Chapter 4: Chains, Mauls and Guards
I'm hoping to get this one out as soon as possible so i dont flop on update consistency but knowing me ill fuck it up. Got a big week coming up anyway with last week of school and learning the gender of my new baby sibling so i might not be writing 2k words a day yknow. Ill try tho. Currently i need sleep.
Stop complaining about how OOC it is. It's a fanfiction. A crossover fanfiction. I'm not George RR Martin. I don't know to worldbuild a bridge between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. This whole story is built on shoddy foundations, and characters act not as they did in the books because, surprise surprise, things are different. Don't quit the story because Artemis didn't cut James' dick off immediately.
Also I realised after reading the last chapter I didn't explain how Apollo got magic, so we'll pretend he and Artemis visited Hecate offscreen. See, another example of how casually i'm taking this story.
Chapter 4: Chains, Mauls and Guards
The escape didn't end well.
Cali and Percy were caught once James could get the rest of the Order to apparate to him and unfortunately the coast was a good mile away. Thus they were pursued, fired at, and eventually Cali was taken down so Percy forced himself to go back for her, resulting in them both being dragged and apparated away to Diagon Alley.
Precisely they were transported to the inn at the end of Diagon Alley, a shady little pub by the name of the Leaky Cauldron. Percy fought to free his arms from the black guy's grip and after Sirius came over to check on him he was let go. Remus rushed over to Cali who was barely awake thanks to a stupefy to the back of the neck.
"Harry! H- Percy, what happened?" Sirius fervently asked, trying to calm his godson down. Percy still struggled to be free of the auror behind him and eventually Sirius had to tell Kingsley to cool it. He looked back to Percy for an answer.
Percy looked down. "We made a run for it." He muttered, disappointing Sirius. The man's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Percy sadly.
"Why?" He asked the demigod, who just sorta glared at the ground for a few seconds and then looked back up at Sirius.
"We don't wanna be here, Sirius. I-... We love you and Remus, don't get me wrong but… we just wanna go home." He admitted, crushing his godfather. While he had the saving grace of Percy admitting he was still in his favor, it broke his heart to know he hated it here so much he was hoping to run away.
Sirius looked down too and thought for a moment, before looking back up. "I'm sorry too, Percy. I wish things were so… bad." He looked away, his eyes wandering towards the door as he got an idea. "Would you like me to get you two some ice cream to cheer you up?" He grinned, trying to lighten the mood. Knowing his intentions and that he wasn't being tone-deaf, Percy smiled and nodded. Sirius sat him down in the booth next to Cali and Remus while the Order argued in hush whispers next to them.
The other kids and the twins were seemingly still in Grimmauld Place, waiting for the all-clear to Floo into the Leaky Cauldron. Cali was slowly waking up, the process being aided by Remus' magic. When she woke up and realised they had not succeeded she sighed and looked at her twin, giving him a shrug. "Worth a shot." She flashed that Jackson grin. Cali then turned to Remus and apologized to him too. Percy didn't want to interrupt the godfather and goddaughter, so he merely sat in silence waiting for Sirius.
Sirius returned less than five minutes later trying to hold four ice cream cones, some double scoops. "Flashed my badge to get to the front, works every time!" He laughed, earning one too from Percy and Remus, with Cali still being a bit too out of it.
They sat there eating ice creams together in the booth, with Percy occasionally having to wipe a bit of a mess of Cali's already-stained two day old shirt, since her mouth muscles weren't in the best shape.
They talked about menial things, with the adults teaching their god kids about their jobs and what that entails, what life will be like at Hogwarts, cultural differences between England and America, etc.
They were on the topic of houses, and Sirius was very passionate about the topic. "I'm sure you'll both be thrown right into Gryffindor with the others, no need to even consider the other houses!" He assured them once they inquired into the whole housing scheme.
Percy gestured with his hands. "Well what's the other houses?" He asked for the two of them, wanting to know their options considering they did not wanna be in the same house as their brother and the gingers.
Sirius was about to go on some sort of prejudiced rant about Slytherin in particular before Remus cut in line. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table as he took the conversation. "Well to start you have Hufflepuff. Their house prides itself on loyalty and hard work, their colour is yellow and black and their symbol a badger." He noted.
Sirius gave one loud "Ha! Wankers!" His loudness disturbed other patrons of the pub, so Remus hurriedly shushed him before he got them all kicked out.
Moony cleared his throat. "Uh, next is Ravenclaw. Generally considered to be for the more intellectually gifted students. Their colors are blue and bronze and their animal is an eagle, the house being founded by Rowena Ravenclaw."
This time it was Cali who interrupted, still lightly licking the ice cream. "So the nerd house?" She oversimplified it for her and her twin brother, and this oversimplification earned a nod from Remus.
Remus then sighed slightly and mentioned the last one. "And then there's slytherin. You could probably tell from the name the animal of this house is a snake, and as are snakes, the house color is green. Silver, too. Slytherin has the… least favorable reputation among the houses, with a noticeably darker tone emanating from them. It also helps that statistically speaking, a vast majority of dark and evil wizards and witches were Slytherins."
Sirius was quick to put in his two cents. "It'll be a cold day in Hell before a Potter gets put in there, mark my words! It'd be earthshaking, groundbreaking! Something else that rhymes with that!" He laughed, earning one from his godson and their twin sister too.
Cali and Percy both then got ideas as they gave sideglances to each other. "Uh, Remus. How do you… get into the houses?" Percy asked, curious for the both of them. Remus and Sirius both raised eyebrows at their god children.
Remus faltered for a moment. "Well… you all arrive at the Great Hall, I presume you two will go with the first years, and one by one you will be called up and have the Sorting Hat placed on your heads. The hat is enchanted to read your mind in order to find which house youd best be suited for. If you're outstandingly brave you'll be in Gryffindor, loyal to Hufflepuff, smart to Ravenclaw and ambitious to Slytherin. Then you go sit at your house table, where you sit during evrry feast throughout the year." He summarized the sorting ceremony. The twins nodded along, and now it was Cali's turn to ask a question.
"Can you tell it what you want?" She asked, knowing that both her and Percy had the same idea. Choose Slytherin to piss off the Potters and the Order. Though then again, that may also make Sirius and Remus unhappy, and they didn't want that.
Remus thought over the question for a moment, pondering. "I mean I feel as though plenty of children go up there with a preference in mind but I do not know whether it takes that into account. Try?" He suggested with a shrug.
The twins nodded and the four finished up their ice creams in silence. They stayed silent while Order members flooed back to get the others. Eventually Percy looked back over at Remus and Sirius, who were now watching the fireplace waiting for the others to arrive. "Hey guys. Don't be mad if we get into Slytherin." He told them casually.
Sirius frowned. "Wha- why? Are you thinking of preferring that… that dark house?" He asked with slight contempt in his mind. The twins shrugged, merely telling him they might, and after Remus agreed to stand by wherever they end up, Sirius relented too, though everyone knew he'd prefer them to be in Gryffindor.
The fireplace lit up green as people poured out, first one of the gingers and then a few Order members. Then Apollo and Artemis appeared one after the other, making their way over to them. Artemis was faster than her brother, rushing over to hug Percy. The teen grinned and hugged his girlfriend tight until he received a hard punch to the gut. "Ow. Arty, what was that for?!" He whined, pouting.
Artemis stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring at him. "For abandoning us." He scowled, looking cute to him since she was like 5'9".
Her twin brother Apollo, who contrasted her in almost every way possible, too glared and folded his arms, though they could all tell he was joking. "Yeah, dickheads. We had to stand there with those kids for like 20 minutes." He whinged.
Percy shrugged and Cali sat up, getting ready to move. "Well we had ice cream so you win some, you lose some." He bragged nonchalantly with a shrug.
The four of them were not really allowed to stray from the group, as the Order did not trust them to behave or not run away in a place such as this. While Lily and the kids were at the front of the group, the four Greeks were constantly surrounded by the aurors and other adults like a prison transport.
It was honestly surprising they didn't put invisible handcuffs on them or something.
Percy looked up at Sirius. "Where we going?" He asked, meaning it in a more specific manner. He knew they were shopping but not yet what for.
Sirius' eyes snapped to him, and he realised for the first time that he was the same height as his godson. "Well we'll stick with the group while they get all the normal 5th year supplies, and then they can go have a meal while we get the stuff you'd normally get before first year such as a wand and broom and such." He gave him the rundown of the days plan.
Cali looked nervous. "I… We don't know how to fly brooms." She excused, making up something to hide the real reason she didn't want one. Sally's parents - her grandparents - had died in a plane crash, and that knowledge had always implemented a slight fear of flying in her. It wasn't crippling like Thalia and heights, but she grew weak in the knees even when Blackjack offered them rides, fearing they'd be struck by lightning and plummet to their deaths just like her grandparents.
Sirius jumped at the opportunity presented in front of him and grinned brightly. "Then I can teach you two! It's good fun, flying around, doing tricks to impress the girls. Though then again, you won't really need to worry about that." He nudged Percy, nodding to Artemis, and when Percy turned his head and saw his girl looking up at him with an eyebrow raised, as if daring him to challenge that statement.
Though she was nearly pissing herself at the thought of flying, Cali mustered a smile for the dog. "That could be cool." She stressed her smile, not wanting to seem uninterested or ungrateful.
The group headed right towards the closest store they needed - the clothing shop. Madam Malkin's Robes for something or something and something, wizard shop names were hard to remember, that much they could tell from the signs.
The group of about 15 poured into the store, which must have been a sight. Thankfully it was the morning, so it was not as busy as it would've been at lunchtime or so.
A lady who looked a bit like a falcon or something walked over, spiky gray hair and large glasses. She recognized the other kids, and directed them over to the lines to be measured. Upon looking at the Greeks however she raised an eyebrow and looked at James and Lily. The former cleared his throat. "They're with us. New to Hogwarts this year." He explained to her without having to give too much away.
She looked back at the four snappedly. "Senior uniforms are over there. Pick what you want and then step up to one of the pedestals to be measured." She explained curtly before walking to the next set of first-years.
James and Lily ushered the four of them over to the uniforms, where the gingers, Nero and the brunette were already picking their outfit. Lily walked next to Cali, wanting to help her find something, but her suggestions fell on deaf ears.
Percy and Apollo looked through the boys getups while Artemis joined Cali on the girls side. Most of the uniforms looked fucking cringe. Grey shirt, black pants, grey tie. Welcome to a POW camp, it seemed.
Remus tapped Percy on the shoulder and leaned over. "The tie changes to your house colour." He informed him. Percy nodded, understanding why everything was so bland now. Magic and shit.
To be fair there wasn't much choice for either gender. For boys it was either a white button up shirt with or without a grey sweater. They had a black cloak to wear over it and black slacks. For the girls it was almost the same. White button up, grey sweater, black cloak and either slacks or a skirt.
Apollo and Percy found clothes shopping really easy, just getting three of everything, but only one sweater. They looked cringe anyway, just the shirt would do. Cali had chosen the same but went with the black skirt instead of slacks. When she saw Artemis had grabbed slacks her jaw dropped. "You're not getting those, are you?" She asked.
Artemis gave her a funny look as she grabbed three pairs. "Yeah, why?" She asked her future twin-sister-in-law, not feeling up to an argument over school attire.
Cali just scrunched up one side of her face in slight disgust. "Those things are ugly as fuck, and this is coming from a girl who wears sweatpants and sweaters all day. Like for real, skirts may be bad but at least they're not that." She emphasized, gesturing to the slacks.
Artemis looked down at them and back up to Cali. "We're going to a school full of boys for a year. Why would I want to expose myself to them more than is necessary?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips defiantly.
Cali rolled her eyes and picked out some extra skirts for Artemis. "Yeah, and do you want Percy to get disgusted and leave you?" She proposed, raising an eyebrow.
Artemis sputtered and as he heard his name enter the conversation Percy spun around. "Wooooww, okay Cal. Nice to know you think I'm one of those people." He then turned to Artemis and looked down at the pants in her hand. "Oh yeah, definitely get the skirts." He nodded, agreeing with his twin.
Cali had a smirk on her face while Artemis glared at her boyfriend. Percy shrugged and gave that stupid charming Jackson grin. "What? You look really cute in a skirt. Especially the skirt of a tight schoolgirl outfit. Like, really cute." He winked suggestively, making the color gold fly to Artemis' face, despite the immortality chains Hecate had made her place on herself so she was semi-immortal for a year and didn't vaporize the students at Hogwarts.
Cali gestured her arms as Percy stood behind a blushing Artemis. "There you go. I agree, Percy agrees, it looks better, the slacks are ugly, Percy's horny. Problem solved. Now put down the pants, Arty." She demanded, and the prideful goddess conceded when she realised how stupid of an argument this really was.
As Percy wrapped his arms around his girl from behind and began to whisper into her ear, Apollo leaned over to Cali. "I agree. The skirts are really cute." He grinned a different charming grin than the Jackson twins, and Cali just smirked and lightly punched her friend in the shoulder.
The four of them proceeded to get their measurements, which was uncomfortable to say the least. None of them particularly liked the feeling of a tape measure flying around their bodies on it's own, especially not when people were watching.
When they had bought the uniforms and placed them in a shopping bag Cali remembered they still had to get their stuff and say goodbye to their family, and so she nudged Sirius. "Hey, uh, after this can we go back to New York. We kinda need clothes and I wanna at least say bye to mom and our sister and explain stuff before we leave for a year. Please?" She asked, turning on that innocent helpless girl charm at the end for good measure. Sirius just smiled and agreed.
Next stop was the bookstore. That trip was largely uneventful as it was just the adults finding the books for them and then buying it while the four Americans waited near the entrance with some Order members.
The group of 15 zapped all over Diagon Alley picking up 5th year supplies until finally they had gotten everything. Well, everything for the Gryffindors that was. The Americans, as they were starting their first year at Hogwarts, needed the basic first year supplies, so for them it was still the objective to get them. Half of the group split off to go have lunch, while James, Lily, Sirius and Remus stayed with the Greeks to get their wands, pets and potentially broomsticks.
First of all was wands. The adults brought them to one of the shadiest looking shops on the street, a red creaky building named Ollivander's or something similar.
I conveniently stopped there cause I was tired and then later decided to split this chapter in two as well, since CoS hasn't had an update since May 8 and I didn't want people thinking this was abandoned as well. Sorry for slow updates. I alternate between this and Blue Sky Country and each chapter takes like 2 weeks. Possibly longer since I'm now tryna do bigger chapters and include more rather than skipping over a lot of stuff like I did with shopping in this chapter. Though to be fair, not much you can do with buying school textbooks. Next chapter's shopping will be more interesting with wands, pets and brooms.
Also you can tell I write these authors notes weeks apart because A) I graduated high school. Good for me. Now I'm waiting at least a year before college because we need to wait for my sister Ari to finish her senior year of high school and also because we wanna spend a year or so with our new baby siblings. Yes. Siblings. B) my mom announced she's pregnant with twins - a boy and girl so fraternal not identical. They're due in September and we're all hella excited for the second pair of twins in my family.
Word Count: 3292