There were two unspoken rules in the Weasley household that the twins - Fred and George followed religiously.
One, Percy's a cinnamon roll and must be protected at all costs.
And two, Percy's innocence must be preserved.
If outsiders knew of this, Fred was sure that their rep as mischievous, habitual rule-breakers would be ruined. However, he was sure that if they knew Percy themselves and realized what he was like - anyone, even the most stubborn of people, would be swayed to their way of thinking.
Because you see, Percy's their family's baby.
Frail and overwhelmingly bookish, their older brother's the epitome of gentleness. With his melancholic air and a heart that's too big for his own good, Fred and George took it upon themselves (and strung along with them all their other siblings for the ride with sheer stubbornness and brainwashing) to protect Percy from all people who aspired to push him down and bully him to tears.
He's too adorable - too innocent for this world that nothing less than the best should be given because anything less than that would be a crime.
...Their relationship wasn't always this way.
Their attachment wasn't always this unhealthy, and both Fred and George didn't always like and appreciate Percy from before.
(They kind of resented him, actually.)
Fussy and pretentious, even at a young age, both the twins disliked how Percy's different from them. He was a prodigy. Doted on by their parents and excessively praised as the Prewett heir, there were never-ending comparisons from their neighbors and accepting warm eyes from an older brother that saw them in a far better light than they deserved to be.
They saw his overprotectiveness as fussiness and pretentiously maternal. His efforts in educating them as a way to present his inborn superiority. His kind actions as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
It wasn't until that happened that everything changed.
It wasn't until-
(until Percy saved them at the cost of his magic that they finally saw through him.)
It must be known that the wizarding world like every society wasn't perfect. To quote one of Percy's great quotes of awesomeness, "with great power comes great responsibility."
And wizards with their great power were- well-
Wizards weren't saints.
Some of them were murderers, con-artists, rapists and kidnappers. Greed, pride, sloth, gluttony, corruption - sins plagued their society like all societies in the world were riddled by.
Magic just made them deadlier.
After the official end of the war with Voldemort, the wizarding community was still in shambles. Criminals took advantage of the chaos to create more chaos and it took time before most of them were thrown in Azkaban.
In 1985, when Percy was 9 years old and Fred was 7, Fred and George played a prank. They were visiting Diagon Alley with their mother - to buy supplies for Bill and Charlie's use.
At that time, Fred and George were disgruntled by their mother's scolding for one thing or another and-
They were kids. They were immature and Fred was cruel.
They took it out on Percy who looked at them sternly and helplessly during the whole lecture. Fred felt that Percy's concern was patronizing - disgustingly condescending that well-
They wanted to get away for a while and manipulate Percy - who was so irritatingly perfect and proper - into doing something wrong for once.
Once Molly and their two elder brothers were occupied, they sneaked into Knockturn Alley with Percy following right behind them. They misled him and went back with the intention of tattling on Percy but-
When they went back, Percy was unconscious, covered in blood, and a man was killed.
(During the investigation, Fred heard that the man was a convict that liked to prey on kids and had a penchant for getting their power for himself after using them.
And Percy-
Percy's magic was almost drained off. His core suffered irreparable damage when he prematurely used his power in order to protect himself.)
(The twins later found out that the convict was waiting for both of them - stalking them once they checked the memories of the people in contact with the criminal. The auror said that Percy must have felt that something was wrong and shifted the attention of the criminal to himself instead.)
("Poor child," They heard the healer in charge of Percy once mutter as he shakes his head. "His potential was great, his core unusually large for a kid." The healer sighed, "It's a pity.")
The incident was something they blamed themselves for. The hits their mother and father gave in punishment, the ceaseless scoldings and the accusing eyes of their siblings- they were nothing in comparison to the anguish and guilt they felt for the incident.
It was their fault.
Their mistake.
Something they've had to live with for a long time.
But the thing was-
When Percy woke up, he didn't blame them at all. Smiling at them gently, he looked at them in relief and overwhelming affection.
As if they weren't the reason for his predicament.
As if his magic was negligible and his future as a wizard was nothing in return if it meant that Fred and George were safe.
("You're okay." Their older brother said hoarsely - his eyes looking at them intensely as they walked inside his room hesitantly. His weak body relaxed once he confirmed that they weren't injured. "Thank God, you're safe.")
When Percy was informed that his magic would take time to stabilize and he could only enter Hogwarts at a later time, he only smiled and accepted it without complaint - attending Hogwarts when he was 12, since, despite his injury, the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance approved of his enrollment.
Fred and George made an effort to know him better, after that.
They vowed to themselves that they would protect Percy as much as they could - as much as they were able to. When they weren't pranking everyone (they continued their pranking in an effort to avoid Percy worrying about them), they were studying and pilfering books from Charlie and Bill or the public library near them - doing as much as they could so they could protect him one day.
(That's all they could think to do in order to give back for all Percy sacrificed for them.)
...
..
.
Percy wasn't perfect.
No one ever was, and as good - as kind as Percy was as a person, his older brother had his own faults and weaknesses.
Percy-
Percy was an idiot with a severe case of "I'm-an-average complex" with a good dose of self-sacrificing tendencies.
George knew that even before the accident happened.
He wasn't like Fred. Fred had his own merits, but being observant wasn't one of them and his twin was never very keen on attaching himself to Percy after their parent's continuous praises and the neighbors' comparisons. It's George's job to make up for that and well-
George could see that, even from before, whenever Percy joked about how average he was or when he would bashfully shot down his achievements - it wasn't because he was feigning or fishing for compliments.
(George believed that Percy genuinely thinks that - despite all evidence pointing to the contrary - as if it was carved in his head over and over again until he himself believed it.)
He never did care much for it, at first. It left Fred with a bad taste in his mouth whenever Percy acted modestly so George, as was the norm, followed suit and ignored it too.
It wasn't until after the incident that George realized how frightening the disparity between how much Percy cared for others and himself were.
It was concerning.
The difference was too jarring and all the more apparent when it comes to their family.
(Percy cared for them in a way that could be best described as obsessive, if not desperate. As if they were a treasure, his absolute everything - not unlike an oasis for a dying man trudging on to hell for days.)
(George felt that Percy would die for them - kill for them, if it was necessary. Do everything he could, if it meant that they could lead happy lives in the future.)
(It scared him sometimes.)
He was probably the only one who could see it, so George took it upon himself to act as Percy's counselor and, as muggles called it, "therapist" so he could work toward his own issues as they grew older.
(George would like to believe it helped Percy at least a little.)
Today seemed to be one of their sessions when Percy bumped into them going out of the prefect's bathroom - with Fred intruding right in just because he could.
"George, " Percy cried out, looking panicked. Apparently, he was too distraught to realize the fact that the twins weren't authorized to be in that part of Hogwarts in the first place and just let out all of his woes immediately - woes that George heard for the nth time already, but what's new was the-
"Am I in a BL world?"
George looked at Percy blankly - brushing aside the fact that he knew what Percy meant immediately due to the twin's forays in the muggle world before he replied, "When did you get to that conclusion Percy?"
"Is it Oliver again?" Fred accused dramatically before Percy can reply, pursing his lips. "I think he is. I knew he was a bad influence on you." He nudged George to the side before mumbling. "And here I was thinking, that after he graduated, he'll finally scram and stop pining after Percy so much-"
George rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Fred." He sighed at the clueless look on his older brother's face and shook his head. "I think it's time for you to know something, just to stop whatever strange notions you've got into your head between the time you met Oliver and here."
Fred looked at him in surprise. "George-"
"You know I'm right." George smiled tiredly - looking at Percy as if he was a pitiful, pitiful thing. "If we let this go on, I'm afraid he'll eventually go into a route that would lead to even more understandings, so let's nip it off the bud this time."
Fred stared at George as if wanted to protest, before shaking his head. "All right."
Percy's cheeks flushed as it unconsciously puffed up. "I didn't-"
George patted Percy's shoulder comfortingly, maneuvering him away from the prefect's bathroom, "Don't think we didn't know how Lockhart's Valentine's day turned out, Percy." He reminded kindly as they walked. "I distinctly remember you being convinced that these people are zombies who want to eat you up because the dwarves went on and on about your alabaster skin." He paused. "Not that you were wrong, but it's not meant to be literal."
Percy huffed - opening his mouth to protest before Fred laughed and interrupted, "Or when Oliver went on to tell you about your admirers -" Fred's face slightly darkened. "that undid all of our hard work, mind you, fudging bastard-"
"Don't swear." Percy automatically warned.
"-you went to think that maybe there's something's wrong with his head instead of yours." Fred continued, ignoring Percy's reprimand.
George shot Percy a disappointed look as they slowly walked away, "And that time, when you think that we fed everyone a potion to let them act out like their house mascot for a whole year-" He frowned. "We were unjustly accused."
"Ahh," Fred brightened up, "I remember that!" He cleared his throat. "Why are some Slytherins "slithering" around me, Fred? They're squeezing me ah. George, Hufflepuffs were hugging me with all the chance they got too. I- I-" He stammered, imitating Percy's mannerisms perfectly.
Percy was speechless - his neck slowly turning red in disbelief.
"Why are Gryffindors eating my tofu? My tofu, my tofu, did I do something wrong?" Fred continued snickering, "Why are Ravenclaws circling over me? I'm not a prey ah." He comically blushed. "I'm kind of scared."
"Stop!" Percy blustered - his whole face as red as his hair. "It's not like that I- I-"
"You're a big boy now, so you should know about this now, Percy." George consoled solemnly. "It's not good to be this dense anymore."
"It's for your own good," Fred added. "You can't go on like this if you want to graduate."
"You- you-" He stammered - looking wronged as his eyes slightly misted in irritation. "You unfilial brats! It wasn't- I was" He stopped and just pointed at them angrily, before hurriedly leaving in a fluster.
After a moment or two, Fred looked at George in admiration. "Good diversion. That was a ballsy move."
George took off his benevolent counselor mask and comically brushed the sweat out of his brows. "Yeah, that was close. If he knew that we gave Cedric the shovel talk before we got here-"
Fred gave George a thumbs-up. "What Percy didn't know wouldn't hurt him."
Author's Note: I was influenced by translated Chinese novels. Cough, cough. Let's just pretend OC!Percy, was influenced too, so "my tofu my tofu" could be explained. Reviews would be fantastic. Thanks for reading. Donate ko-fi, if you enjoyed this chapter ah.
