The Half-Blood Princes {Book 2}

Slughorn

Nico

Percy groaned and doubled over when we landed. I had shadow traveled enough to get used to the feeling, but I did feel slightly dizzy. 

"I have changed your appearance like last year, however you should look relatively the same." Hecate explained. Percy stood upright. He looked slightly shorter. Annebeth looked slightly different in shape and Will was taller. Damit. He was already taller than me. 

"Looks like you to had a little growth spurt," Annabeth laughed at Will and I. I looked up at him. 

"How much taller am I?" I asked desperately. 

"Maybe," Percy fiddled with the gap between his fingers but gave up. "Hard to say. Although, you are taller. By a little." 

"Still short," I sighed. 

"Oh, don't worry Neeks," Will rested his arm on my shoulder like I was some kind of shoulder rest. "Short you is cute."

"Shut up," I murmured and they laughed. Hecate flashed a smile and led us inside the station. Waiting for us was Mrs Weasley. She welcomed us with a warm hug and a slight bow to Lady Hecate. It was nice to get a hug from her. It felt like something you'd expect to get from a mother. 

"Come on then, let's head back to the house." Mrs Weasley said. 

We followed her out, but Percy was stopped by Hecate. She whispered something to him and he waved at us. 

"I'll see you guys at The Burrow!" Then he and Hecate disappeared. 

----

Percy

Hecate said that Dumbledore needed me. So, she transported me to a secluded neighbourhood.

"Ah, Percy," I heard Dumbledore's voice say behind me. I turned and saw Harry and Dumbledore. Harry looked about as confused as I felt. "Glad you could join us." I turned back around to see that Hecate had disappeared. Now I was stuck. 

"Yeah, why are we here?" I asked. 

"I would like to visit an old friend of mine, and I wanted you two to accompany me." Dumbledore replied and walked passed me. Harry and I exchanged a confused glance and followed the old wizard to one of the houses. The door was slightly ajar. We walked in and Dumbledore lit his wand. The furniture was a mess. The chandelier in the lounge room was on the floor, the tiny glass shards scattered around it. The carpet on the stairs was torn and shredded. The couches flipped over on their sides. I looked up to the roof and saw a red stain that looked an awful lot like blood. But something was off. In the corner of the lounge room was a pink couch. It was completely unharmed, standing there, the candle light making it look slightly ominous. Dumbledore walked over to the couch and prodded it with his wand. 

It let out a yell. 

That was not what couches usually do. 

Then it started to grow and expand, but also shrink at the same time. Before I knew it, the couch had morphed into a man in his pyjamas. 

"That hurt Albus!" The man said, rubbing his stomach where I assumed he was prodded with the wand. 

"I apologise Horace, but I thought that maybe you were unaware that your house is a mess."

"Oh, this is isn't mine," Horace explained. "I found it. The muggles who lived here are on a holiday."

"Why did you mess it up then?" I asked, looking around at the mess and kicking a broken plate. 

"Because the death eaters have been trying to recruit me for a year, and you can only say no to them a certain amount of time," Horace whispered.

"Well, we should probably clean this place up," Dumbledore said with a wave of his wand. It was like everything was being reversed in time, the chandelier fixed itself and flew up to the ceiling. The couches reverted back to their right side. The ceiling was repaired and the plates flew across the room back into the cabinet. Everything was back to normal in seconds.