Chapter 2
Hazel was getting impatient.
She was standing in the kitchen watching the wizards heap portions of Mrs. Weasley's supernal masterpiece of a dinner onto their plates. Dishes were set up buffet-style along the center island, so the many residents of the house could come and eat at whatever time they pleased.
She knew she could just walk up and serve herself whenever she wanted. She didn't have to torture herself like this. However, it had become a custom for the three demigods to eat together, and she didn't want to be rude. Proper mannerisms had been one of the few good things she'd been taught by her mother. With that in mind, Hazel resigned herself to her suffering, fingers drumming in patterns against her legs as she watched the door.
She expected to see two hungry boys when she heard footsteps in the hallway. She did not expect Remus, supporting an unsteady Mrs. Weasley, to hobble through the door, followed by Sirius and Moody, both of whom sported grave expressions. The teenagers eating dinner froze, exclamations of alarm ringing through the air. Remus ignored them all, eyes scanning the room until they fell on Hazel.
"I'd go check on your friend with the dark hair, if I were you. He and Molly here had a bit of a nasty run-in with a Boggart."
Hazel blinked. Boggart, boggart, boggart. What's a-? OH, shit!
She squeaked out a 'thank you' to the man before hurrying out the door. She raced around the corner only to slam into Jason, who squawked in surprise.
"Oh, Hazel! Thank the Gods, I was just coming to get you. Percy-"
"Yeah, I heard from Mr. Lupin. Where is he? Is he ok?"
Jason's eyes dropped to the floor as he raked his fingers through his hair. "I don't know, and no, he's completely freaked out. I shouldn't have let him handle it, and I didn't have my wand and-"
Hazel reached up and grabbed Jason's shoulders, shaking him lightly. "Jason. It's not you fault, so stop it. We just need to find him. Any ideas?"
He took a deep breath. "Yeah, okay. Right. Um, he always went to where he could see the stars on the Argo II. Maybe-?"
Hazel was already moving. She found herself panting for breath by the time she made it to their bedroom. The room was empty, with the only movement coming from the drapes as they fluttered in the wind from the open window.
They found him sitting on the roof, elbows propped up on his knees and neck craned to the sky. Jason flew them up and landed gently besides him.
"Hey guys," Percy croaked, cracking a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Hazel plopped down on Percy's left, crisscross applesauce. Jason settled on Percy's right with a grunted, "Hey man."
They sat for a while, listening to the summer crickets. Finally, Percy broke the silence. "You know, it's pretty buggy out. You don't have to be up here."
Hazel snorted. "Yes we do. We'd be bad friends if we weren't checking up on you."
The corner of Percy's mouth quirked up, but he kept his gaze fixed on the sky.
Jason cleared his throat. "All jokes aside, are you okay?"
Pause.
"…Peachy. Just peachy."
"Dude."
"What do you want me to say, Grace?"
"I don't know! Maybe you can explain what's wrong? So we can help you?" His retort rang sharp. Hazel shot Jason a look, and he winced. "Sorry. I just don't like feeling useless."
Another pause.
"I may not be a doctor," Hazel started out slowly. "But Nico says he feels a weight off his chest every time he talks about it with Will. I know you and Annabeth were doing sessions with Will too, but since he's not here, well, Jason and I are always here to help."
Percy groaned. His hands ran over his face, through his hair, and finally dropped in his lap, fingers twitching. "I don't even know where to start."
Jason blinked. "Start when it started getting bad. You were fine until it shifted into that…smoky, Annabeth ghost."
"That was Annabeth. While we were in pit. The doors were at the heart, swamped by monsters. We couldn't have just walked through them, you know? So we-"
Percy paused, closing his eyes. He swallowed hard before continuing, "We had to find Akhys, 'cause she could disguise us with Death Mist. "
Jason winced. "Akhys and Death Mist. Seems pleasant."
Percy let loose a bark of laughter, but there was no humor behind it. "Yeah. About as nice as it sounds."
"I'm guessing Death Mist isn't anything like normal Mist?" Hazel, in all of her experiences with working with Hecate, had never heard of such a thing.
"Nah. Mist is just for show, distorting appearances. Death Mist distorts the material of everything it touches. When she put it on us, it turned us into… smoke? Ghosts? I'm not sure what we were. All I know is that we couldn't touch anything, but she and, well, everything else could hit us. "
Hazel was at a loss for words. To be at the mercy of anything you came into contact with… In a place like Tartarus?
Yikes.
Finally Jason broke the silence. "So how did you guys escape her?"
Upon seeing Percy's distraught look he quickly added, "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to! I get it. I just figured-"
"No, it's not that. It's just-" Hazel had to lean in to hear what Percy said next. "I did something real bad."
Hazel sighed. "You want bad? Percy, I freaking resurrected Alcyoneus and killed my own mother. The kind of situations demigods get put in leave us with tough choices to make. Sometimes we don't even get a choice. I'm sure-"
"Choices?" Percy spat out the word with such sudden bitterness it caught Hazel off guard. "You want to talk about choices? My choice was to make the Goddess of Misery as miserable as I could. I trapped her and swamped her in her own poison. When she started crying, I shoved her tears down her throat. I wasn't saving anyone. I did it because I wanted to. If Annabeth hadn't…Annabeth was terrified. Of me. She might still be, and for good reason. What kind of person does that?"
He rose to his feet, eyes bright with anger and…tears. He whirled on Jason, who was staring up at him in shock.
"You should have let Polybotes kill me with his poison. It only would've been fitting."
And with that, he tried to walk away. Keyword 'tried.' Hazel had other plans. Something inside her had shattered at that statement. She was angry; Angry with the Gods for making the person she'd come to see as an older brother go through so, so much pain. She was angry with herself for not preventing this, like she could have if she'd just untangled her stupid spatha from that stupid ladder faster on that fateful day. And finally, she was angry with Percy. She was furious, actually. She slammed the window closed with a flick of her wrist, the resounding clang stopping Percy in his tracks.
"How dare you say that, Percy Jackson."
He didn't turn around to face her.
"You, of all people. You've saved the world from going to hell at least what, three times? And you seriously think that because you made one decision, it makes you any less of a hero? Any less worthy to live? "
She marched across the rooftop, her throat getting tighter and tighter with every step. Ahead of her, Percy's shoulders started to shake.
"You have so much to live for, Percy Jackson. You have us, and the rest of the seven, who love you. You have your parents, Sally and Paul, who love you. You have a little sister on the way, who will love you. You have Annabeth who loves you with all her heart."
The tears were pouring freely down her face now. She reached up to grab Percy's shoulders, gently but firmly turning him around to face her.
"You could have lost every war you've ever fought in, or failed every quest you've ever been on, and that still wouldn't change the fact that you are the greatest, kindest, most respectable person on the planet. So when you say shit like that, it breaks my damn heart because you are amazing and so much more than your mistakes."
Percy had tears silently streaking down his face. When Hazel yanked him down to hug her, he obliged, sinking to his knees as she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and cried, the sounds echoing off the rooftop.
"I'm sorry," He gasped over and over again. "I'm sorry."
"Shhh, Seaweed Brain. Everything will be okay."
They sat there for a few moments until the quiet was abruptly broken by a loud "Alright, make space. Sparky's coming in!"
Hazel gave a watery laugh as they were swept into the arms of the Son of Jupiter. The three of them stayed up on the rooftop for hours, laying in a heap and pointing out constellations to each other. They climbed back through the window only when dawn rose and replaced the stars with strokes of peach and rose, none of them having slept a wink but feeling refreshed nonetheless.
