NOW

Chapter Six Part One

Durning the following month Percy spend at Hogwarts, the castle became almost a new home for the young god. The few hours he had in a day when he wasn't studying, he would spend roaming through its endless corridors and the grounds around the great building. Dumbledore had shown to him the Room of Requirement. A magical room that would appear if you walked past it three times, thinking about what you need. Magic aloud the room to transforms itself into whatever the witch or wizard needs it to be at that moment in time. For Percy that was a room. The professor insisted in only sorting him into a house at the beginning of the school year, which left Percy without a room because he wasn't aloud to know where the other houses common rooms were. He found out anyway.

Percy explored the school until he knew everything he needed to know about it. A great help with that was a ghost called Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. Apparently ghosts were nothing special in the Wizarding world, but Percy was sure Nico would not be happy if he ever found out about it. His cousin saw keeping ghosts out of this world as his job. Here it was everyone's own choice to stay after death, but you could never revoke your decision. Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington decided to stay, a decision Percy could not understand, but he was quite alright. Because of the way Nicholas died he had earned the name the Nearly Headless Nick and most students preferred to call him that. When Percy used his rightful title, Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington decided he liked him. Having a ghost as a friend had many advantages, especially in exploring an old magical castle with many hidden corridors. Nicholas knew most of them and Percy could ask him to look behind a wall if he thought something could be there. Of course he could do that himself if he willed his body to dissolve, but the god had decided to not use his powers as much as possible.

Early on he found his favourite spot. The Astronomy tower was the highest tower of the castle and open air. Many nights he had spend here inspecting the night sky. It was secure from any viewers, still Percy didn't dare spreading his wings once. He felt eyes everywhere. Most of them coming from the moving paintings that hung in every floor. He couldn't go anywhere without having to fear the professor would hear about it. Apparently the paintings had decided they didn't like him. Whenever he walked by them at least one whispered something about his appearance or the way he walked. That was actually one of the view things he didn't like about the place. Another one was the clothing policy. In the Diagon Alley Dumbledore had tried to sell him some robes, but Percy had declined as soon as he had seen them. You couldn't move in them, not even thinking about fighting. When the school year starts he would have to wear them but until then he was walking around the castle in his his own clothes. Plus his coat had more hidden pockets than you could imagine, which had proven useful.

Every day he had the same schedule. Breakfast at 6 am. Studies until lunchtime. Practical lessons until 5 pm. After that he was instructed to read as much as he could before going to bed. The first week he had spend there, Percy didn't do anything else the whole day than read. Special glasses Dumbledore had purchased in the Knockturn Alley allowed him to finish a book in a few hours and not forget anything that was written in it, not that he needed any help with that, his memory was sharper than ever since the transformation. Before he would go to bed, he would drink a potion that let him join his mentors mind for the night. They would explore the magical world in that dream state. They visited places without actually leaving the castle. Percy learned about the history, the war and the world in general.

That first week took a lot of energy and the first night he didn't drank the potion, for the first time he slept the whole night without dreaming about her. He had slept every night at least a few hours since then. He still dreamed of her sometimes. But those were dreams of him showing her the castle and not her dying in his arms, although those still occurred.

Reading all week gave Percy a reason not to touch his wand once. It was still in the bag, which meanwhile lay in his room. That changed in the second week. The second week the practical lessons started. Monday morning he fetched the wood out of the bag and shoved it into his coat, not giving it a chance to provoke any memories. He entered the hall and found his mentor already being there. "Good morning", said the elderly man as Percy approached. The late halfblood returned the greeting and sat himself down in his seat.