Percy pulled Oliver closer to him, threading his hands through his short brown hair. Oliver nibbled on his jawline, sucking and biting, occasionally stopping to observe the purple marks appearing on Percy's jaw. "It's been too long," Oliver whispered, slipping his fingers into Percy's belt loops and pulling him closer. Percy could only reply with a moan as his fingers danced along the buttons of Oliver's trousers. Oliver slowly moved one of his hands, dragging his fingers along Percy's chest.
"Percy?" a soft, feminine voice said, interrupting the moment. Percy went still, all the swear words he knew running through his head at the same time, like an explosion. Hesitantly, he removed himself from Oliver's grasp, and turned around, conscious of the marks lining his neck and jaw, wishing he knew some way to hide them.
As he took in the figure in front of him, Percy felt his stomach drop. "Ginny…" he began, unable to find the words to explain himself out of the situation. "God, Oliver, I'll be back. I need to talk to Gin." Oliver ran a hand along Percy's cheek, a concerned look in his eyes, nodding and giving him a pat on the back to set him off.
Slowly turning away from Oliver, Percy nervously walked towards Ginny, doing up the top few buttons of his shirt in an effort to make himself look presentable. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and led her away, not quite sure where he was leading her or what he was going to say.
They slowly walked, side by side, along the winding corridors, until they came to a classroom Percy knew was abandoned. He opened the door and held it open for Ginny, allowing her to walk through before slowly pushing it shut behind them, cringing as it groaned its way shut. He turned around to see that Ginny had already found herself a seat at one of the old, rickety desks that filled up the room, drumming her fingers against the wood surface.
Percy sunk down into a seat and rested his face in his hands for a moment. "Gin… I don't know what to say," he admitted in a broken voice. He hadn't expected this. He'd never expected that anyone would find out. He'd made sure that he and Oliver had been careful, making sure that they met in a different place every time. What was he even meant to say? That he thought he was gay, but then again, maybe he wasn't?
"I do," she said. "You're gay. Cool. Go for it. And he's a Quidditch captain."
"Oh," he said, pausing for a moment, surprised by how little she seemed to care. He'd been quite content with idea of never telling anybody, just out of fear of their reaction. . "Just… don't tell Fred and George. Or Ron. The only Quidditch player Ron would accept me being with is Viktor Krum."
"Does that mean I can send an owl to Bill?"
"What? No! Just - don't tell anyone; I'll do it when I feel like I'm ready. You never saw anything here, okay?" He felt himself begin to panic slightly. Was she being serious? Was she really going to tell Bill? He couldn't deal with them knowing, not now. Luckily, she began to smile, a large bright smile that lit up her whole face.
"But how am I going to explain where I've been? And how are you going to explain why you look like you've been at it with a vampire?" Percy's hand darted up to his jaw, and he ran his fingers over the forming bruises,regretting letting Oliver get carried away.
"I, erm - I'm going to ask one of my friends to cover for me. She's a Ravenclaw prefect - no, wait, what would be in it for her? Oh Merlin - if anyone asks, you caught me with a Ravenclaw girl, I'm going to have to do some begging and pleading." Percy only hoped that Penny would agree to cover for him. He knew that she liked him; she'd probably help him out - he couldn't see any feasible reason why she wouldn't.
Ginny looked at him with a small smirk on her lips. "What's her name? I need to know your girlfriend's name, Percy."
Percy shot her a glare but sighed. "Penelope. Penelope Clearwater, I study with her a lot; if I walk into the Great Hall with her at dinner, she's agreed to cover for me. I'm going to have to do a lot of explaining. I might even need to tell her about Oliver." He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but if she started getting upset that he wanted her to cover for another girl (that's what he was planning on telling her at first), then explaining that it was a guy might convince her to have more sympathy for his situation and agree.
"It'll all work out, Percy." Ginny said, distracting him from his thoughts."Now go get your girl."
Percy rolled his eyes at her, but found himself nodding and leaving the room to find Penny. Hopefully, things would work out. He'd have to explain to Oliver as well, so he didn't think Percy was cheating on him with some girl - that would be embarrassing.
Penelope wasn't hard to find - she never was. She was in the library as always, blonde hair hiding her face as she was bent over some unidentifiable book. "Penny!" Percy quickly strode up to her, sitting down next to her in a urgent manner.
"Percy, hi!" She looked up from her book, turning to face him, eyes widening as she took in the bruises lining his face. "What happened, are those -"
Percy interrupted her, eyes locked on hers. "They're exactly what they look like. I need a favour, Penny. A huge favour. Can you cover for me, say they came from you?" He pleaded with her, hoping she'd somehow understand without him having to go into details.
"Why should I cover for your girlfriend, Percy?" she replied in a cold voice. "I'm not just here to be used."
Percy furiously shook his head, "Penny, please. You're making assumptions."
"And what assumptions are they, Percy?" she spat at him, gradually getting louder, irritated; here he was accusing her of making assumptions when he wasn't even giving her anything to go on or understand!
"Penny, just calm down and I'll explain. I wouldn't ask if I weren't desperate," he whispered, eyes darting about, hoping they weren't attracting too much attention, wondering whether or not he should cast a Silencing Charm to avoid anyone overhearing. "It - it wasn't any girl. It was Oliver."
"Oliver?" she said, confused. "But Oliver's a -"
"Guy. I know, Penny. That's why I'm asking. Ginny caught us together, and she pointed out how bad the bruises looked. I'm going to be getting questions about them, Penny, and I can't tell the truth. Will you help me? Please?"
She bit her lip and looked down at the desk, reluctant. "I'll cover for you."
Percy nodded, a small smile gracing his features. "Thank you. I need you to walk into the Great Hall with me; I told Ginny if you said yes you'd walk into the hall with me. I'll explain to Oliver over dinner."
Penelope gave a quick nod and gathered up her things, depositing them in her bag.
"Shall we get going?" Percy asked anxiously, not wanting to walk in after everybody else was already seated.
"Of course. Though, we need to make this look realistic, Percy. Put your arm around my waist."
Percy spluttered slightly, a slight blush tinting his face. "Put my what on your where!" he hissed, looking about the library in embarrassment.
Penny rolled her eyes and sighed, grabbing his arm and placing it around her waist, whilst slipping her hand into his back pocket. "Honestly, I'd call you a prude if your jaw wasn't full of proof otherwise."
They set off walking together in a comfortable silence, making their way from the library and slowly towards the staircase, Percy trying not to think too hard about the presence of his arm around her waist. "So, you're gay then?" Penelope finally asked; Percy knew it had been on her mind and on her lips, and he'd just been waiting for her to ask.
Percy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with the hand that wasn't wrapped around Penny's waist. "Do you want to know the truth? I'm not even sure honestly. Oliver and Ginny were so quick to the assumption that I was gay that I never really had chance to explain how I actually feel. I know I'm attracted to men, that's obvious from me and Oliver. But women? I'm not even sure. If I am attracted to both, am I meant to be attracted to them both in the same way? Because I'm not, and that's what makes it confusing. When I acknowledge a girl is pretty, I don't know whether it's because I'm attracted to her or because I'm acknowledging her beauty just like you would to another girl. That's what makes it so hard to figure out."
Penny nodded along sympathetically, allowing him to talk where others hadn't. When he had finished, she decided to say something that would either help him immensely. "This is going to sound rather blunt, but I think it might help. Can you imagine, well, being intimate with a woman?"
Percy shot an indistinguishable look at her but said nothing at first. "Yes, I can imagine it. Do I think I would enjoy it, no." He said after a long pause. "I can't imagine I'd enjoy it at all," he mumbled to himself; it seemed Penelope had definitely given him something to consider.
"You don't mind me asking questions, do you?" she asked as they began to descend the stairs, Percy finding it exceedingly hard not to trip up while trying not to hurt her by squeezing her in too close.
"No, not at all. I'd rather you ask and hear it as it is from me then make incorrect assumptions." He returned quickly, careful not to let his hand slip too low.
"When did you realise you weren't straight?" Penny asked, choosing her words carefully.
"Definitely by second year, that was when I realised I was attracted to Oliver," he replied thoughtfully. "I'm not really sure, though - it wasn't like I ever particularly chose to think about it. I was too busy wrapped up in studying that I didn't really realise until is was staring me in the face."
The doors of the Great Hall looked more terrifying than they ever had in Percy's memory. What if Ginny had changed her mind and told everyone? What if she'd told the twins - heaven knew Percy loved them both to bits, but they never let anything go that they could tease someone with.
"Well, we'd better go in," Penny said, turning to face him. "Do you realise how bad your jaw looks?" She frowned, fingertips moving to gently turn his head so she could see them easier. "I think I have a mirror in my bag, because you ought to see them before everybody starts asking about them." She pulled a small hand mirror out of her bag and handed it to him, who reached out and grabbed it with the hand that wasn't wrapped around her.
He could see why Penny and Ginny had reacted so much. The entire left side of his jaw, and a good deal of his neck was a deep purple, looking nearly black in places. It wasn't just several bruises, more an overlap of many individual bites that had combined to make one large one the size of a fist. Percy believed that he looked more like he'd been in a fight than with a lover; Oliver really needed to tone it down.
Taking the mirror back, she smirked up at him. "It's quite a sight isn't it?"
"Merlin," he muttered. "I need to cover that up. Do you know any spells?"
"No idea," she said with a shrug. "But you could always try asking someone else - who'll know something for this, though?" She paused, thinking it over in her head.
Percy sighed. "Nobody that isn't in the Great Hall. We're going to be some of the last people in as it is." He fumbled through his own brain, searching furiously for a spell, something - "do you think a Concealment Charm would work? Maybe a Disillusionment Charm, if I tried hard…"
Penny patted his arm sympathetically, and began to lead him into the hall, preparing herself for the inevitable stares.
At first, nobody seemed to notice that the doors had opened. It was only a few odd glances at first, the scattered whispering, but before he knew it, the whole of the Great Hall seemed to be looking at him, making snide remarks to each other from the corners of their lips.
The first noticeable reaction was from the twins. When they saw him, they leapt from their seats and ran across the Great Hall to where he and Penny were rather awkwardly stood. "Perce, what happened?" Fred asked hurriedly.
"Who hit you?" George added with concern.
Percy, though touched by the concern, couldn't help the blush rising in his face. "No one hit me George, it was Penny."
George stated at him with confusion, "Penny hit you?"
A look of realisation dawned on Fred as he hit his twin brother on the arm. "No, our Percy has finally got himself a girl."
They dragged him to the table, and sat him down, one on either side of him, a devilish look on their faces that suggested he was about to be grilled. Oliver cast him a knowing look, eyes twinkling with amusement at Percy's quick thinking.