Disclaimer and Author's Note: Don't own them and that's that. I am very
proud of this chapter and I wrote it in one night to boot. Hope you like it
Kazza and Futon.
A Little Thing Called Ambition
1 Chapter 5: A Mother's Worries
Her children were safely in bed, her husband upstairs reading in their bedroom and she was alone in the kitchen with the freshly washed dishes.
Almost all of her children were safely in bed actually. It was eleven-o- clock and her third oldest child was out in a pub with one of his friends.
She shouldn't worry, she reminded herself as she wrung a dishcloth in her hands. Percy was the most levelheaded child out of all seven of them but she couldn't help but recall that those had been her exact thoughts before she'd found out what he'd done.
It had been the most horrible thing she'd ever experienced, it was like when Tom Riddle took Ginny into the Chamber of Secrets.
She and Arthur stood anxiously before Albus Dumbledore. He had sent them an urgent owl, saying that he had Percy at Hogwarts.
Molly had been scared stiff when her son had disappeared during the sudden rise of the Dark Lord and his supporters. She assumed that he was dead, killed as yet another victim of this dreadful war.
She'd been flooded with relief when the Headmaster had contacted her, not taking note of the neutral tone of his writing. Not giving away HOW he had found Percy.
Now that Voldemort had been killed by Harry, and his followers rounded up by the Aurors she had no fear in traveling by her husband's newly charmed car that the Harry had gotten him for his birthday.
She had practically run up the steps to Dumbledore's office but found the old man standing before the door looking grave.
"Where is he?! Is he hurt?" She asked, brown eyes wide and pleading.
Blue eyes stared back at her and the bearded man answered quietly, "He's in my office, he's hurt, but it isn't physical."
She surged towards the door in a frenzy to get at her baby who was no longer a baby but Dumbledore held up a hand to stop her.
"Molly, you don't understand the situation, you really need to listen to me!"
Arthur looked torn but attempted to hold her back. She broke loose snapping at the most powerful wizard in the world, "my son is hurt and that's all I need to know."
She burst into the room, spotted Percy, and froze in horror.
He was clad in billowing, black Death Eater's robes, too big for him. His blue eyes were intense behind his glasses and there were large dark shadows beneath his eyes. He gazed at her in a way that was so haunting it brought chills to her.
Her baby was a Death Eater, a murder, and a Dark wizard.
Behind her Arthur started, staring at his offspring then turned halfway around and asked hoarsely, "What happened?"
Dumbledore sighed and Percy looked away to Fawkes's cage.
"To err is human I'm afraid," Dumbledore murmured.
"Is that all you can say?! My son becomes a bloody murderer and you call that some little error?" Arthur raged, eyes ablaze with fury.
"Before you pass judgment I think you should hear what your son has to say, Mr. Weasly," the Headmaster said quietly.
"There's nothing to hear," Arthur declared with cold finality and turned and walked from the room, his steps short and angry.
Molly however, stayed, and looked in disbelief from her son clad in morbid black to the old wizard standing next to her in plush velvet robes of deep blue.
She felt the bearded old man put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gently propel her into the room and he silently stepped into the background.
Percy looked away from the confined phoenix and met her eyes with a look of genuine regret and utter humiliation, "Mum, I'm so sorry." He bowed his head miserably.
He had killed, tortured, and associated with the worst of their kind and after all that he was apologizing to his mother.
Maternal instinct overrode her disgust, and she bent to embrace her son but he flinched away. He looked up at her, blue eyes now icy and unreadable. Molly was shocked by the abrupt change in attitude and looked imploringly at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, "because of his time with the Death Eaters Percy will be spending at least a year in the psychiatric ward of St. Mungos."
Molly nodded numbly. There was nothing she could do for her child but at least someone could help him.
When it appeared that Percy was not going to say a word or respond to any of his mother's displays of affection Dumbledore dismissed him to the empty Gryffindor dormitories, parents had already removed their children since Voldemort had taken the castle under siege before he was defeated.
When he had left the room Molly looked at the man, her eyes brimming with tears and she began sobbing.
"H-how could this happen? He was always such a g-good sensible boy?" She wept brokenly, finally, and for the first time realizing the full impact of what had happened.
Dumbledore led her to a chair opposite her desk and sat next to her and began to speak.
"From what I gathered from Percy, he joined two years ago, at the beginning of Mr. Harry Potter's fifth year."
Molly felt shock sink in through her tears. Percy had been a Death Eater for two whole years and she never even had the slightest inkling of it? What kind of mother WAS she?
"Why would he ever want to join them?" She asked, putting disgusted emphasis on the word, "them".
Dumbledore shrugged wearily and replied, "he froze up and stopped talking when he got to that but I don't think it was for the killing, he didn't sound as though he enjoyed that aspect of it much."
Well that was a small comfort, she thought. At least her son wasn't a deranged mad-ax murderer.
She took in a great shuddering breath and clutched tightly at her tattered brown leather purse.
"I had better go tell the family then. They have a right to know."
Dumbledore shook his head, "Ron and Ginny already know."
How could they know? Percy didn't even go to school with them anymore. But the silver haired man answered her silent question.
"It seems that Percy was dispatched by Lord Voldemort to be part of a group that was to take the school under control by force. Some of the students said that Lucius Malfoy was taking groups of students into the dungeons to be slaughtered so there would be no witnesses and he ordered Percy to take Ron and Ginny."
Molly gaped at him in horror but he continued on, "the survivors say that he grabbed both of them, started walking them down there, and stopped. Then he very clearly told Lucius 'no'. He said that he liked the thrill of killing as much as the next Death Eater but that he would be damned if he would kill his siblings. "
A faint smile of pride appeared under the gray whiskers and he concluded, "and then, as Dean Thomas so eloquently put it, 'he hexed the robes off of the slimy git and killed him'."
Molly didn't quite know what to make of this. While she was proud of her son for protecting his brother and sister, but he'd tortured and killed a man to do it. A coolly sensible part of her brain told her that Malfoy deserved what he got and she decided to agree with it.
"Still, the rest of them should know," she insisted and he nodded in agreement, " a family shouldn't keep secrets, you're right."
But how would she break it to them?
All too soon she found herself back home at the Burrow, Arthur refused to come home saying that the fellows at the office were having trouble with the lawsuits on the Death Eaters and that he would be home later.
She appeared on her front step with a crack and stared at the small red front door then braved herself up and walked in.
Bill was the first to greet her and walked up and put his arm around her, blue-gray eyes worried.
"Is Percy alright Mum?"
Ron and Ginny sat on the sagging green couch their faces solemn and knowing but they didn't say anything.
Charlie stepped in from the kitchen, hair and clothes rumpled as though he'd been up all night and asked anxiously, "he isn't hurt is he?"
Fred and George stampeded down the twisty staircase, their faces were so pale so that their freckles stood out and were unable to say anything but their expressions spoke volumes.
Molly gazed at her children and told them to go sit down in the living room, "they were about to have a bit of a shock".
At this, Fred choked out, "he can't be dead!"
"No", she assured him, "Percy isn't dead but I just learned some very shocking news".
She shepherded her flock into the den and sat them down on assorted chairs and sofas and then stared into space before beginning.
"I found out from Albus Dumbledore fifteen minutes ago that your brother was-"
She cut off and began again, chiding herself for seeming melodramatic.
"Your brother was a Death Eater."
This statement caused an abrupt start of total chaos with surprised cries and angry yells and whispers of disbelief.
"WHAT?!" George yelled looking particularly wrathful, "THAT'S RUDDY IMPOSSIBLE!"
"No," Ginny told him. She explained what she and Ron witnessed and George sank back in his armchair.
"How could Percy, of all people, be a Death Eater?" Bill inquired weakly.
Molly sighed, "I don't know dear, but somehow it happened."
Charlie shook his head, flaming locks falling into his peripheral vision as he muttered bitterly, "Always was the ambitious one, Percy."
Shaking herself out of the past, Molly stood up, trying to subdue the cruel memories. Now three years after the fact, three years too late, she realized that he had been breeding ground for the Dark Lord, ambitious, intelligent, aspiring, and willing to do almost anything for power.
And evidently not punctual either, for she glanced at the clock, it was now eleven thirty. "I'll be home at ten forty-five, my arse," she muttered, in the way only a vengeful mother can.
She put down the dishtowel that she had been threatening to strangle and got up.
Ex-Death Eater or no, Minister of Magic or no, he was going to get a piece of her mind when he got home.
A Little Thing Called Ambition
1 Chapter 5: A Mother's Worries
Her children were safely in bed, her husband upstairs reading in their bedroom and she was alone in the kitchen with the freshly washed dishes.
Almost all of her children were safely in bed actually. It was eleven-o- clock and her third oldest child was out in a pub with one of his friends.
She shouldn't worry, she reminded herself as she wrung a dishcloth in her hands. Percy was the most levelheaded child out of all seven of them but she couldn't help but recall that those had been her exact thoughts before she'd found out what he'd done.
It had been the most horrible thing she'd ever experienced, it was like when Tom Riddle took Ginny into the Chamber of Secrets.
She and Arthur stood anxiously before Albus Dumbledore. He had sent them an urgent owl, saying that he had Percy at Hogwarts.
Molly had been scared stiff when her son had disappeared during the sudden rise of the Dark Lord and his supporters. She assumed that he was dead, killed as yet another victim of this dreadful war.
She'd been flooded with relief when the Headmaster had contacted her, not taking note of the neutral tone of his writing. Not giving away HOW he had found Percy.
Now that Voldemort had been killed by Harry, and his followers rounded up by the Aurors she had no fear in traveling by her husband's newly charmed car that the Harry had gotten him for his birthday.
She had practically run up the steps to Dumbledore's office but found the old man standing before the door looking grave.
"Where is he?! Is he hurt?" She asked, brown eyes wide and pleading.
Blue eyes stared back at her and the bearded man answered quietly, "He's in my office, he's hurt, but it isn't physical."
She surged towards the door in a frenzy to get at her baby who was no longer a baby but Dumbledore held up a hand to stop her.
"Molly, you don't understand the situation, you really need to listen to me!"
Arthur looked torn but attempted to hold her back. She broke loose snapping at the most powerful wizard in the world, "my son is hurt and that's all I need to know."
She burst into the room, spotted Percy, and froze in horror.
He was clad in billowing, black Death Eater's robes, too big for him. His blue eyes were intense behind his glasses and there were large dark shadows beneath his eyes. He gazed at her in a way that was so haunting it brought chills to her.
Her baby was a Death Eater, a murder, and a Dark wizard.
Behind her Arthur started, staring at his offspring then turned halfway around and asked hoarsely, "What happened?"
Dumbledore sighed and Percy looked away to Fawkes's cage.
"To err is human I'm afraid," Dumbledore murmured.
"Is that all you can say?! My son becomes a bloody murderer and you call that some little error?" Arthur raged, eyes ablaze with fury.
"Before you pass judgment I think you should hear what your son has to say, Mr. Weasly," the Headmaster said quietly.
"There's nothing to hear," Arthur declared with cold finality and turned and walked from the room, his steps short and angry.
Molly however, stayed, and looked in disbelief from her son clad in morbid black to the old wizard standing next to her in plush velvet robes of deep blue.
She felt the bearded old man put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gently propel her into the room and he silently stepped into the background.
Percy looked away from the confined phoenix and met her eyes with a look of genuine regret and utter humiliation, "Mum, I'm so sorry." He bowed his head miserably.
He had killed, tortured, and associated with the worst of their kind and after all that he was apologizing to his mother.
Maternal instinct overrode her disgust, and she bent to embrace her son but he flinched away. He looked up at her, blue eyes now icy and unreadable. Molly was shocked by the abrupt change in attitude and looked imploringly at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore cleared his throat, "because of his time with the Death Eaters Percy will be spending at least a year in the psychiatric ward of St. Mungos."
Molly nodded numbly. There was nothing she could do for her child but at least someone could help him.
When it appeared that Percy was not going to say a word or respond to any of his mother's displays of affection Dumbledore dismissed him to the empty Gryffindor dormitories, parents had already removed their children since Voldemort had taken the castle under siege before he was defeated.
When he had left the room Molly looked at the man, her eyes brimming with tears and she began sobbing.
"H-how could this happen? He was always such a g-good sensible boy?" She wept brokenly, finally, and for the first time realizing the full impact of what had happened.
Dumbledore led her to a chair opposite her desk and sat next to her and began to speak.
"From what I gathered from Percy, he joined two years ago, at the beginning of Mr. Harry Potter's fifth year."
Molly felt shock sink in through her tears. Percy had been a Death Eater for two whole years and she never even had the slightest inkling of it? What kind of mother WAS she?
"Why would he ever want to join them?" She asked, putting disgusted emphasis on the word, "them".
Dumbledore shrugged wearily and replied, "he froze up and stopped talking when he got to that but I don't think it was for the killing, he didn't sound as though he enjoyed that aspect of it much."
Well that was a small comfort, she thought. At least her son wasn't a deranged mad-ax murderer.
She took in a great shuddering breath and clutched tightly at her tattered brown leather purse.
"I had better go tell the family then. They have a right to know."
Dumbledore shook his head, "Ron and Ginny already know."
How could they know? Percy didn't even go to school with them anymore. But the silver haired man answered her silent question.
"It seems that Percy was dispatched by Lord Voldemort to be part of a group that was to take the school under control by force. Some of the students said that Lucius Malfoy was taking groups of students into the dungeons to be slaughtered so there would be no witnesses and he ordered Percy to take Ron and Ginny."
Molly gaped at him in horror but he continued on, "the survivors say that he grabbed both of them, started walking them down there, and stopped. Then he very clearly told Lucius 'no'. He said that he liked the thrill of killing as much as the next Death Eater but that he would be damned if he would kill his siblings. "
A faint smile of pride appeared under the gray whiskers and he concluded, "and then, as Dean Thomas so eloquently put it, 'he hexed the robes off of the slimy git and killed him'."
Molly didn't quite know what to make of this. While she was proud of her son for protecting his brother and sister, but he'd tortured and killed a man to do it. A coolly sensible part of her brain told her that Malfoy deserved what he got and she decided to agree with it.
"Still, the rest of them should know," she insisted and he nodded in agreement, " a family shouldn't keep secrets, you're right."
But how would she break it to them?
All too soon she found herself back home at the Burrow, Arthur refused to come home saying that the fellows at the office were having trouble with the lawsuits on the Death Eaters and that he would be home later.
She appeared on her front step with a crack and stared at the small red front door then braved herself up and walked in.
Bill was the first to greet her and walked up and put his arm around her, blue-gray eyes worried.
"Is Percy alright Mum?"
Ron and Ginny sat on the sagging green couch their faces solemn and knowing but they didn't say anything.
Charlie stepped in from the kitchen, hair and clothes rumpled as though he'd been up all night and asked anxiously, "he isn't hurt is he?"
Fred and George stampeded down the twisty staircase, their faces were so pale so that their freckles stood out and were unable to say anything but their expressions spoke volumes.
Molly gazed at her children and told them to go sit down in the living room, "they were about to have a bit of a shock".
At this, Fred choked out, "he can't be dead!"
"No", she assured him, "Percy isn't dead but I just learned some very shocking news".
She shepherded her flock into the den and sat them down on assorted chairs and sofas and then stared into space before beginning.
"I found out from Albus Dumbledore fifteen minutes ago that your brother was-"
She cut off and began again, chiding herself for seeming melodramatic.
"Your brother was a Death Eater."
This statement caused an abrupt start of total chaos with surprised cries and angry yells and whispers of disbelief.
"WHAT?!" George yelled looking particularly wrathful, "THAT'S RUDDY IMPOSSIBLE!"
"No," Ginny told him. She explained what she and Ron witnessed and George sank back in his armchair.
"How could Percy, of all people, be a Death Eater?" Bill inquired weakly.
Molly sighed, "I don't know dear, but somehow it happened."
Charlie shook his head, flaming locks falling into his peripheral vision as he muttered bitterly, "Always was the ambitious one, Percy."
Shaking herself out of the past, Molly stood up, trying to subdue the cruel memories. Now three years after the fact, three years too late, she realized that he had been breeding ground for the Dark Lord, ambitious, intelligent, aspiring, and willing to do almost anything for power.
And evidently not punctual either, for she glanced at the clock, it was now eleven thirty. "I'll be home at ten forty-five, my arse," she muttered, in the way only a vengeful mother can.
She put down the dishtowel that she had been threatening to strangle and got up.
Ex-Death Eater or no, Minister of Magic or no, he was going to get a piece of her mind when he got home.
