response to any inquiries:

Ward Vermassen: firstly, i think every time i've read your comment, i've fallen in love with it a bit more. the Marcus Flint plotline will get a thing of fresh ammo at some point but i'm honestly not sure when. i've only a slight idea for what i want Marcus to do. it's really more Marcus' father that's important (at least to these few chapters). there is something of a slight mention to where i want to take the plot too in this chapter and the next - and funny you should mention drama and near death experiences. there's a lot of those soon! aye, this darkens dramatically in the next two chapters, but where i'm writing now (i believe i've gotten to Chapter 31), it's fairly somewhat-serious-but-not-really-not-at-all and i'm finding great pleasure in writing that.) i'm just worried at this pace, by the time we end this, it'll be chapter 90. i'd rather it that way however. i dislike stories that go too quick more than i do the ones that go too slow.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Mum, I really do not need another layer added on," Percy insisted, as her mum released him from his soul-binding hug. He felt like one of his internal organs had disintegrated. Wait; did she just call him a Slytherin prince? She knew? And she didn't completely and utterly loathe his very quintessence?

"Who is this?" Molly looked over at Adrian, with a bright and welcoming smile etched upon her features.

"Adrian Pucey, Madame," he answered with such a honeyed voice as he fixed his jet black hair. "I'm one of Percy's mates—wait, let me correct myself—I'm Percy's best mate."

"You know who you remind me of?" Molly immediately asked. Percy tried to bite his lower lip to prevent himself from laughing already because he knew just exactly who Molly was reminded of when she saw Adrian. It was exactly who everyone else was reminded of when they saw him. "You remind me of one of your professors... Professor Snape? I've seen a picture of him before. You look like a little version of him."

"With all due respect, Mrs Weasley," Adrian's smile was eerily wide; "at least I wash my hair."

That's fairly debatable, Percy thought to himself. Ever since Adrian's flobberworm mush supply had run out, his hair had become greasier and was taking full Professor-Snape's-hair characteristics.

Molly must've come to the same conclusion because she cleared her throat.

"I've brewed some tea, and made a few biscuits. Go upstairs, change; eat some whilst I'm making dinner. Don't break anything. Either of you two, alright?" she ruffled through Percy's hair. She obviously noticed how flat it was because she frowned. "What happened to your hair?"

Percy opened his mouth to reply to the fact that he preferred his hair in a consistency that did not remind Percy of an aggregation of Penelope's ribbons, but Adrian was already dragging Percy upstairs.

When Adrian caught sight of Percy's room, his face fell a little bit flat as he realised that Percy did not have any interesting games around. It didn't help that Adrian looked slightly claustrophobic in Percy's tiny room. The first thing he did was open the window to let some fresh air in, and then he looked down at Percy's bed to see if Percy had hidden anything fun.

Percy was surprised at how different his room was from when he had left it. Firstly, the rooms had been painting to a nice dark blue colour. The curtains had been replaced by some sort of velvety, brown fabric. His mum had knitted a large patchwork blanket to put over his bed. It looked abnormally cosy. His pillows were covered with crochet pillow case. His bookcase was plugged with so many books that Percy's head was spinning. Hung by his closet with some sort of charm were a new, shiny set of Slytherin robes. He sat on the edge of his bed, eyes going down to the nice red carpet on the ground. Everything seemed mismatched and out of sorts, but all that Percy could focus on were how different it all was.

He moved closer to his bookcase. There were so many books. He placed his thin hands on some of the new books. They had that nice new book smell that made his heart flutter.

"Your room is boring," Adrian groaned, breaking Percy out of his weird trance.

"No, it's..." Percy's eyes locked onto a new cherry desk waiting for him, with a bunch of parchment paper already set on the side along with an array of new, still unwrapped quills. There was also that nice ink that Percy always got from that one tiny little shop in Diagon Alley. "It's perfect."

He couldn't wait to use his new quills and parchment to write to Penelope Clearwater to tell her about his new quills and parchment.

SMILING incoherently to himself, Percy's hands were in his pockets as he sat by a lake along with Adrian Pucey. On the other side of him was Bill, who had returned from Egypt an hour ago.

Ever since Bill had returned back from Egypt, his mum hadn't left him alone for a second. Every minute she'd have tried to force out stories about all that happened in the last few months. This, of course, made her realise just how dangerous his job and made particularly tearful. It did not help that Bill looked like he hadn't slept in days, what with thick, dark circles around his eyes. At the moment, Bill pulled up his navy-coloured trousers and dangled his legs in the water. He looked so exhausted that he looked like he could just so easily slip into a coma.

"You alright, mate?" Adrian looked up at Bill with a concerned expression. "You look like you've drunken too much firewhiskey."

"I wish that was the case," Bill tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "Is it really that obvious?"

Both Percy and Adrian replied at the same time, "Yes."

"Maybe a good bath would do you good..." just before Adrian could push Bill into the water, Percy stopped him. The last thing they needed was Adrian to push Bill into the water (enchanted not to freeze even at subpar temperature) and having to take home a block of ice with red hair.

Bill stretched, dipping his legs a bit further into the water and plunging closer to the surface but not slipping into the icy water.

Percy restrained the urge to tell Bill not to dangle his legs because only Merlin knew what kind of terrifying creature lived in this great body of water. However, after twelve minutes of watching Adrian and Bill dangling their legs into the water, he settled down with Adrian for a minute, his head on Adrian's shoulder as they stared out into the open. The snow gently fell on his gloved hands and melted just at the contact. Percy wiped the droplets onto his thick black pants. His legs could practically feel the great depth of the water.

It was eerily soothing and nearly made him want to slide fully into the lake. He wanted to disappear into the horizon, and enjoy the feeling of the cold water guiding him well into the sunset.

Percy knew that Adrian couldn't swim and Bill barely could (something his mum mentioned as a reason for why Bill should find another job, preferably something that did not require him being in a life-or-death situation). Percy, however, learned when the twins used to toss him out in the lake next to Aunt Muriel's house whenever they visited. They were seven then and thought it was hilarious that Percy was drowning. Percy, unfortunately, missed the joke as he was too busy trying not to die.

"Mum mentioned that she'll be back around here in two hours," Bill decided to say.

She had taken the twins, Ginny and Ron to have a look over at what happened to the strawberry fields in the harsh wintry weather. Charlie and Arthur were back at home, trying to test his new muggle contraception. Percy remembered going to the strawberry fields in the wintertime. He ate so many frozen strawberries that he had gotten fairly ill for days afterwards, not able to get rid of the sick solid feeling in his tiny belly.

"Two hours?" Adrian said, looking horrified. "We have to stay in this blasted cold for another two hours?"

"It's nice," Percy decided, looking down at the water pooling at his feet.

Bill offered a yellow, nearly fallen apart thermos towards Percy, who didn't even have to open it to know what was in it. Frozen pumpkin juice!

Just before Bill could do it, Percy transfigured a falling snowflake into a tiny white spoon. Bill seemed surprised at how well Percy had done that, but honestly, the eleven-year-old knew he could've done it far better, as his spoon was a little wonky.

"What is that?" Adrian looked at the amorphous, dark orange substance in the thermos.

"Frozen pumpkin juice," Percy could barely contain his excitement. "It's my favourite thing in the world."

Adrian cocked an eyebrow. "Frozen what?" he looked over at Bill with an expression so confused that it actually made Bill laugh a little. "I'm not eating that! That's disgusting!"

Bill raised an eyebrow and then said, "Percy, I think you should rethink your friendship with Pucey."

"Agreed," Percy said, before he pushed the thermos next to Adrian.

Adrian jolted, standing up all of a sudden as if Percy was offering a spider instead of a beverage.

"Get that away from me!" Adrian exclaimed before he turned to sit down. He slipped on a block of ice that was just beside a large rock he was leaning against and then fell into the water.

Without any hesitation, Percy pushed the thermos and snowflake spoon away, and threw himself into the water.

The cold rush was nothing like he had ever expected. Percy was surprised that this was one thing that he could do that Bill couldn't do. This was something that Adrian couldn't do. He pulled his arm out, outstretched and had no trouble gaining a grip on Adrian.

It is him. He is the one; he could hear a voice pounding in his head. He is the one that has killed Elijah. He is the one that they are looking for and they will come.

What creature was talking? Were they talking to him? Couldn't be... Percy didn't kill an Elijah! He'd probably remember if he broke the law.

They must've only spent minutes in the water before Percy resurfaced, feeling the cold water run down his cheeks. Bill seemed to be in the water, looking a little ill as he frantically searched for them. Percy moved towards Bill and it didn't take long before they were lifting Adrian from the lake.

Adrian coughed, spluttering water. "Mum will not be happy to hear about this," he sounded raspy.

"Neither will ours," Bill mentioned, snorting before he said, "Mate, our mum isn't going to let you get out of her site when she hears about what happened."

"What happened is that Percy saved my life that is," Adrian perked up, looking over at the redhead. "Very Gryffindor of you to do, Weasel but I approve."

Percy's cheeks coloured in. It was. "I'm not...I'm—"

Adrian looked over at Percy with a softened expression and a grin on his face, as Percy and Bill helped pull him well into the woods, away from the water. Bill's robes were soaked to the bone, and his plum-coloured sweater, seemed nearly black from how drenched it was. Percy had failed to notice he, too, was absolutely sopping, and golden sweater now had an unappealing brown colour.

"He saved my life!" Adrian told Bill as if the redhead hadn't been there, which prompted a chuckle from Bill. "Merlin, you've got a hero complex. First, Clearwater—now me!"

"I'm sorry..." Percy rolled his eyes. "Would you like me to shove you back into the water?"

Adrian looked paler than usual and seemed to be shivering. "Oh no, I think I've had enough near death experiences thank you very much."

Bill had pulled out one of those warm never-lose-heat-no-matter-what blankets and offered it to Adrian. He offered another one to Percy.

"Me too?" Percy was surprised, but then he realised that he, too, had been deep in the water yet somehow did not seem to notice how numb his cheeks were or how cold his fingers were.

Bill raised an eyebrow as if Percy's question was the most ludicrous one he'd ever heard. "Perce, if it wasn't for the red hair, you'd have camouflaged into the snow. You know when mum hears about this, she's going to have you tied to your bed for the remainder of the Christmas holidays."

Within a few minutes, a bit of rosiness came back to Adrian's cheeks.

Percy returned back to his frozen pumpkin juice and took his mouthful from his snowflake spoon.

"Can I have some?" Adrian suddenly asked, pulling Percy out of his thoughts.

Percy smiled. Of course, he tried not to roll his eyes. It would only take Adrian being in a near death situation to realise how insane it is to decline frozen pumpkin juice.

They sat beside each other. Percy did not know if he should be letting Adrian have something cold after he'd been in the water.

"How is it?" Percy asked, when he knew that expression on Adrian's face. It was the same expression that graced Adrian's face when he tore into a chocolate frog.

Adrian shrugged. "It's alright."

Percy just smirked and nodded his head. "I'm sure it's just alright."

"Couple of nutters you two are," Bill said, leaning against one of the big boulders, looking like he was going to doze off. The blankets that they packed barely covered his legs.

The tiny spoon was so cold to his touch. He passed it to Adrian, and transfigured another snowflake. The frozen pumpkin juice and some of the snowflake spoon melted into Percy's tongue as he ate. In fifteen seconds, they transfigured so many snowflakes into spoons that Percy's hands ached from holding a wand for so long. He laughed so much that he coughed because of how cold it was. His nose felt numb, but at the same time, his body felt warm from the heat of the blanket.

THEY didn't get home until later on within the day.

The first thing that Molly had done when she'd heard Bill reiterate the story was have both Percy and Adrian sit on the couch, completely covered in enough blankets that the risk of suffocation was relatively high. The fireplace was lit in a way that made Percy think that whoever tried to venture into their fireplace would surely get their entire body Incendio-ed. They were instructed to get through a pot of warm tea for the next half hour. By the end of it, Percy felt like he'd spiked a fever, but their mum only said that it was just Percy's body warming up as it should be.

By the time that they had gotten down to having dinner, Percy found himself having very little appetite. He pushed things around his plate, and stared at the wall.

"Percy," Adrian nudged Percy's arm, looking at him with big eyes.

"What?" Percy looked at Adrian with a confused expression.

Adrian just shook his head before he sighed. "Mate, you were staring at the wall for the past five minutes, and no matter what I said or did, you weren't moving... for Helga Hufflepuff's sake, Perce, you look like you're about to double over or pass out."

Percy looked at the table, noticing that everyone was staring at him with a gaped expression, save for Ginny, Ron and the twins.

"What is it?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I think Percy might've had one of those absent seizures, you—" Charlie was cut off immediately by Arthur.

Percy remembered reading about those in the brochure that Charlie had given him once. An absent seizure was just one where he was staring into space, not doing anything and muggles didn't feel any differently after them, but he had wizarding epilepsy. And he felt absolutely ill.

"Percy did not have another seizure," Arthur firmly said, but Percy had a sinking feeling in his stomach that told him that he might have. He felt groggy like before, and his hands were slightly shaking. He had lost track of time and could barely recognise where he was at. Percy was pretty convinced, now that Arthur mentioned it, that he did have some form of a seizure. A scared feeling found its way to the pit of his stomach. That meant that he really was an epileptic, and he was going to have another one—and more. And if it was one like he had at Hogwarts, he would have to get sent to that nasty ward like he really was nutters. "Isn't that right?"

A flabbergasted Molly slowly nodded her head. She looked close to tears. "Yes, he's just a little tired. He was quite the hero today. He's just a little spaced out is all. Spacing out is completely normal."

Adrian seemed to come to the same conclusion that Percy did: that Percy did, in fact, had a seizure and nodded his head. He, too, denied that Percy ever had one. "Aye... Room's still intact after all," he shot Percy a well-meaning smile and squeezed Percy's fingers. Percy did not fail to notice how hard Adrian's grip was.

Breaking the uneasy tension was the annoyed-looking twins.

"Of course he didn't have one!" Fred called out, looking to and from George like he was the only one that had a bit of sense knocked into him before he explained, "I thought that was obvious. He didn't start dancing around and shaking like one of those Rhythmic Runes wankers like he did last time, did he?"

Molly shot Fred a look. "Watch your tongue, George."

"I'm Fred," the nine-year-old said in frustration.

Percy chuckled slightly to himself. He thought it was a little funny that the twins really didn't know that Percy really did have one.

His head was feeling a bit cloudy, and in seconds, he found himself being shaken again. He blinked a few times, and looked over a repeated scared-looking Adrian, whom was staring at him with a softened expression.

"It happened again," Adrian said in a whisper. He placed a hand on Percy's lap, looking a little frightened. He looked abnormally small in the oversized black sweater Molly had knitted for him. "Come on, mate. Let's take you upstairs. You need to lie down."

Ron looked a bit aggravated that people were making a big deal out of it, and Ginny just seemed to pay most of her attention towards the tray of treacle tart that lay in the centre of the table that she was hoping to eat soon. Ginny also seemed to know that ice-cream was following soon, probably strawberry ice-cream considering their mum had a surplus of strawberries from field picking.

Percy nodded his head, feeling slightly shaky as Adrian walked upstairs with him.

Percy didn't know how long it took to get to his room, but once he walked into the little room, he quickly slipped into his sheets.

Adrian was sleeping on a small mattress that Arthur had dug out a while ago that was charmed to maintain heat throughout the night. He also had multiple old crocheted blankets and big fluffy pale pillows... Percy's bed was too small to fit the both of them comfortably.

"Percy," Molly's voice pushed them both out of the reverie. She stood there with two big platefuls of warm treacle tarts topped with strawberry ice-cream, which was a rather vibrant pink. She offered one to Adrian, whom took it uneasily and offered the other one to Percy.

Percy stared back at her with a weary expression. He felt very drowsy and out of sorts.

MOLLY looked terrified as she stepped into Percy's bedroom for the second time that night, noticing that Adrian was fast asleep and Percy was lying down in an unnatural position. His breathing seemed to be short and shallow and his whole skin seemed to be burning up when she'd touched him. She had tried to run a few spells to see if he had any common wizarding illnesses that seemed to set off those absent seizures. Molly thought that maybe the weather must be doing him in. He had pushed all the blankets away from him now, and had his hand clutched to his damp abdomen. She did notice that Percy had put on some weight, but he was still too thin for her liking. He looked gangly with sharp angles in her opinion.

"Percy?" she called out, trying to ignore how laboured his breathing sounded like. He did not stir from his sleep. She really had to do something about the sounds he made during his sleep. He sounded like his lungs were going to collapse any second.

"Molly?" Arthur's voice pulled Molly out of her trance, as she flickered her eyes towards the doorway.

Arthur stood by the doorway. His cornflower blue eyes were soft. He looked wrecked. "What's wrong?"

"I think he's spiking a fever," Molly said smoothly, staring at him with a startled expression. She did not know if St Mungo's would be able to tell if the fever was related to any seizure activity. Molly bet that the healers could. He'd already had two seizure reports filed against him. They could not have a third. She wouldn't let them. "I can handle it."

Arthur slowly nodded his head. "We don't have any other choice, Molly."

Molly cocked her head. They were trying to avoid it, but it had to happen someday, wouldn't it? If they took Percy back to Hogwarts and he'd have another fit there... then they could take him into that ward. At the same time, she couldn't just keep him caged into the Burrow. He was not an owl. Her little eleven year old child shouldn't be locked up into a ward either until he was deemed as satisfactory by the Ministerial standards... it was all so ludicrous and draining.

Molly pulled out her wand and tried to recall a few fever-reduction spells...

THE following morning as Percy woke up; he found that the both plates were demolished. They sat on his shiny new desk, stacked on top of one another along with a cupful of what looked to be tea (what Percy had guessed from the residual beige-coloured liquid). Percy had no memory of eating the tart. He had no memory of drinking tea (did he?). He had no memory of last night. He remembered Adrian drowning, but the rest of the night seemed to be nothing more than a constant blur. His stomach was gnawing at him, like it used to when Percy had eaten small amounts of dinner, or did not eat dinner. It was that feeling alone that led him to conclude that Adrian probably ate both plates and washed it down with some tea.

"Mate, are you alright?" Adrian's voice pulled Percy out of his trance.

Percy opened his mouth, and nodded his head slowly. He looked back at the plates, and Adrian's cheeks coloured in softly.

He wondered why his sheets were so damp when he did not feel the least bit feverish.