An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Four

We ended up watching all three high school musical movies, so needless to say, it was a late night. Fred and George said I'd regret my decision to go to work with Percy, and when a knock came at my door at 6:30am, they instantly became right.

I groaned and rolled out of bed, trudging to the door with rumpled pajamas and a bird's nest of tangled hair. I opened the door to find Percy, bright eyed and bushy tailed, standing in the doorway impeccably dressed and with a big grin on his face.

"Good morning Alexa," he said brightly. "We're leaving in about half an hour, so I wanted to make sure you'd be up and ready."

"Ugh, yeah, okay Perce. I'll be ready." My voice was more gravelly and plain old exhausted since I'd just woken up. Percy's whole sunny disposition was making me a little cranky.

"Well, good. I'll see you downstairs at seven then." Percy was still grinning, so I just nodded and started closing the door. I didn't want to ruin his good mood, but he'd just woken me up at 6:30 in the morning. I didn't have the energy yet to carry on a peppy conversation.

By some miracle, Ginny managed to sleep through the whole thing. I tried to be as quiet as possible as I got ready, and five minutes before seven I crept out of the bedroom and headed downstairs.

"Alexa! You look wonderful. Ready to go?" asked Percy.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I said, hopping the last few stairs with a smile. I felt considerably more awake now, and Percy's compliment reassured me that my shirt wasn't backwards or something from getting dressed in low light while still half asleep. The only thing missing was a cup of coffee.

"I knew you'd be a bit short on time, so I brewed an extra cup of tea for you," said Percy, holding out a cup that still had steam coming off it.

Eh, close enough.

"Thanks Perce," I said, taking the cup and taking a few sips. "Now how exactly do we get to this magical house of wizarding government?"

"We can use the Floo Network, or we can apparate," he said.

"Okay... so, I understood one of those things..."

"Ah, yes, the Floo Network isn't something people from muggle households would know about. As wizards, we can use our fireplaces to travel from one place to another. We just take Floo Powder, step into the fireplace and tell it where we want to go, and just like that we're in the fireplace of our desired destination."

"That is... honestly completely insane. You step into the fireplace?"

"Yes! It's a wonderful system, only accessible if you have magic, of course. There is a chance that if you misspeak you end up somewhere completely different though, and if you make that mistake I really don't have time today to run around trying to find you," Percy mused. I didn't say anything—I was honestly still a little too stunned to think what.

Percy looked thoughtful for a moment, then he looked back at me, apparently having made up his mind.

"We won't risk the Floo Network today," he said. "We'll apparate there. Besides, it should be just as interesting for you to get your first experience with apparition."

"Percy, I can't do magic outside of school," I said, feeling the need to state the obvious.

"Oh no, of course not. You won't even begin learn how to apparate until later this year, at least. No, we'll do side-along apparation. Here, if you're ready to go?"

I quickly went and set down my now-empty teacup in the kitchen, then walked back over to where Percy was standing in the middle of the room.

"Just hold on to my arm. I'll apparate into the ministry, and you'll apparate with me."