Chapter 6
It was just after six o'clock when the four demigods and Mrs. Weasley arrived back at Grimmauld Place. Each had fulfilled their school supply list, lugging their new books and trunks to take to Hogwarts. Only Nico ended up with a pet, but after seeing the two together, Percy was already regretting not buying one.
Mrs. Weasley disarmed the jinxes waiting for intruders and walked through the wooden door, the demigods following on her heels. She cast a helpful spell that lifted their new luggage off the ground and into their room. When they all reached the dining room, they were surprised to see it filled with people. A scarlet banner hung over the center of the dining table that read, "Congratulations Ron and Hermione-New Prefects!" Mrs. Weasley squinted at the banner, then squealed with delight and rushed over to her son.
Hermione was beaming with pride next to an embarrassed looking Ron. "My Ronald is a school prefect? That's four in the family! Oh, I'm so proud of you!" Mrs. Weasley crushed Ron to her chest with a tight hug, then gave her best wishes to Hermione.
Percy cleared the space between them in two strides and stuck his hand out. "Congratulations to you both. We have no idea what being a Prefect means, but I assume it's a good thing."
He heard a pair of snorts behind him, and spun around to find Fred and George snickering with bemused expressions. "I don't know about that mate, only a right sure prat is appointed to Prefect."
Percy honestly couldn't tell which brother was which, so he just backed away when Mrs. Weasley slapped both boys on the arm and shooed them away. "Percy, dear, being a Prefect is a special privilege. One boy and one girl is selected from each house and given extra authority and responsibilities. They report to the head of the house and to the headmaster himself!" She was so obviously pleased, and seemed reluctant to take her hands off of her son. She kept patting his cheeks muttering, "So proud, my son! Almost all of the boys in the family..."
Ron looked like he was going to die of embarrassment. "That's enough Mum!" He pushed her hands off of him and went to hide behind Hermione. The other demigods moved to congratulate the two, and Percy began scanning the crowd. There had to be at least six more people there than this morning. He caught sight of a head of jet-black hair mulling around in the corner eating finger food and sidestepped the newcomers to greet him.
"Hiding in the corner?" Percy asked, surprising Harry. He jumped in surprise and narrowed his eyes when they landed on Percy.
"I'm not hiding, I'm eating." Harry retorted, stuffing another mini sandwich in his mouth.
"Mhhmm." Percy tilted his head in consideration. "And you aren't upset at all for not making Prefect?"
Harry's eyes widened, as if Percy had caught him red-handed, but threw up a mask of indifference. "Ron's my best mate, I'm happy for him!"
Percy threw up his hands in faux defeat, giving Harry a crooked smile. "Whatever you say, man. Who are all of these people?" he asked, gesturing to the boisterous crowd.
Harry was obviously relieved for the change of topic. "They are the rest of the Weasley family and more members of the Order. That's Mr. Weasley, Ron's brother Bill, and his sister, Ginny," he explained, pointing out two new frizzy, red-headed men and a girl who looked to be a little younger than Harry. "Over there is Lupin, Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt." At the sound of his name, Lupin turned from his conversation with Tonks and his tired eyes met Percy's.
Percy immediately pegged him as some kind of monster. He didn't think the man was necessarily evil, but Percy definitely knew a monster when he saw one. He made a mental note to keep an eye out. Lupin noticed Percy's narrowed gaze, and slowly went back to his conversation throwing one last look over his shoulder. Harry watched the silent exchange with interest but said nothing.
Mr. Weasley clapped his son on his back and raised a glass. "Well, I think a toast is in order." (OotP) Annabeth, Nico, and Will grabbed a glass and found their spots next to Percy. "To Ron and Hermione, the new Gryffindor prefects!" (OotP)
Everyone drank and continued to congratulate the duo before continuing to their conversations. Percy noted Harry was thrust into a headlock under Sirius' arm, talking animatedly to Lupin and Tonks. Something they said must have cheered him up, because Harry had a real smile touching his lips, and he wrestled himself out of his godfather's grasp.
Percy and Annabeth found Moody carefully examining an old piece of parchment in his hands. "What's that?" she asked. He didn't bother looking up but turned it around so that they could see.
"The original Order of the Phoenix," he explained. Percy sensed that someone was watching him, and he glanced up to find Harry Potter standing in front of him with his arms folded. Percy moved away and gestured for the boy to take his place. Without taking his eyes off Percy, Harry slid next to Annabeth and examined the yellowing photograph.
A small group of fidgeting people smiled at the camera. It was moving, which in all honesty still freaked Percy out, but he kept that to himself. Moody rattled off a few names he hadn't heard before, "Dedalus Diggle, Marlene McKinnon, Frank and Alice Longbottom."
Harry tensed at the last pair of names, so Percy figured they were familiar to him. He wasn't really interested in the old photo, so he decided to leave them to it and set off to find Nico and Will.
He pushed past the Weasley twins, who were making some kind of shady deal with a shorter, balding, mobster type of fellow, and found his friends talking to Lupin and Tonks. She was laughing at something Will said and somehow changing the color of her hair and physically morphing her face.
She even managed to get a small smile out of Nico. "You would get along well with our friend Frank. His favorite thing to change into is a Bulldog."
Lupin watched Percy approach and stiffened. "You look like a young man with a question." His drawn, tired eyes had a spark of intelligence and wart suspicion, similar to Annabeth's.
Percy nodded. "I know you're some kind of monster. I'm just trying to figure out what kind." Tonks spit out the orange soda she had been sipping on and stared at Percy.
"Blimey, how did you know that?" She asked in disbelief. Nico and Will took a step backwards so that they were on either side of Percy, showing their support.
Percy simply shrugged. "Good guess. I don't think you're dangerous, thought. At least not to us." His friends' shoulders relaxed half and inch and they moved their hands away from the wands in their pockets.
Lupin considered the demigod with newfound respect in his eyes. "Very well, I am a werewolf. Have been since I was in Hogwarts myself, unfortunately."
Nico grumbled, and Percy shot him a crooked smile. "Hey, as long as he's not with Lycaon, he's cool."
A dark grin stretched across Nico's lips. "Thalia made sure that he wouldn't bother us again."
Lupin startled into a cough and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, are you referring to the myth Lycaon? I'm a werewolf, and even I know he's not real."
The three demigods exchanged knowing looks. Will offered a rational explanation, "Nah, just a big bad wolf in our parts. He liked to use the name to-"
He was interrupted by a piercing scream that caused gooseflesh to erupt over his arms. Gasps of surprise were heard around him, but Percy didn't even think twice before breaking into an all out sprint towards the sound, a scream he would know from anywhere.
Annabeth.
He took the stairs three at a time, crying out her name. Another blood curdling howl led him to a dark, dusty room at the end of the hallway upstairs. He burst into the room, Riptide raised and ready to fight, and his knees turned into jello at the scene in front of him.
XX
Annabeth was standing so close to him, or rather, he was standing so close to her, that Harry's senses were assaulted with the smell of lemons and a hint of something floral.
He tried to concentrate on the photo Mad Eye Moody was showing him, but a heavy pit formed in Harry's stomach when he saw his parents, happy and alive, standing next to the man who betrayed them. Harry was an orphan because of Peter Pettigrew, and his parents in that photo had no idea what would happen to them in the coming months. No, Moody might have found the original Order of the Phoenix interesting, but it just made Harry sick.
He noticed that Percy had moved away, so he decided to take advantage of the opportunity and try to get to know Annabeth a little better. He stepped away from Moody and silently ran through ideas of something interesting to talk about.
He had heard Mrs. Weasley and Moody talking about something upstairs when he first arrived...He wondered if it's still there...
"Hey Annabeth?" She reluctantly dragged her brilliant grey eyes from the photo to Harry's face, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. "Have you ever seen a boggart before?"
Her head gave a slight tilt to the side. "No..what's a boggart?" He snatched the runaway train of thought before making himself look like a complete idiot. "It's a nasty shapeshifter that tries to scare the daylights out of people, but they are fairly easy to dispose of..." She raised an interested eyebrow, and motioned for him to continue.
"Well...wanna see the one upstairs?" He asked, raised one hand to scratch behind his ear.
She studied him for a long moment, but eventually gave him a soft smile and nodded. "Let's do it." She pulled out her wand in preparation.
Harry didn't have the heart to tell her that they weren't allowed to perform magic outside of Hogwarts, but at least he could show her the boggart before one of the Order members took care of it.
He led her up the stairs to the back room where a giant eighteenth-century mahogany dresser stood in the corner of the shadowed room. Harry glanced back at Annabeth, gauging her level of fear. Surprisingly, the only emotion he could gleam off of her was slight nervousness. She shut the door behind her, and they stood a few feet away from the dresser.
She gave a simple nod of acknowledgement, and Harry stepped forward. He barely laid his hand on the handle when he was thrown back violently against the wall, his head snapping back from the force of it. Annabeth screamed, the pitch sounding between his ears. Harry tried to raise his wand, but his vision was fading in and out.
Annabeth dropped to her knees, another scream tearing from her throat, and Harry forced himself to focus.
A massive, horrifying black widow spider stood before Annabeth. In this small room, the spider seemed even larger than Aragog. A bloody red hourglass was sketched onto its furry abdomen, and its eight legs were decorated with sharp, curved barbs. Where the head should be, a misshapen woman's face with enormous pincers jutted from the mouth. Harry choked in surprise and felt his muscles seize with fear.
His eyes caught sight of something pinned underneath the giant spider-woman. Wrapped inside a web silk Chinese handcuff was Percy Jackson, dead. His messy black hair was matted with blood, a puddle of it staining the wood while his pale face hung towards the spider, his neck exposed.
Harry knew the scene in front of him was fake. He knew that it was just a boggart exposing Annabeth's deepest fears, but the spider was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It just looked so real.
A figure burst through the door with a sharp cry. Percy. Alive and well. He was holding what looked to be a glowing bronze sword, but Harry must not have been seeing things right. Percy sucked in a sharp breath of air as he laid eyes on the beast, but his face hardened in determination when he caught sight of Annabeth. Quicker than Harry would have thought possible, Percy Jackson somersaulted in the air, landing atop the spider's back. He drew the sword in a magnificent arc and brought it downwards to pierce the spider's abdomen.
Harry wanted to tell him that only magic could work on Boggarts, that whatever he was doing wasn't going to work, that he needed to go get help from an adult. But a cruel howl sliced through his thoughts before he could even open his mouth. The spider writhed to the ground, bellowing out in pain. Harry's eyes widened as he watched the monster and its dinner shrink until it thinned and withered into dust.
Percy rushed to Annabeth, who hadn't moved from the floorboards, and crushed his body against hers. His hands were flying everywhere, checking her face, arms, legs, and the rest of her body to make sure nothing was broken. Harry felt a sting of jealousy, but it was overshadowed by worry.
Her mind finally seemed to register that Percy was on his knees in front of her, because Annabeth shuddered as sobs escaped her throat and salty tears tracked down her cheeks. Harry felt absolutely rotten. All he had wanted to do was show a pretty girl something interesting. He had no idea that she had a serious phobia of spiders.
Percy held Annabeth as she cried against his chest, murmuring reassurances into her hair over and over again.
Nico and Will were the next two to appear through the doorway, apparently inherently quicker than everyone else in the house. Percy gave them a nod and they fell down to take his place. In the next second, he had Harry shoved up against the wall with a strong arm pinned across his chest and the tip of that bronze sword digging into his exposed neck.
"What did you do to her!" He bellowed, fury and unsheathed anger radiating off of him, leaving Harry scrambling for breath.
Harry's brain stuttered. There was a sword pointed at him. He wasn't just seeing things, it was an actual sword, one that looked and felt like it would easily cut him into tiny pieces. His mind clouded as he struggled, almost drunk off the outrage that crashed off of Percy in waves.
"B-boggart! I didn't mean to!" He stammered, trying to swallow past the point of the sword. ,
More people flew into the room running in the two different directions. Sirius and Ron rushed towards Percy and Harry while Hermione and Mrs. Weasley ran to help Annabeth.
"What's going on here? Release my godson!" Sirius demanded, wand at the ready. Percy didn't even so much as glance at him before responding through gritted teeth. "He hurt Annabeth! Look at her!" He jerked his chin towards the girl, who was shakily getting to her feet with the help of her friends.
"He wouldn't hurt anybody!" Ron argued hotly, clearly surprised at Percy's display of violence.
Mrs. Weasley held up her palms in defense and approached slowly, "Percy, it was just a boggart. I think he was just trying to show off for Annabeth. It's harmless, really..."
Percy finally forced his gaze from Harry and glared at Mrs. Weasley. "Harmless!? Look at her! You're calling that thing harmless!?"
"Seaweed brain. I-I'm fine. Really. It just scared me." Annabeth pleaded with Percy, and Harry hoped and prayed that the boy in front of him would listen to her.
His expression softened at her words, and he shot Harry a look of pure disdain. A shock of electricity ran through Harry's veins again at the sheer power of his gaze, but Percy finally released him with a muttered curse. He whispered something in a different language, and the glowing sword shrunk back into his wand, which was close enough for Harry to notice that it was etched with a bronze pattern.
Percy started towards Annabeth and then paused. Before Harry could release a breath of relief, Percy spun around and socked Harry in the jaw with a closed fist. Pain exploded behind his eyes as his head snapped back and he hit the wall once again.
The only sound in the room was Harry's rough cry as Percy pushed past everyone in his way, and then took Annabeth's face in his hands and kissed her hard on the mouth.
Harry's breath caught in his throat when he managed to open his eyes and realize what was going on.
Percy and Annabeth were together.
Oh no... he had been flirting with another guy's girlfriend, then ended up scaring her half to death. Guilt, pain and embarrassment sunk through his entire body, and suddenly he couldn't stand to be in the room for another second. He broke through the sea of hands that were attempting to comfort him and sprinted towards the bedroom he would share with Ron, Fred, and George.
When he reached it, his shoulders sagged to find it blissfully empty, and he slammed the door behind him, sinking down towards the floor.
XX
"Are you sure you're okay Annabeth?" Hermione asked softly, holding out a mug of freshly brewed hot chocolate. The four demigods plus Ron and Hermione were all sprawled out across their room. Nico and Will were sitting comfortably on the floor with their backs to their packed trunks, Percy and Annabeth were cuddled together on his bed while Ron and Hermione had pulled the dusty chairs from the corner to the center of the room.
Annabeth gave her a weak smile and took a sip from her mug. "I'm okay, honestly. I just wasn't expecting to see..what I did. Harry really didn't do anything wrong." Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth's shoulder in disagreement. She might have forgiven Harry easily, but it wouldn't be so easy for Percy to move past it. Annabeth reached up to cover his hand with hers and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
Ron and Hermione exchanged a look, but at least moved to change the subject. "We're leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow. What are you most looking forward to?"
Before anyone had the chance to answer, there was a sharp knock at the door. They all watched Harry Potter walk through the doorway with trepidation, looking especially sheepish with a nasty bruise blossoming across his jaw. Ron and Hermione were on their feet instantly, moving to his side in a show of support.
Harry waved them off and cleared his throat before looking up to meet Percy's glare. "Uh..can I speak with you two alone?"
Annabeth tugged Percy off the bed. "Of course you can." She shot a look towards Nico and Will, and they slowly moved out of the room, followed shortly by an anxious looking Ron and Hermione.
Percy crossed his arms over his chest, waiting. Based on the bead of sweat collected on Harry's temple, he was nervous. "Listen..Annabeth, I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am. I thought the boggart was cool and I wanted to impress you. I didn't realize that you and Percy were..."
"Together?" She finished for him, not unkindly. Harry nodded with his gaze downcast. "It's fine, Harry. I wanted to see it. I shouldn't have reacted to her so strongly. I thought I was past that."
"And Percy," Harry hesitated, looking like he was working extremely hard to meet his eyes. "I'm really sorry for flirting with Annabeth. If I would have known that you two were together, I never would have intervened."
Percy glared at him for a long, drawn out moment, and then his eyes softened. "Apology accepted, man. I got my punch in. Annabeth's okay, and I don't blame you. She kind of makes people's brains turn to mush."
Harry chuckled quietly when Annabeth pushed at Percy's shoulder with a scowl. "So, are we good then?"
Percy held out his hand for Harry, who took it gratefully. "Yeah, we're good."
Harry beamed at the two of them, relief obvious on his face before his brow furrowed. "Just one thing...where did you get a sword?" The two demigods glanced at one another out of the corner of their eyes before Percy shrugged and pulled out his wand.
He whispered Riptide's Greek name and watched as the wand transformed into his three-foot glowing celestial bronze sword.
Harry's eyes widened in interest and he took a step forward. "Wha-? How?"
Annabeth winked at him, "Magic. Our uh...wand maker is big into transfiguration." Harry didn't seem satisfied with her answer, but thankfully didn't ask any more pressing questions.
"Well that is really, really cool." Harry admired.
Finally, everything was set right before his fifth year at Hogwarts.
XX