Dead Man's Revelation (Harry Potter & Percy Jackson Crossover)

CAUGHT RED-HANDED

Juliette stumbled to a stop when she reached the middle of the corridor and saw Albus and Rose staring slack-jawed at Nico who was obviously hiding something behind his back with his robes slightly slashed in a lot of places. She decided to take a cautious action.

"Rose! Al!" She said cheerily with a grin, something she was used to acting out. "I thought you guys would be in the Gryffindor common room by now! You didn't have to wait for me!" Then, as if she just noticed him. "Oh, hey, Nico."

Albus was the first one to regain his composure. "Who was that man?" He asked Nico. "He looked like he was ready to kill you!"

Juliette immediately rounded on Nico and glared at him for a brief second before noticing the scattered yellow dust on the floor behind them. Monster. She was surprised. She would have thought Professor McGonagall, or whoever else, would have thought of tightening the Hogwarts' shields so monsters wouldn't get in anymore after the manticores. How could another monster pierced through the barriers. Instead, she turned to her friends and gave them a confused look.

"What man?" She asked Al.

Behind her Nico put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "Hey, don't blame me if some dude with a grudge showed up and tried to drown me in yellow dust." He said sarcastically.

She gave him a look that clearly said, Really? That's the best you can do?

"You know him?" Rose gasped, looking horrified.

He shrugged. "Yeah, met him once when dad sent me on one of his errands and, uh, we kind of get into a fight which involved a lot of yellow dust." He muttered almost to himself. "Didn't know he held that grudge that long."

As he talked, Juliette noticed bits of Mist swirling around Albus and Rose. She knew what he was doing. He was manipulating it to his will so they wouldn't remember what happened. She didn't stop him, she aided him...though he did wish he thought up of something much better than an egghead with grudges against him and a thing for yellow dust.

She didn't know what they saw, but monsters were never all that pleasant-looking.

Rose blinked once, twice. Then looked at Nico suspiciously as if she didn't believe what her own brain was telling her.

Juliette didn't worry about Rose not being convinced by the Mist. Rose might be suspicious, but she never went for more than a few minutes without consulting that big brain of hers. She was paranoid that way. If something her brain told her wasn't right, who's to guarantee the other things it told her was? It was bad logic, but Juliette never had the guts to tell the redhead that. Albus, on the other hand, was someone she'd worry about. He usually tended to listen to his guts than his brain. If he and Rose worked together on that one...they would be in a whole new level of trouble.

"You know him?" She said again. "That man? What was wrong with his skin?"

"Skin lesions." Nico answered confidently. "And he had a whole lot of, uh, disorders too."

Albus still didn't look like he bought the act. "That was a wizard?"

"Sorta."

"Sorta?"

"Uh, yeah," Nico answered, running a hand through his hair. "He has this weird, super power, voodoo something. You don't wanna know." He said quickly at Rose's quizzical glare.

"What do you mean, I don't want to know?" She asked aloud, putting her hands on her hips.

"It's not really..." Nico started to say but Rose broke him off.

"It's not really, what?"

"I haven't even finished my sentence!"

"Then finish it!"