When the Wizards come calling

Chapter 6 - Divorced, Beheaded, Vaporised

PERCY

Despite seeing it on TV a million times over, I still couldn't quite get my head around how massive London was. It just kept going, sprawling over miles and miles in every direction. Skyscrapers dotted the skyline, modern and gleaming as sunlight bounced off the glass panels. Equally, buildings like movie sets lined the streets, a combination of Victorian, Georgian, even Tudor architecture mixing with todays. I knew that some of these buildings were older than the USA itself, straw roofs sturdy enough to survive centuries of the elements, pillars that had seen countless wars. I wasn't particularly one to stop and admire the sights, but even I had to admit that this was a pretty dam cool city, full of history different to the Greek and Roman I knew. 

Annabeth was practically vibrating as she led me down the street, careful to stay on the pavement so we didn't get our trainers wet in the puddles on the roads. On every street corner, a different performer enchanted the crowds, magicians and singers and saxophonists and dance troupes, and street markets with sweets and jewellery and all manner of trinkets swallowed every path.

I didn't think Annabeth's mouth had stopped moving since we came out of St. Paul's Cathedral, where we had shadow travelled in from New York. Every building that piqued my interest, she was seemingly in love with, nearly exploding with dates and fun facts and architectural complexities that went straight over my head. I didn't mind. I was happy to just listen to her voice and enjoy the first time we had alone together in a while.

We both wore baseball caps low on our brows and dark sunglasses to block the rare sun falling on our faces, as well as to keep our identities private from the tourists all around us. We wanted time to stop being King Jackson and Queen Chase and just be Percy and Annabeth again, like we were before we became Gods.

I wouldn't say I was ungrateful for the magical upgrade - the ability to pretty much do what we wanted was incredibly freeing, and we were able to do more to help the demigods than I thought would ever be possible. But it formalized our relationships, and put the pressure of looking after the world on the shoulders of a load of teenagers who really didn't know how to deal with it. As much as people praised us for our quests, it was more of an accident than true skill, and luck was on our side more times than I could count. Additionally, none of us had any idea how to deal with alliances or legalities or any kind of global politics. It all just felt so incredibly sudden.

All of this meant Annabeth and I hadn't had a whole lot of time to just be together, so when Piper pulled me aside and offered to buy our magic school supplies in order to let Annabeth show me around the city she'd been staying in, I jumped at the offer. So now, while the rest of the Olympians were down Diagon Alley  with Neville buying cauldrons and and broomsticks, we were here.

I checked my watch.

'Hey, Annie, what time do we have to be back for again?'

I earned a slap on the arm for the nickname, but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

'Four, why?'

'It's quarter past four.'

'Oh schist.' She muttered. 'Can you vapor travel us there? We need to get our wands before Ollivander's closes, and that's in fifteen minutes.'

'I sure can.'

We ducked into an alley behind a dumpster and I let the bubbles in my chest cover my body, careful to keep a strong grip on Annabeth's arm as water vapor consumed us. What felt like milliseconds later, we were tucked behind a shelf in Ollivander's wand shop, legs akimbo and faces just a little closer together than was really appropriate. We corrected ourselves rapidly, scarlet flush covering both of our cheeks as we stood.

Ollivander was waiting for us at the front of the shop, a smile curving his wizened (he he) features. Two wand boxes sat on the desk next to him, one glimmering silver and the other deep turquoise.

'You knew we were coming, then?' Annabeth didn't sound at all surprised.

'Lady Piper let me know you'd be, uh, dropping by. So I took the liberty of having your wands ready for you.' He turned and carefully lifted both boxes from the table, and held them out to us.

'King Perseus, Pegasus was kind enough to gift me a hair from his mane for your wand. The shaft is made of Willow, due to it's flexibility, and there are strands of seaweed in there too. It's thirteen inches. Powerful. I trust you to use it well.' His eyes focused on mine for a moment, before turning to Annabeth.

'Queen Annabeth, your wand's core is owl feather, and the shaft is silver birch. Twelve and a half inches. It's affinity is for precision. That wand requires an intelligent witch. Hence why I gave it to you.'

'Thank you.' She replied, reaching into her bag. Ollivander stopped her.

'If you're going for payment, there's no need, my dear. Your friend dealt with that ahead of time.'

'Oh brilliant. Thank you.' She smiled gratefully at him. 'Do you have any idea where they might have gone?'

'I think I heard something about ice cream as they were leaving?' He offered.

'Perfect, thank you.' She swung her bag over her shoulder, grabbing my wrist and tugging me towards the door.

'Have a good day-' The last of Ollivander's sentence was lost on me as the door fell shut behind us, drowned out by the bustle of the busy street. We lost our sunglasses and pulled the lips of our caps lower over our faces, aware that we were as well known in the wizarding world as in the mortal one.

'Ice cream..' Annabeth mused. 'I think Neville said that there was some sort of ice cream parlor up here somewhere. Flavi-something.. We'll find it.'

With that, we vanished into the flow of foot traffic to find our friends and discuss our next move.

Y'all happy?

I've updated.

See you in four months.

OK I'm joking, I'll probably update before then. And I wrote a longer one than usual as an apology, and as a celebration of 90k on The New Immortals. 1000 words, woo!

As always, give me ideas, opinions, feedback in the comments. You can be funny sometimes too, so keep that up. 

See you soon!

Maybe.