Through the years

[HARRY]

Harry has met many strange people throughout his life. Giants, goblins, centaurs, but none are as strange as Percy Jackson. Don’t get him wrong, Percy is not the bad kind of strange... but as Harry would put it; he is an odd individual. However, more than that he is one of the kindest, most loyal and maybe even funniest people Harry's ever met. Harry considers him one of his best friends. Actually, looking back, Percy was one of the first friends Harry made at Hogwarts.

“Anything off the cart, dears?”

Harry leapt up to the woman’s question. He had been starving for a while now. He went out into the corridor just as another boy was talking to the trolley lady.

“Please miss, I’m starving” The boy behind the lady said. He had the same colour hair as Harry. But instead of his own messy unkempt hair, the stranger's hair seemed messily styled. He had a slight beachy tan and swirling green eyes. What Harry noticed the most though was his accent, it reminded Harry of that movie ‘taxi driver’ which BBC had on repeat every other week.

“I’m sorry boy” the trolley lady said “I cannot give it away for nothing.”

The boy groaned and started to dig through his pockets. Harry had the feeling he had done this a few times before already. Who knows, maybe he had magical pockets? In the meantime, the trolley lady turned to Harry.

“Anything of the cart dear?” she asked.

“Do you have a Mars bar by any chance?” Harry asked.

In response, the stranger snorted.

“Something wrong with a Mars bar?” Harry retorted.

Harry thought the stranger's snort was to be rude, but when he saw him looking up he had a kind smile on his face. Harry almost felt embarrassed about his comeback.

“No, I just find it funny that you have a cart of magical candy in front of you, and you ask for a Milky Way” the boy laughed kindly.

“Mars bar” Harry responded automatically

The boy waved his hand “Same difference”

The trolley lady interrupted their debate by loudly scrapping her throat “Unfortunately, we do not have either of those two”

Harry looked back at the card and pondered for a small second “Ok” he said “Then I want everything else…at least two times”

The stranger boy gave a low whistle “And I thought my appetite was impressive”

Harry looked up at him and smiled. Harry was glad to find out that Hogwarts was at least not completely filled with stuck-up mean guys like the Malfoy boy, he probably couldn't have handled a school full of Dudley's. In the meantime, the trolley lady was done packing his week's worth of candy and handed the bag to Harry. She quickly shuffled onto the next compartment.

Both boys watched her walk further for a second before turning towards each other. The stranger held out his hand. 

“Percy,” he said.

Harry made the motion to return the gesture but suddenly he remembered both his arms were occupied by a bag of candy. “Euh” he responded wisely. The stranger laughed and whipped his hand against his jeans instead.

“Harry Potter, nice to meet you,” Harry said.

Harry inspected Percy for a minute, seeing if there was any reaction to his name but he just kindly smiled in response. Harry puffed out a breath of relief, finally someone who acted normal around him. 

“likewise- Wait!” Percy almost shouted. He immediately went to pad his pockets again and triumphally got out a bronze coin.

"Stupid secret magic pocket" Percy mumbled to no one in particular.

In unison, both Percy and Harry turned a full 360 to look for the trolley lady, but she had vanished from the narrow pathway. Weird, since Harry hadn't heard the coupe doors open and close.

“Ah damn,” Percy exclaimed “Just when I found my…coin? Can't remember if this is the wizarding money or an old Chuck E Cheese coin I had in my pocket” He said while staring intensely at the coin in his hand.

Now it was Harry’s time to laugh “Likewise,” he said. He looked at Percy and pondered for a second. “Hey, Percy if you want you can share some of this candy with my friend Ron and me” he offered.

Percy knitted his brows together. “You sure?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Harry responded immediately. Percy smiled up at him.

“Ok then. But I will return the offer later” He said seriously. Then a smile turned on his face again, this time slightly mischievous. It reminded Harry of Ron’s twin brothers he just met.

“You won’t regret this” Percy said “At my old school I was the biggest candy dealer around. I’m sure to add some Mars bars to my Hogwarts shop”

Harry felt like he could become good friends with this strange boy

After that, Ron and Percy quickly became friends as Percy almost punched Malfoy straight out of their compartment. Percy might not seem like the tallest or strongest guy but Harry learned he can get downright scary when he’s angry.

As they later all got sorted into Gryffindor, Percy’s friendship with Hermione also started to bloom. Hermoine liked that Percy, somewhat like her, was muggle-born. Well somewhat is a stretch since Percy was quite vague about his family. His mother was a squib, that was sure, but when Ron asked which family line she was from Percy said he rather not talk about it. Percy’s father, however, was the bigger mystery. Lost at sea he told them. And as far as Percy knew he was not a wizard. In the end, Hermione decided to claim Percy as a muggle-born and liked to spend her time talking about his life in America. Percy also seemed to enjoy Hermione’s company a lot. Apparently, she reminded him of one of his best friends back in the States.

So when later the feud between Ron and Hermione started, Percy was quick to side himself with Hermione. As a result, he had spent at least ten minutes yelling at Ron in the middle of the quad about how he should apologize to Hermione. And finally promptly promised to ignore Ron until he made it up to Hermione.

Percy was steadfast in his decision, at least that was until Quirrell came running in screaming about a troll in the halls. Harry and Ron ran to the girls' bathroom and along the way met Percy, who was cursing something about not being allowed to have weapons inside the school.

“Hermione is still in the girls' bathroom” Percy yelled

“We know” Ron and Harry huffed out at the same time. Harry wondered why Percy wasn’t out of breath at this point.

The four managed to defeat the troll by Ron casting spells, Harry sticking his wand in the troll's nose and Percy using some colourful sailor language to distract it during all of this.

The teamwork instantly mended their friendship and while it sucked that they got detention, at least they could spend it together. Besides goofing off with Percy and Ron, or getting lectured by Hermione, Harry noticed his mind kept replaying the fight with the troll over and over again. At one point the troll had smashed so many water pipes that the vision inside the bathroom was almost reduced to zero. Through the mist spray Harry thought he saw Percy put out his hand towards the water. Then he pulled it back rapidly, like he had forgotten something, and quickly took out his wand and pointed it to the spray. The water reduced instantly but Harry could swear he didn’t see Percy’s mouth move, he didn’t cast a spell.

He later brought it up with Hermione. According to her, it was probably just shock or a glimpse of the light, but somewhere in her eyes, Harry could see she wasn’t going to let this go.

The rest of the year went by quickly as Ron, Hermione, Percy and he became great friends. Percy didn’t display any weird powers anymore so Harry agreed that Hermione must have been right. He did however discover some other facts about Percy during the year.

First of all, he had no respect for authority. Percy could be found sneaking out quite often. Or more so sneaking around. Not only did he get out of the Gryffindor common room often, Harry could swear he saw him walk into the dark forest this one time. On a few occasions, he would be caught by Filch, who saw Percy as his mortal enemy and had to spend his evenings doing detention chores.

Weirdly enough Percy actually didn’t mind detention too much. Because according to Harry’s second observation, Percy is quite good with people. Now Percy himself will absolutely deny this, mumbling something about a Clarisse and a toilet, but he is a natural people person. The detention he got even gave him time to create a close bond with multiple professors.

He also made friends outside of the Gryffindor house, which wasn’t too common. Justin Finch from Hufflepuff, Padma from Ravenclaw and even Millicent and Jacobus from Slytherin. Sometimes he would sit at the Slytherin table during lunch and eat with them. In the beginning, Ron and Harry were a bit worried about Percy’s choice but when they later saw him secretly flick pieces of corn into Malfoy’s hair, their worries disappeared.

Lastly, Percy was a rollercoaster of a student. He barely passed History of Magic, Herbology or Flying but aced other subjects like Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and especially Potions. Looking like a classic troublemaker Snape had tried to throw Percy under the bus the first couple of lessons, but once he got notice of Percy’s skills in his class he even seemed to somewhat like him? Percy often stayed behind after class to talk with the professor about new potion ideas.

When the suspicions around Snape start to rise with the rest of the trio, Percy was of course very adamant that Snape was not the bad guy. But at the same time, he mentioned he couldn’t be sure.

“Someone I thought to be good betrayed me last year,” Percy says while rubbing the palm of his hand.

So in the end Percy decided to join the others in investigating the weird situation going on. Harry wondered for a long time what Percy mend with a friend betraying him. It wasn’t until their detention in the dark forest that he dared to ask more about the situation.  As they followed Hagrid through the forbidden forest Harry joined Percy’s side and slowed down their pace so they were just out of earshot from Hermione and Hagrid.

“So” Harry began uneasily, “You said something about a friend betraying you a while ago”

Harry could slap himself on the head. Great start to a sensitive topic he thought. But all Percy gave was a small uneasy chuckle.

“yeah,” he breathed out. “About that” Percy sighed. Harry regretted asking the question.

“Look, I was new in an unfamiliar place. Quite like us coming to Hogwarts you know” Percy began “I felt like I didn’t belong but this one guy went out of his way to help me fit in” Harry noticed Percy was looking at something in the distance. Reliving the moment. “I lost someone important before I came there, well at least I thought I did, and this guy helped me get through it…to eventually stab me”

“stab you in the back you mean,” Harry asked

“Oh no, he literally stabbed me in the hand” Percy held out his hand for Harry to see. Harry let out a gasp. To him, it didn’t exactly look like a stab wound but more like someone had tried to take a huge chunk out of his hand

“New York sounds scary” was all Harry could respond

Percy laughed at that, it felt like Harry’s answer actually made him relieved.

“You wouldn’t believe it” Percy chuckled.

In the meantime, Hagrid’s and Hermione’s pace had slowed down that they’d cached up. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something moved.

“who’s there?” Hagrid called. “Show yourself – I’m armed!”

Into the clearing walked a half horse half man? His fur was a chestnut colour that matched the red hair and beard of the man.

“Oh, it’s you, Ronan,” said Hagrid in relief. “How are yeh?”

“good evening to you Hagrid,” said Ronan. He had a deep sorrowful voice “Were you going to shoot me?”

“Can’t be too careful, Ronan,” said Hagrid, patting his crossbow. “There’s summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and;  Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An’ this is Ronan, you galls. He’s a centaur.”

“We’d noticed,” said Hermione faintly.

“Good evening,” said Ronan. “Students, are you?” He sniffed the air slightly and then looked at Percy

“And one of Chiron’s kids?” he asked curiously.

“Yes sir” Percy answered carefully.

“And he said your name was Percy, you don’t mean Perseus, son of -” Percy interrupted Ronan before he could finish his sentence “Sally Jackson, yeah that’s correct.”

Ronan looked at Percy. Harry thought he even saw the centaur give him a small nod. “Of course, Sally, a fine woman I suppose”

Ronan flung his head back and stared at the sky. “Mars is bright tonight”. He said

After this Harry stopped asking Percy about what happened with his friend. It was obviously a sore topic and although Harry knew Percy wasn’t telling the whole truth, it did feel like he was telling him what was important to Percy. Like a small secret between them. After their exams were finished Harry did however ask Percy about the man Ronan had been talking about, Chiron. When Harry dropped the name he could see the gears in Percy’s head turning.

“Oh yeah, Chiron… he is- he is the one who helped me get from New York to Hogwarts. Told me about the train and all that stuff’ Percy responded slowly.

“Like my Hagrid” Harry responded.

Percy smiled at him “Yes! Something like that”

Harry still wasn’t too sure about the answer Percy had given him but he had mostly forgotten about it by the next day. Since that night, they went after Quirrell and the philosopher stone.  

When they went inside the trapdoor they encountered the large three-headed dog, but with the many suspicious people crossing the dogs' chambers it was not lulled by songs anymore. Instead, each of the three heads hungrily looked at the four students. Luckily they had Percy. He told them not to worry since he had experience with dogs. Harry thought Hermione might have ripped Percy’s head off at that very moment. But as Percy found a round, ball-like object in the room and tempted the big dog with the question if he wanted to play the dog actually seemed to be distracted. Percy made a notion with his hand towards the next door, staying behind and playing with Fluffy.

After the whole ordeal with the stone was over the group had a few weeks left at Hogwarts to enjoy together, without hunting the professor and finding stones. At least that was until Percy received an unfortunate letter from his mom. In New York, Hogwarts apparently was not registered as an official school. Harry was actually surprised that in other places it was. Nevertheless, until it got sorted out with authorities Percy was forced to go back to school in New York.

“Don’t want the cops after me again” Percy had said jokingly.

“Again!” Ron had shouted out

“I- I have some problems with authorities sporadically” Percy backtracked “Just don’t – don’t look me up on the internet”

“What’s an internet?” Ron asked.

“Seriously! Ronald,” Hermoine had said.

Percy had laughed and they had left it at that. But Harry could feel Percy had a difficult time leaving.

A few weeks ago, when they had their ‘boys' night’, better known as staying up all night and eating from Percy’s candy stash. Percy slightly opened up about his life outside of Hogwarts. This was a rare occasion, besides praising his mom, Sally, or some friends from New York, he never really talked about himself except for the vague clues he dropped.

To the surprise of all the boys that night, he told them that he used to be bullied quite a lot at school. Harry could hardly believe this, Percy was one of the most popular boys here at Hogwarts. However, Harry does remember what ‘normal’ schools were like. Percy was indeed different which means schools are usually not the best place to be.

So when the day came that Percy had to leave a lot of people followed him to the train station.

The girls, like Millicent, Padma and Hermione gave him big hugs. While the guys talked mostly nonsense.

“Can’t wait to have you back next year Percy,” Fred had said,

“Yeah wish you were our Percy instead, but unfortunately we got stuck with a nitwit for a brother” George complained “He would never sneak into the kitchens at 3 in the morning with us like you do,”

Ah thought Harry so that was one of the places Percy would sneak off to at night.

Fred interrupted his thoughts “Talking about food, Percy can we manage your candy stash till the end of the year?”

“Yeah!” George pitched in “We are great businessmen”

Percy looked at them suspiciously for a second. “Alright, but I want 60% off all profits. I build hard on my name as candy dealer”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Fred and George said in unison. They gave him a high five and walked of speaking rapidly with each other about new marketing tactics.

After that, a long line of people went to say goodbye. People from every house and year seemed represented there. Some people Harry swears to have never seen before. Just before Percy had to board the train it was Harry’s turn.

Percy smiled at him somewhat mischievous.

“I have something for you,” He said as he frantically started to check his pockets. ‘Stupid robe pockets’ Harry thought to hear him mutter under his breath.

“Found it!” Percy exclaimed. And from his pocket, he pulled out… a Mars bar!

“How – how did you get this in?” Harry stuttered. Percy’s smile turned mischievous again “I told you, I’ve got my ways,”.

“Thank you,” Harry said sincerely.

“Well actually thank you for sharing your candy on the train with me,” Percy said “If you hadn’t done that who knows, maybe we had never become friends.”

Harry gave him a small smile.

Percy laughed as he bend down to pick up his luggage,

“Take care, Harry,” He said as he stepped back into the train.

“You too Percy” Harry responded as Percy disappeared into the train.

They waited until the train started to move and waved their goodbyes. Percy opened the window and almost shoved half his body outside.

“See you all in a few months!” he shouted.

“See you, Percy!” Ron, Hermione and Harry yelled as the Hogwarts Express disappeared around the corner. As Harry looked around he could see the people around him had sad looks on their faces.

Harry probably wasn’t the only one missing Percy already.