LIBBY MOON
22 May 2001
Percy Weasley was not one to waste time. His entire life had been devoted to hard work and efficiency. That's how he had been promoted to the Head of Department of Magical Transportation at merely twenty-four years of age. He was still young of course, especially for a wizard, but lately he found himself wishing he hadn't spent his youth trying to be an adult. He was the youngest head his department had ever seen and before that, the youngest assistant to the Minister for Magic that England had ever seen. He was accomplished to say the least. But he wasn't fulfilled.
"Boss," Wilkie Twycross, the apparition instructor, poked his head in and dropped a stack of files on Percy's desk. "The Apparition exams. Six failed again."
"Thank you," Percy muttered, waving the old wizard out of his office.
Once he was alone again, Percy glanced at the exam forms. He quickly signed each one and stamped it with a seal before sending them soaring into a tube that would direct the forms to the filing department. Then he glanced at the clock on the wall, a gift from his mother when he was first assigned an office. It informed him that the department would soon be closing for the day.
He usually had lunch delivered by his middle-aged assistant Verity but wouldn't eat until well into the afternoon. He relished the quiet hum of the office with no one else around during their lunch break and took advantage of the peace and quiet to accomplish the bulk of his work. That was probably why he stayed late so often and regularly came in to work on the weekend. Of course, he could attribute that to his introverted personality or the shortage of friends and social invitations.
But something about today was different. As witches and wizards around him began to clear their desks, he saw Verity approach his door, tapping lightly. "I'm heading home," she said. "Need anything before I go."
"No," he replied. "Thank you. I'll see you in the morning."
She flashed him a smile before heading toward the lifts. Percy's eyes settled on the simple gold band she wore on her right hand. He tried to remember the last time he had met a woman who wasn't married, much less married to one of his brothers. At times he wondered if his solitary existence was somehow related to the fact that his siblings, aside from Charlie, had all paired off, even George was settling down.
Reminded of his brother, Percy reached for the enchanted hourglass that was allegedly counting down until the moment he met the woman he would marry. Somehow Percy was skeptical of George's talents in romance. In fact, he wasn't completely convinced that the hourglass benign. Knowing George it was actually counting down until the moment it exploded, shattering everything in his office into a million pieces. He made a mental note toe send it for spell testing just in case.
The sand in the hourglass passed slowly from one vial to the other. He estimated it would be another two years before he finally met the mythical girl of his dreams, if the hourglass even accomplished what it purported to do. He cursed the hourglass for distracting him and slammed it back down on his deck, silently wondering why he even kept it around in the first place. Maybe deep down he was a hopeless romantic.
Having squandered the afternoon staring at an hourglass that may or may not contain the key to his future, he realized his work was really starting to pile up. A quick glance to his incoming files box proved that he truly needed to stay behind tonight in order to catch up. Otherwise he would be staring at a workload twice as large by morning.
He was making every effort to engross himself in his work when he heard hurried footsteps scurrying toward his office. A petite witch tapped delicately against the glass window of his office. "Sorry!"
"Come in," he urged her.
She stormed into his office planting a stack of files on his desk. Then she remembered her manners and extended a hand. "Libby Moon, Filing."
"Right," he registered the familiar name. "Pleasure."
"I'm so glad I caught you," she replied. "I was leaving the office and just realized Twycross had you sign the wrong forms."
She gestured to the stack on her desk. Percy thumbed through them and acknowledged that, for the first time in his career, he had made a mistake, probably a result of his obsession with George's fateful gift.
"Thank you so much," he told her.
"I can wait," she replied, "for you to sign it. That way I can get them filed tonight and they'll be in the system by morning."
"You don't have to," he shook his head. "It was my mistake. I can file them myself."
"It's my pleasure," she said quickly. "Besides, you're head of department. We can't have you filing your own forms. I'll get sacked for even letting you."
Percy took a second to look up from his work. He hardly registered what she had been babbling about while he read and reread the forms to prevent another mistake from happening. When he was done adding his signature to the corrected forms, he looked up at the smiling girl in his office. "Sorry, you were saying?"
"Oh nothing," she rambled on. "Just that I can take these down to the filing room tonight. I insist."
"You really don't need to," he protested. "I can just take them down myself."
"How about a compromise?" she offered. "You can do the filing as long as you accompany me to dinner."
"I don't really eat this late," he told her.
"A drink then?" she tried her best to hide her disappointment at his initial rejection.
"Er..." he suddenly had a lightbulb moment. "Yeah, sure. I could have a drink."
"Good," Libby smirked. "We better get going."
Percy smiled. He grabbed his briefcase and slung it over his shoulder, then paused for a second picking up the hourglass.
"What's that?" Libby asked.
"Nothing," Percy dropped it in his desk drawers. "It's broken."
Then he locked up the drawer and followed Libby down to the filing room. In all of the years George had been alive, he and Percy had never shared an earnest moment. He was wholly unconvinced that the hourglass possessed any sort of romantic powers.
I hope you all enjoyed this little snippet into Percy's life. There's more of him soon but first some Rita Skeeter is headed your way. And thank you for all the reads, reviews, follows, favourites, etc. I truly appreciate everyone who's come across this page!
