Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Challenge list at the bottom.
Warning for Using Alcohol as a bad coping mechanism.
Word Count Without AN - 528
Peace In Oblivion
The light had long since faded, and yet Percy hadn't bothered to change the darkness he sat in. His eyes were blurry from both tears and the effects of the alcohol he'd been drinking since returning to the little flat he called home.
In one hand, he held onto the cheap firewhisky he'd been drinking, and in the other, he gripped a picture frame that displayed a photo taken long ago.
He knew, intellectually, that getting drunk wouldn't help matters any. Unfortunately, grief wasn't intellectual and he didn't really know how else to handle it.
His little brother was dead.
Years of ignoring his family, of sneers and scoffs played on a constant loop in his mind, his conscious adding the word 'monster' to every single one of the times he thought himself better, worth more, than what being a Weasley entailed.
He'd eschewed all contact with them, even when he'd been proved wrong about his beliefs.
He'd missed his little brothers and sister growing into the fine young people he'd witnessed fighting for what they believed in.
He'd missed his father almost dying.
He'd missed his mother gaining more laughter lines and frown lines on her beautiful face.
He'd missed his eldest brother getting married.
He'd missed so much, and now, it was too late for apologies. It was too late to claim that he'd been a fool for pandering to his own pride. It was too late to fall to his knees and beg forgiveness for him being so stupid.
Tears dripped from his eyes unchecked as his gaze moved over the photo once more. It was of happier times, all of his siblings, arms around each other, in the middle of summer. Percy stood off to the side slightly, even then apart from his family.
Even then, showing he was different, better, than the rest of them.
It had taken until now for him to realise that it was the other way around. He wasn't better. They were.
He took another swig from the bottle, not even wincing at the burn any longer.
His mother had asked him to return to the Burrow, but the shame at the way he'd behaved forced him to shake his head, to press a kiss to her cheek, to take one last look at the prone body of his little brother, to run away.
Instead, he sat alone, getting drunk, alone, crying, alone, replaying memories of days long past where he sat at the side instead of getting involved with his family, alone.
The bottle fell to the floor, the picture frame fell to rest on his knees, as his head tipped back into the chair, his conscious mind finally giving up the battle against the alcohol.
Darkness, like the night sky outside, had finally overtaken his mind, and peace.
Until he recovered from the effect of the alcohol, he'd been granted the reward of oblivion.
Tomorrow, he would awaken to a bad head, a rolling stomach, and the reality that his little brother was still dead, that the world was still irreparably changed, and he still had a bridge to build that seemed impossible.
But for now. Peace.
Yule Ball - 15. Percy Weasley
WC - Book club - Orc- Getting Drunk / Stupid / monster
WC - Buttons - Picture Frame / Percy Weasley / claim
Hogwarts resolution 49. Write a fic exploring one character only - no pairings.
Bath Bomb - 28. Night Fever - Set your story during the dead of night.
Stickers - Transportation collection - Ford Anglia - Write about a Weasley
Insane House Challenge - 21. Percy Weasley
Dragon Appreciation Month - WC - 528.