They're What?!

Prowling Percy and Practicing Pupils

Third Person POV

The Great Hall was full of the sounds of weapons crashing and teenagers grunting, yelling, and groaning.

One on one sparring matches were spread out across the room. Most were students, but one was two much smoother moving teens spinning back and forth as they lashed at each other. Another two commentated loudly, explaining to the students how the moves corresponded to each other and what actions would be best in response.

And in the middle of it all stood Percy Jackson.

He was on a small raised platform, eyes scanning the room. The rest of the demigods who weren't fighting stood around his podium. Every once in a while he'd crouch and send a demigod in some direction.

He looked completely at home there, his sword at his hip and those green eyes matching the dark surface of the lake outside. Every movement he made, every word he said, was weighed and calculated. He acted as if he knew what he was doing carried significance, and his attitude would affect those of the people looking up to him.

Watching him, Minerva McGonagall began to feel the distinct sense of deja vu. She remembered another boy, dark and handsome (although they were arguably two very different types of handsome). She remembered his quiet gaze, the calculation that resided on his face whenever he spoke or engaged in a conversation. She remembered, her first year teaching, seeing that boy and feeling some strange undertone that he was trouble, despite his top notch behavior in class and around his teachers.

But Percy Jackson was not Tom Riddle.

He was more athletic, for one thing. She could see it in his stance, in the way he walked to the edge of his platform and knelt to speak with Piper. This was a boy who grew up physically. Who got into fights, who used his fists and his sword, who got in the middle of the mess rather than waving a wand at it from the outside.

He was also more calm. Tom Riddle, as much as he had tried to stop it, to hide it underneath layers of propriety and status, had always had this certain... jumpiness to him. Like he was waiting for something, but he didn't know when it was going to happen.

Percy seemed completely at ease, while at the same time alert and watchful. Either he was better at hiding his nervous anticipation, or it wasn't there. McGonagall suspected the first one.

She watched the demigod boy- no, he was nearly twenty-one, he was hardly a boy anymore- do one last scan of the room before lifting his hand from the hilt of his weapon. Two fingers rested on his lips, and he let out a piercing whistle that got the attention of even the most distracted teenagers in the room.

Percy waited calmly until everyone was looking at him. He didn't seem to need to turn behind him to see if they were watching, just stood silently.

"Hour long break. Take a shower, eat some food, do what you need to. Try to stay in groups, always have at least one buddy. We meet back here when the hour is up." He spoke calmly. "Am I understood?"

There was a general murmur around the room. Percy rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Am I understood?!"

Almost everyone in the room jumped, and the roar of sound that came from seven hundred or so students shouting, "Yes sir!" Echoed off the walls.

Percy nodded. "Get moving."

The students flooded out of the Great Hall and in all directions.

Annabeth was watching Percy closely. He exhaled slowly as all the students left the room, then dropped onto the floor and sat there, legs sprawled out in front of him. She climbed up on stage and sat next to him. "Tired?"

"Exhausted." Percy grunted, shifting and lying on his back with his head in Annabeth's lap. She brushed his hair back gently. "But they don't need to know that."

"Still not sleeping well?"

"Nope." He sighed. "I don't think there's anything I can do about it. Piper's charmspeak only lasted an hour or so, Hermione and Luna's potion did absolutely nothing."

Annabeth frowned. "I wish I could figure out what it was."

Percy shrugged and closed his eyes. "Who knows. Probably something magically inflicted because the fates hate me."

The rest of the demigods had chosen to stay in the Great Hall as well. Hazel was gathering little chunks of metal and other things lying around the room, with Leo on her heels talking about some device or another he could use them for. A small brown bulldog was curled up in a corner, Clarisse sitting crosslegged next to him and inspecting her spear. Piper and Jason sat leaned against each other, talking to Thalia.

The only one not there was Nico. His headaches were getting so bad and so frequent that he had been confined to the hospital wing. He hadn't had the strength to complain. The ghosts of Lily and James were with him at all times.

"Hey Wise Girl?" Percy asked suddenly. She looked down at him as he lazily opened an eye.

"Yes, Seaweed Brain?"

"Remind me to get the teachers involved too."

Annabeth smiled. "Will do. Try to rest."

"What would I do without you?" Percy smiled and closed his eyes, ignoring the twinge of pain in his stomach at the words.

[A/N- tbh I'm not invested enough in the Harry Potter universe to know if Minerva was teaching when Riddle was there so I just headcanon her as getting there his 5th or 6th year. Also I average 100 kids in each class? Plus Harry's special 'back for 7th year' class of 20ish]