A/N: This is in answer to the "Feel in Color" challenge over at the HPFC. Go check out the forum and the challenge (:
It takes Hermione a very long while to calm down.
This is altogether unsurprising, considering what she has seen. Others around her are breaking down, falling to their knees, crying, mouthing wordlessly in horror and shock. Even her ultra-rational mind has been shaken by this sight.
It is the sight of the many bodies that have fallen in the final battle.
They have set aside the Transfiguration classroom as a sort of temporary viewing area for the dead. The Great Hall is still filled with celebratory music, dancing, hugs, spontaneous cries of "He's dead!" This room, in contrast, is somber, silent; each person who enters here has lost someone, and each understands the importance of remembering.
Hermione is barely able to take in every body. There lies Fred, a heap of contorted bones and red hair. The only Weasley here is Percy; Percy, who has finally found his place in his family, who has finally found his way home…who probably would have given anything to be lying there, dead, instead of his brother…
Who is now staring at Hermione with pained eyes.
"Sorry, sorry," she says, and she tries to hurry away.
"Stay," he says, and his voice breaks.
She bites her lip, cautious, then returns and kneels beside him. "I'm sorry," she says again, as though it might actually help something.
He shakes his head but seems to find himself unable to say anything else. Instead he stares dolefully at his brother. "This should be me," he says.
She shakes her head. "Percy, there was nothing you could have done."
"There are a lot of things I could have done," he argues. "I could have been less of a prat. I could have supported my family. I could have helped the cause. I could have…" He sighs. "I could have done a lot of things."
She isn't sure what to say to this, because she actually agrees with everything that he says, but she thinks it would be rude to agree. Finally she says, "This isn't your fault."
He looks at her. "It isn't."
And then Percy does something completely out of character: he smiles at her. The smile is weak at best, because it is all he can manage, but it is unmistakably a smile.
The lime green of his eyes lightens for the first time in what feels like years. How odd, he thinks, that this girl his brother loves should take the time to soothe him. When he can finally tear his eyes away from his brother to look at her again, she is gone, kneeling beside Remus Lupin and fighting back her own tears. He wishes he could repay her, but he can't think of a single thing to say. He looks at her for a long while, trying to voice his gratitude, but he simply doesn't have the words. Finally he stands, looks at her again, and walks away.
"Thank you," he whispers, and he doesn't stop to see whether she looks at him or not.
fin
A/N: I took a liberty with the color of Percy's eyes; according to the HP Wiki, they're blue, but I don't remember that ever being specifically mentioned in the books. And this was just begging to be written.