impossible deadline
"Swear; swear that if we're not both married by the time we're twenty-eight," Penelope whispers, taking his hand, "we'll marry each other."
"I swear," he says solemnly, because, well, he's nothing if not eternally solemn and serious. But even as he promises his heart to his closest friend, he finds his eyes straying away from her hopeful face, towards a certain person he's always found extremely-
"Weasley, are you listening to me?"
With an internal cry of dismay at being distracted from his trip down memory lane, he looks up to see the minister hovering over him.
"Yes, sir. Please, continue." The minister gives him a questioning look before continuing with his instruction.
"I need you to write a report on the Azkaban security measures and have it on my desk by Monday, Weasley. You can meet that deadline?"
"Of course, sir." The minister nods in satisfaction and leaves him sitting at his desk, reading silver ink scrawled across purple paper.
He'll been twenty-eight in six months and, as he corresponds with Penelope, he knows she not married. But he doubts (hopes) she doesn't remember that night together with Firewhisky and tears. Because he doesn't want to marry her.
It's difficult to believe that he's not married, because he's always been Percy Weasley, the deadline guy, and he has never failed to meet anyone's deadline for anything before. Three days to write two rolls of parchment? No problem. A two-thousand word report by Monday? Easily done. But get married to a woman by the time he's twenty-eight? That presents a problem.
It takes a lot to make Percy admit anything about his personal life. Sure, he can talk for hours about his work and cauldron bottoms and rebuilding landmarks, but ask one question about romance and he'll be changing the subject faster than you can say Hinkypunk.
That because he doesn't want to talk about the romance in his life, or rather, the lack of it. Penelope only lasted three years before they parted amiably and since then not one woman has caught his eye. But there is one grain of romance: an unrequited crush.
Smooth ebony skin, dark eyes, sneering mouth…they build up an image of a man he saw only once but found himself dreaming of. And it should not happen, because he's smart and organised and he doesn't fall trulymadlydeeply in love, but he has. He doesn't even know this man's name, but he loves him.
Maybe, maybe one day, when he's an oldold man with not much time left, he'll track down this man and tell him everything, but not now. Not now, in the wake of a war that destroyed his family and ripped apart everything he knew about life as a wizard.
Maybe one day. But, then again, maybe not.
And then he meets a pretty Muggle girl and they fall into comfortable appreciation of each other and before long they're married with twins on the way.
He sees that man through a crowd at a celebratory ball. He doesn't approach him. He's Percy Weasley, the deadline guy, what would a handsome man he's never met want with him?
So he just carries on being Percy Weasley, that man who's great with deadlines.
For the 2011 Mew & Mor's Weird Pairings Challenge! Credit for the wacky pairing goes to Mew and Mor. :)
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