Halfway through term, she noticed him.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at a boy donning the classic green and silver tie that marks Slytherin. He was sitting silently at lunch, reading a newspaper, and taking small bites of his food every now and then. Other Slytherins surrounded him, and occasionally leaned over to chat with him. He looked older, a seventh year perhaps. He was quite good-looking, with his jet black hair and prominent jawline. He looked up at the student across from him and she could make out his piercing sea-green eyes all the way from the Gryffindor table. She was intrigued, but not because she thought he was attractive. Instead, she could swear that she had never seen him before at Hogwarts.

"Who's that?" She asked out loud to Harry and Ron, keeping her eyes trained on him, being hardly subtle.

Ron, mouth full of food, looked up. "Who?" He managed to mumble.

Hermione gave him a quick look of disgust, but she was well used to it at this point. "Him," she nodded over to the boy. "Slytherin, sitting next to Greengrass."

Ron followed her line of sight until it settled on the teenager in question. "Jackson?" He questioned, shovelling another forkful of food into his mouth. Harry had turned around to look, but turned back around once he saw who it was.

"Jackson?" She questioned.

"Yeah, Percy Jackson?" Harry squinted his eyes at Hermione. "He's a Hogwarts student, seventh year?" He asked, trying to remind the girl of the older student.

Ron snorted, "Yeah, and all the girls go crazy over his good looks and charm. Don't tell me you have never noticed him before." He said, rolling his eyes. "Remember when he had to fend off all of those singing Valentines grams in second year?" He chuckled, looking at Harry.

Harry smiled and shook his head as he chuckled. "Oh, I remember that. I bet he got more grams than Lockhart himself did."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. That was odd, she thought. She had never seen Ron be so friendly when talking about a Slytherin. She shook her head and looked back at Percy.

She was still confused. She could remember the events they were describing vaguely, but nothing more than that. She blinked in surprise when the boy picked up his head, and stared straight into her eyes. His expression hardly changed, looking uninterested, and he turned back down at his lunch. Ron looked up at her, still staring, and frowned. "Don't tell me you're getting a crush on him, too," he groaned.

She finally looked away, taken aback. "Of course not!" she exclaimed. She looked at Harry, "I just.. " She trailed off. "Something feels weird." She placed her fork down, unaware she was still holding it. "I can hardly remember him, I barely even recognize him at all!"

Harry looked at her, worried, "He's been at Hogwarts for seven years. Are you feeling alright?" He placed the back of his hand up to her forehead.

He laughed as she swatted it away, although he still looked concerned. "I'm fine." She said firmly. However, her thoughts were still in turmoil, as she glanced back down at her plate. Was something wrong with her? Hogwarts was a small school. Why couldn't she remember a student two years above her?

Hermione finally noticed Harry and Ron had stood up, but she didn't listen to them as they spoke. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, still lost in thought, as she followed her friends out of the Great Hall, and to class.


Percy sipped on his Coke, casually flipping through the paper in his hand. He pretended to read it, acting intrigued in the words that he wasn't actually reading. His eyes glossed over the words as he sat.

So far, everything seemed fine. No one stared at him, asking him who he was. Instead, they pulled him into the conversation a few times, appearing friendly and familiar. He fit in seamlessly, and no one at the Slytherin table had asked him why he had just appeared out of thin air.

Except one thing.

He could feel someone staring a hole into his head, and silently he cursed. The Mist wasn't a perfect thing, and they weren't sure it would work at all, even with Hecate's help. However, he had prepared for this. There were bound to be a few people who would be unaffected by the Mist. He was lucky that only one person had noticed so far.

His best hope was that they would be convinced they were the problem, and that he had been there the whole time. After all, his cover was that he was quiet, kept to himself, and mysterious. No one knew much about him, other than some basics.

He looked up, making eye contact with a brunette who was staring at him, curious. He looked up at her, bored. He raised an eyebrow at her, before looking away, his expression not changing one bit.

He certainly wasn't happy with going into such a dangerous quest. He had no backup, no place to go if things go bad, and he struggled with remembering important details that could out him. This was a quest unlike any other that has ever been conducted by Camp Half-Blood. It was an infiltration. Like a spy, he thought sarcastically, taking a bite out of an apple.

Percy was brought back to the world by the students around him standing up. He grabbed his bag, and followed them out of the Great Hall. He slowly navigated towards his first official class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hopefully he would be more inconspicuous there.