The Half-Blood Princes {Book 2}

Apparating vs Teleporting

A/N

I'm on time! Yay! Also, this is a long chapter. 1988 words. Geez.

——

Luke

I was terrified that Draco was going to fall off the tower.

"Draco, you need to calm down," I insisted.

"This is your fault!" He said, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "Your fault! Now they think I'm nothing more than an incapable child who can't handle a simple mission!"

"You are still a child!" I yelled. "And, they ordered you to kill two people! You need to calm down and accept that sometimes, things don't go as you planned."

"I don't think you understand," Draco hissed, coming closer, "My father failed his mission to the dark lord and as punishment, I became a monster. Now, they asked me to kill Dumbledore and you're stupid 'nemesis' or whatever you want to call him. If I fail, they're going to do a lot more than turn me into a wolf. Because you wouldn't let me talk about half-bloods, it looked like I had done nothing! Then, they gave me the simple mission of finding a cupboard. You were sent to 'help' me, but so far you haven't even lifted a pinky finger to help! You might have been an evil person when you were alive, but dying has made you soft."

"Draco, my job is not to help you kill Percy and Dumbledore. My job is to prevent you from going clinically insane under all this pressure."

"And you can't even do that!" He yelled. The silence that followed rung. Draco seemed to collapse into himself as he realised what he had just said. Stumbling back into the railing, he fell to his knees.

Draco was not handling this year well. With the mission, the werewolf thing every month and his reputation at school, he was slowly falling more and more insane. He was hardly sleeping and he had started mumbling under his breath. My job was to help him, and he was right. I couldn't. But I was trying. I was trying so hard to help him because it hurt me whenever he cried up on the tower. He was my friend, and I was slowly watching him go mad.

"Draco-" I tried. He was hugging himself and shaking. With some effort, I made my form solid. It was one of the perks I picked up while here. As a ghost, I pass through objects but if I concentrate, harder than if I want to remain unseen, I can become more human. I walked over to Draco and sat down next to him. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. Weariness made my head spin. It was taking a lot of effort to remain like this, but I sure as hell was going to.

My mission, given to me by Hades, was to prevent this teenager from doing anything reckless.

My duty, as a friend, was to comfort and assist him with whatever he needs to do.

I can easily do both.

----

Percy

Ron woke up from his coma a couple of days after Hermione had visited him. He was quite confused as to why he was suddenly single, but no one told him why Lavender dumped him.

"Hey, Percy," Harry said, sliding across from us at the breakfast table on Friday. "I really need to talk to you."

"I noticed. What's up?" I asked.

"It's about-"

"Harry! Harry!" Hermione yelled, running into the Great Hall. "Harry, Percy, Jason, Piper, Annabeth!"

"Breath, Hermione." I told her.

"Apparating lessons! Tomorrow!"

"Wait, really?" Harry jumped up, completely forgetting about what he had to say before. "Are you serious?"