Percy woke up, bleary from sleep, and then proceeded to jump out of bed once he remembered where he was. He saw the others were still waking up and ran to the windows. Now that the sunlight was shining upon the grounds, Percy could more clearly see everything. He saw something he hadn't noticed the day before, a giant grass clearing that looked like the court for a muggle sport with three hoops on both sides. He supposed it was for quidditch, a wizard sport that Ron had mentioned during the train ride. How they even reach the hoops? Percy wondered to himself, maybe they have jump potions that could make them like… Double jump in video games-that would be cool.
Then he heard a noise behind him and turned to see the others getting out of bed.
"It's still amazing isn't it?" Harry said with a nod of greeting.
"Yeah, still can't believe the fact that we're in a magical castle."
"Yeah, you know, I've been around magic my entire life and I can't even really get my head around," Ron agreed.
Percy exchanged a few "Good mornings" with his other dormmates and walked out with Ron and Harry to breakfast. They talked a bit and the trio agreed that the most exciting subject would probably be DADA.
After they had a breakfast of jam, toast and bacon, they got their schedules and headed to class.
It turns out that just getting to the lessons was a challenge itself-the castle was huge and there were trick doors that led to nowhere and rotating staircases. There was also Filch and his cat Mrs Norris who patrolled the corridors and held up half of the students he met, determined to figure out what "wrongdoings" they were committing. Then there was Peeves who was as bad as all three of those combined. He'd drop all sorts of stuff on people and pull their noses, shouting bad punchlines.
There was Herbology, which was taken in the greenhouses out on the grounds. They learned to take care of all sorts of magical plants and fungi that could be used for potions and remedies. The teacher, Professor Sprout, a dumpy little witch who was head of Hufflepuff.
They had astronomy lessons every Wednesday. They'd have astronomy lessons at midnight. They'd learn the movement of planets and stars, and the names of constellations.
Charms class was taught by Professor Flitwick, an excitable and short wizard who was also head of Ravenclaw. Charms class was just as fun and interesting as Percy expected and they finally got to learn actual magic.
Transfiguration was taught by their head of house, Professor McGonagall, who was as strict as Percy predicted. In the first class, she turned her desk into a pig, something that amazed everyone and was met with applause. It was all very exciting until they realized that they wouldn't be doing anything like that for a few years. They had to take a lot of complicated notes and Percy thanked the gods(mostly Hecate) for the glasses. Afterwards, they had to turn a matchstick into a needle. Percy, now having experience channelling his godly energy, envisioned the matchstick turning into water and then successfully forming a needle. It got him, along with Hermione, points for being the only ones to do it.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was the biggest letdown for everyone. Instead of learning powerful monster deterring spells, it was just a big joke. Professor Quirrel's classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off vampires, and even his turban smelled of garlic. Next time I face impossible odds against thousand-year-old monsters of legend, I'll just remember to bring garlic. Quirrel told them that he'd gotten the turban of his from an African prince for getting rid of a zombie. Percy didn't believe this story one bit and he was proven right when Seamus Finnigan asked about how he did it and Quirrell quickly changed to talking about the weather.
Percy was acing both Charms and Transfiguration, now that he had unlocked his godly prowess. He still struggled with a fair amount of it but got the handle of most spells fairly quickly and was usually about ten minutes faster at the practical learning than the average. The written work was still just as difficult but he did enjoy it, after all-it was magic. He was also relieved of his subconscious fear that the kids who'd grown up from wizarding families would have a huge increase in magical knowledge. It turned out that they were on the same level as everyone else.
Friday was an important day for the trio. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall without getting lost, something they were incredibly grateful for.
"What have we got today?" Harry asked, pouring sugar into his porridge.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," Ron said. "Snape's the Slytherin head of house. They say he favours them-we'll be able to see if it's true."
"Well, regardless of how Snape is, Potions sounds like an interesting subject," Percy said, secretly hoping he'd get a boost seeing it was a liquid form of magic. "Dumbledore told me Potions can be lifesavers."
"Yeah," said Ron, "Dad has seen them at it in person at St Mungo's. The wizarding hospital." Ron explained, seeing their confusion.
Just then, the post arrived. Percy was used to the unorthodox post system by now, but it did give him and Harry a nasty shock on the first day when out of nowhere, it looked like the Great Hall had just exploded in owls who flew around and landing at the table of their owners, dropping packages and letters.
Neither Nyx nor Hedwig (which Percy had come to learn was the name of Harry's owl) had brought them anything yet. They had just occasionally come for a bit of their breakfast. This morning, however, both owls had come. Hedwig had a letter and Nyx had a package. Percy opened the package and smelt his mom's cookies. This was gonna be great. There was also an envelope inside, which Percy got out his anti-dyslexia glasses to read. It said:
Happy first week of school Perseus. Your owl's smart she came right as I finished baking these. I won't send you much more of these because it must tire your owl out, having to carry a box of cookies across the Atlantic. I hope things are going well at Hogwarts for you.
Happy Friday!
Percy took out the box to see nine blue cookies inside. Harry wasn't done reading his yet and so he offered one to Ron.
"Why are they blue?"
"It's an inside joke between me and my mother."
Ron nodded in acceptance before biting into it and letting out a cry of ecstasy.
"These are amazing!"
"I know, right?" Percy said, finishing his first one.
Harry finished his letter and turned to them.
"Hagrid is inviting me over for tea this afternoon, do you two want to come?" He asked.
"Sure," said Percy while Ron simply nodded in agreement.
It was great that Percy had tea with Hagrid to look forward to because Potions turned out to be his second least favourite class at Hogwarts. Following History, which really wasn't much because History was taught by an old and forgetful ghost.
Potions took place in the dungeons. It was colder down here than the rest of the castle. Something that only added to the creepiness of having fermented animal parts floating around the room in jars. It made Percy feel like he was in Hades' palace again, just switching the skeletons for animal parts.
Snape came in and gave a speech about the "subtle science and exact art of potion-making" then proceeding to call them dunderheads. Percy could already tell that he didn't like him.
"Potter!" Snape said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of worm wooded?"
Percy knew the answer almost immediately, guess his idea of a boost in potions due to his heritage was correct. He could seemingly remember everything he had read on One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. He could tell both Ron and Harry were clueless though.
"I don't know sir," Harry said.
"Tut-fame clearly isn't everything," Snape said, ignoring Hermione's hand.
"Let's try again, Potter, where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"
Not wanting his friend to be embarrassed again, Percy followed Hermoine and raised his hand. Snape ignored them again.
"What's the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Furious at both being ignored and his friend getting picked on, Percy said "They are the same plant. It also goes by the name aconite."
"One point to Gryffindor for getting it right. Three points from Gryffindor for insolence," Snape sneered and a few Slytherins laughed.
"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a powerful sleeping potion known as the Draught of the Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and will save you from most poisons. Well? Why aren't you copying that down?"
Cue the sudden noise of rummaging for quills and parchment.
Things only got worse for the Gryffindors as the lesson continued. Snape put them in pairs and set them all into pairs and got them to make a simple potion to cure boils. Ron and Harry paired up and Percy paired with Hermione. They both knew a lot about potions and were doing great. Snape criticized almost everyone and only ever said anything good about Malfoy who he seemed to like. He walked up to them and looked at Percy and Hermione's potion. After he seemingly failed to find any flaws to nitpick about, he just walked away and didn't acknowledge them for the rest of the class. Halfway through the lesson, Neville somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a shapeless blob and their potion seeped across the floor, Percy just managing to push the potion away with his powers to not burn holes in his shoes. Neville was lying on the floor moaning in pain. After shouting at Neville, Snape got rid of the potion with a wave of his wand and told Seamus to get him to the hospital wing. Then Snape turned to them and took a point from Harry for apparently not warning Seamus.
Percy stood up, wanting nothing more than to give Snape a piece of his mind when Hermione pulled him back down.
"It's not going to work. He's just going to deduct points again." She said, sounding the tiniest bit regretful.
Percy sat back down again. Snape is worse than Zeus, Percy thought to himself, at least Zeus stopped blaming me once he realized it was Ares.
Percy chatted a bit with Hermione after class before joining Ron and Harry. As they climbed the stairs out of the dungeon Percy still wanted to strangle Snape. What had Harry ever done to him?
"Cheer up you two," Said Ron. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Let's go meet Hagrid."
"Yes," Percy responded, happy to finally do something fun, "Let's."
At five past three, they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of rubbery shoes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked on the door they heard a frantic scrabbling from the inside and several barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang-back."
Hagrid opened the door to let them in, wrestling back a huge dog who was almost the size of a hellhound.
"Hang on," he said, yanking back the collar giant dog in, "Back, Fang."
There was only one room inside. Large hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling and a steaming kettle sat on the stove and in the corner was a giant bed so big that he was pretty sure the gods could sleep on it with their extended height.
"Make your selves at home," said Hagrid, finally letting go of Fang the miniature hellhound, who bounded straight up to Ron and gave his ears a thorough washing. Clearly, like his owner, Fang was much nicer than he looked.
"This is Ron," Harry said, pointing to Ron.
"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid said, clearly recognizing him by the Weasley trademark freckles. "I spent half me life chasing yer brothers away from the forest."
"And this is Percy," Harry said, now pointing to him.
"Yer the transfer student righ'?" The gamekeeper asked.
"Yeah."
"Dumbledore mentioned you, how come ye came here? Heard they got ther own wizarding school in the states."
"My father was a wizard and told my mother he wanted me to go to Hogwarts," Percy replied simply.
Hagrid gave them some cakes, which almost broke their teeth but they pretended to enjoy them anyway. They told Hagrid how their first week went and enjoyed hearing Hagrid call Filch an "old git".
Harry tried to convince Hagrid that Snape especially hated him, something Hagrid denied though Percy could tell that he wasn't being completely honest.
Hagrid then chatted with Ron about how his brother worked with mythical creatures. Ron said that his brother Charlie worked with dragons, something that led Percy to the realization that the wizarding world had its own set of dangers.
They also learnt from Hagrid's newspaper that there was a break-in at Gringotts, the wizarding bank. He also learnt that it was robbed the same day Hagrid and Harry were there and Hagrid had taken out something from a high priority vault. It didn't take much to put the pieces together.
As the trio walked back together to the castle, Percy couldn't help wonder whether this attempted robbery had to do with the war Hecate mentioned. As they walked into the castle Percy thought to himself. It was looking like this year would be as much of an adventure as the summer had been.
Hi! I just wanted to address an idea.
So, will Percy meet up with other demigod-wizards? No. This is because first of all, I say in the first chapter that Percy's the second demigod-wizard of the millennia and so it wouldn't make sense for demigod-wizards to suddenly start popping up left right and centre. Second, having more demigods would seriously make the odds go one-eighty. If I add more of the seven to the group then the odds will be different.
For example CoS. If I add Percy, the odds would still be very against them, especially since it takes place after SoM, in which Percy plus one demigod and a cyclops got absolutely wrecked by a Hydra. A monster on a similar scale with the basilisk. But if I add two or three more of the most powerful demigods of the century to the fray, the odds will seem fabricated.
Thirdly, I just want to focus on Percy and it's already hard to consistently give development to four characters at once. I really just don't need that number to go up.
Enjoy your day (or night)!