"Oh whoa... wow," Leo whispers, speechless as he stops at the edge of the forest to stare at the castle known as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It's something he knows Annabeth would love to examine. If she was here, they would talk about the great engineering of the castle—how the placement of towers would actually help with the air flows that would never fail to keep the students away from harsh the harsh light of the sun. If she was here...
Shaking his head to dispel the depressing thoughts from his mind, Leo turns to the twins in disbelief. "You never told me that you, guys, study in a freaking castle of all things!" he exclaims.
"What do you mean?" Fred questions, tilting his head in confusion.
"Shouldn't you have known?" George continues, looking over at Leo.
"Oh yes, of course, duh..." Leo rolls his eyes. "Of course , I knew," Leo answers sarcastically. "After all, studying in a castle is the obvious norm around the globe, and it wasn't like I didn't crash here or whatever. Oh, wait, nope, I was seriously not unconscious when the others brought me up to the Hospital Wing ."
"Err, right..." George assents, nudging his brother roughly.
"Yeah... Sorry, we just forgot," Fred adds, scratching his head sheepishly.
At that, Leo burst out laughing with the twins eventually joining in.
After a moment, Leo wipes his eyes, stating, "It's fine, guys. Don't worry too much. It's just real different back at ca—I mean, from where I came from. You don't exactly see castles in the US." Leo shrugs.
"Wizard schools are usually in castles, though," Fred says.
Leo shakes his head. "I mean, I know one wizard school that was in a mansion or a chateau, and no one knows what the Belgian school looks like."
"Belgian? You mean Bulgarian ?" George asks, bringing him back to reality.
Leo nods. "Yeah, that."
That, of course, was something Alex from the Romanian Sanctuary mentioned briefly hence the slight mistake. Leo shakes his head when his thoughts brought him to the reason why he had to learn to pick up details for his survival in the first place.
"Only proves that no one will ever know where Durmstrang is," Fred replies, "but still, I heard Ilvermorny was held in a castle."
Leo panics for a moment before remembering another piece of information he got from Alex. "Yeah, but it was originally a stone house. They just expanded it so the students could fit. It's great and all but it's mostly one structure with towers. This one—" he gestures at the castle in front of them—"several structures with several towers. It's a legit medieval castle!" [1]
With that final statement, the trio trudges on towards the forest.
"You, wiz—er, wizard Europeans ," Leo starts, chastising himself for slipping up, "What is with you and forests?" he asks as he and the twins finally enter the forest.
"Us and forests?" Fred asks.
"Yeah," Leo starts, "I mean, you, people, are always in forests."
"I thought you're used to nightly forest touring?" George asks.
Leo hums. "No, no, I mean... I'm talking about your locations for every institute or whatever. It's always in the middle of a forest. Your school is actually less accurate with that new stereotype in my head right now... but everywhere else I've seen so far? Always in the middle of a forest."
"You've been in different wizard locations?" Fred asks.
"Yup... like that French school, Academia something—"
"Beauxbatons?" George offers.
"Yeah, that was the one I said that was a chateau instead of a castle," Leo says with a hum, not noticing the twins share a look at that, "and the dragon sanctuary in Romania. Oh boy, do I—"
"The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary?!" both twins exclaim, finally making Leo stop walking to look back at the twins on either side of him.
"Yeah, you've heard of it?" he asks as they continue walking.
"Our brother, Charlie, works there!" Fred says. "Did you meet him?"
"Ch—Weasley!" Leo exclaims. "Of course! Fred and George Weasley! Gods, I cannot believe I let that go past me! Charlie Weasley!"
"So, I'm guessing you've heard of our brother, then?" Fred says, chuckling.
"How did you even end up in the sanctuary?" George asks. "Charlie told us it's a bit difficult to just barge in there... It takes months to process a free entrance."
Schist, another improbable thing I managed to do. At this rate, I should just say I'm a demigod and move on with it , Leo berates himself.
"Well, I'm a bit of a... I have close relationships with dragons, let's just settle for that," Leo replies with a shrug. "I actually went to the sanctuary because the dragons lured me in... When I came there, I just wanted to ask more questions about them. The guy in charge told me your brother's name... and he said he's in the UK at the moment... It's kinda why I ended up here, actually. I'm looking for him."
"Wait, Charlie's in England?!" Fred exclaims.
"Not sure at the moment. Said he'll be in Scotland for quite some time. I'm not really sure why. I didn't have time to ask more questions."
"What's Charlie here for?" Fred asks George who shrugs in answer.
"Look, all I know is that he's doing some official business things with your, er, government or whatever—"
"The Ministry?"
"Yeah, and he'll be staying at Hogwarts after he finished dealing with them. I have no idea about anything else."
Leo can tell that the twins want to ask more questions when he noticed them sharing a look above his head—I really hate being short , he thinks—but the thought dissipates from his head as he stops in his tracks.
"FESTUS!" he yells before running out.
—oOo—
FOOTNOTES
[1] The thing about Ilvermorny was true, and it only became a castle around the eighteenth century. Hogwarts had been a castle since its foundation.
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