Percy woke up the next morning. He got ready for the day, then went to wake up Nico. But Nico wasn't there.

Percy ran down to the common room. He looked in at the couch and the chairs to see if Nico was sitting at any of them. He checked the dark, shadowy corners, to see if he were relaxing in one of them.

"Percy?" A voice said from behind him. "What're you doing?"

Percy turned to see Harry. Percy was bouncing nervously. "Nico's missing. I've been searching for him all morning. I can't find him anywhere."

"Maybe he went to breakfast," Harry suggested.

Percy was already shaking his head. "He waits for me."

Harry went deep into thought, thinking.

(A/N If he's deep in thought, then he's thinking. Duh.)

Percy broke Harry's train of thought by talking.

"I'm going to see Dumbledore," he said quickly. He ran off before Harry had a chance to reply.

Percy said the password, barely slowing down as he approached the stairs. He ran up them and urgently knocked on Dumbledore's door.

(A/N Dumb Old Door's door.)

"Come in," said a voice from inside. Percy pushed the door open.

"Oh, Percy," Dumbledore greeted, smiling. "I wasn't expecting you. What a pleasant surpri-" he stopped when he saw his face. "What happened?"

"Nico's missing," Percy said, jumping up and down.

"You sure have a lot of energy," Dumbledore muttered.

"Anxiety does not help my ADHD," Percy replied. "Now what can we do?"

"I can deal with finding Nico," Dumbledore said. "You can just GI about your day normally, for the most part."

Percy shook his head. "No. I want-I need-to help! I can't just act like nothing's wrong!"

Dumbledore looked at Percy for a long time. Percy almost wanted to smack that annoying twinkle out of Dumbledore's eyes.

"Severus can probably find a way for you to help," Dumbledore said finally. "Talk to him before class or something."

Percy said, "Thank you for your consideration."

(A/N Anyone get the reference?)

Then, he rushed out the door, closing it behind him.

~°~

Potions was first, thank gods.

Percy left breakfast extra early (okay, he had waited through breakfast and just paced the common room instead) to go to potions.

He knocked on the potions room door.

"Come in," Professor Snape drawled from inside.

Percy pushed the door open.

"Why are you here?" Snape asked.

"Nico's missing," Percy said. "I talked to Dumbledore about how I could help find him, and he said that you could tell me how I can help."

"You can help by staying out of the way," Snape suggested.

"Staying out of the way? I knew that would be your answer! I can help, and if you don't think so, then I'll just go out and find him myself! Who knows? Maybe I could find him before you all! But I have been through too much to just sit around and do nothing! I let him down once, I broke a promise! I will never do that again! Excuse me, Professor, but I think it safe for me to say that I have been through more terrible things than you ever have or will go through!"

Snape looked shocked that I would yell at him like that. "I will not allow you to disrespect me in my own classroom!" Snape said.

"I could care less about respect and disrespect!" Percy shouted. "I don't even respect the gods, so what makes you think I will respect you? Sure, you have done some respectable things, but that doesn't make me respect you! I was useless, I was helpless once! That is never going to happen again! People died because of my stupidity, and this is a chance for me to make up for all that I have done wrong! I can help! I am not going to stand by and do nothing if Nico is in trouble."

Percy took a breath, glaring at the professor. Snape opened his mouth to reply, but Percy continued, in a quieter voice:

"If it helps at all, the hat considered putting my in Slytherin."

Shape raised his eyebrows. "I can see why he didn't," he said. "You seem a true Gryfindor to me."

Percy was suddenly standing in front of Severus with a knife at Snake's neck. Snape's eyes were wide.

Percy's eyes burned with fury.

"I have gotten people killed by my cowardice," Percy hissed. "I may not seem like a Slytherin to you, but why don't I? You see this?" Percy held up his other hand, which held a small camera. He aimed it and clicked it, taking the picture. "I can show all the professors this picture. I've heard that's a very Slytherin thing to do. I am perfectly capable of coming up with a witty and sarcastic comeback, like a Slytherin. I am no Gryfindor. I'm only a Gryfindor because I asked to be one. I asked to be in Gryfindor because Nico's a Gryfindor. Slytherins are loyal to the people close to them, but very untrusting. Yeah, that could be me, couldn't it? I haven't truly trusted anyone except for Nico since I was betrayed the first time, let alone the second time. Now believe me when I tell you that I have been through more than you ever have or will go through. Now let me help you all find Nico, before I lose the only person that I really trust. I swear, I could cut your head off right here and now without blinking an eye. Sure, I might live to regret it, but it wouldn't be the first time I've killed someone. I've done it plenty of times."

Severus tried to seem calm, but Percy could tell that he was nervous from the look in his eyes. Percy smiled coldly, his eyes still swirling with rage, and he was obviously serious.

(A/N No, he wasn't Sirius.)

Percy backed away from Snape, still smiling coldly at him. "So, how can I help?"

"Um. . . You can help us search for him, I guess. . ."

"Well duh," Percy replied. "But you're a double agent. Maybe you should see if the Dark Side has him. Then, you can tell us the defences and I can go in and get him out."

"Did you come up with that plan on the spot?"

"Yes," Percy replied. "I may not be as smart as a Ravenclaw, but I dated a daughter of Athena before."

"Wait, so what Albus said was true?" Snape said. "Their really are Greek gods and stuff?"

Percy smiled coldly again. "Yes," he said. "I don't really like them very much though. They don't like me very much either, but I saved their a**** multiple times. I have pretty much all of them in my debt."

"Are you a demigod?" Severus asked.

"Yes," Percy said. "My father's Poseidon. Relationships are weird when they concern Greek gods though. I was dated a daughter of Athena once, which actually means that she was my second cousin, and then Nico's a son of Hades, so he's my cousin. Good thing godly sides don't count. But none of that's as weird as when I found out that my father had a kid with my great grandmother. I mean, who has a kid with their grandmother? That's just disgusting. . ."

Snape stared at him.

Percy noticed and sighed. "All this stress is not helping my ADHD."

Snape just sighed.

Percy started to walk over to his desk.

Snape reached for his wand so that he could use it to stir a potion, but found that it wasn't there.

"Oh," Percy said, smirking. He held up a wand- Severus's wand. "Looking for this?"

A/N I wish it could be longer, but I'm tired, and this is going to be a busy weekend for me. I'll try to make the next one at least two thousand words long.

~Shatter