Intertwined || Percabeth Hogwarts AU

Chapter 39

"I want to show you something," she said. "I think it's about time you saw these."

He sat down next to her and gasped, seeing the pictures. Sally smiled sadly seeing the look on his face and placed a hand on his back as took in each photograph.

There were some of the magical variety and some normal. But he wasn't too caught up with that. There was a man in these pictures, a man that looked just like him. The similarities between them were uncanny. He had the same black hair, green eyes, light bronze complexion—even his dimpled smile was the same.

Percy lightly touched his father's face and swallowed. He blinked rapidly, trying not to cry, and continued looking through the pictures. A lot of them consisted of Poseidon and Sally together, making Percy smile seeing his parents so happy together.

"This one was on our first date," Sally told him fondly, pointing to a picture of the two of them on a beach with a carnival behind them.

As he turned the pages, he saw pictures of a pregnant Sally with Poseidon hugging her from behind with one hand on her stomach, a baby Percy laying next to Sally, another one in the same time with Poseidon looking down and caressing baby Percy's cheek.

But the last picture... it was during Percy's third birthday party where both he and his father had cake smeared across their faces and they were laughing, oblivious of Sally capturing the moment.

This time, Percy really did start crying. He couldn't even remember any of this happening but the sight of his little family being so happy together pushed him over the edge. One tear fell after the other as thoughts of how his father loved him, how their family was torn apart and he didn't even know why, but most of all... how much pain his parents must've suffered.

"You never talk about him," Percy said offhandedly, brushing his tears away. "Do you know why he's in there?"

"No, I don't," she said, causing his face to fall. Sally sighed and consolingly ran her fingers through Percy's hair. "Your father didn't want you knowing that he's in prison. And I agreed. You were better off growing up without any of that on your mind."

"I could've handed it—"

"There's also the matter of who your father was, Percy. With me, here in the muggle world, he was a loving husband and father," she explained, but then her expression grew despondent. "But in the magical world, he was a powerful Auror with a lot of enemies. Even our marriage was kept secret because there's no telling what any of them could do."

"He just wanted to keep us safe," Percy said slowly.

He swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and remained silent, trying to process the information. He thought about how there was clearly a lot he didn't know about. A lot that was kept under wraps in the magical world.

Brushing those thoughts aside, he continued flipping through the pages and stopped to stare at one of the pictures of his parents on a date. His dad was hugging his mum from behind and pressing a kiss to her cheek while she laughed, jokingly pushing his face away.

He smiled. "He doesn't seem so dangerous."

"Not around me, he wasn't," she snorted, fondly gazing at the pictures. "He was funny and charming and sweet. I see a lot of him in you."

Percy tried hard to ignore that warm feeling that bubbled in him hearing that and focused on the pictures. Then a nagging thought ate at him.