Previously:

"What are you doing here?" Fred continued just as nervously.

"Boys, what did you do?" Arthur asked sternly.

"We thought Percy was still sleeping so we-"

"FRED! GEORGE!"

That was Penny.

"Did you think that was my room?" I smirked.

"We thought you were sharing a room," Fred corrected.

"As if Mum would allow that," I scoffed as Penny came running down the stairs. She shoved poor Ron and Harry aside as they reached the threshold behind the twins. She stopped in the door way, breathing heavily, glaring at the two. She was covered head to toe in scarlet glitter.

"You two have some cleaning up to do as well as some explaining," Arthur was finding it hard not to laugh.

"Penny, we swear, we meant to get Percy with those," George started, trying to appease the angry Ravenclaw. His hands were up as if to keep her at bay.

"Did you two trolls think to look?" Penny growled.

I have to admit, I was starting to be a little scared of her. Despite the fact that she was covered head to toe in sparkling pieces of plastic that were flaking off like glittering red rain.

"Boys," Molly's voice sounded just behind Penny. "What is this?"

"Uh, hello, Mum!" Fred chirped, slightly relieved. "Fancy seeing you here!"

Molly came from around the bedazzled, angry Penny and planted her hands on her hips. The look she gave them could wither Medusa. "Clean this up right now," she said. "Then go get your things ready to go. You're leaving soon."

"Yes mum," they said in unison as they whipped out their wands. It took them no longer than two minutes to clean Penny and the room she was using.

Penny and I did a sweep of the house to make sure there was nothing left behind. We met up outside the kitchen just in time to hear some argumentative voices coming from within. We gave each other a look and I reached over to push it open a smidge.

"I'm warning you, Snivellus," it was Sirius. He and Snape were almost nose to nose, glaring daggers at each other. "If you are in any way not helpful to Harry in these lessons, no cell in Azkaban and no horde of Death Eaters is going to keep me from coming after you."

"I can give all the help I can, however," Snape retorted with a sneer. "It all depends on if he will be able to step down from his arrogance to accept correction."

Rolling my eyes, I left the room. Dumbledore put Snape in charge of Harry's Occlumency lessons? What was he thinking? Penny was wonderful at the mind magic, he could have asked her. Or even Hermione! She studies enough for the whole school, she'd love to try it out!

In the next 5 minutes, everyone was gathered by the fireplace to floo back to Hogwarts. It was terrible. No matter how many times I do it, I never can stop bouncing into the walls and getting soot all over myself.

On the first day back, my classes were all uneventful. It was while classes were not in session that I had problems. Here I am, trying to get quality time with my brothers when they keep hanging around the campers! It's not like I can act like my true self with them right there, they'd know right away. Even Ginny was hanging out with them. She seemed to have made best friends with Thalia and Piper. This made me only a little nervous. They'd better not be teaching her anything besides self defense.

It was a few days into the new term that I finally was able to hang out with them. For some reason, all the campers-but a few stragglers-were missing. I wasn't about to question it; I was finally starting to have a decent conversation with Ron and his friends.

They were telling me about his lessons with Snape in low whispers over breakfast. I did my best to avoid glaring at the greasy dude.

"What the bl-"

"Percy!"

"Sorry, Penny," I muttered. "Ron, this is not professional behavior." I mulled it over for a moment. "There must be something more to this than just an old school boy grudge."

"Like what?" Harry asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"I don't know," I replied before shaking myself out of my thoughts. "Anyways, Penny, do you think you'd like to help?"

"Of course, Percy, do you need to ask?" She responded cheerfully, causing a warm, fuzzy feeling to run through my spine. She leaned forward. "When would you like to have the lessons, Harry? I know you have Quidditch practices coming up."

"What?" Hermione let out. "Professor Snape is a Master Occlumence, it would be better if Harry learned from him."

"'Mione!" Harry cut off his friends' protesting. "Anyone would be better than him!"

"Oh, don't worry, dear," Penny jumped in before Ron could say anything to start an argument. "Harry would still need to meet with Snape. Dumbledore insists on this for some reason, believe me, Percy's tried. What I can do is help you understand what he's trying to teach you. He may be a Master Occlumence and Potions Master but nobody said anything about Master Teacher."

"And I would be there too," I added, hoping to put them at ease. "So I can dumb it down to layman's terms. Pen has a funny habit of getting technical." I ducked my head just in time to miss a head slap. "No offense."

Ron and Harry were grinning widely. I smiled back and a very new but familiar warm feeling made it's home in my heart.

With a suddenness that could only come from magical birds, a roll of paper plopped down in the salad on the table.

"What's this?" I asked, reaching over to take it out of the bowl. "The Quibbler? Isn't this the paper Miss Lovegood's father prints?"

"Yes," a soft voice said from behind me. Turning around to see a small, blonde Ravenclaw, I smiled.

"Excellent," I said, standing and extending my hand. "It's so good to meet you, young lady. I was quite interested in entering a subscription but no one really wants to tell me how." I left out that they all thought I was joking.

"I'd be happy to give you mine for today's," Luna said happily. "I have read it already. I can send in a subscription for you as well if you like."

"Yes, that would be excellent, thank you!" I said, accepting hers and handing the one in my hand back to my brother. "Won't you join us?"

"Thank you," She said with a soft smile. "My friend will join me once he's done in the forest I'm sure."

"Of course," I said, opening my new copy of the Quibbler.

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:
THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED
& THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

"It's good, isn't it?" asked Luna, she had sat on one side of Ron. The twins happened to show up while I wasn't looking and were sitting on her other side. "It came out yesterday and I asked Dad to send you a free copy. I expect all these-" she waved at a pile of letters that materialized in front of Harry. I must have missed the owls. "-are letters from readers."

"That's what I thought," Hermione said excitedly. "Harry, do you mind?"

"Help yourself," Harry looked a little shocked.

While the twins, Penny, Luna and Hermione were sorting through the pile of letters, I was looking at the article. This Rita Skeeter did an exceptional job on this one. Much better than all the previous ones I've seen from her before. It radiated truth instead of half-spun lies. I was impressed.

"Percy?" Ron had taken advantage of the distraction for his friends to lean over to talk to me. "Can you explain something to me?"

"I can sure try, Ron," I replied with a lopsided smile.

"It's just," he sighed, "something's not adding up. You sent a letter ages ago, praising Umbridge and the Ministry and bad mouthing Harry, calling him a liar..."

"Yes?" I prompted, bracing myself for the worst.

"What changed?" He finally asked. "Was it Dad?"

"No," I sighed this time. "Well, yes. Yes and no. It was because of Dad I changed my mind but it wasn't what you're thinking."

"Then what?"

"You remember on Christmas, Mum said I was a spy for the Order in the Ministry?" I started. He said nothing, waiting for me to continue. So I did. "Well, everything that I did to get into the Ministry was fake. Including that fight with Dad. As for the letter..." I let out a sheepish smile. "That was an accident. I wrote it to help myself get into character but Hermes thought I meant to send it. He's impatient enough to somehow seal the letters himself. I still haven't caught him in the act."

Ron only stared. "You're way different than you were before, mate," he said finally.

"Is that good or bad?" I asked nervously. Was I making progress at all?

"If it keeps going the way it's been going, it's good." He smiled at me and jerked his head in Harry's direction. "Thanks for helping with that by the way."

I felt a million times lighter. "Of course," I said happily. "Let me know how else I can help. I want to make this right."

Ron looked surprised at that but he nodded anyway, letting a small smile take over on his face. It's been a while since I've seen that dimpled smile directed at me.

"Luna! Luna! Guess what!" A very familiar voice shouted from the entrance to the Great Hall.

The fore-mentioned blonde visibly brightened and turned to face a very familiar Latino."What is it, Leo?"

"I did it, I figured out how to send messages to him even though we don't know where he is!" The small, curly haired son of Hephaestus was practically bouncing next to Luna. He barely came above her head even though she was sitting down.

"To who?" Hermione asked. "And wouldn't just sending an owl do it?"

"To our friend, Percy Jackson," Leo answered. "And no, we've tried the owl thing, he came back with the letter unopened. Hazel thinks Percy found a way to be unreachable by people other than those he wants to interact with. He's always been full of surprises."

Well it's a good thing Hecate knew to do that. I definitely would never have thought of making sure the owls couldn't find me. I don't know how she did it but I'm assuming she messed with my magical signature as Percy Weasley.

"How could you send him messages without tracking his magical signature?" I asked curiously.

"That was hard, let me tell you," Leo huffed. "But I figured something out with his...talent and affinity with water so that all we need to do is put the letter in water and it gets sent to his nearest body of water, whether that be a cup, sink or a lake. There is no guarantee that he will notice them but it's worth a shot. I tried it just now-" he looked at his watch "-he should be getting it in about 2 minutes."

What? This was not good. I glanced down nervously at my goblet full of water in front of me and back at Leo. I tried keeping the panic out of my voice as I said, "I'm impressed, Mr. Valdez." If only he showed this much dedication to training to save his own life.

Leo bent at the waist in a dramatic bow. "Why thank you, Professor. I really couldn't have done it without Luna."

I took advantage of the small distraction he made to grab my goblet and hide it under the table. "Oh?"

"Don't be silly, Leo," Luna spoke up softly. "I merely suggested you stop trying to find him and let him come to you. He probably saw all your efforts to find him but not any to communicate with him."

I gaped at Luna, a little stunned. Wise beyond her years, this one was. I didn't even know how to explain what I was feeling until she'd said it.

"You speak as if you know where he is," a new voice came up from behind Leo, causing me to freeze and pale.

"Oh, yes," Luna said, nearly causing me to turn as white as Leo did when he heard Thalia just now. "But I respect him too much to reveal where I discovered him. He's just beginning to heal and I don't want to cause a setback."

I take that back. She's not just wise beyond her years. She sees everything. I continued gaping at her in complete shock even as I felt the goblet in my hands get a little heavier. As if something was dropped in it.