Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

2) Imagine Writing a Chapter When You're Supposed to be Working

Lupin smiled and shook Harry's hand, "How are you?"

"F-fine," Harry looked around at all the faces with wide eyes. "I'm — you're really lucky the Dursley's are out."

"Lucky, ha!" I snorted. "It was me that lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post tell them they'd been short-listed for the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They're heading off to the prize-giving right now.... Or they think they are."

Harry smiled, "We are leaving, aren't we? Soon?"

"Almost at once," Lupin nodded, "we're just waiting for the all-clear."

"Where are we going? The Burrow?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Not the Burrow, no," Lupin motioned us into the kitchen. All the others followed, their eyes not leaving Harry for a moment. "Too risky. We've set up headquarters somewhere undetectable. It'd taken a while to get everything going...." Moody was sitting at the table, taking a swig from his hip flask. "This is Alastor Moody, Harry."

"Yeah, I know," Harry looked uncomfortable. I got the feeling. Being introduced to Moody after spending a year with the evil guy pretending to be him was very odd.

"And this is Nymphadora —" I winced as Lupin spoke.

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," Tonks scowled. "It's Tonks."

"— Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," Lupin finished. For a flash of a second, I was reminded of Thalia. She'd practically disowned her last name. I pushed the thought away. I didn't want to think of camp. I didn't want to think about what had happened earlier that summer, and I certainly didn't want to think about what would come next summer.

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you 'Nymphadora,'" Tonks muttered.

"Could go by Dora," I said.

Tonks glared at me. We'd had a heated discussion about her going by the name Dora. So far, she was winning, as it was her name, but I did bother her a lot, which was really my goal in the end.

"And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt" — he motioned to Kingsley, who bowed — "Elphias Doge" — Doge nodded — "Daedalus Diggle —"

"We've met before," Diggle squeaked excitedly. I grimaced again, trying to push down memories of the Daedalus I'd met that summer.

— "Emmeline Vance" — she inclined her head — "Sturgis Podmore" — he winked, and I rolled my eyes — "and Hestia Jones" — she waved from next to the toaster.

Harry had awkwardly inclined his head to each of them, and was clearly growing more and more uncomfortable under their gazes.

"A surprising number of people volunteered to come get you," Lupin smiled slightly.

"Yeah, well, the more the better," Moody said darkly. "We're your guard, Potter."

"We're just waiting for the signal to tell us it's safe to set off," Lupin glanced at the window. "We've got about fifteen minutes."

"Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" Tonks looked around, interested in what the kitchen had to offer. "My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, just like with wizards?"

"Er — yeah," Harry turned to me. "Look — what's going on, I haven't heard anything from anyone, what's Vol — ?"

Several of the others flinched. Diggle dropped his hat. Moody growled, "Shut up!"

"What?" Harry said.

"We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky," Moody turned his normal eye on Harry. His magical eye stayed stuck staring up at the ceiling. "Damn it," he put a hand to his eye, "it keeps sticking — ever since that scum wore it —" and he pulled it out with a nasty squelch.