Godwin hooted softly waking Perci. He flapped down to her bedpost so she could stroke his midnight feathers. Yawning, she threw her covers off of herself and got dressed, excited about the books she had gotten the day before.
After giving Godwin an owl treat and letting him out to hunt, she slipped out of her room and down to the library where Callum had put all of her books. Her Grandfather had created a new area of the library for her to keep her tomes. She picked up a first-year potions book and opened it to the introduction, thankful her glamour ring somehow also temporarily relieved her of her dyslexia and ADHD. It had been a bit unnerving when she first realised she could read without any difficulty. It was even weirder when she didn't find herself twitching or really moving at all for hours on end. She also called a house-elf to bring her some toast for breakfast. Perci settled into a comfortable chair in the library and read the book cover to cover.
When she had finally finished the book, it was late in the afternoon. After putting the book back on its shelf, she picked up her empty plate and the notes she had taken while reading and headed to the dining room.
In the dining room, Callum could be found enjoying a late lunch before he began his first lesson with Perci. He had not only decided to keep up her muggle weapons training but he had also taken it upon himself to tutor her in the magical arts. He sipped his glass of water slowly while reading the absurd lies Rita Skeeter was feeding the papers, chuckling to himself whenever an insult was particularly funny.
When Perci walked into the room, he looked up only to see her carrying an empty plate and reading some papers she had picked up somewhere. Sighing, he vanished the plate.
"Perci, you know you can just call the house elves to clean up after you."
She looked up from her papers and smiled.
"I'm aware grandfather, but I'd much rather do it myself than give them more work"
Callum merely shook his head, amused.
"I want to show you a few safety measures for the potions lab Perci. Come along."
Pocketing her notes, Perci followed after her grandfather to the potions lab. And so, her training began.
Perci surprised herself over her nearly whole year of studying with Callum. She was a crazy fast learner. She inhaled her lessons and an hour of practice would allow her to truly master a spell. By the time August rolled around, she celebrated her birthday with her grandfather, despite some initial protest about traumatising events. Despite the mourning she did after the festivities, she was happier than ever before.
She also bought herself a gift. She had realised that she didn't even own a trunk and so she had stopped to get one. After browsing a while, she found a gorgeous trunk with minuscule snake engravings. She gravitated towards it. A clerk in the store appeared behind her.
"You might want to move along darling, that's not in your price range" a snarky voice spoke. She turned to see a dark hair wizard with an apron sporting the store's logo.
"Is that a challenge?" she asked mischievously.
The clerk only raised his eyebrow.
"That's a two million Galleon trunk little girl. A child could never afford that."
"Watch me." She picked up the trunk and brought it to the counter, the clerk following behind her.
"Ring it up please." She told him
He sighed, shaking his head but did as he was told. She then pulled out a card Gringotts had given her to make it easier to access her money and tapped it on a designated spot on the register. She then grabbed her trunk.
"Thanks love." She told the shocked wizard as she left the store
Later, she discovered the reason the trunk cost a small fortune. It was a walk-in trunk the size of a mansion.
The day after her birthday, she woke, stretched her short legs and swung them over the side of her bed, giving Godwin one last owl treat before smiling fondly at him and opening the window for him to go out hunting. He gave her an affectionate peck and flew out the window in search for some mice to eat.
Perci hopped out of bed and sauntered down to the dining room, where Callum was already sitting, sipping on a cup of tea. Her whole morning gave her a strange sense of Deja Vue.
"Hello Perci dear," he greeted when he caught sight of her. Never one for formalities, Perci just gave him a trouble maker grin and plopped down onto a dining room chair in a manner very much unfit for the pureblood granddaughter of the dark lord.
Callum sighed in slight exasperation and slight amusement, Merlin that girl was tiring. "Your training starts in 15 minutes so grab something quick to eat." was all he had to say.
"Mindy!" Perci called out for their house elf. Said house-elf popped in, nearly silently.
"What can Mindy be doing for kind Miss Jackson?" the house-elf inquired respectfully.
"Could you please get me some lunch, Mindy?"
"Of course Miss Jackson, Mindy will be doing as you says immediately."
"Thank you" Perci called after her as she popped away. Mindy reappeared moments later, with a plate of steaming fettuccini, doused in white sauce. She placed it in front of her kind Miss Jackson and popped away.
Perci dug into her meal, making sure to use her pureblood manners when eating, not that she particularly cared but her grandfather would start the lessons all over again if he wasn't satisfied and that was a fate worse than torture.
She finished ten minutes later, wiping her mouth primly with her napkin. She stood, leaving her plate on the table for Mindy, and walked up to her room to grab her wand. Perci adored her wand and as usual, admired the ornate stick before pocketing it and heading to the training room.
Luckily for her, the mansion was not so big that it took ages to get from one end to the other. she was in the training room in a matter of minutes, arriving at the same time as Callum.
"Welcome Perci, to your first occlumency class"
"Grandfather, we just had a conversation not even 10 minutes ago. You really must stop acting as if only see you during courses."
Perci's comment earned her a sharp glare and Callum continued without even acknowledging her.
"Occlumency is the art of protecting one's mind against the prying minds of others, of conserving your thoughts and memories for only you to see. Do you have any questions about the subject itself?"
Perci shook her head.
"Now the best method of erecting an occlumency shield is to imagine the strongest barrier you know of, as well as the blankest place you've ever been or seen or even though of"
Perci nodded, closing her eyes and visualising an extremely barren place, somewhere she hoped she would never visit. The beach of glass and its pain-inducing water. A miniature version of the camp half-blood barriers shimmered into existence.
"Simply nod when you wish me to test them"
Percy nodded curtly and she felt a barrage hit the border force field. The border held up for a good few minutes before Callum, broke in, stumbling onto the beach of glass.
"What is this?" the mental representation of himself muttered trudging across the beach when he stepped foot off of the glass and tumbled down into a put of memories.
/
(The memories are just the ones already in the story but here they are anyway.)
Callum watched as Perci stared at the knife in Luke's armpit and his relieved smile. It was too much. Perci crumpled to the ground sobbing. Luke... her first friend at camp half-blood. The first demigod she ever knew. Gone.
His voice echoed around them "You failed Perci. You failed me. You failed everyone."
A chorus of disembodied voices spoke up
"You let me die Perci. Now Nico's all alone"
"I believed you. I trusted you Perci. And look at what happened; my trust killed me. You killed me"
"Thee alloweth him to kill me. Thee didst nothing to help. Mine own blood is on thy hands Persephone Jackson"
"You didn't notice anything Perci. It took my death for you to realise."
Hundreds of voices floated in the air, speaking of how she wronged them, how she failed them but then one of them rang out clear as day.
"You betrayed me Perci. You left me on that boat, you're the reason Selina started spying. YOU'RE THE CAUSE OF ALL OF THIS!"
He fell out of the memory, only to get sucked into a new one.
He was falling. that's all he could feel. The air whistling by his ears, gravity pulling him down... down... down. He looked down, no light to be seen. Just a never-ending hole of darkness. Shee could see nothing above him either, just trapped in the darkness by herself, victim to gravity. Callum let himself fall, not that he could control that fact much. He relaxed into the feeling, knowing there was nothing he could do about it. Might as well enjoy it before he was a human pancake at the bottom of the hole
His eyes closed and he let his hands fly up into the air as he revelled in the exhilarating feeling of being in the air, not noticing the rising temperature of the air.
After what felt like hours of continuous falling, a small light could be seen at the bottom of the hole. It approached rapidly, the sound of water rushing reaching Callum's ears. Soon enough, he was enveloped in the light, now able to see the river he was falling towards at breakneck speed.
'Thank the gods for that river' the foreign thought crossed his mind before he fell in with a splash, expecting to feel broken bones and dislocated limbs in the water. However, he felt an alien confusion when all he felt was pain, horrible pain.
An ear curdling scream pierced the silence of Tartarus.
Out he came, just to stumble into another memory.
Callum found himself laying on a sparkling beach, in such pain he was unable to move. The beach had to be of something similar to broken glass as he could feel it digging into his back.
He put his hands down and put pressure on them, causing the glass to cut through them as if they were butter. He eventually hoisted himself up, glass shards lodged in his back and hands.
He stepped slowly, testing his leg to see how it had taken the fall and the glass. When he felt only minimal pain, he started slowly making her way across the glass beach and towards the solid land he could see just beyond it.
He trudged to the edge of the bach, which was another edge. That of a cliff. From the height he was at, she could see everything, a mansion shrouded by shadows, a tiny hut near the corner of the pit, a majestic palace and most importantly a huge army of monsters, standing in front of a pair of tiny double doors.
He readied himself for the descent when a pressure on his back sent him tumbling over the edge.
/
Callum was expelled violently from Perci's mind, falling back onto the hard floor.
"What was that?" Callum demanded. "The beach of glass, the accusing voices, the falling endlessly. Did you live through all that?"
"I've lived through some of it, a lot awaits me in some near future"
"No. no, it doesn't. I won't allow it."
Perci placed a hand on his arms.
"The fates have decided grandfather, I now can only train to be ready when the time comes."
Callum relaxed a little bit.
"What was that place?"
"I imagine that would be Tartarus."
"Tarta-what?"
"Tartarus... it's like the Greek equivalent of hell?"
"WHAT!"
"Like I said grandfather, it has already been decided by those stuck up bitches we call the fates."
Callum snorted.
"You speak as though you've met them personally. As if that Tartarus place exists."
Perci sighed. After a whole year of keeping her secret from her grandfather, it was finally time to come clean and tell him the truth."
"It's because I have. And I am 100% certain that Tartarus exists."
"But... how?"
"I guess it's my turn to tell a story Grandfather.
Long ago, a beautiful witch, ignorant of her heritage, took a liking to a beach in New York. She would stay there from morn' till dusk, basking in the sun, inhaling the sea breeze, that sort of stuff. One day, A man came out of the see in a rather biblical manner, he simply walked on the water.
The witch talked to the man and at some point, the two fell in love. The man, however, had a huge secret. he was Poseidon, God of the sea and... a lot of other stuff. He told this to the witch, offered to marry her, to build her a palace under the sea, make her a queen of the sea instead of just being a queen on land (Apparently he forgot about his actual wife for a moment or two). The woman declined his offer, but the pair kept seeing each other.
One day, after one of their escapades, the woman got pregnant, a child that was half wizard half god. Such children were unheard of, of course, some children were half human and half god, seeing as gods and goddesses can't keep it in their pants but Poseidon was one of the most powerful gods and no god had ever frequented a witch so this child would be dangerously powerful.
There is an ancient rule that gods cannot interact with their children and so, Poseidon abandoned his mistress and unborn child and returned to his wife in his underwater palace.
The poor witch was left to raise her child alone. She was an amazing mother though, never neglectful, always kind. She loved her daughter, Persephone Jackson, with all of her heart."
"You're half god?"
"Yup, here ill prove it to you."
Perci twisted her hand and water streamed out of the kitchen faucet, twisting int he air until it formed a trident form. The trident spun a few times then evaporated.
"Oh wow. That was... unsurpassed. Not even a water Elementalist could do that."
"They wouldn't even be able to do that?"
"No actually."
"Dam, that's sad"
"Language young lady."
Perci rolled her eyes. Her grandfather seemed lost in thought. His eyes suddenly opened and he held up a single finger. He might as well have had a lightbulb appear over his head.
"I have an idea!"
"No duh."
"That's how we get you into the order! Dumbledore would love to have a water Elementalist on his side."
"So I'm ready for spying now?"
"A few more occlumency classes and some legilimency and you're good to go."
"Well let's get on that then'
/
Despite her assurances that she was okay, Callum was growing increasingly worried for his granddaughter and heir.
After the incident with her first occlumency lesson, she had grown cold and distant. She was often absent and silent. Her eyes glazing over was no rare occurrence now either
She needed an outlet... That's it! She needed a friend.
Many of Tom's goons have children now just to find one suitable for his granddaughter.
Callum walked over to his office, extracting files on his husband's most loyal followers and their families.
"Bartemius Crouch Jr? No kids. Nott Sr? His kid is a brat. Bellatrix Lestrange? Even if she had children, no progeniture of that psychopath would be befriending his granddaughter."
He shuffled through the papers until he landed on the last one. Lucius Malfoy. He could work. His son is a bit spoiled but powerful. They would be well matched. Draco Malfoy it is.
/
"Perci dear-"
"What grandfather"
"-its time to go"
"Of course"
Callum sighed, just a year ago, Perci would've cracked a joke or at least a small smile. Now her face was frozen in a blank mask, hence the reason she needed an outlet.
The two apparated with a crack, without any further conversation.
They reappeared in the parlour of Malfoy Manor, the whole Malfoy family there to greet them.
"Welcome to our humble home Lord Coldwell, Heiress Coldwell." The Malfoy patriarch said with a small bow.
"Thank you for having us, Lord Malfoy"
Draco stood next to his father, platinum hair sweptback and gelled. His eyes swept over his visitors lazily. The lord was dressed normally, with average robes, nothing of interest.
Draco's eyes travelled to the girl beside him. She was incredibly short, her platinum blonde hair exquisitely framed her face. Her eyes were a beautiful gold and her heels added a few inches to her height, She was dressed in classy muggle attire that hung sinfully on her frame. She was undeniably attractive and any other boy would be drooling at the sight. However, Draco didn't even bat an eyelash.
"Run along kids, We have some business to work out." Lord Malfoy said in a dismissive tone.
Perci shot Lord Malfoy a brief, icy glare and strode over to Draco.
"Shall we go heir Malfoy?" She asked Her accent now only vaguely American from her year in Britain.
"If you wish Heiress Coldwell."
"I do."
Draco extended an arm to Perci and the two walked off into the gardens. They made it to an ornate bench where they sat, basking in the sun and revelling in the warm day.
"The adults are so annoying." Huffed Draco, his persona changing in a blink of an eye.
"Indeed, they can be Heir Malfoy," Perci told him.
"Please, call me Draco," Draco said, a bit confused by Perci's proper and cold tone.
"Then you may call me Phoebe." With that, Perci pulled a shrunken book out f her pocket, cast a wandless and wordless enlargement charm and began reading from where she left off.
Draco was a bit offended, to be frank. First off, how dare this girl not swoon at the sight of him. He was chased after at school by the female population of 3/4 of the houses. His hair had grown to shoulder length and was often pulled back into a ponytail that the girls found quite alluring. His high-end robes and aristocratic looks were enough for any girl (or boy really) to be head over heels for him. But this girl, she simply sat next to him and read her book. No blushing, no stuttering, not even a second look! Not that it mattered. He would have turned her down if she asked anyways. She didn't exactly have the right set of plumbing.
Second of all, she was ignoring him, the Heir of the Malfoy fortune. the Malfoys were an incredibly powerful family and the death of his father would allow him to wield incredible amounts of political power. Most grovelled and kissed their asses, trying to get in their good graces. many avoided engaging in conversation unless needed but could hold a decent conversation, but no one just ignored a Malfoy.
Malfoy made a decision, she would not ignore him forever. he was going to worm his way into the frozen heart of Phoebe Hearst, Heiress to the Coldwell fortune.
/
Perci sighed. Draco hadn't let up with his attempts to make conversation for the last two hours. She felt bad for the poor boy, he was on some kind of mission. She indulged in him on his hundred and third attempt at conversation.
"So, what school do you go to?" Draco asked her, not yet tired of her silence.
"I started in muggle school but I was homeschooled for my magical education." She responded, shutting her book and looking up at him.
Draco was ecstatic. The girl beside him was finally talking to him.
"So you've never gone to a school, slept in a dorm, played Quidditch, that kind of stuff?"
"What's Quidditch?"
Draco gasped dramatically. "Whats Quidditch? Quidditch is the best sport ever invented by wizardkind!"
"Yes... but like, what is it?"
"Well, it-"
"Draco, Heiress Coldwell, You are needed in the parlour." Lord Malfoy's voice boomed
"Yes, father!"
The pair hurried out of the garden and into the parlour, where Callum and Lord Malfoy were talking animatedly.
"Did you two have a good time?" Callum asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Splendid grandfather," Perci said in a dry tone.
"That's great." Lord Malfoy interjected. "It was nice talking to you, Lord Coldwell."
"Likewise. And please, call me Callum."
"Then you and your lovely granddaughter may call me Lucius."
"Anyways, thanks for hosting Lucius," Callum said, tipping his imaginary hat.
He and Perci stepped into the fireplace, emerald flames licking at their clothes. "Coldwell Manor!"