Chapter 2! Here it is, the continuing story… I hope you liked the first chapter. Still open for improvements! I'm SO sorry for taking so long, but I've been a weekend without internet, and I'm a perfectionist. I use a hell lot of time to write. But I've written up to Chapter 4 now, so I'll just portion it out.
To Princess of Flames: No worries, I'm not a Thalico shipper. I'm not quite sure what the ships will be, except for Percabeth, Jiper, and Frazel.
To MarissaTodd: I so agree! I always get irritated when I read that Harry looks like a scrawny Percy. I mean, there are thousands of girls with brown hair and green eyes out there, but that doesn't mean they're my twin?
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter, they belong to their respective authors Rick Riordan and Joanne Kathleen Rowling.
Leo's POV
When I came to myself, I saw the rest of the demigods lying sprawled around on the… grass? I looked up, and saw trees, clouds, and a few birds chirping and tweeting to each other. A forest. We were in a forest. Slowly I stood up, had some difficulties finding balance at first, but somehow managed to place both feet under me and straighten my back.
I started walking around, waking up the others. They all groaned a lot, but when I sat Percy on fire they seemed to wake up. He looked at me as though I had intended to kill him. Which I couldn't understand, because we ALL knew he was close to fireproof. I mean, he survived when those telkhines poured lava on him.
"Where are we?" Annabeth turned around and looked at me. As if I knew. "No idea! I just woke up in a forest." I shrugged. "Greetings, heroes." We turned around, looking for the owner of the voice. The voice sighed. "No, I'm not here. I'm merely sending you all telepathic messages. I'll lead you towards the house you will spend the next two weeks sleeping in. The house is magically hidden from mortals, so you will spend most of your days inside the house or in the garden."
"Um, Lady Hecate…" Piper started. "Fear not, daughter of Aphrodite. The garden itself is a big field, with a training area. The house is… big enough. I'll send some of my servants to make you dinner every day." The goddess paused. "Well, that's nice and all, Lady, but…" I will be the one in charge of your training son of Hephaestus." And with that, she started giving instructions, and led the demigods deeper into the forest.
Piper's POV:
The goddess didn't lie. The house was… big enough. Especially for fifteen teenagers. It looked as if someone had taken five apartments and placed them on top of each, creating a twenty meter high building from different times. While some of us walked inside, Percy fought a lost fight trying to drag Annabeth away from the sight.
The inside was, if possible, even bigger than the outside. In the middle of the room was a spiral staircase leading upwards to the next floor. This floor obviously was the common area, with couches and TVs placed all over. On the other side of the room was the kitchen, and on one of the walls were a map. I saw Leo reading a piece of paper, before he cleared his throat.
"Ladies and gentleman…" he started. "I will now read you a notification our dear goddess Hecate left us." He paused, cleared his throat again, and continued in the same, formal voice: ""Dear heroes." Huh, nice start. "This building is raised with help of magic, and you will soon find out that each of you is given your own room. Your training will start tomorrow. Eat and sleep well, and meet me well prepared tomorrow. I will start by giving you an introduction to magic, and will tell you what your story will be at Hogwarts." And then a signature…"
He turned the paper and read: ""PS: The map on the wall is also magical. Please use it to check on friends and families. Today's dinner will be found in the fridge" Oh, that was nice of her"
I rolled my eyes at Leo, and made my way to the fridge. When I saw todays dinner, I couldn't help but laugh. "Okay guys, I'll just have to tell you what the dinner is…" I took a deep, calming breath and giggled. "The goddess of magic has given us…" Leo used two screwdrivers to fake drumbeat "Frozen pizza" The room burst into laughter as I held up four pizzas, still in their plastic.
We ate dinner in the numerous sofas, watched The Little Mermaid (Percy had insisted it was the best movie ever, and laughed every time Triton was mentioned), which happened to be on the TV when we turned it on. Then we went to our rooms.
Staring up in the roof from my bed, I thought about the next three weeks, the school named Hogwarts, magic, and for once, I didn't get killed in my dream.
Annabeth's POV:
"Okay, what are we going to do?" Katie's voice sounded extraordinary high after five minutes in silence. We had started the day with a superb, British breakfast, before the goddess materialized in the doorway giving us two minutes to get outside. After a lot of running and stressed clothing, the fifteen demigods had found themselves outside with fifteen huge boxes. The mentioned five minutes had been spent wondering what was inside the boxes.
The goddess coughed to get attention. "Well, first of all, those boxes are for you. If you look closely you'll see your name carved onto the tops."
My box were number five from the left, with Will at my right and Hazel at my left. Percy's were number two from the right, with Jason at his right and Thalia at his left.
We looked at the goddess. She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head a little. "What are you waiting for? Open them! Your parents have made them themselves, by the way. I've given my blessing when necessarily."
With that we turned around, and slowly opened the boxes, as if we all expected bombs in there. Well, Percy obviously didn't. He jerked the top off within a second and pulled out a set of clothes. He turned to the goddess and opened his mouth as the rest of us pulled out something identical "What-?"
"Those clothes will be your uniforms while staying at Hogwarts. You see that mark? That's the mark of your "school" in America, called "Delphi's Magical Academy""
The goddess told us the story that we would tell the wizards. "You can call Chiron your principal, and if necessarily Rachel for your divination teacher. Oh, and if someone asks if you are "pure-blood" or "muggleborn", say "half-blood"" Seriously? Rachel? Our teacher? I thought as I studied the mark.
It was the shape of a diamond, colored ice-blue, and had a white pegasi in the middle. Under the mark was a text in ancient Greek that said: "Free like the pegasi, precious as the diamond". "What does the text mean?" I asked Hecate, as I continued to study the uniform.
"Ah, that's just something we had to make up quick. It's tradition for wizarding schools to have a motto. If someone asks you, say it refers to life."
My uniform consisted of a white, checked skirt, a white shirt, grey west and white shoes. I looked up to confirm that that was the girls' uniform, and saw that the boys' uniform consisted of grey pants, grey west, white checked shirt and white shoes.
Hecate told us that for now, our checkered skirts and shirts and shoes would be white, but when we came to Hogwarts it would turn into the color of our house.
"Our house? Travis started. "What do you mean by house?" Connor continued where his brother ended, and they looked at each other with a grin on their faces "Do we get houses?"
"When you get to the school, you will be sorted into houses. There are four of them" The goddess waved with her hand, and five symbols appeared. One had a lion, a snake, a raven and a badger as well as a Latin text underneath, reading never tickle a sleeping dragon. The four rest had only one of the animals, and I guessed that were the marks of the houses.
Hecate continued and told us about how Hogwarts was founded, as well as its history as the last year's happenings. Percy whistled with awe when Hecate told us about Harry Potter, the boy we were to protect.
"Okay, if you would please change into your uniforms, so we can continue...?" Hecate waved her hand, and a wall appeared. "Girls on this side, boys here" she told us. "No worries, I will make sure no one peeks" she added as she saw Hazel blush. "Hey, why are you looking at me?" Leo said, pretending to look hurt. The goddess sighed. "You seemed to be most likely to do so, son of Hephaestus"
We changed without a word, and I giggled when I saw Thalia's face. She looked as if someone had put something really ugly in front of her face, and it wouldn't go away. "I refuse to wear a skirt!" she exclaimed out loud. "No opposing is allowed, huntress" Hecate's voice sounded annoyed. You will find the skirt very comfortable to wear and train in."
Thalia muttered something under her breath, and all I could make out of it was the Greek words "stupid", "fucking skirt" and something about killing if anyone laughed. She shouted "The first to laugh will be the first to die!" over the wall, before she led the girls away from the waved her hand again, and the wall disappeared. "I have to admit Percy," I said to him as I came closer, "You look veeeerrrryyy handsome in that uniform" He raised his eyebrows and held me at an arm's length and let his eyes move slowly from my feet to the top of my head. He grinned and held me into his chest. "And I must say, Ms. Chase, that you look extraordinary beautiful out in a skirt" he said with a formal laugh, before laughing and kissing my lips.
"Hey, turteldoes!" Connor shouted. "Get a room!". The group laughed. Hecate cleared her throat, and almost succeeded in hiding a smile.
"Well, could you all please continue the examining of your boxes?" Percy let go of me, and we walked to our boxes once again. Inside the box I found a smaller, rectangular box, a cauldron, a pair of gloves, a cape and other useful things. Hecate explained them all, but I were more interested in the rectangular box, as I just had opened.
I gasped as I pulled out a wand. Piper had just done the same, and shouted "It's beautiful!" so loud we all laughed.
She blushed as she turned the wand in her hand. I had to agree, though. It was beautiful.
I turned it around in my hand, before noticing a piece of paper lying in the wand's box.
"Dear Annabeth,
I hope you will find the wand useful.
I made this myself, and will now tell you more about it.
It's made of Olive tree, which is my sacred tree.
The core is the feather of an owl, which has received my blessing.
From your mother, Athena."
I stared at the paper for a while, until Hazel asked if something was wrong. I shook my head, and folded it together. "Are you sure? You have tears in your eyes." I wiped my eyes on my shirt before anyone else saw me, and gave a tiny smile to Hazel. "Yeah, everything is fine" I said.
I walked over to Percy to show him my wand, and got a look at his at the same time. Percy's was made of ash tree ("which is dad's sacred tree"). It had a core of mermaid hair and a hair from the mane of Pegasus ("THE Pegasus!"). It had waves carved into it, and they shone with faint glow of sea-green. While I first was at it, I checked everyone else's too.
Thalia proudly held out her wand for me to see. "Oak tree! And you will never guess the core..." she said with a smile as Jason came over. "You got Oak too, sis?" "Yup!" "No surprise." I said, after thinking a little. "That's your father's sacred tree. What's your core Jason?" "Feather from a thunderbird."
He straightened his back a little as I gasped. "Thunderbird?!" I took his wand from him and examined it, turned it my hands and even threw it upwards before I caught it. It had small lightnigs carved into it at the tip. "They've been considered extinct for centuries!" I handed it back to him. "I know, but obviously there's still a few of them in Himalaya."
I looked at Thalia. "Is that what you got too?" "Nope." She said proudly and handed me her wand. It had an arrow around the end. As I touched it, I felt a weak jolt go through my arm. I gasped. "No way!" "Yes way!" Thalia screamed. "Dad put a jolt from lightning inside it! And not just any lightning," she took a theatrical pause, "but his Master Bolt!"
As I walked back to my box, I asked the rest what their were made of. Piper's was made of Rose tree with one of Cupid's feather as a core (Nico glared at her wand, as if trying to kill it). Nico, who stood next to her, handed me his wand. It was pitch black. He said it was from a branch of a tree in the Underworld, with a piece of one of Cerberus' teeth as a core.
Leo's had a Phoenix feather as core and was made of birch, with no clear reason. It had a flame carved into the thickest end of it, and had come with a note that it was fireproof.
Frank's was mad of brier with a scale from a Chinese dragon, while Katie's were compressed wheat, and the core was a feather from one of her mother's winged snakes.
Reyna's was made of birch too, and had a piece of metal from her mother's sword inside it.
Will's core was a ray of sunshine (it felt warm when you touched it) and the wand itself was a laurel branch, Apollo's sacred tree. Hazel's was, as Nico's, made from a branch from the underworld, but had a core of raven feather.
Connor's and Travis' was both made from palm tree, which is Hermes' sacred tree. They had different cores, though. Connor's was a scale from Martha, and Travis' was a scale from 's was made of brier, like Frank's, but had still some of the thorns on the tip. Her core was a blessed Vulture feather.
"Now," the goddess cleared her throat, "if you don't mind, can we start the training?"
Harry's POV:
"Harry! Ron!" Mrs. Weasley's voice came jumping up the stairs and interrupted the two boys' sleep. "Ron groaned as I sat up, searching for my glasses with my right hand and rubbing my eyes with my left.
"Breakfast! If you're not down in the kitchen in less than three minutes, you'll have to wait to lunch for food!" Ron jumped out of his bed and into some pants, changed t-shirts in less than three seconds, and ran as fast as he could down the stairs followed by me, trying to fasten my belt as I ran.
"Good morning!" we yelled as soon as we came down to the kitchen. I sat down beside Ginny, giving her a kiss on the lips as I did. Ron sat together with Hermione on the opposite side. The latter had a book in her lap, reading as if her life were on the line.
"Good morning, boys!" Mr. Weasley came into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. "Only two more weeks until school!" "I know, dad" Ron said with a yawn. "I was the one to choose an extra year."
Mrs. Weasley put a plate of egg and bacon in front of them, as Mr. Weasley continued. "Yes, I know so, son. But aren't you happy you got the choice? I mean, it raises your chances to get the best job possible, if you work hard and better your grades."
"Yes!" Hermione closed her book. "Won't it be exciting? I mean, come ON! We didn't learn anything last year!"
"Maybe because we spent the year killing Voldemort part after part." I muttered and put a piece of bacon inside my mouth.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "And what did we learn from that?" "Never trust amulets or a hungry Ron." The room burst into laughter.
"We're planning to spend next week in Diagon Alley." Ginny swallowed, and put the next mouthful onto her fork. "You know, to get supplies and stuff." "Sounds great." I said.
"Have you heard the news?!" George came rushing down the stairs, tripped on the last step and fell, but hurriedly rose up again. "What?" "Exchange students!" He grinned at our confused looks. "There's a school in America that wishes to send a class for an eight year, and since Hogwarts is having an extra year, they're sending them here!"
Hermione frowned. "I haven't heard about a school in America" She said after a little thinking. "Well, maybe you don't know the name of every wizarding school in the world, smart ass." Ron gave her a quick kiss on the lips as an excuse. "And besides, maybe their school is hidden for outsiders, like Hogwarts?"
"But still- what's the name of the school?" She asked George. "Delphi's Magical Achademy." "Nope, never heard about." she filled her mouth with the rest of the breakfast, stood up and headed for the stairs.
"Ere 're you eadin'?" Ron asked with his mouth full of eggs. "To see if I come across this "Delphi's Magical Achademy" in any of my books." She took a deep breath. "And you," she pointed a finger towards her boyfriend, "has to learn to swallow before you talks."
