"blah blah"- Speaking Greek

"blah blah"- Speaking Amestrian

'blah blah'- Thinking

*<*<*>*>* - Begin/end flashback

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Percy Jackson. Good thing too, or they wouldn't be nearly as good as they are now. They belong to J.K. Rowling, Hiromu Arakawa, and Rick Riordan. Just to be safe, I also don't own the song 'This is War' by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Percy

     A young girl, no older than ten years, sits at a wooden table, a book spread out in front of her. Sunlight streams in through the window, providing light to the cheery kitchen. The girl's brow furrows in concentration, her light green eyes bright with intelligence. A strand of dark red-brown hair falls across the page as she leans forward, and she absentmindedly pushes it behind her ear, never losing concentration.

     The door to the kitchen bursts open with a bang, and two boys enter. They are obviously her brothers; with the same tanned skin and high cheekbones, though the older looking boy has light brown hair, and the younger has brown eyes. The girl looks up, frowning in annoyance at their interruption.

"Still studying?" The brown-eyed brother teases, grinning at his sister. "Trying to get into Ravenclaw or something?"

The girl smirks at him, annoyance vanishing as quickly as it has come. "Unlike you, I'm planning on doing well in school, and succeeding after I graduate."

The brown-eyed brother wrinkles his nose at her as the older brother laughs. Then he turns serious, and looks at his sister with worried eyes.

"Don't overwork yourself," he warns. "You're still a kid, you don't need to worry about things like that yet."

The girl smiles up at him. "I know what I'm doing," she assures. "I just want to be sure that I have good future."

The younger brother, no longer annoyed, grins and ruffles his sister's hair. "You sure are smart, sis. But you need to lighten up some! Come outside, we have an extra broom you can use!"

The girl sighs in defeat and closes her book. "Fine." As soon as she is clear of the table, she dashes out the door. "Hurry up, slowpokes!" She calls over her shoulder.

     Grinning, the younger brother chases after her. The older brother pauses, turning back to look at the book laying abandoned on the table, its worn cover barely readable. The title is indecipherable, but underneath the words; a fading ouroboros symbol is visible. The boy frowns and reaches his hand towards the book, but at the calls of his siblings, he abandons it follows them outside.

     Percy woke with a start, jerking up into a sitting position. He sat, disoriented and confused for a few seconds, trying to make sense of his dream. The dream had had an odd feeling to it...and he was left with a sense of foreboding that he didn't understand.

'I haven't had a dream like that in so long...what the heck was that all about?' Percy fell back onto his bed and stared at the crimson curtains. 'Add that to the list of mysteries. Maybe I'll talk to Nico and Thalia about it in the morning.' He turned onto his side and closed his eyes, but found that sleep was evading him.

     He lay staring into the darkness for what felt like hours, grasping at the sleep that kept slipping away. The only sound throughout the room was the gentle breathing of his sleeping roommates, until an annoyed sigh drifted from Nico's bed.

"Nico?" Percy whispered, pulling his curtains back. "Are you awake too?"

There was a rustling as Nico drew his curtains back from around his bed. "Yeah. I've been up for a while. Couldn't sleep. You?"

"I had a dream that woke me up."

Nico nodded in understanding, not unfamiliar with strange dreams. "So...what was your dream about?"

Percy shook his head. "We should wait, I need to tell Thalia too."

"Right." There was another rustling sound, and as Percy's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see that Nico had pulled his knees up to his chest. The two of them sat in silence before Percy spoke.

"Hey, Nico...do you miss anyone back home?"

The boy looked up, his face ghostly pale in the moonlight. "Yeah, I guess I do. I mean, I didn't really have friends before the war with Gaea, but now, after-well, I guess people finally started to accept me. So yeah, I guess I really do miss that."

Percy smirked. "Are you sure you don't miss anyone in particular?"

     Nico growled softly, but Percy was sure that if the room had been brighter, then he would have seen a blush on the younger boy's face. "What about you?" Nico asked. "I know you must miss Annabeth."

"Not just Annabeth," Percy said longingly. "I miss my mom and my step-dad, and the rest of the seven, and...pretty much everyone back at Camp Half-Blood, I guess."

"Even Clarisse?" Nico asked, amusement evident in his tone.

"Even Clarisse," Percy said with a laugh. "She's not so bad-she has some good in her, you just have to dig...really deep...to find it."

Nico laughed quietly. "Yeah, you have to dig really deep. But when it matters, she's a good person."

"They all are," Percy said, his smile turning sorrowful. "I just want to get this quest over with so we can get back to them."

In the darkness, Percy could barely make out Nico's nod of agreement. "Me too Percy," he replied softly. "Me too."

~o~O~o~

"Are you feeling alright Percy?" Hermione asked worriedly as he stumbled into the Great Hall and sat across from her.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Percy rubbed his eyes for the tenth time since waking up. "I didn't sleep well, and I had a weird dream."

     Thalia looked up, eyes wide. She gave him a look. We'll talk about it later. Percy nodded in agreement.

"I had a weird dream too," Ron said. "We were at Hogwarts, but it was different. You three weren't here." he nodded at the Americans. "And neither was Professor El-er-Edward. And Peeves was gone too, for some reason. Oh, and Harry's eyes weren't green."

"The rest of that could make sense," Hermione said in confusion, "But why would Harry's eyes change color?"

Ron shrugged and took a bite of sausage. "Don't ask me, Hermione. It was a dream."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she took a bite of toast. "Most dreams have rational explanations. They show your fears, you hidden anxieties, your hopes for the future-"

"Oh come on Hermione," Ron interjected with a snicker. "You don't actually believe that, do you?"

"I think I agree with Ron," Harry put in. "Most dreams are just weird."

"Maybe you just aren't looking hard enough," Hermione huffed.

"Now you sound like Trelawney," Ron teased.

Hermione went red. "I do not sound like that crazy fortune-teller! Dreams do not predict the future, but they can show your subconscious feelings!"

Ron smirked. "Sure, Hermione."

     Hermione huffed again and began going off on another tirade about the Divinations professor. Ron smirked away, occasionally throwing in a teasing comment in between bites of food.

     Percy watched their friendly bickering fondly. With the depressing air around the castle, it was good to see that his friends were still able to smile. He, however, was not able to grin as cheerfully as before. Percy couldn't shake the overwhelming thought that the deaths of Susan and Luna were his fault. And though he knew it was impossible, he spent every waking moment trying to find a way to fix his mistake.

     From the way Nico and Thalia had been acting, they felt the same way. Percy only wished that they knew what they had done wrong; and how to fix it.

'We will make it right; somehow,' Percy thought. 'We'll catch whoever is responsible, and we'll make her pay. I only wish we knew who exactly we're fighting...and what it is that she wants.'

~o~O~o~

     As it turned out, the demigods didn't have a chance to discuss Percy's dream until late that night. They couldn't risk anyone overhearing them, and there was always someone in the common room. Even now, as they huddled around the fire, two first-years were sitting on a couch not far away, working to complete their homework.

"So, Percy." Thalia slid into the seat next to Percy, glancing uneasily at the two first-years. "You had a dream."

Nico materialized next to her, claiming a spot close to the roaring fire. "Did you learn anything important?" Nico, usually so good at hiding his emotions, couldn't contain the hints of eagerness and desperation that leaked through.

Percy fiddled with Riptide, which had become a habit since the attack. "I don't know...maybe. It was confusing, like all of our dreams are."

"Well, what did you see?" Thalia leaned forward, tightly gripping the arms of her chair.

"There was a girl," Percy began hesitantly. "A girl that I've never seen before."

Thalia and Nico glanced at each other. It wasn't uncommon for demigods to dream of people they had never seen before. "And?" They both asked.

"I don't know," Percy said helplessly. "Nothing really special happened. She was sitting at a table reading a book, and then two boys came in-her brothers, I think-and they talked a little, and then she stopped reading and went outside with them. That's it."

Thalia frowned at the fire. "Well...what did they talk about?"

"Nothing important-her brothers said she was working too hard, she said she was fine-that kind of thing."

Thalia's frown turned into a full-on glare. "There has to be more...think about the book she was reading. Was there anything special about it?"

Percy bit his lip. "Now that you mention it...there was a weird symbol on it."

Thalia perked up. "What did it look like? Can you describe it?"

     Percy furrowed his brow, trying to recall exactly what had been on the cover of the book. It had been a strange symbol...one that almost seemed familiar.

"I don't exactly remember," He said in frustration. "I think...it was a snake of some kind."

"Was it the Death Eaters symbol?" Nico asked, eyes wide.

"No...it was different." Percy racked his memory, trying to recall the shape. "It was really faded...but I think...maybe it was a snake forming a circle?"

Nico's expression brightened. "Was it a snake eating its own tail?"

Percy's head shot up. "Yeah, that's it!"

"I know that symbol," Nico said eagerly. "It's the ouroboros, a symbol that represents infinity, or wholeness."

"Well, great." Thalia threw her hands in the air. "How is that supposed to help us?"

Percy shrugged in defeat, and Nico cast his gaze to the fire.

"What connection could your dream have to Alex?" Thalia wondered aloud, pulling on her hair in frustration. "Maybe..."

"What?" Percy asked. "Whatever it is, tell us! We need anything!"

"Well, maybe..." Thalia hesitated uncertainly.

"What?" Nico asked impatiently.

Thalia shrugged helplessly. "Well, I was thinking-Hecate gave us pictures of her known demigod children. We could see if any of them resemble the people in your dream, but it's doubtful."

"Let's try it anyway," Nico said. "We don't want to risk missing anything."

Thalia climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories, re-entering the common room with the few photos provided by Hecate. "It's a long shot, but it's all I can think of."

     After a hasty glance to be sure the two studying first-years were preoccupied, Thalia carefully spread out the three pictures; their only clues about Alex. Percy leaned over the faces, studying them closely. The first; a young boy with blond hair and blue eyes-definitely not. The second; an even younger girl with black hair and eyes-no, not her either. But the third...an older teenaged girl with dark, red-brown hair and pale green eyes...if she was several years younger...

     Percy picked up the picture to look it over more closely. The physical attributes were similar, but the eyes...the eyes that had been lively and mischievous in his dream...in this picture, they looked angry and dejected. The mouth that had smiled so readily looked set in a permanent frown. But despite all this, Percy could see the resemblance.

"This one," he said confidently, his excitement growing. "I'm sure that this is the girl from my dream!"

Thalia snatched the picture to examine it. "This picture was taken nearly fifteen years ago...well, fifteen years ago, our time. In this time, that's decades in the future...you know what, never mind. The point is, we now have a better idea of who our target is."

"What do we know about her?" Nico asked, taking the picture from Thalia.

Thalia picked up the lone piece of paper that held the girl's information. "Not much. Her name is Elsie Taylor, she was born in 1980, and she has two half-brothers who are a few years older than her. According to this she attended Hogwarts, graduated, and has been spending the rest of her life traveling. That's all the information we have on her."

"Well that's not very helpful," Percy sighed.

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "That isn't anything to go off of. Knowing who her family is and that she went to Hogwarts doesn't help us." He kicked an overstuffed chair in frustration. "We can't even look at her school records because she hasn't-" Nico froze. "Thalia..." he said slowly. "What year did you say she was born?"

Thalia looked back at the paper. "1980. Why, what does that..." She trailed off, eyes widening.

     Percy stared at the two of them, quickly doing the math in his head. If she was born in 1978, and they were in the end of 1993, then that would mean...Percy inhaled sharply.

"She's thirteen years old!" Percy exclaimed. "But that would mean-"

Thalia nodded, pale-faced. "She's at Hogwarts right now. She's a student."

"So...what do we do?" Nico was still gripping the picture, wrinkling the edges. "And how did we never think of this before?!"

Percy shook his head, shocked into silence by the sudden realization. "I mean...there isn't really anything we can do, right?" Thalia and Nico looked at him, and he hurried to explain. "We can't risk doing anything that might change the future, so...we just have to act like we always have."

"Well..." Nico said slowly. "On the outside, at least."

Even Thalia looked confused. "What do you mean?" She asked warily.

Nico stared intently at the fire, quite obviously thinking hard. "We can't approach her directly, and gods forbid that we actually interact with her-but maybe we could look into her without her knowing."

Thalia grinned. "I get what you're saying. If we find out what she's studying-what books she checks out at the library, what her interests are-we may get a better idea of what her plans are."

"It's a long-shot," Percy said grimly, "but it's the only shot we have right now."

Nico nodded. "A shot in the dark. But at least now we have a target."