Saving Harry ⚯͛ ♆ Demigods in Hogwarts

Piper Punches Her Zombie Friend

Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to be, they belong to J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.

This chapter is pre TOA of my version of Leo's arrival.

2017 note: why was my writing so bad?? Eh, too lazy to fix it. The first 5 chapters are very cringe-worthy.

"What's that? Is that- is that Festus?" Piper shouted as she glanced up at the brilliant blue sky.

"No, no it can't be!" Jason said as he shifted out of his slumped position to follow his girlfriend's gaze. "Hazel and Nico told us that Leo died! They felt it!"

"But then what's that golden thing up there?" she asked him as though he knew the answer.

"I dunno, but we should get Annabeth and Percy. Maybe they will know something we don't." It was a small chance they did, but Jason was having a hard time fully accepting that Leo Valdez had perished.

"Okay, I'll go left, you go right?" Piper suggested. Jason nodded in agreement. And so off they dashed, away from their previous spot in the strawberry field. Piper ran over near the stables and looked for the blond head of Amnabeths or the inky blackness or Percy's, Hazel and Frank and the rest of the Romans left the previous day. She saw that some of the campers started to notice the flying object in the sky.

"It's a bird!"

"It's a plane!" (It's a frog! It's UNDERDOG! Okay sorry, I just really needed to add this in.) But there was still no sign of any of her friends, so Piper kept moving. Eventually, she reached the armory.

She flung the door open and shouted, "Has anyone seen Percy or Annnabeth?" Everyone swiveled around in surprise and then gave her negative replies. She moaned and then said, "If anyone sees them, tell me! We think we see Festus!"

"WHAT?" a male voice from behind shouted. Piper jumped a mile in the air and turned around. The speaker was none other than Percy. "Festus is here? Where?" He scanned the sky and spotted the great bronze figure. Annabeth gasped as she saw it too.

"But he's dead!" she exclaimed, "Nico and Hazel felt it! As much as I want him to be alive, it's just not possible! There's no way he survived that fire! And even if he did, he obviously wouldn't have been anywhere around here because it's been over a week! I'm-" she was cut off by Percy.

"Annabeth, that really does look like Festus. He's getting lower. There are two people on his back." Piper squinted where Percy was looking. Sure enough, there were definitely two figures of Festus's back, and by the looks of one, the second figure was a female, but Piper couldn't be sure yet.

"No way," Piper muttered to herself. "When he gets down here, he's dead," she added a little louder this time.

"So he comes back from the dead and the first thing you're going to do is kill him?" Percy asked her with a hint of humor.

"Shut up," she replied. Percy opened his mouth and looked like he was about to say something back, but thought the better of it. He snapped his mouth closed again, and Piper didn't even need to use Charmspeak. She stared at the sky again where Festus was circling slowly, lower and lower like a hawk, looking for a good place to land.

"Yeah, that's definitely Leo," said Annabeth, "but how?"

Ten minutes later, Festus the dragon landed in the middle of camp. All of the campers gathered around it and watched Leo stand up.

"WHOO!" he shouted, "WHO'S YOUR SUSPER-SIZDED MCSHIZZLE NOW BABY?" Annabeth sighed disapprovingly at his shouts and ran forward to see him. Percy quickly followed suit, but Piper strayed behind. She watched as the crowd fluttered around him like birds on a field. She was having trouble processing that Leo was back, that he wasn't dead. Piper watched as he hopped down off of Festus. The crowd dispersed for him while Jason, who had arrived while Festus was still airborne, Percy, and Annabeth came forward and hugged him, nearly knocking him over.