17. evils of schools, lavender roses, teeth whitening potions and hydrangeas

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By Potions class, Percy's shoulder aches with the book bag she had to carry all day through. There hadn't been a single free class for her because by some gods' blessing, she'd have to catch up five years of magical education in one year.

She lets herself collapse on the bench at the far back, her eyes falling shut as she rests her head on her crossed arms on the desk. Ten minutes of shut eye would do her great good but uneasiness pricks the back of her neck and she shifts in her less than comfortable position on the wooden desk.

Cursing the age old builders of the castle for making the most uncomfortable benches known to mankind, she sits up, running a hand through her hair. She religiously keeps her gaze on the book bag from which she retrieves her brand new Potions book. She feels several eyes on her.

"How was the day, Percy?"

She hears Harry before she sees him. The scuff of the floor with the way he tends to drag his feet too much and the pants of air that escapes him as if the weight of the world rests upon his shoulders.

"Ugh."

Fortunately, the bespectacled boy takes her unintelligible grunt with a chuckle, sliding down next to her. Hermione and Ron wave to her from two rows front.

"Not so good then?"

"Well, I don't know," her voice goes shriller at the rant they both know is coming. "I would prefer to not have five years worth of education dumped on me in one godsdamned day!"

Looking at him properly, she sees sympathy from the peer who survives the same hell. "You'll get used to it," he reassures him or atleast attempts to, seeing that he cringes at himself a beat later.

"That's not very reassuring," she mumbles.

"There's Hermione," he gives a triumphant grin like he had found the very answer of every question in the universe. "You can always ask her for help."

"That is reassuring," she returns the grin, pulling the notes of the previous years the brightest witch had provided her. "If not for her, it would have been the most humiliating day of my life." She shudders, horror overtaking her features. "Man, being asked questions in front of eleven year olds is as bad as I remember."

Harry laughs, his eyes crinkling around the corners. "Tell me about it, mate. I hated that—I mean, wouldn't we stand up if we knew the answer?" He wildly flails his hand toward the front. "Hermione would be right there, waving her hand—but no, the teachers would pick us, who wouldn't know shit!"

"Yeah, if they have put a system, they should follow it, don't they?" Percy agrees readily, the evils of school was a topic she was well versed in. "I swear to Hades, they do this to torment poor us."

"That they do." He nods sagely. "Merlin, you still haven't seen Snape."

"Isn't that my House Head?" She winces at her memory of the man.

Harry offers an emphatic nod.

"Yeah, I don't think we're gonna get along,"

"Don't worry, it's all part of the magical experience,"

"Being bullied by your teacher?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Yeah, sounds about right," more proof for her theory that mortal and magical schools are hardly different.

She hears Harry preparing for the class, the ink pot being placed on the table and parchments being ruffled.

She watches aimlessly around the classroom, the stares having left her since The-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Spill-Ink-On-His-Assignments-And-Curse-The-Heavens-Above had taken the seat beside him. She is entranced by the window that overlooks the courtyard and the Black Lake.

It's a truly beautiful thing with the glass painstakingly painted in vibrant colours to form a mesmerising image of a bouquet of flowers. She watches, hypnotised with the flowers enchanted to appear to be swaying gently to the breeze outside. It also seemed to be wilting lightly, yet still a resplendent collection of lavender roses and lush green leaves.

She's stopped from admiring any longer or to spare a glance at the figure below with the noise of the door opening.

The Potions teacher finally arrives. There isn't anything much to be told about the teacher, but apparently much less dramatic than the last one yet flamboyant as she overhears Padma Patil telling Lavender Brown.

Professor Slughorn is a pot-bellied old man with a seemingly ever present panic and horror in his eyes yet a blinding smile that belies it.

Percy blinks at the sudden brightness, convinced that there is a spell for whitening of teeth. She momentarily ponders introducing this to the Aphrodite and Apollo cabins before it is hurriedly squashed when the smile turns towards her again and she blinks at the abrupt change in the lighting.

He's saying something sort of a welcome back speech and she zones out, aware that it isn't for her and couldn't understand even if she tried to. She does listen enough to know that he's splitting everyone into pairs, giving them a potion to prepare and will be overseeing them from his chair where he would be enjoying his caramelised pineapples.

He knows. Professor Slughorn has been informed of her heritage. It is palpable in the way he rushes by her way, almost dropping the parchments in the process.

"Thank you, sir." Fear, anger, respect, she doesn't look at the Professor to figure out the emotions that play out in his face, she doesn't think she ever wants to know.

STATION 8, the parchment says. She walks with the others towards the adjoining room where stations are set up with the equipments for potion making ready to be used. She navigates to her station, dropping her bag haphazardly beside the desk and poking around the table.

The prospect of learning magic excites her as much as it did at first, even though she was more sceptical about the existence of it that time.

A harrumph sounds from her right as she almost drops an empty vial. The vial levitates by itself and floats to table neatly. She turns to find outstretched pale, long fingers and follows it to the unimpressed face of the Slytherin Prefect.

"Thank you,"

The boy nods and turns away.

She busies herself with her parchment, hiding a smile when she finds a teeth whitening potion. She turns again to the boy that doesn't seem to bother with her at all.

He had already started gathering the ingredients and was moving to start a fire under the cauldron. This close, she could see the sharp angles of his profile and the practiced deftness he moves his blade against the cutting board to chop a flower. She shifts from one foot to another, wincing at the scuff of her shoes.

He sighs, an exaggerated sound that prompts her to clear her throat pointedly. It isn't her fault that she didn't know shit about potion-making and it wouldn't hurt to teach her a thing or two.

With another put upon sigh, he gives a bunch of purplish flowers that she recognises as hydrangeas. It's with a sardonic raise of his eyebrow that he hands her the cutting knife, somehow managing to wordlessly mock her supposed ineptitude at handling a knife.

She knows he's rolling his eyes without lifting her gaze from the knife she holds. He moves to get the herbs back but she merely shakes her head, swiftly chopping up the hydrangeas and offering the cutting board to him.

It's a sardonic raise of an eyebrow that's her reward. He seems marginally impressed by the speed and precision, yet he simply takes the offered flowers carefully with a nod.

"Thank you."

Percy smiles in return, flashing a thumbs up. She looks back to the counter to the book, glancing at the instructions and for the next task.

He is stirring...something in the cauldron.

She takes a peak on her tiptoes, ignoring another sardonic raise of his eyebrow. They might be the same height but the cauldron's a bit farther away from her.

She could safely say that it was a mixture of the chopped hydrangeas and powdered Veela bones from the orangish colour it has, if the book's right. A quick look around confirms that they were the first to get the right shade and she shoots an impressed look at him.

He shrugs, holding up a vial of the dragon teeth she had grinded in a gesture to tell her to get out of the way. She does, raising her hands in a placating manner.

Though, she is once again peeping into the cauldron at the pull she feels towards it. Alike to the call of her turf yet not the same. She could feel the particles of the potion moving and converting as if it was right under her fingertips. Months spent at Atlantis had helped her be more in touch with her element. Her sense of substances with water could be felt more thoroughly than she could in her fourth grade science lab.

Right now, the balance in the potion was shifting as the boy stirs clockwise thrice and anti-clockwise thrice, unlike the instructions that only says twice. She clicks her tongue when the potion comes to a desired purple, already planning to ask Hermione about elemental magic with the efficiency the boy had intimately known the potion to improvise it.

She grants another smile to the boy who's lips twitch slightly upwards in a careful curve at the successfully brewed potion. She holds out her hands in an offer to get the sample. Her fingers threaten to close around empty air at his palpable hesitation but she waits and he gives in.

He immediately goes to his book after handing her the ladle and a vial, adding annotations and notes to the already filled empty spaces in between the printed text.

She carefully fills the vial, wishing she could use her power so she could be more careful in not spoiling their potion. She triumphantly places it on the freshly cleaned counter that she had done herself with a spell she had to try three times before the boy took pity on her to show her the proper wand movement. By the gods, she loved magic!

He rolls his eyes at her with a light shake of his head. They pack up their belongings and when the bell rings, they leave the sample at the teacher's table and go in their separate ways.

Not a word had been exchanged except an oddly uttered 'thank you' and snarky looks, in fact, the only visible evidence was the pieces of hydrangeas clinging to their robes.

18. paul conducts how to dad classes in his free time; impossible to join though, only open for gods

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"Boring,"

The remark echoes within the ornate room, a strange description seeing that the location was miles beneath the ocean. The water surrounds them, dancing around the family to their whims. The life threatening pressure that is sure to be found there doesn't affect the intricately made pillars that remain rooted to the ground as does the food on their plates.

"A wizarding school brings many words to the mind but," Triton's words don't even elicit the usual sigh from his half-sister. She was far too focused on the artfully placed dish on his place that almost appeared grotesque. '''boring' is not one of them,"

"Triton," she interrupts, pointing to his food, "what're you eating?"

The Prince of the Sea scoffs, annoyed that the opportunity to present his utterly witty comment has passed. "Forget it, you wouldn't even be able to pronounce its name. It's a timely crafted—"

"It looks like what a raccoon would make for itself from what it finds in a dumpster after two weeks of starving,"

Surprise is a odd look on the merman appearance he had chosen for the day. His fleshy looking beard bristles and his tail feathers morph into thorns. "What is that even supposed to mean?"

Amphitrite snaps her fingers, glaring at her husband as the battle arena that he had willed to materialize vanishes. Poseidon gives an innocent shrug in return, as if to say it was a probability that their argument could very well escalate into combat. The resemblance to his child in the gesture doesn't make her own tail fins twitch as it used to.

"Percy dear," she intones, her own inhuman features smoothening in a way that makes her stepchild smile. She pretends to not preen at her indulgent smile at her sub par attempts at the mortal way of parenting. "is Hogwarts such a dreadful place? Is anyone troubling you there? Do we have to kill them?"

"No no no." The smile is gone, replaced with the careful cautious expression that she uses to educate them on the mortal ways of parenting. "Amphitrite, no, we don't kill someone unless it's absolutely necessary."

"But they're annoying you," Poseidon's confusion is conveyed better in his human face. He rests his spoon to point at her.

Percy's eyebrows raise to be covered by her overgrown fringe. "That is not good enough reason."

What she assumes to be tomatoes fall from Triton's fork in an exaggerated gesture. "Shame,"

"All aside, Percy, what's wrong?" The King among them rethinks his choice on such a grand table, it seemed to distance his family from him. His mind is thrown to the modest yet fine mahogany table in Sally's home, hand picked by Paul. Perhaps he should consult him on the subject.

The youngest withholds a sigh, unwilling to fuel the drama. She shrugs, "It's not bad. It's kinda interesting but it's stressful sometimes,"

"They are attempting to burden five years worth of education on you," Amphitrite nods, "why don't we get Hecate to bless you with the required knowledge?"

Triton calls for attention by setting the wine glass down with more force than necessary. "And make her even more powerful?"

"Triton," his mother's merman words ricochet off the walls, "I believe you're aware that that's not the objective we're hoping to accomplish here?'

"Guys c'mon,"

"That's enough," Poseidon joins his daughter to avert the crises. "It is a good idea my dear," his wife tilts her head in a way that could only be described as 'of course I know'.  "Percy what do you say?"

"That's—" While Triton appears aggravated at the prospect, his half sister seems petrified at being blessed magical knowledge. "That's a bit—" she tries again. "It's a good idea, Amph, but I think it's a bit unnecessary. It's not that hard, I like it. I just miss camp."

"They're doing well," Triton, out of all, reassures her.

"Very well actually. Monster attacks have dropped to an all time low. They're doing very well," Poseidon adds with a proud grin. "You tell me, how's the reconstruction going on?"

"Good good," she hums, slurping soup. It makes her brother grimace. Amphitrite offers a napkin with dare I say, a smile. "Most of the camp's previous buildings have been made bigger this time around. And we're going over uh, her other plans too."

There was no clarification as to who her was. Except, "Which camp?"

Percy has fallen into habit of referring to the Greeks and Romans as collectively 'camp' and it is rather puzzling when she discusses it with her godly relatives.

"Hmm? Camp Half-Blood." She purses her lips, like that of a kid, as her father forcefully slides more food onto her plate. "Also like half-blood in the wizarding world means like you have a mortal and a magical parent you know?"

*Yes yes we do." Triton, in fact, did not know but he had to get to the matter that had had him reassuring her moments ago. "Have you been practicing on controlling your powers?"

"Hmm," her fork freezes on its way.

"Yes Percy we did hear about the half blood and purebloods," Amphitrite says with a pointed look on her son's direction. "We would like to know if the division is as poignant in everyday life as it is made out to be." As her stepdaughter gears up to elaborate, she interrupts with a raised finger, "Before that, have you been practicing?"

"Yes?"

Poseidon sighs. The very sound that makes her regret ever introducing Paul to him and triggering the events of the latter conducting lessons on How To Dad to gods. "You should learn to control your powers Percy. You know the importance of it."

"Yeah Dad of course—I just haven't had tim—"

"You'll end up more vulnerable if you continue to be hesitant about your powers Perseus," Amphitrite intones, "you should know them, learn to wield them and hone your talent to its finest."

"Only then your apprehension will leave you," Triton squashes her retorts before they're spoken out loud. The argument is old enough for immortals to get tired of it. "How will you be able to protect your family then?"

A school of fishes are cheering somewhere. She knows they are. "Alright okay."

"We don't have much trouble from the merpeople there," Poseidon suggests it as training grounds again, "it would be perfect. Now tell me about magical halfbloods."

Percy chuckles.

"Oh no," Triton intervenes, "you don't get out of this that easily." He gets to his feet, his tail spikes moving with a flourish. "You'll come with me now to show me your method of vapor travel," He takes hold of her arm to drag her away.

"Tri not again!" He does not pay attention to her whining, bidding his parents a good afternoon. Percy barely manages to pick dessert for Tyson before she gets dragged to the grounds. "I hate you—I'm gonna learn how to turn you into a dolphin!"