Oliver had returned the next day, though once again Percy wouldn't have guessed it. Oliver was not present at breakfast or practice or even in his room. But he must have eaten at some point, and Percy glimpsed him afterwards, walking back to the main dorms.

"Hey," he called.

Oliver said nothing.

"Hey, don't just leave like that."

Oliver immediately turned to pace the other direction, wringing his hands behind his back.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Can you talk?"

"Yes."

Okay. Oliver clearly didn't want to talk with him, and yet Angelina hadn't been returned, so it couldn't have gone too poorly. "We knew we weren't going to cover it up forever. They got a head start, as much as we could give them, and Lee knows how to Apparate, too. So they could be wherever. You did your part."

Oliver nodded, blankly, and then looked up again. "This is going to sound a little silly, but..."

"Try me."

"I don't think we should be together anymore. Beyond the, er, obvious problem of being fenced in together, in the same complex..."

"What? Oliver, no one blames you..."

"They made me talk."

"Yeah, and I killed a bloke, if we're going on record then—"

"Not like that. I might even have been able to hold out—they have spells, to make you obey, this is all secondhand but there are a few slaves that can fight them. Went for the old-fashioned way of paralyzing me and forcing potion down my throat. More effective."

"And so what? We both know you wouldn't have, if you'd had the choice."

"So what? We're still not free, and—I'd just as soon you not stand out."

"What, like suddenly I'll start liking women if only you leave me alone?"

"No, it just doesn't do you any good to be the one who's in love with his—teacher, who's a fugitive smuggler."

"Oh, quit bragging. You never smuggled anything."

Oliver blushed but turned away.

"And besides, will breaking up now make me stand out any less? Or is that just giving them what they want! We had, have, something amazing here, in spite of Bagman and all them. Are you going to let them take that away from you?"

"Absolutely not! I'm trying to break it off first, so they can't win."

"That's still giving them what they want, either way."

"Do you think they actually care about what we do?"

"No. But I do."

"You're impossible."

"This is not a discussion. As far as I'm concerned, we're finished, and if I need to be blunt about that until you get the point, well, maybe having you get mad at me is the best way to accomplish this." And he began to pace again, as if unsure whether to head to his own room or the main dorms.

"Oliver. What happened to your hands?"

"Nothing happened to my hands."

"Then why are you still holding them behind your back?"

Oliver paused, and then shook his head. "You see, here's the thing. Bagman owned me all this time. He'd never had to come check up on me, really, because I was doing well as slaves go. We barely spoke. But yesterday, everything that happened—breaking the glass, I tried to resist when they took me, as much as I could—well, I crossed a line. I'm not a nice, distant slave anymore. I'm a criminal. And the thing is?" He broke into a mirthless laugh. "There's a punishment for slaves who break the law."

He dropped his hands, and Percy squinted at them. Where Bagman's name had once been, nothing remained. But then, just farther up the wrist, was the green outline of a snake.