Demigods at Hogwarts | the rescue mission ✔

9| Praetor Pea-Brain

Leo's POV 

"American schools have much less discipline," I groaned, struggling to carry the huge stack of textbooks that had been given to us yesterday while trying to keep up with my friends. "I like American schools."

Breakfast had ended, and we were making our way to Charms. Every now and then a teacher would emerge from a classroom and yell for us to speed up, and it was really getting on my nerves.

"Stop whining, Leo," said Piper, who had actually brushed her hair, supposedly to make a good impression on her new teachers and classmates. "Charms should be interesting."

"As interesting as Defence Against the Dark Arts? I don't think so," said Jason doubtfully, putting on his spectacles, which he had wisely chosen to bring because of the swooning girls in their year.

I sighed. As a victim of ADHD, I found it painfully hard to concentrate, unless it was something involving mechanics and engineering. My heart ached to get back to Bunker 9 and program and reprogram Buford to shoot fireballs or something. "How many more lessons do we have left?"

Piper shushed me loudly as we turned the corner and walked into the classroom. It was pretty big, with three rows of chairs set up in the middle of the room. Two blackboards flanked the teacher's table, and there was a pair of windows behind the table, letting in rays of sunlight.

Standing on a tall stack of books in front of the teacher's desk was the shortest man I had ever seen, wearing a cloak (the standard uniform of wizards) and a bow tie. He had spectacles similar to Jason's, and a dark brown moustache. He was trying to get the class into order, and was failing miserably.

"Mr Dixel, will you please stop levitating Miss Mason's desk? Miss Jones, how many times do I have to tell you—MR SMITH, CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY THERE ARE FIREWORKS IN THE CLASSROOM!" The man was squeaking in rather small, pitchy voice. It was kind of cute, actually.

"Uh, excuse me, sir?" Thalia suddenly piped up, sounding uncertain. "Where do we sit?"

The man turned to them immediately, his face brightening. "You must be American exchange students! Welcome, welcome. You might as well sit in the front, it's empty." Indeed, all the students had chosen to cram together at the back of the room. We hastily sat down.

"Silence!" boomed the man as we settled down (spoiler alert—it didn't really have much effect on anyone). "For those who don't know me, I am Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw house. We will be practising a simple charm today, Incendio. As you all know, it is the Fire-Making Spell, and I am certain that all of you are familiar with the wand movements." He beamed at the six of us. "I know that you might find it easy, but I would still like to access your ability at Charms."

All of my fellow demigods turned to stare at me. Uh-oh. Being able to conjure fire with my bare hands, I could lose control while trying to attempt to create fire the wizard way. The outcome could be a gigantic firestorm and a burning Hogwarts. Think, Leo, think.

After Professor Flitwick had explained everything and everyone else started to practice, I turned to the Professor. "Sir, I know how to summon fire without my wand," I said timidly.

Professor Flitwick sprung around, his eyes wide with interest behind his tiny spectacles. To my relief, he seemed to believe me. "Well, Mr Valdez, would you be kind enough to show me?" he said in a hushed voice.

I concentrated on lighting a small fire. I could feel all my friends watching me now. Before long, I had lit a fire in my palm, and it was blazing brightly.

"What in the wizarding world...?" muttered Flitwick, tiptoeing to get a clearer view. "Does it hurt? To summon fire like that?"

"Uh, no. In America, each student has his or her own elemental," I lied smoothly, my heart racing. I really, really hoped that telepathy wasn't a wizard power. "we are trained separately on the area we excel at, and I happen to be good at producing flames with my body. The professors have trained me to endure the burning of flames, so that my skin won't get singed." An essential skill of being a demigod was lying convincingly.

"Fascinating, Mr Valdez!" exclaimed Flitwick, sounding excited. His voice was higher than ever."Wait until the other teachers know you're flammable!"

"We prefer to keep it confidential," I said quickly, extinguishing the fire. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" My eyes darted around the room nervously, but nobody seemed to have notice our conversation. Everyone was too busy conjuring up tiny balls of flames using their wands.

A look of disappointment flashed across the professor's face, but it was replaced by newfound curiosity in a split second. "What about your friends? Do they have special powers?"

"Jason can control the winds, Nico can shadow-travel and Percy is Aquaman," I replied, trying to keep it simple. "Piper is really, really pretty, and Thalia..." I paused. It was kinda hard to explain how one of your friends was immortal and worked for a goddess. "Thalia's good at hunting, I guess. And fighting. That kind of stuff."

"Amazing," Flitwick murmured, presumably to himself. "American wizards can control wind and water and shadows. And what can our students do? They can only shoot a few spells!"

I slowly backed away as the awestruck teacher continued muttering to himself. Jason immediately walked towards me. "What did you just say to Mr Tinyman?" he said cautiously.

"Told him about our powers and stuff," I said lightly, shrugging. "No biggie."

"What?" Jason exploded, his eyes widening. "We're not supposed to tell anyone !"

"I didn't tell him everything," I said, shocked by Jason's sudden exclamation. "I said that our school trains us on elementals, etc. It wasn't even close to the truth!

"It's not safe, Leo," Jason hissed, leaning in until we were a few centimetres away from each other. "The secret could get out, you know how nosy these people are." He lowered his voice. "One of them tried to flirt with me in front of Piper."

"Uh, Jason?" I said, forcing back a chuckle. "That is not the definition of nosy." Sometimes the son of Jupiter could also be a pea-brain. No surprise, he was raised by a pack of wolves.

Jason glared daggers at me. "You know what I mean, Leo Valdez. If the secret gets out..."

"Chillax, it won't," I reassured him. "Everything's fine."

"It's not fine. This whole situation? It's the opposite of fine." Jason sounded incredibly stressed out. "Trust no one."

The praetor of Camp Jupiter made his way back across the room and back to Piper and the others. But his words never left my head.

  Trust no one.