A/N: Little backstory before you read this Audrey/Percy one-shot... I wrote a fanfic called "Of Magic and Coffee", which describes how I think Audrey and Percy met. This one kind of goes hand in hand with that one. My head canon: Audrey is a Muggle, who learned how to hustle her "magic tricks" on the streets of London to make ends meet while she was pursuing a higher education. She didn't like to cheat people out of their money, but it's what she learned when she was part of her family's magic act when she was young. Because of the stupid Muggle Relation Laws still in place, magical people are not permitted to tell Muggles about them being witches or wizards until their next of kin receives their Hogwarts letter. It's stupid, but that's how it is (until Hermione and Percy change that law in a few years, but that's a different story). Thanks for all the great feed back, my dudes!
Revealing a Magician's Secrets
There, she saw it, a few yards away. It was a rickety-looking barn house, but it looked homier than any other house she has ever seen. Audrey had been pestering Percy to take her to his childhood home, considering she had begrudgingly taken him to hers many times.
It was embarrassing to reveal her parents' vanity and delusion. Thankfully, her little sister, Jude, had left that house as soon as she turned eighteen. That was two years ago. Since then, she had gotten a good job that didn't require a college degree.
As for Audrey, she had received an Undergraduate degree in Education and was currently working on her Masters in English Literature. With her own drive and Percy's encouragement, Audrey was able to snatch a job in her local school district. She was teaching primary school level, which was better than nothing. It helped find a better flat with Percy, and eventually marry him. And now, with a baby on the way, this was everything she could have wished for.
She couldn't wait to see all of Percy's family again, the last time being at their wedding, which was about a year ago. They got married in the same church her parents were married in. Percy's parents were adorable, although Audrey had a strange feeling that his father had some early stages of dementia. He asked her about how cellphones worked without a cord, or if the "Astronet" was the same as the "Internaut", or how many plugs she could truly plug into one electrical socket. He was strange, but very genuine and kind.
Percy grabbed her hand. "Do you love me?"
"Of course I love you," she replied, squeezing his hand.
"Do you trust me?"
"Perce, I will love your family, no matter what." She could see that that wasn't what he was worried about.
"Before we go over there, Audrey, I need to tell you the truth…"
"What?" She dared to ask.
Percy took a deep breath in, and said, "What I am is more than a magician."
Well, thankfully, it wasn't about him having cold feet about their new family. She smiled, still confused. "You're an illusionist."
"No, I'm… my family… we are wizards."
"Is that what you call yourselves, then? The Weasley Wizards? Oh, sounds quite catchy!"
"No, Audrey, listen to me." He moved in front of her view of the Burrow so that they were face to face. "Magic, it's real. What I do is real. And I just want you to be prepared for what you might see in there. Promise me." He looked slightly frantic.
She caressed his cheek, humoring him, "I promise, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."
"You will see soon enough."
They began to walk toward the amazing house. A little blonde girl was playing with a small boy who had florescent turquoise hair. Audrey found that a little unruly for such a small child. She didn't even approve of her sister's wacky hair colors and Jude was a teenager then.
Percy's mother opened the door and gave them both such amazing hugs.
"I'm so happy you're finally here! And congratulations!" Molly beamed, indicating Audrey's stomach. Audrey was confused; did Percy tell his family before they could announce it together? Molly rushed them in while yelling out behind them, "Teddy! Victoire! Lunch will be ready in ten minutes!"
Audrey glanced over her shoulder, and to her astonishment, the boy's hair was now a bright ginger. She had to take a double-take. Maybe it was just the trick of the lighting before; the whole family was red-headed anyway. It only made sense.
As she walked further into the living room, she was absolutely fascinated by the amount of illusions happening at once. They truly were really into their magical craft. Everything was mismatched, and yet, it suited that house very well. The house was so full of people that Audrey was surprised that such a small-looking house on the outside could hold so many on the inside. She recognized George, his girlfriend, Angelina, Ron, and Arthur sitting around the kitchen table. After greeting these familiar people, Percy introduced her to Bill, and his wife, Fleur, and their youngest daughter, Dominique, his other brother Charlie, his sister Ginny and her fiancé, Harry. Audrey was quite disappointed that Hermione was not there. She had really enjoyed getting to know her over the years. She took a mental note to ask Percy why she was not there.
Lunch was amazing, according to Audrey. She had seen food appear out of what seemed to be thin air before, but this was true perfection. She found it rather fascinating.
"I absolutely love your tricks!" she admired Molly's handiwork. "You must tell me how you created such a realistic set-up."
Everyone looked at each other, then at Percy, who smacked his hand to his forehead in embarrassment.
"Percy Weasley, didn't you tell Audrey-" began his father.
"Of course I did! She still thinks it's what she thinks is magic."
Audrey looked around at knowing smiles. She didn't quite understand. She glanced down the table to where the three children were laughing, oblivious to the conversation at hand. And there, she saw it again! The boy named Teddy changed his hair color right before their eyes, making the two little girls giggle. She jumped and pointed down the table. "How! How did he do that?!"
"He's a Metamorphmagis," replied Harry, looking proudly down at Teddy.
"A morphing-what?"
Percy excused the two of them from the table and into the living room.
"Percy, what is this? Are you taking the piss?"
"No! Addie, I've been trying to tell you. I'm a wizard. My magic is real. My whole family can do magic-"
"So can mine-!"
"No, love, listen to me. Believe me! I would never lie to you."
She looked in his bespectacled blue eyes as he grasped both of her hands in his. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement from the wall. She turned to see all of the pictures were moving, waving and laughing. Were these mini-TVs? Why would they have so many if they were supposed to be poor?
She took one down from the wall. She saw no chord attaching the picture to the wall. No batteries. No on and off switch. "What is this place?" she whispered.
"My life," Percy said quietly. She looked up at his anxious face.
"This is a lot to take in, Perce."
"I know. I'm not expecting you to grasp it right away."
There was a bit of silence. Then, Audrey spoke. "The- the day we first met. When the Ping-Pong balls fell out of my pockets…"
As if on cue, Percy took out a stick from his pocket, gave it a small wave, and, like before, Ping-Pong balls cascaded from beneath her shirt sleeves.
Audrey was terrified. "Oh my God! Make it stop!" With another flick of the stick, the balls disappeared. "What the hell!"
"Addie, I'm sorry-" started Percy, reaching out to touch her, but she jumped out of his reach.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I wasn't- our laws didn't allow-"
"Your laws? Like your own principle, or…"
"No, our own Ministry."
Audrey laughed at this. "You have a Ministry?! What's it called? The Ministry of Magic?"
Percy grinned sheepishly. "It sounds too good to be true, I know, but you've got to trust me. Remember what you said before we came here? That you promised you'd trust me? This is why, Audrey. I love you so damn much, and I am over the moon that we're going to have a baby. I didn't want to scare you away."
Instinctively, she put a hand on her stomach. "So you couldn't tell me until I was pregnant?"
"Actually, I broke the rules a little bit," he said, seeing that this was a good time to start walking towards her. "I'm technically not supposed to say anything until the child is born, but I couldn't wait anymore. Hermione and I are trying to get rid of that rule for good. It's old and useless. But that's neither here nor there. The point is," he touched her hand over her stomach. "I love you and I don't want any secrets anymore. You've always wondered why I was so good at magic. Now you know. I am revealing my secret to you."
He chanced a smile, but Audrey was still quite frightened. "I don't know, Percy…"
"Listen, if you want, we can leave," he said. "We don't have to stay."
"Well, your family seems nice," she said slowly. "And they didn't try to kill me or anything."
"They would never kill you, Addie!" Percy took her by the shoulders, looking very serious. "We don't kill. We love. That's all we ever did was love." He had a sparkle in his eye and his ears turned red. "I will tell you anything you want to know about my world because I want you to be a part of it. I love you."
He looked so genuine. Audrey sighed of relief. She knew she could trust him. "I love you, too." After a quick peck, they returned, hand in hand, to the kitchen.
"So, you finally realize we've been scamming you all this time, eh, Addie?" Teased George, causing everyone to laugh except for Percy, who looked as if he were about to punch George in his good ear. No one knew that Percy created a nickname for Audrey, and he tended to want to keep it that way.
Audrey had a great rest of her time with the Weasleys, although she did miss Hermione. It turned out that Hermione was born from non-magic people, and that she knew the best of both worlds. Harry knew about normal people things too, so Audrey chatted with him more so than anyone else there. He informed her about what happened between Ron and Hermione. It was all so tragic. She figured that was why Ron avoided her the whole day. She hoped it would all work out in the end…
She also found out that Arthur did not have dementia after all! He was just an old wizard who was fascinated by regular, every day things. Audrey was glad to explain some things to him. He hugged her and said, "I am so happy you are part of our family."
Audrey's heart warmed up at the sight of the old man's happiness. She looked around at all of the magic that was happening around her. It was like she had woken up from a dream- a really cool dream that no one else would ever believe was real. In all of her years trying to run away from her family's magic act, she never thought that she would feel so at home in a place where real magic existed. She smiled back at her father-in-law. "I'm happy to be here, too."
