Hey! New chapters always make me feel satisfied. This one is all over the place, but enjoy anyway!

Chapter Four: Something Strange

Harry's POV:

Trying to get Ron out of bed was like trying to convince a sack of bricks to run a marathon.

It was impossible.

Nevertheless, Harry managed to get Ron up and convince him to dress, but he was getting impatient with his slow moving shuffle.

"I am not carrying you down the stairs," Harry said crossly. Ron groaned in response and lumbered slowly toward the staircase. Halfway down he stopped to sit, but Harry prodded him forward.

"Come on, Ron. You like food, remember?"

Once the two reached the common room, they saw Dean and Seamus talking to the black-haired boy from the feast the night before. Harry stopped and studied him carefully, but he didn't notice anything completely out of the ordinary. Ron looked back at him, suddenly wide awake. They both made their way over to the group, who were talking quietly. Neville greeted them and introduced them to the boy, whose name turned out to be Percy Jackson.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Percy said, holding out his hand. Harry shook it. "I'm a transfer student."

Harry nodded. "I'm Harry Potter." He braced himself for the inevitable gasp, but none came. Percy just nodded and turned to Ron.

"And you're Ron?"

Ron stared at Harry with a shocked and confused expression before answering, "Yes, Ron Weasly."

Percy didn't seem to notice the odd looks Ron was giving Harry and suggested that they all head down to breakfast together. "We've got to wait for Hermione," Harry said, silently begging her to show up soon. This was their chance to find out more about Percy and why he was at Hogwarts.

As if on cue, Hermione dashed down the steps of the girls' dormitory with her bag hastily slung over her shoulder. She went straight for the portrait hole, not even glancing at the group of boys.

"Hermione!" Ron called, waving her over. She stopped and looked over her shoulder, relaxing when she saw that it was Harry and Ron. She walked over, looking at Percy as if analyzing him. He gave her a small smile, almost wistful, Harry thought. Apparently Ron noticed too, as he stiffened slightly.

"We can head down now," Harry said, trying to break the awkward tension that was forming between his best friend and the new kid. But actually, he didn't look like a kid. If he had to guess, he'd say Percy was in his seventh year.

"Hey, Percy. What year are you?" he asked as the group made their way through the portrait hole and down to breakfast.

"What?" Percy asked, confused.

"What year are you? As in, how long have you been going to school for?" Harry explained after seeing the other boy's confused expression.

"Oh. About… five years."

"Only five? I thought you were a seventh year." Harry said, a little disappointedly.

"Well, maybe the length of the year is different in America." Harry nodded. That was probably why Percy didn't recognize his name. And it explained the weird accent. They walked together in silence until he caught up to Ron and Hermione to enter the Great Hall.


"I don't like him." Ron said stubbornly.

"Why, Ron? Have you even gotten to know him?" Hermione said. They were sitting at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast as the morning sunlight streamed through the windows and clouds occasionally floated through the light blue sky. Percy was seated a ways down from them, closer to the Head Table, talking animatedly with Neville, Seamus, and Dean, who all seemed to have taken a liking to the older boy.

Hermione leaned across the table a bit and spoke quietly. "Or has he done something… strange?"

Ron stabbed at his hashbrowns with his fork and shot a glare in Percy's direction.

"Ron!" Hermione hissed at him when he didn't answer.

"What? Oh… well, not exactly," he admitted. "but there's something wrong with him!"

"Well, I haven't exactly met him yet, so I'll have to see for myself. But we're not going to have classes with him, are we? He looks much too old to be in our year." She said.

"I asked him what year he was, and he said fifth." Harry said, jumping in for the first time since they'd sat down.

"Fifth? Really? Do you think he might've been held back that long?" Hermione asked, appalled that someone could fail to pass not one, but two final exams.

"He did mention something about the length of the years being different in America."

"Did he say which school he went to?"

Harry thought for a moment before replying. "No, he didn't."

"Maybe I could ask him later today…" Hermione said, and the group continued to eat in silence before their first class.

Checking his schedule as he walked through the hallways, Harry grimaced as he saw that Potions was his first class. Ron and Hermione had run off to who knew where immediately after breakfast. Well actually, Harry thought, Hermione is probably in the library.

He made his way down to the dungeon, hoping he wasn't late for his first class. When he reached it, however, he found Percy waiting outside the door with some of the other Gryffindors.

Walking over, he said, "What are you doing down here? You should be with the fifth years."

Percy shook his head. "I talked to Dumbledore. Turns out, I missed a bunch of stuff that I should've learned last year. So I'll be taking all of my classes with you guys!"

Harry nodded and joined the conversation, while keeping an eye out for Ron and Hermione, who still hadn't shown up.

About two minutes later, they both came flying down the stairs, Hermione with a large book.

Ron stopped short at the sight of Percy. "Hey, what's this bloke doing here?"

Percy looked slightly offended, but he waved at Ron with a good natured smile. "It's nice to see you too."

Ron opened his mouth to speak again, but at that moment, Snape threw the door open with a bang stalked out of his classroom, glaring at everyone who was within ten feet of him. He gestured sharply towards the room and impatiently waited for everyone to file inside.

Harry found himself next to Percy as the class took their seats. He looked very confused and kept staring at Snape.

"He's in a particularly bad mood today, but this is fairly normal." Harry whispered to him in reassurance. Percy looked at him in surprise, but before he could talk, Snape slammed a large book onto his desk.

Percy didn't flinch or jump, as Harry might've if he'd been snuck up on. He slowly looked up at Snape and said in a calm voice, "Can I help you with something?"

Harry wanted to laugh at Snape's expression. It was a mix of anger, disbelief, and surprise that was unmatched by anything he had ever seen before, not even when Snape got mad at him. It was honestly kind of odd.

Recovering quickly, Snape's face returned to it's usual mask of calm disgust. "You seem to be unaware that you are much too old to be in this class," he drawled. "kindly proceed to Professor McGonagall's office, where you will be provided with your schedule." He looked at Percy's empty desk. "And evidently, your school supplies."

The Slytherins in the class snickered behind their hands, but Percy paid them no attention.

"Actually, I already spoke with Professor Dumbledore, who told me I was in this class." He leaned closer to Snape, as if sharing a secret with a friend. "See, I'm a transfer student. You know, from America. So obviously, since I got here yesterday, I haven't exactly had time to go on a shopping spree." He leaned back in his chair and returned his voice to normal. "Dumbledore said you'd be able to provide me with anything I'd need."

Snape pressed his lips into a line so thin, Harry could hardly see them. If Percy kept this up, Harry would no longer be Snape's least favorite.

"And that I will. But I will also be speaking with Professor Dumbledore about putting you in a more age appropriate class." He pivoted on silent feet and walked back to his desk.

After Potions was over, Harry couldn't wait to get out of the classroom. The wet cement-like potion he and Percy had managed to create was better than Neville's, which was a sticky purple goop that made everything it touched turn green, but not by much. But no one else had done much better. In fact Hermione was the only one who had made a potion at least a little bit similar to what it was supposed to look like, which was a clear, watery color. Hers was gray.

Harry met up with Ron and Hermione and started to leave, but stopped when he saw Percy making his way towards Snape's desk, where he was beginning to grade potion samples. Percy said something quietly, startling Snape. Harry grimaced internally: there was no better way to incur Snape's wrath than by interrupting or surprising him. He watched nervously from outside the door, flanked by Ron and Hermione.

"What's he- oh, he's in for it now." Ron said in anticipation, looking on with a grin as he waited for Percy to get detention, get yelled at, or both.

To the surprise of every single person watching, Snape actually relaxed and responded to Percy's quiet question. Their exchange went on for a while, not quite informal or nonchalant, but the type of conversation that two people who can tolerate each other might have.

Harry watched in a minor state of shock as Percy made his way across the room towards them, completely unscathed.

"Hey guys. We have Defense Against the Dark Arts next, right?"

Hermione was quick to respond, rolling her eyes and Harry and Ron's expressions. "Yes, do you want to walk with us? Hogwarts is a little confusing to people who have never seen it before."

"Sure, I need a few tour guides." He eyed the boys' slack-jawed faces. "What's wrong with them?" He asked.

"Nothing, it's just that usually when anyone interrupts Snape, he gives them an automatic detention, or at least docks some points." Hermione explained.

"Unless it's a Slytherin." Harry muttered as they started walking. Percy chuckled at that, and they made their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

I had a lot of trouble writing this. You know when you start writing something, leave it for two days, and come back to it? You lose some sort of groove and the paragraph sounds all clunky. It happened to me like seven times! Phew, done now. Thanks for sticking with me guys, updates will be less frequent cause school started but I will do my best to get one out every week!

Peace out,

LadyHW

Shoutouts:

DAREDEVIL246: Personally, I don't think that anyone was super paranoid about the tattoo thing in the fourth book anyway. I mean, they were super freaked out by what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, but it kind of seemed surreal and far away until book five, when schist started hitting the fan. Thanks for leaving a review!

Jinglebells852: Glad you think so, I love all the reviews you've left, they make my day!

Kyu9930: Maybe he will… maybe he won't… You'll have to read on! Thanks for leaving a review!