The white wooden door of the apartment room opened, and Percy Weasley was greeted with the same, eerie silence that had been there since Penelope Clearwater's suicide. It had only been three years ago when Percy came home and found Penelope hanging from the ceiling fan, by a short strand of rope, the end of it was secured tightly around her neck, which was red from the tightness of the rope. The red had been so noticeable against her gothic white skin, and Percy could still remember how her lipsticked mouth was open, just like her icy blues eyes, both of which were staring blankly ahead, how her black hair was draped against her shoulders, how her hands hung by her side, rather than anywhere near the rope surrounding her neck, immediately making him realize the lack of a struggle at the last second or regrets of any kind.
It didn't bother him anymore. He'd gotten over her death, though PTSD from the last wizarding war against Voldemort still lingered, and he was forced to move from the Burrow to 1488 Bloodoak Street in Muggle London. Still he, took it better than Penelope ever could.
Percy strolled over to his study. It was a small room, with a few bookshelves and an L-shaped desk, with a silver laptop he turned on. After he was connected to the Internet, he opened up Runescape and started grinding his skills in-game. It was his way of unwinding after work at the Ministry of Magic; the Junior Assistant for the Minister of Magic was no easy job.
A few hours passed, and feeling hungry, he logged out for a second, went to the fridge in the kitchen and returned with a box of cold, leftover meat lover's pizza. Percy ate as quickly as he could, before he logged back in. Then, feeling that his room was too quiet, he went onto YouTube and put on a Stefan Molyneux video, so he'd have something to listen to as he played.
An hour later, a knocking sound was heard, and Percy logged out again.
When he opened it, his jaw dropped as his blue eyes laid on Ginny Weasley for the first time in years. It took him a while to collect himself as examined her, his eyes panning from her red hair in a half updo to the shoes on her feet.
"Ginny…you've changed."
She was almost unrecognizable from the freckled, tomboy-ish Ginny he'd known at Hogwarts; she was wearing a short, halter black dress, with a V-neck so low; it nearly revealed her belly button. Her double D cleavage was in clear view, and Percy was sure that she'd had plastic surgery; she wasn't this busty the last time they saw each other. Her breasts weren't the only thing she'd gotten done, as Percy was sure she'd gotten her legs extended via magic, and around those legs she wore black leather thigh high lace up boots, with the same criss cross pattern as her dress' neckline.
"I did," Ginny agreed.
Upon hearing her siren-like voice, Percy looked up and found himself staring into her eyes, which were the same shade of blue as his, except hers were framed with winged eyeliner and fake lashes, making it stand out against her flawless, freckle-free, pale gothic skin. Upon closer inspection of her face, Percy realised Ginny's blood red lips were fuller and her cheekbones were more prominent, and he knew at once she'd gotten lip and cheek fillers.
Ginny smirked when she saw her brother stunned, as he admired her body the way all men did. "Well…aren't you going to let me in?...Or are you going to turn your back on your own family again?"
Percy ran his fingers through his auburn hair, as he always did when he was nervous, and boy was he nervous. Nervous and self-conscious. Even in the suit he wore to work, he didn't think he was good enough to appear next to Ginny. "Uh…yeah…c'mon in."
And Ginny followed him to the living room, her stilettos clacking against the polished wooden floor.
"Can I get you anything?" Percy said, as he gestured to a black leather armchair. "Something to drink?"
Ginny did not sit. Instead she stood beside her brother, eyeing him the way a succubus might look at her prey. Then, without any warning, she ripped the criss cross lace of her dress, exposing her large, perky breasts.
"Ginny, what the fuck are you doing?!" Percy cried.
Ginny did not reply, she kept tearing away at the dress, until it fell to the floor, and she was left standing in her brother's living room, showing off her glorious body and wearing nothing but her boots.
Percy blushed at the sight of his impossibly gorgeous sister coming onto him. He knew many wizards could only dream of a situation like this, himself included, yet here she was, ready for the taking. And once he got over the shock, he thought of the things he'd wanted to do to her, it was enough for him to mentally shiver.
Ginny reached into the black clutch bag she was carrying, and took out a bottle, which she opened and retrieved a single black pill. She placed it into her mouth, but she did not swallow or chew it up.
She motioned for Percy to come forward, and he did. The moment he got close enough, she wrapped her arms around him, and started to make out with him.
They explored each other's mouths with their tongue, and it was then that Ginny cracked open the black pill with her teeth. They kept making out and swapping spit and the black pill's contents, until Percy broke away when he tasted something funny on his tongue. He closed his mouth slowly, and thought about walking over to the bathroom to spit it out, but that'd take him away from the almost perfect moment he'd fantasized about, so he swallowed.
A second later, he felt woozy. Percy's right hand flew up to his head, and he held his face. He wanted to faint, and he sat down. The feeling did not go away; in fact, it was becoming more intense; he felt even dizzier than he was a few seconds ago. His breathing became heavy, and as a result, he was a bit panicked, causing his heartrate to go up.
What's happening to me?
His mind flashed back to something he'd read, perhaps years ago, which made him realise what all these symptoms meant.
"Ginny, did you drug me?"
And then everything went black.
When Percy finally opened his eyes, everything was still black. For one terrifying moment, he thought he was blind, but he found out it wasn't the case when he felt something, likely a black pillowcase over his head. His hands were behind his back, and he could feel something rough as sandpaper around his wrists.
Rope, he assumed.
He could hear familiar voices all around.
"Good work, Ginny."
Percy gasped mentally upon hearing the voice of Arthur Weasley.
"Thank you, Arthur," a voice he knew to be Ginny's responded. Percy found it a bit out that she addressed him by his first name, but he let that slide.
"Does anyone have the time?" This time it was Ron who spoke.
"Fifteen minutes to midnight," Arthur answered.
Someone gulped.
"We have everything, right?" the voice of Molly Weasley spoke.
"Yes, mum! I just checked!" This one sounded annoyed, and Percy recognised it as belonging to George Weasley. "Candles, the circle, incense, the portable burner, Percy, Fred…we have everything!"
Percy's eyes widened when he heard that last item. Fred? But Fred is dead!
"Just making sure," Molly's voice said gently. "Everything must be perfect, we've forever preparing for this day, we can't afford a single mistake."
"How much longer till midnight?" Ron's voice asked.
"Soon," Molly promised. "You've waited years, I'm sure you can wait a few more minutes."
"Ten more minutes," Arthur reminded them.
"Ten more minutes for what?" Percy yelled suddenly. "What are you doing with Fred? And what's it got to do with me?"
"SILENCE, TRAITOR!" Molly screamed.
Her voice got louder and louder and Percy could only assume she was getting closer. And then, without any warning, he was kicked in the stomach.
"IT SHOULD'VE BEEN YOU!" Molly yelled hysterically. She was so loud that Percy was sure she was right in front of him, meaning, she must've been the one who kicked him. "YOU SHOULD'VE DIED INSTEAD! YOU SHOULD'VE DIED INSTEAD OF FRED! FRED WAS A GOOD MAN! HE SHOULD'VE LIVED! BUT YOU! YOU'RE EVEN LOWER THAN GARBAGE! YOU CHOSE THE MINISTRY OVER YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD! YOU FOUGHT FOR THEM! YOU—
"Molly calm down!" Arthur interrupted.
Molly kept yelling, but her voice was dying down, and Percy could hear footsteps approaching and getting away, and he knew that Arthur had dragged her away.
"We'll have Fred back again, mum" George said. "It'll be just like old times, minus the traitor here. Just five more minutes."
Just then, Percy felt a punch to his jaw, and another, and another, until a second set of footsteps got louder, then quieter as the punches stopped.
"Stop that, Ron" George said.
"Why? We need him alive, not alive and well."
"We need his blood," George said. "The more the better, don't make him lose too much blood."
"WHAT?" Percy cried.
"SHUT UP, YOU MINISTRY LOVING, CORNELIUS FUDGE FELLATIATING TRAITOR! YOU BETRAYED YOUR OWN BLOOD, YOUR OWN FAMILY! WE DID SO MUCH FOR YOU, YOUR FATHER AND I HAD NOTHING, YET WE DID WHATEVER WE COULD TO SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR STUPID DREAMS! WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN? NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! YOU TURNED ON US, THE MOMENT YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE! YOU'VE GOT NO SENSE OF LOYALTY; EVERYONE ELSE WOULD'VE FOUGHT WITH YOU TO THE DEATH! YOU DITCHED US FOR VOLDEMORT'S PUPPET GOVERNMENT! YOU REALLY ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH! YOU EVEN SPIED ON US FOR THEM! EVEN TRIED TO GET RON TO JOIN YOU! YOU'RE THE WORST OF THE WORST! I WISH I'D STRANGLED YOU AT BIRTH! I—
"Molly calm down!" Arthur urged.
"FRED WOULD BE ALIVE IF IT WASN'T FOR HIM!"
"Molly!"
"DON'T YOU REMEMBER THE BATTLE AT HOGWARTS? THAT CURSE SHOULD'VE HIT HIM INSTEAD! IT'S MORE MERCY THAN WHAT HE DESERVES! HE SHOULD BE DEAD! NOT FRED! NOT FRED! NOT FRED!"
"Molly calm yourself!"
Molly's screeching devolved into crying, and Percy could not make out what she was saying, aside from the recurring words "traitor," "piece of shit," "should've died instead," and the occasional cussing.
Arthur finally managed to get her to shut up, when he said it was time.
Once again, Percy could hear footsteps getting louder and louder, as whoever got closer. Then they came to a halt, and the black pillowcase was lifted from his head.
Percy's jaw dropped when he saw the scene before him.
He was in what he recognised to be the basement of the Burrow, it was a large, windowless room, lit by torches and black candles, and he was in front of a large circle drawn with black chalk. Inside the circle was a smaller black circle, and inside that was an upside-down pentagram, and inside that was a black chalk drawing of a satanic baphomet goat. At the very center of the satanic pentagram was an open black coffin that had a tall, yellow-ish skeleton in it.
Around the outermost circle stood what remained of the Weasleys—Ginny, Molly, George, Arthur, Ron. All of them were wearing black robes, and all of them changed as much as Ginny had. Arthur looked like he'd aged fifty years, he was shorter than Percy remembered, with more wrinkles which reminded Percy of a raisin, he wore an obvious red toupee and a scowl that he never had before Fred's death. Molly wasn't much better, she'd lost weight since the last time Percy saw her, but she'd grown wrinkly too, her red hair was clearly dyed, for Percy could see grey roots. George, Ron, and of course Ginny aged far better than their parents. While Ginny had become a thot, George and Ron looked like they could be marble statues, with their fine sculpted features and gothic white skin. George had grown his hair long enough to reach his shoulders, and he'd tucked a few strands of it behind his good ear, but the earless side of his face was covered by his red hair, and Ron had gotten a fashy haircut.
"What the fuck? You're doing a satanic ritual?"
"We're setting right what went wrong," Molly said harshly. "Fred should've never died; in a perfect world, he'd be alive and breathing and you'd be the one rotting in a coffin, but we don't live in that world, and now we're stuck with you, while Fred is dead. Till now…finally…finally we'll have our Fred back."
A few tears came out of Molly's blue eyes, and she wiped them away.
Arthur coughed. "Hem hem...finally our broken family will be fixed; we'll be one big family again, and all will be right with the world again."
"What?" Percy demanded. "But…but you can't! That violates every magical law known to man! Please da—Arthur, there must be some other way!"
"SHUT YOUR FILTHY FUCKING MOUTH!" Ron screamed. "You have no idea how this family has suffered, do you? If it weren't for you, our family would be whole, we'd be normal! Harry wouldn't have left Ginny for Malfoy, mum wouldn't be so depressed and dad would still have a job and Ginny wouldn't have to be pimped out, and George's joke shop would still be a thriving business! This is all your fault!"
"Wait!" Percy said, almost as shocked now as he was when he saw the satanic décor. "What the fuck happened?"
"I was so saddened by Fred's death," Ginny explained. "I was so depressed and Harry didn't like being around me, and at the same time he was coming to term with the fact he's gay. He made out with Draco once, and he realised Draco was the one, not me, and the next day, he left and took everything. I had to move back here and that was when I found out mum was even more depressed, she spent her days sleeping, crying or drinking. Dad got fired from the Ministry when he couldn't do his job 'cause he was so depressed, and they couldn't pay the mortgage on the Burrow, and Gringotts was going to repossess our house, and they had to pimp me out for money."
"What?" Percy said. "But…but how? George, I thought your joke shop was doing just fine!"
George and Ron gave Percy a murderous glare.
"Doing fine?!" George growled. "Doing fine?!"
George was so angry, his emotions overpowered him, and he became too enraged to speak. He shook with anger, clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, but he stopped himself from marching across the circle and beating the living daylights out of Percy.
Ron chuckled humourlessly. "You know nothing, Percy. All your books and degrees and your fancy job at the Ministry, and you still know nothing…probably too busy sucking Shacklebolt's cock to notice all those countless regulations that's killing small businesses."
"I had nothing to do with that!" Percy protested. "I hate regulations too! I love a small government!"
"Which is why you stood by and did nothing when the Ministry passed all those regulations," George said. "Shacklebolt was supposed to reduce the size of the government, don't you remember his speech? He said the only reason the Ministry got so corrupt in the last wizarding war was 'cause the government had gotten too big and powerful and the only way to stop that from happening again was a small government. But the Ministry had gotten too big and corrupt, the establishment wanted it to continue, and the Wizengamot and even Shacklebolt's own party turned on him, and they wouldn't work with him on anything; the Wizengamot wouldn't pass his bills, and judges kept overturning his executive orders, and Shacklebolt found out too late that the Minister doesn't run this country, the shadow government does."
"I…I didn't know that!" Percy said. "I'm just his junior assistant!"
"Your death would be a favour to Shacklebolt," George said angrily. "You'd just be one of the many he should've fired."
"Not to mention it'd bring our misery to an end," Ron said. "While you enjoyed a cushy Ministry job, the rest of us endured horrors you couldn't even imagine. We had no joy, only misery, and the closest thing to the highlight of our lives was when Hermione was climbing her way to the top at the Ministry and she was rubbing elbows with the higher ups. She often went to their parties. I was never invited. She'd tell me about the mansions they were held at and the masks they'd wear, she'd name all the politicians and bankers and celebrities and socialites, even the Muggle ones. She also told me about their satanic rituals, and how the Muggle elites would sell their souls to Lucifer for magic and power, and she also mentioned how they'd sacrifice and cannibalize kids they kidnapped for youth and power, and she told me about the masked orgies. Even knowing what the elite got up to, she was still willing to climb the Ministry ladder to become Minister, and I divorced her, I couldn't be with someone who'd make a deal with the devil, and she would've taken everything I had, if I had anything worth taking. When the others found out, we started getting hopeful, so we started researching this kind of dark, ancient satanic magic, for a ritual to bring back the dead. Long story short, we found one…too bad for you, it needs a sacrifice."
"Don't worry, Percy, it'll go to a good cause," Ginny said. "Trading Fred for you will be the best family decision we make, we'll have our dear brother back. It'll just be like the old times."
"You're crazy!" Percy cried. "If you think an undead Fred would be just like the real thing! You think this'll solve all your problems? You think Molly and Arthur would be satisfied with that…abomination? You think Harry and Hermi—
"Don't you fucking dare talk about Fred that way!" Ron shouted.
"And for the record, we don't think sacrificing you for Fred will work," George said, and took out a black dagger. "We know it will."
Ok, I think I'll end it there. I wanted to include the satanic ritual too, but it was getting too long. I think the rest of the chapters will be shorter.
I've always wanted to write something like this, ever since I read the Deathly Hallows, I hated the fact Fred died, I was always thinking "why couldn't Percy die instead? why did Fred have to die? I liked Fred, Percy should've died instead, nobody likes him." Had I discovered fanfiction then, I would've written a "Fred lives, Percy dies" fic sooner.
So I made a lot of changes to canon, I'll go over them in order. Percy's living in the Muggle world 'cause he wants a fresh start, y'know, away from all the mistakes he made. I think he'd do well in the Muggle world, 'cause his dad was into Muggle stuff, and he must've taught Percy a thing or two, so it's not implausible at all that he knows how to use a computer, and he taught himself how the Internet worked. He lives in a nice apartment, in a nice neighbourhood, he'd be considered well off in the Muggle world 'cause he'd have to trade gold galleons for paper money, and he makes more than enough with that.
There's also a lot of Author Appeal, aka, writing what you like (as opposed to writing what you know), hence the references to Runescape, Stefan Molyneux, and it's why Penelope, Ginny, and the other Weasleys have gothic pale skin, and dress gothically. What can I say? I like the alternative, gothic, Hot Topic look, especially when it's combined with pale skin, blue eyes and black/red hair (blonde works too I guess). And it's why Ron has a fashy haircut, and it's why Ginny's subject to description porn (I have a weakness for redheads), and it's why Harry leaves her for Draco (I am a Drarry shipper for life), and it's why the Weasleys are preaching about small government.
I also established that Muggles can get magic by selling their soul to Satan, 'cause JKR never explained how people got magic in the first place, it was genetic and passed down, but that doesn't answer the question of who had it first. So I came up with the explanation that you can become a wizard through a satanic ritual (not the same one you use to bring back the dead), and the magic you get will be passed down, but the souls of you and your children and your children's children will be damned to hell for all eternity (if Harry chose to board the train in limbo in Deathly Hallows, he would've found himself straight in Hell).