We went shopping
When Alex returned to the room, he was wearing…robe?
“Woah, you weren’t kidding when you said that wizards are old fashion.” Percy stared at the robe, it kind of looked like a bathrobe to him. He was reminded of the first time he saw people wear toga in camp Jupiter.
“Yeah, it took some time to get used to it, but it wasn’t that bad, a little inconvenient when you need to fight or spar, though.” He ran his hand through his robe, trying to smooth the fabric. He only ever wears robes when it’s necessary, for demigods it’s always so hard to wear clothes that’s not suited for battle.
Nico looked at the black robe Alex was wearing, deep in thought. “I don’t know, it looks like it could be quite comfortable.”
“It could be if you can get used to it.” Alex simply shrugged, before pulling out his wand again. He waved his wand and tapped on their shoulders. “This charm will make sure other people ignore you three. so they won’t notice you aren’t wearing robes. It will also make them ignore your voice, as long as you don’t yell or something, no one will notice what you are saying. ”
“What you’re saying is that we can say how weird the wizards are and we won’t get into trouble, right?” Percy wasn’t complaining, he was pretty sure he would say something stupid to offend the wizards if Alex didn’t put the charm on them.
“Pretty much. Now, this house isn't too far away from Diagon Alley, so we will just walk there.” Alex led them out of the living room to the door. “We will first go to the Leaky Cauldron, a pub for the wizards, the entrance to Diagon Alley is also there, that’s where most shops are located.”
With that he opened the door and led them out of the house.
Walking down the 1990s London street was…strange, the surroundings were different. Maybe it was just the difference between the UK and US, or maybe it was because they were in the 90s.
People were also wearing different clothes, it was honestly so weird to see people wearing stuff like that.
The weather was also very different, it’s getting close to noon but not a single trace of sunlight can be found. Jason frowned at that, lightning might be his father’s element, but he doesn’t like cloudy days that much.
They walked down the street, until a building that just screamed shady came into view.
“That’s the Leaky Cauldron, it was charmed to make sure muggle, non magical people, can’t see and find it.” Alex explained to them, pointing at the shady building in the distance.
“Muggle, somehow the word sounded really bad.” Percy said, recalling Hecate’s explanation about wizards being prejudced.
“Yeah…I guess you can say the word is… racist, pure-blood wizards believe muggles are stupid and refuse to see the development they made.”
“That’s very dangerous, ignoring the other group's development will only result in the lack of information.” Jason said, deep in thought, he couldn’t believe wizards will just ignore mortals like that.
“Wizards like to think that they can handle anything with their spell. They are so unaware of the mortal world’s changing Hogwarts even has classes to teach students about mortal lifestyle and how home appliances work.” For Alex, it’s always pretty sad how wizards refused to accept mortals’ inventions and culture. “Then again, technology usually functions poorly when it is near anything magical.”
“So they don’t like mortals, how about mortals with magic?” Percy was liking the wizards less and less with all this muggle thing. Sure, magic was cool and all, but some wizards sounded like jerks.
“Muggleborn and half-blood, that’s how they called them, pure-blood wizards believed their magic was weaker. The idea is that magic runs in the bloodline and grows weak when that bloodline is tainted by muggle blood, which is wrong, mind you.”
“So these pure-bloods, they are like old noble families, who are rich and powerful and only married other old families, right? ” Nico wondered how often inbreed happened because of that, and how much problems that had caused for the pure-bloods.
“Exactly, although some of the old families actually accepted muggleborn, they are called blood traitors by the other old families.”
“This is just what we need, a bunch of rich and racist wizards, bet that will make our school lives fun.” Percy had enough experiences dealing with rich and spoiled brats at his old schools, he couldn’t imagine doing that for a few more years.
“Well, only a small portion of pure-blood students are that bad. Some of them will at least try to act polite because they don't want to look bad.” Then, as if he thought of something funny, he chuckled. “Besides, they can't really pick on the members of the House of Olympia, it will get them into trouble.”
“The what now?” Percy asked while looking up at the cloudy weather, he wondered if this was natural or if Zeus was keeping a close eye on them.
“The House of Olympia is known to be a powerful and old family, its origin can be traced back to ancient Greece. The family is known to be a collection of different families, the only thing these families had in common is that they inherited powerful ancient magic from their ancestors.” Alex brought out his magic to make sure the charm is still working, and yup, it’s still effective. “The house is known to move from country to country, following the tide of the era, sounds familiar?”
“Olympus, and the gods?” Jason answered, he was quite surprised, if the gods did deal with the wizards that often then he should have heard about it during his time at Olympus.
“The house was a way for gods to deal with incidents where demigods somehow crossed paths with wizards. The wealth and fame mostly came from the ambassador or Hecate throughout the years. The gods or those who work under gods will occasionally show up to deal with the ministry of magic, and show people that the family was still active.”
“So we will be considered some sort of royal in the wizarding world?” Jason asked, sure, all three of them were considered royal in their father’s domain, but it was still hard to wrap his mind around that idea.
“In a way, I think calling you royal will be an exaggeration. Also, some pure-bloods may still dislike you because one of your parents is mortal, but the house of Olympia’s reputation should be enough to make them stay quiet.” Alex quickly added. “You don’t need to introduce yourself as a member of the house of Olympia if you don’t want to. The house is to help you if you ever need a cover story, since it is known to be very secretive and mysterious. The whole ‘ancient magic passed down in the family’ also helps explain your power if you need to use them in front of the wizards.”
As the explanation went on, they reached the entrance of the pub, Alex opened the door and led the three of them inside.
The pub was filled with people, who were all dressed in robes, they were all doing their own thing. chatting, reading the newspaper(Is it just imagination or is the picture on the newspaper moving?), eating and drinking. It felt like they were suddenly sent back further in time, back to the medieval age.
“Wow.” Percy said, looking at the people around him. “Did we get hit by another time travel spell or something?”
“No, that’s just how it was.” Alex nodded at Tom the barman, the wizard gave him a toothless smile.
They walk through the pub, Nico makes a face when he walks past a witch with a plate of what look like raw organs.
Alex led them out of the pub to a brick wall, he pulled out his wand again and tapped on one of the bricks. The whole wall started to move, revealing an entrance.
“Welcome to Diagon Alley.” Alex said, and gestured at the scene in front of them. as if a boy showing his friends something cool he had found.
Diagon Alley was…a lot to take in. It was filled with people who were shopping, shops that sold all sorts of stuff you don’t normally see. Just glance at a direction and they would immediately find something new that caught their attention. This, combined with their ADHD, was certainly quite overwhelming.
“Dude, this is awesome.” Jason looked at all the shops around them, all these shops hidden behind a secret entrance. Sure, it’s quite dramatic, but cool!
Percy stared at one of the shops that put their product on display. “Are those brooms?”
“Definitely brooms, so flying brooms are real?” Nico asked, excited, he probably could never ride a flying broom because he was a son of Hades, but it was still pretty cool to know that flying broom was a thing.
“Why brooms? There are so many flying objects I can think of that’s better than brooms.” Percy argued, honestly, why would anyone want to make a cleaning tool flying?
“There were flying carpets, but it was banned.” Alex shaked his head, the banning of the flying carpet was such a tragedy in his opinion.
They kept walking, Percy kept complaining how stupid it was to have flying brooms but not other flying things, Nico followed the topic and asked more questions about the flying carpets.
The first shop they visited, according to Alex, was called Apothecary, a place that sold potion ingredients. While Alex was talking to the witch at the counter about the order he sent them a week ago, all three of them looked through the ingredients in the shops.
When the clerk brought Alex his order, he brought out his bag, then took a pile of gold coins out of it, which was certainly more than the bag should be able to hold.
“Extension Charms.” He explained to them when they left the shop. This was when Nico asked him about the wizard's currency.
“They use Gold-Galleon, Silver-Sickle and Bronze-Knut. A Galleon equals seventeen Sickles, and a Sickle equals twenty-nine Kunts.”
“What?” Percy asked with wide eyes. “That sounds like some sort of question you will find in a math textbook. Why make it so complicated?”
“I don’t know, it’s just what it is, but it shouldn’t be too much trouble once you get used to it, which will need a while, of course.” The son of Hecate said, then pointed at one of the buildings and explained to them that the building was a bank and that it was run by goblins.
“They are great blacksmith and craftsman, and very clear. They basically controlled the wizarding world’s economy, you would think the wizards would know better than to let a race they treated poorly control their money.” Alex never understood why wizards felt like they could just rely on goblins to forge their currency.
“How good were the goblins’ works?” Percy asked, remembering his time at Atlantis when he visited the Cyclops' forge.
“Pretty decent, they are best at sliverwork, some of the skilled goblins’ works can definitely rival the cyclops’.”
“That’s quite impressive.” Jason had tried some of the cyclops forged weapons in his fighting lesson, they were all incredible.
They walked to a shop that looked like a bookstore, and Alex led them in. The store was filled with piles of books and a bunch of bookshelves. Instead asking the clerk, Alex led them to the bookshelves.
“I already sent them a list of books I want, let’s go see if there’s anything that caught your interest. Don’t worry about your Dyslexia, I will give you something that can prevent it from acting up later.”
They walked through different sections of the shops, and Jason picked up one of the books from the shelf. The cover showed a sword in the stone, with golden words above it. The title read “Magical artifacts and their role throughout magic history.”
“That’s a pretty good one, although the introduction is a little too general, it’s still a good start if you want to learn about magical weapons and artifacts.”
Jason nodded and took the book with him, it should be interesting to learn about wizards’ weapons.
After a while, Percy picks up a book about merpeople culture. “To see how much they got wrong.” Since Alex had explained to them that the merpeople in the wizarding world are the same in the mythological world.
Nico picked a book about ghosts and necromancy, which was just an introductory book, but Alex also said that it was a good one.
After that, they picked up a few more books, one about Greek mythology (To see much mistake there was), a book about a hundred useful and practical spells for everyday life (Alex told them that it’s a very useful book), and a book about quidditch (A kind of sport with flying brooms involved, Jason’s eyes light up when Alex explained to them.)
When they brought those books to the counter, Alex gave the clerk his list and asked for those books as well. He used the gold in his bag to pay before putting all the books into the bag, and then led them out of the book shop.
Next, they went to buy pots for their potion lesson. “It’s called a cauldron.” Alex had said, looking at Percy dead in the eyes. “I know it’s easy to think of them as pots, but it’s called a cauldron.”
They brought a few cauldrons and the whole time Jason and Nico were looking at the golden cauldron on display. “Is that even practical?” Jason asked.
“No, people usually buy those to show off, only very specific potions need golden cauldron.”
When they left the shop, Alex stopped and looked at the three of them, thinking. “Would you want a pet? Wizards use owls for sending letters, and I think it will be good for you to have one. I-M still work but you may still need to use owls for ordering stuff or contacting other people..”
“But owls hate me, I can’t have a pet that will murder me in my sleep.” Percy could still remember the amount of time he encountered an owl, each time the owl tried to attack him or poke him with their beak.
“Don’t be dramatic, if it comes to that, Nico and I will protect you from the killer owl, alright?” Jason replied with a teasing smile. Nico just watched this exchange with an amused expression.
“It shouldn’t be that bad. Owls in the wizarding world are very different from normal owls. their connection with her is a lot weaker as well, which means they won’t be aggressive toward you.” Alex put his hand on Percy’s shoulder, tried to offer his support. “And you don’t really need to get an owl, Hogwarts lets students use school owls. You can still get other pets if you want.”
They went in, and were immediately assaulted by a bunch of noise, all sorts of creatures chirping, squeaking and gowling, and some kind of magical puff. Alex led them directly to the owl section, but gave them time to inspect other pets the shop had to offer.
They went through several different pets. A rabbit that kept turning in a tophat and back, which Percy found amusing. A tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell, which reminds Nico of his sister Hazel.
It took some time, but eventually they decided to pick one owl for the three of them. After that,though, they spent even more time picking what kind of owl they wanted. Percy kept looking from owl to owl, trying to find the one owl with the least murder intention in their eyes.
At the end, they decide to get a brown owl with amber eyes. The owl didn’t react strongly when Percy tried to interact with him, even allowing the black-hair boy to pet his head. The first time he son of Poseidon ever peacefully interacted with an owl.
“Next one is going to take some time, we need to buy you guys some robes and casual clothes.” Alex had made sure that clothes shopping would be the last thing they needed to do on this trip. He knew it would take some time for Madam Malkin to measure all three demigods and finish their robes, and he knew how difficult it would be to sit through them.
They went to the shop, and Madam Malkin greeted them as soon as the door closed.
“Hello, gentleman, what can I help you with today?”
Alex gestured at the three boys. “Hello, Madam Malkin. They need Hogwarts uniforms, they just transfer here from America, about to become fourth year students. They will also need robes for their daily life, they will tell you what they want.”
“Of course, come here you three, so I can measure your size.”
They took turns having their body measured, the other two would play with the owl they just bought. Jason had poked the owl through the cage bars, and in return the owl gently nibbled on his finger, causing the son of Jupiter to chuckle.
When all three of them had been measured, Madam Malkin turned to them and asked what they wanted for their robes.
Percy knew what he wanted before they entered the shop. “I want a blue one, with a wave pattern on the sleeve and around the bottom part.”
“Sure thing, what about you?” She turned to Nico, who was looking at a robe decorated with all sorts of gemstone.
“Hmm? Oh, I want a black robe, with some red around the sleeve.” He was actually planning on getting a plain black robe, but decided to go against the idea.
Jason took some time to consider, but when he looked down and saw his shirt he made up his mind. “I want a purple one with a golden eagle on the chest.” That seemed like a great idea to him, he always loved his shirt after all.
With all their requests done, they were asked to sit for a while until their robes were finished.
Nico rested his head on Percy when they sat down, letting out a small sign.
“You ok? Do you still feel tired?” Percy had noticed how the boy had become a little down.
“No, I feel fine after that cup of coffee earlier. Just too many people.” Nico hated when there’s a crowd, and Diagon Alley was full of people during this time of the day.
Percy pressed a kiss on Nico’s forehead, while Jason leaned on to him and gently nuzzled his neck. “It’s alright.” The blond boy raises his hand and starts gently rubbing circles on his back. “We only need to go and buy some casual clothes after this, and we can leave this place.”
Nico let his body relax. He always felt protected and loved when he was between his boyfriends, Percy’s scent of sea was relaxing and Jason’s voice always helped him calm down. Sometimes he still wondered why his boyfriends chose to stay with him, when they were so good and attractive and could definitely find someone better than him.
“Nico, stop that, I could tell you are thinking something negative with that expression.” Percy was very familiar with his lover’s thought process, and he prided himself on being able to spot it and stop it immediately. “I love you, Jason loves you, we love you for who you are and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Percy’s right, we love you, that won’t change, no matter what.” Jason pulls his hand away from Nico’s back to ruffle the boy’s hair.
Nico felt the familiar warmth filled his body, he knew his lovers were telling the truth, and it still shocked him even now, how much love they gave him.
They stayed like that, cuddling on the chair until their robes were finished. Alex simply watched them with a smile on his face, knowing how these three were like from memory is one thing, seeing it for himself is another, they had a really cute relationship.
After that, they went to a shop that sold muggle clothes, this time it didn’t take much time for them to shop. They picked a few shirts, and Nico insisted on getting shirts with different styles of skull on it.
They also got some pants and a few hoodies. (Percy picked blue ones, Nico chose black and Jason actually bought gray hoodles)
“That shall be all, now we just need to go to our new house and have some lunch. I already prepared some basic furniture for your room, you can decorate it later when we have time.”
“How do we get there, then?” Percy couldn't wait for lunch, and he didn’t think he needed more walking after all the shopping.
“We will use apparition, basically wizards’ way of teleportation. It will be a little bit uncomfortable, but it’s the fastest method, just hold on to me and we can go.” They did as they were told, and suddenly, there was a loud crack, then they were gone.