When they were in the privacy of Hermione's bedroom, she whispered harshly, "What were you thinking?"
Nothing, in hindsight. He'd been so tired of how her cousin was reacting and just wanted to put her in her place so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind-well ignoring the fact that there was no engagement between them.
George would be proud.
"I..I don't know," He admitted. He rubbed at his face, pressing it into his palms. "Godric, I'm sorry, Hermione. I made a mess of things."
She plopped down onto the bed, groaning. "You saw how excited they were. I don't even want to see how smug Libby will be when this is all over and I'm suddenly single again."
He watched her. "She was going to find out anyway," he reminded her.
"Yes, but by than she'll have been back to where she came from. Now she thinks she's being invited to a wedding that will never happen."
He sat down beside her. He felt awful for what happened. He's only meant to help. It certainly wasn't going to help her now. Oh, no. This will just be used as fuel for Libby to use against Hermione. Just to tease and mock her for her like he'd been told all about. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"It isn't your fault," she turned to him, sighing. "They're just awful like that. Make you say things just to get them to shut up. I should know. I've dealt with them since forever."
"I don't know how you haven't gone batty," he muttered. He'd been plenty annoyed by his siblings and Aunt Muriel but this went way past anything any of them had ever done.
"Maybe I have and this is my hallucination," she said dryly.
He chuckled. "In that case, I'm honored to be a part of it."
She laid back on the bed and he soon followed. They looked up at the ceiling. It took a few seconds, but he realized there were green plastic stars attached to her ceiling. "What are those?"
"Stars," Hermione said. "My dad put them up there when I was little." A fond smile came over her lips. "We used to have this telescope-I think it might be in the basement-and we used to look though it almost every night. I loved seeing the stars so Dad put these in here so I could always see them."
"That sounds nice," Percy said. And it did. His relationship with his parents hadn't been as strong as he would have liked for it to be when he was a child. They'd had other children to care for, in addition to dealing with other things. But Hermione was an only child. She was able to happily absorb any attention from them whenever she wanted.
The door came open rather abruptly. Startled, they both sat up and jumped to their feet. Libby, with her hand still on the door knob, came inside. Her eyebrow rose, a smirk coming to her. "Oh, I didn't realize you two were busy. You probably should have locked the door. You don't want anyone coming in."
"Right, but I trust most will knock instead of barging in," Hermione retorted coolly.
"Not that we were doing anything," Percy said hurriedly. Last, he would want the Grangers to think they were being inappropriate in their home. He didn't think Hermione's dad would be all that pleased to believe his daughter was sex with their room being just a few feet away.
"Percy, come on. We're all adults here. You don't have to pretend."
"I wasn't," Percy insisted. "We were laying on her bed fully clothed as you can tell."
He was ignored.
Hermione was done with the conversion already. "What do you want?"
"I've just come to tell you that Aunt Clara wants you both up bright and early. She's making a big breakfast," Libby said.
"Right. Thank you," Hermione's tone held finality, an indication that she wished for her cousin to leave at once. "Was there something else you needed?"
"I just thought we could sit down and chat," Libby's smile was sharp. "It's been quite a while since we've done that, hasn't it, Hermione?"
"We've never done that," Hermione disagreed.
"We should start. Make amends. We are adults, after all."
Hermione met his eyes. It was clear she wanted nothing to do with Libby. "Of course," she said, her tone coming out unmistakably forced.
"Wonderful!" Libby clasped her hands together. "Come to the kitchen. I'll pour us some hot chocolate." Hermione's face reflected pain as she went to follow Libby. But before they completely left the room, Libby said to him, "Oh, and Percy? My dad, Uncle Lewis and Joel are in the living room watching Rugby. You're welcome to join them."
"Oh, alright," He said slowly. It wasn't like he'd never sat with his dad and siblings, listening to the wireless that was commentating on a quidditch game. Or been with Oliver at one of his games.
How bad could it be?
/
The women were elsewhere in the house. Mrs. Granger and her sister were nowhere to be found while Libby dragged Hermione to the kitchen. Percy heard them rattling about in there. As for himself, he awkwardly made his way over to the living room where the three men, as mentioned by Libby, were sitting there watching the game.
Somewhat, anyway. Hermione's Uncle Melvyn was appearing as though he were nodding off in the recliner, eyes fluttering shut then snapping back open. Her dad was on the couch with Joel and he seemed quite bored, honestly. Joel kept talking through the whole thing and Percy was certain that neither men were particularly paying him much attention. Honestly, had this been a quidditch game and with Oliver in the room, he would have silenced Joel straight away.
Oliver and quidditch were not to be messed with.
He cleared his throat, catching the attention of Joel and Mr. Granger. "Erm, may I sit here?"
"Of course," Mr. Granger nodded. He gestured to the only other empty chair. "Go on, sit down."
"Thank you," he said as he did so. "'So, Percy," Joel said to him, "Do you or anyone you know are in need of any legal help?"
"Err, no..."
Joel whipped out a business card and handed it to him. "My dad's the perfect man if you need it. No need to pay unless you win."
That was a horrible sales pitch if Percy ever heard one.
A couple of seconds trickled by, with him admittedly feeling speechless but knew he ought to say something. "Err, thank you. I'll...I'll keep this in mind." He tucked it away in his trouser pockets, fully intending on getting rid of it in the rubbish bin later on. He caught sight of Mr. Granger's face; the older man was clearly not impressed with it either.
Joel was pleased. "Do you watch much rugby, Percy?"
"Er, no," he said. "Hardly any, really."
"I understand. I don't watch much either. I can't with how much I work. Honestly, it's like I'm on the clock all the time," Joel's laugh was obnoxious, matching his behavior all evening. It was like everything that came out of his mouth was bragging somehow. Percy tried not to judge the man-it was the first they'd met, after all. But there was simply something unlikeable about him that made it extraordinarily difficult not to. "Are you in university now, Percy?"
"No," Percy couldn't recall if he'd talked about his faux education with Hermione or not. "Not currently. I'm taking a year off to decide what I want to do."
"Anything in mind?" Joel asked.
"Something administrative," Percy hoped that was enough.
"Wise choice," Joel complimented. "I'd urge you to make sure you aren't dilly dallying for longer than necessary. A year can quickly turn into more if you aren't careful."
"Right," Percy said politely.
Luckily for him, Mr. Granger sensed possible incoming danger-likely from knowing that Percy was a wizard and thus, not really attending a university. "Clara wants us all up bright and early tomorrow."
"Ah, yes," Percy said. "Libby told us."
"She's got some last minute Christmas shopping to do. You're welcome to stay here if you'd like, Percy or you can go. I hear all the girls are planning on going," Mr. Granger said.
"I'll go," Percy said before Joel could say anything about them all bonding or something. "I haven't hadn't the chance to see the town yet."
He only realized his error when Joel spoke up.
"Didn't you see it on your way here?"
"I was asleep," Percy lied smoothly. "I was completely knackered from the trip. We woke up early, you see."
"You're sure you want to go?" Joel asked, having gotten over his earlier confusion. "It'll be packed so close to Christmas."
"I'm sure," Percy said. "I don't mind."
"Such a madman you are," Joel remarked. "Brave but mad."
"That's fine, Percy," Mr. Granger said. "You enjoy yourself. I'm sure Hermione will appreciate it. She's not a huge fan of shopping."
Joel just had to butt in. "Libby is, I'm afraid."
Both Mr. Granger and Percy ignored him.
"I hear Clara's taking everyone that's going to the mall," Mr. Granger told him.
Percy had never been to a mall before. He knew what one was, as Oliver had complained about being forced to go by his mum when he needed new clothes. The wizarding world didn't have such things. There were individual shops but nothing to what Oliver had explained. "Oh, how exciting."
"I don't believe Melvyn's going," Mr. Granger gestured to the aforementioned man who was currently dozing off. "I won't either. I'll stay behind and work on my wrapping. Clara's been nagging me about it lately. She prefers to get everything done straight away. I don't. I'll take my time and get it done eventually."
His words made Percy realize that he didn't have a gift picked out and purchased for the Grangers. He knew he could always have Hermione put his name on a gift from herself for the both of them but honestly, he felt he should get them something that was from him. Her relatives were a toss up. He would probably ask her option on that, but her parents were a must. It was a good thing he'd gone to Gringotts prior to their trip to exchange some of his money for muggle currency.
"I've got a bit of wrapping to do myself," Percy said which wasn't a technical lie seeing as he still had people to buy for.
"I've got all mine done," Joel couldn't help but boast.
Oh, Godric...