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Chapter Six Part One

The breakfast was accompanied by small talk. Dumbledore enquired about Percy's night sleep and Percy asked for more information about the place they had visited the last night. The two spend the forenoon in the library. The tension for the lessons in the afternoon didn't keep them from work intensively. Time flew by and soon it was time for Percy to get his wand out.

They stood in the headmasters office, when the mentor asked his student to pull out his wand. As soon as his hand touched the wood, Percy could feel the claim the rod had on him. The wand was reaching for his magic and Percy asked himself once again how much of it, it would actually manage. With the contact came the pictures. Hades, Styx, Tartarus. Percy pushed them back and concentrated on the spell he should perform. In his inner eye he could see the point of his wand produce light and he nearly didn't have time to say "Lumus" before bright light blended his eyes.

Percy was very talented, he learned fast and well. Established the basics before going further into the subject. Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts came almost naturally to him. There was nothing Dumbledore could teach him about Astronomy. And Flying was just a joke to the young adult. The problems were lying with Herbology and Potions. There was nothing of those subjects that could connect to his old life and therefore he had to learn it from the beginning like everyone else. Herbology was bad. Percy never had a  green thumb. He could easily just get a plant to do what he wanted by charming it but apparently that was cheating. Potions on the other hand was something he actually enjoyed learning. The concept of having something like a spell easily accessible at any time without any effort made sense to Percy and was something he actually planned on taking with him after this. As Dumbledore saw his interest in the subject grow, he tried the best he could to teach him and not just letting him recite potions by memory. Still most of Percy's knowledge of the subject came from books from the library.

The third week the additional subjects were added. Muggle Studies omitted because of obvious reasons. Care of magical Creatures took Hagrid under his responsibility as long as he was there. Percy had met the half giant the day he arrived. They were hesitant at first. Hagrid was scared of Percy being one of the bad ones because of how calm he was. And Percy was not sure what to think about the giant man with the big beard, but to the time Hagrid had to leave for some sort of mission they had become something like friends. While Dumbledore and Percy had decided to leave out Divination as neither of them liked it, Dumbledore insisted on Percy learning all the other subjects although he would only need to choose two of them at the start of the year. Arithmancy was another subject Percy learned on his own in his room in the late nights. Other than Study of Ancient Runes. It was one other thing of the things Percy didn't like about Hogwarts. Dumbledore nearly thrilled him. He let him draw the runes on paramagnet, then sketch it onto the stone before carefully carving it into the hard surface. Then he make Percy take the stone he had just spend hours on and destroy it. He repeated the process over and over until Percy could carve a rune without any mistake and sketch within the shortest time possible. Then they would go on to the next rune.

All in all the mentor and his trainee got along good. The ate together and wandered the lands sometimes. They haven't talked much about Percy's past but the professor knew as much as that Percy's father never played a big role and that his first stepfather was no good man. Dumbledore learned to trust the young man. He still respected him, even more after he had experienced first hand how talented he was in magic, but he knew he was good by heart and that he would really try to help them. And Dumbledore knew he could. In four weeks he had learned more than many students did in their whole stay in Hogwarts. The professor thought with delight about what he could do in one year, with or without his help.

The school year nearing brought changes. The first one came a week before the first of September during dinner. Percy was currently taking the last bite of the strudel that was served that day when the door opened and woman entered the hall. For the last weeks he had consumed his food in the great hall alongside Professor Dumbledore. They sat on a table at the top of the hall which gave them a great view on the visitor now. Percy calmly laid down his fork and looked up to the woman. He had felt her coming and knew Dumbledore did as well.

"Minerva, already here?" The professor gave her a kind smile before going on to introduce her to him. "Minerva, this is our new student Percy Jackson. Percy, if I can introduce you to your future Transfiguration teacher. This is Minerva McGonagall." Percy's eyes once again found their way to the witch that was now standing in front of them. She was quick to add a "Professor. Please call me Professor McGonagall." When Dumbledore was done talking.

"Nice to meet you Professor McGonagall.", Percy kindly replied. "I am done for tonight. If I may-" Percy mentioned to stand up and waited for the professors approval, which came quickly, before standing up from the table. As soon as he did a creature appeared with a little plop. It was a houseelf, ready to take his plate to take it back to the kitchen it came from filled to the prim about half an hour before.

"Thank you, Pitts" He met the house-elves the first time he discovered the kitchens. Since then he had been there many times and knew the creatures by names, after all they were one of the only human like creatures apart from from his mentor, Hagrid and himself. The elf answered like he always did: "It's my pleasure, Master Jackson" before disappearing again. Percy wished the two teachers a good night before he left the hall and made his way to his room.

Entering he went strait for his dresser and got out his jacket. The journal hadn't left the inner pocket since he put it there on the first day. The ring on the other hand, he had started to wear a few days back. It didn't have any special abilities but radiated power because of its connection to the gods. It was a artefact from a world that had nothing to do in this one. And apparently there were more.

Carefully he took out the leader bound book. He knew what it was but he never had held his in his hands before. He sat down at his desk and opened it at the beginning. Whoever touched it in the bookstore may even gone so far as to open it but he or she definitely couldn't have read it. The language the journal was written was long dead and never got to this world. It was written in the native language of Order by a long dead officer of the army. He has written a total of 16 of those books. All of them were banned. They described the magic everything was build of in great detail and held immense power. Not even Percy had read one of the books. Not even while he was at the city during his transformation. He had seen one, but Chaos restricted him from reading it. The book he had in his hands now was band 13. The further you go up the numbers the more dangerous they get. All information Percy had on the books came from a conversation he had with a creature that was old enough to have experienced the time the books were written. She had told him from a time of fear, fear that everything would break down. Percy didn't fully understand then what she meant, but whatever it was, nobody wanted to talk about it.

That night Percy read the whole thing. The arrival of Minerva McGonagall had reminded him that wasn't alone for long and he preferred dealing with it now, than when the school was filled with students. Band 13 was focused on the army of Order. It was a byproduct of the safety precautions that were made when the city was created. Right now Order was a place of peace but Percy knew that this peace won't hold. He knew people would try to doubt Psyche's and his succession as soon as Lord Chaos would fade. One day he will need the army as he is not aloud to fight himself. Even if people attack him he is not aloud to defend himself as his power is never to be used for himself.

When he finished the lecture he shoved it into his coat before leaving his room. The corridors were silent, his steps made no noise as he made his way through the castle. He stoped before a statue on the first floor. The wizard that was carved into the stone looked grim and had a big nose and screwed eyes. Reaching behind him Percy could reach a little button that would open a trapdoor beneath him. Without any hesitation he pressed him fingers against the god stone and awaited the fall. The slide he landed on only took a few seconds before it spit him out at the side of the castle. The black haired took a second to knock the dust off his coat before he headed for the forest in front of him. He had entered it once with Hagrid on the search for unicorns. Since then he  sometimes came here. The big old trees made a perfect cover, especially at night, and there was nothing in this woods he should fear. Still his steps were soundless as he passed tree after tree. Percy only stopped when he reached the spot he wanted to go, a little clearing in the middle of the dark forest. Percy looked around one more time in case he had overlooked anything before he closed his eyes and cleared his head.