By: CNJ
PG-13
3: Percy's Parting
Harry:
The day was quiet.
Ron and I were especially tense and subdued as we moved through the day,
getting ready for our sixth year. I was hoping Percy was gone
for the day, but as I was coming out of the loo from peeing, I ran into
him late that afternoon.
"Oh...sorry..." I said politely.
Percy peered at me for a minute, then went on to the room he was staying
in. "Percy...I really hope you can see Ron's point...he wasn't eavesdropping..."
"So you heard our little
argument," Percy said evenly, pausing at the door.
"Y-yes..." I wondered if
it had been the right thing to do.
"Well, I have some advice
for you, Harry Potter..." Percy turned and stared right at me. "Instead
of skulking around listening in on others' fights and nosing into others'
affairs with that frog nose of yours, maybe you need to get a life.
Two years you'll graduate and you'll be nowhere too if you don't find better
connections and think of something more stable than music." I felt
a jolt of anger at his insulting attitude.
"And you have all of life's
answers?!" I fired back, my eyes narrowing. Stop it, I told
myself. I didn't want to wind up being slapped too. But I kept
on, risking it anyway. "If that's your life's philosophy, I really
feel sorry for you! And it was your parents you were ridiculing..."
I turned and bolted down the hall.
"It's a good thing your
nose is snubbed or you'd really be in trouble for never knowing when to
butt out!" Percy bellowed after me. I ran up to Ron's room and slammed
the door. I also heard Percy's door slam. Ron and Ginny looked
up at me sympathetically.
"I'm so sorry..." I was
shaking and still fuming. Frog nose, I thought bitterly.
Percy really pisses me to no end!
"Well, now you see what
a jackass my brother's been lately," Ron added as I sat between them.
"He used to be more tolerant
when we were younger," Ginny put in quietly. "I wonder if being prefect..."
We shook our heads as we looked sadly at each other.
"I think it's a number of
things, Gin," Ron told her. "Come on, let's play dirty word wizz
ard."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ron and Ginny's mum and dad
came home later that night, bringing home take-out food from a close by
wizard/witch deli. The twins and unfortunately, Percy was there
and he shot icy glances at all of us. Needless to say, the mood was
somber and even though the food was good, I had trouble eating. Molly
and Arthur tried to make a light conversation and Ginny and the twins joined
in, but I think they sensed the mood and got the message that something
wasn't right between some of us. After the food was gone, Percy got
up abruptly, told his parents he was heading back home tonight, then tore
upstairs as if he couldn't wait to get away from us.
"Tonight...?" Molly asked,
puzzled. She peered at us. "Did he have a disagreement with
some of you?"
"Yes..." Ron said quietly.
"What about?" Arthur asked.
"Lots of things, I'd rather
not discuss..." Ron flushed and looked at the table.
"Percy just slapped Ron
in the face this morning," George stated indignantly. "After putting all
of us down..."
"George..." Ron groaned
and I could tell he was still embarrassed about this morning. We
heard the door close then and knew Percy had really taken off to head back
to his flat outside of London.
"He also insulted Harry
earlier today..." Fred added and I blushed, remembering Percy's stinging
comments and embarrassed about his ridiculing the shape of my nose.
"It's a lot of things that
are painful to discuss," Ginny put in. She gave the twins a look to keep
them quiet.
"Oh, dear, I really hope
Percy comes around and apologizes," Molly sipped her tea.
"Fat chance..." Ron muttered.
"I sensed that there was
trouble between Percy and some of you, but I haven't said anything," Molly
continued. "I just...didn't know that it was this serious."
"It is..." I said softly.
A sober silence spread around the kitchen as we finished our tea.
As we cleaned up, we struggled to restore some semblance of balance in
the aftermath of this fight. I had the bad feeling it would be a
very, very long time before Percy had anything to do with any of us again...maybe
it would be never.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'm ready..." I called two
weeks later on September first from my bedroom at home. Auntie
was giving me a ride to King's Crossing to catch the Hogwarts Express back
to school.
"Me too..." Aunt Miranda
and I then headed out. Since Godric's Hollow is close to King's Crossing
Station, it was just a short five-minute ride there...about ten kilometers
from our flat. "Are you feeling better, dear?" she asked on the way.
I hadn't really told her about Ron and Percy's fight or about Percy insulting
me, but she'd sensed that I'd been upset when I'd come back from the Weasleys
last week.
"Sort of..." It was
true. It was good to be starting another year at Hogwarts again.
Ron was the new captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year and
Hermione and I were prefects. Once Auntie dropped me off, Hermione
and Cheria waved from a distance. I waved back, then my aunt and
I hugged goodbye.
"Good luck this year, love
and I'll see you at Christmas..." Miranda whispered. "I love you,
Harry."
"I love you too, Auntie..."
I whispered. We stayed like that a long minute, then parted.
I felt a soft sad pang in my heart as I always did when I left her for
school, but it generally faded once I got onto the Hogwarts Express.
I found my friends in our usual compartment and we sat and talked about
the upcoming year as the train took off. Ron was his usual bubbly
self again to my relief. He was really excited about leading the
Gryffindors this year. Hermione and I pulled out our prefect badges,
as we knew once we arrived at Hogwarts, we'd have to have them on and after
the Great Feast, be ready to welcome the new nervous first-years to Hogwarts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I led one group of first-years
up the tricky changing staircase, I had a brief vision in my head of myself
as a nervous first-year with Percy leading us. Now I was the one
in his place. Looking at the row of young eleven and twelve year-olds,
I smiled as warmly as I could at them and gestured to a shifting stairwell.
"These stairs are very fickle
and love to change," I told them. "Even today beginning my sixth
year here, I am startled by these stairs sometimes...as I'm often startled
and frightened by several things here." They relaxed visibly and
I was pleased when a small chuckle fanned out through the group.
"You will experience some fearful things here just my friends and I have,
but with your courage and all the Gryffindor courage, all of us will stand
strong against whatever lies ahead. There's the reason all of you
were selected for this house." I smiled at them encouragingly as
I led them up the last flight to the dorms. Sure enough, the
stairs we were on moved to the right and some of us managed to laugh, including
me. We continued up and entered the right hall, then headed on down
to the dorms.
"He's neat..." I heard someone
whisper.
"Wow, I've never heard a
bigwig at school admit to being scared of some things..." someone else
added. I blushed a little, but it was odd how proud I also felt.
I could feel a rapport already with these new students and it pleased me.
I met Hermione just inside as she was going over the layout of the dorms
and we smiled at each other. I could see she'd developed the same
camaraderie with her first-years as well.
"Welcome to the Gryffindor
House," Hermione and I said simultaneously. The first years were
grinning and nodding and it was good to see them settling in so comfortably
this early. Neither my friends or I had forgotten where we'd
come from, so that why it was easy to relate to the first-years.
There was lots to fear in the coming year ahead with Voldemort being a
threat and death eaters attacking more and more and the Ministry's apathy
and possible corruption, but together, us Gryffindors would face them down,
bit by bit. Year Six had begun.
Storyline Copyright by CNJ