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fuckthehuskies · 1 month

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Halfbloods and Purebloods

WC: 2616

Percy Jackson, followed by Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood were on a quest to deliver a package to famous demigod Logan Lerman in order to inform him of the war brewing on Olympus. The only problem was that Logan Lerman was a famous actor and they weren’t sure how to find him without the usage of cell phones. They heard a rumor that he was in London filming a new movie, so that's where they were. Percy had summoned some Hippocampus for the three of them to ride on to get over there. A straightforward ride from the beaches of Camp Half Blood straight into the center of London by the River Thames. They dismounted when they got to the center of the city.

“Where do you think he's filming?” Percy asks, looking around at all of the billboards and street signs.

“I'm not sure. There must be a sign.” Annabeth responds, glancing around.

“Maybe we should ask someone?” Grover says innocently, pulling out a half chewed aluminum can out of his pocket.

“There!” Annabeth points. There’s a flier taped to a telephone pole that read “Meetup with the cast of Bullet Train: Uptown London, 2pm.”

“That’s convenient.” Percy comments, grabbing the flier from the pole and shoving it into his pocket. “How are we going to get there?”

“Look, there’s a train station.” Annabeth points across the road to Kings Cross Train Station.

“That's convenient.” Percy comments as they cross the street over to the train station.

“Holy mother of Hades, it's packed in here.” Annabeth gawks, seeing the swarms of people.

Grover looks over at the large clock on the wall reading September 1st, 10:55AM. “Commuters I guess.” He shrugs.

“Listen, I’m going to go look at tickets to see where we need to go. You two stay out of trouble.” Annabeth orders the boys before promptly walking away to the ticketbooth.

Percy and Grover look around at all the people, Grover anxiously gnaws on his aluminum can. Families spur past them quickly, almost knocking them over. “Watch where you're going!” Percy yells after them.

“Don't go all New Yorker on everybody now.” Grover laughs.

“They were rude.” Percy rolls his eyes. “I want to see where everyone’s rushing off to.” He says before promptly turning around and following the families.

“Percy, wait!” Grover exclaims, looking between Percy and Annabeth. But it’s no luck, Percy’s already following the family that shoved him, getting lost among the people. Grover frantically tries to catch up to him but can't push past everyone. “Percy!”

Percy notices the family stopping at a pillar and staring at it. Everyone in the family was obnoxiously blonde, two parents with their son, the same age as Percy, sixteen.

“Merlin, I do not need you two coming with me every year.” The boy exclaims at his parents. “I’m going to be late!” He complains.

Percy watches in awe and confusion as the boy walks straight through the pillar, seemingly disappearing. The boy’s parents turn and see Percy staring.

“Move along, boy. Nothing to see here.” The father says coldly

“Hurry along, you're going to be late too.” The mother muses, putting her hand on Percy's shoulder and pushing him towards the pillar. “Have a nice school year.” She continues before shoving Percy through the pillar. The last thing Percy heard was Grover yelling his name again.

Percy ends up on the other side of the pillar, on a new platform. He looks around and sees the other students around his age scrambling to get onto the train labeled “Hogwarts Express.” He puts his hand on the pillar, seeing if he could get back through, to no use. He notices the blonde boy from before, searching around for his friends before he got on the train.

“Hey, man.” Percy says casually. The blonde boy looks Percy up and down with a disgusted look.

“American transfer students.” The boy rolls his eyes. “I’m Draco Malfoy. All you need to know is that my family is better than yours.” He says coldly towards Percy.

“Um..I’m Percy Jackson. Do you know how I can get back to the other side of the platform?” Percy asks, trying not to get annoyed at Draco’s attitude.

“Mate, the train is about to leave, the barrier is closed.” Draco scoffs, starting to walk towards the train. Percy follows behind him, gawking at the little animals so many students carried around as pets.

“Train to where?” Percy asks.

“Are you thick? To Hogwarts.” Draco scoffs again, boarding onto the train. Percy continues to follow.

“I’m kind of far away from home. Can you break that down for me?” Percy asks curiously.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Draco says, walking through the halls and looking in the cabins for his mates. He stops and turns towards Percy. “Listen, your Ilvermorny transportation might be fancy and your school might allow guns and American flags, but we’re not as friendly over here.” Draco says coldly before giving Percy a look up and down. “Hufflepuff?” He scoffs.

“Huffle-what? I thought weed was illegal outside the US?” Percy looks at him.

“You’re useless.” Draco rolls his eyes again, turning around to continue walking down the hall.

“This is a train to a school, you said?” Percy asks, following him along. Percy remembered how many times he’d been kicked out of schools. Although this school must be a fancy boarding school with this many students traveling to get there.

“You’re a smart one.” Draco comments before entering a compartment with his friends and sitting down. “Mates, we’ve got a transfer student on our hands. Been harassing me since I got on the platform.”

Percy stared at them, he was starting to get annoyed at the mocking. One of the boys who was taking a sip from his water bottle had it suddenly explode over his face, soaking his front. Draco and one of the other boys stand up intimidatingly at Percy. “You’re dead, Jackson.”

Percy realized this was probably a good time to run. As he ran down the walkways he noticed students carrying strange small animals resembling colored cotton balls. As well as carrying around intricately carved sticks. “This is not a train for mortals.” He mumbled to himself. He glanced back and noticed that he was losing Draco and his goon. He opened a compartment and shut the door quickly to catch his breath.

Three pairs of eyes landed on Percy. “You alright, Mate?” One said. Percy turned to notice the other people. The brown haired boy looked kind of similar to Percy, except he wore glasses. There was another boy with gingery hair next to him, and a brunette girl sitting across from them.

“Running from a normal guy is a nice change from running from monsters.” Percy laughs, glancing around the room. His eyes landed on a trunk that read 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.’ He then started to piece everything together.

“Well, I’m Harry, this is Ron and Hermione. You must be a transfer?” Harry says quizzically, noticing Percy’s New York Accent.

“Oh…yeah.” Percy nods. “What’s the deal with that Draco Malfoy guy?” He asks, taking a seat next to Hermione.

“He’s an idiot.” Hermione muses. Ron lets out a chuckle.

“You don't want to get caught up with him.” Percy adds. “He’s always had a bit of a crush on me but he hates Hermione because of her bloodline. He’s a blood supremacist.”

Percy’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“Well, she's a muggle born.” Harry shrugged.

“Meaning?”

“Oh, you must have different terms for it in America. Her parents are both non-wizards. Draco comes from a family of only wizards.” Harry explained.

“People care about that sort of thing? Does it even change your powers or abilities?”

Harry thinks for a moment. “No, not really. Everyone has a decently fair chance to be powerful I think.”

“Then that's stupid.” Percy huffed. “He seemed like a bit of a dick when we talked.”

The trio nods in agreement.

“Jackson!” Yelled a voice down the hall. Percy’s eyes widened and he looked at the rest of the group.

“You guys can just call me Percy.” He says quickly before ducking out of the cabin and escaping down the hall.

Hermione turns towards the boys casually. “I wonder if his full name is Perseus.” She laughs.

“Perseus?” Ron asks.

“From Greek mythology?” She replied. Ron shook his head. “In Greek mythology, Perseus is the son of Zeus. He’s a demigod, slayer of monsters.” Hermione explained.

“Maybe he is Persues.” Harry said with a teasing smile.

Percy continues to run down the corridor, looking behind himself he doesn't notice Draco anymore so he slows down. He walks along for a few seconds before getting yanked into a new cabin. He yelps at the sudden force as he sees the darkness in the cabin, with the windows all being covered.

“Alright, what the hell?” Percy says in an agitated voice.

“You remind me of someone.” Draco says casually, standing close to him.

Percy reaches his hands out to touch the figure in front of him. Percy reaches for his flashlight and the pen in his pocket. He uncapped Riptide and the 3ft long sword grew to its full length, shining a dim glow over the boys. He saw Draco flinch at the sudden weapon then Draco reached into his pocket, drawing his wand.

“Is the person Harry?”

“What?”

“I remind you of Harry.” Percy says again, more clearly. Draco sneers. “What’s your obsession with Harry?”

“I’m not obsessed with him, you half blood.” Draco says, clearly annoyed. “Put that damn sword away. Why do you even have that?”

“Why did you call me a half-blood?” Percy gasps.

“You’re clearly no pureblood.” Draco sneers. “What? Muggle born? Wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Uh-um.” Percy chokes. He caps Riptide and pulls the curtains on the windows so there would be some light in the cabin.

“Where did your sword just go?” Draco knits his eyebrows together.

“Doesn’t matter. Look, you’re a wizard, aren't you?” Percy asks seriously.

Draco glances down at the wand in his hand. “Yeah, clearly. Don’t tell me you’re some kind of muggle?”

Percy thinks for a second. “Not entirely. But I need to get out of here. I lost my friends at the train station.”

“Not entirely?” Draco crosses his arms.

“I’m not a wizard, but I'm not a mortal.” Percy explains, deciding to bite the bullet since he was seemingly talking to a wizard. Draco stares at him with a confused expression.

“Is this some sort of prank? It’s not funny.”

“It’s not a prank!” Percy argues. Seconds later he hears screaming down the hall and sees students running down past their cabinet.

“Monster, run!” He hears people call.

Percy draws Riptide and uncaps it, opening the door to face whatever monster may be in the halls. Draco stares in awe at the sword. “T-that was a pen!” He exclaims.

“And this is a fury!” Percy replies, charging at the monster. Draco pokes his head out of the cabin and stares at Percy willingly fighting the demon creature.

The fury flies over Percy and lunges at Draco. Draco jumps back in surprise and trips, falling hard to the ground. Percy runs up behind the fury and jumps onto it, plunging his sword into its back. It immediately turns into dust and disappears, leaving a very confused Draco staring at Percy like he’d seen God.

Percy smiles courageously down at Draco. Draco’s sure he’s never felt like this before, protected by another guy like this. Especially not one who looks like the famous Harry Potter.

“You- you saved me.” Draco gasps. “And that thing disappeared!”

“No problem.” Percy caps Riptide and slips it back into his pocket. He reaches a hand down to help Draco up, which Draco gratefully accepts. Draco stares at Percy and takes in his features. Percy notices the staring and quickly lets go of Draco's hand. “Well, is there any way you know how I can get out of here?”

Draco shakes his head, still a bit in shock. “We’re headed straight for school. No stops or detours.” Percy groans. “Once we get there you can steal a broom or a flying car to get back home?” Draco suggests.

“Would those things even work if I’m not a wizard?”

Draco thinks for a moment. “No, I don't think so.”

Percy groans again. “I need my dog, or my friend Nico. Do you have a phone?”

Draco rummages through his pockets and pulls out a phone, handing it to Percy. “How would your dog save you?”

“It’s complicated.” Percy explains, making a call to Nico. He mumbles on the phone for a minute or two before saying “see you soon.”

“Someone coming to get you?” Draco asks, taking the phone back.

“Yeah, but he won't be here for a while.” Percy sighs.

“Guess you’ll have to wait it out.” Draco says, going back into the cabin and taking a seat. Percy follows him and sits across from him.

They talk for a few hours. As the sun started to set outside their chatting died down as they watched the sunset together.

“Are your friends missing you?” Percy asked, staring out the window.

“I’ll see them all year.” Draco shrugged. “I don’t get you for very much longer.” Percy nodded, suddenly feeling a bit sad that he’d never see his new friend again. “Can I ask you something?” Percy nodded. “How did you do that water trick? If you’re not a wizard?”

Percy considered lying but decided it was useless. “I’m the son of Poseidon. I can do things like that.” He said casually.

“Fuck off.” Draco laughed before noticing Percy's serious face. “No way!”

Percy just nodded again. “Got another bottle?” He asks.

Draco rummages through the compartment, grabbing a closed plastic water bottle. Percy uncapped the water and set it on the windowsill. He stared at it for a moment, letting the water swirl up and out of the water in a mini tornado. Draco stared in awe. Percy held the water for a few more moments before it carefully swirled back into the bottle, not spilling a drop.

“That's amazing!” Draco exclaimed.

“That’s nothing.” Percy chuckled. He watched Draco as he stared at the water bottle in amusement. He suddenly felt an urge to be closer to him. Draco noticed Percy staring at him this time and tried to play it cool, as if he didn’t notice.

As the compartments got darker, the noise in the hall got quieter as students were losing energy from the day and falling asleep. Percy watched Draco yawn and let out a shiver. “Cold?” He asked. Draco shook his head but Percy got up to sit beside Draco so he could lean on him. Percy laid his head on Dracos shoulder. Draco stiffened up, not used to physical affection. Or any kind of affection, really. Percy lifted his head. “You okay?” He asked softly, looking at Draco closely.

“I’m fine.” Draco murmured, taking in how close Percy was to his face. Percy noticed it too, glancing at Draco’s lips and taking in how he looked in the moonlight.

Draco stared for another moment before leaning in, letting their lips press together. Percy gasped slightly but accepted the kiss from this boy who he’d only known for a few hours.

After a moment they pull away. There’s a flash of light and Nico Di Angelo is sitting in front of them. Percy pulls away from Draco, his eyes widening in surprise at seeing Nico so suddenly. Nico raises an eyebrow but just smirks and rolls his eyes. “I’m not going to ask.”

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subtletruamadumping · 1 year

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A Pitch Black Room, A Velvet Ribbon, A Secret Box

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This was my first year doing NaNoWriMo. It started as a writing prompt (the title is literally just the prompt) and it's a collection of short stories from many different peoples' perspectives linked by various objects. I won this year but never looked back at it. In fact, I am kind of embarrassed by it but I try to remind myself I was literally a child. Instead of being broken up into chapters, it's broken into characters.

Written in November 2016

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Part 1, Natalie

Natalie laid and stared at the ceiling in the pitch black room, twisting the velvet ribbon in between her fingers. It had been a few weeks since the sleepover had ended. She hadn’t spent much time with the others since then. She had, however, been spending a lot of time with Preston. She hadn’t believed them when they claimed how mean he had been when she wasn’t around. She was sure they were just feeling jealous that they were still single. Except for Brooklyn, probably. But you could never really be sure where Brook stood on an issue. She had always thought of Preston as sweet and kind. It had never entered her mind that he might not really be such a gentleman. That is, until their date that had been a few hours ago.

She had been excited, as she usually was for a date. And why shouldn’t she be? He was planning on taking her to a movie, then to get dinner at her favorite restaurant. She had planned accordingly and had worn a nice shirt with a skirt. She had even thoughtfully decided to where the ribbon he had given her for her birthday in her hair for the date. The ribbon was a soft purple, a great piece to pull together her black shirt and lavender shirt. Of course, the outfit was more planned around the ribbon than the places they were going to attend. She loved the ribbon dearly. She had been so flattered that he had been so thoughtful and present it as a gift to her.

She rolled over uncomfortably in her bed. Why had he really given her the ribbon? Brooklyn had once said something about men giving their wives jewelry as to claim them, like an animal claims it’s territory. She said something like it was their way of showing that the woman belonged to them. A way of telling other guys to back off. Natalie thought about this more as she twisted and turned the ribbon in her hands. The ribbon could easily have been his way of saying publicly announcing that he didn’t want any other guys messing with her. But most of the things Brooklyn also said were about psychology and things that couldn’t be helped. Maybe it wasn’t a conscious choice and he actually thought that he was just giving her a gift. That didn’t explain the reports she was getting about his rude manner, though.

Again, she rolled over. She had witness his heartlessness first hand tonight. She had thought it was going to be a simple movie and dinner. She had thought he was going to be the kind gentleman as usual. And he was. Just, not to her.

When he went to go purchase their tickets for the movie, he flirted a little with the girl in the ticketbooth. Though annoyed, Natalie had initially ignored it. He had done little things like this before, but had always come back around. She crossed her arms and he quickly broke off the flirtatious conversation. They walked inside and he promised her he wasn’t forgetting about her. He said that he had been in the same home room as her last year and was just trying to catch up. Natalie asked why that meant he had to flirt with her. He claimed he hadn’t been flirting and that he would never flirt with another girl (as he always did when confronted with this question). She hadn’t been completely satisfied, but had dropped it so that they could enjoy the night.

The movie hadn’t been Natalie’s choice. Come to think of it, he had never really given her a choice as to where their dates would be located. She had plenty of ideas for nice places to go, but he never asked and she rarely had the chance to voice her opinion about these things. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful or annoying. The movie was definitely a boy movie. Explosions, cars, and gun fights. Natalie would have much preferred a romantic comedy. You know, something you would watch on a date. She had told him she really didn’t like action movies, but he stated that this was the only good movie out. It wasn’t like they could just skip the movie or anything. She had bucked up and bore it, though she was mostly just bored out of her mind.

When the movie was over, Preston had stopped by the girl at the ticket booth again. Natalie had to remind him numerous times that they couldn’t stay out much later than she had promised her parents. She probably would have been better of waving her arms and shouting “Hello?! I’m your girlfriend, not her! I’m the one you’re on this date with!” It probably would have had the same effect on Preston, but a much more direct one on the girl.

Natalie had gone back to being optimistic about the date when they had gotten away from the ticket girl. Without this distraction, she would have her date back. Though she wasn’t exactly happy that she had to win back her own boyfriend, she had remembered that she was going to try her best to enjoy the night. Preston had made a good choice in choosing her favorite place to eat for dinner. She mentioned it to him on the car ride over.

“Really?” He asked, obviously surprised by this “I’m glad I picked it then.” Natalie frowned.

“I’ve told you that before.” She said, crossing her arms “I thought that’s why you picked it.”

“No, you never told me that.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Well, then I just forgot. Don’t stress about it.”

“You forget a lot of things.” She muttered unhappily.

“Oh, don’t get like that.” He said, rolling his eyes “I don’t forget that much. I’m only human, okay?”

“Fine, whatever. Let’s just have dinner and get home before too late. My parents will kill me if we don’t.”

They made it to the restaurant and took a table, looking over the menu to order. Natalie noticed how Preston wasn’t talking to her as much as normal. Probably annoyed about her mentioning him forgetting things. She shouldn’t have brought it up. But still, she wasn’t going to apologize for it. It wasn’t like he could get away with things like that forever. She realized the entire evening was going to be dampered, now. She sighed and put down her menu.

The waitress was a very pretty girl. Actually, Natalie knew her. She was in the grade below them. She was terrible at chemistry and complained about it all the time loudly. So loudly, Natalie could hear her across the cafeteria. Not only did Natalie know the waitress, but the waitress knew Preston. They exchanged greetings. He even called her by her name. Natalie frowned again, beginning to see a trend. Had this been happening all along and she had just been blind to it? Had Preston gone off the deep end? Did he want to stop seeing her? Natalie quickly pushed these thoughts out of her mind and stated her order when the waitress and her boyfriend and finished “catching up”. She was also starting to realize how loose of a term that was. She looked down at her feet, feeling the inevitable creeping up on her. She probably should have listened to her friends sooner. But, as of now, her internal lie detector was on full alert.

“How often do you come here?” Natalie asked when the waitress had gone away.

“Oh, not too often.” Preston said casually.

Truth. He had taken a while to look over the menu. Preston would have known exactly what he had wanted if he had been here more than “not too often”. Then, what made him choose this place? It obviously wasn’t because of his intimate knowledge of Natalie’s likes and dislikes.

“Who told you about this place?” She asked innocently, sipping her drink “I mean, someone had to let you know about this little place.”

And it apparently wasn’t me. She added to herself.

“Oh, you know,” Preston said, still keeping the laziness in his voice “one of my guy friends. You remember Isaac, right?”

Lie. He hasn’t talked to Isaac in a few weeks. Isaac has been out of town. Isaac is a vegetarian. He wouldn’t be eating here, anyway.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Natalie replied flatly “Did you know that Hazel was working here? Small world, huh?”

“Oh, yeah, what a surprise.” Preston said with a charming smile, playing with his own cup.

Lie. His smile was so fake it was painful. He had put his cup in between them. Brooklyn had told her that this was a sign of someone lying. Trying to put as many obstacles as they can between the person they’re lying to.

“I never get to talk to her anymore.” Natalie said “I just don’t the time like I used to.” This was a lie of her own. She never talked to Hazel. She was incredibly self centered and rude. Desperate time called for desperate measures, though so Natalie played as if they had been best friends since Kindergarten and had tragically been separated rater recently.

“Oh, yeah, me neither.” Preston said “I mean, I don’t think I’ve talked to her in a year, now. That’s why I’m doing all this catching up.”

Lie. He was in that chemistry class with her. He wasn’t exactly brilliant. Natalie twisted her napkin in her lap to keep from making a face as she listened to him.

“Really? I thought you had chemistry with her.” Natalie said, still trying to sound completely innocent. His smile faded a little, but he quickly brought it back.

“Oh, really? I don’t really know who’s in that class. I cut it a lot.”

Lie. Well, probably not the cutting class part, but the part where he claimed not to know that she as in his class.

“Right.” Natalie said emotionlessly. There was an unpeaceful quite over the table as Natalie poked at her salad with her fork. She didn’t look up at Preston. She didn’t really want to ever see him again at the moment.

“You look really nice, tonight.” Preston said, probably trying to make up for everything “When did you get that ribbon?” Natalie couldn’t help from putting her fork down rather hard.

“The ribbon?” She asked, almost glaring at him.

“Yeah,” He said, looking confused “where’d you get it? Is it new?”

“You gave it to me.” She said shortly. He blinked and cocked his head to the side.

“I did? When?” Natalie was about to snap at him when the waitress came back, handing him the check. His eyes followed her as she walked away. Natalie stood up.

“Hey, where are you going?” Preston asked, quickly getting out of his own seat. Natalie ignored him and made a bee-line for the door. Surprisingly (or, maybe not so), he didn’t follow her. She exited the building with a huff, blood boiling. She took a few breaths to calm herself down, then started the walk home, her thoughts completely occupied by how much she hated Preston.

And now, here she was. At home. In bed. Her parents hadn’t asked about the date. They stopped asking after the fourth one. As long as she came home in time, they didn’t care. She had gone straight to her room without talking to them. She had closed the door, sat down on her bed, then cried.

The tears didn’t last long, though. She was more upset at herself than Preston. She shouldn’t have been so closed minded to what her friends were telling her earlier. She should have been able to see through him. Oh, well. Couldn’t change it, now.

You live and you learn. She had told herself, getting up to change into her night clothes This just means you’ll never get stuck dating a jerk again.

She continued to twist ribbon in between her fingers in the pitch black room. There was no way she was going to be seeing him after this. He probably wouldn’t care that much. It didn’t matter. Natalie was moving away from this and she vowed not to go back. Tomorrow, she would give him back the ribbon. She’d make him take it. She wasn’t going to listen to anything he said, no matter how nice it sounded. She had learned her lesson and she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.What was that expression Brook used? She thought Oh, right. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. She sighed and closed her eyes. There was no way she was going to be fooled twice. She slowly drifted off, the ribbon in her hands and she in the pitch black room.

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