Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

168) Fun Facts With Percy Jackson

Draco stashed himself away in the Slytherin common room, so I couldn't talk to him unless I wanted to get treated to a bunch of 'high-society' insults I didn't understand. I figured he'd done that on purpose.

So, whenever I was done talking to Lupin, and had finally gotten some rest, I went to the hospital wing, and basked in the fact that my friends were awake and fine.

Hermione read the paper aloud to us, and relief flooded me — they were finally admitting Voldemort was back. Ginny and Neville sat between Ron and Hermione's beds, both listening intently to what they were saying. Luna had settled herself on the end of Ron's bed, much to his chagrin, and was reading a copy of The Quibbler upside down.

"He's 'the Boy Who Lived' again, now, though, isn't he?" Ron waved one hand toward the paper, helping himself to a handful of Chocolate Frogs. "Now such a show-off maniac anymore, is he?" Hiding a grimace, he tossed each of us a frog, hands twitching like he wanted to itch the painful red welts on his arms, brought on by the brain monster.

"Yes, they're very complimentary about you now, Harry, and Percy, too" Hermione further scanned the paper. "'A lone voice of truth... perceived us unbalanced, yet never wavered in their stories... forced to bear ridicule and slander...' Hmmm. I notice they don't mention the fact that it was them doing all the ridiculing and slandering, though..." She winced and put a hand over her ribs. Dolohov's spell had hurt her quite badly, and she wasn't able to munch on Ambrosia to heal her up, so she was stuck drinking ten different types of potions every day. She sat straighter, forcing down her pain. "So anyway, what's going on in school?"

"Well, Flitwick's got rid of Fred and George's swamp," Ginny said. "He did it in about three seconds. But he left a tiny patch under the window and he's roped it off —"

"Why?" Hermione asked, startled.

"Oh, he just says it was a really good bit of magic," Ginny shrugged.

"I think he left it as a monument to Fred and George," Ron said through his chocolate. "They sent me all these, you know." He motioned toward his impressive amount of candy. "Must be doing all right out of that joke shop, eh?"

Hermione, not pleased at all with joke shop talk, changed the subject, "So has all the trouble stopped now Dumbledore's back?"

"Yep," I nodded, "everything's settled right back down again."

"I s'pose Filch is happy, is he?" Ron grinned at the thought of how pissed our caretaker must have been.

"Not at all," Ginny grinned back. "He's really, really miserable, actually..." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "He keeps saying Umbridge was the best thing that ever happened to Hogwarts..."

They all looked around, frowning at the woman lying in the bed opposite them. Professor Umbridge had been rescued by Albus Dumbledore himself, astounding the students and annoying the campers. Sadly, no one was detailing what exactly had happened in the forest, especially not Umbridge. Since her return, she hadn't said a single word.

"Madam Pomfrey says she's just in shock," Hermione whispered to them.

"Sulking, more like," Ginny smirked.

"Yeah, she shows signs of life if you do this," Ron proceeded to make soft clip-clopping noises with his tongue — it was actually quite impressive, and I decided I was going to practice until I was better than him at it, so I could rub it in his face. Umbridge, at the sound, jerked upright, looking wildly around.

"Anything wrong, Professor?" Madam Pomfrey, seeing her reaction from the window of her office, poked her head out.

"No... no..." Umbridge settled back down, "no... I must have been dreaming."