Spending several hours with a worried teenage girl is not how I like to spend my free time. Now don't get me wrong, it was cool at first. I mean, I'm on a train with Hermione Granger. How much cooler does it get? Well... let's just say we don't get along very well.

It started off a little rocky, to be perfectly honest, with the whole are-you-my-girlfriend-oops-wrong-dimension thingy, and it didn't get much better. What do you expect? I'm, well, me, (which is possibly the greatest thing to be, but that's not the point) and she's a super-smart, organized, focused... you get the point.

Anyways, at the moment I happen to be sitting on a dark purple couch in the lounge car as a very frustrated blonde is attempting to come up with an escape plan.

"Okay, so at training, we'll be watching all the competitors train. We'll be able to see their skills, how they interact with one another, things we can use to identify them. Once we're pretty sure we know who a person is, we go up to them and- Valdez are you listening?" 

"Yeah, but why bother with the complicated stuff? I mean, couldn't we just go up to them and say something like 'Hi I'm So-and-so from District One, but you can call me Leo Valdez'? 'Cause that seems much more effective and a whole lot easier," I say.

Aaand there's the death glare. I was wondering when I would get one.

"Leo Valdez we cannot simply say but you can call me so-and-so. Imagine if they weren't the person we were looking for! Revealing ourselves will need a plan of a much higher caliber and- oh I suppose you're right," she sighs. "But we should still observe them for a bit, just so we can at least confirm they're not psychopaths or anything beforehand."

"Alrighty, sounds good to me," I say. "But once we find our friends, how do we escape? Isn't that kind of important?"

Somehow, this earns me another death glare. But then Hermione sighs and plops down on another couch, with her face in her hands.

"Are you.... okay?" I ask, tentatively walking over to her. I want to help, but I also don't want to be slapped for the-lemme think-twelfth time so far.

"I can't do this, Leo. I don't know anything about how we got in here, so how do I get us out? I can't do magic here, I've tried, and I just feel so- so stupid and useless and I hate it and- and-" she gasped for breath. I see tears in her eyes, and try to remember everything I've ever heard about Hermione Granger. One phrase floats to mind.

The brightest witch of her age.

Smart. Hermione is smart. I can tell she likes to be in control of the situation, and at the moment I suppose she feel pretty out of it. Anyone would feel the way she does. Buy how to help her?

"Hey, uh, it'll be okay, alright?," I say. "We can come up with an idea, I'm sure of it. And if we can't? Once we find the others, they might have something figured out. You haven't met Annabeth yet, but she probably has a plan. And that would be good. So, um, please don't cry."

Hermione looks up at me. "Okay. Okay. We find them and we all make a plan. Okay. Thanks Leo. What time is it?"

I look at a digital clock on the wall. "About 8:30. Maybe we should get some sleep."

"Sounds good," she agreed. We parted ways, headed to our compartments. Mentally exhausted from today's events, I fell asleep as soon as I laid down.

_______________

Demigod dreams are normally pretty bad, but this was a whole 'nother level of suck. I was running through a field of blue grass, heading for a group of trees, when I heard a low whistle of air. I ducked just in time. A short knife was hurtling through the air just where my head had been. I turned around t face my attacker and it was-

Jason.

He was with Percy and a boy I didn't recognize. They chased me into the trees, with their weapons out and ready to slice me into bits. 

"It's me! Leo! Your friend!" dream-me screamed. But they continued to pursue me. I saw that although they looked like themselves, I still looked like Whistle Oak (who names their child Whistle?!). They pinned me up against a tree, and I was scared. Terrified. I knew it was just a dream, but even so, being murdered by your best friend is just wrong.

Jason raised his sword, about to impale me, when someone stepped out from behind another tree. It was a beautiful girl, with long blond hair and deep green eyes. She looked at me and smiled sweetly. Behind Jason, the boy I didn't know had gone pale and dropped his sword. Mystery Girl grinned at him, and gently lowered Jason's sword. 

I was about to thank Mystery Girl when her smile went cold. She stepped back, and unleashed a primal scream. 

I felt myself growing weaker the longer she screamed. It was affecting the other boys, too. But, as I looked closer, they were also changing form. Percy's hair turned blond, and he shrank down, Jason grew taller, his skin darkening, and the other boy's golden hair became less wavy and turned black. And Mystery Girl? She was still screaming, but she had dark skin like Hazel, long, thick black hair, and was taller. 

Louder and louder she screamed, until dream-me wouldn't be able to lift a finger to move. She was killing us, I realized.

I woke up in a cold sweat. The dream had been terrifying, but useful. I would have to tell Hermione.

I knew what my friends looked like in this world.