Percy

"Hi, Harry!" Percy said, taking his usual seat at breakfast the next morning.

The younger boy looked up, startled. "Oh, hi," he said awkwardly.

"Did you figure out the egg yet?"

Harry's fists clenched on the table, "Oh, yeah. I figured out that I have to breathe underwater for an hour!"

"Oh," Percy hadn't really thought about it like that but now he'd pointed it out, Harry's dilemma seemed pretty obvious, "Don't you wizards have spells for that?"

"If we do I haven't learnt any," he sounded on the verge of panic.

Percy opened his mouth to ask Harry if he was alright – he wasn't quite meeting his eye – when Annabeth slid onto the bench next to him.

"Morning, Seaweed Brain," he tried to kiss her, but she pulled away, laughing, "Eww, no! Your breath stinks! Morning, Harry."

"Morning," he muttered, standing up, "I'm going to find Hermione, maybe she'll know something…"

He left, still not looking Percy in the eye.

"What's up with him?" Annabeth frowned.

"I don't know," His throat constricted with terror – Harry had asked him about the dreams. He knew. They'd been getting worse recently and he still didn't understand what they meant, except they almost always ended with him killing Harry. Could it be that, after all he'd been through, he was finally going crazy?

"Percy, what's wrong?" He wanted to confide in Annabeth but the thought of her face as he told her how, every night, he watched Harry die and he enjoyed it made him taste bile. He couldn't let her down like that. He wouldn't.

What if I'm going bad?

"Nothing," he forced a smile, "Harry's probably just worried about the Second Task. I kind of forgot not everybody can breathe underwater."

She rolled her eyes, "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Time for class."

Harry avoided him in Charms and for the rest of the week, Percy hardly saw his wizarding friends. They locked themselves in the library for hours on end, pouring over hundreds of books for anything that might help Harry breathe underwater. He offered to help but Harry was quick to point out that this would probably be considered cheating and Hermione gently reminded him that with his dyslexia, the task would be more torture for Percy than support for Harry.

Percy spent the extra time with his demigod friends, brainstorming new ideas to bring back Hecate and teaching classes in ancient history and self-defence. He often found himself the last one in the common room at night and the first one up in the morning, barely sleeping at all. He became cranky and irritable, falling asleep in classes only to wake up to a jolt from Annabeth's elbow when he started whimpering.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she'd ask him, each time she woke him up from another nightmare.

He'd whisper, "I'm fine," or "Tartarus," hating himself for using that as an excuse, even as his friends gave him sympathetic looks.

"Okay, so today we're going to be teaching you a new disarming technique," Annabeth was saying to the fourth year Gryffindors, "So pair up, please."

"Be my partner?" he asked Harry. He started, like a deer caught in headlights, and, wincing, moved to Percy's side. Why did he wince like that?

Annabeth demonstrated the move, but Percy didn't look, he didn't need to; it was the same move Luke had taught him in his first swordplay class at Camp Half-Blood. Instead, he watched Harry and how the younger boy still wouldn't meet his eye. His blood began to boil. Sheathing her sword, Annabeth said, "Okay, so on my mark… three… two… one!"

Harry raised his sword, but he didn't stand a chance. Percy knocked his blade sideways, sending it skittering across the floor, and lunged, driving Riptide through the air toward Harry's chest. His sword was an inch from his flesh – a hair's breadth –

"Percy!"

"What?" he yelled, turning on Annabeth.

"Stop," her breath was coming fast – she was angry, but she didn't show it – her gaze was steady, "Put the sword down."

"I…" Rage slowly became horror which turned into shame as he focused on the tear in Harry's cloak where Riptide had pierced his robes, "I… Oh, my gods. I'm sorry, I-"

"Percy…" Annabeth moved to comfort him, but he couldn't look at her, couldn't let her find the pain he knew she would see in his eyes. So, he ran. Out of the classroom, down the stairs and across the Entrance Hall into the grounds, to the only place he could breathe; the lake.

Trembling, he stared at his reflection in the water. What had he become?

And what was he turning into?

Nico

Nico stared up at the canopy of his bed in the Gryffindor boys' dorm, willing himself to fall asleep. His dreams had become something of a haven in the last few weeks, a chance to see Bianca again, even if missing her hurt so much he could barely breathe.

Exhaling into sleep, the familiar surroundings of the dorm dissolved into the land of dreams. Nico waited in darkness to arrive on the train platform where he would catch a glimpse of his family, but something was wrong. Something was different. Instead of lifting, the shadows deepened, a cold wind catching at his robes. The harsh flashlight of a full moon invaded the darkness, illuminating a place Nico knew well from his recurring dream; the graveyard where Tom Riddle's bleached-white grave stood tall and still.

"No!" Where was Bianca and Mama? This wasn't supposed to happen; he was supposed to enjoy a few precious moments with his family before being plunged back into this strange place.

"Kill him," someone hissed. Nico's fingers curled around the hilt of his sword, but the voice wasn't addressing him. Peering around a grave, he saw a body twitching in the tangled grass and a tall figure standing over it, a sword Nico recognised held ready to drive into the person's heart.

"Riptide…" he muttered, then, "Percy?"

"Nico?" his voice was ragged, "Nico, what are you doing here?"

"I'm in your dream…" he realised, but Percy wasn't a child of Morpheus, he must've been dreaming powerfully to summon Nico. And he was in the same graveyard Nico had been seeing for months…

Sometimes, he really hated demigod dreams.

"Nico," Percy's voice caught, "I can't stop."

"Can't stop what?" Nico asked, moving closer. The moon shifted out from behind a cloud, shining on the figure at Percy's feet; It was Harry. "Oh."

Percy was trembling, he noticed, like he was fighting against himself, but demigods couldn't be controlled by wizards. At least, not using the Imperius curse.

"It all makes sense, now," he whispered, "Why you've been acting so strange… why you tried to kill Harry this morning… Someone's been controlling you, for how long?"

"I don't know," the sword dipped suddenly, and Percy let out a strangled yelp, twisting it to avoid Harry's heart, "but it always ends with me killing him."

Nico ran a hand through his raven hair, "Who could be doing this to you, Percy?"

"Me," a voice echoed across the graveyard, sending shivers down every nerve in his body. The voice was like dragging nails down a blackboard – unnatural – and Nico's heart filled with dread at the sound.

A cloaked man – no, not a man, Nico thought, for this was some other monster – appeared from the shadows. He couldn't see beneath it's hood but the sick feeling in his gut intensified with every step it took toward them.

"Percy," he said, reaching out, "You don't have to do this. You don't have to kill Harry. He's your friend."

Percy's voice cracked in despair, "You think I don't know that?"

"He's no friend of yours's, merely a distraction, keeping you from accomplishing your true goal of going home," the voice sounded faintly amused, as though it knew Percy couldn't possibly win.

"That's not true!" Nico argued, "Harry's helped us loads!"

"I'm your only true friend, Perseus," the voice insisted, "I can help you unlock powers beyond your wildest imagination."

Something changed in Percy's expression. Indecision turned to determination, fear into fury. With a roar, he plunged Riptide, not down into Harry but into the chest of the cloaked figure.

"My friends don't call me that," he said, staring into the shadows of it's hood, "And I don't want power. I just want to be rid of you."

He twisted the sword and the figure melted into darkness, the empty cloak flapping on the end of Percy's sword.

"Percy, I-" Nico was jerked off his feet, the graveyard crumbling into ruin beneath him.

"Percy!" He was back in the Gryffindor dormitory and he wasn't the only one awake. Percy sat bolt upright, staring wide-eyed at Nico in the bed opposite.

"Nico, I-"

"You did it!" he fought the mad urge to laugh, "You… Well, actually I don't know what you did."

"I feel better," he blinked, "More… myself?"

"That's good, it means he's not in your head anymore."

"Nico…" he looked away and Nico knew he didn't want him to see how shaken he was, "Who was that?"

He remembered Harry's scar and the stories Hermione had told them about how he'd got it, Mad-Eye's warning of constant vigilance and the whispers surrounding one person… Someone who mustn't be named. Someone who wasn't alive but wasn't quite dead either.

"I think… I think we just met Lord Voldemort."

So, this chapter was a bit more angsty but I think you can see a bit more where this story is going. Next chapter will be the Second Task and it's going to be very dramatic. I'm trying very hard to balance drama and fun. I'm loving all your feedback at the moment so please let me know what you think by reviewing and if you haven't already, favourite/follow for more!

vapourtrailreads - glad you're enjoying the story! You reviewed on chapter 1 so don't know if you'll read this but if you do, thanks for continuing to read! I love Reynico and Jasico friendships too so thanks for noticing that mention. I hope you keep reviewing in the future

aRTsyisAwesome - This chapter kind of explains that but this won't be Voldemort's last attempt to control Percy. Thanks for reviewing (I've noticed your name a few times and I always love hearing what you have to say)

Geni Blaze - I agree, Meg is a great character though it took me a while to warm up to her. I found the last book hard to read too, though I love it from a character development point of view (Meg definitely grows a lot in the third book). Thanks for your continued support, you were my first review so I'm always interested in your opinion on the story ;)

Will update sometime next week, have a great weekend guys!

Lileaf, xoxo