Percy was a clever boy, and knew that Penny did not mean why they were hiding here, in the infirmary, why he had not come right out and kissed her the moment he'd seen her eyes snap to consciousness. Nor could he lie to Penny and pretend as though that were the reason.
"I..." He hesitated, because many of the reasons he had once had for wishing to keep their relationship a secret hardly mattered now that everyone knew, mattered less because a terrible thing had happened to her when she was on her way to see him... something that might never have happened if he hadn't asked her to lie about him, about them, in the first place.
"I'm not sure we need to, Penny. Do you want not to?"