Percy awoke refreshed and alert the next morning, and for a moment let himself lie in bed and breathe that wonderful Hogwarts smells and listen to the light snoring of his dorm-mate. Rigel wouldn't be up for at least an hour which gave him plenty of time to start his morning routine. Dressing up quietly in muggle gym clothes, he silently left his dorm and tip-toed out of the common room, and out of the great hall of the castle till he came to the large main doors and slipped outside into the cool Scottish morning.
He jogged down to the lake, where he stretched, and then set off for a run around the rim of the lake. The route took him close to the Forbidden Forest. After the run, he would take a dive into the great lake and swim underwater. He first visited Merchieftainess Murcus who as always bowed towards him ad gave him the latest reports of Atlantis. As Poseidon had said, Oceanus and the older immortals had attacked Atlantis and had recalled ever merpeople in North America and Europe. Murcus and her tribe were standing as a resistance force but Percy had noticed that the tribe was lacking a largely adult population.
After his run, Percy would then throttle back up to the castle, snuck back up to the Slytherin dungeons, and dashed up into his dorm and was in the shower before Rigel was even stirring.
The next two weeks seemed to all mesh together in his memory. They got their schedules that first morning, and, upon examination, saw that they had almost all of their classes together except Muggle Studies for Rigel (He just wanted to annoy his father) and Divination for Diana ('I hate that subject' Percy complained)
After that came double Charms with Gryffindor. Regardless of him being half-goblin, Percy really quite like Professor Flitwick, who never assigned too much homework and gave plenty of praise where it was deserved. Percy, Rigel, Diana, and Coralie sat in the back while Flitwick spent the first fifteen minutes of the lesson lecturing the class on the importance of O.W.L.s. and proceeded an hour reviewing Summoning Charms.
Lunch was next, and after that was Potions, a class Percy particularly enjoyed for no other reason than that he was good at it and was a son of Poseidon. Professor Snape hadn't liked him at all at the beginning of the first year, but after he proved that he wasn't exactly like Sirius Black, he and the Potions Master were on reasonably good terms after that and started treating him like other Slytherins. They had the class with Gryffindor, so Rigel paired off with Coraline, leaving Percy and Diana to their own devices. Snape warned them that if they don't scrape an 'Acceptable' they'll suffer his displeasure and moved on to brewing the Draught of Peace.
Percy and Diana had Ancient Runes after Potions, but Rigel went off to the library for a free hour. They only started on basic shapes and figures, but Percy decided he liked the look of Ancient Runes as a class since it was mainly Latin.
They met back up with Rigel for History of Magic, with Gryffindor again, and settled in for another in the dullest hours of their lives. They had drawn straws and it was Rigel's turn to take notes.
Then it was dinner, and the conversation was filled with comparisons of what classes were better, what teachers were doing differently, and a healthy dose of gossip about fellow students.
After dinner, Percy walked down to Hagrid's cabin to say hello and stayed there for half an hour as they discussed things like the health of the Mugwumps, the pumpkins already growing in the patch outback, and the plans Percy had for the year. He left at dusk, surreptitiously feeling for loose teeth after gnawing on one of Hagrid's rock-hard kettle cakes.
Two weeks into term, Percy had put up a notice for tryouts for the new chasers, beaters, and a seeker. While many Slytherin girls muttered about the boys 'obsession Diana and Rigel looked thoughtful.
So when the next morning, when he woke up and walked towards the quidditch pitch, he was surprised when half of Slytherin House seemed to have turned up, from second-years who were nervously clutching a selection of the dreadful old school brooms to sixth-years who towered over the rest, looking coolly intimidating.
Percy decided to start with a basic test, asking all applicants for the team to divide into groups often and fly once around the pitch. This was a good decision: the first ten was made up of first and second years, and it could not have been plainer that they had hardly ever flown before. Only one boy managed to remain airborne for more than a few seconds, and he was so surprised he promptly crashed into one of the goalposts.
The second group was comprised of ten of the silliest girls Percy had ever encountered, who, when he blew his whistle, merely fell about giggling and clutching one another. Pansy Parkinson was amongst them. When he told them to leave the pitch, they did so quite cheerfully and went to sit in the stands to heckle everyone else.
The third group didn't even bring brooms, the fourth group was first years, and the fifth group was Ravenclaws.
"If there's anyone who's not from Slytherin!" roared Percy. "I swear I'm going to curse you until your parents won't recognize you!"
A pair of Gryffindors scampered out.
After two hours, many complaints, and several threats, Percy had found himself two Chasers: Marcus Flint returned to the team after an excellent trial and a new find called Adrian Pucey, a third-year who was particularly good at dodging Bludgers; Pleased though he was with his choices, he started with the beaters.
Neither of them had the old brilliance of the former beaters, Marco Shacklebolt and Eli Moody but he was pleased with his choice. None other than Rigel Malfoy and Diana Greengrass. the latter was the only girl in the Slytherin team and probably the first in many years.
Percy had deliberately left the trial of the Seeker until last, hoping for an emptier stadium and less pressure on all concerned. Unfortunately, however, all the rejected players and a number of people who had come down to watch after a lengthy breakfast had joined the crowd by now, so that it was larger than ever.
He let the golden snitch out and watched five players shoot out while he sent out Rigel and Diana to aim the bludgers at them.
None of them last for more than five minutes until Terence Higgs, a second-year managed to catch the snitch and later on got a concussion from diving.
"Well done." Percy smiled at his new time. "You lot flew really well."
"You did brilliantly, Ri!"
It was Coralie running toward them from the stands. Rigel flustered a bit but looked extremely pleased with himself and after fixing the time of their first full practice for the following Thursday, the foursome left to the dungeons chattering about their future OWLs.
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Perseus Alphard Black
FanfictionPercy Black lost his mother, Cassiopeia 'Sally' Black, and never knew his father, he is raised by the Black family to be a proper pure-blood but he's not sure he wants to be one.
