Perissa Trotter and the Game of Truths

Chapter 7: I Exchange Confessions with a Creepy Demigod.

The next day I was moved to House Four. I immediately entered and noticed the contrast to the Nicholas House. The Common Room was literally covered in green. Everyone seemed to have plants literally growing at their feet. I was greeted by the Head Prefect, a girl named Saylor Twift with literal flowers coming out of her hair.

"Saylor, this is your new housemate, Perissa," introduced Chiron. I'm glad he was there, Saylor looked about the same age as Demetrius, around seventeen and I wasn't really that good with older kids. All I did was wave nervously at her. She smiled back.

"So it's Perissa, is it? Viognier pronounces all our names wrong," she chuckled. "Anyhow, welcome to House Four, not as big as House Eleven I'll grant..."

"...Unless you count the plants..." I thought.

"...but it gets the job done. You see, we Chlorella folks are really much of a fighting force. Mostly we just grow our plants either here or out in the garden. Come on, I'll show you!"

"I'll leave you to your botanic extravaganza," Chiron replied. "Take care of her, Saylor."

I gave him a "no, please stay" glance but he had that sense of urgency again so he had to go.

The gardens were outstanding! Breath-taking rows of trees, bushes, flowers and shrubs of all kind underneath a glass dome. They were just outside of the Common Room and gave a marvellous view of the outside, or was it the outside that gave the marvellous view of the inside? It was hard to tell.

A few students were out tending and watering their patches. It worked sort of like an allotment, where every student had a two by fifteen patch to overload with myriads of beautiful creations.

"Of course, it's never enough," explained Saylor. "That's why we raid the Common Room. Come on, I'll show you my place."

Saylor lead me to one patch that was particularly well looked after and not over boarded with pumpkins. In fact some patches were empty and the soil looked better treated.

"Since I became Head Prefect I've been trying to maintain order even in my part of the garden. I'm trying to show the example of not fighting and working together, like the raspberries leaving a clear path for the geraniums (took a long time to make that happen). That's what Chlorella is all about. Here, as you won't get a patch until next year you can share mine. Try growing something over here."

"Me?" I mumbled. "I've never done much gardening in my life!" I confessed.

Saylor raised an eyebrow. Looking back, that was probably the stupidest thing I could have said. The truth was that Uncle Hubert and Aunt Prudence never let me near the garden. I wonder if they knew I was Chlorella's daughter. Not even the Sorting Hat knew for certain and the Sorting Hat was supposed to know all the time! Luckily Saylor didn't buy it and left me some space to do my thing.

"Just concentrate of what you want to create, touch the ground once and it should grow," she called.

So I did. I imagined my favourite flower, the caceolaria and touch the ground once to see if it worked. Nothing happened.

I tried again and again and again, but still I looked upon a patch of bare soil. I was just about giving up when Saylor came and patted my shoulder.

"Hmm... I'll admit this has never happened before, must be the nerves. We'll come back tomo..."

That's when it happened. I suddenly felt a surge of energy from inside me growing to fill my body. Once again, I touched the ground and tried again. This time tiny green buds emerged around my fingers growing to full size within seconds until, surely enough I had created blue flowers among Saylor Twift's patch.

"There!" I said satisfied. "How was that, Say..."

As I turned around my voice failed me. The Head Prefect was sprawled on the floor unconscious.

Ω            Ω          Ω

I was back in the medical room before I knew it. At least I wasn't being treated this time. Madam Mudge the daughter of Paean was eying me down at regular intervals when she could spare a moment. I would not like to be on the receiving end of that for too long.

Actually, she could have been looking at that Athena boy behind me. He seemed to be staring at me too as if I were some failed experiment of his.

"You know, you could just say hello, right?" I blurted at him when it got too annoying. Seriously, everyone seemed to have a staring problem at Hogwarts. That seemed to pull him out of some sort of trance. Get this; he rubbed his eyes before he spoke to me.

"Sorry, I have a habit of doing that when I find something interesting," he replied (what kind of response was that?)

"Something interesting?" I repeated incredulous.

"Or someone," he clarified.

I hardly knew what to say. "You find me... interesting?" I asked him.

"Yes," he smiled back, then realised he was creeping me out. "Sorry, I don't mean it in an intruding sort of way. I have that effect on people." He sighed. "Oh well, we children of Rowena get used to being misinterpreted."

He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Lysander Morhange," he announced. We shook hands.

"Perissa Trotter," I replied.

"Oh, it's Perissa!" he said. "I knew Viognier made a mistake. He pronounces everyone's name wrong. Well, except mine."

"Yeah, it sounds French," I agreed. "But there again, he doesn't."

Lysander laughed at that. "Well, unlike him my dad's actually French. I'll tell you a secret: my middle name's Étienne, like my father. If I told Viognier he'd never leave me alone."

I was starting to like this guy. He was a creep, but a nice creep nonetheless. I still however had no idea what he was doing in the medical room all the time, so I asked him.

"I'm not sure. It's a strange hobby for a Rowena child, but sometimes Madam Mudge here needs an assistant.

"I do not!" she interjected before resuming working on Saylor.

"You and your sister here are very interesting," he commented. It felt weird having Saylor be called my sister but I didn't comment on that. "She heals like a Chlorella child would, recover internal strength to grow on the outside. But you... from that sea incident... you should have been in bed for hours not thirty minutes."

He came closer to me. "Perissa, this could be important" he urged. "Was there anything usual in your attacking incident?"

I didn't know how to respond. Everything had been unusual. So I told him everything, from the Minotaur vaporising Donald to the driving to the crash and even that odd sea chariot before I blacked out.

Lysander gasped. "It's happened!" he cried. He then grabbed my wrist and tugged me out of the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To Chiron!" he smiled back. "Oh my gods, it's finally happened!"

Well met Lords and Ladies. Sorry that took FOREVER (GCSEs, what can I say?). I hoped to get a long chapter out of this and I certainly succeeded. As usual comment some gods names and I'll hopefulyl update sooner. And Mildred is carrying on as well.