章 225: Spellbound by writergirl8 (Percy Jackson in Harry Potter world)
*Mostly cannon pairings from Percy Jackson. Ex: PercyxAnnebeth, with slight focus on others such as JasonxPiper*
Summary: Percy always thought the most bewitching thing he could discover at Hogwarts was magic. Then he met Annabeth Chase
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10487142/1/
Word count:94k(COMPLETE)
Chapters:4
First Year
The first time he sees her, her hair is divided into two pigtails that glide almost all the way down her back. Her eyes, stormy and startling, are skidding hawkishly around the platform, judgmental and elated all at the same time. Her knuckles are white as she clutches onto her wand, seeming to expect somebody to take it away from her. Mostly, what Percy remembers about the first time he sees Annabeth is that she is not smiling.
It takes all of his strength to turn his gaze towards his mother, whose eyes are filled with tears at the sight before her. Upon seeing the look on her face, Percy lets out an embarrassed, "Mum!" and she turns to look at him, reaching a hand up to ruffle his hair.
"I can't believe this is real," she admits, voice low and musical. Percy wants to roll his eyes at her, but he can't. He feels the exact same way. Except he's not crying. He doesn't cry anymore- after all, he's eleven now.
"Do you have everything you need?" his mum questions, brushing a tear from the corner of her eye. "Socks? Underwear? Your w-wand? Mrs. O'Leary?"
At the latter sentence, Percy heaves an enormous sigh and glares down at the tiny gray kitten curled up in a basket at his feet, fast asleep.
"I can't believe I let you name her."
His mum releases a watery laugh and brushes his bangs away from his eyes before she leans down to kiss the crown of his messy head.
"Have a wonderful time, my love."
He allows his arms to stay wrapped around her for longer than he'd care to admit before kissing her on the cheek and ducking quickly onto the train. Most of the students are still on the platform, so only half of the compartments are full. Percy locates a seat where he can look out the window and see his mum; he plops down in it, being careful not to shift Mrs. O'Leary's basket too much in his hurry to see his mum again before the train starts moving.
"Hey." Percy looks up to see a boy with fair hair and blue eyes giving him a curious smile from the doorway to the compartment. "We met in Diagon Alley, yeah?"
Recognition dawns on Percy's face, and he nods slowly.
"Yeah, hi." For a moment, the two of them stare at each other awkwardly. Then Percy lets a shy smile etch its way onto his face. "Do you wanna sit down?"
"Yeah!" the other boy says in a quick breath, plopping his cat carrier onto the bench before he sits. "I'm Jason, and this is Trident, my cat."
Trident blinks up at Percy, distrust shining through his yellow eyes.
"I'm Percy." His eyes are still trained on the cat as he says it. "And, um, this is Mrs. O'Leary."
"Hey," grins Jason, making himself more comfortable on the seat.
They sit in silence, staring at each other uncertainly. Percy knows that he could make the decision to talk, or he could allow the two of them to sit uncomfortably in their seats together. And even though he was abandoned by the man who had given him the power to go to Hogwarts in the first place, Percy desperately wants to belong in this world.
"So… what House do you wanna be in?"
It's kind of easy to slide into a friendship after that.
(ooo)
The first thing that Percy notices about the Great Hall is the way his classmates stare at it. More specifically, he catches a view of the blond girl from the platform before he sees the actual hall. She's ahead of him in line, but she's stretched out on her tip toes, her long legs not enough for her to be able to see everything. The girl's gray eyes flicker everywhere, vulnerable in their amazement. Percy feels like he's getting to know her just by looking at the slight flush in her cheeks and the way her lips part in amazement.
The hall is beautiful, he gives her that. He especially likes the candles that float near the arches in the ceiling, casting a unique glow on the room. It illuminates everybody's face in a wash that only serves to perpetuate how magical Hogwarts is. And ever since Percy saw the view of it from the boat, he's realized that he's only just beginning to understand the magic of this place.
His eyes are drawn back to the girl as they move through the hall, something in his stomach tugging him toward her. Percy wants to leap forward, grab her shoulder, and start talking to her; to ask her what she thinks is so fascinating about this hall and how that fascination might correlate with his. But instead, he points out the ceiling to Jason and Jason nods enthusiastically, a boyish grin crossing his face as it registers different aspects of the hall.
The girl's name is Annabeth Chase, and when the old, raggedy Sorting Hat gets placed on her head, she remains completely cool and collected as it announces that she is a Ravenclaw. Her expression doesn't change at all; she just allows Professor Chiron to remove the hat from her head, stands up, and trounces off to the Ravenclaw table.
Percy keeps his eyes on Annabeth the entire time he's being sorted, but he isn't put in Ravenclaw and that's okay because as soon as he sits down at the Hufflepuff table and sees the smiling faces adorned in yellow, something like hope grows in his stomach and he starts to believe that he can do good here.
(ooo)
"Are you lost?"
He says it without thinking, and because he's spent the past two days wanting to talk to this girl, and now that both of them are alone and in the same place, Percy thinks that it's a perfectly good time to open his mouth and say something. He does not count on the way her eyebrows immediately constrict and her face turns sour.
"I'm not lost," she says, lips a thin line. "I'm fine."
"Okay," Percy says simply, getting closer to her. She takes a step back, expression haughty. "I'm lost. Can you help me?"
"Where are you trying to go?"
She looks like she's balancing something on the edge of her nose. She's taller than him, and she stares down at him with an expression that borders on offended.
"Astronomy. That's where you're going too, right?"
Annabeth quirks an eyebrow.
"Yes. How did you know that?"
"Our Houses have the class together," Percy points out, allowing his finger to jab the place on his schedule where the information is revealed. "Anyways, can we walk together if you know where you're going?"
She stares at him as she dithers, clutching the book that is folded in her arms close to her chest. Percy takes this time to stare up at her, adjusting his yellow tie for something to do. He wants to seem like he's casually observing, not like he's drinking in her face. But, really, he's trying to figure out why he's so drawn to her.
He's pretty sure it's her eyes. Percy has never seen eyes like that before.
"I don't know where I'm going either."
She chokes the words out like they're something scary or disgusting, biting her lip as soon as they've left her mouth.
"We'll figure it out," he says. When he smiles at her, it isn't a real grin. He doesn't want to scare her away with a large smile or a big laugh. She seems like the thing balancing on the tip of her nose could fall off at any moment, and although he wants it to, he isn't sure that she's quite ready for it to go away. So Percy shrugs and smiles and pulls out his map and tries not to make any sudden movements when her hair brushes his arm as she bends over the map.
He really likes her hair.
(ooo)
People have been talking about Quidditch since September, so it only makes sense that the stands are completely packed during the first game of the season. Percy files dutifully into the stands with everybody else, trailing behind Jason, who is practically wetting himself with excitement. Percy's mom never really told him about Quidditch, and he wonders if his dad had talked to her about it when they were together. Maybe he hadn't. There isn't much that his mom hadn't told him before he came to Hogwarts, as many of his bedtime stories had come in the form of tales that his father had told his mom.
With Jason leading the way, it isn't surprising that they end up in the Ravenclaw stands. Percy feels out of place with his yellow Hufflepuff scarf, but that's nothing to how he feels when Jason stops short right next to Annabeth and sits down next to her. It's suddenly as though his limbs are separated from his body. He clears his throat awkwardly before taking his seat next to Jason, who is chattering casually to Annabeth, oblivious to Percy's reaction at unexpectedly being thrown into her midst.
"Hi." A voice to his right causes Percy to turn, and when he does, he is assaulted with a view of bright red, frizzy hair, barely tamed by the Ravenclaw knit cap that is perched on top of it. "I'm Rachel."
"Percy," he replies, giving her a smile. He's usually more vivacious than this, but being around Annabeth makes him nervous. "Nice to meet you."
"You too," she sees, scrutinizing him closely. Rachel glances between Percy and Annabeth, squinting her eyes slightly as she sees the widening of his own. "You should sit next to her."
"Why?"
"I think she likes you."
"You think she… what?"
"Well, I think she could like you," Rachel corrects, a grin crossing her face. "There's a difference."
"Um?"
Before he can say anything else, or ask one of the million questions that have popped up in the two minute conversation he has had with Rachel, Jason has turned around at the sound of her voice.
"Is it true, Percy?" he asks, looking shocked.
"Um, what?"
"That you've never seen a Quidditch game," Rachel presses, nudging her elbow into his side in a way that could only be considered wrenchingly painful. "Because I haven't either, so I think you need to sit between Jason and Annabeth so that they can explain stuff to you."
"Oh, that's not a problem-" Percy begins to say, but he's cut off by Jason standing up and indicating that the two of them should switch seats. Which is how Percy ends up seated right next to Annabeth, his arm pressed up against her smaller arm, his hands carefully placed on his knees so that he won't accidentally touch her and incur some sort of wrath.
"So," Jason begins, clasping his hand around Percy's shoulder. "That's a Bludger, and that's a Quaffle, right there, and what he's looking for is the snitch, which is a tiny-"
Percy doesn't pay attention to Jason because a gust of wind has just alerted him to the fact that Annabeth's hair smells like lemon.
"So," he says, cutting off Jason mid sentence and turning to Annabeth. "Quidditch is pretty amazing, huh? Actual human beings flying on broomsticks in the sky for an organized sport. Who would have thought that could ever happen?"
She looks down at him, slight disdain in her expression.
"I've been playing since I was little," she says finally, her voice stiff. "So… sure. I suppose so."
He doesn't understand how someone who seems so magical could be so utterly unimpressed by magic.
(ooo)
Piper plops her books down extra hard when she pulls into her seat next to Percy, and he raises his eyebrows at her with a slightly amused smile.
"What happened?"
"My dad just sent me a letter- he's starring in another awful muggle romance film."
She likes to talk to Percy about these things because he, unlike many of their classmates, understands what's going on without Piper having to explain. Although he hadn't known that Tristan McLean was a wizard until he met Piper, Percy had been fully aware of how disturbingly campy his blockbusters were, a fact which Piper took to deep shame.
"Why don't you mention to him that all of the films that he does are terrible and then offer to become his agent and tell him exactly which films to take?" Percy suggests, teasing her. Piper shoots him an annoyed look.
"I know you've talked to human beings, so I'm certain that you realize what a bad idea that is."
"What's a bad idea?"
The two of them look up to see Annabeth standing in front of their desk, clutching her books to her chest and giving them both a small smile. She smiles like that a lot- smiles that are small and reserved and never seem to grow into something bigger. Percy wants to see what a huge Annabeth Chase smile looks like. He doesn't know if he ever will.
But the first step is smiling at her. He lets a grin stretch across his face, big and goofy.
"Leaping into the Black Lake so that I can ask the giant squid to come home with me for Christmas."
Her hair swishes across her elbows, the curly tips of it swaying back and forth, as she shakes her head.
"And you go to him for advice?" she chides Piper, setting her books on the desk next to her friend and adjusting her skirt carefully before she sits down. Everything about Annabeth is careful; slow, even. She wants things done meticulously all of the time. That's why Percy is pretty sure he could never be partners with her in class. Frank couldn't either, to be fair.
Maybe Annabeth and Jason could work well together. They're both smart- way smarter than Percy. And they're both more organized, and from the magical world, whereas Percy is just a half-blood who grew up with a muggle mother. Annabeth and Jason are intrinsically Ravenclaws and they have much more in common than Percy and Annabeth. Which is why they're probably never going to be good friends.
(ooo)
"I need your help."
She says it with her mouth twisted in the sourness of the words; it looks like she's just suckled a lemon. Percy sets down his quill and looks over his left and right shoulders, motions exaggerated.
"Are… are you talking to me?"
She knits her eyebrows together.
"Yes," Annabeth says shortly.
"Annabeth Chase needs my help twice in one school year? Surely this is a joke."
"When was the first time?"
"Remember? You were lost and I saved you?"
"You didn't save me."
"I did!"
Annabeth slams her books onto the table in front of him, pulls back the chair, and rams herself down onto it.
"You did not save me."
She looks so murderous that Percy decides to dial back on the whole 'pissing her off' thing.
"What do you need help with?"
The nervous look is back in her expression as Annabeth licks her lips.
"I have to get into the Hufflepuff common room."
Percy picks up his quill again and busies himself with the paper lying in front of me.
"That's a terrible idea. No."
"Why not?" Annabeth complains. He wonders if she's accustomed to not getting what she wants. "Look, my friend Luke is in that House and his birthday is coming up and I really want to surprise him with his gift."
"And you felt comfortable asking me for this because…?"
She starts to blush.
"Because… you helped me last time."
"Aha!" He raises his head triumphantly. "So you do remember?"
"Shut up, idiot."
"I will help you-"
"Thank you."
"-if you promise to help me with Transfiguration for the rest of the year."
"The rest of the year?"
"It's a very risky thing that you're asking me to do."
"But you like risk, don't you?"
He quirks his lips up at that.
"What makes you think that?"
"Just a hunch."
For the first time, her eyes seem clear, not clouded by something that separates her real feelings from the rest of the world. It's this that makes Percy concede.
"Okay. Four months of Transfiguration help. Take it or leave it."
She takes it.
(ooo)
"Wait, so you actually kicked him in the head?"
"Yep."
He tosses a grape in his mouth in a manner that could only be described as self-important, watching as Annabeth's eyes narrow suspiciously from where she hovers above him, elegantly cross-legged on the blanket.
"Don't play with me, Jackson."
She's dithering on the edge of the smile, which is a corner that he always gets her into when they're having their study sessions together. Lately, these have been less study sessions and more 'getting to know you' sessions, but Percy isn't about to bring that up and ruin the whole thing.
"I actually kicked him in the head."
Her entire face explodes in a smile, one that blooms out across her mouth and spreads through her eyes. Percy feels his stomach leap in a self-satisfied way as he watches her amusement take over her face. He loves seeing her smile like this.
"Did you get in trouble?"
"I'm not allowed to go back to flying lessons for the rest of the year."
"And Frank?"
"He just laughed it off, really," Percy says casually, lifting his wand in the air so that he can practice wrist movements with it. Annabeth reaches over and grabs his wrist immediately, trying to help him perfect the movement, but it causes Percy's head to turn sideways so he can look up at her. His hair is getting messier as it spreads out on the blanket, but he doesn't care as he looks up at her and watches the way her hair makes a halo around her head. "Although he's in the hospital wing now."
"Poor Frank," Annabeth snickers, covering her hand with her mouth when she realizes how mean she sounds. Percy smirks at her. "I mean, I feel absolutely terrible that he's in the hospital wing, of course."
"You feel bad for him?" repeats Percy, aghast. "Annabeth. I can't go back to flying lessons. Did you not hear that?"
"I think you'll live," she snorts, brushing a bit of her hair back from her face. Her gray eyes soften as she stares down at him, and Percy lifts his lips in another smile. He smiles a lot in general, but when she's around, it's even more than usual.
"Why are you sitting like that?" he inquires, wrinkling his nose judgementally. "Lie down. Join the party."
For a moment, Annabeth hesitates. Then she nods slowly, unfolding her legs out from underneath herself so that she can lie down on the blanket next to him. Together, the two of them stare up at the light blue sky, reveling in the first warm day of spring.
"Are you excited to turn twelve?" she asks. As always, there's an air of maturity that surrounds her voice. She's turning twelve a month before him, but he doesn't say anything about that.
"Yeah," he nods. "My mum always makes a blue cake for my birthday."
"Blue?" Annabeth crinkles her nose. "Why blue?"
He turns his head sideways to look at her.
"Have you never had blue cake, Annabeth Chase?"
She shakes her head.
"I'll send you a piece. You have to experience it to understand its brilliance."
"Okay then."
They lie there in silence until the rest of their friends find them. Even then, they don't move.
Second Year
"Percy!"
He turns around to see a twelve-year-old girl waving excitedly at him, her tanned arm thrown into the air. He can barely see her from her spot all the way across the platform and doesn't really know how he heard her, either. Maybe he was just subconsciously searching for her voice.
"That's Annabeth, isn't it?" his mum asks, her voice certain. Although Percy has told her about all of the friends that he made over the course of his first year, she seems to immediately know which one is Annabeth.
"Yeah," Percy grins. She comes closer, trailing her mother behind her. From Annabeth's few descriptions of this woman, Percy takes an immediate dislike to her upon seeing her. Even if Annabeth hadn't told him about her mother's distance, he's pretty sure he would hate her. She carries the same snobby look that Annabeth had at the beginning of their first year. But it's different now. He thinks that Annabeth is happier. This woman, on the other hand, does not seem happy.
"Hello, Mrs. Chase," Percy's mom greets, her voice courteous and warm.
"Hello," Mrs. Chase says politely. Annabeth's smile falls slightly at the lack of warmth in her mother's voice. Percy knows that she likes her dad better, but she doesn't really talk about either of her parents much. He knows that her dad is remarried and has a new family, but it's difficult to get information out of Annabeth and he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable.
Percy turns away from Mrs. Chase and directs his attention towards her daughter, who, he realizes with a pang to his stomach, is taller than him. She doesn't make comment when his face turns from content to horrified in a matter of seconds, instead giving him an odd look before he turns around to introduce her to his mother.
"I've heard so much about you," Percy's mum says genuinely, her voice still holding familiarity in spite of the cold greeting that Mrs. Chase had offered her. "And Jason and Piper and Frank and Rachel as well."
What she doesn't say is that these people are the first group of people that Percy had been able to tell his mum about; school had been a lonely place for Percy until he had finally been able to come to Hogwarts. He feels like he's waited his entire life to get here, and now that he is, it's so worth it that it makes his stomach ache like he's had too much of something too sweet.
"I've heard lots about you too," Annabeth replies smoothly. "Percy says that you're taking creative writing courses!"
He frowns and tries to remember when he had told her that; he had just found out himself when he had come home from break. It must have been in one of the letters that they had exchanged- Percy had been terrible at correspondence with most of his friends, but getting a letter from Annabeth had felt like a special treat and he had always sat down to reply to it immediately, etching out his answers in an inky blue pen. Her letters were always written with a quill, but Percy had enjoyed the luxury of using a pen after nine months of garnering his quill callus.
"Hey!" Jason strides up to the two of them, already dressed in his uniform. He has eschewed the robes and is just wearing his white shirt, gray sweater, and Ravenclaw tie. When he stretches his arms out and links them around Percy and Annabeth's shoulders, he gives Percy an affectionate nuggie. "I'm Jason."
He's introducing himself to Annabeth's mother because he's already met Percy's. They had hung out over the summer, the two of them and Frank, and they had all practiced Quidditch together. Percy is actually starting to get pretty good, but he'd never say that to Annabeth, who is fiercely competitive and plays the same position that is his favorite. He's not quite good enough to challenge her, but he will be one day soon, and when he is, he wants to be able to take her off guard.
Taking Annabeth off guard is his new goal in life.
As the three of them board the train and weave their way through, looking for Piper and Frank, Percy feels a large chunk of discomfort settle in his stomach as he realizes that he wasn't nearly sad enough to leave his mum behind. He loves her, but he's so excited to go back to school and be with his friends and be surrounded by the magic of the place.
When they finally find Piper, cooing over her new tawny owl, who she has named Dagger, Percy forgets about his mum. This is where he is. This is what he's doing.
He's on his way to being raised by Hogwarts as much as he's been raised by her.
(ooo)
The common room is loud when Percy gets back from the library, toting a half-asleep Frank behind him. In general, the Hufflepuff common room isn't really rowdy, but all of the upperclassmen have just gotten back from Hogsmeade and are currently regaling their experiences, in excruciating detail, to the first and second years.
Percy has learned to avoid all common areas during Hogsmeade weekends, instead choosing to spend his time in the library with Annabeth and Piper or playing Quidditch with Jason, Frank, and Leo, a Gryffindor that had gone to school with Jason when they were little kids. Leo had been a muggleborn before Jason's mother had recognized the signs in him and came to the realization that he was a wizard. It's a story that Jason likes to rib Leo about a lot, teasing that he never would have come to Hogwarts had he not met Jason so why won't he go get that library book that Jason really wants?
The bright yellow common room brings cheer to him in spite of the fact that it's filled to bursting with Hogwarts students.
"I'm not convinced that all of these kids are actually in Hufflepuff," Frank jokes, but Percy agrees with him- he's not sure if their common room has ever been quite so overstuffed.
The two of them are just about to reach the dorms when a small, dark haired girl approaches them, her brown eyes lighting up when she sees Percy.
"Hey!" she says, moving closer. "Annabeth's looking for you."
"Annabeth's looking for me?"
He had just left her in the library with Piper and she had seemed completely fine.
"Well, actually..." She slows herself down, taking a breath. "Piper's looking for you because she wants you to go cheer up Annabeth. Or something like that."
Percy's heart speeds up.
"Is she okay?"
"She's… well, I'm not really sure. Piper instructed me to get you and I saw Annabeth looking upset. I don't have a ton of information. I'm Hazel, by the way."
The girl isn't bold, but she's not shy either. Percy likes her immediately; there's something easy about her demeanor even though they're in an anxious situation. Hazel isn't twisting her hands in her skirt or wringing them together. She's calm and put together.
"Hazel, this is my friend Frank."
"Hi," he says shyly, barely lifting his eyes to hers. Percy pats Frank comfortingly on the shoulder.
"I'll be back, okay?"
"But curfew!" Frank calls after him. Percy ignores this.
He's expecting to have to hunt around the castle to find Annabeth, but when he climbs out of the portrait hole, she's sitting right outside of it, leaning against Piper. Her eyes are vacant, her expression hollow, as she stares down at the floor.
"Percy!" Piper looks relieved. "Hey. I need your help."
"I'm getting that," he says, eyes still on Annabeth. "What's up?"
"She got a letter from her dad and she… I don't know… You're her best friend. Fix it."
He's startled by the idea that he is Annabeth's best friend and Piper isn't, but now that he thinks about it, he realizes that she's probably right. Annabeth and Piper are friends, and they certainly have a good time together, but she always sits next to him at meals and studies with him in the library and supports Hufflepuff when they're playing Slytherin or Gryffindor.
"Thanks, Piper," he says, grasping Annabeth's elbow in his hand. "Have a good night."
His firm voice tells Piper that it's okay for her to leave now, so she flashes him a weak, grateful smile before scurrying away towards the Gryffindor tower. Percy, on the other hand, walks Annabeth in the opposite direction, leading her with his hand.
"So what are you pissed off about?" he asks, his voice clear. She looks up, eyes bewildered. In the light of the candles that line the wall of the candle, her gray eyes seem to move like liquid.
"What are you talking about, Percy?"
"You're mad," he says clearly. "Angry. Why?"
Her mouth parts slightly, uncertain of how to react. For a moment, Percy watches the myriad of emotions flit across Annabeth's expression. He tries to keep his face supportive, knowing that she doesn't need to be scared out of her vulnerability.
"I thought my parents were going to get back together," she says finally. "Did you know that? For a couple of years, they were both civil to each other, and whenever they met, they treated each other exactly how they did when they were married. They were cool towards each other, casual. Indifferent. And I thought that it meant that they were still in love because I didn't realize that the marriage that they had wasn't love. It was arranged. Not specifically, but by society. Pureblood norms, you could say. And when I see him with the new wife that he loves and the kids that aren't purebloods, it makes my blood boil. Because I'm the product of this marriage that he never wanted, whereas they are… they are his in a whole sense. In a way that I never will be."
"So you're pissed off because you think that he doesn't love you as much as he loves them."
"I don't think that, Percy. I know. Every time I write him, his letters get shorter. He doesn't talk about me or ask me about myself. It's all her, and them. And he never asks me to stay with them, even when I hint and I hint and…"
She trails off, and he knows that her next thought must be really bad if she isn't able to say it to him.
"What?"
They've stopped walking, and they're so close to each other. He can see everything she is feeling on her face, maybe for the first time since they've known each other. They're Percy and Annabeth. He makes stupid jokes that everybody laughs at and she chides him for their lack of artful craftsmanship in spite of the fact that she's laughing on the inside. She gets good grades because she tries harder than anyone he's ever known, but she expects more of herself too, and then she tries to teach him how to do the things that he cannot figure out how to do on his own. He tells her that she's smart and pretends to be angry about it and she tells him that he's an idiot even though she doesn't mean it. That's just how they are- what they do.
But they don't usually get into the deep, nitty gritty aspects of their personalities, and on some level, Percy is glad Annabeth is doing it first.
"I want to get revenge. Punish him for not thinking that I'm good enough for him."
"You are good enough for him. Better than him, actually."
"I think you're right. But I want to hurt him into seeing it, and that's my problem. That's what I'm mad about. I wish that I could just not care about him instead of letting him rile me up like this. I'm angry that he contributes to my imperfections."
Percy wonders exactly how much time Annabeth spends analyzing herself. She must have picked apart every little piece by now. The thought wrenches him.
"You mean the cut on your upper lip?"
"What?"
"And the way you always pronounce the word 'integral' wrong?"
She glares reproachfully at him, but Percy lets a small smile creep onto his face.
"We've all got stuff like that, Annabeth." For some reason, he can't look at her right now. He digs his hands deep into his pockets and lets his foot scrape back and forth on the floor. Percy feels older than his age, but then he's glad about that because it means that he's going to be able to say what he needs to say to her. "I have a scar on my eyebrow and I pronounce the word 'façade' wrong every time I say it even though I know that I'm not saying it right. And when I was ten, I got so angry at my dad that I decided it would be a good idea to punch a wall."
He looks up for the first time, seeing her studying him intently.
"You did?"
"And my mom couldn't afford to get it fixed so she had to buy a poster to cover it so that nobody would see."
Percy hadn't meant to be so candid about their financial status to her, but he can't take it back now and a part of him knows that she won't ridicule him for it even though she's from a completely different station in life.
He trusts her.
"We're all crappy people," he points out, shooting her a lopsided smile to punctuate his statement. "Just don't let that measly little fact ruin your life, I guess."
"You guess?" she teases, starting to smile.
"I'm all out of maturity for the day," Percy laughs. "Would you care for a fart joke?"
"Ugh, no. Save it for Jason."
"Jason doesn't like them either. Grover, on the other hand-"
"Hufflepuffs," Annabeth sighs dramatically, shaking her head. "The lot of you are ridiculous."
"Oh, and Ravenclaws aren't?"
"We're ridiculous in a more dignified way," Annabeth tells him, nodding her head importantly.
"Well, you're not going to have much dignity left if you're caught out in the corridors after bedtime and get a detention."
"That's a good point." She doesn't look worried, though. "Goodnight, Percy."
"'Night, Annabeth."
She pauses, uncertain, before darting forward and kissing him on the cheek.
"Thanks for making me smile."
Just because she's looking at her shoes when she says it, doesn't make it any less awesome.
(ooo)
"You're stirring the wrong way."
He looks up from the top of their potion to see Annabeth, her book positioned carefully above the cauldron, staring critically down at the contents of it.
"No I'm not!" Percy protests. "It said clockwise."
"And you're stirring counterclockwise."
He frowns before letting his eyes drift down to the direction of the large wooden spoon that he is using to stir the contents of the pewter cauldron.
"Oh. I was, um, looking at it in the mirror."
Annabeth starts laughing.
"Percy."
He looks sheepish as he begins to stir in the other direction. Okay, so he hadn't really been looking. Potions has never been his best class, and if he's being honest, he usually depends on Annabeth to catch his mistakes before he can screw something up so royally that there's no going back.
"Do you have the armadillo bile in your kit?" Annabeth asks, rummaging through it. "I can't find it anywhere."
"Oh, yeah, that," Percy responds, trying not to smile. "I may have used that to make Grover fall down the stairs."
Annabeth doesn't know whether to laugh or scold, so she settles for quirking her lips up while saying his name in a voice that she considers to be properly offended.
"And why, exactly, did you make Grover fall down the stairs?"
"It was because he had turned my hair blue with a spell and I wanted to get him back for it, if you must know."
"Your hair hasn't been blue this year," Annabeth observes as she triumphantly pulls armadillo bile out of her own potions kit.
"I got Professor Chiron to change it back before I went down to breakfast. And Grover is fine, you'll notice. We called it even on prank wars and I can even sleep with both eyes closed now."
Annabeth shakes her head, her ponytail swishing back and forth behind her. She doesn't wear her hair down anymore; Percy wonders why she keeps it so long if she doesn't like it. Annabeth always has it tied back somehow- in a braid or a bun or a ponytail behind her head.
He wonders if it's normal to observe so much about one person.
"I thought you liked the color blue."
Her words pull him out of his thought process, and Percy struggles to recalibrate himself in the real world.
"I like turtles, but that doesn't mean I want to be one," Percy retorts. "Hazel likes horses, but that doesn't mean-"
"Okay!" Annabeth chuckles. "I get it. You win."
He pauses for a moment.
"Is that the first time you've ever said that to me?"
Her hands don't still on the bat wing that she is chopping into fine little pieces.
"Said what?"
"That I win."
"It probably is," she says smoothly, effortlessly scraping the wings off of the cutting board and into the potion. They both stare at it anxiously until it turns the dark red color that the textbook promises. When it does, Annabeth sits back, satisfied with herself. She turns to look at Percy again. "After all, I don't let you win a lot."
"Okay, I agree that you're right more often than not," Percy admits. "But still. I must have corrected you on something over the course of our friendship. Something. Anything."
"Professor Dionysius!"
Her hand is high in the air as she calls him over. Percy recoils at the annoyed look that their Professor gives the two of them, but Annabeth just gives him a pretty smile, coaxing him over to their work area.
"Did you finish?" he asks as he sidles up.
"Yes," Annabeth nods, "and I think that you should add an addendum to the written instructions the next time you teach this potion, sir. You can skip step two if you just double the amount in step three and add a smidge of flobberworm mucus."
Idly, Percy ponders the difference between being smart and being a perfectionist. He wonders where Annabeth lies on that line. Then he wonders how she's lucky enough not to have been punched in the face by Professor Dionysius. Yet.
Third Year
He thinks it's ridiculous that there was a time in his life when he thought he could actually fancy Annabeth. He doesn't fancy Annabeth. She's his best friend, so obviously he could never be in love with her. He brought a blue cake to her house on her birthday because she's his best friend. He wants to spend every possible moment of his day with her because she's his friend. He wants to make her laugh and make her smile because she's his friend.
When he sits at the Hufflepuff table during the opening feast and she sits at the Ravenclaw table, he actually misses her. Yeah, they'd seen each other on the train. But the opening and closing feasts are the only two times that people bother with the constructs of sitting at their House tables, and because of this, their group of friends is scattered all around the Great Hall. Percy raises his hand in greeting when he sees Annabeth looking at him, and she smiles and sticks her tongue out at him. He purposefully spins around on the bench, sitting up prim and proper as though teasing Annabeth for her casual nature.
She's his best friend, and that's all that matters.
(ooo)
The walk down to the Care of Magical Creatures hut isn't long, but it's lengthy enough that Percy doesn't want to take it alone. When his watch beeps, alerting him to the fact that he has a half an hour to get to class, he hops off of his bed, places his robes over his right arm, and then makes his way to the Ravenclaw tower.
Annabeth is just leaving when he arrives, Piper and Rachel trailing behind her. Her face brightens as soon as she sees Percy, and she speeds up her steps as she approaches him.
"What did you get on the History of Magic test?" she asks in lieu of saying hello. Some of her long blond hair floats behind her, lifting in the air as she bounces closer. He loves the way it tickles his elbows once she's settled in next to him, ready to walk to class.
"An EE, thanks to you," Percy says, his voice content.
"I got an 'O,'" Annabeth brags, spreading her lips wide in a smile. Percy knows how hard she works in school; academics are important to her, but she doesn't necessarily excel in all areas without effort. Classes like DADA and Transfiguration are natural for her, but a course like History of Magic is something that she genuinely has to work hard to be able to succeed in.
He knows because he's spent several long nights in the library, reading to her or reading over her shoulder or watching her read and trying not to fall asleep to the comforting lull of the way she turns pages, being sure to lick her finger before she does so. It sounds boring, but it's one of his favorite things to do with Annabeth. He loves the glow that the soft lighting in the library casts on the features of his best friend, making her seem calmer. And he loves the way her hair falls across the table when she gets tired and lies with her head on her arm, reading the words over the tip of her nose.
"You earned it," he says, meaning it. "And thank you for all of your help."
She shrugs, modest now, which is something that she's just learned to be in the past few years. At the start of their friendship, modesty was nonexistent with Annabeth. But she's different now. Both of them are different, really.
"Thanks for your help."
Percy scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.
"I didn't do anything."
"No, you did. Whenever you need help studying, you were helping me study too. Doofus."
They make their way through the castle, gliding effortlessly across the shifting staircases. It used to be scary, trying to make their way up and down, but now they know exactly what to do. Being a Hogwarts student is officially second nature.
The front doors are open in preparation for students coming and going. Even during the winter, the students are forced outside for Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and flying lessons for the first years. But it's a much more pleasant experience on a crisp day like today, and Percy gladly tightens his cloak around himself as they exit the castle and start to make their way through the greenery outside.
Annabeth takes in an enormous breath, greedily gulping the fresh air into her lungs.
"I hear we're covering unicorns in Care of Magical Creatures," she says, oblivious to the way Percy is staring at her.
"Do you think he's going to have an actual unicorn?" Percy asks. When Annabeth turns to him, her eyes are sparkling.
"There've been rumors," she says mysteriously.
"Rumors? What rumors?"
"Nothing you should concern yourself with, Jackson."
He shoves her playfully.
"You owe me!"
"Owe you?" Annabeth laughs, a bark-like sound that causes Percy to start chuckling in response. "I owe you?
"You do! After all the studying that I help you do? I'm the reason you're so successful. You're welcome."
(ooo)
"This plant doesn't even have magical properties! Why do we have to learn about it?"
"God you're grumpy today," Jason sighs, snapping Percy's goggles.
"It just doesn't make sense to me," grumbles Percy, making a rude face in Jason's direction.
"He's just mad because they ran out of sausage at breakfast this morning and he didn't get any for himself," Frank tells Jason, conspiring against Percy.
"How can we bear his wrath?" Piper says sarcastically. Then her eyes brighten. "Annabeth, quick! Tame the dragon."
She's bent over the seaweed, purposefully wringing out the excess water so that the plant will dry properly. They're going to be able to keep it and use it in their potions kits, so she's doing her best to meticulously dry it out.
"What am I supposed to do?" she asks evenly, making a small note in her Herbology notebook about one of the properties of the plant. "Make sausage appear out of nowhere?"
"Could you?" Percy inquires pleadingly, bumping her hip with his hip. Annabeth looks up for the first time, only to give him a disapproving glare.
"I see that you're extremely behind on your work," she says pointedly. "Maybe you should stop thinking about sausage and start thinking about seaweed."
"You're right," says Percy, looking as though the sun had suddenly come through the clouds on a cold winter day. "You're absolutely right, Annabeth. From now on, every single moment of my life will be dedicated to seaweed."
"She woke the monster," Jason stage whispers. "Pipes, she made it worse."
"Every day, I will wake up thinking of seaweed. I will eat it for breakfast. I will shower using it as soap-"
"Percy," groans Annabeth, trying not to laugh at his antics. She fails epically, he might add.
"At night, I will dream of seaweed, taking the ghostly fantasy of it into the very marrow of my soul until the two of us- me and seaweed- become one."
"Shut it!" Annabeth says. Percy stops talking, flashing her a goofy smile that makes her roll her eyes. "Seaweed Brain," she adds under her breath.
He perks up.
"What was that?"
"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth says more clearly, straightening her posture and looking him dead in the eye. "I called you Seaweed Brain."
(ooo)
"Do you want to come to Christmas dinner?"
He doesn't mean to say it; it just slips out before he can control himself. She's standing at the center of Honeydukes, looking at the different types of special edition Bertie Botts flavored jelly beans, set out just for the holidays. Annabeth's hand, clad in a purple glove, pauses on the display as she takes in his words. For a second, she keeps it lifted in the air. Then she lowers it to a box of jellybeans and tightens her fingers around it.
"What?"
He hesitates, so she turns around, frowning as she stares at him intently. Percy feels his stomach lurch nervously, unsure of what to do now that he's opened up this can of worms that he never meant to open. Well, maybe he had meant to. But it hadn't been something that he had considered beforehand. He's an impulsive person, but when it comes to Annabeth, he doesn't normally make comments that would cause him to put his foot in his mouth. They're so easy around each other that Percy is unused to this awkward, gnawing feeling in his stomach.
"You never seem to have a good time going between the two of your parents and I thought… I dunno… maybe you could come to Christmas dinner with me instead? And… and mum, of course. I mean, it's nothing big like you have at your mum and dad's house. I know that you have these big feasts. But we always have a really good time… we watch movies and have ham and mum figured out how to turn mashed potatoes blue a couple of years ago so-"
"Blue mashed potatoes?"
Percy stops looking at the ground and decides to look up, attempting to gauge the look on her face. She's got her head tilted to the side and her teeth are on her bottom lip, scraping it delicately.
"Yeah."
His throat feels weird- thicker- and he thinks that his eyes are going to burn from the humiliation of it all.
"How does she do it?"
"She won't tell me. I think it's illegal."
"Maybe she'll tell me."
He looks up, quirking a smile.
"Yeah?"
"Yes. I'll try to worm it out of her using my pureblood charms that I learned so well from my mother."
They start heading towards the exit of the store, in spite of the fact that neither have bought anything. Percy always waits until the very last minute to get his Christmas gifts, and he has no doubt that Annabeth has already sent in mail orders for hers.
"Ah, at least she's good for something," he notes darkly, tugging the door open so that she can walk through it.
It's so chilly that they can see their breaths, and as they trudge slowly through Hogsmeade, the snow crunches festively under their feet.
"Three Broomsticks?" Annabeth asks as she pulls her scarf closer to her neck, and Percy nods vigorously, suddenly desperate for a warm butterbeer. They begin to walk off in the direction of the restaurant, walking close together to keep warm. Every once in a while, Annabeth's hand will brush against Percy's, but he doesn't mind.
He doesn't mind at all.
Their friends are already in The Three Broomsticks when they arrive. Hazel catches Annabeth's eyes and waves her over, so Percy and Annabeth immediately start towards their five friends, taking off their scarves, hats, and gloves as they go. Annabeth sits down next to Piper and Percy grabs the seat right next to her, seated next to Leo.
"Where were you guys?" asks Frank, setting down his pumpkin juice. It's too late in the season for pumpkin juice, but Frank doesn't like butterbeer, something that they all tease him about.
"Honeydukes," Annabeth responds, placing her gloves in the hood on Percy's cloak to keep them together. She flashes him a thankful smile when he doesn't say anything about it. "I wanted to get some Bertie Botts for my step-brothers, but I'm thinking that maybe I won't be seeing them over the course of the holiday."
Percy doesn't say anything about that in spite of the soaring feeling that he's got in his stomach. Instead, he turns to Jason and claps his hands together, rubbing them against each other for dramatic effect.
"So I see that you're nearly done with your butterbeer."
Jason stares at him suspiciously.
"And you owe me for letting you copy my DADA homework…"
"Which you got the answers for from me," Annabeth coughs in a way that is not at all meant to be subtle.
"So you should get both of us a butterbeer."
"That would be the polite thing to do," Piper says, nodding seriously. "As well as getting me another one."
Jason grunts in annoyance as he launches himself up from the table and towards the bar. Annabeth gives Percy a little high five where his hand is resting on his thigh under the table.
"To laziness!" they toast when Jason comes back with their drinks.
"You should be glad that none of you are roommates with me," he mutters. "I would find you at night and do bad things to your hair."
"Oh, you mean what you do to your own hair? Yeah, I am glad!"
Percy doesn't think he's ever gotten a glare so intense.
(ooo)
Their feet are too loud on the stone steps that lead to the basement. Although Annabeth moves smoothly in her flat shoes, Percy's trainers clomp loudly against the large, gray stairs. She glances over at him and rolls her eyes, but he just lifts a finger dramatically to his lips and makes a shushing motion at her.
"Oh, you're telling me to shush?" Annabeth asks in a harsh whisper. "I'm not the one making all of the noise."
"I could see it in your eyes," Percy argues, "that you were about to talk."
"Stop looking at my eyes and maybe you won't make the same mistake again."
"But if I did that, how would I be able to see the awe that you feel whenever you gaze upon my face?"
She glances over her shoulder one last time before they steadily begin to approach the portrait of the bowl of fruit.
"Are you sure you're not mixing up the word 'awe' with the word 'revulsion'?"
"Pretty sure, yeah."
"Might wanna glance in a dictionary," Annabeth advises as she lifts a finger and tickles the pear. It giggles before turning into a door handle, which Percy unceremoniously grabs and hauls open.
It's not the first time they've snuck down into the kitchen, but usually they bring their friends with them. Tonight, however, everybody has gone to bed and Annabeth and Percy are stuck studying for their Ancient Runes test tomorrow. Piper, Jason, and Rachel had all had the foresight to take Divination while Percy and Annabeth toiled away in Ancient Runes. He had told Annabeth that he just wasn't interested in the "inner eye," but in reality, he didn't want to bother being in a class that she wasn't in when there was a chance that they could continue to help each other study. It makes sense to him, and he hadn't missed the grateful smile that she had offered him when they had selected their courses.
But they've been avoiding studying by playing seven back to back games of pick up Quidditch, and the result of this is staying up until midnight in the library, frantically trying to avoid being caught by the teachers. Annabeth has a new invisibility cloak made out of Demiguise, an expensive gift that will only last her a decade but is still useful while they're at school. Her mother had given it to her for Christmas, and Annabeth has already used it several times to aid Percy in his ongoing prank war with Grover, Jason, and Leo.
It would probably be easier to just study in their respective common rooms- after all, they could get detention from still wandering around the school at this time of night- but Percy and Annabeth are accustomed to studying together, and they've gotten into such a good pattern that it seems pointless to waste it. Studying without each other just doesn't seem to make sense anymore. At 12:30, however, their eyes are beginning to water with fatigue and Percy feels like somebody just put a brick on top of his head. It had seemed pretty evident that they needed a snack.
Once they have a basket of food, Annabeth begins to head off to the tallest tower in the building, where they have their astronomy lessons. It seems obvious that they need some fresh air, even though the air is still a bit chilly from the winter. Once more, it seems that her steps are feather-light while Percy's slam against the floors of Hogwarts. Annabeth cuts him a glare, but Percy just shrugs guiltily and gives her a weak smile.
"It's your fault if we get caught," Annabeth whispers furiously. They're almost at the tower now, and when they're more than halfway there, it feels a bit safer to talk.
"Actually, it's your fault," Percy corrects. "I may be loud, but you're the one who chose to become friends with me. Therefore, if we get caught, it would technically be your fault, because it was your idea to befriend me and lure me up to the astronomy tower late at night."
"You're evil," Annabeth sighs, dragging her willow wand out of the waistband of her school skirt and directing it towards the door. "Alohomora!" she hums, and the lock clicks before the door springs open towards them.
Once they're inside and the door is closed, they speak normally again. Annabeth begins to place the food methodically on the floor, dividing it evenly between the two of them. She doesn't say anything when Percy snatches the custard creams out of her hand before she can place them on her side.
Annabeth neatly arranges her skirt before crossing her legs and picking up a pastry between two delicate fingers. Percy, on the other hand, grabs a tart and shoves it into his mouth, moaning loudly as the raspberry explodes across his tongue.
"Percy!" Annabeth protests, her eyes wide. "You can't moan right now! They're going to think-"
She stops talking as her cheeks begin to burn red. Realizing what she's getting at, Percy lets a lazy smile stretch across his face.
"They're going to think what, Annabeth Chase?"
"Um. Nothing."
"Oh, c'mon, Wise Girl. You know everything. What are they going to think?"
She fiddles with her skirt nervously.
"Um?"
Percy loosens his Hufflepuff tie and stretches back, yawning hugely.
"I'll wait. I have all night."
"You're actually going to make me say it?"
"Mhhhmm."
"You know, Percy."
He finally takes pity on her.
"Well, I can think of one thing that you might be thinking about, but I know that you're not."
"And why is that?"
"Because both of us are too smart to get cooties, Annabeth. It's a ridiculous suggestion."
"You're a ridiculous suggestion," she mutters darkly, throwing a biscuit at him.
He catches it and eats it, ignoring the murderous look on her face.
*Continues in the next chapter*
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10487142/1/
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