Ginny thought about it long and hard, and had finally come to the conclusion that her brother was quite mad indeed. He'd been acting strangely when he'd come back from Spain, before Spain, now that she thought about it. Even stranger now that he was back. He acted savage, more like Ron, or Harry when he was furious, but Ginny had never seen Percy like this before. Ever…
And there seemed to be nothing at all that she could do about it. He refused to talk about it, not that he was being entirely secretive, she knew something was wrong. But he seemed so absorbed in his own thoughts that even if he did tell her, she didn't think he had the mental capability at the time to be able to make her understand.
But Ginny felt she needed to know. Percy was going to hurt himself like he'd almost done in the basement the other morning.
She'd been spotting him, as usual, when he started doing reps faster, and faster until finally she tore the weight from his hands, almost hurting her own arm muscles in the process.
"What's got into you Percy?" she said, frightened at his sudden burst of feeling.
"Nothing…" he'd say shortly and toweled himself off. And it was always nothing nowadays. Getting a straight answer out of Percy was like trying to pick all of the fleas off of Crookshanks. It simply could not be done.
Not that she'd given up. She took great care trying to spend as much time with Percy as possible. She might even have been annoying him at this point. On Monday she'd walked into his room to find him bent over something in his hands.
"Perce?" she said softly, a little frightened of this odd behavior.
He jolted out of whatever world he'd been in and shoved the obscured object into the top drawer of his desk.
"Yes Ginny?" he said, just as softly, trying to hide the tremble in his voice.
"Dinner's soon," she continued, edging toward his bed and sitting down at the edge of it. "I just wanted to know if you were okay."
Here there was a pause, Percy was staring blankly out of the window. His brows furrowed. Clearly he was thinking about something.
"Are you okay?" Ginny leaned forward, not sure whether or not he'd answered her.
"I'm fine Ginny," he said abruptly, and then he stood up so fast that Ginny jumped. "I suppose we ought to go down to dinner then," he said without looking at her, and then strode briskly out of the door.
The truth was that not even Percy was sure what was wrong with him. He'd come back from Spain to find that Joselyn had seemingly vanished without a trace. He could not find her anywhere. She'd not come back to the leaky cauldron, according to Tom. Percy had gone to the tavern where she worked and found out, from the old barwoman, that Joselyn had quit her job the day before he left for Spain and hadn't been seen since.
And Percy… well, he went a little mad. He created a private file on her at the ministry and had started collecting information on her. Interviews with the other women who worked at the tavern had yielded no results, and most of the other past history he'd collected, though new to him, had provided little insight as to where she'd gone.
As the days went on, Percy grew more and more determined to find her. He tried to remember their conversations, and wrote them down, and studied them for clues. He knew she'd wanted to leave. She'd hated her job. But where had she gone exactly, and why hadn't she said anything to him. He couldn't bring himself to be angry with her. He still wasn't certain as to whether or not she was alright, which was part of the reason why he was so determined to find her. He was furious with himself for not being able to do it.
"You love her, do you?" said the woman behind the bar.
"What makes you say that ma'am?" Percy jerked with emotion, and then repressed it quickly.
"My dear boy, when you are as old as I am, you will be able to tell when a boy is in love," The woman smiled at him warmly. But for Percy these words held no comfort, he had to find her.
The time late at night that he used to spend getting word done ahead of time was now spent searching the city for her, not just Diagon Alley but London itself. And he had no more luck finding her among muggles. Still he kept on, sweeping the countryside in his black cloak, searching for her nearly everywhere.
His eyes grew dark and tired, and he didn't eat much anymore. He knew Ginny was worried, he still looked healthy enough, but she could tell he was getting thinner by the week, and his eyes looked in desperate need of sleep.
"Percy, I don't think you should lift this morning," she said one day, waiting for him on the steps of the basement.
And then later, after he'd started to lift and was nearing the end of a set.
"Percy, I think you should stop now." She glared at him, trying to make him see sense.
"No Ginny, I can't stop now," he gasped.
And then he collapsed in front of her.