Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling or Rick Riordan, therefore I own none of the characters in this story, only the plot, well some of it…

Chapter 3 – Will meets Gryffindor

After watching his boyfriend leave, Will turned towards his own table, walking down the length of it, before settling beside a small group of students around his age who watched him with a growing curiosity, they haven't seen him before, have they? It wasn't the first time, Will had been to a new school, although it was the first time, he'd been to one in Britain and he wasn't quite sure, how things worked around here, especially with all the magic and stuff.

Nonetheless, Will smiled at the group, quickly giving them a once over and deeming them normal enough. As normal, as someone can get in a school full of wizards, but then again, what exactly was the definition of normal? He had no idea. Normal seemed like a concept invented by people who were too narrowminded and thought their way of life was the only acceptable one.

Anyways, one of the girls, was clearly Indian, with a dark tan and black hair in a long braid, while the other girl sported blonde pigtails, fair skin and even tiny freckles on her nose. There were also two guys, one of them was rather short, with sandy-hair and soot on his face, though Will had no idea how he managed to get soot onto his face, while waiting for the feast to begin, but something told Will, that he better not ask about that. The other boy had a dark complexion, with short black hair and a genuine smile on his face.

"Who are you?", soot-face asked, starring at Will, his eyes filled with curiosity. The Indian girl slapped his arm. "Right manners…" the boy muttered rubbing his arm, while glaring at the girl, before he turned back to Will. "You're obviously new, so… who are you?" He spoke in a very strong Irish accent, that Will might need to get used to.

"I'm Will Solace, an exchange student from the States," Will answered.

"Exchange student?", Pigtails eyes seemed to glow with excitement, Will had the urge to turn and run. He knew that look. Every Aphrodite kid has that look… And it usually meant more pain than anything else. "My name's Lavender," she said with a dazzling smile, extending her hand, for Will to shake it? "Lovely to meet you," she added. There was a weird feeling to the air that Will couldn't shake off.

"Okay…" the other girl said, breaking the tension, as Will and Lavender were still shaking hands, one rather uncomfortable, the other one with a big smile on the face, before smiling at Will. "I'm Parvati, and those two are Dean and Seamus." Seamus was the one with soot on his face, Dean had the darker complexion.

"Nice to meet you," Will said smiling.

"Where exactly are you from? You have a bit of a funny accent", Seamus of all people said. Will raised his eyebrow.

"I have a funny accent?" Will shook his head. "Have you ever heard yourself talk?" Dean cracked up and laughed out loud, while Seamus seemed to decide if he should let that pass or be angry at the new kid, because his accent was perfectly normal, then again, he had said, that the new kid had a funny accent, which probably seemed perfectly normal to the new kid, thus, Seamus let it pass.

"Well, my mums from Texas and I just can't seem to shake that off, even though I've been living at the East Coast for roughly seven years now..." Will explained.

"So, Ilvermorny, I guess?", Parvati says, and Will simply nodded. "Are you the only exchange student?"

"Nah, I'm not the only one, but Nico got sorted into Slytherin…" Will shrugged. He didn't miss the looks the other four through at each other. Will knew how to read people, maybe not as good as certain children of Athena, but he was decent enough to notice, that something was wrong with the house his boyfriend had been sorted into.

"That sucks, mate," Seamus said, with a pitiful expression. "Slytherin is the worst house around here…"

"Why?" Will asked confused.

"Those Slytherins are rotten," Dean explained. "Especially Malfoy and his goons, better hope that this Nico doesn't befriend them…" Dean and Seamus leaned towards Will. "Rumors tell, that they are already Death Eaters, just like their parents." They sounded so serious, still Will couldn't help but laugh. Who in their right might would want to eat death? Although, Nico's probably going to love that.

"Death Eaters?", Will asked after he realized that nobody seemed to find it as funny as he did. "What are they?"

"Well… they are -" Seamus started to explain.

"Sorting ceremony is about to start!" Parvati chimed in, interrupting Seamus. "We'll tell you some other time." Will simply nodded, turning to watch kids being sorted into the four houses and then there was the feast. The tables seemed to overflow with food, and it looked delicious, Will dug in and stuffed his face with various things, he'd only ever seen on TV.

"Weird, Nearly Headless Nick didn't introduce himself to the first years this year", Parvati said with a puzzled expression as the group made their way up to the Gryffindor tower, Will trailing behind them.

"How can somebody be Nearly Headless and alive?" Will asked confused. Parvati smiled.

"Nearly Headless Nick is a ghost, so he's not actually alive", the girl explained.

"Ghost?" Will asked, "you have ghosts here?"

"Yeah", Lavender chimed in. "Each house has their own house-ghost for that matter and there are several others as well."

"Along with our very own poltergeist, Peeves, keep in mind, that you wouldn't want to get on his bad side," Seamus said.

"Usually they show up at the start of term feast, but… I don't think I have ever heard of a time, where no ghost was to be found…" Parvati scanned Staircases and scowled.

"Maybe that means that Professor Binns won't teach this year?", Seamus seemed hopeful.

"Wait, there is a ghost teaching at this school?" Will had a bad feeling that a certain Ghost King a few tables over was the reason for the absence of all ghost, they must have sensed him. But… How long will they stay out of sight? How long will it take for their cover to blow?

"Yeah", Lavender answers. "He teaches History of Magic, which is plain boring…" She rolled her eyes. Clearly that subject wasn't one of her favorites.

"Look on the bright side", Dean said with a smile. "We're sixth years now, we can drop History of Magic entirely." Seamus seemed to brighten up at that. They turned into a corridor, after climbing several staircases and stopped in front of a huge painting with a fat lady. Dean mutters a password, "Abstinence" and the painting moves to the side, revealing a small hole in the wall. Will followed the others through it, ducking his head and straitening out once again, as soon as he was on the other side.

The room on the other side was colorful and cozy, with a fireplace and several well-worn couches and armchairs. Tables were scattered throughout the room, with bookshelves lined on one wall and an old radio playing songs, Will had never heard before, but weren't all that bad, to be honest.

"That's the common room", Dean explained and grinned into the room full of students.

"It's cozy", Will said smiling. It kind of reminded him a little bit about his cabin back at camp, though the sun wasn't quiet as bright as it was there… And he wasn't related to anybody in here. Which was something new. Having to share a room, with people he wasn't related to and who also weren't his boyfriend either. This was for sure, something new.

"We're heading upstairs, you coming?", Seamus said, standing several feet away now, and motioned towards one of the sets of stairs. Will hurried across the room. "A little warning, in case you may feel tempted, do not ever try to get up to the girl's dorms, the stairs will turn into a slide…"

"Noted", Will said with a smirk. Although he was fairly certain, that something like that would never happen.

He followed the boys upstairs, and entered the round room, with the heater in the middle of it. Six beds were crammed into the room, and three other boys were standing there, looking at the sixth bed, just like the new campers look, when Leo Valdez burst into flames in front of them, for the first time.

"Do you have any idea what this bed is doing here?" One of the boys, the one with freckles and red hair, asked Dean and Seamus, having obviously not seen Will enter after them.

"I believe that's mine", Will said and stepped forward. "I'm Will Solace, one of the exchange students Professor Dumbledore was talking about." Freckle-face eyed him suspiciously. While another one, who had glasses and a weird scar on his face raised an eyebrow at Will. The third one, blond and a little chubby, smiled at Will and seemed much friendlier than the other two.

"Nice to meet you", the blonde one said. "My name's Neville Longbottom." Will smiled as he shook Neville's hand.

"Nice to meet you too", Will said and turned towards the other two boys, who weren't very exited to see him in the room. Will wondered what he might have done, to offend those two, but it could be, that they weren't used to having to share their personal space with a stranger. Nonetheless, Will couldn't help but stare at the weird scar on one of he boys forehead, it reminded him of Zeus lightning bolt, but he couldn't have been struck by the god, now could he? The boy had blood all over the front of his shirt, maybe he was prone to falling on his face?

"Yes, that's the scar he got from surviving the Killing Curse", freckle face said and stared at Will with annoyance. "You done staring now?" Will blinked.

"Sorry" he held up his hands in a defeated manner. "I know that was rude, I just… Wait… what do you mean by surviving the Killing Curse?" Will was confused. He had read about the three unforgivable curses in one of the books Chiron has given him and Nico, and there was no way, anybody could survive the curse, that has been clearly stated in that book, but… maybe it was a little bit outdated.

"That's Harry Potter", Seamus said, as if trying to get Will to remember something he should know, but didn't… The name didn't ring a bell at all. "The Chosen One!" He widened his eyes for dramatic effect. Will blinked and shook his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about", Will said and looked at the other boys. To say, that they were surprised would have undermined, what their faces looked like, following that statement. Disbelief, shock and doubtful looks were cast into Wills direction.

"How can you not know?" Dean finally asked. "How can somebody not know, that Harry was the first one to survive a killing curse and defeated You-Know-Who, when he was just a little baby?"

"You-Know-Who?" Will looked puzzled, he was lost as to what or who they were talking about.

"Lord Voldemort", it was Harry Potter who answered that, the other boys sucked in their breath, but it was just a name, why were they so afraid of a name, then again… Names have power. "He's the one who has murdered my family, as he or his followers did and will do to many other families. Especially those with muggleborn wizards or witches."

"Why?" Will didn't understand, why somebody would be willing to kill somebody else without any reason for it. He was a healer, his most primal instinct was to make sure, that everybody survives it. That's been his duty for a few years now.

"He's all for blood supremacy", freckle-face answered. "Only purebloods are worthy of his attention, witches and wizards with muggle blood in their veins are less worthy, they want to kill them all to keep our wizard blood clear." Will blinked again. Stunned at that revelation.

"So that guy, this Voldemort guy, is out there killing… people with less magical blood?" Harry nodded grimly.

"He and his followers", Dean said.

"That's messed up…" Will shook his head. It dawned on him, that Dumbledore didn't only request the exchange at this time, solely for the purpose for making friends, Will was sure, that Dumbledore wanted them here, in case something went wrong. Nico was right all along. He should have listened instead of insisting on coming here. Coming here was a mistake.

Hey guys! :D

Okay, so I've had some trouble with the first part and wasn't happy how it turned out, I am now and I really hope you liked it so far.

I also wanted to thank you for all your reviews! ;D I love getting them!

Next chapter will be Solangelo meets Peeves, which will be out in May? I think so. I'm away on Holiday for a week… and after that the new Semester will start and I'll have plenty to do! ;D