Perseus Alphard Black

Chapter 24

Percy was miserable. Absolutely miserable.

He sat at the Slytherin's table in the great hall and glared at anyone who stared at him.

Diana sat in front of her boyfriend with an amused expression and rolled her eyes

"Oh come on you it isn't that bad"

Rigel scowled "it's that bloody peacock of a man" the blonde sneered, eyes glancing around distastefully at the room.

The walls of the great hall were decorated with ghastly-looking pink flowers, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the sky blue ceiling.

It was Valentines day

"Why are we even celebrating Valentines of all things" Percy quietly moaned, his friends snickering around him. I mean come on! he thought, Wizards don't even celebrate Valentine's. The holiday was just some muggle excuse to buy cheap chocolate and roses and write sappy poetry to each other and boast about relationships.

"If I could have your attention, everyone..." Lockhart said wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, waving for silence. "Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of this fabulous holiday, I have organized a way to celebrate that will be most entertaining to us all!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the EntranceHall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs,however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carryingharps.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will beroving around the school today delivering your Valentines! And the fundoesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into thespirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you howto whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwickknows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've evermet, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was lookingas though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

Percy wasn't even halfway to his first-class when one dwarf stopped him. Diana was walking with him, talking about how they should go visit her parents when she stopped dead in her tracks. Percy stumbled a bit when her grip on his arm tightened. He'd been distracted by the shimmering specs of pink in her hair and on her face, like pink freckles, and didn't notice the dwarf in front of him until he followed her line of sight.

"Uh..." Percy looked down and took a step back, hoping to maneuver around the little dwarf. That wouldn't come so easy, though. Students were crowding around them in excitement. Diana had let go of his arm and was scowling at the wall.

"Percy Black?" a grim-looking dwarf asked

"Y-yes... Look, you don't have to"

"His hair is as dark as ebony.

His eyes were as green as the sea

I wish I could kiss you when I'm asleep

Please don't think I'm weird

He felt his mood drain away faster than the red rushed into Diana's cheeks. They managed to move on, but another dwarf obstructed their path to DADA just outside the door. It wasn't the last one. He got eleven other poems. Diana was there for every single one. She just got angrier and angrier and angrier as the day went on. At the sixteenth poem and at the end of lessons she stormed off to the Slytherin dormitory.

"Oh don't tell me you're not secretly enjoying this Perce, at least four different girls ("I'm pretty sure it's more than that" Coraline said with a grin) think you're attractive- all the boys in the sixth year are frankly getting jealous," Rigel says with a mischievous glint, something Percy noticed and did not appreciate.

"Oi Black!" Percy turned to see a grinning Marcus Flint. "Heard you were getting popular with the ladies."

Percy cursed Aphrodite.

The days passed, and there had yet to be another attack. The mood in the castle lifted to a bright optimism as the snow melted underneath the strengthening rays of the sun. Four months passed, and Percy soon forgot about the nightmare that had plagued him.

One Friday evening, Percy once again wandered the halls humming to himself as his footsteps echoed down the empty stone corridor, not a soul in sight.

The sound of hurried footsteps coming towards him was his only warning before a flash of red ran into him and nearly toppled him over.

"Hey!" Watch where you're going!" He exclaimed.

He blinked down and saw that it was Ginny who had run into him. "Ginny? Are you alright? What are you doing there?" He asked.

The girl seemed to be in a trance as she walked around him and disappeared from view. He blinked as he watched her go and went to follow her, but found that she was gone.

He slowly turned around and resumed his walk, making a mental note to catch up to her later thinking about the match between Griffyndor and Hufflepuff.

Then it was canceled because the school had found two more victims, one of the victims being Hermione Granger.

The summer days began to arrive at the castle, and the mood of everyone seemed to plummet down to absolutely abysmal. It was bad enough that Hermione had gotten petrified, but now both Hagrid and Dumbledore were suspended, with the former serving time in Azkaban. Percy had heard rumors of the place from Tonks, and that was one place he was not ready to go to anytime soon.

Further adding insult to injury, visitors were now banned from entering the hospital wing. With all of these things combined, there was hardly a happy face walking the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even the Slytherins were affected, what with the majority of the school populace turning on them for housing the Heir. He had many times had to save the first and second years from Gryffindors.

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.

"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.

"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.

"You've caught the heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl on the Ravenclaw table.

"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.

When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."