Nope, I don't own them. Sorry.

AN: This story does not take place in the same universe as "Reassembly". It takes place in a universe where there is a Hermione/Ron pairing with an eventual Hermione/Percy pairing. It's just going to take time to get to that. This is the intro to that universe, and will probably be a two parter. Oh, and I'm still working on "Reassembly", it's just that this wouldn't leave me alone until I had at least started on it.

Arthur Weasley stood outside his son's office. Though his department and Percy's rarely interacted, he made this walk at least once a week. Despite the fact that he and Percy had not spoken in almost four years, he still had to see for himself that his son was all right. He knew, via the ministry grapevine, that his son did the same thing, deliberately walking through his department on a fairly regular basis.

He turned to go, to keep walking down to the cafeteria, when a sound stopped him. It was a baby crying. He went back over to his son's office door.

"...get this done, Amy, you and I can take off early, hmm?"

Arthur was surprised. His son had a baby? He straightened a bit, gathered up his courage, and got ready to knock.

"Are you Daddy's girl, Amy? I think you are." The baby gurgled at the sound of her father's voice.

Arthur knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Arthur walked into the office. His normally extremely tidy son's office was a disaster area. That, however, was nothing compared to the shock he experienced when he saw his son.

Exhausted would have been a generous understatement. He had obviously lost weight, since his clothes were extremely baggy. His face was pale, and his eyes were very shadowed behind his glasses. He was holding a baby, obviously a girl, and talking to her.

He looked up, and his eyes widened in shock. "Dad?"

"Percy." He gave a slight smile. "I'm assuming this lovely young lady is your daughter?"

"Yes. Amy Elizabeth Weasley."

"A lovely name." He looked critically at his son. "How are you?"

Percy sat down and indicated to his father to do the same. "Tired. Since Penny left, it's just been Amy and me."

"Penny left you?" Percy had married Penelope Clearwater shortly after he had started working for the ministry.

"Yeah. She didn't want kids. Amy was obviously unexpected. Penny was furious when she found out. Since we don't really have abortive procedures in our world, she wanted to go out into the muggle world and 'get rid of her problem', as she put it. She felt that having kids would destroy her career. Anyway, I kept sabotaging that effort, since I wanted the child, even if she didn't, until it was too late for her to do that, which made her even angrier. She refused to recognize the pregnancy, didn't even show up to the baby shower, and when she went into labor, kept screaming about how Amy and I had ruined her life." He ran a weary hand across his face.

"Can I hold her?" Arthur asked. He couldn't imagine anyone hating a baby so much that they wanted to kill it before it was born.

"Sure." He passed Amy to his father. She opened one sleepy blue eye, then closed it again. he settled back in his chair and continued his tale.

"The worst came after Amy was born. I was the one that got up to feed and change her. Penny wouldn't even look at her. I would go to work, come home on my lunch break, and Penny would be gone, with Amy in the same diaper I'd put her in that morning and no bottle. This went on until Penny and I had a huge row about it, and she packed her things and left. I was served with divorce papers two days later. I've since filed a countersuit demanding full custody of Amy, with a demand for child support. Nothing outrageous, just a small reminder of the child she rejected every paycheck."

Arthur nodded absently. "How long has it been since she left?"

"Two months. Amy has been with me constantly since then."

"Come home, Percy." Arthur's voice took on an intensity that it rarely did. "Come home. You're ready to drop if you don't get some rest soon. Your mother and I can take care of Amy for a day or two while you get some rest."

"Really? After all the things I said..." He broke off and looked down at his hands, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Really. If we didn't forgive you, didn't rally around you when you really need it, we wouldn't be family." He met his son's eyes. "If you want, you can move back in with us. It's been really quiet there since everybody's moved out."

Percy looked stunned. Just this morning, he'd been worrying about the rent on the flat he and Penny had shared. It took the majority of his income to pay it, plus buying the ingredients for Amy's formula, diapers, clothes, and a little bit of food for himself. "You don't have to do that, Dad. You and Mum deserve time to yourselves..."

"Yes, we do, but time to yourself gets dull after a while, and your mother's running out of things to clean. Another grandchild to spoil might do the trick. Are you going to come home?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm coming home."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

"I'll owl your mother and let her know. We can tell her the rest later. For now, let's put this little lady in her basket and eat some lunch."