Title: The Ugly Duckling (May change)

Summary: Percy Weasley begins his first year at Hogwarts School. He finds his eyes are focusing on more than just books when his total opposite Oliver Wood introduces him to his mother's friend's blonde-curly haired daughter.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the Harry Potter series, publishers, or author. This story is strictly for entertainment purposes only and is not intended for profit.

"Bill, your badge is covered in fingerprints," Mrs. Weasley said, taking out a handkerchief and polishing the badge that read Head Boy, pinned to his chest.

"Well, if Percy would stop touching it…" Bill replied, giving a menacing glare at his little brother.

"It's just so wonderful! I really hope I become Head Boy when I'm in my 7th year," Percy said, in awe of his older brother.

"Don't worry, Percy, dear. I'm sure you'll at least make Prefect when you're older," Mrs. Weasley said, giving a final swipe at Bill's Badge. "Head Boy is a wonderful goal to work towards."

"Listen to me, Percy," Charlie, another older brother, said, looking down at the young boy, "Prefects are no fun at all. All they do is preach the rules and give out detentions."

"Not only that, but it's a great honor," Mrs. Weasley said. "Oh, here comes a crowd, boys. You should go through now. The twins and I will foll- now where did they go?"

"We're already through, slowpokes!" One of them said as he stuck a red head out of the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10.

"Honestly! You two!" Mrs. Weasley said rushing to them, hoping no Muggles saw. She pushed through the wall just as a large mass of suited men, all with the same black leather briefcase, rushed by.

"Now's our chance," Charlie said, nudging Percy. Percy and Charlie pushed their luggage trolley through the mass and soon were through the barrier and at Platform 9 and 3/4. Bill soon appeared, just as the Hogwarts Express Train arrived at the station. There weren't many other wizards and witches at the platform.

"There aren't many wizards of witches here," one of the twins said.

"What's so interesting about Hogwarts if NOBODY IS HERE?" the other twin said.

"We're just a little early," Mrs. Weasley said, taking a seat on a wooden bench.

"The early bird gets the worm, that's what I say," Percy said, taking a seat by his mother.

"Or, the first year is so excited about school that he wakes up at 6:00 in the morning to catch the 11:00 train," Charlie said. The twins laughed hysterically, finding this comment extremely funny.

"Oh be quiet you," Percy said. "You two pinheads were just as excited when Mum told you that you had two years until you'd start." They stopped laughing and stuck their tongues out at him. Their brother was about to do the same, but realized that now that he was starting his career as a wizard student, he'd need to show more maturity and responsibility. He opened his trunk and took out his textbook on Transfiguration.

"Reading already, Percy?" Bill said. "School hasn't even started yet!"

"This is a time to get to know some of your classmates," Charlie said. "Make some new friends."

"Well, I'd find that an easier task to do on the train seeing as there is no one here," Percy said, not looking up from his book. He was right. The only other souls on the platform were mechanics, oiling the trains wheels, a few other early birds, the conductor, and a house-elf holding scrolls of parchment for a Professor.

"Mum, I want a Chocolate Frog!" one of the twins whined when he saw the witch with the food trolley roll by, having recently stocked her cart.

"I want one too!" his brother said. "Please, please, please, please, please, please! I only need one more Godric Gryffindor and I'll have 100!"

"100? Why on earth do you need 100 of those cards?!" Mrs. Weasley asked, shocked that her son had acquired that many Wizard cards. Before he could answer her with a complex excuse, another young boy and his mother had just appeared through the barrier.

"Come on, Oliver. No need to dawdle," his mother said, pulling him along.

"I'm too…tie-tie-tired," Oliver said, suppressing a yawn. "We must be the only ones here! I told you it's too early."

"No, look. There's a nice red-haired family. Maybe one of the boys is in your year. It'd be fun to make friends now."

"I guess so," Oliver said. He made his way over to the Weasley family, who was now back to talking about Chocolate Frogs. Percy peered over his book and saw Oliver coming. He had his hands in his pockets as he walked nonchalantly over to them. He was wearing a blue cap with Puddlemere United Quidditch Team embroidered across the front. Percy assumed he was the sporty-jock type of boy who'd end up stealing his quills or make fun of his glasses, definitely someone he didn't want to associate himself with. He went back to hide behind his book. "Hello. My name is Oliver."

"Hello Oliver," Mrs. Weasley said. "Are you starting at Hogwarts this year?"

"Mum, that's a dumb question to ask. Why else would he be here?" Charlie said. "Hey, Oliver. I'm Charlie Weasley of Gryffindor."

"Aren't you your house's seeker?" Oliver asked. Charlie nodded. "It's been my life's dream, well so far, to be on my house's Quidditch team!"

Lofty goal, Percy thought.

"If you're up to practicing and training, rain or shine, and you're old enough and pretty darned good, then I'm sure you'll make it."

"I hope so! Quidditch is my life!" Percy rolled his eyes behind his book and tried to resume his reading.

"Well, Oliver, you should meet my other sons," Mrs. Weasley said getting up. "That tall one over there is Bill. He's Head Boy, you know."

"Mother," Bill said, shaking Oliver's hand. "Nice to meet you, Oliver."

"And these are my two twins boys, Fred and George."

Fred greeted, "How do-"

"You do?" George finished, the two identical little boys bowing and fighting to shake hands first. They thought of themselves as being extremely funny and started laughing again.

"And this is Percy. He's a first year as well. Percy, get your nose out of that book and meet your classmate," Mrs. Weasley said, pushing the book down from his face.

"Hello," Oliver said, holding his hand out to shake.

"Morning," Percy replied, shaking Oliver's hand. They looked at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Percy began to turn red, a trait that ran in the family. After all, it was clear that he would rather read his book and Oliver would rather talk to Charlie about Quidditch. Percy decided the respectful thing to do was try and make conversation. He pushed his glasses up and broke the silence. "Uh…so do you know what house you're going to be in?"

"I really don't know yet," Oliver said.

"Yeah, neither do I."

"Of course you'll be in Gryffindor, dear," Mrs. Weasley said. "Your father and I, and your brothers have been in Gryffindor."

"I was kind of hoping to be in Ravenclaw," Percy said.

"That's only for smart alec prats- Ow!" George cried as Percy kicked his shin. "That's what Charlie said!" Charlie became redder that Percy.

"I didn't mean…Oh look! Here comes Steven! I've got to, ahem, talk to him about, uh, Quidditch try-outs. Nice talking to you all!" Charlie said, waving good bye and catching up with his friend. Oliver watched him go. So did Percy. He was hoping that Charlie and Oliver would start talking and he, Percy, would be able to ignore them again.

Percy tried talking again. "So…do you know what house you're going-"

"You already asked that," Oliver interrupted.

"Oh, right."

"So what's your Quidditch team?"

"Um…I haven't really got a liking for Quidditch…"

"Oh…well, then you can support Puddlemere with me. I can tell you all about them or…something."

"That would be…nice," Percy said. He mentally kicked himself for using such a stupid word.

"Oliver! Come here! I want you to meet my friend's daughter," Mrs. Wood called. She waved at the Weasley's. "Sorry to take him away!"

"That's quite all right!" Percy replied before his mother said anything. He personally, was glad to go back to reading.

"Well, bye," Oliver said leaving.

"Now wasn't that nice of him," Mrs. Weasley said once he left. "See, Percy. You're making friends already."

"Yeah, whatever," Percy said, sitting back down and opening his book again. He looked back at Oliver, for no reason at all and saw that he was talking much more animatedly with his mother's friend's daughter, who had long blonde curls.

Making friends, yeah right. Nobody wants to be friends with boring, bookish Percy, he thought, resuming his reading about transfiguring a pin needle into a match. Then for an unknown reason to Percy, he decided to look up at the girl again. He found himself doing this more often as the hours went by.

Finally, the conductor called out to the much more packed platform. "All aboard! Let's go! Hogwarts Express leaves in 30 minutes." Everyone got up and began to scramble for trunks and things.

"Now study hard, do as your told, obey all your teachers," Mrs. Weasley said, fixing Percy's collar. She licked her thumb and started fiddling with Percy's hair.

"Mum, please. I'm 11 years old, you know," Percy said, he glanced around to see if anyone was watching. She straightened his glasses and brushed off his shoulders of dust.

"You got your trunk, books, parchment, quills, wand, socks-"

"Mum, I'll be fine! I double checked last night and this morning," Percy said picking up his trunk from the trolley. He found it was heavier than he thought. He started dragging it and followed Bill onto the train.

"Wait!" Mrs. Weasley called. She gave Percy a motherly hug and a kiss on the cheek. She seemed to be crying. "Don't cry, Percy. Christmas will be here before you know it."

"Mum, you're the one crying," Percy said. He hugged her too and continued toward the train, dragging his trunk.

"Bye Percy!" Fred called, pretending to be crying like Mrs. Weasley. "Promise to write!"

"We'll miss you Percy!" George said. "We won't know how we'll ever sleep without your snoring!" A group of boys started laughing hysterically. Percy turned red and tried to ignore them.

"I'll miss you dear!" Mrs. Weasley cried as she cried. "Don't forget to write!" Percy dared to wave back and one of the boys muttered, "Mama's boy." Percy ignored this comment and ascended up the stairs of the train car. He pulled with all his might, but his trunk decided it wasn't going to go up the stairs. He decided to climb over and push from the bottom, but suddenly, the trunk was up the steps in no time.

"Thought you needed a hand," Oliver said jovially as he climbed on board after Percy's trunk.

"Er, thanks," Percy muttered. "I could've done it myself though."

"Poor Mama's boy needs someone to push the heavy trunk," the same boy from the crowd outside said. "Looks like he's too weak to attend Hogwarts!" The boy's friends started howling with laughter. Percy turned redder than ever and really tried to ignore them. He kept walking, dragging his trunk.

"Just ignore them. They're probably going to end up in Slytherin," Oliver said from behind him.

"I can handle those jeering remarks. You don't have to worry about me." He found an empty compartment and sat down. Again he found trouble setting his trunk up on the rack, until it was suddenly sitting up there in no time. To Percy's surprise, Oliver had joined him. "Er, thanks…again."

"No problem," Oliver said, hoisting his trunk up next to Percy's. They sat down.

"Um, what are you doing here anyway?"

"What do you mean? We're friends now, aren't we?" Percy was surprised that someone who was such an opposite of him decided that they were friends. "It's not like I know anyone else anyway."

"Er…yeah…" Percy took out a novel and started reading silently to himself. He looked up for one second, out at the hall and saw the blonde curly haired girl coming by. He couldn't help but watch her again. Oliver noticed and called her.

"Hey Penelope! Come sit with us!"

So…the title too corny? Stupid idea? Not believable? What do you think? I'll tell you what you're thinking. You're thinking that you see the Submit Review-Go button and contemplating if you should push it. I say just do it. Come one, it won't bite!