Chapter 8

Percy grumbled as he looked at the murky brown bottle of potion in front of him. "It looks like mud."

Hecate rolled her eyes, "it doesn't look like mud Percy….it looks like shit."

"Hey! Not helping!" Percy grumbled. "Why do the best potions always have to look so bad?"

"Well that's how they work. So man up and drink it already! Don't you want to know what your animagus form is?"

Percy groaned, "do you have an animagus form?"

"No, every God in the greek pantheon has the ability to change our form into whatever we wish. If I want I can change into any animal, though I am partial toward chihuahuas myself."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "really? Chihuahuas?"

"Yes. Now stop stalling! You worked for over a month for this!"

"Fine," Percy grumbled as he grabbed the potion. Hecate sat on a lounge chair by his side while Percy himself was on his bed. He uncorked the potion and gaped at the smell. It smelt like varnish mixed with extra salty salt.

"Now remember after you down the potion you will start to feel sleepy. Fight that feeling for as long as you can, the more you do that the sleepier you get and the sleepier you get the stronger your vision will be. Got that?"

Percy sighed, "got it. Well...bottom's up!" Percy closed his eyes and pressed the potion to his lips. He downed the muddy like substance in one go, refusing to register the taste for fear of vomiting it all out again.

When he was one Percy gasped in pain, "you were right, not mud, shit."

Hecate grinned as she snapped her fingers vanishing the empty potion bottle, "now, lay down and remember, resist the sleep for as long as you can."

Percy nodded as he did just that. He laid back and relaxed his body. Immediately his eyes felt heavy, Percy pushed them away but again and again they dropped to a close.

He pinched himself snapping himself out of the sleep. He groaned, 'try to think about something, keep your mind active. Arithmancy! That's it, recite arithmancy tables! No, wait….I want to stay awake, not fall asleep! Camp! Think about camp!'

Percy thought about the first time he entered camp and the first time he meet everyone. The Ares kids, the Apollo kids. Tyson, Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico. He missed them all so much!

He then remembered all the Gods and goddess. His dad would probably be worried if he knew what happened to Percy. Zeus would probably act all worried but secretly be glad. Ares would not even bother hiding his joy. Hestia...the goddess would probably grieve for him, she seemed that kind of a person. And Artemis, Percy hoped she wouldn't hate him too much, he knew how much she hated stupid boys.

Percy stayed awake for half an hour thinking about his family and his friends. But eventually the potion was too strong. It took over, the last thing Percy remembered was his mom and how she would probably be pissed that he wouldn't be home in time for dinner. Oh well, nothing he could do about it now…

Percy found himself in a haze of Mist. He looked around, but he couldn't tell where he was. He looked down, he was standing on wet grass. Percy found himself wearing his old camp shirt again, it looked brand new.

Suddenly Percy heard something, a rustle in the wind. He looked around and saw a shadow pass through the mist. Percy felt himself being drawn to the figure.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Percy asked as he found himself walking up a hill. "Hello? Animagus form? Bark twice if you can hear me!"

The mist slowly died away as Percy found himself in an open field on the top of the hill. He was now walking on bricked pavement, his steps echoed through the empty space around him.

"Hello?" Percy asked again as he walked down the pavement. He then saw something in the distance. Percy ran and the image became larger and larger. Slowly the Mist cleared up and Percy found himself standing in front of his old cabin. The Poseidon cabin.

"I know where I am," Percy realised as he began to ran, slowly more and more of the Mist started clear away. Percy could see them all now, the Hermes cabin, the Apollo cabin, the Zeus cabin, the Athena cabin.

Percy ran to the center of camp near the hearth and slowly the Mist died away revealing an empty camp half-blood. Percy looked on in amazement, he had never seen this place so quiet before. Slowly in the distance the sun started to rise bathing the camp in orange light.

Percy squinted as a beam of light hit him in the eye and through the glare of light a black figure flew across the sky. Percy watched in astonishment as the black figure flew faster and faster through the air. At one point he could barely keep up, until the figure slowed down approaching Percy with wide spread wings of black.

The demigod watched in awe as a pure black pegasus galloped down and slowly stopped before him. It circled Percy as it tucked in it's wings. It's eyes were the same shade as Percy's, sea green. It snorted in Percy's face ticking the demigod.

"Playful one aren't you?" Percy chuckled as he patted it's nose. The horse snuggled it's snot into Percy's shoulder, the demigod rubbed the pegasus's neck gently removing the knots in it's hair, "a pegasus huh? Can't say I'm surprised."

The pegasus snorted and slowly the world started to fade into white.

Percy opened his eyes and shot up, "holy shit!" He turned to see Hecate smiling down at him, "how long was I gone?"

"Half an hour," the goddess replied, "so? What is is?"

Percy groaned, "it's a pegasus. My Animagus form is a pegasus."

Hecate looked impressed, "a magical creature huh? Can't say I'm surprised. Though the pegasus was kind of obvious, after all you are your father's son."

Percy sighed, "I guess. But I suppose there's no point learning to transform now. What a pain."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because of Zeus, duh," Percy explained, "if he finds you I can fly in his domain he'll zap me before I have a chance to change back!"

Hecate rolled her eyes, "Percy we have been over this. Zeus's powers can't reach you here, he's confined to America, which you can't enter for at least the next 15 years. Also when you're in your animagus form Zeus won't be able to tell the difference between you and the other hundreds of pegasi in his domain! Relax kid, you'll be fine."

Percy eye's started to sparkle, "are you serious! I can fly without Zeus finding out?!"

Hecate nodded, "yup."

"Wahoo!" Percy yelled throwing his arm open, "best day ever!"

Hecate chuckled, "I thought a son of Poseidon would rather swim than fly?"

"I do, but I'm also a normal human being who dreams of flying! Swimming is great, don't get me wrong. But there's just something about the idea of flying that feels…..liberating."

Hecate nodded, "I understand what you mean Percy...alright then, let's begin your training shall we?"

Percy blinked, "what? Now?"

Hecaet grinned evilly, "Yes!" she snapped her fingers and suddenly Percy's hand turned into hooves.

"Holy shit! My hands!" Percy yelled, "why did you do that?!"

"So that you can practise," Hecate shrugged as she walked away, "transform your hand back, if you can."

"How the hell can I do that when I can't even hold a wand?!"

"An animagus doesn't need a wand to transform into his chosen animal. I didn't transfigure your hands into random horse hooves, I purposefully targeted and activated a partially transformation. So you can transform back, you just have to focus really, really hard."

"Is this the normal way of doing things?"

"Usually no, it isn't. First you would have to learn about the animals biology, find out how you are supposed to transform and what you are supposed to transform and then finally transform. I figured it would be easier for you to simply have parts of your body transformed and then you transform back into your human form which you already know pretty well. This was you get a feeling for the animagus form without actually needing to study biology off it."

Percy blinked, "...that's brilliant."

"Thank you, I try. Anyway get too it horse boy! Come down when you managed to transform back," and with that Hecate left Percy alone.

Percy turned to his hand-hooves, he had hooves now, and tried to remember what his normal hands looked liked. 'Come on, it can't be that hard, I mean shit! I look at them everyday! This should be easy!'

Percy focused first on the hooves, it felt strange having a single appendage there when before he had ten fingers. He focused on the feeling and tried to remember how having fingers felt. How they moved, how Percy used them when writing.

Slowly the very tips of his hooves started to transform as slowly it separated into five fingers on each hand. It felt like his very skin was being pulled together as more and more of his hand started to form.

Percy focused on the feeling of his skin being pulled together and pushed further. Slowly more and more of his hoof turned into his normal human hands. And then finally Percy smiled as the black fur disappeared replaced with his normal slightly tanned human skin.

"Hecate! I did it!" Percy cried out as he jumped out off bed and ran to the door.

Snap! He heard come from downstairs and when Percy went to reach for the door he found hooves instead of hands again.

"Oh come on!" Percy yelled out.

"You need to make the process instant Percy! You took one minute too much!" Hecate called from downstairs. Percy grumbled and set to work. He slowly cut down on his transformation time, but not quickly enough.

Three hours later and Percy had managed to make his transform instant. He finally opened the door to his room and walk down to see Hecate curled up on the couch reading a romance novel.

The goddess looked up and smiled, "what took you so long?"

Percy's shoulders dropped, "I hate you so much."

Hecate grinned, "no you don't." She continued to read her book, "that's enough for today. Tomorrow we can tackle transforming your legs."

Percy nodded and walked to his work table. He sat down and sighed, looking down at the work in front of him. He had made some progress with the hoverboard, he managed to substitute a few charms with rune structures and even managed to brew the potion he needed to reduce wind resistance. But he still had a long way to go.

Percy took the board he was working on and began to carve the runes he needed. First thing Percy did was carve in runes for levitation and forward thrust. This as the most difficult to maintain as they required a lot of power and needed to be separate from one another.

Next Percy had focused on making the board effective while in air. Mobility was a big issue, so Percy had to focus on making a rune chain that would handle the desired effects of the user. It would be pressure based and the rider would have to move forward to speed up and backwards to slow down.

Percy also managed to add many security features on the board. For one he made sure that the rider wouldn't just slip off the board, by making a rune that attracted the bottom of the rider's shoes Percy made the board have a sort of pulling effect on the rider's feet. This way it would be really difficult to simply pull the board out from someone's feet.

After spending around three hours on the board Percy went outside. It was a warm summer's afternoon, Percy walked down the road and found Harry waiting for him near the corner.

"Hey Percy," Harry waved as the two boys walked into town.

"Hey Harry, how's life?"

"Not bad," Harry shrugged, "managed to do some of my homework, so that's good. Hermoine would be so proud."

"Hermione...that's you friend that likes to read a lot yes?"

Harry nodded, "yup! She's basically the only reason why I haven't failed school yet."

"How can you possibly fail to learn about magic Harry? It's magic! Who would be bored learning that?"

"Percy you have no idea what you are talking about. The subject is pretty awesome to listen too, but when you actually sit in class," Harry shivered, "so boring!"

"Really? Huh, guess that means I just have a better teacher than you," Percy grinned.

"Oh yeah, Hecate is a much better teacher," Harry blushed.

Percy chuckled, "are you thinking about my aunt naked again Potter?"

"What?! No!"

"Really? That's too bad, she would be so disappointed."

"Argh! You two are going to be the death of me!" Harry yelled out as he pulled his hair while Percy laughed at him.

The next day Percy woke up to find his feet turned into hooves. "Hecate!"

And so the days passed by. Every morning Percy would wake up with a different part of his body turned into a pegasus. One day he had even woken up with wings popping out off the back of his shirt.

After he learnt how to transform back Percy would spend time working on his hover board, he had made tremendous progress, but he kept working on it. Why make it good when he could make it great?! Plus with this he would finally show Harry why brooms were the stupidest choice of transportation.

Percy would then spend the rest of his day either with Harry or reading some book.

On the 18th Percy woke up expecting for something to change. But surprisingly nothing had. Arms? Check. Legs? Check. Torso? Check. Back? Check. Head? Check. Teeth? Check. Hair? Check.

Percy shock his head, 'what did she change?' Figuring it was just best to go and ask the goddess Percy moved to get off his bed when he felt something heavy on his lap. He blinked and looked down. The right leg of his pyjama was tight very very tight, something long ran down it's length. He blinked as he pulled back the elastic waist and stared.

"AHHH!" Percy yelled.

Hecate was sitting down on the couch reading a book when Percy suddenly came charging down stairs limping as he was unable to bend his right leg. She looked up and smiled at his red face, "something wrong Percy?"

"Y-you bitch!"

"I'm sorry? I don't understand? Why are you angry?" Hecate smiled evilly.

"You know what you did!" Percy roared as he pointed to his right leg, "you changed my dick! This thing is huge! I can barely walk properly!""

Hecate grinned, "oh, you mean giving you a horse cock. Right, and?"

"And?! And?! Change it back!"

"Why would I do that? It's part of your animagus training."

"What?!"

"You heard me, it's part of your training. Come on, you don't mean to tell me you never knew that phrase, 'hung like a horse'? It's pretty common GK you know."

"Holy shit..." Percy pulled back his pants and started, "it's a big as my leg!"

"Yup! You'll make some woman very happy someday. Now stop staring at your dick and get to work!"

Percy blushed, "r-right."

Hecate then grinned, "and don't worry. Once you learn how to transform fully I'll help you learn how to consciously do a partial transformation. You can have you cock like that forever if you wish."

"Are you crazy?! I can kill someone with this thing!" Percy yelled as he ran, or more like wobbled, up the stairs.

Hecate laughed, "happy birthday kiddo!"

Percy went into his room and realised what Hecate had said, 'shit...it's my birthday...' Percy looked at the date on the calendar, 18th August. Percy sighed, 'so am I 17 now? Or still only 16? Gods time traveling is confusing!'

Percy then spend the day turning his dick back to normal only for Hecate to change it back. It took him longer than usual to change back, mostly because he took extra caution to make sure nothing went wrong.

When Percy finally finished he laid back down in bed and sighed. Today was his birthday, but he didn't feel like doing anything. He wanted to waste away, he remembered wanting to celebrate with his friends, but now….now that will probably never happen. It was fair, by the time he meets them again they would not have changed but he would have become old. Would they even care for him?

Percy groaned as he curled up and tried to sleep again. But just as he was about to enter Morpheus' realm his door there slammed open.

Percy turned to see Hecate standing at his door way grinning, "what are you doing up here sunshine?"

"I'm just trying to get some sleep," Percy sighed, "don't feel like doing anything today."

"I see….well too bad!" Hecate grabbed Percy by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out.

"Hey! Get off me!" Percy yelled out as she pulled him down the stairs and threw him into the living room couch. Percy didn't feel any of that, but growled either way, "what was that for?!"

"Well I had to do something didn't I? Otherwise you would have locked yourself up in that room all day sulking."

"No I wouldn't!"

"Care to take Veritaserum and say that again?" Percy stammered and the goddess smiled, "that's what I thought. Now, here's what we are going to do, you are going to go upstairs and change and then we are going to go on a little field trip. Understand?"

Percy sighed, "I don't really have a say in this do I?"

Hecate shook her head, "no, you don't."

Percy grumbled but did what he was told. A few minutes later he and Hecate walked out of number 7 and the goddess walked with him into town. She cut through the park and started looking around. Percy grew curious at her action but said nothing.

Once they reached the center of the park Hecate stopped, "this should be far enough. Take my hand."

Percy looked startled, "what for?"

"Oh just do it," Hecate rolled her eyes. Percy sighed, he took the goddess hand and suddenly he felt his entire body being squeezed into a tube. The world started spinning in a blue of green and blue until suddenly ti stopped and Percy on his ass.

"What the fuck?!" Percy cursed. He found himself in a dirty alley way, he went to one corner and grabbed a trash can vomiting his guts into it. He was used to short travel apparition, but this was much more powerful than he was used to, "what the fck was that Hecate?!"

"That was a long distance apparition, sorry about that. You okay?"

Percy grumbled as he drew his wand and vanished nis puke. He cleaned himself up and got to his feet, "yeah I'm fine. Where are we anyway?"

Hecate grinned, "oh come on Percy, don't tell me you of all people don't recognize this place."

PErcy blinked, he looked around but the alley didn't look familiar. Hecate then pointed outside and Percy quickly walked out and gasped. Before him stood Madison times square filled with new yorkers walking about their day. It was different than the New York he was used too, everything seemed a lot older and a lot more messy, but it was still New York.

"I-Is this New York?!" Percy asked as he gasped at the world around him, "did you just bring me to New York?!"

Hecate nodded, "yup!" she wrapped her hands around his and pulled him close. Then walked down the street with Percy staring at everything in wonder. He nearly cried seeing the world around him, though he did his best to act normal.

"The Fates and I spoke and we decided that making you live through life without being unable to see your city was a bit cruel. So we agreed that everyday on your birthday you can spend 4 hours in the city doing whatever you please, provided you don't interact with anyone or change anything from your past."

Percy turned to Hecate, "y-you did this for me?"

Hecate shrugged, "well I wouldn't say that. I just-" Hecate stopped as Percy grabbed her into a hug. The goddess smiled as she hugged the demigod back, "happy birthday Percy."

"Thank you….thank you so much," Percy whispered as he sniffed back tears. "I take it back, you are the best aunt ever."

Hecate grinned as she broke the hug, "and you better believe it! Now come on, enough of the emotional crap! We have work to do!"

Percy blinked back and grinned, "right!"

Hecate took him around, but it was more like Percy leading her around. The boy knew this city better than the back of his hand and he proved it every time they turned into a new street or saw something iconic.

"This place is going to be a work out gym in the future," Percy said pointing to a laundromat. He then noticed a hot dog stand and ran at it so fast he looked like he teleported himself. "Hey! I'll have two dogs with the work's please! Oh and add extra mustard."

"You got it kid," the man grumbled as he made quickly made the order.

Percy was about to pay for the dogs when Hecate stopped him, "here I'll get it."

"No please, it's fine, you already did so much for me, this is the least I can do," Percy smiled.

Hecate rolled her eyes, "Percy do you even have dollars?"

"Yeah I do, I got a few notes with me when I came back," Percy said holding out the notes.

"So they are notes from the future?" Hecate hissed softly, "you wanted to pay for hot dogs with money from the future? Do you even know what damage to the time stream such an act will cause?"

Percy blinked, "huh….I didn't realise."

"And that's why I am the teacher," Hecate grinned as she payed for the hot dogs passing Percy his.

"Ah, a new york hot dog. Stale buns, meat soaked in water that is probably 10% actually dog and mustard that looks old enough to be my mother. Sigh, perfect," Percy grinned as he gobbled up his food.

Hecate groaned looking at her dog, she bite off a pieces and chewed, "this stuff isn't that good."

"I know, it's something only a local can truly appreciate," Percy said with a shrug. The two walked around eating their hot dogs in silence. Percy spent a lot of that time looking around and realizing the impacts of time travel.

Before he had no way of knowing what changed when he came back, he had never been to modern London so he couldn't really say. But Percy did know 2009 New York, so he could tell now exactly what had changed.

The billboards were lammer for one. Not that bright colours and horrible ads as well. There were also a lot of people dressed up like idiots, punks with pink mohawks and jeans that waist came up to their ribs. It was weird, but hey, that's New York.

The ads for companies were also older, Percy remembered the new playstation logo announced with the release of the PS3 in his time, but here they were back to the same old thing. It was funny how Percy knew about how successful companies would in the future even before the companies did.

Percy then suddenly blinked, 'wait….stock…..I'm such an idiot!' "Hey Hecate," the goddess turned to Percy, "do you think you can help me buy some stock?"

Hecate smiled, "so you finally figured it out huh? Honestly Percy the first thing most people would do once they come back in time is become rich!"

"Yeah well you kind of distracted me with the whole magic is real thing," Percy grumbled, "anyway, can you or can you not help me out?"

Hecate smiled, "sure. I'll bring back a stock portfolio for you and help you get started. But maybe later, like next summer, for now just focus on learning magic."

"Thanks. Do you want in on this?"

Hecate shrugged, "I'm a goddess and an immortal, why would I need money?"

Percy nodded, "figured. Just thought I should offer, didn't want you to get pissed at me or something."

The walked up North a couple of blocks and reached the South gate entrance to Central Park. Percy walked in with a smile, the park was filled with people today, children running around playing, parents sitting down for a picnic while dog owners took their pets for a walk.

Percy noticed a couple of toddlers running around and he couldn't help but smile, technically speaking those kids were older than him. And that thought made Percy wonder about something else.

"Hey Hecate, what exactly does my birthday mean?" Percy asked.

"Well you see Percy once a year a very special thing happens where you age by one year. It's a very special event and people celebrate when it happens."

Percy rolled his eyes, "that's not what I mean and you know it. When I was sent back in time it was on the 18th of August 2009. I had just turned 16. I arrived here in February and it's been nearly six months and yet it's my birthday once again. So what gives? Am I 16 and six months or 17?"

"Well according to the identity I have registred you under you are 17 as off today, congratulations. And as far as magic is concerned you are 17, you're welcome for that by the way. But I suppose in your own mind you are 16 and a half."

"Wait, what do you mean magically? How does that work?"

"Well you see your body and magic are intertwined, so as your body gets older so does your magic. Usually your capacity for magic grows as you get older, and so we can loosely say that magic can also 'age', though that's not what really happens. So all I did was make you magic age a little faster, no big deal."

Percy nodded, "I see….so is that why the ministry would also register me as 17 and not 16 and six months?"

"Exactly," Hecate nodded, "again, you are welcome."

Percy chuckled, "thank you oh goddess of magic, truly this one is grateful for your actions."

Hecate chuckled, "don't get cocky brat."

Hecate lead Percy through the park as they made their way Westwards. Percy didn't know why, but he figured she had her reason. They eventually can upto Central Park zoo and Hecate practically dragged Percy inside.

Percy smiled in wonder at everything he saw, he remembered coming to the zoo before, when he was 10 with his mom, seeing it again just brought out those wonderful memories. Hecate dragged Percy around everywhere asking the demigod to explain about all the animals, the goddess looked like she was having fun, so Percy did as he was asked.

Around the afternoon Percy and Hecate found themselves in the food court eating lunch. Percy finished his sub smiled, "thank you for today Hecate. I….I never realised how much I missed this city."

"It's okay, missing one's birth place is common," Hecate shrugged as she sipped from her soda cup.

"Do you miss Greece?" Percy asked.

"No...not really. I can visit the place any time I want, so I don't miss it. But...I suppose I miss the things I used to do there."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Trick and torture men and women of sin while burning them alive," Hecate replied instantly without blinking.

Percy blinked, "I see….and did they deserve it?"

"Yup."

"Okay then," Percy nodded in acceptance. He learnt a long time ago that greek Gods and goddess were crazy. It was best not to question them or what they did.

"Here, put this in the trash," Hecate pushed her tray forward. Percy groaned but nodded. He took the try and walked across the food court to find a trash bin. When he was done he walked away, but just then a small green and blue ball rolled in front of him.

Percy blinked, 'wait...I know this thing,' Percy realised as he picked the ball up looking it over. A wave of nostalgia wash over him as he remembered owning a similar ball when he was growing up. He never went anywhere without it, his mom even said it was his first love, apart from her that is.

"Oh you found it, thank the gods!" a familiar voice called out behind him. Percy turned slowly and found a young woman smiling at him. She had long wavy hair tied back in a ponytail and deep blue eyes. She looked younger than he remembered, so much younger. She was barely a few years older than him!

"Mom?" Percy gasped out loud.

The woman blinked giving him a nervous smile, "I-I'm sorry?"

Percy blinked, 'holy shit! Mom! I can't tell her anything! Shit shit shit! Lie Percy lie!' Percy cleared his throat and gave the woman who would be his mother a wide smile, "s-sorry, you just kind of looked like my mom there for a second."

"Oh," Sally blinked, "I see. I understand, I suppose, is she here with you?"

Percy had to stop himself from laughing like an idiot. So he settled for a smile, "yeah, in a way." He then noticed that he was holding the ball from before, "is this yours?"

Sally nodded, "yes, my son threw it away. He wanted to see the pandas again and started to cry."

Percy chuckled, "yeah, pandas are cool," Percy gave her the green and blue ball, "here, he has excellent tastes in balls."

Sally chuckled, "thank you," she took the ball back and walked away. Percy watched her as she approached a baby stroller and bent over smiling. Percy saw tiny baby hands pop out and reach for Sally's hair pulling it. But she didn't get angry, she didn't even raise her voice. She just smiled brightly and kissed the baby's forehead.

Percy's eyes were filled with tears as they rolled down freely. 'I was such an asshole as a kid….probably still am. Gods, she was perfect, the perfect mom. And I made her life so much harder.'

He regretted not being able to help her, make her life just a little bit better. Being the mother of a demigod was hard enough you had to let your child go by the age of 12 or get eaten by a monster. But Percy wasn't even an ordinary demigod, and Sally wasn't an ordinary mom.

"She's beautiful," Hecate walked up behind him.

"She is," Percy nodded as he wiped away the tears, "I think I remember this day, I know it sounds silly, but I think I do. She took me out today for the first time since I was born. I think this is the first place I came too after I was born. Mom was always afraid some monster would pop out and take me away, it took her a long time to even think off taking me outside. And….and I think this was when I realised that she was my mom, and that she loved me with all her heart."

Hecate nodded, "she did a fine job raising you."

"Yeah...thank you Hecate," Percy turned and grabbed the goddess in another hug, "thank you so much."

The goddess said nothing, she hugged him back.

They came back to Britain around 6 in the evening. Percy crashed into his couch while Hecate went to the kitchen to make some tea. Just then someone knocked on the door. Percy looked surprised but quickly went up to answer it finding Harry standing on his front porch.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" Percy asked.

Harry grinned, "you really didn't think I wouldn't find out did you?" Harry pointed at a book sized gift covered up in red wrapper.

Percy blinked, "how did you know? I didn't know myself?!"

"How did you not know your own birthday?"

"He forgot!" Hecate called out from inside, "come in Harry!"

Percy closed the door behind him as Harry presented his gift, "happy birthday Percy."

"Oh Harry you shouldn't have man," Percy smiled taking the gift, "I'm guessing it's a book?"

Harry nodded, "yup!"

Percy chuckled as he unwrapped his present carefully, he liked to play with the wrapping paper later. He then held a brown book with a picture of disco dancing tree on the cover, 'Charms and what they can do for you!'

"Figured you could use all the help you can get," Harry shrugged, "I asked Hermione and she mentioned that this was great in helping out with charms."

Percy grinned, "cheeky little bugger," Percy put the book aside and locked Harry's head under his arm, "you think just because I suck at one subject your better than me?"

"Well yes!" Harry chuckled as they play fought for a bit.

Percy finally let Harry go and gave the boy a hug, "thank man, this means a lot to me."

Harry still wasn't comfortable with the hug but he nodded, "no problem Percy."

"If you two are done playing around I suggest you get your collective buts in here now! Especially you Harry!"

"Yes Hecate," Harry smiled as they walked into the dining room. Percy then gasped as Hecate brought forth a small chocolate truffle cake with a single candle on it. She smiled as he placed the cake on the table stepping away.

"Go ahead Percy, make your wish," the Goddess smiled.

"What are the chances of it coming true?" Percy joked.

"Around 50/50," Hecate replied in a straight face.

Percy blinked, "you're serious."

"Yup."

Percy nodded, "better make it count then," he closed his eyes and thought hard. He couldn't wish for what he really wanted, to be sent forwards in time, that was impossible. He also couldn't wish for something crazy like wanting to save the people who were already dead, that was not going to happen as well.

But Percy knew what he wanted, to have a family again, to have lots of friends again. For his next birthday he wanted more people to be with him when he blew out the candle. He realised what happened happened, seeing his mother there just proved to him that he needed to move on with his life. And he can't do that alone.

'I wish I can make lots of friends this year,' Percy thought as he blew out his candle.

Hecate smiled, "now that's a good wish."

Percy nodded, "right. Now before we begin, one final thing," he took out his wand and cast a colour switching spell on the brown cake turning it bright blue. Percy grinned, "perfect."

Harry looked curious, "why blue?"

"Well you see my mom and step dad once had a huge fight about the stuff. I love the colour blue, so I wanted a blue cake for my 9th birthday. Gabe said blue food didn't exist and my mom got pissed. So she went out of her way to prove him wrong by adding blue dye to every piece of food she made. And soon it just kind of became a family tradition."

Percy and Harry spent the evening talking about their lives and other random items. Percy asked Harry about how to get into the Hogwarts express and the boy was more than happy to explain.

Percy also found out that Harry's friend Ron had scored tickets to the Quidditch world cup finals one week from now. Harry apologized but he couldn't get tickets for Percy too.

Percy shrugged, "it's not a big deal, I don't even like quidditch anyway. To many brooms."

"Really? That's too bad, what am I going to do with these tickets then?" Hecate said as she waved around two golden tickets causing Harry's eyes to go wide.

"You got tickets?! How?! They are supposed to be all gone!"

"I'm the goddess of magic Harry, I can do anything," Hecate said in a prideful tone that left Harry chucking. The poor boy still thought she was joking when she said that.

Percy smiled, "you didn't have to do that Hecate, today's trip alone was the best gift ever."

"I didn't do it for you Jackson, I know you hate the sport. I did it for me! You know how long it's been since I saw a quidditch match?! I'm just using you as an excuse," Hecate grinned.

Percy sighed, "of course you were."

Harry chuckled and promised to meet Percy at the finals. The young wizard then left wishing them a good night while Percy helped clean the kitchen.

"Percy, here," Hecate then presented Percy with a small gift wrapped box.

Percy blinked, "Hecate you shouldn't have."

"I know, so shut up and open it, you know you want to."

Percy chuckled, he never could lie to her. He quickly opened the box and found a watch inside. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. It was metallic bronze, with a finish that shined blue. The straps were also metal with tiny runes carved into it. Percy recognized them as protection and storage runes. The watch face was intricate with gears and wheels spinning about and two tridents served as the hour hand and the minute hand.

"It's beautiful," Percy gasped as he ran his hand over it. He turned it around and found his name inscribed on the bottom in ancient greek.

"It's wizarding tradition to give a 17 year old boy a watch on his birthday. I made it myself, I hope you like it."

"It's perfect Hecate, thank you," Percy said smiling like an idiot.

"Alright stop with the grinning, quickly put it on, I want to see how it looks!"

Percy nodded and quickly slipped the watch on. He clicked it into place and found that it was a perfect fit.

"It's charmed to be always the correct time and give the correct location of wherever you are. Just tap the glass twice and say location."

Percy did and a blue light spread over the glass with the words, 'number 7 Privet drive, Surrey, UK'. "Wicked."

"Yup. And, if you do this," Hecate reached over and grasped the dial turning it half clockwise and then fully anticlockwise.

The watch then suddenly exploded into metal and Percy found himself holding a metal greek style shield with the watch band acting as the strap. The shield was around two feet wide ,big enough to cover his torso.

"Cool!" Percy cried out as he saw the smooth bronze surface of the shield. There was a trident carved into the center and wave like patterns around etched around the rim.

"It's celestial bronze. Indestructible and very powerful. I charmed it myself so nothing short of Zeus's lightning bolts can even dent this thing."

"Okay now you are just showing off," Percy grinned waving the shield around finding it was very light and easy to carry.

"Yes, I am," Hecate grinned, "but I rarely get to show off so I don't care. And if you do this," Hecate walked behind Percy and touched the watch strap twisting it, causing the shield to grow in size until it was bigger than Percy himself.

"Holy shit! You can adjust the size?" Percy asked as he found the dial Hecate pressed shrinking the size of the shield until it was a few inches bigger than the watch dial from before.

"Yup. And if you want to change it back simply pull in the strap and think it, it's a telepathic control."

Percy did so and the shield turned back into his watch. He turned to Hecate and grabbed her into a hug once again, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Hecate grinded, "three hugs in one day? That must be a new record!"

Percy grinned as he broke the hug, "alright now I have to get you something good for your birthday as well. When is that by the way?"

Hecate shrugged, "don't have one. No God or goddess has a birthday."

Percy grumbled, "well that's not fair."

Hecate smiled, "I know. Well I'm off to bed. Don't stay awake too long munchkin! Oh and don't try to masterbate with your horse cock, you'll find you will need a lot of stimulation to make it work and by the time you are done it will probably be morning."

"Hecate!" Percy yelled back but the goddess had already disappeared into her room. Percy sighed but smiled, he cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and sat down in front of his work bench.

Percy began working on his pet project once again, determined to finish it before the quidditch finals. If he showed the people there how much cooler a flying skate board was then a broom he was sure people would talk about it.

Percy looked at his watch and smiled, he loved the present, it told him that though he was stuck here in the past things weren't all that bad. And something told Percy things would eventually start to look up.