A/N: This fic is the second I have ever written so I hope it goes over well, and also gets more reviews than my other work in progress, but anyway I hope you enjoy this. Nothing except the plot is my own

El Permanente

Chapter 2 – Chaos + Chaos More Chaos

When the group arrived at the Ministry of Magic, it was as if they had stepped into a post-war zone, there were people running in every direction, memos where zooming in every direction, it was evident that the Ministry was in complete disarray.

The group was finally able to find the head of Magical Law enforcement, because they seemed to keep missing him by a second no matter where they chased him down to. The head of the department was a short well built curly haired man called Taj Osiris. Taj had taken over as head of department when Kingsley Shacklebolt had stepped down claiming that he had had quite enough adventure and that he was looking forward to a quiet retirement, Harry knew the truth though, he had retired in order to be able to dedicate more time to the O.O.T.P. without worrying about his job at the same time. Though Taj had only been head of the department for a short period of time, spanning about 6 months, he had quickly gained the gained the respect of every auror in the ministry; even those who were older ,or maybe even a little more experienced respected him as their leader. This respect had been earned a Taj had risen through the department ranks. He was the kind of person who very rarely raised his voice, or lost his temper, but it was clear that today that was not the case. Apparently word of the incident had been leaked out to the media and in effect when the group found him, he was in the process of removing a swarm of reporters from his office door forcefully with his wand. The mouths of everybody in the group fell open, having never seen Taj act so violently in their lives.

"MAYBE THE NEXT TIME I TELL YOU THAT I HAVE NO COMMENT AT THIS PERTICULAR MOMENT YOU'LL ACCTUALY BELIEVE ME GODDAMIT!"

His tirade continued for a few more minutes be for the reporters seemed to get the message, as some had come back for more a few times only to dismissed by Taj's wand each time, it wasn't until he had threatened them all with the promise that he would cures them all into oblivion and his sending warning streams of green sparks at them in order to drive them all away that the reporters finally gave I and left. Harry took this lull in the violence to tap on Taj's shoulder.

"WHAT?" Taj bellowed as he spun around to see who it was that was behind him, the group jumped back startled again by his second sudden outburst in minutes. When he realized who it was, it was as if his rage climbed another notch.

"IT'S ABOUT BLODDY TIME YOU LOT GOT HERE!..." he thundered "…WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN TOOK YOU SO BLOODY LONG TO GET HERE?" Harry couldn't help but notice that Taj looked as if his eyes were about pop out of their individual sockets.

"Trying day?" Harry ventured unable to suppress the grin that was passing over his face.

"TRYING DAY!" Taj again exploded "THE BLOODY MINISTER OF MAGIC IS MISSING, AND THE WIZENGAMOT ARE ALMOST ALL DEAD AND YOU HAVE THE GAUL TO ASK ME IF IT HAS BEEN A TRYING DAY POTTER!"

"So that would be a yes then?" Harry said still unable to suppress the grin.

"YOU FIND SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT THIS WHOLE MESS POTTER, BECAUSE I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR IT. TAKE A LOOK AROUND, IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED THIS PLACE IS GOING TO HELL IN A HAND BASKET AT THE MOMENT. WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO RESTORE AT LEAST A SMALL AMOUNT OF ORDER, BUT IT'S BEEN DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE ESPECIALY NOW THAT THE MEDIA HAS GOTTEN WIND OF THE INCIDENT, AND YOU'RE MAKING JOKES POTTER?"

Harry finally wrestled his face into a strait look. "I'm sorry Burrow, won't happen again, I promise"

"Good" Taj said "Finnigan, Thomas, Longbottom, your assignments are over there on my desk, go get them and be on your way, Finnigan, Longbottom, you two will be investigating some old muggle in manchester who claims he was hearing a great deal of noise comming from inside the hill in the feild behind his house, and something about giant red sparks of light flying up into the air. Thomas; I'm assigning you to the raid in Glastonburry, You'll report strait to Kingsley Shacklebolt at once, there are futher instructions in the folders on my desk now go! " the three of them nodded, nodded went over to the desk in turn and left, the office.

"What about me?" Harry asked.

"You've got a special assignment Potter" Taj continued in what was now a much calmer voice. "The Only survivor who actually present during the meeting, was Percy Weasley, but for some reason beyond my understanding he has refused to talk to anybody but you"

"Wait a minute" Harry interrupted, "You mean that Mr. never step out of line Percy Weasley, is refusing to fully cooperate with the authorities?" Harry asked the fighting hard to not let the grin come back over his face.

"That's correct" Taj answered

"Alright…" Harry sighed "where is he?"

"He's waiting for you in Arthur Weasley's office" Taj told him.

"How does he look?"

"I couldn't tell you honestly, when they told me he was insisting to talk to anybody but you, I headed strait to send you an Owl, but I ran into Finnigan, and Thomas on the way, and I sent them to fetch you and Longbottom. Then I got hit by a swarm of notices, the majority of which I have to sign still, to notify the families of those who were lost, so I haven't had a chance to get a look at him" Taj finished.

As Harry left for the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, Harry couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Taj, he was only 6 months into his term as head of the department, and he already had to deal with a huge international crises.

Harry arrived at Mr. Weasley's office where he found Percy. Though he was considerably shaken up, Percy appeared to be no worse for wear, except for the bandaged up shoulder and a burn of some kind on his cheek that appeared to have been from a curse that must have grazed him.

"H - H - Harry!" Percy stammered

"What's up Percy?"

"T-T-Thank goodness you-you-you're here" Percy replied, stuttering like crazy.

Harry could tell that it was going to be one of those difficult interrogations, not just because of Percy's apparent inability to put a decent sentence together, but also because of the fact that the stuttering was driving him to his wits end already.

"So Percy…" Harry asked summoning as much calm into his voice as he could and at the same time fighting every urge to just stand up and slap Percy right there on the spot, "…what happened?"

"W-W-Well I-I w-was just returning from t-t-the lavatory" at this point Harry had to resort to bighting his tongue in order to hold back and not let his irritation with Percy's stuttering.

"And?" Harry urged; finally gaining control over himself.

"W-W-Well I had just got b-b-back inside the room, when I was pushed over…"

"Hold on a sec there Perc" Harry attempted to butt in "I'll be right back, I'm going to go get you a calming Potion" but Percy took no notice of him, and just continues to talk.

"… I rolled over onto my back and s-s-saw t-that it was a D-D-Death E-E-E-E-Eater who-who-who had pushed me…" at this Point Harry couldn't help but notice that Percy seemed to get even more nervous at this point and began to stutter even more uncontrollably (Something that for the sake of anybody who is reading this Sanity, as well a my own, I won't type out) than before. "… I quickly s-s-s-scrambled t-t-to my f-f-feet, only just d-d-d-dodging the curse that he threw at me" But nervousness seemed to have been cranked up ten fold in Percy now, as far as Harry was concerned, the feeling of irritation that had been with him had there before was replaced suddenly by a feeling of uneasiness. In the split second that Harry had looked away Percy seemed to have some sort of panic attack. Harry rushed forward to help him but Percy stuck is hand out, as he attempted to pick himself up off the floor, all the while a storm of mumbles, stutters, and a constant stream of babble seemed to be trying to force its way out of him. Percy finally made it back to the bench that he was sitting on and slowly gained enough control over himself to stop the verbal excrement that had been flowing from his mouth a minute ago, but he continued to shake like a man having some sort of seizure.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to get you a calming potion?" Harry asked. Percy shook his head, or at least Harry thought he did, he couldn't really tell through all the shaking. "Alright the Percy, please continue" Harry requested.

"It was horrible Harry" Percy continued, his whole body seemed to quiver with every word. "I can still hear their voices in my head, the screaming, and the laughter, the constant never ending laughter. I don't know how you were able to stand up to him all those times Harry, his laugher seems to just ring through your ears, it disorients you so that you don't know which way to run…"

"Who?" Harry asked suddenly with renewed interest in Percy's story.

"V-V-V-Vol-…."

"Just say the name Percy" Harry commanded, but Percy just seemed to be unable to say anything more. Harry started searching his own head for any idea on how to get the rest of the info that he needed out of Percy. Finally, deciding to just go with the flow, and see where it took him Harry started the questioning again.

"Percy! Percy! Percy do you hear me?" he waved his hand in front of Percy's face. Finally, after trying for another 20 minutes without any success Harry decided that he had received all that he was going to get from Percy at that moment; he would simply have to continue the interrogation later when Percy had calmed down. As Harry made to leave Percy called out to him, "H-H-Harry you have to tell D-D-D-Dumbledore..." he seemed to have trouble speaking again "…when I ran from the Death Eaters, I hid in the bathroom…" it seemed that Percy had got himself under control again to a degree, "…they couldn't find me, and I noticed, that they seemed to be talking, not to each other, but as if to somebody else, who wasn't present in the room at the time" again Percy started to shiver, but Harry wasn't going to let the panic take over again, not until he'd got the information. In the most comforting tone that he could, he tried to calm Percy down at least enough for Percy to give him the rest of the info.

"What is it Percy? Who were they communicating with?" Harry prodded gently knowing that if Percy got too riled up, the panic attacks might become extremely great, and he might not get the information till it was too late.

"Harry I don't know who they were talking to but I think I found out how they communicate between each other" he took this time to catch his breath as he fought off what seemed to be another panic attack that was creeping up. "Harry you remember how Snape told us that Voldemort seemed to have found a new way to keep tabs and control of his Death Eaters Besides the use of the Dark Mark? Well one of the men who chased me said that his telepathic link seemed to not be working properly" It took Harry a moment to let this settle in.

"Good job Percy" Harry said patting him on the back. Percy seemed to have calmed down quite a bit by now so Harry decided to venture one more question. "Percy did you see what happened to the Minister?"

Percy shook his head, "No Harry I didn't like I said, I got knocked down, and after that I just did what I could to get out of there and stay alive" At this Percy hung his head in shame.

"Hey ease up on yourself Percy…" Harry said taking hold of his shoulder, although many times in the past they had not seen eye to eye, especially during Harry's fifth year at school, where Percy had sided with the Ministry Of Magic who throughout that whole year had done what they could to discredit Harry and Dumbledore, due to their belief that Voldemort had returned, but on this particular occasion, Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for Percy. "…You did what most people would do Percy and there is no shame in that, also as a result of how you acted we aren't going to have to tell your mother that her son was killed in a Death Eater attack which is something that we can give thanks for mate, that you're still with us" Percy nodded but didn't look up. "Alright mate…" Harry continued, "I'm going to quickly send a line to Dumbledore, do you want me to have the Potion master bring you a calming potion?" Percy only nodded again but still didn't look up.

As Harry left the room he suddenly realised that the uncomfortable feeling that he had been having throughout the entire interrogation had been because of the constant prickling in his scar that he only now seemed to notice. He also couldn't seem to shake the feeling that Percy had not told him everything. In all truth there were many gaps in his story, something that made Harry feel even more uncomfortable.

A/N: Ok everybody I'm really sorry about the incredibly long time without updating, but stuff has just been getting in the way, such as work and bloody school, I know this next chapter is kinda short, and at the same time not exactly riveting but we're still at the beginning of the story, infact its gonna take a few more chapters to really get going, but there are things that must be set into place for later chapters. Anyway, thanks for putting up with my long absence and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Please read and review;

El Permanente