A/N: Finally, the last chapter! I figured it needed an epilogue, mostly because I wanted to imagine what Percy would look like with a goatee. Oh, and please review. It's always nice to know that people are actually reading my stuff, whether it's positive feedback or not. Thanks, and may the Force be ever in your favor. – SK


George Weasley had taken the car – a flying Mini Cooper that he'd bought just a few weeks earlier – over to New York for business. Since Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had done so well in England, wholesaling to Zonko's and selling from the main shop itself, George had contacted friends of friends in New York City about possibility of wholesaling some of his products to their joke shop.

It was an exciting prospect, making his company international. He was sure that if Fred had been here, he would have been just as thrilled as he was.

He was walking around the East Village, killing time before his big meeting by window-shopping in all of the Muggle stores. He was starting to understand his father's obsession with electricity: it was amazing to him that all of these gadgets that Muggles used could function without magic.

It was a very busy day, and everyone seemed to be shopping for something or other. Every shop had customers, and most had huge signs up advertising something called "Black Friday". To George, this sounded like a motorcycle gang or a heavy metal band, but it seemed to be some sort of national day of sales. New York is busy in the first place, but on Black Friday it was almost overflowing with people – it was almost as if everybody in the state had crammed into a single city.

Percy Jackson was browsing the shops in the East Village, looking for something to get his mom. She was in bed with the flu, and since he was in the area he figured he'd explore some of the stores and take advantage of the fact that it was Black Friday.

This was a good and a bad thing. It was good because he could get a good deal on almost anything. It was a bad thing because Black Friday is one of the least safe days of the year for demigods. Nobody's quite sure why, but there are always a lot more monsters lurking around on Black Friday than on any other day of the year. Percy was a bit on edge because of this, but figured that he was in such a dense crowd that the odds that a monster would be able to detect him were pretty slim.

Speaking of slim, Percy noticed that a very nice razor was on sale for fifteen bucks in the hardware store across the street. He'd tried out the five-o-clock shadow for a bit, then had a grown a goatee. Now, after being mercilessly teased about his facial hair by at least three of his friends, he'd decided to shave it off and go for the clean look. But for the clean look, he needed a good razor. And there it was, in the window, at fifty percent of its original price.

Percy wove through the crowd and walked into the hardware store while simultaneously searching for his razor and a present for Sally Jackson.

George was standing in front of a Muggle hardware store, fascinated by all of the things they advertised. A special razor guaranteed not to cut you? He'd never heard of anything so ridiculous in his life. Surely, with all their technology, Muggles had designed something that prevented regular razors from nicking you! He chuckled and walked in to see what other things were on sale. A garden rake with an ergonomic grip. A vacuum with "easy-clean trash compartment". A box of extra-solid nails. George noticed that there were rubber duck keychains at the checkout, so he decided to buy one of each kind for his dad. His father loved rubber ducks; it was probably his favorite miscellaneous Muggle item because they were absolutely useless and served no purpose whatsoever. In his mind, that was what made them so brilliant.

He got in line behind a man with jet-black hair and a goatee who was buying the very razor he'd noticed in the window and a box of those extra-solid nails. George thought he looked vaguely familiar, but couldn't quite place him.

Percy had gotten in line at the cashier after finding the razor and a box of extra-solid nails. He hadn't found anything for Sally, but had decided he'd buy her lilies at the little place down the street – they were her favorite. He automatically checked his wrist for the time, then remembered he'd lost his watch ages ago, so he turned around to ask the guy behind him in line if he knew what time it was.

"Hey, sorry," said Percy awkwardly to the redheaded man in a purple suit with six rubber duck keychains in his hand, "Do you happen to know what time it is?" He nodded and shook up his sleeve so he could see the face of his watch.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do," answered George brightly. "Would you like me to tell you?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Percy knew that he was just messing with him.

"Six twenty three."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Percy had the impression that he knew him from somewhere, but he wasn't sure where exactly. He wasn't an old friend from camp, that was for sure, and he hadn't ever gone to his school. Maybe they'd been on the same bus or subway a few times. Or maybe he was just going crazy.

"Next customer." Percy paid for his razor and nails, feeling very macho. If the stranger with red hair in the purple suit's watch worked, he only had about thirty minutes before the flower shop closed; so he dashed out of the hardware store and wove through the dense crowd to get to the florist in time.

"Next." George handed the cashier his rubber ducks, and she didn't even pay him a second glance. "That'll be five forty." He handed her a five-dollar bill and rummaged around his wallet for American Muggle money, eventually pulling out a dime, a quarter, and a bunch of pennies. The cashier sighed and counted everything, then handed George his ducks and the receipt. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with the piece of paper that she'd given him, so he just stuck it in his pocket and smiled at her before walking out of the hardware store. Maybe he'd give it to Arthur along with the rubber ducks.

Percy made it to the little flower shop with twenty minutes to spare, only to realize that it had gone out of business and had been replaced with a chain called Per Se Flowers. Percy blinked. Per Se Flowers? He peered inside and saw a young woman with a flower crown in her hair at the desk, then walked in. Who knows; maybe she gave discounts to cousins.

George got into his Mini Cooper, started it up and put it on "invisible" so any nearby Muggles wouldn't wonder why it was flying. He pushed the peddle to the metal and shot off into the sky, soaring above all the New York buildings. He then switched on the radio to listen to some Muggle music, and flipped through the stations until finally, after nearly ten minutes, he found something worth listening to. Soon, he was humming along in spite of himself. Then he figured that he no one could hear him all the way up here, so what the heck?

"I believe I can fly!" sang George, "I believe I can touch the sky! I believe I can soar! Catch me going through that open door!" He sang bad Muggle music to himself for no reason until he got to his future associate's office on Lexington and Park.

A couple hundred feet below the flying car, Percy was buying lilies for his mother at Persephone's flower shop. He couldn't understand why "I Believe I Can Fly" was stuck in his head.