I'd sound like every author out there if I said that I'd been busy with school. I'm committed to finishing this story before the end of the year and I'm determined to succeed, even when life tries to get in the way.
-Gina
Hermione received a letter from Ron the very next day, detailing his side of the falling-out with Percy, and Hermione had to admit, Percy had been incredibly believable. Ron was fully convinced Percy was bonkers and power-hungry. She wrote Ron back, her tone fully sympathetic and supportive, and asked him if he'd started his homework yet. She penned a short note to Harry for muggle post, but before she could send it, she knocked over a full glass of water onto it and completely ruined it. Frustrated with herself, she decided to go for a walk.
If she was being honest with herself, she had come to the realization that there wasn't a really way she and Percy could easily remain friends in the public eye. The ministry's stance on muggleborns was becoming more and more clear. Percy couldn't be seen with a muggleborn for a best friend; especially since she, the muggleborn in question, was also friends with the boy-who-lived, who was currently the boy-who-the-ministry-wished-would-disappear. The Daily Prophet was still publishing rubbish about Harry and Professor Dumbledore, whilst Cedric Diggory's obituary had been buried in the back of the paper near an advertisement for tooth-flossing mints. Hermione had wracked her brain until late at night to try and come up with a solution to the press problem or her friendship with Percy but had yet to find an answer to either.
Hermes was waiting in the tree outside of her window when she got back. He had a box, wrapped carefully in paper. Inside was a copy of an ordinary looking book with a neat leather cover. Beginner's Guide to Healing Potions and Charms. A small piece of parchment was poking out of the pages like a bookmark, and Hermione pulled it out.
Hermione,
Turn to page 178 and tap twice with your wand.
Percy
Hermione did as the parchment said. Page 178 was nearly blank. It was the end of a chapter on wizarding early childhood illnesses, and the following chapter on page 179 was about illnesses in school-aged children. Hermione pulled her wand from her trunk and tapped the middle of the page twice. Words began to appear, written in what looked to be fine-point, felt-tip marker.
"Protean charms duplicate an object. Tap the word "adolescence" at the top of the page to erase, then write a message. Closing the book activates the charm, sending your writing to my book, and so on and so forth. Try it out, we'll see if it works. If not, send the book back with Hermes. I've instructed him to wait for you." Percy's neat scrawl disappeared completely when Hermione tapped the aforementioned word with her wand.
Percy,
Excellent idea! Very secretive and secure. I'd read about Protean charms but they don't appear in the curriculum until the end of 7th year.
Is the entire book charmed? Or only the one page?
Hermione
All she could find to write with was a red ball-point pen. She closed the book after finishing and waited. Hermes watched her expectantly as she stood to stretch, and she realized he was waiting for a reply, as he'd been told to. Or a snack. She settled for bringing the owl a small bowl of water and penning a brief, innocent reply on a piece of muggle note paper.
Percy,
Thank you for the gift, healing charms always come in handy.
Hermione
Hermes flapped his wings and flew off just as Hermione heard her parents come in through the front door. After peeking at page 178 again and seeing it still blank, she headed down the stairs to greet them.
Percy was very proud of his idea to duplicate and Protean charm the books. He'd had that healing book for a while; he'd bought it in order to learn a bit about healing so he could discuss the various topics with Penny. The book had been buried in the bottom of his trunk since the break-up, but it was perfect for repurposing. Page 178 had been almost completely empty, and the idea to use the blank space to write in blossomed into his idea to use a Protean charm. He'd cast the spell perfectly the first time, but then he'd been faced with the challenge of hiding the messages, saving them, erasing them, making them visible. He'd spent most of the morning and early afternoon perfecting the layers of magic as best he could before sending one of the copies to Hermione.
He was all set to begin his new job on Monday. Despite all of his emotional upheaval, a small part of him was thrilled. Even under the circumstances of his hire, this was the job of a lifetime. Junior assistant to the Minister of Magic. He'd thought it would take him years of working his way up the chain to receive a job position of this caliber, but he'd been offered the job after only a year of grunt work in a lower-priority office. His position in the executive office was the highest position a person could hold without being elected or appointed by the Wizengamot. The positions above him were the minister, and three senior undersecretaries. There was another junior assistant position equal in status to his, but the person who currently held it was quite old and Percy assumed that she'd be retiring before too long.
A larger part of him was terrified. He had floo'ed Professor Dumbledore's office and told him about accepting the job position. Professor Dumbledore had told him a date, time, and address in return, and said his handler would meet him there. Percy had no idea what was to come, and wouldn't until arriving at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour at 5:45pm on July 2nd.
Hermes tapped at his window, and he read Hermione's note eagerly. He flipped open his book and tapped the word with his wand. Her message appeared in red ink.
It had worked! They had a way of communicating! He vanished her words and began writing back.
Hermione,
The entire book is under the Protean charm, but only page 178 can be hidden and vanished and so forth. That's for security reasons.
Hermione, you brewed Polyjuice in a toilet in your second year. I'm sure Protean charms would be a snap for you, regardless of age.
Percy
He went about his day, occasionally checking the book to see if she'd written back. He'd taken it upon himself to clean up his apartment, finish unpacking, and shop for any odds and ends he still needed. It was becoming increasingly clear that the odds and ends he needed most were kitchen supplies, so he walked to the nearest muggle grocery store and attempted to pick out the basics. His knowledge of cooking was lacking, but he did his best and ended up with two full grocery bags to carry home.
Percy,
Bulgaria is amazing! Viktor has been showing me around Sofia while my parents attend their conference. It's very beautiful here. His parents are impressed with my Bulgarian. Viktor says I've improved a lot. I don't really believe him...I sound like I'm hacking something up whenever I try to say anything more than "Hello".
Hermione
Hermione,
Bulgaria sounds pretty amazing. Work has been good: I'm charge of a lot of things to do with policy changes lately. They aren't great, let me tell you. Lots of restrictive policies to do with creatures, half-creatures, and muggleborns.
I've been feeding information to my contact about changes with Azkaban lately. It's hard work; I have to be very careful with the information. It can't be traced back to me.
Percy
Percy occasionally saw his father around the ministry. It was one of the most difficult part of the job; more difficult than pretending to be a ministry sympathizer. If his father saw him, Percy wouldn't have known. Arthur refused to acknowledge him. Didn't look up, didn't turn his way. Once they'd ended up in the same elevator and Arthur remained stoically silent the whole ride. It stung. Percy knew it was fully his fault that his father hated him. That had been the goal of the fight, Percy knew. He'd wanted the separation, for protection. But he hadn't fully imagined that this part of it would be so difficult.
His work was excellent. He got to work with policy, approve or deny requests from departments, attend meetings on Minister Fudge's behalf, and more. There was loads of potential for Percy to sit in on committee meetings and to co-sign bills into law, and all sorts of other important things. He arrived at work at 9am every day, left at 5pm every evening. In his spare time, he took up jogging around his neighborhood, though he tried hard not to run past Hermione's house. There was a muggle public library near his flat, and he went every Friday afternoon to exchange books and pick out new ones. The summer passed quietly as Percy settled into a routine. He rarely deviated, aside from occasional lunches or drinks with coworkers or with Oliver and his other old classmates.
He'd bought himself a book on basic defensive spells and repeated the magic he'd done for Hermione's book on the copy for his contact. Page 93 in that book was nearly blank and they exchanged information updates once per week through the page.
He hadn't met the man who Dumbledore had assigned to be his contact before that afternoon in the ice cream shop, but he'd heard a lot about him. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Senior Auror. He'd been a junior auror back during the first war, and in the very few times Percy had heard his parents talk about their life during the war, Kingsley's name had usually been mentioned. Percy knew what he looked like: he was one of the tallest people at the ministry, with rich brown skin and a single gold earring. They'd never had an excuse to talk in person, nor would they seemingly ever need to. Their only interaction had been brief. Percy had handed over the book to Kingsley and they'd set a schedule for correspondences as well as a set of signal words in case of emergency.
Kingsley's correspondences were short: updates with the order, public perceptions of recent ministry happenings, relevant intelligence on who in the ministry that Percy could trust. Kingsley knew about Percy's family, so when he could, he occasionally included small tidbits so Percy could know how they were doing. Fred and George were running a successful Mail-order business. Ron was a prefect. Ginny was doing well.
Percy was only just starting to earn the trust from his coworkers. He learned that Dolores Umbridge would be the new Defense professor, appointed by the ministry. He learned the heads of several lesser ministry departments had been replaced by people that Kingsley confirmed were Death-Eater sympathizers. He learned that Minister Fudge had quietly overturned some laws governing when and where the dementors were allowed to be. Percy learned shortly after giving Kingsley this information that dementors had attacked Harry Potter and his muggle cousin.
It was difficult, watching the world he'd grown up trusting slowly turning into a world he had to force himself to be a part of.
Hermione's summer had been eventful. Viktor and his family had been excellent hosts and she'd had an amazing time in Bulgaria. Shortly after, her parents had surprised her with a few days in Portugal. She savored the time spent with her parents, and the time spent in the sun.
She'd been so busy with her travels, and without access to any owls or standard postage fare that she hadn't been in contact with Ron, Ginny, or Harry much. Ron had sent her a few owls, but he was a terrible letter writer and their new owl, Pig, often left before she could reply to letters from him or Ginny. It hadn't been a lonely summer, per say, but she missed her friends and wanted to go back to school. The last few weeks spent at Grimmauld place with the Weasleys, Harry, and the Order of the Phoenix had been marvelous, but the damp, dark house always seemed to be out to get her.
Percy had been the only person she'd been in constant contact with, thanks to their Protean charmed book. She'd read the Daily Prophet and other wizarding newspapers, but it was Percy who she got her information from. He told her what he could about ministry goings on, which wasn't everything, but she knew he was afraid to give away too much and have someone find out. The ministry was slowly but surely moving to remove any muggleborn from positions of power while implementing policies that favored pure bloods. She hated it so much, hated the prejudice and the disparities. It scared her to think about the changes to come. As much as she loved magic, the novelty had worn off. The fantasy facade of a magical wizarding school in which she fit in was peeling away, revealing that she would always be viewed differently than her peers. The inevitability of Voldemort's rise to power left a sick feeling in her stomach.
It was difficult, watching the world she'd grown into trusting slowly turning into a world she had to force herself to be a part of.
