Chapter 57

Percy's Point of View

A sharp pain shot through our side, forcing us awake. I yelped, still slightly too sleep-dazed to understand what was going on for a moment. Then I noticed Seamus Finnegan's smug face, and outstretched wand.

I gritted my teeth as I realised– for the third time this week – we had hit by a stinging spell courtesy of one Seamus Finnegan's. Apparently Seamus had a bone to pick with Slytherins, which was probably because Draco liked going round with Vincent and Gregory and taking the mick of his ignorance of several Wizarding Customs due to how he was muggle-raised, despite being a half-blood.

I glanced round the room, looking for Charles or Ron. Both, of course, weren't there. Probably showering, if the steam coming out the bathroom was any guess. The first time Seamus had woken us with a stinging charm Charles hadn't been there, but Ron had and he had immediately stuck up for us, threatening to punch him if he tried the same tactic again.

Ron had, we'd noticed, grown to like us over the last week, since we had saved Ginny and been exiled from our Slytherin dorm.

Lily, on the other hand, was still adamant that she was right. James had sent us a letter of apology, and had explained that he definitely didn't agree with Lily and was working on changing her mind. So far, it wasn't working.

'Hey, hey!' Harry exclaimed. 'Cool down, Perce.'

I blinked, and noticed the curtains were flapping as my magic responded to my bubbling emotions. I pulled Harry upfront and sat in the back of our mind, taking a few calming breaths.

'Sorry Harry.' I mumbled. 'She makes me so mad, that's all.'

Charles came back in the room then, and took one look at our disgruntled face and Seamus' mix between smug and scared expression and sighed. Silently asking with his eyes if we were ok. Harry gave him a small nod and rolled our eyes. Charles snorted and came to sit on the side of our bed.

"Morning sleepy-head." Charles grinned. Harry sniffed.

"Well, at least you didn't say good morning. I can't say we particularly like waking to stinging charms. Who knows, tomorrow – when we don't actually have to wake up early we might just return the favour."

Ron burst into laughter as he came back into the room. Seamus took a step back, not looking at all smug now.

"Hey, hey!" He protested. "You don't mess with a man's weekend lie in!"

We smirked. "Lucky you're not a man yet then, isn't it?"

Charles laughed, pulling the covers off us. "Come on, grumpy pants. Get dressed before we miss breakfast."

The day of classes dragged. As everything was back to normal, we didn't have to be escorted the class by teachers, but the lack of the chamber excitement left nothing but the boring lessons. The fact that the teachers kept giving us disapproving glares didn't help none either. McGonagall gave us a glare that warned us she was looking for any excuse to put us in detention.

"Mr Potter, since I can see you are so very intrigued by my lesson would you like to remind me what spell we are currently studying?"

I suppressed a sigh. "Orchideous, used to transfigure an object into a bouquet of flowers."

"And since you are so knowledgeable as to not need to pay attention in my lessons, would you care to perform the spell?" Professor McGonagall gave us a tight smile.

I waved my wand over our quill, incanting "Orchideous."

A beautiful bouquet of moonlace appeared, the flowers still closed tight, for they would only bloom under a full moon and loving care. Harry sighed, realising my mistake. I loved moonlace, so of course it would be the flower I chose to transfigure something into, but it wouldn't just bloom like a non-magical flower.

"Clearly you do need to pay attention, Mr Potter, if you find yourself incapable of producing a bouquet of blooming flowers." Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "Detention with me tonight, we'll find the gaps in your knowledge then."

"Professor, with all due respect, you said at the beginning of this class we wouldn't be casting until tomorrow. And there was nothing wrong with Percy's bouquet other than his choice in flowers. Moonlace only blooms under certain conditions, after all." Harry protested.

Charles kicked us under the desk but we couldn't care less if we were annoying McGonagall further. We knew her detention wasn't really about our spell.

"If Percy knew it was a bad choice, then why did he go ahead with it?" Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

Harry raised one of ours right back at her, understanding her second meaning perfectly, but choosing to ignore it. "Because we were put on the spot and his favourite flower was the first that came to mind. Problem?"

"I will still be seeing you in detention tonight, Mr Potter. I will not tolerate disrespect in my class!"

Charles kicked us again and this time we did actually shut up, but still decided to spend the remaining ten minutes of the lesson glaring at McGonagall.

"Potter, stay behind please."

We withheld a groan, but stayed in our seat until the last student – our brother – had trailed out the room.

"Potter, I know you think I'm just being stupid, but you are – no matter what you think – one of my lions. I know you have urges to go off and do something incredibly reckless every now and again, but I'd rather you didn't follow them. I'm trying to look after you while you are here and I am your Head of House." McGonagall tried to explain.

"Oh really." I snapped. "Well sorry to burst your bubble, but female figures "looking after us" has never really gone so well. Lily forgot us for years, then – while still trying to apparently "make it up to us" goes and tries to band us from seeing our friends. And ok, so you have a point that maybe we shouldn't have gone off to save Alyssa, but it is actually none of your business what we do!"

McGonagall took in a sharp intake of breath. "Percy, please. I know you're hurt at the moment, but don't take it out on everything else."

"You know, do you?" I gritted our teeth. "How could you possibly –"

Before I could finish my rant Harry took over. I relinquished control pretty quickly. I really wasn't it the right state of mind for this conversation, and we both knew it. At least Harry had the foresight to stop me though before I landed us permanently in detention.

"Professor, you may have gathered, but neither of us are in the mood to be discussing Lily right now. We're already late for potions. Would you mind letting us go?"

McGonagall sighed, but let us go. We paused a moment outside her classroom before heading for Myrtle's bathroom. We were too wound up to even think about going to lesson, so Alyssa seemed our best bet. She was very glad to see us. It had been our first chance to get away and see her since that night. She was still missing a fang, but the white stub of one re-growing could be seen peeking out of her pink gum.

$Harry! Percy!$ Alyssa wrapped us up in her coils. $I almost thought you might not come back!$

We chuckled. $And miss our darling Alyssa's company? Not for the world, Alyssa.$

Her coils tightened before releasing us. Then she asked us what had happened since. We explained Lily's punishment and the insufferable Gryffindors and how despite being closer to Charles we hated our new rooming and how the teachers were getting on our last nerve.

$Your mother, Lily, this is?$ Alyssa asked. We nodded. $You won't like this, but she is trying to look out for you. Admittedly she could have chosen a better method, but the facts are there. And look at it this way – at least you have your mother to look after you. I was born from a chicken egg with a toad sitting on top of it! I had to find my place in this world myself. At least you have your mother to help you with that.$

$Yeah...$ I pouted at her logic. $Doesn't mean I have to like her for it.$

We rubbed the scales around the still raw, but mostly healed eyes of our friend and sighed, for what must have been the fiftieth time that day. We knew it was far too late to save her sight, then grinned, remembering why that horrific event saved her life.

$Oh, oh, oh!$ Harry burst out. $But guess what? Lily agreed to let us keep you as a familiar, so Dumbledore isn't required to kill you. Since you can't kill anyone with your gaze anymore, and as long as we prevent you from biting anyone, you can be out familiar! If you want of course. We are required to shrink you however..." Harry looked down, expecting a refusal for that term.

$I accept.$ Alyssa hissed, drawing out her sibilant sounds with glee. $Can I come with you now?$

$Sure.$ We smirked. $I can't wait to see our roommates' reactions.

We had spent time researching long term shrinking spells during our first week of imprisonment and so were well practised with the spell we had chosen. First however Harry pulled a small bracelet out of our pocket.

$The charm needs something to be fixed to, do you mind?$

Alyssa shook her head so we cast the spell, tying it to the bracelet which we simply held against her scales until she was small enough for it to fit around her neck like a collar.

Alyssa coiled around our left arm and shoulders as we readied to leave. We had already missed all of potions, which had been our last lesson of the day, so no doubt Charles and Draco were looking for us.

Sure enough, Draco was already in Myrtle's bathroom when we reached it. He gave Alyssa an impressed look. "Charles is looking for you. We noticed you bunked potions. Severus more than a little mad about it."

Suddenly our feet were very interesting as we refused to meet our friend's eyes. "McGonagall kept pressing us, and we just couldn't sit in lesson another minute. We can deal with Percy's ADHD on a good day, but this really wasn't one."

Draco pulled us in for a hug. "Harry, Percy, I think this has been a bad week for you."

We shrugged noncommittedly. "True."

"Come on. Might as well get Severus' fury over with."

Strangely enough, Severus wasn't actually mad when we reached his office. He pulled us into a hug and informed us he had cancelled our detention with Professor McGonagall. He then told us that we were spending the weekend sleeping in his quarters, and Draco would as well. There was nothing wrong or inappropriate about a man spending the weekend with his godsons. In fact, the Headmaster himself had recommended it, with permission from James.

We grinned.

"Thanks Severus." Harry hugged our godfather tightly. "Have you met Alyssa, by the way?"

Alyssa poked her head out our robes at the mention of her name and hissed a drowsy greeting at Severus.

"She's gorgeous." Severus murmured. "It's such a shame Fawkes hurt her. Such a rare species. But so pretty."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Isn't she just. You may want to whip up a batch of anti-venom, just in case though, Severus."

"Invent, more like." Severus grinned. "Nobody has actually invented Basilisk anti-venom yet."

"Phoenix tears work." Harry pointed out and we rolled our shoulder as it twinged with remembered pain. Alyssa murmured an apology, but we waved it off.

$Alyssa, we don't blame you. We blame the psychopathic Dark Lord that we killed for it.$

Alyssa laughed, the sibilant sound making Severus cringe slightly, and touched his left forearm. We winced, remembering his days as the Dark Lord's puppet. Moving swiftly on, Severus had a house-elf summon what we needed for our impromptu sleepover, and we all set up camp on his Livingroom floor.

I don't know what it is about creating massive dens to sleep in, but it gives you a whole sense of security that I don't think we've ever really experienced anywhere else. It's as if the thin sheet walls block out all the troubles of the world, and you're just safe with your friends inside.

We stayed up chatting late that night, and by the time we finally drifted off to sleep we had a massive grin on our face.
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Potter Manor

James and Lily were arguing. Again. It was a rather old argument really by now. Lily couldn't understand why everyone couldn't just see that she was trying to protect her family, and the only way to do that was to keep the Malfoy's as far away from Harry and Percy as physically possible! James couldn't understand why his wife was so blind as to the fact that she was driving their sons away and making them hate them by isolating them from their friends. As much as he wanted them to be Gryffindors, the truth remained – they just weren't.

"Lily, please. Can't you see what you're doing? How many letters have you sent Harry and Percy? And just how many have they replied this week? You're worried about them getting hurt, but sometimes they need to make their own decisions. They're not five anymore for Merlin's sake! They're twelve, nearly thirteen." James sighed. "You just need to let them grow up."

Lily shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "But they're my boys! I can't just let them get close to the man that tried to kill every muggleborn in the school!"

"Tom Riddle is gone now. We have only sketchy proof at best that Lucius even knew what the diary could do!" James pulled her in for a hug. Lily sobbed harder, realising how badly she was messing up, but too proud to stand down.

"I can't back out now. He'll never respect me." She said, her voice shaky.

"Then find some way to make it up to him. How doesn't matter. But I'm not about to lose our boys again, understand?" James watched as Lily nodded, before sighing again, and picking up his pretty red-haired wife and carrying her to bed. They both needed sleep rather desperately. The rest of the conversation could wait until morning.
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Camp Half-Blood

A scream ripped through the early morning air, waking up all the campers. Within minutes, they had all assembled at the top of Half-Blood Hill, watching Thalia's tree with horror. They were all dressed in an odd assortment of pyjamas and armour, most of them missing leg greaves or their breast plates only buckled half correctly.

The last to arrive were Chiron and Dionysus, both of whom looked rather disgruntled for being woken up at such a time. Chiron – much to the campers' amusement – had his tail in rollers, which seemed to take the seriousness right out of his grave expression.

Right in the centre of Thalia's tree was a deep, round infected wound that was oozing bright greeny-yellow sap. It wasn't yet clear how it was infected, but judging from the lustre already stripped from the tree, it was clear if nothing could be done, it wouldn't end well.

And curled up and base of the tree was little Leo, crying.

"I'm so sorry Annabeth. I should have noticed earlier, I should have been able to stop it, I..." Leo burst into a new round of sobs. His large brother, Beckendorf, scooped him up.

"Back to bed, little Leo. You're not to blame for this. Annabeth can't blame you." He soothed his brother, glaring at anyone who gave them a wrong look. Silena, Beckendorf's girlfriend, joined them, adding her own calm and persuasive words. While she might not have inherited her mother's charm-speaking gift, Silena still had quite the way with words, and – before they had even reached Cabin 9 – Leo had stopped crying, and simply held on to his brother for all he was worth.
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The Forbidden Forest

A young first year student glanced around himself, jumping at each small noise and every shifting leaf. He was lost, and the other beings in the forest didn't seem to want to help him at all. The large spiders had tried to attack him and the pony-men had shot him with arrows and the horned-horses had run away from him. Even the pretty sparkling fairies just blew dust in his face and darted of when he asked for help.

The little first year sat down by a tree, pulling at his yellow and black tie as he cried. All he had wanted to do was see the pretty horses the older years had talked about. And now he was cold and tired and the bad-beings had hurt him.

"Why are you crying?"

The voice was soft and gentle, like the bumbling brook he could hear beyond the bushes. The little Hufflepuff looked up, his eye ringed with red.

"I just came to see the pretty horses, but they ran away from me, and then other people tried to hurt me and I'm lost and I just want to get back to Hogwarts." He whimpered slightly, looking up at the pretty water girl who was still smiling at him.

"Well then, little one, just follow my waters upstream. My little brook starts not far from the edge of the trees. You're not far." The water naiad smiled warmly again.

"Thank you!" The boy smiled shyly. "You're pretty."

The naiad smile widened, and she held her hand out to the little boy she knew was quite special. Her Little Lords were Fated to go on many adventures with him, and it wouldn't do to keep them from each other.

Hey :) sorry it's been a while. Updating hasn't been going well at the moment...

Anyway, I hope you are still enjoying it and please bear with me for a while (bully me if I take too long though :D)

Until next time,

Smartiepants :)