Percy cherished the look on Malfoy's face at breakfast the next day. It would be the most memorable thing that would happen in weeks; to be precise, not until Halloween. No, not the feast, stupid. Well, Harry got a Nimbus Two Thousand, becoming the first first-year in a century to play for the House Quidditch team, Halloween came by and went, Hermione went on being brilliant and Harry and Ron (not to mention himself) managed to scrape along somehow. And Harry was having three Quidditch practices a week, but, y'know, nothing extraordinary.
And of course, the thing in the vault. Well, Hermione wasn't interested, Neville was too frightened of the dog, and Ron didn't have a great deal of interest in it either. Harry was quite interested, but Percy really didn't like taking an eleven year old along to see a giant three-headed dog. It was too much like the Olympian gods had done to him with all the stupid quests. And, yes, even though he was himself technically only eleven, he was much older really. Not to mention the Tartarus trip had also aged him a lot.
And what happened on Halloween?
At the feast (the food was scrumptious, by the way) someone interrupted them most rudely. But there are some times where it is fine to interrupt feasts, even for professors. Yes, you read that right.
Professor Quirrell burst into the Great Hall as if his life depended on it; in other words, as if he was being chased by some super quick chaser. No, not the Quidditch one!
Well, turned out he wasn't being chased at all. What a disappointment...
Anyway, what he said was: No, scratch that.
Well, basically there was a troll in the dungeon. You don't need to know the exact wording.
So: Everyone panicked obviously. And the Great Hall became filled with such shouts as if everyone had been handed a premature death sentence. Without being warned earlier! As if a single troll could even pose such a danger.
It took several VERY loud bangs from the end of Dumbledore's wand and quite a few minutes for everyone to stop shrieking like banshees who've just been told their screams are no longer frightening.
Long story short, everyone was ordered back to their dormitories by the Headmaster. And, course, our Trio: Ronald B. Weasley, Harry J. Potter and Percy T. Jackson decided to break free of the crowd. Why? Because they love breaking rules. Nah, that was just partly the reason.
*Flashback*
They had just emerged from a Charms class. Ron had been... bad, to say the least. Hermionne had shown him his mistakes in a none too much tactful manner. Ron had been annoyed, which therefore led to him saying something rather... uncomplimentary about her:
"It's a wonder no one can stand her," he said in an aside to Harry after emerging from class, "she's a nightmare, honestly,"
Alas, someone bumped past them at the very same tie Ron made this pronouncement. And who could it be other than Hermione. And, judging by her face, she had not missed what Ron had said.
And she wasn't pleased about it.
To cut the rest short, Hermione didn't turn up for classes for the rest of the day. Later that day, they overheard Parvati saying that Hermione was crying in the girls' toilets.
Ron had at least the decency to look awkward and ashamed about it.
*End*
Yes, you got that right. They had taken a detour to tell Hermione about the troll. And, of course, all three went.
"Percy!" hissed Ron as they were rounding a bend in a corridor and flung themselves behind a statue.
"What?," whispered Percy.
"Oh, not you, my brother. Thought he was there. I'm still getting used to it," whispered back Ron.
"Anyway, that's not the point. Why's Snape here instead of the dungeon with the rest of the staff?" continued Ron.
"Dunno," said Harry.
Percy had been getting bad vibes all along from this Snape guy. Not the Mrs Dobbs vibes, he was human all right, but the guy had serious issues. What exactly, he didn't know. What he did know, however, was: He wasn't a fool and not taken to wandering around corridors just because he felt like it. There was a definite reason.
Dam, I need Annabeth for this. Or Hermione. But one is currently in another universe and the other is right now crying a toilet. He raised his eyes upwards.
Hey Fates, remind me what I ever did to deserve this epically messed-up life?
Of course, there was no answer. He shook his head and stopped thinking.
They travelled along the corridor until Ron motioned for them to stop.
"D'you smell something?" he asked in a low voice.
They strained their noses, and slowly the smell became apparent. And it wasn't one you would wish to smell, either. It smelled like fetid-ok, enough. One doesn't want to provide detailed descriptions of such noisome smells. Suffice it to say it was VERY pungent.
And, of course, it was coming from the troll. It was the same size as a Titan, but none of their aura of power, or figure. Yes, the troll was overweight. None of the many Titans Percy had met been anything other than muscly and just very... intimidating. They had also been quite intelligent, if arrogant. However, there was no intelligence in the troll's eyes.
It slouched slowly to a door, then apparently decided it was an attractive option, as he went in, dragging its club along the floor as it went.
Harry and Percy exchanged glances.
"Well, what do you think?" asked Harry perplexedly.'
Percy himself didn't have much of an idea. "Let's ask Ron. Ron, what do you think?"
"Ron? Ron!"
There was no Ron near them.
"Wha-," began a confused and alarmed Percy, before Ron appeared with a triumphant look.
"I've locked him in," he said buoyantly.
"What?! Ron, you-" began Percy, but Harry cut in.
"Where have you locked him in? Is it a girls' toilet?"
"What?" began a confused Ron before a terrified female scream rent through the air. And that pretty much answered the question.
They exchanged horrified looks, then, as one, darted towards the locked door.
After a moment of frantic struggling with the lock, they wrenched it open and regarded the scene with shocked eyes.
The troll was advancing towards Hermione, knocking sinks off the wall as it went. Hermione's capacity for screaming seemed to have run out as she shrank against the wall, dead white.
As Percy stared, he had a wild idea. Like, really wild. It was highly dangerous and definitely not recommended to anyone, but what the Hades. Also, his ADHD didn't really support the sensible thing to do, which was call a teacher or somehow knock it unconscious. And he had kind of a relapse ever since he had been 'de-aged'.
Well, YOLO, he thought as he seized a fallen sink and(with difficulty) hurled it at the troll. It slammed into the back of its neck, making it grunt and turn around.
Ignoring Harry and Ron's frightened exclamations, he hurled something else at the troll. No, not something tangible. Insults.
"Hey, you stinking idiot! I've fought a thousand stronger opponents than you! You think you can get to Hermione while I'm here! Ha!"
Well, nearly a thousand anyway, he thought as he continued to rain insults upon the monster, who seemed to understand something, at least. It was now heading directly for him, its club on it s shoulder and an annoyed expression on its face.
As Percy stopped for breath, the troll gave an angry grunt. Ha, Percy, everything's going according to plan.
The troll lifted its club. It was clear what it meant to do.
Percy took a deep breath. Now or never.
The club descended towards Percy. Ron and Harry yelled, but strangely the sound seemed muted. All that mattered was the troll and the club heading directly toward him.
Woohoo! What will happen next?
Side note: You might have noticed that my writing style has changed in the last few chapters. Will y'all please let me know what you think about it, either through reviews and/or PMs. It will be appreciated.
Thanks for reading
N.O.Y.E.S
