Thanks for the feedback both in review and PM. A good point was raised as to why Annabeth didn't just swear on the River Styx as to her innocence. There was to be an explanation in a later chapter but since it has been raised and might weaken your interest I want to give a brief explanation now. Making oath on the River Styx is only convincing if one is given a chance to do it. Initially Percy would not listen to Annabeth at all, he grabbed his gear and left before she even considered it. After that he refused her messages and threw her letters to him away. So, there was never a chance. There will be a reckoning on what happened, but not for 30 or 40 more chapters the way this is going. Thanks again for reading and keep those comments and pm's coming in.
In Hermione's opinion the only downside to using magic to pack in less than a minute was that it left most of the afternoon with nothing to do. As they had a few hours, she and Harry went to sit on the beach one more time. Hermione read her muggle magazines and Harry just stared at the ocean. It was a nice bit of quiet time and both were practically napping mentally after a short bit there.
Around 1:30 Agent Sommers, who was new to the couple, appeared and announced that everything was ready in London and that they could travel to there whenever they felt. After long goodbyes to Bill and Fleur, with profuse thanks for sheltering them for the summer, they one by one stepped into the fireplace and traveled to Grimmauld.
Once there the couple had all the privacy they wanted, but until after the press release meeting and photos, Hermione didn't want to do anything for fear of looking disheveled in the photo for the papers.
So they were still bored, at least a few more hours. Hermione realized for that day at least, they had merely found a new place to be frustrated.
In Wembury, Marium Durham was waking up about the time Harry and Hermione were travelling to Grimmauld, and in the haze of her sleep she tried to remember if she had saved any of the food she had found the previous night. She always woke up hungry and tried to save something for when she arose, but last night pickings had been scarce, and she had not been able to save even a crumb. These mornings were the worst and Marium knew it might be hours before she found anything or someone took pity on her and bought her a sandwich, maybe longer now since most of the tourists had gone home. A lot of the other homeless people would share food with her, but some of them were really creepy so she tried to avoid them except as a last resort. At this time of day they were unlikely to have anything anyway. So it was that she woke tired, hungry and wondering if it were worth the effort to go on living. She could just walk into the ocean and never come back, or step in front of a lorry to get out of her wretched existence. But things changed when her eyes fully opened at last with the cawing sound of a seagull.
This particular gull brought the first of an afternoon of surprises. No, it didn't have food and Marium knew that seagull tasted terrible roasted over a fire, it was just too greasy, but it was sitting on a lime green bicycle that had little silver wings painted on the frame, and had a small backpack that said "Pinkfong" on it with little Japanese characters all over it on a rack behind the seat. In the gull's beak was an envelope with Marium's name on it. Opening it, she found a letter, and a pair of glasses. At first she could not read the letter, but on a whim she tried on the glasses and then she could read the text.
'My Dearest Marium,
You are loved, I am so very proud of you. Take today and rest for your journey, leave at first light, follow the red line and it will deliver you to King's Cross Station on time. In the pack you will find some pound notes to help you on your way, use them for lunch, as I recall you like Happy Meals. The tent will provide breakfast and dinner. It is the small cloth with the red string, just pull the string. Clothes will be in the footlocker inside. You need not dress in rags anymore. The water bottle is endless, drink a lot so you don't dry out and get weak. It is a good bike and will safely get you there. Ride all day, camp when the red line ends. Wake with the sun. You will be tired by trail's end, but you will be safe. Nothing will disturb you in the tent. The pack will hold all your things, do not forget the ticket or your mother's wand, you will need both.
You are beloved. When you get to the station, find the heroes of Hogwarts. They will help you on your way.'
The note was unsigned and there was no return address or any other indication of where it was from. She guessed it might be some unknown member of her mother's family since it mentioned her wand so whoever it was knew her mother was witch, and most people didn't know that. Marium's stomach growled and as fascinating as the note was, especially since she could read it without the letters jumping around, she needed to find out if the parts about food were true.
'Cool glasses, I never knew I needed them' she thought, and then decided to investigate the backpack. It was small, like a student book bag, and on the very top was a napkin-sized cloth with a red string. She couldn't wait so she pulled the string and it leaped from her hand. As it fell, it opened into what seemed to be a decently large canvas tent.
Inside, the first thing she saw was a comfy looking bed, bigger than a cot, but smaller than the bed she had when she lived with her mother. It was much bigger and much better than the cardboard she had been sleeping on, and had pillows and sheets and blankets and a comforter and… it just looked like the most wonderful thing in the world to Marium. Across the room was a table with a book on it but she decided to check that out after she explored the rest of the place. A small beaded chain above the door, beside a red string, had an engraved plate that said "Security" which she pulled. The flaps to the tent closed up immediately and unknown to Marium, concealment spells were cast all about and the tent became basically invisible. She pulled it again as the pack and bike were both still out side, as well as her own bag of stuff. Once she brought those in, she re-secured and continued to look around.
There was a footlocker under the bed and she was about to open it when hunger struck again. She realized the room was lit from above by what appeared to be an oil lamp, but it seemed to put off no heat, and in fact the inside of the tent was at a very comfortable temperature, much cooler than it had been outside of it in the shed. It occurred to Mariam that the inside of the tent was much larger than the outside and that was confusing but since she figured she was hallucinating anyway she decided to just roll with it.
In the back was a small kitchen, just a sink, hotplate and tiny fridge, as well as a few cupboards. A table with one chair had a plate, glass and silverware. The fridge had some bottled water, which was cold so she sat down to drink one if only so her tummy would not feel so empty. As she sat down, the plate filled with chicken nuggets, her favorite, as well as a mountain of fries, ketchup and BBQ sauce. The glass filled with her favorite soda, ice cold.
Life was good.
As she ate, the plate refilled until she was stuffed so much she thought she might either burst or vomit, but she was loaded with carbs and feeling great!
There was a door at the back on the side of the tent that the kitchen didn't occupy and on opening it found a bathroom, a real one, not one in a fast food restaurant or petrol station. It had a toilet, sink, bathtub and shower and was spectacularly clean, with marble walls and floor. On the back of the door was a bag that said 'Laundry' and in the shower was soap and shampoo. A brand new toothbrush and toothpaste were at the sink, along with more soap, and a rack contained towels and washcloths. There was even a hairbrush to replace the one she had worn out living on the road over the last year. She flushed the toilet to see if it really worked, and it did, although she wasn't sure where it would drain to and didn't really want to know.
Checking the footlocker she found socks, underwear and a set of PJ's along with a note that said, "Get cleaned up and get some rest. You only need pajamas for now."
'Well okay bossy footlocker, I can take a hint' Marium thought, and so she did just that. She stuffed her old clothes in the bag, took a shower longer than she could remember in her life until she felt truly clean, used the bathroom and took another shower just because she could. Then she dried off, put on fresh undies and her new PJs, all of which fit perfectly and felt so clean and comfy, and then left the bathroom to find a banana on the plate. She had room in her tummy again so she ate it, then brushed her teeth, brushed the tangles out of her hair, which took a while, and was about to crawl between the covers when she remembered the book.
The cover said "History of Hogwarts" and was quite thick. Marium didn't read a lot but was curious about Hogwarts since she had a ticket to get there. She thumbed through it and it looked boring, although the pictures moved around, or at least the ones from the last century did. On almost the last page was a picture of a handsome red headed person in his late teens or early twenties, a very pretty girl and a quite good looking scruffy guy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The caption read 'Weasley, Granger and Potter; the Heroes of Hogwarts' and was undated.
'Well, now I know who I'm looking for anyway' she thought. With that Marium slid beneath the covers on the softest and most comfy bed she could remember and drifted off for the afternoon and through the night, her tummy full and her disposition brighter. Life was changing, and it could only be for the better.
Percy was confused. Not just by Annabeth's remarks, but also by the shopping list Hogwarts had given Estelle for her first year supplies. Diagon Alley wasn't that big of a place, maybe three city blocks, but seriously, where does one go to get dragon hide gloves or a #2 pewter caldron? After flailing around going from store to store and getting more frustrated, especially since the alley seemed a bit crowded with older students preparing for school, Estelle and Percy were just about at their breaking points frustration wise.
Then Percy remembered he had a bit of unused clout. He looked around for the first student to fit his needs, old enough to know his or her way around, not old enough to be a smart ass, and not with a crowd of other students that might encourage them to be. When he found one, he pounced.
"Excuse me young man, may I have your name?" He asked a boy about 13 or 14 that was looking through his own list, and was carrying a number of items and dropping them. He had a book bag, but it was over flowing and had no more room for the things left on his list. The young man was as frustrated as Percy and Estelle, just for a different reason.
"Uh, Nicholas, Nicholas Grumby sir."
"Going to Hogwarts?"
"Yes, yes sir," the boy replied as if he were in trouble in some way he did not know.
"Good, are you third year, fourth?"
"Third year sir, well, about to be."
"Excellent. Mr. Grumby, my name is Percy Jackson. Professor Percy Jackson," Percy said and as he had stressed the word "Professor" he now had the boy's rapt attention.
"I am the new Defense against the Dark Arts instructor, and this is my sister Estelle. She is a first year and we have a problem. It looks like you do as well. How about you help us with ours, and I help you with yours?" Percy asked.
"Uh, sure, how can I help?" Nicholas asked.
"Me first. 'Extendere sacculi'" Percy said as he tapped the boy's book bag. "There, now it has a permanent extension charm and you can carry all that in it. I can carry practically everything I own in mine," Percy said.
"Woah! Thanks Professor!" Nicholas practically shouted as he put all his purchases easily into it. "Now, how can I help you?"
"Well as I said, I'm new, it's my first year. My sister Estelle is also first year but of course as a student. Well, I guess that part is obvious. We are both from the States, so we have never shopped here before. We have this list and must be to the Ministry by 4, and well, we can't find everything in that time if we keep guessing where to go, could you point us in the right direction? The books we have and I know where to get the robes, but the rest of this, well, we're lost."
"Oh, okay well most everything you can get at Slugs and Jiggers Apothecary over there" he pointed, excitedly spewing his words a mile per minute, "Except wands, you go to Ollivanders for those, that's just up from the Apothecary, right over there," he pointed, "and even though they aren't on here, you want to go to Scribbulus and get about 6 quills, a few notebooks and a stack of parchment. The desks have quills, but they are usually pretty worn and honestly they tend to bend to the last person to use them, so it is best to have your own. The telescope, uh, I'll tell you a secret, there is a muggle photography store near the Ministry that has better ones, just don't get one with electronic controls, they are against the rules and the electronics don't work at school anyway. Oh and the hat? My advice is don't bother with it. Everyone hates them, the only time it is required is the first night and since it is first night, most students don't know it's required and show up without one. No one really cares about hats, and they look stupid. I suggest a couple extra work robes; they get dirty a lot, and one extra dress robe. You won't really need more than that. You can get by with three work robes, but you better know some cleaning spells. You'll want to get extra school uniforms too; three is really the minimum. It takes the elves a couple days to do your laundry so… oh! And this close to the start of term, Madame Malkin's probably won't be able to label your robes today, so you may have to pick them up before the train next week. They open early for that on the first and will have them bagged up for you. I found that out last year. Honestly it makes packing easier to just pick them up, but make sure you hit the changing rooms on the Express early; they can get crowded the closer you get to Hogwarts."
"Well thank you for your candor Nicholas, you have done us a great service. Good luck, I look forward to seeing you in class." Percy said as they turned and went first to the Apothecary, then to the Madame Malkins, and finally to Ollivanders.
"He seemed nice," Estelle commented once they were appropriately far away.
"Oh gods! No! You don't get to say boys are nice! You're not allowed to have a boyfriend!" Percy teased.
"No! I just think he is nice, I hope all the students are that nice to strangers. He was cute though, and geez Percy, I'm eleven, I can have a boyfriend if I want."
"Nope, not putting up with that shit. You hush, you're not allowed to date until you're forty. We've been over this," Percy smiled. 'Estelle is growing up too fast. Of course when I was her age I went to the underworld with Grover and… her. Nope, no boyfriends. Fuck that shit.'
Along the way they finally ran into Hazel who had wrapped up an all day meeting with Gringotts that left her both tired and frustrated.
Dealing with goblins was just the worst. Hazel had been warned by others to watch every word with the bankers, as they would try to use each nuance to their advantage. She had to continually remind them that the funding was cursed if any were used for non-Hogwarts purposes, but the goblins wanted to use a very broad definition of what those purposes might be. Hazel had to constantly stand fast on these issues and was mostly worn out by the time the meetings ended.
They had just left Madame Malkin's when Hazel sighted Percy and practically ran to throw her arms around him. Happy to see her again, Percy instinctively hugged her and kissed her cheek.
"I missed you!" He exclaimed with a smile.
"I missed you too Percy" Hazel grinned.
'You're not Annabeth bitch! Get your filthy hands off my brother!' Estelle thought as she stared at the couple.
"Estelle, do you remember Hazel? She's from New Rome and was on the Argo with us, I told you about that. I know you've met, but you were probably three or four." Percy asked.
"No, I don't remember. I was young then."
"Oh, well let's meet now then" Hazel grinned at the child. "I'm Hazel Levesque, I work at Hogwarts doing the books and finance."
"We wouldn't be opening except for Hazel." Percy added.
"They still have their arms around each other, and they're smiling. Go away! You're not…' Estelle thought, and then finally saw the person she was looking for.
"Annabeth!" Estelle yelled as she ran past her brother and Hazel. Annabeth was walking towards them with that pretty boy that was at the lunch thing. He had a garment bag and they were both smiling at each other, but when Estelle shouted her name, Annabeth looked her way and practically glowed.
"Hey Squirt! See? I told you we would run into each other! Have you met our new librarian, Mitchell, uh, Mr. Laurens?" Annabeth said as she knelt down and opened her arms to receive a hug from Estelle.
"We were about to go to the wand store, can you help me pick out a wand? I don't know how!"
"Sure, if Percy doesn't mind us tagging along, that might be a family thing. You know, because all of ours came from our family, not a wand shop."
"Maybe Percy's dad or your mom will get me one? Maybe?"
"Well, you can always ask, but for now lets get you ready for school, okay?"
"Okay! Percy can Annabeth help us get a wand?" Estelle asked with her eyes practically pleading.
Percy didn't want Annabeth around, but he really didn't want to disappoint Estelle. With the move and being in a new environment and probably a little scared, he wanted to make everything as perfect for her as he could, and he could suck up being around his ex a bit to keep Estelle on an even keel.
"Sure, but remember, Annabeth is a super important person here and really busy, we can't take all of her time," Percy said, giving his best fake smile, while on the inside thinking 'Get lost you stupid cunt, don't you know where you aren't wanted?'
"Thanks Percy," Annabeth said, with outward sincerity, while thinking 'Fuck you asshole! I'd quit work and stay at home with Estelle full time if I had my way, I'd give all my time to Squirt if I could, except that you're a fucking douche nozzle.'
"I meant to ask you the other day, do I remember you from camp, at the Battle of Half-Blood, you were one of the Seven weren't you?" Mitchell asked Hazel.
"I thought you looked familiar! You spoke French to me."
"You saved my ass from a couple of earth born, did I ever thank you for that?"
"I did? Well, we killed a lot of monsters that day. I just remember you speaking French, how did you know I knew French anyway?" Hazel asked.
"Somebody told me you were named Levesque and you were from New Orleans, so I figured you were Creole and just played the odds." Mitchell replied.
Estelle took Annabeth's hand into her right and Percy's in her left and said, "Let's go then!"
"Sommes-nous des sellettes?" Mitchell asked as he offered his arm to Hazel, not entirely sure of the phrasing as "Are we fifth wheels?" wasn't a common saying at Beauxbatons. Certainly he had never had to say it before. It didn't matter as French was not Hazel's native language and she only spoke it some at home when she was a little girl. 80 years before. She got the gist.
"Oui, Oui!" Hazel laughed as she took Mitchell's offered arm and walked behind the three to the wand shop.
'Oh, I'm going to fuck you so hard!' Mitchell thought to himself, for the first time since arriving at Diagon Alley using his powers actively.
'Oh, I'm going to fuck this guy so hard!' Hazel thought to herself, and then wondered where that thought came from.
Ollivander's was quite small on the inside so Mitchell and Hazel said they would wait outside, then seeing an ice cream shop across the street suggested that Percy, Estelle and Annabeth just meet them there.
"Oh that's good! Can we have ice cream with Annabeth Percy?
"Uh."
"And Hazel and Mitchell" Annabeth said to Estelle.
"Well yeah, I mean, uh" Estelle replied, before adding "Puhleeeze?"
"Okay, but remember we have to be at the Ministry soon, Well, Annabeth does. We don't want to take up her whole day, Percy replied while thinking 'I can't deal with that whore all fucking day. What the hell did she say to Estelle about loving me? What the fuck does that even mean? Speak English bitch, I'm not the cunt translator!'
'He knows I told Estelle I still loved him and he is still a dickhead. What did I ever see in that dumb fucker?' Annabeth thought.
"Okay, lets hurry in so we will have more time" Estelle said as she tugged them to the door.
This was the first shop that wasn't crowded; in fact when they entered they were the only customers. This was due to students having to replace most everything else every year, while only buying a wand once normally. Ollivander was an old man with a nest of grey hair on his head and began sizing Estelle up as soon as they entered.
"Greetings friends, first wand for the young lady?"
"Yes, we were told you were the best and that everyone gets their wands here," Percy replied.
"Well of course I like to think so," the old man smiled. "Lets see, first year, and so pretty. Hmmm" he said as he pulled several boxes from the racks behind him. For the next several minutes he talked about how the wand chooses the wizard and described each as he gave them to Estelle, telling her to "give it a swish."
None of them seemed to do much of anything and it became frustrating for both the salesman and the customer. Finally, just to keep the conversation going he asked, "Do I hear an American accent?"
"Yes, I'm from New York. Percy and I moved here so" she stopped as she looked at Annabeth.
"Professor Jackson is our new Defense instructor," Annabeth quickly interrupted, knowing that Estelle's answer might be "to be close to Annabeth" and that would have started a nearly unending shit storm.
"Ah! And you would be Miss Jackson then, Professor; may I ask the nature of your wand? Families tend to run together," Ollivander asked.
Percy really didn't want to answer that as his was a gift from his father when he started Ilvermorney, but Estelle saved him.
"No, I'm Estelle Blofis, Percy is my brother, not my father."
"Estelle Blofis?"
"Yes sir."
"Wait here," Ollivander said as he held up a finger, and then stepped behind the rack and out of view.
The trio was silent and wondering what was going on when Ollivander returned with a wooden wand case and laid it before Estelle.
"Here is your wand Miss Blofis, it arrived yesterday."
The box had a brass plate engraved with her name and on opening it she found a wand that looked a lot like Percy's only it was a different wood. Running the length of it was what appeared to be tendrils of silver, bronze and gold, and it was just about the most beautiful thing Estelle had seen.
"Ash, reasonably stiff, 12 inches with a core of celestial steed mane, at least according to the note in the case. We don't see many ash wands, it is sometimes associated with bright days and sunshine and most wands come from darker woods. I've rarely seen wands with metals woven into them, quite rare. Well, give it a swish."
When Estelle picked it up she proclaimed that it felt warm in her hand, and when she swished it around bright sparks went everywhere above them, then cascaded down as a rainbow of sparkles.
"Marvelous!" Ollivander cried.
"Can I have it Percy?"
"Of course, it seems to have picked you. What do we owe you Mr. Ollivander?" Percy smiled.
"Nothing. I had nothing to do with that wand. It appeared on my desk yesterday morning; I have no idea who sent it. It came in that box with Miss Blofis's name on it. I checked for curses of course but there were none. No, it seems this time I am merely the delivery agent. I can't in good faith charge for that. I do carry a full line of wand polishing cloths and waxes of course if you are interested. Miss Blofis, it seems you have a powerful and generous benefactor, I expect we will see great things from you. I will follow your career with interest."