The exam hall Percy was assigned to was inside of the Ministry of Magic.
It was a few doors down the Department of Magical Education behind a door that looked like every other door there. The inside was a hall that could fit around fifty people with single-seat desks arranged in neat rows.
Percy looked around and found that he wasn't alone. There were around five other people in the room, each far older than he was. 'Guess they're repeaters.' Percy thought to himself.
There was a man who looked old enough to be a father and a woman who was around Percy's mom's age. There were two witches a few years older than Percy and a wizard who looked like he was a hundred years old.
Percy groaned, it was nearly ten o'clock. Just as he wondered when they would begin, the door was thrown open and an elderly witch walked in with a stack of papers. Everyone took this as their cue and quickly took their seats. Percy himself sat near the back, not wanting to draw attention to himself.
The witch flicked her wand sending a scroll, a quill, and an inkpot to every desk. She cleared her throat.
"Welcome to your OWL examination. This is the most important exam for any witch or wizard and we ask that you give it the importance it deserves. Cheating is highly guarded against. Anti-Cheating Spells are applied to all O.W.L. exam papers and you may only write using the instruments we provide you. But despite this, I am sure at least one student will try to cheat, though you must note that none have been successful since the year 1899."
The witch glared down everyone in the room. Percy gulped, the woman's attitude was very daunting, to say the least. He really hoped he wouldn't get caught. Not that he was cheating per se, but he did wear his blood band which would give him an advantage.
He had talked to Hecate about this before. The goddess didn't discourage the idea, in fact, she wanted him to go through with the plan. So Percy did, and now he sat with a blood band on his wrist praying to the gods that the witch didn't recognize it for what it was.
"Now, today's exam is on charms. You will write your theory paper now and your practical exam will be after lunch." The witch flicked her wand again and several pink answer sheets flew through the air and landed on the exam takers' desk. "You may begin."
Percy dreaded simply looking at the paper. Charms was his weakest subject but when he finally did look, he couldn't help the smile forming on his face. They asked relatively simple questions like; 'Describe the magical charms involved in creating a broom.' 'What is the common misconception between mobicorpus and mobilarus?' 'What charm is used to deflect curses? What spells can it not defend from?'
Percy quickly dipped the quill in the ink and began to write. He felt the blood band work overtime as he framed the answers to the questions asked. His handwriting was decent, no extra marks there, but his answers were crisp and to the point. And just to be sure, Percy over-inflated the answer adding extra details. He didn't want to risk a low grade in this exam.
Halfway through the first page, Percy noticed the examiner going around the hall on rounds. She walked over to him in the back and stood there like a hawk overlooking his work. Percy gulped, he shifted his hand allowing his robes to fall over his hand blocking the sight of the blood band.
Percy continued to write his paper but he noticed that the woman did not leave as she continued to look over his shoulder.
Percy however didn't let his nerves slow him down or make a mistake. He also most certainly did not show that he was nervous, that's how they catch you in the first place.
He was halfway done with the written exam by the one hour mark. He was on a roll and it seemed nothing could stop him. So naturally, that's when fate decided to be a bitch.
"Excuse me young man, but may I see your hand?" The examiner asked nicely, though the look on her face indicated anything but.
"Uh, what for ma'am?" Percy as panic started to set in.
'What do I do? What do I do?! Damn it, if only I could use the Mist to block her sight of it! Wait...that's it!'
"Just curiosity, now please." The witch's tone left no room for argument as she held out her own hand in waiting.
Percy gulped as he thought fast. Percy felt the Mist move to his will and surround itself around the blood band as Percy willed it to look like a normal wooden bracelet. He turned to the witch and smiled giving her his hand.
The witch frowned at his smile but quickly examined his hand. She pushed the sleeves of his robes down and stared right at the blood band.
Percy didn't lose focus as he willed the Mist to maintain the illusion he was casting over the magical object. The witch peered right at it, but she couldn't see anything but a brown wooden band.
Sighing, she let go and gave Percy a forced smile. "That a very lovely bracelet you have there young man. Where did you get it?"
"Family heirloom ma'am." Percy replied with a cheery smile as he pulled his sleeves up, no telling how long he could keep up the illusion. "Is that all? Can I return to the exam?"
"Yes, yes of course. Sorry for the bother." The woman returned to monitoring the rest of the hall.
Percy then returned to his exam smiling like a cat. Guess someone had to change the 'no cheaters since 1899' part of the speech.
The rest of the exam went without incident as Percy answered every single question perfectly. When he was done he gave the paper in with a smile and went out of the hall for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron via the floo.
When he returned, the hall had changed, all the chairs and tables had been removed leaving a wide-open space.
The five other exam takers were already there along with two new examiners. One was an older man and the other a younger wizard that looked around thirty.
"Right. Now since we are all here we can begin." The older man introduced himself as Robert Thatch and the young man as William Thatch (no relation). He then sent everyone out and called people in one by one to administer the practical part of the exam.
Eventually, it was Percy's turn and he entered the hall with wand already drawn.
"Right, are you Percy Jackson?" William asked looking at a form.
"Yes."
"Excellent, let's begin." Robert smiled.
Percy was asked to charm an egg to dance, big surprise there. He also had to display a variety of other charms he had learned, like the levitation charm, the color-change charm, and even a growth charm.
Percy had a little trouble with more of the complex charms, couldn't get them to stick. And while he did get the egg to dance, it looked very silly seeing an egg do the salsa alone.
When he was down Robert and William whispered amongst each other before turning to Percy. "Well that's all for now, thank you Mr. Jackson."
"Ah, if I may, I prepared a little something to, well show off my stuff. Can I?" Percy asked.
The men nodded. "Yes of course, please. Overachieving is never a bad thing."
Percy nodded as he readied his wand and aimed at a desk pushed back to one corner of the room. He waved the wand and transformed it into a giant pig.
William and Robert looked on in awe. "That is a most impressive piece of transfiguration Mr. Jackson, I'm sure you will do well in your transfiguration exam." William said.
"Thank you sir, and now." Percy aimed his wand at the pig and started waving his wand in intricate patterns. He quietly started to chant the sleeping charm he had learned and thrust his arm forward sending a blast of white light at the pig.
"SQUEAK!" The pig yelled before it got blasted by the charm. Immediately it dropped to the floor snoring.
"Amazing!" William yelled as he walked up to the pig and waved his wand to check for the effects of the spell. "This spell is very difficult to learn Mr. Jackson, I must say I am very impressed. You lacked the skill, though that isn't all that unexpected, you more than made up for that through sheer power! Why this pig won't wake up for at least a day! And look at that, barely breathing! I am most impressed with your bewitched sleep spell Mr. Jackson, very impressed."
Percy walked out of the exam hall with a smile on his face.
The next day came and it was time for another exam. This time it was Transfiguration. The written part was easy, relative to the charms exam. Percy once again wore the blood band, and this time the examiner didn't even bother checking it.
For his practical exam, Percy transfigured a table into a pig once more but also displayed other spells such as the switching spells and the reversing spell. And for extra marks, Percy performed the vanishing spell, which he had gotten quite good at over the months due to constantly using it to clear away his used potions ingredients.
Wednesday was Herbology, which was really tough. Percy had difficulty with the written exam, as he wasn't all that through with the subject. But for the practical part, they were asked to extract Bulbous sap from a Tonic tree and trim a fanged Geranium plant, which was something Percy found easy as these were potions ingredients and Percy knew how to do that like the back of his hand.
Thursday was DADA, and Percy was really nervous. He did well with the written part, better than he did in charms, but then came the practical exam.
Percy wasn't untrained, far from it actually, but most often, the magic he did us for defense was all his own creation. He found them easier to do than the standard spells, and he was dreading the practical exam.
Once more Percy walked into the hall after lunch and found two examiners waiting for him. They introduced themselves as George and Alice Bandbeers, married, and asked Percy to perform a basic shielding charm.
Percy gulped, he readied his wand and performed the spell non-verbally creating a bright blue magical shield in front of himself.
Alice raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me Mr. Jackson, but I don't recognize the wand motions you used. What spell did you use?"
Percy gulped. "Ah, well honestly I'm not that good with normal defense spells. So I kind of recreated them for myself."
"You created your own spells?" George asked impressed. "Could you show us again?"
Percy nodded as he slashed his wand down twisting it as he did. "Magnus Clypeus!" A blue shield appeared in front of Percy once more and the two examiners went to work analyzing it.
"Amazing." Alice said as she observed the shield. "Twice as big and at least three times more powerful than an average shield. You have talent Mr. Jackson. Tell us, do you have some more of these custom made spells?"
Percy nodded and quickly began displaying everything he could do. At the end of the exam, Percy walked out of the room with a cocky grin. If that didn't get him an O, nothing would.
And the last exam of the week was on Friday, which was ancient runes. The theory part was a joke, to say the least. Just for kicks, Percy went on a rant for each and every question not only answering it but also lecturing on how he was right. It was arrogant, but something told Percy that wizards would like such a display of knowledge.
The practical exam was also easy. Percy was asked to create a set of basic runes within a set time frame.
He was even given a ministry regulated rune carving set to ensure he wouldn't cheat. Not that he had too for something like this.
Percy had simply taken the imber knife and started to carve. The examiners looked on curiously and when Percy revealed the completed runes their jaws dropped. He had created a near-perfect rune without sketching it out first. Judging by the way their jaws dropped they were very impressed. Percy then began to show off as he carved more and more complex runes much to the examiner's awe. He again walked out of there with a smile on his face.
That weekend Percy spent revising on Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic. They were his weakest subjects. Hecate also made him revise Astrology but he honestly couldn't be bothered, it was too much work for too little a reward.
The Monday of the second week of examination had Percy's favorite subject, potions. The theory part had been so easy wearing the blood band was kind of overkill. But he didn't care, he continued to run circles around the exam, writing in detail to every question asked. It was like he was taunting the exam, and it could do nothing but sit there and take it. Ah, revenge was sweet.
The theory part of the exam was even more of a breeze as Percy simply had to finish the last few steps to create a polyjuice potion and also create a potion that made the drinker look five years younger.
Percy then requested to try and obtain extra points and proceed to make the examiners a strengthening potion. It may have been a tad too much, but Percy didn't care.
The exam on Tuesday was Care For Magical Creatures. The theory was hard, Percy was very grateful for the blood band now. He answered as best as he could and left the hall as quickly as possible.
The practical side asked him to feed and clean out a Fire Crab, choose from a wide selection of food the diet they would give a sick Unicorn, and finally show how to properly train a pixie. Percy did very well for the unicorn food and also managed to deal with the fire crab without too much incident. But the pixie....that damn pixie. It bit Percy's fingers again and again! It tried to tear his nails out!
Percy walked out of the hall defeated. Hopefully, his piss poor performance with the pixie won't dock him too many points.
Wednesday was Astrology and was a little bit different. After the theory exam in the morning, which Percy did decently, they were asked to return only at night. At around midnight the practical exam started and Percy had to use a telescope up on the roof a random muggle building to map out a blank star chart using the exact coordinates of the stars.
Thursday was a holiday, thank gods.
In reality, that day featured Divination, but since that was a subject Percy didn't opt for, he didn't have that exam.
Friday was Arithmancy. The theory was filled with various sums and questions based on the laws of magic itself. And then came the practical exam where they had to create a new spell...needless to say, Percy didn't have any problem with that exam. He might have even just set a record for the amount of times he unhinged the examiner's jaw.
During the weekend Percy did nothing but study History of Magic over and over again. It got to a point where Hecate had to intervene as to ask Percy to stop studying. He didn't listen, but that's not the point.
The last exam was on Monday, Percy entered the hall nervously and when he got the paper he was afraid to look. But he did look, and he did write. And he didn't know how he did it, but he finished the exam quicker than anyone else there. He knew he got enough right to actually pass the subject, and that was enough for him.
History didn't have a practical side to it, so the moment he walked out of that hall he was done, he had finished his OWLs.
Percy leaned into his chair and groaned "It's over. It's finally over."
Hecate chuckled as she sat down next to him giving him two cups of hot tea, "Congratulations Percy, you have successfully completed your OWLs. How do you feel?"
"Like shit." Percy grumbled as he sipped his tea. "I never thought I would actually enjoy drinking this stuff."
"Yes, you Americans do enjoy your coffee don't you?"
Percy grumbled, "Yeah. I'm just glad they're over now, I feel so exhausted!"
"Yes well that's normal. Anyway, your results will be out sometime around August, so until then you won't have to deal with that. We should celebrate!"
"No!" Percy shot up, "I still haven't forgotten the last time we celebrated something Hecate!"
"Oh come on! That was ages ago," Hecate waved him away.
"You turned me into a bunny!"
"You still hung up on that?"
"A pink fluffy bunny! And then you slept on a bed of sunflowers choke-holding me into unconsciousness! No partying!"
"Fine." Hecate grumbled "Wuss." She muttered loud enough for him to hear.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway...so what now?"
"Now?" Hecate raised an eyebrow, "Well now you can do anything you want. You have, what? Two months before Hogwarts starts? You can do whatever you want."
Percy nodded as he looked around. This house has been his home since February, and yet he still hadn't made it feel like home. With his first step into joining the wizarding world complete the idea of him being forced to wait sixteen years till he can rejoin his family and friends started to seem more and more real to Percy. And if that was the case, he probably needed a proper place to call home.
"I think it's time I start moving in." Percy grumbled looking at the house. "Maybe fill this place up with furniture, get a few more clothes."
"About time." Hecate chuckled. "Honestly, it feels like I'm living in a dump!"
Percy rolled his eyes as he drank his tea in silence. When they were done Percy waved his wand over the cups cleaning them well with a scourgify charm before charming them to travel to the kitchen.
"You are getting better at this." Hecate nodded in approval. "Soon magic will be like second nature to you."
"Thanks Hecate." Percy groaned as he stretched his neck. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to go sleep until for the next week and a half."
The goddess kissed him on the cheek good night and for the first time in three weeks, Percy slept without worrying about studying for an exam.
The next day Percy woke up to find Hecate missing. She had however a left a note for him stuck on his door, it read 'gone shopping! Be back in two days!'
It was an obvious lie, but Percy didn't really care, he didn't need to know everything about the goddess, she wasn't his girlfriend. In his eyes anyway.
Percy walked downstairs and opened the kitchen cabinet. He found a box of cereal and quickly proceeded to pour himself a bowl. Percy then stared at the bowl of flakes, usually at this time of the day Hecate would conjure up a jug of milk for Percy. They still didn't have a fridge.
"Great, just great." Percy groaned as he grabbed his coat and walked out of his home. He locked the door behind him with magic and slipped his wand into his left sleeve, don't want to lose that.
Percy turned to walk away and was suddenly confronted by a thin older woman with the neck of a crane standing by the sidewalk. Percy blinked, it was that lady who knocked on his door a few days ago. "Uh, can I help you?"
The lady glared as she gave him an ugly frown, "I hope so young man! You broke my Dudleykin's arm the other day! How dare you! Are your parents home? I would like a word with them!"
Percy sighed and rubbed his temples, "Look lady, I don't know what you heard, but it's a lie. I didn't hurt Dudley, I didn't even touch him."
"Then why did his friends come to me and tell me otherwise?!"
"I don't know, because they hate my guts? Look I don't have time for this, I'm hungry and there's a bowl of cereal in there that doesn't have milk, so if I can just get by." Percy said as he tried, and failed to get passed the thin woman. Percy sighed. "Gods help me."
"My boy is nothing but kind and sweet, it's bullies like you that make it harder for good, honest people like us!"
Percy snorted. "Right, good, honest Dudley, good one. And here I thought you didn't have a sense of humor."
"Why I never! Where are your parents young man? Didn't they teach you manners?!"
"Look my parents aren't here right now okay? So can you please just leave? My aunt will be along in a few days. If you want, you can speak to her and bite her head off okay?"
"How dare you talk to me like that?! I am an adult, treat me with the respect I deserve or I will put you over my knee and-"
"-Bye!" Percy cried out as he suddenly jumped over the woman and began to run away.
"Come back here boy!" The woman screamed back as she growled at his retreating form. "I expect to see your aunt as soon as she comes back!"
Percy rolled his eyes imagining the woman screaming at Hecate. 'Yeah sure, that'll happen.'
Percy walked to the nearest convenience store and bought a jug of milk. He also bought some pre-made meals. If Hecate wasn't going to be here for some time and the crazy lady was going to continue to stalk him everywhere he went it would be best to store up on food.
Percy made his way back home without any incident, meaning no crazy middle-aged women were waiting to ambush him and had himself that glorious bowl of cereal.
Once done, he sat down at his table in the living room and looked over all the books he had so far. More than half of them were now finished. Percy could use them later for revision down the road but for now, they were going into storage. Once he got a place to store things that is.
Percy looked over all the things he set aside to learn later. Animagus transformation, battle magic, Atlantean water magic, and the book Hecate gave him about rituals, all useful and all worth studying.
But of course, Percy had already decided on what to learn first, the animagus transformation. After all who didn't want to become an animal? Percy took the book and began looking through it carefully.
According to the book, the process was not all that complex, at least not to him. It was, however, going to annoy the crap out of him.
The first-ever recorded animagus was greek, which was just another point for Percy's chance of success. His name was Flaco Aesalon and he could turn into a falcon.
Part of the process by which one becomes an Animagus is holding the leaf of a mandrake in their mouth for an entire month, using the leaf for the creation of a potion, and reciting the incantation 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus' on a daily basis.
Percy wanted to try it the moment he heard of it, but obviously because of the OWL's, he couldn't give it the attention it deserved. But now he could.
Percy quickly rummaged through his potion ingredients but found no mandrake leaves. Percy grumbled. 'Great, how am I supposed to do this now?'
Percy would have just had Hecate take him to Diagon Alley to get the supplies he needed, but of course, the goddess was gone.
'Well I could just go myself, but how? I don't have a broom or a floo connection in the house. And I'm not stupid enough to try and apparate by myself.'
'Hmm...well I could just try and get to London through mortal means, but that could take forever.' Percy sighed. 'I guess it's not like I have anything else to do.'
Percy soon walked out of his home and made his way towards the Surrey train station. It was a long trip but Percy managed to get to the right station a few blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron.
Percy found he didn't actually mind the slower form of transportation, it gave him a chance to simply look and appreciate the world around him. That was one of the gifts of being a demigod that he sorely missed.
He quickly walked to the Leaky Cauldron and entered the wizarding pub. The people inside stared at him once more with disgust, and this time Percy knew it was because of his 'muggle' clothes. He gave Tom a hello and quickly entered Diagon Alley.
Percy smiled, the alley was just as active as before. The people were all over the place buying whatever they needed.
Percy smiled as he took his time looking around the place. Before he and Hecate were on a schedule, but now Percy had nothing but time on his hands.
Percy found he spent a lot of time window shopping as he looked at a broom store.
Percy didn't like the broom, it wasn't his style. While he did like flying, he also wasn't a fan of the act as he was far too scared of Zeus zapping him out of the sky. He also still didn't understand the wizarding logic of making a broom the object to fly on.
After he was finished with the brooms, Percy looked at Flourish and Blotts, a common wizarding book store that had a few interesting reads. Percy bought a book that caught his eyes. 'Greek Gods and Their Magic'. It was probably nothing but it was worth a read.
The demigod walked around afterward until he came upon the apothecary for the alley. He walked in and promptly bought himself a hand full of mandrake leaves, just in case one didn't do the trick.
He also bought a few more ingredients for potions he was interested in trying out. Now that he actually knew what they were and knew what he wanted, Percy found that he quite enjoyed shopping for potion ingredients.
Percy put his purchases away in his moleskin bag and made his way to The Leaky Cauldron for lunch.
He ordered a meal from Tom and took a seat by the window. While he was waiting Percy looked around at the people around him, all the witches and wizards had horrible fashion sense.
Percy then noticed a leftover newspaper on the table next to his. Seeing as no one else wanted it he took the paper and began to read.
The headline read 'Sirius Black Escapes Ministry's clutches once again!' Apparently, a dangerous serial killer and follower of Voldemort had tried to enter Hogwarts and kill Harry Potter. He was captured however and later kept as a prisoner only for the man to escape once more under mysterious circumstances.
Percy read up more on Sirius Black and was surprised to find that the man had escaped Azkaban. Percy had of course read all about that place and its horrible guardians, the soul-sucking dementors. He was amazed anyone could ever escape that place, especially without a wand.
After his meal, Percy quickly made his way back, but because the muggle way was so slow, Percy had returned home only by nightfall. As he walked down Privet drive towards his home he noticed that the number four car had just pulled in. Percy groaned as he watched Dudley get out along with his crazy mom.
A large man similar to Dudley's stature, though still significantly smaller, got out of the driver's seat and began shouting at someone behind the car. Percy couldn't see who he was screaming at but just then, the large man moved towards the door, and Percy got a clear view of the mystery person.
It was a boy around Dudley's age, he was thin with messy black hair and wore round glasses. However, that was the least normal thing about him as he was carrying behind him an actual trunk with the Hogwarts crest on it! And on the trunk was a cage with a snowy white owl!
Percy immediately knew who the kid was. It was the only other wizard that he knew lived in this area, Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived. And apparently, his uncle loved yelling at him.
Percy chuckled humorlessly. 'If the man is anything like his wife and son, he's probably yelling about something stupid.'
Harry turned to close the door and for a moment their eyes meet. Percy couldn't help it, a smirk formed on his face as he saw the kid's surprised look.
Harry quickly closed the door, though not without peeking at Percy once again through the window.
The demigod snorted, his first impression of the kid wasn't that bad. He seemed nice enough, but if he was anything like his cousin, Percy was probably going to have to avoid him as well.
The demigod reached home and had a quick dinner of pre-made meals. It was already pretty late so Percy decided to put off beginning the animagus process until tomorrow.
Percy took out the book he bought about greek gods and began to read it well into the night.
...
The next day Percy woke up and quickly got to work. He finished breakfast and sat down with the animagus book and the mandrake leaves he bought the other day.
He looked up the instructions carefully, he didn't want to make a single mistake with something as important as this. What if he ended up with a tail for the rest of his life? Percy shuddered. No, that wouldn't be preferable.
Percy took the leaf and noted the time. He pressed the leaf on the roof of his mouth. It was extremely salty, surprisingly so, but no one ever said doing something amazing was easy.
Percy cast a powerful sticking charm to keep it in place. Percy licked it a couple of times but the leaf refused to move out of place. Percy would have to get used to the bitter taste though. Hopefully, by the end of the month he would have learned to ignore it.
Percy then cleared his throat, noted the time again, and recited. "Amato Animo Animato Animagus!"
Red sparks shot from his wand into his leaf inside his mouth. Percy grinned. He needed to do this every day at exactly the right time, which was 10:01 am. Perfect.
With that done, Percy found himself bored out of his mind. He didn't want to study anything right now, he had just finished his OWLs. He most certainly didn't want to sleep around doing nothing. If Hecate found out, Percy shivered, he didn't want to think about what she would do to him.
Percy looked at the time. He couldn't go out to see a movie yet, those didn't start until around four in the afternoon. So for now he was stuck home.
'Wait...I have magic! There's a whole mountain of things I can try out!'
Percy grinned, he never actually tried out magic for fun, it was always in the name of studying or training! But now he could do whatever he put his mind too!
Percy opened his notes and randomly looked through them all. He grinned as he drew his wand. 'I always hated the wallpapers in this room. Let's change it a little.'
Percy cast coloring charm after coloring charm turning the walls shades of the different colors of the sea. Green, blue, dark blue, sea-green, and even a little silver on the top.
Percy ended up making the entire walls look like the inside of a sea wave. He stepped back and smiled. "Geez, maybe I should become an artist."
Percy looked around for other things he didn't like. He put a permanent drying charm in the bathroom. He hated using a wet toilet, it was the one place in the world where Percy believed that less water was better.
He transformed the window grills, they currently were in the form of flowers. He transformed them into a trident because he was the child of Poseidon and all that. He then also charmed the windows to become unbreakable.
The stairs were also very creaky, so he fixed that. Percy then decided that the house was too messy so he quickly started to clean every inch of the house thanks to liberal usage of the scourgify charm.
And then Percy began to arrange all his books and other magical items. He wasn't very good at conjuration, so instead,d he transfigured the walls in broom closet under the stairs into shelves that could store all his magical books and items inside. He then locked the closet with an extremely overpowered locking charm.
He conjured a couch for the living room, which came out half-formed because that was a NEWT level spell. But in the end, Percy still had half a couch, so he simply transfigured it a little and turned it into a big lounge chair.
Percy sat in his big lounge chair and sighed as his spine relaxed into the foam. He looked around and grumbled. "I'm still bored!"
Percy pushed his head into the chair. there was only one thing left to do. Go outside.
Percy grumbled as he quickly changed into a shirt and hoodie, strapping his wand to his left forearm. He grabbed a couple of pounds and walked outside.
Percy took a deep breath. All in all, it was a good day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and...Harry Potter was weeding his garden?
Across the street, the young wizard with round glasses was on his knees vigorously ridding the garden of any unwanted lifeforms.
It was a surprising sight for Percy, he didn't ever remember a wizard doing anything similar to manual labor. Percy's curiosity had been peaked and there was also nothing else to do.
Percy walked across the road and up to the boy who now looked up from his weeding and noticed Percy.
Percy leaned on number four's fence and smiled. "Hello there. Hell of a day isn't it?"
Harry looked confused. "Er, yes. I suppose it is."
Percy nodded. "Right, anyway I just wanted to drop in and say hi. I'm Percy Jackson, I just moved into number five across the street."
Harry got up and wiped his hand offering it to Percy. "Harry, Harry Potter. I live here with my aunt and uncle."
"Oh, I know believe me." Percy said shaking Harry's hand. "I've met your cousin, Dudley, not the best first impression, or last."
Harry chuckled. "Yes, he's...something. Are you from America Percy? Your accent sounds like it."
Percy nodded. "Yeah, I'm from America. New York specifically. But please, don't call me a Yankee, I don't like it. And if you do I'll throw you into the pond."
Harry laughed. "All right I promise, no Yankee calling. Although you'd be hard-pressed to find me a pond anywhere here, you would have to drag me pretty far away to find one to dump me in."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Uh...no, not really. There a small pond right down the road in the park."
Harry blinked a few times. "Really? There is?"
"Yeah, how do you not know this? Have you been living here long?"
Harry lowered his head. "All my life. I...I don't get out much."
Percy sighed. "Oh. Sorry about that. I figured that might be the case. No disrespect, but your family is crazy man!"
Harry perked up at that, a smile almost threatened to break as he looked up at Percy. "Nobody's ever said that before."
"What? Really? No one?"
"No. Everyone here thinks they are the perfect family." Harry said resentfully.
"Wow, that's stupid. Anyone with common sense would know these people are nuts." Percy rolled his eyes. "You know the first time I meet your cousin he was chasing down a kid to beat up?"
"Yeah, Dudley does that. He's always been sort of a bully."
"Yeah, and I was like 'no way fat boy!' and he tried to punch me! Like, I just met this guy and he tried to punch me in the face! But then the idiot went and broke his wrist and then blamed me for that!" Percy scoffed.
"Wait, how did he break his wrist?" Harry asked incredulously.
Percy shrugged. "Beats me man. All I did was stand there and take it."
Harry sighed, "I'm sorry about him, I really am. Please don't think about it though, the more you do, the bigger headache you get. Trust me."
Percy chuckled. "Yeah, I bet. Anyway, Harry, I didn't think you would be out here gardening first thing in the morning."
"First thing? It's almost noon."
Percy scratched his cheek giving a nervous chuckle. "I...I'm not the best with time."
Harry smiled. "Well to answer your question, my Aunt Petunia asked me to tend the garden. She gives me chores to do, and I sort of have to do it."
"Chores the day after you return? And you British call us uncultured." Percy looked around and found no one else outside beside Harry and himself. Percy grinned mischievously and turned to Harry. "Need help?"
Harry blinked. "What? Oh no, I couldn't possibly ask you to do that."
"Oh relax Harry, it won't even take second." Percy whipped out his wand and Harry gasped at the sight of it.
Percy waved the stick and muttered a basic Herbology weeding spell. He intentionally overpowered it making every single weed in the garden and a small rose bush, to disappear in a puff of smoke.
Percy slid the wand back into his sleeve and smiled. "There we go. Sorry about the rose bush, herbology was never my favorite subject."
"Y-You're...you're a wizard!" Harry exclaimed in wonder before slapping his hands over his mouth.
Percy nodded with a smile. "Yup!"
Harry's jaw dropped as he looked around the now clear garden to his house. He looked like he was waiting for his aunt or someone to come bursting out and yelling up a storm.
Percy was worried, Harry looked scared. "You okay Harry? You look like you're about to meet the devil himself."
"I...I'm fine, it's just my family doesn't really like...well, people like us."
"You mean wizards?"
Harry nodded. "Yes. They aren't the nicest people when it comes to magic."
Percy nodded. "I figured. I managed to piss off Dudley so bad, he called me a freak and told me I was just like his cousin. I'm assuming they call you a freak because of magic?"
Harry stiffened at the question before slowly nodding. "Y-Yes."
Percy narrowed his eyes. He wasn't blind, the poor kid probably had an impossible time with these people. Maybe even abuse. It reminded Percy of his time with his old step-father Gabe, and his fists...
Percy wished he could do something to get them back, maybe...Percy slowly smiled.
"Hey Harry, come with me." Percy turned around and walked to his home.
"I'm sorry what?" Harry asked looking at Percy's retreating form. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to show you something fun!" Percy called behind him. Harry looked conflicted between trying to avoid getting shouted at and following Percy. But in the end, curiosity won out and Harry ran to the older boy.
Percy took out his wand and unlocked his magically locked door and stepped inside. "Welcome to Camp Percy! Population two, including you that is."
Harry blinked as he looked around the place. "You don't have much do you?"
"No, never got around to decorating. Now that I have a lot of free time on my hands, I just might do that."
Percy locked the door behind them and walked to the cupboard. He opened it and quickly took out a cauldron and looked at the ingredients.
"Let's see...I'm going to need this, this, maybe this. Hmm...no, that would be overkill." Percy picked out ingredients with a particular potion in mind.
Harry looked over Percy's shoulder and gasped at the cupboard full of neatly stacked magical items. "This is amazing!"
"Thanks, I just arranged them this morning. Had them all out before, I was studying for my OWL's." Percy quickly grabbed what he needed and got out closing the door behind him. "You're in Hogwarts right?"
"Yeah. I just finished my third year." Harry followed Percy to the kitchen where Percy summoned water into the cauldron. Harry gasped. "How did you do that?!"
Percy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"You just summoned a cauldron full of water!"
"And?"
"Without a wand!"
"Oh, well I'm kind of unnaturally good with water magic." Percy shrugged. "Anyway, tell me about Hogwarts. I'm going next year, I want to know all about it."
"Uh, but why? Isn't there a wizarding school in America?"
Percy shrugged. "Don't know, never went. I was homeschooled up until now. Eventually, I had to move here to the UK for reasons and I decided I might as well start going to school you know?"
"Homeschooled? Can you even do that with magic?"
"Yeah. Provided you have a good teacher, which I do." Percy grinned as he quickly added ingredient after ingredient while stirring the cauldron occasionally.
"What are you making?" Harry asked as he saw the potion start to bubble.
"I have no idea." Percy shrugged as he added a bit of troll fat. "But, I know what it can do."
"What?! How is that possible? I mean, how can you create something you don't know, but know what it can do?"
"Well, I start out with a particular potion effect in mind and I gathered the ingredients I would need to make it. So while I don't know if this potion already exists, I do know the effects of the potion."
"Can you even do that?" At Percy's questioning glance Harry continued. "Just make up a potion I mean?"
"Yeah, it's pretty easy." Percy said with nonchalance. "You see, each ingredient has an effect and a classification on how reactive it is. I find the right combination in my mind, add in a little extra clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation and boom, instant potion."
Harry gawked. "Amazing! You must be some kind of potions genius!"
Percy chuckled. "Well, I am good at making them up."
"Amazing." Harry repeated as he looked at the potion Percy made. "So what does this do anyway?"
"Well, you see this potion, if I'm correct, will make the drinker gain twice as much weight as they normally would." Percy chuckled. "I took the basis of a nutrition potion, which makes it easier for the drinker to absorb food, and added a little troll fat which made the potion absorb fat particularly over other vitamins."
Harry's eyebrows rose. "So anyone who drank this would become fat?"
"Yup! And I even added a bonus, a very strong laxative element that will cause all the absorbed fat to upset the stomach and force the drinker to...well, you know. This way they grow fatter and poop more, an endless cycle of pain!" Percy chuckled evilly as he stirred the potion.
Harry shivered. "You're scary."
Percy laughed. "MWAHAHAHA! I know!"
Harry looked at the potion. "So...uh, why are you making this in the first place?"
"Well I figured since Dudley is such an asshole, we might as well make his asshole work out a bit."
"You made this for Dudley?!"
"Yup! The little douche has been bothering me for a bit, even told on me to his mom, so now she's bothering me as well. So I figured I might as well get a little revenge, also after I heard how they treat you I figured you would want in on this as well."
Harry looked warily between Percy and the potion. He gulped. "H-how long does it work?"
"Depends." Percy raised an eyebrow. "How long do you want him to suffer?"
"A day?"
Percy raised an eyebrow at this and Harry blushed. "Okay fine...a week."
Percy nodded. "Now you're talking." Percy grabbed a vial of green juice and poured it in causing the potion to suddenly stop boiling and settle down.
Percy flicked his wand and the potion filled itself into several glass vials Percy had on hand. The demigod vanished the rest of the potion while handing Harry a single vial. "Think you can slip this into Dudley's lunch?"
"Yup." Harry grinned evilly as he shook the green potion. "I make all their food."
"Good." Percy grinned. "That little shit won't know what hit him! Oh, and if you have a camera you should take a photo!"
"No, I think if they see I had a camera on hand they would suspect me. Plus, I don't really have a camera."
"Hmm, well either way good luck Harry, and tell me what happened. I'm basically stuck here until my aunt comes back, and I'm already bored out of my mind!"
Harry huffed. "I can understand that. Usually, during summer I stay at the Dursley's and I don't have much to do. The chores keep me busy, but other than that I don't really do much."
Percy hummed. "Well if you ever feel bored or something, come and see me. Maybe we can do something together. Plus you still have to tell me about Hogwarts."
Harry smiled and nodded. "All right, I promise."
Percy grinned. "You know what Mr. Potter? I believe this might be the start of a beautiful friendship."
Harry grinned back. "I think so too Mr. Jackson."