Chapter Eleven

"I still don't understand… how did he have a seizure?" the twins heard Molly reiterate as they were sitting by the healers. She'd been asking that question for days now.

One of the healers started to talk all kinds of drivel that Fred and George didn't understand. Their mum kept on nodding her head and flicked her gaze towards Percy. She turned to the twins, told them to behave and that she'd only be gone for a few minutes to go get their older brother something to eat.

Fred had asked Charlie a while ago what a seizure was, and if it was the same thing as a a convulsion, Charlie seemed surprised but had explained to them that Percy had had a febrile convulsion, which meant that he had a seizure or a convulsion (they were the same thing) happen to him because his fever was so bad. Charlie said that doxies gnawed at Percy's leg injury and made him very ill as a result.

"This is all your fault," George muttered to Fred, his voice low and unhappy.

Fred was despondent about the fact that George hated him right now. Fred was the younger one by only a few seconds, but somehow, George was so much more mature for some reason. There were some things that Fred thought was hilarious that George believed was no 'laughing matter' but those times were very rare. Mostly, they agreed on everything. Tearing Percy's books was one of Fred's ideas. In fact, it took many moons to convince George to do it with him.

When Percy started saying that he hated them and he wished that they'd just go away, it really got to George. He wouldn't stop feeling sad that night.

In the morning, when Percy was missing, George blamed Fred…in fact; George blamed his twin for anything bad that ever happened to Percy. It was as if George never lent a hand in any of it! Fred wished that his happy George would come back. He missed having a twin that tried to get as close to him as possible instead of pushing him away over stupid things like this.

George repeated his statement again, "This is all your fault. It really is. You ruined everything."

"Georgie, stop it," Fred whispered towards his twin.

George looked back at Percy, whom was asleep in the hospital cot.

Percy had not had a convulsion since it first happened. Fred recalled that day clearly. He had been vomiting all afternoon and then their mum had tended to him, but somehow, he ended up having a febrile convulsion. Fred remembered doxies from the card game that George and him played (that George somehow always won). He read about doxy infections not being serious, and that Percy should be fine. It was his leg that people were worried about. It looked like they split him open like a walnut.

"How can I make this right?" Fred had given in, noticing the sad look on his twin's face.

George just shrugged. "You can't. It's all ruined, and now, mum cries all the time."

His mum wouldn't stop crying these days. A few days ago, Percy's Hogwarts letter came into the mail, and he didn't seem to be happy about it like he was a few months ago. He didn't keep anything down and he looked very weak and pale. If Percy died, George would never forgive Fred.

Fred hated to admit that George might be right. He wished that the idea didn't come to him, but it was too late now. "I don't understand how you're like this…all sensitive."

"I am not sensitive," George huffed, shaking his head.

"Oh, yeah, you are," Fred insisted, rolling his eyes before adding on, "You're very sensitive! You get all sad and unhappy when bad things happen and I don't. You also cry a lot. I never cry. When Percy went away, you wouldn't stop crying… it was so funny seeing your face botched up all the time!"

George threw a piercing glare towards his twin. "I hate you."

"No, you don't," Fred knew his twin too well. "You're just angry."

"I hate you!" George exclaimed, almost as if it would change the fact that Fred knew that it wasn't true at all.

"No, you don't," Fred repeated.

George's eyes suddenly filled with tears and he looked away. Suddenly, all Fred wanted his twin to do was to start yelling at him again because that wasn't painful. Seeing his twin cry about this made Fred's heart hurt bad, because he couldn't ease his twin's pain at all.

Molly walked in with a few sweet buns in her hands. "Oh, he hasn't woken up yet?"

George immediately grabbed one out of Molly's hand and sunk his teeth into it. Fred found it funny because he knew that despite it being well into the evening; George hadn't eaten a thing yet.

Molly shot George a cold look, shaking her head. "Those are not for you."

Fred tugged at his mum's robes like he did when he was younger. She leaned closer to him and heard Fred mentioning: he hasn't eaten yet. The woman nodded her head, sighed and muttered something about fixing George's eating habits one day before offering the rest of the sweet buns to George, whom had took them greedily into his hands. Fred snorted. If George could, he'd probably stuff all four sweet rolls down his throat at the same time.

"I'll go get more sweet buns for Percy," Molly announced, smiling to herself as George choked down another down his throat. "Eat slower, love, else we might have to admit you to the hospital too."

Fred laughed, and shook his head. He grabbed his twin by his elbow. "Georgie, listen to mum."

"Sod off," George muttered, which only earned a glare from his mum. His cheeks coloured in a dark colour in seconds, and he tried to hide it by bringing another sweet roll close to his face.

When their mum left, Percy had woken up from his long sleep. He didn't say anything for the first few minutes, and had only sat up and adjusted himself on the hospital cot. Bill and Charlie were taking care of Ron and Ginny back home (they refused to take care of him and his twin), and their father was buzzing away at work as per usual—in fact, more than usual. Fred eavesdropped on a few conversations and heard that their father was working overtime just so they could pay for Percy's hospitalisation since it was very expensive to be in the hospital.

"Give me that," Fred suddenly said, trying to grab a sweet bun from his twin's hands.

"No!" George announced, hoarding the last roll for himself.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Fat arse," he commented, knowing that it would make his twin more likely to give something to him. George was so sensitive about his looks that it was kind of funny, considering that he thought that Fred was attractive (they were identical twins with practically the same height and weight?).

George shot an icy glare towards his twin. "If I'm a fat arse, so are you."

Fred rolled his eyes again. So today was one of the few days that George had common sense? It was a day where Fred actually wanted something from him?

Percy had been staring vacantly at them for a while before he huffed out in frustration, "Just split it apart for Merlin's sake! You two are embarrassingly thick and your bickering is giving me a headache."

Fred reached over and snatched the sweet bun from his twin, earning an icy glare from George.

"I'm going to starve to death because of you one day," George sighed deeply.

Fred rolled his eyes, as he chewed on the sweet roll. He didn't know how George could eat three of these and still want another. He knew that George had an impossible sugar tolerance, but he bet that even the hungriest hippogriff couldn't eat three of these. "Yeah, yeah; I'll believe it when I see it, Georgie."

"I hate you," George repeated for the millionth time that hour. He sat by himself; staring longingly over at the sweet bun that Fred was now chewing.

"Stop it," Percy huffed, shaking his head and looking into the window. "You two are acting childish."

"We are children," Fred nodded his head. It wasn't as if Percy was that much older than them. He was a child too, and it was sort of funny considering how Percy acted like he was older than Bill half the time. "Maybe you should try being one too."

Percy shot a look towards them, raising an eyebrow. Fred then wondered what Percy was thinking in that particular moment, because his expression softened and he just looked away from them and fixated his gaze at a window instead.

"There he is, my handsome prince – all woken up," Molly cooed gently as she walked inside, carrying many, many sweet rolls in a bag. Fred had to snicker if she thought that somehow she could shove them into Percy's body without it rejected that amount of richness.

Percy's cheeks coloured in. "Mum, stop it."

Molly placed a hand on Percy's shoulder, staring at him for some time. "How is your leg? They said to me that they would've given you pain potions but potions are tricky with you considering your dittany allergy as dittanies are so tolerable to most people."

Percy rolled his eyes. "It's fine," he looked away from his mother for a few moments.

"I've bought you some sweet buns," Molly pulled out one from the bag and offered it to him.

The redhead stared over at the buns, and then back at the twins, whom seemed to be snickering. Hearing their mum saying sweet buns gave them an interesting visual.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I hate those with a passion," he called out bitterly before adding on, "I'd rather just starve to death."

Molly looked wounded for a few moments. It just dawned on Fred that their older brother did not care that he was hurting his mum like he usually did. Most times, he ate when Molly pushed anything towards him so that he did not worry her. These days, he did not seem to care at all. It was... actually very childish. The last thought made Fred raise an eyebrow. Percy acting like a child was strange, even if he actually was no more than two years older than them.

"Well, what do you want then?" she tried to sound optimistic, like she did the first few times George declined an apple for breakfast (now, she just got annoyed about it).

Percy glanced down at his leg, and sighed deeply. "I want to be left alone."

"Sweetheart, you—"

"I want to be left alone!" Percy exclaimed, looking back at her with a cold expression.

"Oh… oh…alright then," Molly stammered, his voice low.

She was so unhappy. Molly turned to the twins, nodded her head, and they left together. Fred tossed a look towards George, whom was currently ignoring him. Molly didn't say anything.

Come nightfall George didn't crawl into Fred's bed late at night like he always did. He stayed in his own bed, even though he was sad and needed to be held. Fred sighed, as he watched George toss and turn. There was a certain thing to be said for the exhaustion. Their exhaustion was so overwhelming that they could not sleep well on that cold August night.

COMING back to the Burrow wasn't something that Percy had been looking forward to. Percy absolutely hated the hospital, but at least, it was better at being at 'home'.

His mum had bought him new school robes and clothes (they were too short and too big), and she'd taken him down to Diagon Alley to get his wand, and his new school books. He had been dreaming for this day in so long, but found it hard to muster up the anticipation that he had a while ago. He did continue to look after the twins even though Molly told him that he didn't have to (It was a hilarious thought! He surely did not believe it. If not Percy, then who else was going to look after those hooligans?).

He didn't read anymore books for his own pleasure. Molly had bought him a book that was left untouched and flicked down a corner of his used-to-be bedroom. They were slowly building back his bedroom, but he did not know why they even bothered as Percy's spirit was crushed the minute he realised how empty that room was – two days after his supposed death! A few days ago, he saw his mum sneakily place his handle on the Weasley clock again. Did she think that he was stupid? Trying to make it seem like everyone missed him! What a load of absolute bollocks! She must've thought so lowly of him if she thought he'd be fooled. They would've known that he wasn't stupid if they had noticed how much effort he had put in to expand his vocabulary and perfect his handwriting!

Percy kicked the edge of his new bed, and sat down on the floor. He would not give them a satisfaction that they did not deserve by sleeping in the new bed. They thought by showering him with gifts that he would somehow forget that they had gotten over him so easily when he'd run off? Pathetic!

At least the Malfoy's didn't lie to him. They told him that he was worthless right in front of his face.

"Mum's so incredibly upset with you. She's going to give your room away if you don't come back, and give away all your things! We're going to have someone else to replace you!" Percy remembered Bill's words, the ones that he had yelled out when he was running after Percy in the woods. At that time, Percy thought that Bill said such things only to get under his skin, but apparently, they were truths. They really did give away his room and all his things. It left Percy wondering late at night about the other part of Bill's statement. It was one that rang in his ears when it was one o'clock in the morning.

"We're going to have someone else to replace you!"

But who? Who had they found to replace him?

LATE that night, Percy crawled into his mum and dad's room. He went to grab his father's wand from his bedside, realising he had forgotten his own in his room. He muttered a Lumos under his breath. He had gotten better at spells since he'd come back. When his mum got him the new books he'd use at Hogwarts, he read them religiously in hopes of getting a head start on the mountain of work he knew would be waiting for him at Hogwarts. He knew that Charlie and Bill were both incredibly smart and successful, which left Percy wanting to outshine them. He would be better than his elder brothers, and he was surely going to be better than this stupid replacement they had in mind.

He tried to look for files. He looked and looked, and did not find anything that could answer his questions. How well could his father hide these files? Percy continued to wonder as he searched. Did they want to replace him because he was a 'bore'?

I am not boring just because I'm not loud and obnoxious, he thought to himself, as he continued to rummage through the files. He did not even care about the amount of noise that he was making.

Somehow, out of the corner of his eyes, he found a pale-coloured file unlike the rest. This must be it, Percy thought to himself. Who could they possibly find to replace me?

He opened up the file and felt his heart drop into his chest. The boy in the file was named Oliver Wood. He was somewhere around Percy's age – he was a bit older than the redhead by a few months. His hair was short and brown. He did, in fact, look athletic even in the photograph. It was mentioned in the description of the boy that he was interested in all things Quidditch. The boy was from Scotland and had been in an orphanage since he was very young. It was also mentioned in the small print that he had gotten his Hogwarts letter recently, and was hopefully due to attend the school this coming September. Percy's stomach sloshed angrily. A part of him didn't genuinely expect to find a file. A part of him needed it all to be some sort of nonsense he made up in his head. This was a confirmation of one of Percy's biggest fears.

"What are you doing?" it was Arthur's voice that had made Percy jolt from where he was standing.

Percy had dropped the pale-coloured file and also the wand. The file fell on top of the others in the pile on the desk. Arthur took his wand from Percy's hand, and tried to rub the sleep from his eye. Just as Percy turned to run off, Arthur grabbed him by his shoulder and propelled him backwards.

"We will talk about this," the man said in a stern voice.

Percy looked down at his feet, feeling incredibly uneasy.

Arthur stared down at his son. A frown rested upon his lips. He was tired and absolutely wrecked from work, and Percy knew that a part of it was to pay off his medical bills. "What are you looking for, Percival?"

Percy said nothing. What could he say?

Arthur's eyes were darkening slightly as he placed his hand on his son's shoulder. "What did you want? Are you stealing from me again? What have you taken? Show me."

"Nothing!" Percy exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.

Arthur moved to look over at the spread of files on the desk, obviously not believing a word that left Percy's lips. The man looked through the files, and sighed deeply. "You are staying in your room for the all of tomorrow until I return from home late that evening. You are not leaving your room. You think about what you've done and the consequences of stealing."

"I didn't steal anything!" Percy called out in exasperation, feeling his heart sink in his chest. His father was punishing him for being disobedient. He physically felt ill. The twins never got punished, and here he was, his father disciplining him for looking through a few files.

Arthur seemed to think about this for a few moments, "And the consequences of lying."

"I'm not lying! I didn't steal anything," Percy begged him to reconsider. He had never felt so low in his life. First, he found out that his father really did actually get a replacement for him and now, his father was punishing him by making him stay in his room for all of tomorrow.

"Arthur, what's going on?" she said sleepily, before sitting up from her bed. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know what he's trying to steal, but he's at it again, Molly. I can't have him putting the whole family down in jeopardy just because he's smuggling Ministry files to a Death Eater!" Arthur called out vehemently.

Percy was shaking in his father's arms. He physically felt sick at the thought of getting into trouble and being disobedient. His whole life was revolved around sticking to the rules and being as little of a nuisance as possible to his own parents.

"What are you talking about?" Molly had flicked the lights on with her wand, and had noticed the frightened Percy beside the rather irritated looking Arthur. "What's he tried to take?"

Molly noticed the files on Arthur's desk; they were neatly stacked before and now, they were a mess. "Percival…" she glowered.

"Nothing!" Percy called out in fear, his throat hurting. "I didn't take anything! I didn't want to!"

Arthur shot an icy look towards Percy. "How dare you lie to your mum, Percival?" the way his father was looking at him made Percy feel like the man hated him. "Tell your mother that you are sorry."

Percy looked down at his feet. He didn't want to get anymore into trouble. "I'm sorry."

"I'm taking him to his room, and I'm letting him stay there for all of tomorrow as punishment for this. I just don't know what to do with him. He's disrupting my work, and getting me in all sorts of trouble! One day, we'll be living in a cardboard box because he can't keep his nose out of my files!" Arthur called out unhappily. He paused and then added on, "No books, Percival. No quills. No parchment."

Percy looked down at his feet, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Come on," Arthur announced, grabbing Percy by his shoulders. Wait, wasn't his mum going to say anything? He looked back up at his mother, whom had gone back to sleep as if this didn't matter?

When Arthur charmed the door to lock and left, the redhead collapsed on his bed and screamed.

ARTHUR felt guilty. Of course, he felt guilty about punishing Percy, but the redhead had been unbearably disruptive these days. Percy didn't listen to a single word that Molly or him said. He didn't finish off his plates. He did exactly the opposite of what Bill, Charlie and Arthur told him to do. He was consistently telling them that he wanted to be alone, or screaming for whatever idiotic reason he'd seemed to find this time round. He had complete disregarded the effects of his child-like rebellion was on the rest of the family. That night had been one of the worst.

Before Percy had snuck into the room, he'd had a row with Ginny that ended up with the small girl crying and running to Molly, screaming "I don't want Percy to be home anymore! He could go away forever! I don't care!"

George still felt somewhat guilty from what Arthur could see, but Fred had completely lost all senses of guilt by now. There were multiple days where Charlie and Bill had been having rows with little Percy, rows bad enough that there were some times that Charlie had to hold Bill to keep him from being physically violent to his son. As the days passed, Percy's habits were wearing them the whole family down. After working from four in the morning to seven in the afternoon, Arthur was toil worn. Even lying on his bed, every limb in his body felt heavy and ached badly.

That night, the Weasley family clock dislodged Percy's handle.

Even the clock had had enough.