Chapter Thirty-Eight
Percy Is Not A Herbologist Part 4
Percy was sure he felt his heart rip out of his chest. He'd managed to wheel himself to Lucy's door. He found his fifteen-year-old daughter looking like she was posing for an ad about teenage depression. She was just sat by the window with the curtains drawn down, in the near darkness. She was wearing the only decent nightgown she owned. Tears ran down her chubby cheeks. With every sniffle, he was sure that little pieces of his heart were dislodged. But it was fine. It wasn't like he needed a heart for anything. He was just fine hearing his daughter cry and be sad.
It had been years, but seeing her upset did not fail to upset him. I'm sorry, he didn't know what for, but he was. I'm so sorry, Lucille. I love you so much.
Percy was sorry he was such a sad excuse for a father. He might have despised his father but at least Arthur could take him out to Honeyduke's without having to call half of St Mungo's nursing squad to help him because his stupid arse had managed to get stuck into a miniature secret magic cupboard because of his temperamental wheelchair. You'd think that happened ages ago, but it was just last week! At his daughters' final years of Hogwarts, they'd probably bolt out of this flat so fast Percy would have to owl the Auror department to get them a speeding ticket.
Just as he tried wheeling himself into Lucy's room, his stupid second-hand wheelchair got stuck on the stupid pretty carpet Daphne just had to have.
Perfect, Percy thought to himself. If he had a knut for every bitter statement that Percy ever thought, they'd be sat in Malfoy's mansion, sipping hot chocolates made from dragon milk (well, not really. He had to factor Charlie in, but he supposed that he was leaving.) What stood between Harry and You-Know-Who was the Ministry, an army of Dementors and Death Eaters and he still succeeded. What stands before me and my daughter is a two-sickle carpet. Yet I am but powerless.
Merlin, did he not tell Daphne about this pesky carpet? It didn't matter that it cost as much as a hot chocolate! He couldn't move his stupid second-hand wheelchair around the house because there were carpets every-bloody-where. Percy cursed to himself, to Merlin, to whatever old Hogwarts founder he could think of. As if any of them cared about a cripple that couldn't work a wheelchair despite acquiring 12 O.W.L's As Percy placed his hand on the dresser next to the door, he tried to push himself into the room. And it worked! He'd gotten into the room. It would have been a roaring success if he didn't manage to also take down the following: a shiny yellow lamp with I HATE YOU scribbled on it by a blotchy black quill, a black Quidditch watch that Lucy hated because it wasn't black enough, a stuffed Puffskein that she'd butchered beyond recognition and least important and most replaceable: himself.
For a cripple, he sure spent more of his time flying than he did when he'd been able to walk!
For the third time this week, Percy found himself flat on his back after he flew from his wheelchair. The momentum of his fall was strong enough to cause Lucy's pale-coloured, HEAVING drawer to collapse on top of him! He heard a mirror shatter straight afterwards. Percy tried to use whatever power was left in his scrawny arms to lift the dresser, but it was about as futile as trying to control Hagrid around small, little critters. Breathlessly, he decided to give up. A new record! Only one second of trying, and he hadn't even really bothered. He was sure that this was what McGonagall had envisioned for him all these years back when she'd told him that she saw great things for him.
"DAD! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Lucy squealed, running towards him wearing pink slippers and holding a Honeyduke's chocolate milk—his, for the sake of accuracy. "Why can't you be like every other normal boring dad and not destroy my whole room just by walking in? Well, not WALKING since you know, you're like paralysed waist down but like…!"
Percy's head was pounding, and he was hyperventilating as he heard Lucy shriek in annoyance at him. The sound could probably give a banshee a run for her money. And it was nice to know his daughter cared enough about his ethics and morals not to break the law by performing underage magic (that was his story for why she hadn't bothered helping him and he was sticking to it.)
"Seriously, why are you spying on me?" Lucy kept on yelling, gesturing her hands everywhere. "I HATE YOU!"
With Lucy's screams and the sound of the crashing dresser, Daphne, Charlie and Molly practically sprinted to the room. Charlie accidentally tripped on the carpet and collapsed on top of the dresser. Of course, it couldn't be his six-stone daughter, or his nine-stone wife that fell on top of him. It had to be that heaving ex-dragon tamer that had muscles on top of his muscles. But at least Percy didn't have to worry about his appendix rupturing considering he'd already had an appendectomy all those years back. And a cholecystectomy as of last year!
But did you know that blue was not a good look on him? And neither was purple... Percy felt like he was going to pass out.
Charlie pulled himself up and slowly peeled the dresser off Percy's body. There were several hairbrushes, abandoned scrunchies, dozens of hair care products, crushed-looking make-up, and expensive skin care treatments littered around Lucy's room now. He could see an irritated Lucy bending down to pick them up. You'd think she'd spend at least some of that money he gave her on decent clothing, and a single item for school instead of cigarettes (he wasn't daft.) Well, he was before. He thought that there was something wrong with the oven when he saw smoke around the house, but to be fair, did you know how many times he'd fallen flat on his ginormous head? He'd probably received more concussions than a Quidditch player.
Percy was pulled up to sitting position by Charlie, hand on his back. "Don't worry," Charlie smirked. "I got your back."
"Ha ha," replied Percy humourlessly. Behind him, he could smell a concoction of coconut and rose water from spilled body mist and hair oils.
"What's going on here?" Daphne asked, huffing towards Lucy. "Oh, her. I'm not surprised." Lucy huffed back towards her. Percy felt like he needed a Care of Magical Creature manual to figure out what those gestures were supposed to mean.
Lucy had looped up a bunch of her products and dumped them back into her drawers before shutting them. Daphne was stood by the door, with her arms crossed on her chest. She had a black face mask on that reminded him of a Death Eater's mask. She terrified him just as much, staring at him with those big blue eyes focused on how he'd managed to single-handedly destroy his daughter's room without a single Fred and George product anywhere in sight. Molly was stood beside her, hair looking uncontrolled as always. There was a look of worry etched upon her face. Well, he did just tell her that Charlie was leaving them all alone and they had to deal with his uncoordinated arse. He could just look at a building and it would come apart at the seams. They should keep him locked away as the new war weapon when the time came. Could set an oven on fire just by trying to heat up a can of baked beans by himself (he couldn't reach the stove anymore.)
"Stupid bitch!" Lucy shrieked, waving her hands around dramatically and in turn, dropping the last of her samples of Primpernelle's awfully offensive Look Thinner by the Minute body cream. "She wants me to do everything for her! Cow!"
Percy's eyes practically bulged out of his sockets. "Excuse me?" he called out in a high-pitched voice, sounding like he'd just sucked out the helium from a balloon. He couldn't believe this was how his children turned out. This is my fault, this is my fault, he kept telling himself. If he hadn't spoiled them so rotten, they wouldn't turn so spoiled and entitled. But he couldn't help himself. He loved them so much that he wanted them to have the best of everything. Stupid, weak-hearted fool. "Lucille, apologise to your mum."
"She's not my mum and you're not my dad!" Lucy yelled, stomping out of the room. "I'm going out! I don't need you!"
"Stop. Her!" Percy demanded from Charlie, who just nodded his head and ran after her.
He was not going to let her go out in her nightgown. He knew that this was not the first time that she did. He knew that she did it just to make her point. Honestly, nowadays, to get ready for an outing, all she had to do was take off her nightgown. It wasn't like her regular clothes concealed more than her underpants did. Honestly, it made him want to brush up on his concealment charms just to protect whatever was left of her virtue. Well, he supposed he could look at the bright side—she had only walked out of the house in the absolute nude once last year to go skinny-dipping.
Daphne crouched down to his eye-level and placed a hand on his own. "Are you okay?" she whispered.
Just as Percy was about to answer, Lucy pushed Molly aside and trudged back into her room with ruddy cheeks. Charlie was stood at the door with a vacant expression and Molly practically squished herself by the door. If she tried to make herself look any smaller, she might accidentally disapparate. Percy leaned into his wife's warm hands, smelling that perfume that he was sure he was mildly allergic to because it made his eyes water.
"Perce, I want to…" Charlie looked haggard. I want to leave hung in the air. He could see it in Charlie's weary eyes. He bet that tending for dragons was a lot less scathing than trying to calm down a disgruntled Lucy.
"You'll be okay," Charlie whispered softly.
"What's going on?" Daphne asked, looking up to him with a raised eyebrow.
Charlie nodded. "Daphne, I'm going," he said. "For good." He cleared his throat. "Mum can take care of Percy."
Daphne looked at him like she'd just been slapped and shook her head in absolute disbelief. "You want me and two fifteen-year-old girls to move in with your mother?" she surmised, her hand still clinging onto Percy's body for dear life. She then looked back at Charlie, with a shocked look to her face. "Charlie, we… we can't move into the Burrow!"
Charlie's hands were balled into fists. "You're barely around here anyway," he hissed. "Look, Daphne, you have to understand that I took care of him for a decade! I'm not taking care of him for another one."
"And why not?" Daphne stood up, shooting him an annoyed look. "He's your brother!"
"And he's your husband!" Charlie shot back at her, his hands shaking. Percy couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this supposed to boost his morale? "I'm thirty-seven-years-old, Daphne! I'm nearing forty, and I'm changing your husband's pants every morning. Do you think that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life? It's not my bloody job!"
"It's not mine either," Daphne stiffly said, rounding her shoulders. "We're not living on his disability! I'm the one that works around here! I bring most of the money back home!"
Percy nodded his head mutely, clasping his clammy hands together. "He's right, Daphne," he said quietly. "You know he is."
He looked over at his wife with a dull expression, feeling his chest tighten. "You can just drop me off to the Burrow every morning, and pick me up every night," Percy said in a whisper. He couldn't help but the pang of pain that he felt in his chest. His disability was ruining everyone's life. He was such a burden on everyone that he couldn't help but hate himself for it. He'd taken away ten years of Charlie's life, and he didn't know how he could ruin someone else's life too.
Daphne shook her head. "Oh no, I absolutely can't," she said, as she sighed in defeat. "Your mum hates me!"
Your mum hates me, Percy echoed in his mind. Was she serious about this? He drew his lips into a tight line.
Percy stared at her aghast and fury filled him like no other. "Well, then just chuck me in a nursing home if you don't want to talk to my mum!" he had practically told her to throw him somewhere else to be taken care of anyway! Why in Merlin's name was she married to him for anyway? It was nearly masochistic, what she was doing. Adding on endless amount of tasks for her to complete. And why would she want a baby if she couldn't even take care of him, the overgrown toddler anyway? "Or better yet, why don't you pay someone to euthanise me? I'm sure it will be pricey but think of the lifelong investment!"
Daphne jerked backwards, panting. She stared at him in shock.
"Why did we even bother geting married?" Percy knew that it was a mistake to bring it up, but he had to. He had to let her see what their relationship had come to over the years. "As far as I can recall, I never see you. You're always working. And when you're around, you never sit with me. You'll give your mum a Floo call but there are days where you've genuinely ignored me for something else. I thought my relationship with my father is bad, but this family is just as much of a sham! It's a miracle all four of us sit down together for dinner twice a week!"
Percy bit down his lower lip, furious. Charlie was just stood there, nodding his head as if to say that he agreed with him.
"I left him outside in his wheelchair for three hours when we had a fight to have a drink," Charlie finally admitted. Percy felt his whole body become warm as he flushed. When Percy tried to swallow, he felt a lump stuck in his throat. It was like he was trying to swallow one of his mum's Christmas fruitcakes.. "Honestly, Daphne, it's is the only time I've done it, but is nobody bloody asking about him at all throughout the day? Not once in ten years? Just toss him into my care, and that's it? Godric, he'd honestly be better off at a nursing home, because at least you might actually visit him. No wonder he's so bloody depressed to begin with. All he has is me to talk to and I'm dumber than a pile of moonstone powder!"
Charlie then scooped Percy up and put him in his wheelchair in less than a second. "You know what? I wouldn't put that burden on you, Daph. You don't have to worry about him anymore," Charlie said sardonically, holding onto the handles of his wheelchair. "I'll take him with me back to Romania."
"I don't do well in heat!" Percy suddenly decided to say. "I get sunburned easily. I don't know what the effect of prolonged heat exposure is on...on blood thinners! And I generally don't do well around animals that bring a new meaning to the word blood pudding!"
Before Percy could say that the last thing he wanted to be was in a heat-stricken country filled with dragons, Charlie was pushing his wheelchair away from them. As he got to the living room, Percy was feeling anxious. He didn't even have summer clothes because he hated leaving the house when it was that hot and humid outside, not even for a Fortescue's. Before they could leave, Daphne apparated by the door. It was a rather clever thing to do. Charlie's hands were tightly holding onto the handles of his wheelchair. Molly and Lucy ran into the room and were stood behind them.
"You're not stealing my husband away from me, Charlie!" Daphne shrieked at him, protectively holding onto Percy's bars.
"Where are you taking my dad?" Lucy grabbed Charlie's arm. "This is-this is kidnapping! And it's illegal! I'M TELLING UNCLE RON!"
Charlie jerked Percy back from her hold, and Percy accidentally slammed his head backwards. "Now, he's your bloody husband and father? Are you sure you can be bothered to drop him off to his mum's every morning?" he spat out coldly. "I'm not snogging him, Daph but I still sacrificed ten years of my life for him! And you can't be bothered to move in with our mum! Why should I leave him here with you considering how bloody busy you all are all day anyway?"
He was not going anywhere in his pyjamas. Daphne was so startled by Charlie's rant that he finally pushed past her.
"SOMEONE HELP!" Lucy shrieked as she ran after Charlie. "My uncle is stealing my father and taking him for a holiday! He...he doesn't do well in hot environments!"
"And he forgot his vitamins!" Molly followed straight afterwards, waving around his Slytherin-green-coloured nourishing potions.
WhenCharlie had gotten to the stairs, he'd just apparated them both out of the building which was the worst thing Charlie could've done. Percy threw up all over the sidewalk and he was seeing grey spots in his eyes. He'd already not had any dinner, and he felt like he'd just thrown up his stomach lining from the awful reflux that he'd gotten. But otherwise, he was fine!
Lucy had already gotten down and tried to tear Percy's wheelchair away from Charlie. "Give him back!"
Percy was dizzy. His daughter, Lucy, was out in her pyjamas. Molly was stood behind her, with eyes so wide it looked like she'd found The Grim waiting for her outside. Daphne ran over to Charlie, fighting over Percy's wheelchair with Lucy. Honestly, Percy knew he'd complained about not being noticed, but this took the fruitcake!
"WHAT is going on out here?" Arthur Weasley's voice made Charlie jump up, and he turned around to see his father stood outside in his Ministry robes. Percy was surprised that his father worked past five! He'd finally realised that being the Minister meant more than just pointing fingers at others and telling them what to do. Incredible. He was holding a stack of papers underneath his arms, and a cup of tea in the other hand. His mum would be so upset that he was drinking tea from a coffee shop.
"What is this?" Arthur called out, looking unimpressed. Quick! Call The Daily Prophet. The Minister was displeased and the world stopped turning. "An outdoor slumber party?"
"Uncle Charlie is stealing our dad and taking him to Romania because mum ate his curry!" Lucy said to her grandfather, tearful.
Daphne managed to gain control of his wheelchair long enough to push him backwards. Percy just stared at her with a tired expression on his face. He was sick of being tossed around like a Puffskein—literally.
"Well, Charlie does like his curries!" Arthur shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Daphne, this quarantine business is really destroying the faith that people have in the Ministry. Every day, there's a new theory to where this thing had come from! Just yesterday, I was asked to tell people that it hadn't come from the bloody pub… although it is nice to have a drink alone at night without worrying about drunken seventh years celebrating their freedom. But—"
Percy couldn't help himself. All he could see was a stack of papers! Papers right in his reach. He leaned forward and just grabbed the papers from Arthur and leafed through them. He recognised the stamps and seals almost immediately and he hungrily lapped up the words. The images floating in his mind in an exhausted daze.
"PERCY!" Daphne yelled in a tone that reminded him of his mum. "You're not allowed to work!"
"Percival," Arthur chuckled lightly. "Even if you wanted to help… well, the work these days is much different than what you used to do!"
She stole the papers from him, and he felt defeated. A surge of fury hit him faster than he could see and before he knew it, his wheelchair was moving all by itself. And it was moving with the speed of a new Firebolt. Percy gasped, holding on tightly to the bars before he realised that his stupid, emotional arse performed an act of wandless magic at the ripe age of thirty. You know who performed wandless magic? Toddlers throwing temper tantrums! Perfect. With stars in front of his eyes, he found himself sat in front of the Ministry in less than five minutes. His head was swirling with more images than a children's book. He looked around and saw a man just step outside and eye him because he was sat in his pyjamas. Probably thought he'd escaped an asylum. Percy looked down at his hands. He realised as he'd stolen the papers from his father, he'd accidentally snatched his employee ID (or had he magically stolen it?) and a suspiciously old quill that had been in his breast pocket.
He wheeled himself into the Ministry, his hand still clinging tightly onto his father's identification card.
Tears almost sprung to his eyes. Things were finally quiet. He didn't have to hear about Charlie and Daphne fight over him like Lucy and Molly did over the last Pixie Puff ice lolly (well, back when they actually liked him.) The smell of the Ministry was almost like home to him, more so than the Burrow. Even at his worst when he was working nearly all the time, he'd never been as miserable as he was now. It was obvious that the Ministry had been painted recently, with glowing prideful gold and violet coloured walls. He must have been sat there for ages, because he felt someone snatch Arthur's ID from him, and realised that it was Arthur himself.
"Why can't you just listen to your healers for ONCE?" Arthur asked hotly. He'd never heard his father sound so furious—well, he probably had but it had been such a long time since his father even acknowledged he'd existed to begin with. "Is having two strokes not enough for you, Percival? Do you want another one? Do you want to be completely bedridden?"
Percy could've said a thousand things back. The main ones being don't speak to me like I'm a child and why do you care? But he didn't.
He just sunk into his wheelchair. He hadn't been here in ages. "I just wanted to see," he said softly. When he closed his eyes, he could still remember his morning route so clearly. Percy could remember walking up to get his first coffee of the day along with a pumpkin pasty as he got up to the elevator. He would close his eyes as the elevator went up and felt the whole world come at peace when he'd stepped off to the Administrations floor. He could still remember how nice the carpet felt under his foot. He remembered his favourite clothes, and how his desk smelled like. Like it was just yesterday.
"Have you seen enough?" Arthur broke him out of his trance. But that life was over now. There was not a single person who respected him now or whatever he stood for. He was going to live the rest of his life in this wheelchair. He was going to die in it, probably littered with infected bedsores and nappy rash at the ripe age of forty-five. "Come on. Let's go."
As Arthur pushed Percy out of the Ministry, Percy paused for a moment and felt his stomach started rebelling.
"I'm taking him to Romania," Charlie said stiffly to Daphne, who looked shocked at this statement. "Honestly, what are you going to do? Bring him to the Ministry every day and make him coffee as you dash in and out of the office?"
Lucy, face tear-stained, was screaming. "It's not fair!" she yelled. "I take back what I said! I take it back!"
Daphne moved her hands around defiantly, her icy blue orbs pierced through Charlie's demanding exterior. "You're not taking my husband out of this bloody city, so forget about taking him to another country!" she yelled at him. "Fine! You're right, Charlie. You are. I might not have been paying as much attention to him. Neither me nor his children, but you are sorely mistaken if you think you're taking him out of this country just to make a point! Look at them! We're all willing to work on repairing our relationships. We will all take care of him. We don't need you around anymore so GO!"
Lucy and Molly nodded their heads. "Yeah, I didn't mean to say I hated him..." Lucy nodded her head. "Not really, really hate him. Just a little sort of hate him..."
Molly cleared her throat and rubbed her neck. "And I can probably be a little nicer to you too," she admitted. "And dad. And um..."
"Yeah," Lucy decided to nod her head, smiling back at Molly. It was probably the most civil they'd been around each other since they were second years.
Charlie broke into a laugh, and warmth filled Percy's body. He could feel the tension in the air disappear. "Great! I'll see you all for Christmas!" Daphne's jaw dropped. That was what the bastard had been planning all along and Percy would've been amused if not for the fact that his stomach was suddenly killing him.
"Come on, let's get you to—" Daphne said, walking towards her husband. Merlin, what was wrong with him? Why did he feel so horrible? Look, sure, he'd skipped a meal, but he wasn't hankering for a chickpea curry that much. Besides, he'd always disliked gas-producing food. Percy shook his head, turned to the side.
Three seconds after, Percy took a deep breath and vomited blood. Charlie jumped up, and stared at him with wide eyes.
"Quarantine," Arthur bleakly finished, staring at a blood-covered Percy. Well, at least he felt better now he'd thrown up. "You are going to quarantine with all the other cases."
