Secrets of Hogwarts and the Slytherin Prince

HOSPITAL WING

Classes were fun, with Percy's new, charmed necklace. When he wasn't spouting out answers to screw with Annabeth, he was vigorously writing down facts. His notes were so messy, they might as well have been in Latin.

Annabeth was getting annoyed with him, and after class she dragged him into the passageways. He smiled at her and tried to act clueless. "What are you doing, Percy?"

"I'm just answering questions." He grinned.

She glared at him, eyes flitting down his frame. They locked on his necklace.

'That's new...'

Next thing he knew, his head was clear and the necklace was in her hand. "You've been cheating, haven't you!?" She snapped. "This thing's charmed..." Annabeth looked up at him in disbelief. Her eyes flitted over his shoulder and widened. "Percy!"

He tried to turn, but something hard hit him in the head. He grunted and dropped to his hands and knees, holding his head in his hands, forehead on the ground. "Ah..!"

"Stay away from me!" Percy looked up to see a blonde figure advancing on Annabeth, who had put her back to the wall. "Confundo!"

Her voice shook so horribly that the spell missed, and ricocheted off the wall. "Get away from her!" Percy tried to yell, getting to his feet.

The figure turned, and the vomit Percy had been holding back threatened to escape. It didn't look like... Well, a human. It looked like a spell had gone seriously wrong. Percy stepped towards him, and his foot splashed in something.

He looked down. Water was trickling into the passage. They shot a confundous charm at him and Percy had to drop to avoid it, into the small stream flowing through the passage. Strength flowed through him. He looked up, at Luke, seeing right through the spell casted on the older boys face. He smirked.

Annabeth gasped, as Percy threw his arm up. Water surged up in a column and shot at Luke's face. His eyes widened, and he dived at the last second and the water wrapped around him, taking the shape of a humongous snake.

It began to constrict and suffocate him, wrapping around him like a cocoon. He was fully submerged and the water trickling into the passage was adding to the viper. Annabeth looked mortified.

Percy's attention was on Luke, on the boy who had nearly stolen his friend from him. If Annabeth hadn't maneuvered to his side and begged him to stop, he gladly would have let Luke suffocate.

"Please, Percy, stop! You'll suffocate him!" She sounded terrified. That's the only sound that made it through to his mind. The terror in her voice. It cut right through the dark thoughts swimming in his mind.

The water splashed to the ground. Percy turned to Annabeth, blocking her from the water as it rushed around them. It was almost as if he'd made the water double, or triple. Annabeth clung to his shoulders until the water had settled and dispersed among the passages. Percy stood up, pulling Annabeth with him. Luke lay on the stone floor, seemingly unconscious, the spell erased from his skin.

Annabeth gasped. "It was-"

"Obliviate!" A voice shouted. Annabeth fell forward. Percy caught her, falling with her to the ground.

He looked up to where the voice had come from, to see a man in a beige turban step out of the shafiws, wand raised. Professor Quirrel gave him a slick smile. "Hello, Mr. Jackson. Obliviate!"

***

Percy woke up in the Hospital Wing a week later, having no idea what happened.

It was night. Moonlight filtered in through the windows overhead. He wasn't alone. Professors were gathered in the Hospital Wing a few beds over. Percy reached up to touch the sapphire on his necklace, but the chain was gone. He sat up abruptly, looking around frantically.

"Here." He froze at the kind, rumbled old voice. His eyes flitted up to see Albus Dumbledore in all his glory-long white beard, long white hair, kind eyes with wrinkles around the corners. He was holding Percy's necklace in his hand. Percy took it, frowning.

"Thanks."

"Of course. That was your mothers, yes? You got it for Christmas?"

"Yeah." Percy nodded, putting it back around his neck.

"I trust you'll use it... Properly?" Dumbledore said with a slightly mischievous smile. Percy nodded wordlessly. He smiled before standing to leave.

"Wait, Professor-" Percy hesitated. Dumbledore turned to him.

"Yes?"

"What happened?" Percy frowned. "Last I remember, Annabeth was talking to me after class with Professor McGonagall..."

Dumbledore smiled and sat down again. The other professors still hadn't noticed he was awake. "You and Annabeth discovered some passages that I had long forgotten. I thought they had been sealed, but I was proven wrong. They are dangerous, and students who have ventured inside have not returned. It's amazing you were able to get Annabeth and yourself out in your condition. You saved her life."

Percy frowned, following Dumbledore's pointing finger. The professors moved to reveal Annabeth. She was pale and sickly.

"Annabeth!" Percy shot to his feet. The professors moved out of the way as he reached her bed, leaning over her. "Annabeth...?"

"She's unresponsive, Perseus." Said Madame Pomfrey. "She's alright, just sleeping. You need to lay back down and rest."

She tried pulling him, but he didn't budge. "No, no, I-I can't." He shook his head. "Is she okay?"

"She will be alright, Percy." Professor McGonagall said, a hand on his shoulder. "Come on. Like Madame Pomfrey said, you need too-"

"Where is she!?" They all turned to see Luke burst through the doors of the Hospital Wing.

"Mr. Castellan. It'll do you well not to barge into places unannounced. Not to mention-it's past curfew." McGonagall scolded him. "Ten points from Gryffindor."

"Sorry, Professor, but I was worried about Annabeth-"

"It took you a week to find out she was here?" Snape drawled.

"I-uh-"

"Percy?" Percy's head snapped to Annabeth at the whisper of his name. Her eyes were still closed. She hadn't moved. "Sir, I'm down here."

He looked down to see the little House Elf from the Slytherin common room. He knelt down. "Emmi?"

She gave him a timid smile, before holding out her hand. "Here."

"What is it?" He opened his hand for her to drop a small object into his palm. It was a tiny straw doll.

"It's me." She smiled a little wider when his face lit up. "Sorry. It is a doll I made, of me, so you remember me." She smiled.

Percy chuckled. "Thank you."

She snapped her fingers and disappeared. Percy stood up straight, holding the little doll in his hand as he looked up to the professors.

McGonagall was pulling Luke by the arm out of the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey huffed, before pulling Percy to his own hospital bed, laying him down and pulling the blankets up to his shoulder. "It'll do you good to sleep."