Harry was almost blinded when he walked out of the Gringotts lobby, the sun was so bright compared to the darkness of the vaults.
"Ok, let's split up, not all of us will be able to fit in one store, Harry, Ron, and Hermione will show you around and get your shopping done with you," Mrs. Weasley said to the new group.
Percy smiled at Harry and Harry felt himself blush, why was he feeling this way?
"Ok," Percy said, "None of us have anything, including wands," Hermione let out a surprised noise.
"How could you not have wands! You are wizards, right?"
"Yes," Jason answered, cool as ever, "we just specialize in wandless magic, our wands were only used as props. Once we could do the magic wandless, we didn't use them," Hermione still looked suspicious but opted to direct them to Olivanders rather than ask more questions.
"Olivanders is the best wandmaker in Britain, if you need a wand, you have to get it here," Ron explained.
The group of nine managed to squeeze into the small shop, the bell on the door tinkling merrily as they headed inside.
After a moment of awkward silence, Jason spoke, "So, is there a bell we need to ring or-" he cut himself off as Olivander himself appeared behind the desk.
"Welcome demi-" Annabeth shook her head rapidly at Olivander who noticed Ron, Harry, and Hermione.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at Olivander, obviously wondering what he had stopped himself from saying.
Olivander cleared his throat and turned to face the six again, his silvery eyes seemed to be searching for something in them.
"Well, your parents did send over some wands for you to use, handmade by each one of them," Ron, Harry, and Hermione shared confused glances, why had their parents made their wands?
"Let's get started then, Percy Jackson," Olivander pulled out a dark blue box, other than that, it was quite plain, "10 ½ inches, cedarwood, phoenix feather core, rather unusual though I have never met someone who uses cedar that I would dare cross, this wand wood means the owner is fiercely loyal," Olivander handed the box to Percy who opened it and grabbed the wand.
As soon as Percy's hand wrapped around the stick, the whole room warmed considerably and filled with the scent of the ocean, Percy grinned.
"Next, Annabeth Chase," Olivander pulled out a grey box, "12 inches, beechwood, unicorn tail hair core, beechwood only does its best when in the hands of a truly mentally gifted witch or wizard," Annabeth picked up the wand and it shone brightly, like one of those lightbulbs you see in muggle cartoons when the character has an idea.
"Nico di Angelo- Aha," Olivander grabbed the pitch-black box that had been sitting on his desk, "11 inches, Aspen wood, dragon heart-string. Aspen is a magnificent wood for dueling, there was once a dueling club that only accepted people who used aspen wands. This is the wand of revolutions," Nico's eyes were wide as he opened the box to pick up the white wand.
Instantly, the room was cast into shadow, and the tip illuminated brightly. Nico grinned.
"Will Solace," Olivander grabbed the dull yellow box this time, "11 ¼ inches, hawthorn wood, phoenix feather core. Hawthorn wood can be used in many ways, it is quite the peculiar wood, excellent at healing magic while also excelling at curses," Will pulled out the wand and waved it, the room warmed up from Nico's previous show of magic and the sun seemed to shine brighter.
"Thalia Gra-"
"Don't use my last name," Thalia interrupted Olivander who chuckled,
"I now see why your lady chose this wand for you, 13 ¼ inches, ebony wood, dragon heartstring core. Ebony wood is happiest with those that are considered outside the norm and confident about it, their users are often impossible to sway on any opinion," Thalia nodded appreciatively before grabbing the wand.
A strong smell of thunder filled the room and Thalia grinned, a glint in her eyes that Harry was sure to be wary of later.
"Jason Grace," Olivander grabbed the last box, "11 ¾ inches, laurel wood, unicorn tail core. Laurelwood is said to be unable to perform a dishonorable act, though I have seen many instances where this is not true. It is said that if anyone tries to take it, the wand will strike them with lightning," Jason grinned while the others in the group snickered.
When Jason picked up the wand the room became humid, as though there had just been a heavy rain on a hot summer day.
"Well," Olivander clapped his hands, "That's all settled, it will be 8 galleons per wand," The group handed the man their payment and filed out of the store into a sunlit Diagon alley.
"Alright, Mum told me that she would get out school things and that we should just worry about showing you around," Ron said, "Do you want to check out the pet store?" Percy nodded enthusiastically and the rest of the group agreed.
As soon as they entered the pet store, Percy was peering at all of the different animals with a gleeful expression, one Harry hadn't seen on him the whole time he'd known him.
'Why do I care what his smile looks like?' Harry asked himself, mentally smacking himself upside the head.
"Annabeth," Percy called, "There's this really cool bird here," Percy pointed at what looked like a blue and white version of Fawks, Hermione gasped.
"That's a water phoenix, they're extremely rare and very picky about their owners, phoenix are loyal for the entire life of their owner and are basically immortal, they can also carry extremely heavy loads," Hermione listed this off as though she had memorized it from a textbook
Which was probably what she had done.
"Can I touch it?" Percy asked the shopkeeper who just shrugged,
"You can try, she won't let any near her though, try not to get bit," Percy nodded, still looking determined to pet the bird.
Percy stuck his hand through the bars of the large cage and cautiously put his hand near the bird.
To everyone's surprise, the graceful bird nuzzled against his hand and cooed softly Percy smiled even wider.
"Can I get her?" he asked, harry expected him to be asking the shop keeper but his question was directed to Annabeth who sighed.
"If you can look after her, fine by me, I'm not your mom" Percy looked like he was about to burst with excitement.
Percy stayed with his bird while the others looked around at the other pets.
Nico was approached by a tiny black kitten who began nudging his ankles, obviously begging to be picked up.
Will caught sight of a golden lab in a cage in the corner of the store and immediately fell in love.
"You can't have a dog at Hogwarts," Ron reminded him, Will shrugged,
"Dumbledore can't exactly say no to anything we want, as long as it's reasonable, having a pet seems pretty reasonable to me, he needs us too much to say no to anything," Will was petting the excited dog through the cage.
Harry saw that Jason was minding his own business, nose buried in a book of some kind until his glasses were snatched right off his head by a lizard climbing on a branch he was unknowingly standing under.
"What the Hades!" he exclaimed as he tried to get his glasses back from the lizard which Harry could now identify as a chameleon.
The chameleon wrapped itself around Jason's arm while holding his glasses in its tail.
"Sorry about him," the shopkeeper said, 'he likes shiny things," Jason laughed a little, taking his glasses back from the chameleon which was now sitting comfortably on his shoulder.
Thalia was inspecting the pets without much enthusiasm, glancing at something here and there.
That was until a black and black parrot landed on her shoulder and squawked loudly, startling her.
Thalia gave the bird on her shoulder an exasperated look before trying to shoo it away, the parrot did not budge, instead, it nipped at her ear affectionately.
"What makes me look like I want a parrot," Thalia said to no one in particular before sighing and walking over to Jason to complain about her squawking problem.
Annabeth was looking at the owls in the store, and there were a lot of owls.
Annabeth stopped in front of a grey barn owl for a minute before the owl seemed to notice it had a visitor.
The owl's eyes were beady and it looked as though it would pounce at anything that it wanted to. Annabeth grinned and picked up its cage.
"Ok, I think we're ready to go Thalia and Jason's animals seemed to have picked them," Will pointed at the siblings who were both looking a bit more comfortable with the animals currently occupying their shoulders.
"Ok, let's check out," Annabeth said.
The group bought their animals (Thalia and Jason both seemed to hesitate but in the end, they had grown attached to their new animals).
"Mum is going to freak out when she sees what you lot got, not to mention a dog living in the house," Ron shook his head while Will grinned.
Nico had decided to name his kitten Zoë, Thalia looked as though this stirred up emotion in her though he pushed it down quickly.
Will named his dog Kit ("It's ironic!" "No, it's just confusing,") which made the group laugh and Nico facepalm.
Annabeth named her owl Sofia (at least that's how she pronounced it, she explained that that's how you say wisdom in greek).
Jason named his chameleon Specula, the Latin word for glasses ("He's a weird guy, he deserves a weird name," "Glasses is not a weird name what are you talking about,").
Thalia decided the name her parrot Skata (greek for shit) because, she claimed, "He acts like a piece of shit so I'm going to remind him daily that he is a piece of shit,"
Percy wanted to name his bird Bluey, but as soon as he suggested it, the bird squawked and shook her head.
He then decided on Thalassa (Greek for sea) because of their bird's color. Her feathers were almost iridescent in the sunlight, shimmering like waves.
Harry knew that he should feel more comfortable with theses people, after all, they were protecting him, but he couldn't help but shake the feeling that they had a big secret, and he was going to find it.
