to throw up. In all, most of the seats are filled to the brim with people and those that aren't—well, they look like they needed time alone and Piper didn't have the heart to bother them. Especially if she was supposed to have to be in the same spot for the whole train ride.
Eventually, she makes it to the end of the aisle and glances through one of the windows. A girl with short black hair and a boy with slicked-back blond hair sitting across from each other, look bored out of their minds. Piper glances between this door and the other doors before sighing to herself. She hasn't been this unsure in her life.
She hears Chiron's voice in her head, saying, "protect the students. That is your mission. Befriend them too. They'll be looking for purebloods to take." Judging by the way they look and act (and sitting alone), it seems to Piper that these two kids are Purebloods.
Rolling her shoulders back, she opens the door and two heads snap up in her direction.
"Mind if I sit here?" Piper asked innocently, I am not going to leave if they say no. There's nowhere else to sit. Both of them glance at her as if she has amnesia.
"Do you know who we are?" The blond inquires and by the tone of his voice, Piper guesses he's rather shocked than appalled.
"Nope," Piper says and she brings out her hand, "Piper McLean, I'm a transfer student from Ilvermorney."
A shift from the boy gives away a dark tattoo inked into his skin at his arm. Are wizards and witches not supposed to have a tattoo? Is it against their religion or something?
"Besides," Piper says, "there's only two of you here and I'm not going to waste another thirty minutes of my life trying to find another open seat."
The blond seems reluctant but the girl speaks up and says, "I saw the way those mu- muggle-borns look at you—are you a celebrity or something in their world?"
Piper purses her lips together and says, "my dad's an actor in America."
The girl looks ready to reply when the blond says, "you can sit with us, as long as you don't bother us." Piper glances at the blonde and wonders, what's up with him?
"Well, I told you my name. You guys should at least tell me yours," Piper says, taking a seat beside the girl, albeit a bit further away.
The girl doesn't seem to notice and says, "Pansy Parkinson."
She turns to the boy and says, "yours?"
"Draco Malfoy."
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Annabeth boards the train with Percy, glancing around the aisle for open compartments. Annabeth looks through the windows as her mind swirls with questions. As she passed some, she can hear a louder voice says "transfer students are weird" and "I didn't think anyone would their children here after the war. I would think it'd be safer in America."
Annabeth snickers at that comment, if they knew they wouldn't be saying that. After minutes of walking down different aisles, Annabeth and Percy soon realize the place is filled with students. They'd be lucky if they're able to sit together.
A couple of minutes go by and Annabeth sees Hazel, Rachel, and Thalia head into a compartment with the redhead from earlier, a boy with a frog and a girl with long blonde hair. Annabeth later sees Jason, Will, and Nico's head into an empty compartment, which is probably for the best.
This left Annabeth, Percy and Reyna with nowhere to go. They make it to the back of the train and are relieved to find some empty spots left. They enter a mort quiet compartment, which has three people in it.
"Is there enough for three more?" Annabeth inquires politely and all three heads snap up and she can see two badges on the brown-haired girl's uniform and the redhead's.
"Sure," says the boy with black hair. Annabeth gives him a short thanks before shifting to sit beside the brown-haired girl. She looks up for a minute and nudges a bit closer to Ron to give Annabeth room.
"There weren't any more compartments available," Annabeth says, "trust me, we searched the whole train."
The boy—Ron, Annabeth realized—choked his food and says, "that's bloody commitment."
Across from Annabeth, Reyna and Percy take their seat beside the boy with black hair. Ron seems to realize something because he narrows his eyes suspiciously at the three of them like he's going to find out their top-secret plan.
The train is quiet for a minute before the girl with bushy hair says, "we're prefects if you're wondering about the badge. Since there's not really supposed to be these many prefects, we've got the ability to sit in our compartments."
"You guys don't look familiar. We haven't seen you guys at Hogwarts in the last six years. You guys aren't from around here, are you?" Ron asks, and the brown-haired girl sighs.
Reyna raises her eyebrows. Percy snorts and says, "yeah. We're from Mars. It was a bit cramped so we came to earth to chill for a while."
Annabeth proceeds to kick Percy under the table. Sighing, Annabeth says, "we're transfer students from America. Percy's just teasing you."
Ron raises an eyebrow and says, "well, we can't really trust strangers for no reason, you know?"
"Yeah, why did you turn so hostile?" Annabeth inquires, crossing her arms.
Ron sighs and says," I saw the tattoo on him—"
"It's Percy."
"And I— "
"You guys have something against tattoos. That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Percy says, his eyes twinkling.
Ron sputters for a quick second before he says, "death eaters have the death mark—a tattoo of a snake."
"Well," Percy says, rolling up his sleeve to reveal his SPQR tattoo, "I am happy to let you know that I am no 'death eater.'"
"That's a roman tattoo," the brown-haired girl says, her gaze sharp.
"What can I say? I'm a fan of Rome," Percy says easily.
"I think we should introduce ourselves," Annabeth says, shooting Percy a glance, "I'm Annabeth Chase."
She turns to Percy and says, "my boyfriend, Percy Jackson."
"Reyna Arellano in short," Reyna says, her eyes lingering on the witch and wizards in the room.
"Well," the girl says, "I'm Hermione Granger and this is Harry Potter."
The three of them look expectantly at the demigods as if waiting for something to happen.
When nothing happened, Ron inches back into his seat, looking disappointed and somewhat curious.
Reyna catches the mood in the air and says, "you three seem disappointed there."
Ron shrugs his shoulders in response and says, "most people would immediately gasp at Harry's name or something and then ask him a ton of questions."
"Really? Why?"
Annabeth glances at Harry again, trying to remember what Chiron told the demigods. She hears Percy's voice beside her whisper, 'so this kid defeated a noseless guy.'
"He defeated you-know-who, twice. "
"Who's you know who?"
Ron looked aghast and Annabeth mentally facepalms. She gives Percy a sharp look and mouths the words 'Voldemort.'
Percy gives her a confused glance. "Voldemort," Harry says and Annabeth can hear the amusement in Harry's tone.
"Back in America, we don't really hear about the news from other magical communities. When we did, Voldemort was referred to as 'The Dark Lord' or 'Voldemort,'" Annabeth says.
"I think we were taught about the war back in America, but I'm not that good at listening."
"It's alright," Harry says after a minute, "It's refreshing to find people who haven't heard about me—or heard my name before."
Percy nods his head, as if agreeing, I understand what you mean.
They begin a steady rhythm of exchanging words, sometimes the conversation lasted 5 minutes and sometimes it lasted 20. Soon, the hours passed by and the train soon arrived at Hogwarts.
Climbing up the steps, Annabeth takes a peek at the towering castle above her. Her eyes move over every inch of the building, her mind going over the style of architecture. Was this made by mortal hands, or by magic? Perhaps it included a bit of both.
Annabeth nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears a familiar voice to her right said, "the castle had to be renovated last year when Voldemort came back."
Her eyes glance back to the castle for the minute before she continues, "the battle nearly destroyed the castle, but we managed to fix it up."
Then, Hermione's mood shifts and proudly says, "before that, the castle has been standing strong for over 1000 years."
"1000 years," Annabeth repeats, her mind buzzing. "That—that is—how?"
She stumbles over the words as her mind tries to comprehend how this castle survived ugly battles and such over that many years. She wouldn't think too deeply of it, weren't it for the magic users who reside behind its walls. How many parts of this place had been destroyed because one kid wasn't able to control their magic?
She feels a tug at her wrist and she looks up to see Percy glancing at her with amusement. "Don't get her started on architecture, she won't be able to stop," Percy says, grinning. Hermione lets out a laugh and says," good to know."
Together, the three of them enter the great hall after climbing stairs upon stairs. Annabeth looks up to see Hermione waving the group goodbye as the witch went to sit at the Gryffindor table. Annabeth tugs herself closer to Percy as more wizards and witches emerge into the great hall and going to their respective tables.
Soon, the candles above start to dim and a shiver runs down Annabeth's spine. Annabeth looks up to the front of the Great Hall, where the headmistress stands in front of a podium, her eyes narrow and calculating.
"As you know," the Headmistress begins, "this year will be no different from the ones before. We shall start out evening by welcoming our new students to Hogwarts - by sorting them into their houses."
She waits a minute before continuing, "as you can see, we have some older students amongst the first years. For the first time in over twenty years, we're allowing transfer students to arrive at Hogwarts—from America."
A silence grows over the students as they glance towards the Americans, who all look awkward. A second later, whispers break into the groups and Annabeth has a sneaking suspicion that they were taking bets to what Hogwarts house they would be in.
"Before we begin, I would like to announce that we have two new professors joining our ranks. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is unavailable at the moment. Mrs. Niles is the new muggle studies professor," the Headmistress says.
At the mention of her name, a young woman in her late twenties stands up and bows her head. With dark brown skin that compliments her robes, her brown hair is tied into a bun and Annabeth can't make out any more noticeable features from so far away.
A second later, the Muggle Studies teacher takes a seat. "As a set of rules for everyone to abide," the Headmistress says and Annabeth swears the woman glanced directly towards where Hermione and her friends sat, "no night time wandering, you will lose points from your house if you do. You are not to enter the forbidden forest at any time. You are not outside of school grounds at any time without a teacher. Most importantly," the woman says, "no spells or hexes should be used against one another. It may lead to being expelled."
"On with the sorting then," the headmistress says, "let the hat have its song, then we shall begin."
To say that Annabeth was surprised would be an understatement. For one thing, hats shouldn't be able to talk, let alone sing. Yet, here she is, listening to a hat sing about the four founders and how Hogwarts came to be. The last part had turned ominous fast, signing about something 'not being the end.' No one seemed to mind the ominous warning and the rational part of her told her that the hat probably says that all the time.
Annabeth glances at the hat once it had finished singing, and she had felt like this isn't going to be the last time she would feel utterly surprised while staying here. She watches the headmistress making her way to the stool that sits the hat and bring out a scroll.
"Abbiestion, Jennifer," the headmistress says loudly. One of the girls startles for a second, unsure of what to do. One of the girls nearby nudges her forward and the girl hesitantly makes her way toward the hat.
The young girl sits on the stool and the hat gets place onto her.
A second later, the hat roars, "SLYTHERIN."
The voice makes Annabeth jump in surprise, her heart nearly flying out of her chest. This is definitely surprising, Annabeth thinks to herself.
Annabeth watches the kid run off to the table to the far left, which is cheering loudly at their member. Almost like when a child gets claimed, Annabeth thinks to herself, remembering when all her half-siblings cheered for her when the glowing sign of Athena appeared above her head.
I wonder what house I'm going to be in.
Prior Word Count: 2580 words.
Current Word Count: 4985 words.