Percy Jackson at Hogwarts

A Tattoo A Day, Brings The Suspicion To Bay

Harry PoV

We had a free period after Divination, so the moment it ended, Ron and I hightailed it out of there in search of Percy. As we were running through the halls, we bumped into Hermione, who shared the same free period with us. After quickly explaining to her we were looking for Percy, she took off running with us. We headed to the Gryffindor dormitories. Muttering the password and slightly out of breath, we entered the common room to see Percy staring at the fire in the hearth. I walked up to him, hesitated, and sat next to him.

"I can't tell you." He says without turning to me. I furrowed my brows before realization dawned on me. He couldn't tell me why he knew the prophecies.

"Although I was going to ask you about that, that isn't the reason entirely why I came looking for you. Are you okay, mate? You looked..." I trailed off, not knowing if he was okay with me mentioning it. Percy shrugged, his gaze still on the fire.

"It's okay, Harry, you don't have to be so hesitant around me." He turned his gaze on me, and even though I couldn't read his expression, it made me hurt for him. And just like that, his gaze met the fire again.

"Are you willing to talk about it?" Percy smiled a little, soft and quiet, only there as a ghost.

"No, not really. They just brought back some unwanted memories, memories I'd like to keep buried forever. Do have those type of memories Harry?" He turned to me again and his eyes were imploring. My heart beat faster and I felt like he could see all that was in my head. My mind flashed to Cedric, and I unconsciously flinched.

"Yeah." I said whisper quiet, but it seemed he heard me. Percy nodded but didn't say anything else. I cleared my throat. "You know... erm— if you ever wanted to talk about anything..." I rubbed my neck, bowing my head so that my hair formed a curtain in front of my face. This isn't my forte. "You could talk to me." I finished lamely, looking up at him and cursing myself for acting so weird. Percy laughed softly and I fought back an embarrassed flush.

"I'm fine, Harry, but I'll make sure to keep that in mind. I'll be back to my normal self soon, promise." He turned his gaze back to the fire.

"How soon?" I joked. Percy laughed again, shaking his head. His head fell in his hands and he stayed there for a few moments. I shifted awkwardly, halfway getting up to leave, thinking he wanted me to leave.

"I don't know, soon enough? Right now I just need some time, Harry. Thanks for worrying about me." I nodded even though he couldn't see me and I patted his shoulder awkwardly. I stood and turned to look at Hermione and Ron. Silently, we walked out of the common room, letting our feet guide us. Hermione's gaze turned to me and I knew what she wanted.

"In Divination, Trelawney recited nine prophecies. Not her usual fake predictions, but real prophecies, like when she recited mine in the corridor years ago. They seemed to have an affect on Percy, and not only that, but he knew them. He mouthed them as Trelawney recited them word for word. There were some words where Trelawney's voice got too raspy to understand, but Percy knew those parts also. When Trelawney finished, Percy slipped out of the room and he seemed... vulnerable. I was the only one that caught it though." Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you remember the prophecies?" I shook my head, pulling a sheet of parchment out of my trouser pocket. I had written the prophecies down, scribbling a 'MW' in place of the missing words. Handing it over to Hermione, she scanned over them. "We need to go to the libr-" She stopped when she noticed we were already walking past a row of library bookshelves. A look of her surprise overtook her face before she smiled. We walked over to an empty table, which happened to be the table we most used.

"What do you think the connection is?" She asked us. I blew air out through my mouth and shrugged.

"It could be a lot of things 'Mione. Maybe he saw people who lived through those prophecies, or maybe he lived through them himself, who knows? He especially had a particularly negative reaction to the last one. I don't know how to word it, but it seemed like it struck something within him. You should've seen him Hermione." I shook my head at the memory, wondering what kind of memories Percy had. I didn't want to know what could upset him to that degree.

"Some of this stuff doesn't make sense. The word 'Half-Blood' is in here more than once and 'cursed' is in there. Didn't he just find out about the wizarding world? If so, then how come these words are in the prophecies, and how does he know about prophecies anyway?" I shrugged my shoulders, catching on. I didn't think Percy was lying when he said he had only now found out about wizards and witches, but it was strange. Maybe there was a different meaning to Half-Blood. I told Hermione so.

"That could be possible. I faintly remember reading a book for social studies that mentioned the word Half-Blood a lot." Ron's brows furrowed.

"Social Studies?" I smiled.

"It's a muggle class in muggle schools." Ron nodded, not bothering to say anything else.

"Well, free period is almost over, so we best get back to the common room. We can come back another day." Hermione said, while gathering her school bag and the parchment. She gave it back to me and started walking back to the common room, Ron and I in tow. When we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Hermione spun on her heel and stared at Ron.

"Why have you been so quiet? Is there something you're not telling us?" I nodded slightly in agreement. He'd been quiet since the beginning of Divination class.

"I saw something- on Percy's wrist. On the right one..." He trailed off. He started again at Hermione's look. "It was black, a tattoo, on his right wrist though. I didn't want to say anything since it's on the wrong wrist, and I only saw a tiny bit of it since his sleeve rode up slightly." I gaped at him, my thoughts from last night rushing back to me. 'He was either innocent, or it was well hidden.'

Percy couldn't be a Death Eater, but that would explain why he had negative memories. A Death Eater wouldn't be upset over them, though. There was no way he was a Death Eater, and I wanted to get that notion out of Ron and Hermione's heads. I muttered the password and entered the common room, looking for Percy. He was walking out of the boy's dormitories. Looking up, he saw me and smiled brightly. I relaxed and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. There was just something about him that was calming and soothing.  He waved and walked over to me.

"Thanks for earlier, I really appreciate it." I smiled reassuringly. I could see Ron and Hermione look doubtful out of the corner of my eye. Good, 'cause he's innocent.

"It was no problem. We were actually just talking about you. Ron said he glimpsed a tattoo and we were really curious, trying to guess what it was, so I decided to just ask you." He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I have one. Wanna see?" He pulled up the right sleeve of his long sleeve shirt. It was a tattoo of a trident with the letters 'SPQR' capitalised underneath and a horizontal line running underneath the letters. I saw Hermione's eyes widen in my peripheral vision and at the same time, something clicked in my head. I had seen those letters before, in a book about the fallen Roman Empire one of the few times the Dursley's had allowed me to go to the library. I smiled at Percy.

"It's really cool, I'm going to go take a nap before free period ends. We only have about forty minutes left so I guess I'll see you later." I walked up the dormitories and flopped down on my bed. This was part of that something about Percy that he was hiding. I sighed, deciding to think about it later. May as well make good of the fib I told them. As my eyes closed and I slipped into a slumber, the smell of the sea filled the dormitory and the bed next to mine squeaked slightly as someone slipped into it.