Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Most Confusing Chapter Yet
Harry's P.O.V.

"I MUST CONFESS... that I rather thought... you had enough responsibility to be going on with."

Those words echoed in the back of my head. They had been spoken only by Dumbledore, just minutes ago. After a year, he finally gives me the full explanation. And to think, if he had just told me earlier... his death could have been prevented. Everything felt unnaturally numb and out of touch.

There was a sort of banging in my head, as I passed the Great Hall. I had barely taken notice to the steps I took across the corridors I had walked across to get here, each step bringing me farther and farther away from the man himself. He, Dumbledore, had instructed me to go to the Hospital Wing. And so I obliged. I would be lying if I said I wasn't in need for the Hospital Wing. After everything that happened in the past night at the Ministry....

"Harry," I heard her voice. I turned around and saw the two of them standing on the Entrance Hall, Percy and Annabeth. Why weren't they in the Hospital Wing with everyone else?

"Shouldn't you two be in the hospital wing?" I asked them.

"Huh?" said Percy. A look of pure confusion came across both of their faces.

"The hospital wing... weren't you supposed to go with everyone else?"

"Everyone else...?" Annabeth pondered a moment. "Harry we've been looking for you ever since we heard you got in the Hospital Wing yesterday after OWLs."

"But... something strange is going on here. Ever since yesterday, we've been together. Umbridge and the Ministry...."

"Harry, what are you talking about?" Percy asked. "We've been here the entire time."

"This is getting bizarre..." I couldn't comprehend nor understand what Annabeth and Percy were telling me. They know that I'm not stupid, so why are they lying?

"Maybe if we could just talk this out?" Annabeth suggested.

"You know it's a little to late for that." I finally tell the two. "After everything, I don't think any of us are up for talking."

"I'm still lost, what do you mean 'After everything'?" Annabeth asks. "This conversation is getting nowhere."

"You really are content on playing dumb?"

"Harry, we seriously don't understand what you're talking about," Percy said.

"But..."

"Are you feeling okay? You look a little..."

"A little what? Of course I'm not feeling okay. Everything that happened at the Ministry... and not to mention most of it wouldn't have happened if you guys didn't get involved!"

"The Ministry..." Annabeth pondered on it for a moment.

"Why are you taking this so far? Acting like you don't know anything."

"We don't know anything, about what you're talking about anyway." Percy said.

"Stop it." I reached for my wand. This was going to far... it was completely ridiculous. But here I was, clearly pointing my own wand at Percy and Annabeth.

"Harry, can't you see that we're not making anything up?" Percy asked.

"I-" In his eyes I could see wonder and confusion. How could those be the eyes of someone who saw the wreckage at the Ministry. Who held Annabeth's hand as green light illuminated the room. But just as I began to lower my wand, I noticed Annabeth reaching into her pocket, clasping the handle of her wand.

"Annabeth... what are you doing?" Percy asked.

"How am I supposed to know? He's pointing his wand at you, so why not?" Annabeth raised her wand to meet mine.

"Annabeth don't do this. He was just about to walk away. It's fine."

"No. I've had enough," Annabeth said, her gray eyes meeting mine.

"Annabeth, lower your wand and then we can both walk away," I tell her.

"After you repeatedly falsely accuse us? And it's not just now. It's been happening all year-long. No."

"Annabeth."

I grit my teeth. Could this still be a misunderstanding?

"I found a spell the other day in the library. It wasn't even supposed to be there, it was marked for the Restricted Section, but there it was right in the open. I'm not sure how this'll work, but..." She raised her wand, "You won't accuse us anymore. Rursus Memoriae!"

I barely remember Percy trying to knock her wand out of her hands, or the jet of blue light obscuring my vision... until there was sunlight.

How could that be? I was just in the Entrance Hall with Annabeth and Percy, and now my surroundings appeared to have completely changed. The geography didn't even look like Scotland, but I couldn't have left. Apparition was not possible within Hogwarts.

I turned and could that I was standing at the end of a long porch. Two men, along with a twelve year old boy with black hair and sea-green eyes sat at a card table. He held a sort of horn in his hand and couldn't help but look confused and slightly nervous. He seemed oddly familiar.... A blonde girl and a boy with curly brown hair who seemed to be the same age as the boy stood facing the table.

The strangest thing about my new surroundings is that none of them acknowledged my exsistence.... It was the same phenomenon I had experienced in Dumbledore's Pensieve one year previously. So did that mean that this was merely a memory?

One of the men addressed the girl who stepped forward at the mention of her name, "Annabeth?"

I gasped. She had the same gray eyes.... It was a younger version of Annabeth. Could that mean that the boy was Percy?

"This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron." She glanced at the strange horn in Percy's hands for a moment, then back at him. "You drool when you sleep."

In the blink of an eye the memory changed. Percy's appearance suggested that this memory took place two or three years following the last scene. He was standing in the middle of a thicket of trees surrounded by kids of many different ages. Some of them looked like they were fresh out of primary school, while others might've already graduated from Hogwarts. The look on his face was priceless as a girl with choppy jet black hair strode up to him.

"Perseus Jackson!" She looked so furious that bright blue sparks flickered off of her armor. Wait, armor? I turned my head and realized that nearly everyone surrounding me was dressed in some form of armor. What was most confusing was it wasn't the type of common or practical armor you would see, it was more of an ancient looking design.

"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" she bellowed, fury and rage was clear  in her striking blue eyes.

"I got the flag, Thalia!" Percy said. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" The girl, who was apparently named Thalia, yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

"You had too many on you!" Percy told her, as if it was a simple explanation.

"Oh, so it's my fault?" She yelled back.

"I didn't say that."

"Argh!" Thalia pushed him with an electric force that blew him backwards ten feet into the water. How she managed to push him so hard, remained unbeknownst to me.

"Sorry!" Thalia said, her face visibly turning pale. "I didn't mean to-"

A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

Percy stood up from the creek. "Yeah," He growled. "I didn't mean to, either."

That memory faded, quickly flashing into the next one which was noticeably different than the previous two.

I was standing on the shore of a river, a very polluted one at that. There wasn't much light, because I was also somewhere underground. I could see a figure standing besides me, staring out into the polluted river watching something. It took me a moment, but I could recognize the figure as a younger version of Nico... as far as I could tell this memory was approximately one or two years ago.

"You can do it Percy!" Nico said.

I let out an audible gasp before my mind reached the conclusion. Percy was swimming in the river. I could see someone out there, struggling in the water... and it was him. As if the memory recognized my sudden realization the scene came closer and clearer. I watched as his face twisted in wretched pain, as if the water burned him.

The next memory was also strange. A boy who looked to be in his twenties sat on a throne. He had the cruelest expression, one that might resemble Voldemort's. His sandy blonde hair suited him and contrasted strangely with his unnaturally golden eyes. If he turned his head to a certain degree, a pale scar that spanned the length from his eye to his chin could be visible. Just as I had decided I didn't want to face him any longer, the memory changed.

The next string of flashbacks were the scariest of them all. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Most of it was too horrendous to describe!

Toxic air, it surrounded me. It slightly clouded my vision and clasped around my neck to the point to where I felt that I couldn't breathe. A polluted looking river of flowed besides me. But as I looked more closely, I noted that it wasn't a normal river. It was filled with a substance that seemed to be lava, or liquid flame. Fire.

Percy and Annabeth walked through the toxic wasteland, eyes set steadily ahead of them as if they were following somebody. I squinted my eyes, but on the horizon I saw a small group of girls walking. For some reason Percy and Annabeth didn't want to be seen by them. That struck me as odd. The two of them approached the figures more closely, allowing me a better vision of them.

Why in Merlin did it look like they had transfigured one of their legs into some kind of animal hide and the other to metal? Maybe, it wasn't accurate. Could it just be the memory? I didn't have time to dwell on that as I was thrown into certainly the worst and strangest memory of all.

Once again Percy and Annabeth stood next to each other side by side. They both looked half dead; they were pale as ghosts, but definitely flesh. Percy stared at a woman who couldn't be described but in a single word: misery. She started clawing at her throat choking. And I know that Percy was doing this. An imaginary fire appeared in his eyes while Annabeth looked at him with a horror-struck expression. I couldn't blame her. It was sudden, but the memory came to a halt.

I wasn't standing as I was in the memories, but I was now on my knees. I was left facing Annabeth and Percy Entrance Hall once again. Annabeth looked livid, but wasn't looking at me... Percy. He, on the other hand continued to stare at me. His voice seemed louder than ever, even though he was speaking normally. "What was that?"

Me: I do not own any of the characters. All characters either belong to Rick Riordan or J.K. Rowling.
Annabeth: This writing is driving me crazy! Did I or did I not go to the Ministry?
Harry: And why didn't I get my own narrative of the events that went down at the Ministry?
Percy: And what was with that spell that Annabeth used?
Frank: Rursus Memoriae. It roughly translates to 'Relive Memory'.
Annabeth: And how do you know...?
Frank: I can speak Latin.
Leo: I can speak Pig Latin.
Everyone: ...
Me: Thank you Leo, for that awkward silence. I needed something to keep people to stop asking questions.
Leo: You're welcome?

12/27/15

Sorry for such a long wait... again. Many of you will recognize this as a fully rewritten version of the Preview chapter I posted about a year back between chapters VII and VIII. If you're looking for it, it is now officially removed. I know the story's getting a lot confusing, so please bear with me. I will go back to the Ministry. For those of you that celebrate it(which I'm sure is a majority), consider this a late Christmas gift. I'll assume I'll see you in 2016!
-Europa