A/N: I'M BACK! THIS STORY HAS NOT BEEN ABANDONED!
I feel horrible. I kind of went AWOL after the last chapter. i wrote like half of the chapter the next day. Then I was overcome with a mixture of school/other stories/homework/cold/writer's block. Will definitely update faster next time, though don't expect anything soon.
HERE IS A THANKS TO ALL OF MY TOTALLY EPIC REVIEWERS WHO ENCOURAGED ME TO CONTINUE. NEVER COULD HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU:
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LuvvAlexander: Well, yes they did meet but he was one, do you really expect him to know them? I'm not actually trying to get sympathy for Harry and just trying to interpret it as how I think it might have really happened. And Harry is sometimes jealous of Ron having a mother and father(I'm pretty sure I remember reading that, if not, sorry). But I do use that a lot, and I will take that into consideration in the future. And don't go hating on yourself! A lot of great fanfic stories are written by twelve year olds and you actually had valid points AND GOOD GRAMMAR. Sorry, I have OCD and it just bugs me so much when people spell easy things wrong or use incorrect grammar. So THANK YOU for your awesome (and grammatically correct) review!
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Y: I think that there wasn't enough clues to figure it out, because one: Harry Potter centaurs don't bows and arrows(at least, not that I can recall) and b: It did not mention a horse body at all plus I don't think they think a horse body could fit into a wheelchair without magic. (Did you notice I said 1 and then b? I just realized that) As for them being IC, that was my whole point! Because so many of these take them so out of character, and it annoyed me so much. By reviewing, you are helping me stay in character-THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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Special Shout out to PerryGriggs, shadow gods of the fallen, A Contridiction, and XxBlackOpsCommanderxX who actually cared enough to pm me! THANK YOU!
Enjoy the chapter.
Previously:
Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.
"How?" Ginny asked to no one.
Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.
Chapter 5
Everyone's faces were contorted into masks of blatant confusion, including Harry's. He could barely even try to imagine it. Hooves? What the heck does that mean for Grover?
"Like, animal hooves?" Ginny asked confusedly. "How can someone have animal hooves?"
"Like a centaur, maybe?" Ron reasoned.
"No, if Grover was a centaur, he wouldn't be able to hide his entire horse body." Hermione said.
"No, not like that." Ron said irritably. "Like maybe he's half animal or something."
Hermione looked pensive for a moment before her mouth fell open in a small "o" of enlightenment.
"Ron, you're a genius!" She exclaimed. ("I am?")She got up from her chair and ran into the other room.
"Where are you going?!" Ron yelled into the other room. Loud creaks could be heard from the ceiling as Hermione walked around upstairs.
"Lower your voice." Mrs. Weasley said to Ron, who grumbled.
The aged stairs accentuated her footsteps into stomps as she flew down them, book in hand. She flopped into her chair, setting the book down onto the table with a loud thump.
"What's that?" Tonks asked curiously. Hermione flipped through the book before stopping at a random page and stared intently at it.
"It's on Greek Mythology. I borrowed it from a library near my house for some summer reading."
"Summer reading?" Ron whispered incredulously to Harry at the massive tome.
She returned back to the book, skipping a few pages till she found one that was satisfactory.
"Here! He's a satyr! I remember reading about them. Half-man, half-goat!" She stated dramatically. Ron just looked confused.
"Half goat? Who would want to be half-goat?" They ignored him.
"More mythological creatures?" Remus asked. Hermione nodded.
"I don't know why I didn't think of it before."
"So, now we have sat-somethings, ("Satyrs!"), stalker Cyclops, and not-so Kindly Ones. All from Greek Mythology?" Sirius asked.
"Sounds about right."
"So, if everything so far has to do with Greek mythology, it's safe to assume Percy's some sort of half-human creature too?"
"Sounds weird when you say it like that, but yes, I suppose that's correct."
Remus stared off thoughtfully at the faded wallpaper. "Wonder what he could be."
Hermione sighed in frustration. "There are so many things he could be."
"Well, Percy's body isn't abnormal in any way, so perhaps a humanoid being?"
Hermione slowly thought this over. "That narrows it down a bit…let me think…most of the monsters weren't humanoid though…"
Harry was stuck with a sudden inspiration. With excited jade eyes he hurriedly turned in Hermione's direction. "What if we've been looking at it all wrong? What if Percy isn't part monster?" They stared at him confusedly. Harry motioned absently with his hands. "Who defeated the monsters?"
Hermione blinked, struggling to see where this was going. "The heroes; Hercules, Achilles…"
Her voice trailed off and she gave a sudden gasp.
"What?" Sirius asked in confusion.
She didn't answer, instead rapidly flipping through her book.
Harry tried to answer for her. "I can't remember much, but I remember there was something off with most of the heroes; thought Hermione might know."
The rest of the room turned back to Hermione, who was muttering to herself, eyes glued to a page. On the one next to it Harry could see a colorful illustration of a guy with armor who was battling a serpent-looking creature.
"If it's true….the implications…how did I not see it before?"
Ron was growing impatient.
"Can you tell us already?"
Hermione snapped out of daze and looked excitedly at the group.
"The heroes, some of them, only had one parent-"
"Like Percy." Remus nodded.
"That was because, their father, or other parent I guess, they….they were gods."
/
The room was quiet.
Hermione flustered. "It makes sense! The heroes always had to go fight monsters, and there are loads of tales about demigods, who were also known as half-bloods….."
She met with gaping mouths and shocked looks. You could have heard a pin drop it was so silent. The light above the table flickered once.
Twice.
Kingsley was the first to recover.
"She proves a valid point. If magic can exist…"He took a deep breath, as if trying to bring himself to say the next words "…why not gods?"
"Why haven't we heard of them before?" Mr. Weasley asked, his voice hoarse.
"They probably have their own ways of hiding." Remus mused.
The res t of the table broke out into similar conclusions or arguments.
Harry was still warming up to the idea of gods even existing. But then again, if there were Fates, like Hermione said, then…then did they control everything? Was everything that happened pre-determined? It made his head hurt just thinking about it. Maybe everything wasn't his fault. Harry sighed internally. It would be so much easier to just blame Fate, but that wasn't like Harry. He shook his head and tried to keep his mind off these disturbing topics.
"I'll read." Harry offered quietly.
Sirius, along with several others, jolted from his reverie and conversations with this statement.
"Oh, er, yes." Sirius appeared to have forgotten he was even holding the book in the first place. He shook his head and handed the green book to Harry.
Harry cleared his throat for their attention, but it wasn't needed. Everyone was staring at him, unsure if their theory would be confirmed, whether they wanted it or not.
"My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting,"
The twins grinned, apparently unaffected by the thought of immortal, all-powerful beings.
"Mum, why can't you teach us bullfighting?" They said with a fake pout.
Mrs. Weasley just rolled her eyes.
We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.
"Gas, like in the air?" Tonks asked, face contorted in confusion.
"Muggle expression. It means to go fast." Remus told her.
"How so?"
Mr. Weasley leaned forward over the table excitedly. Nothing could dent his strange obsession with muggle objects.
"See muggles, use this fuel called gasoline-"
"I'm sure you can explain it after the book." Mrs. Weasley cut in, looking stern.
Mr. Weasley sat back in his seat reluctantly.
Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.
"I'm going to have to go with insane." Said Harry, trying to joke casually.
"I think you'd have to be insane just to wear shag-carpet pants." Ron stated with his usual lack of tact.
"I think they're the next new craze." Fred said, making his voice haughty and condescending.
George caught on quickly. "Shag-carpet skirts are becoming very popular in Germany nowadays." He said knowingly.
Harry laughed into his hand and saw several others doing the same.
But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.
Ginny wrinkled her nose along with Mrs. Weasley.
All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"
"Way to make that sound awkward." Sirius laughed, easing the tension somewhat.
Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."
"That didn't help much either."
"Do you really feel the need to comment about every little thing?" Tonks sounded irritated at her cousin.
"Yes." He smirked at her.
Tonks huffed and turned the other way.
Remus smiled faintly at their antics.
"Watching me?"
"Stalker!"
"Really? Must you?" Sirius smirked smugly. Tonks sat there for a moment just glaring at him before a slow smile spread across her face.
"I think it's a bit hypocritical of you to Grover a stalker. After all, didn't you practically stalk Harry in his third year?"
"That's different!" He flustered. Harry covered his mouth to hide his snickers at Sirius's face.
"How so?" Tonks seemed determined to win the argument.
"I was trying to protect him! And I was really following Wormtail."
"What makes you think Grover isn't doing the same thing?"
"Why would Grover ever want to follow Wormtail?"
Tonks slapped her hand to her forehead. "That's not what I – oh, never mind!"
Hermione just shook her head and Sirius's dark eyes danced with silent laughter.
"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."
"I least he still wants to be his friend. I mean, Grover's like his only friend." Harry gave a sad smile.
"Why can he comment and not me?" Sirius asked in a whiney voice.
"Because he's not annoying."
"Um ... what are you, exactly?"
"That is such I weird question. 'Hi Grover, just what exactly are you?'" Tonks tries to mimic an American accent and utterly fails.
Remus chuckled at her and she glared mockingly.
"That doesn't matter right now."
"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"
"I'm pretty sure it's a goat." Hermione says in that all-knowing tone of hers. Fred and George rolled their eyes in sync. Harry absentmindedly wondered if they practiced that or if it was a twin thing.
Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"
Ron snorted into his hand as Harry attempted to sound like whatever noise was coming out of Grover.
Sirius and the twins didn't hide theirs so well.
"What was that?" Sirius gasped, black eyes twinkling.
Harry frowned good-naturedly as they laughed at his expense. "That's what it said to do in the book!" He tried defending himself.
"You sounded like dying goblin." Ron snickered.
"I think we need an encore!" Fred laughed.
Still grumbling, Harry continued to read.
I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh.
"How could you mistake that for a nervous laugh?" Sirius asked, referring to Harry's previous attempt at bleating.
Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.
"That would be strange. Could you imagine bleating instead of laughing?" Ron asked.
"Your laugh sounds kind of like a bleat." Hermione pointed out.
"It does not!"
"Goat!" he cried.
"I was right!" Hermione said triumphantly.
Ron rolled his eyes.
"What?"
"He really is rather slow, isn't he?" Ginny asked.
Hermione shrugged.
Harry felt the need to defend Percy. "He's not slow! He's just…easily distracted!"
"I think that comes with the whole ADHD thing."
Hermione turned to stare at Ron in shock. "That's two smart things you've said just this chapter!"
"Why is that so surprising?" He eyed her suspiciously.
She stiffened. "Well-It's just that, um-"
"Yes?"
"You aren't really in the practice of making, um, smart comments?" Her voice went kind of small at the end.
"What!" Ron's face was rapidly turning red.
"It's nothing, really-" she began hurriedly.
"You're just jealous I got it before you!" Ron said angrily.
For Hermione, this seemed to be the last straw.
"JEALOUS?!"
They continued arguing loudly.
The rest of the table looked around awkwardly, not sure if they should get involved. Harry had a feeling getting in between them just might blow up in their faces. He wondered if this is what Hermione felt like when he and Ron were fighting. He tried anyway.
"Ron, I'm sure Hermione didn't mean to-"
Ron turned on him before he could finish. "So now you're on her side?!"
"No, I mean-"
"You agree with him?!" Hermione cut in and Harry suddenly knew this had been a bad idea.
"That's not what I-"
"Whose side are you on?!"
Finally, Harry had had enough of this argument. "NOBODIES!"
Both of them stared at him, startled by his sudden anger. They knew this year would be hard on Harry, so soon after Cedric's death. He seemed more irritable and brooding lately, and so even though they were still fighting they both silently agreed not to fight outright-at least when Harry was around.
Harry huffed and picked up the sea-green book which he had thrown down on the table before.
Everyone not involved were immensely relieved that they had made up, somewhat or stopped arguing at least. Sirius hoped he was imagining the tension on Harry's face as he sighed and began to read from the book.
"I'm a goat from the waist down."
Ron was just dying to say something, Harry could tell. He gave a wane smile which seemed enough of a go ahead for Ron.
"But didn't he just say it didn't matter?"
Hermione gave him an irritated look. "I don't think he meant now."
He could only keep them from fighting for so long. Harry sighed.
"Well then he shouldn't have said it!"
She rolled her eyes.
"You just said it didn't matter."
"It seems slow people think alike." Hermione said scathingly. Harry wished they would stop bickering. Mrs. Weasley gave them both warning glances.
"Hey!"
"Blaa-ha-ha!
Ginny couldn't contain her giggles, along with most of room.
"Really? Does everybody have to laugh at my bleating?"
"I think it's cute." Ginny smiled at him and Harry found himself going red. Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at him and his face grew even hotter. Harry was suddenly glad for the small fight for it kept Ron from being suspicious of Harry's feelings for Ginny. Fred and George, however, made funny lovesick faces behind Ginny's turned back.
There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"
"He is a satyr." Remus said.
"I was-"
"Don't. even."
"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"
"Technically its Greek Myths not Mr. Brunner's." Hermione said and Ron rolled his eyes.
"Technically they aren't even myths if this is all true." Remus put in.
"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"
"Moony was right." Sirius commented glumly.
"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"
"Because that really matters right now."
"Of course."
"Then why—"
"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."
"The more the realize who they are, the more susceptible they are to monsters." Kingsley mused. "But there appears to be no logical reasoning behind it."
"The Mist appears to be some sort of illusion or oblivator or more likely, has similar properties." Remus thought out loud. Harry could practically see the gears turning in Hermione's head.
"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"
Sirius nodded. "Ditto."
The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.
"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."
"Safety from what? Who's after me?"
"Good question." Mrs. Weasley worried.
"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."
"WHAT?!" the erupted into confusion.
"Lord of the Dead?!"
"Blood-thirsty minions?!"
"Bloody Hell!"
"QUIET!" Mrs. Weasley shouted suddenly, standing up and glaring at the table. "I know we're all worried about Percy, believe me, no one more than I, but commenting on every sentence does not help us get to the truth faster!"
Harry winced at Mrs. Weasley's loud voice and was suddenly reminiscent of the time Fred, George, and Ron snuck out to free him from the Dursleys. Sufficient to say, she wasn't pleased.
He severely hoped that Percy would be alright, with all the prayers for him he was bound to be OK, right? Of course, this was in the past, so it would be impossible to change it. And even if it was now would the new-found discovery of Greek gods affect this? What if they were listening in right now? He shook his head. He was getting more paranoid than Mad-eye Moody.
"Grover!"
"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"
"Isn't she already driving as fast as she can?" Tonks asked.
"Nervous habit, probably." Said Remus.
I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it.
Harry was having a hard enough time just believing in the gods.
I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.
"No imagination." Remus muttered, the inner teacher in him coming out.
Mrs. Weasley glanced at Fred and George, who were currently bent over a piece of paper and whispering between themselves, as if they had a bit too much imagination.
My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Good question." George commented. He looked up questioningly at the rest of the table.
"A safe haven for...demigods, I would suppose." Said Kingsley.
"Oh – what about that summer camp that was mentioned before?" Harry asked.
Kingsley nodded approvingly. "That could be it."
"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."
Harry grinned as he read this. He liked being right for once.
"So Percy's dad would be a god then?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Hermione said in an attempt to act civil to Ron, "but it would be hard to determine which one is his father; there was thousands of gods mentioned throughout the Greek era."
"The place you didn't want me to go."
"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."
"Because some old ladies cut yarn."
"When you put it like that….." Fred drawled.
"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."
Everyone paled considerably.
"Whoa. You said 'you.'"
"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"
"You meant 'you.' As in me."
"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."
"That's confusing." Tonks said.
"I think it makes a great deal of sense." Said George. Fred nodded in agreement.
"That's because you're you." Ginny inserted from her seat.
"Boys!" my mom said.
She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.
"What was that?" Mrs. Weasley asked worriedly.
"Whatever it is - its behind them now, hopefully." Harry said though instinct was telling him he was wrong. How much trouble could one guy get into?
"What was that?" I asked.
"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.
"Why won't she just tell him?"
"Why won't she just tell us?" Fred complained.
"Because you're not actually there. Duh."
"Ginny." Mrs. Weasley eyed her warningly. Ginny huffed.
"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."
I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.
Harry was doing the same unconsciously, he realized. He leaned back in his chair again but clenched his fist to relieve some of the tension. A quick glance around the room alerted him to others doing the same with sheepish looks.
Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.
"Well duh."
"Ginerva." Mrs. Weasley said sternly. "This must be a really traumatizing experience for him."
Traumatizing. Everything in Harry's life seemed traumatizing right now. From Ron and Hermione's growing tension to Cedric dying. He sighed.
Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.
The room gasped.
At that exact moment, a huge SPOLSH could be heard from Harry's far right. Heads whipped around.
What looked like old melted cheese splattered onto the aged wooden tabletop, originating right in front of two red-haired twins. Fred sat motionless with an expression of shock on his face, George's identical one to his right. Their flashy Weasley hair was dripping in some sort of yellow gooey substance and their faces were covered. Hermione and Ginny, on either side, looked completely disgusted by the random drops of goo dotting their clothing. Ginny had a particularly large smudge above her left eyebrow.
"Gross! What is that?!" Ginny cried, trying to shake off the sticky substance.
Fred and George recovered, looking sheepish. "It's a mixture of icing, blue cheese, cheese curls, det – "
"Never mind." Ginny cut them off, looking nauseous.
Mrs. Weasley, out of the corner of his eye, was slowly turning red.
"What did I tell you about pranking during the books?! What other creations do you have hidden in your pockets? Pull them out, now!" The twins winced at their mother's tone, but proceeded to reach into their pockets and pull out various little colored blobs wrapped in plastic.
"All of them." Mrs. Weasley glared down at them.
They grumbled faintly under their breath but pulled out more innocent-looking candies.
Mrs. Weasley eyed them both once more, but gathered the candies in her arms and walked away into the other room to dispose of them.
She yelled back over her shoulder, "You'd best be cleaned up by the time I return from the garbage can!"
Harry knew she would probably give them more time; this was just a warning. However, everyone else seemed to take this as a break and headed into the kitchen.
"You okay?" Ron asked Hermione, who was using a rag to dab at the splotches on her clothes. Harry hoped the gunk didn't have any dangerous magical properties they weren't aware of.
"I'm fine, at least, I think so." She glanced at Fred and George who were walking over.
"That's good - I guess." Ron stumbled a bit at the end when he finally remembered he was mad at her. Hermione gave a hidden smile at his attempt.
Fred and George, still covered in the gooey substance stopped by to speak to them. "Sorry 'bout that. It wasn't supposed to go off until later."
"Who was it supposed to go off on?" Hermione asked reproached.
Fred gave a secretive smile."That's our business. Don't worry, it wasn't any of you."
"We should probably go change." George turned to Harry. "Thanks again, mate."
"For what?"
He leaned in towards him and whispered. "The money, remember? Isn't it nice to know it being put towards a good cause?" George smiled mischievously.
"Oh – yah." At the end of the last school year, Harry had won the Triwizard Tournament. Harry was already overwhelmingly rich, so he given the prize money to the Weasley twins' fund for their joke shop.
They grinned again and vanished up the stairs.
"You shouldn't encourage them." Hermione said disapprovingly.
"Too late now." Harry said, feeling abruptly tired.
"Hi Harry." He turned around swiftly and tried to ignore the slight blush on his cheeks.
"Oh – hi Ginny." She smiled at him, warm brown eyes blazing. The smear stood out on her forehead and he wondered if she knew it was there.
"I just came by the see how Hermione's doing. As traumatized as I am?"
Hermione groaned. "I don't think it's going to come out of my shirt."
"Um, Ginny?" He asked tentatively.
"Yes?" Her hair swirled around as she turned.
"You've got a – um – there's something –" He gestured to her face.
She quirked an eyebrow. "Spit it out."
Harry sighed and reached a hand up to swipe slowly at the gunk on her forehead.
"There – there was some on your forehead." He explained, feeling like an idiot.
"Oh." She said, a light blush gracing her cheeks. "Thanks."
"Glad to be of assistance." Harry said awkwardly then mentally face-palmed. Glad to be of assistance? Who says that anymore?
She gave a small smile. "Well I'd better go see if I have anything to change into."
Ron stared between them suspiciously. Harry sighed.
They said good-bye to Ginny and started a conversation about the new DADA teacher. Nobody wanted to discuss Percy's possible impending doom without hearing the rest of the story.
As people started taking their places, Harry sat down and picked up the book from in front of his seat. He ran his thumb over the close woven design.
"Everyone ready?" There were a few nods around the room, the twins' wet heads sending drops of water onto the table. Ginny tried to subtly move to the side.
"Where were we?" Harry asked as he thumbed through the pages.
"The car had just exploded." Tonks spoke up worriedly. Harry nodded, found the right page, and began reading.
I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.
"Ouch." Ron winced.
I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."
"Close enough." Sirius gave a small smile.
"Percy!" my mom shouted.
"Oh good, she's okay."
"What about Grover?" Ginny asked.
"I'm okay..."
I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead.
"That's always good to know."Fred said.
The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.
"A ditch didn't cause that." Remus said, eyes narrowed.
Lightning. That was the only explanation.
"What are the odds of that happening?" Harry tried to make it sound like a joke, but instead it came out nervous.
Tonks turned to Remus. "Do you think - ?"
"The gods, most likely." He nodded and his forehead creased in thought.
Hermione was flipping through her book, and the pages fluttered noisily. "Zeus was the god of the skies and here it says that his weapon of choice was lightening." She flipped a page before looking back up at everyone. "He's trying to kill Percy too."
"But why?" Kingsley mused.
No one answered.
We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump.
"Grover!" Ginny chewed her nails nervously."Is he ok?"
"Maybe he's just unconscious." Hermione worried
"Grover!"
He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth.
"No!"
I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!
Tonks cracked up and we all turned to stare at her like she was crazy.
Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.
"He's just like Ron." Ginny smiled sweetly at her older brother.
Ron rolled his eyes, but didn't deny it.
"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.
"Why would he be holding a blanket over his head?" Ron looked up, confused.
"To protect from the rain, perhaps. It could be a tarp." Hermione guessed.
"Wait a second! Isn't that a monster who's chasing them? Why would he care about rain? And why would he look like a regular person?"
"Well, since we are talking Greek myths again, it could be another effect of the mist." Remus
"Well he can't be completely normal." Ginny interrupted.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"He could keep up with a car at full speed. Whatever he is, he's definitely not human." Ginny explained.
I swallowed hard. "Who is—"
"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."
"Good idea."
My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too.
"Not good."
I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.
"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"
"What?"
"What?"
Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.
"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"How is a property line supposed to keep them safe?" Sirius asked.
"Wards of some kind, perhaps?" Tonks supposed.
"Wait, " Harry paused, eyes wide. "Isn't she coming too?"
"Mom, you're coming too."
Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.
"No!"
"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."
"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.
The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …
"He doesn't want us,"
"Then why is he chasing you?"
My mother told me. "He wants you.
"Oh, well that makes everything better."
Besides, I can't cross the property line."
"Why not? Why would it keep her out and not him?"
"There must be some kind of charm on it."
"But..."
"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."
"Don't just leave her there! She's going to get killed!" Ginny said, nervously squeezing the handle of her chair.
I got mad, then
"Now is not the best time to be angry." Mr. Weasley forehead was creased in worry.
—mad at my mother
"Why? She didn't do anything."
"Besides telling him to leave her behind." Hermione added.
at Grover the goat,
"Technically he's only half-goat."
Harry shot Hermione a Really? Right now? expression.
at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.
Remus's eyes narrowed.
I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."
"Good."
"I told you—"
"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."
Harry furrowed his brow.
I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.
"Another good reason for her to be there."
Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.
Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—
"What?"
I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—
Fred and George couldn't help but smile. "Who knew monsters went shopping for clothes."
which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
"That has to be one of the weirdest analogies ever."
"Challenge accepted!"
"Oh, now you've done it."
I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.
Hermione started flipping through her book loudly. "What do you think it is?" Ron asked her quietly. They seemed to be on slightly more civil terms, at least.
"The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."
Ginny swallowed loudly.
"Is he dangerous?"
Hermione gave a pained look. "He was trapped in a maze called the Labyrinth. They used to send people in there and he would kill them, till he was defeated by Theseus."
Ron looked bewildered. "Wait, doesn't that mean its dead?"
"Yes; I don't why its there." She looked confused.
I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"
"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.
"What?"
"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."
"Oh." Mrs. Weasley looked kind of sick.
"But he's the Min—"
"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."
"A fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself." Harry quoted.
Remus looked off deep in thought. "But perhaps she means they literally have power, though. Like calling attention to themselves."
Harry thought for a moment them shrugged.
The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.
"Why is that so important?"
"It could be that property line again."
I glanced behind me again.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away. "Food?" Grover moaned.
"Ron, have you somehow merged with Grover's subconscious?"
"Um, no?"
"Ok, just wondering."
"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing?
"Didn't he just describe what he was doing?" Ron asked.
Hermione shrugged. "Boys feel the need to say stupid questions."
"Hey!" Half the room yelled indignantly.
"Just because some people," Remus gave a pointed look at Sirius, "ask stupid questions doesn't mean you should generalize us all into that category."
"Hey!" Sirius protested. Remus ignored him.
"Maybe you're just missing something." He turned to Harry. "What's the next line?"
Doesn't he see us?"
Remus nodded smugly.
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.
Oops.
At this word, everyone started laughing. It was so loud Harry swore the ceiling shoke and dust fell. Or at least dust did fall.
Harry rubbed his glasses on his shirt as everyone laughed. He was still chuckling to himself when he heard a loud THUMP.
Harry jerked straight, but no one appeared to have heard it. More dust swirled down from the ceiling.
"What was that?"
"What was what?" Sirius asked.
"That loud thumping noise!"
"Did I mention we are keeping Buckbeak upstairs?" He said, rather casually. It took Harry a moment to absorb that.
"Why-I mean-" Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts. "How does he even fit?"
"Mooney here," Sirius grinned at his friend, "did some obscure charm and Viola!, Buckbeak."
Remus raised an eyebrow. "It was a bit more complicated than that, but sure, why not?"
Harry chuckled again to himself. Note to self: Visit Buckbeak when finished reading.
"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge.
"That much is obvious."
Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"How does she know all this?" Sirius asked.
"She's obviously been preparing ahead of time. She must know about the gods."
"Perhaps Percy's father told her." Remus suggested.
"I have a question." Tonks said suddenly. "Why hasn't Percy father, if he is a god, done anything to help them?" She looked curiously around the room.
"That is a very good question indeed." Mr. Weasley agreed when no one answered.
"How do you know all this?"
"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."
"It's never selfish to want to be near your child." Mrs. Weasley said sadly.
"Keeping me near you? But—"
Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.
"Wait, are they uphill or downhill?" Ron said confusedly.
"They're trying to get uphill, so I'd guess that's where they are." Kingsley explained.
He'd smelled us.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.
Ginny bit her nails.
My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."
I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.
He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.
Harry's stomach flipped.
The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.
So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.
Mrs. Weasley let out a sigh of relief.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.
"No!" Ginny gasped and Harry hurriedly continued the book.
We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.
"But what about the property line? Didn't she say he just had to make it to the property line?" Hermione said, sounding hopeful and desperate.
The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.
"She's so selfless." Tonks whispered to herself.
"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"
Their eyes grew as wide as saucers, staring impatiently at Harry to continue the story.
But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her.
"She's got to – she can't die right?" Hermione whispered in disbelief and worry.
She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson.
"Not good, not good." Fred bit his lip.
His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.
No one dared interrupt Harry, refusing to believe that she was going to die.
"Mom!"
She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"
Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.
Harry felt himself almost zone out of his body and everything felt weirdly out of focus. This had probably happened a long time ago, but nothing really lessened the pain of losing someone you care about. He hadn't even met Sally Jackson, but he envisioned his own mother to be something like her. It just hit too close to home.
Harry could dimly hear shouts of "No!" and "She can't die!" and even saw a teardrop or two. Like she was a character in a story, he thought savagely, and he instantly regretted it. Because they didn't know what it felt like. To lose a parent. Even he couldn't fully appreciate that, he thought, because he couldn't even remember them in the first place, except for their final terrible moments. Harry felt his heart ache and decided not to dwell on that for too long. To Percy, the loss was probably even greater, as Sally was the one who had raised him, protected, loved and nurtured his whole life. The one person he could always count on.
"No!"
Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.
"Adrenaline." Remus said quietly, brooding over Sally's death. Harry belatedly remembered that Remus had lost people too.
The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.
The tension returned with new force. There was still other lives at sake. And Grover wasn't even conscious.
I couldn't allow that.
Harry smiled faintly. Even after his terrible loss, Percy refused to abandon his friend.
I stripped off my red rain jacket.
"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"
The twins muffled a chuckle. "Percy has good taunts."
"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.
"Apparently he thinks so too."
I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at Harry as he read this. "He does sound like you."
"They all worked, didn't they?" He smiled slightly.
I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.
"That's what got his mom. Wouldn't it know what he's trying by now?" Ginny asked fearfully.
Harry realized she was right and dull fear settled again in his stomach.
But it didn't happen like that.
Hermione gulped.
The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.
Time slowed down.
My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.
"What just happened?" Ron asked, stunned.
"How….?" Tonks trailed off, looking amazed.
Kingsley looked pensive. "Another instinct perhaps." We gave him questioning looks. "Remember? At the museum? How he killed Mrs. Dodds?"
Vaguely, Harry, nodded. "I remembering him saying it was natural to swing the sword."
"In born battle reflexes?" Remus pondered.
Harry continued with the story.
How did I do that?
"Even he doesn't know." Ginny said.
I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.
Tonks hissed in sympathy.
The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.
"Gross."Ginny wrinkled her nose.
"Question." Sirius proposed suddenly. "Is the monster already dead and he's rotting?"
"He's still moving Sirius." Tonks said slowly, like talking to a small child.
"I know that!" Sirius snapped. Then he slumped as if exhausted by yelling at Tonks. "What if it is like a zombie or undead people? What if someone put a spell on it, and brought it back to life, but it's not really living?"
Remus looked surprised. "Good theory, Padfoot. But why would someone bring the Minotaur back to life?"
Kingsley chuckled darkly. "Well, the king of the gods wants Percy dead, remember? He can probably do anything he'd like."
Harry felt a chill when he realized just how much influence a god had over their lives. He could kill him at any time.
The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.
"Good, form a plan." Ginny nodded approvingly.
Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.
"Ouch." Ron winced.
"Food!" Grover moaned.
"Why doesn't he shut up? Now the monster will come after him!" Hermione worried.
The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!
"Did he just break off a bull's horn with his bare hands?" Sirius asked in disbelief.
"Wow." Kingsley said, sounding impressed and he never sounded impressed.
The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.
"He's going to kill the Minotaur with his own horn." Harry whispered in realization. He couldn't believe it.
The monster charged.
Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.
"How can he do this all without thinking?" Harry asked, frustrated. His life might be so much easier if had Percy's reflexes. Cedric might not have died.
"It might be his demigod instincts again, or something similar." Remus proposed.
The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.
"Wait!" Hermione practically shouted. She sounded hysterical. Everyone turned to stare at her.
She stares back, her eyes alight. "Humans don't die in a flash of light! What if, what if Sally is alive?" She sounds like she is trying not to hope but can't help it.
"Where would she have gone, then?" Remus sounds reluctant, but Harry can tell he is warming to the idea.
"I'm not sure yet." Hermione says, but she remains hopeful.
Almost unwillingly, Harry can feel hope growing inside, threatening to overcome him entirely.
The monster was gone.
The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open.
"He must have hit his head pretty hard."
I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry,
Harry's hope flickered. Percy still thought his mother was dead. Others looked on sympathetically.
but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house.
"He's so caring about his friends." Tonks smiled quietly in admiration.
I was crying, calling for my mother,
Harry sucked in a breath. Percy was in denial about his mother. He didn't blame him.
but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.
The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.
Why would the bearded man be familiar?
They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."
"What does that mean?" Ginny asked.
"She might really like him." George gave a smirking grin.
Tonks rolled her eyes. "Not like that, it sounded….more essential than admiring. Plus they're like, twelve, George."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."
A/N: If anyone cares, I started another PJO/HP story. Not a reading the books. Its one of my best, in my own modest opinion. Its called The Prophecy Keeper. Ominous, eh? Its centered on Rachel. Better than it sounds. Read it if you want.
As always, REVIEW!
Signing out,
-Dov5e