Living
Author's notes: I've been trying to get back into this school thing, which is, in a way, a bit of explanation as to why this is so long in coming. I would also like to take this time to apologize for the brevity of this installment. But, there you go. It's been difficult to extract this story from Percy, as he is constantly complaining that the ropes chafe and the duck-tape leaves an odd taste in his mouth. And, against all evidence to the contrary, he holds that I do not own him. Ah well.
You're going to reap just what you sow…
~Lou Reed
****paladin.****
Percy became a prefect in his fifth year. The twins had taunted him nonstop since he'd received the small badge, teasing him about his 'stellar rise to power.' Percy tried not to care. He hadn't lobbied to become a prefect, each was simply chosen by the headmaster, but he had hoped for it. Bill and Charlie had both been prefects in their time, and Percy saw the joy it brought his mother. He was pleased too- not for the position of power, as the twins so viciously suggested, but for the responsibility. It gave him a chance to care for the younger students, to be a reliable surrogate big brother for them. To protect them. It was a responsibility he'd lost with his own family. The twins, of course, rejected him outright. Ginny was safe at home with mum. And Ron… Well, Ron had Harry, and the twins, and he didn't really need Percy at all.
Harry was something of a surprise, really. He could remember, with easy clarity, the day the Dark Lord had fallen. He knew tales of the boy, both true and exaggerated. He'd even studied him a bit in the previous year's Defence Against the Dark Arts class. But nowhere, in any of the myth and lore surrounding the boy, was there any indication that he would be so small. He was pale and frail and delicate in a way that reminded Percy rather unpleasantly of the days before, of dark rooms and furtive conversations that contained words he didn't understand. Percy had never expected to feel a sympathetic affinity for the boy. But there it was- he'd recognized him with no introduction, that first day at King's Crossing. He knew that he had to protect the boy. He'd given him a small smile, willing him to stop looking so apprehensive. The boy did not notice.
After that he'd hugged his mother and gone quietly to the prefect's car to sit with the people who did not know him or did not care about him. He was glad then for Hermes, his beautiful owl. Hermes was a present from his mum, in congratulations for becoming a prefect. Percy loved him almost violently- he was everything Percy was not. Graceful, sleek, admired by everyone who saw him. Percy wished for a fleeting moment that he were an owl.
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Percy sighed and pressed his face against the cool glass window of the muggle bus. He was only trying to protect them. But then, they'd never understood before, had only rejected him. He supposed it was foolish to think that anything would be different now.
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So. Was it all you were hoping for? No? Too bad. The story really does start soon. Or maybe the whole mess will be a brooding, introspective diatribe on the brutality of basic human nature and its ravaging effects on a sensitive soul. Either way.