Involved

"Wow, scary thought, the boy You-Know-Who," said Ron quietly. Percy had just enlightened Ron and Hermione about the previous night session with Dumbledore. He had made them wait till the evening before uttering a single word related to the matter. Percy had to witness a fight between the two teens during a class regarding the Slughorn club. Many said that Hermione and Ron were attracted to each other but Percy could not see the basis for such attraction. The two teens had only one thing in common and that was Harry Potter. If Hermione Granger had expressed some sort of attraction for Harry Potter, Percy could understand. The boy was the hero and the girl his one true help. No matter what analysis others would provide Percy was firm on his conclusion that Ronald Weasley brought nothing to the table not even comic relief. When Harry Potter had been the power or muscle Hermione Granger was the brains with her research helping them out. Having been raised amongst zygons one would expect Ron Weasley to have some knowledge of the working of the zygon world and impart the said knowledge to his friends which the boy had rarely done. Percy did not want to be the one playing match maker or breaker so he tried his best to stay out of their love life but it was becoming harder and harder for Percy to ignore the sort of cold war between the two teens. After all Percy was pretending to be their best friend, there was no way he could keep away from his daily interactions.

"I think it's fascinating. It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weaknesses?"

Hermione's earnest words brought Percy out of his thoughts. His mind had wandered and he had missed some of the conversation.

"I would have agreed with you if Voldemort were the real enemy."

"Real enemy!?" Hermione asked surprised at Percy's words.

"Yes, the real enemy. Tom Riddle is a serial killer with daddy and mummy issues." Before Hermione could question that Percy pressed on, "the real enemy, the real problem always were and always have been the death-eaters, the pure-bloods. They are the ones with the numbers, the one with connections. It is they who control the economy the jobs; it's they running the government. In total the wizarding society is what they want it to be. We could end hundred Voldemorts but this bigot society will give birth to a thousand Tom Riddles."

Percy saw that both Hermione and Ron wanted to say something but he did not give them a chance, "if one is to end this war then they will have to bring down the control the blood purity believers have on this society. When Voldemort fell the first time peace was brought but no one tried to bring any changes to the beliefs which led to his rise in the first place and just like last time people are waiting for a miracle to happen instead of doing something productive to stop them once in for all. And please don't tell me order is doing everything it can because whatever it is doing it is not enough. People are dying, children are being tortured girls are being raped. And here I am hoping against my better judgment that the adult wizards for once will do the right thing and do what is necessary and stop imitating an ostrich."

Days rolled too slowly for Percy, he had made no progress in his quest. He had not received any more visits from Eudokia. Percy did have some talks with his mom Sally Jackson-Blofis but he was running short on Drachmas. The quidditch craze of zygons rivaled soccer craze of mortals. Percy with no Katie Bell had to invite Dean Thomas to play in her place. The kid did well in his position but the problem came in the name of Ron. The redhead's performance was deteriorating with every practice and he lashed out his frustration on others making them complain about the kid's behavior. Percy had to assert his presence to make to redhead stop. The situation worsened when Ron found his sister Ginny kissing Dean. Percy had to give the boy a sound dressing down to make him stop. Only the fear which the demigod ended up inspiring kept Ron Weasley in line. His keeping skills were not up to scratch but his poor attitude was curtailed. All these were not helping Percy in the slightest. He still had to figure out how he was going to keep away from having to fly during the match. He had indeed found out that he could have peristrefo to catch the snitch but he could not find a way to fake flying. Mist could be used to cause such illusions but it is a difficult thing to do.

Adding to his problems were his demigod dreams which were showing him the handy work of the death-eaters and their buddies. He was not allowed to introduce himself into the conflict so he would have to work through agents of some sort. Percy was thinking hard on different ways he could bring about justice, he could send anonymous tips to the MI5 and SIS but they have the potential of casing the wipeout of the zygons. The gods would not care if the zygons went extinct but the attempt might lead to a beginning of a war which the gods did not want. He could probably get hold of the media which was limited to the newspaper and a wireless radio service and send out challenges to the death-eaters but that would be violating of do not fight them unless invited policy. There was another way, a more dangerous and immoral way, something which the gods have used on many occasions. Create a pawn or more accurately create a monster to tackle the situation. Find a person with blood lust or a person with nothing left to lose burning with a need for revenge, push them over the ledge psychologically and then let them loose on the zygons. The last one is the most effective way of getting the thing done and on Percy's part it won't violate most of his promises but as he saw it, it was a highly immoral thing to do. With death-eaters causing havoc it was not difficult to find a pawn who could be manipulated to end the problem but it could create a problem of its own. Though in a short term creating a new problem might look like a best and easy way to solve a current problem in long run it could cause for serious ramifications.

Percy did not bother himself with keeping the peace between Ron and Hermione. At first he did try but then abandoned it as a lost cause. Percy was sure if Harry Potter had been alive and if that kid did have any sense he would have tried to get Hermione Granger as his girlfriend but Harry Potter was dead and Percy was stuck playing the part. The increased interest Lavender Brown was showing in Ron did help the kid's confidence but it caused increased tension between Hermione and Ron. Percy did his best to keep away from the conflict.

'Percy…Percy'

Percy heard a voice call him as he and Ron were walking towards the great hall to have breakfast before the Quidditch match. The voice was just like the ones you hear in the horror movies intended to scare people but Percy identified the voice as that of Eudokia's.

"Ron, go ahead have some breakfast. I forgot something back in the common room which I got to have before the game."

Ron offered to go with him but Percy convinced the boy to go get his food and not worry about him. The chanting of Percy's name was getting louder and louder but Percy knew that he was the only one who could hear it. He found the first door and entered it to find Eudokia still chanting his name.

"Would you be kind enough and stop that."

"Stop what?"

Eudokia gave Percy a hug but did not release him from it and Percy had to extract himself from her less that appropriate embrace.

"Why are you here?" Percy was bit annoyed at the nymph. The aura pouted.

"Do you always have to be so unkind to me? Any ways, I am here to offer you my help."

Getting help from nymphs can be costly at times. They could ask anything in return for the help they gave. It is true that most nymphs don't have the power that a demigod has but they did have enough power to cause some trouble. What help Eudokia was here to provide was the question in Percy's mind.

"The game, you don't have to fly, I'll do it for you. You just manipulate the mist to make the zygons believe that it was you in the air. It is simple and easy to achieve."

Percy sighed, it was not a good sportsman behavior and of all intent and proposes illegal and unethical. Percy did not care much for Quidditch also during capture the flag you use any means necessary which does not do any permanent harm to others. Using a decoy, tricking others was very common. Since Percy was pretending to be Harry Potter his was already cheating and doing thinks which were questionable at best. Adding the Quidditch to list was not really a big deal. Percy looked out of the window and in a distance he could see the great lake. He had avoided that place like a plague. The lake as he had seen in the videos that the gods had given him about Harry Potter showed that it was inhabited by the merpeople. The merpeople worshiped Triton as their main deity. Percy barely got along with his half-brother. The beings which worship his brother might not take kindly to the hero. More over Percy did not want to press his luck too much, so the best course of action was to keep away from the merpeople.

"So Perseus, what say you?"

"Let's get this over with."

Percy after completing the ritual of breakfast and avoiding taking sides in yet another fight between Ron and Hermione gave the players the usual captain's speech led the team on to the pitch. He shook hands with the stand in captain and learnt that Malfoy was absent from the game. The players were asked to take to the skies but Percy stayed on the ground under the invisibility cloak in one of the corners of the ground to keep an eye on thinks. With manipulation of mist by both Eudokia and peristrefo the crowd as well as the teams was convinced that Eudokia who was flying on her own by using the air and the winds was in fact Harry Potter riding on his broom firebolt. The game started with the sound of the whistle and releases of the tiny golden ball with wings call the snitch. Percy as per Eudokia's plan got peristrefo to capture the snitch and hold it away from the seeker. The first sentence from the commentator Percy knew that if he had any real interest in the game he should have gotten angry. Percy knew that a victory and al round good performance from every single player was needed so as to keep the Gryffindor people happy and away from him. Eudokia was having fun by making the opposition seeker follow her into dangerous dives and forcing the guy straight into the path of metal balls called bludgers. The quaffle was now in the hands of Slytherin players and the desperate attempt by Gryffindor chasers did not bare fruits. Ron's keeping failed and the quaffle went past him. There was boo's heard from Gryffindor supporters and the commentator took the opportunity to take a dig at Harry Potter for fielding his friend. In a while three more scores were achieved by the snake team. Two attempts at the goal by the Gryffindor was a failure. Eudokia was having her own fun and took no notice of the poor performance of the team. Percy was the captain but him shouting orders and encouragement out loud would defeat his plans of not playing the game and just watching it under the cloak. The Slytherin chasers were once again in the possession of the quaffle and were heading towards a nervous and defeated Ron Weasley, Percy asked persitrefo to wait till the last moment and then influence Ron to be at the right place and time to stop the quaffle. The Slytherin chaser threw the quaffle with all his might, Ginny made a wild dash for the quaffle but was unsuccessful in her efforts. The quaffle sailed towards left goal hoop and at the last moment Ron under the influence of peristrefo moved and intercepted the quaffle. A loud roar emitted from Gryffindor supporters, Ron looked relieved and so did the chasers. Percy could see that Eudokia was still flying around randomly and doing her own thing and not evenly remotely concerned about the happenings of the game. That one save helped the game somewhat. Dean was able to score with the help of his fellow two chasers in Ginny and Demelza. The score was brought down to 10-40 against Gryffindor. The Slytherins made another attempt at the goal but peristrefo came to the rescue by continuing to influence Ron stopping the attempt. Demelza's attempt was foiled and the Slytherin's chasers came with a lot of speed towards Ron, Percy decided against helping the red head and asked peristrefo not to continue its influence. The Slytherin chaser sent the quaffle forward and by the grace of gods Ron was able to stop the quaffle with ease. The redhead was now beaming with confidence and Percy knew that more interference from him would not be needed.

The game move forward, Eudokia's erratic flying was affecting the Slytherin players very badly. In their quest to harm the Gryffindor players they had ended up hurting their own. One of their chasers was out of rest of the game after getting injured in friendly fire. The other two were not in their top fitness after some nasty blows. The game was dragging now almost ninety minutes the Gryffindor were leading 120-50. The referee called for a penalty shot when she found Eudokia deliberately causing a situation to harm the slytherin keeper. The zygon could not really see Eudokia she believed she was seeing Harry Potter but that was not a problem for either Percy or Eudokia. The keeper was in no position to continue in the game. The match restarted with Slytherin's shot going waste by the hand of Ron. Eudokia gave Percy the signal to end the game as she came towards him in great speed and disappeared right in front of him. Percy immediately removed the invisibility cloak held the broom firebolt in his left hand and asked peristrefo for the snitch.

The celebration was very much wild as Gryffindor team was led towards the common room of the house where a party was organized for them. The chant of 'Weasley is our king' was getting louder and louder. Some supporters even shouted praise for the chaser and beaters. Many came up to Percy and congratulated him for catching the snitch which in reality he had never done. Percy was grateful because no one complained to him about his poor captaincy or lack of it. Many were commenting on the game and about the absence of the Slytherin captain Malfoy. The absence of Malfoy was truly interesting, Percy had seen the kid and observed him as well, not very thoroughly but still enough to tell that some worry was eating at the blonde boy. The most general deduction considering that the boy's father was in jail it would be natural for any child to be a bit worried so Percy not done an investigation but with the new absence from the game kid really did warrant an investigation.

Percy quietly slipped away from the parade so that he could thank Eudokia for flying in the air instead of him. Percy looked around a bit but could not find the person he was looking for. After a while he gave up and headed towards the tower. Percy looked around see if there were an empty spot where he could sit and relax but he could not find such a place with Gryffindor house members congratulating on the victory. Percy had to resort to glaring at the girls batting their eye lashes at him and trying to convince him to take them to Slughorn's Christmas party. Percy decided to get to his room upstairs and avoid the party. For a person who has been to parties at camp half-blood, new Rome and Olympus itself the party thrown by the zygon can become very boring. Instead of reaching the stairs to the rooms Percy walked straight into Ginny, Arnold the Pygmy Puff riding on her shoulder and Crookshanks mewing hopefully at her heels.

"Looking for Ron?" she asked, smirking. "He's over there, the filthy hypocrite."

Percy looked in the direction the girl was pointing and located Ron in lip-lock with Lavender Brown.

"It looks like he's eating her face, doesn't it?" Ginny tone was dispassionate. "But I suppose he's got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry."

Her pat on the arm was lost to Percy as through his peripheral vision he was Hermione hurrying out of the common room. He made a quick decision to follow the girl for Percy knew that the girl would be heartbroken after seeing her long time crush kissing one of her roommate. Percy took out the marauder's map and found the girl in one of the many empty class rooms. The girl was sitting on the teacher's desk, alone except for a small ring of twittering yellow birds circling her head, which she had clearly just conjured out of midair.

"Hermione?"

"Oh, hello, Harry," she said in a brittle voice. "I was just practicing."

Percy walked forward and pulled the girl into a hug. The door behind them burst open and Percy almost cursed under his breath. Ron had come in, laughing, pulling Lavender by the hand.

"Oh," he said, drawing up short at the sight of Percy and Hermione who were still in an embrace but soon broke apart.

"Oops!" said Lavender, and she backed out of the room, giggling. The door swung shut behind her. There was a horrible deafening silence. Hermione was staring at Ron, who refused to look at her, but said with an odd mixture of bravado and awkwardness, "Hi, Harry! Wondered where you'd got to!"

Hermione slid off the desk. The little flock of golden birds continued to twitter in circles around her head so that she looked like a strange, feathery model of the solar system.

"You shouldn't leave Lavender waiting outside," she said quietly. "She'll wonder where you've gone."

She walked very slowly and erectly toward the door. Ron looked relieved but Percy knew that the worse was about to come. Percy saw as the existing Hermione's expression turn wild as she aimed her wand at Ron and sent the flock of birds at the redhead. Ron tried his best to get rid of the attacking birds but couldn't and Percy did not come to his rescue. Hermione had left but Lavender came inside and helped out her new boyfriend. The girl did not acknowledge Percy as she dragged Ron out of the room vanishing the birds attacking her boyfriend.

"Try not to get involved Percy. You won't be staying around here all your life."

Percy turned around to see Eudokia sitting on the front bench.

"I tried to stay away and I guess that I ended up being a match-breaker by doing so."

"I don't think we should really speculate on what your involvement or not could have caused. Percy the longer you take to complete this quest the more you will feel attached and it will become even more difficult when you have leave. So focus, focus on your task don't get involved. "

Percy sighed it was easy to say don't get involved but hard not to.

thank you for your reviews. see you all next week.