IMPORTANT
Okay, I fucked up. I wrote this chapter in Percy POV but the next chapter needed to be in Percy POV
SO I ADDED A SECOND PART!!!!
Scroll down until [ Part Two - (New part) ] Phew :)
"To get straight to the point, Percy, here, needs to get a magical education."
Dumbledore looked directly at us, "Normally wizards receive an invitation to a wizarding school at age eleven, the next seven years of their life are spent in that wizarding school learning the arts of magic."
"We're not quite sure why you never received an invitation, but it is quite obvious that you can't enrol into a wizarding school at your age."
I nodded, and Dumbledore continued.
"That leaves us with a few options. One, you could be tutored, here, in Grimmauld place. Although this is not the best idea, for even with a quickened education it would take a few years to complete, and it is understandable that being locked up in this house for that amount of time would not be... a great experience."
I noticed a few people shift around uncomfortably. I wondered this was something that had happened before, maybe even recently.
If it was, it hadn't ended well.
"It is, however, beneficial, legally a wizard can't perform magic out of a school environment until they are seventeen. Since you are older than that, this causes little to no problems."
"Another option would be going to Hogwarts and learning there, this would be probably the quickest way to learn magic, yet it would be suspicious to the students there. We would prefer to keep you on the down low for now."
"Wait," I interrupted. "Sorry to stop your rousing speech, but none of these options are looking too good right now. You said this would take years? We do have another life you know. People back in America. This Voldemort guy..."
I saw several people flinch at his name.
"He has never bothered us before, what's stopping us from going back to America?"
Dumbledore looked shocked, "Of course, you wouldn't know what has been happening."
He took a deep breath.
"Voldemort is one of the evilest wizards to exist. He rose to power twenty-seven years ago. He stayed in power for eleven years. During this time..."
Dumbledore shook his head
"It was a dark time for wizards, lots of people going missing, turning up dead or working for the other side. Wizards have lots of power, you must understand. Some spells... some of Voldemort's followers were in it for power, others were forced against their will, controlled by magic. Either way, his army increased every day, and every day he became more powerful. Then he suddenly disappeared. It was unsure what happened. All everyone knew was that something happened one night when he tried to murder someone, Harry in fact."
I looked over in surprise at Harry, who was gazing sadly at the table.
"Harry was only one at the time. Unfortunately his parents..."
Dumbledore had a sharp intake of breath, "For a long time no one knew what had happened, still, we are not sure. For the next fifteen years, it was peaceful. Wizards do not go bad, as you could say, very often, and never before had anyone ever got so much power. A year ago, Voldemort, unfortunately, made his return."
He leant forwards suddenly grave.
"He is once again building an army. It is not a matter of if he would find you, but when, and you might have no choice but to follow him."
There was a silence in the room.
Nico glanced at me.
I'm sure he was curious as to why I had even questioned them about going back to America. Unbeknownst to the wizard, I had already made the decision to help them and learn magic. Nico knew this, he also knew I would never abandon them.
Like Nico, I wanted information, unlike Nico though, I wasn't just going to yell at them to give me it. With that question, I now had a mini history lesson on the enemy.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
Harry spoke up suddenly. "We do hope you will stay, for your own safety of course. I've been thinking, and I might have an idea."
He took a deep breath and looked at Dumbledore. "You said the muggle study teacher retired right?"
"Well, that's what the letter sai... Brilliant Harry!" he exclaimed, "It's perfect!"
He quickly turned to us and explained. "Muggle studies is a class in which students learn about muggles and how to blend in. Most wizards that grow up with at least one wizard parent have no contact with muggles or electronics. You have enough knowledge to easily take the job! Then you could study magic in between classes at Hogwarts..."
"Wait!" I interrupted again. "You want me to be a teacher?! Do you know how ridiculous that it? I have like, no qualifications, and it's not like I've had the best background when it comes to school, heck I've barely managed to complete a year of school without being kicked out. Do you often pick random people to teach at your school?"
No one answered.
"Really?" I asked, incredulously.
"It wouldn't be the first time," Dumbledore admitted. "But the wizarding community is much smaller, we go by with what we have."
I shook my head in disbelief.
"Do you accept?" He asked eagerly.
About a million sensible reasons to deny came to mind, and about one reason to accept.
So, being the ADHD demigod I was, I chose that one. "Fuck, why not," I breathed out irritably.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Dumbledore. "Anyone disagree?"
Looking around, almost everyone looked horrified, yet nobody spoke out.
I briefly wondered why we had even bothered to come to England, these people didn't have much of an impact on the conversation.
"First things first," Dumbledore said. "We need to get you a wand."
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"It's a brick wall," Nico stated.
We had just made our way through a busy London.
Which, I have to admit was pretty amazing. I've never been to England before.
Back to the point.
By we, I meant me, Nico, Benny, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Molly, Arthur, Dumbledore, Fred and George.
At first, the wizards hadn't wanted to bring Nico and Benny along.
They quickly changed their minds.
We had come up to the pub, Dumbledore had said,
"To get to Diagon Alley, which is where wizards buy magical items. We have to pass through a special pub, you can't see it yet, it's called..."
"The leaky Cauldron," I had finished, looking at a bright sign hanging in front of a colourful building. "At least I'm assuming, I can see it perfectly fine, though. Nico?"
"Me too," he muttered, squinting at it as if he expected it to disappear.
Everyone had looked at us as if we had grown four heads.
"Well then," Dumbledore finally said. "Let's go shall we?"
We passed through the pub, out back, and in front of a... dead-end.
"Not just a brick wall, Mr. di Angelo," Dumbledore said.
Arthur walked forwards and tapped a brick in the wall with his wand.
He stepped back, and to my amazement. The brick started to pull out and fold upwards. Rearranging themselves until we stood in front of an archway leading into a small town, from the looks of it.
I whistled under my breath.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley!"
We stepped through the archway onto a cobbled pathway.
It was pretty impressive. Shops crowded together along the sides of the street. Packed together tightly.
They sold an assortment of things from ice cream to dragon scales.
It was every bit as magical as I had imagined it to be, yet something was wrong.
"Where is everybody?" I wondered out loud.
Molly looked at me sadly, the rest of our group had walked off in the direction of what I presumed was the wand shop.
"It's You-know-who," she gazed sadly around us. "Everyone's scared,"
We began to walk after the group, "You-know-who?" I asked.
She nodded. "I forgot you won't know much. You-know-who or He-who-must-not-be-named are what most people call... that wizard. Like I said, people are terrified of him. You must be extremely brave or ignorant to call him by his name,"
We lapsed into silence.
Ahead of us, two redheads broke off from the group into a brightly coloured shop. There were a few people in this shop. It was the only cheerful place in this entire area.
"Fred and George?" I questioned.
Molly smiled, "Yes, they own a shop here. The 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes' they only came to Grimmauld place to, umm meet you,"
She was obviously uncomfortable. I was so tempted to ask the millions of questions buzzing around my head, but looking at how agitated she was, opted to change the subject.
"I had no idea this was going on," I said softly.
Molly looked up in surprise.
"I've always had a thing for trying to help people," I shrugged uncomfortably and laughed humorously. "Let's just say it's gotten me into my fair share of trouble."
Molly smiled at me then. The first true smile I've seen from any of the wizards so far.
I smiled back, "Kinda sucks that I have to rely on you guys. I don't want to be any trouble."
"That's alright, dear," she said. "We're happy to help."
We quickly caught up to the group who had stopped in front of a dark shop that was brightly lit from within. Looking through the windows I could see shelves of boxes. As I came to a stop next to Nico and Benny. Ron shot me a glare and moved protectively towards his mother.
I felt a flicker of annoyance, what had I ever done to him?
Harry who was standing on my other side spoke up. "This is Ollivanders," he said waving an arm in front of the shop's window.
"Let's get you your wand."
Part Two - (New part)
I stepped forward, a determined expression on my face, and pushed open the front door of Ollivanders.
A faint bell sounded as I stepped inside. The rest of the group filed in behind me. Luckily for us, the shop was quite big, and we fit comfortably.
I walked over to a desk at the end of the room, the first room anyway, a few doors were set into the wall where I assumed, they led into more storage rooms.
As I scanned the shop looking for the owner I heard the faint sound of footsteps on the dusty floorboards. I spun around and faced the surprised man who had tried to sneak up on me.
He was the second oldest wizard I had seen so far, with crazy einstein-level white hair and eyebrows. He had pale eyes that shone through the gloom of the shop.
Quickly composing himself, he gazed up at me curiously.
"Broken wand is that right?" he asked.
Before I could answer he spoke again.
"No, I've never seen you before. Mmmm, curious, curious indeed."
"Ah," I said. "I need a wand."
"Of course, wait here."
Then he disappeared into the shelves of wands.
I turned around to face the wizards.
"Who was that?"
Dumbledore gestured to the shop, "Ollivander,"
My mouth formed a silent 'o'.
Speaking of, Ollivander bustled into the room. In his hands, he held two boxes. In his left hand was a brown leather box. In his right was a worn scaly green box.
"Let's start shall we?" He placed both boxes on his desk. Opening the brown one, he pulled out a slender wand. It was a light brown oak and had a natural twisting pattern from the base to the tip.
Ollivander held it out to me, and I grasped the end, for some reason it fit naturally into my hand. It was about one-quarter of the size of Riptide, yet had a good balance.
"Good, very good," Ollivander said. "Now hold up the wand like this," he pulled a wand from his robes and held it out.
I mimicked his stance.
"Now give it a flick!"
Albeit feeling stupid, I did.
And the windows exploded.
The glass shot towards us and shredded the wallpaper. Otherwise, everything was unharmed thanks to some quickly timed spells by Ollivander.
Startled I dropped the wand. It clattered against the floorboards emitting golden sparks, bounced twice and rolled under a shelf.
"Mmm," Ollivander hummed, "Well, I didn't think that would work."
He left the wand, which was still feebly sparkling and opened the green box, pulling out a black wand slightly shorter than the first.
He held it out to me and I reluctantly gripped it.
"Now, try it again,"
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About five hours and Zeus knows how many wands later we were still in the shop.
All of our company, except me, were sitting in chairs conjured up by Arthur and Dumbledore. Everyone looking dead bored and Ron and Hermione were glaring daggers at me as if it was somehow my fault that stupid pieces of magic wood hated me.
Well, fuck, knowing my luck it probably was.
Dumbledore, Arthur and Molly were having a hushed conversation that Harry was barely listening to.
Benny was standing up on his seat and braiding Nico's hair. Piper had taught him that. Nico was trying his hardest to make it look like it bothered him when it didn't really.
I was leaning against a slightly scorched pillar across from them. Luckily not all of my attempts were as explosive as the first one.
Explosive, heh.
But the shop certainly looked battered.
Ollivander shuffled into the room. His white hair was stained with soot and ash, and this weird sparkly pink stuff that had randomly appeared in a bucket on top of him about twenty wands ago.
In his hands, he clutched a box tightly as if his life depended on it.
The box itself was beautiful.
Unlike the other ones I had seen, this was crafted out of a dark wood. It had inlaid gold and silver, and a strange green material. The metals weaved around the box covering it with patterns that were too complex for my ADHD mind to make out.
I heard a gasp from the assembled wizards but didn't turn my head to see who it was.
Ollivander carefully placed the box down.
He turned to me carefully.
"Mr Jackson, do you know what this is?"
At some point in the last hours, we had exchanged introductions.
I was so sick of this, I didn't even bother to correct my name.
I shook my head.
Ollivanders gaze once again rested on the box. His fingers traced a pattern on the top of the box, I couldn't quite make it out. Maybe a triangle? With a circle in the middle?
He slid the lid of the box and pulled out a wand, my breath caught in my throat. It was beautiful.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nico staring, transfixed.
It was made of the same dark wood as the box with the three metals twisting around it with equally elaborate patterns as the box. It seemed to be filled with magic.
Ollivander held it out, two fingers at either end.
"This is the first wand my father gave me, before even my own. He was a wandmaker as well, as was his father and his father before him. Tracing back to before 300 B.C my family has been wandmakers. This wand..."
He paused nervously, "This wand, Mr Jackson, has been handed down from wandmaker to wandmaker for generations. Ever since the beginning of magic, I don't even know who made it."
He held it out to me.
"No one has even tried this wand before, but you have tried every single other wand in my shop."
At this point, he was positively glowing with anticipation.
I reached out hesitantly and took the wand.
Almost immediately I felt energised, just like when I was immersed in water. I could almost feel the magic fill my body, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had told me I was glowing.
Feeling confident about this for the first time, I gave it a swish through the air.
There was a loud BANG.
Ollivander screamed.
He was on fire.
I set Ollivander on fire.
I groaned and collapsed onto a chair with my head in my hands as the wizards scrambled to their feet to put out the fire.
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Walking out of the shop I felt like an idiot.
If Ron and Hermione hadn't trusted me before, they positively hated me now. They were treating me as if I had killed Ollivander, which, to be fair, I almost did.
Details, details.
Ron and Hermione were right now in a heated discussion with Harry who's face had gone quite red.
Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur looked bewildered. I'm almost entirely sure this had never happened before.
Benny was in between me and Nico chatting about magic. Nico was pulling out his braids.
I had expected Ollivander to be angry, but he hadn't seemed that bothered about being set on fire and having half his shop destroyed. He didn't have any more wands for me to try, but before we left he had grabbed my wrist and wished me good luck.
"You're going to need it, Mr Jackson." He had said with twinkling eyes, "There's a wand out there for you somewhere."
Glancing to the right I saw a vaguely familiar figure. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with the need to walk over to the person, without even realising what I was doing I drifted off from the group towards the mysterious figure.
As I got closer I realised it was a female. She was shrouded in a dark purple cloak. When I had reached speaking distance she pulled off her hood revealing a young woman.
She looked to be in her early twenties. With dark red hair that barely fell to her shoulders, and flawless skin that was deathly pale. She was surrounded by a green glow, and her eyes were black.
Not completely black, but her irises were pitch black, the same colour of her pupils.
She radiated power, godly power.
I bowed, "Lady Hecate,"
She smiled, a polecat and a black labrador retriever emerged from her robes and fixed me with disgruntled looks.
I had only briefly met Hecate, after Nico and I had come out of Tartarus. She had helped Hazel and Leo to defeat Clytius.
"Perseus," she greeted me with a slight tilt of her head.
I was surprised by the action, but let it be.
Suddenly I realised that I was by myself, I furrowed my brow, "Uhm, no offence Hecate, but, where is everyone else?"
She smiled, "I hope you don't mind, I borrowed you for a second. They won't notice you're gone until we finish talking."
"Well, that's reassuring," I mumbled.
Hecate ignored me. She pulled out a wand.
I have to admit I didn't like where this was going, I hadn't had the best experience with wands in the past few hours.
"Don't worry Perseus," she said handing me the wand. "This was specially made for you,"
I twirled it between my fingers.
It was simpler than some of the others I had seen today, but it was still breathtaking. Unlike other wands, this one was blue. The surface of the wand was so smooth it looked like marble. It was straight but had knobs every couple centimetres. (a/n Picture in the media)
"Olive wood," Hecate said, jarring me back to reality. "Dyed with Billywig blood making it appear blue. The Billywig blood also assists in jinxes and hexes making is a great offensive weapon. It has a rare mix of Dragon heartstring and Phoenix feather for the core. This makes it an incredibly powerful wand."
This wand didn't fill me with magic like the last one had.
But it felt right.
It felt how I did when I was using Riptide. I didn't depend on the wand for magic, I used it as a tool to access the magic I already had.
I found I much preferred it this way.
"Give it a try," Hecate prompted.
Sucking in a quick breath, I hesitantly waved the wand through the air. Where the wand passed through the air, it rippled like water. The scent of ocean water filled this corner of Diagon Alley. The sound of waves crashing against the shore filled my head. The air around me was filled with shimmering blue magic.
I instantly relaxed, feeling at home. The sensation stopped, making Diagon Alley look that bit more depressing.
"Very good," Hecate beamed.
"Thank you," I said, and I meant it.
"Your welcome Perseus, It's the least I can do for the saviour of Olympus."
She put her hand up to stop the words of protest that were about to come from my mouth.
"It's true, but not important right now. Listen closely because I have to explain something."
She took a deep breath.
"I am the Goddess of the mist and the Goddess of magic. The mist, as you well know is a material thing, it exists in its own state. It creates illusions. My children and other adapt demigods, such as your friend Hazel, can manipulate and control the mist. Why not the same with magic? Just as the mist is everywhere, magic is in everybody. Unlike the mist, which deals in illusions and trickery, magic is real. When you use magic you are physically changing the matter around you. Your magic is what connects you to the universe. My children, sadly, can only control the mist. But some people, mortals or demigods of any parent, are born with an incredible amount of magic. Normally this wouldn't affect them, just as you have lived without using your magic. But usually, when someone is born with that much magic, I give them a blessing that allows them to control it. With demigods I don't give this blessing, they have more than enough to worry about. That is partially the reason you failed to bond with a wand in Ollivanders. I never gave you this blessing until I handed you that wand. Not that it matters much, being a demigod gives you some control over the mist as well, making you more powerful than other wizards. The only wand in that shop that would have chosen you was the last one."
When Hecate said that her eyes glinted menacingly, for reasons I didn't know, and I realised how powerful Hecate really was.
She controlled so much of the universe, and so much of people.
"One last thing Perseus. To harness and control your magic without incantations is impossible for anyone with any less power than a god, but you shouldn't be confined to the spells the wizards have created. Since magic originated from Greece. Using Greek or Latin words will help you harness the magic and you will be able to do almost anything."
There was a mad look in her face, she was power hungry.
"The wizards have worked on something called wordless magic, this just means you say the incantations in your head rather than out loud. I suggest you practise this to avoid suspicion until then stick to the official spells."
She smiled, and suddenly looked like a normal person again.
"That is all I have to say, I wish you luck Perseus."
I bowed again and made to move away, my mind reeling from the information.
Behind me, I heard Hecate whisper something so soft I almost missed it.
"Be wise not to forget the other wand Perseus. It won't be the last time you see it."
I spun around but she was gone.