His world was dark. Not the kind of darkness that was present at midnight, or when the lights turn off. No, it was a type of darkness that was unnatural; it flooded the area, it seeped the air out of the atmosphere, absorbed any previous light and suffocated it, leaving only the pitch black, breathless and full.

It felt cold, and it felt empty, the air around him blowing by and nipping at his frame. Even that felt thick, not like a normal draft, but something that passed through you, around you, chilled your very bones, and let you know it was there.

Nothing could be seen, only a void of darkness that seemed to expand before him. He wanted to close his eyes, they felt dry. He knew what he was seeing, what he was experiencing wasn't something that should be experienced. And yet he couldn't close them.

The darkness swam about him, it came close, too close. It wrapped around him, it started twisting around his ankles and it kept climbing. It had a mind of its own, like a snake. Cool, thick, dense darkness slithered up his body, wrapping itself around, sinking into his skin.

He couldn't see any of it, but he felt it, he felt it all. It was too cold. He shivered, but he ran on. Annabeth's hand was intertwined in his own. It was the only thing that felt warm. It kept him going, he ran on, for her.

The darkness oozed into his bones, he felt stiff, and he constantly grew cooler. He felt as if the blood running through his body was freezing, his bones ice and his skin a thin layer of snow. He tried to close his eyes again, but they didn't budge.

The inky void, though only black, began to fold before his eyes. It expanded and collapsed, it seemed to elongate, then twist and fold, it swirled and melted. He didn't know what he was seeing. He saw nothing, and yet he knew that everything in front of him was moving, dancing, twirling.

He wanted to stop, he wanted to drop, maybe if he died there it would all be over. The coolness had reached his soul and it sent chills that racked his frame, adding to the already below zero feeling of aware numbness that had encased his body. The movement of the pitch black void that had swallowed him was sickening.

He clung to his will, he clung to his mind, and he clung to Annabeth as he ran. He had to keep going. For her. She would get out. She would be safe. She would be fine. He would run on.

Directly at eye level, what seemed like miles away, the thick atmosphere began to twist, swirling round and round, keeping consistent like nothing else would. He knew it must mean something, he ran harder, but the darkness pulled him back.

He gripped Annabeth's hand and pushed. He resisted the pull. He resisted the cold. He resisted his own thoughts. He resisted the need to stop. He kept going.

After an eternity, they made it. The cloth of the black void churned, and now it was only a few yards away.

He ran.

He ran with all his might. The pull became stronger, half of his own head was still telling him to just lie down and die, stop the torment. The chill in his body made him stiff and cold, so cold. But he ran anyway.

Only when it was almost too late, did he realize this must have been the end. When they finally reached that center point, everything seemed to swirl around.

He yelled "jump!" as loud as he could, and though only hearing a rasp of a whisper leave his mouth, he jumped with more power than he thought he had, Annabeth right beside him.

The cold seemed to drain from him. It slowly seeped out of him, and as it did, he was glad he had had enough sense to jump. Because, quickly, his senses came flooding back and he found that they were flying over a river.

Although he normally would welcome one, he could tell this was no body of water. Although liquid was undoubtedly flowing beneath them, he did not know what it was, nor did he want to. He just had to avoid it. He knew that, and that's all he had to know.

They soared over the river and tumbled onto the ground.

His eyes flew open, but all he could see was black for a moment, all he could feel was the sheen of cold sweat that covered his body. Soon, though, the veil lifted, and Percy was able to blurrily make out his curtains closed around him.

He tried to relax, but he stayed frozen in place, thinking about his nightmare. It was a particularly bad one, and he always woke up afterwards, taking far too long to feel normal again. It had lasting effects on the demigod, he felt and saw the darkness even after his eyes were open and was far away from the house.

When he finally felt well enough to sit up, he gathered his strength, peeled away the curtains that had previously been shielding him, and slipped out of his bed. When his feet met the cold floor, it sent a chill up his legs and racking throughout his body. He almost gave up and collapsed back onto the bed.

The son of Poseidon persevered though, and crept to the bathroom where he splashed his face with cool water, momentarily dispelling the exhaustion that was sure to come back soon enough. Percy headed back to his bed, his gait silent as he walked, and halted at the foot of it, quietly opening his trunk.

He grabbed a shirt and pants and quickly put them on, not bothering with the rest of the uniform in light of the fact that it was the weekend. He wouldn't have worn the uniform at all, but thanks to Hecate, he had nothing else to wear. Socks and shoes were next out of the trunk as his pajamas were shoved in.

As Percy shoved his tennis shoes on, he silently thanked the gods that he had at least gotten to keep one decent pair of shoes. He slipped out of the dorm without a sound, and soon enough he was creeping down the many staircases of Hogwarts to the great lawn, still quiet as a mouse.

Soon the demigod was standing, grass underneath his feet, staring at the rising sun. Until suddenly, he took off running. This was something he also had picked up at Camp Half-Blood, running. If he got up too early due to a nightmare, he would run.

Quite a few things were different though. Normally he would be running through a forest – one he had known for years –, normally he wouldn't do it almost every morning, and normally Annabeth was right by his side.

It always helped him clear his mind, even more so than just sitting. But it often became hard to keep a clear mind when all it did was remind him that he was utterly alone. It helped more than sitting in his dorm, brooding, and dwelling on whatever previous nightmare, though. So, this was where he found himself almost daily, running around the perimeter of Hogwarts. Doing his best to keep his thoughts light, positive, and away from things he sorely did not want to delve any deeper into.

:-:-:-:

Around an hour and a half later, Percy found himself in front of the great mahogany door that led into Hogwarts. It was still early enough that when he walked in, there were only a handful of students milling around. At a glance he could only see twenty people – give or take a few – at each table in the Great Hall, and at the teachers' table only three adults were present.

His stomach was still queasy from the previous night, but Percy knew from experience that if he tried to eat anything feeling that way it would just come right back up - which was never too pleasant of an experience. So, he just steered clear of the door to the Great Hall and went right to the library.

From there he walked straight to the back and pulled a drawer towards himself, grabbing a few files and taking them to the nearest table where he plopped down, quickly cast the spell, and began reading.

(AN – I know it's been a while so I'm just going to say that was a reference to the spell he uses to read English better, one he discovered a chapter or two ago).

Percy was making slow progress through all of the newspapers and magazines that the Hogwarts library had, there were surprisingly many things to read from. And even more surprising was the fact that a lot of it seemed fake, furthermore almost all of it seemed bent in some way.

Just from the little time he had spent at Hogwarts, he could already tell that what was in the Daily Prophet was absolute horse shit. Especially what he was currently reading. The way he read could be confusing, but he tried to make as confusion free as possible so his mind could make sense of it.

He read by year; he had begun with the last year, but started from the beginning of that year – in the summer. He had finished with a new respect for the Potter dude. In the beginning he had thought the kid's rep was a bit dumb.

He understood why he was famous, but wasn't exactly willing to give him as much credit as the rest of the wizarding world did. After all, he had only sat there as a one year old and miraculously survived the killing curse. Sure, he was the only one in history to survive such a thing, but there was nothing extraordinary Harry had done, there was no possible way he could have – he was a one year old for the gods' sake.

But now, reading about him – even through the blatant lies – the demigod saw someone who had serious perseverance and a lot against him. That, he could respect. The kid had obviously been traumatized and taunted, he had been through some serious shit, and yet he kept going. That took guts.

Now, only a few months into the summer of his next research project, he felt like laughing. Harry was actually like him, and not only in the looks department - trouble apparently followed the wizard as well. He just really wanted to know what happened at the Quidditch World Cup now, and that's all he could think as he read through the magazine, easily knowing that most of it had been covered up and brushed over. Only the most dramatic bit was poking out, something that couldn't be covered up, something that cemented his fears.

The dark mark had appeared. That meant that Voldemort had been 'alive' and plotting for much, much longer than anyone was willing to acknowledge. Well, anyone who was taken seriously anyway; Dumbledore and Harry – who he found, were both telling the truth – had been shunned and treated like insane fools.

Percy just wished someone better had been in – and quite frankly, was in – control, it would have meant a possibly quick, and much less consequential downfall to Voldemort, and could at least mean the war would have been heading in a better direction if the Prime Minister were to be replaced.

He could only guess why he was there, it already seemed pretty hopeless, and Percy had no idea what he would do. Just being one person, and one who could barely even do magic at that.

He was broken out of his thoughts by the angry voice of none other than Olivia, "Percy, stop ignoring me."

He shook his head and turned to face Olivia, whose face showed the annoyance she had conveyed in her voice, and even more, her hands were on her hips.

"Hi…," Percy said, slightly unsure as to why she was there, and also just too tired to talk. In response, the girl just raised her eyebrows and stared. He just turned back around and picked back up where he left off. Well, more attempted to find the place where he left off before being interrupted again by Olivia.

"Percy, what are you even doing over here?" her voice was exasperated, and the son of Poseidon guessed he deserved it, but all he wanted was to be left alone for the time being. The nightmare had shaken him and brought some very unpleasant things to the forefront of his mind. The last thing he needed was a trigger.

"Reading," was his only response, and he hoped he could get back to it. Just that sent a pang of sadness through him though. It reminded him of Annabeth, all the times he would try and talk to her and she would just ignore him, or respond in the stupidest ways that she had obviously paid no mind to.

"Well, stop for a minute and pay some attention to me?" her voice was slightly raised, earning a huge 'shh' from Madam Prince. After Olivia was done glaring at the librarian's back, she turned back to the son of Poseidon and asked a question he would have rather avoided.

"What happened? You're normally a bit spacy, but this is worse than usual."

"Nothing happened, I'm just a little tired is all."

"You know I know that's a lie."

"Yeah?" he remarked as if to say, 'so what?'

The Ravenclaw stared back at him for a minute before continuing. "So, what's bothering you?"

"I'm tired," Percy repeated as he began packing up his stuff. He didn't want to be rude, but he had no intention of going through his nightmare with a person who he had only known for a month, someone who didn't even know about his world. Olivia had gotten scary good at reading him though, and he knew he would eventually have to say something. He just wouldn't now.

She hummed before prompting him with, "And?"

"And I didn't sleep well." Percy really did hate having to blow her off, but he couldn't explain his nightmares, couldn't bring himself to say something that sounded so feeble. They were dreams, he knew that. The past was in the past, and dreams are just that, dreams, they weren't real.

And yet he couldn't get over them, some demigod dreams actually were real, and others just bright back bad things. Really bad things. Things that he wished he didn't even have to remember. So, he lied.

Olivia huffed and relented her interrogation, "Well, what're doing over here? You can at least answer that."

"I already answered that, I'm reading."

"Goddamnit Percy."

"I actually need to get some homework done, so I think I'm gonna go grab that real quick."

Percy walked over to the filing cabinets and stuck the already stacked magazines and Newspapers into their folder. He turned to the Ravenclaw before leaving though, he felt bad about this whole thing. All she had been was nice, and now she was concerned, and yet Percy had to lie. He didn't know how long he could lie though, so he left. That was his method, and he felt bad about it every time.

"I'm just tired okay, sorry if I'm being a bit short." He gave his best attempt at an apology, and then walked past her, straight out of the library.

He had definitely lied about the homework, he had it all done. The demigod had no idea where the idea had come from, but instead of going up to his common room, he took a turn and ended up back on the grass outside. His plan was half-baked, and not to mention kind of dumb, but he wanted a break. This would be it.

He walked straight up to the lake, and for a minute Percy just stood there at water's edge, looking around for anyone who might be around, and making sure they weren't. He thought over what Luna had said a while back, about the lake. How there were multiple fowl intentioned animals down there, and how cold it was.

Percy took one more surveilling glance before driving into the freezing water. Immediately the effects were apparent, he felt more awake and alert, the tiredness that had been dogging him had finally lifted. The cold surrounded him; it enveloped his body – but he hadn't felt so light in the past month.

He swam down; firstly in an attempt to make sure he wasn't seen, and secondly because it was sure to be much more populated. He was almost scared out of his socks though as he felt a huge presence swim up behind him. Turning around, he found a squid propelling itself towards him – only ten times larger than any normal squid should be.

Sure, he had seen bigger squids, but he, for some reason, was surprised to see one of such size here. He thought that he would encounter some weird water fairies or something, not abnormally large, but fairly normal animals. You could find squids in just about any…

Why do they have a freshwater squid? Was the thought that suddenly popped into his mind as he watched the thing slowly glide towards him.

"Hello?" Percy called out as the squid arrived a few yards in front of him, only to stop and stare at the student.

To say the least, the squid seemed very surprised there was a human in the lake, and even more so one that greeted him. The response was just more staring for a moment before he started questioning the demigod, "How-?"

"What's your name?" Percy asked, quickly cutting the squid off. Questioning never led anywhere he wanted to go.

"What, you want to know my name?"

"Well sure, I'm Percy, pleased to meet you."

"How are you speaking and understanding me?"

"I happen to be very special. But you're avoiding my question, what is your name?"

"Jernub, and what's special supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Percy said shortly before moving on. "So, what goes on down here?"

"Many things, this is an ecosystem inhabited by many things."

"What kind of things?" Percy probed playfully, but also very ready to find out what was in the depths of the Black Lake.

"There is no time to tell you all that lives here, but I could escort you to the merpeople. They are organized folk, living in a small village at the bottom of this lake."

"If you wouldn't mind, that would be wonderful."

"Well then, follow me."

After a few minutes of swimming, Jernub off-handedly questioned, "Are you sure the pressure won't crush you, or you won't run out of air? It will take you a while to get up, and it would be quite tragic if you died."

"I'll be fine," Percy replied easily.

"If you say so," the squid responded with a glance at the human steadily swimming alongside him. The response was so quickly given, and his word so quickly taken, that he wasn't sure if he was glad not to be questioned, or if he just questioned how concerned the squid was.

Soon enough, the merpeople settlement came into view and began to rapidly grow bigger as they swam closer. "They can be hostile sometimes… Just be reasonable, and don't threaten them and you should be fine."

"Right, that's not worrying at all, but thanks."

The squid did a nod(ish) thing before swimming off.

Percy was slightly frightened of the possible outcomes of him heading straight into unknown territory of (possibly) hostile beings. He also didn't really know what he expected the merpeople to look like. He had seen The Little Mermaid, and he had seen the merpeople in Poseidon's palace, but he didn't know however, what to expect in the wizarding world, at the bottom of a lake.

Well, to be sure, he did not expect to be met with spears. But that is indeed what greeted him when he arrived at the underwater settlement. The squid apparently had no such intentions of being faced with a dozen spears, so as soon as he could see the little village the squid had left. In summary, he was alone at the bottom of the Black Lake, surrounded by 'potentially hostile' merpeople, each holding a sharp pointed spear.

On each of the merfolks' necks sat a neckless of sorts, it was comprised of a thick cord of what may have been seaweed (lakeweed?) threaded with pebbles, or teeth which slightly resembled a shark's, and others of varying in size and shape. Their skin was an ashen gray, and long, dark green hair floated around their heads.

As they addressed him, Percy noticed that the merman's voice was slightly raspy, and it was harsh, and the voice definitely held a decent dose of hostility, "Why are you here human?"

"I mean no harm, I come merely as a peaceful visitor." The demigod tried to sound as formal as possible, in hopes that politeness, formality, and sincerity would get him out of the deep end. No, that was the wrong figure of speech, he wanted to stay, he just didn't want to be killed.

One member of the group snorted at that, the same person who had addressed him earlier however asked, "What is your purpose for coming?"

"As I said, I am merely a visitor. I wish to explore this lake and meet those who reside in it."

"And how do we know your intentions are pure?" The merman's silvery tail swished in agitation; his yellow eyes flashed in warning.

"I swear I am not here to cause harm in any shape or form."

"Who are you then, and why is it here that you decided to visit?"

"My name is Percy Jackson, I'm a sixth year Gryffindor from Hogwarts. I came into this lake to have a look around, see the sights, find what I could. Just minutes earlier I met Jernub, the squid and he led me here, he said it would be a lovely place to visit."

"I sense no lies, though I don't know what you hope to do here. Sure, we are civilized, but all other creatures of the lake are not so different. People normally cannot communicate with them; however, you seem to have no problem. Which begs the question – how can you?"

"It's magic, the type most people haven't really looked into yet. Sort of experimental."

"Which explains how you are easily breathing, communicating, and are not at all effected by the temperature or pressure." The merman stated, sounding rather skeptical.

Percy was feeling dumb by this point, and an onslaught of 'what were you thinking's and 'why did you come's, and 'you should not have come's flooded his mind. Yet, his answer was only a simple, "Yes."

The merman stared hard and long at the demigod, but eventually gestured around him. "Have fun exploring kid. I don't know what magic you're using, or why no one else has used it, but I do not believe you are here on any ill will. So go, explore. Be careful though, you are outnumbered, surrounded, do not make any move against us, this is our territory."

Percy bowed to the merman, he didn't know what the urge was, but it felt like the right thing to do in that situation. Apparently it was, because the merpeople around him bowed their heads in turn and swam away.

The son of Poseidon took a proper look around the town and was surprised to see a what looked almost like a typical little village, complete with rows of houses, and even a small towns square. A little further in the distance, he even saw a statue of a large mermaid.

Figuring there was no better way to go, he went straight towards the village square, it wasn't exactly bustling with merfolk, though there were a few roaming around. Mostly they gasped when they saw him, so he just tried to be friendly, with a polite nod of the head and a quiet ;hello.'

After some wandering around, checking out the few stores and shops and such, one merperson actually approached him. It was a merman, he looked about Percy's age, late teens, he swam up to him as he stared in the window of a store front. The store seemed to sell seashell creations. Decorative things, things that resembled wind chimes, and there were wreaths, brooches, conchs, little statues, among other bits and bobs, there were so many things in there, he didn't even no what a few of them were, and much less what they were for.

The merman startled the demigod so badly he ended up propelling himself at least four yards backwards – not a great first impression as far as he was concerned. The merman barked out a harsh laugh at his reaction, and then proceeded to swim over to check on the human.

"Well, I'm certainly smooth," the son of Poseidon commented, "Percy." He said, sticking out his hand.

"Sam," the merman responded, taking the proffered hand in his own and giving it a firm shake.

"Now, what are you, a Hogwarts student, doing down here?"

"Just a bit of poking around," Percy replied, glancing around. "Is there much to see or do here? The shops are pretty interesting looking, but I've seen just about every one of them by now."

"Not too much really, there are houses and shops. We are however, in a huge lake, that is full of things. That's really the main thing here, we can go and mess around anywhere we'd like."

"Well, do you have any favorite spots?"

"Some, I mean who doesn't? But I've wondered for a while about what you people learn up there, and I only get bull shit answers, such as magic," he accompanied the last word with sarcastic jazz hands, just to prove the point. "And no one ever comes down here, so I figured I better not miss my chance."

"I mean it is magic, but I have to admit – that's pretty annoying. Seriously, there is so much more you can learn in school, how to prank, how to piss off your teachers, how to get out of class, how to fudge homework, and oh, so much more." The demigod finished, chuckling.

Sam laughed in turn, "I don't have much experience with that down here. My parents teach me what they do, and eventually I'll be doing that. Most families are run that way, the same jobs for generations."

"Well, geez, maybe school seems a bit better compared, sorry. But I will say, people seriously have to get the schooling system in check."

He only laughed it off, "Oh I've heard all sorts of stories, I really would like to fact check a few of them."

Percy rubbed his hands together, and adopted a sarcastic, yet eager tone, "Ooh, I can't wait to hear what people say about school, and see what you think is fake – oh, this'll be fun."

"I'll show you around and you can tell me about that school of yours – deal?"

"Sounds great," Percy grinned. This would be good, hopefully he would be able to take his mind off everything he was all too recently reminded of.

"Right, so you've already seen the town I presume, so let's get away from this boring place."

Sam swam away and Percy followed, "So, what would you like to know about school?"

"I once heard they made you write essays – I think I'm saying that right – about stuff you read or something. The person who told me said they were these really long things, written by hand, and teachers gave it as homework… Something you supposedly get a lot of?"

The demigod grunted, "A lot, hours of it, homework is the bane of every student. And as for essays, those are definitely real. We have to write on parchment, with a fricking quill. It depends on the essay and the teacher, but it could be multiple feet of paper, all stemming from one boring, teacher issued question, about whatever we're learning. They're dreadful."

"I was pretty sure that was fake… Oh, this has got to be, detention? Do the teachers seriously put people in 'time out?'"

"Most definitely, you have no idea how much time I've spent in detention. It is funny that you put it that way, but yeah, teachers totally put us teens in time out when we're bad. It accomplishes nothing, really."

"Geez, that, I thought for sure, was a myth. Anyway, we've arrived at the destination on our tour – here's where all of the flying sea horses hang out. There are a ton of 'em and they are just adorable to watch float around."

Percy tried to ignore the shiver that wracked his body when the merman said tour, and just stared out into a cloud of little sea horses. They were adorable. A few came up to him and one suddenly asked, 'What's a human doing down here?' It seemed to be directed at his group of friends, but Percy heard him anyway.

'Oh me, I'm just taking a look around.'

'What the – How are you – what are you – huh?

'Yeah, I'm just exploring this nice little lake.'

"Dude, why are you staring at these sea horses. Shoo," he waved at the bug eyes sea horses in attempt to get them to go away.

"Aw, but come on, these little dudes just wanna say hi."

'I did not come to say hi, and what do you mean – little dudes?

'Well, you are tiny.'

The sea horse puffed out his chest in indignation, and just stared at Percy angrily. He let out a chuckle at that, which earned a side glance from Sam. Just after though, the merman swam away, heading down to the sandy bottom of the lake, and a few of the seahorses that were down there.

'What are you?' The question came out of nowhere, the voice that had spoken was female, but still deeper than the flying sea horses'.

Startled, he jumped at the question and turned around to find himself face to face with a large turtle.

'Human?' He answered, hoping it was just a confused animal, nothing more nothing less. So far, no one had questioned him much for being able to swim and breathe, he did not think this through, but in all honesty, he thought magic would have been a fine answer.

'No wizard, this is no magic I've seen, what are you? I smell the sea on you, you are breathing, and swimming perfectly fine. I've seen witches and wizards come down here they did not do as well. Not to mention the way we are talking.'

'I just happen to have strong magic.'

He needed an escape, he looked around for Sam and found he was swimming around the sea horses still, trying to coax one to come with him. It wasn't going well, but he figured he could help.

'Do not lie to me wizard. I know you are something more. I can sense it.'

'I just like the water okay? So, I messed with some magic and came down here, there's nothing more to it.' With that Percy swam away and tried not to think about how bad of an idea it was to come down here.

"Whatcha doin' there?"

The merman spun around in surprise to see Percy floating, watching him try to wave a small sea horse towards him.

"This little guy won't come with me, my mom won't let me have a pet Grindylow, so I was hoping she would let me keep a flying sea horse if I could get one to come with me."

"Have you asked it if would like to be your pet?"

"Percy they aren't going to understand me."

"Yeah they will, just try. Just so you know, it will want to be free. You are going to let it out and stuff, right? You would have to make sure it trusts you, so it'll stay with you, but you don't want to keep it confined or anything, they like to be free."

"What do you mean free? It'll just swim away."

"Not if you treat it right."

Percy decided to just talk to the animal instead, so he started with a simple, 'What's your name?'

'Wilbur.'

'Well, Wilbur, will you follow us around for the day and see how you like the company?'

'I am not going to be a pet, I refuse, it's just fun to watch this guy make a fool of himself.'

"Percy, why are you having a staring contest with the sea horse?"

"Shush." Percy said off handily as he continued his argument with the animal.

'But come on, just for the day, try it out. It'll be fun, and I'll make sure he leaves you alone if you don't like it.'

'I'm not –'

'Oh my gods, just follow us around for a few hours, it won't kill you.'

'Fine, I'll come, but I refuse to become a useless, imprisoned –'

'Ok, yeah, I get it.'

"Good news, Wilbur is coming with us today," Percy said with a grin.

Sam just stared at him in shock, the demigod knew he probably shouldn't have said it, but he couldn't help it. There was no other explanation for what he had just done, and why the sea horse would now follow them around. Plus, he was just going to blame it on magic, it didn't seem like the merfolk knew much about it.

"Excuse me? He said –"

"Mmhm, yes Wilbur told me he would do a trial of being our bud."

"He told you – how?"

"Just a spell, I can talk to all of the animals."

"I didn't see you cast any spell."

"I didn't just cast it, I casted it before I swam down here."

Sam stared at him suspiciously before he gave in, and looked back towards Wilbur.

"Well, if we have a tag along, we'd better start some exploring." The merman exclaimed as he started off.

:-:-:-:

For hours, Percy, Sam, and Wilbur swam around the lake, there was an interesting run-in with a Grindylow, and one time in which Sam refused to accept that there were hours upon hours of school, five out of seven days a week, but other than that it was smooth sailing (or swimming?).

Eventually they ended up back in the village, and against his earlier words, Wilbur decided he would stay with Sam – he seemed to have gotten rather attached to the merman, and Sam likewise to him. As Percy looked up, he found the surface of the lake had turned a ruddy, watery shade of red.

He could not believe how fast the time had gone by, currently the sun was setting, a tell-tale sign dinner had already started, meaning he needed to get back inside, and fairly soon. He turned to look at Sam and Wilbur, who had momentarily gotten in front of him, and quickly propelled himself towards them.

"You two have fun, I'm currently about to be in trouble so I gotta go. I'll come back soon, well, ish. I'm actually not sure when I can come back, but I will, I can say that at least."

After they all said their good-byes, he began his accent – already the water was becoming lighter and lighter. As he surfaced, but he only allowed his eyes and forehead to poke above the water as he surveilled the area. No one was out, so he drifted over towards the bank and climbed out.

Still completely dry, the son of Poseidon climbed out onto the sand. He made his way to the tree which he often sat under, and stared at the lake for a moment, just mulling over his day. The inhabitants of the lake were obviously suspicious, or even knew he wasn't just a wizard, but it didn't seem like they had much interaction with the wizards, which he had hoped for. He had no idea if what he had just done would have been allowed.

He was apparently so lost in thought, that he left himself oblivious to the rest of the world – something he rarely was able to do any more, either his instincts were finally calming down, or the little sleep was beginning to get to him.

"Percy?"

Said demigod jumped so badly that he lost what little grip his back had on the tree and fell side-ways off of it. He was sitting down, so there weren't really any consequences, but it was still embarrassing, and not to mention it just about scared his socks off.

"What are yeh doin' out here so late?"

"I just wasn't that hungry, so I decided to skip dinner, and come outside instead." Percy still hadn't shook off that feeling of being jumped, he felt rattled still, and couldn't quite get his mind right.

Hagrid took a hot minute to respond, in which he stared at Percy worriedly as said person tried to ignore it. The Gryffindor stood up and straightened himself so he was now leaning calmly against the tree, staring back at Hagrid, ready to run as soon as he was dismissed.

"Percy, you do look a bit thin, yeh gotta be hungry. Come on, I'll walk with yeh, I was jus' headin' there meself."

Percy reluctantly agreed, and as he walked beside Hagrid he couldn't help but notice the worried glance he would receive every few seconds.

"I'm fine Hagrid, truly. I'm just not that hungry."

Hagrid humphed and plotted along the track to Hogwarts. Percy sighed in defeat as the doors were swung open and he followed Hagrid into the overly loud Great Hall for dinner. He received a couple confused and plainly weirded-out glances from the students around the hall, but he ignored them and plopped down as soon as he reached his place at the Gryffindor table.

He put a few chicken wings on his plate and took a sip of water. It wouldn't have been his choice to come here, but at least he could eat a little before going to Snape's detention. He had never been fazed by detention before, but a month of detention with the same teacher… That could wear out, sure it was hilarious to get a rise out of the professor (not to mention easy), but Snape now avoided as much social interaction with him as possible.

At least this would be one of the last, that thought kept him going, even later as he cleaned out some old caldrons – a job, that he and his weak magic were no good at.

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\/ Please Read \/

Can you guys please just always read the first bit, then I'll do the thing (:-:-:-:) and you can leave, so I don't have to put that stupid little thing up there, maybe? I don't know. Just the important stuff will go here. So, if you could, check my profile, it has announcements of stuff I have to say and I'm going to update it constantly telling when the next update will come, and why it's (if it is) late.

:-:-:-:

Heyyyyyy people, *nervous laughter.* I'm so sorry for taking a huge break and then taking like, three weeks to update again when I said it'd be one. To anyone who's still here, I just want to say thank you so much, and also sorry. I really hate that last chapter, I've got to say, not my finest. Most of the stuff that I would normally put here is actually going to be on my profile now, in the part labeled announcements, so I don't have to clog stuff up down here. But, if you want to know why I'll be writing a bit less, and hear my excuse that I wrote to make me feel better, here you go.

One main reason I have way less time to write is simple, I'm trying to get more sleep. It's so I can hopefully solve this problem, that, even though it's been going on for over a year, suddenly got worse. I've been having something-or-another-name-I-can't-remember headaches, what that means is I've got eternal headaches, headaches that just never cease, never end, it's really fun. So, all of sudden they just got worse. It used to be like, 'ugh I have a headache' practically all the time, just mild pains, almost small enough to ignore (at least most of the time anyway). But now more commonly they're harder to deal with, hard to think through, and just more painful on a whole - all the time. I've actually had to watch the amount of medicine I've been taking for it. I finally went to the see a doctor, and her all knowing answer was... I should get more sleep. And, fun fact, this stuff is mostly written, edited, and planned during a period of time in which I'm now supposed to sleep (all passed twelve). I'm just struggling a bit to figure it out, find time for everything, and still get sleep. It's not easy. But I hope to be back here in the next two weeks, and sorry for being so late and taking so long. Just know I'm trying my hardest.

Thanks for reading, BBB - 1/22/21 (I honestly forget what I used to do for this part.)