Written for ash-luvgirl02's Parent/Child competition. Hope you enjoy. :)
It's 7 o'Clock in the morning and bright beams from the golden sunrise are seeping into the house through the net curtains. They illuminate the dark kitchen, making The Burrow seem like the happy family home it no longer is. Percy has no will to appreciate the awakening of a new day; he has no will to appreciate anything any more. Yet again, he has not slept. He can't stop replaying it over and over in his head. Questions that can never be answered never cease to haunt him. Could I have stopped it? Should it have been me?
The Burrow is a broken home. Only Percy and Ron still live there with their parents. The others had fled for varied reasons. Nobody had recovered from recent events – not really. They all like to pretend that everything is fine and dandy, but of course it's not. They all spend every waking moment thinking about him. They see no point in staying strong when there is nothing to fight for. None of them speak of it, though they all want to. They cannot find the words, there are not enough in the dictionary to describe him or how they feel.
Molly walks in, distracting Percy from his thoughts. She attempts a smile but it is clear from her black ringed eyes that she has slept as infrequently as him. She sits with him; the eerie silence is almost tangible. The sun slowly rises, the room is gradually filled with sunlight but the mood is not lifted. Will it ever be? Percy can't help but wonder.
"Breakfast?" Molly finally asks in a voice which lacks warmth. Percy nods appreciatively even though he is not hungry. He knows his mother isn't either, she just wants to keep herself busy. The smell of baking starts to fill the house but it no longer pleases any of it's inhabitants. A short while later, Molly hands Percy a grease covered bacon sandwich. He eats it quickly before his stomach has time to protest.
"I do wonder, mother," Percy started, speaking for the first time in what seemed like decades, "how do you think Fred would feel about becoming an elephant?"
Crash! Percy jumps up in surprise. Molly has dropped the plate in her hand. Sharp fragments of bone china cover the floor but Molly doesn't move to clear up the mess. She stares at Percy, her mouth hanging open. Tears are starting to form in her deep brown eyes; it's the first time he has been mentioned.
"What do you mean?" She asks, her voice is surprisingly steady.
"You know full well what I mean," Percy snaps, he doesn't mean to hurt his mother. He never deliberately hurts her. He still manages to damage her though, far more often than the others do. "The elephant in the room is getting far too big for us to handle, mother. In fact, it's no longer confined to these four walls is it?"
Molly is distraught. Tears stream freely down her face now, like a fast flowing river. Guilt washes over Percy and he goes over to his mother and envelops her in his heis a terrible person but he is only saying what needs to be said.
"Fred is dead, mum," he says gently, kissing the top her head. "Ignoring that isn't going to do any of us any good."
She nods, sniffing slightly as she rests her head against Percy's chest.
"I miss him," she confesses. It is simple, but it's a start. Percy is proud of his mother. He never thought he'd be proud of a stay-at-home housewife, but this one is the exception. She must be so incredibly strong. To lose a brother is awful, Percy knows this better than anyone, but to lose a son... he can't imagine it.
"I miss him too," Percy says, he can't express his feelings of guilt or anguish at this moment, but maybe soon he will be able to confide in Molly. Despite everything, Percy starts to feel slightly elated. He hasn't made a new friend or rekindled an old relationship; his mother has always been there. Percy has just been too blind to acknowledge her.