Disclaimer- I (unfortunately) don't own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. They belong to the wonderful Joanne Rowling and Rick Riordan. I also don't own the inscription on the doors in this chapter.
I woke up early the next morning so I could go tell Chiron that I had made my decision. I couldn't believe that I was going to go to Hogwarts! I was going to learn magic!
I ran to the Big House and left a letter on the front porch, which said that I did want to go to Hogwarts. I then ran back to my cabin, turned the other way around, and started running towards the Hecate Cabin. If anyone had any information on the wizarding world, it would be them.
I knock on the front door of Cabin 20 to see my friend, Lou Ellen, standing in the doorway.
"Hey Lou."
"Hey Cara. Happy Late Birthday."
"Thanks."
"But I'm assuming that being wished a happy birthday isn't the reason you're here?"
"No. I wish it were that simple."
I then proceeded to tell her about how I got a letter at breakfast, via owl, with my exact address written on the envelope. I then showed her the envelope, and her face immediately paled.
"But- but how? Demigods don't get letters to Hogwarts, that's just how it is."
I was getting a bit tired of people telling me that this wasn't normal. I already figured that out, tell me something I don't know!
"Yeah, I sort of figured that out. But I'm still confused. Say I want to go-"
"Cara, the thing is, me and my siblings-"
"My siblings and I."
Not the time, Cara. Not the time to be fixing people's grammar.
Lou rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, yes, grammar police. Well, my siblings and I have had way more dreams than usual lately. And they've always been about the same thing."
"The wizarding world?" I guessed.
"Yup. And none of them are exactly… happy." She frowns.
"Oh. Well, say I still want to go, " Lou rolls her eyes, "how would I get there?"
"You would first have to get all your spell books and equipment from Diagon Alley."
"Diagonally?"
"Diagon Alley. Two words. You would get everything that it says to get on the second bit of parchment that you presumably got in that envelope?"
I pull out the parchment she spoke of and look it over. "Okay, then what would I do?"
"Then, on September the 1st, you would go to Kings Cross Station in London and walk through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10."
What.
"Did you just say you had to walk through a barrier? The definition of barrier says that it is something that prevents movement! You can't just walk through one! It is scientifically impossible to walk through something classified as a barrier!
"But it is magically possible." Lou states calmly. "Surely you've figured some of this out after living in the demigod world for 2 years? The impossible becomes possible."
"Fine then. I walk through this magic barrier that I shouldn't be able to walk through. Then what?"
"You would end up on Platform 9¾. On this platform you would see many other wizarding families, and the Hogwarts Express. You'd then board the train, which would take you to Hogwarts."
"Okay. When do I get to go to Diagon Alley?" I say eagerly.
She raises her eyebrows, "Are you sure you want to go?"
"Yes!"
"Ok, then. Well you should probably go today, since term starts in 4 days."
"But how do I get there?"
"One sec." She ran out of the cabin and came back about 5 minutes later.
"Took your time!"
"Whatever. Chiron said I could Side-Along you to Diagon Alley."
"What… nevermind."
She held out her arm, as if in suggestion to hold it. I held onto it and said, "What are you-"
That was all I got to say before everything around me turned black. I felt as if my body was being compressed, and I could barely breathe. I was spinning around faster than I could comprehend, and felt as if my insides were being pulled out. A screeching sound rang through my ears.
Suddenly, it all stopped. I almost threw up on the ground, but didn't as the world started to come into focus again. I slowly opened my eyes to see that we were in front of a little pub which I wouldn't have noticed hadn't I been standing right in front of it.
"Where are we?" I ask Lou, who I just noticed was standing right next to me.
"London. The Leaky Cauldron."
"Wait… So you're saying that we were at Camp, you did some weird teleporting thing, and we ended up in London!"
"It's called apparition, but yes, pretty much."
I then look at the small, dingy pub in front of us.
"Are you sure this is where I'll get all of my supplies? I mean, it's a bit small."
"Yes, I am sure. Be patient." She starts walking toward the pub, "Follow me."
I followed her into the pub and was astonished. All the people sitting there were wearing long robes and many had out sticks that I could assume were wands. The bartender was levitating bottles over his head and many of the people were casually flicking the pages of their newspaper without touching it.
I could only stare as she led me to the back of the pub to a brick wall. "Um," I say slowly and hesitantly as I look at the plain brick wall, "This is a brick wall. Very magical."
She just rolled her eyes again. She's going to roll them out of their sockets at this rate.
She took out her wand and said, "Children of Hecate don't have to use wands but, you know, the wizards don't know about us, so we would look suspicious opening secret doorways without them."
I nod my head as she taps the wall with her wand, and suddenly, the bricks start separating. I stare in awe at the archway that appeared in front of me, revealing a street full of bright, lively shops, with witches and wizards milling around, doing some last minute shopping.
"Wow," was all I could manage to say as I walked down the cobbled streets, looking at all the shops that sold things from potion ingredients to magic brooms. Then I realized that we were standing in front of a grand, white building which towered over the rest of Diagon Alley. The architecture was magnificent, and I'm sure that Annabeth would've paid to see it.
"Gringotts Bank," Lou said simply.
At the entrance of the bank stood a short creature with a clever face and very long fingers and feet. I immediately put my hand on my wrist, where my dagger was disguised as a bracelet. But before I could do anything, Lou grabbed my arm and said, "Don't attack. They're safe."
I warily eyed the creature, which Lou later told me was a goblin, while walking inside the first pair of doors. I then saw the second pair of doors, which had a message inscribed 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.
"They're going to scare away the robbers before they even enter the building." I say in a sarcastic tone.
"No, but seriously, Cara- this place actually has unbelievably high-tech security." Lou responds.
She then walks up to the front desk and says, "Athena Vault, please."
The goblin looks up at Lou and then he scowls toward me, "What are you doing here, demigod?" He whispers the last word, his scowl deepening.
I was about to retort, when Lou spoke up. "She got a letter to Hogwarts. How? Why? I don't know. I'm just hoping that mother blessed her…"
He turns to another goblin and says, "Oy, Gornuk. Show them to Athena vault." He said the last part under his breath, just loud enough for the goblin- Gornuk, apparently- to hear.
Gornuk lead them out of the hall and down into a stone passageway. Torches lined the walls and there was an empty cart that was sitting on the tracks in front of us. It looked like something that should've been in a medieval castle.
I got into the cart after Lou and the goblin, and suddenly, the cart propelled itself forward. It was turning in every direction possible, at a speed so fast that I couldn't even tell what was going on. I saw that we were down very deep, and were near the high security vaults. But seriously, they used a dragon just to guard a vault? Now that's a bit ridiculous.
And then, when I thought we were at the very bottom, the cart suddenly jerked in another direction and we plummeted downwards, going at full speed. And then we jerked to a stop. Well, inertia, being the jerk it was, decided that I should flip out of the cart and land on my face. Thanks.
"Owww…" I muttered under my breath as I slowly got up. "Why did you make it stop so suddenly?
"No one ever comes down here, so what's the point of making it safe?" the goblin said, an evil grin crawling up his face.
I scowled at his reasoning as I walked over to what I presumed was my mother's vault. It was a stormy grey color, the same shade as my eyes, and an owl was engraved on the front.
I slowly place my hand on the vault and I gasp as the wall disintegrates under my hand. Inside the vault were mountains of gold coins, filling the entire vault, along with piles of silver and bronze coins. I also spotted stacks of drachmas lying every here and there.
"Since you have your mother's blood running through your veins, the vault will open to you at your touch." Lou's voice rang out from behind me.
I carefully picked up one of the gold coins, "What is this? How much mortal money is it worth? Does it have an equivalent in drachmas? How many silver and bronze coins is it worth? In fact, what are the silver and bronze coins called? I said in a rushed manner, curiosity evident in my voice.
"Slow down, Cara. One question at a time. The gold coins are galleons, the silver ones are sickles, and the bronze ones are knuts. Got that so far?" I nod my head. "Ok. so there are 17 sickles to a galleon, and 29 knuts to a sickle. That means there are 493 knuts to a galleon."
I process this information and nod my head again in understanding. Then Lou continues, "One galleon is worth $7.35, or £4.93. One sickle is worth 46 cents, and a knut is worth 2 cents. And no, there is no equivalent of wizarding money to drachmas.
I furrow my eyebrows. "Wait… But doesn't that mean that somebody could have infinite money? I mean, if you went out into the mortal world and sold the galleon as gold, you would get much more money than their actual exchange rate. Then you could exchange the money for more galleons, and repeat the process! And boom! Instant wealth!"
Lou opens her mouth and then closes it again in confusion. She finally said, "I guess… You Athena children are way too smart."
I smile triumphantly and scoop a handful of galleons, sickles, and knuts and shove them into my pouch until it's almost overflowing. I then pick up a few drachmas, "Mom won't mind…"
Lou looks at my pouch, "Don't you think that's a bit much?"
"It's a small pouch. Plus, I won't have to take another trip to this bank anytime soon." I retort.
Lou sighed as we got back into the cart with the goblin (who I forgot was even there) and rode our way back up. We then exited Gringotts and I took a look at my list.
"It says I need robes. Where do I get them?" I ask.
"Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, of course." Lou replies.
I then walk into the store and get fitted by a witch that I could presume was Madam Malkin herself. I bought the robes and then looked at my list again.
"Where's the bookstore?" I question eagerly.
Lou replies hesitantly, "Well, maybe it would be better if I went to buy your books…" Lou obviously knew it wasn't smart to trust a child of Athena in a bookstore with a pouch full of money.
"No! Please… I won't buy too many books, I promise… please…" I begged.
She grudgingly accepts, and I knew she regretted it the moment I shot off towards the bookstore called Flourish and Blotts. I gasp in amazement as I see the shelves that went all the way to the ceiling, filled with books of all different shapes and sizes.
"Hey Lou, can you buy my course books for me?" I ask innocently.
She eyes me suspiciously, "Ok…"
I pass her my list and give her a handful of money before running off in the other direction, staring wide-eyed at all the books. I trace my hands along all the books, reading their titles as I walk by.
"Hexes and Jinxes 101… A Beginner's Guide to Occlumency… The Dark Arts and How It Bec-"
I ran into another girl, who looked around my age. She had dirty blonde hair and green eyes, and seemed a little bit shorter than I was.
"Sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going! By the way, I'm Evangelina Deverill. I'm starting Hogwarts this year. What about you?" She said this all very quickly, in an energetic tone. She also had a British accent. Guess I was going to have to get used to that.
"No, it's not your fault, I should've been paying more attention. I'm Carina Black. Just call me Cara, though. This is going to be my first year at Hogwarts, too." I offer her a smile.
But she seemed to be stuck on the part where I said my name. "B- Black, you say? The name Carina- it doesn't have anything to do with space, does it?" She looked very nervous, almost even scared, when she said this.
I looked at her cautiously, "Yes… Carina is a constellation, why are you asking?"
Why was this girl I just met freaking out because of my last name? Was she like, racist or something? No, that's not it. She seemed so nice and happy at first, and then had a nervous breakdown when I told her my name. It was my last name that seemed to scare her. That and the fact that my first name was a constellation. Why?
I was about to ask when she replied, "You know what, it doesn't matter. You seem nice enough. So…"
We then proceeded to talk about a bunch of random stuff, like our families (a topic which I hastily avoided) and a wizarding sport called Quidditch (in which you flew around on broomsticks).
"So, what house do you want to be sorted into?" she asks.
"House?" I question, wondering what a house was. Was it like the cabins at Camp? That was my best guess.
"You're from America, aren't you? Your accent sort of gives it away. Along with your cluelessness about the British wizarding government. Say, you never did tell me about your family. Are you a muggle-born? Half-Blood? Pure-Blood?"
At first, I wondered how and why she knew about us demigods. Was she one too? Then I realized she also used the terms muggle-born and pure-blood. There could be another type of half-blood out there, in the wizarding world. But I had no clue what those terms meant to her, so I just replied back with what they meant to me.
"Half-Blood. And yes, I'm from America."
I heard Lou calling me from afar. "That's my friend," I tell Evangelina, "I have to go now. See you at Hogwarts?" I ask her, wondering whether I had just made my first friend in this new world.
She smiled. "See you at Hogwarts."
I smiled back before I ran back to where Lou was standing, holding a stack of books. She was tapping her foot on the ground, waiting for me.
"Hey, could I see your pouch?" she asks as I sat on the couch next to her.
"Sure, why?" I question as I hand her my pouch.
She takes the pouch from me and mutters something incoherent while waving her wand. Then she stuffs my whole entire stack of schoolbooks into my small pouch and hands it back to me.
"Magic," was the explanation I got.
We walked around the rest of Diagon Alley, and I got a bunch of other equipment that I needed for Hogwarts, like a cauldron and scales. All that was left to get was my wand.
"Are we going to get my wand now?" I asked eagerly.
"Not yet," I was wondering what else there was to get from Diagon Alley when I saw that we were in front of a shop called Magical Menagerie. Through the windows I saw that there were dozens, possibly hundreds of animals inside. I walked through the door and saw rats and owls, cats and toads, snails, rabbits, and other creatures which I couldn't identify. It was incredibly noisy, the animals screeching and wailing.
Suddenly all the owls in the store bowed their heads down to me. Some of the staff gave me strange looks so I waved my hands in a way that said stop bowing to me people are getting suspicious. They all raised their heads and returned to doing whatever they were doing before I walked into the store.
I walked around the store, admiring all the different creatures. But I knew that what I really wanted was an owl. So I went over to where most of the owls were kept, and looked around. There were so many different breeds, too many to name. Barn owls, eagle owls, spectacled owls, long eared owls, just to name a few. Then I saw her. A great grey owl was sitting on a perch, looking at me. She looked very young, and was probably a baby owl.
I walked over to her, and put my hand on her beak. Her feathers were a foggy, light grey color, and she had yellow eyes.
Five minutes later, I was walking out of Magical Menagerie with that very owl, whom I had decided to name Misty, after the unique coloring of her feathers. I had also gotten all of her owl food.
"Well, there's only one place left to go," Lou said as we walked down the streets of Diagon Alley, "Ollivanders."
"You mean, to get a wand?" I asked Lou as I edged past a lady chanting something about moldy shorts while levitating in the air. Gods, these magic folk are weird.
Lou abruptly stopped in front of a small shop with peeling, cursive letters that said "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.". It looked very old and worn-down, and was relatively small for what was considered to be a grand wand shop. I just shrugged and followed Lou inside.
"Who do we have here?" A young man wearing long, elegant black robes asked me. He was definitely in his twenties, but looked wise beyond his years. Quite like how people described me.
"Cara- Cara Black." I said as I looked around the store. There were columns of shelves stacked up to the ceiling, filled with narrow boxes that were a variety of colors. I knew that there could be only one thing in those boxes- wands.
"Black, you say? How interesting…" He says, leaving the thought hanging in the air between us. I wondered what was so strange about my surname. What made it so significant to the wizarding folk? Every single person I had met here had made a comment about my last name. Why?
"Well, we should get started, shouldn't we? First things first, are you right-handed or left-handed? He questioned, and I responded, "Right."
He took out a tape measure and threw it in the air. While I pondered over why he did this, the tape measure flew up and started measuring me from my shoulder to my finger. I gaped at it in awe as it started measuring me from my wrist to my elbow, and then around my head. It continued measuring me as I turned my attention to the man and Lou.
"Lou Ellen?" the man asked, obviously surprised. "12¼ inches, spruce wood, brittle flexibility. What are you doing here?
Lou jerked her head towards me. "Demi-witch, or whatever you want to call it. I thought Athena had more sense than this." She muttered the last part under her breath.
The man's eyes widened as he said, "But- But that's impossible. The oath… couldn't she have just been blessed by Hecate? Sure, Hecate would get hell, but everything would be so much easier. And Athena?"
"Impossible? With her last name? It can't just be a coincidence. And why in Hades would mother bless a demigod? It is possibly the most idiotic thing that she could ever do."
"But what does this mean? Athena doesn't do something unless there is a reason behind it."
The tape measure suddenly flew toward the man, who I now realized was Ollivander himself. He grabbed it and walked behind his desk to pick up a small, brown box. He pulled out a stick, or a wand, as I'm supposed to say. He handed it to me. "Elm wood and unicorn hair, 10 inches."
I stood there, feeling dumb. You heard me right, a child of Athena, feeling dumb.
"Come on now, wave it around, give it a swish, try it out," Ollivander said impatiently.
I started waving it around, feeling even more idiotic. He snatched it out of my hand and gave me another wand. "Walnut wood and phoenix feather, 12 inches, bendy flexibility."
I took this one and started waving it around, feeling a small tingling run through my body. But this feeling stopped almost immediately, and I was back to stage one. He took away the wand again, and passed me another one. "Pine and dragon heartstring, 13¾ inches."
This process continued for what seemed like hours. He gave me a wand, it 'wasn't right', and he took it back. Over and over again. I felt like giving up and walking out of the store, but then it happened.
The man's eyes glowed with interest as he pulled out a slender, black box that had a spiral engraving on the front. I looked on, curious as to what was special about this one.
He opened the box and pulled out a pitch black wand. The handle was carved in an elegant spiral and the end of it seemed rather pointed. There was something about this wand that made it different from the others. And I was dying to know what that was.
He handed the wand over to me. "Ebony wood and dragon heartstring, 12½ inches, unyielding flexibility. The heartstring comes from none other than the vicious Echidna, mother of monsters. Extremely powerful, but in the wrong hands, disastrous."
All of a sudden, I feel electricity course through my body. I felt powerful, as if I had the power to do anything. Everything. I raised the wand above my head and swished it down, gold sparks bursting from the tip. I stared at it in amazement, the intoxicating feeling slowly disappearing. When I looked back up at Ollivander, I saw that he was clapping. He had a very fascinated look on his face, as if he knew something that I didn't.
"Well done, well done! I have a feeling that you will achieve great things with this wand, Ms. Black, great things indeed. Just remember, the wand chooses the wizard."
I paid Ollivander 7 galleons and walked out of the store with my new wand. I stared at it for a few seconds before I ripped open my pouch and pulled out one of my coursebooks. I had until September the 1st to read all of them. Challenge accepted.
