Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

9) Walburga, Walburga, On The Wall, Who's The Purest Of Them All?

I was going to say something about how the Ministry could suck a wiener, but sadly was interrupted by footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Uh-oh," Fred gave the Extendable Ears, which had been dangling over the railing the whole time we'd been talking, a tug. With a loud crack, he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs. Weasley appeared in the doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," Ginny said smoothly. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please...." She looked back at me. "Oh, and Perseus, have you read that letter from Albus yet? Well, you should probably read it before dinner, who knows what it might be about."

Ginny grimaced at us as she and her mom left the room, and I remembered the letter in my pocket. I'd completely forgotten about it.

I didn't move to read it.

"We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try and persuade Dumbledore —" Hermione said quickly.

"Yeah, I know," Harry huffed. He seemed to search for a different topic. "So, Dumbledore's sending you letters, Percy?"

"Yeah," I said. "And don't worry, I'm not really keeping anything about you from you. It's more about what I've been doing to help with the whole situation, which really isn't much at the moment."

"What do you do?" Harry asked.

"According to the Daily Prophet, I just blow things up, because I'm a terrorist," I shrugged.

"What do you really do, then? Not according to the Ministry."

"Oh, I blow stuff up," I said. "Just not because I'm a terrorist. Well... actually, my goal is to terrorize them, just not hurt people."

"Why are you terrorizing them?" Harry asked.

"Trying to bring the focus on me," I said. "You should've seen what the Ministry wrote about you before I started promoting the idea that Voldemort is back. I blow things up so I get put in the paper, people wonder what the heck I'm doing, and then they find out all that I've been saying." I looked down.

"I could be doing all of that stuff," Harry said.

"Yeah, but that's kinda not the point," I said. "I'm bringing attention to me from all fronts. I'm trying to become the face of the war."

Harry blinked, "Why?"

"Dumbledore thinks I'm going to die."

"What?!"

"C'mon, let's go get food, I'm starving," I said, standing up from the bed.

"Don't you need to read the letter?" Ron gave me an unimpressed look.

"Nah, it'll just disappoint me," I said.

"Well, you know what happened last time you didn't read one of those."

"It'll be fine, my eyebrow grew back after last time," I said, pointing to my mostly grown back eyebrow.

"All right," Ron sighed and shook his head. We stepped out of the room together. As we were about to make our way down the stairs, Ron held his arm out to stop us, "Hold it!" He was careful to speak quietly. "They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something —"

We peered over the banister. The hallways below was packed with excitedly whispering witches and wizards, and in the center was Severus Snape. Harry visibly tensed at the sight of him.

A thin piece of flesh-colored string lowered right in front of us, and I grinned. I didn't particularly like listening in on private Order meetings, knowing why I wasn't included in them in the first place, but I could always appreciate some Fred and George chaos. They lowered the Extendable Ear towards the group, but the knot of witches and wizards moved toward the front door and away from us.

"Damnit," Fred whispered, pulling the Extendable Ear back up again.

"Snape never eats here," I told Harry, watching his face grow from weary to relieved. "C'mon."

"And don't forget to keep your voice down in the hall, Harry," Hermione whispered.

As we passed the shrunken heads, we saw Lupin, Mrs. Weasley, and Tonks standing by the front door, sealing its many, many locks.

"We're eating down in the kitchen," Mrs. Weasley met us at the bottom of the stairs, whispering. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tip-toe across the hall, it's through this door here —"

CRASH.

"Damnit, Tonks!" I hissed, looking back.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks cried, lying flat on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over —"

The rest of her words were frowned out by a horrible, ear-splitting shriek.

The disgusting, moth-eaten curtains hiding my least favorite painting flew apart, revealing an old drooling woman, yellowing skin stretched with a scream. The other portraits lining the hallway started screaming along.

I darted forward and grabbed one of the curtains, Lupin grabbing the other one. We tried to force the curtains closed, but they didn't budge, and the woman continued to scream, "Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you be foul the house of my fathers —"

Tonks was apologizing somewhere behind me, dragging the troll leg umbrella stand off of the floor. Mrs. Weasley was rushing up and down the hall, stunning the other portraits with her wand.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" Sirius Black came barreling out of the kitchen, seizing the curtains and attempting to close them with us.

"Yoooou!" The portrait howled, her eyes popping at the sight of Sirius. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said — shut — UP!" Sirius bellowed, and with a whole lot of effort, we managed to shove the curtains closed.

We took a step back as the portrait of Walburga Black finally quieted, an echoing sort of silence filling the air, my ears ringing.

Sirius smiled back at my friends, "Hello, Harry. I see you've met my mother."

Yesterday was Winsday, and I went to my friend's mom's classroom to make hat ornaments. My sister showed up and we had a conversation. Only issue is, I had that conversation with her in the same place doing the same thing with the same people months ago. I think I'm prophetic. Or maybe it's deja vu, but we're gonna go with the me having superpowers. I wonder if that means I'm gonna end up in a river shack where my name is Samantha, like another dream. That'd be neat. The school play was actually pretty good, but in the middle of it, this guy lost his hat on the train. He ended up switching to a new hat. I now realize it's because he lost his, but why not just show him getting the new hat? I dunno, he could've grabbed it off of someone and put it on his head and I would've been much less confused. To her fair, I get confused a lot.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a smashing Thursday, and I'll see you on Saturday CT. Love ya!