Godric's Hollow was wet and miserable, like the entirety of Britain.
Percy didn't mind, he loved the rain, Hades, he even let himself get soaked in the rain, he wasn't going to say he loved the rain and then use his powers as an umbrella.
He was scouting the place, looking for evidence. He had spotted a lot of wizard households they stood out by their old architecture and the way the fog of magic surrounded the cottages.
He spotted an old broken-down cottage that mortals, muggles as the locals called them, seemed to be avoiding. He made a beeline for it.
"I always get answers where I least want to look," Percy muttered as he remembered Luke Castellan's old house which looked eerily similar to this one.
The inside was dark and foreboding, it was filled with rubble and cobwebs.
The back of Percy's hair stood up as he felt the magic in the house, some powerful magic had taken place here.
This must have been Potter's cottage, the very scene of the crime whose alleged culprit he was trying to prove innocent.
Percy took photos of the place with his phone, he could now use said phone since his demigod scent was no longer a homing beacon to every monster in Europe, that being said he was already much closer to the Norse ancient lands than he liked, even though Magnus had assured him that pantheon of gods didn't want to kill him for the crime of existing. Apparently, some of the Viking gods even liked him!
He did his best to restore the living room to optimal condition and fixed a few cracked photo frames, making it look like a normal living room.
That gave away absolutely nothing, it actually proved less than useful as Percy just started daydreaming about how life must have been for the Potters for 30 minutes, which was nice but completely unhelpful.
Percy sighed, his mission seemed to get harder and harder, why couldn't Wizards have CCTVs?
Percy looked around the living room and focused on the photo frames, if nothing here he could at least get his young friend some memories of his parents.
Picking up the first photo frame with a picture of Harry and his parents, Percy hissed as he dropped the frame and shattered it.
There was a rune behind the frame.
A glowing purple-pink symbol that distinctly resembled a human heart. It felt like dark magic, very foul to the touch.
Percy cautiously picked up the frame and was relieved that it didn't feel like a hot needle poked into his skin.
"And what might you be for?" Percy wondered out loud looking at the glowing purple rune.
Percy shrunk and moved all the photo frames into his pocket, he had tried to enchant his pocket so it would be really big on the inside but the Arithmancy was far too complex and lengthy for Percy to bother. So he just connected his pockets to the pouch Hecate had given instead, making it a go-to storage vault. Smart work, not hard work.
The runes were complex, they used rune arrays and arithmancy that Percy couldn't even begin to understand. Instead, he took out his wand and gathered some dust.
"Appare visitigium."
The dust floated into two shapes, one of a hooded figure and one of a man trying to punch the hodded figure but the hooded figure shot a spell and the man was blasted back and fell to the ground dead.
The hooded man laughed coldly, creating sound was something the charm shouldn't have been able to do, but it had been affected by the caster's power.
Percy followed the hooded man up the stairs and was surprised to see the figure, who he assumed was Voldemort, remove a sword from his cloak, the dust dissipated in front of a door.
Percy cautiously opened the door.
It looked like the place had been trashed but there were no cobwebs or dust.
A crib was there in the corner of the room looking unscathed, a table with all its content on the floor, a shelf on the ground with its content spilling out and the wallpaper was worn down.
Percy found the same runes etched into the bottom of the crib. The good thing was that he found a really old laptop, it was a workstation but it had a camera on it. Percy took that, there was a very slim chance that he would find something useful but it didn't hurt to try.
Percy also took photos of all the runes, maybe Hecate would be able to make sense of this.
He searched the house a bit more and found a few books but not much else.
"Well, that was a dead end," Percy muttered to himself in a bumped-out tone.
Percy went around the town, he didn't have much hope though. For some reason, he didn't think he would find any witnesses 13 years after the crime.
He eventually stumbled upon a painting at the edge of town that seemed to be thoroughly out of place, he cautiously touched it and was immediately sucked into it.
Percy blinked and he was greeted by the sight of a bustling bar, the walls were covered in a morning hew which made it look gold. Beautiful dancing women were in the centre, their skin shined like the moon and their silver hair shone softly. He would have called them beautiful but there was something about them that made Percy's hand itch towards his faithful sword, Riptide.
Percy moved towards the bar, keeping an eye on the women, one of whom noticed him and gave him a wink and a smile to which he gave no reply, which seemed to shock the woman.
Percy was surprised to see a short humanoid creature with pointed ears and big round eyes and a crooked nose behind the counter.
"What?" the strange creature snapped, "Never seen an elf serving drinks before."
Percy shook his head, "Nothing like that Mr, I was just surprised that's all. I was investigating an old case. Would you have been here 13 years ago by any chance?" Percy felt a wave of hope rise up in him as the elf looked at him with his big dirty green eyes.
"No stupid boy, no one would be dumb enough to keep a bar open during the reign of the dark lord." Percy's wave of hope crashed into the ground and killed the village of his hard work.
"Oh." Percy muttered dejectedly, he noticed a silver sign at the top of the bar.
WARNING: Do not touch the Veela.
Below that was another sign that read:
DO NOT TRY TO STEAL OR GO OVER THE BAR ORELSE OFFENDERS WILL SUFFER LETHAL CONSEQUENCES.
The second sign was made out of wood and the words were written in alarming red. It looked relatively new.
"You having trouble with thieves?" Percy asked curiously. The grumpy elf sent him an annoyed look.
Percy hastily ordered a Draman old fire whiskey, the first drink he saw behind the bar, it was covered in a scratched glass cage.
The elf looked at him like he was mad.
"That's an expensive drink, you would have to pay first." The elf responded harshly before going back to floating a bunch of drinks into shot glasses for the same perfection of beauty, that would give the aphrodite cabin a run for their money.
Percy removed a stack of 50 galleons from his pocket and threw it at the elf's head, by accident of course.
The elf didn't seem to mind, he just stared at gold with wide eyes, he had attracted quite a lot of stares.
The elf waved his hand and the whole bottle of the expensive-looking whiskey floated in front of Percy.
"Would you like a room with our veela my lord?" the elf asked with much more respect in his tone.
The Veela looked at him and sprung a seductive smile, it would have been brain-melting for Percy if he was 15, his mind briefly remembeting the empousa that had blown up his band room and put the blame on him.
Percy just gave her a weary smile.
"No thanks, I think I will open this during the quidditch world cup," Percy said with a noticeable dangerous edge to his voice and the Veela looked stunned again.
Percy quickly left the pub, deciding to head to the floo station through the outskirts of the town, he was certain that wasn't a human and he didn't want to find out if she could charm speak like an empousa.
He didn't remember them from his implanted knowledge so they must be either very rather rare creatures or not classified as magical creatures, Hecate had told him that a few species weren't included due to political reasons and Percy had to learn about a few in detail himself but, it wasn't required for his OWLs and Hecate had implanted the knowledge about all magical creatures that were lethal so he didn't really bother.
Sue him, he didn't like reading, the words danced more than the veela.
Percy was so lost in thought that he almost didn't notice something jump towards his bottle, almost.
Percy turned at the last second and immediately pocketing the bottle of expensive alcohol and used his other hand to let loose a stream of highly pressurised water.
The short, extremely green creature, no, the short man was wearing green clothes and a green hat.
"Gods! please don't tell me you're a leprechaun." Percy used a simple Wingardium Leviosa charm to float the tiny man.
"Don't act like those Wizards, you're Roman and I am not a blasted shoe shiner."
Percy now alarmed used a Muffliato Charm, using it to give their conversation the adequate privacy.
"You're a divine leprechaun?" Percy asked in wonder.
"NO! Blasted Roman, leprechauns are the mortal magical version of us, I am a Clurichaun." The drunken Irish fairy said.
"Is Clurichaun Irish for drunken leprechaun?"
"No, I am much older than those blasted creatures, I was here when Britania came with the Romans and fought in the war, when the West took over these lands."
'Makes sense,' Percy thought, "Do the Wizards all have weaker versions of our mythical creatures?"
"Yes, now let me go!"
Percy released the Clurichaun, he fell to the earth with a sound that would make Humpty Dumpty flinch.
"I'm sorry, I panicked when you called me Roman, I'm Greek, Percy Jackson." Percy outstretched his hand in a friendly gesture, noting that his hand was bigger than the Clurichaun's face.
The Clurichaun eyes widened, "I have heard of you, the gossip of your world is contained to our gods, they don't tell us, little people much but even we have heard of the Hero who refused immortality."
Percy didn't think the gods of any Pantheon liked that very much, gods were prideful creatures afterall, and they were easily provoked.
The Clurichaun read his emotions, "Don't worry lad, you're not hated too much for your choices, but beware if you seek out the gods of Ireland, they would take a keen interest in you"
Percy promised himself to not do that.
"Ummm, thanks for the advice," Percy said, then he got an idea. "Say you wouldn't be around here 13 years ago would you?"
The Clurichaun stiffened and returned to glare at me, "Don't thank me, it's rude among the Little People, it says that the transaction is complete and that you'll forget about the favour soon, it's rude, and means they'll leave. I have been here for millennia, far before your sister came here and claimed the land for herself."
Percy just smiled, the universe was fucking awesome.
"Ok, th- good to know, by any chance do you know what happened here on the night of Halloween, 13 years ago?"
"Yes, I saw it from the cliff side, the dark magic was immense, I saw everything, the rat boy blew everything up and cut his own finger off."
Percy was now shaking in happiness, finally, he had done it.
"You must come with me, there is a genocidal murderer on the loose and an innocent man on the run and you can fix it."
"The Wizards don't know of the existence of my kind, I wouldn't want to reveal the divine world to them, would I?"
"I can pass you for a Leuprecon, they wouldn't spot the difference ," Percy assured the Clurichaun.
"what's in it for me?" the Clurichaun asked folding his chicken arms that would make the T-rex feel proud.
Percy's smile flattered for a second, what could he give a drunken Irish fairy?
oh yeah, Drinks.
Percy removed the expensive bottle of fire whiskey from his pocket.
"Will this do?" Percy knew he probably looked like a sucker but he could care less, he wanted to get this over with.
The Clurichaun snatched the drink with wide eyes.
"Where do we have to go, good sir?"
-x-x-
"You named the Clurichaun Lucky the Lepricon." Hecate repeated.
Percy had repeated his trip to Godricks hallow and all his discoveries to Hecate as they were making their way through the Ministry of Magic.
They were currently making their way to stand before the whole Wizengamot to prove the innocence of Sirius Black.
"How did you manage to even get a trial, aren't you supposed to be a myth?"
"Yes but I have kept up a reputation, we are part of the-"
Hecate would have elaborated more but the huge dungeon doors opened and they were ushered into a large room where the British magical high court was assembled.
The magical courtroom was filled with 50 elderly wizards and witches, some staring at him maliciously and some with frank curiosity.
"-The retrial of Sirius Black"
"What proof do you present?"
Percy motioned with his hand, with a nod and his head held high, Lucky the leprechaun stepped forward.
A witch came forward an ornate flask in hand.
"This is Veritaserum, it will ensure you speak nothing but the truth." Lucky eyed it warily for a second before uncorking it and gulping it down, his eyes gained a glassy haze to them, but of what Percy knew it was much less than what normal wizards got, he looked drunk rather than bewitched.
He started retelling the story of the night when the duel between Sirius and some guy named Peter Pettigrew took place, the man who truly had betrayed the Potters, and how Peter killed the muggles to distract Sirius, and then cut his own finger off, scurried away after having turned into a rat.
By the end of his story, many of the wizards and witches looked horrified at the incident, most notably two elder witches who were muttering quite loudly.
The man in the middle with a big sign that said Minister also looked quite shocked and pale, he cleared his voice.
"What about the fifty eye-witnesses we had that testified Sirius to be the killer?"
A witch who looked more like a reanimated corpse, not that different from the Delphic mummy that used to give out prophecies, uttered in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "They had very different testimonies, and we were not putting people on Veritaserum for that case."
The minister looked troubled, but he still pulled a poor face of confidence and said, "Well then, evidence has been provided, all in favor of ruling Sirius Black innocent?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"With a unanimous vote, Sirius Black is cleared of all crimes. Contact the daily prophet and tell them to spread the news, I hereby null the hunt for Sirius Black."
Hecate moved away from Percy, he sent her a questioning look and just as there was a bright flash, when Percy finally got the stars out of his eyes he spotted the note-taker that had taken Percy's picture, smiling at his blinking face before he left.
-x-x-
They had dropped the Clurichaun whose real name Percy hadn't really gotten and went back to their house not long after.
Percy flopped onto the couch.
"Must you be so dramatic?" Hecate asked from the reformed table as she grabbed a cup of glowing gold liquid, ambrosia, the nectar of gods.
Percy just groaned in response, he then remembered his trip into the Potter household, "oh yeah by the way," He held out his phone to show her all the photos of the strange runes that were carved all over the Potter household.
Hecate came over and moved his head so that it was laying on her stomach, and positioned her legs on both sides of his torso.
"Hm, this is some dark stuff, it would take months for an expert Athamancer to solve." Hecate said scrolling through the phone, Percy arched his head to try and see what she was doing, he saw her swiping through the photos at a mile per second.
"Good thing I'm a goddess."
After she had gone through all the photos in reverse, she let out a deep hum.
"This is an invocation of ancient magic, the purpose of this is to save a life in exchange for a life of a loved one, it's how Lily Potter probably wanted to protect Harry, it's very powerful, and incomplete."
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, this how she wanted to save Harry but this rune array is incomplete, but I think it definitely helped in saving Harry."
"Can you simplify that for me?" Percy asked completely confused.
"Lily was given the option to live, but she choose to die for her son,the runes recognised her sacrifice and saved Harry."
"Wow," Percy thought that was brilliant, and then he got another thought. "Why would she get the choice to live? Isn't Voldermort supposed to be pure evil?"
Hecate's smile droped off her face, "that is something you are going to have to find out," Hecate's smile returned in full force, "but that is a worry for another time, for after we return."
"Return from where?" Percy asked confused, he left the question in the back of his mind, he would find out sooner or later.
Hectate smirked at the loom of confusion Percy wore, taking his hands in hers, she apparated them away.
Apparation sucked, Percy preferred flashing.
Seriously, he felt like he was the last bit of toothpaste being squeezed out of the tube.
It was fine though, the sight that greeted him at the end was worth it
'Anniversary of Battle of Manhattan' was written in Bold on a banner, above that Banner in even bigger blue font on a green banner was written, 'HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY PERCY JACKSON'
The camp was decorated with blue and green balloons, everyone was wearing a blue party hat and holding red solo cups.
"You can go on, I will bring you back to Britain after your party" and with that Hecate disappeared and Percy entered his home.
-x-x-
Percy enjoyed the party, it was fun to be a teenager once in a while, especially when no one was talking about war or death.
The end of the second titan war was also an agreed taboo, tonight they were all just kids celebrating a birthday.
"That was fun," Percy said, he and a bunch of his closest friends were relaxing in the big house at the afterparty of his birthday party. They had decided to talk late after he had told them about the special secretive year long quest.
A few of them were miffed about over it, they believed that out of everyone there he finally deserved peace, Percy wanted to agree with them but well, he had very willingly accepted.
"Honestly man, if you like it, then we are all happy for you," said Conner Stoll.
"Plus dad's the god of messengers," said Travis Stoll.
"We're pranking you even if you go to the Artic," they said in unison. They were going to sit down on their custom crafted double chair, Percy internally smirked, he had placed a sticking rune on their chairs, he had considered putting an enlargo rune but that would raise too many questions.
They sat down and nothing happened.
Percy frowned, that was strange, their internal magic should have triggered the rune and caused them to stick to their chairs but that had clearly not happened.
He would have wondered more but at that time Chiron lagged at some joke putting his hand on the table, raising his hand the table rose when he moved his hand. That made zero sense since the rune was on the table.
Percy couldn't rationalize it in time as he had to duck under the swinging table.
Percy and the others ran out laughing as Chiron galloped after the Stoll brothers.
Percy would've kept on laughing had he not crashed into a black slobbering wall.
His precious dog (read: hellhound) Mrs. O'Leary had come out of the shadows to show him just how much she had missed him.
"I missed you too girl," Percy said with a grin that could scare away the vilest spirits of hopelessness, dementor.
-x-x-
Hecate accompanied him to his mom's house, Percy didn't understand why the goddess would do this but his mom took a liking to her and started asking her questions.
"Oh I do hope you're keep my son out of trouble," Sally said with a laugh that could bring light into the moonless night.
"Please Mrs. Jackson, your son is very talented and takes quite good care of himself, I am sure you taught him well. '' Hecate the best and perfect goddess in the whole wide world replied.
Percy was having a sense of Deja vu for some reason and just tried to blend into the cushions of his couch seat as much as possible.
"Yes yes, he once strangled a snake all by himself when he was 3." his mom said with a hearty laugh.
Percy then remembered that she had the exact same conversation with Annabeth and Rachel the first time they met!
He tried and failed to not gape at his mother, did she have a guide to interrogate her son's love interests?
Percy blended into the environment so well that the Fedilius charm, the charm that makes you basically invisible, would be impressed.
He really tried to make himself as less of a nuisance in his mother's interrogation as possible, he also tuned out the conversation between his now possible girlfriend and mother as it was now sounding like a political battle of words and not a simple conversation over coffee.
He had a lot of questions that needed answers, probably a lot of mysteries to unravel, an army and their dark lords to vanquish, and looking at Hecate's laughing face as she continued to chat with his mother, a romantic life to cath up to.
It was going to be a long year.
-x-x-
"At least I wont be bored this year"