All Magic Comes With a Price (Percy Jackson AU)

Percy

Percy crossed his arms, holding them to his chest as he trailed behind his fellow sixth years on the way to double potions. His Hufflepuff robes had dust trailed on the ends, and his yellow and black tie hung loose around his neck. Across his shoulder, carrying his wand, was a beat up messenger bag peppered with ink stains.

"Percy!" Rachel tossed her arm around his shoulder. Her curly red hair was cut short, pulled away from her green eyes and freckled face with a bright clip. Like Percy, her Hufflepuff tie hung loose around her neck, her own robes were tossed over the strap of her bag. "Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you?"

Percy shifted his bag and looked over at Rachel. Giving her a flat look.

"What else would I expect? Anyways, are you coming to the game? We're against Gryffindor and I can't wait to steal that snitch from right under Grace's nose." Percy surrendered a smile, Rachel ruffled his black hair, "Yes! I can't play without one of my best friends now can I?"

"Yeah."

The duo stopped in front of the door to the classroom, where the rest of the class awaited. When Percy and Rachel approached, several Ravenclaws stopped their chatter, looked at Percy weirdly, then shifted a few feet in the opposite direction. Rachel clenched her jaw, and squeezed her fists tightly.

"The nerve!" She grumbled, " They can't treat you like that--" Percy cut her off.

"It's fine, honest, they have a right to avoid me like the plague. I don't mind."

"Well," She huffed, turning around as Professor Dionysus lazily opened the dungeon door, "I do." And with that Rachel, chin held up high, marched into the potions classroom.

...

"How stupid are you Johnson." Jeered Dionysus, peering into the conjunction inside Percy's cauldron with distaste.

"It's Jackson." Percy mumbled, "Sir." Dionysus stood up straight, fixing his putrid purple eyes on Percy.

"Johnson, you've unfortunately been my student for six years. It is a wonder that you managed to achieve my class at N.E.W.T level, though I can't say I am happy for it. For someone in a house that praises hard work you are certainly a slacker." He droned, swiftly turning around and marching off to another unfortunate student, his deep purple robes flapping behind him.

Percy scowled, turning back to his finished potion, which was a deep blue instead of the ultramarine described in his book. Rachel frowned, seeing Percy slip a small vial of blue food coloring into his robes.

"You've got to stop doing that." She hissed under her breath, stirring her own potion into an ultramarine. "It's one thing to annoy him, at the beginning of the year, but a totally different thing to do it on tests."

"You think I'm that stupid, Rachel?"

"Kinda, yeah." Rachel admitted, shoulder bumping her scowling friend.

"Well--" The bell for a brief free period cut Percy's retort, and Percy immediately brightened and began to hastily pack his potion making kit. Tossing it and his wand into the satchel, Percy burst out of the room, shoving his fellow sixth years aside.

Percy turned back for a split second, gleefully waving at Rachel, only to knock over a third year.

"Watch where you're going!" He hissed, his black eyes glowering. "Stupid Hufflepuffs." The Slytherin boy pushed himself off the ground, shoving stray strands of dark hair from his face, and disappeared with a glare into the rapidly approaching crowd of students.

Shaking it off, Percy ran up a flight of moving stairs, taking two at a time. Percy screeched to a stop, crying out as the staircase moved, with him at the edge.