~A/N~HI! Please tell me what you think of my story!
My favorite Weasley brother is Percy and I have been playing with his Canon pairing in my head for a while. I just want to see what people think of my writing/this pairing. You don't get to meet Audrey in this chapter, but that will change very soon, if people will tell me what they think!
Percy Weasley had been taking care of his brothers and sister since the twins had been old enough to sneak into the cookie jar but too young to realize that leaving said jar open and cookie crumbs on the counter would alert their Mum of their misconduct. Percy would make sure the lid was tight on the jar and wipe all the crumbs into the trash bin long before Molly would know what the twins had done.
Percy read fairy tales to the twins at night once they were out of their cribs until they were four. He'd do funny voices for all the characters to distract Fred when George wanted to spend time on each and every picture. When the twins made fun of Ron for having to go to Dad to get his shoes tied, Percy spent days tying and untying his own shoes, repeating the mantra, "Bunny ears, one around the other, bunny through the hole, and pull it tight," until Ron's chubby little fingers made two sloppy knots in Percy's laces. And eight year old Percy refused to untie his shoes the rest of that summer.
When Ginny was born, Percy taught Charlie how to angle the bottle so she wouldn't suck any air into her tummy. Percy let Ron crawl up in his lap and help him cradle Ginny until Ron knew exactly what color Ginny's eyes were and just how soft her hair was.
When Bill sent an owl home complaining about a 'T' he'd received in Transfiguration, Percy spent days poring over their Mum's old textbooks before he wrote to Bill and offered his meticulous notes. Percy played pattycake for hours with Ginny to distract her when they sent Charlie off to Hogwarts.
When Ginny, at four and a half, wanted her hair braided every day and Molly was too busy to do it, Percy asked to go to the library. By chance, a teenage girl was at the counter when the bespectacled nine years old boy with wild coppery red curls came up and stumbled through a request for a manual on- on the art of hair plaiting? The girl smiled bemusedly and asked if he wanted to know how to braid hair. He blushed up to his ears and nodded. He visited every week day and she taught him- first with ribbons she supplied- how to braid until he could braid her hair better than she could. Percy brushed and braided Ginny's hair every morning until she asked him to teach her when she was six.
Percy spent nearly ten days finagling Bill into trusting him enough to teach Ginny. Even then, Bill had to watch Percy's gentle process with Ginny's hair with wary eyes before he let his brother touch his hair.
But when George was overcome with grief after the Battle of Hogwarts and locked himself in the testing room behind the counter of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, Percy simply brought Molly to wait him out. Percy slipped away before George saw him. Percy could never handle emotions well. His or anyone else's. He was better with tangible problems.
George got himself pissed down in the Leakey Cauldron and when Percy tried to help him home, George publicly disowned him as a brother for letting Fred get killed. The words slapped Percy in the face and he couldn't face George for weeks after that.
So when Bill, followed closely by Charlie, Ron, and Ginny, burst into the Muggle bar he'd been tending- badly- for the past few weeks, claiming insanity, insomnia, or fratricide, he assumed that George had refused to come see his ex-brother. "Perce, George is an absolute berk!" Ginny's shout drew the early afternoon customers' attention.
"Ginny." Bill's bass tone covered Ginny's almost shriek easily. "That's not going to help our cause."
Percy looked up with mild suspicion at Bill's words. "Your cause? We're not in school. I can't give you my notes anymore. I'm useless." His words were listless. Percy was perfectly aware of his lack of ability to do anything right. He couldn't do anything. Not after Fred. He didn't even bother trying to correct the mispronunciation of his name.
Bill frowned at Percy's blank expression. "No, we want you to…" He paused for a moment, trying to choose his words carefully.
"George is driving us all bloody bonkers, Perce. He's just a sniveling lout all the time now. Only has a spark when he's drunk or working a prank. He needs- Bloody hell, what was that word you always used? Oh! He needs his equilibri-thingie that you used to babble about before you defected to the Ministry. All you do is equilibilily because you don't know how else to act, so you have to live with him."
Percy stared at Ron's face without seeing it, only minimally aware as Ginny slapped Ron on the back of the head and shouted, "Bill was talking, you ass!" and Bill turning his upper body slowly, facing Ron with a curious incredulity and saying, "I've spent the better of four days trying to figure out how to breach the subject-"("I'll do it.") "-and you go in and ruin it."
Ginny jabbed her elbow into Ron's side. "We said Bill would do the talking!"
Ron glared at his only sister. "You barged in and insulted George without a bloody thought!"
Bill's brow furrowed. "Can't you two get along long enough for us to have a decent conversation with Perce about living with-" ("I'll do it.") "-George? He's not going to listen at all, now!" The Muggles stared at the rather noisy group with frustrated curiosity.
Charlie forcibly shoved Bill into Ginny. "Look at his face, idiots." Bill looked at Percy, abruptly losing his anger, but Ginny merely steadied herself, rolled her eyes, and continued berating Ron.
"Gin, shut it. Ron's done it." Charlie's declaration made Ron guffaw.
"Don't kid yourself, Charlie. I haven't bloody done-" ("I'll do it.") "-anything." Ron blinked and turned jerkily to Percy. "Did you just say you'll do it?"
"For the third time, too. Aren't you three such good listeners?" Charlie smirked good-naturedly at Bill, Ron, and Ginny.
Bill grinned widely. "Let's go, then!"
And that had started off an unbelievably awkward living arrangement that had unceremoniously began by George storming down into his joke shop shouting, "I'm not living with that prat, all of you can shove it up the arse!"
Percy merely continued tidying George's spare room and ignored his insidious insults and scathing glares. Bill was laying across the bed. "So, Perce, don't be afraid to send a Stunner George's way if he gets violent. Fire-call one of us and we'll be there."
Percy turned blank eyes to his oldest brother. "He has every right to hurt me."
After that, one of the brothers was always hanging around their flat until George was almost angrier at them than at Percy's presence.
George cursed loudly. "Dammit, Percy, where'd you put my Christmas sweater?!" George scowled. "Idiot bugger," he muttered under his breath.
"C'mon, George. He's not evil or anything," Ron mumbled through his stuffed cheeks.
"Don't speak with your mouth full, Ron." Percy's admonishment was delivered with no strength as he brushed by Ron to open George's magic-run refrigerator. He magicked the trash bin to his side and started dumped moldy take-away and rotting perishables into it.
Ron shoved another Chocolate Frog into his mouth.
"My sweater, Percy!" George bellowed.
Percy jerked his head up, unaccustomed to George using his name. He pointed to the stack of folded laundry he'd cleaned earlier that day that rested on the coffee table Percy had unearthed from the trash heap that had been George's living room. "Right there. I hope you don't mind that I cleaned them. I left Fred's on the top shelf in the hall closet. I was going to put them in your closet, but I don't think you actually want me in your room."
Bill Flooed in just as Charlie popped through the door from the joke shop.
George tensed. "You washed Fred's sweaters?!" His voice was nearly a shriek.
Bill and Charlie made worried eye contact and Ron ducked his head, hurriedly wolfing down another Chocolate Frog to avoid speaking.
Percy blinked in confusion and pushed his glasses up his nose with a thumb. "Of course not. Then they wouldn't smell like Fred." Percy nodded once at George and went back to clearing out the fridge.
George stared blankly at his estranged brother. Ron, sitting at the end of the bar, turned to look warily at George and tried to swallow the chocolate in his mouth. Charlie edged closer to Ron, prepared to pull him out of the way of any spells. Ron still wasn't the best at shield charms. Bill tugged his wand out, hoping Percy wasn't thinking the same way he was when he moved in three weeks ago.
George suddenly flew at Percy. "Perce." He wrapped Percy in a bear hug, his forehead resting on Percy's shoulder.
Percy jumped at the contact and froze, his arms held out to his sides as George tightened his grip. Percy swallowed slowly and brought his hand up to pat George's back woodenly.
Charlie laughed. "Perce, you idiot, you're supposed to hug him back."
Percy's ears reddened and he brought his arms up to George's shoulders. "Um."
George snorted and let Percy go. "You berk. It's just a hug."
Percy flushed. "I haven't received one since Dad hugged me at-" He cut himself off abruptly and dropped his gaze to the floor.
"At where, Perce?" Ron had managed to swallow his chocolate.
Percy spun around and continued cleaning out the fridge.
"Perce?" Ron prodded him again. Percy ignored him. "C'mon, Percy, what were you gonna bloody say?"
"Shut your ya-"
"Charlie, I just wanna know! Tell us, Perce!" Ron ignored Charlie.
"In the Room of Requirement. Right before we all rushed out into the heat of battle." Percy cast a Scourify on the inside of George's fridge. "Right before I let Fred die." He cast another. And another. And another. Tears dripped down his face and he absolutely refused to let his brothers see him cry. Even Bill had had trouble talking to him for a week after Fred's funeral because Percy hadn't cried.
The numb feeling that had encased him from the moment he'd seen Fred's body fall crumbled. He wiped angrily at the tears and tried to cast another charm. When he couldn't get his magic to work for him, he turned haphazardly to the cabinet under the sink and dragged out the bleach he'd brought in from one of his infrequent trips into the Muggle world. He pushed his way past George and yanked open their broom closet, grabbing the mop bucket and pouring bleach in, then adding water from their tap.
He shoved the bleach back into place and took a sponge. Percy jerked the middle and top shelves out of the fridge and let them clatter on the floor beside him. He dropped to his knees and dunked the sponge into the doctored water. He viciously scrubbed at the remaining shelf.
"Perce-" Bill came to stand beside George, trapping Percy in the kitchen. Charlie took a seat beside Ron on the long side of the bar.
"It's Percy. P-E-R-C-Y. Y." He emphasized the last letter, choking on sobs between letters. He scrubbed harder, trying to ignore the tears dripping onto his work.
"Okay. Okay. Percy." Bill shared a worried glance between the rest of his brothers. "It's perfectly alright to cry."
Percy threw down the sponge. He dropped his elbows on the shelf he was cleaning and buried his closed eyes into the heels of his hands. "No. No, it's not perfectly alright to cry! I didn't cry at his funeral! I shouldn't be crying now." He sniffled, wiping impatiently at his nose with a wrist without opening his eyes. "He fell. I watched him go down. I was so numb. Once I'd found out that the Death Eater that had cast the spell that toppled the wall had been killed, it was all I could do to keep going, to keep everyone else in my family safe. Merlin, Ginny doesn't realize how close Greyback was. I kept her safe like I should've kept Fred safe." Bill tensed. He hadn't known Greyback had even been in Hogwarts for the battle. "I threw myself at Rudolphus Lestrange. He was aiming for Dad." That sent every one of his brothers back. Fred died. That was their only casualty. It hadn't occurred to any of them that every one of them had been in danger. Percy took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He stood and turned, looked at each of his brother's faces. "I'm sorry." He offered. "I should have held it together."
Bill's eyes widened in shock. "Percy… You know we'll listen if you need to talk, don't you?"
Percy rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. He didn't like thinking about all that was wrong with him, let alone talking about it. "I shouldn't need to talk." He said harshly, trying to convince himself. "I'm logical, cynical." He said with a condensed bitterness that he usually managed to hide.
None of them had an answer that would have convinced Percy to open up.
