Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

PERCY JACKSON

Hermione cried, "Katie! You're back! Are you okay?"

It was indeed Katie Bell, looking completely healthy and surrounded by her jubilant friends. 

"I'm really well!" she said happily. "They let me out of St. Mungo's on Monday, I had a couple of days at home with Mum and Dad and then came back here this morning. Leanne was just telling me about McLaggen and the last match, Harry..."

"Yeah," said Harry, "well, now you're back and Ron's fit, we'll have a decent chance of thrashing Ravenclaw, which means we could still be in the running for the Cup. Listen, Katie..."

He dropped his voice as Katie's friends started gathering up their things; apparently they were late for Transfiguration.

"... that necklace... can you remember who gave it to you now?"

"No," said Katie, shaking her head ruefully. "Everyone's been asking me, but I haven't got a clue. The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks."

"You definitely went into the bathroom, then?" said Hermione.

"Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it. After that, my memory's a blank until about two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. Listen, I'd better go, I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give me lines even if it is my first day back..."

She caught up her bag and books and hurried after her friends, leaving us to sit down at a window table and ponder what she had told us.

"So it must have been a girl or a woman who gave Katie the necklace," said Hermione, "to be in the ladies' bathroom."

"Or someone who looked like a girl or a woman," said Harry. "Don't forget, there was a cauldron full of Polyjuice Potion at Hogwarts. We know some of it got stolen..."

"That makes a lot of sense," Jason nodded. "If Crabbe and Goyle drained a little bit of it-"

I shivered, imagining Crabbes and Goyles skipping around the castle in gowns.

"I think I'm going to take another swig of Felix," said Harry, "and have a go at the Room of Requirement again."

"That would be a complete waste of potion," said Hermione flatly, putting down the copy of Spellman's Syllabary she had just taken out of her bag. "Luck can only get you so far, Harry. The situation with Slughorn was different; you always had the ability to persuade him, you just needed to tweak the circumstances a bit. Luck isn't enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don't go wasting the rest of that potion! You'll need all the luck you can get if Dumbledore takes you along with him..." She dropped her voice to a whisper.

"Couldn't we make some more?" Ron asked Harry, ignoring Hermione. "It'd be great to have a stock of it... have a look in the book... "

"It's not easy to make, like I said," I told Ron. "Alex and I took six months to brew it. The ingredients are extremely costly as well... and if you get it wrong..."

"Typical," said Ron. "What did you use your stock for?"

"We gave it away to the nurses and healers at St. Mungo's," I said. "Charity donation kind of thing."

The only person who was not particularly pleased to see Katie Bell back at school was Dean Thomas, because he would no longer be required to fill her place as Chaser. He took the blow stoically enough when Harry told him, merely grunting and shrugging.

Interest in the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game was running extremely high throughout the school, as May slid through gently, for the match would decide the Championship, which was still wide open. If Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw by a margin of three hundred points then they would win the Championship.