Disclaimer: I just own the plot, not the lovely Arthur and Percy Weasley.
Review Responses:
ElavielBlack – Glad you liked the first chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
lilyqueen777 – I made you cry? Don't worry things will begin to get better, before they get worse again! I love that line too, a fair few of the chapter titles in this story have come from songs by the wonderful Sting actually, I was listening to various bits of music while I wrote and certain lines just seemed to sum some of the chapters up rather well so I decided I'd actually use chapter titles (a first for me!). Thanks for the review!
Ella Palladino – I'm glad it seemed like something Percy would do, I could see him behaving like that. Thanks for the review!
hydraspit – I like post-OotP stories about Percy too but I couldn't come across any that didn't portray him as the bad guy! You know, that he was entirely to blame for the whole affair! So I thought I'd have a bash at putting a different view across which you'll see over the next few chapters. Thanks for the review!
cooldot – Oh I will definitely continue! I've finished in draft form and it's quite long and I'm currently at work on a sequel. Glad you brought up the Fred and George issue, have I found someone else who thinks Percy wasn't entirely in the wrong in the fifth book? Anyway Fred and George and the rest of the family will have their treatment of him addressed at some point! This chapter's rather short I'm afraid, it's just a sojourn into Arthur's mind, but the next one is three times as long as this so I hope that'll make up for it! Thanks for the review!
What You Left BehindChapter 2: Those Described as Driven
"And I suspect those described as driven are usually driven by their mum or their dad."Walking out of the ministry building, Arthur couldn't shake the thoughts of his estranged son from his head. Percy had always been stubborn, of course most Weasleys were but Percy was something else altogether. He had always appeared to be so arrogant but Arthur had guessed that his seeming self-importance actually hid the deep running insecurities that being one of the middle children in a large family could produce. He had watched Percy grow from a sweet natured baby and toddler to a silent child with his head stuck constantly in some book. From then he had become a serious teen with an affectation of arrogance that drove people away from him. Arthur had more than once considered sitting Percy down and talking to him about it, but time had never allowed. He had always been so busy, helping Bill and Charlie make their way in the world, clearing up after the twins, making sure Ron didn't follow Harry into too many death defying feats which were taking years off his mother's life, being the protective father to his little girl, that somewhere down the line quiet, self-sufficient Percy had simply ceased to be a worry.
He laughed humourlessly, now Percy was anything but 'not a worry'. Perhaps if he had spent a little more time getting to know his son over the years then that scene at the Burrow, over a year ago now, could have been avoided. He knew that of all his children Percy was the one who was most a stranger to him. Even Bill and Charlie, having long flown the nest, still included him in their lives but Percy had been shutting the world out for years.
He had been so angry with his son at first that he had even disliked his wife's attempts to contact their him and after Percy had sent his jumper back unopened at Christmas he had been quite content in the idea of never going near the boy again. But no one can stay angry forever, least of all Arthur Weasley. He had soon come to realise that more than anything he wasn't angry with Percy, he was worried about him. He wanted him at Grimmauld Place where he could keep an eye on him. He knew all too well how Percy's name could make him a target; it was no secret that the Weasley family were not exactly Voldemort's number one fans. He had had many sleepless nights wondering about Percy's safety.
Looking back, their fight had been so silly. Of course Percy didn't like the insinuation that he had simply got the promotion because Fudge wanted him to spy on his family, it had to be said Percy was nothing if not ambitious. Arthur had occasionally heard Fred and George extolling the view that Percy should have been in Slytherin and he could certainly understand why. Percy had never struck him as the archetypal Gryffindor, but that had never meant he had loved him any less than any of his other children. He had often admired Percy's determination and hard work, admired his self-surety under fire from his brothers, with whom he seemed to disagree about everything. Looking back it wasn't so surprising that it would be Percy to walk out, his temper burned at a shorter fuse than most people realised, very much like Ron's did. His innate insecurity and inability to let anyone in or ask for help had been bound to land him in trouble one day. Arthur just wished he'd seen it coming, rather than understanding it so clearly only in horrifying hindsight. Hindsight which told him he had never really known his son.
And if nothing else had proved that to him then the scene he had just witnessed in Percy's office certainly had. He had known from the beginning that it could not possibly be a Death Eater Percy was talking to, for one thing Death Eaters were not known for hiding in cupboards in Ministry offices and for another he had been called to Azkaban only that day and knew firsthand that Lucius Malfoy was right where he belonged and going nowhere fast. It had been nothing but his own shock though that had stopped him going in to his son's aid until he finally realised it was merely a boggart his son was arguing with.
Percy's desire to live to the point of being able to consider joining the Death Eaters Arthur could understand and sympathise with, who knew how they would react in that situation, but it was Percy's clear horror at himself and fascination with his fear that had shocked him. The conversation had been dull, rehearsed, clearly said many times before. He couldn't guess how many times Percy must have faced that boggart but it looked to have been a lot.
That Percy, who always had an answer for everything, should fear being asked the question he couldn't answer was unsurprising. But his obvious obsession with it was. Having been so reluctant to look the unpleasant truth in the face before, the fact that Percy was now able to bring himself to do little else had shocked and impressed his father. Instead of pushing it to the back of his mind and allowing it to fester there as most people would have done, Percy had confronted the issue in the same logical way he liked to approach everything. He had analysed and repeated the experience, searching for the answer he wanted. He had stared fear in the face purely with the intention not of beating it in some show of bravado but of understanding himself and his situation.
Arthur knew that to have gone in there would have interrupted Percy's much needed introspection and brought no good at all. Even though he had in fact gone there with the intention of speaking to his estranged son and trying to put things right, that had clearly ceased to be an option. He didn't need to go in there and tell Percy what to do because he needed to know that Percy could come to the right decision on his own but more importantly because he already knew what conclusion Percy would come to. He had every faith that his son would in his own way and his own time make the right decision. He felt that there were few other people who could have had such faith in Percy and his obvious wish for personal survival but they hadn't seen the things Arthur had.
He remembered Percy's pride in his brother when Ron had beaten McGonagall's giant chess set. He remembered how Percy had returned after his sixth year, looking pale with black rings fading under his eyes, Molly had finally managed to prise out of him that he'd hardly slept since Penelope Clearwater was first petrified and that the problem had become worse after Ginny's near miss. He remembered Ron writing to him after the second task of the Tri-wizard tournament about how Percy had raced out into the lake to see if he was alright, dignity forgotten in concern for his brother. Hearing about that had made Arthur feel more proud of Percy than any other incident he could call to mind. Being Head Boy, getting top NEWTs and OWLs, gaining a position at the ministry, all were things that had made Arthur proud of his son but, though he realised now with regret he'd never bothered to attempt to communicate this to Percy, it was those small moments of humanity when Percy's mask slipped and his compassion and heart showed through that really made his father proud.
It was Percy out of all his children who had followed him into the ministry, and Arthur knew full well that he would be the only one who would. The twins would sooner die and Ron and Ginny weren't cut out for deskwork. Ron might make a good auror, unless someone told him about the amount of paperwork they had to do, but it was his duty to try and talk his youngest son out of that particular career in order to preserve the few nerves his poor wife had left.
Arthur knew he would never really be happy again if he and Percy couldn't fix their problems. He wasn't sure if Percy even wanted to, but he knew when Percy realised he was wrong he usually did something about it. Then again, if there was one thing Percy hated it was being proved to be in the wrong. Arthur believed that his son was mature enough to face that and apologise, but it all hinged on how much of what he had said he'd really meant. Arthur hoped that it was simply all said in rage and pain but he wasn't sure. If Percy truly felt the way he'd said he did then Arthur shouldn't hold his breath waiting for his son to come home. He had a nasty feeling that his son's dislike of Harry could be genuine, the warmth he and Molly had shown to the boy had exceeded anything Percy had allowed them to display towards him in recent years. Arthur cared for and respected Harry but he could never replace his son, of course things might have looked different from Percy's point of view. Percy could be oddly jealous and after years of competing for his parents attention, and Arthur and Molly were both well aware that that was exactly what his over achieving was all about, just as he had really started to come into his own at school Harry had come along. Harry Potter who had had them worrying about him and, in the case of Percy's younger siblings, risking their lives for him. Percy of course had never complained, had always been perfectly friendly to Harry, and Arthur had been shocked to hear the venom in his voice when he had called Harry an 'attention seeking nutcase'.
Even Percy's rather cruel, seemingly heartless, hopelessly self-important letter to his brother earlier that year had suggested that he cared. Alongside the arrogant yet slightly defensive tone, what Ron had related of the letter sounded as though Percy did care about his brother, he just had a very odd way of showing it.
It was this contact with his brother which, along with the memories that convinced him Percy would choose the right path, gave Arthur hope. Hope that Percy would come home and that he'd get his son back.
As he arrived at the Burrow's front door he sighed deeply. The whole family were inside, Charlie having returned at least temporarily from Romania. Bill and Charlie had been fighting ever since Charlie's return and it had always been about the same thing: Percy. Charlie was having difficulty understanding what had happened when he hadn't been around and had been annoyed by his brothers' attitude towards Percy. Arthur simply felt too tired to be dealing with them but then remembered that if he and Molly hadn't spent so long being too tired or too busy to deal with Percy then they might not have the situation on their hands that they did. So he opened the door and hung up his cloak, hearing the sounds of his family talking and of dinner being prepared in the kitchen.
"Arthur?" he smiled to hear his wife calling to him.
"I'm home Molly!" he answered and headed towards the kitchen, stopping momentarily to look back at the front door and wonder if Percy had left the ministry yet. And it felt when he entered the kitchen, as it always did these days, that there was something missing.
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A/N: The quote that the title comes from is from a song by The Beautiful South called "Spit it All Out".
Chapter Three will be up next week and it's got more interaction between the characters.
Review and tell me what you think!