A Magical Summer

Dinner

A/N Sorry for this 'filler' chapter- it was necessary to give some more background. The next chapter will have more 'action' in it.  I plan on having Percy be an 'older brother' figure to Harry. Enjoy ;D

Percy's POV

   Something was up with my cousins and their family. Sure, every family has its problems -I saw that first hand whenever I visited Olympus - but things just didn't add up. The 'nicknames' that they had for Harry set me on edge. Freak. Boy. They were eerily similar to some of my old nicknames. From Smelly Gabe or old bullies. I shook my head. These people weren't like that. They couldn't be.

   I followed Harry downstairs to go help with dinner. I knew that my mom would call me down to help anyways. Why didn't Dudley help? Maybe they took turns?

"What'd you need help with?" I asked Harry when we arrived into the kitchen. He looked a bit stressed and jumped when he realized I was there.

"I dunno. Pasta, you think?" I nodded my head in agreement. I thought he would be setting the table or something, not cooking the whole meal.

"I'll boil the pasta and make a salad. You start the sauce and grill the vegetable, okay?" I felt bad bossing him around, but I was hungry and we needed to start cooking.

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Harry's POV

   Cooking was almost fun when someone else was helping. Percy was a great cook, much than Aunt Petunia was. Sure I was pretty good, I had the experience, but what Percy was doing felt different.

"What'd you do to it?" I asked, pointing to the pasta and the sauce (that he didn't touch) which were almost chefs qualify,"It's like, well- magic." I hoped that my use of the 'm-word' didn't offend him. You never know, some people- cough(the Dursleys)cough- got offended over things like that. Percy just laughed.

"You should see my mom cook. I swear she's actually magic," he paused,"Well not actually," he amended with a slight smirk. I was surprised. It was like he knew someone one who could actually do magic. Like a wizard.

"I'm all done here, you?" I asked as the timer went off on the stove.

"Yeah let me just drain the water," Percy responded. He brought the pot over to the sink and started draining it. I was about to look away when I noticed Percy moved one of his hands and the water drained more quickly- almost evaporating. "Alright, ready to eat?" Percy asked as if the thing with the water was an everyday occurrence. 'Maybe it was,'a voice suggested in the back of my mind.

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   After we got the others and we all sat down with our plates of food, with Aunt Petunia deliberately gave me less than Dudley, I wasn't surprised when Uncle Vernon started asking my cousin personal questions, only that it took so long for him to start.
"Perseus what school do you go to? Any plans for the future?" Vernon asked gruffly. Percy looked at his parents uncomfortably before deciding to answer the question.

"Erm, for the last few years I've gone to Goode high-school, it's the private school that Paul works at," Percy was now blushing a crimson color that would make any Weasley proud, "I wouldn't have gotten in without him thanks to my track record," he was getting even more flustered as he tried to explain, while his mom and stepfather frowned but couldn't help him with his explanation.

"I got kicked out of what- eight schools I think," he continued, looking at his mum who nodded, "because weird things kept happening and I got blamed." I wondered how Percy managed to get kicked out of so many schools. Was that a magic thing? I would have to ask Sirius. Hopefully he could be more helpful with this.

"But your going to collage in California this coming year," Paul (or should I say Mr. Blofis?) said, in an obvious attempt to cheer Percy up,"You've done something right."

"Thanks, Dad," Percy said with a small smile. I noticed Paul's eyes were shinning. Didn't Percy use his first name earlier?

"What about you; Harry, Dudley?" Sally asked, effectively steering the attention safely away from her son - and onto Dudley and me.

"I go to Smeltings," Dudley stated proudly.

"One of the top boarding schools in the country," Aunt Petunia added.

"And what about you, Harry?" Sally asked kindly.

"St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys," Vernon answered for me swiftly. I scowled. Usually I wouldn't mind what my uncle said about me but I wanted to make a good first impression. I heard Percy snort.

"Why wasn't I sent there, Mom?" Percy asked through his laughter, "It would've made finding a boarding school a whole lot easier if they knew I was incurable." Both his parents and looked like they were going to laugh, but Sally managed to send him a scolding look.

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We finished eating without much more conversation. As I got up to go do the dishes, Percy followed me into the kitchen.

"I got it," Percy said frowning, as he grabbed the dishes, "What does Dudley help with?" He asked sharply.

I made a face. What did Dudley do? He didn't clean. He didn't cook. He didn't do the laundry. He didn't help with the garden. His grades in school made me look like a genius, and we didn't even take the same subjects.

"Dudley helps with... stuff... sometimes," I finally settled on saying. Percy was smartly unconvinced.

"Sure," Percy said sarcastically, "Can you tell me where these go?" He asked pointing to the clean plates which I was sure he had just started. I nodded and picked up the piles of plates and pans, ignoring the pain in my busted shoulder. I just shrugged it off and put the plates away. I remembered that I was planning on writing a letter to Sirius.

"You can go on and hangout outside with Dudley," I said with an apologetic look,"I have to write a letter. I'll catch up." Percy looked uncertain, but gave a hesitant nod and went to go tell his mum where he was going.