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

12 • Dia de los Muertos [Part 01]

Leo sighs. This morning, so far, is uneventful. He just finished his Arithmancy class, and the math involved is too easy for someone like him, which makes it a tad bit too boring. Hermione was impressed by his math skills, though. He's glad he has a friend in class in the elective. At first, Hermione kept berating him for not listening and not paying attention. But when he was called for recitation, he answered perfectly.

The class before that was the complete opposite. Sure, at first it was cool to be taught a history class by a freaking ghost, but when the ghost started talking, Leo almost ripped his face off from how bored he was. He was just glad the professor didn't care that he was making some small machines on his desk. Hermione was not impressed this time.

He sits at the Slytherin table for lunch, with a heavy heart.

It's the first of November and he can't help but think of his mother.

It doesn't help that he heard his mother's screams just two days ago from that weird monster he still doesn't know of. Reliving one of his worst memories is haunting him even worse today. It's one thing to dream or remember it since memories and dreams can be hazy. But it's another to be forced to go back to his memories vividly. What kind of monster would make someone go through all that?

He eats quietly, and he can tell Nott and Zabini are finding it odd that he's not being loud right now, but they don't talk either.

Leo finishes his food quickly before standing up and going out of the Dining Hall. He stands by the doors to the Courtyard. He takes a deep breath.

One. Two. Three.

And he heads to the basement leading to the kitchen.

Remembering to tickle the pear on the painting of the bowl of fruit which the twins showed him, the said pear giggles and turns into a large green door handle. Leo opens the door and is met with excited elves with ears almost like his own.

"What might you need, sir?" a nearby elf asks him.

"Can... Can I cook here?" he asks them.

They all look at him as if he grew a large head. "NO!" an elf yells.

"We should serve you!" another exclaims.

"Please. Let us serve you!" another one cries.

"No, I need to be the one to cook, but you can help me prepare it," he says with a smile. "I'm a good cook, promise."

It took some more convincing but they finally let him.

After that ordeal, Leo walks back to the Slytherin common room, holding the freshly made tacos he had made in the kitchens.

Since everyone else is still having lunch, the common room is empty as well as the dorm. He heads to his bed and places the tacos on the bedside table.

Schist, I forgot to get some flowers, he thinks.

After a small internal debate, Leo leaves the Common Room with the tacos in his hands. Trying to be as quiet and invisible as he can, he walks out of the castle and heads to the lake the twins told him about.

He walks around it, trying to find the perfect spot with the best amount of flowers he can pick, and sees a tree in a secluded spot that seems to be hidden from the castle so no one will be able to catch him.

Slowly, he takes out the tacos and places it by the base of the tree.

To his disappointment, there are no marigolds around the area but he's not really expecting that much so he picks up some berry bushes, cattails, pickerelweed, hyacinths, and water lilies, and brings it by the base of the tree. He places them delicately around the plate of tacos.

Next, taking out the photograph from his toolbelt, he places his picture of him and his mom, and sets it to lean by the tree so it could stand. When it can't stand, he quickly makes a small steel frame for the photograph.

Leo also takes out a couple of trinkets he made out of steel and places them around his ofrenda for his mother. Taking out some candles from his toolbelt, he uses his fire to light them up before he sits before the ofrenda.
[altar][1]

"'Ola, mama. Lo siento. I don't have marigolds with me, so these flowers are my best bet. I hope you find your way back here with me, though."
[Hi, mom. I'm sorry.]

His mom's immortal smile in the picture looks back at him.

Leo smiles. "Speaking of finding your way, I'm sorry I couldn't make a better ofrenda. I was gonna do it in my room but I forgot flowers, and I didn't want to walk out and back again and have my racist roommate see me. So I'm out here. I'm in Europe, by the way. Seems I'll never have an ofrenda in the same place twice. Lo siento, mama. I'm really trying but... it's just so lonely, especially without you."
[altar][I'm sorry, mom.]

A pause.

"I have new friends. Imagine that? Me? And wizards, too. I wasn't able to talk more to George and Fred since yesterday because we're in different years, but they're pretty chill even when they found out I'm a demigod. Hermione, Harry, and Ron are nice, too. Ron and I had a little disagreement when I got sorted in Slytherin but he warmed up to me in the end. What can I say? I'm charming that way."

He chuckles.

"Hermione is kind enough to read me the Potions book even if it would have cost her points. She can be bossy but she can also be a little shy when you compliment her. She's very smart. And Harry... Dios mio, mama. I can see a bit of myself in him. Someone wants him dead. I can help him, of course, but poor dude. I don't think being on the brink of death is normal to wizards unlike us demigods... I hope nothing beats him up too bad."
[My god, mom.]

—oOo—
FOOTNOTES

[1] The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pay respects and to remember friends and family members who have died.

Traditions connected with the holiday include honoring the deceased using calaveras and marigold flowers known as cempazúchitl, building home altars called ofrendas with the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these items as gifts for the deceased.