Smoke and Dust

Chapter Twenty-Two: Dreams

Percy was met with big eyes at the next DA meeting. The news of his new "time schedule" had spread around the school like a wildfire and had split the school in two. Those who loved him for standing up to the High Inquisitor, and those who were afraid of him. These ones avoided him like the black death, made a big circle around him in the halls. In a weird cycle of events, half of the school turning on him and being afraid of him, had brought almost everyone from his own green house back to being close with him. The 'Draco Incident' was forgotten, at least for all but the blonde himself.

Percy had witnessed house members of his speak up for him when they overheard other students talk about him and wondered what the reason for this might be. But he guessed that isolation from the rest of the school was so common for his house, that it was enough to discard everything else and made them stick together.

Daphne was still a little angry for his recklessness when handling Umbridge, but he knew she was just scared of what it might lead to. Blaise on the other hand was so taken in by his admiration of Percy for showing that witch her place, he almost forgot about what he witnessed in the forest.

Dumbledores Army was as mixed as the rest of the school. The ones that had hated him until then, hated him even more now. But the others either didn't seem to care, or just ignored what happened. Of course there were also those — the twins — that have taken upon them the role of replaying the scene — which they haven't even been part of — to everyone who might, or might not, listen. They had taken it as far as dressing up in wigs and faking a duel between Percy and Umbridge.

Overall he had expected a worse result after the incidents of the last weeks than what he was met with.

The new rules Umbridge had introduced into his life did as much as the placebo effect. She thought she won and was happy. He sneaked around the whole castle behind her back, wether to DA meetings of meetings with Dumbledore himself, and was happy. Percy had no problem getting around the school unseen. He could hear steps coming from corridors away, recognised magic by its scent and could vanish into shadows like he was one himself. Percy didn't need no invisibility cloak to go unrecognised.

Dumbledore did not even raise a brow when the black head entered his office right on time like every day and didn't ask questions, even though Percy was sure he had been informed about his new 'time plan'.

While Percy was making good progress on the mental barrier, though it seemed the spells were never-ending. No matter how many he got out, the barrier hardly looked any different. He worked himself to the bones, even his immortal body started showing exhaustion. It also didn't help that he slept worse and worse.

The beginning of December found Percy getting ever more stressed. His workload was always increasing and no matter how much he studied, it wouldn't decrease. The stress plus the cold and darker time of the year spoked many memories he would have rather kept locked away. His nightmares increased and so did his runs in the middle of the night through the wintery forest.

While the school slowly got into the mood of Christmas and celebration, Percy's mood worsened every night.

The only rays of sunshine in his week were the meetings of his little resistance group. After a few hesitant moments, Harry had apparently decided that Percy was still the guy he had met at the end of summer and the one who had defended him from Umbridge and was acting normal around him, which was making scheduling meetings much easier than otherwise. Hermione on the other hand had grown conspicuous — not distant or hostile, but he noticed her paying more attention to what he did.

When Percy arrived to the last meeting of D.A. before the Christmas holidays, he found most of the members already there. He took his usual place in the front next to Harry and forced a genuine smile on his exhausted lips. While he was sad for this to be the last meeting, he knew he would need the break.