That We Face But Cannot See

"All I'm saying is, why would they go through all the effort of teaching a cow how to write English, only to settle with a cow that can't spell?"

"Sweet Rhea, dude. It's a cow. Of course it's going to have crappy spelling."

"But, Chick-fil-a is like, loaded. They can afford to hire smart cows. Or smart teachers. Hades, if Annabeth was in charge-"

Jason sighed in exasperation and looked around. The hallway of Number 12 Grimmauld Place was empty, save for Jason and Percy. The wizards whose house they were staying at had all regrouped in the kitchen to enjoy Mrs. Weasley's magnificent cooking, which is where the two demigods were headed now. Hazel was probably already in there waiting for them. Huffing in good-natured ire, Jason reeled on the Son of Poseidon.

"Percy, it's a freaking cow. In a freakingChick-fil-A commercial."

Percy regarded him briefly with his eyebrows raised before bursting out in laughter. Jason relented after a moment with a snort. It felt good to laugh. It had been a little less than a month since the Giant War had ended, and while there had been a period of grief where the pain of the loss of those who had died was fresh as any battle wound, the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter alike were slowly but surely recovering. Jason found that he was smiling and laughing more now than he ever had before the war. He liked to think that it was because the losses from the war made him realize that life was too short not have a good time. However, he suspected that hanging around the laidback Greek demigods-especially Leo, that gods dammed little shit who let everyone think he was dead only to turn up 100% alive and with a hot-ass girlfriend to boot—had really softened his stiff Roman attitude.

Sighing in content, he looked at Percy, who was still snickering. The Son of Poseidon's form was still lean due the weight he had lost during his time in Tartarus. His skin had regained its usual dark sun tan, which contrasted sharply with the pink and white scars that peaked out from under his navy blue hoodie. Physically, he was on the highway to recovery. Mentally… that was taking a bit longer, however much he tried to hide it.

For the sake of Percy's pride, Jason pretended not to be awoken by Percy when he left the demigods' bedroom at ungodly hours of the night, still shaking from his quotidian nightmares. He figured that when Water Boy was ready to talk about it, he would. Besides, Jason was no Annabeth, so he doubted there was much he could do to help Percy anyway. This trip was the first time he and the Daughter of Athena wouldn't be together for longer than a few days. It wasn't favorable and pretty much everyone-Chiron, the Camp Councilors, the rest of the Seven, and Reyna-had argued against it, but Hecate had personally selected Jason, Percy, and Hazel to carry out this quest and stubbornly refused to change her mind.

When she was faced with protests and backlash over her decision, the Goddess of Magic forcefully teleported the three of them right on the spot, sending them to England without so much as a suitcase. After debriefing them of their mission (find and kill the Greek monsters that, for whatever reason, were running around London and joining some guy named Voldemort's army) she had disappeared, effectively abandoning them in a foreign country to find a society so secret that not even the natives knew about it.

Yeah, that had been about as much fun as it sounded.

In the end, after they discovered strange sticks on their persons that they figured were planted there by Hecate, they had wandered around the city for a couple days, (guiltily) using Hazel's mist-euros to get hotel rooms and food until they were found by a large, peg-legged man with a strange prosthetic eye. Deciding that he was too conspicuous to be a monster but keeping their guard up nonetheless, they talked with him in an alleyway, where he revealed that his eye was magical and he could tell that the three of them were, very clearly, not human. Telling him the truth about themselves and their quest, they agreed to visit his 'headquarters' (a house that didn't appear unless you had a specific, magical passcode. Really Hecate? How in the Name of Zeus were they supposed to find that on their own?) and meet the organization that was fighting against the 'Voldemort' guy. They had since decided to team up, so the three demigods would be staying at Number 12 Grimmauld Place until they could complete their quest and have Hecate take them home. In the meantime, the wizards of the organization-The Order of the Phoenix, they called it, -were teaching the demigods a little bit of magic.

As far as quests go, Jason decided this one wasn't too bad. Granted, he would much rather be back in the States, carrying out his duty as Pontifex Maximus and spending the summer with Piper and his friends. He was sure Hazel had plans to spend time with Frank and help him with his Praetor duties, and sweet Rhea, did Percy need time to recover with Annabeth.

…Oh, who was he kidding. This sucked.

It really got him that despite being the subjects of a Great Prophecy, fighting in another war that the gods pretty much did the bare minimum to aid in, and sacrificing almost everything to come out victorious, they were here being treated like tools yet again. To make matters worse, Hecate, knowing how unwilling the demigods were to complete this quest, cut off all connection between the camps and the magical world, eliminating the possibility of shadow traveling or riding centaurs or pegasi home. Even Iris Messages were cut off. The camps had absolutely no idea where they were.

By the time Percy had finally finished guffawing at their dumb conversation, the boys were halfway to the kitchen.

"Hey, do you hear that?"

They both stopped and straightened at the odd sound, looking at each other with wide eyes as they drew the same conclusion.

Someone was in hysterics.

The old hardwood stairs creaked as the Percy charged forward with Jason hot on his heels. They reached the first landing and barged through the closest door (the drawing-room, was it?) only for Percy to stop so abruptly, Jason almost smacked his nose on the back of Percy's head.

"Geez Perce, what the…?"

The words caught in his throat as he absorbed the scene before him: Mrs. Weasley, on her knees against the wall, sobbing and rocking back and forth as she covered her mouth with a shaking hand. In her other hand was her wand, which was pointed at the sprawled body of a dead Harry Potter.

All the air left Jason in a fell gasp. He had just seen Harry ten minutes ago, roaming with Ron and Hermione. How could he be…?

Percy seemed to have the same thoughts, as he uttered a faint "Oh, Gods" under his breath. Neither of them moved as Mrs. Weasley waved her wand.

"Riddi-Riddikulus!"

Nothing happened, save for the wave of relief that swept over the demigods, as they understood that this was not actually Harry Potter in front of them, and Harry Potter was not actually dead. A shared look between the two confirmed each other's thoughts. This was a Boggart: A magical creature that shifted its appearance to take on the form of its enemy's worst fears.

Wizard monsters, man.

Percy's breath rasped hot over Jason's ear.

"Get Mrs. Weasley out of here. I'll get the booger."

"Boggart."

"Whatever, man. Let's boogie!"

Laughing despite himself, Jason made his way over to the Weasley matriarch (who had since fainted), keeping a watchful eye on Percy as he approached the corpse in the middle of the room.

As he stepped closer, the body shifted. The boggart seemed to be sizing him up, evaluating what form would be most effective. A heartbeat later, it had transformed into another dead body-this time in the form of a familiar blonde haired girl.

The muscles in Percy's jaw clenched as he stared into its unseeing gray eyes, before he raised his wand and muttered, "Riddikulus."

The body lurched, but instead of disappearing, it began to clamber to its feet. Smoke poured off its form and pooled around the floor.

"Pe-rcy…"

Jason's breath hitched. Oh, Gods, he thought. Its voice is exactly the same.

"Percy… why? Why would you do this? I asked you to stop."

Percy's face had gone very pale, as had his knuckles as he gripped his want tighter. The boggart's face was also blanched, but in a more horrifying, ghastly way. Its eyes were sunken in and dull. Its cheeks were gaunt and hollow. It looked like an animated skeletal corpse, with battered corn silk hair that hung raggedly from its scalp.

"I begged you-begged you to just let Akhys go, to just let her run off, but you didn't. You killed her. You drowned her in her own poison, you MONSTER."

Jason had no idea what the boggart was talking about, but Percy clearly did. His eyes were wide with shock, lips parted in horror. He raised his wand again as the figure staggered towards him with a heavy limp. Jason noticed through his stupor that the monster's left anklebone was jutting out of the skin like a white knife.

"But that wasn't enough for you. You just had to keep going, you power hungry bastard. You killed me, Godsdammit! YOU KILLED-"

"Riddikulus!"

Percy spluttered the spell out, finally. But instead of disappearing, the monster gave a high-pitched keen and morphed again.

Jason fumbled for his wand, his hands flying from pocket to pocket. Schist, I left it in our room!

His efforts died as the boggart slowly solidified into a monstrously huge being, whose grotesque purple flesh bulged with boulder-sized muscles.

Jason's jaw dropped.

His eyes darted about the figure, struggling to take in the horrific details. It wore scorched black chain link armor around its waist. With a start, Jason realized that the armor was not made of metal, but of bones. Thousands of twisted bones, from humans and monsters alike. Eyes traveling up, Jason just had time to take in a glossy obsidian breastplate-that seemed to move, for some reason- and a helm made of saw tooth rock that dripped glowing magma before Percy's voice snatched his attention once more. "Riddi…"

The word died out into nothing. The being, now fully formed, swung its massive shoulders to face Jason's friend fully. Jason could see Percy's chest heaving from across the room, could hear the frantic draws of breath. Percy was hyperventilating.

Dust crumbled from the ceiling and the chandelier crashed to the floor as the manifestation hissed in what must have been laughter.

"You will never escape me, little demigod. I own you, flesh and spirit."

The tip of the giant's helm barely missed scraping against the ceiling as it reached a massive hand towards the Son of Poseidon, making to grab him. Its onyx talons, which were easily as long as Jason was tall, gleamed in the moonlight.

"I am ETERNAL!"

"Riddikulus! RIDDIKULUS!"

Percy all but screamed the spell. His voice was strangled, like he was choking. It was a wonder that the spell even registered, and the being collapsed into a cloud of dust.

Jason was speechless. He stared at the flakes that hung stagnant in the air, not quite understanding what he had just seen. The only sound in the room was the rasp of Percy's breath as he struggled to keep himself together. He looked like he might break down at any second.

Neither of them was expecting the sudden movement that erupted from the cloud. It was a man, about as tall as Jason and some four times as wide. The impossible rolls of fat that jutted out from his belly lurched about with every step he took. His greasy scalp flashed briefly in the moonlight as he passed by the window. The thing that caught Jason's attention the most, however, was not the disgusting bean dip dribbling from his chin, or the repulsive odor that seemed to have appeared with the man. Instead, Jason's eyes fixated on the beer bottle the man held in his meaty fist like a club.

"BRAIN BOY!"

The man burst forwards at speeds Jason would've thought impossible for someone of his girth. Percy lurched backward, colliding with a table and toppling over. He tried to put as much distance between himself and the advancing man, scrambling backward in an improvised kind of crab walk until his back thudded against the wall. His face wore the same kind of horror as when he had dealt with the purple behemoth. The worst part, however, was the violent flinch he gave when the man smashed the beer bottle on the table. The shards of glass tingled as they hit the floor.

"I'm gonna make ya wish ya was never born, ya worthless little punk-!"

Jason gave a shout of horror as he watched the man lunge at Percy, the broken bottle brandished high above his head.

"RIDDIKULUS!"

Crack!

The man was no more. Instead, a small, silvery orb floated where the man's head had been. Turning, Jason saw the Order member Remus Lupin standing in the doorway, flanked by Sirius Black and Alastor Moody. Lupin's wand was pointed at the orb. With a flick of his wrist, it vanished in a puff of smoke.

The boggart was gone.

"Oh-oh-oh!" Mrs. Weasley gulped, coming to at last. Jason shakily clambered to his feet as Remus jogged across the room, dropping to his knees beside her.

Percy was still huddled against the wall, not responding to any of Sirius's words, even though the man was crouching right next to him. His eyes were still fixated on the spot the boggart had occupied. His breath was still coming in short gasps. Jason began to make his way over, watching as Sirius reached a hand out to place on Percy's shoulder.

The moment the hand made contact, Percy started out of his trance. His head whipped around to face Sirius's apprehensive gaze, and he scrambled away from the older man.

"It's alright, son," Sirius tried, but Percy acted as if he couldn't hear him. The demigod dragged himself to his feet, leaning against the wall momentarily, before shaking his head and hurrying out of the room.

AN- this will probably be a series of one-shots about this quest