Demigods at Hogwarts 2 (Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince)

Chapter 16

Percy POV

We had been invited to the Weasley's house for Christmas. Thalia, Nico, and Hazel were going to visit the hunt and the camps over the short break, so it was just Annabeth and I.

The Christmas spirit permeated the house. Percy and I were helping Ron and Harry cut vegetables. I had some pretty impressive knife skills.

"Morning Percy, Annabeth, how are our wonderfully dangerous friends this morning."

"Feeling good. A chance of violence in the afternoon if a particular pair of twins want a duel."

"Sounds like a good forecast."

"So Ron, we heard, from a reliable source, that you have been seeing Miss Lavender Brown."

Ron blushed, and looked back at his carrots.

"Gits," he muttered.

"Are you going to confirm this? If you do we could give you some tips."

Ron turned around and threw his knife just as Mrs Weasley came in. Fred waved his want and turned it into a paper aeroplane. It wasn't a great throw, but it would have hit Fred if he hadn't defended himself.

"Ronald Weasley," Mrs Weasley scolded, her face reddening.

"Wanna go fight now Perce?"

"I have to finish the veggies."

Fred waved his wand, and Annabeth, and my knives started cutting on their own."

"Can't you help us?" Ron complained.

"It would help if you didn't throw knives at the people you want favours from."

I felt a bit bad leaving Harry and Ron to it, but I was bored of chopping and this was an excuse to get out. The Weasleys' back yard was big, and beyond the hedge there was even more distance. We made our way through the swamp until the grass was too high for us to see the house."

Fred passed Annabeth and I a lolly each. It wasn't blue, but looked good nonetheless. I ate it.

"Percy you idiot." Annabeth sighed at me.

I tripped over nothing, and almost hit my face on the ground. I got up again, and had just started brushing the dirt off when I fell over again. I rolled over and glared at Fred and George who burst into laughter. No point being angry, I joined in.

"Got you."

"Well and truly."

"I don't know how you manage to survive, Seaweed Brain."

"Well I wouldn't normally take candy from people, but Fred and George aren't necessarily their enemies. Probably should have predicted this though."

"You definitely should have."

"Can you let me get up now?"

Fred threw me a blue lolly and I ate it. Of course blue was the solution. It made my tongue cold, but that only lasted for a second. I got up, and gingerly walked over to Annabeth. I didn't trip.

"Like the new product? It makes you trip over, obviously. You can use it to trick annoying people."

"Should use that on the Stolls."

Annabeth laughed. That was one of my favourite noises ever, and I wished I could hear it more.

"Great product, not fun when it's used on you."

"Hurt at all."

"Not apart from falling over."

"Great."

"So you wanted a fight?" Annabeth challenged.

"Yeah. No one else wants to duel us, except Ron, who we don't want to fight."

"Ginny would want a fight."

"She doesn't trust us not to prank her. Anyway let's go."

"Wands only or are swords allowed?"

"Wands only."

"Wouldn't want to be disadvantaged now, would we?" Annabeth said sarcastically.

"Certainly not."

We lined up opposite the twins, facing them with our wands out. They didn't look particularly tense, and I suspected they were in this to see if we had got better, or just for the fun of it. Maybe they would try out more of one of their pranks.

Fred fired the first spell at me, it was nonverbal, so I didn't know what it was, but protego worked in defense. Annabeth fired the next. The adrenaline had started pumping, even though I wasn't in a dangerous fight. It was just a reaction at this point.

We exchanged more spells. They flew between us like colourful bullets. Fred and George were better at magic than us, but we were more experienced fighters, so we were not too unevenly matched.

Fred was about to fire a curse at me when Harry emerged from a bush.

"Vegetables are done, I watched you guys go this way. Thought I'd join in."

Ron came out of the bush behind him, his face the same colour as his hair.

Sorry the chapter was so short, I have been working on my other story. There are five chapters up now if you want to check it out: https://www.wattpad.com/story/246255164-the-eve-of-decision