AN: IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT I have changed the backstory. Long story short Percy and Harry are HALF brothers (oh my freaking goodness), and they grew up together at the Dursleys. Percy (for obvious reasons) will no longer be accepted into any school in England so he is sent off to Yancy and then goes to camp and stays with Sally during the school year as an exchange student. On the other hand Harry gets really depressed and commits suicide in his 5th year Voldemort wins yadda yadda yadda *yawns*. Well that's over with. On with the story!
(edited April 30th 2020)
Percy's POV:
The first thing I hear when I wake up is an aggressive rapping on the door to my cabin. I rub the sleep out of my eyes, groan loudly and yell, "What?", annoyed to be woken so early. Actually wait, it's ten. Darn it, I missed breakfast (again). Leo's voice comes through the door. "Chiron wants to see you. Mmmm bet you're in trouble" he jokes. I groan even louder, which Leo takes as his cue to leave, then heroically fall out of bed with a loud thump and trip over the laundry strewn over my floor, once again, falling on my face. I throw on some clean-er clothes, throw open the door, and glare tiredly at the sun. Darn nightmares. I begrudgingly drag myself to the big house to see what Chiron wants.
When I arrive, Chiron looks up from his game of cards, a little (note the sarcasm) annoyed that I took so long to get there. "The gods say there's someone waiting for you near the stream in the woods. You should hurry, they didn't specify who it was and you're already late." I gave him a quick nod of thanks and, with this warning, took off into the woods to see whomst ever had wished (darn Paul and his Shakespeare) to bask in my inexplicable presence.
When I came upon the small river, a woman dressed in black silky robes, with a powerful aura, holding a torch and accompanied by a polecat awaited me. This was the Lady Hecate, if I remembered Hazel's description correctly. She glances up from her seat on a mossy rock as I enter the clearing. "Sit Perseus," she says, gesturing to the stump, conveniently placed across from her. "We have much to discuss about your brother."
My heart feels as though it had stuttered to a stop. Harry? It wasn't as though I kept the fact that I had a twin a secret, but… If Hecate was here to talk to me about it then something must have happened. I knew Harry wasn't a demigod, I had asked dad years ago, and he had reassured me that Harry was not a part of this world.
"What happened?" I ask as I nervously seat myself on the stump.
Hecate sighs, then raises her head and looks me in the eyes "Perseu-Percy," she takes a deep breath, and by now my ADHD is practically killing me, along with the anticipation. "Your brother is dead" Ok, well now the ADHD has stopped, I note absent-mindedly before she quickly continues, "or, he will be at least, if you don't stop it… ugh, time is weird". She mutters the last part under her breath.
"What?" I reply, too dumbfounded and surprised and shaken to really take in what she said.
"Listen Percy," she says "I'm offering you a second chance, please, I beg of you, take it, not only for the fate of your family, but for the fate of the world as we know it." she continues on, not giving me a chance to get a word in "I can't explain the circumstances now, but I will send you back in time to when you were thirteen and make you look younger. I can do nothing for your scars or your nightmares, but I can give you a chance to save your brother. Please, I beg you, take it"
"Of course" I say, without thinking any of it through, "But, what about Annabeth and the others?" I pause a second and realize I sound ungrateful for the chance "not that I'm ungrateful," I interject quickly "Just…" I pause, unable to find the words.
"Do not fret, little hero," Hecate says "you will be returned to this time as if nothing happened after you complete your quest. Nothing will happen to your friends." I sigh in relief, stand, and nod to her, inviting her to work her magic. Hecate waves her hand over me and I begin to feel myself shrink. I watch as my scars grow closer together as my body shrinks (quite painfully, may I add) and look up once the sensation stops. Hecate, well, she doesn't exactly loom over me, as I expected, but she is much taller than she used to be. She grabs my arm and I'm overcome with a feeling that I can only describe as 'whoosh'. I open my eyes, which I don't remember squeezing shut, and look out upon hell. (well not literally, the actual hell is much worse but nope not going there) (actually this place is a close second, now that I think about it)
Boy how I missed Private Drive! Note my sarcasm.
Out of her pocket, Hecate pulls a necklace with a round pendant. She begins to wind it up, before placing it around my neck. "Don't fidget with this," she warns me "it is a dangerous magical artifact and you shouldn't use it unless you are in desperate need." I nod and look her in the eyes.
"Thank you" I tell her, before she can release the pendant. She nods and lets go and I feel as though I've been thrown backwards (and I guess I have been, just through time). Flashes of light and color somehow shine behind my tightly closed eyelids and then, suddenly, it stops. The street looks almost the same, but some of the cracks in the pavement are gone and the weather has changed from a nice sunny day to a, quite ironically, stormy one. I breathe out and trek to the door of number four, Private Drive.
I rap my fist against the door and put on a brave face. The doorbell is broken, at least the last time I was here, and honestly, I don't believe for a second that they tried to fix it. I wait a second, then start hitting the door more rapidly. The door opens quickly and I'm greeted by Uncle Vernon's beady eyes. ""Who are you?" he asks "some boy scout with cookies? We don't want em', kid. Scram."
"I'm shocked" I reply, dramatically "You don't recognize me!" ok now it's overkill, but I can hardly contain myself "What's it been, like, two and a half years?" I can see the thought process on his face, as if a light-bulb flickered arduously to life in his tiny brain before realization dawned on him. Quicker than I expected him to be able to move, his pudgy little body flew out the door, grabbed my wrist and yanked me inside. All I could do to not reflexively yank my arm away and hit him across the face was to dig my nails into my free hand.
He drags me to the stairs, yelling for Petunia to come and help him out. I glance at the cupboard on the way by, then I'm surprised when I'm dragged past it and up the stairs. Oh no, Harry's probably in there, unless they moved him. Petunia darts to the top of the staircase as we ascend it and stares, obviously confused, at the strange sight of her husband dragging some kid up her stairs. It takes her a far smaller amount of time to recognise me and she screeches, something along the lines of 'put him in with the other one!' before dragging me down the hallway, her sharp, nail-like claws digging into my arm. She grabs a key, hanging from a convenient hook on the wall and opens the door to Dudley's old room. Roughly, the pair throw me in, before slamming the door behind me. With my face to the floor, I can hear the sounds of a key turning in a lock before two pairs of footsteps walk in the other direction. I groan loudly as I raise my head. Then I lock eyes with Harry.
His mouth opens and closes a few times before he breathes out "You're back".
Suddenly I feel horrible for staying away for so long. He's my brother, it's my job to protect him. "Yeah, I guess I am" is all I can say.
"But.." he pauses before continuing "Uncle Vernon… he said that you left, and that you didn't want to come back… that you left me behind" He says it almost like it's a question, I can hear in his voice that he's holding back tears.
"No, no no, Harry.." I say, guilt hitting me like a truck as I climb into the bed next to him and push aside the books in front of him to envelop him in a hug. "I didn't- I wouldn't-" I pause "I would never leave you behind." I hold him tightly as his shoulders shake. "It's ok" I mutter "It's ok now, I'll protect you".
I glance around the room as I rub circles on his back, looking for some way to distract him. I'm not good at all this touchy-feely stuff, and I just want to avoid the topic to be completely honest. "Um.." I stutter, to try and get his attention. He shifts to look at me questioningly "I- I was wondering about your book" great now I sound like an insensitive prick. "I mean, if you- um.. I'm not very comforting, am I?" Surprisingly, Harry laughs and shakes his head.
"No, you're really not" he says, his throat catching on the words. "But I- um" he pauses and I wonder why it's so hard, all of a sudden, to talk to the person who's closest to me. "Yeah," he sniffs "let's talk about something else."
He slumps next to me and picks up the book next to us. "It's homework," he says, his voice still cracking "For Hogwarts".
"Hogwarts?" I say incredulously "What kind of school has a name like that?"
"Magic School" he says, entirely serious "One of the best schools in Britain for witches and wizards like us."
"Us?" I echo, not really understanding his words "Wait- Wizards? What do you mean wizards? And magic?" nope, no, no, no, Harry should be safe and normal. He shouldn't have to deal with… I mean was this even real? I mean gods… and it would make some semblance of sense... but?
"I know it sounds fake, but it's all real, I swear. It's- it's amazing." he gushes, completely forgetting about the earlier topic "Um.. I'm not allowed to do any magic, but I- I can prove it. I- um… Hedwig!" he exclaims "look Hedwig-she's my owl- she's smarter than normal owls… and um, My Books! Look! The title, it's called `History of Magic'" he trails off, looking around the room, mumbling.
"I believe you" I say, interrupting his rambling. "It makes sense, sorta… all of the weird things that have happened… and all these things, and I guess, there's nothing to say that it's not possible." and the gods too, but I can't go and say that out-front. I mean- can I? I don't want him to reject me… "Explain magic to me" I ask, before I can get too caught up in my thoughts. He sets into a long tirade about the magical world, explaining places and people with such detail that I don't think he could come up with on the spot, or ever, really. When he got to Voldemort, I was shocked, but also, it would be just my luck that my brother is the chosen one of some prophecy. Apparently, the wizarding world thought that he was the only 'chosen one' because he was the only one with a scar from the killing curse. Apparently the general consensus is that Voldemort attacked Harry first and Harry somehow defeated him from his crib, meaning that Harry was the special chosen one and we both ended up living. I sat through his long explanation all day and a good portion of the night listening to tales of his exploits with his friends Ron and Hermione who seemed to be taking pretty good care of him (who I totally wasn't jealous of for having Harry for all of two years). The last time I recall seeing on the clock was 10:28 before we both drifted off to sleep some time afterwards.
That morning, we woke up blearily to a loud banging on the door outside the room (which honestly, I'm getting far too used to). I blinked a couple of times, trying to gain my bearings, before gently pushing Harry to wake him up. Half asleep, we both dressed ourselves in some Dudley's old, and far too big, clothes that Harry had found in the cabinet for us, before dragging ourselves down the stairs (I was practically dragging myself down the banister) and making our way into the kitchen for whatever kitchen duties Petunia had lined up for us.
I dragged the garbage bags out of the garage and threw them angrily into the bins at the edge of the road. It wasn't as if I was expecting anything less, but I didn't have to be happy about it. At least Harry only had to make breakfast for them. He'd been cooking ever since he was old enough to operate a stove, and Petunia capitalizing off of his skills had meant he had even more experience. My mouth was practically watering, thinking about the bacon I had smelled from the kitchen earlier as I crossed through it to get the trash.
I returned into the house and helped Harry plate up some of the food he had made before bringing the six plates into the dining area. We sat and I began to scarf down my food, completely ignoring any protests of 'where are your manners Perseus?' and 'I think we've raised you better than this'. I held back the urge to point out that Dudley was doing far worse than I was, and continued to stuff as much food down my throat as possible.
"I want you boys on your best behavior these next two weeks" Uncle Vernon stated, glaring at me "Aunt Marge is coming this afternoon and staying the rest of the week. If you want to go on that field-trip you better behave." he looks at me again, and I feel targeted, personally targeted.
"You're glaring at me like I killed you cat? What?" I ask, trying to mask my grin. Harry's making throat cutting motions frantically, across the table.
Uncle Vernon's face grows purple and he forces out "watch it". I resist a shrug (I can't resist the smirk, I'm sorry, Harry) and instead, rise from my seat and gather up the dirty plates. I make my way to the kitchen once again and set myself elbow deep in soapy water, making an effort to have my shirt appear a little wet and splattered. Harry joins me a moment later.
"He's really mad, you know?" He tells me. I shrug and nod agreeably, choosing not to reply. "Percy, please, I really want to go on this trip!"
"I know… Just- I'll behave, but you really shouldn't let him walk all over you like this" I say, the parts of me that hate Vernon, and want to protect Harry and keep him happy at war. Harry's happiness wins out. "I'll do my best," I promise.
"Thanks" he replies, before busying himself with drying the dishes. We work in tandem, as if those three years apart never happened, and the kitchen is cleaned quickly. Throughout the day we work to prepare the house for Aunt Marge, cleaning the guest room, the living room, etcetera, with Harry drilling me on the things I would need to know for dinner; we went to St. Brutes, which was a school for troubled teens, they spanked us all the time, to agree with whatever the adults say, all the things I need to know.
"So…" I start, pulling a new sheet over the guest bed. Harry is dusting the shutters on the other side of the room. "Wanna tell me a little bit more about the subjects at Hogwarts? I mean, I don't want to show up unprepared…" I trail off, giving Harry a chance to speak.
Harry smiles at me, "yeah, it can be a bit much when you first arrive. Where do I even start…" and that's where he did, catching me up on all of the different subjects he'd taken to the best of his ability and telling me about the layout of the school (which was apparently in a castle whoa). The time flew by as we cleaned, and soon it was time for Aunt Marge to arrive.
"Boys!" Aunt Petunia screeched from downstairs, "Aunt Marge's here!" quickly we stumbled down the staircase to the front door. Uncle Vernon had enveloped the large woman in a suffocating hug and was giving us both the evil eye over her shoulder. He all but throws her handbag and coat at us before ordering us to get the rest of her bags from the car. I hang them up and we make our way out the hideous sports car. Out of the open trunk we pull what's got to be at least five suitcases and a duffel bag. We drag them inside and I drag them up the stairs, quite loudly, may I say, and pile them in the corner of the guest room. Then Uncle Vernon is yelling for us to bring them some drinks. I sigh.
"This is going to be a long two weeks."
OK, that's chapter 1 all edited! (oh boy that's longer than I thought it would be, oh well) Thanks for reading! :)