Authors note: hello everyone, my name is Percy Jackson fan 135, and I am co-author of stones and secrets, the hotter twin's book one. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter, and as always, I do not own any recognizable characters, and any passages that you will recognize belong to their rightful owners.

Chapter 3:

The Letters from No One

After the escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor, both Harry and Percy found themselves locked in their cupboard for a little over a month. The summer holidays had started, and there extremely spoiled cousin, Dudley had already broken almost everything he had gotten for his birthday. This included his video camera, his old television set, and many other things.

Anyway, Percy and Harry had been expected to fix what they could, and if they couldn't, they would go without eating anything. It's not to say that Percy didn't sneak anything from the kitchen from time to time, because she knew as well as her brother that they were literally dying in this cupboard and their special powers could only help them so much. But, Percy always felt that there was something much different about her and her Percy always seemed to be better able to withstand the more dangerous behaviors of their uncle Vernon, and occasionally, she would accidentally spray her aunt and uncle with freezing cold water without meaning to, which of course led to even more punishments. Another thing that was different about Percy was the fact that she had a combination of ADHD and dyslexia, which made it very difficult for her to concentrate in school, and she was almost always laughed at for her poor spelling and her inability to sit still in class. So, like her brother, Percy was somewhat of an outcast in the regular school system and she didn't have a lot of friends; but that didn't mean that she didn't try.

Percy was always naturally outgoing and friendly, so it made it difficult for anyone to dislike her; even if it meant going against Dudley's gang. They knew that there was something strange about her as well, but no one commented on it, except to make fun of her for being dyslexic. She just wished that her life could someday be normal, or as normal as it could be without getting in trouble every five minutes. But, it seemed as though that was not going to happen at all.

Dudley was in the kitchen doing absolutely nothing but sitting on his fat bottom eating a whole stack of pancakes and watching TV. The twins were cleaning up the kitchen when they heard the unmistakable sound of the mail slot being filled up. When the mail had arrived, Percy could not believe her ears when she heard her uncle's voice saying, "get the mail, Dudley."

But her heart sank when she heard her cousin replying, "make Harry get it." So, as always, her brother was stuck doing the work that their relatives were often too lazy to do themselves. Percy of course was doing the dishes, so she did not see her brother's shocked look on his face when he came back into the kitchen. She didn't see it that is until she turned around and saw that her uncle had taken two envelopes out of his hand and was glaring at him with a look that clearly meant that the two of them were in big trouble. Percy had always known just how angry her brother could get, especially if he wanted to read something that belonged to him. And judging by the tone of his voice, Percy understood that Harry wasn't just angry about his own mail, but he was angry about his sister's as well. Percy didn't really get a chance to look properly at the letters, but she could tell that they were obviously old-fashioned, because the ink looked nothing like the ink from a pen; it looked like it was from something from the Middle Ages. But whatever it was, Percy could not read it because of her dyslexia. But rather than allowing her uncle to bodily throw all of them out of the kitchen, Percy immediately grabbed her brother's hand and ran with him into the hallway; but they narrowly escaped colliding with Dudley, who had the misfortune of being physically thrown out of the room by his father. Percy did not want to show it, but she was terrified of what was going to happen now. She just knew that whatever was in that envelope, it wasn't pleasant to their aunt and uncle. She wanted to ask Harry about it, but she knew better than to do that in front of Dudley. Instead she said very quietly, "you and I will talk about this later after everyone is asleep; got it?"

Harry nodded his head in agreement. He didn't know what was going on, but he trusted his sister, and even though they were twins, Harry sometimes got the feeling that Percy was much older than she was, so he just allowed her to handle things for as long as she could. Harry somehow knew that if no one else loved him, she did, a lot! He also got a sense that there was something different about her other than the fact that she was dyslexic, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Harry understood that she would tell him some day, but right now she didn't even know it herself, so she couldn't even explain even if she wanted to.

All three children listened intently to their aunt and uncle's conversation through the closed kitchen door, and once or twice, Percy had to smack Dudley upside the head to make him shut up. Physically he was around 11 years old, but because of him being overweight and allowing his parents to spoil him rotten, Dudley was mentally around the age of a three-year-old, and he had the manners to prove it. Both Harry and Percy had to deal with their cousin's whining constantly, and it certainly wasn't getting any easier to deal with as the years went by. It certainly didn't make it any easier when all of them had heard Vernon and Petunia being totally dramatic about the letters.

"No! I'm not having any in the house, Petunia," Vernon Dursley's voice shouted through the door. "We swore that when we took them in, we would put a stop to this nonsense."

Then it was Petunia's voice. "Well, what should we do?" She asked. "Should be right back? Tell them we don't want..."

Then it was Uncle Vernon's voice again. "No, just leave it alone. It will all go away eventually."

But, that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, Petunia and Vernon were somewhat forced to allow Percy and Harry to have the fourth bedroom upstairs. And although this was an improvement in many ways, Percy could tell that her brother was absolutely miserable and she tried her hardest to cheer him up by singing their favorite lullaby to him, which seemed to help somewhat, but Harry was just too confused and preoccupied. Percy didn't really know what to do, but she did understand his confusion somewhat. For as long as she could remember, she had always loved the ocean and she felt as though someone had been watching her, but she had never been able to picture their face; only the feeling of a warm smile and a gentle stroke to her hair was all she could remember about the person who had watched over , for reasons unknown to either of them, the letters just kept on coming and their relatives became crazier and crazier every day. Finally, Vernon must've reached his breaking point, because not only did he nail up the mail slot and entryways, the whole family found themselves on the highway with no particular destination in mind. Percy wanted to smack Dudley upside his head for being such a baby, but Harry stopped her from doing so. He didn't blame her for wanting the whiny little brat to stop crying, but Harry reminded his sister that hitting their cousin was not going to solve any problems at this point. She reluctantly agreed and contented herself with messing up her brother's hair. He halfheartedly told her to stop, but he knew that his sister was bored, so it didn't matter to him that he could possibly be the only sane person in the car at the time. "Maybe I am," he thought.

Things became very different when Uncle Vernon locked them all in the car by the coast. Somehow, Percy's features became more peaceful and relaxed, as if the ocean was her home. For as long as she and Harry could remember, Percy had always loved anything to do with water and she always felt comforted whenever she was near the ocean. It was raining, but for some strange reason, Percy wasn't bothered in the slightest. Well, she wasn't bothered until her uncle told them that there would be a thunderstorm later that night. She absolutely hated thunderstorms, but Harry never could understand why because Percy didn't know why she hated them and couldn't explain it to him.

It took the five of them forever to reach the broken down house, but they finally made it inside after a good half an hour. The rations that their uncle had given them were not very much, and the house was not very comfortable at all. Percy wasn't as cold as her brother was, but she had to agree that for a house that was in the middle of the ocean, it was not very cheerful or pleasant. The furniture was not comfortable, but that was all they had. As Dudley was actually sleeping on the sofa, both Percy and Harry were left to lie on the floor under ratty old blankets and in an effort to keep themselves warm, the two of them curled up next to each other to get the heat from the other. But the Twins could not sleep very well because they were cold and hungry. "All of this nonsense just because of a stupid letter?" Percy thought bitterly to herself. "What next?" But the answer to that question came around midnight with somebody who had huge hands, and they were pounding on the door, effectively scaring the Twins and Dudley.