Chapter 34 :Damn!

He was halfway done with the written exam by the one hour mark. He was on a roll, nothing could stop him, and that's when Fate decided to be a bitch.

"Excuse me young man, but may I see your hand?" the examiner asked nicely, though the look on her face indicated anything but.

"Ah, what for ma'am?" Percy as panic started to set in. 'What do I do? What do I do?! Damn it, if only I could use the Mist to block sight of it! Wait...that's it!'

"Just curiosity, now please," the witch's tone left no room for argument as she held out her own hand in waiting.

Percy gulped as he thought fast. He remembered that time he tried to use the Mist to confuse Rachel, wipe off her memory. It didn't work then because she was clear sighted, but witches and wizards weren't.

Percy felt the Mist move to his will and surround itself around the blood band as Percy willed it to be look like a normal wooden bangle. He turned to the witch and smiled giving her his hand.

The witch frowned at his smile but quickly examined his hand. She pushed the sleeves of his robes down and stared right at the blood band.

Percy didn't lose focus as he willed the Mist to maintain the illusion he was casting over the magical object. The witch peered right at it, but she couldn't see anything but a brown wooden band.

Sighing she let go and gave Percy a smile, "that a very lovely bracelet you have there young man. Where did you get it?"

"Family heirloom ma'am," Percy replied with an equally cheery smile as he pulled his sleeves up, no telling how long he could keep up the illusion. "Is that all? Can I return to the exam?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Sorry for the bother," the woman smiled and returned to monitoring the entire hall.

Percy then returned to his exam smiling like a cat. Guess someone had to change the 'no cheaters since 1896' part of the speech.

The rest of the exam went without incident as Percy answered every single question perfectly. When he was done he gave the paper in with a smile and went out of the hall for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron via floo.

When he returned the hall had changed, all the chairs and tables had been removed leaving a wide open space.

The five other exam takers were already there along with two new examiners. One was an older man and the other a younger wizard that looked around 30.

"Right, now since we are all here we can begin," the older man introduced himself as Robert Thatch and the young man as William Tatch, no relation.

He then sent everyone out and called people in one by one to administer the practical part of the exam.

Eventually it was Percy's turn and he entered the hall with wand already drawn.

"Right, are you Percy Jackson?" William asked looking at a form.

"Yes."

"Excellent, let's begin," Robert smiled.

Percy was asked to charm an egg to dance, big surprise there, and also display a variety of other charms he had learnt, like the levitation charm, the colour change sign charm and even a growth charm.

Percy had a little trouble with more of the complex charms, couldn't get them to stick. And while he did get the egg to dance, it looked very silly seeing an egg down the salsa alone.

When he was down Robert and William whispered amongst each other before turning to Percy. "Well that's all for now, thank you Mr. Jackson."

"Ah, if I may, I prepared a little something to, well show off my stuff. Can I?" Percy asked.

The men nodded, "yes of course, please, overachieving is never a bad thing."

Percy nodded as he readied his wand and aimed at a desk pushed back to one corner of the room. He waved the wand and transformed it into a giant pig.

William and Robert looked on in awe. "That is a most impressive piece of transfiguration Mr. Jackson, I'm sure you will do well in your transfiguration exam," William said.

"Thank you sir, and now," Percy aimed his wand at the pig and started waving his wand in intricate patterns.

He quietly started to chant the sleeping charm he had learnt and thrust his arm forward sending a blast of white light at the pig.

"SQUEAK!" the pig yelled before it got blasted by the charm. Immediately it dropped to the floor snoring.

"Amazing!" William yelled as he walked up to the pig and waved his wand to check for the effects of the spell. "This spell is very difficult to learn.Mr Jackson, I must say I am very impressed. You lacked the skill, though that isn't all that unexpected, but more than made up for that through sheer power! Why won't this pig wake up for at least a day! And look at that, barely breathing! I am most impressed with your bewitched sleep spell Mr. Jackson, very impressed."

Percy walked out of the exam hall with a smile on his face.

The next day came and it was time for another exam. This time it was transfiguration. The written part was easy, relative to the charms exam. Percy once again wore the blood band, and this time the examiner didn't even bother checking it.

For his practical exam Percy transfigured a table into a pig once more but also displayed other spells such as the switching spells and the reversing spell.

And for extra marks Percy performed the vanishing spell, which he had gotten quite good at over the months due to constantly using it to clear away his used potion's ingredients.

On Wednesday was Herbology, which was really though. Percy had difficulty with the written exam, as he wasn't all that through with the subject.

But for the practical part they were asked to extract Bulbous sap from a Tonic tree and trim a fanged Geranium plant, which was something Percy found easy as these were potions ingredients and Percy knew how to do that like the back of his hand.