Hello all, welcome to another chapter of "Demigod Turned Wizard." I do hope that you're enjoying the story so far.
I just finished updating "A Universe At War" so I'm in a creative ass mood right now. Speaking of "A Universe At War" the story is coming along very nicely. Anyone who hasn't checked it out should, it's a Marvel fanfiction that I've been working on for a while. Thanks to anyone who has already checked it out, I appreciate you.
If you like the chapter, make sure you vote. Any questions or suggestions, leave a comment. Enjoy the chapter.
One day later
Tom and Percy appeared on the same road that they did the previous day and made their way towards Gregorovitch's home.
A few moments after they knocked, the door opened and Gregorovitch ushered them inside.
"I finished your staff just about an hour ago," Gregorovitch said. Percy and Tom followed him to his wand room.
Laying on one of the tables was a silver staff that looked a bit over 6 feet tall. Percy walked towards the table and reached his hand out to grab the staff. The closer he got, the warmer his hand got until he finally closed his hand around the staff.
The moment he did, there was a blinding flash of white light and Percy's right arm felt like it was on fire. After a few seconds, it died down and Percy, Tom and Gregorovitch were able to open their eyes.
Percy raised his staff and admired it. The metal that was just scalding hot a moment ago was now cool in Percy's grasp.
"I thought it would be made of Ebony wood" Percy said to Gregorovitch.
"It is, I simply encased it in silver for further durability," Gregorovitch said.
"Oh," Percy said.
"76 inches, Ebony and and Himalayan Birch wood with Phoenix blood, thestral hair and basilisk heartstring for the cores," Gregorovitch said.
"It's beautiful," Percy breathed. "How much do I owe you?"
"I'm not charging for the staff, boy. I don't sell anymore," Gregorovitch said.
"Thank you," Percy said with a slight bow towards the slightly elderly wand crafter.
"It's nothing. I've never made an actual staff that was for a person before so this was quite the experience."
After Percy and Tom thanked him again and shook hands one last time, they left the wand crafter's home.
Percy continued to admire his staff as Tom placed a hand on his shoulder and shadow traveled them back to the chamber.
Instead of appearing back in the comfy room that he had been in for the last day, though, they appeared in a wide, open space that Percy didn't recognize. A row of snake statues lined both the right and left wall. The wall in front of Percy want even a wall, it was a huge statue of Salazar Slytherin.
"Um, are we in the chamber?" Percy asked.
"We certainly are," Tom answered.
"This is the chamber?" Percy asked incredulously.
"Yes," said Tom. "Behind that statue is Salazar's old study, where you've been for the past day."
"Oohhh," Percy said.
"This is where your actual training will be happening," Tom said. "It's a perfect, wide open area. You have all the space you need."
"So when will we start?" Percy asked.
"Now," Tom said. "When I'm not here I expect you to be studying Salazar's books. They are some of the rarest in the world and many would kill to even catch a glimpse of them." Percy immediately thought of Hermione.
"So what will we be doing first?" Percy asked.
"First, you'll be learning how to perform magic with a staff. Many wizards consider it more complicated using a staff than a normal wand, which is true if you're lazy," Tom said. "Now shoot a spell at me, any one you want."
Percy gripped his staff with two hands and pointed it at Tom.
"Stupefy," he said. Red light shot from his staff and Tom jumped to the side. The spell smashed into the wall far behind him before dissipating.
"Did that feel comfortable to you?" Tom asked while looking at Percy's awkward looking stance. He had gripped his staff with both hands and raised it to his head's level.
"Not not really," Percy said.
"If you want to use a two handed grip I would advise you hold your staff at waist level. A two handed grip on your staff isn't really necessary, though. Of course, I don't know too much about using a staff. I would advise you to ask Salazar's portrait about that if you want the best advice," Tom said.
Percy held his staff in two hands at waist level and found that Tom was right, it felt more natural.
"Now, let's have a quick duel," Tom said. "Just to test how comfortable you feel with your staff. I, of course, won't go too hard on you but don't expect me to go easy." Percy nodded and got ready.
"Begin," Tom said.
Percy leveled his staff at Tom and shot a body binder at him, which Tom sidestepped before firing a purple spell at Percy, who crouched to avoid it and then fired an 'incarcerous' at Tom. Tom severed the ropes but Percy was expecting that and already shot an 'incendio' at Tom. Tom neutralized the fire with a flame freezing spell and allowed it to wash over him.
"You're not doing bad," Tom said. "But that's not the goal. You need to be flawless with your staff."
Tom flicked his wand at Percy and a gray spell shot towards him. Percy twirled his staff and batted the spell into the wall. The immediate area of the wall around the spell began to melt and Percy raised an eyebrow at Tom, who merely grinned.
"No point in expecting you to give your all if there's no danger, right?" Tom said. Then, he fired an orange spell at Percy, who conjured a shield this time with a 'protego.' After the spell splattered against the shield, Percy let go of the staff with his left hand and pointed it at one of the large snake statues that lined the wall of the chamber. The giant statue followed Percy's staff movement and zoomed towards Tom. Tom blew up the statue with a 'reducto' and then directed the storm of debris at Percy, who, with one wide swipe of his staff, completely vanished all of the rubble that had been flying towards him.
"I see you are starting to like the one handed grip better?" Tom asked.
"Not sure yet I just went with whatever my instincts told me," Percy said.
Interesting," Tom said. Then he suddenly shot a yellow spell at Percy, who, on pure reflex, swatted the spell into the wall again with his staff.
"I see you're quite fond of a more physical form of defense," Tom said.
"It's more natural to me than magical shields," Percy said. "And I like moving around when I fight."
"Unconventional among wizard kind but understandable since you are a demigod," Tom said. "We usually can't stand still for too long."
Percy nodded in agreement.
"I think we can take a pause now. I have some stuff to take care of up in the outside world. Also, what are you going to do about the missing statue?" Tom asked, jerking his head towards the empty spot in the row of large snake statues.
"I'll take care of that later. I think I'll go read some of Salazar's books. There's too much magic in that room to learn for me to worry about other stuff," Percy said. "By the way how do I get into the room?"
"The password is 'open' in parseltongue," Tom said. He turned around and began walking to the far wall at the end of the room. "I'll be back tomorrow."
Percy turned and walked to the wall that was a huge statue of Slytherin.
"Open," he hissed. The wall faded out of existence and Percy raised and eyebrow. That was some extremely complex magic.
There was a door behind the wall and when Percy opened it, he found himself back in the familiar room that he had first woken up in after the hospital wing fight.
"Ahh, you're back," said Salazar from his portrait.
"Yup," Percy said. "Tom said he had to take care of a few things. I think I'll start getting through these books." Percy headed over to the large bookshelf on the right wall and began searching for what to begin with.
"I would advise you to start with offense. It's harder to adjust to that with a staff," Salazar said. "Nice staff, by the way."
"Thanks," Percy said. He scanned the books for one containing offensive magic. In under a minute, he found one that caught his attention.
" 'The Most Dangerous of Magics by Owle Bullock' " Percy read. "Looks pretty interesting." Percy magically expanded the room until it was the size of a classroom and then created a large Human shaped practice target made of metal that was around 7 feet tall for any spells he would need to test. He then settled down and began to read.
4 hours later
Percy finally stood up with his staff in his hand, ready to perform the first spell that appeared in the book. The first 6 chapters were all extremely enlightening explanations on all sorts of magic that Percy learned a LOT from.
After casting a barrier around him and the Percy faced his metal target with his staff in one hand and pointed it at the target.
"Ardeo!" Percy yelled. A bolt of green fire erupted from his staff and exploded into the target. There was a huge explosion and Percy quickly erected a shield up to prevent getting hurt. After a few moments, Percy let the shield fade and studied the results of his spell.
His target was completely gone. Instead, there were chunks of melting metal that were still on fire lying scattered inside the barrier. Percy grinned.
He put out the fires easily with powerful jets of water and then, with his staff, created a new metal target for the next spell.
"Fervafecio!" Percy shouted with his staff aimed at the target. Nothing happened and for a moment, Percy thought the spell didn't work. Then, the target began to melt from the head. Percy watched in fascination as the target was reduced to steaming sludge in under 30 seconds.
"Wonder how that would work on a human," Percy muttered. The next spell was a bone eating curse, which Percy was very interested in trying but couldn't.
After testing out a spell that would to turn objects, and possibly people, into stone and then testing out an amputation curse, Salazar finally woke up from his nap and started giving Percy tips.
"Never hold your staff above chest level when fighting," Salazar said. "The best grip is always either waist level with two hands or one hand, which should be your dominant hand."
After about a few hour or so of practicing new spells and getting tips from Salazar, Percy decided to take a break and selected a different book from the shelf to read.
'The Darkest Corners of the Mind by Rowena Ravenclaw' was the book that Percy settled down with.
3 hours later
Percy wasn't sure what time it was but when his eyes began to droop, he closed the book and placed it on the stand next to the bed.
Ravenclaw apparently knew more about the mind than almost all of the most famous legilimens of the modern day. From what Percy had read, he would picking up some new habits very soon.
According to the book, there was another level of magic that could be achieved through extreme meditation and a strong magical core and all of it was related to the mind. There were even complex spells that could create illusions, which made Percy raise an eyebrow. This may have been what Pollof was able to accomplish against him during the dueling tournament. Ravenclaw even implied in her writing that it was possible to achieve something that Percy compared to a genjutsu in Naruto. Ravenclaw described it as 'transferring someone's mind to a completely separate mindscape.'
Anyways, as Percy nodded off deep in the chamber of secrets, a meeting was taking place in the office of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Severus Snape, Barty Crouch Sr, Gellert Grindelwald and Dumbledore were all gathered in the office. Severus stood off to the right wall, Grindelwald sat next to Dumbledore's desk and Crouch stood off to the left wall.
"This really is quite simple," Crouch said. "The next time he shows his face, curse him in the back."
"The boy isn't stupid," Dumbledore said. "Far from it."
"He would have been out of the way if you had just let me kill him, Albus," Grindelwald said. "I had my sword on his neck."
"In that situation, obliviating him was easily the correct and least conspicuous option. By the way, I hope you know that you'll be taking care of the mail, Severus. No one needs to know that the boy is missing. He likely won't show his face until the Yule Ball or maybe even until the second task, especially with Flitwick out for his blood," Dumbledore said. The half goblin had been absolutely furious with his best duelist missing their matchup against Beauxbatons. Harry replaced him in the lineup and dueled first and he actually won his matchup. Hogwarts still lost 4-3 and came in last overall for round 1 of the dueling tournament.
"Have you found someone to take him out while he's underwater?" Crouch asked. Dumbledore and Grindelwald glanced at each other when Crouch said that.
"I don't think that that is really an option anymore," Dumbledore said.
"Why not?" Crouch asked.
"The boy specializes in water magic," Dumbledore said, thinking quickly of a good excuse to give without revealing anything about demigods.
"Nonsense. He may be good at magic but he's a boy. I know someone that specializes in water magic. I'll get him," Crouch said. Dumbledore glanced at Grindelwald again, who shrugged.
"Fine, Barty," Dumbledore said.
"Is there a way we can get him if he attends the Yule Ball?" Snape asked.
"All that's coming to mind at the moment is slipping something in his drink," Grindelwald said. Shape rolled his eyes.
"He's insufferable but he's not an idiot," Snape said. Grindelwald shrugged.
"Just throwing out ideas."
"So here's the deal. No news of the boy's disappearance should leave this castle. The excuse until we can find him will be that he was hurt more severely than initially thought and he is in my personal care. Crouch, find your man to end him in the second task if we can't find him until then. Severus, as I said, you're on letter duty. Grindelwald, continue your search. Is that all understood?" Dumbledore said. They all nodded. "Excellent. You may go." Barty and Severus left the room but Grindelwald remained.
"By 'continue your search' do you mean search for the boy or search for the tomb?" Grindelwald asked.
"Continue your search for the tomb. The boy will show himself either at Yule or by the second task. The tomb is far more important," Dumbledore said. Grindelwald nodded.
"Got it," he said. He stood up and stretched before taking a swig from his hip flask and changing his appearance into that of Mad Eye Moody. "I'll set out tomorrow since it's a Saturday. I've gotten a lead somewhere around Australia and I want to check it out."
Dumbledore nodded and let his partner of almost a century leave the room.
Elsewhere in the school, specifically the Gryffindor common room, two students were still awake at the very late hour of 1 AM. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.
"I already looked in the hospital wing this morning Hermione. And then again in the afternoon again to make sure," Harry said.
"It's possible that he was at the bathroom both times," Hermione said.
"Possible but unlikely," Harry said. "I should have asked Madam Pomfrey."
"What if they took him to St. Mungo's because the injury was serious? What if Dumbledore found out what he knew and he killed him?" Hermione said, her volume lowering considerably with the second sentence.
"Hermione please calm down," Harry said. Hermione blushed. "It's Percy, he'll be fine."
Suddenly, Hermione's eyes widened. "The map, Harry!" she practically yelled before clamping her hand over her mouth.
"Great idea Hermione," Harry said. "I have no idea how I didn't think of that."
Harry ran up to the boy's dormitories. A few minutes later, he came back down with the Marauder's Map in his hand.
"I got it," he said. Harry sat back down and scanned the map, searching for 'Perseus Jackson.' After a moment, his eyes widened.
"What is it Harry? Did you find him?" Hermione asked.
"No... But Voldemort is in the school."