A/N: It's November 22nd; Day 22 of NaNoWriMo! 2894 words!

Rising Storms

A Harry Potter and Percy Jackson crossover

Chapter 24:

Percy

Anger burned bright and hot through his body. His sea-green eyes narrowed at the monster before him. Rain hit the ground around him, but the drops hitting him didn't bother him. Percy thought about how to defeat the Minotaur, looking this way and that, and saw the tree nearby.

Strength flowed into his body, bringing him a little confidence as he moved towards the Minotaur. He took off his jacket, flapping it in front of him. The bull-man charged, and Percy, feeling the weird strength from before, jumped to the side.

The Minotaur rammed into the pine tree, making it shake a bit, and Percy smirked. Grover called his name and threw a long knife when he looked over. Percy caught the knife's handle and slammed it into the side of the Minotaur before the monster could move and pull out of the tree's bark.

The monster froze for a minute before he shuddered and turned into a golden dust. A horn dropped to the ground as Percy straightened his posture and sighed at the fact that it was over. He couldn't believe that he had killed a monster again in only a few days.

Tears gathered in his eyes as he thought about everything that had happened in the last few days. His mom was his rock, his support, and she was gone. Percy walked over to where the horn had fallen and he picked it up. Walking over to Grover, he let the tears flow down his cheeks, mixing with the rain already on his face.

"I'm sorry about your mom, man," Grover said, patting Percy on the shoulder.

Percy nodded. He handed over the knife, and then looked at the horn. "Why is this still here?" He asked.

"That's a spoil of war," Grover explained, leading Percy through the barrier and down to the big house. "You killed the monster, so you get to keep the horn as a memento. Come on, we need to talk to Chiron."

"Who's Chiron?" Percy was trying to keep his mind busy. He knew that, but it was better than thinking about his mom dying.

Grover hummed. "Well, you know him as Mr. Brunner," he said. He pointed out different buildings as they walked, keeping Percy preoccupied, especially since it wasn't raining in the camp. Percy had stopped crying by now, and was looking around in wonder. Grover and Percy made it to the big house. "Hey, Chiron. Percy's here!"

The man in the wheelchair turned to look at them, turning away from the table where another man was sitting with cards in his hands. "Percy! I'm glad you're here, safely. How was the trip? Is Sally heading back home?" He saw Grover attempting to stop him and he gave him a confused look.

"We were tracked by the Minotaur and hit by lightning," Grover told Chiron. They glanced at Percy. Grover cleared his throat. "The three of us got out of the car, and ran up to the barrier."

"I asked Grover to let Mom into camp to protect her, but before he could… the monster grabbed her. She disappeared in his grasp," Percy said, choking up again.

"What happened next?" Chiron asked, moving a hand to touch Percy's arm.

Grover continued the story. "Percy fought the monster. He seemed to get stronger, faster, and tricked the bull into ramming the tree. I tossed Percy a knife, and he stabbed the bull, who then turned to dust. A horn was left behind."

"A spoil of war," Chiron said, nodding. "I'm sorry about your mother, Percy."

Percy nodded.

"Yes, yes, it's really sad," said the other man in the area. He was like a chubby cupid without wings. He glanced up at Percy from his cards. "Let's get back to the game, Chiron."

Chiron turned back to the table. "That's very rude, Mr. D. This is Percy Jackson. Percy, this is Mr. D, our camp Director."

"Hello?" Percy said, although it came out as more of a question.

"Yes, yes. Welcome to camp, Perry Johnson." Mr. D put a card down in the middle of the table.

"Percy Jackson," Chiron corrected him. Then he made his move in the game, saying, "We don't have time for the introduction video. Do you remember the stories I told you when I was your teacher?"

"You mean about the gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo-"

"Names have power, Percy," Chiron interrupted. "But, yes. Exactly them. The gods are real, Percy. You're standing in front of one of them, actually." He grinned up at the shocked boy.

Percy looked at Chiron. Then he looked at Grover, confused.

Grover decided to help his buddy out. "Mr. D's name is actually Dionysius, the god of wine."

Mr. D looked up at Grover with a slight warning glance to watch his next words.

'No way,' Percy thought, looking at the Director. 'He doesn't look like a god. He looks like he belongs at one of Gabe's poker games.' Percy was shocked out of his thoughts when Mr. D's power rose slightly. He focused on the man, and felt a little terror at the images flowing through his head.

"Mr. D," Chiron chided. When Percy was focused on him again, he continued his tale. "Yes, Percy, the gods exist. They had affairs with mortals and had Demigods." He smiled. "You are a product of that. You are a demigod, Percy."

A blond girl with gray eyes walked over to them. "Hey, Chiron," she said.

"Ah, Annabeth," Chiron said. "Will you give Percy here a tour of the camp?"

"Sure," she replied. Her gray eyes briefly glanced at the Minotaur horn, but then she looked up at Percy. "Come on, I'll give you the tour now." She led the way around the camp, rattling out information with barely stopping to see if Percy was still with her.

"Who's your godly parent?" Percy asked when she took a breath.

She glared at him for interrupting her. "Cabin 6. Athena," she said.

"Isn't Athena a virgin goddess? At least, according to Mr. Brunner- I mean, Chiron's stories." Percy noticed a little girl sitting by a fire, poking at it with a stick.

Annabeth huffed. "Of course she is! Don't you know anything?"

Percy glared at her. "Obviously not! I didn't get to watch the introduction video!" He stormed off towards the girl by the fire. Over his shoulder, he yelled back at Annabeth, "I'll find my own way around camp!" Percy slowed down his pace as he got closer to the fire. He didn't want to scare the girl. "Hi," he said, softly.

"Hello, Perseus Jackson." She smiled up at him.

Percy sat down suddenly in shock. How did she know his full name? "How?"

She giggled. "How did I know your first name? Easy, I'm a goddess. My name's Hestia. It's nice to meet you, young demigod."

Percy gaped at her. "It's an honor to meet you, Lady Hestia."

She giggled again, turning back to the fire. "You're a lot nicer to me than you were to Dionysius," she noted.

"He was rude to me." Percy shrugged.

"He usually is," Hestia said, glancing at Percy. They watched the campers as they practiced their fighting, or archery, and walked around. "I know who your father is," she said. "My brother, Zeus, believes that he had you steal Zeus's Master Bolt… which is his symbol of power, and he demands that his bolt is returned in twelve days or there will be war between the brothers."

"I didn't steal anything!" Percy looked at her in horror. "I didn't even know, or believe, that the gods were real until today!" Then her earlier statement hit him. "You know my dad?"

Hestia turned to face him with a small, warm smile. "Yes, it is undeniable who your father is. You look almost exactly like him. He's one of my favorite brothers." She reached out to touch Percy's hair, pushing it out of his face. "And I know you didn't steal the Master Bolt. You would have had to have made your way to Olympus without us seeing you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw Chiron staring at them, but he was no longer in the wheelchair. He was standing tall, with a horse's body from the waist down. "I don't even know how to get to Olympus." Then Percy asked Hestia, "Will you tell me who he is? My father?"

Hestia pulled Percy into a hug, shocking the centaur. "He will claim you soon, Perseus, I promise. He loves you too much."

"Thank you, Aunt Hestia," Percy said, hugging the goddess tightly. It felt good having family again. She felt warm, like home, and he didn't want to pull away. Gasps around them had Percy pulling back to look around. What was going on?

"Look up, nephew," Hestia said with a small laugh.

Percy looked up. Above his head was a glowing green symbol… a trident. His father had claimed him!

"It is determined," Chiron said. "Poseidon. Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

All over camp, people were kneeling in respect of a claim. Some of them weren't happy about it, mostly a cabin full of demigods at cabin 11. Percy looked around again, noticing the look on Annabeth's face. She looked excited… as if she was going to use this to her advantage. Percy turned to look at Hestia. "Aunt Hestia, why are some of the demigods not happy that I got claimed?"

She frowned. "My family members aren't the best at remembering or claiming their demigod kids. I keep telling them that they were just causing problems with their kids, but they don't listen. Maybe now they will." Thunder sounded in the distance and dark clouds quickly formed. Hestia's eyes glanced at the clouds. She sighed. "Zeus isn't happy right now. I better go see if I can stop his tantrum."

Percy let out a small laugh. "Okay, good luck, Aunt Hestia. Thank you for talking to me."

"Thank you for stopping by and talking to me, nephew," she replied. "Not many will stop to talk…" She leaned forward and kissed Percy's forehead. "You have my blessings, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon." Then she stood up and walked through the fire, disappearing from camp.

Percy was shocked at her actions. Then he stood up as Chiron walked over to him. "Chiron?"

"I haven't seen a demigod speak to a goddess like she was a friend," Chiron said. "And I've never seen Hestia kiss a demigod." There was a slight frown of confusion on his face. "Or hug a demigod."

Percy shrugged. "I guess it was because I was the only one to stop and say hello to the one tending the fire." He smiled. "I like Aunt Hestia." He really did. She was nice and made him feel like he was loved.

Chiron nodded. "I see." He looked around. "Come, Percy, I'll give you the tour that Annabeth should have given you. I heard that she just rambled on the chance to get a quest." He shook his head. "We'll start at the archery yard and then go to cabin 12."

The archery yard had many demigods practicing their shot. One blond boy saw them and came running over. "Hi," he said. His bright blue eyes sparkled. "I'm Will Solace, son of Apollo. It's nice to meet you!"

"Hi, Will. It's nice to meet you, too." Percy smiled at the other boy. He seemed nice.

Chiron let them speak for a bit, then led Percy to cabin 12. "This is the cabin for Dionysius's children. There's only two demigods in here right now." He walked to the next cabin, 11, and sighed. "Cabin 11," he said. "This is Hermes's cabin. It's quite a bit crowded because as the god of travelers, Hermes cabin takes in the undetermined demigods."

"Why haven't they been claimed?" Percy asked. "Don't their godly parents care about them?"

"Oh, Percy," Chiron said, sadly. "The gods do care. Sometimes it can be really hard to see your kids die all the time, though, and they believe that some distance helps." Chiron put a hand on Percy's shoulder. "I'm not saying that it's right, but that's what's going on. Not all of the gods believe that it's the right thing to do, but they can't really go against Zeus."

Percy noticed a few demigods looking out of cabin 11, and he hoped that they started to believe in their parents again. It must be tough for both godly parents and demigods.

"This is cabin 10," Chiron said. "Aphrodite's cabin." The cabin looked like an explosion of pink and glitter. One of the girls waved at Percy, blowing him a kiss. Chiron laughed at the boy's shocked and embarrassed look. "Come on, Percy. Next, we have cabin 9; the Hephaestus cabin."

This one looked cool with many different gadgets all over the place. Percy smiled at the sight. "Looks like fun," he said.

"Indeed," Chiron replied. "Cabin 8 is Artemis's cabin. It's empty unless the hunters come by for a game of Capture the Flag." It was a silvery cabin, shining like the moon.

"She's also a virgin goddess, right?"

"Right, Percy." The Apollo cabin was almost blinding to the boy, but Chiron told him about the inhabitants. "This is the Apollo cabin. Will, who you met earlier, is one of our best healers."

"Wow!" Percy was impressed. Athena's cabin was next, and Percy almost walked past it without glancing, but Annabeth was there and staring at him. He scowled at her. Then they came to cabin 5, which looked like it was painted with fists and buckets… a really messy and unimpressive decorating look. Cabin 4 was nice, he thought. It had a living roof! A daughter of Demeter, a girl named Katie, brought out a small bucket of strawberries and handed it to Percy. "Thank you," he said in surprise.

She smiled. "Think of it as a welcome to camp." She gently kissed his cheek, making him blush. She giggled and went back to her cabin.

Chiron chuckled. "Come on, Percy." He pointed to cabin 2. "That cabin is always empty, but Hera would be mad if she wasn't given a cabin." He pointed at cabin 1 and said, "That's Zeus's cabin. It's usually empty, too, because of the oath that the big three made several decades ago."

"What oath?" Percy asked.

"That they would no longer have demigod children."

Percy scoffed. "Well, that didn't work."

Chiron chuckled. "No, it didn't. To be honest, I think Hades is the only one to not break that oath." He led the way to cabin 3. "This is Poseidon's cabin. You'll have it all to yourself."

"Cool," Percy said dryly. On one hand, it would be cool to have his own 'lights out' time, but on the other hand, it would be lonely. He looked around the cabin. "This is a really nice setup," he said, impressed.

Chiron said, "Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, thanks, Chiron." That night, after eating the strawberries that he had been given, Percy dreamt that a horse and an eagle were fighting. They attacked each other so viciously that Percy was surprised they weren't both dead. "Stop!" he yelled, running up to them. This was the second dream that he had had of them, and this time, the two animals stopped fighting to turn their heads to him.

"Well, that worked… somehow," Percy said. "Dad," he said to the horse. The horse nodded. "Thank you for claiming me." He turned his head to look at the eagle. "Uncle Zeus, I didn't steal your master bolt. I couldn't have because I didn't even know that gods existed." He knew that this wouldn't change anything, but he had to try.

The dream ended suddenly, shocking Percy out of bed and falling onto the floor. He looked around blearily. What had happened? He had been trying to stop the fight, and suddenly, he was yanked out of the dream? A loud thumping came from the door of the cabin, getting Percy to stand up suddenly and open the door. Grover was on the porch. "Grover?"

"Finally, you open the door! I knocked with my hand at first, but when you didn't answer, I had to use my hoof!" Grover sighed.

"You dragged me out of my dream?!" Percy hit his head on the doorframe. Then he lifted his head to look at his friend. "So, what did you need me for?" he asked.

"Chiron wants to talk to you." Grover looked Percy over.