Quests of Valdez: The School of Magic (Harry Potter x Percy Jackson fic)

08 • In the Slytherin Dormitories [Part 02]

WARNING: Language.

REMINDER
With languages, if the POV-person understands it, we use "[ ]" for the translation. If the POV-person doesn't, "« »" will be used.
—oOo—

When he reaches the room, he's happy to see that the room is currently empty.

But that is a short-lived victory when three people enter the room as soon as he sits on his bed.

He watches as the three boys stare at him from the doorway—one staring at him curiously, and two staring at him with hidden animosity. Leo starts to think that the boy at the very front could be a child of Athena since he's blond. Schist, he's sooo blond. Even Annabeth's hair isn't that blonde. Her hair is honey blonde. This guy's hair is platinum.

"Can I... help you?" he asks them.

"You're Valdez, the American," the boy at the front says.

That's not how people in the US would normally describe me as, Leo thinks, still haunted by the memories of his experience with racism in the US.

"Er... yeah..." he says instead since this guy would probably not get the same treatment as him if this guy was in the US, considering his appearance.

"This is Crabbe—" Malfoy points at the bigger of the two—"and Goyle," he says, pointing at the smaller albeit still a big guy. "I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he says proudly, moving towards Leo to shake his hand.

Immediately, Leo already sees that Malfoy seems to be snooty, but he doesn't want to be right. He's still a Slytherin and their roommate, so he'd rather they get along. He's been with many gang leaders—and from how the two look like Malfoy's bodyguards, Leo thinks he can deal with this snooty leader. Dealing with actual gang leaders is so much worse.

"Valdez, as you said. But I'm more flexible. You can call me Leo," he answers, shaking Malfoy's hand.

"You're not my friend," Malfoy says with a shrug.

"Yeah, that seems to be the tradition here," Leo replies, taking some stuff from his toolbelt and immediately creating contraptions on his bed since he's a little bored and anxious from having to talk to a new person. He can act like the biggest extrovert ever, but Leo prefers machines to people.

"Are you doing wandless Transfiguration?" Crabbe says in a surprisingly soft voice, staring at the big pile of mechanical parts on his bed.

"Transfig—? What's that?" Leo asks.

"You don't know what Transfiguration is?" Malfoy asks, looking at Leo as if he's the most suspicious person to ever walk the earth.

Schist, I need to lie. Thank the gods Professor Rumble-Roar told me Hogwarts had never been in contact with Ilvermorny. I can make some schist up.

"It's probably under a different name in my school," Leo says.

"Ah, I see," Malfoy replies with a nod of his head.

"If my vocabulary is right, it's about change, right? A change of something to make it better?" Leo asks.

"Not entirely, transfiguration is the magic that changes one object to another. It's not necessarily something better. What's it called in your school?" Malfoy asks, still rather suspicious.

Schist. Schist. Schist.

"Metamorphosis," he says from the top of his head. That sounds about right.