the characters and places in this story belong to j k rowling, im just playing in the sandbox
"Arthur – it's Percy!"
"What?"
Everyone quickly turned towards the window. Ginny stood up to get a better view. Sure enough, there was Percy, striding across the snowy lawn. However he wasn't the only one.
"Arthur – he's with the Minister!"
Indeed, limping slightly in Percy's wake was the man Harry remembered seeing in the Daily Prophet, his grizzled grey hair dotted with snow.
"Hang on – isn't that Oliver?"
The man on Percy's other side had a cloak pulled up against the wind, but the longer Harry looked the more sure he was that Fred was correct: Oliver Wood, Percy Weasley and Rufus Scrimgeour were all walking up to the house.
Ginny wasn't the only one standing now.
Before anyone could say anything else, the back door opened and the three stepped though. There was a moment of stiff silence, each group looking at the other, before Percy broke it.
"Hello, Mother," he said. "Merry Christmas."
"Oh Percy," said Mrs Weasley, half a sob, and threw herself into his arms. Oliver took it as his cue to remove his hood, and Fred, George and Harry leant forwards, questioning looks on all their faces.
Oliver, however, wasn't looking at them, but Percy and Mrs Weasley, a small smile on his face. Scrimgeour was also watching, leaning on a walking stick Harry could have sworn he didn't have earlier.
"You must forgive us the intrusion," he said, once Mrs Weasley had finally let go of Percy, beaming. "We were just in the area – work, you know – and Percy couldn't resist stopping by."
Mrs Weasley began tearing up again. Percy, however, wasn't looking at any of his family, but was standing awkwardly straight and looking instead at Oliver. Harry shared confused glances with Ginny and Ron. Mr Weasley, Fred and George observed him silently, expressionless.
"Minister, please, come in, sit down!" Mrs Weasley flustered, jumping to pull up a chair. "Have something to eat, or –"
"No, no," interrupted Scrimgeour. "It's quite alright Molly." Harry had the sneaking suspicion he'd checked her name with Percy before entering the house. "We'll only be here a tat, wouldn't at all if Percy didn't want to see you all so badly. I'll just take a stroll around the garden, let you catch up in private. Well, unless anyone would like to show me around. Ah, that young man's finished, why not him?"
The reason for the visit slotted into place, and the atmosphere around the table changing rapidly. Everyone looked from Scrimgeour to Harry; no one seemed to believe he really didn't know Harry's name, nor find it natural he was chosen when his was not the only clean plate. It didn't explain Oliver's presence, however.
Just as he was about to break the silence, Percy and Oliver separated. They had been whispering furiously to each other for the last few minutes, and now Percy was the centre of attention as he approached the table, a determined glint in his eyes. Scrimgeour seemed distinctly unhappy with him. So much for wanting Percy to connect with his family.
"First of all," Percy said, "I'm sorry." There was a snort of laughter from Fred's direction, but he was perfectly composed when Harry turned to him. "No, really –" earnestness bled into his voice "– I– I was a fool. A nit, a pompous prat, a– a–"
"A power-hungry, family-disowning –"
"– idiotic self-obsessed narrow-minded moron."
Percy swallowed.
"Yes I was!"
Silence. Everyone at the table was staring at him, long enough that the tips of his ears began to go red.
"Can't say fairer than that," George said happily, standing to extend his hand.
Mrs Weasley burst into tears. She rushed forwards, nearly knocking him over to pull Percy into a strangled hug. He patted her on the back, meeting Mr Weasley's eyes over the table. "I'm sorry, Dad," he said.
Mr Weasley blinked rapidly, before he hurried to hug him as well. George met Fred's eyes, before both were up and hugging Percy as well. This seemed to be a cue for the rest of the Weasleys, as they jumped up too and joined the large mob filling the small space between the table and the back door. Oliver's eyes were shining happily, at distinct odds to Scrimgeour's frown.
It was a few minutes later when the Weasleys finally separated. Percy's eyes were shining to match Oliver's, and Scrimgeour's frown had progressed to a full-blown scowl.
"Oh, sit down, sit down," said Mrs Weasley, pulling out her wand to magic up a couple more chairs. "We certainly have enough food to spare."
"I really am sorry," Scrimgeour cut in, "But as time is short and I really would like to take that stroll…" He trailed off, raising an eyebrow expectantly. The mood dampened again, as people once more looked from Harry to Scrimgeour, and Harry prepared to move.
"Also," Percy said, causing Scrimgeour's smile to shift to a grimace. "I wanted to– to introduce Oliver to you –"
"Well that's a bit stupid," said Fred.
"Seeing as we know him well enough already," added George.
"Well your father and I don't know him," said Mrs Weasley, turning to Oliver. "It's lovely to meet you, dearie." Oliver smiled at her, looking decidedly more nervous than he did before, before turning back to Percy. Harry met Ron's eyes.
Percy continued like there had been no interruption.
"– to you as my boyfriend."
Silence, once again, reigned in the kitchen. Fred and George, chatting with each other until that moment, snapped round to look at Percy. Ginny turned to Harry, and he saw her mouthing the word 'boyfriend' slowly. A new potato fell off Bill's plate and rolled until it hit Lupin's foot.
Percy's ears had become quite red, as had the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to speak, but Fred beat him to it.
"You," he said, pointing at Oliver, who now held an uncanny resemblance to a frozen deer. "Could have gone for any boy in the country, and you chose Percy?"
"Oi," said Oliver, a bit of colour returning to his cheeks. "That's my boyfriend you're talking about."
Mrs Weasley walked up to them. She frowned critically at Oliver for a moment, before turning to Percy, who stiffened. "I can't say I disapprove," she said, "But really. I'm going to need an entire skein of wool to knit him a sweater, with those shoulders."
Percy slumped against Oliver as she hugged them both, and as Mrs Weasley conjured some more chairs Harry was dimly aware of Scrimgeour stalking out, his face a deep plum colour. Lupin had a small smile on his face as he watched Oliver pull out Mrs Weasley's chair for her, then had Percy do the same for him.
Harry turned as Fred and George began grilling Oliver to see Ron beginning to eat with a small smile. Harry grinned, nodding to Oliver as Percy began to speak with Fleur. He wouldn't have expected it, but looking at them feeding bits of parsnip to each other Harry thought there was no one more suited to them than themselves.
Hello all! This came to me a couple days ago when I began to fall back into the pits of Harry Potter fanfiction hell, specifically the Percy/Oliver chasm. I think there was a specific fic where it showed a tiny bit of a reaction from Harry and I thought 'well how about another reaction?' It's been rattling around in my brain for a bit, but I've finally been able to write it all out. Percy is actually such an underrated character, and he's treated so badly by the rest of the fandom sometimes that I want to wrap him in a blanket and hug him. It helps that I can see quite a lot of myself in Percy sometimes, and I think this fic was partially born of my desire to see him happy. Who knows, maybe in this universe he's able to feed news about the Voldemort administration to his family and the Order. Maybe he's right there with them at Auntie Muriel's, him and Oliver. Maybe this lets the other Weasleys realise he actually does have a sense of humour, and Fred still has his wits in the Last Battle. Also I refuse to believe that they're all happily straight married after everything but that's neither here nor there.
In regards to my writing style anyone who's read some of my other work knows I usually have quite a few more flowy overly-long sentences and italics but I guess having the books next to me for reference wasn't quite the best idea. I've decided to treat it as an experiment, see if I can emulate JKR's writing style. Love to know if I succeeded.
So, thoughts? And can someone please tell me if the way I wrote this makes it feel like being gay makes you an Other because I tried my hardest not to make it that – I meant for the silence of the Weasleys to come across as not bad shock over Oliver, but mostly shock that Percy's boyfriend is Oliver. And now I think I'm rambling so I'll cut myself off. Again, I'd love to hear what you all think, and if I got enough requests I might even be convinced to write some sort of follow-up (though to be fair I might anyway. I also might not though because BIGASS EXAMS in less than three months and holy crap it's less than three months I should be revising not writing Percy/Oliver fanfiction what am I doing).