Chapter 4! I have a question for you guys. Did anybody actually recognize the names from chapter 2?
Enjoy!
Percy looked around in amazement at the sights and sounds of Diagon Alley. There were entire shops dedicated to brooms. Display cases filled with wands, and cauldrons, and all sorts of incredible things!
"Come on Percy, you can look around later," Hecate said, disturbing Percy's silent awe.
Percy pouted, "Ugh, fine,"
They walked down the street before entering a small corner shop labeled Gadgets and Gizmos'
Hecate walked immediately started browsing, making approving or disapproving noises every once in a while.
Percy hesitated for a moment before following her lead. He didn't touch anything though, he isn't stupid.
Alright, there's an Extraordinary Editing Eraser, a Flying Flugel Horn, a -"
Apparently, he took longer than he thought because Percy's browsing was swiftly interrupted.
"Percy!" Hecate yelled.
"What!" he yelled right back.
"Come on! Let's go!" She screamed.
"Why are we yelling!" Percy shouted
Hecate blinked, and then spoke at a normal volume, "I have no idea,"
Percy walked out the door and then yelled back, "Come on, We have to go!"
Hecate stood there, shocked for a moment before chasing after Percy, "You don't even know where we're going!"
Percy stood on the floor of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions while a tape measure flew all around his body.
"Is this really necessary?" he asked.
"That is the third time you've asked that in the last 5 minutes, and the answer is still yes," Hecate said, exasperated.
"All done," Madam Malkin said sweetly. She produced a black-on-black robe from the backroom and handed it to Percy.
Percy looked at the robe, "This looks like something Nico would wear,"
Hecate handed Madam Malkin a couple of coins and then walked over to Percy.
"The colors will change once you get sorted into your house at Hogwarts,"
Percy snorted.
Hecate sighed, "How long is this going to go on?"
Percy flipped through the script, "At least one more chapter, the writer isn't very creative but wants to make jokes."
Hecate blinked, "What?"
Percy looked up, "What? Did I say something?"
Hecate waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, "Whatever, now would be a good time to get some practice in using your sigil,"
"Awesome," Percy said, "How do I do that,"
Hecate shrugged, "I don't know. Try pushing on it, and like focusing on the house,"
Percy sighed and tapped his shoulder, concentrating on what he remembered of the entrance hall.
In an instant, they appeared at the entrance hall of the house. Percy collapsed into his butt but quickly got up.
"Haha!" he shouted triumphantly, "I've done it!"
"Congrats Percy," Hecate said, "now we can start with your magic training,"
Hecate dropped a truly staggering number of books on the desk that Percy sat at.
"You are going to finish all of these by the end of this year," she said.
Percy tentatively picked up the first book and flipped through the first couple of chapters.
"Yeah, that's not happening," he said, squinting his eyes at the tiny print, "This would be hard enough to read normally, and dyslexia does not make it any easier,"
"I know," Hecate said calmly, "That's why I got these,"
She handed him a pair of glasses. They were pretty standard-looking with oval-shaped lenses and a black frame.
Percy took the glasses and examined them for a moment.
"This is a pair of glasses,"
Hecate sighed, "Thanks captain obvious. Why don't you try putting them on,"
Percy put the glasses on his head and then looked back down at the book. Shockingly enough, the letters had stopped shifting around. It was certainly difficult, but it was far easier than before.
Hecate smirked, "Wizards have things like dyslexia too. They just use things like that to make it easier on them,"
Hecate then handed Percy a plain black quill and an inkwell.
Percy looked at the quill and then back at Hecate, "I have a perfectly good pen you know, "
"Wizards use quills instead of pens. You are pretending to be a wizard. Therefore you are going to use a quill,"
Percy snorted, "OK sure, what else do you have. Want me to write everything upside down on my head?"
"No, but if you keep up with that attitude, you will,"
Hecate and Percy stood in a large arena, both of which were holding their wands.
"So one of most basic combat charms is Expelliarmus, which just shoots a wave of force to disarm your opponent,"
"So," Hecate took a basic dueling stance, one foot forward, one foot back, with knees slightly bent, with her wand out in front, "I shall demonstrate,"
Before Percy could object, Hecate cast the spell.
"Expelliarmus!"
Predictably, Riptide went flying out of his hand onto the floor.
"Haha, very funny," Percy said deadpan, "You are so hilarious,"
Percy went and picked up Riptide. He held it out in front of him in a rough mimicry of what Hecate had done moments earlier.
"You know, this seems suspiciously similar to a basic sword-fighting stance," Percy said, "One could almost assume that they took advantage of a preexisting system and acted as if they invented it,"
Hecate coughed, "You can try the spell yourself now,"
Percy flicked his wand and spoke the spell, "Expelliamus!"
Nothing happened.
Percy was understandably kind of confused until Hecate spoke up, "You're supposed to say Expelliarmus, not Expelliamus,"
Percy sighed, "Right," and tried again, "Expelliarmus!"
This time, Hecate's hand was jolted back about a foot.
"What! Why didn't it work," Percy asked, slightly puzzled.
"Well, I am the goddess of magic, while this is literally the first spell you have ever cast," Hecate said.
"Having said that," she held up a hand to hold off any further questions, "You are doing exceedingly well. Normally, most wizards don't even start with combat spells. They start by lifting feathers and similar acts. I thought we should get a jumpstart on those sort of spells, considering your job here,"
"Huh," Percy said, "That's kind of cool,"
They sat in silence for a moment before Percy spoke up again.
"I had a thought,"
"Oh no! Is this world coming to an end!" Hecate interrupted playfully.
Percy glared for a moment before chuckling a bit, "I hope not, you still have to answer my question,"
"Well, ask ye question then! We still have to rest of the lesson to get through you know," Hecate said with a Scottish accent for no reason.
Percy gave her a funny look before actually asking the question, "Why are demigods so weak?"
Hecate frowned, dropping the accent, "What?"
"We're children of gods, and yet we can be matched by a bunch of people holding sticks in bathrobes,"
Seeing no response from Hecate, he pressed on, "Come on. We're demigods, we should be able to trounce any wizards with minimal effort-"
"You realize you are asking for one of the most closely guarded secrets of all time,"
Percy stopped, "What?"
Hecate massaged the bridge of her nose, "You already knew that the gods of our dimension are sustained by the belief of the humans. The problem is that we are also created by that same belief,"
Seeing Percy's confused frown she sighed and continued, "Us Gods were created during the era of the Greeks when travel was limited to how far you could walk or take a boat. Modern-day people are more educated and worry about larger and larger things. Apocalypse then was a volcano exploding or a large earthquake. Nowadays, the apocalypse is the entire world getting cracked in half. More modern gods and concepts like The God or even science have far more power than we do just by their nature. In addition to all that nonsense, we Greek gods are relegated to using the world the Chaos and the primordials made, and are unable to create new worlds,"
Hecate looked at the still confused Percy and waved her hand dismissively, "The problem is that we are weak by god standards, and they are strong by mortal standards, happy?"
Percy, still confused but nonetheless agreed, "Uh, yes?"
"Good now, next spell!"
That wraps up chapter 4. I had a thought, does anybody else find it funny that most of the characters in a book have trouble reading?
Edit: You guys don't need to see author's note anymore.