Strange Teachers

Chapter 18

—Percy—

After trying for a week to turn my little sorta-cousin into a human boy, we resorted to asking the wizards for help.

Right now, we were in the Room of Requirement in a kind of library form. All of the walls were lined with books from top to bottom, all of them about animal transfiguration or spells and potions to reverse magic. Hermione was trying one thing after another and had been for an hour or so while the others took turns researching.

"Finite transformatio." Nothing.

"Well, that's it for Magical Troubleshooting for the Average Oaf," Harry said, reaching for the next book in the pile beside him. His hand fell on a textbook with frayed pages, but a new-looking cover, which seemed weird to me. "Advanced potion-making." He opened it and froze. "Whoa, I haven't seen this in years. Guys, this is Snape's potions book."

"Really? Didn't you leave that in the other version of the Room?" Ron asked.

"I did. The Room must've sensed that we needed it. Maybe there's something useful inside of it," Harry theorized.

He paged through it, stopping occasionally to mutter something before continuing his search. Eventually, his eyes stopped on a page towards the end of the book.

"Would this work—the atavism potion?"

"Maybe," Ginny said, "but it takes ten weeks to make. That's about mid-February."

"It couldn't hurt," I told her. "We've tried most other things and it sounds pretty powerful."

"It is," Harry was reading the description of the recipe. "It's used as medicine against dark magic sometimes; it's just bloody hard and long to make."

"That won't be a problem for 'Mione, though," Ron put in. "What with our activities in second year."

"What did you do in second year?" Annabeth asked.

So they told us all about the drama with the Chamber of Secrets, Polyjuice-aided spying, and a million other things. They actually ended up talking well into the night about all of our adventures while getting started on the potion. At some point, Ron had gone with Hermione to get some of the ingredients that the Room couldn't provide, and they'd come back right after.

"Bad news, everyone," Hermione said as soon as the door had closed behind them. "There's no more mandrake root in Slughorn's store cupboard, so we'll have to wait for the second-year's ones to grow before we can finish the potion. They usually are mature by the end of March, and the potion needs to brew for at least a month after we add the root, so it should be done by May."

"That's a while," I pointed out. I turned to Nico, who was laid down on an armchair. "Hope you don't mind being in our wedding as a bear cub, Nico."

"You have a date?" Ginny asked my fiancée.

"Yeah, the wedding is the second day of the Easter holidays and we'll be on honeymoon in a private cabin at camp for the rest of the week. Actually," she reached a hand into the bag that she'd brought with her for books, "I almost forgot to give you this."

The red-head looked down at the green and bronze invitation in her hands in surprise.

"We're invited?"

"Yes, you all are. You'll be coming with us to Camp Half-Blood in the spring."

"But why?" Ron asked us.

"First, you figured out our secret; second, you were willing to help us; three, I think we're pretty close at this point," I answered.

"Thank you so much!" Ginny said. "It'll be so cool to go to Camp."

"You can't show any of our friends your magic, though, because we only told our closest friends about this school," Annabeth warned.

"Don't worry, we'll be on our best super-secretive behaviour," Hermione assured us. Her glare was then directed at the two other boys in the room. "Won't we?"

"Yes, of course we will," her boyfriend said, obviously oblivious. "Why are you looking at us like that?" Hermione shook her head.

Annabeth's phone must've vibrated in her pocket, because she took it out and read a text.

"It's past curfew; you'd better get back to your dorms," she told the teens. Then, to me: "And Pipes wants to talk wedding planning."

— - — - —

Once we got back to our common room, Annabeth and I changed into pyjamas and sat on the bed with the wedding plan binder and a few different kinds of candy. I sighed in an exaggerated and joking way.

"Wedding planning, here we come."

"Oh, you don't have to be so sarcastic about it. Let's call Pipes."

Three rings of the phone later, Piper's name was on the screen and her voice was coming through the speaker. She was always a part of the planning, partly because of Annabeth not liking all of the stereotypical bride hype, and partly because she's her best friend apart from Thalia, who would definitely not appreciate having to do any more than plan the bachelorette party.

"So, recapping what we already decided," Pipes started. "Colours are sea green and bronze, we have the dress from shopping a few weeks ago, still have to figure out food, cake, specific decorations, and who exactly is doing what in the wedding. Why don't we start with that last one?"

"Sure. My maid of honour is Thalia—she's agreed to be there for both days—; my bridesmaids are you, Hazel, and Reyna. Oh, and Estelle is our flower girl. Percy?"

"I guess my groomsmen would be Frank, Nico, and Leo. My best man is obviously Grover. Wait, if Chiron's walking you down the aisle, who's officiating?"

"Oh, how about we ask Rachel?" Annabeth suggested after a pause. "She could get ordained, and she already has mythological power."

"Sounds good. Now cake," Pipes continued. "The nymphs said that they'll make anything you ask for within reason."

"Chocolate all the way."

"I don't know, Percy, I sort of think we should go for something less traditional. What about New York style cheesecake?"

"Okay, but if we do that, it needs to be chocolate cheesecake."

Annabeth chuckled lightly while shaking her head.

"I'm okay with that."