Chapter Text
"Nico, get out of bed! Percy, if you're there, get Nico out of bed!" It's not the best start of my day, to be honest, being woken up by Will Solace at way-to-early o'clock. He's knocking on the door of my cabin, and I have no idea why he's up so early, or why he thinks it's acceptable to be waking me up at this time.
"Neeks, what does Will want? Please shut him up", Percy moans from next to me in my bed. (All we did was fall asleep and cuddle after talking all night, not anything you have in your disturbing minds).
"I have no idea. And I don't want to know." I reply, trying to bury my way back under the covers.
"I can hear you talking! Get out of bed!" Will calls.
"You may as well go see what he wants. Will is stubborn, he's not going to stop until you are out of bed."
I narrow my eyes at Percy, then shrug. "Well, if he really needs me for something, I'm sure he can find someone else to do it. I'm going to go back to sleep."
"Actually Nico, you're the only one that the man wanted!"
"Are you sure he isn't here to kill me?" I yell back. It's never a good thing when a man that has found his way into Camp Half Blood starts asking for you.
"He says he knows you. He's got a giant silver beard and a dress on!"
Mr and Percy look at each other. "What is Dumbledore doing here?" I hiss at him. "And how did he find us?"
"And get into the camp", Percy adds.
"Oh, so you do know him! Hurry up and get to the big house!"
"I suppose we should see what he wants then", I mutter, "Will, tell him I'll be out in a second!"
Will shouts OK, and then I hear his footsteps running away from the cabin door.
"It's a shame", Percy says as he exits the cabin, "I thought we were done with Dumbledore's nonsense."
I laugh and get changed, out of my pyjamas and into black jeans and a t-shirt, once the door is closed. It's too hot for a hoodie, but I tie it around my waist anyway, in case I feel like hiding in it. Hoodies are useful for that sort of stuff. I also strap my sword to my back (it's more out the way there, and less obvious), partly because Dumbledore gets really annoying, but mostly in case a monster gets inside the camp, which is unlikely, but it's better to be prepared.
Percy, Will, Chiron, Mr D, and unfortunately, Dumbledore, are all waiting by the porch outside the big house.
"Hi guys. Mr D. Dumbledore. Sorry I'm late", I say, nodding at them.
"Hi Nico. Are you free this evening? I think Gregory and Wallace will be joining me for a game of Poker", Mr D asks. I have a feeling Gregory is Grover, and Will is Wallace, but I'm not exactly sure.
"Actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about", Dumbledore puts in, at the same time Percy says, "How come he calls you by your name?"
I shrug at Percy, and look at Dumbledore in confusion. "You came here to talk about Poker?"
"I came here to see if you were free this evening, as I have a favour to ask you of."
"Sorry, Mr D. It looks like I may be busy", I say to him, trying to look as disappointed as possible. I enjoyed playing Poker, but with Mr D, you had to be sure not to win, but also not to obviously do badly, as he always wants to win, but wants to look like he had to work for it. When he's in a good mood, it can be fun, especially when we play with real Drachmas, because I have an unlimited supply. (Thanks dad.)
Mr D sighs, and walks back inside dejectedly, muttering something about "blasted wixen". I had to agree with him on that point.
"What's the favour then?" I ask. "And please don't say anything about killing Voldemort. I'm not a personal assassin to hire".
"It's nothing that difficult, don't worry, my boy." I try not to scoff at the my boy.
"How do you know each other, if I may ask?" Chiron frowns.
"Me and Nico met him a week ago, in England. We were collecting some souls", Percy explains, and then in ancient Greek, he says, "Dumbledore doesn't know about the gods or anything, does he?"
"No. As far as he's aware, this is just a holiday camp. I have no idea how he got through the wards, he just knocked on the door, asking for you, Nico", Chiron says.
Dumbledore thankfully doesn't question the sudden language change, and carries on as if we were still talking about the favour, which I did not want to talk about.
"I wanted to request that you teach at Hogwarts for a year", he says, as if he didn't just ask me to completely drop my whole life to go teach a bunch of snotty kids magic, which I couldn't do anyway, for a whole year. Also, I'm fairly sure that killing Voldemort would be easier.
"With all due respect, I don't think that will be possible." Chiron says. I grin at him thankfully.
"The teaching job would be to teach self defence, and combat, as I'm fully aware that you cannot do magic, and you obviously know some combat, if the sword is anything to go by. There would be holidays, and there is room for you at the castle if you accept. Of course, there is the matter of payment as well", Dumbledore explains, as if it's an offer we would never be able to refuse.
"Why are you asking me to be a teacher, though? I'm like, young enough to be going to school myself!" I say incredulously. This whole situation is weirder than before. I'm not exactly anyone's first choice for a teaching spot. I'll probably be half the height of all the students there, and even if I did accept, I doubt the kids would even listen to me. The fact that I'll get paid to do it doesn't really make a difference to me anyway, with my dad and all, but it's not like it could hurt to be richer.
Dumbledore looks slightly awkward now. "You are the last option left, apart from accepting help from the Ministry of Magic, which I really don't want to do. Also, you are the only person that I know that can use a sword and that speaks English."
Wow, Dumbledore. You've got yourself into quite a pathetic situation.
"Can Percy come?" I ask. Percy had decided not to go to university for now, and is taking a gap year, in which he had decided to teach sword fighting in both the Roman and Greek camps, and to work in his Dad's palace, but I'm sure he would be okay with going to teach sword fighting in the UK to people that have never picked up a sword at all, and instead choose to fight with wooden laser pointers.
"If that's what persuades you to accept, then of course."
I look at Percy and raise my eyebrows. He shrugs. "Why not? It's just teaching sword fighting to different people."
"You accept then? Brilliant. I'll leave you to pack. Please be ready to leave by eleven."
"Ok, but we don't know anything about your community", I say, suddenly remembering that the kids we'll be teaching aren't actually normal.
"I'm sure you'll pick up the facts eventually. I'll see you at eleven", Dumbledore says, and walks over to Thalia's tree. He walks slightly past it, then disappears.
"How did he just disappear like that?" Percy frowns, "And how did he get into the camp in the first place?"
Chiron shrugs. "I have no idea. Maybe wixen can come into camp because of Hecate's blood in them. She created them, you know."
"Oh", I say, because what else is there to say? "I guess we had better go off to pack."
"Hey, you should probably tell your mum that we're going" I tell Percy, as I shove all my hoodies into a bag. He's sitting on my bed and swinging his legs. He's going to do his packing after I've done mine, because he wants me to help.
"Oh yeah. She'll panic otherwise. I'll Iris message her. Do you have a drachma?"
I nod, pull one out of my pocket and toss it to him. He does some weird water mist thing with the water from a glass by my bed, and chucks the drachma in. He quickly mumbles the words, and then Sally Jackson's face appears. She's cooking what looks like lasagne and singing along to the music on the radio.
"Hey, mum", Percy grins. She jumps, and spins around.
"Percy! Nico, hi!" She beams. "You guys having fun at camp?"
"Yeah, camp is good", I say, "It's very quiet though."
"Oh, well it's nice to have some peace there."
"Mum, me and Nico, we're going to be away for some time. In England.", Percy says, interrupting the small talk and looking nervous.
"What? How long are you going to be? And why England? The gods haven't got you to do any more jobs have they?" She frets.
"No, it's nothing to do with the gods. It's quite a long story, really, but we were asked by a wizard to become teachers at a magic school. We'll be gone for a year, but with holidays. I can easily Iris message you whenever I want", Percy explains. I'm pretty sure his explanation created more questions though.
"A teacher? Percy, you're nineteen!" She gasps. And then, "Wizards! And a magic school! Are you making this up now?"
"No! It was this guy, Dumbledore. He came into camp - we still don't know how - and said that me and Nico are his last option. We met him last week when we were collecting souls for Hades."
Sally frowns, and sprinkles some cheese on the top of the lasagne. "So you'll be gone for a year? That's quite a long time."
"I know. There will be holidays though", Percy reassures her.
"Well, it's not really my decision, is it? You've already made up your mind, haven't you?" She sighs.
"Nico's already started packing", Percy offers her.
She laughs. "You own a lot of hoodies, Nico".
"I know." I reply, and put the last one in my bag. I look at Percy and point to my two rucksacks, one filled with clothes (not just hoodies), and the other with an assortment of books, notebooks, CDs (but no cd player, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll be able to get a cheap one in England) and throwing knives, (Reyna had been teaching me). They were also the easiest weapons to carry around that I owned, because of their small size.
"I'm done".
He nods at me, and turns back to Sally. "I need to pack now. I'll call you every weekend, if I can."
She smiles back. "You'd better. Love you!"
"Love you too", Percy says, and swipes through the Iris message, leaving Sally to finish her lasagne in peace.
It didn't take long for us to pack Percy's stuff, because he didn't actually have that much at camp, anyway. We decided to buy some more clothes for him in England when we got there.
"What time did Dumbledore say to meet him?" Percy asks. We are lying on the grass by the lake, our bags in a pile next to us.
"Eleven, I think", I say, squinting at a cloud that's suspiciously in the shape of a weasel.
"What's the time?"
"Dunno. Around eleven?" I'm trying to tell the time by the position of the sun, but I'm not sure if it's actually working.
There's a moment of silence, before we both scramble to our feet, grab our bags and start running towards the Big House. "Why are we... so... dumb?" Percy pants once we're at the steps to the big house.
Thankfully Dumbledore hasn't arrived yet, and so we have a few seconds to sit on the steps and laugh.
"Why is camp so empty today?" I wonder out loud. "I swear usually about ten campers would have asked us what we're doing with our bags and waiting outside the Big House."
"Well, it's a Friday, isn't it? Most people are at school."
"Shouldn't we tell someone where we're going? We're going to disappear for a year. People are going to wonder where we are."
"Chiron knows. I'm sure it'll be fine."
I open my mouth to reply, and then Dumbledore appears almost right next to us. "Are you guys ready to go? All packed?"
We nod, silently shocked about Dumbledore's talent for appearing out of nowhere. It's almost as impressive as the way that he thinks hiring two kids to teach other children how to fight is a good idea.
"Wonderful! Said all your goodbyes?" He questions.
I scrunch up my nose in thought, and then sigh. "I'm sure dad won't mind."
"You dad won't mind that you're going away for a year?" Dumbledore frowns.
"He's pretty relaxed."
"Well, if you're sure,'' he says. He seems suspicious, which is understandable. When we had been interrogated, they did ask about him, and most of the stuff I said was slightly questionable.
"Right, we just need to go this way, and then we can apparate to Diagon Alley, which is where we will go first to get you some supplies for your teaching job. I'm not sure why, but I can't apparate, or disparate in your camp. There must be some sort of magical barrier." The last part he says mostly to himself and so we don't answer him.
We trail after him as he walks out of the camp. For an old man, he's fairly quick.
"What's Diagon Alley?" I whisper at Percy.
"I have no idea. Probably some sort of shopping place for wixen, from the sounds of it. I wonder what Dumbledore wants us to get, if we've already packed our bags."
"Yeah. And how are we going to pay for it? We don't have any British money. Maybe wixen money is different, anyway." I shrug.
"At least he doesn't know about the gods or anything. I don't want to be smited."
"It's a very far-fetched story. He's unlikely to guess it at all." I point out.
Percy hums a reply, and then Dumbledore calls to us. We quickly walk over, dragging our bags.
"I need you to both hold onto my arm, and your bags tightly, so I don't lose you", Dumbledore says, and as soon as we have done that, he turns on the spot, and we all disappear.