Chapter 19

Percy's Point of View

I couldn't help but crack up as we chucked the Stone to Dumbledore. He looked so confused it was hilarious. Even Charles, after he had gotten over the fact that he had gone after a Stone that wasn't there started laughing. Madam Pomphrey, who had previously been standing in the doorway, scowled at us.

"You lied to me." She said in an extremely annoyed voice. We winced inwardly. Rule number one of life lessons that we had learned very early on – never (and we mean never) annoy a Medi-Witch who is going to spend a lot of her time in the future healing you. It always ends badly. Always.

"Aye." I agreed in a quiet voice. "We did. But had we not, Quirrel could have stolen the stone for his master. Talk about a massive fail."

Her glare softened ever so slightly. "Well then, in this these unusual circumstances I will overlook you dreadful behaviour. Please do not put on a repeat performance or I shall not be as lenient. Professor Dumbledore, are you alright?"

"What? Oh yes, yes I'm fine Poppy. Don't mind me." Dumbledore flashed her a weak smile before turning back to us. "So boys. How did you get past all the challenges alone?"

We grinned. "Myths, schoolwork and the fact that you stole our chessboard."

"What?!" Charles squawked. "That was your chessboard? It beat the hell out of Ron when he let the Queen take him."

Harry winced and I grinned sheepishly at him. "We did tell you it had a few issues… But still! It… yeah. Sorry."

The Headmaster frowned at us. "And why didn't you return the Stone earlier?"

I retreated and let Harry do the talking for this one. It had been his plan after all…

"Well, you see Headmaster, we were a little bit more concerned about the end of our exams and our brother being here in the hospital wings… And then when we did go looking for you we couldn't find you…" Harry apologised.

The Headmaster sighed resignedly. "You studied it a little bit, didn't you?"

"Yep." Harry didn't try and deny it. "Fascinating stone, that's for sure. Did you know that the weird golden fluid it leaks can–"

"Wait, what? It doesn't just leak the Elixir of Life." Dumbledore interrupted. "You have to harvest it."

"Oh." We frowned. "Well, we were studying the magic woven into and around it when it began to leak. We collected the liquid if you want it."

Of course, we didn't give Dumbledore all of the strange liquid. We kept a few vials to study. Besides that, nothing really happened. We were put in detention for the remaining two nights before school with our godfather, who had us scrubbing cauldrons until they shone. Yeah. He was mad at us.

The end of term feast was… interesting to say the least. The Headmaster certainly knows how to make enemies of Slytherin.

The Feast started as was to be expected, the hall decked out in silver and gold, as Slytherin's were far in the lead for the winning of the House Cup. Behind the High Table was a large Slytherin Serpent. It appeared that everything was set for them to win the House Cup for the Seventh year running.

From the corner of my eye I spotted Charles walking into the Hall alone, presumably after being fussed over by Madam Pomphrey giving him a one last check-up. A hush fell over the hall as he entered before everyone started talking loudly at once, whispering about the various rumours that had been spread. He slipped into a seat next to Ron and Hermione, blushing as he tried to ignore the various individuals standing up to look at him. I smirked at Draco who was sitting across from us.

'Oh the misfortunes of doing stupid or heroic things when your famous.' I commented to Harry who snorted in agreement.

The Headmaster arrived a few moments later and the babbled died away. He swept up to the High Table and turned to face us after reaching the top of the steps.

"Another year gone!" He announced in the most cheerful manner possible. I groaned at his enthusiasm. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw had four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

All around us Slytherins began to kick up a storm of cheering and stamping. Draco even went as far as to bang his goblet on the table. We just contented ourself with grinning wildly. However, Dumbledore's next words stilled our celebrations.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin," Dumbledore said. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

Silence filled the Hall and we glared at Dumbledore, realising what he was about to do. Oh no. He had no right! The point system was for academic achievements!

"Ahem." The Headmaster cleared his throat, and I bit back a growl of annoyance. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…

"First, to Mr Ronald Weasley for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

The Gryffindor's cheered the loudest out of the racket the other three houses kicked up. By now we weren't the only ones glaring at the headmaster.

'We made that stupid Chess Board ourselves from scratch!' Harry complained. I nodded, sharing his annoyance at being overlooked.

When silence finally fell again Dumbledore continued. "Second – to Miss Hermione Granger for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor House fifty points."

It took a while for the Lions to calm down again, but Dumbledore wasn't finished yet.

"Third – to Mr Charles Potter…" Dumbledore started. The room when deadly silent. "…for pure nerve and outstanding courage I award Gryffindor House sixty points."

Now there were cries of outrage from Slytherin mixed in with Gryffindor's deafening dim. They were tied now. Dumbledore held up a hand, waiting patiently to be heard.

"There are all kinds of courage," Dumbledore said, smiling brightly. "If takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom."

More than annoyed now, I stood up in an act of reckless anger, moments before everyone started cheering. The Headmaster blinked in shock as he saw us. We glared defiantly at him, ignoring the whispers. Slytherin was used to my Gryffindor side by now, but weren't used to seeing it in public. From the very edge of our vision I saw Professor Snape smile proudly at us before leaning over and whispering something into Dumbledore's ear. The Headmaster's face darkened for a moment before brightening as he remembered students were looking at him.

'Percy.' Harry called to me. 'Percy sit down. There's nothing you can do.'

Charles glanced at us, a strange look of anger in his eyes. I couldn't tell if he was angry at us or for us.

"Which means," he called over the thunderous noise, "we need a little change of decoration."

By now it was only Gryffindor and Hufflepuff cheering. Ravenclaw seemed to see the Slytherin's side of things and be offended by the discrimination that Dumbledore seemed to be showing against the Snakes. Draco grabbed a handful of our robes and pulled us down.

"I think you've made you're point Percy." Draco hissed. "However, I think the headmaster might've paid more attention if you'd been in Slytherin uniform, not Gryffindor.

The morning after the end of year feast was a rush of packing, exam results and goodbyes. After all the excitement over the stone we had all but forgotten about the exam results. From the whispers we heard from the Lions we gathered that they had been hoping Goyle would fail and drop out of school. Privately we agreed, but alas he had scrapped together just enough grades to pass. According to the board at the front of the hall (which listed the top ten in each year) we had come out on top of the year (surprise, surprise), shortly followed by Draco and then Granger. Theo had done abysmally in Herbology, but his flare in Potions had equalled it out. As for Blaise… he wasn't top, but he was above average with his marks. So, all in all, it hadn't been a bad year.

As we trailed down to the Dungeons to pack we were met by Professor Snape handing out notices warning us not to use magic over the holidays. We grinned as we overheard Flint proclaiming sadly that he'll 'always hope they'll forget to give us these' as he accepted his. I even caught our godfather's lips twitch slightly at that. It wasn't obvious to the untrained eye, but we knew Severus well enough to know when he was amused.

Suddenly, all our wardrobes were empty, our trunks were packed full and we were being rounded down to the little fleet of boats on the Lake so that Hagrid could sail us across the lake. Harry and I watched sadly as the pointy topped stone castle that we'd come to see as home disappeared from sight round a corner.

Next thing we knew we were boarding the Hogwarts express; laughing and joking with the rest as the countryside blurred into neat green fields; eating Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans as we sped past Muggle towns; changing out of our robes and into the Muggle jackets and coats ready for when we reached the station. And then we were finally pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at Kings-Cross station.

As expected it took a while for us to get off the platform as we all hugged each other goodbye, promising to write and keep in contact. Then, when we had hugged and greeted Lily, James, Sirius and Remus, we also had to get passed the wizened old guard at the ticket barrier who was only letting people go past in twos and threes so not to alarm the Muggles. It would have been quite a funny sight, however, if a massive group of us burst out of a solid wall at once in front of a large amount of unsuspecting Muggles.

Instead of going straight home from the station James send our trunks on ahead before telling us that we were going to have a picnic at a local park before we head home. It was in muggle London, a place called Regents Park. It was a pretty place with a lake/river thing. We sat on a bench, eating our late lunch/early dinner as we watched the ducks and swans milling around in the water.

All good things must come to an end and no matter how much fun we were having watching Sirius chase Charles while James chased him, it had to end too. Unfortunately, it didn't end well. That is to say, it ended with a bit of a downer.

You see, this woman approached Lily, Remus and us as we sat on the bench, laughing at our companions. She didn't look particularly young, with grey streaked brown hair and a stern look. She made me think of that math's tutor our parents hired for Charles when he was eight. A right old witch that one had been.

"You've been giving us problems, honey." She said to Harry and me, ignoring the adults sitting on our left. We tilted our head at her.

"I'm sorry, Madam, I don't think we're met before." We said in reply. "You must have the wrong person."

The lady tugged at the cuffs on her leather jacket, sneering at us. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

"Get away with what?" We wanted to know.

Lily noticed what was going on. "Excuse me, I'm not sure exactly who you think you are. My sons have just returned from boarding school, I think you must have the wrong person."

"Oh no, I can smell you. We aren't fools, Mr Potter, it was only a matter of time before we found you. Confess now and you'll suffer less pain." The lady growled. When we just stared at her she grew more and more angry. "Your time's up."

Her eyes began to glow in a similar fashion to the dying embers of a bonfire. As we watched in horror her fingers stretched into talons and her jacket melted into large leathery bat-like wings. Dear Merlin. This woman had just turned into a shrivelled hag with wings and claws and yellow fangs who looked like she wanted nothing better than to slice us up into a thousand little pieces.

We stared at her in amusement, and Harry pushed me aside to take control. That seemed to confuse the hag, as she sniffed the air and shook her head this way and that. Harry smiled sweetly at her. "Dear lady, if you're going to reveal that you're a Fury, please could you refrain from doing it in the centre of Muggle London? The Ministry have issues, you see, regarding the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy…"

Lily stared at the Fury in horror, while Remus got out his wand, pointing it at her threateningly. She ignored Harry's advice and lunged at us. Remus cast a stunner at her, but the red spell just slipped right through her. I heard Remus curse and smirked.

'Harry.' I said.

'Not now Percy!' Harry snapped. 'We're kind of about to die!'

'No we're not.'

I pulled him back and our body dropped like a stone. I took over a fraction of a second later, rolling to the side as the Fury hit the bench where we had been sitting a moment earlier. I then reached into the top of our boot and pulled out a knife. It was a pretty gold colour, and the Fury hissed at the sight of it. Without a second thought I threw it, hitting her shoulder.

I swear, that's all I hit, her shoulder. It was no-where near her neck, or her heart. But the Fury just seemed to… disintegrate. She blew away as this yellow dust, leaving a nasty smell of sulphur in the air.

Harry mentally slapped me. 'Don't do that to me ever again you son of a Gryffindor!'

I chucked. 'Harry. James was a Gryffindor. So was Lily. Therefore, your insult in invalid.'

"Harry and Perseus James Potter!" Lily snapped at us. "Care to explain why you had a knife in your boot? Hm?"

We paled, turning to face the furious red-head. James, who had heard the commotion, walked over to investigate exactly what was going on, Sirius and Charles trailing after him. He had his strict 'Auror' face on.

"What's going on? Lily?" He asked, looked between Lily and us and the knife on the floor. In the end it was Remus who explained.

"There was this old woman and she started accusing Percy and Harry of having done something, although she refused to explain exactly what. When they didn't confess she morphed into this winged hag-thing – a Fury – and attacked them. They dropped to the ground and rolled away. They pulled that knife out their boot and threw it. It hit the Fury in the shoulder and she exploded into yellow dust." Remus explained quickly. "Now Lily wants to know why they had a knife in their boot."

Sirius sniggered. "Oh, come on now Lily-flower. Can you really blame them for carrying a blade when they sleep in the Slytherin dorm?"

I narrowed our eyes at that. "Our friends as Slytherin's, thank you very much. Not all of them are back-stabbing cowards."

"Not all of them." Charles reiterated with a grin. "Come on Percy, you've got to admit – some of the older years fit that description perfectly."

We nodded. It was true. Take Marcus Flint for example – he was decent provided you were firmly on his good side. One slip and he wasn't above stabbing you where it hurts to get back at you.

"Alright. Well, let's get out of here." James decided, grabbing Charles. Sirius grabbed us and then apparated out of the park.

When we got back to the manner there was a surprise waiting for us in the form of a middle-aged man in a wheel-chair and a young boy of about our age on crutches standing outside dressed in muggle clothing. James, Sirius and Remus, already on edge from the Fury, immediately place Lily, Charles and us behind them as they eyed up the Muggles with suspicion.

"Who are you and how did you get onto our property? This is Private Land and you are trespassing, Sirs." James said in a stern voice, making the boy jump in alarm and turn around to face us. He was a scrawny kid with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes. The man in the wheel-chair took a longer time to turn around, obviously hindered by the wheeled contraption he was sitting in. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard.

"Ah, Mr Potter I presume? We've come to talk to you about your son, Perseus."

Immediately we pushed past the adults standing in front of us. I narrowed our eyes suspiciously at the man. He met our gaze evenly and we almost flinched at the ancient wisdom his eyes seemed to radiate. Then our vision blurred slightly, and we could see inside his wheelchair somehow. It appeared to have been magically enlarged to hold the rest of him. See, this man was a centaur.

"Firstly, how do you know that name, and secondly, why in the name of Merlin are you, a centaur, sitting inside a weird magical wheelchair?" I demanded. Remus practically growled at us as he pulled us safely back behind him. The boy standing next to the centaur kept sniffing the air and glancing worriedly at Remus. Remus, in turn, kept giving him strange looks.

"That boy smells of goat." He whispered to Sirius. Sirius, who kept some of his animagus traits as a human (such as his bark-like laugh) nodded in agreement.

"Something is off here."

"Is nobody going to ask for their names?" Lily commented in an exasperated voice. "I mean, really, have all your manners gone out the window?"

Stepping round James, Lily gave him a warning glare before smiling kindly at the Centaur and holding out her hand for him to shake.

"I'm Lily Potter. That territorial buffoon over there is my husband James and next to him are our good friends Sirius and Remus. Standing behind them are my boys, Charles and Percy." She greeted the pair. "May I ask who you are?"

The Centaur smiled back at Lily. "My name is Chiron and this is Grover. May we sit down to talk to you? This might be a bit of a long story…"

"Before we do sit down can you please explain why you are hiding the fact you're a centaur?" I begged.

Chiron laughed. "Now, young man, what makes you think that I'm a centaur?"

"The fact that we can see through your magically enlarged wheelchair is a bit of a giveaway you know…" Harry replied cheekily. "Oh, and please tell us you're not here to tell us something about the stars and fortunes. Because we've had enough centaurs talk to us about that and honest it just gives us a massive headache."

Grover stared at us wide-eyed. "You… your eyes change colour."

We rolled our eyes and smirked. "We know, thank you. But to business?"

Lily led us round the side of the house to a small patio with a table and some chairs set up. We had only just all taken a seat before the questions began. Harry and I just sat back and watched the scene unfold before us.

"So, what did you want to talk to us about concerning Percy?" Lily asked first.

"It's to do with his heritage." Chiron answered, looking distracted as he looked over us. "You're taking this very well."

Lily smiled. "I can deal with guests, thank you very much. May I presume you're not muggles since Ha- Percy called you a centaur?"

"Ok, one minute." Grover butted in, looked positively terrified from where he was sat next to Remus. "Can someone please explain to me why there's a werewolf sitting at the table?"

Remus looked insulted. "Werewolves are people too."

"Exactly! Anyway, how did you know Moony was a werewolf?"

"Shush Padfoot! As if that nickname doesn't give it away…" James groaned.

Chiron looked interested at this. "From our experience, werewolves are creatures that try to kill Satyrs like Grover and his fellow campers."

"Campers?" Lily echoed, confused.

Harry and I laughed. "Ok, as amusing as it is watching you all trip over yourselves, perhaps you should start at the beginning? That's generally the best place to start unless you want to create a massive confusing mess."

Chiron gave us an approving nod. "Alright. So. How many of you know about the Greek Myths?"

Harry and I nodded, as did Lily. Remus frowned in confusion before joining in. "You mean with the gods and demigods and monsters?"

"That's the ones." Chiron nodded. "Well, the gods are real. They live in the US now, as they move with the Western Flame, but occasionally they take trips aboard."

We frowned as Chiron gave us a pointed look. "Why are you looking at us like that?"

"Well, the gods sometimes have children with mortals. Half-blood children." Chiron said. Lily snapped, her anger sparking.

"Are you implying that I cheated on my husband, sir? Because I assure you that I most certainly did not." She spat. James put a hand over hers, whispering soothing words in her ear.

"I highly doubt you willing cheated on your husband. The gods can take many forms, you see." Chiron tried to rewind. We gave him a 'you-messed-up' look and smirked. Grover gave us a confused look. I switched control with Harry and gave him a wink.

"You ok, Grover?" I asked, tilting our head.

The boy shook his head. "Your scent keeps changing, it's really confusing. Sometimes its faint, and then sometimes it's really strong, I just don't understand!"

"Scent?"

"Why don't you boy's get down and let the adult's talk a while?" Lily suggested.

"Lily, this concerns us to!" I complained.

Lily shook her head. "No arguments, Percy. Go unpack your trunk."

"Yes mum." Charles muttered sullenly.

"As her majesty demands." I replied sarcastically. "May I have my dagger back?"

"Percy you are already in a lot of trouble, don't make it worse. And if you think I'm letting you anywhere near the gym this summer you will be sorely disappointed." Lily snapped.

'Percy.' Harry warned. 'Just leave it. Lily's had a very trying day. Don't push her.'

Chiron strangely didn't look alarmed at the idea of an eleven year old carrying around a dagger. Neither did Grover for that matter. In fact, Chiron was curious for a completely different reason.

"Why did you confiscate his weapon?"

"Oh." I rolled our eyes. "There was this Fury at the park. I hit her shoulder with it when she was trying to kill me and she disintegrated. I didn't mean to kill her, but well," I shrugged, "things happen."

"Upstairs." James warned, throwing an intimidated look at Lily. "Now."

I rolled our eyes, but followed his instructions. Charles nudged our shoulder. "Dear lord, Percy. Is the insolent teenager phase kicking in already?"

"Shut up Charles!" I laughed. Then we both frowned. "She just called us Percy. Why not Harry?"

"Percy," Charles shook his head with a laugh, "You don't get twin souls in the Muggle world. She was just trying to keep things simple."

"But did you hear him? Chiron was implying we weren't fully your brother." Harry said quietly. "We don't want to believe him. You are our brother, Charles. No matter what. You and Draco. You're the only ones who can tell us apart."

"Oh, Harry…" Charles said. "I know that silly. Where related fully by blood or not, we are brothers. Don't ever forget that."

We parted ways to go unpack. It didn't take long, maybe half an hour tops and shortly after that we were back in the living room, listening into the conversation outside. A few minutes later Charles joined us.

"You mean to tell us that our son is a Demigod?" James was saying. "I'm sorry, but how is that possible? Percy's had blood tests before when he was… sick… when he was younger, and he is definitely our son."

There was a pause. "If the Fury's are after him, then there is no doubt. Besides, the mist hides our world from yours. Perhaps it changed the results to hide the fact he doesn't have DNA in the strictest sense."

Charles exchanged a look with us. DNA? What even was that? Sounded Muggle.

"Chiron –"

"Lily, please. If there is even the slightest chance that this is true… Percy could be in real danger. You saw the Fury earlier. There could be more." James said, sounding nervous. You didn't live with Lily Potter for over a decade without learning that arguing back against her was a bad idea.

Suddenly something grabbed us roughly by the collar and hoisted us up, carrying us outside. We squirmed and fought back, hearing Charles doing the same somewhere to our right. A familiar bark like chuckle sounded by our ear as we were sat down in the seat we had been in before.

"We caught a couple of eavesdroppers, didn't we Moony?" Sirius announced proudly.

We glanced up to see Remus grinning from where he stood behind Charles. "That we did, Padfoot. That we did."

To our surprise we were ignored as the conversation carried on. James was arguing for us to go to this camp, whatever it was, while Lily was arguing against it. Chiron was all for us going as well, apparently for our own safety. He was saying something about how the smell that we let off, as a Demigod, attracted monsters. The safest place for us was his camp because it had wards to prevent the monsters from getting in and attacking us. Furthermore, we could be trained to protect ourselves there. Something about the description rang a bell.

"Hold up." We butted in. "This camp of yours… is it near the sea by any chance? With a forest and a sandy clearing that you use for sword-fighting practice?"

Chiron gave us a look of mild surprise. "Yes, it's called Camp Half-Blood. Why, have you heard of it?"

"No." We gave him a carefully blank expression. "We've been dreaming of it. And there's this blond-haired girl too – Annabeth, and a guy, Luke."

For the first time since we'd met him I saw pure, genuine shock on Chiron's face. "You dreamed about camp? Demigod dreams are usually of something of importance, but I've never heard of anyone dreaming about camp. Or at least, not before they'd been there."

He turned out our parents. Lily looked slightly depressed, knowing that she'd lost the argument. She cupped one of our cheeks in a warm gesture, gazing intently into our eyes.

"Tell me the truth, Percy – do you want to go to camp? It's all the way over in America, and that's fine, we can arrange for you to get there, but do you really want to go? Because you don't have to, not if you don't want to. You're more than welcome to stay here with us." She sounded hopeful, as if she really wished for us to stay here. We gave Charles a desperate look.

"Charles, would you mind if we wanted to go?" We asked in a quiet voice. "We can't lose you."

'Not again.' I spoke the words quietly in my mind, putting all my fears and worried into those two words. I felt Harry hug me tightly.

'We won't lose him. He's our brother, remember? No matter what.' Harry said. I smile at him.

"Percy, if this is truly what you want to do, then I am more than happy for you. Just come back for me at the end of the summer, yeah? And make sure you write. I want to hear about everything. I'll even write and explain to Draco, Blaise and Theo where you've gone until you've settled in and are able to write to them yourself." Charles pulled a face at the offer, but his smile was genuine.

"Thank you." We hugged him tightly. Then we turned to Lily, looking her straight in the eye.

"We want to go to camp. We're not sure why, but nothing has ever felt as right as this does. It feels like we're supposed to be there. Just like Diagon Alley did when we first entered it last year. We're not going to run off and abandon you, Lily, we promise, but we need to do this." We tried to explain. Lily smiled at us, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Oh, my precious boy." She hugged us tightly to her chest, as if we were her lifeline. "Of course I understand. I just wasn't expecting you to go away so soon."

"Hey," Harry grinned. "We'll be coming back. It's just a Summer Camp, after all. Besides, as if we would give up our Schooling. Someone has to keep Charles under control at school. Merlin only knows that if there was a way to blow up the place he would find it if he walked about unsupervised."

Lily laughed, James joining in. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks.

"Like father, like son, wouldn't you say?"

"Definitely."

I turned back to Chiron, meeting his old eyes with conviction. "When do we leave?"

"Well, we flew here, but that isn't always the safest way for Demigods…"

James smirked. "If you fly back, we can get Percy over there. You just give me the details and I'll get him there by tomorrow. You're not the only one with a secret world, Mr Chiron. If you are, as Percy said, a centaur, I'm sure you've heard of your kin here in England."

"Indeed?" Chiron smiled. "I didn't realise we had a group of Witches and Wizards on our hands. Well then, I suppose we'll be seeing you tomorrow morning, won't we Percy?"

"I guess so." I replied with a smirk. "Have a good flight home, Chiron, and don't get too cramped in that wheelchair of yours."

We packed that night, making sure to pack a dozen or so of our favourite blades while James had Lily distracted. Various jeans and other muggle-styled clothes were then piled on top, along with various toiletries and swimwear. We ended up repacking several time before we were finally finished. Remus stuck his head round the door to remind us to bring our summer homework. Harry slapped our head at forgetting such important work.

'Dam!' I muttered. 'We almost had a legitimate excuse not to do it.'

'Oh, hardy har Percy. You know our godfather. No excuse is a legitimate one that doesn't include you nearly dying or breaking every bone in both your hands.' Harry retorted, and I conceded. Severus was strict when it came to homework.

When we finally fell asleep that night we dreamed of camp again. We were sitting next to Annabeth outside a ring of cabins, watching the sunrise. We grinned at the sight.

"Apollo's chariot is quite a sight, isn't it?" Annabeth murmured, almost to herself.

"Isn't it indeed?" We agreed. She turned to face us a small smile on her face. Just as I began to think that she was smiling at us, a new voice spoke up.

"You alright there Annie?"

"I sure am!" Annabeth smiled. "We'll have a new camper here by this evening."

"Oh?"

We turned to see Luke, who had sat down on the other side of Annabeth, grinning at her. Annabeth nodded wisely.

"Oh yes, the nargles told me."

"I'm guessing by that you mean you received news from Chiron." Luke interpreted.

Annabeth grinned, revealing her teeth. "Well, yes. Apparently this one's special. He's British, and isn't just a demigod, whatever that means."

We felt a slight tug as we started to wake up. We smiled on last time at Annabeth. "See you soon. Be prepared for things to change dramatically round here. Two sons of a Marauder are on their way."

We took one last look round the by-now familiar cabins. Next time we would be seeing them we would be awake, and would finally be able to talk to the people who slept in them. Watch out, people. We're on our way!