Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy’s plan to get through the seventh year stood on three very simple pillars:

1. win the Quidditch Cup for the second year in a row as Slytherin captain;
2. study to get decent grades on his NEWTS to secure an apprenticeship so he could find a job after graduating;
3. stay out of trouble.

One pillar fell on the very first day of school. The headmaster announced that the inter-house Quidditch cup would not be happening this year due to the comeback of the Triwizard Tournament after centuries of hiatus. 

Another one imploded a month later, when the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived at Hogwarts. While most of the time they camped in their means of transportation — a carriage and a ship, respectively — they were also offered places to stay in Hogwarts, distributed between the four houses. They declined the offer to sleep, but that didn’t mean they didn’t partake in the festivities and clandestine parties that happened in the common rooms. 

Ever since he was allowed to visit Hogsmeade in third year, Percy had been running a contraband operation. He had discovered the secret passage to Honeydukes and often used it to smuggle stuff into the castle in exchange for money. It was mostly butterbeer and sweets from Honeydukes, but sometimes he also got things from Zonko’s.

It started small. A few sweets for first and second years. Some butterbeer for stressed OWL and NEWT students. Last minute gifts for people who didn't remember their friends or partner birthdays early enough to order by post. 

Percy charged the full price of the items, as well as a fee for transportation, the time it took him to go to Hogsmeade and back and how complicated it was to get it. He also charged more from people who were assholes to him in the past or that he knew were rich.

The operation was a success and grew over time. Soon, Percy had to learn a few complicated expansion charms so he could fit the contraband on one backpack, and some others to make everything weigh less. 

The little money his mom could spare to trade for wizarding money on Gringotts went to his uniform, books and the other stuff he needed for school. So Percy came up with this little operation on the side so he could buy things for himself and his friends. Somehow the castle staff hadn't caught him yet, but a lot of students knew about it. So whenever they wanted to throw a party, they asked for Percy's services. They could get the food from the kitchens, but drinks were harder to get. That's where Percy came in.

This time was no different. After the Goblet of Fire selected the three Champions, the students decided to throw parties basically every weekend despite school rivalries and language barriers.  The latest one was in the dungeons. Percy had absolutely no idea how Slytherin Common Room fit so many people, but once he arrived — backpack heavy, glass bottles clicking against each other inside — the place was packed with older students from the four houses, plus the other schools. 

Percy won a lot of money that night. He also lost some, because a girl from Durmstrang challenged him to a drinking game and not only did he lose — the foreigners brought their own drinks — he also got a massive hangover. Whatever the fuck people up north put on their drink, it was strong. Not even firewhisky burned that much on the way down.

Now was Sunday morning, most of the castle was asleep after last night's events, and the library was mostly empty while Percy tried to focus on his Transfiguration essay. Excited about the tournament and going to Hogsmeade so many times to get contraband, he neglected most of his homework for the past weeks. This one was due tomorrow and he had barely even started it.

He was hungry, but the only thing he was able to force down without worsening his nausea was a bowl of porridge and a few salt biscuits. His eyes were sore and his head was pounding. Percy made a mental note to never drink with the Durmstrang students again as he grabbed his quill and willed the words on the book to stop moving around so he could read.

Percy heard steps and ignored them. It was probably another unlucky bastard behind on homework. Whoever it was circled his table, grabbed a chair, dragged it on the floor in a way that nearly made his skull split open, and sat heavily in front of him. Percy closed his eyes to manage the pain behind them. If it was another person wanting something from Hogsmeade, Percy would tell them to fuck off.

“Jackson, I need your help.’’

At the sound of her voice, Percy’s head snapped up so quickly his meager breakfast almost made a trip back up. He squinted to block the offending sunlight, but there was no mistake. In front of him sat none other than Hogwarts' Champion Annabeth Chase.

Since there was no class today, she had abandoned her uniform. Instead, she wore a light blue knitted jumper over a white shirt and dark trousers, curly hair up in her usual ponytail and her sharp gray eyes looking at him expectantly.

Percy wondered if he had fallen asleep while doing his essay and this was a dream. Because other than brief interactions during classes, barbed teasing on quidditch matches or when their respective friend groups overlapped, Percy could count on one hand the number of conversations he had with her. 

He sighed. "Look, I can see if there's any leftovers from the party last night but I really don't have time to go to Hogsmeade again until I finish this."

"That's not why I'm here," she countered before Percy could get back to his essay. Then what could she possibly want from him? The last time Annabeth had bothered to talk to him was to order some trinkets from Zunko's for her brothers' birthday last year. He almost turned her down, wary she was gathering proof to shut down his little operation. She was a prefect, after all, and not particularly fond of him. 

"Then what is it?"

Annabeth took a deep breath. Despite the fact she had sought him out, she seemed reluctant to say whatever it was. Annabeth looked around to see if anybody was eavesdropping and cast a muffliato for good measure before leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. 

"I've been trying to prepare for the Fist Task and I'm pretty sure it involves some kind of creature."

Her posture was casual. Her voice was not. Interest piqued, headache momentarily forgotten, Percy mirrored Annabeth's position.

"How do you know that?"

"Magnus mentioned that aunt Natalie is visiting sometime in the next few weeks. She works at the Beast Division in the Department of Magical Creatures, so she's usually abroad. The only reason I can think of for her to come here right now is the tournament."

"What does any of that have to do with me?"

"If they're bringing a creature to Hogwarts, Hagrid is probably involved. As irresponsible as he is, he's our resident expert. They'll ask for his input on how to best accommodate it in the castle grounds. If not, at the very least he'll know what it is. I want you to ask him for me."

Percy blinked. "Me? Why?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, as if impatient with his slowness to catch up.

"Everybody knows you're his favorite student since you mounted that wild Pegasus in third year. What was his name? Buckbeak?"

"Blackjack." Buckbeak was the name of another dangerous flying creature Hagrid brought to class. And it was true. Every teacher had their favorite students, but Hagrid was pretty bad at hiding his favoritism. He sent Christmas and birthday gifts to Percy and his mom, invited him over for tea and whenever he brought a new creature he looked expectantly at him. Most of the students grew up hearing about how annoying, boring or dangerous a creature could be, but for Percy everything was new. The kind of stuff he only ever saw in movies before coming to Hogwarts, he couldn't help but share Hagrid's fascination with each of them. "Why don't you ask your aunt?"

"She would never risk her job. Also, she would think it's cheating."

"It is cheating."

Annabeth shook her head. "It would be if the other champions didn't know about it. But seeing how they acted in the interviews, I'm pretty sure they at least have an idea. Makes sense, the other headmasters would not want to travel so far just to lose. They're gonna give their students every advantage they can. Except for Dumbledore. The only thing he said to me since the choosing ceremony was 'good luck'."

"It's very unfortunate that our headmaster doesn't like cheating, but I'm not manipulating Hagrid to get information. Ask him yourself."

"Professors can't help the Champions, it's against the rules and he knows that. But if you asked him, however…" 

Percy drummed his fingers on the table, tilting his head slightly to look at Annabeth. That was a very Slytherin way of thinking.

"My, my, Chase. Maybe all this time you should've been wearing green instead of blue."

The corner of her mouth lifted in an almost smirk. "The Hat considered. I thought my sorting took long, but yours certainly broke the record."

"You remember that?" Percy asked, surprised. 

"Of course. We were all starving but the Sorting Ceremony never ended because the Hat spent half a century muttering to itself about where to put you."

"What can I say, I have many qualities to choose from." Despite his quip, at the time Percy had been terrified. He spent so many minutes sitting on that stool — feeling the Hat inside his mind, watching McGonagall's worried face before him and the muttering of the students echoing across the great hall — that he thought somebody would say that this was all a mistake and he would take the train back to London.

"So you'll do it?" Annabeth asked, bringing the conversation back on track. "Please?"

Percy exhaled, rubbing his eyes. He supposed there was no harm in talking to Hagrid. He wanted her to win, of course. And she had a good chance, too. Annabeth was the best witch of their year, of all the Hogwarts students that put their names on the Goblet of Fire, Percy agreed she was by far the best candidate.

But his head was still pounding. And his essay, still unfinished.

"I will, but it'll have to wait. I need to finish my essays first. I've been busy, you know?" He said in a pained voice. "And I woke up with this terrible headache." 

"I wonder why," she deadpanned and Percy blinked innocently at her. She sighed through her teeth and dragged her chair closer to his. He caught a whiff of her shampoo, and cursed the Durmstrang students again. He was probably still perspiring alcohol even after his shower this morning. "Fine. I'll help you. But you have to promise to talk to Hagrid as soon as we're done."

"Scout's honour."

"What?"

"Nevermind."

Percy didn't know at the time, but that was the exact moment the third pillar of his plan crumbled to dust.

🪄   🪄   🪄

It was early evening when Percy crossed the school grounds to Hagrid’s hut. After a whole day at the library, and still nursing a mild pain behind his eyes, he wanted nothing more than to go to his dorm and crawl into bed. But he’d promised Annabeth, and Percy was a man of his word. So he grabbed the two butterbeers that survived the party last night and left the castle.

As usual, he was greeted by Fang trying to lick his face and by the burnt smell of Hagrid’s failed baking attempts. Over the years, Sally and Hagrid exchanged letters and she tried to give him a few tips, but most of what he made was only edible if there was a beverage at hand to wash it down. They talked for a bit about the tournament, classes, and what they thought about the foreign students. Percy, testing the resilience of his teeth, was halfway through a piece of cake hard as a brick when he casually brought up the reason for his visit.

‘’There are some bets among the students. Who’s gonna win, what the tasks are going to be. Some people think they'll bring some sort of creature for the first one.”

Hagrid choked on a piece of cake. His large hand went clumsily towards the table, searching for his mug, but only managed to knock it down. Percy slid his own drink to him and watched as Hagrid drank it all in one gulp.

“How do you know that?” he asked when his windpipes were free of obstruction. 

So Annabeth was right. All this secrecy, and that mad girl managed to sniff the right answer from a passing comment her cousin made like a hunting dog.

Percy shrugged, remaining casual. “There was a party in the dungeons last night, some students were speculating about it. So it’s true then? Have you seen the creatures?”

Hagrid got up, mumbling to himself that he should not have said anything. 

“Come on! I know you must be dying to talk about this. I mean, it’s the Triwizard Tournament, it’s gotta be something epic.” The man’s expression got pained, like he was, in fact, dying to talk about it. 

“You’re gonna see them on the day of the first task like everybody else.”

Percy turned his excitement down a notch, knowing he was almost there. “Plus, I still haven’t decided what I’m gonna do after finishing school. I spent most of my summers in muggle London, I didn’t get the chance to see much of what jobs are like in the wizarding  world. Maybe if I see how professionals handle magical creatures that’ll help me decide. Have a peek behind the curtains, you know?”

It wasn’t a lie. Percy was confused about his career prospects, and he had seriously considered Hagrid’s suggestion to work with magical creatures, since it was something he was interested in and good at. The fact that Percy brought this up now to get the information he wanted didn’t make it any less true.

“Fine! I can’t say what it is, it’s supposed to be a secret. But I can’t stop you from coming here and following me into the forbidden forest around midnight next saturday. And if by any chance you see a team of wizards bringing the creatures… well.”

Percy grinned, grateful. He spent some more time with Hagrid, helped to clean the mess and scratched behind Fang’s ears before heading back to the castle. He intended to eat his dinner as fast as he could and get some much needed sleep before the classes kicked his ass tomorrow, but again, his plan was interrupted by Annabeth Chase, who cornered him as he was leaving the great hall.

“I think you spoke more to me today than in the seven years we’ve known each other,’’ Percy muttered.

“So? What did he say?” 

"Always cut to the chase, hm?"

"Very clever. What did he say?"

Percy told her that she was right about the creatures, and that Hagrid would welcome the team handling them next Saturday in the Forbidden Forest.

“I’ll follow Hagrid and find out what they are. Then I’ll tell you.”

“That leaves me with two days to prepare,” Annabeth muttered more to herself than to Percy. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head. Her eyes turned glassy, she was clearly lost in thought.

"Alright," Percy said, turning to leave. "Good talk."

She caught his sleeve. "I don't have to warn you not to tell anyone else about this, do I?"

Percy had been wondering when Annabeth would use the fact that he regularly left the castle without permission to try and blackmail him. But even without that, he was no snitch.

"No you don't. Now, If you'll excuse me..."

She let go of his arm and didn't stop him when he tried to go away this time, and he was finally able to get his much needed sleep.

They didn't talk again during the week. His routine went mostly back to normal, as much as it could be with the amount of students wearing light blue or crimson red among the black Hogwarts uniform wandering the hallways or attending classes. There were translators beside the teachers in sixth and seventh year classes, and they talked much slower so the foreigners could catch up. 

A group from Beauxbatons was furiously talking in french when they saw Percy. Clearly frustrated, they tried to ask for directions. Their english was broken, and Percy's french was nonexisting, but eventually they managed to communicate. 

Although it wasn't mandatory, Percy and some others signed up to attend the few lessons the other schools had on the carriage and the ship.

Saturday finally came, and Percy spent the entire day feeling restless. He stole a glance to the Ravenclaw table at dinner and found that Annabeth was already looking at him. He nodded once to let her know he hadn't forgotten about tonight and went back to his dessert.

At this point, sneaking out of his common room was second nature to Percy. He became well acquainted with secret passages, proficient at disillusionment charms and an expert in avoiding Filch, patrolling prefects and Peeves the Poltergeist. It took some time, because the castle was more crowded and alert than usual this year, but he finally managed to get out of the castle.

"What took you so long?" 

"Fuck!" Percy yelped, one hand over his heart and another drawing his wand. He couldn't see anyone but he was sure someone hissed those words in his ear.

Finally, the air oscillated in front of him and Annabeth's head appeared out of nowhere, fluctuating without a body.

"What the hell, Chase? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Your heart is young, it can take a tiny scare."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm the one who's gonna face the creature, remember? I wanna see what it is."

“What? No. Hagrid can get in trouble if—’’

“Relax, Jackson, as you can see — or not see —, I came prepared."

Now that his heart was slowing, Percy looked at Annabeth again, paying more attention. It wasn't a disillusionment charm, it was way too strong for that. He couldn't see anything even if he knew where her body was supposed to be.

"Is that an invisibility cloak?" 

Annabeth nodded, which was really weird when he could only see her head. "Not the invisibility cloak, but this one is pretty good. My mother gave it to me on my 12th birthday and only now the magic is starting to wear off."

Percy stared for a few more seconds. Even if not permanent or fully resistant to revelio spells as the original one, they were extremely expensive. He had looked up because having one would certainly make his smuggling activies easier, but gave up after seeing the price. 

"What do you use it for? Getting books from the Restrict Section without permission?"

"Among other things. You’re not the only one who can break the rules without getting caught.”

Percy’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Who are you?"

For the first time it occurred to him that the image he had of Annabeth Chase — strict prefect, arrogant know-it-all, who strutted around the school like she was blessed by Rowena Ravenclaw herself — might not be accurate at all.

"Let's go," she said and started to walk. "We're gonna be late."

"Can you remove the cloak? I don't like talking with a floating head, it's unsettling." Instead of taking it off, Annabeth covered her head again, disappearing completely. 

Percy sighed. It was probably for the best, anyway. They crossed the castle grounds towards Hagrid's hut, the only sign Annabeth was still around was the ground flattening softly beneath her shoes. When they got closer, there was some moviment inside the hut. Hagrid usually talked to Fang, but this time he apparently had other company. Percy walked to the pile of pumpkins that survived the Halloween's carving carnage and signaled for Annabeth to follow and had to hope she did.

After a few seconds, her head was visible again. "Madame Maxime is inside with Hagrid. I told you the other schools would cheat!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "So you were right, congratulations." He checked his watch. "They're gonna leave any minute now, let's wait."

"Here?" It wasn't ideal. The wind was cold, the ground was wet and the pumpkins were so overly ripe that the air had a sickly sweet smell. But it wasn't like they could knock and ask Hagrid to wait inside.

"I'm sorry the accomodations are not up to your standads, princess, but I promise you'll survive."

Annabeth's jaw clenched at the nickname, but before she could say anything, the door opened. Percy ducked behind a large pumpkin and she covered herself again with the cloak. 

Hagrid exited the hut and offered his arm to Madame Maxime. She took it and they both walked away, just at the edge of the forbidden forest. Annabeth removed her cloak and they shared an incredulous look.

"At least they'll be easy to follow," Percy commented, not knowing what else to say. "C'mon."

"Wait," Annabeth grabbed his elbow. She unfurled the invisibility cloak and threw over them.

"It's not big enough for both of us," Percy said, seeing that the fabric barely reached his knees. 

"Only our legs will be out. And it's dark, no one will notice."

He decided not to argue. Silently, walking so close together it was a miracle they didn't trip each other, they followed the giant, moonlit silhouettes of Hagrid and madame Maxime. 

They walked for several minutes, so far around the perimeter of the forest that they couldn't see the castle anymore. Finally, they started hearing roars and shouting, and didn't take long until they saw what seemed to be a giant bonfire burn high on the dark sky and suddenly disappear. 

Then Percy understood what he was seeing. In an open clearing, there was a round fence. Inside, there were three large cages with the gates still open. About twenty wizards were running around, yelling at each other to be heard over the roaring beasts. One of them threw it's massive reptilian head back and spit a large column of fire.

Dragons. The Champions would be facing dragons.

Percy watched, mesmerized, as the witches and wizards tried to manage the beasts, getting them out of the cages and putting iron collars around their necks. One of them seemed sluggish, confused, but the other two seemed to be angry, straining against the chains. 

Someone tried to close the collar on the neck of the larger one and the dragon reared back, knocking the wizard down. Another one shook its elongated body, struggling against the wizards trying to put a muzzle on it.

"Bloody hell, why are they awake? I thought they drugged them with sleeping draught," somebody complained.

"They probably underestimated the dose," answered a woman with dark blond hair in a curly pixie cut and a mean scar that crossed her cheek and the bridge of her nose. Percy could barely make out a ministry badge pinned on her robes. "Everyone, stunning spells on three! One, two…."

The crack of a dozen simultaneous spells swallowed the last number and the night was painted red. The dragon fell slowly with a loud thud. Half a dozen wizards hurried to put the chains and collar on the fallen dragon. The others were still strapping the muzzle on the long dragon.

A few meters ahead, Hagrid gestured to Madame Maxime to stay behind a tree and got closer to the fence.

"Hey, Hagrid!" Greeted the scarred witch from before. "Please tell me this is the right spot, it would be a nightmare to move them again."

"It's here," the giant answered a bit distantly, still looking at the dragons in awe. "What are they gonna do with them? The Champions aren't supposed to kill them are they?"

"Merlin, no. I can't tell  you exactly what it is, but you can't expect those kids to be able to kill a grown dragon.  And these are protected creatures, if one of them gets seriously injured I'm gonna get buried alive in paperwork."

"Is that your aunt?" Percy asked. When no answer came, he turned to look at Annabeth. She looked like she was about to be sick, watching the scene before her like she was staring Death in the face. Which she might as well be, considering how dangerous and ferocious dragons were.

Percy, for his part, was more fascinated than afraid. But again, he wasn't the one who was going to face them in front of hundreds of people. 

Annabeth's eyes were darting around the clearing, looking at each dragon and growing more pale by the second. Before Percy could say anything she started to walk backwards, and once she was far enough to leave without being noticed, started to run, pulling the cloak along.

Percy looked at the clearing for one more second before following her, but he was not able to forget the fury in the dragons' eyes even as their roars and growls were mere distant sounds in the night.

Chapter Text

At some point in the run back to the castle, Annabeth had covered herself with the cloak again. Percy couldn’t see her, but he could hear her steps and he managed to follow her until they got back into the castle. A flickering flame on the sconce on the wall told him which direction she’d run to, but then, nothing. He looked around, but knew it was useless.

“Annab—” a hand clamped over his mouth before he could finish calling her name. Invisible hands pushed his chest, forcing him to walk backwards until his back collided with a door. It was only ajar, so it opened under his weight to reveal a dark classroom. 

“Shout louder, will you? I don’t think they heard you in London,” Annabeth hissed. Percy extended his hand in the direction of her voice until his fingers closed on the silky fabric of the cloak and pulled, revealing her scowl. “Are you trying to get caught?”

“I didn’t know how else to find you,” he said as she impatiently flickered her wand towards the door, closing it with a soft click.

“Didn't it occur to you that maybe I didn’t want to be found? Word of advice, Jackson, if a girl runs away from you it usually means she doesn’t want your company!”

“Really? I thought you ran because you were scared of the dragons.”

There was just enough moonlight coming through the windows to cast a pale glow over Annabeth’s hair and eyes, making them glint like cold steel.

“Thanks for your help,’’ she said in a tone that could start a new Ice Age. “Now kindly fuck off.”

In other circumstances, Percy would have. But he was wired, nerves buzzing, heart still slowing after running all the way from the forest to the castle. There was absolutely no way he could just go to bed after seeing what was in that clearing. Annabeth was probably going through something similar, with the added bonus of now knowing what she would have to face in just two days. 

"Unless you wanna risk being disqualified from the tournament by telling someone else about the dragons, I’m the only person you can talk to about this.’’

“Talking isn’t gonna help me defeat a bloody dragon!”

Annabeth started to pace like a caged animal. Meanwhile, Percy sat on one of the chairs and looked around. They were in the muggle studies classroom. It was full of trinkets, like a museum. Percy had taken that class in third year for easy credit, but had also been curious to know what wizards thought they should know about muggles. Turns out, most of the stuff was outdated by about fifty years. In their showroom they had a model of an airplane and a rocket, a dial telephone, an old computer, an arcade and a few other technological things from the last century.

“Well, they said you don’t have to kill it. What do you think the task is?”

Annabeth was still stomping the floor like it had personally offended her. “I don’t know all that much about dragons, but they’re famous hoarders. If I had to guess, I’d say they’ll tell us to retrieve something they’re guarding.”

“Right. They’re also famously fiercely protective about the things they’re hoarding, so… how do you plan on getting past them?”

“I don’t know. There are different species on that clearing, I’d have to adjust the strategy to each one. I would assume it’s one dragon for each champion, but there’s also the possibility that we’ll have to go through all three of them and still face each other. I just—” Annabeth stopped pacing and buried the heel of her hands against her eyes. She exhaled and seemed to deflate, throwing herself on the chair in front of him. “I don’t think I had fully grasped the total scope of what I got myself into until I saw them in that clearing.”

“I mean,” Percy said slowly, not wanting her to raise her hackles again. “The Tournament was banned in the first place because of the amount of deaths. Dumbledore was pretty clear about how dangerous this would be in his opening speech.”

“I guess I thought… I don’t know. I put my name on impulse. Didn’t really think the Goblet would choose me.’’

Annabeth was usually so confident that it was very strange to see her being uncertain.

“And why did you?” 

She was silent for so long that Percy thought she would ignore the question. Instead, Annabeth took a deep breath and said so quietly he had to strain his ears to hear. “I need the money prize.”

Of all the things she could have answered — that she was bored, that she wanted eternal glory, that she thought she was the best candidate to represent the school or anything of that sort that would marry well into the version of Annabeth Chase he knew — Percy was not expecting that. He gaped at her, certain he heard wrong.

Her mom was some bigshot at the DMLE and her dad worked for years designing racing brooms for other companies until he finally launched his own model, the Chaser 1.0, and took the market by storm. And that was not even counting her extended family. Percy had seen dragons not even an hour ago, but somehow hearing someone whose last name was in a whole ass broom model saying she had money problems was the most absurd thing he witnessed tonight. He thought a thousand galleons was just what her family spent on a weekend in Italy or wherever the hell she went on summer vacations.

His thoughts were probably showing on his face, because she added. “Look, I know what you’re thinking. But it’s my parents’ money, not mine.”

Percy’s eyes rolled so hard he probably saw the inside of his skull. ‘’If I had a knut for every time I heard t—”

“It’s their vault. Me having permission to access it is conditional to either me being a good girl and playing along with whatever they want for my future, or if they support what I want to do. Neither of those options apply to me.”

“And what do they have planned for you that is so bad you decided to fight dragons instead?”

Annabeth hesitated, clearly torn between keep saying more or telling him to fuck off again. “It’s not bad, exactly,” she started slowly. “I just want to live my own life. See the world and do stuff instead of spending my entire life playing the neverending political game of the Ministry as mother wants me to do.”

“So… your parents would disown you because you want to choose your own career?”

There seemed to be more to it, but whatever it was, Annabeth clearly didn’t want to share. She stared at the window. “It’s complicated, you wouldn’t understand.” 

Percy’s anger flared at that. It was not the first time someone tried to shut him down in a conversation about wizarding culture, as if there were things too complicated for the clueless muggleborn to understand. But he let go. Over time, he had started to accept there was some stuff that was never going to make sense to him, especially pureblood traditions that seemed to be even more outdated than the muggle technology displayed in that showroom. 

“So what are you gonna do if you win?” he asked instead.

“I’m going to apply for an apprenticeship at Gringotts to be a cursebreaker. There is a lot of theoretical work with runes and arithmancy, but they get to travel and find rare artifacts and types of magic that are so ancient they’re basically extinct.” When offered the option to take those classes, Percy had taken one look at the ancient runes and arithmancy course and noped out as fast as he could, but Annabeth’s eyes lit up as she talked about it. “They don’t usually charge the apprentices but there are a lot of other costs to cover. Protective gear, travel expenses… not to mention that I’ll have to live somewhere and keep buying basic stuff. I was planning on getting odd jobs at Diagon Alley, but if I win the tournament, things will be a lot easier.’’

Percy kept looking at Annabeth. Her little speech shouldn’t have plucked at his heartstrings, not when he struggled with money his whole life, not when most of his books were second hand, not when he and his mum always had to buy the cheapest version of every item on his school list of supplies even with the Hogwarts fund to help them. But he could not summon any resentment towards her. Instead, he found himself rooting for her even more. It wasn’t impersonal anymore, because he wanted Hogwarts to win the tournament. Percy wanted Annabeth to succeed. 

He reached for his pocket and took out a little notebook and a pen. Most of the professors only accepted essays and tests to be written with quill and parchment, but Percy still preferred pen and paper for his personal notes. It was faster, more organized and he didn’t get ink stains everywhere. Percy flipped through the pages, ignoring the lists of orders he'd written down and the table of prices for Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes until he found an empty page. 

“What are you doing?” Annabeth asked as he uncapped the pen with his teeth and started doodling.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come tonight, so I brought this notebook to write down any information you might need to complete the First Task since I don’t really trust my memory. But I got a pretty good look at those dragons.’’

She was quiet as Percy finished his rough sketch, ripped the page and pushed it towards her.

“Okay so this one,” he started, pointing at the first doodle representing the larger dragon that breathed fire and the wizards had to stun. It had scaly wings and spikes on its head, back and tail. “It’s the only actual dragon of the bunch. From what we’ve seen, we can assume it’s not very friendly.”

“And this,” he continued, dragging his finger to the next creature. It was also big, but it had no legs and no wings. The body was scaly and elongated like a very large snake. On its head, there were two protruded bones like horns, and a thin membrane around it that reminded Percy of a cobra. “I think this one is a drakon. They don’t usually breathe fire, but some can spit acid venom, so be careful with that.”

“Finally, the last one,” he said, tapping the smaller creature with his pen. It had one pair of legs and one pair of wings, like a bird. Instead of being the size of a bus or a train like the previous ones, this creature was the size of a large horse. “It’s a wyvern. Don’t let its size fool you, these things are fast, and their fangs and claws more than compensate for the fact they don’t spit anything. It was very dark in the clearing, so I didn’t get a good look at their colours, they usually help identify their species and it would be easier to figure out their weaknesses. But there are books about them in the library, maybe those can help you.”

Annabeth looked up from the sketch and stared at him. “How do you know so much about dragons?”

He shrugged. They were fascinating creatures, and the first topic eleven year old Percy was excited to dive into when found out magical creatures existed. Hagrid was also a big fan, so they bonded over it. “I think they’re cool.”

“These drawings are pretty good, too. This will be very helpful. Thank you.”

She sounded so earnest that Percy’s face got a little warm. He cleared his throat and got up, pocketing his notebook again. “I should go back to the dorm before my luck runs out, but once you figure out your strategy I can help you train. If you want.”

Percy was almost at the door when Annabeth spoke again.

“Why are you doing all this?”

“Because my liver still hasn’t recovered from my attempt to look cool in front of the foreign students, and all of that will be for nothing if you embarrass our school in that arena.”

She smiled. A timid tilt of the corner of her mouth at first, but then her whole face was beaming. “Of course. Don’t worry, I won’t let your sacrifice go to waste.”

🪄   🪄   🪄

Percy was sure Annabeth Chase had finally lost her mind. 

His offer to help her train had been real, but he didn’t think she would take it. Either she actually respected Percy’s magical abilities or she was so desperate it didn’t matter. Annabeth found him after breakfast looking like she had not slept a wink and started talking about the research she did, all while leading him up so many flights of stairs that he started to sweat under his jacket.

Now they were on the seventh floor, across the tapestry from Barnabas the Barmy, and Annabeth was pacing in front of the wall with a look of concentration so intense one would think she was performing brain surgery. 

“Look, I understand that pacing holes on the floor is kind of your thing, but did you really have to drag me through seven floors to do it?”

Annabeth stopped. She didn’t say anything, but the wall behind her started to change. Before, it was just smooth stone, but as he watched, it was transmuting into a simple wood door with a golden handle. She turned it and pushed the door open, revealing a large room that was mostly empty except for training mats on the floor and a few wood dummies.

“How did I never notice this place? Is it an abandoned classroom?” Percy asked, looking around curiously. He had spent a lot of his free time just exploring the halls of Hogwarts, feeling the stones, talking to the tapestries, portraits, ghosts and armors. He wanted to know the hidden history of the place, something Bathilda Bagshot didn't bother to write in her book. It was how he found most of the secret passages and shortcuts he knew about. But this place…

“This is The Room of Requirement, it can be anything you want it to be,” Annabeth said, confirming his suspicions. “Some people have heard about it but think it’s just a rumor, very few actually know how to find it,’’ and she was very obviously proud to be one of them. “You have to walk past the hidden door three times and concentrate on what you need. Then voilà.”

Displaying a level of maturity and restraint that he typically wouldn’t have, Percy refrained to make a joke about how Annabeth had an invisibility cloak and access to a secret room that could be anything she wanted. No wonder he never heard a single scandalous thing about her. It’s not that she was a saint, she was just really fucking good at not being caught, he had to respect that.

“Normally I don’t tell people about this place, but I couldn't risk anybody hearing us talking about the Task. If I ever want to use the Room and find out that it’s locked because you decided to bring a girl here, I’m sending you to St. Mungus.”

“Relax, Chase, I promise not to steal your snogging spot,” he said, deciding to make that joke after all.  “I have my own.”

Percy couldn’t tell if her blush was from embarrassment or annoyance. “I don’t—,” she started protesting, but after seeing his smirk, apparently decided that it was best to drop the subject in favour of explaining what they were going to do. 

What Annabeth wanted from him was very simple. Regardless of what she would have to do, she probably would not have peace of mind to fully concentrate on casting the spells while being attacked by a dragon and possibly the other champions. So he just had to duel her while she tried to transfigurate the objects in the room, parry his attacks or summon stuff to her. 

She was leagues ahead of him in the theoretical subjects, but he’d always been able to give her a run for her money in Charms or DADA. Percy avoided the spells that could hurt her, so he mainly used stinging jinxes and stunning spells. After some time, he also asked the Room for some ball launchers, the ones athletes used to train, and charmed it so it threw balls at Annabeth at random times and speed to test her reflexes.

Percy was reanimating her after a well aimed stupefy when his stomach grumbled. They had missed lunch, but fortunately, he came prepared. Before meeting Annabeth, he stole sandwiches and a bottle of apple juice from the breakfast table.

“Lunch break,” Percy announced, sitting cross legged on the floor as she struggled to get up. Annabeth just blinked at him and nodded, reaching for her own bag. Instead of getting food, she just took out a vial with what he recognized as Invigoration Draught and drank it in one gulp like a stressed university student before a test. Percy prayed she never found out about Red Bull. 

He waited, but she didn't take anything else out of the bag. "You're not gonna eat anything?"

"Dinner is only a few hours away and I ate plenty at breakfast."

Percy doubted that. He sighed and gave her the other sandwich. "I packed enough for both of us. If you keep using your magic like that without eating anything I won't even have to stun you before you pass out."

Actually he brought both sandwiches for himself. He thought Annabeth would be sensible enough to bring her own food, but clearly her priorities were elsewhere. 

"Did you figure out your strategy to fight the dragons?" Percy asked as he poured some juice in a glass for her as well. 

"I think so. I did some research and I really hope I don’t get the Drakon, those things are vicious. In some stories, they don’t sleep, don’t blink, are forever vigilant of the things they’re guarding. I’d have to do something pretty big to lure it away. The dragon I think I can use transfiguration to distract it. And the speed of the wyvern may be a problem, but I can be faster if I use my broom.” 

“One tiny problem with that,” Percy said, “You can only use your wand on the tasks.”

Annabeth shook her head. “They say we have to start the task armed only with our wands. They never said anything about summoning charms.”

“So… you’re saying that if something is not explicitly against the rules, then it’s not cheating?”

She must’ve sensed something in his tone, because she narrowed her eyes. “Where are you going with this?”

“Nowhere. But the Quidditch final last year—”

It was Slytherin vs Ravenclaw. Annabeth had been a seeker on the team since third year and she was so goddamn efficient that Madam Hooch started to release the snitch later on in the game so it didn’t end so fast. Her house did not win the Cup that year, but won in her fourth and fifth by an embarrassing margin. Last year, though, the previous Slytherin captain had finally graduated and the title went to Percy. Octavian begrudgingly let him on the team, but it was no secret that the guy hated his guts, so he never let the other chasers do the strategies that Percy suggested. Now with no one to stop him, he tried some unconventional plays. And it worked. By the final game, his team was a well oiled machine, he and the other chasers were like different limbs of a single entity. 

His seeker, while decent, wasn’t a match for Annabeth. But the Ravenclaw team had become overly reliant on her getting the snitch and ending the game quickly, so Percy put nearly half of the Slytherin team on her tail while he and the other chasers scored points as fast as they could. The first time she went for the snitch, his seeker body slammed her. The second, the two beaters flanked her and basically used Annabeth as a net while playing tennis with the bludger, forcing her to dodge so many times the snitch disappeared again. The third time, her fingers were millimeters away from the tiny ball when Percy stole the quaffle from the hands of his own team mate and threw it at her, hitting the back of her head. Annabeth had been so enraged that Percy thought she would dismount her broom and use it to beat him to death. While he was busy being yelled at, the other team got the ball and scored, but better 10 points than 150.

In the end, she still caught the snitch. But by that time, Slytherin had enough points ahead that it would have ended in a tie had he not scored a second before her flingers closed around the golden snitch. To say Annabeth had been pissed would be an understatement, and the Ravenclaw team was shouting at Madam Hooch that Percy had cheated and using a quaffle as a bludger was against the rules. Turns out there was no rule about that, so their protests were deafened by the victorious roar that erupted from the Slytherin stands.

Though Annabeth, being the sore loser that she was, still maintained that he cheated. The Ravenclaw as a whole gave Percy withering looks on the hallways for the rest of the school year. Very much like Annabeth was doing right now.

“Merlin’s beard,” she stared at the ceiling, as if gathering patience. “You’re infuriating.’’

“I’m just saying that by your own logic…”

“Fine!” she threw her hands up. “You didn’t cheat, your house won fair and square. Happy?”

“Very.”

They didn't train much after that. Percy had to leave to meet his friends, but Annabeth stayed in the Room of Requirement, still practicing transfiguration. 

He was now in the Hufflepuff common room in a chaotic round of exploding snap with Grover, Hazel, Nico and Juniper. Bianca and Will were near, halfway through an epic match of wizarding chess, when Piper came through the door.

"Where were you?" she asked Percy, sitting beside him on the floor and stealing the box of beans from his lap.

"Right here," he answered, still focused on the game. 

Percy probably spent as much time in the Hufflepuff common room as he did in Slytherin's. Grover was the first friend he made, and for his first two years at Hogwarts he felt more welcomed there than he ever did in his own House. It took him a while to find his footing as the only muggleborn in a place that still valued blood purity, but he found out that not everyone there was bad. Bianca was nice and he liked to talk to Piper because as a halfblood, she didn't stare at him blankly every time he made a pop culture reference. But she was also a terrible gossip.

"I meant before," she said, trying a bean and grimacing at the taste. "You think I didn't notice you sneaking out last night? You also were nowhere to be found at lunch."

Grover looked up from his cards, interested. "Never thought I'd witness a day when Percy Jackson missed a meal."

"He was probably tasting the foreign cuisine," Nico chimed in.

"Or maybe he got lost while giving directions to ze french students," Hazel added in a mock french accent and the others sniggered.

"Bianca, do something about your siblings, they're out of control."

"I'm busy kicking Will's arse."

"If I had to guess I'd say it's that Durmstrang you were drinking with last week," Piper said.

"A gentleman never tells," was the only thing Percy answered. It was easier if they thought he was hanging out with the foreign students than explain why he was suddenly sneaking around with Annabeth. 

The topic of conversation quickly changed to the Tournament, as it often did these days. Percy contributed to the wild theories his friends had about the First Task, but his mind kept going back to Annabeth and how she was still probably practicing in the Room of Requirement.

The next day, Percy didn't see her until early evening, when he had his last class and went to the seventh floor. He hesitated before walking in front of the wall, concentrating on the training room Annabeth showed him yesterday.

To his surprise, it worked. Annabeth started when she saw him, but went back to what she was doing, attacking the moving training dummies.

"These ball launcher things are very useful," she said, hoisting her wand and wiping the sweat off her brow. 

"You've been here since yesterday?" Percy asked. 

"No. But I spent most of the day here. The professors said I could be excused from classes to prepare for the Tasks, so…" she paused. "And what are you doing here?"

"I suspected you'd be here and came to say you should get some rest before tomorrow, even if you're not gonna listen."

"I know that, rationally. I just can't relax. Practicing seems more useful than just staying in bed tossing and turning all night."

"I figured that might be the case, so I brought you something," Percy said, carefully getting his discman out of his backpack. 

One of the things he missed most about the muggle world was technology, especially listening to music whenever he felt like it. Percy tried to bring his phone to Hogwarts once and the magic messed with it so bad it fried the software, reducing it to a useless piece of junk. But he found out older devices weren't so affected and could even work with some complicated spells and replacing the metals inside for more magic resistant ones. He didn't know how to do it, but Beckendorf did. He was obsessed with making technology work at magical places.

Annabeth came closer and stared curiously. Percy didn't know what kind of music she liked, so he brought his cd wallet so she could choose. She stiffened a bit when he stood in front of her and put the earbuds in her ears before pressing play.

It was so loud that Percy could hear Freddie Mercury yelling "we are the champions." He laughed when Annabeth jumped, taking the earphones out.

"What is that?"

"Sorry, I forgot it was so loud," he said, turning the volume down. "It's a portable music player. Muggles don't actually use this model anymore, but anything newer gets immediately fried around magic."

Annabeth looked at the discman with renewed interest. "Did you make it work?"

"Beckendorf did," she nodded. He had been a Ravenclaw as well, Annabeth was well acquainted with his genius. What he didn't say was that finding a computer with a disc entrance these days so he could burn the songs into the cds was almost as hard as Beckendorf's spellwork. Percy showed how to turn it on, control the volume and change the cds. "It's my most prized possession, so I want it back. But you can have it for tonight, it might help you relax."

Annabeth cradled the discman like she was holding an infant. "I promise to take care of it."

She was curious enough about the device that she didn't protest when Percy suggested she leave the Room of Requirement. They stopped on the stairs, where they were going to part ways. She was going up, for the Ravenclaw tower and Percy was going down, to the dungeons. 

"Thanks for your help," she said before leaving. "Really."

"You can thank me by winning," he answered. "And if I don't see you tomorrow before the Task… good luck."

🪄    🪄   🪄

The afternoon was sunny despite the biting cold wind and the stands around the arena were packed with teenagers. The professors, press and some important guests from the ministry were in a VIP stand a little closer to the arena.

The buzz of hundreds of simultaneous conversations filled the air and the wizards Percy had seen in the forest were checking the bars and the wards on the top of the arena so the dragons' wouldn't escape and attack the crowd.

Percy was so anxious that he discreetly started selling the new candy stash he got from Honeydukes. He saved some for himself and his friends, but only sat down when Ludo Bagman's amplified voice echoed through the arena. 

He welcomed the crowd, talked about the sponsors and made some jokes until he finally explained what the task was going to be. A loud cheer erupted from the stands when he finally revealed the dragons.

"These dragons are nesting mothers. We put the nest in the middle of the arena and, among them, there is one golden egg. Getting it is both the goal of the task today and a clue for the second one. To avoid problems, the eggs around it are engorged chicken eggs instead of their real nest, but the Champions will not have this information and points will be deducted from them if they damage the nest. Their score at the end will be based on five things: speed, magical ability, intelligence, efficiency and, of course, spectacle. We all want a good show, don't we?"

The crowd cheered again. Bagman excused himself to talk to the champions and a couple of wizards followed him, each levitating a mirror. Above the arena, there was a larger one, almost the same size as a cinema screen. It had been blank the whole time, but when Bagman entered the Champions's tent, it flickered like the surface of a lake before showing the interior of the tent.

The mirrors the wizards were carrying had Protean charms linking it to the bigger one. Everything reflected on one surface would also appear on the other, like a TV transmission. Beckendorf had excitedly explained the concept to him a couple of years ago, when it was used for the first time in the Quidditch World Cup. In Percy's opinion it was a poor substitute for what muggles already had, but it was better than nothing. 

Bagman was explaining the task for the Champions, and his amplified voice was echoing in the arena. They were all wearing similar clothes — dark trousers, light shirt and a long sleeved tunic the color of their respective schools.

"Your goal is to get past the creatures and retrieve the golden egg. The task will be over after you go through the door on the opposite side of the arena," Bagman was saying. "There are professionals flying around in case anything goes wrong, but if at any moment you need assistance, point your wands up and cast red sparks. But be aware that will make you fail the task. Any questions? No? Let's begin then."

The man took a silk bag out of his pocket and shook it dramatically. "Miss Chase, since you're from the hosting school, why don't you go first?"

Annabeth took a deep breath and stepped forward. Her tunic was black, and the Hogwarts crest was shining on the left side of her chest. Her hand was barely inside the bag when she pulled it back jerkily, and there was a small, scaly thing wrapped around her fingers. It hissed at her and hanging on its neck was the number 3.

"Fuck," Percy muttered. Annabeth got the drakon, the one she specifically said she didn't want.

Dumbledore squeezed her shoulder and Annabeth stepped back, staring at the little creature trying to bite her hand. 

"Now, mademoiselle," Bagman continued, extending the bag for the Beauxbatons champion. She got the dragon, the Hungarian Horntail with the number 1. For Gunderson, there was only the wyvern left, a bright blue creature that fluttered its tiny wings and had the number 2. With a maniac grin, Bagman wished the Champions good luck before leaving the tent. He charmed it so they wouldn't hear his narration and it wasn't long before the wizards let the Horntail into the arena.

The creature was even more impressive in daylight. It was the size of a bus and about 20 meters long, covered in bone spikes from head to tail. The brown scales glinted like jewels when the dragon threw her head back and let out a roar. 

Somebody blew the whistle and Clarisse LaRue entered the arena. She was tall and broad, her frame filled the white tunic, adorned with light blue details and a bandana covered her hair. Percy hadn't seen much of her. While her schoolmates were happy to socialize, Clarisse mostly kept to herself, hanging out with a few friends and staying in the Beauxbatons carriage. Percy had only seen her at meals and at the library, sometimes. He knew nothing about her, but leaned forward with the rest of the crowd, curious to see what she would do.

First, she pointed her wand at the golden egg, likely trying a summoning charm. It didn't move, it had obviously been charmed against that. She stepped closer to the nest, and the dragon spit a column of fire at her. Clarisse ducked behind a stone to avoid the flames and used the smoke to move closer to the nest without the dragon noticing. 

She pointed her wand at the nest again. The Golden egg still didn't move, but the other did. The "dragon" egg floated a few centimeters above the floor, going slowly up until it was eye level with the Horntail, who seemed confused for a while. Still ducked behind a stone, Clarisse moved her arm and the egg floated to the far end of the arena and she carefully lowered It to the floor. 

Then she levitated another one and did the same. Everyone in the crowd was tense, like they would disrupt Clarisse's concentration if they breathed too loud. Half of the nest was on the other side of the arena when the dragon let out a frustrated wail, trying to catch the floating egg with its teeth.

"It seems now that our dragon is confused. Get the other eggs or protect the ones still in the nest? Very clever, Miss LaRue, very clever."

Finally when only three eggs besides the golden remained in the nest, the dragon followed the one Clarisse was still levitating and left the others unguarded. Once the Horntail was far enough, the champion left her hiding spot and ran to the nest, barely stopping  to grab the egg before going for the exit door.

The Horntail turned around, sensing the intruder and flew low towards Clarisse. It seemed to know where she was going, because the dragon spit a column of fire in the direction of the exit, blocking Clarisse's path before attacking her.

With a flick of her wand, all the eggs levitated at once, swirling around the dragons' head, diverting its attention again. But this time, maybe because there was a dragon trying to kill her and she was walking with a heavy object in her other arm, Clarisse's concentration faltered and three eggs cracked on the floor. The Horntail sniffed them and she bolted for the exit right before the dragon let out an enraged roar and stretched its wings, flying low and blowing fire on every surface.

But it didn't matter. Clarisse was out, she completed the task. The crowd cheered for her as the dragon handlers put the Horntail to sleep. Everyone clapped for Clarisse; even if the other schools were not rooting for her to win the Tournament, facing a dragon and getting away without a scratch is an amazing feat.

As the Horntail was dragged out of the arena, the judges gave their marks. Barty Croutch was the first, he raised his wand and a 9 glowed in the air. Then Bagman, Dumbledore and Karkaroff gave Clarisse an 8 and Maxime finished with a 9 totaling a score of 42 points. 

By the time the judges were done, the nest had been replaced and the wyvern was already flying inside the arena. It flew in circles around the nest a few times before sitting comfortably on top of the eggs, looking like an overgrown bird.

Another blow of the whistle and Halfborn Gunderson from Durmstrang entered the arena. The guy was huge. Easily two meters tall and beefy, like he spent all of his free time lifting weights. His face showed how young he was, though, a little round and very little facial hair the same color of rust as the hair on his head. Percy also didn't know much about the guy, only heard a rumour that he was half giant, hence the nickname. 

Like Clarisse, Gunderson's first move was to try to summon the golden egg. When that failed, he pointed his wand at a round rock and slowly it started to change shape until it became a very ugly chicken. 

The wyvern lifted its head, curious, and stared at the chicken as it walked slowly towards the nest, moving the head from side to side the way chickens do. The wyvern didn't seem to feel threatened until it tried to peck her in the eye. 

The beast let out an annoyed hiss and finally stood up. The chicken ran away, wings flapping, feathers flying everywhere and letting out a comically strangled sound when the wyvern chased it on foot. The crowd laughed at the scene, even Bagman. “He’s luring the wyvern away from the nest with the promise of an easy snack. Very interesting, Mr. Gunderson!”

When the wyvern was far enough, the champion ran to the egg. He was surprisingly fast for his size, but the beast was faster. It closed its jaws around the chicken, who turned back to a rock as the dragon tried to swallow it. The poor creature choked on it and, annoyed, made some heaving movements until it managed to spit the rock. The wyvern spread its wings and shivered, then turned back to face Gunderson, who had just reached the nest.

It moved so fast that Percy could only see a blue blur crossing the arena. Gunderson managed to get the golden egg, but in his haste to flee, tripped in one of the eggs and fell on his back, crushing half of the nest beneath his weight. The spectators let out a collective groan that turned into a gasp when the wyvern landed on top of the champion and started lashing furiously at him with its claws while the wings still flapped.

It wasn’t funny anymore. The wyvern landed with its legs on Gunderson’s chest and it lowered its head to bite him.

The handlers approached the arena, and Percy recognized Natalie Chase on a broom close to the bars of the arena, wand in hand, ready to interfere. But Gunderson didn’t do the stress signal. One of his arms was raised to protect his face and used the other to point his wand at the wyvern. He yelled something, and a gust of wind tossed the creature across the arena, making it land hard against a boulder. 

Gunderson was bleeding from some cuts on his arm and chest, his crimson tunic torn to ribbons. He struggled to sit up and grabbed the golden egg again, but the wyvern didn’t give up yet. Near the exit, with the creature approaching again, the champion lifted his wand and made a sharp movement, like he was holding a whip. There was a crack, and a deep cut suddenly appeared on the wyvern’s body. Gunderson did it again, and again, each movement cutting a new wound on the creature until it let out a pained cry. The wyvern curled itself on what was left on the nest and hissed at Gunderson, but didn’t try to attack again. Finally the champion left the arena.

The crowd clapped for him as they clapped for Clarisse, but Percy’s mouth tasted like iron. People in the wizarding world treated wounds like they were nothing, since most were healed with simple spells or potions. But Percy would never get used to it. He also didn’t enjoy much seeing the wyvern get hurt. Sure, it would’ve probably killed every single one of them if it had the chance, but unlike the Champions, the creature didn’t choose to be here.

Madam Pomfrey ushered Gunderson to her tent. He ripped off what was left of the tunic removed his shirt, making the crowd whistle and the healer treated his cuts while the dragon handlers tried to calm the wyvern enough to treat its wounds as well before taking it out of the arena. 

In the same order as before, the judges gave their marks. Crouch gave him a 5. Bagman an 8, Dumbledore a 6, Karkaroff a 9 (obvious favoritism, since Gunderson not only got hurt, he also broke the eggs), and Maxime a 7, scoring 35 points in total.

The stands were loud, people still commenting about the last performance, arguing about if his marks were deserved or not, when a low, deep rumble got closer and made everyone shut up. The gate to the arena was open, and about a dozen wizards dragged the last challenge of the day inside the arena. They removed the chains and the muzzle and quickly backed away, letting the beast get to know its surroundings. 

The drakon was huge. Percy could tell it wasn’t very old, because it was probably forty something meters long instead of the sixty it was capable of being, but still its elongated body slithered across the floor. Its scales were green and black as it circled the nest. It was as beautiful as it was scary.

Somebody blew the whistle, and the last Champion left the tent. Annabeth's eyes locked on the drakon immediately, and she squared her shoulders before entering the arena. She tried to summon the golden egg like the others before her, but didn’t seem surprised when it didn't work.

Percy was so tense his back was starting to hurt. The whole crowd seemed to be collectively holding their breath, waiting to see what she was gonna do. A few seats ahead, he spotted Magnus’ blonde head, the twins beside him and Annabeth’s other cousin, a girl from Gryffindor. Percy didn’t know much about her, but her older sister Emma had also been a slytherin, a year ahead of him and a huge pain in the ass.

He looked back to the arena. Annabeth had conjured a few things and transfigured a rock into an eagle. The magic had been perfect, but the drakon ignored it completely even as the bird flew circles close to the nest. But the beast’s eyes never left Annabeth. It blinked slowly, following every single one of her moves with its slitted pupils, as if it knew exactly who the real enemy was.

On the big screen, he saw Annabeth taking a deep breath and getting closer to the drakon. Not by much, but she walked around it, forcing it to tilt the head to keep looking at her while she muttered something and moved her wand. A thin layer of mist covered the arena, and then, all at once, a lot of rocks, boulders and even some spots on the floor were transfigured into a labyrinth of mirrors.

Dozens of images of Annabeth and the drakon appeared on the surfaces, and it quickly evolved to hundreds as the images on the mirrors started reflecting themselves, creating a rather nauseating effect. Somehow, the big screen kept focused on the real Annabeth and the real beast, but it was clear that the drakon was affected. Its body recoiled more around the nest as it moved its head from side to side, hissing at the mirrors, not knowing where the real threat was coming from anymore. 

“Using mirrors to confuse the drakon… bold strategy miss Chase, let’s see if it works,” Bagman said.

Even Percy was getting confused, so he looked at the screen instead of the arena. Annabeth lifted her wand, and one of the mirrors got very close to the nest. The drakon used its tail to crash it, but she did it again, and again, until the beast was so stressed out that it finally left its post. The drakon slithered through the corridors of mirrors, its thick body barely able to fit between them.

Annabeth lured him away by tilting the mirrors slightly, making the drakon follow a path to the opposite end of the arena as she slowly, carefully, walked towards the nest. She was very close when the beast finally lost its patience. With a frustrated roar, it started to smash the mirrors with its body, headbutting every single one that appeared in front of it, spitting a green liquid that reduced them to a puddle on the stone floor, sizzling like a drop of water on a hot skillet.

She started to run, her reflections around the arena doing the same, and though it bought her some time, the drakon managed to find its way back to the nest and saw the real Annabeth. Its large tail intercepted her path to the egg and she had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. 

The creature wasted no time. It unhinged its jaws, the membranes around its head fluttering, and spit the green liquid again, spraying it in the air. Annabeth tried to hide behind a rock, but wasn't fast enough. The venom melted her clothes and burned the skin of her shoulder, then the muscles beneath it. 

The whole crowd got up as she screamed and fell on her knees, the other hand grabbing the wound as if to stop the pain. Again, the handlers flew closer, ready to intervene, but even hurt, she didn’t produce the red sparks. The drakon spit again, but Annabeth managed to roll out of the way. She was lying down now, facing the dragon as it slid closer, his shadow looming over her like the serpents from old myths about to swallow the sun. 

Dumbledore was on his feet. Bagman was yelling at Annabeth to cast the stress signal, abandoning all professionalism. Her aunt did the same; the other handlers hesitated, waiting for the red sparks, but Natalie had her wand out, already removing the wards so she could get inside the arena. But Annabeth apparently still had an ace up her sleeve, because with her good arm she aimed a quick series of spells not at the drakon, but at the mirrors. Instead of breaking, the spells ricocheted and hit the drakon’s head at the same time. 

The creature roared in pain, the body recoiling and thrashing as it shook its head. Annabeth got up and ran towards the nest, waving her wand behind her and making what was left of the mirror labyrinth implode, confusing the drakon’s senses even more. She grabbed the golden egg and bolted for the exit, but the creature followed Annabeth, quickly gaining on her and getting close in a matter of seconds.

Without even looking back, Annabeth cast a protego behind her and kept running. The drakon collided with it with so much force that it flickered and Annabeth tripped, dropping the egg. But the shield held. And she grabbed the egg again, finally reaching the exit.

The stands erupted in cheers. Percy’s muscles finally relaxed, and he dropped on the chair like his legs were made of jelly. He was full of second-hand adrenaline, heart pounding like he had been the one that faced the drakon. 

Ahead, one of the twins was pushing his way through the crowd, elbowing people out of the way. Some of Annabeth’s friends followed, as did her cousins. The screen now showed each of the champions, Gunderson and Clarisse sitting on a low wooden bench near the tent and Annabeth receiving medical care from a clearly stressed madam Pomfrey. Some bandages were wrapping themselves around her shoulder and the healer was forcing a potion — or an antidote, maybe, — down her throat when her brother suddenly appeared on the frame. He threw himself at Annabeth, who nearly fell off the gurney before regaining her balance.

"Careful with her shoulder, careful!" Pomfrey said, prying the boy off of Annabeth.

“I thought you were going to die!” he said. “Don’t do that again.”

“Unfortunately for you, lad, she’s gonna have to do that at least two more times. But on the bright side: no more dragons!” Bagman interrupted before announcing the judges were ready to give their marks. Crouch gave her a 7, Bagman a 9, Dumbledore and Maxime an 8 and Karkaroff a 7, totaling 39 points. Behind Clarisse, but ahead of Gunderson.

“Well done, Champions. You all showed incredible courage and skill today. This egg you fought so valiantly to get? Take good care of it, it contains a very important clue for the next test. Rest up, celebrate, and I see you all in February.”

The stands started to get empty, the students going back to the castle and talking excitedly. Percy purposefully lost his friends and walked to the medical tent. Annabeth was surrounded by some of her friends, but after Reyna shook her by her shoulders, Madam Pomfrey kicked them all out. “I’ll only keep her for a few minutes, I have to see if she’s not gonna have any side effects from the venom. The rest of you, scram!”

They reluctantly left the tent. Percy hid behind a press group from the VIP stands before sneaking in the tent. Pomfrey was in another area, removing Gunderson bandages, so Percy managed to get in unnoticed.

“I can’t believe you actually did it,” he said in lieu of greeting when Annabeth saw him. Her tunic was torn, the shirt was ripped, there were some blood stains on the bandages covering her shoulder. Some strands of her hair had escaped the braid and fell over her eyes, which were still alight with adrenaline. She let out a crazed laugh, as if she didn’t believe it herself.

“For a moment there, I thought I was going to die.”

“Did your life flash before your eyes?”

“No, I thought, ‘mum was right.’ Which is a last thought so pathetic, Death decided to give me another chance.”

Percy laughed, surprised that she was making jokes about her own death so soon and sat beside her. “So she’s not proud that the Goblet chose you?”

“She thinks bringing back the Triwizard Tournament is a mistake and was very loud about her opinion, so you can imagine her joy when she heard about me participating. But even if I had my doubts before, now I really think I have a chance to win.”

“You do. Even if the other Tasks are hard, I doubt they can think of anything worse than facing dragons.”

“You would be surprised.” 

Pomfrey returned and glared at Percy, then Annabeth. She opened her mouth, probably to tell him to get out, but seemed to change her mind. “Get out of here, both of you,” she said, resigned. “You can look for me if you feel anything strange in the next 24 hours, but the antidote I gave you should be enough.”

Annabeth happily stood up and Percy followed. It was already getting dark outside, and away from the human heat of the packed stands, he started to feel cold again.

“I was told there’s going to be a party in the Ravenclaw tower to celebrate. You can come if you want. And I still have to give back your discoman.”

Percy decided not to correct her. He was going to the party anyway — everyone at Hogwarts would — but it was nice of her to ask. “Hmm, I don’t know if I’ll feel safe. Some of your housemates still hate me because of the quidditch final.”

“Don’t worry,’’ she said, knocking her good shoulder against his. Somewhere near them, there was a click of a camera.  “I’ll protect you.’’

“Well, in that case…”

Chapter Text

"I can't believe Annabeth Chase is your mystery girl," Piper said, folding the paper she was reading and whacking him on the head with it.

Percy, who was late for class and had just stuffed an ungodly amount of sausage and eggs inside his mouth, looked up from his breakfast with his best what the fuck are you talking about expression.

She handed him the paper, and Percy unfolded it. His eyes scanned the page, skimming the contents. It was a piece from Rita Skeeter, the journalist the Ministry had approved to cover the Triwizard Tournament. Her style reminded Percy of the citizens of the Capitol in the Hunger Games movies, and he and Piper had a laugh about it. He had seen her walking around the school, talking to a few students to ask what they think of the tournament and what was like to share the castle with foreigners, but this one talked exclusively about the First Task: a bit about the dragons, the international negotiations to transport them and, of course, she described the Task itself and how each Champion did it. 

Beneath all that, after brief quotes from excited students, there were small pictures of each Champion after the task. Gunderson looked surly while talking to Karkaroff, Clarisse was surrounded by a few schoolmates, and to Percy's surprise, Annabeth's picture featured him. If he recalled correctly, it had been taken right after they left Pomfrey's medical tent, when she invited him to the party. In the picture, Annabeth was bumping his shoulder with hers and he was smiling when he turned his head to look at her. 

Percy put the paper down and went back to his breakfast. "It's not like that."

"No? You two look rather cozy."

Bianca, who was sitting in front of him, craned her neck to look at the picture. "You do. When did that happen?"

Percy sighed, surrendering. They would drop the subject sooner if he offered some explanation. "We were at the library about a couple of weeks ago. She helped with my essays in exchange for a favor."

"What favor?" Piper pressed.

"Something from Hogsmeade, what else?" he said smoothly. 

They seemed satisfied with that explanation, so Percy ate the rest of his breakfast in peace and rushed off to class.

Thing is, he didn't know where he stood with Annabeth now. Were they friends? Back to classmates who barely interacted with each other? She was swarmed by the other students as soon as they entered the castle, and it only got worse when they reached the Ravenclaw tower, so they didn't talk much at the party. 

Or for the rest of the week, for that matter. She waved when they passed each other on the hallways and greeted him in the few classes they had together, but between his own workload and hers Percy hadn't seen much of Annabeth.

People were still talking about the First Task and the dragons days after it happened. The conversation about it only died down when the Tournament presented its next big thing: the Yule ball.

Girls were talking about what they were going to wear. Blokes were nervous about asking their crushes to go with them. Everywhere there was gossip about who was taking who, the castle was going through a rigorous cleaning led by Filch and there were many rumours circling around about what bands would sing at the event.

The decorations for this year were also insane, even for Hogwarts's standards. Percy and his friends were in the middle of a snowball war when they saw Hagrid dragging a Christmas tree inside the castle. Hazel stared and pouted before throwing a snowball the size of a quaffle at the back of Nico's head with so much force he faceplanted on the ground.

"Oi! What was that for?" He protested, spitting a mouthful of snow. 

"I can't believe I'm gonna miss the ball because you refuse to take me! McGonagall put the entire class to transfigurate objects into decorations this week. Do you know how cruel that is when we're not even allowed to go?"

Every head of the houses had informed their students that only fourth years and up would be allowed to go to the ball, unless someone older offered to chaperone. The younger students were not happy about that and Hazel, being a third year, was no exception.

"I already told you I'm going with Will," Nico said getting up.

"So what? You guys are from the same house, same year. Take me and meet him there, what difference does it make?"

"It just does! Why don't you ask Bianca?" 

"I did! She already said yes to going with someone from Beauxbatons."

"Tough luck."

Hazel pushed Nico and he fell again in the snow. 

"Don't worry, Hazel. If this Tournament proves to be a success there will be others," Grover said.

"Five years from now! By then I won't even be in school anymore."

She seemed very upset. Percy couldn't blame her, she was the youngest of their friend group and would be the only one among them who'd be left out of the event that would likely be discussed to hell and back at least until the Second Task. 

"Do not fret, little Hazel," Percy said, patting her head. "I'll be your chaperone."

"Really?" she asked, brown eyes big and shiny like the Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies. "It won't be a bother?"

"You didn't seem to mind bothering me," Nico grumbled. Hazel ignored him.

"I don't have a partner yet and there's no one in particular I want to ask, so… it's fine."

Percy wouldn't admit it, but as soon as he heard about the ball he started considering his options. Most of his friends already knew who they were going with (or who they wanted to go with), so going with them was out of the question. There was Rachel Dare, a Gryffindor he had a thing with in fifth year. It was brief, she broke up with him only a month into the relationship after a Divination class where she saw in the tea leaves that "their fates were not intertwined." Percy had been pissed at the time, but they were on good terms now.

And… okay, he did think about asking Annabeth. But after the whole thing with the dragon, there was probably a kilometric queue of people wanting to take her to the ball and the chances of her choosing him were slim. 

So maybe taking Hazel was for the best. He didn't have to worry about inviting anyone else anymore and she was happy to have a chance to go. The matter was settled, but a week later, Percy was leaving the Great Hall with his former Quidditch team for a nocturne friendly match when Hazel called and came skipping towards him.

"Good news!" she said. "You don't have to take me to the ball anymore, I got a date!"

Percy knit his eyebrows. "Who?"

"Frank Zhang," she answered, pointing to the Gryffindor table. The name wasn't familiar, but Percy could easily tell who she was talking about by connecting the surname to a chubby chinese boy and by the way he quickly averted his eyes as soon as Percy looked in his direction, shoulders all the way up to his ears.

"Stop glaring, you'll scare him away!" Hazel chided, swatting his arm. 

Percy didn't realize he was glaring. But he was told multiple times he had a severe case of resting bitch face. "How old is he?"

"He's a fourth year. Look, Frank is nice, I know him, he has a few classes with Will and Nico. You can ask them." He would. "You don't mind me going with him, do you? I know you didn't get yourself a partner because of me and…"

"Don't worry about it," he waved it off. "You have fun."

Hazel beamed at him and Percy had to resist the urge to ruffle her hair. He used to get away with it, but now she was actually putting effort in styling her curls, and the last time he did that he got an earful. She ran back to Frank to tell him the news and Percy went to the quidditch pitch. 

After thinking about it, Percy was seriously considering going alone. He wouldn't be the only one, certainly he could find someone to spend time with after the feast. It was better to connect with someone naturally than to invite the first girl that would say yes just because he feared looking pathetic for showing up alone. 

But Annabeth Chase was apparently adamant on ruining every single one of his plans, because two days later she invited him to the ball.

They were in herbology class, one of the few they shared. Professor Sprout gave them a mission instead of a lesson that day: they were supposed to clean a classroom that had been abandoned years before because of an infestation of Devil's Snare. Nobody had bothered to do anything about it for literal decades, but now Sprout wanted them to do it in one afternoon.

They couldn't use fire because she didn't wanna risk it getting out of control or damaging the plant. They were supposed to shove the tendrils inside large boxes and collect the sap to send to Slughorn, who wanted to do experiments with it in the potions lab. 

It was easier said than done. The classroom had been abandoned for so long that the Devil's Snare occupied basically every surface — the floor, the walls, the ceiling, under the tables, inside drawers and cabinets, behind the board and portraits. The tendrils were thick, sliding away from the light as soon as the students opened the doors. Everything looked damp and wet and disgusting, so the first thing they did was open the windows, but the light coming from it only illuminated a small spot on the floor. They were forced to divide in groups: some would light their wands and back the plant into corners while others waited with the boxes open to contain it.

It started organized, but the groups soon mixed up when the plant proved to be too stubborn and it wasn't rare to hear the students cursing when the Devil's Snare tried to wrap themselves around them. At some point Percy paired up with Annabeth, he with the box and she chasing the tendrils with a jar containing bluebell flames.

"So," she started, as Percy was pushing a tendril inside the box with the lit tip of his wand. "Who are you taking to the ball?"

"I was going to chaperone someone but she got a date, so… no one, for now." Percy closed the box and looked at her. "What about you? I heard people were duelling for the chance to ask you."

"That was once."

"So it's true?" Annabeth groaned and used her wand to sever another tendril, pushing the fallen piece in Percy's direction with the blue flames. He prepared to open the box again. "It must be sooo hard to have so many admirers."

"It's less than you think, believe me. I've been told I'm a bit…"

"Intimidating?"

"Hard to approach, yes. And the ones that do treat me like a trophy to be paraded around. I just want to enjoy the ball like everybody else, is that too much to ask?" 

Annabeth being 'hard to approach' was probably the only reason why he didn't see more people at her feet swearing eternal love. She had the looks and she had the brains, but not everybody could face her glare and not turn away with their tails between their legs. 

People had never expected much from Percy. Wizard or not, other than his mom nobody seemed to think he would go far in life, and whenever he did above the average on something he was met with surprise instead of praise. Percy wondered what it was like to be on the other end of that spectrum. Having high expectations to meet, a family name to live up to, being put on a pedestal by her peers… even Percy was guilty of doing that to her. Annabeth carried all of that with so much grace that up until this moment he didn't even think of it as a burden. In the end, she was just a girl. 

He didn't have a partner for the ball. She didn't, either. There was no harm in asking. Percy gathered his courage, rehearsed the words in his mind and opened his mouth to say—

Annabeth beat him to it. "Do you want to come to the ball with me?" 

For a moment, he was confused to hear the question he was about to ask coming from her instead, but before he could answer, a thick, wet tentacle wrapped around his neck. On instinct, Percy tried to pry them away with his hands, even if he knew that rule number one about Devil's Snare is that you're not supposed to struggle against it. But that was a very hard thing to remember when there was something as thick as his leg squeezing his throat.

Annabeth laughed at him, naturally, but brought her flames close to his neck. The plant recoiled, and Percy was able to relax enough for the tendril to release him. Out of spite, he shoved it inside the box and cast a lumos solem to keep them quiet.

"So do you?" Annabeth asked as Percy massaged his throat, and he remembered that she had asked him a question.

"Yes," he said hoarsely. Stupid plant. "I'd like that." 

🪄     🪄     🪄

“What are you going to wear?” Piper asked when Percy told her he was going to the ball with Annabeth. They were going to the dungeons after dinner, and Percy stopped to say the password before answering her.

“A suit. It’s the only formal thing I have.”

“The school list said dress robes.”

Percy shrugged. He didn’t know at the time why they wanted fancy clothes, but didn’t feel like buying anything when he already had a suit that he only wore once in perfect condition. It was simple and painfully muggle, but if it was good enough for his mum’s wedding Percy figured it had to be good enough for a school dance. 

“It’s not a big deal.”

“It might not have been if you were chaperoning Hazel, going alone or taking someone random. But you’re going with our school’s champion. She represents Hogwarts, and while you’re with her, so do you. You have to look good on the opening dance.”

“The opening what?”

Piper gave him an exasperated look, like he was being dense on purpose. “The Champions and their partners open the ball, it’s tradition. Surely you knew that when you agreed to go with Annabeth.”

“I didn’t,” he answered, trying and failing to swallow his panic. The closest he ever got to ballroom dances were seeing them on period dramas Sally liked to watch. He had a vision of him making a fool of himself and embarrassing not only Annabeth, but the entire school. Percy turned on his heel, going back from where he came.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to tell Annabeth to find someone else.”

“No you won’t!” 

“Piper, I can’t do this.”

She grabbed him by the tie, forcing Percy to face her. She dug her fingers on his shoulders and shook him. “Pull yourself together, Perseus. Are you a man or a sack of potatoes?”

“A… man?” 

“Exactly. And we have almost two weeks until the ball, that is more than enough time to find you decent clothes and teach you how to waltz. Now what is Annabeth going to wear?”

“Dunno. A dress?”

“That tells me nothing. Here’s the plan, tomorrow you’re gonna ask her what she’s gonna wear, and I’ll write to mum. There is not enough time for her to custom make something, but I’m sure she can find something on dad’s wardrobe that would look good on you with a few adjustments. Meanwhile, you’ll learn how to dance.”

Percy could only nod, because his other options were either to look like a fool or give up. Bianca was curled up on an armchair while reading a book, but Piper dragged her by the arm to the boys’ dormitory — still blessedly empty at the early hour — and started to explain Percy’s situation. She then pulled out her wand and started to take his measurements. Piper wasn’t an expert, but she probably picked up a few things after seeing her mother do it so many times. Percy never met the woman, but he knew she worked by designing clothes for wizards and had a shop on Diagon Alley. Her dad was a muggle American actor and was frequently seen with her at events. Piper told him that in the beginning the relationship was a bit scandalous, because Tristan being famous gathered enough attention to threaten the Statute of Secrecy, but eventually people got used to it. In the muggle world, her mother was a housewife and Piper was a troublemaker kid studying in an elite private school somewhere. 

“Please don’t make me wear traditional robes,” he begged. Percy had nothing against it. While most of the students were muggle-friendly clothes, the generation before theirs still preferred robes, and the castle staff wore them exclusively. But Percy still didn’t feel comfortable using what was essentially a dress and thought he looked ridiculous every time he tried one of those pointed hats.

“Dad doesn’t like them either, don’t worry. His clothes for wizarding events are basically suits with a bit of a flair.” 

Piper wrote his measurements on a piece of parchment and Bianca promised to teach him how to waltz. She gave him a basic introduction on the step patterns and where to put his hands, then they started practicing together.

“Don’t step on my feet,” she warned as they moved slowly. Percy looked down. “Don’t look at the floor either! 

“How am I supposed to not step on your feet if I don’t look?”

“Coordination. Now, eyes on your partner.”

Percy looked at Bianca’s face, but soon she found something else to complain about. “Now you’re stepping too wide.”

“Oh my fucking god!”

His first lesson was a disaster. The humiliation showed no signs of stopping the next morning, when Piper insisted that he should go to the Ravenclaw table and ask Annabeth about her dress. 

“I’m eating! I can do this later.’’

“I’m writing the letter right now, so I need to know. This will take two minutes if you stop being a baby about it. Go,” she said, poking him with her fork. Percy let out a long, drawn out sigh, both to calm his nerves and to let Piper know what he thought of this situation. Then he got up and walked the few steps to where Annabeth was sitting like a man marching towards his own execution. 

She was putting jam on a toast. The dress code had gone to hell yesterday during the war against the Devil's Snare, but now she was once again prim and poised in her uniform, making Percy feel a bit self conscious about his untucked shirt and loose tie.

Her brothers were beside her, and Percy could only tell them apart by their ties: one blue and silver the other red and gold. They were speaking heatedly about what seemed to be a potions essay, but looked up when Percy stood behind Annabeth. Great. Having a pair of nosy twelve years old eavesdropping was exactly what he needed. They weren't the only ones either, everyone within earshot stole a glance at him. 

"Hey," he started, trying to ignore everyone else, and she turned to look at him. "What are you wearing for the ball? I was told it's important to match."

Annabeth glanced at the Slytherin table, correctly assuming Percy would not have come to this conclusion on his own. Piper waved her fingers at them.

"Wait, you're going with him?" The twin with the red tie asked. "I thought—"

"Matthew," Annabeth said pointedly and  gave him a look. The boy's mouth instantly snapped shut and Percy wished he had this super power. "A blue gown," she said to Percy.

"Blue gown," he repeated, nodding. "Alright."

Percy went back to his table and relayed the message to Piper. She scratched her quill on the parchment for a while, then looked up again. "Which shade of blue?"

"Does it matter?"

She didn't even dignify him with an answer. Percy sighed and walked to Annabeth's table again. This time, she looked up without him having to call her and even more people were watching their interaction.

"Which," he started, fighting the urge to draw his wand hex the girls around them into silence for the capital crime of giggling. "Which shade of blue?"

Instead of answering, Annabeth pulled a handkerchief from inside her uniform and with a tap of her wand, the white cloth turned to a deep shade of blue, adorned with thin black tendrils. Annabeth extended it to him like a lady giving a favour to her knight, and Percy took it, fingers brushing against hers in the process.

"This will be helpful. Many thanks," he said, wrapping the cloth around his hand like he was trying to stop the bleeding from a cut.

Piper had been watching the scene with clear amusement, and Percy didn't even bother to say anything, just gave her the handkerchief.

"Keep it, I already have what I need," she said, resuming her writing. When it was done, she ran to the owlery to send the letter before class.

Meanwhile, Percy sulked, trying to understand what was wrong with him. He was by no means that effortless charming and suave guy he wished to be, but he stopped acting so awkward around girls about two years ago. Even with Annabeth he had always acted normal — if not a little more annoying on purpose just to rile her up. But since she invited him to the ball he was feeling weird.

Percy knew what it was, of course. Low self esteem, a sense of insecurity buried so deep inside him that an excavation would leave him hollow.  It had nothing to do with Annabeth herself, but the fact that he would be in the spotlight by association. Knowing people would look at him, talk about him and judge him, messed with his head and made him remember the bullying he suffered in his early years. But this time, at least, he was drawing attention for a good reason, all he had to do was not fuck this up. So he let Piper write to her mother about his clothes and let the diAngelos teach him how to waltz in lessons that were equal parts teasing and encouragement until he was somewhat decent at it.

On the morning of the ball, a large package was delivered to him by two big owls. Percy didn't have to open it to know it was from Piper's mom. He spent the entire day feeling like a black hole had opened in the pit of his stomach as time dragged. The castle was buzzing, the great hall had been closed after lunch to set up the decorations. Finally, the night came. 

Percy showered for longer than usual. Scrubbed himself hair to toe, let his skin marinate on the bodywash and spent some time in front of the mirror getting rid of the dark but still annoyingly thin stubble around his jaw. He had borrowed some sleekeasy to tame his wild hair, but after he was done he hated the result. The strands were slicked back like Fang had given him a tongue bath, a hairstyle that was often used by none other than Octavian. So he messed it up again and tried to comb to the side using his fingers. The end result was more "stylishly disheveled" and less "inbred pureblood prat" so Percy left it at that.

Then, he started to get dressed. Piper's measurements had been perfect. The black trousers were just the right size, the cobalt button up was well fitted without being too tight. He made sure every button was on the right spot before putting on the dark waistcoat and, at last, the jacket. It was longer than usual, finishing almost at the ankles instead of below the waist. It was mostly black, but had blue vine-like details delicately woven in the sleeves, shoulders and lapels. 

In the box, there were also gloves and a tiny vial with transparent liquid. Percy thought the gloves were a bit much and left them in the box, but opened the vial and sniffed the content. Perfume. It smelled fancy, layered. There was enough for a single use, but he made a mental note to write a thank you letter to Piper's mom. He didn't agree on a time or a spot with Annabeth, but he figured that she would like to be early, so put his wand on the holster and made his way to the Ravenclaw tower.

Most students were still getting ready, so Percy met only a few people on the way. He climbed the steps slowly, not wanting to sweat before the party even started, thinking about how annoying it must be to keep going up and down all of these fucking stairs everyday. Realizing you forgot something in the dormitory must be frustrating. Not for the first time, Percy wondered why they didn't have lifts like the Ministry or at least escalators. The stairs already moved around anyway, would it be that hard for the architect to make the steps move up? He was on the landing before the last set of stairs and could already see the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room when the door opened and Annabeth came out. 

She was wearing exactly what she told him, but her warning had not prepared him to see the real thing. Her gown was mostly cobalt blue, but there were a few black vines finely woven in the bodice and the sleeves that shone like dark stars under the lights. The sleeves were made from the same fabric as the rest of the dress until the elbows, where they transformed into something made of a see-through material that went past her wrists. 

Her hair was mostly loose. Part of it was tied in an elegant knot in the back of her head, but the rest cascaded down her back in perfect waves. Percy had teasingly called her a princess many times before, but now she actually looked like one.

His heart skipped a beat as she descended the stairs and stopped in front of him. "What are you doing here?" 

Percy found his voice. "I came to pick you up."

He realized how stupid that sounded as soon as he said it. They were in the same school, it made no difference to meet her here or in the great hall. He clearly watched too many movies. Fortunately, Annabeth seemed to find it amusing.

"I didn't know the strands of your hair could point in the same direction," she said.

"I didn't know yours could stay down after so long trapped in a tight ponytail." Her laugh did something to him. The banter felt natural, but he also felt it was inadequate for the situation. "Seriously though. It looks pretty. You look pretty."

Her smile softened and he noticed her posture relaxed a bit, and Percy realized she was also a little nervous.

"So do you. McLean's doing, I assume?"

"The clothes, yes. The rest," he said, gesturing to his face. "Is all me."

They started to make their way to the great hall and Percy voiced his complaints about the amount of stairs. 

"You get used to it," Annabeth said. "It builds character."

"You Ravenclaws must have strong legs," he answered, then regretted immediately because his mind inevitably thought about Annabeth's legs, and that was a dangerous thing when he was still trying to gather his wits.

"It's not even that many, you probably just have mold in your lungs after seven years sleeping in a dungeon." 

He chuckled, both indignant and amused. "You know what, I don't have a defense for that one."

The stairs finally ended, and they stopped in front of the doors to the great hall. There were more people now, and McGonagall called the Champions and their partners, making them wait until everybody was inside so they could make their great entrance. Gunderson was there, wearing velvet crimson and black robes. Holding his arm, there was a redheaded girl that looked so much like Rachel Dare that Percy had to do a double take. Clarisse was wearing black robes and beside her, a stunning girl was wearing a dark green dress. They all looked so fancy that Percy once again felt grateful that Piper forbade him from wearing his own suit. 

When McGonagall finally let them in, most of the students were already sitting around the small round tables that had replaced the usual four big ones. The hall was decorated with ice sculptures, fairy lights and Christmas trees. Stands with finger food and drinks were positioned in the corners. There was a large empty space in the middle of the hall, where Percy assumed the dreaded waltz would happen.

People cheered as the Champions passed with their partners. Rita Skeeter and her photographer were there too, and didn't take long before the clicks and flashes started. Percy managed to find some of his friends, who offered nods of encouragement and thumbs up. He wanted to join them, but let Annabeth steer him towards the table reserved for them, the other champions and the headmasters.

There wasn't much conversation at first as they looked at the menu available and ordered their food, which appeared almost instantly on their golden plates. Percy focused on eating as Dumbledore praised Annabeth for the First Task and asked about the egg, but didn't offer any advice when she said she was still trying to figure out what the clue was. Gunderson and his partner seemed to be fighting, because even though Percy couldn't understand a word, neither of them looked happy. Clarisse and the other girl seemed to be enjoying themselves, talking to Maxime. 

"And you, Perseus," Dumbledore asked suddenly. Percy cringed. He hated to be called Perseus. “I watched the Quidditch final last year, very interesting strategy you used to win.”

“Careful, professor,” he answered in a stage whisper. “Some people are still sensitive about that topic.’’

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but didn’t answer, choosing to take a sip of her drink instead.

Dumbledore’s blue eyes shone behind his glasses. "Hagrid also told me you have a way with the creatures he brings to class. I’m glad to know that you did well for yourself, despite everything."

Percy looked down at his food. "I didn't have much of a choice, sir."

"You're wrong, my boy," the old man said, patting his shoulder. "We always have a choice."

Before today, he only had one conversation with the headmaster, back in his first year. He didn't think Dumbledore remembered that, but he clearly did. Percy's first year had been miserable. At least when he went to muggle schools he could go back home everyday. Back to his skateboard, to his videogame, to his mom. He had thought things would be different in Hogwarts because it was a school for freaks like him. But it turns out that being mugglebon made him the wrong kind of freak, especially in Slytherin. It took him a while to catch up with the other kids — how to properly move the wand, the Latin incantations, centuries worth of culture and history and traditions to absorb. And after all that he was also forced to go down to that cold dungeon and hear the mockery of his housemates telling he didn't belong there.

Percy had gone to see Dumbledore then. Begged him to put him in another house, any other, as long as people didn't treat him like he had lice. The old man only said that he could not and advised him to be patient. Percy hated Dumbledore for that, but gritted his teeth and carried on.

The Head Boy at the time, a Slytherin seventh year named Luke, eventually intervened. Nobody dared to mess with Percy when Luke was around to see it, and he basically repeated Dumbledore's advice, but more aggressively.

"I won't be here next year to keep them away," he had said. "They will never make space for you, so carve one for yourself."

So he did, slowly and steadily. But Percy couldn't help but think things would have been much easier if he had been sorted to another house. 

Eventually, Dumbledore started a conversation with Maxime and Karkaroff, and that broke the ice between the students as well. Both Clarisse and her girlfriend Silena knew English, though the former talked with a very heavy accent. Silena, however, barely had any. She and Percy were involved in an impromptu game of charades with Gunderson and his girlfriend, trying to tell them what exactly was the filling of the Kidney Pie they had ordered. Annabeth and Clarisse were in deep conversation about the differences in the Hogwarts and Beauxbeatons curriculum. 

During the interaction, it was very clear that Gunderson had been completely charmed by Silena. He wasn’t doing anything, really, just couldn’t take his eyes off the girl.  His girlfriend obviously noticed, and so did Clarisse, and they both seemed like they were on the verge of drawing their wands to hex him. Percy exchanged an amused look with Annabeth, but before the situation escalated, the band started to prepare and the Champions were called.

The redhead gripped Gunderson’s elbow and dragged him up, clearly still vexed. Clarisse got up and offered her hand to Silena. Percy, however, seemed to be glued to his chair like somebody had cast a permanent sticking charm on his ass. He regretted eating so much, now the food was playing capoeira inside his stomach. But Annabeth was already up, waiting for him, so he forced himself to move. 

They went to the middle of the hall, Percy put a hand on her back and held the other one.

“Relax,” she said, probably feeling how tense he was when she put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t bite.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

"It's just a dance, it'll be over soon."

"But what if I mess up?"

“Do you want me to lead?”

He considered, then shook his head. “I memorized the steps, I don’t think I can do it in reverse.”

Annabeth laughed lightly, and that somehow soothed his nerves just a bit because if she wasn't worried, then he had no reason to be, either. The music started, and while his first steps were a bit stiff, he managed not to trip, or step on her feet. Their hands fit nicely together, he was glad he decided not to wear the gloves. Percy twirled her once and thought this wasn’t so bad after a while, and he started to let loose a little as other couples started to join. When the opening song ended, the dance became less formal, until finally Ludo Bagman once again talked about sponsors while the classical band left the stage and the Weird Sisters replaced them.

The crowd went wild. Annabeth was obviously a fan, because she grabbed his wrist and pulled him as close to the stage as possible. Unfortunately she wasn’t the only one who had this idea, and soon they were surrounded. The songs were loud and agitated, everybody was jumping up and down and shouting the lyrics. The show lasted for almost an hour, and by then Percy had removed his jacket and unbuttoned the waistcoat. After the band finished, there were no more live bands, though a magically amplified gramophone still played. 

‘’I’m parched,” Percy said as he and Annabeth left the dance floors and went to the tables. “I’m gonna get something to drink, do you want anything?”

“The least spiked punch you can find.”

Percy found some of his friends near the drinks as well. He managed to talk a little with Grover while tasting the punch from every bowl, trying to gauge which one didn’t taste like somebody had poured alcohol into it. Then he filled two glasses and went back to Annabeth.

She wasn’t alone. At first Percy didn’t recognize the person talking to her and wondered if it was one of the foreign students. Then he realized the man was older, in his early twenties, and when he turned, Percy recognized him. He was too far away to hear what they were saying, and by the time Percy reached the table, the man was already gone, joining the few guests that came to represent the Ministry.

“Was that Luke Castellan?” he asked, startling Annabeth a little.

“Do you know him?”

“Not much. My first year was a little rough and he gave me some advice, he’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth said, distantly. Something had changed while he went to get drinks, though Percy couldn’t quite tell what. She had been excited before, seemingly enjoying the night, but now she looked more guarded, almost tired.

“Did he… do anything to you?” 

“What? No, no. His father is a long time friend of my family, he just wanted to say hi.’’

“Okay,” he said, giving her one of the glasses and sitting on the chair beside hers. They drank in silence for a while, but it wasn’t long until Annabeth got up.

“I think I’m going to bed,” she said. 

“Already?” 

“What do you mean already? The party is over.”

It was, officially. The bands were gone, most of the guests had already left, but most of the students were still around, messing with the gramophone, dancing, and getting drinks. Some couples were sneaking out of the great hall, probably to find a more private corner. He didn't care much for the party, but strangely, he didn’t want to part from Annabeth just yet. Percy downed the rest of his punch and got up too.

“Right. Then I’m walking you back.”

It seemed like Annabeth was going to protest, but changed her mind. “You’re going up to Ravenclaw too many times for someone who hates stairs,” she said at last while they left the great hall.

“Tell me about it,” Percy groaned dramatically when they reached the first steps. “I blame the movies.’’

“Which kind of movies do you watch?”

“A little bit of everything, really. Last summer I was watching a lot of foreign horror.”

That seemed to confuse Annabeth a bit.

“So you… travel abroad just to go to the cinema?”

“No, I watch from home. On the telly.” Percy knew professor Burbage had mentioned the internet in the muggle studies class, but he didn’t think she got as far as to explain DVDs, streaming services or torrent to a class where most of the students hadn’t even seen a computer made in this century. The woman herself was a bit old, she probably wasn’t as up to speed on muggle technology as she should.

“You know, the professor tried to show us a film in class once, in fourth year,” Annabeth said. “She used a projector. Beckendorf and Leo spent most of the year trying to make it work, and eventually they managed. They couldn’t get the sound to work, so we watched one of those old silent movies. The image kept glitching, but I was so impressed I decided that I wanted to see a movie. So that summer I convinced Magnus and Aubrey to go with me to muggle London. We were so visibly lost that one employee thought we were tourists, and we had to fake french accents while buying the snacks and tickets to look less like dimwits who didn’t know how money works. Since then we go back at least once every summer, aunt Natalie always covers for us.”

“Would you get in trouble with your parents if she didn’t?” 

“My mother thinks some grand tragedy is gonna happen and the muggles will somehow know that we have magic and burn us at the stake. Dad doesn’t care but he goes along with everything mother says, so… I sneak out.”

“What about muggleborns? We go back every summer and nothing bad has happened yet.”

“According to her logic, you know how to blend since you grew up with them.”

That line of thinking didn’t make any sense, but Percy knew it was the norm. On one hand, he understood their fears, on the other, he kept imagining how the world would be if the statute of secrecy didn’t exist and they found a way to combine magic with science and technology.

“Well, let me know when you sneak out this summer,” he said at last. “I can be your guide. I can also show you the highs and lows of the internet, it’s chaotic, you’re gonna love it.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer.”

They reached the door for the Ravenclaw tower. “What falls standing up and runs lying down?” Asked the eagle.

“The rain,’’ Annabeth answered without even taking a second to think and the door opened.

“Does the door ask a riddle every time a student wants to get in?” Percy asked as he got in after Annabeth. He wasn’t formally invited, but she didn’t protest when he followed her.

“Yes. But since that happens literally dozens of times per day every day, the eagle repeats a lot of the riddles, so most of us memorize the answers after a while. Sometimes someone comes up with a new one and adds to its repertoire, or tries to give creative answers but it gets old really soon.”

The common room was empty. Percy had been there only a few times before, but it had always been full, and during the day. Now the high windows let the moonlight illuminate the rooms, and a cold breeze was blowing though one that had been left open. Over time, he had learned to appreciate Slytherin dark walls, brown leather couches, and windows that showed the great lake, but it was easy to understand why Annabeth would find that claustrophobic when she was used to all this natural light and fresh air.

She walked to the open window, the breeze blowing her hair and her dress. “Do you know what you’re gonna do after graduating?” 

He followed her gaze and stared at the mountains. “I’m not sure. Everyone keeps saying I’d be good with handling magical creatures, but I don’t know. The real thing is probably harder than what Hagrid brings to class. If nothing works out for me at least I have practice as a smuggler.”

“Don’t do that,” she said sternly. When Percy looked confused at her, she elaborated. “Don’t underestimate yourself. I’ve seen you in class, you’ve always been one of the best in our year in some subjects, even if you pretend you’re not.”

He was surprised she had even noticed. Instead of addressing it, he forced a smirk that he knew it would annoy her. “Maybe I’ve always wanted to be a criminal, who are you to judge my dreams?”

“You’re impossible.”

“Maybe I’ll even get arrested by your uncle,” he kept going. “That insufferable cousin of yours — no offense — kept threatening me to rat me out. I always thought that aurors had more important things to do than arresting students for selling candy.”

“And why didn’t she?”

“Mutually assured destruction. I told her that if she said anything I would tell her boyfriend I caught her and Octavian shagging in a broom closet.”

“What?” Seeing Octavian’s naked pale bum had been a bit traumatizing, but it did solve a few of Percy’s problems. Emma Chase had been dating the Gryffindor beater for years at that point, and everybody knew the guy was hotheaded. If he heard about the cheating he probably wouldn’t even draw his wand, he’d beat Octavian’s skinny ass with his own hands. “That's… low, even for Emma. She’s engaged with her boyfriend now, I wonder if she’s still cheating.”

“They’re a bit young to get engaged, no?”

“It’s getting out of fashion, but sometimes families still use marriages as a way to gain favors and close business or political arrangements. In Emma’s case though, I think she just wanted to secure a rich husband as fast as possible.” A cold wind blew in their direction and Annabeth shivered. The suit’s jacket was still folded in his arm, so Percy offered it to her even if it would be easier to just close the window. He held it for her and she put her arms through the sleeves, and Percy felt a tug on his heart even if the jacket was technically not his. 

“I thought you were like her,” he confessed. They were family after all, it wasn’t hard for him to assume everyone in the Chase clan was cut from the same cloth.

Annabeth scoffed. “I’ll try not to get too offended.” 

She was still unbearably close. Percy ought to take a step back, but his feet were rooted in place. 

“I see now that I was wrong,” he admitted, twisting one of her curls around his finger, heart hammering inside his chest. There was still a lot about Annabeth he didn't know, but he wanted to figure out, see what else she hid beneath that perfect student front she put up. “I wish I got to know you sooner.”

Her breath hitched, eyes searching his face. Percy didn’t have the courage to ask her for the ball, but he was going to take the initiative now. He tilted her chin and leaned forward, a clear invitation, and her answer came a second later, lips crashing against his. It was tentative at first, but soon Percy was pressing her against the windowsill, arms snaking around her waist while her hands traveled up his chest, one resting on his shoulder and the other one going through his hair. Percy tilted his head to deepen the kiss and she tasted like the punch, and her lipstick, and—

She suddenly pushed him, forcing Percy to walk backwards and falling on his back when his knees hit the couch, Annabeth following soon after. He pulled the pin in her head, freeing the rest of her hair, making a few strands brush against his face. His hands were restless, travelling through her curls, cupping her cheek, running down her back, wanting to be everywhere at once. Annabeth caught his lower lip between her teeth and tugged lightly. I don’t bite, she had said, earlier. Percy was delighted to find out that she did.

‘’I have to tell you something,” she said, pulling away a little. He barely heard her. His mind was in a haze, the world was reduced to every point of contact between him and Annabeth.

“What?’’ he asked, but the last thing he wanted to do right now was to talk, so he kissed her neck, her jaw, the sensitive spot behind her ear and Annabeth seemed to forget whatever she was going to say, because she grabbed his face and kissed him again.

Nothing would make him more happy than staying the rest of the night beneath Annabeth, but they were interrupted by a voice.

“I know the phrase is ‘get a room’ but it generally means a private room, not a common room.’’

Percy and Annabeth startled, breaking apart. They didn’t even hear the door opening, or the steps approaching. Fortunately, it was only one person, a short guy with brown curly hair. Valdez, one of Annabeth’s friends.

She seemed to relax when she recognized him, but the same didn’t happen when the guy took a good look at them. Earlier, his tone had been playful, but his expression closed as he saw who Annabeth was with.

“Et tu, Brutus?” he said to her. She rolled her eyes, extracting herself from Percy.

“Don’t start.’’

Valdez didn’t say anything else, but kept his scowl firmly in place and walked to one of the tables, turning a light on and started working on something. What the fuck, Percy thought, sitting up. Valdez gave no sign he was going to leave the common room anytime soon, and Annabeth smoothed her dress. The moment was over.

“Well, I’d better go then,” he said, adjusting his pants before getting up. Annabeth walked him to the door, and when Percy reached the stairs, he asked. “What’s his problem?”

She leaned on the threshold. “He doesn’t like you.”

“Yeah, I noticed. But why?” To his knowledge, Percy never did anything to Valdez, they barely even interacted.

“He had this longtime crush on Calypso. In his mind, you stole his last chance to get together with her.”

“Ah, well” it made sense now. He and Calypso dated for most of the last year, but broke up a few weeks before she graduated. Percy shrugged, there was nothing to be done about that. Annabeth took off the jacket and gave it back to him. If it wasn’t borrowed, he would’ve told her to keep it, at least for tonight. But as it was, he took it back.

“Thank you for tonight,” she said. “I had fun.’’

Percy knew she was probably talking about the ball, not the heated snogging session, but he liked to think it was about both. “Me too. See you tomorrow?”

He hoped so. He didn’t want whatever they had to be over after tonight. She smiled at him, and the fragile bubble of hope inside his chest got a little bigger, enough to sustain him through all those flights of stairs between him and the dungeons.

“See you tomorrow, Percy.”

Chapter Text

The natural chilliness and darkness of the dungeons made it very easy to sleep in. Percy woke up slowly and spent a few moments in bed absorbing the fact last night wasn't a dream. Then he sat up and took his time opening the Christmas presents piled up next to his bed.

It was the first time he spent the holidays at Hogwarts instead of going home and his heart ached a little when he opened Sally's present and the letter that came with it. She also sent a box full of homemade pastries and a some of his favorite snacks, because as much as Percy loved the house elves cooking, he missed muggle food. The time it took to deliver always made them a little stale, but he knew a charm to hear them up and make them almost as good as new.

Normally Percy didn't share the pastries but this time he saved some for Piper and Bianca. He owed them after all, so Percy took the box and went to the Common Room. Piper was already there, but Bianca apparently spent the night in the Beauxbatons carriage.

It was too late for breakfast, so they ate the pastries and swapped stories about the ball while waiting for lunch time. Percy had missed most of what happened to his friends, but Piper quickly filled him in and tried to make him give more details about his own night.

"Right, but did you kiss her or did she kiss you?

"We kissed each other, Piper. That's how it works."

"Good Salazar, talking to you is like trying to pry open an oyster," she complained. "Tell me the juicy stuff."

"There's nothing more to tell. Her friend interrupted us and I left."

One of the reasons Percy was cagey about the topic was because he didn't know what was going to happen next. There was no reason to speak his hopes out loud only for Annabeth to wake up with a moral hangover and decide she wants nothing to do with him anymore. 

They wasted away the rest of the morning in a match of wizarding chess that was abandoned halfway through because they both lost patience and left for the great hall in hopes to find more of their friends. Percy's eyes scanned the Ravenclaw table, but Annabeth wasn't there. While he made his way to sit with his friends in Hufflepuff, Percy could feel some eyes following him. A few people were staring, then whispering with the person beside them.

"You go out with Annabeth one time and suddenly you're famous? Why the hell are they staring at you?" Piper asked.

He didn't know, but when they sat in front of Grover and Juniper, they both looked at Percy with concern.

"What is going on?"

"You didn't read the Daily Prophet today, did you?" asked Grover. Percy shook his head, and Juniper slid the newspaper she was reading over the table.

The front page was about the upcoming election for Minister of Magic that was going to happen next year and the possible candidates. But after that, in the entertainment section, was once again a piece by Rita Skeeter. There was a picture of the champions opening the ball with their partners and an introductory paragraph about the Yule ball. Since he accepted to go with Annabeth, Percy knew that his name or his picture would be on the paper, that was to be expected.. What he didn't expect was that the article would be about him. 

After barely talking about the event itself and the other champions, Skeeter focused on Percy. Beneath a picture of him twirling Annabeth during the waltz, she wrote:

…you might recognize the dashing young lad beside the Hogwarts's Champion from the picture in my article covering the First Task. 

While it's undeniable they look good together, it appears that Percy Jackson might have ulterior motives to get close to Annabeth Chase. Some schoolmates report that Mr. Jackson's track record of seducing respectable witches suggests that he is a "social climber at best and a gold digger at worst."

"He does that a lot," says Drew Tanaka, a sixth-year student. "Jackson struts around wearing jeans and those muggle hats as if that makes him exotic or something. And unfortunately a lot of girls fall for it. I almost did.”

And his dating history seems to corroborate that. Two years ago, he got into a relationship with Rachel Dare, whose father is the current head of the Goblin Liaison Office. Miss Dare managed to get away soon enough, but not before she gifted him a Firebolt, one of the most expensive racing brooms in the market.

Last year, he dated Calypso Atlas, whose parents run a successful apothecary in Diagon Alley. Annabeth Chase seems to be his more recent victim. Not only is she the selected Champion, Minerva Pallas, her mother, is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and already declared her intentions to run for Minister of Magic.

Their schoolmates seem to think this relationship came out of nowhere. "They're from the same year, shared a lot of the same classes and I've never seen them together," says Matt Sloan, a seventh-year student. "I'm not saying he got only close to her because she was chosen as Hogwarts's Champion, but the timing… I mean, it's a hell of a coincidence."

It could be a coincidence, yes. So to understand a little more about his character, I interviewed Bryce Lawrence, another seventh year that shares a dorm with Jackson. "That guy would do anything for money, he's been smuggling things from Hogsmeade into Hogwarts for years at this point. Jackson sells candy from Honeydukes to first and second years for abusive prices because he knows they're not allowed to go to Hogsmeade yet."

It's also worth mentioning that Percy Jackson was sorted into Slytherin while also being a muggleborn. We all know Salazar Slytherin was very selective about the kind of people he allowed in his house. Perhaps Mr. Jackson's ambition is strong enough that warranted a place in Salazar's house despite his blood status. 

The article finished with an "advice" for the witches, asking them to not place their trust on just anyone.

Percy was so shocked that at first he just stared at the paper. Piper, who had been reading along with him, spoke first. "This is rubbish."

And they didn't even bother to fact-check. Yes, Rachel gave him the Firebolt, but that was a Christmas gift after they broke up. Calypso's family wasn't even rich. Her parents managed the apothecary, not owned it. And it was Annabeth who approached him first.

But Percy knew people wouldn't care about the truth, which is why no one had even bothered to ask him anything, just whispered behind his back. His shock was slowly turning to anger. Drew, Bryce, Sloan — Percy knew most of his housemates held no love for him but to throw him under the bus like this… It was personal. Percy had rejected Drew's advances once. Sloan didn't make the cut to the team in the tryouts last year and Bryce was probably still salty about not being chosen as captain. 

He slammed the paper on the table and got up.

"Where are you going?" Asked Grover, alarmed. He was probably worried that Percy was going to find those three who spoke to Skeeter and start a fight. And he was tempted to do it, but right now his priorities were elsewhere.

"I have to find Annabeth."

She was not in the great hall. The castle was huge, he could look for her all day and never find her, but decided to start by going to the Ravenclaw tower. Percy was getting to the first floor when he almost collided with her, who was descending the steps. 

They stood there looking at each other for a moment, and Percy was trying to find a way to breach the subject when he noticed that Annabeth was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet and likely already read it.

"I don't want your gold," he blurted out before she could say anything. Annabeth opened her mouth to reply, but Percy was on a roll. "I don't want to leech off your fame, either. I know that the article made me look bad but I swear I wasn't trying to take advantage of Rachel and Calypso either, and—"

"Hey, hey. I know, calm down," she interrupted his rambling.

"You… do?" 

Annabeth was a step above him, so they were eye level. Percy tried to read her expression and she didn't seem angry. She seemed… anguished? Worried? He couldn't tell exactly, but that made the knot inside his chest loosen a little.

"Just from the way she tried to conduct the interviews for this Tournament I know Rita Skeeter is a terrible professional. She has no work ethics and the articles she writes would fit better in the Witch Weekly than they do in the Prophet. I'm convinced the only reason Skeeter got this job is because she must have some dirt on the chief editor."

Percy didn't know how to answer. He had been prepared to defend himself, but didn't expect Annabeth to be on his side. Before he could say anything else, two people showed up in the lower steps: Sloan and professor Slughorn.

"Mr. Jackson, I would like a word with you in my office."

Shit. Percy had been so focused on clearing his name with Annabeth that he forgot that his smuggling operation had been exposed. He didn't think he would be expelled, but was not looking forward to whatever punishment the professor had in store for him.

"I'll be right there, sir."

Slughorn turned and left. Sloan stayed, looking up with an insufferable smug grin. Percy closed his fists — forget about wands and spells, he wanted to punch Sloan's face so hard that the spoiled asshole would be shitting his own teeth for the next week. 

"I shouldn't have dragged you to this," Annabeth said, rubbing her forehead, brow furrowed while she started pacing, and Percy finally got it. It wasn't worry, it was regret.

"It's not your fault," he countered quickly, although she seemed to be under the impression that it was. The damage was done, if she decided to distance herself from him now it wouldn't do any good. And Percy didn't want her to regret their night just because of a stupid article. "I've endured worse, don't worry."

However bad it got now it could never be worse than what he went through in his first year. Percy had a lot of friends now, and at least earned the respect of most of his schoolmates. With the promise to talk later, he went to see Slughorn, making sure to shoulder check Sloan on the way down. 

As expected, the professor wanted to talk to him about the smuggling. 

"I didn't make anyone buy things from me, sir. I had the product and put a price on it, they were free to decide whether to buy or not. I can't recall any rules against that."

"The problem is, where did you get the stuff?"

"From Hogsmeade. I brought an extra stash every time I went there."

Slughorn laced his fingers on top of his belly and reclined on his chair, giving him an astute smirk. "And you only went to Hogsmeade on the approved weekends, I assume?"

The man had been teaching at Hogwarts for longer than Percy was alive, it was very likely he knew about the secret passage. But even if he did, he had no proof that Percy knew about it. So, plausible deniability. 

"Of course."

"Even if what you did is not explicitly against the rules and I can't prove you ever left the castle without permission, you know I can't just let you get away with no punishment—"

"I'm sure you could," Percy muttered.

"If other students decide to do the same, this could easily get out of control and get dangerous. What if there's a faulty product? What if one of them decides to temper with the food or drink and it causes health issues?"

"I've never—"

Slughorn raised a hand. "I know you just wanted to earn an extra galleon, my boy. There's nothing wrong with that, and if it was up to me you'd be released with a slap on the wrist. But we just can't risk this becoming a trend. So I'll deduct 50 points from Slytherin and you'll have to serve a month of detention with Mr. Filch. Now that the school is more crowded than usual, he needs some help with his chores. You'll aid him with whatever he needs."

Percy knew that despite everything this was the best case scenario, so he swallowed his complaints and nodded. Slughorn himself wasn't one to waste opportunities even when they weren't strictly within the norms. If McGonagall had been the Head of Slytherin instead, the punishment certainly would have been a lot worse. Filch would probably do his best to make the situation miserable, but Percy could manage him.

"About the rest… what Skeeter said…" He trailed off. Percy didn't know why he was seeking sympathy from Slughorn of all people. Everyone knew his favorite students were one with connections, money or talent that he could use to his advantage in the future. Percy had never once been invited to the selective Slug Club, he had nothing to offer Slughorn. But the professor's expression softened, and he looked Percy dead in the eye.

"I'm not against using people for my advantage, Mr. Jackson, it would be hypocritical of me to do so. But I don't believe for a moment in what that woman wrote about you. I have witnessed how hard you worked to belong here, and so did the other teachers. It would take more than a badly written article to change our opinion of you.

The knot on his chest loosened even more after that. He swallowed. "Thank you, sir."

"Now off you go," Slughorn said, shooing him away. "Find Filch and see if he needs anything from you. Your detention starts after the holidays."

🪄     🪄     🪄

The teachers’ opinion of him didn’t change, but most of the students’ did. People were side-eyeing him in the corridors, whispering among themselves or throwing shade whenever he walked past. But other than Bryce Lawrence and Matt Sloan, who seemed to think that repeating quotes from the article was the epitome of comedy, nobody dared to mess directly with him. Even before Skeeter’s article made him infamous, everybody knew that Percy was a very good duelist, so making snide comments were all they did. He shared a dormitory with Bryce and Sloan, but at this point, Percy was used to tuning their nonsense out.

Witch Weekly did post an article about him, though not directly. It made reference to Skeeter's article and proceeded to make a list with things to watch out for while dating a wizard. Percy also received a few angry letters, but after the first couple he didn't even bother opening them before throwing in the fire. 

Filch had been delighted about his detention. The first thing Percy had to do for him was to bathe Mrs Norris. He usually liked cats, but more than once he had to suppress the urge to petrify the animal, because it was very clear that she hated being washed. To make matters worse, he had to do it in the abandoned girls bathroom on the second floor and hear the constant whining of Moaning Myrtle. He was about to take Mrs Norris back to Filch when Peeves set off a dungbomb in the corridor, and both him and the cat smelled like shit afterwards, so Percy had to bathe the cat again. By the time he was done, his arms were full of scratches, but a quick Episkey was enough to close the cuts.

Then Percy had to clean Filch’s office. The space was small and had no windows, decorated with filling cabinets, a desk, a few boxes with trinkets he had confiscated over the years and, disturbingly, two sets of chains on the naked wall behind his desk. Despite being denied for decades at this point, Filch was still begging Dumbledore to let him suspend the students by their ankles and leave them hanging upside down as punishment. The place was very organized, the groundskeeper obviously took his job very seriously, so Percy only had to clean the dust from the surfaces and polish and oil Filch’s beloved chains.

But mostly, he was asked to help patrol the corridors after curfew. Apparently the number of students sneaking out of their commons rooms this year was higher than usual because of the Tournament, so Filch told him which floors and corridors he had to patrol and went with Mrs Norris to cover another area. Percy did find some students breaking curfew, but he usually sent them away without making any fuss.

Percy was patrolling on the third day of his detention when he heard something near the library. Slowly, he went to check it out — most of the students out of bed at this hour were looking for a place to shag, so he proceeded with caution — but then something collided with him. The obstacle hadn’t been there before and Percy gave a step back when he heard something heavy hitting the floor. Then, someone screamed so loud his heart leapt to his throat.

It wasn’t a scream exactly, but a horrible wail made of hundreds of high pitched voices. Percy covered his ears and something rolled in his direction until it stopped at his feet. A golden egg. The shell was open, revealing a translucent, hard yolk from where the wailing was coming from. Alarmed, he caught the egg and closed it just as Annabeth removed the cloak and dove to get it.

“I—”

“Shut up,” Percy whispered, shoving the egg in her hands. “Cover yourself, quick!”

She didn’t argue. Just as Annabeth became invisible, Filch and the prefects from Hufflepuff turned the corner.

‘’What was that?” Filch demanded.

“Peeves. He thought it would be funny to follow me around screaming. I already banished him away.”

Being a prefect, Annabeth wouldn't get in trouble for being outside her common room at this time, but she wasn't on shift and it probably wouldn't be good if she and Percy were caught alone at this hour. 

The prefects seemed satisfied with that explanation, but Filch looked at him with suspicion. “I’ll keep patrolling this floor. You go up.”

Percy just shrugged. He looked at the empty spot where he had last seen Annabeth and discreetly nodded his head, signaling for her to follow. They walked in silence for a few flights of stairs and, after checking if nobody else was around, entered a classroom.

“What were you doing?”

Annabeth removed the cloak. She was awkwardly holding it while balancing the golden egg. “I had to go to the library.”

“Now? Do you ever sleep?”

“I couldn’t! I keep thinking about this egg, the second task is a little more than a month away and I still haven’t figured out the clue. I listened to this wretched sound a hundred times, tried to ask questions, open it at different times of the day and I can’t make sense of it! My housemates can't either and the girls in my dorm threatened to kill me in my sleep if I open the egg near them one more time. Nothing they have in the library seems to help either but I don’t know what else to do.”

She was wearing grey pajamas with a light pink hoodie over it. Her face was flushed while she ranted and paced around. Percy thought it was very cute but suppressed a smile lest Annabeth thought he was making fun of her.

The worst thing that article did was to put a strain on something that had barely started. Whatever he had with Annabeth — friendship, mutual attraction — was still fragile and new, and now the whole school felt like they had the right to meddle. Between that, their classes, Percy's detention and her responsibilities as Champion they didn't have a moment alone since their interrupted conversation after the ball.

"What?" she demanded after he stayed in silence for too long. 

"Cute pajamas," he said, pointing to the little owls. They didn't seem to be part of the original design. "Did you sew them?"

She zipped up the hoodie to cover them, but a blush the same color of the fabric was spreading up her neck. 

"Yes. I do that when I get bored." She eyed his jeans. "What about you? Trying to look exotic?"

"Is it working?"

"It doesn't have the full effect without the hat."

"It's a cap, get your terminology straight," he pointed to the egg with his chin. "Let me take a look."

Ever since he heard the sound, something was scratching his mind. Percy had an idea of what it was, but didn't want to say anything before he was sure.

"You're gonna wake up the entire castle," Annabeth warned, handing him the egg. He raised an eyebrow. 

"Are you a witch or not?"

Her nostrils flared and Percy was pleased to know that his talent to annoy her wasn't compromised by his desire to kiss her. She cast a muffling charm and he unclasped the egg, cringing at the sound but forcing himself to listen even if it made every hair on his body stand on end. Percy closed the egg. "That's mermish."

Annabeth blinked. "No it's not. Mermish has a melodic sound so beautiful people smile while being dragged to their deaths."

"Yeah, that's what they sound like underwater. On the surface they do this 'wretched sound', as you put it. Some colonies of merpeople can sing above water, but the selkies here in Scotland can't."

The sirens from the Mariana Trench were capable of recreating every sound they hear, using it to lure prey of various species. The Greek sirens had melodic voices even above the water, creating powerful illusions to lure people to them. The sereias from the Amazon river in South America are said to be so otherworldly beautiful that most of the time they didn't even have to open their mouths to start the hypnosis. But Percy had seen a few selkies swimming past the windows in Slytherin, and they looked more dangerous than pretty.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I went to the Great Lake and tried to talk to a selkie once years ago and it sounded exactly like that."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to ask why the hell he tried to talk to merpeople, but her eyes lit up and she grabbed his arm suddenly. "That's it! I have to open the egg underwater!"

She scooped the egg in her arms and ran to the door, not even bothering to check the corridors before she ran to the stairs. Percy went after her, but fortunately they didn't have to run for too long. Annabeth stopped in front of a statue on the fifth floor and said the password to get access to the prefect's bathroom.

It was empty. Percy bolted the door after he got inside while Annabeth put the egg and the cloak on the floor and hastily turned about a dozen taps to fill up the giant bathtub faster. Steam  quickly started to fill the air and a thick white layer of foam and bubbles got higher inside the tub.

Annabeth grabbed a towel from one of the cabinets near the wall and put beside the egg near the edge of the tub. "Okay. Turn around," she told Percy before she unzipped the hoodie and took it off. Too stunned to do anything else, he obeyed, staring at the painting of a mermaid on the wall while he heard the rustling of fabric and a soft splash when Annabeth entered the tub.

"You can look now."

Percy didn't even spare a glance at the bundle of clothes on the floor. He didn't want to know if Annabeth was still wearing anything or if she was completely naked beneath the water, the information would probably make his body spontaneously combust.

"Aren't you getting in?"

The worst part is that Annabeth was so focused on the egg that she didn't even notice the situation they were in. Or didn't seem affected by it if she did. Percy almost refused, but he was also curious. This was going to be the only chance he had to actually hear the selkies singing voice without dying afterwards. 

He swallowed and took off his shoes and socks. Then removed his jumper. He was unbuttoning his jeans when their predicament finally seemed to dawn on Annabeth and she looked away, busying herself with turning off the taps. Percy decided to keep his underpants and got inside the tub, the warm water instantly making him relax.

Annabeth still wasn't looking at him. Unable to help himself, Percy swam a lap around the tub and when he got back, she was already holding the egg. He gave a nod of encouragement and she put it underwater and opened it. They both reflexively winced, but this time there was no screaming. A soft voice was emanating from it, but they couldn't make out the words. Sharing a look, they took a deep breath and put their heads under.

Opening his eyes beneath the water, Percy discovered that Annabeth was wearing her underclothes, after all. But he didn't even have time to think about that before the softest, most beautiful voice he ever heard reached his ears. Every muscle on his body relaxed, and Percy let himself sink to the bottom of the tub. He couldn't take his eyes off of the glowing yolk and probably wouldn't even remember he needed to breathe until the singing suddenly stopped. The yolk stopped glowing for a while, then lit up again and the singing restarted.

This time, Percy forced himself to pay attention to the words. The burning in his lungs helped him focus

“Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you’re searching, ponder this:

We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss,

An hour long you’ll have to look,

And to recover what we took.

But past an hour — the prospect’s black,

Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.”

The singing stopped again and Percy came up for air, and so did Annabeth. She closed the egg and put it on the floor outside of the bathtub and impatiently brushed the wet hair off of her face.

"Come seek us where our voices sound… the Second Task is taking place in the Great Lake!" he said and Annabeth nodded. She had that distant look on her eyes again, the one that came with her thinking face. 

"They're going to steal something," she said eventually, already working out the next part of the song. "Something important to me, apparently, and I'll have one hour to get it back. That's… incredibly unimaginative of them."

Percy couldn't believe his ears. "What?"

"I mean, we had to get the golden egg in the First Task. In the Second, we're also gonna have to retrieve something. Historically, the Third Task involves getting the Triwizard Cup and I don't think they'll change that. It's just repetitive."

"Didn't you hear the song? You're gonna have to stay underwater for an hour and you're complaining that the creators of the Tournament aren't creative enough?"

She shrugged. "It's just boring, from an expectator perspective. Objectively."

"Objectively," Percy repeated, mimicking her voice and splashing water on her. "You're unbelievable."

She leaned her forearms on the edge of the tub and rested her chin on them, staring at the egg. The layer of foam wasn't as thick anymore. 

"But yes, it's going to be a problem. My bubblehead charm only holds for 40 minutes, but I suppose I have time to perfect it and make it last longer. The other problem is that the lake is huge. I can't just swim aimlessly, otherwise I'll never find whatever it is in tim—" her eyes widened. "So that's what he's doing!"

"I didn't follow."

"Gunderson! He's been swimming in the lake every morning since the ball. I thought he was just insane, but he's practicing!"

"How do you know what Gunderson is doing?"

"I keep an eye on the other champions."

Naturally. 

"Maybe the clue didn't mean just the Lake," Percy mused. "Maybe the selkies are keeping it in their colony. And if that's the case, whatever you do, don't fight them."

"That would be suicide. I think the challenge is just to find whatever it is, no fighting involved."

Percy hoped so. While the merpeople never attacked anyone, not even the students that swam in the lake, they were known to be incredibly territorial. If the Task was taking place in their homes, there was obviously an agreement between them and the people organizing the Tournament, but there's no way to know how they were going to react if they felt threatened. In their territory, they could easily kill the Champions and nobody would be able to stop them.

"I still don't know where their colony is, though. Perhaps there's something about that in the library."

Percy had a better idea. It wasn't rare for the selkie to pass by the windows in the  Slytherin dungeons. Sometimes, a few stopped to look inside and even interact with the students if they showed interest. And Percy obviously had. The view of the lake and the possibility of seeing the creatures that lived inside it was the first thing he liked about his common room. It was hard and very imprecise, but it was possible to talk to the merfolk using sign language, so he suggested it to Annabeth. 

“It’s worth a try,” she said, turning back to face him. “I don’t know when you’ll find the time with so many detentions.”

“Could be worse. Filch’s pretty easy to handle when you’re not trying to sabotage me.”

It was her turn to splash water at him. “It wasn’t on purpose! I was distracted and didn't see where I was going.”

“Hm. So it was a coincidence that you were on the same floor I was supposed to be patrolling?”

“What else would you call it?” she asked, getting closer. “Fate?”

Percy’s heart galloped up his throat, but he managed to find his voice. “Stalking.”

Annabeth put her arms around his neck. “And what if I was?”

Fortunately, he didn’t have to come up with an answer, because she kissed him. It was difficult to keep steady in the water, so when Annabeth wrapped her legs around his waist, he walked them both to the edge of the tub. There were less clothes between them than last time, and no one showed up to interrupt them, so things got heated a lot quicker. They were so close that Percy could feel her heartbeat, and even then he pressed more, greedily swallowing every single one of her sighs and whimpers. 

They stayed there long enough for the water to get cold, to explore each other with their hands, and by the time they drained the tub and towelled off, Percy’s lips were swollen and he was feeling lightheaded. He was reluctant to part with Annabeth, but they would meet the next day to talk to the mermaid.

As expected, people stared when Annabeth entered the common room. She wasn’t usually seen in Slytherin outside of parties, not even when her cousin used to live there. But after a while, when they just kept working on their own homework without doing anything to fan the flames of gossip, they lost interest. 

It was time for dinner and most of the room was empty when Percy noticed something passing the window. He leapt to his feet and ran, tapping on the glass to try to catch the selkie's attention. It worked. The mermaid got closer to the window, and to his delight, it was one he recognized. 

To this day, Percy couldn’t tell if the mermaids were beautiful or not. The skin was grey and the upper body was very thin. Their teeth were very sharp and the unblinking eyes were too big for the proportion of the head. But the scales of the tail were golden and blue, and reddish hair floated behind her. It had been a struggle to find out if the selkie was a he or a she, they didn’t understand gender the way humans did and their male and female body didn’t have a very noticeable dysmorphia. But Percy knew this particular individual was a she.

He put a hand on the glass in greeting and the mermaid did the same. Her hand was larger, a thin membrane connecting her fingers and the fins on her arm undulating slightly. Annabeth got up and stood beside him, eyeing the mermaid with interest.

“Say hi,” he instructed, and Annabeth hesitantly put her hand on the glass as well. The mermaid looked at her for a moment, then touched the window.

Percy pointed to himself, then shrugged exaggeratedly, then pointed to the mermaid. He wanted to ask a question. On the other side of the glass, she nodded slowly. He tried to think of a way to ask the question. There was not an official sign language, just a collection of hand gestures some students came up with to try to talk with the selkies. While they could communicate simple things, elaborate questions were harder. 

While trying to talk with something from a different species, it was easy to realize just how much of human comunication relied on facial expressions and body language. Percy knew half a dozen words in French — and one of them was croissant — and couldn't speak a word of swedish or bulgarian, but in only a few months he was able to communicate more efficiently with the foreign students than with the selkies, even after years of trying.

Percy pointed to himself again, then lifted the three middle fingers from each hand and joined the tips, imitating the pointy roof of the castle. It was the sign for Hogwarts. Percy pointed to the mermaid again and she made an undulating gesture with both hands. The sign for the Great Lake. Okay. Next step. Percy got a piece of paper and quickly doodled the outline of Hogwarts' grounds, containing the castle and the Great Lake. He showed it to the mermaid and repeated the sign for the castle just to make sure she understood. Then he put his finger on the lake, pointed to the mermaid and did the same undulating gesture she had done before. 

When the mermaid nodded, Percy grabbed Annabeth’s elbow, bringing her closer to him, and pointed to the both of them before drawing a S in the air with his index finger, the sign for Slytherin. Then Percy doodled a snake in the bottom of the paper, beneath the castle, and showed it to the mermaid again. He was telling her that he was at the castle, in a room that was located in the dungeons. Even if the concept of a dungeon didn’t exist among the selkies, Percy’s goal was to make her understand their location inside of Hogwarts. He pointed to her, made the sign for mermaid and shrugged again. What about you?

The mermaid brought her face closer to the glass, and Percy approached too, showing the drawing. She tilted her head to the side and he repeated his last gestures. It was fascinating to watch those intelligent unblinking eyes process the question, think of an answer, trying to communicate in a way he could understand. She then eyed the drawing and put her finger on a spot that seemed to be halfway between the center of the lake and the margins in the Hogwarts’ grounds.

“Here? You live here?” Percy asked, pointing to her, making the lake sign, then circled  the spot she had put her finger on. The mermaid nodded and Percy felt triumphant. Of course, it was nothing very precise, the proportions of his doodle probably weren’t very good, but it was something. 

He smiled, putting a hand over his heart and bowing his head a little. Thank you. The mermaid did the same and her lips parted as well. The selkies didn’t really smile at each other, they snarled as a sign of warning. But this was a concession: Percy would smile without showing his teeth, and the mermaid did by showing less of hers. 

Finally, she swimmed away, quickly disappearing in the darkness of the lake. Percy grinned for  real now, turning to face Annabeth, who was looking at him like he was seeing him for the first time.

"That was amazing. I never even thought it was possible to talk to them without knowing Mermish."

"Nah, Piper is way better at this. She can have whole conversations with—"

"Percy, just accept the compliment. Is that so hard?" He didn't know what to say, so he stayed quiet. Annabeth stared at the window again with a pensive, almost sad look in her eyes. "About what you said, in the tower. I wish I got to know you sooner too."

Percy didn't know why that made him his heart ache. Maybe it was the tone she used, maybe it was because this was their last year at school and the future was scary and uncertain. He wondered what could've happened if they had become friends sooner, if he hadn't tried to avoid her because of the bad impression her cousin left on him. But he tried to smile.

"Well, better late than never. We still have time, right?"

"Yeah. We do."

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It was cold in January, even more so near the lake. The wind was icy, so Percy was bundled up in layers of clothes and well equipped with his discman and a thermos filled with hot chocolate. Annabeth, however, was wearing a swim costume, gathering courage to enter the lake.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Nope," Percy answered, putting a blanket on the ground and sitting in it with his back resting against a tree. "My support has its limits, I'm gonna wait right here. Good luck, though."

Annabeth sighed, then pointed her wand to her face and cast a bubblehead charm. It looked like the helmet of an astronaut, but smaller and more wobbly. She winced when her feet touched what was certainly icy cold water and dived in. 

Percy, meanwhile, sketched on his little notebook and listened to music. She emerged earlier than he thought, about 15 minutes later shaking like a leaf. Percy got up to meet her.

"The bubblehead didn't hold?"

"I d-didn't consider how c-cold it was g-gonna be."

He wrapped a fluffy towel around her. Annabeth took advantage of the proximity and put her freezing hands under his shirt and buried her cold nose in his neck. Percy jumped, trying to squirm away.

"You're freezing, get off!"

She held fast, laughing now. "You're h-here to k-keep me warm, do your job."

He managed to pry her off his torso, but held her hands between his and tried to blow hot air to warm them. It didn't help much, and Annabeth tried to cast the bluebell flames but she was shaking so much she wasn't able to complete the spell. So Percy did it for her and they both sat near the tree, Annabeth still wrapped in the towel and sitting between his legs, her back against his chest, and the flames flickering slightly with the wind. She drank a bit of the hot chocolate and after a while, the shaking stopped. 

"The cold is going to be a problem. The water is freezing."

"The muggles have special clothes for that. They preserve body heat whenever they dive too deep or in waters too cold."

"Even if I could order and they could deliver in time, I can't choose what I'm gonna wear during the tasks. But I think I'll be okay if I drink pepper-up potion before diving in, and they're easy enough to brew. I'm gonna test it tomorrow."

Annabeth started to swim on the lake nearly every night after the conversation with the mermaid, trying to find the place they lived so she could know where to look. She didn't know what exactly they would steal from her, or where was going to be the starting point for the task, but it was better than to go in blind.

She did it after curfew, whenever she wasn't on shift to patrol the corridors. Percy decided to come along whenever he could, both to keep her company and because those stolen moments at night were kind of their thing now. They could kiss where there was no one to look, to gossip about them, or judge what they were doing. No class to attend, no homework to do. Just them.

Usually Annabeth dives once, staying longer and longer as her bubblehead charm is perfected, and the pepper-up potion seemed to work, as she no longer came up about to die of hypothermia. Then they both lied on the blanket despite the cold and shared the earbuds of the discman and the hot chocolate while they talked.

Percy told her about muggle schools, how he spent his summers helping his mom at the bakery she worked at and skateboarding with a few mates he had in London. How his friends usually visited on his birthday and how chaotic his small house got whenever they went there.

And she told him more about her life as well. It was both similar and very different from what he thought it would be. Her mother had always been strict with her kids, but she got especially bad lately and was almost never home anymore. Her father was home all the time, but mostly stayed inside his workshop and one of the only ways to spend time together was offering to help him with his work. Despite designing racing brooms for a living, Frederick Chase didn't like much to fly on them, so Annabeth basically beta tested the Chaser 1.0 before he pitched it for investors. She mostly spent her summer with Magnus and her aunt Natalie, because she always took them on holidays somewhere new. 

Then after a while, before it got too late they shared the cloak in the walk back to the castle, through a secret passage that avoided the main gate. She left him near the stairs to the dungeons and got up to the tower. They usually didn't see much of each other during the day outside of the classes they had together and meals, but arranged to meet almost every night.

On the eve of the Second Task, Annabeth decided not to spend the night practicing, opting to go to bed early instead so she could be well rested. After dinner, she was about to leave the great hall when Percy went after her, reaching her before she got to the stairs. 

"To help you relax," he said, giving her the discman. "It worked well last time, right? Good luck tomorrow."

She took the discman and kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Percy."

He walked back to his table feeling warm all over. Piper was looking at him with that knowing look of hers.

"Don't say anything" he said before she could even open her mouth.

"I wasn't gonna," Piper sang, eating her pudding. "I just wanted to ask about that cute friend of hers."

"Which friend?"

"Jason Grace. Or Reyna Arellano. Whichever is single."

"Aren't they in a relationship with each other?"

That didn't seem to deter Piper. "I don't think so. But if they are, do you think  they want a third?"

Percy laughed, getting a pudding for himself. "There's probably gonna be another party after the Task tomorrow and it’s a Hogsmeade weekend. You can ask them."

Unlike the task with the dragon, this one would take place in the morning instead of the afternoon. The usual buzz and excited chatter that accompanied the events of the Tournament was very present the next day at breakfast, and at nine, the teachers came to herd the students to the stands that were built near the lake.

It was a cold day, grey and windy, but thankfully it didn't rain. The crowd slowly filled the stands, as Bagman welcomed them and people started to make theories about what the task was gonna be. A few younger students were saying that the Champions would have to fight the Giant Squid. The Chase twins were among them.

"I don't think it's that," said one of them. "Dumbledore and Crouch called us last night, I think they'll have to rescue someone."

"So why are you here?" asked another kid.

"Because both me and Bob wanted to participate, so when we started arguing about it Dumbledore sent us both away and told us to get Magnus instead," explained the other twin, obviously indignant.

"And where is Magnus?"

"I don't know. Haven't seen him since last night."

"Hey Matt, isn't that your sister's boyfriend?"

Half a dozen heads turned to look at Percy  when he passed with his friends, trying to find a good spot to sit. He sighed. 

"They're not dating," the boy said through gritted teeth.

"I saw her dining at the Slytherin table this week."

"That means nothing," answered the other twin. Bob, apparently. This one didn't seem to hate the idea so much.

"Bugger. You could ask him for a few flying lessons since you're still rubbish."

"Sod off, this is not your business."

"Cut them some slack, guys. They're about to have their vaults stolen."

"Alright," Percy said loudly, walking up to them. They all seemed a little started, clearly they didn't want Percy to hear the conversation despite the fact they were speaking loudly. He ignored the others and focused on the twins. "I'm gonna say this just once: I don't want your gold."

"Skeeter said—"

"Skeeter doesn't know me. She made that article without talking to me even once. You shouldn't believe everything you read."

"It's not like it matters anyway," Matt said.

Percy waited, but he didn't say anything else. He was about to get back to his seat when one of the other boys called him.

"Hey! Do you have any candy today?"

"No. I don't sell stuff anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because that tosser ratted me out," Percy said, pointing to Bryce Lawrence seated on the other side of the stand. They seemed disappointed, but didn’t say anything else as he got back to his seat. Percy still had some butterbeer and a small stash of candy left, but since he didn’t want to get into any more trouble he only shared it with his friends.

The huge mirror was levitating over the lake. It was showing nothing for now, but flickered to life when Bagman entered the tent with the Champions. They were all wearing bath robes and sitting on a bench stool, but immediately got up when Bagman showed up. His amplified voice echoed for everyone to hear. 

"Alright Champions. If you figured out the clue you already know that we stole something from you and stored somewhere in the Great Lake. You have one hour to get it back. There is a tolerance time, but points will be deducted from you if you emerge later. Depending on your score by the end of this task, you will get an advantage for the third and final task. Once again, cast the red sparks if you feel like you can't go on and our staff will show up to rescue you. Wait outside and get ready, the task will start when I blow the whistle. 

Clarisse raised her hand. She didn't look as confident as she did in the first task. Bagman nodded to her and she spoke in her heavy accent. "You stole what?"

The man smirked. "That's for us to know and you to find out, dear champions."

The girl didn't like the answer. When they all left the tent Clarisse's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for someone. Percy did the same and failed to find Silena among the Beauxbatons students. He looked again, this time in the Durmstrang stands. No sign of Gunderson redhead girlfriend. Percy thought about the conversation he overheard earlier… Dumbledore asked to talk to Magnus, and he was nowhere in sight. 

They didn't steal an object. They stole people and put them in the lake. 

Annabeth's eyes were also scanning the crowd. Percy couldn't tell if she realized or not, because soon Bagman told them to be on their marks.

The Champions took off the robes, revealing the wetsuits they were wearing below it, identical in everything but the color. Once again Black for Hogwarts, white and light blue for Beauxbatons and crimson red for Durmstrang. The suit clung to their body, but was short sleeved and covered only until above the knee, Percy doubted it would be much protection against the cold.

He wondered what the suits were made of. Wizards did not wear clothes made from synthetic material, only natural fabric like wool, cotton, leather, linen and silk. You wouldn't catch a pureblood dead wearing polyester. 

Before discarding her bathrobe, Annabeth got her wand and a vial out of the pocket, then she emptied it in one gulp. Steam started to come out of her ears as the pepper-up potion worked its effect. Clarisse got something wet and green like an algae and put it in her mouth, chewing with difficulty. Gunderson only got his wand and started muttering. 

"On three," said Bagman. Then he counted and blew the whistle. 

A Second later, the three Champions hit the water. Annabeth cast her bubblehead and dove, Gunderson disappeared beneath the water and it was only because of the mirror-screen that Percy could see him turning into a shark. Clarisse's body also started to change underwater, with webs appearing between her fingers and toes, and a pair of gills showed up on each side of her neck. 

Once the Champions were under, Bagman confirmed Percy's suspicion and told the crowd that they took one person who was very dear to each champion and put them under custody of the selkies. The screen flickered and showed Magnus Chase, Silena Beauregard and Mallory Keen, all asleep while floating in what seemed to be an underwater village, one rope around their ankles keeping them in place.

If it wasn't for the screen, nobody would have been able to see anything. The Lake was still, not a single bubble emerged from it. But the screen was divided in three squares, each showing a Champion while a tiny hourglass in the bottom corner marked the time they had left. After the explosive start of the first task, this one was more a slow burn, the suspense building as the champions explored the lake.

Gunderson seemed to be closer to the hostages. Percy was impressed, he had never met an animagus so young, but wasn’t sure his strategy would work since most sharks only survived on salt water. But whatever species Gunderson had turned into must be one of the few that could live on freshwater as well, because he seemed to have no problem. A few grindylows tried to attack him, but the shark snapped his teeth at them, killing two with one bite, and the others swimmed away.

Annabeth’s bubblehead was holding well. She had lit the tip of her wand and sometimes stopped to cast a spell that made her wand point to directions. She was a decent swimmer, but it clearly wasn’t easy to keep going deeper. Visibility was low even on the screens, it couldn’t be much better inside the actual lake. But she kept going somewhat in the right direction.

Clarisse was having more difficulty. She could swim fast thanks to the transformation the gillyweed provided, but seemed to have no idea where she was going. She was obviously not familiar with the lake, kept trying a few direction spells but changed her mind every few minutes. Clarisse jumped with every movement, every fish that passed her.

Gunderson reached the village first. It was a series of small underwater caves, what seemed to be houses made of uneven dark stones and algae. The place was organized in a circle and at the center, there was a giant statue of a selkie. The fine details and materials utilized made Percy guess that it was probably a gift from humans. The selkies watched Gunderson approach cautiously, a few held spears or stones and followed him while others stayed close to their caves. One of the young selkies swimmed closer and poked the shark with a stick. Gunderson turned sharply and sunk his teeth on the stick, shaking it so hard the selkie moved along with it. The creature hissed and swimmed away, but it was clear the merpeople had not liked how Gunderson treated one of their own.

Others closed in, poking him from every side and she shark bit the air a few times, but chose his battles and kept going despite the crowd of selkies crowding him. Finally, near the statue, he found the hostages. Gunderson circled Mallory and started sawing the rope with his teeth. It took longer than Percy thought it would, but he was about to make it when Annabeth also reached the village.

She pointed her wand at a couple of grindylows trying to bite her ankles and a jet of water banished away the little creatures. Then she looked around and started to make her way to the hostages.

Gunderson freed Mallory and closed his jaws around her robes to drag her. He swimmed straight to Annabeth, who barely managed to dodge him when he went away. She moved her arms and legs, pushing towards Magnus and analyzed the situation for a few seconds before getting her wand.

That simple motion seemed to send the selkies into a frenzy. Some entered their caves, others gripped rocks and spears and held it above their heads, baring their teeth at Annabeth. That was not an attempted smile. Their thin lips almost disappeared when they snarled, showing every pointy tooth in their mouth. The warning was clear: no wands.

Percy saw Annabeth hesitating and prayed to every deity he knew that she didn't use her wand. Despite whatever agreement the selkies had with the creators of the tournament, they would not allow wands in their territory, not when those same objects hurt their people in the past. Fortunately, Annabeth left her wand in the holster and looked around. She went to the muddy bottom of the village and grabbed a pointy rock to break Magnus’s rope.

It took a while, but she did it. She grabbed his arm, nodded to the selkies and started to swim up. Magnus’s weight slowed her down, but once she was far enough from the village, Annabeth used her wand again.

Today, however, was not Clarisse’s day. She encountered the giant squid and panicked, probably not knowing that it wasn’t dangerous, drew her wand and cast something against the creature. It was clearly not very effective, but it annoyed the squid. It let out a black ink over her and swimmed away while the champion tried to escape the ink.

Gunderson’s shark fin broke the surface of the lake. Mallory woke up as soon as her head emerged, and she grabbed the fin while the shark swimmed to the shore. Gunderson started to transform back, and by the time he reached the margin, he was fully human, carrying his girlfriend on his back and being greeted by the cheers of the crowd.

A few minutes later, Annabeth and Magnus also emerged. He woke up as soon as he came in contact with air and blinked, like he was waking up from a dream. She steadied him while he got his bearings and then they both started swimming to the shore. The champions and the hostages were wrapped in towels and sat near the judges’ table to wait for Clarisse.

The one hour limit was almost up, and only now she was getting close to the selkie village. Her movements were frantic, desperate. Despite being underwater, some spots of her skin were black from the squid’s ink. She finally saw Silena, but she had barely started to swim towards her girlfriend when the merpeople surrounded her just as they had done with the previous champions.

Clarisse ignored them, pushing her way through until she found Silena. She touched the sleeping girl’s face and drew her wand. The selkies got agitated again, threatened her with rocks and spears, but Clarisse was clearly too far gone to care. She used a spell to release the knot in Silena’s ropes. She grabbed the girls’ arm and tried to get away, but she had offended the selkies. They circled her and hissed, grabbed her ankles and tried to pull her down, and some others got really close with their spears. Clarisse pointed her wand at them and there was some kind of explosion. The water around her moved, pushing the merpeople away, and she took the opportunity to swim away. The selkies followed, not seeming happy at all, moving like the predators they were towards their prey that was almost escaping…

They emerged. Silena woke up and gave her a dazzling smile, but it quickly went away when she saw the expression of pure horror on her girlfriend’s face. Clarisse said something and they both started to swim to the shore, but while the selkies left Silena alone, they kept trying to pull the champion down. Clarisse kicked and screamed, but she was dragged down by her ankles.

The merpeople looked like an angry mob ready to linch her. Five had their hands firmly clasped around her limbs, and dozens more were coming up to join. Worse yet, the effects of the gillyweed were fading, soon she would need to breathe air again. By some miracle, she managed the spell from before and got rid of the selkies. Then she did it again, aiming for the spot below her and shot herself out of the water, finally reaching the shore. Annabeth and Magnus helped her get out of the water, and both Dumbledore and Crouch got up to talk to the mermaids to calm them down.

Pomfrey gave them towels and pepper-up potions, but Clarisse was shaking while the healer cleaned and treated the several deep cuts she had on her arms and legs where the selkies scratched her. Silena kept talking to her, trying to calm her down while the matter with the mermaids was settled and the judges were ready to give their marks.

Gunderson received an 8 from Crouch and Maxime, a 10 from Karkaroff and Bagman, and 9 from Dumbledore, totaling 45 points. 

Annabeth got an 8 from Crouch, a 9 from Bagman, Dumbledore and Maxime and a 7 from Karkaroff, totaling 42 points.

Clarisse got a 7 from Crouch and Dumbledore, a 6 from Karkaroff, 8 from Bagman and 9 from Maxime, totaling 37 points. She didn't even react to her score, still looking ratted.

Percy did the math in his head. Despite getting second place in both tasks, Annabeth was leading the score, followed by Gunderson and, in last place for now, Clarisse. There was only one more challenge between Annabeth and the victory.