Ugh. I'm so tired, guys. School's been a beast. Seriously. I haven't had any free time except weekends, not to mention this horrible writer's block. (Disclaimer: Whoops haven't done one of these yet. I am NOT Rick Riordan, nor do I own any of his stuff.)

Chapter Five: Defense Against the Dark Arts

Percy's POV:

Well. Snape, a demigod. His godly parent wasn't who Percy would've thought, though. Looking at his personality and appearance, he would've gone with Hades if he didn't know better. But it turned out to be Nemesis.

During Percy's very short, quiet conversation with the guy, he'd said he'd heard of the Battle of Manhattan, and expressed condolences for the death of his half-brother, Ethan. Percy had asked him why he stayed here and never went to camp, but he didn't want to talk about it. Then he warned him never to sneak up on or talk back to him again or he'd give him detention. Being a hidden demigod must've given him a bit of paranoia.

They got to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and sat down, Ron with Harry, and Percy with Hermione. He wasn't very happy with that arrangement, but tried not to show it. Hermione just reminded him too much of Annabeth, and he was trying to avoid thinking about her at the moment. It would just make this quest harder. He needed to finish here and go home.

Hermione didn't quite get his vibe, because upon seeing that the teacher (who was apparently new,) hadn't arrived, she turned to face him. And the interrogation began.

"So, Percy. What school do you go to in America?"

"You probably wouldn't recognize the name, it's a private school, um... for the gifted and talented."

She arched an eyebrow. "More gifted than you already are as a wizard?"

Whoops. "Well, aren't there different types of schools here, too?"

She huffed a little, just like Annabeth would when she got exasperated with him. Bad Percy. Stop it.

"Well, yes, but they're all schools of magic. Their only difference is the locations." She thought for a second before correcting herself. "Well, there may be a few more differences, but I've researched every magical school in America, so I have to have heard of your school."

Percy was about to respond with something very intelligent, like 'Well, you haven't,' but then the teacher walked in.

Boy, he was an oddball.

He had a wooden peg leg like a pirate, and a fake eye strapped to his head. He was wearing this enormous trench coat, where he was probably storing all kinds of magical weapons. His greasy hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. He was walking with a cane. In short, he was a mess.

Percy heard murmuring coming from the other kids in the class, but he decided not to write the guy off quite so fast.

Without saying a word, the guy walked to the front of the room and took a piece of chalk from the board.

Unforgivable Curses, he wrote in messy handwriting.

Percy didn't know what it meant, but the whole room got quiet real fast after that.

"Can anyone name an Unforgivable Curse?" The teacher asked in a gruff voice.

Next to him, Hermione raised her hand timidly. He pointed at her, and in a wavering voice she said, "We aren't supposed to cover this material in our fourth year."

The guy was completely still, except for his one fake eye, which was whizzing around in it's socket in a very distracting way. He must've noticed Percy looking, because his eyes, both of them, suddenly focused on him.

"You aren't a fourth year, boy. What are you doing in my class?"

"I'm a transfer student from the U.S., I missed a lot of school last year, so I'm taking the year again."

The teacher walked closer to him, glaring.

"You're old enough that you should be able to tell me one of them curses."

Uh oh. "Um, let's see. I don't think we learned this at my school, but there might've been something similar…" Like, melding with Kronos. Or, the Arai's curses. Those were pretty unforgivable. But he wasn't about to tell the guy that.

"I actually can't remember, though, so maybe someone else could answer this one?

The teacher looked appalled, but apparently decided he wasn't worth it and looked at his roster briefly before settling on a name.

"Neville Longbottom."

Behind him, Percy could practically hear Neville turning red. This wasn't going to go well.

"Well?"

"Um," Neville stammered. "I only know one…" The room waited for him to finish, but he just sat there, staring at his desk, and it was only after Percy looked back toward the front of the room did he sense Neville's eyes filling with salty tears.

The teacher (Percy still didn't know his name) was very annoyed that not one, but two of his students couldn't or wouldn't answer his question.

"How about I show 'em to you?"

Without another word, he limped across the room to a shelf with a bunch of jars on it. There were nasty things in all of them, but the one he took had to be the nastiest. It was a jar of spiders, all of them alive and swarming around each other in a mass of brown and black. There were small ones, and big ones, and creepy looking ones, and thin ones, and thick ones, and- enough about spiders.

As the class looked on in disgust, he took the lid off the jar and reached into it. Percy thought everyone in the room must've recoiled in shock. He brought out a medium-sized brown spider, brushing the stragglers off his hand and wrist. Putting the lid back on the jar, he walked over to his desk with the lone spider dangling from two fingers like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

He set the creature down, where it seemed to know what was coming and tried scuttling away, but he just swept it back to it's spot. This time, it stayed there, trembling on it's long legs. Without hesitation, he pulled out his wand and said, "Crucio."

Hermione flinched, and Percy got the feeling that she knew what that spell did.

The spider started to squirm, then shake, until it was convulsing silently on the desk. He didn't have to look behind him to know that tears were now flowing freely down Neville's face.

"There are three Unforgivable Curses." the teacher said quietly after the shocked silence had passed.

"What was that one, Longbottom?"

Neville seemed not to hear him, crying silently as he stared into space. Percy was about to speak up for him, when Hermione did it for him.

"That's not fair! Can't you see he's upset?"

The teacher seemed to register that for the first time, looking a little embarrassed. "Then you answer the question for him, Granger." he growled after consulting his roster quickly.

Hermione swallowed. "The Cruciatus Curse."

He waited for her to go on, but she was silent, lips pressed into a thin line as she sat ramrod straight in her seat.

The spider on the desk had stopped moving, mostly, and just twitched now and then. The teacher slipped his wand into a coat pocket and moved to stand in front of the class, hands behind his back.

"The Cruciatus Curse causes extreme pain. It can't kill you, but it may leave… lasting effects."

Neville hiccuped.

"Can anyone name a second one?" He looked at Hermione, who still was frozen in place. She wasn't going to be speaking anytime soon.

From the back of the classroom, a voice (Dean, he thought.) called out, "Isn't there a mind controlling one?"

The teacher nodded. "The Imperius Curse."

For the next few minutes, the atmosphere in the room lightened a little bit as the students got used to the idea of "unforgivable" curses, which apparently weren't supposed to be talked about. Mr. Moody (Percy finally learned his name) called each person in the room up front to experience the "mind control" curse. He made Seamus dance, Ron acted like a monkey, and Lavender did a very dramatic impression of a mermaid, to name a few. Then, it was Harry's turn. Percy watched carefully.

Mr. Moody whispered, "Imperio." and did some really complicated swishy-twirl with his wand. Harry hesitated a moment, then ran forward and rammed his head straight into the desk. Percy was surprised; none of the others had hurt themselves on purpose. He shivered a little as he considered the possibilities of this spell.

Harry bounced back and fell to the ground as delayed reactions spread through the room. He rubbed his head in pain and grimaced.

"Impressive. He fought my command, which resulted in this," he gestured to Harry's sprawled form. "instead of what I wanted him to do."

Percy leaned forward in his seat a little and studied him. Something about the way he talked gave him an odd feeling. He hadn't been here long, but he didn't think anyone he'd met would be talking about these spells so normally. From the look on Hermione's face and Neville's quiet sniffles still coming from behind him, these curses shouldn't be messed around with.

Mr. Moody repeated the spell with Harry multiple times, until he wasn't affected by it at all. After they finished, it was Percy's turn.

Harry went to sit down, rubbing his head absentmindedly. Percy stood and made his way to the front of the classroom. At this point, the class was getting a little bored, and time was almost out.

"Imperio," Mr. Moody whispered, and with another swish-flick, he directed the invisible spell towards him. Percy waited, but nothing came. He felt the barest hint of a breeze brush over his skin, but it slid off like he was invincible again. Was this supposed to happen?

The teacher frowned, confused. Harry sat up in his seat, as did a few others who were still paying attention. "Imperio." He said with more force. Again, nothing, until another feeble breeze broke against his body.

More of the class was paying attention now, but before Mr. Moody could say anything, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. The students started gathering their things, whispering as they did. Percy made his way back to his seat and grabbed his bag, uncomfortable with the attention focused on him. He guessed his school had a lot of weird things happen, though, because they all walked into the hallway and went on their way.

Mr. Moody seemed to have disappeared as he walked out the door, quickly spotting Harry, Ron, and Hermione not far away.

"Hey! Wait up!" he called and jogged over. Ron scowled. He didn't look happy with Percy.

"Hey Percy." Harry said.

They started walking towards the Great Hall for lunch, talking in fits and starts, until a question popped into his head.

"Wait, what's the last Unforgivable Curse?" Percy asked.

Hermione paled and stutter-stepped before she caught herself. "We're not supposed to learn those until our sixth year, at least."

He waited, but she didn't say anything else.

He almost asked again, but Harry spoke up.

"The Killing Curse."

Seriously? They had a spell for that? On a side note, it's probably a good thing that no monsters had picked that up.

All three were silent after that. He wondered why for maybe a split second before he remembered what Dumbledore had said happened to Harry's parents. Right.

Thanks for the reviews, guys. I've said it before but they really make my day. Expect another late update, but maybe a miracle chapter will happen over the weekend. Maybe.

Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!

Peace out,

LadyHW

Shoutouts:

beegirl9: Wish granted.

Amazonhunter194: Wish granted... sort of? I hope you still like the story despite *gestures at the whole chapter* this.

Queen-Of-Sarcasm4: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Guest: Thanks, glad you like it.