Hey! Welcome to my newest K-rated Percy Weasley one-shot- "Inadvertent St. Mungo's Setup". The title is self-explanatory. I hope you enjoy it...it was a little something among other things that's been nagging at me. :P (Also, there's mentions of pre-slash in this fic!)
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter, only this plot. Any mistakes grammatical/spelling/etc. are my own.
"Fred! George! You two put those knives down this instant!" a cautious Molly Weasley cried as her twins grabbed two kitchen blades and started brandishing them about, scaring the wits out of their mother.
Hearing her mother hen cry, both five year-olds dropped them simultaneously onto the floor.
Taking the knives, Molly scolded "I don't ever want to see you touch these again, not until you're much older. You could have put your eyes out."
"Sorry, Mummy..." they chorused.
"All right. Now go play with Ron and Ginny." Hand in hand, Fred and George scurried to the living room.
"Honestly...the mischievous behavior of children never ceases to amaze me." Molly muttered under her breath as she put the knives away before setting out ingredients to prepare lunch. Little footsteps sounded behind her, she felt tugging at her apron string.
"Mummy?"
"Yes, Percy? Oh dear..." Seven year-old Percy was pale and his cheeks were flushed.
"I don't feel so good..."
"You are looking under the weather." Molly responded, placing her hand onto his cheeks. "Merlin, you're burning up. Stay here and let me get you some medicine.."
"Mummy?"
Yes?"
"I..I can't..." Percy teetered off to the side.
"Percy!" Molly screeched, catching her son just as he was falling downward.
"Molly! What's happening? I heard someone scream." Arthur hurried into the kitchen to see his wife holding her son protectively against her breast.
"Percy's fainted and he's..he's burning up. We need to take him to St. Mungo's right away."
"I'll take him. Someone needs to stay here with the others." Arthur picked up a barely-conscious Percy and apparated to St. Mungo's Hospital.
Inside a waiting room in the children's ward, Arthur was patiently awaiting the results from the healer who was diagnosing Percy. "Ok, you do have a high fever. Do you feel achy and cold at the same time? Do you also feel dizzy when you stand up?"
Percy nodded weakly, struggling to keep awake. "Were you able to eat or drink anything?"
"B-Barely.."
The healer ran a few diagnostic spells to confirm his symptoms. "You poor thing, lay back down on the examining table. I'll come back for you shortly." Exiting the room, Healer Dawson approached Arthur. "It seems that Percy has the wizard flu. It's been going around and there are multiple cases here in the hospital."
"Oh no, he was just fine yesterday."
"Wizard flu hits quicker than the muggle flu, Mr. Weasley. It has a 12 to 24-hour incubation period instead of 1-4 days. It's worse in children, so Percy will have to stay here for at least two weeks. As with any virus, you'll have to let it run its course. Do you have any other children at home? It's quite contagious."
"Six..but two are in Hogwarts at this present time."
"Then give the remaining children these. It'll prevent them from catching his ailment." Healer Dawson deposited four vials with leaf-green liquid into Arthur's hand.
"I'll have a mediwitch escort him to a room immediately."
When she left, Arthur went over to a sleeping Percy and petted his head. "You're going to be just fine, Percy. Your mum will be here to visit you later." He kissed Percy goodbye on his forehead as the mediwitch carried him to a spare room in the children's ward.
Three days later, Percy was lying awake in his hospital bed, flipping through a copy of 'Tales of Beedle the Bard' his mother left him after her earlier visit. Percy missed home already...the food sucked, he couldn't have chocolate milk, wasn't allowed to play and he still felt terrible.
'I hate having the wizard flu. Why did I have to get sick? I miss my mummy and daddy.' Percy huffed sadly as he put down his book and peered through the curtains.
St. Mungo's bedcurtains had silencing spells placed on them to shut out any snoring a patient did if they shared a room with another person. If Percy wanted to listen to anything other than his own breathing, he had to open them. Today, it appeared he had company. In the bed adjacent to him, was a boy approximately his age staring into space. He had black hair with bangs and was quite pale...as if he's never seen the sun a day in his life. Percy wanted to open his mouth and say 'hello' but didn't. He was a shy child and didn't talk to anyone other than his siblings.
'Is he sick like me?'
As if he heard the redhead's very thought, the boy faced Percy.
It turns out, that boy wasn't sick at all..or so he assumed. When that boy turned, Percy could see the right side of his face was badly burned. The third-born Weasley considered himself lucky, he was only there for flu...not a seemingly-permanent injury. He felt bad for complaining, even worse for the stranger. The boy's dark eyes averted to a tall, pale man with braided waist-length, silvery blonde hair. Considering he wore a healer's robe, Percy could assume he was here to assess the damage on his room-mate.
'Where did he come from? I didn't even hear him walk in.'
The healer in question glided past Percy, over to the boy. With practiced hands, he examined his face.
"Looks like someone forgot their special sunscreen again, didn't they? Or...they just neglected to put it on, am I correct?"
The boy shamefully hung his head.
"Now, Graham...you know you're supposed to wear your sunscreen every time you venture outside."
"But I don't wanna...it smells funny.''
'So, that's his name. Wait, I've been sunburned and it never did that to me.' Percy mused, watching the exchange.
"I'm sorry, but you know you have to wear it until you're ten years old unless this will happen each and every time. Why do you have to be so difficult about it?"
" 'Cause I don't like it."
"Well, you'll have to deal with it. When you're ten, you won't ever have to use it again. For now, you're staying in the hospital until those burns are completely healed. Unfortunately, it takes much longer for you young children...even with the salve. Good thing I haven't been one in over seven hundred years. It's too bad, applying the sunscreen after exposure will still make the burns worse."
He sighed and continued "Dinner is a few hours from now, so you'll have to be patient for that as well." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a silver container with a bluish-white cream and dabbed it all over the right half of Graham's face. As he was leaving, Graham stuck his tongue out at the retreating healer.
"I saw that." he smoothly retorted, shutting the door behind him.
"I saw that." Graham mocked, crossing his arms indignantly.
Percy sat in stunned silence. 'Seven hundred years? That man was really, really old. How come he didn't look it?' His musings stopped once he saw the boy was staring directly at him. Swallowing hard, Percy looked away...only to look back and see Graham was no longer in bed but right next to him. Thank Merlin the beds had rails or Percy would have been on the floor from fright.
Graham appraised the redhead with those striking eyes. "Who are you?"
Stammering, Percy replied "P-P-Percy Weasley.''
He cocked his head to the side "A Weasley? Why are you here?"
"I...I'm sick. W-Wizard flu."
"Oh." He nodded, gazing at the book on Percy's lap. "Whatcha reading?"
"It's um, Tales of Beedle the Bard...one of my favorite books."
"What's your favorite tale?"
"The Tale of the Three Brothers."
Graham's face brightened "Me too. Um, I'm Graham...Graham Montague."
Percy smiled "Nice to meet you, Graham."
"Can I sit with you on your bed? I'm bored."
"Sure, come on in." Percy opened the curtains, allowing Graham to climb inside.
Several hours later, it was time for dinner. Percy was given chicken soup and apple juice...again...while Graham had sliced turkey and a strange red beverage in his cup. Percy was munching on a sugar cookie for dessert while watching Graham sip his drink.
"What do you have? It looks like tomato juice."
The raven-haired child swallowed sharply. He didn't want to scare off his new friend. Graham apprehensively answered "It's because it isn't tomato juice...it's...blood."
Percy's sapphire eyes widened in astonishment. "Blood? As in human blood?"
"Yes..." he whispered. "I'm a vampire, Percy."
He shrunk back, expecting a scream of terror and scrambling to get away but Percy remained in bed, watching him in sheer curiosity.
"Wow...can I see your fangs?"
Surprised by his reaction, Graham replied "Sure..'' and extended his canines, allowing his onyx eyes to become bright electric blue orbs.
"Your eyes change colors too? Cool! I wish mine could do that."
"I can also see in the dark and climb walls. Watch." Graham crawled out of bed and scaled the egg-shell white walls, making Percy's jaw drop in awe.
"What else can you do?"
For the next twelve days, Graham and Percy became good hospital buddies, like two peas in a pod. They both had someone to talk to, to laugh with...so they were never bored. During this time, Percy was steadily recovering and Graham's face was healing up wonderfully...slowly matching the left side. On that Saturday, Percy was scheduled to be discharged from St. Mungo's. Graham had one more day, unfortunately, to lie in that boring wasteland of a room.
"My daddy's coming today to pick me up. I think he'll be here any minute." Percy grinned, swinging his legs off the side of his bed.
Graham sadly smiled "Yeah. Um, so I guess this is goodbye?"
"Only for now. Maybe we'll see each other one day soon?"
"I hope so.."
Arthur poked his head through the door, smiling. "Percy! Time to go!"
"I'm coming!" Percy called out. Giving Graham one last hug, the curly-haired Weasley ambled over to his father. They left, passing three rather pale individuals on the next floor. Graham stared after him, his arms still reaching out after their hug. Dropping them at his sides, he miserably plopped down into his own bed, burying his face into a pillow as his heart began aching. The door opened and he was no longer alone in a physical sense.
"Alright Graham, let's take a look at that burn."
The healer took his face into his hands yet again, scanning the right side. "You're looking much better. You're definitely fit to head home first thing in the morning. But, what are you going to do before you go out?"
In a monotone, Graham muttered "Put on my sunscreen."
Noticing an apparent disturbance in Graham's demeanor; his father, Michael, sat next to him. "What's the matter?"
Graham said nothing, only holding his hand over his heart and staring at Percy's once-occupied bed.
Raising a knowing eyebrow, Michael queried the healer "Sebastian, who shared this room with my son? The scent is familiar."
Smirking, he retorted "Percival Weasley. We just passed him on the way up here."
Lord Montague ran his tongue over his fangs in thought. ''Interesting. A Weasley...and my son.''
At the Burrow...
The next day, the children were playing near the living room. Loudness, running and occasional shrieks of laughter was the usual ruckus. Molly was in the kitchen preparing dinner while Arthur sat in his favorite armchair, keeping an eye on them. He didn't have to so much with Percy, the curly-top was currently reading out of a muggle children's book his father brought for him until knocking sounded at the door. Setting down his paper, Arthur rose.
"Who could that be? I wasn't expecting visitors.."
Opening the door, he saw two males standing in the doorway. One was taller than Arthur, yet several years younger...had flowing black hair tied in a red ribbon, piercing onyx eyes and skin as white as paper. The same went for the child at his side, except his hair was much shorter. Arthur knew exactly who he was.
In a silky deep voice, the handsome man spoke "Hello, Arthur. May we come in? We have some important matters to attend to."
"I don't see why not. Come on in."
Percy peered up from his book to see a familiar face smiling at him. "Graham! Hi!"
"Hey, Percy." Graham returned, holding out a square package.
Percy took it. "Wow, a present! Thank you but...I don't have anything for you."
Graham responded softly "That's ok..it was a surprise. Go on, open it."
Percy carefully opened the parcel to see it was a book titled '101 Fairytales: The Dark Creature Edition by Hellebore Wolfsbane'.
"It's just like Tales of Beedle the Bard, but there's more stories in it with people like me."
"Wanna go to my room and read it with me?"
"Sure."
Percy darted his excited eyes to his father "Can we, Dad? Puhlleeaase?"
Arthur shrugged "Dinner won't be ready for another hour, so I guess it would be fine."
"Thank you!" Percy and Graham headed upstairs.
Arthur beckoned Michael to sit. He eyed the vampiric lord silently watching him in return.
Pointing out the elephant in the room, the patriarch voiced "Percy is Graham's mate, isn't he?"
Michael smirked "Like I said, important matters..."
Hope I didn't disappoint you. What are your thoughts? And I chose Graham because I wanted to see what I could come up with. Don't worry, I have another Marcus/Percy one-shot in the works for fellow Marcus/Percy fans! :)