The Distance Between Us

Off to Live With Wizards

12 Grimmauld Place, London, England

Percy decided that apparating was by far the worst way to travel. After gathering their trunks and walking just outside the border of Camp Half Blood, Thalia, Percy, and Nico had been instructed to grab Dumbledore's arm. They had immediately been transported to England, which was sort of cool, but it felt like being sucked through a tube by someone with asthma and then spat back onto the ground.

1/5 Stars, Percy thought, as he threw up what was left of last night's dinner into some poor person's hydrangeas. Would not recommend.

"Are you quite alright?" Dumbledore asked, touching Percy's shoulder lightly but jerking his hand away when Percy wretched again.

"I'll be fine." Percy responded, sitting back on his heels and staring lamely at the sky.

"What happened to 12?" Thalia asked, and Percy turned his head to look at the houses. He had been puking in the bushes of 13, and past that he saw an empty plot of land, then number 11.

"It's there," Dumbledore said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Thalia.

"Yeah, I can't read that." She said after barely half a second.

"Why not?" Asked Dumbledore, bringing it in front his face. "I can read it perfectly fine."

"I'm dyslexic and so are Percy and Nico. We won't be able to read most everything you give us."

"You're dyslexic too?" Harry asked, looking surprised. "There's a really easy spell to make things readable. Hermione found it in my first year." Harry touched his wand to the paper and Thalia let out a low curse.

"You'll have to teach that to me." She said, and then she cursed again, this time louder. "Where  did that come from?"

"Where did what come from?" Nico asked trying to gain the same vantage point as her by standing at her side.

"Number 12!" She said, gesturing wildly at what appeared to Percy to be a still empty plot of land.

"Uh, Thalia?" Percy asked, finally getting to his feet from near the hydrangeas, where he had been previously distracted trying to arrange them so it looked like there was nothing but flowers "There's still nothing there."

Her eyes widened and she grabbed their arms, dragging them back to Dumbledore. "Read the paper."

"Thalia, I don't understand how this will do anything to make a building appear, but I'm offering you suspension of disbelief." Nico grumbled, as he bent his head to read it. It took him ten seconds, but he finally moved so that Percy could read. For some reason, he was blushing and staring forcefully at the ground.

Percy read it with relative ease, and when he looked back up, a house identical to the ones next to it appeared right where the empty space had been moments before. (It also squashed 13's hydrangeas, which Percy found ironic.)

"Whoa, Nico," Percy said, wrapping in arm around Nico's shoulders, which only served to darken Nico's blush. "Look at that! Now that is some magic."

"I can't read English." He said, quietly enough that only Percy would be able to hear him. "I lived in Italy until I was 10 and even my spoken English was rusty then. After we moved to Las Vegas, my English improved greatly, but part of what I liked about the place was that everything was in Italian and English so I never bothered even trying to read the English. Telling people I was dyslexic helped me breeze through the rest of my life up until this point. The military academy, running from the military academy, camp, running from camp. It even helped me when I was ordering at McDonald's. Now, with that spell to make things readable that worked for both you and Thalia, I can't lie anymore." Percy looked at him, and studied his face, noticing how sad he looked, realizing that this was going to be a real issue. Percy activated Serious Percy Mode™️.