A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Percy's Point of View

Lily woke us up the following morning. And considering that neither of us were awake yet, said a lot for the amount of sleep we still needed after hours of tossing and turning last night as we worried about Camp and Grover. I muttered under my breath about meddling mothers and decent hours of the morning. Annabeth kicked us for that, giving us the "you-should-have-been-up-a-while-ago-and-you-know-it" look we'd grown so used to last summer on our quest. I pouted, and Harry let out a long suffering sigh, but at Annabeth's glare we apologised to Lily, who nodded and offered Annabeth and Luna a small smile before disappearing back downstairs while we got changed.

Breakfast was... tense. I swear, you could practically cut the tension with a knife. Of course, the reason for that was probably Annabeth and Luna taking their seat before us, so the only seat available was across from Lily. Dad tried to keep the conversation going, and we did talk. Just, also deliberately didn't talk to Lily. Charles rolled his eyes at us, but didn't interfere. Dad ignored it, and Annabeth and Luna kicked us every now and then.

After breakfast, our friends made sure to corner us.

"Harry James and Perseus Potter! You are not going to camp without having made up with your mother first! Of all the demigods at camp you actually have two parents you care about you. We'll be damned if we see you ruin that!" Annabeth hissed.

Harry narrowed our eyes, and opened our mouth to snap back.

'Harry,' I hit him mentally, 'stop it. You know about their step-mum.'

Harry shut our mouth and scowled. 'But it's still our life.'

'And they're just advising us on how not to mess it up!' I exclaimed.

Our friends' eyes softened. "Go talk to her. Please?"

We sighed, but nodded.

Lily was in the library when we tracked her down. We knocked lightly before pushing in. Lily's surprised green eyes met ours as she looked up from her book.

"Harry, Percy..." Lily sighed, "I owe you an apology. I over reacted at Hogwarts. I shouldn't have separated you from your friends. Not everyone is a carbon copy of their parents."

Her eyes were sad as she looked at us, and we wondered just how much our godly heritage was apparent. We were definitely James' son, but we were more than that, too. Not like Charles.

"Just... we aren't accustomed to people interfering with our affairs." Harry attempted to explain. "We need to breathe, you know? It's just... you weren't there for years. And now you're just trying to completely control our lives. It's just not... We don't like it."

We looked at our feet, unable to explain it. It was like she was trying to be a mother to us, far too soon. It wasn't that we didn't appreciate it, but after years of self-reliance we weren't accustomed to other people taking the reins.

Lily nodded, and she promised to try and lay off. We nodded. I wanted to hug her, but... Harry wasn't ready for that. And as good as a brother as he was, always looking out for what I wanted, I wanted to wait for him this time.

"We'll try and not get involved in any more plots involving giant snakes then." I attempted humour. Harry hit me, and Lily gave me a despairing look.

"You brought that giant snake home with you!"

We glanced down at Alyssa, still wrapped around our neck, hissing in delight at the warmth she found there. She looked at us through eyes hazy with sleep.