How to Go Looking for Trouble in a Magical School
Since Harry was now busy serving his wonderful detention, which apparently consisted of helping the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor answer the mountains of fan mail he received every day, the very dangerous and absolutely brilliant task Sirius had left behind fell entirely to Percy. Or rather, since Percy didn't really have anything better to do, he assigned the task to himself while killing time waiting for Harry to finish his detention.
Tyson was with him, and even after several days in the castle, he was still marveling at everything like a little kid. Though, technically, he was a little kid by Cyclops standards. He just didn't look like one to everyone else. Neville was there too, after they'd run into him in the corridors. He was trying to chew one of the sweets Tyson had given him, but every time he bit into one, there was a crunch that probably wasn't coming from the candy itself... but from his teeth.
"What are we looking for, Percy?" Tyson asked as he followed behind him, munching on sweets so hard they looked capable of breaking anyone's teeth. They were gifts from Hagrid for helping him clean the carnivorous slugs off his enormous pumpkins.
"We're looking for an excuse that lets Sirius get into the castle," Percy answered calmly as he looked around at the suits of armor, the paintings, and even the decorations.
"Maybe we could pretend we need an expert," Neville suggested, offering a perfectly reasonable idea, if not for the fact that his teeth were completely stuck together from the candy, barely letting him open his mouth. He would have sounded much smarter otherwise.
"Yeah... but it has to be an expert who just so happens to be Sirius. And... is Sirius actually an expert at anything we could use as an excuse?" Percy wondered as he tried to think, but aside from causing trouble or pulling old-man pranks, not many ideas came to mind.
Coming up with a reason for Sirius to enter the castle turned out to be much harder than Percy had expected.
In the end, the three of them wandered through part of the castle looking for inspiration. They passed by the library, where they found Hermione passionately arguing with another group of girls, all of them holding books written by the Masked Hero, to the point that Madam Pince seemed ready to throw them all out if they didn't quiet down.
After that, they continued through the corridors, where they ran into Ron, who had apparently been kidnapped earlier by the Weasley twins. The two of them were trying to force him to eat a piece of candy that looked perfectly ordinary.
But considering who it was coming from, it almost certainly wasn't.
Ron even begged for help with his eyes as he kept his mouth clamped shut as tightly as possible so they couldn't shove the candy inside.
Percy and the others chose to ignore him.
"Brothers are awesome," Tyson murmured for a moment as he watched the twins laughing while continuing their assault on Ron.
Percy couldn't help smiling a little.
Maybe Tyson didn't fully understand what they were doing to Ron, but it was true that, from the outside, the twins looked like they were having an incredible time.
Percy couldn't really say Tyson was wrong.
His relationship with Harry was a pretty good one, and by now, he couldn't imagine a life where Harry wasn't his brother.
Though, of course, he'd never tell him that to his face.
As they continued wandering through the castle without any clear idea, they kept passing students who all seemed completely absorbed in their own problems.
Some Hufflepuffs walked by carrying dozens of snacks in their arms. The moment they saw Tyson, they shared some of them with him before continuing on their way.
It was interesting to see that Tyson was actually even more popular than Percy at Hogwarts.
To be honest, it made him a little jealous, because people at Hogwarts tended to avoid him a bit, mostly because of the House Cup the previous year, when he'd turned down his points out of his knightly honor.
Of course, it had been honorable.
But the rest of Gryffindor couldn't have cared less about his honor if it meant they didn't win.
Before the three of them realized it, they'd probably been wandering around for far too long, and it had become quite late. Curfew was likely about to begin, so with no better ideas coming to mind, they decided it was time to head back.
"By the way... where are we?" Percy asked, realizing that while he'd been lost in thought, they'd ended up in a corridor lined with several tapestries displaying all sorts of interesting scenes.
One of them showed a wizard who appeared to be trying to teach a troll how to dance ballet or something like that.
Like many of the paintings and portraits throughout the castle, the tapestry moved, showing the wizard dressing the trolls in tutus before desperately running for his life while dodging clubs that looked more than capable of splitting his head clean in half.
That earned an amused look from Percy.
But it wasn't any help with what he was looking for.
"We'd better head back. I'm starting to get hungry," Percy said, bringing his search for an excuse to let Sirius into the castle to an end.
Tyson and Neville nodded without hesitation, realizing they were hungry too. So the three of them turned around to head back the way they'd come.
But the moment they turned, they immediately ran into someone familiar, who smiled as soon as he saw them and walked over cheerfully.
"Cedric!" Tyson called with a big, friendly smile when he spotted the older boy approaching.
Cedric Diggory. A fourth-year student. Tall, extremely handsome, with dark hair and bright gray eyes.
Cedric was the older student who had been encouraging Tyson in Hufflepuff, helping him fit in much more quickly. It was no surprise he was the most popular student in the House. His natural charisma made him seem almost perfect.
Maybe a little too perfect.
That was Percy's first thought.
He had already known someone who had seemed just as perfect before.
Luke.
But he immediately pushed the thought away.
It wasn't fair to compare Cedric to someone else just because everyone seemed to like them both.
Even so, he couldn't quite shake the faint sense of unease.
"Hey, Tyson. I thought you'd be with everyone else in the Great Hall," Cedric said as he walked over with a warm smile.
Then Cedric's gaze moved to Neville before settling on Percy for just a second longer.
"You two are... Neville Longbottom and Percy Jackson, right?" Cedric said, raising a hand in greeting. "We never properly introduced ourselves. I'm Cedric Diggory. Nice to meet you," he said with a smile.
Percy simply greeted him with a light handshake, though he couldn't help briefly glancing at Cedric's hands.
By then, Cedric had already turned to greet Neville, so Percy studied him from head to toe.
"You... you've got a good physique. Do you work out, Cedric?" Percy asked out of nowhere.
Cedric, who had been shaking Neville's hand, looked back at him with an odd expression, somewhere between suspicious and confused.
"...Yeah?" Cedric answered, eyeing him strangely.
Even Neville and Tyson couldn't help looking at Percy the same way.
"No, wait. I didn't mean it like that. I just meant your muscles are trained really well," Percy hurried to explain.
That somehow only made things worse.
Cedric raised an eyebrow, looking even more puzzled than before.
"What? No! It's your calluses... and your wrists. I've trained with swords since I was little, so I noticed," Percy explained even more quickly.
Cedric couldn't help laughing.
"I'm just messing with you," he said good-naturedly, having simply decided to tease him. "Yeah, I train for Quidditch. The calluses are probably from gripping my broom while flying at high speed, and it's only natural that your arm muscles develop too. Next year, I'm planning to try out as Hufflepuff's Seeker," Cedric explained calmly.
Realizing Cedric had only been teasing him, Percy couldn't help making a face.
Though, without noticing it himself, he also felt a little friendlier toward Cedric.
He really did seem like a decent guy.
"Like Harry," Tyson said.
"Yeah, Harry Potter," Cedric replied, his gentle smile still in place. "Well, I won't keep you any longer. You'd better get to the Great Hall before you miss dinner," Cedric said, bringing the conversation to an end.
"What about you, Cedric? Don't you want to come with us?" Tyson asked, since he genuinely liked Cedric a lot.
"Oh, I... I'm looking for something. Don't worry about me. Besides, you know the kitchens are close to our dormitories," Cedric said, giving Tyson a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Yeah, we'd better look for Harry on the way," Percy said, finally wrapping up the conversation and urging Tyson and Neville to continue walking.
After saying goodbye to Cedric, who waved until they disappeared around the corner of the corridor, the three of them continued on their way.
Cedric watched the direction they'd gone.
The warm smile slowly faded from his face until only a calm, completely neutral expression remained.
Thoughtful, even.
"Like Harry Potter..." he murmured to himself, dwelling on the words for a little longer than necessary.
Absentmindedly, he began spinning an old green key around one finger.
The key looked ancient, decorated with the engraving of a small serpent.
After a moment, he stopped it, caught the key in his hand, and stared at it for several seconds.
"Hm... Nah, I don't think so," he said, dismissing whatever suspicion had crossed his mind before continuing on his way.
For just an instant, the light from one of the torches reflected off the old green key before it disappeared once more into the shadows of his hand.