o0o Chapter Six o0o
A ragged gasp reverberated around the quiet dorm. He flew into a sitting position in his bed and tried to control his quickened breathing.
Outside the window the first grayish purples of drawn were beginning to streak across the sky. Percy walked to the window as quietly as could then unhitched and opened it. A slight breeze danced across his wet face, slightly calming the nerves of the frazzled demigod.
Percy only slightly remembered his dream, it wasn't as bad as other's had recently but that didn't mean he liked it, and it certainly didn't end pleasantly. Most of the dream was hazy flash backs of his past, he guessed it was some odd side effect from the hat, especially because it only went until the Second Titian War.
The end of it though, was still fresh in his mind. He had been fighting alongside demigods, battling wave after wave of monsters. Suddenly a helicopter flew in, one from Dare Enterprises. It was Rachel's.
The machine was flying out of control, spiraling downwards. Everything and everyone had stopped to watch. Rachel fell out of it, and she fell right in front of him, so close he could have caught her, but he hadn't, he couldn't move. She fell there, and died. As soon as she hit the ground the opposing army immediately shook off the daze and ran at the group of demigods.
He had watched as monsters slaughtered demigod after demigod, unable to move. Eventually they had closed in on him, having the Achilles curse didn't mean quite as much in that dream. He had felt the claws sweep against his immobilized body, and the once bodies littered the ground around his and no one was left standing a spearhead had been jabbed though his heart.
It was then that he had woken up.
Now he stood at the window, thinking. As soon as he was able to get the dream out of his mind for second, he realized what a fool he had been.
Remembering how tired he had been last night sort of excused it in his mind, but if Annabeth were here, he knew he would hear no end.
He fell asleep without any precautions.
At camp they both slept in the same cabin and had a sound barrier placed around it after a few nights of waking everyone in the camp with their night terrors. When he first realized this would no longer be an option, he got stressed out, but then he remembered what he was learning. Magic. He figured as soon as he actually got to the learning magic part, he would find something. The books did not disappoint, Tionumton was a spell that blocked all sound from escaping the place it's cast around. Sure, he would need a bit more practice, but he had it almost perfect.
I planned, he thought, in your face Annabeth!
It was amusing for around a whole second before his thoughts turned sober. He felt so alone in the big castle – a freaking castle, III that III was where he went to school – full of people he had never met, of things he didn't understand, of so many hallways, staircases, and rooms he thought he would never find his way in this place.
If only he had his Wise Girl by his side would he be fine. Wherever they were, as long as they were together, he could make it.
They were not together though.
He was alone.
Without her.
And she was without him.
Annabeth was the strongest person Percy had ever met; he was sure she would be fine. She didn't need him. At least that's what he told himself, deep down he wasn't sure how she would take being separated again. He knew he wasn't taking it well. But if Percy told himself she could be as bad of a wreak as himself, he just couldn't take it.
He sighed, the sky was getting lighter by the minute, fiery pinks and oranges were beginning burning out the gray. He walked back to his bed and opened the trunk, taking care to be quiet. He slipped on the uniform, which somehow had gained the Gryffindor colors overnight, along with the new addition of a red and gold tie, which he left undone around his neck. A painful reminder of Paul, from which he had learned absolutely nothing last time his stepdad tried teaching him how to tie a tie.
He grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste, leaving the brush behind knowing his hand could as good a job as any brush when it came to his hair.
Percy walked into the bathroom, and did his same 'ole morning routine, except he skipped the shower knowing it would be far too loud.
Walking back into his shared dorm, he realized there wasn't anything to do. So, he did the only reasonable thing and left.
Quietly as he could he opened the door and snuck out, only to find someone awake in the common room. By all means Percy wasn't a shy guy, but let's just say that the person wasn't paying attention to him, and he was pretty happy about it. In the corner sitting cross legged in one of the big chairs reading a book was a girl, she looked to be around his age. Brown frizzy hair surrounded her entire head and went all the way down to the book she was holding, shielding her face, and view. He couldn't see much in the dim morning light, but it seemed she was pretty engrossed in whatever she was reading.
If it were Annabeth trying to get some reading time in, he knew it would take a lot more than a creak to disrupt her. He figured he could slip by and climb out into the hallway unnoticed as long as he was quiet.
The demigod climbed down the stairs and crept to the portrait hole, part one done, he thought. Part two, he knew would be hard. Percy pushed ever so gently on the painting and kept doing so until it was wide enough for him to get through. When he got out however, the painting practically yelled at him for waking her up. He swung the door closed hoping the girl didn't see him, apologized to the painting lady, and ran off hoping he didn't attract any attention. It was probably around six-thirty, he didn't want his day to go wrong this early.
He tried to remember the way he went last night, and really just tried to go down. Eventually, he made it to the bottom of all the stairs, somehow arriving in the same hall he had first entered through last night. Deciding that it was too early to eat breakfast he opened the other door.
Walking out onto the lawn was the first time it entered his mind that he might not be permitted to walk around before breakfast. Percy spotted a beech tree across the dewy grass and started off towards it, remembering all the schools he had been to.
There had been one boarding school that he had tried this same stunt with, there the lawn more like a 10 by 10 square of grass with a tree and two benches though. He had been having some nightmare or demigod dream, or something that caused his to wake up at an ungodly hour, decided he needed fresh air, so he dressed and walked outside. Big mistake on his part.
Someone caught him around seven (thirty minutes before breakfast) or so and when they checked the security footage and saw that he had been out there for, around two hours the principal was furious. The woman sent a message to his mom and put Percy in detention for a week.
The demigod hoped this place did not have similar rules, it was only the first day, and with his track record, Percy knew he'd be coming back.
Finally arriving at the tree, he sat down and leaned against it, tilting his head back and resting. He had come to like this exercise a lot, find a place in nature, relaxing, and clear his head. Honestly, it was easier said than done, but Percy had practiced it at camp. More than he would like to admit.
He let himself be absorbed in the hypnotic dance of leaves above him, the way they shivered on the thinning frame of the tree, how the leaves sometimes broke off and fluttered in the wind before twirling to the ground. The breeze against his face, the chill in the air, the nature around him brought the demigod serenity.
Something that had become much too rare lately.
-:-:-:-
How long Percy sat like that he didn't know, but eventually he was broken out of his stupor when he began to faintly hear the mummer and scuffle of many students passing by the slightly cracked door.
Everyone was heading to breakfast, Percy wanted to stay under the tree, but his inconsiderate stomach grumbled in protest reminding him that it had not had a lunch or dinner the day before. He slowly stood up and maybe his way towards the door, he slid in when no one was looking and fed into the stream of loud, hungry, magical kids squeezing through the door into the dining hall.
Percy broke off the throng of students and headed towards the back of the Gryffindor table.
The amount food on the platters were sickening to Percy, why anyone needed that much food, he couldn't fathom. Maybe the Percy he was a few years ago would find it appetizing, but he just thought it was far too much.
He sat down and scooped some eggs and bacon onto his plate. Percy had lost his appetite after the pit, there he didn't have much – if any – food, somehow after that he never found himself that hungry anymore.
He saw oatmeal a bit further down and took a little bit of that too, he ate in silence. The demigod missed the dining pavilion at camp, all the chaos and noise that always accompanied him there, here all he heard was indistinguishable British chatter.
The worst part was that it gave him time to think, which almost never happened at camp meals. Annabeth normally was talking to him, and even when she sat at her table the people around him kept his mind busy.
Sometimes (more often than you would think) there were people trying to murder the Stolls, or Nike kids were in a shouting match – not to say other campers didn't argue, but they were often the loudest and most often to do it – or a random sparing match sprouted up, or someone random came running in for some reason, typically announcing something that would cut the meal off early. And that was only a little of it, the craziness of meals at camp was definitely something he missed, especially right now.
He looked around the hall, deciding to focus on where he was, 'no time like the present,' someone had said, he was sure of it.
The hall was huge he realized, stone walls and pillars, vaulted ceiling, and… Was that the sky? He decided it must have been magic of some kind, around him were four long tables, and at the end of the hall a table going the opposite direction on a raised dais sat all the teachers. A few chairs were empty, glancing around he realized four teachers were walking down the tables, handing something to the students, he assumed they were schedules.
Percy wonder if he could fit in at all in this school. The funniest and most ironic part about fitting in was that it probably wouldn't be the fact that he wasn't a real wizard, or that he had only just learned magic existed a month ago, that he could barely do magic, that he didn't know anyone, or that he couldn't tie his tie. No, Percy was pretty sure that his American-ness would be what got him in trouble, his 'accent', the names he called things, the way he spoke. That was what he thought would set him apart.
No one would know about half of that stuff, and the other half he had dealt with before – due to not being able to stay in a school for more than year – but speaking different than everyone else… That would be blatantly obvious no matter what was happening, it would be one of the first things people noticed about him, and it wasn't going to change.
No matter, he wasn't looking to fit in, he never really did any way. Plus, he didn't want to get attached.
Now finished with his food, the demigod just sat there trying not to think too hard about how many of these kids around him would be killed before he left.
Eventually the teacher made it down to him, she scowled slightly before even saying anything.
Must be the tie, Percy realized.
"You are Percy Jackson I presume?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Here is your schedule," she handed him a piece of paper with tiny cursive dyslexic kryptonite, "and here is the timetable, you may be new, but lateness is not permitted in my class."
Wonderful, he thought, a strict teacher.
After she left, he glanced at the paper, and after staring for a good twenty seconds he was convinced that there wasn't a single English word on the paper.
After a bit of contemplating, he decided his best bet was to try and translate to Greek on another paper, even normal English would be fine at this point. Maybe there was some magic spell or something that could bibbidi-bobbidi-boo the paper into being readable.
What would Annabeth do? Because whatever she would do is probably be the best solution, he reasoned, but sadly she wasn't here. The best thing he could think of would be to see if Annabeth's second home exists in this voodoo learnery...
The library. If she didn't know something or she had a problem, was it consult her genius boyfriend? No, it was look through a huge room full of books. So, that's where he was going, to hunt for a library. In a ginormous castle.
Now having the only thing he was waiting on – his schedule – he got up and left. Realizing he probably didn't have much time before his first class, he resigned to asking for help again. Not that he had a problem with asking for help, he just didn't want to bother anyone around here.
Right outside the hall there were so many paintings he didn't want to choose, "Could any of you possibly show me where the library is?"
"The library?" a voice behind him inquired, he jumped. He could tell that the voice belonged to a person rather than a painting. Percy rubbed the back of his neck, feeling like an idiot.
Turning around he saw a girl, a year or two younger than him by the looks of it, in the doorway behind him.
"Yeah, I uh, don't know where it is, and I was hoping one of the-"
"That's where I was heading, you could come if you wanted."
"That would be great."
She started off at a pace that was surprising for her size, but he had no trouble keeping up.
"So, what are you going to the library for?"
"Hmm? Oh, I finished my book on the train, I just need a new book to read, not for class or anything. You?"
Why did I ask that? he chastised himself.
"I was hoping to find a book to… I um, I needed a uh-"
"What? Spit it out."
"I can't read my schedule, I need some uncursivifying spell or something."
"You can't read cursive?" she giggled, or rather tried not to giggle, but failed.
"Something like that."
After a short, sort of awkward silence Percy attempted conversation again.
"What type of books do you like?"
"Fiction."
"You live in a fictional world, please tell me what fiction is to you."
"What do you mean?"
"I come from a no-maj family, most of the stuff that you believe in here is just bedtime stories to them."
"Well in the last book I read the Feniglies, a species of fairy like creatures had to fight against the another group of the same creatures that had broken off and decided they wanted to come back, but they wanted to rule the others, who had previously kept them uneducated about the world outside their small village. It talked all about the strengthening of the people that broke off, and the epic battle between the two, and made them seem like the one with evil motives until they are about to be defeated and you realize that they are actually the ones in the right. And it makes everything much more interesting especially when you realize they're about to fail. And then they end up beating the others and making a much better and free village for the people to live in… If that makes any sense."
"Uh, ok then, that sounds interesting."
"We're here."
"Uh, thanks, see you around."
"I could help read that schedule of yours if you want, it won't take a second."
"That would be great, but don't you have a book to find?"
"Yes, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but my book can wait. You won't be able to get around today if you don't know your schedule."
"Thank you so much."
She headed to a table and set her bag down, Percy just pulled out a chair and sat beside the girl.
"I'm Olivia by the way."
"Percy."
The name suited her in Percy's opinion, the girl's hair was a light brown color, and almost blonde at the tips, it was wavy and reached just behind her shoulders. She had light dusting of freckles and big, warm brown eyes. Her robes were embroidered in blue, and her tie had matching blue stripes.
Percy wished he was in whatever house got to wear blue.
Once Olivia has dug out a quill, paper, and some ink she asked for Percy's schedule. He handed it over and offered to do the writing if she would just read it out loud. Switching around the supplies she started out.
"First you have Potions, then double charms, then there's lunch of course, after that you have defense against the dark arts, and then two free periods before dinner. Not a bad Monday," she commented, "Now tomorrow you'll have-"
"What'd you mean tomorrow, won't it be the same?"
"No?"
"Well that's how it was at my old school, it was always the same schedule."
"Well not here, on Tuesday you have Herbology and then care of magical creatures, then a free period...
They kept going until Percy had his whole schedule written down, Monday through Friday on another sheet of paper, or rather, another bit of parchment or whatever it was called.
Olivia turned to check Percy's version, "What did you even write?! You just doodled."
"No, this is my schedule, I'm dyslexic, but I can read Greek easier than English and I figured since I'd be needing this frequently, I might as well make it easy to read."
"So, you can't read cursive or English?"
"I can read English, it's just hard and uh, cursive is basically impossible to read for me, thanks for all your help, now I'll actually know where I'm supposed to be... when does first period start?
She glanced at a clock across the room, "Soon!"
"When?"
"Twenty minutes! It was really nice meeting you, see ya around, bye!"
"Bye!" Percy called after her, feeling bad that he took so much of her time.
He was slightly confused how twenty minutes was 'soon.' Sure, for him that is about the amount of time he needs, he didn't have any materials and didn't know where he was going, but Olivia had her bag and knew where she needed to be...
He brushed it off as an Annabethish thing that apparently people other than Annabeth did.
Finding his way back to his room was not as hard as expected, he remembered the way up, the password, and which stairs to take. He surprised himself with this, sure he was good at remembering things like this because of his ADHD picking up on the little details but he felt like patting himself on the back for all that.
After glancing at his new and improved schedule he picked up his bag – why Hecate choose a messenger bag instead of a normal backpack was beyond him – and shoved it with all the books and supplies he would need for his morning classes. Percy was almost out the door before he remembered his wand.
As soon as he got the wand in his pocket he was ready for his first day of magic school, and actually, his first day of school in over a year.
Below each class on the schedule it said where they were, Olivia was nice enough to read that to him too. The thing is, when Percy finally took the time to look at where 'Potions' was rather than mindlessly jotting it down, he wasn't sure where to find it, or if he wanted to find it.
Maybe it was a magic school, maybe it was in Europe, maybe there were paintings that could move and talk, maybe everyone counted on a stick, but when, when, Percy wondered, did it become okay to hold classes in dungeons?
To find the class – because in the end he decided he did want to find it after all – he used the same logic as earlier, go down. And down he went, to the entrance hall, around some corners until he found stairs and then down those and guessing his way, he found The Dungeons.
The walls were made of stone, it was slightly humid, cool, and very dim. Altogether it gave him the creeps, Percy could not fathom why anyone would let a class be held down here, that was assuming he was in the right dungeon.
Please don't let there be more than one, Percy mentally pleaded.
Turning a corner, he realized he must be in the right place because a small hoard of students had formed outside a door, there were a few Gryffindors, but all houses were present three or four students from each.
Standing there was pretty awkward, he didn't have anyone to talk to and no one knew him. So, he just stood there. If this were normal school, he would be talking the group's ears off, trying to make friends, or at least break the silence, but here, he just needed to fade into the background.
He had two good reasons for doing so, one, he did not need a bunch of people on his tail trying to figure him out – there was a lot of big secrets to keep here – and two, he did not want to get attached to the school, or the people, or any specific people, a war was coming, that meant death, and that was much easier to deal with when there was nothing personal about it.
Eventually the door opened, and they were let in by the same pudgy man from the train, now that Percy was actually standing next to him, he seemed even fatter. Percy walked into the room and headed straight for the back.
There were potions in cauldrons on a few of the tables, all emitting fumes that where clouding the room. Percy couldn't decide what the room smelled like or what color the fogged atmosphere was because it all kept changing. Once everyone found a place to sit the professor started talking.
All the while Percy listened to the walrus of a man – Professor Slughorn – explain all the potions and what they did he became bored. Frankly, he didn't care what all these potions did sure it was kind of cool, but he really wasn't going to need any of them later, even if he were a real wizard.
The best part was a vial of good luck was the prize, and motivation for making a good potion. The thing is, by now Percy didn't believe anything could give him good luck. So, his first magic lesson started off a bit boring, but honestly what did he expect, it was still school.
However, the kid that ended up beside him seemed much more enthusiastic to win.
Without a word they both took out their books and flipped to page 126, Draught of Living Death. Percy first got out all the ingredients, just like he were baking cookies. He thought they were weird but nevertheless took them all out of his kit, he ended up cutting something, mashing another, and he even had to use his wand on a stupid bean that refused to be cut by knife – it took a while for the want to cooperate, but eventually he got a lot of bean juice in a tiny bowl.
After that he struggled through the directions – which were thankfully in pretty big print – to make a soup that would hopefully kill whatever was put in it when he was done. Quite a few times while he was cooking the death draught he wanted to question why he was being taught this.
It was surprisingly easy for Percy to keep up with what the book said, it always told the consistency the soup needed to be, or how hot or cold, and since Percy could tell all of these things pretty easily it ended up helping him a lot. Always knowing when to turn down the heat and when to stir, that kind of thing.
Besides him, his tablemate continued to work mutely, and Percy made no effort to break the stretching silence. He did however hear some rising arguments from the table in front of him, something about not going by the book and scribbles being no good, and then something bout the scribbles being better than the book, which seemed to greatly offend the previous person. It was funny to listen to while he worked, well kind of funny, but really it was just a nice distractor for his ADHD brain.
So, when time was up, he was actually kind of confident of his witch's brew in a bowl. For his first time he was pretty proud it didn't blow up or something. Sure, it wasn't perfect or anything, but it was close enough.
Percy sat slightly slumped back in his seat as he waited for Slughorn to test his, from what he saw the professor was dropping a leaf in everyone's concoction and seeing how well it died. He hoped it would die nicely in his blackish soup.
Eventually the teacher did check Percy's and he seemed thoroughly satisfied with what he saw, which was a reaction that Percy didn't often receive from a teacher. After that Percy zoned out until class was over, some other kid won the 'lucky' potion, so he just left ad headed to the next class, Charms.
He remembered Dumbledore telling him that he would be in classes with his house, so he hoped the kids in front of him were also going to Charms, because he did not know where to look, the sheet so helpfully said Charms Corridor, as if he knew where that was. At least it said that it was on the third floor.
As he walked out of the dungeon and back into the over world, he caught up to the group of Gryffindors in front of him. Wait a minute, one of those were the people he helped on the train, Harry, that was his name.
"Hey, are you guys going to Charms?"
The red head turned around, "Uh, yes…"
"Mind if I go with you?"
"Why?"
"Because I don't know where I'm going-"
"You must be the new student then." This time the bushy haired girl took interest and turned around.
Harry finally looked and just seemed awkward as he said, "Oh, hi."
"You know this bloke?" the red head questioned.
"He, er, he was the one who found me on the train."
"Hmm, well I'm Hermione Granger," with that the girl stuck out her hand for Percy to shake.
"Percy Jackson."
"Well, we are going to charms and we are going to be late if we don't hurry."
"We have time…"
"Hardly enough Ronald, come on."
Hermione ended up dragging the red head, Ronald, practically all the way there while Harry and Percy talked a bit awkwardly and followed behind them.
Soon enough they had arrived at the classroom, as much as Percy still didn't like school, he was excited to see what magic class was like, because this was the most magicy class he was going to have, learning how to make his very nice little stick do party tricks.
He walked in and found a seat by the back, as was the procedure, whilst the group went and found seats together a bit further up. They were greeted by a little man, about as tall as he pictured the hobbits Annabeth has been telling him about. He missed her so much.
Keep your mind on the job, not Annabeth, he told himself in attempt to get his mind away from something that would not help him think straight.
The man introduced himself as Professor Flitwick in a squeaky voice from atop a pile of books where he was standing so he could see over his desk. "Today will be used as a review day, practice any old spells you please. Let's brush the rust off before we start anything too complicated. There are books and pillows and such around the room you can practice on, I will be walking around correcting things that need correct and making sure you are working."
This was the first time Percy had felt actually grateful for being taught all the magic he had in that white hole, if he hadn't then he would have nothing to show today. Now that would raise some eyebrows.
Percy wanted to be lazy and since he was supposed to use magic in this class, he decided the first thing he would practice could be the summoning charm. He pointed his wand at the stack of pillow and commanded "Accio," at least three times before the thing wiggled, and then four more times before it actually came and landed two feet away from him. Percy sighed and went to pick it up, confused yet again with his wand.
Last night it worked perfectly, first time even, when he tried to un-freeze Harry, but now that he tired a simple spell, it failed.
He tried multiple spells, none of them were strong and none worked first time, the professor after visited him once and tried to help just to result in a weak spell, after wasting his time on that Flitwick seemed to avoid him. The worst part was that this was a double period, so he got to embarrass himself by failing at magic for two whole hours before he was let out for lunch.
He wasn't even hungry by the time he sat down at the table. He ate some of the Shepard's Pie then left.
He went back to his dorm room and decided to practice the spell he planned to use when night came again. He had found a spell that blocked sound after some extensive research, he was going to use that at night as a precaution, rather than being stupid and careless like last night.
He and Annabeth had woken the entire camp multiple times by screaming in their sleep, so they tried sleeping together. It helped, but not enough. Eventually some of the Hecate kids found a way to put up some mist barrier to block the sound from his cabin, just like this spell would do if he could get it to work.
He took the book out rather than going by memory he took the book out and flipped to the marked page. Tionumton (t-oo-nup-tuh-n), that was it. Percy studied the movements, and the pronunciation. He kept it in his mind and focused, he really needed this to work.
He concentrated as he cast the spell at his bed, and little white puff came out of the end of his wand. A little disheartened, but still determined, he tried again.
On the fifth try, and little shimmering layer of white went up around his bed, then disappeared. Percy stuck his hands in and felt nothing, but when he clapped, even his demigod hearing was rendered useless against it. He felt like cheering, now he had to try taking it down, after two attempts he saw the white layer become visible and fade.
He checked a clock and saw that there was around ten minutes until the next class, he threw his books on the bed, grabbed the ones he needed along with the schedule and went to find the next class.
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/!\ PLEASE READ /!\
Do I have your attention? Maybe? Well let me make this part quick, thank you for reading, and a special thank you to anyone who favorited or followed, and a huge thanks to anyone who reviewed, I love those.
Anyway, I have a few things to say to anyone reading... Firstly, what do british people eat? I feel like that's rude but at the same time in the books a bunch of the food mentioned in the books are things I've never heard of, so if you're british and you wouldn't mind telling me a food or two it would be greatly appreciated so I have something to say when I talk about food.
Secondly, what are names I should use? I can never come up with those, so if you have a name you like and you want to share it that would be great, I may not use it right away because it'll have to fit the person I come up with, but I will jot it down and use it when the time's right.
Other than that, say anything, be random, that's all I am. If there's something you want to see now's the time to say something because nothing is set in stone, and if you have a comment on the writing share that too, I would honestly be so glad to hear whatever you have to say. :)
Oh yeah, and guess what? It's been fifty whole days of this being up, how cool is that. It's just a month and half but whatever, I like saying that. Oh yeah, and would you look at that, this is my longest chapter, and I'm insanely inconsistent... These chapter lengths are so weird, but whatever, I'm waiting on that magical moment of me getting good at writing to fix that.
That's it, thanks for reading :) BBB (11/7/2020)
