A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Percy's Point of View

The train journey was hilarious to say the least. Leo was definitely a son of Hephaestus. He took great pleasure in tinkering with the scrap bits of metal he had on him, creating little windup toys, helicopters that would actually fly a small way, alarms, small figures… anything really. He cracked jokes all the while.

We did have some rather serious conversations as well. Such as why we were in such a rush to get back to New York, or why Leo wasn't with his parents…

"So you're telling me, that we fell from the Gateway Arch, into the river below and you had a lightning bolt in your bag. Dude, haven't you ever learned physics? Electricity and water are a massive no-no!" Leo exclaimed, looking positively horrified.

I laughed at him, asking innocently; "What's physics?"

Leo groaned and banged his head against the window, sending Annabeth and Luna a pleading look. "They're going to kill themselves, aren't they?"

"Anyway," Harry carried on. "We're trying to return the bolt to my Uncle, because otherwise he's threatened to kill both our family and us if we don't by midnight tonight."

"So yeah. We have a bit of a deadline." Grover nodded.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Death threats. Love them!"

We sat in silence for a few moments, then Leo spoke up again. "Harry, Percy, why were you hissing when you were fighting the giant Chihuahua? Like, is that some weird ritual or something?"

'Hades!' I cursed. 'He noticed us.'

Harry rolled his eyes as I pouted. 'Yes, it appears he did. But does that matter here? They don't have the same prejudices about it being the mark of an evil wizard, do they?'

'I guess…'

"We… we weren't hissing." We admitted, scratching the back of our neck. "We were talking to its snakey tail. See, our heritage from our mortal side of our family isn't exactly normal either. Our parents are magical. So… yeah. We inherited a rare gift of Parseltongue – snake speak."

Leo, who had heard weirder things today, didn't even raise an eyebrow. Annabeth and Luna did, however. They hit us on the shoulder. Hard.

"Ow! What the Hades, guys?"

"You have this other amazing gift and you then fail to mention it to us? Thanks a lot, mate!" Annabeth pouted at us. We winced.

"Well… We explained to you two the strange prejudices in the Wizarding World, right? With blood-purity and Light and Dark Magic? Well Parseltongue is considered Dark Magic, so we don't exactly go around advertising the fact we're a Parselmouth." I explained. "Habits are hard to break, I guess."

Grover, noticing how uncomfortable we looked, abruptly changed the subject. "So Leo… What are you doing all along? No offence, but you smell like you haven't bathed in quite a while."

Now it was Leo's turn to wince. "Um… Well. My mom died in a fire when I was eight. My Aunt Rosa prevented my other family from taking me in so I was put in foster care. This is my third time that I've run away."

I pulled the upset boy in for a hug. I'd say he must be about ten or eleven, younger than us, anyway. To have run away that many time already though… We hugged him tighter.

'We're going to make him a new home.' I swore to Harry. 'At Camp Half-Blood. That way he'll have somewhere to run away to not from if he gets put in care again.'