I bet you guys hate me for that lovely cliffhanger last chapter.

Yup. I'm evil like that. :P

Oh, and to PrestonTurner: All of my chapters have over 1000 words. The only one that didn't was part one of chapter six (I uploaded that in three parts). So I'm not really sure why you're saying that I never write longer chapters.

Disclaimer: I am currently nursing an injured elbow. Not really sure what that's got to do with owning either series, but yeah. Me no own.

Chapter 20: Let the Butterbeer Pour

Percy POV

I was unhappy. Very unhappy. So incredibly unhappy that it bordered on angry.

Why?

I felt like it was the week before my sixteenth birthday again. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong, and I felt like I wasn't in control of everything.

Should I count everything that was going wrong? Okay.

I didn't get to go home for the holidays (thanks a lot, Chiron).

We knew that we were being followed, after Nico discovered someone in the Forbidden Forest and Annabeth found Ron stalking her.

A bad demigod dream was not how I planned to start Christmas vacation, and

We had to spend even more time around our stalkers because of this.

My life sucks.

So now I was standing here, with Nico, Harry, and Ron, in Dumbledore's office, while Dumbledore chatted with a painting and Professor McGonagall went to round up the rest of the crew.

Dumbledore briefly turned to us. "Misters Jackson and Di Angelo, you are both sure that you were not the snake, as Harry viewed himself?"

Nico and I shared a glance, and Nico seemed to elect me to answer. Thanks a lot, little cuz. "Yeah, we're positive. It was just a normal-" I hesitated, about to say 'demigod dream', then rethought my decision. "-dream." Harry looked at us curiously, but I didn't say anything after that.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, knowing what I was about to say. "Very well," he replied. "Now we will wait until Professor McGonagall returns with your fellow classmates."

The wait was brief but awkward. Nobody said anything. Ron was looking terrified, but he was also edging slightly away from Harry, like he was worried Harry was going to turn into a snake and attack him, too. Nico had a distant look on his face, and I assumed he was trying to use his powers to find out the status of Mr. Weasley. Harry seemed to be in freaking-out-impatient-mode, never staying still for more than five seconds at a time, and unconsciously touching the lightning scar on his forehead every now and then.

After about five minutes of fidgeting silence, the sound of footsteps gradually grew louder as people came up outside of the office. Then the door opened and McGonagall marched in, followed by a sea of redheads, Hermione, Annabeth, and Thalia.

Everybody looked at Harry, as if for explanation. Dumbledore began, breaking the silence. "I believe you should all know why you have been brought to my office in the middle of the night. Perhaps Harry would like to explain?"

Harry bit his lip nervously before starting the story over. "I had a dream. I was in a corridor, and there was a snake. It came up on Mr. Weasley. He had been asleep, but then he woke up and the snake attacked him. He's in critical condition right now."

There were several gasps as the newcomers heard the story. I was slightly confused as to why Harry twisted the story to make it seem like he wasn't the snake, then I remembered how Ron had acted towards him when he heard the story. Harry didn't need that repeated six times.

"I have sent for help," Dumbledore took over again, "But we need you children to go to the headquarters now. Think of it as an early break."

"How will we get there?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore didn't reply- he simply started tottering around his office, and pulled out a worthless object. He placed it on the desk and pulled out his wand, muttering enchantments. The object began to glow.

"Everybody touch the Portkey," he advised. Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys moved towards it without hesitation. The rest of us looked at each other first. Then I mentally shrugged and moved forward, the others following suite.

The minute I touched the thing, the world around me began to spin very fast. Everything went faster and faster, until we stopped spinning. We hung in midair for a millisecond, before dropping to the ground. Most of us lost our footing. Actually, I think everybody's butts met the ground.

The ground itself was hard and cold. The only ground that I knew was like that was the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

I got up and looked around. I was right. Kreacher, the little annoying house elf, was watching us with distaste. Sirius was shocked, but got over it quickly, rushing over to us.

"Where's Mum?" Fred demanded.

"Not here yet," Sirius replied quickly. "She probably hasn't heard the news yet."

"When can we go to Mungo's?" George asked.

"Not yet," Sirius said.

"But Dad's dying!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Look, as much as I'd like to go see your father myself, you can't go yet. Where could you have gotten the information that your father had been attacked? It would put the Order at risk," Sirius said firmly, not taking no for an answer.

"I don't care what happens to the stupid Order! I want to see my father!" George retorted.

"And I said not yet! Let's just have a couple of butterbeers while we wait, okay?" Sirius summoned ten bottles of the drink, and everybody slowly sat down at the table.

"Why are you guys here?" Ginny indicated the us four demigods with her half-empty bottle at one point. It just seemed to occur to the others when she mentioned it that we were there.

"Jackson and Nico both had the same dream that I did," Harry explained sullenly, staring daggers at the poor wooden table in front of him.

Fred looked confused. "But-"

"How?" George finished for his brother.

I got the feeling that they were hiding something from us. Well, two can play that game. "I have no idea," I replied, my eyes widening innocently. "I just woke up at the same time Harry did."

"I woke up and found them running through the hallways. Although it was strange to find Logan watching me sleep..." Nico trailed off.

"Were you talking in your sleep?" I asked him, one eyebrow raised.

Nico nearly snorted. "Says the person who could narrate an entire book in his sleep."

"Hey!" I protested. "I don't talk that much."

My statement was met with a chorus of "Yes, you do"s. I suddenly got nervous, wondering how much information I might be giving away without my knowing it.

"Oh, sure, everyone gang up on me," I replied sarcastically.

"That is actually easier than it sounds," Annabeth told me, smiling evilly. I stuck my tongue out at her.

Nothing much else happened for several hours, until about five o'clock in the morning. With a burst of red, a phoenix appeared in the room, startling everybody. Some people had lulled into a half-sleep, but they woke up quickly at the arrival.

Sirius ripped the note off of the birds foot and handed it to George, who read it out loud. When he was finished, everybody let out a sigh, which sounded more like a hurricane with eleven people doing it. Mr. Weasley was alive.

We all went to bed after that, trying to get some rest. I don't know about anybody else, but neither Nico nor I slept. Instead, we had that awkward moment where there's only one other person in the room, but you really don't want to talk to them so you pretend that you didn't notice them, but you know that they're doing the same thing, too.

That lasted about half an hour.

Then I finally got the courage to ask Nico something that had been on my mind ever since the train ride to Hogwarts.

"Hey, Nico?" I asked. He grunted in reply. "Remember on the train, when you punched Malfoy in the face?"

Nico hesitated before replying. "What would be the correct answer to that?"

"Yes."

"Then no."

I rolled my eyes and looked away for a minute. Then I turned back. "No, but seriously. Do you remember?"

He sighed. "Yes."

"Why?" My question was simple and straightforward. Funnily enough, the simple and straightforward questions are sometimes the hardest to answer.

Nico drew in a breath before answering. "Several reasons. Mudblood infers that the person saying it is better, more important than the other person. It's a form of discrimination, in a way. Back in the thirties and forties, Americans hated Italians with a fiery passion."

"Really?" I asked. I'd never heard that. Or maybe I had, but I hadn't been awake in that class.

Nico nodded. "Yeah. The whole Red Scare thing. They thought all Italians wanted a Facist government, or something. I'm not sure. But my family clearly wasn't an exception to that hate."

I nodded. So far that made sense. "And?"

"And, children of Hades, or Pluto, or whatever, aren't treated the same. I don't care what you say, Percy, we don't fit in. It's worse in the Roman camp, and Hazel had to deal with that for a long time, before she gained any respect. I guess I was just sick of people thinking that they were better than others. Believe me, I was wondering that myself, for a while."

"Fair enough," I decided. "Similar to my hate for bullies. Sucks to be the idiot who I get in a fight with because things add up over time, right?"

"Basically, yeah."

I leaned my head back on the pillow. "I wouldn't mind it if you find another good reason to sock him, though. He's a little blond pain in my ass. And pretty much everyone else's, too."

I thought I saw a smile crack on Nico's face. "Maybe he'll intentionally push me, or something. Or we have to do a drill in DADA that involves punching your partner in self defense."

That reminded me of something. "Hey, Nico, have you heard about the Dumbledore's Army?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Only a couple hundred times. Why?"

"I was just kind of wondering why you weren't in it.I mean, the rest of us are in it. And we're teaching the wizards life skills that they can use if they can't use their wands."

Nico gave me a look. "I'm probably not in it because I'm in Slytherin and nobody in Slytherin was invited to join. That would kind of be breaking the rules, right?"

"True," I conceded. "Maybe I can convince Harry to let you guest star or something once in a while. Show us your Italian ninja skills, you know?"

Nico threw his pillow at me. "Maybe I won't come, just because of that."

I grinned. "You know you love my word play. I've got brain skills."

SORRY ABOUT THE JUMPING AROUND. AND THSES CAPS. I FINISHED THIS ON MY PHONE AND IT WON'T DO BOLD :( AND I CAN'T GET THIS A/N TO MOVE TO THE BOTTOM. SORRY :/

ANYWAY, DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!

-SILVER OUT.

"You know what I like better? Your abilities to shut up, nonexistent as they are ."

I narrowed my eyes. "If I don't have the skills, that means I can't use them, right?"

Nico turned on his side, facing away from me. "It's never too late to learn a new skill."