THE HALF BLOOD EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Off to Hogwarts Part 2

I don't own Percy Jackson nor do I own Harry Potter

Percy POV

I stood up slowly, brushing the dirt off the back of my pants. Looking around, I was amazing my brain didn't overload. There were bright colours flying everywhere, weird looking things in shop windows, signs that changed colours every 26 seconds. Not only that, but there were people rushing up and down the alley way. They had a combination of normal clothes and the odd looking cloaks that Dumbledore wore.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley" Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the street. "It is time to go shopping for your school supplies. Here are your lists and some money. Remember that the gold ones are Galleons and there are 17 Sickles to a Galleon and 29 Knuts to a Sickle. Off you go"

He handed all of us a small packet with our names on it, and I opened mine. The Galleons greatly reminded me of Drachmas. I looked over the letter and read it quickly. I was shocked at first; I'm dyslexic, so I shouldn't be able to read the letter so quickly, especially if it was in English. I stopped short and took another look at the letter. It was in ancient Greek!

Dear Mr Jackson

I hope you enjoyed your holidays. An old friend and I have decided to run the half-blood exchange programme this year and I wish to invite you to it. You have been selected as one of the 24 students that will be involved in the programme this year. With this in mind, I would like to inform you that your host at Hogwarts will be Harry Potter.

You will be entering the same year as him and will live with them over the duration of your stay at Hogwarts. We hope this exchange programme will offer an experience few people get the opportunity to have.

I wish you have a new and exciting experience.

Albus Dumbledore

In the envelope there was a second letter; this one was different to first, as it had a list of equipment. On the list were things like caldron Standard size 2 pewter, two pairs of plain black cloaks, dragon hide gloves, and a wand. There was also a large number of book titles by authors who I had never heard of in my life. We spent most of the day in groups of two or three collecting what we would need for our year at Hogwarts. We had everything but our wands so we knew where our next stop was going to be.

Thalia, Nico, and I made our way to the very end of the alley. There was small shop, which could have easily been the oldest shop on the ally; Ollivanders. The three of us proceeded into the store, finding the walls of the shop were lined with small rectangular boxes. A man popped in from around the corner. He was of average height and had a small amount of grey hair covering the top of his head. He smiled; his blue-grey eyes held wisdom and power.

"My name is Mr Ollivander. How may I help you three today?" he asked.

"We were looking for some wands," replied Thalia confidently. She radiated power, and in that moment I could tell she was looking to Artemis of strength. To be truthful, I think she also found the Mr Ollivander a little creepy.

"Of course," he said. "Who's first?"

"I'll go," Thalia offered.

"Excellent. So, what are your names?" he asked us.

"Thalia, Nico and Percy," we answered. He suddenly stopped looking through the boxes and quickly rushed over to a set of slightly different looking boxes. These ones weren't dark green, black, or brown, like the others, but white with extravagant patterns.

"Special wand these are," he said while pulling out about six different boxes and placing them on the counter. "Pick one, dear." Thalia chose one of the boxes; it was patterned with eagles, lighting bolts and peacocks.

"Unicorn hair, Maple, 12 inches," Mr Ollivander said, removing the wand from the box and handing it to Thalia. As soon as she took the wand, boxes began flying off the shelves and landing with a loud thump on the ground. Mr Ollivander sighed and took the wand back. He placed it back into the box and handed the the wand in the box directly next to it.

"Try this one. Dragon Heartstring, Maple, 12 and a half inches," he said, handing it to her. As the wand made contact with her hand the room filled with loud thunder claps and the smell of electricity. I wasn't surprised; the wand must have been channelling her father. I wondered whether Nico and mine would do the same.

"Next one up the counter," he ordered, and Nico made his way up to the desk. A similar process occurred with Nico has it had with Thalia. He ended up with a Phoenix Tail feather, oak, 12 and half inches. The room was full of the smell of the underworld, death and decay.

"And finally, Percy," Mr Ollivander called. I was nervous, wondering about the possibility of not finding a wand.

"Pick a wand," he said to me. I looked down at the table and choose a box. It had blue and green patterns on it. "Unicorn hair, Beechwood, 9 and a half inches." As soon as I saw the wand I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be right, and it wasn't. Green and pink fireworks erupted across the room.

"No, no, no," he said. "That's not right. Try this one."

He handed me another wand, and I was expecting something bug and exciting to happen, but it never did. Mr Ollivander sighed. "It's not Phoenix tail feather, Beechwood, 11 and a half inches then." He ran back around the counter, I thought he was going to pick up another wand from the pile on the desk, but rather, he started to rummage through something under the counter. He eventually came up with a small velvet bag. He carefully removed the wand from the bag and handed it to me. A strange feeling ran through my body, it reminded me of my dip into the river Styx, but there was no pain. The feeling subsided into a small tingling in the tips of my toes.

"Amazing, "Mr Ollivander muttered. "The three ancient wands. I can't believe it. In all my years of selling wands…"

"Mr Ollivander, is something wrong?" Nico spilled out.

"Yes. Those three wands have been around since the beginning of this shop, and never did I think that they would sell," he replied. "See, those wands are ancient wands and are highly difficult to use. They were believed to be a part of the original wands from the ancient Greek times."

I bit my lip in an effort to laugh at the irony of the situation and the serious look on Mr Ollivanders' face. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Thalia and Nico having the same problem.

"Thank you Mr Ollivander, but we must be off now," said Thalia.

"Of course, dears," he answered. "Seven gold Galleons for each wand." We handed him the money, and made our way to the door.

"Mermaid scales, Beechwood, 11 and a half inches Percy!" he called out to me as we left the shop.

Beta: That's one thing I'm not really fond of about Harry Potter: all the weird names. Seriously, there's, like, red squiggly lines everywhere! It's annoying! And this computer claims that "Nico" isn't a word. See, there's a red squiggly line under it right now! See it? See? Of course you don't. You can't see it. Only I can. LUCKY YOU. Now, let's all thank tammiey7 for this chapter, okay? When/if you review, yell out a big "THANK YOU!" and she'll be surprised and go like, "THAT'S SO SWEET! I LOVE THEM! OH, I KNOW! I'LL MAKE LONGER CHAPTERS TO THANK THEM!" What a wonderful idea I have.~ But it won't work if only one person does it. SO EVERYBODY DO THAT!

What a monster! 1280 words. I hope you enjoy it. And again thankyou to those who review and comment as well as subscribe and follow. I don't think I would post with out it. I hope you enjoyed it. And as is Tradition thank you to Queen NekoChang who is the fantastic beta of this story.
Tammiey7