Team: Holyhead Harpies

Position: Beater 2

Reserve and Extension: No

Prompts: [word] romance; [word] topsy-turvy

Beta: bea weasley. MissyAndTheDocs, Ash Juillet

WC: 1034

"We should get a divorce," Percy said, staring at the whiteboard.

"I agree," Audrey replied. Her hands went up to her braids to tie them back, and her eyes hovered over the board again.

They did this exercise every year. A simple list to evaluate the state of their relationship. Where had they failed?

"Here." Audrey pointed to the cons list that held all the reasons why them being apart was better than being together. Underlined multiple times in purple ink was the word "topsy-turvy". While their romance had been a passionate affair, it had held no order and structure.

Percy had loved that about them. How two people that the world deemed cold and unaffectionate had thought their romance was the most passionate thing on the earth. They had gotten married spontaneously in Las Vegas after too many hours of deliriously dancing in clubs. It had been a romance of the biggest, grandest gestures each of them could think of.

When did the one thing they had valued as the basis of their relationship come back to hurt them so deeply?

"I really liked that about us," Percy said, letting himself fall to his knees.

Audrey sighed. "I did too. I thought you would disagree this time."

Percy frowned and patted the spot on the cold tiled floor next to him.

"I can't think of any reason to stay together other than the girls. But I also don't remember the moment when we outgrew each other," Percy muttered, drawing his knees close to himself.

Audrey hummed in agreement. "I don't think there is a moment for things to go the wrong way. It's like a grammar mistake on a document that everyone glances over and then somehow, it changes the meaning of the entire text when it gets into the hands of an average person."

"Audrey Weasley! Are you calling us average?" Percy joked, biting his bottom lip.

"It always had been Audrey Dube. But, yes, we are painfully average," Audrey said. "Average people experience romance. Though, I'm not sure if most people write down lists to convince themselves they should stay married." The laugh from Audrey's lips sounded hollow, and Percy wondered if she would begrudge him if he went in for a hug at that moment.

Maybe he should've listened to his mum when she warned him about how he hadn't done things "properly". What difference would it have made? Tradition was peer-pressure from the ancestors, Audrey had said when Mrs Weasley had pressed a little too hard about why the couple wasn't planning to get married. It was one of the few moments where Audrey refused to play nicely with Mrs Weasley and the moment itself had stuck out in Percy's mind.

Audrey and Percy had always done things the way they wanted to. There weren't many places in each of their lives where they could throw caution to the wind and do whatever they wanted. Audrey worked for a law firm and Percy was a Minister Undersecretary. Their time was dictated by their jobs more often than not.

Percy thought back to how they had naively believed that they would be able to handle it all. But high-demand jobs and two children with endless amounts of energy didn't leave much room for a romance that burned on spontaneous moments and topsy-turvy decision making.

Audrey got up and dusted the back of her work slacks. "We should tell Molly and Lucy tomorrow. There isn't any point stretching it out and I'll move out. The girls spend a lot of time at the Burrow and I'd rather not have them labelled as the enemy."

Percy looked at Audrey's silhouette against the single light bulb of the room. She was so much better at this than he was.

"Mum wouldn't label Molls and Lulu as the enemy," Percy protested.

Audrey raised her eyebrows. "Do I need to remind you about Ron's fourth year; when she thought that Hermione was cheating on Harry?"

"But—"

Audrey chuckled. "I love your mum, but she can hold a grudge. I was in the Durmstrang cohort and even I heard the stories. Me, who was a literal stranger to you guys back then. I don't want the girls caught up in that."

"Fair," Percy conceded. "She'll get over it though."

Audrey cleared her throat.

"Fine, she won't get over it now. But I'll tell her myself. Just so that she isn't hearing the news from the Prophet."

Audrey held her hand out and Percy gripped it as she pulled him up.

"Are we bad people for doing this?" Audrey asked as Percy turned the kettle on. He knew neither of them would be able to sleep tonight.

"For separating?" Percy questioned, taking down two mugs and two heavily caffeinated tea bags.

"Yea, I always thought I would fight more if I was ever going to divorce someone. That is what they always told us at Durmstrang. That the best thing we could do was fight for the things that mattered to us."

"Hmm," Percy said, taking a sip of tea. "I don't think it's that simple. Maybe I'll feel differently about it after a bottle of Ogden's, but we know ourselves. This relationship shouldn't feel like a chore. It is the one place in our lives where we get to show up with no expectation, to be the fun people everyone else gets to be all the time."

"But," Audrey prompted, impatient as she ever was when it came to his long soliloquies.

"We fight for each other and the children, but I think fighting for something that doesn't seem to be between us anymore is kind of stupid."

Audrey sat on the kitchen counter. Her sigh filled the dark spaces of their flat. Which was always a topsy-turvy mess of things and toys.

"Can I miss this though?" Audrey asked.

"Of course. We only have one life, and what example are we setting for the girls if we don't show them that the point of living is going after everything they ever wanted?"

"So we abandon our romance for Molly and Lucy?"

"For Molly and Lucy," Percy said solemnly. "They deserve the best versions of us."