Fragments of the Sea

Dreaded Dreams

"By the way," she started, "I'm Perci. It was nice meeting you, Draco." She spun and walked out with a wink.

Perci mouth opened in a silent laugh. His face. And of course she knew his name! Hecate had briefed her on everything wizard, including the names of all the pureblood families and their statuses. Such as the Weasleys with their many children and love of muggles; the Blacks, with their messed up family and tradition of naming their children after constellations. She quite liked the idea, and she rather enjoyed 'Andromedra' as a choice.

In any case, that had lead Hecate to talk about the Malfoys, possibly the most important, proudly pureblood family out there. Narcissa Malfoy née Black had married into the line, bringing with her both the possibility for a pureblood heir and her families custom of naming children, resulting in Draco Malfoy. 

From what Perci had heard around school, he was a rude, snarky, prejeduced Slytherin who fought for the 'Dark Lord' in the last war. But after meeting him...well, he didn't really fit the picture. After years of reading people, Perci knew the tell-tale signs of when someone was lying, or pretending. And Draco was definitely faking. He said some rude stuff, but under the hard shell, Perci bet he was a huge softie. 

The way he acted also reminded Percy of some of the demigods back home, setting off a signal in her brain. From her experiences with Gabe, he probably had some sort of abuse going on at home. Perci had gotten rid of Gabe quickly, but if it was one of his parents forcing him to act like a perfect pureblood, then that meant it had been going on until recently. Her guess was about 7, 8, and seeing how concerned Draco was about his mother when she had watched his trial(curtesy of Hecate's Mist screen), it was his father causing all the commotion. 

Oh, Perci would love to go to Azkaban and give that man a piece of her mind, but apparently she was the only one who saw the situation. On top of that, because of his father's influence on his life, Draco had no one to depend on, proved by the way his housemates acted at breakfast, and every meal since. He was so stunned when Perci smiled at him, or acted naturally- it made her want to give him a big hug. Everyone here had probably gone through so much with the war, but he had to deal with being forced onto the losing side, and blamed for all the casualties.

It was a heavy burden to bear, and Perci knew that better than anyone else. That's one reason why she'd come over to him during potions. She really was good by the way. Hecate had told her she was a natural at magic, but potions and flying(both Apollo and Zeus had lifted their old curses on children of Poseidon after the Giant War, so she could fly and control water molecules better, as well as shoot a bow) were some of her specialties. 

When Hecate was helping her learn how to fake an accent, Perci also discovered she had an apptitude for languages and speech. Ancient Greek and English were easy, and Latin and Modern Greek quickly followed. It also helped that she had to freshen up on her Latin when she learned Ancient Runes, and the spells, as most of them were based of Latin roots. L-Leo...Leo had taught her some Spanish, and the others had showed her three different types of French. Nico taught her Italian, and they frequently spoke in the language, which also helped with Latin as it was the closest to the dead tongue out of all the romance languages.

She'd polished up on all of them, and learned German, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, and more, as she picked up a few words. Athena had begrudgingly blessed her, so it was easier to read more books, as they didn't have to be from camp for the Ancient Greek translation. Perci found that she quite enjoyed reading, and was even more delighted to find that being so lingual had perks in the book world as well.

No matter about that for now though- Perci had just returned from the Great Hall, and was getting ready for lights out. Even her pajamas were ready for action. Dark teal shorts, that were still breathable, and a nice(by Perci's standards) shirt covered up with an oversized, sea-green hoodie with her last name printed on the back beneath SPQR in blocky text. 

The calligraphy had been custom, obviously, after Perci finished up college- by cramming all 4 years of knowledge(which was admittedly, not too much due to her choice in degree, many late nights, and already extensive knowledge in the subject) into her brain within the few months she chose to stay in New Rome. She still got headaches from thinking about it. A trident was added over her heart, and a faded grey owl design lay right beneath it. Perci swallowed and looked away sadly, afraid to get too emotional. Even after months of hard work and studying to block it out, Perci's mind still wandered to Annabeth. 

Annabeth Chase. Her Wise Girl. The one she had loved with all her heart. The one she had fallen into Tartarus for. The one she'd taken beating after beating for. Double, triple, to save her the pain of watching; holding in screams to keep her sane. The one she'd mourned for, cried for, begged to come back, to hold on after her heart was so mercillessly torn out of her chest cavity, dark blood dripping down every inch of her body. The one whose lips she'd kissed one last time, the metallic taste like poison to her as she felt the warmth fade. The one who haunted her nightmares every night. But not only her. Everyone Perci had failed over the years came back to taunt her when she slept, now matter how few hours she got. Perci had trained herself to contain her screams through Tartarus' dream torment,  learned not to beg for her friends not to leave her(at least, out loud). 

Her mind replayed the constant 

             crack crack crack 

of bones under her feet, blood pooling around her toes and spots of red appearing where Perci's nails punctured her hand, going 

             drip drip drip

History repeated itself every night in her imagination, filled with thoughts of death and gore- friends and family. In the midst of the hours of darkness, time would always

             rewind rewind rewind

Screams surrounding her, demigod's desperate cries choking her, as she felt all their tears falling into a pattern previously mapped by her veins. It was all so much, too much, she was

             drowning drowning...drowned.

What a joke, right? The daughter of the sea, drowned in the tears of her loved ones- how absolutely godsdamn hilarious. Gaea would've been delighted with what her husband had done to Perci, though. Y'know, if she hadn't been obliterated and rendered unable to reform.

The tear tracks that stained her face and the wounds that marred her body in the morning were the only physical evidence, aside from her bloody sheets. Luckily, she woke up hours early, and had magic on her side. Technically, she'd turned 17 in August, meaning in the wizard world, she was an adult. And a year younger than everyone else in 8th year, but she was also considered an exchange student, and it was mostly review. That was a relief; Perci's tired brain could use a break.

Probably not best to go to sleep thinking about this, and torture herself further. 'Wait...Torture herself? Na, that's his job,' Perci thought morbidly. Maybe she should think about the fact that she was placed in the Slytherin house, but was dumped in a group with the most patient, fair, hard-working, blandly nice people in the school. It was weird to think that she would've been with the so-called 'bullies' of the school, but instead found herself making friends with the pushovers and victims.

Perci wondered if she would've been friends with that boy...She thought his name was Draco. Strange, he certainly didn't look like a dragon- more like a lonely Slytherin snake. Quick, and cunning and sly. But also protective and avaricious sometimes, though the latter could be cause of his pureblood upbringing. Yeah, that's a nice(not really), safe topic before dreams...or nightmares...Perci yawned and tugged her blankets farther up her body. 'Safe...safe and warm...'

A soft, delicate smile found itself on the girl's face, making her absolutely adorable to outside viewers as she cuddled deeper into the toasty sheets.

'Warm...like love...'

Cheesy! Yeah, sorry 'bout that. But overall, I am liking this story more than my other one. I did break up Romione in the last chapter btw. It just makes it easier for Hermione to find herself distanced from her friends, so that she can fit into my plans for her. Muwahaha!

~DarkCooki3