Title: De Capo al Fine, "Mysterioso Colla Parte (2/8)"
Author: Lea Woods
Pairing: Percy Weasley/ Oliver Wood
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Alludes to Percy's relationship with his family, Bill's marital status…things from OotP on.Disclaimer: The characters contained herein aren't mine, though the premise of the piece is. It is in no way intended for monetary gain, on entertainment purposes. Characters and Hogwarts are copyright J.K. Rowling and her respective publishers.
Warnings: pre-pre-slash; kind of dark. Definitely not a fluffy/happy story. Will get darker & slashier as time passes.
Summary: The military can change a man, even one so set in his ways as Percy Weasley. Some things don't change, however. Like a serious dislike of mud.
Author's Notes: Sincere apologies for the long wait. FB appreciated though not required (translation: Please review if you have the time!). Next part up sooner.
Mysterioso Colla Parte
It was raining. No, that wasn't quite accurate, is was somewhere between a torrential downpour and a monsoon. So…it was…raining. Just short of a flood, really. The cold, bitter sort of rain that struck your back like a thousand needles propelled by all the bad thoughts of your adversaries. The sort that soaked into your skin and chilled you so completely that it took days to get warm again. It did that a lot, he had discovered. He sighed as he looked out from his temporary sanctuary into the flowing sheets of moisture. In three years, Percy had come to loathe precipitation in any form.
He had been from one end of England to the other. To Ireland, Scotland, Wales…from the northernmost tip of Scandinavia to the lowest point of Africa, and everywhere he went, from ice to savanna there was mud. If there was anything he hated more than precipitation, it was mud. It got everywhere; caked in equipment, covered every inch of available skin, got into places a person didn't even know they had until they found mud there. It was a lot like sand. But sticky. Talk about something that got everywhere.
"Major?"
Percy swung around and looked at the equally travel-stained sergeant waiting behind him. "Yes?"
"What exactly are we waiting for?"
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Are you questioning my orders, Lanval?"
"Of course not, sir, I just..." he trailed off. "We've been sitting here for hours."
"I'm well aware of that. We wait a little longer."
"Sir," the younger officer sighed, leaning back into the darkness of the lean-to.
Percy smiled a little as he turned away from his comrade. Sergeant Jason Lanval was a new recruit, fresh from a school in America. He was greener than fresh-cut wood, and Percy was enjoying….seasoning him. He was sure the aurors who had broken him in had taken the same sort of self-serving pleasure from the experience. The mission they were finishing at the time wasn't particularly difficult, or he would have been far tenser. In fact, most times, Percy would have reprimanded a younger officer for making so much noise while under cover. In his three years, though, Percy had grown up a lot.
Three years ago, he had been what was referred to in American dime novels as, "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed". He had been educated but woefully innocent. The day after his dinner with Lindsey, everything had changed.
As she had promised, the next morning a man in a suit and a pair of sunglasses had arrived at his flat and proceeded to relate to him the particulars about the program he was being recruited for. It seemed like a cross between the American Secret Service, the Navy SEALS and something from the X-Men comics. So bored was he with his job, though, that he had agreed almost immediately.
After six months of grueling training (ironically, where Percy had gotten his severe dislike of mud), he had been thrown into the field under the command of none other than Nymphadora Tonks. He had liked Tonks, but then she had gone off on some covert operation in Morocco with half of the rest of the Order, and Percy had been promoted to Lieutenant. After an afternoon of tailing Penny (which actually had been his real assignment), his CO, a wizard from Germany called Hans, told him to take a break. That he'd watch the mark for 30 while he went and ate something. Reluctantly, Percy had agreed. He was coming back when there was an explosion. Back at headquarters, covered in grime as he was, he was promoted again. Captain Weasley, now.
Things like that kept happening. That's the way wars worked, he supposed. People kept dying, he kept being promoted. Some of the men in his unit predicted that by the end of a seven-year tour he'd be a ranking general. They were joking, of course, but every time he heard it his heart sank a little more.
With Penny out of the picture they had moved Percy off of the bodyguard circuit and into covert ops. They did reconnaissance mostly, but occasionally removal as well. This was one of those times. He looked back at the men behind him. The twelve wizards were all Ron's age or a little younger. When he looked into their eyes, he almost saw Ron or Harry looking back out at him.
Lanval was the newest, only added to the troupe a week before. One man, Wilkins, had been with Percy since he was made Lieutenant. The only man besides him to survive the blast that killed Penny and Hans. Wilkins was from Wales and was as redheaded and pale-skinned as any of Percy's relations. They had shared a bunk the few times their squad had stayed in barracks. He studied the others for a moment. Half the time he struggled to remember some of their names. The bitter part of his mind said that they would either be transferred out or dead before too long, so it was a waste of time to remember their names. The other part of him recoiled at that. So he tried to remember their names. If only to keep from looking in the mirror one day and not recognizing himself.
Percy turned back to the downpour just in time to see a flash of light then a huge cloud of smoke rise over the building they were shadowing. "Right. There's the signal. Let's go."
With all the stealth of a pack of foxes approaching a henhouse, the squad slid out from their temporary shelter and into the watery dusk like shadows across snow. Seconds later, they disappeared inside the building, Percy in the lead.
---
"Well done, Weasley," called a man in camouflage as Percy stalked past three days later. They were back at HQ and much good it did them. It was still raining, still muddy. Percy nodded at him, but kept walking.
He didn't stop walking until he reached a door marked "General Jordan". Percy knocked and, hearing a muffled reply, opened the door. "Sir?" He asked, stepping inside and shutting the door softly behind him. "You wanted to see me?"
A tall black man with close-cropped hair looked up from a stack of papers and smiled. "Yes, I did." He stood and shook Percy's hand. "Your unit did very well out there, Weasley."
"Thank you, sir."
"Please," he gestured at the chair across from him. Percy sat, studying General Kai Jordan with interest. His youngest brother Lee was the twins' best friend at Hogwarts, though Kai had graduated several years before Bill. He had the same dark eyes as Lee, though the mischievous sparkle was muted in his gaze.
"Please don't say I'm being promoted again."
Kai laughed. "No, you're not being promoted again." Percy sighed a little with relief. "I just wanted to talk to you a little, see how you were doing."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "With all due respect, sir, you're the Commanding Officer in charge of domestic affairs. Surely you have more important things to do than to check up on fairly junior officers."
"Normally, that would be true," Kai conceded, leaning back in his chair. "But there are some extenuating circumstances. Most of my officers can tell their families what they're doing for a living. Most of my officers, however junior, have at least one person they can fall back on for support, for comfort, even for love."
Percy felt his ears burning and didn't respond right away. "All the same…"
"Lee wanted me to check, Percy," Kai said quietly. "He says the twins are worried. They act tough, like they hate you,"
"And do a fair impression," Percy muttered.
Kai smiled crookedly. "But Lee insists they really are worried about you."
"Their shop is doing well," he said quietly, skirting the subject a little. "I went in a few weeks ago…disguised of course, because considering how they reacted last time they saw me, I didn't think it prudent to come waltzing in as myself. It was packed. I could hardly move able and they were dashing from one end to the other, filling order and helping customers . It was nice to watch."
"And your other siblings?"
Percy sighed. "Nothing. Ron's practically disowned me, not that it much matters. He and Harry and Hermione are so busy in the Order that I'm surprised he can think of much else."
"Charlie?"
"In Romania."
"Bill?"
Percy shrugged. "I think he and Fleur are still in France, trying to muster the resistance there, but I couldn't tell you."
"And Ginny?"
Percy smiled, but it wasn't a pleased smile. It was half-pained. "Ginny. She's…would you believe that I don't know? Dad and Mum still won't speak to me, and Ginny…last I heard she was going to take over Bill's old job at Gringotts in Egypt, but I could be wrong. She could be wrestling mermen for all I know."
Kai stifled a laugh at the image. It really wasn't funny. "I could find out for you."
Percy shook his head. "No thank you, sir." He stood to go. "This is something I have to take care of myself. Is there anything else sir?"
The General sighed, exasperated but shook his head. "No. Good work on that last mission, Weasley."
"Thank you, sir."
"Dismissed."
"Sir." Percy saluted, then left.
Safe in the hallway, Percy let his head droop for a second, images of the last confrontation with his family running through his mind like wildfire. He shook his head to clear it, then made his way back to the bunkroom, nodding at people he knew in the hallway.
When he opened the door, he was met with questioning looks and even a few spoken ones. He smiled, for real this time, at his squad. "Three days on Liberty. Have fun but don't do anything illegal." His men cheered as Percy went to his footlocker and rummaged around for a book. After a moment of thought, he changed into civilian clothes and tucked his glasses into a pocket. He turned to go, but stopped. Lanval was still lying out on his bunk, staring at the springs of the bed above him.
Percy took a seat on the chair next to him. "What's up, sergeant?"
Lanval glanced at him, then smiled a little. "Nothing, sir."
"Lanval." The boy looked at him. "Don't lie to me."
"I've never seen anything like that before, sir. So much blood…it was everywhere. I could feel the despair in the room. It was like the walls were closing in on me. I couldn't breathe."
"We got the family out," Percy said quietly. "That was the important thing."
"But how many people did we have to kill to do it?"
Percy bit his lip. He found himself asking the same question a lot and could never come up with a good answer. "Wars aren't logical, Lanval. It's in their nature. It's lots of killing and pointless bloodshed for reasons political or economical or no reason whatsoever."
"So why do you fight?" The younger man stared at him intently.
Percy looked up and out the window on the opposite wall. "Because I believe in what we're fighting for. Because I have to fight or I'd go crazy. The other side…I've seen what they can do. You were only a baby the first time around, but I remember it. The night raids, the terror…I've never seen anything quite like it. I promised myself I wouldn't let it happen again if I could do anything about it, that I wouldn't let someone else do the fighting for me."
"Sir?"
Percy looked down, his eyes focusing on the soldier next to him. "I fight because I believe we all deserve the opportunity to live free, Lanval. Because the ones who fight for the Dark Lord want to take that away, and I won't let them do that to me or to anyone I love. Does that answer your question?" He nodded. Percy smiled a little and stood, pulling on his coat. "Don't stay in here too long, Lanval. Thinking is good, but it can consume you. You're too young to fade that way."
"Are you ever scared, Major?"
Percy paused in the door to the bunkroom, silent for a second. "All the time," he replied. "But I wouldn't be human if I wasn't."
---
He was walking quickly down the hallway, mind lingering a second on the conversation he had just had with Lanval, then shifting to which nearby café he would seek first. One of the unfortunate hazards of living somewhere for any extended period of time is that when one walks through the halls, one's mind goes on auto-pilot however briefly, which is why, for the first time in his (brief) military career, ran into someone.
Thankfully, he wasn't as slight as he had been in school, so he didn't fall, but he did stagger back several steps. He shook his head a little to clear it, apologizing as he did so. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was –"
"Percy? Percy Weasley?"
His eyes focused on the man he had run into. Tall, burly…russet-haired, brilliant grin and sparkling brown eyes. If he wasn't still a little stunned from the impact, he still would have been shocked to see this individual in that particular hallway.
"Hello, Oliver."
End Part II