so american
HARRY waited for his fourth class of the day, his son’s class in fact, it was Gryffindor and Slytherin, that was going to be fun.
It was Wednesday, the third day of classes for students. Thankfully Harry still remembered his schooling years and didn’t give too much homework.
He heard loud chattering coming from outside, that must be them.
James and a few of his friends were the first to enter the classroom. James waved to his dad and Harry waved back.
The rest of the two houses followed suit and looked around seeing no desks and just a random closet in the middle.
“Settle Down! Settle Down,” Harry told them, “today we are going to be learning about bogarts, can anybody tell me anything about boggarts?”
A fair haired girl shot up her hand, “Yes, you?” Harry pointed at the girl.
“A boggart is an amortal shape-shifting non-being that takes on the form of its observer's worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone, as it changes shape instantly upon encountering someone,” The girl said in an Irish accent, “I’m Aoife Finnigan by the way!”
“Thank you Ms. Finnigan,” Harry said, the girl- Aoife Finnigan - beamed with a smile, “Now, any volunteers?” Harry called out.
Everyone student formed a line of excitement, the boy with the longest hat stall -Jason Grace- was in the front of the middle.
Louis Weasley, his nephew from Bill and Fluer Weasley, was at the front of the line and James was just behind him.
“Louis, can you demonstrate for us? The spell is Riddikulus!” Harry made the wand movement for the spell and opened the wardrobe door.
Louis stepped forwards and out popped a scary clown, “Riddikulus!” Louis made the wand movement and the clown turned into a clown with a big nose driving around in a colourful clown car.
Then his son, James, stepped forward. The boggart appeared as something else, Harry was the boggart. It wasn’t just Harry, it was Harry telling James that he was disappointed in him. Harry is going to have to have a talk with James later. Maybe Harry has been spending too much time with Albus or Lily? James must’ve been feeling left out or unwanted. “Riddikulus!” James shouted, trembling. The Boggart Harry stopped what he was doing and began doing the macarena.
Harry face palmed himself, “Oh Merlin…”
The girl from earlier, Aoife Finnigan, faced the boggart, it transformed into a big drop from a sky high building, Aoife raised her wand, “R-Riddikulus!” She waved her wand in the form of the wand movement shakily and the boggart turned into a big, large bouncy castle.
Harry clapped and the next girl stepped forward, she was a brunette and had her hair in a nice long braid. The boggart shaped itself into an arena of some sort. “Riddikulus!” The girl shouted firmly, then the arena transformed into a big field of flowers. The girl smiled and walked to the back of the classroom.
The next boy looked like Harry a lot, he had sharp green eyes and black hair, a tinge of grey could be seen along with it, the boy stepped forward and a evil looking clown with ugly green hair and a creepy smile appeared from the previous flower field, “RIDDIKULUS!” The boy shouted angrily. The creepy, evil clown disappeared and transformed into a normal man with a tinge of clown makeup on riding on a unicycle.
Then the one he’d been looking for, Jason Grace, stepped forward. The bogart vanished. It turned into… nothing?
JASON froze.
This was embarrassing for him. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, was scared of nothing. Not nothing as in not afraid of a single thing. Nothing as in afraid of there being nothing. Nothing. Nothing anywhere. Nothing being near him. Him having nothing. Jason Grace was afraid of leadership, of nobody being there when he eventually took up the role of praetor. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, who was the Roman king of the gods, was afraid of leadership.
Shit. Did these people think he actually wasn’t afraid of anything? Or did some understand the true meaning of his fear? It was a weird fear for an eleven year old to have, he guessed.
“Riddikulus,” he spoke quietly, but with as much power as he could. The big patch of nothing just… turned into a huge gust of wind. Jason immediately felt way more comfortable in his element.
Jason didn’t smile, it was an instinct for him. Never smile. Not because of Camp Jupiter or training from Luca but a wolffish instinct. Wolves see a smile on someone as a threat. During war games Camp Jupiter was always confused on why Jason smiled at the opposing teams. They always thought he was just a friendly person. Well, the ones that were there after the first few years of Jason’s arrival. The others knew he was secretly a rabid beast who likes to bite Octavian.
He walked to the back of the classroom, thinking of his first week of Camp Jupiter.
The current people on guard watched a small blonde toddler ran like an animal towards the little Tiber. The blonde toddler was on all fours, sometimes turning around to bare his teeth at the monster behind him.
The people rushed forward to help the barbaric small child. One passed him a spare golden dagger that they passed to him. The child smiled at the monster and then they watched as the child aimed the dagger perfectly at point with the creature’s heart and watched as he threw the dagger and it tore through the monster’s flesh, golden monster dust splattering everywhere.
The child jumped on top of the male guard’s head and started to bark at him, pointing at the entrance to Camp Jupiter, “owar!” The boy screeched, though the female guard believes he meant ‘onward!’.
The child bit the male guard’s head whenever he deemed him too slow.
“Fararar!” The child screeched again, and again, until the poor man’s ears had nearly lost all of its hearing, the man, although he was slowly (very quickly) going deaf, stated that the boy meant to screech, ‘Faster!” And stated that the feral toddler needed lessons on proper english and etiquette to quote, “make the feral boy more civilised, if that is possible,” the man had added the last bit under his breath.
The man groaned, “aaargh! Make it stop!” The man pointed at the female guard who chuckled in return, “You! Cecelia! Your turn! I can not take this anymore.
The female guard, Cecelia, laughed at the male guard, “oh Octavian! Come on, we’re nearly at the entrance to camp!”
“Huraara!” The rabid toddler screamed at both of the guards, Cecelia believes he meant to say ‘Hurry!”
The boy screeched again and again until they had finally reached Camp Jupiter.
Octavian groaned, “all we have to do is take him to Praetor Michaels and if see fit, get rid of it.”
Cecelia gasped, “Octavian! He’s a child! Practically a baby! He’s not an it!”
Octavian grumbled and walked over to where the Praetor resides.
They entered, Cecelia spoke, “Excuse me Praetor Michaels?”
Praetor Michaels turned to face the trio of people, “yes what do you- oh, a new one I see..?” He looked upon the boy currently biting off pieces of Octavian's hair.
Cecelia smiled and picked up the toddler off Octavian's head. Octavian began to fix his messy hair, making sure most of it was still there.
Praetor Michaels asked the boy a question, “what’s your name?”
The boy surveyed Praetor Michaels before answering, “jayn.”
“Jane? That's not a masculine name is it?” Praetor Michaels didn’t believe this boys name was really Jane. It was a name fit for a female! Not a strong male Roman soldier.
The boy shook his head, “nn! Jay.. hiss… un..”
“Jayhissun?” Praetor Michaels questioned.
Cecelia butted in, “Praetor Michaels, if I may? I believe the boy is trying to say that his name is ‘Jason’.”
“Hm,” Praetor Michaels then turned to face the boy, “is that right?”
The boy nodded.
“And your last name?”
“Grr!” The boy growled, “a-a ss…
“Grace?” Praetor Michaels queried.
The boy nodded.
“Do you, by any chance, know who your mother is?”
The boy, now identified as Jason Grace, frowned, “Brr.. ill.”
“And your father?” Praetor Michaels added.
“wuf say ju.. iter?” Jason Grace said, though it had sounded like a question.
“Jupiter?” Cecelia supplied.
The boy nodded, though he never smiled. He seemed scared, even threatened, whenever Cecelia or someone had smiled at him.
“…a son of Lord Jupiter? We haven’t had a son or daughter of the king of the gods in well over 70 years, not since the Second World War,” Praetor Michaels muttered, “say Jason Grace, son of Lord Jupiter, what Cohort would you like to join?”
Jason Grace looked confused so Cecelia clarified for him, “there are five Cohorts.”
Jason held up five fingers.
Praetor Michaels was taken aback by this, “a son of Lord Jupiter in the fifth Cohort?”
Jason frowned, “ba?”
Praetor Michaels shrugged, “Octavian, bring him to the augury. Then, get him situated into the fifth Cohort.”
“Yes, Praetor Michaels sir.”
That memory was a fond one. Jason had of course had proper etiquette lessons and spoke in a proper informed manner, instead of speaking like a barbarian beforehand.
“Hey!” A brunette girl with colourful eyes came over in the slytherin uniform, “I’m Piper, what’s your name?”
Jason thought for a moment, the girl smiled, was that a threat? Was she getting his name to.., oh. He forgot humans smile in a non threatening way. Humans smile as a friendly way of expressing affection to another. “I am Jason Grace.”
“Nice! You know, when you get a free period and me and my friend, Leo, get a free period, we should hang out!” She suggested, smiling.
“Sure, what house is your friend, Leo, in?” Jason asked.
“He’s in ravenclaw! He’s really smart but also pretty dumb at the same time,” she chuckled.
“Hm, so why’d you come over to me?” Jason questioned her. It was purely instinctive.
She perked up in a happy manner at this, “oh! I heard you’re a muggle born and me and Leo are muggle borns too! So we wanted to get to know you!”
Jason knew that wasn’t the whole reason.
“Are you American too? I recognise your accent from somewhere in the United States of America,” spoke Jason.
“Oh yeah! Me and Leo are both American! That’s another part of the reason we wanted to be friends with you! It’d be nice to have another American to talk too, with all these British people around,” she moved her hand around to show all the others in the room conversing in British accents.
“Leo and I,” Jason corrected.
“Sorry?” She queried.
“You keep saying it wrong, it’s Leo and I.”
“What, you some big nerd or something? Not that I have anything against nerds, Leo’s a massive nerd, I mean he says he’s a geek but it’s basically the same right?” She said, winking.
“Greek?” Jason said defensively. This boy was a graecus? That’s bad. Graecus’ are bad.
Piper face palmed herself, “No not Greek, he’s Latino. And I said geek, it’s probably just nerd speak for nerd or something stupid like that.”
“I guess?”
The bell rang.
“Nice! See you around?” She asked Jason.
“Yeah,” Jason… smiled warmly at her, “see you around.”
“Jason! Ye’ comin’!?” Óisin called out,
“Yeah! Just a second!” Jason waved goodbye to Piper.
Louis looked at him, “hey? What’s put you in such a good mood?”
“Oh.. nothing important.”
“Why? Oh do you have a crush?” James teased.
Jason turned red, “No I don’t!”
James began to skip off somewhere, “Jason has a crush! Jason has a crush!”
“I don’t have a-“
“Jason has a crush! Jason has a crush!”
JUNO entered Venus’ pearl palace.
“Oh! Juno! What do I owe you for this pleasure!” Venus welcomed her.
“I need you to do something for me,” Juno demanded.
“Oh oh! What is it? Is it Neptune and Minerva’s Greek kids Perseus and Annabeth? Because they don’t need any pushing! Their love is already so strong! Oh! Or is it-“
Juno interrupted Venus, “no. I need you to push two demi-gods together. Their names are Jason Grace, who is my champion, and Piper McLean.”
Venus jumped with joy, “my Greek daughter and a Roman child!? Oh Juno this will be a great love story! Wait but they’re not soulmates? Jason Grace’s soulmate is-“
“I need them to be, for my plan.”
“I suppose you won’t tell me this plan… fine, but Juno, I need you to remember if you mess with a person’s love life with someone they aren’t supposed to be with-“
“I know Venus, just do it.”
“But- they might never find love! They might never match with their soulmates! They might…”
“Do it!” Juno roared,
Venus bowed, “yes my dear.”
“Good,” Juno said.
“Although it won’t take effect until they are fifteen?”
Juno sighed, “good enough. Goodbye Venus.”
Juno flashed away before Venus could so goodbye.