A/N
I'm on time! Yay! Also, this is a long chapter. 1988 words. Geez.
——
Luke
I was terrified that Draco was going to fall off the tower.
"Draco, you need to calm down," I insisted.
"This is your fault!" He said, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "Your fault! Now they think I'm nothing more than an incapable child who can't handle a simple mission!"
"You are still a child!" I yelled. "And, they ordered you to kill two people! You need to calm down and accept that sometimes, things don't go as you planned."
"I don't think you understand," Draco hissed, coming closer, "My father failed his mission to the dark lord and as punishment, I became a monster. Now, they asked me to kill Dumbledore and you're stupid 'nemesis' or whatever you want to call him. If I fail, they're going to do a lot more than turn me into a wolf. Because you wouldn't let me talk about half-bloods, it looked like I had done nothing! Then, they gave me the simple mission of finding a cupboard. You were sent to 'help' me, but so far you haven't even lifted a pinky finger to help! You might have been an evil person when you were alive, but dying has made you soft."
"Draco, my job is not to help you kill Percy and Dumbledore. My job is to prevent you from going clinically insane under all this pressure."
"And you can't even do that!" He yelled. The silence that followed rung. Draco seemed to collapse into himself as he realised what he had just said. Stumbling back into the railing, he fell to his knees.
Draco was not handling this year well. With the mission, the werewolf thing every month and his reputation at school, he was slowly falling more and more insane. He was hardly sleeping and he had started mumbling under his breath. My job was to help him, and he was right. I couldn't. But I was trying. I was trying so hard to help him because it hurt me whenever he cried up on the tower. He was my friend, and I was slowly watching him go mad.
"Draco-" I tried. He was hugging himself and shaking. With some effort, I made my form solid. It was one of the perks I picked up while here. As a ghost, I pass through objects but if I concentrate, harder than if I want to remain unseen, I can become more human. I walked over to Draco and sat down next to him. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. Weariness made my head spin. It was taking a lot of effort to remain like this, but I sure as hell was going to.
My mission, given to me by Hades, was to prevent this teenager from doing anything reckless.
My duty, as a friend, was to comfort and assist him with whatever he needs to do.
I can easily do both.
----
Percy
Ron woke up from his coma a couple of days after Hermione had visited him. He was quite confused as to why he was suddenly single, but no one told him why Lavender dumped him.
"Hey, Percy," Harry said, sliding across from us at the breakfast table on Friday. "I really need to talk to you."
"I noticed. What's up?" I asked.
"It's about-"
"Harry! Harry!" Hermione yelled, running into the Great Hall. "Harry, Percy, Jason, Piper, Annabeth!"
"Breath, Hermione." I told her.
"Apparating lessons! Tomorrow!"
"Wait, really?" Harry jumped up, completely forgetting about what he had to say before. "Are you serious?"
"I just noticed the paper on the board," Hermione explained. "It's for all the sixth year wizards who are sixteen."
"That's amazing!" Harry exclaimed. Apparently apparating was a big deal.
----
Later that night, we talked to Hermione. Annabeth was worried about this whole apparating thing, so we waited for Harry and Ron to go to bed before asking her about it.
"I think you'll be fine for the first couple of lessons," Hermione said. "No one will be able to do it, so you'll blend right in."
"Then what?" I asked.
"We skip," Jason suggested. "We've done it before."
"I don't think you can do that," Hermione explained. "But yes, having magic is necessary to be able to apparate."
I sighed. "We'll figure it out tomorrow."
--
The next morning was buzzing with excitement. Everyone was eager to learn how to teleport. Eleven o'clock came too quickly in my opinion. Soon, all the sixth years sixteen and older were assembled in the Great Hall. All the tables had disappeared, making the room look a lot bigger than I previously thought. The heads of houses were standing up near the teachers table looking down at everyone. We were standing at the back so that we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves.
"Good morning," A ministry wizard said after the heads of houses had called for quiet. "My name is Wilkie Twycross and I shall be your Ministry Apparation Instructor for the next eight weeks. I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparation test during this time. Now,-"
"Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!" Professor McGonagall barked. Malfoy, who had been previously whispering flushed a deep shade of red.
"I would like each of you to place yourselves so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you," Twycross instructed. There was scrambling as everyone spread out. Harry placed himself directly behind Malfoy a little to my left, so I scuttled over a few places so I could be in hearing range. Annabeth and the rest of the demigods followed suit. Nico and Will were behind Annabeth and I, with Piper and Jason to the right of my fiancé. Hermione and Ron were a couple of places in front of us.
"I told you that I didn't want you around," Malfoy hissed under his breath. I turned my head in confusion. No one was talking to him. Harry also looked confused. "Go hang out with the Bloody Baron for all I care!" His voice raised slightly before he realised that he was surrounded by other people so he shut his mouth in embarrassment.
"Now then. Usually, you are unable to apparate within Hogwarts, however Dumbledore has kindly lifted this restriction for the hour." Twycross waved his wand. Old, wooden hoops suddenly appeared in front of every student. "The important thing to remember when apparating are the three Ds! Destination, Determination and Deliberation. Step one: fix your mind upon the desired destination. In your case it is the centre of the hoop in front of you.
"Step two: focus your determination to occupy the visualised space. Let your yearning to enter it flood your mind to every particle of your body!"
The students all around me started concentrating on the hoop. Most of them looked quite constipated as they focused on the three 'Ds'. I bit back a laugh and mimicked their concentration. It was no use trying; there was no wizarding blood in me.
"Step three," Twycross continued, "And only when I give the command... turn on the spot, feeling your way into nothingness, moving with deliberation. On my count, now... one-"
People started looked around, alarmed at the idea of apparating so quickly. I couldn't stop focusing on the idea that the ministry wizard wanted us to do a pirouette.
"- two -"
The students refocused on the hoop.
"THREE"
There were spins everywhere. No one teleported.
"Never mind, never mind." Twycross said dryly. "Back to your original positions. Try it again."
There wasn't much success in the next couple of minutes.
"Well, I guess we should at least look like we're trying to get in the hoop," Annabeth whispered to our group. Piper nodded and started jumping up and spinning every thirty seconds. Will and Nico were in a heated argument about shadow travelling. I turned back to Annabeth and Jason.
"I have an idea," I suggested. "Why don't we just jump into the hoop?" Annabeth sighed in exasperation and Jason laughed. "Well, why not? See - it's not that hard." I did a little twirl before leaping over into the hoop. Jason laughed harder. "I'm sorry, Jason. But at least I'm trying." I flicked my non-existent long hair over my shoulder and huffed.
"Screw you, Will!" Nico said quite loudly. People turned their attention to him because of the volume. Even the ministry wizard looked over.
"Excuse me, but are you concentrating on the task in front of you?" Twycross asked. Nico turned to Will, flipped him off, and turned back to the front.
"Yes, sir." Nico gave him a little head bow before doing a very graceful pirouette and disappearing, shadow travelling into his hoop. There were gasps and whispers as he took a little bow. Will mumbled under his breath before focusing on his hoop in front of him. There were a couple of claps and then everyone's attention was back onto their own task of apparation.
A couple of minutes later, there was a scream. Heads whipped around to see a curly haired girl in Hufflepuff colours in her hoop. The problem was the fact that she seemed to have left her leg behind. I did not like that. Did not like that at all.
"Everyone, stay calm. This is what is called 'splinching' and is the separation of body parts." Twycross explained as Professor Sprout ran over to help her student. "It occurs when the mind is insufficiently determined." There was a puff of smoke and the girl was reunited with her leg. She looked quite pale though, having seen her body part separate from her body.
The hour ended with no success. The only person who actually managed to get into the hoop (while retaining all necessary body parts) was Nico, but he was cheating. Will seemed to calm down when he realised that Nico was actually fine and wasn't about to faint. Hermione, Ron and Harry talked about the class while the rest of us ran ahead to the Gryffindor common room.
"I can't believe that the ministry wizard didn't call you out for you're 'apparating'," Piper said to Nico. "You were obviously above everyone else, and I'm surprised he didn't call you out for it." Nico shrugged.
"The ministry are idiots," I muttered.
---
Harry
I'm getting annoyed that I still haven't been able to talk to Percy, but now I have other things to focus on. After seeing Dumbledore yesterday after breakfast, I now have more things on my plate than I would like. Now, I have to:
a) Talk to Percy
b) Find Slughorn and talk to him about Horcruxes (Dumbledore showed me a memory and apparently horcruxes are necessary to defeating Voldemort?)
c) Homework.
d) Work out what's up with Draco
Too many things at once. That night I stayed awake studying the Half-Blood Prince's book. Now that I knew who it was once owned by, I'm reading over the notes more carefully in an attempt to find more about who they are. In the section about antidotes I found a spell; levicorpus. Getting out my wand and pointing it at nothing in particular, I said the incantation in my head. There was a sudden yelp and I looked up to see Ron dangling by his feet in the air.
"Harry! I was sleeping!" He scolded. "Put me down!" I frantically scanned the page for a counter spell. Underneath the first spell, written in rushed handwriting was what I hoped was the counter spell. I said 'libracorpus' in my head and Ron fell back onto the bed with a thump.
"Sorry about that, Ron," I whispered. He mumbled a couple of curses and wriggled back under the covers. I turned my wand light back to the book. My attention was drawn to another spell which sounded intriguing.
'Sectumsempra'