A/N: Set after Sea of Monsters and during Prisoner of Azkaban. All characters and major plot lines belong to Rick Riordan and JK Rowling.

Percy smiled as he walked up the steps to his mom's apartment. He was coming home a couple of days than originally planned, since Thalia's emergence from her pine tree had thrown everyone a bit, and she'd had trouble readjusting. The last she'd known Annabeth had been seven. Now she was fourteen, only eighteen months younger than Thalia, compared to the five year age gap she'd remembered. Getting used to that had been difficult. Not to mention Luke. She'd refused to believe that he'd betrayed them, and it wasn't until Annabeth had broken down in tears and explained everything that had happened the last two years that she accepted it. After that, it had fallen to Percy to help her. Being around Annabeth had been too hard for her first – a constant reminder of the time she had missed out on. As Annabeth had previously predicted, Percy and Thalia had gotten along like a house on fire. And he meant that literally as well as figuratively. They spent almost half their time fighting, and Thalia had once set fire to a corner of the Big House porch with a lightning bolt. But despite that, they had been good friends. In some ways they were the only people the other could talk to, since they were the only children of the Big Three. Knowing you were forbidden by the most sacred of oaths wasn't always easy to deal with, though Percy sure as hell wasn't going to admit that to anyone other than Thalia. They wouldn't understand. Eventually, Thalia had gotten used to the idea of a teenaged-Annabeth, and they'd fallen back into their sister-like friendship. After that, Percy had decided he could go home without feeling bad for Thalia so here he was, two days after his fourteenth birthday, climbing the steps to his mom's apartment, smiling.

His smile fell from his face though when he heard a faint pop behind him, and span around to see an elderly man wearing a pair of colourful curtains. Without even thinking about it, instead of drawing Riptide – not that he really thought this man was a monster, he used the ancient ward against evil he had learned from Grover before he even knew he was a demigod. A three-fingered claw over his heart, before thrusting it toward the old man, causing him to stagger back a couple of steps. Belatedly, Percy realised he was lucky it hadn't had the same effect as it did on Gabe the year before, because the old man would've been thrown in to the wall. He opened his mouth to apologise, but he felt that something wasn't right. Over the last two years, he'd learned to trust his monster sense, but now it was sending him mixed messages.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he said instead, but immediately wanted to apologise again for being rude. He stopped himself though, as he remembered that this man had appeared out of thin air. Definitely not normal.

"Ah," he said, sky blue eyes twinkling. "I am Albus Dumbledore. I'm wondering if perhaps you could assist me. I'm looking for a woman called Sally Jackson; would you happen to know which apartment belongs to her?" He had a British accent.

Percy nodded slowly, slipping his hand into his pocket to grasp Riptide. "What do you want with my mother?" he said, before cursing himself for revealing that little piece of information. The old man was really giving him the creeps. Percy had the feeling he knew exactly which apartment was his mother's.

"Sally Jackson is your mother?" Albus asked, his tone thoughtful, but continued before Percy could respond. "Curious. Anyway, I simply wish discuss something with her, regarding your uncles."

Percy blinked, unable to make sense out of this guy. He knew he had an opportunity to get some idea though. "You know my dad?" he asked.

"Can't say I've ever had the pleasure," Albus replied. "No, the uncles I'm referring to are your mother's brothers."

"My mother doesn't have any brothers," Percy said, pulling Riptide out of his pocket but leaving it in pen form.

The old man hummed. "Maybe I have made a mistake." Percy dismissed the idea immediately. The man maybe old, but he definitely wasn't senile and Percy had no doubt that he knew exactly what he was talking about. "Nevertheless, I would like to have a word anyway, just in case."

Percy and the old man had by now reached the door to his apartment at the end of the hall, though Percy hadn't even realised they had started walking.

"Mom, I'm home!" he called out once he'd unlocked and opened the door, "and there's a man here who wants to talk to you."

His mother emerged from the kitchen, a plate of blue cookies in hand. With a smile, he gave his mum a hug and swiped a cookie from the plate, planning to leave his mom alone to deal with the weird old man, before realising that it might be better if he stayed. Before he could turn back from making his way to his room, however, the old man spoke.

"I believe it may be best if you remained for this discussion, Mr Jackson," he said.

"Uhh, okay sure," he said.

"Mrs Jackson," Albus began, "I am Professor Albus Dumbledore. I wished to speak to you of your brothers, both of whom I once taught."

"You're a teacher," Percy scoffed, "and I'm a son of Zeus." His felt his eyes go wide. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that, it's just that you're not really like most teachers I've met. And I've met a lot of teachers." There it was again. One second: monster. The next: a sudden urge to apologise for being so rude to a perfectly innocent old man.

His mother shot him a reproachful glance at his outburst, before addressing Professor Dumbledore. "Please, call me Sally," she said. "Though I'm afraid you must be mistaken. I was adopted when I was eleven, but my parents died a few months later and I moved here to New York to live with my adoptive-uncle."

"Hmm, I wonder," Professor Dumbledore muttered. "If you don't mind me asking, Mrs Jackson, what do you remember of your life before you were adopted?"

"Not much to be honest," Percy's mom replied. That was a surprise. She'd never talked much about that time of her life, but Percy just assumed it was because she didn't like to. "I mean, I remember that I lived it, but I couldn't tell you a single fact about my life before my eleventh birthday, if that makes sense."

Percy gave his mom a strange look. What she just described sounded like the Mist. The other kids at Yancy had been like that after Mrs Dodds. They would all swear up and down that Mrs Kerr had been their pre-algebra teacher all year, but they couldn't recall details about what happened in her classes. But that didn't make sense, because his mom was clear-sighted and couldn't be tricked by the mist.

"Do you remember your surname from before your adoption?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I do. It was Black," his mom said, eliciting a smug look from the old professor.

"No wonder he hated her," he said, before turning to Percy. "May I ask where you attend school, Mr Jackson?" he asked.

Percy looked at his mom, feeling bad for her. He'd managed to get himself expelled from Meriwether at the end of the last year. "I don't actually know yet. I got expelled from my last school, Meriwether Prep."

"I managed to get you a place at Long Road Middle School," his mom said kindly.

Long Road to where? Percy thought bitterly, redemption for his sins,maybe.

"Well, in that case, I would like to invite you to attend my school," Professor Dumbledore announced.

Percy managed to hide his laugh in his cough. "I'm not sure you want to do that, Professor," he said. "Meriwether was the seventh school I've been expelled from. I have a tendency to… err, make things explode?" he added hestitantly.

To his surprise, the old man smiled. "All the more reason for you to attend my school." Percy blinked, sure he'd heard wrong. "Tell me," Dumbledore continued, ignoring Percy and his mother's incredulous looks. "Do you believe in magic?"

Percy hesitated. He supposed that the abilities possessed by the gods and their children could be classified as magic, but he certainly couldn't give that away. "Umm… I've never seen anyone do magic, besides the classic card tricks, but I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist."

Dumbledore nodded. "A very wise outlook to have young man. Anyway, I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the same school attended by both of your brothers, Mrs Jackson."

Percy tried and failed to keep a straight face. "Hogwarts? As in warts? On a pig?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Indeed, there is a legend that one of the founders was led to the location of our school, whilst dreaming, by a hog with warts."

Percy didn't quite know what to say to that. When no response was forthcoming, the old man continued.

"Perhaps I should start with your birth parents, Mrs Jackson. Their names were Orion and Walburga Black, from one of the oldest Pureblood families in England. They had three children. First was the twins, Sirius Black, and yourself, Solaria Black. Two years later, they had another son called Regulus. Your brothers, as expected, were wizards and began to study at Hogwarts when they turned eleven. You, my dear, turned out to be a squib – a person with magical blood who lacked the ability to perform magic. Your parents were Pureblood supremacists, and when you didn't receive a Hogwarts letter on your eleventh birthday, you were disowned, blasted off you family tree and put up for adoption in the muggle world. It seems you were also obliviated, meaning you had your memory altered so you had no recollection of the wizarding world. As an aside, a curious note about wizarding law, any pureblood descendants – and in this case we define pureblood as having all magical great-grandparents – of a disinherited squib will be restored to the family, although this usually goes unnoticed because it's usually generations before the magical trait resurfaces. Nevertheless, it seems that young Perseus has inherited his grandparents ability to perform magic, and since he is has not registered with Ilvermorny, I would like to invite him to come to England to study at Hogwarts."

Percy and his mother just stared at the professor once he finished his spiel, Percy only vaguely aware that he never told the man his name. Regaining his ability to speak, he asked Dumbledore how he'd known he had magic.

The old man's eyes twinkled. "Outside in the hall, you accidentally used magic when I apparated in behind you. And when you mentioned your penchant for blowing up schools, I was sure."

Percy frowned for a moment. Then he remembered the gesture he'd used when the old man had surprised him. "Oh, that," he said. "That was an ancient ward against evil, though it had less of an effect on you that it did on the last person I used it on. Apparently you're less evil than my ex-stepfather. When I did it to him, he flew up the stairs and I never saw him in person again. He died while I was away at a summer camp."

"Personally, I don't believe in the power of gestures such as that to differentiate between good and evil. I suspect that both times you unknowingly sent a blast of magic and the reason I was less affected was simply because I cast a shield charm to protect myself. I must admit though, that it was caught unawares by the force of it. Anyway, I suppose I should tell you what I originally came here to tell you."

"Huh," Percy said. "I'd forgotten you didn't know about me when you arrived."

"Yes, well. I'm afraid I bring some bad news, Mrs Jackson. Around the time your twin brother graduated from Hogwarts at the age of eighteen, magical Britain was in the throes of a war. Your brother bore much hatred toward your parents for their views and the way they treated you, and even ran away from home when he was sixteen. He fought valiantly for the Light against the Dark Lord Voldemort, formerly known as Tom Riddle, but in the end, nearly twelve years ago he betrayed his best friend to Voldemort, who proceeded to kill the man, James Potter, and his wife Lily, who sacrificed her life to protect her one-year-old son. He sacrifice placed a protection over the boy and when Voldemort attempted to kill him, for he was spoken of in a prophecy that foretold his possible death, and his curse backfired, destroying his body but failing to kill him. In the last couple of years Voldemort has attempted to make a comeback, and Sirius has escaped from prison this summer. We believe he intends to finish the job his master started and kill Harry Potter. I came to ensure there were protective wards around your apartment, in case he decides to come after his squib twin, but it seems that, in that regard, my visit here was unnecessary, but not entirely unfruitful."

"So you're telling me that I have an evil twin who may try and kill me, and almost definitely wants to kill a thirteen year old boy who I presume attends the very same school you intend for me to send my son to?" his mom asked.

"I assure you, Mrs Jackson, that Hogwarts is the safest place in magical Britain, aside from Gringotts Bank," Dumbledore responded.

Percy's mom hummed, clearly unconvinced.

"You need not make a decision immediately. The Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall will visit sometime in the next week with Perseus' official invitation to Hogwarts. If you decide to accept, she will accompany him to obtain his supplies for school," Dumbledore said. "If you have any more questions you can ask her. Now, without meaning to be rude, I am rather busy and really should be on my way so I bid you farewell." The old man disappeared with a faint pop.

"Am I related to anyone normal?" Percy sighed and his mom chuckled.

"It seems not, Percy."