Intertwined || Percabeth Hogwarts AU

Chapter 73

Hogwarts

The next DADA period was supposed to have been for dueling.

But to everyone's surprise and disappointment, the room was still set up with their desks in line. Professor Chiron announced that he'd be canceling dueling for the week and had them take their seats. The students' collective grumble was palpable.

Percy sat next to Annabeth and slowly took out his parchment. Chiron didn't dally; he flipped through a tome — a rustic brown thing that had to be at least a few hundred years old.

Chiron rolled his wheelchair to the side of the blackboard, the rusty tome floating along in front of him, and wrote with a spelled chalk: The Amulets of Omphalos. Reading those words sent a funny little tingle through his brain, as if they were familiar. He couldn't explain it.

"I've decided to make some changes to our syllabus," Chiron said, a little monotone but completely serious. "Traditional knowledge can be consumed at any time, and I feel it's my duty as your professor to bring up things no one else will talk about when you're out in the real world. So for the next few weeks, we'll be discussing a couple of new topics. To begin with, the Amulets of Omphalos."

There was that funny tingle again.

Annabeth looked at him and raised her eyebrows to ask, You know what those are? And he shook his head no, but had to smile. Growing up, it was always the other way around when it came to academic topics so he felt a little proud to be in her shoes for once. Even if it was just one subject.

Percy's brows drew when he focused on Chiron again; it made no sense to start learning about whatever those things were when they'd last been discussing manticores. He thumbed at his necklace and watched as Chiron drew images of these amulets.

"There are three known to be in existence. Existence is actually a strong word. For the longest time, these amulets were thought to have been just a myth. But there are... believers still around today who, well, believe that these artifacts can be found."

Chiron pointed at each image. "These are the amulets of Tharros, Shakti, and Sofia."

Another tingle.

"Elven in craft, imbued with the magic of both Merlin and the elves; they are the greatest artifact known to man. Most scriptures detailing them are... lost. From what the school has been generous enough to provide for my personal research, I've discovered a few properties of each amulet. These are, of course, simple speculation, nothing concrete as no amulet has ever been... properly studied." 



So why were they learning about it? Percy looked around and saw equally confused expressions on his classmates.

"We'll start with the Shakti." Chiron sounded tired as he waved his wand to circle the leftmost amulet. "Before I get into specifics, I want to revisit the fundamentals. Imbuing magic in concept is relatively simple. We all do it on a daily basis. When we use our wands, we imbue the magic in our bodies into the instrument and bring it out into the open. Imbuing magic, among other things, however, into an artifact is slightly more tricky."

For once, time passed by slowly in DADA as Chiron taught them about these amulets—their makings and little known about their specifics, but especially the Shakti. Chiron seemed to know about that one the most. This was all objectively interesting, but Percy couldn't help but think something was amiss.

Annabeth nudged him lightly. "You okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah."

He kept his shoulder pressed against hers for the rest of class.

A few minutes to the end, he had about two and a half feet worth of notes, and it was only the first day covering this topic. Most of which was postulation apparently.

Chiron put wand down and turned to face them. His expression was tight and he was no less imposing in a wheelchair.

"Students," he began. "I have told you this from the very first day you entered my classroom. Magic is first and foremost a weapon. It is a beautiful form of expression when used correctly, but it is so easy to fall into darkness with it."

Chiron remained silent for a little while.

Katie spoke up, slowly asking, "What do you mean, Professor?"

Chiron looked at her and blinked a few times before continuing. "These amulets are the biggest predilection of dark and cursed magic; when united, they form a weapon in the sense of changing one's magic to quite possibly the most vile form imaginable. It is believed to be called Soul Reaping magic. I will be getting into that next time."

Soul reaping, Percy thought with a sudden tenseness. That wasn't at all ominous.

"You've spoken quite knowingly about them," Octavian's snooty voice interrupted. "Are you a believer, Professor?"

His tone was mocking. Couldn't that blithering idiot read the room?

Chiron's gaze grew cold and the young Slytherin boy squirmed in his seat. With his kind, understanding nature, it was easy to forget that their Professor had once been an Auror. A deadly one at that; Percy heard that Chiron was once called The Archer.

"I am indeed." Chiron folded his arms over his lap and Percy spied him gripping tight at the blanket over his legs. With a snap of his fingers, a thick bundle of papers appeared over every student's desk. "I've made copies of the text for you all. You are responsible for memorizing, learning, and understanding every bit of information I give you. There is quite a bit of material so I will be holding an exam on everything we talk about in these few weeks after the winter break. Should you decide to share these pages with anyone outside of this room, they will burn up on the spot. You will not be receiving a second copy. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Professor," the class echoed.

"Dismissed."

Under their table, Annabeth slid her fingers through his and squeezed. He squeezed back.

That was the most serious Chiron had ever been with them. And they weren't allowed to share these pages? A school textbook? That was... odd. There was more to this. More to these amulets. And he couldn't shake the feeling that Chiron wasn't telling them something.

How near had the storm drawn?