Title: Big Brother
Rating: PG
Timeline: Pre-Hogwarts!Percy
Notes: I really do like Ron. Percy's thoughts on the kid are pretty much what I imagine most kid's thoughts are of a younger sibling. (There were a couple of times I would have cheerfully sold my brothers off to whoever would take them. -)

It's very early in the morning when Percy attempts to sneak into Bill's bedroom. He knows how much Bill values his privacy, and really, Percy can't blame him. In a house with a bazillion kids and in the midst of a war that keeps them all cooped up inside, it's easy to understand why Bill spends most of his summer sequestered alone in solitude.

Percy wishes he could do the same. He rooms with Charlie, and under other circumstances, it might not be so bad. But Charlie's chaffing at being second oldest, and really who wants to sleep in the same room as a baby brother who's not old enough to go to Hogwarts? Although, in his own defense, Percy thinks that Charlie could have it a lot worse and be stuck with the capricious, and seldom ever able to keep out of mischief for more than five minutes, twins.

No one sleeps in the same room as Ron, because no one's ear drums are quite that resilient. In fact, it's Ron's fault that Percy's even up now, sneaking into Bill's room and timidly shaking Bill awake. Percy's always been a light sleeper, and ever since Ron was born, he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep. He half wishes that Ron were some kind of changeling that he could leave on the doorstep as a sacrificial offering. If he thought it would actually get rid of He Who Must Not Be Named Because He Makes Mum and Dad Cry, he'd actually seriously contemplate giving Ron up for the greater good.

"Bill?" he calls quietly, jumping as Bill comes awake abruptly, grabbing Percy's wrist.

"What?" It's a sleepy growl, and it makes Percy's heart beat really hard.

"I can't sleep," he whispers, reconsidering just how good of an idea it might have been to intrude on his older brother's domain.

"Then go bug Mum and Dad." Bill rolls over, pulling his covers with him, and leaving Percy standing cold and barefoot beside the bed.

"I can't."

"Percy." Bill's groan sounds annoyed, and Percy's sure he'll spend the rest of the year imitating it as he lectures the twins on the pitfalls of eating mud.

"Mum'll cry," he sniffles, because it's the truth.

Because the truth is, his mum scares him with all her talk of people lurking in the shadows and being a strong little boy and waiting for Dad to come home even though he can tell by looking at her that she's not so sure he will. Percy doesn't go to her when Ron wakes him up or when he's had a bad dream. Whatever mummy comforting abilities she might have once had, the war has stolen it away, too. Just like its stolen away two little boys and one little girl in the school that Percy's mum no longer lets him attend.

"Fine," Bill sighs, very put upon, as he rolls back over and flips the covers open long enough for Percy to crawl in beside him. Curled up beside Bill, Percy feels safe. Because Bill is big, and knows magic and doesn't act scared of the war or worried when Dad's gone for more than a week at a time.

He knows Bill likes his privacy and can't stand it when his little brothers crawl into bed with him, but Percy can't seem to help himself. Bill's his favorite sibling. And if Bill will let him do this every once in a while so that Percy can get a decent night's sleep, then Percy'll forgive Bill for making Percy the big brother during the rest of the year while he and Charlie are away.