For the second time today, Fleur Delacour ascended the old tower to the owlery. The old stone staircase had an occasional section where a small patch of stone was removed, shaped to be a window. It allowed the moonlight to filter through sections, lighting up minuscule specks of dust, like tiny fireflies.

It gave Fleur something to muse about in the short trip up the tower.

As she approached the top, she prepared herself. When she had been to the owlery earlier it had been… disgusting, for lack of a better word.

Owl secretions everywhere, old and new. The stone and wood were stained in a gross white of owl pellets.

And the smell…

Fleur could feel herself beginning to gag at the memory, before she pushed down the reflex. Awful. For a school as prestigious as Hogwarts, it hadn't been as nearly as impressive as her first initial impressions.

The top of the tower approached. The stone staircase tempered out and a wooden one replaced, leading to a solid wooden platform.

Fleur stopped briefly, there was the faint sound of a voice coming from the top of the owlery.

There was a brief sense of awkwardness that arose in Fleur. She hadn't exactly wanted to run into anyone here, especially since it was rather late. But she didn't exactly have a personal owl to use and giving her family the good news that she had been picked as a champion took priority over any sense of awkwardness.

"... and then that famous kid, Harry Potter, got picked as the 4th champion or something. Kinda crazy don't you think Owl brains? Isn't he like thirteen?" A voice echoed out from the owlery. It was… American sounding? It certainly didn't hold the same accent that others around the school had. Sounding more like those movies that mundanes created.

...Owl brains? Was that a nickname of some sorts?

There was a pause in the voice. As if there was another person responding, yet Fleur heard no voice. Perhaps a silencing spell?

Fleur took another step up slowly. There was no real reason for her to be eavesdropping on someone's conversation. Merely pure curiosity.

As Fleur slowly elevated herself higher, she peeked slightly over the base of the wooden platform.

A man that seemed to be around her age was sitting on the edge of the owlery. One of his legs seemed to disappear behind the stone, likely dangling in mid air, while the rest of his body was lounging in the stone.

His hair was jet black and his eyes were deep sea green. He didn't wear the normal Hogwarts robes that others wore, but instead, some denim jeans and a bright orange tee that had the words 'Camp Half-Blood' blazoned across.

She heard a scoff, before the male voice continued. "Fourteen, close enough. But afterwards he disappeared out into the back where the rest of the champions went. The headmaster, Dumbledore, seemed like he had a fit. I didn't know people as old as him could even be that fast!"

There was another moment of silence as it seemed like another person was responding, yet from where she was, she couldn't possibly see anyone else. The rest of the owlery was empty save for them.

She followed his eyesight, or where she presumed his eyes were looking. Out the window, seemingly talking to air. There was nothing at all save for a small rainbow. Odd, considering the sun wasn't out, but it was likely due to the light sprouting from the top of the owlery.

Fleur stepped up once more, intent on getting a better view of the American boy.

As her foot reached the wooden part of the stairs, a tiny creak sounded out from the steps. It wasn't loud, but it seemed to echo throughout the entire room.

The black haired teen perked up, before turning to Fleur. A look of surprise was on his face, before it was replaced with an easy going smile.

"Hey! I wasn't expecting anyone to be up this late." He said, giving a wave of his hand.

Fleur was absolutely mortified for the briefest of moments, before calming down with a deep breath. He was acting as if she didn't just interrupt his conversation. Which was admittedly entirely possible since she didn't see anyone else around.

So he was just talking to himself? That was the only real explanation. But it certainly didn't sound like it. The pauses in conversation just felt too real. And how had he known Harry Potter was 14 when he just thought he was 13?

"Uhm…" The teen continued. "I can leave if you need…?"

Fleur blinked twice. A small amount of embarrassment crept up at being caught lost in thought. She composed herself and tried to act like she wasn't just listening in on someone.

"Who were you talking to just a second ago?" Fleur asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. Her brain caught up to her mouth as she realized what she had just said and she had to nearly stop herself from facepalming at her actions.

The man paused for a second. "I'm Percy by the way… thanks for asking…" He said sarcastically.

Fleur huffed at the sarcasm. Well, if he was going to be that way. She wouldn't feel as bad for asking.

"Fleur Delacour. Now who were you just talking to?" She repeated.

The newly named Percy gave her a long suffering look, one that she had the self awareness to admit that she should be ashamed at the blatant admittance to eavesdropping. She just didn't. Not with the attitude he was giving her. Even if it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Percy took a deep breath before responding. "I was writing a letter. I just talk out loud." He admitted, holding a half written letter up to show her. She stared at it for a moment, before realizing it was in a language that she couldn't understand.

It wasn't English?

"What language are you writing in?" She continued with another question.

This time, Percy just narrowed his eyes at her in a universal sort of 'what the fuck' fashion. "Greek. Now do you need anything else besides listening in on me talking to myself and trying to read my letter to my cousin?"

Fleur chewed on her lip in thought. Greek was a rare language. A letter made sense. Lots of people talked out loud while writing, but it just didn't seem to fit. Fleur however, knew a losing battle when she saw one.

The reality of it was that she had no real reason to doubt what he was saying. She knew that, but her curiosity and intuition said and demanded otherwise.

"Sorry. My curiosity got the best of me. I didn't mean to listen in, I just wanted to send a letter off to my family." She apologized, holding up a sealed letter in a manner similar to him.

Percy seemed to lose a bit of the edge he had taken from her questioning upon the apology. "That's fine. You're the uh, Beauxbatons champion right? You'd probably want to tell them you got selected. Totally understandable."

That was in fact exactly what Fleur had been doing.

Fleur nodded. Moving to the side to get one of the owls to take her letter. "Yes… but it's not in a language as rare as Greek."

Percy smiled as if he was amused by what she said. As if there was some sort of inside joke that she wasn't a part of. "Greek just runs in the family." He said smiling, before turning and starting to head down the stairs. "Got to run now, getting pretty late. Don't want detention because I stayed up too late! See you around."

He gave a lazy wave as he started to descend the stairs. His jet black hair disappeared past the wooden platform and down into the stone staircase.

Fleur watched him go, before tying her letter onto the owl's thin leg, taking care to avoid any talons.

It was then that she noticed it. This entire time she hadn't smelled any of it, but the entire owlery was odorless and most of all, clean. Not a single spot of owl droppings anywhere. She had no idea how she missed it earlier, especially something as revolting as that.

What on earth? Just earlier today it was absolutely disgusting. But now it seemed brand new.

"Wait!" She called out to her new acquaintance.

She waited a few moments, hoping to see him ascend the stairs and answer one last question of hers.

A beat passed, then two. And Percy's black hair and green eyes peeked out from the stairs leading down the tower.

"Yes...?" He asked, one eyebrow arched.

"I was here earlier today, but the place was absolutely filthy, did you happen to clean it?"

Percy's nose scrunched up. "Ah that…" he said, trailing off. "It just needed a little bit of elbow grease. Anyways. I've really got to go now. See ya champion."

Percy let a hand hang in the air for a moment as he turned and descended back the stairs once more.

A little bit of elbow grease? That's all? She had cast multiple cleaning charms and it had barely made a dent in the bio-hazard that was the old owlery. What on earth did Percy do to clean all of it so well?

Fleur sighed in exasperation. She didn't need to worry about that right now. What was important was getting this letter to her family.

"This is for Gabrielle Delacour. She's in France. It'll be a long journey but I'm sure you can do it." She spoke softly to the owl.

The owl gave a hoot before taking off into the night. As she watched the owl fly off. She realized one more thing.

Percy hadn't sent off any letters!

On the way down the stone spiral staircase, Percy held out an arm as a beautiful owl with silver plumage and grey eyes flew in through one of the stone windows and fastened itself onto his extended arm.

"Ow! Hey barn head watch the talons!" Percy exclaimed as one of the owl's claws sank into his skin deeper than it needed to, drawing small droplets of blood from his forearm.

The owl gave a hoot before pecking the side of Percy's head.

"I get it. I get it. No more nicknames." He said, rolling his eyes.

There was a brief moment of silence between the animal and human.

"That girl could have been one of yours if not the eyes, don't you think?" Percy said. His eye's were unfocused, as if he was in a place far away from Britain.

The owl swiveled its head to look at him, its face contorted in an odd way that made it look like it was raising an eyebrow.

"Well. I mean the curious nature and all the incredibly personal questions without any real regard to the other person, she would fit right into your cabin!" Percy said, not being able to hold back his signature witty responses.

This time, the silver owl raised one of its wings and cuffed him over the head with it.

"Hey come on it was just a joke!"

Start: May 3rd. 2021.

Finish: May 15th. 2021.

Words: 1881

Couldn't help myself. The PJO series is just amazing and I love it to death. It holds such a dear place in my heart because it was the series to get me into fanfics in the first place. I saw a couple of Percy/Fleur fics around but decided I wanted to take a shot at making my own. This is just gonna be a short fluffy series. Bye bye!

-FN.