Sister story to Stick Birds, but reading of such is not necessary.

This Is My Family

Penny stumbles over the word 'pregnant' when she tells him, and then she dissolves into wretched tears. It's dull January, and their sad, lonely little Christmas is weeks over, and this is the very last thing he ever imagined to be waiting for him when he arrived home from work.

Percy has, over the years, carelessly mulled over how he would feel at various points in his life; going to Hogwarts, kissing a girl for the first time, his first day of work, doing a lot more than just kissing with a girl, getting married…and finding out he would be a father. Thus far, none of his idle imaginings have even come close to the actual experience.

He'd thought he'd expect it on some level, that it wouldn't really be such a surprise because they (it's always been Penny; he decided at sixteen when he told her what the 'I' in his initials stood for and she told him with a completely straight face that Ignatius was a perfectly lovely name) would have been trying and thinking about it a lot.

Instead, he feels as though he's been struck by a train, that he opened the door to his flat and was immediately greeted by the runaway Hogwarts Express, without even half-a-second to contemplate its headlights.

To be fair, he has always imagined a much different scenario. Said scenario assumed a war-free society, a loving, stable marriage, and planning. Reality presents him with an all-consuming fight for survival, a muggleborn girlfriend Fideliused into his flat because she had a warrant out for her arrest for 'stealing magic', a job that made tightrope walking look like a drunken stroll down the lane, and absolutely no plan whatsoever.

Without a plan is something that Percy had rarely been until lately. He'd had his whole life planned out once, before the world went to hell, and most of the plans hinged on a one-word answer to a four-word question posed over the beautiful diamond ring that had been his first adult purchase when he had been seventeen and newly hired at the Ministry.

He'd been waiting, and the familiar world had crashed about his ankles in the meantime.

Penny cries like she's done something grievously wrong, and there's something between the racking sobs about a contraceptive potion with a .1 failure rate.

All the words she's pushing through her tears are like a haze around his head. Percy is at a loss for words and, standing just inside of a flat that somehow surreally doesn't seem to belong to him anymore because he's not just some bloke anymore, he's going to be a dad, the only thing he can do is quote Charlie. "Well, if there's just one thing a Weasley man can do, it's get a girl pregnant against all odds."

…quoting Charlie is rarely the best of ideas in most situations, and the confused, horrified, and slightly aghast look freezes onto Penny's face and stops up her tears. Her mouth contorts, like she's fighting to say something, just something, as if she doesn't know if she wants to resume crying or shout at him.

"I didn't mean that like it sounded," Percy rushes into her stunned silence. "Was just…I—er, the, eh…the—" He quits while he's ahead and stops trying to explain the madness that just fell out of his mouth. He tries to shove both hands in his pockets, his nervous anchor, but only halfway succeeds, as he's still got his briefcase in one hand.

There's a long, long silence, Penny's ragged breathing slowing as she wipes at her eyes. Percy is trying to process everything, to plan, what they're to do now, think, plan, think…

And then he simply stops. Stops thinking, stops planning, stops processing.

There are three people in this hallway, is what scrolls across his mind, over and over. All worry has dropped out of his mind, just for the moment, as he stares at Penny, pink eyed and blotchy and beautiful and carrying his child.

There are three people in my flat. This is my family.

The thought somehow translates itself to speech without him noticing, because the stricken look on Penny's face fades into abject relief and she throws herself at him, crying again but this time it's not so wretched.

"This is my family," she agrees, looking up with tear-filmed eyes. Percy's hands are in her hair, across her back, skimming her stomach in a flurry of motion that's almost frantic.

His mind is perfectly still.

This is my family.