Cant stop, won't stop moving
Percy wakes up on the first of April with a sense of dread. He's used to dreading this day - growing up with two brothers who celebrate their birthday on this day has just caused the twins to believe they have additional rights to prank people from the moment it turns twelve midnight, until the next midnight hits.
At least at Hogwarts, they were at home and away from him. Then when they came too, he realised they couldn't get into his dorm, so he was safe.
Safe being an overstatement though, because whilst he has safety from his younger brothers, it didn't offer him that same safety from his room-mate, Oliver.
And now that they're out of Hogwarts and living together. Well, he feels the dread like he did last year and every year for as long as he can remember. The boyfriend status is not enough to offer him protection. He learnt that the hard way two years ago, when he had let his guard down a little. Though the pranks had gotten less mean.
Oliver is still asleep when Percy gets up. It's six in the morning, and Oliver won't be awake for at least an hour and a half, so Percy quietly grabs his clothes and brings them to the living room. He heads into the bathroom for a quick shower, using magic to try and hide some of the sounds of the water.
His hair isn't even dry when he pulls on a jumper over his shirt, and his jeans. He's been preparing for this day since last year. He's always prepared for this. He can't go to his mum's house because there are two people there that are miles worse than Oliver. He's offered to help at the nearby Homeless shelter that Remus often helps at, and after that, it'll be the magical animal shelter that he heard about from Neville a few weeks back. One of Ronald's friends, Luna, has been helping out there.
He peeks in at Oliver. He feels a little bad that he's going to avoid his boyfriend for the rest of the day, but that can't be helped. His sanity is at stake. Still, he walks around the bed and presses his lips to Oliver's cheek. Oliver's eyes flutter open sleepily. "Perce? Come back to bed. I'm cold." His eyes close before Percy even gets to answer, and Percy smiles fondly at him.
"Later," he whispers. He quickly grabs his pea coat and puts it on, checks for his wand, and he leaves.
Percy stares at his reflection in horror, the toothbrush falling from his hand and clattering into the sink. He stares at himself. Did the twins somehow get into his dorm-room? What on Earth happened?
"Oliver," Percy calls, striding from the room. "Oliver!"
Oliver is in the middle of getting dressed, and turns around, his gaze on Percy. A grin covers his lips as his gaze moves up to Percy's hair.
"Did you let my brothers…" Percy trails off. Oliver looks amused, but not surprised in the slightest. "You did this, didn't you?"
"I thought pink would suit you." Oliver reaches out and tugs at one of the curls. "You look absolutely adorable, Percy."
"I do not!" Percy states. "Why would you do this?"
"April Fools," Oliver says, shrugging.
Percy glares at him and turns back. He picks up his wand on the way to the bathroom. "Finite." He knows it's not going to work. "But we're dating," he calls back.
"Sorry, Perce. It's April Fool's Day, there are rules. You can play the boyfriend card on any day except today."
Percy storms off.
"Remus, hi, I know Percy helps here sometimes. You haven't seen him, have you?" Percy freezes at the sound of Oliver's voice on the other side of the door.
"He was here earlier. I just got back from an errand, so I'll have to check," Remus says, and Percy silently thanks the man. He ducks out of sight as the door opens, and Remus glances around.
"You know, this is an awful lot of effort," Remus comments quietly.
"What would you do if Sirius pranked you every April Fools?" Percy whispers.
"Oh. He's too scared of me to even think about doing that," Remus replies, with a mischievous grin. "Despite what people think, I can out-prank him and he knows it."
"I can't out-prank Oliver," Percy retorts quietly. "I'll slip out the back."
He makes it out of the back door before he hears the other door open. "Percy? You here?"
He still feels back, but it's one day. Things will be back to normal tomorrow. The animal shelter is his next stop.
"Percy, you plan to work at the Ministry one day, right?" Oliver asks, as they sit down in class. They're early (of course, Percy wants the best seat in the room, and Oliver just seemed to tag along with him today), and there is no-one else there yet.
Percy glances over at his roommate of the last four years and nods his head. Oliver doesn't really talk about much besides lessons (mostly to have a moan) and Quidditch. Sometimes they talk about the dorm-room, but that's not really conversation as much as arguing about whether to have the window open or not -, so this is unexpected. He's already suspicious of the conversation.
"I am," he says, carefully. But Oliver looks completely innocent. Percy is not fooled though. He's related to Fred and George, and he's seen that look more times than he can count.
"So, what office are you going for?" Oliver pushes.
"When I work at the strip club, I…" Percy trails off. "I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. What I mean is…" he knows his ears have reddened, and he's sure his face is burning, but he still carries on, "when I work at the strip-club."
He covers his mouth with his hand, and Oliver is laughing so hard that there are tears on his cheeks.
"It's funnier than I ever imagined," Oliver gasps out, struggling to gather the breath between laughs to get the words out properly. "It's perfect. I hope everyone asks you about working at the Ministry."
"I hate you," Percy says, realising that this is a prank.
"April fools, Percy. So, tell me again how you're going to work at a strip club."
Percy ignores him and reaches for his book. If he approved of pranks a little more, he'd ask his brothers to help him prank Oliver. Though knowing them, they'd probably help Oliver prank him instead.
Percy is looking over the numbers for the animal shelter, making sure everything is right. As it runs mostly on donations, that also goes for the accounting side of things. After a quick chat with Luna, Percy finds himself in the office and looking over the books.
He likes going through numbers, sitting with books, maths. Numbers are consistent, and it's calming. Time passes quickly there. The books only take him an hour, and once he's done, he finds an empty book and starts to draw columns. He's already told Luna that he's going to come back every other week and go over things. At least this will make things clearer.
It's nice to see the tidy book, he feels satisfied as he glances over it, and he fills in the titles with the elegant cursive that he painstakingly taught himself over the last few years.
"Oliver, how lovely to see you. I'll see if Percy is available, he's away with the faeries, looking at books."
Percy looks towards the open window where he can hear Oliver and Luna, and he drops down to the floor. He slowly crawls across the room, and out of the door. Once he's in the hallway, he makes a run for the back door of the place, because the first thing he did upon entering was to check where the exits were just in case Oliver found him.
He decides to take a late lunch and then go and drop in on Bill. Or perhaps he can get a last-minute portkey to Charlie?
"Hey Perce, can you pass the salt?" Oliver asks, over breakfast. It's like any other morning, and Percy likes the routine they've developed. They've only lived together for a couple of months now, and it's nice to have their own place. The year of living apart after sharing a room at Hogwarts was strange for the both of them, and maybe it was quick to get a place together, but it felt right.
"Here you go…" Percy starts, but his lips move of their own accord. "I need it back though."
Oliver's lips curve into that smile that Percy has grown to hate. Immediately he remembers what day is is. "What have you done this time?" he asks. But his mouth once more moves without his permission. "To make everything I say have to rhyme?"
Well, he's answered his own question. He narrows his eyes at his boyfriend.
"This is adorable," Oliver murmurs. "I should do this more often."
"Don't you even dare," Percy snaps. "I am very aware."
"Aware? Aware of what?" Oliver asks.
"You know I can't help what I'm saying," Percy growls. "I don't like this behaviour you're displaying."
"Oh? What behaviour is that?" Oliver asks.
Percy doesn't talk. He clenches his teeth and glares at Oliver.
"You know, this is the first time you've not had the last word. It's nice." Oliver reaches for his cup of tea and takes a sip. "So quiet."
"Here you are. You're avoiding me, aren't you?"
Percy sighs. He thought Oliver would have given up by now. The twins have gone back to their flat above the shop, and Percy is in the Burrow garden.
"Your mum thinks we've fallen out. She messaged me."
"Two hours," Percy mutters.
"Ah. You are avoiding me," Oliver says, dropping down next to him. "Right."
"Just get it over with," Percy says tiredly. "I'm too tired to run anymore."
"Well, sure. I'll do what I had planned for the day. I mean, I had so much I wanted to do, but…" Oliver slides off the bench and Percy stares at him as he gets onto one knee and pulls out a ring box.
"Is this like the muggle things that jump out of the tin when you open it? The ones on springs? Because you've done that already. Second year."
Oliver shakes his head. "Come on, Perce, you're smarter than that. You've got to realise what I'm doing."
"It looks like a proposal, but I don't trust this," Percy admits. "I'll tell you now, if you fake-propose to me… well, that's the line. Don't propose if you don't mean it, because that's not funny, Oliver. It'll never be funny."
Oliver glances at the box. "Maybe I shouldn't have planned this for today," he says quietly. "Oh screw it." He opens the box. "It's about time we get married, don't you think?"
Percy stares at him for a long moment. There's no trace of that smile, just a soft one, a hopeful one.
"Only if you stop pranking me every year," Percy says. "I can't spend my life running away from you once a year."
"It didn't feel nice, chasing after you and missing you time and time again," Oliver admits quietly. "I thought it was all in fun."
Percy doesn't reply immediately. Whilst Oliver likes winding him up, it's the pranks that is too much. "I've had to live with constant pranks here," he tells him. "If you want to prank anyone, why not take on my brothers and just leave me out of it?"
Oliver glances at the ring, and sighs softly. "Promise you won't run away from me again?" he asks.
Percy nods. "If you promise that the pranks will stop."
"Yeah. Yeah, I can stop. So… we getting married, or what?"
Percy grins. "Get up from the ground already," he says. "Yes, of course we are. Let's go home before mum sees you and plans the wedding this minute."
"Uh… too late. She's watching from the window as we speak."
Percy jumps up, pulling his boyfriend - fiancé - to his feet. "Let's get our of here before she drags us inside." He grabs Oliver's hand and they run from the garden. When they reach the edge of the garden, Oliver grabs Percy and pulls him in for a kiss. His fingers tangle in Percy's curls. "Been waiting to do that all day."
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