Written for Training Camp at The Quidditch League Forum.
Team: Penzance Pegai
Position: Chaser Two
Round 1: Fairytale— The Ugly Duckling
Prompts used — 4 (word) bleeding - 8 (word) starstruck - and 7 (quote) "Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed." Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society
- I interpeted the prompt as the ugly duckling traveling through all these stages of grief and being distance from everyone else before finding a place where he really did belong/Percy Weasley finding his own spot in his family.
Edited after post just add in beta's name! - the sweet di (cheadsearc) and the fluffy tiggs (whitetiger91) thank you so much!
"Percy Weasley!"
"Oh~ another Weasley — you gingers never stop, do you? Let me see. Are you destined for the same house like the rest of your family? Or will you be the different one?"
"I want to be Gryffindor, please."
"Strange. My first guess was going to be Slytherin. Too stiff for a Hufflepuff, ha! "
"What? I-I'm not —"
"You have more ambition than your first two brothers — that's a definite. Tell me, Perseus, what makes you so different from the rest of your family? Perhaps Ravenclaw. Such a clever mind. You want to be great. Greatness is a matter of perspective."
"I'll be great in the same house as the rest of my family. I want to be in Gryffindor."
"Stubborn — you got that from your mother. You're a strange one in your family."
"People are staring. Could you sort me already?"
"Greatness and bravery. Far be it from me to destroy a young child's dream — you'll manage to destroy it yourself quite nicely one day. I can see how this will go. I admire your goal to protect your siblings, though. You are a Weasley."
"What's that suppose to me—"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The strange one.
Yes, Percy Weasley could see that. The strange one in his family of red-headed Gryffindors. Jealousy was an emotion he had come to learn early on when he was young. Not because of his older brothers, no. He adored Bill and Charlie. They were everything he wanted to be when he was smaller. They were bold and strong. They conversed with their father like equals and held up their mother through thick and thin. Percy was too young to do much more than hide behind them and hope that his hand could reach high enough to comfort his mother, or grasp his father's attention.
It started with Fred and George.
Bill and Charlie instantly took control and coddled the two twins as if they were greatest thing that had ever set foot in the Burrow. When they left for Hogwarts, Percy was left to care for the twins, but they were michievous and clever. It wouldn't take long until Percy's temper was spent and he was flushing in embarrasment.
His mother took over caring for the twins and Percy was sent away.
Away, away, away.
In the highest spot in the Burrow because Percy wanted to be closer to the sky and his parents were happy to indulge him.
It wasn't until Ronald was born and he was pushed away again that he realized it was the furthest room from everyone else's.
Percy ducked as a piece of bacon flew over his head and resisted the childish urge to glare and throw his own food at Fred. Or was it George? He never could tell. Mother was busy chatting happily with Bill, who was the only one who had decided to stay over the holidays while Charlie stayed at Hogwarts. Percy would've cared to listen, but —
He twitched and tried to stab the full spoon of mush in Ronald's mouth. But the child stubbornly kept his mouth shut and avoided it.
His younger siblings just loved to abuse their older brother, didn't they?
"Come on... Ronnie?" Percy grimaced at the words falling from his mouth. He waved the spoon in front of Ronald and tried for a small smile despite the fact his head felt like it was going to explode.
He couldn't bring himself to ask his mother to take over. Because everytime he looked over to her, her tired face was stretched into a lovely smile as she nodded along to what Bill was telling her.
It was the brightest he had seen her in months and Percy wasn't cruel enough to shatter that.
Smack!
Percy turned back just in time to watch Ronald smear the food mush all over his pudgy cheeks with a playful squeal.
"O-Oi!"
Ronald promptly flicked some at Percy and it landed on his glasses, much to his dismay and he wasn't quick enough to dodge the next piece of bacon that flew into the side of his head. He could hear the twins loudly cackling behind him.
Then Ronald started to cry.
For absolutely no reason.
Percy was horrified.
"Percy! What did you do?" His mother hurried over to them. "Oh, Ronnie's face is a mess! You have to watch him, Percy."
"I didn't..."
But his mother was already cooing over little Ronald and didn't seem to hear what Percy had to say. Bill was patting him on the shoulder with a chuckle. "They are a real handful, aren't they? I could never keep up."
Liar.
Their younger siblings never gave Bill or Charlie any trouble like this. Because everyone loved those two. It was Percy they didn't like. It was Percy they made fun of. It would be over-dramatic to say that it felt like his heart was bleeding, but it didn't change the fact that it did and it was him who was the problem.
It was him.
He let the spoon clatter on the table and stood up abruptly. "I'm going to wash up."
Strange one.
"Is something wrong?" His father stood over his mother, like a worried shadow as she slowly tried to rock their newly-born daughter to sleep. Percy tried not to stare like all his other siblings — Fred and George were both peering over the arm of chair to catch a glimpse of their screaming little sister and make faces at her, Bill had tried carrying Ginny, but it had done nothing except increase the volume of the cries, and Charlie had given up a long time ago. Now it was left to their mother who was becoming more and more anxious as time went on.
"I don't know." His mother's hand fluttered over her child, checking her forehead with the back of her hand. "She seems perfectly healthy. Oh dear... maybe we should take her to see a medi-wizard?"
Percy spared a glance to look worriedly at his fidgeting baby sister. Even Fred and George looked strangely somber at the thought of Ginny having a unknown problem so soon after being born.
He tried to focus back on the Muggle book in his hands — a birthday present from his parents — and the first sentence on the page seemed to dance in front of him. He muttered the words softly to distract himself from the mess around him.
Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.
Percy had no time to focus on revenge. Why was he reading this book? Ginny's cries were loud enough wake up a small army. With a small sigh, he closed the book and placed it in his lap.
Bill spoke up from his perch on the couch. "Ronald wouldn't stop crying sometimes during the night unless Charlie held him. Maybe Ginny is the same way."
'Yeah," Charlie tilted his head. "But she won't let me hold her." He sounded depressingly defeated at the memory.
Fred spoke up. "Percy hasn't tried yet..."
All of the sudden, the entire Weasley family had their eyes on Percy for the first time in five years. It was nerve-wracking and embarrassing.
Percy stared back, wide-eyed and slightly annoyed. "What?"
Fred grabbed his hand and gave him a sharp tug out of the couch. He was surprisingly strong, and managed to drag Percy much further than his pride would've liked to admit. "Fix her!" he ordered.
"I can't fix her." Percy tried to grab his fallen book.
"Of course, you can." Fred sounded confident as he spoke. "You fix everything."
Percy gaped. "Only because you break everything!" He huffed and crept closer to his mother after she motioned him forward. He could disobey the twins without a second thought, but his mother...
He hesitated and reluctantly reached forward to pick up Ginny, ignoring the obnoxious cheers from the twins behind him. After holding Ronald as a baby, it wasn't as complicated as it used to be for him a year ago.
Percy shifted her in his arms. "See? She's still cry—"
Silence
Ginny had stopped crying.
"Woah... " George nudged Fred sharing a matching grin with his twin. "Look at Percy."
Percy could feel a small smile tugging at his lips because Ginny was staring up at him. He wrapped her blanket around her and shifted her closer. The silence from her and everyone else in the room was eerie. He could feel a flush rising on his cheeks.
His father smiled warmly. "It seems Ginny is enamored with our Percy."
"Excellent!" Charlie exclaimed, flopping back on the couch. "Now I can go back to sleep."
His mother tugged his arm and Percy broke the eye-contact with Ginny to glance at her. She nodded him towards her chair. "You can sit with her until she falls asleep."
Percy found himself hard pressed to argue with her when her eyes were twinkling with something akin to relief... or pride? Percy couldn't tell but he sat down regardless and looked down at his sister in his arms.
Her brown eyes were staring curiously at him and Percy wondered if maybe she was as starstruck to meet him as he had been to hold her.
It was strange to have someone that needed him. Someone who needed him to stop their crying and hold them.
Strange one, indeed.