Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

72) This Is A Really Long Article

We stared at Hermione for a moment, half amused, half annoyed. Our peace broken, but it was a fair question. One asked when the togetherness felt strongest.

"A lot happened," I told her.

"Yes, but... you've told us about what happened on your other quests... why not this one?"

"This one was scarier," Ron said simply.

"You weren't there for the other ones, Ron, how could you possibly —"

"This one was scarier," I said. Hermione blinked at me for a moment, nodded, and tried to hide the fact that she was clearly worried about our well being.

"You don't have to tell us," Harry clearly wanted us to tell. It was sweet that he didn't plan on making us.

"Will we?" I turned to Ron.

"I don't know, why are you asking me?" Ron was wringing his fingers.

"It was your quest, too."

"Yes, but I wasn't there for the first part."

"Yeah..." I turned to Harry and Hermione, who were trying, and failing, to not look eager. "It all started when some un-French Beauxbatons came to the school."

"Empousai," Ron corrected.

"Thank you," I said dryly. I continued to tell them everything. Going to camp, our way into the Labyrinth, getting separated. The ranch, the volcano (I neglected to mention Calypso, though Ron knew about it. Magic was a powerful thing, and it could make you feel things for people you normally wouldn't feel for. I didn't like it. It made me very uncomfortable. It had made Calypso uncomfortable, too). I let Ron share his part, us arriving at his house, asking for help. The whole Pan thing. We talked about Kronos rising, and Ethan, and Daedalus... I told them about Draco's prophecy, leaving the Labyrinth, and the battle at camp. All throughout it, their eyes were wide, but they stayed silent.

Once we were done, Hermione sucked in a breath, "You threw Ginny's hairbrush at the Titan of time?"

"Yeah," Ron laughed lightly, running his hands through his hair. "Ginny wasn't happy with me."

"No one was happy with you," I pointed out. "Mrs. Weasley said you were grounded for the rest of forever."

"True," Ron nodded.

"Did Malfoy really do all of that?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Hermione said, no doubt in her voice. Ron and I shared a surprised look.

"Yeah, uh, he did," I nodded, turning to Harry after a moment. "He's the best we've got."

Ron nodded in agreement, and Harry didn't push it.

***

The next morning I sat with the trio, ready to see whatever article Perry had been going on about in the letter he had sent to Ron.

"So, Malfoy can talk to owls..." Harry started, watching the owls fly into the Great Hall.

"Yup," I bit into my toast, watching for an owl flying towards us.

"Could he just ask an owl about the contents of a letter?" Harry asked.

"No," I said. "The owls don't read the letters."

"Oh, okay, good," Harry seemed pleased by that logic.

The delivery owl saw me and immediately decided it wanted revenge for things I never did, so it dropped the newspaper straight into my face. Thankfully, newspapers aren't very hard, but I'd learned the hard way that they would do the same thing with packages.