A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Percy's point of view

It was announced, the day following our retrieval of the first year Hufflepuff that the mandrakes were only about a week off harvest. The potion itself to un-petrify our fellow students wouldn't take long to brew - maybe a few hours at most. Harry and I - needless to say - were delighted at the news. We had quickly hurried to the medical wing to tell Luna and Annabeth, as soon as the breakfast was over.

Before we could reach Annabeth and Luna however, a small voice called out a greeting to us.

"Hello, Harry and Percy."

Tyson Jackson gazed at us from his bed, his eyes wide with... admiration? Adoration? I'm not quite sure what, but he looked much, much younger than a first year with his wide eyes and round face. I flashed him a lazy grin, side-tracking from our mission to see the big first year whom we had saved from the Forbidden Forest yesterday.

"Hey there, Tyson. You still here?" I pulled a face, careful to keep our back to Pomfrey's office as I did so. Being such a frequent visitor here, we didn't want the fiery Mediwitch mad at us.

"Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep us in for the night, 'just to be safe'." Tyson explained, his eyes darkening with his upset at the situation. "I told her I was fine, but she didn't believe me."

"Just her job, we guess. Nobody particularly likes being bed-bound in the hospital wing, but we daresay she's saved some lives by doing so." We admitted. We had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Mediwitch, we guessed. We respected her, not only as our senior, but also as a talented Mediwitch. We were also - obviously highly grateful to her for treating our various (and numerous) injures. However, we rarely ever expressed this to her, because she was constantly shoving us into her hospital-wing beds and keeping us there for what we considered an incredibly long amount of time.

"Yes, well." We heard Madam Pomfrey's no non-sense voice behind us. "It's nice to hear people admit that every now and again."

We turned around, beaming at the school's Mediwitch. "We never admit it, but everyone knows Hogwarts would be lost without you."

Madam Pomfrey's lips twitched upwards in a small smile, but didn't speak anymore on the topic. Instead she gently pushed past us to check on her newest patient, checking his temperature and vitals.

"Well, you're all clear I suppose." Madam Pomfrey sighed. "If I release you, you won't go running back into the woods, will you?"

Tyson shook his head ferociously, his eyes wide as he thought of the forbidden forest. "No, no, no! The mean pony-men and spiders are there! And the pretty ponies didn't even like me..."

We hid a laugh, ducking our head at the way our younger friend phased his sentence. Luckily, Tyson didn't notice.

'Hey Harry...' I asked, uncertain. 'Is it me, or does Tyson's quality of speech slip when he's emotional?'

Harry pondered over it for a minute. 'Maybe. It's a little hard to tell but... you may be right. Given half the time we've talked to Tyson have been in emotionally stressing situations, it's not exactly as if we have enough proof to really call that a conclusion.'

'Still.' I sighed. 'He's a strange boy.'

I glanced at Tyson's face, but I couldn't quite seem to look beyond his slightly crooked teeth. His slightly shabby second-hand uniform was handing off the picture rail above Tyson's head, the new tears from his nightly trample through the Forbidden Forest easy to pick out from the carefully stitched up old ones.