A/N: Okay before I begin this chapter I want to say thank you to the people that messaged me and keep supporting me. I appreciate you guys so much and I promise I will start to update more frequently <3.
Percy
Percy had been in the interrogation room for six hours and twelve–no, thirteen– minutes. The officers kept asking him questions, not just about the murders, about Voldemort too. Which he found ridiculous given the fact that he never met the guy. After a while of going back and forth and him not revealing anything, they gave up. Percy knew they were tired too, he glanced at the clock on his way out, it was 3:02am.
While walking away from the police station he noticed how different Hogsmeade was at night. The streets were dead empty like a ghost town and he couldn't hear a sound other than the wind. He walked through the town admiring the Christmas lights. Christmas used to be his favorite holiday, he always spent it with his mom or Annabeth. But this year it felt different. It was different. He missed his old life, camp half-blood, his friends, he even missed camp Jupiter. But after what happened with Annabeth he wasn't sure he could ever go back. It was like one minute he finds himself doing okay, but then it all just starts hitting him again and he starts to realize he's not okay at all, never was.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt a familiar feeling. The Riddle House stood right in front of him, looking creepier than ever. The lock on the gate was opened which made Percy spiral. Was there someone in there? Percy figured it was none of his business and that he should keep walking, but as he stared into the unlocked gate he felt like it was begging him to enter. So he did.
As he walked inside he noticed the sticky cobwebs draped over the door's metal frame. He wasn't surprised to find it was also unlocked. Percy walked into the inside of the manor admiring the old, shredded curtains that hung from windows left and right, foreign liquid dripped from ceilings onto the floors and ancient chandeliers hung from the ceiling, almost breaking off.
The broken wooden floor creaked as he walked through the house. The old mansion was filled with dust and mist, along with the faint smell of death that hung in the air. It wasn't long before he felt the presence of someone behind him.
"You shouldn't be here," a voice said, Percy turned around, ready to fight however it was, until he realized it was just Hecate.
"Yeah well from what I know you shouldn't either"
"I can do whatever I want. I am a god."
Percy huffed, "Yeah a minor one."
Hecate glared at him with a look that should've scared anyone who hasn't fought a god before. "What are you doing here Percy Jackson?" she asked.
"I don't know. But I'm guessing you do."
Hecate winked at him in satisfaction, "Of course I know. This house belongs to you. You've kept your wizard blood well hidden over the years, it's only fair you start to feel it now."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You have no idea how much power you have, do you?" She raised her eyebrows, "If being son of Poseidon wasn't enough, you also are related to one of the most powerful wizards of all time. The Gods should have been scared of you Percy, but they don't realize how dangerous a wizard can be yet, they see them as humans but with silly little wands. You are much more than that. When your mother was born and Tom Riddle realized she didn't possess the gift of magic, he tried to kill her several times, that was until he started having visions."
Percy tilted his head, "Visions?"
"Of you. Of what you would become. So he spared his daughter in hopes that one day you would help him regain power. He was the only one who knew about the existence of the Gods, well...he knew about me."
"Wait, he knew you?" he asked in disbelief.
Hecate nodded, "When he was born, I had this gut feeling that he would ruin everything I worked so hard for, this whole society. When he was 16 I tried to convince him to stop. I told him that what he was planning on doing was wrong even to me, but it was useless. Once that boy set his mind into something there was no going back. He had a lot of potential but he used it for the wrong things. I even found myself caring about him which was... preposterous. That was until he turned into that monster; Voldemort."
Hecate wiped a gold tear off her face, "Never spoke to him after that. And somehow you remind me of him so much."
From all of his interactions with Gods this was the first time Percy ever saw one cry, it felt really weird to him. "I'm not like him. I don't want to be" he sneered.
"Those same piercing green eyes, the black hair, that glaring stare that you are giving me right now.."
Percy softened his face, realizing that he was in fact glaring.
"...Before he became Voldemort he wasn't so bad, you know. He cared about one particular girl" She smiled, the kind of smile that let Percy know she wasn't telling the whole truth. "Her name was Lilly Emerson, she was the only one who understood him... or put up with him," Hecate furrowed her eyebrows, "One of those two. They were really different but somehow they ended up being perfect for each other. If Aphrodite could see past my barrier she would have gone crazy with them."
"She was my grandmother wasn't she?" Percy asked.
"Indeed she was. Lovely woman! She was like madness in a pretty package, saw the magic in Tom's eyes no one seemed to see, that dirty, dark, beautiful magic. She was the only person he ever loved," Hecate said with shimmering eyes.
Percy paused and thought for a moment, "Didn't he kill her?"
Hecate started to walk around the room, like the walls were familiar to her. "He had this aura around him that radiated power, when he entered the room everyone could feel it. Everyone noticed. He excelled in everything that he did." She looked back at Percy, "Sound familiar?"
"No actually, it doesn't."
Hecate reached under her cloak and pulled out a book. "This was Tom Riddle's journal. Not to be confused with his diary that that little bugger Harry Potter ruined. Read it and you'll understand." Percy took the tattered book, he opened it only to find that the inside was empty.
"What am I supposed to-" He looked around and realized Hecate was gone. "Great. Thanks." he said to no one.
Valerie
Audrey thought the hair dye seemed like a good idea. But by the look on her face when she was struggling to wash it off, Valerie was guessing she would regret it later in the day. She thought about warning Audrey that it was a bad idea and she shouldn't do it so impulsively. But she wasn't the one who was in love with her new flying professor.
"It's not that I'm still in love with him," Audrey sputtered between washing.
Valerie laughed at her attempt to deny it.
"I'm serious! I'm not in love with him anymore!"
Valerie looked away from her book, "Yeah the pink hair really shows it"
"I just don't understand why everything has to be so terrible, all the time, forever. I mean Oliver Wood as the new flying professor, that's ridiculous! It's bad enough I have to see him everyday and now he has to be my teacher? I'm dropping out."
If this was any other situation Valerie would tell that it wasn't that bad and that everything would be fine. But it was bad and she didn't know if it would be fine.
"I'm not going to lie to you, it does suck, and it will feel terrible for a while, but you must try to not let it bother you so much, he's just a guy."
"That's easy for you to say! You've never been in love, you have never felt what it's like to have your heart ripped out and stomped on a million times by the guy you thought you'd spend the rest of your life with!"
Audrey turned the faucet off and revealed her brown hair with bold pink stripes.
"At least your hair turned out good" Valerie said, she stood up and helped her dry it with a towel.
"Right! Pink is totally my color" she chirped, but the cheerfulness of her voice didn't match her face. "You know I wish I never met him. Then there would be no need to impress him or want him, no need for crying over him and being rejected by him"
Valerie shrugged, "Well technically he can't reject you if he doesn't know you're into him."
"No, I'm pretty sure he rejected me when Ellie's tongue was down his throat," she said as they left the bathroom and headed to the pix.
Elyse and Madison were waiting for them along with a bunch of other girls from different houses. They were looking at the new paper the Daily Prophet released that morning. "Oh my god have you seen this?" Elyse asked. Valerie read the bold big letters in the title 'Percy Jackson Main Suspect in Hogwarts Murder's'
Madison sighed, "It makes sense. The murders started when he showed up, and i dont think it's coincidence, I mean he is actually related to you know who"
"It says here that he had been near every murder that happened" Pansy Parkinson said, "Bloody hell do you think he killed Simon and Chloe?"
Elyse shrugged, "I don't know but what I don't understand is that if he's so dangerous, why is he in Hogwarts in the first place?"
"Because it's better to have him here, where the ministry can keep a close eye on him"
"But why don't they just send him to Askaban?"
Valerie's blood began to boil, "Without trial? For all we know he's innocent, the evidence that they have on him is purely circumstantial."
Pansy chuckled, "Yeah didn't you kiss him once?"
The other girls laughed while Valerie rolled her eyes.
"That was purely circumstantial too"
"How can you even be friends with him, aren't the Aesthers and the Riddles like mortal enemies?"
"I'm not friends with him, I barely know him" she lied. Truth was, she did know him, though she wasn't sure they were really friends. You could never be sure about anything with Percy.
Madison leaned over her seat, "Listen im going to be honest, I know that he's being suspected for murder and all but he looks so good in that picture"
"Maddy!" gasped Pansy.
She shrugged, "What? It's not like everyone hasn't thought about it!"
Elyse and the others nodded, "She has a point"
"I don't know, he freaks me out. He's always quiet, '' Pansy pointed out.
Valerie hid her smile, only she knew, he never shuts up.
—-----------
When Valerie and Audrey walked over to the training grounds they noticed a strange guy dressed in a suit talking to Dumbledore and the other professors.
"Oh there you are Miss Aesther" Dumbledore stopped her, "This is Bart Jansen, he's the safety auditor the ministry assigned."
"Safety Auditor?" She asked.
"Well yes, you see with the unfortunate events that have been happening the last months the ministry felt it was right to conduct a safety audit to make sure that Hogwarts is safe for students."
"My name is Bart" The man said.
Dubledore nodded, "Yes we quite established that already," he continued, "Miss Aesther, I was hoping you could show Mr Jansen around, since me and the Professors have something urgent we must attend to."
"Can Aubrey come too?"
"Yes, I suppose Miss Holdsworth could go too," he gave them a warm smile, though he looked really nervous. "Right you must be on your way then"
After thirty minutes of showing Bart the castle Valerie could see Audrey was getting impatient.
"And how many kids would you say have died here in the last ten years?" Bart asked.
Valerie shrugged, "I don't know the exact number"
Audrey nodded, "Yeah we kind of lost count"
Bart uncapped his pen and wrote something down in his notebook. "And is it normal for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to end up being rather evil at the end of every year?"
She stuttered "Uh well-"
"So it is," Bart interrupted as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Okay so it says here that Hogwarts does not put kids in harm's way" he said as he looked through his papers, "Can you just tell me a little bit about the... Tri-Wizard Tournament?" He flipped his paper, "...With dragons?''
Valerie gulped, "Oh wow look at the time" she pointed at her empty wrist, "We must get going now or we're going to be late for class"
"Right! We have that class we have to get to" Audrey said back as they were getting away from him.
When he was out of view they both stopped near the staircases. "Do you want to come with me to the dinning hall?" Audrey asked.
"Sure, but I have to study for the OWL's while i'm there"
Audrey rolled her eyes, "Fine" she whined, "It's what I get for having smart friends"
Percy
Percy was done with monsters. At this point, he found them annoying rather than scary. He cursed to himself as he laid on the brown dirt inside the forest, his hand holding his bleeding wound. If he saw the monster earlier he would've killed it faster, but when it showed up Percy was immediately dragged to the woods and before he knew it the monster was scratching his flesh with its claws.
Percy winced as he tried to move, he was bleeding everywhere. He reached inside his pocket looking for his wand but he cursed when he remembered he left it in his room. Percy gasped for air as he struggled to breathe. Was it possible to do a spell without a wand? He wasn't sure, but it was worth a try. With his hands, he traced his fingers over the deep wounds, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like a song. Suddenly, the flow of blood seemed to ease and the wounds closed off slowly as he repeated the incantation again.
—--
When Percy got back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore was waiting for him at the entrance, "Come with me to my office, we have to sort things out." He didn't know what 'sort things out' meant but he followed him anyway. When they got to his office Dumbledore sat in his gigantic chair and motioned Percy to sit in front of him.
Dumbledore coughed, "I know that you killed those people Percy. There's no need to lie, I know."
Percy rolled his eyes, "And how exactly would you know that?"
"It does not take a detective to know that you are a murder. And when they catch you, because they will, you will be sent to rot in Azkaban for a really long time."
"Right and what else?" He asked the old man, he already spent the entire night defending his innocence to the police, he didn't want to spend the whole morning too. Dumbledore shifted in his seat, it was obvious to Percy he was uncomfortable.
"We need to assort you into a house, and along with the other professors we decided to choose for you."
"Of course you did," Percy mumbled under his breath.
"You will be in Slytherin, given that your ancestors were there too."
Percy hid his annoyance, he hated most people in Slytherin especially Malfoy and his crew. Truth was, he was actually fine with not having a house and being alone. "Is that all?" He asked Dumbledore.
Dumbledore rubbed his chin, "Actually no that is not all." Percy waited for him to continue but he just kept staring at him, until he spoke up, "Why are you bleeding?"
Percy almost forgot about that part. "I fell," he mumbled. He knew Dumbledore wouldn't believe him, but he didn't care enough to come up with a better lie.
"Quite a lot of blood for a fall" he tilted his head. Percy looked down at his clothes, It was a lot of blood. He was covered in it. It was all over his arms, neck, and face. He shrugged to Dumbledore as he stood up.
When he left the office he was on his way to his room to pack up his stuff and move into the Slytherin dorm. He tried to ignore the people whispering and staring at him as he walked through the hallways, he knew how it looked. He was the main suspect in a string of murders and he just walked into school drenched in blood. He continued walking until he saw Audrey and Valerie coming out of the dining hall.
Valerie's eyes widened "Holy shit! What happened to you?"
"It's complicated," he mumbled. Valerie and Audrey looked at each other, as if they were speaking through their eyes. He hated when they did that. Percy was about to say something until he saw Audrey's eyes lingering on him. He recognized that stare; ever since he came to Hogwarts people gave him that look a lot; she was scared. However Valerie stared at him with suspicion in her eyes. He knew he couldn't lie to them. No matter what he said they wouldn't believe him, so he just walked off without saying another word.