"Why'd you have that look on your face last night?" said Ginny, feigning innocence.

"Well I was bloody surprised wasn't I?"

"Yes… I suppose you were," Ginny looked unconvinced.

"I've never had a party thrown especially for me. Not with anybody in attendance anyhow. Usually it's just mum and dad and a cake for twelve people." Percy gritted his teeth and lifted the barbell from the press.

"Still…" said Ginny, throwing her hair back. "It seemed almost as though you didn't even notice we were there until one of us said something… loudly. You were completely in your own world Perce, I don't think I've ever seen you quite like that."

"Yes, well…" Percy sighed and lifted the bell again. "We will continually exhale be surprised."

"Indeed," said Ginny.

"Shock of being promoted and all of that." Percy remarked shortly, trying to dissuade Ginny from more questions.

No such luck. "You were promoted at 2:30 yesterday afternoon Percy. You arrived home at six o'clock…. Surely over three hours is quite enough to collect yourself."

"This is the first time I've ever been promoted Ginny, and as Fred and George so eloquently said yesterday evening, with my overeager nature, I'm immensely lucky not to be doing horrid jobs no one else wants to do for the rest of my life."

"A good story Perce," Ginny sighed. "Quoting the wise Gred and Forge."

"Bite me."

"No. You're my brother."

"Well said."

"And you're acting like you've seen an apparition… a ghost or specter of sorts. What is it Perce?"

He sat in shock, watching the fabric slide down her creamy shoulder, hearing the fabric slide as if it were as deafening as a bomb… The tunic fell, showing every curve, every hollow, every….

"Nothing Ginny. Honestly."

"Fine," she said… defeated and amused. She threw the towel at him.

She ended up going up to bed earlier than he did too. He was so very slow cleaning everything up. Moving like a zombie.

"Goodnight Perce," Ginny said hopefully from the stairs, hoping maybe he'd snap out of it.

No such luck.

"G'night Gin," he said vaguely. Ginny groaned softly and trudged up the stairs.

Percy daydreamed all the way up to bed. He tried to stop himself, but found he just couldn't. That single moment in the Leaky Cauldron was repeating itself over and over again inside his head. He just couldn't bring himself to wipe her away.

And in his dreams the moment became moments, his dream self swept her away with passion, while his real self just sat… horrified, but oddly accepting. In his dream he didn't just see her as he had in the Cauldron, he touched her. Ran his fingers over her skin, kissed her shoulders as if they were the morning sun. His hand ran its fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her neck as his lips caressed her collarbone.

And then he woke up, and abruptly realized, that he could not go downstairs to breakfast in his current state. It seemed his other brain had been the one dreaming, and that it hadn't woken up when he did. He lay there for what felt like an eternity, and getting impatient, he sat up and stared at himself. Willing IT to go away with all of his might.

Minutes passed, and still no luck. GO AWAY! Percy screamed in his head. This is not the time. He was really beginning to get hungry.

All of a sudden, Ginny burst into the room.

"Perce, what?... WHAT THE…" Ginny managed to choke of the remainder of the phrase by slapping her hand over her mouth.

Percy on the other hand, had grabbed a pillow and thrust it over his pants, giving him more coverage than his pajamas did, but feeling rather awkward all the same. Ginny, by this time, had begun to laugh.

"Well at least now I know why you aren't at breakfast," she said, laughing so hard that it seemed as though she was choking on her own spit.

"This is dramatically humiliating, though I think it would be even more so if Fred and George were up here." Percy couldn't look at Ginny. Though she was sympathetic, her amusement made Percy a tad resentful. SHE'D never had to deal with THIS.

"Well the only reason I'm laughing is that Fred and George thought you'd never…" here she paused, turning a bit red in the face herself, "They thought you'd never… well…"

"React to a woman in a purely primal way?" Percy said crisply.

"The exact phrase, verbatim" Ginny looked at her feet, and then at Percy. "Fred and George I'm sure have dreams like that all the time, and I KNOW Ron does."

"A comfort," said Percy, still feeling rather as though he was prancing around Ginny naked wearing tribal paint rather than fully clothed with a pillow covering up his…. Naughty bits as it were.

And he was still hungry, damn it all.

"Alright Perce," said Ginny after a moment. "Just this once I'll say you aren't feeling well… and bring you breakfast in bed. But just this once! I'm never bringing you breakfast in bed again."

"Thank you Ginny," Percy began, but she'd already left.

She came back a few moments later with a plate of eggs, bacon and toast with orange marmalade. A glass of milk was resting precariously near the edge of the tray, looking as though any moment it might fall off. Ginny expertly held the tray with one hand and shut the door with the other. She then put the tray on Percy's bedside table and watching in amusement as he shimmied over to the tray, not sitting up, and absolutely refusing to move the pillow.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of you know," she said suddenly. He glared at her pointedly. "The story went over well," she said, changing the subject. "They think you're a bit frightened about starting your first day of your new job."

"First of all," he said with a mouthful of bacon. "I don't start my new job today, I start it Monday. And second of all," he downed a gulp of milk. "I have to go through two weeks of training before I actually take the position anyway."

"My point, Percy," Ginny seemed nearly sullen now. "Was that they bought it."

"Oh," Percy took a bite of toast.

"If you'd been listening you would have caught that."

"I'm sorry… what?" Percy looked up from his breakfast, looking for all the world as though he had nothing more in the world to do but sit there and eat toast with orange marmalade.

"What is WITH you!" Ginny exclaimed, beginning to pace in what little space Percy's bedroom had. "You've been out of it for three days now. I've never seen you this distracted. Is it the job?"

Percy nodded abruptly.

Ginny stared.

"Well alright then," and she walked out of the room and closed the door.