In the Spirit of Victory (Percy Jackson/Harry Potter Crossover AU)

Cheaters and Children of Nike

"Rich, breathe with me." Jerome had to stand on his tiptoes to be eye to eye with the other teen. He exaggerated breathing motions, earning a small smack upside his head. "Yeesh! Alright. Look, I'll go in and talk with him. Maybe your overbearing leprechaun personality is making him uncomfortable." He slipped into a poor impression of Richard's accent.

"Jerome-"

"Easy, Laddie. Let your uncle Jerry handle this." He jigged in place and jumped, clicking his heels together and grinning at Richard.

"It is taking all my self restraint not to punch you right now."

"I'm glad it's holding out. Give me ten minutes." Jerome dropped the accent and lowered his voice. "we each have ten minutes. If I don't get you a full refund in my ten, you get to try. Whoever gets him to refund first gets five drachmas from the loser."

Richard's posture straightened visibly. He placed his hands in his pockets and smirked. "Alright. You're on, Jerry. Maybe you should just give me the money now."

"we'll see," Jerome remarked, waving before he casually walked to the building. Richard followed behind him, ignoring the questioning calls shouted after him. He stopped just outside the building, peeking in the window as Jerome walked up to the man.

The son of Hephaestus approached the counter, facing away from the window much to Richard's frustration. All he had to go off of was the man's facial expressions. Unfortunately for Jerome, he seemed incredibly annoyed. Richard kept watching with an obvious smirk as ten minutes came and went, Jerome getting increasingly desperate before he was forcibly kicked out of the building.

"Yeah, well same to you!" Jerome dusted himself off with a huff. "I say we take our business elsewhere and call it good."

Richard caught him by the collar as he started walking off. "Easy, Laddie. It's my turn."

Camille walked over with the other two girls in tow. Richard simply grinned at her and leaned against the window. "Come to watch me wipe the floor with Jerry boy? It's too bad he's as dull as those hammers he's always working with."

"Rich!" Camille scolded, glancing at Jerome who merely shrugged.

"I set myself up for this. If I couldn't take it, I wouldn't have got him going."

"Relax, gorgeous." Richard draped an arm around Camille's shoulder. "I've got this."

"I'm sure you do," Camille said with a roll of her eyes. She pushed his arm off and shot a glare at Jerome, "and I'm sure Jerome is very sorry for triggering this outburst, and has a very good explanation." Jerome winced and let out an innocent whistle as he slowly started backing away from the group.

"I'll catch you later, lovelies," Richard chimed, heading through the door, "right now, I'm going to collect my money from a certain swindler."

Nobody seemed to realize he was heading back to the building, and when he entered, the man looked up in fury and annoyance.

"Kid, look, I already told your friend I don't do refunds. You paid me and its as good as spent, deal with it."

Richard didn't say anything, simply reaching into his pocket and placing a bag filled to the point of nearly overflowing with galleons. That got the man's attention.

"What's this?" he asked, picking up one of the gold coins. It glinted and sparkled in the light, and Richard smirked as the same glint entered the man's eyes.

"I think you know what it is."

"Of course. The question is: is it real?"

"More real than your word." Richard pulled the bag back away. there's double what I gave you in here. You give me back the four hundred I paid you 22 days ago, you get the whole back of gold."