Percy Jackson X Harry Potter

SIX: Magic Sticks and Muggle Schools

Percy's POV

'SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S a school for wizards, which is one of the most famous throughout the wizarding world, and they called it Hogshorts?!'

Percy's sarcasm had earned him the nickname Persassy, and Percy had to admit that it fitted perfectly with his amazing percy-nality.

'Hogwarts, Percy. Hogwarts!' Harry laughed.

Percy snorted. 'Sounds like a disease. So what, you put on pointy black hats and wave around sticks hoping something's gonna happen?' He wiggled his finger in the air, miming his words.

'Not... exactly. We own pointed hats, but we wore them once in my first year, and then never again. So I don't know why the school made us buy them.'

'And the sticks?'

'They're not sticks, Percy. They're wands. They channel the magic from the witch or wizard and allow them to do spells and stuff. Ya know, harness it. That's the best explanation I could give to someone who knows little to nothing about the Wizarding World. But we're not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts until we're eighteen.'

'Okay, so where's your wand?'

'Right here.' Harry pulled out his wand from inside his jacket. 'Usually, we keep them inside our school robes, but since I'm not wearing them. I had to improvise. My friend's mum sewed a pocket inside this jacket.'

Percy studied Harry's wand. 'But why do you have a pocket inside your jacket to put your wand in? Weren't you just telling me you can't use magic outside school?'

'It's just in case I get into some sort of life-and-death situation.' He placed his wand back into the pocket. 'Sometimes – very, very rarely – you will be forgiven, if magic was absolutely necessary in order to save your own life.'

'Okay. It still looks like a stick to me.'

'That's only the design. Every wand is different. Well, most of them.'

'What do you mean?' Percy perked up at the mysterious comment.

'My wand has a phoenix feather core, but the phoenix it came from gave a second feather. That feather is in the wand of the guy who killed our parents, Percy.'

'Oh...' Percy was silent for a few seconds. 'That's not ominous at all. What a coincidence, I guess. Who even was that guy, anyways? He blew up our front door! Like, rude!'

'He is an evil wizard who disappeared after he tried killing us. His spell rebounded. His name is cursed – according to Hagrid, at least. It's considered taboo to say it out loud.' Harry took a breath and pushed his glasses up.

'I don't want to get captured by anyone, so just to be safe... His– his name was...'

Harry shut his mouth. Voldemort, he sent through the link.

Percy was confused. 'Weird name. I mean, if you're gonna be an evil wizard, at least have a scary name. Like, Vo– that doesn't do it for me.'

'I guess. But morte is "dead" in French, so it makes sense.' Harry stated. 'He literally looks like a corpse.'

'How do you even know that?'

'Know how he looks like a corpse?'

'That morte means "dead" in French. You said it like it was obvious! I don't speak French, nor am I smart, nor do I know what "nor" means. I just use it to sound smart, which I've already told you – I'm not.' he ranted.

'Did you not learn French in normal school? I did for the time I went to my old muggle school, though I wasn't very good.'

'Nope. I know two things in French: Je m'appelle Percy and Mes cousins sont les meilleurs et je suis inférieur. That's the extent of my abilities.'

He suppressed a laugh at Percy speaking French with an American accent. 'What does the second one mean, Percy?'

'It's a line from my girlfriend's favourite poem. By Shakespeare.'

'Percy, it's not Shakespere. And it's not a poem. From what I can tell, that means, "My cousins are the best and I am inferior".'

His brother's face was nothing if not murderous. 'It means what?'

'Yeah. Whoever told you this duped you. Shakespeare wasn't even French.'

'I wondered why all the Cabin 10 kids were laughing at me. I am going to have words with Thalia and Nico when I get back.'

'Who are they?'

'My cousins. Ah- No, our cousins. We all go to the same summer camp in New York.'

'We have other cousins?!'

'Too many. I'll tell you later.'

'So, speaking of New York, what's been going on with you?' Harry said. 'I don't think you would've gone to Ilvermorny, but-'

'What's Ilvermorny?'

'An American wizarding school in Massachusetts. Not as good as Hogwarts in most peoples' opinions, but it's decent. The houses are called Wampus, Pukwudgie, Horned Serpent and Thunderbird. They're a bit dramatic.' he added at the end.

Percy snorted. 'Wow, those houses are weird. I mean, what worse names could you think of than things like Pukwudgie and Horny Serpent?'

Harry chuckled and continued, 'Anyway, you definitely didn't go to Ilvermorny, so do you go to a public school?'

Percy sagged at the mention of school. 'Yeah, it's called Goode High School. My stepdad is an English teacher there. He had to pull some strings to get me in, though. I almost got expelled from Goode before I was even a student there.'

'You what?'

'Yeah, I blew up the band room.' Percy said. 'It's a normal occurrence. I'm a natural at blowing things up, especially in my other six schools.'

Harry's eyes were so wide, he was afraid they'd pop out of their sockets. 'Six?!'

Percy cackled. 'Got expelled from them, too.'

Harry must have looked dumbfounded, because Percy burst out laughing at his expression.

'Yeah, my ADHD and dyslexia makes it hard to get grades above C's and D's. Highest I've gotten is a B+, but that was in our Greek Mythology unit in History.' Percy simpered at the topic.

'Oh, right. I might have mild dyslexia, since sometimes I misread my textbooks a little bit – must be why I'm so awful at Potions – but it's never more than one or two words.' Harry shared. At least it wasn't too bad.

'So, do you like Greek Mythology? You said it was your best subject.' Harry said.

Percy seemed to go through an entire emotional rollercoaster within a second. His eyes lit up and he sat up straight. Then he slouched, as if he'd had a sudden realisation. 'Yeah, it's been my favourite unit for years. Been interested in it since I was twelve.'

His brother grimaced. 'Actually, umm... we need to talk.'

Harry felt his brow crease. 'Wh- What do you mean?'

Percy took a deep breath. This was going to take a while.