I didn’t know whether I was fulfilled at the Ministry, but I was satisfied, at least…and in the beginning that had seemed like enough.

“My friends like to do that to me, too,” he admitted, one corner of his mouth pulling up in a passable imitation of a smile – it was barely perceptible, but it was there. He looked kind and handsome that way. “I usually end up like that poor sod.”

"I really think you must be the nicest person I've ever met."

He said it as though it were something valuable.

“I reckon ‘special’ is one word I’d use to describe someone dating Percy Weasley.”

I tried to talk myself out of it, but my attempts were feeble - and anyway, it was all shoulds and shouldn’ts. Should wait a little longer, Audrey. Shouldn’t be so forward, Audrey. But ultimately, I wasn’t interested in these thoughts.

I felt foolish. We’d grown so close, so natural, so easy with one another in fairly short order that I could almost have convinced myself I’d known him for years, not months.

But he was right: there were a lot of things about Percy Weasley I had not known.

Percy knew he’d made mistakes, and it seemed the understatement of the century to say that he regretted them. But more than that, he’d laid them out before my eyes and shown me the exit, if I wanted it. And I knew instinctively that if I took that opportunity, he would neither complain nor try to stop me.

"Your fella. Given you the key to the damn penthouse, hasn't he?"

There was an ease with which he said it, a plainness -- calmly, as if he were accustomed to it. As if he'd been saying it for years.

Looking for all the world as though it pained him to say it, he offered, “I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“I can’t believe you’re thinking… whatever it is you’re suggesting.”

“I can’t believe you’re not thinking it."

“Audrey, I love you, but it is infuriating to watch you allow people to disregard you and take advantage of you.”

“It isn’t up to you to fix me!”