Previously:
I bit my lip, thinking. There was every chance they thought the conversations here were entirely too suspicious and they would question her. Or at least be suspicious of her and her motives. Or that chance the twins and the Stolls decide to prank her beyond recognition.

"Fine," I relented. "But watch out for pranks. And keep and eye on them." My eyes roamed around, looking at the campers. "They might ask too many wrong questions."

"I'll be fine, Percy, go," Penelope started pushing me out the door after my dad and half-brothers.

As soon as Percy left, I spun around to look at the campers with my hands on my hips.

Penelope Clearwater had a mission tonight. It was going to be a challenge but when have I ever shirked from a challenge? Never. Well, I almost did with Percy. But never again. I'd promised myself I would never give up on Percy. He needed someone on his level (meaning not god or goddess) to not give up on him.

I only almost did because he was playing hard to get. Not that he knew he was, he's so innocent. It was the year of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. After it had all ended, I invited Percy to get some ice cream with me in Diagon Alley. We had gotten much closer by then and I had cracked through his facade so I thought I had a chance.

Turns out I was right.

By the time Hogwarts was about to start up again, I'd worn him down and he agreed to be my boyfriend.

Now, as his girlfriend, it is my duty to meddle. Just a little bit.

"Um, Miss Clearwater?"

I snapped myself out of my daze. "Yes, Miss Lesveque?"

"Are you alright? You've been standing like that for a while," the dark haired, skinned beauty asked. I had to look away because her golden eyes felt like they were reading my soul. Not good if I want to keep Percy's secret.

"I'm quite alright, Miss Lesveque, have you all claimed spots already?"

"There's one over there on the chair," Jason answered from the floor next to Piper's sofa.

I glanced around to see that all the boys were in miscellaneous spots on the floor with blankets and pillows. Piper claimed the sofa in front of the fire place and Thalia the one by the window. Hazel and Clarisse seemed to have chosen the arm chair and the love seat. Leaving me with an arm chair that looked ready to absorb me into it's plush stuffing.

"Thank you," I replied. Grabbing a blanket, I walked over to get comfortable. I waited a few minutes until I confirmed that they were not ready to fall asleep yet before speaking.

"So how are you liking Hogwarts so far?" I asked the only thing that came to mind.

"I love it," Hazel started gushing. "I've learned things I never would have learned back home."

"I like it now that the pink toad is off the campus," Thalia said, to which the rest agreed quickly.

"Weasley's classes are much better than Umbridge's hands down," was all Clarisse said.

"Why did you choose to come for the year in the first place, if you don't mind my asking?" Hopefully this would shed some light.

They took a minute to answer but when they did, they did not disappoint.

"We, uh, lost someone a while ago," one of the Stoll brothers said. The older one, Travis, I think. "They left because of something we did, or rather, what we didn't do. We were hoping to find them here and make it up to them."

"We have it on good authority that he's at Hogwarts," Clarisse said. "We just don't know who he's hiding as or why he hasn't come to confront us yet."

"Or how we're going to make it up to him," Piper added.

"I want to know how he's kept it quite so long," Clarisse muttered. "I would have thought he'd mess up a dozen times by now."

"What is he to you?" I asked softly, doing my best to hide a smile at the irony.

"Family," Nico answered simply. "We're all related to him in some weird way but in the end, we're all family."

I smiled as I saw the others around the room nod in agreement. Now convinced they were ready for Percy to come clean, I said, "Maybe he's not ready to confront his past yet. He's lived here for almost two years with a new, albeit strange family. Maybe he doesn't want to give that all up."

"You know where he is," Frank stated. It wasn't a question, he knew I knew.

My smile grew sad. "I do," I answered. "You look for Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"How do you know..." Jason shared looks with his friends anxiously.

"He told me," I answered. "But I'm not going to tell you where he is. He will come out of hiding when he's good and ready."

"Why did he tell you?" Leo asked.

"I didn't give up on him when the going got rough," I answered. "But you had a different problem, didn't you?"

"I have no regrets," Clarisse said stubbornly from her chair. To which Frank kicked her shoe.

"Because you don't remember what you're supposed to regret," I retorted. "He might not ever show you who he is. But that's his choice."

Piper leaned forward in her seat, catching my eye. She opened her mouth and I could feel her magic before she even said a word. Immediately, my wand was in my hand and silenced her.

"Perseus warned me about you," I admonished. "Said not to let you use your 'charm speak' on me."

Everyone in room except for me deflated noticeably.

"Patience, you guys," I encouraged. "Show him you remember him now. You've gone around the school not even saying his name. How do you think that looks to him?"

A few had eyes widen in her horrified realization.

"We just keep messing up," Jason whispered, making fists with his hands.

"You can do it," I reiterated. "Tell stories about him, make connections with things he would have done before. You might actually find him if you look for things like that in the people around you."

🐺            🐺

The next day, I met everyone at the hospital. Only my Weasley family came, along with Penelope, Harry and Hermione of course but my godly family didn't come. Fortunately.

Once I arrived, I saw my brothers tense, like I would do something to Arthur.

This is bad. I definitely need to stop this horrible act if they are starting to think I would harm my own father. Maybe I can say that because of Umbridge, I have lost faith in the Ministry.

Arthur saw me approach and straightened in his bed. "Percy?"

My face cracked into a lopsided smile. "Dad," I said, walking faster to embrace my pseudo father. "I'm so glad you're okay," I whispered.

"Percy?" Arthur said again hesitantly. "What are you-what about-?"

"I've found that I"ve lost faith in the Ministry," I said casually pulling back.

Arthur laughed lightly but it turned into a cough. "Welll, it's about thine," he said.

"Percy, what about the Minister?" Molly asked.

"We'll worry about that later," I said. "Right now, I think we should focus on getting you home and setting up a meeting with Dumbledore and the Order."

"And what are you going to do about our guests at Hogwarts?" Molly demanded.

I stumbled. "I-I hadn't-I didn't think I needed to do anything about it," I answered, pointedly not looking at my siblings.

"You will eventually," Molly whispered as she brought me into a bear hug. "I'm so glad you're back."

"Percy, are you sure about this?" Penelope asked. She grabbed my hand and squeezed.

"I'm sure," I whispered. "It's time things change."

"What in Merlin's soggy underpants is going on here?" Fred exclaimed.

🎄 🎄

Up until the meeting with the Order, my brothers and sister were a little suspicious of me.

We all woke up to Molly's cooking. The smell of bacon and eggs wafting through out the house. Molly had insisted that I stay with them in Grimmauld Place for the night and by the time I woke up Christmas morning, I was regretting listening to her at all.

"Wake up, dear brother!"

"Merry Christmas!"

I jerked up from my bed only to bang my head against a brother's head.

"Bloody-"

"Ron! Don't ruin it!"

"Why do you need to wake me up so early anyways?" I grumbled, rubbing my forehead. It was throbbing so hard, I thought I was hit with a sledgehammer.

"It's Christmas!" both of the twins exclaimed, throwing their hands into the air.

"I'm aware of that...painfully," I rubbed my forehead one more time. "Now let me go back to sleep."

"Oh, no, Percy," George playfully scolded. "You're going to join us for the Christmas breakfast and opening presents. Let's go!"

I was lifted by my legs and pulled from the bed. The blankets went with me as my head banged against the bed post and then the floor. "By Godric's great lion's mane! You three have about three seconds before you find yourself hexed to the moon and back!"

In less than the allotted time I gave them, I was on my feet and chasing my three brothers down the stairs and around the kitchen table.

"Get back here, you minion of Hermes!" I shouted.

"Percy!"

"Sorry, Mum!" Inside voice.

By the end of the day, I had gotten considerably closer to my brothers and a little with the campers. I was feeling good about going back to Hogwarts and teaching them again. I was growing more and more comfortable with the idea of sharing my true identity with everybody. That is, until the meeting with the Order.

"What is he doing here? I thought he was a lackey for the Ministry," Sirius started the discussion slowly and not at all bluntly. "And what are they doing here? They are still students!"

"Young Mr Percival Weasley has been undercover for us in the Ministry," Dumbledore answered calmly. "These students are in fact here to help us discuss a problem they have and see if they can help us with ours."

"What can mere children do to help us in this war?" Snape sneered.

"I'll have you know that what you have been doing is not helping," Nico sneered back. "So we are here to fix what you started."

My eyes widened. He did not just go there.

"And what," Snape sneered more somehow even when I thought he had reached his limit, "are you planning on doing?"

"What ever you need us to do," Hazel said with a pointed look in Nico's direction. Said son of Hades kept a weird, intense focus on the ceiling.

"Great, now that that is cleared up, why don't we address the fact that Percy has been shunning his family for months and is all of a sudden acting normally around us like it never happened?" That was Bill. He had come for Christmas and was still not over the things he heard I'd said to Arthur. "You don't do that if you don't already feel that way to begin with."

My face went cold, like the blood rushed from my face. That sounded awfully familiar.

"Percy? Percy, dear, are you alright?" Molly laid her hand on my hands that was fisted together.

"Mum, he's right," I whispered. "It's like before, only I did it instead of them and it's even worse because I knew full well what I was doing and I abandoned you, with out even saying a proper goodbye what was I thinking-"

"No, Percy, stop it!" Penelope shouted, shocking the majority of the room who had never even heard her speak. "It is not like before, don't listen to him. He doesn't know the full story!"

"And you do?" Bill challenged.

"Yes!" Penelope stood up, still shouting. "He's sacrificed more than you could ever care to imagine for his family, including those who don't even know they're included! Don't you dare go blaming him for finding an easy way to leave the family to spy on the Ministry! It should not have been that easy to leave! You all never appreciated him the way he should have been!"

Why do I get the feeling she's not just talking about the Weasley siblings?

"Thank you, Miss Clearwater," Dumbledore said politely. "She is correct, Mr Weasley. Now, moving on, we need to discuss this new development with Azkaban."

"What happened, Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, now curious but also wary.

"There has been a break out," Dumbledore said, not bothering to sugar coat it. "I was only just able to hear about it before the Daily Prophet. By this time tomorrow, everyone would have heard about it.

"Who is missing?" Tonks spoke up for the first time during that meeting.

"Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband and a good part of the Death Eaters in there," Dumbledore answered. "Including," he turned his eyes to me "Dolores Umbridge."

My cup of water exploded.