F O U R T E E N
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Percy watched his classmates stream out of the room, some snickering, others looking at him sympathetically. Harry and his friends eyed him curiously and he couldn't help but to think he'd already blown his cover. "Don't draw attention to yourself," Chiron had said. He'd done a great job of following that rule. So much for that.
As the last students left, the door closed with a thump.
"Mr Jackson, I've heard quite a bit about you," Slughorn said with a hint of admiration. "A descendant of a witch and a god. You'd make a nice addition to my collection."
Percy feigned surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about," he paused, remembering his manners and added a small 'sir' at the end of his sentence.
"Oh, don't bother with the formalities. 'You're out of your mind Professor. Gods? What are you talking about?" Slughorn smiled. "That's what I said at first too." He let out a throaty chuckle. "I suppose the idea of it all is quite mad," he said, looking thoughtful.
"How do you know about-"
"About the gods? I'm afraid that's a story for another time." He studied the boy in front of him. "Your mother was an exceptional witch," he said, "though not so much at potions. I suppose that's why you're lacking in that area," he finished bitterly.
"No need to sugar coat it," Percy grumbled.
Slughorn laughed. "Although I do expect great things from you- in fact I have a proposal of sorts."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"All in due time, just keep an eye out for my invitation."
"Invitation?"
Slughorn pulled out a pocket watch and furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh dear, would you look at the time. I suppose I've kept you in long enough. If anyone asks; I've given you a detention."
"Wait- Professor. What do you know about my Mom?"
"Sally Jackson," Slughorn mused, "a brilliant student, she was. Shame about her uncle, she would have done great things. I suppose if you're that interested you could visit the trophy room, sometime."
"Where's that?"
"I'm afraid I really must be going now," Slughorn said, discarding his question, as he opened the door. "Jackson, I'll be seeing you in detention next week," he said, abruptly raising his voice. He shot him a wink and stood by the side of the door to let Percy pass.
"I won't let it happen again, sir," he said without skipping a beat.
"I trust you won't," Slughorn replied. "Keep an eye out for that invitation," he added in a whisper, and then he was off.
As soon as he was out of sight, Annabeth was marching over with Clarisse walking behind, fiddling with her wand. "What did you do?" his girlfriend hissed. "You practically revealed yourself to everyone!"
"Calm down, Wise Girl," Clarisse said with a slight snicker, "you're acting like he announced to the whole school he was a demigod."
"Keep it down. Those three are watching us," she said. Percy looked past her shoulder. Harry and two of his friends were lingering near the stairwell, not so subtly eavesdropping.
"Great. We've been here barely a day and already people are suspicious," Clarisse carped.
"It's not my fault!" he protested. "I'd like to see you try make a potion without it blowing up!"
"We did," Clarisse pointed out, "just then."
"And we're not even wizards," Annabeth added, grinning in satisfaction.
"Just because my mom was a wizard, doesn't mean I am. I might be a squid."
"Don't you mean a squib?"
"Whatever."
"Chiron said it might take a while until you can access your wizard powers properly. Don't worry about it," Annabeth said, her voice softening, sensing her boyfriend's distress.
"What did old Sluggypants want with you anyway?" Clarisse asked. "It can't have been just detention."
Percy hesitated, wondering how exactly he should phrase his words. He settled with a quiet "he knows," and watched the incredulity appear in his friends' facial expressions.
"Did he say anything else?" Annabeth pressed on. The group were now walking at a brisk pace, speaking as quietly as they could.
"He just mentioned something about wanting to add me his collection," Percy whispered back as they walked past Harry's group who for some reason hadn't headed back to the dorms with everyone else.
Though Percy had tried to be quiet, his words didn't go unheard by the trio. "Slughorn wants to add you to his collection?" the red headed boy exclaimed, stopping them in their tracks.
Annabeth shot Percy a glare. Even without speaking, her words were clear as day; "now look what you've done. They're going to want to know why Slughorn would take interest in you.' He refrained from mentioning that she was the one who had carried on the topic of conversation.
"Why would he want to add you to his collection?" the boy asked, sounding surprised. "Not to sound rude or anything," he added hastily, looking sheepish as he realised he'd just intruded in someone else's conversation and then insulted them.
"Ron, it's not really any of our business." The girl of the group stepped in. Percy vaguely remembered Annabeth telling him about Harry's friends but he couldn't seem to place the name of the bushy haired girl. "He's obviously got some talent- Slughorn is careful like that," she continued. He observed that she had an aura of intelligence surrounding her, much like his girlfriend.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Percy admitted, scratching his head. He was going for the 'play dumb' angle but in this case he didn't really have to play dumb for he had not a single clue as to what the wizards ' were talking about.
"Slughorn has this thing, where he tries to 'collect' students with great potential and talents. What Hermione is trying to say, is that for him to take interest in you, must mean you're pretty special." This time it was Harry himself who had spoken.
"Oh, I guess that's...different."
The three of them laughed at his response. "I'm Harry," Harry introduced, "and this is Ron and Hermione."
Taking this as a cue, Percy quickly followed suit.
"I already met Clarisse, actually," Harry informed him, "on the train."
Ron eyed Clarisse's robes in distaste. "Slytherin," he commented.
"Listen here-" she began, her eyes becoming a fiery red, much like her father's. Percy would have liked to say that it was less terrifying with Clarisse but honestly, it wasn't. Thankfully, Annabeth managed to pull her back and restrain her before the wizards could notice something was up.
Ron must have realised that Clarisse was not someone to mess with because he quickly raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry," he apologised, gushing his words out very quickly. He looked embarrassed and offered Clarisse a sheepish smile. "It's just none of us have had a very good history with Slytherins."
"That blonde swine, you mean?" She gritted her teeth.
Ron let out an unattractive snort. "How'd you guess?"
"You'd think that after everything that happened he would have changed...if Snape could do it..." Hermione muttered.
"Yeah, right. Malfoy and 'change' are hardly two things that'd mix."
"I believe everyone deserves a second chance." Hermione shrugged.
"And he's had plenty," Harry said.
"I'm sorry, but who's Malfoy?" Percy interrupted.
"The most vile, irritating creature you will ever come across," Clarisse answered.
"Really? That's strange, I thought I was looking at her," Percy muttered under his breath at the same time Annabeth said "I thought that was Percy."
Ron let out another outrageous snort. "You crack me up."
"It's almost supper," Hermione noted. "We should probably get going."
"Hermione," Ron laughed, "supper's not for another few hours."
"Well I was hoping to get in some studying before then."
The red head rolled his eyes. "Well, I guess it was nice meeting you," he said as the group bid them goodbye. The separate trios departed and went their opposite ways; Harry, Ron and Hermione back to the Gryffindor dorms, and Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse to someplace quiet where they could continue their conversation.
"You could have mentioned you met Harry!" Annabeth shouted once the others were out of sight.
Clarisse shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't think it was that important."
"Not important? He's pretty much the reason we're here! How is it not important?"
"I forgot to ask," Percy intervened, "how are you two supposed to blend in if you can't do magic?"
Annabeth sighed, seeing dispute with Clarisse would come of no use. "Chiron gave us these wands. They tap into our godly power to work. We're not supposed to use them too much or they'll tire us out," she explained, taking Percy up on his offer of a topic change.
"How come I just got a regular wand?"
Annabeth ignored his question and made a left down another corridor.
"Where are we going?" he asked, walking faster so to keep up with her.
"The library."
He wrinkled his nose. "Why?"
"Because you-" she stopped outside a set of freshly polished auburn doors, "-need to learn the basics." She grinned at Percy and Clarisse's identical look's of horror. "It's study time!"
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Later on in the evening, just after supper, Ron, Hermione and Harry sat cozied up by the fireplace, reclining in their favourite seats. Ron was staring into the flames like he was pondering all that ever was and ever could be, whilst Hermione scribbled frantically with her quill, the black ink seeping through the parchment in her neat cursive, smudging only faintly...
...And Harry; he simply watched. It had been a while since he could sit in silence with only his thoughts to occupy himself. It had been a while since he openly welcomed it. He thought about the sorting hat, and it's song. He thought about his dream, and the girl with the bright red curls. He even spared a moment to think about Percy, and Slughorn's interest in the boy. Apparently, Hermione had been giving the matter a lot of thought too because abruptly, she set down her quill and looked at the both of them with a firm gaze.
"I've been thinking," she started.
"You're always thinking," Ron pointed out, looking away from the fire and rubbing his eyes.
She glared at him. "I've been thinking," she repeated. "Why did Slughorn seem so intrigued by Percy?"
"You said it yourself 'Mione, he's probably got some sort of talent. Besides, there isn't always going to be a mystery to solve."
"But it's not just Percy. I noticed him speaking to a few of the other new students. The Calligaris siblings? He made them the same offer."
"Well, this is Slughorn we're talking about? He'd jump at the chance of a fresh face with new talent."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
She handed Ron the parchment she'd been scribbling on so ferociously moments before.
"This is the song?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"What I could remember, yes."
"What does this have to do with Slughorn and the new students?"
"Nothing, as far as I'm aware."
Harry frowned. "Then why bring it up?"
"Every year, we've seemed to ignore the obvious and it comes back to spite us. I thought maybe if we just started taking note of anything even remotely suspicious-"
"-we could be better prepared," Harry finished for her. She nodded.
"Hermione, as much as I hate to admit it, it's a good idea. But don't you think it's intruding on others' privacy? I mean, what if we're wrong? We'll have all this information about other people they might not want us to have."
"I suppose you're right," she said hesitantly. "But what if we're not wrong?"
"Come on, 'Mione. The year hasn't even started and you're already worried about," He waved his hands in a series of weird gestures, "everything. If you ask me, I think we deserve a break after all our hard work." He folded his arms behind his head for dramatic emphasis and leaned back. Unfortunately, the armchair went leaning back with him and he landed in the floor on a heap.
Hermione sighed. "I suppose you're right. It was a stupid idea." She shook her head. "There's nothing even remotely strange with Percy. I guess I'm just being paranoid." She stood up, walked over to the mantle and tore the parchment in half, watching as it floated down towards the timber. It ignited and crumpled in the heat.
She turned around, and huffed at Ron's bedraggled state. With a simple incantation, the chair was upright again, only Ron was still on the floor. "How about we go visit Hagrid?" Hermione suggested, hefting her boyfriend up from the ground.
Harry let out a loose string of curse words and jumped out of his seat. "I almost forgot!" How did he manage that? "We've still got at least two hours until curfew. That's plenty of time."
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They walked at a brisk pace through the castle, across the grounds and towards Hagrid's cabin. Under the invisibly cloak, they remained hidden and encountered very few in the corridors.
The familiar wooden building resided close to the woods, looking almost exactly as it had before. A few cabbages had been freshly planted in the garden beds and a wheelbarrow containing what smelled like manure had been parked nearby. Ignoring the unpleasant odour, they made their way towards the front door and Hermione knocked thrice.
Barely a moment afterwards, the door swung open to reveal a beaming Hagrid.
"I was beginnin' to think yeh lot wouldn' come." He ushered them in through the front door. "Take that cloak off, it makes me uncomfortable, not bein' able to see yeh and all."
Harry let go of the cloak and it fell to the floor in a heap.
"Hi Hagrid."
The half-giant grinned and crushed the three of them in a hug. "Bin waitin' to do that."
"Hagrid-" Hermione choked out. "We can't breathe."
"Sorry." He released them all and smiled. "How yeh bin? Did Trintheus get me message to yeh?"
"Trintheus?" Harry recalled the old wizard who had spoken to him earlier in the day. "Oh yeah, he did."
Hagrid chuckled for no apparent reason and smiled wistfully. "I trust yeh lot won' be getting up to much mischief this year," he said, letting out another deep throaty chuckle. "Eh, the three of yeh could never stop meddlin'." He grinned again, revealing his not-so-clean teeth.
"How 'bout I get the kettle goin'? Yeh must be freezin.'"
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Thanks so much for all the positive feedback I received on the last chapter. Your comments mean a lot to me!
The story will be delving deeper into the plot. I've got so much planned.
But I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to be one of those authors who kills everybody. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
{image attached is an edit of mine}