A/N: Check out my new Harry/Ginny oneshot if you haven't already - A Candle in the Darkness!

Tell me what you think of Cho/Harry. I'm most likely going to exclude that relationship from my story, but give me your thoughts.

POV: Percy

Disclaimer: The lines taken from OotP are not mine, nor are either series. And, just in case you were wondering, I don't own blue waffles either.

Chapter 26

It was basically the holiday break by the end of the week. I worked furiously, trying to keep up with all of my classwork while simultaneously catching up with all that I'd missed in the past three weeks. Thankfully, I only had five classes to make up. If I'd had more than that, I'd've been so screwed.

Professor Flitwick was pretty forgiving, and he cut down on most of the essays that I would've done if I'd been not-in-a-coma-state when I missed class. He wanted me to do two of the five essays he'd assigned, and work on all of the new Charms that had been introduced during classes. Professor Sprout didn't mind too much, only giving me notes on the new plant species my class had been learning about the past three weeks (Snargaluff Pods especially) and telling me to write one twenty-four-inch essay on the properties and dangers of handling Snargaluff Pods.

Defense Against the Dark Arts, though bad, could've gone much worse. It turned out that getting on Umbridge's good side early on in the year had lots of benefits; she expressed her condolences for me, although she said I had to make up everything — which wasn't too hard, considering it was just fifteen more chapters of Defense Theory and three essays on the Dark creatures discussed in those chapters (such as Dementors, Inferi, and giants).

More difficult to catch up on were Transfiguration and Potions. McGonagall was helpful in getting me back to all my classes, but when it came to her class she cut me absolutely no slack. We were now studying complex spells on the human body itself, and had been introduced to spells that changed eyebrow colors and shrunk hands. And on top of all that, the spells all needed to be performed non-verbally. Not to mention to six long essays assigned over the past three weeks. I was sure I'd be catching up on Transfiguration for the entire holiday break, something that I was not looking forward to. Simply wonderful.

Potions was similar to Transfiguration in the amount of work needed to be done, but a lot of the potions that my class had begun to brew could only be made in the potions classroom. Professor Snape assigned three of the five new potions to me (muttering about how insolent it was that I now had a whole month of schoolwork to catch up on) and told me that I was to come to the dungeon classroom every day during the two-week holiday break until I was done. And the potions he'd given me were not easy: Amortentia, a powerful love potion, an Everlasting Elixir, and Veritaserum, the truth potion. The only good news was that Potions was my easiest class. It seemed I'd be working every day of the holidays.

The Saturday before the holiday weekend was the third Hogsmeade visit. I almost stayed inside the whole day, insisting that I needed to catch up, but both Annabeth and Harry dragged me out by my scarf, telling me I needed to get out or I'd go nuts from being cooped up. I was surprised by Annabeth's behavior; she was usually the one telling me to stay in and do my homework, but I couldn't blame her — she had thought I was dead for three weeks. Hermione was also acting strange. She gave a slight frown when she saw I was coming with them, but said nothing against it.

The Scottish climate had really taken over; although it wasn't windy, snow was falling quickly; dozens of snowflakes all melted together to form enormous globs the size of golf balls, coating us all in white fluff in mere minutes. Hermione and Ginny huddled together next to Ron and Harry while they walked, looking like a moving mountain of black robes and red-gold scarves. I wrapped an arm (much less painfully now) around Annabeth's shoulders, and she shivered despite the multiple layers covering her. I took my hat off and plopped it on her head, to which she responded, "Th-th-thank-ks, P-P-Per-c-cy."

We ended up in the Three Broomsticks, drinking piping-hot Butterbeers and eating warm pastries to fuse off the cold. The globs of snowflakes covering us melted in such close proximity to the roaring fire, leaving us all soaking wet. Ginny found Luna and Neville and went over to talk to them while the rest of us sat down and pulled off about three layers of jackets.

"What happened with Hagrid?" Annabeth asked, knowing that Harry, Hermione and Ron had all gone to visit him yesterday while the two of us stayed in the common room.

"Well, he returned from his "mission for Dumbledore". He was spending a couple of months with the giants in the mountains," said Ron as he picked up a small pumpkin pasty from the tray in front of him and popped it in his mouth.

"He looked awful, didn't he? All covered in bruises from the ordeal," whispered Hermione worriedly. "Anyway, he said that Dumbledore sent him to make sure his 'relatives' won't be joining any Death Eaters anytime soon."

"What do you mean?" I asked, leaning forward and chewing through a buttery Cauldron Cake.

"Well, after Voldemort came back last year, Harry heard he was going to try and get the giants and some other Dark creatures on his side. He first went for the Dementors — not really surprised about that — and now Dumbledore thinks he's going after the giants. Hagrid was supposed to convince them to help the Order, but none of us know how well or badly that went."

"So he's back to teaching?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," started Harry. "He gave us his first lesson on Tuesday, talking about Thestrals. We've had him all this week, except for Monday."

"Well, he's not all that wonderful at picking out magical creatures to take care of, but I'm glad we have him back. Grubbly-Plank was a bit odd," pointed out Ron as he stuffed three Licorice Wands into his mouth at a time.

"Ron! The unicorns weren't all that bad! Besides, if Hagrid gets sacked by Umbridge (which she'll find a way, no doubt) we'll have to go back to her!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said the redhead, waving off Hermione's remark. "Let's hope that Umbridge doesn't find out about Hagrid's family. When will the D.A. be meeting again?"

I'd learned from Annabeth that Dumbledore's Army had started working on Patronus Charms, and were moving along quickly. They had met already multiple times without me, but I was sure to be at the next meeting.

"Probably after the holidays. Lots of people are going home anyway. Which reminds me. Are we going to spend Christmas at Grimmauld Place?" Hermione asked, directing her question at Harry.

"I wish we could. Right now, though, the Order is still trying to figure out Sturgis Podmore's arrest — remember early on in the year, when we found out he was in the Department of Mysteries? Anyway, the Burrow's almost empty because everyone is at Grimmauld Place or here, and it's not safe to be out with Death Eaters on the loose." Harry looked genuinely regretful that he wouldn't be seeing Sirius. "I've still got the two-way mirror, so I can contact Sirius that way, but we'll be staying here for the holidays."

Hermione and Annabeth managed to cheer up the mood by reminding everyone that we could spend the holidays together and we all left soon after that, dragging our feet through the layers of snow to get to the candy shop.

All in all, I was glad that Annabeth and Harry had dragged me out of the castle. It wasn't much of a break, but it was nice to take my mind off of the mountains of make-up work I still had to do. Nevertheless, I went back to it immediately after eating dinner, a steaming kidney pie and mashed potatoes with a small portion of rich, still-warm chocolate cake.

I was half-asleep, working on my homework (in bed, it was more comfortable here than on a common room couch), when Harry started breathing really hard. His curtains were only half-closed (he'd managed to control his Animagi self), and I could see him tossing and turning horribly from a nightmare.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open and he sat up, sweating heavily and looking really sick. "Mr. Weasley… Ron. RON!" Harry fell out of bed and hastily made his way over to Ron, who was still sleeping. Before he got there, though, he doubled over and threw up all over the floor.

I clambered out of my own covers, not even bothering to stopper the ink bottle before rushing over. Harry, though, was already up and shaking Ron. "Ron, wake up! It's your dad, I saw your dad, he got attacked…" I picked up my wand and muttered a slurred Evanesco to wipe Harry's vomit from the carpet.

Ron, having only half-opened his eyes, muttered, "It's only a dream, Harry…"

"What's happening?" I shouted loudly, waking up Neville, Seamus, and Dean, but Harry ignored me.

"No, Ron! Your dad! Heʹs been bitten, itʹs serious, there was blood everywhere…"

"Harry, mate, you… you were just dreaming…"

"No! It wasn't a dream… not an ordinary dream… I was there, I saw it… I did it!"

At this, Ron finally snapped awake. "What d'you mean, you did it?"

Harry, looking drowned in guilt, tugged Ron out of his bed and handed him his shirt before saying frantically, "We've got to go get McGonagall and see Dumbledore!"

And he tugged Ron out of the dormitory, leaving us, bewildered, behind. Seamus, Dean, and Neville, who were all now more or less awake, noted that I was standing there, staring open-mouthed at the door.

"What happened, mate? Where'd Harry and Ron rush off to?" Seamus asked, rubbing his eyes.

"I-I don't know. I think they went to see Dumbledore?" But I couldn't follow them — if Harry had wanted me to, he would've asked me to come with. So I shut the door again and clambered back into bed.

By the time I had done enough wondering about what had just happened, I was too sleepy to continue with my second Transfiguration essay (a shame, too — It'd been going so well until Harry woke up), so I blew on the ink to dry it and rolled it up before tucking it away with my ruffled feather and its ink bottle.

I woke up the next morning to find that Ron and Harry were still gone. Seamus was packing, getting ready to leave for home on the Hogwarts Express, as were Neville and Dean. I rushed down to breakfast, wondering if they were in the Great Hall already, but there was no sign of them. I resigned myself to eating a warm breakfast of coffee cake and fruit until Hermione and Annabeth arrived.

"Have you seen Ginny? She wasn't in the common room when we woke up," Hermione asked me as she sat down and helped herself to a small portion of cinnamon toast.

"No. Harry woke up last night around two in the morning from a really bad nightmare. He grabbed Ron and flew out of the dormitory to get McGonagall." I evaded the vomiting incident. "He said something about Mr. Weasley being attacked… I'm not sure…"

At that precise moment, a very old gray owl I didn't recognize flew down and landed on the toffees. Hermione screamed, "Errol!" and snatched the letter out of his beak before shooing the owl away.

"Who?" Annabeth asked, looking as confused as I felt.

"Errol! He's the Weasleys' owl." Said owl took flight, carrying with it a couple of pieces of cake. Hermione ripped open the letter furiously and read it.

"Dear Percy, Annabeth, and Hermione,

Dad's been attacked at the Ministry. He was on guard duty last night and was attacked by a very large snake." Hermione gulped, and I urged her to go on, feeling sick to my stomach as I remembered Harry's words from the night before: "I did it."

"He lost a lot of blood and was badly poisoned from the bites, and also got a broken rib, but otherwise he'll survive. He's been put in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and has to take Blood-Replenishing potions every few hours. We're really lucky Harry saw my dad getting attacked in his dream, or he might've died last night. We're to go visit him today, but we're staying at Grimmauld Place for now. Mum's already with him; Bill and Charlie came to see him, and Fred, George, Ginny and I were all taken out of Hogwarts, but we'll be back tomorrow.

" — Ron."

Hermione, Annabeth and I spent the day in Gryffindor Common Room and walking around the castle aimlessly. Hermione managed to create a rock on which she tirelessly performed spells — changing it to a toad and then to a canary, levitating it and attacking it with Defense spells. I worked on my homework, which I had managed to diminish to only three essays for McGonagall, practice on spells and charms, and of course the potions I was brewing in Snape's dungeon.

The students who were going home for the holidays all left the castle for the Hogwarts Express at ten in the morning, leaving a select group behind: Annabeth, Hermione, me, Angelina and Parvati Patil from Gryffindor, fifteen Hufflepuffs including Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley, ten Ravenclaws (Terry Boot, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil, and Cho Chang among them), and only two Slytherins: Malfoy and Rachel. I highly suspected that Malfoy had stayed only because Rachel had nowhere else to go, but I was grateful that the rest of Umbridge's so-called "Inquisitorial Squad" had left for the holidays. Umbridge herself didn't stay for the holidays, claiming that the Ministry needed her at the moment.

By lunchtime, the Great Hall had been transformed into a celebratory place, as had the rest of the castle. Holly wreaths and berries lined the corridors, magical floating lights wandered around the castle, and sprigs of black mistletoe popped out of the ceiling over random pairs of students who had just passed each other in the hallways at the wrong time. The mistletoe was not selective in the least, popping out over a large range of people, and a sticking charm prevented those caught under it from leaving until they'd kissed. It was certainly awkward when I walked around a corner to find Professor Snape and Professor Sprout both stuck under the mistletoe, glaring at each other and both bright red. I turned around and walked the other direction, trying to wipe that memory from my brain.

The Great Hall was lined with twelve enormous Christmas trees (courtesy of Hagrid), all of them covered with spinning, talking ornaments and candles that smelled of peppermint. Golden light was visible all around the hall as snow fell lightly from the ceiling. It was perhaps the cheeriest Christmas setting possible, and I couldn't wait until Christmas actually came around in two days.

In the dungeons, I worked on my Veritaserum potion for two hours (with Snape, still red from the day's previous events, watching me) before reaching a point where I had to let it simmer on low heat for seventeen. I placed a timing spell on the cauldron, put the potion away, still simmering, and told Professor Snape that I'd be back in seventeen hours — tomorrow at ten in the morning.

The rest of the day went on uneventfully, and it was as I was walking back to Gryffindor Tower, studying the elements of transfiguring a human jaw that a boy ran up to me, panting, and scared me out of my wits.

Malfoy had run up behind me and hit my back quite hard, causing a stinging pain to flash up and down the unhealing scars there. I cringed, my back tensing up immediately, and dropped my book on my toe.

"OW!" I yelled loudly, because the sting of the scars was nothing compared to stubbing my toe.

"Oh, goddamit! Percy! Rachel — spewing out green fog — prophecy —"

"WHAT?" I yelled, still clutching my throbbing toe. Rachel was spewing out green fog? There was no doubt that it was another prophecy. Through the pain of my toe, I felt surprise. The last time she'd given a prophecy was in October, when Dumbledore had told Ron, Harry, and Hermione our full story. Everyone, excluding maybe Hermione (who'd worked furiously at trying to figure out the prophecy, Annabeth had told me), thought that Rachel was done with her little Oracle moments. Apparently not.

Hobbling, I followed Draco down several flights of cold marble steps, to the dungeon where the Slytherin Common Room was located. He stopped in front of a brick wall, murmuring the password so I couldn't hear it, and rushed in when the wall formed a door.

I stepped in the Slytherin common room and was immediately creeped out. The windows on the far wall let an eerie green light flood in, and my suspicion that we were in the Black Lake was proved as a fish-tailed merperson flashed by the window, screeching evilly and holding a trident. If those were Poseidon's children, I'd rather die than meet my stepbrothers and stepsisters. That was not what a mermaid was supposed to look like.

The Slytherin common room had a blazing fire keeping the room lit and warm, while dim emerald-green lamps swung from the ceiling over rich mahogany chairs and tables. The room was deserted besides Draco, me, and a red-haired girl lying seemingly passed out on the floor.

I watched as Draco rushed over to her and helped her up. "Rachel? What happened?" I asked.

"She just gave another prophecy. Or another part of the first one," said Draco, panting again. Rachel was still looking greenish.

"What did she say? Do you remember?" I asked Draco, but he shook his head.

"Something about a person being forsaken and death, I don't remember the words —"

But then he was interrupted as Rachel doubled over again and repeated what she'd no doubt said just minutes earlier. The eerie light of the Slytherin common room and the Black Lake didn't help, only making her seem like more of a demonic spirit. I closed my eyes, but it did nothing to prevent the vision of the python and the Oracle's spirit from flooding my head.

"Fiery red has been forsaken;

Watch her close, or she'll be taken

Your friend will fool you through a lie

And the taken one will promptly die;

She won't be alone in meeting death

Both good and bad take final breaths."

Rachel collapsed again, the green light fading from her eyes as they rolled back up into her head.

"Well," said Draco, holding her up again, "There's another part. How many more will there be?"

I didn't have an answer for that.

Harry and Ron, along with the rest of the Weasleys, were back for breakfast the next day, and only then did I tell anyone else about Rachel's new prophecy piece. Because there were few people at Hogwarts at the time, the teachers had combined all four House tables into one, and Draco and Rachel were sitting with us.

Hermione, not surprisingly, pulled out her prophecy parchment and wrote down the next six lines as I recited them perfectly. I barely even took a moment to wonder why my memory was so excellent all the time now — I'd have time to worry about that later.

"Well, the first two lines have to mean Rachel, right?" Annabeth pondered as she picked a couple of blue waffles off of my plate. The house elves were serving regular waffles, but I'd managed to turn them blue with a simple spell. "Fiery red has been forsaken — that has to mean Rachel. Ugh, Seaweed Brain! These are so sweet! Why'd you have to drown your waffles in maple syrup?"

"Hey!" I said defensively. "I can't drown, and neither can my waffles."

"Excellent logic, Percy," snorted Harry.

"Anyway," continued Annabeth, not having heard the comment or simply ignoring it, "it has to mean Rachel. Unless, maybe…" Her eyes strayed to Ginny, who was talking with Luna a couple of people down the table.

Ron followed her eyes. "Oh, no. Please, no. I don't want to relive another Chamber of Secrets scenario."

"In any case, we've got to watch both of them. I don't want anyone dying anytime soon," said Hermione, pointedly not looking at Malfoy

For no reason, I glanced at the clock on the Great Hall wall. It was five to ten. I suddenly remembered something, and cursed as I stood up. "Where're you going, Percy?" Annabeth asked worriedly.

"I almost forgot! I have to complete my Veritaserum for Professor Snape, and if I don't go I'll have to start over." I practically ran to the dungeons, a mark on my arm getting hotter and hotter as I did. The mark, which was tied to the timing charm, got warmer as the timing charm began to end, and it would burn my arm if I didn't get to the dungeons fast enough.

Thankfully, I managed to do so, and completed my Veritaserum half an hour later. I levitated some of the clear, water-like potion into my flask and put the rest in a large jar. I left the flask, marked as Veritaserum, on Professor Snape's desk before wiping out my cauldron and walking back up to Gryffindor Tower.

A/N: Cho/Harry: yes or no?