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Hello again.

Well I finally updated, I'm sort of co-writing this with a friend and it's pretty hard to get it all together. On a happier note ^_~ I really thank all those who reviewed, it really makes me feel warm and gooey.

To answer the few questions I got asked-

Yes Percy was fired from his Ministry job, the ministry wanted him to stop coming to work and concentrate on the assistant position. If he got chosen it would make the British Ministry seem better ^_^

And there might be slash, I'm a bit of a fan myself but my writing partner isn't too sure about it. But I will tell you that it will probably be Severus/Percy if there is any at all. They are my fave characters so it would make me happy too!!! =)

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CHAPTER TWO

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Ron and Harry looked up, knowing all to well that Hermoine got excited over any little thing she managed to find. Ginny on the other hand was not quite as experienced in the field of 'understanding Hermoine', and she bolted up with anticipation.

It took a few seconds for Hermoine to gather up enough breath to speak, but when she was ready she shocked them all. " There is only one potions MASTER, there are heaps of teachers and alchemist's but only the original potion master can take an assistant. It's like an intense training period where the assistant learns all that is known about potions. In this time they must study almost constantly with the master and it takes them twenty years until they achieve the same status."

Here she slowed, and it was obvious that she disagreed strongly with what she was about to say. " The assistant must be under the age of 25 and it can only be a male who takes the position, which is quite old fashioned. Wizards obviously haven't heard about women's right movements and the such, which is a pity because-" Hermoine trailed off as she saw the glazed look which was starting to creep into Ron's eyes.

"-Well anyway, once the assistant is appointed they must sign away all rights to marriage and children. The reason I'm telling you all this is because you'll never believe who the current Master is...it's Professor Snape!"

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Percy had not quite accepted the fact that he had been fired from his job in the Ministry. All through his years at Hogwarts there were a few things he was sure of one was that he would become Head Boy in seventh year, and the other was that he would become a Ministry worker after school.

Now that one of those two things had been taken away from him, Percy was at a loss. In reality, the Letter (in his mind it was always referred to with a capital) could not have come at a better time. For the last week he had hardly left his bedroom, preferring to spend the hours hunched over his books.

Molly hadn't seen the hectic study schedule that he had kept for the N.E.W.T.S and had become so worried about him that she had resorted to trying to charm his pumpkin juice to Shut Eye mixture. It had started to work, but as soon as he started to doze he had drank a potion to keep him awake.

Tonight was the first night that he had happily fallen asleep, and it was no wonder. After all the next day was the day of the exam and Percy wasn't going to spoil it by not having enough sleep.

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The sun had just risen and it bathed the Burrow with its weak rays. If anyone had taken the time to look in through the second window of the third story they would have seen a very unusual sight.

For one of the only times in his life, Percy Weasley had slept in. Granted it was still only seven in the morning and most sensible people had not yet stirred it was a full hour and a half later than his usual rising time.

At nine there came the usual bangs and shouts that signified the twins awakening and less that thirty minutes later they ran from the house, brooms in hand. At 11.30 Molly Weasley emerged from the house dressed in an old pair of gardening robes and a large straw hat.

And that's how everything was when Percy awoke just after noon. Of course things didn't stay that way for long. Percy panicked and raced through the house grabbing his breakfast and running straight to the shower.

Exactly 3 minutes later he emerged from the room with a white fluffy towel around his waist and a piece of now soggy toast in his mouth. It was a further 15 minutes more until he opened his bedroom door and double checked his gear as he munched thoughtfully on the same piece of wet toast.

Percy stepped out of he house and into the sunshine, blinking at the rapid change in the lighting. Mrs Weasley smiled up at him, her face was drenched with sweat from the heat and hard work of uprooting gnomes.

"Oh, good morning Percy. You do look lovely in your dress robes, you really should wear them more often. Good luck with the exam dear, I'd give you a hug or a kiss but we don't want you getting all dirty now, do we?"

Percy smiled and shook his head, if it were any other child Molly would have been all over them. But she knew him too well and respected the fact that he didn't like being touched by anyone.

He smiled at her again and opened his mouth to speak when he managed to see the wizard watch on his wrist. The time was 12.45 and Percy let out a surprised screech, before quickly apparating away from the Weasley household.

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Percy secretly hated apparating, it was convenient in the way that it allowed him to travel almost anywhere he wanted, as fast as he wanted but he hated the feeling that it produced in his stomach.

That lurching feeling, the same one he got when he was hurt by someone he cared for, or even the feeling he had in third year when Flint had cornered him in the dungeons and kicked him until he bled.

The feeling wasn't as strong now as it had been as he first got his license, but the little lingering still made him queasy.

He had been standing outside the Ministry for a few minutes. Hesitating wasn't really in his nature but the Letter had said that he would be met at the door, it hadn't said to enter the building if he was early.

Percy bit at his lip, a nervous habit he had picked up long ago, and was just reaching for the door handle when there was the familiar pop of someone appartating in. The man was dressed in official ministry robes and he looked at Percy with contempt in his eyes.

The man stepped closer to Percy and the odour of raw meat invaded Percy's nose, making him step back in revulsion. The man looked sorely offended and quickly reached out and grasped Percy's wrist, there was a brief feeling of disorientation and then they were...there.

The room was white, everything from the benches to the large board at the front of the classroom. Even the other people in the room were dressed in white, and to Percy's surprise, when he looked down he saw that he was dressed in white as well.

The other occupants ignored his arrival as well as his stuttered greeting. Percy shuffled over to the only empty desk, he was blushing with embarrassment and he knew it. He had always hated the Weasley blush that spread over his whole body like an ink stain.

He had only just placed his equipment in its proper place when the board down the front of the room came to life. It coughed once or twice them silently began to write instructions.

' Task 1- Complete multiple question paper. Circle only one answer per question and changes must be made in different coloured ink. You have 30 minutes begin ...NOW"

Percy was about to panic. He hadn't seen a paper on the table and no one had given him one. His hand was reaching up when a sealed booklet landed on his table from mid air. He pulled his hand down quickly and looked around out of the corner of his eye to see if anyone had noticed his embarrassment.

He slitted the booklet open and followed the simple instructions like writing his name and activating the paper with his wand. Percy looked at the first question, and almost sighed in relief. He was worried that the questions would all be on obscure texts, ones that he could not afford. He smiled as he pulled out his quill, things didn't look too bad.

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Percy had finished the choice and written part of the exam and was now about to undertake the practical. It was the most important part of the test, worth a whole 50%. He watched nervously as the board cleared it's throat and started writing down the last set of instructions.

'Task 3 Part 1- You will be given the names of a number of potions, you must then brew them correctly and label them. Once this is done you must concoct the antidote, if there is none then you must explain why.'

'Part 2- Refer to the list on each table for the ingredients. Using these ingredients you must make as many different potions in the allocated time. Potions do not need to include every ingredient.'

This was the part of the test that Percy had been dreading. He knew that his memory would pull him through most of the test, but when it came to the finer art of brewing potions he had some troubles.

He stumbled a bit with the first potion batch he attempted but after a while it all came back to him. The little secrets he had picked up, the smells and the temperature were good ways to tell if the potion was ready.

All the studying that he had put in over his school life and the last minute cramming was put to use, and when it came to brewing he found he had actually memorised most of the recipes.

Percy found himself finished the first task way ahead of anyone else in the room. They were all going very slowly, trying to make everything by the book.

The second part of the task came to him almost as quickly. His extensive memory allowed him to recall most of the potions he had ever learnt how to brew. In fact, Percy thought he was doing excellently right until the last few minutes.

The potion he had attempted to brew was one that he had only recently read about. It was quite old and hardly useful, the only real use he could see was that it turned grass from light green to dark, and the only reason he tried was for extra points.

He hadn't guessed that when the instructions said 'to let cool' they had really wanted him to charm the potion cold. His failure to do this resulted in an explosion of gigantic proportions.

There had been one or two little disruptions so far, spilled potions or ones that fizzed over, but Percy's put them to shame. There was a gurgle and then the whole potion exploded, completely shattering his cauldron and dousing the whole room with orange and pink goop.

Percy couldn't move, he was frozen to the spot with a curious mixture of shame and shock. It was only after the remains of his cauldron fell to the floor with a rather loud bang that Percy could open his mouth and say the first thing that came to mind,

"...Oh dear".

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Mrs Weasley was sitting by the fire, knitting in hand, when Percy apparated home. She went out to meet him at the door but he was already inside and when she saw him everything she was going to say disappeared.

His normally impeccable robe was gone and in its place was a blindingly white shroud. This wasn't exactly what made her lose her voice, Percy was splattered liberally with a strange neon orange with specks of pink through out. It was on his hands, it was clumping his eyelashes together and had even managed to penetrate his usually slicked back hair.

He stood there, watching her, waiting for her to laugh at him. He knew that she wouldn't and he was right, instead she gathered him in her arms.

"How was it? Come in, dinner is on the table, you go get cleaned up while I call the boys."

Percy gladly walked in the direction of the bathroom and at the sound of his brother's footsteps on the stairs he made a dash for privacy. He wasn't quick enough and Fred and George rounded the corner and stopped dead in their tracks.

Percy used their shock against them and quickly shut himself in the bathroom, unaware of their conversation on the other side of the door.

Fred continued to look at the door as he spoke, knowing that his twin was listening. "We didn't think the old bucket over the door trick would work on Percy, did we?" he asked.

George didn't answer. He wasn't ignoring his twin, it was just that he knew, as well as his twin, that they thought the same thing about everything and that Fred's opinion was George's too.

He waited for a brief pause before turning to look at Fred and say, "It worked better than we thought it would, but a note for next time - blue is definitely the better colour". Fred laughed and then nodded his agreement before taking off where they had stopped- in the middle of a race to the table.

Percy entered the kitchen almost 10 minutes later. He had scrubbed as hard as he could to rid himself of the faint orange stain but it had stuck fast, even after a dousing with the industrial strength stain remover that his mother used in the twin's room.

Fred and George snickered at him for a while, but it was no more outrageous than the time they had dyed his hair a flashing green. Molly placed a plate of steaming food down in front of him and smiled at the neon orange colour of his eyebrows.

Arthur blinked once or twice and then grinned madly as he remembered that Percy had gone for the exam, it seemed logical to him that Percy would come home a different colour than the one he left with. He had only seen Snape a few times but judging from his skin colour it happened to people in the field.

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Dinner was a quiet affair, and when Percy went up to his room he realised that his mind had been a million miles away. He was tired mentally and physically and the only thing he wanted to do for the next few years was lay down and sleep.

As he climbed the stairs he cursed the fact that he had the second bedroom from the top, which meant he still had a fair number of stairs to go. By the time he reached his bedroom he was too weary to check for the usual traps set by the twins.

He pushed open the door rather violently and closed his eyes slowly as a bucket full red fizzing dye poured out all over his body. He opened his eyes just in time to see the bucket drop onto his nicely made bed and soak it with the remains of the mixture.

There must be something said about the person who can get a bucket of dye dumped on them and not rage, it is either that they are too kind or they live with pranksters like Fred and George. Percy muttered a quick drying spell on his bed and his clothes then slipped into bed. He could always get them in trouble in the morning.

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You must have realised that I am yet another short chapter person. I can't help it, I have a really short attention span!

Please review, I want to know what I can do to fix up my story. I'm sorry about any spelling or grammatical errors that might be in this story, I try to edit them all, I really do.