"If you ride that train to the end of the line
Where the sun don't shine and it's always shady
It's there you'll find the king of the mine
Almighty Mr. Hades!"

---

Song: Road to Hell, Cast of Hadestown

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III - Scarlett and Steam

Late August

---

September 1st came like a sudden wind to the demigods, and before they knew it, they were in London, at its main station, Kings Cross St. Pancras, ready to depart to their destination in the highlands.

They found the place they would enter the platform easily enough, arriving very early to avoid large crowds of wizards, which had become a very good idea after they travelled to the place known as Diagon Alley to get their school supplies.

It had been earlier in the morning when they had gone, desperate to not find themselves lost in large groups of wizards quite yet. And the day had gone rather well, at first.

First, they'd all gone to the robe shop to get fitted for their uniforms. The tailor, having been informed of their arrival by the headmaster, had taken them in, and once they were all done, told them to come back the next day to pick up their robes. Then, they'd split into groups, each one tasked to tackle one of the things on their supply list.

Annabeth, Percy, Reyna and Thalia had gone to the bookshop to get their books, and that's when the day started going downhill. All of them dyslexic, it took a rather long time to even find the books they needed.

Then they'd received grumbles about them holding up the line, having bought twelve copies of each book, for the nine classes they needed to take. The shopkeep had been cheery and polite, but the wizards behind them weren't happy to be waiting in line for well over ten minutes.

Hazel had rather good luck getting the group two owls for whatever letters they needed to send. The owls were named Argo, after their ship, and Janus because Leo thought it would be absolutely hilarious to name the short-tempered owl after the border god.

Argo was a deep brown, with speckles of bronze and black all over her. Her eyes were a deep yellow, not unlike Hazel's gold. Janus was a black owl, with white spots on his face and near his talons. He took a strange liking to none other than Percy, seemingly indifferent that he an owl, the bird of Athena, was cuddling up to a song of Poseidon, her sworn enemy.

Frank had gotten the cauldrons, but returned angry, insisting that the shopkeep hated him, and had made his very simple job much harder than it needed to be.

They got a quick meal at a restaurant in the alley, then set off for more things.

Hazel had gotten the potion supplies and ran into a foul-tempered man, with silver-blonde hair, who kept trying to make conversation with her and seemed very very curious about her.

They'd gotten the rest of their supplies, but the main hiccup of the day had arisen when they stopped at the ice cream parlour for some well-deserved ice cream.

A large group of giggling girls had entered the shop, almost immediately noticing, to no one's surprise, Jason and Percy. Percy, to even less surprise, didn't notice the girls as they giggled and pointed, too absorbed in a conversation with Calypso and Annabeth to even notice or care.

Jason, and Piper as well, did notice, however.

Jason ducked his head, pulling his Camp Jupiter sweatshirt over his head, turning away from the group to join a conversation, and spare himself from the embarrassment. Piper just watched the girls, her eyes shifting between dark browns and reds until the girls stopped the chatter.

The incident wasn't the worst thing they'd dealt with, but the giggles and high pitched chatter of the girl did annoy all of them tenfold. It was so jarring, seeing kids be kids, so uncommon in the world of the gods. Immaturity was allowed in their world. It was only a matter of how long that could last. This entire world as a whole was young and immature. Snide glands and words were heard all over Diagon Alley. It seemed that everyone hated everyone.

But now in Kings Cross, they reached the pillar, and unsure as to the magic or hiddenness of the entrance, Hazel volunteered to go last, manipulating the mist around them as they entered.

She closed her eyes and thought.

The mist came to her, and she warped it, making it seem like they had never been there. She attempted to make so if there were wizards in the area, they would be able to see through her illusions, hoping for no confusion.

She didn't know if it worked, but once her friends were all gone, she stepped into the wall, letting her illusions fall. She came through the other side and stopped, taking in the world she had stepped into.

The platform was practically empty, maybe ten other wizards on the platform. There was a great Scarlett train waiting, and she assumed that was how they would get to the school.

"Well," Percy said, eyeing the train, "Shall we?" He gestured to a door nearby, one that would allow them access to the train.

Nods passed, no one quite sure what to say. Some of them were missing a year of college for this quest. But additionally, this was their first quest in almost three years, and the anxiety was high.

It didn't help that they were now in unfamiliar bodies.

They were all shorter, slightly less muscled, much more youthful than they were a week prior. The greatest change was in Percy and Annabeth, who looked eerily like they had when she had first met them. An angry red scratch was missing from the side of his face.

They boarded the train, looking for a compartment that could fit them all. They found a large one at the back of the train, large enough to fit the group of twelve rather comfortably, along with their luggage.

They each had packed two trunks, one mainly for clothing and the other for their supplies and books. The trunks were all rather large, but the contents in them didn't seem to fill them up all the way.

That was because their trucks, all twenty-four of them, had been made to have false bottoms. Below these false bottoms, sat supplies to keep their weapons sharp, tools to make greek fire and any other explosive, their weapons, first aid supplies, and most of all, a compact set of armour, just in case.

The armour, charmed by the Hecate cabin, was able to be shrunk down by the press of a button, allowing it to fit in the luggage. If they were to press the button again, the armour would return to its normal size.

That wasn't the only gadget they had on hand. Chiron had been wary of an attack against them, and unsure as to the safety of the world so he'd asked Annabeth and Leo to put their heads together and come up with a light, portable weapon.

They came up with a rather awesome pair of boots. At a command word, which was decided on by the wearer, a blade would come out of the sole of the boot, on both ends. Depending on the command used, it would be either foot, along with an assortment of metals. Each boot had a steel blade set, a Celestial Bronze set, and an Olympian Silver set, should they run into any werewolf.

Nico and Hazel also had Stygian Iron blades in their boots, charmed to send the victims soul straight to the underworld, not unlike Nico's blade.

Chiron's wariness and protectiveness of them may have been a bit overbearing and concerning, but it was because of that they were entering the school not only heavily armed but able to access blades in seconds if need be.

Leo wasn't allowed to wear his toolbelt, to the dismay of him, but Percy had riptide on hand, easily accessible. Nico had his sword and his ring, Thalia had her shield and spear, and they were continuously coming up with creative ways to hide their weapons in plain sight.

A ring there, a necklace here.

But there were some less subtle, but much easier to get to backups. Each of them had been given a pair of steel daggers, to be hidden in their easy-to-hide-weapons-in robes. They were gorgeous, with polished steel blades, and handles made of black wood, and stained leather strips giving them grip.

Each of them was blessed and given names, the names of gods and the great heroes of old. Heracles did not get a blade named after him, and Jason was not planning to name one after Juno, but Chiron said it would likely be in his...best interests.

So not only did they have a mass amount of weapons on them at any given time, but they also had some comfort stemming from the blessing of their weapons. So at the back of the Hogwarts express, there seemed a group of American transfers but little did anyone know, these Americans were not what they seemed.

They were on the train, waiting as people boarded for over an hour, having arrived comically early. They glimpsed through the windows all sorts of people, like a large group of redheads, or a family of silver blondes.

Finally, at eleven o'clock on the dot, the train began to leave. Outside their door, the demigods could hear chatter and assumed people were still finding places to sit.

It was a rather high voice of a boy that caught their attention. They couldn't quite hear what he was saying, but his voice just screamed pompous and rich. Percy noticeably bristled, having had multiple run-ins with people like that his entire life.

They heard the door open and they all looked to see a teenager, standing in the doorway, enraged at the sight before him. His hair was silver-blonde, like the family they had seen on the platform, his eyes a silver-grey, noticeably more blue compared to Annabeth's.

"What are you lot doing here?" He cried, and they all knew instantly that this was the boy with the pompous voice they had heard.

It was Nico, with his arms crossed over his body, and his silver skull ring glinting in the light, that replied, his dark eyes narrowing as he did, "Minding our own business, which I'm going to assume you don't know how to do. Who the hell are you, anyway?"

The boy seemed surprised when he heard Nico's voice, "You're one of those American transfers, aren't you? And I'm Draco. Draco Malfoy." He accentuated his name, pressing importance the group didn't know.

Nico smiled, "Actually, Draco, I'm Italian."

Malfoys eyes narrowed, the hostile air around him becoming thick. "You're in my compartment."

"Don't see your name on it," Percy commented, leaning back slightly.

"I don't need my name on it, for it to be mine, Yank." he snarled.

"What is this," Percy asked, looking around the compartment, "1776?"

Malfoy straightened up, and called out, "Crabbe, Goyle."

"Calling on your lackeys, eh?" Thalia commented, "Real mature."

Draco ignored the jab as two boys, both built like high school defensive tackles, stepped forward. They levelled glares that would have probably sent anyone else scrambling, but they weren't anyone else.

The group exchanged grins, and just as one of the boys stepped forward, Percy stood up. He was well over six foot, taller than both of these, rather tall, boys, and with the brawn and glare to match.

The three boys blanched and left rather quickly, not quite running, but not walking either. As the door slammed behind them and Percy sat down, the group burst into laughter.

And as the train pressed on, they came closer to their quest.

---

IV - New

One Hour Later

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Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was having a bad day.

First, there was the stinksnap incident, and now he was stuck with Neville, Ginny, and a ditzy girl he barely knew while his two best friends paraded the hallways.

He leaned back into his chair, frustration brewing, as he finished his pumpkin pasties. His only solace was that Malfoy was yet to show.

Finally, Ron and Hermione arrived, but his good mood was soured when he saw their faces. Hermione flopped unto her chair, giving Luna a once over before giving a loud huff.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Ron rolled his eyes, opening a chocolate frog, and gesturing for Hermione to answer.

"There are two prefects for each house, boy and girl, right?" She asked, and once Harry nodded, she continued, "Take a wild guess whose Slytherins?"

Harry's stomach sank, "Malfoy?"

Hermione's face of disgust said it all, "And that girl Pansy Parkinson." Ron said as Hermione took some food.

"Hufflepuff?"

"Ernie Macmillian and Hannah Abbot," Ron said with an eye roll.

"And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw," Hermione said.

"You went to the ball with her, no?" Came the ditzy voice of Luna, looking at Ron from the top of her magazine. "She didn't enjoy it."

Ron went red, "Oh, well, um..." He trailed off. He glanced at Ginny, who was trying to contain her laughter from behind her hand.

"We're supposed to patrol the corridors," Ron said after a few minutes of quiet, "Give out punishments and such. Can't wait to snag Crabbe and Goyle for something." He continued, wist overcoming his voice.

Hermione gave him a sharp look, "You're not supposed to abuse your position!"

"Yeah, Like Malfoy won't."

"And stoop down to his level?" Hermione asked, shutting him up.

The conversation lulled, coming back up again when Ron made a joke about Goyle writing lines, which caused Luna to howl with laughter. Harry found the chance to read a rather funny article about his godfather.

After a tense exchange between Hermione and Luna, Ron spoke up, "Did you hear about the American transfers?"

Harry whirled towards his friend in surprise, "What?"

"Yeah," Hermione said, "Some American transfers. No one knows where they're from."

"Oh."

"Malfoy was talking about how he'd met them personally, and how he's known them all for months." Ron scoffed.

"Did you see them?" Neville asked.

"Only a glimpse," Hermione said, her brow furrowing as she crossed her arms, "They're staying to themselves in the back..." She trailed off as something caught her eyes in the corridor, "And there's two of them outside our door right now."

Harry looked out the window on the door and caught his first glimpse. One of them had his back to him, and all Harry could see of him was dark hair, shorn on the sides and long on top, and dark skin. But the one he could spot more of blew him away.

It was an older girl, likely in the seventh year. Her hair was blonde and pulled back into a tight ponytail. Her eyes were grey like Malfoys, but much darker and sharper, even from a distance Harry could tell that. Her skin was sun-kissed, and when she gave the other exchange a small smile, Harry had to think that he was one of the most gorgeous people had seen.

He turned away for a moment, and his eyes landed on Ginny, who was watching him curiously. For a second, he thought she was as, if not more, pretty than the girl he's seen just then, but he pushed the thoughts away quickly.

"Wonder what house they'll be in?" Hermione said, watching the two outside their door.

Ron wrinkled his nose, "Hopefully not Slytherin."

Sounds of agreement flitted around the compartment and the train pressed on.