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 author. I hope you enjoy Joining Forces.

Percy POV:

On Christmas day I went to the common room to see presents surrounding a corner. "Woah," I remarked. Harry and Ron whizzed past me and began unwrapping presents with Hermione who was out of the girl's dormitories. "Here," I said, giving them each a bundled up cloth. "A gift for each of you," The unwrapped the cloth to reveal a few golden Drachmas in each of them. Annabeth was going to kill me for this, but I figured if we might join forces then they might want to keep them.

Ron held one of the Drachmas in his hand. "These are huge!" He remarked. "What sort of Galleons are these?"

"The kind I use," I answered. "Merry Christmas,"

"American money," Hermione said, giving me a hug. "Thank you!" Harry and Ron each gave me a hug as well and presented me with a gift of their own to me. "We pulled our money together and bought you a broom," Harry explained.

"Harry has a bank full of money," Ron chimed in. "He put in the most,"

"It was a group effort." Harry insisted. "It isn't the best quality, but it'll be better than using the school brooms all the time," I laughed and gave them each a hug. Imagine what they would say back at Camp Half-Blood. "A Cleansweep 7," I remarked, putting my hands on top of the wooden handle. "I love it."

We spent most of the morning in the common room, joking around as we celebrated the holiday. I had also sent gifts over to Annabeth and got some for my family. The other day, we had gone over to Hogsmeade to get gifts for her. In the end, I choose something simple: candy. I wondered how they thought of it. Although, the wizarding world was kept just as secret, Chiron did inform mom where I'd be leaving the school year for this year. Thinking about home, my hands suddenly clenched.

Soon, we had to go down to the great hall for a meal. We all gathered around on one table since most had returned home, and began eating a Christmas feast. "Did you like my gift?" I asked. Annabeth smiled and nodded, giving me a kiss on the cheek. She passed me a small cloth. Mine was simple enough, a blue cloth with stitched on waves. "I've been trying to do some of the other stuff my mom's good at. Managed to make this from some fabric I got, I think I'll stick with other hobbies though. The candy's nice, certainly interesting,"

I made jazz hands. "Magical candy!"

"I heard that you three have some money since you're teaching," Hermione chimed.

"A little bit," Percy said. "There's not a lot of us here, what do you suggest we do during the holidays?"

Hermione brought out two old cloths. "Mr. Filch isn't using them anymore after a clean-up. I asked him if I could have them, I thought we could, perhaps play a game of Capture the flag, the American wizarding way." She declared. "Wouldn't it be fun?"

"Didn't Filch reprimand you or something?" Ron asked. "We all know he isn't very fond of students,"

"No, it's just old cloths, and I haven't gotten into trouble with him recently," Annabeth looked like she was considering the idea, but I thought it would be fun.

"That'd be great." I said, "However, Hogwarts isn't exactly CHB, and we'll need to get permission from the teachers as well as other students who are willing, it won't be any fun if it's only a few students." Plus I wasn't sure I could go a game being completely normal at it. At Camp Half-Blood Capture the Flag was different than most times. We used weapons, it wasn't just tag and someone couldn't leave our territory, but I understood why Annabeth wanted to do this. We hadn't spent too much time at Camp Half-Blood that summer doing much. There was that thing with Apollo, and Chiron had brought us to England to get supplies, plus we didn't want to call Chiron since he seemed busy himself. A game of Capture the Flag would cure some of the homesickness. I was surprised Annabeth brought the idea up though, she's the one who was more likely to shun the suggestion due to helping reveal our identities.

"We can play on the quidditch field," Annabeth said.

"I think that's a fantastic idea!" Ron said, "We can see what a CHB sport would be like. I doubt it'd match up to Quidditch, however, I am excited. We have an even number of students to play, let's ask Dumbledore for the use of the field. In the meantime you three can explain how you'd play the game at CHB," Several things would have to be changed for a game of it at Hogwarts. For one, the cloths we were using as flags were a lot smaller than what we usually used.

"The opposing side has a flag that you're trying to get. If someone from another team steps onto your side and gets tagged then they are considered a prisoner and unable to leave the side to steal the flag until getting rescued. The same goes for the other side." Annabeth quickly gave a short explanation, probably planning to give something more in-depth if there were any questions.

"How should we decide on the teams?" Harry asked, "Maybe Annabeth and Percy can both lead a team since they've done this before," It seemed reasonable, but I didn't like the idea. It wasn't fighting Annabeth that I was worried about me accidentally doing something that revealed some part of my identity. Being on Annabeth's team made me feel that I wouldn't make such a big mistake since she'd be looking out for me. "I don't really like that idea, I'm afraid I'll make a big mistake," Annabeth seemed to understand, "Does anyone have any other suggestions on how they'd like the teams to be made?"

"How about different team captains?" Harry suggested, "If you two want to be on a team than the other team should have two great players as well,"

"Smashing idea!" We turned around where Professor Slughorn had joined us. "Professor?" Annabeth said. "How long were you listening to us?"

"Long enough to know there's going to be a game going on and that Percy and Annabeth wish to be on the same team. Please enlighten me on what I missed out on,"

"We're going to be playing Capture the Flag, a game we played often at CHB. We were just discussing the team arrangements and were going to ask Dumbledore to use the empty Quidditch pitch as the playing field,"

"Most teachers stayed at Hogwarts this Christmas. I'm sure another teacher and I can be team Captains. What time do you want to play?"

"How about after lunch?" Annabeth suggested.

"Splendid! I will arrange the rest,"

Next Chapter in 5-6 days. Have a marvelous day!