Percy Jackson and the Locket of Salazar [Book 6]

3) The Ripper-Tide Feels Conflicted About Fighting an Armchair

Dumbledore had given me the basic gist of what exactly we were doing that night, and I found it largely boring — I was there, I suspected, for two reasons. One was in case Harry was still upset with our Headmaster and I was a good buffer for his anger. The other was, on the chance we were to be attacked, it would be two powerful demigods opposed to one defending Harry. I suspected the latter, though I quite liked to say it was because Dumbledore just liked my company.

Largely confirming my suspicions of Dumbledore's wariness of attack, Dumbledore said easily, "Keep your wand at the ready, Harry."

"But I thought I'm not allowed to use magic outside school, sir?" Harry shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wand.

"If there is an attack, I give you permission to use any counter-jinx or curse that might occur to you. However, I do not think you need worry about being attacked tonight."

"Why not, sir?"

"You are with me," Dumbledore said. "This will do, boys."

He stopped quite abruptly, the three of us standing at the end of Privet Drive. I fiddled with the Deluminator, and watched as the light over our heads zoomed away.

"You have not, of course, passed your Apparition test?" Dumbledore voiced.

"No," Harry shook his head. "I thought you had to be seventeen."

"You do," Dumbledore said, holding out his arms either side of us, looking almost as if he were driving an invisible motorcycle. "So you will need to hold on to my arm very tightly. Percy, please do be gentle with my right arm, as you've noticed, it is quite fragile at the moment."

"Just like my mental state," I said, reaching for his upper arm to avoid any of the damage.

"Very good," Dumbledore said once he saw we were securely holding onto him. "Well, here we go."

Apparition is quite a horrible means of travel, in my humble opinion. I'd done it before, a few times, and not once had I enjoyed it. With a breathless lurch, my world disappeared around me, and for a few suffocating moments, all I could feel was tightness in my chest and the coarseness of Dumbledore's cloak. Then the world burst back into view, and I was standing again on pavement, this time in a different place.

"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked Harry as I pressed my hands against my ears — Apparition always made me feel as if I were deep under the ocean, the pressure shoving my eardrums into my skull. "The sensation does take some getting used to."

"I'm fine," Harry said, though he was quite pale. "But I think I might prefer brooms."

Dumbledore smiled keenly, and, beginning to walk, said, "This way." His pace, uncomfortably brisk, had us passing by houses at a speed a little too fast for my sore and aching body. I glanced at my watch, willing them to go a little faster so that dawn would break, but grimaced at the time; it was almost midnight.

"So, tell me, Harry," Dumbledore spoke into the quiet night air. "Your scar... has it been hurting at all?"

Harry, absently prodding at his scar, said, "No, and I've been wondering about that. I thought it would be burning all the time now Voldemort's getting so powerful again."

Dumbledore, satisfied by the lack of pain on Harry's end, picked up the pace just a little bit more, "I, on the other hand, thought otherwise. Lord Voldemort has finally realized the dangerous access to his thoughts and feelings you have been enjoying. It appears that he is now employing Occulmency against you."

"Well, I'm not complaining," Harry said, looking quite relieved to be away from the pain of his scar. As we turned a corner and passed a bus stop, he continued. "Professor?"