A/N: Written for the alphabet soup challenge from the Beaded Bag, for the Ilvermorny forum. This will be a collection, published separately.
Prompts:
[A]
1. (emotion) acrimony
2. (character) Arthur Weasley
5. (pairing) Audrey/Percy
A
Arthur Weasley was a simple man. He wanted simple things. When he was a boy, he wanted a muggle bicycle that he'd seen a girl riding in the nearby muggle village. When he went to Hogwarts, he wanted to take Muggle Studies his third year. And when he met Molly Prewitt, he knew he wanted to marry her. All he wanted for their children, for he loved each of them equally- though perhaps there was always a soft spot for his oldest- was for them each to be happy wherever their hearts took them. This had been a hard thing to come to terms with when his third son, Percy, walked out after essentially calling him a failure.
Arthur had never felt like a failure before that moment. Sure, he knew things were tough and often his vault in Gringott's was more sparse than he'd have liked. Yes, his children often wore secondhand clothes and read from secondhand books. And, okay, he'd been told more than once that his house looked like a strong wind might blow it over. But his family was happy. They never wanted for food, aside from Ron maybe, they were never short on affection from their parents, and Arthur and Molly were always sure to encourage them where they needed it- with the possible exception of Fred and George's joke shop. But he was proud of them all.
Bill, the youngest curse breaker to ever get a job with Gringott's and among the only humans tolerated by the bank run goblins. Charlie and his dragons, always seeming to come home with a new scar from a Chinese Fireball or some other beast. Fred and George, staying true to themselves and always striving to make others laugh- even if was at their own expense. Ron, fighting for his beliefs and introducing the Weasleys to Harry and Hermione- who Arthur and Molly saw as two more children. Ginny, his only girl and the light of their life. And Percy, who accepted a Ministry job straight out of Hogwarts. Arthur had never been prouder until it became clear exactly why he'd been given the job. It hadn't pleased him to shatter his son's heart by telling him the Ministry wanted to spy on them and Dumbledore. He hadn't like to hear his son curse the leader of the Light in every way he could think of- and Arthur had never his son to have such an accomplished vocabulary, either. He most especially didn't like hearing his son, of whom he was the most proud, tell him that he was a failure as a husband and father.
Though, the war was over and now he was expected to make nice to the son who broke his heart on holidays and dinners. He smiled just the same as he might once have, despite losing Fred, and he hugged Percy the way he used to- because he loved him no less. But something was lost there. He couldn't talk to Percy about work because he kept remembering his son's excitement over becoming Fudge's Junior Assistant. He couldn't answer when Percy asked him how he'd handle that muggle situation the week before because he kept hearing his son say that maybe the Ministry had a point about the muggleborns. He couldn't quite reach the proper enthusiasm whenever Percy came for dinner because he kept hearing his own voice in the shadow of an echo caused by the front door being slammed.
"If you want to leave, then fine, but don't ever come back."
He hadn't meant it of course, as evidenced by the man- when had his little boy become a man?- sitting across from him and Molly. But it was still there, stuck on a loop in his mind to keep him from confronting the death of Fred.
"Dad?" Oh, it's 'dad', now, is it? Then it was 'father' or 'Arthur'. "We have news."
At Percy's side, was his wife. He'd met Audrey, ironically a muggleborn, while on assignment with the Ministry to research cauldron thickness. She was lovely, and Arthur and his wife truly adored their daughter-in-law, but he often wondered why she was with Percy. They were obviously in love, though vastly different with Percy spouting rules and regulations while Audrey tried to convince him to relax.
"Oh, go on," Molly said, perched at Arthur's side. "Don't keep us in such suspense."
Percy and Audrey looked at each with lovesick grins and starry eyes, a look he recognized as his own when he looked at his own wife, before they both looked back to her and Audrey beamed- a sort of glow about her.
"I'm pregnant."
Everything changed. Arthur's usual look of strained silence in his son's presence faded into one of wonder and peace as he looked at his daughter-in-law's stomach, that now they mentioned looked a bit bigger than when he'd last seen them. He could hear Molly screaming in delight, rushing to hug and congratulate, but Percy was watching him with a hesitant and hopeful look. And Arthur wasn't angry anymore, or bitter, or whatever that awful feeling had been. Because now Percy would understand.
Arthur stood up and held his hand out to shake Percy's- who took it with suspiciously wet looking eyes he'd gotten from Molly's side of the family. And Arthur hugged him, his own eyes misting over.
"I'm proud of you, son."
A/N: Hope you liked it! Let me know in the towel section down below. Dasvidanya, Mia