Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

PERCY JACKSON

We reached the top of the stairs. Looking up at the mansion, it was hard to understand what I was seeing. The house was at least fifty feet tall, built of enormous limestone blocks and steel-framed windows. There were hieroglyphs engraved around the windows, and the walls were lit up so the place looked like a cross between a modern museum and an ancient temple. But the weirdest thing was that if I glanced away, the whole building seemed to disappear. I tried it several times just to be sure. If I looked for the mansion from the corner of my eye, it wasn't there. I had to force my eyes to refocus on it, and even that took a lot of willpower.

Walt stopped at the entrance-which was the size of a garage door—a dark heavy square of timber with no visible handle or lock and the door almost slid open automatically.

"Motion sensors?" I asked.

"Nice idea," Walt said indifferently, stepping in. For someone who was so irritatingly arrogant, Walt gave a very different... shimmer. Something was wrong about him.

I followed him, nevertheless.

But the door wouldn't let me in.

A sharp pain ran down through the toe that had almost touched the floor to the tip of my head, and I backed away, half-yelling. Walt turned around, wide eyed. I felt like I'd just rolled onto a hot clothes iron and then fallen into a bucket of lemon juice.

"Oh dear Lord," Walt cursed. "My apologies." He put his hand on my head and said, very formally, "You may enter."

I frowned. "As though that'll let me not experience 360 degree-"

"Just- you can enter now," Walt said irritably, walking away. "This is the Great Hall."

I hesitantly put my foot on the other side, and to my surprise, no pain followed.

I could see why he called it that- the Great Hall. The cedar-beamed ceiling was four stories high, held up by carved stone pillars engraved with hieroglyphs. A weird assortment of musical instruments and Ancient Egyptian weapons decorated the walls. Three levels of balconies ringed the room, with rows of doors all looking out on the main area. The fireplace was big enough to park a car in, with a plasma-screen TV above the mantel and massive leather sofas on either side. On the floor was a snakeskin rug, except it was forty feet long and fifteen feet wide—bigger than any snake. Outside, through glass walls, I could see the terrace that wrapped around the house. It had a swimming pool, a dining area, and a blazing fire pit. And at the far end of the Great Room was a set of double doors marked with the Eye of Horus, and chained with half a dozen padlocks. I wondered what could possibly be behind them.

But the real showstopper was the statue in the center of the Great Room. It was thirty feet tall, made of black marble. I could tell it was of an Egyptian god because the figure had a human body and an animal's head—like a stork or a crane, with a long neck and a really long beak.

The god was dressed ancient-style in a kilt, sash, and neck collar. He held a scribe's stylus in one hand, and an open scroll in the other, as if he had just written the hieroglyphs inscribed there: an ankh—the Egyptian looped cross—with a rectangle traced around its top.

***

"We don't allow people into the library," The girl with blonde hair said.

"Fair point. I see you've changed your hair color," I replied. "Last I remember, you had highlights?"

"Yeah," Sadie smiled. "Anyway." A ring glistened on her finger, and Sadie fidgeted with it.

"Where's Kane the elder?" I asked. "What was his name.... Car-Carter?"

Sadie chuckled. "Carter, yeah. He's on official pharaoh business, unfortunately. He'll only be back by night."

"Right," I nodded. "Um... you're... engaged?" I looked at the ring pointedly.

Sadie sighed. "Look, let's just admit that you're not good at small talk," she said. "Just get to the point."

I blushed so hard that I could feel my cheeks go a hundred degrees hotter. "Um... we need your help."

"We?" Sadie raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, 'we'," I replied. "And by 'we', I mean all of us, including you."

"What?"

***

I scratched the cat behind its ear, and it purred loudly. "I'm sorry, this was all too fast. I should've reached out to you sooner, but I never could've foretold that this would be coming on us."

"Tartarus..." Sadie hummed. "Is he sort of like Setne?"

I thought about it hard and long. "Well," I said finally. "If Set would be equivalent to Kronos in your world-"

Walt's face paled. "Words have a long lasting impact everywhere, Perseus."

"Right," I sighed. "Then... your chaos- the guy-"

"Apophis?" Sadie whispered. The cat wailed loudly, digging its sharp claws into my thigh. I frowned.

"Yeah," I bit my lip. "That would be Tartarus."

Black lightning roared through the sky. I smiled at Sadie. "Names have a lot of impact, indeed."

Sadie did not smile back. Instead, her eyes roamed everywhere in the hall, trying its best not to meet mine.

"Look," I said, "I don't care whether you believe it or not, but we need your help as well in this battle. Because all pantheons are connected in some way or the other. Which means Tartarus is Apophis, and vice versa. He could be both at the same time and you would never know."

Walt scrutinized me from tip to toe over and over again.

"Dude, you okay?" I asked, trying not to punch the guy. Frankly, I found him a little irritating.

A muscle jumped in Walt's jaw as he continued to scan me.

Sadie put a hand on Walt's, and smiled at me. "Sorry about him," she said. "He's a little wary of... any other pantheon.... we all are, to be honest."

I lost it. The nearby glass water jug burst into pieces.

I gritted my teeth and stood up. The cat hissed and spat at me as it landed back on its feet. "If I were being honest," I said, "I came here so we could forget differences and get rid of a threat not just for us, but for this whole universe! I just told you that Thanos was Tartarus' plan! Half the universe is gone because we were once too blind to see what was happening... and don't get me wrong, I'm not going to let anyone or anything-" I turned to Walt, who had been emitting the worst silver godly shine ever since I'd seen him, "-or any god to let me sidetrack from that path, whether they help me or not. AND TRUST ME, SADIE KANE, IF THIS ENDS BAD, YOU'LL BE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY, JUST BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T GET OVER YOUR FEAR OF THE GREEKS-- " I took a deep breath in, trying to calm down, "you'll regret it all, and we won't be there to help you then."

I turned on the spot, walking towards the garage like door.

"Umm- you need permission-" Sadie began.

But I was too angry to listen to her. I put my hands on the handle. A wave of electricity passed through my body. I bit my lip so hard it bled. But as the metallic taste filled my mouth, I held on stubbornly onto the door and tore it open. 

The handle broke away on the inside and the door slammed open. Every step I took hurt, but I walked out of the Brooklyn House.

And as the dock came into view, I turned on the spot, determined to go back home. The three D's- what were they?- Dedication, Determination, whatever. For the first time in my life, I apparated home, to Half Blood Hill, Long Island Sound.

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