Disclaimer: World and characters belong to Jo Rowling. Thanks Jo, for letting me dabble in your world.
Appreciation
It was nice to be appreciated, Percy Weasley thought for the twelfth time that evening as he cleaned his house with a few waves of his wand. His lovely wife, Audrey, leaned against the door frame of the kitchen as she watched her husband actually enjoy cleaning. It was one of the weirdest sites the woman had seen in her twenty six years, and ever since she married this man, the sites had just kept getting weirder.
"Um, honey, are you sure you should be enjoying cleaning this much?" she asked mildly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Percy's glasses slipped down the slope of his nose, and he made a face. As he rearranged them, he grinned at his wife, and replied cheerily, "Yes! I love helping you out, especially with the baby on the way! Trust me dear, this is relaxing after all that legislative business at the Ministry of Magic."
Audrey grimaced at the word "magic". She had known about this whole, new world for about a year now, but the idea still made her relatively uneasy. It was just so peculiar to think that your life was a total lie. Plus, she hated change; it just made life so messy.
It also meant that her husband knew more than her and that bothered her to no end. She liked being the one to tell him everything about the "muggle" (oh how she hated that word!) world, him being the ignorant one.
Now she had to be the student, and not the teacher, and she absolutely despised the feeling of inadequacy. She loved Percy but, she hated feeling so stupid.
Percy continued, totally unaware of his wife's pain, "Now honey, what do you want to name her? Personally, I would love to name her Molly, after my mother, because she, well," he coughed uncomfortably, "she's my mum, and I love her,"
Audrey smirked, "Mama's boy."
Percy turned and faced her, his voice squeaking, "Am not!"
Audrey laughed, "Oh Perce, I was just kidding. I thought you would be used to that with all of the siblings you have."
Percy grimaced, probably remembering an embarrassing childhood, Audrey mused. Audrey couldn't relate to his situation, she was an only child. An absolutely miserable, only child, which was probably one of the reasons she married Percy, because she knew she would have a huge family then.
"Audrey, what do you want to name her?" Percy asked his arms folded across his chest, attempting to be sensitive about her opinion. Audrey held in a snicker, it was rare to see Percy Weasley caring about someone else's opinion.
"I think Molly is lovely. I actually hope she is a lot like your mother. She's one of my favorite relatives," she said cheekily.
Percy coughed, "The only reason you like her is because of that final battle story Ginny told you last week at Harry's twenty third birthday party."
Audrey smiled, "Well any woman, who knocks one of those eater-thingys in one blow, while calling them a bitch is cool in my book. Plus, she saved your sister's life, and avenged a lot of people's deaths, according to Harry, anyway."
Percy's eyes clouded, like they always did when Audrey asked about the war, "Can we stop talking about this?" He seemed to be pleading.
Audrey would never refuse him about that. He always looked like he would break down if she asked about it too much, "Sure, honey, do you want some tea?" She busied herself over the teapot, acting very much like Mrs. Molly Weasley, she thought to herself.
Percy drew himself up, proudly, "Am I British?"
Audrey laughed, and poured him a cup. As they sat down at the kitchen table, Percy drew out his wand again ("show off" some part of her mind grumbled), and cooled his tea.
Audrey inhaled sharply, and Percy looked up from his tea, "Percy, sometimes I feel that you show off a bit with the magic. And I love the magic, I really do. All my life I have wished it was real" Oh dear God, she was rambling, "but I hate when you show off, because I can never ever perform magic, and I wish I could. You don't know how hard it is to watch someone do something you can never ever do. It's horrible. I feel like such an outcast in your family, in your world! It is so hard for me. And my children will be able to do things I will never be able to do too! It is a terrifying concept, you know?"
Percy's face was unreadable, and Audrey didn't want to try to meet his gaze any longer, so she glanced down at her hot tea, wishing she had a magic wand to cool it. Instead she blew on it, like an ordinary muggle, and felt rather foolish in front of her magic performing husband.
She felt a cool hand lift her chin up, and she faced sapphire eyes framed by horned rimmed glasses. She could see him struggling with his words.
"Audrey, one of the reasons I love you is for your well, muggleness. You provide an escape for me. I needed that more than anything. I needed a break from judgmental people who only wanted to be with me because of who my brother-in-law is."
Audrey glanced at him quizzically, and he sighed pushing his glasses up his nose, "Harry, Audrey, Harry, I really need to get you more books for you to read."
Audrey made a face that resembled a pig, "Percy, I don't think I will ever be used to not knowing as much as you about the magical world, but no more books! Please, god, I am not like Hermione! That woman can read," Audrey sighed, and ran her fingers through her auburn hair. She grimaced slightly before speaking again, "I guess I needed you. You challenged me, and you made me think, but most of all, you made me laugh."
She had to hold in a laugh because the look on his face was priceless. The poor man didn't know he was funny.
This was confirmed when he said, "Me, funny. Audrey that position in my family was taken by Fred and George a long time ago," his eyes looked sad for a moment before he went into his proud position again, "and even though it is just George now that spot will never belong to me. Ever."
Audrey held an amused expression on her face, "Well, Percy, you are funny because you don't mean to be funny. To be honest, you are horrible at making jokes, but your entire pompous act that you do when you are practicing in front of the mirror before you go to work makes me laugh." Percy looked scandalized, and Audrey laughed, "Plus, Percy, at the time I met you, half the stuff you spewed out of your mouth sounded like nonsense. I didn't know about magic, and you didn't know anything about muggle stuff, so you sounded quite ridiculous, but I suppose I am attracted to ridiculous."
Percy looked like he wasn't sure if he should be offended or not, so Audrey grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his seat, and gave him a warm hug.
"Another thing that made me fall in love with you is that I have to go on my tip-toes to kiss you," she murmured before giving him one long kiss.
Percy realized at that moment that another reason he fell in love with her is that she was a much better kisser than Penelope Clearwater ever was. The muggles must have something in their water he decided, before leading his wife upstairs to the bedchamber. It was time, ahem, to discuss broomstick regulations.
The End
(A/N) I know this wasn't the best. It certainly is not the best thing I have ever written, but I am not used to writing in this type of to let you know, Audrey is a year younger than Percy in my story, and kind of doesn't know how she feels about magic. She is like Percy, very much a stickler for the rules and such, but she is an infamous teaser, which was probably part of the attraction as Percy needs someone to knock him off his high horse.
Of course, this is just MY version.
Oh and in case anyone is wondering why I would write this, I've always been curious on what kind of girl would marry Percy Weasley, and have children with him.
