Hey everyone. This is the start of another new AU storyline I kind of want to explore. I wrote this story for both Fortnightly Challenges Thread's Leaf Pile Challenge, and Autumn Seasonal Challenges Thread's Ravenclaw: Audrey's Desert Challenge on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Leaf Pile Challenge I used the Yellow (AUs) prompt of Voldemort Wins. For Ravenclaw: Audrey's Desert Challenge I used the prompt for Sponge Flavors (characters) Red Velvet Percy Weasley. This is my second Voldemort Wins story I hope I did a good job on it. I hope you all enjoy The World (As We Know it Now).
"What do we do now?" Percy hears a terrified voice cry from somewhere off in the distance.
He doesn't know where the he finds the strength to pull himself up out of the despair that he has been feeling since watching his younger brother Fred die in front him but he does. He turns in the direction of the voice he'd hear calling out and finds himself face to face with Hermione Granger.
"What do you think Harry, Fred, Remus, and the others would want you to do?" he asks her trying to instill a new sense of purpose in her. Trying to instill a new sense of purpose in himself too for that matter.
"They want us to keep fighting," she answers and to even his ears it sounds almost like a question.
"They would want us to keep fighting!" He didn't even know where the strength that fills his voice is coming from. He feels so knocked down and kicked that before he heard Hermione speak he had been about ready to give up. How much more of this could they all take?
"You heard the man," he heard someone, more than likely Seamus Finnigan by sound of the voice, called from out of nowhere. "We have to keep fighting them."
Looks over to find that Ginny is struggling to keep ahead of Bellatrix Lestrange. Ginny's a good dueler in her own right but Bellatrix is much better and he can see that Harry's death is affecting his sister more than anything.
"Not my daughter you bit..." his mother moves in front of Ginny and he watches for a moment in shock as his mother goes toe to toe with the vile woman. His mother is probably a better dueler than Bellatrix he thinks as brings himself back into the battle.
In the end it's a losing battle that the defenders of Hogwarts are fighting and they soon have to retreat. Several people apparate off in different directions no had thought to make up place to retreat if everything went wrong.
Percy finds himself apparating to only place he knows has protection around it. The Burrow. He isn't surprised to find his parents and the most of his siblings there waiting. He takes a note of who all made it.
Bill and Fleur are holding each other tightly off to his right. He can Bill trying to comfort Fleur with any number of small words that can no longer be true of their situation. He hears Ginny and Hermione quietly crying together over Harry more than likely. His parents are kneeling over George who has been injured in some way during the battle. He looks around not expecting to see Fred. He knows for a fact that Fred is dead. He saw it with his own eyes. But he feels a pang of pain when Ron is nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Ron?" Percy hears himself ask out of the blue.
A loud sob comes from Hermione as Ginny leads her out of the room. He knows then that he more than likely lost another little brother today and the blow hits him like a ton of bricks falling from the sky.
"Ron was taken captive by the Death Eater," he can hear how broken his father sounds just saying those few words.
A knock sounds at the door and every wand in the room is pointed at the entrance to the Burrow. No one seems to want to answer the door which he thinks is ridiculous in itself. If it was Death Eaters at the door they wouldn't have knocked. They'd have just barged in and killed them all. Steeling himself for what he's about to face he goes and opens the door to find the Lovegoods and few others who were at the battle of Hogwarts.
"Come in," he tells them step aside and letting them.
"What are going to do?' someone repeats Hermione's question from earlier.
Percy feels all eyes in the room turning to him. The pressure of it all seems to have come crashing down on him at this moment and he wonders how Harry was actually able to grow up with this pressure crushing down on him. He doesn't know when they all elected him the impromptu leader of this small group but he knows they did. He knows that he has big shoes to fill too. But he also knows he has to do this. This is his job now.
"First things first," Percy calls, "we have to plan a rescue mission to get my brother, Ron, back. Who's with me?"
I hope you all enjoyed The World (As We Know it Now).