Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

7) I Bet Ears Aren't The Only Things That Are Extendable *Winky Face*

"What is this place anyway?" Harry shot at us, finally not yelling.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," I said.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix — ?"

"It's a secret society," Hermione said quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

"Who's in it?" Harry stopped pacing.

"Quite a few people —"

" — we've met about twenty of them. Percy's met more, but he's got a habit of forgetting the boring one's names," Ron finished.

"If they're boring, they don't deserve to be remembered," I shrugged.

"Why has Percy met more?" Harry questioned.

Ron winced, "Well, he's sort of a member of the Order, except he's not invited to most of the meetings, and he won't tell us why."

"I, indeed, will not tell you why," I said. "Well.... Nah, I'll read the letter later, questions first."

Harry nodded stiffly at me, then glanced around the room, "Well?"

"Er," Ron frowned. "Well what?"

"Voldemort!" Harry snapped. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings," Hermione said anxiously. "So we don't know the details — but we've got a general idea."

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," Ron said. "They're really useful."

"Extendable — ?"

"Ears, yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know —"

"— some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order —" Hermione said.

"— and some of them are standing guard over something," Ron said, and I rolled my eyes at his idiocy (that one wasn't endearment). "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, the idiocy leaving him in a wave. Sadly, I knew the tide would come back.

Harry snorted, pacing around the room again, "So what have you three been doing, if you're not usually allowed in meetings? You said you'd been busy."

"We have," Hermione said. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo— AARGH!"

With two loud cracks, Fred and George Weasley, the funniest of the Weasley children, materialized in the middle of the room.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly, clutching at her heart.

"Hello, Harry," George was beaming. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," Fred said, beaming just as much as his brother. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" Harry asked moodily.

"With distinction," Fred said, holding what I recognized to be an Extendable Ear.

"It would've taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," Ron said.

"Time is Galleons, little brother," Fred said. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears." He held up the skin colored string for Harry to see. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," Ron stared at the ear. "If Mum sees one of them again..."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," Fred said.

The door opened, and Ginny walked in, smiling brightly, "Oh hello, Harry! I thought I heard your voice." She turned to Fred and George. "It's no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" George asked sadly.

"Tonks told me how to find out," Ginny said. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Frank sighed, "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape?" Harry rushed. "Is he here?"

"Yeah," I watched George close the door. "Probably giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Fred added helpfully.

"He's on our side now," Hermione said sternly.

Ron bit back a snort, "Doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us...."

"Hey, he somewhat respects you now," I pointed a finger at Ron.

"Yeah, Snape doesn't talk to him like a toddler, and now Mom only yells at him, a good trade," George said.

"Why does Snape respect him? And Mrs. Weasley is mad?" Harry frowned.

Ron stared up at the ceiling, "Went to help Percy on his quest. Mom told me not to, but I snuck out."

"It wasn't my quest," I said. "It was Draco's."

Ron just hummed in agreement. He didn't like talking about the quest. He'd gone from mostly unknowing to the quest's horrors to more experienced than most demigods in such a short amount of time. Even I didn't like talking about it, and I was more used to those kinds of things.

Silence rang in the air for a moment, and Ginny broke it, "Bill doesn't like Snape either."

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."

"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order," Fred said. "He says he missed the tombs, but," he grinned, "there are compensations...."

"What d'you mean?"

"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" I grinned. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish —"

" — and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," Fred snickered. In spite of making fun, it was nice to be able to see Fleur every so often. I'd befriended her during the Triwizard Tournament the year before, and was pretty sure I would never see her again.

"Charlie's in the Order too," George added, "but he's still in Romania, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

"Couldn't Perry do that?" Harry asked, and I grimaced. I shared dark looks with Hermione and the Weasleys.

The Perry situation was not looking good.

We went to a Razorback game today. It was hot. Sexy. Awesome. We won, 'cause we're awesome. In the first three minutes, a guy from Penn fell and hurt his foot. He came back during the second half on crutches. Then a guy on our team got kicked out by one of the refs. I don't know what he did, sad times. I like it when the crowd gets mad at a ref. The boos that fill the air — they fill me with pure happiness. We went to Olive Garden after the game, it was great. Our waiter was awesome, has a big family, gave us a bunch of chocolate, probably thought I was twelve, and wrapped our breadsticks in tin foil. Loved him. I'll dedicate a book to him someday (along with Michael from Wattpad Support. Love you, Michael).

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a woo pig Sunday, and I'll see you on Tuesday CT. Love ya!