Through the years

[HARRY]

Their second year began with a flying start. Well quite literally as Ron and Harry crash-landed Mr Weasley’s Ford Anglia into the whomping willow. They stared as their luggage got ejected from the car and as soon as the Ford sped out of sight they heard a loud “That was so epic!” coming from behind them.

Out of the shadows walked Percy, who had seen them from his train window, and waited for sightings of the car around Hogwarts. “You know epically stupid but I approve,” he said with a grin on his face.

“Percy!” both Ron and Harry yelled as they ran to each other.

“So how was everyone’s summer beside learning how to drive?” Percy asked.

“I tried to teach Scabbers some new tricks this summer,” Ron started “but all he did was eat through my nicest pair of socks.”

“Mine was just extremely boring,” Harry said “How about yours Percy?”

“I went eh… sailing for a bit,” Percy said uncertainly. Now that Harry looked closer even in the darkness he noticed Percy’s tan had increased over the summer.

“Oh! And you never believe this but I have a half-brother! His name is Tyson and he is awesome,” he exclaimed happily.

“Wait what,” Ron stuttered “How do you suddenly find a new step-brother? Your mom never told you?”

“Tyson is from my dad’s side,” Percy said

“You mean the dad that is lost at sea” Ron wondered.

“Yeah… that one” Percy said slowly. “I’ll explain it all later but first let’s get your stuff inside…and maybe call a good mechanic?”

“Oh no the car!” Ron howled as they made their way back to the castle “My dad is gonna kill me”

Percy and Harry laughed as they entered the doors.

Besides the Howlers and detention that followed, the rest of the year started off slow. Worst of them all being Lockhart’s classes which were basically just a joke. Usually, Percy would get so frustrated during the lesson that he actually left halfway through. Sometimes Harry and Ron longingly looked at Percy’s back as he left, but under Hermione’s watchful eye, they never dared to leave themselves.

During this time, the other part of Harry’s life was mostly occupied by Quidditch, or more so Malfoy, who was assigned the new Slytherin seeker. Harry’s overall mood did improve once He and Ron saw Percy punch Malfoy straight on his long pointy nose. Even though they got detention (again), with Harry helping Lockhart sort through his fan mail, Ron polishing the trophies and Percy cleaning out the stables, they still got a laugh out of Draco’s bandaged face every time they saw him.

By the time Halloween arrived, the only thing on their agenda was Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party, which Harry regretted saying yes to.

“A promise is a promise,” Hermione reminded Harry bossily. “You said you’d go to the deathday party.”

Percy sputtered “But I didn’t agree to anything, why am I being forced to come?” 

“Because your Harry’s friend,” Hermione said “And because Peeves looks somewhat scared of you?”

The corners of Percy’s mouth shot up “Yeah, I might have told him some fun stories about the underworld and all that stuff”

“Morbid” Ron responded with a hint of fascination. Percy just shrugged his shoulders.

Later, Harry decided he should have complained more as Percy did. Besides the party totally not being suited for humans, making Percy complain more about how he was missing the Halloween feast, he could have avoided the whole being blamed for Mrs Norris situation.

For a few days all the school had talked about was the attack on Mrs. Norris. People had reacted differently to the news, where Ginny had looked sad all the time, Hermione had barricaded herself in the library. When asked what she was doing there they got little to no response, ‘research’ she kept repeating. However, the following Wednesday they got their answer.

Harry had been held back in potions to clean up Snape’s desk. While running through the great hall to grab a bite he had come across Percy, who was busy convincing the Weasley twins to help him put blue food colouring into tomorrow's supper.

“Imagine this,” Percy said “All the food… blue”

Fred and George stared at him for a few seconds. “That’s brilliant mate!” they said in unison while giving Percy a loud high-five.

“Why Blue though,” Fred asked.

Harry chimed in at this moment; “That’s Percy’s favourite colour,”. Percy nodded agreeingly.

“He likes it so much we once used a spell to try and make his hair blue” Harry continued “But in the end, we just burned a spot on the back of his head,”

“Hey!” Percy squawked “Don’t want too many people to know about my temporary bald spot, it almost grew back”

“Anyway” Harry began “I’m heading to the library to meet up with Ron, you guys joining?”

“Out,” George said.

“We are going to borrow the kitchen floorplan to execute mission blue devil” Fred continued.

“That’s got a nice ring to it” Percy replied “I will join you Harry, got to look something up anyway,”

George and Fred whistled. “Percy reading a book?” George sang.

“What has the world come to” Fred teased. Percy maturely responded by sticking his tong out to the two.

On the way to the library, they had come across Justin Finch-Fletchley. “Hey, Per-” Justin had started but as soon as Justin got sight of Harry his eyes widened, he turned abruptly and sped off in the opposite direction.

“Yeah that was weird” Percy had remarked. Harry had just sighted in response.

They found Ron at the back of the library, measuring his History of Magic homework. They had all been working on a three-foot-long composition on ‘The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.’

“I don’t believe it, I’m still eight inches short…” said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment. “And Hermione’s done four feet seven inches and her writing’s tiny.”

“Need help?” Percy asked, looking at Ron’s stack.

“Yes! Please! Will you help me, Percy?” Ron asked desperately.

“No.” Percy stated blankly “But I can give you some advice”

“And that is?” Ron asked impatiently.

“Start earlier” Percy replied with a chuckle

“Start earlier?! Coming from you? You always start like an hour before the assignment is due!” Ron screeched hysterically “Talking about it how can you already be finished?”

“Well first of all” Percy began “I don’t always start last minute…I just know when I work efficiently and it usually happens to be one hour before class. Also, Luna helped me.”

“Luna?” Harry asked.

“She’s a first-year Ravenclaw” Percy beamed happily “She’s very cool and smart too”

“Oh, by the way, talking about smart people, Ron where is Hermione?” Harry wondered.

“Somewhere over there,” said Ron, pointing along the shelves. “Looking for another book. I think she’s trying to read the whole library before Christmas.”

“Weren’t you going to look for a book Percy?” Harry asked him.

“Yeah, but I just noticed the time. I will look for it some other time” Percy shrugged.

“What kind of book were you going to read?” Ron asked. Instead of trying to finish his paper, he had resorted to carefully crumpling his pages one by one to make the pile look higher.

“This book about gold modeling,” Percy said “My brother told me he started an apprenticeship at some forge so I thought maybe I could give him some tips,” He scratched his head almost looking embarrassed.

At that point, Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves.

“That’s so nice! I never knew you had a brother, tell us more?” She demanded more than asking.

Percy got a smile on his face “Well his name is Tyson. He is very big, over 6 feet tall, I mean like 180 cm. We actually met at school before summer break, my dad send him there to get to know me.” Percy finished.

“Wait, wasn’t your dad lost at sea” Hermione questioned

“He is! Well, he was” Percy responded hurriedly. Then he stopped for a minute to think “My dad- he is kind of a well-known man. Like I learned my family …. owns like this very big company. And I mean very big.” He gave a little chuckle at that “I wasn’t supposed to be born, or more so not allowed. So to not get his angry brothers after my mom and me he kind of ..left us hanging?”

“So he both abandoned and lied to you!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Oh no he was really lost at sea, apparently it happened more often,” He said.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry could just stare.

“What, he likes boating” Percy retorted “But anyway we’re fine now. His brothers know about me, they still hate me but it’s all chill”

“How’s that chill?” Ron asked

Percy shrugged “Really it’s all good, keeps life interesting….besides being a wizard of course,”

Hermione looked at him skeptically. “If you say so…, anyway, All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out,” she said, sitting down next to Ron. “And there’s a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn’t left my copy at home, but I couldn’t fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books.”

“Why do you want it?” said Harry.

“The same reason everyone else wants it,” said Hermione, “to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.”

“What’s that?” said Harry quickly.

“That’s just it. I can’t remember,” said Hermione, biting her lip. “And I can’t find the story anywhere else —”

“Hermione, let me read your composition,” said Ron desperately, checking his watch.

“No, I won’t,” said Hermione, suddenly severe. “You’ve had ten days to finish it —”

“I only need another two inches, come on —”

The bell rang.

“Stick some gum between it to make it look bigger,” Percy offered “Come on, let’s go, we have to move”

Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering. While Percy followed laughing about the whole debacle.

Afterwards, their search into the chamber of secrets continued. Mostly Hermione’s efforts during class and taking them to the first-floor girls' bathroom helped them understand what was happening. As they learned more about the chamber they also came to the conclusion that Malfoy might be the heir of Slytherin.

Thus the plan was formed; take Polyjuice potion and sneak into the Slytherin dorms. With Hermione and Percy both being experts in making potions they were confident enough that it was going to work. Unfortunately, they did break the news that it did need a month of brewing time for it to properly work.

So while they were focusing on that, Harry had decided it was fun (not so fun) to let his arm be turned into jello by Lockhart. ‘See, this is why I refuse to play quidditch’ Percy had helpfully added.

Luckily Harry recovered soon enough just to be involved in another stupid plan from Lockhart. A duel where in the end Harry had to literally stop a snake from eating Mr. ungrateful Justin’s head. Afterwards, Ron had pulled Harry into the hall to bring him the news he was a Parslemouth. Great Harry had thought, another thing that makes me weird. Luckily his friends still seemed very supportive of him. Percy even tried to cheer him up by saying he thought he could sometimes hear fish talk to him. The group was laughing in the hall until Neville peeked around the corner.

“Percy, they want you to duel now,” Neville said shakingly.

Harry hoped for Neville he wasn’t Percy's opponent. Actually, now he thought about it he had never really seen Percy duel. Last year they had done two classes on duels. The first class Percy had been completely absent until he turned up in the common room around seven o’clock smelling like fish. He claimed to have tried to feed the giant kraken on the bottom of the lake.

The second lesson he came running in ten minutes before the bell rang. His hair was disheveled, his uniform full of dirt stains, the underside of his tie completely cut off and he seemed to be sprinkled in some sort of gold dust. One of his oddities Harry supposed.

So Harry was curious to see what kind of wizard Percy is supposed to be.

As they entered back into the room Lockhart was already walking towards them. “Percy, my boy! I have chosen you as the next dualist” He revealed like it was some kind of honour.

“Can I ask why?” Percy retorted

“You have big arms” Lockhart simply said “Now get up there and remember; do what I would do,”

“Gotcha” Percy replied as he climbed up on the platform. At the same time from the other side, Harry could see Blaise Zabini climb up to take the stage.

“Okay now both of you, no terrible maiming or killing each other” Lockhart said.

“What, or I lose my dessert privileges” Percy muttered under his breath.

“Ready, set? Go!” Lockhart yelled.

To say the fight was over before it started might be an understatement.

Once Lockhart gave the word Zabini tried to immediately throw a ‘Flipendo’ at Percy. Unfortunately, for him, Percy had already ducked down and made a head roll across the platform. He jumped back up and did something very unexpected, he used an ‘Aquamenti’ charm above Zabini’s head, actually making him look up for half a second as the water fell down over him. That was his mistake. In that small time frame, Percy had sprinted across the stage. The next time Zabini looked up Percy was inches from his face. He suddenly crouched down and swiped his legs taking Zabini to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Percy said as he pointed his wand at Zabini “Expelliarmus.”

In the end, the news went around that Harry almost let a snake eat Justin and Percy had beaten Zabini’s ass. Not the best promo material to have floating through a school. Luckily Christmas break was right around the corner. While Ron, Hermione, and Harry stayed at Hogwarts, Percy had decided to go back home for Christmas. He also dropped the shocking news that until now Dumbledore had been apparating him between London and New York every single time.

“When Dumbledore asked me to come in I told him on one condition.. no flying,” Percy had grinned.

Since the Polyjuice potion was almost finished by now he wished them luck in a ‘try not to die’ sort of way, picked up his suitcase, and headed towards Dumbledore’s office.

They watched him leave around the corner when Hermione absently said “What do you think he meant when he said Dumbledore asked him to come”

“Didn’t he ask all of us to come? His name was on the letter” Ron supplied.

“Mmm. I don’t know if Percy meant it like that.” She said.

Harry suspected she was not letting this go anytime soon, at least that was until they took the Polyjuice potion. Whereas Ron and Harry were successful in infiltrating Slytherin as Crabbe and Goyle, Hermione ended up a couple weeks in the infirmary before her cat transformation had worn off. Harry, Ron, and once he returned, Percy went to visit her every day.

One evening when they were walking back from the infirmary they came across Myrtle complaining about her toilet being clogged and ended up going back to the common room with a blank diary in Harry’s pocket.

Soon Hermione was released, fur-free and all. Unfortunately, their happiness didn’t last long as quickly after she too fell victim to the petrifying monster. On top of that, Hagrid was the number one suspect by authorities and was quickly taken to Azkaban. Thus to prove his innocence Ron, Percy, and Harry decided to take up his advice and ‘follow the spiders’. Looking back they should have maybe gone in more prepared, luckily they had Percy. While the spiders were about to make a meal out of the three of them Percy had suddenly smacked himself on the head.

“Stupid! We are not on school grounds” Percy had cursed at himself. He proceeded to pull out a …ballpoint pen from his pocket?

“P-P-Percy I don’t think a plastic wand is going to defeat the Sp-Sp-spiders” Ron had stuttered.

“Ballpoint pen” Harry automatically corrected.

Although a second later Harry wanted the retract his statement because once Percy pulled off the cap he was no longer holding a ballpoint pen. Instead in his hand layed a 3 feet long bronze sword.

“wow,” Ron muttered under his breath. The only thing Harry could do was stare.

Before he realized Percy jumped into action. He used the same techniques as during the duel with Zabini; Rolling, running, and mostly ducking. However, Percy with a sword was on a whole other level. He slashed spider by spider keeping most of the incoming ones at bay. He was an amazing force making his way through the black sea of creepy crawlers. But Harry could see Percy started to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of spiders. So to help him Harry started throwing spells at the spiders, careful not to hit Percy in the process. Ron jumped in not much later, but even with the three of them together the spiders started coming in closer.

Fortunately, at that moment Mr. Weasleys Ford Anglia decided to show up and drive the boys out of the forest. Once they finally made it back to their dorm rooms Ron and Harry had bombarded Percy with questions about his sword fighting skills. While he was somewhat reluctant in giving out answers he told them that he went to this special summer camp for kids with ADHD (what’s that Ron had asked) and they had all kinds of physical activities there, like sword fighting. Ron not having much understanding of the muggle world took Percy’s word for it, but Harry having grown up in that same world wondered which camp had sword fighting on their itinerary.

As the next few days flew by the trio started to figure out the most important information until now: The chamber of secrets was hiding beneath moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.

The three boys entered the chambers soon after, taking Lockhart, who had revealed himself to be a fraud, with them. Once in the tunnels, Harry got quickly separated from Ron, Percy, and Lockhart. While he managed to fight off the basilisk on his own and save Ginny. Percy and Ron succeeded in not murdering Lockhart. Which Harry thought was a win for both sides.

With Hermione recovering, Hagrid returning and of course the final exams it wasn’t long before their second year at Hogwarts came to an end. Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Ron, Percy, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George’s Filibuster fireworks, and practised Disarming each other by magic. Harry was getting very good at it.

The last few minutes were used on gossiping about Percy Weasleys new girlfriend until the Hogwarts Express finally slowed down and stopped. Harry pulled out his quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Ron, Percy, and Hermione.

“This is called a phone number,” he told Ron, “I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer —  he’ll know. Call me at the Dursleys, okay? I can’t stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to. . . .”

Percy looked troublesome at the phone number “I don’t have a phone myself” he started “But I call you as much as possible when I’m at my mom’s!” He continued mumbling to himself ‘Or maybe I can ask Chiron? Mr. D? No. Or Annabeth might have sneaked a phone in’

Hermione interrupted his ramblings, “Why don’t you have a phone, Percy?”

“Oh they don’t allow them at my camp…too many 911 prank calls” he stated “and they don’t allow them at Hogwarts either so what’s the use.” He finished shrugging his shoulders

“Fair” Hermione responded. “And Harry your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won’t they?” said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. “When they hear what you did this year?”

“Proud?” said Harry. “Are you crazy? All those times I could’ve died, and I didn’t manage it? They’ll be furious. . . .”

And together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world.