When Swords Meet Wands

Oh My Gods! The Feels! They're Too Much!

Piper

It was Luke Castellan. The saviour, when he sacrificed himself to defeat Kronos. The traitor, when he betrayed his camp, Annabeth, Thalia, Chiron. Piper had never met him of course, but she'd heard stories of his betrayal and trickery and his final bravery. She'd seen pictures of him smiling with his arms thrown around Thalia and seven year old Annabeth. She'd comforted Annabeth when she had rare meltdowns about him. Piper knew Luke Castellan, but she also didn't.

She watched in shock as Annabeth screamed, and jumped out of her seat and ran, not towards the ghost, but out of the Hall. Percy shook himself out of his daze and ran after Annabeth, but not before looking at Luke with dumbstruck eyes. Thalia walked slowly towards Luke and fell to her knees. She covered her face with her hands and cried. Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of Artemis, was crying.

Luke sat down in front of Thalia and whispered, "Thalia, I'm sorry, I-I didn't know, he was- Thalia, please, I'm-"

"Shut. Up."

Luke looked devastated.

"Thalia, please, I'm sorry, he tricked-"

"Luke Castellan, shut up."

He shut up.

Thalia took in a few deep ragged breaths, trying to regain her composure. She wiped her eyes and stood up.

"I can't forgive you, Luke. Not yet. What you did, it's-it's not easy to digest. Luke, leaving your friends is one thing, but sacrificing yourself-"

"Hold on," Luke interrupted. "You're not mad at me for betraying you, and-and Annabeth, and the camp and-"

"Of course I'm mad at you. You broke my and Annabeth's hearts, Luke. You broke her. You betrayed us. You betrayed your family, Luke," Thalia said, in a monotone voice, somehow making the words seem even more horrible than when said with emotion. Luke hung his head, tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Thalia, I'm so-"

Thalia held up her hand. "Wait. I'm not done. You let yourself be brainwashed, Luke. You let the evil in you come out. But I don't care about that. At least, not as much as what you did next. You killed yourself." She made to grip his shoulders, but her hands went right through him. She broke down crying again.

"Thalia, you know I had to do that. Kronos, he would've taken over everything, I had to do that." Luke held his hand out, as if to touch her, but didn't.

"YOU KILLED YOURSELF!" Thalia screamed suddenly, raw pain in her voice. Luke flinched. "You killed yourself! You killed yourself, you dumb idiot, you killed yourself," Thalia sobbed. Her voice lowered until it was barely more than a whisper. Jason knelt down next to her and cradled his sister in his arms. She hugged him tightly, as if she needed the physical support or she would break, break into a million pieces.

Piper suddenly realised that everyone else in the Great Hall had left. The teachers, students, other ghosts, the caretaker all gone. She noticed the other demigods fidgeting, not knowing what to do. Piper herself didn't know what to do, even being the daughter of the goddess of relationships. She tugged on Hazel's sleeve and very quietly whispered, "Let's give them some privacy, come on." She quickly nodded and got the attention of the other demigods, motioning towards the door. They quietly extracted themselves from the Hall into the Entrance Hall, where Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall was waiting.

"Are they alright? Miss Chase ran outside a few minutes ago, crying and Mr Jackson followed her. I didn't know about Mr Castellan, are they alright?" She asked, distress clear in her voice.

"I think so, Professor. Thalia's brother is there with her, too. Luke, well, he was Thalia and Annabeth's old friend, almost brother. It, it'll be hard for them, but I think they'll be alright," Piper said.

"Oh, thank the gods." Piper was shocked. Gods? Her face must have given away her shock because Dumbledore said, "Yes, Ms McLean, we know all about the Greek gods and demigods. Roman too. I did arrange for you to come here with Chiron, didn't i? Professors McGonagall, Hagrid and Flitwick know of this as well. They will help you blend in. But not the other teachers, or ghosts, so you must be careful."

Piper blushed. Of course, Chiron had told them that his friend Albus Dumbledore prepared all this. "Oh, yeah right, I forgot." Then Piper remembered the other students in the Hall.

"The other students. . .did they see us?" She asked worriedly. "No, don't worry. They were escorted outside right before the. . .reunion," Dumbledore reassured.

"Well, Miss McLean, I suggest you and your friends go to your dormitory, that is where Miss Chase and Mr Jackson have gone to," McGonagall said. "Okay, Professor. Um, where is it actually?" "Second floor, down the corridor on the right. You'll see it."

                                                       ——————————————————-

Piper trailed behind the others as they all made their way to the dorm. She was thinking about Thalia's and Annabeth's relationships with Luke. Annabeth's was definitely like a brother, but Thalia. Thalia's feelings for Luke ran just a tiny bit deeper than friendship. Piper could sense it. She imagined what it would feel like to be Luke, to see his family again after he betrayed them. She could feel what they were feeling, just a fraction of it. She was, of course the daughter of Aphrodite.

Piper was so deeply invested in her thoughts that she didn't register anything that was going on around her.

She barely noticed the moving pictures and the trick staircases. She didn't even notice Leo getting tricked by a false door and getting a large bruise on his forehead. For Gods' sake, she didn't even notice when she herself walked into a a wall pretending to be a door. She mildly felt the pain in her nose and heard the hearty laughs of the other demigods, but she didn't acknowledge it. She just turned around and started walking in the other direction.

That's when Hazel finally realised Piper was not in her best form. She jogged up to Piper and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey! Hey, hey. You're seriously not feeling guilty or something crazy for them, are you?" Piper smiled weakly. "No, no. It's just, I can feel what they're feeling, just a fraction of it. And, I can't even handle this, how are they supposed to handle all of it? And I want to help them, I'm supposed to, I'm the daughter of Aphrodite! But I can't, I don't know how to, it's just. . ." Piper stopped, wiping her runny nose. "I just wanna help them."

She broke down. A small part of her brain figured that she couldn't help them and that it wasn't her fault and that this was probably just a side effect of feeling their emotions too. But the dominating part was blind to all of that. Hazel hugged her even tighter.

"Sweetie, it's not your fault. Sometimes even Aphrodite doesn't have to know everything. This is between Thalia, Annabeth and Luke, that's all. They've got to figure it all out now. Between themselves. You don't have to do everything, you know. We can share the weight." Hazel smiled warmly at Piper, her liquid golden eyes imploring her to understand.

Suddenly, Piper felt all the weight flow away. She felt a thousand times lighter than a few seconds ago. She felt better, she could think rationally. She was back to normal. Unfortunately, that also meant that she could now concentrate on her painfully broken nose. She wiped her bloody nose with her sleeve. Frank hesitantly handed her a tissue, which she took gratefully.

Piper figured Thalia and Luke had talked it out and that's why she felt fine.

"Piper!" Piper spun around. She saw Jason running towards her, panting slightly. His glasses were askew and his blond hair was tousled. His blue eyes sparkled at the sight of her. Suddenly, Piper felt happy. Ecstatic, even. Her heart did somersaults. She hugged Jason as tight as she could, nestling her chin in the crook of his shoulder and neck. She sighed contentedly. Jason didn't even question her. He simply hugged her back, knowing that she needed it. Piper knew, they could get through anything, WOULD get through everything, side-by-side. Together.

A/N Hello, hello! I canNOT believe you guys. Not a single comment or vote! How am I supposed to get the motivation to keep writing? I NEED to know what you think. So COMMENT. I'm not as cruel as to stop updating until I get a comment, but you never know. Bye :)

-Lightshadowkitty