The Rift Between Us
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable Harry Potter character, no money was made, and no copyright infringement was intended, this is only for fun.
Rating: G
Summary: [Long drabble-ish] Things were different for Percy Weasley and his family during the first war with You Know Who, and they were certainly different after.

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There he was, four years old and having to explore this new house. Well, it wasn't actually new by any means. It was actually quite old and creepy. At night, it made these horrible sounds and there was something up in the attic...Percy was afraid of that place at night, when he was sent off to 'his room' all alone.

Mummy told him about this place, when she was trying to keep him calm in the mystery rooms, although he didn't need it. When they finally got there, Percy didn't know what to think of it. Bill and Charlie were so happy to be there, when they came back from school that winter. They went off for hours exploring every little nook they remembered, outside and in, refusing to take Percy along. He saw them more when they had to come home and hide in the mystery rooms with the babies.

Percy hid behind his mummy's skirts when the stranger came to live at their house, a few days after they did. He was a tall man named Daddy who tried to touch him, and, excepting Mummy and his brothers, Percy didn't like to be touched, was hardly ever touched. Daddy pulled him away from Mummy's skirts and over his shoulder and so far off the ground. Percy went stiff in his arms and started to cry--and kick and flail, once he got started--for Mummy.

Yeah, when Percy was little, it wasn't safe for anyone if Arthur came home very often. They went over a year without seeing him, in the end. Percy didn't know who he was, so he kicked and cried and tried to get away--to get back to the safety of Mummy.

So Arthur hid his hurt when he handed off the boy and went to his other sons, who weren't afraid of anything, much less someone they couldn't remember. They loved having him to play with. Arthur tried to forget about that reaction when Percy finally did start to warm up to him, but he never quite acted around Percy the way he did around Fred and George, then Bill and Charlie when they came home, and then Ron and Ginny when they were born. It was like Percy became the reminder of everything in the years before Harry Potter Lived. Every time Arthur looked at Percy, for the first year or so after he came home, he remembered, even if it was just slightly or subconsciously. He didn't mean it, Arthur or Percy, but it just became a simple fact between them, that there were wounds which healed over in the years to an ugly mess of scar tissue, only to be stretched and scratched open again.

So, because of that, Percy's never really been the son the others were. And, as good a person as he is, Arthur was never really the father and hero in Percy's eyes that he was for the others.

Arthur might not know, but Percy does.