Chapter 16
Percy
An afternoon and evening in a nice hot, relaxing, bath would sound like a great day for most people, but most people don't bounce off the walls with boredom the way I do. Still, although I wasn't about to let Annabeth know, I was still hurting pretty bad and just the walk up to the Leodis was pure misery.
Annabeth suggested the pool rather than the bath mainly because Leo had installed a saltwater chlorination system and salt water was better for healing me. She waited while I changed into some trunks, cast "repario" on what was left of my school uniform which made it as though brand new, and then walked me to the pool.
"You want me to bring you lunch? I don't mind, its time anyway, and no one will mind if we eat up here."
"No, honestly, I feel good now, but I'm not hungry. Maybe it was all the nectar and ambrosia" I said with a smile. Truthfully every organ inside me still hurt as though they were being stabbed and were simultaneously on fire. It felt like I had swallowed a sack of daggers with lemon, vinegar and salt, and I was looking forward to being alone and soaking my misery away.
I kissed Annabeth, slid into the pool, leaned forward and promptly fell asleep.
I float like anyone else, but when my lungs fill with water I don't freak out as I can breath it. I sank to the bottom and soaked in the healing salt water all afternoon, and when Annabeth came down to wake me I felt much better. The sharp pains were gone and I was energized again. Of course I was also bloated with ten gallons or so of water I would need to expel, but first a kiss from Annabeth just to make sure we were alright couple wise. Apparently we were. She was wearing a simple black two piece that with her blonde hair and tanned skin was just perfect, I had never seen a more perfect, beautiful woman.
I had to spend the next half hour in the rest room, at first peeing the blood from my previously crushed kidneys, then the water from the bath and pool that had healed me on its way through. There are diuretics that doctors can prescribe to get the excess water from a person, but I didn't have any so it just took time.
Finally the intermittent torrents stopped and I stepped out. As I did Annabeth rose from the water and my thoughts returned to her magnificence. She gave me one of those quirky smiles and said "Can you do me a favor?"
"Sure, anything."
"Are you done in there?" She asked with a giggle.
"For now, apparently I soaked up a lot of water to make everything okay again. I was busted up pretty bad."
"Right, and that is the favor. Don't ever leave me and go off on your own without me, no matter how safe and simple it seems. I don't want you going to the corner for a gallon of milk unless I'm with you from now on. We've said this before, but I really mean it. Every trip, well, you can go to the bathroom by yourself, but every other trip, I'm with you. If we wreck and die, at least I don't have to watch you die again. You cannot ever make me watch that again. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, but honey, if you went with me, we might both be dead."
"Or I might have remembered to land in the woods, not the field, and neither of us would have been hurt. Before we left, when I dreamed of my mother at Shiloh with the other goddesses and girls, she warned me to keep you grounded. I figured out what she meant when I saw you crash. I never want to see you hurt again. I know there will be times when it makes sense for us to be apart, but I don't care though, from now on, everything. Together."
"Everything," I said, and we kissed to seal the agreement.
"Oh, and one other thing." She said.
"Whats that hon?"
"Do that thing you do to dry me off or we'll be late for dinner." She smiled.
I waved my hand over her, pulling the water away, and flung it into the pool.
"Better?"
"Yeah, thanks. Now lets get going. You have some folks from the Ministry of Magic to disappoint."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain once we're dressed." She smiled.
After I dressed I went towards Annabeth's room and she came into the hall looking spectacular as ever.
"So, apparently the kids from Slytherin reported your death to their parents and the Minister of Magic, along with Umbridge, are here to demand Dumbledore's resignation. The show down is supposed to be going on now, so if we hurry..."
"Want to drop by Dumbledore's office? I'd like to apologize." I smiled.
"I think now would be the perfect time." Annabeth grinned back.
We arrived at the spiral staircase we had been told on the brief tour to Gryffindor Tower last night led to Dumbledore's, and heard shouting from the top of the stairs.
"How am I supposed to explain the death of this American boy to either the Muggle Prime Minister and the American Diplomat? He was barely aware a group of students were even here! No Professor, its time, and I have the Board's backing on this. We cannot allow you to continue to serve when on the first day of classes a foreign guest is killed."
I stood in the top doorway and looked around. Malfoy was there, with a guy that looked like a singer for an 80's metal band that I could only assume was his father. The guy shouting must be the Minister of Magic, and of course Umbridge was with him, an angry scowl on her face. Dumbledore sat calmly behind his desk feeding what appeared to be macadamia nuts to a phoenix.
"Ah, Mr Jackson. Come in. The Ministry is of the impression that you are dead." Dumbledore said.
"Dead sir? No, I think I would have noticed that. I just, well, I don't know how you do it here in Britain, but in America, when we screw up we take responsibility. I'm sorry I scared everyone today, I'm afraid I knocked myself out rather badly, and had a horrible nose bleed, but Will and Jennifer got me all cleaned up and fixed up. Anyway, I know you have to punish me, but I ask that you forgive my friends, they were only trying to help and none of them knew I was going to try to apparate to class. It was a silly thing, I thought I could manage it, and I was wrong."
"Truly courageous youth admit to their mistakes Mr Jackson. I have already taken house points, and now that you aren't bleeding and can focus on what I have to say, no more apparating until you are trained. And you are not allowed to play for your House quidditch team for two matches."
"But sir! Percy is the best we have on a broom!" Annabeth said, knowing both Dumbledore and I knew she was full of crap. He had seen me fly on the Argo III. I could fly and fight, but flying was Jason. Reyna and Frank and just about everyone else's forte. Children of Poseidon just don't do the air thing well, and there was always the fear that Zeus would keep to his comment from several years ago about striking me from the sky.
"Be that as it may, he is grounded. He may practice, but not compete. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes sir" we both said, dejection in our voices. Malfoy I noticed was grinning at this development.
"May we go sir?" Annabeth meekly asked.
"No, one more thing" the Minister said.
"Oh, of course. Uh, who might you be?" I asked.
"Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic for Great Britain and Ireland."
"Oh! Its an honor to meet you sir, I'm Percy Ja"
"Yes yes, I know who you are Mr Jackson, I was wondering. When you arrived on the train last night, was there an attack on any of the American students?"
"Oh no sir. They seemed to be going for that Potter kid, but we dispatched them together."
"So, there was an attack?"
"Yes sir, but it wasn't effective. They failed to establish air superiority and their arrival times on the ground were predictable. It was a simple enough matter for a couple of our guys to tie up their dementors in the air while Annabeth, Nico and I denied them a toehold to land on. It was over very fast, I don't think anyone was actually hurt. They were not very good fighters at all. Of course, you wouldn't expect them to send their "A" team for a diversionary attack. I only wish we could have taken one or two prisoners so that your people might have questioned them."
"How is it you know so much about the strategy of the Death Eaters?" Fudge asked.
"Oh, not theirs, just strategy and tactics in general. America, well, we're more militant in our use of magic, more martial in our training than what I've seen here so far. Most of our wizards these days work for the NSA, or one of the military intelligence branches, or just silicon valley. My cousin helped design the F-35. So even first year wizards learn battle tactics. I look forward to comparing notes with Ms Umbridge this year, seeing how we compare and what we can learn and share. But I expect attacking kids wasn't what those clowns were up to, I think they were drawing attention away from a real attack or infiltration somewhere else, don't you? I mean, why send amateur losers that can't even fight children to attack in such a public way, if you aren't sending the pros to break into the Ministry for instance. By the way sir, its a real honor to meet you. Professor Dumbledore was bragging about your administration at our orientation meeting. I think I can speak for Annabeth when I say, well, its a real honor sir."
"Indeed it truly is. Could we get a picture? Does anyone have a camera?" Annabeth asked.
Unfortunately no one had a camera, which was too bad as I would have loved to recorded Mr Malfoy's face when I carried out my parade of insults against the Death Eaters, who I was now convinced were his associates. He was a prideful man and grimaced whenever I insulted the skills of his now late friends.
After a pregnant silence, we excused ourselves and turned to leave, and this time no one stopped us.
"Well, that was fun." I whispered as we entered the dining hall to everyone's stares.
Ginny practically ran to us, threw her arms around me, and said "We thought you were killed."
"I was, but thanks to Annabeth, Jennifer and you guys, I got better." I smiled. In case anyone outside Gryffindor asks, it was just a mild concussion and a nose bleed. Okay?"
"Okay. There is someone here you need to see." Ginny grinned then looked towards the table. Seated in the mix of American and Gryffindor school uniforms and robes, was a young guy, maybe 16, dressed in the American uniform and seated beside Jennifer and Leo. He looked like one of us, but I know all of us, and he... then it hit me. Well when the small kitten on his lap suddenly electrified and became like an x ray it hit me. Annabeth and I were holding hands, of course, and I pulled her to that side of the table.
Jennifer smiled as I approached. She truly seemed happy.
"Iapetus?" I asked.
"No, here I am Robert, Robert Oceans." He replied. "But you can call me 'Bob' and for now this is 'Little Bob' although I may need a more creative name for him" he said as he stood and embraced first me, then Annabeth.
"I'm glad you made it." He said.
"The whole world should be." Jennifer said.
"Yes, but when I woke on the Fields of Elysium I knew I had changed, you had changed me. I had a chance to make right the mistakes of so long ago." He said, his eyes sad.
"Right, and now you're guardian of the north wind and all the lands beyond the gods. That's awesome." Annabeth said.
"I'm coming to grips with what that means." Bob replied with a smile.
"Well the north wind needs guarding, especially from his kids. We met the guy last year in Toronto. He was alright, but his kids were horrible. They aligned with Gaea and tried to get their father to as well." Jason said.
"He's going to be great at it too! He's already settled a dispute between the centaurs and the unicorns." Jennifer said.
"Your young man Leo helped considerably with that." Bob said.
"I didn't do anything, you had it worked out. Percy you would have loved this, Bob has both sides settled down, he's going to help both of them expand towards the north where there is plenty of forest, and the last detail is the centaurs want to pray to the elder centaur. We're like, well how long is that going to take and one of them says Chiron often doesn't reply for ages. So I'm like 'Chiron? Shit bitch I know that pony! Gimme a drachma.' Apparently our boy Chiron is like a god to these guys. We get Chiron in the mist, scares the hell out of these local horse guys and he says, and I quote, 'Do whatever Bob says.'"
"Well, so did we do okay on the temple? Do we need to add anything?" I asked.
"Oh, its wonderful. I especially like the observation tower, and that I will be able to walk down the hall to join you when my duties allow. Zeus has provided me with quite a list in addition to protecting Hogwarts and the Northwind. But I will be around. I was hoping I could ask a favor Percy."
"Sure, anything."
"I understand the school has an astronomy tower. After dinner would you and your friends join me there? I would like to say hi to some old friends."
