So this is something I thought I'd try out. I hope you like it and there will be more coming out soon. (I hope) I will try to publish a chapter every month but if I get a ton of stuff for homework that might not happen. Please enjoy!
I thought I knew everything about my life until the letter came. I thought I was a demigod and my mom was dead and my dad was Poseidon. Then the letter came telling me I also was a wizard and half of the famous twins that survived the killing curse as a baby. Now I find out that I have a twin brother named Harry, my last name is Potter, and I've been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. The last part there sounds pretty neat. The letter explained that they knew I was a demigod and would try to ensure my safety while I was at Hogwarts. I was not to tell anyone at camp I was a witch or anyone at school I was a Demigod. The letter also said because they couldn't ensure my safety I had a choice of coming or not.
Of course, my first thought was "Europe here I come!" I couldn't wait to go. According to the letter, if I decided to go I should talk to Chiron about getting there and all that wonderful stuff, so that's what I did.
"You're going to want to get there a week early at the least because you'll be staying in The Leaky Cauldron which is right by Diagon Alley. It would give you plenty of time to shop and explore before school starts." Chiron told me when I told him about the letter.
Can I go two weeks early?" I asked and he chuckled and nodded.
~o~
About a week later on the day before my birthday, I was ready to go and just had to say goodbye to my friend Annabeth before going.
You have at least 5 different weapons right?" She asked and I nodded.
"Stop worrying, I'll be fine. I may come back for Christmas. I don't know if I'm allowed to but I'll try. I'll also write you letters." She nodded and I hugged her then went over to wear Chiron was standing. As far as everyone at camp knew, I was going to a private boarding school in Madison, Wisconsin. In reality, Chiron and I were meeting the headmaster at the road and the Headmaster would take me to the Leaky Cauldron and get me set up with a room.
The headmaster was an old dude with long silver hair that matched his long beard. He had a pair of half-moon spectacles perched on his nose and was wearing long robes in the summer heat.
I'm Albus Dumbledore. Ready to go." He said and I nodded. "Alright then, if you'll just take my hand and…"
Suddenly we were in a bar full of people dressed in robes. My best guess would have to be that we were in the Leaky Cauldron and we got there through magic. Dumbledore walked over to the counter and said to the guy behind it "I believe I have a room reserved for a miss Tulia Potter." and the guy stepped out from behind the counter and started towards the stairs.
"Just right this way." As we followed the guy to my room Dumbledore started explaining stuff to me.
"Tulia, as I'm sure you know from the letter we sent you, you and your twin brother are famous for surviving the killing curse. I don't have enough time to answer your questions but tomorrow a friend of mine is bringing your brother here to shop for school supplies. If you meet up with them you can find out what you want to know as well as get your shopping done." and with that, we had arrived at my room and he was gone.
~o~
The next morning I got up early and ate a quick breakfast downstairs while I waited for the "friend" and my brother to arrive. I was just trying some butterbeer (heaven in the form of a drink) when a man like a giant came into the Leaky Cauldron. He had long shaggy hair and a wild tangled beard. Next to him was a skinny boy with black hair that looked like it had never seen a brush. Behind a pair of glasses that had probably seen better days, his green eyes sparkled in the faint candlelight.
"Hagrid! The usual I presume?" the barkeeper asked. The man smiled and answered "Not today, Tom. I'm on official Hogwarts business."
"Harry Potter," Tom whispered in amazement and I whirled around to get a better look at this boy who must be my brother. My initial assessment was correct in thinking he was skinny but it looked like on top of that his clothes were many sizes too big. His glasses, now that I could see them better, had seen much better days. The lenses looked cracked in several spots. A piece of tape on the nose bridge kept the glasses from falling apart. His hair was the same shade as mine and had the look of somebody who tried to tame it but without success.
When I had turned around Hagrid had noticed me for the first time.
"Well I'll be, It's Harley Potter! The last time I saw you was when you were a wee baby."
"Hi! Dumbledore said I should wait for you to get what I need for Hogwarts."
"Oh, that's right. Well, then we better get going." Hagrid walked through a back door and waited for us to follow. "First stop, Gringotts." He said and tapped the wall three times with his pink umbrella he was carrying.
The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.
"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."
We stepped through the archway. I looked quickly over my shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into the solid wall.
"Now that's just weird, even by my standards," I muttered and Harry glanced at me questionably. The moment was quickly forgotten though as we got a better look at the Alley.
The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.
I wished I had about eight more eyes. I turned my head in every direction as we walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."
A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about my age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," I heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - the fastest ever -" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...
"Gringotts," said Hagrid.
They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Now they were facing the second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
"The Stolls should pay attention to that advice. Might save them from getting kitchen duty so often." I muttered and yet again Harry gave me a curious glance.
Inside goblins were weighing jewels and coins of various sorts. On the ceiling, great big chandeliers hung with millions of crystals.
"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come to take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's and Miss Harley Potter's safe."
"You have their key, Sir?"
"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose.
"Got it," said Hagrid, at last, holding up a tiny golden key.
The goblin looked at it closely.
"That seems to be in order."
"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."
The goblin read the letter carefully. "Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"
Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits in his pockets, we followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.
"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.
"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth to tell yeh that."
Griphook held the door open for them. I was expecting more marbled but was surprised to find we were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.
My eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but I kept them wide open. Once, I thought I saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.
"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"
"Stalagmite's got a 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."
I rolled my eyes and said "Stalactites hang on tight to the ceiling while Stalagmites just might reach the ceiling
He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.
Griphook unlocked the door. Green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, I gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.
"All yours," smiled Hagrid.
All ours - it was incredible.
Hagrid helped Harry and I pile some of it into separate bags for us. "The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough for a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"
"One speed only," said Griphook.
They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.
Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.
"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.
"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.
"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.
"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.
At first, I thought the vault was empty. Then I noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep into his coat. I longed to know what it was but knew better than to ask.
"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep my mouth shut," said Hagrid.
One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts.
I didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.
"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, Harley, would you mind if I slipped off for a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry and I entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.
"Hogwarts, clear?" she said when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. "
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him and I on the other side of the boy slipped a long robe over our heads and began to pin it to the right length.
"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"
"Yes," said Harry and I nodded.
"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
The boy then turned to me.
"Are you going to Hogwarts as well"
"Yes," I said.
"I can't place your accent. Where are you from?" He asked.
"America. They have a school there but when I got the letter from Hogwarts I just had to come. I've always wanted to visit Europe."
"What about your parents? Are they here with you or did they stay in America?"
"My mom is dead and my dad acts as if I don't exist," I said quietly.
He turned his attention back to Harry at that and I looked out the window. Outside families passed by to get school supplies, groups of friends laughed and fooled around, and moms fused over what their child would need. I wish I could be here with all my family or could joke around with friends. I wish my mom was alive so she could worry about what we needed.
What would it be like, I wondered if mom and dad were still alive? For one I could picture someone in my mind when I thought of those words. We would live in Europe and I would know I was a witch sooner. Would I ever find out about being a demigod though? Would I rather have a complete family but not know the full truth, or be a demigod and a wizard but know only my brother.
"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at them and pointing at three large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.
"That's Hagrid," said Harry, "He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"
"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry.
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every so often he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."
"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.
"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"They're dead," said Harry shortly.
"Oh, sorry," said the other, "But they were our kind, weren't they?"
"They were a witch and wizard if that's what you mean."
"I don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"
But before Harry or I could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's both of you done, my dears," and we hopped down from the footstools we were on.
"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the boy and I waved to him as we exited the store.
We both were rather quiet as we ate the ice cream Hagrid had brought us (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).
"What's up?" said Hagrid.
"Nothing," Harry said.
They stopped to buy parchment and quills. I cheered up a bit when I found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, Harry said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"
"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgetting' how little yeh know - not knowing' about Quidditch!"
"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the boy in Madam Malkin's.
"-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."
"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowing' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line 0' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had for a sister!"
"So what is Quidditch?"
"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there are four balls - sorta hard to explain the rules."
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"Schoolhouses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."
"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.
We bought school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenge: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.
"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."
"I'm not saying' that's not a good idea, but yer, not to use magic in the Muggle world except in special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, you'll need a lot more study before yeh get to that level."
Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotten cabbages. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for us, I examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).
Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.
"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got you two a birthday present."
Harry went red as a tomato.
"You don't have to -"
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, you'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everything'."
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which was dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. I didn't have an owl because I had wanted a cat, so while they were in the Owl Emporium I had found a store that sold cats and bought a cat with black fur and green eyes. I named her Hecate.
"Just Ollivanders left now - the only place for wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."
The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.
A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair Hagrid sat on to wait. "Good afternoon," said a soft voice and I jumped. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.
"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry and Harley Potter. You both have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry.
"Your father, whereas, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander had come so close he and Harry were almost nose to nose.
"And that's where..."
Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.
"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."
He shook his head and then, spotted Hagrid.
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"
"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid. "Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.
"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly. "But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.
"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. I noticed he gripped his pink umbrella tightly as he spoke.
"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Ms. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?" "Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Harry. "Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.
I suddenly realized the tape measure, which was measuring between Harry's nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."
Harry took the wand and waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Whippy. Try -"
Harry tried - but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.
"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."
Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.
"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Harry took the wand. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, good. Well, well, well... how curious... how curious... "
Meanwhile, while Harry was trying to find his wand the measuring tape had been measuring me.
"Why don't you try this one, Ms. Potter. Hornbeam, nine inches and phoenix feather." I waved the wand and a jet of water burst out from the tip to form intricate patterns in the air.
After my wand was wrapped in a box, I paid seven gold Galleons for my wand and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron.
So yea not the best way to end the chapter but it was getting long and I needed to get to a certain spot and yea. I really hope you enjoyed this and if not please stick with it for a few more chapters because it should get better. I had a hard time starting this story because so much of what I wanted to happen in it would take place in Hogwarts.
Demigod out!