Heroes at Hogwarts

six | tours and tingles

percy

Harry and Ron were carrying their brooms across their shoulders, talking amongst each other while everyone walked up the small hill to the school. Hermione and Ginny had grabbed Hazel and taken it upon themselves to relieve her of the boy presence she'd been stuck in, and to Percy's surprise, the three were walking behind the group and laughing. Hazel occasionally pointed around the campus on their tour, and the other two girls would whisper and smile.

Percy, Jason, Will, and Frank, on the other hand, were stuck trailing behind Harry Potter and Ron Weasley like dejected animals.

The two boys would talk to them occasionally, but they seemed more interested in talking about things Percy could only barely catch; "Sirius...Lupin and Tonks, did you hear? ...what is Dumbledore thinking? ...Malfoy...quidditch season...that third year girl...Snape..."

"Um, excuse me, but when's dinner?" Frank asked. Percy smiled, some things never change.

"That's where we're going right now," Ginny said. "It's in the great hall."

"You might put on your school uniforms, though," Hermione said. "It could be why Dumbledore already gave you them."

Percy had forgotten about the robes slung over his shoulder and the green and silver tie he'd hung around his neck. He took them into his hands.

"Where?" Will asked.

"Just slip them over your clothes," Ginny said, "it'll be fine for now."

Percy had been in many schools, gone through many school uniforms, but nothing was as strange as these robes. Even the bedsheets from Camp Jupiter had been better than this. Hades, he couldn't even walk when there wasn't something trying to trip him every step he took.

He did what the girls said, though, and slipped the robes on. He fumbled with the tie, and Ginny pitied him and looped it around his neck for him.

"You'll need to learn to tie that, Percy." She smiled. "It's part of the everyday wear."

"I'll figure something out," Percy told her. Maybe she could tie it every day at breakfast?

Something told him that wouldn't work.

"This is where we part ways," Ron said. "Jason and Frank, you will come with all of us. Hazel and Will, you go sit where are the yellow people are. Percy...where the green is." Ron didn't sound too happy about the green table on the other side of the room, where some kids were scowling and pointing at a set of hourglasses full of jewels and others were staring at the group that'd just come in, pointing and whispering.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione was scowling right back. A blonde boy stood.

"Whacha got there, Potter? Some new blood traitors, looks like!" He yelled across the room. "What's the matter, Weasley? Your face matches your hair!"

Percy looked at Harry and Ron, their faces steaming, and then to the boy, his smirk wide with pride and his hands pressed onto the table.

But a girl stood, with what looked like stars pinned in her hair and dressed in green, sitting five seats down from the blonde boy. Her posture conveyed fury. "Buzz off, Malfoy." There was a fierceness in her voice that, though he couldn't see her face, made Percy recognize her.

Everyone got quiet, even those dressed in yellow, blue, and red. Four boys in red, two of which Percy couldn't see, stifled chuckles and turned to Ron and Harry.

The boy, Malfoy, stared at the girl for some time, before crossing his arms. "Who are you?"

She ignored his question. "You are no more important than anyone else in this room. So you will sit down, and you will shut it," she said.

When Malfoy opened his mouth, no words came out. A girl sitting next to him took his arm and slowly pulled him down until he was sitting and scowling again.

"Who is that?" Ginny asked, her eyes narrowed at the girls back.

"Don't know," Hermione said, "I don't see many Slytherins other than Malfoy or Pansy."

She turned to face them, and Percy realized why she was so familiar. She began walking towards them with a smile on her face. Her dark hair swayed with stars, and Percy realized they were not pins but a part of her. Her skin was tan and her robes shifted behind her- she'd tied them like a tunic, as if she'd been born in them. Not once did she turn around to see the blonde boy still seething at her. Her posture read as confident and she held her head high, although everyone was staring, and she had her tie wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. There was a headband around her hair, one that Percy had seen too many times. One that Jason gasped at and Frank squeezed Hazel's hand. And although there were no arrows strapped to her back and no bow at her side, Will's hand was sent flying to Percy's shoulder and the two Greeks marveled at who was standing before them.

"Who is that?" Jason whispered behind Percy. "That's Thalia's band."

But Percy didn't answer the younger boy. He only stared, mouth open, at the girl who had fought at his side to save someone she didn't even know. Someone who had died and become the sky and now she was here, her hair and eyes still holding part of the stars and she was alive and breathing and smiling.

Zoe Nightshade.