The Ever Studious Percy Weasley

AN: I Do Not Own Harry Potter. At all.

I decided to write this story while reading DH. Percy's story just seemed to leap out at me and I knew that I had to write this. I've never really like Percy as a character but writing this oneshot really changed my perspective on him.

He hadn't always been so serious. No, being the third of six boys put him in the position of being able to romp and play without the worry of being prosecuted for setting the drapes on fire. His mother always had her work cut out for her.

When the twins had arrived he had only been two but even then when he looked in to his baby brothers faces he could tell that the trouble that Bill, Charlie, and him had gotten into would look like nothing compared to these two. From day one the twins had turn the Weasley household into one of chaotic mischief. When the twins had turned two, the mischief became even worse. It was at that time that Bill and Charlie, being the oldest and ever so mature brothers, decided that the Weasley prank war should begin. Percy was always switching sides between the two teams. Never really fitting into either group. Bill and Charlie new more spells and never really needed Percy to help them but Percy needed and wanted to fit in with his older brothers. So when he could, when they allowed him, he would join their side in the prank war. However, he was mostly thrust into the twins' team for the sake of helping them like a big brother should. The twins certainly didn't need his help; trouble and mischief seemed to ooze out of them just like it would in the years to follow.

When the twins were three, Ronald came. When Percy peered into his crib and looked upon his youngest brother, he knew that he had found his teammate in the prank war. When Ron was two, it was finally time for Percy to be in charge of his own team and get revenge for never really fitting into the other two teams. At first, Ron and him were unstoppable. Know one got ever catch them in the act, one minute Ron and him would be playing peacefully in the yard and the next they had cast a spell that made all of Bill's precious hair fall off and had cracked Fred's new toy broom.

Then when Ron was two and a quarter, Ginny came. All of the Weasley boys had crowded around her crib and Percy had taken one look at his beautiful baby sister and knew he would have to grow up. He knew Bill and Charlie would be gone for school, that Fred and George would never grow up, that Ron would never be able to censor himself, and that he would need to be the grown up studious sane one for his new little sister. That day was the day that Percy Weasley's involvement in the Weasley war ended. It was the day he became studious.

He helped his mom with the baby ever chance he got. He copied everything that she did so that he could learn to be as serious as any adult. At first she had been wary of his help wondering why on earth he had stopped being a child, but she soon accepted that he had changed, changed for the better. Her eyes always seemed to thank him for helping and for being her rock when she wanted to kill his brothers. When Ginny was two, it became clear to Percy that she had taken his place in the Weasley Prank war and that all his studiousness had been a waste. But when he looked at his mother he knew that it hadn't, that she need him to be grown up, that if he wasn't she would simply go insane. He was her rock.

This continued on for years and soon Percy forgot why he had become the way that he was. He became Perfect and Head boy and appeared to everyone to be the studious pompous Weasley. But he secretly laughed at all of Fred and George's antics, including changing his Head boy badge to read big head boy. When he left Hogwarts, he got a job at the ministry to make his Mother proud. To be the sane one with a normal job, unlike his brothers. Bill was off treasure hunting in Egypt and Charlie was fighting dragons in Romania. He knew Fred and George would never get a decent job and that his only hope of a sane sibling (Ron) would most likely follow in the footsteps of his best friend, Harry Potter, who attracted almost as much trouble as Fred and George. Ginny, he knew, was also a hopeless cause.

He found a job at the ministry that was somewhat interesting and he threw himself in to his job. He could careless that his boss could never remember his name. He knew it was his duty to do a good job. He couldn't be more thrilled when the Minister of Magic made him a junior assistant. Sure he did not care much for Umbridge but after that horrendous mistake that he had made the year before, he was glad that he wasn't placed in a dead end job at the ministry. So glad, in fact, that he had a row with his family and knew that in order to continue on his new path of studiousness he would have to cut himself off from his flaky family. When the rumors started flying about the trouble his siblings were getting into he sent his brother Ron a letter urging him to take a path similar to his even if in his heart he knew it was moot.

So Percy continued on his studious self-destructive path and when Scrimgeour replaced Fudge he barely noticed. But when Scrimgeour "resigned", Percy noticed the huge change in the ministry, a change fore the worst. He became scared but kept his cool. He contacted Aberforth, simply on the whim that he might be able to help Percy to reconcile with his family. It was the first time he had done something spontaneous in 16 years.

When Aberforth contacted him about Potter's return. Percy knew that this was a way that he could prove that he truly belonged to the flaky Weasley family, despite all his pompousness. He rushed to the Hogshead and then through the passageway into Hogwarts hoping that he wasn't too late to reconcile with his whole family. Fortunately for him he wasn't. After apologizing and admitting to being a git, Percy knew that this would be a memory that would power a very powerful Patronous.

He looked around at his siblings and instead of seeing their foolishness, for the first time his saw their loyalty, bravery, and courage. He knew in that instant that his mother needed him stop be just like them and not serious. Finally, Percy was what he was meant to be a Weasley.

Fighting alongside Fred was nothing that Percy could have ever imagined. His little brother was able to laugh despite all that was going on a round him. In that moment Percy thought that Fred was invincible and decided that he too could joke. He couldn't help but laugh at the incredulous expression on Fred's face when he let out his first joke in ages. And then his world came crashing down.

He pulled himself out of ruble, frantically looking for his little brothers. There was Ron a little ways away pulling himself out. Relief rushed through him but then worry replaced when he could not find Fred. And their was Fred lying motionless not three feet away from him. In that moment, Percy heard the last sentence that Fred would ever say, a sentence that he would never finish, " I don't think I've heard you joke since you were…" Percy knew the end to Fred's last sentence, he hadn't joked since he was five. As he held his brilliant little brothers dead body, Percy knew that the light would never again reach Fred's eyes but he couldn't believe it. He couldn't fathom a world without his baby brother. A world without any of his siblings was a world that he did not want to be a part of. But Percy knew that he had just been thrust into that world and that Fred would be the first of many causalities. But this time he knew that for Fred's sake he would be a little less serious and a little more mischievous, for the sake of his little brother.