The Half-Blood Princes {Book 2}

The Truth

Percy

The last few weeks of term were quiet. After the funeral the teachers didn't teach much. The halls weren't filed with laughter.

Hogwarts lost some of it's glow.

I didn't talk to Harry after what he had said. He needed time to calm down and grieve, so that's what I let him do. Annabeth and I kept the fake locket a secret, telling each other that we would bring it up when Harry felt like he could talk to us.

"You have to talk to him," Hermione whispered to us on the second-last day of the year. "He needs to know who you really are."

"I know." Annabeth said. I looked at her in disbelief. "If we're going to stick around, then he needs to know."

"I guess you're right. But we can't tell him everything." I pulled my knees up onto the couch. "Just the main points."

"Where is he?" Annabeth turned to Hermione.

"Up on the astronomy tower tonight. He's with Ron," She replied. "The tower's been quiet ever since..." She trailed off. I nodded slowly.

"I'll get the others. We all should be there."

~~~~

"Harry?" I called up the stairs as we got to the top. "Harry, are you still up here?"

"We're here." Ron answered. They were next to the railing, looking out at the setting sun.

"We need to talk to you," Annabeth said. We all stood in a semicircle in front of Harry. Hermione stood on the edge next to Piper. I was in the middle. I stepped forward.

"First, you need to apologise," I crossed my arms. Harry frowned.

"Fine. I'm sorry for saying you weren't human." He rubbed his arm. "I was upset. And confused. But what you did at the cave wasn't normal and I want answers."

"And that's what we're here to do." I looked over at my friends for help. "Gods, where do we start? Okay. Uh, I probably owe you guys an explanation on what happened the night of Dumbledore's death."

"Finally!" Jason exclaimed.

"We weren't going to say anything cause you seemed upset about it, but damnit Percy!" Piper said. "We want answers too."

"Okay. Answers for everyone." I took a deep breath and gave them a run down of what happened in the cave with Harry coming in for parts that I weren't there for - like explaining what a horcrux is and what happened after I had drunken the potion. "And then Snape killed Dumbledore." I finished. There was silence.

"You drunk the potion?!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Yes," I replied sheepishly.

"Why?" Piper asked.

"Because it was hurting Harry to feed it to Dumbledore so I took over. I knew that I could take it - I dipped in the River Styx for goodness sake!"

"Okay," Harry stepped in, "That. That right there. You speak gibberish and everyone else understands. Who are you people?!"

"That's the next topic." I rocked on the heels of my feet. "But first, I need to give this to Harry." I took the fake locket out of my pocket.

"Bloody hell, Percy! Answer the damn question!" Ron exclaimed.

"But this is important: the horcrux was already taken. This is a fake. Someone named 'R.A.B' took it and replaced it with this." I held the locket up.

"So it was all for nothing?" Harry whispered.

"No." Annabeth took the locket. "If we find R.A.B we can figure out if they destroyed the real one and if they know where the others are."