Percy Jackson and the Mirror of Erised

52) The Feast

Madam Pomfrey had insisted on giving us both last minute checkups just before the feast, so the place was packed when we got there.

Harry and I had been silent on the way to the Great Hall. He'd asked me once about what had happened. I'd said nothing. But he didn't seem mad, which I was thankful for. I just focused on using my crutches to get safely down the stairs for the moment.

The Great Hall went silent when we entered. It was probably an odd sight. The two people to be most rumored about walking in alone. One, the Boy Who Lived, standing tall and safe. Healed. Then the small one that no one had known existed before this year... he had the most rumors about him. Everyone had heard that he was roughed up. Bandaged. Everyone knew he wasn't gonna talk about it. And that made it even worse. Green and silver decorations littered the Great Hall. Slytherin had won the House Cup. As we started walking towards our separate tables, everyone started talking loudly.

Everyone from Hufflepuff asked me if I was okay. I nodded, and they nodded too. They didn't push me, which I was more than thankful for.

Susan, Hannah, and Justin all started to ask me about what happened. I told them what each challenge was, save for what my worst memory was, and about Voldemort. I stopped talking once I explained that Harry had passed out. They seemed to understand that it was a bit of a touchy subject.

Dumbledore stood before his students and the babble died down, "Another year gone! And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year is has been! Hopefully your heads are a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead of you to get them nice and empty before next year starts....

"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

Slytherin table erupted into cheers.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin," Dumbledore said. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went silent. The Slytherin's smiles faded.

"Ahem," Dumbledore said. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes...

"First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley..."

Ron turned purple, like a radish. It was awesome.

"... for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Gryffindor cheered loudly. I cheered with them, along with the rest of Hufflepuff.

When the room silenced, Dumbledore continued, "Second — to Miss Hermione Granger... for use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

Hermione buried her head in her arms while all of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff cheered again. They were 100 points up now. They passed us. We were fourth now.

"Third — to Mr. Harry Potter..." Dumbledore said, immediately silencing the room. "... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor House sixty points."

Now they had four hundred and seventy-two points. Tied with Slytherin. The roar in the Great Hall was deafening.

Dumbledore raised his hand and the room fell silent, "There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Cheers exploded throughout the Great Hall. Neville disappeared beneath a pile of hugs and Slytherin kids looked like they had the body-bind curse placed on them.

With a swish of Dumbledore's wand, the room fell quiet. People stopped cheering when they realized that they couldn't hear anything.

Dumbledore looked at me, "And lastly, for standing when he couldn't stand at all, for protecting what he believes in even when he was hurt, for staying true to himself like a true Hufflepuff, I award Mr. Percy Jackson one hundred thirty points."

The silence was deafening. But I was amazed. And so was everyone else. I smiled at the happy looks on Gryffindor students faces. They weren't mad that we were tied.

Then everyone started to cheer. I found myself wedged between so many different Hufflepuffs. It was awesome.

Even Dumbledore's spell didn't block out the roars and cheers of the students. I smiled as I watched the Slytherin decorations change to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff decorations.

It had been one of the best nights of my life.

The night had been so amazing that I completely forgot we were going to get our grades. Surprisingly, I had an O for Outstanding in nearly every class. Hermione had gotten the best in the grade. Draco was second. Terry Boot was third. And we were all amazed when I was fourth.

Next thing we knew, our bags were packed and we were on the train home. I'd been given a paper to sign from the Ministry of Magic making Luke my legal guardian. I'd been smiling the entire time it took me to spell my name correctly.

We were reminded not to use magic during our holidays, then they sent us off. The train ride home was just as fun as the one to Hogwarts. We are candy, laughed, and had a good time. We started passing Muggle towns and took our robes off, getting into normal clothes. I found it nice to be wearing a tee shirt with shorts instead of those long pants and sweater.

We stepped off of the train, all of us saying our goodbyes. I parted ways with my friends after taking to Mrs. Weasley, walking with Luke to an old car he owned. He shoved my crutches in the back and we were on our way to our new home.

It was going to be awesome.

So yesterday I did some work for my Papaw. Me, Emblem, and one of my cousins, we'll call her Supergirl, had to stick labels onto a bunch of bottles. We are not smart people. First we did the tiny bottles. Around fifty something, I think. Then we realized there were another two boxes. So we did those. Then we realized Supergirl had been sticking some of the labels in the wrong spot. After that we're the big bottles. We did those, then went back to another large box, thinking it was going to be more big ones. No. It was more tiny ones. I'd say in all, we did around three hundred tiny bottles. In the middle of doing that, I asked Emblem if we missed something on the big one, because we had more stickers we didn't know where went. She checked, and said no. Then Supergirl noticed the stickers too, and we all go to check. Sure enough, Emblem had missed the label. We did that, ate some pizza (which Emblem doesn't like) and did some more tiny bottles. We packed everything up when Papaw and the GingaNinja came back, and he paid each of us 40$, which was awesome.

See you.