Smoke and Dust

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A dangerous balance

While I am not fully happy with this chapter, I cannot leave you hanging any longer ;)

I hope you enjoy it anyway. Thanks for the patience and all the nice comments, they make my day!

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The corridors of Hogwarts were dark and cold when Percy and Thalia walked along side each other to the dungeons were they would spend the night. The cold of the winter seeped through the thick stone walls of the castle, no spell warming the corridors now that most students were at home with their families. Now and then a light shew through the thick walls and the stars illuminated the dark halls, but the light was quickly swallowed up by the dark. Thalia was following her cousin blindly through the unknown building, listening closely to his steps as orientation.

They hadn't spoken a word since they said goodnight to the headmaster and promised to go for a walk together the next morning. But the silence between them was bound to break sooner than later.

"Why were you hunting alone?" Percy decided to break the silence with an own question instead of being bombarded by hers.

The girl turned towards his voice quickly, hardly enough light for her to focus on his figure. "That's what you want to know? That is your first question?" Her voice rose and he worried she would start shouting at him again. But then she sighed and he watched her shoulders sink. Thalia looked away, not that she could see anything else clearer than him in the dark, but to somehow escape his eyes. When he didn't press the topic she turned back to him, her eyes fixed on his jaw, she probably tried to look him in the eyes, but underestimated his new hight.

"I was looking for you. I was given the honour to leave my sisters in order to search for you. No one knew where you were and you hadn't even written back to the gods in weeks, so they send me to find you."

"How did you know where to look?"

"I visited you mother. She told me you were somewhere in Scotland, she didn't mention you were in a freaking magic school though! I was keeping to cities, listening around and searching for clues of you, but now and then I ventured off, killed some monsters. All went well until that damn werewolf..." The girl started cussing in words Percy didn't dare imitate.

"We don't know how much damage the werewolf poison did before I removed it. It's possible it won't effect you at all." They both knew that was most likely an unrealistic possibility. They weren't that lucky. They were never that lucky.

"Maybe," Thalia answered, but her shoulders cramped up uncomfortably as she tried to straighten her back and look strong. Then she just turned forward and continued on walking. Percy hurried to catch up with her before she ran in to one of the armours standing around or ventured off to a corridor that led to the sewers. He had no problem seeing in the dark. He saw the tear escaping the corner of her eye and make its way down the side of her face, but he said nothing.

The night was uncomfortable and filled with caution. Percy let his cousin sleep in his own bed while he chose the couch in the common room. In the end he did not sleep at all — not very surprising — but stayed up thinking about what to do. He was fairly sure the huntress in his bed did not sleep either.

It was weird having her around. His relationship to Thalia had always been build on moving ground. Annabeth once had told him they would either be best friends or mortal enemies. Percy thought they were both at the same time. She was his family, she was one of the only people he loved that was left and he would risk the world for her safety, but for the gods sake could the girl infuriate him! It was like he imagined having a teenage child was like. But it wasn't the pickering, or the fact that she liked to throw stuff at his face that made him loose his mind and question wether it was good to have her here. It was the fact that she knew him. Thalia Grace knew him better than almost every other person on this planet. And that scared the shit out of him.