Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
Consul of the Underworld: The Game Begins
Year One: Character Class Selected
Beta: Siegfried01
The next morning, all the professors were wearing solemn expressions at the high table.
All the students were talking, wondering what had happened or where Snape was as Dumbledore stood up with a frown, his face looking as if it had aged twenty years in a night.
"Students, I…carry grave news this morn. Our Potions Professor, Severus Snape… passed away last night."
Chatter exploded all around the Great Hall. Everyone was wondering what had happened. The opinion on whether this development was a good thing however was varied, most of Slytherin table were aghast by this, the majority however were just confused and a little terrified that something like this could happen, while some students were looking happy about the news.
Dumbledore raised a hand for silence, "Settle down! Settle down!" He yelled, "As we now lack a potions professor, I will be acting as a substitute until I find one to fill the slot. The temporary head of house for Slytherin will be our astronomy professor, Professor Sinistra." He gestured to the beautiful dark skinned woman in olive robes.
"I ask…for all of us, even our newly arrived first years, to give a moment of silence for Professor Snape's passing." Dumbledore said woefully with his head down as the Great Hall grew silent.
And Alkaid, well, she did her best to repress her smile.
Despite this though, her emerald green eyes turned to the Hufflepuff table, trained on Ron Weasley.
Or more specifically, his pocket.
No rest for the wicked after all.
Peter Pettigrew was scurrying around the bed of Ron Weasley.
As a rat of course.
While it was hilarious that the stupid boy ended up in Hufflepuff of all places, the hidden Animagus had much to contemplate. Like Severus Snape, dead. By a potions accident! It served that Wanker right, always calling him an idiot and a pathetic tag-along.
Well, look who's alive and who's not! Ha!
Still, there was James' daughter. There was something about her, and whatever it was it just made his animal instinct scream at him to run away from the castle.
But, she was just a little girl. What kind of threat could she be?
He had a comfortable life like this, so why should he leave? Yes, best stay where he was warm and fed.
That was his line of thought until he was grabbed and embraced by shadows.
His tiny body wiggled fruitlessly in the powerful grasp that held him. As his beady little eyes adjusted to the dark, he soon came to the realization that he was face to face with a pair of glowing green eyes.
"Hello Pettigrew." A young female voice greeted.
Peter squeaked.
He was dropped to the floor and was struck by a bright blue light. Looking on dispassionately, Alkaid observed a head shoot upwards from the ground; limbs sprouting; and in the next moment, a short man was standing where the rat had been. It was like a Lego commercial, but instead of the sped-up creation of a cool toy, this process produced a pathetic excuse for a man.
His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes.
"Y-You!" he said in surprise while pointing at Alkaid, who had a pleasant smile on her lips.
"My oh my, being stuck as a rat for so long…you must be as stiff as a corpse, Pettigrew." Alkaid said with faux concern.
The man-rat scrambled back until he hit a stone wall. He looked around only to find that they were in some kind of sealed room. Where am I?
"A closed off dungeon," the daughter of his former friend answered his unasked question in a chipper fashion, "not even a crack for a rat to slip in from. Or out~"
Thank you geokinesis.
"B-But how did you-? When! Apparition shouldn't be able to-! I have so many questions!"
A mildly irate look crossed her face, "Oh do be silent you. You're interrupting my perfectly choreographed monologue." She held her wand at him with unwavering accuracy as she put a hand on her hip, "I must say, hiding in such a fashion, you are truly dedicated to laying low. If I didn't detest you, I might actually applaud your zeal."
Peter stood as straight as he could, even if his knees were knocking, "What are you going to do to me? You're just a child!"
Alkaid's smile turned toothy, nearly sadistic, "Oh Pettigrew…allow me to show you why mortals fear the dark."
As soon as she said that, the darkness around them came to life as it transformed into a mass of writhing tendrils that slowly advanced to Peter.
He scurried back against the wall once more, desperately pleading to the apparition to stay away, but to no avail.
As he cowered in a corner like the pathetic creature he was, Alkaid calmly walked forward and held her wand to his head, "Now, I could use some late night entertainment. Legilimens!"
And with that single word, Peter learned that there was someone far more frightening than his Master.
The next morning, the Daily Prophet was flooded with excitement. Peter Pettigrew-thought killed-had returned to the land of the living and was found sitting right in front of the Aurors office. Though, from what the paper said, his mind was very damaged and he was acting like a human sized rat. He was also wearing a sign: Do not pet the rat.
With the surfacing of his supposed victim, the long-time prisoner of Azkaban Sirius Black was brought back into the spotlight, as questions emerged about the circumstances behind Pettigrew's survival. Questions that thanks to Pettigrew's destroyed mind, only Black could answer. So reporters curious about the case had gone searching for details and along the way discovered that in the chaos of the post-war recovery, Black had not been given a proper trial. He had simply been summarily sentenced to Azkaban on the presumption of guilt based on what was considered overwhelming evidence. In the wake of that evidence being called into question now that Pettigrew had returned from the grave, the Ministry was scrambling to rectify this oversight. Black was thus scheduled to finally get his day in court. No one expected a different verdict, the man was obviously guilty in most people's eyes, but the public wanted answers and the Ministry was determined to oblige them.
Alkaid had of course played no small part in facilitating this outcome. Shortly after Pettigrew re-surfaced, she had sent a letter-anonymously-to the Daily Prophet, fanning the flames for a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Pettigrew's survival. This alone would likely have been controversial enough an opinion for the tabloid-esque paper to publish but to ensure it and to get it to join in on her campaign, she had sent some money along with it. Accepting the 'donation' and with the allure of a juicy story, the Prophet was more than happy to follow her lead.
As the week went by, Snape's death was still a hot topic of discussion amongst the population of Hogwarts despite the Pettigrew Affair in the papers. For most Pettigrew and Black were people from a bygone era and didn't concern them, Snape on the other hand was someone they knew and interacted with personally, hence the enduring interest. People wanted to know what happened, but Dumbledore was keeping a tight lid on everything. Now, that just wouldn't do. Alkaid went to a lot of trouble (ten minutes of her precious sleep time) to ruin the man in both life and death and she was not about to let that go to waste. Well, that just meant she'd have to work a little bit harder to get the payoff for her efforts. With that in mind, the daughter of Hades sent the details of his death anonymously to the Daily Prophet, enclosing this tip with a 'donation' as well so they would take it seriously. The paper initially ran the damning revelation as pure speculation, a fact that sadly only a handful of its readers even noticed. However, as the the reports over the week based on the Prophet's follow up investigations proved that everything was true? Well, even the skeptics had to concede by that point. The end result? Just what Alkaid wanted, Snape's stellar reputation as a potioneer was utterly ruined.
Of course it was second best to Pettigrew in terms of coverage in the press, but hey, it still made the papers.
Classes continued for the rest of the exciting week. And throughout, despite the high-profile events in the papers, the students still found the time to find something else to focus on and distract them, specifically a certain daughter of Hades.
"There, look."
"Where?"
"Next to the tall guy with the black hair."
"Did you see her face?"
"Her eyes are so pretty!"
Whispers followed Alkaid after leaving the Great Hall. People lined up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe just to get a look at her, or doubled back to pass her in the corridors again, staring. Alkaid would just flash them a kind smile, a friendly wave, or just a passing hello so as not to be rude. Even though these people's actions were themselves very rude, it did not after all pay to stoop to their level.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was annoying when you were trying to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. A problem exacerbated by the fact that most of the possible landmarks had a penchant for moving around too. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Alkaid was certain the coats of armor could walk.
The ghosts were very helpful, at least, to Alkaid. She even became good friends with the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw house. She was such a wonderful conservationist and just as her name suggested, a well-mannered lady.
Thought Peeves the Poltergeist was something else altogether. Once he had tried to prank her with a bucket of water. She was not harmed of course, but sadly for Peeves, she was alone at the time using the facilities. With a lack of witnesses around, she was able to exercise her feminine rage and banished him to the Fields of Punishment as a present for Alecto. The Fury had been complaining for some time of a lack of suitably entertaining new victims and would undoubtedly greatly appreciate her little gift.
Even worse than Peeves was the caretaker, Argus Filch. One day as the child of the Underworld was going between classes, she had come across the lout yelling at one of her roommates, Padma Patil, for something. Alkaid of course stepped in, seeing how frightened of the man Padma was. She had proceeded to give the man a cold look that made him back off. With that, she had led Padma to the library to help her calm down from the encounter and to get to know each other better. Besides the horrible man himself though there was unfortunately his equally detestable cat. Or at least that's what Alkaid had heard. She had no personal experience with it as thanks to her affinity with death, animals tended to shy away from Alkaid in general, so the daughter of Hades was spared that annoyance.
And then there were the classes themselves. Alkaid was greatly enjoying herself whilst training in the art of magic. Wizarding magic was something new to her and she was taking every opportunity Hogwarts offered to enrich her understanding of it, which when translated into her actual performance in class had her being among the top few students in all her classes. An achievement she shared with a rather smart Gryffindor named Hermione Granger.
Most of the teachers seemed capable and enthusiastic about their subjects, but for Alkaid who had been taught from the beginning by the best educators ever, living or dead, they were mediocre at best. Not that she expected anything more than that, her primary motive for coming to Hogwarts had not after all been about learning wizarding magic. The only teachers of note were Quirrell who oddly gave off a feeling of strong dark magic, Alkaid reasoned he must be a secret dabbler, and Dumbledore who tried to read her mind during class. She had felt a touch to her Occlumency barriers when they had exchanged glances during Potions. It seemed the old man had tried to read her mind. He didn't force his way through though, having left things as a casual brush.
Since she had been old enough to understand, Alkaid had been taught to control her emotions as they reflected her powers. Thus, a tantrum could very well cause an outbreak of her abilities. Occlumency, the art of clearing one's mind, was trained into her to both better control her emotions, but also defend her mind from attacks.
Hm, note to self, teach Occlumency to her study group as a study aid as being able to clear one's mind is a boon. Also, it should protect her future assets from mental attacks.
All in all, this meant that Alkaid was thriving here at Hogwarts. Not everyone however was so lucky and it was among these people that she saw opportunity.
To exploit this opportunity, she discussed with Blaise the idea of starting up a study group. Her loyal companion of course readily agreed. She managed to rope in her roommates Lisa Turpin and Padma. Blaise did well too by getting his own roommates Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein onboard. All four had difficulties in coping with Hogwarts: Anthony and Padma had trouble assimilating into the school's culture because of their Jewish and Indian heritage and upbringing respectively; Lisa was just incredibly shy and thus was having trouble making friends; and Michael was having trouble keeping up with the high academic expectations of Ravenclaw, though he was by no means a bad student. This study group for the outcasts was the perfect foundation for her power base in Ravenclaw house. Of course, why should she limit it just to her own house? Why not help bridge inter-house cooperation for good PR and scout other potential students? Why not extend it to muggleborns too and gain their support through this charitable action? In sum, the study group was a stroke of genius that had the potential that if done well would allow her to build it into a truly powerful group of allies.
The first week of classes had finally ended and Alkaid was in the Great Hall for dinner with her growing clique, discussing various things that she had Blaise scout.
"I think we need to focus on location," the young Indian girl, Padma, stated as she looked at the list Blaise had made.
"Well, the library is the best bet," Michael said.
"Yeah, but too much noise and Madam Pinch'll kick us out." Anthony rebutted.
"Leave the noise issues to me," Alkaid eased their concerns. A simple noise muffling charm should take care of that, "Now, I have to talk to Daphne and Tracy in Slytherin about joining us. Has anyone seen someone else interesting?"
"There's that Granger girl from Gryffindor. I hear she's real smart." The brunette, Lisa, offered.
"My sister says she's a nightmare." Padma frowned, "Far too much of a know-it-all."
Alkaid cracked an amused smile, "Well, it seems the hat sorted her poorly." She said, getting a few laughs. "Still, who else?"
"Susan Bones," Blaise insisted, pointing out the redhead Hufflepuff who was currently talking to a blonde girl sitting next to her. "Though best invite her friend Hannah too, they're stuck like glue. She's the blonde over there with her now, if you didn't know."
"There's also that Finch-Flecthley fellow," Anthony pointed out, "He's a nice bloke."
Alkaid hummed at that while eating some of her Greek salad. Things were going wonderfully so far, "Yes, that should be a good beta test. We'll form up on this and after a few sessions we can start inviting more people that need help to join us and/or "uninviting" any troublemakers once the kinks are all pressed out."
"Sounds like a plan," Blaise nodded.
"Good." Alkaid answered as she looked across the Hall at Daphne and Tracey , "I'll catch them once dinner is over and before they go to their dorm. See whether they are interested in joining our little club."
Twenty minutes later, dinner was over and Alkaid went over to speak with her first friends at Hogwarts. With the hassle of the first week, she had not been able to speak to them all that much, so she was dearly looking forward to take the opportunity to catch up.
"Daphne, Tracey, how have you two been?" Alkaid asked amicably as she approached her two friends at the Slytherin table.
"Hi Alkaid." "Hello Potter." The two Slytherins replied warmly, as they gestured for Alkaid to take a seat at their table.
"Sorry about not coming over to talk to the two of you sooner. Things have been so hectic over the week that I honestly didn't even think about it." The Potter heiress said genuinely apologetic as she sat down.
"Oh don't worry about that, Alkaid. We were pretty overwhelmed too so we know the feeling." Tracy replied kindly. "Right, Daphne?"
"Tracy is right. It's only been a week. It's not as if you've forgotten we existed or something." Daphne said a mischievous smirk slowly stretching across her face. "If that were the case I'd certainly take offense and you'd have lost yourself an ally."
"Daphne! Alkaid didn't just befriend us for our connections." Tracy scolded her housemate, before turning to the Ravenclaw and asking a tad uncertainly, "You didn't did you?"
"Would I tell you, if I did?" Said Ravenclaw replied with her own mischievous smile spread across her face.
"You wouldn't be much of a politician, if you did." Daphne said as she muddied the waters further.
"Argh! Can't either of you give me a straight answer?" Tracey cried out in frustration.
"If you're going to be this entertaining to work up?"
"She is." The Greengrass girl confirmed.
"Well then, the answer is no." Alkaid said with that damnable trademark smile of hers plastered on her face.
"Now's there two of you!" Tracey complained with a groan.
Her two friends just exchanged amused looks at her expense.
"So what are you doing here, Potter?" Daphne asked.
"Can't I just want to catch up with you?"
"Just catching up? Come on, I may not be as much of a political animal as either of you, but even I can see you want something from us." Tracey cut in. "So you want us to join your little clique?"
"Yes, though we prefer to think of ourselves as a study group first and foremost." Alkaid admitted readily.
"How Ravenclaw." Daphne observed. "Though I'm surprised you're being so transparent about everything. You're certainly capable of being a lot more subtle about building up your power base."
"You give me too much credit. I'm flattered." The daughter of Hades replied graciously, her eyelashes fluttering playfully.
"It's only the truth. I mean you're loads better than Malfoy at this stuff, at least as far as I can see. But here you are acting just like him." The Davis witch said in support of her friend's observation.
Alkaid's smile grew more mysterious at that, even as she provided an answer. "Sometimes, it makes the most sense to play to the audience's expectations. Doing so doesn't draw as much unwanted attention. Besides, I'm fairly sure even if I'm behaving like Malfoy like you say, which is the first time I've heard mention of it, I'd do a much better job than him."
Tracey let out a derisive snort at this. "It's not hard."
"Unfortunately not." Daphne agreed. "Honestly, he's a disgrace to his family name in my opinion. The Malfoys have been renowned for producing shrewd politicians for generations and yet Draco is just… well mediocre is the nicest way to put it."
"Which means he sucks." Tracy translated.
"Surely he can't be that bad." Their friend asked, surprised.
"Oh he is." Tracy reaffirmed. "The first night here, he went around the common room telling everyone that he had you under his thumb. Even told the whole story of the encounter on the train to try to prove his point."
"He even had us vouch for him as witnesses." Daphne added.
"When he was done and went to bed thinking he'd impressed the whole house with his accomplishment, everyone waited till they couldn't be heard and burst into laughter at his expense. It seemed everyone spotted your little trick but him."
"Well it was pretty basic." Alkaid conceded.
"And Malfoy failed to catch it." Daphne said continuing the story. "Worse, he's been leveraging it to get people to join his clique. All the while not knowing everyone is laughing behind his back every time he brings it up."
"Really?" The Ravenclaw boggled.
"Yup." Tracy happily confirmed. "But enough about Malfoy. So when is the next meeting of your study group? Daphne and I will be there." Daphne nodded when Alkaid turned to her for confirmation.
"Well, we haven't really settled on a date and time yet. We are still recruiting right now. Once we have a firmer idea on who is joining us, then we can work out the details. So let me get back to you two?" Alkaid asked.
"Sure." "Of course."
"So wanna hear more embarrassing stories about Malfoy?" Tracey asked, eager to share.
Alkaid decided to catch the bushy haired Granger girl before her broom flying lesson (something that Alkaid managed to dance her way out by claiming, not entirely untruly, a severe phobia of heights). The girl was reading Quidditch through the Ages, spewing out fact after fact in a nervous manner.
From what she gathered on the girl, Granger was a know-it-all, but had some real talent. She was also a teacher's pet, desperately looking for approval from any and all authority figures around her. Based on the amount of time the other girl spent in the library in solitude however, the daughter of Hades easily deduced that Granger had no friends. Furthermore, going by the odd comments Granger made every so often, this sad state of affairs wasn't a new thing that befell her since coming to Hogwarts. She'd been just as friendless before she discovered she was a witch too.
Granger was fragile and would readily latch onto even the faintest displays of camaraderie. Especially if that came from someone intelligent (such as Alkaid) who could truly understand her. Taking this into account, the girl would be easy to draw into the daughter of Hades' clique.
She was just about to approach the Gryffindor when she saw Malfoy walk on over and swipe something from a rather portly boy standing next to the other girl. Alkaid could feel a frown forming, but forced out a pleasant smile as she walked on over, "Draco!" she greeted in a chipper fashion, "Wonderful morning to you. Crabbe, Goyle." She nodded in greeting to Malfoy's two bodyguards.
"Potter." Malfoy greeted back with a mild stunned look, "Morning to you as well."
Alkaid took an interest in the glass orb in his palm, "My, is that a Remembrall?" she curiously asked.
"Ugh, yes." Malfoy nodded.
"I-It's mine," the portly Gryffindor boy stammered out, making Alkaid tilt her head.
"Well, I'm sure Draco here was merely admiring it. After all, if he wanted to, I'm sure his father would love to get him one, no?" she asked the blond haired boy with a small smile. Malfoy loved to talk about his father sending him gifts and such, so it was only fitting for Alkaid to use that against him. It would also allow her to resolve this situation justly whilst still allowing him to save face.
Malfoy colored pink at that and steadily handed the item back to its owner, "Yes, well, after looking at it, I don't think I need one." He rushed out, clearly unsettled by Alkaid's unexpected intervention and the many eyes that their little altercation had by now drawn.
"Hm, I see." Alkaid nodded, "Oh well, I hope you have a pleasant flight Draco."
Malfoy gave a stiff nod and tilted his head to signal his goons to follow him.
"T-Thank you." The portly boy thanked.
"It was no trouble at all, Mister?"
"Neville, Neville Longbottom."
Alkaid flashed him a kind smile and resumed on to her intended objective until Professor McGonagall showed up and told her house it was time for their flying lesson.
Undeterred by this, Alkaid decided to follow the class out the Great Hall. Blaise would get her satchel for her.
"Miss Granger?" she called out and walked next to the girl who was nose deep in her book.
"Y-Yes?" she said, peering up and stopping, "You're Alkaid Potter, right?" she gasped in surprise.
Alkaid offered a calming smile, "Yes I am."
"Can I help you with something?" she asked quickly, "I have to go to class and I must really be going, but-"
Alkaid raised a hand to calm her down, "I actually just wished to invite you to a little get together I was having."
"…For?" Granger asked with a guarded look.
"I'm organizing a study group for members of our year." Alkaid explained as they walked to Granger's class, "I'm collecting the more driven students as the initial group you see. After seeing if it works, I was considering that we could help other first year students who are having trouble." She explained, trying and, if Granger's reactions were anything to go by succeeding, in sounding heartfelt, "I would very much like it if you joined us." The daughter of Hades held out her hand, "I hear you are quite intelligent and I would love to hear your take on magic as a muggleborn."
Granger looked at a loss of words. Eventually she spoke up, "I…would like that." She said with such raw undisguised longing that Alkaid couldn't help but feel how easy that was. "When are we meeting?"
"You'll be delivered the final details at a later date, but know that it's within the next three days." Alkaid informed, "Now, good luck with your flying, Granger."
"Please, call me Hermione," the bushy haired girl said with a small smile, showing her buck-like teeth.
Alkaid offered her own smile and departed with a friendly wave. After walking a safe distance and making sure that she was alone, she Shadow Traveled to her next class feeling pleased at how the recruitment went.
The first study group session was a raging success! The synergy everyone had was wonderful. Of course, some egos clashed. Hermione especially had instigated some very heated arguments over certain topics. The girl was certainly opinionated. Perhaps too much so, since she more than once clung onto her opinions even after being offered compelling and objective evidence that proved they were wrong. Thankfully, Alkaid managed to smooth over these disagreements quickly before trouble brewed. Hermione's stubborn nature was something Alkaid made a mental note to help the girl temper and tame, it wouldn't do for her new friend to let her arrogance destroy herself.
It was now a week after that session and the study group, with a few new recruits, were again meeting in the library. Everyone had returned much to Alkaid's pleasure. Even Finch-Fletchley who had argued most intensely with Hermione last session, and who the daughter of Hades had feared might have been put off by the other girl. The curly blond haired boy, had much to Alkaid's relief shown up at the expected time along with his housemates Susan and Hannah.
Amazingly, the first of the non-Ravenclaw members of the group to bring along a potential new member had been Hermione. She had shown up, much to the shock of the whole group, with Pyrrha Branwen who was as usual wearing her Red Sox cap with her blood red hair in a waist length braid. When asked how she'd managed this, Hermione had explained that the two aren't quite friends, but as the only two non-girly girls in their dorm, they had some degree of camaraderie. So when she'd heard Pyrrha complaining about her schoolwork, Hermione had brought up the study group and how it might be able to help her.
Curious about her fellow American, Alkaid took the opportunity to get a closer look at the other girl. She noted the strong, but pretty, features the girl had and which blended well with her deep tan. Her eyes were a dark red-brown and clearly conveyed just how sharp and dangerous their owner could be. She had broad shoulders and carried herself in a slouched, but tough, manner. She was also wearing pants for some odd reason.
Alkaid cut her examination off though as the rest of the group settled down. It was time to begin. The daughter of Hades hummed as she looked around at the others seated around the large table with her, "Well, hello everyone." she greeted kindly, her trademark smile in play, "I'm sure we are all done introducing ourselves, so to start off," she held up her wand, "Why not make our lives easier and figure out where our strong points are? To do that, I suggest we share a little bit about our wands, just knowing the wood used to make them can tell us a lot about our predispositions towards types of magic. Of course, just because a wand is suited for one set of magic, does not mean you cannot excel at other branches, but it should give us at least a place to start." She received nods all around at that statement. "So I will go first and we can take turns by going clockwise around the table?" Alkaid received another round of affirmative nods at that. "Good. So, my wand is aspen, thirteen inches, yes that's a bit long for a wand. It's good for duels and martial magic. Daphne?"
"My wand is made of laurel, seven inches." Daphne voiced, "So based on the fact that wands have always led a witch or wizard to their gifted section of magic. I'll be likely be able to perform powerful, but lethal magic and have magic that will be fickle if I ever get lazy." Alkaid had to stifle a giggle at that one.
And so, everyone showed off their wands, the last was Pyrrha showing her ebony wand that was highly suited for combative magic of all kinds and transfiguration. Ebony wands supposedly liked courageous owners and outsiders of the status quo. She had a dry look when mentioning that last part.
"That was good," Alkaid praised, "Now, I think it would be best to break into pairs to help those struggling in one area which you have skill in and which at the same time has talent in an area you are struggling with? We'll be able to cover more ground that way."
Everyone quickly paired up, with the exception of Alkaid herself.
"So who'll be your partner then, Alkaid?" Lisa asked with a chuckle that was shared with the rest of her housemates in the group. Alkaid excelled at all their classes after all.
"I'm not good at everything, Lisa." Alkaid informed.
That got a few snorts and giggles.
"Enough joking, let's pair off." Alkaid said with slightly more authority and everyone did as such.
"Why don't you help Pyrrha then?" Hermione asked, with a smile that was a mix of teasing and condescension. "She needs help in pretty much every subject."
Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck, an irritated look on her face, "Yeah, hate to admit it, but I'm not much of a bookish type. You guys feel me?"
"Perfectly understandable." Alkaid said accompanied by a round of similar reassurances from the rest of the group, even Hermione who had teased her earlier.
"Plus," Pyrrha said, "I hear you're from Cali." She pointed to her hat, "I bet you've figured out…"
"That you are from Boston? Or at least support the Red Sox." Alkaid giggled lightly.
Pyrrha cracked a grin, "Born and raised…until mom had to move back to Wales due to a business contract." She grimaced, "Not cool really, but hey, I still go back to the states for my summer camp."
"I see." Alkaid understood, perhaps more than the other girl had intended her to if her new suspicions were correct, as she adjusted her glasses as she turned back to the others, "Now, if that's settled let's split up now, shall we?"
As the group broke up into pairs, Alkaid asked the redhead, "So, Pyrrha, what do you need help with?"
"I mean, I'm pretty good at transfiguration," Pyrrha explained while sitting next to Alkaid, resting her elbow on the table to support her chin, "But the rest is…"
"All Greek to you?" Alkaid said, smiling at her own little joke.
Pyrrha snorted, "I wish it was Greek." She sighed, "So…can ya help me or what?" she asked.
"I most definitely can," Alkaid informed confidently.
"Alright, cool." Pyrrha flashed a thankful smile and pulled out some loose leaf paper. "So, charms, need some extra help with the wand motions."
"Let's get started then." The daughter of Hades said and began to help her fellow American.
The next week was a whirlwind as Alkaid was finally settling into a routine to follow. With her self-studies, her tutoring, and dealing with the on-going flak of the Pettigrew/Black affair, it was rather exhilarating.
And now it was finally Halloween day, October 31st. The very day that changed Alkaid's life forever.
Many in her clique gave their condolences to Alkaid that morning. The daughter of Hades however felt no connection to the date. The Potters, no matter her last name, weren't her family. Sure they died for her, and she loved them, but they didn't raise her in any meaningful way (the occasional visits when summoned were hardly enough). The House of Hades was. Her divine parents, yes even her erstwhile stepmother, had always been there for her when she needed them. And Melinoe was always just a shout away. She had unfortunately had to keep up appearances, so she put on a show of grief and accepted the many condolences she received that day with as much grace as she could muster.
After the day ended, it was time for the Halloween Feast in the Great Hall. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Just as the feast was getting underway, Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face, "Troll – in the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons!" Everyone stared at him as he stood in the middle lane of the tables, "Thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint, face first.
Alkaid gave a sigh. Quirrel was obviously faking it, but the wizards and witches around her were sadly buying his fantastic tale wholesale. It was so sad. The man did look a little drained, likely from whatever dark magicks he was dabbling in, but he wasn't even unconscious. All anyone needed to spot that was to look at the man closely for a moment, he wasn't exactly insensate.
There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Alkaid couldn't help rolling her eyes at that suggestion. The Slytherin dorms were in the dungeon, exactly where the troll was supposedly seen last. Before she could act on this though, the Ravenclaw prefects began hustling the Ravenclaws out of the Great Hall. Well, she was not going to allow that to stop her from correcting the Headmaster's apparent epic stupidity. Pushing through the throng of her housemates, she sidled up to her head of house.
"Professor Flitwick?" Alkaid asked in the most innocent voice she could muster.
"Yes, Alkaid? Why aren't you hurrying off back to the dorms?" A harried looking Flitwick replied.
"Well, there's something that just occurred to me. The Slytherin dorms are in the dungeons are they not? Where the troll is too?" Alkaid asked, still with the innocent voice.
Flitwick's eyes widened at that. "Merlin! Thank you Alkaid, for pointing that out."
With that Flitwick turned quickly and all but ran off to speak to the Headmaster, and quickly explained the situation. Dumbledore seemed to pale at what he heard, so presumably the idea that he was effectively sending the Slytherins towards the troll had not occurred to him either. So much for the greatest wizard alive.
Alkaid would have liked to have stayed and watch how the rest of the drama would unfold but was unfortunately personally ushered out of the Hal at this point by a concerned Ravenclaw prefect. Though as she exited the Hall she did catch McGonagall organizing the teachers into one large group to go search for the troll. Apparently they wanted as many wands on hand when they found it.
The Ravenclaw prefects did as they were told as they led their students out the Great Hall and in barely fifteen minutes, the whole house was already on the fifth floor.
On the way, Alkaid frowned. As a self-reliant individual, she honestly felt the professors searching for the creature in a large group was ill-advised, it could have easily moved since Quirrell ran away like a wailing babe. And besides, she could feel her blood saying to stop this monster. Being a hero was what she was born to do after all.
With that thought, she grabbed Blaise's shoulder and whispered, "Cover for me, I'll take care of this quickly."
The boy looked ready to protest, but Alkaid silenced him, "I'm trusting you Blaise." She said. This would be a perfect chance to test the boy to see if his skill with words was up to her standards and how far his loyalty truly extended.
And with one final assured smile, Alkaid used the shadows to turn invisible, and went to find the troll.
Now, Alkaid doubted the monster would still be in the dungeon. So therefore, it would clearly be-A thunderous crash disturbed her thought process-the sound had come from the trophy room on the…Well, Tyche must be smiling down at her.
A gut wrenching cry soon echoed down the hallway. Frowning, the daughter of Hades hurried over.
"Aw, what's wrong ya big turd? You needed that arm?" a mocking voice laughed cruelly.
Wait, Alkaid knew that voice. She entered the trophy room to see the troll. It was twelve foot, with skin as grey as a tombstone, a large lumpy body with a cue ball head. It had thick short legs with flat large toe nailed feet. It was holding a huge wooden club, in its only remaining arm. Yes, it was missing an arm.
And it was no doubt thanks to the grinning Pyrrha, who was holding a bronze-a celestial bronze!-labrys. It was easily eight feet tall and the dual axe heads were two feet in length and three feet in width combined.
"Come on!" Pyrrha declared, pointing her weapon at the troll like a Louisville Slugger. "I'll Grand Slam you in the balls next!"
Huh, so Pyrrha was a demigod too. Small world. Alkaid dropped her invisibility and walked over.
"Well, it seems you beat me to it." Alkaid casually said, making Pyrrha snap her head towards the pale girl.
"What the?!"
"You don't mind if I cut in, do you?" Alkaid asked the girl, a small smile on her face.
"What? Potter, what's going on?"
"Short version; I'm a demigod too."
Pyrrha clicked her tongue in irritation, "I've got this handled."
"Oh, I'm sure. But still, I could use some exercise after dinner." The daughter of Hades rebutted with a grin.
"…Fine, let's see what you got." Pyrrha gestured with her labrys.
0 Play: Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax - Margaret's theme 0
The green eyed girl smiled at that and pulled out her business card holder from her skirt pocket. She pressed the silver clasp and instead of opening, it turned into a book. It was a black leather bound book with silver edgings, Le Grimoire titled on it in stylish silver font and stamped on the front was a matching colored star.
"…That's your weapon?" Pyrrha guffawed, "What're you gonna do? Read it to death?"
Alkaid decided not to answer and let her actions speak for her. She opened the book and as soon as she did, cards flew out of it, orbiting around her lazily.
"…Wha?" Pyrrha blinked in surprise.
"Hm, which one, which one," Alkaid hummed and picked one, "Ah! A classic," she placed the card into the book and pointed it at the coming troll. Snapping it shut, a red magic circle appeared before her, "Fireball!"
With that, a large searing red ball of flames erupted from the circle and launched at the troll, setting it on fire as it wailed in agony.
"The hell was that?" Pyrrha asked Alkaid, looking at the book-and the hovering cards-warily.
"My weapon," Alkaid told her as they heard a crash. They turned to see the troll flailing and thrashing about, "Hm, so it has some fire resistance? Interesting."
"Interesting? We gotta kill it," Pyrrha told her sternly.
Alkaid nodded, "We do. I'll knock it off-balance, you lop off its head?"
Pyrrha gave a wide grin at that, "Oh, I'm liking you more and more, Kaidy."
"Then I shan't disappoint." Alkaid smiled, "Rush in, I'll cover you."
Pyrrha gripped her weapon and charged in with a war cry.
Alkaid quickly grabbed another card and snapped her book closed. As a green magic circle appeared, she said, "Axel Shooter!" Six softball sizes spheres of green magic launched out, zooming past Pyrrha at high speed. They collided with the troll's left leg with such force that the sound of shattering bones resounded throughout the room. In the aftermath, the limb was utterly deformed by spherical indentations that riddled the stumpy leg.
As the troll timbered over, Pyrrha raised her labrys in the air and slashed down. The blade connecting to the jugular and slicing through it like a hot knife through butter, taking off its head. As her blade hit the ground, it cracked the stone floor from the strength behind the swing.
0 End: Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax - Margaret's theme 0
"Phew!" Pyrrha whistled as she walked on over to Alkaid, stepping on a plaque that had fallen onto the floor during the course of the fighting, breaking it. "Oops," she said looking down, it belonged to someone named Riddle. Meh, whatever. The redhead continued over to Alkaid, who had changed her book back to its mortal item form. Pyrrha decided to do the same, changing her Labrys back into a Swiss Army Knife, "Hey, nice moves." She said, jabbing Alkaid in the arm.
With a grunt, Alkaid rubbed her arm, "Yes, thank you. Excellent work on your part as well. So, I think it is safe to assume we both know who we are, yes?"
Pyrrha just grinned wider, "Demigods, yeah. But da-a-amn! It's nice to know someone else is here. So, who's your parent? Hecate?"
Alkaid quickly offered a saddened face, "I'm afraid I can't say. I'm unclaimed you see. "
"Oh. Sorry about that." Pyrrha said apologetically, before quickly becoming excited again. "So when will you be coming to camp? This summer?"
"Not any time soon, I'm afraid." Alkaid admitted feigning sadness.
"What? Why not? You're powerful and that's cool, but that also makes your scent stronger and things more dangerous for you." Pyrrha voiced worriedly. "You gotta contact camp asap or get to it latest this summer. You'll need backup and we can give it."
"I'm sorry but that's not possible." Alkaid deflected effortlessly. "You see I'm under the protection of a god right now, my mother sacrificed her life to earn me this protection in a ritual the night she died."
Pyrrha did not need to know that the "ritual" in question was simply dying.
"And my patron is not too thrilled with Camp Half Blood." Alkaid concluded.
Pyrrha gained a sympathetic look, "Oh, that sounds complicated. Sorry for asking like that, just got excited. But buck up! once you're claimed, I'm sure your real godly parent will let you come to camp."
That's if I even want to go. Alkaid thought to herself dismissively.
Shaking her head, the redhead continued and offered a hand, "Anyway, I'll just introduce myself again. Name's Pyrrha Branwen, daughter of Ares."
Omake: The Light of Magic
A five year old Alkaid was happily bouncing a ball of green magic she made while sitting in her playroom. Though it was quite the unconventional playroom. For one thing, most playrooms weren't guarded by a Fury. Second, their toys didn't all have spikes popping out from odd places or were decorated in the designs of or in the shape of caricatures of various monsters.
The young demigoddess was caught up in her own little world when all of a sudden the typically dark room was illuminated by a pink light as a large magic circle appeared vertically in front of the little girl.
Acting quickly, Alecto, the girl's Fury nanny, rushed to put herself between her charge and the glowing portal that was forming in the centre of the magical circle.
"Hoe?!" Came a cry from the portal even as a tall slender girl with short honey brown hair, large emerald green eyes and fair skin appeared. "Did I mess up the dimensional spell? Oh, Kero-chan is going to yell at me again." the young woman bemoaned in her native language.
Just then Hades came storming into the room with a veritable army of his undead guards, having been drawn by the immense power that he had sensed in the room.
"Daddy!" Alkaid said happily at her father's appearance as she peeked out from behind Alecto's protective stance. "The pretty lady fell out of a magic hole! Can I learn to do that?"
"When you get older, Sweetling." The Lord of the Underworld said automatically as he strode to confront the intruder. "Who are you? Which pantheon are you from? Do you know you're trespassing and in so doing breaking at least a dozen Ancient Laws?"
The young woman, despite her immense power, bowed her frame, "I am so very sorry!" she stood up properly, her hands laced in front of her, "Magic spell gone wrong, hehehe." she rubbed the back of her neck.
"You talk funny." Alkaid giggled while pointing at the young woman.
"Indeed she does, Alkaid. Please use some translation magic, my lady, I can barely understand you." Hades politely asked the mysterious young woman.
The woman, understanding him, nodded. With a casual wave of her hand, a pink light graced her frame for a fleeting moment, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to intrude. Ah, I just need a few moments to fix this. I was trying to perfect inter-dimensional transfer and must have made a mistake somewhere and got sent here to a different plane of our own instead. The Greek Underworld, if I'm not mistaken. Once more, I am so sorry!" she bowed again in a nervous fashion.
Hades was honestly flabbergasted by that reply. Dimensional transfer? As a casual spell she was refining and not a magnum opus of a magic user's or even a god's whole life? That spoke of an insane amount of skill and power. Guardedly, the god replied. "There is no need to apologize. Though I am curious, what is your name? You have yet to answer me."
"Hoe!? I haven't? Oh where are my manners? My name is Sakura Kinomoto, Master of the Sakura Cards. Sorceress Supreme. It is a great pleasure to meet you Lord Hades." The young intruder said with a very formal bow.
The Sorceress Supreme? But that meant she was a mortal! A mortal with power surpassing a god's!?
"You know magic too?" Alkaid padded up to the pretty lady. Her matching emerald green eyes twinkling with childish excitement.
Sakura looked at the excitable little girl and the magic coming off her. She raised a finger with a kind lecturing pose.
"Yup. But since you can do magic I'm obligated, so Tomoyo keeps telling me, to teach you a little about magic. So let me teach you the most important thing about it: magic is an incredible thing. Oh sure, it can do great and terrible things. With the right spell or ritual for example, I could destroy the world. But it can also do wonderful things too, like this…. The Bubbles!"
At this exclamation, a card flashed into existence in front of the Sorceress for a brief moment before transforming into a young mermaid-like little girl wearing a blue gem necklace along with some pearls tied around her bubbly head. The creature heeding some unsaid command from her summoner proceeded to fill the whole playroom with rainbow colored bubbles that floated and danced around.
Alkaid gave a giggle and held one. As she examined it, it popped, dampening her face. Bubbles giggled behind Sakura's leg like an imp. Alkaid pouted at this and marched over to the impish girl. But Bubbles just danced away, skipping over the bubbles as if they were solid as she did so. Alkaid gave chase, laughing the whole time.
Hades, Alecto and his undead minions in the meanwhile just stood there looking awkward as they held their ready stances. Pleasant or not, the intruder was incredibly powerful and someone they knew little to nothing about. Clearing his throat to regain the Sorceress's attention, the god spoke. "I thank you for entertaining my daughter, however I must ask you to leave. You do not belong here."
"Aww! Daddy! Let them stay! I wanna play with them more." Alkaid whined.
Hades frowned at this, this was a complete stranger. He couldn't just let her stay here on his daughter's fancy.
Nodding to Hades, the Sorceress turned to the frankly adorable little girl. "I'm sorry, little one. But I really do need to leave."
"Aww! Do you have to?" Alkaid asked sadly.
"I do." The powerful young woman replied. "But you know what? If you become a power magic user someday then I promise we'll meet again. I'm the Sorceress Supreme after all, and it's my job to know all of those."
"So if I become super powerful, we can meet again?" Alkaid asked only to receive a nod in reply. "Then I'll do it! I'll become a powerful magician, I promise!"
Sakura smiled at the little girl before turning to her godly father and gave another nod. Summoning a staff with a shaft of around three meters in length and topped by a star head that was flanked by a pair of large white wings, the Sorceress called up another magic circle much like the one that had initially deposited her in the Underworld in the first place.
"Why the staff? You were not using it before." Hades probed. Best to learn as much of this creature, he refused to call one as powerful as this a mortal, while he had the chance. One never knew if they might one day become enemies and this knowledge might prove useful.
"Oh! It helps my control. I have power in spades. But control, especially the fine control I need for complicated magicks are something I struggle with. It was while practising with my inter-dimensional transfer without my staff to help my control that I ended up here."
"So you're already mastered a spell to travel to other realities?" Hades boggled.
"No. I only consider a spell mastered once I can do it without my staff." Sakura explained. She held out an empty pink card and the Bubbles swirled into bubbles and was absorbed into the card, "It was nice to meet you, Alkaid-chan. Keep practicing magic."
As Alkaid pouted at the pretty lady leaving, she did know one thing. She wanted to be just like her! That star staff looked nice too. Though, she wondered why Bubbles was a card? It was neat though.
As Sakura emerged in her home, she sighed, "Phew! That was an ordeal. Meeting gods can be scary. Still," she smiled at the memory of the little girl and how innocent she was. All that magic, yes, the girl would be powerful one day.
"Sakura-chan!" a beautiful woman with long black hair and features like a doll tackle hugged her.
"Hoe! Tomo-chan!"
"Oh Sakura-chan, welcome home!"
"About time," a male voice said. It belonged to a very handsome young man who frowned down on the embracing girls as he walked down the stairs to join them.
"Syaoran was worried sick about his girlfriend," Tomoyo teased the man, her arms still holding Sakura. The young man's face heated at that.
"Silence Tomoyo!"
The black haired girl just giggled at his rebuke.
Sakura smiled and giggled at the scene, "Still, it's good to be home."
"Sakura! Where's the pudding?" a floating little plushie with wings asked, as it sat down on her head.
Sakura hung her head, "Oh Kero-chan."
Phew! Got a lot of stuff done this time! Thanks to Nameless and Sieg as always! XD
So we dealt with the aftermath of Snape and now Peter?! Alkaid is a busy girl. And it's' only been two months! So, Peter is dealt with. He lived as a rat with a human mind, but now he has to live as a human with the mind of a rat. The ironic punishments of Hades burn strong in his little girl, huh?
Nameless: She's quite the busy bee, isn't she? Don't worry though, she might be tearing through all of the problems that faced Harry in canon at lightspeed but she'll still have plenty of problems ahead of her. This we can promise. Oh, if only you could take a peek at our brainstorming sessions and story notes...
So we have the study group to help build up Alkaid's power base. She may start small, but watch it soar.
Nameless: A study group is pretty ideal for Alkaid. Since she's a scholar-politician, so it fits both parts of her nature. The study group isn't just a front, it's a serious attempt by her to better learn about wizarding magic via a group learning exercise. That said, it's also primarily a means by which she can recruit followers and build up a power base.
We also got into Alkaid's wand, its core is a thestral tail hair, it works best with death after all~ as for why we never showed it, like her going to Ollivanders, simple. If you remember back in the Prologue it was mentioned that Hades had an old and dead wandmaker make it for his little girl, only the best, right?
And finally, we get to see Alkaid's weapon…A book?! Yep! Alkaid is the black mage, baby! Where's her pointed hat? We decided to go a whole other direction then the standard demigod with sword and shield kinda deal. We haven't seen a real long range fighter (archers aside) in the PJO verse. Alkaid has shown her proficiency with magic, so, why not? As for why the book? It's an artifact that enhances her spells, so while she can causally do magic, this amps up their power greatly. Think of Margaret and Elizabeth from the Persona series. More will be told on this as the story goes on, just you wait and see! And yes, I know I used a Nanoha spell, but come on, how could I not? Sure, the series isn't 'out' in-story yet, but we can fudge things a little here since it's fanfiction. Plus, Nanoha for life! I was actually aiming for a Saber, Archer, Lancer type system between my heroines, but we changed it.
Nameless: We're not going to give too many details on how the book works, those will come in-story. But rest assured it's all been well thought out.
And what's this? Another demigod! A daughter of Ares! Yep, I'm sure people were thinking, 'who is this girl?' during the sorting, so here's the knowledge bomb! More of Pyrrha's history will be revealed as the story goes, I hope you like her. She's based off of RWBY's Pyrrha, but only in appearance, with my own style thrown in. Her last name is of course Welsh. That's all you get.
Nameless: Indeed. She'll be very, very important to the story. If you get my drift.
And the Omake, yes. For those that can figure it out, it is Sakura from Card Captors! Thus, we see where Alkaid got her star and card motif. And yes, I am a Sakuyo shipper! Screw Lee, seriously.
Nameless: Sakuyo Forever! More seriously though, whilst we label the section as an omake, the scene and all the other omake unless stated otherwise are canon for this story. It's just that we couldn't figure out a way to nicely fit them into the main story's narrative so chose to leave them separate. Now, as for this omake in particular, well it's a combination of background building and foreshadowing. What do we mean by the latter? Well, keep reading to find out! Another issue about this omake that might come up is concern that we're wanking CCS. I assure you we're not. We're just going by the maximum demonstrated power levels in its canon [manga, anime and dub], wherein Clow repeatedly performs feats beyond the ability of even PJO gods. As Clow's successor, and canonically stated to being an order of magnitude more powerful, Sakura is even more OP.
And on a tiny note, Alkaid's height has been changed to 5'1. I don't know what I was thinking with her previous height, my bad guys. XP
Be kind and review, no flames please, and until next time, peace off!