Percy Jackson and the Hound of Hogwarts [Book 3]

6) Working with Books

Apparently, when the Minster had talked to Luke, he'd asked if we could stay.

Not just me. If Luke could also stay at the Leaky Cauldron with Harry.

Fudge was scared.

That's how I found myself staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of my summer break. I stayed in room 11 with Harry, and he asked me what I was doing, staying there.

He was a bit confused about why Fudge was so worried.

Luke still went to work, but when he came back to the Leaky Cauldron, he'd hang out with me. It was awesome.

We spent a lot of time exploring Diagon Alley. There was so much cool stuff. An enchanted razor (Luke said I'd probably never need it), a lunascope, and a winged catapult were just a few of the things that caught my eye.

One thing that caught Harry's eye was the newest broom.

I stood back, letting Harry stare at the broom. My broom, Arion, was made by Hecate herself. It granted me safe passage into the sky, even when Zeus was mad. It was also named after the fastest horse alive.

Harry walked away from the broom, looking sad. He didn't say a word to me on the way back to the Leaky Cauldron.

I knew he didn't think he should buy it. Every day, he'd go back to see it.

Harry and I eventually knew we had to get our school supplies. We replenished on potion supplies, which I got some extra. Potions has always been my favorite subject. It's come naturally to me since the beginning. We also had to go to Madam Malkin's. My robes had so many holes and patches in them that I had to get new ones every year. Harry's were a few inches too short. We also had to get our new school books. There were the normal ones, then there were the ones for our extra classes. A manager walked up to us, "Hogwarts? Come to get your new books?"

"Yes," Harry said, "we need—"

"Get out of the way," he said rudely, brushing past us.

He walked up to a cage filled with very angry looking books.

I grinned, "Can I get mine?!?"

The man turned to look at me with surprise on his face, "What?"

"I wanna get my copy. Gimme the stick."

The man didn't argue. He handed me the stick, and a pair of gloves that were a bit too big for me.

I walked up to the cage, and said in Greek, "Hello, books."

Immediately, the calmed down. I frowned, "Aw, that's boring. Harry has a copy of one of you. Tied up with a belt. Quite rude, in my opinion."

The books nodded in agreement, and I could hear the manager sputtering while Harry snickered.

"Now, I need one of you guys for school. So, who wants to go with me?" I asked, looking at the books.

They all started flapping up and down excitedly.

I frowned, "I can only take one of you. Are any of you in Greek?"

None of them flapped.

"Oh. Well, you guys should get to decide. It wouldn't exactly be fair if I picked, would it?" The books started flapping again, then looked at each-other. Eventually, one that had a different color cover flopped up to me.

"Hello! Why are you white?" I picked up the book, and examined it.

The manager looked confused, and I shrugged.