Percy Take the Wheel

five

His headache was gone. That was all Percy could register at first, when the light of day smacked him in the face. It didn't hurt to open his eyes or turn his head or hear himself breathe – his headache was gone. "Oh, thank god," Percy breathed, turning over as a shuffling noise indicated the ghoul was emerging from its place beneath his bed and- "Merlin's staff and stars!" Percy scrambled back from the now-confused ghoul that tilted its oddly aerodynamic, sleek head at him, and crawled slightly onto the bed in concern. Its teeth were enormous! And the claws on the end of its abruptly too-long fingers and arms... The growth and... remodeling the ghoul seemed to have gone through in its convalescence had come at a cost, and the creature was nearly skeletal, almost Inferi-like in its proportions, with a touch of werewolf. It still had the same greenish skin and dull, yellow eyes and hair, but the overalls hung off its somewhat intimidating frame as it crooned at him in confusion.

Seeing its attitude, at least, hadn't changed, Percy hesitantly patted the ghoul's head, receiving the now-familiar rumbling as it relaxed, world put back into place now that Percy wasn't avoiding it.

When it wasn't ridiculously early in the morning, Percy had to floo Mr. Lovegood again.

So, Percy reluctantly, carefully got out of bed and began to get ready for the day, gingerly sidestepping the ghoul as it dogged his steps like an abruptly fearsome shadow. It had been more of a comic figure before, with its slight pudge and squat stature, but now it was far too tall, all sharp edges and too thin... Too thin, likely due to that unexpected growth spurt. Percy reminded himself to portion out another bowl of oatmeal when he made breakfast. It wasn't meat, but ghouls weren't obligate carnivores – they didn't have to eat only meat, they could handle oats and plant matter without any trouble with their digestion. After this, Percy fully expected the ghoul would decimate the gnome population in their garden. Good. Percy had never been fond of the pests as his father had been and he'd be pleased to see their numbers brought down. He might have to tell Ron to hide Scabbers, but the lazy rat was so often asleep at the foot of Ron's bed it was practically a moot point.

Percy would just make sure Ron's door was always kept shut. The ghoul hadn't progressed to the point of- Percy cut himself off, toothbrush stilling in his mouth, as the door to the bathroom opened and the ghoul skittered in, awkward in its new, near-quadrupedal state.

Ron would have to hide Scabbers.

Resigning himself to never having privacy again, Percy finished his ablutions and strode down the stairs with the ghoul skittering behind him. Its hind legs had stretched and deformed, making it more suited for strong leaps, and tilting its torso forward, forcing it to use its arms – front legs, now? No, they were still arms, if proportioned a bit more like legs- for balance, teetering pathetically if it attempted to walk upright and returning to its four-footed skitter. Still, the changes were all very predatory, and Percy was not comfortable with it.

The ghoul creepily folded itself into a corner of the kitchen as Percy started breakfast, resembling nothing so much as a humanoid spider with its long limbs folding at such unnatural angles to its skeletal torso. Ron was just not going to like anything about this, at all, was he?

It rather loomed, even folded as it was, and Percy set himself to ignoring it as much as he could.

"Add a little cinnamon, dear."

And that, too. The house was just creaking up a storm today, and Percy kept hearing words in the sound. Still, he didn't see the harm in some cinnamon. It was probably just his subconscious or something. Probably. Hopefully. The point was, he could only focus on so many problems at once and he wasn't going to deal with this yet. Nope. It was a completely harmless mishearing of the house creaki-