Written for the Champagne and Countdowns event presented by the Beyond the Book Fanfiction Nook...

Prompt: Character has been hiding their feelings - A bottle of champagne and a countdown later and they have no choice but to tell the truth… (Must have spiked bottle of champagne - Maybe the person they have feelings for wants to know?)

THE RIGHT WEASLEY

New Year's Eve

Hermione knew without a doubt that she had picked the wrong Weasley when she and Ron attended the New Year's Eve party at the Ministry. Throughout the night, Ron had partaken of way too much champagne, flirted with too many women, and shared his midnight kiss with someone else while Hermione had waited patiently for him in the spot that they had designated earlier – just in case they got separated throughout the night. Hurt and humiliated, she had run out of the party, not watching where she was going, and had almost knocked Percy to the ground when she accidently ran into him. He was kind, in his usual no-nonsense way, and simply offered her a handkerchief to dry her eyes. She smiled faintly at the old-fashioned gesture and appreciated the fact that he did not try to get her to talk.

Percy did not need to ask. He had seen the drunken spectacle that his brother had made all night and, therefore, he already knew what the problem was. In fact, that was why he had followed her out of the party in the first place. He had simply wanted to make sure that she was alright. Percy was a practical man and knew that Hermione was a practical woman. Therefore, he knew what needed to be done. He simply took her to his office, fixed her a strong cup of tea, mixed in a couple of drops of calming draught (which he made sure that she saw because he was not a prankster like his brothers and would never potion a woman without her knowledge or consent). He then sat next to her on the small sofa in the room and just held her hand in quiet companionship - until the tea, the potion, the ordeal, and the lateness of the hour conspired against her and she fell asleep on his shoulder. Practical Percy then picked her up and apparated with her straight to his flat – knowing that if Ron sobered up enough to realize what he had done, he would go to Hermione's flat first, Grimmauld Place next, and then probably to the Burrow to look for her. He would never even consider Percy's place, and therefore, Hermione would be safe from his insincere and inconsistent attention there. She would be allowed to rest in the peace and quiet that she needed and deserved.

Once they had arrived, Percy gently laid her on the bed in the small guest room, removed her shoes, and transfigured her lovely evening dress (knowing it wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep in) into a long cotton nightgown instead. Then he respected her privacy and left her alone until the morning. When she awoke, she found him in the kitchen making breakfast for them both. She called him her knight in shining armor, thanked him sincerely with an affectionate hug and kiss on the cheek, and complimented his transfiguration skills. The unexpected warmth of her response and compliment left him with pink cheeks as he served the cinnamon pancakes that he had made simply because he knew she loved them. (He had noticed that she always had seconds when his mother cooked them on holidays at the Burrow.) Over the meal, he assured her that nobody knew where she was and that she was welcome to stay for as long as she liked. She sighed in relief at that and ended up spending several comfortable hours at his table and on his couch while they carefully ignored the topic of his youngest brother. Instead they talked about happenings at the Ministry where they both worked as Department Heads and had several lively, but friendly, debates about foreign politics and British wizarding practices versus American ones. It was only after Percy invited her to stay for lunch, as well, that she had sighed and said that she would love to, but that it was time for her to face the music. She thanked him again, then reached for his hand and squeezed it before she apparated back to her flat. Their interactions had all been very pleasant, civilized, and calm – so much so that neither of them realized that the heart of the other had been touched by the experience.

Ron was waiting for her as soon as she arrived at her flat and they finally had a conversation that had been a long time in coming – years really. He tried to apologize, as usual, since this was certainly not the first time that he had hurt her badly with his thoughtlessness. Hermione had forgiven him many times before over the years, ever since they were children, but she finally felt that she had put up with enough! Ron, of course, became angry and said hurtful things. It was how he always reacted when he lost an argument – even when he had been in the wrong. He then stormed out of the flat…and the relationship was over. Even though it was a bit sad and depressing to start her new year with a break up, Hermione couldn't help but to feel relieved, as well. This was especially true when she compared Ron's boorish behavior to Percy's kind and gentle manner.

Since her own parents were lost to her due to the irreversible Obliviates that she had placed on them during the war, Hermione was determined not to lose her adopted family just because things had grown sour with Ron. Therefore, while doing her best to ignore the string of women that he continually paraded around in an attempt to show her what she was missing, she redoubled her attentions to the rest of the family. She took cooking lessons with Molly, chaperoned Arthur around harmless parts of the Muggle world, helped George out at WWW with her considerable research and potion-making skills, had girls' nights out with Ginny, babysat little Victoire so that Bill and Fleur could have some alone time, and even sent frequent letters to Charlie in Romania, letting him know about all of the quirky little things that his family was up to that nobody else thought to tell him.

She spent the most noticeable increase of time, however, with Percy. Ever since he had helped her that night, they had become much closer than they had ever been in the past. It wasn't really surprising, however, since they had more in common with each other than either of them did with the rest of the family. It had just taken them all of these years to finally realize it. Now, however, they often had lunch together, either in one of their offices or at the Ministry cafeteria. Sometimes they even ate with Arthur, when Molly sent in an extra hamper with him to work. They also often worked late together, helping each other with proposals, legislation, and the other huge mountains of paperwork that seemed to be so common in government bureaucracy. During this time, Hermione recognized all of the qualities that she had admired in him the most while they were at Hogwarts together: his intelligence, organization skills, prioritizing, common sense, level-headedness and tenacity to stick with what he thought was right – no matter what. She still liked all of these characteristics in him. However, she now saw that there was so much more to Percy than just his desire and ability to succeed. She now saw how he struggled with feelings of inadequacy when compared to all his brothers, both older and younger, alive or…not. She also realized how this insecurity had led directly to his actions…or rather inactions…towards his family during the war. Even though she had thought he was being a bit of a git at the time, she found that she couldn't really judge him for that any more. After all, hadn't she done basically the same thing to her parents over the years? When it had come down to it, hadn't she, time and time again, chosen the magical world over them? Yes, the circumstances had been different. However, she had still irretrievably lost her family in the end. Thankfully, Percy still had most of his and had been able to salvage his relationship with them over the last few years.

Besides all that, however, when she now looked at Percy, she recognized his wry sense of humor, his gentle side, and his quiet affection. These were all qualities that she had overlooked before during what had appeared to be the pomposity of his youth. However, in actuality he was just trying to figure out his place in the world. After all of these realizations, she discovered one more thing, as well - Percy was a much better fit for her than Ron had ever been! However, unfortunately, it was now much too late to do anything about it. After all, by this time, all of Ron's brothers now thought of her as just another sister. If only she had known all of this after the battle, when Percy had rejoined his family, things might have been different. This was especially true since she now knew that she had definitely chosen the wrong Weasley back then.

New Year's Eve - One Year Later

Hermione sighed with relief as she made her way up to the roof and found it completely unoccupied. She had almost made it to midnight without being tricked, charmed, potioned, transfigured, or otherwise involuntarily magicked. She had suspected that she would have to be on her toes when she had accepted George's invitation to the NYE party at his flat above WWW instead of going to the one at the Ministry. Therefore, she had purposely not accepted anything to eat or drink from the charming, but extremely devious, jokester. However, she highly suspected that he had singled her out for some reason throughout the evening and was trying to catch her with some sort of spell. Usually, he gave up after a few failed attempts. However, on this night he was being extraordinarily persistent. Normally, she would have been amused at his attempts to catch her unawares, and it wasn't that she was afraid that he would actually hurt her or anything, but she just didn't feel like being the butt of his prank tonight. She had even asked Angelina what was going on with him.

His fiance wasn't much help, though. She had just shrugged. "He's George. What do you expect? In his own special way, he is probably just trying to take your mind off things. We all know that this has been a hard week for you." She said this with a comforting smile, though, and gave Hermione a hug. "However, I will tell him to lay off of you - if you want."

Hermione nodded and returned the woman's hug. She had always liked the levelheaded Gryffindor – even back at school. She had often been able to get the twins to behave – even when nobody else could. "I'm alright," Hermione finally told her. "It's just blatantly obvious now, that of all the Weasley men, I picked the wrong one back then. I think that I always knew it to a degree, but I just didn't want to give up on all those years of friendship and everything that we went through during the war together. That party a year ago was the slap in the face that brought me to my senses. This week, with those horrible articles, just finalized it. At the very least, I no longer have any doubts whatsoever that breaking everything off with Ron was the right thing to do. My mind and my heart are completely in agreement on that point!"

Angelina nodded in agreement. "I hate to agree with you, but I think that you are right. Ron was the wrong Weasley for you." Then she snickered a little. "However, if it is another Weasley that you want, then you can have George – especially after I caught him mixing up a bright green potion in my bathtub yesterday! Can you imagine, Hermione?"

Hermione just laughed. It definitely sounded like something that George would do. She was also quite grateful that Angelina understood how things had really happened between her and Ron and, therefore, didn't judge her. Too many others were busy doing that at the moment, anyway – thanks to those bloody articles. Consequently, she just sighed and gave her friend's hand a squeeze. "Thanks for the generous offer, but I don't think that my sanity could handle that particular Weasley, either. Dare I ask what kind of potion he was making?"

"He said that it was a rapid growth formula for toenails and that it would be awesome for pranks." At Hermione's snort, she continued, "I told him in no uncertain terms that if my bathtub wasn't thoroughly cleaned out when he was done, then his toenails would be the only part of his anatomy that would get to grow long and hard…for a very long time indeed. Wouldn't you know it? The tub literally sparkled the next time I saw it!" Hermione was still laughing about this when she rejoined the party. The sight of Bill and Fleur on the dance floor enjoying themselves (especially since Molly was babysitting Victoire) made her think about the Weasley men again and why she wasn't at the Ministry's NYE party with Percy tonight.

Surprisingly, even after her personal disaster of the previous year, she had been looking forward to this year's party and the new beginning that it would represent. This was especially true after Percy had casually suggested, one day over lunch, that they attend it together. Hermione knew how much her feelings had changed for the older brother of her former boyfriend over the past year and had eagerly agreed to accompany him. Even though Percy had never given her any indication that he considered her to be more than a friend, the thought of getting to spend the night dancing in his arms with the hope of a midnight kiss would make it all worthwhile. Who knew where something like that could lead? Then her feelings of anticipation for the upcoming party only skyrocketed further when she saw the rare, but extremely beautiful, wide smile that spread across his usually serious face at her acceptance.

Unfortunately, her hopes for the evening had all come crashing down just a few days before the party. Right after Christmas, the articles hit the newsstands for the first time. Hermione had to find out from the Daily Prophet that not just one of the women that Ron had been flaunting around her, but two of them were currently pregnant by him. Not only that, but they had all apparently decided to form a triad relationship together. That particular news didn't disturb her in the least, because she honestly did not care what Ron did with his love life. Even though she tried hard at first to salvage their friendship, Ron just did not seem interested in anything but trying to make her jealous of his success with other women. However, despite this, they had at least managed to maintain a polite, but distant, détente with each other for the sake of the family and their mutual friendship with Harry. Therefore, his relationship was not the problem. The problem was that her name had also been brought into it. It had been suggested in the first article, and then also in several subsequent ones, that if Hermione had been a little more concerned with her boyfriend than with her career, and if she had attended to his needs rather than her own selfish desires, then perhaps he would not have been driven into the arms of other women. Somehow, according the article, even an entire year after their break up, everything was her fault. Unfortunately, judging by some of the hate mail that she had received in the meantime, other people felt the same way, as well.

Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that she told Percy that she didn't think that they should attend the Ministry ball together. After all, it was always a heavily covered event by the media and she was afraid that he would be dragged into all of the unpleasantness if she was seen there with him – especially since his brother and both of his girlfriends had already expressed their intent to attend, as well. As silly as it seemed, it could be a disaster to his political aspirations if it was inferred that he had anything to do with the ending of Ron and Hermione's relationship. In fact, to keep him out of it completely, she decided that she just wouldn't attend the party at all. She would go to the one that George and Angelina were hosting instead.

Percy wanted to argue with her about it, but she had made her decision. She could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be and this was important. She wouldn't put his career at risk just because she had high hopes for that one night. She knew he had worked hard to make it as far as he had and that his career meant everything to him. She may have been wrongly accused of being selfish with Ron, but she certainly was not going to act that way with Percy.

Therefore, Hermione found herself forced to spend the dawn of the New Year alone. She leaned against the railing and closed her eyes. She had to admit that she was feeling a bit sorry for herself as she tried to shake herself out of her funk. That was why she had come up to the roof in the first place, after all. She told herself that it wasn't as if she had completely lost Percy. Her friend would still be at the ministry when they all returned back to work on January 2nd. That was the problem, however. She had hoped that tonight would convince him that they were so much more than just friends. She sighed, let go of the railing, and smoothed down the skirt of the daring gold dress robes that she had bought just for tonight – back when she thought she would be spending it with the man that she had come to care so much about.

She knew that she could go downstairs and join the rest of the party for the last few minutes, but everybody down there already had a date, and she didn't want a pity kiss from a taken man. In fact, since the only kiss she wanted wasn't available, she tried to determine whether she should wait for the countdown and fireworks at all. Maybe she should just go ahead, call it quits, give up this night as a total wash, go straight home, and crawl into bed. The idea was quite appealing and she quickly made her decision. She was just about to apparate away when she heard Percy's voice behind her.

"Hermione, please wait!" She spun around at the sound to find him standing there – looking quite dashing in his dress robes…and she couldn't help to smile to see the scarf that Practical Percy had thrown on over them before venturing out in the cold night air. However, she also couldn't quite hide her shock at seeing him there, regardless – scarf or not. It was a look which seemed to be mirrored in his own eyes – but for an entirely different reason.

"Oh! Wow! You look…just…Wow!" His normally articulate language skills appeared to have temporarily abandoned him when he saw Hermione for the first time that night. He struggled to get his mind back on topic. "I mean…um…George appeared out of nowhere and practically attacked me as soon as I arrived. He thrust these," here he paused and held up the bottle of champagne and two glasses. He looked around to find a place to set them down before he continued, "into my hands, and told me to come straight up here before he disappeared again. I didn't know what to expect…" Here he paused again and she could see that he was trying to word his next statement carefully. "However, I hoped it was because you were up here, too."

"Percy, what are you doing here? I thought we decided…" she started to ask, but he took a step closer to her and shook his head in disagreement.

"I decided that I wasn't going to make the mistake again of choosing my career over what…and who…really mattered to me. Therefore, I simply informed the Minister that I had somewhere much more important to be…and he told me to wish you a Happy New Year."

Hermione briefly felt the color rise to her cheeks. Had she been so obvious that even Kingsley knew? However, that feeling was overwhelmed when she realized exactly what Percy had just told her. Hermione just looked at him, barely believing that he wanted to be with her, too. She felt that she needed to give him an out, though - just in case he was simply being kind. However, she also needed for him to know what she wanted. The time for being vague and coy about her feelings was far past.

"You do realize that the countdown will start in just a few minutes? If you are still up here when it gets to zero, I will expect…no…I will want…you to kiss me," she said quietly as she moved even closer to him. She saw Percy grin in relief at those words, the confirmation of what had only been a silent hope before now. He closed the rest of the distance between them before speaking.

"Well, it's certainly fortuitous that I have wanted to kiss you for at least the entire last year, then, isn't it?" he said, displaying the more emotional side of himself that not many other people ever got to see. "Longer really, if I am to tell the truth...and I always want to tell you the truth, Hermione. I'm not sure…maybe it even started as far back as when a little bushy-haired first year Muggleborn witch sat down next to me at the Welcoming Feast and started talking about Transfiguration. I must admit that over the years, I found her color-coded study schedules to be especially attractive…" His light joke was suddenly cut off when Hermione decided not to bother to wait for the countdown to begin. She just grabbed Percy by the ends of his scarf and pulled him down to her. When the countdown ended and the fireworks started, they were barely noticed by the two people on the WWW roof who were too busy making their own.

Eventually, they made their way back downstairs just so Hermione could grab her coat. They tried to be discreet and didn't say anything to anyone because they were in a hurry to get somewhere more private. However, George watched them apparate away from the party with their arms wrapped around each other.

"Yes! I knew it! I am good! Fred would be so proud!" he pumped the air with his fist as he crowed triumphantly. Angelina looked over at him quizzically at first…until she realized exactly which couple had just left together.

"What…did…you…do?" she asked, already angry on Hermione's behalf.

"Only what they already wanted!" George spread his hands beseechingly to plead his innocence. "We have all seen them tiptoeing around each other all year. I just helped it along by adding a very low level Veritaserum to the champagne, so that they would not be able to lie outright about their feelings when they started to talk about them."

"You potioned them, George! No wonder Hermione didn't trust you tonight! She suspected that you were up to something…and she was right!" Angelina's hands were on her hips as she stared angrily at him. "What a minute!" she exclaimed realizing what else he had said. "Why would they lie? Why would they talk about their feelings in the first place? What else did you do?"

George wondered how his beautiful fiancé could be so scary as he sheepishly looked down at the ground. "Well…I might have put a very light dose of Love Potion # 2 in there, as well." At her warning growl, he looked up, on the defensive again. "No, no, no! That's a good thing. LP#2 only helps you to express what you already feel. It's basically harmless. Now, if I have given them LP#1, then they would be shagging up there on our roof right now!" Then he waggled his eyebrows up and down in such a suggestive way that she couldn't help but to laugh, but it was really at his expense.

"You gave them a love potion and Veritaserum." She shook her head in disbelief. "You know that Hermione is going to kill you when she finds out, right? And Percy…well…he doesn't say much, but I have a feeling that still waters run deep. Who knows what tricks he is hiding up the sleeves of those robes of his?"

"I don't know, but I hope that Hermione is finding out all about the tricks up his sleeves and in his trousers right now," he said before waggling his eyebrows again. "Seriously, though, they are not going to find out…and if they do, they are just going to be too happy to be together to care, right? I mean, we all know that Percy may have been a prat before in the past, but he did the right thing and got over that, and he will be a helluva lot better for our Hermione than Ron ever was. I mean, he was definitely the wrong Weasley for her – and everybody knew it! She needs someone with ambition and whom she can actually have an intelligent conversation with…and that cancels out all the rest of us Weasley men – except for Bill, maybe, but he is already married. Since Hermione has to be my sister, then Percy has to be the man for her. Don't you see?" George was so earnest in his explanation that Angelina just had to smile while she leaned in to kiss him.

"I get it," she told him honestly. "The part about being your sister was especially sweet! Just be sure to remember that argument when she comes to hunt you down tomorrow and it may just save your little freckled hide." With those words, she kissed him again, a little more enthusiastically this time, and he growled in appreciation.

"I'll have you know that even though it might all be freckled, there is nothing little about anything that I have!" he exclaimed and his intent was clear in his eyes. Angelina wasn't having any of it, though. She just laughed at him and persuasively mentioned that the quicker they cleaned up the mess from the party, the quicker they could go to bed and make a completely different kind of mess of their own. As with the bathtub incident on the previous day, George was highly motivated and the flat was back to its original condition in no time at all. Meanwhile, Angelina headed up to the roof to see if anybody had been up there besides Hermione and Percy. She knew that those two were quite tidy, but she couldn't say the same for the rest of her friends and family. Fortunately, the area was still neat and clean. However, a champagne bottle and two glasses stood there on the small table. She frowned at them speculatively before picking them up and taking them back down to show George.

"I thought you gave Percy a spiked bottle of champagne and that's why he left with Hermione?" she asked him.

"I did!" George sounded confused - until Angelina showed him the full, unopened bottle and clean glasses.

"They didn't even touch the stuff," she said with a little smile.

"Well, bugger me! Perce somehow got the girl all by himself! Now Hermione won't want to kill me after all! Go, Percy, you ginger stud, you! Go!" George practically cheered.

Little did he know, that in Percy's flat near the Ministry, Hermione was whispering similar motivational instructions into his older brother's ear while her body was wrapped tightly around his. He also didn't need to know that they barely left the bed for the next two days until it was time to return to work. When they did go back to the Ministry, however, they apparated in together and both had such huge smiles on their faces that everyone instantly knew that they had become a couple over the holiday.

New Year's Eve – The Following Year

Hermione and Percy celebrated the holiday together again on the same rooftop where they shared their first kiss. This time, in front of their friends and family (including Ron and his significant others) another first kiss was shared by them. However, this time, it was as man and wife! They had felt that it was only fitting for such a momentous occasion to occur on the holiday that had helped to bring them together in the first place.

Hermione had finally found the right Weasley for her…and she was never going to let him go!