Always Protect

Chapter 12

Two months into the school year and when Percy wasn't in class, he was with Annabeth, Cedric, the twins, or Luke.

The Ravenclaw girl had decided that Percy was her new best friend, which made him automatically a target for LaRue. The other Hufflepuff was very violent despite being in what was supposedly the nice house and seemed to have some sort of longstanding rivalry with Annabeth.

After the fourth time Clarisse attacked him in retaliation for something the blond girl said, he started hanging out more with Luke and his friends.

At first when he went to find Luke, Percy found him with four other people. Silena Beauregard, a Slytherin second year, Chris Rodriguez, a Slytherin third year, Beckendorf, who was also in third year, and Malcolm Pace, a Ravenclaw third year.

Not wanting to intrude, the Potter had started to leave but Luke had called him over.

"Hey Percy, where you going?"

He blushed slightly as the attention of all of them turned to him.

"Oh. Um, I was just-"

"C'mon Perce, join us." Beckendorf insisted with a small smile.

The boy struggled to keep the blush back as much as possible and he began to fidget slightly as he joined the older kids.

"Sil, Chris, Malcolm, this is Percy Potter." Luke introduced.

All of them had excepted him surprisingly well.

One day, everyone was sitting down for breakfast. As usual, Percy was there earlier than most of the other students. Today Cedric sat with him.

"So, how was defense yesterday."

The brown haired boy had been sick for the past few days and had therefore missed classes that Monday.

"It was horrible. That crazy old bat gave me detention. Again."

"Wow, she really seems to have it out for you. Tell me she's at least not taking Halloween."

"Nope, thank gods."

A large bang sounded outside the great hall and the Weasley twins came sprinting in. The pair collapsed into seats on either side of Percy.

"So-"

"-if anyone asks-"

"-we were here this whole time."

Cedric, obviously not wanting to get involved, turned to his breakfast, leaving Percy to deal with the other two boys.

"What have you done now?"

"Us?" Fred asked, a picture of innocence.

"Why would you assume we did anything?" George asked, imitating his twin.

The black haired boy looked at them, unimpressed before raising one hand and counting down from five on his fingers.

As he put down the last finger, one of the older Slytherin boys ran into the hall in a rage. He scanned the hall and locked on the twins. He was growling as he stalked towards them, Percy looked down at his food once more in an attempt to avoid the situation but before the menacing boy even reached the table he was interrupted.

"What do you want, Flint?"

A Scottish boy in Gryffindor stood in the way, his arms crossed. As a third year, Oliver Wood was the Gryffindor Keeper for his second year. With Marcus Flint being a Slytherin chaser, the pair had a very tense rivalry. Both were very passionate about the sport.

With the crisis averted, at least for now, Percy spoke.

"5 galleons says the two of them are dating before Oliver graduates."