Percy Jackson and Harry Potter Halfblood Heroes (Book 6)

Chapter 2

The next few weeks passed quickly. Percy's birthday had come and passed. His mother had given him a golden watch (Its traditional for wizards to get a watch when they're seventeen) but instead of hands there were stars and instead of numbers there were twelve planets (Apparently wizard believe that there are twelve. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and Eris) He also had to go to the ministry to complete his appration test where had had passed with flying colors and has now started appearing everywhere.

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," said Hermione a little impatiently after Percy apprated into their room for the eighteenth time. She was sitting on the windowsill in Fred and George's room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and had only grudgingly looked up from her new copy of Advanced Rune Translation. "But haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

"Maybe he's broken his Hand of Glory," said Ron vaguely, as he attempted to straighten his broomstick's bent tail twigs. "Remember that shrivelled-up arm Malfoy had?"

"Yeah, but Malfoy threatened him in such a way that frightened him," Percy said. "Its something more valuable than the hand of glory."

"But what about when he said, 'Don't forget to keep that one safe'?" asked Harry for the umpteenth time. "That sounded to me like Borgin's got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both."

"You reckon?" said Ron, now trying to scrape some dirt off his broom handle."Yeah, I do," said Harry. When neither Ron nor Hermione answered, he said,

"Malfoy's father's Azkaban. Don't you think Malfoy'd like revenge?"

"Obviously," Percy said. "We put his father in Azkaban."

"But what can he do about it?"

"That's my point, I don't know!" said Harry, frustrated. "But he's up to something and I think we should take it seriously. His father's a Death Eater and..."

Harry broke off, his eyes fixed on the window behind Hermione, his mouth open

"Harry?" said Hermione in an anxious voice. "What's wrong?"

"Your scar's not hurting again, is it?" asked Ron nervously.

"He's a Death Eater," said Harry slowly. "He's replaced his father as a Death Eater!"

There was a silence; then Ron erupted in laughter. "Malfoy? He's sixteen, Harry! You think YouKnow-Who would let Malfoy join?"

"It seems very unlikely, Harry," said Hermione in a repressive sort of voice. "What makes you think —?"

"In Madam Malkin's. She didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He's been branded with the Dark Mark."

Percy, Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"Well..." said Ron, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

"I think he just wanted to get out of there, Harry," said Hermione.

"He showed Borgin something we couldn't see," Harry pressed on stubbornly. "Something that seriously scared Borgin. It was the Mark, I know it...he was showing Borgin who he was dealing with, you saw how seriously Borgin took him!"

The three exchanged looks

"I'm not sure, Harry..."

"Yeah, I still don't reckon You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join..."

"Personally," Percy said who stopped playing with his metamorphagus abilities. "I think Harry has got a point," he said nodding. "But Harry thinks about this, revenge is a very very powerful motivation and I doubt Malfoy would go to extreme lengths but I suggest that you keep your wands ready 24/7" looking at Harry straight in the eye. "Got it?"