Author Notes: This is my first FF about the bond of Ginny and Percy. I have always thought that Percy had to get along at least with someone in the family and that person was his sister Ginny. The other principal pairing in the story is Harry/Ginny, but there is even Bill/Fleur and little of Percy/Audrey. If you enjoyed the story there's a sequel to it.
The definitive forgiveness
A month had passed since Voldemort had been defeated by Harry. A month since Fred had disappeared. The pain of his brother's death was a painful memory which refused to go away. It was a wound which would need much longer to heal. And yet, at that time, another matter was preying on Percy's mind. A month also had passed since he had been reunited with his family, and although they all seemed ready to forgive him, Percy knew that one of them had not. He realised there was someone who had not yet been able to get over the fact that he had abandoned them.
He'd had confirmation of this at lunch today when he had announced to all the family he was going back to his London flat for the night and the days to come.
"Are you leaving us again?" Ginny snapped. Everyone was stunned by the question.
"No, I'm simply going back to sleep in my flat and..."
"So that means you are going! You've only been here for a month and you're sick of us already!" Ginny continued in an angry voice, not even letting her brother finish his sentence.
"Ginny, I don't think that's the reason why he..." Molly said tentatively. But Ginny did not seem willing to listen to any excuses; she left the table, ran upstairs and disappeared.
"Maybe I should go and talk to her," Harry suggested, after a moment's silence.
"You? Why should you go?" Bill asked curiously. All the Weasleys at the table turned to Harry, curious to hear how he would respond. The only one not to look in his direction was Fleur, who instead was glaring at her husband for asking the question. Harry seemed to stiffen; probably realising he'd made a mistake. At his side, Ron was grinning, as if he knew that his friend had just landed himself in a heap of trouble.
"Yes Harry, why?" Charlie repeated.
"It seems that you've been spending a bit too much time lately with our sister," Bill continued.
"You men are so naive than women. C'est so evident!" Fleur exclaimed. If Hermione had been there, she was sure that for once, she would have agreed with her. And she would help Harry, but that day Hermione was with her parents just recovered from Australia.
"You're in trouble, my friend," Ron said. Harry started to answer, but Percy had no time right now to listen to his explanation.
"I'd better go and talk to Ginny," Percy said, leaving the kitchen and going upstairs to his sister's bedroom. When he reached the door, Percy plucked up courage and knocked.
"Ginny," No answer. "Ginny, it's me, Percy! Can I come in?" he asked again, but when there was no reply, he opened the door. The room was empty. Closing the door behind him, the young man climbed to the floor above. There was only one other place where Ginny could be.
- Many years before. -
Percy was sitting on his bed reading a book, when someone entered his room, slamming the door. He looked up from his heavy volume and saw his sister Ginny. Her hair was all messy and she was panting, as if she had just run up the stairs. When she saw him, she gave a start.
"Sorry, I thought this was my bedroom," she said apologetically.
"It doesn't matter."
"Really?" she asked in surprise. Only yesterday, Bill had complained because she had come into his room without knocking. - Well, he was writing a love letter to the girl of the moment. - "I don't want to bother you."
"No, don't worry. You're not disturbing me," Percy said. At that, Ginny seemed to relax, but she didn't move from beside the door.
"Why were you running?" Percy asked.
"Because of Fred and George; they are always playing tricks on me, and Charlie is always laughing at it; I can't stand them!" his sister complained. Percy nodded sympathetically; he had often been the target of the twins' jokes, not to mention the mocking laughter of his brother Charlie.
"What have they done this time?" His sister looked at him hesitantly, as if she could not believe that they were having a real conversation, just the two of them. Of all her brothers, Percy was the one Ginny had talked to the least, up till now.
"They told me they were giving me a new stuffed toy, but when I opened the box, there was a dead garden gnome." She shuddered at the memory.
"Typical of our brothers," Percy said.
"What were you reading?" his sister asked, walking to the bed and sitting down.
"Hogwarts: A History," he replied, showing her the book.
"Wow! Where did you find that?" Ginny asked excitedly.
"It was on the old bookcase downstairs in the living room. I think it belongs to Dad."
"Is it any good?" she asked.
"Well, yes, there are lots of interesting notions."
"Notions? What does that mean?" she asked.
"Information about Hogwarts," Percy explained.
"Really? Please tell me, I want to know everything about Hogwarts," the little redhead exclaimed. This time, it was Percy who was surprised.
"Do you really want me to tell you something?" he asked hesitantly. It was evident from his expression that nobody before had ever asked him to tell them anything. Usually, when he started talking, the other would leave the room in the middle of what he was saying, looking very bored.
"Yes, please! Tell me!" Ginny cried.
"OK. Well, Hogwarts, as you probably already know, is this huge castle, invisible to Muggles because of a spell; and inside this big castle" Percy began talking and Ginny listened excitedly, fixing her attention on her brother, and only interrupting him occasionally to ask a question. The two of them failed to notice how time had passed, until they heard Molly's voice downstairs, calling them for dinner.
"We're coming!" Percy shouted. "Why don't you go and wash your hands?" he said to Ginny. "I'll join you in a moment." Ginny nodded and headed towards the door, but before leaving the room, she turned once more to look at her brother.
"You know, it's not true that you're an evil ogre. You're a good ogre," she said.
"And who told you I'm an evil ogre?" Percy asked, not understanding what she was referring to.
"Fred, George, and even Charlie. They said that you're an evil ogre and that I shouldn't talk to you too much because you might give me the evil eye." Ginny hesitated for a moment before continuing. "You haven't given me the evil eye, have you?" Damned brothers, so this was why his sister wasn't speaking to him. And now he thought about it; even Ron was barely talking to him. Perhaps they'd also told him this story.
"Do you think I'd be capable of that?"
"I don't know! What's an evil eye?" she asked. Percy couldn't help laughing at the question.
"I'll explain on the way down. Let's go."
"Listen, Ginny, did they also tell Ron this story about the evil eye?" asked Percy, as they went downstairs.
"Oh no! Ron thinks you're boring."
That was the first time Ginny took refuge in her brother's room to escape the clutches of Fred and George, but it was not the last.
"When I was a child, I always came here. After my bedroom, this was my second favourite retreat. Do you remember?" Ginny said when she saw Percy enter the room.
"Yes, I remember. You used to sit on my bed and tell me what the others had done to you, and then you'd ask me to tell you a story or read something."
"Yes, I'd never have admitted it to others, but I liked you, Percy. I liked the fact that you just listened to me without ever making sarcastic comments or jokes. I was fond of you."
"Me too. For the first time, I felt I'd found a person in the family who understood me, although we were very different. Because even though you ran away, you were still much more like everyone else. In fact, once you got to Hogwarts you became much closer to them than me."
"I know," she added simply, "But I still felt awful when you went away."
"I'm sorry."
"I couldn't understand how I could have been so fond of a person who treated his family in such a way, abandoning us like that. And so I started to hate you the most. Do you remember the Christmas when you showed up with the Minister of Magic?" Percy nodded. Unfortunately, he remembers it all too well. "That probably was the time I hated you more."
"I'm very sorry, Ginny. You can give me a slap if it makes you feel better," Percy said. Ginny smiled at his response.
"I was thinking more of a Bat-Bogey Hex spell, but I don't think that would make me feel any better. And also I think I'd already forgiven you when I saw you emerge from that hole in Ariana's portrait, it's just that I didn't realise it at the time." Percy smiled, hugging his sister.
"So you're not still angry with me because I said I want to go back to my flat?" Percy asked, breaking away and looking her in the face.
"No, I'm not, but I'm glad we had this conversation before you left. Just promise you'll come and visit us often."
"I promise."
"Bring Audrey too, if you want. You know I like that girl, she's great."
"Do you really like her?"
"Yes, and I know I only saw her twice, but she's friendly and cute much better than that pesky of Penny. And for some reason I can't fathom, she seems to like you a lot," she added seriously, before bursting out laughing. The door of the room opened.
"Harry!" Percy said, catching sight of him, "I was just about to come down." And he headed off, leaving the other two alone.
"Hey, Ginny. Is everything all right?" Harry asked, as he sat down on the bed next to her and took her hand.
"Yes, everything's fine. We've finally cleared things up."
"Good. Because we have another problem to deal with," Harry said in a worried voice.
"What problem?"
"Your brothers have found out about us." Ginny kissed him gently on the lips, before speaking again.
"Don't worry, Harry. We decided to wait a bit before talking about it, just to be on the safe side, but I don't think they'll say anything," she tried to reassure him.
"It is not what they might say that worries me, Ginny."
"Oh come on Harry! You managed to kill Voldemort."
"True, but right now I do not think that can help me." Suddenly, they both heard screams from the floor below and raced downstairs in alarm. When they got there, they were surprised to see Molly hugging Fleur and Arthur clutching Bill's hand.
"My first grandchild!" Molly cried joyfully. Still hugging Molly, Fleur looked up at her husband and exchanged a loving glance.
"What's happened?" Ginny asked.
"Fleur's pregnant," Percy said, going over to congratulate his sister-in-law. Ginny smiled, she felt happy for them. Maybe Fleur would never be her favourite sister-in-law, but she made Bill happy, and that was more than enough.
"Congratulations, Fleur. I'm sure you are going to be a great mother. I just hope it's a girl; I'd hate the idea of having yet another male around." Fleur looked surprised and moved by Ginny's words, and immediately ran over to hug her.
"Congratulations, brother, I see you didn't waste time," Charlie said, patting him vigorously on the back. A smiling George also congratulated them both. For the first time since Fred's death, he seemed to have a sparkle in his eyes.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Charlie."
"Congratulations, Bill!" Harry said while Ron gave his sister-in-law an awkward hug.
"Thanks, but don't think you've escaped that easily," Bill said, turning serious.
"True. You owe us some explanations," George said, joining in.
"If you still want to be the boy who LIVED," added Charlie. The three brothers then spent the next half hour grilling poor Harry, ignoring the insistent protests of Ginny and the intervention by Molly. Ron, who found himself in the middle, didn't know whether to play along with his brothers or help his best friend and so partly defended Harry and partly argued with him. Only Percy seemed to feel any sympathy.
"Thank you," Ginny said, going over to sit next to him.
"For what?" Percy asked, with an innocent look.
"For not playing along with this madness."
"No, believe it or not, I like Harry, he's a great guy. And I have already made the mistake of not staying on his side once; I do not want to repeat it. Furthermore, for some reason I can't fathom, he seems to like you a lot."