Percy’s POV

I blinked, trying to make sense of my surroundings. The last thing I remembered was being in London, so why in the world was I in the Big House? I glanced around, trying to make sense of everything. The whole room was bronze shielded, there was a record-player and a full-screen video on the wall and a computer and a boom box in the corner of the room. With a jolt, I realised that I was in Chiron’s office.

“I saw them coming, Chiron,” A familiar voice said tensely from behind me.

I whirled around. Rachel and Chiron were standing at his desk, both looking grave and alert. Neither one of them seemed to have noticed me though.

“Hey guys!” I shouted, lifting my hand.

Immediately, I stumbled backwards, spluttering at what I saw. My hand was transparent. When I looked down, I realised that it was the same for the rest of my body. “Holy Poseidon …” I breathed, examining it.

“I know, Rachel. It seems that we’ll have to fight,” Chiron sighed, bringing my attention back to the two.

“There’s still no sign of Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse either,” Rachel murmured. “This is the worst timing ever.”

“I know,” Chiron nodded, glancing out of the window. Demigods were running around, shouting and laughing happily and there was a pang of longing in my heart when I saw that. Gods, I missed camp. “Do you know when they’ll be here?” he asked Rachel, turning his head back to face her.

Her expression tightened as she nodded. “In a few hours. Maybe by tomorrow morning,” she answered stiffly.

“Good. We’ll have just enough time to warn and prepare everybody for it,” Chiron said. His face darkened. “It’s a good thing I know a thing or two about wizards.”

I choked on my saliva when I realised what Chiron was saying. Wizards were attacking the camp in a few hours. How in the name of Poseidon did they even know where camp was? Would they even be able to get pass the camp’s boundaries? Judging by Chiron’s words it seemed like they could.

But the most important question was: how were the demigods going to protect themselves from magic?

The question seemed to be in Rachel’s mind as well for she asked softly, “Chiron, how are we going to defend ourselves? None of us know what we’re up against.”

“I know,” he replied grimly. “But Celestial Gold can hold up against magic. We’ll just have to hope for the best.”

I could’ve sworn that he was looking straight at me as he said that but before I could make sure, the dream changed.

I was now in a dimly lit room with rows and rows of shelves which held what looked like glass orbs. Feeling curious, I stepped closer to one of the shelves, my hand reaching out to grab one when voices from a distance drifted to my ears. Distracted, I turned towards that direction and cautiously moved forward. Although I was certain that this was still a dream, I wasn’t certain whether they knew I was there or not.

“Take it for me … lift it down, now … I cannot touch it … but you can …” A high, cold voice echoed around the cathedral-sized room that I was in. Hearing that voice made chills run up my spine and goose bumps to erupt all over my arm.

I stepped closer towards the source of the noise and the scene that unveiled before me was terrifying. There was a shape of the floor; a black shape moving on the floor like a wounded animal. Towering above him, clothed in black robes, was a sort of … creature. It was tall and skeletally thin. His face was extremely pale, with dark scarlet slits for eyes and he didn’t seem to have a proper nose, for it was flat and only had small incisions as nostrils.

I inhaled sharply as I realized who it was. Ron had mentioned him too many times for me not to recognise. Lord Voldemort.

The black shape on the ground shifted a little. A long fingered white hand appeared from the folds of the robes as Voldemort lifted up his wand and pointed it at the shape, uttering, “Crucio!”

Waves of terror crashed over me and I stumbled backwards as the unknown figure let loose a scream of agony, writhing on the floor in pain. Cold, merciless laughter rang around the room. The wand was lifted yet again and lifted the curse. Immediately, the screaming stopped and was replaced instead by a groan.

“Lord Voldemort is waiting …”

The figure lifted himself up very slowly on trembling hands, his shoulders raised a few inches off the ground. When his face was revealed, my whole body tensed. His face was blood-stained and gaunt, twisted in pain yet it showed defiance.

“You’ll have to kill me …” Sirius whispered.

“Undoubtedly I shall in the end,” Voldemort replied coldly. “But you will fetch it for me first, Black … you think you have felt pain thus far? Think again … we have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream …”

As Voldemort raised his wand yet again, everything faded away and I found myself in a world of darkness. I fell onto my knees, truly spooked at what I just witnessed, my whole body shaking like a leaf. Sirius … Sirius was being tortured. He was out there being hurt by Voldemort. I struggled to my feet, my breath coming in short pants. My eyes darted wildly from side-to-side as I spun around. I have to get out of here; I have to go help Sirius. But where in Poseidon was I?

I didn’t know for how long, was I stuck there in the never-ending darkness. It seemed like days but it could have been mere hours. Just before I was about to go mad from the loud silence ringing in my ears, another scene materialized before me. I rose from where I had been sitting and squinted out at the bright light that hurt my eyes after so much darkness. With a frown on my face, I observed my surroundings. To my surprise, I seemed to be in the Forbidden Forest, or at least, at the edge of it.

“Percy!” A voice yelled out joyfully from behind me.

I spun around. “Grover?” I asked incredulously.

My curly brown haired friend ran up to me and engulfed me in a huge hug. “Oh, thank the gods you’re alright. What happened? Where are you guys?”

“What are you talking about?” I frowned. “The last thing I remembered was eating in London with Annabeth and Clarisse. I must’ve fallen asleep. This is a dream right?”

 “Percy,” Grover said quietly. “You’ve been missing for about two months now.”

“What?” I spluttered after a shocking moment of silence. “Wha –? That’s impossible. It can’t have been two months. What was I doing for two months?” As I said that, everything suddenly came rushing back to me. My face paled. “Oh gods.”

“What?” he asked, sounding worried. “Do you remember what happened?”

“We were attacked,” I recalled. “This kid came out of nowhere and he ordered us to sleep. He had some kind of magic, because none of us could resist him. He also mentioned that he was a son of Morpheus.”

“But that’s the god who –“

“Yeah, it is. And his son attacked us,” I said grimly. That’s when I noticed everybody else fidgeting impatiently behind Grover. “Uh, what’s happening?”

“We’re going to go rescue Sirius. Harry dreamt that he was being tortured by Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic,” Grover explained.

“I dreamt that too!” I said. “We’re coming with you guys to help.”

“Well, you’ll have to wake up first. And then, you’ll have to find a way to get to the Ministry of Magic and meet us there.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll meet you there,” I nodded.

My eyes snapped open and I was greeted by a canopy of green leaves above me. Feeling groggy, I forced myself to stagger up from the ground. My clothes were covered in leaves and dirt and right next to me, were Annabeth and Clarisse, both lying on the ground fast asleep. We were all right at the edge of the park where we had been attacked.

“Annabeth,” I said, stumbling over to her and shaking her awake. “Annabeth, wake up. We’ve been attacked and we need to go. Now.”

“What -? Percy?” Annabeth mumbled, her eyes fluttering open. “What’re you doing?

“Annabeth, we've been asleep for two months,” I said urgently, moving on to Clarisse next. “That kid that attacked us put us under a spell. We have to go now. Sirius is in trouble and Grover and the rest are all waiting for us to meet them at the Ministry of Magic.” I decided not to mention anything about camp yet, not until this was out of the way.

“Oh, gods,” Annabeth was truly alert now and on her feet, reaching out for her backpack. Clarisse was blinking in confusion next to me but she seemed to have understood most of what I had said as she pushed herself to her feet.

“I’m going to kill that kid the next time I see him,” she snarled, looking downright irritated.

“Percy, how are we going to get to the Ministry of Magic? I know it’s somewhere here in London, but we don’t exactly know where,” Annabeth asked, hurrying next to me as we stepped out of the forest and into the park.

“I have a way,” With those words, I let out a loud whistle.

“Blackjack?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. “But he doesn’t know where the entrance is either.”

“Well, yeah, but Harry and the others will be flying towards the Ministry and when we see them, we can use Blackjack to bring us there too,” I explained.

“All three of us?” Clarisse asked now, sceptical.

“He’ll bring his friends,” I said, looking up at the sky for any unidentified flying horses, from the magical world or not.

Night had fallen before Blackjack arrived, with his friends, Guido and Porkpie. ‘Sup boss, he called out cheerfully, clomping to a halt in front of me.

“We’ve talked about this, Blackjack,” I sighed, rising from the ground and clambering onto his back, still squinting upwards. Next to me, both Annabeth and Clarisse did the same.

Sorry, he whinnied.

Shaking my head, I gave no response. For a minute or so, all of us stared up, trying hard to spot our friends, fearing that we would have already missed them. Then, something sped across the sky, an undistinguishable blur that was soon followed by others.

“Let’s go!” I urged.

You got it boss! Blackjack crouched down a little before shooting up to the sky, getting in position right behind the last blur, which looked very much like Grover riding on a Thestral. His head was facing downwards and I could see his shoulders shaking from the cold and fear of falling off. From out of the corner of my eye, I could see the two girls rising up behind me.

We had been flying for no more than three minutes before the Thestral in front of me suddenly dipped downwards, the bright orange lights growing larger and rounder, and the top of the building clearer. We were now hurtling towards the pavement; I leaned forward in anticipation and a little bit of fear that we would end up splattered instead.

Incoming, Blackjack warned.

I tightened my grip on him as we drew closer to the ground. The landing, thankfully, was smooth with hardly a bump. Still, I couldn’t help but breathe out a slight breath of relief. “Good job, Blackjack,” I said, sliding off his back.

He reared back a little nervously as he looked around. I couldn’t blame him; the surroundings did look really creepy. Uh, guess I’m not needed here anymore right, boss? he asked tentatively.

“Yeah, go on. I’ll see you later. Thanks for everything, Blackjack,” I grinned at him.

Glad I could help. See you later! With that, he flew off, Guido and Porkpie right behind him.

“PERCY! You’re here! Oh thank gods,” Grover shouted, colliding right into me from behind.

“Good to see you too, buddy,” I laughed.

“Brother! You’re back!” Tyson cheered joyfully, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. “I have missed you.”

“Hey,” Nico greeted me quietly.

“Come on, we can catch up later!” Harry shouted from where he and the others were gathered around a telephone booth, gesturing impatiently.

They were already squashed into the telephone booth by the time we hurried over. “Uh, I don’t think this is going to fit us all,” I said, staring at them.

“Gee, you think?” Clarisse said sarcastically. “We’ll be going in two bunches then.”

“Fine by me,” Harry said quickly. “Whoever’s nearest the receiver, dial six two four four two!”

I watched closely as Ron stretched out his arm bizarrely to reach the dial. A cool female voice sounded from inside the box. “Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business.”

“Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood,” Harry rattled off as quickly as he could. “We’re here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!”

“Thank you,” the female voice replied. “Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes.”

Half a dozen badges slid out of the metal chute where returned coins normally appeared. Hermione grabbed them all and passed them out.

“Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wands for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium. “Fine! Now can we move?”

I watched as the floor shuddered and the telephone box sank out of sight. All of us waited impatiently for it to return and it did after a minute or so. After going through the exact same procedure, we were taken aback by the magnificence that greeted us after the lift had descended and we had spilled out into the Atrium.

“Woah,” Annabeth breathed out in awe.

We were standing at one end of a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor. The ceiling was peacock blue, inlaid with gleaming golden symbols that kept moving and changing like some enormous heavenly notice board. The walls on each side were panelled in shiny dark wood and had many gilded fireplaces set into them, although there were no fires alight. Halfway down the hall was a fountain. There were a group of golden statues, larger than life-size that stood in the middle of a circular pool. Glittering jets of water were shooting out of the wands of the statues of the wizard and witch, the point of a centaur’s arrow, the tip of a goblin’s hat and each of a house-elf’s ears.

When we stepped out of the lift, we saw that Harry, in his anxiety, was already halfway down the hall, leading the rest of the group to a pair of golden gates at the end of the hallway. Breaking into a sprint, we caught up with them at the gates, breathing heavily.

Harry pressed a button and a lift clattered into sight. Fortunately, this lift was big enough to squash all of us in this time. When all of us stepped into the lift, Harry stabbed the number nine button. The golden grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling.

A cool female voice said, “Department of Mysteries,” as the lift halted and the grilles slid open. When we stepped out into the corridor, it was deserted. Nothing was moving except the flickering of the torches.

Harry turned towards a plain black door and whispered, “Let’s go.”

When we were within six feet of the door, he suddenly stopped. “Okay listen, maybe … maybe a couple of people should stay here as a – as a lookout, and –“

“And how’re we going to let you know something’s coming,” Ginny interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “You could be miles away.”

“We’re coming with you, Harry,” Neville said.

“Let’s get on with it,” Ron said firmly.

Reluctance was obvious in Harry’s face but he said nothing further and instead faced the door, which swung open. He marched forward and the rest of us trailed behind.

We found ourselves standing in a large, circular room. Everything was black: the floor, the ceiling, even the identical black doors set at intervals all around the black walls.

“Someone shut the door,” Harry muttered.

Neville obeyed. As the door close shut, the place became even darker; the only things that could be seen were the blue flames burning on candles on the walls and our reflections on the floor.

Suddenly, there was a huge rumbling sound and the candles began to move sideways. The circular wall was rotating. I glanced down wearily, hoping that the floor wouldn’t move either. To my intense relief, it stood still. I was starting to feel out of my depth here. My friends seemed to be feeling the same as they drew closer together, Annabeth moving right beside me.

“What was all that about?” Ron whispered fearfully as soon as the walls had stopped spinning.

“I think it was to stop us knowing which door we came in through,” Ginny said in a hushed voice.

She was right; none of us even knew which was the exit now, let alone the door to the room with the orbs.

“How’re we going to get back out now?” Neville sounded uncomfortable.

“Well, that doesn’t matter now,” Harry said forcefully. “We won’t need to get out till we’ve found Sirius –“

“Don’t go calling for him though,” Hermione said urgently.

“Where do we go, then, Harry?” Ron asked.

“I don’t –“ he began before swallowing and stopping himself. “In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room – that’s this one – and then I went through another door into a room that kind of … glitters. We should try a few doors. I’ll know the right way when I see it. C’mon.”

He walked towards the door facing him, set his left hand against its surface, raised his wand and pushed the door open.

The room was long and rectangular. Lamps hung low on golden chains from the ceiling, giving the impression that it was much brighter than the circular room we were just in. The place was empty except for a few desks and in the very middle of the room, there was an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of us to swim in; a number of pearly-white objects were drifting around lazily in it.

“What’re those things?” Ron whispered.

“Dunno,” Harry said.

“Are they fish?” Ginny breathed.

“Aquavirius Maggots,” Luna said excitedly. “Dad said the Ministry were breeding –“

“No,” Hermione said, sounding odd as she moved forward. “They’re brains.”

“Brains?” Grover choked.

“Yes … I wonder what they’re doing with them?”

All of us moved closer to the tank. Sure enough, they were brains, now that we could see them at a closer distance.

“Gross,” Clarisse said, sounding disgusted, peering at the drifting brains.

“Let’s get out of here,” Harry said. “This isn’t right; we need to try another door.”

“There are doors here too,” Ron pointed out.

“In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one,” he said tersely. “I think we should go back and try from there.”

Nodding, we hurried back out to the circular room.

“Wait!” Hermione said sharply, as Luna made to close the door. “Flagrate!”

She drew with her wand in midair and a fiery ‘X’ appeared on the door. No sooner had the door slam shut, the rumbling started up again and the wall began to revolve very fast. When all became still, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door that had already been tried.

“Nice,” Nico said, sounding faintly impressed.

“Good thinking,” Harry agreed. “Okay, let’s try this one –“

Again, he chose the door directly facing him and pushed it open, his wand still raised.

This room was larger than the last, dimly lit and rectangular. The centre of it was sunken, forming a great stone put some twenty feet down. We were standing on the topmost tier of what seemed to be stone benches running all around the room and descending in steep steps like an amphitheatre. On the centre of the pit, there stood a stone archway on a raise stone dais. Unsupported by any surrounding wall, the archway was hung with a tattered black curtain or veil which, despite the complete stillness of the cold surrounding air, was fluttering very slightly.

“Who’s there?” Harry asked, jumping down on to the bench below.

“Careful!” Hermione whispered.

He scrambled down the benches till he reached the stone bottom. His footsteps echoed loudly as he approached the dais. “Sirius?” he asked uncertainly.

“Let’s go,” Hermione called from halfway down the stone steps, sounding scared. “This isn’t right, Harry, come on, let’s go.”

When there was no reply, she said again, more forcefully this time, “Harry, let’s go, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied, but still, he did not move. Suddenly, he said very loudly, “What are you saying?”

“Nobody’s talking, Harry!” Hermione said, moving over to him.

“What’s going on down there?” Annabeth murmured, leaning over. All of us were still at the top, not inclined to approached the dais down there, especially not now that Harry seemed to be enchanted.

“I don’t like it here,” Tyson muttered, sounding frightened.

“There’s something wrong with that veil,” Nico said, appearing at Annabeth’s side, sounding uncertain and a little bit … scared.

I was starting to get a little impatient. We had to go help Sirius. Now. We didn’t have much time left and we still needed to return to camp before the wizards attack. “Come on, Harry! Let’s go!” I called quietly, but impatiently.

“Someone’s whispering behind there,” Harry said, frowning. “Is that you, Ron?”

“I’m here, mate,” Ron said, appearing around the side of the archway.

“Can’t anyone else hear it?” Harry demanded, placing a foot on the dais.

“I can hear them too,” Luna breathed, joining them while gazing at the swaying veil. “There are people in there!”

“What do you mean, ‘in there’?” Hermione demanded, sounding angry. I knew that she was terrified, which was why she was angry, because she wanted to get out of here. “There isn’t any ‘in there’, it’s just an archway, there’s no room for anybody to be there. Harry, stop it, come away –“

She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him away, but he seemed to be resisting.

“Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!” she said, her voice high-pitched and strained.

“Sirius,” Harry repeated, sounding mesmerised. “Yeah …”

Finally, something snapped in his brain and he stumbled several paces back from dais, wrenching his eyes away. “Let’s go.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to – well, come on, then!” Hermione said, leading the way this time. On the other side, Ginny and Neville were staring, entranced, at the veil too. Without speaking, she took hold of Ginny’s arm, Ron grabbed Neville’s and they marched them firmly back to the lowest stone bench and clambered all the way back up to the door.

“What d’you reckon that arch was?” Harry asked Hermione as all of us stepped back into the circular room.

“I don’t know, but whatever it was, it was dangerous,” she said firmly, inscribing a fiery cross on the door.

After the room had stopped spinning, Harry approached another door in random and pushed. It did not move.

“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked.

“It’s … locked …,” Harry grunted, throwing his weight at the door.

“This is it, then, isn’t it?” Ron sounded excited as he joined Harry in the attempt to open the door. “Bound to be!”

“Get out of the way!” Hermione said sharply. She pointed her wand at the spot where a lock would have been and said, “Alohomora!”

Nothing happened.

“Sirius’s knife!” Harry said. He pulled it out from his robes and slid it into the crack between the door and the wall. We all watched closely as he ran it from the top to the bottom, withdrew it and then flung his shoulder again at the door. It didn’t budge. When all of us looked at the knife, we saw that it had melted.

“Right, we’re leaving that room,” Hermione decided.

“But what if it’s the one?” Ron asked, staring longingly at it.

“It can’t be. Harry could get through all the doors in his dream,” she replied, making the door.

“You know what could be in there?” Luna asked eagerly.

“Something blibbering, no doubt,” Hermione said under her breath. Neville let out a nervous little laugh.

The wall slid to a halt once again and Harry pushed the next door open.

“This is it!”

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A/N: I'm back from my short hiatus! Sorry about that. I've been extremely busy lately, with practices everyday, performances and stuff about my future, etc. Question: did you guys like the second movie on Percy Jackson? I hated it. Seriously, it was horrible. I was so mad when I was watching it recently because they completely ruined the whole thing. It's like they've never even read the book. I was so pissed off, I swear. Here's to hoping the third movie would be better ...

I love you all and am eternally grateful to every single of you <3