Title: Oil and Water
Author: celerysticks
Summary: Percy/Oliver slash. It's Christmas for the Weasleys, but the idyllic mood is soon shattered as books and Quidditch don't generally mix. Or so Percy thinks.
Rating: PG.
E-mail: red_five@sailormoon.com
AIM: kateishida
Livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/celerysticks
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O I L A N D W A T E R By Celerysticks PART TWO"Well, that was weird."
Ginny had sounded out those four words in her mind, deciding they didn't sound right there, and they didn't sound right now as she actually said them. The others stared at her blankly, and she started to get defensive.
"Well, it was," Ginny protested.
"Really?" Fred asked, sarcasm curling his face as he folded his arms and looked
up the stairs tentatively.
Harry shifted uncomfortably, and moved to go up the stairs, nodding at Charlie as he went. The dragon breeder got the message, and started to follow Harry.
"Wait, are you sure that's a good idea?" Arthur Weasley asked, looking at Charlie with a helpless gaze.
"Him and Harry know Oliver the best," George explained. "I think perhaps Charlie knows Percy the best, too."
The silence still lingered uncomfortably. Molly picked up the bowl again, and gave it another jab with her wand.
"Anyone want pancakes?" She asked brightly.
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"Percy?"
Charlie tried knocking at the door first, and Harry watched him from behind his thick-rimmed glasses curiously.
"Go' way."
Surprised, Charlie stepped backwards. "He's never told me to go away before!"
Harry rolled his eyes to the heavens, and unfolded his arms. "Let me have a go." He thudded the heel of his hand against the door heavily. "Percy, you git, open the door and let me in."
"No." There was a thud as something thudded against the door. "Get lost! And shows how much the rest of the family gives a damn about me… Sending you…Bet they didn't want to bother with the loser of the family…"
Charlie brushed singed hairs away from his forehead irritably. "Good going, Harry, now let me--"
Harry held up one hand, in the middle of Charlie's rant. "Give me a moment." He walked up to the door again, and rapped politely. "You can't tell me to get lost, Percy. I'm a guest in this house. Etiquette dictates that you let me in if I ask."
There was silence, and the door creaked open sullenly. Charlie stared at Harry in surprise. "How did you--"
Harry shrugged. "Even when upset, Percy follows the rules. It's just… him… Not the doing the rules, but the way he does it."
Charlie nodded, and followed Harry into the small room that Percy inhabited when he was at home.
"Percy?"
The lanky redhead in question was hunched over his once-neatly ordered desk,
obviously trying to stop the sobs that were wracking his body. He didn't exactly have the buffest of
physiques, and his thin frame was shaking with the intensity of his
crying. After a moment of composing
himself, Percy turned to face the two intruders.
"I don't want to see either of you," Percy said bluntly. That was Percy - usually honest and blunt
with the truth.
"Tough," Charlie remarked, dropping down onto Percy's bed near the headboard and facing his brother squarely. Harry echoed Charlie, folding his arms and sitting on the end of the bed, a curiously fierce expression on his face. "We're here."
"And?"
"And we're staying until we can help you through this," Harry finished determinedly. "Which I hope is soon, because your mum is making some of her pancakes and you really need some meat on those bones of yours."
Percy managed a small laugh through the tears which were again falling.
"Why don't you start at the beginning," Charlie suggested, leaning forwards and squeezing Percy's knee supportively.
"I suppose. That's always where a story starts, at the beginning." Percy swivelled on the rickety chair that he'd inherited from his father's office, and faced Harry and Charlie squarely. "But I don't know when the beginning to this story actually was. It was probably… sometime in the sixth year, when Penelope was… attacked… Or maybe it was even before then."
"Gosh, this doesn't have anything to do with the… Oh…" Charlie felt a sharp tap on his elbow from Harry as he interrupted Percy's explanation, but Charlie waved his hands at Harry for a second. "Oliver Wood was the fourth year who was the keeper in my last year at Hogwarts, when I was captain."
Percy looked at Charlie with an inquisitive expression, his face looking gaunt in the poorly lit room.
Charlie shrugged.
"Oliver admitted he had a crush on one of my brothers after one of the
matches… Asked if it was okay… I told him to tell whichever brother it was,
but he wouldn't. I figured it was a
team effort to wind me up."
"But it wasn't, was it?" Harry asked, frowning. "That means… it must have been… you, Percy!"
Percy nodded miserably. "He told me… he'd done that. Seventh year. Took him five years."
"So is this what that argument was all about?"
Charlie asked, incredulously.
Percy shook his head irritably. "No, no, that was two years ago, moron. He wouldn't still be angry about it now."
"What did you say when he told you?"
Harry's face was expressionless in the dark room, and Percy suddenly
flushed and looked away, his expression answering the dozen questions bubbling
up in Charlie's mind.
"I--" Percy flushed darkly again. "We've been dating for the last two years," Percy managed in a rush, then stopped, his gaze dropping to the ground. "Were dating, anyway."
Charlie whistled lowly, and Harry nodded cautiously.
"What did you say to break it up?" Harry asked flatly.
"Am I that transparent?" Percy looked miserably at Harry. "I guess… I'm scared, all right? I never really contemplated the… the whole lifestyle, the condemnation for just being who I am. What I am."
"I get it," Harry said slowly. "Perhaps I was right to come up here after all. Percy -- you're still you, despite what you are. Despite the fact that you go for guys instead of girls, or maybe both, I can't speak for you. I can speak for me, and I know I'm scared as hell as to what other people would think of the fact that I…"
"That you --" Percy looked at Harry, hardly daring to believe what he was saying.
"That I'm gay. Like you."
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