Disclaimer: Characters belong to J. K. Rowling, not to be.
Chapter Two
"Fred, wake up!" Lee said in the tone of voice of someone who had said the same thing four times already.
Fred muttered something unintelligent and hid his head under the pillow.
"If you don't get up now you'll miss breakfast," Lee continued while pulling his shirt on.
"Go bother George," Fred said, his voice muffled by the pillow.
"Unlike you, your brother is already up," Lee said. "He's in the shower."
Fred only grunted in response.
"Right," Lee said resolutely. "You leave me no choice." He walked over to Fred's bed, grabbed hold of the cover and pulled hard. Fred, who was tangled in the cover ended up on the floor with a loud "oof!" He glared up at Lee through half open eyes.
"Sometimes I really hate you," he sighed. "Do you have to do that every morning?"
Lee shrugged. "It's the most effective way to get you up." He poked Fred's arm with his toe. "Get dressed."
"I will, I will." Fred rose from the floor.
Lee yawned. He had had trouble falling asleep. Last night's encounter with Percy had made him reconsider a lot of things. He'd never really thought of Percy other than in the terms of head boy and Fred and George's somewhat annoying older brother. He felt a bit bad about that now.
Fred pulled on a sweater and then looked around the room.
"My trousers are gone," he stated plainly.
"Why don't you look under your bed?" George said, coming into the room. "That's where all your other stuff usually ends up."
Fred turned to look at his brother. He put one hand over his heart and pretended to wipe a tear away with the other one. "Oh, George," he said, choking up a bit. "Mum would be so proud if she'd heard you now. You sounded just like Percy.
"Oi!" George protested and smacked his brother over the head. "That's the meanest thing you've said to me all week."
"That's what you get," Fred said and crouched down on the floor, reaching under his bed. "And besides, you were wrong. There are no trousers under here. A lot of stuff, yes, but no trousers." He withdrew his hand and looked at it in disgust. "Including something very sticky."
"Serves you right," George said, still looking a bit hurt.
Lee fiddled with his shoelaces and bit the inside of his lower lip, debating whether to say something or not.
"Look," he said finally. "Why do you two always do that?"
"Do what?" George looked at him. "Misplace trousers?"
"No." Lee hesitated. "Why do you always rack down on Percy like that?"
"Like what?" Fred absentmindedly wimped his hand on his bed sheet.
"Like just now," Lee explained. "Why is it automatically an insult to be compared to Percy?"
"Because he's a stuck-up pompous git most of the time," George said slowly, frowning a bit at Lee.
"But he's head boy," Lee protested. "He has to be serious."
"Percy's been like that since long before he was made head boy," George said.
"Sometimes it seems like you don't even like him," Lee said quietly, looking at the shoe he was holding in his hand.
Fred looked shocked. "Of course we like him! He's our brother."
"Lee, what's all this about?" George asked. "Why do you suddenly care so much about what we think of Percy?"
"Yeah," Fred agreed. "You've never said anything before."
Lee shook his head quickly, suddenly regretting saying anything at all. "It's nothing," he said, pulling on his shoe and tying it.
"It must be something," George insisted. "Otherwise you wouldn't be acting like this."
"Just forget it," Lee said. He was certain Percy wouldn't want his brothers to know about his night duty, and he felt he'd already said too much.
Fred suddenly looked worried. "Is something wrong? With Percy?"
The expression on George's face mirrored Fred's as he sat down next to Lee on the bed. "Do you know something we don't?"
Lee remained silent.
Fred knelt before Lee and looked up at him. "Look," he said seriously. "If there's something wrong with Percy we deserve to know."
"There's nothing wrong," Lee said, but the twins' faces showed that they were not satisfied with that answer. He looked down at this hands and started picking on his nails. "It's just that I found something out about Percy last night that I didn't know, and it got me thinking and I realised that it can't be all that easy being him. I mean, he does have a lot of responsibilities as head boy, and he works hard for his grades, and it must be hard coming after Bill and Charlie, and then there's you, and everyone likes you, and Ron who is best friends with Harry Potter, and Ginny's adorable, and Percy just doesn't seem to have that many friends, which is kind of sad, and I just don't think you give him the credit he deserves." He stopped when he ran out of oxygen adn looked up at Fred, who was smiling wickedly.
"Well, well," he said. "Seems like someone is quite enchanted by our dear brother."
"It seems so," George agreed, putting his arm around Lee's shoulders and squeezing lightly. "What did he do? Save you from a dragon?"
"Oh, sod off!" Lee cried irritated, which only led to delighted laughter from the twins.
"Oh, no," George said, squeezing a bit harder and Fred grabbed hold of Lee's leg. "We're not letting you off this time."
Fred shook his head solemnly. Lee thought about refusing to give in, but quickly decided against it. When the twins had their mind set on something, there was no stopping them. He sighed in defeat and told them what had happened the night before. When he was done, George laughed shortly.
"Doesn't surprise me a bit. Percy's always been a control freak." He stopped laughing when he saw the pointed look Lee gave him. "I mean that in the nicest way possible, of course," he amended.
Fred looked thoughtful. "We must have cost him a lot of sleep," he said. "Mum would kill us if she knew."
"Look," Lee sighed. "Don't tell him I said anything, ok?"
"Of course not," Fred agreed. "We won't tell him you told us."
Lee looked at Fred suspiciously. "Don't tell him anything about this," he clarified.
George laughed again. "Don't ask too much of us, Lee. We're not that strong." He patted Lee's shoulder. "We better go down to breakfast now," he said, signaling that the discussion was over.
"I can't go to breakfast without trousers, can I?" Fred complained, rising from the floor.
"Too bad," George said cheerfully. "Guess you have to go hungry then." He and Lee left the room, leaving Fred to stare after them.
"Bastards," he muttered and sighed. Where could those bloody trousers be?
To be continued...
