*peaks out from underneath my rock* Hello all! I know I've been away for some time now but long story short my gran has been rather unwell. She's on the mend now – thank god! - but it was touch and go for a while. Anyway, no further wait, on with the show.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: Percy's coming back for his last year at Hogwarts. It's time for the Tri-Wizard tournament! Combine that with best friends, relationships, family and someone who seems to have it in for him I think Percy's in for one hell of a year.

Chapter Thirteen:

By Rosa241

Percy's POV:

I am so sick of everyone. This stupid bloody tournament. Ever since my name was drawn the entire school – with the exception of a few people – seems to have turned against myself and Harry. As much as I can appreciate the situation I can't understand how people can just think so little of us both. Having been at this school for seven years you would think that people would know me by now.

I'm sick of being told that I shouldn't have been chosen. The slytherin house has been the worst by far, although I suppose that's got more to do with the fact that I'm in Griffindor than anything else. At least that's what I hope anyway. I may have gotten over many of my insecurities over the years but this is really starting to play on my mind. I'm trying to ignore them, all of the people saying that Hogwarts doesn't have a chance with me as Champion but honestly...I'm starting to believe them.

"I'm sorry Professor Flitwick but could I borrow Mr Weasley for a moment." Professor McGonagall is standing by the door with a stern expression on her face. Three guesses what this is about.

"Let me guess, Fred and George." Her resigned sigh tells me everything I need to know. Since the draw almost a week ago now the pair must have gotten into more scrapes than the rest of their years combined. They seem to be making it their mission to defend me at all costs, as much as I appreciate their attempts it's starting to drive me mad.

"Percy I understand the semblance and I can quite agree that the way that the school is reacting is entirely ridiculous. But this...fighting, this constant arguing and fighting, it's getting completely out of hand." Professor McGonagall has been on my side from the moment my name came out of the Goblet but she's still a teacher. She still has to abide by and enforce the school rules. "I've been as lenient as I can get, this has to end."

"I know, I know. I'll talk to them, get through to them." She gives me a sympathetic look as we reach the hospital wing, judging from the fact that she simply walks away I'd say that Fred and George have already been on the receiving end of her temper.

Sighing heavily it takes a few moments before I finally work up the courage to open the door.

"Just what have you two been up to?" They both give me a sheepish look before turning to each other. "Guys this has got to stop. You can't keep this up."

"Yeah but what they were saying it was..." Fred trails off, clearly not wanting to continue, before George leaps in.

"We can't just stand by and listen to people saying these kinds things about you." Oh hell...

"Look I appreciate that you're trying to help but please you can't keep getting into fights." They both share a look before turning their attention back to me. "What happened?"

Neither one of them says anything for a few minutes, both evidentially torn between defending their actions and telling the truth. It's George who finally speaks first.

George's POV:

"What happened?" My eyes meet my twins momentarily, both of us trying to decide which option would be best. On the one hand Percy needs to know the truth, he's probably going to hear about it anyway, but then on the other hand do we really want to upset him? The things that people have been saying...it's awful. It takes another minute for me to make up my mind, he'll only hear about it later anyway.

"Alright, we were on our way to potions..."

Flashback:

"Get a shift on George, we're already late. Any longer and Snape's going to kill us!" He huffs. Now usually neither of us really care about being late but Snape is one scary guy and I for one do not want to get on his bad side.

"Alright, alright I'm coming." We'd been adding a few touches to our little products and completely lost track of time.

"I mean can you seriously believe that they chose him!" A voice says as we round the corner.

"It's pathetic. Between him and Potter we don't stand a chance at this tournament. Why would the cup chose him? He's pathetic." A very female voice enters the conversation – or should I say the slandering.

"I mean Weasley? Why would he be the champion? One of his brothers, you know the older ones, they would have been great no question but him...What's wrong with the world?" At this my eyes meet Freds and the same thought crosses both of our minds.

"Oi! What the hell gives you the right to say anything about Percy?" Fred charges forward, I'm by his side.

"You don't know anything about him! He's better than both of you, merlin he's better than most of this school combined!" The two girls give us both a look, one that looks like they've smelled the back end of a hippogriff.

"Whatever." Oh that's a great response.

"Look he's more intelligent than anyone at this school so what makes you think he won't be able to do it. You've got no idea just what's going on so why don't you just keep your nose out!" The words come out of my mouth with such venom that even I'm shocked.

"If you really think that he can do it then I think there might be something wrong with you." The first girl snaps as she wanders towards us.

"Well they are Weasleys...there's something wrong with that entire family. I mean just look at them." Before I can stop him Fred has already launched a curse in their direction. The girls shriek as their books go flying, sending papers cascading over the corridor.

"That's it." It takes less than a moment for curses to start flying everywhere. Ordinarily I wouldn't dream of doing something like this but these two completely deserve it.

"What on earth is going on here!?" McGonagalls voice puts a stop to our fight. Oh damn.

End Flashback:

"And you know the rest." Percy sighs before shaking his head.

"Alright look. I know this is hard but you can't go attacking every single person that says something about me. You're just going to have to ignore them and look the other way." Wait what?

"Hang on, what do you mean? We can't just ignore this. All these people they don't know a thing, I mean you took on a death eater, you know more about magic than anyone and you've been set up. Whoever put your name into the goblet has some serious questions to answer." Fred is still obviously furious, I don't blame him.

"We're not just going to stand by and let you go through all of this alone, not like..." I trail off not wanting to go into that.

"Like before with Marcus." Fred shuffles uncomfortably by my side. "Look, what happened with Marcus was a long time ago and it's over now. It wasn't your fault. I should have said something when it all first kicked off but I didn't. You two didn't have anything to do with that."

"Yeah exactly, we didn't do anything. You're our brother we should have been helping you and instead we made everything harder." Fred and I had discussed this several times since we'd found out the truth about what Percy went through. Both of us felt increasingly guilty as we realised just how hard we made life for our brother, somehow Percy had forgiven us but that didn't help with the guilt.

"Alright. I'll admit that you two didn't make life any easier but part of that is my fault." What? "If I'd told someone what happened between me and Marcus then things would have been different. My over reacting to everything you two did...it caused more problems than it solved. The fact of the matter is there's nothing we can do about that now, you can't change what happened."

We're all silent for a few moments after Percy's words. I'd never thought about things that way before. Would things have been different if we'd known? What if Percy had told us from the beginning?

"We might not have known about it but that doesn't excuse the wait we treated you." Fred's words sum up everything. We were awful to Percy; we treated him like crap all because we didn't get along that well. We're just as bad as Flint.

"No it doesn't but like I said part of that is my fault. I totally over reacted whenever something happened between us and that certainly didn't help matters. Look we can't do anything about that now. I really do appreciate you two sticking up for me, I honestly do, but the fighting has to stop. You keep this up and you guys are going to get hurt. Please just...keep your wand's to yourselves from now on and stop picking fights." Despite the situation I can feel a weight being lifted from my shoulders; I guess we all needed to go through this. Percy's words are true, as bad as we feel we can't do anything about the past, all we can do is put things right from now on.

"We'll try, but we reserve the right to thump Flint if he so much as utters a word." To my great surprise Percy smiles at my words.

"You'd have to take that up with Oliver, he reserved the right to do that a long time ago." As he reaches the door he turns back to us. "And for Merlins sake start getting to your lessons on time, your setting a bad example for Ron and Ginny."

I can't help the laughter that escapes me as Percy heads off. Maybe things will be alright.

Ron's POV:

"Oh Ron we've been through this. I didn't put my name into the goblet, how could I?" Harry's practically screaming at me now.

"Why don't you tell me? I just don't get why you won't be honest with me, we're supposed to be best mates but you're lying to me." Why can't he just be honest with me?

"Exactly, we're supposed to be best mates but you keep sitting there and you won't believe a word I'm saying!" With that he storms upstairs to the dorms, leaving me sat in the common room by myself. I can't believe him.

"I didn't want to interrupt." Oliver appears from round the corner. "Why do you think he's lying to you?"

"Because he is. I know that he did it, I just wish he had the guts to admit it to me." Before he can say anything I'm on my feet and I've fled up the stairs. I know full well that Harry and I will just end up arguing again but I need the truth.

Moody's POV:

So far so good. Potter was inevitably going to get chosen, after all I made sure of it, but the Weasley kid. I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to put his name into the cup, after all I couldn't risk having five champions so I had to rely on good old faith. Judging from what the other teachers had said about him the kid had brains and decent morals – but that's not enough to get the cup to choose him. No it was his actions at the cup. I witnessed that fight he was in and hell I have to admit that the kids got talent. He handled those two death eaters with relative ease, walked away without so much as a scratch, not many can say that. I couldn't be sure that the Goblet would choose him but he's of age and he's a good wizard, better than most at this school. It was a long shot to be honest but it paid off.

That kid was getting far too suspicious of me; he still stares at me, all of the time. Kid doesn't trust me, his instincts are too good. But at least now no one would listen if he decided to voice his distrust of me. And well...I got lucky once, maybe I'll get lucky again and he'll die. I could interfere of course...no...no. Dumbledores suspicious enough after Potter, I can't risk him finding out about me. At least not yet anyway, no I need to be in place for when it all takes place. I'll have to stick to my plan and hope that now Weasley had the tournament to focus on he would keep his beady eyes away from me.

Percy's POV:

After everything was over with Marcus I hoped I'd never have to do this again but here I am, hiding out in the library. I just can't stand it anymore, the looks, the whispers, the words...it's driving me insane. Why would someone do this? Oliver keep insisting that it's Marcus but I know better. Marcus is barely passing his classes there's no way that he could have bewitched the Goblet, not with how powerful it is. But who would be powerful enough to do that? My thoughts are interrupted by a familiar voice.

"You look like you've got a lot on your mind." To my immense surprise I find Professor Flitwick standing beside me.

"And then some." I can't help but sighing.

"Don't suppose you've thought much about it, the first task." He sits himself in the chair opposite me as he speaks. "What with everything." Professor Flitwick has always been my favourite teacher and he never doubted for a second that I didn't put my name in the Goblet.

"Not really, not that I could anyway. The only thing we know is that it has something to do with courage and daring. And courage isn't hard to come by." He nods his head knowingly; of course he knew about my past, most of the teachers did.

"Well yes your right. Of course being courageous doesn't mean being fearless, nope true courage means being afraid but still pushing forward." He stares me straight into the eye as he speaks. "And all of those people out there, they're jealous. They all wish it could have been them, that they could be Hogwarts' champion."

"Well they can be the champion for all I care. I never wanted this."

"No, no of course you didn't. But you know when I was studying everyone said I would never be a good wizard because I was too small. I was determind to prove them wrong, so I went to the duelling club. Everyone laughed at me of course but I proved them wrong. I was the best one there by a mile. They never mentioned my height again, well some did but I knew I had proved them wrong." I know where he's going with this.

"And that's what I should do. Win the tournament." Does he honestly think I can do this?

"You don't have to win, but if you compete to the best of your ability then it doesn't matter what anyone says." With that he hops off of the chair and wanders away as he goes to round the shelf he turns back momentarily. "Not that you've got to worry, you're the brightest student in this school. Bill and Charlie were good but..."

He leave the last sentence unsaid and I can't help but feel a little better. Does it really matter who put my name into the Goblet? What's done is done and there's nothing I can do about it. I have to compete and if that's the case then I may as well at least try to put up a fight. With my determination renewed I leave the library, no more hiding.

There we are, isn't Flitwick wise? Before I go any further I would like to say a genuine thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited or followed this story. Also my internet supplier is changing so I may be unavailable for a few days. Bye!