"Grace, Jason!"

Jason walked up, trying not to trip on the long hem of his dress— er, robes. "Gryffindor the brave, Hufflepuff the loyal, Ravenclaw the wise, and Slytherin the cunning" Frank's voice echoed in his mind.

He placed the wizard's hat on his head, and it drooped below his eyes. The smell was overwhelming, like a bunch of kids didn't take showers before they put the damn thing on.

"Interesting" A voice suddenly made Jason inhale sharply. "Child of Rome?"

Um... No one else hears this, right? Jason asked nervously.

"No this is personal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I just need to—"

Jason suddenly had a five second flashback of his entire life.

"Ah... I see." The hat's voice was slightly disapproving. "You're a difficult one. Process of elimination, I suppose.

"You are definitely not Hufflepuff. Not by turning your back on Rome like that. No, that's not the place for you. Nor Slytherin, the cunning. Those two are definitely out.

"Now, Ravenclaw? That'd be interesting. But, no offense, you're no child of Minerva. I suppose the only place for you is GRYFFINDOR!"

>>>•Piper POV•<<<

Piper watched as Jason's posture changed. His shoulders slumped slightly, then they straightened in defiance, then his back grew slightly stiff. All of this she would not have noticed if she didn't know him that well.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Percy grinned at Jason and they fist bumped as he walked back over.

"McLean, Piper!" The old man called.

Piper straightened her posture. The walk to the stool seemed really long, or maybe that was just her short legs talking. When she finally reached it, she had an eerie feeling that the hat was judging her.

Like Jason, the hat slipped over her eyes. A small voice echoed within the hat.

"Aphrodite's child, eh? This should be interesting."

What's that supposed to mean? She asked defiantly.

"Oh, nothing. Excuse me while I prod into your memories..."

Huh? Suddenly Piper understood as her life literally flashed before her eyes.

"Kidnapping, snow, cyclops, Mist memories, oh? What's this?" An image of when Khione appeared on the Argo II appeared before her eyes. "Very good use of your charmspeak, my dear. Well, I think this has decided it. The best place for you, is... SLYTHERIN!"

>>>•Jason POV•<<<

Jason watched anxiously as the hat took longer and longer to decide for Piper. Finally the hat opened its mouth and Jason sat tensed.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Slytherin. Numbness flooded Jason's veins. Slytherin. The douche bags. The evil house. The opposite of Gryffindor.

Annabeth tensed and looked to the silver and green table. Jason could just imagine them brainwashing Piper or maybe cursing her to do their dirty work.

Piper pulled the hat off her head and shot a sad look at Jason before heading over to the opposite side of the room.

"I'm sorry," Hazel said to Jason, before walking up to the stool. Jason didn't even hear her name being called up.

>>>•Hazel POV•<<<

Child of Venus or not, Hazel could tell Jason was upset at Piper being in the "evil" house. She hoped that Piper would at least have one other person with her.

Just put the hat on! She scolded herself. The hat slipped over her eyes.

"Oh, you have met Hecate?" The hat said fondly. "She's the one who founded us, you know. I was actually one of her son's old hats, Godric Gryffindor? Yes, the founder of one of the houses you might go to. But to figure it out, I'm going to poke into your memories."

You're really confusing for a hat. Hazel saw her life flash before her, including New Orleans and Alaska. 70 years in Asphodel zipped by in a single haze of gray. Then it was done.

"So... not Slytherin. Possibly Ravenclaw, but I don't think that would fit you. Gryffindor or Hufflepuff?"

Hufflepuff is loyalty, right?

"Hard work, patience, loyalty, and justice. It also slightly corresponds with the earth. You should know all about the earth. And I believe—" Hazel's mind flickered to when she was being judged after death, "—you also know about justice."

Right, right. So, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff?

"Hmm... Although bravery definitely defines you, I think you would do well in HUFFLEPUFF!"

>>>•Jason POV•<<<

"Hufflepuff? Isn't that like the gentle house or whatever?" Jason asked Annabeth. She frowned.

"Don't stereotype them. Hufflepuff values hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty. They are not gentle. Their mascot is a badger, and everyone knows the Honey Badger don't give a—"

"Guys, Frank's being sorted!" Percy hushed. Just then, the mouth-like rip opened and shouted...

>>>•Frank POV•<<<

"Oh, thank goodness. The last one." A small voice sighed in relief in Frank's skull.

Right... you're talking to me in my mind, aren't you. I'm kind of sick of having voices bounce around in my head, Frank thought.

"Well, let's hope I'm the last one. Now, your house. Your girlfriend Hazel's in Hufflepuff—"

The loyal

"Right. Well, Hufflepuff also value hard work, justice, and patience. To sort you, I go through your memories." Frank's mind whizzed back to the earliest memories he could remember, all the way through to right before he had walked up to the dirty hat on the stool.

"Okay. Well, you're similar to that daughter of Pluto. Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff?"

Gryffindor I can be with the rest of them. But I want to be with Hazel. So... Hufflepuff, please?

"You know, not many have requested. The last one that did was Harry Potter. I was debating between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and almost put him in Slytherin. He's in Gryffindor now, but that's not important. The point is, I take your preferences into account. And although you'd do well in Gryffindor, you are loyal to your girlfriend. So, you belong in HUFFLEPUFF!"

>>>•Jason POV•<<<

Frank beamed at Hazel before going to join her at the yellow and black table. As soon as he was seated, Professor Dumbledore, the old man with the long beard, stood up and smiled at all the students. "Now, I'm expecting you're all starving, so why don't we dive into the feast!" He clapped his hands, and food appeared on the empty plates before them.

"Dig in!" Percy elbowed Jason while trying to eat a spoonful of mashed potatoes and pile more roast beef on his plate at the same time, and somehow succeeding at all three, the multitasking maniac. "We don't have to sacrifice as Hecate is the only goddess who knows we are here. Real you is probably sacrificing like a good six-year-old Roman right now, so you're clean."

"But it's my job to make sacrifices," Jason said, uncomfortably poking the peppermint humbugs Nico had dumped on his plate. "I made an oath."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "It's okay, Jason. We're frozen in time. I don't really think the gods mind."

Jason took her word for it. The humbugs were surprisingly good.

Hermione was looking around. "I don't see Harry and Ron," she said finally. "They weren't on the train either."

"They missed it, but they're here," Annabeth said, tilting her chin towards Piper. "They took the flying car."

Hermione choked on a mouthful of pumpkin juice (which tasted better than it sounded— Jason had some on the train). "They what?"

"They flew. I don't know why they couldn't get on, but they weren't on the train."

"I know that," Hermione said impatiently. "But why didn't they just send an owl? That would've been much faster."

Thalia shrugged. "Well, they're fine. Have some pie."

After the feast with food that could rival that of New Rome's, Jason felt ready to burst. But before they could leave, he nudged Percy.

"Can you come with me to check on Piper? I'd go by myself, but I don't know the way to the Gryffindor cabin."

Percy glanced at Annabeth. "We have time?"

"Only a little," she sighed. "Hurry."

Jason and Percy wove their way to the silver and green table on the opposite side of the room, to where Piper was.

"Hey, Piper." Jason slipped up to his girlfriend and put a hand on her arm. "You okay?"

A boy coughed, and Jason recognized him as the boy that resembled Octavian. Draco Malfoy.

"Why wouldn't she be okay?" He asked. "She's in the best house." Obviously he did not remember their little run-in at that bookshop.

Piper cut her gaze to Malfoy. "I'm fine. You worry about yourselves."

Percy tugged on Jason's arm. "Dude, we gotta go. See you, Piper."

As they left, Jason could hear Draco talking to Piper. "Oh no, stay away from the Gryffindors," he sad. "They're jerks."

>>>•Harry POV•<<<

As soon as Harry and Ron stepped into the common room, noise exploded around them.

"Brilliant!" People swarmed them, congratulations ringing from around the common room. Hermione, who was standing behind them, huffed indignantly.

"Ron," Harry muttered and nodded in the direction of Percy Weasley, heading over no doubt to tell them off for breaking the rules. Then in a louder voice, "Bit tired, going to bed now."

He and Ron shoved their way to the staircase, trying to get to their dorms. Percy Jackson was waiting in the corner, and he grabbed their arms and helped them break through the crowd.

"Jason's in our dorm," he said happily as they climbed up the spiraling stairs. "He's upstairs."

"What about Frank?" Ron asked.

"He's in Hufflepuff, with Hazel. And, ah, Jason's kinda in a bad mood. Don't ask too many questions."

They entered through the door, which now held a plaque that read Second Years. Harry could see Jason sitting on the bed between Nico and Percy's, looking through his spellbooks.

"Gods, you're just like Hermione," Harry observed. Percy, Nico, and Jason looked at him oddly. "What? That's what you guys say, right? Gods, as in plural?"

"Yeah, it's just weird to see a mortal say that, besides Rachel," Percy commented.

Harry shrugged. "Well, every day brings new surprises."

"Yeah. Big surprises," Jason said grumpily.

"So, Frank and Hazel are in Hufflepuff, but you," Ron pointed to Jason, "and Piper are in Gryffindor, right?"

Jason huffed. "Piper's in Slytherin."

Harry was taken aback at this. Piper, the one who helped them through the flight to Hogwarts, the nice daughter of Aphrodite, a Slytherin?

No wonder Jason was in a bad mood.

"I'm going to bed," he announced and pulled the curtains around his four-poster. Only then did Harry realize how tired he really was.

"Me too." He yawned. "See you tomorrow morning."

>>>•O•<<<

"So we get our schedules at breakfast, after the owls come in."

"Owls?"

"Yeah, they deliver the mail. You've seen them before, right?" Percy and Nico were explaining the daily schedule at Hogwarts to Jason. Harry briefly wondered how Frank, Hazel, and Piper were doing, but figured they were fine. Or at least hoped.

"Be careful, if you get a package they'll just drop it right in front of you. So if you have porridge or something—"

"Yeah, I get it."

"We're here," Annabeth interrupted, leading them through the large double doors into the Great Hall.

Hermione strode briskly after her, not glancing at Harry or Ron. She was probably still disapproving about them breaking the rules. Harry had hoped she'd be more lenient about it, after last year's adventure, but apparently not.

"So we eat here for meals, as you figured from yesterday's feast. We sit by table though, I think it's like back at camp, we're not allowed to visit each other. I'm not sure though. We'll see on our schedules if we have any joined classes with Slytherin or Hufflepuff." Thalia chattered away to Jason easily while piling eggs on her plate.

"I still can't believe they're siblings," Ron whispered to Harry in disbelief, but Thalia being Thalia heard and shrugged.

"I get that a lot," she said, then went back to talking to Jason.

"So, I'm guessing he'll kill me if I ask her out," Ron said even quieter.

"Not if she kills you first." Annabeth said, swatting Percy's hand as he piled bacon onto his plate. "Sworn off boys, remember?"

"Yeah, but aren't promises hard to keep?"

"Idiot, it's not a promise, it's an unbreakable oath. You can't just decide when or when not to date." Thalia rolled her eyes as she helped herself to a spoonful of potatoes.

Ron sank a little lower in his seat, his face tinged red. What came next did not help.

As the owls swooped in like normal, one particularly floppy one caught Harry's eye. The familiar pattern also ticked Ron off. Errol, the Weasley's owl, crashed into Ron's plate with a bright red envelope in it's beak.

"Oh no." Ron's face paled to an unnatural oatmeal color.

Neville Longbottom, a fellow second year Gryffindor, edged away from Ron. "Don't ignore it, that'll make it worse," he whispered, as if it was a bomb that was set off by sound.

"What?" The demigods and Harry looked at each other, confused, as Ron brought a shaky hand over to the red envelope, which was smoking slightly. The corners curled up and turned into ash.

Ron pried it open cautiously and Neville stuffed his fingers into his ears. A moment later, Harry understood why.

The envelope exploded with the loudest, angriest voice Harry had ever heard Mrs. Weasley use.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL THE CAR, I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THEY EXPELLED YOU, JUST WAIT UNTIL I CAN GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE—"

Percy had spat his porridge out all over Nico as soon as the voice exploded, Jason had jumped seven feet in the air, Thalia had karate-chopped Annabeth's arm but Annabeth was too shocked to feel a thing, Hermione spilled ketchup on her book and was desperately trying to get it off, and Ron looked absolutely mortified.

Mrs. Weasley's letter ended with a calming congratulations to Ginny, then it folded itself up and burst into flames. Ron sat stunned, staring at the pile of ashes. Harry tried to clear the ringing in his ears.

"So." Annabeth stared quietly at the ashes that were floating away slowly. "That was a Howler."

Ron sank so low, only his hair peeped from above the table.