"You know, we need a cool name for ourselves," Ginny said. They were reaching a train station, where, to the wizards' astonishment, a direct train could take them from Scotland to London.
"Like the Golden Trio," the Golden Trio referenced simultaneously.
"Yeah, but a cooler name." Ginny stuck out her tongue.
"We were literally named after a number," Percy complained, because the Golden Trio sounded cooler than the Seven.
"How about the Demizards?" Connor kissed his fingers, imitating a chef. "Sounds like a masterpiece."
Annabeth scrunched her nose. "Sounds like a lizard."
"Not like you have a better idea," Connor challenged.
"Wiz-gods," Annabeth said. She cringed immediately. "It's gross but hey, the word 'god' is there. Makes us sound powerful."
"Why are we trying to make a ship name for wizards and demigods?" Neville inquired, remembering the time a Hufflepuff had combined his and Luna's names to form Nuna.
"Yeah, the Golden Trio wasn't a ship name," Ron reminded them.
"The WD squad," Percy announced out of the blue.
"No," everyone else said.
"Who's even part of this group?" Grover questioned, because he was technically a newcomer and was neither a wizard nor demigod.
"Everyone is," Luna smiled enthusiastically. "Even if you're a witch, a demigod, a satyr or a nargle."
"What's a nargle?" Connor asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar.
"Why, they're all around us!" Luna explained briefly. "We should call ourselves the Nargle Protectors. It's cute."
"Or the Super Squad," Katie contributed.
Ginny blew a raspberry. "Cliché!"
"Orange Orangutan," Travis blurted out. "Fiery Fallout. Lame Laminators."
"Are we seriously going along with random words now?"
"The Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Squad," Travis persisted.
"That's gonna be a pain in the arse to say," Hermione noted.
"The Musty Musketeers."
"Travis, no," Annabeth said slowly, like he was a child and she a parent trying to stop her kid from eating a battery. "We're not going to let ourselves be known as musty mustketeers."
"I mean, it's not that bad of a name," Percy muttered.
"If anyone says I'm part of the Musty Musketeers, I will literally die," Annabeth deadpanned, making the rest of the Musty Musketeers to laugh at her exaggeration.
"The Summer Ditch?" Neville voiced out at last. "Summer because we met at the beginning of autumn, and because our biggest adventure yet will start in the summer."
"And ditch?"
"Demigod and witch," Neville shrugged. "Equal representation; both genders."
"I like it." Ginny clapped her hands, like the decision was final. "Also, ditch sounds like bitch. We're gonna be those bitches."
"Hades yeah," Travis whooped.
After a long journey that was too boring to document, they finally did it. They had reached the Ministry of Magic.
Well, they were outside of it, at least.
"How are we all gonna fit in?" Percy questioned, rubbing the back of his neck. They were standing by the red telephone box that would lead them into the Ministry of Magic, and to put it simply, it was not going to fit twelve people at once.
"The last time we had all six of us," Harry recounted, "and it already felt like someone was squeezing to death."
"Yep," agreed Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna.
"We could split up," Annabeth offered. "Demigods and wizards."
"What if they don't accept you guys?" Hermione said. "They might not recognise you as wizards and deny your entry."
"Then we get a mix of both," Annabeth said. "Me, Percy, Neville, Luna, Connor and Grover on one trip. Katie, Travis, Hermione, Harry, Ron And Ginny on the other."
"Okay, we'll go first?" Neville entered the telephone box, followed by the rest of his group. He dialled 62442, and a female voice echoed in the air.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."
"Uh, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Connor Stoll and Grover Underwood," Neville said, squished between Percy and Connor. "We're here to talk to Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic."
"Thank you," said the cool female voice. The bustling of streets outside the box played like soft background music. "Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."
Six badges clinked as they slid into the coin receiver. Neville grabbed them and passed them along accordingly. Shining on the badge was Neville Longbottom, Meeting with Minister.
"Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium."
Connor and Grover exchanged quizzical looks.
"Yes, thank you," Luna voiced out politely. "We're in quite the rush, so could you please move on?"
The telephone box shuddered to life like one of Leo's machines, and it began to descend deep underground, leaving the others behind.
Strangely, those left above ground could see the box heading downwards, but no one else seemed to notice.
"The Mist sure is amazing," Katie breathed. "The whole telephone box is disappearing and no one knows!"
"It's because those muggle brains can't comprehend magic," Ron said. He glanced around. The only person staring was a business woman sitting not far away; she seemed to be judging the group of teens for loitering around a telephone box.
Back in the box, Percy, Annabeth, Neville, Luna, Connor and Grover had reached the bottom. The Atrium was empty, and both Neville and Luna frowned.
This reminded them all too much of the day Sirius died.
"This is bad," Neville announced, as they stepped out of the box. A cold feeling spread across his chest. "Just wait till Harry sees this. He won't be happy."
Neville was right. Once the rest of the Summer Ditch rejoined at the Atrium, Harry shook his head.
"Why is it empty?"
"We don't know," Percy offered. He never got to hear about Dumbledore's Army's adventure on that unfortunate night, but he still knew about how Harry's god-father had passed to the Underworld here.
"No one's luring us this time, Harry," Ron assured. He placed his hand on his shoulder. "Maybe there's an important meeting going on."
"Yeah, maybe," Harry said. The last time he was here, Voldemort had purposely projected an image in Harry's mind. But this time there wasn't even a bait to take, so why did the Ministry of Magic seem empty?
"Let's hope Red- whoever he is- didn't know about our arrival in advance." Annabeth's brows knitted together in confusion. "Then how did he know to send the kobaloi?"
Percy shrugged. It was safe to say that they were all creeped out. "Let's just keep going."
And so they ventured past the hall and headed for the golden gates to the lifts. Harry reached out and pressed the "up" button closest to him, and a lift arrived to fetch them. The golden grilles slid open with a clatter, and the Summer Ditch hurried inside. Harry stared at the number nine button, where he and his friends had gone to all those years ago, before shaking himself out of his trance and pressing level one.
I miss you, Sirius, Harry thought to himself. Wish us luck.
A/N: hi uh so we hit 100k reads?? that's honestly just amazing. I know it may not seem like a lot to some, but this is just more than I could ever ask for- thank you all so much.
here's a video I took right after I found out :) (it's quite repetitive and dumb but hope y'all enjoy seeing and hearing me for the first time HAHA)