Demigods at Hogwarts | the rescue mission ✔

29| The Prefects' Bathrooms

Percy's POV

  By the start of January, I hated Golden Eggs. They were bulky, excessively shiny and way too impossible to crack.

"Percy," Hermione said to me one morning "You might want to try carrying the egg everywhere you go. Maybe you'll figure out something."

I rolled my eyes and walked away. What was the deal with this girl? She was younger than me, and yet she still seemed to think that she was superior, just because she got good grades. Still, I decided to listen to her advice---anything was worth a shot now.

That was what I was thinking when I walked to the Prefects bathroom, anyway.

Since we were 'exchange students', we had more privileges than other students, including being able to use the Prefects bathroom. And I'm telling you, the Prefects bathroom is great. It's way cleaner, and it has this hot tub full of steaming, bubbly water. Ahhhh.

The bathroom was empty when I entered. I breathed a sigh of relief---it would have been embarrassing if someone spotted me chugging a gigantic gold egg with me. Diving in the warm water, I felt my mind start to relax. Momentarily, I even forgot about Annabeth and Jason. Until I saw the golden egg, lying on the marble floor. And then I had an idea.

Was it worth a try?

  I glanced around, making sure that nobody was watching. Then I grabbed the egg, and submerged it in the water. A gurgling sound came out of it as I grinned in triumph. It was working! My heart beating, I slid back under the surface. I heard a chorus of creepy but melodic voices singing from the open egg:

  Come to seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground.
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss. An hour long you'll have to look, to recover what we took. But past an hour—the prospect's black. Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

I let myself float to the surface, my head still echoing. "We've taken what you'll sorely miss...come to seek us where our voices sound...who are you?" I mumbled to myself, my brain swimming with thoughts.

I sighed and looked up in desperation. "Hey, dad," I mumbled. "I know you're really busy, but could you give me a clue? This sounds like something to do with your realm...care to hel-"

My eyes landed on a stained glass window with a mermaid on it.

And then everything made sense.

And if my assumptions were correct...then the mermaids were the ones who had taken Jason and Annabeth! We've taken what you'll sorely miss, after all. This was just a trial, probably set up by Chiron. And then when I got them, we could return to Camp-Half-Blood. I nearly laughed in relief. And to think that my friends had been in mortal danger. After this next trial, I would rescue Annabeth and Jason from the mermaids and say goodbye to the wizarding world once and for all.

Laughing with relief and forgetting to put on my T-shirt, I bolted out of the bathroom.