Chapter 8 Perky's Demise: Part Two "What!" Harry heard the shrieked word come from around the corner. He held his breath in anticipation. 'What the hell are people screaming for at this hour of the night' he thought to himself.

Dumbledore was astonished at the loud "What!" that echoed through the halls. He stopped abruptly and held his breath in anticipation. Then realized, 'What the bloody band-aids am I doing just standing here!? I'm the Headmaster to crying out loud. I should go see what's going on!' He ran forward to see what the hell people were screaming for at this hour of the night.

Suddenly Harry heard running footsteps billowing behind him. He turned flabbergasted to find Dumbledore dashing toward him at an alarming speed. He just stood there unable to move as the tremendous wave of blue robes came flying at him.

SMACK! THUD! CLUNK!

Dumbledore collided painfully with Harry. Harry's invisibility cloak went flying to the side, revealing his existence.

"Harry!?" said Dumbledore as he got slowly up, his knees creaking with age. "Where the blo—What are you doing out of the dorms so late?"

Harry quickly made it to his feet and brushed the dust off his uniform (remember he put it on). "I…" He didn't know what to say this was the first time he'd ever been caught after dark, but it didn't matter. Dumbledore seemed to be distracted with feverishly looking through his robes.

"Auhhhh," sighed Dumbledore in relief as he extracted a vial of thick, green liquid. "Not broken…" He whispered to himself.

"What is that?" Harry asked curiously. It reminded him of the Hexeropuff Madam Pomfry had dripped into Ron's swollen eye.

"Well it's…" Harry could tell Dumbledore didn't wish to share an explanation.

"It's Bulbarlous," said a voice from behind them.

"Penelope?" said Dumbledore and Harry in unison.

Penelope nodded her head toward the vial. "Bulbarlous, a poison commonly mistaken for perfume due to it's sweet smell. Though it's ineffective on the exterior of the body, Bulbarlous is extremely poisonous if consumed."

Both Harry and Dumbledore looked at her in amazement.

Dumbledore furrowed his thick white eyebrows. "What are you doing here?" He looked at Penelope, waiting for an answer.

"I came to visit my Perky, merely to find that he has betrayed me." She said with irritation.

"He got Cho pregnant…" Harry mumbled.

"I despise the despicable bastard." Said all three in agitated unison. Then looked at each other in surprise.

"I see…" breathed Penelope, "This seems to be an interesting, yet convenient situation that we are in."

"That it does." Agreed Dumbledore.

"Wait! I have a plan!" Harry said in shrill excitement. Harry searched his pockets and pulled out a small breath spray bottle and grinned proudly.

"And what exactly do you plan to do with that?" Penelope asked, undermining Harry in her tone.

Harry then took the vile of Bulbarlous from Dumbledore's unsuspecting hand and poured it into the little spray bottle.

Dumbledore had already caught on and was grinning too. "That's a good one Harry; you're as clever as your father was."

Penelope still looked at them trivially. "I still feel quite in the dark as to what you are going to do with that tiny spray bottle, now filled with Bulbarlous."

"Well, Percy is quite the horny bastard if he went after, of all bitches, Cho." Harry said explanatorily. Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "So, I figured that you could go in there, soak him your sappy goodness until he's nice and hard... then you could spray this in his mouth while saying something along the lines of, 'Oh Percy dear, your breath is quite stark.'" He finished imitating Penelope's voice poorly.

Penelope rolled her eyes at his imitation of her. "Well all might sound peachy keen to you, but do you realize how little Bulbarlous that tiny spray bottle contains? It's not nearly enough to kill someone."

"Yes but it is enough to render someone helpless." Dumbledore countered.

"Then we can just take the pleasure of finishing him off, without poisons." Harry agreed.

Penelope pondered this for a moment. Then finally answered, "Ok, I'll do it. But you two must have your wands ready, if anything should go wrong."

They snuck quietly to Percy's door. Harry and Dumbledore stood in the shadows, their wands armed. Then Penelope knocked softly on the door.

"Percy dear, it's me again..." she spoke majestically, her voice hardly penetrating the door. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for what happened earlier."

Percy opened the door. "So, you're back." He looked at her over his glasses.

Penelope smiled seductively and pushed him into the room. The door closed. Harry and Dumbledore could here some rustling going on inside the room, but there was no telling what the noise was for certain.

Suddenly an obnoxiously girly scream came through the door. Dumbledore and Harry looked at each other astonished. Should they enter the room? They both thought.

Not seconds later the door creaked open. Penelope stumbled out of the room, as pale as chalk. "Oh... It's horrible!" she gasped.

Both Harry and Dumbledore's eyes widened. "Is it really that horrible?" Harry asked.

Penelope merely waved her hand nauseously toward the inside of the dark room in reply.

Dumbledore and Harry looked at each other frightened. "You go first!" Dumbledore said quickly.

"No way, José! You go first, you're bigger!" Harry argued.

"Fine..." Dumbledore said rolling his eyes. He walked cautiously through the door, Harry following close behind.

A few minutes later of what Penelope could hear was bickering they came out of the room. Both of them were as pale as she had been.

"It's horrible..." said Harry, shaking his head. "I couldn't even bring myself to touch him."

Dumbledore opened his hand to look upon what was now Percy. All three gathered around.

"He looks kind of like a chicken nugget." Harry said pondering aloud, as they all gazed down at the now tiny, shriveled Percy.

They began to walk down the hall. "Now what should we do with him?" Penelope asked.

Dumbledore looked down into his palm again. "I don't kno-" he was saying just as Harry interrupted him.

"Woah!" Harry said as he put out his arms to stop everyone. "Look at the floor." All of them looked down to the floor to see that it was glistening red. Harry bent down and touched the floor with his finger, then tasted it. Penelope rolled her eyes.

"Blood..." He said huskily. "Cho's blood."

They heard a low growl coming from the corner of the corridor.

"Lupin is that you?" asked Dumbledore. "I told you to stay in the Shrieking Shack until I could get everything straightened out."

Lupin growled again.

"Now, be a good boy and I'll give you a treat." Dumbledore held out Percy toward him. Then he looked to Penelope sympathetically, "Did you want to say good bye?"

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Of course not!" She said insulted.

He looked back to Lupin. "Let's make a deal." Dumbledore said, "I'll give you this treat if you go back to the Shrieking Shack."

Lupin growled again, in a way that sounded strangely like agreement. Dumbledore tossed the treat and Lupin caught it gracefully in his mouth.

GULP!

Percy was gone.