Another War

Chapter 4 : Something's Off

The Irish team flew into the Stadium, their mascot (a lepricon) throwing galleons into the crowd while Ludo Bagman was announcing each player, who did a back-flip on their broom when their name was called. Ron Weasley was gathering a bunch of galleons and thrusting it into his coin pouch. The poor lad probably didn't even know that the gold was disappear in an hour.

Out of the corner of Percy's eye, he saw Lucius smirking as he watched the young Weasley scramble for gold, his chin raised in superiority. Percy was one secoond away from giving Lucius a verbal bashing, not caring about his political influence (at the moment), but Weasley opened his mouth.

"What? You bastards are so bloody rich that you look down at us for gathering gold?" Ron spat, glaring at Percy's group.

Percy's eyebrows raised on his forehead. He no longer felt the need to defend Weasley from Lucius. Why should he extend his help to someone that insulted him without even knowing what he was going to do?

Between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, Percy was wise in the decision of remaining neutral.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, shooting Percy an apologizing look.

"Mind who you're talking to, Weasley, and remember your place," Draco drawled, his eyes alight with anger.

Once again, the party quieted down as Veela dancers entered onto the field and the Bulgarian Quidditch team flew into the Stadium in a "V" formation, Viktor Krum leading the team. Cheers rose up for the team, but died out quickly as the Veelas began their rutien, most of the male population leaning forward in their seats.

Percy looked down quickly, not wanting to be drooling like an idiot, as Ron was doing, ensnared in the Veela allure. Percy deemed it safe to look up when everyone relaxed in their seats and Ron wiped the drool off of his face.

The rest of the Quidditch game was otherwise boring, our Greek boys fidgeting relentlessly in their seats. It was after the game (Krum caught the snitch, but Ireland won) when things got better.

The Ireland and Bulgarian teams stopped by the top box, which was the whole reason why being in the top box was a total score in the Wizarding World. You would think that Percy would get jealous over the fact that Krum was flirting with Nico, but he didn't, adding to the god's confusion.

Usually, when you like someone, you didn't want them to like anyone else but you, which caused jealousy when flirty glances were exchanged between your crush and someone else. Percy had come to terms with the fact that he, all of a sudden, liked Nico; but some things didn't add up.

As the god of loyalty, he remained just that, loyal. He physically couldn't cheat on anyone, and he couldn't feel attracted to anyone else than the person he was first attracted to without breaking off his relationship with them. Percy knew that he apparently wanted Nico, so why was he attracted to Draco too? If Percy didn't know any better, he would say that he had been slipped a love potion- a love potion caused artificial attraction to someone, making it possible for the person to actually like someone else, depending on how strong the potion is -but he hadn't drunk anything without double checking if it was messed with (with the spell Revelio). Call it paranoia or wise, that was up to you.

Percy glanced at the subject of his thoughts, who was talking to Hermione. As if he felt Percy's glance, Nico's eyes fleeted to Percy a split second after, the two connecting gazes awkwardly before looking away.

"Would you like to come to our tent, Mr. Olympas?" Lucius asked, not as cold now that the Weasleys were some distance away. "Mr. Di Angelo is free to join us."

Percy nodded, quickly going to Nico to tell him that he was going with the Malfoys. Nico's eyes darkened and he threw a glare at the angelic Malfoy, who took note of Nico's possesiveness and could help but feel smug. Percy chose to come with him instead of the dark eyed boy. Draco knew, off the bat, that Nico would go with the Weasleys when he started talking to Granger.

"Why are you going with the Weasleys anyway? I thought you didn't like them," Percy said, not liking the glare Nico threw at Draco, feeling oddly protective of the young Malfoy.

"I didn't like Amos and Ron, everyone else isn't so bad. Plus, this could be our chance to get close to Harry. Are you sure that you want to go with the Malfoys?"

Percy couldn't help but notice that both Amos and Ron were louder in their amusement when Nico decided to go butterfly hunting, but Percy wisely kept his mouth shut on that thought.

"I'm sure. I'll catch up with Harry when we go to Hogwarts."

Nico nodded, scowling to himself at the thought of Percy and Draco getting close and cozy. He wasn't blind. He saw the adoration in Percy's eyes when he first saw Draco, he saw the way his spine straightened when he had glared at Draco. But, he also saw the way Percy's eyes would linger on his lips, the way Percy would check him out when he thought he wasn't looking. Only, Nico didn't know whether Percy liked him, or just wanted a one night stand. One thing was for sure, though: Percy had never looked at him the way he first looked at Draco. Adoring, admiring, tender. He only saw lust and hints of attraction when Percy looked at him, making Nico feel very put off and frustrated.

Tears stared to well up in Nico's eyes as he watched Percy walk away from him. Was he not good enough? What was he missing? What was so wrong with him?

Nico forced his tears down and swallowed the lump in his throat. He refused to be brought to a blubbering, crying mess just because someone didn't like him the way he wanted them to. Instead, he accepted the fact that Percy wanted his body, not his mind, not his heart. Not the delicate, bearly beating heart that he unknowingly held in his hands. But, something was better than nothing; so, he would give Percy exactly what he wanted.

What Nico didn't know, was that once he and Percy did the deed, the attraction planted in Percy would dissolve.

Aphrodite didn't believe in one-night-stands. She was the goddess of love, not lust. She believed that people had sex because they were falling in love, or in love, not labeling one-night-stands as something as simple as lust.

She never thought of what would happen if Percy confused affection for lust, because lust wasn't her domain. If Nico had sex with Percy before Percy truely fell in love with him, then there is little to no guarantee that he would stick around long enough to see if he still liked the demigod. After the affection wears off, the god will notice the change in his emotions, and he will realize that he had been tricked; and guess who he will first blame, because it won't be Aphrodite.

It will be Nico.