This is a transcript of an audio file.
Emboldened text is a spell.
Italic text is in Ancient Greek and had been translated for ease of reading.
Text in inverted commas are thoughts of the narrator.
Um, hi, is this thing on? Well, I'm going for it. Hi, my name's Alice, if you are listening or reading this then please make sure you have read Janet's book thing about our adventures so far. So, um, Janet asked me to do this year's adventures, division of labour or something, so I reluctantly agreed to help her pet project, on the condition I could dictate it, rather than write it, the things I do for. Anyway, let's move on. Our adventure continues from us in Diagon Alley, yes, I know it is not where Janet ended her story, but unlike her, I don't see the need to include every little action in the story whilst turning a blind eye to emotions.
Diagon Alley, as always, was loud, noisy, and smelly, there were hawkers showing their wares at every corner, and drugged up squibs in the gutters, it always saddened me to see them treated badly, just because of their lack of magic. Several of the buildings seemed closer to falling over than last year, the leaning outer walls looming over us like a forest canopy of wood and stone. Our little group was walking and talking merrily as we walk down the street, there were four of us, Janet, John, Drake and myself. We had splintered off of the main group, with Chiron's permission of course, and were talking as we made our way to our next stop. The stop was the bookshop, Flourish and Blotts, we were doing the joyous task of buying textbooks, and visiting an English bookshop with Janet, who hated the place, because she loved to read and could barely read the books, because like all demigods she was hardwired for Ancient Greek, this was made worse by the fact she had learnt Ancient Greek before English.
Janet was a short girl, even by the standards of a twelve year old going on thirteen year old, she was a full head shorter than either Drake or John and a head and a quarter shorter than me. Despite her height she always carried herself in such a way that she always seemed the same height as anyone she was talking to, no matter how tall, well, except Hagrid. She had large dark brown eyes which were almost black that always seemed like they knew more than you, which was true, Janet was very clever, there was very little she seemed to not know, these eyes are set in her heart shaped face, along with her slightly upturned nose and the slightly elfish grin on her full lips. She also had long, slightly wavy blond hair, which stretched in a perfect waterfall down to her hips, her hair always made me slightly envious, it was just so, perfect. Everyone agreed that Janet was very pretty, everyone except Janet, who was totally oblivious to how half the boys in the year had crushes on her, which we found infuriating as we tried to hint it to her, but Janet is rather oblivious to other human's emotions, so she tends to ignore it.
John was about average height for our age, but he was also a lot stronger than most wizards our age, due to years of sword practice he had gained a fairly impressive physique. He had short blond hair that he left to style itself, so it was permanently messy, with tufts sticking out of a hairstyle that can only be described as a bird's nest. He had the same stormy grey eyes as his siblings, but his didn't seem as dark, something about them made them seem more of the grey of clouds in the distance, rather than a full on thunderstorm, like his siblings. He had the same intimidating look, like he was trying to work out how he would beat you in a fight whilst simultaneously outdoing you on any test, as long as it's in Greek or Latin, because, like Janet, Drake was clever, not as clever as Janet, but still clever. He was quite handsome; he had a strong chin and strong cheekbones. Like half the boys in our year, he had a crush on Janet, but unlike the others, he was more attracted to her mind than her face.
Drake was Janet's half-brother, they shared a mother in Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, this made the two of them the most powerful wizards in our class, if not the school, Drake was weaker than Janet, this is because Janet had inherited her father's not inconsiderate magical abilities, whilst Drake was sort of muggleborn, as he had a muggle father. Drake had longish dark brown hair, it reached the nape of his neck and covered his eyebrows, his hair was always perfectly style, I'm pretty sure he used magic to hold it in place, it was always perfectly straight with his fringe parted to the right. Unlike John, Drake was not handsome, although he was lean, he was not toned like John, he rarely trained with a sword as he spent most of his time learning magic. He had a weak, almost non-existent chin and cheekbones, which were hard to see under his skin, he was aware of how he looked, and it had made him sullen. This was the reason he spent so much time preparing for illusion magic, he was close to learning it, but he was not strong enough yet, and definitely didn't have enough control. Drake had become had become increasingly quiet and withdrawn, especially since Luke's betrayal.
I was tall for our age, taller than most people in the year, or the year above, I had coal black hair, which I always found rather boring, it was so, uniform, all one colour, except, it wasn't one colour, because black is the absence of colour. It never made sense to me why a child of Iris would have black hair, also, I couldn't even dye it, because wizards don't approve of dyed hair, they say it's a muggle's vanity. My eyes on the other hand, were much better, they were always colourful, like a child of Aphrodite, they were a range of colours, unlike a child of Aphrodite, they were a range of colours all at once, rather than changing when people weren't looking, if you hadn't already guessed. I love colourful things, it's why I always dress like, how did Janet put it, an explosion in a paint factory, when I wasn't in school I was dressed in the most colourful clothing I could find, it makes me happy.