(Edited due to mistakes with age). I wanted to write some Percy, and this happened! I will write some McFly soon :)
"Freak."
Percy couldn't distinguish which of the tall, skinny fifth year students the insult had come from, however he could recognize them all. Two Slytherins and two Ravenclaws, all of whom disliked his cool, rather unorthodox older brother Charlie. In the five months that he had attended Hogwarts, he had seen the four, along with Charlie, stood outside of various offices waiting to be told off for fighting or duelling on no less than six occasions. Once or twice, his seventh year brother Bill had also been there, having gone in to defend Charlie and ended up breaking a nose or twisting a wrist due to his burlier stature than most of the lads and his skill at muggle fighting.
"Freaaak."
The call came again, and this time Percy knew which one it was: the smallest, thinnest amongst them, a tiny Slytherin boy called Alexander who never got involved physically but was good at sending out a curse or two.
Percy had had enough.
Spinning around, he whipped his wand from his pocket, glad that he had read a wide variety of spell books and practised a few different spells, some of a rather unsavoury nature. He had also witnessed Bill and Charlie practising stupid spells on each other during the previous summer holidays, only for their mother to snatch their wands from them, shriek at them for a good twenty minutes and send them to their room.
"Confundo!" Percy shouted, the rage of five months of bullying from pupils of all ages bubbling up and over. At once, Alexander's eyes grew dreamy and absent and he sat down suddenly on the floor, staring off into the distance. In a trice, the three un-confunded raised their wands and shot spells at Percy, who had already ducked and shot out Expelliarmus. To his great pleasure, three wands came flying at him, and all three wizards looked regretfully impressed alongside their anger.
"Weasley."
Percy took a deep breath: hearing that voice, that sour, cold voice say his surname was far worse than anyone calling him a freak. Wheeling around, he saw Professor Snape, his lip curled.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor and a detention with me on Friday evening."
Percy's heart sank, especially when the older pupils collected their wands and thanked Professor Snape for 'dealing with the little delinquent'. How unfair! How ridiculously, stupidly unfair!
Percy smugly observed that his potion was the only one in the room that was the thick, gloopy texture that it should be, and the darkest brown in colour too. Certainly, Skin Regrowth Potion wasn't exactly the most difficult of potions, but there was a certain amount of satisfaction to be found in doing something better than everyone else. While the other thirteen and fourteen year olds sweated nervously over their cauldrons, Percy easily stirred it, smiling as it finally reached the consistency of dried glue. Now all there was to do was-
"Mr Weasley, are you capable of reading?"
Percy breathed in deeply: this was not a good sign. Although his potion looked exactly as Professor Snape had described, surely he must have done something wrong to be addressed in such a way.
"Yes, sir."
"Then you will see that the instructions say to simmer for eight minutes until the potion reaches clots. If you were to bottle your potion now, you would get a 0."
Percy hissed a little through his front teeth before carefully replying, "Sir, I was only getting the vial ready, I wasn't actually going to bottle the potion."
This was a downright lie, and he was fairly sure that Professor Snape would know this, but he wasn't in the mood for Snape's viciousness.
"I think you're lying to me, Weasley. Just like your younger brothers, they are too incapable of following simple instructions."
"What about Bill and Charlie?" Percy heard himself ask, a shiver of horror running through himself as his mouth seemed to take control and spew out words. "They're both very good at potions, sir."
"Ten points from Gryffindor for sheer cheek, Weasley."
Penelope Clearwater, a pretty Ravenclaw student who was working beside Percy due to their individual lack of friends, immediately flared up.
"That's not fair, sir! You weren't being very pleasant, so Percy only tried to defend himself! You know that he's the best one at Potions in here!"
"Twenty points from Ravenclaw and a detention for both of you." Professor Snape lightly said, before swooping off like the overgrown bat he was to the front of the room. Percy sighed heavily: in his two and a half years at Hogwarts, he had only been given two detentions, both from Professor Snape and both through Percy snapping. Swallowing, he turned to Penelope and smiled.
"Thank you."
She smiled back, before shrugging. "It's okay. I'm sorry that I got you a detention too, though."
"Perce, you got a detention?" Charlie laughed as soon as Percy sat down at dinner. "Snape didn't stop glaring at me all lesson this afternoon, and when I dared flask my potion up he told me that at least one of the Weasley's were competent! Then Helen Clearwater told me that you and her sister had gotten detention from him for being cheeky!"
Percy flushed an ugly shade of red at his brother's words. "He was being bitter about Fred and George and he insulted me in the process. I just defended our family, and Penelope got dragged in, and he gave us detentions and took points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
Charlie clapped Percy's shoulder. "You did the right thing, Perce. Ignore the prat – he's so blinded by his love of Slytherin and You-Know-Who that he has no time for anyone else, even if they are good at Potions. Anyway, I've had detentions with him before and they're not so bad, you'll probably just have to clean out some cauldrons or pickle something nasty. Not like old Filch's detentions."
Percy gave a small smile. "I wouldn't know. I've only ever had two detentions including this one."
"Don't stress, Percy. Fred and George have already had about twenty detentions, and Bill and I have had our fair share – you're still the family good boy."
Charlie and Percy were, at the time, remarkably close. Charlie bridged the gap between Bill and Percy's ages, and the three were a tightknit unit, with Fred, George and their other siblings Ron an Ginny usually sticking together as a group of four quite separate to themselves. Percy appreciated the comfort from his brother.
"It just always seems that whenever I let my guard down for a second and do something foolish, Professor Snape is there."
Charlie laughed. "Professor Snape is like that muggle thing that dad was obsessed with last year – CTVC?"
"CCTV." Percy corrected, with a genuine smile. "Yes, he is."
At that moment, two very cheerful looking twins flopped down beside the two.
"We've ended up with detention with Snape! Gotta admit, I saw it coming. He doesn't appreciate our brand of humour." Fred told Percy and Charlie with a wide grin.
"It was worth it, though – we put fireworks in the fire under Snape's cauldron, and the potion in it exploded everywhere. Half of our class had to go to the hospital wing for the boils they grew!" George added, smirking.
Charlie laughed, and either due to the moment of family togetherness or the fact that he wouldn't be alone with Snape that night, Percy did too. Within moments, the four were laughing hard, falling against each other and clutching their stomachs. Despite his unhappiness at having a detention that night, Percy felt blissful.
Gently, Penelope slid a hand down fifteen year old Percy's stomach and onto his waist, holding him softly. The two were penned into a corner of a classroom – due to the heavy snow, no one was allowed outside during their break or lunch, and as such they were all confined to classrooms or their common rooms. As prefects, the two were meant to be keeping control of the pupils that had been assigned to Snape's Potions classroom for break that day, but somehow Percy had allowed Penelope to distract him.
"For a Gryffindor, you're not bad looking." Penelope smirked, before leaning closer to Percy and pressing her rosebud lips against him, her arm sliding even further around him. When they broke apart, Percy laughed.
"For a Ravenclaw, you're not a bad kisser."
Penelope leaned back in and soon the two were kissing again, their bodies getting closer and closer. Despite how much Percy liked Penelope, he always found himself a little bit anxious when they kissed: what if he did it wrong?
"Miss Clearwater, Mr Weasley."
Percy's mouth closer and slowly moved away from Penelope's at the sound of the voice which he was so familiar with, and his eyes opened. The whole classroom had gone silent, and stood above them was, sure enough, Professor Snape. Percy tried hard not to look too horrified.
"I believe you were meant to be keeping control of these pupils."
"Yes, sir – we just took a brief break." Penelope smiled perfectly innocently at Professor Snape, who's nostrils then quivered quite impressively. Percy expected to be assigned a detention immediately, however Professor Snape softly said,
"Ten points from Gryffindor and ten points from Ravenclaw – now do your job properly."
Percy didn't care to think why he had dodged detention. It seemed too bizarre to think of Professor Snape having an ounce of compassion.
Probably the snow making him lightheaded.
Probably.