Author's note: I'm making my headcanon that Percy moves his family into the Burrow when Molly hits a certain age everyone else's problem, so thank you for this. Also, when I thought to myself "do you want him married to Oliver or Audrey in this story?" I thought to myself "why not both?" Enjoy!
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights
Content Warnings: Character death (peaceful; old age); references other canon character deaths
The Last Will and Testament of Molly Weasley
My dearest Percy,
If you are reading this letter attached to my will, it must mean that my funeral has already finished. I remember burying your grandmother. My brothers were already gone because of the war, and it was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do until I had to bury your brother and then your father. I hope that having such a big family at your side along with your beautiful Audrey, your handsome Oliver, and your beautiful children made it easier. Unfortunately, grief is the price that you pay for loving someone long enough.
I know I have said this to you out loud, but I wanted to write it down for you so you could always be sure and always know how thankful I am: Thank you for coming to the Burrow when I was too sick to be here alone but too stubborn to leave.
I would have hated being anywhere else in the world, in the last five years of my life. I wanted to sit on the porch swing that your father installed for me, watch the chickens come in and out of the coop I built them, watch the bees flutter around the garden I had planted, and watch the apple trees I'd planted as saplings flower and grow fruit throughout the year. I know our house was always so full of noise and people and messes, that there was always too much bustling and too little of almost everything else, but it was my favourite place in the whole wide world and you bought me even more time with it. Maybe you will understand, when you're older and have some more life behind you instead of being in the middle of it. But whenever Oliver took the time to help me up the stairs I was following the same route I used to walk to carry you and your brothers to bed; when Audrey brought me tea she served it in the dishes I received on my wedding day; when I measured Molly and Lucy's height on the side of the kitchen door I got to add my beautiful granddaughters to all the notches I'd made while sizing up you and your siblings. And, maybe best of all, although it's hard to tell for sure, seeing the man you become work and care for his loved ones in the house where I raised you reminded me of how much I love the life I made for myself. Thank you.
I have a million little things running through my head now and reminders I want to give you, but I know that you will take care of the house, your family, and yourself beautifully and brilliantly. And the house knows as well. See, there was enough magic in that house for long enough that it took on a certain character. You might have noticed it in the kitchen, in the last few years that you have been there, since it tends to be unruly and messy for anybody but me. Perhaps you noticed that no amount of garden gnome-repellent seems to keep those critters out of our yard. But the most noticeable magical feature in our house is, of course, the living room clock.
What I am leaving you with this note, on a chain that I used to wear around my neck and tucked into my apron, is the key to wind up the clock. It needs to be wound up once a year. One of the first times I did it, when Bill was just a baby and I was carrying him in a sling against my chest while doing chores, the hands on the clock changed to the ones that you have grown up seeing. All of a sudden I was on there, as were Arthur and Bill and a blank hand that became Charlie's-though I didn't know I was pregnant again yet. The numbers on the face of the clock faded and I woke up to new options every day. "Work," "Hungry," "Napping," "Needs a Change," "Travelling"... When Bill first went to Hogwarts, I came home from King's Cross Station with barely held back tears in my eyes, a gaggle of screaming and somehow sticky children, and saw that "School" had appeared as an option. When the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade that night, he moved from "Traveling" to "School," and it became my ritual in early September to knit and watch the clock to make sure you all got to Hogwarts in one piece. I was not particularly fond of seeing "Prison" appear, but frankly I was slightly thankful that at least I would know (and eventually surprised that your siblings didn't spend quite as much time in there as anticipated). The hands appeared again as the family changed, as you all married and had children of your own and made families in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
The family is going to change again now, without me around. You will all grow. You will all adapt. You will all find new ways to relate to and love one another. I trust you all to do that. I know that your biggest regret in this lifetime was leaving this family and going your own way for some time, but never forget that you came back and helped our family grow and survive what it went through during the Second Wizarding War. They will need you now to keep the house upright and the family united now too. And so you, Percy, I trust with the key to keep the clock ticking.
All my love,
Mum
WC: 940