The Lost Dark Lord (Percy Jackson Grandson of Voldemort)

That Sure Looks Like A Bracelet

Hi! It's been a long time. This is unnecessarily formal.

Harry's POV:

Whatever is happening, it's not going well. Percy Jackson just freaking exploded a griffin monster and then died, came back to life, and died again.

I could see shadows moving in the deep dark of the Forbidden Forest. Muttering curses under my breath, I pulled my invisibility cloak out of my pocket and flung it over Percy's unmoving body before dragging him into a crevasse under a bush.

"Get up, Hermione," I said shakily, taking her by the shoulder and pulling her to her feet.

"He — he's — dead —"

I swallowed harshly. "I know. And we will be too if we don't —"

Arrows rained out of the forest, landing feet from us. I swore under my breath and dragged Hermione backward.

From within the trees, a horde of centaurs came stampeding out. They trotted to a stop, glaring down at us.

"Harry Potter," one said.

"That's me," I replied, trying to sound brave.

"Mars is bright. Cronus is coming."

"Who's Cronus?" Ron asked. "Is he related to Uranus?"

The centaur turned to look at him. Ron stepped backward in fear.

"Mars is bright," he said again, before raising his bow and shooting an arrow toward the Astronomy Tower. "Farewell, Harry Potter and friends."

Without another word, he turned his back on us and disappeared into the forest. The other centaurs followed him quietly.

I could feel Hermione's shaking breaths on the back of my neck. "Come on," I said. "Let's go back into the castle. We should tell Dumbledore about Percy."

"What about me?"

"HOLY PEPPERONI AND CHEESE!" I whirled around to see Percy Jackson standing behind me, swaying slightly on his feet.

He held out the invisibility cloak. "Thanks for hiding me, man. The centaurs probably would've trampled me."

"You're... not dead?" I asked, very confused.

"No," he grinned lopsidedly. "Well, I did kind of die, but my cousin owed me a favor, and my uncle hates paperwork, so I'm back. For now."

His smile faded. "We have to get inside. There's a lot that Santa needs to know."

He sprinted into the castle, and we chased after him.

By the time we reached Dumbledore's office, we were all out of breath. "Let... us... in..." Percy wheezed, hitting the stone gargoyle in the face. It didn't move.

"Can't you do your Apparating thing?" Ron gasped, one hand on the wall.

Percy's eyes brightened. "Oh, yeah!" Then he disappeared into thin air.

Percy's POV:

"Hey, professor! Dumbledore! Mr. Santa!" I raced up the spiral staircase and barged into Dumbledore's office.

He rose from his desk. "What is it, Mr. Jackson? Is the Chimera gone?"

"Even better," I said. "Kronos is back. And he's probably joined forces with Mold-a-Mart, which means your wand things aren't going to work against the Chompers anymore, oh, and they'll probably start attacking within the hour, if the centaurs were correct. And they usually are, even though the majority of them are crackheads."

He blinked. "And you know all this... how?"

"Various prophetic dreams and a death experience with some centaurs."

Dumbledore walked around his desk and went to a large cabinet. He pulled open a drawer and began to riffle through Manila folders.

Then the castle exploded.

Ok, no, that's not accurate. More like it rumbled. Yeah. The castle was hungry, and its foundation stomach let out a big growl.

I lost my footing and crashed into Dumbledore's desk. "What the frickety frack was that?"

"Giants," Dumbledore breathed, his blue eyes fixed on something outside the window. "That's not good."

No schist, Sherlock. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. "Which kind?"

"The big kind," he said plainly.

"No, like are they Cyclops or Canadian? You know, the two important types of giant?"

I didn't wait for him to answer. I tore out of the office and down the stairs, the stone gargoyle jumping aside as I burst through the wall.

Students everywhere were panicking. They had all felt the rumbling, too, and didn't know what to do.

"HEY!" I leaned over the banister as hundreds of eyes turned to me. "If you can do good magic, follow me! If not, don't die!"

Down staircases, across corridors, all the way across the grounds did I tear. Finally, I skidded to a halt near the Kwidditch pitch.

About half a dozen Canadian giants were tearing up the field and uprooting the goalposts. And standing at the edge of the forest, watching them with a dark smile, was none other than his Majesty Mold-a-Mart.

"Hey, bozo!" I yelled, running toward him. His head snapped to the side and he raised his wand stick. Concentrating with all my might on the teensy tiny water bits inside the wood, I made his wand explode. He roared with fury, then promptly pulled out another wand.

"Percy Jackson," he said dramatically as I reached him. A silver bracelet gleamed on his wrist. "Grandson."

"You're my grandpa?" I asked, skidding to a halt and playing dumb. "Gosh, I don't know about that, mister. You see, I've already got a grandpa, and he's also evil, and personally I think one evil grandpa's enough for me. Also, nice bracelet."

"It's a cuff," he hissed, his manly pride wounded.

"What, like a handcuff? Did you escape from prison ten minutes ago? Why are you keeping it on?"

Suddenly a searing hot pain plunged into my back. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

"It's good to see you again, Perseus," a cold voice said behind me. The blade in my back twisted. "It's a pity you won't see me."

"On the contrary," I wheezed, reaching around and yanking the sword out of my back. The open wound burned madly. Kronos looked at me, taken aback.

I clenched my fist around the sword. Backbiter. It shattered. Through Luke's eyes, Kronos glared at me.

Gods, Luke. He had died years ago. Yet for some reason Kronos had chosen to use his appearance when returning. Maybe he thought it would make me more hesitant to kill him.

But I knew Luke's eyes. I knew his blue eyes. And the cold, hard, golden eyes staring at me were not Luke's. So I raised Riptide and stabbed Kronos in the heart.

"Percy, behind you!"

There was a flash of bright green light in the corner of my vision.

I wheeled around to see Mold-a-Mart gazing down with apparent surprise at a limp body on the ground.

"Bellatrix will be disappointed," he said with a shrug. "But she is nothing to me. Now, come, Percy. I have much to show you."

I couldn't move. Not another. I felt tight coils of rope wrap around my torso, digging into the still-bleeding wound in my back. She was so young. Riptide was forced out of my hands.

Not wholly helpless, but suddenly feeling vulnerable and weak and terrified, I stumbled into the forest. I caught one last glimpse of Sepia's unseeing eyes before the trees swallowed her from view.