Chapter Four: Seeing Clearly
"Let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly, that is the first law of nature." ~ Voltaire
Harry woke up to a warm hippogriff body next to him, and the sound of someone's slow, easy breathing nearby. Rubbing his eyes, he turned and saw Mrs. Weasley sitting in a chair next to the bed. As he moved, she opened her eyes and smiled. "Good morning, Harry. Remus was called away on an urgent matter, but he didn't want you left alone."
Harry sat up, surprised that he wasn't stiff from sleeping in a strange position, and asked, "It's not dangerous, is it?"
"Remus's errand? Oh no, merely something he's better equipped than any of us to deal with. We expect him back anytime now." She patted Harry's shoulder as he sat up. "Feel like some breakfast? Buckbeak was kind enough to wait for his until you woke."
"Thanks, Buckbeak," said Harry. On cue, his own stomach rumbled. "I'll go wash up first."
"Right, then." Mrs. Weasley led the way out of Buckbeak's room, muttering, "It's high time Ron and the rest of those slug-a-beds got up too."
An hour later, Harry was seated around the kitchen table with Hermione and all the younger Weasleys save Percy, enjoying a massive breakfast. Tonks had popped in to give a report to Mr. Weasley, but she only had time to grab a few sausages before popping out again. "Blimey, this place is a zoo today," said Ron, making himself a sandwich of bacon and eggs on toast.
"Where's Neville and Luna?"
"Moody and Kingsley took them home. Luna and her dad are leaving on their trip to go snorkack-hunting soon, and he's more eager than ever to get her out of the country for a bit. Neville's with his gran in hiding, but he may be visiting again," said Hermione
"The whole Ministry's in an uproar over the attack. That idiot Fudge is going to have to explain how Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban and nearly managed to kidnap Harry right from the atrium," said Bill.
"I got away just fine!" Harry protested.
"Actually, Harry, maybe it'd be better if people thought they did nearly get you. Then maybe we'd be rid of Fudge," whispered Charlie.
Harry snickered, and then Remus walked into the room. "Good morning, all."
"Where've you been?" Harry demanded.
"Sorry about that, Harry. I can see better than most people in the dark, so the Aurors wanted my help surveying the tunnels. No one can decide whether to repair them and use them as escapes again or to fill them in," said Remus.
"Ah, Remus—goodness, you're filthy!" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley. "Upstairs with you, and I'll make sure this lot doesn't eat all the breakfast."
"Yes, ma'am," said Remus and trotted up the stairs.
Mrs. Weasley smiled fondly after him, then turned to the table. "Dear me, we're going to need more food. Winky?"
The house elf popped into view. "Mistress Wheezy is wanting Winky?"
Over Hermione's protests, Professor Dumbledore had decided after the death of Kreacher (having caused the death of Sirius proved too much for the unlamented Black house elf, and he'd punished himself by diving down the stairs) that Winky would become the official house elf of the Order. She answered only to members or people who had been cleared by one, and so far the arrangement was working out well. The Order had mollified Hermione by suggesting that she knit a little shift for Winky to wear, and so Winky went about in what looked like a fuzzy baby blanket in various shades of red and orange. Hermione had used the colors of Fawkes' feathers.
It was obvious that Winky was happier this way, even Hermione had to admit, as the elf hopped over to the stove and began making large helpings of all the breakfast dishes to continue feeding a horde of busy Order members and their assorted children. "Thank you very much, Winky," said Harry as she brought over a platter of fresh pancakes.
"Is Master Harry wanting anything else?" Winky asked, surveying the table with a critical eye to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.
"No, thank you, Winky," said Hermione. "You've outdone yourself."
Winky looked disappointed, so Mrs. Weasley said, "Actually, perhaps you could set aside a bit of everything for Percy when he comes down. If we leave it all on the table, these greedy guts will eat every crumb."
Winky exclaimed in horror and ran for more dishes. "None of Masters or Mistresses is going hungry while Winky is here!" Even Ron grinned.
"Is Percy still asleep?" asked Harry, lowering his voice.
The rest of the Weasley children waited until Mrs. Weasley left to answer the door, then Fred leaned forward. "He said he wanted to be alone after Dumbledore and the rest of us finally finished telling him everything."
"How'd he take it?"
Ginny sighed, toying with her scrambled eggs. "I think he believed it. Didn't like it, but he believed it."
Harry swallowed. "Did he…did he believe the truth about Sirius?"
Ron nodded. "That I'm sure of. Mum started to cry about the arguments she used to have with him and how much he cared about you and—oh, bloody—Harry, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, reaching vainly toward Harry as if to brush aside what he'd said. Harry had turned a sickly shade of gray.
"Here," said Hermione, shoving a plate of hot buns toward him. "Try these. Winky got the recipe from Hogwarts."
With a mouthful of sticky bun to distract him, Harry felt better. "Has any of this changed his mind about Fudge?"
"Don't know, but don't see how it couldn't," said Charlie. "But knowing Percy, I'm not placing any wagers."
"I think it did," said George. He and Fred looked at each other, then back at Harry. "He wanted to be alone afterwards, so Mum got him his own room. We listened with our Extendable Ears to see if he was talking to her, but she'd gone. And he didn't sleep all night."
Ron froze with a bun halfway to his mouth. "What?"
"You know how loud Perce snores. But there wasn't a sound. All night, except sometimes he'd get up and pace," added Fred, stirring his porridge absently. "He's such a git sometimes, but…" he shook his head at them. "And, of course, Mum's been crying on and off since yesterday, and even Dad cried after Percy told us Fudge sacked him."
"Bloody swine," muttered Bill.
"Why'd Fudge do it? Percy didn't tell me," said Harry.
Ron shrugged, "He didn't tell us in so many words, but we do know Fudge said Percy's services were no longer needed two days after the Daily Prophet reported Voldemort was back. What none of us knew until Dad told us after Percy went to bed was that Fudge had offered Dad a promotion the day after the story broke!"
"What?" Harry gasped.
Charlie nodded, scowling. "Dad declined, of course, but he knew better than to antagonize Fudge, with Dumbledore still hoping the Ministry and the Order could work together against Voldemort. So Dad gave Fudge a sweet little speech about how happy he was in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department and so forth, but that Fudge could be assured of Dad's best efforts for the good of the wizarding community against You-Know-Who, and, well, you get the idea."
"So…once Fudge decided your dad didn't merit spying on, he didn't need Percy anymore," Harry concluded, and groaned.
"Wonder if Percy ever had a clue Fudge was using him," Ron mused.
"No," said Harry, so firmly that the others stared at him. "We were lost in the tunnels for awhile, and we talked a bit. Awkward conversation," he added with a grimace. "I don't think he really knew Fudge. All he saw was the office. Someone in that high position couldn't be a fool or self-serving. He thought the same of Crouch, I'll bet."
"Sounds like Percy," muttered Fred. "If you remember, he worshiped Dumbledore while he was in school. Soon as he graduated and got to the Ministry, he thought he was above a mere teacher."
"Wonder how he feels now," murmured Hermione.
"Well," said Ginny, looking at each of them. "Imagine how we'd feel if we found out Dumbledore really had been out to get Fudge, and was just manipulating us to serve him."
"What?!"
"Ginny, really!"
"That's not even—"
Silence gradually descended. "Bloody hell," muttered Ron. "How much do we really know?"
"Because we've been close to him," said Harry suddenly, and the others looked at him. "And if not us, then our parents. You can fool someone who only knows you from a distance, like Percy and his bosses, but not if they're close to you and see you outside the public eye."
"The rest of us haven't really been, but I suppose you have, Harry," said Hermione.
Harry nodded. "When he stopped talking to me or looking at me or telling me what was going on last year, I wondered. And I stopped trusting him. Then I felt used. It wasn't until he started explaining things again that I understood." He scowled. "Didn't like it, but I understood."
"So you think we'll win over Percy, then? He's been closer to the Order in the last twelve hours than he's been to his Ministry bosses in two years," said Ginny.
"Let's hope so," said Ron grimly.
"Hear hear," said Bill, and they all spontaneously raised their juice glasses in a toast.
***
Percy didn't come down until almost noon. He was very startled by the presence of Winky, and even more so when she seized him and steered him into the kitchen. "Mister Percy Wheezy must be hungry; Winky has saved breakfast for him. Mistress Wheezy said Winky was not to be disturbing Mister Percy, so Winky hopes Mister Percy slept well. Is Mister Percy wanting anything else?" she asked once the food was set out again."
"Er, no, thank you, Winky," said Percy. Nibbling at the food, he watched Ron and Harry playing chess at the other end of the table, and the twins playing gobstones on the kitchen floor. Hermione was reading, and Ginny was playing Exploding Snap with Bill and Charlie.
"I said E-Three, you stupid piece of—don't argue with me! Better you than the bishop!" Harry was yelling at one of his knights when Percy got up and left. Everyone watched him silently as he headed up toward the drawing room, and then they all looked at each other. "Fine, be that way," said Harry, knocking the knight off the board, and jumped up to follow the Weasleys upstairs.
Percy stood in the drawing room doorway for a moment, watching his parents talking with Remus Lupin, Moody, and Tonks about the clean-up at the Ministry, then he went back upstairs. Mrs. Weasley saw him go and got up to follow him, and Mr. Weasley frowned and went after her. Harry and the others looked on as Mr. Weasley caught her on the foot of the stairs, talking to her in a hushed voice. She immediately began arguing, and they went back and forth for several minutes before Mrs. Weasley got agitated, and Mr. Weasley snapped, "Molly!"
Ginny and Ron flinched next to Harry, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley noticed the onlookers. They visibly calmed themselves and slipped back down the stairs and into the library. Harry, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys retreated back to the kitchen. After sitting around the table in silence for several minutes, Ginny said, "I'm glad he's back, but I'm still going to box his ears at the earliest opportunity."
"Amen to that," said Ron. "I wish now I hadn't burnt that letter about Harry last year. I'd make him eat it."
Harry grimaced. "I think he already did."
"Pfft! Good point."
A door opened upstairs, and Fred and George ran to the kitchen doorway, looking up. "Mum and Dad are coming out of the library. I think—wait, Dad's the one going upstairs. Mum looks a little nervous, but she's going back to the drawing room."
Ron jumped up. "Anyone else in the hall?" Fred shook his head. "Got some Extendable Ears handy?"
"Quick, come on!" said George, charging up the stairs. Ron, Ginny, Bill, and Charlie followed the twins.
Hermione moved to go with them, but Harry caught her arm. "We'll just stay here."
***
Grimmauld Place was quiet. Most of the members of the Order were either away or asleep, since many of them had been up all night. Harry challenged Hermione to a game of chess, but spent most of the time giving her strategy lessons on how to think ahead while playing. "You're good a this," she said when he pointed out to her that she'd left one of her castles vulnerable to his queen.
"Been playing with Ron for five years, I ought to be," said Harry. "He's the real strategist. That's why he's the new Quidditch captain. I'll bet next year he gets Head Boy—"
Hermione looked when Harry broke off. "Harry? What?" She looked down at the board in confusion as Harry started to grin. "What's so funny?"
He blinked at her. "Oh. Nothing." At her dubious expression, he asked, "You remember the Mirror of Erised in our first year?"
"How could I forget? I was always sorry I never got to look in it."
"Did Ron ever tell you what he saw?"
She rolled her eyes. "His deepest desire was to be Quidditch captain?! Oh, honestly!"
"Well, there was more than that, and he'd probably kill me for telling you too much, but among other things, yes." Harry shook his head. "Funny, I haven't thought about that in a long time. I wonder if we looked now would we see the same things?"
"What did you see again?" asked Hermione. "I remember the Stone, but what was in it the time Voldemort wasn't there?"
"Didn't I tell you? My family. My parents and their parents, and other people who must have been cousins and aunts and uncles—not the Dursleys," Harry shook his head. All at once, his heart gave a painful twist. "I think it'd be the same, only…I would probably see…" he looked at the chess board.
Hermione reached out and patted his hand, then moved a knight between her castle and his queen. "I don't really know what I'd see. I think peace, if you could see such a thing. No Voldemort. All of us at Hogwarts with nothing to worry about but homework and exams and getting detention."
"Yeah, that's probably a lot of people's deepest desire," Harry sighed, watching his queen demolish her knight. Hermione suddenly grinned at him. "What?"
"Gotcha!" Her castle took his queen.
"Oh, of all the—not fair! I was distracted!" They were both laughing when Ron, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, and the twins came back into the kitchen, putting away their Extendable Ears. All of them were very quiet until Hermione evidently couldn't stand it.
"Well?" she blurted. "Did he apologize?"
Ginny gave a choked laugh. "I'll say he did."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, seeing their odd expressions.
"'Bout fifty times," said Ron, resting his chin on his palm. "He told Dad he's sorry. Over and over. Said he misses us. He said something about the Burrow too."
"I couldn't make it out, he was crying too hard by then," said Fred.
"Oh," sighed Hermione.
George nodded. "Don't think I've heard Percy cry in three years."
"Four," said Ron. "He cried when we got Ginny out of the Chamber of Secrets." He shook his head. "Wasn't like this, though."
"Of course not, what happened to Ginny wasn't his fault," snorted Fred.
Harry frowned. "So you think—"
"Shh!" Ginny exclaimed as a door opened upstairs.
They all waited as footsteps came down into the basement, then the kitchen door slowly opened to reveal Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, followed closely by Percy, all three with very red eyes. "Children," said Mrs. Weasley hoarsely. "Percy would like to talk to you."
Harry exchanged a glance with Hermione, and they both got up. "Right then," said Hermione. "We'll go on upstairs."
Ron looked at his siblings, then said, "Actually, I think Harry at least should stay, er, no offense, Hermione," he added hastily.
Hermione smiled. "None taken. Should I tell Bill and Charlie to come down?"
"Yes, please, Hermione dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "Thank you."
Hermione grinned at them and hurried up the stairs. A few moments later, the two remaining Weasleys came thumping down, with Charlie skidding to a halt in the doorway and Bill bumping into him. "Percy?"
"I…wanted to talk to all of you," said their middle brother in a faint voice.
"Oh…um, all right then."
"Why don't we all sit down," suggested Mr. Weasley, and steered Percy toward the head of the table.
Bill and Charlie came to join them, and Harry sat down at the other end with their parents. Percy appeared to be fascinated by the backs of his hands of the tabletop, and Harry was startled by how much Percy resembled Ron without his glasses. He'd always thought Ron looked most like Ginny. Percy shifted, dared a glance up at his family, then quickly dropped his eyes again. "I know I've been…I mean…you know what I…mm…" he bit his lip. Then he took a deep breath and murmured, "I've been a real prat."
Ron began, "Yes, you have," but Mrs. Weasley said, "Be quiet, Ron. Let Percy talk."
Percy's face was scarlet, and with his Weasley hair and his red eyes, he looked strange. "I guess I've been blind. I always thought I was…doing the right thing…working for the right…making things better, I mean—not just for other people, for us too…I didn't see—didn't want to see," he amended it. "When Harry—I mean, at the end of the Triwizard Tournament, it was all so…so strange and…when Minister Fudge told me what Dumbledore was saying, it all seemed so…horrific." He shot Harry a quick glance. "It was just…he kept telling me it wasn't true, that there was nothing to fear, it was all just an accident, and everything seemed so…normal…like what Dumbledore and-and-Harry kept saying was all part of a book or another world." Percy's fists were balled under his chin, so tight that his knuckles had gone white. "The idea that another war…just…seemed so far away.
"And then he…when Dumbledore kept pushing it, the Minister starting saying Dumbledore wanted his job and I…it seemed easier to believe that. I mean, that it was just one person stirring things up than a war. Just…easier…safer. And Harry…" he glanced at Harry again, turned even redder if that were possible, and looked down again. "Well…ahem…you know what I thought, but I didn't mean—well, I did, but—it just came—wrong," Percy's voice faded to a whisper as he peered up at them without lifting his head. "I was wrong. I know now…wrong about everything, and I…I'm sorry," he choked out, his voice rising in pitch and cracking badly. "I'm so sorry. I wish I—but I can't, I'm just…so sorry!"
With that, Percy broke, and with a helpless sob, he buried his face in his arms and cried. Harry didn't dare look at any of the others as Ginny slowly reached over to her brother and started stroking his hair.
It was Fred who broke through Percy's tears with, "Oh, quit that, you bloody idiot, we forgive you."
Percy's head popped up, tears still on his face, eyes wide. "What?"
George took the cue. "He said we forgive you, of course. Forgiven. Apology accepted. Pardoned. Got over. Aren't you the one who's supposed to be supplying the definitions?"
Percy just blinked at the twins, looking baffled. Then, after a long moment, a slow, hesitant smile crossed his face. Mrs. Weasley let out a helpless sob as both twins, with deafening battle cries, launched themselves from their chairs on top of their brother, knocking both chair and sibling straight to the ground, before Percy had time to do more than yelp. Ginny shrieked with delight and threw herself on top of the three of them, and all Harry could see from the other side of the table were flailing limbs, though Percy's helpless gasps of laughter indicated he was being tickled to death.
"Gotta be reinitiated to the Weasleys, brother ours!"
"That's right, and this is only the beginning!"
"Move over, you hogs, let me at 'im!"
Gasp! "Can't—" wheeze! " —breathe! Hahahahahaha!"
Exchanging a grin, Bill and Charlie jumped up from their seats and strolled over to join the melee. "Aaaah—hahahaha—eeaaaah—don't suppose you two could rescue me? Hoohoo!"
"Nope. Stand aside there, you lot, it's our turn," ordered Bill, as he and Charlie pounced on Percy. Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were laughing and crying at the same time.
Fred abruptly looked up from the pile of Weasleys on the kitchen floor. "Come on, Ron!"
Ron obediently started to get up, but suddenly froze. "Oh. Wait." Instead of joining the others, he started across the room.
Ginny sat up and frowned at him, "What're you doing?"
"Wait!" Ron insisted, running to the foot of the stairs. Everyone stared, and he looked at them. "Well, go on, as you were!"
With a shrug, Fred extricated Percy's upper body from the struggling pile, and began knuckling his head fiercely, while Ginny pinched his nose and he yelled in protest through his laughter. "What's the matter, Ron?" Harry asked, as Ron watched the chaos with a very odd expression, pulling out his wand.
Ron looked at Harry, and Harry stared back: his friend's face was practically glowing. "Nothing, mate. Absolutely nothing! EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
A burst of silver light erupted from Ron's wand, bringing the wrestling Weasley siblings to an immediate halt. The brilliance sailed to the floor and coalesced into a small shape that began scampering about the room. "Blimey!" Fred cried in delight.
There was a bang from upstairs, and Hermione, who had evidently heard the shouting, burst through the kitchen door just in time to see Ron's Patronus, a ferret, scurry by. "Ron?"
Ron looked from her to Harry with a grin. "So? What do you think?"
Harry folded his arms and grinned back as Mrs. Weasley shrieked with laughter and the rest of the Weasleys applauded widely.
"I think…his name is Malfoy."
*****
Next time: In the Epilogue, our heroes learn that everyone on the side of Right will have a role to play in the Second War, and it's up to each to use his own strengths and talents to the good guys' advantage. A family is restored, and Percy finds his niche—and atones for past mistakes in a way Harry never dreamed.
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