Title: Goodbye, Nostalgia
Author: zazial
Time Period: DH
Pairings: Percy/Audrey, many others.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and everything connected with him. She's kind enough to let us play with her creations the way we do.
Chapter 6
Thursday morning Percy awoke to his usual routine. He stalked around his austere flat, changing, eating and finally flooing to work. He was fairly tired, but then again, he was always tired lately. Stress, which usually energized him and gave him a sense of achievement, was finally beginning to affect him.
His work was much the same under Scrigmeour's as it was when Fudge was Minister of Magic, except that his new boss did not waste time with words. Fudge would always give Percy praise, which he used to lap up, unused to hearing so much praise from any superior. Now a year older and wiser, Percy realized that Fudge was a fool and so was he for believing that anyone believed in him that much.
It was difficult to admit to any mistake however, as for most of his life, he never made them. Not to his knowledge anyway. His courage failed him when it came to this, because admitting that he had made this mistake meant possibly accepting too many other mistakes he had made in his life, and these were not the times for any individual to waste time wallowing in self reflection. These were times for individuals to take action, to do what they could for the betterment of their society. Once the threat of Voldemort was over, then, maybe then he'd consider taking some sort of leave and…what was he thinking?
It was a dreary Thursday morning and he was impatient to get to his office to see the falsely cheerful skies from the magical underground windows. Not that these even would help.
Percy had next to no sleep the night before, hearing again and again that cold voice say those words: "I hear that boy walked out on his family, I fail to see how he can still pretend to be concerned about his father."
Of course he knew that the Ministry was full of gossiping hyenas, and that word of his leaving was fairly well-known. It was however, one thing to know that those he knew personally would have some kind of judgment; it was another for a complete stranger to do the same.
"I fail to see…" that damned insect, how dare she? What did she know? She was only perhaps, one of the worst lawyers he'd ever seen, defending someone who was obviously innocent and winning only by using blackmail and a technicality. Of course she would fail to see anything, that stupid hag. What did she know about family? What did she know about how all Weasley's were taught to stand up for what one believed in? He believed in the Ministry, he believed in the establishment of a body that had protected the wizarding world for centuries, he believed in…
Power.
No! Stop that.
"Death Eaters are standing up for that they believe in…"
She was right really, taking a stand was one thing but there was no escape from the reality that he had made the wrong decision.
Percy was glad to arrive at his desk and see the pile of work waiting for him, hopefully it would help him to forget such troubling thoughts. As the Minister's Junior Undersecretary, Percy oversaw reports from each Head of the various departments. In addition to this, he had to assist both the Senior Undersecretary and the Minister himself. Thankfully Umbridge preferred working alone in most things, and Scrimgeour rarely ever saw Percy, deeming him not important enough. Instead what Percy received were many inter-office memos giving orders for the things that he should do for that day. His entire Wednesday was taken up by the trial, having received the memo from Scrimgeour himself to scribe it, he returned to turn in his report on its events and then could not concentrate for the rest of the day. Of course, that meant a backlog for today.
It was a good thing, work was something he was used to. He hardly socialized anymore. He used to when he started, taking occasional lunches with his ex-girlfriend Penelope Clearwater who was now working for the Comet Broomstick company, but she had taken an overseas assignment and was now in Lebanon researching the magical properties of their cedar for the next model. Percy was happy that she was far away from the danger, and that her departure gave them a good break from their somewhat awkward situation.
They broke up because the school day feelings had waned, and no longer cared for each other romantically. When he told her about what he had done to his family, Penelope nodded, clearly unhappy but said nothing, changing the subject. It became painfully clear to him then that they never really had a partnership. What they had together was a wonderful act; two intelligent people who were supposed to match each other. However on a deeper level, he knew all along that they never truly connected nor cared for each other in ways that they needed to. He thought he did though, and he felt a disappointment in himself to discover that he was only acting.
Percy clenched his fist and finally picked up his quill to get to work. He had already wasted fifteen minutes reminiscing about Penelope. This was the same problem he had the day before, it was impossible to focus.
The first topic of the day was a list of possible Death-Eater related muggle murders – as reported from the Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes from the desks of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee. It was tough to tell whether or not there was actually a magical connection or just the work of some mad muggle who decided to wake up and kill people one day. Damn muggles had too many serial killers and other sick minded persons amongst them.
The first picture he had to look at was too full of blood and so motionless it could have been taken with a muggle camera. Percy dropped the photograph and gripped the table. He was seeing his father again, the picture of his father covered in blood after being attacked in the Department of Mysteries.
He wanted to go see him, he wanted to grab everyone by the shoulders and demand the truth! Why on earth was his father really at the Department of Mysteries? Is this what his family believed in? Percy almost made it to St. Mungos until he realized that if he went, he'd only make everything worse, he'd yell at everyone for their stupidity, and he was not prepared to do that.
Besides, at that time, he had his own career to worry about. If his entire family was going mad, then he had to stand on his own to uphold the nobility of the Weasley name and most importantly, be a correct role-model for Ron and Ginny. They were young and impressionable, but if there was just the smallest chance that they would ever see reason, then at least they'd have one brother to look to. That was until he saw them the year later, seeing that his younger siblings hated him.
"Stop that." He muttered to himself. He had just lost another half and hour of time, and those inter-office memos/orders were still flying in.
"I hear that boy walked out on his family…" there was that voice replaying in his head again. Why oh why could that woman not just disappear? Go away, insect.
As much as he tried to dismiss her though, she refused to be dismissed. Percy remembered every second of that trial, or rather, everything about Audrey Beridore. The trial had begun well enough. Percy told himself that he was likely only paying so much attention because the day before that he and Oliver discussed that very trial. At that point, Percy had no idea he'd be witnessing it. He had noted the neat, elegant, pale, honey-blonde woman walk in wearing those professional lawyer robes and that absolutely classic chignon tied at the base of her neck – it gave him a rather good view of that neck, and face and…stop. He almost blushed at Oliver's comment about introducing them. When she started speaking and before he began penning, Percy remembered thinking "Thanks Oliver, but she's out of my reach." She spoke with such clarity, calm and reason at first, presenting the facts of the case and introducing her witnesses.
Unfortunately, Percy only discovered through inter-office gossip after the trial that Madam Leonis had come in that morning after discovering that her husband had run off with a Quidditch reporter and was feeling an intense hatred for the sport at that very moment, making her a less than perfect impartial judge. Still, that was no excuse for what happened next…for Audrey Beridore to turn a perfectly respectable trial into a farce.
When that happened she changed from 'out of my reach' to 'what in Merlin's name?!'. From her accusations of Ministry incompetence to point-blank threats, Percy was forcefully reminded of his mother's early lessons of judging women by their looks alone. 'Sorry Mum, I never thought I'd ever do that. Learned my lesson now.' But he was not just being shallow. He really had thought, when she had begun to speak, that she was a goddess. Bloody lawyer.
Damn, lost another fifteen minutes, that was an entire wasted hour now!
Alright, dead muggles. This time he'd actually work. Then of course, a beautiful snowy owl landed on his desk in front of him, distracting him again. Shocked (for Percy rarely received personal mail anymore and he did not recognize this owl besides), he reached for the letter and desperately searched for some kind of a treat for the creature. He finally found a small pack of owl treats in his bottommost drawer which thankfully were not stale. After feeding her one she hooted gratefully and he broke the seal on the ribbon tied around the envelope. Odd, few people actually tied with ribbon and sealed them with wax anymore. It was quite an old-fashioned thing to do. He found that he admired the elegance of it, and that perhaps he should take the time to do start doing the same.
It held the Puddlemere United letterhead, so the first thing he read was not "Dear Mr. Weasley," it was in fact "From the Office of Audrey Beridore," and he stopped. She had some initials and whatever titles listed after her name but he did not get that far.
Glaring at the owl now who was still sitting on his desk, waiting patiently for him to finish reading the letter, Percy crumpled the parchment in front of her. Still the owl did nothing, she was still waiting.
"I'm not reading it. I thank you for making the journey but you may make it extremely clear to Ms. Beridore that I will welcome no letters from her."
'Good one Percy', he thought to himself, 'You expect owls to talk to their owners now do you?' He knew that between owner and owl they could communicate "I'm hungry, I'm in a terrible mood, and I'm happy to see you" but beyond that it was not a sure thing.
Still the owl did nothing, she simply waited. Finally Percy stood from his desk, and tossed the crumpled letter into his empty, decorative small fireplace. Nothing from the owl. He pointed his wand, flicked it and recited "Incendio!"
The owl only flew away when the letter burned into nothing. That ordeal took up another half-hour. 10:30 now and no focus in sight. Now his office smelt like smoke and it was useless to open a false window. With a sigh Percy muttered another spell to negate the smell and sank down into his chair. Staring at the ashes of what was once Ms. Beridore's letter, he felt like an absolute idiot for acting like a child. However, he knew he did not want to read or hear anything from her.