disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
dedicated to: Empress (Empoleon), who is amazing. I hope you enjoy this - it's the first of your welcome back one-shots. :3
written for: If You Dare, Weasley Family Bootcamp, NextGen Era Bootcamp, Quidditch League Tournament - Round 3 (Appleby Arrows, Seeker), Diagon Alley Fic Crawl Challenge (sunshine), All Sorts of Love Competition (Fluff), Hugs & Happiness Challenge - Empress.
:-:
He meets her immediately before Fred's funeral.
The clouds are dark, yet the sun is out and shining. Percy has never liked this combination, as it means he doesn't know whether to enjoy the sun or hide from the storm. Rain water from last night's shower puddles in mud, combining with dirt, sand, and leaves, creating a sticky substance that he finds it difficult to walk through.
It's his brother's funeral, and the dismal weather matches the dismal occasion. Percy hears his mother crying behind him as he and his family approach the cemetery.
But when she walks out from behind a tombstone, anything that was once dismal turns bright, happy, and beautiful.
:-:
"Excuse me, Miss?" Tentatively, he walks over to her, ignoring his family's stares, although he knows why they are staring. This is not like him, to seek out a girl in public, to seek a girl out at all. Penelope was the only girlfriend he'd ever had, and quite honestly, he hadn't ever wanted another until he set eyes on her.
She looks up. She's even more striking in the light, her gray eyes clear and the sunshine bouncing off of her blond hair wonderfully. "Hello," she says. "Do I know you?"
"No - I'm, er, I'm Percy Weasley. I'm here for my brothers' funeral, but I - I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you are." Her eyes narrow a bit. For a moment, he thinks she's going to lash out, ask him why he's calling her beautiful when she's obviously mourning. Yell at him to go to his own funeral, and leave her be.
But she doesn't lash out - instead, she smiles a bit, her eyes widening again. "I'm Audrey Lewis," she answers. "And I couldn't but notice how handsome you are, Percy Weasley."
He grins. "Handsome enough to take you on a date?" This is not him. Percy is not a ladies' man. He has never asked a girl out, ever - but then, maybe she's not just a girl.
She's Audrey Lewis, and he has a feeling that this a beginning of some sort.
"Certainly," Audrey agrees. "As long as you promise to not get distracted by my beauty."
He nods, smiling, and then he waves a bit before returning to his family. They're all watching him as the ceremony proceeds, he knows, but he doesn't acknowledge their interest. He's just managed to ask out a girl; and at that, a girl as magical as Audrey Lewis.
:-:
It's Friday, June 5th. The day-of-the-date Friday. Percy is a nervous wreck the entire day, spilling drinks and bumping into tables, laughing at wrong moments and mumbling instead of speaking.
The rest of the Weasleys are aware of his situation. Hermione, for one, is being helpful. He'd always liked her, he decides, as she fixes his tie with the speed of an expert.
"My dad used to love ties," she explains, seeing his questioning look at her skill. "When we went out to dinner, or anywhere, really, he would ask me or Mum to tie it for him."
"Ah," Percy says. There's a lot he doesn't know about Hermione, he realizes.
Later, he's pacing the floor of the kitchen, when, suddenly, a doorbell sounds, the ring echoing in his ears loudly. For a moment, he stays frozen, mid-pace, but at his mother's urging, Percy answers the door.
It's Audrey, of course. She looks divine, in a yellow dress that highlights her hair.
"Hello," he greets.
"Same to you," she answers.
Percy draws a deep breath, looking behind him quickly and then facing her once more. "Well," he says loudly, mainly to George, who is the only one in the adjoining room. "We'll be off, then!" He takes her arm, steps out of the house, closes the door, and Disapparates with Audrey in tow.
"Fred died, and Percy has a date," George mumbles seconds later. "What has the world come to?"
:-:
The two of them eat in Muggle London, in a quant, cozy joint, with wooden chairs and cloth napkins; blue striped tablecloths and pitchers of lemonade stationed anywhere and everywhere. Audrey seems to know her way around, though, and so Percy follows her.
She knows many of the servers, which earns them free appetizers and a very peaceful window booth in the left corner of the place. The woman - Sonya, her name tag reads - hands them two plastic menus and then, smilingly, leaves them to decide what they'd like.
"I've never been to place like this," Percy admits soon after, both of them hunched over the menus. "I've never been anywhere Muggle, to be honest."
"Really?" Her eyebrows fly up. "My brother - he's a Squib, so I took him out when we were kids all the time."
"Oh," he answers. "That.. must have been cool."
This time, her eyebrows look slightly menacing as they shoot up. "You think it's cool that my brother received absolutely zero magic?"
"No!" Percy immediately backtracks. This is more like him, to anger a beautiful woman just when he'd had a chance (not that he'd ever had a chance before). "I didn't mean it like that - it's not the Squib thing that's cool, it's going to Muggle London often. I'm sorry. I'm a bit nervous." He tries for an awkward, but endearing smile.
She laughs, amusement clear in her eyes. "I was kidding, Percy."
"Oh." Trying to hide his blush, and trying to forget the way her laugh seems to be imprinted in his mind, he flags down the server.
Audrey has chicken, while he orders soup. They're both finished quickly, and then they sit and talk, while eating a chocolate cake that is surprisingly delicious.
She tells him all about her life; she was born in America, but brought to England at a few months of age by her father, who'd heard about how great Hogwarts was and wanted the best for his daughter. Her mother, she says, was never particularly close to her growing up. After giving birth to her Squib brother, Robert, her mother died. Audrey tells him how she feels bad, now, that she'd never taken the time to get to know her mother better. She wishes she understood why her father was so broken; her father, who died in the Battle of Hogwarts, whose grave is directly across from Fred's.
Percy then, in turn, tells her his life story. How he's always been the odd man out, how he left, how he came back, how Fred died, how he was too late.
At this, Audrey looks up. Putting her dainty hand over his, she says, "You weren't too late. You can never be too late." He hopes that she's right.
:-:
"Did you enjoy school?" he wonders, later that night, as he's walking her home. Not walking her home, exactly - he'd Apparated her to her house, but now they're strolling up to the front door.
"Mostly," Audrey answers. "Some of my housemates were gits, though."
"What House were you in?" It seems strange, that after an hour dinner and seemingly thousands of words conversed, he doesn't even know her House.
"Slytherin." She grins coyly, looking up at him and smirking. "Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Big Bad Gryffindor?"
"No," Percy answers, smiling at her, and he finds that he's telling the truth; after having such an amazing time with her, he really doesn't care in the least that they were rivals at Hogwarts. She's obviously not an evil Slytherin. She's an ambitious, sly, beautiful, smart, wonderful woman and he's a still shocked that she spared him a glance.
:-:
Their next date, on the following Wednesday, he goes to her house. It's a bit odd, to feel so upbeat when the majority of his household is still distraught over Fred's death.
Not that he isn't sad, not that he wasn't destroyed when Fred's body hit the ground, but Percy has learned to move on.
When Audrey opens the door, her petite frame pale against the dark mahogany wood, shining hair spilling forwards, eyes gleaming, Percy kisses her, and she kisses back with a fervor.
This is definitely a beginning.
:-:
a/n: please don't favorite/follow without reviewing, thanks!