Harry

Harry swam back and forth impatiently. Where were the others? Where was Percy? Surely a son of Poseidon should be here by now? If he were sure they were coming, he could leave the other hostages and take Ron, but he wasn't, and he couldn't – the two girls were defenceless, and the song said they'd be lost after an hour… What if the others weren't coming?

Peering into the murkiness, he saw no sign of anyone approaching. There was nothing for it; he grabbed the jagged rock he'd used to cut through Ron's bindings and began to saw through Annabeth's. At once, several pairs of grey, webbed hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen dragging him away from the hostages, their green hair swirling around their faces as they shook their heads, laughing.

"You take your hostage," said one, jabbing his finger at Harry's chest, "Leave the others!"

"But-" he was cut off as the mermen nudged each other, chattering excitedly and pointing at something over his head. Harry's heart sank… Were reinforcements coming? Was he about be devoured by the Giant Squid?

"Harry!" It was Percy, his voice as clear as though they were on land. He shot through the water like a harpoon, gliding to a halt at his side.

"Percy, I tried to save them both, I swear! They wouldn't let me…"

"It's okay," he sliced through the ropes holding Annabeth with Riptide, "I got this."

"Where's Fleur?"

"Not coming," he moved to free Fleur's sister but one of the mermen pushed him back, waggling his finger.

Not coming. Had something happened to her? "What?"

"Let me through," Percy told the merman, struggling to get past, "I'm a son of Poseidon."

The merman didn't speak but made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a raspberry. Percy flushed angrily.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said, brandishing his sword threateningly, "I promised Fleur I'd save Gabrielle, I'm not leaving without her!"

The mermen chuckled, poking their spears at the two boys' chests. Harry shoved Percy behind him, clutching his wand. The merpeople had weapons, but they didn't have magic… Spells might be their only advantage.

"Clear off!" he gurgled, a stream of bubbles flooding from his mouth, "I'm warning you! You've got until three!" he held up three fingers to make his point clear, "One…" he put down one finger, "Two…" he put down another…

The mermen scattered. Percy darted forwards and tore through Gabrielle's bindings like tissue paper. He took one arm and Harry took the other, both hanging on to their own hostages by their robes.

"Ready?" Percy asked.

Harry opened his mouth to answer but sudden pain stripped the words from his mouth. His forehead was on fire, every nerve in his brain turning to sand… Pain like this could only mean one thing, one person…

"Percy, he's here! I don't know how but Voldemort's here!"

"V-Voldemort?" Harry didn't understand why his friend looked so scared; he'd fought worse, but Percy looked ghostly pale in the water.

Agony racked his brain. He gasped, clutching his head, and found his lungs filling with water, suffocating him.

"Harry…" Percy said wide-eyed, "Your neck…"

His hand slid desperately down his face, past his jaw. Where his gills had been, there was now only smooth skin. Looking down, he watched his flippers morph back into feet. The hour was up. Any second now, the pressure would buckle his spine, crumpling him like a tin can.

"You're drowning," Percy realised, "You need to go!"

He wanted to argue but he could only shake his head frantically. He pointed at Percy, in his eyes a silent question – but what about you?

"I'll be fine! Go!" and with a flick of his hand, Percy sent him corkscrewing toward the surface.

The black was endless. He would never make it in time. He felt his grip loosening on Ron's cloak. Where was Gabrielle? Was she safe with Percy or had he let her go? Darkness ate at the edges of his vision and still he couldn't see the surface. He was letting go of Ron… he was dying…

Air. Sweet oxygen. Harry blinked the spots from his eyes. He and Ron were still spiralling upwards in the middle of the lake, but they were encased in a bubble, large enough for them both to breathe. Outside, the black had lightened to very dark green.

Percy.

He had saved them, and now he was in danger. Harry kicked his feet, straining his eyes for any glimpse of sunlight. He had to reach the surface… He had to tell Dumbledore…

He had to save Percy.

Percy

"Perseus Jackson…" The voice came from nowhere and everywhere, monstrous yet strangely familiar.

His fingers curled defensively around Riptide, his knuckles shining white in the darkness, "Voldemort…" he took a deep breath, "Show yourself!"

He felt the water shift as two shadows rose from a crevice in the rock, their black robes billowing around them. Both had air bubbles, like Fleur's, and wands - wands, pointed at Percy.

"I'm afraid I can't greet you in person," the voice was heavy with real regret, Percy realised, "That honour falls to my acolytes."

Never had anyone wanted so badly to meet him, so obviously Percy assumed greet meant kill. He swung Riptide in a wide arc, pushing the still-sleeping girls behind him. Wake up, Wise Girl, he thought desperately, I need you by my side, but Annabeth's eyes remained firmly closed, her face peaceful.

"Stay back!" He sounded braver than he felt. Percy knew he shouldn't be this scared. Voldemort was a wizard. Not a titan or a giant… Mortal. But something about his voice made panic bubble up in his throat, threatening to suffocate him, like the muskeg in Alaska… Like the air in Tartarus…

The blood pounded in his ears. His hands shook. His feet tingled. He was seeing through a fish-eye lens, the world crashing in around him. He couldn't breathe, the water heavy in his lungs. He was drowning all over again.

"Poor Percy," Voldemort's cackles echoed inside his head, "So damaged. You don't even notice when the thing you love most is taken from right under your nose."

"Annabeth!" She wasn't behind him anymore. One of Voldemort's enthusiasts had his arm wrapped tightly around his Wise Girl's neck. A second ago, she'd been safe with him. The other figure had Gabrielle pinned to the rock. How had that happened? How could he let it?

So damaged.

"Past an hour the prospect's black…" Voldemort sang mockingly. How was he doing that? He wasn't even here, and he was messing with his mind, "Oh, Annabeth was never in any danger from Dumbledore. That old fool would never let harm come to a student, not even a demigod. But believe me, Perseus, if you don't do exactly as I say, well… Too late, she's gone, she won't come back."

"What do you want?"

"Kill the girl."

"Kill-kill Annabeth?"

"No!" Voldemort growled, frustrated, "Choose, Annabeth or the girl!"

Gabrielle. A girl he'd never even spoken to. Fleur's sister.

"No," his jaw clenched to keep the tremor out of his voice, "You clearly don't know me. I don't kill innocent people."

"Oh, but I do know you, Percy," his voice was a disease, creeping inside his ear, "You've done it before. Over and over again, in your dreams."

"No!" he lunged toward Annabeth.

"Crucio!" her captor roared. Percy fell back, cringing, waiting for his girlfriend's screams to ring in his ears but his dreadful expectation was met with silence. Annabeth's mouth, curved in a peaceful, sleeping frown, twitched slightly, as though she was laughing at the failed attempt at torture.

"M-my lord?" the cloaked figure sounded uncertain and even a little afraid.

The unforgivable curses don't work on demigods.

"How inconvenient," Voldemort's voice was tinged with annoyance, "I guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

If Percy could've seen beneath the dark wizard's hood, he would've seen his features twist into a gruesome smile as he drew out a wicked knife from within his robe. As it was, all he saw was the flash of silver as the Death Eater plunged the blade into Annabeth's arm.

"Annabeth!" She thrashed wildly, her eyes still closed in enchanted sleep. She couldn't even wake up to see herself bleed out.

The second Death Eater shoved Gabrielle toward him. The water shifted her hair, exposing her pale throat. Voldemort's laughs mocked his weakness, his predictability, as he placed the tip of Riptide above Gabrielle's heart. The gentle rise and fall of her chest caught him off guard, she was so… alive.

"You are a good man, Percy," the image of Fleur swam through his mind, "You better bring my sister back."

I'm so sorry, Fleur.

Another picture; the woods at Camp Half-Blood. A dark-haired boy, his olive face scrunched in fury.

"You promised you would protect her."

"Nico?"

He let Bianca sacrifice herself to help Annabeth. Now he was sacrificing Gabrielle to save her again. Another sister, another sibling's whole world destroyed. When it came down to it, he was no better than the Olympians. He wouldn't play this game, he wouldn't value one person's life over another's.

Anger washed his vision red. He wasn't a plaything. He was a son of Poseidon and this was his home court. Nobody's pawn. Not the gods'. Not Voldemort's.

Not anyone's.

Nico

Nico turned his face toward the sun, soaking up the little warmth it's rays offered. The cold wind ruffled his hair, but he brushed it away impatiently, his gaze fixed on the lake.

Will's arm tightened around him, "Can you see anything yet?"

"No," he tried to keep the worry out of his voice. The hour time-limit had past, Percy should be back by now but there was still no sign of him or Harry.

"There!" Will gripped his arm, raising a hand to point but Nico had already seen what he'd spotted; a dark head breaking the surface of the lake in the distance. The boy had his arm wrapped round the shoulders of another figure, this one with an unruly mop of ginger hair.

"It's Harry and Ron," he realised, shielding his eyes with his hand and squinting.

"Help!" Harry's voice echoed across the still water, "Help, please! It's Percy!"

Nico and Will didn't even look at each other before scrambling over the rows in front and rushing toward the shore. Across the stands, the other demigods were doing the same, toppling wizards over in their efforts to reach the judges' seats where Dumbledore was now peering anxiously into the lake, Bagman whispering furiously into his ear.

In the water, Harry was struggling to keep Ron afloat. When he proved too heavy, Harry pointed his wand behind them and a jet of red light propelled them across the lake toward the beach.

"Percy, he's-" Harry gasped, dragging himself onto the wet stones, "Voldemort… Voldemort's in the lake!"

"Don't be absurd!" Percy Weasley spluttered, shaking Ron awake.

Nico felt a twist in his gut and knew Harry was telling the truth. Someone was dying. In the lake, someone was being killed.

"What are you doing?" Will asked as he waded into the lake. His hands, glowing with healing magic, were on Harry's heaving chest.

"Percy's in danger. Someone's got to…" Nico trailed off, staring at the water around his knees. It was rising, churning slowly but picking up speed, frothing, boiling, as though someone had lit a match beneath the lake and turned it into a giant cauldron… and if Nico had learnt anything in Potions, it was that cauldrons tended to blow.

"Get back!" he roared.

The lake imploded. Water rose in towering, fifty-foot walls and crashed back into place, blowing apart rocks and obliterating beaches. It would've reduced the stands to rubble, but Dumbledore cast a shield of dazzling white light, turning the water to steam which blotted out the sun and sent a rainbow arcing over the students' heads. A gaping hole opened in the centre of the lake, revealing a rock pillar, and standing atop it, two unconscious girls at his feet, was Percy.

Nico watched as his friend stumbled to his knees, trembling with exhaustion.

"He's going to pass out," he muttered.

Will released his arm, "Go."

Nico dissolved into darkness. He reappeared on the rock beside Percy, the faces in the stands now a distant blur, but Will's unbelievably blonde hair acted as his beacon. Grabbing Annabeth and the other girl's robes with one hand and Percy's arm with the other, he let himself melt into the shadow of the waves looming over him.

Safe from the beach with Will's hand on his shoulder, he watched the water settle back into place. Percy had passed out and Harry was still sucking in deep lungfuls of air, but the hostages were waking up. Annabeth was stroking Percy's hair while the second girl had disappeared into Fleur's embrace. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat together, staring wide-eyed at the lake.

"Madame Pomfrey, please escort Mr Jackson to the Hospital Wing," Dumbledore's face was a mask of calm, but Nico thought saw something flickering behind his eye… anger or – was it possible? – fear as he watched Percy being levitated away, "Harry, I need to speak to you in my office. Immediately."

Harry

"So, you saw Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked him seriously.

"Well, no," Harry admitted, feeling rather stupid now he was safe and dry in the Headmaster's Office, "Sir, I can't explain it. I felt his presence."

"I don't doubt your instincts, Harry," the headmaster assured him, "I believe Voldemort was there in a spiritual sense. Perhaps his followers attacked Percy and that is why he had such a violent reaction, but I will need to speak to the boy to be sure."

"Professor, what Percy did at the lake… What was that exactly?"

"It is a power we wizards can only dream of, Harry," Dumbledore's expression became distant as he spoke, "And, from what I understand, it is a power most demigods never achieve. There aren't many cases in recorded history of half-bloods possessing such strong abilities… I wonder what makes Percy so special?" Briefly, Harry considered telling Dumbledore about Percy using the wand and Hermione's theories – that he might actually be a wizard – but that was Percy's business. If he wanted to share, he would, in time.

"So, Voldemort doesn't have a body?" Harry questioned, changing the subject.

Dumbledore adjusted his half-moon glasses, his eyes twinkling thoughtfully, "No, you made sure of that the night he tried to kill you as a baby, but he isn't quite dead either… I believe he tried, in his half-living state, to interfere with the Task, though I am beginning to question whether or not the target was you."

"Who else would it be?"

Dumbledore looked at him, his expression grave, and Harry realised… Someone who had been acting strange recently. Someone who would make a powerful weapon for Voldemort, if he could control him.

Percy.

Yay! This chapter was longer than my normal ones and I'm a bit worried that quantity may have outweighed quality. Let me know what you think!

I've been overwhelmed with feedback and I want you to know that I really, truly appreciate everyone who has followed and/or favourited the story. I can't believe we're on 76 followers and 61 favourites! On the days where I didn't feel like writing, this has kept me going and I am so grateful to everyone for showing their support.

As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed.

Timbo8 – yep, this is a quality that I think makes Percy great as a character, though it does get him into a bit of trouble in this chapter! Thanks for reading and following the story, hope you continue to enjoy it!

HaywireEagle – oops, sorry. I tried to make this chapter a bit longer, hope you enjoyed!

Geni Blaze – sorry for the wait and thanks for your continued support on the story! Percy is definitely the judges' least favourite, but I think he's probably used to authority figures hating him by now ;)

Vapourtrailreads – thanks! I'm glad you're loving the story, keep reading!

Okurdek – thanks for reading and for reviewing so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Anonymous – yup, I'm British.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Lileaf, xoxo