We have reached 100 followers! Yay! Thank you so much guys, it really means a lot that so many people have invested their time in this story. In honor of the special occasion, I have written my longest chapter yet! I'll write an even longer one when we reach 200, probably about 5,000 words, just for you guys!
Harry POV:
His lungs were constricting with every passing second as he swam for the surface. He could see the light shining through water, he was almost there-
Immense pressure clamped around his ankle, eliciting a stream of bubbles, the last breath of air, from his mouth as he screamed.
He shut his mouth, fast, but he wasn't quick enough and inhaled a mouthful of water. He barely had time to form a thought before he was dragged down, while being shaken like a chew toy. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't hear beyond his erratic heartbeat.
The pressure increased. His ankle felt like it was being torn in half. He didn't have any air, and he was losing consciousness.
He only had time to think, is this how I'm going to die? Before he blacked out.
Percy POV:
I could feel the monster drag Harry down into the lake, but it took me a second to figure out what was happening. Hadn't I trapped the thing? I took another second to check, stretching my consciousness down into the lake, into the cave where the monster had been. It was still there. So there were two of them? How had I not noticed before?
Panicking slightly, I turned back towards the lake and ran through the shallows until I was able to dive into the water, ignoring Ron and Hermione's frantic shouts behind me.
I shot through the water as fast as possible, heading straight for the second monster, which was dragging Harry down to the bottom of the lake. I could tell that Harry was unconscious, probably from oxygen deprivation. I needed to finish this quickly.
When I came within thirty feet of the shark/crocodile/squid thing, it froze and started looking around. This one was bigger than the one in the cave, and with a lot more teeth. I stayed outside the edges of it's vision while I decided on a plan of attack.
I looked at Harry's limp body helplessly. I had to keep him alive. That was my quest, and my only way home.
Tightening my jaw, I reached out a hand and felt for the water surrounding the monster. I didn't want to have to kill it, because I needed to figure out where it had come from. But Harry's blood flow was slowing by the second and I didn't have time to come up with anything else.
Before the monster could even blink, I closed my hand into a fist and crushed it in a liquid vise grip.
Golden dust dissolved in the water as I reached Harry's body. I didn't have time to create an air bubble, so I just rocketed towards the shore as fast as I could, thickening the water around Harry into a shield. I didn't bother with hiding behind the ship this time, I just burst through the surface right in front of Ron and Hermione, remembering to be wet and fake a huge gasp of air.
I felt like I'd been down in the lake for a long time, but it was probably more like thirty seconds. Hermione was crying, and Ron looked like he was trying to swallow a hamster.
"Harry!" Hermione cried, paling when she saw his limp body in my arms. She nearly screamed, but I cut her off.
"Hermione. You need to run to the castle and get someone. The first teacher you see. Now!"
To her credit, she wiped her eyes and nodded, sprinting up the lawn to the big wooden doors.
I waded through the shallow water quickly and laid Harry on the grass. My heart was pounding; I didn't know how to do CPR!
I cursed mentally. If he was a demigod, I would've been able to give him ambrosia and nectar. But he wasn't a demigod.
I put my hand to his forehead and felt for the water in his lungs, thinking of the Nymphaeum in Rome, when Piper, Jason, and I almost drowned.
I was about to clear his lungs and (hopefully) wake him up when I remembered Ron. He was standing over my shoulder, still looking like he was trying to swallow that hamster. I cursed inside my head again. Hecate told me not to reveal myself to Harry, do his friends count? Probably.
"Ron," I said, trying to come up with a way to get him to leave. "I need some... willow bark. There's some over there," I said, pointing to the tree we'd been sitting under when this whole fiasco started.
He nodded silently, and hurried off.
The minute he was far enough away, I put my hand back on Harry's forehead and concentrated; I didn't want to remove anything but lake water.
It worked, and dirty water erupted from his mouth. He didn't wake up, but I could see his chest moving up and down. He was alive.
I sat back on my heels and ran a hand through my wet hair, my mind racing through the possibilities. What else could I do? We had first aid classes at camp, but not for almost drowning! Besides, everyone assumed that the nymphs would help if anyone ever fell in the lake.
I glanced back at the castle, where the doors were still shut tight. Ron was frantically peeling bark off of the tree, and it looked like he was almost done. If I was going to do something, I had to do it fast.
I looked at Harry's still body again, and this time something new caught my eye.
I peeled back the hem of his robes, which were completely soaked. Bloody, jagged tooth marks ringed his ankle, turning the grass underneath his foot a horrible red color. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at it, but after inspecting it further I couldn't see any internal damage, or anything that would be permanent.
I racked my brain for magic spells that could make bandages, and I didn't have to wait long before one popped into my head. Looking at the edge of the lake, I could see that my robes were still there. I got up and grabbed them, fishing around in one of the pockets for my wand.
I hurried back over to Harry, looking at my wand helplessly. Just because I knew the name of the spell didn't mean I could actually do it. But I didn't have a choice.
"Fomentum," (A/N: Not a real spell, I made it up) I said carefully, hoping I didn't accidentally make Harry explode. To my relief, the spell worked, and a long bandage sprouted from the tip.
I wrapped it around Harry's ankle and decided to try removing the water from his lungs again.
I looked up, and Ron was on his way back, so I moved quickly.
Excess water dribbled from Harry's mouth, and I swear I saw his eyelids fluttering, but it stopped and he was still again. I frowned. I could feel his blood flowing normally, he was breathing, and I'd stopped the bleeding. So why wasn't he waking up?
Ron came up, breathing heavily and with an armful of bark. I tried to think of some use for it, so he'd think he'd been useful, but all I could come up with was waving it under Harry's nose or smacking him with it. I chose to wave it under his nose.
Of course, nothing happened, and Ron got really nervous.
"What's wrong with him? Is he dead? Do you think-"
"Ron." I said, trying to calm him down.
"Harry's alive, he's just unconscious."
Ron sighed in relief, and looked back towards the castle.
"I hope Hermione finds a teacher soon."
I nodded in agreement, turning back towards Harry.
It was really weird that he wouldn't wake up. He was physically fine, minus his injured ankle. He needed to get him to infirmary, or the hospital, or whatever it was called in Scotland. Hopefully they'd be able to figure out what was wrong with him.
I put a worried hand on his forehead again, intending to check his blood flow, but I was interrupted.
I felt a brief pulling sensation in my brain, and promptly passed out.
Harry POV:
He couldn't tell if he was alive or not, but he certainly wasn't dead if he was having nightmares. It was the same one that he'd had that night in Privet Drive, with the old man and Peter Pettigrew and the other two guys that he didn't recognize. But he had a sinking suspicion that the one in the chair was someone that he knew all too well.
The dream ended on the same chilling note that it had before, leaving Harry ready to wake up screaming, except he didn't. The scenery melted away until he was standing on the crest of that hilltop again, the one that he'd dreamt about before. It was strange, he'd almost forgotten the dream about the boy with the sword who could apparently breathe underwater.
This time, the hill looked different. The tree next to him had the golden rug from his other dream hanging on a low branch, and a- WAS THAT A DRAGON?!
Harry sprinted down the side of the hill, forgetting that he was in a dream, and therefore could not be hurt by anything, including dragons. He remembered soon enough, and shook his head, embarrassed.
He walked through the strawberry fields, taking in all the strange sights. This seemed like a summer camp, but a very, very dangerous one. There was a climbing wall with lava, an arena with sounds like clashing metal coming from it, and an arts and crafts building that appeared to be smoking. A few kids in bright orange T-shirts played an intense game of volleyball in a sand pit, and some were walking in and out of the strangest assortment of buildings he'd ever seen.
He stood in place, stunned by all the dangerous and cool-looking activities, weird buildings, and strange creatures that lived in the trees. He only had time to look for a few moments, though, because his dream decided to drag him away, quite literally.
His feet slid across the ground as he protested, trying to keep his balance and not fall over. The invisible force took him across the camp and into one of the many different buildings, which he assumed were cabins. He somehow slid up the stairs and into the main room of a large cabin with an owl figure above the door. The inside had big white screens on the walls, which were chock full of what looked like battle plans and boat designs.
Harry stopped in front of a girl with blond hair, who he recognized from his other dream about the dark-haired boy. This must have been his girlfriend, what was her name again? Annabeth.
She was laying on a bottom bunk, and appeared to be sleeping. He cleared his throat, not sure what this interactive dream wanted him to do now.
But to his surprise, Annabeth woke up and stared directly at him. As fast as he could blink, she was inches away from his face with a dagger at his throat. He gasped, struggling to understand how she could move so fast.
Her face was hard as she evaluated him, gray eyes calculating how much trouble he would give her. She stepped away and sheathed her dagger, never taking her eyes off his face.
"Who are you?" she asked coldly, arms crossed. "How did you get inside the border?"
He looked at her nervously, afraid she might bust out her dagger again if he said the wrong thing.
"Funny story, I'm… er… dreaming?"
He thought that Annabeth would laugh at him and then kill him, but she looked around at the room, scrutinizing it. She sighed.
"Me too. We must have melded with each other's dreams."
He was very confused, but she just shook her head.
"What's your name?" She asked, a little nicer than the first time.
"Harry. Harry Potter."
She didn't show any signs of recognition at the name, which meant she probably wasn't a witch. So what was this camp for?
"Well, Harry, I-" She cut off abruptly, staring at the other side of the room in shock. Harry turned, but didn't see anything. When he faced Annabeth, intending to ask what was wrong, she was gone, and the world faded to black.
Percy POV:
I was sucked into camp. This must've been what Harry was dreaming about, but why would he dream about Camp Half-Blood? He's never even been there!
More importantly, why did I get pulled into Harry's dream? Nothing was making sense.
I think Annabeth caught a glimpse of me across the Athena cabin, where I'd stumbled on her and Harry having a conversation. More accurately, Harry was deathly afraid of her and she was tolerating him for the moment. I didn't know how Harry could talk to her, unless she was dreaming too, but… I'm so confused.
She only saw me as I was waking up, so I didn't get to talk to her or even get close to her.
I sat up with a start to Ron, who was shaking my shoulder. I almost pulled out Riptide, but I managed to stop the instinct.
Harry woke up too, to the excitement of Ron.
As Ron punched him in the arm and told him to "never scare me again, mom's going to freak," and all that stuff, I stood and turned towards the lake, trying to decide what to deal with first.
The monster that was still down in the cave
Harry's dream
The fact that Harry almost died
How to gather information about Voldemort, per Hecate's quest for me
It was pretty overwhelming. Before I could think about it too much, Hermione came running up, panting.
"Harry!" she cried, throwing her arms around him as he shakily got to his feet. "I brought Professor Moody, we need to get you to the hospital wing."
"I'm fine," he groaned as Professor Moody limped towards us.
"Harry! You nearly drowned!" exclaimed Ron. "If Percy hadn't gone down there-"
"It was nothing," I interrupted. "and you're right. Harry, you need to go to the hospital wing."
Harry grumbled, but consented to let Ron and Hermione take him. Professor Moody and I walked a little bit behind them.
"So you're the one that saved 'im?" He asked gruffly, stabbing at the ground with his cane every time he took a step with his right leg. (A/N: I can't remember which leg it is.)
I decided to just stick with simple answers.
"Yeah."
He grunted, but seemed to get that I didn't want to talk about it. We followed the trio in front of us to the hospital wing, and he made sure Harry was being cared for before leaving.
The nurse, who was apparently called Madam Pomfrey, didn't seem to remember the night of the feast, when I'd woken up and scared her. She bustled around Harry, checking his vitals and stuff, before leaving to go get another pillow.
I decided to stick around. I couldn't leave Harry alone anymore, not with this big jumbled mess of monsters and Voldemort and dreams. Dumbledore was probably right about the Triwizard Tournament being a good time for "You-Know-Who" to try and kill Harry. Plus, if greek monsters were somehow finding their way here, who knows what will happen. Hopefully the two in the lake just got lost...
Again, thank you so much for the 100 followers! I really appreciate everyone. Reviews!
surya25addanki: Yeah, probably. There are a lot of ways Percy could have killed it, but I wanted to have a semi-exciting fight scene. It probably didn't read as well as I though it would, sorry. :(
Jinglebells852: Thank you! I love that you leave a review for every chapter, it really motivates me and gives me something to look forward to!
PineconeFace1222: Thank you! I hope I satisfied your curiosity!
Alexandra Goddess of Heroes: Thanks!
Well, that's all for now.
Peace out,
LadyHW
