Disclaimer!

These characters do not belong to me nor do I make any money off this story. I am merely writing Fan Fiction. The characters belong to their respective authors. I hope you enjoy Joining Forces.

Percy POV:

I went back to the dormitories after the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff Quidditch game ended. The others went back first as I wanted to go and congratulate Annabeth after her house's victory as she had done for me.

"Come back from congratulating Annabeth with Nico?" Harry said as I entered. I nodded, "She did incredibly!"

"She did, she must've been happy to see you supporting her,"

"I like to think I was the loudest person in the stand cheering for her,"

"I certainly think so. Not everyone falls off their seat cheering,"

"Hey, I didn't fall off in the end,"

"They'll be difficult to beat. Annabeth blocked almost every Quaffle from entering the hoops."

I laughed as the lights went out. "Isn't that what competition is?" I closed my eyes.

It was hot, like a summer day. I felt as if I were walking on the beach barefoot, burning hot sand under the soles of my feet. Surely, if it was real I'd burn up in the sweltering heat soon, dying of lack of water, but it didn't seem like the case. I continued walking, my wand was in my pocket the end of it sticking out. 9 ¾ inches, Unicorn hair, Cedar, Fairly bendy. Annabeth, Nico and I all got ours at Ollivanders. Of course, at that time Chiron had told us he was nuts, and we should just do as he said trying out a bunch of sticks.

I placed my hands further deeper into the pockets searching for Riptide to no avail. I shrugged, she'd return to me later. I took out my wand, "Aguamenti!" I cried. Water came out of the tip before evaporating into steam, which quickly disappeared as well. Yes, of course, that made sense. Water would evaporate on the spot, but somehow I was able to withstand the heat? Completely understandable. I had been to Tartarus, and that was several times worse than wherever I was. However, I got the notion that it had a somewhat similar place where despite the circumstances you wouldn't die. Who knows, maybe if I walk further I'd encounter a river of fire?

The sky above me was a starry blanket, the moon giving light around me as I continued to walk on the barren wasteland. Normally during the night, I would expect it to be cooler yet it seemed as if the heat increased once the moon came out. Fissures and cracks were littered all over the floor, but they remained inactive. The wasteland was completely deserted, nothing new other than what I already saw. Demigod dreams normally occurred for me, but this seemed different. Over time I had continued to walk, trying out spells and checking for Riptide constantly. Magic worked fine, though water dried every time I made it. However, Riptide never returned even if I tried using the summoning charm I only ended up with empty results. Strange...

After another while, I saw another figure. "Hey!" I cried. They turned around it was Kelli, her mule leg was leaning forward and her hand was outstretched towards me. She said. "It's you," I barely had time to groan at the predicament when Kelli leapt forward a red beam firing from her hand. Of course, I thought dodging it and firing my own attack with my wand. What's more, is I get stuck here with a monster. "You deserve to be dead!" She hollered, continuing to rush at me. I rolled my eyes and continued to fire spells. Most of the beams of light she shot from her hands, not sure when she picked that up, missed me as I easily dodged them. I knew she didn't have the blessing she had during the attack on the duelling club. The spells I managed to hit her with, worked. I feel like I should have chosen better spells like the body-bind curse, that would have made things a lot easier but I was doubting what I should do.

We traded spells for a while, neither of us speaking to each other except for grunts and complaints. "Who are you working for?" I demanded.

"I should be asking you that question," She responded. We continued to flash spells back and forth at each other. I got to end this. I reminded myself after dodging another spell. I don't have a sword though...the killing curse maybe? I knew it was illegal, but I also knew that if I didn't kill Kelli, she'd probably kill me. Besides, I comforted myself. No one else is here. I'm just protecting myself.

We continued for some time with me trying to find the best opening to fire the Killing Curse. I was horrible at archery when I first started, but I got better at it and aiming over time. Finally, at one point, I had my chance. I pointed my wand to her crying Avada Kedavra. I wasn't able to see the result as I felt the world turn black around me.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the comfort of the Gryffindor male dormitories. It the darkness it seemed that most people were sleeping soundly. Well, I didn't expect them to have dreams as demigods did. I wondered if Annabeth or Nico had any, I felt the need to visit them but restrained myself. I wasn't supposed to go around the halls past curfew.

"So," I said after returning from offering some bacon as a sacrifice. "What's the plan?"

"I thought about that," Hermione said, "I'm assuming right now most of the students who have the same condition are in the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't allow us to enter due to the possibility of us catching whatever they have,"

"So this is like a virus?" Harry said.

"Yes, look around us," Hermione gestured to the four tables of the houses. Percy remembered the number of students in the hospital wing being small, slightly more than how many there usually was. However, looking at the difference through the Great Hall, the amount seemed to have doubled overnight. Although still not a large amount, the thought was alarming.

"It seemed not limited to blood status, house, gender, or anything so far," Hermione noted. "The 'infected' are simply random. I'm not sure if this just is coincidental, or if the associate placed a disease at Hogwarts." Destroying Hogwarts from the inside. I thought. One infected person leads to us all falling. "Harry," Hermione continued. "Are you okay?" It took a while for us to wake you up this morning, you seem tired. That morning we called Harry several times trying to wake him up, in the end resorting to using Aguamenti on him which we also had to do twice for him to awake. "I'm fine, just exhausted. It may be because of this 'virus'. Do you think I should go to Madam Pomfrey?"

"Maybe it's just sudden exhaustion?" I suggested, doubting my own words.

"There's something else," Harry said. "I felt like something happened to me last night, but I can't seem to remember anything."

"Nothing did happen," Hermione said. "We came back from Quidditch and we all went to bed unless you went out."

"I didn't."

"You-know-who is gone," Hermione continued. "You shouldn't have had anything bad happen to you."

"Let's see how the day goes," I said. "Maybe we can even visit Ron later."