-1Chapter 6

The Accidental Eavesdropper

Sorry for the long hiatus. I now have a good bit written and know where I'm going with this monster of a thing. Assuming people like it, it's probably going to end up as a trilogy. So many plotbunnies, so little time... :)

brief refresher course

Percy, Ron and Ginny were attacked near their home by DeathEaters and rescued by a member of the Knights of the round Table, an ancient military order on the side of Light. Thomas healed Percy and claimed Lifedebts from the three. Percy took the Lifedebts of the two younger ones as Kindebts. Ron and Ginny have no memories of the incident. Pery started spying on the Ministry and it's dealing and gradually come over to the Knights' side, realising they were right in their suspicions of Fudge's dealings. In the last P-chapter, Percy met the mysterious Preceptor, Aberforth Dumbledore, who apologised and offered him either a way out or a way in- to join the Order properly. He told him to talk to his family and let him know.

Meanwhile, Harry reached legal Age and was kicked out, taken in by the Weasleys. He feels guilty over te events in the Ministry and the whole DA business. Luna and Neville are both in danger after their parts in the MOM and are to stay with the Weasleys under the protection of the Order for a while.

Percy had Apperated to Ottery St. Catchpole and decided to walk from the town to the house. The walk through the warm night would give him time to clear his head and think how to explain -and apologise- for the events of the last four months. Four months… and he did have reason to apologise too. The row had had to be convincing, it had been necessary for him to say the things that would hurt. And, an honest part of him admitted, they hadn't all been entirely false either. It was true that he had struggled against his father's reputation in the Ministry, had to work incredibly hard to gain his co-workers respect when they'd regarded him rather sneeringly for his fathers eccentricities. Not that they particularly disliked Arthur Weasley, but his fascination with Muggle artefacts, with Muggles really, had made him a bit of a well-known figure. Percy realised now that that shouldn't have mattered to him as much as it did at the time. And he had perhaps gone a bit overboard. Although if he had been found out then it would have come in useful. An obvious estrangement made his family less likely to come under suspicion from Fudge's people. He shook his head and looked around him, checking for anything suspicious. His nerves and senses had all been sharpened by the months of the keyed-up stress of his position and he now found himself almost automatic in these sweeps. Was that…? No, just a tree.

He tensed up as he passed the place where he and his younger sibs had been attacked that horrible night before Christmas when all this had started. His hand unconsciously went to his side where he knew he bore a long ugly scar. Thomas had saved his life with that healing spell but the mark would probably always remain. He steadfastly didn't look at the patch of grass beside the rock in the hedge where he had felt the blood flow out of him and that desperate impotence of not being able to do anything while his kid brother and sister faced the Death-Eaters. He still shuddered to think what would have happened to them had Thomas not shown up after a routine mission had brought him this way.

Now he could see the house. And the many wards around it. Spelled so certain people could pass. He wondered briefly if he were included. Those with Weasley blood probably were safe… he hoped! There were no lights in the house and he wondered for a moment…no, the wards and charms around the house were probably responsible for the darkness. He took a breath and, not realising he was holding it, stepped over the first ward, seriously hoping he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life as a frog or something…

But a life of incipient amphibianhood did not seem to be his fate as the last of the wards let him past. He released the breath and now saw the lights of the house. And heard voices. They took a moment or two to fade in but when the words made their way through his brain he was frozen.

His parents and a few others were in the kitchen, with the window cracked open on this suddenly stifling July night. It was hardly surprising that voices were emanating from the room, they were being said -and shouted- loudly enough.

"I'm sorry Molly, Arthur, but I know what I saw. And what Fudge's up to. He's made a deal with You-Know-Who's people. He couldn't have done it alone- most of his close people must be in on it with him, including staff. I have the proof that it was Percy who set up the meetings between Malfoy and Fudge. And…" Here the unrecognised voice faltered for a moment. "One of my people was sent to his office a few days ago. He saw the Dark Mark on his arm. I'm sorry, but that's the evidence we have."

Percy couldn't have moved had someone threatened to shoot him if he didn't. His hand went unconsciously to his elbow. What? How…that intern. But…how the hell could they mix up the Kinmarks and the Dark Mark for heavens sake?

A newbie, bit self-important, lost his head, he supposed. Now there was shouting again inside the house. Upstairs, a curtain moved. He could distantly hear his mother protesting her disbelief. And then calm peaceful Arthur who was shouting. He only heard one line -it took a few seconds to filter through his stupefied brain, but when it did, it blocked out everything else.

"If he's gone to their side then he's no son of ours!"

Percy was to realise later, much later, that his father was reacting out of shock, pain and disbelief but now he could hardly think at all. He became conscious of fury welling up in him. His family believed the word of some newbie intern and…whoever this was over everything they knew about their own son. They believed he would abandon every measure of decency and morals that he had to go to Voldemort's side. And they had disowned him without giving him a chance to defend his supposed 'actions'.

Perhaps it would have been better had he lost his temper and stormed in to defend himself, proved the marks on his arm were not the Dark Mark. But sadly, that wasn't really Percy's way. He had never like direct confrontation and now his every instinct was to run away from the source of this new pain.

So he turned his back to the bright lights that he'd once been foolish enough to hope might welcome him and half-ran out of the familiar grounds, through the wards. He didn't care if they did alert them. After all, by their reckoning he was no longer a Weasley, was he? As soon as he was safely outside, he Apparated, trusting more to luck then judgement that he would get to his destination intact.

When he arrived -unsplinched- but trembling with shock and anger he called Hermes to him with a voice that only just didn't shake. He sat down at the desk and scribbled a terse note, tying it to Hermes leg after two tries, before opening the window for the softly hooting owl.

"Aberforth Dumbledore, Hermes. You know where he is?" The intelligent owl whistled again and flew silently into the night.

Percy, now he didn't have any task with which to busy himself, let himself drop back into the chair wearily. He looked at his watch. Eleven o'clock. All that had taken only two hours. Two hours ago he had been Percy Weasley, estranged from his family but seeking reconciliation. Half an hour ago he had been walking to his family's home. And a few minutes ago he had heard his character well and truly murdered and his family disown him. So who did that make him now? He glanced down again and his eye was caught by faint marks on the top sheet of a pile of parchment, where he had pressed too hard with the quill writing his message. It was still legible.

Sir, (he hadn't been quite sure how to address the older man so had fallen back on this ever- useful mode)

I accept your offer to join the Knights. I will also take part in what we discussed earlier.

Regards, P.