Hiya!I finished this earlier than I thought I could. The third chap's coming on a nice bright Sunday. Hey that's day-after-tomorrow!
HC got 8 reviews for her first chapter! She has 12 followers, is on the fav list of 7 authors and is on 3 communities already! A clap for everyone!
I'm changing the rating to 'T'. You'll see the reason why on Sunday.
Yes, Harry's dull and Percy's bright. You'll understand why soon. Yes, it's part of the plot.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the original works of the HP or PJO works by JKR and RR.
"Does it tickle you, Harry? It tickles me. I feel like giggling like a Barbie girl!"
"You are giggling like a Barbie girl, Percy."
Percy tried to stifle his giggles. He and Harry were back to back on the grass in the forest. Sally was a small distance away writing in a pocket notebook.
The boys were in a full split. Meaning, Percy's right leg was tied to Harry's left leg and vice-versa. Sally had told them that improving the flexibility of the body should start from an early age. It's easier to get out of tight spots if you can literally squeeze your way through it.
"Mom, we've been sitting like this for years!" Percy exclaimed.
"No, we haven't!" Harry said mildly surprised. Sally looked up from her book and said, "Alright, get your selves out, now."
The pair stared at her. Then they tried to look at each and Harry began, "Okay, Percy. You lean towards your left and-"
"But I wanna be right this time!"
"Alright, we'll both go right-"
"How can we both go right? I mean, we can, but shouldn't we bend in opposite direction?" Percy asked.
"Your right is my left. So if we both go to our rights, we'll be leaning in the opposite way." Harry explained patiently. Percy sighed, "I don't get it."
"Just go to your right leg." Harry said leaning towards his right to grab at the thin ropes. In a few minutes, the ropes came off (Percy complained about complicated knots looking like pretzels and feeling hungry).
"One last thing before we wrap up for today", Sally said looking at the darkening sky. "Sit down."
"I want to see if we can build up resistance to your… for lack of better word…powers." Sally amended.
Harry looked hesitant, "But it doesn't feel good when I see some people pulling out plants. I actually hurt when Aunt Petunia weeds the garden. Not muscle pain, something deeper."
Sally pursed her lips and then said, "Can you distract yourself from it? Think about other things. For example, if a plant in your vicinity is hurt-"
"I'd heal it."
"What I meant was if a plant in your surrounding area was in the process of being hurt by other people, where you cannot do anything, you can occupy your mind with something your brain would find challenging."
Percy frowned, "I didn't exactly understand what you just said, but Harry's brain is all super-powered, right? So what kinda-"
"Puzzles. That's what came to mind at first. That's why I bought you this." Sally reached into her jacket pocket and pulled ou Rubik cube. Six sides, six colours.
Harry took it slowly and shifted a few of the rows. Then he shifted it back. He looked up at his mother, "It seems easy."
Sally smirked and took the cube. She started jumbling up the rows and columns and when she realized that Harry had been staring intently at each move, she shifted the cube behind her back, jumbled up a bit more, threw it into the air and caught it again, shifting around the cube so fast it seemed to dart around her. She threw it back to Harry and he stared at the now perfectly mixed up cube.
Harry nodded and looked back at her. "I'll get right to it."
"It was so pretty! You mish-mashed it!" Percy whined. Sally chortled, "What?"
"It's a word!" Percy defended. His mother only ruffled his hair and bent down to pick up the ropes. They started walking back towards the gate.
"You can start solving it tomorrow, Pumpkin." Sally said kissing his head as he climbed over the fence with a running leap and disappeared. Sally closed the gate and as they entered into the kitchen, Percy turned to his mother, "Did you get me anything?"
"Not physically. I have a riddle for you. Let's see if you can solve it."
"Shoot." Percy smiled. He was never actually jealous of Harry, but sometimes he wished they had more money so that his Mom could by two of everything.
"A beggar had a brother who lived in Spain. But the brother had no brother. Explain." Sally recited. It had been one of her favourites and took her about an hour to solve. She had been thirteen, then.
"You have as much time as Harry has to solve his cube. Now, help me set out the table."
Percy slowly popped out from behind the dustbins. He could hear the chatter of a hundred students a good distance away from him. Okay, he had done good, so far. Now to get to the corner spot without being seen…
"Hey, Jackson!"
Oh man!
"Ha, look at this, fellows! The tramp, finally found his place in this world!" The tall brawny kid, Carl, exclaimed. He and his buddies roared in laughter as Percy started to mutter in Spanish. What had possessed him to hide next to the trash, he'll never know.
He tried to sneak away, but one of them caught him by the scruff of his collar and yanked him back.
"Where do you think you're going? Back to Mummy?!"
Percy gritted his teeth. Contar hasta diez y recuerde respirar. No se les venía encima. Vas a tener problemas ... (Count to ten and remember to breathe. Don't hit them. You'll get into trouble…)
Splash!
Percy's eyes shot open to see six soaking wet, eight graders who seemed to be in shock. The bottles of water they had been holding had burst open. Everything around them was damp.
Except for Percy.
"Look at that! Told you he's a freak! Bad things always happen when you get too close to him and that Potter!" One of the boys glared at Percy.
Carl looked murderous. But before anything else could happen, a voice stunned them all, "And yet you get really close to us. This shows who the idiots are."
Harry looked absolutely tiny compared to the older boys. But armed with an orange in one hand and a lemon in another, along with the piercing look in his dark green eyes, he appeared to be the dangerous one in the confronting.
"You got a death wish, freak?" Carl's right-hand boy stepped up, but Carl stopped him. He smirked at the scrawny, messy haired kid.
"You better apologize before things get ugly."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "We're already past that point. I'm looking at six of the ugliest humanoid rhinos, I've ever seen."
Percy 'coughed' loudly. He didn't understand what 'humanoid' meant, but the comment managed to make Carl red with anger.
Carl leaned right into Harry's face and said, "You're dead, kid."
Harry stared right back without a hint of fear, "Last I checked, when you get lemon juice in your eyes, it hurts a damn lot."
He raised his hand and squeezed the lemon into Carl's face. The older boy swore as he clutched his face trying to rub his eyes. His friends started shouting all at once. They couldn't wash it off, cause none of them had any water, thanks to Percy.
One of the boys glared at Harry and Percy, "Congratulations. You just dug your own grave. Welcome to Hell."
The six boys ran away and Percy looked at Harry, "Thanks. But I could have handled by myself."
Harry nodded, "I know. We might've kept too much to ourselves last year. If one of us is a target, so is the other."
Percy felt his throat tighten. "Brothers forever." He held out his hand in the arm wrestling posture. Harry grabbed it with his own and said, "Forever and more."
"You know, Mom's not gonna like if she hears that you swore." Percy said as they walked to one of the picnic tables. Lunch time in school was outside on the tables whenever the weather was favourable.
"Trust me when I say, 'Damn' is the least of it. You've heard lots more from your wonderful step-father and my fantastic uncle.
Percy laughed. He looked around to see kids of all ages from six to fifteen hang around in the area, eating, chatting, running around as if celebrating the freedom from teachers. He had a feeling that the teacher would be having a mini-party now.
"If we were girls, nobody would bother us, right Harry?" Percy asked slowly.
Harry looked up in surprise. He swallowed up his orange and set the Rubik Cube on his lab. "I've not thought about it. But I suppose the bothering would be less. I'm guessing older girls don't mingle with the 'outsiders'. Where did that thought come from?"
Percy shrugged. If you looked at it, girls had it much easier than boys. They could speak freely about every topic possible, but if a guy would talk about something remotely connected to the girl's area, he'd be made fun of. When frustrated, a girl could hit a guy but the other way around is not allowed. Boys were considered as nuisances and if girls behaved like that, people would believe that they were corrupted by another source like the boys.
Percy shook his head. It was probably the ADHD which made him think about such a mundane topic – girls.
Percy blinked. Girls…
...
Harry spun the cube in his hands. He could get one side perfectly, but that side would be compromised if he tried to change even a single small cube. It felt frustrating to say the least.
He closed his eyes to remember the way Mum had jumbled it up. Left - up, base - right, middle horizontal - right, right - right, left - down, top - left, middle vertical - right, right - left, left - down…
Wait a second! Two of the cubes came back in the same position it had been in. He went over the steps before he remembered her doing it behind her back and flipping it into the air. The cube hadn't changed when she had thrown it up. She had probably done that to confuse him.
Harry bit into a lemon, savouring the taste. He didn't understand why everyone else felt it horribly bitter…
By repeating two steps over and over again, he'd get the original small cube back in its place original place. What was the probability that he'd get the base back into its right place? The centre cube never moved so that was the anchor.
Harry froze. That was it!
"The beggar was a girl!"
"I set it back!"
Sally nearly dropped her purse. She had just entered through the door after her day's work and had been looking forward to a small nap. She most certainly didn't expect to get the answers within 24 hours.
"When did you figure it out?" She asked sitting on the couch to remove the horrendous heeled shoes.
Percy was close to jumping with excitement. Harry simply looked satisfied in having solved his cube. "At lunch, in school today. Can we have another one?"
Sally thought about it. If she gave riddles to them every day, Percy might not be able to concentrate on schoolwork. Harry who could manage it, might fiddle with the cube everyday and may become a fanatic Rubic Cube solver. That wasn't a bad thing, but she decided to keep a check on it.
"Tell you what. We'll have riddles and cube solving every weekend. I'll get time to think about good brainteasers for the both of you and you should answer to me before Sunday gets over. Now, I'm going for a wash and an itty bitty nap. Behave yourself. Don't blow anything up."
Percy looked beyond thrilled at the prospect of having non-academic queries thrown at him. "Can we go into the forest, Mom?"
Sally sighed. "Sure, keep to the river. Stick together. Don't stray away from the river in case I need to find you and don't go in too deep into the forest. And before I forget, cube please."
Harry looked a bit surly as he handed over his precious puzzle item to her.
"Have fun." Sally locked the door after the two seven year olds ran over to the gate and climbed over it. She sighed. They'd never open it. Always in a rush…
Harry's and Percy's minds are so dissimilar. I take a few seconds to get my head in that state before typing out their thoughts. Hope you liked it!
Stay tuned, folks!
Cabba.