I told you guys I'd be back. BTW, my Percy Jackson Twin story is up and running with a fourth chapter on the way so if you could check that out, that'd be great, too.
Third Person POV
"Percy, I'm nervous."
"Why would you be nervous? It's just my mom. She wouldn't hurt a fly." Percy paused and cocked his head, thinking. "Well, except for that time she killed a man. But that was only because he was abusive. Have you ever tried to abuse me?"
"Dude, I shot the freaking Cruciatus curse at you. Yes, I have tried to abuse you!"
"Oh. In that case, maybe you should be a little nervous."
Harry rolled his eyes at him. "Wow, thanks. You're a real comforter, you know that?"
"Calm down, Harry," Hermione said soothingly, "Mrs. Jackson was so nice to us when we first met her, remember? And that was when you were rude, and impolite, and hated her son's guts, and-"
Harry cut Hermione off. "You two are just so bloody inspiring, aren't you? I'm over freaking out and you guys are just telling me things like, 'Oh, Sally Jackson's killed a man" and 'Hey, you used to be a terrible person!'"
"She can use a shotgun pretty well, too," Percy mused.
"Not helping!"
Ron brushed some of his red hair out of his eyes as they rode the elevator up to Percy's apartment. "Chill out, mate. She'll feed us some cookies and we'll get to meet Percy's little sister, and we'll get to influence her enough that she won't become too much like her big brother."
"Hey!" Came Percy's indignant cry at the same time as Hermione's calm, "If she's anything like her brother already, she'll have forgotten anything we teach her by next week."
Percy ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head. "Guys, just go into the apartment. Annabeth's already in there, and my mom's got this super-sense when it comes to me getting home." He took Harry by the shoulders and shook him so violently that his glasses slid to the tip of his nose. "You are not going to die!"
"Well maybe I wasn't," Harry muttered, adjusting himself, "But I think you just gave me whiplash."
"Look," Percy said exasperatedly, "Why did you agree if you didn't want to meet my mom?"
"I thought I wanted to!!" Harry yelled, throwing his hands up, "I don't know, maybe I still do. But I hear that mothers have this sense of when their children are having a bad day. And guess what? I gave you a whole heck of a lot of bad days."
Ron slung his arm around his best friend, dragging him to the door. "Harry. Mate. We are not leaving until we get some awesome stupid stories about Percy. I am not going to grow up and tell my kids that I was a hero's sidekick for a year. I'm going to tell them all about, 'Hey, there was this one time your Uncle Percy got his head stuck in a bucket!'"
"That's weird," Percy said as he knocked on the door, "How are they going to tell the difference between me and your brother?"
"Huh," Ron says, stumped, "One of them is too much like an evil version of their mother and the other is almost as cool as their dad?"
Percy snickered as Annabeth opened the door to let them in. "Ooh, who's the mother, Ronald?"
"Yeah, Ronald," Hermione tagged on, "Who's the mother?"
Ron blushed a furious red, not willing to answer, and strode through the door, followed by the rest of his friends.
"Percy!" His mother called from the kitchen, "Will you come help me bring the cookies to the kitchen?"
He turned to the wizards with a What did I tell you kind of look on his face.
"Coming, Mom!"
Just as he disappeared, a little girl came toddling across the room to them. She couldn't have been more than fourteen months old, and looked at them quizzically.
Annabeth picked her up from the floor and held her in her arms. "Guys, this is Estelle Blofis." She turned her head toward the child and gently urged, "Say hi, Stella."
The little girl ignored her, holding up a pudgy finger to each of them. "Not Percy... Not Percy... Not Percy," She said in her babyish muttering. Estelle turned back to Annabeth. "Annie?"
Annabeth looked at them apologetically. "Sally told her Percy would be coming home a couple of hours ago. She can only say a couple of words, so far. Yes, No, Mommy, Daddy, Annie, Percy, among them. And cookie, of course."
Hermione smiled, reaching out to hug Annabeth. "Of course."
Just then, Percy's mother emerged with a batch of cookies. "Cookies!" Ron shouted at the same time as Estelle did.
"Well," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Now I know the mental age of my boyfriend."
When Percy pushed his way through the kitchen door back first, however, Estelle started to struggle. "Percy!" She squealed and Annabeth quickly placed her on the floor. Percy turned around, grinning broadly, and displaying the tray of blue cookies he was holding. Estelle's squealing only redoubled. "Percy Cookie!"
Annabeth shot a look at the wizards. "It's her favorite combination of words."
Percy dropped the tray onto the table, crouching and holding his arms out. "Stella!"
She ran over to him as fast as an fourteen month old possibly could and clambered onto his knees. Percy swung her onto his shoulders in a practiced move and stood up taller, much to the glee of the younger girl.
"Percy," Estelle commanded, "Room!"
Percy turned to his mother. "I'm gonna go play with Estelle in her room. Is that okay?"
Sally smiled kindly. "Of course."
Percy grabbed a full tray of cookies and begins to march down the hallway. "Onward! For Cookies!"
He took a couple of steps before noticing his hands were empty. "Mom! Why?"
"I don't care if you fight monsters and run for your life for a living," Sally scolded, "But you cannot pig out on cookies everyday. Alright? Good."
Percy grudgingly accepted the cookies and raised his eyebrows at Annabeth. "Alright, Seaweed Brain," She sighed, "Someone's gotta stop you from getting a Lego stuck up your nose."
Sally watched them leave with a small smile on her face. The wizards stood there awkwardly. Ron longing after the warm blue cookies on the table, Hermione studying the small apartment, and Harry wringing his hands and fiddling with his wand inside his robes.
To their surprise, Percy's mother turned to them with a bright smile. "Harry, Hermione, Ron. So good to see you again!"
This was not the reaction Harry had been expecting. He hadn't even expected her to know their names.
"My son is such a terrible host," Sally said, shaking her head, "Leaving you three in a room with a woman you barely know to go off with his sister and girlfriend. Take a cookie and join me on the couch. Take as many cookies as you'd like."
"Thank you, Mrs. Jackson," Hermione responded, chuckling a little when she heard another indignant Hey! from Percy.
Sally waved a hand. "Actually, I go by Jackson-Blofis now. But call me Sally."
"Thanks, Sally!" Ron called from the kitchen, appearing with two cookies in each hand and one in his mouth.
Hermione swatted at him, scolding under her breath. "Ronald! Be polite."
"It's okay, Hermione," Sally laughed, "It's nice to know people appreciate my cooking."
"Tell us about Percy," Ron said, having swallowed his cookie, "What was he like? Was he a crazy ADHD kid? How awkward was his crushing on Annabeth phase?"
Sally laughed again, louder this time. "He was a crazy ADHD kid. I used to work at this place, Sweet on America, and I brought him home blue candy all of the time. Sometimes it would calm him down and sometimes he'd be bouncing along the walls on a sugar high."
"And his Annabeth phase," She continued, "That was the best. You know, in his first quest, he came to save me from the Underworld and he brought Annabeth and Grover with him, but of course I knew he wasn't going to fall in love with Grover so it was pretty obvious to me when he came home ranting about something after camp it was going to be Annabeth."
"And by the time everything was back to normal and I was sending him off to school and everything was Annabeth this and Annabeth that and I can't wait to go back to camp. In fact, he hasn't been that excited about people since until he started sending me Iris Messages about Hogwarts."
Sally's grin only grew wider. "His first five messages were all about how funny all of the names were. Voldemort and Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and Professor Binns. When I had gone there, I didn't know that Tom Riddle was my father until a couple of years ago when Dumbledore reached out to me. I always wondered why I didn't remember much of my parents, even though I was only five, but Voldemort had spelled poor Estelle Jackson and I was orphaned."
Sally, paused, turning somber. "Thank you for taking care of my son. He's this bigshot son of Poseidon and Hero of Olympus but he's always been good at finding friends. And he gets all of this attention but no one can dispute the fact that without everyone else, he might have been dead a thousand times over."
Harry couldn't help the guilt gnawing away at him. "Except I wasn't that great of a friend to him at all. Threatened his life a couple of times, actually. It wasn't until he risked his life for me that I even stopped yelling at him. And even a couple of months later I was convinced he was a traitor. It was Hermione who stuck by him. It was Hermione who saved his life, who saved my life."
"How many times was Percy in danger this year?" Sally asked.
Harry was surprised at the question. "Uh, I don't know. Between the Death Eaters and the Eidolon and Steven, probably a couple dozen."
"And how many times did he save you?"
Harry tilted his head to each side a couple of times. "Maybe a little less than a couple dozen."
"And how many times did you save him?"
"Once. When we were up on Olympus."
"What was happening on Olympus?"
"Steven was about to take over the gods," Harry recalled, "He had Percy and all of the wizards under complete control. I was talking him out of it. It almost worked, too. Percy snapped out of it enough to chew him out about messing with Grover. I found out that he passed out after the Goblet of Fire because of his empathy link later on, but yeah. Percy was fighting the gods and winning. I stopped him."
"Then yes," Sally said sternly, "I can thank you. Percy is powerful. Sometimes even Annabeth can't rein him in while he's on a mindless rampage. You did. Without hurting him. Without hurting anyone else. And with a Patronus, no less. That has always been my favorite spell."
Harry stared down at his hands, whispering. "Mine too."
Sally's smile returned. "Why?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Because I've always been good at it?"
Sally shook her head. "Come on, Harry. I know that's not the reason."
"Because I didn't have a lot of good things growing up," Harry sighed, resigned to the fact that Sally Jackson could see through his very soul, "Because I know exactly how good I have it now that I'm at Hogwarts since I've never had that before. Because to have a power that comes directly from my friends is the greatest power of all."
Sally leaned back, satisfied. "Good. A true Hufflepuff understands all of that. You can have all of the bravery and brains and ambition you want. But to have loyalty. To have friends that will help you when you are weak and push you when you are strong. That is a true blessing."
"Thank you, Sally," Harry said earnestly, "Thank you for your forgiveness."
Sally placed a hand on Harry's knee. "As if there was ever anything to forgive."
Ron snapped his fingers suddenly. "That's why Percy's so great! Because he had you this entire time!"
"My son is wonderful because his personality is all his own," Sally claimed, waving off Ron's compliment, "A parent must always hope that their children turn out better than they did. Nothing less."
"You're a legend at Hogwarts, Sally," Hermione reminded her, "For your kindness, your never ending loyalty and extraordinary bravery for someone who wasn't in Gryffindor. Percy is all of those things as well. Even the Sorting Hat thought he would have been better placed in Hufflepuff, as he would have no reason to be brave if he was first and foremost not loyal."
Sally only nodded her head, knowing it was true but not having the will to say it out loud. "I named him Perseus because I knew he was going to be a hero. And I could only pray to the Fates that my baby boy would live."
"So," Ron started eagerly, "What's Percy's middle name?"
"He actually doesn't have one," Sally admitted, "I was debating between Achilles and Odysseus and Theseus, but then eliminated Odysseus because Poseidon didn't like him. Theseus was the son of Poseidon and Achilles was one of the greatest heroes of all time. Both of them died, though, and I couldn't have that."
"Oh," Ron muttered, dejected, "Okay, that's cool."
"My favorite was actually Bellerophon," Sally continued, "He was a great fighter who was friends with Pegasus, and I knew my son would never grow up prideful like that."
"Wow," Hermione said, "You put so much thought into this. Suddenly I find it hard to believe that Percy Jackson is related to you."
"Plus, then his initials would be PB&J and that's totally a bonus."
Maybe Percy Jackson was exactly like his mother.