Percy crashed into the bed, facedown into the pillows. The mattress seemed to swallow him up and he let himself melt into the warm blankets, letting out a contented sigh. The events of the earlier evening buzzed around his head and he was having difficulty trying to make sense of whatever his life had become now.

He and Snape had made it to Hogwarts in one piece, and a strange pulse he'd been feeling since he saw the castle had grown and grown until he was standing right in front of the main entrance, and then the pulse, or aura, or whatever-the-Hades-it-was had just seemed to seep into his skin. It lay there for a second, making his hairs stand on end and causing him to shiver, until it seemed to dissipate, whether into him or out of him, Percy had no idea.

Snape had taken Percy's things and vanished them to who-knows-where, offering only a grumble at Percy's indignant 'Hey!', then led him through winding passages and moving staircases to a statue of a gargoyle, which actually turned out to be yet another staircase when Snape said, 'laughing lollipops'. On the way, Percy had found out that he hadn't actually been imagining the talking pictures at that pub they'd been to – the pictures on the walls really did talk, and a few of them even walked out of their paintings into others', amusing Percy greatly when the one moving didn't inform the one next to it, resulting in a few artistic scuffles and barely muffled curses. They'd even run into a ghost – and Percy would really have to talk to Nico about that one because there was no way these guys had found a way to outmaneuver the Ghost King, or if they had, Percy was going to hold it over the kid's head forever.

The staircase actually led to the Headmaster's office, and Percy found the Headmaster himself waiting for them there, clad in all his purple bathrobed glory.

From then on it had simply been a matter of arranging where Percy would be staying, though perhaps 'simply' was the wrong word. Percy had been adamant that he would not leave Harry alone, while the older two men had argued that Percy needed to stay at Hogwarts to practice his magic and bring himself up to the standard of at least the fourth years. Percy then argued that he would rather be taught alongside the eleven-year-olds than abandon Harry, and the professors insisted that Harry could survive a few months without Percy, just as he had all these years. Percy then argued that they were family and family stuck together no matter what and he could always report them for holding him against his will and they wouldn't want a lawsuit on their hands, would they? To which the men merely stated that the non-magic folk wouldn't believe him anyway and the Ministry of Magic would take their side. This went on for quite a while, until Dumbledore brought up the actual conditions of where Harry was staying. The Weasley's, he'd explained, were a rather poor family, having to raise seven children with only one working parent, and yet they had readily agreed to take Harry in for the holidays. Would Percy really want to burden them with another child, knowing their financial situation? When Percy tried to say he'd be willing to pay for expenses, Dumbledore said that they would never accept charity, and deep in Percy's heart he knew that to be true.

Percy had really hated Dumbledore in that moment, and the twinkling in his eyes wasn't earning the old guy any brownie points from Percy. Dumbledore knew Percy would relent when he learned of the Weasley's financial problems, and that was exactly what happened, although the demigod had been given permission to visit his cousin on the weekends. Afterwards, they had drawn up a schedule for Percy for the following subjects: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Potions, History, Astronomy and also Ancient Runes on the side. The subjects were spread out over a five-day week and would take up most of Percy's daytime hours, but he had the weekends free to do whatever he wanted.

After that, Percy had a hurried dinner and was shown to a spare room, and that brings us to where we are now. With Percy's face smashed into a pillow.

Percy remained in that position until he felt like he could no longer breathe, then turned over and lay on his back, imitating a starfish with his arms and legs spread wide apart. His mind was clouded over and he just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up, but he had one small task to do before he paid a visit to Morpheus.

Digging into his pocket, Percy pulled out a smartphone. Well, according to Leo, he should be calling it The Greatest Invention To Ever Be Gifted To Poor Demigods By The Ever Gracious Lord Leo, but smartphone was still an accurate description. The phone was hand-built by their resident fire-wielder, and enhanced so that no monster could track it to the user. It also, miraculously, got a signal whether you were in the middle of the Sahara Desert or at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Percy only hoped it worked when surrounded by magic.

Quickly, he dialled his mother's number and waited for her to pick up. The line clicked after a few agonisingly long seconds and Percy instantly relaxed upon hearing his mother's voice.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mom, it's me, Percy."

"Percy!" Sally sounded delighted. "Oh, I've been waiting to hear from you for ages, how are you?"

Percy chuckled. "I'm fine, Mom," he replied. "Britain's definitely way different to America, though."

"In a good way, or in a bad way?" she asked.

Percy paused to consider his past few days. Would he classify them as good or bad? Was it even that simple? Meeting Harry had been awesome, meeting his other relatives a little less so, becoming a wizard was unexpected and also slightly unwanted, but learning about this whole new world was exhilarating and addictive, and the prospect of actually learning magic was both scary and devilishly tempting. Everything was a big muddle and he had no idea how he would go about labelling things as either 'good' or 'bad'.

"Percy?" His mum's voice broke through the thoughts circling in Percy's head. "Everything alright, sweetie?"

Percy cleared his throat and said, "Yeah, Mom, everything's fine. I'm settling in ok."

There was a slight pause, and then Sally sighed. "You have never managed to hide anything from me, Percy, what makes you think you'll be able to start now?"

Percy laughed and replied jovially, "Since when can you read me so easily, Mom?"

"Since you born, kiddo. Now spill."

And spill he did, from arriving at the airport to the fight with Dudley to finding out he was a wizard to arriving at Hogwarts. Throughout his story, Sally stayed silent, listening intently and only speaking up when Percy was done. Her tone was troubled, and Percy knew she was furrowing her brow and chewing on her nail – a nervous habit she had.

"Percy, you know you can come back any time, right? You don't have to stay there if you don't want to, we can get you a ticket and have you back here tomorrow at the latest, and you don't even need to worry about the money, for heaven's sakes, you're too young to be worrying about our finances–"

"Mom," Percy cut in. "Hey, calm down, ok? Everything's fine, you really don't need to worry about me, Mom, I'm fine. And you know I'm old enough to know about our finances if I'm old enough to fight in two wars." Sally made a noise of protest, but Percy rushed on. "Besides, I only mentioned the goblin thing because I knew it would help you out, and I wouldn't let a chance like that pass, Mum. And it's not that bad here, honest. You've got nothing to worry about."

Percy could feel rather than hear the sigh his mother let out. "I just… I'm your mother, Percy, it's in my nature. Besides, knowing the amount of trouble you manage to get yourself into, it'd be wrong for me not to worry."

It was a weak joke, but Percy laughed anyway, if only to raise his mother's hopes a little. "Aw, come on, Mom, I'm not that bad."

"Oh, yes, you are," Sally countered, her voice lighter than it was before, before turning serious again. "Just… promise me you'll be careful, alright? No getting into trouble and no blowing up the school or anything. Just, promise me that. And you have to call more often, yes?"

"I swear it," Percy promised. "Talk later?"

"Bye, Percy. I love you."

"Love you, too."

Sally hung up and Percy let his hand fall to the mattress. He looked at the phone for a moment before rolling his eyes, and dialling another number. This time, the owner picked up instantly, his voice booming loud and clear through the tiny cellphone.

"Boy on fire speaking, who this?"

"Leo, it's me."

"PERCY!" Percy winced and yanked the phone away from his ear.

"Hey, can you not try to break my eardrums? I'd like to not go deaf, thanks."

"Hey, man, it's great to hear your voice again, we thought the Brits had gotten to you or something. How's the Queen treating you?"

Percy scoffed, "I haven't met the Queen, Leo, and the Brits have so far refrained from eating me alive, so I'd say I'm pretty good."

"Aw, man, that–"

"Hey, is that Percy?"

"Did you say Percy?"

"I want to talk to him, gimme!"

"What, no, it's my phone, give it back – hey!"

Percy listened with growing amusement as the scuffle continued, until someone finally addressed him directly.

"That you, Percy?" a voice that was clearly a huffing and puffing Jason asked.

"The one and only," Percy grinned. "How've you been?"

"Yeah man, we're good, camp's good – oi!"

"Percy, hey, how's it going?"

"I'm doing great, Nico, you?" Percy replied, his grin growing wider and wider.

"Eh, you know, having to deal with these idiots by myself, it grows old pretty quickly. How are your cousins?"

"One of them's pretty decent actually, his name's Harry, but the other one, Dudley, is a bit spoilt, not going to lie," Percy answered.

"Aw, that sucks – excuse me, I was talking!"

"Percy! How are you?"

And so it went. Percy would start up a conversation with someone, until the phone was snatched away and he would start over with someone new. He was pretty sure the phone managed to rotate through the whole camp before he finally hung up, and the last thing he heard was, "Hey, does anyone know who this phone belongs to?"

In much higher spirits, Percy collapsed back onto the bed and closed his eyes, and soon enough the demigod was snoring away, safe and happy.

Hey, everyone. Geez, I left you almost for a month didn't I? And I didn't even write that much in this chapter. Actually guys, I had this major breakdown a couple of weeks ago where everything happening in my life kind of just crashed down onto me all at once, and I found it kind of hard to deal with and I made a few rookie mistakes, but I'm getting help for that now, so yeah. Sorry for disappearing for a month, and sorry the chapter isn't what I promised but I felt I had to give you something after leaving you hanging for so long. I will work on the rest and update soon, hopefully, and I'll just replace this chapter with the new one. It may not be my best, but I hope you're still satisfied. Stay happy my dudes :)