Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Thirty-Four—Bitter Secrets

Ron went to visit the Burrow for Sunday dinner with his parents, and now he enters the safehouse with the most peculiar look on his face. Harry scans him closely and notices that it's not the sort of glaze in his eyes the Imperius Curse would create. He relaxes back on his couch. "What is it?"

"Percy gave me this to give to you," Ron replies, and holds out a folded square of parchment.

Harry unfolds it slowly. He understands, after the glimpse he caught in the Ministry, of why Percy might want to write to him, but he still halfway expects the message to combust in his hands.

Instead, Percy says, I don't think you're doing the right thing, but I'd like to meet you and discuss those things instead of just yelling at you about them.

And that's all. Harry lays the parchment down, only for Ron to snatch it up. He makes a disbelieving noise once he sees the contents. "Does he really think that he can lure you in with that?"

"I don't think that he's only on the Ministry's side. I saw him when I went into the Ministry to get the wands for the werewolves and goblins. He was refusing to spread the lie that I was a bastard child and so didn't deserve to be Lord Potter. I think truth really matters to him. He just isn't good at telling truth from lies."

Ron opens his mouth, then closes it. "Yes, all right, I can see that. But you're not really going to go meet him, are you, mate?"

"He asked politely, and do you think it's a trap? I don't think the Ministry would believe they could use Percy to trap me. The way that we disagree politically is too well-known."

Ron shakes his head stubbornly. "I wouldn't have believed half the shit that the Ministry's pulled, but they still try to pull it. I want you to take at least some of us with you for protection."

"I'll take that bat. It can't be endangered, and it'll convince anyone who helped set up the meeting as a trap that I'm the Dark Lord I appear to be." Harry reaches out and claps Ron's shoulder when he opens his mouth. "I know that you would prefer to come with me, but we need at least some plausible distance between us if something happens to me. Hermione is practically in hiding, but I don't want you to endanger yourself, either."

"Why do you get to do it and no one gets to object?" Ron mutters, falling into a chair with his arms folded.

"It must be because I'm Lord Potter and Lord Black."

Harry speaks so seriously that Ron actually nods for a second before he listens to the content of the words, and then Harry has to run around the room avoiding hexes. They only get worse when he tells Ron that this is the most exercise that Ron's got in weeks.

In the end, Harry sets up the meeting with Percy on a Muggle street not far from Grimmauld Place. That way he'll be far away from places important to him that they don't already know about, and the Ministry is less likely to set off a flashy trap when they would have to use magic in front of the Muggles.

Harry stands under a Disillusionment Charm until he sees Percy walking along the street in a surprisingly Muggle coat. Then he lets the charm go, and Percy starts and moves over to him, eyeing the black lump of the bat on his shoulder.

Harry smiles. So that Muggles won't get upset, the bat will look like a part of his coat until it moves. "Do you want to go somewhere else, Percy? Is this conversation likely to take long?"

Percy is scrutinizing him deeply, as if he thinks he might be able to make Harry tell the truth just by staring into his eyes. That's a delusion, but it could be a useful one, so Harry only raises his eyebrows a little and waits for an answer.

"Can we walk?" Percy finally asks. "I don't think that I want to do this here in case there are Muggle cameras on those buildings."

Harry nods, a little surprised that Percy thought of that, and they walk until they're on another street. Then Percy glances at him and says, "I don't believe that you're a Dark Lord."

"But you heard about all the chaos I caused in Diagon Alley. And you know that I slaughtered Kingsley." Harry has to go slowly here. It's unusual that Percy wants to speak with him, and Harry sort of wants to encourage him, but on the other hand, he can't have Percy going and telling everyone about his suspicions.

Percy clenches his hands. "I don't—that's the one thing that doesn't fit in with the rest."

"I brutally killed someone. The way I brutally frightened people in—"

"That just doesn't seem like your style," Percy says, and frowns at Harry when he opens his mouth to object. "The style of the person that you're trying to portray yourself as, maybe. But not the actual style that you have as a person."

Harry shakes his head. "Careful, Percy. You're coming close to making me angry." What it really is is that he'll need to Obliviate Percy just the way he did with Ginny if Percy isn't careful, doesn't hold back.

Percy stops walking and turns to face him, face set and stubborn the way it was when he tried to lay down the law as a prefect in Hogwarts. "I don't believe that you killed Kingsley like that. I believe it was an elaborate illusion and you killed him painlessly behind the illusion."

"Careful," Harry says, and sinks enough power into his voice that a few stones on the street vibrate. One of the Muggles walking past glances at them and then quickens his pace.

"Or what? I really believe that, Harry. That means that I don't believe you're going to kill me."

Harry has to smile despite how inconvenient it is that Percy, of all people, has nearly figured him out. It's annoying, but also endearing, and it proves that Harry was right about the Ministry all along. It would be easy enough to see the truth about him if people in the Ministry wanted to. Percy is pretty much the perfect flunky, and he managed. That just goes to show that most people are lazy and don't want to try.

"I'm going to Obliviate you," Harry says frankly as he draws his wand, keeping it under the line of his arm to conceal it from the Muggles in the street. "It's nothing personal. I just can't have you going around yelling the truth at people. And Hermione would never forgive me if I didn't search you for recording spells and Muggle devices before I let you go back to the Ministry."

Percy falls back with one hand raised, but Harry is used to that and casually stops the retreat with an invisible ward. Percy swallows and shakes his head. "Wait, Harry."

"Sorry, I really can't." And Harry does feel sorry. Percy is one of the few people to work it out. He's smarter than Harry ever thought he was, and braver. It's a shame they can't be on the same side.

"No, I mean—" Percy takes a deep breath and glances up into the sky. Harry arches his neck a little so that he can look, too. Maybe someone will be swooping down on a broom to rescue Percy, as illegal as that would be in front of Muggles. But no one is there.

"I just meant," Percy continues, sounding as if he can't believe himself even as he speaks, "is that I didn't come to betray you. I want to join you."

"What?" Harry asks blankly, a long moment later.

"Why did you think I wouldn't want to?"

"Because you're you," Harry tells him.

Percy winces. "I suppose I sort of deserve that. But listen. I've listened to all the arguments in the Ministry, and they just don't make sense. People are trying to ignore things that you've done—they're also trying to do the right thing, but they're only acting more stupid when they try. And then, the Sun Chamber. I never knew there was a secret cadre of Lords and Ladies controlling everything. I'm really angry about that."

Harry blinks. "Why?"

"Because they weren't honest."

Harry considers Percy in interest. He supposes that he should have thought more about what sort of ally Percy would make, but he's always been so strongly allied to the Ministry that Harry never did.

"It's one thing if they want to own it." Percy is waving his hands around, his eyes so blazing that more than one Muggle on the street looks at him cautiously and walks the other way or on the pavement on the other side. "If they governed for the good of all and out in the open. But they hid. If they're so right and pure-bloods deserve so much, why did they hide? That's not right!"

Harry nods. "You're right. It isn't."

Percy winds down abruptly, flushing. "I suppose that you think I'm stupid," he whispers. "That I should have chosen your side from the beginning."

"Not necessarily that. I never thought there was a chance that you would."

"Honest, yourself." Percy braces himself as if he's about to get tackled and slammed to the earth. "Can you at least tell me what you're doing? Then I can decide if I'm going to join you."

"If I tell you, then you either join us or I Obliviate you. Those are the only choices. I won't have you betraying the rest of my side if you choose not to like what I'm doing."

"I'll take that chance."

Harry nods and then turns around. "Not out in the open," he adds, "even if we are in the Muggle world. Come with me, and we'll Apparate once we're out of sight."

Percy follows him willingly, and doesn't gasp and flinch back when the bat on Harry's shoulder yawns and stretches its wings. Harry has to admit that he's impressed. Even some of his actual allies didn't like the sight of that particular Black weapon.

They Apparate next to a broken-down building that even most of the Muggles seem to avoid, and Harry lands outside a Black safehouse that he hasn't used yet. Percy is disoriented enough that Harry thinks an Obliviation will be no problem. He waits until Percy's eyes are both pointed in the right direction again, and stretches his hand in front of him. "Come on. If you want to start getting integrated into this rebellion, you need to be behind wards."

"I only said I wanted to listen. I never said I wanted to join the rebellion."

Harry rolls his eyes once Percy's back is turned and his own face is out of sight. There's the pomposity he knew when Percy was a Gryffindor prefect and didn't really miss.

The house is dusty, but otherwise good-looking; Kreacher, who is ignoring the way that Hermione broke the bonds of house-elf slavery because he already has a good gig with his bullying of Harry, comes here at least once a fortnight. There's a sitting room with hideous furniture that was probably banished from Grimmauld Place (although given the stuff that is there, Harry doesn't think much of the Black ancestors' taste anyway). He sits down and gives Percy an expectant look.

Percy looks as if he's bracing himself. "You—you really don't want anyone to overhear you."

"No. Hence the threats of Memory Charms."

His voice is dry enough to snap Percy into paying attention, at least. He looks up and nods. "I am sorry that I wasn't with you from the beginning. But—what are you doing?"

Harry lays it out quietly, sticking to the things that have less to do with him. Percy might still be combative about how much time Harry invested in trying to change the Ministry and how utterly angry he feels about it. He listens in silence to Harry talking about the ways that Muggleborns are treated unfairly by the Wizengamot, how creatures are put down and actively hunted, how pernicious the Sun Chamber was, and lots of other things that Harry hasn't had to explain in such detail since the early days.

Percy finally nods. "It does sound bad when you put it like that."

Harry holds back another eyeroll. "Of course it does. People were suffering."

"I mean—I just suppose I always thought it would take time, and things would be better someday."

Harry shrugs a little. "If we'd made any progress, Ron and Hermione and I, when we tried to change things, maybe I would still have that faith. But we didn't. Or people went around behind our backs and changed the progress we did make. And in the meantime, there were Muggleborns and creatures suffering now. They didn't care about 'someday.'"

Percy stares at the teacup that Harry has put in front of him, although by now the tea has gone cold. "And now you're giving them that."

"Yes. The house-elves are free already, you know that."

"And what else are you going to do?"

Harry smiles at him.

"I want to fight with you," Percy says sullenly. "That means you should trust me, not shut me out of the biggest secrets." He settles back in his chair. "If you're going to use special spells or something, then maybe I could help if you would tell me what they are."

Harry manages to control the words he wants to snap, and just says, "We're going to free most other magical creatures from the domination of the humans. Luna has already invented charms that shield the centaurs and the unicorns from our war." Harry doesn't see any harm in giving Percy that much when it's done and he won't be able to pierce the protections Luna set up or find and the unicorns and centaurs anyway.

Percy starts so hard that he almost falls off his chair. "Lovegood invented that?"

"You still think so little of her? When it's been years since Hogwarts?"

"I knew her before Hogwarts, too. She was just always so quiet and dreamy. She didn't seem like an inventor. And she's a pure-blood."

"She cares about creatures before anyone else. And Ron's one, too."

Percy nods, his eyes on the floor. Then he looks up. "You really—you really believe that this is the right thing to do?"

"Yes," Harry says, and that's utterly true. He could Obliviate Percy and believe it. He could have his parents come back from the dead just to tell him he was wrong, and he'd believe it. It's gone far enough, this endless, endless corruption. The Ministry had years and years to fix what was wrong, and they ignored the problems. At least Harry's not the kind who will ignore them.

"I—it sounds so wild, what you're doing." Percy swallows. "I can't believe that you're actually going to change minds and change the world. Why do you think this is going to work, when so many people have tried? Voldemort tried fear, too, but—"

"I haven't decided to change the world with fear," Harry interrupts, genuinely amused. It's an error that Hermione made at first, too, but Harry told her of his plans so early on that she didn't get into a whole speech. "I'm doing something else."

"What?"

Harry holds his eyes. "I need a loyalty oath. On your wand, at least."

Percy hesitates. Harry sits there. Percy can do whatever he wants, Harry can't force him. What he is going to make sure of is that his first allies aren't betrayed or put in a difficult position because he has someone new who wants in.

Percy finally firms up his jaw and nods. When he draws his wand, he holds it up with a hand that doesn't tremble. "I swear on my wand that I will not communicate the secrets Harry Potter tells me to anyone, by word or writing or any other method, until he releases me."

There's a burst of suddenly released tension in the air, something Harry barely noticed building until it broke. He nods. "Good enough." Then he leans forwards and gestures for Percy to put his wand away.

"I didn't kill Kingsley at all," he tells him quietly. "I created an illusion that I did. Kingsley is alive and asleep under the Draught of Living Death in a safe place."

Percy stares at him with dropped jaw. "But that was what made them certain—they were certain you were a Dark Lord—why would you—"

He stops, and swears aloud. Harry grins. Listening to Percy Weasley swear is an interesting experience.

"A distraction," Percy hisses. "It was all a distraction!"

Harry grins at him some more, and waits for him to get it all out. That eventually ends up with Percy pacing around the kitchen muttering and yelling at himself, but then he at least flops back in his chair and drinks most of his cup of tea before he slams it on the table and glares at Harry. "Fine," he says, stretching out the word. "A distraction from what?"

And that's when Harry gets to tell him, and watch his eyes widen in sheer appreciation of Harry's genius. That's pretty bloody brilliant.