Percy Jackson and the Heir of Slytherin [Book 2]

33) Hope

When we got to the apartment, Luke had me packing everything I thought I'd need. I watched him fill his own bag.

The next night, he made some Mac and cheese. We watched Moana, and I ended up passing out on the couch, leaning against Luke.

I woke up in bed.

It was still dark. My clock read 2:27 AM. I was shaking. Tears were streaming down my face.

Normally when I had a nightmare, I would stumble off to Draco's room. When I tried to reason to myself that Draco would be asleep, Hogwarts woke him up and sent him to me.

Draco was not here.

The corners of my room seemed uncomfortably dark. I quickly stumbled over to the light switch, watching the shadows disappear. Then I sat back on my bed, staring blankly at the wall.

The tears continued to poor down my face, and I gripped my sheets tightly. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them, the picture filling my mind.

Justin falling limply, two large holes in his chest. He stared up at the sky with the same fear filled eyes as his petrified body.

"Percy?" A groggy voice came from my doorway.

I shot my head up, staring at Luke with wide eyes. He immediately walked over and wrapped his arms around me.

He didn't ask me what was wrong. He didn't ask me why I was crying. He just held me, and that was all I needed.

After a few minutes, Luke stood and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my room and into his. He laid down on his big bed with me, keeping me safe from the nightmare of before.

Justin would be okay. He was petrified, not dead. A potion would cure him at the end of the year, and all would be fine.

I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up on Christmas Day to the smell of bacon. I sat up groggily, wondering where I was for a moment. Then I remembered. I had a nightmare. I was in Luke's bed.

I climbed out from beneath his covers and walked towards the kitchen, where Luke was just finishing making breakfast. "Merry Christmas, Perce."

"A bad Christmas to you, Luke," I said, sitting at the table.

Luke had been about to put a plate of food in front of me, but he immediately narrowed his eyes and pulled it away.

I immediately pouted and reached for the plate, whining, "nooooo."

Luke grabbed a piece of bacon off of my plate and ate it. I pounced.

Luke leapt backwards, carefully balancing the plate. I ran at him, and he sidestepped. We ran around the house for a bit.

Sadly, I just barely ran into the table and fell. Luke stopped running immediately, putting the plate on the table and pulling me up. We just grinned at each-other.

When I finished eating my food, Luke said, "Presents are under the tree. Let's go rip em open."

I nodded and ran to the living room, listening to Luke chuckle behind me. I sat on the floor and grabbed a present that I recognized to be for me.

It was from Hagrid. Some fudge that I had Luke put in the microwave for me. From Hermione I got a pen that was identical to Riptide. Mrs. Weasley got me a sweater identical to the one she got me last year. I happily pulled it over my head. Ron got me a new chess set (he had broken mine when I beat him). Harry got me some blue candy. Luke had gotten me some new art supplies. I had gotten him a book on swordplay. He said he wanted to learn some new tricks.

Eventually, we got dressed. I wore the black sweater with the sea-green P on it. It was comfy and warm. I loved it. I had the rest of my things shoved into my bag, and we walked out of the house and to Luke's car.

"Are we there yet?" I asked.

"No," Luke said, eyes narrowing.

"Are we there yet?"

"Still no," Luke said, wearing the I-would-be-throwing-something-at-you-if-I-wasn't-driving look.

"Are we there yet?"

Luke glared at me, and I grinned, but didn't say anything else.

Until five minutes had passed.

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes."

I straightened in surprise. I looked up and saw we were driving up a concrete road, heading towards large house. I gaped at Luke while he grinned.

"This," he said, "is the Edwards home. It's huge. Even with all of the kids, they still have guest rooms. Hope inherited it from their parents, so they still live here, but without much income the money that their parents didn't lose is running thin."

I nodded, gaping up at the house in front of me.

Luke parked the car and got out, so I did the same. He grabbed his bag and I followed him to the door. He knocked.

Immediately, a woman I recognized opened the door. She smiled brightly at Luke, then looked down at me with surprise.

"Oh! What a coincidence! I guess you're Percy, then," she smiled. I grinned at the woman. She had come into the little bakery I worked in over the summer. The twins must have been her siblings, Hayden and Holly.

"You must be Hope. It's nice to finally know your name," I grinned, sticking my hand out for her to shake.

"It is!" Hope took my hand and shook it.

Luke looked confused. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah. She used to come into the bakery," I said, smiling still.

Luke nodded and Hope said, "Come inside! The kids have been excited to meet you. Apparently, you're quite famous at Hogwarts."

I just figured out my schedule for the school year. I have eight classes, but apparently, most other people just have seven. I'm taking all AP core classes, save for Civics/Health and Wellness. I also get to take art, Spanish, and survey of business. I think I also have a study hall period, though it's called study center, and I don't know how I got it, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Also, I've been doing some weird thing for the past couple of hours because I've been bored. I used a generator to get a random word, then made a dramatic quote out of it. It got weird when I got cart and just put, 'mmmMmmMM, cabbage cart.' It's the cart from Avatar.

I hope you guys have an extraordinary Friday, and I will see you on Sunday.