The Golden Wand [Harry Potter/Percy Jackson]

Chapter 6: The Interview

Harry POV:

"I never asked you how yours went, by the way," Ginny said suddenly. The two of us were hanging out in the common room, waiting for Ron and Hermione to come back from their tour. I was worried about Hermione, thinking about how these days I always saw her with red eyes and without a smile. 

"Oh, um, not much to it, was there?" I replied. Ginny looked over at me expectantly. I blushed under the stare of her brown eyes - she was so beautiful, I wanted to tell her. I couldn't... Ron would hate me. 

"Come on," she laughed, nudging me slightly. "Tell me how it went, and then I'll tell you about mine."

I sat up slowly, trying to remember what had happened. 

The interview had been simple enough. When I had entered Dumbledore's office, I was facing four people; Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore; Head of House, Minerva McGonagall; Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin;  Potions master, Horace Slughorn. 

"Name?" McGonagall asked, without a welcome. they had to pretend as if they barely knew me, they had to avoid bias. 

"Harry James Potter."

"Year and house?"

"Seventh year, Gryffindor."

"Parent or guardian?"

"Sirius Black."

It wasn't hard to miss the smile that was brought to Remus' face at the mention of his friend. 

"Tell us a bit about your magic, Potter," Slughorn asked stiffly. "Favourite subject? Spells used in the past? Honourable mentions, perhaps, of your past accomplishments."

"My favourite subject is Defence Against the Dark Arts, sir," I informed. "I'm known for conjuring a powerful Patronus, I quickly mastered apparation and disapparation, I'm a strong flier and two years ago I conquered the ability of Occlumency, under the aid of Severus Snape."

"And defensive spells? The disarming spell, the striking spell, the stupifying spell?"

"I can perform all of them with ease, sir," I shrugged. "In my first year I used these spells to defend myself against Professor Quirrel, the following year I did the same to survive against a Basilisk and Tom Riddle. I saved my Godfather's life in my third year by conjuring a Patronus Charm and in my fourth year in Hogwarts, after being captured by Voldemort, I fought him off and survived the Cruciatus Curse. In my fifth year I was present in the attack on the Department of Secrets alongside the Order of the Phoenix, where I disarmed and helped kill Lord Voldemort"

"That wasn't all, was it, my boy?" Lupin chuckled. "Before disarming Voldemort you interceded Le Strange's plans to kill Nymphadora, in doing so you saved her life. And were it not for the fact that you warned The Order of Voldemort's attack that night, the battle against the Dark lord would not have been won."

"Now, now, Remus, you are going off track," McGonagall warned. 

"What of you abilities in potions and charms?" Slughorn pressed. 

"I must admit, it's Hermione that excels in charms and potions, not me," I shrugged. "I know enough about potions to get me by, but it's not my strong point."

This followed with a series of questions, testing my knowledge on Wizarding History, charms, potions and spells. I had been studying for these as much as I could, and was fairly certain that I had answered them all correctly. 

"Now, Harry," Dumbledore spoke up for the first time. "I need you to take this potion."

"Sir?" I asked.