Forgive and Take

Percy was running after the crowd as they rushed along the corridors of St Mungo's from the emergency floo fireplaces in the reception area. Ron was being levitated by Lupin while Bill ran ahead and cleared their way. Neville was practically sprinting alongside the stretcher, as it was going so fast, twirling his wand in small circles over Ron's still face and murmuring spell after spell continuously.

Neville had been overpowered and the 'rescue mission' as they seemed to think of themselves burst in just in time to see Ron hitting the floor and the sapper vomiting before running off down the hall pursued by two night porters and a fearful nurse Stour who were all trying to convince him that he wasn't in any trouble and that he probably hadn't just killed a man.

Probably hadn't, that 'probably' made Percy feel sick to the stomach himself.

"Get out of the way you rubbernecking idiots!" Tonks was yelling as several members of the public crowded around to see what all the commotion was about.

The black haired Auror pointed her wand at them and parted them like they were curtains. Ginny was standing at the end of the corridor with a cup of tea in her hand when she saw the group approaching and dropped it immediately before breaking into a run to meet them.

"Keep the girl away, there's no time for family hysterics!" Moody barked gruffly.

Bill cast him a slightly annoyed look before running on ahead and grabbing Ginny to hold her back and let them pass. Percy was still running behind, becoming more short of breath then he had felt when they were carrying Ron out of the non-magic zone manually, but picked up his pace nevertheless. As he passed Ginny he heard he crying into Bill's chest while Bill attempted to alleviate her worst fears.

"They killed him didn't they? You didn't get there in time and he's dead!" Ginny was wailing.

Percy almost heaved but managed to swallow it down again as he ran on and tried to block out the sound of his sister's voice. Percy saw Healer Kalra surrounded by about seven other healers and a dozen or so medi witches and wizards who took over the levitation and crowd control duties while Kalra seemed to assess Neville's current treatment and nodded his approval for the trainee to be allowed to continue uninterrupted until they were in a treatment room.

It was then that Percy felt himself being yanked backwards and then sideways into another room. The door he had just been dragged through slammed shut and candles flickered into life illuminating three figures standing before him. Moody, Minister Beckett who was in charge of intra department misconduct, and the worst face for Percy to see now other than that of his mother...his father.

"Mr Percival Weasley," Minister Beckett said as she stepped forward from the small group with a stern expression on her face and her lips twisted with such scorn there didn't seem to be any blood reaching them at all, "You are aware that we secured your brother upstairs for a very good reason are you not?"

Percy couldn't speak; he only nodded.

"You are also aware that by liberating your brother from this hospital you have endangered his life?"

Percy felt the need to be sick again and tried to nod without losing his self control.

"Miraculously you haven't actually broken any laws. Are you aware of that?"

He shook his head and wondered if he was as green as he felt.

"Seeing as Mr Weasley, the younger, was confined for protective reasons instead of as a prisoner your recklessness and deceit will be going unpunished but you mark my words you will be dogged by this incident for the rest of ministry career and your chances of promotion within any department are now entirely non-existent. Do you have anything to say before I write up this verbal warning and submit it to your file?"

"Ijustwantedtohelphim," Percy garbled the words so quickly that it was like a verbal form of regurgitation instead of the physical one he was fighting so hard against.

"I've seen your family in the waiting room upstairs Mr Weasley," the minister said, now softening her tone just a little while remaining as fierce looking as ever, "I don't think I need to punish you anymore then you're going to be."

The witch turned and nodded at Moody before squeezing the worried father's arm very briefly and smiling at him sadly. She opened the door and looked back at Percy as she stepped through into the corridor.

"I hope your brother's alright Weasley."

With that she closed the door. Percy exhaled with a shudder and Moody stomped forward to glare at him with both his magical and normal eyes.

"Still got your job eh? Well at least that's the thing you value most of all saved isn't it?"

Percy opened his mouth to try and explain himself to the bitter Auror but he dismissed his efforts with a wave and thudded away to follow Minister Beckett out of the room.

"It's easy to convince a desperate man to do something stupid," Moody growled as he opened the door, "but how you convinced a good hearted young lad with his whole future helping people ahead of him to throw it away for an experiment is beyond me."

Moody stepped through the doorway and muttered one last thing as he closed the door.

"You've ruined two lives today."

Percy couldn't help but jump as the door banged on closing and he looked to his feet and tried not to just crumple in to a big mound of self pity and regret on the floor. He knew he owed it to his father to look him in the eye as he said what he had to say. He owed it to him but he just couldn't do it.

"I'm sorry father," he choked as he put his hand to his face and tried to control the wave of emotion that was juddering up from within him.

He heard his father taking a step towards him. His shoulders began to shake and the tears began to fall.

"He was never meant to be locked up day in day out," Percy tried to explain through his straining vocal chords as he let out a couple more involuntary coughs of emotion, "It was killing his spirit and we...we...I just wanted to do something to help."

His father was still moving towards him. Percy readied himself for the bellowing or the punch he so clearly deserved. He was shaking so violently now that he wasn't even sure he felt it when his father's hands rested so gently upon his shoulders. He plucked up the courage to look his father in the eye. As he did more tears squeezed out of his ducts and the man's face was a blur. He blinked his vision clear again and saw the face he'd caused so many of the lines in smile at him warmly but so incredibly sadly before the man pulled him close and hugged him tightly.

"I always knew you'd go to any lengths for Ron," his father was saying, "it was always Ron with you wasn't it?"

Percy just let the sobs go now and nodded into his father's shoulder.

"Even when you were the square peg in a home full of round holes you'd still give it away once in a while. I heard about how you behaved during the second task of the Triwizard tournament from Ginny. You knew it was only a game but you still lost you cool when Ron didn't come back within the hour. Ginny said you ran into that lake fully clothed and practically dragged him out by the scruff of the neck."

Percy felt his father chuckle ever so slightly as he retold the story. Percy was still shaking and the tears still fell but he was managing to calm himself down just a little more now and sniffed.

"I-I just..." he tried to explain everything he'd ever done in his life leading up to this point in it before giving up before he'd started his first sentence.

"Even when you disowned us all Ron was the last one you let go wasn't he?"

Percy nodded his head and closed his eyes, hating himself for what he had tried to make his brother do.

"You knew how he'd react, that'd he'd hate you and that that letter of yours would be the final nail in your coffin as far as he was concerned, but you still did it anyway. You still wrote to him to offer your support and tell him you were proud of him in your own, misguided way."

Percy pulled away from his father to meet his eyes again and nodded. He now saw that his father had tears in his eyes too.

"Ron was always yours wasn't he? He was your responsibility and the one who needed your protection from the twins and the spiders and all those times when he felt like nobody noticed him."

"I just wanted to look after him," Percy said, his eyes burning and swollen.

His father squeezed his son's shoulders firmly.

"I think this time you might have gone too far," he whispered as if the words were painful to say too loud.

"I think I might have done too," Percy said with a squeak.

His father gave him a pat on the back before turning to leave the room.

"I need to go and take care of the others, I left Charlie with your mother and they're both setting each other off in all the wrong ways," the weary looking man said before turning to cast one last smile Percy's way, "I understand why you did it, and I forgive you, but I really wish you hadn't son."

He turned that handle and walked outside without another word. The door clicked closed and Percy sank to his knees and hugged his arms to himself.

"Ron I'm so sorry. What have I done?"

Neville's voice was ragged from the non-stop spell casting all the way from the clinic until now, inside the treatment room at St Mungo's. He didn't even remember pausing for breath once. He must have done though; surely he'd be dead by now otherwise.

"Mr Longbottom step aside," Healer Kalra said as he shoved Neville to one side and took over the work on Ron's head while an medi witch pulled him away from the patient, as she called Ron, and handed one of the other healers a small bottle of potion.

"It was concentrated on the scars on the arm sir," Neville began to explain, "the sapper never once touched his head I swear. Ron knew not to let him do that and..."

"Get out Longbottom!" Kalra snapped suddenly, "Whatever your intentions were you should have come to me first and you should never have taken him from the hospital without permission."

"I know it was a risk but..."

"A risk?" Healer Kalra said with astonishment, "You are aware that your friend's been brain damaged aren't you?"

Neville's eyes opened so wide he felt as if they were about to pop out of his head.

"But...But it was his arms, the scars, that was all it was. He was only supposed to drain the foreign magic."

"And what if the foreign magic tried to hide in the brain Longbottom? What if there was still residual magic in the brain from the last possession? Get out of this ward before I get the Aurors to throw you out!"

Neville ran from the treatment room and ran straight into Harry.

"Oof! Watch where you're..." Harry was beginning to say before recognising Neville and looking absolutely livid, "You bastard!"

Harry pulled back his arm and thrust it forward to lay Neville flat on his back with a punch to the jaw. Several white spots appeared before his eyes and then even more black ones before his head began to make a whistling noise and he shook itto clear his vision just as Harry pounced upon his prostrate body and set about pummelling his stomach while roaring at him in fury.

"How could you do this to him you arrogant fuck?" Harry's eyes were red and his jaw was set with determination to make Neville hurt just as much as he was at that moment, "I'd just got through to him, we'd just been getting somewhere the day before and you just swoop in and convince him that this was his only hope?"

"Harry please," Neville sputtered through a swollen and bloodied lip, "They were going to get him eventually, we had to do something now before..."

"Kill him before the Death Eaters could, is that it?" Harry roared as he pulled Neville nose to nose with him by the front of his bloodied robes.

"No!" Neville protested.

Harry threw the battered boy who refused to fight him back down to the floor and scrambled to his feet to swing a kick into his body.

"You don't get to take chances with my best friend Neville," he kicked him again, causing the young trainee healer to curl himself up into a protective ball, "You don't have the right to risk his life. You don't get to lose him. You don't decide to take him away from me! Me and Hermione and his family, we decide what's best and what's worth the risk and what isn't you son of a bitch!"

Harry dropped to his knees and grabbed the front of Neville's robes again to slam him against the wall. The battered young man saw that Harry's eyes were pouring with tears while still burning with hurt and betrayal. He really seemed to have a lifetime of hate inside him that was about to be released at this worthy target.

"You don't know what you're doing Neville, you don't understand what you're messing with, and you didn't bloody care for one second did you? You just wanted to play the bloody hero again. Swoop in and save the day and work a miracle like you did with his coma. You wanted to protect your so-called-mate so badly that you almost ended up killing him and that's not for you to do Neville. That's not your decision to make. You don't get to be the one that kills him, I do!"

Neville was panting and swallowing the mouthful of blood that filled his mouth from his split lip when Harry spoke those last words and then froze in shock. He was still forcing Neville bodily into the wall so hard that he was practically in the next ward but his face was as shocked as if he'd just stepped out of his body and seen himself as somebody totally different, somebody he hated. His green eyes were wide open and his breath was ragged. Harry's hands were pale and shaking but they still clung to Neville's robes as if he was afraid of what he might do if he let him go.

"Har-Harry?" Neville wheezed before coughing and looking fearfully at his shocked friend.

"I killed him," Harry whispered with a shudder.

Neville put one of his hands around one of Harry's fists and gave it a slight squeeze.

"Harry what are you...?"

"I killed him Neville," Harry said blankly before releasing his grip and falling backwards onto the cold hard floor and putting his hands to his face, "it was me."

Neville crawled forwards and tried to get Harry to look at him but he was shaking his head and trembling all over. Neville looked up and down the corridor for somebody to call for help. Harry was going into delayed shock about something. What was he saying? Harry hadn't even been there at the clinic. How was this his fault?

"I could've stopped it. I could've fought it but I didn't. I could hear him pleading with me, he was begging me and I could hear Voldemort and I listened to him instead. I killed him."

"Harry no," Neville said as he gripped the shaken wizard by the shoulders, "you didn't kill him. He didn't die."

"I killed him Neville!" Harry's hand dropped from his face and he looked up with such devastation that it chilled Neville to the bone, "I took him away. I didn't fight hard enough for him and I didn't stop in time and I did it."

"Harry please, don't go like this again, don't go back the way you were before. This was my fault okay? It was my idea, Percy's and mine so it's our fault. We did it and he won't die. Kalra's brilliant, I promise you Harry he won't let him die."

"You both tried to save him!" Harry yelled hoarsely, "You were trying to fix yet another one of my messes Neville. Those bloody scars are my fault too! I'm killing him Neville and you were just trying to stop it. You were trying to clean up my mess!"

"Stop it!" Neville found himself growling with frustration and annoyance.

"I killed him Neville, it was me!" Harry cried before dropping his head into his hands again.

"I just keep hurting him over and over again. He's my best friend and I keep on hurting him. I cut him," Harry was almost wheezing now.

Neville gritted his teeth and dragged Harry up to his feet to shove him against the opposite wall.

"No more of this crap Harry, I mean it!" he demanded, "Ron can't tell you to shut up and knock some sense into you so I'm going to have to do it for him."

Neville gave Harry a backhanded slap across the face before shoving Harry back into the wall again and shouted into his shocked face.

"I knew the risks and I knew he could get seriously hurt and might even die but I made the decision to bring this option to Ron and you know why I did that don't you Harry?"

Harry swallowed and nodded.

"Because Ron would rather go out fighting and free then a fish in a barrel waiting to be shot!" Neville roared before releasing Harry and pacing away from him, back and forth across the corridor, "We all knew he could die and we did it anyway and I'm sorry Harry. I deserve to be thrown out of here and I deserve to get what's coming to me and I deserve whatever the hell the Weasley's are going to do to me for this. You don't deserve any of this punishment Harry because you have never done anything reckless with Ron in your whole life."

"Are you kidding me?" Harry snapped.

"No I'm not. All you ever do is try to go it alone to protect people. All you've ever done is put other people first. I saw the look on your face when you were about to go into that lake to get Ron that time. You would do and have done everything in your power to keep him safe and well and you are the reason he's alive. You didn't cut him fatally and that was what Voldemort told you to do!"

Harry blinked. Neville just said Voldemort's name.

"I still cut him," he said with a hollow tone.

"You didn't kill him."

"I didn't kill him," Harry said blankly as if saying the words parrot fashion rather then understanding them.

Neville took a step back towards Harry and looked him in the eyes. Harry's face scrunched up tightly and tears squeezed their way out of his tear ducts and rolled down his cheeks before he opened them again and shook his head as if regaining himself.

"I can't," Harry said quietly, "I could never...If I he died I'd never be able to..."

"Don't Harry," Neville said firmly.

"I couldn't go on without him Neville. He's like my brother and my best friend and my right and left arm...and I've spent too much time watching him die."

"He isn't dead Mr Potter," the voice of Healer Kalra said from outside the door to Ron's treatment room.

Harry almost fell over in his haste to get to the healer who was looking at the state of the two bloodied friends. Harry wasn't really bloody, he was just spattered with Neville's blood, but it was pretty clear that the two of them had been fighting.

"What is it? Is he going to be okay? Did it work? Is he in another coma?" Harry blurted.

"Calm down Mr Potter, come with me up to the waiting room so I can tell everybody together," the healer said as he put a guiding arm around Harry's shoulders.

"Tell me now!" Harry demanded as he shook off the healer's touch.

Neville gripped Harry's shoulder and pulled him away from the healer.

"Harry let the man do his job," Neville mumbled sadly.

Healer Kalra looked at Neville and sighed.

"Longbottom you are going to be suspended until a proper enquiry can be held but you are not banned from the hospital in any way, you may join us if you wish, I can fix you up to you look quite a mess."

Neville wiped his bloody chin with the back of his hand.

"Thank you sir but I don't think the Weasley really want to see me right now do you?"

Harry cast Neville a sad sideways glance before looking back at the healer and taking a deep breath in and out.

"Please tell me sir?" he asked the healer.

Kalra took a step toward them both and lowered his voice.

"Mr Weasley had the invading magic drained successfully from both arms. Unfortunately, due to the instances of possession by the foreign thoughts, some of that magic resided in Ron's mind as well as his arms and when the sapper's power was done draining that area it flowed up into Ron's brain and caused quite a bit of..."

Neville swallowed and pleaded silently with anybody who was listening to prayers right now not to let the healer say the word 'damage'.

"...disruption," Healer Kalra sighed as he met Neville's eyes before continuing, "When the sapper's power tried to extract the thoughts there were some side effects amongst the vital functions of Ron's brain. We've managed to remedy most of them but it's left his heart quite weak and we're still having trouble with the effect the draining had upon his immune system."

"What's up with his immune system sir?" Neville said fearfully.

"It thinks he's ill," Kalra said simply, "It's attacking healthy organs and tissue, it's fighting blood cells as if they are toxins and we're having a lot of trouble trying to convince his brain that he's healthy and to stop fighting his own body."

"You can fix it though right?" Harry said with a slight crack in his voice.

"We believe we can reverse the process and strengthen the part of the brain that maintains the heartbeat yes," the healer nodded with a smile.

"You believe?" Harry said with a slight wave of panic.

"It's looking good Harry," the healer smiled more convincingly now, "I really think we've all been very lucky with this but I don't want to count my chickens okay?"

Harry nodded but Neville felt sick, Ron was alive on sheer luck and nothing else. That wasn't good enough. The risk wasn't supposed to have been that high. This should never have been such a close call. If he'd have known how badly the draining of the magic was going to go he might have had to re-think his devotion to the 'this is worth it' sentiment.

"So all Ravenclaw's magic is gone now?" Neville asked

Healer Kalra's head dropped and he gave a single shake of the head.

"I assume the sapper felt the destructive effect upon the brain and stopped before all the residual thoughts were out of Mr Weasley's head. She's still in there, just barely but she's there, and there's no way to force her thoughts out of his mind without damaging it. This is as close as I think Ron's ever going to get to being free of her. I'm sorry."

Healer Kalra sighed and walked away from them both to go and break the news to the Weasleys.

Percy was still in a crumpled heap on the floor. His head hurt from all the crying and thinking and banging against the wall behind him he was doing. He had been in that room since his father had left him to go and take care of the others. Percy wondered if there was news of Ron yet. He wondered if Ron was still being treated or if he was healed or if...

...No he wouldn't allow himself to think that.

The door clicked open and two red headed figures stepped inside and closed the door behind them. One flicked his wand and locked it while the other cast a silencing charm on the whole room before walking across the floor to look down at Percy on the floor.

"Just do it, I don't care," Percy mumbled to the twins as he braced himself for his punishment.

Fred crouched down before Percy and looked at his puffy eyes and snotty nose.

"He's not dead Perce," he said as softly as Fred was capable of speaking.

"He's not?" Percy said with a wave of relief that almost made him pass out.

George stood behind Fred and smiled very slightly.

"He's got some problems, side effects that are a bit dodgy but when the healers fix him up he'll be okay," George said.

"Side effects? Dodgy, what does dodgy mean?" Percy said as he say up and looked from one twin to the other.

Fred swallowed and looked to George before turning back to Percy and explaining Ron's condition to him. Percy felt the blood leave his face at the mention of Ron having a weak heart. There were other things about an immune system on the attack but all Percy could take in was that the sapping worked up to a point until it came to removing the magic from Ron's brain where the sappers magic began to harm Ron and he had to stop before the job was done.

"So she's not gone, she'll never be able to be removed, and he'll be a target forever now?" Percy said weakly as he put his hand to his head despairingly.

"Not necessarily," George said with some small hint of optimism in his eyes, "Moody thinks Lupin's idea could work."

"Yeah," Fred nodded, "Lupin reckons that the Death Eaters have intelligence in St Mungo's somewhere and they would have reported that Ron was removed, underwent a procedure to get rid of Ravenclaw for good and then came back half dead."

Fred looked away as soon as he realised what he had just said.

"Anyway," George said as he crouched beside his brothers and put a hand on Fred's shoulder to tell him not to worry about the slip of the tongue, "Lupin said that all healers involved are to casually mention to as many colleagues and staff around the hospital as possible that Ron was successfully drained of all memories. He might even be able to go back to work Perce."

Percy looked up and felt that tiny well of hope in the pit of his stomach begin to swell.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Fred nodded enthusiastically, "the traces of ravenclaw are so tiny now that the sapper shouldn't effect him in the same way and Jess won't be able to draw out a full scale possession again. This is all in theory right now but..."

"...theories are good," George nodded with a smile.

Percy scoffed at this sadly.

"How can you say that when my theory nearly killed him?"

Fred grabbed Percy's arm tightly and stared into his eyes with determination.

"Ron's off the secure ward Perce..."

"...he's got the chance of a life again..." George nodded.

"...and you and Neville gave that back to him." Fred finished.

Percy frowned at his brothers, his oldest foes, and tried to understand what was going on.

"But...So you don't...You...?"

"We don't hate you Perce," Fred smiled.

"Charlie's going to kick the living shit out of you," George said with a carefree shrug, "Bill's not impressed at all and Ginny, well..."

"Watch your back with her that's all I can say," Fred warned.

"But you did what you thought was best for him and he obviously thought it was best too. It was what he said he wanted right?" George asked.

Percy nodded as he remembered the look on Ron's face as he unlocked the door, that cocky little look of triumph he would get when he was about to make his last move in a game of chess, and smiled to himself.

"He used your lock-picking technique to get us in there," Percy said to the twins, "So technically you're accessories."

Fred and George looked at each other and beamed.

"Accessories to anarchy we can live with," Fred nodded to his twin.

"Too right," George agreed before looking back at Percy, "and now you're one of us reckless wankers the family just love to despair of."

"Welcome to the club," Fred grinned, as he extended his hand for Percy to shake.

"We watch each other's backs, if they turn on you, they're turning on us too," George said matter-of-factly.

Percy couldn't believe that they didn't hate him. This was the perfect excuse for them to turn the whole family against him and declare that they were right about him all along. He was unable to understand why they would be, quite literally, extending the hand of friendship to him after all this.

"You can't be forgiving me," Percy said warily, "I don't even forgive me!"

Fred forced his hand into Percy's and shook it, George clasping his own over both, and spoke firmly and clearly and more seriously then Percy had ever heard him in his life.

"I was going to kill you when I first found out but while we were waiting and that woman from the ministry showed up to find out what you'd done and plan disciplinary action I knew, we both did, right then and there that you'd risked everything you cared about on this plan. You were going to throw away your career and your status and your contacts and you'd done it for Ron, to spare him one more day as a target or a prisoner. You weren't being an arrogant intellectual doing a test on his own brother, you were being a brother."

Percy couldn't let himself tear up in front of the twins but it was getting really difficult not to.

"You were being selfless Perce," George said with a nod, "you were giving up everything, your family and your standing in the ministry to save Ron. They might not see it that way, they might never see it that way, but we do."

Percy lost his composure and flung himself at his brothers sobbing and they caught him and patted him on the back without a single snigger or jibe.

"I thought I'd killed him!" he choked.

"Nah Perce, you saved him."