Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

20) Snape Comes, Insults Me, Then Leaves

In the time leading up to Harry's hearing, there was a lot of cleaning. And a lot of spray painting buildings.

There were also more articles.

It was getting a little annoying. Sometimes they would portray me as some traumatized kid, and others as some crazed and dangerous criminal. I was a lot of those things, but I wish they'd just pick one. The journalists also never seemed to report on the message, just me. Still, more and more people realizing I was serious about my message, and in spite of the assurances of the Daily Prophet, more and more people were getting worried.

I'd even been contacted by the Quibbler for an interview. That might just be because I was dating the writer's daughter's brother (that was a mouthful), but they'd talked about the message. I was mentioned a few times in those articles, and it was just for quotes, just for an explanation.

It was a nice change.

We'd all kind of ignored Harry's impending doom at the hearing, but the night before, Mrs. Weasley said, "I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight too. A good first impression can work wonders."

Everyone stopped talking and looked at Harry. Harry nodded silently, and kept eating, but his mouth was moving awkwardly, like his mouth had gone dry.

"How am I getting there?" Harry said, trying not to sound concerned, but not really succeeding.

"Yeah, how are we getting there?" I asked, sending Harry a grin. He sent a weak one back.

"Arthur's taking you two to work with him," Mrs. Weasley said, not looking pleased about the two of us going. "And, Perseus, I could find any of your clothes in your room. Where on Earth do you get all of those outfits?"

"It's my gay magic," I said. Mrs. Weasley gave me an unamused look, but Fred and George snorted loudly. "My bag — only I can open it. And don't worry about ironing my clothes, I don't plan on making myself presentable."

"Wait, you're actually coming with me to the hearing?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'll need an alibi," I shrugged. "I'll say that I'm some sort of support thing, a cheerleader. Fudge won't kick me out, he doesn't want to become any more of an enemy to the demigods than he already is. He won't risk it. It'll also protect me from the press for a minute — I've been getting way too much mail."

"Well, what's the point of having an alibi if you aren't gonna commit a crime?" Hermione questioned.

"He's not going to be the one committing the crime," a nasally voice appeared. "I am." Severus Snape had walked into the room, and I rolled my eyes at the dramatics.

"The potion's ready?" I asked. "And are you sure you're spry enough to run from Aurors? You're getting a bit old."

"I've been running from monsters since I was nine, I think I can handle some Aurors," Snape sneered. "And yes, the potion's here. I've just come for the last ingredient." He promptly ripped out a few of my hairs.

"Ow!" I rubbed the top of my head. "I could've done that myself." I looked wearily at my hairs in his hand. "And don't you dare do anything weird as me. If I hear you've started running around naked or something I'll kill you."

"Believe me, Perseus, no one has any desire to see you running around naked," Snape said dryly, exiting the room just as quickly as he had come.

Ron burst into laughter as soon as he was gone, Fred, George, and Ginny quickly joining in. I was just in shock.

"What the fuck," I whispered.

"You two can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing," Mr. Weasley said, looking a lot more amused than his wife.

Harry nodded, then turned to look expectantly at Sirius. Mrs. Weasley caught the look, and said, "Professor Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for Sirius to go with you, and I must say I —"

"— think he's quite right," Sirius finished through gritted teeth.

"When did Dumbledore tell you that?" Harry stared at Sirius.

"He came last night, when you were in bed," I said.

Sirius stabbed his potato like a Moody teenager that just got told he couldn't blare his music at 3 AM. Harry looked down at his plate and frowned.

I hadn't realized Dumbledore hadn't talked to him at all until that moment. I probably would've been pissed if I'd been Harry.

In fact, I was a little pissed for Harry.

Watched Encanto. It was awesome. Uhh, today we went to my aunt's house for Christmas breakfast. We ate, played games, played another game, sat there for a while, then had dinner. It was a long day at their place. Not complaining though, had a good time. My sister asked me for my pencil sharpener and I was tired of her asking for it so I gave her this mechanical one I never use. She couldn't figure out how to make it work, and she kept being weird and kinda mean. I said 'Bro if you're gonna be mean I'm not gonna let you use either of my sharpeners.' And she got really mad and said fine and went to her room, slamming the door. She didn't even take back the pencil when I offered it to her. I took the batteries out of the mechanical pencil sharpener after that to see if something was put in wrong and she had just broken it. A spring had come out in the wrong place and because of it another spring couldn't touch the other battery. Fun times.

Anyway, I hope you guys have some very happy holidays, and I'll see you on Sunday CT. Love ya!

PS. Note that I tried to write a Christmas special for you guys but didn't have the time. Very sorry for that, but it wasn't going on a good track anyway.