Prologue

The Lotus Eaters knew there were a few kids in the hotel. They considered bringing in some kids' games into the casino. Surely, it would provide yet another distraction for the children. Yet a quick look showed that the only resident children, the Di Angelos, were quite swept up by all manner of things. At the moment, Bianca Di Angelo was fascinated with manicures and Nico Di Angelo was getting into poker. One of the Lotus Eaters smirked at the thought. The earlier they started gambling, the harder it was for them to walk away.

Prophecy boy,his right eye, he thought. Di Angelo was never going to leave.

That damned brat had done it again. Stupid, useless kid always getting in Gabe's way. And the little twerp knew it. The kid's dark eyes shone mischievously, a grin hidden behind his cards. Gabe groaned in frustration.

"Fold," he gritted through his teeth.

The kid happily swept up all the chips, lazily revealing his hand to the rest of the table. A pair of tens. He'd bluffed them all out. Again.

Gabe Ugliano did not understand how the kid managed to do it. But then, one look at him and even he had to admit that it was hard to get a read on him. Pitch-black hair, overcast eyes, and a seemingly permanent creepy smirk. A part of Gabe wanted to inch away from the kid. A larger part of him wanted to win his money back.

He'd heard rumours of a kid in this casino that was next to impossible to beat in a game of poker. He hadn't believed it at first, but it was turning out to be true. And he absolutely refused to accept his defeat at the hands of some brat.

"Another round," demanded Gabe. The Di Angelo kid obliged, dealing a new hand of cards for each of them.

And the Lotus Eaters were more than satisfied with their newest attraction.

Author's Note/ Summary: Just a little prologue for this story, which I will probably be working on the plot a fair bit before posting the rest. Essentially, this a theory of what could happen if Nico never discovered Mythomagic, focusing primarily on Percy. Butterfly effect and all that. This is a crossover with Harry Potter with unaltered timelines, meaning that Percy Jackson is born in 1993 and Harry Potter is born in 1980. It also means that most of HP will be canonical and PJO will be wildly AU. But everything AU is caused solely by the fact that Nico doesn't know Mythomagic.