A/N: I've lost my harddrive and everything on it. So I had to start from scratch again sigh. Oh well…

July 5th, 8:02 PM

It's been a perfectly horrible night. Truly. I never knew there could be so much anger in any of my family members. I just want to go to sleep and wake up and find that none of it has happened. I almost didn't want to write tonight, but because I have nobody to talk to, I've decided to write it all down and tell Hermione when she comes. All I can say is: Percy is such a son of a bitch.

Here's what happened:

Dad's been really stressed, what with the return of You-Know-Who, Dumbledore's sacking from various high places, and total mayhem at work. Dad's been demoted since the holidays began. Fudge's been tromping around the Ministry as though he owns it (which, in a sense, I guess he does), and chucking everybody he hates out of office. Charlie told me that it's gotten to the point where he'll kick you out as soon as he sees you nodding hello to Dumbledore. Dad's pay got cut by another 10. It may not seem like a lot, but it is, especially with four of us still in school.

Right, so tonight, when Percy came home from the Ministry, all joyful and bubbling with disgusting pride, and with Daddy, whose hours had been cut as well as his pay, already at home and eating dinner with the rest of us, we were all looking at him wearily.

"I have extremely good news!" Percy smiled, sitting down at his seat. He didn't touch the food Mum set out for him.

Dad wiped his mouth with a napkin, "What news?"

I looked up, hopefully waiting for news that Harry might be joining us soon. Okay, I know that I had promised to quit crushing on Harry, but I can care about him, can't I?

Anyway, Percy positively swelled with pride as he said, "I've been promoted!"

I was the only one who spoke. "Really?" I said, while everybody else sat in silence. Mum and Daddy exchanged looks. Dad did not look happy.

"Well?" Percy demanded, looking around at everybody.

"Percy…" Dad began, just as Mum said, "I don't think…"

Percy looked from Dad to Mum, and then back to Dad. His face was getting red. When Percy's face gets red, it's best to get the hell out of the way. I took a couple more pieces of pie in a napkin and dashed off to the stairs, followed by Fred, George, and Ron.

We ran into Fred and George's room on the second floor, the room closest to the fireworks starting downstairs.

"Percy, darling, listen to me…" Mum's voice drifted up the stairs. "I don't think the Minister was very… sincere… when he appointed you that position…"

"Molly, you're giving Fudge too much credit," Dad snapped, anger in every syllable. I truly, truly have never heard Dad pronounce his fury so clearly before. "The man is trying to use you as a goddamned bloody spy!"

Whoa. Fred and George stopped the snickers and we three froze.

"He is so in for it now!" Ron whispered gleefully. I shot him a dirty look and shushed him, because honestly, I feel a little sorry for Percy at the moment. Daddy may not get mad often, but he's about a thousand times scarier than Mum when he does.

At this point, I ran for my journal and huddled back into a corner to begin writing.

Anyway, Percy THEN demanded to know what the hell Dad meant by what he'd just said. Dad screamed back that Fudge was opening black books and filling them up faster than any baby can shit, and anybody who wasn't willing to work with him entered them forthwith. Mum started crying and begging Dad to stop using that kind of language and for Percy to calm down and talk it out.

Now, if I wasn't so afraid of losing my own backside, I'd have gone down there and


Later, 1:33 AM

PERCY LEFT! HOLY SHIT!

The entire house is silent, except for Mum's sobs in her room, which was right down the hall from where I am right now, sleeping on the floor in Ron's room with Fred and George. It's eerie.

…even Teapot's keeping quiet.