Chapter 2: Off to Hogwarts...but first, shopping!
(Nikki)
"Another quest? Aw, come on! Can't we have a dam break? I mean seriously, we just battled Gaea and the giants 3 days ago." Percy said as he crossed his arms. All of us nodded in agreement.
My mom looked pained, but she composed herself and spoke again. "I know you have just gone through a major ordeal, but trust me, this task is fairly easy."
"Trust a god or goddess? Tell me Lady Hecate, when has that ever worked?" Reyna said with a scowl on her face. I looked her in the eye and she took that as a sign to stand down. This may be a goddess, but it so happened that this goddess is my mother.
"Okay mother, we'll hear you out. What are the details about this easy quest?" I said to her as the others looked at her. My mom breathed deeply and began to speak.
"As you know I am the goddess of magic. And in ancient times, mortals used to revere magic. Back then there were four powerful magicians, their names were: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They were the most advanced and possibly the most dedicated practitioners of magic at the time. They invoked my power once and I blessed them, they became the highest order of magicians alive and they called themselves as wizards or witches and the four decided to erect a school so that their legacy would not be forgotten."
We all listened; no one made a sound or reaction to this new piece of information. Hey, mother earth just woke up to destroy the world and we stopped her. Wizards aren't even on the "oh my gods!" scale.
My mom continued. "Until this day the school flourishes, taking in hundreds, maybe even thousands of students in order to properly control their magic. Even some of my own children attend it."
Then Nick voiced out loud what was on my mind. "Then how come Nikki didn't attend that school and was sent here instead?"
My mother looked at Nick long and hard so much that Nick sank low on his chair. Mom's stare can be intimidating sometimes.
"That's because my daughter is more suited here. As I can see very clearly." She touched the table and it turned to clear glass. And all of them can see me and Nick's hands holding each other.
"Shit." Was all we could say as we hurriedly separated our hands and put them on our own laps. Piper was grinning, Hazel was fanning her face and everyone else either smiled or shook their heads. On the other hand mom was looking at the both of us with a stoic expression.
"50 kisses…I know that you've been together for 5 months but 50 KISSES? I expected some self –restraint from you young lady." She shook her head in disapproval. I blushed; I have to admit half of those kisses were started by me.
"You know who told me? Aphrodite! She said that you two had gotten to second base!" My mom crossed her arms. The others didn't seem particularly shocked about this, all of us had gotten past first base, heck, Percy and Annabeth were discovered cuddling on the stables in the Argo 2.
"Ahem, mom, back to the briefing please?" I said while coughing a little. My mother sighed and continued.
"But there is a great threat to this school, no let me rephrase that, there is a great threat to the whole of the wizarding world. His name is lord voldemort." At the sound of this name, everyone laughed their asses off, including me.
"L-lord voldemort?" Percy asked while trying to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Sounds like Lord Moldyshorts to me!"
At this comment, everyone was on the floor laughing again, mom let us finish and as soon as we got back to our seats she continued to talk as if nothing happened.
"Lord Voldemort has murdered hundreds of wizards greater than him when he reigned. You demigods might've defeated Gaea but he is on another level."
At this everyone straightened up, if someone was more powerful than Gaea, than we have to take this seriously.
"He had heard a prophecy once, stating that a baby born at the death of the seventh month will stop and kill him. Naturally he tried to destroy the child but his spell backfired on him and shattered him to pieces. The baby was only left with a scar."
Everyone shook their head at that; everyone knew that changing prophecies usually yielded bad results. Some things aren't meant to be changed.
"The baby's name is Harry Potter and he is currently attending school at Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry."
At the name "Hogwarts" another burst of laughter came from us. I mean seriously, who names their school after pig's skin?
My mom waited for us to finish laughing again, and as soon as we got back on the table, she continued.
"Your job is to bodyguard him during his fifth year in Hogwarts. When Lord Voldemort's spell backfired at him, it only destroyed his body. After that he had tried a lot of times to kill Harry Potter in Hogwarts itself. When Mr. Potter was in his first year, Voldemort possessed a teacher named Quirell to take hold of the sorcerer's stone so that he may brew a potion of everlasting life. Mr. Potter and his friends put a stop to it by going through a series of challenges according to their skills. Harry was able to make it through and stopped Quirell by killing him. And he did this all at the age of 11"
Jason whistled, it was one thing to stop an evil plot, but to stop an evil plot and kill the mastermind? Sounds like demigod level to me.
"And at the age of 12 he encountered Lord Voldemort once more, this time in a form of a memory inside a diary. Countless muggle-born wizards and witches were petrified, and Mr. Potter's friend was one of them. He sought out the cause and it lay within the chamber of secrets that Salazar Slytherin built in his prime. He encountered Voldemort and the cause of the petrified people: a basilisk. He put an end to both by stabbing the basilisk with a sword and by stabbing the diary in where the memory resided with a tooth of the beast."
"Well duh, anyone can kill a basilisk with a sword. The fifth Cohort used to clean out their nests under New Rome. Besides, those things were like this big and they're easily scared off by weasels." Jason said as he outstretched his hands on a quarter of a table. Frank and Hazel nodded as confirmation.
"This basilisk happened to be 50 feet long, poisonous fangs and a stare so deadly that it would kill anything that locks eyes with it. The only more subtle approach to this is by looking at its reflection in a mirror and the only thing that would happen is that it would petrify you. No weasel can scare that monstrosity." My mom said while shuddering.
Our jaws dropped, that big of a thing and it was stopped by a 12 year old with a sword? Not only did it sound like demigod level, but it was also done demigod style. Was this Potter kid also a demigod?
"And in his last school year, he participated in the Triwizard tournament. A tournament with 3 deadly tasks that was sure to kill you if you weren't trained in the magical arts. And during said tournament, he dueled and escaped Lord Voldemort who had been resurrected. He told the whole wizarding world about it but no one believes him as of late. The wizard race is a very brilliant, but also very ignorant race at the same time." My mother sighed.
We all made eye contact with each other, this was an easy task alright, and bodyguarding a boy within a heavily guarded school was easy enough.
"Alright Lady Hecate, we accept your quest." Percy said, we all nodded in agreement.
"Hold on mom, what does this kid look like?" I asked.
She waved her hand in front of us and an image similar to our iris-messages came into existence. We looked at the image and then looked at Percy. We looked again and looked back at Percy.
"DUDE, HE LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU!" Leo shouted. I looked intensely at the image. Unruly black hair, green eyes, and a skinny build. No doubt this guy looked like Percy, only difference was the color of his eyes.
"Nah, his eyes are emerald green. Percy's has more of a sea-green kind of color." Annabeth said as she kept looking back and forth between the image and her boyfriend.
"Think he's smarter?" Leo asked while snickering. Percy let out a reproachful "Hey!" and we all smiled.
The door opened and the oracle of camp half-blood, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, was right in front of us.
"You called Lady Hecate?" she asked, I noticed Percy tense up, Annabeth's smug face was beside him. I smiled to myself; I knew the history of those three, but I'll tell you later.
"May you please present to us a prophecy about the quest I am sending them on?" my mom said to her, Rachel closed her eyes and green mist surrounded her. Oh boy, here we go again.
"Magic's child will be shielded,
Demigod's reward shall be yielded,
New friendships will be kindled,
But beware of the man named riddle."
And then she collapsed on a seat we had ready. Tapping into the spirit of Delphi really wears her out.
"There you have it. Now go forth on your quest." My mother was about to go full goddess mode but she stopped halfway. "Oh, and before I forget, you all will attend school there to easily guard Mr. Potter. You need to go shopping first, go to the leaky cauldron in Britain and ask for tom the barman. He'll lead you to where you need to go. And as for your wands, go to Olivanders and just say my name. He's a son of mine. You will all receive a letter explaining on how to get to Hogwarts and when is the start of term. Good luck to you all." And she went goddess mode and we all looked away.
As soon as she was gone, only one thing registered in our minds.
"SCHOOL?!" we all shouted, it looks like this quest will be more than easy.
"Ten demigods with dyslexia and ADHD? gods, I hope those teachers will be ready." Percy said.
The letters arrived the next day during breakfast…with owls as postmen.
We were all enjoying breakfast when suddenly 10 large owls separated and went to each one of us. Mine landed in front of me and knocked over a goblet of coke.
"Whoa, who are you after?" I said as I took off the letter tied to her leg and as I did that she ruffled her feathers and took off into flight again. All her other companions flew off as well.
After breakfast, a small meeting was held inside cabin one, Jason let us all inside the huge cabin as we sat in different places but still formed a circle.
"So, I guess all of us have the same letter. Nikki, open yours." Nick said to me. I ripped the top of the envelope off and pulled out my letter. I began to read.
"Dear transferee student,
We are pleased to inform you that your request to transfer as a fifth Year to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Below is a list of all possible items you need during this school year. We will arrange 3 eligible guides that will be waiting for you at Diagon alley ("Diagonally." Annabeth said asshe smirked.") In the envelope there is an enclosed form containing a ticket and a letter that needs to be signed by your guardian in order for you to visit Hogsmeade. The ticket is an essential tool for you because in order for you to get to Hogwarts, you must go to platform 9 and ¾'s and ride the Hogwarts express.
Term will start on September 1, see you there."
I looked through my Envelope and found a letter and a train ticket.I looked at my letter again and saw a lot of items listed.
"So let's give all of these to Chiron then." Leo said as he held up his letter for admission to Hogsmeade. We had Jason collect them and he went out of the cabin to deliver them to Chiron.
"As for the items…" Annabeth looked down at the list, "Says here we need a cauldron for brewing potions, the ingredients needed to brew them, parchment and a quill, some books, and a wand."
"Where in Zeus' underpants are we going to find those things? It's not like we can all buy them at a general department store." Leo said as he played with some mini fireballs, Calypso tapped his shoulder to make him stop.
"It says we have to go to some place called Diagon Alley right?" Frank asked, I nodded, But all of us didn't have a darn clue as to where or what this Diagon Alley is.
"But Nikki's mom said to go to a place called the leaky cauldron in Britain. Could those 2 places be connected somehow?" Percy said as Jason came back inside and sat down beside Piper.
"Well it's the only lead we've got so why not?" Piper shrugged. We all decided that we would leave tomorrow to go to Britain. Leo said he had a transport prepared for us.
"Just give me one night to finish the final touches." He had said with a wink.
I had no dreams that night, which was weird by demigod standards and I was awoken by someone shaking me.
My eyes fell upon flaming red hair and eyes as blue as the sky.
"Nick! How in Hades did you get-" I was stopped by him putting a finger to my lips.
"I shadow traveled in. don't worry, your siblings are sleeping with heavy dreams so they won't wake up for a while." He said.
"But why so early?" I grumbled as I rubbed my eyes, I was not a morning person.
"Hey, I'm not a morning person either, but the others are already outside so get dressed." He said as he pulled me up from my bed. I was halfway unbuttoning my top when I noticed Nick was still in the room.
"Nick get out."
"Huh? But I want to stay-"
"I said, GET OUT!" I shouted as I pushed him out the door while blushing profusely. I locked the door and I remembered that he can shadow travel back in, so I put a protective rune on my door to make sure no one gets in magically or physically.
When I got out, it seemed that everyone was sleepy. Annabeth was carrying Percy by his arm and the others closed their eyes for a few minutes and snapped them open again.
"G-good morning." Hazel said to me as I got out, her eyes were still red as if she just got out of bed.
"What's for breakfast?" Calypso said as she stretched her arms, then Leo appeared beside her and put his arm around his shoulder.
"Oh we won't have breakfast here." He said.
"Then where? You can't seriously be thinking I can get by with a few McDonalds do you?" Calypso said to him, Leo just grinned. He pulled out a remote.
"Nope, we're not going to McDonalds. This thing won't fit through the drive-thru" he clicked a button and something appeared above us that made us all open our eyes in shock.
It was the Argo 2.
"Say hello ladies and Gentlemen, to the Argo 2.0! It's smaller, faster, and stealthier!" Leo said as his face was full of pride. I looked up at the hovering Greek trireme above us, I've got to hand it to him, he made a vast improvement to it.
A rope ladder descended by itself towards us, Leo caught the last inch of rope and said, "Well? What are you guys waiting for? Come on in!" he grabbed Calypso by the hand and started to climb up. We followed suit, but halfway Leo stopped.
Uh oh, I had a bad feeling about this.
"Hang on everybody!" he shouted, the ladder suddenly started to rapidly pull itself up and me and the others hung on for dear life.
"whoa!" I shouted as my grip on the ladder loosened. Good thing Nick caught me. The wind was rushing through our ears as we got closer to the ship. It felt like ages but, finally we got aboard.
As we stepped on the deck, all of us except for Leo stumbled and sat down. I swear, one of these days Leo was going to kill us with his inventions' crazy gimmicks.
"Valdez!" uh oh, I knew that voice. I looked up just in time to see Annabeth hold Leo by the collar of his shirt and shake him.
"do you have ANY idea on what could've happened if all of us didn't get the chance to climb on the ladder properly?" she asked, her face full of rage.
"yeah dude, a little warning next time. I'm lucky that Zeus didn't even blast me to smithereens." Said Percy. I looked at him, the poor guy looked a bit green as if he was seasick. But in his case, it was being in the sky that caused it.
Leo just grinned and said, "I TOLD you guys to hold on didn't I?" Annabeth finally let go of him, and he actually looked relieved. until Calypso bonked him on the head.
"ow! What was that for, sunshine?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his head. Cally (we girls call her that) looked at him disapprovingly.
"we still didn't expect that though. I mean one of us could've fallen off." She said as she helped us get up. I gratefully took her hand.
"everybody all right?" I asked as I looked around.