A/N: Here's the second chapter. Please review!
Disclaimer: Don't own jack! It all belongs to...*drum roll* J. K. Rowling! Don't sue me I am but a humble servant!
~~~
After the twins had been gone for many minutes, Hermione took a step toward Percy.
He looked up at her with startling green eyes. Hermione noticed his glasses were missing and she wondered if they had been broken during his torturing, days, maybe years back.
She closed her eyes. It was too painful to think of that. Too painful to see what happened, too painful to see reality.
Heaving a deep breath, Hermione leaned down and touched Percy's hand. She needed to get him upstairs and into a bedroom to clean his cuts.
Getting a good grip, Hermione pulled Percy up off of his chair. She slung his arm around her shoulder and tried her best to heave him upright.
His weight made her stagger greatly. She gently pulled him over to the stairs.
"Percy," She whispered softly in his ear. "I know it hurts you but you have to help me. You need to walk up the stairs."
Percy sighed. He didn't say anything but seemed to be using all his strength in lifting his right foot.
In a moment he had pulled himself up the first stair. Hermione tightened her grip on him. She could tell from his face that walking was causing him great pain.
After many minutes, Hermione and Percy were up all the stairs and walking down the hallway.
Hermione used her foot to kick open the first bedroom she came to. Greatly gratified at being in a bedroom at last, Hermione eased Percy down onto the large bed.
Wincing, Percy pulled his feet up onto the orange bed spread.
Hermione bent over and pulled his wet shoes off his feet. Then she pulled off his soaking socks.
"Where do you feel pain?" Hermione asked slowly. Percy looked at her a moment and then shaked his head.
"Where do you feel pain?" Hermione repeated a bit louder. She knew Percy was upset but it was important that she healed his cuts.
Percy was silent.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione lowered herself onto the bed next to Percy. She carefully pushed his sopping red hair out of his face.
Pulling out her wand, she conjured many towels and a small tub of hot water.
Percy sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Hermione," He said in a deep voice.
It was the first words he had said to her the whole time he was at the Borrow. Hermione closed her eyes and reached her hand out for Percy's.
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about Percy,"
Percy shacked his head roughly. "There is," He said faintly. "Y-you think I turned on you and my family. I was always so arrogant that it seemed normal. I wasn't strong enough to fight it. It overpowered me. It took control."
Hermione dipped a cloth into the tub of hot water. She moved her hand to Percy's chest. Letting out a breath, she started to slowly unbutton his shirt.
"Don't," Percy said suddenly, grabbing her hand and pushing it away. "Please don't Hermione."
Hermione looked at his face. "You must let me help you Percy," She said quietly. "Please let me help you."
Percy closed his eyes again slowly. "Very well," He said, his voice barely over a whisper.
Hermione continued what she was doing and finished unbuttoning his shirt. She then helped him take off his other wet clothes. Underneath his soaking shirt were many bloody cuts and scrapes.
Hermione let out a soft sob.
He had been tortured like there was no tomorrow. There seemed to be no end to it all. The blood, the pain, the anguish. Horrible.
Gritting her teeth she began to gently rub the dried on blood off of him. He let out a whimper of pain.
Hermione shook as she desperately tried to hold back her tears. She had always liked Percy. He seemed to have been more like her then anyone else she knew. But to see him like this - it was unbearable.
And disgustingly unfair.
It was infuriating that's what it was! All this happened, all of this - because of this God damned war with evil!
Hermione rang the now blood stained towel out. Unable to stop it she started to cry.
She was only half aware of Percy taking her hand into his and holding it in a tight grip. The grip was so strong, it was as if he were afraid of falling someplace to never return once he let go of her.
"Please don't cry Hermione,"
Now she was embarrassed. She was supposed to be in control. She was supposed to be the calm one. She was supposed to be helping him.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said whipping the tears away from disdain. "I didn't mean to, I shouldn't have-"
"No don't. Please don't," Percy replied quickly. "It's all right. Everything will be all right."
Hermione nodded and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She pulled out her wand and pushed Percy gently down into the bed.
"Wondaria Exelimei!"
She watched with a bit of pleasure as most of his bleeding cuts began to vanish. She would have to fix up a healing potion for him as well. Tonight, if at all possible.
Percy let out a soft moan.
"Are you feeling any better?" Hermione asked anxiously. Percy turned his staggering green eyes on her again.
"You're all I've thought about," He said.
Hermione looked up in confusion. She didn't understand what he was talking about.
"What do you mean by-" She started but was cut off when Percy suddenly sat up.
"You," He said taking a shaking hand and pushing a lock of her hair out of her face. "You're the only thing I've thought about these last three years. Everyday I imagined you. Of everyone in the world, you understood me. I...I l-love you."
Hermione gave herself a mental shake. This was absurd. Percy Weasley... he didn't love her. He couldn't....
Breathing heavily, Hermione lay her hand on Percy's forehead with gentle ease. It was burning. He had a fever.
"Say something," He said desperately. His breaths were raging. He began to cough.
"You're sick Percy. You don't feel well," Hermione answered. "You need to lie down. I have to go make you some healing potion-"
"Don't go," He said hoarsely. "Please d-don't go."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her down so she was lying next to him. She fell against his body slightly. His skin was freezing with cold.
"Percy, I," Hermione started but fell silent when she felt him sling his arm around her.
"You have no idea how long it's been since someone has loved me," He said softly in her ear. "No idea how long."
Hermione rolled around to face him. "Don't be ridiculous, everyone loves you," She said softly. "We all love you-"
"Not like this," Percy replied, his eyes drifting open and shut. "So long. It's been so long. No one loved me.."
Hermione squirmed inside his embrace. He had somehow managed to shift her closer still to his body. She was trapped. There was no way she could get away from his close, tight embrace. She just couldn't move.
And she didn't give a damn.
Some small part of Hermione's brain refused to admit that she was comfortable. She refused to believe that she was happy. Happy in the embrace of an upset man, who at this moment had a raging fever.
He was delirious. Hermione wasn't going to be the one to take advantage of him in his upset, delirious state.
He had a fever for God's sake! He didn't know what he was talking about!
"No Percy, don't," Hermione said, pushing off his hands that were now resting in her waist. "You're sick. I need to go make the healing potion, please..."
But he was starring at her. Starring at her with such love and affection in his eyes. Could those eyes be telling the truth? No, no they were lying. They weren't saying one bloody thing.
"Percy, please let me go I have to-" Hermione started desperately but was cut off at once.
Percy had pulled her up close to him. It was a flash of a second before he was kissing her hard.
Kissing her like there was no tomorrow... and right now, there didn't seem to be any tomorrow.
Hermione let out a small gasp. It was wrong. It was so damn wrong.... and she didn't want to stop. She loved him. She always had. She had fallen all over him in her first year.
But he was delirious. He wasn't thinking.
Hermione broke apart from him with a gasping breath. She untangled his arms from around her. He was... he was...
Percy starred at her with hurt in his eyes.
"Please Hermione," He said. "Don't run away."
She tried hard to control her breath and slow it down to a normal pace.
"You don't love me Percy," Hermione said quite plainly. "It's your fever talking...it's.."
Percy gave a forced laugh that lacked any mirth. "Don't love you?" He said sounding less delirious and more testy. "Don't I? How would you k-know that?"
"Because..."
She had no answer. The truth was, she didn't know. She only thought. And if what she thought was correct, they could both be sorry for doing something they would regret later.
"Those Death Eaters tortured me. They controlled me, but I didn't lose my mind. I couldn't control it, but I didn't lose my mind," Percy said, wincing in pain as he sat up to face Hermione. "I'm not crazy yet."
"No, I never said you were crazy..."
"Then why are you running?" Percy asked wincing in pain again.
"Your fever..." Hermione started.
"I-I don't have a God damned fever!" Percy said angrily. "I've got a God damned gilt hanging over me like grim death. I killed a man! It's my fault, dammit! I hope they come and lock me up!"
Hermione let out a small sob. "It's not your fault Percy! You were being controlled by Death Eaters!"
"I-I.." Percy looked lost. "I don't know what happened to me. I just... I can't think..."
Hermione grabbed his hands and pulled them down to his side. "Your all right... e-everything is all right.."
But Hermione had lost all sense of control. All sense of anything was lost to the storm outside.
She sunk back into the bed and cried.
"Your brothers shouldn't have left me with you," Hermione weeped. "I can't handle it anymore. Too many people have died. Too much pain and suffering has happened. And to see you like this..."
She was braking. Her world which had once seemed so simple was crumpling underneath her like a sat on cookie.
"We'll make it," Percy said at last.
Hermione cried harder. She could feel his shaking arm come around her once more. This time she gave in.
She pushed as close to him as she could get without hurting him to much. She wanted him to hold her. She wanted to hold him. Anything to forget the world. Anything.
Because she loved him.
After awhile they started kissing hard and she didn't push him away. She was warm with him. He didn't seem nearly as cold as before. Not even close.
She loved him and she had to believe he felt the same of her. He had to feel the same.
Because she loved him. She was in love with him.
~~~
A/N: Review! One more short chapter left!
Disclaimer: Don't own jack! It all belongs to...*drum roll* J. K. Rowling! Don't sue me I am but a humble servant!
~~~
After the twins had been gone for many minutes, Hermione took a step toward Percy.
He looked up at her with startling green eyes. Hermione noticed his glasses were missing and she wondered if they had been broken during his torturing, days, maybe years back.
She closed her eyes. It was too painful to think of that. Too painful to see what happened, too painful to see reality.
Heaving a deep breath, Hermione leaned down and touched Percy's hand. She needed to get him upstairs and into a bedroom to clean his cuts.
Getting a good grip, Hermione pulled Percy up off of his chair. She slung his arm around her shoulder and tried her best to heave him upright.
His weight made her stagger greatly. She gently pulled him over to the stairs.
"Percy," She whispered softly in his ear. "I know it hurts you but you have to help me. You need to walk up the stairs."
Percy sighed. He didn't say anything but seemed to be using all his strength in lifting his right foot.
In a moment he had pulled himself up the first stair. Hermione tightened her grip on him. She could tell from his face that walking was causing him great pain.
After many minutes, Hermione and Percy were up all the stairs and walking down the hallway.
Hermione used her foot to kick open the first bedroom she came to. Greatly gratified at being in a bedroom at last, Hermione eased Percy down onto the large bed.
Wincing, Percy pulled his feet up onto the orange bed spread.
Hermione bent over and pulled his wet shoes off his feet. Then she pulled off his soaking socks.
"Where do you feel pain?" Hermione asked slowly. Percy looked at her a moment and then shaked his head.
"Where do you feel pain?" Hermione repeated a bit louder. She knew Percy was upset but it was important that she healed his cuts.
Percy was silent.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione lowered herself onto the bed next to Percy. She carefully pushed his sopping red hair out of his face.
Pulling out her wand, she conjured many towels and a small tub of hot water.
Percy sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry Hermione," He said in a deep voice.
It was the first words he had said to her the whole time he was at the Borrow. Hermione closed her eyes and reached her hand out for Percy's.
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about Percy,"
Percy shacked his head roughly. "There is," He said faintly. "Y-you think I turned on you and my family. I was always so arrogant that it seemed normal. I wasn't strong enough to fight it. It overpowered me. It took control."
Hermione dipped a cloth into the tub of hot water. She moved her hand to Percy's chest. Letting out a breath, she started to slowly unbutton his shirt.
"Don't," Percy said suddenly, grabbing her hand and pushing it away. "Please don't Hermione."
Hermione looked at his face. "You must let me help you Percy," She said quietly. "Please let me help you."
Percy closed his eyes again slowly. "Very well," He said, his voice barely over a whisper.
Hermione continued what she was doing and finished unbuttoning his shirt. She then helped him take off his other wet clothes. Underneath his soaking shirt were many bloody cuts and scrapes.
Hermione let out a soft sob.
He had been tortured like there was no tomorrow. There seemed to be no end to it all. The blood, the pain, the anguish. Horrible.
Gritting her teeth she began to gently rub the dried on blood off of him. He let out a whimper of pain.
Hermione shook as she desperately tried to hold back her tears. She had always liked Percy. He seemed to have been more like her then anyone else she knew. But to see him like this - it was unbearable.
And disgustingly unfair.
It was infuriating that's what it was! All this happened, all of this - because of this God damned war with evil!
Hermione rang the now blood stained towel out. Unable to stop it she started to cry.
She was only half aware of Percy taking her hand into his and holding it in a tight grip. The grip was so strong, it was as if he were afraid of falling someplace to never return once he let go of her.
"Please don't cry Hermione,"
Now she was embarrassed. She was supposed to be in control. She was supposed to be the calm one. She was supposed to be helping him.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said whipping the tears away from disdain. "I didn't mean to, I shouldn't have-"
"No don't. Please don't," Percy replied quickly. "It's all right. Everything will be all right."
Hermione nodded and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She pulled out her wand and pushed Percy gently down into the bed.
"Wondaria Exelimei!"
She watched with a bit of pleasure as most of his bleeding cuts began to vanish. She would have to fix up a healing potion for him as well. Tonight, if at all possible.
Percy let out a soft moan.
"Are you feeling any better?" Hermione asked anxiously. Percy turned his staggering green eyes on her again.
"You're all I've thought about," He said.
Hermione looked up in confusion. She didn't understand what he was talking about.
"What do you mean by-" She started but was cut off when Percy suddenly sat up.
"You," He said taking a shaking hand and pushing a lock of her hair out of her face. "You're the only thing I've thought about these last three years. Everyday I imagined you. Of everyone in the world, you understood me. I...I l-love you."
Hermione gave herself a mental shake. This was absurd. Percy Weasley... he didn't love her. He couldn't....
Breathing heavily, Hermione lay her hand on Percy's forehead with gentle ease. It was burning. He had a fever.
"Say something," He said desperately. His breaths were raging. He began to cough.
"You're sick Percy. You don't feel well," Hermione answered. "You need to lie down. I have to go make you some healing potion-"
"Don't go," He said hoarsely. "Please d-don't go."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her down so she was lying next to him. She fell against his body slightly. His skin was freezing with cold.
"Percy, I," Hermione started but fell silent when she felt him sling his arm around her.
"You have no idea how long it's been since someone has loved me," He said softly in her ear. "No idea how long."
Hermione rolled around to face him. "Don't be ridiculous, everyone loves you," She said softly. "We all love you-"
"Not like this," Percy replied, his eyes drifting open and shut. "So long. It's been so long. No one loved me.."
Hermione squirmed inside his embrace. He had somehow managed to shift her closer still to his body. She was trapped. There was no way she could get away from his close, tight embrace. She just couldn't move.
And she didn't give a damn.
Some small part of Hermione's brain refused to admit that she was comfortable. She refused to believe that she was happy. Happy in the embrace of an upset man, who at this moment had a raging fever.
He was delirious. Hermione wasn't going to be the one to take advantage of him in his upset, delirious state.
He had a fever for God's sake! He didn't know what he was talking about!
"No Percy, don't," Hermione said, pushing off his hands that were now resting in her waist. "You're sick. I need to go make the healing potion, please..."
But he was starring at her. Starring at her with such love and affection in his eyes. Could those eyes be telling the truth? No, no they were lying. They weren't saying one bloody thing.
"Percy, please let me go I have to-" Hermione started desperately but was cut off at once.
Percy had pulled her up close to him. It was a flash of a second before he was kissing her hard.
Kissing her like there was no tomorrow... and right now, there didn't seem to be any tomorrow.
Hermione let out a small gasp. It was wrong. It was so damn wrong.... and she didn't want to stop. She loved him. She always had. She had fallen all over him in her first year.
But he was delirious. He wasn't thinking.
Hermione broke apart from him with a gasping breath. She untangled his arms from around her. He was... he was...
Percy starred at her with hurt in his eyes.
"Please Hermione," He said. "Don't run away."
She tried hard to control her breath and slow it down to a normal pace.
"You don't love me Percy," Hermione said quite plainly. "It's your fever talking...it's.."
Percy gave a forced laugh that lacked any mirth. "Don't love you?" He said sounding less delirious and more testy. "Don't I? How would you k-know that?"
"Because..."
She had no answer. The truth was, she didn't know. She only thought. And if what she thought was correct, they could both be sorry for doing something they would regret later.
"Those Death Eaters tortured me. They controlled me, but I didn't lose my mind. I couldn't control it, but I didn't lose my mind," Percy said, wincing in pain as he sat up to face Hermione. "I'm not crazy yet."
"No, I never said you were crazy..."
"Then why are you running?" Percy asked wincing in pain again.
"Your fever..." Hermione started.
"I-I don't have a God damned fever!" Percy said angrily. "I've got a God damned gilt hanging over me like grim death. I killed a man! It's my fault, dammit! I hope they come and lock me up!"
Hermione let out a small sob. "It's not your fault Percy! You were being controlled by Death Eaters!"
"I-I.." Percy looked lost. "I don't know what happened to me. I just... I can't think..."
Hermione grabbed his hands and pulled them down to his side. "Your all right... e-everything is all right.."
But Hermione had lost all sense of control. All sense of anything was lost to the storm outside.
She sunk back into the bed and cried.
"Your brothers shouldn't have left me with you," Hermione weeped. "I can't handle it anymore. Too many people have died. Too much pain and suffering has happened. And to see you like this..."
She was braking. Her world which had once seemed so simple was crumpling underneath her like a sat on cookie.
"We'll make it," Percy said at last.
Hermione cried harder. She could feel his shaking arm come around her once more. This time she gave in.
She pushed as close to him as she could get without hurting him to much. She wanted him to hold her. She wanted to hold him. Anything to forget the world. Anything.
Because she loved him.
After awhile they started kissing hard and she didn't push him away. She was warm with him. He didn't seem nearly as cold as before. Not even close.
She loved him and she had to believe he felt the same of her. He had to feel the same.
Because she loved him. She was in love with him.
~~~
A/N: Review! One more short chapter left!
