Chapter 33 : Tolerance!

Percy then walked up to the trident and sighed, "okay, now I have to bleed on it. But my skin is basically indestructible due to the curse of Achilles, so what do I do?"

"Well then simply cut your mouth," Hecate said with a shrug.

"Hm..okay," Percy took out Riptide and turned it into its sword form. He then brought the blade to his gums and slide it across cutting and drawing blood.

Percy spat out the blood onto the trident and then quickly healed himself with magic.

"That didn't look pleasant," Hecate winced.

"It wasn't, but after taking a swim in the Styx my pain tolerance level has increased."

"Alright, now let's begin." Hecate closed her eyes and began to chant in a language Percy didn't recognize. The goddess opened her eyes which started to glow gold. She thrust her hands forwards sending a blast of magic into the ritual circle.

The lines started glowing from the outside, slowly traveling inwards. The moment the gold glow touched the necklace the trident levitated into the air and started to glow sea green.

The lines then began to glow brighter and brighter, Percy had to shut his eyes to avoid getting blinded, but he saw the line suddenly lift off the ground and then get sucked into the trident itself.

Hecate slowly stopped glowing as she brought her hands down. Percy walked up to the glowing green trident and picked it out of the air.

He looked it over and felt raw magic slowly seep into it before the trident became cold in his grasp.

Percy could feel his father's precess coming from inside the pendant, he smiled and quickly wore it around himself. He felt a second skin of magic surround him before slowly the sensation disappeared. "I think it worked."

Hecate nodded, "yes, it did. Now come on, we still have a loot of work to do before you can take your OWLs. I want you to re learn your charms and begin your transfiguration training once more. Remember those transfigurations doesn't last, so don't try to eat anything you change."

"Oh come on! I change a table top into a giant pizza one time and you hold that against me for the rest of my life!"

The exam hall Percy was assigned was inside of the ministry of magic. It was a few doors down the Department of magical education behind a door that looked like every other door there.

The inside was a hall that could fit around fifty people with single seater desks arranged in rows.

Percy looked around and found that he wasn't alone. There were around five other people in the room, each far older than he was. 'Guess they are repeaters,' Percy thought to himself.

There was a man who looked old enough to be a father, and a woman who was around Percy's mom's age. There were two witches a few years older than Percy and a wizard who looked like he was 100 years old.

Percy groaned, it was nearly 10, just as he wondered when they would begin the door was thrown open and an elderly witch walked in with a stack of papers.

Everyone took this as their que and quickly took their seats. Percy himself sat near the back, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

The invigilator witch flicked her wand sending a scroll, a quill and an ink pot to every desk. She cleared her throat, "welcome to your OWL examination. This is the most important exam for any witch or wizard and we ask that you give it the importance it deserves. Cheating is highly guarded against. Anti-Cheating Spells are applied to all O.W.L. exam papers and you may only write using the instruments we provide you. But despite this, I am sure at least one student will try to cheat, though you must note that none have been successful since the year 1896"

The witch glared down everyone in the room. Percy gulped, the woman's attitude was very daunting to say the least, he really hoped he wouldn't get caught.

Not that he was cheating per say, but he did wear his blood band which would give him an advantage.

He had talked to Hecate about this before, the goddess didn't discourage the idea, in fact she wanted him to go through with the plan.

So Percy did, and now he sat with a blood band on his wrist praying to the Gods that the witch didn't recognize it for what it was.

"Now, today's exam is on charms. You will write you theory paper now and your practical paper will be after lunch" the witch flicked her wand again and several pink answer sheets flew through the air and landed on the exam takers desk, "you may begin."

Percy dreaded simply looking at the paper, charms was his weakest subject, but when he did look he couldn't help the smile forming on his face.

They asked relatively simple questions, 'describe the magical charms involved in creating a broom.' 'what is the common misconception between mobi corpus and mobilarus?' 'what charm is used to deflect curses? What spells can it not defend from?'

Percy quickly dipped the quill in the ink and began to write. He felt the blood band work over time as he framed the answers to the questions asked.

His handwriting was decent, no extra marks there, but his answers were crisp and to the point. And just to be sure Percy over inflated the answer adding extra details. He didn't want to risk a low grade in this exam.

Half way through the first page Percy noticed the examiner going around the hall on rounds. She walked over to him in the back and stood there like a hawk over looking his work.

Percy gulped, he shifted his hand allowing his robes to fall over his hand blocking the sight of the blood band.

Percy wrote his paper, but he noticed that the woman did not leave as she continued to look over his shoulder.

Percy however don't let his nerves slow him down or make a mistake. He also most certainly did not show that he was nervous, that's how they catch you in the first place.