Collision (PJO/HP Crossover)

Chapter 23

Percy

"All right, it's been an hour," Annabeth said.

"Good. Ask me a question you already know the answer to," I said, jumping up and ready to leave.

Annabeth packed up the game of wizard's chess we'd been playing. "What is your name?"

"Bob the Builder," I lied easily. "Yes! Finally! But what are we going to tell Harry and the others? They won't believe that we were checking in with Madam Pomfrey for an hour."

"We'll say we were getting some fresh air. Besides, they won't see us until later. They have class right now," Annabeth said as we walked out of the Room of Requirement. "But I still feel like we're being watched."

"That's crazy! We have nothing to worry about, we're with our own kind and we aren't on the run anymore. There's nothing to fear," I said, tapping Annabeth's back at the same time.

In that hour we had developed a code. We figured it was time that we could communicate without speaking. It was getting more and more difficult to keep everyone from being suspicious of us. I tapped her back in an established pattern, telling her that I agreed with her and to be careful.

"I guess you're right." Annabeth sighed convincingly, tapping my back to tell me that she understood. "I'm just not used to being safe and around people we can be ourselves with."

I gave Annabeth a short kiss, sensing that she wasn't talking about our cover story. "Me too," I said.

Annabeth kissed me again and we continued walking.

~

The next month and a half passed by uneventfully. Luckily, there had been no more monster or Death Eater encounters. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had tried lots of other things to get Annabeth or I to confess something, but we watched each other's backs very closely. At any sign of trouble, we were gone. There had been a few close calls, but they had yet to find anything out.

The Slug Club meetings had become more and more awkward, from what I'd heard. I'd been making up excuses not to attend, and so far they had been working. From what I could tell, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny had been doing the same thing. The next one would be his Christmas party, and then soon afterwards it would be Christmas break. I wasn't planning on returning to the club when we got back—if he even wanted me in the club after he found out who I really was.

At the present moment, Annabeth and I were sharing a couch in the common room—I was sprawled across her lap—and Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were upstairs. Despite our mutual distrust of each other, we had become good friends. I hoped we would stay friends once we revealed that we were demigods.

There were two weeks left until Christmas break, and Annabeth and I were chomping at the bit to return to America and to be able to talk freely. The Friday night of our last day of classes would be Professor Slughorn's Christmas party, which I had already asked Annabeth to come with me to. We were both excited to see what a wizard's party would be like, even if it was Professor Slughorn's.

Annabeth was absentmindedly talking while tapping my back, asking if I wanted to go train. She, like me, was itching to fight like a demigod would, speak like a demigod would, eat like a demigod would, and live like a demigod would.

I nodded, tapping her back to tell her I wanted to wait a moment. I could hear Harry and the others coming down, and I had a feeling they were going to do something we would want to see.

I was right.

"Hey guys, where are you going?" I asked as Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny walked passed us.