Draco didn't seem to notice them, for he stood there, catching his breath, Harry and Ginny stunned. The duo exchanged bewildered looks, before they quickly whipped out their wands.
Finally, Draco seemed to become more relaxed, and as he looked up, he let out a choked sound, apparently startled by the presence of his enemies.
"W-what are you doing here?!" he spluttered, pulling out his wand and pointing it at them shakily.
"Put down your wand, Malfoy," Harry said, his free hand outstretched. He hoped that would help assure Draco that he wasn't going to hurt anyone as long as he didn't attack first.
"My wand?!" Draco barked. "This is my room!"
"Well, we're not going to bloody kill you," Ginny snapped. She nodded at his wand, "we just can't trust you. If you cooperate, we won't attack if you don't."
Draco, having seemed to realise that it would be a lost cause if he retaliated, dropped his wand to the floor. He wasn't stupid; he knew it would be hopeless to fight when it was two on one.
"Okay, good," Harry breathed, as if he was talking to a misbehaving child. "Now, let me ask you: where is Annabeth and Nico?"
"And answer truthfully." Ginny raised her wand a little higher to prove her point.
Draco averted his gaze. "I can't."
"If you stop now," Harry said, "we might still stand a chance against Luke. Don't be on the wrong side of another war, Malfoy."
"How do you know it's Luke behind this?"
Ginny bit the inside of her cheeks. "We figured it out ourselves."
"It was the Beauregard girl, wasn't it?!" Draco asked angrily. "I knew we couldn't trust-"
"It doesn't matter!" Harry exclaimed exasperatedly. "My point still stands-"
"You make it sound easy. Well, guess what? It's not," Draco spat, his tone bitter. "Not everyone can be a brave little Gryffindor, alright?"
"So you choose to be a coward?" Ginny raised a brow. "You choose to stand behind the man you think will win this battle?"
"You don't know the power Luke has offered us," Draco said. He dug his fingernails in his skin. "Join us, Potter and Weasel-"
"Weasley," Ginny corrected.
"- if you give up now, you'll be safe. Luke's only after Percy. It's not like the last time. He won't be after you."
"I would never," Harry insisted.
"We've never been friends." Draco inched closer to them. "If you join us, that could change. We don't need to be on opposite sides anymore, do we? You don't even know Percy that well. Let him go and we can get it done and over with. I'll have power. I would be able to change things."
"I wouldn't want a world changed by a bastard like you," Ginny sneered. She locked eyes with her partner. "Right, Harry?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "And you're wrong, Malfoy. I do know Percy, and I know that if the roles were switched, he would never given in to you."
"Luke is powerful. You don't want to be on his bad side," Draco warned. Harry's eyes flashed. Draco stopped moving.
"Since when did things ever go the way I wanted it to go?" Harry said dryly. "If I let you go, Merlin knows what kind of things could happen."
"You're making a mistake."
Harry scoffed. "I thought you would've changed after the war, Malfoy. I guess I was wrong."
Draco didn't say anything. Ginny took this as her chance to speak up.
"Just give us Annabeth and Nico's whereabouts and we'll be off."
"I'm sorry," Draco said, "but I can't."
"You give us no choice," Harry sighed. "Stupe-"
Draco dove down, snatching up his wand and aiming it towards Harry. "Protego!"
"Let me talk!" Draco yelled over the whizzing sound of Harry's spell as it flew over Harry's head and dissipated mid-air.
"What is it?!" Ginny demanded, hoping Draco would take up enough time talking that his shield charm would wear off.
"I'm not on your side," Draco clarified. "But the reason why I was so breathless earlier... some of the monsters can't be controlled. One was chasing me just now. I- I would never want to weaken Luke's army, but there's this one monster that keeps trying to kill me and I can't land a single blow on it."
"And you're telling us this because...?"
"I need your help killing it," Draco said finally. After seeing Harry and Ginny's gaping expressions, he added quickly, "If you think about it, helping me kill this monster would also help lessen your workload in the end."
"That doesn't change the fact that we can't trust you," Ginny pointed out.
"Fine, then. You two do the work, and you can keep my wand," he offered. "I'll be-"
"Informing your father of our location and leading him to us so he can finish us off?" Ginny shook her head. "Absolutely not. I'm not doing your dirty work and then getting killed right after."
"And how do we know that this isn't a trap?" Harry questioned.
"I could never predict that you guys would be in my room," Draco told them.
"Luke could've told you-"
"He didn't," Draco said. "Trust me."
"And you're just so trustworthy," Ginny snorted.
"I'm not lying. I swear," Draco promised. He placed his hand on the doorknob. "I'll fight alongside you, just this once. After we kill the monster, I'll return to my room. Deal?"
Harry studied Draco's face. The way his eyes seemed to be begging for their help. His mouth that was curved down into a frown at the corners of his mouth, as if he was unsure if they would aid him or not. Harry decided that he could trust Draco this time.
But only for now.
"What monster is it that we're going to kill?" Ginny inquired, rolling up her sleeves. It was winter in London, but all the fighting she had done earlier left her hot and sweaty. She decided that fighting whatever monster they were about to fight would be no different.
"A Cyclops," Draco answered stiffly. "You guys are familiar with them, aren't you?"
"Unfortunately," Harry grumbled. He spun his wand in his fingers, preparing himself to fight yet another monster.
"We're here," Draco announced, stopping in front of a door. "I locked the door on its face when I realised it wanted to kill me."
"Why were you there in the first place?" Ginny questioned.
"It's Luke's room, dimwit," Draco said. "I was supposed to take something for him, but a Cyclops thought I was an intruder and wanted to attack me."
"Who's the dimwit now?" Ginny murmured.
"How come it hasn't escaped yet?" Harry asked, confused. "It has the strength to."
Draco pursed his lips. "I don't know."
Ginny rolled her eyes and nodded towards the direction of the door. "Open it."
Draco nodded. "Alohomora!"
The door swung forward, revealing a Cyclops sitting in the middle of the room, looking very much lost.
"What's wrong with it?" Harry whispered, finding it pitiful.
Draco shrugged, signalling that he didn't know. Then his eyebrows knitted together. "It looks different."
"What do you mean?"
"It's clothes are the same," Draco responded. "But it looks different. It looks... merciful."
Harry didn't know what Draco was going on about, but he decided to call out to the Cyclops.
"Don't attack us," Harry said. "We're on Luke's side."
The Cyclops gave Harry a quizzical look. "Luke? Luke is supposed to be dead."
"Yeah?" Harry scratched his head. He was slowly becoming very confused.
"Is this some sort of trick?" Ginny looked pointedly at the Cyclops. "We don't know that much about Cyclops. We don't know if they're smart enough to pull tricks. We should've asked Percy-"
"Percy?" The Cyclops' eyes brightened. "Brother Percy is here?"
"'Brother Percy?'" Harry repeated. "You know Percy Jackson?"
"Yes!" the Cyclops smiled. "I am Tyson Jackson, Son of Poseidon, like Brother Percy."