To Thwart The Darkness {Book 3}

And Then There Was One

Shell Cottage 

Percy parried and lunged with the stick while Ron tried to block with Riptide. Percy used to just hit the sword away easily when Ron went to attack, but in the few weeks that they'd spent training, Ron had improved to the point where Percy actually had to move to block.

After a few weeks with the magic sword Percy had actually given Ron Riptide and taught him everything from the stance to how to hold it to how to disarm. It meant that Percy had started to talk to him more and they both found, now entering the cold Christmas holidays (even though this whole experience was like a holiday), that their relationship had evened back out into their previous friendship.

Their duel ended quickly after Ron got a cheap shot to Percy's wrist and disarmed him with Luke's old manoeuvre. His stick fell into the sand and Ron beamed. It was the first time that he'd beaten Percy properly. Percy smiled too.

"Great! Should have seen that one coming," Percy said, rubbing his right wrist. His sling had come off the week before but it was still stiff. That's the only reason Ron won.

"Percy, I—"

"What are you too doing out there in this cold?!" Fleur yelled from the front door of the cottage. "Come inside now!" Percy turned to do as she said, Fleur could be scary when she was passionate, but Ron grabbed his arm.

"Percy, I want to go back," he said quickly, his eyes dropping to the floor. It took Percy a moment to realise what he was saying. "I just... I'm sorry."

"You— yes! Yes!" Percy beamed. "Yes let's go!" He was going to see Annabeth again!

"I—well, can we say goodbye to Bill first?" Ron asked sheepishly.

"Of course," Percy scoffed. "I'm not leaving without saying goodbye, and I'm definitely not saying goodbye until I've had one more of Fleur's brownies."

"We can ask if we can take some with us," Ron said, looking a lot happier now that he'd gotten his apology off his chest. It had been on his mind for a while.

—-

They left Shell Cottage at around midday. Saying goodbye had taken a lot longer than expected since Fleur refused to let them leave the house without taking three jackets each.

"You are not going to freeze and you can give some to your friends," she said, silencing any argument that would have come from Bill, Percy and Ron. So, wearing two jackets with a spare in each of their backpacks, Ron apparated the two of them back to the forest where they'd last seen their group.

"Do you think..." Ron trailed off, looking around at the snow-covered forest, his boots already soaked.

"They've probably moved," Percy said. His feet weren't wet, but he was ankle-deep in cold snow. "Which means we need to keep looking—oh my gods," he grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him down into the snow. Ron made a noise of protest, but Percy shushed him. Ron tried to follow his line of sight, but couldn't see anything around the tree in front of them.

"No one's here," a voice growled and Ron's blood became colder than the snow he was lying in. "Let's just go back to camp, it's cold."

"Harry Potter was said to be roamin' these parts," another voice snapped. "Which means we might be the ones to get the money."

Snatchers.

"Yeah, if we catch him," whined the first voice.

"Will you just shut up? Come on, let's check over here." The sound of crunching snow got closer. Ron, keeping his hand around Percy's arm, apparated them away to another part of the forest.

Which happened to be the Snatcher's camp.

The group of about six middle-aged men yelped at the sudden appearance of the two teenagers. Ron went to apparate away again, but one of them came to his senses and snatched Percy away.

"Lookie here lads!" He exclaimed, his smile revealing several dirty teeth. "It's Percy Jackson!" They were all very attentive now. Percy shifted his balance and flipped the Snatcher over his left shoulder.

The wands came out.

Ron pointed his at as many of them as he could and in that moment, really wished that Percy was a wizard as well.

"Can you control the snow?" He hissed, backing towards Percy, in a stand off with five of the Snatchers.

"Unfortunately not," Percy said, reaching into his pocket. He drew Riptide and a few of the men jumped back. Then one of them fired a stunning spell and the duel began.

It was a lot of Ron using the protection charm on both of them and Percy swiping his sword at any who got too close. Ron, grabbed Percy's arm, and prepared to apparate away. But in that second a stunning spell hit him in the chest and he collapsed.

"Ron!" Percy exclaimed, thinking the worst, but a spell hit him in the moment of distraction. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Ron woke up to silence. 

The only company he had were the trees around him. 

He was alone. 

---

I've caught up!

This was where the plot was when I took the book down last year. 

Whoops.

Didn't realise it was this bad of a cliffhanger until a couple of months ago. Hehe.