Percy's Awakening
"Wake up, Percy!"
Percy opened his eyes slowly. Pretty soon his eyes focused on the vision of a plump woman and her balding husband sitting on his bed looking at him lovingly.
"Time to go to work." said Arthur Weasley grinning. Then it all came back to him. His N.E.W.Ts. . .the application. ..the job. . .He was supposed to be getting ready!
His parents left the room and Percy got changed into his best robes. He went straight into his bathroom and took a look in the mirror. The mirror made a wisecrack about Percy's nose. Percy ignored it. Percy hurried down the steps and went to the kitchen. "Ok dad. I'm ready, lets go." wheezed Percy.
Arthur looked up at him calmly and said "What's the big rush? We have time. Sit down and eat something." Arthur Weasley gestured towards the plates of waffles and eggs. "You're going to need your energy today. First day of work and all."
Molly Weasley seemed to agree. She refused to let him go anywhere and forced him to eat. The truth was though that Percy was so nervous that he didn't even think about breakfast. He just wanted to get out of the house as quickly as he could so that he could get to work on time.
After eating breakfast quickly, he got up and stretched while suddenly Molly Weasley yelled with delight. "I can't believe it" screeched Molly Weasly tearfully. "There's our little boy Percy . . . all grown up and ready to go to work!"
Arthur grinned proudly at Percy and asked, "So are you nervous?"
"Not really." Percy lied.
"Well that's good Perce. . .don't worry about it. You'll be fine. I've seen you in action before." Arthur winked. He stood up and putting on his hat, said "Lets go to work" Suddenly, Arthur disappeared with a pop with Percy soon following him.
Percy suddenly found himself inside the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic headquarters. Although Percy had seen this place before (he had visited with his father when he was young), the size of the place and all of the many wizards still stunned him. It felt like Percy's first day of school. Percy tried not to look too impressed about the place.
"Lets go, Percy." said Arthur still smiling and putting his arm around him.
Percy, however, pushed his father away and muttered, "Dad c'mon. Everyone is looking." Arthur looked a little hurt but shook it off and put his grin back on.
"Ok Percy, if you want to be independent then that's fine." Arthur Weasley pointed his hand towards that. "Take that down to level 5. I need to talk to someone up here. Good luck!" Percy did what his father said and took the elevator down to level 5.
"Department of International Cooperation" chimed the smooth female voice.
Percy stepped out of the elevator and saw in front of in front of him a grinning, friendly looking man who was smartly dressed in what looked like a very expensive wizarding robes. He was a middle-aged, Irish looking fellow who had these very puffy looking cheeks which had a big grin on it. He walked right up to him and practically yelled "Another Weasley! Hello, hello." Beaming at him, the wizard shook his hand. "My name is Thiam Dea" he said. "I work in this department with you. I was told that you would be joining us today and I wanted to talk to you."
Percy was delighted that he had met someone right off the bat. This was a very good start for him. Percy then said very professionally "Thank you, Mr. Dea. Pleased to make your acquaintance."
Mr. Dea kept the grin on but suddenly he opened his mouth a little and held it for a few seconds. Then he quickly said in a more business like manner "Take a walk with me, kid."
Mr. Dea put his arm around him. Percy was slightly awkward. Having his father do this was different butnow this man was treating him like he knew him all his life. It made Percy feel slightly uncomfortable. Mr. Dea walked them over to a deserted hallway and started talking while walking with him in a very casual voice.
"Now Percy, I've been working here for about 7 years and believe me I've enjoyed it. And you will too! But there is a certain way that things work here that you need to understand. It doesn't exactly follow what you may have been taught at Hogwarts. You went to Hogwarts right?"
Percy nodded and Thiam began to smile again. "What house?"
"Gryffindor" said Percy proudly.
Thiam laughed heartily. "Gryffindor, eh? The bravest and noblest house of the four! I was in Ravenclaw myself. Good group of kids but they took things rather seriously." Thiam laughed at the memory but suddenly went back to his usual business like manner, "Now listen, sometimes in this department, in all departments actually, you need to be very. . .um. . .what's the word?." He paused for a second "Um. . .supportive of things that go on in our beloved ministry. Our minister, Cornelius Fudge, is a good man but he is a nervous man. Dreadfully nervous. You would certainly not want to give him anything to worry about. So just to sum it up simply," he paused and then grinned again " try and keep your mouth shut, ok?"
Percy blinked. Then slowly, he bobbed his head up and down in a nod. Thiam laughed. "I don't think you have much to worry about, do you? Don't talk much, do you? Well I must go now. See you later."
Thiam flashed him one last grin and then sped down the halls opposite of Percy. 'Okay . . . that was kind of weird' thought Percy. He shrugged and put the encounter out of his mind for awhile.
Percy then needed to go to his boss, Bartimus Crouch, and talk to him.
Percy walked to his door and rapped sharply on the door with his knuckles. Percy cried in pain from knocking too hard. "Its open" yelled Crouch. Percy shook his hand, took a deep breath, and opened the door to Crouch's office.
Inside was Bartimus Crouch, looking rather flustered, shuffling papers and muttering to himself. "Ah . . . um . . . what is your name?"
"Percy Weasley, sir"
"Well then . . . Welcome to my department Mr. Weatherby" Percy blinked but recovered himself and smiled.
"It's Weasley. . .thank you." Crouch grasped his hand. His handshake was very firm. It caught Percy off guard.
Crouch paused for a second and put his hands in his pockets. "Ok then Weatherby. . ." said Crouch "I hope your ready to do some real work. I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're new. Ok this is what I would like."
Crouch fumbled around for a moment in his desk draws. While Crouch was doing so, Percy had time to view the office he was in. It was a dimly lit office, rather like an old film noir movie. On the walls were pasted newspaper clippings featuring mainly Crouch. But one thing that caught Percy's eye was an article that read Bartimus Crouch Junior to go to Azkaban. Suddenly Crouch said, "Here we go." Crouch took out a piece of parchment and put on reading glasses.
"Alright Weatherby" said Crouch hurriedly "I need you to write me a report on this . . . uh . . . cauldron bottom thickness issue. The details are on this paper. That's your first assignment. Good luck."
Percy was surprised about what little input he had but said eagerly "Yes sir. I'll get it done."
Pretty soon, this became rather routine for Percy. He adapted to going to work pretty quickly and soon he was all over the place. He even started to drink coffee in the morning because of its extra burst of caffeine. He actually enjoyed going to work and was very satisfied when he received his payment. Everything seemed to be going fine. Percy continued to take care of himself and grew to be especially arrogant at home because of his new job.
Percy's relationship with his co-workers was an interesting matter. Many of them seemed to have taken some sort of dislike to him. Percy would try to start a conversation with one of them but they would shake him off by telling them that they were extremely busy. However once he started walking away, he would see them chatting away with another co-worker. Percy began to have a reputation for being a suck up because he had grown to admire his boss . He became known as Crouch's errand boy in the office. Of course nobody called him that to Percy's face. But despite all he did for Crouch, he couldn't even get Percy's name right. Percy never bothered to point it out either, much to the amusement of most of his colleagues.
Weeks passed and July began to approach. Crouch had called a meeting and everyone working in the Department of Magical Cooperation was there. Percy ran in with a cup of tea for Crouch, as had become the custom. Crouch took the tea thanked him, and started off.
Crouch sighed. Looking around he started by simply stating, "We're bringing back the Triwizard tournament." Silence fell all around. Everyone around him looked amazed. Percy was shocked! His first month working for the ministry of magic and now they were going to bring back the Triwizard tournament! Percy smiled with glee.
Percy was the only one smiling though. In fact, many of his coworkers groaned and gave him nasty looks. Apparently, the organization of the Triwizard tournament was a lot of work. Percy didn't care though. This would be a great experience and would be very cool to show off to his family.
"Now" Crouch began scratching his mustache, "we will be working with the Department of Magical Sports and Games along with several other various departments in order to make sure that there is no one hurt this year. We will need to ORGANIZE." Crouch slapped his hand on his lap for emphasis. "Now this is what I want. . . . ."
Percy was a happy man coming home from work everyday. That's all he needed. He liked to work. His coworkers viewed Percy quite the same way as Percy was viewed by his family. . .arrogant and snotty. Maybe he was but he could hardly care. He was working for the Ministry of Magic now and why should he care what his under achieving siblings or his lazy, unenthusiastic coworkers thought? These were the good times.
The Triwizard tournament was planned very carefully. Many, many hours of working overtime had made everything seem to be just perfect. Once all of the work was completed, Thiam Dea invited everyone to have tea and cake at his house. There they all chatted happily, drank merrily (some a little too much), and just had a good time. It seemed as if everything would turn out just fine. Nothing could possibly go wrong now, right?
Wrong. It was a disaster. A fourth champion, named Harry Potter, somehow managed to trick the impartial judge into submitting him as a champion. Although Bagman, who was the head of the Magical Games department, embraced this with eagerness, not everyone was happy. Percy himself couldn't hardly believe what had happened and lamented over the time that would need to be fixed solving the problems that had come up. This included ass kissing the headmaster of Durmstrang and the headmistress of Beauxbatons, who were already extremely suspicious of not only the British ministry of magic but of the British themselves.
Another problem that needed to be addressed was the fact that a 14 year old boy somehow managed to trick the goblet of fire ,that had been set up. If a 14 year old boy could do this, then think of what someone much older could have done! This was a serious problem and needed to be addressed immediately.
Alastor Moody, the retired auror with a reputation of being paranoid had tried to blame the dark wizards. However this was immediately dismissed. Nobody ever took Moody seriously anymore. Although some of the older gentlemen had respect for him, even they passed it off as 'typical Alastor'. Dumbledore was also disturbed about what had happened to say the least, which was worrying since it was not "typical Dumbledore" behaviour. Although he did not directly say it as Moody did, Dumbledore expressed his concerns with Crouch and others, about the possible threat of a dark wizard entering the game.
Finally, after about a day or two of constant discussion, it was decided that they would play it out and if anything serious happened, they would be there ready to stop it. Unfortunately this did not work out as they had planned either. In all fairness, it was not the Ministry's fault about what had happened to Cedric Diggory. No one, not even Dumbledore, could have predicted that. It was insanity. Harry Potter coming out of the maze with Cedric Diggory and claiming that Voldemort had returned. Could it be any worse? Cornelius Fudge worked around the clock to try and sweep all of this crap under the rug but Dumbledore and he had reached a parting of the ways with those who had supported Dumbledore. Dumbledore believed Harry and Cornelius thought him insane (or at least that's what he made himself believe). Cornelius, who was already extremely nervous and fearful, decided to try and keep the papers quiet about these events and attempt to disprove Dumbledore and all of his supporters. He feared Dumbledore. He was willing to resort to any measures in order to make sure he kept his office.
Once the dust had settled, however, Thiam Dea asked to see Percy. Thiam was a temporary replacement for Bartimus Crouch, who had gone insane for God knows what reason. When the news of this had reached Percy ears he was shocked. He had no idea, absolutely no idea that anything could have been going on. His letters seemed to have been rational and even though he was absent for quite some time, Percy had assumed it was because of his illness. But now Percy was facing a possible inquiry from work. Percy dreaded Thiam that moment.
Percy knocked on Thiam's office (which still read Bartimus crouch on the door). He was invited in. Thiam was looking rather grim and Percy feared the worse. "Sit down Percy" said Thiam quietly but almost sternly. Percy sat down. Thiam then gave him a hard look. Percy watched him nervously.
Thiam sighed. . . "I just wanted to say" he said slowly, ".goodbye." Percy's jaw dropped. Oh . . . my . . . God. . .
Thiam stared at him for a few seconds. But then out of a nowhere a big grin started to come to his face. And then before Percy knew it, Thiam was laughing hysterically. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The look on your face! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Priceless!"
After a few moments, eventually Thiam's laughing started to fade, and then he finally said. "I asked you here to say goodbye" started Thiam once more still trying to keep from laughing , "because you've been promoted . . . to personal assistant of the minister!"
Percy was even more shocked by this. He recovered though and said "Wow Thiam.. . That's great! Thank you. . ."
Thiam started laughing again. "Don't thank me, son" he said "Thank Cornelius Fudge. He requested you personally!" Percy pinched himself. This had to be a dream right? Only it wasn't. It was really happening. He came into work, expecting to be reprimanded, possibly being filed for an inquiry but instead he came out leaving with a promotion! What an amazing thing!
Thiam kept his face grinning and slapped him on the back. "Nice work son." he said "I'll miss you." They embraced, and Percy went back to work. Maybe the times weren't so bad after all . . . just hectic. Percy left work, greatly encouraged, and ready to embrace the future.