Chapter 11: Going Back to School (Ugh, The Horror!)

Words: 4,349

Recap: The Hat has spoken, and I've been placed as a Hufflepuff. Apparently, the House of the Duffer as they call it. Why does the universe keen in putting me among the underdog, I wonder.

You would think I would survive the first day without getting into trouble.

Boy, was I wrong about myself.

It didn't take long before I was wiping clean the many dusted trophies and medals, being watched over by Apollyon Pringle, the caretaker of Hogwarts. The guy, from what I heard, never seems to show any emotion on his job and never compromises on his punishment. His lack of emotions only made him more intimidating in his own way.

Yes, most of you might be thinking: 'Geez! Detention already Percy? It's only been the first day!'

Well, just because I've been handling myself better at Goode doesn't mean I still don't get in trouble.

See, here's the thing... On our first day after we had our breakfast and getting semi-acquainted with the other Hufflepuffs (especially with my new friends, Gwen and Doc) we moved to our Transfiguration Class for our first lesson with Gryffindor. In essence, the class is all about transforming one object into another. Sounds fun and useful, don't you think? Which is why I was eager to learn it. Even though my ADHD would make things harder for me, I should at least try, right?

However, the lesson got more challenging when you have McGonagall as your teacher. She is every bit of the kind of authority figure I dislike. Not as much as Ms. Dods (No one could top her in the Worst Teacher Department) but I experienced with enough teachers to know she's not going to permit any excuses in her class. She's strict, intelligent, impartial, she's on the list of don't-tick-this-person-off.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Yup, definitely on the list.

So, of course I'd tick her off in the end. I'm starting to think I'm cursed from having a quiet normal life at school.

"I told you it was an accident! I swear I did not mean to make my match explode!"

Professor McGonagall looked skeptical. As if she never had a student messed up a spell as bad as I had.

So I have no talent for transfiguration, James and Sirius made it like I'm the laughing stock of the whole house. The jeered laughter from those couple of Gryffindor Gits almost pushed me to an edge if Lily wasn't there as well to calm me down. Her laugh was more of a 'typical Percy' rather than a mocking one.

Oh, as bad as it had been then, it wasn't that incident that had got me in trouble. Nor had it been on that one incident from Charm Class where I managed to flood the classroom.

What do you expect?! I am the Son of the Sea God! Do you honestly think I wouldn't get to flood my classroom with a spell at least once or twice?

No, what really did it, was what happened on my fifth period, which had been Herbology at the time because I ate a flower from one of the greenhouses raw. Yeah, I know. Silly right? And not my most brilliant moment. But you have to understand, Professor Sprout had offhandedly mentioned how the Molly flower had worked well against Circe's dark spells, and my brilliant brain thought it was a good idea to eat it to combat Circe and my hand had shoved it inside my mouth before it hit me what I was doing wasn't quite appropriate in front of the whole class.

Oh, nobody asks but turns out flower taste bitter.

"How did you even pluck it?!" Professor Sprout practically shrieked, "That flower is almost impossible to be picked bare-handed by any mortal human!"

Good thing I'm not mortal then but there's no way I could say that to her. So with nothing to say on the how and why I randomly ate a magic flower. and ignoring instructions from the Professor, I was sentenced to detention. Now that I think about it, it's pretty embarrassing and ironic that I got the Head of my House to put me in detention on my first day. I feel a bit bad for Professor Sprout. I remembered telling this all to Sev, and he outright laughed, which is sort of an achievement seeing Sev laughs as much as he makes jokes, alongside Lily. Can't blame them, I would laugh too if it were anyone else. Heck, my crazy exploits for the first day got widespread throughout the school that it got distorted a bit. Gwen even asked if I had actually burned down a classroom, which I know she knew was untrue but wanted to ask anyway just to mess with me.

So here I am, getting letting my precious sleep be taken away, bit by bit by the horrid chore I'm doing.

Well... not too horrid anyway. Once you've washed dishes with lava while being watched over by a couple of furries, anything compared to that was tame. I tried to chat up with Mr. Pringle (good god what's up with Wizard and names? His sounds like pringles!) to fill with the time, but only get a blank stare in return.

The most memorable of my class that did not involve me flunking or destroying anything was probably Potion Class with Professor Slughorn. He was a fat old man with a bulging belly that his buttons must have a hard time holding on, and thinning grey hair. Gwen had whispered to me that his prominent enormous mustache had most of the student called him Professor Walrus. He was a jovial man that didn't seem to mind his figure and took everything in stride, his teaching method somehow reminded me of Chiron; exciting and interactive. Able to constantly joke while withholding our attention as he points out the core of his lesson for cure potion for boils (Not that I know what boils are, but I just roll with it.)

"Now, that we've established the ingredients and method, everyone find a partner and worked it out together!"

I locked eyes with Lily and smiled in tandem, but then my sleeve was tugged by Doc, who sheepishly asked to be my partner. The guy had a hard time chatting up new people, so I made an apologetic gesture to Lily, who smiled understandably. Then, we both scowled when James sat beside her.
I watched as Lily looked left and right for a vacant partner, but everyone was already occupied and...well...that just won't do wouldn't it?

"Hey Doc, we're friends, right?"

"Uh...yeah? Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, just that I owe you one for this."

"Huh?"

I got up and walked over to the two, smiling innocently as I ignored Lily's surprised look and James's scowl, "What do you want Jackson?"

"Obviously not you James," Lily almost broke out into laughter at James' stupor. "Hey Lily, I heard Doc still searching for a partner, you mind filling with him?" Lily's eyes widen at my admission, looking back from Doc to me. I didn't get to wait for her to respond before gently pushing her over to him while I sat next to an obviously pissed off kid. Right before Slughorn asked us to start.

It felt good one-upping James since I never was good at it when it comes to unpleasant people, so I kept smiling all the same even when James didn't hide his dislike with me.

"Look, you don't like me, and the feeling is mutual. So how about we go through this without looking for any trouble and pass this."

James snorted. "Hah, with you? You're going to get both of us a Troll. Out of us two, I'm the one with most of the experience with this kind of stuff, so let me do things my way Jackson so you don't flunk us both."

I held out my hand in resignation and nodded, considering how 'well' my first day was, I can't blame him for not letting me handling things. The fact he had admitted being a pure-blood makes it true that he was more used to this wizardry stuff.

However, I soon learned, pure-blooded or not, some things aren't just for everybody. I learned that when looking back at James, who just mistook a slughorn for a flobberworm and I had to sigh at our pink mixture compared to others' red blended potion. No matter how much I don't like the guy, even I felt pity for him.

I looked down at our cauldron and the various material we had on hand, I was able to take the worm out before it got permanently stirred inside so now the potion is too thick from its extracted mucus.

Wait... how did I know that?

Deciding to listen to my gut, I turned on the heat and stirred gently until it reaches to the point where I thought it was acceptable. "Hey James, do you know any ingredients that are... what's the word... sharp?"

"What are you talking about Jackson?"

"I'd like to know that too if you could help me, I...I think I can fix this potion, but since I barely remembered all these ingredients, I need somebody who does. So do you want to pass this class or not?"

James just glared at me for awhile, tense silence stretched between us before he said anything, "What did you say about sharp ingredients? Because I have absolutely no idea what you meant by it."

"Something that has a stinging sharp smell and taste, any idea among the one we have?"

"That's the dried nettle and onion, but the book only mentions the fresh nettle for this potion."

"Chop those two together and put it in the cauldron."

"Jackson!"

"We already messed it up, if we messed up more than it wouldn't make much difference so do it while I keep stirring this."

James grumbled under his breath and relented, doing things as I tasked and turned the mixture back to red, then I asked him to put the porcupine quills nest then the stewed horned slugs. Stirring and heating it at the precise moment my gut told me until it turned to luscious dark pink (or is it magenta? I don't know how girls could differ them all) compared to the other's red.

James groaned at the result, thinking I messed up the potion all the same and I was beginning to agree with him too.

So it almost freaked us out when Slughorn laughed joyfully and told the whole class we had the best result in this class, even making us gape at him before grinning like a loon.

"Guess you're good for something after all, Jackson."

"Don't get used to it James, because this is the last time I'm partnering up with you."

"Good to know the feeling is mutual."

Once the class was finished, Slughorn made a loud clap, getting everyone's attention. "Great first day at work students, now I hope you have a good idea how we'll do things in my class and getting familiar with your partner because you will work with them for the rest of the year and I won't tolerate any changeup!" Slughorn announced.

The grin we both had instantly dropped by that statement before we looked at one another with palpable dread. Ah, great… the one lesson I'm actually good at and I have to spend it with the one insufferable guy in class. Irony strikes again.

So yeah, that happened, and it had only been the first day. Can't say that I'm excited for the next, but despite barely listening to the god's blessings, surely one of them would bless me with smooth schoolwork over my stay in the past right?

. . .

"So Washout Percy… blow anything up yet today?" Sev asked as we were strolling through the Hallways.

It was on a bright Thursday noon, we had passed by Peeves and Sev had gleefully tried out new hexes he read about on him. Usually, I wouldn't condone anim- I mean, Poltergeist Cruelty, but hey, even I'm getting sick of that ghost's annoying laughter.

That, and that he spread a new nickname for me throughout Hogwarts.

I gasped in exaggeration, reaching out for my heart in a hurtful look, "Why Severus, do you really lack faith in me that much? I'm shocked you would even think tha-"

"On Transfiguration, everything went on well since nothing explodes… if turning brush into a scissors spell managed him to turn it into a hammer can be said as well." Lily cut gleefully, too gleeful if you ask me, as she placed herself between us. "Then I heard from a Ravenclaw friend that you managed to use a Softening Charm on a stone that it could bounce and cracked the ceilings and walls of the classroom."

"It turned soft, didn't it? Albeit, as soft as rubber rather than clay but it's not like I messed up the spell." I tried defending my case.

"Oh, and is it true in Herbology he mocked a baby mandrake and got his nose bitten. Took them 15 minutes 'till he got it off?"

"As a matter of fact, he did!" Lily confirmed with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes, "You know guys, I'm right here, you know!"

"Then you know in History he..." Sev continued, but Lily cut him off.

"Wow, wow, wait, how did Percy even get to mess up in History Class? I thought that class literally does nothing, you could sleep through it and pass all the same!" Lily was beginning to sound awe at my track record.

"Well..." Sev began.

"Severus, you're my friend, and I really like you, but if you finished that sentence then I swear I will get my revenge." I glared at my best friend l, who just smiled innocently at me, while Lily laughed between us two.

"Guess the only lessons you haven't screwed up after taking it are Potion and Astronomy, two that you are actually good at, which left two other you haven't experienced."

"...why do I feel you sounded excited from my screwup?"

Severus just smiled innocently in reply, "Whatever you could possibly mean Perce? Surely your spectacular failure doesn't entertain anyone here."

"Hahaha," I dryly laughed. "The sass is highly unappreciated here Sev."

"Oh, I don't know..." Lily added, "I can appreciate it well enough."

"Really, Lily? Do you have to take his side?" Hearing the evident faux misery tone in my voice, they openly laughed at me right until I laughed right along with them. I then heard my name being called, seeing Doc waving at me beside Gwen, telling me our next lesson is about to start.

I bid a short farewell to them and meet up with my fellow house friends, and went toward the Stair Maze, composed of hundred of staircases. There are those that are wide, sweeping ones, narrow, rickety ones, some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Those stairs would then led us to doors that might not open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending, as if the school had some sort of sick sense of humor seeing confused look on new students. It was also tough to remember where anything was because everything seemed to move around a lot.

Which is why having Doc with me is a lifesaver, by the second day, Doc seemed to have a talent in remembering stuff. He didn't need to stop and think to whichever stairs that would lead to our classroom, and Lily had told me how he would read out the Potion's instruction without glancing back at it. Doc doesn't seem to realize how amazing his talent seemed to be.

Though that didn't seem to apply to classes that we never went to, that's where knowing the right friends could help.

"Hey Mira, how's the weather over there?" I asked the girl beyond the portrait. Who was hugging and cooing a fish like a pet when it's obviously dead, she was wearing a white dress underneath her white robe and had a crown made of shells on her ginger hair. The girl took notice of me, and her face blushed shyly at me.

"Oh Percy, so nice of you to see me. The weather is fine as always, just like the day before...and the day before that... or even decades ago." She said wistfully, "Anyway enough about me, how are you, Haddian?"

Mirabella's fingers played at her fish, fidgeting and glancing to one corner and back at me. When Doc and I had gotten a wrong turn and were completely at lost, I met Mira then who was staring intently at me. I would have asked what she was looking at me or any other subject, if it could distract her from her disturbing gaze, had I not thought that as portraits of Hogwarts, they would know more about the school better than most people. A little sucking up and praise later, she thankfully helped us from being late on our first day.

Though for some reason, she kept mistaking my name for this Haddian guy. I try not to pry much, she seemed sad whenever I brought it up.

"Uhm... again, it's Percy, and I'm fine, thanks for asking. So Mira, think you could show us where Classroom 3C is?"

Mira giggled, not sure where my words had made her laugh but shrug it off. She's weird like that, but I don't mind. "Oh, I know where it is, follow me!" The three of us tracked down on her form, making sure not to lose her as she passed through paintings until our destination.

"Thanks again, Mira!"

"Anything for you Haddia- I mean, Percy." She winked at me and went back from where she came. "So, what's next in our schedule again?" I asked my two friends.

Gwen had an amused played on her lips, eyeing me funnily, "It'll be our first DADA lesson today, you know what that means?"

I groaned at the thought of it and wiped my face down, "Another screw up I'll make waiting to happen?"

Gwen only neutrally smiled at me, Doc, on the other hand, was fidgeting his hands and coming up ways to reassure me, "Cheer up Percy, you might even surprise yourself at how good you'll be in it like you did in Potion. Besides, I'm sure we'll cover on theory in the first week so good luck!" He made pat to my back to cheer me, and I smiled back at him.

"Thanks, Doc, that means a lot."

Once we reached our class, we took our seat and waited for the professor that... I... was... beginning to realize I have no idea who he is.

I nudged Gwen who seemed to know every little fun fact of what the school has to offer, "So, any idea what kind of Professor we'll have?"

For the first time since I met her, Gwen scrunched her nose, her forehead knit, and eye narrowed. Looking long and hard at the empty air, her gaze was shooting at. "I don't know," she finally answered. "The professor is new this year and wasn't even on the feast. So I have nothing on him or how'll he teach us. I'm just as clueless as the rest of you."

"New professor? What happened to the old one?" Doc asked her curiously.

"Got into an accident by the end of the school year, his robe got tangled with someone's broom and got dragged into a wild ride until he fell down from a few story height. He'll live, but his legs got crippled, and not even magic has a good way of healing a damaged spine. Total bummer, my sister went all teary-eyed for him since he was her favorite teacher."

I winced at such a disturbing incident that sounded painful just from hearing her. "Guess it was true that it is jinxed." I heard her whisper, possibly not intending for me to hear.

"What jinx?"

Before she could answer me, the sound of the door opened. Striding in the room with loud 'tip tap' sound of heels was a woman in her mid-thirties, her silence yet strong demeanor quieted the classroom. She has wavy ebony hair just above her shoulder, prominent cheekbones, red lips, sharp bright brown eyes that one might mistake as gold. She was wearing a dark magenta robe, underneath she wore a knee sized red skirt and black shirt.

In simple term, she looks like a mature, more serious version of Snow White.

She turned, facing the crowd of students, her face stern as her eyes glazed at us. Seconds stretch with tense air hanging over us, sweat dripping, saliva swallowing, everyone wasn't sure what to say or what to do at the pressure just her gaze put us through.

The next thing we knew, she smiled warmly at us, her body shift from stern to a welcoming light hearted. "Welcome first years to Defense against the Dark Arts, as you know my name is Rose Rotwood. I'd like it if you all Call me Professor Rose, Rotwood is my father's name."

Almost instantly, the students felt their body relaxed, unknowingly heaving a sigh in the course, including me. Only to have my spine straighten when I realized what happened. In the short span she made her presence known, this woman managed to weigh down the atmosphere with just her expression and body language.

Honestly, I'm amazed by her skill just to be in control of this classroom.

"Now," Professor Rose stated loudly. "Following the school's curriculum, I would have spent the first hour with you to pound the necessary information to your head. However, that's not how I'll do things."

"Today, the first thing I will teach you will be the Sparks Spell, use in whatever emergency condition you have in case you needed either medical attention or you're currently risking your life at the moment. Some of you might already learn this, some of you may not."

"Regardless, once you all know it I will immediately move on toward the practical lesson where we'll be learning the various Jinx and Hexes and make sure you're all up to standard when dealing against the Dark Arts. Any question?"

To my surprise, it was Doc who had raised his hand, despite his entire body saying he was uncomfortable of the attention.

"Yes?"

"Uhm, if we're not going by the curriculum, shouldn't we still keep our focus on the theory...y'now...knowing what we're up against?"

Rose nodded, seemingly impressed by his point, "Nice to see you paid close attention. Mr . ."

"Caradoc Dearborn."

"Mr. Dearborn then. While yes, I will be teaching you the theory the book will provide us. My main subject, though, is to make sure you know how to handle yourself against whatever is out there. Tell me, Mr. Caradoc, if you were to meet a beast, what will you do?"

"Uh...fight...or run. Maybe even reasoned with it, whichever that will keep me safe."

"And if you can't do either of those, what will you do next?"

"I guess...call...for help then?"

"Exactly. Right now, none of you could so much flick a wand against the danger outside of pest level, which is why asking for help is the number one thing you all need to be reminded when dealing something out of your hand. Is everyone clear of that?"

Most of the students nodded in understanding. While I could understand the part of asking for help when dealing something out of your hand, I couldn't completely agree with her view the one asking for my help seemed to shove their problem on me so knowing how to fight for yourself is way more important in my point of view. Besides, I had most of my entire life dealing something way over my head. Both figuratively and literally- And I turned out just fine.

Mostly.

Though being a demigod does put my base stats better than the average mortal or wizards, so maybe there's that.

So the rest of the first hour of DADA, we all learned the three primary color sparks and the code meaning of them. Red when you're life is in danger, green when you need medical attention, and silver when there's a danger to your property because of natural disaster or otherwise. Her teaching was precise and straight to point without dragging on, her stern tone held our attention much like McGonagall. Overall, it was a breeze since I had self-studied before the summer ends.

Now, I know what you're thinking. 'What?! Percy Jackson actually made an effort to study?!' I know, I'm surprised myself. But even though I never was an expert at manipulating the mist or demigod magic, doesn't mean I don't know the basic of it, at least enough to trick the whole people on Time Square from seeing things as it is. But it's a hit or miss most of the time. Do you really think I would miss the chance of being a better magic user than Thalia? Yes, I still have a sore spot over her one-upping me on that.

Not that I would learn every aspect, I mostly covered from the DADA subject since it'd be the most useful when facing against monsters.

When the hour was almost over, she made one last notice to tell us. "Oh yes, I suggest you all should review the few spells you could find on hand because you'll be dealing a mock test tomorrow."

Immediately the student's response wasn't positive, there were collective 'What?!' and 'We barely even started!' or 'Objection!' but the last one might just be me hearing things.

Professor Rose sighed before slamming her hand down the desk, silencing us faster than what I could hope to do. Man, if I had her skill, rounding up the camp kids would have been easier.

"Bear in mind children that I'm not using this to test for your grades, so you don't need to worry much. I do hope you'll give this test some effort since it will determine how I will be teaching you. Now then, class dismissed!"

We picked up our stuff and book, preparing for the next lesson in mind.

Overall the days had gone by normally... well, as normal as a wizard school could get. So I take in as much as I could knowing the upcoming storm undoubtedly coming sooner or later in this school.