The Huntsman of Hogwarts

A New World

Percy POV
The next three months passed quickly. Hecate sent a piece of her consciousness to teach me all about the wizarding world, a world that astounded me. As with all things, the Huntsmen knew of the wizarding world, but we've never actually been there. It was a strange place, where people capable of doing anything with a wave of their wand put up with an idiotic ruler.
It actually wasn't all that different from the mortal world.

The only thing I had a problem with was the age. Harry was in his second year of Hogwarts, which meant he was twelve years old. I was seventeen, which was the age of the seventh year students. Hecate gave me another one her potions to age me back, but it just felt wrong. I haven't been this young for thousands of years.

So there I stood at King's Cross Station in London, England, looking for platform 9 3/4. Go figure, it wasn't there. After wandering around between platforms 9 and 10, I saw several redheads running straight towards a wall with carts containing several suitcases and a cage for their owls.

That must be it. I ran after them through the wall, and ended up in a station that was easily twice as big as the one I'd left behind. There was a train sitting in the station labeled The Hogwarts Express. People wearing robes bustled around, taking no notice of me whatsoever.

I climbed onto the train, ignoring tearful parents saying goodbye to their kids, most who looked like they wished their parents would just go away. I walked down the isle to the right, and finally found an open seat box. I opened the door and settled into the corner, next to the window. Might as well get a bit of sleep on the ride, I though. Nothing much will happen.

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Hermione POV

Where'd those blasted idiots run off to now? Harry and Ron should be here by now. Did they get on the train without me? That was plausible. I decided to just hop on the train, the boys would catch up if they wanted to.

When I went on board, nearly all of the seating boxes were filled to capacity. I finally found one that didn't have anyone in it besides some boy who looked about my age with raven black hair, and he was asleep. Finally, I could get some studying done. Second year would likely be much harder than first, so much more studying would be necessary.

I sat down across from the dark-haired boy and pulled my charms book out from my bag. The boy didn't appear to have brought anything save a large duffel bag that didn't look near big enough to store his books and clothing.

I began reading the textbook. "Accio: this spell summons an object. Confundus: confuses opponent."

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Percy POV

I woke up the moment that the girl with half a million bags bustled into my nice, quiet box. Well, that was a nice five-minute nap.

But then she began reading off different charms.

I opened one eye. "Do you mind?"

She jumped in her seat. "Oh! I'm sorry, I thought you were asleep."

"Yeah, I was."

"What's with the accent?"

"If you'd ask me you're the one with an accent, but to answer I'm from the States."

"Why are you here?" I've known her for less than ten minutes and she was already questioning (and annoying) the crap out of me. This was almost as bad as that night with Nico outside the Hunters' camp.

I bit my tongue before saying something snide like I'm here to view the scenery on this magical train. "I'm here for the wizardry school. We don't have any good ones in America, they're all in Europe. I obviously speak English, so it was an easy choice over the school in Belgium or France."

"That makes sense. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. I would introduce you to my friends, but they decided not to show up."

"It's a shame about your friends. I'm Percy."

"Percy what?"

Shit. Of everything to prepare, I'd forgotten a last name. I actually didn't have a real one, and though I've used many fakes I couldn't risk one of them popping up in some record book somewhere. Time to think fast. I recognized Hermione's name from Greek mythology. It meant well born, or stone. A different Greek word for stone is líthos.

"Líthos. Percy Líthos."

"Blimey!" Hermione said.

"It's not that odd a name, my family is Greek."

"No, not your name." Hermione pointed out the window. "There's a flying car chasing the train!"

"Probably some idiot student that missed the train."

Hermione shook her head. "Oh, Harry and Ron, you wouldn't." Her shoulders sagged. "But they would."

"That's an awesome idea! Flying a car to school." Hermione gave me a look. "What? We are wizards in training, after all. What's the point if magic isn't creatively used?"

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Hermione POV

I had hoped that this Percy character would be better than Harry and Ron. That he wouldn't be yet another
rule-breaker that she had to put up with. Maybe American boys were taught decent etiquette. I was terribly wrong.

Some instinct told me Percy would get to be friends with those two boys, what with his marveling over their flying car. Which meant he'd hang out with me.

Why couldn't I find a single friend who was even halfway proper?