Chapter 12

Percy's Point of View

Going back at Hogwarts felt a bit like coming home. A bit. Because, I realised, Slytherin had become our family. Agreed a rather large and messy family, full of feuds and threats, but a family all the same. I had to admit I was delighted to see Draco again. While we were now on better terms with our brother, fights still broke out over the most random of things. Looks like neither of us were quite over that jealousy of each other.

The station was teeming with students, yelling and calling out to each other. Steam shrouded half our vision, and filling our lungs with the bitter vapour. I did like the smell though, that I'll admit. It reminded me of a time when we accidentally apparated to the Coast early one morning, and the salt sea mists were rolling in…

Anyway, we boarded the train quickly, eager to get away from Lily and James' hugs and kisses (can I say 'eww!'?) and our moody brother. It took a good fifteen minutes, but we eventually found the Compartment where Draco, Blaise and Theo were sitting, accompanied by Pansy and Daphne. Kissing the girls' hands in greeting, Harry turned to the boys. Draco shook hand civilly, but Blaise and Theo threw themselves at us, tackling us to the floor as they hugged us.

"Hey! Careful!" Harry laughed, ruffling Blaise's hair. "That's our legs you're sitting on!"

"But… but we missed you." Theo said in a small voice, giving us the puppy-dog eyes. Harry rolled ours, and pulled him into a hug.

"Aw, I missed you too Theo-kins."

Immediately Theo pulled away, running to Draco.

"Ah! Draco, he's gone Gryffindor! Save me, it could be contagious!" He squealed dramatically. Blaise let out a girly scream too and leapt for Draco as well.

We laughed, tears of mirth streaming down our face while Blaise and Theo chuckled. After a moment, Draco joined in too, full out laughing. Daphne shook her head, muttering about boys. Pansy simply stared at Draco, longing and interest glinting in her eyes.

Harry sat down next to Pansy and whispered in her ear: "He likes you too, you know. How about we plot together to get him to ask you out?"

Pansy gave us a scandalised look at first, which then turned into a mischievous grin, which Harry copied perfectly. In one well time motion, we both turned to look at Draco, who paled dramatically.

"Whatever it is you too are plotting, I want no part in it, you understand? My father will here if I am…" He said, but the threat was a weak one; Draco used it far too much.

We spent the rest of the journey catching up on news and comparing Christmas presents. When Harry explained about Charles and our shift in relationship, Draco congratulated us, much to our surprise.

"Well done mate, it's good to know you have a sibling who actually cares about you. Just so long as we don't have to be civil though…"

We laughed at that, and the conversation carried on to discuss our godfather, and what presents we had gotten for him. Draco had brought him a rare old book, supposedly written my Slytherin himself! I groaned at hearing that, knowing that the next half hour would be spent quizzing Draco on how he tracked down such a rare book.

It was evening when we arrived at school. We feasted in the Great Hall, then were sent straight off to bed.

The first three days were spend getting back into the school routine before classes started. In other words, they were a mess of students failing to settle down, meaning the school was over-run by prank wars, Quidditch matches, hyper children and big explosions.

Oh so it was only one explosion. And it may have kindofmaybepossiblebeenmyfault. I blushed as I remembered it.

We were in the Gryffindor Common Room, because Professor McGonagall had demanded that we sorted out our arguments with Charles. See, we'd had a duel before we left for school, over-seen by James, and one of our spells (with was supposed to be a distraction) and blown up one of Charles' broomsticks. I swear, in all honesty, it was an accident. Really!

Anyway, we were in the Gryffindor Common Room, and Harry and Charles were yelling at each other. I had gotten bored of the feud after the first day, but those two were as stubborn as mules! In the end, Charles challenged us to another duel, to be refereed by the local Duelling Champion; Professor Flitwick.

"You know what? I want a rematch. This evening. By the lake. After dinner." Charles snarled.

'Harry, please don't!' I begged, but Harry only sneered.

"Done. Be sure to bring an Over-seer. You're going to need one."

Exasperated, but knowing there was nothing she could do, Professor McGonagall recruited Flitwick.

'Just so you know, I'm not going to have any part in this.' I warned. 'It's your mess now.'

'Fine.' Harry snapped, wound up from the argument. 'Just don't distract me!'

It was getting dark by the time dinner was over, but we headed down to the lake anyway, refusing to lose face. Half the school followed us down, excited to see the Potter brother's duel. Harry scowled at the audience once, but otherwise ignored them.

"You know the rules. This is a junior duel. That means no blood shed, no killing and definitely no dark spells." Professor Flitwick squeaked. "On my count now. One… Two… Three!"

As he counted we bowed and walked away from each other, turning sharply on the count of three. Harry quickly flicked his wand, sending a Jelly-legs jinx at Charles. He dodged, sending back a bat-bogie curse, which Harry dodged.

The fight carried on like this for several minutes, and I started to get bored. I had spotted so many openings in Charles' style that Harry just wasn't taking advantage of. To try and resolve my boredom, I started manipulating the water, creating little horses to dance among the waves. Nobody noticed, of course, too busy watching the duel.

As my attention slipped away a rogue spell from Charles clipped the side of our head. We fell back stunned, and Harry didn't catch us in time.

'Harry?' I scowled. 'That hurt you idiot!'

We hadn't grazed ourself but our arm stung from impact. Harry didn't reply. I became aware of a dull silence from his side of the bond. It wasn't like when he was asleep. I could still sense his dreams and thoughts them. It was just like he wasn't there at all. Scared and angry at this, I took control, standing up. I sheathed Harry's wand and flicked our left wrist, summoning my own wand.

"What did you do to Harry?" I asked, my voice void of emotion. "Why can't I feel him anymore?"

Gasps flew round the circle of spectators, and Flitwick cursed under his breath, setting up shields round the spectators.

Charles paled, and looked around desperately, his eyes wide and terrified. "I didn't do anything Percy. It was a spell designed to knock you out."

"Then why can't I even feel him?" I demanded, a tugging sensation pulling at my gut as my anger grew. More gasps sounded around me but I ignored them, advancing towards Charles with slow deliberate steps.

"M-Mr Potter… You need to calm down." Professor Flitwick said shakily, but again, I ignored him, focusing only on Charles.

"I don't know!" Charles begged. "I didn't mean to do anything to hurt Harry, I swear!"

"But he's still not here!" I screamed, tears beginning to fall down my cheeks.

"Percy." Draco was calling for me now. "Percy calm down, everything's Ok, you just need to calm down."

"NO!" I yelled. Water from the lake which, unknown to me, had been rising out of the Lake in a growing wall of water plunged down on Charles, knocking him to the floor and soaking everyone else watching.

Then a sudden wave of exhaustion hit me, and I fell backwards. Our head hit the floor hard, then darkness descended and I knew no more.

I woke in the Hospital Wing the next day, Harry holding me and murmuring softly to me. I smiled, and slipped back into sleep.

As it turned out, I had completely obliterated the beach with the water wall, causing many students to thrown back. Nobody was badly hurt – except us (with a fractured skull) and Charles (who had broken his arm as the water knocked him down. Needless to say, we weren't on very good terms after that.

Days melding together, becoming a blur of work, detentions and fights with our brother. No physical fights, not yet. But that's not to say I wasn't tempted. Draco however, being the speaker of wisdom, pointed out a muggle brawl wasn't very Slytherin, and was therefore unacceptable.

For some reason Draco became obsessed with getting Charles into trouble. He challenged him to a midnight duel, then set them up to be caught by Filch. Needless to say, when he heard about the dragon there was no stopping him.

"Percy! Harry!" Draco called, sounded ecstatic about something. Curious, Harry turned to see what it was, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "Come on, Hagrid's got a dragon – I've seen it!"

"Oh! Can we go see it? Can we, can we?" I begged, taking over our mouth for a few moments. Harry and Draco laughed.

"If you want. But your brother is getting rid of it tonight, so…" Draco trailed off.

Our eyes widened. "Tonight! But that's only… it's already seven o'clock!"

I moaned. I loved dragons. They didn't like me very much, constantly trying to attack and eat me, but I thought they were adorable! They had control over fire, and had a protective layer of scales that could withstand up to 1000oC and would shatter a steel blade if it hit them. Their heart-strings were commonly used in wands, and their liver was an important potions ingredient. Unfortunately, their eggs were first-class non tradable goods and I really wanted one as a pet. Or at least I had when I was seven.

"We can catch them!" Draco said. "But we'd have to report it to a teacher…"

Harry nodded. 'Sorry Percy about the dragon, but if their sneaking it out then a teacher should know.'

'I know. But could we at least try and get a glimpse of the Dragon?' I begged, sending Harry my puppy eyes.

Harry huffed. 'Those aren't puppy eyes, you look like a baby seal who needs help!'

'Please.'

Eventually Harry agreed, giving me a disgruntled look as he did, promising, 'We can try but no promise we'll actually be able to.'

'Yes!'

I grinned, letting my happiness flow over Harry until he started grinning too.

Having decided on what we were going to do the three of us sat down and started to plot how we were going to achieve it. Harry and I agreed that we should go tell Professor McGonagall now, as we'd just get in trouble if we told her after curfew. Draco begrudgingly agreed, but it didn't take much to make us agree to go and check that they were definitely caught.

Harry and Draco struck up a conversation about the first Quidditch match that was set to happen on the 9th of March. Apparently everyone would turn up, cheering on their team or just getting in the spirit. If you didn't like Quidditch then you'd just bring along some homework or reading to get done. While attendance wasn't obligatory, those that didn't turn up were all but shunned for a while afterwards, discouraging anyone from trying.

When we reached McGonagall's office they were in a heated debate about who had the most likelihood of winning – Slytherin or Gryffindor. Draco was firmly sticking up for Slytherin, but Harry was arguing that some of the Lion's weren't bad in the air either.

I coughed, startling Harry out of his debate. Harry blinked, then knocked on the door.

"Enter." McGonagall didn't sound happy to have visitors. We sighed, but our fate was sealed. We walked in.

"Ah, Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy. Now why might you two – forgive me – three want from me that your godfather couldn't help you with?" She asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, you see Professor, Draco overheard my brother and Weasley talking about a Dragon that Hagrid hatched, and they're planning on giving it to Charley Weasley tonight, at midnight, at the top of the astronomy tower."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "That's rather detailed, Mr Malfoy, are you sure you weren't eavesdropping?"

"Professor, there is no need to eavesdrop when they were all but shouting it as they walked up from Hagrid's." Draco defended himself. "And the dragon's true – I've seen it!"

"Indeed? Well, you three run back to your dorms now before curfew. I'll check out these… accusations, myself. And Mr Potter."

"Yes Professor?" Harry nodded. "If these accusations prove to just be an attempt to get your brother in trouble then I shall be seeing you in Detention for the next month"

Fuming inwardly, Harry and I nodded, then turned to leave, following Draco out.

"Argh!" Harry groaned. "That woman doesn't see any of our good points does she? Ever since Christmas it's been a constant stream of detention threats and points lost for the most stupid of things!"

As Harry ranted we walked slowly down to the Dungeons. A moment before be collided with solid air, I heard the muffled pad of feet on stone. We fell over, and I head a large thump as whatever we had walked into fell over as well. Draco looked down at us in amusement, but I ignored him, grabbing at a small shimmer in the air. Our hand met cool material, and I yanked, revealing our brother, along with Ron and the Granger-girl. I scowled at them, then noticed the smoking box.

"Well, well, well. What do you know?" Draco drawled. "Potter has an invisibility cloak."

Draco picked up the shimmering material. Charles snarled.

"Give that back, ferret-face! That's a family heirloom!"

I flinched at that. If it was a family heirloom then how come James or Lily hadn't ever told us about it? Or was it another of those stupid 'traditions' that the youngest wasn't allowed to take part in? Then the box shuddered, a tongue of flame flickering through a hole.

Ignoring the other's squabbling, I removed the lid. Large black eyes stared at me curiously.

$Hello little one.$ I greeted the little dragon, rubbing it's chin. It purred happily, and bared its sharp little teeth in a grin.

'Percy how can I understand your hissing?' Harry asked. I shrugged.

'Parseltongue?'

'Don't joke about that!' Harry snapped.

I shook my head. 'Think about it. You understand me hissing. It is the language of snakes and, by extension, dragons.'

'I… guess?'

Happy that was sorted out, I returned my attention to the little baby dragon in the box. $Pretty little girl, aren't you?$

'Girl? Percy that has got to be a guy. Look at it. It's all spikey and mean.' Harry huffed.

I shook my head. 'Typical. The one time I read a book you don't pay attention. The spines along her back indicate she is female, not male. See how they turn down slightly and the tips are black? All typical features of a female Norwegian Ridgeback.'

Harry grinned, sticking his tongue out at me. 'All right, no it all!'

$Ssspeaker?$ The hiss was awkward and lisped, but understandable.

I smiled. $Hello little lady.$

$Mummy? Speaker Mummy.$

Harry and I groaned. $Sweetie, we aren't your Mummy. We're guys for one thing, and-$

$I will find you again.$ The little dragon insisted, ignoring our corrections.

"Why-"

Draco yanked our shoulder, pulling us away.

"Hey! I was talking to the Dragon!" I complained.

"No, you were hissing non-sense at it." Draco corrected. I rolled our eyes.

"Parseltongue? Language of Snake and Dragons? Ringing any bells?"

Draco opened and shut his mouth a few times. "What?"

"Seems we inherited it from somewhere." Harry frowned. 'But where…?'

Draco shook his head. "Ok, not now, we've got to run, ok? McGonagall's on the prowl remember? And we have…" Draco cast a 'tempus' charm. "Two minutes to be in the common room."

Cursing under our breath, we took off at a sprint, just making it to the common room in time. As we entered, we noticed with some amusement that someone (my money was on the Weasley twins) had painted large green letters over the entrance to the Common Room.

'WARNING: SNAKE PIT. DO NOT ENTER ON PAIN OF DEATH!'

Flint gave us a curious stare as we ran in out of breath, but didn't question us, merely shoving us in the direction of our dorms.

"I don't want to know. Run off to bed. There's a Quidditch match tomorrow, and you sure as Morgana better be cheering us on against the Hufflepuffs."

"We will!" We chorused, running on up, glad to be let off the hook by the large Quidditch Captain.

It didn't take long to fall asleep that night, but I did have one last though; Dragons are awesome!

I floated through dreams that night. I dreamt of flying on a Dragon high up in the sky, not at all struck by that nauseating feeling flying on a broom gave me. Then we swooped low, and broke through the clouds to hover over a beach where a Horse and Eagle were fighting, intent to tear each-other apart. I screamed for them to stop, but the wind just kept on howling louder and louder, blocking out my pleas…

Then suddenly I was falling, down into a dark cavern, where a deep voice called to me to help him rise, to lead his army into war and take down the gods once and for all! I refused, and was suddenly standing on a familiar beach, watching Annabeth playing in the water with other children, some of which looked like her siblings, with grey eyes and blond hair.

No longer scared by the dark voice or fighting animals I grinned, and pulled at the waves, sending them crashing softy down on the laughing children, and soaking them even more. I ran closer to join in, and smiled this time as Annabeth's eyes met our own. Her grey orbs were alight with laughter, and she beckoned us with one finger to join in with the fun and laughter.

When I woke the next morning, both Harry and I were filled with a strange sense of loss, as if something was missing. We just couldn't quite put our finger on what exactly.

But those happy grey eyes stalked us that day, distracting us in class and pulling us into daydreams of that camp we had been dreaming of…

Hey! :) I felt like writing again today, so enjoy!

By the way, I made up the dragon facts because the internet wasn't telling me anything that J. mentioned about them so... Correct me if I'm wrong? :)

Um.

Annabeth is currently 10, and will be attending Hogwarts next year. I know they're a year too early to go to camp, but for some reason I've alway's seen it as after Percy's first year of middle school that he goes to camp, I don't know why...

Luna and Annabeth aren't aware of their magical side because they ran away when she was seven, and was sort of too distracted by the monsters trying to kill her to notice the Non-Athena side to their powers. Also, because their step-mother didn't really like them anyway they suppressed that side of them, thinking it might get her to like them more.

Team Leo: I love that idea. It's brilliant, and I shall definately keep it in mind if/when I reach that far :)

Enjoy your summer people :)