A Life Changing Story "Harry Potter and Percy Jackson"

Part 4

They were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. When they finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all, and given the level of noise around them, Sally agreed that after a cup of cocoa, they would go back to sleep. But he and his mother were soon arguing enjoyably about the match. It was only when Percy fell asleep right at the tiny table and spilt hot chocolate all over the floor that Sally called a halt and insisted that he goes to bed.
Percy changed into pyjamas and clambered into their bunks. From the other side of the campsite, they could still hear much singing and the odd echoing bang.
"Oh I am glad I'm not on duty," muttered his mother sleepily."I wouldn't fancy having to go and tell the Irish they've got to stop celebrating."
Percy just laid down in bed. He was fifteen now. And after agreeing on Nico's plan, he wondered about the great prophecy. Will he survive?
Suddenly, Sally was shouting.
"Get up! Come on now, get up, this is urgent!"
He sat up quickly. "What happened?"
The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. He could hear screams and the sound of people running. He slipped down from the bunk and reached for his clothes, but Sally, who had pulled on a coat over her own nightdress, said, "No time, Percy —just grab a jacket and get outside — quickly!"
He hurried out of the tent. He could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene. A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward was marching slowly across the field. Their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes
More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice one of the marchers blasts a tent out of his way with his wand.
The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Percy recognized one of them: Mr Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.
"That's sick," Ron muttered, who came out of his tent watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above theground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is reallysick. . . ."
Hermione and Ginny came hurrying toward Ron, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Mr Weasley right behind them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boy's tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves, rolled up and their wands out. Sally emerged out of theirs brandishing her wand.
"We're going to help the ministry!" Sally shouted over all the noise, rolling up her own sleeves. "You lot — get into the woods, and stick together. Arthur and myself will come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"
Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Mr Weasley tore after them. Sally kissed her son and ran after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.
"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and George followed.
"Percy! Come on where..." Hermione turned but Percy wasn't there.
Percy ran towards the masked men who were playing with the Roberts.
"Stupefy!" he yelled and one of them flew backwards unmoving.
He had cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and the attackers didn't even know what was hitting them. Soon they scattered and the Roberts started to fall.
"Mollaire," he muttered and the four Roberts landed softly on the ground.
Someone grabbed his arm and Percy took his wrists and judo flipped him breaking his wrist in the process. The man shrieked before disapparating.
"Coward." he thought. He helped Roberts who were unharmed but clearly frightened. He pointed at the woods and ordered them to run there. Then he ran off to find the Weasleys. He found Harry, Ron and Hermione talking to a pale blonde boy.
"Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."
"Hey Malfoy," Percy called.
Malfoy turned and the remaining colour in his face was gone. He made a sound that was between a squeak and a whimper. Hermione meanwhile flung her arms at him.
"Where were you? We were worried about you."
"I'm fine," Percy assured her. "They were attacking Mr Roberts and I thought..."
"That was you," Ron said. "Blimey, mate."
"Yes. Yes, Ron Let's go" Percy said. "Allons-y!" he shouted and followed the path. (DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE.)
Fred, George, and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite. A huddle of teenagers in pyjamas was arguing. When they saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a girl with thick curly hair turned and said quickly, "Où est MadameMaxime? Nous l'avons perdue —"
"Er — what?" said Ron.
"Oh . . ." The girl who had spoken turned her back on him, and as they walked on they distinctly heard her say, " 'Ogwarts."
"Beauxbatons," muttered Hermione.
"Sorry?" said Harry.
"The French school of magic," Percy said
"They must go to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "I read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe."
Oh . . . yeah . . . right," said Harry.
"Fred and George can't have gone that far," said Ron, pulling out his wand, lighting it like Hermione's. Percy did the same and started searching for a redhead.
"Ah, no, I don't believe it . . . I've lost my wand!" Harry said.
"You're kidding!"
"I'll summon it," Percy said he pointed at a direction and said. "Accio Harry Potter's wand!"
It didn't come.
Percy was flabbergasted. It worked perfectly for him. He said it again but it didn't come. It was like someone was preventing Harry's wand to come.
"Maybe it's back in the tent," said Ron.
"Maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?"Hermione suggested anxiously.
"Yeah," said Harry, "maybe . . ."
A rustling noise nearby made all three of them jump. Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby
"There are bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and laboured to keep running. "People high — high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"
And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking
"What's up with her?" said Ron, looking curiously after Winky."Why can't she run properly?"
"Bet she didn't ask permission to hide," said Harry.
"You know, house-elves get a very raw deal!" said Hermione indignantly. "It's slavery, that's what it is! That Mr Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium, and she was terrified, and he's got her bewitched so she can't even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn't anyone do something about it?"
"Well, the elves are happy, aren't they?" Ron said. "You heard old inky back at the match . . . 'House-elves is not supposed to have fun' . . . that's what she likes, being bossed around. . . ."
"It's people like you, Ron," Hermione began hotly, "who prop up rotten and unjust systems, just because they're too lazy to —"
Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.
"Let's just keep moving, shall we?" said Percy, edging closer at Hermione as if she was the next one.
They followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny. They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match.
Further still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.
"I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!" one of them shouted. "I'm a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."
"No, you're not!" yelled his friend. "You're a dishwasher at the Leakey Cauldron. . . . but I'm a vampire hunter, I've killed about ninety so far —"
A third young wizard, whose pimples were visible even by the dim, silvery light of the veela, now cut in, "I'm about to become the youngest ever Minister of Magic, I am."
Percy wanted to laugh at this. He turned to Ron.
but Ron's face had gone oddly slack, and next second Ron was yelling, "Did I tell you I've invented a broomstick that'll reach Jupiter?"
"Honestly!" said Hermione, and Percy and Harry grabbed Ronfirmly by the arms, wheeled him around, and marched him away.
Harry looked around. "I reckon we can just wait here, you know. We'll hear anyone coming a mile off."The words were hardly out of his mouth when Ludo Bagman emerged from behind a tree right ahead of them. He no longer looked buoyant and rosy-faced; there was no more spring in his step. He looked very white and strained.
"Who's that?" he said, blinking down at them, trying to make out their faces. "What are you doing in here, all alone?"
They looked at one another, surprised.
"Well — there's a sort of riot going on," said Ron.
Bagman stared at him."What?"
"At the campsite . . . some people have got hold of a family of muggles. . . ."
Bagman swore loudly.
"Damn them!" he said, looking quite distracted, and without another word, he Disapparated with a small pop!
"Not exactly on top of things, Mr Bagman, is he?" said Hermione, frowning.
"He was a great Beater, though," said Ron, leading the way off the path into a small clearing, and sitting down on a patch of dry grass at the foot of a tree. "The Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times in a row while he was with them."
After a while, everything seemed much quieter; perhaps the riot was over.
"I hope the others are okay," said Hermione after a while.
"They'll be fine," said Ron.
"Imagine if your dad catches Lucius Malfoy," said Harry, sitting down next to Ron and watching the small figure of Krum slouching over the fallen leaves. "He's always said he'd like to get something on him."
"That'd wipe the smirk off old Draco's face, all right," said Ron.
"Those poor Muggles, though," said Hermione nervously."What if they were caught again?"
"They'll escape," Percy reassured her. "Right Ron?"
"They will," said Ron reassuringly. "They'll find a way."
"Mad, though, to do something like that when the whole Ministry of Magic's out here tonight!" said Hermione.
"I mean, how do they expect to get away with it? Do you think they've been drinking, or are they just —"
Then, they heard something. The sound of uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.
"Hello?" called Harry.
There was silence.
"Who's there," Percy warned. "I'm warnin' you. We're armed and..."
And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.
"MORSMORDRE!"
And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from a patch of darkness Harry's eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.
"What the — ?" gasped Ron as he sprang to his feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared.
"By the gods," Percy whispered. "I don't believe it."
It was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation
He scanned the darkness for the person who had conjured the skull, but he couldn't see anyone.
"Who's there?" Harry called again.
"Harry, come on, move!" Hermione had seized the collar of his jacket and was tugging him backwards.
"What's the matter?" Harry said, startled to see Percy and Hermione's face so white and terrified.
"It's the dark mark, Harry." Percy breathed out. "Voldemort's ( cue flinches) sign."
Voldemort's — ?"
"Harry, come on!"
Ron was hurriedly scooping up his miniature Krum — the four of them started across the clearing — but before they had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noise announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them.
Each of these wizards had his wand out, and every wand was pointing right at himself, Ron, Percy and Hermione.
Without pausing to think,
"DUCK!"
Harry seized the other two and pulled them down onto the ground.
"STUPEFY" roared twenty voices — there was a blinding series of flashes. Jets of fiery red light flying over them from the wizards' and witches wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness —
"Stop!" yelled a voice Percy recognized. "STOP! That's my son!"
Percy rolled over and saw Mr Weasley striding toward them, looking terrified.
"Ron — Harry" — his voice sounded shaky — "Percy. Hermione —are you all right?"
"Out of the way, Arthur," said a cold, curt voice.
It was Mr Crouch. He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them. His face filled with rage.
"Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"
"We didn't do that!" said Harry, gesturing up at the skull." We didn't do anything!" said Ron, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father. "What did you want to attack us for?"
"Do not lie, sir!" shouted Mr Crouch. His wand was still pointing directly at Ron, and his eyes were popping — he looked slightly mad. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"
"Mr Crouch," Percy said firmly getting sick of this nonsense. "Please use your common sense. How could three fourth years and a fifth-year conjure the dark mark."
Crouch looked ready to stun him.
"Barty," whispered Sally," they're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to —"
"Where did the Mark come from, you four?" said Mr Weasleyquickly.
"Over there," said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice. "There was someone behind the trees . . . they shouted words — an incantation —"
"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr Crouch, turning his eyes on Hermione now. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how Mark is summoned, missy —"
"Hey, we said we didn't do it alright'"
At Hermione's words, the Ministry wizards apart from Mr Crouch had all raised their wands again and were pointing in the direction she had indicated, squinting through the dark trees.
"We're too late," said Sally, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."
"I don't think so," said Amos Diggory. "Our Stunners went right through those trees. . . . There's a good chance we got them. . . ."
"Amos, be careful!" said a few of the wizards warningly as Mr Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared. A few seconds later, they heard Mr Diggory shout.
"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's —but — blimey . . ."
"You've got someone?" shouted Mr. Crouch in disbelief. "Who? Who is it?"
Mr. Diggory reemerged from behind thetrees. He was carrying a tiny, limp figure in his arms. It was Winky.
Mr. Crouch did not move or speak as Mr. Diggory deposited his elf on the ground at his feet. The other Ministry wizards were allstaring at Mr. Crouch. For a few seconds, he couldn't speak, then
"This — cannot — be," he said jerkily. "No —"
He moved quickly around Mr. Diggory and strode off towardthe place where he had found Winky.
"No point, Mr. Crouch," Mr. Diggory called after him. "There'sno one else there."
But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it as he pushed aside the bushes searching.
"Bit embarrassing," Mr. Diggory said grimly, looking down atWinky's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf . . . I meanto say . . ."
"Come off it, Amos," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "you don'tseriously think it was the elf ? The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. Itrequires a wand."
"Yeah," said Mr. Diggory, "and she had a wand."
"What?" said Mr. Weasley.
"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr.Weasley. "Had it in her hand. So that's clause three of the Code ofWand Use broken, for a start. No non-human creature is permittedto carry or use a wand."
Just then there was another pop, and Ludo Bagman Apparatedright next to Mr. Weasley. Looking breathless and disorientated,
"The Dark Mark!" he panted, almost trampling Winky as heturned to his colleagues. "Who did it? Did you getthem? Barty! What's going on?"
Mr. Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still pale, and his hands and toothbrush mustache wereboth twitching.
"Where have you been, Barty?" said Bagman. "Why weren't youat the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too — gulping gargoyles!" Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. "Whathappened to her?"
"I have been busy, Ludo," said Mr. Crouch, still talking in thesame jerky fashion, barely moving his lips. "And my elf has beenstunned."
"Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why —
Realisation dawned on Bagman's face; he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr.Crouch.
"No!" he said. "Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn'tknow how! She'd need a wand, for a start!"
"And she had one," said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one,Ludo. If it's all right with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hearwhat she's got to say for herself."
Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Mr. Diggory, Mr.Diggory seemed to take his silence as an aprroval. He raised his ownwand, pointed it at Winky, and said, "Rennervate!"
Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and sheblinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by thesilent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position.
Soon, they found out it was Harry's wand. Winky found it in the trees. But she still disobeyed her master so in the end, Crouch freed her. But her reaction wasn't like Dobby, who what Harry said was that he was joyous. But Winky on the other hand, sobbed, begging her master not to do so. He felt kind of bad, until Mr Weasley led them back to the tent.
He lay looking up at the canvas, but no death eaters came to him now to ease him to sleep and Percy finally dozed off.