Percy Jackson and The Hogwarts Chronicles

Ch.7

Ch. 7

Percy walked in a haze. His eyes were only slits as he kept his eyes on the dark hoody that moved in front of him. It was easiest this way, looking past that would mean having to properly wake up and he had zero interest in doing that.

It was only a little time past four in the morning when he'd been shaken awake by Ron who looked completely miserable himself. Percy didn't mind getting up early but this was a bit much. By the time Harry and Ron had finished explaining quidditch to him, it was getting close to midnight when they went to bed, which meant he'd gotten a whopping four hours of sleep before they'd had to get up and leave the Weasley house.

He was even more devastated to learn they had to walk to wherever they were going.

Had the Fates no mercy?

He could hear Ron beside him and was sure he'd heard him snore a couple times, dozing off while walking, a feat not even he could claim to have matched.

It took about forty five minutes before Mr. Weasley stopped their little misery march. They were at the foot of what at the moment looking at a ridiculously large hill.

"There we are!" Mr. Weasley said cheerily. "The portkey is somewhere at the top of Stoteshead Hill" He checked his pocket watch and seemed satisfied with what he saw. "Right on time. Let's move though, at five fifteen the portkey goes with or without us."

Percy was too sleepy to even properly wonder what a portkey was. At the moment, he could care less. It might have been the entrance to Medusa's lair for all he knew but the idea of trying to comprehend some new magical thing was just way too much to process.

The trek up the hill was brutal, and each breath Percy took was sharp, the cold air stinging his lungs with each inhale. He felt a little embarrassed at how difficult he found the hike though it was mostly the sleepiness that made it difficult though. Percy seemed to handle it better than the others, even the chipper Mr. Weasley, as apparently wizardry didn't involve a lot of physical effort; none of the Weasleys or Harry seemed to have to be in all that good of shape. Hermione was better than the rest and managed to keep up with him as he climbed the slope. The incline did help to wake him up, though it certainly didn't make his mood any better.

Hermione stumbled after stepping into a small hidden rabbit hole and would have fallen on her face if Percy hadn't managed to catch her arm at the last minute. She stumbled into him cursing before looking up and finding their faces mere inches apart.

"Sorry," she blushed in embarassment, though it was mostly hidden by the darkness.

"No problem," he smiled, "those holes are all over the place."

"Yea... Yeah." She stuttered, stepping away from him after balancing herself.

Percy and Hermione waited at the summit of the hill as the rest of their group came huffing and puffing after them.

"Bloody hell, Dad." Ron whined. "Are you sure we're far enough off the grid?"

"Couldn't be having muggles coming across the portkey, now could we? Hard enough keeping the location of the World Cup secure without muggles popping in from accidental portkey journeys."

"Alright, I'll bite," Percy said now that he was properly awake. "What's a portkey?"

"Another way of travel," Hermione answered quickly. "It'a an object used to transport people, or several people. It's faster than brooms and safer than apparating."

"Exactly," Mr. Weasley added on, "now we just need to find it. The portkey will be something small that looks like rubbish or something a muggle wouldn't want to touch. Go on, everyone start looking, we've only got ten minutes before our scheduled time."