A few days later, a reply to my letter came, from a different, smaller owl, while I was at breakfast. It had scared Drew by landing in front of her. I opened it laughing. It was in blue ink this time and was a different style of handwriting. It was also written in Greek, which I was thankful for.
Dear Miss Black,
My apologies for the confusion. I will come and retrieve you myself on 30 July at 6 am New York time to take you to Diagon Alley, where you will be able to get your supplies. I will also arrange for you to get to London to catch the Hogwarts Express on 1 September, which will take you to school. I look forward to meeting you.
Yours Sincerely,
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster
It sucked that I had to wait so long until I got to get my stuff, it was only July 7.
When the day finally came, I waited near the barrier with Chiron, Annabeth and Silena, waiting for Dumbledore to show up. At 9:01, a loud CRACK sounded, and an old man appeared out of thin air. He was very strange indeed. He was tall and thin, with silver hair and beard so long that they could be tucked into his belt. He had a very long and crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken at least twice and his eyes, behind half-moon glasses, were blue. He wore what I could only assume to be wizard robes, these a pretty shade of purple. He gave off an aura that was serene and ethereal.
"Good morning." The man said. "I am Albus Dumbledore. I assume that you are the legendary Chiron."
Chiron smiled and bowed. "I am. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Mr. Dumbledore."
"Please, call me Albus. Ah, Miss Black. It is good to see you again. The last time we met, you were only 8 months old." Dumbledore smiled kindly, reminding me of a grandfather.
"It's a pleasure to meet you sir."
"And who are these lovely young ladies?"
"This is my half-sister, Silena Beauregard, and my best friend Annabeth Chase."
Dumbledore smiled warmly at them. "I apologize for stealing Miss Black for the day."
"it's alright." Silena said. "She's not missing much. Just training."
I hugged Silena and Annabeth before hesitantly crossing the barrier. Even just going near it made me nervous, as I haven't left the camp since I first came here.
Dumbledore turned to Chiron. "I will return her by midafternoon at the latest." He promised. "It is almost noon in London."
Chiron nodded. "Be careful, Pandora." He said to me and I nodded.
"Pandora, take my arm please." Dumbledore held out his arm and I looped it through and suddenly, it was like I was being sucked through a shower drain. When the world went back to normal, I was panting and bent over a bit, my stomach churning. "You alright, child?" Dumbledore asked.
I took in a few deep breaths. "I'll be fine." I said.
"I probably should have warned you. What we just did was called Apparating, I suppose you could call it Teleportation. You did quite well for your first. Most people tend to vomit the first time." I nodded. I could see why. "Now, your mother came to me the other night and told me you already had a wand." I nodded again, straightening up now that I had my breath back. "May I see it?" I nodded and pulled it out of my jacket pocket. Silena managed to place a wand sized pocket into some of my jackets. I held it out and Dumbledore looked amazed.
"My mom had it made on Olympus. She used Applewood and placed a rose petal from her garden in as the core."
Dumbledore smiled. "Apple, Roses, and Pearls. All symbols of Aphrodite if I'm not mistaken."
"Yes sir. She said that the uniform was bland, so she had to make the wand stand out." He chuckled and led me into a grubby pub. It was surprisingly slow for it until almost being noon. Dumbledore took us out the back door into a closed off alley. He took out his own wand and tapped a series of brinks on the wall. The bricks began shifts and rearranging until there was an opening into a busy street.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. It looked incredible. Shops were lined down the street and there were barrels and stands full of things that the shops sold. Wizards and witches were gathered around these stands, talking excitedly about what they wanted to buy. One shop was called the "Magical Menagerie" and there were owls in cages just outside the front door and even a few small bats. Next to that was an ice cream shop and next to that was clearly a bookstore. "Pandora, did your mother already give you money or do we need to stop at the bank?"
"Wizards have a bank?" I asked.
"Of course." He pointed to the end of the street, where a huge marble building stood proudly above the other shops. "Gringotts."
"Wow. Um, no, Mom gave me money." I pulled out the bag and pulled out a golden coin similar to a drachma and a silver coin.
"Ah yes. Did she explain these currency to you?" I shook my head. "Well, the big gold one is a Galleon, the silver one is a Sickle, and there are little bronze coins called Knuts." I nodded.
"Um, sir, while we're here, is it alright if I get some gifts for my siblings? I know my mom gave me way more than I need." He smiled.
"Of course."
First, we went to a place called Amanuensis Quills, where I had to get quills and ink, since apparently, they didn't like using non magical stuff like pens and pencils. After that we went to the Apothecary, which smelled like rotten eggs but some of the potion ingredients were cool to see, especially the unicorn horns. It made me curious as to what potions required a unicorn horn. I dreaded having to get the uniforms, but I went anyways. There was a boy with sandy colored hair that stared at me in awe. This I was used to. I was a child of Aphrodite; it's something we just get used to.
I decided to be "extra" with certain things, like getting crystal potion phials instead of glass, getting more ink than I probably needed, and even getting a large amount of potion ingredients, explaining to Dumbledore that I wanted to practice at Camp. I had the money so why not? I also tried to get a set of silver scales for school but Dumbledore reminded me that the list said Brass. I pouted but relented. The same went for a brass cauldron I wanted, but again, I had to have a pewter one. I got subscriptions to the wizard newspaper, the Daily Prophet, and a magazine called Witch Weekly, which was like a gossip magazine. I knew the girls would love it.
I got a couple gifts for my siblings, including books about beauty spells and potions, wizard treats that I thought my siblings and I would like (cauldron cakes, sugar quills, and anything else that had chocolate), some color-changing ink which I thought Silena might like (she said she wanted a quill or two so she can write to me herself while I was at school) so I got her some fun ink, a magic music box that was to help the listener/listeners fall asleep (I knew Drew was having a hard time getting to sleep and was constantly complaining about the bags under her eyes).
Next, we went to get my schoolbooks, which were huge, but I was actually excited to read them. I told Dumbledore about my dyslexia which only really allowed me to read Latin, Ancient Greek or French, and he casted a charm onto my books that let me read them in my preferred language but only I could see the text that way.
By the time we were done, my money bag was about halfway empty, and I was loaded down with packages. Dumbledore apparated us back to Camp, where the sun was high in the sky. If I had to guess, it was around lunch time.
"Thank you for helping me today, Mr. Dumbledore." I said as I got back to the safe side of the barrier.
"It was a pleasure, Miss Black. A man named Severus Snape will be here at 3 pm your time on August 31st to take you to London. He will help you get to the train on time the next day." He informed me before leaving again.
I took my packages into my cabin where one of my brothers, Mitchell, was. He looked up when I came in and was nice enough to help me with taking them in.
"You're back earlier than we expected, Dora." He said as I plopped onto my bed, tired.
"Did I miss lunch?"
"No, it's in 10 minutes. You want to take a nap, and I'll bring you something?" Mitchell was one of the older kids, at 15 years old. He was a bit cocky in his appearance (common for a child of Aphrodite) but he had a really good heart. He was dating one of the kids in the Hermes cabin, a girl by the name of Elsa. She was one of the unclaimed kids, but Mitchell was head over heels for her.
"Yeah, if that's alright with you. Wizards can teleport and it feels like being sucked down a drainpipe." Mitchell grimaced.
"Yeah, you should lay down."
"Oh, tell the others that I got presents while I was in London."
After I napped for a bit, my siblings all came back, eager to see everything I bought. I gave Silena a swan feather quill and that color changing ink, gave Drew her new music box, and the sweets and books I got for everyone else.
AN: Well I finally got this one done. I'm super excited to get Pandora to Hogwarts already. Now, just so everyone knows, I will be basing the parts at Hogwarts on the movie's dialogue, as I remember almost every single line from the movies. The parts where Pandora is in America at the Camp will be based on the books - seeing as the PJ movies are trash. I really hope you all liked this chapter. Comment and/or vote if you really liked it. Love you all!