Percy was working late. Audrey was away overnight, so his guilt was offset by the knowledge no one was waiting for him. When the door to his office opened, he didn't immediately look up. After hours visits to his office had become a bit of a regular thing. Those he had sent warning and shield rings to had come to thank him, to ask him about the magic he had given them. The explanations had become pat he had repeated it so many times.

"Percy."

His head lifted to regard his father. It seemed that they would forever be in this situation, Arthur visiting after hours.

"Percy, I want to apologise."

Percy blinked.

"I cannot continue like this." Arthur sat himself down in one of the visitor chairs. "This thing, whatever it is, that is causing this rift, I want it resolved. I have seen you working with Kingsley these last few weeks, and I will admit that I have perhaps previously not understood your role. I have not comprehended how hard you have been working and I want to apologise. When you were promoted, I— we. We were genuinely worried that you would be put into a position where you would have had to choose. Not between the Order and the Death Eaters but your life or that of your family. I did not want you in a position where you were forced to compromise yourself to keep yourself or us safe. I feared for you Percy, and somewhere, somehow, that fear for your welfare became the thing that drove us apart. I am ashamed that we have been through the events of the last month, and yet we are unable to sit and talk or share a meal."

"Audrey was not invited to the Burrow, and I would not insult her by attending without her."

"I didn't know Percy," Arthur replied. "I thought your mother had extended the invitation to the both of you."

"Even though you think she might be a Death Eater?"

Arthur sighed. "No, I do not think Audrey is a Death Eater. I am sure that she is the lovely young lady she appeared to be and for what it is worth I apologise for both Albus and your mother."

"And what of the accusation that I am a Death Eater?"

Arthur looked sadly at his son. "I have never considered that you would join the ranks of You-Know-Who's followers, never. It is inconceivable. I know that Molly has said it, but I fully believe she was angry and scared. The war, the risk of her children being injured or dying is not something your mother is able to deal with. I thought her words were merely lashing out in anger. I've never considered that she seriously meant them."

Percy looked away. "I believe she meant them. She accused Audrey of the same. She insists that Dumbledore knows best and everyone is either with him or against him. The world is not so black and white."

"I can only apologise that you feel that way. Will you come to the Burrow with me? Speak to your mother, explain this to her. Explain so that she can understand, and we can fix this. She wants what is best for you Percy, we both do."

Percy regarded his father. He wasn't sure, but he thought that Bill had something to do with this. Perhaps Bill in his role as the officious elder brother had told their father where the base of the problem lay so Arthur could at least get this far. It would be like Bill, meddling, officious, peacemaker. Although his father had come to see him more than once. Even though those visits had usually ended in heated words being exchanged, his father had still tried.

Percy sighed, irritatingly Bill was right. If he never gave them a chance to apologise, then they never could. It would be something to end the estrangement that had plagued them. He had had an owl from Ginny already stating as far as she was concerned Audrey could be pink with green spots as long as Percy was happy. And if just so happened Audrey was available to take Ginny muggle clothes shopping then they could get to know one another a little. It had made an odd sort of sense that Ginny had been unfazed about the Audrey being a muggle, if only to be contrary and get something she wanted out of it.

Audrey had seen the note and been somewhat relieved. She had agreed to the shopping trip when Ginny returned for the summer and had given Percy some fashion magazines to send with the reply. Audrey had confessed that Fleur's stories of how she had been treated by Ginny and Molly had had her worried and a shopping trip seemed a small price to pay for having one more family member on-side.

Which just left his mother, who would be at the Burrow cooking his father's dinner and any of her children she had managed to coax to her dinner table.

Arthur waited patiently allowing Percy to think through his answer. When Percy nodded slightly to indicate that he would accompany him, Percy saw his father's shoulder drop from the release of tension.

Percy tidied his files, folders and parchments, clearing his desk as he prepared to leave for the night. Arthur watched silently as he went through his routine patiently waiting until, satisfied that everything was as it should be, Percy summoned his cloak to him and indicated to the door, signalling he was ready to leave.

Molly sat at the kitchen table, the one they had sat around as a family as long as he could remember. The kitchen was in full flow of preparing the evening meal. The pans stirred by enchanted spoons, the ones they had bought her for presents as children. Heavily used and loved. This domestic scene, one he had seen so often, no longer warmed him. No longer gave the comforting feeling of everything been right with the world.

"Percy!" Molly said in greeting as he followed Arthur through the door. She rose from the table coming to greet Arthur in their customary manner. "I'll set you a place. You'll stay of course. You've lost weight, you are eating properly, aren't you? I can prepare a basket you can take home with you."

"Molly, no. Please, come sit down," Arthur urged his wife. "Please."

"Why? What is it? Arthur, what's wrong?"

"Molly, Percy has come to speak to us, both of us."

Percy watched his mother's worried face move from her husband to look at her son properly for the first time since he walked through the door. The distracted attention she had given him when he had walked in was nothing new, he was the quiet one. The one that no one noticed. Percy gestured to the table. "Shall we sit?"

Arthur summoned the tea things making up three cups. His mother casually halted dinner preparations with a twitch of her wand. She sat at the table accepting the cup of tea Arthur pushed on her and Percy joined them accepting his own.

Percy exchanged a glance with his father, Molly caught it and crossed her arms. "Would someone explain to me what is going on?"

Arthur broke the tension. "Molly, when Percy received his promotion things were said. Things that have been left hanging between us. I want very much for our family to be whole again Molly, I want Percy to feel welcome in our home and, so we thought it best if we cleared the air."

"Of course our family is whole," Molly rebutted. "Percy was working with Kingsley, Kingsley was working with the Order. Although I'm not happy that no one told me that you were doing so and putting you in danger like that. But it's over now, You-Know-Who has gone. Of course, Percy is welcome here, he always has been."

"Molly, love, it isn't that simple. You said some terrible things to Percy and while I don't think you meant them, and said them in anger you do need to apologise."

"What things?"

Arthur grimaced. "Molly you accused Percy of siding with Riddle, you accused him of joining the Death Eaters."

Molly frowned as she looked at her husband and son. She turned to Percy. "You refused to listen, you abused poor Harry. Accused him of terrible things, of putting us all in danger when it was You-Know-Who all along. You refused to join the Order or leave your position at the Ministry even though it was clear that You-Know-Who was going to take over which he did. You repudiated Albus Dumbledore more than once Percy. What was I meant to think?"

Arthur drew back from his wife in unhappy surprise. Percy had remained silent and passive as his parents spoke and fought to remain stoic in the face of the idea that his mother hadn't just been angry. "You were not supposed to believe that I would join the Death Eaters," Percy said quietly but firmly. "You were supposed to believe better of me as my mother if nothing else. I have never demonstrated that I agreed with the propaganda of the Death Eater movement. I was raised not to discriminate, I was raised to believe that everyone deserved equal treatment and respect. You, my mother, taught me these things, yet you, my mother, thought I would abandon the principles by which I was raised."

"You refused to join the Order Percy. You refused to listen to Albus, the only wizard who was leading the fight against him. You chose your career over us, Percy. You chose the Ministry, the Ministry riddled with witches and wizards working for You-Know-Who, over your family. No son I raised would do that. Each of my children except you have expressed a desire to join the Order to fight against You-Know-Who and yet you did not."

"You are judging your children's worth by their willingness to sign up to a vigilante group? A group that you have expressly forbidden your children from joining," Percy clarified incredulously.

"Molly, what you are saying makes no sense. Percy had a right to choose to join the Order or not. Not joining is hardly an indicator of joining the other side. But regardless of that, Percy is not a Death Eater, nor has he ever considered being one. You owe him an apology, Molly."

Molly looked at Arthur and Percy in turn. "Yes, I can see that I was wrong," she nodded. "I do, and I am sorry. I should not have suggested that you were a Death Eater."

Percy nodded his acceptance unsure if the apology was enough to heal the hurt that his mother clearly held reservations about his loyalties, especially when it had been given in the manner it had.

"Right, now, that is cleared up would you care to tell me why you didn't invite Audrey for Sunday lunch?" Arthur asked his wife.

Molly blinked. "Well because it was a family lunch, I wanted us all to be together. I am sure that Audrey would have understood that. Although your reply made it quite clear you thought she should have been invited."

"Yes, I believe that she should. Audrey is my fiancée you insinuated that she might be a Death Eater. I believe that an apology for that is owed as well. It disturbs me greatly that you believe so little of me that you accuse me of consorting with Death Eaters as well as being one myself."

"Nonsense Percy, Audrey appeared in the middle of an Order meeting. The precautions that were taken were not so unusual. If Allister had still been alive, then she would never have been able to enter the house without someone to vouch for her. You didn't join the Order, Percy, you don't realise that security is taken very seriously."

"Professor Dumbledore performs Legilimency on everyone that is introduced to the Order, does he?"

"Well," Molly hesitated. "I don't know what security measures he considers to be necessary as anyone entering an Order meeting has already been vetted, but it would not be so unusual for legilimency to be used."

Percy shook his head. "And you can't see the problem with that? The invasion of privacy? The inability of most who have no skill in occlumency to protect those parts of themselves that need not bear scrutiny? Nothing but powerful occlumency shields could stop Professor Dumbledore taking anything he wished from such an intrusion."

"No one said it was pleasant Percy," Molly refuted. "But we were at war, and sometimes the ends justify the means."

Percy shook his head appalled that Dumbledore would demand such things from those who volunteered their efforts but pushed the thoughts away. The Order had grown, if it was a necessary ritual, it seemed few objected. "Audrey is not affiliated with the Death Eaters."

"Percy, you have no way to be sure. She might be a plant to gain information from you or your family or the Order."

"She isn't!" Percy snapped. "Please stop it. Your paranoia is unwarranted and unwelcome. Audrey is a muggle. She wouldn't qualify to become a Death Eater, and it seems highly unlikely she will sign up to an organisation that believes in the extermination of people like her."

"A muggle?" Molly repeated shocked.

"Yes," Percy said. "A muggle, I met her in muggle London."

"She's not a squib?"

"No, I haven't researched her ancestry as I saw no need, but her parents and grandparents are non-magical," Percy replied.

"Albus he said he couldn't feel much of a magical signature from her. I didn't want to believe him, but you've said its true, oh Percy! What were you thinking? You have to end it," Molly said earnestly. "I'm sorry Percy, but you've got to end it before it gets serious."

"I will most certainly not!" Percy responded indignantly.

"Yes Percy, yes, you must."

"Why in Merlin's name?"

"Percy she's a muggle. And she came here! Oh, Merlin! She came here, we'll be arrested, thrown into Azkaban! Oh, Percy, what were you thinking? Your father could lose his job and then where will we be?" Molly's alarm and distress visibly grew as she spoke.

"Why would Dad lose his job?" Percy asked confused.

"Because she's a muggle and it's against the law Percy! The Statute of Secrecy. I told you, I told you every day while you were young that you weren't to let the muggles see and now look you've gone and told her."

Percy held up his hand. "Yes, I've told her. Due to the upcoming battle, I thought it the honourable thing to do but Audrey understands the law, she understands the risks that we're taking, and she isn't going to say anything. No one would believe her anyway. We're going to marry and start a family. If the child is magical, then she'll be told anyway."

"Married? A family? but Percy you can't!"

"Why can't I?"

"Because she's a muggle!"

"I fail to see why that means I cannot marry and have children with the woman I love."

"But your children they might be squibs!"

"Any child I had whether with a witch or a muggle has the chance to be a squib."

"Not with the right witch and there are rituals to help with conception, but she's a muggle!"

"And it makes not a lick of difference."

"Of course, it makes a difference Percy. She's a muggle, she has no magic. A child needs magic in the womb for healthy development. They need to have magic running through their mother's blood, the blood they share to aid their development."

"That logic seems inherently flawed," Percy replied testily. "Especially since squibs are born of witches and wizards and the muggle-born are born of muggles. Is your only objection to Audrey that she is a muggle?"

"Percy, she is a muggle. It's insurmountable, you can't marry her. Percy, please reconsider. Find a nice witch, one that you can take the Ministry functions and what not. A Slytherin if you must and if she's from a pureblood family, we, your father and I, can brush up on the old ways. We can meet away from here. Your career Percy, a muggle wife, won't be able to help you in the Ministry. You need someone who can stand beside you, build a network of the society wives. Someone who can garner support for you in that way."

"You think I should marry someone like Narcissa Malfoy?" Percy asked incredulously. "She performed that exact role for her husband, but I did not know you admired her for it."

"I don't," Molly replied stoutly. "But I am not so blind as to not understand that Narcissa Malfoy did much to build her husband's position within the Ministry and their toadies. You will, if you wish to succeed in the Ministry, need a witch who can help you do that and Audrey cannot. And she's a muggle. Oh, Percy, how could you?" Molly buried her face in her hands, elbows propped on the table refusing to look at Percy.

Arthur and Percy exchanged confused concerned glances. So far this was not going the way either had hoped.

"How could I what?" Percy asked reluctantly.

"Muggles Percy! The influence of muggles on the magical community has a, a diluting effect if you will. We need to halt the disintegration of our culture which is why the Statute of Secrecy was put in place, to protect our society. It became essential to take steps to establish a clear and clean separation between the two races. Because we are magical, we can never suffer a muggle race which has nothing to do with us to claim the leadership of our people. It would be absurd, and your actions are the very thing that risk that happening. I thought you understood, I thought you knew better. Percy, muggles are dangerous."

"Audrey is not dangerous."

"Perhaps one muggle alone is not," Molly said. "But if she tells her friends and they believe her, and they tell their friends and families then the whole thing comes down, you will expose our world to the muggles. There are more of them than us, we could never survive if they joined forces against us. They won't understand what magic can be used for and what it cannot, they will just see an easy solution to their problems and when they don't get the answers they want, then they will hunt us. That's why we went into hiding in the first place."

"I'm not telling the whole of the muggle world I'm telling one woman."

"But Percy that's how it starts. You tell one muggle, and someone else tells another and then another and another."

"Mother there are over fifty-eight million people in Great Britain alone. There are not enough magical people to each tell a muggle and what of the parents of the muggle-born who already know about magic because of their children the so-called collapse has yet to happen. "

"Muggle-borns join our world, Percy, they don't stay in both."

"Some do, but we digress. I am not giving up Audrey. We are getting married, and that is the end of it. Will you welcome her to the family or not?"

"I'm sorry Percy. I think you are making a mistake and I cannot will not, be party to it. Perhaps you've gotten away with telling her because you're working with Kingsley and you think your children will be magical, but you are risking everything and no. No I cannot," Molly threw her hands up, shaking her head she stood from the table and retreated to the kitchen.

"Then I'm sorry but I shall not give up Audrey, and it seems we are at an impasse," Percy said stiffly.

Arthur looked after his wife then indicated Percy to stand. Quietly they both left the kitchen for the garden and apparated away.

Percy took Arthur's arm when they landed from the first apparition and side-alonged him to the front door of his flat. Leading the way in Percy stripped his cloak and shoes off hanging them up and holding out his hand for his father's outerwear. Divested, Percy led the way to the sofa dropping on to it and waving his wand to summon the whiskey decanter and glasses. Healthy measures were poured, and Percy took a mouthful before he spoke.

"I cannot return to the Burrow. I will not put Audrey aside. I love her, we are engaged, and we will marry. Audrey is to be my wife, and she was treated abominably when she was at the Burrow. I will not expose her to the same thing again."

Arthur nodded silently in agreement looking around his son's home in interest. There were things that he did not recognise, things that he assumed were muggle in origin but put his curiosity to one side to deal with the current crisis at hand.

"Percy. There are things I should tell you things I didn't think you needed to be told but I see that I was wrong. Things that might shed light on your mother's attitude.

We thought you too young to remember the war, we thought that you'd escape the worst of it. I told Bill and Charlie, I'm sorry it's taken so long to tell you, but there are things you should know. It's about your mother, Percy."

Percy looked up at his father in interest. Arthur settled back into his chair obviously organising his thoughts.

"Her parents died shortly after our wedding. Dragon pox took them both. Molly was the youngest, and while she was graduated and married, she had been close to her family. I had married into the Prewitts if you like. It hit her hard when they died, and she clung fiercely to her brothers and me more than ever because of it.

We had always planned a family, we hoped to be able to have more than one child, but nothing was certain. Bill came along, and we were delighted, then Charlie, then you, then the twins, Ron, and then Ginny. We were happy. Each child we thought would be the last. It's unheard of to have so many successful births. We were blessed. Yes, your mother wanted a daughter, but we would never have terminated a pregnancy. Magical children are a gift, more so because of the problems so many families face." Arthur sipped his drink shifting to get comfortable for what was likely to be an uncomfortable conversation.

"When the first war started, Molly was more concerned about raising you then the fighting. I was involved in the periphery but nothing dangerous. Nothing that would risk my ability to come home to you all. Molly's brothers, they were involved in the front lines, and they paid for it." Arthur shook his head. "Molly, she was lost. I honestly thought I might lose her, she was depressed, grieving. I could do nothing to help her, then Albus came along.

It was unwise of me, but I admit I didn't know what else could be done. Molly was so deep in her grief it was unfathomable. Albus offered her something, something that helped her pull herself out of the despair that was drowning her. She came back to me, to us, slowly, but she came back. She was a mother again, and I could breathe a sigh of relief my children would not be motherless, I would not have to mourn my wife. The price for that seemed to be that Molly believed in Albus.

We attended a few Order meetings, but my job provided very little in the way of useful information and your mother's time was taken up with your care. Then it was all over. He was gone, and I thought that we could finally get on with living.

I know you think badly of me for my job and perhaps you have a point. I never sought advancement, I never lusted for the fame and glory that came with the higher profile and prestigious departments. But Percy, I had seven children and a wife to support. In the shifting sands of political alliances, I could not afford to risk losing my job. The department isn't glamorous, and it is much maligned, but it pays a good wage. It meant that while you may never have had new everything and anything, you always had food. You always had a roof over your head, and you always had a family that loved you dearly." Arthur looked over at his son. "Job security means much more when there are children at home that look up to you. Rely on you to love them, shelter them, feed and clothe them. We might never have been wealthy, but we were rich in the things that are often overlooked."

Percy nodded. "I know what I said when I left that summer was cruel. I do regret demeaning you in that way. I have never doubted that as little as I seemed to have in common with you all at times, I wasn't part of the family. It was only after the events of the summer where I felt I could no longer stay and I am unsure how much of it was justified hurt and how much was stubbornness."

Arthur laughed. "Stubbornness is a Weasley trait I am afraid, along with the temper and the red hair. But you are my son, and I have never stopped loving you or your siblings, nor has your mother and we are very proud of each and every one of you. But I digress." Arthur sighed looking down into the tumbler of whiskey he was swirling gently. "Your mother isn't the same witch I married, her brothers' death broke her. Albus helped her, the loyalty she showed him after was a concern, but what could I say? Molly took her cues from Albus. I don't hold with blood supremacy and wouldn't abide it in any of my children. Molly never discriminated, but Albus enforced the idea in her that muggle-borns belonged in the magical world. That Muggle-borns should be shown how to live in the magical world, and that rejection of the muggle world was only natural.

It wasn't until Ron made friends with Harry that I began to realise that Molly was still loyal to Albus in ways I thought she had left behind. The boy clearly had problems at home, but when Albus told Molly that Harry was to stay with his relatives, she agreed. Not a word to be said about it. I suggested we brought him to the Burrow and she wouldn't hear of it saying Albus had said that the muggles were the safest place for him and moving him was a risk to him and us.

I couldn't change her mind and to be honest Percy, perhaps I should have tried harder. For Harry's sake. When he came to the Burrow, I saw a sad little boy starved of love. Molly has always loved you fiercely she treated him as one of her own and Harry needed that. But she was adamant that he was to return to the muggles, that Albus had a plan and we could do nothing more for him than offer a few weeks in our home over the holidays."

"I don't understand why she believes in him. Ginny could have died."

Arthur looked pained. "We weren't told."

"We wrote! I certainly kept you informed."

"You did," Arthur said. "But when we followed it up with Albus he brushed it off as students playing tasteless pranks."

"Students were petrified. Penelope, Hermione, both of them and a first year!"

Arthur nodded. "Yes, but I couldn't find out anything about their condition as I wasn't responsible for them, and again Albus assured us that while the students were in the infirmary, they were not harmed in any way, and the cure was imminently going to be administered."

"They were petrified for months."

"Percy, if it had been one of you we could have done more. Our hands were tied, they weren't our children. Molly wouldn't hear of keeping you from attending school. She was of the mind that Hogwarts with Dumbledore at the helm couldn't be dangerous."

"But Sirius Black broke into the castle a man accused of murder! How was that safe? The school was surrounded by Dementors!"

"I know Percy. Truly I do, but there was nothing to be done. Albus was the Headmaster, and he told us that everything was under control. Albus saved your mother. I don't know what he did to do it. After all this time, I don't want to know, but whatever it was, it was enough to pull her out of her grief enough to get her through the hardest time of her life when her children and her husband weren't enough. She will never stop believing him, and Albus Dumbledore believes Magic is Might."

"She will never accept Audrey, will she?"

"I don't know Percy I truly don't. But please, son, don't cut your self off again. Whatever your mother says or thinks or believes, I have no problem with Audrey, I don't wish for this to be the next things to come between us."

Percy nodded sipping his drink with quiet resignation.

Arthur allowed the silence to stand for a few minutes then half guilty looked over at his son. "Is that a telly-vision?"

Percy's head snapped up registering what his father had asked. He smiled, amusement and weary resignation in the small smile that wormed its way on to his face. "It's a television Dad. Here, let me show you how it works."